Hey, what's up everybody.
It's Quest Love and please make sure that you're up to date on my podcast, The Quest Love Show. However, it's Quest Love Supreme for life. Back in late twenty twenty, in the thick of the pandemic, QLs had my guys one Boys to Men for a two part podcast discussion. It's damn near three hours of conversation when we get real and all the stories behind this incredible record breaking group.
So join me Fon, tigelow Laiya, Unpaid Bill and Sugar Steve for this amazing touchstone interview with a lot of humor, candor and realness.
Thank you to Nate, Sean and Wanye.
Shout out to you to Mike and Mark, You're all Boys to Men to me, you guys humbled me and also gave one incredible conversation at a time when we needed it. So here's Part two of Boys to Men on Quest Love Supreme. Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. Ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to part two of our talk with Boys to Men. I gotta say we were having.
So much fun. I didn't even know it was going to be this much fun.
Normally we could wrap up a Quest Love Supreme episode and just you know, like shy of it, north of an hour and I don't know the time, just kept going on and next thing you know is two episodes worth. So I haven't had this extensive of a talk with them since our days in high school. So it's really good to catch up with the guys. I hope you're enjoying it. Without further ado, Part two of our conversation Quest Love Supreme.
And Boys to Men.
Of the projects you worked on, what's your favorite? What is your favorite one? What do you feel about from artistic achievement? What do you feel like this is? This is my legacy.
Well, I won't say project per se, but I would say one of my biggest enjoyments at this stage and age in my career and where we are is when we do our orchestra concerts. We do a concert with just us us three vocally and you know, whatever orchestral we're around, whether it's in New York Symphonic orchestral, whether with La and the Hollywood Bowl, and we do all of our records and it's all stripped down to just strings and brass and drums, nothing electronic at all and it's just.
It's an atmosphere.
It's an atmosphere that because you've been involved in the business the way we have so long. You go on tour, you got the samples in the backgrounds and you sing over here and the drums and the guitars, electric everything. When they strip all that out, it takes you back to the high school performing arts. It's almost like everybody, it's the door just opens. It's a brand new, you know, fresh air to where the vocals have room to breathe,
like you live in a whole different space. You're not fighting against the electronic keyboard or somebody's base being too loud. You know, you just get to flow over the strings and the harps and the whole nine. And for me, whenever we do all the stuff that we do with everything jumping around or whatever, whenever they say there's an orchestra concert, it's just a sigh of relax and relief to where it's like, thank you Jesus, now let's just go and sing our songs.
And that's just the best.
I'm gonna tell you one thing I'm here, the thing that i've I've our goal, or rather, the thing I'm most proud of is something we haven't done yet, and I hope we do it because we've had this conversation before, and that's to do an acoustics show, like you know, the guy you know, we've all learned how to play guitars and you.
Know what I'm saying.
You know that's I totally forgot.
Yeah, so you know, we talked.
About this as far as actually doing like, you know, a set or unplugged type of show.
Well, how long have you guys been doing that format for our listeners?
Don't know?
Yeah, the last time I seen you guys before him, it was you three with your guitars, which I didn't know.
Me, No, we didn't know.
Yeah, Nate, Nate plays bass and I played guitar, and and uh we started playing around.
Uh what is it?
I was forty three, so that was five years ago. So that was in twenty fourteen, fifteen something like that, and we just started to play. We just felt like it was an idea. It was around the time we did this.
Album called Collide, Yeah, exactly.
One of the guys was like that was working with us, was like, yo, you guys know how to play guitars, And it was like I guess we should. So, you know, Nate and I went to Tower in Vegas and I picked up a you know, a modern size strap, and he picked up a bass. And I've been playing ever since,
and Nate's been playing ever since. And it's broad in the show to the point now where we've added guitar parts to the show and and you know, acoustic and electric, and this is something that has opened all of our to the possibilities of us taking our music to even another stage and you know, potentially just doing an all unplugged type of thing because we did it like you just like you said the last time you saw us, we were doing Come Together, you know what I'm saying,
Like you know, and and water runs dry and I'll make love to you all acoustical that it was incredible.
I loved it.
You got you gotta do that out there.
I was going to say where y'all got there?
Of course, really right, I wanted to not invited, man, Yeah, I wanted to jump back on y'all on your production for a little while you were speaking, Nick, you were saying earlier just about how you know the records that you guys did and versus the records that you know that.
You know that I'll make love to use in the end of the roads.
I always thought, just as a fan of you guys, whenever people would make the argument of like, you know, the boys Men versus Jodasy argument like what Jodasy was more this, but boys Men was kind of clean cut. I will always go to y'all production and I would say like, nah, this is what they really own. So like Nate, you did a record, the Johnny Guil record, I Got you.
And think of you case.
And when y'all did the one twelve now that we're done like the off the stuff like that, to me, I was like, nah, this is what these niggas is really on.
You know what I mean?
So well, you know, we were always wanted to get you know about it was.
The jo Tosy boys of Men thing, Like was that a thing? Were you black versus it was?
It was real, but not created by us. It was real because we were already good friends. We freaking love like Jodsy is just like I mean, it's ying and Yang. There would be no Jodasy with our boys to mend and vice versa. And we every time we would see him on the road, we try to catch up with him.
I mean, we love those dudes.
I mean the audience has made it more of the oppetition, and it was it was more friendly for us.
But I mean there there are different identities.
I mean, you know Jodashy, you know they have the two singers and they had the producer, and you know, we had the four singers and the three producers. I mean we kind of did a little bit of everything, so everybody had their own little genre, but producing and writing with something again that we really enjoyed because we're the type of guys that you know, being being emotional.
We like to sing what we write, you know what I'm saying.
And when we got a chance to get with Face and Jimmy and Terry and out, I'm like, all the lessons we could possibly learn from those guys, we tried to roll over into the stuff that we did. But for as far as like I said, we we wrote. The first song I ever wrote in my life was please don't Know.
I think I was fourteen fifteen years old, so.
Well that's years of getting stomped on.
Like you know, like we talked about, the nobody really checked for us. But my point being, we all come from that.
All four of us came from writing words down and creating songs and singing them.
That's how our whole career jumped off.
So as it went in, you know those.
Songs you talk about now that we're done, all those other songs, and that was the stuff that we just naturally did because that was that's part of who we were. It just may out have always gotten on the Boys to Men albums because I lost many produced songs.
Man, Yeah, I love Sean like even like your shn just soundtrack stuff. And I told you this before in presompation like the Visions of the Sunset and like the record you did.
Months Man, I love that round.
Real quick.
I want to cut you off.
But the time I heard that song, when when I heard because I know he played keys on it, When I first heard that, dude, I had a tear in my eye. That's my that's my brother. I had a tear when I heard. I was like, Oh, I just wanted to crawl up and throt position like.
I love him to keep a couple of times because I loved that song.
I love, love love that song.
Man.
Before I forget, oh, before I forget dude, what happened to Uncle Sam.
Uh he out did getting some of that Jesus money. But anyway, he actually is getting Jesus money.
But we we had him signed the Stone Creek, our record labeled back in Philly, and we all, uh, you know, we all fell in love with him the first day we heard him, and I felt there was something we could work with. We went in and produced the record and uh, I think the album. The album sold a million records and you know, the single, so the million records and the album was half so half a Manion Records.
And then we went back in to renegotiate with Epic to do another record, and unfortunately he wasn't really happy with his terms. Now, we'll tell you one thing that we learned in our business. For us, we don't treat people the way we were treated a lot of artisan producers be like, well, you know, I went through it, and you got to go through.
We would never know those guys.
We made sure that the deals you got you were happy with, and if you didn't like those deals, we could tear those deals up and you could walk. But you know, Sam, for some reason at that time, had a whole different agenda of what he really wanted to do, and we didn't really want, you know, stifle him from that, so we said, okay, well that's you want to do.
Cool.
So when we walked from him, the label said, well, well, if y'all ain't with him, we ain't with him.
So that's why I.
Yep, can I ask.
Y'all it's funny I mentioned that the joasy thing.
I was kind of always curious how y'all felt, since they were kind of allowed to be the bad boys. But y'all, especially at the end of the road, it was like a whole persona preppiness or whatever. But knowing who y'all really are is South Philly, Philly y'all.
Personally, I personally took to yeah problem.
Yeah, I was gonna say, what was that like?
And how was it like wearing those masks at times when you really had to wear the mask?
I feel like, was Alexander Pool a real person?
Yeah?
He was after he was a character.
To watch a TV watch it all the time, and that's how he came up with the look because he used to trust that way.
But he ain't live at seventeen Christians. So yeah, I used to have it.
I used to have a problem having to do that because that wasn't me, wasn't even close to me, you know what I'm saying. So to watch them get out there and have a chance to just be regular niggas, I had a problem with that, right.
I just wanted.
I just wanted to be me, and I couldn't because I had to protect the entity of my guys.
And it is what it is.
I was the suburbs, so you know, you know, I had to you know, ilation.
Withs with me.
I feel like, you know, I guess at a young age, I was looking at it as the music called for the entertainment value, you know what I'm saying.
I mean their music was gritty, their music was you know what I'm saying, So you have him.
It was you know, it was that and and we weren't there, so we couldn't personify that type of you know, uh, we couldn't be that character, you know what I'm saying. And the funny thing is is what people don't understand is what made us non offensive. It is no matter what we were singing, we were no character.
You understand.
We were characters of our own personification, singing love songs, which made it so non offensive. People couldn't pinpoint it. They didn't know we was black or white, you know what I'm saying, until they actually saw us. You gotta understand, the two album was bigger than Koli. How Harmony we weren't on Koli. How harmony we weren't on the two albums.
On the cover, we weren't on the cover.
That was another fight that they wanted us to cover, and we wouldn't want to.
Pull the Brothers sixties move? Wait, why why why did you do that?
We had uh got it? No?
I mean basically, we wanted it to be about the music, and we understood that, you know, being quite frankly, you know, our faces on the cover we felt at this point was kind of corny.
So we were like, we wanted to make, you know, the album itself be the concept.
So and one came up with a damn good logo.
Yeah, like like I came into with the time, Okay, I drew that, I do it.
Pencil drew it.
Yeah, kyan Ye drew it right, and and and he put it all together. Yanye actually drew this. So we casked some guys, what's the agent guy that we had created created like this metal thing. This was before you know, all the technology we have now. It looks just like the mold of the.
Two things set it up in lighting. That was that's an actual picture that that new album coming. They different angle and.
Made it look the way that it look and the label we were we were at a somebody's beach house, you know, meeting with all the heads of Motown because this is you know, we were the big group at the time, so everybody was talking, you know, wanted to hear our ideas, and they fought us, right, no, your face has.
Got to be on the record. Your face got to be on the record.
When they finally saw it and we put it out, we saw a paper newspaper article when the album came out and it reached a certain level and the label was like, yeah, we came up with the idea.
We didn't want to their faces on the album.
It was this Herald era or Busby Nah.
This was before hell, this was before heral. But what's funny was that this was during the long CD box where it stuck down and the till then and the picture was up top. So that's why they were fighting because they wanted the faces to be up top. But when Wine came up with the idea, I literally remember him saying, it's got to look it's got to look like the Batman's it's got to look like something that's
got that. And we fell in love with that idea of it, and we tried to take that idea to the label, but again they were stuck on we got to put.
Your facers on it.
And I don't think that they realized even after eight or nine million records, how strong the name of the group was.
Wow man, One day, I want to ask you real quick, broken hearted man.
You know, during the time of Broken Hearted, Brandy was just coming out. She just had I want to be down and I really thought that she she was just like a good thing. I knew that she had something that I hadn't heard all time, you know, vocally, and you know, I contacted her mom and we were all talking and saying, Yo, this girl, she's crazy.
I would love to, you know, you know, do some music with her whatnot.
This is before anything ever transpired relationship wise, and her mom agreed, you know, and you know, we all met up. I met I went actually went to Carson, which is in California.
Like it was like the hood, you know what I mean.
And I hung out like literally all day her her boyfriend and ray J when he was little, you know, the mom and dad. You know, I have my security with me, you know what I'm saying. You know, I went down and we hung out and we just ran sang rifts and stuff, all of you know, just copying each other's ribs. I was pretty pretty young, but not that young. And as time progressed, she became like my little you know, my little sidekick, you know, like we
would actually just literally hang out. And as time progressed, you know, hanging out so much, you began to catch feelings, you know what I'm saying, And it was really innocent feelings, really innocent feelings. And you know, fans, by that, she started getting older, you know, she started coming into anyway, she started, she started coming into her womanhood. And I was getting older, man. You know, people we get older closer, and that's what happened. And during that time, we did
used to be in the studio all the time. You know, I actually was the one that got her on the boys to mentor. I'm the one that actually introduced her to the Moesha people. My management manager was Quadri was actually, you know, trying to find something for boys to men to do. And I said, look, we got Brandy down the hallway and she used to be on THEA. You know what I'm saying.
So they they met up with her mom. You know what I mean. I'm the one that hooked her to go hooked her up to go on prolem with with Kobee.
Literally, I did you the reason my girlfriend Johnson stood the prime.
The crazy thing is I wrote Me and my Mom wrote the Moesia soundtrack, the Mosha song Me and my Mom, you know what I'm saying. So it's like it was really publishing them because you know that was my girlfriend at the time. They act like I had nothing to do with it.
On Netflix.
Man, I know, right, but but you know, broken Hearted was one of the songs that came out of that. The song broken Hearted was already on her album and I was like, Yo, we should do a duet. We should turn that you on the flip of around and just make it a duet, and her mom agreed. Everybody agreed. They produced the record and boom we did Broken Hearted and we didn't even think it was going to be big, but we just knew it was a good song.
You know, it was a great song man.
Yeah, so you know it was it was a time in our lives when we were really young, you know what I mean. Of course, people getting relationships and they get out of relationship.
Everybody acts like it's so.
Harsh of the situation that people break up all the time, you know, especially as young as we.
And we was asking you about the music. Why you ain't thank you?
I appreciate you going there.
This my man, this is my man show, right, Yeah, you know, Oh, I just had one, uh one of my deep cut questions on the Evolution album. There was a record it was deep in the record and I loved it. It was never single, nothing to the limit, man, I love that record. What was the if you remember, like what was this? Y?
Yeah? What was the story behind that?
One?
Man?
So many songs that I personally enjoyed that would never sing and they could have been just as viable as anything else. But again, it's it's amazing when people's attention span turned somewhere else. It doesn't matter how good your record is. It doesn't matter how good you are. If people are done with you, they've done with you.
But to the limit is.
It was one of those records. It's funny because I started writing.
I started writing that record in Jersey, presented most of it to the guys, and they wrote the dress you know what I'm saying, and and and it was just a vibe. The track was made by Puffy producers, and we wanted to do something that was sensual and and
and accommodated to two women. You understood that, you know, the ladies were predominant, you know, demographic, So we wanted to create a a a scenario where we were kind of there everything you know what I'm saying, like and having that massage day with your guy, which was us you know what I'm saying, And that pretty much was it.
That was that was a spa day for our for our.
Significant others, you know what I'm saying, and and and doing everything that that every woman would would dream of their man doing.
And that's pretty much it.
That was a great song.
Man.
I love I love that song.
I love that record.
I figure I mean to.
Wine, it's the harmony.
Wine is let us see the bottle because we get here, Yes, y'all gonna keep me here. I'm let me see that.
Let's go.
What y'all do is what is that you got there?
Rose?
Is that harmony wine?
We got got shoulder. There's a Grammy wine whatever you need.
We got red.
We got got Grammy some wine.
Yeah, it's just called red.
That's what does And I know you're a food kind of sore, but you know, wine got to be in the mix somewhere with that.
All right?
Correct? What did you guys get in too? When did when did you guys step into uh find spirits so to speak?
This was years and this is called harmony.
Correct, it's called harmony.
Yeah, hey, help you out little bit.
Yeah.
They're all boys, they're all Bordeaus. They they were grown in a chateau a goose, which is this placed all the way in you know, France or whatever.
And all the way yea, all the way and like deep deep it's not like a four year old all the way all.
The way to France. That's that's my trump vernacular. And you know, basically and uh basically you know this this was something that we we've been experimenting and trying to get into for years, but we never really found the right people to get involved with business wise.
But we found the folks who found the guys. And again there's three wines. It's a Bordeaux Blanc, it's a Bordeaux Rose, and it's a Bordeaux red or rouge as they call it.
And you know it's it's an affordable yet very tasty, uh multi pallided wine like it's it's it has such a great flavor, all of them.
Like I don't want to say I could commercial, and I don't want to sound like you know.
You got me.
So you know the crazy thing is is I know you appreciate you appreciate this air. The way that they grow the grapes, you know where they grow up. They play our music to the grapes.
You keep better.
Stop they want you better?
Right people?
That scientific word for it that we can't remember. You know that you know that it helps you know that fight off, helps them fight off a lot of different infections and things.
Like that is literally, Yes, I've heard of this before where people use music to grow. Yeah, they've done to research.
So that's the selling point right there, y'all.
Yeah, But so we can we can also do some some Joey Francesco, some roots records, some Chris McBride. We can play that for the grapes too. We just started, you know, like a jazz barn harmony.
You know what I'm saying.
All the grapes are organically grown because it's better resistant to pesticides and disease and all the other stuff.
So I said that, Okay, So we wanted to make I love y'all believe you.
Wanted to make sure that that the grapes, just like us, was organic.
Got some two product. I had to pull up, some apple crown, some peanut butter whiskey.
This is like the first product that y'all have like put out in your career, right am. I?
Yeah, it really, it really really is.
And we we talk about that, and the question has been asked and one of the things is that we've never been the type of group to do the so called indoors. This is something that we really really believe that it's a part of our lifestyle. Who we are, something we can represent, something that we can do, and we're just not good at faking it, you know what I'm saying.
So this.
That you know, being you know, being older, you know men now, and you know, being.
Able to you know, drink a glass of wine and relax and chill and be a part of friends, family, harmony, music, the sounds of different type of blends and different grapes. All of it encompasses who we are and where we are at this point in our life.
So here, here, you're here, all right?
My last question, have you guys been when's the last time you've been? Have you been to the Broad Street Creative and Performing Arts?
Yes?
At all? Yes?
Were you angry at how immaculate and clean?
Yes?
From there?
Let me go you.
I was mad as let me get Let me give a little insight. It's like it was like a comminium.
Like so when mister King passed away and they and they had a new music teacher. The music teacher there was my original music teacher when I was in the seventh, eighth and ninth, sixth, seventh eighth grade. They brought her from Meredith. So I spent a lot of time of them. My son went to this school. So I'm sitting in there. I mean it looks like a college. And yeah, the fact that we fought the Columbians, you know what I'm saying.
You know, we didn't really have our own space in certain classrooms.
Hats in the ceiling, basketball on the roof with the gates trying to make sure you don't jump off that.
Yeah, it was very, very fucking frustrating.
But I was about to say, like, the acoustics of that bath y'all used to that urine infested bathroom on the fourth floor, that's where y'are honed.
That's a plug.
Do you do you feel like it's not unless there's no year inside.
Yes, you had to use dying for I'm like, how.
Do y'all not expect this after the school has produced the roots Christian McBride boys and men, Like, isn't this the natural eleence that I'm.
Glad that they had Enron, I'm glad they had a safe environment. But when I came, I went back. I went back there with Tariq a year and a half ago, and it was I was like, I could see my reflection on the floor.
I'll tell you.
The only thing that makes me feel good about it was the fact that one day I went back and I was driving down the street and I say, you know what, I know how to get there, but I'm gonna use my navigation.
So I put in my navigation, drove up to the corner and I'm just pausing. I'm waiting.
I'm like, all right, well, let me just get I want to get up to the corner and turn and see what my navigation says.
When that navigates, you said, boys boulevard.
Dude, Yes, now here's the thing. You know, people always get the little hey, what's boulevard? And this is uh, you know, everybody get the gradess name. But dude, when it showed up in the navigation, that that's official.
Yeah, parkway is on there.
Yes, what I was like, Wow, you know what else?
Maybe?
You know what else made took away that jealousy a little bit, Donnate, I ain't gonna lie. What took away that jealousy a little bit is when I heard the choir saying they did not sound as good or even.
That choir man. We were smashing them son.
Yeah.
My last question, which is who was the most famous graduate before the roots and Boyson men of Kappa like, we.
Had some actors, honestly, and to be and to be existed.
The school only existed I think six years before we got there. It was a brand new idea.
Wow. The building.
The reason why we were interjacked up building was because the original school was downtown and a building that was just an idea they were trying to school, and then it started to do well and they were like, yeah, streets, to move it to another place and we'll turn it into a school, and for now to just hang out with the Columbians.
We did make the Plumbians famous, you know that.
They haven't like.
It's a country.
Uh what's your name?
Went there?
Uh?
Oh yeah?
Uh remember not but her girlfriend that cousin, Pam, the one wanted to know not cousin, sirmon yeaes sir mean she she was.
It was seemed more as an acting school before we got over.
And what's his name?
Who was saying? Uh?
I said black?
Get his name black?
I was friends with spoonsy ray j.
I say mine, yes, right, that's right.
Heel not DeAndre No no, no, no, no, no, no, no, you're thinking husband.
That's Roger.
I can't remember.
Yeah, DeAndre with he's married to.
Saturdays.
Yeah, oh boy, all right, I want her after something because losing his patients.
Actually I'm drunk now, I'm good.
I got one.
Nerds on the Yeah. Now this is music.
Now, y'all boys done, y'all with the right ones. Drink all right, So all right, so so wyya. So I've always heard, like you know, a lot of vocal teachers and like vocal professors, they always say, well, you know, you shouldn't stretch your neck when you move or when you're sing, you shouldn't you know, move your net.
But being a diciple.
Listening, like you're the most like we know, the Yanye movement. So I want to know, was that something that you got kind of like bounced back from from vocal teachers or was that just something that you just did because you have the most distinctive like head and neck movements.
It was Honestly, I never got any blowback from any of the any of the like the vocal coaches or teachers, because we didn't really have vocal coaches teachers, you know, like if we're.
Saying choir, of course, I couldn't not even Dumpson you know what I'm saying. I would have uh you know what I'm saying.
I wouldn't. I went I went to Dumpson fan because that's that's them.
Dude, he ain't like me, you know what I'm saying.
They would I saw Dumpson in and Miss Davis at this Uh Miss Davis is still there.
Yeah, one hundred years old. Yeah, one hundred years old.
Yeah, she's still hanging on.
Boy.
Yeah here honestly is it's it's just a dynamic thing.
I mean, of course I can do that without my neck, but I feel like it gives me a better, I guess, a better movement, you know what I'm saying.
You know, sometimes you see somebody playing the saxophone, and you know what I'm saying. They're doing that because it gives them more.
Of a you know what I mean, of of of a you get to sing it, but he wants to feel it when he sings it.
Yeah, but how much your how much your vibrato comes from your neck versus like how much comes from your diaphragm? Well, no, I mean like like there's different comes from from this like within, yes, chesty, you know what I mean. So I kind of it depends on what I'm singing, because sometimes.
I move it from my throat tom or I move from a diaphragm to my chest.
You know what I'm saying.
It depends on what I'm the tone that I'm trying to get out, you know what I mean a lot of times you guys hear the ending of a song, it takes it's more of a chesty head type, you know what I mean, dynamic because it's the power. You know what I'm saying. It's where you know, the power comes from. And if I got to hold the long note, that's when I switch it to my diaphragm.
You know what I mean.
But to you another one.
This guy didn't learn how to sing false settle until almost four or five six years end of his.
Voice I had, I had zero fallse setup.
So I literally I literally started trying.
I literally became like a student of my own voice, you know what I'm saying. So I know where certain pieces of my voice take me. I could sing it in many different ways, but I also know what the audience calls for.
And my how do you find that? How do you find the right way to sing the right thing? What is its?
Just like Nate said, I just sing. I literally just sing. I mean, I don't have to be doing shit. I'll be in the house and I hear like an acoustic and I'll just I'll sing and then I'll figure something out. And then once I figure it out, I'll practice that over and over again. Because I always believe that I can be better. I never feel like, you know, like
people say, oh my god, you're the best. No, I'm striving to get better and better every day because if you're the best, you can't grow anymore, you know what I'm saying. So I want to be better and better with with whatever style I choose to sing, because I know that there's going to be multi fast, fastness of style styles.
That I'm going to need to, you know what I mean, sing in order to be an artist.
You know, is there a particular music just as as long as you guys have been doing and just as season of singers as you are, is there still a particular style of music that gives you more trouble than the other, like like jazz versus gospel versus classical, or you know, is there we are? What what's still a challenge to you?
Yeah?
We we we we we are.
Like I said, Uh, Sean to me is h he has a really good jazz ear. So when it comes to something like that, I always look to Sean to start it. Now, I know what it's supposed to sound like, but I know when Sean starts it, I know where's supposed to go. So once he starts it, I know where I fit in, you know what I'm saying, So there's no hiccup there.
Same with Nate. Nate has a great jazz here.
Nate's like his musical roundnesses is just like fucking crazy to me. But when he starts something, we all know exactly where it goes. So it can be a jazz song or it can be like like, uh, like Ribbon's in the Sky, you know, you know what I mean? That a cappella version that's jazzy and R and B is. It's a lot of different facets. So when it comes to oh yeah, I'm not sure if y'all heard that record record.
When it comes when it comes to that, we all, I guess, give enough of a strength to not make it a hurdle, you know what I mean.
I understand there's no knowing you're comfort You're not in so much a comfort zone, but knowing we all know that when someone sings apart, we know if that's the part they should sing. Like there are times when we'll we'll sing something and we'll be like, nah, I think Sean should sing it because he's got a.
Little bit more of this or whatever.
And we know that you know what I'm saying, and we we tend to know when to fall in or a guy somebody, perfect example, will come to the studio. I'm like, yeah, well I want to want to say this and why Like no, what I think should probably do this part? Because we all know each other's voices, so whenever we hear anything that anybody brings.
Us, we know who should sing what and where and where it should go.
So what's technically what's the warm up game?
Like?
Like how does how does that work?
As in?
Like I once talk to Christian McBride and he said that he he warmed up, he practiced for the ten to ten minutes before the gig and that was it. And I assume that with you guys, it's way different than that. Like I'm sure seth Riggs or that I don't know. I don't warm up at all.
Love to you ya, wow, just walk in.
I don't just when I wake up.
When I wake up in the morning, I see when I wake up in the morning and I know I have a show.
I sing the highest note that I'm going to sing on the show, and if it comes out clear, I know I'm good.
You're good.
And another that's.
Those requirements like take the air conditioning off.
I don't sleep.
Yeah, yeah, we don't like air conditions and all that and.
The like.
Okay, Wine likes it blazing.
Hot and I like it more in the in the middle kind of we don't like it cold, but we don't like it steamy, like Wine are going to and turn the shower on and steam.
You know what I'm saying.
But another reason why Vegas and Tampa just for the record, well, another.
Reason why I like to practice because I never really know where I'm gonna end up depending on what we're singing and what we're doing.
I don't know.
I know what parts I'm supposed to sing for each song, but I don't know what I'm gonna I don't know what I'm singing because I don't know where I'm gonna be.
So this is kind of like open and believe it or not, Like sometimes that opens up for interesting things to come out of your group. Mm hm, it's kind of cool sometimes, like right now we're going through a seasons change in LA. So my voice is a little raspuler and if you're recording or if you're doing something,
sometimes that sounds cool, you know what I mean. We forget that, Like our voices are instruments, and sometimes those little like those quirks, those idiosyncrasies vocally could bring out a texture that might resonate soulfully, you know what I'm saying, because you might not feel as as clean or whatever, but it has such a rasp and a ruggedness to it.
It makes you sing different, you know what I'm saying.
It's almost like a mayor when you play different drum skins, you know what I'm saying, When you got like different snares, whatever. It has different resonances, different sounds and textures and feels when you strike it.
It's the same thing vocally with us, Like, yeah, we want to sound good.
All the time, but you know, when it comes to weather, when it comes to stuff like that, we just adapt to what our voices are doing at that moment and we just have that time.
And I always wish I had more power in the tenor range, but I don't like I used to, you know, I used to sit back and listen to Sean and want to be like damn, I could sing it, but just can't.
I can't. I don't have that light to it like I just don't.
Have that that rip you know what I'm saying now above them, I do, but in that it's like I can sing it, but I just don't. I always wanted to be that have that tenor guy that just could just rip.
I just I just don't. I don't have that in it.
I don't have that.
Away voices does age voices because I was I saw Billy Joel two years ago and he's playing things in C but it sounds and be flat, like it's a whole step down because his voice is down. Do you guys, You guys don't have that.
Personally? Yeah, that's g I guess, because again I tend to be all over the place. I don't key.
It doesn't really matter for the most part for me, Like you change your drop no, let me rephrase that. When you start to drop it lower, it affects me one because of my my, my pitch, my the perfect pitch thing. It irritates me because I know it's the wrong kid. So I struggle to sing it in a different kee.
And Manuan used to fight a lot because he can't sing.
I mean not that he can't, but because he sings so many of those songs like every song is like every.
Song is way up in the stratosphere. Some of them we have to adjust, and I'll be like, dude, you really want to drop this, Dude, I can't, Like I can't do eight of them in a row. I'm like, we gotta fight with that.
But I mean it can become a struggle when again, when you got that kind of fight with the way his voice is, when you got to dig into a song that way on every singles, I mean, if you did a thirty minute Boys to Men said.
This, this clown sings into the role up there, I'll make love to you up there there.
Ben died me up like everything he ends everything in the sky so on, and may be like, well, you know, it's just twenty minutes like Nigga's twenty minutes, twenty minutes, twenty different, oh, saying that sometimes these songs won't make it.
Oh, and then I'll move down the.
Like that.
We have to do the hits, that's bottom line. We have to do the hits.
But sometimes like there's some songs that aren't major hits that I'm like, Nigga like color Color, but the.
Song right that that isn't rebody loves that record.
Everybody loves singing that.
We'll sing that.
That's the only one we had.
To sing every fucking day.
Every day, stand and ring in any show.
I was just do y'all do.
I will tell you that's one that we definitely need our brother on. We need Mic on that record.
What's the status of y'all in Mike?
Now?
Things cool?
Is not cool?
Or you're speaking on it was?
I think I think we as a group, us three are We're cool with where we are with Mike. We just don't know where we are with Mike.
I'll leave it. I mean again, it's like we've.
Gone through a lot and do some bad things, some good things. Is you know we love him, don't We don't hate him. We don't wish any ill feel anything about him.
But unfortunately we tried to bring him back a couple of times, and you know, some of.
Our milestones where it was the twentieth album or you know, twenty years or twenty five, and it just didn't work out because unfortunately a lot of people don't realize that Mike has been away from the group longer than he was in the group.
Right Like he left in nineteen ninety nine.
We had that just started in ninety two, so bringing him back for the twentieth anniversary, in the twenty fifth anniversary, Mike McKinny is a different guy that we didn't grow up with from ninety nine to twenty twenty.
He's just a different person. He's just been gone for a long time.
And at that time, we were all growing up families becoming men, like, oh, this is when we really started to learn different things about ourselves that we needed to grow up around each other so we could understand those different things about each other. But he was all the way over there, so.
We don't even know. In some cases, honestly, it sounds sad to say it. We don't even know who he is right now.
Who he is now, and honestly, we really know who he was back with that on top of Mike was Mike was always the.
Other dude, you know what I'm saying.
Like if we got if we got freaking uh paffinders, Mike would get a rodeo if we got you know what I'm saying, ben'ses, Mike would get get a push if you know what I'm saying.
He just was always separate from us, like we would hang out and Mike would not be there. You know what I'm saying.
He just came in to the school in the same year that I came in, and Mike had Mike had a pitch problem, and you know it kind of alienated him away from a lot of people in the choir in the school at that time, because Mike also had that attitude, well, I'm gonna do what I can and if you don't like it, fuck you. And that's kind of what this attitude. Well, he's like, I'm I'm gonna try to sing it. If it don't get there, talk
about me all you want, the hell with you? And if you talk about me too much, then we might have to have some physical altercation.
And that's just who he was.
I see that.
What part of Philly was Mike from? What part of Philly?
Is he from?
Logan?
Okay?
Actually showing where were you from in Philly?
Of the suburbs of southwest Philadelphia?
What is that called up? What is he saying? I don't understand what is that?
I don't ever any damn suburbs in the southwest Philadelphia. Belmart Terrace right down the stone from my park and Paul Brothers.
And you know what I'm saying.
That's that's where I come from.
I know, I grew up in South thirty six ty, I get it.
Yeah, I grew up in Southwest like fifty eighth and fifty from Wooland Avenue like Greenway Avenue and then.
Crest you know what Crush what?
Yeah?
All right, so I used to bag a crush son for real?
What?
Yeah, that's where I used to get what?
Man, help me with your bags? Messed?
Well, how you get a quarner, nigga?
What?
Anyway, I grew up over there, and then when I started going to.
Perfoman ours whatever, I moved into South Philly. So I grew up over there.
But no, I'm com from.
Matter of fact, my street was all the street right in front of Crush.
Okay, I know who that is. My grandmam lived around that way. So that's how I know. Thursday was just shopping for Grandma. I'm at Crest boy, Okay what now?
Damn it?
All right?
Now?
All right?
Do you guys do you guys ever get sentimental for Philly at all?
And do you act on it?
Okay? So a gps the fucking directions in the fucking.
Street name yes, they get nostalgica.
My ship's a little bit different, Like I will actually designate maybe every other month, I will.
I will actually ride the L.
I've done it before before every roots picnic, Like when rehearsals start, I'll designate about six hours to just sit on the L from sixty ninth Street all the way to the other end and full circle it just to.
It didn't work, lashes.
I was caught every time because it's all part of the outfit. So either way, it's nothing I could hide with unless I just put a hood over my head. This is to might think I'm crazy, right, But.
I mean, do you guys, like, when's the last time that you really, like just like just I really went to landmarks of your life or like try to chase ghosts. I call it chasing ghosts.
Where I did that last time?
Yeah, a couple of years ago, I took my kids to my actual block where I lived.
Like, I took all my kids. My wife was like, Yo, we're gonna go to my neighborhood where I grew up.
Like the whole ship was it like an episode of Black Were they scared?
No, they were They were just kind of astounded because yeah, they kids, they callie kids.
They survived, you know what I'm saying. So when when they actually got out the car and they saw.
You got out the car, oh yeah, we got yeah yeah, And and and.
They saw rundowns, you know, houses and the street. It's all fucked up in the whole nine yards.
And they was like, Daddy. My daughter was like, Daddy, which house was yours?
Right?
And I said, well, that's my house right there, you know. I pointed out the house that's where I grew up.
She's like, well, it's a really small house. Yeah, it's a small house. Like five of us grew up in that house. So yeah, like you know, and I took him to get cheese, steaks and the whole nine yards. So yeah, like that, we we got a dope city, you know what I mean? Like this Brian me sometimes this got his moments. But ultimately, I tell you what, I go back there a lot.
Did they ginger by your spot? That's what we wanted to get to?
Southwest?
Not southwest, it's gonna be last.
No, it's still black.
Oh yeah, no, Well I was in South Philly.
My house at the time was probably like one hundred and thirty grand like they done took the whole South Philly area.
But I mean, I get a soft spot when I go back because like and I don't really you know, we talk about this kind of stuff. But last year Christmas Eve, I took my son and I took my best friend who passed away from COVID. He was in phil He's just living Philly. So I called him said, listen, dude, I need you to just go to Target. I just need you to buy every sock they got. I need you to buy every sleeping bag they got. I need
you to buy every pair of gloves. And we just went out and gave out socks and sleeping bags and tents to homeless people because I know I used to pass them every day. You know what I'm saying when I went downtown. You know what I'm saying. And I know that Philly has a big homeless problem. So I just got a real soft spot for homeless people. I mean, whether knowing what their story is or not, it just
has always bothered me. So I like going back to Philly and just showing up and just giving people stuff. Like I passed a homeless guy and just give him a hundred bucks and just just so he can get the react. Just I don't even I don't even care what he does with it, because it's not has nothing to do with me. I just I just want I just want to feel the reaction that it means something
to him, and hopefully he'll do the right thing. But growing up in that town, knowing where we all come from and not having nowhere near what we have now, to go back and to put smiles on people's faces like that and to try different things like that, that's what I get a soft spot for when.
I love man, Do you think there's that kind of what got you into doing the rehabs and doing the housing like you're just showing it in.
A little bit.
I'm really My dad brought me up in my brothers and family on you know, always being able to do so much in hands, whether this is music or whatever. It happens great, but at the end of the day, a man has to be able to take care of himself. And the only thing he did his best two tools is his hands, so we were always taught to figure out something to do with them. So that was like
a combination of the two. For me, knowing that I come from nothing and knowing that I have the ability not just with my hands, but a financially, I have the ability I didn't have before. So it was like bringing them all together. So that was we came up with an idea of for our charity called the Boys Cement House, And one of the biggest one of the
ideas was to try the build. This is you know for COVID and all the creations, was to try to build these boys to mend houses in these urban communities where you know, kids, you know, after school programs, people can come, get on the computer, all that kind of stuff, to where people would have the ability to enjoy, you know, the things that we couldn't enjoy when we were kids. So doing the stuff with my hands and building that's something that I've always loved to do and will always
continue to do. And like I said that that that homeless thing is really is really really big for me because I always believe that there's stories and all people, and you know, we all pass most homeless people and be like, oh, yeah, well you know, he probably you know, drugs, it. We always assume that, but if we actually knew the story of each individual, I'm sure we always think different and the fact that we don't know them makes us all think of them the same way.
And I think they get a bad rap on the time.
Living in caliar change your life and changing about the homeless because it's no way.
Well, I've I've been to skid roll there and I've taken stuff to them too, and I know that their homeless problem has gotten worse. I know that their homeless people are more aggressive than most. And again it's because it's the stories. I mean, you got to remember some of these people are belong there, that they just did wrong things or their drugging, and then some people might have been a day and a half from paying their
mortgage and they lost everything. Or someone might have lost their job and their wife left them and there and their kid died from something like we don't know their.
Story is crazy.
So for anybody without.
A doubt, it can drive you into so many different situations that we don't know.
I'm gonna end with this question. You guys are are beyond ubiquitous. Okay, You're You're like oxygen or water. So I'm certain that at some point certain things didn't impress you. But what what key figure individually? I'm asking this question, Who's Who's the person that you met that really was like an oh shit, this is really happening moment that really like heart palvitations or you know that you were impressed that you got to meet and and.
Or work with or whatever.
Prince.
Really Yeah, for me, it was Prince because I mean I just you know, he's a mysterious dude, you know what I'm saying.
You know, so not too many people, you know, don't really know too much about him, not too many people around him, you know what I'm saying. And it was always like, you know, you always wonder.
So after Purple Rain, you know, I was really really into that, that whole Purple Rain thing, and you know, when we actually were invited to his house, I mean, to his studio, yeah, you know what I mean. I literally I didn't really like let the fellas know too much, but I was like in awe, like.
Wow, this dude is really Prince, you know what I'm saying.
It's really.
Seem I know, I feel I met Michael Jackson.
Michael as cool as hell, you know what I'm saying. But Michael is is not as mysterious, you know what I'm saying. You know, Yeah, I'm just talking about like when I met him. Yeah, you know what I'm saying. He was really a cool dude, and so was Prince. But it was almost like when I'm when we met him, I almost felt like I wasn't supposed.
To be meeting him.
You feel what I'm saying? Man, Like, am I really like this is?
This is Prince?
But I was keeping it cool. You know what I'm saying. I wouldn't be like good Prince, but I was just like yo. And then you know, they turned. It was a lot of stories. It turned into a lot of real funny stories as time progress, you know what I'm saying.
But I swear it was. That was one of the moments where I was like, oh ship, you know what I mean.
And I've met almost everybody I've wanted to meet, you know what I'm saying.
Speaking of which, have you ever heard of his demo for seven, which is based on the Simple remix?
No?
You never heard the p.
I'm a Prince collegist, I you know, I mean whatever, Okay, shop pause that hold that thought because Prince College.
And I'm gonna see if you get this real quick.
This is a little trivia trivia The two albums. It's a song, very very big song for us. Yeah, I know, yes, the harmony behind uh uh, thank.
You you alogists also boys the men. I was just so, what was it stolen from? What was it stolen from? Seven watched them?
Okay, Yeah, I got the background harmonies between behind One's League.
It's probably one of Princess great Yes. When I heard that, I was like, Okay, I would have done the same thing too, because as nice little pockets of harmony that you could pay.
Just hoping he ain't get us for it, dude, because I was like, I think we should maybe we shouldn't.
It's too late. No, No, he didn't.
He probably liked it.
He borrowed, but he did.
Yeah.
But the the Tevin Campbell uh demo for the p which, okay, I more more than classic print songs. I'm really a friend of like his worst songs, and this is his second worst song ever.
Worse than Illusion coma Pimp.
Well, no, absolute worst song is actually a song called Work that Fatal.
Yes, but yeah, wow his uh actually you know what I think.
I still think that that track that Tevin did, that track, but yes, he the there's a there's a four bar drum break at the very end of the simple remix that he used as the basis of of that song, and always I love that remix too.
I bought that a single as a kid, the single remix. Yeah, I love that record, man. Yeah, all all right, So who's your person, Sean?
Uh, it would have to be.
Like he's the reason why I even seen like you know what I mean, Like just his whole vocal. I was always in love with his.
Vibroada.
And you know, quite naturally, when you copy somebody or when you you you listen to somebody every day, you can't help but the copy, you know, some vocally. So sometimes I'll hit something that might sound like Mike and and and it's not by design, It's just it just comes out, you know what I'm saying. And you know, to to know that Mike was the type of dude that when we did see him, he would ask how our family?
How you doing?
Like you know, it was normal, like to to have these.
Conversations with a guy who is the greatest entertainer the world has ever seen, and to actually we worked with him intimately, you know, Uh, was I did the one more? Can I give things?
You know when not Levin did, and for him to personally invite me and come to the studio before even you know, did the song. We're just chopping it up about stuff and then he goes in tells me what I need to sing blah blah blah blah and do it. Like in my wildest dreams, I would have never thought having a relationship.
Like this wasn't just like people like we were.
We were cool with the with the man, and he understood us and we understood him, you know what I'm saying, and and that was the cool thing about that.
So I was actually I'm glad you mentioned that.
The one question we never asked Jimmy jam was the making of the title track for Were you guys there for the creation of it or were you just brought in at the end to sing your parts on the title track of History because.
We sang it.
We said he wasn't there, but we sang it and.
Was my dad?
Remember he was there?
Yeah.
When we actually sang the record.
Though, was when we sang the harmonies to History. Mike was in the studio.
He came in and we talked for like three hours before we actually said, Wow.
Well, I wanted to because that song is so intricate and you know, made in ninety five before like Ableton, and like the type of demands that he had to create that song really wasn't common, right, you know, so you know awful.
I didn't ask it.
I didn't ask Jimmy jam on air, but I asked, like, what was your like the Nightmare project that and he said, oh no, without a doubt history because he kept we were present something. He's like, all right, push it more, push it more, push it more, you know, Ethison, and it goes all over the place. I wanted to know, were you guys there for the stacking of.
That like we did our partner.
Then they took it and kind of ran okay.
I see.
Too, because he compressed us and squished us all the way down barely.
I as you guys singing on it. So Sean, I was asked, you man, you're so.
I didn't know until like a couple of years ago that Anthony David is your cousin. Yeah, yeah, and big old Anthony days my brother man. And he told me when y'all did the record. Y'all covered Tears for Fears Everybody Wants through the World on his album as well. So I'm for twenty eleven and he was telling me just about tracking that and I said, so, man, so what was it like like Sean and the studio? He
was like, dude, SHAWNA is just one take. He's like he's singing all these harmonies, like he's finding notes in between the notes. Like he just had just nothing but positivity, like to say about your man.
So I did not realize he could even sing.
Really aw him.
We were all coming out of Madison Square Garden in New York and we were in the ND. I read and and he was with her, and I was like, what's up, cousin. I was like, what are you doing here?
And he was he was like singing.
I was like you what you know what I'm saying, like, nigga, I don't know you could sing like I had, Like he never because he would come to Philly for the summer sometime we would hang out and you know that whole thing.
So he never once told me that he had them, you know, he could sing or write or anything like that.
So when I first saw him on you know then and then I saw him on TV and now he got his album, and I was like, I'm ship.
So it's like, you know, and what's funny is is uh Chinye my second cousin tiny?
Yeah.
So your people's Atlanta?
Wow, yeah, I got, I got.
I got a lot of family in Savannah, where my mother and my father's from. So I got a lot of people in Savama, so you know, yeah, like it's crazy. It's crazy, like I got a lot of family members that you know. I found out that one of the guys from remember the song, uh, some things going on.
Because yeah, two damns, man, something's going on, and they had.
And then it was restaurant.
Yeah.
Yeah, is like a second cousin of mine too. So it's like I'm just kind of like it's I got a music Wow, man, it's crazy.
What was your thoughts were talking about groups?
What was your thoughts on okay, two questions, what were your thoughts on fifteen minutes by Mark Morrison?
And what were your thoughts on Nelson? But no, I said not more that's the turn of the mac which is one of the green songs up.
But but Mark Nelson fifteen minutes, fifteen minutes as yet, we used.
To we used to clown Mark with that fifteen minutes story.
I'll tell you that as yet story for me.
I am, let's go.
I remember verbatim. I was sitting at the crib.
I was watching uh b E t H and I was this commercial came on, so I got up, walked in the kitchen getting something to drink.
Came A song came.
Video came on and I heard. I heard the first verse.
And we ha love of it.
And then I heard uh drag yeo and I was like, hold up. I kept listening and I'm like, oh, somebody is trying to steal our ship. Who the fuck is this?
So I ran into the room and I looked at the TV and I'm like, who the fuck is this yellow nigga?
Who's this?
This is this other but curly motherfucker.
Then I saw Mark.
I was like, this motherfucker. He went and did.
Another Boys to Men and didn't fuck eat. He's trying to get us. He's trying to get us.
I can't remember. I don't know if it's wine or show. I called somebody.
I called. I said, yo, Mark is trying to do it to us because he got a group and they're singing our ship.
That's exactly what I said, dude. Now mind you.
I ain't heard nobody that close ever, so I knew it had to be somebody in the nucleus to know how we did stuff. So I'm like, the way the background harmonies was moving.
I was like, somebody it was.
It was.
It was the greatest baby face to you.
Man.
I lost it, I really and I was like, dude, they're trying to do They're trying to get us.
I was somebody because he kept playing and it sounds incredible like that, by far was one of the baddest songs I had heard, and the and that like that was one of the baddest songs of the nineties.
That song was nuts.
The fact that they had different guys singing different parts. They had to face guy, they had to hide guy, they had to falls up, they had the guy with the flips and the man. I'm telling you, they were the close. That song right there was the closest song I've ever heard any group on the planet sing to what we do?
All right?
Can I add? Can I add an unpopular take? Because I have a theory.
Oh oh, and if you verified or if you choose to verify it or not verify it, it's okay.
But I have a.
Because here's the thing I always wanted to know.
That, why did Face's rain of hits just abruptly stop in two thousand and one, coincidentally the same time that the members of as Yet left the Fold, or at least under A left uh for managing the Yes?
Yeah, were they his ghost writers?
Well, I will tell you this.
You didn't know that Mark did some writing with Face.
I do know that now.
What songs they were good?
Noight, no, this question.
I have had him and I have had that conversation, and I know he's done some writing.
I mean, I don't know what. We never got into what songs. But Mark came to them as a writer, not a singer.
Right, he was under yap and under his wife's thing.
Then he got yeah he got he got put into as Yet. That wasn't his his get up.
I know where does he live now?
He's he's actually back in New York.
And I just talked to him two days ago.
Okay, I just meant like, what kind of houses you living in?
Trump Tower?
That's no, no, no, he's not he's not not not not quite that now.
I wanted to ask me. He faced that question when he did the show. But you know, we had such a good vibe. I didn't want to be like, I tell you, I'll tell you this dude.
He's the one thing with face man and I tell you and and I'm sure the guys can vouch man. One thing that though we wrote, we though we wrote pretty good songs, we learned how to critique our own.
Ability to write songs by writing with this guy. Meaning you would hear him. He would write a song, he would write a lyric or verse, and he would sing it over.
He would play it over and over again, and he take out a word, he put another word in, He take out another word, put another word in. Now, if all of us were listening, we'd be like, it flows just fine. His theory, and it's really interesting theory.
His theory is.
The song will never be done and till you stop, because if you don't stop, if you're a good enough songwriter, you'll always find a better.
Way to turn a way to make it better.
So eventually, it's not about how good you are as a songwriter. It's when you know and have the ability.
To stop, right because otherwise you just sit there. You know what I'm saying. He was, No, that's not and somebody like him, Like we learned how to.
Put certain notes on certain words because people would hear it's a it's a it's let's just say it was a major third chord that hit the home run of a song, like what's the song saying cash?
So I'm drinking and.
Will be there?
Like the way he puts certain words that lands on certain chords there for you to remember those words.
You ever notice when we think a song, we may not always know the song. We'll go no no no, no, no no no. And I love you because I love you are the notes that he put there on purpose that you he knew you were going to remember that part. That's how he writes records, which is extremely interesting.
I never knew that before we sat with him, And you don't really know unless you have the conversation.
About the funny thing about us the songwriter.
Think the funny thing about songwriters now too, in comparison the songs that are out now that I listen to the R and B songs.
To be specific, they were there. They're written a lot like how.
We used to write our songs previous, Like you know, there were songs that we would write and we would let baby face there, for example.
And he also would say, you.
Know, say less, thanks, you know, like with everything that you're saying, you know, we would try to fit in a sentiment I love you and everything and if we're growing together and blah blah blah blah blah blah and all other stuff, and he would basically say say less, like yeah, sometimes that's it. You don't need to say
anything else. And and and I've noticed that a lot of a lot of songs now with R and B Records, And I got a sixteen year old son, and he can't even follow a lot of the lyrics that go on with our artists because there's so much being said that.
They're almost trying to be rappers, you know what I mean.
It's almost like in the real rap I mean you kind of I mean, if we're gonna keep it all the way funky, we kind of got to me.
I think we kind of got boned to blame for that. Like me, you would talk, you know, but.
We were taught in songwriting that you have to understand that the average audience of who you're writing for, you gotta look at them as happen in seventh grade education, it can't give them too much.
You gotta get right to the point so they'll never forget it.
Said the same thing we had him, and he was saying he was like all that Parliament. He said, Man, I was just trying to write nursery rhymes.
Yeah, and that's what it was.
Ship Face just has you tell you it's deeper than his songwriting, dude, it's his freaking melodies. His melodies are things that just they just live inside you.
Dude.
They're like to answer your question because I know you asked this question about the this could be the last question.
It went more.
For I never really had a person that I met in the business that I felt that way about that.
Oh my god.
They kind of lit me up because my favorite, my favorite person that passed away already was was Sam Cook. I was a big Sam Cook soul stirs fan, Highway q ses like all that. I grew up on that, you know, Southern gospel stuff and San.
Guys. I'm in Chicago.
Yeah No, I figured at least Bobby Woman could feel that voice exactly.
So I grew up with all that.
But I will tell you that Face for me on the songwriting aspect was the only person because I mean, I love Jimmy's Jam and Terry Lewis because of it feels and the things that they did. But I always wanted to know how this guy was able to write the song where the Again, it's always intriguing to me how he puts the right notes on the right words right lyric means everything to a song. Dude, I don't care what your people used to say, Well, here I got a poem. Can you make this into a song?
It's not that simple. Unless you know how to physically put the right words on to the right note that people remember, it's not going to have the significance. He is a genius at figuring out the best way to do that to where if you don't know the words, you just hum the melody and then maybe three words you know, And it's on those notes that he.
Made sure he put there on purpose.
That that's the guy that if you ask me in my career, that I kind of was being around him and working with him, that that was all struck for me.
Face was like that for me, you know what I'm saying, just as a as a you know, songwriter, like I would study him and Face and he was kind of like him and Stevie were my two. Like when you talk about like putting you know the power of this melody. Stevie was just someone who his melodies would be like very simple and you could just sing it. But the ship he playing under that ship, nigga, you know what I mean? Like you know, piano players.
Could never agree. It's like, well, I know, I think this is an F thirteen.
Don't know.
You can't see the ship.
Right, you don't know. He just feels just feel.
Well paid. Bill.
I think this episode officially tops the Huey Lewis episode as the most educational.
Wow education. This is high level game right here. Bro, This like you know, talking to I did more listening.
Man should teach choral music at at the universities because clearly they be real.
I'm like I would take that class.
I mean just guess I.
Put some I got wine.
So the man, Thank you, Bro, you know what I'm saying. Thank you for always being real.
Always thank you the same every time we see you, Man, it's always the same.
It's like we left off.
Man.
You know you're a real brother. You really really loved over here, man, and anytime you need us, you know what.
And I'm telling you I don't do much ship in Corona without getting paid nigga.
So you you.
Mos, ladies and gentlemen.
Like, this is all.
This is all kappa.
My guys love we love we love that or I appreciate that.
I love you guys. This is much man all right, well, guys, thank you this. I'm not blowing smoke. I this is this is this should have been a master number two niggas. Man boy, this should have been a masterclass. Thank you very much.
I appreciate this. On behalf man for real. Thank y'all, Thank y'all for real.
Y'all made every slow jam tape I ever made for a girl from like seven when when y'all made.
Was having.
Just wait, wait, don't you call them butt tape. Let's be let's be real.
My crew will tell you we used to call you with a butt tape because.
Okay, wait, okay, I promise you this is the last question. This is the last question because you guys have kids now, watching your kids and seeing how gen Z is, do you have hope musical hope for the future. And I'm not and I'm not you know, I'm not trying to make this at like from the old guy.
I'm what you does, and I'll speak because I guess my son that's involved in music right now is the oldest. I do have a little hope he grew up with us. He understands it, he shares it with his friends. He can see the difference now. I was always concerned that most kids nowadays can't see the difference. I was also concerned that we would turn into our grandparents or our father's like, oh, well, we don't like that, But there
really is something to the music that we've done. Because if you notice the nineties and everything is starting to come back around because a lot of these kids just weren't exposed to it. I think the exposure is more important than anything. They will make the right decisions, but they have to be exposed.
I saw that, and to your point, and they I saw that a couple of years ago when they had it was it was a social media thing where they had My the Running Man Challenge or whatever, but everybody was dancing to my Boo by ghost Town DJs, and I saw like a bunch of kids, It's like, oh, what is this song? And like that was one of the first times I saw a song from like ninety six. That song is from ninety six. That shit reentered.
It went like number one again after like however, like twenty plus.
They just got to be exposed.
Man, it's got to be exposed. It's happened to Fleetwood Mac right now, yeah, exactly?
Is that now?
The top five songs in twenty twenty one built like crazy craz telling you man the melodies.
Man, it's happened.
Well, gentlemen, I thank you very much from the bottom of my heart.
For doing it.
Thank y'all, brothers, man, for real, this is gon amazing your town. Oh man, Like, just thank y'all for everything. Thank you for the music for real.
Find Tickeolo and La Laser Hair Removal formerly known as.
Big Bill.
All right, we'll see you on the next go around a quest Love Supreme on Quest Love sounding oft I We'll see y'all next time.
Thank you. Hey, this is Sugar Steve.
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