D’Mile

00:00:01
Speaker 1: R and B Money. We are thanks. We are the authority on R and D. Ladies and gentlemen. I'm Jay Valentine and this is the R and B Money Podcast. And today I got everybody's favorite producer. It's the producer's favorite producer. I think we probably gonna We're gonna we might roll some more, hopefully with on Divee Tonight. We're gonna definitely risk it all on my Mama. You're about to love this episode. Today I got my good brother, the amazing, the greatest Haitian. They might get mad at me for here in that, DMA.

00:00:57
Speaker 2: What's the hold home? How you doing? Brood se?

00:01:02
Speaker 1: Hey bro, this is like the lock Nest Munster.

00:01:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, man, I'm outside now, I'm outside.

00:01:09
Speaker 1: So all y'all have been looking for dmile here I am man. I found it. I found it. Hey man, It's good to.

00:01:17
Speaker 2: See you, bro Man, good to see you too.

00:01:18
Speaker 3: Man.

00:01:19
Speaker 1: Listen, you know, obviously a lot of people publicly don't know you. Was that Was that done on purpose for you?

00:01:27
Speaker 2: I feel like at first it was I kind of just like focus on the music and the news, loving to do that. I kind of didn't like attention. I still don't, but you know, I'm way more open these days. But then it kind of just became a part of my my thing. So I don't think it was always intentions. The whole time. It was like whatever comes, whatever comes, and then just.

00:01:52
Speaker 1: Then, like you said, it became part of your thing. It's like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I want to go to around.

00:01:56
Speaker 2: Exactly right, but I can't write. I definitely got comfortable. I definitely started to like it, so I was just like, I'm cool with it, Like, yeah, if I can just still live and do all that and not even show up and you know, show my face and all that stuff.

00:02:11
Speaker 1: But people don't understand, man, the the luxury of that of being able to do what you love in the entertainment space, because that's you know, when you sign up for entertaining or entertainment, it becomes a thing where you have to show up. But being able to make a living in the entertainment world and not have to go to things, yeah, it's actually pretty fucking I went through that phase for sure. Sure, you know what I mean, People bring up my artists days and I'm like, yeah, whenever it felt like it was about to just get too cracking, Yeah, I was like, all right, I'm.

00:02:44
Speaker 2: Out exactly yep.

00:02:47
Speaker 1: Middle of a song. Yep, don't do a video for it. Whatever. Have too many niggas's noticing me to get that out of here, right, you know what I mean? So I understand, bro, Like, and that's a uh, that's a space that I don't know if everybody respects, right, you know, being able to just go to the mall, go to the store, or be on the plane and yeah, nobody let you sleep through your flight, right, you know what I mean. You're probably gonna be a sleep to your flight after tonight, bro, Man, Like, I see you want to my.

00:03:22
Speaker 2: Son, right, Yeah, I'm ready for it now.

00:03:25
Speaker 1: It's I mean, you don't really have none of the producing trappings neither. Bro. You don't got no no.

00:03:29
Speaker 2: Big change, got my damn Apple Watch. Yeah you know what I'm saying. But besides that, I'm chilling.

00:03:37
Speaker 1: But now they're going they gonna know the name of the company too, though, definitely. So let's let's go back though, bro. Yeah, take me back to flat Bush, take me back to New York.

00:03:45
Speaker 2: Boy, Yeah, we're going back back. Yeah. So yeah, I'm born and raised in Brooklyn, started getting into music since I was like three. Really, my mom and dad they are musicians. My mom she passed away a few years ago, but thank you man. She was like a known singer in the Haitian market, and my dad was ann producer in the Haitian market. So all my life I just been around that, like are you only child? For ten years? I was? But now yeah, now I have two, I have two siblings. But for a while, it was it was just me. So growing up, we were just always like like literally we were like we lived in the basement. It was like a two two family home, so we lived in the basement. So all the equipment, yes, exactly, So all the equipment was right there at my disposal, you know, and I was just curious, you know.

00:04:39
Speaker 1: Super musical house too, though, super musical house.

00:04:41
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:04:42
Speaker 1: It's funny because obviously I'm in a music business, but I don't have a whole bunch of music going on in my house all day.

00:04:48
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:04:49
Speaker 1: Did you have a lot of music in your house just as soon as you wake in just hearing?

00:04:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, because my dad he gives to this day, he still gives private lessons at the house. Yeah, So piano, piano, bass, guitar, drums, like he has. He has like a lot of students. He has a students that he could make a band with, like and stuff like that. And he's done that, Like he's gone out and done gigs his students. You know what I mean to this day, like people drop out of college, like go to Berkeley and then they work with him, and like I'm paying too much money, Like I learned so much more over here. No offense to Berkeley, but well, you know, but that's that's what my dad was doing. And I've heard that so many times. But yeah, to this day, he.

00:05:36
Speaker 1: Still do you feel like when you were born that it was one of those things like he's going to do music in your parents eyes, like giving birth to a musician.

00:05:46
Speaker 2: I don't know. I feel like I feel like, yeah, it was there, but I don't think they they wanted to force it on me, which I think was a plus because maybe if they did, I probably wouldn't want to do it. So it never felt like something that they were just like setting me up to do it, just or gallery became a love of mine. You know.

00:06:08
Speaker 1: So what'd you start with? First?

00:06:10
Speaker 2: Keys? Piano?

00:06:12
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, so you guys had a piano the house.

00:06:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, piano on the house. We had a piano and guitar bass. I remember someone bought me. I had my first fretless bass. The first base I ever had was a frintless bass, which was the hardest version of a bass.

00:06:25
Speaker 1: So you literally grew up in a house that looked like school of rock, is what you're telling. Let's say the instruments everywhere, Yes, definitely, Oh that's great.

00:06:33
Speaker 2: Yep. So I had it all, you know, and that's that's why I'm able to play all those instruments today. Drums was my favorite, but I didn't have that at home.

00:06:41
Speaker 1: There's no drums though.

00:06:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, there was no drums until later, like we moved, had space for drums.

00:06:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, you can't be playing but yeah, the bigger basis exactly probably get kicked out for fat Yeah. All right, So you take on instruments at the age of three, and what's the process for you as far as is it okay, I'm going to be a musician. I'm going to play in church, I write songs one day, Like what in your mind is there anything other than it just being a natural thing to just play instruments early on?

00:07:10
Speaker 2: I don't know. I can't pinpoint is exactly when. But I know it was at a young age that I knew that I wanted to do like music behind the scenes, and essentially that was being a producer. I never thought about being an artist, even though one time I had a chance.

00:07:27
Speaker 1: Okay, you gotta tell me about that. He was about to be about to sing.

00:07:31
Speaker 2: No sing sing. So around when I was like like fifteen sixteen, I had access to a studio from a family friend of my dad's. They knew each other from back in Haiti and all that stuff, and he lives in Long Island, still lives in that same house where I used to work at and I would just do these demos and like have all these tracks but no one to write to them. So it forced me to kind of just write to my beats two the tracks and singing, which I was not, like, that's not my favorite thing to do.

00:08:05
Speaker 1: So you're not why cleft.

00:08:06
Speaker 2: No, right, But I had all these songs that I wrote and sang, and you know, it got to some people's hands and somehow, some way I almost had a chance to be signed to Universal at nineteen.

00:08:24
Speaker 1: You was about to be the Haitian Tank, right.

00:08:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, maybe Tank, I think I was being compared.

00:08:30
Speaker 1: To Neo, know, because you are one hundred percent? Well, yes, right, like that's what I mean. You know, we talked about that earlier. It's not very many would especially from an artist standpoint of guys who literally write the songs, produce the songs, sing the song. Yeah that's different.

00:08:46
Speaker 2: But I didn't have a voice like him. Okay, but everything else, yeah, that would have been You're dead right, I'm dead on it.

00:08:53
Speaker 1: So he said you had you had a chance. Does that mean you actually took Did you take the did you take the the meetings and the whole thing?

00:09:02
Speaker 2: Yeah? I went with it. I went up to the building.

00:09:05
Speaker 1: Did you audition you did the whole shit? Or no?

00:09:07
Speaker 2: I can't remember if I auditioned, but like I remember, everybody wanted to sign me in the building except for Sylvia r Own. She was like no, she was the only one that didn't believe it. I should probably thank her.

00:09:21
Speaker 1: So at this time, though, had you placed anything on anybody, had you done anything? Had you had your break yet as a as a writer or producer or any of those things? Yet?

00:09:30
Speaker 2: I know when I was nineteen, I just can't remember this, but.

00:09:32
Speaker 1: You said fifteen at this point, right.

00:09:33
Speaker 2: Well, I started making music and like demograph music when I was fifteen. But by the time I was nineteen, is when you took this meeting. Yeah, like that's when they wanted to sign me. Yeah, so around that time, I can't remember when it came out or whatever, but around that time was when well maybe it was when I was twenty, so I think I think I didn't have anything. But right after my first placement was on Rihanna's very first album.

00:09:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, first placement, Yeah, good job, man, Yeah, yeah.

00:10:03
Speaker 2: I don't think anybody knows the song, but hey, yeah I heard it.

00:10:06
Speaker 1: I did my research. I was like, yeah, this doesn't sound like but it don't really sound like Rihanna either, because she had to make that kind of that transition. It was more of an island field exactly initially with her with her first album It's Okay. So how do you land a record on Rihanna's first album?

00:10:27
Speaker 2: Man, me and my partners, you know, we were just in New York grinding, just trying to like sow the season, let everybody know who I am, and we ran into this group called Full Force.

00:10:39
Speaker 1: You know, come on do that, hey man, do not do hey? This group called Yeah we're talking about we talk both body Slam, the house party. Come on, don't do this though, do this. This was my guys bro for my guy.

00:10:59
Speaker 2: You might not know so no, no.

00:11:01
Speaker 1: No, listen, if you watch the Army Mundy podcast, you know who and what the fuck is Full Force Facts Legends. So yes, yeah, so.

00:11:11
Speaker 2: We ran into them on the street. No, no, no, I think I can't remember. I think they found us because.

00:11:18
Speaker 1: They were doing they did all the boy band shit. Yeah, they did all of like the Backstreet and sing type.

00:11:23
Speaker 2: You know what I mean exactly.

00:11:25
Speaker 1: That's what most people don't know about Full Force, right yep. So by this time they had already done that all of that.

00:11:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, So at this time, they were already trying to work on stuff for Rihanna, and they heard this track that I did, which funny story That specific track was something like I used to like just take a capella's and remix them to my own beats. So I actually remixed the Destiny Child's Soldier and made that beat. But then they heard the track and they're like, yo, we want to write to this for this new artist named Rihanna. I'm like, I don't know who that is. But then they told me the story. They told me how you know, she was like they wouldn't let her leave the office to like all that stuff.

00:12:10
Speaker 1: Priority. Yeahs the priority of the building. Yes, yes, so you know that happened, and you know that's where comes from exactly. Wow.

00:12:19
Speaker 2: They wrote, they wrote on that and then she hopped on it, and I just I'm just like, okay, this is this is cool, you know what I mean.

00:12:26
Speaker 1: So, yeah, that's how that happened. So you have that in place, you got this this this record deal. That don't happen. Sylvia ain't fucking with you. You're like, nah no. But was it a situation though where she was like, all right, well I don't want to do an artist deal, but I want some of these songs because that happens to a lot of times. She just wasn't rocking.

00:12:49
Speaker 2: I don't think she was rocking. I never met her, like, okay, you know, man, I forgot the other guys that were there, but like he was one of the execs, but he was like a known producer as well. I'm tripping on the name right now, but anyway, he was like championing and then everybody else, you know, I kept hearing like everybody else in the building rocks with me, but she was the only one. You know, if that story ain't true, somebody can tell me. But that's what I feel like, right right. I never met her, so I don't really know what she was thinking. But I don't think they were even interested in me as a producer either at that time.

00:13:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, so from Rihanna, Yeah, what transpires for you? Do you get a publishing deal? Are you? So? No real attention is happening yet though, yet, because what most people don't understand is album cut, right, album cut don't really move a needle, you know what I mean unless somebody says, hey, you can sign to me through something, right, and they start doing the co pub deals that all that signing me as a producer, signed me as a writer type of thing. But I think for the average person, they're just like, oh, well, he had a Rihanna record, right, right, And that's tough to explain, yeah to people who haven't done it right and who aren't in it because they think, oh, one, you're rich, right, I'm sure at this point you will not yet it ain't. It has not come at all, and the royalties take a long time to get facts. Yep, what did you do? You remember what your first fee was? What was your feet for that record? Do you remember your producer free for that?

00:14:26
Speaker 2: Oh god, I don't. I don't. I feel like it was in the teens. Yeah, I feel like it was in the teens, off the rip. It might have been less. Really, I really can't remember. Dang, but I feel like if anything was in the teens, I know it was it in the twenties.

00:14:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, but a brand new producer getting the early teams. Yeah, yeah, early tea Yeah, twelve five not quite a team exactly right, under a team exactly? No, no, no, listen, yeah, I thought you was gonna say, bro, they gave me twenty five hundred and five thousand. Maybe, you know what I mean.

00:14:59
Speaker 2: It wasn't that low, but it wasn't crazy either. Yeah.

00:15:01
Speaker 1: Well, that time was different than the music business exactly. Yeah, you know what I mean, where upfront fees at that point was actually astronomical.

00:15:10
Speaker 2: Oh god, I was hearing, you know, Tim Miland and Farrell getting hundreds of thousands of dollars. I'm like, damn, let's take me back.

00:15:18
Speaker 1: Right, get that bad?

00:15:20
Speaker 2: Yeah?

00:15:20
Speaker 1: All right, so you got one place. Man, yep, what's the mindset now from a from a production sense of what you feel like you needed to do to grow your career.

00:15:31
Speaker 2: I think I was just seeing like what that happening. I was like on the right track, and you know, I just wanted to keep going and you know, just keep like sowing the seeds, letting everybody know, whoever is down to listen to my stuff, whoever is like down to work with me. I'm usually a work you know. I love working from scratch, like in the studio with artists. At that time, nobody was letting me do the studio what yeah, exactly what's his name?

00:16:00
Speaker 1: Right? Who out me on? Right?

00:16:03
Speaker 2: Exactly?

00:16:04
Speaker 1: So, because that's literally how this shit goes.

00:16:06
Speaker 2: Yeah for sure.

00:16:08
Speaker 1: So did you have a manager at the time?

00:16:09
Speaker 2: Yeah?

00:16:10
Speaker 1: Are you so? You do have things set up for you there?

00:16:12
Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah. So I have a So I have a production company, Medina Entertainment, and I have two partners, brother Sewan and brother Colin. So we came up from the beginning together. I still rock with them to this.

00:16:24
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, started from the ground again, we started from the I love that, bro, So, I love that those brothers. Oh yeah, for sure. So Sean has been playing the role of my manager. It wasn't like, really my manager just for the sake of our business. He was just doing that.

00:16:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, so yeah, it was it was really him just really making all the moves, you know, making the connections. He used to drive Tony Braxton when she was doing Broadway, so he had kind of a little relationship with her there and Tamar, which you know later on I got to meet her. But yeah, he was just around and he knew a lot of people because he was like just in the mix of a lot of things. New York like New York was back then. New York was like the spot you know what I mean.

00:17:05
Speaker 1: Are you in Brooklyn still at this point.

00:17:07
Speaker 2: Still in Brooklyn? Yep, still in Brooklyn. And then one thing led to another. I started going to this church in Queens were not officially but yeah every once in a while. So it was the Greater Allen Cathedral, but they had a youth church like a block and across the street away from the main church. And it was like me and my friends from like from high school. Some of my friends from high school invited me there and I just kept going since. So I would play there every once in a while, just you know, for fun or you know, just to help out or whatever. But you know, Stanley Brown, he was the MD at the main church, and I guess one day Rodney reached out to Rodney Jerkins start Joker and he was like, man, I need some help, I need to I need to build a team or whatever, blah blah blah blah blah, and Stanley started hearing about me. I'm not even sure how that happened, but he started hearing about me and then inquired and we sent him, I'm sure one of my CDs at the time of little CDs of like tracks and songs and all that stuff, and he sent it over to Rodney and it was just one song specifically that made him be like, yeah, I need this guy. It was a song called Approach. Yeah, it's called Approach that I did all by myself. Years later. Actually, I gave it to Joe Thomas and he hopped on it. It was a bonus track on what's the name of the album. I'll think about it later, but anyway, that song got me to Jersey with Rodney, and that was the beginning of just like a whole nother step of my career.

00:18:53
Speaker 1: Is that considered because obviously I'm from the West coast. Yeah, so is that considered like a world away because you like it got me to Jersey.

00:19:00
Speaker 2: Yeah. It was definitely a long bus ride, I'll tell you that. Okay, I hated riding riding over there. It was like it was two and a half three hours. But for me at that time, it.

00:19:10
Speaker 1: Was just like you would take the bus over there.

00:19:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think the first time I went, yeah, I took I took the bus over there, and every once in a while I would take the bus over there.

00:19:18
Speaker 1: Three hour bus ride is not close, Yeah, exactly, it's not close, right, It's not close.

00:19:22
Speaker 2: And it's like closer to Philly because it's in Atlantic City.

00:19:26
Speaker 1: Okay, I had to go all the way over there. Yeah, because because for us, I think we always especially being in front of Bay Area, like we look at New York and New Jersey is like Oakland and San Francisco. But it's fifteen minutes. It's a fifteen minute you know over the bridge. Yeah you yeah, And I think what is is Manhattan? Was it Jersey City? That are like, yeah, I think exactly coming from the other side of the country. That's how I always thought about it like, oh, yeah, that's that's quick, right, yeah, three hours and yeah that's far.

00:19:54
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:19:55
Speaker 1: And I learned that later when you just said Atlantic City, because I like to gamble, and I remember being out there at one time and he's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, man, we're gonna run up to a c yep. I said, come on, and like, yeah, it's gonna take us about Nah, I ain't gonna effects right here at this hotel in Manhattan, chilling, yep. Not no, yep, I'm cool.

00:20:18
Speaker 2: And then you gotta think. For me, I still had to take a train or a bus to Manhattan. Should get to.

00:20:24
Speaker 1: The bus to the bus to take you to Jersey.

00:20:26
Speaker 2: That actually took all day for me, all day for sure. Yeah, I hated it.

00:20:31
Speaker 1: But she was after something.

00:20:32
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, for sure.

00:20:42
Speaker 1: It was so now you work with Rodney, what's that process for you?

00:20:45
Speaker 2: It was great just kind of seeing I remember the first time I actually finally like we went up there and I met him. Actually, no, I'm tripping. The one time I met him once before we went out to Jersey. He was at Sony Studios, which doesn't exist anymore, in Manhattan, working on I think it was Beyonce I think that I was around the days of FOD times. Okay, so yeah, we got to meet like briefly there, and you know, he was telling me how much of a fan he was and all that stuff. And then after that day happened, I didn't hear from him for like months, so I'm like, Okay, I guess it's not happening this business, Yeah exactly, and then one day out of no way, he's like, yo, can he pull up today or tomorrow? And that's when I drove out there. Oh well, took the bus out there. But getting there and seeing him like he was in the middle of working on a project or finishing up a song and just kind of just seeing his process, I felt like I could. I just felt like he was like the older me in a way because I felt like like I just understood his process, and with me not knowing or being that close to someone that big at that time as a producer and seeing how he works, I was just like, yeah, I can relate to this like this, Yeah I can see myself doing that at that caliber. But it was, it was, it was crazy. And then after that, you know, we were there. I was there for two three years. A lot of great stories, you know, ups and downs. That's when I got my like Janet placement there the feedbacks. Yeah, before that, actually I did have that married J song Gonna break Through.

00:22:32
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, but that was before meeting him. One of my guys played on that record, really, Lauren Dawson.

00:22:38
Speaker 2: Oh snap.

00:22:39
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, man, I've known Lauren bro since I was a teen.

00:22:43
Speaker 2: That's crazy.

00:22:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, I went out on a writing trip I think when I was like eighteen. Yeah, I met him years ago.

00:22:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, because I remember because the virgin I ended up coming out for that song was not exactly how I had it. They cleaned it up a little bit, added all the stuff.

00:22:58
Speaker 1: You know that you're a young producer, that's what happens.

00:23:00
Speaker 2: They're like, my partners hated it, but I was like, I get it. It made sense with the flow of the project, you know. But yeah, that's that's crazy.

00:23:09
Speaker 1: Small worlds very smart, especially music business.

00:23:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure.

00:23:12
Speaker 1: So you you with you with Rodney, you get feedback, yep. Do you feel a shift yet within within where your career is going? And yeah, you know within the industry, yeah yeah, and obviously the at the time also being you know, signed to someone who's that high level in the industry. The phone calls are different, the you know, people pulling up to the studio like you said, Man, I want to get in with you. Now, it's like people are coming there to work with y'allah. I'm sure that was a whole different experience for you at that point.

00:23:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, sure, you know. I mean for me, of course, he was the main focus because he's dark child, So anybody who came over, came through was really for that. But we the opportunities were there for us, and I always used to think, like because it was a bunch of us there like that that building, it was so many times of people in there, I felt like we were the the X Men of music, but like unknown right at right time. But but yeah, it was it was just it was just you know, crazy to see who would just walk in in the buildings sometimes and even the days like when nothing's happening and I you know, sneaking like look at his files to see like some secret Michael Jackson shit that you know what I'm saying that he was working on that never came out or et cetera, like, and just being just a fan first of him and the music that came out, the music that didn't come out. Just being there for certain things, just being able to help in any way, you know, whether it was something that I was looking for credit for or not, you know what I mean. But I was really just like a team player, right. But you know, just that access was the start of it.

00:25:03
Speaker 1: Do you do you look back now at that as in a sense of your college Yes, it was like their education into the music business.

00:25:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely.

00:25:12
Speaker 1: I think you and I spoke about this as well earlier, where people look at kind of the beginning stages of their careers and they glance over it, maybe sometimes in not the most positive way. And I tend to feel that way with people, or take that from people who maybe weren't continuing their success right where they just what they're harboring on really the college years. The college years, not even you said it was ups and downs, like when you're working with people and at that time working for someone, right, right, because you have to understand what that is too. In this business, A lot of people think, oh, I'm working with such and such. No, no, no, right now, you're working for sure with It's more of a partnership, you know what I mean. But if I'm bringing you in, I'm feeding you, I'm all these lights, all this things. Work. You work for me, which is not a bad thing. It's not bad to work for someone. But I think in music these lines of we all did it, yeah, which we we did all do it, but someone, someone has to get us there. Yeah, someone has to put us in front of a Janet Jackson, you know. And I look at mine early on, I look at my you know, my early early stages of in the music business as my college. I didn't go to college, you know what I mean. So I'm like, this is this was me going to college and paying my dudes and getting my degree. I might not have a master's from Berkeley School of Music, but I got a master's from the Music Industry School of Music. That's exactly how I feel, you know what I'm saying. So I just I take it for what it is, man, and that time was what it was, and you know, hopefully I won't say hopefully. I feel like I'm continuing to use things oh yeah, that I learned from that time.

00:27:11
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah.

00:27:11
Speaker 1: So had you done a deal, had you done like publishing and all those types of things?

00:27:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I was published under him. Okay, so it wasn't a production deal, but it was a it was a publishing deal. But he basically treated me like one of his producers, you know, even though it was just published under him, and you know, like took us in as a family man he had. There was a few of us, and so I writers too at that time. So but yeah, it was a pub deal. Yeah, yep, that was my first one. And I think we talk about checks. I don't think that that definitely was a low one. That was a low one.

00:27:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, you wanna tell us a number.

00:27:50
Speaker 2: I can't remember. I do remember. I'll give him this one day. He gave me out of nowhere ten thousand dollars bonus. If that's or not, I mean it's a but I feel like the original price wasn't crazy either, but at least it was easy for me recoup.

00:28:04
Speaker 1: I think my first I think my first publishing deal was for seventy five.

00:28:10
Speaker 2: I feel like it was around and I got yeah, that's yes, Yes.

00:28:16
Speaker 1: I think I got the thirty seven five to kick it off. I got my half and then ran through that. We're gonna run through that, yep. And I needed like another ten or fifteen for equipment.

00:28:28
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:28:29
Speaker 1: And then I wrote in sink celebrity out of there, read negotiation yep. And then the Entyresa liked them girls dropped two months later. I'm like, oh, yep, you motherfuckers. I'm bad funny you know.

00:28:48
Speaker 2: That was the first that ensing album was the first album I've ever purchased with my own money, no shit. It was that and Rushan's eighty seven one on one eighty seven on one at the same time, Thank you, buddy. At the same time, man, you help me get out of.

00:29:02
Speaker 1: My publishing.

00:29:04
Speaker 2: Facts.

00:29:05
Speaker 1: If I hadn't been signed to that publishing deal for maybe six months crazy and I got cracking.

00:29:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's great.

00:29:13
Speaker 1: And I was able to, you know, work my magic and go get me a bag. Yeah. You killed that, man, they killed that. I was like, wait, so they sold how many first week? Right? She shit? What point three?

00:29:27
Speaker 2: Right?

00:29:28
Speaker 1: Ah? Thanks in shame? Yeah yeah so no, but I mean, you know, but they they published, They got it. They were smart enough to do a deal with me early on, and they were able to publish this new young writer who they got for pennies on the dollar. Worked out for everybody, worked out for everybody, worked out for everybody. Do you remember what you bought with your publishing money, your first your first check with the ten thousand with the bonus.

00:29:57
Speaker 2: I bet you it was equipment. I bet you it was.

00:30:00
Speaker 1: He was he was investing. Yeah, I bought a pair of jeans, I think, yeah.

00:30:05
Speaker 2: For sure. Yeah.

00:30:06
Speaker 1: I went to the mall, bro and I had uh, I had five thousand cash on me. I said, yeah, I need I need to feel it. I need to feel all it. You know. The heights had a hundred to me. And I went to the Beverly Center and I couldn't find anything. And I just bought a pair of random jeans. I got, I'm buying something something. I left them all with probably forty nine hundred and sixty dollars. Jeans was cheapest. Fuck right, you know what I mean? I was like, I bought something. I bought something. It's like some Levi's in nineteen whatever the fuck in the nineteen hundreds? Is my kids?

00:30:38
Speaker 2: Go right? Right?

00:30:39
Speaker 1: Dad? You were born in nineteen hundreds, Like, yeah, were over, bro, I was born in the nineteen hundreds. Man, right, But all right, so now you now you were ridey, you got the placement, you got, You're getting a bonus. Yeah, right, and you're there for a couple of years. Yeah, at what point did you step out on your so when I and what was the shift for you where you were like, all right, it's time.

00:31:04
Speaker 2: Things just kind of happened. But let's see, I was with him from two thousand and five or two thousand and six, two thousand and nine.

00:31:12
Speaker 1: Shit changed, Okay.

00:31:14
Speaker 2: I I think I was starting My name was definitely going around the industry, and I think people were more and more realizing my talent on my own as well. So I was starting to get calls directly to me, you know, for me, and.

00:31:33
Speaker 1: You weren't signed, yeah, producer anyway, right, so it wasn't like you had to go through a product okay, all right, And.

00:31:38
Speaker 2: I already had placements and I already was getting that, but it was just like it was starting to level up a little bit and like the type of people that were seeking out for me. So at that time, the one thing I can remember, it was kind of like coinciding with my transition and leaving Rodney, I met Puff okay, yeah, and he was working on this album at the.

00:32:03
Speaker 1: Time, was it the ditty dirty Money Out?

00:32:05
Speaker 2: Thirty Money Out?

00:32:05
Speaker 1: Okay, yep.

00:32:06
Speaker 2: So going back to Joe Thomas again, there was another song that I did called Triple Black Room, which was also a bonus on this album.

00:32:15
Speaker 1: Joe, why you kept putting my nigga on the bonus? Man?

00:32:18
Speaker 2: I didn't have his first single on that album.

00:32:20
Speaker 1: Well, Tank used to put me on the bonus too, bro Like, he asked me to sing on the record. I thought I was cracking. Somehow I end up on like a target.

00:32:26
Speaker 2: Water right for sure. But I did have the song called Emergency that that was his first single, that one, that one did what it did, But all the other songs I did with Joe were bonuses, and it was like it was like target only bonus, So you have to go to target, you know what I'm talking about that yep.

00:32:42
Speaker 1: I'm telling everybody. I'm like, yeah, you know, I got this exactly. I'm featured. Please you know, I mean you talk me into singing on the song, right? Yeah, it's only a target, I said, only singing target, right? Fine?

00:32:56
Speaker 2: So anyway, somehow Puff heard it okay and had like this Prince vibe. It was like the eighties whatever, and he was like, whoever did that? I need that guy for this album. So I met him, and I remember one time one night, he had all of Rodney's camp go out there, but already on the side, Puff was reaching out directly to me as well and my team to work on it. I don't think Rodney knew at this time, but whatever the case, we all went there. He was playing all the ideas he had At the time, I was blown away. I was just like, what the hell did I just hear? And I remember going back to the studio and just like making tracks from that from that point on, like, you know, trying to send him some shit. And then he had me come to New York at Daddy's house, his studio, and for like two three years we were working on that project like on and off. Yeah, but you know, like once we really got into working on it, I had already moved on for Rodney. Okay that point, that was like the first main big thing that that you were part of me that I was a part of. Outside of that, Yeah.

00:34:07
Speaker 1: Listen, that album, that last Tin of Pairs album is actually really dope. Yeah, it's a really really dope album. All right, So now when do you get your first hit record?

00:34:20
Speaker 2: So Janet was but it was like number nineteen on the Hot one hundred and that was like everything to me. That was before all of that, But honestly, after that, my next one was Leave the Door Open, which went number one, which was years later. Wow, Like as far as like overall, how U it hit? Yeah? I might have had some R and B ones but sort of.

00:34:46
Speaker 1: But Feedback also And when I said, because I know Feedback is a hit record, yeah, I'm saying for you. Yeah, because Feedback was also a co production for you, right.

00:34:54
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, yeah it was at least that's what it says on it. But yes, but you.

00:35:00
Speaker 1: Get what I'm saying. Where you know where someone's like, okay, d Mile did right exactly.

00:35:06
Speaker 2: I guess it depends on how you look at a hit because I mean after after I left. I think one thing that that really did another transition in my life for me was starting to be able to executive produce projects. Okay, so the first project I executive produced ever. Shout out to Sean Barron. Yeah, man, he's killing everybody saying like literally there's like three of us, yea, look like all related. But he gave me my first shot at executive producing Diggie Simmons' album, his first album, which Tank was.

00:35:43
Speaker 1: On he did, uh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that was that was my joint. Yeah so you did the whole Diggy album.

00:35:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, I did like half the album, Okay, but I over you know, I helped oversee everything, you know with everybody, And yeah, that was like my first thing. I had my engineer mix almost every song, if not every song. So yeah, that was like my first real thing. And then after that, Sean Brown again introduced me to the Tie Dollar Sign where we got to work on the Free Free TC album.

00:36:17
Speaker 1: Okay, and I think I thought, I thought, I know you did stuff on Beach House. I didn't know you did stuff.

00:36:21
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, all yeah, my bad, all the mixtapes and EPs.

00:36:23
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:36:24
Speaker 2: I was on every project of Ties up until honestly his last project. I didn't get to do enough course of Kanye stuff, but every other project before that, but Free TC, I think was the you know when that came out, in the reaction to that, I think that that did that did something for me for sure.

00:36:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, so the calls were a little different to that point, not me, because I think Ty caught a lot of people off guard. Yeah, people didn't know how talented, how musical how great yep, tie you know what I mean. So obviously being a part of that, I'm sure the phone calls were definitely like, oh yeah, yeah, I need some of that sauce, because that's that's our business right where it's like something jumps off right now, Leon Thomas, everybody's trying to figure out how to get to every single person that played whatever part yep in that album exactly just how it goes. So no, I absolutely understanding and get that. Let's get to Bruno how the fuck right? Because like listen, music business and music business. Yeah, yes, we be knowing each other. Yeah, we come across each other, yep, but it don't always turn into we're gonna work together now, especially with them and them already having their production team.

00:37:39
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly exactly.

00:37:41
Speaker 1: How did that work for you?

00:37:42
Speaker 2: So funny enough, I feel like my story in my life in music it just had like different phases. So, like as I was saying about the time dollar thing, how that kind of shifted stuff for me. Another shift, and probably the biggest shift that really changed everything for me was working with Lucky.

00:38:01
Speaker 1: Day, one of my favorites.

00:38:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was at a time when both of us honestly, and even my engineer all kind of felt like quitting. Yeah, we don't want to do this, you know, like I don't know I was gonna go home. I don't know what the fuck I was gonna do.

00:38:20
Speaker 1: Yeah, biggie rap song.

00:38:23
Speaker 2: I was just I was definitely at that point where I felt like I knew I wasn't going to do it, but I was like today, I feel like quittin. And I even posted it and everything, but uh, you know some people, those guys.

00:38:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, not only hey guys, right, I'm quitting right.

00:38:42
Speaker 2: It was the only time, yeah, right, But anyway, he just happened to come to me right around that same time, right on time, and he said to me, like lucky he sat down with me. It was like, Yo, I think I want to do a project, and this is gonna be my last attempt and if this work, that I'm quitting. Right. So I was just like fuck everything else. He's not signed, but I don't care. Let's just like he played me like two songs he already had with Camper at the time that's on the album, and I was like, yeah, let's just work. And we spent like maybe months to a year working on that project, and it was just us having fun, not giving a funck about what anybody else thinks, not caring about how it's gonna come out or whatever. Let's just do this for us, and let's just see what happens.

00:39:43
Speaker 1: Are you writing and producing for anyone else at the.

00:39:46
Speaker 2: Time, probably on and off, but my main focus was him. I had some you know, I had some pub pub money. You know, I had by that time, I had a publishing deal, like another one that was way more than my first. So I was something.

00:40:01
Speaker 1: You brought equipment again, just more equipment.

00:40:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I bought a bunch of shit equipment cars. Okay, okay, yeah, that's I know.

00:40:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's how you get your studio. You still ride the goddamn bus, all right.

00:40:16
Speaker 2: I had like four BMW's in my life, just back to back to back to back, and I'm sure all of that was part of that. But yeah, man, we started working, working, and then you know, one thing led to another and another. He got a deal, shit came out. Response was crazy, and that's the painted out, man, And that's the painted album.

00:40:34
Speaker 1: Great album. Yeah, you know, ros is one of my favorite songs.

00:40:37
Speaker 2: Which was the first I think it was the first song we did. Once we decided we were going to work on the product.

00:40:43
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh that's great. Yep, yeah, I would have kept working.

00:40:45
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly right. So what a year later, I was twenty nineteen it came out. Yeah, So like the end, like August twenty nineteen, I got a call from James foonn Lloyd, who I know was on the show That's My Guy. He hit me on a Wednesday and he's like, yo, what you're doing on Friday. I'm like, I'm not doing that. I don't think I'm doing nothing. Bruno wants you to come by. He wants to meet you, and I'm like, okay, cool.

00:41:19
Speaker 1: So at this point you never met Bruno. He never. I actually had.

00:41:23
Speaker 2: Him once one time. He had an artist that you know at the time that he was trying to He was trying to do the exact thing. Yeah, it didn't work out, but I was working with her and he came in the room and kind of helped us with a little bit. He doesn't remember this. So I met him that one time, and I remember going in the studio. I was on the phone with my partner brother Sean. I'm like, yeah, I'm supposed to be working with Bruno, got this artist name blah blah blah, and then I look up and he's sitting there like, oh shit, So that was funny. But so yeah, that was that was like a quick meet, but because the real meat was James.

00:42:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, wrote on the twenty four car Magic and no but no, no, no, no, no, I know that. Oh yeah, but he wrote on the Last Train of Paris record. Yes, okay, so now yeah, yeah, I'll put it all together, yep, okay, from when he was working with Justin and they're doing what would they they were the Wise Yes, okay, yeah, yeah.

00:42:19
Speaker 2: So I've known him since Rodney days, like I've as soon as we moved out here. He was like one of the first people I met, follower.

00:42:24
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:42:25
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:42:25
Speaker 1: So now he's making a phone call to you. Yeah, Bruno, want.

00:42:29
Speaker 2: To high at you, right, and we're getting the studio. We're talking, he's You're feeling me out. We're just talking like he's asking how how do I work and all that stuff. I remember telling him like I'm pretty much open, you know, whatever you need. And the first thing we start working on, honestly, is a version of leave the Door Open. It was called something completely different. That was the first thing was it was a completely different.

00:42:56
Speaker 1: I know what I'm going to do when I come to your studio. Actually, since I'm here today, I'm going to say, Hey, what is the first thing you've done?

00:43:04
Speaker 2: Yeah?

00:43:05
Speaker 1: Play that for me, right, because it's something to that.

00:43:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean he man, he's a genius first off, yessay. So he already had the idea for the concept and he was just playing around with kind of the world of where he wanted it to go. So that version nobody will ever hear. But that was literally the first thing we worked on. It wasn't like I had a track and we were working on that. We built something from scratch and it was built off of whatever idea he kind of was having at the time.

00:43:36
Speaker 1: Was it intended for Sokonic?

00:43:40
Speaker 2: No, At that time, none of us knew what it was like he was writing. Yeah, he was just writing, you know. I mean that's kind of how he works. He'll start writing and then try to find the world in the process, and then once he has that Eureka moment, he's like, Okay, now I know what we need to do. So at that time, he didn't know what he was trying to do. Just knew he was trying to work on another project, and then we actually were working on something else on the side at that time, so we kind of had like two different focuses. And then the pandemic happened and everything slowed down, so that kind of changed that exactly. That kind of fucked up that side thing. But you know, we went back to leave the door open. We actually did smoking out the window before the pandemic happened, and that was kind of what birth the idea of the group of the group.

00:44:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, smash yeah, smashes.

00:44:39
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:44:40
Speaker 1: What did that feel like?

00:44:42
Speaker 2: Oh man, when it came out or just to.

00:44:45
Speaker 1: When it hit number one, kind of high one on it.

00:44:49
Speaker 2: Man, I remember ship. I think of debut number two, and that was great for me already. I was just like, I think so like, I think Drake was the only person in our way to get it. I did bro I can look back and make sure, but I think right. But but when we finally hit it, I was just like, Wow, I finally did it. And it's not that I was trying, you know, all this time, all these years, but when it happened, it was like wow, and.

00:45:18
Speaker 1: You're fifteen years in at this point.

00:45:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, something like that, right, Yeah, And I I was actually mostly surprised at something being something that musical going up that crazy.

00:45:29
Speaker 1: Yeah. Now, I had a conversation with philil Burns about what we have been able to do as black creatives with Bruno. Yeah, like our people, you know what I mean, And because I'm very honest about what music is and what music looks like, right, And I don't know if it were in the same space if he's black, right, I'm just very honest about that, you know what I mean. And I'm very appreciative of the people who get to work with Bruno and get that off and be musical because I've worked with artists black artists who have taken those same type of shots and it's like, yeah, yeah, this feel old or this feel, this are this feel and it's a lot of other excuses other than it's great.

00:46:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure, I get that, you know what I mean.

00:46:34
Speaker 1: And the fact that Bruno makes sure he taps in and all of y'all that are part of it are fucking amazing, bro, And I appreciate that, Like you're my friend, but I'm a fan of what you do, Like you're incredible Bro, Philip Lawrence is incredible. Brody is incredible. James follower in like going down the line a bro like the music you guys create, it's timeless. Bruno is a vessel. Yeah, definitely, you know what I'm saying.

00:47:12
Speaker 2: Definitely, And he studies, man, he studies.

00:47:15
Speaker 1: It's clear. Yeah, it's clear. And like I said, Bro, I'm from the outside of it looking in, I'm just appreciative that y'all get to get that off.

00:47:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, making at him crazy, like you sure when that ship came out, I was just like.

00:47:31
Speaker 1: And he probably like, why not? It should be that way. It should be that way, it should be why not? Right? But obviously we got our color lines, we got the ship that we deal with within music. Same thing with Justin Timberlay. You know what I mean, Bro, it's my dog, it's my white nigga out o that man, that's just Jake, that's my white nigga. So I understand. Yeah, and I get to see it up close, and like I said, even from the sidelines of it, I'm super appreciative because it's just great music. It's great music. It's it's family friendly, you know, it's it's it's it gets risky at some points. I mean, we'll get to that risk it all work place. What I'm doing here, I can play the music with my whole family in the car too, you know what I mean. And that means something to me as well. Yeah, definitely all right, So so yeah, yeah, let's we're gonna We're gonna get're gonna get back on track. Though. So now you got these high one hundred number one hits, you're going crazy. Then you say, I'm a tap in with my partner from a dark Shaw Days, I'm a tap in with Victoria. That marriage that y'all have is so special. Yeah, and once again from the sideline. I've watched it because I never forget. Ghazi, who I grew up with in the Bay, caused me one day and he says, I need you to meet with this artist. And I was like, what's her name? He's like, uh, Victoria Monam Like I think I think I you know. I was like, I think I heard of her, and me and her hop on the phone and we're like, all right, we're gonna go lunch. We go to lunch and I look at her and I go, I know you and she was like, yes, I know you right. It's like, but that wasn't your name, right, But I'm trying, you know how, He's trying to figure it out. She goes, No, I sang for you signed a dark shout in the group, and I go, you're the girl that I pulled riding to the side and said her. Wow, everything I love.

00:49:40
Speaker 2: I feel like I might have heard this too, I.

00:49:42
Speaker 1: Literally said, because I don't know Roddy had just called me. I think I did for something. And y'all it was the studio right there off of the one on one Meryl Roses or whatever that is over there, and I think I think that that was Dimitri Expensive Studio.

00:50:00
Speaker 2: I can tell.

00:50:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I think that was Demetri Studio. And they sang for me and they were from they were from Sack yeah, and obviously I'm from San Francisco. So was it that whole you know how she starts Ye, it's like it starts formulating as we're sitting there having lunch, and I'm like, oh, yeah, you've been special.

00:50:20
Speaker 2: YEP.

00:50:21
Speaker 1: It's like, yes, you've been special, Yeah, definitely. And you know, I ended up finding out, you know, y'all was working together because i'd heard your name and I'm like, oh, this is crazy. Was it just a conversation because y'all were already homies.

00:50:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, so, I mean a lot of people don't know. And I might have said this somewhere, but she used to live with me, so ship, yeah.

00:50:45
Speaker 1: Okay, the music business, like, hey man, that needs some where to stay.

00:50:48
Speaker 2: So and it's so funny because this was after I left, like the Rodney situation. And we had an apartment in North Hollywood.

00:50:57
Speaker 1: Neither one of y'all live in apartments no more, yes, boy.

00:51:02
Speaker 2: But we had an apartment apartment two eleven was that was our apartment number.

00:51:06
Speaker 1: But it's like armed robbery. That's two eleven is an arm robbery, you know, that's for that.

00:51:12
Speaker 2: I'm like, maybe I should go with a different high number, but that was That's what it is, right. So, but it was three of us. It was a three bedroom, so it was three of us. We were all with Dark Child. One of us was engineer, another one was a producer, and then of course me.

00:51:27
Speaker 1: But I had just left.

00:51:29
Speaker 2: So how I met Vic was I had a friend that I went to high school with named LaToya, and she was dope saying I used I'm such a fan to this damn slill fan. She's so dope, like she you know, but she called me telling me that, Yo, she has an opportunity to be in this group with Dark Child. You know, he's forming a group the groups called Purple Rain. So she asked, because she's from New York, to be able to stay by us while she's like doing the auditioning or whatever they were doing. So I was like, yeah, you know, I made sure all my boys was cool with it, and she came, and somehow it turned into all three of them coming and staying. So Vic was one of them. Oh shit, Yeah. And they were there for like maybe a year or two, maybe a year before they found their own place and and all that stuff. But they were heavily working with with Rodney. So that's how me and Vic met. And you know that that group didn't work out, you know, things happened, but me and Vic just kept that relationship. Stay locked in, stay locked in.

00:52:42
Speaker 1: And that's the thing. I think. Everybody's not meant to be in a group, right right right. It wasn't that the group wasn't good, because I remember them, they were dope. She just seemed to be a solo artist to me.

00:52:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, no, I get it.

00:52:55
Speaker 1: You know what I means me, I get it. So been this business alone. I see so many artists, I see so many producers, see so many writers. Yeah, and I just my opinion is my opinion. Yeah, and but I trust it. Yeah, you know like I'm one of those people too though that I trust my opinion. Yeah, right or wrong. You might tap me five years from I'd be like, yeah, you said I did that.

00:53:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, I get it.

00:53:20
Speaker 1: I thought that shit was go crack. Ye I guess he didn't. Yeah, but I trust my opinion in what I see in Victoria Monett. Yeah, many like that girl.

00:53:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, she's another one, like anything that she ever put out, even from back the mixtapes, the EPs, I was in one way, shape or another part of it. Yeah, and then it just grew and it turned into like you know, the Jaguar album, me executive producing that and you know, or being a big part of that up until the day, like she will always work together. That's how I look at it. Yeah, for sure.

00:53:53
Speaker 1: Did that success feel different for you because it was ground up and somebody you were in the trenches with.

00:54:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was so proud when she won those Grammys. Yeah, so proud.

00:54:06
Speaker 1: I think we all were. Yeah, I mean obviously you were a part of it. But I think the community literally, right, we have we have certain artists that all of us have championed. This is Leon Thomas. I go back to that where people are just like, yes, yeah, Caliney getting a record like Folded, Yeah, yes, yeah right. Because this process that we go through within the music business, this overnight success of ten, fifteen, sometimes twenty years till you get your chance to be who you're supposed to be in the game and you didn't quit. People celebrate that. Yes, I know, I do. You know what I'm saying, I absolutely do. I know Tank does Army money. That's what we're about. We love to see Hey man, you know that was such and such from Yeah, that's domind Darius that got the the Residuals record exactly. You know what I'm saying. So I think that is that's something that that it's really cool to watch.

00:55:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's important for people to know too. That's what I appreciate you doing this. I appreciate I appreciate you calling me. Yeah, it's been a minute, even on my line.

00:55:22
Speaker 1: But because once again, bro, if I rock with you. I rock with you. Man, there is no and I don't I don't care number ones are not.

00:55:30
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:55:31
Speaker 1: If I rock with you, I rock with you. This show for me is a labor of love, yes, flat out you know what I mean. For our company, Like, we created this so that we could put a spotlight on our people in a positive way and be informative so people could understand the process how this goes. No, this is not overnight success for sure, you know what I mean. It took years to get the Jaguar, for her to have that moment, for her to curate it the way she did, and to do it with somebody who she had been locked in with for years literally a roommate.

00:56:11
Speaker 2: Yep.

00:56:12
Speaker 1: Literally that got to be celebrated. Yeah, it has to be celebrated, bro. So you know that's why for me, I'm with all this. Yeah, you know, I want to have these conversations and I want to talk to the people that really create this ship that we love and that we breathe and that we're part of. How many Grammys did y'all win on that?

00:56:31
Speaker 2: She won three? I got one that year?

00:56:35
Speaker 1: Okay, Yeah, he is a producer, Guys, he gonna floss a little bit, might not wear a lot of jewelry. He got hardware right.

00:56:44
Speaker 2: Right, But for R and B albums, So I was able to get that.

00:56:49
Speaker 1: For that and then from Silk Sonic Ye three that year, that year.

00:56:58
Speaker 2: Three that year Record of the Year, and then R and B album again.

00:57:11
Speaker 1: So bro, song of the Year. Yeah, that's such a special trophy. Like people, they everybody get caught up in a lot of other things. There's so many songs.

00:57:26
Speaker 2: So many songs.

00:57:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, that is the trophy. Yeah, in my opinion, maybe because I'm a songwriter and I just you know, I look at it that way. But that's the trophy. Yeah, one song that means I had the best song this year. Whatever y'all could argue. Niggas be hating on the Grammys, niggas hating on everything. Yeah, right, I had the best song this year. Bro? Did you cry?

00:57:52
Speaker 2: Almost?

00:57:52
Speaker 1: Come on, Donald, you can shed a thud tier bro?

00:57:55
Speaker 2: No, yeah, I know. But the reason why I cried when we want and that was because literally days before my mom passed away. Yeah, so I dedicated it to her. I choked a little bit, and then I was like, all right, I know, I know they'd be quick with the with the timers. So I'm like, let me just say this is for her and move on. And I I appreciate Bruno because I think he didn't realize. He didn't know for sure that I was there. So when I when he saw me come up, He's like, I think they had a whole bit and an idea that they were gonna do if they won, which they did, but when he saw me, he just like, now, fuck that, say something for your mom. He literally said that.

00:58:34
Speaker 1: I was like, Ship, I didn't know this was gonna happen. Gave me yeah, saying yeah, man. So yeah, he's a real one for that.

00:58:42
Speaker 2: Bro always man, that's my guy forever. So you know, it was short and sweet, but but it didn't come out, but it was about to.

00:58:50
Speaker 1: But yeah, yeah no bro that yeah, and then yeah it's not over. Actually it's actually just starting. You got a fucking Oscar. Yes, you know who we call it? Forgetting that? Goodoyd calls me old Mark Cuba good right, Oscar Bro.

00:59:14
Speaker 2: Crazy Finoid calls me Oscar to this day.

00:59:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, what did I say when I walked in here? Where's the Oscar I left at home? Yeah?

00:59:23
Speaker 4: Is that the villa?

00:59:24
Speaker 1: Right?

00:59:25
Speaker 2: It's just there, right, bro, that one was crazy?

00:59:29
Speaker 1: Did you ever imagine?

00:59:30
Speaker 2: Not at all?

00:59:31
Speaker 1: See, because I said ship right, we get in this to win a Grammy. Yeah, we get it to win a Grammy. All the rest of the thing. Niggas start winning Emmys, they start winning Oscars. Actually, so you the third Oscar winner, I know, brilliant? Yeah, man, you Jamie and Michael b Oh, yeah, crazy. I don't think. I don't think. I know no other ones.

00:59:53
Speaker 2: I might, yeah, I don't think so though you know John Patis.

00:59:58
Speaker 1: Yet I don't don't. I don't know Jobatz. Amazing, amazing, Yeah, absolutely, I wanted John's pull up, bring the Oscar, bring the Oscar.

01:00:09
Speaker 2: But yeah, I want that.

01:00:09
Speaker 4: I mean, you know her?

01:00:11
Speaker 1: I don't you know her in passing? So she's a lot younger than me. Sure, she's from the Bay Area obviously as well, but she's a lot younger than me. And I had only heard of her years earlier as Gabby right, yep, I didn't even know yeah her? Yeah literally, So no, I don't know her. I don't know her all right, So I think I might have met her in passing once, got it, But we don't know each other. Yeah, yeah, amazing incredible. Yeah, how how does that transpire? Man?

01:00:42
Speaker 2: I was in the middle of working with Bruno, I think on Yeah, it was on the sound album, still figuring that whole thing out, and one day I get a call they asked me to come and help her with like she has this this movie that she has to do a song for, and it was Judas is the Black Maside. So I'm like, all right, I'm supposed to be working, but let me see if I can get out or maybe it was like a day that I was off from Brunos. I was able to go, so I went and pulled up on them. We got to watch, like they sent us the movie before it the Room came out, we got to watch it. We had popcorn and all that shit, watched it from beginning to end, and we were like kind of blown away with them with the movie and what the story was. And then right after we're like, all right, let's let's try to do some shit, and I'm like, how am I? How are we going to do anything? Because they were asking for something that was like more uplifting and more upbeat. Yeah, the movie is so sad, especially how it ends and all this stuff. So I'm like I am not in that mood of being able to do this, so I'm kind of like leaning on ga, leaning on Gabby to see what she what she's feeling, seeing what Tiarra's feeling. And then she picks up a base and just starts mudling around with something, and I'm like, that sounds cool that she puts the base down and goes to use the bathroom. I pick up the base and I don't think I played exactly what she played, but it still sparked the whole thing. By the time she came back, we you know, we had us exactly. We had a track that she was like, oh yeah, I like this, and then you know, her and Tier started writing to it, but it was late, so we got we got I feel like maybe we got to writing a hook or something like that. Then we just called her a night. It was like, we'll come back to it tomorrow. But I couldn't come back the next day, so I left them with the track. They finished right into it the next day and sent me it over and then I did some post production, sent it back. They sent it to the movie people. They loved it the whole time. I'm not thinking, no, no Oscar is going to come out of this or anything. I'm just like, I just wanted to help her. And next thing, you know, shit comes out and it was the pandemic. So like you you watch it from home. Nobody went to the movies to watch it. And now we're hearing Golden Globe talks, Oscar talks and all that stuff. And I had to do freaking zoom interviews with like people, and next thing you know, we're nominated, and I'm like, how the hell did this happen?

01:03:20
Speaker 1: So you had to go on a campaign? Yeah, I did the whole thing. Yeah, I was.

01:03:23
Speaker 2: I was just riding with her campaign, like yeah, straight up, like the three of us were campaigning, and who the writers on her? It was me, her and Tarotannas.

01:03:33
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, she's dope.

01:03:34
Speaker 2: Yea. Everything was just moving so fast. It was kind of overwhelming for me that that year because that year I also won Song of the Year again that was that was my first Song of the Year, and then a month later I won an Oscar, So.

01:03:48
Speaker 1: I was like, what And for my last trick, I've also won Song a Year twice and I'm pretty sure you're the only who's done that.

01:04:01
Speaker 2: Yes, apparently this is crazy. I'm like, how And I think I'm the first one in thirty five years. I think Lino Richie was the first to win a song in Oscar in the same year for two different songs.

01:04:14
Speaker 1: I saw that, how are you pouring so much champagne? Good brother, You're pouring so much? Is this? These are the magnum bottles of move that you just you're just pouring out.

01:04:22
Speaker 2: At this point, I look up, I'm like, how the hell did that happen? Like straight up?

01:04:27
Speaker 1: And the second year in the road that you wined is for the Leaders are Open. Yeah, And then the first one.

01:04:34
Speaker 2: Was I can't Breathe with her, oh, which the three of us.

01:04:37
Speaker 1: I can't breath yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's the first one you win, and that's during the pandemic.

01:04:42
Speaker 2: Right, that's during the pandemic. The second one we won, the pandemic was over, but we that was the when the Grammars was in Vegas, Vegas, Yes, popping. They should do that one more time at least.

01:04:51
Speaker 1: Hey, Vey, Army, let's go back.

01:04:53
Speaker 2: Hell yeah.

01:04:54
Speaker 1: The Valentine likes to get good luck out there. Come on, he's ready to win another Song of the Year, right, put it back in Vegas.

01:05:02
Speaker 2: Right, yeah, man, this run insane?

01:05:06
Speaker 1: Could you imagine it? No? Never?

01:05:08
Speaker 2: You know what I was when I I thought about this. When I was younger, the only like vision I had was being at the red carpet at the Grammys, not even winning for some reason. It was just just the red carpet, just the red carpet with my like, my, my lady, my wife, my you know. Yeah, yeah, that actually happened, but like everything else after that was not I just wasn't thinking about that. Yeah, I don't know why. That was like the thing above everything else.

01:05:43
Speaker 1: Yeah, the celebration of it all. Yeah, have you gotten used to it?

01:05:50
Speaker 2: No, I don't think so. I don't think so because I'm always like, you know, I mean, it could never happen again. So when it does, do you take all the homies as much as I could?

01:06:03
Speaker 1: Yeah?

01:06:03
Speaker 2: Yeah?

01:06:05
Speaker 1: How did? How does how does your dad feel? He's your music teacher?

01:06:10
Speaker 2: Yeah exactly, He's over the moon. He's always proud.

01:06:12
Speaker 1: How do you pronounce y'all name Durst?

01:06:15
Speaker 2: Yeah?

01:06:15
Speaker 1: Because Nigga was gonna call you Durnest. Yeah, yeah, everybody, I was gonna call you the earnest, like I seen. That's it.

01:06:22
Speaker 2: Trust me.

01:06:22
Speaker 1: I've heard I've called you know.

01:06:24
Speaker 2: You want to know the worst thing I've ever heard? Dust? I don't know how she got it was. It was a teacher in my I was in elementary.

01:06:33
Speaker 1: She didn't like you.

01:06:34
Speaker 2: I think I said my name and then she was like what Dust, I'm like, no, I said Durnst. Yeah, I'll never forget that. I'm like, that was the worst version of my name.

01:06:43
Speaker 1: So big darn style here flaws right, Yeah, come come learn with me. You want to win an Oscar? You want to win one hundred thousand Grammys? That top my son? Yeah, listen, my son went to Oscar. They'll never hear the end up.

01:06:59
Speaker 2: No, trust me. My dad, well, honestly it's my daughter.

01:07:04
Speaker 1: My dad both.

01:07:04
Speaker 2: Definitely talks about me to his students. But what also happens is my dad will tell my I mean the students will tell my dad.

01:07:14
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, yeah, he's like, oh yeah, I heard you had.

01:07:17
Speaker 2: This song with Lady Gaga whatever.

01:07:20
Speaker 1: Yep, transitions right, died with a smile. Yeah once again? What the fuck?

01:07:31
Speaker 2: Yeah that one?

01:07:32
Speaker 1: Bro?

01:07:33
Speaker 2: Yeah? Oh yeah, I.

01:07:37
Speaker 1: Saw the video. They're performing in front of like forty hundred.

01:07:40
Speaker 2: Thousand pop Yeah, that was crazy. That was crazy.

01:07:44
Speaker 1: I'm in the studio with I'm in a studio with fount le Roy. He's like, look at this, because I also was telling him a story about me having a meeting with this Uh we'll call him an executive, okay, telling me how died with a smile wasn't a hit?

01:08:02
Speaker 2: Really wow?

01:08:04
Speaker 1: Mm hmm early yep. I ain't gonna lie. You know. People say, you know, we listening, we don't judge, not me. I listened, and I judge the fuck out of you. This is my camera right here, right, Tiki. It's my camera. So if you say some dumb shit to me, gonna judge you on it. And and I'm like, you're crazy. Yeah, He's like, no, it's residue from its stardom residue. Wow, startom residue. Uh huh, it's Lady g guy and and Bruno marsh You can't miss I said. And you also can't forget it right right? And I started singing certain parts and he was like, oh yeah, I said, you want me to sing more? Right, I sing more. This is a smash. So by the time I go sit with Finntleroy at this point, you guys, if you're ruling the world. Yeah, And I tell him the story and he goes, let me play something, and he pulls up the video of them. I don't know, I don't know. I don't know where they at there somewhere.

01:09:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it was because I think it was just Got Goy. It wasn't both of them.

01:09:15
Speaker 1: Yes, it's just Got.

01:09:16
Speaker 2: I think she just got a concert or something. But it was so many people out there, so.

01:09:20
Speaker 1: Many people singing that.

01:09:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, you couldn't even hear HER's that feel bro amazing, dog amazing.

01:09:29
Speaker 1: I never had that feeling I wanted. Man, I've been in the hood, right, they singing along the wind weed and you just hear fuck, and I'm like, it's just right right.

01:09:40
Speaker 2: But honestly, that felt better than the leave the Door Open and all that stuff, as great as that was for me, and that was like my first like number one man when Died with a Smile came out and he held onto that song for like a year. He didn't know what to do with it yet. We've been working on basically the Romantic album, so it was different vibe. But I never forgot about that song. I was just like, how could you?

01:10:06
Speaker 1: Bro? Yeah from a lyrics standpoint melody. When it gets into the I'm like, ah, what I'm saying because as creatives and honestly I take this, I'm gonna I'm gonna rewind a little bit. The executive that I'm sitting with has never written a song. He's an executive, which we respect them, and I sit on both sides of that fence, right like I've signed artists, I've signed publishing deals, I've written songs, I've sang songs, so I have all the conversations, right, I'm like, listen what you say. It sounded like a suit. Yeah, you sound like someone who's never written a song and doesn't know when that sweet spot kicks in. Definitely if the world was ending.

01:10:59
Speaker 2: Already got them.

01:11:01
Speaker 1: I want to be next to you, right.

01:11:04
Speaker 2: Right, exactly? Come on, bro, that's the key part right there.

01:11:08
Speaker 1: Come on, bro that the hundreds of thousands of people at the concert. I'm going to sing along too. Yeah, how could you not hear that? Yeah? You don't write these songs, right, you haven't written a song. You don't know that feeling, you don't have a heart that what see Now you're going farther. Yeah, you're tricky. You tricky y'all, be letting these people control your careers and listen, it's heartless souls.

01:11:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, well we could.

01:11:39
Speaker 1: That's another conversation, you know, every now and every now and then, we got to have those conversations, bro. But that song, man is incredible. Man, Thank you, congratulations. Man.

01:11:50
Speaker 2: I'm just I'm just glad to have been a part of it in any way.

01:11:53
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, and as you see, bro, I just I love to celebrate y'all. Yeah, it don't matter if I'm a part of it or not. Our idea wasn't even even if I came to the studio and you played it for me. I'm like, nigga, I heard it right right, like when we did when we did Celebrity, they had just finished writing gone.

01:12:14
Speaker 2: Yeah.

01:12:16
Speaker 1: But the fact that I could tell the hood with justin yeah, my white nigga, Timberlake had on the way I could. Yeah, we dropped this. He gonna be the white nigga that all the black girls love. I knew it. It's like that record is going to take him to a place that this instinct it ain't did it Yeah, and it's gonna take them there. But then he off right, I just knew it. This is different. So when you get a chance to hear something first, somebody play you a record Tank playing me please don't go. I'm like, oh my god, Bro, y'all killed this shit.

01:12:57
Speaker 2: Those were the best, like the joints that you get to here before should come out the best dog and the saddest things is like the incredible records that you.

01:13:05
Speaker 1: Don't ever come out. And I am the friend that'd be like, hey, where is it? Man? That's how it was with No Bullshit with Chris. He played it for me amongst eighty Word, and I said, hey, there's a song that you played three hours ago. Can you play that one again? It's like it's something about Bush.

01:13:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, yep, oh nigg I look that yeah, please.

01:13:32
Speaker 1: Play it again. Because when you get to hear that that man, Bro record Plan. I still remember it. Yeah, oh record plan Man, he's playing me. He plays me No Bullshit and induces Oh yeah, amongst the other records. I'm just like, nigga, those two are you got to hear? Bro As Clive would say, those are all timers. Yeah right, it's an all timer, right, you know what I mean, a real copyright, bro, like you got real copyrights out here.

01:14:02
Speaker 2: Don man. I just looked up and yeah, you have you you.

01:14:06
Speaker 1: Know, and this is in your business a little bit. But uh, I know they've been calling. Have you done the catalog deal?

01:14:13
Speaker 2: No, but yes they have been calling.

01:14:15
Speaker 1: What's your thoughts on that.

01:14:16
Speaker 2: I'm still I'm kind of like you're on the fence. Yeah, I'm not sure yet. Yeah, but but I'm I should learn a little more. But I'm learning and kind of understanding kind of the things you can do.

01:14:29
Speaker 1: It's a real conversation within our industry now, yep. And everybody can't do one right. People be talking about it. I'm like, Nigga, yeah, you placed half a song talking about you doing a catalog deal. I ain't doing no catalog deal, relax right, Yeah. But then there's guys like yourself, Yeah, who these records are so massive and you've done so many of them, and then they come to you and they're talking these multiples this ten, twelve, fifteen some odd X deals. How do you turn that down?

01:15:05
Speaker 2: I don't think. I don't think everything that sounds good is good.

01:15:08
Speaker 1: Respect. You know, all money ain't good money.

01:15:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, all money ain't good money.

01:15:12
Speaker 1: Bad money.

01:15:13
Speaker 2: Yeah. The thing is where I'm at. I just don't know yet, and I usually don't like to move until I fully understand something. But that's I guess that's where I'm at. And you know, like I did learn that you can you don't have to sell your whole shit, you know what, I mean to do pieces pieces, get some of it back later or whatever. I'm just like, okay, whatever, I'm not gonna worry about that now. But maybe one day.

01:15:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, But at the moment, no turn out to the catalog companies, though, because I do like the work that they're doing, and I.

01:15:42
Speaker 2: Like, say, what you think, what do you think about it? What do you think I should do?

01:15:45
Speaker 1: What I think you should do? Keep writing massive records? Bro? Yeah, you don't because I look at that as one. If you need the money, right, let's be honest and be honest with it. If you need the money, clearly you don't be buying bullshit and change and ship, so you don't need the money. You know how to survive. You survived out that. You know that that bonus that you got earlier a hundred years ago, you know you did that. You know you know how to do well with your money. You don't mind living in an apartment if you got to, right. Yeah, and that's just from the financial literacy side of the music business people. You know, we do a lot, we do too much at times, right, We go beyond our means and it puts us in spaces where we have to do those type of deals. So you asking me about you just the demail, I know, I don't think that you need to do it. And I think that as you continue to grow your catalog, it continues to grow, the numbers grow, right and if like as in anything, when if you if you have a chance to wait, it's gonna probably be greater later exactly. Yeah, But I do like, I do like the work what they're doing. I really like Harvard View and what they're you know, what they've been doing with people. I just actually went to one of their events that they did. They did that they did the deal with with Quincy Jones' State, Yes, and I went to their event super Dope. They throw fairy fly events, and I like what they're doing. I like, you know, and I've had conversations with them about how they do their business. So understanding it more like you said, there is there's more than one way to skin the cat for sure. So, but I do think it's it's been a great influx of capital within our industry.

01:17:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I agree, and for the for the people.

01:17:39
Speaker 1: That have been able to, you know, to do those deals that may have needed those funds to either go start another business, get out of them, some people getting out get out of the music business, or if it's in estate plan or whatever it is. Listen, sense it's banking for us, which we've never truly had real banking within our industry.

01:17:58
Speaker 2: That's real.

01:18:00
Speaker 1: It's super upside down. If you that advanced quote Uno uh quote unquote loan, Yeah, exactly, and the terms of that loan, it's really bad for us. So you know, they were talking, they know, they've been talking real numbers with the catalog thing.

01:18:17
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're right.

01:18:18
Speaker 1: But yeah, so I just you know, I wanted to ask you about that because everybody's not in position for that for it to be advantageous for them and for you. It is if you wanted to it's latest Bruno album. Yes, was it like top secret, We're gonna, We're gonna, we're gonna lay low and just and do some cool ship. I had heard about it a little, but it wasn't loud, and I felt like that was on purpose and I'll be hearing about everything. Yeah yeah, yeah, but it was it wasn't loud at all.

01:19:01
Speaker 2: It was like, yeah, I know what you're talking about.

01:19:03
Speaker 1: You know, Bruno got some shit gum real Yeah yeah yeah, demil ain't work with nobody else right now? Yeah, Philip Lawrence, you know what I'm saying, Like James foonn Leroy is kind of low key and ah how long was that process?

01:19:20
Speaker 2: I want to say three? I mean if you want to count three years, yeah, I want to say three.

01:19:24
Speaker 1: Wow. Yeah, people taking three years to make an album, just to make it, not even saying between albums, but just saying three years to actually focus on it. You can hear it.

01:19:35
Speaker 2: Sure, yep, you can hear bro.

01:19:36
Speaker 1: That album is incredible, Thank you man. The album is incredible. I can breathe now, bro. Yeah, And I'm sure what what what day? They said air tastes different out here? You and Rancho Koupamonga, Now you're the suburbs now with it because your debut that number one.

01:19:57
Speaker 2: First time for him and definitely first time for me. But for him, that's crazy for y'all, Yeah, for both of us.

01:20:02
Speaker 1: Yes, once again. Bro is it Is it a new feeling though, or is it like I know what this feel like? But keep keep it real with me, dog.

01:20:11
Speaker 2: It was a little both.

01:20:12
Speaker 1: Okay, I think it was a little both.

01:20:13
Speaker 2: I mean it was just like ship we did again, all right? Cool? But yeah it was familiar and I was just like, honestly, after working on the Silksonic album, you know, and I always tell people like working on that because I didn't know how hard it is to work with him in a good way, but it was.

01:20:34
Speaker 1: Draining for me. And shout out to Anderson Park too. Yes, shout out to shout out my fellows and Blazian brother. Yes, you know what I mean. We got to stick together. Oh yeah, so shout out to him because Sonic is incredible. He killed it.

01:20:45
Speaker 2: Yeah, that took a lot out of me just to just just how hard we had to push to even get get that. So when we came around to working on this project, it was a lot of kind of the same things. But because I'm used to it, I'm like, I know, this is all gonna make sense once it's over, once it's done, once he like sees the the movie like the completion of it, like it's gonna work, and he's gonna make sense of it all. And at times where I'm just like, I don't get what he's thinking, or he might not get what I'm thinking, or whatever the heck, and it just all comes together. He he just knows how to deliver when it's time. So I trusted it so much more this time. And it was just kind of like going with the flow a lot of the times. And even as far as it's coming it out, coming out, just seeing the result of it, I'm going with the flow of that too. I'm just like, Yep, he probably knew that was gonna happen, and he knew this was gonna happen, you know what I mean.

01:21:42
Speaker 1: And just like, do you have you have a number one meter in your head? No, you can't hear it?

01:21:51
Speaker 2: No I don't. I don't like to think like that.

01:21:53
Speaker 1: Okay, Yeah, that's probably why God ain't never gave me a hot number one. I'd be like, yeah, yeah, right, I did it. I know, I did it. Wait it didn't. It didn't. It didn't go high number one first. Maybe next week is gonna do it.

01:22:08
Speaker 2: I feel like maybe only once in my life I might have called something smash. It might've been the Janets off, but I've never really made claims like that.

01:22:17
Speaker 1: Yeah.

01:22:17
Speaker 2: Yeah.

01:22:18
Speaker 1: And the first time I heard blame it, I was like, oh my god, yeah, oh my god.

01:22:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, well other people's records, I probably might do it, but yeah for my stuff, no, but yes, blame it shesh.

01:22:33
Speaker 1: Honestly go back to you know, when when Tank sent me the initial idea of when we he tells the story, I'm like, neg yeah, oh they gonna sing this.

01:22:45
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah, like you.

01:22:48
Speaker 1: Don't think it's too I know, it's no, it's perfect, bro, It's yeah, let's take it from there. It's aggressive. It got to stay aggressive from all this. Yeah, you know, but yeah, bro, you what you'll do with that album? Uh? And I told Philip when he was when he was on the on the podcast, is my favorite record on there. It's probably because I told juvenile sample. Yeah, I'm another nigga man working that back. I like it like that, to do it, I have to do it, come man.

01:23:15
Speaker 2: He was like, man, do we do do we give up the money? I'm like, yeah, dog is worth it? Dog listen.

01:23:21
Speaker 1: He did. He did it on on with the what's the sample? What's my guy.

01:23:27
Speaker 2: Man, Oh god, I'm tripping to gold all in my chain exactly.

01:23:32
Speaker 1: Don't believe me, Just don't believe me. Just watch you gotta know when it can't be switched exactly. Hey man, what they want?

01:23:41
Speaker 2: Yep?

01:23:41
Speaker 1: They want eighty? Yes? Oh so we gotta split twenty percent between four of us, right, hey man, whatever it's worth it. Sometimes I live by one hundred percent of nothing is nothing. Yeah, give me a slice of the pie.

01:23:57
Speaker 2: Yep.

01:23:58
Speaker 1: How many of us in this room right now? Okay, okay, this is what it's split up to be with that. Let's rock Yep, it's cool. We get on the next one. Yeah, exactly, because the reup is the reup when you're a part of something special and something that's earth shattering, life shaking with y'all have been partner. Come on, bro, that conversation goes far beyond. If I walk in the room and say, yeah, yeah, you're not roll risk it all right, every ear is going to perk up. Yeah, just is what it is, and they made I might have just said risk you no, no, no, no, no, we should instead of trick it all, trick it all, we should risk it all right and walk off the road Boom and now part of the record.

01:24:46
Speaker 2: You're on the record, no matter, don't nobody know, no matter, You're on there.

01:24:50
Speaker 1: And now I get to write for Rihanna, right, Olivia Dean Victoria Mode exactly. You know what I'm saying. So I'm all for. Yeah, if what have you got? If things need to be shifted around and tweaked to get to that hit, you gotta get to it.

01:25:08
Speaker 2: You gotta get to it.

01:25:09
Speaker 1: You gotta get to it. So you got a label, Yes, I do, So you know I knew that was coming, and so you know what I mean, you gotta have a label. You got all these hits? Yeah, how long were they pitching? All right, we're companies coming to you.

01:25:25
Speaker 2: No, because not a lot of people knew. I think there was one label that that knew that we were trying to start.

01:25:32
Speaker 1: That and and as y'all can see, this is the label Van Van.

01:25:38
Speaker 2: Yep so, and we wanted to go with this this guy and and and the squad, but things didn't work out.

01:25:46
Speaker 1: And you know, the initial dude, you were going to do Yeah, okay, so the first one they go through.

01:25:51
Speaker 2: It didn't go through. It didn't work out. Still, my whole meed forever, you know. But then the Disney thing came came up?

01:26:00
Speaker 1: So did Mickey Mouse call you?

01:26:01
Speaker 2: Micky called me.

01:26:04
Speaker 1: Because you know my next thing, I got kids, right, tickets? Now I want tickets. I won't I won't pass this. I want to be able to go when I want to go.

01:26:14
Speaker 2: That's what I meant.

01:26:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, but you know, we got to clarify in our community because you know what I mean, Like, hey, man, he told me, I'm good, and then the next time I wasn't good. I'll be waiting at the at the at the Disneyland door like this. No, I talked to de bau he said. Mickey said, wait, so okay, yeah, you do a deal with Disney. Please explain, man, I clearly have never done a deal with Disneyland. So Ship well, you can't cut because we're talking about Mickey. Now. You know they take they got the Disney clauses, and ship well, I ain't got I ain't Disney. So hey, listen you Mickey Mouse, motherfuckers, let's do this deal. I'll tell you that ahead.

01:27:01
Speaker 2: Yeah. Man, we were just we were just in the process of forming this label together, and you know, we just started getting around who's at Disney, like like, well they got Disney music that.

01:27:10
Speaker 1: Tapped in with you though, like you give me a little breakdown, got me?

01:27:14
Speaker 2: Okay, he's an executive, you know, one of the top guys at Disney Music Group. And I know they focused on like soundtracks mainly and all that stuff, but they also have artists and all that stuff.

01:27:26
Speaker 1: But this is not because because it's not Hollywood, because Hollywood Records was a part of Disney too, correct, Am I right?

01:27:33
Speaker 2: They're still around two I think? Yeah, okay, yeah they.

01:27:35
Speaker 1: Are because they were doing I want to say, I want to say, like Trevor Jackson if or not even maybe, but like all the young like the Jaydens and when they were all kids, I think she was Miley Cyrus Hollywood. If you were singing and acting and part of that, you were kind of on Hollywood. I'm proudly sucking it up and doing the artists over there, that sure, probably wrong, but they were okay, right, Simon was on Kiky Palmer. They were over there all up, right, But that was a part of Disney as well, right, is a part of Disney? Yeah, ok still there, okay, but but where you're strictly Disney yeah, the mouse, Mickey and Minnie. Ye, Donald Duck in there. Yep, alright, California Adventures. I'm on my way. You know, I've never been to Disney World, right, you know what I mean?

01:28:28
Speaker 2: Have you been finally once? Yeah? I went after after this deal. Yeah did you have?

01:28:32
Speaker 1: You had like the zoom bass and all the cool ship too.

01:28:35
Speaker 2: We were just I don't remember how I got in.

01:28:37
Speaker 1: It's one of those you when they were I went with people, went by yourself, right with the people.

01:28:45
Speaker 2: With the guys, you know, the top see here guys, Bob and them.

01:28:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, okay, all right, I gotta I gotta meet the people.

01:28:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, to go back though, because I only was there for like, I was only able to get on one ride and I had to fly back out here.

01:28:58
Speaker 1: See this is what happened when when you're too big times the doors start opening up. You think they're never going to close, so you just go on one ride and then you leave. May better take your ass back at die Land. Get on every ride two or three times.

01:29:16
Speaker 2: Yep, and enjoy this ship.

01:29:17
Speaker 1: I had a flight to catch man. That flight could the way out of it.

01:29:21
Speaker 2: Right. I'm going back though, I'm going back for sure.

01:29:23
Speaker 1: Then to slash Disney. Yeah, yeah, the bag, Yeah, it's the bag.

01:29:29
Speaker 2: A lot of great opportunities.

01:29:31
Speaker 1: And is Disney self distributing or.

01:29:35
Speaker 2: They're distributed under Universal Universal Group? Yeah yeah, soything that that comes out and you know, ultimately goes through them.

01:29:44
Speaker 1: But so tell me about these amazing artists that you that you're signing. Yes, I have three's and now you're Berry Gordy, right, come on, Berry Gordy.

01:29:51
Speaker 2: Like, how did that happen? But yes, I have three artists now. One name Rude Cat Okay, he's like alternative, he's uh, dark skinned brother, super dope. I love his like his mind, and then and all of that, and actually another artist introduced me to him. And then I had Tomorris Sin Okay, who's a rapper who's doing her thing right now. She's super talented. And you know, for somebody who's been only doing it for like a few years, you know, she's she's made.

01:30:24
Speaker 1: Started, it's made starting to people starting to hear about it. Oh man, what okay? And then and then we got somebody in the building. Yes, come on, man, come on, come on, come on, do your introductions. Man, come on, gentleman, I'm turning you into a nineties exec. I'll tell you, you know, I mean this how this shit used to get cracked facts. Yeah, so then you know this new artists and we're doing Come on, dog, come on, who we got we got pulling.

01:30:54
Speaker 2: Up beautiful Indiana Sean, Come on, Sean.

01:31:02
Speaker 1: Longer introducting you.

01:31:09
Speaker 4: I'm good enjoying this conversation.

01:31:13
Speaker 1: I got this man to talk you believe that, right, yeah on camera.

01:31:18
Speaker 4: I know he's doing a good job.

01:31:20
Speaker 2: Thank you.

01:31:20
Speaker 1: He's doing a good job. Barry Gordy. Right, yeah, So come on, introduce the world to yourself. Let us let us know, not even know.

01:31:29
Speaker 2: I mean, I'll let you do it. Do what you introduce yourself.

01:31:34
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I'm India Sean singer songwriter, Los Angeles, California native. But I also reap the atl Oh both, yes, both, And I'm a van to artist, yes yes, yeah.

01:31:53
Speaker 1: So when can we expect some music?

01:31:56
Speaker 4: I mean, there's a lot of music out there.

01:31:58
Speaker 1: I'm talking about why you hear today, but you can tell about them. It's just out too.

01:32:03
Speaker 3: But I'm like, you know, let's let's get into what that just dropped rain on me? Yes, yes, and the EP is here subject to change, and that means.

01:32:14
Speaker 1: Is it gonna be? Is it gonna be changing? It is? It is what it is because it's a lot.

01:32:23
Speaker 4: It's here.

01:32:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, which got his other record?

01:32:26
Speaker 4: Okay, but I heard, Okay, I'm.

01:32:28
Speaker 1: Very excited about and I don't give it excited very much. I have my moments. This Marmalay record, the men love that one. I really like that record. I really really like that record. It's fun, it's a it's just it's just it's a good time. That's what we need, right, It's like pop soul. Okay, love that to me?

01:32:52
Speaker 4: Yes, to me, it is you know my own Yeah, you know it has a disco vibe to it.

01:32:57
Speaker 2: Yeah that is to me.

01:33:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know what I mean. Like absolutely could have road skate to it. If I could roll escape been good at it. I ain't gonna lie to you our roller skate. Like I'm on the skateboard right, my left foot stay down and I just be kicking my right and then when I hit the corner, I just do like this. I don't move, so it just it takes me right.

01:33:23
Speaker 4: I think they have accessories for that.

01:33:25
Speaker 1: I wish I would, I wish I would be in there, would roller skate walker, not the Valentine. I already looked crazy enough doing the one leg, but I figured how to make it look cool, how to make it look cool. But that song is a standout to me. I really like you. I really like that record, really really do So tell me about your journey to get here, to get here to days a journey it's then, yes, because we met on that journey yeah somewhere, yes, yeah, yeah, when you were in full songwriter mode. Yes, yeah, probably yeah, you were locked into the you know, songs for other people.

01:34:04
Speaker 4: It was it was a short cent, but I gave my best effort.

01:34:08
Speaker 1: What pushed you into that space where it was more of Okay, I'm a focus on being a songwriter.

01:34:14
Speaker 4: Yeah, so I think I just saw the potential for earnings.

01:34:23
Speaker 1: Okay, come on, we got to get to the coin. You're real, You'll get into the car. We need you. I don't know if ya. Y'all probably can't see your boots because were shooting up here. Listen, boots ain't free and they are made for walking.

01:34:34
Speaker 3: Yeah, I just I mean, honestly, I was having fun at the time. I was writing with my sister and a friend of ours, Keisha shout out to y'all and we formed a little team called Full Circle. We were writing in my dorm room and we actually were having.

01:34:48
Speaker 4: A really good time.

01:34:49
Speaker 1: So did you go to college in Atlanta?

01:34:50
Speaker 4: I went to Georgia State Universe.

01:34:51
Speaker 1: So that's what kicked off the Okay, the atl thing, Okay college. The only two that didn't go to college in this interview.

01:35:00
Speaker 4: I mean industry college you got, you got your music degree.

01:35:04
Speaker 1: You're smarter than us. Go ahead, so Georgia State.

01:35:09
Speaker 4: Yeah, I went to Georgia State. I actually dropped out when I did my publishing goal.

01:35:12
Speaker 1: Okay, you ain't smarter. I went back and I got my degree. Should I dropp out of high school? Whatever was not for me? You said, no, no, no, no, no, you teachers. I'll be back right, So you go. You go back, Yes, your degree?

01:35:30
Speaker 4: I did. I did go back and finish. But in between I had come back to l A and I was doing the writing thing, that rat race of just trying.

01:35:40
Speaker 3: To get placements and living in the studio and literally literally record Plant. We've all been there and being exposed and introduced to so much greatness. I mean, from doctor Dre to Chris Brown, all the people everybody, and so.

01:36:00
Speaker 1: Are you doing more session work? Are just pitching? Were you able to get in rooms and really you know, right with the artist the whole thing.

01:36:11
Speaker 4: No, I wasn't Chris. Yes, okay, we were fortunate to work with Chris.

01:36:17
Speaker 1: Shut out to Chris because Chris is so non industry. I tell people all the time that because some people feel like he's been over over times, he's been too accessible. I'm like, no, he changed what the superstar can be. You can be an accessible superstar, especially if you're Chris Brown, you know what I mean. Chris Brown got features with people that probably you should have, you know, whatever, you can say, I might be one of them. But the fact though, like you said, y'all was trying to get in the studio with people and being able to get in the studio with a top guy, if not the top guy. It's that's not normal. Yeah, you know what I mean. And there's so many people who have that story of oh man, Chris Brown let me in the studio.

01:37:12
Speaker 3: It was definitely my proximity to the producers that I was working with at that time. But I think he is one of those artists that just loves music and appreciates and recognizes talent, and he doesn't mind giving people a shot. And being in the studio with him. I mean, it taught me so much because he's such a machine like melodies as you're passing the mic around and he's not stopped.

01:37:34
Speaker 4: He's the bunny.

01:37:35
Speaker 1: I randomly ended up on a bistape day. I was like, wait, y'all need me to clear what it's like? Yeah, we think you're singing on I was like, for sending it's all out. Yeah there, I go hilarious, Oh it's clear. But you're right though. You're in the studio with him and it's literally like, idiot, go lat that down. I just yeah, what you was just having over here? He literally operates like that. Yeah, amazing, amazing. So you're writing, you're in with Chris Brown, you're making your rounds around La Atlanta. Yeah, what made you say these songs need to be for me?

01:38:24
Speaker 3: I mean, honestly, there was a part of that journey that was unfulfilling, and I don't feel like I was in the most nurturing environment. I don't feel like I was in the most safe environment, and I definitely wasn't being encouraged to sing so, I mean, I was told at some point that I shouldn't even demo songs. So my spirit was so crushed at a certain point that I was like, Okay, I'm going back home to my mama's house and going back to Atlanta. I'm to finished my degree and I'm just gonna make a project for me, like much in the vein and spirit of what Deep and Lucky did at that time, Like I'm just to make one album and see what it does, you know. And I went home and me and my boyfriend at the time, we made my first album Origin. He had never produced anything and learned how to produce, and we.

01:39:09
Speaker 4: Made this album.

01:39:11
Speaker 1: I'm about to learn how to produce. Oh, this is great. That's some think I've never learned how to keep my girl up.

01:39:21
Speaker 2: That's shout out.

01:39:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, shout out to you, bro. That's incredible. He's special guy.

01:39:31
Speaker 4: Yeah.

01:39:31
Speaker 3: So, and it actually like made some waves in Atlanta at the time. I remember my album release party for that was like wrapped around the block.

01:39:38
Speaker 4: It was crazy.

01:39:39
Speaker 3: Shout out to Paris Kirk, my manager at the time, who just really was doing everything he could to support me. A couple of years later, I did a joint project with James Fuller with the Outer Limits EP, and so as he was talking, I was thinking about how much our journeys were kind of interwoven and we're probably like passing each other.

01:39:58
Speaker 1: And at this point, you guys had had met each other, we had well we had okay, okay once.

01:40:05
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's that is the story. Actually we need to tell that one.

01:40:08
Speaker 3: But yeah, did my EP with James and worked a bunch of odd jobs after that in between just trying to figure things out.

01:40:17
Speaker 1: It's the worst job you had.

01:40:19
Speaker 3: The worst job probably selling insurance stole people, Like calling numbers all day long and getting hung up on and cussed out.

01:40:29
Speaker 1: That was that was worse.

01:40:31
Speaker 4: It's cussing you out, cussing me out.

01:40:33
Speaker 1: I was telling somebody the other day. I was like, I kind of can't wait to be old because I already don't really have for sure can definitely get cussed out fucking with me. But as an old man, Yeah, it's going to be. It's going to be a movie. What you said, you, young punk is everything gonna start there. It don't matter man or woman what young punks an. The baby five, it's gonna do. Push me right, push or you can, but it's elderly abuse at that point, so you're the insurance.

01:41:08
Speaker 4: Yeah.

01:41:08
Speaker 3: Well okay, So this is actually a great segue because my next worst job was probably delivering food like Postmates.

01:41:15
Speaker 4: Okay, so I moved back out here. I was like, okay, I gotta be in La.

01:41:20
Speaker 3: This is where it's happening if I'm going to push my music forward, Like this is like I had outgrown Atlanta a little.

01:41:24
Speaker 4: Bit, and I was just hustling.

01:41:27
Speaker 3: And that's why I used to pray every time I got in the car, Please don't let me see anybody I know, because at this point I have a lot of industry relationships connects. I'm like, God, don't let me see nobody I know. And then I ended up one of my friend's names popped up on the thing. I'm like, Lord, I gotta go bring this sport some chicken. And why I texted myself, I'm about.

01:41:46
Speaker 4: To bring in your chicken. He was like, what are you talking about. I'm like, I'm your Postmaates driver, and we sat down.

01:41:53
Speaker 3: He was like, what's going on? Why are you doing this? Come to the studio tomorrow. I came to the studio the next day and made a song with him. His manager at the time came right after me and heard the song.

01:42:06
Speaker 2: I was like, who's this girl?

01:42:07
Speaker 4: So it'll pull up to you know, my office. He became my manager. He introduced me to back to D Yes whoa yeah that.

01:42:17
Speaker 3: My relationship with him ended up getting me signed to EPIC. Shout out to Zeke, who just.

01:42:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, sir, Yeah, what a ceo. Chah, what a guy.

01:42:30
Speaker 4: You deserve it.

01:42:31
Speaker 1: Zeke, We love you.

01:42:33
Speaker 3: But Zeke signed me to my dialit Epic, and that's how I got reunited with d And I didn't even he had to remind me of the first time we met, which was crazy. I was seventeen yep and Fred Jerkins had discovered me online and flew me to Absecon, New Jersey, where he was getting his footing Absecon.

01:42:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, I've never as you can tell, I've never been to abswh okay, go ahead, please proceed.

01:43:08
Speaker 4: And I met Lashawn Daniels during that.

01:43:16
Speaker 3: Man and he vocal produced me and and I demoed one of his songs there and it was just the most beautiful trip until until I had to I had to audition basically for Rodney and everybody, the Burchette sisters who were there at the time, amazing songwriters, and then d was in the room.

01:43:41
Speaker 4: I didn't even know, but he.

01:43:43
Speaker 3: Was there and I had to sing in front of everyone. I had a song called Little Sister that I would I would murder this song, but I think that was the song that I sang, just kids, just.

01:44:00
Speaker 1: Stay there, little sister. Yeah, are you singing about being a little sister?

01:44:06
Speaker 3: I was singing to my little sister. Yeah, Like it was like a very like comforting song at the time. I don't know it was working then.

01:44:17
Speaker 1: I'm just asking.

01:44:20
Speaker 3: But I started the song way too high and then when I got to the high part, I just collapsed.

01:44:28
Speaker 4: No way to go, Yeah, very dramatically. Yeah. And so everybody had to go around the room and say what they thought about my performance?

01:44:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, and what do church niggas mean?

01:44:43
Speaker 3: That's so funny that he's a church niggas, because they were like, you need to sing a gospel song next time, and you need to That was like most of the feedback.

01:44:49
Speaker 1: What did you say?

01:44:51
Speaker 2: I feel like I don't remember, but I feel like I just said something quick, like yeah, I liked it. I'm sure I didn't go into no absolutely, Yeah, I'm sure I didn't, but yeah, I do remember that definitely.

01:45:07
Speaker 4: But you know, fifteen years later, Yeah, I did.

01:45:12
Speaker 2: A whole project together when she was an epic, before we Go, Before we Go Deeper, and then, you know, it just kind of made sense too. Like our friendship, our working relationship has been here, so it was just like I definitely want to still work with you, but also starting a label. You know, it kind of made the stars aligned, the timing went, you know what I mean, and it just made sense, you know, so it happened.

01:45:41
Speaker 1: Asked who you delivered your chicken too? Yeah, I don't know.

01:45:49
Speaker 4: Back to the chicken from That's so funny. That's a good question.

01:45:57
Speaker 3: My friend Britton Newville. Shout out to him. And I'm a little songwriter. You just mentioned Olivia Dean. He you know, has worked with her and so many other people. But and he wrote CALLI Love with Me.

01:46:08
Speaker 4: Indeed. Yeah, shout out to Britain.

01:46:11
Speaker 1: Shout out to Britain who needed some chicken? And if you didn't this.

01:46:17
Speaker 4: It's crazy how it all works together.

01:46:20
Speaker 1: Mickey Mouse. If if you don't need you have to deliver that chicken that night, right, I want to. I want to expound on that a little bit though, And I don't want to glance over the fact that you came back and got a job, because no, no, don't row your eyes. Don't know, because even with the degree, with the right like, life is life. And I say that, and I said, don't roll your eyes, because so many of us in this industry get caught up thinking we can't work right, we can't have a job outside of working within the industry. And I just want to highlight that and tell you that I commend you for that, for putting your ego to the size all it is. All it is is ego for all of us, however we present our projector or whatever you want to call it. A lot of times it's just ego getting in a way of like, I gotta eat, take care of myself, and I got to I got to take care of myself to get to the points that I'm trying to get to without having to do things that are against my morals. Because having a job ain't against your morals. Some of these other things that people are doing are against morals, and they're moral compass. And sometimes when they don't like how that played out, now that's somebody else's fault instead of get your ass a job. And that's why I said, I wanted to highlight that and commend you for that and tell you I got the utmost expect for you. Thank you for doing that, because ninety five percent of the artists, the producer, the creatives with a starved or done something that that maybe they weren't proud of instead of getting a job.

01:48:18
Speaker 3: Right, I never wanted to have the struggling artist storyline where I'm like, well, sleeping out of my car like that would never Yeah, that never appealed to me. It's like I want to be able to eat, yeah, and before my show, clothes and whatever else.

01:48:33
Speaker 1: So I hustled. You were your your investor, you were invested in yourself. Would you get your.

01:48:38
Speaker 3: Degree in sociology and nonprofit because I was trying to change the world.

01:48:42
Speaker 1: And change the world. That's why we're doing songs called lesis because we want to we want to motivate the baby. Because I see what you was doing. Listen, I'll tell you I'll be doing this figuring it out. I'm like, oh, that's why I together why from the chicken to the yeah, this saying because sometimes you got to deliver the chicken to get to the chicken. So now that we're here and we're getting to the chicken, right subject to change. Marmulaye rain on me hollow. How does it feel to be in this space now and doing your project, signed to a major label, signed to one of my favorite producers in the world, Graig, How does that feel for you now to have that you know that moment.

01:49:32
Speaker 4: I mean, I think it's the greatest stamp of approval.

01:49:35
Speaker 3: And I think with all of the ups and downs and discouragements, I mean, who better to validate me and give me an opportunity than the greatest the goat, my favorite producer and such a great person, you know. So I feel extremely grateful and I feel like I need to show up in every possible way to maximize this opportunity. You know, make the best songs I can make, have the best energy I can have when I walk into a room, and just like give my all to this opportunity because it's.

01:50:08
Speaker 4: Been a long journey.

01:50:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, what do you see for yourself?

01:50:11
Speaker 4: I see hit song? Come on, come on, I see some of them Grammys and Oscars.

01:50:18
Speaker 1: You should, you should? You should, like steal one.

01:50:21
Speaker 4: Yeah, just borrow one, just for the manifestation of it all.

01:50:24
Speaker 1: Just keep it and he won't even know it's gone.

01:50:31
Speaker 4: So generous.

01:50:33
Speaker 1: Just put it, you know, put on your knights then just look at it. Yeah. No, I never I never forget being at at at David Foster's house and he was using one as a paperweight.

01:50:46
Speaker 2: Flex by the way, nice flex. David Foster.

01:50:50
Speaker 1: Linda invited me bro yep. You know I was young. I was writing cool records and she was like, you think you can write those records with me and David Hell yeah, invite me over right. Sheeshus has a paperweight. It's possible to do so much that sometimes it's just holding down the paper that was poetry. This ship is, you know, the opportunities that we get in this is it's as endless as we wanted to be. So to see you now, same girl. I saw writing for other people, and now you've been able to write those songs for yourself. It's really cool. And this is one of my favorite parts of the music business. Everybody has their stories, everybody has.

01:51:44
Speaker 2: The horror of it all.

01:51:45
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't because I get to see this and I get to see people be you know, put in a spotlight. And now I've been able to create something with my business partner that magnifies that.

01:52:00
Speaker 2: Like yeah, yep.

01:52:02
Speaker 1: So I'm thankful and I'm thankful for y'all even being here and for you know, and thankful for you man man being able to pull up to y'all studio and hang out with y'all and talk about the journey and and be early. Yeah, right, because I feel like this is early. This is early for me, and we've been early on a few projects where it's like Coco Jones, she's about to get cracking. Leon Thomas, he about to get cracking, you know what I'm saying. Like that makes me feel really good that you know, they did their interviews even before the full breakout. Yea, So thank you, thank you for pulling up this is this is really cool. I'm excited, proud of you. Thank you. I appreciate that. Just trying to be the king of the pivot without trialing, you know what I mean, Keep keep that foot down and kid, keep that right one. You know what I mean, That right one.

01:52:54
Speaker 2: Gonna keep me.

01:52:55
Speaker 1: It's gonna skateboard be the where I gotta go. But but this is This is really cool to see that you guys now have this label. I'm always in support of us having our own and creating our own things and talking to the La Reads of the world and Babyface and Snoop and label owners people who've you know, done their thing at a very high level. It's just it's Tie Dolla sign. Yeah, Like I was on here talking about his label now him and Sean Baron, you know what I'm saying, Like, it's incredible that we're in those positions now and I would love to look up ten years from now you're like, oh yeah, Jay, so but come on, and I'm gonna bring my new artists. Right. So we're supposed to do We're supposed to be able to give back, We're supposed to be able to reach back to our people, and I think you have been a testament of that, an example of that of the artists that you've worked with. And if it's Lucky Day, if it's Victoria Monete, if it's India Sean artists that maybe some people in the industry knew already.

01:54:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, they were just all my real friends.

01:54:13
Speaker 1: And then I'm all with helping your friends, right, I gotta figure out some shift. He to help me with where's my where's my Haitian? Patti's at? You promised me some Haitian man.

01:54:23
Speaker 2: That's all.

01:54:24
Speaker 1: But now I gotta get controversial. So are you better than why Cleft? Who? Who's Who's the key man the Haitian producers? Oh, he's the man. I can't compare ship what you're doing versus against against guys black.

01:54:44
Speaker 2: Actually that's the thought.

01:54:46
Speaker 1: The Haitian versus would be crazy.

01:54:49
Speaker 4: I would go up.

01:54:50
Speaker 1: You think what it would he come out with his guitar, You and your daddy come out? Did he bring out Jerry Wonder? And he got the family versus? He wins?

01:54:59
Speaker 2: Man, he wins?

01:55:00
Speaker 1: I mean.

01:55:03
Speaker 2: Bro right, you got jam Bro, But man, he did the foes. He had his own soul ship.

01:55:11
Speaker 1: Someone please call nine one one.

01:55:12
Speaker 2: What are we talking about?

01:55:14
Speaker 1: I got the Santana's joint, my god, City high.

01:55:17
Speaker 4: I was just thinking about cut where.

01:55:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, I get your ass, man, Bro, I just might have set you up saying it here. I might have set you up to get bro. I'm not.

01:55:27
Speaker 2: I'm not even gonna even say nothing else. Like I already know why Cleft?

01:55:33
Speaker 1: You know, wait for you to get in the hot seat. Bro. We talked, We talked. This is this is egging you on. I'm talking ship.

01:55:40
Speaker 2: Pull up, pull up?

01:55:49
Speaker 1: So tickie, what you got for me? Man? You got you got any cool cool ship? Man? Yeah, I'm fun. I'll take it.

01:56:01
Speaker 2: So time.

01:56:03
Speaker 4: T fun.

01:56:07
Speaker 1: You're dousing us all and me songs. You got to know me? No, you go, They're wrong this show. Nobody want to know. They want to know you.

01:56:27
Speaker 2: Ees you.

01:56:42
Speaker 1: Fu?

01:56:46
Speaker 4: Yeah, my good.

01:56:51
Speaker 1: So we had this special party show. Would you tell us your Yeah, he's still going not the London Yeah, yeah, he gonna. He's gonna do his bend knee.

01:57:01
Speaker 2: At the end.

01:57:02
Speaker 1: Will you tell us your top five R and B singers and your top five R and B songs? We want to know? Just want to go first one, Let's let's go singers. Let's go singers.

01:57:17
Speaker 2: I feel like that's tougher, all right, So let's go songs. I gotta say usher, I'm trying to think which song?

01:57:25
Speaker 1: See you even found the artist? Yeah?

01:57:28
Speaker 2: For me, I love Superstar.

01:57:31
Speaker 1: Superstar is amazing, It's so good, it's amazing.

01:57:34
Speaker 2: And you worked with us, Yes, I did, I did. I wish I did some on the Confession's album. But well, I was too young.

01:57:42
Speaker 1: Don't we all know I was old enough, but.

01:57:45
Speaker 2: Make it. Let's go with that. So superstar, superstar, Okay, I need a Baker Mmm okay, sweet love.

01:57:57
Speaker 1: You know Kevi on stage didn't know who Anita Baker was until like a couple of years. No way, Yeah, you know, I'm still I'm still taking shots that you can church Nigga's church Nigga too. But he know Anita Baker is sweet love. Okay, so sweet love?

01:58:16
Speaker 2: Yeah, just because I grew up on that, Like that's what my mom used to listen to her. No stop, there was another one. Pick one of hers?

01:58:26
Speaker 1: You know you pick?

01:58:27
Speaker 2: I know anyone is good.

01:58:29
Speaker 1: Your demile Okay, it's not d mouth Valentine's top five.

01:58:35
Speaker 2: I was talking to them, all right, I got my one. I'm just trying to save it.

01:58:44
Speaker 1: And are you trying to save yeah? I got playing spade to hold a big joke all right, Okay.

01:58:54
Speaker 2: Man, I'm on the spot. I can't think of nothing me see gone? Was you know what? That's pop? Though?

01:59:03
Speaker 1: Listen, that is not pop.

01:59:05
Speaker 4: No.

01:59:05
Speaker 2: I was gonna say you.

01:59:06
Speaker 1: Could say something of them ship you wow? Now that it is funny because I hate God actually hate celebrity.

01:59:12
Speaker 2: I own such a huge Justin timerlay fan first off, so I feel like I gotta throw him in there. Gone is so good. But man, that first first Fire albums, yeah, Justified and honestly Future sex Less Sounds. I feel like that changed my whole life. So I want to throw throw something in there till the end of time. Yeah, till the end of time. It's one of them in this life. Yeah, and there's so many more. So this is like, the top five is kind of hard for me. I'm not good at this. So if anybody mad at my top five, you exactly.

01:59:48
Speaker 1: Right, enough records and you come on here and do your top five right now. It's the Miles top.

01:59:55
Speaker 2: Five, right, I'm listening, Oh my god, Earth when fire, Yes, come on, come on Earthman, the Fire? Which one do I pick on?

02:00:04
Speaker 1: Musicians?

02:00:05
Speaker 2: Reasons?

02:00:05
Speaker 1: Reasons that we're here.

02:00:07
Speaker 2: Yep, dah, I could have done some Steve five is not enough, Yeah, that's for it, And that was the big joker. The joker for me is Michael Jackson Human Nature.

02:00:21
Speaker 1: Get no hands down. I don't know how many times you've seen this show, but Michael Jackson common No, I don't think it's common, but it's it's definitely been used. But it's a lot of Michael Jackson records that people.

02:00:38
Speaker 2: You know, yeah for me, and I'm mad at the name Prince.

02:00:41
Speaker 1: Oh my god, what what you got? What you got?

02:00:43
Speaker 2: The first two songs. So I'm gonna say this, I was tripping as a kid.

02:00:48
Speaker 1: I did not like Prince. I don't know what the fuck I was thinking, but I had this guy. He was naked on a horse. I don't know.

02:00:57
Speaker 2: I had this guy that he was an engineer. He was I think he's still around Pat Viola who put me on to two songs I did not even know from him, and that was Ballad a Ballad of Dorothy Parker and if I was your girlfriend. I was like thirteen fourteen when I heard him for the.

02:01:14
Speaker 1: First That's a wild record, right, And then his version of.

02:01:17
Speaker 2: How Come you Don't Call Me? Because I was I'm a huge Alicia Keys fan, and I heard her version. I didn't even realize it was really his song, you know what I mean. But then from that I was just like, oh my god. I got to go see him in concert at Madison Square Garden. Shortly after that, me and my friend at the time we were like fourteen and Nigga everything of his. But if I want to add a bonus like one of those songs. But seventeen Days is great too. Purple Rain though, yeah, yeah right, talk twelve But human nature, human nature. I just feel like when I hear that song, I feel like that shit came from heaven. Like they didn't weren't in the studio, they didn't fucking like you know Toto.

02:02:05
Speaker 1: Is and yeah, it makes you smile.

02:02:07
Speaker 2: It just sounds like it just happened. And I don't. I don't think I've ever heard another record that felt like that to me.

02:02:14
Speaker 1: M Yeah, it's crazy. Yeah, because you have that make people feel that way.

02:02:18
Speaker 2: Well, I'm glad, like all right, Yeah, And Christy is my favorite producer of all time.

02:02:27
Speaker 1: Top five singers singers because I'll let you do it backwards, so it usually stop five singers, stop five songs.

02:02:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, this song's guyon alright, carry Okay, we get right to it. It doesn't matter if it's older than you. Right, I want to throw whoever. I want to throw jazz and.

02:02:46
Speaker 1: Oh come on, why not have to what my favorite? I love her?

02:02:50
Speaker 2: Put Aretha in there, Aretha Frank you like mm hm. Oh, Donnie Hathaway, that's so cold fire.

02:03:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, that is a cold five. I like it. No arguments for me, Now your vote? Ron, Oh yeah, you build the ultimate R and B superstar. Mm hmm. You're taking the vocals, performance performance style, the styling, the close, the drip, and the passion. So those four elements that make this super R and B unicorn icon. Right. Who's gonna sing?

02:03:34
Speaker 2: Mm hm? I'm thinking like super R and B. But I want to poppy kind of voice that that you know can reach the world.

02:03:41
Speaker 1: Who got the real voice?

02:03:42
Speaker 2: I mean, Michael did it, So I'll go with Michael.

02:03:45
Speaker 1: Michael Jackson, Tito little brother right singing the song right, performance.

02:03:53
Speaker 2: Style Michael, But I'm gonna say it makes the Michael, Chris and Usher. I don't know if I could do that, but yes, all of them put together.

02:04:04
Speaker 1: So that okay, so that's a triple threat performance.

02:04:07
Speaker 2: But I also want a musician.

02:04:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, I like that, Prince. So those four are just prints some.

02:04:14
Speaker 2: More so they dancing, do all the ship, but also play every instrument. Fu it, it's my ship.

02:04:23
Speaker 1: That's fine, that's fine, fine.

02:04:27
Speaker 2: What they can dress like as far as he was not friends today. I don't know if that would works.

02:04:31
Speaker 1: I actually think it would work today, you think so, yeah, you just gotta be really great. I would be.

02:04:35
Speaker 2: I feel like it would be today's version of that.

02:04:37
Speaker 1: You've got to be great? Yeah, you got it and own it? Absolutely, that'd be great. All right? So who got the drip? For you? If you for this artist that we're talking about?

02:04:46
Speaker 2: Though, I loved Kanye's drip? Okay, I know that probably is like a but man.

02:04:55
Speaker 1: Which version? Yeah, because you don't want this artist to look No, I don't. I don't want that version because that was a version. Yeah, are you want to put a pink polo on?

02:05:06
Speaker 2: Kind of like the the the Ano weights and heartbreak?

02:05:10
Speaker 1: So the window shield glasses.

02:05:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was kind of fire at least for at least for a novel. Maybe not the whole. I'm rolling with, you know what I'm saying.

02:05:18
Speaker 1: But Kanye, Yeah, I'll just leave that. I mean, he sold the most shoes any artists of all time and closing ship. So I'm rolling Who's passion? It's something about Jazzmine Man very passionate.

02:05:32
Speaker 2: I feel like even with like how her acrobatics and everything that she does I don't think she's doing it to show off.

02:05:39
Speaker 1: No, she's doing it because it's really that's what comes out exactly. I agree with you, bro, So.

02:05:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, if that makes sense, maybe I'll just.

02:05:52
Speaker 1: And I'm gonna throw a curveball at you who producing this artist? Me, Well, I guess.

02:06:01
Speaker 2: I'm gonna do it.

02:06:02
Speaker 1: You shure as your ship. I think he isn't her records of that, right, I believe in you, right, Michael's voice and your production. Maybe he asked ship the mixture of the twelve niggas that's performing. He mixed a lot of people. It was a lot. I don't know about the window shield glasses for this artist. I don't know. But Kanye is the guy, so I have no argument on all right, Ticky, what else we got? Mhm, ain't saying no niggas a saying no names. Ain't saying no names saying no names. You don't say.

02:06:50
Speaker 2: A saying.

02:06:56
Speaker 1: Yeah. My personal favorite part of the show where you tell us a story funny or fucked up? Are funny and fucked up? The only rude to the game. D Mile can't say no names?

02:07:10
Speaker 2: Right? This might sort of be a giveaway, but it's a funny story. So I'm still not going to say the name, but I'm gonna share the story. Before I moved out here, it was me and two other friends of mine that we're in the process of moving out here and trying to figure out how we're going to do that and live and all that stuff, because you know, at the time, we don't know what LA is. We think it's gonna be too expensive, all these things, blah blah blah blah. And got a call for somebody who's out here that we were working with, and he said that he would help us with getting finding a place and go half on is going right, go half on it with the three of us, and we came out here. He said he actually he said he had it already, like he had a place for us already.

02:08:14
Speaker 1: So we came out here.

02:08:16
Speaker 2: And we're trying to figure out, Okay, where are we staying. We end up staying at uh. I don't even know how to describe this, and I don't want to even get rid the name of that place. But it's a.

02:08:30
Speaker 1: Church out here in la But y'all staying at the church, Yeah.

02:08:35
Speaker 2: Well they have. So it's a church that also has like a place for trouble.

02:08:42
Speaker 1: Kids to be missionary. Yeah.

02:08:46
Speaker 2: It was a place for like kids like like they you know that probably had like a bad life and you know, trying to change their life around.

02:08:53
Speaker 1: Yeah kind of time. You guys are foster kids now, I mean we might as well have been. Okay, I'm following. I'm just I'm asking because I need to know some stuff sometimes. Yeah, so staying at the church.

02:09:07
Speaker 2: Yeah, they have a bigger building, which it's it used to be a hospital, so it still just like a hospital. Yeah, you could see it coming off to one on one. You probably know what I might be talking.

02:09:18
Speaker 1: Okay, anyway, you stay at the hospital.

02:09:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, but that's where all the kids stay. They lived and all that stuff. Every room has bunk beds and like shared showers. I think, like, you know, I was just like, okay, were I was twenty four Okay, okay. I think when I moved out of here all right, twenty three, twenty four, and we were in that place for like a few days, a few days, and at first I was like, man, this is crazy. We're out here, We're in LA I'm like, I'm not even thinking about like, yeah, I was still I was kind of blown away by what the church was doing. I thought it was great and all that stuff. I remember calling right focusing on I see you to get out of everything. Sometimes. I remember calling my partners back home, brother Shawn and brother Collins and kind of telling him like where we at and how you know how it's been so far.

02:10:18
Speaker 1: And I'm telling him like, yeah, they got this and they got that.

02:10:20
Speaker 2: And You're like, nigga, are you at a foster? And I'm like, nonah, but it's different. The church is there, right, So I'm like after thinking about it, and I was mad at them at first, and I'm like, man, they.

02:10:39
Speaker 1: Don't get it, man, they don't care. They're trying to tell me, brouh, this is not at home. Man.

02:10:48
Speaker 2: Hindsight, I was just like, damn no, he really did put us up there. And it's just like and then, man, there's another side to the story too that makes it a little worse. So one of us, out of the three of us that moved out there was not, for whatever reason, allowed to stay with us.

02:11:06
Speaker 1: We didn't know that, like we were. We all flew out for this guy.

02:11:12
Speaker 2: But this one dude, I guess because he was like newer on the on the squad, or whatever. He there was some weird, some weirdness going on over there, but we were like, yo, just come with us, just stay with us. I mean, it makes sense. We all going to the same place. We all out here for the same reason. The next morning, pull up to our first day of work, first day of studio, and said person sends dude home, ors like just like away, you gotta figure it out kind of thing. I'm like, what's going on? And we go up, me and the other person and basically get in trouble for letting him stay with us, which is a place that's right. I'm like what okay. So that was weird and that dude had to figure it out because he actually flew out on his own just trying to you know, I guess you're going to make it, trying to make it, and so he had to just make calls to anybody who he didn't really know anybody out there, but he knew a friend of a friend that let him stay in the back of something that wasn't and we were really part of it.

02:12:24
Speaker 1: Was. It was crazy.

02:12:25
Speaker 2: So yeah, that that was like my first experience moving out to LA and we didn't have a house. After all of that we still had to live on our own crib, which, hindsight, I'm glad we ended up doing it ourselves because now you know, we didn't owe anybody nothing.

02:12:41
Speaker 1: Right, right, So but yeah, the thing that lured you here was, oh, it's going to be easier because he got half. All we got to come up with is this, and he already got the spot, right, y'all don't know y'all going to live at the hospital, right exactly? Y'all know when you're here.

02:13:00
Speaker 2: I think it was two weeks, sh okay, it was two weeks we found and luckily, you know.

02:13:12
Speaker 1: On the bunk bed, on the hospital bunk bed for two weeks after you told me that you had something. Oh man, the violence in me. Yeah, yeah, that's probably why I don't got all the hit records you got. I would have whooped that nigga. I already know at some point it's.

02:13:36
Speaker 2: Part of the story. I mean, what you did. No, I mean some of us might have wanted to know we did. Everything else was good after that.

02:13:47
Speaker 1: Okay, but then it worked out. Did you ever just keep it real though? Like, bro, I didn't. No, I just need you to come out here.

02:13:56
Speaker 2: Yeah. No, it was just like they figured out right and we did, which is yep. And then yeah, so that's I guess that's it. That was, That was, That was the beginning.

02:14:08
Speaker 1: It ain't not funny about that story. I didn't. I didn't find the humor right. It's like dark humor. Maybe nothing funny, fucked up right once again, like you said, it's part of the journey, part of how it goes. And you know, listen, I have my stories, obviously we all do. I don't remember getting put in the Foster home.

02:14:36
Speaker 2: I remember tell I remember telling Actually I think all three of us were with this guy, you know, are person justin to the lakes. Yes, yes, I remember us telling him this story and we were at the studio. I forgot what we were there for, but we were just kicking in with him, and we're telling him like our whole thing and the way he just started laughing at it and joking about it. And then you know what he compared us to. You remember that commercial with the dogs and the bro this cold. I wanted to be mad, but the ship was so funny that we all just started dying laughing, and I was just like, yo, these niggas definitely just compared us to some lost dogs and.

02:15:24
Speaker 1: Ship the roads that lead to success. Bro. Bro, it's different and.

02:15:30
Speaker 2: We all, you know, we're still out you know, well one of us lives in Vegas, but you know we're all doing something. Yeah, we're all doing something today.

02:15:37
Speaker 1: Man.

02:15:38
Speaker 2: You know that wasn't allowed. Yeah, that's a home he got cracked into the TV stuff.

02:15:42
Speaker 1: Now that's dope. Yeah, man, that's dope. Man. I'm glad to hear y'all survive. Man, we didn't hear about y'all on the first forty eight, right because some first forty eight is shit going on. Man, it's tough now, but bro, thank you, thank you for your contribution to the game. You know what I'm saying, like career, thank you. And it's not taken lightly at all, you know. And I think at times in our industry and as we have successes and sometimes when we have multiple things that are happening for us, we forget to look and say, damn, this is cool. Yeah you know, so I hope today made you look at it like, bro, this is this is cool because you know, maybe some things popped up in your head whatever, you know what I mean, Like, what we what we get to do is really cool, definitely, And to reach the levels you've reached is not everybody get to see that, bro. Yeah, So congratulations on again and shut out to Vanta Records, The Beautiful India Sean. Listen, she got the music coming out. The records is out now y'all. Make sure y'all go check out. Subject to change, which is not subject to change at this point. This is coming out. We talked to Mickey, We talked to him. The mouse is gonna put it out. It's gonna happen, the Phantom Mouse. But Bro, congratulate, Like I said, once again, congratulations on everything. Man. I hope we can continue to do more of this. Yeah, man, anytime real and I just want to continue to celebrate.

02:17:19
Speaker 2: Y'all appreciate that.

02:17:20
Speaker 1: Man. So I'm Jay Valentine. This is Steve Mile India Sean. It's the R and B Money Podcast. I see y'all next week. Thank you,