Robin Thicke

R and B money.

We are.

Thanks, take out the child. We are the authority on all things R and B. Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Tank.

Everybody podcast the A Thorty on all things r.

Oh my god, I have been waiting.

I have been prayed.

The time has come.

I have been I have been hoping.

I said, Lord, if you send us anybody, send us that.

Name doesn't mean it doesn't doesn't name name one of the coldst ever.

That's simple, ladies and gentlemen, mister Rob, I want to do this because to me, to my brother Jay, what's going on, this is this is really special. I want to let you know that. And so for me, I have a bottle of champagne. Come on, what you're gonna Donna?

I was wanting to celebrate.

I wouldn't like to because we we we've been talking about this for a while.

They got to stop me from celebrating.

You know, they don't they don't earned Listen, you have earned the right to celebrate one of your favorite songs.

Come on, it's a celebrate this another I have I have.

You know, we've talked about this and we've at the time will come, and the time has come. And this is not and the time is right better late than never. This is in God's own time. The universe is saw fit for this to be the moment. Yes, and what we're gonna do is that's that, Mama, Lord, what we're gonna do. We're gonna pop.

I told you the muscle. I told you, sir, it was. Your shirt was all nicely iron. Now you're just ruined. The want your shirt. I saw you walking in. I opened that looking like you've been doing dishes.

Now and stuffs.

Open up at the bottom of your your shirt. Any by any means necessary, you've.

Been just that your pain, not not yet not your brother, travel to meet it.

Get us right, championship.

Yeah.

I don't know if you know, but those are R and B glasses my brother money. It was money. You know glasses say R B money on them. They don't.

Yes, yes they do, My lord from.

The United Center, Come on, United Chicago, United, the United Center gave us our own glasses, our own Uh.

Yeah. The house that Michael Jordan's in, the house that R and B Money lives in.

This is this is this is for us. You being here, brother, it means the world to us. Man, we have been fans, and we have been brothers for a long time. Man, but today we get to celebrate you, man, the way we've always wanted to.

Man. You know, R and B runs in my blood. Man, what's my name? R O B.

Come on now, all, I'm gonna take you back to the beginning. I'm gonna take you back to the beginning. There's a there's a there's a good friend of mine by the name of Dreno, and Dreino says to me, Nicole, I got I got some I got some shoes. You need to hear. He about to kill every body, to kill everybody.

Was crazy.

I was like, let me, let me hear this person who's supposed to be messing with me and all of my R and B constituents. And he begins to play this song. Oh god, he's the man, he said. It hadn't even dropped yet, because I'm going to bring a full circle for you. That was the late Great Andre heralds cousin O'Neil Dreno. Okay, who is playing this music for me? He said, Andre has him has the one and and he showed me a picture.

Of you with with the Lord Jesus.

With the whip and I said, he's going to kill him, all of them.

And I had I had never heard anything like that before. And I was going for the first album.

I wanted to just make something that never existed, bro, and that was that was a fun album to make. Man.

I think it was like, you know, because I think we all have we all have a natural judgment when it comes to things and all, and it all starts from it all starts from the look in the appearance. And it's like when I first when I saw the picture, I heard the music first, then I saw the picture, I'm like, how how the fuck did that happen? Because I'm saying, I'm saying this like almost like disco esque vibe with the with with the with the with the Tony Montana.

So I'm like, what is this? And how is he doing that?

How?

How are you doing that? Robin right on the back cover, right like.

Take me to the beginning to where you even where you even start constructing the fibers and the textures that that design who you are.

Well, you know, the funny thing is, you know, I come from six generations of musicians. My grandfather was a jazz trumpet player. His father was a jazz trumpet player. My dad was a soulful guy, you know, love to write songs, love to sing h you know, wrote with Richard Pryor and you know, and all these kind of things. So my dad was a soulful guy and enlightened for his time, you know. And my mom her number one song was Friends and Lovers in the eighties with Carl Anderson, a black R and B singer.

So all of this this stuff has been built.

I joked that my family's been trying to be black from sixth generations, and I'm just to get it.

Right, you know what I mean. We made it. We made it, Joe Shit, we did it, Joe, It did it?

Joe.

Yeah. I mean I love.

I really loved the culture just as a kid. I mean, whether it was Eddie Murphy or or you know, Michael Jackson and Prince And when I was a seven between seven and twelve years old, it was all black music, black culture, and and then and then rap music and then then hip hop and then when Joe Desy and Boys to Men and that era happened. I was thirteen and I was very impressionable, and I was in a singing group with three other black guys, and it was

Back, gangster like, you know. So I've always been what I am, you know. And I love R and B.

I love really soul music, R and B music, hip hop music, black coach, black comedy I watched, I watched B e T. I showed up to school with the Jet magazine when I was fourteen.

Out of here. We all grew up on the Jet Beauty a week, Beauty a week No my mom.

To have that, got to check it out when I was fourteen. So and you know, then then being married to Paula Patten and just you know, my whole life has been embedded in the black experience in black culture, and that's that's where I belong.

You know, it was you know in hearing that in your first entry, it was like there was no there was no try, there was no there was nothing extra on it. It was very author I was like, I was like, where is he from?

I don't want to go nowhere else because.

Yeah, he's he's not living a lot. He's telling the truth in this music. What he's doing.

I mean, I got I got the same guy in me that you know that the Baptist Church got in and you know what I mean. Whatever it is like like we feel the music, we feel the soul, we feel the pain, we feel the history, We understand the journey where we need to support each other, we need to believe in each other. We need to you know, stay on the right paths and and and just be a family. Like when I go to the BT Awards or something like that, that's like a family reunion for me, you know what I mean.

And that's that's just who I am. And it's always been real to me. Yeah, when did is your is your?

Is?

You're coming up in this family of so many generations of of of really incredible musicians. When does someone point out that you are actually going to continue in that line? When does somebody say oh he's got it too.

Well, I think it doesn't. I'm sorry, how do you mean, like at what age.

Did did did you discovered or did or did somebody say you have it?

Well? It started with you know, my good friend Tabiso and Kye, who ended up writing hit songs and being a music manager and a music publisher. And he was the first. He was when I was fourteen. He was in the group with me as one.

He was my group.

Tab was in that group, you know Tab. So this is what so Tab was my first So Tab had Tab told me how to take pictures, how to go into the office. We would go to the office and I would sing jodasy and commissioned songs.

Yeah yeah, yeah, I am here. Yeah, running back to you, running back Yeah yeah.

It starts with Tab.

He becomes mine.

This is how you're go I started dressing like him. I started, you know what I mean, like he was like he was just this is stuff. You know how long I've known Tab? Yeah, and this is the first time ever hearing this story.

Yeah, that's my brother.

And then so then we did some demos that got heard by Tricky Stewart's camp. M So I go in the studio at fifteen years old writing with Tricky Stewart. So this is how much information I'm getting as a fourteen to fifteen year old songwriter and singer. Then next door working to Tricky Stewart is Brian mckknight, who I had studied. Brian McKnight's whole first album that was a huge album and a huge influence on me. Brian, here's

So the I went to school.

I went to Harvard and yale A Music when I was sixteen, seventeen, eighteen years old. Brian McKnight, you know, I mean, the Take six would come by and be singing Army. I'm just sitting there learning, just listening watching. I mean, and Take six is how I learned how to riff the main group that I that I studied, and that's when why when Brian and I came out, we were also excited because I was a huge Take six man.

But I learned every Take six song and riff. That was it. That was the training that was that was done right there. You know what I mean.

Once you learn how to sing Take six, you could sing anything. You can sing anything anything.

Well, are you actually going to school at this point too?

There?

Are you are? You know?

I was out my senior year. I decided to move out my senior year. My dad was very disappointed. Shout out to Alan Thick, we love you and miss you.

Dropped out because I had a record deal, I had a publishing y Jody saying yeah pretty much.

No. No.

What I did was I got the tutor and like and like paid three hundred dollars for the tutor to give me a bee, you know what I mean. And then I just showed up a graduation and with the cabin gown and all that. Everybody was like, what hell you doing a day? You were here like the first week in September and they had come back like.

You ain't paid at three hundred read my god right here.

So so yeah, so I just snuck out.

But really my senior year, I already had a record deal, I had a publishing deal. I was in the studio, you know, ten twelve hours a day with these kind of talents, you're professional. Yeah, I mean I was in and the training that you know here those ten thousand hours, the outliers theory and stuff. I got ten thousand hours by the time I was twenty one, and then it was time for me to focus on my own career. And then who comes into my life? Andre around because I knew what to do.

I didn't know.

I'm not saying I was having a great time as a songwriting producer, but I didn't know who I was going to be as an artist. And the album that I made with Brian Knight by the time we started, when I'm sixteen. But by the time I'm nineteen, Jimmy I mean, was like.

You know what it it's okay, it's good.

I give it a B plus, you know, but we're not going to spend a lot of money promoting and baa. I was like, you know it, don't even put it out shelfit.

I'm out of here.

Let me go work on myself and and figure out who I'm going to be as an artist. Then Andrea Herrel, like the angel comes into my life. Teaches me how to walk and talk it, how to connect with people instead of just paint, how to make the painting connect you know what I mean, And how to be a part of the culture. Executive. He taught me, you know, he took me shopping, he bought me, you know, he told me what music. So he walked in with the fifth of Beethoven. He when I was making the album,

The first single of my artistic career. You know, did you did I perform that song? I do now.

Sometimes, but I didn't. I didn't perform it live in our shows.

No, why not?

I know, I probably should all the time? What I probably should all the time?

Shoot?

Well, you shooter most of the time. Yeah. Oh, the set's different. The set's different since I, uh, what, yeah, we do that, we do that usually.

Said, this guy's been robbed before. Guys had to be And I was in.

The bank when it got robbed. Yeah, I was laying down. The whole story is true. Hold on what that whole song? I was eighteen years old, Paula was sitting in the car outside waiting.

I was.

I went in to get like three hundred dollars, but we're going to go to Santa Barbara to my dad's ranch and spend the weekend together. A romantic eighteen year old, you know, get away and I go in the bank and all of a sudden, they get get down on the floor, but get the buck on the floor. I turn around. Three guys. One's coming right. He points the gun right at me because I'm standing at the counter. He points the gun right at me. I get down. Of course, he comes to the counter, he hops over

My hands up, my hands up. They want me with my hands up?

No shooter.

Wow, I never knew that that might be the best songwriting story that I've ever heard.

Write your life the second verse just for the funny it because that's what we're doing. The second verse is thiefs flying off at the mouth talking about dumping and wetting me something because they were like, you're about to get dumped on.

You're just about to get wet up in here. And I'm like these white people don't know what translator. I'm like, lucky on me. I'm like I told you I'm part of the cultures. I'm I'm like, I know a dumbing and wedding is. But again, but lay down, guys.

What they're saying, yeah, okay, everyone, they're trying to They just want you to lay down.

You're gonna get dumped on and get wet on. Okay, I mean shooting. You don't want that. They're gonna shoot, and none of us want that to happen. Are you kidding me? Yeah?

That's a great part of art, man, is that it can come from anywhere. And when I was younger, I really challenged myself for those kind of things.

Give me your energy as this album drops, because I think the album the album dropped and the first single, of course, where we all heard the first single, but comparatively speaking, this wasn't the blast off as we as we as we know hindsight looking.

Correct, this is where the magic happens.

What was your where are you artistically? And even mentally after this project drops, because there's still so much work to do, even with this great music you have.

Well, what happened was there was so much hype in Andrea Herrel connecting me to the most fabulous people in in you know the world. At times, I was very ahead of my accomplishments.

I had.

All of the cool people were listening to it. Jay Z was listening to it, Forarre was listening to it. Usher had it. You know, every they all had it because Andre had was friends with all of them, so it was easy for him to get all of the coolest people in music.

Mariah had it.

So I threw a Halloween party before the album came out. Naomi Campbell was there, but Mariah Carey was there, Paul Thomas Sanderson and the movie director Mariah Maria's is the Halloween party. Maria's got pom poms and she's dancing on the dance floor till you know three am. So we've got oh Seal was there, So yeah, so, and we're just listening to my album before it even comes out in my studio at my house at top of Blue

I go to Jimmy, I'm you know.

Months later, I'm like, Jimmy, don't feel like you you know, with support of the record, Jimmy goes in, he goes tell me, tell me the Robin Dick numbers. Tell me the numbers on Robin Dick goes six million, six million. I spent on this, you know whatever it is, so so everyone believed. Everyone believed it doesn't hit, it doesn't sell. Culturally praised, uh, Rolling Stone magazine said it was Marvin Gaye backed by Radiohead, and you know, so so we had that, you know what I mean.

But but then what happens next is I go through Uh?

Who am I without success? What am I going to be in this world? If if my music doesn't hit? I was born to do this and and everyone said it was going to be a big success and I had all the right people around me, and it still didn't hit.

What what do I do now?

And that is the evolution of Robin Thick. All those songs were written. Next, I got to be down with Faith's evans. I'm too complicated?

Would that make you love me?

I'm lost without you. I got to ask myself what I'm going to be.

You know what I mean? I need love.

Can you believe when all hope is gone? I need to look to the sky lonely world. Don't you worry, babe? How will you get by angels?

You know what I mean. You are in a space, maam.

And that's when the magic happened, man. And that's those are the best songs in the best moment, you know. That's those songs are hard to repeat, and yet they mean even more to me today, after twenty years later, of everything I've been through. They're even more powerful to me today when I sing them, Absolutely yeah, because I spoke it before it happened. Lonely World, those lyrics are pretty much the story of me meeting my new lady, you know, my relationship with my son, all before it

We need a song process for a loss without you. We need a process. What was the process?

That was a quick one where with my bass player Sean Hurley, who ended up working with John Mayer for twenty years and one of the most amazing musicians I've ever worked with. And he just comes over and you're like, got this little thing, and he goes, diod Oh and my my producing partner of twenty years from the beginning, pro J, shout out to Proj and he does everything

How funny is that smash? Some mash smash?

So okay, So all these years you put in your twenty thousand hours at this point, like no, seriously, right, like you put it, you put it, you put in real time. Like I remember when I got my first solo deal.

They took me to your house. They took me, yes, yeah, they took me.

Daryl Williams from from from Elektra took me to your house. And you hadn't had your music out yet either though.

Oh wow.

Yeah, so yeah that ear he was writing, writing for a lot of different y Stone up there.

I mean, you know, we seen in me a line we had people were.

And I'm like, yeah, maya and they playing in pro jus like the whole thing. So I saw the process, you know what I mean really really early on. So after you you've done all that, you're writing for people, you working with everybody, now you have your first smash.

Yeah, what's the feeling for you at this point? Oh man? Just you know, I remember just being feeling like, Okay, I'm not crazy, I'm okay. I thought it was good. I thought it was pretty good music.

Yeah, but yeah, no, you just you just kind of say thank you God, you know, and you just you just enjoy the moment and and then the ride happens quickly and then you know, next thing, you know, I'm on Oprah twice. A couple of months later, I do a summer tour with Beyonce.

So that's all within like six summer tour with beyond.

Oprah twice, Yeah, and Oprah com Oprah had me back a month later because she, you know, was a brad the album I loved and Yeah, and the numbers were so high once once I was on Oprah, the number the sales sales from your Yeah, so it was just like weekly and again it was all you know, we had number one R and B album for like twelve weeks, you know what I mean, Like it was Yeah, it was we was in there. Wow.

And you know, it's just you just stay grateful.

And then and then comes, you know, the roller coaster of fame and the stuff you've been you know, waiting for for twenty years and all the complications that come with that.

Did you perform I could be mistaken, but I feel like you performed lost without you on the Grammys or good they were doing, we were doing and everything amazing performance.

Amazing performance. Thank you. I appreciate that, absolutely amazing. I was like, he's really good.

Because it's like you said, those type of hits, the those are once in a lifetime moment for people because we'll get.

To even just the songwriting connection, like when you when you write a song and you know the feeling and that song comes on in the audience and there's this collective wave of love and appreciation and sentimentality and positivity that just flows out of that song. Makes people feel yeah, because they they had so many good times to that song, and you can't take that away from them. They they were in the bed with somebody they loved listening to that,

I feel like anytime a song can fill in the blanksh.

It just it just takes voicemail. This is what I want to say to you. It feels in the blanks. It's just it's just something about it.

And as you say, these songs mean so much more, Like you know, twenty whatever years and you're you're like when they come on, it's like it's deal and puts you back there.

And now it's like.

These songs are refreshing because of everything else that's going on.

Now that's just not like it.

Yeah, well, I mean, you know, the best things standard test of time, and and love is in the end. You know, love is that connection we're all looking for and the best songs. You know, a man or a woman or whatever you're each side of the partnership can listen to the same song and feel the same connection to it, even though you know they're both on different sides of the relationship. Yeah, as the song just when it speaks for all of us, it connects to all of us.

You know, I want to ask you a question before before we go to the monster, I want to ask you a question. Me and me and Jay talk about this a lot. You came you you you came up and not only just a very talented family, but.

Pops was guy.

Pops was a god like you had You had the you had the fame, you had the money, you had the you know, probably all the things that you needed to just be cool. But you are still chasing this with a hunger like like you don't have it, like you don't come from it. Yeah, yeah, what does that come from? I think it's just you know, it's that rare.

Thing that that.

All of us have it. But when you when you know it early and there's no doubt about it, Like when people try to tell me, like, you know, what do I need to do to be? You just are you just are? You already see it? You already know

But it's like most people who are in this comfortable space growing up in this we already have it, don't have that level of hunger or even confidence in their own ability to get their own.

Yeah.

Was there like was there a thing in you to say, Okay, popsot his, but that's his, I gotta get mine.

Yeah.

Of course there's a competitive spirit and that that happens in a lot of families. Whether it's if you're a lawyer, sometime just becomes a better lawyer or bigger, or because he had the connections or he had the information. Because Dad's connections didn't totally help me that.

Way, but his belief in me. He put me in the room with David Foster.

When I was thirteen, I was in the studio like these with Natalie Cole when she was recording Unforgettable.

I'm glad we got I got to come. He's poor in it.

But the last, the one, the coupe de gras, the one that takes the cake is One day I'm at Joe Tory baseball camp in an Encino and I come home and Kevin Costner is there at the piano with this beautiful black woman and David Foster sitting and playing a song and they are practicing I Will Always Love You. Before they give it to Whitney.

I knew where he was going.

I knew, and I just walked past the piano and I go into the uh, you know, going to my room like it's not none. Then, like, what's Kevin Costner doing here?

You know, my dad's not even there.

He just let David use his house because David was working on another project at a studio right around the corner, probably you know, one of those, and he said, I need enough. I'm gonna have to come to your house, Alan and use your piano and meet with Kevin real quick.

So that was that was what I walked in. That's what my dad knew.

Everybody everyone loved him and he was, oh yeah, no on linder Sin's day one did Lyndon was around when I was born.

Oh this is great. Oh yes, this is great, bro.

That is how crazy is that? It's a good time.

I don't know, that's the quzy. It's just my life. Probably it's my life.

And you know when when my dad passed away, Magic Johnson sent me a note and was or he said in the paper actually and he said it to me personally again when I saw him recently, but he said, Alan think was the first celebrity that I met when I came to Los Angeles. My dad was at every basketball and hockey game. He lived at the Forum. He didn't miss a game. In fact, I was born when he was headed to the Forum for a game and my mom was like pregnant two weeks early. And I

But yeah, he just lived in those games.

He lived in that culture, and he was great friends with Jerry Buss and Magic and Wayne Gretzky. Actually, when Wayne Gretzky was traded to the Kings, he was staying at our house with Janet for two weeks. My dad was in Russia with my older brother, and I was at home at Joe Tory camp again.

And this is na storry to comedian guys. Yeah, this is coach.

Of the New York Yankees Championships. But so I come home and oh no, I'm at home in the morning. At seven o'clock in the morning, the phone rings. I'm getting ready to go to camp. And I answered the phone as Bruce McNall, the owner of the Kings, and he says, hey, Robin is, can you put me on the phone with Wayne? And I go, well, he's sleeping. You know, I really don't want to wake him. He goes, you need to wake him. I need to talk to him right now.

I go in there.

I say, hey, Wayne, Bruce is on the phone. You gotta get it, he says. So Wayne answers the phone. I go to camp, I come home Wayne's and Edmonton at the podium. He was traded that morning. That was the phone call when he got traded.

You took the call.

I took the call and told Wayne to get on the phone. The day he was traded to the Kings. It's pretty crazy. Your life was crazy, crazy crazy. This is absolute And that's just by the time I'm twelve, you know what I mean, we didn't even we ain't even got into nothing yet.

So there's one thing though, as we talk about these great songs, because I'm like a I'm a deep cut guy.

Yeah, I'm a deep cut guy. You've got this song called Teach You a Lesson.

Yes, sir, Yeah, I love that song. That's special, that whole I still do that in the longest shows because it's just such a moment, you know, because the way you talk to people, like when you when you talk to somebody and you really oh and you know how personally that moment was. That was a real moment where I felt every word of that.

You know what I mean. Amazing that a cocaine Oh that was that was a true story. Well, it was about all the temptations.

I'd never done cocaine, and it was all about the temptations surrounding me in this fabulous lifestyle and these Hollywood people and yeah, and as I was getting into the world of these superstars and you know, the late night parties and some of that kind of stuff and so, yeah, manies.

But the funny not me. I wasn't arrested. But I saw a friend of mine in that world.

And I was driving through Beverly Hills and I just saw him in an alley getting getting put into a car, and I was like, that's my homie, and I just I just didn't know if it was cocaine or whatever. But when I was getting into all that world, that Hollywood, No, I just.

Don't know what it was.

I remember that visual and being afraid for him. It turned out he was carrying a gun and it wasn't drugs. But but the fact that I saw a friend who I thought might have gotten caught with cocaine inspired the line of I'm standing in an alley with my hands behind here.

I am listening to the album like man rob up. No.

No, I never, man, I had never. It was all about the temptations and how do you stay away from it?

And that that.

Songwriting, but that is actually a song where you put people in a place. No matter what it is, it could be good bad whatever.

You write screenplays, bro, Yeah, man, there's some good ones man, you know.

But I love That's the thing. I love music, and my songs are my story, you know, and that's what I leave behind, you know. And so when you listen to my songs that they are literally telling my life story.

You know.

Besides, if you dance record, yes, and then dance records, like when you make a dance record, you just want people to dance, you know.

I'm in record playing right there in the in the first room on the right with a guy by the name of t I. He's working on some music. I'm in there with him. Were actually working with me this story after you heard it, Actually esp actually working.

On We have an artist we're working on together. At the time, we had a little partnership. We're doing it. So we're just in the studio kicking it and somebody walks in and says, hey, I need you to get to this Robin record.

He's like, He's like, hey, all right, do it up. Pull it up.

He said, this is the record. We think it's going to be a big record. We need you want it. He's got to have you on it. And he's like, all right, played that motherfucking record. The T I says, turn the micael I love it, goes in the booth, listens to it maybe one more time and does that entire rap from top to box.

No, he does not. Absolutely watched. I watched him do it. I was like, no way, I've never seen him in studio before. For a moment, I didn't know that.

That's amazing.

Top to bottom, didn't write nothing, nothing. Yeah, it's a talent.

And I looked that said oh that's why you okay r T I, Yeah, that's that's that's amazing. I can't believe he just went in and dropped.

It like that. And I'm there and I'm like, this is going to go crazy. Yeah.

Jay and Wayne did the same thing when I worked with them. Yeah, incredible how they.

Can do that.

But I just I remember hearing that song and knowing that nothing or no one was going to be able to stop you. When this record came out, and then the video. I saw the video and I said, everything was right.

Everything made all the right decisions, man, at least from the outside.

I remember Jimmy I having called me as soon as he saw the video. It calls me at seven thirty am and goes, Robin.

Is going to be the biggest record of your life. There's going to be number one all around the world.

This is incredible.

I love this record.

I love this video.

It is the best thing you've ever done.

It's gonna be huge.

I'm gonna make sure of it. And I remember, and now it's not just on the radio. It's not just you know.

I remember being an Arenas with you watching every night this song shake the fucking arena.

Wow, not a couple of nights, those were times every night. Those are times every night.

That's Temple records are tough for soulful guys anyway already, but that that's different, man.

As the brilliance of phar Real Mania was the most talented person I've ever been in a room with. You know, he's so the story behind it, well, we had three days in the studio. We did three records, one record a day. Blurred Lines was on the third day. My dad actually came by the studio just to say hi.

Here's a questions as a vocalist, right, this song, this song has so many different things stylistically that you did vocally that was different. Was that Pharrell saying no, do it like this? Or was that you just in character, saying I feel like this right now, like this.

Is where I think.

By then, I had already learned a lot from Pharrell, And you know, when we did want to Love Your Girl, he was like, make it sound a little more a Britch and I did a little more British because he wanted it to sound you know what I mean. But by then him and I it was our third day together, which is very rare to get three days in a row with Pharrell anyway, and by the third day the

The first of all, I want to say that Pharrell owes me a studio session. He came to me one day and said, man, I want to work with you, and I was like, well, I want to work with you.

Yeah, I want to work with you.

Yeah, I'm available now I'm not sure and I've never gotten my studio session with Farrell.

If you talk to him, you know, you know that.

Man is on a different plane. I mean what he's doing with us Vuitton and everything. He's just he's evolved into all things and and an inspiration in all categories, you know what I mean, just as a human being and a man of the community and a man of art and every facet and he's a leader generation with question you.

Uh, first, congratulations for getting Struck by Lightning.

Song now twelve million, Yeah, so all time, Okay, Yeah, we did all right on that one.

There's you know, in years in ago, I got I got divorced, I got sued, my father passed away, my manager passed away, my house burned down, Andre Herrel passed away. So all that was like boom boom, boom boom for.

Me, you know.

And so so this album is about how I got through that, where I'm at now, what's important to me now and my family and trying to replace that broken family that I lost when I was a kid.

I love that because you know, you're sitting next to fathers are who are actually fathers, yeah, real real dad And you know, people always ask like, how do you find balance, and I'm like, there is no balance. There is just there's just ripping and running and trying to be all you can be in those spaces, but more

And if you think of it percentage wise, if I have six people, I mean five people, you know, my lady and four kids that I need to provide love, attention, humor, cuddles. You know, they all need it. They all need it, they all want it, you know what I mean. So that's that's twenty percent each of my time. And now I haven't even gone to work yet, absolutely, you know.

What I mean.

So now you cut that in half, that's fifty. Now they're down to ten percent each of them of my time and my love and my energy. So you really have to conserve it. You have to stay present in it, and you have to make sure that that the time is being spent valuably so everybody is getting enough to feel that, you know, Papa's love or whatever that is, you know, and so we have a lot of work to do.

Yeah, you get into this space, and especially you know in your career and and how you've how successful you've been. When of one of my friends, Terry's, hit me with a phrase a few a few weeks ago, he said, well, I don't think that would be the best use of my time, and you gotta right, And so you gotta you gotta make those decisions.

And older we get that, you know, we really want to spend time with the people that make a smile and laugh and dance and and feel loved and feel appreciated, and that's where that's what we want to be.

When you when you first sat down before the cameras went on, you're like, bro, I just did six shows.

Six cities and seven days.

Yeah, oh no, you that's that's that is the real grind, and that's how you look up and you've done this thing for thirty years at the highest level.

Yeah, Like people don't understand that. People don't understand that.

Like even when you talked about how you you know, you spend your time, like that's time, Yeah, that's really time dedicated to the craft.

Yeah, and the rest is dedicated to the kids. Absolutely, yeah, And that's that's what it's all about, coming up right And you know what yet, well, I've been touring. Actually I'm with Boys and Men right now. I've been now

You know. Well we're about to segue, please do yeah, yeah, how you feel Robin? Because because you look good? You walked in smelling good and looking good. Do you do? You feel good?

Right now?

Now?

I feel delicious.

There ain't nothing wrong with that.

Special segment where we want to go to right now and get some information from you know, You've written a lot of songs for a lot of people, written songs for yourself.

We just know that there are songs that have inspired you, songs that have made you who you are. And we don't want all the songs.

We just don't want.

We just want a few of the songs. And we just like to call this your.

Top fun, your top five, top five, your top.

Fun, your top R and B singer. Whatelse R and.

B songs.

Were Dogs and doom be more you go bere on this show. We don't good blow. I mean, yeah, hurrah, Yeah.

Break it down, break it down, your five Robin think your top five R and B singers.

Oh, top five R and B singers. I mean that's the at least the name my favorite because because I'm I'm more of an old school man. Otis Redding. Yeah, yeah, you can't get past baby locked the door. Yeah, start with that and then goes solve. I mean the way he sings, uh uh, try a little tenderness, you know what I mean, Just try so. Yeah, Otis Redding for sure. Stevie, of course, gotta gotta get Stevie up in there. How green Ain't nobody know how to keep it that's small

And then oh, oh well, I'm you know, I'm on a guy.

I'm doing all my favorite guys because mostly I would listen to but Whitney. Then yeah, just you can't. You can't make it Whitney and Aretha. I gotta do like five six, Just I gotta have my two favorites, my two favorites. I listened to so much Aretha and Whitney

Oh and just the.

Taste, precise, the taste, impeccable taste.

Robin, think your top five r and B songs.

Okay, Well, let's stay together. What's going on?

Uh?

What's I always.

Forget the talents out of Bens guy, I always have been there.

And uh for me, because of the effect it had on me and my life and career, I would say forever, my lady.

Why not? Why not? Yeah? Yeah, come on? That did everything for me, everything for me, Look at me. That was everything changed my life. Come on that record right there? Who I used to order that on the jukebox. Remember to talk about the box, that money.

If I had a girl come over. The first date that was I was singing. I was standing in front of Jodasy like I was a member of the TV behind me, and oh you know, I went you got, you got. I went right to my vocals.

Teaching early. Oh yeah, yeah I was. I was a magic mic you know that can sing. Now I'm doing town type dances, you know what I mean? One more one more song?

Okay, okay?

And B songs?

Oh you know what I gotta I gotta get a Lauren Hill in there. Guys, you know you better watch out some girls. And that's that's culture forever. That speaks so many things to both do, both sexes. And cultures and what a song, what a video? What the musical production? Just incredible.

We're gonna build your vultron your music. You're a super R and B artists.

We want to know who you're gonna get the vocal from the performance style, the styling, the passion of the artist. And since you're so great at it, who's going to write and produce for this artist? Let's start at the vocal. What vocal are you grabbing to build your super RB artist?

You know what I think because of the most dynamic I mean, for me, I love the I would pick Marvin, you know what I mean, just because there's just there was something he just when when he sings, it feels like the gates of heaven are opening up, and you know we're all welcome, you know what I mean. And uh and and there's a piece and a and a hope and a warmth. It's like a big warm hug, you know every time he sings. Yeah, performance style, performance style.

You know I would go.

I'd go James Brown. I mean I don't think I think it all just starts the hardest. Yeah. I mean, of course this is Michael, which which is just magic that doesn't you can't even really quantify that. But for me, just like the the way James Brown and hits with his band and just he had he created this whole thing that inspired everybody that came after. And you know, and I'm a sweat you see me, I swear it out when it's time to really go, It's James Brown.

You know what I mean? The styling of the artists.

Styling of the artist. Okay, okay, you know what. Then I would go Mike because he really he there was something that classy. It was dazzling, but it was every man could wear it, you.

Know what I mean?

And and uh, he just kept evolving and and that's what inspired Kanye's type of you know, metamorphosis as a as a fashion icon and h And then you can go right to who's the songwriter producer? That's Pharrell, you know. And I would just go Pharrell, but we.

Gotta go passions, passion of the artist, the heart of the artist, heart of the passion. Oh.

Then I would go with Otis. I'll go with Otis's heart because you know he we lost him early. I mean you know that I believe he wrote and finished sitting on the dock of the bay and then passed before it was released, and and then it became sitting on the dock of the bay. Wow, I mean, come on, you know. So there was something about the heart, especially in the era also the era that he came from,

But oh oh oh no, I got a better one.

Just the fun Nina Simone, the heart of Nina, the heart of Nina. Listen to that voice who for real writing and producing it, the passion of Nina Simone. Yeah, from the era she came up in as a black woman in those times, and the songs she wrote.

It was so it was so many layers to that music and her songwriting, her lyricis, her lyrics.

It's an amazing.

We got one more thang for you, please do we got one more than because I got to go, I got I got to go, got to get home.

I said, yeah, saying no, Nick, saying no name, are you.

What you did? Don't say I ain't saying no.

It's a very important sec very important secment song, not a song because now you wrote so many damn songs.

Fat segment of the show, Will you tell us a story? Funny? Fucked up? Are funny and fucked up?

Okay?

Only rule to the game is you can't say no names.

Okay, okay, funny story.

Life and time, Life and time, I'm robbing.

Thick, okay, okay. So after the met ball, oh, she know what?

You know what?

I was, Yeah, yeah, yeah, and it was a great night because uh and yeah, I won't include the name that has the punchline, but I'll use some other names to help.

Get the story go. It right's part, but I won't use the punchline.

So Jennifer Hudson is performing, which was amazing because that was the first time I'd ever seen her live. And after that I was so inspired. I went home and I wrote on her debut Grammy winning R and B album, and so she was performing. I actually was sitting at the table with Rihanna, who was very young in her and I had just done a photo shoot together for GQ mag It was a GQ Yeah, I think it was GQ magazine. Very early in her career.

And so that night we end up going out.

It's after party after party. We end up at Richie's Butter in New York City. Richie Akiva shout out to Richie Kieva at Butter in New York City. And I'm hanging out with this very famous, very talented Grammy Award winning artists and We're making friends, We're having a blast, and he's like, you know, I after this, man, let's go back to my studio and and uh, you know, make some music.

And I was like, man, not tonight, not tonight. I was like, you know.

And so somehow he was affronted by you know, like felt rejected or something, and uh, and then it got to I don't want to do that, you know, and he was like, hey, man, you know I'm better than you. And I go, I go what I said, I'll take the Pepsi challenge with Joe asked.

The Pepsi challenge.

And we had already we already spent the night complimenting each other, we had met, we had met at the met Ball, we had already spent the night when we didn't really leave, we were like hanging out. We ended up going to like, Paul, let's go there. Now, let's

Did you guys remain?

You know, we saw each other many years later at an airport Terminal six baggage.

Claim, you know what I mean, and just was like it. You know, but man, you know, man, Man, you too. We don't really keep we don't really keep beef. We just don't hang out. We talk about the beef. Man.

That is great.

Yeah, it was a good time. Robin you are you are who you are, man. Thanks for having me. Thank we appreciate you. Man, Hang with you continue success and for you.

Congratulations on the rise of this show. You know, you guys are really taking over in a in a category that we really needed. We needed, we needed all this talk and all this laughter and all this appreciation of great R and B Culture and Music.

Well, thank you, bro, I couldn't have closed it out better.

My name is Tank and this is the R and B Money Podcast, the authority on all things R and B.

I don't I don't even know what to say. Man, my brother, man, you know I love you.

I taught so much with you as an artist and a human being in it. And h and Jay you know, you know I've always loved you, and we've been around each other for so long in this business.

But you guys are doing great.

I'm so excited part of it. God bless you.

Listen, big ladies and gentlemen, R and B Money.

R and B Money is a production of the Black Effect Podcast Network. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 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 Jay Valentine and at the Real Tank. For the extended episode, subscribe to YouTube dot com, forward Slash, R and B Money.

Yeah,