Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Wake that ass up in the morning.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
The Breakfast Club Morning, Everybody's DJ, Envy, Jesse, Larry Charlamagne,
the guy.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
We are the Breakfast Club. We got a special guest
in the building. Yes, indeed we have Marsha ambrosis. Welcome back.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
What's happening, hi, guys, mar seven eight years eight nine years,
spend a long time crazy.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
How are you feeling?
Speaker 3 (00:22):
I'm great?
Speaker 1 (00:22):
How are you doing well?
Speaker 4 (00:24):
That's black and Holly favorite.
Speaker 5 (00:25):
I mean, you got so many classics to me late nights,
early morning, friends and lovers.
Speaker 4 (00:29):
Nyla, you've done it again with Casablanco.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Thank you you heard it?
Speaker 4 (00:34):
Yes, absolutely, they gave it to you.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
I feel it's such a vulnerable feeling when people would
like have it now it's like not real, this is
all the dream.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Well, congrats, thank you.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
So I heard it was your mom that actually uh
got you the link back up with doctor Dreams.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
No, what she did, in true scouse of fashion, the
liver Puddlian that she is, she hit me up and said,
using words we have no idea means you were born
and raised in Liverpool A Liverpudlian. Right, So I'm born Liverpool,
born and raised. So my mom calls me. Me. Mom
calls me and says, oh, Marsha, have you spoke to hermam,
(01:12):
doctor Dre lately. No if I don't even think she
referred to him as doctor Dre. She just said Dre
like I was supposed to know who that was. And
I'm like, no, Mam, I haven't spoke to Dre lately.
And I was like, all right, I'll call him up.
So this is around about the end of twenty twenty December,
so I give him a call, say what's up. We reconnect.
It's like, I'm working on a couple of things. I'll
(01:33):
send you a couple of ideas. So we started shooting
ideas back and forth what would then be the GTA
video game. But I didn't know that that's what was
being worked on. You know. Dre's just like, let's just work.
You never know what's going to happen. So we're going
back and forth, and a couple of weeks go by,
(01:54):
and the top of twenty twenty one, he had a
brain aneurysm and I was on the treadmill when I
found that out, like looked at my phone and you know,
it popped up whatever news outlet and it was like
what I just talked to him like less than twenty
four hours ago and made all the calls, found out
everything was okay and stable. Twenty four hours after that,
(02:15):
he called me said, look, Marsh I'm cool. I'm in recovery,
but I want to get back to work. So I
want to get you out to LA and let's just
figure some things out.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
So he in a hospital bed, called and you like, look,
we got to get back to work.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
All I know was like plugged up, plug up. On
the way back, I said, okay, doctor Dre, whatever you say.
And within a couple of weeks, I was in LA
most of that year twenty twenty one, and the creation
of Casablanco happened a couple of months after that, so
it was really all the GTA stuff. And then I
told Dre that I was overdoing this artist thing. Nyla's
(02:53):
mothers now and I just want to chill, like I
just want to produce and write. I've never been a
uh pick me. I want to be in front of
the cap No. I was done, and he said, yeah, nah.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
Are you was done with music?
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (03:08):
Really?
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Yeah? Being an artist like I was always going to create,
but the whole being the artist thing. I was like,
I've done everything that I could possibly do on a
this bucket list that I tried to create for myself,
I've surpassed.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
My bucket list was on the bucket list.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
I'm just curious get signed, win a Grammy, lose some Grammys.
I don't know, like work with my favorite artists, like
regular stuff, but my actual things. I didn't write or
work with Michael Jackson, work with Prince, work with Stevie,
work with Doctor Dray. I didn't write those things out loud,
(03:47):
but I wanted those things, and it achieved that. By now,
this is twenty four years in for me, so I'm like, ah,
what's next. I'm on my Quincy Jones mission.
Speaker 5 (03:57):
Yeah, I know, you write for other people and produce
for other people with It's something about your sound and
your music that I don't think nobody else can deliver.
Your voice, your energy. It's something about a Marsha ambrocious
album that's just different than everything else that's out there.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
This is true. I'd done those I felt like I'd
said all the things that I wanted to say up
until that point. I say all that to say. I
told dra this over like, we had a party for
the kids at his crib chilling, and I'm like, look, Dread,
I want to do this no more. I'm really into producing,
I'm writing. I love this team. I want to stay creative.
(04:34):
But as far as me doing it, and he was like, yeah, nah,
I just want to keep you creative. I just want
to keep you inspired. And we did one song in particular.
I can safely say the titles now.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
So we started with a song that used to be
called Curfew because there's a line where I say, let's
fall in love before the street lights come on, and
I was like, mm before curfew. Andre was like, no
one likes curfew, No one likes the curfew. So it
was we used a sample from A Night in Tunisia. Oh,
and I called it to Nizzi and night.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
Oh, that's that class. It's a classic jazz record, right.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
So it's a classic jazz record. It starts the way
we sampled it. We used this elaborate piano intro that
Bluetooth came up with, and I just started singing this
intro and then that A Night in too Nisia hits,
and then it goes to an entire nas situation and
then the merry thing gets into it and it's just
(05:35):
all of these things and it was that magic happening
in the studio at that moment that we knew, you know,
you know, you know. It was one of those moments
like sometimes in the studio you're creating and it's like, oh,
this is fire, it's cool, We'll go home. Listen to
the beat. Everyone in that room felt something shift, felt
(05:55):
something new happen. And to have done everything that I've
all he done musically, everything that Dre has done, we'd
never done this. So we were onto something and it
felt like we had to see it through. So Casa
Blanco became a destination. Casa Blanco became the mood, the vibe,
the standard, and we just took it from there.
Speaker 5 (06:18):
I like the pedestal you put hip hop on on
this album because just because just musically, it just shows
how much of a classic musical art form hip hop is.
The fact you can go from a that Tannisian records
like from the forties, right, yeah, the fact you can
go from Nat to Noah.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
The nineties, right, and it blends perfectly, seamlessly. It doesn't
a lot of things that we did on this album
shouldn't make sense. Like I truly believe we will be
in the Guinness Book of World Records for how many
things we sampled and the way that we sampled them.
So no, we tang. Duke Kellington and Michael Jackson aren't
(06:56):
supposed to fuse, but on Thrill Her they did, you know,
So it's yeah, it was a wild ride, but one
of the most amazing experiences I've ever had, not only
recording it, just the entire process even getting to this point,
even it's taken so long to get a release date
for it to be available, like the entire thing has
(07:17):
just been No one's done this before.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Now, how you talk about you talk about inspiration right
in Charlot may say how you inspire so many people,
But you must have inspired Doctor Dre as well, because
we haven't heard music from Doctor dra we haven't seen
him executive produce things. We've only heard rumors, and like
it's almost like a.
Speaker 5 (07:34):
Team that never comes out. You hear Doctor drest such
and such album.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
But you never hear this.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
He recently said this in a bit in a in
an interview he recently did and said, and I absolutely
believe this. He may have only released five percent of
the music that he's ever recorded. Wow, and now working
with him as extensively as I did during the pandemic.
It's absolutely true. And he doesn't do it purposefully. It's
(08:02):
because he loves the creative process, and it's like, no,
this is just for us, this is ours.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
What did you do? How did you? How are you
one of a few people?
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Do you ever think it happen?
Speaker 3 (08:12):
I'm the only only There's not one person before or after.
I don't even think this happens again that has an
entire project solely produced and mixed by Doctor Dre. How
did I do it? Not clear? But I know that
(08:34):
I did it. I know that this is something that
he'd never done, and I feel like that that was
the driving force for it to be something new. He
could have just did a hip hop breakord. It could
have just been a soul armed. It's none of those things.
It's something so specific, so different, but so familiar, and
(08:55):
I feel like we were both going through a similar situation.
It was here, health scare, id to healthscare, the pandemic
is happening. It felt like the end of the earth
during that time, so it felt desperate in a way.
It felt if we don't do this and this world
ends tomorrow, what's the mark that we actually leave on
(09:15):
planet Earth? And musically, like you said, I've done things
that you know, a Marsha Ambrosius album is this specific thing.
If I had to leave it all on the floor
and put up my triple double and win a chip,
that's this album. If it was all said and done,
like okay, apocalyptic world that we're now in because of
(09:38):
the pandemic and many other things, it was that it
was out of desperation and feeling like I could have
lost my life, Drake could have lost his. We didn't.
We survived these things. We're now post COVID. How do
we navigate through this? And what does that sound like?
And that's why and how this happens. So yeah, drab
(09:59):
and inspired by me, I'm inspired by him and it
just took off.
Speaker 4 (10:05):
That's what the title means.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
So Casablanco I initially within a week of recording what
we knew this was going to be. After Tunisian Nights,
he threw out some album titles, a couple of which
were things like I sing or I sing more of
them one of those and I was like, Drake, we
(10:28):
need an actual title, like what is this? It was like,
I mean you sing, motherfucker, that's it. So I'm like, no, Drake,
it seeds to be a title, like what is this thing?
So I was in a spoiled circumstance where I'm driving
through the Beverly Hills, like just Hollywood Hills every day
to the destination to record, and it felt very vintage Hollywood,
(10:53):
like the lights, the lambs. It was glitz, glamour, red carpets,
the whole nine. And I felt under the rest of
the studio every time I got there based on what
we were creating. And so it was strings. It was
a symphony, but it painted these pictures and I was like, no,
it feels like a place. It feels like Casa Blanca.
(11:13):
And it was like, okay, Casa Blanca. It's a but nah,
it's that Dray shit. So it's a little bit more
gangster than that, like Casa Blanco, Giselda Blanco. So the
fusion of that very vintage jazz Hollywood feel meets hip
(11:35):
hop is how Casa Blanco became what it was.
Speaker 5 (11:39):
What it is, and all you make it feels like
it's soundtracks to make love to of course, like nothing more,
nothing less?
Speaker 4 (11:46):
Why is that?
Speaker 3 (11:47):
I have no clue, It's just in me. It's ridiculous,
Like I've had this. Well, a friend of mine recently
was like, how do you even come up with another
one this? Why not even in a place of desperation,
and even in a place of the world was over,
I still find a song to make love to. And
(12:12):
it's a gift.
Speaker 4 (12:15):
It's a gift one night stand music.
Speaker 5 (12:18):
Too good to have a one night stand too, Like,
that's not the type of music you have a one
night stand to.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Well, that was the point. My one night stand is
now ten years long, okay, and I'm saying so I
definitely lent from other experiences and wild drunk nights over
the course of you know, Grammy open Bar. You know,
it gets very ridiculous. So yeah, those those one nights,
(12:48):
they're a part of that song too. But ultimately it's
that one night that could be your forever.
Speaker 4 (12:55):
A bunch of people that'll be like, you shouldn't have
one night stand?
Speaker 3 (12:57):
Why not?
Speaker 4 (12:58):
Exactly?
Speaker 3 (12:59):
I don't know where it's gonna go. Like if you don't,
everything is a one night stand if you think about it.
We've all done it. It's whether or not it lasted
or it didn't. But you shouldn't be Oh, I'd never
do that if I didn't do it ten years later
in a seven year old, maybe that doesn't happen if
I don't just you know what I mean, like if
I don't say.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Hey, I gotta I want to ask. So I want
to go back to what you said. You said the
health scare in your child. How did that change your life?
With the healthcare in your child? Because I guess if
the baby's was six seven years old, happened right before COVID,
so you pretty much raised the baby during COVID.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
It's just COVID babies are different. It's ridiculous, Like, but
for me, how it all changed, It changed all of us,
you know. So it was being a bit more sensitive,
being a bit more open, and I feel like all
(13:54):
of our issues, all of our mental health, it was
everything was on the table because we could all see
each other now we had way too much time to
spend with ourselves. So you were like, oh, you're I
see you and we're going through exactly the same thing.
So there was much more well for me anyway, much
(14:15):
more dialogue. Even though suicide skyrocketed, like all of these things,
all of these numbers, all of these things are happening,
and I have my baby, I have my husband, I
have my own bubble that allowed me to feel safe
amidst the chaos like it was. It still is chaotic,
(14:38):
but that was my peace and me being able to
be grounded, so that that definitely helped. But at the
same time, being in a dark place, I don't think
there's anything that could bring you out of that, and
that was terrifying during the pandemic, and I'm pretty sure
for anybody where you're like, not even your kid could
(15:00):
bring you. No my mother, my father, my brother, like
close friends.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
You can write your year.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
This is what Casablanco ended up being. Casablanco when the
timing of it all was I could see the light
at the end of the tunnel. Now I was over
the other side of that dark place. And even with
this tentative, oh there's going to be a release date
or we had think about the samples on this album,
(15:29):
we literally took over a year to clear the samples,
and I didn't mind that because I felt like I
still needed time to heal. So waiting for this release
date was almost like when I say a death date,
it was Okay, that's the end of that era. So
whenever it was happening, it was like, Okay, now it's
(15:50):
June twenty eighth. I was like, that's the end of
all this madness that I had to get through to
get to it. So it was like, if I can
survive that long, I made it. So what, We've got
a couple of couple of days to go until we
get there. I didn't think I'd see this moment at
one point. So to get here and to be happy
(16:12):
and to be in a space that I'm in, it's
just wow.
Speaker 4 (16:16):
Wow. Is that where the song I guess self care
on right might come.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
But even that is a song to make love to.
Speaker 4 (16:23):
Yeah, I mean a form of self care.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
Right, it's self care. It's being in tune to oneself.
Put the do the math one plus one is there?
Do you?
Speaker 2 (16:34):
So?
Speaker 3 (16:34):
Yeah, self care And no matter who's wrong or who
was right, it was just don't leave me and don't
leave that feeling. And once the music started, it was
all of those emotions and even in that, like you said,
it all came back down to in true Marsha Ambrosiest
fashion right in that love song still, so I'm just
(17:00):
glad to be able to do that.
Speaker 4 (17:01):
What's the wrong right part of it?
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Though?
Speaker 4 (17:03):
Like what let mean, who's wrong? Self care? Wrong right with?
Speaker 3 (17:06):
So initially those were two separate songs, and the self
care was I needed to do me figure chip for
you literally, so by the time we got too wrong right,
it's me inviting that person then into my space and
it's given me good like you so hood like please
(17:29):
don't go. It's that you're so wrong right now for
even trying to let me let my guard down. Because
I was so cool with just letting me do me
and then here comes this m this ugh, this fine
dark chocolate swept me off my feet and let me
(17:55):
put my guard down. And I'm a Leo and that's
hard for me to do. So when it happens, it's
both terrifying. But the the fear and the lioness comes
out in aggression and anger and a lot of sexual
appetite that is or you know anyone that knows that knows,
(18:17):
and yeah, that was You're so wrong right now.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
What did y'all meet? Where did you meet your husband?
Speaker 3 (18:23):
On tour?
Speaker 1 (18:24):
On tour? How did that go?
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Down, because when you're talking about him, you just you
started mouse started salamating, and you just start getting together.
Speaker 4 (18:32):
Turn it.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
You say, I'm thinking about the song long right, I'm like.
Speaker 5 (18:35):
Hey, and be thinking about your man? Turned on.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
I'm just saying I'm listening. She was just so excited.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
I'm just asking that's where the music Love is Love
got me thinking about my wife?
Speaker 1 (18:49):
All right, I'm sorry, I get it.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
It's fine. No. We met on on tour ten years
ago and I saw him. It's ten years later. I said,
you know, when you know you know, and you keep
like all the movies that you see that's corny shit,
like never happy, Yes, it did. It was. I seen
(19:12):
him and he had a red fit on and I
was like, who is that? And I approached him like yo,
what's up? And we got to talking and we haven't
stopped talking since.
Speaker 5 (19:27):
You need to write a book called One Night's Thing,
because there's so many people who think you got to
make the man wait thirty days or sixty days or
ninety days.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
There's so many formulas to it. But if you don't
just follow your intuition, because it all depends on what
type of person you are, Like, there are people that
are I've never been. I'm not approaching unless I know
it's for sure. I don't know. There's many formulas to it.
So even if I did write a book, I'm going
(19:56):
with what worked for me. I'm not giving you the
manual to how this works out, like ooh, you too
can find your ten years later or you know what
I mean, Like, I'm not giving it as game like that.
I'm saying, if you saw what it was that you
wanted and you didn't make your move, that's on you,
because then you will sit there and ponder and be like, well,
(20:18):
what if I just said something? But if I just approached.
But by the time that I did, and it was
what it was, and I knew that it was more
than just that one night in Philadelphia, that one night
in Chicago, that one night in Virginia, that one night
in LA Now it's many nights. Now it's all you
(20:41):
want to move in? Sure, moved in together. And then
it's oh, you want to go back to the UK
for Christmas with me? Meet my whole family. Sure? And
then by April we were pregnant. Wow, was that serious?
Sounds ridiculous When I say no, When I say ridiculous.
It's like that's the timeline though, you know, and we
were both very sure.
Speaker 5 (21:03):
I can't remember what song it is. Maybe it was
Greedy was the one song? Maybe I'm tripping it sound
you was talking about having a threesome.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
Oh, thrill her. That was a dream not really came true,
but a fantasy. So thrill her. It was a drunken
high night. I want to say I took that story
from what was it? Atlanta? No, this one might have
been at LA. It was definitely a Grammy week and
(21:31):
I painted the picture. He came in drunk as hell,
give some head. Then a knock at the door and
it's another chick. I'm like, who the is this? And
I'm like, oh, it's about to go down. Oh it
might have been a Philly story too. There's like a
lot of stories involved. So yeah, when people hear this album,
(21:52):
they can claim them yeah that was me, and then uh,
it's just great. I love that figure. Yeah it's yeah,
it was a wild night, but.
Speaker 4 (22:05):
It was a dream. Who knows, Okay, I don't know.
It sounded real to me either.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
Sounded real to me.
Speaker 5 (22:13):
Too, And the album is very like nineteen ninety now,
like how do you have such a nostalgic feeling feeling
but keep it fresh, because.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
That's what I mean. Any hip hop Conoissan or R
and B head nineties is just it's unmatched. It was
a time if you weren't outside, just say that. And
I feel like with this album to have grasped what
the nass of the world were doing then, the Mary's
(22:45):
of the world were doing then, but making it now
it's because that was timeless and that's I think we're
all the same age, like our generation of timeless like,
whereas our parents it's Temptations, it's you know, Earthwind Vice. Okay,
even later than that, but it was timeless music. So
(23:06):
it survives now and sounds fresh now because it was
that good then. So I couldn't integrate, I want to say,
couldn't didn't really want to integrate what we feel like
hip hop is now or R and B is now.
I can only lem from what I really know and
me creating in my creative process has always come from
the Jodasy era. It stops and starts there. It's Jodasy,
(23:30):
that's my R and B like. Ultimately, so my hip
hop is nas it's Jay so it's all of those
things in one album that make it fresh because it
was good then, so it's gonna be good now. Like singing,
what's a classic to you give any class? Right, so
(23:52):
you sing that now it's then, but it's absolutely now
because it was that good then. And I feel like
I've always, when I say, attempted to write timeless music
for me to sing say yes or Butterflies. Now I can,
but that is twenty four years ago for me in
my real time betimes four years later, absolutely timeless. So
(24:14):
to create a Casa blanco and know that twenty four
years later that can still live, that's the goal. It's like,
what is your tomorrow? And musically I've been doing things
that could live for tomorrow whenever that future is.
Speaker 5 (24:31):
I just love the fact that a nas illmatic can
inspire something like this, because.
Speaker 4 (24:35):
When I hit it out, I hear a lot of
I hear a lot of illmatic.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
Yeah, and that was unintentional, I guess. With that first
Tunisian Nights, it's trying to outdo how we implemented unintentionally
nas in there. And it was all of these things
because hip hop back then was still lending from classic
jazz records, so it only made sense that we not
(24:59):
only borrowed from what the nineties did with those samples,
but reinventing and elevating them in the only way that
a doctor Dre can And did you know?
Speaker 2 (25:12):
So I was gonna ask, you know, you talk about
doctor Dre only releasing five percent of the music that
he actually made. How much music did y'all make? And
had what was the process of trickling it down from
the amount of songs you made to this eleven?
Speaker 3 (25:27):
You know what's crazy? We made about twelve or thirteen
songs really and knew when it was time to start.
We knew it when it was completed. And the only
reason why the other two didn't make it is because
one of them it made the album play a little
longer than we felt comfortable with, and it matched another
(25:48):
song on there like evenly, like if you had to
get rid of one of the other definitely that one though,
and one of them we couldn't clear, like get nah
one of them. So I was like, okay, we can't
clear that one. We have an album and Dre in
the creative process has like a whiteboard on the wall.
We'll write the titles for each song. We just looked
(26:11):
at it and was like, that's it. That's it, We're done.
So between April, end of April twenty twenty one and
end of May we were completely done with recorded vocally.
I recorded everything, written, everything, and we took a couple
of weeks off and reconvened and dre said twenty seven
(26:35):
piece orchestra. So we were at Gower Studios. Eric Gorefain
did the string arrangements and we were in with the
orchestra listening to them go crazy on this album that
we created, which was already doing what it was going
to do. This symphony just took it to another place,
(26:58):
like just didn't even make any sense. So by the
time that's happened, it's just timeless in that way.
Speaker 5 (27:09):
How does you know, really thinking about your mortality and
like you know, maybe I guess being face to face
with definite way, how did that change just everything about
you as an artist, as a person.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
I don't know if you can see it. I'm so
happy and chill, like nothing can really like phase me.
And if it's anything that does kind of interfere with
my peace, it's whereas I would get upset or combative
or defensive about things in the past, it's okay, that's
(27:46):
how you feel cool, Like there's so many more important
things than being mad about anything or holding onto things unnecessarily,
like that brush with what you think death looks like,
and that flash across your eyes, like like that was it.
(28:11):
The things you think were important never were, And by
the time you get your life back, it still feels
like that, like it's not important important, Like prioritizing the
importance of things in your life changes, like it's not important.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
But you know, with you taking so much time off,
it's part of the reason, Like I just don't want
to deal with the noise, with.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
The people talking, with the social media, with the conversations.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
It's just you have a clear mind when you don't
deal with things and people.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
Not necessarily that. I love people, I love the internet.
It's a very entertaining space. So it was never that
it was the obligatory having to do it, the whole
artist thing. It's the interviews, right, it's the now I
(29:08):
have an itinerary. Yeah, let's just live with chill and
maybe do stuff for fun and live how the other
side lives or whatever. You think. That looks like it
was always that, but as far as noise, I think
I've I forced myself to engage to get perspective on
(29:31):
where people are actually at in their lives, to understand
me more, if that makes any sense, because I couldn't.
I think during the pandemic we all internalized a little
bit more and understood ourselves a bit more. But I
think not enough people were sharing that for the fear
of being looked at crazy, because you have more time
(29:53):
to think about who you were, why you were and
if all I had to end tomorrow, what did you do?
You were here, so all of these things are happening,
and I was okay with noise, I feel like I
was more terrified of the silence.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Would you say okay with the noise, meaning you didn't
mind people discussing and talking and oh not like, but
you feel like you're still there?
Speaker 3 (30:22):
Yeah, Like if I if I wasn't there, I don't know.
I want to say, it doesn't matter. I think I
was engaging in conversations and catching up with at such
and such on Twitter or at blah blah blah, because
it was oh, we're still here, We're still able to
communicate you, okay, it was negative or positive. I was
(30:43):
like you've made time.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
You're talking about it regardless.
Speaker 3 (30:46):
Yeah, so it was like you've made time.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
It's the fear of not talking about you.
Speaker 3 (30:51):
But yeah, I didn't mind that. It was life. I
was comfortable with again and all of it, in all
of its noise. So I think for anyone during the pandemic,
that silence, it was like the zombie apocalypse, like, is
anyone here? Am I crazy by myself? We're all gonna die?
(31:12):
What's happened?
Speaker 4 (31:13):
Like?
Speaker 3 (31:13):
It was the silence, especially.
Speaker 5 (31:16):
If you've never if you've never done any internal work,
you never did no therapy, if you never did no meditation,
if you never have it on no healing journey, and
that was your first time having to deal with yourself.
Speaker 3 (31:27):
That's noisier than anything. You and your thoughts by yourself,
screaming at times, and then it was quiet, but then
it was peaceful, and then it was okay, let me breathe,
and everyone okay, everyone good? You know? And it felt
(31:48):
like that.
Speaker 4 (31:48):
Why did you learn new about yourself during that time?
Speaker 3 (31:52):
I have way more patience than I thought. I'm terrible,
like terrible Uber eats. Where you at with my food delivery?
You said you made a left turn. What do you
mean you're still waiting? What do you mean you're yeah,
I'm terrible. I don't like waiting. I got no patience
and I hate waiting. Get yeah, patience didn't have any
(32:22):
Now I have all of it because it's oh, it's
not happening right now? Cool? Before What do you mean
why went I don't even care when they don't care.
It's I can't do anything about time, and it's I
thought I had time at one point, and when I
(32:44):
realized I had none. Oh, Now I'm patient with everything
because now I feel like I've held onto more time
than I could have had, So that's different.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
I was watching the R and B Money podcast shot
the Tank and he made a comment, I guess you
was joking. I don't know if you were joking or
not talking about you dot Stevie want that really can
see now, And people took it as they were mad
at you for a little bit mad at me.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
How I don't know, because if you're a Stevie Wonder fan,
what I said was, he can see if you listen
to the music, to be one of the most prolific,
descriptive songwriters of our time, how can he not and
(33:31):
maybe not in the way that you believe that that is.
But his pen game makes you visualize us with actual sight,
visualize everything. He was saying, that's a gift. That's what
I said. Yes, he can see because there's no way.
(33:53):
He says, I never dreamed you'd leave in summer, and
I literally see the summer day he's referring to. That's
not fair. Mary wants to be a superwoman, and I
know who Mary looks like. I've already made that character.
The song plays and nice see it. Stevie more than
any song WHERI are. I believe on planet Earth has
(34:16):
made me see a song the way Stevie does. That's
what I said. I said, what I like, I said,
That's why I said.
Speaker 4 (34:22):
I get what you're saying. He might be blind, but
he got a vision. It's a difference, speaking of vision.
Speaker 3 (34:29):
To use that song on Casta Blanco, I remember Dre
actually he might Drey was nervous about using the Stevie
record or like asking him, like, yo, listen Stevie and
see what he thinks. I'm like, okay, crazy, but yeah,
we got to use visions on Casta Blanco and with
(34:50):
Stevie's blessing and bucket list, like wow, this fake bucket lifts.
I keep making up, like I'll check that one off.
Speaker 4 (35:00):
You know, did he want to hear it?
Speaker 3 (35:01):
Or oh yeah, yeah he hear it? So I mean
we had to go through that process.
Speaker 4 (35:05):
But did he love it? Did he give any creative input?
Speaker 3 (35:08):
We had creative input because I did curse in that
song at some point in the bridge. But I when
I curse in music, it's for emphasism. So I think
with this one, I've taken it too far.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
Steve was like now, now, now, and he might.
Speaker 3 (35:27):
Have cursed during and not like he might have cursed
trying to tell us not to curse. But it was necessary.
I took it out. It makes sense. I didn't have to.
I wanted to in that emotional moment though, and did
and maybe live Steve you with it still sing that
(35:48):
same line that I did. But yeah, it was a
it was a wonderful experience.
Speaker 4 (35:54):
Did Stevie FaceTime zoom?
Speaker 3 (35:57):
I want to say it was a phone call that
I had and dre It spoke to him also.
Speaker 4 (36:03):
So yeah, how involved is d.
Speaker 3 (36:06):
We're just gonna let that one do this cool?
Speaker 1 (36:13):
You call it as long as you caught him.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
Absolutely, you caught it smooth, love it, FaceTime, I love it.
Speaker 5 (36:20):
How involved is Dre as far as creative direction and
like just taking your input?
Speaker 3 (36:25):
Oh for this, this was a complete hand in hand
fifty to fifty battle of the creative minds, and his
respect for me, my respect for him allowed us to
really do this. And he's a genius. I'm me and
(36:52):
he's he said that I was a genius. You are
to me, which is it's crazy to hear it from
who I'm looking at, a genius and he's looking like
it's like the Spider Man me. We're all doing this
in the studio and he's like, yeah, I'm Dre and
I do this thing, but I ain't tell Michael Jackson
(37:14):
what to do. So, ah, you're absolutely right. I did
that one. So there was just a respect level there
and he let me push boundaries in a way that
I'd never done one. It's Dray's budget and he's literally saying,
no limits. You can do whatever you want. If you
(37:36):
had to make the perfect song and implement all of
these things, what is that, just do it. I didn't
think that me having Wu Tang, Duke Kellington and Michael
Jackson on one song was possible until we did it.
I didn't know Patrece Russian and the Mary j and
(37:56):
Mary Jane girls one song could happen, but it did.
All of these things were happening because Dre said no
limits and it's unreal, for real, for real, If I'm honest,
(38:21):
I've never done anything like this, like I've made music before,
but with the creative freedom and no limits on it
allowed me to do things that I'd never done ever
and may never will, might really truly be the one
(38:43):
of one and I'd be okay with that.
Speaker 4 (38:45):
Dan, So you don't think you'd put out another album
after this.
Speaker 3 (38:49):
It's not even another album, it's not another this. I'll
create music for the rest of my life, whatever that
sounds like, whatever that looks like. But this, in its moment,
it's like, we can't recreate the timing of when these
health scares happened, the desperation of what's happening with Planet Earth,
(39:13):
the uncertainty of life, and why we made this album.
You know, we can only do celebritory like Happy to
Be a live albums after this. You know, everything else
is kind of just a But this album was made
because we didn't think we'd ever get the chance to
(39:35):
make one again.
Speaker 1 (39:36):
How was it when you played the record for method
Man during the Roots picnic?
Speaker 3 (39:43):
Most of my best friends standing behind me, waiting to
just hold him, like, give me a second, mother, man,
please scause you listen to my I mean, he's a dream.
I can still say that. I know I'm married, my
husband knows what it is. What's the man? So to
play him? I remember when I was writing that moment
(40:08):
in the song and the go outside and the rain
sample is happening, and I knew the beat was about
to come in, and I'm like, you got that m
me T H O D man do that thing you
do those hands, kiss on this and make it dance.
Take it baby, giving you permission with persistence. Oh I
(40:30):
l O V E I T And I can't get
enough of this ocean flow below my legs, swim in it,
go diving inside inside my love babe, love you babe.
Speaker 4 (40:44):
That's what right, ain't it?
Speaker 1 (40:47):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (40:55):
You film me like so to play it for him.
Fantasy bucket list. You can't make up like this method Man,
play wet the method Man and just to see him
blush when the moment came in.
Speaker 1 (41:15):
And him do a little two step right, two.
Speaker 3 (41:18):
Step to that give me all the audibles, said he's
going to be the leading man in the video, and
it's you know, the Minie Riperton inside me at the end,
and it's just all the things. It was a fantasy.
All of this feels very surreal, like it's happening, but
(41:39):
it's happening in real time. Like I get to go, hey, Stevie,
listen to what we did with your Hey, George Benson,
here's Patrice Rushing, here is Mary, here's Nah's here's plain
it just yeah, so Meth, thank you, Meth my leading man.
Speaker 5 (41:57):
I've got a couple more questions. You said you didn't
tell Michael Jackson what to do. Drey didn't tell Michael
Jackson what to do.
Speaker 3 (42:03):
Dre didn't.
Speaker 4 (42:04):
Okay, okay.
Speaker 3 (42:05):
So he's saying, basically his nod to me was I'm
Dre and I've made several other goats, but you know
I didn't tell Michael Jackson what to do. That was you.
So it's I'm coming to the room with something that
he's never done. Wow, So don't devalue what it is
with you in the room. And I get that, and
(42:27):
you have to understand the amount of people that have
probably crossed paths and been in the studio with Dre
and possibly gotten to a stage where they thought maybe
a project is happening. This part has barely happened. For
like I said that five percent is just the creating
of the music. The actual artists that get to be
at this part only happen if you're the five people
(42:51):
that you can count six or seven maybe, but don't happen.
So it was it was that it's I'm one of
one and unja cultable what yes and wanted to be
like I think that was the I had a spoiled experience.
I was just getting to you know, Atlanta, then get
(43:13):
to Philly, get signed by the end of that year.
Now I'm in the studio within less than a year
of the time it took me to get to the States.
Then worked with Michael Jackson because he's heard this demo
and we were here in New York Hit Factory and
he was there to out. Michael Jackson was there in
the studio two hours before call time, just warming up
(43:37):
his vocal. He was that guy like he was great
because he worked like unlike any other and I'll never
forget the first moment where he goes in the booth
like that glass behind there, and it was I'm at
the mixing board and Bruce Swede and a sist soul too,
(44:01):
Andre Harris is at the board. I have the talk
back button, and the first chord happens and Mike just
whispers like butterfly, and I just started crying wow immediately,
just couldn't even hold it back. Just I'm in the studio,
I'm twenty two, twenty three at that time, like those
were my younger years, my formative years, and I'm doing
(44:24):
this at that age.
Speaker 1 (44:25):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (44:26):
And then it was tat back, one more time, I
get your timing right, one more time, might make sure
you like vocally produce that entire song. But when I
press play is only when I can hear the reality
of that because it's steamless. There's nothing wrong with that song.
And he allowed me, at my very young, naive, very
(44:49):
green to everything industry, not only do me retain all
my publishing and flourish in that studio as a vocally
as a vocal producer, producer and writer for that record.
And Mike was just the king for all reasons.
Speaker 1 (45:13):
Can you take us back? How did he hear butterflies?
How did he hit a reference track? I said, I
wanted that.
Speaker 4 (45:18):
Well.
Speaker 3 (45:18):
I'd written the song when I was about sixteen seventeen
in Camberwell, South London, about a boy that worked in McDonald's.
I don't even know his name. I just knew that
he was a neighbor's friend and he was fine as hell.
Speaker 1 (45:34):
He gave you butterflies every time, every time.
Speaker 3 (45:37):
So I recently put to in McDonald's giving you bubble gud.
Then there's that I wasn't eating McDonald's like that though
I never really ate my well, I did kind of,
but I was basketball back then, so I was in
athlete mode for sure. But Camberwell, the place that the
McDonald's is in, is called Butterfly Walk, and I never
(45:58):
put that together until we recently he went back and
started taking pictures there and I was like, look at God,
look at that. So I ended up writing this song.
Get to Philadelphia, year two thousands, that's a couple of
years after that. Meet the team out of Touch of Jazz.
One producer in particular, Andre Harris, who'd done two of
my favorite Jill Scott songs, Long Walk, and the Way,
(46:21):
and I was like, who did those two? Oh, that's Dray,
that's Andre. I was like, I want parts. So within
a week, Andre Harris and myself had recorded Say Yes
and Butterflies together. So Say Yes was for Ron Eisley.
So we did that demo together, and that was with
the intent that Ron Eisley was going to do Say
(46:41):
Yes for his album. He just didn't take it. Restless
History and then Butterflies a few days after that, five
or slow in the morning, six or so in the morning,
play the chords and like Dre, slow those down, YadA
YadA YadA, and Butterflies happens. And John McClain, who ended
(47:01):
up signing Flower Tree to Dream Works, was Michael Jackson's
personal manager, so he has the demo, plays it for Mike,
so listen, you have to listen to these girls. Listen
to this demo, and Mike was like, I want that one,
just Butterflies. Mike, you can have the entire album if
you want it. It's yours. I don't have to do
(47:22):
another thing. And that's how we heard it. We got
the call in Philia a Touch of Jazz. Everyone thought
it was a prank call. Went to voicemail the first time,
and then I think Jeff spoke to him, well, Carvin
spoke to I think Carvin said he spoke to him,
and he thought it was dre messing around. We were
practical jokers back of the day. And Mike, you don't
really know. You think you know his voice. Mike had
(47:44):
a deeper, raspier voice, and I think he only used
a higher tone just to preserve his greatness, like he
didn't want to use or project. He was only using
that for the booth or the stage, and that's it.
So by the time we've spoken to him, this is
the summer of two thousand. I was in the studio
with him in New York the following year March, so
(48:06):
it's like that quick wow.
Speaker 2 (48:08):
Now you also mentioned Flowa Tree fans were always what
will flowr you ever do an album together again?
Speaker 1 (48:13):
Or that chapter your life is over?
Speaker 3 (48:15):
Who knows? No chapters are closed. And I think, rewinding
to what you said about you know, when I met
my husband, I did a Flowa Tree tour twenty fifteen
twenty sixteen, and that's when I met him, and then
got pregnant the following year on the other tour, So
it was like a back to back Hey reunion its
full love and yeah, who knows now?
Speaker 2 (48:33):
Also I seen Amanda Seals was on Club Shah and
talks about she said that she thinks she wanted her
to quit flow a Tree?
Speaker 1 (48:41):
Was that true?
Speaker 3 (48:43):
The loaded question quit flower Tree is very vague? What
was happening with Amanda Seals? And this is what? Because
I won't spend a lot of time in this. This
is like a quick bit. When did we lost through
the Breakfast Club?
Speaker 4 (48:57):
Because this is like seven came up.
Speaker 3 (49:00):
Yes, So initially the first thing I said about Amanda
Sales is sorry, I can play the clip, you can
go to YouTube and see it. And it was she
was put in a position that she shouldn't have been
in the first place, the label and management of trying
to re establish what that was and it just didn't work.
(49:21):
So by the time we've put all of these things
into action, we've rehearsed a show and you've given it
to the public. Everyone has gone, oh nah, and there's
nothing I can do about that part. And this is
also seventeen years ago, three weeks of a summer to all,
we may have done like fifteen or sixteen shows, and
(49:41):
it just didn't work out and that was the end
of that, really, But we've had nothing but for me,
And I'm saying like I, well, for me, we'd had
nothing but positive interactions thereafter. Like I saw her twenty thirteen,
we took pictures together, we reminisced, and she'd been texting
me throughout the years after that, nothing but positive vibes.
(50:05):
So I'm in a good space right now, seventeen years later.
So for whatever she believes that was, I don't think
publicly we can do this combative. Well you said this happened,
or I said this happened. I know exactly what happened
on my end, But you know, it's kind of seventeen
(50:29):
years ago. I've done all this healing between now and then.
I'm not the same Like seventeen years ago, two thousand
and seven, I'm still talking to Michael Jackson at that point,
I've still got prints on speed dial, Like I was
still very much Grammy winning, Grammy nominated me, that was
in a position to do what I wanted to do
(50:52):
at that point, moving forward. And here we are seventeen
years later, and I'm still moving on and moving forward,
and Casa Blanco with doctor Dre's about to drop and
just in a different space.
Speaker 5 (51:08):
You know, on the song Greedy, it makes me wonder
that your husband ever hears certain lyrics and be like,
you're talking about us because you say it's never enough
to love you, same old, lame old Ain't no way
I'm ever going to take that shit. I'm giving you everything,
and this the thanks I get.
Speaker 3 (51:21):
Don't play that shit, even if it was Greedy. During
that time, and even during the creative process of Casa Blanco,
my husband and I had a conversation about where I
was at mentally to create the actual Basically, he said
(51:50):
I didn't have to be married Mash and come from
that space. And I understood what he said when he
said that, because the love songs different if I'm attached
to the relationship I'm in and having to kind of
skirt around what that looks like. Those songs sound like
don't Wait the Baby or just like old Times, and
(52:13):
they're different. With this. It was you need to stretch
that pen and write from a space of you doing
you and what does that sound like. So by the
time I got to Greedy, I was angry at the world,
like it's never enough to love anyone or anything, and
(52:35):
then be satisfied in a way that you feel like
you put your one hundred in and they only claim
it's thirty percent. So I could give you the moon
and it's like, well where the sun at? Like it's
the moon family that you don't want, you know, And
I feel like greedy I was talking about everyone. It
(52:58):
wasn't even just about him, it was everyone and everything
playing this tuggerwar of if you're not next to me,
you feel as though you're missing out on something that
you only gain by being with me or taking something
from me. I'm like, what's the endgame? Like what exactly
(53:19):
do you want? Because you're really upset, like you mad
as fuck that you're not around me like that greedy.
Speaker 4 (53:28):
M I love that song music on my mind.
Speaker 5 (53:33):
You said it's a it's that Wu Tang meets Cold Traine,
And what I love about that is like what I
told you earlier is like you're putting hip hop on
this proper pedestal of being like a classic musical art form?
Speaker 4 (53:45):
Was that intentional throughout the project?
Speaker 3 (53:50):
Maybe not intentional, but my affinity and adoration for hip
hop has stemmed from me knowing all the words to
Beach Street breaking like being overseas, getting all of these
imported hip hop twelve inch records from my uncle and
(54:17):
hip up you the love of my life, and I
feel like on this album, it only made sense that
I made sure that that last music on my mind
was my love letter to music, and I couldn't fit
everything in, so I just gave you the bullet points
of what those errors and time. So yeah, WU tang
(54:39):
it to shout out. I even shouted out Mace and
Cam before I even know they would reunite. This is
twenty twenty one. I'm calling this out and I know
what Horse and Carriage did for me in the nineties,
you know, So it was all of these small nuds
to things and this is in the same breath I'm saying,
you know, MJ. J. Dillar, Marcus Miller, Murder, Max Cam Killer,
(55:03):
Miss Pay, Funkadelic, George Clinton, and I even shout out
Luke Skywalker, just things that I've loved over the course
of my life. And if that were my last speech
to planet Earth, like it's been real, this was it.
That's what music on my mind and that last statement
(55:24):
was the last thing that I say is Dr that
mamba mentality, the game winning shut for the three cod swish.
Speaker 5 (55:38):
It's good, great way to in the project. That's right,
great for the fantastic album.
Speaker 1 (55:43):
Comes out next Friday, June twenty eighth.
Speaker 3 (55:46):
Oh my goodness, when you say it out loud, it's real.
Speaker 1 (55:48):
That's right next Friday.
Speaker 3 (55:49):
Oh man, listen, but.
Speaker 1 (55:53):
What do you want to hear off that album?
Speaker 3 (55:55):
What do I want to hear that?
Speaker 1 (55:56):
You're gonna allow us to play because we got to
get it from you, guys. We haveybody.
Speaker 3 (56:02):
Might be wet, we might be self care wrong, riot.
Speaker 4 (56:06):
You can do you can do both both.
Speaker 3 (56:08):
Thrill has a thing though that thing is a story.
Speaker 1 (56:13):
Ain't got enough time for three, but we got two.
We will.
Speaker 3 (56:16):
It's pick one. Tell us used to be done at
the board, like okay, what we're saying thrill her? What scart?
Speaker 1 (56:24):
Okay cool thrill her and we let's do it all right.
We'll get that on.
Speaker 2 (56:27):
Thank you so much for joining us. The album Casablanco
comes out next Friday. Today, the track listing is released.
You guys can check that out.
Speaker 1 (56:35):
And we appreciate you for spending it with us today.
Speaker 3 (56:37):
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (56:40):
It's Marsha ambrosis. It's the Breakfast Club. Good morning, wake.
Speaker 4 (56:43):
That ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club
Wake that ass up in the morning.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
The Breakfast Club Morning, Everybody's DJ, Envy, Jesse, Larry Charlamagne,
the guy.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
We are the Breakfast Club. We got a special guest
in the building. Yes, indeed we have Marsha ambrosis. Welcome back.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
What's happening, hi, guys, mar seven eight years eight nine years,
spend a long time crazy.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
How are you feeling?
Speaker 3 (00:22):
I'm great?
Speaker 1 (00:22):
How are you doing well?
Speaker 4 (00:24):
That's black and Holly favorite.
Speaker 5 (00:25):
I mean, you got so many classics to me late nights,
early morning, friends and lovers.
Speaker 4 (00:29):
Nyla, you've done it again with Casablanco.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Thank you you heard it?
Speaker 4 (00:34):
Yes, absolutely, they gave it to you.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
I feel it's such a vulnerable feeling when people would
like have it now it's like not real, this is
all the dream.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Well, congrats, thank you.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
So I heard it was your mom that actually uh
got you the link back up with doctor Dreams.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
No, what she did, in true scouse of fashion, the
liver Puddlian that she is, she hit me up and said,
using words we have no idea means you were born
and raised in Liverpool A Liverpudlian. Right, So I'm born Liverpool,
born and raised. So my mom calls me. Me. Mom
calls me and says, oh, Marsha, have you spoke to hermam,
(01:12):
doctor Dre lately. No if I don't even think she
referred to him as doctor Dre. She just said Dre
like I was supposed to know who that was. And
I'm like, no, Mam, I haven't spoke to Dre lately.
And I was like, all right, I'll call him up.
So this is around about the end of twenty twenty December,
so I give him a call, say what's up. We reconnect.
It's like, I'm working on a couple of things. I'll
(01:33):
send you a couple of ideas. So we started shooting
ideas back and forth what would then be the GTA
video game. But I didn't know that that's what was
being worked on. You know. Dre's just like, let's just work.
You never know what's going to happen. So we're going
back and forth, and a couple of weeks go by,
(01:54):
and the top of twenty twenty one, he had a
brain aneurysm and I was on the treadmill when I
found that out, like looked at my phone and you know,
it popped up whatever news outlet and it was like
what I just talked to him like less than twenty
four hours ago and made all the calls, found out
everything was okay and stable. Twenty four hours after that,
(02:15):
he called me said, look, Marsh I'm cool. I'm in recovery,
but I want to get back to work. So I
want to get you out to LA and let's just
figure some things out.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
So he in a hospital bed, called and you like, look,
we got to get back to work.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
All I know was like plugged up, plug up. On
the way back, I said, okay, doctor Dre, whatever you say.
And within a couple of weeks, I was in LA
most of that year twenty twenty one, and the creation
of Casablanco happened a couple of months after that, so
it was really all the GTA stuff. And then I
told Dre that I was overdoing this artist thing. Nyla's
(02:53):
mothers now and I just want to chill, like I
just want to produce and write. I've never been a
uh pick me. I want to be in front of
the cap No. I was done, and he said, yeah, nah.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
Are you was done with music?
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (03:08):
Really?
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Yeah? Being an artist like I was always going to create,
but the whole being the artist thing. I was like,
I've done everything that I could possibly do on a
this bucket list that I tried to create for myself,
I've surpassed.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
My bucket list was on the bucket list.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
I'm just curious get signed, win a Grammy, lose some Grammys.
I don't know, like work with my favorite artists, like
regular stuff, but my actual things. I didn't write or
work with Michael Jackson, work with Prince, work with Stevie,
work with Doctor Dray. I didn't write those things out loud,
(03:47):
but I wanted those things, and it achieved that. By now,
this is twenty four years in for me, so I'm like, ah,
what's next. I'm on my Quincy Jones mission.
Speaker 5 (03:57):
Yeah, I know, you write for other people and produce
for other people with It's something about your sound and
your music that I don't think nobody else can deliver.
Your voice, your energy. It's something about a Marsha ambrocious
album that's just different than everything else that's out there.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
This is true. I'd done those I felt like I'd
said all the things that I wanted to say up
until that point. I say all that to say. I
told dra this over like, we had a party for
the kids at his crib chilling, and I'm like, look, Dread,
I want to do this no more. I'm really into producing,
I'm writing. I love this team. I want to stay creative.
(04:34):
But as far as me doing it, and he was like, yeah, nah,
I just want to keep you creative. I just want
to keep you inspired. And we did one song in particular.
I can safely say the titles now.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
So we started with a song that used to be
called Curfew because there's a line where I say, let's
fall in love before the street lights come on, and
I was like, mm before curfew. Andre was like, no
one likes curfew, No one likes the curfew. So it
was we used a sample from A Night in Tunisia. Oh,
and I called it to Nizzi and night.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
Oh, that's that class. It's a classic jazz record, right.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
So it's a classic jazz record. It starts the way
we sampled it. We used this elaborate piano intro that
Bluetooth came up with, and I just started singing this
intro and then that A Night in too Nisia hits,
and then it goes to an entire nas situation and
then the merry thing gets into it and it's just
(05:35):
all of these things and it was that magic happening
in the studio at that moment that we knew, you know,
you know, you know. It was one of those moments
like sometimes in the studio you're creating and it's like, oh,
this is fire, it's cool, We'll go home. Listen to
the beat. Everyone in that room felt something shift, felt
(05:55):
something new happen. And to have done everything that I've
all he done musically, everything that Dre has done, we'd
never done this. So we were onto something and it
felt like we had to see it through. So Casa
Blanco became a destination. Casa Blanco became the mood, the vibe,
the standard, and we just took it from there.
Speaker 5 (06:18):
I like the pedestal you put hip hop on on
this album because just because just musically, it just shows
how much of a classic musical art form hip hop is.
The fact you can go from a that Tannisian records
like from the forties, right, yeah, the fact you can
go from Nat to Noah.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
The nineties, right, and it blends perfectly, seamlessly. It doesn't
a lot of things that we did on this album
shouldn't make sense. Like I truly believe we will be
in the Guinness Book of World Records for how many
things we sampled and the way that we sampled them.
So no, we tang. Duke Kellington and Michael Jackson aren't
(06:56):
supposed to fuse, but on Thrill Her they did, you know,
So it's yeah, it was a wild ride, but one
of the most amazing experiences I've ever had, not only
recording it, just the entire process even getting to this point,
even it's taken so long to get a release date
for it to be available, like the entire thing has
(07:17):
just been No one's done this before.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Now, how you talk about you talk about inspiration right
in Charlot may say how you inspire so many people,
But you must have inspired Doctor Dre as well, because
we haven't heard music from Doctor dra we haven't seen
him executive produce things. We've only heard rumors, and like
it's almost like a.
Speaker 5 (07:34):
Team that never comes out. You hear Doctor drest such
and such album.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
But you never hear this.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
He recently said this in a bit in a in
an interview he recently did and said, and I absolutely
believe this. He may have only released five percent of
the music that he's ever recorded. Wow, and now working
with him as extensively as I did during the pandemic.
It's absolutely true. And he doesn't do it purposefully. It's
(08:02):
because he loves the creative process, and it's like, no,
this is just for us, this is ours.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
What did you do? How did you? How are you
one of a few people?
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Do you ever think it happen?
Speaker 3 (08:12):
I'm the only only There's not one person before or after.
I don't even think this happens again that has an
entire project solely produced and mixed by Doctor Dre. How
did I do it? Not clear? But I know that
(08:34):
I did it. I know that this is something that
he'd never done, and I feel like that that was
the driving force for it to be something new. He
could have just did a hip hop breakord. It could
have just been a soul armed. It's none of those things.
It's something so specific, so different, but so familiar, and
(08:55):
I feel like we were both going through a similar situation.
It was here, health scare, id to healthscare, the pandemic
is happening. It felt like the end of the earth
during that time, so it felt desperate in a way.
It felt if we don't do this and this world
ends tomorrow, what's the mark that we actually leave on
(09:15):
planet Earth? And musically, like you said, I've done things
that you know, a Marsha Ambrosius album is this specific thing.
If I had to leave it all on the floor
and put up my triple double and win a chip,
that's this album. If it was all said and done,
like okay, apocalyptic world that we're now in because of
(09:38):
the pandemic and many other things, it was that it
was out of desperation and feeling like I could have
lost my life, Drake could have lost his. We didn't.
We survived these things. We're now post COVID. How do
we navigate through this? And what does that sound like?
And that's why and how this happens. So yeah, drab
(09:59):
and inspired by me, I'm inspired by him and it
just took off.
Speaker 4 (10:05):
That's what the title means.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
So Casablanco I initially within a week of recording what
we knew this was going to be. After Tunisian Nights,
he threw out some album titles, a couple of which
were things like I sing or I sing more of
them one of those and I was like, Drake, we
(10:28):
need an actual title, like what is this? It was like,
I mean you sing, motherfucker, that's it. So I'm like, no, Drake,
it seeds to be a title, like what is this thing?
So I was in a spoiled circumstance where I'm driving
through the Beverly Hills, like just Hollywood Hills every day
to the destination to record, and it felt very vintage Hollywood,
(10:53):
like the lights, the lambs. It was glitz, glamour, red carpets,
the whole nine. And I felt under the rest of
the studio every time I got there based on what
we were creating. And so it was strings. It was
a symphony, but it painted these pictures and I was like, no,
it feels like a place. It feels like Casa Blanca.
(11:13):
And it was like, okay, Casa Blanca. It's a but nah,
it's that Dray shit. So it's a little bit more
gangster than that, like Casa Blanco, Giselda Blanco. So the
fusion of that very vintage jazz Hollywood feel meets hip
(11:35):
hop is how Casa Blanco became what it was.
Speaker 5 (11:39):
What it is, and all you make it feels like
it's soundtracks to make love to of course, like nothing more,
nothing less?
Speaker 4 (11:46):
Why is that?
Speaker 3 (11:47):
I have no clue, It's just in me. It's ridiculous,
Like I've had this. Well, a friend of mine recently
was like, how do you even come up with another
one this? Why not even in a place of desperation,
and even in a place of the world was over,
I still find a song to make love to. And
(12:12):
it's a gift.
Speaker 4 (12:15):
It's a gift one night stand music.
Speaker 5 (12:18):
Too good to have a one night stand too, Like,
that's not the type of music you have a one
night stand to.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Well, that was the point. My one night stand is
now ten years long, okay, and I'm saying so I
definitely lent from other experiences and wild drunk nights over
the course of you know, Grammy open Bar. You know,
it gets very ridiculous. So yeah, those those one nights,
(12:48):
they're a part of that song too. But ultimately it's
that one night that could be your forever.
Speaker 4 (12:55):
A bunch of people that'll be like, you shouldn't have
one night stand?
Speaker 3 (12:57):
Why not?
Speaker 4 (12:58):
Exactly?
Speaker 3 (12:59):
I don't know where it's gonna go. Like if you don't,
everything is a one night stand if you think about it.
We've all done it. It's whether or not it lasted
or it didn't. But you shouldn't be Oh, I'd never
do that if I didn't do it ten years later
in a seven year old, maybe that doesn't happen if
I don't just you know what I mean, like if
I don't say.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Hey, I gotta I want to ask. So I want
to go back to what you said. You said the
health scare in your child. How did that change your life?
With the healthcare in your child? Because I guess if
the baby's was six seven years old, happened right before COVID,
so you pretty much raised the baby during COVID.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
It's just COVID babies are different. It's ridiculous, Like, but
for me, how it all changed, It changed all of us,
you know. So it was being a bit more sensitive,
being a bit more open, and I feel like all
(13:54):
of our issues, all of our mental health, it was
everything was on the table because we could all see
each other now we had way too much time to
spend with ourselves. So you were like, oh, you're I
see you and we're going through exactly the same thing.
So there was much more well for me anyway, much
(14:15):
more dialogue. Even though suicide skyrocketed, like all of these things,
all of these numbers, all of these things are happening,
and I have my baby, I have my husband, I
have my own bubble that allowed me to feel safe
amidst the chaos like it was. It still is chaotic,
(14:38):
but that was my peace and me being able to
be grounded, so that that definitely helped. But at the
same time, being in a dark place, I don't think
there's anything that could bring you out of that, and
that was terrifying during the pandemic, and I'm pretty sure
for anybody where you're like, not even your kid could
(15:00):
bring you. No my mother, my father, my brother, like
close friends.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
You can write your year.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
This is what Casablanco ended up being. Casablanco when the
timing of it all was I could see the light
at the end of the tunnel. Now I was over
the other side of that dark place. And even with
this tentative, oh there's going to be a release date
or we had think about the samples on this album,
(15:29):
we literally took over a year to clear the samples,
and I didn't mind that because I felt like I
still needed time to heal. So waiting for this release
date was almost like when I say a death date,
it was Okay, that's the end of that era. So
whenever it was happening, it was like, Okay, now it's
(15:50):
June twenty eighth. I was like, that's the end of
all this madness that I had to get through to
get to it. So it was like, if I can
survive that long, I made it. So what, We've got
a couple of couple of days to go until we
get there. I didn't think I'd see this moment at
one point. So to get here and to be happy
(16:12):
and to be in a space that I'm in, it's
just wow.
Speaker 4 (16:16):
Wow. Is that where the song I guess self care
on right might come.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
But even that is a song to make love to.
Speaker 4 (16:23):
Yeah, I mean a form of self care.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
Right, it's self care. It's being in tune to oneself.
Put the do the math one plus one is there?
Do you?
Speaker 2 (16:34):
So?
Speaker 3 (16:34):
Yeah, self care And no matter who's wrong or who
was right, it was just don't leave me and don't
leave that feeling. And once the music started, it was
all of those emotions and even in that, like you said,
it all came back down to in true Marsha Ambrosiest
fashion right in that love song still, so I'm just
(17:00):
glad to be able to do that.
Speaker 4 (17:01):
What's the wrong right part of it?
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Though?
Speaker 4 (17:03):
Like what let mean, who's wrong? Self care? Wrong right with?
Speaker 3 (17:06):
So initially those were two separate songs, and the self
care was I needed to do me figure chip for
you literally, so by the time we got too wrong right,
it's me inviting that person then into my space and
it's given me good like you so hood like please
(17:29):
don't go. It's that you're so wrong right now for
even trying to let me let my guard down. Because
I was so cool with just letting me do me
and then here comes this m this ugh, this fine
dark chocolate swept me off my feet and let me
(17:55):
put my guard down. And I'm a Leo and that's
hard for me to do. So when it happens, it's
both terrifying. But the the fear and the lioness comes
out in aggression and anger and a lot of sexual
appetite that is or you know anyone that knows that knows,
(18:17):
and yeah, that was You're so wrong right now.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
What did y'all meet? Where did you meet your husband?
Speaker 3 (18:23):
On tour?
Speaker 1 (18:24):
On tour? How did that go?
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Down, because when you're talking about him, you just you
started mouse started salamating, and you just start getting together.
Speaker 4 (18:32):
Turn it.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
You say, I'm thinking about the song long right, I'm like.
Speaker 5 (18:35):
Hey, and be thinking about your man? Turned on.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
I'm just saying I'm listening. She was just so excited.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
I'm just asking that's where the music Love is Love
got me thinking about my wife?
Speaker 1 (18:49):
All right, I'm sorry, I get it.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
It's fine. No. We met on on tour ten years
ago and I saw him. It's ten years later. I said,
you know, when you know you know, and you keep
like all the movies that you see that's corny shit,
like never happy, Yes, it did. It was. I seen
(19:12):
him and he had a red fit on and I
was like, who is that? And I approached him like yo,
what's up? And we got to talking and we haven't
stopped talking since.
Speaker 5 (19:27):
You need to write a book called One Night's Thing,
because there's so many people who think you got to
make the man wait thirty days or sixty days or
ninety days.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
There's so many formulas to it. But if you don't
just follow your intuition, because it all depends on what
type of person you are, Like, there are people that
are I've never been. I'm not approaching unless I know
it's for sure. I don't know. There's many formulas to it.
So even if I did write a book, I'm going
(19:56):
with what worked for me. I'm not giving you the
manual to how this works out, like ooh, you too
can find your ten years later or you know what
I mean, Like, I'm not giving it as game like that.
I'm saying, if you saw what it was that you
wanted and you didn't make your move, that's on you,
because then you will sit there and ponder and be like, well,
(20:18):
what if I just said something? But if I just approached.
But by the time that I did, and it was
what it was, and I knew that it was more
than just that one night in Philadelphia, that one night
in Chicago, that one night in Virginia, that one night
in LA Now it's many nights. Now it's all you
(20:41):
want to move in? Sure, moved in together. And then
it's oh, you want to go back to the UK
for Christmas with me? Meet my whole family. Sure? And
then by April we were pregnant. Wow, was that serious?
Sounds ridiculous When I say no, When I say ridiculous.
It's like that's the timeline though, you know, and we
were both very sure.
Speaker 5 (21:03):
I can't remember what song it is. Maybe it was
Greedy was the one song? Maybe I'm tripping it sound
you was talking about having a threesome.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
Oh, thrill her. That was a dream not really came true,
but a fantasy. So thrill her. It was a drunken
high night. I want to say I took that story
from what was it? Atlanta? No, this one might have
been at LA. It was definitely a Grammy week and
(21:31):
I painted the picture. He came in drunk as hell,
give some head. Then a knock at the door and
it's another chick. I'm like, who the is this? And
I'm like, oh, it's about to go down. Oh it
might have been a Philly story too. There's like a
lot of stories involved. So yeah, when people hear this album,
(21:52):
they can claim them yeah that was me, and then uh,
it's just great. I love that figure. Yeah it's yeah,
it was a wild night, but.
Speaker 4 (22:05):
It was a dream. Who knows, Okay, I don't know.
It sounded real to me either.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
Sounded real to me.
Speaker 5 (22:13):
Too, And the album is very like nineteen ninety now,
like how do you have such a nostalgic feeling feeling
but keep it fresh, because.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
That's what I mean. Any hip hop Conoissan or R
and B head nineties is just it's unmatched. It was
a time if you weren't outside, just say that. And
I feel like with this album to have grasped what
the nass of the world were doing then, the Mary's
(22:45):
of the world were doing then, but making it now
it's because that was timeless and that's I think we're
all the same age, like our generation of timeless like,
whereas our parents it's Temptations, it's you know, Earthwind Vice. Okay,
even later than that, but it was timeless music. So
(23:06):
it survives now and sounds fresh now because it was
that good then. So I couldn't integrate, I want to say,
couldn't didn't really want to integrate what we feel like
hip hop is now or R and B is now.
I can only lem from what I really know and
me creating in my creative process has always come from
the Jodasy era. It stops and starts there. It's Jodasy,
(23:30):
that's my R and B like. Ultimately, so my hip
hop is nas it's Jay so it's all of those
things in one album that make it fresh because it
was good then, so it's gonna be good now. Like singing,
what's a classic to you give any class? Right, so
(23:52):
you sing that now it's then, but it's absolutely now
because it was that good then. And I feel like
I've always, when I say, attempted to write timeless music
for me to sing say yes or Butterflies. Now I can,
but that is twenty four years ago for me in
my real time betimes four years later, absolutely timeless. So
(24:14):
to create a Casa blanco and know that twenty four
years later that can still live, that's the goal. It's like,
what is your tomorrow? And musically I've been doing things
that could live for tomorrow whenever that future is.
Speaker 5 (24:31):
I just love the fact that a nas illmatic can
inspire something like this, because.
Speaker 4 (24:35):
When I hit it out, I hear a lot of
I hear a lot of illmatic.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
Yeah, and that was unintentional, I guess. With that first
Tunisian Nights, it's trying to outdo how we implemented unintentionally
nas in there. And it was all of these things
because hip hop back then was still lending from classic
jazz records, so it only made sense that we not
(24:59):
only borrowed from what the nineties did with those samples,
but reinventing and elevating them in the only way that
a doctor Dre can And did you know?
Speaker 2 (25:12):
So I was gonna ask, you know, you talk about
doctor Dre only releasing five percent of the music that
he actually made. How much music did y'all make? And
had what was the process of trickling it down from
the amount of songs you made to this eleven?
Speaker 3 (25:27):
You know what's crazy? We made about twelve or thirteen
songs really and knew when it was time to start.
We knew it when it was completed. And the only
reason why the other two didn't make it is because
one of them it made the album play a little
longer than we felt comfortable with, and it matched another
(25:48):
song on there like evenly, like if you had to
get rid of one of the other definitely that one though,
and one of them we couldn't clear, like get nah
one of them. So I was like, okay, we can't
clear that one. We have an album and Dre in
the creative process has like a whiteboard on the wall.
We'll write the titles for each song. We just looked
(26:11):
at it and was like, that's it. That's it, We're done.
So between April, end of April twenty twenty one and
end of May we were completely done with recorded vocally.
I recorded everything, written, everything, and we took a couple
of weeks off and reconvened and dre said twenty seven
(26:35):
piece orchestra. So we were at Gower Studios. Eric Gorefain
did the string arrangements and we were in with the
orchestra listening to them go crazy on this album that
we created, which was already doing what it was going
to do. This symphony just took it to another place,
(26:58):
like just didn't even make any sense. So by the
time that's happened, it's just timeless in that way.
Speaker 5 (27:09):
How does you know, really thinking about your mortality and
like you know, maybe I guess being face to face
with definite way, how did that change just everything about
you as an artist, as a person.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
I don't know if you can see it. I'm so
happy and chill, like nothing can really like phase me.
And if it's anything that does kind of interfere with
my peace, it's whereas I would get upset or combative
or defensive about things in the past, it's okay, that's
(27:46):
how you feel cool, Like there's so many more important
things than being mad about anything or holding onto things unnecessarily,
like that brush with what you think death looks like,
and that flash across your eyes, like like that was it.
(28:11):
The things you think were important never were, And by
the time you get your life back, it still feels
like that, like it's not important important, Like prioritizing the
importance of things in your life changes, like it's not important.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
But you know, with you taking so much time off,
it's part of the reason, Like I just don't want
to deal with the noise, with.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
The people talking, with the social media, with the conversations.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
It's just you have a clear mind when you don't
deal with things and people.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
Not necessarily that. I love people, I love the internet.
It's a very entertaining space. So it was never that
it was the obligatory having to do it, the whole
artist thing. It's the interviews, right, it's the now I
(29:08):
have an itinerary. Yeah, let's just live with chill and
maybe do stuff for fun and live how the other
side lives or whatever. You think. That looks like it
was always that, but as far as noise, I think
I've I forced myself to engage to get perspective on
(29:31):
where people are actually at in their lives, to understand
me more, if that makes any sense, because I couldn't.
I think during the pandemic we all internalized a little
bit more and understood ourselves a bit more. But I
think not enough people were sharing that for the fear
of being looked at crazy, because you have more time
(29:53):
to think about who you were, why you were and
if all I had to end tomorrow, what did you do?
You were here, so all of these things are happening,
and I was okay with noise, I feel like I
was more terrified of the silence.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Would you say okay with the noise, meaning you didn't
mind people discussing and talking and oh not like, but
you feel like you're still there?
Speaker 3 (30:22):
Yeah, Like if I if I wasn't there, I don't know.
I want to say, it doesn't matter. I think I
was engaging in conversations and catching up with at such
and such on Twitter or at blah blah blah, because
it was oh, we're still here, We're still able to
communicate you, okay, it was negative or positive. I was
(30:43):
like you've made time.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
You're talking about it regardless.
Speaker 3 (30:46):
Yeah, so it was like you've made time.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
It's the fear of not talking about you.
Speaker 3 (30:51):
But yeah, I didn't mind that. It was life. I
was comfortable with again and all of it, in all
of its noise. So I think for anyone during the pandemic,
that silence, it was like the zombie apocalypse, like, is
anyone here? Am I crazy by myself? We're all gonna die?
(31:12):
What's happened?
Speaker 4 (31:13):
Like?
Speaker 3 (31:13):
It was the silence, especially.
Speaker 5 (31:16):
If you've never if you've never done any internal work,
you never did no therapy, if you never did no meditation,
if you never have it on no healing journey, and
that was your first time having to deal with yourself.
Speaker 3 (31:27):
That's noisier than anything. You and your thoughts by yourself,
screaming at times, and then it was quiet, but then
it was peaceful, and then it was okay, let me breathe,
and everyone okay, everyone good? You know? And it felt
(31:48):
like that.
Speaker 4 (31:48):
Why did you learn new about yourself during that time?
Speaker 3 (31:52):
I have way more patience than I thought. I'm terrible,
like terrible Uber eats. Where you at with my food delivery?
You said you made a left turn. What do you
mean you're still waiting? What do you mean you're yeah,
I'm terrible. I don't like waiting. I got no patience
and I hate waiting. Get yeah, patience didn't have any
(32:22):
Now I have all of it because it's oh, it's
not happening right now? Cool? Before What do you mean
why went I don't even care when they don't care.
It's I can't do anything about time, and it's I
thought I had time at one point, and when I
(32:44):
realized I had none. Oh, Now I'm patient with everything
because now I feel like I've held onto more time
than I could have had, So that's different.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
I was watching the R and B Money podcast shot
the Tank and he made a comment, I guess you
was joking. I don't know if you were joking or
not talking about you dot Stevie want that really can
see now, And people took it as they were mad
at you for a little bit mad at me.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
How I don't know, because if you're a Stevie Wonder fan,
what I said was, he can see if you listen
to the music, to be one of the most prolific,
descriptive songwriters of our time, how can he not and
(33:31):
maybe not in the way that you believe that that is.
But his pen game makes you visualize us with actual sight,
visualize everything. He was saying, that's a gift. That's what
I said. Yes, he can see because there's no way.
(33:53):
He says, I never dreamed you'd leave in summer, and
I literally see the summer day he's referring to. That's
not fair. Mary wants to be a superwoman, and I
know who Mary looks like. I've already made that character.
The song plays and nice see it. Stevie more than
any song WHERI are. I believe on planet Earth has
(34:16):
made me see a song the way Stevie does. That's
what I said. I said, what I like, I said,
That's why I said.
Speaker 4 (34:22):
I get what you're saying. He might be blind, but
he got a vision. It's a difference, speaking of vision.
Speaker 3 (34:29):
To use that song on Casta Blanco, I remember Dre
actually he might Drey was nervous about using the Stevie
record or like asking him, like, yo, listen Stevie and
see what he thinks. I'm like, okay, crazy, but yeah,
we got to use visions on Casta Blanco and with
(34:50):
Stevie's blessing and bucket list, like wow, this fake bucket lifts.
I keep making up, like I'll check that one off.
Speaker 4 (35:00):
You know, did he want to hear it?
Speaker 3 (35:01):
Or oh yeah, yeah he hear it? So I mean
we had to go through that process.
Speaker 4 (35:05):
But did he love it? Did he give any creative input?
Speaker 3 (35:08):
We had creative input because I did curse in that
song at some point in the bridge. But I when
I curse in music, it's for emphasism. So I think
with this one, I've taken it too far.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
Steve was like now, now, now, and he might.
Speaker 3 (35:27):
Have cursed during and not like he might have cursed
trying to tell us not to curse. But it was necessary.
I took it out. It makes sense. I didn't have to.
I wanted to in that emotional moment though, and did
and maybe live Steve you with it still sing that
(35:48):
same line that I did. But yeah, it was a
it was a wonderful experience.
Speaker 4 (35:54):
Did Stevie FaceTime zoom?
Speaker 3 (35:57):
I want to say it was a phone call that
I had and dre It spoke to him also.
Speaker 4 (36:03):
So yeah, how involved is d.
Speaker 3 (36:06):
We're just gonna let that one do this cool?
Speaker 1 (36:13):
You call it as long as you caught him.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
Absolutely, you caught it smooth, love it, FaceTime, I love it.
Speaker 5 (36:20):
How involved is Dre as far as creative direction and
like just taking your input?
Speaker 3 (36:25):
Oh for this, this was a complete hand in hand
fifty to fifty battle of the creative minds, and his
respect for me, my respect for him allowed us to
really do this. And he's a genius. I'm me and
(36:52):
he's he said that I was a genius. You are
to me, which is it's crazy to hear it from
who I'm looking at, a genius and he's looking like
it's like the Spider Man me. We're all doing this
in the studio and he's like, yeah, I'm Dre and
I do this thing, but I ain't tell Michael Jackson
(37:14):
what to do. So, ah, you're absolutely right. I did
that one. So there was just a respect level there
and he let me push boundaries in a way that
I'd never done one. It's Dray's budget and he's literally saying,
no limits. You can do whatever you want. If you
(37:36):
had to make the perfect song and implement all of
these things, what is that, just do it. I didn't
think that me having Wu Tang, Duke Kellington and Michael
Jackson on one song was possible until we did it.
I didn't know Patrece Russian and the Mary j and
(37:56):
Mary Jane girls one song could happen, but it did.
All of these things were happening because Dre said no
limits and it's unreal, for real, for real, If I'm honest,
(38:21):
I've never done anything like this, like I've made music before,
but with the creative freedom and no limits on it
allowed me to do things that I'd never done ever
and may never will, might really truly be the one
(38:43):
of one and I'd be okay with that.
Speaker 4 (38:45):
Dan, So you don't think you'd put out another album
after this.
Speaker 3 (38:49):
It's not even another album, it's not another this. I'll
create music for the rest of my life, whatever that
sounds like, whatever that looks like. But this, in its moment,
it's like, we can't recreate the timing of when these
health scares happened, the desperation of what's happening with Planet Earth,
(39:13):
the uncertainty of life, and why we made this album.
You know, we can only do celebritory like Happy to
Be a live albums after this. You know, everything else
is kind of just a But this album was made
because we didn't think we'd ever get the chance to
(39:35):
make one again.
Speaker 1 (39:36):
How was it when you played the record for method
Man during the Roots picnic?
Speaker 3 (39:43):
Most of my best friends standing behind me, waiting to
just hold him, like, give me a second, mother, man,
please scause you listen to my I mean, he's a dream.
I can still say that. I know I'm married, my
husband knows what it is. What's the man? So to
play him? I remember when I was writing that moment
(40:08):
in the song and the go outside and the rain
sample is happening, and I knew the beat was about
to come in, and I'm like, you got that m
me T H O D man do that thing you
do those hands, kiss on this and make it dance.
Take it baby, giving you permission with persistence. Oh I
(40:30):
l O V E I T And I can't get
enough of this ocean flow below my legs, swim in it,
go diving inside inside my love babe, love you babe.
Speaker 4 (40:44):
That's what right, ain't it?
Speaker 1 (40:47):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (40:55):
You film me like so to play it for him.
Fantasy bucket list. You can't make up like this method Man,
play wet the method Man and just to see him
blush when the moment came in.
Speaker 1 (41:15):
And him do a little two step right, two.
Speaker 3 (41:18):
Step to that give me all the audibles, said he's
going to be the leading man in the video, and
it's you know, the Minie Riperton inside me at the end,
and it's just all the things. It was a fantasy.
All of this feels very surreal, like it's happening, but
(41:39):
it's happening in real time. Like I get to go, hey, Stevie,
listen to what we did with your Hey, George Benson,
here's Patrice Rushing, here is Mary, here's Nah's here's plain
it just yeah, so Meth, thank you, Meth my leading man.
Speaker 5 (41:57):
I've got a couple more questions. You said you didn't
tell Michael Jackson what to do. Drey didn't tell Michael
Jackson what to do.
Speaker 3 (42:03):
Dre didn't.
Speaker 4 (42:04):
Okay, okay.
Speaker 3 (42:05):
So he's saying, basically his nod to me was I'm
Dre and I've made several other goats, but you know
I didn't tell Michael Jackson what to do. That was you.
So it's I'm coming to the room with something that
he's never done. Wow, So don't devalue what it is
with you in the room. And I get that, and
(42:27):
you have to understand the amount of people that have
probably crossed paths and been in the studio with Dre
and possibly gotten to a stage where they thought maybe
a project is happening. This part has barely happened. For
like I said that five percent is just the creating
of the music. The actual artists that get to be
at this part only happen if you're the five people
(42:51):
that you can count six or seven maybe, but don't happen.
So it was it was that it's I'm one of
one and unja cultable what yes and wanted to be
like I think that was the I had a spoiled experience.
I was just getting to you know, Atlanta, then get
(43:13):
to Philly, get signed by the end of that year.
Now I'm in the studio within less than a year
of the time it took me to get to the States.
Then worked with Michael Jackson because he's heard this demo
and we were here in New York Hit Factory and
he was there to out. Michael Jackson was there in
the studio two hours before call time, just warming up
(43:37):
his vocal. He was that guy like he was great
because he worked like unlike any other and I'll never
forget the first moment where he goes in the booth
like that glass behind there, and it was I'm at
the mixing board and Bruce Swede and a sist soul too,
(44:01):
Andre Harris is at the board. I have the talk
back button, and the first chord happens and Mike just
whispers like butterfly, and I just started crying wow immediately,
just couldn't even hold it back. Just I'm in the studio,
I'm twenty two, twenty three at that time, like those
were my younger years, my formative years, and I'm doing
(44:24):
this at that age.
Speaker 1 (44:25):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (44:26):
And then it was tat back, one more time, I
get your timing right, one more time, might make sure
you like vocally produce that entire song. But when I
press play is only when I can hear the reality
of that because it's steamless. There's nothing wrong with that song.
And he allowed me, at my very young, naive, very
(44:49):
green to everything industry, not only do me retain all
my publishing and flourish in that studio as a vocally
as a vocal producer, producer and writer for that record.
And Mike was just the king for all reasons.
Speaker 1 (45:13):
Can you take us back? How did he hear butterflies?
How did he hit a reference track? I said, I
wanted that.
Speaker 4 (45:18):
Well.
Speaker 3 (45:18):
I'd written the song when I was about sixteen seventeen
in Camberwell, South London, about a boy that worked in McDonald's.
I don't even know his name. I just knew that
he was a neighbor's friend and he was fine as hell.
Speaker 1 (45:34):
He gave you butterflies every time, every time.
Speaker 3 (45:37):
So I recently put to in McDonald's giving you bubble gud.
Then there's that I wasn't eating McDonald's like that though
I never really ate my well, I did kind of,
but I was basketball back then, so I was in
athlete mode for sure. But Camberwell, the place that the
McDonald's is in, is called Butterfly Walk, and I never
(45:58):
put that together until we recently he went back and
started taking pictures there and I was like, look at God,
look at that. So I ended up writing this song.
Get to Philadelphia, year two thousands, that's a couple of
years after that. Meet the team out of Touch of Jazz.
One producer in particular, Andre Harris, who'd done two of
my favorite Jill Scott songs, Long Walk, and the Way,
(46:21):
and I was like, who did those two? Oh, that's Dray,
that's Andre. I was like, I want parts. So within
a week, Andre Harris and myself had recorded Say Yes
and Butterflies together. So Say Yes was for Ron Eisley.
So we did that demo together, and that was with
the intent that Ron Eisley was going to do Say
(46:41):
Yes for his album. He just didn't take it. Restless
History and then Butterflies a few days after that, five
or slow in the morning, six or so in the morning,
play the chords and like Dre, slow those down, YadA
YadA YadA, and Butterflies happens. And John McClain, who ended
(47:01):
up signing Flower Tree to Dream Works, was Michael Jackson's
personal manager, so he has the demo, plays it for Mike,
so listen, you have to listen to these girls. Listen
to this demo, and Mike was like, I want that one,
just Butterflies. Mike, you can have the entire album if
you want it. It's yours. I don't have to do
(47:22):
another thing. And that's how we heard it. We got
the call in Philia a Touch of Jazz. Everyone thought
it was a prank call. Went to voicemail the first time,
and then I think Jeff spoke to him, well, Carvin
spoke to I think Carvin said he spoke to him,
and he thought it was dre messing around. We were
practical jokers back of the day. And Mike, you don't
really know. You think you know his voice. Mike had
(47:44):
a deeper, raspier voice, and I think he only used
a higher tone just to preserve his greatness, like he
didn't want to use or project. He was only using
that for the booth or the stage, and that's it.
So by the time we've spoken to him, this is
the summer of two thousand. I was in the studio
with him in New York the following year March, so
(48:06):
it's like that quick wow.
Speaker 2 (48:08):
Now you also mentioned Flowa Tree fans were always what
will flowr you ever do an album together again?
Speaker 1 (48:13):
Or that chapter your life is over?
Speaker 3 (48:15):
Who knows? No chapters are closed. And I think, rewinding
to what you said about you know, when I met
my husband, I did a Flowa Tree tour twenty fifteen
twenty sixteen, and that's when I met him, and then
got pregnant the following year on the other tour, So
it was like a back to back Hey reunion its
full love and yeah, who knows now?
Speaker 2 (48:33):
Also I seen Amanda Seals was on Club Shah and
talks about she said that she thinks she wanted her
to quit flow a Tree?
Speaker 1 (48:41):
Was that true?
Speaker 3 (48:43):
The loaded question quit flower Tree is very vague? What
was happening with Amanda Seals? And this is what? Because
I won't spend a lot of time in this. This
is like a quick bit. When did we lost through
the Breakfast Club?
Speaker 4 (48:57):
Because this is like seven came up.
Speaker 3 (49:00):
Yes, So initially the first thing I said about Amanda
Sales is sorry, I can play the clip, you can
go to YouTube and see it. And it was she
was put in a position that she shouldn't have been
in the first place, the label and management of trying
to re establish what that was and it just didn't work.
(49:21):
So by the time we've put all of these things
into action, we've rehearsed a show and you've given it
to the public. Everyone has gone, oh nah, and there's
nothing I can do about that part. And this is
also seventeen years ago, three weeks of a summer to all,
we may have done like fifteen or sixteen shows, and
(49:41):
it just didn't work out and that was the end
of that, really, But we've had nothing but for me,
And I'm saying like I, well, for me, we'd had
nothing but positive interactions thereafter. Like I saw her twenty thirteen,
we took pictures together, we reminisced, and she'd been texting
me throughout the years after that, nothing but positive vibes.
(50:05):
So I'm in a good space right now, seventeen years later.
So for whatever she believes that was, I don't think
publicly we can do this combative. Well you said this happened,
or I said this happened. I know exactly what happened
on my end, But you know, it's kind of seventeen
(50:29):
years ago. I've done all this healing between now and then.
I'm not the same Like seventeen years ago, two thousand
and seven, I'm still talking to Michael Jackson at that point,
I've still got prints on speed dial, Like I was
still very much Grammy winning, Grammy nominated me, that was
in a position to do what I wanted to do
(50:52):
at that point, moving forward. And here we are seventeen
years later, and I'm still moving on and moving forward,
and Casa Blanco with doctor Dre's about to drop and
just in a different space.
Speaker 5 (51:08):
You know, on the song Greedy, it makes me wonder
that your husband ever hears certain lyrics and be like,
you're talking about us because you say it's never enough
to love you, same old, lame old Ain't no way
I'm ever going to take that shit. I'm giving you everything,
and this the thanks I get.
Speaker 3 (51:21):
Don't play that shit, even if it was Greedy. During
that time, and even during the creative process of Casa Blanco,
my husband and I had a conversation about where I
was at mentally to create the actual Basically, he said
(51:50):
I didn't have to be married Mash and come from
that space. And I understood what he said when he
said that, because the love songs different if I'm attached
to the relationship I'm in and having to kind of
skirt around what that looks like. Those songs sound like
don't Wait the Baby or just like old Times, and
(52:13):
they're different. With this. It was you need to stretch
that pen and write from a space of you doing
you and what does that sound like. So by the
time I got to Greedy, I was angry at the world,
like it's never enough to love anyone or anything, and
(52:35):
then be satisfied in a way that you feel like
you put your one hundred in and they only claim
it's thirty percent. So I could give you the moon
and it's like, well where the sun at? Like it's
the moon family that you don't want, you know, And
I feel like greedy I was talking about everyone. It
(52:58):
wasn't even just about him, it was everyone and everything
playing this tuggerwar of if you're not next to me,
you feel as though you're missing out on something that
you only gain by being with me or taking something
from me. I'm like, what's the endgame? Like what exactly
(53:19):
do you want? Because you're really upset, like you mad
as fuck that you're not around me like that greedy.
Speaker 4 (53:28):
M I love that song music on my mind.
Speaker 5 (53:33):
You said it's a it's that Wu Tang meets Cold Traine,
And what I love about that is like what I
told you earlier is like you're putting hip hop on
this proper pedestal of being like a classic musical art form?
Speaker 4 (53:45):
Was that intentional throughout the project?
Speaker 3 (53:50):
Maybe not intentional, but my affinity and adoration for hip
hop has stemmed from me knowing all the words to
Beach Street breaking like being overseas, getting all of these
imported hip hop twelve inch records from my uncle and
(54:17):
hip up you the love of my life, and I
feel like on this album, it only made sense that
I made sure that that last music on my mind
was my love letter to music, and I couldn't fit
everything in, so I just gave you the bullet points
of what those errors and time. So yeah, WU tang
(54:39):
it to shout out. I even shouted out Mace and
Cam before I even know they would reunite. This is
twenty twenty one. I'm calling this out and I know
what Horse and Carriage did for me in the nineties,
you know, So it was all of these small nuds
to things and this is in the same breath I'm saying,
you know, MJ. J. Dillar, Marcus Miller, Murder, Max Cam Killer,
(55:03):
Miss Pay, Funkadelic, George Clinton, and I even shout out
Luke Skywalker, just things that I've loved over the course
of my life. And if that were my last speech
to planet Earth, like it's been real, this was it.
That's what music on my mind and that last statement
(55:24):
was the last thing that I say is Dr that
mamba mentality, the game winning shut for the three cod swish.
Speaker 5 (55:38):
It's good, great way to in the project. That's right,
great for the fantastic album.
Speaker 1 (55:43):
Comes out next Friday, June twenty eighth.
Speaker 3 (55:46):
Oh my goodness, when you say it out loud, it's real.
Speaker 1 (55:48):
That's right next Friday.
Speaker 3 (55:49):
Oh man, listen, but.
Speaker 1 (55:53):
What do you want to hear off that album?
Speaker 3 (55:55):
What do I want to hear that?
Speaker 1 (55:56):
You're gonna allow us to play because we got to
get it from you, guys. We haveybody.
Speaker 3 (56:02):
Might be wet, we might be self care wrong, riot.
Speaker 4 (56:06):
You can do you can do both both.
Speaker 3 (56:08):
Thrill has a thing though that thing is a story.
Speaker 1 (56:13):
Ain't got enough time for three, but we got two.
We will.
Speaker 3 (56:16):
It's pick one. Tell us used to be done at
the board, like okay, what we're saying thrill her? What scart?
Speaker 1 (56:24):
Okay cool thrill her and we let's do it all right.
We'll get that on.
Speaker 2 (56:27):
Thank you so much for joining us. The album Casablanco
comes out next Friday. Today, the track listing is released.
You guys can check that out.
Speaker 1 (56:35):
And we appreciate you for spending it with us today.
Speaker 3 (56:37):
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (56:40):
It's Marsha ambrosis. It's the Breakfast Club. Good morning, wake.
Speaker 4 (56:43):
That ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club
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