Questlove Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio.
This is Part two. Doug describes a journey to becoming hip hop star and one of the world's greatest entertainers. I really like this episode and you will too. I have a question about the Oh my God record.
Now.
I know that we're in a whole different time period now, So having grown up in Reagan's America, which was heavily Christian, conservative, more you know, moral majority, all those things, I can see I had a different opinion of it when I first heard it, and of course thirty years later, opinions have changed, and we now live in a time period where like we believe that you know, in his choice
and whatnot. But you know, even before Common did retrospect for life, I remember like how big the abortion song was on your first album. So what was the what was the what was the because the thing is like on that on that debut record of yours. The two things that my two takeaways was definitely you know, play this only at night really truly could have been given Moments in Love a run for its money.
But like the first New.
Jack kind of you know, slow join right, and I just at that point I never heard a rapper really get topical about anything that wasn't just street conditions or you know, violence on you know, like day to day violence. Like you just never heard the rapper rapping about abortion? What what prompted you? What prompted you to even go there?
Wow?
You know because back then.
It was you yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well well I'm gonna tell you two things. And that's a beautiful question. I like how you slipped that, And I like how you did that.
That was so stupid, and I haven't forgot about.
You know, we get to trust me, no, no, no, but look what happened was, as you know hip hop, the expression is raw.
All the Way to Heaven is the first song ever dedicated to God.
That's before Jesus walk, that's before anybody ever did it. It was a chance, it was. All the Way to Heaven was created because we were happy. We were happy about what God has given to us. So so when I'm saying different, can.
I can I just briefly issue if you for one second and maybe you could double this answer, because I swear to God I would I would have killed myself if I didn't ask this question.
Speaking of All the Way to Heaven can you please.
I think I heard you explain this once on a radio show back in like eighty six, and I.
Could not never find this quote.
Can you explain the the the the the logic you had with creating the show as far as its spiritual element, Like I think I heard you say one time where you like, so no, no, no, you mentioned something about like like, oh my god, like he purposely chows, oh my god, sound body with a six six six six minutes thing, even like is he real?
Like it's I thought I read this. I don't know if I dreamed or.
Not if you say is it real? Fast? Right? So that's that's right.
That was how and and oh my god, you know and kind of like you know a lot of things for me hopping through dreams, Like even the show came to me in a dream. It was like I woke up and something told me to do it, the same way I just did this new project about Chuck Brown. It's like this is happened to me, No, but it happens.
It's a real interesting way that artists create. So what I did, oh my God is a real I told Barer and Will and they was like, how you're going to have us cut these two things at the same time.
I said, trust me, it's going to work.
And when they started cutting it, it just became that was I consciously thinking about the creator. I can't really say I was. It was just something that was making me do this. Now, a lot of people thought that when it was saying six minutes, it was worshiping the devil, but it wasn't none of that. It was just that it was a kind of a cool thing in a way where if you listen.
I'm more of a rhyme style list.
So when I'm doing something, it's never gonna be what you believe it should be. I'm not trying to be the greatest rapp up. I'm trying to convey an idea and that's.
My main focus. So six minutes, six minutes, six minutes, Doggi versa.
It's it became kind of like or like no no, no, no, no no, we didn't no no no.
No no no no no. See, like it's not a rhyme. And then and then if you're think about the show when it's going on and in the back you can hear.
Right.
But because because all of these different pieces.
Kind of like it was more it was changing the way and a hip hop artists were to approach things. I was changing what you considered to be hip hop. I wanted you to expand. I wanted you to think that you can't. You don't need just one DJ. You can use two, you can use three. I wanted you to think about listen to the rom it's all because put a song in a rock me shall like, let's do something different, because you gotta be flashed to rock with and I'm known for the not like, let's let's
play at the end of the song. I'm doing as you can see most definitely, I'm not rhyming.
I'm talking to you. We are like like it's it's it's changing.
A spiritual song is like the show hip hop's first spiritual song or with see.
I think that in its own way, organically it probably was without without consciously doing it, okay.
And I wouldn't. I wouldn't.
I wouldn't say that I consciously did everything that way. I just feel like I was driven to do that, you know, and then all the way to heaven, me and Rick was going to do together. So when I made on my guard, I was in a very I was in a state where I was feeling bad because of the way I had to keep this thing going, because I thought me and them together was really good, and I felt like I was disappointing a lot of
the people who loved the chemistry. So I was in a position where I felt like I had to keep moving, and I know that some people would would take it a different way.
But I also felt all the way to Heaven was important.
Because I felt like, how can I go from this point forward and not give thanks to the creator for what was done. I'm a guy that saved up this money, went in there, made these records. A dude owed me money. I went to the studio at my friend's house. I made this up and it exploded, and it's one of those stories that nobody would ever believe is true.
So I'm thankful.
And even though me and Rick got our issues or things wasn't working out, I'm still thankful. So then I also felt that a song like abortion, the baby on that record is being born, and that's Banard's right, that's Banard writes Son. He went into the room, he was in the room when his wife had the baby, and I said recorded, I said recorded, I want that on my record. He said, I'm coming back with it. He went in there with the recorder. The baby was crying, and I put it on the top of the song.
Now why did I do that?
I did that because I felt at that particular time that this is the most beautiful thing in the world.
This is my son. You know, I'm here because of this.
So I felt that that topic and that thought process was one that I felt very strong about. And then I had a girlfriend and that happened, and when it happened, it affected me. And when it affected me, I wrote about it the same way. I wrote she was that type of girl. I wrote about it same way. All the Way to Heaven I wrote about it same way. Nothing is about people smoking crack and things happening in the community.
I wrote about it. Play this only at night was the condition that I seen Harlem.
Harlem was like night of the living bass heads on steroids, bro.
So I wrote about it.
So the music was was was explaining what was going on, and I didn't I didn't think nobody might get it like I got it, But I felt like I.
Needed to give it to him, you know what I mean.
And even with loving every minute, I think that was my first introduction to seeing Chuck Brown live at the Capital Center. So I was so influenced by that energy. I came back and wrote loving every minute of it with the Go Go track in it. So I was just once again. But see, it goes back to honesty.
I know that honesty. You know, honesty is not always appreciated, and it's not always good, and it's not always good when when the timming is off, sometimes it can callt I tell people truth out of season can be destructive.
You know what I mean.
But then there's a fearlessness in telling truth. So when I was putting records together, it was my truth, and it was a fearlessness that I felt I'm gonna deal with with coming When I would play the records at the party or something and they get to that record of Bots, I'm like, man, I.
Know they hate me for this song.
I know they are, I said, but I said, but you know what I said, But yoe, man, this is where I'm not with it.
This is how I feel.
I appreciate your honesty. And also, you know, sometimes as fans we have to allow our artists to evolve, especially if they started young. We did it for common so.
Right right, I mean, back back in eighty five. That was the modus operandi. Wait, I have one more show question, and again I got it. This the intro to the show. Right, was your inspiration behind that? The whiz the gold, yellow Green?
Absolutely? I knew, absolutely no question.
And when I did it, I said, I said, I said, but I wanted to be better. I said, I want to feel that. I said, but I used to love when Richard prob Gold is the I changed my gold color colored. Now children, when every time you get received right?
And so after I said, I wanted to be big, you know.
And one of the things that I felt with a lot of hip hop songs was they never I always felt like and I guess maybe the influence came from super rapping, but it was a Friday night everybody like I felt like, if a song is coming on, it has to make me feel like like you taking.
Me someplace, you know what I mean.
So the show was the first record that I was able to get out all of my ideas the way I wanted to. And because I went through so many, you know, situations with not being able.
To express my ideas to the fullest, it was.
Like I'm gonna put up my own money and I'm gonna express my ideas my own way, and that horn in the beginning was inspired definitely by the waiz Man.
Okay, so question, here's the fact that I did not know. Because if you're not getting the record, at least in nineteen eighty eight, if you're not buying the album, this is before the CD generation, causetts really aren't giving you liner notes. So I think maybe he revealed this to me four years ago. I had no idea that the Bomb Squad was kind of the production unit behind your second album, World's Greatest Entertainer on two songs.
Well even there period, and if you look at it, keep rising to the top.
Really isn't when you get squad soundy right because different samples, though it is kind of you know.
Well, I mean no, I'm gonna tell you the song once again, the same way I acknowledged Seddi Roley, I acknowledged the Bomb Squad, and I met Chuck d on tour and I would and I would help them with the performance when Public Enemy was performing, because they was opening up for us, so I would help him with his performance. I would say, Yo, you gotta let the s one w's move. You gotta get you in flavored. I to exchange the energy. So we started. He was just listening to me and he would try it out,
and I said, Griff could do this part. And I was sitting there and we'd come together. And then he started telling me how he was a part of this bomb squad and he said, Yo, you should get with us and talk with us a little bit.
I said, I got this.
Joint that I want to do, man, and it's I don't know, it's in hip hop. Nobody's ever really done a joint like this. I said, but I think it's going to take it to another place. And he said, all right, well.
Why did you hook up with us? So I came to him.
I came to Hank Shockley with rising to the top, and then I said, let me hear some drum sounds the same way I did at Teddy's house.
So I banged out the beat.
So I took the samp and he had all the right stock sounds because their sounds was incredible. And then Eric Sidler, when I was I said, I said, I wanted to hear.
To Doom to Doom to Doom to Doom right right and I wanted that kind of.
Feeling that that I honestly got to say, I got inspired by when I heard Nobody Beat the Biz.
When I heard.
Thoomommom Tom Tom Tomy that came on.
That was crazy. That was crazy.
And then I said, I want to put chords at the end of it. And then I remember everybody was laughing at me in the studio.
They said, Yo, people are gonna be coming.
Out with their smoking jackets. Yo.
Rising to the Top is the first.
That's the first forty five that I bought, like with my own money for myself, I think.
So.
My grandmother took me to the record store.
I bought Tougher than Leather and the Rising to the Top forty five, and I ended up because on the forty five it was Rising to the Top was on the A and then on the other side it was the instrumental. Right, And so I without doing I'll just say I listened to Rising to the Top way more than I.
Listened to.
That is. I love that song, man, I love that record.
Why do I The first time I seen like Dougie, do your dance to that song? Right?
That's yeah.
Look, that's when I introduced that's but because I because I came up with the Dougie and I didn't call it that. I was just doing it right, and he was I was just doing Douggie. And then that was the introduction to the dance that turned into a whole nother situation which I can't even I mean out of the.
Field even had the White House. I'm cool to see that dance get to the White House.
Yo. Let me tell you quest.
I was up there taking a picture with the first Lady and I said, very nice to meet you, first Lady.
She said, I just want to ask you one question. Am I doing the Dougie?
Yes? Because yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I said, I said, I said, I never seen it done better.
I never seen it done better.
And you want to go, You've been to the White House a few times doing that doing that that era because I feel like a White House doing Easter. And I saw Dougie Fresh walking out like I live here.
I'm right right right because I was doing I got this foundation called Hip Hop Public Health, so we was performing and and and then I did the song for Michelle Obama Let's Move the whole campaign, So I did the theme song for that, and that our Organization team in with him for we did. We started fighting childhood o B City high blood fresher seeing the symptoms of
when a person has a stroke. And we've been doing this work for the past thirteen to fifteen years, like teaching people how to eat, you know, trying to give them some kind of understanding of you know, watching what you eat and the effects of it. You if you're eating stuff that's not right. So you know, Michelle Obama when she said she was going to do it, hey, I said, where do I sign up?
And then I just started to do the song.
So you know that's what it's all about, you know what I mean.
That made me think when you said you was talking to Biz about his health, you was really talking to Biz about his health.
I went hard on him, meaning just not not hard in a bad way, but I kept telling them, you know, Biz, yo, we got to make sure that you know, you watch what you eat, and you know, these starches turn the sugar and sugar turns the fact if you get diabetes, it's gonna be tough. And I say, you know, and I would take him out and he would be DJing
sometime and he would be right. He would almost pass out on the set and we would have to catch him, and then I'd be like, bizz, you gotta stop this, you gotta get And then he started getting controlled and I posted something where he lost on stage. He lost like seventy five eighty pounds, and then after he did that, I was.
Like, yeah, non, now this is what I'm talking about.
And then when the pandemic happened and he sat home for a while, you know, like most people, they sat home and they just started to you know, snack here not then soil he wasn't paying attention right, And then what he did is he caught a diabetic stroke. He caught a seizure, and he got a diabetic stroke. And then when he went to the hospital when he had the stroke, you know, his stroke is the number one
disabilitating disease in the world. So he wasn't able to talk or he wasn't able to to move, like he couldn't move. So we kept trying to send them flyers. I would get on there, telling them jokes. Me and his wife would be up there snapping with him and doing the things that we normally would do to pull him out of it. And then he would show signs that he's coming out of it, and then there would be times when he goes down.
And and it really bothered me. Man.
But you know, I'm hoping that what happened to him is making everybody aware of it can happen to any one of us, you know what I mean.
And everybody loved this. This was such a bright spirit, right personality, you know.
So to see him leave at such a you know, a young age, it bothered me.
That's why I'm glad that these two brothers on this show, they talk about health all the time and they held help each other accountable.
So I love it. You love it.
I love it.
When I heard y'all talk, and I was loving it, bro, I was loving on some real conversation.
I know it's about me, but it's really about y'all. You know.
I was loving it, and I like. I like how y'all are supporting each other, because that's where we go wrong.
We believe, we believe.
That we got to go through this by ourselves.
And we don't. We don't.
Sometimes sometimes you need your man to check you a little bit or you know, or challenge you and turn it into a game so it's not so so serious, you know what I mean? And you know and looking sometimes even if you fall off on something, you know, if you got a good team of people around you, you can.
Get yourself back on it.
But I just think that diabetes is such a bizarre disease because you don't really realize when your sugar's up and you're not checking it, and your sugar could be an eight hundred and you walking around feeling good and out of nowhere.
Bull it takes you out.
Where's your number one?
What's your number? With your number?
Steve?
See he see what? You don't know why you have this conversation. We got somebody in our collective that has sugar issues. And I'm just saying.
The two black ones.
That one surprisingly nah. But Doug, you are the You're the poster boy for like agent and hip hop.
Like you are, I mean, like yo man, like just watching you over the years and just watching the way you've taken care of yourself and the wave it.
Yeah yeah man.
The regimen or something like what's your what's your diet? Like, what what's like what's your day to day?
Well, my day to day is I usually try to run and then and then I got this program where I run and then I may walk because a lot of people want to estimate walking.
See this is the problem.
How here you go?
Walking is and it's a fascinating exercise because it actually gives you time to think things through and when you're looking at them, you know, you start.
To figure out different things. If you're listening to music.
Or whatever way you want to do it, if you're walking with a friend, you'll be surprised how much you burn it. So what I do is I walk, I run, I ride the bike, and I do a lot of making sure I'm not letting nobody stress me out. And
I think we got lost with that one. I think that's the one that everybody's failing on, or a lot of people because we so goal oriented that we want to be the best, We want this to be the greatest, we want this, we want that that we start to put our health behind us instead of keeping it as number one. And then when you look at health, it should be in this order. This is my order, and I study this order. Number one is rest sleep. If you don't get that you're done, you can't operate, You
make mistakes, you talk crazy, you short fuse everything. It just turns into something else when you don't get no rest. Number two is your nutrition. You gotta eat to live, not live to eat. You gotta think about what you eat. And if you got sugar, you gotta check that sugar. You have to so that you can gauge your numbers.
If you like something.
That's a a starch, ain't saying you can't have it, but maybe you gotta earn it.
Maybe you gotta maybe, maybe you gotta earn that.
Let's earn it, let's run it right, and then when you do it, maybe maybe you earned half of that. You know, if that's if that's a game you want to play. But you can't just have that starch. Don't walk, don't run, be up all night and then drink sweet juices, or be you setting yourself up for something that you I have no idea. It's crazy. And then the third one, it's some exercise. But the exercise don't have to be that you're working out like you trying to be, you.
Know, a football player. You know what I'm saying. It don't have to be that crazy. If you're walking, you're getting on a treadmill. You want to walk in your body, that's it that's it.
And then after you do it and you start seeing how you feel, you're going to be happy to do it because it's making you happy. And then while you're doing that, you rest, You're energetic. You know, you got eight hours sleep or seven hours whatever you need, and then you ate something that gave you a nice amount of energy, and then you go out there.
And work out.
Yo, you did all of the things that you could do to survive on this planet a little bit more.
But if you just be reckless.
Slight confession time, slight confession. I love it, No, definitely. I When it got colder, you know, well, okay, so so the deal.
The deal is basically getting dark at four o'clock.
Yeah.
When Rick Ruven was on the show, he made me he was my accountability partner, and you know, I was doing like ten thousand steps a day every day, and then around mid September I started falling off. Now, when I hear something five, when I hear from five different sources the same message, then I'm like, all right, man, you gotta get so you're officially it started this morning with my.
Mom, Are you walking like you to me?
Are you lying to me?
Grace?
Same thing like literally four people got on me about okay, now, like how you doing. You're still sticking to your plan or you you've fallen off a little bit in the in the winter, And I was like, you know, I'll get back on it next week, all right, cool, I gotta get back my ten thousand steps a day join because I felt I went from ten thousand util like four thousand school. I'll just do like ten blocks and walk back home. So right, I gotta get back on my join.
See.
And that's how the Creator work because all of us are saying things to you.
And I always say this now too, don't get caught up in the messenger.
Just hear the message message because you may not you if you get caught up in the messenger, you may not hear that message. And that message can be coming from a little baby, It could be coming from a mother. It can be coming from a person that you don't like, but they said something that was really important for you to hear. If you got five different people. Sometimes and we get caught up on how to.
Create this community.
The Creator communicates through us and he says things to us to say to somebody that maybe if that person can bypass who's the person saying it and just hear the message. A lot can come out of that, because what's the odds of me having this conversation with y'all right now on this and it has nothing to do for what we're talking about. You see what I'm saying, But it has everything to do for what we're talking about.
The brother on here with diabetes, or me talking about how I've seen it with biz, or you watch so many of us, so many of us lose ourselves or pass away transition just.
Because we don't make little, minor adjustments. It don't have to be extreme. It's like I always.
Say, if if a person does a little, they don't even have to really do a lot. But if you just stay consistent at it and if you just keep this, yeah, man, like nobody ain't trying to make you. I'm not trying to make you work out to where you know you pass out.
But you know you know you got it ass your ass. You gotta move it. You gotta move it, man.
I do want to get key parts of your career out before we run out of time, which.
We gotta talk about. There's a lot we gotta talk about.
Wait, wait, wait, the Hammer, We're gonna do Yeah, I was gonna say, we gotta talk about do what I Gotta do?
Right right right? Well all right then yeah, yeah we're gon We're going to We're going to it.
Yeah, what was it?
What was the decision behind like what the key give us the atmosphere or or or or what it was like under the umbrella of Busted Productions with Hammer Beautiful doing what I Gotta Do great really should have been way bigger for you.
But yeah, well another great lesson what happened with that project is I felt that when I came out with World's Greatest Entertainer, I felt really good about my album. I felt that that album was made in a way where I was trying to show people different dimensions about, you know, my growth and about hip hop. Like when I did Africa, and when I went to Africa in eighty seven, hip hop wasn't in Africa. I was the first dude to run over there, you know what I mean.
I was in Senegal, the car, Gambia, Gory Island. I wrote the song over there. Yeah that's what Africa. That last song on World's Greatest Entertainer called Africa. Heavyd used to love that song, and Rod Kim loved that song.
But what happened is that I felt that the label really at that point didn't get my vision when I first started with him, and the thing happened with me and Rick, I think it took some steam out of him and he started trying to figure it out. But Rizzo to the top of such a great record, cut that zero. I felt on this Trump could have done
a lot better. I think people slept on that. A lot of people liked to guess, So it was a lot of different things that I didn't feel my label God, which I think a lot of us felt at points in our career. So I signed with Dick Scott Management, who was managing New Kids on the Block, and he would fund me to go to the studio and make some records. And while I was doing that, Hammer and his brother heard I was no longer I was looking to get out of Reality Records. So, long story short,
I got with his brother, Louis Barrell. Lewis didn't know that reggae was coming. I was telling him, I said, Yo, reggae is on fire, bro, But he was feeling like that don't mean nothing, because I'm getting this. You can't touch you know, can't touch this money. And Hammer's in the stratosphere, and so there was a beef between the
East and the West Coast. So I felt that if me and Hammer got together and I was able to bring what I bring to the table and he keeps doing his thing, this would show a union between us where this beef between East and West.
Coast wouldn't even really be there. Because Tim Dogg was making.
You know, al We's album was.
Right right, and I wasn't about that.
So they paid close to maybe like one point two one point three to get me out of the deal. So when they got me out of the deal, they say, yo, I just want to be able to put at least one or two songs on the album. And I said, okay, no problem, and they said I was telling them reggae.
So we was up there working it out.
And what happened is I went to Jamaica and I went to go do sun Splash and I was doing dance all night. I don't know if y'all know about sun Splash. Yeah, I forgot him on it right right.
So I'm so I'm like.
The first guy to ever perform on dance tall night in Jamaica, which was unheard of.
You might want you retimidated.
No, no, look that audience is tough, yo, that audience is tougher than Apollo.
It's how did you again? I know your whole no fear thing, but yeah, yeah, well.
I felt I felt like I felt my.
Energy was stronger than theirs. And then I also had Papa Son who we was doing records together. I mean no, we was performing together. So when I'm performing with him on dance hall, and then the other thing is sometimes less is more and more is less, you know, because sometimes you're doing too much. So I felt like if I give them little samples of what I do, it'll make them appreciate it more than me trying to give them a whole concert.
So I got on.
They accepted it, blew up, but bloke gunshots all night. After that was over, I got back on the plane and came back and I was doing something at how And when I got back, Hammer's boy edited the video, did all of these different things with it. And then when he did it, it was the same guy that
edit Hammer's video. So when he let the song out, a lot of people was looking at the marching band and all of it at the Battle of the Band thing, and they thought that it was like we was trying to make a hammer video.
Oh okay, you see.
What I'm saying.
So I said, it's the true story too. I said, yo, bro, why did you edit the video and let it out without me being able to look at the video acknowledge what it is because I read alert in there, Curtis blowing there.
They cut all of the different elements that would give it the authenticity of the East Coast and showing that love.
And then when they say they said, man, yo, we was just doing so I felt like the respect factor was not as high as my respect was for him because I guess he was trying to go in there.
Right when it dropped.
Capital dropped him and the label went bankrupt, so the album never came out. So that album never came out. The single was coming out, and I'm thinking now as.
I'm doing what I got to do album.
And it never can't.
It can't Like Capitol was letting it out and then they shut everything down because yeah, you got the album.
I had to tape. Uh this was this was my stepdad before he passed. Yeah, he had to tape because my joint on there. I used to rhun was the if I was your man joint because you was curious. Yeah, so you know what I mean? That was my record. But uh yeah, man, no that record it came out like you know.
Yeah, but I'm I'm gonna tell you in regards to when Capital Capitol dropped Busted Records and when he dropped Busted Records, whatever bust it had or whatever busted on.
Busted was cut Busted was cut off. Yeah, bust it was busting. And so then I left and.
When I and when I left, I had to you know, I had to rebuild the credibility because people was feeling like I was trying to sell out. So that wasn't a problem for me because I built my career before record. So I went back in the street and started to kind of see what was going on. I seen PM doing, PM Doing was hanging out at the club. We were both going to see Prince, so we went to see I seen him on my way out. It's funny, I didn't even think about this. I was seeing him walking out.
He said, dumb yo, Man, I love yourself. You're doing anything else?
I said, yeah, man, I'm getting ready to come.
I got some ideas, he said, Yo, man, my label man, I think that you know, maybe I should introduce you to.
This gotch You shrinking right? He said, I think you know him. I think you know him. So I said, what's his name? He's his name is John? He said, really, I said, let me let me see.
If I know him.
I went downtown to G Street, right, I'm not. I go in there and I walk in.
This was my tour guy in nineteen eighty five when I went overseas for perform to perform.
The show on Top of the Pops.
This guy is the guy who took me all through London and now he got a deal with Chris Blackwell. So then after that I sat there. He said, Dougie, I always wanted to do something with you. Do you got anything? I said, I got these three ideas, I said, and I think I'm ready to let him out as soon as possible because I need to make sure that people do not misunderstand what happened. So then that's when I came up with day right and Free You did Freaks?
Yes where years old? Like where is he's.
Still rock with me? He's still rock with me?
But does he ever, I imagine that he must sound like mad lion right now.
Now that's funny air, but that's true. Though he can't.
Say no, no, no no. But but he sounds good.
It sounds like he mature, but it don't sound like he sounds really good and he sounds like his energy is still the same.
And when we perform, it's a serious situation.
But that song, that song, that song right there when I when I came back from Jamaica, that's when I made that beat because.
You told you what I'm saying, I feel like reggae is coming.
You told him. I tried to tell him. I swear I tried to tell him, you know.
But look they was living in you know, they had I can't touch this money, so they wasn't touching it. They wasn't.
Can you can you talk about your your relationship with with with Prince? There is Oh my god, Yeah, you did a long apprenticeship. Uh during that time period at least three to four the five years, I think almost like you know, to see a Prince concert, you knew somewhere you were coming, Like so how.
An apprenticeship quess ques? You know?
Man?
With Prince? The only thing that I can honestly say, man, I mean this is this, This is is one that is a quick one that I think you'll appreciate.
I was doing. I did something for Sindbad. And by the way, I want to acknowledge sinn Mad because you know, he had a stroke. So Sindbad I went out. Do you remember when he had this thing called so Soul Funk and it was on HBO. Yep, yes, okay, So Sindbad I went out there to go just to hang out.
And then he told me, Dougie, Yo, what you doing out here? Yo?
I want you to get on man, could you do something? I was like, yo, I just came out here to chill. But all right, no problems. And if you know Sinbad, his energy is crazy. So it was like, You're going to say yes.
To me no matter what.
So now I'm in a Ruba trying to find a studio because I'm thinking, damn, I need to get something, and I'm looking at a CD that got that got got to be real on there, I say, yo, man, let me let me sample this. Pressing it out on a keyboard studio was real, under budget, not top of the line. I press out got to be real so I loop it. So then I go back on stage in the night, I go on stage and I say, he said, you're gonna do something for me. I say, yeah, They played the music for me, and HBO was not
supposed to tape me performing. So I get on and I'm performing and the place is going crazy. The crowd is going crazy. It's moving. They never had a hip hop and turned into something.
Now. HBO was taping it without me knowing it.
Because they told him, you know, this is Dougie just doing something, but that.
Little something turned into something crazy.
So then later HBO said, Yo, man, Yo, could we show this because this this thing is unbelievable. Did you see what this guy did? So then HBO played it and it kept playing it every week like constantly, right, so Prince seeing it. So when Prince seen it, he said, YO, called Dougie up and see if he could meet me in Atlanta two because I want him to come to my show and perform.
So I get to this show.
I'm backstage and he said, yo, jo, I already got a set going on now, so I'm gonna do my show, but I want to know could you come with me to the after party.
I said all right. I said, yeah, I heard you wanted me to come. I'm here. Cool. So I went to the after party.
And this is when left Eye was alive. So we go to the after party and left Eye meets me and meet Prince, and she's like bugging out, like, yo, I can't even believe y'all too here at the same time. So I asked Prince. Prince said, yo, I seen you on HBO. That was unbelievable. What made you come up with that? I said, Now it was this free styling. He said, okay. He said, well, let me ask you.
You think you can get on to night. I said, yeah, no problem, he said, but I want to I want to ask you, I said, before I get on.
I just and he wasn't called prince at the time we called him.
You ain't know what to call him, so you know, you call him the artist or whatever. I said, I just want to know when I get on, how far you want me to go? He said, I want you to turn this mom out. I said no, I said, but I want to know how far do you want me to go?
Like, I mean, I want to.
Respect what you do, what you're asking Because I got on with Dre and snooping them and them when they came to New York and Dre pulled me to the side. It was like, Dougie, I want you to get on, but please don't go.
Right right right.
And when he said that to me, When he said that to me, I was saying, like, what do you mean by that? Like don't you want me to? And then I got on and I felt I didn't. I listened to him, and I felt bad that I didn't go all the way. So after that, I said, I got to ask a person how they feel so that they don't feel like I'm trying to upstage their setting. So I learned that. So long story short, prince sss, I want you to.
Like and he said it in my ear.
Yeah, So after that I said yo, I said okay, Well, if that's what you want me to do, I said, well, that is what I'm gonna do.
And I got on with him that night. When I got on with him that night, I took him to a place that he ain't never but then when it comes to this.
Thing, so this is what he did. So I came down there this whole thing, and at the time I was dating, I was when I. When I was dating Miss Jones, I was.
Down there the thing for Sindbad.
So I went down there and I didn't expect that, So I did it based on the energy. I did Sinbad in favor. They taped it. I didn't know they were gonna tape it. Then they showed it on HBO and it explodes and everybody and it was fun. And actually after that, Sheryl Lynn was booked on the Soul Funk Festival after that because how impactful it was. And then came Sugarhill Gang and all of the other groups.
So moving into Prince, he's seen it. When he's seen it, he called up Lindelle McMillan, who was my lawyer.
Wow right. And when he called up.
Lindown line there and said, yo, Doug, he said, can you come down to Atlanta? So I went down there and I took Grandmaster Caz. I took Grandmaster Cast because he loved Prince and he told me that. He said, Doug, if you ever meet him, I just want you to do me one favor. Please introduce me to him. So I was like, okay, I brought him with me. So I go down there. Left eye is there, she's in rere form, she's vibing. Energy is good. He gets in
my ear. After I asked him, I said, brother, I just want to be respectful to your set.
You know, I appreciate you, and.
I don't want to do anything that's gonna make you feel that I'm doing that. I'm trying to be disrespectful. And he was like, look, let me tell you something. I want you to turn this out to the he said, He said all the way out. I turned around, said, no problem, m And after that I got on and I turned that out to the point back after it was over, we kept doing encore after encore because question no artists go we me and him.
They can go for two, two.
Hours three, it doesn't really even stop.
Like do you do you have a do you have a not an itinerary, but do you have a routine bag that you go through, like when you do your come again rhyme? Or you're uh, I can't even you know right right, like I know your go to dougie isms that can like how many of those do you have in your head when it's time to just get on someone set?
Like do you have like thirty things already thought out? Like okay, well, it.
Goes back to the same thing that I was telling you. I'm not thinking, I'm feeling, and what I'm feeling is what I'm doing. So there's no there's no ism.
It is. It just is, and it is at.
That moment of now, and no matter what it is, it will be what I wanted to be, and that is what it is. So and I don't mean that in an ego way. I mean that from a spiritual perspective that I'm coming to the table with energy, Like like when we were switching to this for a second and going back to the story when y'all did Dave Chappelle and.
He just called me.
I was just coming to see this. I just came to see y'all. I didn't come to get on stage, like I swear, that wasn't my goal. I was just there to see you him and all that. I say, Yeah, let me see this. This is gonna be nice. And out of nowhere, somebody, I think caller or somebody was saying, Dougie, they want you to come on stage, and then Dave is saying, yo, here, man, yo, go on do it. So in my mind there's a switch that just kind of automatically go off, and I'm going all.
The way end unless you tell me don't.
And then if you tell me don't, I might just say let them do it, and I'm just stand on the side and watch, because I don't ever want to feel like I'm making somebody feel funny, and I don't ever want to feel funny if I don't do what I naturally feel.
I want to do.
So that night, he had me in a tough situation and the clock was ticking, and I was looking back at you. You was frustrated at him about the clock, and I'm like, damn, I don't want us to be mad at me, I said, I don't want us to be mad at me. God keep telling me, go hard, go on. And then Usher jumped on the stage. Todd t I jumped on the stage, and you was looking at them. It's a wrap, it's over.
Let me let me explain to our audience. Okay, So New York is very old school. In New York is what we call a union town. Like you cannot step on the stage in New York City unless you play exuberant fines. If you go overtime, they're they're antal retentive with sound checks with shooting cameras. If you bring a camera out a Radio City Music Hall, that's like twenty five thousand dollars. Like New York will find a way to tax you just for simple things. It's a very
old school thing. So what Doug is referencing is whenever Dave Chappelle does his like long residencies at Radio City Music Hall, you know he'll do like fifteen twenty shows or whatever. David's is one of those guys that also just lives by his heart, and I guess that he has the deep pockets to you know.
And as of this speaking, I saw Dave last.
Night at Madison Square Garden with rock Him Buster Rhymes, and you know, the Union guys are like usually in New York, especially at Madison Square Garden, especially at Radio City. I'll say that for every five minutes you go over, that's like ten thousand dollars. So the whole goal is like when it's ten fifty nine, shut the show down,
not at a Dave heel afan. So so at this point, when Dave is calling everyone on stage, I know we got like four minutes left, and all I'm thinking about is, Okay, we're about to lose a lot of money here, and I don't want to be responsible for that. So at ten fifty nine, I want the promoters. And you know, I'm the hall monitor of him.
Pop.
Everyone will tell you I'm the hall monitor hip hop right right right, I'm the guy decided like, hey, promoter, I'm I'm following union rules.
That's Dave Jabelle, not me, you know, but anyway, continue right right?
No, that's crazy, that's crazy. The way you just said that. The crazy.
I never heard nobody say that, yo, yo, And you know what, I've seen it in your face when we was doing it, I was like, I said, man, question, Oh, he's trying to get everybody out of here. I said, well, Dave just won't stop, and he keeps.
Telling me go harder.
I said, I'm torn between should I.
Listen to the hall monitor? Should I.
Do not?
Like I don't like using twenty five thousand dollars for nobody on my watch, Like I'm a guy that start.
On time, you know, And he didn't even care.
So he's rich, right, hitch bitch.
Yo. So so because of that, and because of that kind of energy, I'm always careful because I don't want nobody to feel like I'm trying to do something to you or take something. So long story short, I get on with Pete Prince yo. He's like this, go harder, Yeah, go harder, give me more. So after this over the band and everybody, we go to the roof. They got this little roof. We're sitting out there. He's sitting there looking at me like this. I'm telling you that I
can't make this up. Bro. He looking at me like this, just sitting here looking at me. And then the band is standing around him and he goes, how about it, band? What do you think? And it was like, oh my god, you crazy?
What do we think? Are you serious? Did you see what he just did?
I and the whole band is going crazy enough? He turned out. He said, so what do you want to do? I said, oh, man, I came out to do what I wanted to do. I had some fun with you. Man said this Grandma say cast Cats is sitting there like this, like looking at him like that, right, So what I'm saying in there and I'm like cats cast you know ca? He said, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, this is great night, great night. And then and then first look at me, he said, so what you want
to do? You want to be down with MPG or what I turn?
I turned about. I'm looking out.
I look at Cass right, and this is real. I look at Cass. I'm like your cats. Oh, this guy's funny, yoe like in my mind. I said, yeah, okay, whatever I said, Man, I just came out, man, I said, I wasn't.
I said, I ain't come out here for no paper.
I just came out to show you love because you deserved that, you know, And he and I said, I said, and your band was fun and I enjoyed it. I said, but we're gonna leave because you know, it was a nice night. So it's a tree there, right. He takes a leaf off the tree and he go like this and he go, what, bro, I'm telling you you take the leave. We go here go he go, okay, all right, good And then after I said, I'm looking at him and I was like, I supposed to eat a leaf too.
I'm like, yo, where we're going with this one?
But I said yo, But I like your stop. I like what you just did right there. So after that, I get up and I leave, and the band and everybody's saying goodbye. I get back home, kays Is blown away. I get a call cause said, yo, the artist wants you to come on, wants you to come out, and he want to know can you meet him tomorrow night in Oklahoma?
He said he.
Got twenty days and he just wanted to know what do you want?
I said, are you serious?
And that was the beginning of me and Prince and it never stopped after that. And it got so deep that he used to ask me and he would and he appreciated.
He was sick.
So where do you think I should come out? What songs? What's the order of these songs you think I should do? And I said, yo, you gotta come out of the crowd. Like it was me and him Shaka can Lorry Graham, we had make Ceo, We had nase. He said, he said, so should I come out the crowd? Right? I said, ye, come out here. I said, when you come to New York, you gotta do pop life. He was like, here you think so?
I said, I know so, and he would listen.
He would let me, you are the curator, right, He.
Would let me design the shows. When we did Essen's Festival.
I had another technique that I was coming up with as far as different performances. So I started out in the audience with the turntables because he never wanted to use turntables. I said, no, we're gonna use turntables, but you never used them like this, So I would start what did turntables?
And I get the audience to the point it was crazy.
We was at Essence Festival, right, and it was eighty thousand eighty Yo, it.
Was eighty thousand.
And before we went to the Essence, we did the some bold place in La And then later on that night, we're sitting down and then he says to me, yeah, yeah, yeah, Hollywood, Hollywood. That's right. He's sitting down with me, and he says, Essence magazine is in here and they want to interview me.
Could you talk to them? Can you talk to them for me too?
So I start talking to him and he started telling him how this thing worked.
He said, you see see how you know what I'm saying.
I don't even got to say it because that's how we locked in. And then afterwards then we were meeting LA and they said, yo, he wants you to meet him at this club.
I go to the club.
He's sitting in this room on the other side. The party's bouncing, and he's sitting in there by himself with a little cup with like like some coffee and some honey, and he's sitting there like this. And he's sitting there like this, and he said, you know, we're supposed to do the essence. So how you think we need to do this? I said, I said, how you think we need to do this? He said, I'm going rock, I'm going straight rock. I said, all I said, all due respect, I don't think that that's.
I said, I said, and then.
Anybody. He said, so what you think?
I said, I think we need to do what we do, but you need to do the hits. I said, this is a black audience. And I said, I want to hear hit after hit after hit. And I said, I said, Well, before we get to the hits, I said, I'm gonna take the turntables and I'm gonna set.
It up in the middle of the crowd, and I'm gonna.
Get this thing pumped up to the point that is that is ridiculous, and then I'm going to pass it to you onto the stage and you're gonna hit him with a hit after hit after hit.
He said, Okay, I got it.
We went to the Essence, I went into the crowd, like I said, set it up, and I had like eighty thousand people doing the wobble.
The damn building was shaken. Yeah, right that night he was there.
Yeah about that stage, No, no, no, the.
Whole building was shaken. I have never felt nothing like that other than probably Chuck Brown at Capital Center or something ridiculous.
So after it was over, I mean, after that, I get it to a certain point. I know it's crazy because mc light came over to me and said, do you feel that? Do you feel that?
Like that? So that's when I knew it was serious. So then I passed it to him on the stage. And when I passed it to him on the stage, it was crazy. It just it was crazy, man.
And then that's one of all times day I think that was they.
They definitely, they definitely say that it was definitely up there because it was nothing.
It was nothing close, But that was the kind of.
Relationship we had because it was like hanging out with a dude who was just as like he didn't care as much as I don't care, you know what I mean, Like we be riding around in the night and it'll be like, you want to go you want to go to the club where.
I started at. I said, yeah, let's go in there. And you know that big guy who plays the drums and used to play the drums on the Real Yeah, he was sitting there one night.
We're sitting there and he said, do you feel like doing something tonight?
I said, you feel like doing something tonight? He turned around. He said yeah.
I said, but but but but you ain't got to do nothing, I said, I said, let me, I'll do something with him. He said, all right, but but I go in there and get on with with Bland and the band that they have in there, turn that into something. Jump back in the limo, drive out to his house. We're sitting in a lemo talking and he and he told me something that was crazy. Man. He said, at one time, he said the Time was a band that when he when he had to get on after them, he.
Was nervous, he said, because the.
Time generated so much excitement, so much celebration, so much energy. That he said he felt like when he got on after it went to such a high.
That he's doing all of these different things.
But he can't he can't create that that you know that jungle love. Know that, he said. Then he said to me, he said, I've seen a lot of performers, he said that I'm telling you. He said, you are the most unusual and the most shocking that I have ever seen. He said, I don't know why God brought me and you together, but he said, you make me feel that same kind of thing, but on another level that I felt with the time.
And he said, and I'm glad that you whip me.
Yeah, I mean that that is literally you have no fear. And that's the thing that I want our audience to know, like you literally have you have zero fear. Wait, before we go, we got to talk about the Chuck Brown project.
Oh yeah, you.
Know something Okay, when you when you were telling the story of the show, it kind of it kind of hit me. And you know, I know that it's never going on record before.
I know that.
The that the perception is that Go Go really never got its just due, but it's just we never new Jack Swing is basically Go Go And I really didn't truly realize that until wow, like moments ago. But yeah, if you listen to like I mean, the show is essentially Go Go, It is new Jack swing.
Also it's a part of it.
But Teddy, but I think it's electronic. I think it's electronic go go, and we just never called it that.
So I agree. I agree with you. I agree with you now.
And I never looked at it like that because see and this and this is not to take nothing from nobody.
I'm not that guy. I'm not even built like that.
But that thing about the way to beat plays and me beat it like I programmed.
I basically he put on a metron.
On and I played it out, and I put these things and I you know, I needed the guy who was technically savvy to allow me to get on that drum machine and do what I do because anything like when I did Freaks Beef, if I did Riseing to the Top beat, if I do Lotti Dot, I make the beat. So it's what I do. When I did
Original Human Beetbox, I make the beat. So when this happened and I was making the show that swing, I never thought about it from go go because you know, as a kid, I used to play the juke box in the pool room around my block where we were. They are games and all that and keep us out of the street. But they had Busting Loose in the jukebox and I was hearing it. I said, Charlotte, get it.
Y'all say what you like, back to back to back to back.
So I think that that feeling influenced me when I was in the show, because it's the swing, it's that, it's that, it's the movement of it. And then, like you said, which I think is really a great observation, and I never thought about that that this show is a go go record.
It is.
It is.
But you are the first person in the history, though, to do something besides a collaboration with the genre, like right, Doug, Like, technically you're the only person of note that has given this kind of love to that genre in this way, right.
In this way. Herbie Loveug used to like sample lot like yeah, but not in a yeah, he's not like the way he's doing it.
It was always a collaboration, but not a total like dedication, love letter and inspiration kind of thing.
So how did the project come together?
Well, it's interesting, man.
I was and I'm telling you the truth again, I was sleeping and out of nowhere something said.
Write a song about Chuck Brown.
And when it said write a song about Chuck Brown. I picked up the pen and I just wrote the song and I made the beat, and on the beat, some of those drum sounds are me because I couldn't find certain sounds that I wanted for this effect that I was looking for with the Go Go.
So now what I do is I'll.
Go in there and I'll do my own I'll be the high hat with the drum.
I'll be the other snare on top of the snare.
I'll put my low tone.
Based drum under the foot.
So now the way that I do beats is I'm I'm always intertwining now my own drum sounds on top of drum sets, because I don't think they have all of the drum sounds that I can hear anymore, so I make them up. So I started to build the track, and when I built the track, I was writing. I was writing a song to it. And then it was interesting to me because I was like, why am I
doing this? And that I thought about the way I met Chuck Run from Run DMC was the guy who told me because we was on the show together in Capital Center eighty five. He told me, yo, you ever been you ever seen Chuck Brown. You ever heard Go Go? I said, nah, I know, Chuck Brown, but what's Go Go? He said, you ain't seen a Go Go concert? He said, Yo, wait, GC this not I turned around. I changed my stuff up, bro.
I went up in there to get there early. Chuck Brown burnt this shit down to the floor to the point that it was madness. I'm talking about you want to talk about you want to see a spiritual, like like out of body experience. Play Go Go, Play Go Go with twenty thousand black people in the spot and white people that understand play it, and you're going to see a whole, a whole kind of experiences that you never seen. So then I ran. He got off. I
went backstage, started talking to him. I started telling him how incredible his performance was. He started telling me how he loves the show, he loves Lotty Dottie, he thinks that what I'm doing is really unique. And then we just became friends from eighty five all the way to when he performed on the Capitol Lawn. He called me up. I didn't know that would be one of our last performances.
And I got on with him there and he was such a beautiful spirit, and I looked at him like I look at myself where I felt like he was. He created something, and sometimes when a person creates something, like you said quest, which was really deep, the person who's the first person that created may not always be the one that's acknowledged, you know. And I felt like, I'm going to make sure that you acknowledged Chuck Brown.
When you hear Beyonce's joint, you know, the first joint that she did with Crazy.
Rich Harrison, he always gonna put that go Go up.
Right right, like I want y'all to know, this is the guy that did this, and this energy that y'all feeling, this is the guy.
And I guess spiritually there was something.
And then the other thing is that Prince before he passed, he was going to produce my next album and he wanted me to do a live album and he loved Go Go, so she did right right, So he wanted me to do something. I think in this kind of a way that I did it because it's live and at the same time it's go go, and I didn't know I was going to be putting it together like this, but it worked out and let me.
Clear my throat. Though Doug like you already out of your relationship with Go Go is like continue all day? Can you talk about for a second, because I was just catching up and watching that video earlier and I was like, Yo, please tell me about this.
Video shoot with you biz DJ.
Cool like in this club. I know it's got to be a story.
And Yo, I tell you the quick Cool told me like, I'm coming to the video.
I pull up.
Cool said, hey, Dug, what's going on? No, Like, I don't even know what he wants? He said, Yo, like I know he want to do somebody. I mean, I don't really know. He said, Yo, man, I need a boss from you. Do you got him write there? Like like, are you ready to do this now? I said, yeah, okay, Cool, let's do it. He said, okay, Cool like no notice, no, here's your part where you put your verse no, no nothing, no.
Se no nothing.
So after that, so he's and then he told me later he said, well, you know, I'm gonna be honest with you. I told you to do that because I think you probably one of the only guys that could really do that.
And don't make it seem like you're doing that, because I mean it is DC.
Yeah, we just started free styling and then like the Tupac on there.
It was just something spiritually that made me say that.
You know, so that was a live song and video at the same time. Y'all take the time.
Wow, it was in Philly. What that's right?
It was it was at the Bahama Bay and Philadelphia.
He says it.
Yes, he says it, bro crazy crazy.
You know this, this is a legendary, legendary lesson.
And thank you for giving love to to to everybody and go go in the song to because you didn't just give love to Chuck. You gave love to the areas.
You gave love.
To to all the legends. So it was I just want to I'm sorry, I'm mayor. I didn't mean to cut you say that. I appreciate you so, thank you man.
Because he used to do play this only at night and the way he would do it, I don't know, you know, it's I still feel like I did in the beginning, that you still got You gotta follow your spirit and it's not going to always be popular, and sometimes you're doing things because they just supposed to be done. I remember Prince told me when he wrote Kiss. He said, when he wrote Kiss, he had to forget how to
make records, meaning he had to simplify everything. So when you hear it, they kiss like he said, he stripped it down right right, And when he stripped it down, he said, it's because he had to go into a space where he had to simplify things. And I feel as an artist that you go into these spaces for reasons and it sets you up for something else that you're supposed to do.
But you gotta go.
There though, to get there, you know what I mean.
I don't know why.
I don't know what connected me to make this Go Go album, but I knew I had to make it.
I knew it was important.
And the brother who shot the album cover he called me. And when he called me, it was a friend of mine who would go and film me in different places and stuff. And he has diabetes type too, And he called me and he said, Dougie. His name is Bobby Gunn. He said, Dougie, Yo, man, I know you into this health thing, man, but I'm dealing with his diabetes and I'm trying to make sure that I don't do something that's gonna cause me to How many probably say, yo,
you got any suggestions? So I'm on the phone talking to him about it, going through the whole diabetic conversation, telling him, don't do this here. You like sodas drinker zvia Zba is a sugar free soda and it's not an asparteam. It hires Stevia and it is good. And he said, oh, thank you, Doug, thank you, And I hang up the phone with him. And he only called me for that and I shared that one. He said, but Doug, yo, I got some pictures I took and I want to send them to you. And you know,
just some pictures I took a while ago. He sent me the pictures. All of the pictures was of me and Chuck Brown. And he didn't even know I was making this song. He didn't even know I was making the song. And then I looked at one.
Of the pictures. I said, Yo, this is crazy. This is crazy. I called him.
I said, Yo, I just wrote a song called Chuck Brown. What's the odds of you sending me this?
I said?
Can I use this shot? Could I use this shot? And the shot that I made the album cover was the shot that that brother gave to me.
So this is what I'm trying to explain sometime I think things just kind of right right.
So yeah, so that's what the album represents to me. And I appreciate y'all having me on here to talk about it.
And brother, thank you kept y'all on a little long No, no, we kept you man. We love it right. Yeah, we lived for these episodes.
I almost gotta tell folks, and six hours Jimmy jam you are right, Yeah.
This is all right. This is right up there with it.
No, for real, I want to thank you like your your your wisdom and your life lessons and your lessons on fear.
I'm definitely gonna apply that.
This is an awesome world's greatest entertainer. Yes, and unpaid Bill and and Sugar Steve and like, yeah, yeah, this is yo. I got one last question.
I've asked this if you've got time, okay, And I'm only asking this because it's you, because I normally hate when people ask this question.
For you. Who are your favorite season?
Not necessarily your top you ain't got to say your top five whatever, but who are your face? And the reason I ask is because you're probably one of the first like real like vets that we've had on in terms of being able to work with DJ Hollywood and you know, I mean you're from that.
You know that first contrast straight up, so you know what I mean.
So just to hear it from you from og like you, who are who do you consider your top MC's.
You know, it's interesting the people that I consider top MC's is a very interesting topic because I understand the DNA of where different styles come from. So when I'm looking at different people that other people like, I know where that style was birthed and.
Why you like it or or how it evolved to become that.
So DJ Hollywood is a very important piece of the puzzle for me because there was no style.
He says, say, oh he wrote that.
He said, throw your hands in the air and wave him like you just don't kid. He he was the guy who was who jumped that off because he was bringing celebration, you see. So that was an important piece of the puzzle, and in the beginning it was one of the most important pieces. And Curtis Blow got it from him and loved bug Starsky told me that when he asked him, I said, Yo, Love, who was the first person you've seen do this?
Bro on that mic?
He sat there and said Hollywood. I turned around for real, he said, Dougie, he said it was. He said, I was sitting in the car as a kid and some dude that had an eight track player in his car, and Hollywood made the first mixtape on an eight track, he said, with your play and play and play, he said, he said, And I just sat there and I said, I want to be like that.
I want to do that. So then you got you got love. You got love.
But then you got busy b crowd Rockey right, and they from ball with the ball and both of them doing that. So you got this whole line. So Hollywood is an important piece. Melle mel is an important piece. It's an important piece. His style, not just the message, just his whole confidence in the way that he brought what he did Grandmaster Cas. He brought that clever, slick
thing that you like about King. And when you listen in the mal, you like k r S. And then you got mo D And when you got Mod, you listening in the Mod, you hear him a rod kill you hearing NOAs So the bloodline I learned directly from the bloodline directly, and then and then while I learned that, then then I had to carve out my space and create this beatbox thing, which is a completely different dimension
from everything. So when people talk about MC's and who is this and who's that, it's a little different from me because it's.
The same about Chuck.
Because you like you like Rare Essence, then you like Chuck, you like EU, then you like Chuck. Like whoever you want to decide that you want to you better, you gonna go back to Chuck.
You see what I'm saying.
So even when you like like I know, I knew James Brown, James Brown, and I'm very close to the family.
And James Brown liked me a lot.
And he used to tell me, son, read your Bible, Son, read your Bible, and always take care of your teeth.
And then he said, and always take care of your feet.
These are that's that's that's a James that's a James John classic right there.
Take care of your teeth and your feet.
You have the best teeth in hip hop.
Wait a minute, let me, let me let me ask the opposite of Let me ask the opposite of fante, because there's a lot of them. Who are your top three beat boxers, not you? Who are your top three beat boxers, and there's a lot to choose from now.
Right. I like rosell I was hoping.
I was wondering, Yo.
I forgot Roselle was in my group.
I was just.
I don't even asked that. I didn't even ask that fishing for a Roselle answer. I just straight forgot.
I know that name.
Sorry, Roselle.
Look, I even did a record for rosel I did one win him for a d J. Hawston be out in Japan, And I said, yeah, let's do I think Rozelle. I think scratch Man was just I mean, I mean as far as being like like so authentic and real and the way he sound. I just I so much loved the way he sound. I mean I was always so impressed with him, and and just out of a you know, to me, it's really I mean those two and Kenny X, I like a lot.
I forgot about Kennedy. Yes, shout out to Kenny X.
Have you ever battled Buffy at all? Like, have you guys ever been on the stage together and did something?
Or we were supposed to at Brighton High School in eighty three or eighty four. I'll send you a flyer and they put us on the Flyer dst was there, Red Alert was supposed to be there, and this was before there was records, and they was calling him just go.
Three and uh.
And I went down there because I didn't even know that they had to set up for me to do that. So I came in there and I seen him and I said, y'all want to do this tonight? And I've got said that. I said, so I'm I'm aa battle him and then I'm gonna take y'all two out. And you know, because because because it was it was fun. It's not like we was fighting. It was just about you.
And then afterwards it never happened. And then we did a couple of shows together and we never did and I never really had any interest in doing it anymore because I mean, Buffy was such a good guy and such a nice person that it was like, Yo, man, I don't feel good about battling this guy, you know what I mean? He has such a beautiful spirit. And anybody that knew Buffy knew he was just a nice person.
And me and MARKI D got into a little bit of an argument one time because when the show came out, he was very he he was looking at like you know, like he was the one, he was the voice of the group, and he looked wanted to challenge me. And then after a while, you know, he was barking a little bit and going at it. And then I said, yo, I don't even have to beat box. Do you want to battle rhyming? Do you want to do that? And he just didn't want he didn't want to do that.
And so after that, because I come from a battle era, you know what I mean, from the foundation of battle. Like I told you, I'm on the side of the stage when Moji and Busy beat Battle.
I'm the only kid that can say I was there.
I was like fourteen, I was I didn't even supposed to be in there, and I'm on the side of the stage while that's going down.
So I was at that battle.
I was at the battle with Cold Crushed Battle and Fantastic, you know. So the things that I've learned from from just being in that area. And then I was in that contest in eighty one, in the amateur contest.
So that's the way we came up.
You had to battle, but then as you grow, you evolved, so it wasn't about battling.
And then me and Marky d became the best of friends.
We would hang out live and then what happened is when Buffy passed, I did Tom join a cruise and I wanted boys on there, and I said, we got to get them on this cruise. So I got them on. And when I got him on, I said, Yo, let's do bitter to stick them and let's do it. Wow, that's right, And we did and it was me Kourokski and Prince Marky did and we took pictures together and man, those are my brothers.
Man, it was.
He's gone too sus a lot.
Yeah, ok, brother, God, thank you. Look, if you ever you must open up another restaurant and share that cornbread recipe. But that's a whole other episode. Doug has the worlds. When he had his restaurant in Harlem, he had the world's best corn bread.
He look, this was yeah, this was three five years ago. Anyway, Doug, I think, if you're doing.
This, look and then you yo. When he said somebody said, everybody said your man, your man, quest said your man outside of Lottie, Dottie Shure whatever. One of the most unbelievable contributions he haven't made the world is this corn bread?
And look, I was sending interns from the tonight show. I was sending interns to the I was sending girl's name, Ashley the Harlor.
Corn bread corn bread.
They call it crack corn bread in the hall.
Ass it's worth breaking your diet for.
Yeah, I may, I may. We may have to do that one day. Just be just a little piece hot.
Hot yeah, just one one, one cheat day. Thank you for doing this episode.
All right, this is the It's illi it. Thank you.
We love you, do y'all.
Y'all peace. What's Love Supreme is a production of iHeart Radio.
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