Today on The Breakfast Club, Kem Talks Career, R&B Then vs. Now, Struggles, Sobriety Journey, ‘Give My Love’ Line Dance. Listen For More!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Don't love every day? Up waiting Click yours up? The
Breakfast Club. You're finished for y'all done morning.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Everybody is the j Envy Jess, Hilarious, Charlamagne the Guy.
We are the breakfast Club. Lola Rosa is here with
us as well. We got a special guest in the
buildings in this new single comes out this Friday. Give
my love, Ladies and gentlemen, Cam welcome.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
What's happening? How are you feeling, brother, I'm good, I'm good.
How's everybody?
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Black? And Holly fav Man? You are a legend. You
know how many people love you? Man?
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (00:30):
Yes, I say that with gratitude. This gratitude, man, this
gratitude to be to be doing what I do for
a living for over two decades and I don't feel
like I'm done yet.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
That's that's that's that's really really a blessing.
Speaker 5 (00:47):
Why do you think you have the connection with the
audience that you do because you bay your souls, because
you're so vulnerable.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
It's because they can, you know, maybe.
Speaker 5 (00:54):
See some of their struggles and struggles you've been open about.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
Yeah, I think it's the vulnerability. I think it's the
authenticity and you know, and I'm making music in the
tradition of you know, Luther and Marvin and all that
great music that we grew up at, the Eisley Brothers
and Patty. You know what I'm saying, I'm holding I'm
trying to keep the light on for what I feel
(01:18):
is good R and B.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
And I think people appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
But you're independent now, so you pay everything. So how
does that feel, that part of the business feeling?
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Well, it's incredible.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
I started as an independent though, right My first album, Chemistry,
I released on my own label, Chemistry Records. We sold
that's when we you know, was selling CDs literally out
of my trunk, seventeen thousand units on my own. So
I'm just returning to I've come home. You know, it's
a full circle moment. Twenty three good years at Motown.
(01:48):
You know, Motown was good to me, and I was
definitely good to Motown.
Speaker 6 (01:54):
You know, kept the lights on.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Yeah, we kept you know, we kept it pushing.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
But in this season of my life, you know, as
a husband, the father, we got a lot of kids,
a lot going on, and I'm thinking about my legacy
and how I want to move forward more equity, Uh,
more autonomy, you know, so I feel real good.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
I feel the majority of your money was probably made
touring or right touring.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
Yeah, touring is definitely the gift that keeps on giving,
as well as publishing. You know, publishing right, because I
write most of I write most of my stuff.
Speaker 5 (02:24):
You know, you've been very open about things like, you know,
homelessness and in addiction before finding like you.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Know, your your breakthrough.
Speaker 5 (02:30):
How did those struggles shape you as a as an artist?
Speaker 4 (02:34):
Look, coming through the other side of my darkness is
really the foundation that that's got me sitting here with y'all.
You know what I'm saying my testimony is is everything
you know, and the music is infused with it. And
I just I don't just look at what I'm doing
as as an entertainer, you know, I'm I'm in the business,
(02:56):
you know, and I'm in the game, But I also
look at it as ash as many in a way.
You know what I'm saying, People who are going through
you know, hopefully I say something that that that resonates
with them, that helps them, helps pull them through the
other side of their darkness too.
Speaker 6 (03:11):
What made you give it up?
Speaker 2 (03:11):
What was that that final thing that says, I'm going
to give this up and I'm gonna change.
Speaker 6 (03:15):
When you talk about the drugs.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
And alcohol, you know, I know it sounds, it sounds trying.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
People say it all the time.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
It's a cliche, you know, but it's like you get
sick and tired of being sick and tired.
Speaker 7 (03:27):
Man.
Speaker 4 (03:27):
You know, I got sober when I was twenty three
years old and in and out of jail, hospitalized because
of my addiction, strange from my family, you know, couldn't
go home.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
Sleeping outside.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
You know.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
My friends were people that my contemporaries were. You know,
they were in school, they were in college, they were
starting their careers. Saturday night, they're out on dates, They're
doing the thing.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
You know what. I'm eating out of trash cans, you
know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (03:52):
And I'm you know, when people think my story is
is uh is one of rags riches, but it's really
the story of the of the product son.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
My parents, you know, two cars, and I mean, you know,
I want to send me to school and like all
of that, you know, but yeah, I got sick and
tired of being sick and tired, and I and I
gave up on my idea.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Of how to change it myself. Right.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
There's an adage I love that says, when the student
is ready, the teacher appears.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
You know.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
When I gave up, when I surrendered. You know, God
brought some people into my life who showed me how
to how to live a better way.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
And I've been doing it ever since.
Speaker 5 (04:30):
If you don't mind me asking, how did the addiction
start with a recreational.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Or Yeah, it started recreationally.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Right.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
You know, man, the first time I had a drink, man,
it was like, you know, and you know I was,
I was, you know, I think to some degree, we
all have some degree of dysfunction and in our homes,
and I just I didn't have I didn't have any
coping skills, right. And my parents, you know, God bless them,
they did the best they could. We were you know,
(05:01):
we didn't talk about anything in our house.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
You know, we didn't. Uh, there was anxiety.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
And what I know now is is childhood depression and
and and eighty AGD.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
We didn't have them labels.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
You know, everybody, we all depressed, just get up and
put your head down and plow through it.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
So all of those things.
Speaker 4 (05:17):
So by the time I found alcohol and drugs, dude,
it was like a light.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Went on, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (05:23):
It was a place of uh you know, I thought
that it was a place of of of refuge.
Speaker 7 (05:28):
You know.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
I was, I was I was free to be me.
You know.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
I was the the life of the party, you know,
until until I wasn't.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
You know.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
So my my upbringing was it was it laid the
foundation to seek something outside of myself, to to to medicate.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
You know, as soon as you often just offmosa shut up.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
So it's all good.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Now.
Speaker 6 (05:51):
You mentioned your parents, you know, so I'm sure your parents.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Had to kick you out to get to YouTube, to
get to where you need to be.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
The best thing that ever happened to me was my
mother army out of the house, break that down.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Because a lot of parents won't do that because they
feel like that's their son. They don't want to, but
I feel like, sometimes you have to.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
You have to.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
Yeah, she had to. It was the best thing that
ever happened to me, you know. And uh, and when
we and when we do that, And I'm saying that
as a as a father, and I don't know that
I'd have the courage to do that, you know what
I'm saying, even haven't had the experience, but you know,
and because there's a there's a risk and when we
when we show that type of tough love to someone,
there's a risk that they won't make it, you know
(06:28):
what I'm saying. But there's also a risk that that
they'll die in their.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Darkness, you know. So I'm glad that my mother made
that choice.
Speaker 6 (06:35):
What's your relationship after?
Speaker 8 (06:37):
Uh?
Speaker 4 (06:37):
Oh today, it's all good, right, It's all up, you know,
it was it was necessary my mom's and my mom's
in recovery too.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
The whole the whole.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
Dynamic in our house, you know, shifted, you know. And
uh and we were we did a lot of great
a lot of good work to get to a to
a good place.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
And we lost my my my father last fall.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
But you know, we're all all in a good place, man,
and I'm grateful for it. Curse breaker, I would say,
as far as addiction is concerned. As far as addiction
is concerned, my mother, my mother.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Got sober first, you know.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
And I and I and I have I have continued,
I have continued the I like that I'm gonna take
that with me, I have continued the curse breaking, you know,
and uh and and hopefully my children will will will
carry it forward.
Speaker 9 (07:32):
You say that, you know, y'all didn't talk about things
in your house when you were younger, before your father's
passed and leading up to that. Did you guys get
to have those conversations? Did you say, you know, we
didn't talk because we didn't talk about anything. Can we
talk about it now?
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (07:47):
Yeah, we were Yeah, we're you know, we were good,
you know, and you know, and I think that that's
that's not exclusive to our culture. But I'm sure that
you know our culture we identify. You know, you talk,
you know, grown folks are talking. You're going another room.
You know what I'm saying, You're you're seen and you're
not and you're not heard, you know what I'm saying.
And uh, you know, but but uh, we did a
(08:07):
lot again, we did a lot of great work to
get to the other side of that.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (08:10):
Yeah, What were the conversations like while you were going
through the homelessness and trying to figure out that, I know,
you got kicked out of a rehabilitation sent at one point,
were your parents calling and checking in on you and
y'all were talking then, or like, was it just solely
just you?
Speaker 3 (08:23):
You know?
Speaker 4 (08:24):
When I was I spent a lot of time in
the UH, in the Salvation Army and the soup kitchens
UH Detroit Rescue Mission in Detroit, and and and during.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
That time, I would I would try to I would try.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
To go home, you know, and and prove to my
folks that that I had that I had changed, you know,
that I had turned over a new leafs so to speak,
But I hadn't really I was. I wanted to change,
but I had the I may have had the outward
appearance of change, but I didn't even know what change required,
(08:59):
you know, I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
So there were conversations.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
They came and visited me in some of the rehabilitation
centers that I was in, and I was really trying
to get back into their good graces.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
But by the.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
Time I was really, really, really ready to stop. I
wasn't concerned about repairing my relationships, right, I wasn't concerned
about getting back into the good graces of anybody. I
was just trying to stay alive. I had to do it.
I had to do it for me, right, not because
of my job, not because you know, you know, and
I'm talking to addicts who are out there, not because
(09:33):
I want to. I want to, you know, get my
wife back or get my kids back. No, I need
to do this. I need to do this for me,
you know what I'm saying. And and then hopefully all
the things, all of those other things will be will
will will be added, you know. And yeah, yeah, but
my parents stayed, they support, they wanted the best, you know,
but you know I was you know, I was crazy, drinking.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Using right, showing up, showing up drunk. You know, you can't,
you can't. You can only help somebody that want to
help themselves, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 9 (10:09):
So it wasn't stay in.
Speaker 4 (10:12):
It wasn't stay in situation. I mean we got and
you got breathalyzed every time you you know, you came back.
I mean but you you know you could, you could,
you could sneak I mean, you.
Speaker 9 (10:20):
Know, got you right?
Speaker 3 (10:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Not the first time, not the first time.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
I completed I completed a program and it was still
a resident and you know, I completed the program and
you know, and can and continue and continue to use
So I mean, you know, you only but you're only
you're only you know, cheating yourself.
Speaker 5 (10:40):
So I wonder if those programs, this might be a
stupid question, I wanted those programs actually work. Are Is
it just something that gets you to realize I gotta
make a chance.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
That's a great point because we live in a in
a culture, in a society where, well a certain segment
of society where people think, you know, somebody has a
you know, a celebrity has a has a flare up,
get cut, and then they go to rehab for like
two weeks.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
He's in rehab.
Speaker 4 (11:08):
You know what I'm saying, two weeks, two weeks. I
mean that's you know, that's a place to start. But
you're talking about an overhauling your entire life.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
You know what I'm saying. You can't. You're not gonna
get better in two weeks. You know what I'm saying.
You can.
Speaker 4 (11:20):
You can abstain, you can get some some some clarity,
you can get you know, a you can.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
Get some tools. But it took a lot for most
of us.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
It's taken a lifetime to become the peak for our
dysfunction to reach its peak. It takes time in order
to get better. So you leave treatment, you got to
continue to be, to be doing something. You know what
I'm saying, and it's it's you know, the internet is littered,
you know with stories of people who've been to treatment
and and didn't make it, you know, and you know,
(11:52):
so yeah, yeah, yeah, So.
Speaker 5 (11:53):
When you was at your lowest point, like, what was
that thought, our moment that made you believe you could
still change your life?
Speaker 3 (12:04):
Music has always been a light.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Makes me.
Speaker 9 (12:10):
M hmm, it's okay.
Speaker 4 (12:14):
Music has always been I've always known that that's what
it was. So I would be in the Detroit Rescue
Mission on a piano in the corner, writing the writing
the churse for my first album. You know what I'm saying, right,
(12:34):
Nothing nothing is wasted. You know you're talking to you.
You know, nothing is wasted your struggle, whatever you're going
through right now, if you get honest and surrendered to it,
nothing is wasted, you know because that first album, dude,
that's all Salvation Army, right, that's all Detroit Rescue Mission,
that's all you know. So music was always was always
(12:57):
a light pulling me through. I wanted to be you know,
I'd be you know, somewhere sleeping on the Detroit on
the Detroit River bank and right across from the Detroit River,
you know, the windsor you know, and at night, dude,
I'm you know, I'm home. I'm trying to nurse a
can of King Cobra till the next day. And I'm
looking across then there's all these lights. There's all there's
(13:17):
all this life, you know, and I'm not a part
of it.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
You know.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
It's like, dude, how do right? I saw this? But
how do I get to how do I? How do
I get to that?
Speaker 4 (13:28):
You know what I'm saying? How do I how do
I get to the to the next thing? You know,
that that that God has for me? And uh, you know,
and and and and surrender, surrender. You know, I just didn't.
It's not overnight, you know, I just didn't. I just
didn't show up.
Speaker 5 (13:44):
It's so powerful, man, when you trapped in darkness, the
light is there, right, you just have to, you know,
have the clarity to see it. And I guess that's
why you self medicaid, because when you self medicated, you
don't see it right.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Right.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
You have to let go.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
You have to be willing to let go of what's
holding you back to get to the other you got
to be willing to let it go.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
You gotta be willing to let it whatever it is,
you know.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
And we're just talking about, you know, addiction, but that
those principles apply to everything. Whatever you're trying to get
to the other side of, it applies to everything. You
know what I'm saying. So you know everything, it applies
to everything, you know.
Speaker 9 (14:26):
So this is amazing just hearing your journey and the
things that you were going through. I grew up listening
to you. I would wake up Saturday mornings. It was
it was chemistry and Anita Baker in my mind it
would be ringing through the house, right and your voice right,
I we love the music and the whole time you're hurting,
you're going through this. So it's just amazing to be
(14:47):
able to hear your story now, right. And I also,
you had said that your music was your therapy, you know,
et the time of homelessness, right when you're away from
your community. Have you ever done any other therapy like
real therapy?
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (15:01):
Yeah for sure, yeh yeah, yeah yeah yeah. Dude.
Speaker 4 (15:04):
When I get when I signed, when I when I
signed my contract uh with Motown, I had a panic attack.
First time I ever had one, Wow, And I didn't
know what it was, right, and I'd lived with depression
like you know, you just get up, and yeah, I
(15:25):
had you know the degree of my depression is not
as severe as as as other people obviously, but I
had never and I didn't know, you know, and I
felt like I was underwater.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
I thought that.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
Getting a record deal, which I had been you know,
proverbally chasing like all of my life, I thought that
that was going to be the cure all. When I
got the record deal, now I'm cool, right, But there's
all this other stuff, all this other all this other
baggage that still needed to be to be unpacked.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
It didn't more to say, man, say more money, more problems.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
It didn't.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
It didn't resolve you know, a lot of issues. So
I ended up.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
I was I was talking to someone, a friend of mine,
and I was explaining to her how I was feeling.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
And she happened to be.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
A child psychologist, and she said, have you ever been
diagnosed with depression? And I said no, you know no,
And she recommended a therapist. So I saw a therapist
and you know, and educated myself. I was on medication,
you know, for a while, and you know it was
it was, it was. It was life changing, you know,
(16:34):
we are. And that's after I think I got a
record deal.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
I was.
Speaker 4 (16:37):
I had been sober for maybe ten So these layers
are there are layers to our lives, layers of the
onion that we peel back. And there's more to discover,
there's more to unpack. There's always always more to.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
Be done, you know. I don't know.
Speaker 4 (16:52):
There's a lot of stigma, and not as much today
probably as as you know, I mean that was twenty
three as as there used to be about you know know,
you know the Black Church and were talking about you
know you only need Jesus, Like, yeah, you need Jesus
and a therapist, right, you need the Jesus and a therapist.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
And you might need some and you might need some
some some medication. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (17:13):
Don't let those things keep you from getting from getting
the help that you need.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
You know what I'm saying, How.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Did you get your deal? So you said you got
your deal? You said what you thought your problems will
go away?
Speaker 3 (17:24):
Yeah, how did they? How did you get your deal?
I was selling the Chemistry album off the.
Speaker 6 (17:30):
Trunk, off the trunk.
Speaker 4 (17:31):
You know, I was, I was, I was passing CDs
out in the streets, you know, in Detroit. I put
some people on the plane the flash to Chicago and
past CDs out in the streets.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
You know.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
I was literally, you know, living in uh in uh
in Detroit. And you know, my neighbors thought out they
didn't know what I was doing. I'm out my pajamas,
ups trucks, you know, loading CDs. I couldn't keep them in,
you know, I couldn't keep them in the you know,
the beauty the beauty so Plat store.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
So we were.
Speaker 4 (18:01):
I had my own, my own barcode, you know what
I'm saying. I was set up as a you know,
set up as a as a as a business. My
then manager, Toya Hankins, and we were just you know,
we were just hustling. So every time a CD sold,
there was a blip on billboard.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Right, it wasn't a lot, but it was a there
was a blip. And then we.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
Started to get local airplay and Detroit uh d C,
Miami started playing love Calls before we ever had a deal,
you know, and and uh so, you know, and you know,
if you get the and and I don't know how
you well, I don't know how you You know, you're
(18:42):
obviously not selling CDs today, but if you get the people.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
Behind you, industry will follow.
Speaker 5 (18:49):
M How were you able to create a soundtrack of
love during that dark time in your life because you
you didn't love yourself?
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Right? I don't know if you had somebody, but how
were you able to write?
Speaker 10 (19:01):
You were really honest about all the things you were
going through to.
Speaker 4 (19:03):
All of my all of the early records, are all
of the records up until I met my wife are aspirational, right,
you know, skinny, dark skinned kid, shy. You know, I'm
a I'm an introvert pretending to be you know, an extrovert,
(19:27):
you know, shy, you know, don't get you know, want
to want to look from the pretty girl, want the
you know, so I'm I'm that's you know, too afraid
to talk, you know.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
So that's all.
Speaker 4 (19:37):
Of my songs work, that's all inspirational. It's all aspirational,
and it's all you know, when I did have a
girlfriend and then the loss of the loss of love,
you know that first, you know, you know that first,
the first album Chemistry is it's all of that, you know, Yeah.
Speaker 9 (19:56):
That's crazy. How you say you didn't even know how
to talk? Man, your music got so many guys cheeks.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
But I can do that. I'm standing at so my brothers.
I'm standing in the gap for my brothers. Right, you
ain't got the words. There's a kid, there's a chem
record for it, right, yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
So love inspire your music or the music inspired or
where you love?
Speaker 6 (20:16):
Mhm?
Speaker 3 (20:25):
Both both both right? And people talk about you know.
Speaker 4 (20:33):
And then I used to be in bands and they
would be you know, everybody's we were coming up in
Minneapolis sound it was it was you know, Tony, Tony Tony.
It was all the dance tracks and all the all
my my bandmates and my musical peers. You know, they
were chasing this thing, dude. And I'm sitting over here
in the corner with these little quiet ass.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
You know what I'm saying. Are you always writing the loves?
Speaker 1 (20:56):
You know?
Speaker 4 (20:56):
While you always was like, dude, that's I don't know,
you know, that's just you know, that's just that's just
what it is. And I and I'm you know, and
I'm grateful for that, you know, because I think that.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
All that ails the world is a lack of love.
Speaker 9 (21:12):
Mhm.
Speaker 5 (21:13):
To some degree, No, I think not even to some degree.
I think that's what's missing. Because love gives you empathy, love.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Gives you caring.
Speaker 5 (21:20):
If you got those three things, you'll show up and
be the human that we need you to be.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
You know what I'm saying, Love, empathy, and care.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
That's it, you know, yeah for real? Yeah? Yeah?
Speaker 9 (21:31):
Looking back now, right, what are you most proud of
now about your journey back?
Speaker 3 (21:36):
Then?
Speaker 4 (21:39):
I am most proud of being being sober, because upon
that is, you know, upon that, that's the foundation for
everything else. If I'm not sober, I mean, that's that's
you know, I mean, God in sobriety. You can go
which one comes first, because if I if I'm drinking, dude,
(21:59):
I God may still be with me, but I'm not,
I'm not.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
Right.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
Sobriety is is probably the first thing upon that everything
else is built. And after that is uh, you know,
it's my is, my family, my kids, my wife and I.
We've got seven kids between us. The oldest is thirty,
the youngest is one. You know what I'm saying, So
(22:29):
we you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 6 (22:35):
How did you meet your wife?
Speaker 4 (22:36):
I met my wife at a show in Atlanta, right,
and I was never I was never the artist who
is you know hey, you know, yeah, go give you know,
bring that one back, and go bring that one back.
And my wife came to a meet and greet on
(22:58):
a tour that I shouldn't that I well, I you
know that at the time, I didn't feel like I
should have been on We had just we had just
it was just me, but we had just This was
twenty twenty fifteen. So in twenty fourteen, you know, me,
Joe and Charlie Wilson, you know, we was out killing
him for months, right, and then and then I came
(23:20):
back and tried to do and do do another two.
So we had been out there. So I've really felt,
you know, that I shouldn't have been out on the road.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
But you know, where you where you are, we.
Speaker 4 (23:34):
Don't all what what what you What you think you're
someplace for is not necessarily why you're there. We think
we're there for one reason, but there's something there's something else,
something else is going on. And and I met my
wife at a at a meet and Greek. She hates it, dude,
because when we get into a caller, oh yeah, meet
and Greek I got you meet and Greek.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Right, you gonna see this, We're gonna have a right,
that's my nigga meet and greet.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
It was a divine meet and greet.
Speaker 6 (24:03):
Though she knew she was the one, HU knew she
was the one that suit as metal.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
Oh boy, there was something that made me want to.
Speaker 4 (24:16):
Stay in contact with her, right, which I never you
know in my you know, and I'm lame, I'm a
I'm a square, right, I'm asking her she got a
you got a business card? An't nobody carrying businessess?
Speaker 9 (24:31):
You don't even know if she got a business card?
Speaker 3 (24:35):
Yeah, but I met I met her, I met her.
I met her at a show. Yeah, I met her
at a show. Yeah.
Speaker 8 (24:40):
And then so after that, like not that night, but
like following the show. You guys keep in contact you're dating,
Like what's the.
Speaker 4 (24:46):
Kept in contact via uh social media? And then on
in our first date was I flew to Atlanta and
I was in I was in Detroit.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
Detroit was home, and I flew.
Speaker 4 (25:03):
To Atlanta on New Year's Eve of twenty fifteen for
our first date and we had we had sushi and
then we went to a watch night service at the
church to bring in the new year, and you know,
I mean it's right there, you can go, I can
(25:23):
go on. I mean it was, but it was it
was divine right because it was lined up. Everything was,
it was lined up. And then you know, we tried
to remain you know, good Christians.
Speaker 6 (25:34):
And then that.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
And when she said, you know, she told me she was.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
Pregnant with my first son, and I got the news
and I was like, okay, it's like okay, all right.
So I'm like, you know, I'm going I'm going all
I'm going all in, you know. And I went and
I went all in, you know, and haven't and haven't
looked back through that whole story.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
You know what I'm saying. We got selling kids, So
you know, girl, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (26:17):
Now you gotta do girl, Girl, when you write songs
like give my Love, do you write from a place
of healing You've already reached her from like pain you
might still be processed.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
Give my Love is give my all.
Speaker 4 (26:36):
All of the music since I've met my wife, there
is a much and and I was concerned about that
about like how is this going to you know, we
talked earlier about you know, my my angst and my
aspiration for love. So now that I'm in this relationship
with this with this woman, you know, the most spiritual
you know, I.
Speaker 3 (26:56):
Mean, how is that going to affect my writing? So
now my.
Speaker 4 (27:00):
Writing is is richer it is you know, I'm talking,
I'm thinking, I'm really thinking about communicating you know, the
ebbs and flows of my relationship with my wife and
and the spiritual component to to our to our relationship.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
Yes, so give my love.
Speaker 4 (27:21):
All the music is still inspired by love, but now
it's it's it's really inspired by love in a in
a much deeper way.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
Yeah, what about music in general?
Speaker 5 (27:30):
Like is it do you right from a place of
healing or from like pain?
Speaker 1 (27:35):
You might still be.
Speaker 4 (27:37):
I don't I you know, I talk about my pain
and my writing only in retrospect, not in you know.
I mean, I you know every day, you know, I mean,
you know, it's up and down, in and out you
know all the time. You know, we only post the
good we only post the good stuff, right, but it's
(28:00):
mostly it's mostly uh, the pain is is in retrospect.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
Or it may be.
Speaker 4 (28:06):
Lessons that that I'm that I'm learning the single that
that we're that we're dropping. Next is called Rock with Me,
and it's talking about uh, it's talking about wanting a
relationship to to grow, understanding that in order for a
relationship to sustain itself, both y'all gonna have to You
got to you know, you got to grow and you
(28:27):
got to make room for the other person. And rock
comes out this Friday comes Give my Love.
Speaker 6 (28:33):
But rock with Me.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
That's all good, Lauren.
Speaker 9 (28:36):
You can resonate with that. She in the new relationship.
The way is going, so I don't have to stop
saying that.
Speaker 8 (28:45):
Don't disturb our exactly to get there, y'all will be
invited to have you seen because I know to show
up nothing my wedding.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
Okay, yeah, look like it's all get trickis when you
said something like.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
That, get don't What are you doing Kim with rocking?
What you look like?
Speaker 2 (29:06):
Yeah?
Speaker 9 (29:07):
What you look like?
Speaker 10 (29:08):
Give my love? I saw that there's a blind dance.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
Yeah yeah, yeah, don't look at oh.
Speaker 8 (29:17):
No, yeah, a different, different person.
Speaker 10 (29:26):
This is the daytime.
Speaker 6 (29:29):
Different.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
She had a thirty day alcohol fast. Yeah, would be forever.
Speaker 4 (29:35):
But you know, when you when you do, when you
do find the one, when the dust settles and you
find the one just just just just holler at your boy,
I got you. I'll sing I'll be happy to you know,
I'll call you Jesus Christ.
Speaker 10 (29:48):
And you're not invited.
Speaker 9 (29:50):
Like so you were about to say, is a line dance?
Speaker 8 (29:53):
Yeah, I was trying to distract, but yes, there I
saw that as a line dance.
Speaker 4 (29:57):
Got a real question, there's a the line there's a
line dance to give my love?
Speaker 8 (30:03):
Yeah, when you perform at these venues, because I'm seeing
the people do the line dance on stage with you
and people are out and people are drinking, how does
that ever like bother you because you've been sober for
so long or how does that work?
Speaker 1 (30:14):
No?
Speaker 3 (30:14):
It doesn't. No, this is it's just uh me being sober.
Speaker 4 (30:18):
It is just a choice for me, you know, and
you you know, and you you know. I mean people
innocuously offer the offer and I'll just say and I'll
just say no thank you.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
Like she didn't have to.
Speaker 4 (30:30):
You know, I appreciate that, but she didn't have to
write it's just no thank you and you just move on.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
It's no, you know, just so aggressive. Did not.
Speaker 10 (30:47):
Have to because he was trying to push it over
here on me.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
Have a mimosa, this will be the most dangerous morning,
escorted out the building.
Speaker 9 (31:00):
I was more about the line dance. Did you did
you feel pressure to do it? Or did that just happen?
Did you make up the line?
Speaker 4 (31:05):
That's like what Kenny J who's a line dance choreographer extraordinary,
you know, we we we called him to put a
line dance to it, and uh and then he taught
it to me. Got you you know, and you know
and and and we did it, you.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
Know, we did.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
I still can't get into me a one, So I
got a long ready to be confused on left right.
Speaker 6 (31:28):
I can't get none of these lines. Yeah, just I'll
be trying.
Speaker 8 (31:31):
I have a question about about one of you older
songs about I Can't Stop loving You Sometimes.
Speaker 10 (31:34):
You said a lot of those songs were aspirational.
Speaker 8 (31:36):
But I was reading the article on ebony and they
talked about that song being about infidelity.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
That particular song is about infidelity.
Speaker 10 (31:42):
Was that aspirational?
Speaker 3 (31:44):
No no, no, no, no aspirational? No no no no no no.
Speaker 4 (31:51):
The love love songs are are aspirational, give my love.
And there are those songs that are that are autobiography,
auto bio graphical, and I Can't Stop Loving You as
one of those, And yes, it is about infidelity.
Speaker 3 (32:09):
It was about.
Speaker 4 (32:10):
Uh me being I was, I was in a relationship
with someone and I stepped outside and uh and people
and the and the strange thing about I can't Stop
loving you. It was like probably next to love. Well,
it's it's a big record, and people always want me
to sing that they wet and I'm like, dude, have
you listened.
Speaker 6 (32:29):
To the lyrics of the song?
Speaker 9 (32:32):
You wasn't that goddamn shadow.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
You stepped out?
Speaker 5 (32:36):
The wife replied to an aspirational cheating song like if
you're what I just can't stop thinking about you eating?
Speaker 8 (32:40):
Yeah, it would, it would, It would would ask that
because you said all those songs are aspirational.
Speaker 10 (32:45):
But then I read that article, so I was confused.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
No, no, no, that's that's that's had a.
Speaker 10 (32:49):
Track in my mind because I also didn't know it
was a song about infidelity.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
There.
Speaker 10 (32:52):
I thought it was just a love song. Yeah, stop looking,
But I.
Speaker 9 (32:56):
Can see why people want you to sing in it
there wedding, I ain't gonna lie. That song puts you
in a mood where you just want to love up
on your die or your girl. Whatever. You know what
I mean, They not even listening to it because I'm
I'm gonna be honest. So she just said that, I mean,
i'ma be honest So she just said that I had
no idea that it was about infidelity.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
And it is aspirational in the sense that I want
to be a better man.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
M hmm.
Speaker 3 (33:20):
I'm gonna come on.
Speaker 4 (33:20):
I'm gonna come on the radio and tell then tell
the whole world that I cheated on you.
Speaker 3 (33:24):
Dang, and I can't. I can't stop loving you.
Speaker 9 (33:28):
Hm, there's some narcissistic as ship. I'm gonna tell the world.
Speaker 3 (33:36):
I'm gonna you know, right, guess it.
Speaker 8 (33:39):
Gave you something you had to like like, you couldn't
go backward. You only could go forward from there because
you didn't you said it to the world. So you
have to be better.
Speaker 3 (33:46):
Yeah, I am better.
Speaker 9 (33:48):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
You know that. They always say faith with our works
is dead.
Speaker 5 (33:53):
Right, So do you think your faith saved you or
did discipline?
Speaker 3 (33:58):
Say both?
Speaker 4 (34:01):
It's both, it's both, right, yeah? Faith without yeah, yeah
you can. You know, when you ask God to move
a mountain, you bring a shovel with you. Right, there's
there's work that needs to be done, you know, and uh,
you know. Yeah, there are things that you can do
(34:23):
and there are things that you can't do.
Speaker 3 (34:24):
You know. One of my favorite.
Speaker 4 (34:26):
Prayers is the prayers is the serenity for got gramm me,
a serenity to accept the things I cannot change and
the courage to change I can't.
Speaker 3 (34:32):
So what is mine? So right? What is mine? What
is God's to do? And what is mine to do? Right?
Speaker 4 (34:39):
If I can't do anything about it, I can? This
is you know, this is then this is in God's hands,
you know. But what is mine to do? I'm I'm
expected to to get busy.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
So do you see your career as a calling or platform?
Speaker 3 (34:55):
I see it as a calling mostly right.
Speaker 4 (35:03):
And there is a there is a deception in the
world that we're living in right now. Everybody wants to
have a platform. Everybody got you thinking about your gym
shoot line on my new cologne.
Speaker 3 (35:20):
Enough, right, But everybody don't have this jewelry that I do.
This jury, this jewelry that I designed.
Speaker 4 (35:26):
You need to be you know. And I'm you know,
and I'm I am an author. I'm an author, and
I'm a you know. I was on the phone with
somebody said, well, you're not just an arse anymore. You
the host of km TV, you know. And so it's
just trying to find the balance in that in order
to stay in order to for one thing to feed
the other, right, in order to be you know, you
got to be on social media in order to I
(35:47):
mean you got to do to it to an extent,
but really not getting away from that. This is you know,
trying to be mission driven, you know, calling driven, you
know what's really really important, right, and not chasing, not
(36:08):
chasing the trends, not you know, everybody's skipping.
Speaker 3 (36:11):
You need to skip you know.
Speaker 4 (36:12):
Well, right, it's like, yeah, yeah, this this is a platform,
but it's it's it's more than that first, you know.
Speaker 3 (36:23):
So I'm still you know, I'm still working all that out.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
You know.
Speaker 5 (36:27):
My man and Paris, he always says that people you
have to do things for intention, not attention exactly. And
we're in an area where everybody does things for attention,
but what intention exactly?
Speaker 4 (36:38):
You know, right, everybody we want to be influencers, like dude,
just you know, can I can I'll I'll do good
to influence my household, right, my community, right or the
people that I'm meeting everything. I'm just that I see
every day deal with how are you dealing with them people?
You know what I'm saying, As opposed to being at
the at the at the whims and the EBB and
(36:59):
flow of strangers and people that you don't even know
you know, and then taking hits right, you're all off,
you know, off center because of you know what I'm saying.
It's like really really having to be you know, really
be uh, you know, intentional.
Speaker 9 (37:16):
I really want to know this about you. Who is
your mount? Who is on your mount? Rushmore of R
and B and.
Speaker 3 (37:23):
Sould Oh, yes, there's a lot of people.
Speaker 9 (37:25):
Okay, so it's not just FU.
Speaker 4 (37:29):
And I'm a songwriter first, so I dig songs, right,
so I'm you know, the songs have have affected me,
so it can.
Speaker 3 (37:35):
Be you know.
Speaker 4 (37:38):
That, Well, there'll be you know, Prince and Michael would
be I mean, you know, but I mean, but there's
you know, but there's Luther, there's ron Eisley. I'm working
on some right now. I'm like, dude, I may have
to call you know. Ron Eisley to me is like
if they did a time capsule of somebody to represent
(38:00):
R and B.
Speaker 3 (38:01):
And soul like his voice is that to me? You know? Everybody?
Speaker 4 (38:05):
Or Earth Went and Fire, you know, and then the
songs and then the you know the new artists that
are you know October London and uh and I was
just listening to uh uh uh the Star Kendrick Lamar
and and and Scissor you know, and uh you.
Speaker 3 (38:22):
Know every summer walker.
Speaker 9 (38:24):
Do you like giving?
Speaker 3 (38:26):
You?
Speaker 6 (38:26):
Who giving is?
Speaker 9 (38:27):
I got to put you on with Giving He's great, yea.
Speaker 3 (38:32):
And everybody's talking about R and B is you know, like.
Speaker 4 (38:34):
Dude, you can get you can push a button and
listen to all the R and B that you want
to listen to.
Speaker 3 (38:40):
You know what I'm saying. You know, you did an.
Speaker 9 (38:42):
Interview back in November where you said that you wanted to.
Speaker 3 (38:46):
Collaborate with Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 9 (38:48):
Did you hear anything from our team? No, No, I'm
still because that would be amazing.
Speaker 3 (38:52):
Yeah that would That's that would be my jam, right yeah? Yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
So how do you measure success now?
Speaker 5 (38:58):
Is it about the awards and the about how many
live your music questions?
Speaker 4 (39:03):
You know, that's that's tied into the for me, that's
tied into the platform question. You know, I I you
know some of the things that I haven't hit. You know,
I haven't wont to Grammy. I've been nominated, you know,
but I want to Grammy. You know, I want to
make some more money. I want number I want more
Number one records. I want all of those things.
Speaker 3 (39:23):
There allow all of these marks that I haven't hit yet.
Speaker 4 (39:27):
And you know, the good thing is is that I
don't feel like I don't feel like I'm done.
Speaker 3 (39:34):
But if I was done, I've been doing this for twenty.
Speaker 7 (39:36):
Three you know what I'm saying, right, I had you know,
it's like no, you know, I've had. I've been I've
had great success doing what I do and you know,
keeping my head above water and and.
Speaker 3 (39:54):
And you know, and just being cool. It's been good.
Speaker 1 (39:57):
You know.
Speaker 3 (39:58):
Do I want more?
Speaker 4 (39:59):
Yes, more is on the table, you know what I'm saying,
But I'm not, you know, I have to be.
Speaker 3 (40:05):
I'm I'm I'm grateful for what has been.
Speaker 8 (40:07):
You Do you ever have days where you like lose
the passion or like you're like drained or because you're
you put so much into your music? Yeah, what are
those days like for you? We're like writer's block.
Speaker 4 (40:17):
Or writer's block is uh you know, really the biggest
job for me is writing is the hardest thing. It's
the it's the hardest thing, and it's the most rewarding
thing because nothing, nothing, you know, for you know, for
what we do, you know, as an artist, as a
song you know nothing. Everything starts with a song, you know.
(40:39):
So the hardest thing is to and we're calling my
team and I were calling this the this season or
return to love and just returning to the love of it.
Speaker 3 (40:50):
You know.
Speaker 4 (40:51):
It's just sitting down at the because when I started, dude,
I could sit at a piano or keyboard like all
day and not move and not have to find anything,
you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (41:00):
And now it's like I'm looking for something when I
sit down, you know what I'm saying. So now I'm
just you know, just flush out every every idea.
Speaker 4 (41:10):
That's the most challenging thing, just to sit and just
everything don't have to be you know, my albums, all
the albums are not they're all not number one, they're
not all supposed to be number one records, they're not
all radio songs, they're not all you know, and just
let and just just you know, and just and just
let it flow.
Speaker 5 (41:25):
Yeah, So brother, thank you for your testimony many and
thank you for you know, you know, turning your testimony
in the art that that heals man.
Speaker 4 (41:33):
Thank you, thank you, thank you for having me. It's
really really been a blessing to be here today.
Speaker 6 (41:37):
Thank you. Let's get into the single you want to
introduce it.
Speaker 4 (41:39):
This is a rock with me and you're hearing it
right here. iHeartRadio. This is the Breakfast Club. Come on now,
it's the Breakfast Club.
Speaker 6 (41:49):
Good morning, every day.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
Up the Breakfast Club.
Speaker 3 (41:55):
Finish, y'all done it.
Don't love every day? Up waiting Click yours up? The
Breakfast Club. You're finished for y'all done morning.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Everybody is the j Envy Jess, Hilarious, Charlamagne the Guy.
We are the breakfast Club. Lola Rosa is here with
us as well. We got a special guest in the
buildings in this new single comes out this Friday. Give
my love, Ladies and gentlemen, Cam welcome.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
What's happening? How are you feeling, brother, I'm good, I'm good.
How's everybody?
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Black? And Holly fav Man? You are a legend. You
know how many people love you? Man?
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (00:30):
Yes, I say that with gratitude. This gratitude, man, this
gratitude to be to be doing what I do for
a living for over two decades and I don't feel
like I'm done yet.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
That's that's that's that's really really a blessing.
Speaker 5 (00:47):
Why do you think you have the connection with the
audience that you do because you bay your souls, because
you're so vulnerable.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
It's because they can, you know, maybe.
Speaker 5 (00:54):
See some of their struggles and struggles you've been open about.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
Yeah, I think it's the vulnerability. I think it's the
authenticity and you know, and I'm making music in the
tradition of you know, Luther and Marvin and all that
great music that we grew up at, the Eisley Brothers
and Patty. You know what I'm saying, I'm holding I'm
trying to keep the light on for what I feel
(01:18):
is good R and B.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
And I think people appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
But you're independent now, so you pay everything. So how
does that feel, that part of the business feeling?
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Well, it's incredible.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
I started as an independent though, right My first album, Chemistry,
I released on my own label, Chemistry Records. We sold
that's when we you know, was selling CDs literally out
of my trunk, seventeen thousand units on my own. So
I'm just returning to I've come home. You know, it's
a full circle moment. Twenty three good years at Motown.
(01:48):
You know, Motown was good to me, and I was
definitely good to Motown.
Speaker 6 (01:54):
You know, kept the lights on.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Yeah, we kept you know, we kept it pushing.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
But in this season of my life, you know, as
a husband, the father, we got a lot of kids,
a lot going on, and I'm thinking about my legacy
and how I want to move forward more equity, Uh,
more autonomy, you know, so I feel real good.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
I feel the majority of your money was probably made
touring or right touring.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
Yeah, touring is definitely the gift that keeps on giving,
as well as publishing. You know, publishing right, because I
write most of I write most of my stuff.
Speaker 5 (02:24):
You know, you've been very open about things like, you know,
homelessness and in addiction before finding like you.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Know, your your breakthrough.
Speaker 5 (02:30):
How did those struggles shape you as a as an artist?
Speaker 4 (02:34):
Look, coming through the other side of my darkness is
really the foundation that that's got me sitting here with y'all.
You know what I'm saying my testimony is is everything
you know, and the music is infused with it. And
I just I don't just look at what I'm doing
as as an entertainer, you know, I'm I'm in the business,
(02:56):
you know, and I'm in the game, But I also
look at it as ash as many in a way.
You know what I'm saying, People who are going through
you know, hopefully I say something that that that resonates
with them, that helps them, helps pull them through the
other side of their darkness too.
Speaker 6 (03:11):
What made you give it up?
Speaker 2 (03:11):
What was that that final thing that says, I'm going
to give this up and I'm gonna change.
Speaker 6 (03:15):
When you talk about the drugs.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
And alcohol, you know, I know it sounds, it sounds trying.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
People say it all the time.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
It's a cliche, you know, but it's like you get
sick and tired of being sick and tired.
Speaker 7 (03:27):
Man.
Speaker 4 (03:27):
You know, I got sober when I was twenty three
years old and in and out of jail, hospitalized because
of my addiction, strange from my family, you know, couldn't
go home.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
Sleeping outside.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
You know.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
My friends were people that my contemporaries were. You know,
they were in school, they were in college, they were
starting their careers. Saturday night, they're out on dates, They're
doing the thing.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
You know what. I'm eating out of trash cans, you
know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (03:52):
And I'm you know, when people think my story is
is uh is one of rags riches, but it's really
the story of the of the product son.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
My parents, you know, two cars, and I mean, you know,
I want to send me to school and like all
of that, you know, but yeah, I got sick and
tired of being sick and tired, and I and I
gave up on my idea.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Of how to change it myself. Right.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
There's an adage I love that says, when the student
is ready, the teacher appears.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
You know.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
When I gave up, when I surrendered. You know, God
brought some people into my life who showed me how
to how to live a better way.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
And I've been doing it ever since.
Speaker 5 (04:30):
If you don't mind me asking, how did the addiction
start with a recreational.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Or Yeah, it started recreationally.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Right.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
You know, man, the first time I had a drink, man,
it was like, you know, and you know I was,
I was, you know, I think to some degree, we
all have some degree of dysfunction and in our homes,
and I just I didn't have I didn't have any
coping skills, right. And my parents, you know, God bless them,
they did the best they could. We were you know,
(05:01):
we didn't talk about anything in our house.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
You know, we didn't. Uh, there was anxiety.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
And what I know now is is childhood depression and
and and eighty AGD.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
We didn't have them labels.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
You know, everybody, we all depressed, just get up and
put your head down and plow through it.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
So all of those things.
Speaker 4 (05:17):
So by the time I found alcohol and drugs, dude,
it was like a light.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Went on, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (05:23):
It was a place of uh you know, I thought
that it was a place of of of refuge.
Speaker 7 (05:28):
You know.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
I was, I was I was free to be me.
You know.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
I was the the life of the party, you know,
until until I wasn't.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
You know.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
So my my upbringing was it was it laid the
foundation to seek something outside of myself, to to to medicate.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
You know, as soon as you often just offmosa shut up.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
So it's all good.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Now.
Speaker 6 (05:51):
You mentioned your parents, you know, so I'm sure your parents.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Had to kick you out to get to YouTube, to
get to where you need to be.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
The best thing that ever happened to me was my
mother army out of the house, break that down.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Because a lot of parents won't do that because they
feel like that's their son. They don't want to, but
I feel like, sometimes you have to.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
You have to.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
Yeah, she had to. It was the best thing that
ever happened to me, you know. And uh, and when
we and when we do that, And I'm saying that
as a as a father, and I don't know that
I'd have the courage to do that, you know what
I'm saying, even haven't had the experience, but you know,
and because there's a there's a risk and when we
when we show that type of tough love to someone,
there's a risk that they won't make it, you know
(06:28):
what I'm saying. But there's also a risk that that
they'll die in their.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Darkness, you know. So I'm glad that my mother made
that choice.
Speaker 6 (06:35):
What's your relationship after?
Speaker 8 (06:37):
Uh?
Speaker 4 (06:37):
Oh today, it's all good, right, It's all up, you know,
it was it was necessary my mom's and my mom's
in recovery too.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
The whole the whole.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
Dynamic in our house, you know, shifted, you know. And
uh and we were we did a lot of great
a lot of good work to get to a to
a good place.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
And we lost my my my father last fall.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
But you know, we're all all in a good place, man,
and I'm grateful for it. Curse breaker, I would say,
as far as addiction is concerned. As far as addiction
is concerned, my mother, my mother.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Got sober first, you know.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
And I and I and I have I have continued,
I have continued the I like that I'm gonna take
that with me, I have continued the curse breaking, you know,
and uh and and hopefully my children will will will
carry it forward.
Speaker 9 (07:32):
You say that, you know, y'all didn't talk about things
in your house when you were younger, before your father's
passed and leading up to that. Did you guys get
to have those conversations? Did you say, you know, we
didn't talk because we didn't talk about anything. Can we
talk about it now?
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (07:47):
Yeah, we were Yeah, we're you know, we were good,
you know, and you know, and I think that that's
that's not exclusive to our culture. But I'm sure that
you know our culture we identify. You know, you talk,
you know, grown folks are talking. You're going another room.
You know what I'm saying, You're you're seen and you're
not and you're not heard, you know what I'm saying.
And uh, you know, but but uh, we did a
(08:07):
lot again, we did a lot of great work to
get to the other side of that.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (08:10):
Yeah, What were the conversations like while you were going
through the homelessness and trying to figure out that, I know,
you got kicked out of a rehabilitation sent at one point,
were your parents calling and checking in on you and
y'all were talking then, or like, was it just solely
just you?
Speaker 3 (08:23):
You know?
Speaker 4 (08:24):
When I was I spent a lot of time in
the UH, in the Salvation Army and the soup kitchens
UH Detroit Rescue Mission in Detroit, and and and during.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
That time, I would I would try to I would try.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
To go home, you know, and and prove to my
folks that that I had that I had changed, you know,
that I had turned over a new leafs so to speak,
But I hadn't really I was. I wanted to change,
but I had the I may have had the outward
appearance of change, but I didn't even know what change required,
(08:59):
you know, I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
So there were conversations.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
They came and visited me in some of the rehabilitation
centers that I was in, and I was really trying
to get back into their good graces.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
But by the.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
Time I was really, really, really ready to stop. I
wasn't concerned about repairing my relationships, right, I wasn't concerned
about getting back into the good graces of anybody. I
was just trying to stay alive. I had to do it.
I had to do it for me, right, not because
of my job, not because you know, you know, and
I'm talking to addicts who are out there, not because
(09:33):
I want to. I want to, you know, get my
wife back or get my kids back. No, I need
to do this. I need to do this for me,
you know what I'm saying. And and then hopefully all
the things, all of those other things will be will
will will be added, you know. And yeah, yeah, but
my parents stayed, they support, they wanted the best, you know,
but you know I was you know, I was crazy, drinking.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Using right, showing up, showing up drunk. You know, you can't,
you can't. You can only help somebody that want to
help themselves, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 9 (10:09):
So it wasn't stay in.
Speaker 4 (10:12):
It wasn't stay in situation. I mean we got and
you got breathalyzed every time you you know, you came back.
I mean but you you know you could, you could,
you could sneak I mean, you.
Speaker 9 (10:20):
Know, got you right?
Speaker 3 (10:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Not the first time, not the first time.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
I completed I completed a program and it was still
a resident and you know, I completed the program and
you know, and can and continue and continue to use
So I mean, you know, you only but you're only
you're only you know, cheating yourself.
Speaker 5 (10:40):
So I wonder if those programs, this might be a
stupid question, I wanted those programs actually work. Are Is
it just something that gets you to realize I gotta
make a chance.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
That's a great point because we live in a in
a culture, in a society where, well a certain segment
of society where people think, you know, somebody has a
you know, a celebrity has a has a flare up,
get cut, and then they go to rehab for like
two weeks.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
He's in rehab.
Speaker 4 (11:08):
You know what I'm saying, two weeks, two weeks. I
mean that's you know, that's a place to start. But
you're talking about an overhauling your entire life.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
You know what I'm saying. You can't. You're not gonna
get better in two weeks. You know what I'm saying.
You can.
Speaker 4 (11:20):
You can abstain, you can get some some some clarity,
you can get you know, a you can.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
Get some tools. But it took a lot for most
of us.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
It's taken a lifetime to become the peak for our
dysfunction to reach its peak. It takes time in order
to get better. So you leave treatment, you got to
continue to be, to be doing something. You know what
I'm saying, and it's it's you know, the internet is littered,
you know with stories of people who've been to treatment
and and didn't make it, you know, and you know,
(11:52):
so yeah, yeah, yeah, So.
Speaker 5 (11:53):
When you was at your lowest point, like, what was
that thought, our moment that made you believe you could
still change your life?
Speaker 3 (12:04):
Music has always been a light.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Makes me.
Speaker 9 (12:10):
M hmm, it's okay.
Speaker 4 (12:14):
Music has always been I've always known that that's what
it was. So I would be in the Detroit Rescue
Mission on a piano in the corner, writing the writing
the churse for my first album. You know what I'm saying, right,
(12:34):
Nothing nothing is wasted. You know you're talking to you.
You know, nothing is wasted your struggle, whatever you're going
through right now, if you get honest and surrendered to it,
nothing is wasted, you know because that first album, dude,
that's all Salvation Army, right, that's all Detroit Rescue Mission,
that's all you know. So music was always was always
(12:57):
a light pulling me through. I wanted to be you know,
I'd be you know, somewhere sleeping on the Detroit on
the Detroit River bank and right across from the Detroit River,
you know, the windsor you know, and at night, dude,
I'm you know, I'm home. I'm trying to nurse a
can of King Cobra till the next day. And I'm
looking across then there's all these lights. There's all there's
(13:17):
all this life, you know, and I'm not a part
of it.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
You know.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
It's like, dude, how do right? I saw this? But
how do I get to how do I? How do
I get to that?
Speaker 4 (13:28):
You know what I'm saying? How do I how do
I get to the to the next thing? You know,
that that that God has for me? And uh, you know,
and and and and surrender, surrender. You know, I just didn't.
It's not overnight, you know, I just didn't. I just
didn't show up.
Speaker 5 (13:44):
It's so powerful, man, when you trapped in darkness, the
light is there, right, you just have to, you know,
have the clarity to see it. And I guess that's
why you self medicaid, because when you self medicated, you
don't see it right.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Right.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
You have to let go.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
You have to be willing to let go of what's
holding you back to get to the other you got
to be willing to let it go.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
You gotta be willing to let it whatever it is,
you know.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
And we're just talking about, you know, addiction, but that
those principles apply to everything. Whatever you're trying to get
to the other side of, it applies to everything. You
know what I'm saying. So you know everything, it applies
to everything, you know.
Speaker 9 (14:26):
So this is amazing just hearing your journey and the
things that you were going through. I grew up listening
to you. I would wake up Saturday mornings. It was
it was chemistry and Anita Baker in my mind it
would be ringing through the house, right and your voice right,
I we love the music and the whole time you're hurting,
you're going through this. So it's just amazing to be
(14:47):
able to hear your story now, right. And I also,
you had said that your music was your therapy, you know,
et the time of homelessness, right when you're away from
your community. Have you ever done any other therapy like
real therapy?
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (15:01):
Yeah for sure, yeh yeah, yeah yeah yeah. Dude.
Speaker 4 (15:04):
When I get when I signed, when I when I
signed my contract uh with Motown, I had a panic attack.
First time I ever had one, Wow, And I didn't
know what it was, right, and I'd lived with depression
like you know, you just get up, and yeah, I
(15:25):
had you know the degree of my depression is not
as severe as as as other people obviously, but I
had never and I didn't know, you know, and I
felt like I was underwater.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
I thought that.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
Getting a record deal, which I had been you know,
proverbally chasing like all of my life, I thought that
that was going to be the cure all. When I
got the record deal, now I'm cool, right, But there's
all this other stuff, all this other all this other
baggage that still needed to be to be unpacked.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
It didn't more to say, man, say more money, more problems.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
It didn't.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
It didn't resolve you know, a lot of issues. So
I ended up.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
I was I was talking to someone, a friend of mine,
and I was explaining to her how I was feeling.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
And she happened to be.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
A child psychologist, and she said, have you ever been
diagnosed with depression? And I said no, you know no,
And she recommended a therapist. So I saw a therapist
and you know, and educated myself. I was on medication,
you know, for a while, and you know it was
it was, it was. It was life changing, you know,
(16:34):
we are. And that's after I think I got a
record deal.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
I was.
Speaker 4 (16:37):
I had been sober for maybe ten So these layers
are there are layers to our lives, layers of the
onion that we peel back. And there's more to discover,
there's more to unpack. There's always always more to.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
Be done, you know. I don't know.
Speaker 4 (16:52):
There's a lot of stigma, and not as much today
probably as as you know, I mean that was twenty
three as as there used to be about you know know,
you know the Black Church and were talking about you
know you only need Jesus, Like, yeah, you need Jesus
and a therapist, right, you need the Jesus and a therapist.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
And you might need some and you might need some
some some medication. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (17:13):
Don't let those things keep you from getting from getting
the help that you need.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
You know what I'm saying, How.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Did you get your deal? So you said you got
your deal? You said what you thought your problems will
go away?
Speaker 3 (17:24):
Yeah, how did they? How did you get your deal?
I was selling the Chemistry album off the.
Speaker 6 (17:30):
Trunk, off the trunk.
Speaker 4 (17:31):
You know, I was, I was, I was passing CDs
out in the streets, you know, in Detroit. I put
some people on the plane the flash to Chicago and
past CDs out in the streets.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
You know.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
I was literally, you know, living in uh in uh
in Detroit. And you know, my neighbors thought out they
didn't know what I was doing. I'm out my pajamas,
ups trucks, you know, loading CDs. I couldn't keep them in,
you know, I couldn't keep them in the you know,
the beauty the beauty so Plat store.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
So we were.
Speaker 4 (18:01):
I had my own, my own barcode, you know what
I'm saying. I was set up as a you know,
set up as a as a as a business. My
then manager, Toya Hankins, and we were just you know,
we were just hustling. So every time a CD sold,
there was a blip on billboard.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Right, it wasn't a lot, but it was a there
was a blip. And then we.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
Started to get local airplay and Detroit uh d C,
Miami started playing love Calls before we ever had a deal,
you know, and and uh so, you know, and you know,
if you get the and and I don't know how
you well, I don't know how you You know, you're
(18:42):
obviously not selling CDs today, but if you get the people.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
Behind you, industry will follow.
Speaker 5 (18:49):
M How were you able to create a soundtrack of
love during that dark time in your life because you
you didn't love yourself?
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Right? I don't know if you had somebody, but how
were you able to write?
Speaker 10 (19:01):
You were really honest about all the things you were
going through to.
Speaker 4 (19:03):
All of my all of the early records, are all
of the records up until I met my wife are aspirational, right,
you know, skinny, dark skinned kid, shy. You know, I'm
a I'm an introvert pretending to be you know, an extrovert,
(19:27):
you know, shy, you know, don't get you know, want
to want to look from the pretty girl, want the
you know, so I'm I'm that's you know, too afraid
to talk, you know.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
So that's all.
Speaker 4 (19:37):
Of my songs work, that's all inspirational. It's all aspirational,
and it's all you know, when I did have a
girlfriend and then the loss of the loss of love,
you know that first, you know, you know that first,
the first album Chemistry is it's all of that, you know, Yeah.
Speaker 9 (19:56):
That's crazy. How you say you didn't even know how
to talk? Man, your music got so many guys cheeks.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
But I can do that. I'm standing at so my brothers.
I'm standing in the gap for my brothers. Right, you
ain't got the words. There's a kid, there's a chem
record for it, right, yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
So love inspire your music or the music inspired or
where you love?
Speaker 6 (20:16):
Mhm?
Speaker 3 (20:25):
Both both both right? And people talk about you know.
Speaker 4 (20:33):
And then I used to be in bands and they
would be you know, everybody's we were coming up in
Minneapolis sound it was it was you know, Tony, Tony Tony.
It was all the dance tracks and all the all
my my bandmates and my musical peers. You know, they
were chasing this thing, dude. And I'm sitting over here
in the corner with these little quiet ass.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
You know what I'm saying. Are you always writing the loves?
Speaker 1 (20:56):
You know?
Speaker 4 (20:56):
While you always was like, dude, that's I don't know,
you know, that's just you know, that's just that's just
what it is. And I and I'm you know, and
I'm grateful for that, you know, because I think that.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
All that ails the world is a lack of love.
Speaker 9 (21:12):
Mhm.
Speaker 5 (21:13):
To some degree, No, I think not even to some degree.
I think that's what's missing. Because love gives you empathy, love.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Gives you caring.
Speaker 5 (21:20):
If you got those three things, you'll show up and
be the human that we need you to be.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
You know what I'm saying, Love, empathy, and care.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
That's it, you know, yeah for real? Yeah? Yeah?
Speaker 9 (21:31):
Looking back now, right, what are you most proud of
now about your journey back?
Speaker 3 (21:36):
Then?
Speaker 4 (21:39):
I am most proud of being being sober, because upon
that is, you know, upon that, that's the foundation for
everything else. If I'm not sober, I mean, that's that's
you know, I mean, God in sobriety. You can go
which one comes first, because if I if I'm drinking, dude,
(21:59):
I God may still be with me, but I'm not,
I'm not.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
Right.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
Sobriety is is probably the first thing upon that everything
else is built. And after that is uh, you know,
it's my is, my family, my kids, my wife and I.
We've got seven kids between us. The oldest is thirty,
the youngest is one. You know what I'm saying, So
(22:29):
we you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 6 (22:35):
How did you meet your wife?
Speaker 4 (22:36):
I met my wife at a show in Atlanta, right,
and I was never I was never the artist who
is you know hey, you know, yeah, go give you know,
bring that one back, and go bring that one back.
And my wife came to a meet and greet on
(22:58):
a tour that I shouldn't that I well, I you
know that at the time, I didn't feel like I
should have been on We had just we had just
it was just me, but we had just This was
twenty twenty fifteen. So in twenty fourteen, you know, me,
Joe and Charlie Wilson, you know, we was out killing
him for months, right, and then and then I came
(23:20):
back and tried to do and do do another two.
So we had been out there. So I've really felt,
you know, that I shouldn't have been out on the road.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
But you know, where you where you are, we.
Speaker 4 (23:34):
Don't all what what what you What you think you're
someplace for is not necessarily why you're there. We think
we're there for one reason, but there's something there's something else,
something else is going on. And and I met my
wife at a at a meet and Greek. She hates it, dude,
because when we get into a caller, oh yeah, meet
and Greek I got you meet and Greek.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Right, you gonna see this, We're gonna have a right,
that's my nigga meet and greet.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
It was a divine meet and greet.
Speaker 6 (24:03):
Though she knew she was the one, HU knew she
was the one that suit as metal.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
Oh boy, there was something that made me want to.
Speaker 4 (24:16):
Stay in contact with her, right, which I never you
know in my you know, and I'm lame, I'm a
I'm a square, right, I'm asking her she got a
you got a business card? An't nobody carrying businessess?
Speaker 9 (24:31):
You don't even know if she got a business card?
Speaker 3 (24:35):
Yeah, but I met I met her, I met her.
I met her at a show. Yeah, I met her
at a show. Yeah.
Speaker 8 (24:40):
And then so after that, like not that night, but
like following the show. You guys keep in contact you're dating,
Like what's the.
Speaker 4 (24:46):
Kept in contact via uh social media? And then on
in our first date was I flew to Atlanta and
I was in I was in Detroit.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
Detroit was home, and I flew.
Speaker 4 (25:03):
To Atlanta on New Year's Eve of twenty fifteen for
our first date and we had we had sushi and
then we went to a watch night service at the
church to bring in the new year, and you know,
I mean it's right there, you can go, I can
(25:23):
go on. I mean it was, but it was it
was divine right because it was lined up. Everything was,
it was lined up. And then you know, we tried
to remain you know, good Christians.
Speaker 6 (25:34):
And then that.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
And when she said, you know, she told me she was.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
Pregnant with my first son, and I got the news
and I was like, okay, it's like okay, all right.
So I'm like, you know, I'm going I'm going all
I'm going all in, you know. And I went and
I went all in, you know, and haven't and haven't
looked back through that whole story.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
You know what I'm saying. We got selling kids, So
you know, girl, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (26:17):
Now you gotta do girl, Girl, when you write songs
like give my Love, do you write from a place
of healing You've already reached her from like pain you
might still be processed.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
Give my Love is give my all.
Speaker 4 (26:36):
All of the music since I've met my wife, there
is a much and and I was concerned about that
about like how is this going to you know, we
talked earlier about you know, my my angst and my
aspiration for love. So now that I'm in this relationship
with this with this woman, you know, the most spiritual
you know, I.
Speaker 3 (26:56):
Mean, how is that going to affect my writing? So
now my.
Speaker 4 (27:00):
Writing is is richer it is you know, I'm talking,
I'm thinking, I'm really thinking about communicating you know, the
ebbs and flows of my relationship with my wife and
and the spiritual component to to our to our relationship.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
Yes, so give my love.
Speaker 4 (27:21):
All the music is still inspired by love, but now
it's it's it's really inspired by love in a in
a much deeper way.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
Yeah, what about music in general?
Speaker 5 (27:30):
Like is it do you right from a place of
healing or from like pain?
Speaker 1 (27:35):
You might still be.
Speaker 4 (27:37):
I don't I you know, I talk about my pain
and my writing only in retrospect, not in you know.
I mean, I you know every day, you know, I mean,
you know, it's up and down, in and out you
know all the time. You know, we only post the
good we only post the good stuff, right, but it's
(28:00):
mostly it's mostly uh, the pain is is in retrospect.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
Or it may be.
Speaker 4 (28:06):
Lessons that that I'm that I'm learning the single that
that we're that we're dropping. Next is called Rock with Me,
and it's talking about uh, it's talking about wanting a
relationship to to grow, understanding that in order for a
relationship to sustain itself, both y'all gonna have to You
got to you know, you got to grow and you
(28:27):
got to make room for the other person. And rock
comes out this Friday comes Give my Love.
Speaker 6 (28:33):
But rock with Me.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
That's all good, Lauren.
Speaker 9 (28:36):
You can resonate with that. She in the new relationship.
The way is going, so I don't have to stop
saying that.
Speaker 8 (28:45):
Don't disturb our exactly to get there, y'all will be
invited to have you seen because I know to show
up nothing my wedding.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
Okay, yeah, look like it's all get trickis when you
said something like.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
That, get don't What are you doing Kim with rocking?
What you look like?
Speaker 2 (29:06):
Yeah?
Speaker 9 (29:07):
What you look like?
Speaker 10 (29:08):
Give my love? I saw that there's a blind dance.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
Yeah yeah, yeah, don't look at oh.
Speaker 8 (29:17):
No, yeah, a different, different person.
Speaker 10 (29:26):
This is the daytime.
Speaker 6 (29:29):
Different.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
She had a thirty day alcohol fast. Yeah, would be forever.
Speaker 4 (29:35):
But you know, when you when you do, when you
do find the one, when the dust settles and you
find the one just just just just holler at your boy,
I got you. I'll sing I'll be happy to you know,
I'll call you Jesus Christ.
Speaker 10 (29:48):
And you're not invited.
Speaker 9 (29:50):
Like so you were about to say, is a line dance?
Speaker 8 (29:53):
Yeah, I was trying to distract, but yes, there I
saw that as a line dance.
Speaker 4 (29:57):
Got a real question, there's a the line there's a
line dance to give my love?
Speaker 8 (30:03):
Yeah, when you perform at these venues, because I'm seeing
the people do the line dance on stage with you
and people are out and people are drinking, how does
that ever like bother you because you've been sober for
so long or how does that work?
Speaker 1 (30:14):
No?
Speaker 3 (30:14):
It doesn't. No, this is it's just uh me being sober.
Speaker 4 (30:18):
It is just a choice for me, you know, and
you you know, and you you know. I mean people
innocuously offer the offer and I'll just say and I'll
just say no thank you.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
Like she didn't have to.
Speaker 4 (30:30):
You know, I appreciate that, but she didn't have to
write it's just no thank you and you just move on.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
It's no, you know, just so aggressive. Did not.
Speaker 10 (30:47):
Have to because he was trying to push it over
here on me.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
Have a mimosa, this will be the most dangerous morning,
escorted out the building.
Speaker 9 (31:00):
I was more about the line dance. Did you did
you feel pressure to do it? Or did that just happen?
Did you make up the line?
Speaker 4 (31:05):
That's like what Kenny J who's a line dance choreographer extraordinary,
you know, we we we called him to put a
line dance to it, and uh and then he taught
it to me. Got you you know, and you know
and and and we did it, you.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
Know, we did.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
I still can't get into me a one, So I
got a long ready to be confused on left right.
Speaker 6 (31:28):
I can't get none of these lines. Yeah, just I'll
be trying.
Speaker 8 (31:31):
I have a question about about one of you older
songs about I Can't Stop loving You Sometimes.
Speaker 10 (31:34):
You said a lot of those songs were aspirational.
Speaker 8 (31:36):
But I was reading the article on ebony and they
talked about that song being about infidelity.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
That particular song is about infidelity.
Speaker 10 (31:42):
Was that aspirational?
Speaker 3 (31:44):
No no, no, no, no aspirational? No no no no no no.
Speaker 4 (31:51):
The love love songs are are aspirational, give my love.
And there are those songs that are that are autobiography,
auto bio graphical, and I Can't Stop Loving You as
one of those, And yes, it is about infidelity.
Speaker 3 (32:09):
It was about.
Speaker 4 (32:10):
Uh me being I was, I was in a relationship
with someone and I stepped outside and uh and people
and the and the strange thing about I can't Stop
loving you. It was like probably next to love. Well,
it's it's a big record, and people always want me
to sing that they wet and I'm like, dude, have
you listened.
Speaker 6 (32:29):
To the lyrics of the song?
Speaker 9 (32:32):
You wasn't that goddamn shadow.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
You stepped out?
Speaker 5 (32:36):
The wife replied to an aspirational cheating song like if
you're what I just can't stop thinking about you eating?
Speaker 8 (32:40):
Yeah, it would, it would, It would would ask that
because you said all those songs are aspirational.
Speaker 10 (32:45):
But then I read that article, so I was confused.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
No, no, no, that's that's that's had a.
Speaker 10 (32:49):
Track in my mind because I also didn't know it
was a song about infidelity.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
There.
Speaker 10 (32:52):
I thought it was just a love song. Yeah, stop looking,
But I.
Speaker 9 (32:56):
Can see why people want you to sing in it
there wedding, I ain't gonna lie. That song puts you
in a mood where you just want to love up
on your die or your girl. Whatever. You know what
I mean, They not even listening to it because I'm
I'm gonna be honest. So she just said that, I mean,
i'ma be honest So she just said that I had
no idea that it was about infidelity.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
And it is aspirational in the sense that I want
to be a better man.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
M hmm.
Speaker 3 (33:20):
I'm gonna come on.
Speaker 4 (33:20):
I'm gonna come on the radio and tell then tell
the whole world that I cheated on you.
Speaker 3 (33:24):
Dang, and I can't. I can't stop loving you.
Speaker 9 (33:28):
Hm, there's some narcissistic as ship. I'm gonna tell the world.
Speaker 3 (33:36):
I'm gonna you know, right, guess it.
Speaker 8 (33:39):
Gave you something you had to like like, you couldn't
go backward. You only could go forward from there because
you didn't you said it to the world. So you
have to be better.
Speaker 3 (33:46):
Yeah, I am better.
Speaker 9 (33:48):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
You know that. They always say faith with our works
is dead.
Speaker 5 (33:53):
Right, So do you think your faith saved you or
did discipline?
Speaker 3 (33:58):
Say both?
Speaker 4 (34:01):
It's both, it's both, right, yeah? Faith without yeah, yeah
you can. You know, when you ask God to move
a mountain, you bring a shovel with you. Right, there's
there's work that needs to be done, you know, and uh,
you know. Yeah, there are things that you can do
(34:23):
and there are things that you can't do.
Speaker 3 (34:24):
You know. One of my favorite.
Speaker 4 (34:26):
Prayers is the prayers is the serenity for got gramm me,
a serenity to accept the things I cannot change and
the courage to change I can't.
Speaker 3 (34:32):
So what is mine? So right? What is mine? What
is God's to do? And what is mine to do? Right?
Speaker 4 (34:39):
If I can't do anything about it, I can? This
is you know, this is then this is in God's hands,
you know. But what is mine to do? I'm I'm
expected to to get busy.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
So do you see your career as a calling or platform?
Speaker 3 (34:55):
I see it as a calling mostly right.
Speaker 4 (35:03):
And there is a there is a deception in the
world that we're living in right now. Everybody wants to
have a platform. Everybody got you thinking about your gym
shoot line on my new cologne.
Speaker 3 (35:20):
Enough, right, But everybody don't have this jewelry that I do.
This jury, this jewelry that I designed.
Speaker 4 (35:26):
You need to be you know. And I'm you know,
and I'm I am an author. I'm an author, and
I'm a you know. I was on the phone with
somebody said, well, you're not just an arse anymore. You
the host of km TV, you know. And so it's
just trying to find the balance in that in order
to stay in order to for one thing to feed
the other, right, in order to be you know, you
got to be on social media in order to I
(35:47):
mean you got to do to it to an extent,
but really not getting away from that. This is you know,
trying to be mission driven, you know, calling driven, you
know what's really really important, right, and not chasing, not
(36:08):
chasing the trends, not you know, everybody's skipping.
Speaker 3 (36:11):
You need to skip you know.
Speaker 4 (36:12):
Well, right, it's like, yeah, yeah, this this is a platform,
but it's it's it's more than that first, you know.
Speaker 3 (36:23):
So I'm still you know, I'm still working all that out.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
You know.
Speaker 5 (36:27):
My man and Paris, he always says that people you
have to do things for intention, not attention exactly. And
we're in an area where everybody does things for attention,
but what intention exactly?
Speaker 4 (36:38):
You know, right, everybody we want to be influencers, like dude,
just you know, can I can I'll I'll do good
to influence my household, right, my community, right or the
people that I'm meeting everything. I'm just that I see
every day deal with how are you dealing with them people?
You know what I'm saying, As opposed to being at
the at the at the whims and the EBB and
(36:59):
flow of strangers and people that you don't even know
you know, and then taking hits right, you're all off,
you know, off center because of you know what I'm saying.
It's like really really having to be you know, really
be uh, you know, intentional.
Speaker 9 (37:16):
I really want to know this about you. Who is
your mount? Who is on your mount? Rushmore of R
and B and.
Speaker 3 (37:23):
Sould Oh, yes, there's a lot of people.
Speaker 9 (37:25):
Okay, so it's not just FU.
Speaker 4 (37:29):
And I'm a songwriter first, so I dig songs, right,
so I'm you know, the songs have have affected me,
so it can.
Speaker 3 (37:35):
Be you know.
Speaker 4 (37:38):
That, Well, there'll be you know, Prince and Michael would
be I mean, you know, but I mean, but there's
you know, but there's Luther, there's ron Eisley. I'm working
on some right now. I'm like, dude, I may have
to call you know. Ron Eisley to me is like
if they did a time capsule of somebody to represent
(38:00):
R and B.
Speaker 3 (38:01):
And soul like his voice is that to me? You know? Everybody?
Speaker 4 (38:05):
Or Earth Went and Fire, you know, and then the
songs and then the you know the new artists that
are you know October London and uh and I was
just listening to uh uh uh the Star Kendrick Lamar
and and and Scissor you know, and uh you.
Speaker 3 (38:22):
Know every summer walker.
Speaker 9 (38:24):
Do you like giving?
Speaker 3 (38:26):
You?
Speaker 6 (38:26):
Who giving is?
Speaker 9 (38:27):
I got to put you on with Giving He's great, yea.
Speaker 3 (38:32):
And everybody's talking about R and B is you know, like.
Speaker 4 (38:34):
Dude, you can get you can push a button and
listen to all the R and B that you want
to listen to.
Speaker 3 (38:40):
You know what I'm saying. You know, you did an.
Speaker 9 (38:42):
Interview back in November where you said that you wanted to.
Speaker 3 (38:46):
Collaborate with Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 9 (38:48):
Did you hear anything from our team? No, No, I'm
still because that would be amazing.
Speaker 3 (38:52):
Yeah that would That's that would be my jam, right yeah? Yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
So how do you measure success now?
Speaker 5 (38:58):
Is it about the awards and the about how many
live your music questions?
Speaker 4 (39:03):
You know, that's that's tied into the for me, that's
tied into the platform question. You know, I I you
know some of the things that I haven't hit. You know,
I haven't wont to Grammy. I've been nominated, you know,
but I want to Grammy. You know, I want to
make some more money. I want number I want more
Number one records. I want all of those things.
Speaker 3 (39:23):
There allow all of these marks that I haven't hit yet.
Speaker 4 (39:27):
And you know, the good thing is is that I
don't feel like I don't feel like I'm done.
Speaker 3 (39:34):
But if I was done, I've been doing this for twenty.
Speaker 7 (39:36):
Three you know what I'm saying, right, I had you know,
it's like no, you know, I've had. I've been I've
had great success doing what I do and you know,
keeping my head above water and and.
Speaker 3 (39:54):
And you know, and just being cool. It's been good.
Speaker 1 (39:57):
You know.
Speaker 3 (39:58):
Do I want more?
Speaker 4 (39:59):
Yes, more is on the table, you know what I'm saying,
But I'm not, you know, I have to be.
Speaker 3 (40:05):
I'm I'm I'm grateful for what has been.
Speaker 8 (40:07):
You Do you ever have days where you like lose
the passion or like you're like drained or because you're
you put so much into your music? Yeah, what are
those days like for you? We're like writer's block.
Speaker 4 (40:17):
Or writer's block is uh you know, really the biggest
job for me is writing is the hardest thing. It's
the it's the hardest thing, and it's the most rewarding
thing because nothing, nothing, you know, for you know, for
what we do, you know, as an artist, as a
song you know nothing. Everything starts with a song, you know.
(40:39):
So the hardest thing is to and we're calling my
team and I were calling this the this season or
return to love and just returning to the love of it.
Speaker 3 (40:50):
You know.
Speaker 4 (40:51):
It's just sitting down at the because when I started, dude,
I could sit at a piano or keyboard like all
day and not move and not have to find anything,
you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (41:00):
And now it's like I'm looking for something when I
sit down, you know what I'm saying. So now I'm
just you know, just flush out every every idea.
Speaker 4 (41:10):
That's the most challenging thing, just to sit and just
everything don't have to be you know, my albums, all
the albums are not they're all not number one, they're
not all supposed to be number one records, they're not
all radio songs, they're not all you know, and just
let and just just you know, and just and just
let it flow.
Speaker 5 (41:25):
Yeah, So brother, thank you for your testimony many and
thank you for you know, you know, turning your testimony
in the art that that heals man.
Speaker 4 (41:33):
Thank you, thank you, thank you for having me. It's
really really been a blessing to be here today.
Speaker 6 (41:37):
Thank you. Let's get into the single you want to
introduce it.
Speaker 4 (41:39):
This is a rock with me and you're hearing it
right here. iHeartRadio. This is the Breakfast Club. Come on now,
it's the Breakfast Club.
Speaker 6 (41:49):
Good morning, every day.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
Up the Breakfast Club.
Speaker 3 (41:55):
Finish, y'all done it.
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