December 20, 2024 • 73 mins
On this week's episode of The R&B Money Podcast, Tank and J Valentine welcome the unparalleled Marsha Ambrosius. The talented singer-songwriter opens up about her incredible musical journey, from her early days crushing on a McDonald's employee in London to working with legends like Michael Jackson and Dr. Dre. Marsha shares intimate details about the creative process behind some of her most iconic songs, including "Say Yes" and "Butterflies." She also discusses the challenges of being a Black woman in the music industry and the importance of maintaining artistic integrity in the face of a rapidly changing landscape. Tune in for an unforgettable conversation filled with laughter, wisdom, and a sneak peek at what Marsha has in store for her fans this summer. Marsha Ambrosius is Now on The R&B Money Podcast!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
R and B Money, Honey, we are thanks take valati.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
We are the authority on.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
R and B.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Ladies and gentlemen, money is tank This, my friend, Come on,
is the R and B Money podcast. This is the
authority on all things R and B.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
What then, is your accent hurd on? My friend?
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Be careful, my friend, what you asked for? Because you
know it's a flow in my spirit. Show is going
to have a certain flow today.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Come on mate, you know mate, come on, bro. The
whay you try to organize this thing as it flows?
Speaker 4 (00:54):
Is it is?
Speaker 1 (00:55):
It reaches your spirit and your inside it. It kind
of models poetry. Yeah, yes, it does flow so well.
It flows so well. They flows so well, and you
put it to Coulin. It's like a floatid kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Ladies and gentlemen, it just got expensive. It's just the
level of gift has gone to the stratusphears and outer
fears and galaxies that we've never seen. I'm just excited
to be here to to talk to this young lady
(01:34):
who's just one of the most talented human beings I've
ever seen in my life.
Speaker 5 (01:39):
Thank you her name.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Let's see her name correctly because it deserves reference.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Marcia Ambrosious, amazing, amazing.
Speaker 5 (01:54):
One most time to me, Ambrocious said Ambrocious. Okay, so
some people do say Ambrosius, right, then it's Ambrosious. I
don't even know how to pronounce my own name anymore.
I've heard it back to me so many times wrong.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
How did you were born?
Speaker 5 (02:15):
When I was born, Darling, I came out of the
womb and they said, this is Marcia Ambrosius.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Ambrosius, Ambrosius, ambros When I got to America was like,
what's up Martia Ambrosious or Ambrose or Ambarrose or ambro Ambrosias.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Like a z I kind of like Marcia amburrows.
Speaker 5 (02:41):
I was referred to us, not even Marsha Ambrose. Oh,
they go Marcia amber Ambarrosia amberrows. I just left it,
you know what. Being in Philadelphia that long, it was
what it was. But I love it, Ambrosios with your
(03:03):
wonderfully awful British accent.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Well, are a lot of things I don't do, so
I like to put all of them on display.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
This is why we.
Speaker 6 (03:12):
Hear what's up?
Speaker 5 (03:14):
Guys.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
I feel like like you're like you're like one of
the rare artists, one of the rare entities where you've
that you've been able to maintain a mystique about you,
But every time your name is brought up, it's like
(03:38):
a real thing. Still to this day.
Speaker 5 (03:42):
It's lovely to hear.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
I mean, you're you've, you've your your imprint, and I
think it's it's it's because you're wonderfully talented, it's because
you're an awesome human being. But you're very distinct in
how you approach all of it, like it's very much yours.
Speaker 5 (03:58):
I've been in intent. My intentions have always been to
do just that. I think I've been such a unique
individual in this very when I say urban space, in
our R and B field. Unfortunately, on one side, it's
been deemed as one thing, one toned, it's this box.
(04:21):
And then you try and do that one thing that
makes you outstanding, and you're seeing how long that can sustain,
and you're like, Okay, how long can I get away
with being myself before I'm then forced into having to
fine tune this thing that people are grasping towards. Because
what R and B has been the driving force of
(04:41):
our space for however long, And it's wild that I
remember doing my first solo project with late nights and
early mornings, and I had so many gems in the cut,
and I'm like, oh, I can't wait to put this
record out. And there's this one thing I hope she
cheats on you basketball player, which playing basketball my entire
(05:04):
life just felt like a funny little joke, a little
free STYLI did on what was it ustream we used
to have at the time, freestyled it on, and that's
the thing that takes off, not far Away, not Sour Times,
not Lose Myself, not any other record. The Ratchet one
the outlandish statement, and I was like, hmm, I see
(05:25):
R and B and hip hop doing this fusion thing
where the shift is about to happen and people are
going to go ratchet, and there's nothing that we can
do other than hold onto the reins and still try
and find yourself within it. But coming from a space
of I've been able to say what the fuck I
want for so long, it's I should be able to
(05:49):
say what the fuck.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
I want, absolutely absolutely know.
Speaker 5 (05:54):
But you have to stand on that in R and
B and some people have a way of doing it
where anyone can sing your song and there's no uniqueness
to it. It's just a good song and anyone can
sing it, name an artist, give it to them. But
then there's me, and there are very few people that
are just going to say, Okay, I'm going to sing
(06:15):
a Marsha song because it's such a signature, it's so unique,
even if it's even if it's oh, I'm trying to
touch on this little thing that I think R and
B is for a joke. I hope she cheats. I
hope she chooses the most ratchet thing I think I
did with my space in all of its uniqueness.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
I mean, or is it just like or is it
just the truth? It's just real.
Speaker 5 (06:48):
I'm saying ratchet coming from me, where people are like,
oh my god, Marsha like say yes, Marsha, like you know,
so it's it's the difference.
Speaker 7 (06:56):
And maybe we may look at it because we know
you exactly get it differently.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
You know.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
It didn't surprise me, of course.
Speaker 7 (07:03):
In the record, I'm like, you know, she feel a
way about these lebrons.
Speaker 5 (07:11):
I'm a little better, just a little better. I'm doing
better now. And that was the song, and you know,
but it was still very much R and B.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Absolutely, It's called the truth.
Speaker 5 (07:24):
And that's what R and B is.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
It's just the truth.
Speaker 5 (07:26):
You can interpret how it should be.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
The truth ru the truth, and that's the uniqueness that
stands the test of time.
Speaker 5 (07:35):
And I feel like I can stand on saying that
I've done so for twenty plus years now. That's crazy
to say that you've sustain that. But in also praising
what this platform is as well, you and I have
brushed shoulders that entire time. That's insane to go into
(07:58):
this being well not front row. I've only got like
third row tickets to your concerts. I couldn't. It was
sold out by the time I was getting this, So
we've got freebie got in anyway. So there, I am
a tank your lungs and I'm a fan. And then
coming into it, we're sharing stages together. Absolutely, so not
(08:20):
saying your age or nothing. You've been doing this one,
but it's like to do that in our field and
really claim to not only have made R and B money,
still making R and B money, still have R and
B money. There's a big difference in that because in
(08:41):
our field, a lot of money is.
Speaker 7 (08:44):
I just play private school tuition, so I don't really
get too much R and b money left this week.
Speaker 5 (08:49):
The fact that you can say that you had it
to give that up, I know what that is.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
It hurts that I got a pond this ship. You can.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
It will?
Speaker 5 (09:10):
I hate it. No, we're not claiming that we're actually
going to stand on businesses, say that we make and
still have and laugh about the luxury of kids in
private school because of what we've done for two plus
decades now, that's insane and incredible. More to come. I
(09:33):
haven't written my best song yet, talk about loads of them.
I can write so much more like and Will. There's
too much life to be had. It's too many memories
to make. And just to see the reaction from people
in the audience listening to these songs that we made
over that course of time, and it resonated in a way.
(09:54):
It's powerful and I respect that power, which is why
I've only leave so much like I've actually contained, because
it's a responsibility. You're responsible for someone's happiness, heartache, love, life, hate,
just through the songs that we make. It is a
responsibility and I do take it seriously. It's terrible, but.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
It should be. Though not My.
Speaker 5 (10:24):
Music isn't for play play like don't play it. If
you don't mean it, like you want to one night
stand and you want to play a Marsha record, it
might turn into forever.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Listen, I can think you know what, no whit?
Speaker 2 (10:45):
I have a wife? What are we doing? How do let's
go back to the beginning. When does when does someone say?
And in the beginning, give me give me the birthplace
of of your unique self.
Speaker 5 (11:03):
Having a crush on the guy that worked in McDonald's
in Campbewell, London, England, South London. He was a friend
of a kid that lived down the street. His name
was Mark. I don't even know his friend's name. I
just knew that he had the old school brown McDonald's uniform, remember,
(11:24):
like the shitty brown with the hat and the clean
pressure like that McDonald Like I have, not the big mac.
But so my school was within five minutes walking distance.
McDonald's was like seven minutes the opposite direction. I didn't
(11:47):
need to be over there, but would go over there
and to stand outside the window salivating over well the cheeseburger,
but him as well. And this song I wrote in
my head at the time was called Gonna Get You,
So I was out to get it like like it
(12:10):
was cooled gonna get you. Like I was walking down
the road, saw your face. It was so terrible. You
looked at me, Yeah, you were away. It was like
really corny, really cheesy, but the.
Speaker 8 (12:22):
Core of it amaz of it.
Speaker 5 (12:28):
Twelve thirteen year old Melody. Years go by. Now I'm
in my teens, teens, teens where feelings are true feelings.
And that turned into Butterflies. So it was I just
want to touch and kiss, and I wish that I
could be with you tonight. You would be butterflies. So
(12:49):
I wrote Butterflies about him.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
At what age I.
Speaker 5 (12:53):
Was like sixteen? I had to be sixteen seventeen because
I was definitely going to that bust up to get
the thirty five thirty five bus to Brixton to play
for the Brixton TOPCTS. I was still playing ball at
that time, and I would go to that McDonald's every
single time get the bus.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
How long did he work at that McDonald's. It was
like three four years he put in time.
Speaker 5 (13:17):
I just remember the uniform going from dusty brown to
you know, the white shirt. So maybe it was flipping
burgers at first and then sweeping the floor like that.
Speaker 8 (13:30):
The big exactly.
Speaker 5 (13:37):
So butterflies happened from that. So my unique perspective on
seeing this very monotonous scenario come from innocent feelings like oh,
one day I'm gonna get you. I'm gonna get you
to know I have feelings. You give me butterflies, like
(13:57):
all you gonna do is just walk away and pass
me by. I don't even acknowledge my smile when I
tried to say hello to you. M Yeah, so I
felt that, but really melodically and in composing certain songs
like that stemmed from my obsession with Jodasy.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
There's always that, yeah.
Speaker 5 (14:20):
Like Jodasy has been my reason. Okay, So Prince, Michael Stevie,
no particular order, favorite artists of all time, and they're
like the umbrellas of then everyone else because I can
say all the other names, they just go in those brackets. Stevie,
every performer, writer, musician, Prince, complete, rock star, abstract in
(14:43):
his own way. Michael was just a fucking star. Yeah, yeah, stars,
legend star of stars, hits of hits, and I loved
them all dearly. I didn't want to make music until
I heard the production of DeVante make music like sit there, figure.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Out anybody in your family making music though or not dad?
Your dad.
Speaker 5 (15:09):
My dad was a musician and basketball coach, hence me.
So it was him playing bass or league guitar, singing
in a seventies funk band called Supercharge that were actually
signed to Virgin You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 6 (15:25):
I like that.
Speaker 5 (15:28):
When I was born one of that no like Supercharger,
just doing it. So I had that background. And there's
me watching my dad play all these instruments and don't
touch that, and he, you know, mister miagi me into Okay,
I'm gonna touch it. I'm play this bass real quick,
and play these keys real quick, and play you know.
So the love for music came from just it being
(15:51):
around me. But listening to that Jodicy era, the New
Jack Swing era, I was like, what I think doing?
What is this thing? Let me figure out these chords?
Let me listen to these harmonies? What do you do again?
And then I'm the fifth member of joy Bocally. I
can find the other harmony in anything like.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
It's insane, Like maybe I was the fifth member.
Speaker 5 (16:15):
You think you sick? We can fight, we can fight.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
He said that way too confidently. I don't know if
you've met.
Speaker 5 (16:28):
You gave yourself a name. Nice to meet you, jay Bones, mister.
Speaker 7 (16:33):
Because I'm both mister mister, Yeah, I feel you.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
I know there's an episode.
Speaker 5 (16:42):
We had and he verified this. Yeah, I don't know
we actually verified. But other than thanked you for being
so crazeously, I'm kind. But I will say without I.
Speaker 7 (16:58):
Don't know if there's a lot of us out.
Speaker 5 (17:07):
Here, there's no mesne.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Seriously, I'm going to.
Speaker 5 (17:17):
All right, listen to any one of my songs a
cappella and really hear my harmony arrangements and just know
where that comes from, so you can claim wherever your
spot is, I just know from you.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
It's all in there.
Speaker 5 (17:33):
All of that influences in there. And my reasons why
to create the way I create stemmed from really picking
apart what that was, and it was from the the interludes,
like the nerve of the interludes. We're just outrageous in
nineties R and B and to want to carry that
(17:53):
further and keep the integrity of what my R and
B for me is what I pursued this entire time,
and the longevity in that is why you can sustain that,
because people want to feel exactly that they want to
fight for their sixth or seventh position that they so
claim your set.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Don't make me called casey.
Speaker 5 (18:20):
I got I'll call the family. I'll call.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
Yeah, I'll call this mama. How about that? You love
you love? I gotta step I gotta step side that.
Speaker 5 (18:34):
Okay, So yeah, I might have to bow down. That's
that's that's that's fine.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
I say. The worst thing will.
Speaker 5 (18:40):
We fighting over twenty thirty years from now?
Speaker 1 (18:44):
The worst thing is, don't go to an NBA game
with Tank.
Speaker 7 (18:48):
Why every NBA niggas, Mama are the biggest Tank fans
you've ever met in your life.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
It's the craziest. It's the craziest thing in the world.
I'm like, wait, wait, who mama is that? Oh? You
know that's that's that's just man. You know I had
to go saying birthday I graduated to that's how he
Trump's that all arguments.
Speaker 8 (19:14):
I call the mom that's not fair.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
I get their mama's tickets, their mama's tickets. It's true.
Speaker 5 (19:24):
Yeah, there's nothing you can do about that.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
Nothing.
Speaker 7 (19:28):
So when you were so, when you're going through this
phase right where you're you're becoming this songwriter and you're
loving the music. You're also playing basketball.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
How are you.
Speaker 7 (19:41):
Juggling too, because what you're talking about musically is not
a locker room conversation. No, that's not like you're not
taking the Jogsy tapes into the basketball locker room and
y'all talking about the DeVante harmonies in the in the
in the piano.
Speaker 5 (19:58):
That was having my well the Walkman at the time,
which is shaky, juggly cassette tape advancing into the CD.
It was me with my headphones and all of the teammates, oh,
sing that song again. Sing yeah. So that was my
way of sharing it and then getting the you know,
(20:20):
still very insecure in that areing and I didn't really
want to be on any stages, didn't want to be seen.
But my teammates your height, sing that again, your wife
you could sing.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
And I'm like you putting in your time. So that
was my.
Speaker 5 (20:35):
Very intimate first experience of putting myself out there. So
that was my version of Okay, maybe I'm onto something.
So I wasn't juggling, not according to my dad, who
was very much you're going to be about this possible
life one hundred or you're going to take music seriously
and I didn't take music seriously until I tore ligaments.
(20:58):
Can we get the violins or something that moment, because
it was we got devastating, devastating, it was tragic. Keep on.
I heard the crunch, but America I wasn't. I was
(21:19):
still overseas. I was playing a three on three pickup
game at Elephant and Castle Gym, and we hadn't lost
the game, and I just wanted to play one more game.
We lost the last game and I was like, nah,
I'm not leaving the floor until we win again. Play
(21:40):
music again, played music. So I played that last game,
and I remember receiving the ball. M remember it was
like yesterday. I went to crossover and as soon as
(22:02):
I hit that pivot crunch, it's like a bricocheted through
the entire gym, and I just want to break down the.
Speaker 6 (22:29):
Lord hell me.
Speaker 5 (22:36):
Yeah, it was over then, and then you can start now.
So after that, the whole world and no, there's no
need to get sack.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
It's so great with your exity. We're done nothing.
Speaker 5 (22:50):
So that's what happened. It was a movie scene. It
was like slow motion, and I hadn't seen my life
without basket until that morning. Heartbreaking me, crushing, like you
(23:21):
don't picture your life without the thing that you love
until you've lost it. So music hobby can listen to
music all day. My mother's viny collection, outrageous, Go in
the crib Basketball. I'm up first thing in the morning.
It's late nights and early mornings for basketball. For me,
it was practice Monday through Friday, away game, Saturday, home game,
(23:45):
Sunday repeat. I didn't have a day off, not with basketball.
And then it's gone, and I was like, Okay, what
am I going to do? I'm going to write about it.
And I got home, got a diary, got in front
of my piano, and I wrote the song If I
Was a Bird, and that was about losing basketball, which
(24:09):
was then a part of the first Flowtry album. So
If I Was a Bird stemmed from Michael Jordan's documentary
at the time, Come Fly with Me. I used to
watch that'll repeat every day day and it was without basketball,
my life is incomplete. So it's like you have me
(24:29):
caught up in this starry eyed well the dreams, and
it's that one last shot.
Speaker 7 (24:40):
All these songs are about flipping burgers and shooting baskets regular.
Speaker 5 (24:49):
I take the most regular ship, and I make it
your every day like most of my prolific long jevity
long game. I want this music to li in the
space forever. A basic sayings it's what you're going to
do is say yes, getting late? Why are you going
to be here?
Speaker 6 (25:05):
Hello?
Speaker 5 (25:06):
How are you? Were you up to nothing? I hope
you choose on you with a possible player. It's very
matter of fact, yeah, far away and every minute you're
going to missing you. So it's going to be a
late night early morning when I come home.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
It just feels like.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
Not not that your universal calling, will you know, make
the floor a little extra slippery at that time, or
make your shoes stick to the parquet so that your
need goes to Not that, not that it does that, right,
but your calling has a way of showing itself and
(25:49):
showing up to where you ultimately don't have a choice.
Speaker 5 (25:57):
I agree with that, and that just comes with what
is our gift. We can run from it if we
want to, and it's gonna be right there going up.
Excuse me. The gift that I gave you, it's time
for you to give it to the world, because that's
what you've been blessed with. And regardless of where your
headspace is, that what you think this is about to be,
(26:19):
this is actually what it is. So even when I
wanted to quit, like very recently, not quit, I just
feel like I've completed well. I wanted out of this space.
It's like Super Mario Brothers. I'm level eight. I jumped
over the Dragon and Save the Princess. I'm out. Like
(26:40):
it's done. I don't need to do anymore. There's nothing
to prove. I wanted to sell a couple million records,
work with my favorite artists, and I did all of
the things that should be someone's bucket list very early on,
like how a song that I wrote about the Doo
dooround Michael, I mean McDonald's his name might have been Michael.
(27:05):
I don't know, Like who knows. We're trying to figure
out where are you? I really want to know where
this guy is. I didn't know. Years later, Michael Jackson
would hear a demo that was presented to him by
John McClain, presented to him as a Flower Tree album
like look, I want you to hear these Girls, and
(27:27):
a part of that demo package where the original Flowa
Troy album, including two songs that were just demos. Say
Yes was one of them. Say Yes was written for
Rod Eisley and Me and Dre Harris did that he
didn't take, but it was specifically catered to him, but
he didn't take it. So he ended up doing a
(27:48):
duet with Jill Scott for that project and didn't take
Say Yes. So Say Yes is just sitting there is
this lonely demo shipped to Babyface didn't want it, so
now it's just this outstanding song as well as Butterflies. So,
Mike is this butterfly song on this flow Atry demo?
Speaker 4 (28:07):
Like?
Speaker 5 (28:07):
What's that?
Speaker 1 (28:08):
Though?
Speaker 5 (28:08):
Can I have that?
Speaker 3 (28:09):
Mike?
Speaker 5 (28:09):
You can have the entire album? You know just what
that's two coming to America. That's why, like between the
Big Bucks and this. Okay, so I didn't know that
that's how these things were going to transpire, but you
dream big enough, big dreams happen, So when it starts
(28:34):
to happen, I can't then say not I quit, but
there's gonna be more in me. If that was my start,
I can't start there. And then where do you go
from there?
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Though?
Speaker 5 (28:51):
Wherever you just keep going, And that's exactly what I did.
That was the year two thousand that that demo resurfaces,
is repurposed and Andre Harris and myself go in the b
room of a Touch of Jazz and I'm like, look,
I have this record. Ray, I know that you are
the guy you did Long Walk the Way like my
(29:13):
favorite Jill Records. I no issue, Let's get this. We
do that demo. By March of two thousand and one,
we're in the studio with Michael Jackson telling him what
to do and how to do it, like he's behind
the glass like your mike one more time, bit pitchy,
one more time, me with the talk back telling Michael
Jackson I'm twenty three at that time.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
And you guys don't yet.
Speaker 5 (29:37):
We signed our deal December, so the end of that year,
so we were already at DreamWorks and then the album's done,
so we're literally waiting for papers at that point to
illegal aliens trying to get this record deal. So it
was hey, let's get you some visas so we can.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Put you to that.
Speaker 5 (29:55):
Yeah, So the album, our album didn't drop until October
of that following year. I think by the time all
that was squad Away. Yeah, there's Michael Jackson like Michael
mother Jackson and.
Speaker 7 (30:10):
The thing too, like you said, it all comes from
your demos going through the hands of John McClain, who
are at this point he's at DreamWorks. If you sign
anywhere else for what Michael Jackson never hears. We just
always we like to connect it, you know, we like
(30:31):
to connect the dots. And you know when people are
thinking of why I did this or why I didn't
do this and all these other things, and what didn't
come from something like just signing to this, you know, boutique.
Speaker 5 (30:46):
Exactly supposed to be with Motown and then it's John
McClain and Michael Jackson and it's might want to go
that route because yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
I'm gonna need these butterflies.
Speaker 5 (31:02):
Yes, And that's how business wise, that's how that all
kind of transpired, which is crazy about Michael Jackson himself
telling me, you know, if this is your beginning, imagine
where you're gonna go.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
Right.
Speaker 5 (31:15):
So Flow Tree go on to go platinum, couple of
Grimy Nuds and toured for years.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
And then so here's a question before you go there,
does the Michael Jackson work Just that being in that
conversation and being in that room make the flow a
tree that much more urgent to the building.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
Did you guys become more of a priority?
Speaker 5 (31:41):
Yeah, well, like you said before, it was still very
much boutique. So it's on the rock side, it was
what alien ant Farm. On the urban side, it was ourselves,
ron Issley, what's her name? Why am I missing that
right now?
Speaker 6 (31:59):
I really?
Speaker 5 (32:00):
Oh no, what you came before? Sorry, I think, lovely girl,
we've actually had conversations. No, I don't think so it
was very it was sane. This is two thousand when
we signed, but two thousand and one when all of
(32:20):
these things started to happen. So I'm not saying there
was a level of urgency now that these I think
it was a talking point. So even with our papers
not being done, it wasn't like we could release the
album that day and Flower try the floetic album. We're
talking a completely different time in industry, Like our first
(32:41):
video was up for a vm A, like we're up
against told Play like we were. We had different budgets
back then, so it was it was different. So I
had a different spoiled experience of what industry was like.
And I don't think even with a Michael Jackson coming
into play when the album was released, Butterflies were still
(33:03):
very much in his the demo on the actual album,
the Butterfly's demo that Marsh was saying, and this is why.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
Yeah, the fact that you guys were able to use
it on the album too.
Speaker 5 (33:13):
That was a dream works play and they could because
it was the same building and it was like the
the Silent not So Silent co sign had.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
Michael, he's my girls. They looked out for me. I'm
looking out and that's what that was. I think you
should use it as well.
Speaker 5 (33:32):
Do you think he said it just like that?
Speaker 1 (33:34):
Oh you know the voice everybody be throwing around it.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
Just use this shit, man.
Speaker 5 (33:40):
The Michael voice he gives. You're a singer. I know
you have a deep, husky voice, but preservation is key.
I feel like he only had that voice. He was
preserving every single ounce of his vocal to just be
the icon and performer that he was.
Speaker 7 (33:59):
Jackson talking was they talks off when they talk to you,
they talk, they don't, they don't, they don't project, they
don't do a whole.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
Bunch of cracking jokes and laughing and drinking.
Speaker 5 (34:11):
I was in the studio, me and Andre Harris in
the studio with Michael Jackson. It was nothing but jokes.
Did you have completely four beverages? Bevies? No, the kids?
Speaker 1 (34:26):
What about?
Speaker 5 (34:29):
But we did have smothered turkey chops and mac and
cheese and strawberry shortcake from a soul food spot in
New York called Jezebels. We had that every day, every day,
every day I put on. It was was lovely like
Paris and Prince when they were very very young, just
kids chilling in the studio like it was very family environment.
(34:54):
It was a wild time.
Speaker 7 (34:55):
So when you get this record placed, have you done
getting your record deal done? Have you done your publishing
deal yet?
Speaker 1 (35:02):
Did people? How did that go?
Speaker 5 (35:04):
Okay? So I already had a dusty very your first
publishing deal, you know, one of those. So they're just
very much doing me in the studio with whoever to
see what sticks. And then I've gone to the States
on a whim to do this flowtry thing that pans
(35:25):
out ultimately, and then it's hey, I've got you know,
a placement on Michael. So we're only up the ante
for me and lent to there like oh ship, we've
got a writer who's got Michael Jackson record.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
So did you renegotiate absolute.
Speaker 5 (35:46):
In retrospect, you kind of wish you just cashed out
then and ship.
Speaker 7 (35:51):
Yes at the time, but you didn't know that that
money got you to.
Speaker 5 (35:57):
America, coming to America my name, and had the means
to do it.
Speaker 7 (36:02):
So yeah, yeah, if you don't mind me asking, how
did they give you for your before before you did
ten grand?
Speaker 6 (36:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (36:11):
Did you have a crazy commitment?
Speaker 5 (36:14):
No, it wasn't that bad of a commitment.
Speaker 8 (36:16):
But then if it was an MDRC though, absolutely Okay, okay,
So if you look at it like you never had
a record deal yet and you didn't know where these
placements were even coming from, outrageous Still that I was
then stuck into four years because.
Speaker 5 (36:32):
Of the renegotiation. Now they're trying to hold on to you,
and you're like, well help me.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
Yeah, but you got in at a time give us
for four before the threshold were created, so.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
You were able to with that one album. H what
needs Yeah? Move through a turn.
Speaker 5 (36:52):
Right, So even up until late nights and early mornings,
which is what twenty eleven, twenty twelve, that wasn't so bad.
And I've had this conversation before with record deals that
were signed pre dating this streaming eerror is how are
we supposed to fulfill album commitments in terms under those
same contracts? Because tower records don't exist. We can't do
(37:15):
it in store signing. There's nothing physical for me to
actually give you. So what stipulates in my deal that
I haven't turned that around already because the stream is
not going to do it a dollar amount my contract,
everyone has to go back to the table. We're like
stuck on a deal. I'd be in a five album
deal for one hundred and twenty seven years now.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
You know, tape don't count until it reaches.
Speaker 5 (37:43):
Two billion streams like.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
Physical discount for this much of it. The digital only
counts for this.
Speaker 5 (37:53):
But where does it say that in your contract? And
where's the clause? They even.
Speaker 1 (37:59):
The automatic based on their negotiations.
Speaker 5 (38:02):
With right they've been talking to the digital service platforms,
which is insane. So if you write a lot of
your songs and produce, so that's your hundred percent, and
you might break off a producer if they came in
and say, Okay, I'm going to layer up, so I'm
going to take let's go with eighty twenty. So out
of eighty percent of that record, that you have and
(38:23):
you put it on iTunes or Amazon and you put
it for sale, you're getting a substantial amount of your
eighty percent as it pertains to a sale. What are
you getting now is.
Speaker 8 (38:35):
A stream point the fact that you said.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
Point it starts to start that point it starts.
Speaker 5 (38:46):
So imagine signing these contracts back in the day, your hype.
You've got a record deal, you write, you produce, you
know that your fraction of that portion of the entire
composition is solely yours. Like button Flies seven zero percent,
mind seventy I have that so when it was out,
it's seventy mine all of it. Now streaming it, seventy
(39:10):
percent of Butterflies by Michael Jackson is reduced to a
point something.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
Yeah, depending on what platform, it could be point zero.
Speaker 5 (39:20):
Appreciate that zero zero seven in my contract.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
Here's also the question, though, because that's seventy still performs
well in in the traditional spaces that it performed in. Right,
you do this? This digital seventy is brand new, brand new.
Speaker 1 (39:48):
Absolutely icing.
Speaker 2 (39:49):
It's like we were just talking about this. It has
to be negotiated right, better.
Speaker 5 (39:55):
Right, But who starts these conversations like.
Speaker 1 (39:59):
Well, ultimately we have to but you.
Speaker 7 (40:02):
But we have to do it in a sense outside
of the major corporations. We have to we have to
start it from an independent sense of saying I will
not give you my product like I don't like, I
don't care. It's the same thing is if if you're
Nike and foot Locker is saying, well, we want to
sell your shoes for this, this is what we want
(40:24):
to give you, right, and you being able to say
I don't want to put my shoes in foot Locker,
I'm going to put them in Champs.
Speaker 1 (40:29):
Right, And you have to you have to make that right.
Speaker 7 (40:32):
Yes, costs right, So, and I think we also have
to get into the super fan space of literally going
direct to consumer.
Speaker 5 (40:43):
So think about just saying that. Imagine when iTunes was
iTunes and if I go, oh shit, Tank has a
new release this what was it tuesdays back then wherever
day it was, and I'm like, I want to buy
your song. It's ninety nine cents or ninety nine p
in the UK, I've going to spend that entire for
just you. Now with a subscription, you've reduced me to
(41:03):
a monthly fee. So I, as the consumer have access
to everything, not to specialize in exactly what it is
that I want. I just have this plethora of music
to go through and scroll through and not spend or
invest any time, and it's kind of what the fuck
do we doing?
Speaker 7 (41:23):
But what it is, though, is that it becomes it
becomes a form of just radio in a sense, which
isn't fair.
Speaker 5 (41:32):
It's not fair. It's not fair. It's not a fair
game like it's to be fair. It's never been fair.
But we've managed to get the R and P money
where we can and where we have and sustained it.
Not a lot of us can still get on a
stage live and do that part. It's very much okay,
(41:55):
let me rely on what the wave is right now.
Gets something that's trending, and that's my money, if that's
the money. Like, I've never been in it for that.
I've been in it for the art and I've made
money because of it. So I feel like my intentions
were different, like recently having got in the studio with
doctor Dre and Doctor Dre very unrealistically saying do whatever
(42:21):
the fuck you want? Does that mean I can play
Jesus with music? And that's exactly what we did in
the studio for this project, Casablanco like, even when you
say it's just this mysterious, yeah, it's a bit bigger
(42:41):
than an album. And you know, everyone marsh Wednesday, it's
a bit bigger than just an album. We're talking doctor
dre here. So yeah, what took us ultimately two weeks
to get the grasp of what the album actually was,
to implement the strings into from an having to clear
(43:02):
what we decided to borrow and take from this time
capsule of music during a time when we didn't know
where the world was going, during the pandemic fucked up
out here. So I'm like, if we had to take
the music that we cared about and make it one
thing and listen to it in one space, what would
that be? So it's the audacity to take Duke Kellington
(43:26):
and Michael Jackson and George Benson and Patrice Russian and
Wu Tang and Frank Sinatra and random things that identify
us as musicians as a whole and put it in
one space. To then be reduced to giving it away
as a SoundBite or radio.
Speaker 1 (43:52):
You have to now be.
Speaker 7 (43:57):
More what would be the word for just you have
You have to take a different chance with the music
and and not go into these spaces that have just
always been what they are and where people are making
up terms and making up new ways to do bad business,
which you can say, listen, you just have to you
(44:19):
have to take ownership and it completely. It's just my opinion,
especially when if I'm fucking doctor.
Speaker 5 (44:24):
Dre and I'm using as an example.
Speaker 7 (44:28):
You can release it how you please, of course, but
if you want to be a part of their platforms,
the only way is to give it to them either
at their whatever whatever their pricing is, or say, hey,
let's negotiate if you want this album. This is the
negotiation to it. This is these are the numbers that
we want or not are I'm going to now vinyl
(44:51):
is getting cracking again.
Speaker 1 (44:52):
I'm going to I'm ana press it up in vinyl.
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (44:57):
That's that's the game we're in. That is where we consume,
is to absolutely get from any arts that they care about.
It's just where are you going to find it?
Speaker 2 (45:06):
But I think it's a way to do both, right,
There's a way to you know, feed the system, but
also from a super fan aspect or from the desire
of the super fan still supply the experience in a
way that you want them to have by creating the
(45:29):
space that they have to come and get it from.
Speaker 1 (45:34):
If you are a.
Speaker 2 (45:34):
Super fan, if you desire to really experience this the
way it's supposed to be experienced. That out there, it's
just just just they have the music.
Speaker 5 (45:44):
You like, radio your boom bucks and wait for the
radio station to come on and praying that they play
that record and pressing record, even with the DJ yelling
all over that shit and you rewind it, crying it
up until the end when it's fading out. There's no
urgency with music like that anymore, or listen to in
(46:06):
a way where we had. It's like we had a
spoiled experience of the way we listen to music or
the way it was presented to us. Like right now,
it's may as well be friggin' what's the singles websites
tender swipe left of you don't like it? If you
don't like it, So, yeah, it was Creating orgasms through
(46:38):
music is my thing. So we imagine having Casa Blanco
as a landscape and this very unrealistic, elevated version of
life from a billionaire's perspective, what are those orgasms like now,
So walking to that studio and hearing I mean imagine
(47:00):
hearing say yes for the first time, but the melodies
I heard for this for the first time, I now
have to create different orgasms. So without getting too kinky
for me, no, this is how I operate. By walking
to a studio, I'm seducing every single instrument that's implemented
(47:21):
into the composition. We fucking. Basically, you have to fuck
the music. You have to fuck that shit up, and
you can't. There's no friction there. It's all smooth. So
with every musician that doctor dra had in that studio,
(47:42):
whether that was bluetooth, focus, trev them, joints, sly, all
of these elements had to get fucked up to make
it one thing. So when you press play and it's
this symphony, all of these elements have given each other
(48:03):
space and energy and intimacy all at the same time.
So depending on where your spot is, if it's sometimes
it's my neck, sometimes it's my kneecap, sometimes it's a
brush of my arm, and it's seductive. That's what music
is supposed to do. And I've been doing that for
(48:24):
two decades. Plus starting from that one, I'd say that
was the sexiest song to that particular timeframe that I'd done,
and continue to go on and do way more, whether
that was sixty nine and so Good with the interns
and even late nights and early mornings with Rich Harrison.
(48:45):
It was just all of these moments of sex through music,
and you want to be that. You want to be
that you do when you do your concerts. You're like,
I'm your three the I'm the threesome.
Speaker 7 (49:03):
You're in that room, I'm the tour I'm stealing so
much of your lingo.
Speaker 5 (49:11):
I'm down my credit what you say, I ain't taking
point nothing.
Speaker 8 (49:27):
Nine compositions, right, that's what we do.
Speaker 2 (49:33):
There's a there's like a there's there's a hierarchy of
of sensual moments, and say Yes is right on that
top tier with Untitled. That's that's like there's a high
(49:55):
level of songs that are automatically intimate, automatically yeah, no
one's talking, everyone's just trying to figure out who's gonna
go first.
Speaker 1 (50:16):
That's it. Those top tiers like the song just don't
read the room right.
Speaker 7 (50:28):
First, and the room ain't really trying to go with you.
Speaker 1 (50:32):
They played. It was a time I was earlier.
Speaker 5 (50:38):
There is a time and place, but it's great to have. God,
you know the moment in the show where you're like, okay,
you know where this is going. You play that first.
Speaker 2 (50:49):
During my piano segment, I've performed oh with my shirt.
Speaker 5 (50:55):
You know what You've seen that effects, so you understand
the power in that.
Speaker 2 (51:02):
And as you said, I become the threesome, not you know,
not figuratively, because.
Speaker 5 (51:11):
I want the audience to have that experience, such a compliment,
like having been coined a lesbian for so long. Yeah,
it's it's yeah, it's the lesbian. There she is. It's
not like I don't know, I've been completely comfortable with
(51:32):
my sexuality for it's the last thing I would hide
about me based on the music that i'd mad like,
why I don't mind that attention or that want for
you to me to be it's intimate. That's perfectly fine.
It's the music. I want to be your threesome. However
(51:52):
that goes whatever your preference. It's you give your it's
the power in it. You give that sex away. You
can't help who's going to be turned on?
Speaker 1 (52:04):
I can't.
Speaker 5 (52:04):
You don't know what turns on.
Speaker 1 (52:07):
I can't.
Speaker 2 (52:07):
I'll be trying to tell my wife, babe, you can't manage.
It's how it comes to me.
Speaker 5 (52:13):
You can't and don't get and your wife, no, don't
stab him. But this is the responsibility of what it is.
We're superheroes, straight, gay, whatever it is. The music is
whatever it is. We give it away and it's intimate.
Speaker 1 (52:36):
And you let the people interpret it, let them dance.
Speaker 5 (52:39):
With Yeah, it's intimate. Like one night stand. This song
One night stand. When the concept of the song came
to me, it was because of how the music sounded,
and I was like, oh, this is the morning after
we fucked. For sure, this exactly sounds like the triumphant
Who the fuck is that the covers I don't even know.
Speaker 1 (53:01):
The was amazing. Who is that in the covers?
Speaker 5 (53:04):
We will never know? Look check the toes like boomerang.
Oh yeah, I know who exactly who that is. And
that's perfectly fine. But it was that morning after sex.
It was You're under those covers looking at the ceiling
like we should fuck again one more time just to
make sure it was that good, And then you do.
(53:24):
You're like, oh shit, is this forever? Then we love no,
it was just one night.
Speaker 1 (53:29):
You say that earlier. If they listened to the music,
your one night could be And.
Speaker 5 (53:35):
That's okay too, and that's how we made Yeah, eighteen
years from now, I shall not be responsible for any
child support incurred, nor the godmother of any of you.
Speaker 2 (53:49):
Are you giving us a wind though? Like like a wind,
like you're really giving us. You're giving us the magical pitch, right,
You're giving us all of the Do we get all
the intimate details and the intricacy.
Speaker 5 (54:04):
Of camera and I can I can play you? That's
ladies and gentlemen, can I give Can I say eight days?
I'm looking off camera right now, so we can say
a March date. You will be getting something and the
March something is coming and it's going to be a
(54:26):
cool summer.
Speaker 1 (54:29):
Yeah, come on your piano, Come on man.
Speaker 5 (54:35):
You know, I just.
Speaker 2 (54:39):
To speak of us being superheroes our respective fields. A
lot of the music that we've sang, written and produced.
Speaker 1 (55:01):
All well and good. There's a lot of music that
has inspired you to do what you do.
Speaker 6 (55:10):
Mm hmmm.
Speaker 1 (55:13):
So the people who watch the R and B Money podcast,
they want to know what they want to know you.
Speaker 5 (55:19):
They want to know I want to know. I want to.
Speaker 4 (55:29):
Top five, your top five, top five, Your top five
are being.
Speaker 1 (55:48):
Already songs.
Speaker 6 (55:52):
We want to know, we want this flow.
Speaker 1 (55:56):
Just let it go and let us know.
Speaker 6 (56:00):
He's your top face. Yeah five, it's really good.
Speaker 1 (56:39):
Your top five R and B singers.
Speaker 5 (56:47):
No particular order. Two of those spots will be placed,
whether they should or wouldn't be anyone's top five, but
they're the vocalists of vocalists for me, Luther Whitney, those
(57:09):
two spots are just taken. Yes, So now I'm down
to three. Michael Jackson takes like three versions of himself
because I love ABC Mike, I love Off the Wall, Mike,
the Dirty Diana. Mike did something else to me, So
(57:32):
it's almost like he's three and one.
Speaker 1 (57:35):
Not almost, he absolutely is. He's him.
Speaker 5 (57:39):
Can you have Casey and Jojo as one.
Speaker 1 (57:43):
Want to do?
Speaker 5 (57:44):
Okay? Now, for two voices to be so different and
compliment each other in such a way that made them
one hasn't been matched to this day to me, because
listening to the difference of a very sensitive, almost soprano
(58:07):
jojo and its pure high tone to Casey's growl, it's
almost like you'd be threatened to sing after case, but
not if you're Jojo anyone else. But you know what
I'm saying, like, and it's only because it's been recently,
like Donny Hathaway, and it took me a couple of
(58:29):
different people that would have been in my top five.
But someday we'll all be free.
Speaker 1 (58:36):
That song.
Speaker 5 (58:38):
I don't think I could not cry if I hear it,
And it's the power in a vocal being able to
do that to me. And five is unfair because it
means I don't get to mention who currently holds spots,
whether that's Jasmine Sullivan, you know what I mean, Like
(58:59):
I'm watching she can do with her vocal, Tina Marie,
what's her vocal? Something like this?
Speaker 6 (59:11):
But this is all.
Speaker 5 (59:16):
Stevie Wonder. It's not fair the stories that he can
tell with his tongue before even lyrics come into it
and claims he can't see. We know that you can see.
Speaker 7 (59:26):
It's fine, You're going it okay because I'm not getting
in that you in tank. I'm not getting in that.
Speaker 1 (59:34):
Agree. I didn't. I didn't agree.
Speaker 5 (59:43):
I see us in the park, do you.
Speaker 1 (59:48):
Man? I don't want to smoke Steve. I don't want
to I love Steve from when I heard Stevie flak.
I'm not gonna do this with you. Watch cat do
switch cap.
Speaker 5 (01:00:04):
It's not fair. How dead. There's a ribbon in the
sky for our love?
Speaker 6 (01:00:09):
Is there.
Speaker 4 (01:00:12):
Is?
Speaker 2 (01:00:12):
There?
Speaker 1 (01:00:15):
Is it up there for our lives. I've actually never
seen one in the sky.
Speaker 6 (01:00:19):
So he did.
Speaker 1 (01:00:23):
He has? That was a lot. I think I left handed.
Speaker 6 (01:00:31):
Wade.
Speaker 1 (01:00:31):
Okay, here we go, get your top five R and
B songs.
Speaker 5 (01:00:39):
Five Okay, because we didn't say that, because we didn't
need to.
Speaker 6 (01:00:47):
Okay.
Speaker 5 (01:00:50):
I want to spend the night by Bill Withers.
Speaker 1 (01:00:53):
We're going to be weathers.
Speaker 8 (01:00:56):
MA.
Speaker 5 (01:00:57):
I want Anthony Hamilton to cover and feel like you
get a Grammy.
Speaker 3 (01:01:04):
You heard.
Speaker 5 (01:01:06):
That's one of my favorite songs, the breakup song by
me mm hmm.
Speaker 7 (01:01:12):
Okay, come on mine as well, because like get publishing
for all your niggas out there making y'all playlist.
Speaker 5 (01:01:19):
The breakup song was like, listen to that ship I
came from.
Speaker 1 (01:01:24):
A Really, that's your favorite song of yours?
Speaker 5 (01:01:26):
No, I have way more than that. But we're talking
about you said, what if I was doing with songs
like you? Wrote that ship melodically into that.
Speaker 1 (01:01:35):
That's who you.
Speaker 5 (01:01:38):
It's in there. I can't help it. Thank you Stevie
to give that to Mike looking out for the bro.
Definitely looked out for the bro.
Speaker 1 (01:01:50):
Mm hmmm. What a joint to.
Speaker 5 (01:01:56):
Say with this five the bad album?
Speaker 1 (01:02:00):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 5 (01:02:00):
Can we have that as like one entire album off
the respects I Am album ever creates thriller? Okay, fine,
you're doing what you're doing still to this day to
follow that ship up and have the nerve to say
(01:02:21):
there's no skips on there. That's one whole thing. Remember
the time is not okay forever, my lady Joy because
they were four very young black men with Dr Martin's
(01:02:42):
on and like see through the zipper Johns. So you're
having my baby and it means so much to me.
That is nothing more pressure, you know what I'm saying.
It's the narrative that we were giving nineties black men
(01:03:05):
to love and support the family bond.
Speaker 1 (01:03:11):
I'll be talking in my accent after that.
Speaker 5 (01:03:14):
You've got the rest of your.
Speaker 1 (01:03:16):
I've seen too many episodes of T Boy Gangs of London.
Speaker 5 (01:03:23):
That's a good one. I've lived in America for like
twenty plus years, so if I'm around you guys, I'm Philadelphia.
The camera you know what, see kind of.
Speaker 1 (01:03:45):
One more second? Can we get it?
Speaker 4 (01:03:47):
Jack?
Speaker 1 (01:03:47):
We need it, We get it, We need it. I
ain't saying no names. I ain't saying no names, no names.
Speaker 6 (01:03:56):
Name what you.
Speaker 5 (01:04:14):
Five facts?
Speaker 1 (01:04:14):
Ye m m perfect time and perfect time and very
special segment of the show's card. I ain't saying no names.
Speaker 7 (01:04:25):
Will you give us a story funny or fucked up?
Funny and fucked up only route to the game. You
can't say no names. I mean it could be overseas,
middle c under the sea, wherever you want to be. Oh,
you got to do just tell the story without saying names.
Speaker 5 (01:04:49):
Okay. There was this one time, oh yeah, on tour
and there was a day off in Amsterdam, so said
(01:05:17):
artists decided to partake in what you do when you're
in Amsterdam, which was get high, like really high, like
spark up in the hotel. The concierge lit you up
high and it's you just checked in. It's noon, and
(01:05:41):
that artist proceeded to smoke go to a cafe across
the street. There was a menu full of delicious treats
like marshmallowsmores and cookie and stuff like that. And it
(01:06:02):
infused with.
Speaker 1 (01:06:05):
More with more of it.
Speaker 5 (01:06:06):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Amsterdam. So of course they picked the marshmallow.
Small one took that to the face and they were
even more high. So on this day off, before you
know it, sun up, sun goes down. What happens in
(01:06:27):
Amsterdam red light district. So that artist in the band
decide to go down there and see what all the
fuss is about. So in doing so, you look through
a couple of those glass windows. It's some sexy shit
and you find yourself.
Speaker 6 (01:06:46):
In there.
Speaker 5 (01:06:49):
And you're high. So this artist goes in there, gets
up to whatever, comes back outside, finds a sex shop,
goes in the sex shop and buys a sex toy.
So this artist then decides that it would be a
(01:07:13):
good idea to go back to the hotel and try
this thing out. It was from Amsterdam, might be a
different feeling, I don't know. So lobby call for the
departure of the tour bus to take that artist to
(01:07:34):
the next city was coming up, so they decided to
take all of this stuff out the room, take the
sex toy, get on the bus before anyone else gets
on this actual bus, and partake there so they wouldn't
pass out in the room. And you know, miss lobby
(01:07:57):
call made sense to that artist at the time. So
get all the stuff, get the code of the bus,
put the bags, you know where they're supposed to be.
Get in the bunk. Now, if you've been on tour,
you know when the generator is not on, pitch black
(01:08:17):
on them buses. Pitch can't see shit. But work out
one bunk, two bunk. Feel your way down to the bottom.
You're in the middle. Bottom bunk knows that artist, not
the one on the right, the one on the left.
I told them to get in that bunk. So the
(01:08:40):
artists got in the bunk that belonged to them, or
so they thought. Batteries were included, and they proceed to
go to town with this toy for however long it
took to not only forget what actually happened, but wake
(01:09:06):
up the following morning as the bus is in motion.
So whatever happened in between going gazoo has just done
a don't recall.
Speaker 1 (01:09:20):
What the fuck?
Speaker 5 (01:09:22):
The artist then woke up while the bus is moving.
So the bus is moving, That means everybody's on the bus. Yeah,
where the fuck is the fucking sex toys? This artist
thinking they go to what did they say, They went
to lean up to go it's still in between said thighs,
(01:09:47):
where it previously allowed the artists to pass out, and
it's still on. It switches on because the artist is
now having what feels like a molt support orgasm while
banging their head on the top of the other bunk,
trying to pretend that nothing's happening, that they've lost something
(01:10:10):
or you can't find you can hear commotion, what the
fuck is going on? Finally find the switch. It's off.
They look out the bunk. Everyone's kind of you know,
rustling curtains to like seeing what the fuck has happened?
And the sex toy packaging. It's just everywhere, like you know,
(01:10:33):
that plastic that you can't.
Speaker 6 (01:10:37):
Get.
Speaker 5 (01:10:40):
Why the did I get this ship? I don't even
know how you can't. There's no scissors for it. You're
breaking ship. And I think that artist was talked about
for the rest of the tour, and that's the story.
I'm sticking to it. No names.
Speaker 1 (01:11:00):
Wow, they really wanted it. Whoever was could not wait.
I just couldn't to have it.
Speaker 6 (01:11:10):
A bunch of them.
Speaker 5 (01:11:12):
It was amazing. So they told me Amsterdam days off
in Amsterdam. It's a song Drake I'm telling you now.
Speaker 1 (01:11:31):
Of Asterdam. I just want to it's a great way
to wrap it up.
Speaker 2 (01:11:37):
First of all, thank you so much for coming. You
know what I mean, you are you know we consider
your family and but your time, your energy, your artistry,
all of these things mean something to us, and so
we value your presence and we value march.
Speaker 5 (01:11:59):
Yeah said one night stands only that's what that's what
they turn into forevers. And then you're welcome.
Speaker 1 (01:12:08):
You're welcome. I listen.
Speaker 2 (01:12:11):
Sometimes you got to experience what the experience is going
to be like in order to know if you want
to continue experiencing the Thanks so, thank you, We appreciate you.
This is here for you anytime, any any anytime, and and.
Speaker 1 (01:12:28):
Thank you you My family, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 2 (01:12:34):
Take and this is the Army Money podcast, the authority
on all things R and B and she is her
my shirt.
Speaker 6 (01:12:47):
Roses come on from the Womb Money.
Speaker 7 (01:13:00):
R and B Money is a production of the Black
Effect podcast Network. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows. Don't forget to subscribe to and rate our show,
and you can connect with us on social media at
JY Valentine and at the Real Tank. For the extended episode,
(01:13:22):
subscribe to YouTube, dot com, Forward, slash r, and b
Money
R and B Money, Honey, we are thanks take valati.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
We are the authority on.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
R and B.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Ladies and gentlemen, money is tank This, my friend, Come on,
is the R and B Money podcast. This is the
authority on all things R and B.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
What then, is your accent hurd on? My friend?
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Be careful, my friend, what you asked for? Because you
know it's a flow in my spirit. Show is going
to have a certain flow today.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Come on mate, you know mate, come on, bro. The
whay you try to organize this thing as it flows?
Speaker 4 (00:54):
Is it is?
Speaker 1 (00:55):
It reaches your spirit and your inside it. It kind
of models poetry. Yeah, yes, it does flow so well.
It flows so well. They flows so well, and you
put it to Coulin. It's like a floatid kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Ladies and gentlemen, it just got expensive. It's just the
level of gift has gone to the stratusphears and outer
fears and galaxies that we've never seen. I'm just excited
to be here to to talk to this young lady
(01:34):
who's just one of the most talented human beings I've
ever seen in my life.
Speaker 5 (01:39):
Thank you her name.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Let's see her name correctly because it deserves reference.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Marcia Ambrosious, amazing, amazing.
Speaker 5 (01:54):
One most time to me, Ambrocious said Ambrocious. Okay, so
some people do say Ambrosius, right, then it's Ambrosious. I
don't even know how to pronounce my own name anymore.
I've heard it back to me so many times wrong.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
How did you were born?
Speaker 5 (02:15):
When I was born, Darling, I came out of the
womb and they said, this is Marcia Ambrosius.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Ambrosius, Ambrosius, ambros When I got to America was like,
what's up Martia Ambrosious or Ambrose or Ambarrose or ambro Ambrosias.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Like a z I kind of like Marcia amburrows.
Speaker 5 (02:41):
I was referred to us, not even Marsha Ambrose. Oh,
they go Marcia amber Ambarrosia amberrows. I just left it,
you know what. Being in Philadelphia that long, it was
what it was. But I love it, Ambrosios with your
(03:03):
wonderfully awful British accent.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Well, are a lot of things I don't do, so
I like to put all of them on display.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
This is why we.
Speaker 6 (03:12):
Hear what's up?
Speaker 5 (03:14):
Guys.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
I feel like like you're like you're like one of
the rare artists, one of the rare entities where you've
that you've been able to maintain a mystique about you,
But every time your name is brought up, it's like
(03:38):
a real thing. Still to this day.
Speaker 5 (03:42):
It's lovely to hear.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
I mean, you're you've, you've your your imprint, and I
think it's it's it's because you're wonderfully talented, it's because
you're an awesome human being. But you're very distinct in
how you approach all of it, like it's very much yours.
Speaker 5 (03:58):
I've been in intent. My intentions have always been to
do just that. I think I've been such a unique
individual in this very when I say urban space, in
our R and B field. Unfortunately, on one side, it's
been deemed as one thing, one toned, it's this box.
(04:21):
And then you try and do that one thing that
makes you outstanding, and you're seeing how long that can sustain,
and you're like, Okay, how long can I get away
with being myself before I'm then forced into having to
fine tune this thing that people are grasping towards. Because
what R and B has been the driving force of
(04:41):
our space for however long, And it's wild that I
remember doing my first solo project with late nights and
early mornings, and I had so many gems in the cut,
and I'm like, oh, I can't wait to put this
record out. And there's this one thing I hope she
cheats on you basketball player, which playing basketball my entire
(05:04):
life just felt like a funny little joke, a little
free STYLI did on what was it ustream we used
to have at the time, freestyled it on, and that's
the thing that takes off, not far Away, not Sour Times,
not Lose Myself, not any other record. The Ratchet one
the outlandish statement, and I was like, hmm, I see
(05:25):
R and B and hip hop doing this fusion thing
where the shift is about to happen and people are
going to go ratchet, and there's nothing that we can
do other than hold onto the reins and still try
and find yourself within it. But coming from a space
of I've been able to say what the fuck I
want for so long, it's I should be able to
(05:49):
say what the fuck.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
I want, absolutely absolutely know.
Speaker 5 (05:54):
But you have to stand on that in R and
B and some people have a way of doing it
where anyone can sing your song and there's no uniqueness
to it. It's just a good song and anyone can
sing it, name an artist, give it to them. But
then there's me, and there are very few people that
are just going to say, Okay, I'm going to sing
(06:15):
a Marsha song because it's such a signature, it's so unique,
even if it's even if it's oh, I'm trying to
touch on this little thing that I think R and
B is for a joke. I hope she cheats. I
hope she chooses the most ratchet thing I think I
did with my space in all of its uniqueness.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
I mean, or is it just like or is it
just the truth? It's just real.
Speaker 5 (06:48):
I'm saying ratchet coming from me, where people are like,
oh my god, Marsha like say yes, Marsha, like you know,
so it's it's the difference.
Speaker 7 (06:56):
And maybe we may look at it because we know
you exactly get it differently.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
You know.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
It didn't surprise me, of course.
Speaker 7 (07:03):
In the record, I'm like, you know, she feel a
way about these lebrons.
Speaker 5 (07:11):
I'm a little better, just a little better. I'm doing
better now. And that was the song, and you know,
but it was still very much R and B.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Absolutely, It's called the truth.
Speaker 5 (07:24):
And that's what R and B is.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
It's just the truth.
Speaker 5 (07:26):
You can interpret how it should be.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
The truth ru the truth, and that's the uniqueness that
stands the test of time.
Speaker 5 (07:35):
And I feel like I can stand on saying that
I've done so for twenty plus years now. That's crazy
to say that you've sustain that. But in also praising
what this platform is as well, you and I have
brushed shoulders that entire time. That's insane to go into
(07:58):
this being well not front row. I've only got like
third row tickets to your concerts. I couldn't. It was
sold out by the time I was getting this, So
we've got freebie got in anyway. So there, I am
a tank your lungs and I'm a fan. And then
coming into it, we're sharing stages together. Absolutely, so not
(08:20):
saying your age or nothing. You've been doing this one,
but it's like to do that in our field and
really claim to not only have made R and B money,
still making R and B money, still have R and
B money. There's a big difference in that because in
(08:41):
our field, a lot of money is.
Speaker 7 (08:44):
I just play private school tuition, so I don't really
get too much R and b money left this week.
Speaker 5 (08:49):
The fact that you can say that you had it
to give that up, I know what that is.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
It hurts that I got a pond this ship. You can.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
It will?
Speaker 5 (09:10):
I hate it. No, we're not claiming that we're actually
going to stand on businesses, say that we make and
still have and laugh about the luxury of kids in
private school because of what we've done for two plus
decades now, that's insane and incredible. More to come. I
(09:33):
haven't written my best song yet, talk about loads of them.
I can write so much more like and Will. There's
too much life to be had. It's too many memories
to make. And just to see the reaction from people
in the audience listening to these songs that we made
over that course of time, and it resonated in a way.
(09:54):
It's powerful and I respect that power, which is why
I've only leave so much like I've actually contained, because
it's a responsibility. You're responsible for someone's happiness, heartache, love, life, hate,
just through the songs that we make. It is a
responsibility and I do take it seriously. It's terrible, but.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
It should be. Though not My.
Speaker 5 (10:24):
Music isn't for play play like don't play it. If
you don't mean it, like you want to one night
stand and you want to play a Marsha record, it
might turn into forever.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Listen, I can think you know what, no whit?
Speaker 2 (10:45):
I have a wife? What are we doing? How do let's
go back to the beginning. When does when does someone say?
And in the beginning, give me give me the birthplace
of of your unique self.
Speaker 5 (11:03):
Having a crush on the guy that worked in McDonald's
in Campbewell, London, England, South London. He was a friend
of a kid that lived down the street. His name
was Mark. I don't even know his friend's name. I
just knew that he had the old school brown McDonald's uniform, remember,
(11:24):
like the shitty brown with the hat and the clean
pressure like that McDonald Like I have, not the big mac.
But so my school was within five minutes walking distance.
McDonald's was like seven minutes the opposite direction. I didn't
(11:47):
need to be over there, but would go over there
and to stand outside the window salivating over well the cheeseburger,
but him as well. And this song I wrote in
my head at the time was called Gonna Get You,
So I was out to get it like like it
(12:10):
was cooled gonna get you. Like I was walking down
the road, saw your face. It was so terrible. You
looked at me, Yeah, you were away. It was like
really corny, really cheesy, but the.
Speaker 8 (12:22):
Core of it amaz of it.
Speaker 5 (12:28):
Twelve thirteen year old Melody. Years go by. Now I'm
in my teens, teens, teens where feelings are true feelings.
And that turned into Butterflies. So it was I just
want to touch and kiss, and I wish that I
could be with you tonight. You would be butterflies. So
(12:49):
I wrote Butterflies about him.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
At what age I.
Speaker 5 (12:53):
Was like sixteen? I had to be sixteen seventeen because
I was definitely going to that bust up to get
the thirty five thirty five bus to Brixton to play
for the Brixton TOPCTS. I was still playing ball at
that time, and I would go to that McDonald's every
single time get the bus.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
How long did he work at that McDonald's. It was
like three four years he put in time.
Speaker 5 (13:17):
I just remember the uniform going from dusty brown to
you know, the white shirt. So maybe it was flipping
burgers at first and then sweeping the floor like that.
Speaker 8 (13:30):
The big exactly.
Speaker 5 (13:37):
So butterflies happened from that. So my unique perspective on
seeing this very monotonous scenario come from innocent feelings like oh,
one day I'm gonna get you. I'm gonna get you
to know I have feelings. You give me butterflies, like
(13:57):
all you gonna do is just walk away and pass
me by. I don't even acknowledge my smile when I
tried to say hello to you. M Yeah, so I
felt that, but really melodically and in composing certain songs
like that stemmed from my obsession with Jodasy.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
There's always that, yeah.
Speaker 5 (14:20):
Like Jodasy has been my reason. Okay, So Prince, Michael Stevie,
no particular order, favorite artists of all time, and they're
like the umbrellas of then everyone else because I can
say all the other names, they just go in those brackets. Stevie,
every performer, writer, musician, Prince, complete, rock star, abstract in
(14:43):
his own way. Michael was just a fucking star. Yeah, yeah, stars,
legend star of stars, hits of hits, and I loved
them all dearly. I didn't want to make music until
I heard the production of DeVante make music like sit there, figure.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Out anybody in your family making music though or not dad?
Your dad.
Speaker 5 (15:09):
My dad was a musician and basketball coach, hence me.
So it was him playing bass or league guitar, singing
in a seventies funk band called Supercharge that were actually
signed to Virgin You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 6 (15:25):
I like that.
Speaker 5 (15:28):
When I was born one of that no like Supercharger,
just doing it. So I had that background. And there's
me watching my dad play all these instruments and don't
touch that, and he, you know, mister miagi me into Okay,
I'm gonna touch it. I'm play this bass real quick,
and play these keys real quick, and play you know.
So the love for music came from just it being
(15:51):
around me. But listening to that Jodicy era, the New
Jack Swing era, I was like, what I think doing?
What is this thing? Let me figure out these chords?
Let me listen to these harmonies? What do you do again?
And then I'm the fifth member of joy Bocally. I
can find the other harmony in anything like.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
It's insane, Like maybe I was the fifth member.
Speaker 5 (16:15):
You think you sick? We can fight, we can fight.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
He said that way too confidently. I don't know if
you've met.
Speaker 5 (16:28):
You gave yourself a name. Nice to meet you, jay Bones, mister.
Speaker 7 (16:33):
Because I'm both mister mister, Yeah, I feel you.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
I know there's an episode.
Speaker 5 (16:42):
We had and he verified this. Yeah, I don't know
we actually verified. But other than thanked you for being
so crazeously, I'm kind. But I will say without I.
Speaker 7 (16:58):
Don't know if there's a lot of us out.
Speaker 5 (17:07):
Here, there's no mesne.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Seriously, I'm going to.
Speaker 5 (17:17):
All right, listen to any one of my songs a
cappella and really hear my harmony arrangements and just know
where that comes from, so you can claim wherever your
spot is, I just know from you.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
It's all in there.
Speaker 5 (17:33):
All of that influences in there. And my reasons why
to create the way I create stemmed from really picking
apart what that was, and it was from the the interludes,
like the nerve of the interludes. We're just outrageous in
nineties R and B and to want to carry that
(17:53):
further and keep the integrity of what my R and
B for me is what I pursued this entire time,
and the longevity in that is why you can sustain that,
because people want to feel exactly that they want to
fight for their sixth or seventh position that they so
claim your set.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Don't make me called casey.
Speaker 5 (18:20):
I got I'll call the family. I'll call.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
Yeah, I'll call this mama. How about that? You love
you love? I gotta step I gotta step side that.
Speaker 5 (18:34):
Okay, So yeah, I might have to bow down. That's
that's that's that's fine.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
I say. The worst thing will.
Speaker 5 (18:40):
We fighting over twenty thirty years from now?
Speaker 1 (18:44):
The worst thing is, don't go to an NBA game
with Tank.
Speaker 7 (18:48):
Why every NBA niggas, Mama are the biggest Tank fans
you've ever met in your life.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
It's the craziest. It's the craziest thing in the world.
I'm like, wait, wait, who mama is that? Oh? You
know that's that's that's just man. You know I had
to go saying birthday I graduated to that's how he
Trump's that all arguments.
Speaker 8 (19:14):
I call the mom that's not fair.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
I get their mama's tickets, their mama's tickets. It's true.
Speaker 5 (19:24):
Yeah, there's nothing you can do about that.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
Nothing.
Speaker 7 (19:28):
So when you were so, when you're going through this
phase right where you're you're becoming this songwriter and you're
loving the music. You're also playing basketball.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
How are you.
Speaker 7 (19:41):
Juggling too, because what you're talking about musically is not
a locker room conversation. No, that's not like you're not
taking the Jogsy tapes into the basketball locker room and
y'all talking about the DeVante harmonies in the in the
in the piano.
Speaker 5 (19:58):
That was having my well the Walkman at the time,
which is shaky, juggly cassette tape advancing into the CD.
It was me with my headphones and all of the teammates, oh,
sing that song again. Sing yeah. So that was my
way of sharing it and then getting the you know,
(20:20):
still very insecure in that areing and I didn't really
want to be on any stages, didn't want to be seen.
But my teammates your height, sing that again, your wife
you could sing.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
And I'm like you putting in your time. So that
was my.
Speaker 5 (20:35):
Very intimate first experience of putting myself out there. So
that was my version of Okay, maybe I'm onto something.
So I wasn't juggling, not according to my dad, who
was very much you're going to be about this possible
life one hundred or you're going to take music seriously
and I didn't take music seriously until I tore ligaments.
(20:58):
Can we get the violins or something that moment, because
it was we got devastating, devastating, it was tragic. Keep on.
I heard the crunch, but America I wasn't. I was
(21:19):
still overseas. I was playing a three on three pickup
game at Elephant and Castle Gym, and we hadn't lost
the game, and I just wanted to play one more game.
We lost the last game and I was like, nah,
I'm not leaving the floor until we win again. Play
(21:40):
music again, played music. So I played that last game,
and I remember receiving the ball. M remember it was
like yesterday. I went to crossover and as soon as
(22:02):
I hit that pivot crunch, it's like a bricocheted through
the entire gym, and I just want to break down the.
Speaker 6 (22:29):
Lord hell me.
Speaker 5 (22:36):
Yeah, it was over then, and then you can start now.
So after that, the whole world and no, there's no
need to get sack.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
It's so great with your exity. We're done nothing.
Speaker 5 (22:50):
So that's what happened. It was a movie scene. It
was like slow motion, and I hadn't seen my life
without basket until that morning. Heartbreaking me, crushing, like you
(23:21):
don't picture your life without the thing that you love
until you've lost it. So music hobby can listen to
music all day. My mother's viny collection, outrageous, Go in
the crib Basketball. I'm up first thing in the morning.
It's late nights and early mornings for basketball. For me,
it was practice Monday through Friday, away game, Saturday, home game,
(23:45):
Sunday repeat. I didn't have a day off, not with basketball.
And then it's gone, and I was like, Okay, what
am I going to do? I'm going to write about it.
And I got home, got a diary, got in front
of my piano, and I wrote the song If I
Was a Bird, and that was about losing basketball, which
(24:09):
was then a part of the first Flowtry album. So
If I Was a Bird stemmed from Michael Jordan's documentary
at the time, Come Fly with Me. I used to
watch that'll repeat every day day and it was without basketball,
my life is incomplete. So it's like you have me
(24:29):
caught up in this starry eyed well the dreams, and
it's that one last shot.
Speaker 7 (24:40):
All these songs are about flipping burgers and shooting baskets regular.
Speaker 5 (24:49):
I take the most regular ship, and I make it
your every day like most of my prolific long jevity
long game. I want this music to li in the
space forever. A basic sayings it's what you're going to
do is say yes, getting late? Why are you going
to be here?
Speaker 6 (25:05):
Hello?
Speaker 5 (25:06):
How are you? Were you up to nothing? I hope
you choose on you with a possible player. It's very
matter of fact, yeah, far away and every minute you're
going to missing you. So it's going to be a
late night early morning when I come home.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
It just feels like.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
Not not that your universal calling, will you know, make
the floor a little extra slippery at that time, or
make your shoes stick to the parquet so that your
need goes to Not that, not that it does that, right,
but your calling has a way of showing itself and
(25:49):
showing up to where you ultimately don't have a choice.
Speaker 5 (25:57):
I agree with that, and that just comes with what
is our gift. We can run from it if we
want to, and it's gonna be right there going up.
Excuse me. The gift that I gave you, it's time
for you to give it to the world, because that's
what you've been blessed with. And regardless of where your
headspace is, that what you think this is about to be,
(26:19):
this is actually what it is. So even when I
wanted to quit, like very recently, not quit, I just
feel like I've completed well. I wanted out of this space.
It's like Super Mario Brothers. I'm level eight. I jumped
over the Dragon and Save the Princess. I'm out. Like
(26:40):
it's done. I don't need to do anymore. There's nothing
to prove. I wanted to sell a couple million records,
work with my favorite artists, and I did all of
the things that should be someone's bucket list very early on,
like how a song that I wrote about the Doo
dooround Michael, I mean McDonald's his name might have been Michael.
(27:05):
I don't know, Like who knows. We're trying to figure
out where are you? I really want to know where
this guy is. I didn't know. Years later, Michael Jackson
would hear a demo that was presented to him by
John McClain, presented to him as a Flower Tree album
like look, I want you to hear these Girls, and
(27:27):
a part of that demo package where the original Flowa
Troy album, including two songs that were just demos. Say
Yes was one of them. Say Yes was written for
Rod Eisley and Me and Dre Harris did that he
didn't take, but it was specifically catered to him, but
he didn't take it. So he ended up doing a
(27:48):
duet with Jill Scott for that project and didn't take
Say Yes. So Say Yes is just sitting there is
this lonely demo shipped to Babyface didn't want it, so
now it's just this outstanding song as well as Butterflies. So,
Mike is this butterfly song on this flow Atry demo?
Speaker 4 (28:07):
Like?
Speaker 5 (28:07):
What's that?
Speaker 1 (28:08):
Though?
Speaker 5 (28:08):
Can I have that?
Speaker 3 (28:09):
Mike?
Speaker 5 (28:09):
You can have the entire album? You know just what
that's two coming to America. That's why, like between the
Big Bucks and this. Okay, so I didn't know that
that's how these things were going to transpire, but you
dream big enough, big dreams happen, So when it starts
(28:34):
to happen, I can't then say not I quit, but
there's gonna be more in me. If that was my start,
I can't start there. And then where do you go
from there?
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Though?
Speaker 5 (28:51):
Wherever you just keep going, And that's exactly what I did.
That was the year two thousand that that demo resurfaces,
is repurposed and Andre Harris and myself go in the b
room of a Touch of Jazz and I'm like, look,
I have this record. Ray, I know that you are
the guy you did Long Walk the Way like my
(29:13):
favorite Jill Records. I no issue, Let's get this. We
do that demo. By March of two thousand and one,
we're in the studio with Michael Jackson telling him what
to do and how to do it, like he's behind
the glass like your mike one more time, bit pitchy,
one more time, me with the talk back telling Michael
Jackson I'm twenty three at that time.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
And you guys don't yet.
Speaker 5 (29:37):
We signed our deal December, so the end of that year,
so we were already at DreamWorks and then the album's done,
so we're literally waiting for papers at that point to
illegal aliens trying to get this record deal. So it
was hey, let's get you some visas so we can.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Put you to that.
Speaker 5 (29:55):
Yeah, So the album, our album didn't drop until October
of that following year. I think by the time all
that was squad Away. Yeah, there's Michael Jackson like Michael
mother Jackson and.
Speaker 7 (30:10):
The thing too, like you said, it all comes from
your demos going through the hands of John McClain, who
are at this point he's at DreamWorks. If you sign
anywhere else for what Michael Jackson never hears. We just
always we like to connect it, you know, we like
(30:31):
to connect the dots. And you know when people are
thinking of why I did this or why I didn't
do this and all these other things, and what didn't
come from something like just signing to this, you know, boutique.
Speaker 5 (30:46):
Exactly supposed to be with Motown and then it's John
McClain and Michael Jackson and it's might want to go
that route because yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
I'm gonna need these butterflies.
Speaker 5 (31:02):
Yes, And that's how business wise, that's how that all
kind of transpired, which is crazy about Michael Jackson himself
telling me, you know, if this is your beginning, imagine
where you're gonna go.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
Right.
Speaker 5 (31:15):
So Flow Tree go on to go platinum, couple of
Grimy Nuds and toured for years.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
And then so here's a question before you go there,
does the Michael Jackson work Just that being in that
conversation and being in that room make the flow a
tree that much more urgent to the building.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
Did you guys become more of a priority?
Speaker 5 (31:41):
Yeah, well, like you said before, it was still very
much boutique. So it's on the rock side, it was
what alien ant Farm. On the urban side, it was ourselves,
ron Issley, what's her name? Why am I missing that
right now?
Speaker 6 (31:59):
I really?
Speaker 5 (32:00):
Oh no, what you came before? Sorry, I think, lovely girl,
we've actually had conversations. No, I don't think so it
was very it was sane. This is two thousand when
we signed, but two thousand and one when all of
(32:20):
these things started to happen. So I'm not saying there
was a level of urgency now that these I think
it was a talking point. So even with our papers
not being done, it wasn't like we could release the
album that day and Flower try the floetic album. We're
talking a completely different time in industry, Like our first
(32:41):
video was up for a vm A, like we're up
against told Play like we were. We had different budgets
back then, so it was it was different. So I
had a different spoiled experience of what industry was like.
And I don't think even with a Michael Jackson coming
into play when the album was released, Butterflies were still
(33:03):
very much in his the demo on the actual album,
the Butterfly's demo that Marsh was saying, and this is why.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
Yeah, the fact that you guys were able to use
it on the album too.
Speaker 5 (33:13):
That was a dream works play and they could because
it was the same building and it was like the
the Silent not So Silent co sign had.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
Michael, he's my girls. They looked out for me. I'm
looking out and that's what that was. I think you
should use it as well.
Speaker 5 (33:32):
Do you think he said it just like that?
Speaker 1 (33:34):
Oh you know the voice everybody be throwing around it.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
Just use this shit, man.
Speaker 5 (33:40):
The Michael voice he gives. You're a singer. I know
you have a deep, husky voice, but preservation is key.
I feel like he only had that voice. He was
preserving every single ounce of his vocal to just be
the icon and performer that he was.
Speaker 7 (33:59):
Jackson talking was they talks off when they talk to you,
they talk, they don't, they don't, they don't project, they
don't do a whole.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
Bunch of cracking jokes and laughing and drinking.
Speaker 5 (34:11):
I was in the studio, me and Andre Harris in
the studio with Michael Jackson. It was nothing but jokes.
Did you have completely four beverages? Bevies? No, the kids?
Speaker 1 (34:26):
What about?
Speaker 5 (34:29):
But we did have smothered turkey chops and mac and
cheese and strawberry shortcake from a soul food spot in
New York called Jezebels. We had that every day, every day,
every day I put on. It was was lovely like
Paris and Prince when they were very very young, just
kids chilling in the studio like it was very family environment.
(34:54):
It was a wild time.
Speaker 7 (34:55):
So when you get this record placed, have you done
getting your record deal done? Have you done your publishing
deal yet?
Speaker 1 (35:02):
Did people? How did that go?
Speaker 5 (35:04):
Okay? So I already had a dusty very your first
publishing deal, you know, one of those. So they're just
very much doing me in the studio with whoever to
see what sticks. And then I've gone to the States
on a whim to do this flowtry thing that pans
(35:25):
out ultimately, and then it's hey, I've got you know,
a placement on Michael. So we're only up the ante
for me and lent to there like oh ship, we've
got a writer who's got Michael Jackson record.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
So did you renegotiate absolute.
Speaker 5 (35:46):
In retrospect, you kind of wish you just cashed out
then and ship.
Speaker 7 (35:51):
Yes at the time, but you didn't know that that
money got you to.
Speaker 5 (35:57):
America, coming to America my name, and had the means
to do it.
Speaker 7 (36:02):
So yeah, yeah, if you don't mind me asking, how
did they give you for your before before you did
ten grand?
Speaker 6 (36:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (36:11):
Did you have a crazy commitment?
Speaker 5 (36:14):
No, it wasn't that bad of a commitment.
Speaker 8 (36:16):
But then if it was an MDRC though, absolutely Okay, okay,
So if you look at it like you never had
a record deal yet and you didn't know where these
placements were even coming from, outrageous Still that I was
then stuck into four years because.
Speaker 5 (36:32):
Of the renegotiation. Now they're trying to hold on to you,
and you're like, well help me.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
Yeah, but you got in at a time give us
for four before the threshold were created, so.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
You were able to with that one album. H what
needs Yeah? Move through a turn.
Speaker 5 (36:52):
Right, So even up until late nights and early mornings,
which is what twenty eleven, twenty twelve, that wasn't so bad.
And I've had this conversation before with record deals that
were signed pre dating this streaming eerror is how are
we supposed to fulfill album commitments in terms under those
same contracts? Because tower records don't exist. We can't do
(37:15):
it in store signing. There's nothing physical for me to
actually give you. So what stipulates in my deal that
I haven't turned that around already because the stream is
not going to do it a dollar amount my contract,
everyone has to go back to the table. We're like
stuck on a deal. I'd be in a five album
deal for one hundred and twenty seven years now.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
You know, tape don't count until it reaches.
Speaker 5 (37:43):
Two billion streams like.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
Physical discount for this much of it. The digital only
counts for this.
Speaker 5 (37:53):
But where does it say that in your contract? And
where's the clause? They even.
Speaker 1 (37:59):
The automatic based on their negotiations.
Speaker 5 (38:02):
With right they've been talking to the digital service platforms,
which is insane. So if you write a lot of
your songs and produce, so that's your hundred percent, and
you might break off a producer if they came in
and say, Okay, I'm going to layer up, so I'm
going to take let's go with eighty twenty. So out
of eighty percent of that record, that you have and
(38:23):
you put it on iTunes or Amazon and you put
it for sale, you're getting a substantial amount of your
eighty percent as it pertains to a sale. What are
you getting now is.
Speaker 8 (38:35):
A stream point the fact that you said.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
Point it starts to start that point it starts.
Speaker 5 (38:46):
So imagine signing these contracts back in the day, your hype.
You've got a record deal, you write, you produce, you
know that your fraction of that portion of the entire
composition is solely yours. Like button Flies seven zero percent,
mind seventy I have that so when it was out,
it's seventy mine all of it. Now streaming it, seventy
(39:10):
percent of Butterflies by Michael Jackson is reduced to a
point something.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
Yeah, depending on what platform, it could be point zero.
Speaker 5 (39:20):
Appreciate that zero zero seven in my contract.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
Here's also the question, though, because that's seventy still performs
well in in the traditional spaces that it performed in. Right,
you do this? This digital seventy is brand new, brand new.
Speaker 1 (39:48):
Absolutely icing.
Speaker 2 (39:49):
It's like we were just talking about this. It has
to be negotiated right, better.
Speaker 5 (39:55):
Right, But who starts these conversations like.
Speaker 1 (39:59):
Well, ultimately we have to but you.
Speaker 7 (40:02):
But we have to do it in a sense outside
of the major corporations. We have to we have to
start it from an independent sense of saying I will
not give you my product like I don't like, I
don't care. It's the same thing is if if you're
Nike and foot Locker is saying, well, we want to
sell your shoes for this, this is what we want
(40:24):
to give you, right, and you being able to say
I don't want to put my shoes in foot Locker,
I'm going to put them in Champs.
Speaker 1 (40:29):
Right, And you have to you have to make that right.
Speaker 7 (40:32):
Yes, costs right, So, and I think we also have
to get into the super fan space of literally going
direct to consumer.
Speaker 5 (40:43):
So think about just saying that. Imagine when iTunes was
iTunes and if I go, oh shit, Tank has a
new release this what was it tuesdays back then wherever
day it was, and I'm like, I want to buy
your song. It's ninety nine cents or ninety nine p
in the UK, I've going to spend that entire for
just you. Now with a subscription, you've reduced me to
(41:03):
a monthly fee. So I, as the consumer have access
to everything, not to specialize in exactly what it is
that I want. I just have this plethora of music
to go through and scroll through and not spend or
invest any time, and it's kind of what the fuck
do we doing?
Speaker 7 (41:23):
But what it is, though, is that it becomes it
becomes a form of just radio in a sense, which
isn't fair.
Speaker 5 (41:32):
It's not fair. It's not fair. It's not a fair
game like it's to be fair. It's never been fair.
But we've managed to get the R and P money
where we can and where we have and sustained it.
Not a lot of us can still get on a
stage live and do that part. It's very much okay,
(41:55):
let me rely on what the wave is right now.
Gets something that's trending, and that's my money, if that's
the money. Like, I've never been in it for that.
I've been in it for the art and I've made
money because of it. So I feel like my intentions
were different, like recently having got in the studio with
doctor Dre and Doctor Dre very unrealistically saying do whatever
(42:21):
the fuck you want? Does that mean I can play
Jesus with music? And that's exactly what we did in
the studio for this project, Casablanco like, even when you
say it's just this mysterious, yeah, it's a bit bigger
(42:41):
than an album. And you know, everyone marsh Wednesday, it's
a bit bigger than just an album. We're talking doctor
dre here. So yeah, what took us ultimately two weeks
to get the grasp of what the album actually was,
to implement the strings into from an having to clear
(43:02):
what we decided to borrow and take from this time
capsule of music during a time when we didn't know
where the world was going, during the pandemic fucked up
out here. So I'm like, if we had to take
the music that we cared about and make it one
thing and listen to it in one space, what would
that be? So it's the audacity to take Duke Kellington
(43:26):
and Michael Jackson and George Benson and Patrice Russian and
Wu Tang and Frank Sinatra and random things that identify
us as musicians as a whole and put it in
one space. To then be reduced to giving it away
as a SoundBite or radio.
Speaker 1 (43:52):
You have to now be.
Speaker 7 (43:57):
More what would be the word for just you have
You have to take a different chance with the music
and and not go into these spaces that have just
always been what they are and where people are making
up terms and making up new ways to do bad business,
which you can say, listen, you just have to you
(44:19):
have to take ownership and it completely. It's just my opinion,
especially when if I'm fucking doctor.
Speaker 5 (44:24):
Dre and I'm using as an example.
Speaker 7 (44:28):
You can release it how you please, of course, but
if you want to be a part of their platforms,
the only way is to give it to them either
at their whatever whatever their pricing is, or say, hey,
let's negotiate if you want this album. This is the
negotiation to it. This is these are the numbers that
we want or not are I'm going to now vinyl
(44:51):
is getting cracking again.
Speaker 1 (44:52):
I'm going to I'm ana press it up in vinyl.
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (44:57):
That's that's the game we're in. That is where we consume,
is to absolutely get from any arts that they care about.
It's just where are you going to find it?
Speaker 2 (45:06):
But I think it's a way to do both, right,
There's a way to you know, feed the system, but
also from a super fan aspect or from the desire
of the super fan still supply the experience in a
way that you want them to have by creating the
(45:29):
space that they have to come and get it from.
Speaker 1 (45:34):
If you are a.
Speaker 2 (45:34):
Super fan, if you desire to really experience this the
way it's supposed to be experienced. That out there, it's
just just just they have the music.
Speaker 5 (45:44):
You like, radio your boom bucks and wait for the
radio station to come on and praying that they play
that record and pressing record, even with the DJ yelling
all over that shit and you rewind it, crying it
up until the end when it's fading out. There's no
urgency with music like that anymore, or listen to in
(46:06):
a way where we had. It's like we had a
spoiled experience of the way we listen to music or
the way it was presented to us. Like right now,
it's may as well be friggin' what's the singles websites
tender swipe left of you don't like it? If you
don't like it, So, yeah, it was Creating orgasms through
(46:38):
music is my thing. So we imagine having Casa Blanco
as a landscape and this very unrealistic, elevated version of
life from a billionaire's perspective, what are those orgasms like now,
So walking to that studio and hearing I mean imagine
(47:00):
hearing say yes for the first time, but the melodies
I heard for this for the first time, I now
have to create different orgasms. So without getting too kinky
for me, no, this is how I operate. By walking
to a studio, I'm seducing every single instrument that's implemented
(47:21):
into the composition. We fucking. Basically, you have to fuck
the music. You have to fuck that shit up, and
you can't. There's no friction there. It's all smooth. So
with every musician that doctor dra had in that studio,
(47:42):
whether that was bluetooth, focus, trev them, joints, sly, all
of these elements had to get fucked up to make
it one thing. So when you press play and it's
this symphony, all of these elements have given each other
(48:03):
space and energy and intimacy all at the same time.
So depending on where your spot is, if it's sometimes
it's my neck, sometimes it's my kneecap, sometimes it's a
brush of my arm, and it's seductive. That's what music
is supposed to do. And I've been doing that for
(48:24):
two decades. Plus starting from that one, I'd say that
was the sexiest song to that particular timeframe that I'd done,
and continue to go on and do way more, whether
that was sixty nine and so Good with the interns
and even late nights and early mornings with Rich Harrison.
(48:45):
It was just all of these moments of sex through music,
and you want to be that. You want to be
that you do when you do your concerts. You're like,
I'm your three the I'm the threesome.
Speaker 7 (49:03):
You're in that room, I'm the tour I'm stealing so
much of your lingo.
Speaker 5 (49:11):
I'm down my credit what you say, I ain't taking
point nothing.
Speaker 8 (49:27):
Nine compositions, right, that's what we do.
Speaker 2 (49:33):
There's a there's like a there's there's a hierarchy of
of sensual moments, and say Yes is right on that
top tier with Untitled. That's that's like there's a high
(49:55):
level of songs that are automatically intimate, automatically yeah, no
one's talking, everyone's just trying to figure out who's gonna
go first.
Speaker 1 (50:16):
That's it. Those top tiers like the song just don't
read the room right.
Speaker 7 (50:28):
First, and the room ain't really trying to go with you.
Speaker 1 (50:32):
They played. It was a time I was earlier.
Speaker 5 (50:38):
There is a time and place, but it's great to have. God,
you know the moment in the show where you're like, okay,
you know where this is going. You play that first.
Speaker 2 (50:49):
During my piano segment, I've performed oh with my shirt.
Speaker 5 (50:55):
You know what You've seen that effects, so you understand
the power in that.
Speaker 2 (51:02):
And as you said, I become the threesome, not you know,
not figuratively, because.
Speaker 5 (51:11):
I want the audience to have that experience, such a compliment,
like having been coined a lesbian for so long. Yeah,
it's it's yeah, it's the lesbian. There she is. It's
not like I don't know, I've been completely comfortable with
(51:32):
my sexuality for it's the last thing I would hide
about me based on the music that i'd mad like,
why I don't mind that attention or that want for
you to me to be it's intimate. That's perfectly fine.
It's the music. I want to be your threesome. However
(51:52):
that goes whatever your preference. It's you give your it's
the power in it. You give that sex away. You
can't help who's going to be turned on?
Speaker 1 (52:04):
I can't.
Speaker 5 (52:04):
You don't know what turns on.
Speaker 1 (52:07):
I can't.
Speaker 2 (52:07):
I'll be trying to tell my wife, babe, you can't manage.
It's how it comes to me.
Speaker 5 (52:13):
You can't and don't get and your wife, no, don't
stab him. But this is the responsibility of what it is.
We're superheroes, straight, gay, whatever it is. The music is
whatever it is. We give it away and it's intimate.
Speaker 1 (52:36):
And you let the people interpret it, let them dance.
Speaker 5 (52:39):
With Yeah, it's intimate. Like one night stand. This song
One night stand. When the concept of the song came
to me, it was because of how the music sounded,
and I was like, oh, this is the morning after
we fucked. For sure, this exactly sounds like the triumphant
Who the fuck is that the covers I don't even know.
Speaker 1 (53:01):
The was amazing. Who is that in the covers?
Speaker 5 (53:04):
We will never know? Look check the toes like boomerang.
Oh yeah, I know who exactly who that is. And
that's perfectly fine. But it was that morning after sex.
It was You're under those covers looking at the ceiling
like we should fuck again one more time just to
make sure it was that good, And then you do.
(53:24):
You're like, oh shit, is this forever? Then we love no,
it was just one night.
Speaker 1 (53:29):
You say that earlier. If they listened to the music,
your one night could be And.
Speaker 5 (53:35):
That's okay too, and that's how we made Yeah, eighteen
years from now, I shall not be responsible for any
child support incurred, nor the godmother of any of you.
Speaker 2 (53:49):
Are you giving us a wind though? Like like a wind,
like you're really giving us. You're giving us the magical pitch, right,
You're giving us all of the Do we get all
the intimate details and the intricacy.
Speaker 5 (54:04):
Of camera and I can I can play you? That's
ladies and gentlemen, can I give Can I say eight days?
I'm looking off camera right now, so we can say
a March date. You will be getting something and the
March something is coming and it's going to be a
(54:26):
cool summer.
Speaker 1 (54:29):
Yeah, come on your piano, Come on man.
Speaker 5 (54:35):
You know, I just.
Speaker 2 (54:39):
To speak of us being superheroes our respective fields. A
lot of the music that we've sang, written and produced.
Speaker 1 (55:01):
All well and good. There's a lot of music that
has inspired you to do what you do.
Speaker 6 (55:10):
Mm hmmm.
Speaker 1 (55:13):
So the people who watch the R and B Money podcast,
they want to know what they want to know you.
Speaker 5 (55:19):
They want to know I want to know. I want to.
Speaker 4 (55:29):
Top five, your top five, top five, Your top five
are being.
Speaker 1 (55:48):
Already songs.
Speaker 6 (55:52):
We want to know, we want this flow.
Speaker 1 (55:56):
Just let it go and let us know.
Speaker 6 (56:00):
He's your top face. Yeah five, it's really good.
Speaker 1 (56:39):
Your top five R and B singers.
Speaker 5 (56:47):
No particular order. Two of those spots will be placed,
whether they should or wouldn't be anyone's top five, but
they're the vocalists of vocalists for me, Luther Whitney, those
(57:09):
two spots are just taken. Yes, So now I'm down
to three. Michael Jackson takes like three versions of himself
because I love ABC Mike, I love Off the Wall, Mike,
the Dirty Diana. Mike did something else to me, So
(57:32):
it's almost like he's three and one.
Speaker 1 (57:35):
Not almost, he absolutely is. He's him.
Speaker 5 (57:39):
Can you have Casey and Jojo as one.
Speaker 1 (57:43):
Want to do?
Speaker 5 (57:44):
Okay? Now, for two voices to be so different and
compliment each other in such a way that made them
one hasn't been matched to this day to me, because
listening to the difference of a very sensitive, almost soprano
(58:07):
jojo and its pure high tone to Casey's growl, it's
almost like you'd be threatened to sing after case, but
not if you're Jojo anyone else. But you know what
I'm saying, like, and it's only because it's been recently,
like Donny Hathaway, and it took me a couple of
(58:29):
different people that would have been in my top five.
But someday we'll all be free.
Speaker 1 (58:36):
That song.
Speaker 5 (58:38):
I don't think I could not cry if I hear it,
And it's the power in a vocal being able to
do that to me. And five is unfair because it
means I don't get to mention who currently holds spots,
whether that's Jasmine Sullivan, you know what I mean, Like
(58:59):
I'm watching she can do with her vocal, Tina Marie,
what's her vocal? Something like this?
Speaker 6 (59:11):
But this is all.
Speaker 5 (59:16):
Stevie Wonder. It's not fair the stories that he can
tell with his tongue before even lyrics come into it
and claims he can't see. We know that you can see.
Speaker 7 (59:26):
It's fine, You're going it okay because I'm not getting
in that you in tank. I'm not getting in that.
Speaker 1 (59:34):
Agree. I didn't. I didn't agree.
Speaker 5 (59:43):
I see us in the park, do you.
Speaker 1 (59:48):
Man? I don't want to smoke Steve. I don't want
to I love Steve from when I heard Stevie flak.
I'm not gonna do this with you. Watch cat do
switch cap.
Speaker 5 (01:00:04):
It's not fair. How dead. There's a ribbon in the
sky for our love?
Speaker 6 (01:00:09):
Is there.
Speaker 4 (01:00:12):
Is?
Speaker 2 (01:00:12):
There?
Speaker 1 (01:00:15):
Is it up there for our lives. I've actually never
seen one in the sky.
Speaker 6 (01:00:19):
So he did.
Speaker 1 (01:00:23):
He has? That was a lot. I think I left handed.
Speaker 6 (01:00:31):
Wade.
Speaker 1 (01:00:31):
Okay, here we go, get your top five R and
B songs.
Speaker 5 (01:00:39):
Five Okay, because we didn't say that, because we didn't
need to.
Speaker 6 (01:00:47):
Okay.
Speaker 5 (01:00:50):
I want to spend the night by Bill Withers.
Speaker 1 (01:00:53):
We're going to be weathers.
Speaker 8 (01:00:56):
MA.
Speaker 5 (01:00:57):
I want Anthony Hamilton to cover and feel like you
get a Grammy.
Speaker 3 (01:01:04):
You heard.
Speaker 5 (01:01:06):
That's one of my favorite songs, the breakup song by
me mm hmm.
Speaker 7 (01:01:12):
Okay, come on mine as well, because like get publishing
for all your niggas out there making y'all playlist.
Speaker 5 (01:01:19):
The breakup song was like, listen to that ship I
came from.
Speaker 1 (01:01:24):
A Really, that's your favorite song of yours?
Speaker 5 (01:01:26):
No, I have way more than that. But we're talking
about you said, what if I was doing with songs
like you? Wrote that ship melodically into that.
Speaker 1 (01:01:35):
That's who you.
Speaker 5 (01:01:38):
It's in there. I can't help it. Thank you Stevie
to give that to Mike looking out for the bro.
Definitely looked out for the bro.
Speaker 1 (01:01:50):
Mm hmmm. What a joint to.
Speaker 5 (01:01:56):
Say with this five the bad album?
Speaker 1 (01:02:00):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 5 (01:02:00):
Can we have that as like one entire album off
the respects I Am album ever creates thriller? Okay, fine,
you're doing what you're doing still to this day to
follow that ship up and have the nerve to say
(01:02:21):
there's no skips on there. That's one whole thing. Remember
the time is not okay forever, my lady Joy because
they were four very young black men with Dr Martin's
(01:02:42):
on and like see through the zipper Johns. So you're
having my baby and it means so much to me.
That is nothing more pressure, you know what I'm saying.
It's the narrative that we were giving nineties black men
(01:03:05):
to love and support the family bond.
Speaker 1 (01:03:11):
I'll be talking in my accent after that.
Speaker 5 (01:03:14):
You've got the rest of your.
Speaker 1 (01:03:16):
I've seen too many episodes of T Boy Gangs of London.
Speaker 5 (01:03:23):
That's a good one. I've lived in America for like
twenty plus years, so if I'm around you guys, I'm Philadelphia.
The camera you know what, see kind of.
Speaker 1 (01:03:45):
One more second? Can we get it?
Speaker 4 (01:03:47):
Jack?
Speaker 1 (01:03:47):
We need it, We get it, We need it. I
ain't saying no names. I ain't saying no names, no names.
Speaker 6 (01:03:56):
Name what you.
Speaker 5 (01:04:14):
Five facts?
Speaker 1 (01:04:14):
Ye m m perfect time and perfect time and very
special segment of the show's card. I ain't saying no names.
Speaker 7 (01:04:25):
Will you give us a story funny or fucked up?
Funny and fucked up only route to the game. You
can't say no names. I mean it could be overseas,
middle c under the sea, wherever you want to be. Oh,
you got to do just tell the story without saying names.
Speaker 5 (01:04:49):
Okay. There was this one time, oh yeah, on tour
and there was a day off in Amsterdam, so said
(01:05:17):
artists decided to partake in what you do when you're
in Amsterdam, which was get high, like really high, like
spark up in the hotel. The concierge lit you up
high and it's you just checked in. It's noon, and
(01:05:41):
that artist proceeded to smoke go to a cafe across
the street. There was a menu full of delicious treats
like marshmallowsmores and cookie and stuff like that. And it
(01:06:02):
infused with.
Speaker 1 (01:06:05):
More with more of it.
Speaker 5 (01:06:06):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Amsterdam. So of course they picked the marshmallow.
Small one took that to the face and they were
even more high. So on this day off, before you
know it, sun up, sun goes down. What happens in
(01:06:27):
Amsterdam red light district. So that artist in the band
decide to go down there and see what all the
fuss is about. So in doing so, you look through
a couple of those glass windows. It's some sexy shit
and you find yourself.
Speaker 6 (01:06:46):
In there.
Speaker 5 (01:06:49):
And you're high. So this artist goes in there, gets
up to whatever, comes back outside, finds a sex shop,
goes in the sex shop and buys a sex toy.
So this artist then decides that it would be a
(01:07:13):
good idea to go back to the hotel and try
this thing out. It was from Amsterdam, might be a
different feeling, I don't know. So lobby call for the
departure of the tour bus to take that artist to
(01:07:34):
the next city was coming up, so they decided to
take all of this stuff out the room, take the
sex toy, get on the bus before anyone else gets
on this actual bus, and partake there so they wouldn't
pass out in the room. And you know, miss lobby
(01:07:57):
call made sense to that artist at the time. So
get all the stuff, get the code of the bus,
put the bags, you know where they're supposed to be.
Get in the bunk. Now, if you've been on tour,
you know when the generator is not on, pitch black
(01:08:17):
on them buses. Pitch can't see shit. But work out
one bunk, two bunk. Feel your way down to the bottom.
You're in the middle. Bottom bunk knows that artist, not
the one on the right, the one on the left.
I told them to get in that bunk. So the
(01:08:40):
artists got in the bunk that belonged to them, or
so they thought. Batteries were included, and they proceed to
go to town with this toy for however long it
took to not only forget what actually happened, but wake
(01:09:06):
up the following morning as the bus is in motion.
So whatever happened in between going gazoo has just done
a don't recall.
Speaker 1 (01:09:20):
What the fuck?
Speaker 5 (01:09:22):
The artist then woke up while the bus is moving.
So the bus is moving, That means everybody's on the bus. Yeah,
where the fuck is the fucking sex toys? This artist
thinking they go to what did they say, They went
to lean up to go it's still in between said thighs,
(01:09:47):
where it previously allowed the artists to pass out, and
it's still on. It switches on because the artist is
now having what feels like a molt support orgasm while
banging their head on the top of the other bunk,
trying to pretend that nothing's happening, that they've lost something
(01:10:10):
or you can't find you can hear commotion, what the
fuck is going on? Finally find the switch. It's off.
They look out the bunk. Everyone's kind of you know,
rustling curtains to like seeing what the fuck has happened?
And the sex toy packaging. It's just everywhere, like you know,
(01:10:33):
that plastic that you can't.
Speaker 6 (01:10:37):
Get.
Speaker 5 (01:10:40):
Why the did I get this ship? I don't even
know how you can't. There's no scissors for it. You're
breaking ship. And I think that artist was talked about
for the rest of the tour, and that's the story.
I'm sticking to it. No names.
Speaker 1 (01:11:00):
Wow, they really wanted it. Whoever was could not wait.
I just couldn't to have it.
Speaker 6 (01:11:10):
A bunch of them.
Speaker 5 (01:11:12):
It was amazing. So they told me Amsterdam days off
in Amsterdam. It's a song Drake I'm telling you now.
Speaker 1 (01:11:31):
Of Asterdam. I just want to it's a great way
to wrap it up.
Speaker 2 (01:11:37):
First of all, thank you so much for coming. You
know what I mean, you are you know we consider
your family and but your time, your energy, your artistry,
all of these things mean something to us, and so
we value your presence and we value march.
Speaker 5 (01:11:59):
Yeah said one night stands only that's what that's what
they turn into forevers. And then you're welcome.
Speaker 1 (01:12:08):
You're welcome. I listen.
Speaker 2 (01:12:11):
Sometimes you got to experience what the experience is going
to be like in order to know if you want
to continue experiencing the Thanks so, thank you, We appreciate you.
This is here for you anytime, any any anytime, and and.
Speaker 1 (01:12:28):
Thank you you My family, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 2 (01:12:34):
Take and this is the Army Money podcast, the authority
on all things R and B and she is her
my shirt.
Speaker 6 (01:12:47):
Roses come on from the Womb Money.
Speaker 7 (01:13:00):
R and B Money is a production of the Black
Effect podcast Network. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows. Don't forget to subscribe to and rate our show,
and you can connect with us on social media at
JY Valentine and at the Real Tank. For the extended episode,
(01:13:22):
subscribe to YouTube, dot com, Forward, slash r, and b
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Hosts And Creators
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