Jasper Cameron

In this episode of Mixed and Mastered, Jeffrey Sledge sits down with legendary songwriter and producer Jasper Cameron to explore his journey from Atlanta church pews to crafting chart-topping hits. Jasper shares how Atlanta shaped his view of success, the church’s role in honing his talent, and how mentors like Dallas Austin opened pivotal doors.

They dive into Atlanta’s tightly knit music scene, the rise of artists like Lloyd, Sammy, and Nivea, and the balance of writing mature songs for young voices. Jasper reveals behind-the-scenes stories of hits like “You” and “Girls Around the World,” working with icons like Christina Aguilera, and navigating the ever-changing music business.

From CeCe’s star power to the complexities of girl groups and the magic of demo sessions, Jasper offers rare insights into what it truly takes to create music that moves the world.

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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 Jasper Cameron, legendary songwriter and
producer behind some of thebiggest hits in R&B and pop From
you for Lloyd, promised forCiara, Dirty for Christina
Aguilera and Bedrock for YoungMoney.
Jasper moves the culture.
This is Mixed and Mastered withJasper Cameron.

(00:23):
This is Mixed and Mastered withJasper Cameron.
Welcome to Mixed and Mastered, apodcast 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
the music business.
These are the stories you won'thear anywhere else, told by the

(00:44):
people who live them.
This is Mixed and Mastered.
These are the stories you won'thear anywhere else, told by the
people who live them.
This is Mixed and Mastered.
Mixed and Mastered with JasperCameron.
Yes, sir, my man, my man, thisis my guy right here, man, this
is my guy.
What's up, sledge?
How you doing, man?

(01:04):
I'm blessed and highly favored,brother.
I see, I see You're alwaysblessed and highly favored.
That's why you're still here.
You better know it.
That's why you're still here,man.
Yes sir, let's jump right intoit.
Let's start at the beginning.
Okay, born and raised in.
Let me ask a question realquick, because I'm still
learning the specifics ofAtlanta.

(01:25):
So Adamsville, is thatconsidered the west side or the
south west side?
Oh, because that's not SWAT.

Speaker 3 (01:32):
That's not South West .
Well, it's like it's almostlike part of Adamsville could be
in the south west but the otherhalf is going to be on the
north west side.
So it's just like it's like asplit, like on one side it
passed MLK, to the left it'sswats.
On the other side it's goingtoward Bankhead, and that I got
you and that's just on one.
You know what I?

Speaker 1 (01:51):
mean you cross the street and you're on one side.
You cross the street on theother side.
Okay, I got you, I got you, Igot you, I got you.
So tell me about growing up you, about you in particular.

Speaker 3 (02:08):
Yeah, when I, when I watched many times now, when I
watched the movie atl, yeah with, I always thought like that
looks like your upbringing that,that, that, that um, the skam
ring in my neighborhood, theskam ring in adamsville, see so
the cascade skam ring inadamsville.
So that's what, that's my wholeeverything, that's my life in
my neighborhood.

Speaker 1 (02:22):
right, that's your world, that was your world.
Tell me about growing up on thewest side as a kid.

Speaker 3 (02:30):
Man.
You know it's one of the mostunique experiences that I didn't
know was unique coming upbecause in my area coming up, I
grew up with Killer Mike.
Me and Mike went to elementaryand high school together.
Ti Lil' John went to my highschool Shout it out.
Carlos Walker from BowlingHomes you know what I'm saying.
Like all of them, like you know.
So Jamal Lewis, the footballplayer he grew up down the
street.
So all of us grew up together,around each other.

(02:52):
But our neighborhoods wereunique because you seen from the
lowest to the highest classes,so you would see people who may
not have so much, but theyalways mixed and mingled with
the people who had things.
So it was never far-fetched forus to know we can have it.
We always seen success allaround us.
We've seen black doctors, We'veseen black dentists, we've seen
black pastors with a lot ofmoney, we've seen street guys

(03:14):
with a lot of money.
So everything was all together.
So I didn't realize how uniquethat was.
So I went to other places andwe never felt like we couldn't
do it.
We always think success rightin front of us, no matter how
long the totem pole we started.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
We always knew we can get it.
That's beautiful, that'sbeautiful.
So I did a little research onit and I saw that you was a
church kid.
Yeah, you better know it.
Yeah, you grew up in the church.

Speaker 3 (03:37):
My mama going to get us up every Saturday to go to
choir rehearsal my whole family,matter of fact, dc Young Fly
his daddy, was my preachergrowing up.
Reverend Whitfield, dc YoungFly daddy he way younger.
Junkie, way younger than us.
His daddy passed the church inthe bluff, vine City.
That's where my mama side ofthe family from Vine City you

(03:57):
got to know that real West SideGreat Springfield Baptist Church
and my whole family went tothat church.
So we all went to that church,my whole family.
Every Sunday was like a familyreunion.
That whole church was my wholefamily and every Saturday, no
matter if we had footballpractice or what, we'd go on a
choir rehearsal.
So I definitely grew up in thechurch.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
Wow, wow.
I think about that because Igrew up the same way, back when
my grandfather was a deacon, mygrandmother was an usher board,
and I always wonder if that'sstill going on with the young
kids.
I hope so.

Speaker 3 (04:26):
I hope so too, because you know what, even
though I didn't even think aboutcertain things that the church
was providing for me at the time, I realized how much it meant
to me later on.
You get what I'm saying Ain'tnothing like a solid foundation.
Without a solid foundation, man, the building going to fall
down.
So I realized, man, that solidfoundation is so important, and
it provided one for me, likeeven if I didn't know what the

(04:48):
preacher was talking about.
I knew every Sunday I was gonnasee my family.
I knew.
Every Saturday I learned how tosing in church.
I learned how to play piano inchurch.
So it was providing mesomething to set me up for life
that I didn't even know.
So that's why it's so important.
Community is so important.

Speaker 1 (05:04):
It teaches you the respect of your elders.
All of that and all of that andthe world the way the world
works, the way it works All ofthat, yeah, yeah, you know, ms
Sonson, slipping that littlecandy.
You know what I'm saying.
Oh, come on, Come on, come onnow, yeah, man, all of that, so
All of that.
So tell me about singing in thechurch.

Speaker 3 (05:23):
Well, what happened was in my family you had to
participate in something in thechurch.
Either you was going to be onthe usher board the junior usher
you was going to participate insomething.
My mama and my brothers andsisters, my nieces, always tell
me my daddy's side of the familysuper music inclined.
Also on my daddy's side,they're from LaGrange, georgia.

(05:44):
The church was actually nextdoor to my daddy's house where
he grew up.
So we go down to the LaGrange,we walk straight over to the
church next door.
So on both sides it was astrong foundation like that.
But yeah, growing up you had toparticipate in church.
It wasn't no doubt about Iain't participating in something

(06:05):
, you're gonna have to dosomething, you know.
I mean you're gonna dosomething.
So they automatically knew Iwas gonna be in the because I
think I used to sing all thetime, so my mom was not doing
being quiet.
So that was that's what Iparticipated in looking
backwards um, we're gonna move.

Speaker 1 (06:21):
looking backwards does do you find like you
singing in the church and, likeyou know, watching the people
playing the piano?
Did that come later on in youwriting songs and arranging
records?

Speaker 3 (06:34):
For sure, For sure, I still use all those tools.
I learned my harmony.
How do I arrange the songs?
How?
I program my keyboards when I'mplaying it, how I program my
drums, that feeling that youneed to make you feel something
when you sing low, when you singhigh, when you sing calm, when
you take it down all of thatcomes from church.

(06:56):
My mama make us listen to thewhiners man, all of that stuff,
like it all came back.
But you know, subconsciouslyyou do that stuff but you don't
really know, you don't.
You'd be like man, wow, and yourealize how much you use it.
But I still use all those.
I use so much of that stuffevery day, still writing songs,
still producing songs.

Speaker 1 (07:14):
Wow, wow.
So music all about feeling,yeah, no you ain gonna find no
more feeling than in church, andI think that's what's you know.
Again, before we move on, Ithink that's kind of what's
missing in a lot of singerstoday they're not coming from
the church.
Yeah, they're not they.

Speaker 3 (07:33):
I think they created like the whole point of really
doing music.
You really want to make peoplefeel something.
Yeah, you want to make peoplefeel something like because if
they ain't feeling it, howthey're gonna connect to it?
Without no feeling there's noconnection.
So I think a lot of that ismissing, you know.
I mean maybe they connect onother ways, but I know that part
is a big piece of connectionmusic music, spiritual music

(07:55):
come from the soul.

Speaker 1 (07:57):
Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely.
That's why people cry sometimes.
I don't know.
You feel it.
Yeah, you're feeling it.
So you got your startprofessionally, I guess, with
Joyce Irby.
So tell me about that.

Speaker 3 (08:13):
Well, in high school I started a group and we started
renting out this studio.
My man, leonard Watkins,started managing us.
He had a little studio in East.
Point.
And we used to rent our studiotime and what happened was she
came over one day to rent somerehearsal space for her band and
he told her well, can youlisten to my group that I work

(08:33):
with?
She listened to us and sherealized then we could write
songs.
So you know, joyce come fromsongwriting.
Like you know, her band, climax, she wrote us on and she's the
first one to sign Dallas Austin.
So she come from working aroundsongwriters and producers.
You know she came up with LABabyface, jimmy Jam and Terry
Lewis.
So she knew, and when she heardour song, she's like whoa,
these guys can write.
You know what I mean.
Like you know, we can put ittogether.

(08:54):
Right then.
And there she's like oh, I wantto work with, going to get them
a deal as well, but y'all goingto write the songs.
So that's how we met.
And then, right then, sheplugged us right in the game.
She took me to meet Dallas.
That was like man, josh, can Isign Jasper?

Speaker 1 (09:12):
yep, we working on all the groups and stuff, and it
put me right in the game sotell me about that first meeting
of the first, you know earlypart of working with Dallas oh
man, dallas man, you know, see,of the unique ones you know most
people don't know too manypeople these days that produce
and write.

Speaker 3 (09:29):
I'm like that, I'm 100%.
That's what we call 100%.
Pharrell can do it, babyfacecan do it, r Kelly can do it,
those kind of people.
You know what I mean.
But these days you look onpeople and you see so many
people on splits you you don'tknow, but Dallas was like one of
those guys.
Jermaine Dupri can do it.
You know what I mean, jermaine.
Dupri can do it too, but theywrite the song and they produce
it and do the beat.
Well, when I first met Dallasactually he was doing a session

(09:51):
with the group Lloyd had a groupcalled In Tune.
I was right, I wrote all Lloyddemos, okay, and Joyce had got
him a deal writing a song forLloyd.
He's like man, my friend bewriting all my songs, can he
come up here and help me, helpyou finish?
Lloyd was nothing but 11 or 12,but I had been working with him
since like 9 or 10.
So Dallas, yeah, in the group.
So Dallas was like, well, callyour friend, he's writing songs

(10:14):
with you.
So Lloyd called me, like, justcome in.
I'm like, come on, so I go tothe studio, started playing
songs and singing them.
He like you do that, okay, okay, I'm going to keep you here.
So after that, after he seen meplay piano, sing all the songs

(10:34):
and I could write all of them,he's like man, we're going to
stay working.
So then he signed me in.

Speaker 1 (10:40):
He just kept me up there.
Wow, now, who did you work withwhen you were working with
Dallas?

Speaker 3 (10:43):
Man, he put me right in the game with everybody, man,
because you got to think atthat time okay, we met doing
Lloyd album, but right thenJoyce also signed Sammy, so she
brought Sammy up there to get asolo deal through Dallas through
Capital Freeware, his label.
So we went top, we hit theground running Lloyd, lloyd
group.
Sammy TLC he was always, youknow, he always working on them.
Wow, and Sammy TLC, he wasalways, you know, he always
working on them and really, man,he was making so many people

(11:07):
through that man.

Speaker 1 (11:08):
Did he have Monica at this point?

Speaker 3 (11:10):
Yes, sir, monica was on her second album at this time
Wow.
Wow, yeah, mo was on her secondalbum, so anybody around
Atlanta was up there during thattime, wow.
So it was like it was rightinto the game, you know, right
into the game, and he was at hisheight right then.

Speaker 1 (11:25):
I think it was so interesting with Atlanta more
than I think, any other placethat I've ever been, how and I
saw you say this before Some ofy'all came up together and
everybody kind of knew eachother and everybody except for
the skate, and that's one thingthat was great about the ATL
movie back to that was they wereshowing how that skating rink

(11:46):
in that case was like a centerfor everybody and everybody was
in there.
Yes, and that's the truth.

Speaker 3 (11:54):
That's the truth, like in Atlanta.
You see everybody there, yousee everybody at the malls.
You see everybody.
Everybody knew everybody whoconnected some kind of way,
anybody that popped up inAtlanta some kind of way,
anybody that popped up inAtlanta some kind of way.
Everybody got a connection tohim if he was really here.

Speaker 1 (12:08):
That's amazing man.
So tell me about the.
You said Dallas had Dark bythis time at the studio.

Speaker 3 (12:15):
He had Rowdy Records, which he was signed to.
He had the record label.
He had Free World Records too,through Capital, which Sammy was
signed to at the time.
Then he had Dark Productions.
Dark was the leg that had theproducers and writers signed to
it.
So you know, tim and Bob, theproduction duo, came out of Dark
Wow, and the healers who didCupid for 112 come out of Dark
Wow.
Man, so many great producerscame out of Dark.
The mix engineer, leslieBrasway, came from out of Dark.

(12:39):
He was a producer too.
He had a lot of producerssigned up for him.
Everybody was the hub foreverything.
Oh man, come on the hub man.
People don't understand howspecial it was to be able to be
around the studio back then.
It ain't like now, whereeverybody and it wasn't an easy
way to get in and it was just somuch harder to really enter

(13:01):
into the real business.
Back then it was special.
I see everybody up there.
We see everybody up there.
You know we see everybody, fromStevie Nicks to Christina
Aguilera.
Like everybody in there, itwent from top to bottom.
Anybody like top to bottom, youmeet them any genre in there.
Because Dallas did everything.

Speaker 1 (13:19):
Yeah, he did all those genres of music too.

Speaker 3 (13:22):
Yeah, so he put me around all of that.
He put me right in there.

Speaker 1 (13:26):
Wow Go get it.
That's incredible.
So tell me about after you getstraight.
So after you were working withDallas at DARF, you went on to
Tell me about Lloyd.
Tell me more about Lloyd Young.

Speaker 3 (13:40):
Lloyd.

Speaker 1 (13:40):
Yeah, tell me about Young Lloyd, young Goldie.

Speaker 3 (13:42):
Young Goldie, my boy Young Lloyd.

Speaker 1 (13:43):
Yeah, tell me about Young Lloyd, young Goldie, young
Goldie, my boy, my littlebrother.

Speaker 3 (13:45):
Tell me about that.
Well, the thing about Lloyd waslike I said, when we met Joyce
Irby, she met us.
She knew we could write songs.
We were teenagers at the time,we was late teenagers.
She wanted to get a young groupbecause she always wanted a
group like.
So I found two guys that wentto my auntie church and then she

(14:06):
went in the phone book and wasgoing through the elementary
schools to try to find otherones.
One of the first schools shefound was a school called
Avondale.
Avondale Elementary was on theeast side of town.
She called Avondale Elementary.
The principal picked her up andtransferred her to the music
department and the music teacherat the school said I got

(14:28):
somebody.
I know exactly what kind ofstudent you're looking for.
I got somebody for you.
So she went out.
So she went out to meet.
She said I'm going to go seewho the teacher got.
And it was Lloyd.
He was a little boy like nine,and when she met him she was
like oh my God.
And she called us and said look, I think I got it.
I think I got it.
I got met a star.
We got a meeting.
We got a meeting.

(14:49):
Within the next couple of dayswe're going to meet at the Red
Lobster on Candler Road.
Y'all got to come out and meetus at the Red Lobster on Candler
Road, right by South DeKalbMall A-Town.
Y'all know what it is becausehe from that side over there.
When I meet him the first thinghe said, when he ran up on me,
you saying he run up on me inthe red lobster, he don't know

(15:09):
me, he see me.
He look at me and say, oh yeah,you saying shouting.
And he started singing.
I said, oh my God.
I said this is me.
I said what?
He wasn't shy at all, he justwent for it At all ready, like
it's like anybody with eyes andears going, oh my god.
So that's how we met.
And then at that point she'slike jasper, I'm gonna put lloyd
, you, you're gonna help himwrite all the songs, his demos,

(15:31):
or whatever.
You know, I mean to get thegroup together.
So at that point she just putus we was working every day, and
then she got it.
She got my group of deal, gothis group of deal, but we was
always connected since then sohow did you come up with the
concepts for writing his records?
Because he was young.
See, the trick with Lloyd isthis he edgy, but he was so
young, he always was edgy,that's just naturally in him.

(15:51):
So I'm like you know what Forhim, we got to write songs for
kids, but it can't be corny,because he never was that kind
of kid.
You would forget he was a kid,you know what I mean.
Like you would sit and talk tothe Lord and forget he was a kid
.
So I'm like we just gotta writesongs.
He more like write songs for me.
You know what I mean.
I just can't say certain things,but like so it was almost like

(16:13):
he was older, because he wasalways with older people,
because he always was mature inthat kind of way.
So I would write songs.
For him was like, okay, I gotto write songs a certain kind of
way for him because he a kid,but he not no kiddie kid, yeah,
yeah yeah, you know what I'msaying, so I got to make it
appealing for his age group, butI also got to make it

(16:34):
believable and he can get beyondhis age group.

Speaker 1 (16:37):
Okay, yeah, and he did yeah he did Yep, so what's
the first project you droppedwith Lloyd?
He was in a group called InTune.

Speaker 3 (16:45):
It was called Tune Time.
But before then what was socrazy?
We started working on Lloyd.
We met Sammy, was going to putSammy in the group but we
decided to give him a solo deal.
So actually Sammy's albumdropped first, even though I met
Lloyd first.
Sammy's album dropped fasterbecause Sammy got signed to
Dallas and Dallas was movingfaster and Dallas did I Like it

(17:06):
so fast for Sammy that reallythe first project that came out
that I worked on was Sammy'salbum.

Speaker 1 (17:10):
Okay, that's incredible.

Speaker 3 (17:13):
So Sammy kind of skipped the line a bit, yeah
because he was an incredible kidand the tricky part about
writing for Sammy was he sanglike a grown man.
So you couldn't write superkitty kitty songs for him either
.

Speaker 1 (17:25):
Yeah, it's like Johnny Gill, that's why Dallas,
did I Like it?

Speaker 3 (17:27):
He's like I gotta make a kid but I gotta put some
thump in it.
I gotta make you know what Imean.
So Dallas met Sammy and did ILike it?
So quick and the song took offso fast we had to rush and do
his album.

Speaker 1 (17:38):
Oh, so you were chasing a single.

Speaker 3 (17:40):
basically the first song he ever recorded, signed to
Dallas, was I Like it.
We was in Nashville on a ridetrip.
He flew in me one day and wroteI Like it, played it for
Capitol Records.
They went crazy, put it outit's gone.
We got to finish the record.

Speaker 1 (17:55):
That's a trip.
Yeah, sammy dope, sammy dope,sammy dope.
So now I'm going to swing backaround to something else.
When did you meet Noonie?

Speaker 3 (18:06):
Noonie Lee man, you know.
So I'm a city.
So they started renting a roomand Jazzy started being up there
every day working.
So me and Jazzy got tied likethat because I had another room
and Noonie was his manager, soNoonie used to be up there every
day.
So I was with them every day,all day, and they was more like
Dallas was so advanced in thebusiness you know Dallas had
been but Noonie and them I endedup hanging with them a whole

(18:29):
whole lot.
So I just got tight with themand I would end up being with
them every day because we weresharing.
When they moved into the darkstudio and got a studio room, we
were there with each otherevery day, all day.
Wow.
And then he realized I was acertain kind of guy.
So he's like oh, he like youknow what I mean, so you know.
Okay, just like this.
So he started having me withhim all the time.

Speaker 1 (18:47):
Yeah, noonie, noonie's somebody I want to get
on this podcast because you knowNoonie doesn't talk a lot
People don't really understandwhat he had going on and how he
attacked the publishing side.

Speaker 3 (19:04):
Oh yeahris hicks chris hicks.

Speaker 1 (19:07):
Yeah, that's the chris.
Chris ryan newton tr.

Speaker 3 (19:10):
They had a real rack.
They, them boys, put that workin.
They put food team.

Speaker 1 (19:14):
Absolutely I'm gonna tell you, uh, how we got we.
I think I don't even know wewas connected like this.
When we connected, so realquick story.
So I was at jive and this dudekept calling me.
He called me like once or twicea week.
He kept calling me.
I was like I didn't know he was.
I was like, oh man.
So one day I just picked upwhat's up man, like who are you?
Because I didn't.

(19:35):
I don't think I had anassistant at the time.
It was coming right tomorrow.
So he was like man, my name isciel and I got this girl.
Man, I'm in atlanta.
I think you white, I knew youknow where I'm going, right.
I'm like, oh man, sorry, man,send me your songs.
Man, send me your songs.
Yeah, send me some songs.
And I'm like, wait a minute,what's going on here?
These records are great.

(19:56):
I was like there's somethingthat ought to be funny here.
This can't be real.
So I flew down to Atlanta.
Pcl picked me up in his raggedycar at the airport and we sat
down to talk.
He said a girl named Nivea yeah, nivea was about 14, 15 at the
time and the demos was allnoontime producers.

(20:17):
It was Brian Cox, it wasyourself, it was Teddy Bishop.
All these people was on thereLike don Bishop, all these
people was on there.
Don't mess with my man.
That was the demo.
He just put out the demo Jaggedand it was already on and
everything.
It was like, wow, that's what Isaw.
Really, what was happening inAtlanta, all this stuff,
especially with Noonie.

Speaker 3 (20:36):
Yep, that CL was hustling that CL.
I remember when I first met youbecause you signed Nivea CL
came and he was putting togethersongs from everybody.
He wouldn't have got that.

Speaker 1 (20:47):
He wouldn't have got that deal boy, he wouldn't have
got that deal.
He made it happen.
God bless him.
I got to reach out to him.
I ain't talked to him in a longtime.

Speaker 3 (20:55):
You know what's so crazy.
That was one of my first timesever going to New York was with
Nivea up and working batterystudios up there with y'all.
Yeah, yeah, yeah man, I wasstill on the minute phone but I
was so broke I got to shout outCL man, for real.
CL was like you want to come uphere with us and cut these
vocals.
I said, man, come up here withme.
I said, man for sure, I'm like,man, I'm going.

(21:17):
It's early in the game, man, itwas so cold up there man, I
ain't even gonna have no money.
Man CL went and bought me aSherilyn dog.
This, show you how to grind,son.
I was like, come on, they'regonna still get you a coat.
And I was still on the minutephone.
He was like come on, we gonnagrind it up.
Man, I'm telling you it's gonnamake sense.
And look where it went Up inBattery Studios dog.

Speaker 1 (21:39):
Yeah, man.
We go back, man, we go back,that's when.

Speaker 3 (21:43):
I first met Jeff.
That's crazy.
He showed that that was socrazy.

Speaker 1 (21:49):
He made it.
He kept calling me.
He kept calling me.
I picked up that phone.
That's how he got.
That's really why he got hersign.
He was cold calling me.
I didn't know CL.
I never heard of him.
I kept this 404 number.
He just kept calling my phone.

Speaker 3 (22:04):
And one day I had to start to pick up almost like
what do you want?

Speaker 1 (22:07):
man Like what's up?
He did his hustle thing.
You know, hey, man, I'm goingto sing some music and when he
sent me the records I was justblown away because I was like
whoa, we were like radio ready,Like what's going on?
How do you get the records withJagged Edge?
And how you got Brian MichaelCox.
What is this?

Speaker 3 (22:26):
She was super young and I liked her To this day this
is one of my most popular songsI ever was involved with at 25
Reasons.

Speaker 1 (22:37):
25 Reasons.

Speaker 3 (22:38):
That's one of them songs in my catalog people still
love to this day.
Shout out to Nivea man, thankyou for signing the dog.
Thank day, yeah, man.
Shout out to you man, thank youfor signing the dog.

Speaker 1 (22:45):
Thank you, yeah, yeah , yeah, I met you and Toy Yep
Yep Me and Toy Yep Exactly ToyGreen Yep, yep, yep.
Those are the days, man.

Speaker 4 (22:54):
And we'll be right back Ready to launch your
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Speaker 2 (23:09):
Visit meritcreativecom slash studios
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journey today.
And now back to our show.

Speaker 1 (23:30):
I got so much to talk about with you.
Man, tell me about that firstLloyd album.
Was you on the first no?

Speaker 2 (23:38):
you wasn't on the first album you was on the
second, one, second album.

Speaker 1 (23:41):
Yeah, so the first album was what?

Speaker 3 (23:44):
Southside and hey Young Girl.

Speaker 1 (23:46):
Okay, okay, yeah, okay, you wrote most of that.

Speaker 3 (23:50):
Well, I wrote like two or three songs on that album
.

Speaker 1 (23:52):
Okay, and I was so crazy.

Speaker 3 (23:54):
Those songs actually Lloyd did when he was like 15 or
16.
They were older by the time Irvgot them.
Wow Like what happened wasLloyd had got a solo deal with
Magic Johnson we was cuttingdemos and he had got a record
deal with George was still hismanager, I remember Magic had
that deal.

Speaker 1 (24:09):
He had a box on his label.

Speaker 3 (24:11):
And the way he even got signed to the label was Dave
Gates that used to run Dallasproduction side was running
Magic Johnson label side and Ihad sent the demos to Dave.
I'm like Dave, you heard thenew stuff Young Lloyd been doing
.
I sent it to Dave.
Dave, I'm going to sign themover here.
So he did a deal with MagicJohnson, right, but the project
never came out.
So what happened was he keptall those songs.

(24:33):
So now we're like, okay, thealbum ain't coming out.
So the next thing we know LAReid Mark Pitts heard Lloyd
demos one day in dark His lawyer, ron Sweeney, intercepted the
meeting and called Irv.
Irv met him before he went overto holler at LA again and Irv

(24:57):
was like I ain't letting them go, man, I got to sign this boy
and Irv took him to the ShunterPlatinum Party that night and
man, ever since then Lord waslike man, I think I'm going to
sign with Irv.
And so it went fast.
You know what I mean.
So so that's why he had most ofthose songs Like Southside of
hey Young Girl was actually likea year too old before they even
happened, maybe even more thanthat, because he did those songs

(25:18):
around 15 or 16.
And they came out.
He was like 18.

Speaker 1 (25:22):
Wow, wow, and then so you had success.
Yep, then it was a hit cup withyou, correct, yeah?

Speaker 3 (25:29):
Well, what happened was?
You know, at that time, rightafter that, irvingham went on
the trial.
So you know, that's whenIrvingham was going through that
trial.
But at the same time Irvinghamwas going through that trial,
hurricane Katrina hit Lloyd,whole family from New Orleans,
yes.
So all of them had to move toAtlanta.
So his whole family moved toAtlanta.
So at that time, irvingv, wewas in limbo because we didn't

(25:52):
really know what was going to goon, so because Irv couldn't do
nothing.
So we were like, man, we betterdo something.
So we did the U song me, bigReese and Lloyd.

Speaker 1 (26:03):
We did the U song and we hit the streets with it.
Did you think it was a hit?

Speaker 3 (26:06):
Man, I knew it felt special.
You don't know if a song isgoing to hit the world, but I
knew it felt special.

Speaker 1 (26:11):
You don't know if a song is going to hit the world,
but I knew it felt special, Iknew I liked it, you know what I
mean.

Speaker 3 (26:14):
I like man, this thing rocking the beat, rocking
the melody's hard, I'm like.
I like it, man, I really loveit.
And I'm like man, I think itcould be special.
You know what I mean.
But there's so many factors ina song being a hit so you really
can't never say I know it feltspecial.

(26:35):
Okay, I knew it felt special.
So what happened was, at thesame time we was writing a
producer for a lot of people.
So it was this artist inatlanta named tango red that was
managed by a guy named jerryclark.
Jerry clark at the time hadtango red to deal with warner
brothers and we had just did hissingle that featured lloyd.
But jerry clark predicatepedigree was radio.
So we told jerry clark, man, wethink this could be.
We started leaking the song toall the DJs.

(26:56):
We started leaking it to all theDJs.
Dj, now you know what I'msaying.
Drama, all of them.
Everybody know each other.
So we started leaking the songand we got with Jerry Clark.
We're like hey, jerry, we thinkwe got something.
Man, we know, tango just hadLloyd featured on his song.
Come Help Us Work Radio andwe'll put Tango on Lloyd's song.
And what happened was we didthat, but we, at the same time,

(27:17):
lloyd, been friends with LilWayne.
We always had the Lil Wayneverse.
We just held it.

Speaker 1 (27:21):
We held the Lil Wayne verse To the original.
You had Tango on it, I had.

Speaker 3 (27:25):
Tango on it.
Wow, you know what I'm saying Ididn't know that.
So it started hearing AtlantaRadio and they started taking
off like wildfire.
Like wildfire, boom, boom.
But at this point in time westill didn't know what label we
were going to.
We just knew we had to dosomething.
We just had to do something tokeep them going.
You know what I mean Becauseyou know we're all family, so
it's like man, that's my littlebrother.

(27:46):
We got to do something to keepit going.
You know, what I mean.
We put the song out and startedcatching and what happened was
it was elapsing his deal withMurder Inc at the time.
It was elapsing his deal, so itwas an out.
At the same time, the recordgoing.
It was an out for him to getout, but some paperwork stuff
happened that he ended up stillhaving to stay with Irv.
And that's how Irv got the newsituation with Universal.

(28:09):
Because the song was so hotthat Universal gave Irv a new
deal.
But it was because of the USyes for sure, because the song
went crazy.
It was going so crazy Because,really, to be honest with you,
we thought we had a deal.
We were going to go to AtlanticRecords at the time.

Speaker 1 (28:24):
Yeah, because I think I remember you always.
I had to look it up because Ithought Sylvia Roan did that
record.

Speaker 3 (28:34):
Now Sylvia actually came back.
See, because Sylvia was head ofUniversal when we had to go
over there.
But see, what happened was wewas going to do a deal with
Atlantic because we thought wewas out of the Irv situation,
but through paperwork orwhatever you know politics and
all that, he had to stay withIrv and Sylvia was like man.
Because Sylvia was like man,because Sylvia was over on

(28:55):
Universal Motown at that time.
So with Irv, when he got a newdeal, that's when Sylvia was the
head, that's the connectionwith Sylvia.

Speaker 1 (29:04):
I got you, I got you we always had a good
relationship with Sylvia.

Speaker 3 (29:08):
You know from her lecture days.
You know what I mean.
I met her through Dallas.
You know her and Dallas alwaysbeen tight.
When she got a chance to dothat, you know we was like okay,
good, we don't want people tosee us, we're still going to be
straight.

Speaker 1 (29:20):
That record man.

Speaker 3 (29:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (29:22):
Today's.
It's still playing.

Speaker 3 (29:23):
It's gone man, it's still one will go viral.
Man, people remake it.
You can't buy that.
You know what I mean.
You can't buy no music or nosong touching people like that.
As much as people say theymight know, all the time, you
don't really know.
You never know.
You don't know.

Speaker 1 (29:41):
I got so many stories of artists.
Man, get a quick one Mysticalhated, shake your Ass.

Speaker 3 (29:48):
I can believe it.

Speaker 1 (29:50):
He was so mad that he thought we ruined his career.
I bet you did.
He's like yo, you're ruining mycareer with this nigga.
I hate this song.
We know what happened.

Speaker 3 (30:03):
You know what happened?
Changed his whole life, changedPharrell's life, changed a
bunch because it was justspecial.
But I realize a lot of timesartists, they don't connect to
their best, they don't connectto those biggest records like
that, because sometimes theydon't see, they just don't
connect to it because they don't.

(30:23):
Sometimes you can see a personbetter from the outside than
them looking.
You know what I mean.
It's like when you look in themirror sometimes you may think
you look weird.
But other people, man, you knowI mean, but you're like what?
But you know, through your ownlens it'd be kind of weird
sometimes yeah, I saw.

Speaker 1 (30:38):
I saw something on instagram, uh, about two weeks
ago, what I recently keisha colesaid she hated love I can
believe it hated it.

Speaker 3 (30:46):
She's a hate this song the more I realized that
most artists best and best,biggest and records, even if
they don't hate it.
They just didn't feel like itwas that special.
They might be like I know it'scool, you know what I mean.
I did that in 10 minutes, Ijust did that you know.

Speaker 1 (31:01):
Yeah, so real quickly you'll understand because you
know the history.
So when Did I Love Go by theSupremes, dinah Ross, yep.
So the story is the reasonshe's singing like man, man, man
.

Speaker 3 (31:14):
You want to sing?

Speaker 1 (31:15):
She hated it.
She said I'm going to sing thissong bad.
I'm going to sing this song bad, so I don't have to sing it.
And we know what happened.

Speaker 3 (31:23):
Hey man, that's so crazy man.

Speaker 1 (31:26):
Yeah, it's crazy man.

Speaker 3 (31:28):
Really she put the perfect vibe on the song Because
she sounds she put the perfectvibe on the song she sounds so
sad it made the song go.

Speaker 1 (31:33):
It didn't even realize it.
She thought she was sabotagingthe record.
They ain't going to use thisshit.
I'm a barely singer.
I'm a thing talking.
You can't stop the magic.
Can't stop the magic and youcan't out, thank God.
Can't stop the magic.
Yeah, now you definitely can'tout.
Thank God, you can't out.
Thank God, god man.
So wait.
So I'm going to finish up alawyer.
Then we're going to jump arounda bit.
So let's go to Girls of theWorld Girls- of the World which

(31:58):
actually is better than you.
I can see that.

Speaker 3 (32:01):
It got that knock on it.

Speaker 1 (32:02):
Yeah, it got that.
Knock on it.
Man, you were reached.
Man, you were reached.
Yeah, tell Reese.
I said what's up by the way.
I always yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (32:09):
So tell me about that .
Well, see, what happened withGirls Around the World Okay,
coming around.
Okay, so Street Love album comeout Coming around on Lessons in
Love album.
We was like, okay, we're goingto try to keep the magic going.
And Lloyd was walking around.
He kept singing his bass line.
He said, man, we got to do asong with his bass line.
He kept singing it for about aweek.
I said okay.

(32:31):
So one day we was in the studio.
I'm like man, let's work on theidea.
You got Lloyd.
So we called in the bass player.
He was like man, you got a bassline.
So Lloyd kept singing that bassline.
So he loaded up the Ashley'sclip on the MP and he was like
man, we're going to make it.
Okay, I see how we're going todo it.
So the big dude playing thebass over the drop.

(32:52):
We added the strings and thekeys and me and Lloyd started
vibing out to the verses andLloyd and Reese went in the
studio and Reese just keptacting like a DJ.
He kept saying girl all aroundthe world, girls all around the
world.
So he kept playing.
You know, slick Rick, you knowwhat I mean.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So we're like, okay, yeah,we're going to keep that out
through the whole song.
He's like we're going to keepthat.
I'm like, yeah, we're going tokeep it, we're going to let that

(33:12):
go down the whole song.
We're going to have the hook.
We're going to fly it throughthe whole song like a DJ.
So we came with the verses and Iwas like man, I got to make
sure this hook right.
So I was like I got it.

(33:33):
So I ran to the studio.
I'm like Lord, come say that Igot the hook.
So Lord, come to the studio.
He's saying the hook.
We was like, oh Right.
Then, right out there, we waslike who we going to put on it?
We was like we can all.
Wayne, still the hottest.
Really, he's never been at thispoint.

Speaker 1 (33:54):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (33:55):
Wayne jump on it.
We were like, oh my God, youcould tell he wanted to do it.
But what ended up making thatproject a little weird was Lord
had did this song.
That was kind of pop call inthe A.
I didn't feel like it.
Supposed they spent a lot ofmoney on this song and it had a
Luda feature and they wanted toput it out.
And I'm like y'all shouldn'tput that out right now.

(34:15):
We're going to spend too muchmoney.
So they put the song out andthey spent a lot of money.
It didn't go nowhere, so we hadto leak all around the world
right after that.

Speaker 1 (34:23):
You leaked that.

Speaker 3 (34:30):
We had to leak it because the other song they Sia
was like okay, we got to shootthis video, Cancel that.
So they spent a whole lot ofmoney on a single with Luda and
all of that.
The song didn't do nothing.
So they had to put the GirlsAround the World out and they
came and it took over.
So they gave them a hit forthat album.
You know what I mean.
We had to leak that again.
We had to do the work.

Speaker 1 (34:49):
Wow, wow, wow, real quick, fine two, five, two.
Which is it man, which?
Is it Whatever they?
Needed to be Nah nah nah, we'renot going with that answer.
If you're five two, it's fivetwo.
If you're fine, you're fine.
Tell us what it is, because thepeople need to know.

Speaker 3 (35:06):
They'll never know, they'll never know.

Speaker 1 (35:12):
I let you cook it, don't be real.

Speaker 3 (35:14):
That's club talk man.
We talking to a girl.
We telling the girl you fineman, yeah, she fine too, but I
want to.
You know what I mean.
You smoking yeah, that's playertalk man.
You know that's game man.
You know what I'm choosing you,yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So tell me about Ciara CeCi.
What up?
Ceci?
Still poppin' man, stillpoppin' man.

(35:39):
Special from the first time Iever met him.
Man, special from the jump,like for real, to be honest with
you.
Special from the jump.

Speaker 1 (35:45):
From the gate.

Speaker 3 (35:46):
From the jump special , and I'm just talking about
personality.
Yeah, star power, I'm talkingabout you know, because most
people think it's just, it ain'ttalent alone.
You know how many people weknow can sing but they can't.
You know the other stuff.
You know it take more than that.

Speaker 1 (36:07):
Or the other way.
Sometimes your voice, stuff isokay, but you got so much star
power.
You got so much star power, itworks.

Speaker 3 (36:14):
And people are like they can't really sing.
But I like them.
You know, I'm going to tell yousomething, man, that girl, cece
, sounded so good on the micfrom her very first time Like
her very first time recording.
She was in a girl group, Ididn't really know at this
particular time.
My guy TA, what up, ta, AnthonyTate, he put together a little
girl group.
It was in high school.
He was like man, I got thisgirl group See if I can do a
song, you know, do a demo.
Well, CeCe had just gotten inthe group.

(36:34):
We didn't know the groupdynamics.
It was another girl that wasreally supposed to be the lead
singer, but when they come inthe studio, cece got on the mic
and just sounded.
She just sounded like it.
You know you can't buy that man.
And no, this wasn't even noauto-tune or none of that.
Back then she got on the micand was like man, this little
girl is going to have to leadthe whole song.

(36:56):
So we kept CCing her most ofthe time.
We didn't know that was causingproblems in the group, because
we don't know that she justjoined the group last week or
two days ago.
We don't know that she.
Just, you know what I mean.
We don't know that.
All we know is she the onesounding like the star, she the
one look like?
She felt like the star.
So we found out later on howthe girls felt the way.

(37:17):
But, man, what we going to do?
You know what I mean.
I'm going to tell you what's socrazy.
The song we did was a songcalled A Girl Can Mack.
What ended up happening was thegroup broke up.
We ended up setting the song to3LW.
3lw took the name of the songand made it their second album.
Title A Girl Can Make it.
Wow, they didn't even ever useit, they just took the title.
But that was the song we cut onCC and that was CC's first time

(37:40):
in the studio.
Wow.
So from the jump, man, she justsounded like it.
You know it's some people thatcan sing, but you put them in
the studio.
They really don't know how todeliver in the studio.
That's a different skill set.

Speaker 1 (37:53):
Totally different.

Speaker 3 (37:54):
I promise to God man, the first time she got to start
singing me and my man, RicoLumpkins, we was like she's
going to have to sing.
This girl sounds like money onthe mic, sounds good on the mic.
She just sounds good throughyour speakers.
She sounds good on radio.
She just got the tone to justsound good.
She always had that and shealways had the personality and

(38:14):
she always had the work.
She was always ready for it.
Let's work, let's go, let's getit.

Speaker 1 (38:22):
So how did she end up with getting signed to Jazzy?

Speaker 3 (38:25):
So what happened was that girl group broke up so TA
was still managing.
So TA was like man, I think I'mgoing to still work with Lil
Cece.
He called me one day saying LilCece, man, I'm going to keep
Sierra and try to get a solodeal because you cut some demos
on her.
So he was going around cuttingdemos, so we cut some demos on
her solo and at this time Jazzyon fire.

(38:46):
So, like I'm saying, all of usin the same studio, you know
what I mean at this time.
So Shaq was like man, I'm goingto take, I'm going to take the
jazz, see if Jazzy want to do adeal with us or something.
So he introduced her to Jazzy.
Jazzy was like man, she dope, Ithink we could do something.
So Jazzy signed up.
He wanted to work with us on.
We started putting recordstogether and that's the day we

(39:08):
know Jazzy got a meet withShakira, la and they like they
ready to sign.

Speaker 1 (39:12):
They going Noonie again yeah.

Speaker 3 (39:15):
Jazz and Noonie got to meet with Shakira, LA and LA
like I want to sign, Wow.
But we haven't cut demos onthem.
You know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (39:22):
Did they keep any of the demos that you'll cut for
that first record?
Oh for sure.

Speaker 3 (39:25):
The title On my first album, a song called the Title,
where I sent for that.
I did that demo as a matter offact, and Adonis, that was a
demo on that demo too, adonis,that, and I record the slow song
that every girl love to singand I.
That was on her demo.
That was on her demo package.
The Jazzy Face songs are allthe songs he had already cut,

(39:48):
like a bunch of songs he hadalready did.
It was on the.
You know what I'm saying.
It was already.
It was already up in the newsand all that.
Well, goodies with Lil Jon.
They recorded.
They did that after she hadsigned the deal.

Speaker 1 (39:59):
Oh, they did that after.

Speaker 3 (40:00):
Yeah, they did that.
After she did the deal, she hadwent down to Miami and worked
with Sean Garrett and Lil at thesame time.
You know what I mean All of usaround each other.
Matter of fact, Sean, all of uswas around each other at the
same time.

Speaker 1 (40:14):
Wow, yeah, I remember that because that's when LA
left Arista Yep and they merged.

Speaker 3 (40:20):
Yep, and they didn't really know how they was.
Yep.

Speaker 1 (40:22):
They didn't know what to do, so they did.
I remember Barry Weiss gave allthe A&R people like people.
He listen to these people, youlisten to these people, let me
know which ones you like.
Yeah, he said let me know whichones you like and I tell you
the one I like.
That he passed on.
He's like I don't know, LupeFiasco.
Wow, for real, Lupe was signedto LA he sure was he sure was I

(40:46):
was like there's something aboutthis kid, I don't know, but I
kind of like him.
He was like yeah, yeah, and hestill dropped him.
He dropped him, he couldn'tkeep everybody.

Speaker 3 (40:56):
So who else dropped him around that time?
Because I know one, j Quan, wassuper hot with that tipsy at
that time.

Speaker 1 (41:00):
J Quan was on fire.
We kept J Quan.
We kept the Youngbloods, thatwas all through.
Jermaine we kept, obviously.
We kept Ciara.
Of course we kept Usher I'mblanking, I don't know who else
we kept and who we dropped, butit was a bunch of.
It was a bunch of artists thatArista had and y'all had to go
through all of that to figureout who y'all were.
We had to make sure we wasn'tmissing anyone.

(41:21):
Yeah, we kept Sierra.
I think Felana.
She was manager of Sierra sheworked in marketing.
So when they merged, some of thestaff also came over.
Alana came over, petros cameover, and so Philana was working
marketing, but she was alsomanaging Sierra, so she was

(41:42):
working it.
And that's when they had thatlittle mix up with Petey Pablo.
All that because they wanted toshout out and Goody's at the
same track.
Yeah, all that it all worked outthough Both records blew up,
and Goody's at the same track.
Yeah, all that, it all workedout, though.
It all worked out.
It all worked out.
Both records blew up.
Hey, that was a special time,wasn't it?
It was an amazing time, bro.
That was an amazing time man.
Yeah, sierra, she'd comethrough all for some time.

(42:03):
Yep, I mean, she's a star andall that stuff to say she would
do what you told her you thinkshe should do, but she would
really listen, she'd alwayslisten.

Speaker 3 (42:18):
She'd be like hmm, she wouldn't just blow you off
like that.
She'd pay attention toeverything.
She'd always listen, she'dalways take it all in, even if
you think she ain't man, shealways plugged in.

Speaker 1 (42:33):
Always plugged in man .
Always plugged in yeah, so thatwas an amazing time.
She had Dad and she had one.
Two steps with Missy yeah, itwent crazy.
You with Luda yeah, dancing inthe car.

Speaker 3 (42:47):
We shot that on Peter Street you know who that was
Matter of fact.
If you look at that video, yousee Gucci man in the video just
before he popped off.
Wow, we had the whole hood outthere with us.
It was crazy.
So tell me about Promise.
Oh man, promise, that was oneof them records man for real.
To be honest with you, she'ssuper hot at this time.

(43:07):
We're going to the second andwe're going to the second
project.
We're going to the secondproject and we ain't know what.
You know, we kind of justtrying to figure out what we can
do to stay special.
So, one day Ethiopia hit me,ethiopia.
She was like, hey, polo, go tothe studio.
Polo, I think Polo and Elvismight got something.
So I go to the studio, so Poloand Elvis, they're like man, we

(43:31):
made this last night in LA.
You know what I mean, let's seewhat we can do.
So they played the track andI'm like, oh, this is smash.
I'm like our job is not to messthis beat up.
I said man I had to fly to town.
I said I got to fly Today.
I got to fly to town to finishthis Lorde song in LA, but I'm
going to be back in two days.
We're going to get on it.

(43:51):
I said, hold the track for methe next two days.
They held the track.
So CeCe hit me.
She's like we're going to meetthe studio today.
Let's finish the track.
The truth of the matter, thesong is what she was going
through.
She had just got through abreakup, but she's very, very
pro-love.
So, CeCe, don't get that.
Cece, her like everything isall about optimism with her.

(44:12):
She always like that.
She's like it don't matter, I'mgonna always believe in love and
if I find somebody else to makeme feel special, I'm still
gonna.
I'm gonna do all this is whatI'm gonna do.
I'm gonna always believe inlove.
She's saying all this.
We was starting like man, Idon't know.

(44:33):
We got to do something to makeit feel a little bit more
special.
I said something more special.
So, me and CeCe, we said okay.
Then we started coming up withthem vibes, you know, in that
higher range that she do up offset.
We were like, ooh, that's it,so, oh.
So we started putting all themwords together that she was
talking about.
We know, we arranged all thewords and we put all the words
together.
We came up with them melodies,me and Hunter Studio and we

(44:55):
started putting all themharmonies on there and we would
start.
We put it together.
We like this, feel likesomething.
You know what I mean.
This feel soft, we feel this,but it come from a real place.
Our life was going on.
They came back in and heardthat they was like oh my God.
Because that rain shit, becausewe always keep it, we try to
keep it, we keep it, vibe, youknow what I mean Track moving a

(45:18):
certain way we're going to keepit moving because she dance.
So we don't yeah, so we kept iton that man.
It ended up right man.
It just ended up being what itwas and when people heard it, it
cut through the radio.
It didn't feel like nothing.
Cut it, cut through it, itkilled them.

(45:39):
So when it came out, man, if wewas getting them calls, we were
like, oh, killed them again.
We were like, oh, but what'scrazy?
I don't think the label likedit.

Speaker 1 (45:47):
Yeah, we weren't sure honestly, because, if I
remember correctly and it's beena minute so I could be fuzzy I
feel like the label wantedsomething a little more tempo.

Speaker 3 (45:58):
And I can see that.
But see the reason why we knewit was going to work, because
she already just had the tempoto get up from the mood
soundtrack, so she already hadthat momentum going.
And what I realized wassometimes, really more than
tempo, you really want impact.
So sometimes it's hard to hitimpact with a record.
You feel slow.
But see, like the way we wroteit, we didn't write it like a
slow record.

(46:18):
Like I said, we kept the tempo.

Speaker 1 (46:21):
It's bouncy, it's a lot of movement.

Speaker 3 (46:23):
You know she's going to deliver the dance, so it's
going to feel like that.
So that's why we was like oh, Ican see why you would be like,
should we put this out?
But we just knew we kind offelt like people were going to
like it.
So that's when we gave it toGrand Street.
Grand Street got it.

Speaker 1 (46:39):
It was over.

Speaker 3 (46:40):
It was over with Boom .

Speaker 1 (46:42):
Yeah, man, another one, another one.
I remember it's been a minute.
I think I liked the record.
Yeah.
But when I saw the video I waslike holy.
I'm going to tell you, man,when I seen that video.

Speaker 3 (46:57):
I'll never forget.
We was in the studio, I think,me and Polo.
We was in the studio.
Cece hit me like I got to comeshow y'all the video.
We ain't really knowing what toexpect from the video.
You know, we just think.
You know, we know she's goingto deliver, but we don't really
know what it's going to be.
Man, we've seen that video.
When we saw the video we said,oh, this is really out of here.
We're like oh, this is reallyout of here.

Speaker 1 (47:18):
That video, man, that video.

Speaker 3 (47:22):
Yeah, when we seen that video it was like, see, and
that's what you do specialsongs with special artists who
are going to deliver it thewhole way, because at the end of
the day, you could have aspecial song, but if it's not
delivered all the way through,you get what I'm saying Artists-
need to have a good thing towork in.
You know a lot of people.
They just think it's all about.
No, it ain't all about.
The songs Like to reach itsbest level, you need all the

(47:43):
proponents working the right way.
You know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (47:46):
And when we see that, If I remember correctly and I
could be wrong and somebody youknow, correct me if I'm wrong I
feel like CeCe was the first oneon a video to rock like the
baggy sweats.
Well, she brought it back.

Speaker 3 (47:57):
Well, you guys, you got to think it was kind of like
she kind of brought it backwith the boots.
You know the jolts, yeah, withthe boots.

Speaker 1 (48:04):
Yeah, the jolts in the hoodie.

Speaker 3 (48:05):
It kind of had been years Aaliyah and all and TSC
and all of them, but it kind ofgot glitzy.
It kind of got the girls in theheels and all of that, it kind
of got that way, which is cool,but she brought it back.
She's like no, I'm going to putthis baseball cap on on this
slow song.
I'm going to put them baggysweats on, I'm going to get on

(48:25):
this wall and rock.
I'm going to have these Jodecikcomeback boots on, I'm going to
have these girls with me andwe're going to rock.
We're going to be sexy in baggysweatsuits.
Exactly, she just brought itback around.

Speaker 1 (48:35):
You know what I mean?
She just brought it back around, yeah, man.
So tell me about ChristinaAguilera.

Speaker 3 (48:40):
Christina man man.
That was one of the bestexperiences ever.
She came to work with Dallas onher album Okay.
Because, you know, on her secondalbum she wanted to get away
from the lollipop thing becauseshe really wasn't.
She wanted to get dirty.
She wasn't over there, shewanted to get dirty.
You know, she said that she'slike I'm getting away from this
lollipop, I want it to be edgier.

(49:01):
You know what I'm saying.
So she said that.
So she came and in the studioand she really was hanging out a
whole lot and what happened wasshe just kept you know, we just
kept a friendship going and herex-husband, Jordy, was my
partner.
He used to be Dallas' assistant.

Speaker 1 (49:17):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (49:17):
And so one day Jordy hit me like hey, christina wants
you to come out here to LA.
She, she, she.
She got the track.
She knew she knew the rockwilder trap was going to be a
single.
She knew she wanted a hip-hop.
She knew what she needed.
You know what I mean.
So she knew she wanted thatkind of feel.
So she's like, she got the rockwilder trap.
Man, this is going to be asingle.
We just got to figure out howto put it on.
So I flew to LA Most of thetime in the studio.

(49:40):
Man, she's one of the mostincredible vocalists ever.

Speaker 1 (49:43):
I can't.

Speaker 3 (49:45):
And I went out there and that's when I met Belaywa.
If anybody know Belaywa fromthe Clutch, you know well
Belaywa.
He got a punch hit right there.
That's why I met him because hewas already the record with
Christina at that time.
They had his track up and we putthe finishing touches on Dirty
and man, she hit one of the mostincredible runs I ever heard in
one take.
That run in Dirty that she didOne take incredible in the booth

(50:06):
, for real, vocally.
Oh my God, I couldn't believeit.
She hit that run.
I looked at my label like whoo.
She knew she won it, whether itwas going to be the biggest hit
ever or not.
She knew for real.
I had to get myself out of thepocket lane.
I got to make them know I'mgrown for real, for real.

(50:27):
She knew she won it.
It worked for her Like itwasn't the biggest hit in the
world, but it worked for her toget what she needed to get,
because that's what she had.

Speaker 1 (50:35):
That's what she had to go.

Speaker 3 (50:36):
She had a beautiful song on that album.
That album still stripped.
That stripped album went crazybut she knew she needed to.
A lot of times, man, they kindof they could feel like I gotta
kind of, I gotta kind of showthem who I really am.
If I'm a last cause you knowwhat I mean.
If I'm a last, I gotta showthem who I really am.

Speaker 1 (50:57):
I'm really dirty, I'm dirty you know what I mean
writing.
That did that open up a lot of.
You could start getting a lotof my pop calls after that uh
well, yeah, but you know whatI'm saying?

Speaker 3 (51:09):
Like yeah, but man, I was so in it, then you know so
around.
I was just rolling, but itwasn't really like a whole lot a
lot of pop calls, just becausethat wasn't a super pop song.
So it was kind of like you know, people were still calling,
though they were still callingand do some things.

(51:30):
but it was kind of like, youknow, people were still calling,
though they were still callingand do certain things, but it
was kind of like it wasn't awhole, whole, whole lot of pop,
pop, super pop calls.
But you know what's so crazy, Iwas around all that pop stuff
anyway because I was signed toDallas.
You know, I hadn't been aroundDallas so I was seeing all of
that anyway.
So you know, I was in a blessedsituation to be able to get my
shot really at all that if I hadsomething.

(51:50):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (51:52):
Yeah because it was right there all the time anyway.
Yeah, did you write correct me.
Did you write Bossy?

Speaker 3 (51:59):
Yep, co-wrote it.
Yep Me, sean Garrett, and NarvaYep with a T.

Speaker 1 (52:03):
I did not know that that's a crazy story too.
Yeah, I swear to God.
Yeah, there it is.
I was like doing my research.
I was like wait a minute, what?

Speaker 3 (52:14):
Me, now, me, me, sean .
Sean had worked with her in NewYork, but that's so crazy how
that song happened.
I was sitting in the studio andone day at least that's what
her knowledge was living inAtlanta and um was married.
She came by the studio.
She said, just by God's idea,on this CD, I think you could
finish it off for me, I think itcould be special.
She gave me the CD and I wasjust sitting there.

(52:34):
Then my partner come in ournovel and I was like, hey, novel
, load this up, see what thissound like in the studio.
So, novel loaded up, he like,oh, this is kind of good, jasper
, we can freak this out.
Okay, so Screw stuff, we chopit up.
They had the hook idea already,but I didn't know who came.
I didn't know none of this.
I just know Khalees came andsaid finish it.
And so we finished it orwhatever.

(52:56):
We chopped up the track and thearrangement and everything.
I also didn't know that Shundraand my other friend produced
the beat.
You got to think, all of us.
All of us We've been around eachother forever.
So I just really wanted tofinish the idea, because she
asked me to you know, whensomebody personally say you know
, it's a different thing.
It's different than a labelcalling you she ain't really the

(53:19):
type of person to do that witheverybody.
You know she want them real.
Fly girls.
She for real with it.

Speaker 1 (53:26):
We're in the same area in New York.

Speaker 3 (53:29):
I know how she get down.
If I can, I want to give hersome.
She put it right in my lap.
So when we did the idea, wegave it to her.
We kind of like, we made itsound, we made it personalized
for her, we put all the grills.
I knew all of that, so it wascustom written for her.
You get what I'm saying.
So we put all that in the songand I'm like, okay, this could
cut through.
You know what I mean.

(53:50):
I put the screw part on now.
Diamonds on my neck that's medoing all that.
Diamonds on my neck that's youdoing that, that's me doing that
.
So we were making a little hiphop, you know what I'm saying,
making a little edge or whatever.
So we sent it back.
So me and Arvind, we sent itback.
I think one of man.
We think this is going to be asingle.
We're like really, I'm like I'mglad I'm down.
That's crazy.

(54:10):
So she was like man, this isgoing to come out, this is going
to be the single.
So I'm like, okay, let's runwith it, let's do it.
Yeah, it was so crazy.
It ended up being I ended upco-doing it, but the people
already yeah your family.
But it was just so really.

(54:32):
That's why, man, when it'smagic man, it's magic Like you
can't even explain a lot oftimes how this stuff be
happening, man.
You just got to really try tobe engaged in it and you get the
opportunity to try to take it.
Do your best if you can.

Speaker 1 (54:40):
I got to ask you about one more group we could
talk.
You've done a million people.
Oh no, with new kids on theblock.

Speaker 3 (54:46):
That was crazy.
That's when they had the ideato do it with Interscope.
You know, that was I remember.
So at that time, you know, polo, he was in business, him and DJ
was in business, dj, jimmyNephew.
So it was just really one ofthose things being in the studio
, me and Polo come up withsomething and they want to do it

(55:08):
.
You know what I mean.
So it wasn't even really.
You know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (55:11):
How were they in the studio, were they cool?

Speaker 3 (55:13):
I wasn't even there, see, I just did the song.

Speaker 1 (55:16):
Oh, you just did the song and sent it.

Speaker 3 (55:18):
Yes, we do it together, me and Polo, but then
it was time for them to cut.
They ended up cutting.

Speaker 1 (55:25):
Okay, okay, okay.

Speaker 3 (55:33):
What?
Okay, okay, okay, um, uh, whatabout?

Speaker 1 (55:34):
um bedrock tell me about bedrock.

Speaker 3 (55:34):
Oh, bedrock, now that was a crazy story.
Well, what happened?
You know, you know, lord, likehe talked with wayne and all
them young, whatever.
So, um, what happened was atone point in time when mario was
supposed to be assigned toyoung money, he was gonna do a
deal with young money butsomething happened with the deal
.
So they had this song idea andthey were like man, see if Lloyd
can come with a hook with it.
So Lloyd, cousins and Ryan hitme like hey, man, tesla just

(55:56):
sent me this beat with.
They want Lloyd to do a hookand see what you can come up
with.
So Lloyd came over to my housebecause he lived right around
the corner this time.
So me and Lloyd go to mybasement and we and we was just
vibing to it, they had a hook onthere at first.
We like we could do.
I think we could do somethingbetter than this.

(56:16):
So what happened was me and himcame up with the bedrock hook
and the words came from he wason the episode of Wildin' Out
and he said a corny joke talkingabout they called me Mr
Flintstone, I can make youbedrock.
So I say we're going to takethat and we're going to do the
hook.
So I chopped up his vocal.
I can make you a bedrock.
I chopped that up.
I chopped it up to make it alittle rap for you, because at

(56:38):
that time Wayne was doing thatwith his verse or something like
.
We'll put it on you, lord, tomake you give it a little stud
on the bedrock part.
We'll just make the hook singalong.
We did that hook in about sevenminutes, man, and just make it.
You know.
You know what I mean.
So we sent it back to them andat first they didn't really know
.
They were like well, we kind oflike our other version better.
And we was like y'all thoughtthat other version better, all

(57:01):
right.
And so what happened was thebedrock version.
They leaked it to see howpeople respond.
When they leaked it it wentlike wildfire and everybody like
bedrock, crazy, crazy.
So they're like man, we got toshoot this video.
So that's how that happened.
But we did that in my basement.
We did that in about 10 minutes.

Speaker 1 (57:19):
Just messing around.

Speaker 3 (57:21):
Really, because they give you the opportunity.
You just want to give themsomething you know what I mean.
That's one of the things where,like you say, Ryan, our Lord,
cousin here, like Jocelyn man,see, see, see, a lot of, that's
his nickname.
You know, a lot of the time Icome up with something and so we
send it back to Ted.
Yes, yeah, and so we took theopportunity to try to come up
with something and it worked.

Speaker 1 (57:42):
Wow, wow.

Speaker 3 (57:46):
And so what are you working on now, man?
You know what's so crazy.
Now.
I still just work with my team.
I still work with Lloyd all thetime.
I still work with CeCe all thetime.
I got one of my other homeboys,blanco Brown.
He's a country artist.
He had a big song called theGet Up, which is a country line
dance.
One of the biggest line dancecame out like 2019-20.

(58:06):
It was one of the biggestcountry line dance songs.
He got a deal at Broken BoatRecords in Nashville.
So he's been in country musicway before the first bubble.
So I worked with Blanco BrownActually, his group assigned to
me they're the ones singingbackground on Street Love, on
Lorde album and Sierra Get Upremix but he was writing and
doing country music.
So I still work with him and,man, I got producers and writers
I work with and we just createsongs all the time and we just

(58:29):
create content and I'm justworking with my people, man.

Speaker 1 (58:32):
That's good.
You just do what you want to do.

Speaker 3 (58:33):
Yeah, man, do what I do.
It's a blessing.
You do what you want to do whenyou want to do it.

Speaker 1 (58:38):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's basically.
You got to do what you want.
You're not running around withlike a chicken with your head
cut off.

Speaker 3 (58:45):
It done, worked out for me, man.
I ain't gonna tell you no story.
I couldn't even write thisscript.

Speaker 1 (58:49):
You can catch Mixed and Mastered 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
Studios.