Dante Ross: Part 1

Send us a text

This week on Mixed and Mastered, Jeffrey Sledge sits down with legendary music executive, producer, and A&R Dante Ross for Part 1 of a deep dive into his extraordinary journey.

From growing up on New York’s gritty Lower East Side to immersing himself in punk rock, graffiti, and skateboarding, Dante shares how music became his first true escape. He talks about the artists who shaped his taste – from Chuck Berry to The Beatles to The Jackson 5 – and how the cultural collision of punk, new wave, and hip hop in downtown NYC pulled him into the scene.

Hear firsthand stories about sneaking into iconic clubs, witnessing The Specials and The Clash live, discovering the Bad Brains, and becoming part of the tight-knit crew that included the Beastie Boys. Dante also reveals how his eclectic upbringing and fearless hustle led him to work with Eric B. & Rakim, De La Soul, Queen Latifah, and ultimately become one of hip hop’s greatest A&Rs.

Stay tuned for part 2 of this incredible conversation with Dante Ross coming next week.

Support the show

Mixed and Mastered is produced and distributed by Merrick Studio, and hosted by music industry veteran, Jeffrey Sledge. Tune in to the discussion on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you catch your podcasts. Follow us on Instagram @MixedandMasteredPod to join the conversation and support the show at https://mixedandmasteredpod.buzzsprout.com/

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This week on Mixed and Mastered.
I'm talking with Dante Ross, atrue legend in the music
industry.
Born in San Francisco andraised on New York's Lower East
Side, dante came up in the punkand hip-hop scenes before
starting his career at Def JamRecords with Leo Cohen and Rick
Rubin.
At Tommy Boy Records, he workedwith De La Soul and signed

(00:21):
Queen Latifah.
At Elektra Records, he built aroster that included Busta
Rhymes, pete Rock and CL Smoothand Old Dirty Bastard.
He's won Grammys for producingEverlast, whitey Ford Singin'
the Blues and Santana'sSupernatural.
Dante continues to shapeculture through his memoir, son
of the City and film work.

(00:42):
This is Mixture Mastered withDante Ross.
Welcome to Mixted Mastered, thepodcast where the stories of the
music industry come to life.
I'm Jeffrey Sledge, bringingyou real conversations with the
people who have shaped the soundof music.
We're pulling back the curtainon what it takes to make it in

(01:03):
the music business.
These are the stories you won'thear anywhere else, told by the
people who live them.
This is Mixed and Mastered.
Mixed and Mastered podcast witha big get.
This is a big get right here.
Son of the city, dante Ross.

(01:25):
What's going on, jeff?
How you doing, man?
I'm good man, good to see you,always amazing to see you, man.
We got a lot of history yeah,we do, and a lot of love, man.
Let's start at the beginning,all right, I teased you the
other day via text.
I said Timothy Chalamet is justa new version of you.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
He might be a little better looking, just a little
bit.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
Nah, you was a good looking kid man.
You was a good looking kid, youknow.
Yeah, I don't know whathappened.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
You, know I used to look Italian, then I looked
Jewish when I got older.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
I don't know what the hell happened, but yeah, so you
grew up in New York City.
Yes, I did.
I mean born in.
And I remember when we go toGavin excuse me, the Gavin
convention years ago in SanFrancisco, I remember you always
would tell me I gotta go see mypops, I would go see my pops,
so you go see your dad out thatway.
But you were born, you wereraised in the city.

(02:16):
Yeah, I moved to New.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
York when I was.
I moved to New York when I wasabout three years old and I
moved to Lower East Side, 8thStreet, between B and C, and it
was super, super rough.
My mom was.
She left my dad and she wentback to school.
So she was trying to get her.
She was getting her degree inearly childhood and we were.

(02:39):
I mean, when we moved to NewYork we were so poor, like it
was ridiculous, ridiculous.
My mom worked part-time whileshe went to school.
We were on public assistance.
I remember clearly when I wasabout four, our house got broken
into.
What meager things we had gottaken.
Then we moved.
We moved to 2nd Street, to anA&B, I think, when I was five.

(03:00):
That's where I lived until Iwas about 14.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
You were a Lower East Side kid.

Speaker 2 (03:07):
Yeah, I moved to Brooklyn when I right before I
turned 15, because my neighborwas just so fucking bad, you
know.
But I moved all over the LowerEast Side.
I lived, actually I moved.
I forgot that I moved when Iwas 11 or 12.
I moved to Avenue B between13th and 14th.
Then we moved to Brooklyn.
Wow.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
Yeah, tell people like it's such a you know I hate
to sound like the old fogey,but it's such a trip in New York
City now because areas like theLower East Side or Soho or the
Bowery they're like these reallyfly areas.
And I tell people theMeatpacking District.
You have no idea what, whatthat was before.

Speaker 2 (03:46):
That was just chaos you know, I bought an apartment
in the meatpacking district in1998 and or 97 and I lived there
for five years.
It was in the same building aslotus.
Oh wow, five years, maybe a 96,maybe a 2000.
I think I moved right before2004 years.
I bought it and they opened anightclub and it was so fucking

(04:09):
loud.
It was a live-work loft so Ididn't have any zoning rights so
I sold it.
But I actually made moneybecause I sold it when the
neighborhood changed and I movedback to the lower side.

Speaker 1 (04:20):
Yeah, I tell people like back then you'd go to the
meatpacking district and youcould smell the meat.
There was still meat on thestreet.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
It was greasy cobblestone and you know
transvestite hookers and DizzyIzzy bagels.
That was it.

Speaker 1 (04:34):
I tell people because there would be blood literally
in the street from the meat.

Speaker 2 (04:38):
Yeah, you know, my studio was on Washington and
Bethune so I would walk everyday down 14th Street to
Washington Street so it was likea five or six block walk.
I used to go eat at Florent andthe neighborhood was nuts it
was.
You know, it was like no man'sland.
People couldn't believe I livedthere.
People were like you reallylive here.
I had a huge loft.

Speaker 1 (04:55):
Yeah, I could imagine .
I could imagine.
Tell me about your bug, the bugfor music, and how that started
.

Speaker 2 (05:03):
I always loved music since I was really young.
I think it started with theBeatles, chuck Berry, elvis
Presley I like, for some reason,a lot.
I don't know why this is, but alot of kids seem to like old
50s music, 60s music.
I remember I liked ElvisPresley and my mom put me up on

(05:23):
Chuck Berry.
She was like this is the realking of rock and roll.
It was Chuck Berry, yeah,because you know my mom was on.
She was like on some like civilrights, like political
activists.
She wasn't fucking with Elvistoo tough.
So you know, I like Chuck Berryand I like the Beatles and I
like soul music because my momloves soul music and when I was

(05:46):
growing up in the early 70s itwas like the sweet soul moment,
like you know, stylistics, themoments, the delphonics, all
that stuff, yeah, all of that,that stuff was popping and my
mom liked all that stuff.
Um, as well as marvin gaye, billwithers, stevie wonder, you
know also van morrison, bobdylan, she had like singer,
songwriter and soul music kindof stuff she liked.
So I listened to what shelistened to, what my sister

(06:08):
listened to.
My sister was into.
She liked a lot of salsa.
She was a salsa dancer.
So Fania records were around,like you know the Hector Laveau
that's a little later but morelike Willie Colon and you know
Eddie Palmieri.
So I grew up my sister playingthose.
So I inherited my taste from mysister and my mother and from

(06:30):
what they were playing outside,because I was one of those kids
who was always outside and theywere playing.
You know everything was gettingplayed outside, like Stevie or
like the Big Payback by JamesBrown Just Become Jimmy Castor.
You know A lot of gambling hubstuff.
Yeah, exactly, certainly HaroldMelvin and the Blue Notes Bad
Luck If you Don't Love Me by Nowall the Philly stuff.

(06:54):
So we grew up in a great era.
It's like the music was topnotch and I really liked them.
I mostly liked black music,with some exceptions like the
Beatles, the Rolling Stones, acouple of things here and there.
And I, when I went to juniorhigh school I got turned on to
rock music by some white kids Ibecame friends with and they put

(07:15):
me up on Led Zeppelin, who Ithought was one person before I
heard him.
I was like that guy, ledZeppelin, they're like that's a
group buddy.
I didn't know.
You know I was listening toShaft or whatever.
I wasn't you know.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
But then also the corny shit,like you know, the pop records,
like Captain Enteniel, and youknow, because we grew up on WABC
radio, right, and they playedeverything.

Speaker 1 (07:39):
People don't know about that.
You black radio station forquite a while in new york city
we it was wabc with harryharrison, like that's what it
was we listened to, and so wegot all that that soft rock and
that yacht rock that we wouldfed on that yeah yeah, that, and
and they also played it side byside with stevie wonder and the
brothers johnson whatever elsewas a hit record.

Speaker 2 (08:01):
So you heard like fly like an eagle and then you
heard like Superstition orwhatever it was.
You know, whatever was the top40 record.
And, ironically, later in lifeI dated Cousin Brucie, who was
on WABC's Daughter.
Really, yeah, for a briefmoment, but he was really.
I think I liked him more thanher.
He was super cool, he was agreat dude.
That's a great story.

(08:21):
You know.
It's funny that Red Alert toldme that he said I was talking
one time.
I was like, did you listen toWABC?
He said WABC is the cheat codefor hip hop.
People don't realize that.
He said because we got exposedto all these records.
We heard Walk this Way on WABCand Fly Like an Eagle and all
these records that ended upbeing funky and that we played
in the park jams, like all therock records.

(08:43):
I was like, oh, that's crazy,he's like.
That's why we played honky tonkwoman, because the drums and I
was like I got it, you know so.
So I think it was a keycomponent in all of our
childhoods.

Speaker 1 (08:53):
It absolutely was it was open format before open
format existed yeah, it was justlike what you said whatever was
a hit, it got played.
You say it would be jack 5, andthen it would be like you said
it would be a sailing.
What's his name?
Crystal Cross.

Speaker 2 (09:08):
Crystal Cross yeah.

Speaker 1 (09:09):
Doobie Brothers, whatever it was.
Whatever, it was funky, youknow.
And back to Elvis.
You know what?

Speaker 2 (09:14):
I'd be remiss if I didn't say who my favorite group
as a child was.
It was the Jackson 5.
You mentioned them.
So I was a Michael Jacksonfanatic.
I loved the Jackson five.
I watched the cartoon.
Me and my friends, would youknow, play the records and try
and do the steps and the wholeshit.
And I was, you know, I was likethey were always made me Tito
or Randy.
I never.
I was never Mike, which whichhurt my feelings.

(09:36):
But but I didn't have the move.
I didn't have the moves likethat man.
I had michael.
I had a jackson five notebook.
You know, grade school I hadhis post on the wall.
Like michael, jackson waseverything to us he was
everything as kids.

Speaker 1 (09:48):
Yeah, we, we literally grew up with him, you
know, yeah, yeah yeah, he waslike our age he was the greatest
.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So how did how did you tap?
Before we go into to thehip-hop side, kind of how did
you tap into the punk rock side?

Speaker 2 (10:00):
well, because of where I grew up.
Um, when I was about 13, 14, Iwas in junior high school and it
was twofold.
I was into skateboarding, I wasa skateboarder, I was always an
athlete.
I was, you know, played ball.
I always played all sports, butI discovered skateboarding and
I got good at it and I reallylove skateboarding.
And at some point maybe in 1979or so, 78, 79, skateboarding

(10:25):
started to go new wave.
So I was looking at my heroesin Skateboard Magazine and these
guys were listening to Devo andthe Specials and all this cool
music, the B-52s, and I went tojunior high school with these
kids.
These girls wound up being inthe band Luscious Jackson.
I remember Luscious Jackson, Iremember them and they were like
punk rock when they were like12, 13.

(10:46):
Like, I can't make it up.
And they were my friends.
I knew one of the girls sincegrade school.
I knew them.
I thought they were cool andthey were cool.
They were really nice girls,they were like really nice
people and one of them convincedme to go to see the Stimulators
, I think in 1980 at Max's,kansas city.
How we got in I can't even tellyou, but I went and it was

(11:07):
amazing and I also saw in 1979,I saw um, I saw Devo and the
specials on Saturday night live.
And I went to school when I sawDevo in I want to say seventh
grade, and I was like it waslike you know, my Saturday night
live was where we got all ourinformation when we were kids.
That's what told us what wascool.
You know what I mean.

(11:28):
And I was like you know, andstaying up to see Saturday Night
Live when you were a kid waslike for me, a treat.
I was like the one night my mom, let me stay up late, yeah, you
know, I couldwatch Saturday Night Live.
We'd watch it.
It was like a thing we did.
And, um, I went to school and Iwas like everyone's like we're
talking about saturday nightlive, of course on monday, and
people like did you see thatband?
And I was like, yeah, thatgroup, devo, they were fucking

(11:50):
cool.
And half my friends, most of myfriends like what do you want
drugs?
That was terrible.
And I was like no, it's greatbecause it was different.
So I don't know man, thosethings, all kind of those worlds
all collided, skateboarding andseeing saturday night live, and
my neighborhood being terrible,and I wanted to get out of my
neighborhood.
So I started skateboarding,like over to the west side all
the time.

(12:11):
Okay, I met a bunch of kids whowere, who were kind of more in
the punk rock and and new wavestuff my neighborhood,
coincidentally, that's where allthe like punk rock shit was
happening.
So I would skate over to stmark's, me and my friends and
and I lived on Avenue B but we'dskate over to St Mark's and
we'd hang out on St Mark'sbecause it was cool and we'd see
Joe Ramone walking by orwhatever.

(12:31):
It was Wow, and I just gotswept up in it and I loved it.
It was different and it waslike for me, music has always
been escapism, yes, escapism.
It's like the two cheapestforms of escapism are turning on
the radio and finding somemusic you love and laughing.
So me and my friends, we snapon each other all day.
We listen to music.

(12:52):
It's free.
We got no money.
We play sports, we skateboardaround.
That costs no money.
So this is what we did.
We didn't have any money.
So music was a big form ofescapism in the house and
outside of the house.
So for me it was almost like myfirst drug and it was a way to
get away from some of therealities that were right in
front of me.
I had a pretty dysfunctionalhousehold and upbringing and
music was like a way to escape.

(13:14):
So I'd turn on the radio andI'd hear Casey and the Sunshine
Band, or, fast forward, I'd hearthe Clash.
Wnew was the new way of station.
When we were kids I'd listen tothat.
Or LIR, if I could tune it in,and I just.
You know, I was one of thosekids too.
You probably did this too.
I had the old school taperecorder in front of the radio
and I'd tape it when my songcame on, and that would be my

(13:36):
tape.

Speaker 1 (13:36):
Come on man, jesus Christ, absolutely did that
Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (13:41):
I mean my mom's wasn't giving me money to go buy
records.

Speaker 1 (13:43):
I didn't have money like that.
You know what I'm saying.
You just, you just ah trying tocatch it.

Speaker 2 (13:48):
You know that's it.
You try to catch it.
You hope they announce itbeforehand so you can bang.
You know I would tape AmericaTop 40 every Sunday.
Casey Kasem.

Speaker 1 (13:56):
So I get my 40, the 40 songs.

Speaker 2 (13:58):
I get the tape and I have to flip it over.
I'd miss a couple of songs.
I get a bunch of those, but Iget some ones I like.
So that's what I did.
I was really pretty musicobsessive as a kid.
And I don't know if youremember the Village Voice.
Of course the paper, it's freepaper.
So a lot of my aesthetic, myhighbrow taste, came from

(14:19):
reading the Village Voice.
So they would kind of tell youwhat was cool, what was hip, you
know, and Greg Tate was a hugeinfluence on me.
Whatever he liked, I probablyliked.
You know, the Iron man, who Igot to know later in life, and
all the writers, RobertChristogau and all these guys
who wrote about music.
You know they turned me on to alot of stuff.
And then Rolling Stone, youknow I read that I would steal

(14:41):
it from the magazine store,shoplift it, and that helped
kind of set some of my taste too.
And also the back of theVillage Voice, which people
forget had all the listings ofthe clubs and who was playing.
And very early on I found outhow to get into clubs for free,
how to get into shows for free.
There was various ways.

(15:01):
One way was to meet the bandand I was a kid and they might
let me in.
The other was I literally dothis.
This is so crazy.
Me and my friend John Potatoes,wherever he is right now, John,
you're the man.
We would go to the trainstation and we'd beg for change
again on the train and say welost our train pass, and we

(15:22):
would get enough money to buytickets for a show and maybe
like a beer or a little bag ofweed, and this is what we did
and we did it all the time.
Like all, west fortune was thekey place, so I could make
literally in a day like 30 40dollars, which is like a million
dollars a year money back then,man.
Yeah, so you know I spent acouple hours scamming and then

(15:44):
we go buy a ticket, like I saw.
I remember when the first showsI ever went to, I went to see a
band called Sham 69 at Haraz.
It was a $7 ticket.
And we went and we were 14 andthe doorman was like how old are
you kids?
And I was like how old are youkids?
And I was like we got a ticket.

(16:04):
You're like, you know me, I'man asshole Even at 14.
And he's like yeah, good,you're not 18.
And I was like how old are youkids?
And I was like 17.
And he was like tell me thetruth and I might let you guys
in.
And I was like 15.
But I was 14.
John was 15.
And we had our skateboards andhe was like you guys are cool,

(16:26):
like come on.
And he was a doorman.
His name was Howie Montauk.
He became a famous doorman.
He had worked at Studio 54, buthe was a doorman at Palladium
and at Dance Interior.
This guy remembered me my wholelife, always let me in
everywhere.
And that was like the holygrail, the cheat code, one of
the early shows I went to.
I think it was 1980 as well.

(16:47):
I saw the specials at thediplomat hotel or a hotel
diplomat in Midtown, and it wasa $10 ticket, the most expensive
ticket I'd ever bought in mylife, and I I went to that show
and those shows helped change mylife.
When I saw the specials live,I'd never seen anything that

(17:08):
cover of London Calling and Iwasn't punk rock yet I was like
a new wave kid.
I had like a Tony Hawk haircutyou know what I mean and like a
striped shirt, which my thengirlfriend, who's still my
friend, never lets me forget.
She was like you lived in thatstriped bowling shirt for like
two years.
It's like your only cool shirt.
So I thought, and it wasn'tthat cool.

(17:28):
Yeah, man, I started going toshows and I started meeting
people in bands and I metdoorman and dorm women and
figured out how to sneak in theback and the age-old trick to
show up at soundcheck, wait forthe band and offer to help carry
their equipment in and they'llput you on the guest list.
So that worked with like punkrock bands more than bigger
bands.
And then I met you know we lovethis band the Bad Brains.

(17:51):
They changed my life.
I saw them in 1981, sorry, whenthey first moved to New York
with my friend, john Potatoes,who was like the guy who hit me
to everything, and shortly afterthat I cut my hair off.
I had like the new wave haircutand I was like that's it and I
buzzed my hair and I startedfollowing the Bad Brains around
everywhere.
I became friends with them.
They had like there were, youknow me, the Beasties, the Girls

(18:15):
in Luscious, the guys who endedup being the Cro-Mags.
We were amongst their earliestfans in New York.
We were a little too young forpunk rock, so we caught the
hardcore thing in real time.
You know, we were playing catchup with punk rock.
They became our band and frommy love of the Bad Brains and
going to see them like hundredsof times as a kid I was just

(18:36):
totally enveloped in punk rockand it was beyond punk rock.
It was punk rock in a sense ofself-empowerment there are no
rules, do it yourself.
And that was really inspiringto me.
I had the pleasure of beingaround them when they were
making the word cassette.
Jerry Williams, who engineeredand produced it with them,

(18:58):
showed me what a compressor was,a limiter.
I was like what is that?
And he explained it to mereally patiently and to the
experience and the inner circleof the Bad Brains as a 15,
16-year-old kid that I knewthere was something I had to do

(19:19):
that related to music because itwas the greatest part of my
life.
I didn't love high school.
I was like you know in highschool.
When I entered high school Ithink I was six feet, the same
height I am now, but I weighed130 pounds, 135 pounds.
I was a string bean and nogirls liked me.
So I was kind of like I don'twant to say I was a weird kid,

(19:40):
but I was like.
I was like an antisocial kid.
I was a skateboarder, I wasinto punk rock and I had a very
active life outside of school.
I didn't really care that muchabout school.
I cared about going out fivenights a week and my mom had my
mom was in no place in her lifeto exercise parental control.
I didn't have much parenting.

(20:01):
You were running.
You were running yeah, I wasoutside man.
I was outside like the kids.
I was outside my entire life.
Yeah and um, that was.
You know.
That was to me a more valuableexperience in high school I was.

Speaker 1 (20:11):
I was a smart kid.
For what we do, that's actuallyyeah.
You can't get more valuablethan that for what we do.
Did you know?

Speaker 2 (20:19):
like you couldn't get as close to the ground as
possible and seeing it happeningin in real time yeah, I mean
that to me was like my, myeducation, right and, and I was,
I was a smart kid.
I went to academically advancedgrade school and high school.
I went to Brooklyn Tech andthough I did not graduate from
Brooklyn Tech, but I went toBrooklyn Tech and I was always

(20:39):
like a smart kid.
My mom's a teacher, so I wasalways.
I mean until I was in likemaybe eighth grade and started
like discovering you know thethree W's wine, women and weed.
You know skateboarding, punkrock, graffiti.
I was a straight a student.
I never had less than an, alike.
I was always excelled in schooland then I discovered life um,

(21:01):
on its own terms, and schoolkind of went out the window
early for me so tell me abouthow, how, the, when the hip-hop
side started to kick in.
So so when we were kids I'm sureyou remember this when Rappers
Delight came out, it was a hitrecord.
It was a hit record smash.
They played in the school dance.
Everyone's like yo this record.

(21:22):
You're walking around singingit.
It's a fucking smash you had toknow every lyric People had
written that you had to know thewhole record, the whole record.
I loved it.
I whole record, the wholerecord.
I loved it.
I loved it.
And in junior high school a lotof my friends were were black
and puerto rican kids.
I grew up with all puertorican's pretty much so I mean I
was like you know they called mesort of reeking growing up.
Like you know, I couldn't waitto grow a mustache.

(21:43):
I was like that guy, like maybeif I grow a mustache I'll look
puerto rican, you know so.
So you know those are a lot ofmy friends.
And and I love Rappers of Lightmy boy who went to my school,
jackie a Columbus Van Horn.
He went to my school but helived in Harlem.
He took the train every day toschool because he was in an
academically accelerated programthat I was in.

(22:04):
He was like yo, I'm going toput you up on the real shit,
though and he gave me a tape andit was a Grandmaster Flash tape
and it was like 50 beats andhad all a lot of breaks.
It's a famous tape and had a lotof other songs on it, like I
think apache jump to it was onit, or or just live songs, all

(22:24):
these songs, and that that wasthe first thing and I took that
tape and I did my tape to tapeand I had it in a copy of the
tape and, um, always liked.
But then, life being what itwas, you know, I got into punk
rock and I said, but so inEngland they had like dub, all
the punk rock.
What people don't realize isthat the early adapters to rap

(22:44):
music outside of black peoplewho weren't from Manhattan,
lower Manhattan, were white, newwave punk rock people.

Speaker 3 (22:52):
And we'll be right back Ready to launch your
podcast.
Merrick Studios offerscomprehensive services, from
concept development and seamlessproduction to strategic
marketing and monetization.
Let your story take the mic.
Visit merrickcreativecom, slashstudios and let's get to work.

Speaker 4 (23:09):
Master the art of lyricism with Pendulum Inc.
The first school for rap.
Learn elite techniques throughimmersive lessons, real world
exercises and guidance fromhip-hop icons.
This is where mc sharpen theirskills and glow boldly on the
mic.
Ready to level up?
Visit pendulumminkcom and startyour journey today.

Speaker 2 (23:27):
And now back to our show the first white people in
america to love rap music.
Right, we listen to rapalongside punk rock.
We listen to all these groupswe listen to.
I remember jimmy spicer the bubuh, super rhymes, just loving
that yeah, jimmy spicer, yeah,yeah, you know all those jimmy
caster, jimmy spicer, my fault,yeah, yeah you know, and I'm

(23:49):
loving all those records thatare coming out right, super
rhymes, and so we're into newwave and punk rock and and those
records are also rocking andthose are like our.
That's like the other musicwe're listening to, right and as
graffiti leaves the trains andcomes into galleries you know,
I'm a graffiti guy Feedy Guy,the Tom Tom Club, make, genius

(24:11):
of Love 1981, blondie's Rapture,1980.
It's like a co-sign to all ofus and we're digging this music.
The message comes out All theserecords we loved all this shit.
So we were listening to the BadBrains and we're listening to,
you know, rap records like Funky4 Plus One More it's the join
and all these records we lovedall that.
That was our shit.

(24:33):
So we're, we're side by side,listening to an m punk rock,
like we were the kind of kids wenever wanted to necessarily
follow.
We always wanted to be ahead,like me and the group of guys I
fell in with um, including thebeasties, but a bunch of other
kids too who live downtown.
They all live in this building,west path, the west path crew.
They were like my boys.

(24:54):
We wrote graffiti, weskateboarded, but we got in a
lot of trouble.
Together, we just all a bunchof crazy kids.
And we, um, as punk rock gotcorny and skinhead started
showing up around 82, our energyshifted and hip-hop became more
of our focus and I went to thesecond party they did at Negril,
which became the Roxy Wheels ofSteel party.

(25:16):
Wow, ramal Z, who I knew, toldme to go.
I went, I saw him at the FunGallery.
So you know, all of a sudden wekind of went from being these
kind of punk rock kids I was askateboarder to being kind of
fresh and we mixed our styles up.
So we'd have fat laces and likea class shirt on and, like you

(25:36):
know, maybe wear a trench coat,but we had like a hat sideways.
You know what I mean.
So we're mixing and matchingand it became kind of a style
for lots of people.
And I think what was reallycool about the early initial hip
hop world that I fell into washow accepting people were.
So I felt like this is weird tosay, but punk rock guys were

(25:59):
less accepting than the peoplewho were in the hip hop, the
mostly black and Spanish catswho were living the hip hop
world, and people greeted uswith open arms in a way, and it
was a real cultural exchange andI feel like it was
inspirational, notappropriational.
So if that makes sense, we wereinspired and.

(26:21):
I feel like also New Waveinspired or influenced some
forms of hip hop, certainly Soul, sonic Force, you know,
kraftwerk and things of thatnature.
So you know there was like thiscultural exchange going on and
me and my friends were smack dabin the middle of it.
It was like the greatestblessing ever and for me, cause
I grew up in Lower East Side, Iknow how to move, so I'm

(26:43):
comfortable being, I'mcomfortable anywhere.
You know what I mean.
Like I I'm never uncomfortablebeing the only white guy anyway,
cause I was the only white guyon my blog for my whole life, so
it didn't matter to me.
I had great training for myfuture career growing up the way
I did.
So you know, I mean I just fellinto it and I loved it.
And you know we fast forward alittle bit.

(27:03):
The Beastie Boys made CookiePuss, which is kind of a joke
record.
But, like you know, homage joketongue in cheek and they link
up with Rick and they end up inthe middle of all this stuff and
I hold on to their belt loopand just go for the ride Because
you know I want to do something.
You know I'm trying to figureit out and I got lucky enough

(27:24):
that they let me hang on.
So you know that was really itman.

Speaker 1 (27:31):
Now I read that you I didn't know this about you, I
didn't know you were.
You were Eric.
We were at Cam's road roadieRoad manager, that's yeah.

Speaker 2 (27:38):
I was 21 years old.

Speaker 1 (27:38):
I need to hear a little bit.
I had no idea you did that.

Speaker 2 (27:43):
Yeah, it was.
It was crazy.
I mean, you know, like I metAnt Live and Eric and Rakim at
Rush I and live and eric androck him at rush.
I was working there in my early20s I was 21, I think, or 22 um
, I was just the craziest.
So the bc's start to get famous.
They take me on one of thetours.
Well, yeah, one on one of theruns, but I was a waiter.

(28:05):
I was waiting tables when theycame off tour and I was making
really good money.
I was was like a baby model,waiter, troublemaker, always in
the middle of some shit, butlike I was a model for Tortilla
Flats in the village and a placecalled Gulf Coast.
They were like super trendy.
Wow I was.

(28:25):
I was making like four nights aweek.
I make like a thousand dollars,eight hundred dollars cash.

Speaker 1 (28:32):
Just like crazy money back then.
That's crazy.

Speaker 2 (28:35):
So I left my job at Tortilla Flats to make $210 on
the books, which amounted to$160 a week at Rush Productions
Wow.
So I made a huge sacrifice.
Sean the captain got me a jobthere.

(29:07):
Wow is ringing and it's notnear me.
I'm not picking it up, so if youhear it, okay, oh, I'm so good,
so good um so he hires me, Iget my job at rush productions
and I meet everyone in the worldin hip-hop, because the hip-hop
world is about this big, it'slike this big.
And rush productions and defjam are the nerve center of
hip-hop in downtown manhattanand, as we know, in the early

(29:31):
80s probably always like fuckerslove to come downtown.
Do some Brooklyn, do someHarlem.
From the Bronx you feel exotic,right?

Speaker 1 (29:38):
I'm going downtown.

Speaker 2 (29:39):
I'm going to the Ville, I'm going down.
I'm going to the Ville, I'mgoing to West Forb.
Yeah, you just want to feel itright.

Speaker 1 (29:48):
It's like it's different.

Speaker 2 (29:49):
It's not dangerous.
There's beautiful women walkingaround.

Speaker 1 (29:54):
Models and shit.

Speaker 2 (29:55):
You can flex, you can wear your uptown shit downtown
and no one had it.
Your extra fly and you mightpick up some fly shit.
Bring it uptown.

Speaker 1 (30:03):
Absolutely Be like look at this, you know about
this.
Yeah, you don't know about thisshit.

Speaker 2 (30:06):
Yeah, exactly, so it was part of that too.
So everyone's at Rush, Def Jamand I meet everyone.
I meet Chuck D and I meet RedAlert and Chuck Chillout and
Stetsasonic I meet everybody.
But Eric B and Ant Live take areal liking to me.
I don't know why they werefucking with me.

(30:29):
They was fucking with me heavy.
I guess I made them laugh.
Plus, plus, I would always goto Latin Quarter.
So I was always at the Quarterand you know that was like.
So I'm in the middle of the twonerve centers of hip hop in New
York there's Rush Productions,Def Jam and the Latin Quarter.
So I'm running around and thoseguys took a shine to me.

(30:52):
And Leroy was like you weregoing to go out the road with
Eric B and Rakim.
So I did, and that was who Iwas, yeah, which was cool, and I
have friends who will rock himto this day.

Speaker 1 (31:05):
I can't say I know him, but I've met him a couple
of times and he's a gentleman.
He's a gentleman, he's a greatdude, he's a gentleman, he's a
gentleman.

Speaker 2 (31:13):
He's a great dude.
He's the greatest dude everPerformed on my 51st birthday.
Yeah, he's one of my every timehe's in LA.
We talk all the time.
He's great, he's rockin'.
He's rockin'.
He has the aura like there'snot much more.
You could say he's got anobility to himself.
That's rockin'.

Speaker 1 (31:31):
Exactly.
So you know I ran around thatled you into your first gig.
What were?
You saying that led you intoyour first kind of official gig
in music.

Speaker 2 (31:39):
Well, that was like yeah, so I was a messenger at
Rush Productions, Then I becamea road manager.
Then I came off the road and itwasn't really a job for me.
Lior stuck me in Norby Walters,which was a booking agent, you
know.
Norby Walters is our agent, karaLewis.
I worked for Kara Lewis.
It was the worst job I ever had.

(32:01):
She was not.
I couldn't work with her.
It wasn't for me.
Daddy O was my friend from Rushbeing on tour, was my friend
from Rush being on tour.
He was my big homie mentor andhe was like yo D, they're trying
to hire an A&R person at TommyBoy.

(32:21):
I threw your name in the mixbecause they tried to give me
the job, but I'm not trying todo that, so they're going to
call you.
So Monica Lynch reached out tome.
I saw her out at something andwe we were talking and she's
like oh, you want to interviewfor this job.
And I was like yeah, and Iguess my references checked out.
She asked people about me andthey were like yeah, he's like

(32:43):
he's, he's, he's outside, like.
So I went for the interview andshe played me De La Soul.
It blew my mind Wow, I'd never.
And she's I was like yo, it'slike.
I was like it's like ultramagnetic meets slick Rick.
I remember she always tells meI said that and she was like I
was like yo, it's so dusted.

(33:04):
Like.
I was like play that again, Iwas like enamored.
I was enamored by it Cause itwas like it felt, like exactly
how I felt.
I can't explain it other thanthat, you know, because right at
that point that was like.
You know, there's these liketipping points in in the culture
.
So there's a run DMC tippingpoint, and that's kind of when
Eric B and Rakim hit the set,and then it becomes the LQ right

(33:27):
, the drum machine, the boom,the drum machine, the boom.
The drum machine records stopbeing the ones, it becomes the
sample records and that's theLatin Quarter, union Square,
latin Quarter.
And then the tipping point fromthat is Latin Quarter's too
violent.
It moves downtown again to thecandy bar parties, milky Way,
payday and De La Soul and theNative Tongues emerge.

(33:49):
So I think it starts with UltraMagnetic.
They bridge the gap from theLatin Quarter to the native
tongue thing because they'reincredibly creative and weird,
for lack of a better word.
Bugged out, yeah, bugged out.
And you know there's a coupleother bands like, a couple other
groups like that.
There was MCs maybe who werelike Rampuva's in Masters of

(34:11):
Ceremony, slick Rick, a littlebit Slick Rick is wild because
he goes from the drum machineera through Latin quarters and
becomes a huge.
He's a huge influence on Nativetongues because he's a
storyteller and he's left ofcenter.
They were popping, ultra Magwas popping and Karis One's

(34:33):
obviously popping Kid.
In Place that's Sonic, you knowthose things, and that vibe
moves downtown and from thisemerges the leaders of the
Native Tongue Pack.
You know which is JungleBrothers Q-Tips on their record
and De La's record comes outright around then.
Oh, I forgot to say so.

(34:54):
Monica calls me right beforeChristmas.
I go to Tommy Boy.
It's the follow-up meeting.
It's snowy now and she says so.
So I got to tell you you gotthe job, when do you start?
I'm like when do I start?
And she's like she's like topof the year, you know after the
holiday.
Okay so and she says and thatgroup, you like De La Soul,
they're the first group you'regoing to work with.
And I'm like, wow, I'm likeJesus Christ.

(35:16):
So I get the job.
The payday parties are popping.
I literally got the 12-inch andI sent it to Red Alert.
He's like I call him up.
Red was my man.
I'd hang out with him.
I was a great wingman.
You know.
Red used to call me James Dean.

(35:37):
He was like James.
Dean, where are we going?
I would call Red.
This is so crazy.
The world was so small backthen.
My Saturday night, or Fridaynight Friday night I go to the
quarter Saturday.
I might call Red and be like.
Or Red might call me and belike.
I live on 108th Street.
He lived on 116th.
Adam Clayton Powell I'm onBroadway.
He's like James Dean.

(35:58):
What's going on tonight?
I knew all the downtown partieswe might roll out, you know.
So I'm hobnobbing with RedAlert, the most important DJ,
hip-hop DJ in the country.
I'm 22, 23 years old, 23.
He's my guy.
I'm 22, 23 years old, 23.
He's my guy and I had thepleasure this is one of.
So I knew Red and I'll go tothe quarters.
And Red seen me at the quarters.

(36:18):
He was like come upstairs, hedidn't want me walking around
downstairs.
It's too crazy.

Speaker 1 (36:23):
It was a little intense.

Speaker 2 (36:25):
Yeah, it was wild.
The thing that was great is Ihad nothing to steal.
You could get my bootleg Filahat yeah man.
I had nothing.

Speaker 1 (36:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (36:36):
A swatch, so $33.
You weren't coming up if yourobbed me.
So I had the pleasure of givinghim Rebel Without a Pause.
So I gave him the 12-inchbecause Hank and them also
worked at Rush.
Hank was Bill Adler's assistant.
Yes, Hank and them also workedat Rush.
Hank was Bill Adler's assistant.
He knew I would go to quartersevery week and he gave me two

(36:57):
test records.
I brought it to Red and I gotthere early and he played it in
headphones and he was like yo,I'm fucking with this.
I didn't know that meant he wasgoing to fuck with it that
night, but he played it thatnight and people went nuts.
It was one of those records forlike two seconds I don't know
what time it is People were likeman, it hit, people want

(37:20):
bonkers.
He played on the radio nextnight.

Speaker 1 (37:23):
Red alert was like a to be like as quick as it could
be yeah, yeah, yeah, from theclub to the radio, from the club
to the radio.
Yeah, if it worked in the club.

Speaker 2 (37:29):
It went to the radio.

Speaker 1 (37:30):
It went to the radio, yeah, so.

Speaker 2 (37:31):
I sent him.
I messengered the De La Soulrecord to him.
Okay, messengered, messengeredthat day and he called me.
He said I like this, I likethis.
He played it the next day,played it the next day on the
radio, wow, so out the gate.
Everyone's like.
You know, it's like I got a hitrecord, right, but it's

(37:54):
Monica's hit record.
But you know it didn't hurt myrep, it didn't.
Yeah, and I'm with them all thetime we're running around.
I took them to LA the firsttime they ever went.
We do a show.
We did a show.
We played World on Wheels.
We played the and West Adams.

Speaker 1 (38:09):
That's what NWA came out, of right, correct.

Speaker 2 (38:12):
They played Skateland and World on.

Speaker 1 (38:13):
Wheels.
Those are the two places, yeah.

Speaker 2 (38:15):
So we played a show, a K-Day show, at World on Wheels
.
That's where I met Ice-T.
I met.
I knew Muggs already.
I knew 783.
They were on the bill.
Okay, it's the first time I sawCrip walking.
Wow, first time we saw ratviolence in California.
There was a big fight and thenit went outside and they locked

(38:37):
us in the club.
Dudes were shooting outside.
It was crazy.
Me and Paz almost got arrestedfor jaywalking.
We didn't know he couldn'tjaywalk.
He can't jaywalk in LA we didn'tknow that we had a blast.
We stayed at the Holiday Innright on walk in LA.
Yeah, we didn't know that.
And, um, I don't know, we, we,we had a blast.
It was.
We stayed at the Holiday Inn,uh, right on Highland.

(38:59):
It was a bummy ass hotel for us.
It felt great.
And we saw the Beasties, we,they met the Beasties.
Um, it was cool, it was superfun.
Yeah, we, we, uh, we becamereally tight and uh, from going
to the quarters where I met 45King, I saw 45 King.
I saw 45 King.
I want to say at the LatinQuarter.
When I'm working at Tommy Boy,I would literally go Latin
Quarter to payday back and forth.
Latin Quarter is dying downwhen payday is popping, it's

(39:21):
coming up.
We still went.
I saw 45 King at the LatinQuarter one night and Saturday
night was payday more, fridaynight is Latin quarters and the
difference is Latin quarters.
There's like three white peoplethere, like two of them work
there.
Four white people.
Search is there, me and Search,yeah, and me and Pete went

(39:45):
there too.
Me and Pete and I were supertight back then.
But you know there's very fewwhite people who don't work
there there and downtown is, youknow all kinds of people
eclectic and beautiful girls andthere's way more dudes and
girls.
At the LQ there was a lot ofgirls there, yeah, though I did
have a girlfriend or two fromLatin Quarter.
I cannot lie.
You know I'm an equalopportunity employer.

(40:06):
You know, like I have an easycriteria.
I like girls that like me.
Yeah, exactly what kind of girldo you like?
The ones that like me, the onesthat like me exactly, I don't
really care.
Yeah, so you know.
You know 45 King.
I met him there.
He knew who I was, which wasreally weird.
I don't know how he knew that.
And two, he didn't look like heshould be at the Latin Quarter.

(40:30):
No, no, he looked too nice.
Yeah, he was like a nerd.

Speaker 1 (40:34):
He was like a nerd he was a nerd Smiley guy.

Speaker 2 (40:36):
He had little fruits and berries in his hair.
Yeah, exactly.
He had the big studio monitorheadphones around his neck, yeah
.
And he was like yo, dante Ross.
I was like, yeah, he's like youwant to hear some shit.
I was like who?
I was like he's like he's on 45King.
I was like you're the 45 King?
I was like no way.

(40:57):
I was like huh, and we wentupstairs and he was like, oh,
you want to hear some shit?
I was like definitely.
And he pulled out his Walkmanand he used to have one of those
label guns.
He labeled everything.
Yeah, yeah, his shit saidproperty of the 45 King on his
Walkman.
Wow, so weird.
And then he handed me hisheadphones, which were soggy.

Speaker 1 (41:20):
He had the soggy headphones because he'd been
listening to them.
The sweaty headphones.

Speaker 2 (41:27):
Yeah, that's why DJ never used anyone else's
headphones.
Yeah, and I was like, oh, Ialways tell him.
Yo, I remember when I first met, you hit me with the soggy and
they smelled like like a littlebit like activator, like sweat
and shit.
Yeah, sweat and activator.
But he played me a bunch of shitheat and I was like, come see
me on monday, so you know, cometo the office.

(41:49):
So um 45 king called me withfab five, freddie, and and they,
um, they started playing me.
I had a speakerphone.
I was that shit was hot back inthe day the speakerphone, yeah,
I was like yo, I got aspeakerphone a beaker.
I'm ill right now.
I'm.
I'm in my.
My office was the old mail roomthat still had bags of mail in

(42:09):
the corner.
I I didn't have a stereo.
I had a boom box on my desk.
That was what I listened to,and him and Fab Five played me a
bunch of joints over the phone.
They played me Wrath of myMadness over the phone.
Wow, I lost my mind because Iwas one.
You remember when, like dancehall and rap were like brother,

(42:30):
sister.
They were like cousins, likebest friends, right, yes, and
that was when all the illdancehall records were dropped
and One Blood and you had toplay that in the club that got
played.
All the joints, all the earlystuff, even before Shabu it was
like all that shit was gettingplayed though Agony and Pinchers
and Bomb Bomb by Tiger, allthose records.

(42:52):
We were loving all that shit.
You know Red played that stuffevery week.
He did.
People were doing that.
You know, masters of Ceremonyhad, like everyone, had their
reggae hip-hop joint.
That's right.

Speaker 1 (43:01):
Karras One.
What's his name?
Don Don, don Barron, don Barron.

Speaker 2 (43:05):
Don Barron yes, the Diddly diddly did Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (43:10):
I took that from him, absolutely.

Speaker 2 (43:12):
He took it from Icomel, so you know.
But you know, so I liked allthat shit and I heard Wrath of
my Madness and I was like I wasblown away.
So I was like, come into office, bring all your groups.
So I don't know why Fab Fivewas not at the meeting when they
showed up.
I've never One day someone willtell me why.
But they came to check me andit was a bunch of the flavor

(43:33):
unit guys and Latifah and theystarted playing me joints and
they played Wrath of my Madnessand I knew it was the shit.
They played me that.
And Princess of the Posse andMonica came in Her office is
next to the conference room andshe said, dante, can you come to
my office?
And she was like and we wentover, she was like, opened her

(43:54):
mouth.
I was like we have to sign herand she was like, how did you
know?
And she was like, yes, likegreat minds think alike.
So we knew we were going tooffer a deal and she looked like
a million bucks.

Speaker 1 (44:13):
She had a dashiki, she had the bob, she had the
door knockers.
Basketball shorts, floppy socks.
She's a ball player, she was aball player back then.

Speaker 2 (44:17):
Yes, right, yes, she was an all-county ball player.
Yeah, like a legit ball player.

Speaker 1 (44:19):
Absolutely, she was nice yeah yeah.

Speaker 2 (44:22):
I was like, hey, we want to sign you.
And she was like for real.
And I was like, yeah, we'regonna sign you, like we want to
sign you.
And we went to.
You know, tommy Boy was on 91stand 1st.
I lived on 87th.
No wait, 80, 79th is the streetI lived on 80th and East End.

(44:43):
I used to play at this placecalled Bowling Green Asphalt on
the Green rather, which is on88th and East End, and it's near
the Tommy Boy office.
So I played ball there outsideall the time and I was like what
do you guys want to do?
They were like yo, we want togo smoke some weed.
I was like, let's go down tothe park.
And we went to Asphalt on theGreen and we smoked weed and

(45:03):
played basketball and she wasnice and I inadvertently knew
Lati who was with them.
He knew people.
I knew Lati who was with them.
He knew people.
I knew my man.
Tahim lived in Jersey.
This is how small the world was.
He was like a sideline memberof the Flavor Unit and Lord Ali
Baski was his friend.
Lati was there.

(45:24):
I want to say Apache.
A bunch of them, God bless.

Speaker 1 (45:28):
Apache.

Speaker 2 (45:28):
Chill, rob G wasn't there, because I might have
signed him if he was there.

Speaker 1 (45:32):
If I heard.

Speaker 2 (45:32):
The court is in session.
I would have signed him, Ithink I'm sure, because I love
that record.
But there was a bunch of themthere.
Marky Fresh was a sidelinemember.
They kicked him out kind ofRest in peace.
He was disowned at some pointbut that was the crew and we
ended up signing him.
We made Richard Grable, who Istill am friends with to this
day.
Richard, I hope your health isokay.
I know you had a scare duringthe pandemic and you were having

(45:54):
some health issues.
Richard Grable was the lawyer.
He had a relationship with TomBoyd.
We did the deal and we went andwe mixed Wrath of my Madness
Mark the 45 King.
He wanted us to take hisadvance and get him a sampler
instead of his advance.

Speaker 1 (46:14):
That sounds so much like something Mark would do,
that's.

Speaker 2 (46:20):
Mark 100 zillion percent.
I went to Sam Ash.
I picked up an Akai S900, whichTommy Boy paid for on her PO,
and I took the bus to EastOrange where he met me at the
bus.
I took the bus from the PortAuthority with the sampler and
he met me at the bus and we tookanother bus to his house.

(46:42):
I've been to his studio already.
His studio was in the basementof his house.
He had a diner like phone dinerbooth in there, a phone booth,
a turnstile, his setup.
He had a quarter-inch tapemachine, a little board, and he

(47:03):
set up the S900 and startedfiguring it out.
Getting busy, getting busy, andhe used it to redo some of the
stuff on wrath and princess ofthe posse.
He plays the bass line onprincess of the posse by hand on
the m, which a lot of dancehallrecords were using, and we took
the tapes and we recut theentire record using s9 and

(47:26):
everything else, his sequenceI'm trying to remember what
sequence he used, but but werecut it at Calliope.
We mixed it and we fumbled themix.
I'm writhing my madness.
We had to mix it twice and Idon't think the mixes were any
better than the demos.

(47:46):
A lot of times we couldn'tmaster off a cassette.
We should have know, we shouldhave figured it out.
But.
But I think they were betterand I always being, you know, I
was young and I was like the A&Rguy had to do something on the
record.
I convinced Mark to use alittle sample from from someone

(48:09):
I won't mention Cause maybesomeone will hear this and go
back and try and sue them.
It's never been cleared, but alittle horn stabbing it, okay,
breakdown in Princess of thePosse, and actually they were
like oh, that's dope, thatactually works dope.
So they used it and those arethe records.
We pressed it Once again.
We got it right during NewMusic Seminar.

(48:31):
I walked around with them andRed Alert again played it the
entire week of New Music Seminar.
So it took off and we walkedout of New Music Seminar with a
hit record.

Speaker 1 (48:42):
Yeah, because after New Music Seminar everybody goes
back to where they're from andthey bring it with them, you
know.

Speaker 2 (48:47):
Right, and every party that Red DJed at, which
was pretty much every party, heplayed it, and he was playing
the A and the B side.
So I'll shut up, ask mequestions.
That's how it started.

Speaker 1 (49:03):
Good, I got a lot more questions.
It's real funny.
When I talked to you, faith wason here too, faith Newman and a
couple other people.
It's so interesting how we wereall in this world and as I'm
listening to you, you and I werelike I don't know if parallel
is the right term, but we werelike Red Alert.
When I worked at Wild Pitch,red Alert's office was in that
building, so I had arelationship with Red, and then

(49:28):
Mark would be up there becauseof Red, and then True, rob G was
signed to Wild Pitch.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (49:36):
Was someone else from Flavor Unit signed to Wild
Pitch?
Say it again Was someone elsefrom Flavor Unit on Wild Pitch
LaTee or just LaTee LaTee?
This cut's got flavor andthat's how I knew 45K really
Exactly.
That was banger.
Exactly I remember Shaquem wasin the picture when I signed,
when I signed him.

Speaker 1 (49:54):
Yet he was at Rob when Rob was on Wild Pitch crazy
, and then one more thing, andthen Apache was around and it
was just kind of all this crosspalinization, I guess, lack of a
better term.
We were like Patrick Moxley whomanaged Gangstar, he did
Polonization, I guess, for lackof a better term.
We were all kind of doing itand Patrick Moxley who managed

(50:15):
Gangstar, he did the candy barparty, he did Payday, so it was
all these kind of-.

Speaker 2 (50:21):
He replaced me at Rush when I left.

Speaker 1 (50:23):
See, it was all these kind of people just crossing
paths for the love of the music,because none of us were making
shit.
It was for the love.

Speaker 2 (50:34):
When I worked at Tommy Boy I sold weed out of the
office and I had a gun.
And Monica seen the gun one dayand was like, don't bring that
to the office again.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I had mylittle 380.
Life was different.
Yeah, you know, Red opened alot of doors for a lot of us.

Speaker 1 (50:51):
Oh, my God, I love Red.
Red opened a lot of doors for alot of us.

Speaker 2 (50:53):
I always say we got gatekeepers.
He was a door opener.
He opened the gate.

Speaker 1 (50:57):
He's opening the gate for everybody.
Absolutely Funny, quick story.
I've never told this.
I was living in Harlem and Iheard this music one time
because back then the vendorswould be along 125th Street
Right Playing music, sellingclothes.
There was a length of it, youremember.
So I heard somebody, some vendorwas playing this music and I

(51:18):
was like I kind of like this,this is kind of cool.
And I found out what it was andI went to red because he knew
everything.
I said man, I heard these guyscall like mob style.
I kind of like this thing.
Mob style for those who don'tknow was real drug dealers,
including az, AZ from Pay Fullof them, Gangsta Lou.
These guys are real.

(51:38):
And I told Red I wanted to signthem and Red refused to set up
a meeting with me.
He was like you don't need tobe around those guys.
He's like you don't need to bein that, that's some other shit
you don't need to be.
And he would never introduce meto those guys.
And I look backwards and I'mlike I still really like the
Marl style.
But I was like he was right,they could have been NWA Dude.

(51:59):
That's what I was saying.
They didn't New York likebecause what they were rapping
about was real.
They were really doing thisshit.

Speaker 2 (52:06):
Those guys were out there.
You know it's funny too,because when I think about it,
like dudes who made like softrap records some of them dudes
were straight gangsters, likeTito was a gangster, I mean, he
was a legend Like he was.
You know it's funny because Ilived on 108th Street and I
would go shopping almost everyweekend on 125th.

(52:27):
One of my hangout partners wasD-Nice.
He would drive down and we'dget in his whip and we'd go up
to 125th.
We was messing with these girls, my homegirl Lita and we would
run around and go shop number125th.

Speaker 1 (52:39):
And I would go there all the time.
I remember Lita, skinny Lita,pretty slim Lita.
I was my little shorty.
Let's move forward because wegot too many connections.

Speaker 2 (52:50):
I was just saying that because 125th was like
another place.
You walk down 125th and youfelt the pulse, you heard the
music, you've seen said Gwalking down the street.
I've seen you know this guy,that guy, and I love, I loved it
.
You know it's funny, man, Inever I felt as comfortable on
125th as I did on the Lower EastSide.

(53:11):
It was like the same shit to meyeah, yeah, yeah, so tell me
about.

Speaker 1 (53:16):
So you have all the success of Tommy Boy with De La
and Latifah and you're moving,and then you go to Electra next,
correct?
Yeah, All right.

Speaker 2 (53:24):
Yeah, so a big article came out on De La Soul I
was mentioning it, I guess, inthe New York Times and I knew
this cat, Raul Roach.
He's Max Roach's son, I knewhim from.
So also back then I hung outwith Russell don't hold it
against me, Andre.
Rest in peace.
Yes, Jimmy, Love on occasion.

(53:46):
Nelson George yes, I hung outwith Lior, but Lior and me had a
love-hate relationship at thatpoint.
I hung out with these guys.
We'd go to Nell's.
They would hold court thereupstairs.
I had a seat at the tablebecause they were picking my
brain.
I was a free A&R source and thenI became an A&R guy.

(54:07):
Bill Stephanie was the firstperson to tell me I should be an
A&R person.
Wow.
Him.
And Daddy-O around the sametime.
He wanted to hire me at Def Jamand they didn't hire me, Wow.
So you know, I was outside andI was running around those guys.
They couldn't go to thequarters, they could go to
payday and I hung out with thoseguys, largely because I knew

(54:29):
all the model girls.
Honestly, yeah, they were likeoh D knows all the baddies,
who's the five girls you're with?
So you know that had a lot todo with it and I had Entree in
that world man, I was red hotand that's why I met Raul,
Because Raul was kind of like alittle, he was evolved.
He's like an evolved dude, Likehe's not a street guy, and he

(54:51):
took a liking to me.
What I found out later is hetried to hire Gary Harris at
Electra, but Gary missed themeeting.

Speaker 1 (54:57):
Sounds like Gary.
I love Gary.
Yeah, it sounds like.

Speaker 2 (54:59):
Gary, yeah, exactly, and I got interviewed for the
job.
He set up the interview with meand Bob Krasnow yes, we started
the meeting I'll never forget.
So I had a three finger ring on.
I thought I was fly, I thoughtI was hot, I was hot in the

(55:20):
streets and he had on thisbeautiful diamond, big diamond
ring, pinky ring.
It was dope.
And he was like, oh, I likethat ring.
And I took it off and he saidcan I see that?
I took it off and then I said Ilike your ring.
And he took it off and I puthis ring on.
It was big on my finger.
I was like yo, I think we need,I think we should trade.

(55:40):
He's like I don't think so,buddy.
And then we swapped the ringsback and that that thing right
there though.
That made him like me and melike him.
And then we started talkingabout sports betting.
I don't know why.
Raul told me this and he saidwhat he was like around the time
of the ncaa tournament what doyou got?
I said I don't bet collegebasketball.

(56:01):
As he said why.
I said it's too unpredictable.
I said I don't bet collegebasketball, I bet football and
he was.
He started laughing and then Ihad a follow-up with him.
He liked me and he wanted tomeet me again.
He was, you know, and he waslike.
He was like, hey, I want to.
He's like do you like any othermusic besides rap, music, black
music?
And he gave me his resume.

(56:22):
He had signed Parliament.
You know he worked with GeorgeClinton.
He was a G.
Bob Krasnow was a G.
He was like.
He was also like he was.
He had been a street dude.
So he's from East Cleveland.
He was a tough Jewish dude fromEast Cleveland, worked for James
Brown, was his road manager,worked at King Records.
He started his own label, blueThumb Records in San Francisco

(56:47):
with Tommy LaPuma.
He had a ton of great recordshe put out, including the
Crusaders.
Wow, like a thief in the nighthe sold the catalog behind
Tommy's back for all this money.
They fell out and he sold it toWarner Brothers and he went to
work at Warner Brothers.
Him and Tommy had fallen outfor like 20 years but they
patched it back up because Tommyworked with me later on.

(57:08):
So, bob, he asked me aboutstuff.
He's like you know, I justsigned this band, the pixies,
and I said I love the pixies,that's the best alternative band
in america and he was like howdo you know that?
So he's still a punk rock andthe pixies are like for that
kind of they're top of the foodchain, that's the best thing out
that.
That and who's could do.

(57:29):
And he's like, yeah, they'reson of warner.
But he's like, yeah, I know,and I was.
And he's like, yeah, they'resounding Warner Brothers.
I was like, yeah, I know.
And I was like, yeah, that'slike I love that band.
He's like I was like that'sreally cool.
You signed them.
And he was like, yeah, and I waslike what else are you excited
about?
We just made a conversation.
He's like, well, I want to playyou something.
I signed this girl.
And so he's like you know,that's part of the history of

(57:58):
electro.
I said, yeah, electro album, Iknow that.
And he was like let me playsomething.
And he played me Fast Cars byTracy Chapman and it wasn my
mind because it's such anemotional song and it hit me

(58:20):
like in my heart.
I was like, wow.
And I was like, oh my God.
I was like that's one of thebest things I ever heard.
And he goes, yeah, she's black.
And I said what?
He goes, yeah, she's a blackwoman, she's from Cleveland,
where I'm from, actually, andwe're signing her.
And I was like how are yougoing to sell this?
He's like I don't care, this isart and I'm putting this out.

(58:43):
And so he gave me an advancedcassette.
Wow, and all I did was so.
I decided that day I want towork at Election Records.

Speaker 1 (58:52):
That was part one with Dante Ross.
Stay tuned next week for thesecond half of our conversation.
You can catch Mixed andMastered on Apple Podcasts,
spotify, iheart or wherever youget your podcasts.
Hit that follow button, leave areview and tell a friend I'm
your host, jeffrey Sledge.
Mixed and Mastered is producedand distributed by Merrick

(59:17):
Studios.