September 23, 2024 • 23 mins
TYME JOHNSON — “THE FANTASTIC VOYAGE: THE STORY OF COOLIO” docu-series director and producer joins host Keith L. Underwood BLACK IN THE GREEN ROOM!
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(00:00):
You are black in the green room on KBLA Talk 1580 with me, your host keeps underwood.
(00:06):
And this is your spot for real talk about entertainment with entertainers, creatives,
and showbiz professionals.
Joining me in the room today is singer, screenwriter and the director and producer of the Fantastic
Voyage, which is a docu-series about the life and career of rap icon Kool-Yoh, time Johnson
(00:30):
welcome to the room.
Thank you, thank you.
I appreciate you inviting me.
I'm honored.
Yes, thank you for being here.
Time, you know, before we get into talking about Kool-Yoh, why don't you tell me a little
bit about you and how you got started in this business and how did that happen?
(00:51):
I helped to prepare you to take on this docu-series.
I started at a very young age.
I started singing in my clubs.
I want to say I was like 12, 13 and taken dance lessons and of course singing in the
choirs and drama and debates and going to college for a took production.
(01:21):
Take production and video production to prepare me for doing music videos and for filming,
for filming television and for filming feature films.
So it's been quite a road.
I've been in groups.
I've sang with quite a few hip-hop artists, including Kool-Yoh.
(01:47):
I've sang with so many people that are well known.
And in written hooks, written songs, did multiple scripts, movie scripts, all preparing me
for becoming a director and a filmmaker.
(02:07):
Yeah.
And you mentioned Kool-Yoh and doing some background and some singing for him.
How did that come about?
How did you first meet and start working with Kool-Yoh?
Oh, I like that chuckle.
There's a story there.
You play it right for a meet of the thing, you.
The way Kool-Yoh and I met was at an award show for, I think it was American Music Awards
(02:38):
and I was a dancer, that was a background dancer for hip-hop parade for a night of our nature.
So that's where we met.
And we became really close.
We ended up moving in together.
And you guys had a relationship?
Yes.
(02:58):
We had a relationship.
And that is where we had this relationship, he was about to get signed for his first album.
He was about to get signed for it, takes his beef.
We lived together and I was in a lot of the sessions where him and his family, his friends,
(03:23):
his business partners would be writing at our house.
So it was automatically that I would be included in that.
And we ended up doing a song together called "Dial it Jam" which was on 40th, on Jerky
Boy, a song track, a movie song track.
So that's how it was.
And then your co-producer and the executive producer of the documentary, Clyde Spoon, Colin,
(03:51):
was a great friend of Kool-Yoh's and then also his manager.
How did the two of you meet?
Me and Spoon?
Yes.
Spoon and I met through Kool-Yoh.
I met him after me and Kool-Yoh linked up together.
(04:13):
And Spoon was always there.
Before I was there, he was always at the house.
He was, you know, he was a part of Kool-Yoh.
You didn't see Kool-Yoh without Spoon.
So, you know, that was an automatic integration of everyone coming together.
It was like a family with Kool-Yoh, with Spoon, with the different groups that they ended
(04:37):
up having and creating under their umbrella.
It was named Crowbar Management.
It was the name of the company that they created.
Yeah.
And they were childhood friends, right?
Yes.
They were childhood friends.
They grew up together.
(04:57):
They, I don't know if they went to school together.
I'm not sure about that, but I do know that they grew up together and Kool-Yoh and Spoon
lived together at Spoon's grandmother's house, I believe it was, in Compton.
So yeah, they're childhood friends and they ended up forming groups together, wrapping
(05:19):
together.
They were DJs together.
So this is like, you know, they were in several groups together.
And it was just automatic that Kool-Yoh and Spoon would just stay together and once Kool-Yoh
and Solo Spoon became his manager.
He became, not his main manager, but his road manager.
(05:42):
Right.
But he said he had so many keys.
He was just like, you know, he was the second manager under Paul Stewart, which is his
main manager at the time.
But what did you learn from their business relationship from watching their business relationship?
At the time, I was in a group called Time for Change and I was with someone that was totally
(06:09):
opposite of Kool-Yoh and Paul Stewart.
I can't remember the name of his, his, was it Power Moves, something like that.
Paul Stewart had, he was signed.
He had Deaf Jam.
He had a record label under Deaf Jam.
But I was signed with another company called Total Track Productions at the time.
(06:31):
So even though we were all, you know, staying in this house in Long Beach, Kool-Yoh was signed
to Paul Stewart and he was with Spoon and we were with Total Track Productions, which was
DJ Quick, MG, Second None, Boss.
So it was watching him, it was like, and watching them prepare Kool-Yoh for his big break.
(06:58):
I was learning different parts of the business as well.
Just the writing styles, watching them go into the studios with them.
So I was learning things about the business like, you know, one of his calls with his manager,
his, his, his, his lawyer who was Tony Abner at the time.
I was in those conversations answering the phone, you know, receiving messages.
(07:23):
So I was, I was witness to all of this all the way up into the, the actual end of the album.
And I remember sitting in the, the office that we had that was, it was like a, a din, but
we made it into an office.
And I remember us, all of us sitting in there, Kool-Yoh Spoon, his group, Gat.
(07:44):
And we're just also in listening to Gaines, just not Gaines' Paradise, we're listening
to it takes a thief to from the beginning to the end.
And this was before anything came out and we're just like, this is it, you know, and that
was, and that was early, early, early on.
Yeah.
And that was, that was, yeah.
So we were talking a little bit about your relationship with, with Kool-Yoh and what
(08:09):
you learned and what you also learned from watching the collaborations between him and his
good friend and road manager, Spoon Colin, how did you and Spoon come together to work
on this docu series and how did, how did Spoon know that you would be the right person
(08:29):
to kind of helm this?
Right.
Well, Spoon and I had, of course, you know, it's been many years.
Spoon and I had lost contact.
I had still been in contact with Kool-Yoh over the years.
And Spoon, Kool-Yoh died.
Yeah.
Everyone knows, unfortunately, he passed away September of 22.
(08:53):
And he has-
And what was his, what was his cause of death again?
Fetna I believe.
It was a Fetna overdose.
Yeah.
And we talk about all of that in the documentary.
Spoon and I hadn't been in contact for many years.
And I remember going to the life celebration and getting back in contact with many of the
(09:18):
people I hadn't seen over the years.
I had left California, moved and learned a lot in New York and came back and everything.
Spoon and I got back in contact with each other on Facebook and I saw that Spoon was doing
a documentary on Kool-Yoh.
And it was about Kool-Yoh's early years.
(09:40):
And so I reached out to Spoon and I said, "Listen, now you know, there's no way you can have
a documentary about Kool-Yoh without including me and the girls cause you know, I'm just like
you."
Right, right, right.
So he was like, "Okay."
And at the time, Malik Strider, who you may know him as an actor, he was actually in the
40th thieves back in the day that he did Kool-Yoh on the head.
(10:04):
He was actually the director, Helm, to do the project before I came on.
Unfortunately, Malik passed away from cancer.
Sorry to hear that.
About a year ago.
While they were forming or doing the documentary before I came on.
(10:24):
And Spoon had been watching and liking some of the posts that I have been making on Facebook
about the different things that I was doing in the film industry, the different things
I had done with my music career.
And he sent me a message and was like, "Listen, I need to talk to you."
He was like, "I think that you would be the perfect person since, and I want to Malik's
(10:45):
celebration and everything."
He said, "I think you would be the perfect person to actually do this documentary."
He was like, "You know his story."
Like, "You don't get it wrong."
He said, "You know his story, your talented director."
I was like, "I'd be honored."
You know, I couldn't see.
I mean, why would I say no to that?
So yeah, absolutely yes.
(11:07):
So.
The project is currently still in development.
Where is the team now in the creative process?
Where are you guys now with everything?
Now we are gathering the interviews.
We have some already finished.
We're gathering interviews.
But it's kind of like, you know how you want that production, pre-production, like it
(11:31):
mixed in.
So we're in production, but not really 100% in production yet.
I'm doing some interviews and I'm, you know, just doing storyboards of what I want as far
as the director, my vision.
So it's kind of still in the beginning stages and I'm taking my time.
I've already put together basically how I wanted to look, but it's still kind of in
(11:53):
the beginning stages of production.
Yeah.
Organizing the interviews, all that.
Who are some of the people that you've interviewed so far and who are you planning on interviewing?
So my main focus is to interview people that, no one really knows about, like the people
(12:17):
that were there before, Kulio was Kulio.
But people that were there before he got his big break.
For example, some of the groups that he was in, he was in WC in the Mad Circle and even
before that, there were several groups that he was in with like people like Richie Rich.
(12:41):
And it's just so many things that people don't know about Kulio and how he started.
He was one of the first rappers, Hemman Spoon.
They were the first groups to form in like 1979.
So he was like the beginning of hip hop on the West Coast.
He was one of the first people to really--
A lot of people don't know that.
(13:03):
Yeah.
A lot of people moved from New York and moved to Compton and educated them on how things were
going down in New York and they're like, I think we like this.
And then they were discovered by a guy named Rory on K-Day back in the day and Kulio ended
up going, so he first he went with the Mad Circle.
(13:24):
And then after the Mad Circle, he ended up on solo.
So we're going to be interviewing some of those groups, the people that he was in groups
with.
We're going to be interviewing people that helped him get a start like Paul Stewart.
Paul Stewart is actually going to be interviewed as well as being the music supervisor for which
(13:44):
comes full circle for us because he was the main manager that really helped Kulio get
his brain.
So he's got a great deal to do with this documentary as well.
Just people that were there from the beginning.
And we're also going to be interviewing people that were there during the gangsta's paradise
(14:05):
era.
And also people that were there that saw the things that could have been done a little
better to keep his legacy going throughout the years.
Skumbi is Skumbi I.
Tell me a little bit about the field or the vision that you have for the documentary.
(14:30):
I want people to enjoy.
We have a lot of footage, which I was like in heaven looking at all this footage we have.
So we have a lot of footage from thanks to spoon back in the day.
Every time he would go on a road or they would do some kind of meeting or if they would go
on like the John Stewart show, for example, he would always record everything.
(14:54):
So we have so much footage of just those days or them just sitting in a green room, just
talking about each other.
Back in the day when it guys got together, it was all about man, your mom was so skinny.
So we have all of that good stuff and just watching that magic is motivating me to show people
(15:15):
that side of entertainment, what happens behind the scenes whenever they're on the road.
They're going to see all of that.
And I still want to make it still have that like a movie feel to it.
I don't really want to talk too much about the vision like that.
(15:36):
It's so good.
I got to ask.
Yeah, no.
It's not that.
So you know, you kind of touched on a little bit about how they would joke around and that
kind of stuff in the green room.
And oddly enough, in the teaser that I saw, one of the first things I saw was Marlon Wands
(15:57):
on stage, making a joke about Kuleo's passing.
How did you and Spoon receive that and was it part of the motivation for kind of, you
know, preserving or showing a positive outlook on Kuleo's legacy?
(16:19):
We both saw it separately.
When I saw it, you know, I love Marlon Wands and I saw it just, I just, I laughed.
I didn't take it personal at all.
I laughed.
I thought about what Kuleo would think about knowing him very well.
(16:42):
He would have looked at the screen and he would have giggle.
That would have been his reaction from that.
He would have used it just like we did.
He would have used it.
When Spoon saw it, remember Spoon is his brother.
Yes.
And that blessing that this is his brother.
Absolutely.
(17:03):
And Spoon is, you know, very, they were very close and brother's fight.
They don't always get along.
That's right.
So for Spoon, he was like, time.
Man, he was like, he wasn't happy about it.
He wasn't happy about it.
(17:25):
He was more like, man, what, like, you know, I don't appreciate anybody seeing that about
my brother.
You know, he's like, if anybody wants to say it's going to be me, but it's going to be
to make sure I straighten him out.
Right, right, right.
Spoon wasn't too happy about it in the beginning.
I never took it that way.
I just felt like Kuleo was always someone that kind of laughed stuff off.
(17:46):
Right.
So I could laugh at him and be like, okay, whatever.
Yes.
I mean, it's because even the way that Kuleo chose to style himself, you know, it was about
a little bit about the spectacle as well as his talent.
So I can see him laughing at something like that.
(18:07):
And to share a moment with you, Kuleo and I first met, we were, I was working.
I had just got like one of my first jobs.
And I was like, I'm working.
And he came to pick me up.
We came to have lunch with me.
And we were in the elevator.
(18:29):
He already had the braids.
Right.
The antenna.
And we, oh God.
And we got the elevator.
And I was working over the Disney building in Barbac.
And he could, we get an elevator together and these people are like, you know, he's no one
at this point.
So they're all looking at him like, what is that?
I'm looking like, oh God, why is he having a wearer?
(18:53):
He's like, it's all the time.
And he sees my reaction.
He sees their reaction and he's just like, he's just loving it.
He's just pregnant.
And you know, big smile on his face.
If I was white, I would have been red, okay?
I love it.
So he always had a sense of humor, buddy.
Yeah.
(19:13):
That was just a moment.
Yeah.
Time.
What is the most common misconception about Kuleo that you hope to dispel in this documentary?
I think there are a lot of things that are on the internet that are not 100% like they're
not, they're inaccurate.
(19:36):
So what we've been doing is we've been going to the, we've been seeing him like, Spoon
will see something and he'll send it to me and he'll be like, you know, that never happened
or, you know, this never happened.
So we're going to go down the list of the things that we're seeing that were, that's
been said about him now.
And we're going to conquer that.
(19:57):
Like, I'm still trying to understand where they got this thing where he was born and raised
in Pennsylvania.
Like, I've never known that.
The only person that was born and raised in Pennsylvania was Billy Boy.
Billy Boy was part of the old weeks.
And he sounds so much like Kuleo on one song they call, I remember, everybody thinks it's
(20:19):
Kuleo.
So I think that's what we want to dispel.
But there's, there's several that we're, we're going to attack in the film.
Time what's, what's next for you after the documentary?
I really had not planned on doing documentaries.
I'm more of a feature film girl.
Right.
(20:39):
But this was necessary.
This was necessary.
So I'm into writing.
I'm a filmmaker.
So I write the films, I write the scripts and I film.
So next will be feature films.
I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing feature films.
And I mean, if, if I see something that really sparks my interest again, I'll do another
(21:01):
documentaries or another documentary.
It's just, I feel like I need to do what's needed.
Like for this one, I really want to be able to not only tell people about anything about
it was Kuleo's not getting the recognition that he should get.
So that's, that inspired me to do the documentaries as well.
And being one of the greatest artists of the 90s, he bought out, he commercialized hip-hop
(21:26):
in the 90s.
He was the main people that did that.
And for him not to be getting that recognition that he deserves was really a motivation for
me to do this documentary.
So it would have to be something like that.
And I always like to be able to show something or a lesson that, and everything that I do.
(21:47):
And in the moment.
A teachable moment every time.
I'm always, one of my, one of my writing instructors always said, what's the point of it?
There's got to be a point to it.
If you don't see the end point to it, then you're wasting your time.
I love that too.
So, yes.
So that's anything you see me do.
(22:09):
Yes.
Time where?
Where can everybody find out more about you and the documentary?
So we will be posting as we go along.
We'll be posting more things on my website, Time Johnson.
No, it's not Time Johnson.
It's timeproduction.com.
And that's without the S. So timeproduction.com is my website.
(22:34):
And you can also check me out on Instagram.
My name, my handle is timeTYME__N.
We will keep you abreast there as well.
We'll be back at TimeProduction.com as in any place.
All right, Time Johnson.
Thank you so much for joining me.
Thank you.
On Black in the Green Room.
This has been a pleasure.
(22:54):
Yes.
Keep us updated on what's happening with the Kool-Aid O'Docque series.
We will.
I will.
Thank you so much for having me.
I appreciate it.
All right.
Thank you.
For more information on upcoming guests and shows, please check us out on Instagram at Black
in the Green Room.
You can also follow me on IG at Mr. Keith L. Underwood and FB at Just Keith L. Underwood.
(23:19):
Until next time, this has been Black in the Green Room.
Black in the Green Room.
[MUSIC]
You are black in the green room on KBLA Talk 1580 with me, your host keeps underwood.
(00:06):
And this is your spot for real talk about entertainment with entertainers, creatives,
and showbiz professionals.
Joining me in the room today is singer, screenwriter and the director and producer of the Fantastic
Voyage, which is a docu-series about the life and career of rap icon Kool-Yoh, time Johnson
(00:30):
welcome to the room.
Thank you, thank you.
I appreciate you inviting me.
I'm honored.
Yes, thank you for being here.
Time, you know, before we get into talking about Kool-Yoh, why don't you tell me a little
bit about you and how you got started in this business and how did that happen?
(00:51):
I helped to prepare you to take on this docu-series.
I started at a very young age.
I started singing in my clubs.
I want to say I was like 12, 13 and taken dance lessons and of course singing in the
choirs and drama and debates and going to college for a took production.
(01:21):
Take production and video production to prepare me for doing music videos and for filming,
for filming television and for filming feature films.
So it's been quite a road.
I've been in groups.
I've sang with quite a few hip-hop artists, including Kool-Yoh.
(01:47):
I've sang with so many people that are well known.
And in written hooks, written songs, did multiple scripts, movie scripts, all preparing me
for becoming a director and a filmmaker.
(02:07):
Yeah.
And you mentioned Kool-Yoh and doing some background and some singing for him.
How did that come about?
How did you first meet and start working with Kool-Yoh?
Oh, I like that chuckle.
There's a story there.
You play it right for a meet of the thing, you.
The way Kool-Yoh and I met was at an award show for, I think it was American Music Awards
(02:38):
and I was a dancer, that was a background dancer for hip-hop parade for a night of our nature.
So that's where we met.
And we became really close.
We ended up moving in together.
And you guys had a relationship?
Yes.
(02:58):
We had a relationship.
And that is where we had this relationship, he was about to get signed for his first album.
He was about to get signed for it, takes his beef.
We lived together and I was in a lot of the sessions where him and his family, his friends,
(03:23):
his business partners would be writing at our house.
So it was automatically that I would be included in that.
And we ended up doing a song together called "Dial it Jam" which was on 40th, on Jerky
Boy, a song track, a movie song track.
So that's how it was.
And then your co-producer and the executive producer of the documentary, Clyde Spoon, Colin,
(03:51):
was a great friend of Kool-Yoh's and then also his manager.
How did the two of you meet?
Me and Spoon?
Yes.
Spoon and I met through Kool-Yoh.
I met him after me and Kool-Yoh linked up together.
(04:13):
And Spoon was always there.
Before I was there, he was always at the house.
He was, you know, he was a part of Kool-Yoh.
You didn't see Kool-Yoh without Spoon.
So, you know, that was an automatic integration of everyone coming together.
It was like a family with Kool-Yoh, with Spoon, with the different groups that they ended
(04:37):
up having and creating under their umbrella.
It was named Crowbar Management.
It was the name of the company that they created.
Yeah.
And they were childhood friends, right?
Yes.
They were childhood friends.
They grew up together.
(04:57):
They, I don't know if they went to school together.
I'm not sure about that, but I do know that they grew up together and Kool-Yoh and Spoon
lived together at Spoon's grandmother's house, I believe it was, in Compton.
So yeah, they're childhood friends and they ended up forming groups together, wrapping
(05:19):
together.
They were DJs together.
So this is like, you know, they were in several groups together.
And it was just automatic that Kool-Yoh and Spoon would just stay together and once Kool-Yoh
and Solo Spoon became his manager.
He became, not his main manager, but his road manager.
(05:42):
Right.
But he said he had so many keys.
He was just like, you know, he was the second manager under Paul Stewart, which is his
main manager at the time.
But what did you learn from their business relationship from watching their business relationship?
At the time, I was in a group called Time for Change and I was with someone that was totally
(06:09):
opposite of Kool-Yoh and Paul Stewart.
I can't remember the name of his, his, was it Power Moves, something like that.
Paul Stewart had, he was signed.
He had Deaf Jam.
He had a record label under Deaf Jam.
But I was signed with another company called Total Track Productions at the time.
(06:31):
So even though we were all, you know, staying in this house in Long Beach, Kool-Yoh was signed
to Paul Stewart and he was with Spoon and we were with Total Track Productions, which was
DJ Quick, MG, Second None, Boss.
So it was watching him, it was like, and watching them prepare Kool-Yoh for his big break.
(06:58):
I was learning different parts of the business as well.
Just the writing styles, watching them go into the studios with them.
So I was learning things about the business like, you know, one of his calls with his manager,
his, his, his, his lawyer who was Tony Abner at the time.
I was in those conversations answering the phone, you know, receiving messages.
(07:23):
So I was, I was witness to all of this all the way up into the, the actual end of the album.
And I remember sitting in the, the office that we had that was, it was like a, a din, but
we made it into an office.
And I remember us, all of us sitting in there, Kool-Yoh Spoon, his group, Gat.
(07:44):
And we're just also in listening to Gaines, just not Gaines' Paradise, we're listening
to it takes a thief to from the beginning to the end.
And this was before anything came out and we're just like, this is it, you know, and that
was, and that was early, early, early on.
Yeah.
And that was, that was, yeah.
So we were talking a little bit about your relationship with, with Kool-Yoh and what
(08:09):
you learned and what you also learned from watching the collaborations between him and his
good friend and road manager, Spoon Colin, how did you and Spoon come together to work
on this docu series and how did, how did Spoon know that you would be the right person
(08:29):
to kind of helm this?
Right.
Well, Spoon and I had, of course, you know, it's been many years.
Spoon and I had lost contact.
I had still been in contact with Kool-Yoh over the years.
And Spoon, Kool-Yoh died.
Yeah.
Everyone knows, unfortunately, he passed away September of 22.
(08:53):
And he has-
And what was his, what was his cause of death again?
Fetna I believe.
It was a Fetna overdose.
Yeah.
And we talk about all of that in the documentary.
Spoon and I hadn't been in contact for many years.
And I remember going to the life celebration and getting back in contact with many of the
(09:18):
people I hadn't seen over the years.
I had left California, moved and learned a lot in New York and came back and everything.
Spoon and I got back in contact with each other on Facebook and I saw that Spoon was doing
a documentary on Kool-Yoh.
And it was about Kool-Yoh's early years.
(09:40):
And so I reached out to Spoon and I said, "Listen, now you know, there's no way you can have
a documentary about Kool-Yoh without including me and the girls cause you know, I'm just like
you."
Right, right, right.
So he was like, "Okay."
And at the time, Malik Strider, who you may know him as an actor, he was actually in the
40th thieves back in the day that he did Kool-Yoh on the head.
(10:04):
He was actually the director, Helm, to do the project before I came on.
Unfortunately, Malik passed away from cancer.
Sorry to hear that.
About a year ago.
While they were forming or doing the documentary before I came on.
(10:24):
And Spoon had been watching and liking some of the posts that I have been making on Facebook
about the different things that I was doing in the film industry, the different things
I had done with my music career.
And he sent me a message and was like, "Listen, I need to talk to you."
He was like, "I think that you would be the perfect person since, and I want to Malik's
(10:45):
celebration and everything."
He said, "I think you would be the perfect person to actually do this documentary."
He was like, "You know his story."
Like, "You don't get it wrong."
He said, "You know his story, your talented director."
I was like, "I'd be honored."
You know, I couldn't see.
I mean, why would I say no to that?
So yeah, absolutely yes.
(11:07):
So.
The project is currently still in development.
Where is the team now in the creative process?
Where are you guys now with everything?
Now we are gathering the interviews.
We have some already finished.
We're gathering interviews.
But it's kind of like, you know how you want that production, pre-production, like it
(11:31):
mixed in.
So we're in production, but not really 100% in production yet.
I'm doing some interviews and I'm, you know, just doing storyboards of what I want as far
as the director, my vision.
So it's kind of still in the beginning stages and I'm taking my time.
I've already put together basically how I wanted to look, but it's still kind of in
(11:53):
the beginning stages of production.
Yeah.
Organizing the interviews, all that.
Who are some of the people that you've interviewed so far and who are you planning on interviewing?
So my main focus is to interview people that, no one really knows about, like the people
(12:17):
that were there before, Kulio was Kulio.
But people that were there before he got his big break.
For example, some of the groups that he was in, he was in WC in the Mad Circle and even
before that, there were several groups that he was in with like people like Richie Rich.
(12:41):
And it's just so many things that people don't know about Kulio and how he started.
He was one of the first rappers, Hemman Spoon.
They were the first groups to form in like 1979.
So he was like the beginning of hip hop on the West Coast.
He was one of the first people to really--
A lot of people don't know that.
(13:03):
Yeah.
A lot of people moved from New York and moved to Compton and educated them on how things were
going down in New York and they're like, I think we like this.
And then they were discovered by a guy named Rory on K-Day back in the day and Kulio ended
up going, so he first he went with the Mad Circle.
(13:24):
And then after the Mad Circle, he ended up on solo.
So we're going to be interviewing some of those groups, the people that he was in groups
with.
We're going to be interviewing people that helped him get a start like Paul Stewart.
Paul Stewart is actually going to be interviewed as well as being the music supervisor for which
(13:44):
comes full circle for us because he was the main manager that really helped Kulio get
his brain.
So he's got a great deal to do with this documentary as well.
Just people that were there from the beginning.
And we're also going to be interviewing people that were there during the gangsta's paradise
(14:05):
era.
And also people that were there that saw the things that could have been done a little
better to keep his legacy going throughout the years.
Skumbi is Skumbi I.
Tell me a little bit about the field or the vision that you have for the documentary.
(14:30):
I want people to enjoy.
We have a lot of footage, which I was like in heaven looking at all this footage we have.
So we have a lot of footage from thanks to spoon back in the day.
Every time he would go on a road or they would do some kind of meeting or if they would go
on like the John Stewart show, for example, he would always record everything.
(14:54):
So we have so much footage of just those days or them just sitting in a green room, just
talking about each other.
Back in the day when it guys got together, it was all about man, your mom was so skinny.
So we have all of that good stuff and just watching that magic is motivating me to show people
(15:15):
that side of entertainment, what happens behind the scenes whenever they're on the road.
They're going to see all of that.
And I still want to make it still have that like a movie feel to it.
I don't really want to talk too much about the vision like that.
(15:36):
It's so good.
I got to ask.
Yeah, no.
It's not that.
So you know, you kind of touched on a little bit about how they would joke around and that
kind of stuff in the green room.
And oddly enough, in the teaser that I saw, one of the first things I saw was Marlon Wands
(15:57):
on stage, making a joke about Kuleo's passing.
How did you and Spoon receive that and was it part of the motivation for kind of, you
know, preserving or showing a positive outlook on Kuleo's legacy?
(16:19):
We both saw it separately.
When I saw it, you know, I love Marlon Wands and I saw it just, I just, I laughed.
I didn't take it personal at all.
I laughed.
I thought about what Kuleo would think about knowing him very well.
(16:42):
He would have looked at the screen and he would have giggle.
That would have been his reaction from that.
He would have used it just like we did.
He would have used it.
When Spoon saw it, remember Spoon is his brother.
Yes.
And that blessing that this is his brother.
Absolutely.
(17:03):
And Spoon is, you know, very, they were very close and brother's fight.
They don't always get along.
That's right.
So for Spoon, he was like, time.
Man, he was like, he wasn't happy about it.
He wasn't happy about it.
(17:25):
He was more like, man, what, like, you know, I don't appreciate anybody seeing that about
my brother.
You know, he's like, if anybody wants to say it's going to be me, but it's going to be
to make sure I straighten him out.
Right, right, right.
Spoon wasn't too happy about it in the beginning.
I never took it that way.
I just felt like Kuleo was always someone that kind of laughed stuff off.
(17:46):
Right.
So I could laugh at him and be like, okay, whatever.
Yes.
I mean, it's because even the way that Kuleo chose to style himself, you know, it was about
a little bit about the spectacle as well as his talent.
So I can see him laughing at something like that.
(18:07):
And to share a moment with you, Kuleo and I first met, we were, I was working.
I had just got like one of my first jobs.
And I was like, I'm working.
And he came to pick me up.
We came to have lunch with me.
And we were in the elevator.
(18:29):
He already had the braids.
Right.
The antenna.
And we, oh God.
And we got the elevator.
And I was working over the Disney building in Barbac.
And he could, we get an elevator together and these people are like, you know, he's no one
at this point.
So they're all looking at him like, what is that?
I'm looking like, oh God, why is he having a wearer?
(18:53):
He's like, it's all the time.
And he sees my reaction.
He sees their reaction and he's just like, he's just loving it.
He's just pregnant.
And you know, big smile on his face.
If I was white, I would have been red, okay?
I love it.
So he always had a sense of humor, buddy.
Yeah.
(19:13):
That was just a moment.
Yeah.
Time.
What is the most common misconception about Kuleo that you hope to dispel in this documentary?
I think there are a lot of things that are on the internet that are not 100% like they're
not, they're inaccurate.
(19:36):
So what we've been doing is we've been going to the, we've been seeing him like, Spoon
will see something and he'll send it to me and he'll be like, you know, that never happened
or, you know, this never happened.
So we're going to go down the list of the things that we're seeing that were, that's
been said about him now.
And we're going to conquer that.
(19:57):
Like, I'm still trying to understand where they got this thing where he was born and raised
in Pennsylvania.
Like, I've never known that.
The only person that was born and raised in Pennsylvania was Billy Boy.
Billy Boy was part of the old weeks.
And he sounds so much like Kuleo on one song they call, I remember, everybody thinks it's
(20:19):
Kuleo.
So I think that's what we want to dispel.
But there's, there's several that we're, we're going to attack in the film.
Time what's, what's next for you after the documentary?
I really had not planned on doing documentaries.
I'm more of a feature film girl.
Right.
(20:39):
But this was necessary.
This was necessary.
So I'm into writing.
I'm a filmmaker.
So I write the films, I write the scripts and I film.
So next will be feature films.
I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing feature films.
And I mean, if, if I see something that really sparks my interest again, I'll do another
(21:01):
documentaries or another documentary.
It's just, I feel like I need to do what's needed.
Like for this one, I really want to be able to not only tell people about anything about
it was Kuleo's not getting the recognition that he should get.
So that's, that inspired me to do the documentaries as well.
And being one of the greatest artists of the 90s, he bought out, he commercialized hip-hop
(21:26):
in the 90s.
He was the main people that did that.
And for him not to be getting that recognition that he deserves was really a motivation for
me to do this documentary.
So it would have to be something like that.
And I always like to be able to show something or a lesson that, and everything that I do.
(21:47):
And in the moment.
A teachable moment every time.
I'm always, one of my, one of my writing instructors always said, what's the point of it?
There's got to be a point to it.
If you don't see the end point to it, then you're wasting your time.
I love that too.
So, yes.
So that's anything you see me do.
(22:09):
Yes.
Time where?
Where can everybody find out more about you and the documentary?
So we will be posting as we go along.
We'll be posting more things on my website, Time Johnson.
No, it's not Time Johnson.
It's timeproduction.com.
And that's without the S. So timeproduction.com is my website.
(22:34):
And you can also check me out on Instagram.
My name, my handle is timeTYME__N.
We will keep you abreast there as well.
We'll be back at TimeProduction.com as in any place.
All right, Time Johnson.
Thank you so much for joining me.
Thank you.
On Black in the Green Room.
This has been a pleasure.
(22:54):
Yes.
Keep us updated on what's happening with the Kool-Aid O'Docque series.
We will.
I will.
Thank you so much for having me.
I appreciate it.
All right.
Thank you.
For more information on upcoming guests and shows, please check us out on Instagram at Black
in the Green Room.
You can also follow me on IG at Mr. Keith L. Underwood and FB at Just Keith L. Underwood.
(23:19):
Until next time, this has been Black in the Green Room.
Black in the Green Room.
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