REPLAY: Theron Thomas

On this week's episode of R&B Money, Tank and J Valentine unravel the weaving threads that make up Theron Thomas' illustrious career in music. Enveloped by exotic flora on the Caribbean Island of St. Thomas, a young Theron shared an unassuming bedroom with his brother Timothy: four walls confining their ambition but not containing it - fanning its flames was their father who continually inspired them to hone their craft and be nothing less than excellent performers; thus Rock City would ultimately come alive for what we now know as global success both critically acclaimed & commercially revered alike. Appearing before our very eyes is none other than most electrifying talent himself ready to divulge erudite lessons learned from navigating unbeknownst pathways within today's industry including identification skillset grounded upon trustworthiness plus insane records crafted alongside Dr Luke then continuing onto penmanship collaboration with Babyface; furthering onto crafting smashes for respective A list singers such as Usher, Miley Cyrus, Rihanna, Justin Bieber, Doja Cat, Ciara, Sean Kingston, Nicki Minaj, Lizzo + many more. Right About Now, Theron Thomas on The R&B Money Podcast

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Money. We are.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Take Melchi, we are.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
The author or indeed, hey, what's going on? My name
is Tank let him say that?

Speaker 3 (00:23):
And DC is the only money podcast. You know nothing
about writing songs. You know nothing about writing hits. You're
not from the Caribbean. You're not either, you are I
am not either. I have been there. We have to

(00:45):
day on the pod. One of the most electrifying talents.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
Did we have a scene? He writes it, he sings it,
he feels it deeply in the buildings to run down? Ye,
I love it. I love it. You know, guys, I
feel it. You know what I'm saying? You got nice? Yes, Yes,

(01:16):
encourage me. Yes. Virgin isand is right, Yes. Saint Thomas
Virgin Islands. Saint Thomas Virgin Island home of Tim Duncan. Yeah,
Tim Duncan is from Saint Croix. But a good friend.
Big up to Tim Duncan. That's why his team was
the Spurs is my favorite team until he left. We
didn't we don't have a team. We had one player,
Tim Duncan, so I was a Spurs fan. One player. Yeah, yeah,

(01:37):
we had one superstar player, which is Tim Duncan from
Saint Croix and I was a Spurs fan until he retired. Wow,
and now I'm just like, you know, basketball is on
the TV.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
Give me, ex give me, give me. That was very
coming to America.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
Touchdown yes time, I know.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
Okay, come down, iverages that that's good. Give me, give
me because we have so much to unpack. Bro, You've
done so much marvelous work in this in this music industry,
you are. You are well respected and and very much

(02:25):
called upon man to deliver, like you're one of the
guys that's like, you know, for for for record companies
to sing we need it.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
No, he's a designated hitter designated WATA. No, ain't a
sports sports whatever whatever. So a designated hitter is somebody
that they put in baseball. They put in the game
to get hits. They're like, okay, this guy, we need
a hit right now.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
That's it. It's the d H.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
They only have it on one side for some weird reason.
It's only in the American League. I don't think it's
in the National League.

Speaker 1 (02:59):
But yep, this is what this guy is paid to do. It.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
We need a hit right now. You've been sitting on
the bench the entire game. And when I put you in.
I believe you're going to hit the ball. They've been
working with other people for a year and a half. Yeah,
and then they called we got.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
The body of work. We need tran.

Speaker 4 (03:23):
You hear my accent?

Speaker 1 (03:26):
You need this is cool? We need to n.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
Designated hit, designated hitter? What was give me? Growing up
in the version of.

Speaker 4 (03:39):
You and Timothy?

Speaker 1 (03:40):
Give me me and my shout out to Timothy. Shout
out to my brother Timothy, one of my favorite human
beings in the world. I love you if you're watching this.
Growing up in Saint Thomas. So we started out, me
and my brother started out living in a in a shack,
which was the place that my mom was raised with
her nine sisters and one brother. And then my mom,
my mom, and my dad ended up staying there. So

(04:01):
we lived there, and my mom got really really mad
at my dad because she was mad, like, why am
I still in the place my childhood place? What do
you mean by that? You ever seen the Sorry Miss
Trackson video by Outcasts? Yes? Yes, that house. So you know,
our door couldn't close, We had to tie close. The
bathroom was outside with no lights. We had to take

(04:22):
bats before six pm because it would go dark. There
was holes in the floor, so we'd have straight dogs
or straight cats or animals just crawl inside the house.
And you know, my dad was a trash man, so
he would get our beds from the trash came. But
we never had the bed spring or the head border.
We never had none of that. We just had the
master mattress, you know what I'm saying. But it had

(04:44):
the little things in it, so it poke you when
you sleep, you know what I'm saying. So me and
my brother would argue on which side somebody would sleep,
you know, and you know me, you know, I'm forty now,
and you know, and my brother and I shared a
bed till I was about twenty seven year years old,
you know what I mean. And that's a funny that's
a funny story because I'm gonna jump back, but we

(05:05):
share a bed because we got an apartment in Atlanta
when we finally like got our own place, two bedroom
and we're in our bedrooms yelling at each other, like, yo,
what are you doing? Man? I also watched that movie
what are you doing? Texting some gil my boy this
folk feel weare dog? Yeah, And I just went in
my brother room and we we shared a bed to

(05:26):
the point that our best friend lost his apartment and
we let him stay in the other room. Yeah, We're like, yo, bro,
you could, yo, you can come in, you can help
pay bills to ship, bring groceries in his mouth.

Speaker 5 (05:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (05:38):
So, you know, so we started in a shack. My
mom was mad, you know, somewhat broke up with my
dad was like, you gotta get it together. You you
know what I'm saying. We can't be living like this
with our kids. And they used to be a project
in Saint Thomas called Dunu or Dounu gut right, and
it's my aunt, my mom's sister Natalie lived up there

(05:58):
with my cousin Orshanna Kelly and Kelly. So they lived
in New So we went to stand Do New with
my aunt and I remember my dad coming to surprise
us because you know, him and my mom wasn't really
messing with each other. Well, they you know, they got
back and then oh my god, I'm so sorry I'm here. Yeah,
so they bothe. My my dad went to my mom

(06:23):
was like, yo, I got a surprise for you, and
they're like, hey, everybody, come on, and you know, so
we got in the car and he drove us to
where we grew up. Is a project in Saint Thomas
called Housing. The politically correct name is osweld Hires Court.
So he drove us to housing, brought us in there,
and Saint Thomas apartments don't come and nothing in it,
you know, Like when we moved to the States and
we had ac we was like, y'all, nigga's rich. What

(06:46):
do you mean by don't come with it nothing? It
just comes with walls, concrete walls. There's no fridge or
stove or washer, art stole. No, it don't come with
nothing in it. It's walls. You gotta buy every thing.

Speaker 2 (07:01):
So when we move any anywhere you move, you have
to have, I mean all the appliances with you.

Speaker 1 (07:06):
I want to say, nine wow other places. So when
we moved in and bruh, So we coming from the shack,
ain't no holes in the floor, ain't no straight upgrade
to us. Yeah, bruh, moving on up. Hey, we me
and my you know, we little too. We got to
be like six or seven, seven and eight.

Speaker 2 (07:26):
Just like whoo look at these wall like yeah, yeah, yeah,
you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (07:33):
And and we grew up there, so you know, so
growing up in the project. But it's different. Man, how
important it is to have a dad because we had
our mom and our dad. So we in the hood
now and all our friends, you know whose mom go
to work and they dad ain't there. They they street
niggas and they you know that my walking with them,

(07:53):
my little knife or you know what I'm saying. They
selling their little weed and shit. And we talking about
ten eleven, twelve years old type shure, right, you know,
and me and my brother is just like our dad
got us in the music, you know, nine years old.
I remember watching I remember seeing Criss Cross on TV
because we started out as a backup dancers for a
local hip hop group called uh Rock Saying and Katie

(08:16):
or Cody, I was messed up the name, but it's
Rock Saying and something. And we would be dancing because
you know, back then, everybody in the eighties, everybody was
dancing and shit, you know, and we dancing and then
next thing you know, Chris Cross comes out and I'm
screaming to the top of my lungs. Mommy day they
run in what happen? I want to do that that

(08:37):
right there, that's what I want to do. My dad's like, okay.
My dad is like, this is how I'm gonna get
my sons out the projects. They gonna get out the
projects doing that. And he would just take us through
the island performing, doing stuff, and you know, and so
I end up writing because this dude used to write

(08:58):
for us, this high school kid, right, and then he
just was like, man, I don't want to do that
no more. I want to be a solo artist and
focused on myself. So my dad is like, y'all gott
to write y'all own songs, and nobody could ever write
a song for you ever. Again, it was like because
he put.

Speaker 4 (09:11):
You on a weird spot. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (09:13):
And so I started to get into it because I
had an English teacher that introduced me to poetry and
I just had a fascination with words, rhyming. Man. I
thought that was the coolest thing in the world. And
so you know, I started writing songs. I brought a
song to my dad. He's like, man, I'm telling you
that well, it's like a poem, but I tried to
add melody. He was like, this is crazy. He's like,
I'm telling you're amazing. And I remember writing my first song, right,

(09:36):
my first song ever. I was twelve years old. I
still remember it. So it's like fresh ill done fresh
hata depress on nickboy Wan for test me. I put
them through the test, so can't not test I lyric
call it test lyrics from Remo Manna Gi your less,
I is sexy. Oh my name one for feed up
midchest because it's me again, Yes, Smith, come fresh and Nigga.

(09:57):
I just thought I was the greatest thing that ever
happened to me. I don't even know great to me.
I'm in so.

Speaker 2 (10:17):
Yeah, you know, me and my brother we a group.
We're going around with doing show tops. The biggest fan.
He's your he's your first super fan.

Speaker 1 (10:24):
He's he's the first super fan. He the greatest man
ever lived on this planet. Yeah, he's the greatest human
being I've ever met in my life. And and he's like,
this is what you're gonna do. And he was like, Yo,
when you grow up, you're gonna be writing songs with Babyface.
You know that's crazy. I had a crazy emotional moment
because my dad had passed and then I wrote a
song with baby Face and I called my brother crying
and I was like, I said, Timothy I'm not sad.

(10:47):
I'm not sad. I'm just so happy. How did he know?
Because he told me this when I was a little boy, Like, hey, babyface,
you know singing and out. He's like, oh, you're gonna
see You're gonna be writing songs and singing with them.
And he refused to let us compete with people from
the Virgin Islands. Yo, my dad used to be like, yo,

(11:08):
my dad would be like he was a gangster. B
He be like, Yo, no, no of these fucking people ain't
never make it. You can't compete with somebody and never
do it. Your competition is the jay Z and damn
people on TV. If you ain't bothered on them, we
ain't gonna never leave this place. He used to make
us rehearse two hours a day, you know what I'm
saying every day, so we couldn't go outside to play

(11:30):
unless we make him stand up. So my dad would
sit there, me and my brother start saying and he
would be like, terrible, I'm your father and I love you.
You can't make me move. How are you gonna make
a stranger move? I'm like it wasn't. So he's like,
I need to see the show every time, so we
keep getting intenser and intenser, and then he'll stand up, Yes,

(11:51):
this is white need, this is the only way you
gonna do it. And so you know, so if you
ever had the opportunity to see me and my brother live,
we're like, you know, we're like jumping exactly and justice
that's why. So you know, not knowing that songwriting is
a job, you know. So we became the biggest group
in the Virgin Islands. But again, my dad is like,

(12:12):
I've never seen nothing like this. People would ask us
for autographs. Yo, we live in the projects. We're poor.
I had my first job at twelve. I worked at
a grocery store. I would bad groceries and get tips
and bring home bread and cheese to help my mom.
Help my mom with a light build. Like we was.
We didn't have nothing. So yeah, but bro, I remember
I got my first job, like real job where I

(12:33):
could get a paycheck at full locker and girl and
I got fired at foot locker because girls would come
to a foot locker and be like yeah and be like,
oh my god, can you give me an autograph? You know?
Or back then they didn't have camera phones, bro, they'd
have the little disposable cameras and be like, yo, let

(12:54):
me take a picture with you in the in the uniform.

Speaker 4 (12:57):
Yeah, you got the referee.

Speaker 1 (12:59):
Yeah, And I'd be like and my dad would be like, bro,
y'all are special. I've never seen nothing like that. Y'all.
Y'all ain't on TV. They they was. They thought we
were somebody, and we did that until so when we
graduated out of high school, our parents give us the choice.
They said, if y'all go to college, his parents, we
have to try to help y'all don't. We don't know how,

(13:21):
but we're gonna help y'all. But if y'all don't want
to go to college and y'all want to go, pursue
y'all dream y'all are man, and then you gotta figure
it out. It was like, I'm like, I hated school.
I was like, I could do what everybody want. Oh man.
I got on the first thing smoking told my brother, hey,
bet we moved to Miami. Baby. It was the cheapest

(13:41):
plane ticket. So that's the closest that's the closest place.
So we got on a plane and we went to
Miami and my dad's half brother lived there. My uncle
Trent who passed and he was in Florida and he
had like a one bedroom condos, so he was like, man,
I don't really have room for y'all. Y'all can stay

(14:01):
as long as y'all want, but I know this saint comfortable.
And my cousin O'shanna. That's the closest thing I have
to assist. My aunt Natalie from Dunau, her daughter, she
was like, I would love for y'all to stay with me,
but I got like female roommates. But her boyfriend at
the time, his name was Jason Roberts. Jason was trying
to start a record label and he was the biggest,

(14:23):
biggest fan of me and my brother musically, so he's like, oh,
they could stay with us, but he had five roommates,
so we used to so we used to sleep in
his dining room on a blanket.

Speaker 2 (14:32):
But again, me and my brother, we like, ye'ah come
from that, bro, We come listen brouh, Like you know
what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (14:37):
We come from nothing, brother, this is this is as
long as we got somewhere to sleep, and we stayed
there and we was like yo, man. Ten months later,
Miami wasn't working out. We was like, nothing, ain't moving.
We was like, yo, we can move to Atlanta or
New York. Like right. While saying that, a promoter from

(14:58):
Saint Thomas that lived in Atlanta, one of my dad's
closest friends, his name is Perella, calls us on the
phone and say, hey, Yo, there's a big show in
Atlanta that I'm trying to do. I'm pay you and
your brother two hundred and fifty dollars and give you
a hotel. We was like, okay, hung up the phone
and I said, timent to be moving to Atlanta and
fifty dollars. Yeah, yeah, what year is this? This is two?
This is O one.

Speaker 2 (15:18):
We're moving to Atlanta, moving, Yeah, but it's two fifty
cause you know, you know, my my my high school
sweet Ill who was my girlfriend at the time, was there,
and so we go there.

Speaker 1 (15:30):
You know, she had a job and credit and shit.
So she was a person that could get in an
apartment and you know, and we we had one night
in a hotel and two hundred and fifty dollars and
we was like, yo, we got to figure out how
to make money. But we was like, we're not gonna
get jobs, are you crazy? Bro? We came here to
do music. So we find out in Atlanta they be
doing talent shows and you can win. So we started

(15:50):
to do talent shows and then we won. No lie,
We won every single talent show except for this one
talent show, which to this day, I really feel like
we got cheated. But it's all good. You know what
I'm always you know what I'm saying. You know what
I'm saying politics, But it's all good. And what happened

(16:11):
was we won so much that they was like, hey guys,
you guys can only be special guests. You can't compete
no more. And we was like, bro, we only here
for the money, right we You know, none of these
people don't practice like we practice. We practice every day
like me and my brother and I DJ Bennie, one
of my best friends, Benny. We rehearsed every day. People like, no, bro,

(16:32):
what you rehearsing for? What do you mean for a show?
What show? Whenever one comes, we just would rehearse. So Bro,
we got on stand, we would whoop everybody ass and
we would win, and we would win. No, we knew
we was gonna win. We were so confident. Call it arrogance,
whatever you want, to call it before the show. We
would be like, Okay, so tonight we're gonna win two fifty.
Bennie's light bill is one twenty five, so we're gonna
let him get that, and Benny, you're gonna let me

(16:54):
and Timothy get the rest because we gotta put some
groceries in our refrigerator and we're gonna bust it down
like that. We're good with that. Well, yeah, we were
going there. Yeah, we we just you know that's and
then they literally just like, oh man, we love y'all, man,
but y'all, y'all can't compete. People don't want to sign
up no more because they like anytime they see y'all name,
they're like, come on, bro, we're not we're not being

(17:16):
the yeah, and so you know, we're going through the
motions and what's not so life starts, you know, you know,
when real life happens. Bro, My my my high school
street at the time, gets pregnant. My brother went back
to Saint Thomas. We like this music, shit ain't really
gonna work. I got to grow up, you know what
I mean?

Speaker 2 (17:34):
And this is after how long in Atlanta? Know, just
how long have y'all been in America at this point
a couple of years.

Speaker 1 (17:40):
It's about four years, four years, four years in or
something like that. I want to say about four years
because no, no, no, no, I'm lying. Yeah yea, yeah, cause
it's like two thousand and one. Two. My daughter's born
in two thousand and three, so my brother back in
Saint Thomas, you know. And I want to quit music

(18:00):
at this point. I'm like, everybody keeps telling me how
good I am they lion, and I don't like that.
I wish they would tell me what I was doing wrong,
because if they did, I would change it. But oh man,
it's so awesome. I'm not awesome. I ain't making no money.
People who are awesome are making money. Yeah, So I
need to know what the problem is so I can

(18:20):
fix it. And my manager Ray, you know, y'all.

Speaker 2 (18:24):
Know Ray right now, let.

Speaker 1 (18:27):
Me tell you how I met Ray. Ray and I
have been friends for nineteen years. This is the first
time I ever met him. My daughter's mother is pregnant
with my daughter. She ain't born yet. We got a
two bedroom apartment in the east side of Atlanta in
a place called the Polo Club. And this dude named
Mike l who once I was broke, couldn't buy nothing
for my daughter's mom, So I used to write her
love songs. I still got a backpack full of songs

(18:49):
that I just I used to write love songs. And
She'll come home from work and I'll be singing, and
she'd be like, Nigga, I don' want no fucking song.
I want you to get a job. You know what
I'm saying. Nothing, no, no, no, no, no, no, no no no.
I mean, you know, at the time, keeping it all
the way fund this bro She was one hundred percent
right too. But I'm just but you know, you know,
sometimes sometimes you got to be stupid for your dream

(19:11):
in order for it to work, you know what I'm saying.
So I'm in there writing love songs or whatever, and
Ray comes in and Michel says, Yo, this the dude
I was telling you about in the group with his brother.
Remember our artist name used to be too Equipped, he said,
too equip. Ray said, oh yeah, man, I heard about
y'all niggas.

Speaker 2 (19:30):
Man.

Speaker 1 (19:30):
That'shit y'all doing whack it Fu. Sounds just like right
in my house. The first time I ever met him,
Within the first five minutes, I said Michel says, what
the fuck are you doing? Bro? I said, hold on,
why you think it's wat? He said, come on, bruh,
he saw us breaking shit down to me. I said, brouh,
can you tell me more about that. He's like yeah.

(19:53):
Michael was like, Bro, I need you to bring him
in the city tomorrow. Man. I want him to write
with me. Bro. He's like, hey, man, he want me
to drive you. But I ain't really got no. It's
like to be riding around ray broke too. I said, hey, dude,
I got an extra room. You can stay in there.
He said, Bro, you just met me. I said, You're
the first person I ever met that I feel honest. Wow,
that man stayed in my house. He's been my friend
for nineteen years since that day.

Speaker 2 (20:14):
Wow, no ship, that's how he became I would have
never thought that's how he became my friend because he
told me what I needed to hear at the time,
and I took it and it changed my life. Changed
my life.

Speaker 1 (20:35):
Look, this came wrong's your character were back? Baby, were back? Baby,
were back? Baby. You know what I'm saying. The lights
ain't going off. Everybody good And now from this point on,
we're like Okay, now let's place ourself.

Speaker 4 (20:51):
Yeah, you know what I'm learn your lesson.

Speaker 1 (20:53):
Let's place ourself. You know, we plan on being here
for a long time. We've been here for a long time.
We was like, yo, relax, we're playing on being there
for a long time, you know what I mean. And
after that, I want to say. Ray comes to me
and he said, yo, man, I think y'all should I
think y'all should stop trying to be artists. I was like, damn,
what do you mean. He's like, if we get hot

(21:15):
at songwriting, they're gonna want to give us whatever we want.
But we gotta be hot at something. I'm like, man,
that actually makes sense. Ray again, Man, raise a great coach. Brother.

Speaker 4 (21:27):
So y'all go full throttle on right songwriting.

Speaker 1 (21:31):
Nigga all the way in and we write a song.
Let me see what are the songs? We can't stop?
Twenty three? Pour it up, all of it, all of
the same, all around the same exact time. God. Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay,
let's go.

Speaker 6 (21:53):
I remember I was at uh I want to say,
gray Stone, you could have been place, and that motherfucking
beat dropped and it said part part up.

Speaker 4 (22:08):
I said, oh my god, what the fuck is that?

Speaker 1 (22:13):
So I have a bunch of so so the way
that I look at music, I have a bunch of theories,
and I wrote and when I did pull it up.
The problem that I had with music is that whenever women,
whenever female songs came on, men I left the dance
floor and it bothered me. Hmm, like a girl song
would come on and dudes, okay, the same for us.
And I was like, I want to say something that,

(22:33):
you know, because I feel like the new independent woman
is not like I got my own money and that shit.
You know, they've been having that pressed women want to
say exactly what we said. So I was like, I
want to write a song for a man and have
a girl say it because as a man, I'm going
to sing along with her. You know what I'm saying.
And so this is a controversial thing that I'm about
to say. But I've never liked bridges. I never wanted

(22:55):
to write bridges. I don't like bridges. I don't want
them in my song. And if you realized that, pour
it Up has two verses because in the Caribbean and
if you listen to dance all music, it's two verses.
In the first verse repeats they don't bridges, that's my culture.
And Neo and Sean Garrett and John Tey and The Dream,
they was just whooping my ass. I couldn't beat them.

(23:17):
They were incredible and I just was like, how do
they do that? And I was like, the only thing
that these niggas can't out do me by is being Caribbean.
And if I could, if if I could bring music
to my culture, I'm going to whoop all the ass back.
And I was like, how am I going to do that?
And at that point in time, I kept saying, your

(23:38):
music is going to be ratchet. He was like, what
I said, hip hop is the new rock and roll,
and hip hop is going to be the new pop music.
And if I can pull it into my culture, not
not like Dan Saul as far as the rhythm and stuff,
just like the lyrics and the yeah yeah, because I

(24:00):
just want to say crazy ship and it'd be like, yo, man,
we can't say that. You know, you got to find
a clever way to say it. And I'm like, hat
that why you gotta find a clever way?

Speaker 2 (24:08):
Man?

Speaker 1 (24:09):
Fuck? Don't you know? I didn't want to say that?
So so you know, I have so for unapologetic for Rihanna,
Me and my brother we wrote twenty eight songs. Poored
of being a twenty eight song. The last one, the
last one, we Can't Stop was one of those songs,
and you know it didn't it didn't fit where Rihanna
was going. And and in hindsight, now that I hear it,

(24:31):
it is it was better for Miley than it was,
you know, for better for who Miley? Sorry, yeah them out, Yes,
y'all so funny man, So so you know I ever
gave you two million for you know, go ahead, man ahead,
Oh man, you know what I'm saying. God is good
all the time. You know what I'm saying. You know

(24:53):
what I mean? And so so we So I'm in
Atlanta and we can't stop in twenty three and Karen
Quark hears we can't stop and say, y'all want to
fly y'all to la you Timothy, Mike will to do
some stuff for Rihanna. Rihanna don't want to do. We

(25:14):
can't stop. They're like, damn, bruh. And I done wrote
so many songs to this girl. I'm like man, and
we out there writing, and then the ASCAP Awards was
in La and I went to the ASCAP Awards, me,
my brother and Ray and they were honoring Quincy Jones.
I've never met Quincy Jones in my life. I've only
met him one time. And this is the time. I

(25:35):
was outside on my phone. If anybody knows me, I'm
usually in my phone texting on a game on Instagram
or something. Quincy Jones walks up to me and he said, hey,
young blood, how you doing, dag Let me tell you
something to take my chades off of this one. And
he's and I say, I'm good, mister Jones. How you doing?

(25:56):
He said, I'm good man. How's the songwriting coming? I'm like,
s Quincy Jones know me, but I'm like, it's the
ASKAP Awards. Everybody hears a writer. Maybe that's what it is.
I'm like, man, it's going good, man, you know it's
going good. He said, you want a secret to writing hits? Yeah? Yeah,
fuck them verses man. The people want hooks man, Give

(26:18):
the people hooks hooks man. And I was like, thank you,
and he walks away. The conversation was over. I go
to Timothy and Rand said, Quincy Jones spoke to me.
What do he say. He said, don't write no verses,
just write hooks. And the next day I went to
the studio, strip clubs and dollar bills and I still
got more money. Patrol shots. Can I get a refill?

(26:39):
And I still got more money. I said, I gotta
repeat it all the time. It's like, why are you
repeating that the whole song? Because Quincy Jones told me
not to write no fucking verses. He told me to
write hooks, nigga. And it was random, and I look
at it as a sign, so I have to do
this this way.

Speaker 4 (26:52):
You know, it's crazy.

Speaker 2 (26:53):
I was at that award show, yeah, because he spoke
when he yeah, he spoke, And I always remember the term,
but I still use it when it rains get wet.

Speaker 1 (27:03):
Oh man, I like that. I didn't remember that one.
I was too busy thinking of what he told me.

Speaker 4 (27:07):
No niggase, he stopped you and talked to you.

Speaker 1 (27:12):
But I remember a quote he said, when it rains
get wet. Bruh. I love that. But like I said,
that man really told me that after we did it
the full hook. That record is a full hook. Yeah,
you know that record is a is a full chorus
and Maley Syrus ended up getting a thing and.

Speaker 4 (27:30):
Wait, so you played that for Miley first?

Speaker 1 (27:32):
That was na first and then it didn't go to
Rihanna and end up going to Maley. Maley heard she
loved it, end up going to Moley and Doctor Luke
did Wrecking Ball for Maley. Cyrus and Doctor Luke wanted
wrecking Ball to be the first single, and they was like, nah,
it's we can't stop. Who didn't we can't stop? Mike
Will and rock City? Who the fuck is rock City?

(27:54):
He's like, I don't know these guys. I'm doctor how
they get in the first thing. I'm supposed to have
the first single? So you like, I want to meet
these guys. So we go to the Soho house and
we go sit down with Luke, me and my brother,
Caribbean kids from the Islands. You don't know who the
fuck this white boy is and at this point of time,
with no disrespect, we don't give a fuck, and we're

(28:17):
like okay, and Luke is like Ray, He's like, yo, bro,
he does Katie Perry, he does all that. He's like, okay, cool, cool, cool,
you respect my boy. I'm going to steal that.

Speaker 4 (28:37):
No respect my boy, respect my boy very disrespectful.

Speaker 1 (28:43):
We didn't meet it in a disrespect were just like
they're like, okay, yeah, respect my boy. And we go
and we start working with Luke and we had a
mutual friend called Groove from Atlanta. And Luke calls Groove
and say, yeah, man, I'm working with these guys from
Rock City man from they live in Atlanta like you.

Speaker 7 (29:01):
He's like what he said, Nigga, Oh, I know they're
out of here now.

Speaker 1 (29:09):
He's like yeah. He's like, He's like, Luke, I'm so
happy you signed them. He's like, no, I'm not signing them.
We're just writing songs, he said, writing songs for what,
Like you know, we're working on Becky g And you know,
he said, nah, bro, you need to do that artist shit. Bro.
By the way, we stopped being artists for like four years,
just focused on writing. Now the artist Shiit comes around,

(29:30):
Luke comes. He says, hey man, we're in the studio
writing songs. He said, hey man, I'm just curious, what
would your music sound like if you did it with me?
What do you mean, like you guys an artist? Right? Yeah,
if you made music with me, what would it sound like? Nigga?
Me and my brother's like, nigga, this is what we've

(29:51):
been trying to do our whole life. Yeah, we go,
we go, nigga, we start making music. Ray comes back
trying to hear Katie Perry songs. Luke plays him eight
Rock City songs. Ray's like, yo, man, I want to
sign the guys. Man I got a label. Man over
at Sony, we want to do this. He's like, oh shit,

(30:14):
like guys like Ray is like what I tell you,
if you get hirt at something, they don't come for
everything everything. So like cool. And so we do a
whole album with Luke and Circuit shout out to my boys,
Circuit and we drop a hit called locked Away with
Adam Levian and you know, it went number one, and

(30:37):
you know, we went on tour with Maroon five and
my and my whole life. I wanted to be an
artist and then I went on tour and I was
like this is stupid.

Speaker 4 (30:45):
I'm cool.

Speaker 1 (30:50):
I like going and doing shows back in the Islands
and performing and I was like, man, I don't want
to be famous. I'm like, bro, I just want you know,
I just want to take my son to get ice cream,
you know what I'm saying. And we was already making money,
it was already successful. So I was like, what am
I missing in life? You know what I mean? I
was like, that was my dream when I was eighteen.
I was thirty four, and everybody kept telling us you're

(31:10):
too old. Why would y'all be doing music right now?
Why would Luke sign them? That's so dumb, you know
what I'm saying. We dropped locked away and they was like, man,
them niggas be writing them heads though.

Speaker 4 (31:22):
Yeah, ain't that my nigga be writing them here?

Speaker 1 (31:26):
La Reid told me someone when I sat in this
office for the first time, because I went to play
my record right and I never forgot this. He said,
whatever you do when you're in this business, never count
out the talent. Ever, he said. No matter what he said,
listen to me, if they talented, because everybody going to
be like they too old, everybody gonna be like their

(31:47):
last album flopped, Everybody going to be like, oh man,
they had this amount of record deals, It might be
different with you. If they talented. Never count them out.
And so you know, me and my brother man we really,
you know, really talented, and we put we put out
our album What Dreams Are Made of in twenty fourteen,

(32:07):
and then you know ship. After that, everything kind of
went crazy with everything like Luke Luke got in like
a whole crazy thing with the with the Casher situation,

(32:30):
and pop radio said we're not playing no songs produced
by him and me and my brother was like that
man produced every single song and our whole album sh wow.
And I looked at it as a sign. I was
like that Ship might not be what I was.

Speaker 4 (32:49):
Because that's a different politic.

Speaker 1 (32:51):
And we had to go sit our asses down again
and it was like eh, bruh. But but I was like, hey,
you know what, none of your niggas can't say I
can't do it. I had a number one and if
I want to have a number one for myself again,
I really believe I could do it tomorrow, you know
what I'm saying. And so you know, now, me and
my brother's like we're trying to figure it out. My

(33:11):
brother ain't really into songwriting as much as me. He'll
write songs, but I'm more political. I'm more the guy
that's like, you know, a tank is being an asshole,
but I'm gonna come in here and play politics. Finish
the song. And my brother is like, yo, big money,
Well you want to do something Yo, you can't, Yo, bro,
we can't. My brother yeah, my brother, yeah, my brother.

(33:32):
My brother's like, Yo, what wrong would you? Big mama?
What you train to do? We train and make music?
Are you making fun? And It's like and I don't
want no smoke. I'm like, whoa whoa hey, hey Timothy
nah t run meaning a fuck make boy? Yea we
gonna whoop his ass? Oh yeah, yeah yeah, I'm talking

(33:54):
my listen, I'm talking my brother off Alledgeigg twenty four.
I was a day William Babathy, Yeah, Timothy and Babathi
bruh my nigga, you know, bibity bobbity booth nigga. That
man is ready. And I just I just love this shit. Man.
This is my basketball court.

Speaker 2 (34:14):
You know.

Speaker 1 (34:14):
In my life, I never felt like I was too
good at too many things, man, but I just really
felt like I was good at that. And I just
started being with Luke all the time, letting him teach
me because I remember having poured up and all that
and Luke saying, I mean, yeah, good, but you're not
that good.

Speaker 6 (34:32):
Hmm.

Speaker 1 (34:33):
Biggest records in the world matches in my mind. He
was like, I mean, and that man really taught me.
That man really made me better. I really, you know,
it's certain people in the music meanings that I would say,
like Luke made me better talent wise, like just hearing
a hit, seeing your head, understanding melody. Polo helped me
with confidence, like Yo, shout out to Polo to don

(34:55):
I always said. I used to go hang with Polo
and Polo used to tell me I was the best
song writer and I would be like, I mean, I
think I'm good, but the best. He said, Nigga, you
the best songwriter in the game right now, nobody better
than you. And he told me that every day for
like two months. I would just go and every day
he see me, he said, nigga, you're the best. You
don't get it. And I'd be like, you know, Polo talk,

(35:18):
you know Polo. You know Polo talk like Black Elvis Presley.
You don't get it what I'm trying to tell you.
You the best fos trying you the best.

Speaker 4 (35:29):
You don't get because I'm the ship.

Speaker 1 (35:31):
I'm ship. I know, I know what brouh yo. And
he told me that all the time, and I ain't
gonna lie to y'all with Luke teaching me structure and
science of songwriting, and Polo telling me you're really that nigga,
and my dad saying I knew you was going to
be this person. Since I knew you was going to

(35:51):
be this person when your mom named you t Ryan,
I was like, one day I woke up and I
really believed that was that nigga. Yeah, you know what
I'm saying. You got busy and I went and I
went and I went and I went crazy. You know,
but my first crazy failed. It didn't fail. That's a
wrong term to use. So James fot Leroy is like,

(36:13):
literally like one of my heroes. I've never said this
to his face, but you know, but he's like one
of my heroes because he did like all of Bruno
and all of Justin Timberlake, and I was like, man,
I wish I could do that, like a whole project
with like a superstar. That would be so cool. I
thought that was amazing. I was like, I need to
do that. I want to try it. So, you know,

(36:36):
this sweater guy, super Dukes calls me in a Sunday
Super Duke say, hey, Taran, I said, what yo? I mean,
why I do. I regault about my Rihanna and I
was like, okay, cool, you already talked to rock Nation. No,
man never talked to nobody. I said, you talked to Rihanna. No,
so how you gonna do it? But just feel like
if me on you getting the stool joke? I met

(36:57):
the music, should I go make our regat? I said,
you serious? I said, Okay, flew to Miami, started making
reggae music. You know, rock Nacious flies out to London.
One day, Rihanna comes to the studio. We play like
seven reggae songs and Rihanna said, oh, man, man made

(37:19):
the reggae. I look at what I said, Yo, I said,
Nigga God is with us. And then you know, and
then you know, I don't know what went on or
what happened, but you know what I'm saying. And so
years is going by and the album ain't coming out,
and everybody's telling me Luke ain't got no songs on

(37:41):
the radio, he ain't hot, Rihanna ain't putting music out.
It's like three years. I've had to hit on the
radio like every year consistently at least one thing that's
going and they're like Why are you, Why are you
working with Luke? Why you keep doing this? You need
to be in the rooms with this person. You need
to work with more people. You need to do more
of this. And I'm like, I just believe in Luke, man.

(38:03):
I believe in what I'm trying to do, and I
and I believe in what I'm doing over here. I
remember I was on my way for Paris and I
had the longest layover in history, and my good old
friend man shout out to c C told me, hey,
toront come to the studio, and she was working at
some random studio. Bro with j R. Wrote him pregnant
and we wrote a song called Level Up because I

(38:26):
was in the club with Usher and he's.

Speaker 4 (38:29):
Doing a lot of champagne around.

Speaker 1 (38:31):
Man, I don't, I don't know, I don't, I don't know.

Speaker 4 (38:33):
I mean, if you're getting wet by all.

Speaker 1 (38:38):
Stories because I'm telling to the club and my friend
C yeah, case she got my bad, My bad, man,
I'm telling her area. I'm telling you all the true story.

Speaker 2 (38:58):
It's totally different once you take a glad y ah. Man, No,
it's the true story. Man, I'm in the studio and
I'm in the club, with usher. And so I have
this theory about about music. If you want to know
what tempo it is, follow the drugs. Okay, So when
when the Beatles were making music, they want LSD, and
then it went into psychedelics, and then when cocaine came in,
disco hit hard and then it takes you to make

(39:20):
a thing go right. And then crack came in and
it was boom boom cac boo boom boo boom cac.
And then when pop came back is when ecstasy was big,
and dance and all of that took over. But what
happened is niggas starts smoking weed, drinking lean and popping Perky's,
which are downers, and so the temple slowed down in like.

Speaker 1 (39:34):
Sixty two beats a minute, you know. So I was like, So,
I was like, it was this song that I heard
in the club, fuck it up, fuck it up, fuck
it up, fuck it up. Throw that ass in a circle.
And they was mixing it with slow songs and they
was like, oh no, it's halftime. I didn't know what
that it meant. And I was like, ohha, this is

(39:55):
the tempo. This is where the future is going. He's
like oh, you think like Nigga, the tempo is coming back.
So I get in with Sierra and I said, Sierra,
I want us to flip this song. I'm with j R.
Road him the best flipper. He flipps, he's a flipper.
I'm like, Yo, I got this idea and I want
to flip this song and I gotta be fast. She's like, Toron, Toronto,
you think it's too fast. I said, see, see, bitch

(40:16):
is just doing coke in the club again. I'm telling
you they ready to dance, you know. And Sierra's like
Toron's so crazy. She thinks I'm insane, right, And I'm
like yo. So I'm like, yo, we're gonna do this thing.
Level up, level up, level up, level up, you know.
And so we did the song and she was signed
to Warner Brothers at the time. And then I go

(40:36):
to Paris and you know, I'm in Paris and working
on music and whatever, and Sierra comes in. She's like, hey, man, trying.
You know, I'm leaving Warner They didn't get the vision.
I'm like, damn, man, but you know, they let it
go with all our masters. And she's like, I think
I'm gonna put out this song and she shot a video.

(40:57):
I've never told this to Sierra. I swear to God,
never told u. Seer. She comes to Lane and she
comes to me and she shows me the video and
I don't like it at all.

Speaker 7 (41:04):
I hate it with all my heart. I'm like, oh
my God, Oh my God, Oh my God.

Speaker 1 (41:10):
And right now I'm ice cold. I'm ice cold. I'm like,
oh my god, they gonna say I'm why everybody's gonna
they gonna say him wet. And Sierra is so excited.
And I believe in her so much because she has
this thing that she says that when she says it,
I don't fight her. She says, Turan God told me,
I swearch. Look, she said that to me about three
or four times. And if Sierra tells me Turan God

(41:33):
told me, I'm like, it's the one. I don't care
what I believe. If God said it to c C,
it's the one that's what I believe. And she said,
Tron God told me this is the way to do it.
And I was like, you know what, that made me
feel bad, sweat. I was like, yo, that made me
feel a little better. And she puts it out and
it's out and I do not want to read the comments.

(41:53):
I'm so afraid. I'm like, please be good because I
need something. God, I need something good right now because
nothing is going good and everybody he's telling me I
ain't good no more, and I'm falling off and I
need to work with other people and stop. No dead
serious bro. And my brother calls me, t run. Yeah
what you saying, Timo, you do that new seear I
sign I leveled up? Fuck yeah, my boy, the fucked

(42:19):
nastymen something.

Speaker 5 (42:21):
You like it?

Speaker 1 (42:21):
He said, t run that's the bodies tune ever?

Speaker 2 (42:25):
Main boy?

Speaker 1 (42:27):
You serious? He said, t run the fuck all the head.
I was like, y'all can't tell me shit. My brother
told me he's out of here, so you'll start reading
the comments. I'm like, everybody likes it. I said, oh
my god, this is crazy. So now while that's going on,

(42:47):
there's a girl in Atlanta working on music and Ray's like, Yo, Tron.
I'm at the house chilling in the bed with my wife.
He's like, Yil Toron, is this girl I want you
to meet? Fro I think this girl is fire. You're
gonna love her. He's like, cool, I come to the studio.
You introduce me to Lizo hm hm, and you know
he's like, yo, she got this song where she marrying herself.
He shows me the truth Hurts video. Yeah okay. I

(43:09):
was like yo. And then we went in the back
and we try to write a song, the worst song
I've ever written in my life. And I'm like this
black girl is never gonna work with me ever again.
It is a rap. And then she calls me. She
was like, yo, man, I'm working on this album. Man,
I would like you to come out to LA and
help me out. I would love to, but I really

(43:30):
thought o bomb, like if that was an audition, nigga,
I fucked it up. And we go out to LA
and you know, we do some songs. And with that
being said, now Dojah Cat been signed. Doja Cat has
been signed to Luke. From when locked Away it was out,

(43:50):
Doja Cat was round. You know, she was just younger,
so so peep game. Dojah Cat puts out a song,
bitch I'm a Cayle And now now the Noor Riot
he's going there. Now Luke and her is getting in
the studio and Luke plays me a song. I keep
it juicy juicy, you know he plays me that song.
I'm like, oh, man, this girl is fired. He's like, yeah, man,

(44:11):
I think she you know, I think it's gonna be dope.
So I'm in the studio with Yo Gotti and I
write this chorus for Gotti. I was like, Yo, man,
you and oh my god, what's what's the girl from Detroit?
Please sweet hot cash Doll? Please don't text me and
say or tweet me and say I'm a terrible person.

(44:31):
I just couldn't remember off the top. So Cash Doll,
I want to cash all to sing the hook. I
love cash Doll. I was like, man, I wanted her
to sing this chorus. Play with my pussy, but don't
play with my emotions. If you spend some money that
nigga just might fuck your damn right. So I wrote
this hook. Yo. Gotti was like, man, that ship you
know that ship hard man, But I don't know if
fit the project. And Luke played for Dojah and Doja said, Nigga,

(44:54):
whoever wrote this, I want to meet them, meets me.
And I did another song with Dojah on the first
album called That's My Ship, That's my way doing it
like that nah Bale. So we get money there no Yo, wait,
so you want to do something yo, so nigga. So

(45:14):
we do that and then me and we us in
Lizzo were working and so I'm working with Lizo, I'm
working with Dojah, and then Lizzo comes out. She's like
going crazy. Dojah comes out, She's going crazy. Well, you know,
Warner Warner wants to get Luke in the studio with

(45:36):
Sweetie and sweet and Luke calls me and he's like, Yo, tea,
you know I'm gonna be working with this girl. Sweety man,
you should come out, you should, you should work with me.
I was like, hell fucking yeah, nigga, I fucked with Sweetie,
you know. And I was like cool, I go. You know,
everybody's like, I'm the Lizo guy, you know, so I'm
heating up. I'm not. I don't want to use the

(45:56):
word hot, but I'm like, you know, they're like, Okay,
he might be cool. You know what I'm saying. Because
the little record is which one I did juice for
Lizzo and uh me and what's another song? What's the
name of the song? Tempo with Lizzo and co Missi
and then another song exactly how I feel with Liz
on Gucci Man and a song on an album called Linger.

Speaker 4 (46:18):
Yeah you jumped out there.

Speaker 1 (46:20):
Oh you know God is good? So I.

Speaker 4 (46:25):
So now you go work with Sweeten.

Speaker 1 (46:27):
I go work with Sweetie and everybody keeps saying we
don't want any samples because she had had so many
sample records, and I'm like, she's from the Bay, I'm
from Saint Thomas, I'm from the band no every So
what I'm saying is every song don't cross the water.

Speaker 6 (46:49):
That one.

Speaker 1 (46:51):
Everybody know that one. So I'm like, that's the biggest
song from the Bay. That's the biggest song from the Bay.
Why would we not use the biggest song from the
Bay from a girl from the Bay. And Luke did
the beat in two seconds and then I'm writing all
kinds of shit and it's booty as hell, I'm like,

(47:14):
And then we connect with my boy lunch Money. Y'all
know lunch Money, and me and lunch Money got it
to thegether, and then Sweetie came in and got it
together because again Sweetie was like, she was telling me,
this is how we're talking to Bay and this is
how it goes, and this is what I gotta be
and da da da da Da, and I was like, oh,
this girl is fire. She knows a fucking shit. You

(47:34):
know what I'm saying, you know, like and so tap
and then but guess what I did best Friend first?
So I did best Friend before best Friend before. Yeah,
I did best Friend before I did top tap in.
But I was like, this song is gonna be fire
for TikTok because girl's gonna be with their homegirls and
you know what I'm saying, and it's gonna be cool. Well,

(47:55):
we thought best Friend was coming out next, but it didn't.
Back to the Streets Light Loud of and that came
out and their best Friend. But then we got DOJ
your own best Friend born.

Speaker 4 (48:19):
He's going to his keyboard. Oh, he's going to his keyboard.

Speaker 5 (48:28):
Top five, Top five, what's your what's t RN's top five?

Speaker 1 (48:42):
Top five? Your top five?

Speaker 4 (48:48):
Top five R and b.

Speaker 1 (48:49):
Artists Top five I'm still singing the side t rod
let me cook.

Speaker 7 (49:06):
Wow?

Speaker 1 (49:07):
Time five R and b artists, your favorite it's your world?
Time five, My top five favorite R and B artists

(49:35):
of all time. Okay, I was born in eighty two,
so my top five you know, but you were born
in eighty two. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, so coming in
in number five, I ain't even gonna lie to y'all.
I'm gonna have to say this because I saw him
live before he passed, and I didn't want to go
to this concert and my best friend made me go,

(49:57):
and it's one of the best concerts I've ever been
to my wife to this day. So I would say,
like number five is like Luther Van Draws because I
because I saw him live.

Speaker 5 (50:07):
You know.

Speaker 1 (50:07):
And then number four, I'm gonna say Mary J. Blige, Yeah, yeah,
Mary J Blige. That's a special woman. I got a
chance to meet her and work with her. The song
never came out, but she don't understand, like just you know,
just like how excited. So that's number four. Number three

(50:32):
gotta be Stevie Wonder. I just think he's not only
one of the best R and B artists, he's one
of the best songwriters ever because to my understanding, he
was born blind and he just writes from a place
of things that I've seen, And I'm like, how does
he know that it's pure heart when he makes music.
It's pure like feeling and true emotion, you know. So yeah, Luther,

(50:57):
Mary Stevie, Yo, this man changed my life when I
heard his music, and you know, I hope nobody gets
mad at me for saying his name because I understand
that he might not be the greatest person. But R
Kelly Brother just musically, I mean he talks. Yeah, he taught.
He taught me, you know, just music when I when

(51:20):
I listen to his music and number one baby ice raymon, Ice, raymon, Baby.
I ain't gonna lie to you. I ain't gonna lie
to you. I can't watch this. I don't mind. We

(51:40):
don't buy usher usher up the top. I don't calljah.

Speaker 4 (51:50):
Did you say hallelujah as you were writing this work?

Speaker 1 (51:54):
Two three? I guess you leaving with me? Gonna get
that money money, money, money, money, because I know how
it is. Don't money money, money, money, money, money and

(52:14):
put something.

Speaker 4 (52:15):
Offer and play.

Speaker 1 (52:19):
Girl, and I don't mind. Oh, I don't mind. Yeah
who he wrote that for me?

Speaker 4 (52:27):
Man?

Speaker 1 (52:27):
I you know I have great you know, quick, great
great story about that song because I was in the studio,
me and Luke was in the studio with Katy Perry.
Katy Perry's coming to work with us, and Katy Perry
went to do vocal warm ups and so why Katy
Perry's doing vocal warm ups. Luke was playing this thing
on his guitar and I started saying, I don't mind,

(52:49):
and it was super lovey and romantic, and Luke was like, no,
I can't do that. The beat is already pretty. We
need edge. I said, what the heck you want me
to say like, I don't mind, like I love a stripper.
It's like you tripping bro, like yeah, you know, out
of frustration because we had I had been trying. He said, yeah,
I want you to say that. What Yeah, And I

(53:12):
was just fascinated with Atlantic culture and I was like, Yo,
all of this Atlanta ship they doing is pop. And
I said, Yo, we need you know this. We need
to take all of these things. And you know, nobody
ain't really was doing that, you know, outside of the Migos.
Nobody had put it in a pop song, you know.
And I just was like, Yo, let's do it like this.
And we had did it and send it to Usher

(53:35):
and and oh yeah, I remember Katy Perry walking in
and heard the song, was like, that's an Usher song
and we hadn't say who he did it for it.
We was like, yeah, that's crazy. We was gonna send
it to him. She was like, oh my god, I
can't wait to hear him sing that. And I was like, wow,
and you know, so so Usher did it. And I

(53:56):
ain't gonna lie to you that that's that's that's one
of my favorites that I did with him, because I
did a couple with him. What did I do? We
did no limit together. We did that together limit. You know,
I'm really good. You're welcome.

Speaker 2 (54:17):
Girl, you know, but this is you know what, this
is one thing because you keep this name. He's popped
up a few times doctor Luke. Uh huh, this is
my camera, right guys, Yes, doctor Luke.

Speaker 6 (54:33):
I don't know if you remember you still owe me
five hundred dollars.

Speaker 1 (54:38):
Oh man.

Speaker 6 (54:40):
I don't want the money. I just want to be
able to say you owe me five forever, oh my,
because you got plenty five hundred dollars.

Speaker 1 (54:51):
You got plenty plenty five hundred dollars. Oh man, you
owe me five hundred and Luke five hundred and Luke. Back,
here we go. We're back. I don't even need to
sing top five R and B songs. Dang, that's a
hard one. Oh man, I think I know what my

(55:11):
number one is. For sure, but top five R and
B songs. Mm hmmm, over joy I'm beating my castle love.
Come on man, Yeah, come on man. You can't, y'all can't.

(55:34):
He's so.

Speaker 2 (55:36):
He made complicated things seems so simple. And that's from
a from a musician standpoint, Like he made the most
complicated movements and key changes or like scale manipulation.

Speaker 1 (55:56):
He made it digestible to every day people. I don't
know how he did that. People. I gotta say this song, bro,
I gotta say this song. It's a neo soul song,
but I'm gonna put it in this because girl, I
know them seems I'm out of order. That is the

(56:20):
most player ship I've ever heard in my life.

Speaker 6 (56:22):
That man.

Speaker 1 (56:23):
If I played that song for my son, I said,
listen to me. When you approach a woman, this is
exactly how you talk. This is what you say. This
is the sincerity that you gotta have. And and I
remember driving in the car and my son just smiling
like we had a moment, and I was like, it
was from that song. It was from that song. He

(56:43):
get on my nerves too, Yeah, music man, and I
had the opportunity to work with him. He's one of
the best Monster, incredible Monster. I'll be your group baby,
because you owe my soup pasta. No but one fan,
give me your autograph. I hate pool Bear forever for

(57:04):
that one because he's incredible.

Speaker 2 (57:07):
I hate Pool Bear turning the air conditioner up everywhere
he goes. Listen, if you hop in the car with
Poop Bear, it's gonna feel like it's two degrees and
that thank you for letting me know I'm Caribbean. I
can't get it's not my birthday, man, heavy birthday, Yeah birthday,

(57:28):
so no, this is real talk that that song right there.

Speaker 1 (57:34):
Oh, I've been doing my own things. Love is always
all the way of having bad timing.

Speaker 4 (57:45):
Shot my nigga, Bryce Wilson.

Speaker 1 (57:49):
Okay groove and guess what I never knew I could sing.
I started out as a rapper and doing like Dan
saw reggae, you know. And then it was one song
that we performed live for the first time and I
just knew the words. I just felt to sing it.
And this, this song is the reason. This is the
first time I ever felt like, Okay, I could do melody,
My I Love do you ever dream? Candy Cold Rain Dry? Yeah,

(58:21):
Y're the same. My Candy Rain. Yeah. So look and
by the way, to anybody who's like that show, listen, bro.
Every song that I mentioned had a very special moment
in my life I can remember, and it did something
that shifts, shifts the moment for me. So I picked

(58:42):
those five. To be honest, it's too many to mention.
I feel like I'm doing it this justice. There's a
bunch of songs that I probably am forgetting, but I
think I'm gonna go. I'm comfortable with ye. Okay, is Jams,
Let's go there.

Speaker 2 (58:58):
We're gonna make a voltron. Okay, We're gonna make We're
gonna make your R and B artists, Okay, okay, we're
gonna build him from the vocal performance, style, styling, and passion.
With building your voltron, what artists are you grabbing the

(59:19):
vocals from?

Speaker 4 (59:24):
Who's gonna sing all them great songs?

Speaker 1 (59:25):
You write? What we're gonna do? I'm gonna say, sure,
I'm gonna go with us. I'm gonna go with Usher.
I'm gonna go with usher Man. I gotta go with Usher, Bro,
I know I have to, because it's no you can't sing, It's.

Speaker 4 (59:39):
Not that nothing.

Speaker 1 (59:40):
He make everything sound good and that's the biggest problem.
He'll make a bad song sound great and to be like,
hold on, hold on, I have to listen to it.
On the twelfth song, youre incredible as he also owns
it though, no, no, no, he's the best you know,
owns it? Okay, what's next? That's the voice, It's voice,
the voice, performance style, Chris Brown, Chris Brown, Chris Brown,

(01:00:06):
Chris Brown. Guess what the next answer? Guess what's probably
Chris Brown again. Give it to them, the styling of it,
Chris Brown. Let me tell y'all something, Can you tell
ya something? I think that motherfucker exudes cool. I think
that man exudes cool. I think that man wakes Chris
Brown and dye his head red, dye his hair purple.

(01:00:27):
I've never Chris Brown tries things that nobody on earth
could get away with, but Chris Brown. The only thing
Chris Brown ain't did yet is dreads. And if Chris
Brown do dreads and dreads look fire on Chris Brown.
I personally want to fight him in a cage match
because at this point I feel like it's you're just
doing too much, my nigga, Like you gotta really come on, bro,

(01:00:51):
stop man, okay, who you're getting the passion from the
heart of the artist, the heart and the passion, the
art and the passion. Damn b Chris Brown. Sorry, mad

(01:01:12):
hey man, Hey, hey man, monster.

Speaker 4 (01:01:17):
Come on, man, talk about somebody who hadn't been through
it all.

Speaker 1 (01:01:20):
Oh, come on, man, At some point we gonna got
to stop playing with like this nigga. Yo, Bro, this
nigga has been incredible for years and been one of
the best and been in your top five, top two,
number one, number one, this number one dancer, all with
both his hands tied behind his back. Talk about it.
I ain't never seen nothing like him. I've never seen

(01:01:42):
nothing like him. I've listened, my brother. I don't know
if you see this, if you're going to see this,
guess what. I haven't spoke to this man. We didn't
text before this. You know, my favorite R and B
artist is Usher, But I don't know what it is
with that dude. Bro, That dude, that dude was touched
bro by God for sure, like with his eyes closed.

(01:02:07):
I never seen nothing like it. Man, Yo. This man
paints like paints like Bro. I got a painting that
he gave me in my house and I'm like.

Speaker 4 (01:02:19):
He does everything.

Speaker 1 (01:02:21):
Why well, he acts, he sings, this nigga can backflip
into a Did y'all know that I'm just that's where
it was going. Didn't y'all know that he is incredible?

(01:02:47):
And I just feel like he's a He's a human
being that deserves like all his flowers, because I really
personally believe that by the time that everybody on this
planet starts to give him his flowers, he may not
be here to see him give it to him. And

(01:03:07):
and and I want to tell him Listen my kids, bro,
that man is incredible, you know. And he said happy
birthday to my son too, So it's like you're gonna
have a special place. Listen, you do something for my babies.
Good dude, good dude, You're unbeatable. I'll help you fight.

(01:03:28):
I'll see you and they'd be like, what are you doing.

Speaker 4 (01:03:32):
We're gonna have to go get Timothy.

Speaker 1 (01:03:35):
You know, incredible bro, my brother. And guess what's so
funny if you meet us, people think I am the
aggressive one and he is the calm one. And it
is the Listen to me, my brother is like t
run when I see this mon right, not Timothy, not nah,

(01:04:00):
just cool. Look cool, I'm gonna talk to him mean
my brother favorite thing mean.

Speaker 6 (01:04:05):
Enough fuck, my boy, that's how he gonna talk to him.

Speaker 1 (01:04:08):
No, my brother, he it means like I'm not with that.
So like if somebody say, yo, mean enough, fuck like y'
I'm not trying to hear what you're telling me right
now when I see this and he's like, no, no, no, yo, bro,
it's all love. Let me just talk to him. He
may not even understand t run mean enough fun I'm

(01:04:29):
watching you across the room coming towards me. My brother
is like, I'm like, oh my god, I'm trying to
tell you yo yo yo yo, I'm gonna come to you.
Yeah yeah, no, no, no, no, no, nah you got
to you what that's great? Bro? Yeah you good? Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:04:51):
So got this segment of the show brother, what's it called?
It's called I Ain't saying no.

Speaker 1 (01:04:57):
Name, saying no name, No, I ain't no listen, no names,
no names none.

Speaker 4 (01:05:18):
So tell us the story funny or fucked up?

Speaker 1 (01:05:23):
Okay, are funny and okay all of the.

Speaker 4 (01:05:25):
Same damn time. You know what I mean because that's
the song you was listening to when your manager told your.

Speaker 1 (01:05:31):
People don't need you yeah, music.

Speaker 2 (01:05:34):
Yeah, tell us that story man, you know you in
your travels of this music business man.

Speaker 6 (01:05:41):
And the only rule you cannot say the names.

Speaker 1 (01:05:45):
Of the people in this story. I'm not saying anybody's name.
I'm gonna tell it. Can I say the name of
the song? Go ahead? Okay?

Speaker 2 (01:05:54):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:05:55):
Yeah yeah? Yeah so you okay, So right now this
is tran rock City.

Speaker 4 (01:06:02):
Rock City version Islands.

Speaker 1 (01:06:04):
I ain't saying okay, cool, I ain't saying on names,
but I will say we was We was in the
state Los Angeles at a studio saying the name of
the studio, and it was a song that we wrote,
and it was a song called MSUs Glass. That's the
name of the song. It wasn't big or it did nothing,
you know what I'm saying. And the person that ended

(01:06:26):
up having this song ain't the person that this is about.
And a couple of people tried this song, so it
could be anybody. But in this particular day, we're at
the studio and the artist is supposed to be coming
in and they're like, Hey, the artist is gonna come in,
but just to give you guys a head up, heads up,
the artists would like to change a couple of things,
personalize it for themselves. Oh man, we're all. We're all
for that. That's good. It might even be better. Person

(01:06:48):
came in with a guitarist and personal assistant and a
bottle of Hennessy and a bottle of wine. Were like, okay, cool,
you know what I'm saying. We have we and the
the person who is engineering just so happened to be
the person that made the beat, and and well and

(01:07:10):
and me who I say, I'm the trick for lated
music business because I'm in a service business. I like,
I like to give a good service. I said, hey,
today it's about you. However you want to do it,
whatever makes you comfortable. I've been told you had your
reservations about singing the song. This is no this is
a no pressure zone. Let's get it to a place
that will make you feel comfortable. Oh man, thank you
so much. That was so nice. So now time is

(01:07:35):
going to buy. The Hennessy is going down, and you know,
and the Hennessy is gone, and now there's a glass
of lineport. And I was like, I don't think I
saw anybody else. I didn't have none, and he didn't
have none. To day, didn't have none. You know what
I'm saying, Mine in my business, the name of my company,
mine in our business. Also, and I go and I

(01:07:56):
come in and I said, okay, it's taking the lines.
He's like, yo, Bro. When we record the song, I'm like,
oh my bad. Oh I'm sorry. Hey, were ready? We ready,
you know, guitarists already laid the electrical guitar. Pard, We're
ready for you to cut. And then the artist looks
at me and then whispers into the person next to

(01:08:18):
them's ear. And the person next to them said, the artist,
so and so feels like the song doesn't personally speak
to their heart.

Speaker 4 (01:08:29):
Y'all all in the same room together, Oh, bro.

Speaker 1 (01:08:31):
We disclose. So I see, whenever I get offended, I
talk in my accent, you know, because I don't. So
now I'm talking very like you know, man, y'all nigga
fucking with me? Man? Why hey? Look, so look, so
this is what I'm thinking. We start with the hook,
see how you feel with it, and then we go

(01:08:52):
from there. This this song doesn't match. So and so
says to tell you that this song doesn't match it?
Chie did gi ah? You're fucking with me right now?
That's a joke. No, you mean to tell me this person? Bro?
Literally we disclosed, So you mean to tell me this

(01:09:13):
person right head next to you. It's telling you to
tell me. No man, you ah fucking with me. This
gotta be a joke. God, we would joke. I was
just talking to you word whisper again. So and so

(01:09:37):
say no, no, no, so and so and said fucking nothing.
That's so I'm so done. I walk out. I gone
to my I gone to my people. I say, hey,
I know what pan ain't they doing right now? Why
you lying? You lying? Trust me? Watch this, y'all gotta

(01:09:58):
come see this come back. It was already gone. So
so we like the lave. Yeah, the girls said that.
She said to say that she ain't feeling it. I wait,
so she didn't even sit by she tells it. I don't.

(01:10:19):
I went home. I was so mid was my all night.
And I've never worked with that person ever again in
my life. Wow, true story, baby, Ah, this music I
was just talking to I was just talking to you,
talking to you.

Speaker 4 (01:10:37):
It's never that serious.

Speaker 1 (01:10:39):
It's never the vibe is not that serious.

Speaker 4 (01:10:43):
It's never get lost in the vibe.

Speaker 1 (01:10:47):
This is what this is.

Speaker 2 (01:10:48):
How I'm supposed to act. Man, don't do that, young artist,
old artists, any artists don't do that.

Speaker 1 (01:10:55):
Why why, I don't know. It was it was very
It was very you know what at the point at
the moment, I was upset and I felt disrespected. And
now it's one of my favorite stories that I like.
It's one of my favorite stories that I like to
tell when people come to my house, you know, especially
when especially if somebody says the artist's name in my house,

(01:11:16):
I'd be like, oh, let me tell you what happened.
I can't wait to tell you this story. Whispers just
try that, try just maybe you can make it a TikTok.
And then if it's a prank and you tell Now,
if it's a prank and you're like, we're just talking
with you, that's a fire prank. But bro dead serious

(01:11:42):
what I mean. And I'm like standing they sitting in
a chair like that in the couch, and I'm standing
up looking down and they ain't getting up. Every time
I talk and I'm not talking to her. I'm talking
to this one. And when I talked to her, she
will whispered in her ear and then she will talk

(01:12:03):
to me.

Speaker 4 (01:12:04):
I ain't talking this nigga.

Speaker 1 (01:12:05):
No mom.

Speaker 4 (01:12:07):
So he's like, that's what she's saying.

Speaker 1 (01:12:08):
But we're just talking to you. What me? What me?

Speaker 4 (01:12:14):
Somebody else?

Speaker 3 (01:12:15):
It wasn't me.

Speaker 1 (01:12:16):
Yeah me. You know, she pulled a shaggy on me fast.
I'm sorry that this is man. It's incredible man. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:12:26):
So those experiences are great, great, great, and especially early
in your career to be like, okay, cool, okay, this
is something that happens.

Speaker 1 (01:12:36):
Okay, I'm prepared.

Speaker 2 (01:12:37):
It's a wild niggas in this sh wow. I mean
you got to you got to clear the hallway.

Speaker 1 (01:12:42):
Niggas.

Speaker 2 (01:12:43):
Oh my god, you got to. You know what I'm saying,
my eyes. Don't look me in my eyes, my eyes,
you can't look.

Speaker 1 (01:12:51):
You can't do me. Nok for me, it's like you
can't do me. No, I'm taking our person. I'll just
go home. It's not that serious for me. And and
you know what, Like again, my dad was incredible. I
ain't never there's only one famous person that I've ever
been like, whoa to me? Jay Z? Baby? That was
my favorite artist. Why he's the only rapper that ever

(01:13:13):
said Saint Thomas and his raps, what up to my
Miami and Saint Thomas connects, and I was like.

Speaker 4 (01:13:18):
He was locked in.

Speaker 1 (01:13:19):
I told you as a little boy, I thought you'll
didn't know we existed, right, I did. And I loved
them because I've always felt like an outsider. I've always
been the guy that been like, yo, I'm from Saint
Thomas and I'm kind of awkward. I really don't know
how to move. I don't want to be so bro.
When I'm in La Bro, I be in my hotel,
I be in the I go to the movies like
I went to the movies the other night. I go

(01:13:39):
to the studio and I go back to the hotel.

Speaker 4 (01:13:42):
We'll come fuck with.

Speaker 1 (01:13:43):
Us, man. I would love to, you know, yeah, I
would love to man with I would love to.

Speaker 4 (01:13:49):
We appreciate you pulling up.

Speaker 1 (01:13:50):
Thank you, thank you for having me. This ship was incredible.
It was a big time pull up. Man.

Speaker 2 (01:13:55):
You know what I'm saying, Like, we don't. We don't
take it for granted. Man, you know what I'm saying.
And we we tap it and when we see each
other and it's always love. But you trying to get
you and your wife to move to Atlanta for a
long time.

Speaker 1 (01:14:06):
No, no, no, I ain't go ahead. I'm now set
my sights on on on South Florida. Okay with that
state task still the South, I said, I take it.
You know what I'm saying it. You know I'm working
on her. I heard in California.

Speaker 4 (01:14:21):
I just got in front of I'm never leaving California.

Speaker 1 (01:14:24):
I gotta Porto Rico plug that. I just you know,
we'll talk about.

Speaker 4 (01:14:27):
Saint Thomas might be a place to man.

Speaker 2 (01:14:29):
Man.

Speaker 1 (01:14:29):
See you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (01:14:31):
We're gonna make it do but your high level, bro
and man, we give you your flowers, bro, and we
celebrate you, bro.

Speaker 1 (01:14:37):
And and and when you win, brother, we dance.

Speaker 4 (01:14:41):
All of us.

Speaker 1 (01:14:42):
Look at it. I appreciate we look at it. Thank
you what I'm saying, you're you're you're one of our elite.
You know what saying. So nigga keep going, God will
keep going. You know what I'm saying. Write me one, Yes, there, no,
I would. I would love it. You gotta write me one.

Speaker 2 (01:14:57):
And you got to write him one because we're the
first manager the artists, artists, man, artist manager.

Speaker 1 (01:15:04):
You know what we're doing, man, ladies and gentlemen.

Speaker 2 (01:15:06):
My name is Tank Valentine and this is the R
and B Money Podcast, the authority on all things R
and B and tonight, we have got a special man
in the building game, but with that real pin, with
that real pan, really pimped his pin. Really listen man
from from the shock to to the to the sky,

(01:15:32):
not even ding for real yad man, Good work man,
Thank your money Money.

Speaker 6 (01:15:48):
R and B Money is a production of the Black
Effect Podcast Network. For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, is
it 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 Jyvalentine and at the Real Tank.

Speaker 2 (01:16:08):
For the extended episode, subscribe to YouTube dot com or
slash R and B Money