Kenny Lattimore

brother arms. This man is I mean, listen, before before the cameras came on, we were talking about the difference between an R and B singer, an R and B artist, and a recording artist. He's all of them. He's a monster and I got a bone to big pick with him. But we'll get there. Ladies and gentlemen, give it up. Mr Kenny yea, all right. So we're gonna circle back to this because we we we love and are probably

we started the beginning. We go. We are informative. We want to see where it came from, how it grew, how it got here, and all of that stuff. But I have to have to pick this bone with you first. He picked this with you, okay, is I love you. But there's a small plate of beef get called the singer of this wedding. You know it well, it wasn't

quite tank yet, still the real I love it. I said, once your singing out, wed and wants you to sing the song by Kenny A. Lottamore for you said that should that should be easy to do that not a lot of vocal uh acrobatics in that one, very straight ahead, spare them sed that out. I got the words, wrote the worst out label. All right, it's a lot of words, a lot of words words. Try the first verse at home, Try the first verse. Oh yeah, I can knock this out.

All the words kind of go the same. I'll figure it out on the spot. Get to the wedding and start singing this song. This is the first selection. You know, as the bride and groom look at me, they're already posted the families looking at me outside wedding. And as I'm getting through that first hook, I'm just feeling slightly a little bit beat up. After the first first hook, this man vocusing ain't vocaling right? My standing strong. As I go midway through the second verse, I'm losing it.

I am losing My vocal is getting weary, vocal cords are getting tired, completely my vocal cords are getting so tired that I had the words right in front of me, I start to go blind. I cannot read the words. To save my life, I can't see them. I'm sweating now. Okay, by the second hook, I'm trying to get through the hook, I just start to add libing freestyle he doing in that movie Welcome to the Candy Shop. I started candy shopping your record. I didn't know. I had no idea

what it took to sing that song. And I thought, I knew it's a difficult song. And so you're okay, no, no, because you can do so. But he could have put all you could have put a warning leg on the record. I know you're not, but don't try to try this at home first before you do it at the way. But I'm gonna tell you though, I was the same way when I first got the song. One of my buddies wrote this. It was literally his wedding song. Kenny

larm a very unassuming an incredible but incredible songwriter. Um, Kenny, I got this song because I'm getting married to Ellen. You know, I love her so much, and I wrote the song for I was like, okay, okay, so he says, hear the words first fidelity. Uh what I mean? It was like these big words and that was and I said, wow, I don't know how I'm going to sing these words. So then he went back like a day later he said,

this is how the melody goes. And when he when he sang the melody, I was like, wow, this is brilliant. I mean, I get it. I gets Then it was going into the studio being the recording artist, I was like, I'm glad I didn't have to sing it live like straight down first, because how would have fallen apart? Too? I was like, where's the breath? Okay? I got all that out? You know, where are all of these nuances gonna come from? And how do I take? Once I got to the ridge, I was like, whoa, I don't

even know. We had to really work it out. And once we did, though, the great Barry Eastman produced it. And once we worked it out, then I still had to figure out and this isn't every song for me live? Where does it fit in my body? I don't know if you ever feel that way, like where does it fit? Because it's something different when you're moving and breathing and doing everything all at once and delivering a song, and you wanted to sound like people remember it sound. So

I had to really grow into it. And uh, thank god, it's been the saving song. I haven't had any crashing burns on it. I should have had one crashing burn. I'm just giving y'all some some real R and B stuff. I was on tour with Barry White when I first came out, and I was like constantly on the first tour, I was Verry White, so I'm taking notes because the maestro was coming out giving it to him. Every night.

He had this way of he'd walk out real slow and he said good evening, and and Ecstacy was playing in the background, so if you can imagine ext is dumping, but he's walking out real So I was like, I'm gonna do that. I'm gonna do that. O't cay, I'm taking this. I'm taking that note. But it's right right, so everybody right out there right right. I got stuff

from him too, Yeah, definitely, But it was crazy. I was working so hard that I remember my manager and the label said, we want you to do for you for a for the executives, the black executives, and at that time. It was black, I mean powerful black executions. We get in this room and it was the first time that I ever was completely burned out and I didn't know what was happening. So you're talking about I was like, for you give a like I was. I could.

I could barely say anything, like literally, I could not produce a note. And I never felt that way in my entire life. And I'm in front of the biggest executives in the industry. It works, Yeah, but in a way, I'm feeling like I'm glad I was in front of

them instead of the audience. They were forgiving, and I think they understood what I was going through as a new artist coming out more than like, Oh, it would have been crazy if it was somebody, but it was somebody in the marketing department, Like yeah, you know he's been on tour. You know he's starting nice in they're covering it up. You just you have a um, you have what I like to call a classic voice, and it's a voice that it's it's it's straight ahead, it's

doing everything it needs to do straight ahead. Like you know, Luther didn't have to do anything. He'll throw you some we whoo whoo, he'll throw that in there, he'll get that to it, you know, and that's exciting. But straight ahead, yeah, spons he you have that kind of voice which is straight nothing else, pure tone and broader richness like uh, like a Josh Grobin, Like just straight ahead is enough,

like yours is. Yours isn't a tuxedo or or some jeans and a polo shirt like it can It doesn't matter like you've and you've and you've done it with the textures of music or the sonics of music that you've performed on where you go as as a as a for you or I'm not too pity or you when you prove it, like yeah, I appreciate it. So let's go back. Okay, okay, I really appreciate that. Let's start at the beginning. Right when did somebody say my boy, nice? Right?

Did that boys? Or when did you in your mind have the moment where you were like, oh, you know what, my mom you know a lot a lot that's how your mother is like, oh my baby can sing. And so you know, my mom was like, hey, was that you singing? She just heard me around the house one day and she just said, do you want to take voice lessons. I didn't know what voice lessons was. I was like, but whatever it is, as long as I'm not in trouble. Yeah, yeah, why not? Twelve twelve years old?

Now I had sung, like the first time I remember singing in front of people. I was ten and I was in the neighborhood. One of my friends, Andrea, was like, Kenny can sing or they call me Kenneth kennething like yeah, exactly. So she got all the girls in the neighborhood together and she asked me to sing a song. And I sang a little song. I don't know. I think I was singing like the emotions. Remember the emotions. They used to have a bunch of harmony and stuff from high voice,

you're walk in the line, you turn un for. I just started singing this falsetto kind of stuff tie yeah, and the girls started screaming yeah. I was like wow, you know. But it was my mom who said, do you want to take voice lessons? And it took everything to another level because she felt like I had something different and I didn't think I was in different that everybody sang, you know, my family members saying my sister

and my my grandfather sang. I used to be intimidated to singing from my grandfather though, because he had one of the big, heavy voices and he'd rolled his arms when he sang in the church because mainly his church stuff. So um. She had me start doing voice lessons and I sang songs like I Left my Heart in San Francisco upon a hill, it called to me. So I'm starting. Yeah, nice, it's way too easy. Bro. If you did, like, uh, what's my vegus guy said, Vegas? If you did, Frank

so not working on it now? I record soon. The how's the next month? It's next month. I start next month on the orchestra. Bro, you go big band, Okay, I'm sorry. So but we're gonna do a little We're gonna do a combination. We're gonna do some American song book like that, because that's how I started. I'm with some classical because I did the classical and the languages and all that. But I'm also gonna you're gonna hear never too busy with the orchestra. So yeah, I need

you invite me. I need to put my clothes will I'm gonna let you all know when things happen just in case, I know you got busy scatters, We're going to okay, So classes, you're you're learning, your your your perfecting. And I felt like I didn't want to be a singer with any boundaries. Um, I think Marvin from a young age, at a young age. Once I sang I left my heart in San Francisco and unforgettable and all that, I started going, I wonder what else I can do? Um,

I was definitely shy growing up. Music saved my life. I was definitely shot, Like I'd be very uncomfortable having this conversation back then as a as a young kid, and but music gave me purpose, Like people could see me, they could see me if I sang. So when I heard myself eventually recorded and all that, I was like, what else can I do? So I started singing chamber music and I was singing classical and I want a scholarship for in the Maryland schools. I was a Maryland

Distinguished Scholar for singing. He can grow And if he had a loan as lead, he had a loan asleep, he could and you know at me like I was gonna know, Hey, I don't know, I don't so I went to I went to Morgan State, Yes, which represented the US and classical music. Yeah, and I got a scholarship because he just thought I was He described me as a major talent. He said, just come, I said, who do I talk to? You just talked to Dr

me He just talked to him. And I get to class first day of school and they passed everybody this sheet these sheets. Oh boy, and Dr Conway, who was playing the piano, comes kicks him up. Dr Carter says, okay, we were grunt like this, but he had perfect pitch. So I like that perfect pitch. Looked like James Brown for everything, the jacket of the boots who So he talked like Bishop he know, he talked like a combination of Bishop Koonya and Grover. But he had imagine perfect

pitch in this. You know, I don't I need to be on the side of you that you you stop it, stop it right? He was that, and he said, and everybody said, yeah, man, dividating. I thought y'all thought I was king. I am not well all because I can't I can't see y'all or y'all flip the page. Alright, alright, so when you start saying that like I get it, but I never got it. Oh man, I understand, I understand, and I feel like I was okay. I'm an okay

sight reader. But because we didn't have we don't have to use it as you got the tone you figured, thank you, but you know I had. They kicked my out went to Howard. You know they kicked my behind. I went to Howard and I studied with Dr Leroy Dorsey who taught roberta Flag and Donnie Hathaway, and I was pushed all of him. And when you're talking about that instructor, he would grandma throat. If I start singing my throt he grandma throat. He's really flamboyant guy. He'd

be like, get off. I'd be singing drink to me only withnine eyes. And he was like really hardcore about things being perfect. But he said, I'm gonna work with you because again somebody affirmed me and said you know something about you, and each instructor that I had did something different. It was a woman named Janet Helms, who I love dearly, who also was from Howard. She taught me regularly, like how to really be grounded as a singer.

Leroy Dorsey taught me power. There's another instructor, James Holliday who taught me falsetto. He he was fascinated with. He was like, I want you to be able to go up and down from your falsetto and back without hearing a break. So at some point in my life I was able to do it, but it was like each person found something different to challenge me on. And in addition to all of that, I just kept feeling like I don't I want to be able to sing any type of music at any point and be really good

unless I'm not good. So they were training. They were training your voice the same way that athletes are training in their sport, like shooting coach or hitting coach, or you know what I mean. Like they were literally breaking your voice down. Absolutely amazing, because you don't you don't find that in many singers where they their story goes

back to literally somebody picking it apart and building it up. Obviously, because you just name what five or six different teachers who taught different things completely and the first person my first vocals in trunth to Maryland Morris, it was just breathing and they focused and focus on my breathing. That was the basics. You know. She was my first vocal instructor, but each one, definitely they gave me something different until I got to the point where I could combine it all.

But it was the classical technique that helped me survive because I sang in bars and clubs too. I was in a group called Mannequin when I was back at home in d C. And we were signed to Epic Records. Man we would do five and six forty five minutes sets per night in bars and clubs. Totally one more time. Today people are saying five and six forty five minutes sets her night doing covers and I didn't have to sing every single set, every single song. But I'm sank.

So even if you broke it down to like three minutes sets, the extra while he was in this group, which he did, he did, he was out of that. Yeah, do you remember to the extreme cry no More? That was my joint. That was my joint. And Johnny brother Randy was in there that I didn't know it was in Yeah, yeah, I didn't know that. So our DC

thing was was really special. Uh, And I feel like I was really blessed because I did get a chance to meet like Stacy Lattison and Johnny and all, and they're all still everybody still close, and you know, um Tony Braxton. I remember Tony Braxton coming into a mannequin session because she was a fan of mannequin when I was in there, and she was like, well, you know, people say that sound like a boy because my voice

is you know, lower as rich as her voices. And she said, but there's this new lit this is this show, how long ago this was, but this this new lady out and the name A need a Baker. And she got on the piano she started singing and the sweet Love and was playing and I was like, wow, I would pay to see her singing for sure. Ya got killers. Let me tell you something, as we said, I need a Baker, I need to baker is anointed. It just

stops absolutely absolutely right there, right, no question. I heard her sing no question happy Birthday the other night at the Usher concert and I and I my body, I felt it in my body like her tone and she she just went there just just for one note, and I said, oh my god. And she was a person who people said she wasn't a good thing. Oh absolutely, yeah, because it's a style, it was something perfected through the year, and because I'd say because I remember her in chapter eight, Yeah,

I want to go way back right. Chapter eight was a group she was in and she may have had another one before. I know the people in L A, No and d C because they played on the Quiet Storm a lot. Um. I just want to be your girl if I find oh way, I don't know if you ever hear I'm definitely yeah when you hear all that.

Because I studied the women too, and that's one thing I talked about it in my show Phillis him in um Anita Baker a lot of my I found that when they were perfecting my falsetto in my lessons and all of that, I was like, oh, what else can I do? So I would harmonize with them and I would try to keep my falsetto in the shape where when I got into the studio I could sing the women parts too. So when I was in my own backgrounds and stuff, I'm never too busy and I'm not

too busy. You know, as a recording art you you learn your mic technique to get in, but you gotta be able to produce that sound, So I would, you know, think of Anita Baker. Sometimes I would think of other Stephanie Mills, and for holiday, I would think of a lot of the different women who had big voices and imitate their sounds to create my background. So people would be like, who's singing your background? I'd be like me.

They be like, okay, but um, I got lost. I'm just I'm just having a good count were in it with you, bro, like you know, just and and I started thinking about all the greats that event. When did you get When did the epic thing happened for you? First? You had Howard. At this point, I was at Howard and it was in my first year and I got sad and I came out of Howard and I started hitting the road. I was an architecture and planning and I was like, I can't. There's no way I'm going

to be able to do architecture and planning. So I said, I'm gonna have to drop out of school. And they said no, we want you to just stay um and we want you to just go to Fine Arts to take some classes in fine arts. And I was like okay, And I tried that, which kept me in school a little long and still didn't wasn't able to stay. But um, I remember Denise Williams came to the school, um and

she was like teaching. She had people from commercials, Darryl Tooks, she had engineers come in and all that, so that we as students would not just see ourselves as artists because a lot of times we you know, young black kids coming up, all you can see is I gotta be the star. And it's like, but there's so many other things out there, and she said, there's nobody that

can be a better you. I definitely took that home, and she made me want to be like Luther and Patty Austin and all that who could change their voices and they could sing these commercials. And I got a chance to do Folgers, I got a chance to do

um wow, Verizon you know sing James. That stuff hard? Yeah, yeah, that stuff is really hard because you can think, oh, i'll I have to do is sing this melody, and then it's like they want to hear the melody some kind of way that that you it's unbelievable, like they actually it's not even like musical in a sense. What they want to hear what they're asking you for. Ye Sometimes they don't even know and you have to just keep producing that they're searching for an algorithm, you know,

which which is which is the word now? But back then when I was like even like doing soundtracks and stuff, it's like these guys that aren't like super musical, but they're like, no, there's a thing that you should be right here. And then right after that thing, we can roll over into any like and they know when they feel like they know it when they're here and they're like,

there it is. You do that again, we think, but there is something there that that I always say, sometimes people who are not as musical as we are can just hear it a different way, you know what I mean, And there's value. There's there's value in what they're hearing because they're they're completely outside looking in and they're able to see something that we some but sometimes we're blind

to it. YEA. One of the value valuable moments I've had this similar to that is with Matt Jones, who was the n R guy who's who's found me and brought me to Columbia Records. Um. When I first started, I wanted to sing soft like melodies over hard hip hop beats. I knew it was something about that they hadn't been done. And uh, I remember going into Dave Dave Hall and all these producers that we were trying to do all this stuff, and thank God for faith Evan.

She had come out and she had she had already been in the direction. And I was like, oh, man, so a lot of the producers I think that she worked with they had me going and work with. But Matt came to me one day he said, you know that that soft, like that falsetto kind of thing that you have. I want you to because I was doing something I was Aaron Hall in it and and Charlie Wilson. Yeah, because that's like that's how I used to sing over up to exactly. And then he was like, no, we

want you to stand out. We want you to be different from everybody else. Oh how affirming that was to you know. I needed all of that to round out who I was going to be, because I didn't know who I was as an artist. You know, when I did my first album, I was just a singer and I felt like, I think I'm a good singer, and you just go in and you do the best you can and you see what happens. And um, I didn't think I was a great writer, never thought that. And

I got a publishing deal before how did Matt find you? Group? Matt was this is? This is years later? Actually I had recorded, I had written for Glenn Jones and John Lucy and I had done all kinds of things before my solo deal came. And I think people probably thought, Oh, he's gonna he's not gonna do this solo thing. He's just gonna stop there. And I was like, no, I'm

gonna I'm gonna keep on rolling. And um So I did this demo tape and I gave it to a friend of mine who uh was my manager for years after that great friend of mine, Colin Gale, and I said, Colin, this is what I think I should sound like. Now it's a longer story. I guess I don't. The longer story is when I was in d C, I felt like God said to me, your producers in New York, and you're gonna have to leave DC to go to

New York. And I said, okay, I'd never Nobody would ever tell YO Kenny's coming to them talking about God said anything. I wasn't that person, but in that moment, I said, no, God saying to go to New York. My producers there. So I went and I started telling people and some people were like, you know, okay, yeah, yeah. And even the church I was going to and all that, they were very supportive though, and they said, well, if you're leaving, we're gonna We're gonna give you some money

to go. We're gonna give you all this stuff. That put some pressure on me. I was like oh, and they were like, we're gonna send you off. I had done a hole that was gonna send you off to the secular world. They were sending me to the secular because my pastor at that time said, it's nothing in scripture that that will say anything bad about a love song.

You can't go lift the standard. So if you can imagine when you yeah, say yeah, and I hope you fail, Oh my god, I can imagine come back to God, because where you're getting ready to go, yeah, God ain't there. You see. Mine was like take God there, and I thought I was taking God there and it was a hard that's a hard place the Lord, you know, but I did. I said, I'm gonna go. I wanted to be like B, B and C C Whinings. Actually, I was really coming from a gospel thing. I didn't understand

the R and B thing fully. Uh, And I had a lot of problems in d C. I think because people have vision and they say, oh, this is what you look like, this what you sound like, this is how we can market you. I never saw myself the way other people saw me. So and they kept saying, all the women are gonna do this, and the women are gonna do that, and I was thinking to myself, really,

I just I really did not see myself. I never grew up with people saying you're handsome and you're he's fine and blah bla blah, what you know all this all the stuff that I got later on when I became Kenny Lattimore. I did not grow up like that. So I never took it seriously. I'd be like, oh, that's cool, that's really cool. So I went to New York and um, I went to just pursue so I get the support because my pastor and my mom at

that time said go lift up a standard. So if anybody wants to know, why are his lyrics like you know, for you, I give a lifetime of stability, Never Too Busy. Can we find forgiveness in the throws? If I misunderstanding,

what is the point of all that? Because r Kelly was the hottest thing ever during that time period, and it was you know, and I was in a whole different area area, so it was like, how do you how do you even fit into what's going on in the world when you're kind of like, not really gospel, but you're almost so um. That caused a lot of problems for me. Actually, um, even with the even with the beginning with Never Too Busy, Even in the beginning, it was a lot of people that were like, I

don't get it. I don't get it. Now when Never Too Busy hit being, everybody understood. Everybody was like, we kind of get it. But still meeting me, I was the nice guy who came in. I think they wanted me to be a bad boy more. That was just the image as a black, young black guy in the nineties, the being, you know, having my hair braided, thug out. That was what was happening. And I was I kept fighting because I was like, but Whitney Houston exists. I

was like let me be a male version. And I'm not comparing my voice or anything to her, but let me be a male version of what she's representing because she comes from the church too. That was, but I wasn't out campaigning, like at every interview going I'm Church that I was. I was just behind the scenes going, y'all kind of get it? Do you kind of get it? And it was difficult. So when I did my second project and it was more of the same, I think people were just like, Okay, okay, we have to figure

it out. But by then I did have an audience who immediately came to the table when from the solo man my second project came and we developed from there. But it was difficult to be seen differently as a black man, as a young black man at that time period, and to say why can't we be all of these things, you know, as opposed to being one image or like a caricature or cartoon. Why why aren't we all these

So What's for You? First hit record? No, Never Too Busy, Never Too Busy was the first single, and then I had a song called just what it Takes that great time recording you Keith for You Yes and Um and I'm this is one of the few platforms I'm really throwing out names and stuff because we know that come on, appreciate, I appreciate. Yeah, yeah, yeah, what do you feel an immediate shift? Because Never Too Busy was one of my

favorite records. Uh the sonic on it. Like, I'm a producer too, So when I made Dave oh Man, I was like, I was like, who's doing that? It's pitch bending right there. That's that's not cool. It was that there. I'm like, it was haunting lutely so because when we finished recording it not to because I want to hear you your whole It felt like, Okay, I didn't want to sound like anybody else. We didn't want to be

and this is something. This is different. It's haunting, like those the voicings in the track alone, and then you're dancing the way you're dancing and like none of it is interrupting. It's all complimentary placement. All the placement is great. I'll say thank you for them because they really great record. Do you see the shift then, or do you see the shift? And for you in terms of the size of the artists that you are in the response to

you Wow. When Never Too Busy came, I think I had my first glimpse of fame because I remember going to um a store or something and I walked into the store and this this young lady was standing there and she just went and I was like again, because I never took anything seriously, I laughed. I was like, oh, that's really sweet. And I went and I hugged her

start screaming and she started screaming, and she screaming. She kept screaming, and I was thinking to myself, Okay, now I'm geting ready leave you alone because they arrest me. They're gonna be like something he's doing, you know, so you have, we're gonna take you away. So I um, and I thought to myself, wow, um, something has changed. And then I got a call to when Never Too Busy came out from Michael Jordan's and so to Michael, yeah, you're just gonna get you know, because we've seen the

last dance. But yeah, I know you was yeah, but our shoes. He's never called, but I was really like he called because he wanted Never Too Busy to be the theme song for the Michael Jordan cologne. Do you remember the yes, Yeah, Michael everything, Yeah, everything, because I didn't write that song. Yeah, Mike, Mike, that's why I won't call your right there, the Big James out, you know, the Big James. Come on, man, he got a lot of money. Put it all in Big James. I maybe

there's boot cut and then there's Michael Jordan's cut. Come on, Jordan, come on, black Cat with your What are you trying to hide? Okay, you got all the nice shoes. Why wouldn't you want to put a slightly skinny gen, you know, so you can show the shoe you wear. Get out? All right? So I call you He's he starts with the first album, the first album, yet I didn't write the song. Publishing so no, this isn't even about Kipper and Dave Hall. The publishing company turns it down and says, no,

good job. Yeah. I was like, whoa, what just happened to me? So I thought, oh, I'll never well never see him, like I just thought, hey, that's you know, and yeah it was as a new artist, it was kind of devastating, like, but at the same time, I was very optimistic that I'm just starting my capering from I think, because now this I'm I'm totally speculating when I say this. So I think that any time anybody said Michael Jordan's name and meant money, yeah, obviously it

was the feat whatever. So they're not thinking, but this is not Michael Jordan's man. This is a business that is one of his separate holdings, and that budget may not be You can't look at that that company and say it's the same as whatever he's making to do it. It's not Nike. It's a totally different business. Um. So they turned it down and they used something else. Um. Now,

as years later we can go into this story. Years later, you know, continue to be called to do um launches for the shoes and you know, different kind of stuff. That's how that whole thing started. But it started with that song and They'm too Busy became a he was a fan, man. I was like, wow, So to have somebody that he wasn't just a fan, but he was somebody who went through the industry, Like y'all heard this Kenny Latimore record, but just like he like he was

promoting me. I read it Charles Barkley one time. He was like, you know who was single handedly promoting you in the in the whole N B A. And I was like, you say it because he was like, yeah, m JA man. I said, wow, I didn't know that he really had talked to as many people about the music, but that he was into it is an R and B guy. Yeah, but that's what this music does though. That's music does it. It gets to people, and it's and when somebody can promote you, yeah, that's a whole

another thing. It's one thing to like something, but it's another thing to be like have you heard? Yeah? You know what I mean. That's when somebody really invested. Yeah, that's when it really invested in what you're doing. Yeah, And I thought, I thought, well, maybe he likes for you and he likes you know, and I prepare to set because he had me sing at a luncheon one day and the first time I sang and he was like, you know what my song really is, it's um Forever. Okay.

I was like, if you know forever, you can you put an album because you really really do those album He was like no, no, no, really, I really love the album. And Barry Eastman happened to be with me on that first time meeting him and singing for him and I was like, Barry, how can we even pull this off? Because do you know forever for whatever reason, Barry knew they read he didn't produce that song, and I guess he was just listening to the album and

he knew the progressions and all that. And Mike Michael Jordan was like, I want to bring my buddy and mad Shot in and I just want you to sing it for us, just right now. And I said, okay, this is this is something else, this is something on some other levels. The King and his friend. That was it. I did the v and then he said, then everybody else can come in and you can. You can sing for the most of them. So that's at this point for you, like you said, for you is out and

you're starting to really receive that admiration. Yeah that this is from the world now. Yeah, like wow, have you have you embraced it though? Because I'm remember you going into the shy thing and not really understanding the compliments or so to speak, and like, that's cute, but are you embracing it? Are you starting to uh own it as we are? And b cats sometimes sometimes we do that song I got control it and have you heard it right? It's the choirboy moment for five parties. I know,

the part did you start having? Do you ever have that moment where you're like, Okay, I've arrived. I don't think so. No, I don't think so. Even now, I go like, as I'm sharing these stories, it makes it like whoa, Yeah, that did happen. Wow, that happened. I can tell you another thing that happened to me huge, probably the biggest thing that happened to me. All of

this was happening kind of around the same same time too. Um. I get a call and social media and websites and stuff is new, and I'm one of the first artists, maybe the first R and B artists, if not Maxwell macbel might have been or me doing social media at Sony, and um, we start getting messages from South Africa and I'm like, what is this we're reading? Somebody goes, oh, Kenny Latin was one of my favorite artists, Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, and Kenney Lattimore, And I'm going, how how

did I get into that? You know? And my mother had a huge affinity with Africa. We had we had African borders growing up where she would have them live with us and teach how to become acclimated to America and things like that. When she's an educator and she worked at Howard and she worked at Lincoln University, and she did not live. That's the one thing I didn't

say so far as my mom passed. Also during the time that Mannequin's album during during the time I actually arrived at recording and having something on a label, my mother passed, But she had put so much in me, so much love for me, my character, um for people, all of that. So I arrived in South Africa and it's like I set foot on the continent as a king, and I'm thinking to myself, what is really going on?

They had promoted this music so much, and there was a political thing going because as an American artist, most of us can step foot on the continent of Africa or particularly South Africa, They're gonna love you because they love R and B. They love it. But when I got there, men were being told that they could rape a virgin and be cured of AIDS. So, if you can imagine, that was a myth in South Africa and night if you rape a virgin you could be cured

of AIDS. So this is spreading AIDS rapidly through the country. And then I set foot on this continent and and and I'm all nostalgic thinking about my mom and all that, and everything was so much bigger than me. They needed the guy who was saying for you, I give a lifetime of stability. The women needed to hear me say these words to them. So it was like a political movement around the record, around the record. So I was there to sing for Nelson Mandela's eightieth birthday. So of

course you did. Of course you did. So it was a it was it was a very powerful and it was it was other great artists. I'm Drew Hill was with the Shaka Khan, Steve you Wonder was with us Um Nagi was with us Um. But I just was like, I want to go everywhere, and I want to see everybody, because if this is how this music is actually affecting people, it has to I have to be everywhere. I have to use my It was like I had a superpower

that I didn't know. You just stayed over there. I stayed over there as long as I could, and I frequently went back. I convinced Anthony Hamilton to go for one. He's like huge, huge over there now. But I remember him. We went over together for his first visit, and you go and you do stadiums and you do you know, um, the people are crying. It was the whole Michael Jackson, the thing that you associated with Michael Jackson. I was kind of happy to see what that was like early

in my career. It's like, Oh, this is what it's like to not be able to go out of your room. People are I mean, these women are coming to my room and just crying. I mean they're just you know, if they knock and they can see me, they're just crying. And it was it was overwhelming. I was getting some of that in the US, but over in Africa it was on a whole different level. Um. But then I felt like, okay, I'm really famous. Messed my head up

a little bit. The next stop, I was going to Amsterdam and then through Europe, and I wasn't singing because I wasn't promoted. That's a whole different story, was not promoting Europe. But I got to Europe and they were like, um, get out the way, move out, And I was like, oh, I'm back down to earth. Now. But it was an extreme just like that that I needed. I needed that because one thing one of my aunts, my my blessed, my my aunt told me who I love so much, gosh,

my auntiebe. She said, everybody's not gonna like you. She told me that before Never too Busy came out and I used to feel like, why why are you telling me that? You know? But it was it was a reality. You know that every everybody's not gonna like you, so just be humble and enjoy the ride, enjoy the experience.

And then in that moment, going from King to nobody knowing me again was a sense of reality and grounded nous and I was like, you know what, let me take a deep breath and pull my pants up like everybody else and start walking. And I got a lot of work to do, so I never felt like I arrived musically, I and I've been affirmed by some of the greatest artists in the world. But it's just and I always was just grateful. So here we go, Mr King More. You do a lot of you do a

lot of history talking when you talk. I said, you draw a lot of historical names when you talk. We want to know your top five R and B singers male or female. Your top five. I know it changes that fluctuates, depends on the day. And now you can I can I put mail in a different category it used to be today with separated and I know the Grammys don't separate. Yeah, yeah, they don't separate this stuff. The more like, it was very hard to compare women's

voices and men's voices for me, but I'll try. If it's your top five, I just said it could be a list with men and women. But if, however, you want to do five, UM, let me give you my guys. Um, I can't not in this order, in particularly Stevie's there, Luther Van Drosses, Marvin Gaye's voice. It's gotta be gotta be. Um, you know what. I gotta give people rices. Yeah, man, I only have one more that I just to put

in the mix. Um, Teddy Pendergrass. And the reason why I think all those five is because they had the ability to do so many different things with their voices. They could caress a song and they can blow a song out so much versatility. And that's that's not all that. I'm an honorable mention. This is on the gospel side, somebody I listened to quite a bit who is amazing

and who totally shaped my idea of singing. And as Daryll Coley, I was getting ready to say you are from the tribe of Daryl Coley, and I'm sorry I didn't say Donny had the way either. Okay, oh god, he's going And I got because I just started started looking into the tribe of Darryll Coley and I was like, Okay, there's Joe, there's Mario. And then when you were just saying, I was like, you got a lot of Darrell Koley

only man. I mean his control was nice. Yeah. He was the first on demand singer i'd ever seen, absolutely just on demand dial up whole and just break out of going to chamber music. Like you know what, that's just not being afraid. Even if I had cracked or whatever it is, when you get to a certain time in your life, it doesn't matter. It's like a human. MoMA Shaka was like that in Echoes of an Era

in the eighties. I remember reading a liner note where she said, I want people to hear my voice crack. I want them to hear the wrongness of my voice. And at that particular time. I think it was very important. I listened to that, and that also made me not care as much because we're human. Listen, uh. J Blige made me is that what we're doing right? Okay, we don't give it all no matter what got it. She's she's the queen of I'm giving you everything I got

very true. You're gonna like it. And that's what That's what the originators did. That's what the James Browns of the world did. They went there. Yeah, James, man, I mean, think of all the stuff he could do with his voice. I mean, we know him. He was a monster. We know yeah, because we know the You don't, but he's a monster. It's the same way they don't give Rick James his credit. Oh monster vocalists super talented. Yeah, okay, top five R and B songs. Man, you get tricky,

go back to the guys and go as for Stevie. Yeah, Um, I'm gonna say because the song was translated many times, the House is not at Home because of its ability to be transformed as well. Songs though great songs Purple Rain Um shout out to Kenny Burns inviting us to we were able to go to the page. You know, very simple but great song that's been covered so much to love valid Jeffrey Come on Jail, but I think think of his um and another. These these are cover

songs because I gotta go back to Donnie Hathaways. A song for you, A great song straight ahead, Yeah, straight a has simple Those are the Simple for You by Kenny Lero. Yeah. The Kennys did it, didn't want honestly, one of the most brilliant songs I've ever heard. Yeah, so did you sing it at their wedding too? Yes? I sang it at their reception. Actually they're Catholics, so you couldn't sing it in the church. At least back then you could. But I sang it at their reception.

And this is before it ever comes out, before it ever came out, And I asked him, I said, could I could I put this on my demo? I was like, yeah, sure. But we were in that kind of uh space anyway, writing and we we were trying to make it together. And my mother used to say it. She said, something's gonna happen. It's gonna be glad of more Ly. Yeah,

she said that, So it's so it's it's true. If someone tells you, you know, I was at this reception back in the day, and you know I told him, and then they go to you know they do the lebron thing. Well, I told him, and I knew already that it was gonna happen before it happened. So they really did, really did you really did sing this song and somebody's reception, which makes it authentic and just different. We can sit down and go, you know, let's come with a with a wedding song. It's gonna make us

a bunch of money. And it wasn't that, it was just true sentiment. It was literally, okay, um, we're gonna do R and B voltron. Okay, we're going to create your perfect R and B singer. We're gonna ask you where you want to get who you would get the vocals from, who you would get the styling from, who you would get the performance style from, and who you would get the passion from. Let's start with the vocal Who are you Who are you getting the vocal from? To build your R and B artists. Wow, I would

start with the voice of m hmm. Okay, let me let me think. Let me go outside of the where I've been We'll start with you ask me, Sullivan, I'm gonna take her. It's a whole lot of those qualities that are all in her. I know what you're saying, Like all the pieces that are coming for her are more already there into her. Okay, okay, but um the next was the next one was performance? Now no next

one as well? We can go performance stuff okay, performancetyle meaning stage stage Eric fearless and the crowd Eric about to controls the crowd even when she's not on stage. Opener, And it seemed like they were told or they knew not to like me, not to like anything happening until she came on stage. I'm sweating. I know, I'm singing great, great at the hips they're like that, ain't it. You ain't got no instance, chap. And she walks out there

with with with with some says Bernie. It starts pulling her tea and they go yeah, turns them out. But at the same time, the confidence owns it. She owns it. Jill Scott has the same it's the same kind of it's the same kind of standard and look you in your face like here and it's like no matter how many thousands of people it is. It feels like they're looking you right in your face. Yeah, it's very personal, very personal, very personal love. Yeah, you know that. That

microphone video she did was very personal. I watched I was like, oh, this is great, this is great. Um styling. Who do you want your artists to look like? But they're putting on? Who? Who put that thing on? Shot? We're gonna keep it just clear, clean, bull clean, sexy. It's just it's beautiful. Yeah. Yeah, it's always beautiful. It's a ponytail. Yeah, it's a ponytail. Yeah, it's not. It's never too much, never too much. Yeah, it's always right. How did she do that? Always right? I've never seen

shot out of pocket? Yeah, have you seen in person? I have not. I got I got something over, yeah, one thing. I got one thing. I felt like, I'm like, is he searching? He's killing? Like nine one? All right? Um? Now who you getting the passion from the heart of the arts? Mhmm. I think the passion has got to come still. I think I'm thinking the passion has got to come from an older artist like Aretha who argument

and that? Yeah, who is another who would leave it all on the floor too, like it was like Mary. That's why they comparison. I believe that she was a killer, yeah, ahead of her, so far ahead of her, and could do everything anything a killer though you could like there are certain singers that can sing and that will do what they can do, you know, performing the shows and do all this. But I always got the sense that A Wrentha was making sure you knew this is different. Yes, yes,

I don't know who what what? What? What? The mother? People do this right head different differently, and I think she was that way all the way to the end, all the way yep, crazy, I like, I like, I like what you did though, you know he used all the male top five male and then he went back to because it's like if you want to compare men and marmoted voices, because there's so many different nuances and

I have to give some honorable mentions. This person had the passion, the look, the uniqueness, fearless Phillips Simon and was so studied. And when she did jazz she was just impeccable. And when she did R and B she was I mean just another like monster, like when you just sit back, but then you want also I got the one gospel person at least and put Karen. Karen Clark shared in just to Say Fearless Mama. I saw her an interview. She said, Mom told me to just

bust that place wide open every time my song. That's the kind of passion that she had every time because we come from that gospel route, a lot of us, did you know, the gladdest nights and so many people that um, when you think of why people can flatfoot stand there, everybody has a story, you know, everybody has as a great story too. But I think it the

fearlessness right it. I was watching an interview with with a man Schumper and he was talking about Carmelo Anthony and he was like, man, I'm I'm I'm I'm yelling him. I'm like, bro, I'm wide open. You know what I'm saying. They're collapsing two on you. You know what I'm saying, and you you just you're shooting the ball. And he's like, he's like, he's like and he's in. Carmelo looked at me and said, listen, I work on that. Mm hm.

He trained for those difficult moments. So you're fearless because you work on impossible things. You're at the house pushing yourself. You're pushing the boundaries and and and and continuing to push the line of what of what of what even what you think you're capable of. So by the time you get in front of an audience, doesn't matter, It doesn't matter. Oh can I say a man's wife. Tiaa a full talent, full gift, special little flex though, and

she grew up as my cousin. Look that's family. That's family, but through marriage and our families are not connected in the same way that they were. But I got a chance to see her from the beginning, and to see her from the beginning. Um, she's the same. It's like she came into the world. Yeah, she just like she came in. I was at her showcase. Yeah, I was at her first showcase in l A, the one down

in Santa Monica. Yeah, she's done. Google me baby, and sometimes, UM, I don't know, I don't know if you got it. Definitely she needs to tell her story about how to manage artistry because to be associated with some of the huge giants and craft a career, and it was at a strange time when when her career was starting. Um, and I can't. I can't really tell her her story anything like that, but it would be interesting. I should probably be asking these questions, like when I think about

new artists coming. Um, she was just a force, I think, a force that could not be stopped. Yeah, and she still is so everything she touched, everything she did. I think people understood that this isn't a true influencer and it's organic again. And we're in that age where artists have to be that where I didn't have to be that necessary. I guess I did. We had time to grow into it. We had listen. We were the last generation where it was kind of served up to us. Yes, yeah,

here's your here's your directors, pick one. Yeah, here's the treatment. Yeah, he tells out here she is the stylist. She's gonna choose. You know, this is the right person. And Brown and that those alien kids, they're just different. Yeah. And I and I love him to death. My baby's right there. Yeah, I love him absolutely, get him. I know he got something. I know he got something. I want to see. If

he's gonna go there with us, don't go there. Believe we got a segment of the show, very important segment. Important man it's cart I ain't saying no names. Yeah, yes, you know, and you know it's it's it's a story. It can need to be funnier, fucked up, funnier, fuck up. Okay. The only rule to the story and the game is just can't say the name. You can't. You can't say who's with you. You can't say who's with you. You know who was against you, whose house it was, who

shoot program? It was a part of none of that. So yeah, you know, right now we're gonna introduce it. This is Kenny Lattimore's I ain't saying no names. Oh boy, m HMMI many nots wrong with that. It's a veteran takeas time modeling over his trying to keep it classy. Let's see him names. You know, technically you might not even be man. I'm really thinking, y'all really really trying to We're here, baby here, do you want to jogle out me? He might be like, oh that happened? Oh

whoa um, I gotta give you something simple. I give something simple. Let me thank you. This was a funny moment for me. This may not be Yeah, I'm gonna keep it simple. This is a funny moment for me, but it's an early moment this person, if they if they realize who they are. I love you. I love you tremendously. But this really did happen. A person is sound checking and they don't want anybody to look at them. M hm. Why they're sound checking because I think they're

still evolving. This person is an amazing artist too. Yeah, and I and somebody who I'd love to work with. But they didn't want people to look at them. So we're sound checking and we're sitting and the persons like, m M, I don't want people looking at me, because you know, you want There's a group of people traveling together. Can you lower the lights? And the lights go down to maybe like where they are now, and the person is still not comfortable, and they're like, can you lower

the lights more? And the sound people get upset, and all of a sudden, boom, the whole places pitch black and we all are just sitting there and pitch black darkness in an arena, and then lights come back on. Of course, the person like just walks off the stage. So do they sing when it goes pitch black? Are they don't sing thing either? No, they're pissed. They're pissed.

It's like you just embarrassed me in front of everybody, just determined, but as opposed to just making a sensual and they just shoot and they're gone, and it's like next and we're all like like whoa, oh, okay, okay, and this is the only business you can get away with that. You can't get away with that anything. I want my shoot around in the dark, yea. But but the but the sound stuff and the lighting people. I'm

not saying no names. I'll give you one more. I'm out on a tour and I'm helping to promote some new accent around Columbia. And we're touring and one of the acts decides to choke out the sound man. Mhmm, choke out the sound man. Okay, don't playing with my don't play with my sound. And of course it's kicked off the tour. And but it's always interesting when somebody's advertised and all the kind stuff you gotta come in.

You can't really say what happened, You can't really, you know, And all we can do a smile, and you just the show must go on, and you go on and you do what you gotta do. Yeah, so we got the lights off. Oh yeah, we got the lights off and the choke out ke out. Those are my my arm being, you know, my nice This is crazy. How artists be like like don't look at me, or clear the hallways or clear the hallwaysays, clear the hallways is

hilarious and I'd be like, what what why? I think I feed off of people in the energy I'm walking to the stage like it's like but even seeing the other artists that are on you know that are on the bill, like what what you killed? I'm gonna try to do a little something. I heard you what I'm saying, I'll see you. I'll see like all of that energy. I think it's so dope and needed. But you know, I guess, you know, maybe people getting in their zone.

It's just yeah, everybody's own is different. I can't be mad. But um, this is my brother, Mr Kielletta more. Um, You're awesome, brother, Thank you. Both of you are awesome. I appreciate you having me. Let give me a voice to well you deserve that. And you know, there are, of course more than you know, people who look up to you, people who respect you, and people who want to hear from you, right. I was. We were talking to Mike City the other day and we were like,

we were like, the information that we have is so necessary. UM, it is necessary to preserve UM the art form. It's true, It's very true, and so we have to be proactive with making sure that information in those teachings continue. Yeah, you know what I'm saying. My son wants to be a part of this industry and will and it is a part of it actually already because I've given him the opportunity to work professionally in it and everything. UM. But I agree with you because one he has the

benefit of me. But I still don't just put him on. I want to see do you have the passion for this, because a lot of times people don't really have the passion for this. And the first little thing to happen is I'm tired, I'm this, I'm gonna and and the respect of what we've done through the years and what we've sacrificed UH is so important. I think that some of the talent shows UM have been rough to as much as they've made some identified some really amazing are

just like American Idol and stuff like that. Identified some amazing artists. Um, all those other people that didn't make it, that may have gotten some television exposure or what have you. Sometimes I think some of them, not all of them, of course, have come in a little jaded that this is gonna be my instant. It's been a part of that instant thing. And um, and I don't take my son through unnecessary things, but in order to teach him,

I tell them, struggle will make you stronger. If you don't exercise muscles, if you're not pushing against anything, your muscles will be weak and you're not going to be ready for what the world gonna throw at you because there will be opposition. Absolutely absolutely Well, listen, man, we love you, appreciate. I am Tank, I'm Jay Valentine. UM. And this is the R and B Money Podcast, the

authority on all things. I've been waiting to say that, and we have living proof right here and Mr Kenn Money. R and B Money is a production of the Black Effect Podcast Network. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Don't forget to subscribe to and rate our show. And you can connect with us on social media at Ja Valentine and at the

Real Tank. For the extended episode, subscribe to YouTube dot com, Forward, slash r and b Money