QLS Classic: Boyz II Men Part 1

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, what's up everybody. It's Quest Love and please make
sure that you're up to date on my podcast, The
Quest Love Show. However, it's Quest Love Supreme for life.
Back in late twenty twenty, in the thick of the pandemic,
QLs had my guys one Boys to Men for a
two part podcast discussion. It's damn near three hours of
conversation when we get real and all the stories behind

(00:23):
this incredible record breaking group. So join me fon, tigelow Laiya,
Unpaid Bill and Sugar Steve for this amazing touchstone interview
with a lot of humor, candor and realness. Thank you
to Nate, Sean and Wanye. Shout out to you, to
Mike and Mark, You're all boys to Men to me,
you guys humbled me and also gave one incredible conversation

(00:44):
at a time when we needed it. So here's part
one of Boys to Men on Quest Love Supreme. Quest
Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
Nobody else hear you record?

Speaker 1 (01:01):
Uh yeah, okay, what his real name?

Speaker 2 (01:06):
I mean, that's what is Mama phone?

Speaker 3 (01:08):
Oh yeah, that's it? Yes, I am immune.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
Okay, all right, well, ladies and gentlemen, what can I
say Our guest today are the pride of my hometown
in Philadelphia. They are, in my opinion, and I'm very biased,
they are simply one of the finest, most talented singing
groups in history.

Speaker 3 (01:32):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
They have made classic records, they have broken records, and
when those records got broken, they broke records with their
own records. The three singles three singles single handedly have
occupied the number one spot for forty three weeks.

Speaker 4 (01:47):
In a row.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
That is no small feet when it's just spread out
through three singles. Only two other artists in recording history
have achieved that feat. And know his name isn't Michael Jackson,
Elvis and the Beatles. You know to be alive to
watch Beatles fans cry over into the road record breaking
the Beatles, that was one of the most craziest days

(02:11):
I've ever seen. We can call them the last true
R and B group. We can call them the forefathers. Uh.
We know that every any any group of individuals that
call themselves boys band, they know they owe this group
everything from and sink to B t s they owe
them greatly. Please welcome to questl Supreme. Finally, the one

(02:32):
and only Boys to men.

Speaker 3 (02:35):
There you go, y'all finally because we only got one call.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
Damn wait wait wait wait, is this gonna be.

Speaker 5 (02:45):
You know, hey, hey, you know what's type of we're
high school like like, yeah, it's gonna be real.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
Had a look on look right now, I'm all right,
Jill Scott. Episode went somewhere, the music, episode went somewhere, boy, somewhere.

Speaker 3 (03:12):
This is this is this isn't really you're gonna get like,
you know, we only know one way to talk to
each other.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
Actually, wait, my first question. People are dying to know
what the hell did y'all do this sudden impact?

Speaker 3 (03:33):
I don't know what we did in that wasn't I
grew up. No, I'll tell you what. I'm pleasing to
know what we did. We tried to save him after
Mike Rivers got rid of him. We tried to sign
the Stone Creek and Philly and took him over the
time of the toll and he said, oh hell no.
Then somebody named the Backstreet Boys came out and then
they disappeared. Wow, what happened? Mother?

Speaker 2 (03:55):
Nathan?

Speaker 6 (03:56):
Everyone than you.

Speaker 1 (03:58):
I can tell it's gonna be a classic interview already.
Where are you guys right now? I assume that, and
I know you guys get tired of asking like when
people see individually, like where the other group at as
if you're attached to the hip together right now right,
because I can never be nowhere without mister you know
right exactly? So where are you guys right now?

Speaker 5 (04:19):
I'm in l A Wins in Vegas, and Nate's in
a big old house in Tampa, Florida, sitting batty the big.

Speaker 3 (04:26):
Old house like everybody else. Everybody else is in a
big old house too. Lake.

Speaker 1 (04:31):
I'm all right, I see when when? Okay, based on
the reality that we're living right now, when's the last
time that you three were physically in this in the
room at the same time.

Speaker 5 (04:45):
February.

Speaker 3 (04:46):
I will tell you this, Yeah, March. But I'll tell
you one even crazier. When we left each other in March.
By the time we got to May or June, it
was probably the longest that we've ever been apart from
each other since high school.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
That's what I was going to say. What's has this
been the biggest break that you guys have had?

Speaker 3 (05:04):
Yeah, without a doubt, without seeing each other or talk. Yeah, physically, yeah,
we went on breaks, but we saw each other. We
hung out one and Sean, you's living around the corner,
stuff like that. But like physically being a part for
this long, it's the longest I missed.

Speaker 1 (05:18):
All of those niggas, So how how does that affect?
Especially when you've been singing together for so long, for
so consistent, how does that affect you? Like when I
hang up, I'm about to We're about to do like
our first root show in eight months, and I'm actually

(05:40):
nervous about it because like like we're we're gonna have rehearsal,
which is I mean, we did it so much that
the automatic pilot was good, But like, how does it
when you're not in that rhythm anymore? Like, how does
that affect?

Speaker 3 (05:54):
I mean, we don't know, we aint never did it.

Speaker 2 (05:58):
It's never happened before, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 7 (06:01):
But but like you said, you know, groups that have
been together for this long and you know, working together,
we we pretty much know our roles, We know what
roles we play, so you know, I'm pretty sure it's
more it's it's auto pilot pilot as well. It's just
you know, getting in the room together and and you know,
remembering our notes and the steps and all kinds of
stuff like that.

Speaker 2 (06:20):
That's the only thing. But for the most part, man,
this is this is weird. You know what I'm saying.
It's definitely weird, but you know, we got to make
the most of it.

Speaker 1 (06:29):
Is this a welcome break? Most most artists that I
talk to say like, this is the first real sleep
I've gotten. This is the first like I mean, monetary issues,
a side of worry about you know, how your life
is going to be affected. Like, is is this a
welcome break or is it just like I mean, I

(06:49):
think it's.

Speaker 2 (06:50):
More individual that that that that question to be answered.

Speaker 7 (06:53):
I mean, for me, I think two months that's that's
a welcome break for me, you know what I'm saying.
But that the two months, I'm ready to see them,
ready to you know, be where we where we are,
you know, ready to get back on stage.

Speaker 2 (07:06):
I'm ready to see my brothers. I'm ready. You know
what I'm saying.

Speaker 7 (07:09):
You got to have that that that energy flow of
people that are like minded around you and and create
the same way and think the same way musically around you.
So after two months, I'm like, yo, it's I gotta
I gotta do it. But you know, it's it's it's
welcome for about two months for me.

Speaker 2 (07:24):
I don't know about everybody else.

Speaker 1 (07:26):
Now you're just ANTSI to give back to Yeah whatever.

Speaker 5 (07:30):
I mean, yeah, I mean it's it's the same. So
I think we were all due.

Speaker 8 (07:34):
There's there comes a ceiling that you know, you tour
after a while, you know you want to say, okay,
you know what, let's let's let's fall back for a
second and kind of like, you know, look at our
houses for a little while and go food shopping and
do regular normal stuff. Because I think with us that
that's the balance that's required for all of us. We've

(07:56):
never really been about and you know what's in there.
We've never been about all the the you know, the
spectacle and all the other stuff that just came with
the job. But for the most part, you would see
us driving down Saladrie, you know what I'm saying, like,
you know, in our cars getting some music or you know,
getting some food or.

Speaker 5 (08:14):
Just hanging out or whatever.

Speaker 3 (08:15):
That's just what we like to do, right you know.

Speaker 8 (08:18):
And and the stage is is just another persona that
when you know, when we're on stage, we go off
and we do what we need to do. And we
sing and we jump around and black fools and then
after that, you know we're back to just being normal.

Speaker 5 (08:30):
Sean, Wynye and Nick you know what I mean.

Speaker 8 (08:32):
So you know that that's that's always been the ebb
and flow and as it should be with most artists,
like you know, we we require both in order for
us to feel pole, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 5 (08:45):
So you know, so so it's it's but yeah, it's
it's I miss it. I think the guys miss it.

Speaker 8 (08:53):
We missed being out there and performing because, like I said,
it feels like it's half of us that's kind of
missing to some degree.

Speaker 3 (08:58):
You know.

Speaker 5 (08:59):
Yeah, we'd like to be home. We like to chill
and all this stuff, but you know, we didn't go lout.

Speaker 2 (09:02):
We like to entertain.

Speaker 3 (09:03):
This is what we do.

Speaker 6 (09:05):
One thing I was curious to know.

Speaker 1 (09:06):
I saw y'all.

Speaker 6 (09:07):
Y'all came to Raleigh. Man, this is probably like ten
plus years ago.

Speaker 9 (09:11):
This is a minute ago, and y'all performed, and you know,
it was outside and y'all was in suits, and the
choreography I think y'all were doing like the motown. It
was cover records, y'all done, and the show was amazing,
and we all like we loved it. I was curious
to know how do y'all preserve y'all voices after all
these years? Man, because y'all still sounded exactly like the

(09:32):
records twenty plus years later.

Speaker 3 (09:34):
I think part of it is exactly what we were
saying earlier, is like, we haven't really been away from
each other just long. I mean, I played the fifth
on the other topic. But the fact that we've always
we sang all the time. There hasn't been months that
have gone by where we haven't sang or we haven't performed.
So you know, it's like a muscle, if you work

(09:55):
it out all the time, it'll be there for you.
And because we've never really ever been separated in our
whole lives, we sing almost every other week or so,
and I mean definitely in the last five years or so,
we've been extremely consistent. I mean with Vegas, we I
mean there's probably not a week that's gone by in
the last five years that we haven't tang. So it's

(10:19):
up go it's in consistency.

Speaker 2 (10:22):
What are y'all doing now to make sure it is well?

Speaker 3 (10:25):
I mean we still we still sing, we just don't
sing together. I mean, I'm sure you know, we know
each other's personality. So you know, we sing around the house,
we sing on stuff we create. I mean, we just
we just sing, and I think we're just It's funny.
When we first got started our role manager of years ago, Coyelle,
you know, we would sing so much that every every
time we would sing, he would pull out a cup
almost as if you know, you guys trying to sing

(10:46):
for some coins or whatever, because you know, we we
hadn't quite been successful then, so he was like, you know,
you got to learn when to tone it down and
when you know, you just can't sing all the time.
But I think that's one thing that he never really
could take out of us, so over time, you know,
it's just something that we've always done.

Speaker 2 (11:03):
Okay, real quick, real quick, what do you mean by
you pleaded the fifth one the last question? Then I
need to.

Speaker 3 (11:10):
Oh no, well see again. The difference for me is that,
unlike you guys, I fly before we did this. For
the last five years, I fly almost five thousand miles
a week for Vegas. So when you talk about needing
time away, I probably need a lot more than you
guys do because I just it's just too much for

(11:32):
me to do. I mean, I'm flying east west, east
west every single week.

Speaker 1 (11:36):
So it's not for that residency you were doing. Come
to Vegas.

Speaker 3 (11:42):
I live in Florida. I've been flying back and forth
for the last five years every week.

Speaker 2 (11:47):
And are you still Nate?

Speaker 1 (11:49):
Were you still doing your show as well?

Speaker 3 (11:50):
We see? See the thing is I'm answering. I'm answering
why's question because I know what he's saying.

Speaker 2 (11:58):
It's like, I just need a clarification, because you know
what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (12:01):
I just I need clarification.

Speaker 3 (12:03):
I know, but that's what I was saying. It's like,
you know, it's not it's not it's not the group
per se. It's just when you get it. My grind
is a little bit different than you guys because you
guys on the West Coast, you're right there, thirty minutes away.
You know what I'm saying. But when you got to
wake up at four thirty every every Thursday or Friday,
fly out every week and turn right back around, and

(12:24):
that's not counting what we do during the week. I mean, yeah,
nigga need a break.

Speaker 1 (12:28):
Right, I get it. So that means Nat is James
Poyser and a mirror. I was like, I'm gonna be
in Manhattan. I moved to Manhattan. James is like, no,
I'm gonna go further down, further down south to Delaware
and drive every day for three hours. All right, I
get it down.

Speaker 3 (12:46):
Yeah, that's right about it.

Speaker 1 (12:47):
But you about right this This leads to my next question.
So you know I was. I was immersed in my
particular culture at Creative and Performing Arts High School.

Speaker 5 (12:59):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (12:59):
For those that don't know, we always.

Speaker 3 (13:03):
Never made it, never made it, never ever made it
to advisory. Because he sat right next to me, I
know he wasn't.

Speaker 1 (13:10):
Now the thing is, the thing is is that you
know there's I don't know much about the singing culture
at Creative and Performing Arts. So my particular experience there
was all right. First of all, like I had a
kind of a bloods and crips uh environment. The bloods

(13:34):
were like the jazz heads. In order to get Chris
and Joey's respect, I just study all this forties jazz
to let them know I speak their language. And then
on the other side, Kurt rosewink. I don't know if
you remember Kurt rose Awekle, but he's like, yeah, he's
he's a massive deal right now in the world of jazz.
So he would try to force me to unlearn all

(13:57):
the old ship that christ and Joey wanted me to learn, right,
and then I'm going behind both their backs and doing
hip hop with Tarik kind of like whatever gang was
winning that That's the side I was on. But what
was what was the culture for vocal majors on the
fourth floor? Oh I can, I can, I can, and

(14:18):
like take me through it.

Speaker 5 (14:19):
I could break that down because because honestly, I wasn't
in any of it.

Speaker 1 (14:25):
Because when I y'all would break out in song.

Speaker 3 (14:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (14:28):
But yeah, here's the thing. When when when I came in,
Whydy wasn't in yet. I came in in eighty six,
and why I came in eighty.

Speaker 1 (14:37):
Seven and there was a freshman okay, and I can't.

Speaker 5 (14:40):
When I came in, you had your clicks, you know
what I'm saying.

Speaker 4 (14:44):
You had your gospel kids, you know the ones that
just straight up saying gospel all day, every day, her.

Speaker 5 (14:54):
Jesus all day, you know what I'm saying. And then
you had the cool kids, you know what I'm saying
That Nate used to hang around.

Speaker 3 (15:04):
No no, no, no, no, no, don't even know that.

Speaker 10 (15:07):
No no no no no no no, I don't do it.

Speaker 3 (15:12):
If you don't do it, be right, be right, hang over,
I'll not be right. I did not hang around them.
They hung around me. Let's get it right, let's not
even you know, no, no, I need that, I need
we got to clear it up.

Speaker 8 (15:32):
They hung around me because most of them was from
North Philly, and thank you so Kapa was in South Philly.
And you know every day after the Columbo kids will
come outside and try to beat our asses every day
because we could sing and dance right, and I didn't
have that bro A lot of those A lot of
those dudes hung around Nate, as he says it, because

(15:53):
you know that that was the cool kids.

Speaker 3 (15:55):
That's my neighborhood. So they don't want to get their assa.

Speaker 1 (15:59):
How real? How real was the pulump because again I
was so when you're in that basement, you could hide
all day and nobody would miss you until so I
was separated from all that ship because we just stay
in the basement. How real was that Polympic?

Speaker 5 (16:17):
Bottom line is one of my friends got is those
broken by the little kids.

Speaker 3 (16:24):
Okay, here, here, here.

Speaker 1 (16:27):
Those let's plumb all right. Let me girls, plumbo, let me,
let me, let me, let me explain to you. I
got you, okay, okay, help little kids.

Speaker 3 (16:35):
They're big brothers were from the project, so they lived
in my neighborhood. I went to the school because I
was local. Most of the other guys went to the
school because they were from Northeastern the It was a
magnet school. So when they came down, you know what
they little you know, so called Gucci shoes and whatnot.
My my neighborhood guys wasn't happy about that. And then

(16:58):
they would be in the school and they would mess
with the little Columbian kids and they go tell their
big brothers. And by the end of the day, the
big brothers be waiting outside and I'm the only one
that can walk outside, and I have a problem. So
they hung around me.

Speaker 1 (17:10):
They was they was like based kids, no.

Speaker 3 (17:14):
Money, yeah, because they had to be split high school
that would share them.

Speaker 5 (17:23):
It was their bigger brothers that I got you. So
it wasn't the actual.

Speaker 2 (17:32):
But they was causing the issue though.

Speaker 3 (17:35):
Well what it was was the school was it was
a big high school. One of those older schools, and
you know, it's a neighborhood with no money. So they
split our high school at the same building with lower
grade kids that were like seventh and eighth grade, so
they were on one side of the building. We won
the other side. Those upper crusty so called Kappa choir

(17:56):
people that like to you know, mess with little broke
kids would call them up all kinds of names. They
go home and tell their family and then they'd have
to deal with it after school.

Speaker 7 (18:05):
But you know that, you know what, it wasn't always
them calling them names and stuff. It was the fact
that we were if that that the the you know,
artists are eccentric, you know what I'm saying. So we
walk different, we talk different, we act different.

Speaker 2 (18:20):
You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 7 (18:22):
And I'm not gonna I'm not going to front. I mean,
of course there was some interaction. I'm sure the interaction
escalated it to be what it became. But the thought
process behind it is there was a lot of fucking
kids in that school and the fact that we all
had to interact at some point in time, whether it

(18:42):
was crossing the hallways, I'm sure there was a little
bit of eyeing and things like that. But when you
left the school, you're not thinking that what happened in
school is going to check.

Speaker 3 (18:53):
You're thinking that.

Speaker 7 (18:55):
So when you walk outside and you see all these
dudes standing on the wall, like did he go right there?

Speaker 2 (19:00):
Or did it go? It didn't even have to be
that person.

Speaker 7 (19:03):
It's just they wanted to make sure that they made
themselves known and seen that this is their neighborhood.

Speaker 2 (19:09):
And y'all gonna have to run if y'all come out here.

Speaker 3 (19:11):
That's what.

Speaker 5 (19:14):
Anyway, I digress, I digress back to the to the
vocal coachure.

Speaker 1 (19:20):
So you had the so called this is my favorite episode.

Speaker 3 (19:24):
I just said the same.

Speaker 8 (19:26):
You had the so called cool kids right that all
hung out with me, and then you had the geeks, right,
the nerds, right, spazoids, the.

Speaker 5 (19:40):
Horrible You weren't a weep, No I was.

Speaker 1 (19:48):
He was pulling George though I.

Speaker 10 (19:50):
Was pulling when he got in the group. Always no, no, no, no, Let.

Speaker 5 (20:02):
Me let me explain.

Speaker 2 (20:03):
I don't think I got nothing.

Speaker 8 (20:04):
That was very true, which is one of the reasons why,
one of the reasons why I had somewhat of an
issue because listen, I was the same nigga when I
went into school right right, I could sing the same
I hung around the same people even when I was
in the group, the whole nine yards then the group

(20:24):
you know that show of Eyuary fourteen.

Speaker 1 (20:27):
And one, y'all cheat with the Sparkles, Yeah, okay with
the cheat.

Speaker 8 (20:31):
You know.

Speaker 5 (20:36):
Y'all had the whole house business. O.

Speaker 3 (20:40):
Listen, listen, you didn't kill that ship for they sparkles
in the hand and like something. If you and boys
to man, you going all the way.

Speaker 1 (20:49):
That's the only way we know how to do it,
all right, Yeah, to bring our people up to date.
There's a Valentine's Day performance in school, and you know
this is the moment where you felt like, all right.

Speaker 3 (21:05):
Your instrument was just gonna do it now, Sparkles.

Speaker 5 (21:11):
Because I lied, he ran it too, the Sparkles.

Speaker 3 (21:16):
I lied to you. Not niggas got beat by Sparkles.

Speaker 1 (21:24):
No, but I'm dead serious. When y'all walked on stage,
I was like, oh, ship, They're like a real group.
Like this isn't unique attraction anymore. This is this is
like a real group. And the thing was, girls were
screaming in the audience like it was Ed Sullivan on

(21:48):
the Beatles. Absolutely and I was like, yo, but dude,
like I just said that, he still might owe me
seventy five cents, like this is still them. They're not
a real group. But for that, for that ten minute performance, y'all,
y'all transformed into like it was like the Jackson's came

(22:09):
to school and ship And I was like, wow, let me.

Speaker 3 (22:12):
Tell you, dude, Honestly, we didn't really realize it until that.

Speaker 2 (22:16):
It was.

Speaker 3 (22:16):
It was one of those things where I think the
same way you felt it at that moment, it's the
same way we felt it. And we literally had no
idea what the hell was happening?

Speaker 2 (22:27):
None that none.

Speaker 3 (22:29):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (22:29):
I mean, that was a transformative moment.

Speaker 7 (22:32):
It's crazy you bring that up, because, like Sean said,
it was girls that you know. I'm pretty sure we
all tried to like, you know, send my holler at
during the year, you know what I mean, and they
basically gave us no attention whatsoever. Bro, when we were
when because you remember, the principal came.

Speaker 2 (22:53):
And stopped it.

Speaker 1 (22:54):
Yes, he was gonna stop it because right because it
was so crowd.

Speaker 2 (22:59):
Was like, this is not a concert, this is not
you remember that.

Speaker 5 (23:06):
In our poses looking stupid as ship.

Speaker 1 (23:08):
Yeah, like, that's really weird. I'm the only one that
remembered this moment. I was like, I wasn't even want
to bringing up I'm like, I don't remember that.

Speaker 3 (23:19):
Let me tell you when we talked. We used to
talk about it on the tour bus all the time, dude,
like Wan said, and Sean said, nobody wouldn't talk to us, dude.
We we all had our own little clicks. But when
we were doing boys to men stuff, because everybody in
the group in the school could sing, you know, a
male could see like everybody could sing. It was just
like okay, well everybody could sing. But it wasn't just

(23:39):
in the school. It was after school, when we stayed
there until ten o'clock at night, or when we went
down the subway at ten o'clock at night. It was
all that stuff that that put us a little bit
ahead of everybody else and it became normal for us.
That's just the way we're supposed to do it.

Speaker 2 (23:55):
Yeah, we didn't stop at three o'clock.

Speaker 7 (23:56):
And it was just crazy because those girls man after
that performance, the same girls I remember them, Cadijia, she.

Speaker 2 (24:10):
Sat right next to me right after the after the
class and.

Speaker 5 (24:14):
She was like well he didn't give me a rose,
and I was like, that's.

Speaker 2 (24:19):
Why you didn't give me a number.

Speaker 5 (24:23):
I'm gonna make it.

Speaker 8 (24:28):
You know how important it was like you know, bag
of upper class and I was like in this everywhere
eh grade and I had life classmen for a girlfriend,
like a straight singor like right like weeks after the show,
like I had a baddie.

Speaker 6 (24:46):
I'll went from virgens to not.

Speaker 3 (24:49):
I'm gonna tell you what's crazy though, when you look
at and you look at the whole musical landscape to
the school at that time, it's like, you know, we
used to try to do new audition stuff like that
and sound modern and that was kind of our niche.
But like you guys and stuff was interesting to us
because it was like our we knew our parents would
hear y'all do y'all jazz stuff and be like, we'd

(25:12):
be like, that's my friend, Like he's not playing on
old stuff like and it's it's you could you knew
the vibe because it was like if older people fell
in love with you guys and stuff, it was fire.
Not that young people didn't, but we couldn't mentally soak
in all that deep jazz stuff y'all had going on.
So we would just watch and watch older people just

(25:33):
lose their mind, like these guys are so deep in
there and they're you know, they're you know, so rich,
and we be like, we can't even read have the music,
the stuff that they playing. It's like it was, it
was interesting. It was you guys were more cultured than
we could ever get at that age in our life musically.

Speaker 8 (25:53):
And let me tell you, let me tell you, man,
like even now like we will we would tell people
in interviews that those four years with probably some of
the best years arguably in that school, because so much
talent came out of those four years that it.

Speaker 5 (26:11):
Was it was something going on.

Speaker 11 (26:14):
Can you talk about it real quick, Sean, because this
is common knowledge to y'all, but to the rest of
the world, people don't know what came out of Kappa Like.

Speaker 5 (26:24):
It was Tarika and our Mirror, it was a Melo rule,
it was Chris Christian.

Speaker 8 (26:30):
Like, there was so many established now established still touring
the world, making money, you know, winning awards, the whole
nine yards that happened in that four years, and we
all went to the Stady School to god.

Speaker 1 (26:51):
Okay, so I came to Kappa. You came in eleventh
grade as well.

Speaker 3 (26:58):
No, but the year you came in, I was already
I was already there, right.

Speaker 1 (27:02):
So the thing was is that the first incarnation of
the group was unique attraction. How did that dissolve and
how did it morph into boys them?

Speaker 3 (27:13):
In the first incarnation was in eighty five?

Speaker 1 (27:17):
Oh okay, that was me.

Speaker 3 (27:19):
That was none of the guys that you know other
than me. So not even Mark Nelson, not even Mark Nelson,
no matter of fact, yeah Mark, No, not even Mark Nelson.
Mark was right after that we had one guy kick out.
So right on the end of that was guys you
don't know other than Mark. And as people would graduate
school and lead a group or quit the group, or

(27:39):
they girl pull them out, you know, all the great stuff,
you know, I would just put you know, other people
back in the group. Now. It's funny because one was
actually picked before anybody else before he actually got into
school because I watched him auditioned the year before and
I knew somebody was leaving. So I was like, all right,
well he leaving, I'm get that little negga. So as

(28:01):
he get in there, he just don't really know how
his thing is going down. So then you know, Wan
was at it when we had you know, me Win
and it was a girl and two other guys and
then Sean. Actually again, like Sean said, he kind of
had his own little nerdy click. We didn't really know
how well he could sing. We knew he could sing.
He's in the choir because he you know, at school,

(28:22):
don't pick nobody. But he had a solo one year
and I was like, I need him. So the next
year somebody else left put him in, and then it
was me and him, Wan and Mark and it was
just us. Mike just snuck in by a mistake. It
wasn't like we really hand picked the guy. He was.
We were singing the bathroom rehearsing. Mike walked past us

(28:44):
while we were rehearsing, and he went to the bathroom
taking pits, and while we were singing, he sang along
with what we were singing. You know, Mike boys, you know,
so it filled up the bathroom. Yeah, so it was like, uh,
all right, well, you know, let's let's see how he
works in here. And then that that was that was
what you know, and that all came together around eighty eight, right,

(29:06):
sean yes eighty eight.

Speaker 1 (29:08):
Yeah, So okay for those that don't know what actually
I don't know. I know the legend of the Civic
Center story, but how exactly did you finagle your way
backstage to.

Speaker 11 (29:25):
VIV?

Speaker 1 (29:26):
Was it a new edition performance? Like what was the
actual story that?

Speaker 5 (29:32):
Okay, it was it was it was the powerhouse that
year and uh that was the year that uh Bell
BIV Duvaux was actually being announced like they Mike and
Rick and Ron went to Philly to make an announcement
that they were going to be a singing group together.
But the thing was was.

Speaker 8 (29:53):
Obviously Charlie knew knew Nate Charlie, and Charlie was like, Yo,
I'm gonna have I'm gonna have you let y'all. You
know hear y'all sing, you know what I'm saying. And
he was like, all right, cool. So we're sitting out
you know, front, waiting to show up or whatever. He
never showed, but we knew. Uh we ran into Teddy

(30:16):
Pendergrass's daughter. Yeah, okay, the Pendergrads, right, So she was
and she was like, Yo, I'm gonna get y'all in.

Speaker 3 (30:24):
So we got.

Speaker 5 (30:28):
That's another story.

Speaker 3 (30:30):
So so so.

Speaker 5 (30:35):
Yo, so so so we okay, so we did with
you right, right, so we got it.

Speaker 8 (30:44):
And and so we're waiting around the backstage area, right
so I don't know, and then you can help me out.

Speaker 5 (30:51):
Who was the first person to kind of started talking
to her whatever?

Speaker 3 (30:56):
And she was there, say her dad. So she had
a friend with her and they had one extra pass.
I guess it was somebody else was waiting for it.
So Mark kind of enabled to pass from him and
he went backstage and they were kicking or whatever, and
then he borrowed one of theirs and came back out
gave it to uh one of the guys. Then we
kind of switching the pass back and forth till everybody

(31:16):
got back there. And by the time we got back there,
Rick and Ron and them was coming off stage because
they was actually hosting the show, so they was coming
off stage from introducing the group. And when they came
off stage, he was like, yo, we have Ricky first,
Like yo, dude, we got you know, can we sing
for you? And he was like, you know, y'all got
a tape, you know, tape back then, y'all got a
tape And we was like, no, we ain't gonna tape.

(31:38):
We could just sing it right now. He's like, well,
you know, y'all got to send us a tape. And
then Ron was like, yeah, well, you know y'all for
sending He writing an address and I was like, man,
fuck that, so asked. Mike was like, yo, dude, can
we sing for you? Mike was like right now. We
was like yeah, he said all right, cool, and we
just rocked in the uh freaking uh what was it?
I can't remember, yeah, can stand the ring and everybody

(31:59):
was standing around watch and by the time we finished,
Charlie showed up.

Speaker 7 (32:05):
And it was talking wow, what Look Keith Sweat was
there when we finished, surrounding us with Keith Sweat, Paul
Abdul Charrell.

Speaker 3 (32:13):
All like Will Smith, Yeah, yeah, No.

Speaker 8 (32:17):
Will came in after after finished singing Will we were
finished singing. Will came in with a heather jumpsuit yup
and and Harry Bone that said fresh Prince and with
y'all and then that's yeah.

Speaker 3 (32:33):
What's funny is after we finished, Rick was like, well,
you know, y'all still got to send us a tape.
Mike was like, no, y'all, niggas ain't gonta send me
nothing here. I'm gonna be here this time, right, No, no, no, no, no,
call me in about a week and a half and
that was it.

Speaker 1 (32:46):
Wow, just to hear that story, it's almost like creative
Russian Roulette, because if it's five minutes, if it's had
Charlie mac showed up in time, it would have been
a whole different trajectory need anybody standing backstage could have
had it could have been a different result.

Speaker 3 (33:05):
That's learned at that moment not to be late. We
learned not to depend on Charlie Mack.

Speaker 5 (33:16):
You know, I had the same conversation with chear and
he denies this whole story.

Speaker 3 (33:22):
Of course he did, of course that this is no no, no,
no no. And first of all, Sean, you know what's
funny is that a man checked this out. We not
only did we have to get backstage, we didn't even
have tickets to get in. I can't even remember how
we snuck in the building in itself.

Speaker 11 (33:44):
Right, it's quite a few people's story for Powerhouse, though,
you know, is own legacy in that way.

Speaker 3 (33:50):
Yeah, but you know what, honestly, we started to realize
that everybody was sneaking in the Powerhouse after that after
we told the story, everybody sneaking.

Speaker 1 (33:58):
Oh dude, I hate y'all for this story simply because
then suddenly comes the onslaught of YO can spend quick
because he hears the story. And then they're like.

Speaker 3 (34:13):
And just having funny if they do it for us too,
and now we'll be like, yeah, is there somebody is?

Speaker 1 (34:25):
Is there someone established right now that has the story
for y'all? Like I came to y'all first, and y'all
didn't hear a lot of people people who ntablished now.

Speaker 7 (34:34):
Who'll music came to us when we were at the
Vibe video shoot.

Speaker 3 (34:44):
Too, and I didn't even know. I didn't even stink.

Speaker 2 (34:46):
Yep, he's one. It's it's a couple of them, Bro,
I don't music.

Speaker 5 (34:56):
Wow, he.

Speaker 3 (34:59):
Got I gave us, gave us a CD or something
was on the bush, a.

Speaker 2 (35:03):
Lot of the whole lot of records.

Speaker 11 (35:05):
Bro.

Speaker 2 (35:05):
Yeah, I had a kN I could have he would
have he was writing music for us. It would like crazy,
Oh that would have been yeah a voice.

Speaker 3 (35:16):
Man. Wow, it happens, Man, it happens.

Speaker 1 (35:21):
It happens. So all right, when the whatever whatever data,
whatever day that stands in your mind for for officially
arriving right, What lesson would you tell yourself back then
that you wish you knew? As as a precautionary tale.

(35:44):
I'm only asking this because I tell people I told
someone like I think last episode, I said, I spent
my entire events in three weeks not knowing that that
was it records, right, I blew my whole advance on
like four stopping stopping spreeze, and that was it. One lesson?

(36:04):
Did you did you wish you knew then the first
time you got put on like that first year, it's
it's yeah, well, okay, Oh my god, am I dj vlad?

Speaker 2 (36:18):
Now?

Speaker 5 (36:19):
I thought I knew you're absolutely not you're in the culture.

Speaker 3 (36:23):
Yeah, I thought I had lad, you.

Speaker 5 (36:26):
Are not dead.

Speaker 3 (36:28):
I thought I had my business and order. I thought
when my group signed a fifty to fifty publishing deal
with Mike Members that it was a fifty fifty publishing deal,
and without me going too deep into it, it wasn't.

Speaker 1 (36:43):
Okay, So you wish you would have fought for that.

Speaker 3 (36:46):
I wish. I wish y'all would have known a little
bit more at that moment. Then I knew four months
after that because it didn't take much longer to figure
it out, but it was. It was. It was a
life changing this decision that if it was made early
for all of us at that point, yeah, four months,
five six years later, things would have been a lot different.

Speaker 1 (37:10):
Yeah, okay, Uh, Well to ask, was it was the
parting with Viv amicable?

Speaker 3 (37:17):
It was not at first. I mean to this day,
are you fine now? I think we're better now, But
at that time it was not amicable at all. No,
it was.

Speaker 7 (37:28):
Actually The funny thing is is he was literally forced
to part with us, that's right, you know what I mean,
because it was it was between Boys Too Men and
Big ten Records, you know what I mean. And we
were both involved with Motown Records at the time, so
you know, he had to make a choice because they
said it was a conflict of interests and he chose

(37:48):
BIV ten Records.

Speaker 3 (37:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (37:50):
Yeah, taking away from the fact that he had that
he had publishing and.

Speaker 3 (37:57):
Writers.

Speaker 1 (37:58):
Was was Gerald Buzzby a part of that?

Speaker 5 (38:00):
How it was a difficult part of it at the
time that we split.

Speaker 8 (38:08):
It was during the time was going through a major
transition of being sold to a larger record.

Speaker 5 (38:15):
Late and we were a key piece.

Speaker 8 (38:19):
We were Yeah, and we let we basically let him
know we were at that time, we were about nine
million records in or eighty something like that.

Speaker 5 (38:28):
Whatever, It was a lot, and.

Speaker 8 (38:31):
You know, we saw all of the you know, bad
deals surrounding us, and we were like yo, in order
for us to kind of continue and make records, you know,
we basically very kindly said, well, you got to fix
this deal or else we're.

Speaker 5 (38:44):
Not making any more records.

Speaker 8 (38:47):
So, in you know, trying to fix the whole situation,
Jerald presented bid with the big ten deal, Bid ten
records because we were signed up.

Speaker 3 (38:57):
Actually actually that deal was that Yeah, that deal was
predicated on Mike finding three artists, which he did before
we even met Mike. It was set up for him
to find artists and then if his artist were successful,
he would roll over into that record label, which the
artist was us another bad creation, and at that time

(39:18):
mc brains he had three successful artists. But because we
were on the back end of that, like Sean said,
we you know, our numbers weren't right for us. Gerald
pretty much said, listen, I got this deal with you,
but you can't be in these guys pockets too. You
got to figure something out because these guys are holding
up my company now, so if they don't make a record,
I got a problem with you. So he jammed him up, saying, listen,

(39:42):
you can take one of the other. You take this
big ten, big ten deal and roll and rock with that,
or you can rock with them. And he knew we
weren't really happy because early on, you know, we figured
this thing, like I said it was, it wasn't too far.
We figured this thing out about two and a half
million records. I'm like, this money ain't right, so we
roll hold it out fourteen million records, knowing that it

(40:02):
was wrong. So by the time we got there, he
chose to go with Big of ten because he he
produced his three records that the artists that was supposed
to be you know, were successful, and then we ventured off.
So Gerald made that split happen. Otherwise Mike would still
be a part of Boys to Men in some kind
of way, right now, Wow, damn sure.

Speaker 1 (40:22):
So I guess the boy fruit Punch didn't deliver too much.

Speaker 3 (40:29):
Yeah, he didn't get out much.

Speaker 2 (40:32):
Didn't get out much.

Speaker 1 (40:34):
All right, So who what's the what's the uh? I
guess the the process of deciding what the creative vision
is at least for your records. Like, Okay, you got
a record deal and I know that you know the
characters and in Dallas, uh collaborate with you guys, but
who decides, Like who says that, okay, let's start off

(40:58):
with I'd never besides the SOS band, I don't know
many groups that have thrived starting their album off with
three ballots.

Speaker 6 (41:06):
That's the listen heard. I was like, wait a minute, may.

Speaker 1 (41:10):
Please don't go boy right exactly? So well, you know what,
it wasn't who's navigating.

Speaker 3 (41:17):
We didn't have any records. They didn't know what to
do with us. They signed the R and B group
that could sing and they loved it. But once we
made they once we got signed, they didn't have any songs.
So like you know, all the songs that is on
the first album, if you look at we wrote all
those and performing arts, we wrote those in those hallways
and those.

Speaker 2 (41:36):
Before we even had a deal.

Speaker 3 (41:38):
Yeah, before we had a deal. We had those songs
done and they were like, Dallas, we're gonna put you
with this group. What songs you got? Dallas had Motown
Philly sitting around from the Joyce Herby days, but other
than that, Dallas Austen had no more records, so we
was like, oh well we got you know, we do
it so hard to say about it the extra day
it's a cover. You know, we wrote please Don't Go
and only hard this morning, like we wrote all So

(42:00):
we just start recording them.

Speaker 7 (42:02):
Dallas put the production, he produced the record. We sung
it to him and he sat there and figured it
all out and produced the record. And you know, those
songs that you actually hear were already pre written.

Speaker 3 (42:14):
And as far as the ballots is concerned, you gotta
people tend to forget that Motown Philly was the first single.

Speaker 1 (42:18):
It wasn't a ballot, right, Okay, No, I just meant
in terms of the record and who was the alpha
that decides, Okay, this is this is the title of
the album. This is going to be like.

Speaker 5 (42:31):
Yeah, that was big and I think you know him
talking to us, he kind of understood our strengths and
in the albums, specifically this this specific album.

Speaker 8 (42:42):
Uli high Harmony and the ballads had such a presence
that we all agreed that, you know, the the Adagio
side was the best side.

Speaker 3 (42:53):
You know, the performing we stole, right, So we went
We wanted that just as.

Speaker 8 (43:01):
Much because those hit different with us, you know what
I'm saying, And it hit different with our friends. We
would bring friends over and stuff like that. I mean,
they loved the ups, but the ballads just kind of
that kind of made it real fuss.

Speaker 11 (43:14):
Yeah, I went through that list kind of fast.

Speaker 5 (43:16):
I'm just curious.

Speaker 11 (43:17):
Those songs that you said that you wrote in high
school were what and then how did that division? I'm
so curious the songwriting process of the division.

Speaker 8 (43:24):
Nate wrote Please Don't Go and Lonely Heart in School.
Right as we were going along with the process of
doing the record, you know, we started coming up with ideas.
Uh Winya and Nate wrote, uh.

Speaker 1 (43:39):
Well no me and you.

Speaker 2 (43:40):
We wrote this is my Heart in school with my
heart me.

Speaker 12 (43:43):
And well, yeah, I wrote, I wrote my part on
the train on the l that's right. And then I
came and Wine wrote his you know the love and time.

Speaker 3 (43:55):
Like he he you know what I mean?

Speaker 5 (43:56):
And and he wrote that in the studio.

Speaker 3 (44:00):
And wrote Moto Philly.

Speaker 7 (44:04):
We wrote we wrote that in mister Walker's room, bro,
I promise you which one holding?

Speaker 3 (44:11):
Yes? I think I remember that.

Speaker 11 (44:13):
Yeah, mister Walker, you know which just to reiterate what
y'all said earlier for the novices of people who just listening.
Y'all wrote these songs in high school, and yet and
still you only got fifty of these songs.

Speaker 3 (44:28):
And that's when that's when you look at like me
and Sean sitting in my backyard right Motown Philly. You
know when I mean again, I give viv All the
credit for, you know, a lot of the creative stuff.
You know, the idea of creating a song called Motown Philly,
the idea of coming up with a song called titles
and concepts are great, but none of that. That song

(44:49):
rattled you to having my song, and that's where things
started to go left. And we, you know, we looked
up to him a lot. So our thing was you know,
that's our guy. You know what I'm saying. It's cool,
we understand. But once we start to realize money is
coming through and we're still in South Philly, something's gotta change.
But I don't want to get back on the negative.

(45:10):
I'mna stay more on the other stuff. As far as
the songs. Like I said, me and Sean did Motown
Philly in my backyard and then wine we was We
were all sitting in my brother's room and like I said,
Bib came up with the idea, you guys need to
write a Sean call oh and Niggas was like so
it was like who nobody wanted to write it? So

(45:32):
we should? There we we all flipped the coin and
Wan lost, so he had to write it. So he
started writing, so we all went back in the studio. Yeah,
remix Sean. I think me and Sean did the remix.

(45:52):
I think I did. Yeah, anyway, why started writing it?
He came to the studio and he couldn't finish it,
so he's like, yo.

Speaker 2 (46:01):
Dude, finished it, but you said it ain't nazty y'all.

Speaker 3 (46:05):
I said it ain't nasty enough. And he was like
he was like, well, dude, I mean you know what
what are we supposed to do? I said, ye, yeah,
get here? So I rewrote some of it. I rewrote
it and wrote wrote what parts of it and then
we had we started singing it and I was like,
I don't know, man, my dad ain't gonna be proud
of me with this song. Were like just we just

(46:28):
pushed record and just kept going. It was like there
was we ain't we ain't trying to pressure that right now.
So why came in the studio late the day we
was recording and we had a girl in the studio.
Didn't make the record, but we had a girl in
the studio making these sounds and stuff on the right. Yes,
but I mean like some of the stuff that we

(46:49):
didn't make the record. But anyway, video Wine came in.
I was I was on the console. Wine came in
and he heard the girl. He looked at the move
was like, what is what? What's this? What's what is that?
We're just trying to, you know, get the song where
it needs to be. It's like, dude, I told you
my dad ain't gonna be proud of and he ran

(47:10):
out and slammed the door on me and other like
all try to get one more time where you go
from the top.

Speaker 5 (47:18):
With the song.

Speaker 3 (47:20):
So again, most of those songs, almost all those songs
except two on the first album, we all wrote either
in high school or on the way to the studio
and houses getting ready to make that record because Motown
had no songs for us.

Speaker 2 (47:36):
They didn't know what to do with us at all.

Speaker 1 (47:38):
Wow, So how difficult was the transition in your personal
lives again. I can only speak from an experience that
your life drastically changes, and probably the people that change
the most on you are your are family members, like
people that are close to you and whatnot, how awkward

(48:00):
or not awkward. What's that adjustment like with your your
your first year into coming out with as far as
like interacting with friends from your your your childhood and
people that feel entitled.

Speaker 5 (48:16):
I can't say.

Speaker 8 (48:18):
I can't say that there's been like some metal dramatic
like change personally from people that I knew. The people
that I knew were actually in support of me even
before all this, so when it happened for me personally,
they were like, okay, that makes sense because I was
the kid that was in the Philadelphia Boys Choir and

(48:40):
you know I did these things and that, you know,
all the other stuff. So when it came down to oh,
I'm in the group, you know, you had a couple
little knuckleheads's like oh, I don't believe until you know
it all happened.

Speaker 5 (48:50):
But it was never like oh, you know, give me
some money or some it was. It wasn't a movie scene.
It was it was it was all. It was all
all supported in a sense where when I came back
to my neighborhood, everybody was like, Yo, what's up? And
I was sit my old stupid just with my you know,
the same friends that I had, and we'd hang out
and kick it. I think it's the same with everybody.

Speaker 3 (49:12):
I mean, because no, dude, like, Yo, you're supposed to come,
You're supposed to get us up all out of here.
And I'm sitting here going through it because I'm a
logical thinking guy. So I go through my head. I'm like,
and I asked, this, dude, is five y'all out here,
let's just just just play this game for a second

(49:34):
with you. I'm supposed to make it and come back
and get all of y'all out. So if I come
get off five of y'all out and give y'all all
my stuff, y'all gonna be going, and I'm gonna be
back here on this corner by myself. I'm not gonna
be here by myself. I'm not giveing y'all nothing. Yeah,
And that's how that went well with me. It was
with me.

Speaker 7 (49:52):
It was a little different because I'm from the Project
for Richard Island Project.

Speaker 1 (49:57):
And yeah, and Northern Liberties.

Speaker 3 (50:03):
Homes exactly.

Speaker 7 (50:05):
So, so I'm from Richard Island and a lot of
people that when I became famous, they were my age.

Speaker 2 (50:13):
You know what I'm saying. There's a lot of cats
that was my age. But they were doing other things.

Speaker 3 (50:17):
What I'm saying.

Speaker 7 (50:18):
They were street pharmacists, you know what I'm saying. They
were you know, they was hustling, they was doing all
the different stuff. But they always supported me, you know
what I'm saying. Once we became uh you know famous,
uh sort of sick sort of speak, we actually you know,
when I would come back, every time I would come back,
somebody was in jail or dead, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (50:41):
And it was their.

Speaker 7 (50:43):
Brothers and sisters who are now older and in the
place where they were.

Speaker 2 (50:48):
So they didn't have the same respect for.

Speaker 7 (50:52):
Me as their brothers, brothers, you know what I'm saying,
who was like, yeah, we we finally made it, you
know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (51:00):
That's how they felt.

Speaker 7 (51:01):
But then as they started going you know, the prison
and you know, passing away and stuff, that there was
no respect there. I even had to move my grandma
out of and she loved the project. She loved it
even when I was making money. She really literally wanted
to stay there, you know what I'm saying, because that's
really all she knew for so long. But I had
to move her out of there because I couldn't go

(51:23):
and sit out in front of her house.

Speaker 2 (51:25):
With my with my bends, now you know what I'm saying,
with my bends.

Speaker 7 (51:29):
Or in my truck and people just walk by. It
was always something and my grandma was here to getting
a lot from it. And she basically was like, yeah,
they talking crazy. I said, well, you got to move
out of here.

Speaker 3 (51:41):
And I just bought her the heat. The heat was
coming for sure. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (51:45):
So I mean, it's it's it's different.

Speaker 7 (51:47):
I mean family is a little different too, of course,
because like you said, there's always an entitlement somewhere somewhere.
It's not necessarily always the immediate, but there's always an
entitlement of a cousin, of a cousin, a cousin, you know,
I what's you know, But they're not really you know
a part of your life like that, you know.

Speaker 3 (52:06):
I tell you what's funny with me is that I
had to try to, uh, because I always try to
think a little bit ahead. I had to try to
think for family members who don't really understand the change
of the lifestyle. And in some cases, you know, obviously
when he becomes a chestful, you can't bring your whole family,
you know, out of the ghetto. I mean, there are
people still live there and whatnot. To the point where

(52:27):
I had to start seeing my family at my house
because I always felt like me driving up in my
car going in their house, I'm kind of endangering because
when I leave, whoever saw that car pull up, It's like, well,
why was he going in there? What's in there that
I don't know about? So I would always have to
wind up having my family come to me, and I

(52:48):
had to kind of pull up from going to see
my family just not to put them in those spots.

Speaker 6 (52:52):
It's a controlled environment if they come to see.

Speaker 3 (52:54):
Yeah, exactly exactly.

Speaker 1 (52:57):
How how burdensome is in the end of the road
and retrospect, how burdens them?

Speaker 3 (53:06):
Is it?

Speaker 2 (53:06):
Like I understand what he's said, is it?

Speaker 11 (53:10):
Is it?

Speaker 1 (53:11):
How do you feel like, no, no, no, even when
it was happening. When it was happening, you know, Okay,
So I was obsessively reading billboard like this is right
before we got put on. So I was always handing
in industry circles. I was interning at rough House. So
when it got to that twelfth week, like every forty

(53:35):
year old white guy was like, yo, they're about to
break the Beatles. It was like Santa Claus wasn't real,
had no idea, no for real, there was like it
was like Santa Claus wasn't real and they're going to
break this record in the nex and it happened. Like
did did it feel anyway or was it just like, yeah.

Speaker 5 (53:56):
We got Yeah. When we got the news, we were
in London and you know, we were overseas most of
the time. That end of the road was doing what
it was doing.

Speaker 8 (54:06):
So when we finally got the news, we were literally
ten minutes in going on stage at the Hippodrome in
London and someone told us, hey, guys, you know, you
guys broke the record. Uh you know, longest number run
blah blah blah.

Speaker 5 (54:18):
We're like, oh cool, Wow, I think there was more
so I think it was.

Speaker 3 (54:27):
Honestly, we didn't really know how much it meant. Like again,
the same way we were in high school was the
same exact way we were in the business for a
long time. It was just find a song, learn the song,
sing the song better than any damn other group can
ever sing it on the planet, and keep doing it

(54:47):
again and again and again and every single day. That's
all everything was about. So all the other stuff that
was going on that didn't even matter. It's like, okay,
well now we're finished with Thomas rehearsal. Rehearsal was at seven.
We gotta get we got to get these harmonies right
for the next thing. It was just never a time
to even think about that. We just didn't know how

(55:08):
big that was.

Speaker 7 (55:09):
Right, And the funny thing was, at the same time,
if we were if we knew that the the record
even existed, like you said, you were around that circle Mire,
so you know what I mean, people were saying, oh god,
this is about to happen. We didn't even know that
there was a record that existed that needed to be broken,
you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (55:28):
So if we were like waiting for it, like all,
we're about to do it, We're about to do it.

Speaker 3 (55:32):
Yeah, yeah, But what I'm saying, we didn't do it.

Speaker 1 (55:35):
I guess if you're living it, if you guys are
actively working living it and I'm observing it, it's different
like at that point I was observing it. So for me,
like me observing those first two years was just like wow,
like someone that I actually know is doing something, Yeah,

(55:56):
doing something fucking big and let me let.

Speaker 3 (55:59):
Me tell you and that let me tell you one
real quick. We got the same vibe with y'all and
this was crazy. We was running around doing all this stuff.
Went up to Canada. Now you know Canada, they got
the all the all the gear and whatnot. The first
time we ever heard Roots was the clothing line in Canada.
We was like, Jackets is nigga we heard about We
heard y'all as the Roots. We was like, we know

(56:24):
that's up fun. What that's dude, that's that's a mirror.
It was for us, it was like we just felt like, yo,
his other brother made it, you know what I'm saying.
Like that was just so like because that's the only
way we That was our only time we ever heard
anything about the Roots, like, oh, it's the group and

(56:47):
they oh that's oh, we know the biggest y'all. That
was it.

Speaker 11 (56:53):
That was it because I wish they forgot about your
ass after high school.

Speaker 1 (56:58):
Home here, it was like, dude, I'm gonna wait, wait, wait,
I'm gonna I'm gonna know for real, I gotta tell
you that I had to throw that shirt away because
all right, so it's weird. I know your lives have changed,
but imagine a two point six a two point six

(57:21):
second cameo. Yeah, a two point six second cameo. It
literally it changed my life at that point, to the
point where like Tarik would come by the crib, we
go by and he's like, wait, what are you doing.

(57:44):
I was like, I don't know. He's like, you're not
wearing the shirt. I said, I'm not wearing that shirt. Yo,
go get the shirt.

Speaker 6 (57:50):
Man's dirty.

Speaker 1 (57:53):
I'll wait, Like that outfit had to been worn. The
worst it ever got was at my grain mom's funeral. Wow,
I'm not lying. I'm not lying to you.

Speaker 2 (58:06):
It's like it's.

Speaker 1 (58:09):
It's like you guys were so popular, so when.

Speaker 11 (58:13):
They asked you to be in a video a mir
you just how long did you take to say yes?

Speaker 3 (58:17):
Hell? Yeah?

Speaker 9 (58:19):
Like that man being in a video was like and
that's why the funny thing verified on Instagram?

Speaker 3 (58:30):
What's the funnier man?

Speaker 13 (58:32):
Is that back?

Speaker 1 (58:32):
Like you wing up at four in the morning, all
excited looking at you outfit.

Speaker 3 (58:35):
Like yeah, it's like but it's funny because back then, dude,
as soon as we got the word that we was
doing motown Philly and we knew he was doing in Philly,
I mean just nature for us was like who do
we know? Who's our people? Amyor but would anybody we
grew up with like yeah Johnson, Yeah, we tried our

(59:11):
best to get we wanted. We wanted Philly to be
finally on the map with us. We couldn't go on
the map without everybody else.

Speaker 1 (59:20):
Hanso was in it. Yeah, it was like all the.

Speaker 2 (59:26):
Might be I don't know what respect to Hanso.

Speaker 1 (59:30):
Yes he's reverend Reverend Hansel.

Speaker 6 (59:36):
Yeah, let's talk about it.

Speaker 3 (59:38):
Let's talk about Jesus money.

Speaker 1 (59:43):
I'm working with the tax.

Speaker 3 (59:47):
I know that I know that I know to get
up come on man, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (59:53):
Yeah for real, Like I had to throw the shirt
away and not rock that ship. No more crazy man,
that's that's yeah, but it got it got crazy. What
I actually, what I do want to know is can
you guys speak on Khalil Roundtree like a relationship with

(01:00:17):
him and the effect that that had on you.

Speaker 3 (01:00:22):
Gritish man.

Speaker 8 (01:00:24):
Kyliloo Big because Kyli was road manager for the edition.

Speaker 5 (01:00:30):
And we met him in Philly, right, guys, we met
him in a used to forears on at r PM.

Speaker 3 (01:00:39):
At uh RPM on on Delaware Avenue.

Speaker 2 (01:00:42):
Right, Delaware Avenue.

Speaker 8 (01:00:44):
Baby, Yeah, And you know, to make a long story short,
you know, Khalil became our father figure, you know, somebody
that looked out for us and protected us from everything
and everybody.

Speaker 5 (01:00:57):
And and you know, even though Big brought him.

Speaker 8 (01:01:00):
Brought him in, and initially his loyalty was to Big,
you know, that slowly turned it turned into something else.
Like you know, he he started to love us, just
like we started to love him, and it became us.

Speaker 6 (01:01:13):
You know when you when you talk about that where
your father's like in you guys lives, Like what was.

Speaker 2 (01:01:17):
The status to that?

Speaker 3 (01:01:18):
Yeah?

Speaker 6 (01:01:19):
You know, they weren't on the road with us, gotcha,
got you?

Speaker 5 (01:01:22):

Speaker 8 (01:01:23):
Like when we were on the road and we were
traveling and doing all the stuff that we were doing,
he took on that father you know figure you know.

Speaker 3 (01:01:31):
Mon was mine was out but yeah.

Speaker 8 (01:01:33):
Right, but but for the most part, he took care
of all of us and he made sure that you know,
we were not only safe, but that we were carrying
ourselves the right way, and that you know, we stay
motivated and even doing rehearsals and all the other stuff.
Like he he was something special because you know, he
really gave a shit about us. It wasn't just a paycheck,

(01:01:54):
you know, to Khalil, like he became an integral part
of all of our families.

Speaker 5 (01:01:59):
He would talk all of my mothers on the road,
and you know, because the mothers were.

Speaker 8 (01:02:03):
We calling on the road making sure that we're all right,
he would talk to each and every one of them,
making sure that they knew that, you know, we were
safe and all that.

Speaker 5 (01:02:11):
He became something different than just the average Roman.

Speaker 2 (01:02:14):
I mean, yeah, he actually, uh my dad was was
only comfortable with.

Speaker 7 (01:02:20):
Me being on the room we met kyl Once he
met he was like, okay, I'm cool.

Speaker 3 (01:02:28):
That was like he was like the partner for me.

Speaker 11 (01:02:31):
Man.

Speaker 3 (01:02:31):
Like I said, my dad wasn't around. So you know,
I think I got the call first from Viv about
a guy that he was looking into and Kylil had.
It was the night before we all met him. He
was staying at an airport, Marriott or whatever, and you
know he had with a big giant silver case with
all his cassettes lined up on his on his thing

(01:02:52):
in his room. And when I first walked in, dude,
I mean I was a little intimidated because you know,
kylil big dude. I mean he's a big, big guy.
So and that real deep voice, you know what I'm saying.
So you was it was almost like the father figure
that kind of you know, put you in line without
you mentally knowing it. But you know, once you got
to know him, you knew he was a big teddy

(01:03:14):
bear overall. But he was just always he was never
going to tell you something that either wasn't right or
something that was bullshit. That just was not the guy.
You know, if someone tried to, you know, say hey,
well you know I need you to do this or
you know in the business with it, like yeah, we
need you to get your artists to do he was
never that guy like I'm not getting my artist to

(01:03:35):
do anything. Like I'm going to tell them what it
is and then we're going to talk about it. He
was that guy. So he taught us early on the
ins and out of that whole business thing. So, like
Sean said, you know he was. He was more than
a father. He was he was everything we could have
possibly asked for.

Speaker 9 (01:03:52):
Yeah, yeah, what year was it when you passed? I
remember seeing y'all. This was I mean god, I was
in like seventh grade. Y'all came to Greensboro colisee him
and I want to say it was the boy White Superfest,
but I remember it was.

Speaker 6 (01:04:04):
It was y'all, Jo Desy and Hammer was the was
the headliner.

Speaker 3 (01:04:10):
Yeah, I think it was ninety.

Speaker 6 (01:04:13):
Yeah, like ninety two. Yeah, that was around the year
when he passed.

Speaker 3 (01:04:17):
Yes, well, yeah it was ninety two. Yeah, the Hammer Tour.

Speaker 5 (01:04:22):
Yea, it was in Chicago.

Speaker 8 (01:04:24):
We just finished playing the rosemand Horizon No and and
and what was funny is we all kind of like, uh,
kind of key in on this particular moment the night
that he passed away that got murdered. Kyler was a
very confident dude. Every move that he made, everything that
you know, he wanted us to do, he said it

(01:04:44):
with with calculated you know what I'm saying, We're gonna
do this, We're gonna do that, We're gonna do this.
This was the first night I don't know that we
ever seeing Kyl say where y'all what hotel y'all want
to stay?

Speaker 5 (01:04:59):
I don't know which hotel.

Speaker 3 (01:05:01):
Well, yeah, he came to us with the promoter's idea.
I guess the promoter wanted us to stay. You know, promoters,
they got a cheaper hotel over where you know all
the crew is staying. So I want to move the guys.
And like Sean said, Kyleel was never never indecisive. He
was always well, just where they're going, you're doing this?
This where they're going? Because I said so, and he

(01:05:24):
came to us and a dress for him. It's like,
you know, the promoter, you know, save him some money
if you guys did this so forth and so on.
You know, I don't, I don't really know what I mean.
I'm kind of on the fence. What do y'all want
to do? And we were like, I mean, carry us
up to you whatever. You know what I'm saying, We
don't really whatever you want to do. And he picked
the hotel and unfortunately that was the hotel where guys

(01:05:46):
came in. And you know, I don't like to talk
about it, so.

Speaker 1 (01:05:51):
About sharing that, I'm sorry. I do have to ask though,
because I know that singing is I always see singing
as an intimate thing, and I know that you guys
are like brothers. You know, when Tarika and I are
angry with each other, like the Root show can still happen,

(01:06:15):
you know, because we're not facing each other. But how
do you guys handle if if there's friction between y'all
and you still have to do the intimate act of
singing with each other and harmonizing.

Speaker 2 (01:06:32):
We do it because actually, the funny thing is is
that music it actually.

Speaker 7 (01:06:38):
Supersedes everything, you know what I mean, what we do
together is magic, and it's like, you know, literally, you know,
sometimes I literally listen to how we create and figure
out certain parts without even thinking about it, you know
what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (01:06:58):
So when we're on stage, we all know that we
have a job to do, for one but at the same.

Speaker 7 (01:07:03):
Time, we also know that this person next to me
is going to do that job better than anybody that
I could ever, you know what I'm saying. So the
respect level is really like, I know what he's here
to do, I know what Sean head. I could be
pissed off and me mad at me, but we know
what we gotta do because our integrity is involved.

Speaker 2 (01:07:22):
You know what I'm saying it.

Speaker 1 (01:07:25):
Singing, singing your version of don't go to bed mad, so.

Speaker 2 (01:07:29):
Almost again, because.

Speaker 7 (01:07:34):
If we are having issues, most of the time, after
we finished performing, somebody will come to somebody's room, somebody
will say something or something. It will always it takes
away everything because of what we just did on stage,
that right there together is greater than the anger that.

Speaker 2 (01:07:51):
We have, you know for each other.

Speaker 1 (01:07:53):
Was it always like that?

Speaker 3 (01:07:54):
Yeah? Yeah, I mean we we have fish fights and
then go back there and go out on stage and rock. Literally,
I mean it's just I mean again, we grew up
as brothers literally, like I have three brothers. I have
my brother and then I have my brothers. I mean,
we don't know anything else. I mean I always say that.

(01:08:17):
You know, when we started earlier talking about how much
time we've been together, we've been together longer than any
of us have been together with any family member. That
even our mothers like you, spend more time with each
other than our own parents, like any there's not one
family member in any of our families that we have

(01:08:37):
spent more time around than each other.

Speaker 7 (01:08:39):
So I mean right there, like, I mean, it's really that.
It answers itself. You know what I'm saying, like, that's
what That's what family do?

Speaker 3 (01:08:48):
You know?

Speaker 7 (01:08:48):
Of course, you know you go through things, you like argue,
but at the end of the day, you know we're
still family and we do something together better than any body,
I believe, And.

Speaker 3 (01:09:00):
We're the only one that can say what we said
about each other. And you can't call my brother that
I can say it.

Speaker 5 (01:09:05):
You can't say it.

Speaker 3 (01:09:07):
It's that facts.

Speaker 9 (01:09:10):
Because we were getting into the two album, we're end
of the role. Before we got there, I wanted to
go back a little bit. So one of my boys
men hot Takes. I have several uh as a as
a longtime fan. My favorite album for y'all Cooliu Harmony.
I love Coolie Harmony. Outside of COOLi Out Harmony. I
always thought that some of the best just writing, songwriting, vocal,

(01:09:34):
everything was on Christmas Interpretations.

Speaker 6 (01:09:36):
I fucking love that album. Man, like y'all niggas was
in y'all bag on that ship.

Speaker 3 (01:09:43):
We had to fight, We had to fight for that well.
The label wanted, you know, a typical Jackson five, you know,
you know, ho Santa Claus Christmas record, and we weren't
going to do that, like, we didn't want to fall
into that platform, whether the whole whole hole and jingle bells.
So we fought to try to do an original Christmas

(01:10:07):
record and we didn't have any songs again, so we
all sat around and said, all right, well here, Sean,
you do too, Why you do too? I'm gonna do too, Mike,
you do too. And then we we we we said, okay,
well since we did, you know, since we rock out
with the night, because that's our boy, you know, we'll
have him come in and he will have him produce
it with us, and if he's got a song or too,

(01:10:27):
will throw it on and we'll rock out like that.
Everybody just wrote two songs and we just went for it.

Speaker 2 (01:10:31):
Hyeah nah.

Speaker 9 (01:10:32):
I love that because it was, you know, like hearing
you say you didn't want to do just a typical,
you know, jingle bells, you know kind of record. But
all the songs, I mean, they were just great songs
that could have been They could have worked year round,
like they weren't relegated.

Speaker 6 (01:10:46):
Like I would listen to that album in March, you
know what I mean?

Speaker 5 (01:10:49):
Like that was you know what that that that's the
cop I appreciate that find you.

Speaker 8 (01:10:53):
But you know, going back to the question that you
you said like a little while ago, as parts things
that you have written, I don't think I'm credit just
more or less. I wish that there was more emphasis
applied on me and my guys h ability to write music,
because we tried our best to even even they you know,

(01:11:15):
we tried to be the next La and face of
jam and Lewis or something like that.

Speaker 5 (01:11:19):
Right, we felt like that that was like a natural
progression for us to kind of go into that realm.

Speaker 8 (01:11:25):
And you know, I'm speaking of all of us, Wan
Ye got a crazy pan like you know what I mean,
Like we've we've all written records.

Speaker 2 (01:11:32):
For us and for other people.

Speaker 8 (01:11:33):
Yeah, that that that, you know, I wish for my
guys that we were I guess more. I guess that
that was more emphasized on. But because Boys to Men
was such a phenomenon and it was such a juggernaut
in itself, it seemed like all of our folks, honestly,

(01:11:57):
to look at looking at it in retrospect, a lot
of people, even down to Gerald, who's just like Wanye said,
they didn't know what to do with us.

Speaker 5 (01:12:05):
So when we were successful, they were like, what.

Speaker 3 (01:12:08):
The fuck is this right?

Speaker 8 (01:12:10):
You understand what I'm saying, Like everybody was kind of like, well,
how long is this candle gonna bark? So everybody's mentality
wasn't hey, let's move these gentlemen forward to the next stage.
As I looked back at all the events that's happened
to us and the people that came in and out
of our lives, it almost felt.

Speaker 5 (01:12:28):
Like, let's get this money now because we don't we
don't know how long.

Speaker 8 (01:12:33):
This train is gonna lie. So a lot of our
folks had that mentality. They didn't they didn't look beyond
the fact that Yo Nate was a great songwriter. Yo
Wan could have been a solo artist, you know, Sean
could have, Mike could have had you know what I'm saying, Like,
they didn't go.

Speaker 5 (01:12:50):
That far with us.

Speaker 8 (01:12:51):
They just said, Okay, they're a moment, let's snatch and
grab and then let's move on to the next thing.

Speaker 5 (01:12:58):
And the case in point of that is when during
the Evolution album.

Speaker 8 (01:13:02):
When we came out with the Evolution album, this was
around the time the boy the boy Band things started
uh to come up. So you felt from our standpoint,
you actually felt the shift of people's priorities going from
us to them, like like literally like our literal budget

(01:13:24):
in Motown was literally taken from us and given to
ninety eight degrees.

Speaker 3 (01:13:31):
Wow, wow, Like it's real, like they they like.

Speaker 5 (01:13:37):
These these things happened, and it was it was it
was almost like they they were done, like everybody was
done with us.

Speaker 11 (01:13:45):
Almost mind boggling that they couldn't just add singer songwriter
to any time y'all names were sick because really thinking
about that, what.

Speaker 3 (01:13:54):
Happened when we did the first record, Like we said,
we had records that were ours. They didn't know what
to do with it. So it was almost like, well,
we don't know if this record's gonna do well. Let's
let the guys do whatever they're gonna do and we'll
see if the project does well. Project sold twelve million records,
So at that point the label was like, Okay, so
we need to make it bigger. Let's who else can

(01:14:15):
we get on this record. Now here's the caveat that
people tend to forget. The original Koolie High Army album
did not have Endo the Road on it. It wasn't
part of the original album. That song was done for
the soundtrack for the Eddie Murphy Boomerang after Koulil Harmony
was already out. So what if you notice the original

(01:14:36):
Koliail Harmony album had us with the shirting coats on
the canes and the little squares around it. I think
that original album probably might have gotten to about four
and a half five million records when they did the
boomerang deal. They did the deal to Okay, well they
can use on the soundtrack. We'll have the guys perform

(01:14:57):
the song. They'll perform it, we'll put it on that
set the record, and then we'll also have to put
it on we'll have the rights. Motown took to put
it somewhere else. So they repackaged the Koolier Harmony album
because they saw the new color and have a pop start.
We had a pop audience, so they said, okay, well
let's get the bright color. The bow Ties, throw this
song on air, re released this as a single off

(01:15:19):
that album, and then that album goes to twelve million.
So now their mine is like, okay, well, now we
need those kind of songs and those kind of songwriters,
not koli Our Harmony songs, but those kinds so then
they went to Jimmy and Terry, they went to Babyface,
and as we were trying to grow as artists, like
artists always say hey, well we wrote some of those
songs on the one that did five six, can we

(01:15:39):
write Oh yeah, well you could write some stuff, but
right now we need these guys. So, you know, us
taking the approach of just let's focus on making sure
we sing the right notes to do what we gotta do,
we didn't hammer home right away with trying to be
on top of it. We got pushed away to the
point where it was like, okay, well bring Dallas Austin
back because he's a producer. Artists and producers back then

(01:16:02):
they wouldn't let get They didn't. You know, the producer
was always more important than the artists because the producer
could produce fifteen to thirty records home on fifteen twenty
artists that the label had. The artist is just one entity,
so it was always more important for labels to make
allegiances with producers and songwriters, keeping us from becoming super
producers and songwriters took the power away from us to

(01:16:23):
just be singers. So they wrapped that land Face and
everybody around it and not not knockative that it didn't
do well, but it did stifle what Sean was talking
about our ability to grow as songwriters. And they kind
of threw us a bone like, well, here go go
hang out with you know, Dallas's beat producers, Tim and
Bob and see what you come up with. So we

(01:16:44):
started writing some songs with them, which we happened to
get on two albums, and one of them we had
to tell them that Dallas wrote in order to get
it on the record because they wouldn't put it.

Speaker 6 (01:16:52):
On that.

Speaker 5 (01:16:54):
Exactly wows.

Speaker 3 (01:16:57):
No, no, it wasn't. But we had to lie to
the record label and tell them that Dallas Austin wrote
that song and produced it because they weren't gonna put
it on the album. Wow.

Speaker 9 (01:17:09):
And my favorite songs on that album were the ones
that y'all did like vibing.

Speaker 3 (01:17:14):
But to the record labels point as they were trying
to And and then again I understand it now because
when you really look at it, we can all talk
about those records, but if you went to Istanbul, they're
talking about in the road, they're talking about all make
love to you. They're not talking about please don't go
they're not talking, you know what I'm saying, So I
understand what they were trying to do. But if it

(01:17:36):
was explained to us a little bit more back then
as we were going through, we would understand it other
than people feeling other than us feeling like artists, like, ah, well,
we're gonna get the big names and y'all just go
take the ride.

Speaker 8 (01:17:47):
You know, here's the irony of all of the irony
of all of that name is the fact that, yes,
those guys wrote those songs and things that nature. And
this is no disrespect because there are records, so I
can't disrespect my all songs, but the biggest one was
written by us, right, so so you know, despite what

(01:18:10):
they thought, despite what they might have thought, we were.

Speaker 5 (01:18:14):
Or what we needed or what we was always here.
It was always with us.

Speaker 8 (01:18:20):
But they never wanted to see that, so they tried
to literally manipulate the situation to even make us think that, yo.

Speaker 5 (01:18:31):
We y'all need them. And and it wasn't like it
wasn't a disrespect.

Speaker 8 (01:18:36):
It's not a disrespect because we Uncle, Terry, Jimmy, Jeff
there are we love them, you understand, with all of
all our.

Speaker 5 (01:18:44):
You know what I'm saying, we love Babyface with all
of our hearts.

Speaker 8 (01:18:47):
So we understand that this was all a business move,
but at the same time one benefited a little bit
more than the other from that standpoint, And and me
being forty eight years oh, I'm under and and now
that life is all about relationships, Life is about growth,
Life is all about being able to develop and go from.

Speaker 5 (01:19:08):
This point to that point, and we all need the.

Speaker 3 (01:19:11):
Help to do it.

Speaker 8 (01:19:12):
There's not anybody alive that has not become successful without
some sort of leg up by somebody that was in
a better position than them. So when I look back
at this, this was by design. They wanted us to
be here, stay here, and then they.

Speaker 3 (01:19:29):
Want us to sing. That's all they wanted for them.
They didn't want us to dabble in too much. And
then it's been said a couple of times throughout. And
what made it even tougher was that even when we
tried to write and produce on somebody else, the name
of the group was so overshadowing that all people wanted
was I just want to hear y'all singing. Y'all do something.
I don't really want NAT's record, or vice versa. And

(01:19:51):
not that I don't like it, but I like this better.
And that's you know, it's a double ed sword. The
success is great, but you you, at some at that
point in our career we had to either live with
one or the other. We weren't going to be able
to get hot.

Speaker 13 (01:20:04):
When it comes to the technical aspect of the creating
of a song, is it clear who's going to sing
what part? Because to me, like the three of you
have very similar voices and voice rangers. I know there
are different you know, uh strong suits for each of you.
But like when you're when you're writing a song and
you're creating it, it's it clear who's going to sing
what part. It's like it's like, Nate, you're gonna sing
the melody, Sean, You're gonna sing.

Speaker 5 (01:20:24):
The Writing for my group is probably the easiest thing in.

Speaker 14 (01:20:28):
The world because you can literally know, you know exactly
who does what that like you you don't even got
to like question or have a you know, tribunal about
who's going to sing this verse or that verse or whatever.

Speaker 8 (01:20:42):
You know, who's going to sing it, who's going to
send it home? And then the harmonies is just something
that most people don't know how we do it, so.

Speaker 3 (01:20:50):
We just do that like that.

Speaker 1 (01:20:52):
But but I want to know silent night, Silent night
is that's how so here you guys the craft that
here's the deal is that everybody has their own style
with this.

Speaker 3 (01:21:05):
The reason why I think that a lot of a
lot of it seems more difficult than it is a
lot of producers, I, Jimmy, Jame, Terry faces like working
with us because and this is not you know, not
trying to blow smoke in any way. But honestly, there's
not many songs that we can not sing because vocally

(01:21:26):
we cover the gamut from here to here. Whether it's
one guy, two guys, or whatever, we cover the whole spectrum.
We're gonna sing every single You can't, you can't out
key us.

Speaker 4 (01:21:39):

Speaker 3 (01:21:40):
You can't. Oh that's the wrong key. You can't. You
can't do that with us because vocally we just it's
it's all over the place. So with that being said,
like Shawn said, it's easy to write for us because
throw it against the wall. And to answer your second question,
because we grew up in a coral environment, we automatically

(01:22:00):
know where the parts fall. But even after that, what
made boys men different from just people singing chorl is
we moved out of that realm a little bit. So
if Win's background part is the first songs background part
is a second tenor, he'll start singing it and eventually
somewhere he'll end up on an alto second alto part,

(01:22:24):
and most people will say, well, he went out of
his range. He's got to stay there. He doesn't have
to because when he's singing that, Wan's already singing where
he left the spots open, right, and I'm already hearing
the spots that they both left open. So it's just
a mental to jump down place. It's like, I'm gonna

(01:22:45):
make it this simple. You ever have Connect four, You
know how when you drop the thing down and go
cock cook cook, cook cook, That's pretty much what it is.
Wherever that lands, you know when you drop the next
one where it's got to go to, you just know
where it's got to go.

Speaker 7 (01:23:00):
And I'll be totally honest. And that's what I was
talking about earlier, is the magic. You know, the crazy
thing is is Okay, let's just say Sean's in the
vocal booth and I'm out in the lobby and Sean
sings his.

Speaker 2 (01:23:14):
Note blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. He
sings his note.

Speaker 7 (01:23:17):
When I come in and hear the note that Sean's doing,
I automatically know where I'm supposed to go.

Speaker 2 (01:23:23):
And it's not even a song that I ever heard before.

Speaker 7 (01:23:27):
So then I'll go in and I'll do my part,
and then I'll leave, then natle come in, and by
the time we finished it, it has turned into this place.

Speaker 3 (01:23:37):
And it doesn't have to be in sequential order. One
could start, then I'll come in second, then Shawn will
come in, or I'll start, or vice versa. It's just
it's just a natural and you know, ability to just
feel what each guy the idea for that song is
gonna be. I mean it, And it hasn't even haven't

(01:24:00):
even gotten more difficult with three people because I was
doing both parts anyway, So it's just now it's just rapid.
It's just it's quicker actually.

Speaker 13 (01:24:09):
And all actually, So the intention always to sound like
a choral group, or was the intention to sound like
I mean, look, I'm a white kid from Long Island.
I listened to voice to men religiously as forever and
I as from Africa this time, no fuck you.

Speaker 3 (01:24:26):
But like, but.

Speaker 13 (01:24:28):
What I'm fascinating by it is like I always felt
like you guys were four guys at the time, but
you sounded like about twenty and like, I don't know,
I don't think that there was like ultimate stacking.

Speaker 1 (01:24:36):
It was just like the the notes that you pill
and the way that you did it.

Speaker 13 (01:24:40):
And I think what what I'm getting a Nate is
like what you said is like is when you would
get to someplace, you would hand it off to one
and Salent.

Speaker 3 (01:24:46):
Night, Silent Night is the perfect example. And now I'm
grabbing me or mentioned because that's not normal, because because
we because we we what it is is that we
we sang some of it something like that in high school, right,
But what we did was we we added R and
B to it when we when we took it for
our own. And if you notice there are some chords

(01:25:09):
where literally, I mean you may have a second, a
third or seventh, it sounds like it's twelve people, but
it's not. And especially when you get to that that
quarter at the end, the that that that real big strong,
it sounds like it's fifteen people, but it's just the
notes that we chose and with Mike underneath of it,

(01:25:31):
which a lot of people never really had. You could
sing three notes and he would only be a fourth away,
but it would just make it sound like it's thirteen people.

Speaker 13 (01:25:41):
But like was was was the was the intention always
like that cluster harmonies would be the thing I mean,
because like the gospel gospel for the record is like
it's more the qurt I'm getting real nerdy the course
out in gospel, right, it's like it's like rude fifth.

Speaker 3 (01:25:56):
Right, like third above that.

Speaker 1 (01:25:58):
Right, you guys, we intentionally did you don't want nobody
follow you and car Yeah, no, no, you're right right
like that.

Speaker 8 (01:26:09):
We intentionally did that because one those progressions are boring
to us, Like they're boring, you know what I mean,
you know, like.

Speaker 5 (01:26:17):
To do one, three, five, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 8 (01:26:21):
It's like, okay, we do that, but there's so many
sweet spots in the seventh and then the thirteenth and
like in between and all those other you know, uh
sustained you know, chords and harmonies and stuff like that.
So those sus chords and all that, So it so
to be able to do that was always the goal.

(01:26:41):
I mean, we grew up on Take six and the
carpenters and and all those guys who did all of
that stuff.

Speaker 5 (01:26:47):
So that's what we grew up listening to, even before
we met each other.

Speaker 1 (01:26:51):
Okay, so I was gonna ask because I didn't ask earlier.

Speaker 3 (01:26:55):
I know that.

Speaker 1 (01:26:56):
You know, Take six is an influence, but the intricate
level of of how you guys do your harmonies this
is Yeah, it's beyond that. Like was their influence from
Brian Wilson, like, who are your whore harmony gods?

Speaker 3 (01:27:13):
Here's that I'm gonna tell you. Take six honestly is
the key. But the difference is when, like I said,
when you got six guys and they're moving pretty tight,
there's not There's not a whole lot of space for
a guy to sing a soprano party and end up
all the way down at the baritone because there's six
guys in there. But what we did was we tonally

(01:27:34):
we would listen to them because we knew we didn't
have six parts. We found the parts that made it
sound just like them without all six. Yeah, even if
you had to go from the top to the bottom,
just make that chord sound like their chord. Yeah, that's
what we would do. So we would jump all over
the place, we move right, so.

Speaker 7 (01:27:53):
That they actually created those subscords in the middle and
then spread out to become something else.

Speaker 1 (01:27:59):
So as three some as a threesome, do you guys
have the ability to recreate so much to say no,
we're just three people?

Speaker 3 (01:28:07):
No?

Speaker 8 (01:28:08):
But you know what, that's okay, because when you're listening
to an album, you just want to capture the moment.
You want to create the space, you want to create
the pain, and and that's all that matters. Like it's
three of us. But if we feel six parts, we're
gonna sing those six parts, you know what I'm saying,
because that's needed.

Speaker 3 (01:28:28):
But I will say, but I will say, there are
things that can sound that strong with three people. And
I use I use our Star Spangled banner as an example. Right,
we used to sing that with four people. But again,
now that Mike's not here, we just took that other
leg and kind of folded it under. Yeah, put put

(01:28:49):
it put. We we took the meat of what we
needed to make it sonically sound the same way people
just jump in different spots to make it sonically sound
the same way. It's just not for people, and the
average ear is not going to hear when that one
note is not. When you got a triad and it's
a triad of a maybe a fifth or third and

(01:29:11):
a seventh, you're not worried about what the other note
was because it was probably unison with any other group anyway,
You're only focusing on that. So we make sure we
give you that, and then we'll peel one off to
where it feels like it's open, and then we'll bring
them back in. So it's ways to twist it. Like
Sean said, Obviously, records give us a lot more flexibility,

(01:29:32):
but if we have to narrow it down, that's normally
how we'll do it.

Speaker 1 (01:29:36):
So what happens if a member has laryngitis.

Speaker 5 (01:29:39):
Or which carts that's happened?

Speaker 1 (01:29:44):
Yeah, And how long does it take you to just
even when Mike had to leave the group, how how
much work and adjustment did you have to do to
figure out how to how to cover what was missing.

Speaker 8 (01:29:58):
It's literally us being backstage or somewhere and just arranging
it mentally, preparing ourselves because you know when you're when
you're when you're doing someone else's part, you're doing someone
else's character. That that a lot of people understand that, Yo,
that's Yanye sing. So there's no way I'm gonna sing

(01:30:20):
like Kuan Ye so because he puts a stamp on
everything that he sings, so there has to be a
way to get around it.

Speaker 5 (01:30:28):
So you just make a way around it.

Speaker 8 (01:30:31):
And you know, obviously it's not gonna sound like Kanye,
but we try our best for us not to suck.

Speaker 5 (01:30:39):
And and and and if if it doesn't suck, then
that's good enough.

Speaker 8 (01:30:43):
And and honestly, we have the type of fans and
people that we can be on stage to say, yo,
man wayu's got langitis.

Speaker 5 (01:30:51):
He's here, he's here, Guys, he's here. He's gonna sing
his best for you.

Speaker 3 (01:30:57):
And people know what.

Speaker 8 (01:30:58):
They hear it, they see it. They hate se am struggling,
or they see me struggling or whatever. We'll sing their
parts and they sing our sing our parts too. So
we have that type of like people have seen us
enough to know that.

Speaker 5 (01:31:12):
We can sing.

Speaker 8 (01:31:13):
That's never been a doubt or question. So when somebody
has an off day, we just have an off day,
and our people understand it. And we just go about
the show and we do it and our people.

Speaker 3 (01:31:25):
Ride with us.

Speaker 1 (01:31:28):
Ladies and gentlemen. Sorry to do it to you, but
you know we're gonna have to cut it short right now,
or trust me, we'll be back next week with more
talking with Nate, Sean and Wan Ye Boys to men,
Quest Love Supreme. All right, come next time, see.

Speaker 2 (01:31:52):
Yo, what's up? It's a sponte.

Speaker 9 (01:31:54):
Make sure you keep up with us on Instagram at
quls and let us know what you think and who
should be next to sit down with us.

Speaker 6 (01:32:00):
Don't forget to subscribe to our podcast, all right, peace.

Speaker 1 (01:32:06):
Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. For more
podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

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Laiya St. Clair

Questlove

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