Black Music Month QLS Classic: D-Nice

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What's Up, Everybody, It's Sugar Steve from Team Supreme. June marks Black Music Month. We often speaking about it on Questlove Supreme, and we've had some of the legends responsible for the recognition on the show. Every day this June, we are running a different episode from the QLs archives to honor the tradition and intent of Black Music Month. This week we are focusing on some of the great

Suprema Sun, Suprema roll Call, Suprema Sun Sun, Suprema roll Call, Suprema Sun Sun, Suprema Ro, Suprema Son Supremo.

Roll call, Hello, Supreme fam Yeah, quest Lovers flock, Yeah, what up?

D Nice?

Yeah, Suprema Supremo, role called Suprema Son Son Suprema Rollante.

Is in the building. Yeah, I'm willing and able.

Yeah.

Compared to me Yeah, just chrmebs on the table, sup.

Supremo, roll call Suprema Supremo.

Roll call. They call me sugar, Yeah, they call me spice.

Yeah, they call me everything.

Yeah, but nice Supremam, Mad Supreme.

I hate Fante. Yeah, he stole what I write. I'm just gonna say up the nice.

Sa Jordan Son Supremo roll call on paid bill, Yeah, start do drag.

Yeah, just can't take it. Yeah, jet L.

Roll call Supremo on the Supremo, roll call Suprema something Son Supremo, roll call.

My name Yeah, oh yeah, that's right. Yeah, that fine is over there though. Yeah, his name is nice.

Roll call Supremo Supremo, roll called Rocket Son Son Supremo, roll call.

Yeah.

I don't know what to say. Yeah, I haven't written the rhyme. Yes is back in the day.

Uppreva Safe Suprema, roll call Suppreva Son Son Supremo.

Roll call Supremo soth soun Supremo, roll call Suprema Son Son.

Subpremo role All right, Boss Bill with the with the field goal. Yeah, with the field goal with one second left, half pint half court Buzzy bean y one on No. One had a twenty five to life Reference was going to do that. That's why on the table I didn't touch called Denic. Sound was like, let me leave, call me Denice. Someone else is going to do it, right, So then I was like, okay, crumbs on the table. I don't think nobody do that one and.

Called me with the Scott Rock though I wasn't where was your one? It was literally almost the exact same ship. Like I tell no fables compare to Boss the table.

Oh god right mind, Well, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode. Of course, love Supreme, IM course love this team Supreme in the house.

Hello, guys. Yeah, our guest.

Today, uh was sixteen when he entered the game back in nineteen eighty something, and I believe that he's seven teen some thirty.

Years later thanks to that early morning drinking coffee brought you back QS coffee. Yeah, I'm just saying that.

Out of anything that he's done in history, I'm more curious about how you've yet to age in hip hop.

But he's a hip hop legend.

He's part of He was part of the legendary Boogie Down Productions crew from the South ROX that really literally changed the face of hip hop and advanced it to an intelligence level where nerds like us could participate and engage in the culture. And he's had the craziest journey since I mean as a photographer, as a DJ, as a producer, and as a coffee maker. Apparently, ladies and gentlemen welcome to quest of me.

D Nice. Yes, yes, thank you for having me taking out your suckers. And you don't know how did so? How did you take out those suckers? I still don't know how I did it? Yeah.

Side note, d Nice has half of us in this room engaging in course slups Supreme coffee, which is it's very nice.

It's coffee and passion coffee. And yes, black lives matter, fashion, black lives love. That's hilarious.

Shout out to Diddy and listen to thank you, Thank you Diddy. In this room, I forgot my father. Shout out to my twin brother Love Brother, Love Love and Alyssa for this.

How's it going? So you you said you had a rough night last night. I had a rough night, man, What did you do? Man?

So it's crazy kind of being in this world where you I met with an invent last night that offered me like a few million to open this business. So I went out to celebrate after that, and I celebrated a little too hard at a restaurant called Charlie Bird. I mean I probably had like five bottles of wine. Nothing hard, but it was fantastic wine. The song just kept bringing first of all, sound mad nerdy like.

Nerds right now.

The song brought out, I mean, everything was just amazing.

Man.

So I'm recovering from that right now. Congratulations for you. Yah, so super excited.

He said that sentence like it happens all the time.

You know. No, but I'm saying, well, that's what I was going to go to. How many jobs do you have mine? Man?

Here's the thing, man, Like, coming into the hip hop back in eighty six, I had no real role in BDP. You know, I wasn't I wasn't in real MC at the time. I wasn't really producing at the time. And the one thing that Scott Larrock told me early on was, dude, you have to know how to do everything in this room in case something would have happened to one of us. So that's how I ended up becoming a DJ. That's

Yeah, I forgot. He's like wait, I was looking around, like who are you talking to? You know, But I just I love being creative. That's it. I love being created. So you know, I.

I know you, but I never ever nerd it out because I knew I was going to get you on the show one day. And you know, I have so many questions about just your your journey and your entry in the hip hop and and and all those things. First of all, where where were you born?

Can I assume that you.

Were born in this I was so I was no, no, no, I was actually born in New York. I was born in Harlem Hospitals.

In South New York.

Yes, how come people that come on the show that represent a city and they're they're born from We're never they don't represent that.

I wish I was born in the Bronx, but no, my heart is always there. But I was born in Manhattan in Harlem Hospital, but raised in the Bronx. And the funny thing is I wasn't even raised in the South Bronx.

So we're part of the Bronx.

Well I'm assuming when I say, you guys, what I'm saying b DP like, we're part of the Bronx.

So care Ress was from Brooklyn, so he wasn't really from the Bronx.

Yeah, Marley didn't.

Marley Caress was from Brooklyn, So South Bronx actually represented where he lived at the time. He lived in the Men's Shelter and DJ Scott Larrock was a social worker there Kres. You know, his name wasn't cars He was bed number five, seven, six, six, whatever, But no, he lived there, and my cousin was a security guard at the shelter MINS Shelter, Franklin's MINS Shelter in the Bronx.

What was your musical experience prior to that, Like, were you at least observing what hip hop was becoming back in the eighties, Like were you at park Jams any of those things?

Or was that like after your time?

No, no, no, I was always into music, but oddly enough it wasn't hip hop. So I grew up, which you know, I'm not just saying it's because you're here. But I grew up listening to just soul music. So when I hear that in a party to this day, it's actually the reason why I DJ. I grew up listening to, you know, just a lot of James Brown stuff like Melbourne Moore, like everything in the seventies was like that was my era. And the first hip hop record I fell in love with wasn't even like a

And but.

Yeah, so that was my music really started with with with hip hop with Kress, like that was you know, outside of the Pebbly Pooh stuff. I never wanted to wrap until I met them, until I met Scott and.

Karas, Wow, that's okay. Well, so then.

How to become like you know you you're in the group, until you know you actually you guys doing things and like how do they develop as a as a band first of all Who's NBDP.

So there was the group bugget On Productions, which was it consisted of kras One, Scottland, Rocky myself. Then in the crew you know how you have a crew of people just roll with you. There was always you know, Miss Melody, Mick Bull, a gentleman we called RoboCop manager Moe and I see.

Number one, yea, I should have just.

Should have did the intro to that record, but but yeah no, but that was like Willie d. That was the core of the crew. But in terms of making records and producing in the studio was Jess Cararas, Scott and I what was it?

Okay?

So, uh, I guess could you could you tell me of of just the genesis of like the first album that you guys made together and yeah.

No, So there are a few things to talk about with the Criminal Minded album. The only song that I actually worked on with the group was South Bronx and South Bronx was done by mainly by Scott Lorock and that was my first time being in the studio. We were at a sixteen track studio in Queen's.

Can I add something? Uh?

That was the most evil intro of all time? And I always tease you about this because I know that you were you know, obviously were like, all right, you give a shout up, but you're your your intro, Yo.

What's up Scottland Rock?

Like it was just like we always as a kid, me and my friends were always like, yo, t nice, it's a villain man like like we we had this image of you being like a Sniley whiplash from from my cartel.

Meanwhile, I was the skinny kid you just gotta hear like Scott Rock like just gritted teeth.

I was like, oh, he must be their bodyguard. Oh why it was Yeah, definitely.

I think heros probably would have preferred me being the bodyguard than any you know. But no, when we made Criminal Minded, like like I said, I only worked on that one particular song with Scott you know. And you know that was my first time in the studio, first time sampling like anything. You know that was that was a fantastic moment for me and uh and doing the chorus of course. And the funny thing about South Bro, I didn't even have a rap name. I didn't have

So with with the South Bronx, I've heard.

Stories of what was the involvement with Said G or Paul C at the time, Like, because I've heard Said G say, hey, I co produced Criminal Minded. I've heard Paul C's people saying that, well, I provided the drum patches that said G had that.

I mean just at the time, were those guys.

Around or it's the Paulcy thing.

This is new to me.

Okay, you know I met Paul you know, shortly before he passed. I didn't know him like that, and he was never in any of the sessions that I was a part of. Said, so here's the thing, man like, as you know, bro like a lot of And this is no disrespect to said because said was truly there and said, I.

Know what revisionism is in hip hop, especially with the legends.

So yeah, you know, like he definitely did drum program programming, but sometimes people mixed producing with programming a drum beat, you know, and said did a lot of programming. A lot of the stuff was used, you know, a lot of his gear was used to produce those records, but I wouldn't say he produced criminal minded. I wouldn't say that, and I don't think KRS would say that. Did he program a lot of it? Yes, but you know he you know, wasn't He didn't do the bridges over. I

I think for some reason, like I don't know where the like because in the real world make quote, making the beat is just arranging, yes, right, but not in him Like I've heard, you know you on the Off Wall Masters. You hear Rod Temperton giving people like instructions. All right, guys, you play this an account three one two three, So obviously Rod, you know, if it were in hip hop terms, then Rod Temperton would get credit for three songs because, like you hear him, he made

You know what I'm saying.

And I mean, isn't in the quote unquote real world, the producer handles the budget, the booking, the studio and you know, hiring all the musicians like the overseer.

Yeah, you'd like the executive producer, right.

That depends on the genre. I think that's true.

Fascinating. It's like class Okay, okay, yeah, I.

Mean because I mean, well, no, no, no, I mean I consider myself a producer, but you know, I only see it. I only take it to the fifty yard line because I hate doing vocals.

Always.

But even with that, I don't even think you necessarily have to do vocals to be a producer. I think you're more so the producers. The person gets the final say. So if you get Steve or whoever to cut vocals and then at the end you come in and say, Okay, that's the one, then that's it you. But at the end of the day, like I might not give Steve, like producers credit for sitting there for nine hours and figure out what's the wait, We're not starting to.

Fight out loud thought I'm sorry.

Okay, hypothetically you've gotten credit on stuff. I mean.

In hip hop, producing is known as bringing the beat, making the beat, and then you got a producer for maybe the whole album, to produce the album. But each song is produced by whoever made the beat. In rock music other music, the producer is the producer sure of the whole project, the album, all the songs, and he may not have played one, he may not have written anything.

You know he's produced. That's that's the distinction. Okay, and there you have it, So continue DN No, I love it, this is great.

No, but like I said, no disrespect is said man, but that that record was produced by Scott Lorock in my opinion.

So okay, Well, since you were there for South Bronx, always wanted to know, uh, being as though you guys were okay, so that was done I believe October of eighty six, I remember the last half of eighty six South Bronx was done. You guys could have laid claim to the first people to use James Brown's funky drummer, but stay, you just used the snare like you you cut up the individual drums like no one thought at the time, like, Yo, this this is gonna be breakbeat goal.

And done on an SB twelve? Damn? So that's why you get just just truncated.

Yeah, and that's why there's a guy because we use funky drummer. That's why there's a guy playing James Brown. The same guy that engineered the record is actually playing guitar playing.

James the end of it. Yeah, who engineered it? The same dude. We don't use his name. I couldn't even tell you his name. So he did everything. You don't remember his name vocals? What the fuck? I mean at least cut us a check.

Bill number one. I was sixteen at the time.

Were you were you round for the I'm not bill, I'm sugar.

These are bills over here.

Oh I don't get paid either, So that's why he's on paid.

I think I'm going to my second class here he starts this up.

I'm napping already, thanks Diddy, brother Love, brother Love. So were you around for the first round of bdpism the kind of we got to advance pre.

Pre Yeah, it was.

Twelve forty one. That was the twelve forty one. That was the name of the group, twelve forty.

One that I didn't know. Yes, yes, that was the fresh Prince kind of sounding. Yes. Yes, it sounded like a PSA, like just say no the drug psy. Yeah, that's what it's like.

Yeah, twelve forty one was the name of the group when Scott was a DJ and at dance Ateria, like very old school New York club. He was a DJ there and he used to go on at midnight and then he told me the story of why you know, I don't really remember, but the name of the group was twelve forty one and that wasn't one of the sessions I went to when I was just hanging out with Scott was to one of those records.

Advanced, We Got to Advance, We Got to Advance. That was like a feel Huxtable type rap. It was horrible, man, which probably explains that's probably what my mind. That's what they played, mister magic. This tell us it was something else, though, say it again. This told us it was something else. Oh, the song that they played for him, biz tell us a lot of this did tell us a lot. He said, well, no, no, no, there's like eight other songs.

So you know, I can tell you right now, none of the songs on Criminal Mind it was played for mister Magic exactly.

I can tell you that I think that probably success is the word.

Success is the word was twelve forty one, and they probably played that song. But I know for sure I was in almost every one of those sessions, and I know those weren't the songs that was played for Magic at the time.

So what was the difference though, because the eight songs that were kind of twelve forty one ish weren't that good?

No?

And then you know, was it the anger of revenge.

That sparked them to like, yo, we gotta come with it, or because there's clearly a difference between for our listeners that that don't know the legend of Boogie Down productions, basically in their they're entry into the worlds at least for us, the South Bronx and the Bridge is over all these songs are sort of heated responses to mister Magic, who scoffed at them in a rude manner when they played their demo for him. And I guess that anger prompted kind of a joker esque way. Did they get

With I know what it was in terms of production and at the time we would hear like there was this new wave of hip hop in eighty six eighty seven you.

Had Eric being rock Cam like biz, but technically you guys were first.

So but we heard those records though, so before they came out, we knew, Yeah, we knew what was coming with Marley. Everything that Marley was doing was extremely important to our evolution. That's that's why I like, even though we had this beef with the Jewe Crew, the Jews Crew helped brand BDP in terms of like the sound

How long did it take to make? Were you guys seventeen hour mix? Or was it like three hours? And blame let's run into the river.

I can say the entire album probably took. If it's ten songs, I'm not lying to you. It was done. I mean clearly you can hear it because it's old school, but it was done. In ten sessions, like ten sessions to make Criminal Mind. It was made for under ten thousand dollars, for sure, under ten grand South Bronx. We went in there, we did that song and at the sky. We probably paid like seven hundred and fifty dollars to make South Bronx. And he played on it and he engineered it, he did ever thing.

Who was the president of rock Candy Records Records, So.

Rock Candy Records was, man, we can we really talk right now. Rock Candy Records was a record company that started as they sold pillows. Remember the pillows. They used to sell like on the corner, like the big stuff pillows. So they used to make the pillows and they were all stuffed with like shredded denim. So the table on the album cover of Criminal Minded was also a table used to make the porn.

Because they used to shoot porn. Damn, I don't want.

This company was definitely like they were a small record company called rock Candy. But in there, wait, dude, and it gets better than that. It was like this Muslim dude. There was Aish guy who funded a lot of it. Always boy, listen, they made they made porn. I'm not making this up.

Always so pillows.

There's like I'm just seing the link to them here, Like there's a video of Scotland, Scotland Rock and I performing South bron Chris couldn't make it, you know, not performed. But while we're performing South Bronx, you see these pillows on the side of us.

An early merchan deal, early endorsement, the first three damn.

Now you wonder what they are. Now that's interesting, a musliming and Jewish man coming together for such a.

Yes man, man, you're serious, No, I'm dead serious.

So that was and then what was Boy, we got to go further. So who made the deal to get with these guys?

I mean there's records there.

We couldn't get deals. I'm telling you the real Yes, I could never tell you all of this. Yes, he wasn't there. The real deal is Scott and I were walking down the street. We were like, I don't even it's like on near Like, well, you're not from New York. So there's a like an old courthouse on the Grand Concourse. We were in that area and Scott saw he had this newspaper and in the back of it it had all of these companies.

So Scott.

We had no cell phone. Was none of that, Scott. There was Rock Candy Records, and he got their number from from a newspaper, like some industry like newspaper called set up a meeting. I was on the next phone talking to this check and this is the importance of it. I know, I'm going way evan conversation. So that one particular moment of him being on the phone setting up a meeting to meet with the Rock Candy people, I was on the phone just talking to just a friend

So both seeds were planning at that moment, in that very moment.

She never even talked about this. I never even thought about that until now.

Wow.

Yeah, in that very moment. Damn wow, I'm sorry. I got to take a moment.

See a therapist just for that moment.

Now. Damn Now I feel I'm ruin it with the nerve. So back to the poorn.

No, but you, but you also mentioned something else. You said Scott was DJing that Dancitaria. Was he a legendary New York DJ by that time or not at all?

He was?

I know that that Dancitaria is a high reputation nightclub Jellybean Benitez was a DJ there.

I know Madonna frequent there a lot. Yes, that's where the artist and all this, Like how did he get a gig at Dancitarian.

So Scott used to DJ at a club uptown in New York called Broadway International. So Broadway International, New York City was kind of legendary and it was one of the first clubs to allow people to just play hip hop. So at Danceitteryia, Scott was he wasn't because you know, early on, like people there were, we had no specific genre of music that you wanted to just play, like you played music. If it felt good, you played. That's why I know all of these records as a DJ now,

Here we go, it's been a while. You have a story about Latin I actually do.

They're mocking me because they think I might have don't believe it. They think that I have a Latin Quarter fetish, but I know that history is made at the Latin Quarter.

That's why I purposely didn't mention it, because I know, we know we're going to go there, so it's cool, you know, Latin Quarters. Man, We're gonna wait. This is all right.

So I have a question and reflection. Have you been to any of these gigs with with with with Scott Scott as a detail? No, No, you were too young. I was.

I didn't know him at the time. Okay, so by the time I met Scott and he stopped, it was strictly focusing on making the b DP records.

And what's the age difference real quick between you and Scott at the time.

He's still seventeen. Yeah I was. No, I was.

I was fifteen when we met, and Scott was probably like twenty five. Well he passed the twenty five so Scott was twenty four at the time. So yeah, he was a kid, which is so crazy.

Like a year though.

That's it's crazy too, because you basically saying you met him a year.

Yeah.

I was involved in his life for one year a lot, and he changed his life, changed my life, man, you know, Wow, I don't know where I would have been without DJ Scottland.

Rock probably still with you, no, for sure.

Yes, So getting to the record labels like rock Candy was the first one you guys chose, and wow, I'm certain that it was a low end deal because it's you know, because they had pillows pillows. That was an evance ours a couple of throw pillows. No, it was it was or was the artillery at least real on the cover that album?

No, that was real? Oh sure, no, that was that. That's what you said. That was nerve For me, all that stuff is nerve and water.

The guns on that cover and also the UZI on A one, Yeah.

That that was real.

We ain't gonna say were disappear just appear?

Yeah?

Shoot, I don't want to know that that much limitation.

So once these songs are made, what is the testing ground to see, like, how do things go viral? At that point the test in nineteen eighty six, how do things go viral?

So in New York City was it like in park jams? And specific was like if you tested your record at a park jam and if people were rocking to it, that was it. Now there are two moments that I clearly remember. One was Scott and I back in the day, you know, before m P three's, they would have what's known as an acetate and just like, yeah, we just had We had like twelve of them, twelve to fifteen of them pressed up. And matter of fact, it was like we went from Tom Coin like Tom Unknown Man,

The South Bronx to Hamilton. That's so crazy.

But we went from like we had these plates done at a place on forty second stret I can't remember the name of it, but we Scott and I would walk around to like Park Jams and play the records and I remember performing South Bronx and all I ever said on that record was Joe was sub Scotland rock. But we would go to Park Jams and because Chris lived in Brooklyn at the time, actually no, he didn't live in Brooklyn.

He lived in the.

No, he lived in the in the refrigerator in the freezer of Rock Candy Records.

So.

Freezers, dude.

Wait, I'm not making this up. Chris and Miss Melody. Damn, I'm going back.

I'm sorry about this. Girl. Dude got me thinking about.

So well, we wade South Bronx in the same studio or the same picture of office that they made the porn and we shot the album covernor downstairs it was like this a warehouse that that the office was housing on on in like the Cypress area of the Bronx with Susan No, not Susan Rond. What's the other the other strip club? You know what I'm saying, a lot

On adam Min's shelter.

It's strictly to sleep in overnight, so you have to be in a certain time and then in the morning what time is it let out?

So in the morning, I mean, I never lived in the men shelter. I just want to make that sch but no, in the morning they had to get up, you know, seven am, and get out, try to find a jobs or whatever, and then they had to be at a certain time. So in the men's shelter it was like Krs Justice, I see you live there. Scottland Rock was the social worker, a manager Moe who you know still one of my best friends and managed our group,

Hip hop, did they not have families or like what?

I'm certain that I know that the conditions in the Bronx were like in Dire Straits. But was it just because they didn't have family issues or.

I don't know what Chris's situation was and why he was in the men's shelter. You know, I couldn't tell you why. You know, I didn't meet Kenny Parker until maybe like when we did Jack Space, So it was around that album, So Jack of Space came out.

That was eighty No, no, it was eighty nine. No, no, no, it was like eighty eight eighty eight.

Because it's super amazing to me that, uh, like, just in general, like we're so dismissive of the home of the of the homeless that they're damn near invisible to us in society, because I think a lot of us fear that that, you know, a lot of us are you know, two checks away to Yeah, So it's like it's hard to look at them, you know, to look them in the eye and deal with it.

But it's like, I'm more amazed that.

In general people didn't scoff and just be like, you know, like you're holmemost like, but there's the future of music in this situation. So it's amazing to me how they pulled themselves out of their position.

But isn't it amazing too that Scotland Rock was like a social worker already.

And actually I want to I want to take something back. Just I don't think Justice lived there, just with friends. I want to clear that up. Okay, I thought, but I see you definitely lived there. Chris definitely only lived.

There, you know.

And they're how old at the time.

Chris was pretty much the same age as Scott. So yeah, Chris was roughly around twenty three, twenty four years old.

Yeah, man, yeah, I mean we oft to them for changing their situation around.

Yeah, to go from sleeping in the freezer to having a recording career.

So how were they able to learn because let's not forget they changed hip hop, So how are they able to learn technology? And I have these records like most of us have the comfort of oh yeah, my mom and dad have these records in our home.

Like, but like one of the resources they have to know to change things.

Remember, Scott was the social.

Work Okay, so Scott situationatt went to you know, he was college educated.

He went to school in Vermont, like Scott was always wait he was yes, yeah, he went to I can't remember which school, but he went to school. He went to school in Vermont. Scott was a straight nerd, like he would be sitting here doing this podcast with you, like He was a straight up nerd back then, bro like but he was a nerd dude that loved music, that loved hip hop and listen, I never heard of an interview. Let me tell you, man, I'll tell you how much I loved Scott.

He was a nerd.

But we also anytime something happened, we would figure it out. So I'll give you I'll give you a funny story. First time I've ever been on a plane after South Bronx was out was our very first show was in Rochester, New York.

W d k X so in super ho.

No, so.

We went.

We were doing the show in Rochester. South Bronx was the only record we had out. Dude, this is crazy.

So we went.

We had no place to stay, it was a one way ticket, didn't have a fly back. We were going to do this show and it was great. I lost my virginity at this show. The show was extremely important.

That's how you remember it. So well, what is this chapter gonna?

This is?

I figured out Rochester, Chester, So we went.

We went to this show, we performed. We didn't have a hotel room. So the guy that brought us up, his name was Scotty. I remember this man like, it's crazy. So Scottie, I can't remember your sister's name.

That my virginity to So what's so?

What's crazy is Scott we flew into Rochester and he brought a young lady with us. So it was it was Terras, Scotland Rock, myself and this young lady and the guy that produced the show brought us. He asked us to stay at his house. So in the middle of the night, not me know this is crazy. In the middle of the night, his mom woke up. She was super Christian. She found out that there was a young lady staying with us.

Yo.

She walked around the house and she had like the holy water and she was putting crosses on our heads and she and she told us to get out of her house, and only the young lady could stay. So we had no place to go.

We had no money.

Me, Scott, Caress, dude. We broke into like a motel six. What we broke into a motel six and we the three of us, stayed in this one room. Scott slept in the bed, Kara slept on the floor. I slept on the desk. But we knew we had to get out of the room before before.

Came. So we like, you get in the room, like.

Literally broke it was a motel six, so you know.

I thought you crashed the windows.

No, no, no, like kick through the door, just staying yo, man, I think.

Y'all, y'all, y'all went through the fire to make my life easy. It's crazy.

The social worker, the fifteen year old, and I can't.

I'm like, did you guys have tour support support?

We didn't have a check rider, we didn't have any of that. No, so so what the story gets better though, So after breaking into this hotel room, we left like five or six in the morning, and we fell asleep on these steps and it was the steps of a school. And I swear to you, the three of us woke up to like these little kids throwing candy at.

Wake up.

It's crazy.

And what did you say you did last night? You said you broke it a million dollars. Okay, this man, you come a long way.

The song the sound came and hooked him up. The song throwing candy at him? Not a bad life.

How did you guys organize shows in those early days when you didn't have.

Uh, you know, a ten song catalog?

To perform for the audience when you only had three songs, like would you just go back and forth on big beat for twenty minutes? Or somebody say ho, or like how did you you only had a little bit of vegetable and meat, but you needed a lot of broth?

Like what was it a show back then for twenty minutes? I'm sorry? That was a good reference? Was he a sports? That was a solid soup metaphor and a first of many?

Please we know there. We didn't do a lot of freestyle stuff at all.

You just do your one song and that's it was.

Yet we did the one well, we always had two songs, so we had South Bronx and the PS three, So that was my involvement.

So I was right, you're the t R eight oh eight. Yeah.

I was doing the beatbox on the PS three my first time and probably No No first and I think the second time beatboxing was on No Rozelle. By the way, No Rozelle only beatbox on two records. He is Free and on Uh the Bioman's Necessary album there was a song with.

Breath control, breath control, that's you? Was that Booby is Necessary?

Uh?

That was on the Blueprint yeah, I worked.

Yeah, that is you. Yeah, that was my damn yeah that nice? Nice nice, That was me with the sample, you know that is right? Uh well he starts with Ray Charles and then is that Duke Gallington?

No, No, the beat is Oh my gosh, hate Jude, who did hate you?

The Beatles? Not the Beatles? The Soul version Clarence not Clarence William the hundred. What's that? What's his name in the Night Hour? What's his name?

Wilson Pickett, Wilson Wilson Pickets version. So I sampled it is yeah, organ, the organ.

Okay, so that was that.

That was the Wilson Pickett version of Hey.

Nice Okay, okay, So okay, I gotta get to the rivalry part. So you know, are you guys, were there any meetings between not meetings, rivalries or whatever between the Jews Crew you guys after that initial meeting, Like because New York hip hops community is small, so surely there has to be a running or two.

So with the Jewe Crew, I don't know what happened before I was involved with the group, So I you know, I really part of South Bronx. I didn't understand because I you know, I wasn't there to experience that first meeting that care Us and Scott had afterwards, My best friend was in the Juice Crew and still one of my best friends to this day, Big Daddy Kane.

So before any not to say, y'all still used to give him shoutouts.

Yeah, came was always king was my dude, like that was I mean, he and kr Us or he actually helped care Us move into his first apartment. So even though we had this rivalry with the Juice Crew, it was more about records than anything. I mean, there was some animosity there because I'll talk about it at all. It was just like we never had those conversations. At

Thought y'all rolled ten billions based on that. My philosophy video was like yo, yeah, so I couldn't even tell you who have of those people are all Fat Freddy's friends exactly? So I gotta go there? What give us? All? Right?

There's a nightclub in midtown Manhattan. Oh yeah, I don't know if you heard about it. What it's called the Latin Quarter.

I think I have been there before, man, So.

For you, can you just give us a general synopsis of reopen the Latin Quarter, or at least make a documentary about it.

No, no, no, that's one of the docs I want to work on is on the Latin because it was such First of all, I had no idea. It wasn't until two thousand and like roughly around two thousand and five, two thousand and six. I was at you know, buddy Chris Lighty's house and we were in the backyard playing basketball and we talked about the Latin Quarter. I had no idea that it was a juice bar, like they served no alcohol. Wait, wait, listen, there was no alcohol served at our parties.

Nobody has said this.

No wait, during that hip hop era, during the hip hop era, you weren't getting nice.

No.

That's so when Chris said, yeah, it's crazy there was a juice bar, I was like, what are you talking about? Because I was too young to drink. I was in there when I was like fifteen sixteen. They served no alcohol. So all all that aggression was just dudes probably getting nice before the club and the way hip hop made them feel. And when I tell you that this club was. This club was everything. This was the mecha of hip hop at the time, you know, like everything changed from

Together.

Mike Tyson was a beast. We were all young, young dude like.

So we walked this point.

He was Mike Tyson, but he didn't have the belt was six, I mean six, too much of this guy, Damn.

Six. This was eighty six.

So I remember walking into the restroom into the I'm a little nice right now in a little boogie.

So I walked into the.

Bathroom, walked walked into the bathroom, and Mike Tyson was next to me taking a piss. This is this is real ship right here. Mike accidentally stepped on a dudes stepped.

On the sneakers. Dude.

Dude was like, yo, you stepped the much blah blah blah, and Mike hit him one time, knocked the dude out in the bathroom and then stepped over him to exit the bathroom.

No lie.

Was there he can tell you no words like he ain't saying nothing.

To say anything. This dude out stepped over him and walked out. We have another Mike Tyson punched somebody's story. I swear to God we have the name of campbells Naomi Campbell. So I mean she didn't push nail me out the car?

Did you know Hea the Hunter? Because you know she lived at the Latin Quarter we have.

I've known Heather since back then in the freezer, since the freezer pillows. I don't know her in the freezer or with the pillows under her back, none of that, none of that.

You haven't see that apartment, she says. They look like the Cotton Club and whatnot up there that's in Dumbo or inside the last She lived in the Latin Quarter with David Copperfield.

Wait, wait, David Copperfield lived in the Latin Quarter.

So the guy who owned the guy who owned the Latin Quarter was a guy named Mike. I can't remember Mike's last name, but Mike managed David Copperfield back then, so he was making his money from from now some other things, but no, for sure he managed David Copperfield. I remember, so every time I see David Copperfield's name in Vegas, I'm like, I could make it too.

I could do this. Wow, disappear at the Latin Quarter happen.

No, that's crazy. I didn't know you were obsessed with the Latin Quarters. Man, it was serious.

I'm obsessed with hip hop history.

But I'm more I'm trying to figure out why because of Okay, it's one thing for you to be like a legend or in the industry and you roll with a lot of people, like if you're carrying Red alerts records something you kind of protected you in the DJ booth or whatever. But I'm just to the point where people were coming from all walks of life to getting this club, and you know, your chain could be victed, you could be It's like going to the prison yard jackets.

Yeah, but when you're a part of it, you don't realize that you just got jacked fucked up.

You're like just happy to be there, Like, is it you know one person that just has a fuck Latin quarter stories like I got I.

Don't know anyone, and I'm telling you I've seen a lot of shit happen in the Latin quarters. Here's another story, right, so we're in the Latin quarters and this is why this should be in a juice bar. Is so crazy to me because I cannot believe that everyone was fighting like this, like it was sober. It was fighting like the sober dude. Like there was a dude who worked at the front door. They called he had a doll made after him, like in the eighties, he was called Sunman.

That was.

His whole body was like a y like and they called him sonman. Like I'm not making this up. MC search, you asked, search Search was there. Michael Rappaport was there like this, Listen. He was bold enough to get Michael rap everywhere, was everywhere. I'm not lying, broke, Michael rapp Report is the truth. People people look at him sometime they're like, you coach you roser. No, he was there, like he was there all the ship he talks. I swear to you, Michael Rappaport was there. He was there

Is this man, dude? Is that the doll?

So that's the doll from back in the day. That's yo. The guy was that is smart he.

Having? And what was son Man's special power? I don't even know. He blocked before sun Man word son Man. So he was the guy he was.

He was the security back at the Latin Quarters. So he let certain people in anyway, So once we were inside, you always felt safe, but not really because she always because some man was at the door. How many people were at the door? I couldn't even tell you. I do remember son Man. I remember son Man. God damn, I have his number on my phone. No, but these dudes, this is too much to rock. By the way, brother Love, I love you. I can be extremely honest. These dudes.

It was crazy. Yo.

The Latin Quarters by far the best experience I ever had in my life in terms of being in the club in just pure hip hop moments. There was a moment in the quarters right where the Decepticons were fighting against the A team.

Wait, there was the eighteen there. I never heard the eight so.

They were all there were a bunch of dancers that could fight well. But yo, that's the best I've ever heard.

But the.

Thing is, I can fight well.

By the way, if you're still alive, no disiness bag. But no, this moment was so crazy. So we're in the club. I don't know why they started fighting. I just remember LL had his big cool j ring.

So you know the story. I've heard of this story. So the story. I was there.

I saw the fights happening. I was safely in the DJ booth with red alert. But red alert listen, man, red alert is in O G Chris lighty O gs LLLL. You can say what you want about him licking his lips that.

Hell j O G. Man.

The fights happened, people were trying to like trying to rob LLLL. Pretty much what this was, I'm telling you. It was like the wild Wild West bro.

So the lights were on, but with dancing.

Choreography, it was like the dude, it was crazy in all of these sections of people fighting, the Scepticons, the A Team, and this regular party goes un.

So everyone's fighting.

I'm into DJ booth, like you, this is crazy. This is crazy.

Red Alert was trying to jump from the DJ booth because it was on the second level. He was trying to jump out of the DJ booth because Chris Lighty was fighting. Chris Lighty's fighting because Chris is trying to protect LLLL and Chris used to carry Red Alerts records at the time, So Chris is fighting, everyone's fighting. Scott Lak and I in the DJ booth. I don't know

This, that one with.

His lips licked, licking his lips. He handled, He handled this bro like Chris Lighty was a beast, like for real, for real.

Like I've heard that about Chris.

Chris was a beast. Chris walked into the DJ booth, and I won't forget this moment. He kept saying, my back is burning, my back is burned. And he pulled his shirt off in front of scottlar Rocker and I in this DJ booth, And that was the first I didn't know what raizor blade slices looked like. So when he pulled his shirt off and he bent his back, everything just opened up crazy like Gloria, like give me a sip of rocket.

It wasn't quite like like, so you're saying that weapons would still get inside of with Sunman at the door, Damn your son Man Man on the phone, crazy, it's crazy.

I'm exhausted, she said, I'm exhausted. Yeah, no, I've seen I've seen some things. Man, Latin Quarters Man, this should definitely be a documentary on the Latin.

Quarters or at least like a fictionalized yeah, b T tails.

You know, Leftime Movie Network, Definitely, Netflix, dancography the way that the way that it is today, where you know, unless you're a bona fide celebrity, i e.

You put a Drake song on, you know, oh that's Drake, or uh, there's the New Migos or whatever.

Maybe Cardi B has uh, at least a three or four second pass of playing untested material, and you know, and that's her voice, and so it's like, all right, we'll give that a chance, or you know whatever, Kanye or whoever's winning at the moment.

But you know, I hear that a lot of these songs were tested.

At the Latin Quarter and went off like gangbusters without people really knowing that, Like, you know, these guys weren't celebrities. So it's like you're hearing you're hearing Rebel without a pause the first time, knowing that you didn't think too highly of Public Enemy's performance the year before whenever they first performed. Chuck said that they had a horrible performance at the Latin Quarter that really didn't go off well. And you know Mel was disrespected, but it's just.

Wait, male disrespected them too.

Disrespect was like the Heckler the going from what from different stories we've heard, like he.

Hit in the back.

Just why that Mel you would try to skip the record in the DJ booth if he didn't like a particular act or you're crazy, because I mean by that point now was like like thirty two, thirty three, So it's like the new generation was I mean be like me trying to go to uh one, ok right now, like.

You don't know me if you are worried about what you know what I mean? Anyway? Wait, some even crazier? Why is some even crazier?

So now if it's an all ages show where kids are there, uh and by kids, I mean like the kids of like whoever, like our real roots fans are like they bring them twelve to thirteen years old. Yo, motherfuckers think that we're now doing the Drake song, Oh Drake, oh Drake's, Oh my God, like my Drake trek check is.

Awesome for what one of those songs on if you're reading they're reading this, okay, shut me neither.

I mean you got me as one of his hooks, like he does it twice at the end. But when we do it, the look on their faces.

Like they're doing it's good.

I mean, it's good, but it's just you just don't It's just.

Makes you feel old.

That's made me feel old.

Man.

They know the song, that's all.

I don't hear the check, so I just feel old. I listened to the story, you know that's wow.

Can you just take the hook again? Look? Man, quest A little coffee and full of singing. I was just the young boy. I gotta this movie. Get back to the interview, more stories. I'm sorry, we just needed had coffee. Please off.

So why why did Mel come up to you guys to pick a battle? Was it because it was all about you guys?

Or you know right now, like if you're listening, I love you. Back then, I looked at him. He was a straight hater. Yeah, straight up hater. And and I'll tell you a story, brother, we were And I remember this clearly because at the time I was mad at KRS and I was getting my first apartment and.

Don Lewis, I know, this is wait a minute, different world, cosmby people were coming to this.

Yes, yes, yes, Don Lewis was like my big sister down, I love you.

Where is she now?

She's still you know, she's still making stuff and you know she's in LA But no, Don Dawn was that. This is why I remember these stories because of moments in my life where it was so important and pivotal moments. I had my first apartment when I was sixteen. I didn't have a bed. I used to sleep on these coats, not like I had one bedroom apartment.

But I never bet.

All I had was a stereo system. That's all I wanted music. No no bed, not a sofa, not even a plate. I had an apartment. The apartment had like you know, back in the day they used to glue the like the carpet to the floor. Just imagine no carpet and it was all half scraped. These are my memories of like that time we're part of New York. I was living in Washington Heights on Edgecomb Avenue and like one hundred and sixty third Street in Edgecomb, right

Earlier, and.

Then he was like thought so, and the crowd went crazy. That's the Melli Mel experience that I remember where I lost all respect for Mel. I was strictly because even though I'm in a group, I'm like, Kris is the king. Whoa, I'm not down. No, Cara Rest was the king bro like the king of disrespecting early on.

So that was would rhymes on standby and he just had rhymes man.

Outside of literally outside of like Black Thought and Big Daddy Kane. I don't know anyone in Tupac. Tupac had rhymes for fucking years. We'll still here Tupac records and when we're like ninety brand new joints. But those dudes were, in my opinion, true MC's that was always prepared, always had something. They always had something.

Chris told me, he showed me like a couple of he had at least four competitions of notebooks.

Yes, and the last thing he left us with.

The last thing he left us with, he says, hey, I even got a black thought this He said he would.

Write, this is for Chris, would write he would have this record.

So he turned to the page he has.

No he's he was like, he was like some next movement, like he had he had it just in case I'm ready for you.

I'm always Kris always had lyrics for every MC that was hot from Caine everything, and Caine was our boy, but he was still in the Juice Crew. So Chris was always prepared to battle anyone. And that was something that I was never really I didn't know about that any of that, you know, I mean records, because it was I just loved music. I wasn't prepared. I wasn't really prepared for that kind of m scene, you know.

So talk to me about regrouping in the group's future after Scott passed. Like at that time, was it just like okay, but well I guess that's it no more? Or was it like we gotta do this in Scott's memory and no, it was like how what happened?

So just to tell you know the QLs audience. Scott love Rock passed away coming to my aid. You know, I had an issue with a young not even with a young lady, some random issue, wasn't even an issue of my own. Scott came to my aid and this is this was so crazy, bro like. We're in the Bronx, Highbridge area of the Bronx. It's probably I don't even remember the exact street, but we were in the Highbridge area of the Bronx, not too far from Yankee Stadium.

That's where I grew up.

We're in this area and walking down the street eight o'clock in the morning, a group of people rolled up on me, had no idea who they were, and had this beef with them where they pulled the gun out, smacked me with the pistol and ran off. The first person that I called was Scott. I went to a

I know this sounds crazy, sh turn around. I don't know what to do.

I just got nervous.

I don't know he was the east Side rapist. So later on, if you google him, east side rapist New York, Daryl was his name.

I'm afraid to how many right now know how many bicks he got under that?

I don't know. It was wow like But anyway, so this guy was a hothead dude, you know. And so the mission of peace of like going to the Bronx to find these guys that that rolled up on me became a mission of like, we're looking for trouble only because of this one person. So he we were at the projects highbridg High Bridge projects in the Bronx were we were on one side of the street. Uh K seven was there before he was K seven. He was in another group before that t K. So he was

We didn't hear the conversation.

What all we saw was whatever this dude said to him angered him, and he picked and he was like a six four sixty five dude picked this young.

Kid up and just slammed him.

Now, which was that was a crazy moment because if if it wasn't all about peace for them at that point, to us, it was like we were coming to just make sure we had no issues. But in that moment, those kids were like, this is it's on. And while we were standing there, maybe thirty minutes later, we were standing out there and all of a sudden.

Shots ranged for thirty minutes.

I mean we were there for thirty minutes after the fact, and all of a sudden shots came. Shots ranged from the roof and from the bush. So our guy was hit twice, you know, Scott Loan Rock was hit twice, shot in his head twice. Bullets literally went past us because he was on the Like I told you before, we were on the right hand side of the street.

He was in the passenger side.

They were shooting from the left side, so bullets went through past all of it him to him, no lies crazy. So this guy gave his life, you know. So I never want to just when I when I talk about him, you know, I want to talk about the importance of like Scotland Rock and the importance to me.

They introduced me to music.

He gave his life for me, and to this day, his son is like someone that I loved that I try my best to make sure he's always straight because that's.

What his dad did for me. How old is Scotlan Rock R. Scottlan Rock Junior is probably like thirty two now thirty.

One because I always wanted to I mean that whole Scotlar Rock Jr. My pride enjoyed, always wanted to know what happened to him. Okay, he's awesome, man.

What does he do now?

Like he's producing music, He's been putting out like putting out his compilations, you know, you know, just just recently, you know, we we got together, got him a new NPC. You know, I want to do things with him that his dad did for me. You know, like if you want to be involved in music, let's do it. Like here, use this gear, I have this, come and get it. Let's make music. It's yours because that's what his dad,

For sure. He didn't even liked me.

He didn't even he didn't even understand why Scott put me in the group. Matter of fact, it back to the original.

No, Chris and I weren't we bickering brothers are like real like I don't like that kid.

For Chris when I think about it now as an adult, Chris was probably angry with me because Scott lost his life.

I was gonna say, like, I know the guilt you had to to internalize. Still I don't how did you to deal with each other or talk with each other or after that fact or was it just a white elephant you guys never spoke of And then like years later it.

Was like, I don't, I don't want to call it a white elephant. Chris definitely treated me a certain kind of way. So I was in the group, one third member of BDP. We did a show.

I made a third of the show.

I left the group because Scott wanted to pretty much be my dad and I didn't grow up with a father. I didn't grow with my parents, So anyone trying to have like that parental role to me was an enemy, like I didn't want that. I didn't want you telling me what to do and thinking looking back at it as an adult now and as a father, man, this dude changed my life. All he wanted to do was

It's crazy because I was going to ask what is a fifteen year old doing touring the world or touring the country with grown ass men, Like where were your parents?

Now? There were no parents.

I lived, slept on the floor and slept in the living room on one sofa and my my great grandmother was on the other sofa and my cousin. It was my cousin's apartment. So from the time I was like thirteen until my till sixteen, sixteen and a half when I got my first apartment, well, seventeen when I got my first apartment.

I you know, that was what my life was.

So how do you attribute being because just by optics sake, you look like to be a very involved father. You have two girls, right, how do you how do you think you became such a great father. You didn't really have to be the.

Best parent that I didn't have.

You know, like I wanted my kids and still want my kids to be better than I am, and I want them to be great, and my kids inspire me, you know, And it was I know, it's directly related to the way I grew up.

You know, I grew up. My dad growing up was Bill Cosby in my mind.

Yeah, the Huxtables, Like seeing that was like I wanted that for my kids. I wanted my kids to have that experience. And I used to wear those ugly ass sweaters all the time. You look at self Destruction video, So even though you have Cosby sweaters, I had them.

Joints, Bro, did you produce that self Destruction? Yes?

I was eighteen when I produced Self Destruct?

Okay, how many twelve hundreds did you use? Because the beat switches every verse. So did you just use punch the sample in oh?

No, I used a Poobla song, remember that.

No.

So the Poobla song was a rack mount sampler that would just loop whatever you had, It would loop it.

That was your weapon of choice. That was choice.

So yeah, so I used that in a SB twelve hundred. Okay, so I'm sorry SB twelve not even twelve hundred. I used the twelve you were still using in the twelve and eighty. I was using the twelve and then the first time, the very first beat that I made with the twelve hundred. I remember this because I keenan ivory Wayams came to us and said told Chris that he wanted to use BDP on I'm going to get you suck a project. And we were in we were in Where's Where's Ali From?

I'm drunk, Shi Ali? Where's Ali from? Ali? Mohammad Muhammad? Kentucky. We were in Kentucky, Louisville. Right, We're in Louisville.

And I jumped on the plane to go back to New York to go back to sam Ash, bought the s P twelve hundred, flew back on the.

Road, and we were on tour with like I personally to get the well, yeah, we.

Didn't have I didn't know anything about FedEx and all that I went to get this. I stayed at this hotel. Never forget this. God damn, I can't tell you everything because because I remember staying at this particular hotel with someone's future wife.

But three, so we won't go there. We won't go there. Anyway.

I remember back this twelve hundred and then going back on the road, and the first beat that I did on that SB twelve hundred was from a sample that I bought while I was in London, and it was the Greedy G sample, and we used to we use that sample and I put the sample the drums, you know the drums last night chan Phillip, Yes, yep, with with the Greedy G. And that was our show intro from that moment on. And then that ended up being a song that we did for The Jack of Spades.

By the time you got to the bio means necessary, what was the digging process, like, like you produced my philosophy.

My philosophy, So I want to be clear about this. I don't even want to say that I produced my philosophy. That beat is definitely my beat.

Who found the samples?

That's all me? There you go, Yeah, that was all me. I used to go to a spot called Downtown Records in New York City, and I would go to the House of Oldies, and that's where I bought. Pretty much every record that I ever used to sample was between those two places. And I remember being in downstairs and it was always Big Doddy Kane. Biz was there. Biz was there all the time. So if you found like a sample, if you had a little bit of money, you would buy every one of those records there. So

Records.

So that's that's I found that I looped at Chris there was produced by Karras right. But I'm telling you right now that I found.

That all them four joints off the album. Yes.

So with that album no, it was the Battle of the Band's album I know.

Yeah. So with that album I found those I had.

I sampled all of that stuff and call Me d Nice, which was crazy to me, call me the lyrics for call Me D Nice let's I'm gonna put it out there right now. Half of the first verse was written by Krras. It was the song Chris had written for me when I was like sixteen, and then I wrote the rest of it. But I did it on like an old Bee Boy Records album Old b Boy compilation. Yeah,

I needed trying to get that house that house.

Even after I recorded the vocals, I had them speed up the tape, like make it faster.

It needs to be faster. It was just bad anyway.

So those records I was sampled of records and sent it to Chris, or not even send it, bring it to Chris on the tape. And at the time I brought him, I brought him the beat for I'm Still Number One for my philosophy and the beat for call Me D Nice. And he heard the beat for call Me D Nice and he said, nah, I don't like that. What and then he took I'm still number one. I had it faster because you know the sampo, he slowed it down. I will give him that he slowed it down.

Oh wow, I'm going to say you discovered him.

Yes, I mean he was already doing this thing, but he was like an opening act of one of our shows and.

Been in BDP, could have been in BDP with US America. Great again, it's crazy. I have Kid Rock stories too.

But anyway, so I played it for him and I did call Me D Nice the lyrics to the beat because I wanted him to know how he could rhyme on it. So and and that's the only reason why I have like two versions of the song was because I did it for him. I was like, no, you can do it like this, and then when I listened back to it was like, wait, this is actually pretty fucking dope and yeah, man, and ended up putting that out as my first single.

Wow, so that was your first album? So how did when did you officially leave BDP? The time from you when you left to putting out your first solo record.

So I don't think that I ever actually left BDP. I think car Rest just had my music turned down extremely low at one show and I was like, I guess I'm not in the group anymore.

We were.

We did a show at the Palladium in LA and that was the moment that I realized, like some things were going on. But the moment that I realized I wasn't in the group was his Sex and Violence album, And it's because credit credits these people are not down with us, and that's that was the moment that I

And fucking motherfucker's up and.

Fucking motherfucker's up, you know, And basically Chris got a reputation. Yeah, Chris has a reputation even in music of being a little disrespectful, but a lot of you know, oh p out but yeah, so but with Chris, with that moment, I you know, like I said, man, I didn't realize that I wasn't in the group until those records and till the Sex and Vonus album because I I'd done all of these records for BDP, Which is so crazy because in that moment, the only reason why I put

When your next record, when you did to the Rescue, how was was it a little better there? And why said that video with twenty five Life was so right drastic? That was a drastic ass video.

So twenty five the Life, I mean, even though I loved the song, shouldn't have been my first single off of the second album, coming off of what I was doing in terms of like calling when I and Crumbling Table, it was different. The problem was was record companies, you know, like in People. That was like the first song that I did in the studio, and that song wasn't even

She did all that. She was like an n y U student. Oh, I thought you meant there was a Mary J. Blige movie of the Week like her wife.

No.

No, the movie was like Mary and Q Tip Prison. She directed that, so she directed all of my videos.

Wow.

But yeah, yeah, I always thought that was an odd choice for a sing I mean, I thought it was dope, but it was, yeah, because I was.

Like, well, it was one verse. It was just one verse in the hook, it was one long verse.

That video was one of the videos where like, you know, where my dad just happened to be in the room and then the gunshod thing happened and he just looked at me like he was always coming to choice moments where like I'm like, dad, hip hop's an R for him, you know, and you just look alike.

And then the twenty five of the Life video. It's so crazy because that was like my first number one MTV video. I think that was actually my only number one MTV the only one. I was like, it's not even it wasn't even supposed to be a single.

Nor.

The first person that Too Short did a song with on the East Coast was me on that record. That second album was a song called check Yourself. Short and Now we're on tour, and we were both signed a JIB and Jive had this brilliant idea of like, no, you guys should make records together. But when you think about it, no, we shouldn't have made records together. That that's not who my audience was. My audience was people. Not no disrespect to shorts audience, because Short is an

You know.

I was a dude that was selling drugs in DC and came back to New York and I wanted to be respected by these dudes. So I made those records where karas at the time, excuse me a little hiccup because I'm drinking this rock quest love juice, Jesus juice I'm having over here.

But before I forget real quick because we gotta wind it up, you're definitely coming on because we didn't need to get to talk about the White House. No, the second part of your life. No, No, I'm purposely leaving the other half of your life out just so you have because you're coming back, going to.

Be the signs of Burnhard, of Quest, Love Supreme, just frequently.

Tape on record.

You're coming back, right, are you kidding? I'm trying to sit in on every interview round stories.

Yo, how did you convince Soul Train to let you perform call Me d Nice live? Because I never knew that was the your performance of that. When we finally went on Soul Train, I was like, Yo, we're gonna do the same thing De Nice did. We'll make up a trap as if it were live, and then well lip sing it, but it'll look live when it's on, you know, on television. But we got that from watching you. So why didn't you just do the typical lip singing to your version?

Like so no one had done that at that point. And when when I had the invitation to perform a Soul Train, I thought all these years I thought it was live, you know, I thought everyone was doing it live, and some of them were, some of them.

Were, but really I didn't even know that special you know, Barry White, Yeah, special people got the treatment, but it was costly for Don at the time to do it back, you know, gear.

And all that stuff. So for the most part, it was lipstick.

Well when I when I performed well the night before or the day before, I couldn't believe that you couldn't do that, you couldn't perform live. I was like, this is insane. What are you talking about? I want to perform this record. So I booked the studio session.

I went in.

It was me my buddy Tony Rassan, who lived at the shelter at the time and at Franklin, but he ended up becoming like my partner in in my management company. We went in the studio and I just did it live like I wanted to do. I want to feel the way I performed.

It was great. We did it. We did the whole go do you dice go? Do you ice? Wait? That was you guys.

Yes, Oh damn man, I was because I was gonna say, yo, you you that was the most hype I've ever seen the audience, like.

Yo, dude wait.

So we did all of that the studio with the next day, gave him the track. I was performing it and I was performing it like it was live. Yes, and duncan nels. He was like wait, wait, wait, stop, stop, stop stop his mic is live. What's going on? He literally stopped us and I fell out laughing, like no, dude, like we did this last night, and he said, young Blood, that's a good one.

Oh man, man, that was great. Though, that's great. I was in the trench right time to No you didn't yet they KG produced it.

KG produced Time to Flow, and then I wrote my own verse, which was actually a mistake. Though, man, I you know what, man, Trench was on fire at the time. I love that you asked me this. By the way, Trench was on extremely on fire, and we'd been friends even before opp any of those records came out and I watched I was fascinated by Tretch like I thought Trench was. I watched Trench battle Jay z to where Jay got frustrated and threw the mic down and walked

Yeah, yeah, I found it. I was.

I wanted to rhyme like Tretch. I wanted to be like that was top level to me, and I wanted to be on his level instead of just being who I am. So there are some some mistakes that I had, man, that I actually I don't even wish I could change it, because I wouldn't be where I'm right now had anything been different.

Well, for the record, I always liked you. I always thought you were underrated as an MC and you you're always liked. Your delivery was always really clean, like your Birse on self destruction times. Yeah, like it was still Yeah, man, I always always thought you.

Were my mom.

Liked the sweater and the self destruction. So aj Lester one hundred and twenty fifth Street back in the day.

There.

We think you for coming from the show. We're definitely going to have you back. Yeah, we gotta talk about the rebirth.

Everything and stories.

Yeah, but thank you man. I appreciate it all right, man, give it up for a great nice Uh just want to let you guys know. You know, we rarely push our our social media, but you can follow Quest Love Supreme at QLs. That's our Instagram and our Twitter at ql plus and when you go on Facebook, Quest Love Supreme and you can email us. There's something new for twenty eighteen. Yes, yes, you can email us with with questions and comments and criticisms all right.

And roll call help.

Can't wait for that anyway, we're gonna find We're also gonna find love for Laya by February.

Uh, hit us at mailbox it may I l b o X set out mail box.

Mail out there mailbox at Questlove Supreme dot com.

The way you guys got that all right, So you can send all your hate to many mail box. So that said on the Quest Love Supremes.

Froon Tickeelo Unpaid and Boss Bill Sugar Steve, It's Layah and our guests d Nice.

Yes, yes, our return guest d Nice. We'll be back. Uh, We'll see you in the next go around. Quests Love Supreme Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. This classic episode was produced by the team at Pandora. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.