Today, DJ Jazzy Jeff and Aida Osman talk to Director and Executive Producer Morgan Cooper and Co-showrunner Rasheed Newson about how essential fashion and art are to establishing Bel-Air’s modern day authenticity; then they bring on composers Terrace Martin and Robert Glasper who reveal their process for adding another critical layer of reality to the show through music. Watch Will and Carlton in their evolving dynamic as new storylines emerge for each member of the Banks family in the fourth episode of Bel-Air, streaming now on Peacock!
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
The official podcast is produced by iHeart Podcast Network and Peacock.
Hey everyone, we're back. Welcome to episode too of bel
Air the official Podcast. I am d J Jazzy Jeff,
and I'm a da Osman. I am so glad to
be back. I just watched the fourth episode of bel Air.
I'm assuming most of our listeners have to. I know
(00:24):
you did, so Today show is really special to me
because it's so so personal. We're gonna talk about the
style of the show and how the minds behind the
show built the world of Philly and bel Air visually
and especially with the music. Yep, that's right, and we
all know the original show is responsible for setting fashion
and music trends of its time. I don't know, Jeff,
(00:45):
you might know a little bit about the music trends.
But how do you feel like the current show pays
homage to the original show. I think it's a great
graduation to where we are today. The fashion is just
on ten with the sneaker culture and just everything that
everyone is into today. It definitely pays homage to the
(01:07):
old show, but with a graduation to the next level up. Yeah,
and I mean just even coming from like the younger
generation I can feel it and I can resonate with it.
It doesn't feel corny tacky. It feels intentional. And the
music especially stood out to me because we're getting the deep,
gritty sounds of Philly that I love, but also the warm, bright,
(01:29):
jazzy tones of l A. That's just a testament to
the show's genius composers Robert Glasberg and Terris Martin, who
are going to be joining us. Oh my god, I'm
so excited and we are so lucky. We have Morgan Cooper,
creator and also Rashid Nussen, who is kosher runner of
the show. Yes, they're gonna be talking to us a
little bit about the art, the fashion, the style, how
(01:51):
to bring West Philly and l A altogether. Jeff, how
do you feel about the fashion being from West Philly?
But then also you having to go to l A
and like, was that even just ring for you? Oh?
Absolutely absolutely. You know, we had to dress a little
different in Philly because you know, you had to dress
according to where you were going and who you were
going to be around, you know, for safety reasons. So
(02:13):
to get to l A and kind of be able
to let your hair down a little bit was was
definitely refreshing. Yeah, because you can wear whatever colors you want,
and if you're in the car, if you stay in
that vehicle and stay out of certain neighborhoods. We're not
going west to Peko. Okay, we're not going south of
that line. Okay. The fashion of the show is just wild.
It's wild, and I can't wait for you guys to
(02:34):
keep seeing it and see what has been on the
screen so far. We are kicking off the second episode
talking again to Morgan Cooper. We are so fortunate to
have this return, this sequel, this reboot, if you will,
and we are also joined by Rashid Newson, who is
the showrunner of the show. Thanks guys for coming on.
How you doing, I'm doing well, Thanks for having us,
(02:56):
Thank you for having us. Just watch the fourth episode
of bel Air, and I'm on my ass backup. So
so many things that we want to get into concerning
the styling of the show, from y'all's fashion choices to
the crispy lineups to the set dressing. There's just so
much to get into. Y'all had some pretty big shoes
(03:18):
to fill, seeing as you know, the original like change
the course of fashion history in the nineties. Yeah, absolutely.
I mean for us to really just started with what
can we do to like honor the spirit of the
approach of the sitcom, which was just like transcendent fashion
and also just looks in general, you know what I
mean with with haircuts, except from day one it's like
the haircuts gotta be crispy, period. So we enlisted my
(03:42):
barber from Kansas City, who he did all the haircuts
on the original short film, and we brought him out
here to do the haircuts on the show. He was
one of the barber's and uh, you know he had
him right, you know I had him You're right because
he got to you know what I mean, we want
to honor black hair through our show and really make
sure that we're paying attention to those types of detail
those And it's the same thing with the fashion as well,
(04:02):
and making sure that the clothes you're telling their own story,
you know what I mean. So that was something that
was important. Is in the pilot. You know a lot
of the tones that Will was wearing were more muted
tones because he's from West Philly, where like if you're
flashing walking down the street like that can get you
robbed perious. You can't just walk around I see, you
can't walk around where really bright colors because you know
(04:24):
you might get marked out. So like when he goes
to bell Air, though, all of a sudden, he's in
the world where you can wear more saturated tones, and
it's a safer place to just kind of wear a
little bit whatever you want, versus Philly, where you see
more maroons, grays, black stuff, and steel, you know, a
more monochromatic color palette in his wardrobe. So I think
Mortgage hits on a good point, which is when it
(04:44):
comes to fashion, it's part of the storytelling. A lot
of shows, they're just let's pick something where everybody looks
cute and everybody looks handsome. Here we're actually saying something
about the characters through their clothes, how they want to
be perceived in this world, how they carry themselves in
this world. I loved it. I was talking to my
mom about the impact of the show because she watched
it as a young adult in the nineties, the old show.
(05:06):
And I'm watching this show looking at Hillary's clothes just
like my mom looked at the original Hillary's close, going like,
I need to buy a pencil skirt. I think I
need to spend that much money on a channel outfit.
I think this one would look cute on me. Like
the influence of these women, what they bring to the show.
Can you guys talk about the styling for each character
and what you think was important to bring out for
them each Well, it was great because of the you know,
(05:27):
the original. We had a template. You know, you you
you've got an idea of who Hillary could be. You've
got an idea of who Uncle Phil is, and so
it was about sort of updating that when it came
to Uncle Phil and I did. For example, the one
thing we didn't want is for them to be too
sort of uh stodgy in their address. The ideas should
be like, even though they are older, they've still got
(05:48):
some swag. They've still got a feel for fashion because
they grew up caring how they looked, and that should
still be reflected. It also should speak to their economic status.
I mean, one of the things I remember bout Uncle
Philis like, I don't care if he is relaxing, he
should just look like money. You know, he's wearing a
T shirt. It's a tom for T shirt. That was
part of what sort of droves as we did it.
(06:09):
But a lot of this, I mean, I can't tell you.
I've worked on a lot of first season shows. When
we showed up day one, Morgan had a look book
that I want to say was about three pages. So
you had all this material to begin the conversation. And
it doesn't hurt when you've got just an incredible looking
cast who makes everything look good, you know what I mean.
(06:32):
Coco serves those looks, you know what I mean, In
Jabari and uh in Adrian and Cassie, I mean, oh
my god, like they're they're all just such beautiful people.
And so you know, we wanted to make sure that
we had clothes that once again told his story. And
it was also our chance to incorporate black designers as well.
And that's that's something that we're really really proud of.
(06:54):
You know, where you see a gray scale, a black
mannequin and a c cream like you see these these
black designers, you know, in our show, and that's important.
That's how we shift culture, you know, is by providing
a platform for them to express their abiliance through the wardrobe.
And so I'm so thankful we're able to do that.
But I really love about this show from the moment
(07:15):
that Will is in the lexus and you see he
has the hat to the side like t I, but
instead of the Walkman headphones, he's got the Beats by
Dre on, which is the perfect like this version, um
every repersent of Beats by Dre commercial. That's just that's
just how it goes. But then also a favorite moment
I had is when Will Stuff finally comes from West
Philly and we see about sixty boxes of sneakers and
(07:38):
his whole soul just re operates into the room. He's
so excited, he's so happy that they're here. He feels
like it's him. Can you guys talk about the sneaker
culture in the show and how important it was for
like the essence of hip hop and are so important?
I mean, you know when you think of the sitcomment
and what y'all wearing back then, I mean different level.
(07:59):
I mean still to this day you look at some
of those episodes and it's just like the sneaker game
was different. It was so incredibly different. So who would
we would you were missed to not you know, dive
into that head first, you know what I mean? And
uh and make sure, the Sneaker Game was crazy on
all levels. And I will, by the way, I'm not
gonna lie. I'm loving the kicks with the suit cuts
(08:21):
quite a figure from a distance, how about it, flutes,
it's pretty nice up close to So that's what we did.
And you know, in that scene in particular, we see Will,
like Will didn't have a chance to pack anything when
he left. It was like, you know, he left that
he left the jail cell and went straight to the airport,
right and so he's just kind of dealing with what
(08:41):
he had. So when he sees all the sneakers and
the things that remind him home right away, and he
was rejuvenated, you know by seeing that. And so like
for us, it was important to have different color ways,
you know, different silhouettes with the types of Jordan's that
we put on screen. You know, we wanted to mix
it up a little bit and have fun with it.
And you know, Jabari uh Jabar is the freshest to
just like offset to like, if you see Jabari Banks
(09:03):
walking down the street, you're gonna know it's him because
the Sneaky Game is gonna be crazy. He's gonna be
rocking something wild and so like, we had a lot
of fun mixing up different color ways and seeing the shoes,
playing tantem with the wardrobe to create these really interesting
color stories. I love this. This is a great example
of why you need a team. I am not a sneaker.
I don't, I don't. I don't know sneakers or any
blue jeans. That just isn't. That isn't where I am.
(09:26):
But I would go into these budget meetings like we
need these sneakers, we have to have these sneakers, having
just learned two minutes ago. But the fresh tight to
ask where you spend ella that shocks me. That shocks me.
And and I love the fact that you guys had
the great Jordan's fives, which are the bel Air Jordan's
(09:48):
and the new version of bel Air, Like I picked
that up immediately, and sneaker heads are gonna love that absolutely. Hey,
the grade fives, like come on, that's that's the time
is classic. You know, we had to pay tribute to
to what you guys did you know do the reimagined show,
And that's one way we definitely wanted to to pay
amage the breadth of the show, the level of intention
(10:10):
that goes into everything. Like even hearing y'all say that
and knowing I missed that entirely because I wear like
boots and barking stocks like the things that I missed.
It's so cool to know that, Like there's a million
stories being told and you get to it's it's your
choice to pick up on what you pick up on.
That's so beautiful. Well, and also it makes the show.
I mean, like, this show is a show you should rewatch. Yes,
you know, I mean there's something there. You will pick
(10:32):
up something new every time because it is just that layer.
You know, very few people probably will catch everything. We
barely catch everything and we were here, but it bears
rewatching it. I think it'll hold up over time because
of all of this. You guys nailed that. One of
the first things that I said is we didn't look
that good. We were cool, we had some cool clothes,
(10:54):
but I think you guys nailed the fashion. I think
this is going to be, um, you know, one of
those shows that people are going to come here to
look at what they want their look to be, which
I think is important. Well, and I'm excited because I mean,
I think people you know this is through episode four,
the clothes get better as these I mean there, for example,
(11:15):
is on a trajectory here where she's growing as a person,
and so that's reflected in the way she dresses. As
Morgan said, the same is happening with Will. So I mean,
by the time we get to the finale, which you
know I've I've seen, I mean, it's just it's great.
Don't rub it in our face that you know how
it is. Come on now, she you know, it's um
great that you brought up Aunt Viv because her storyline
(11:37):
so far is my absolute favorite. And this most recent
episode we see her recreating her studio, kind of dealing
with what it means to reassess her life path and
grapple with what she's given up to be the wife,
the wife, just to be the politician's wife. So we
get to see her reading her studio, we get to
see glimpses of her old art, and her art is beautiful.
(12:00):
It's abstract, impressionistic, afrocentric. Like what was the decision in
going down that alley for her and how important was it?
Like what was the process of picking what her art
looked like? While I was putting together the look book
for the show, there was a lot of art that
I was just looking at. You know, I've always been
a fan of fine art. You know. My favorite museum
back home is the Nelson Atkis Museum, and I just
remember going you been to the Nelson. Yeah, I told
(12:22):
you I'm an abrast for girls. I just want y'all
to know you can't see Morgan right now. He is
rocking to Casey Jersey and he's got beautiful art behind him.
So he's speaking to what he knows. And you know,
it's crazy about that. This is Jason Wilcox right here,
who actually did all of Vibs art. He was Vibs
are too like pieces Kansas City artists. So and these
are these are two of his pieces. Um and so yeah,
(12:44):
you know, it was looking for something that just felt
very black, felt very intimate in her artistic style. I
had a really interesting color palette, but also with the
style that had its way of evolving in itself. You know,
as we see her evolved, we see her style of
feel ball because she's you know, this passion within her
is reawakened, right, and so there was her past style,
(13:05):
but she's finding a new style as she's you know,
experiencing you know, Will's effect within the household and the
shifting dynamic between her and Phil and the kids. It's
like we feel her style begin to open up and
find a new voice for Vivan. The artists, you know
two point oh. That's with everything. I mean, it was
very deliberate and intentional. We had art meetings. I've been
(13:25):
on a lot of shows. We have art meetings. You
go down to the set and they'd like pull out
three pictures and you just pick one. They put it
on the wall. We had discussions. We have an art
great art department. We worked with Corey Kaplan, Kristin Peterson,
and Jill Showsky, and they brought us look books, They
had contacts. Um A lot goes into this when you
(13:48):
watch this show and you see the art just in
their house, because again we're going there rich people. They'd
be art collectors in that house. I think over the
course of this one season we have over a different
piece of art. I mean every room was I mean, again,
you left nothing to chance. We went through it. Morgan
had a list. I had a list. The art department
(14:08):
had a list, room by room. What's gonna be in
the kitchen, what are we gonna have in Phil's office
because it all speaks to character and story. It also
does something that even if the audience doesn't appreciate on
a conscious level, it's telling you something about these people.
One of the things I thought was really great about
the show is when Will walks into that house. It's
(14:28):
a mansion, Okay, rich people live here. When you see
that on the wall, you know, black people live here.
You know, people who care about their culture and have
some connection to it. There's a moment it's not in
for it's coming up where Will sort of says, this
is my favorite painting. And I love that because I
think teenage boys they have favorite cars, they have favorite shoes,
(14:48):
they have favorite songs. Can we normalize them having favorite paintings,
especially in a world where, like you know, everything is
so digital and there's nothing wrong with n f T
s and digital art, Like I got respect for all
of it, but like you know, there is really something
about something that's handmade. In that component and thinking about
this family that was important for us, you know, in
(15:08):
our reimagining too, to make sure that you know, we
don't lose the handmade component of the artistry, you know,
within our shows and I think to your point, Morgan, um,
I almost think it's a role reversal. We were used
to holding something in our hand and having something tangible
and had to transfer into digital. Today's kids are getting
(15:32):
excited about buying an album and holding the album in
their hand because they're not used to having music be
an actual physical piece. So it's kind of the same
thing with our Damn, that's crazy. That's such a crazy connection.
Damn it does. It goes back and forth. I think
about the massive like hipster wave in my generation was
(15:52):
having vinyls and having a record player like you were.
You were as cool as hell, So it definitely it's
it ebbs and flows. Really cool to see culture like that. Okay,
real quick, does everybody on on this podcast have a
record player? Records? I'm sorry you take me out of that.
I was gonna say, outside and outside of jail, outside
of being a Djila and Rashi, do you all have
(16:13):
record players? Yes? Okay, I want to hear everybody's favorite
record Oh what always spending? Recently Steely Dan Asia? Okay,
what a deep cut? Um? I recently haven't listening to
Vince Staples FM like I got it for that and
it sounds so much better and more fun. Warmer. I
(16:34):
really enjoy a big boy voice. Cut through, cut Through.
My husband and I have two small children, ages four
and seven, and we played music every night at dinner
and just you have it on in the background and
it goes wild because like they don't know anything. You
just you can just play whatever you want. I want
to say last night was Elephantzgerald sings the girsh One song.
Oh those kids about to be cultured, Oh day, about
(16:56):
to be cultured? They are. And it's sort of like
my daughter is in love with Lena Coore and at
one point she was like, when can we see Leno
hard in concert? And I was like, oh wait, alright,
pet girl, I'm so sorry. This is a perfect transition
into what I really want to talk about. The scene
that actually made me cry, like no cap I wish
I were lying, But the scene where I'm viv is
(17:17):
braiding Ashley's hair and she even tells her like, well,
I already changed my hair because of the polling numbers.
This is one of the biggest donor events of your
dad's campaign, which means we need to be perfect. Look,
I know this campaign hasn't been easy trust me, I'm
feeling it too. We all are. So why do you
(17:39):
do it? Because I love your father and he's spent
years going to all my gallery openings and arn't shows,
and now it's his turn to be in the spotlight
and we need to all be there for him. And
we see the sacrifices once again that she's made for
her husband's career and for what she, you know, exemplifies.
I think about like Matthew Cherry's hair love and salon
(18:00):
just don't touch my hair, and how we're clearly in
this Black Revolution about raising awareness about what it feels
like to have hair like this um from the a's
to the bees, to the seas to that you know,
all of it. So can you guys talk about just
how important that scene was, why you put it in
the show, and what you think it means for the characters. Oh? Sure,
(18:20):
I think I mean that scene. I love that scene.
It It does a lot of things for us. One,
it sort of grounds them. So viv is wealthy, but
she still she still braids her daughter's hair. That's still
something that they do to bond, even though I think
in that scene Ashley isn't totally bonding with her mom
because you know she she's a preteen. That happens, um
(18:41):
and I think, you know, we we think of the
changes people are asked to make to their hair to
their parents, and we normally think of like the Michelle Obama,
we think of the political costs, But that can happen
if you become a teller at a bank. So often
as black people were sort of asked to tone it down,
rain it in professional, and sadly it's been for a
(19:04):
long time accepted as part of the game. We made
those changes because that's what you had to do to
get that paycheck. I love that that's stopping. I love
that people are just going, I'm gonna come as I
am because because I'm actually here to work and that
has very little to do with the hair on my head.
So I think the show reflects that that that awakening.
Also want to mention one other thing about the hair
(19:26):
braiding scene, and and that's important to us, is that
you know, this wonderful hair doesn't just happen. Somebody's gotta
braid this hair. Somebody's got this takes all, this takes
some time. My daughter I have helped braid my daughter's
head and I'm you know, we do it in two parts,
and we have two people, one working on each side
because she is seven and she will only sit for
(19:46):
so long. You know, we've got this down to a
military operation, and we wanted to see that reflected in
the show. I mean, even when they come down for breakfast,
that these you know, they've got bonnets and head wraps.
Like it should there should be a reality that says,
you want this great luck, it takes some work. And
I think just in general, like us as black people,
it's such it's so interesting in this country just due
(20:08):
to like the history of our country and in our origins.
In this country, it's like on our road to success,
like we have to do business with people who don't
look like us, right, and like you think about you know,
white people are privileged if they want, they can do
business with people that look like them forever. You see
what I'm saying. It's like we don't have that that luxury,
you see what I'm saying, And that's just that's just
due to the history of it and the inequity of it.
(20:30):
But now we're coming to a place and it's it's
we still got a long way to go. We're building
our own infrastructures to where you know, we can break
bread with people who look like us, you see, where
we don't have to codes which we we can wear
our hair the way we want, we can dress the
way we want, and I think that's really exciting, you
know what I mean. So it seemed like this, I
think it's important to to convey that that, like, you know,
we're taking step towards a new day where like we
(20:52):
have infrastructure that self sufficient, you know what I mean.
So it's it's one step out of time. Can you
guys talk about what it was like creating a team
of black people, because I'm assuming you have people in
your art department, your makeup department, hair department that is
that that are black. Rasheta is black, Morgan is black.
Like what did that mean being in a space where
you created an infrastructure that was all black or predominantly black.
(21:14):
How did that feel for you? Guys? It was good
what you had is you didn't have to spend so
much time explaining yourself. We had we had black people,
and even you know, the people who were black, they
came to this project well informed, you know, like we
didn't have to explain who are Ferrari? Shepherd was, Yeah,
we had an artist on set last night and a
scene and it was great because there was as much
(21:35):
excitement about this painter as there would be, you know,
like a rap star, because that's that's sort of like
the crowd we're running with for this show. I learned
in this job how much time and energy I spent
just having to explain the culture to my bosses or
explained to people why this mattered. And with that freed up,
you had energy and time to do other work, which
(21:58):
I really appreciate it and I think it's one and
why we got so much done, you know, just knowing
how much ground we broke on the first version of
the show musically, how important was it for you to
keep that going? I realized from watching the first episode
and the first scene. I lost my mind. I'm like,
(22:20):
oh my god, that was the most authentic music I've
ever seen on television. This is amazing, And it seemed
like that was very important to you guys. It was
the utmost importance, you know what I mean. It's like,
I don't think anybody would ever expect to turn on
our show and the first thing they hear is is
what we do by freeway, like what you know what
I mean like, and that's what it's all about, is
(22:41):
because if you know, you know, like that is such
a touchstone within the culture, and you know, going to
Rachet's point about having to explain some of those things,
there were times that you know, candidly that that was
a little bit of a challenge for people who didn't understand,
like why that song was so important, Why No World
Models was so important, why Meek was so important, why
you know, having you know, sim Santana, young West Philly
(23:04):
rapper who's really doing these things, like these are cultural touchstones,
and so even if you don't know, you can feel
like there's some real energy here, you know what I mean,
Like these lyrics and the way these bars are coming out,
Like that's real energy and that's real texture that we
needed to really show Will's world in the most authentic way.
And so that's what it's always been about, is just
like once again through the prism of character in the
(23:26):
world building, like where are we at? Okay? Like what
are the sounds that we're hearing? What we do is
a timeless classic, you know, long after we're gone, they're
gonna still be rapped. What do you say? Uh? And
the stomach started ground and then he started, you know
what I mean, They're gonna still be wrapping those bars
because of how timeless they are and what they did,
you know. So we really wanted to honor that spirit
(23:46):
through the show. And I just want to add it.
I mean, I've been again with a lot of creators
who said, oh, music is important to me, and that
is very easy to say. You have to do your homework.
We came to that room. One of the first things
Morgan gave everybody was a playlist for every character. Every
character had a playlist and he'd already so when it
came time for what songs do you want? It wasn't like, well,
(24:09):
I'd like something like this is like I want this,
I want fist, I want fist, I want fist. And
that really focuses the conversation and it sets you up
for success. You absolutely feel that in watching this, the
music authenticity comes through so strong when you when you
watched this, you know even down the scene that Will
(24:30):
comes into the record store and Buddy comes in and
he's kind of like, jazz I got an emergency. Jazz
I got an emergency ship. Buddy, oh ship, Who is
this man? It is my boy with cool cool cool. Look.
I'm going to the studio tomorrow with a real I
need some new sounds. You got something that sounds like
the Hungry Caterpillar and twenty tabs of acid. Will decide
(24:52):
of Shrump and Grid. They want to keep the PC,
not something like that Africa demon for us, my fucking guys.
First of all, when Buddy walked in, I just gave
a thumbs up. I was kind of like, Okay, somebody
knows their stuff in here. But to say that Farrell
was coming in the studio and then Jazz goes and
(25:13):
gets you know, this demon fuzz record. I'm sitting there like, okay,
who is doing this? This is awesome. First of all,
I gotta respect that the character Jazz runs a record
store that is so perfect. As we're saying one thing
about that record store that I also love because this
is the benefit of having you know, two season peck ops,
(25:35):
so we you know, we know, we get to tell
these stories over twenty episodes. Historically, Jazz and Uncle Phil
had some beef. There was they were not always they
were not always on good terms. He was not always hospitable.
I think it's seas two even. We can see some
of that emerging. But one of the ways very early
that we're establishing they have similarity is, you know, Jazz
(25:56):
runs a record store and Phil has this great record collection.
These two men both love music. There is a foundation
for understanding here that may help us down the road.
And I love it like it's it's been planted. From
the very beginning, Phil playing Trial Call Quest was everything
to me. That's this generation, you know, and we didn't
(26:17):
want the you know, the reimagined Care to feel like
they were stuck in the past. It's like, no, like,
what really would Phil be listening to? And it wouldn't
be the Tribes, you know, the Souls of Misschift, that's
what they grew up on. Same thing with with Viv
and her Musicool Palative, you know, a lot of Lauren Hill,
you know, it was on that playlist as well. So
(26:37):
when we started talking about Phil's music, it was you know,
it was a tough day for me because I watched
this show growing up and I identified with Will and
Carlton and I'm like, I'm forty two. Oh my god,
I'm uncle Phil. You know, there was a moment when
we talked about music and I'm like, oh, we should
we go to Motown. I'm like, no, that's my parents music.
Oh though he'd be listening to my music, you know,
(26:58):
like when you turn on the radio station. They were
all like, this is the classic hip hop station. I
almost crashed the car. Wow. Talking to Rashid and Morgan.
That could have gone on forever. There's so much to
cover we have fashion music. I want to say thank
you to them too for coming in giving us like
real behind the scenes insight of what it means to
be producers, showrunners, just to be it's in the back
(27:19):
rooms making sure that everything gets put together. Very fortunate
to have spoken with them. It's a lot that people
don't see, a lot going on, and they're so lucky
to have a team of black people who really get it.
I am super excited because today we're gonna talk to
the show's to genius composers, two very close friends of mine,
Mr Robert Glasper and Mr Terrorist Mark Terrorist l A
(27:41):
Born and Rais. He's a multi instrumentalist. He's produced albums
for artists like Herbie Hancock, Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar Robert
from Texas got six Grammys. We're gonna get into it.
He's worked with your literal favorites most def Q Tip, Ericabado,
just everything everything, jazz, hip hop, are be These two
are like the best in the game. Wait till you
(28:02):
see us dancing. It's a whole level. Wait till you
see are we have such a great routine behind Cisco.
It's amazing. Oh man, I didn't want I know you're
gonna let that out. I'll get exclusive. Y'all get exclusive today.
Hey we got dancing him. Welcome to the podcast. What Up?
What up? Okay? Y'all too explain to listeners, like what
(28:24):
actually comes along with composing the music for a television show?
What parts of it feature the two of your work.
We're a whole different thing that's kind of never been
done before. And this film's going world, I might say,
because we're not only composing doing the score, but because
we're record producers that you know, the role of Texes
is very round. You know, when things can't get cleared,
(28:45):
we get them cleared. When things need a song that
they can't find a song, they need a song, a
certain type song. I snoop like that what I punched,
you got something over there. Me and Rob was so
personally attached to this because part of our shot and
we know everybody involved, we know Jeff, like you know
what I'm saying. We were so kind of attached that
we we did a lot of things that we've never
(29:05):
done and we're gonna start doing. We was kind of
like a one stop shop for a lot of things
without getting too deep. It was a lot of different
music that couldn't get cleared. And I just so happen
to know the artist, you know, and because because a
lot of times you get all these what I call
micro egos in the way of the artists and a
and a show to where like this. This is a
(29:28):
powerful show that helped raise a few generations. This this
help us, No to keep it real. This help is
not that you can steal be black and have bread.
That's a big deal. Absolutely, a lot of the artists,
I wasn't even getting a call like you know, this
is a chance to the like put us on there,
put us something like we want to be a part.
(29:49):
So that really was this thing. So me and Rob
if Morgan wanted like man, you know, say we got
this song, but it cost this much, we can't, I said, Okay,
why don't we give them the same energy, but unlike
a typical score thing, why don't we just go call
another artist to kind of do do those type things.
You know what I'm saying. You know, So it was
we we are Our job was really feeling in the blanks,
(30:09):
uh from from from executive standpoints, the music standpoints, you
know what I'm saying. But definitely all all of the
music supervisors did an excellent job. Excellent job, you know
what I'm saying. Okay, so l A artists all over
the soundtrack, all over the music. There's a moment in
the pilot where Thundercat comes in and it's just like
(30:30):
the perfect cruising down peak on music. I think it's
them changes plays, which is iconic. Stephen Bruner track, Are
you trying to bring in l A artists and l
A musicians l A violin players? Like, are you really
trying to tap the wells that you have? I'm just
always dealing with my own crew. It just makes it easy.
You got a mean crew. I mean, I'm I'm I
learned from a guy that comes from a main crew.
You know what I'm saying. You crew. You know, it's
(30:53):
easy for a few reads, easier because we all know
each other. We all could go different dimensions musically and
getting back. Not that anybody ever talks about this, but
I'm learning this is like getting back to the clearances
and things like that. It's such important half relationships with
these people and people to be connected to people that's
all involved in these different films and everything, so people
(31:13):
could feel comfortable about their music and being involved or
even being shown shown up a different life. That's also
different thing. But but Stephen Bruner, you know, you gotta
have his music and his his music represents California entirely. Yeah, absolutely,
and that and modern music in general, so it definitely
represents absolutely. I know that process of creating music for
(31:35):
yourself and for natural just creation ideation is so different
than when you're scoring something. So can you talk to
that a little bit, like how is it different when
you are making songs for both? So yeah, when you're
when you're just making music for yourself, you're on your
own time. Yeah, you know you time, you know what
you feel, you know what you want, you know what
(31:56):
you're trying to portray, what story you're trying to tell
It's harder to score something because you have to try
to bring to life with somebody else's thinking in their minds,
you know what I mean. So it's not your visions,
their vision. A lot of times you might have a
different vision, but you have to tell their story what
they want to portray. So that's the hard part. And
(32:18):
you're on someone else's time at the same time. And
some people might not even know what they want yet,
but they want you to. Magically most of the times
they don't know what they want. Well, you know what
it's it's for me. I don't do that many revisions
for me, you know. If it's my record, I got
one two times and I hope it goes well. Scoring
is like the ultimate test of of your ego. It's
(32:40):
the ultimate like I'm a grown man with children, you know,
you know, you know, I pay taxes, all kind of
grown non fun things. It's a true test. You know,
when you say you want to start scoring movies and
scoring TV shows, you have to really understand what that is.
First of all, it's definitely an honor, but it being
such a big show and it's classic mixed with something
(33:02):
new you already had. Quincy dive man qut three yearly,
then you got all then you got all these things,
and it's like people with this show is like it's
a whole new thing, but you bet it's like that's
kind of the whole. That's been the whole thing, you know,
Like you like, we want all your sound, but don't
forget that first one. You know what I'm saying. It's
been a learned experience and it hasn't been easy, but
(33:24):
it's been beautiful. It's been a challenging and I believe
challenges are great because I'm now at this age I'm
addicted to the breakthrough, so any challenge coming my way out,
I love it. So it's been very cool. It's been
very cool to do twenty million revisions on one queue,
turning things up and down. It's been cool. Oh and
everything is an emergency and a deadline on a Sunday.
(33:51):
It's gotta be a lot because when you guys are
making your own music, the only producers you answer to
are your damn selves. But when it comes to this, right, like,
you got a whole team of people who may or
may not understand the music that you're trying to go for,
who may not understand why No Role Models is the
perfect song to start the first episode, Like, what exactly
is going on with that too? Do you guys ever
(34:11):
get kicked back? People are like, no, that's not it,
that's not right. Try it again. Yeah, definitely, And that's
something that and like Tera said, you definitely get your
ego checked if you have one, because you'll send some
stuff in where you're like, boom, nail, didn't you did not? Yeah,
that's great. Could you try something? You know, you have
(34:33):
to be okay with rejection. Rejection is a big part
of the game. If you're not okay with rejection, don't
do it. You get rejected more than you get the okay,
that's true, you know what I mean. That's true. Yo.
You know it brings me to with Morgan sends back
these notes, right, all these revisions, and I love his notes.
It's I love everybody's notes, but his notes a lot.
(34:54):
You can tell it's not gonna work because he comes
off with the compliment, oh my god, this is amazing,
this is so moving, it's so great. Oh my god,
I'm having dreams about it. Oh my god, Jesus, and
then he says, but respectfully, respectfully, could you try something
(35:15):
else a little better. Absolutely, absolutely, Yeah, that's definitely. That's
definitely a little bit different than working on your own stuff. Um,
especially because I don't think people understand that it's probably
(35:36):
harder to compose something that's fifteen seconds and something that's
five minutes, because they want you to have the emotion
of five minutes in fifteen seconds exactly exactly. They need
you to do that, and they want you to Could
you start like this and then on grows and wanting
(35:59):
to grow in seven second project? How long have you
all been scoring and doing composition? Like? Is this a
first TV project for you? For me, it's not. My
first score was. I did this movie with Don Cheeto.
It's called Miles Ahead. It's a basically a story about
the life of Miles Davis in a certain time period,
and that was my first time scoring anything. He just
(36:20):
tweeted me and was like, Hey, I love your music,
you know. Then we started talking and he's like, do
you do scores? And I was like, I lied, And
then I had to have Derek Hodd shot to be had.
I had to have Derek Hodds fly down to New
York and show me how to work logic. So I
(36:40):
could do the score because I had no idea how
to do anything anything, and I was about to go
on a on a tour in Europe. So I did
half of the score when I was in Europe. Then
after that, I did this movie called The Photograph, um Oh,
with my boss Esa Ray and my favorite Loki Stanfield.
Yes we're familiar, We're familiar. Scored that when I scored
(37:01):
this documentary about the Apollo Theater and that actually wanted Emmy.
Also I scored this dope show. This is a documentary
by the show called Mr So called Soul, but the
documents called Mr. Soul. You know about that jazz, don't, bro, No,
I don't. It's basically Soul trained before Soul trained. This
is like seventy and they had it was everybody's first
(37:25):
time being on TV, like Astro and Simpson, earth Wind
and Fire, Stevie Wonder, but not even not even just that,
like McCoy tyner like it went. It went all over
the place. And then they had you know, Muhammad Ali
and they're talking and they would do forty five minute
sets and you do whole forty five minutes sets, Bro.
(37:46):
But it was only on air for like three years
and then President Nixon was like, oh, because then they
started getting Angela Davidson blah blah blah, I started getting
too political. They cut it off, and then Soul Train
started like a year after that. The show is called Soul,
so the documentary is called Mr. Soul. It's a music documentary,
so I can guess. It's a lot of archival footage
(38:07):
and quest love talking. I think he might be every
music documentary congratulations. Yeah, and he's in the movie. So
it's so much soul. Let's all over the place. But
(38:27):
it's my favorite thing is watching my you know, my
favorite musicians, these legacy musicians and all that, like coming
into the film industry, in the TV industry. But I
want to know, there are so many times I was
watching the show and I would hear something dope and
trying google it and Google would be like zero results.
I'm like, these people made this song for this scene,
and I'm not gonna find it anywhere. Let's not buy
a soundtrack or something or whatever. But are y'all like
(38:49):
digging into archives for old things or are you making
it up right there? For watching the scene right there? Wow,
right there? Because with me and Robert learning to with
our partnership in this old venture. We could have all
kind of preset things ready to go, but we realized
that everybody has their own version of what's side is,
(39:09):
what happy is, what's exciting, what's soulful, what's not? Everybody
has their own thing for a lot of this stuff.
We work faster just creating right there instead of like,
let's go through the file. We we tried that. We
tried that, but you know, nothing really works from our
files to the point we have to you know, Morgan, respectfully,
this is amazing. Oh my god, can you guys create
(39:31):
something from here to here? And we're jazz musicians at
hard too, you know what I mean. So we're used
to making things up on the spot. That's why I
think it's a natural marriage for us to be able
just what you need boom okay, boom boom boom, boom boom,
because that's what we're you know, lack of a better word,
trained to do, you know, on the spot, boom in
(39:52):
the moment, give you feelings in the moment. It comes through.
It definitely comes through. When you watch the show, the
music really takes you a place that you're not used
to hearing. You're not used to hearing this kind of
music on the show. I'm sure you guys fight or disagree.
You know what, when when me and him disagree, it's
first of all, when we do disagree and we do
(40:14):
have any type of get back with each other, it's
only to get to the solution. Though it's not it's
not really be like I'm right, you're right. It's like
because we we were usually attached by the head when
it comes a lout of business. So we're not trying
to off no deal. We're like, well what do we
which way? You know? Like with Rob Robbie, I can
telling me no, they don't take that, and they don't
(40:35):
take it like that. It's calmed down, and I gotta
tell Rob bro stop giving them every thing. They don't
like us, you know what I'm saying. So it's like
it's like the two things. Yeah, now we have a
high level of respect from each other, so we listened
to one another. We both go sometimes depending on a situation,
I don't know a terce whatever you think, Bro, Rob,
(40:57):
you leave it, I don't know what you think. And
then sometimes would be like I feel this for this,
all right, let's try both let's try this first. Yeah,
it's really arguing not on this. We debate all day
about ship, you know what I mean, But when we don't,
you know, yeah, yeah, you know. I But I don't
think that they could have gotten a more perfect group
of people to basically score this because with this kind
(41:21):
of picking it up in the nineties and taking it
in two and putting a little dramatic spin. You know,
if you guys were around in the nineties, you probably
would have been doing this in the nineties. So I
think it was just a perfect alley you to throw
it to, you guys, because, like you said, the whole
being able to compose on the fly kinda allows you
(41:44):
to to get the feeling that sometimes other people can.
We was bringing sounds through, We was bringing orchestration through.
It was bringing harmony, We was bringing everything all the
other guys got as well. Don't get it sucked up.
But I'm proud to say, well, what we was bringing
through is a a high level sense of reality to this,
you know what I'm saying. Like we felt more like
(42:05):
way before the show needed music, it needed another layer
of reality to add to that, you know what I'm saying.
And I think that's even what's listening to me and
a lot of other scores I see, it's like it
makes me not even believe a fucking story, Like you
know what I'm saying. So this I'll never forget, not
to cut you off. There was one scene where the
score that they had in there, they had, um, uh,
(42:25):
don't say no, they don't think we they don't think we,
don't say don't think good. It was source of music.
It was source of music that they had for a scene,
a skating scene, and Terrace is like, no, they wouldn't
play that in a skating rink in that year in
l A. I know because I was in those skating rinks.
They would play X y Z boom boom boom and
(42:47):
two people that are from you know, so that's the
little things like that they were skating to, Like he's
worthy whatever that was, don't hey, Jeff, these five meets
me and Robbie. Hey, they never had We'd be like, man,
(43:07):
that ship Wait, what ain't nobody fucking with that? Hey?
But that's who you got. We gotta keep the bar high.
Yeah I can't. We kept sitting back and watch it
just you know, yeah, yeah, absolutely, Well thank you to
both of you guys for coming through, answering our questions,
(43:28):
sharing these last really appreciate it and needed this moment.
So thank you guys so much. And I promise I'm
coming out to l A and I'm gonna stay for
two weeks and we're gonna get it in. I look, Jeff,
when you get out here, I gotta introduce to my
cousin that turned me on the hip hop. He's the
one that bought the first album and he's the DJ.
I'm the rapper. My cousin, Lois Brown Fresh cousin Bro.
(43:49):
Like we used to listen to that record. It was
a double vinyl. He's a d J, I'm the rapper.
I remember the intro. Will was busting. He was busting
like like you know when you know what's funny? Every
time somebody years they would be like, yeah, Will, what's
shiny said? Will? I uhould be like, come to the house, Bro,
let me show you, just let me show you, let
(44:10):
me show you how he evolved and let me show
you this ship and you and it's just he's it's
it's a DJ and the m C and it gotta
it gotta Grammy, it broke, it made us all. What's
the first? Yes, the first hip hop grammy. You know
what I'm saying. So it's like I was as low
(44:30):
key as jazz. Any time somebody asking anything, I'd be like,
what was the question? No, hey, that's that's still humble.
I would say. If they say, Terence, how's yourday, I
would say, every rapper with a Grammy's mind, they're all mine.
Throw my kids. Oh you have a gram Yes you
(44:52):
do have a grab me? Grab me? Yes you do U.
That's buddy. Listen, this has been amazing. You guys. Continue
(45:16):
up the good work and we are going to keep listening. Man.
I love both of you. Take care and I to
b Damn, that was an interview. That was an interview.
It doesn't get better than that. They're hilarious. They're funny
together and funnier part that's just amazing. Man, What can't
(45:37):
they do? That's so irritating. They both are incredible talents.
Um and they met back at jazz camp when they
were fifteen, So you know, I told you you know,
both of those guys are good friends of mine and
they are definitely two characters. And it was just such
a special interview getting to hear two close friends clearly,
but then also three guys that know each other for
(45:57):
a long time talk about music and what it means
to be black men in this industry. Like that was
just such a wonderful conversation and hilarious. If they didn't
want to be jazz musicians, they could be full on comedies.
They are. Once again, thank you to our guest Morgen, Rashid,
Robert and Terroris. Next week we'll be talking about the
(46:17):
theme that's a through line throughout the entire show, which
is success. Check out the next episode of bell Air
streaming on Peacock this Thursday, and come back to the
podcast every Friday to hear more bell Air. The official
podcast is produced by iHeart Podcast Network and Peacock. This
show is hosted by Me Dj Jazzy Jeff and by
(46:39):
Me aid To Austin, supervising producer Mike Coscarelli, producer and
mastering engineer but Heat Frazier. Executive producers from I Heart
are Nicki E. Tour, Hones Stump and Miles Gray. Executive
producers from Peacock are Lindsay Vogelman and Amber Ferguson, and
special thanks to Will Pearson from My Heart and myke
(47:00):
Go Skaggin from Peacock Wow
The official podcast is produced by iHeart Podcast Network and Peacock.
Hey everyone, we're back. Welcome to episode too of bel
Air the official Podcast. I am d J Jazzy Jeff,
and I'm a da Osman. I am so glad to
be back. I just watched the fourth episode of bel Air.
I'm assuming most of our listeners have to. I know
(00:24):
you did, so Today show is really special to me
because it's so so personal. We're gonna talk about the
style of the show and how the minds behind the
show built the world of Philly and bel Air visually
and especially with the music. Yep, that's right, and we
all know the original show is responsible for setting fashion
and music trends of its time. I don't know, Jeff,
(00:45):
you might know a little bit about the music trends.
But how do you feel like the current show pays
homage to the original show. I think it's a great
graduation to where we are today. The fashion is just
on ten with the sneaker culture and just everything that
everyone is into today. It definitely pays homage to the
(01:07):
old show, but with a graduation to the next level up. Yeah,
and I mean just even coming from like the younger
generation I can feel it and I can resonate with it.
It doesn't feel corny tacky. It feels intentional. And the
music especially stood out to me because we're getting the deep,
gritty sounds of Philly that I love, but also the warm, bright,
(01:29):
jazzy tones of l A. That's just a testament to
the show's genius composers Robert Glasberg and Terris Martin, who
are going to be joining us. Oh my god, I'm
so excited and we are so lucky. We have Morgan Cooper,
creator and also Rashid Nussen, who is kosher runner of
the show. Yes, they're gonna be talking to us a
little bit about the art, the fashion, the style, how
(01:51):
to bring West Philly and l A altogether. Jeff, how
do you feel about the fashion being from West Philly?
But then also you having to go to l A
and like, was that even just ring for you? Oh?
Absolutely absolutely. You know, we had to dress a little
different in Philly because you know, you had to dress
according to where you were going and who you were
going to be around, you know, for safety reasons. So
(02:13):
to get to l A and kind of be able
to let your hair down a little bit was was
definitely refreshing. Yeah, because you can wear whatever colors you want,
and if you're in the car, if you stay in
that vehicle and stay out of certain neighborhoods. We're not
going west to Peko. Okay, we're not going south of
that line. Okay. The fashion of the show is just wild.
It's wild, and I can't wait for you guys to
(02:34):
keep seeing it and see what has been on the
screen so far. We are kicking off the second episode
talking again to Morgan Cooper. We are so fortunate to
have this return, this sequel, this reboot, if you will,
and we are also joined by Rashid Newson, who is
the showrunner of the show. Thanks guys for coming on.
How you doing, I'm doing well, Thanks for having us,
(02:56):
Thank you for having us. Just watch the fourth episode
of bel Air, and I'm on my ass backup. So
so many things that we want to get into concerning
the styling of the show, from y'all's fashion choices to
the crispy lineups to the set dressing. There's just so
much to get into. Y'all had some pretty big shoes
(03:18):
to fill, seeing as you know, the original like change
the course of fashion history in the nineties. Yeah, absolutely.
I mean for us to really just started with what
can we do to like honor the spirit of the
approach of the sitcom, which was just like transcendent fashion
and also just looks in general, you know what I
mean with with haircuts, except from day one it's like
the haircuts gotta be crispy, period. So we enlisted my
(03:42):
barber from Kansas City, who he did all the haircuts
on the original short film, and we brought him out
here to do the haircuts on the show. He was
one of the barber's and uh, you know he had
him right, you know I had him You're right because
he got to you know what I mean, we want
to honor black hair through our show and really make
sure that we're paying attention to those types of detail
those And it's the same thing with the fashion as well,
(04:02):
and making sure that the clothes you're telling their own story,
you know what I mean. So that was something that
was important. Is in the pilot. You know a lot
of the tones that Will was wearing were more muted
tones because he's from West Philly, where like if you're
flashing walking down the street like that can get you
robbed perious. You can't just walk around I see, you
can't walk around where really bright colors because you know
(04:24):
you might get marked out. So like when he goes
to bell Air, though, all of a sudden, he's in
the world where you can wear more saturated tones, and
it's a safer place to just kind of wear a
little bit whatever you want, versus Philly, where you see
more maroons, grays, black stuff, and steel, you know, a
more monochromatic color palette in his wardrobe. So I think
Mortgage hits on a good point, which is when it
(04:44):
comes to fashion, it's part of the storytelling. A lot
of shows, they're just let's pick something where everybody looks
cute and everybody looks handsome. Here we're actually saying something
about the characters through their clothes, how they want to
be perceived in this world, how they carry themselves in
this world. I loved it. I was talking to my
mom about the impact of the show because she watched
it as a young adult in the nineties, the old show.
(05:06):
And I'm watching this show looking at Hillary's clothes just
like my mom looked at the original Hillary's close, going like,
I need to buy a pencil skirt. I think I
need to spend that much money on a channel outfit.
I think this one would look cute on me. Like
the influence of these women, what they bring to the show.
Can you guys talk about the styling for each character
and what you think was important to bring out for
them each Well, it was great because of the you know,
(05:27):
the original. We had a template. You know, you you
you've got an idea of who Hillary could be. You've
got an idea of who Uncle Phil is, and so
it was about sort of updating that when it came
to Uncle Phil and I did. For example, the one
thing we didn't want is for them to be too
sort of uh stodgy in their address. The ideas should
be like, even though they are older, they've still got
(05:48):
some swag. They've still got a feel for fashion because
they grew up caring how they looked, and that should
still be reflected. It also should speak to their economic status.
I mean, one of the things I remember bout Uncle
Philis like, I don't care if he is relaxing, he
should just look like money. You know, he's wearing a
T shirt. It's a tom for T shirt. That was
part of what sort of droves as we did it.
(06:09):
But a lot of this, I mean, I can't tell you.
I've worked on a lot of first season shows. When
we showed up day one, Morgan had a look book
that I want to say was about three pages. So
you had all this material to begin the conversation. And
it doesn't hurt when you've got just an incredible looking
cast who makes everything look good, you know what I mean.
(06:32):
Coco serves those looks, you know what I mean, In
Jabari and uh in Adrian and Cassie, I mean, oh
my god, like they're they're all just such beautiful people.
And so you know, we wanted to make sure that
we had clothes that once again told his story. And
it was also our chance to incorporate black designers as well.
And that's that's something that we're really really proud of.
(06:54):
You know, where you see a gray scale, a black
mannequin and a c cream like you see these these
black designers, you know, in our show, and that's important.
That's how we shift culture, you know, is by providing
a platform for them to express their abiliance through the wardrobe.
And so I'm so thankful we're able to do that.
But I really love about this show from the moment
(07:15):
that Will is in the lexus and you see he
has the hat to the side like t I, but
instead of the Walkman headphones, he's got the Beats by
Dre on, which is the perfect like this version, um
every repersent of Beats by Dre commercial. That's just that's
just how it goes. But then also a favorite moment
I had is when Will Stuff finally comes from West
Philly and we see about sixty boxes of sneakers and
(07:38):
his whole soul just re operates into the room. He's
so excited, he's so happy that they're here. He feels
like it's him. Can you guys talk about the sneaker
culture in the show and how important it was for
like the essence of hip hop and are so important?
I mean, you know when you think of the sitcomment
and what y'all wearing back then, I mean different level.
(07:59):
I mean still to this day you look at some
of those episodes and it's just like the sneaker game
was different. It was so incredibly different. So who would
we would you were missed to not you know, dive
into that head first, you know what I mean? And
uh and make sure, the Sneaker Game was crazy on
all levels. And I will, by the way, I'm not
gonna lie. I'm loving the kicks with the suit cuts
(08:21):
quite a figure from a distance, how about it, flutes,
it's pretty nice up close to So that's what we did.
And you know, in that scene in particular, we see Will,
like Will didn't have a chance to pack anything when
he left. It was like, you know, he left that
he left the jail cell and went straight to the airport,
right and so he's just kind of dealing with what
(08:41):
he had. So when he sees all the sneakers and
the things that remind him home right away, and he
was rejuvenated, you know by seeing that. And so like
for us, it was important to have different color ways,
you know, different silhouettes with the types of Jordan's that
we put on screen. You know, we wanted to mix
it up a little bit and have fun with it.
And you know, Jabari uh Jabar is the freshest to
just like offset to like, if you see Jabari Banks
(09:03):
walking down the street, you're gonna know it's him because
the Sneaky Game is gonna be crazy. He's gonna be
rocking something wild and so like, we had a lot
of fun mixing up different color ways and seeing the shoes,
playing tantem with the wardrobe to create these really interesting
color stories. I love this. This is a great example
of why you need a team. I am not a sneaker.
I don't, I don't. I don't know sneakers or any
blue jeans. That just isn't. That isn't where I am.
(09:26):
But I would go into these budget meetings like we
need these sneakers, we have to have these sneakers, having
just learned two minutes ago. But the fresh tight to
ask where you spend ella that shocks me. That shocks me.
And and I love the fact that you guys had
the great Jordan's fives, which are the bel Air Jordan's
(09:48):
and the new version of bel Air, Like I picked
that up immediately, and sneaker heads are gonna love that absolutely. Hey,
the grade fives, like come on, that's that's the time
is classic. You know, we had to pay tribute to
to what you guys did you know do the reimagined show,
And that's one way we definitely wanted to to pay
amage the breadth of the show, the level of intention
(10:10):
that goes into everything. Like even hearing y'all say that
and knowing I missed that entirely because I wear like
boots and barking stocks like the things that I missed.
It's so cool to know that, Like there's a million
stories being told and you get to it's it's your
choice to pick up on what you pick up on.
That's so beautiful. Well, and also it makes the show.
I mean, like, this show is a show you should rewatch. Yes,
you know, I mean there's something there. You will pick
(10:32):
up something new every time because it is just that layer.
You know, very few people probably will catch everything. We
barely catch everything and we were here, but it bears
rewatching it. I think it'll hold up over time because
of all of this. You guys nailed that. One of
the first things that I said is we didn't look
that good. We were cool, we had some cool clothes,
(10:54):
but I think you guys nailed the fashion. I think
this is going to be, um, you know, one of
those shows that people are going to come here to
look at what they want their look to be, which
I think is important. Well, and I'm excited because I mean,
I think people you know this is through episode four,
the clothes get better as these I mean there, for example,
(11:15):
is on a trajectory here where she's growing as a person,
and so that's reflected in the way she dresses. As
Morgan said, the same is happening with Will. So I mean,
by the time we get to the finale, which you
know I've I've seen, I mean, it's just it's great.
Don't rub it in our face that you know how
it is. Come on now, she you know, it's um
great that you brought up Aunt Viv because her storyline
(11:37):
so far is my absolute favorite. And this most recent
episode we see her recreating her studio, kind of dealing
with what it means to reassess her life path and
grapple with what she's given up to be the wife,
the wife, just to be the politician's wife. So we
get to see her reading her studio, we get to
see glimpses of her old art, and her art is beautiful.
(12:00):
It's abstract, impressionistic, afrocentric. Like what was the decision in
going down that alley for her and how important was it?
Like what was the process of picking what her art
looked like? While I was putting together the look book
for the show, there was a lot of art that
I was just looking at. You know, I've always been
a fan of fine art. You know. My favorite museum
back home is the Nelson Atkis Museum, and I just
remember going you been to the Nelson. Yeah, I told
(12:22):
you I'm an abrast for girls. I just want y'all
to know you can't see Morgan right now. He is
rocking to Casey Jersey and he's got beautiful art behind him.
So he's speaking to what he knows. And you know,
it's crazy about that. This is Jason Wilcox right here,
who actually did all of Vibs art. He was Vibs
are too like pieces Kansas City artists. So and these
are these are two of his pieces. Um and so yeah,
(12:44):
you know, it was looking for something that just felt
very black, felt very intimate in her artistic style. I
had a really interesting color palette, but also with the
style that had its way of evolving in itself. You know,
as we see her evolved, we see her style of
feel ball because she's you know, this passion within her
is reawakened, right, and so there was her past style,
(13:05):
but she's finding a new style as she's you know,
experiencing you know, Will's effect within the household and the
shifting dynamic between her and Phil and the kids. It's
like we feel her style begin to open up and
find a new voice for Vivan. The artists, you know
two point oh. That's with everything. I mean, it was
very deliberate and intentional. We had art meetings. I've been
(13:25):
on a lot of shows. We have art meetings. You
go down to the set and they'd like pull out
three pictures and you just pick one. They put it
on the wall. We had discussions. We have an art
great art department. We worked with Corey Kaplan, Kristin Peterson,
and Jill Showsky, and they brought us look books, They
had contacts. Um A lot goes into this when you
(13:48):
watch this show and you see the art just in
their house, because again we're going there rich people. They'd
be art collectors in that house. I think over the
course of this one season we have over a different
piece of art. I mean every room was I mean, again,
you left nothing to chance. We went through it. Morgan
had a list. I had a list. The art department
(14:08):
had a list, room by room. What's gonna be in
the kitchen, what are we gonna have in Phil's office
because it all speaks to character and story. It also
does something that even if the audience doesn't appreciate on
a conscious level, it's telling you something about these people.
One of the things I thought was really great about
the show is when Will walks into that house. It's
(14:28):
a mansion, Okay, rich people live here. When you see
that on the wall, you know, black people live here.
You know, people who care about their culture and have
some connection to it. There's a moment it's not in
for it's coming up where Will sort of says, this
is my favorite painting. And I love that because I
think teenage boys they have favorite cars, they have favorite shoes,
(14:48):
they have favorite songs. Can we normalize them having favorite paintings,
especially in a world where, like you know, everything is
so digital and there's nothing wrong with n f T
s and digital art, Like I got respect for all
of it, but like you know, there is really something
about something that's handmade. In that component and thinking about
this family that was important for us, you know, in
(15:08):
our reimagining too, to make sure that you know, we
don't lose the handmade component of the artistry, you know,
within our shows and I think to your point, Morgan, um,
I almost think it's a role reversal. We were used
to holding something in our hand and having something tangible
and had to transfer into digital. Today's kids are getting
(15:32):
excited about buying an album and holding the album in
their hand because they're not used to having music be
an actual physical piece. So it's kind of the same
thing with our Damn, that's crazy. That's such a crazy connection.
Damn it does. It goes back and forth. I think
about the massive like hipster wave in my generation was
(15:52):
having vinyls and having a record player like you were.
You were as cool as hell, So it definitely it's
it ebbs and flows. Really cool to see culture like that. Okay,
real quick, does everybody on on this podcast have a
record player? Records? I'm sorry you take me out of that.
I was gonna say, outside and outside of jail, outside
of being a Djila and Rashi, do you all have
(16:13):
record players? Yes? Okay, I want to hear everybody's favorite
record Oh what always spending? Recently Steely Dan Asia? Okay,
what a deep cut? Um? I recently haven't listening to
Vince Staples FM like I got it for that and
it sounds so much better and more fun. Warmer. I
(16:34):
really enjoy a big boy voice. Cut through, cut Through.
My husband and I have two small children, ages four
and seven, and we played music every night at dinner
and just you have it on in the background and
it goes wild because like they don't know anything. You
just you can just play whatever you want. I want
to say last night was Elephantzgerald sings the girsh One song.
Oh those kids about to be cultured, Oh day, about
(16:56):
to be cultured? They are. And it's sort of like
my daughter is in love with Lena Coore and at
one point she was like, when can we see Leno
hard in concert? And I was like, oh wait, alright,
pet girl, I'm so sorry. This is a perfect transition
into what I really want to talk about. The scene
that actually made me cry, like no cap I wish
I were lying, But the scene where I'm viv is
(17:17):
braiding Ashley's hair and she even tells her like, well,
I already changed my hair because of the polling numbers.
This is one of the biggest donor events of your
dad's campaign, which means we need to be perfect. Look,
I know this campaign hasn't been easy trust me, I'm
feeling it too. We all are. So why do you
(17:39):
do it? Because I love your father and he's spent
years going to all my gallery openings and arn't shows,
and now it's his turn to be in the spotlight
and we need to all be there for him. And
we see the sacrifices once again that she's made for
her husband's career and for what she, you know, exemplifies.
I think about like Matthew Cherry's hair love and salon
(18:00):
just don't touch my hair, and how we're clearly in
this Black Revolution about raising awareness about what it feels
like to have hair like this um from the a's
to the bees, to the seas to that you know,
all of it. So can you guys talk about just
how important that scene was, why you put it in
the show, and what you think it means for the characters. Oh? Sure,
(18:20):
I think I mean that scene. I love that scene.
It It does a lot of things for us. One,
it sort of grounds them. So viv is wealthy, but
she still she still braids her daughter's hair. That's still
something that they do to bond, even though I think
in that scene Ashley isn't totally bonding with her mom
because you know she she's a preteen. That happens, um
(18:41):
and I think, you know, we we think of the
changes people are asked to make to their hair to
their parents, and we normally think of like the Michelle Obama,
we think of the political costs, But that can happen
if you become a teller at a bank. So often
as black people were sort of asked to tone it down,
rain it in professional, and sadly it's been for a
(19:04):
long time accepted as part of the game. We made
those changes because that's what you had to do to
get that paycheck. I love that that's stopping. I love
that people are just going, I'm gonna come as I
am because because I'm actually here to work and that
has very little to do with the hair on my head.
So I think the show reflects that that that awakening.
Also want to mention one other thing about the hair
(19:26):
braiding scene, and and that's important to us, is that
you know, this wonderful hair doesn't just happen. Somebody's gotta
braid this hair. Somebody's got this takes all, this takes
some time. My daughter I have helped braid my daughter's
head and I'm you know, we do it in two parts,
and we have two people, one working on each side
because she is seven and she will only sit for
(19:46):
so long. You know, we've got this down to a
military operation, and we wanted to see that reflected in
the show. I mean, even when they come down for breakfast,
that these you know, they've got bonnets and head wraps.
Like it should there should be a reality that says,
you want this great luck, it takes some work. And
I think just in general, like us as black people,
it's such it's so interesting in this country just due
(20:08):
to like the history of our country and in our origins.
In this country, it's like on our road to success,
like we have to do business with people who don't
look like us, right, and like you think about you know,
white people are privileged if they want, they can do
business with people that look like them forever. You see
what I'm saying. It's like we don't have that that luxury,
you see what I'm saying, And that's just that's just
due to the history of it and the inequity of it.
(20:30):
But now we're coming to a place and it's it's
we still got a long way to go. We're building
our own infrastructures to where you know, we can break
bread with people who look like us, you see, where
we don't have to codes which we we can wear
our hair the way we want, we can dress the
way we want, and I think that's really exciting, you
know what I mean. So it seemed like this, I
think it's important to to convey that that, like, you know,
we're taking step towards a new day where like we
(20:52):
have infrastructure that self sufficient, you know what I mean.
So it's it's one step out of time. Can you
guys talk about what it was like creating a team
of black people, because I'm assuming you have people in
your art department, your makeup department, hair department that is
that that are black. Rasheta is black, Morgan is black.
Like what did that mean being in a space where
you created an infrastructure that was all black or predominantly black.
(21:14):
How did that feel for you? Guys? It was good
what you had is you didn't have to spend so
much time explaining yourself. We had we had black people,
and even you know, the people who were black, they
came to this project well informed, you know, like we
didn't have to explain who are Ferrari? Shepherd was, Yeah,
we had an artist on set last night and a
scene and it was great because there was as much
(21:35):
excitement about this painter as there would be, you know,
like a rap star, because that's that's sort of like
the crowd we're running with for this show. I learned
in this job how much time and energy I spent
just having to explain the culture to my bosses or
explained to people why this mattered. And with that freed up,
you had energy and time to do other work, which
(21:58):
I really appreciate it and I think it's one and
why we got so much done, you know, just knowing
how much ground we broke on the first version of
the show musically, how important was it for you to
keep that going? I realized from watching the first episode
and the first scene. I lost my mind. I'm like,
(22:20):
oh my god, that was the most authentic music I've
ever seen on television. This is amazing, And it seemed
like that was very important to you guys. It was
the utmost importance, you know what I mean. It's like,
I don't think anybody would ever expect to turn on
our show and the first thing they hear is is
what we do by freeway, like what you know what
I mean like, and that's what it's all about, is
(22:41):
because if you know, you know, like that is such
a touchstone within the culture, and you know, going to
Rachet's point about having to explain some of those things,
there were times that you know, candidly that that was
a little bit of a challenge for people who didn't understand,
like why that song was so important, Why No World
Models was so important, why Meek was so important, why
you know, having you know, sim Santana, young West Philly
(23:04):
rapper who's really doing these things, like these are cultural touchstones,
and so even if you don't know, you can feel
like there's some real energy here, you know what I mean,
Like these lyrics and the way these bars are coming out,
Like that's real energy and that's real texture that we
needed to really show Will's world in the most authentic way.
And so that's what it's always been about, is just
like once again through the prism of character in the
(23:26):
world building, like where are we at? Okay? Like what
are the sounds that we're hearing? What we do is
a timeless classic, you know, long after we're gone, they're
gonna still be rapped. What do you say? Uh? And
the stomach started ground and then he started, you know
what I mean, They're gonna still be wrapping those bars
because of how timeless they are and what they did,
you know. So we really wanted to honor that spirit
(23:46):
through the show. And I just want to add it.
I mean, I've been again with a lot of creators
who said, oh, music is important to me, and that
is very easy to say. You have to do your homework.
We came to that room. One of the first things
Morgan gave everybody was a playlist for every character. Every
character had a playlist and he'd already so when it
came time for what songs do you want? It wasn't like, well,
(24:09):
I'd like something like this is like I want this,
I want fist, I want fist, I want fist. And
that really focuses the conversation and it sets you up
for success. You absolutely feel that in watching this, the
music authenticity comes through so strong when you when you
watched this, you know even down the scene that Will
(24:30):
comes into the record store and Buddy comes in and
he's kind of like, jazz I got an emergency. Jazz
I got an emergency ship. Buddy, oh ship, Who is
this man? It is my boy with cool cool cool. Look.
I'm going to the studio tomorrow with a real I
need some new sounds. You got something that sounds like
the Hungry Caterpillar and twenty tabs of acid. Will decide
(24:52):
of Shrump and Grid. They want to keep the PC,
not something like that Africa demon for us, my fucking guys.
First of all, when Buddy walked in, I just gave
a thumbs up. I was kind of like, Okay, somebody
knows their stuff in here. But to say that Farrell
was coming in the studio and then Jazz goes and
(25:13):
gets you know, this demon fuzz record. I'm sitting there like, okay,
who is doing this? This is awesome. First of all,
I gotta respect that the character Jazz runs a record
store that is so perfect. As we're saying one thing
about that record store that I also love because this
is the benefit of having you know, two season peck ops,
(25:35):
so we you know, we know, we get to tell
these stories over twenty episodes. Historically, Jazz and Uncle Phil
had some beef. There was they were not always they
were not always on good terms. He was not always hospitable.
I think it's seas two even. We can see some
of that emerging. But one of the ways very early
that we're establishing they have similarity is, you know, Jazz
(25:56):
runs a record store and Phil has this great record collection.
These two men both love music. There is a foundation
for understanding here that may help us down the road.
And I love it like it's it's been planted. From
the very beginning, Phil playing Trial Call Quest was everything
to me. That's this generation, you know, and we didn't
(26:17):
want the you know, the reimagined Care to feel like
they were stuck in the past. It's like, no, like,
what really would Phil be listening to? And it wouldn't
be the Tribes, you know, the Souls of Misschift, that's
what they grew up on. Same thing with with Viv
and her Musicool Palative, you know, a lot of Lauren Hill,
you know, it was on that playlist as well. So
(26:37):
when we started talking about Phil's music, it was you know,
it was a tough day for me because I watched
this show growing up and I identified with Will and
Carlton and I'm like, I'm forty two. Oh my god,
I'm uncle Phil. You know, there was a moment when
we talked about music and I'm like, oh, we should
we go to Motown. I'm like, no, that's my parents music.
Oh though he'd be listening to my music, you know,
(26:58):
like when you turn on the radio station. They were
all like, this is the classic hip hop station. I
almost crashed the car. Wow. Talking to Rashid and Morgan.
That could have gone on forever. There's so much to
cover we have fashion music. I want to say thank
you to them too for coming in giving us like
real behind the scenes insight of what it means to
be producers, showrunners, just to be it's in the back
(27:19):
rooms making sure that everything gets put together. Very fortunate
to have spoken with them. It's a lot that people
don't see, a lot going on, and they're so lucky
to have a team of black people who really get it.
I am super excited because today we're gonna talk to
the show's to genius composers, two very close friends of mine,
Mr Robert Glasper and Mr Terrorist Mark Terrorist l A
(27:41):
Born and Rais. He's a multi instrumentalist. He's produced albums
for artists like Herbie Hancock, Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar Robert
from Texas got six Grammys. We're gonna get into it.
He's worked with your literal favorites most def Q Tip, Ericabado,
just everything everything, jazz, hip hop, are be These two
are like the best in the game. Wait till you
(28:02):
see us dancing. It's a whole level. Wait till you
see are we have such a great routine behind Cisco.
It's amazing. Oh man, I didn't want I know you're
gonna let that out. I'll get exclusive. Y'all get exclusive today.
Hey we got dancing him. Welcome to the podcast. What Up?
What up? Okay? Y'all too explain to listeners, like what
(28:24):
actually comes along with composing the music for a television show?
What parts of it feature the two of your work.
We're a whole different thing that's kind of never been
done before. And this film's going world, I might say,
because we're not only composing doing the score, but because
we're record producers that you know, the role of Texes
is very round. You know, when things can't get cleared,
(28:45):
we get them cleared. When things need a song that
they can't find a song, they need a song, a
certain type song. I snoop like that what I punched,
you got something over there. Me and Rob was so
personally attached to this because part of our shot and
we know everybody involved, we know Jeff, like you know
what I'm saying. We were so kind of attached that
we we did a lot of things that we've never
(29:05):
done and we're gonna start doing. We was kind of
like a one stop shop for a lot of things
without getting too deep. It was a lot of different
music that couldn't get cleared. And I just so happen
to know the artist, you know, and because because a
lot of times you get all these what I call
micro egos in the way of the artists and a
and a show to where like this. This is a
(29:28):
powerful show that helped raise a few generations. This this
help us, No to keep it real. This help is
not that you can steal be black and have bread.
That's a big deal. Absolutely, a lot of the artists,
I wasn't even getting a call like you know, this
is a chance to the like put us on there,
put us something like we want to be a part.
(29:49):
So that really was this thing. So me and Rob
if Morgan wanted like man, you know, say we got
this song, but it cost this much, we can't, I said, Okay,
why don't we give them the same energy, but unlike
a typical score thing, why don't we just go call
another artist to kind of do do those type things.
You know what I'm saying. You know, So it was
we we are Our job was really feeling in the blanks,
(30:09):
uh from from from executive standpoints, the music standpoints, you
know what I'm saying. But definitely all all of the
music supervisors did an excellent job. Excellent job, you know
what I'm saying. Okay, so l A artists all over
the soundtrack, all over the music. There's a moment in
the pilot where Thundercat comes in and it's just like
(30:30):
the perfect cruising down peak on music. I think it's
them changes plays, which is iconic. Stephen Bruner track, Are
you trying to bring in l A artists and l
A musicians l A violin players? Like, are you really
trying to tap the wells that you have? I'm just
always dealing with my own crew. It just makes it easy.
You got a mean crew. I mean, I'm I'm I
learned from a guy that comes from a main crew.
You know what I'm saying. You crew. You know, it's
(30:53):
easy for a few reads, easier because we all know
each other. We all could go different dimensions musically and
getting back. Not that anybody ever talks about this, but
I'm learning this is like getting back to the clearances
and things like that. It's such important half relationships with
these people and people to be connected to people that's
all involved in these different films and everything, so people
(31:13):
could feel comfortable about their music and being involved or
even being shown shown up a different life. That's also
different thing. But but Stephen Bruner, you know, you gotta
have his music and his his music represents California entirely. Yeah, absolutely,
and that and modern music in general, so it definitely
represents absolutely. I know that process of creating music for
(31:35):
yourself and for natural just creation ideation is so different
than when you're scoring something. So can you talk to
that a little bit, like how is it different when
you are making songs for both? So yeah, when you're
when you're just making music for yourself, you're on your
own time. Yeah, you know you time, you know what
you feel, you know what you want, you know what
(31:56):
you're trying to portray, what story you're trying to tell
It's harder to score something because you have to try
to bring to life with somebody else's thinking in their minds,
you know what I mean. So it's not your visions,
their vision. A lot of times you might have a
different vision, but you have to tell their story what
they want to portray. So that's the hard part. And
(32:18):
you're on someone else's time at the same time. And
some people might not even know what they want yet,
but they want you to. Magically most of the times
they don't know what they want. Well, you know what
it's it's for me. I don't do that many revisions
for me, you know. If it's my record, I got
one two times and I hope it goes well. Scoring
is like the ultimate test of of your ego. It's
(32:40):
the ultimate like I'm a grown man with children, you know,
you know, you know, I pay taxes, all kind of
grown non fun things. It's a true test. You know,
when you say you want to start scoring movies and
scoring TV shows, you have to really understand what that is.
First of all, it's definitely an honor, but it being
such a big show and it's classic mixed with something
(33:02):
new you already had. Quincy dive man qut three yearly,
then you got all then you got all these things,
and it's like people with this show is like it's
a whole new thing, but you bet it's like that's
kind of the whole. That's been the whole thing, you know,
Like you like, we want all your sound, but don't
forget that first one. You know what I'm saying. It's
been a learned experience and it hasn't been easy, but
(33:24):
it's been beautiful. It's been a challenging and I believe
challenges are great because I'm now at this age I'm
addicted to the breakthrough, so any challenge coming my way out,
I love it. So it's been very cool. It's been
very cool to do twenty million revisions on one queue,
turning things up and down. It's been cool. Oh and
everything is an emergency and a deadline on a Sunday.
(33:51):
It's gotta be a lot because when you guys are
making your own music, the only producers you answer to
are your damn selves. But when it comes to this, right, like,
you got a whole team of people who may or
may not understand the music that you're trying to go for,
who may not understand why No Role Models is the
perfect song to start the first episode, Like, what exactly
is going on with that too? Do you guys ever
(34:11):
get kicked back? People are like, no, that's not it,
that's not right. Try it again. Yeah, definitely, And that's
something that and like Tera said, you definitely get your
ego checked if you have one, because you'll send some
stuff in where you're like, boom, nail, didn't you did not? Yeah,
that's great. Could you try something? You know, you have
(34:33):
to be okay with rejection. Rejection is a big part
of the game. If you're not okay with rejection, don't
do it. You get rejected more than you get the okay,
that's true, you know what I mean. That's true. Yo.
You know it brings me to with Morgan sends back
these notes, right, all these revisions, and I love his notes.
It's I love everybody's notes, but his notes a lot.
(34:54):
You can tell it's not gonna work because he comes
off with the compliment, oh my god, this is amazing,
this is so moving, it's so great. Oh my god,
I'm having dreams about it. Oh my god, Jesus, and
then he says, but respectfully, respectfully, could you try something
(35:15):
else a little better. Absolutely, absolutely, Yeah, that's definitely. That's
definitely a little bit different than working on your own stuff. Um,
especially because I don't think people understand that it's probably
(35:36):
harder to compose something that's fifteen seconds and something that's
five minutes, because they want you to have the emotion
of five minutes in fifteen seconds exactly exactly. They need
you to do that, and they want you to Could
you start like this and then on grows and wanting
(35:59):
to grow in seven second project? How long have you
all been scoring and doing composition? Like? Is this a
first TV project for you? For me, it's not. My
first score was. I did this movie with Don Cheeto.
It's called Miles Ahead. It's a basically a story about
the life of Miles Davis in a certain time period,
and that was my first time scoring anything. He just
(36:20):
tweeted me and was like, Hey, I love your music,
you know. Then we started talking and he's like, do
you do scores? And I was like, I lied, And
then I had to have Derek Hodd shot to be had.
I had to have Derek Hodds fly down to New
York and show me how to work logic. So I
(36:40):
could do the score because I had no idea how
to do anything anything, and I was about to go
on a on a tour in Europe. So I did
half of the score when I was in Europe. Then
after that, I did this movie called The Photograph, um Oh,
with my boss Esa Ray and my favorite Loki Stanfield.
Yes we're familiar, We're familiar. Scored that when I scored
(37:01):
this documentary about the Apollo Theater and that actually wanted Emmy.
Also I scored this dope show. This is a documentary
by the show called Mr So called Soul, but the
documents called Mr. Soul. You know about that jazz, don't, bro, No,
I don't. It's basically Soul trained before Soul trained. This
is like seventy and they had it was everybody's first
(37:25):
time being on TV, like Astro and Simpson, earth Wind
and Fire, Stevie Wonder, but not even not even just that,
like McCoy tyner like it went. It went all over
the place. And then they had you know, Muhammad Ali
and they're talking and they would do forty five minute
sets and you do whole forty five minutes sets, Bro.
(37:46):
But it was only on air for like three years
and then President Nixon was like, oh, because then they
started getting Angela Davidson blah blah blah, I started getting
too political. They cut it off, and then Soul Train
started like a year after that. The show is called Soul,
so the documentary is called Mr. Soul. It's a music documentary,
so I can guess. It's a lot of archival footage
(38:07):
and quest love talking. I think he might be every
music documentary congratulations. Yeah, and he's in the movie. So
it's so much soul. Let's all over the place. But
(38:27):
it's my favorite thing is watching my you know, my
favorite musicians, these legacy musicians and all that, like coming
into the film industry, in the TV industry. But I
want to know, there are so many times I was
watching the show and I would hear something dope and
trying google it and Google would be like zero results.
I'm like, these people made this song for this scene,
and I'm not gonna find it anywhere. Let's not buy
a soundtrack or something or whatever. But are y'all like
(38:49):
digging into archives for old things or are you making
it up right there? For watching the scene right there? Wow,
right there? Because with me and Robert learning to with
our partnership in this old venture. We could have all
kind of preset things ready to go, but we realized
that everybody has their own version of what's side is,
(39:09):
what happy is, what's exciting, what's soulful, what's not? Everybody
has their own thing for a lot of this stuff.
We work faster just creating right there instead of like,
let's go through the file. We we tried that. We
tried that, but you know, nothing really works from our
files to the point we have to you know, Morgan, respectfully,
this is amazing. Oh my god, can you guys create
(39:31):
something from here to here? And we're jazz musicians at
hard too, you know what I mean. So we're used
to making things up on the spot. That's why I
think it's a natural marriage for us to be able
just what you need boom okay, boom boom boom, boom boom,
because that's what we're you know, lack of a better word,
trained to do, you know, on the spot, boom in
(39:52):
the moment, give you feelings in the moment. It comes through.
It definitely comes through. When you watch the show, the
music really takes you a place that you're not used
to hearing. You're not used to hearing this kind of
music on the show. I'm sure you guys fight or disagree.
You know what, when when me and him disagree, it's
first of all, when we do disagree and we do
(40:14):
have any type of get back with each other, it's
only to get to the solution. Though it's not it's
not really be like I'm right, you're right. It's like
because we we were usually attached by the head when
it comes a lout of business. So we're not trying
to off no deal. We're like, well what do we
which way? You know? Like with Rob Robbie, I can
telling me no, they don't take that, and they don't
(40:35):
take it like that. It's calmed down, and I gotta
tell Rob bro stop giving them every thing. They don't
like us, you know what I'm saying. So it's like
it's like the two things. Yeah, now we have a
high level of respect from each other, so we listened
to one another. We both go sometimes depending on a situation,
I don't know a terce whatever you think, Bro, Rob,
(40:57):
you leave it, I don't know what you think. And
then sometimes would be like I feel this for this,
all right, let's try both let's try this first. Yeah,
it's really arguing not on this. We debate all day
about ship, you know what I mean, But when we don't,
you know, yeah, yeah, you know. I But I don't
think that they could have gotten a more perfect group
of people to basically score this because with this kind
(41:21):
of picking it up in the nineties and taking it
in two and putting a little dramatic spin. You know,
if you guys were around in the nineties, you probably
would have been doing this in the nineties. So I
think it was just a perfect alley you to throw
it to, you guys, because, like you said, the whole
being able to compose on the fly kinda allows you
(41:44):
to to get the feeling that sometimes other people can.
We was bringing sounds through, We was bringing orchestration through.
It was bringing harmony, We was bringing everything all the
other guys got as well. Don't get it sucked up.
But I'm proud to say, well, what we was bringing
through is a a high level sense of reality to this,
you know what I'm saying. Like we felt more like
(42:05):
way before the show needed music, it needed another layer
of reality to add to that, you know what I'm saying.
And I think that's even what's listening to me and
a lot of other scores I see, it's like it
makes me not even believe a fucking story, Like you
know what I'm saying. So this I'll never forget, not
to cut you off. There was one scene where the
score that they had in there, they had, um, uh,
(42:25):
don't say no, they don't think we they don't think we,
don't say don't think good. It was source of music.
It was source of music that they had for a scene,
a skating scene, and Terrace is like, no, they wouldn't
play that in a skating rink in that year in
l A. I know because I was in those skating rinks.
They would play X y Z boom boom boom and
(42:47):
two people that are from you know, so that's the
little things like that they were skating to, Like he's
worthy whatever that was, don't hey, Jeff, these five meets
me and Robbie. Hey, they never had We'd be like, man,
(43:07):
that ship Wait, what ain't nobody fucking with that? Hey?
But that's who you got. We gotta keep the bar high.
Yeah I can't. We kept sitting back and watch it
just you know, yeah, yeah, absolutely, Well thank you to
both of you guys for coming through, answering our questions,
(43:28):
sharing these last really appreciate it and needed this moment.
So thank you guys so much. And I promise I'm
coming out to l A and I'm gonna stay for
two weeks and we're gonna get it in. I look, Jeff,
when you get out here, I gotta introduce to my
cousin that turned me on the hip hop. He's the
one that bought the first album and he's the DJ.
I'm the rapper. My cousin, Lois Brown Fresh cousin Bro.
(43:49):
Like we used to listen to that record. It was
a double vinyl. He's a d J, I'm the rapper.
I remember the intro. Will was busting. He was busting
like like you know when you know what's funny? Every
time somebody years they would be like, yeah, Will, what's
shiny said? Will? I uhould be like, come to the house, Bro,
let me show you, just let me show you, let
(44:10):
me show you how he evolved and let me show
you this ship and you and it's just he's it's
it's a DJ and the m C and it gotta
it gotta Grammy, it broke, it made us all. What's
the first? Yes, the first hip hop grammy. You know
what I'm saying. So it's like I was as low
(44:30):
key as jazz. Any time somebody asking anything, I'd be like,
what was the question? No, hey, that's that's still humble.
I would say. If they say, Terence, how's yourday, I
would say, every rapper with a Grammy's mind, they're all mine.
Throw my kids. Oh you have a gram Yes you
(44:52):
do have a grab me? Grab me? Yes you do U.
That's buddy. Listen, this has been amazing. You guys. Continue
(45:16):
up the good work and we are going to keep listening. Man.
I love both of you. Take care and I to
b Damn, that was an interview. That was an interview.
It doesn't get better than that. They're hilarious. They're funny
together and funnier part that's just amazing. Man, What can't
(45:37):
they do? That's so irritating. They both are incredible talents.
Um and they met back at jazz camp when they
were fifteen, So you know, I told you you know,
both of those guys are good friends of mine and
they are definitely two characters. And it was just such
a special interview getting to hear two close friends clearly,
but then also three guys that know each other for
(45:57):
a long time talk about music and what it means
to be black men in this industry. Like that was
just such a wonderful conversation and hilarious. If they didn't
want to be jazz musicians, they could be full on comedies.
They are. Once again, thank you to our guest Morgen, Rashid,
Robert and Terroris. Next week we'll be talking about the
(46:17):
theme that's a through line throughout the entire show, which
is success. Check out the next episode of bell Air
streaming on Peacock this Thursday, and come back to the
podcast every Friday to hear more bell Air. The official
podcast is produced by iHeart Podcast Network and Peacock. This
show is hosted by Me Dj Jazzy Jeff and by
(46:39):
Me aid To Austin, supervising producer Mike Coscarelli, producer and
mastering engineer but Heat Frazier. Executive producers from I Heart
are Nicki E. Tour, Hones Stump and Miles Gray. Executive
producers from Peacock are Lindsay Vogelman and Amber Ferguson, and
special thanks to Will Pearson from My Heart and myke
(47:00):
Go Skaggin from Peacock Wow
Host
DJ Jazzy Jeff
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!