Book of Dad - Dee Lee

We are all familiar with various quips and phrases commonly used and spoken. More often than not we’ve never been told of their origin. With the appropriate spin and accent, they become a part of our everyday speech and vernacular. Today we chat and clown around with the creator who coined the phrase “how you doin” question, Dee Lee. Although we are entertained by his humor, he impressed us with his body of work and understanding of the industry. Listen in as Dee Lee not only shares his experiences but provides context and content so interesting he is coming back to share more, you don’t want to miss this!!!

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Episode Transcript

(00:18):
Welcome to the book. At thatradio show on Doctor Robert Benson, as
always, before we get started,we want to say thank you to Jehovah,
thank you for sun, Jesus Christ, thank you for our family's taking
for work and our ability to dothe things we're able to do. And
as usual, my main man,Eddie ice G is in the house.
What's up, Eddie? What's up? Tone? Brother man? I'm doing

(00:42):
great, and I know you're theworld traveler. Where are you at right
now? I'm in California right now? Okay, all right? Cool?
Cool out in the desert, brother, Oh, in the desert. So
it looks like some rain as Ihit that wall in the background or something
like that. Man, I'm inI'm in an abandoned building. I'm being
held hostage right now. Listen,man, we're not We're not gonna waste

(01:06):
time talking about what you're doing.That guy that's posing in the background,
like Mona, Lisa or somebody,let's talk about him. We got a
guy that's with us as a renownedcomedian, a guy that's known just about
a whole bunch of places. ButI'm not gonna waste the time or take
us thunder. What updly holler atus on the book at that radio show.
How you doing, man, geezbrothers, how y'all doing? And
thank you for having me. Iappreciate it. Man, We thank you.

(01:29):
Thank you for being with us.And as usually we try to get
people like yourself on to come onand tell us your story. What's going
on about you? I can tellyou one thing I'm familiar with you about
is the fact that you are affiliatedwith Wendy Williams. Talk to us about
that. Wow, he went rightfor the Juggler. I know, right,

(01:53):
we're right for the Juggler. Imean no, I mean it's everybody
knows it's true that Wendy myself anda good friend of mine, Tony Richards
aka Smoking Tony. At that timewe had we had a radio show on
the morning show on Power ninety nineFM, and it was it was great

(02:16):
numbers, it was a great show. It was it was the best,
uh morning show that I was apart of in radio. It taught me
a lot and and just being aroundthose two, you know, was just
it was energetic, it was communitydriven, it was funny, and we

(02:36):
had a great time. You know, we had a great time and that's
where a lot of things were wereor giving birth in a platform that was
offered to me, and it justtook me to a different level in my
career. I remember you from Powerninety nine, and like you said,
it's always entertaining, you know,the morning show. It just was fun

(03:00):
and you guys work pretty well togetherand always hilarious. We appreciate you for
your time out there because you know, we're also from Pennsylvania. You know,
we're traveling around right now. ButPower ninety nine, man, that
really really hits home. I thinkduring that time that the Power nine,

(03:21):
that whole lineup was I would goon representing the best lineup in the radio
period. I mean you started offwith us myself, Wendy and Smoking Tony
Richards. You had a q dZ, you had Kobe Cob, you
had Coca Line, You had theHot Boys, you know, Pooch and
Mike. You had Golden Girl wrapit Up, and then you had DC

(03:45):
tied with the Slow Jams. Imean Tiffany Bacon, we had so Doc
b cav I mean, we justhad had so many people, so much
talent, and you know, uh, Helen Little, you know, Golden
Boy, Glenn Cooper. I meanit was just we had a championship squad

(04:06):
through and through, you know,it was there was no other radio station
that was competing, and we provedthat. You know, I agree that
that was a good time. Mhm. I got a question for you
about the you know, the process, if you will, the difference between

(04:27):
actually doing what we're doing right now, the pontification, the discussion on air,
but talk about performing and how that'sdifferent and what what are you looking
for that that that keeps the peoplewho you're you're in front of, if
you will, engaged, because youdon't necessarily have that that yes, stage
performers, Yeah, and you don'tnecessarily have that immediate feedback if you will
if you're on the air, soto speak. I mean what I was

(04:49):
taught, uh for on the airon the air was just at first we
start. When I started, itwas at one o three the beat,
and and then it was it wasme. It was me trying to be
funny on the air. And itwas like, okay, wait a minute.
You know I remember my producer atthat time, Action Jackson. He

(05:12):
said, hey, hey man,you don't have to try to be funny,
just be you be your regular ushanging out, you know, and
and having a couple of drinks oreating lunch and you just being you.
You see something you on it justbe you. And Tony Richards also taught
me a lot of that. Itwas like, cause I get on there
and I'm waiting for my turn totalk, and you know when I hit

(05:36):
them with this joke, and thatwasn't the case because people couldn't see you,
you know, on stage, theycould see my physical attribute to the
to the joke itself. On radio. You know, I didn't have to
do a setup. It just camenatural. And when I started doing that
and just being me and sharing mypersonality along with the personalities you know,

(06:00):
my teammates who are who were onthe court with me, so to speak
on air, Whitney, it justcame natural. It's like you didn't see
Magic Johnson, you know, comedown to court and and tell Kareem yo,
I'm about to pass it to you. He just did it. Stuff
just happened naturally, you know,Pipping and Jordan's stuff just happened naturally.
And that's what I compare it tobecause if you really look at it,

(06:20):
I don't think that the Dream Teamwould myself, Wendy and Tony would be
Even when Tony left and it wasWendy Kope and myself. We didn't have
to look at each other. Itjust flowed. It came so natural and
it was It was the best timein radio period. Yeah. I think

(06:43):
it's interesting about that, man,is that it you're talking about chemistry,
like like you talk about some sportsanalogies that I think are great, and
now you you're gonna have to putmy homes and Kelsey in that collab.
Definitely breath if you will. Thoseguys are at a different level, but
at a point where we can takea quick break. We're going to pick
your brain some more because it's someother stuff we want to talk about.

(07:03):
And I mean, we just keepgetting hit with this, with these dark
situations that's around what we love doingand what we love being around. And
I think the one thing that's greatabout radio as it were is that we
really don't have to worry about thatphysicality part of it. But book at
that radio show with Mae Man Eddieisg and d Lee hanging out with us
today and we'll be right back seewhy. Listeners from over one hundred and

(07:28):
fifty countries around the world. Followthe Book of Dad Radio Show. Join
Doctor Robert Benson and Eddie G asthey chat with special guests who share their
stories and information that will change yourlife. Watch and listen on Life and
Spirit online dot com, or subscribeto the Book of Dad Radio Show on
Apple Podcast, Spotify, iHeartRadio,or wherever you get your podcast. Brought

(07:51):
to you Papa Nasca Network. Hey, welcome back to the Book at the
Radio show with Doctor Robert Benson andme Eddie G. Today we have the
fabulous d Lee with us giving ussome knowledge about the industry and yes,

(08:13):
fantabulous, of courseground fabulous. Igot a question for you, a couple
of things. One on the WendyWilliams store, we were told you're the

(08:33):
originator of how You Doing? Giveus some truth to that. Yeah,
the phrase how you Doing? Imean, you could google it. You
can ask anybody in the Tri Statearea, anybody who followed my career.
How you Doing was a phrase toa character that I had. The character's
name was Shante And at that time, you know, we weren't into the

(08:58):
whole she them, you know theidentity of what is today? You know,
so back then, Chantey was basicallya male character, but who was
trapped in a female character that wastrapped inside a male body. And so
when Chantey would when I would bringthat character with me, that was one

(09:20):
of the characters that I would justThat's how I opened up a conversation,
you know, how you doing,you know, whatever the guest was,
whoever the guest was, whether you'reon phone and in person, you know,
it was almost like it broke theice, you know, and it
created conversation because a lot of timeswe had a lot of artists and a
lot of interviews that just didn't wantto interview if Wendy was in the studio

(09:43):
or if she was a part ofit. I mean, Wendy had her
way of doing things, you know, she had her way of creating that
attention on herself and she was greatat it, you know. And a
lot of times, like I said, we had have say Diddy and I
created a relationship at that time,but he refused to come into the studio

(10:07):
if she was there, you know, so that was the day she wasn't
on the show. It was itwas incidents where I ran to you know,
Busta Rhymes would be mad and readyto come to the radio station and
do some damage or you know,method man. And it was like whoa.
And that's how I wound up creatingrelationships with these brothers through drama,

(10:28):
you know. But you know thecharacter itself. I would do it on
stage, I would do it onradio. I did not know how big
the character was, believe it ornot. Kobe Cole had to show me
how big the character was because weused to do a festival called Sisters and

(10:48):
do it at the Convention Center.Was a huge festival. And Kobe comes
to me one day and says,yo, man, you need to get
some T shirts that say how youdoing? And I'm like, man,
I'm not getting no dag on Tshirts to say how you doing? Like
nobody buying the T shirts to sayhow you doing. He was like,
no, let's do it. I'llgo in on it with you. So
I said, all right. Sowe went and got all these T shirts.

(11:09):
I mean we had boxes and boxof T shirts and them T shirts
sold out on the first day,even before noon. I couldn't believe it.
I'm signing the T shirts, youknow, And I was like,
yo, we got to re uplike it was crazy. And then when
I started stepping on stages, peoplewithin the listening audience, they wanted to

(11:31):
hear that. They wanted to hearhow you doing. And so I would
be doing my set, somebody woulddo something and I would improud and throw
Shante in there real quick, andpeople would go crazy with it. Well
wound up happening is fast forward.I had a deal with HBO and HBO

(11:52):
Zone was being created at that time, and part of my deal is I
had to go on tour. Youknow, Davi us a budget. I
had to go on with a tourbus, put a crew together, and
we did that. And while Iwas on tour, the radio station said,
hey, you know, we stillneed you to call in to do
these characters. And I said okay, and that's what I would do.

(12:16):
And then we had to stop inVegas. And during that stop in Vegas,
Wendy calls me and I'm like,Hey, what's going on? And
she's like, you know, Ijust want to let you know I'm going
back to New York. And Iwas like, oh, wow, okay,
and she was like, yeah,they aren't, you know, giving
me what I deserved. This,that and the other thing. Not knowing
at that time they weren't. Theywere offering her to financial but they weren't

(12:41):
offering what she wanted. She wantedit to be called the Wendy Williams Show
that you know blank, and theysaid they didn't want to do that because
if one of us left, theshow goes with you. So it was
the Wendy Williams Show. And youdecide to leave, you know, now

(13:01):
you've got to build a whole newbrand all over again. And I was
into marketing. I was into brandingbecause at the time I had I purchased
a laugh House Comedy club, youknow, well created the laugh House Comedy
Club, and it just so itwas like, okay, cool. And
at that time our conversation was hey, you know, I want you to

(13:22):
come with me. And I'm like, wow, you know, that's that's
pretty big going up to New York. And it was told to me that
she was supposed to do mornings,then they switched it to afternoons. So
what I would do is I wouldgo back and forth. I would get
off the air in Philly and thenI would jump on the train and go
hang out with her two or threetimes a week in the afternoon. But

(13:45):
as the character Shante, one day, I'm in Philadelphia and I get a
call from one of my comedian friendsand he basically says he thinks I'm in
New York and asked me to comeby to the comedy club that night.
I told him I wasn't. He'slike, I just heard you on the
radio. And fast forward, Ifind out that they had recorded my voice

(14:07):
and when people would call in,they would go, how you doing?
You know so machine called the voxpro, called the vox pro so that.
Yeah, so they just recorded it, and and I was heated.
I was mad, you know,And I went up there and I was,
dude, I was livid. Andbecause you know, I looked at

(14:28):
it, I thought we had afriendship. I was just ignorant to it.
And you know, her husband atthe time stopped me in the hallway
and he was like, no,man, let's go for a ride,
let's talk. And y'all built thischaracter together. And I'm like, we
did what. Nobody built this charactertogether. Like, dude, you're not
going to you know, brainwash me. I know what I did, you
know? So, uh, thatwas sadly the last time I saw Wendy

(14:54):
was through the window of a studiodoor because they stopped me from getting to
her. And it wasn't It wasn'tbecause I wanted to physically do something.
It was like, yo, what'sgoing on? And when she saw me,
she like eased back from the window, like slid over, and I'm
like, are you serious? Likewhat are you doing? Like I see

(15:18):
you? You know, so keVyou know, like I said, keV
took me out for us to talkand everything, but I didn't have nothing
to say. I was I washeated and I left and the producer at
that time, him and I aregreat friends this day, and he was
like, yo, man, youknow I ain't know you know, my
bad. I was like, no, you don't have no apology. But

(15:39):
again, I was so busy inmy career. I didn't take care of
the things I needed to take careof, and that was trademarking and doing
all those things that I should havedone. So hence the TV show comes
and we could talk about that onthe other side, and well, let

(16:00):
me say this, I see thatthat happens a lot in entertainment. And
I remember listening to Dave Chappelle talkingabout a guy who took his joke.
Remember, and there's a lot ofsituations, especially now because back then,
I guess it wasn't as prevalent becauseas a personality on the air today you

(16:26):
automatically think branding, merchandising, thingsof that nature. Yeah, well back
then you really didn't go there first, you know what I mean. And
that's a tough lesson because now it'ssomething that somebody can take from you and
people are associated with them and itgets lost in the mix, you know,

(16:48):
right. I mean we've been likeI said, you know we could
talk about on the other side,because I'm telling you is wow, all
right, we got you. Well, we're gonna take a quick break with
the book at that radio show meEddieg, doctor Robert Benson, and my
main man d Lee. We'll beright back. You have something special,

(17:11):
you have greatness in you. Hello, I'm Less Brown, missus, Mamie
Brown's baby boy. I want youto spread the word to your family members
and friends to listen to Less BrownGreatness Radio dot com. Absolutely, and
let me share with you why we'regoing to be focusing on positive things.
Because whatever you focus on the longestbecomes the strongest. And now more than

(17:33):
ever, when the suicide rate hasincreased over thirty three percent, when the
suicide rate of young children between fiveand eleven has doubled. People feeling hopeless
and stressed out and powerless. Weneed programming that can bring out the greatness
in them, and that's what wewill be focused on. When you listen,

(17:56):
it will be an experience that willtransform your life. Us Brown Greatness
Radio dot Com. That's my storyand I'm sticking to it. Oo.
How you doing, how y'all doing. I'm looking for doctor Robert Goodson.

(18:18):
Welcome back, and audience will giveyou know. I love this man.
This is great. Deale was wasenlightening us us on some important aspects about
intellectual property protection, if you will, making sure that what's yours is yours
and not letting somebody else do it. But the thing that's kind of counterintuitive

(18:40):
about that on some levels is thatflattery is supposedly the best form of uh
no, not that flattery. Imitationis the best form of slattery. So
Russell, I want to make sureI was. I was. I was.
It really bothered me, like itreally bothered me at first, and
then so Simmons we sat down andhad a conversation, and he was saying,

(19:04):
look, man, you know,if someone feels strong enough to steal
something that you created, it showshow strong your creativity is, and you
could do it again. And whenhe said that, it was almost like
everything was lifted off of me,because it was like wow. Then he
started telling me some things that were, you know, taken from him,

(19:26):
and I'm like what, And youknow, so you at that time,
like I said, we didn't payattention to it. But now now I
got the best entertainer in the world, Melanie Forster, So try something now,
you know so but you yeah,yeah, she keeps me, you
know, in check and and andshe's you know, we looked at a

(19:48):
couple of things, but one thingthat we sat back and talked about.
Then so many people approached us andregarding to a lawsuit, and it was
just like, like I told Melanie, I was like, why, you
know, I said, because we'regonna get my audience against her audience,
those that don't know me, whoonly know her from TV. You know,

(20:11):
how you doing in the audience andthings like that. Then all of
a sudden, it's oh, hejust trying to get a check. And
I'm like, who really don't knowthe history, you know, and it
was like, nah, let's noteven worry about it. And I was
in I'm in a happy space.I've been in a very happy space,
you know. So sadly, youknow, I was. I shouldn't say

(20:32):
sadly, but I was. Theher producers reached out to have me on
the show, and then all ofa sudden it became, oh, Wendy
sends her love, She'll catch youon the next one, you know.
And then I was contacted by otherproducers I believe they were doing the biopic
or whatever, and I'm mentioning duringthat conversation, I said, well,

(20:56):
I don't even know why y'all interviewingme, because and they were like,
why would you say that, We'reyou know, we're so gracious Hollywood talk.
And I was like, because you'renot going to use anything I'm saying.
It's the truth and not the truth, right, Yeah, you're not
going to use it. Let's justsay what it is. So it was
like, and what happened. Everythingin that bio pick was twisted. It

(21:17):
was she was oh, she hadher radio show in Philly, which never
was. There was a lot ofpeople upset over the biopick. A lot
of people upset, and but youknow, I look at it like this.
If I saw her even today,I got access to her, and
I want the best for it becauseI don't want to see anyone, uh,
suffering or anything like that. Andyou know, sadly, I'm like,

(21:40):
yo, you know, I'm here, you know where I'm at.
I don't hold any malice, Idon't hold any bitterness because why why I'm
I hold on to that? It'syou know, like I said, I'm
in a great space. But letme let me ask you this though,
because uh, well we can dothis all day. I mean, but
let me actually just since with standingall the things that we're talking about,

(22:03):
what are you up to now?And what can we look for from you
in the future. I mean,we're a lot of things. I've always
been a business minded person. I'vealways been with people call a hustler,
you know, in a sense,you know, a legal sense. You
know. I've always been able tobounce back and do what I love to
do to create revenue, you know, and I thank God for that.

(22:27):
So, you know, stand upcomedy has set me up in life,
Radio has set me up in life. I have a beautiful wife, I
have beautiful children. Everybody's healthy.You know, I'm able to take care
you know, my parents and thingslike that. So it's like, you
know, right now we have aleast famous chief Steaks and Wings that we

(22:51):
own. We have Lee luxury propertiesthat we own, Dallely enterprises and even
working on a jazz and jokes projectto produce, you know, so my
hands that you know, I staystay busy, you know, busy,
and I enjoy life. Man,I don't do nothing. I don't want

(23:11):
to do. I don't, asI tell people, I don't chase money
I created, you know, becausewhen you start chasing it, you know,
you lose your mind if you ifyou if you miss it, or
or if this doesn't happen, oryou didn't make this sale or something gets
canceled, and you lose your mind. I don't do that, my wife
wild tell you. I don't stressover nothing, you know, because I'm

(23:36):
like, I have a question foryou, if I could see go ahead,
if you think about and you hadmentioned this earlier on the air radio
or this particular way, it wasn'tvisual right, but now fast forward into
twenty twenty three. Yeah, dLee Social media, Yeah, d LE,

(24:02):
podcast, d LE, film,d Lee. You know, there's
so many opportunities out there now,and what's cool is you're taking advantage of
them. You know, you're anentrepreneur and you understand how to use your
brand to progress. So how doyou feel that it's helped you to be
able to do all these different thingsinstead of just the radio? How has

(24:30):
my standard or just how has allthose things come together? Right? All
these platforms, I mean, believeor not. I tell people all the
time, if you have an iPhonethat's a million dollars in your hand,
you just got to know how touse it. I'm not one that you
know, I'm gonna be goofy onTikTok or do dances and stuff like that.

(24:53):
You know, somebody I remember thisis a couple of months ago.
I was in Philadelphia and a youngbrother came up to me and he was
like, oh man, d Lee, I seen you in this, I
seen you in that. And hesaid, man, I got to follow
you. And I was like,oh man, I appreciate that. And
then he comes back and says,man, you you only got twenty five
thousand followers, And I was like, oh okay, because I never paid

(25:15):
attention to that. And he waslike, yeah, you know such and
such. Man. I was like, for the person who was talking about,
I didn't know. And he said, oh, man, he got
like three hundred thousand followers. Isaid, oh, well, good for
him. And he was like,man, but you're supposed to have three
hundred thousand five. I said,bro, let me tell you something.
I bet the three hundred thousand followersthat he has if he does something and
ask each one of those followers forninety nine cent, will they give it

(25:37):
to him? And he stood thereand looked at me, and I was
like, my followers, I guaranteeyou I can get seventy five percent of
them to donate ninety nine cent.You know what I mean. It's about
It's about what you use your platformsfor. I offer the people something if
I'm looking for a piece of revenue. You see what I'm saying. So

(26:02):
that's what I'm not into. TheI gotta be on social media every day.
I got to take a picture ofthe biggest thing I get all the
time is yo, I'm in Californiatoo, where you at? I'm like
Ninja that was three days ago,Like I'm where I'm at right that same

(26:22):
day. What nowak into my house? Man, I don't do that,
Like who does that? But peopledo that? Yo? Right now?
Look at this we out here.That ain't I don't need to be.
I'm not an attention seeker, youknow, I don't. I don't do
that type of stuff. I don'tadvertise I've there are facts if you investigate.

(26:45):
I have helped so many people getto where they are in life.
But I don't have to go onair and say I help this person,
that person, this person, thatperson. This is what I gave to
this company, This is what Idid, this is how they got If
they announce it, great, ButI don't need to make that announcement.
Like I said, I'm in sucha happy place and times does it get

(27:10):
to me that you go, wow, you know I did this for this
person and they don't even say thankyou, you know, and ask a
good question. You You mentioned thatyou have some handles. What are they
real quick for us? Of course? You know. My strongest thing for
me is my Instagram, you know, which is I am the d lea

(27:32):
you know that's at the bottom ofthe screen. Yeah. My Instagram goes
with with everything. It tags ontoeverything. My daughters tell me I need
to hook up and do all thisother stuff, but I let them die.
Ain't got time for all that,you know what I mean. Yeah,
I'm not a dude. I don'tneed like I could leave my phone
home and my family will lose theirmind. But I'm not the dude who's

(27:53):
got to constantly be what's going on? Dude. Let me sit outside at
the pool with my dogs. I'mcool. You come in and go.
Did you hear you hurt? KatWilliam? Not? Oh? Okay?
You know? Or I get callslike that, so I don't That's just
me, man, I don't knowat this age, you know, I

(28:15):
just look at as long as mykids have set up, my family's happy.
I'm happy and happiness. When Isay happiness, I don't equate happiness
financially. I mean, thank godwe're okay, but I don't equate.
I told my wife one day,I said, hey, if all of
this happened to go away, I'mso egoistic. I know I can get

(28:38):
it back. I just believe inmyself, you know, and I and
other people see that. Withde wellman, you know, we we you're
so wisdom mc man. It's it'samazing. We're going to have to close
things down a little bit here,and then we got to open invitation for
you to come back because we gotdefinitely want to talk more to you about
some other things. But Eddie Gvery a little bit for us about this

(29:00):
great show here real quickly, agreat show. Thanks d Lee for coming
in. And like I said earlier, man, I loved your on Power
ninety nine. I love what you'redoing now. You create a history man,
and I just want you to continue. Man. Now we're gonna keep
pushing you out there, no doubt. Thank you, Thank you, I

(29:22):
appreciate it. Hey, dude,God bless you and your family and Eddie
g as always, man, it'sgreat to hang out with you. But
this has been the book of thatradio show. And trust me and us,
we got more for you coming fromd Lee book at that radio show,
Doctor Robert Benson, and we willtalk to you next time. But