QLS Classic: Kwamé (Part 1)

Of Course, Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. This classic episode was produced by the team at Pandora Ladies and Gentlemen. This is part one of two.

Part QLs classic with the Man We All Know and Love Kwame. One of those.

Bugged out illicit stories in classic hip hop. Every story Kwame tells, I mean, he goes through it all man has to be heard to be believed without further ado. This is part one Kwame's interview on QLs from October third, twenty eighteen.

Enjoy Supremo, Supremo, Ro Supremo, Supremo, Ro Suprema Supremo, Ro Supremo Supremo. Roll call.

Yeah yeah, kitchen, Yeah, it was cool.

Supremo roll So Supremo.

Roll Call.

My name is Fante. Yeah, Joe texts I got you. Yeah, my only question? Yeah, where's Tasha? Roll roll call Bremo. Roll Call. My name is Sugar. Yeah, I'm a sweet thing. Yeah like Hawaiian Punch, Yeah, kool aid or Tang Supremo, roll So Son Supremo, roll call Unpaid Bill. Yeah, and we've gone too far.

Yeah.

When quest love eats dinner, Yeah at an oatmeal.

But come Supremo roll call.

That was all talking about rolls. My name yeah and the mic is mine.

Yeah.

I've been a fan of Kwame. Yeah since eighty nine.

Supremo roll call, s agreement something Supremo roll.

I'm like em yeah Kwame, Yeah, thank God for him.

Yeah, talking about some day roll.

So Supremo roll Supremo son s Supremo roll.

No, my name is Kuame, y'all see me while Yeah, Quest put me on this spot with this free style.

Roll Supremo Supremo roll call, Supremo Supremo roll call, Suprema So Sun Subpremo roll called Suprema.

So sure, okay, So Bill just out at me. Yeah, I was eating oatmeal for your choices. Man, that's great. Yeah, that's fantastic. I saw eat oatmeal and I ordered a chicken a grilled chicken salad. Wait a minute, we're healthy.

Yeah yeah yeah I can. I can eat now, you know what I mean? He just puts clothes, told me your tooth still hurting?

No? No, no, no, no not now. Yeah. Weeks ago when I was absent, my bambacay kicked. Then I'm good. We were having the all important cream of weed versus steel cut oatmeal question. Wondering what exactly the steel cut referred to.

I just don't like the marketing steel cut like. There's nothing tasty or advertising about.

It's not try to market steal cut like free range. You know what I'm saying.

Fifty for some not for nothing.

There's a frozen version of still cut oatmell. You can get it a trader jails. It's really good. You just mirk away for two minutes. It was that trader Joe.

You go, you can't get it an MP.

Still something, yes, man, they call Audas in the East Coast, the A M p ouds.

These is the place.

Town you got associated, you know, yeah, the only place where we could talk about super market and markets before we even introduced our guests. Ladies to tell me this is another episode of course Love Supreme Quest Love, Say what's up?

Team Supreme Solid okay uh.

Today we have a favorite, a personal favorite of mine.

He don't get bailed.

But bigger than everybody, yeah, you know, and on the low for all of.

The no, but for for all the props that I give to Daylight transforming my life.

If you really.

Inspect a lot of photos of me between eighty nine and I will say that our guests had a big hen and life and fashion choices. Yeah, I proudly rock that. Actually, Yeah, Teka and I. At one point the the U when we were Black to the Future, we went to hats and the bell for you to buy those hats with the hind with a propeller on it.

Because Kwame rocked it.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome the legendary yo yo yeah kwalm course, yes, the man we all know love.

What's up?

Brood Man? How are you? Thank you for having me?

Man? Thank you for doing this. You know this, this, this is this is honor for all of us. Thank you. Yeah. So where'd you grow up? Where did you grow up? I grew up in now is that my? How you're doing? Where'd you grow up? Let's go back to the beginning. Let's go back to the beginning. Where are you from? I don't know where you're from.

I am from East Elmhurst slash Corona, Queens, New York.

So you started out as in New York? Yes, okay, okay, you were born.

Born in Queens. My whole family is in Queens. When I got my deal, I was in Queens and in height Seeing.

And Philly a lot because it was and.

They liked me, so I would be here a lot.

No, seriously, at one point I was just like, maybe he's from Yayden.

No, you know what it is.

My manager Dave, who's here, he's from Yayden. And Tap Money who's also from yad and he wanted to say he's from West Philly, but he's lived in Yden more than West Philly. But anyway, Tat, Tat Money, I forgot right.

You saw the video and I was.

Like, is that yeah, so Tat was. I met Tat. I met Tat, Steady B and Cool C before I came out. I was tagging along with Kidd and Play and Herbie love Bug and they had a show in Richmond, Virginia with Steady and the show got snowed out so we were stuck in this We couldn't even get to the hotel, were stuck in the venue overnight, and we all just got cool and Tat was real cool, and I was like, hey, man, you know I got this, And I pulled out the poster board of the mock

Leading to doom.

They were all coming to my house. They would stay weeks at my house. I would stay weeks to their house. My mother wud be like, okay, one of your friends going back to Philly because we were like sixteen, seventeen, eighteen years old. So that was that's y'all.

Were you You guys were like our native tongues.

Yeah yeah, yeah.

So when you came and co.

Signed Philly me, that's the first time I felt like, Okay, Philly can be cool. Because again, I mean, you're you're not saying what you really want to say about cool and steady, but.

No, they were just they were post drug dealer cool, like you know, no.

No, you know what it is, it's nothing. It's nothing to say good or bad about them. But they just weren't the kind of guys that I was. You know what I'm saying. You know, we're not from we didn't have the same way, so it wasn't I would never be hanging I would never hang out with them where Tat is cut from that same cloth. So you know, I would definitely hang with Tat and and you.

Know, so that's how that's pretty explains why I saw you and Philly a lot. Yeah, okay, I just thought you have property and.

I should have had Robberty if I was smart.

Now I get it, not Philly. So in Queens, what was your what was your experiences of music?

See my neighborhood. You know, you know everybody likes to really big up their neighborhoods, But for me, I think my neighborhood is a very special place in Queens and anybody can look it up. So if you go the history of East Elmhurst Corona, it's right next to LaGuardia Airport, so literally you can, like my grandmother's house, my house, I can walk to the airport and within that neighborhood post, I mean pre rap. You had el Fitzgerald, Harry Belafonte,

So how is on the lawn like?

It's it's I would say the equivalent of Winfield maybe Winfield's slash, you know West Philly area. Yeah, but it's not Overbrook Farms. You know what I'm saying. It's not that, but it's pretty cool. And then you have some see East Elmhurst is more of the homes with front yards and backyards. I lived in a row home, so most like the Philly homes. My grandmother would have a house with a front and backyard. But then you have Corona, and that side is Northern Boulevard. You cross Northern Boulevard.

Sylvia.

Here's the demo and the deals coming at the same time. But the difference between Atlantic Records, Sony Columbia then Sylvia. Sylvia's was like a one page note.

And so, you know, just to you know, just to give a quick recap, those are like the different people I feel like, mister Rogers, those are the people in my neighborhood.

Those so before the rabbit Hole nerd him right now, we're hanging on everywhere. So were you signed before Redhead or did he sign his deal?

For Red Redhead and a group called New Style later known as Naughty by Nature, they decided to sign and they she wanted to change sugar Hill Records to Bone of Me and I was like, I don't even know that even sounds hip hop.

You know, she owned Bone of Me Records. Yes, I remember that label.

Yes, So she was boning me and New Style came out on Bone of Me. Red got out of it because he was underage and he lied about his age and he was sixteen as well, and he got out of it. I never signed then. We was we weren't good kids, you know, I'll be honest.

With you.

I'm not even an lie of you. We weren't. We were good kids, but we didn't always do good things. So we got in trouble, all of us. Like at the same time we were running around.

In the street. Yes, we got, we got. It was like stupid, like stupidity.

It's something I would never even talk about in detail. But it was me, Read and a couple other guys and we did something stupid. And at that point my father was like, some of the guys actually got into real trouble. Some of us didn't get thank god, didn't get into any major anything. But the thing was, you're moving out of Jersey. This is the wrong environment for you. Mind you, this was a very nice neighborhood. It wasn't anything grimy in the stretch. It was just board kids

That everybody was safer for you to be in that in Queens than it was to be an English.

Well here's the other side. He decided to move to I have a farm in Virginia. He moved on to the farm. So when he moved on to the farm in Virginia, I was there was no way I was gonna move on a farm. I just got a record deal. There's no way I'm living on a farm.

Said well you can.

You can wrap from the farm and you just come to New York.

When I was like, there's no.

Way I'm doing that. So I ended up backing Queens with my mother. And like I said, that close area where my mother was was cool, but the surrounding, like everybody that like fifty cent raps about and all this kind of stuff. Those were people that came to my house that I knew like they were actually that part of Queen. So so it was a whole nother environment living there.

And so, okay, Queen. There's such a folk glory about Queen.

When so you're saying that there's multiple sections of Queens, like the tripod quest Queens versus the Rundiom Sea Queens versus.

So I lived in the Quist. So my part of Queens was q Tip, Sweet Tea. We all lived in the same little section. Tip was a little bit further out. Tea was in between me and where Queue Tip was. So that section is south Jamaica, right where Rundium cll cool j Ja Rule. They're in Hollis. They're on the south side of jama but they're not the furthest south part of Jamaica. And if anybody needs to understand Queens, look at a map, look at Long Island. At the

Sometimes yeah, but go in.

And when I was a kid, it was white, it was Italian and black. So flash forward, say thirty years, it's all one section Korean, one section Chinese, and then a small section Japanese. All the street signs are in Asian all the stores. It's one thousand percent. So that's that's Flushing Queens. But then you go further toward Brooklyn and you say you're in Richmond Hill. Richmond Hill is it was when I was a kid, predominantly all Irish. Now it's all South American, so it's Peruvian and stuff

So it's Queen.

Yeah, beet nuts are from Corona as well. So Queens is such a diverse area. And then there's a part of Queens that most Queens people don't even know about called Malba. Malba is if you know, the White Stone Bridge is right under the white Stone Bridge. If I take you to Malbury, you would think you were in bel Air or or Beverly Hill, somewhere off the water. For neighbor seas you're driving, the cops will be there in one point four seconds. If you are off of

Queen's Bridge, right, queens Bridge, Yeah, you know queens Bridge. Okay, where there's not and that's its Manhattan, right.

Yeah, Queen's Bridges. You can walk to Manhattan from from queens Bridge. You can walk over the bridge. It'll take you five minutes and you're on fifty sixth Street and First Avenue. So you know, what were you?

So?

How did hip hop reach you at a young age? Because I'm almost certain that other boroughs were like another world to you, or another city of hip.

Hop reached me. In nineteen seventy nine, I can remember exactly what I was doing where I was at. I was playing with Star Wars men on the floor with my best friend's name is Dak Carr, and me and Dak called blaming Star Wars and Rappers. The light came on the radio and from that point. Literally from that point begged my mother to buy the record. My you know, I'm six years old. I see the recognition of you know, sugar Hill the label. So anytime I go to a

It was.

I didn't have to hear it. I didn't know it. My favorite record to this day is Freedom Series five and eighth Wonder, the second and the third record I've ever bought, still have the exact records. So hip hop, but I never understood that hip hop was an actual It's weird, you know. It became a culture. It became what I was doing, what all the kids were doing. We were all breaking, we were all doing graffiti, we were all you know, everybody wanted two turntables, you know,

Look at this little kid beatbox.

I had no I have no clue what it was. But it was just all immersing, you know what I'm saying, and and and you know, running around the neighborhoods looking for uh uh refrigerator boxes to break on, you know, tying or tying our jeans up with shoelaces and and putting on uh union Jack Katson and getting our our you know, the the what do you call those things? The press on letters on our sweatshirts and spiked spiked, very.

Fable, even way before you have a record budget to even start.

Oh no, I was.

I was all into the gear everything, you know, getting your name belt, that was like that was one hundred percent life for us in the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth grade. You know, that's that's what we did.

So can I ask what your parents did because you mentioned your dad went to a farm and that just really threw me for a second.

Well, my father, my father, you know, my father recently passed not even a month ago. So so my father was a very incredible person. My father, he worked for the light company Conditisent, but My father was like the weirdest hustler type dude ever, and we didn't understand it as kids. Just to give you a quick view of my pops. Pops used to push a seventy eight VW red and white van. It had no heat.

Yeah wait here, I can see this.

And no air conditioning. So in the middle of the winter, he would line the van with quilts and and plastic and put a kerosene heater in the middle in the middle of the van and would tell us, y'all hold on to that so it don't tip over and around. So and these are things that my father would do. But there's a reason that I didn't know at the time. So you know, it's gonna be a funny story that turns into a tragic story.

So so it's one of those stories.

So we would come home and it would be no phone service. So my father would climb up the phone pole, do some jiggery and be like, okay, look, if you pick up the phone, don't say nothing. If you hear people talking, just hang.

It up now.

If you hear two rings, that's your grandmother, and then you pick up the phone. If you hear three rings, that's your aunt, I'm like, wow, So but my all all is while my pops had a job. You know, it wasn't like he was on drugs or anything crazy. He had a job. My mother. I'll get into my

So we were getting free gas for a whole year.

He made some pipe, and the gas company found out, broke into the house and ripped the whole thing out. So I got in trouble because my mother thought one of my friends did this, Like she thought that I was responsible for somebody breaking into the home. So long story short. He was putting his mother his money aside because his sister was dying of lupus and he was paying for all of the medical bills. But we didn't know that, you know, and his sister was like, you know,

Yeah, everyone's grandfather always rolls with trickles down to the grandson.

And he met my grandmother because my grandmother was a show singer. So so they met on the road and you know, he was the type of dude that you know when he met her. She was real pretty she and also my grandmother was the first black Pepsi model. So so he was the kind of guy that he bagged a bad chick, but then he wanted to do bad chick things anymore. So he brought to the queens and gave a bunch of babies and one of the babies.

Was my mother.

Wait what's what's name's name?

Kryan Drew Kriyan Davis.

And you're gonna look at that right now.

I wanted to see her.

Everybody else is listening, is I'm like so so you know, you know at that time, did you have you saying I can ramble so you can askage so so so that so and on my grand my father's side, my grandfather was a detective and my grandmother was a social worker. So it was just two different types of family and they all support it in a different way, you know. So like my grandmother has you know, both grandmothers have

You know.

My grandfather very encouraging with music. Like I said, takes me to Lonel Hampton's house. First time I ever been to a house with a person had a butler. I was like, yo, the only person I thought would have a butler was like Bruce Wayne. And I get to this man's apartment which looks just like the building looked just like George Jefferson's apartment. We get up there and the butler comes with a tray and I'm like, where

Grant Master Flint fires five Man the message.

He's like, what, yeah, you know, so he gives me the drums and the only thing I play on the drums is Planet Rock, Yeah, the message freedom, eighth wonder. And then because a lot of them had horns, I would go to school and learn how to play the trumpet, so all I would play was just I would just play the rap records.

After I learned how to play Freedom.

That I don't want to play the one anymore. I just stopped playing the trumpet, you know so, And even with the piano, it's like I heard the rap, different rap records or just different records in general, and I loved just playing that. And then but I hated lessons. I just hated the lessons part.

But you know, so, you didn't want to practice that much.

I wanted to practice what I made up. I didn't want to do scales. I didn't want to do fertile least, so I don't want to do none of that fingering all that.

I hated that.

And my teacher, Miss Punter, she was the type you know, you play and you use the wrong finger. Fingers, that's all she was saying. I would have to do like, you know, like piano recitals. It was probably the most nervous I've ever been in my Like my legs were shake hated it, hated it.

You mentioned I dubbed that the Alicia Keys nock tune.

Right, okay, I'll go no, I love you believe that was this one time when I seen the show, it was just going to start off real deep, like you know, all these all these courts and defense and they just.

Lowse down, knocking down. I'm trying to help.

It was like, you know, seconds and sudden audience. Yeah, we love you. I love that. Come on now, I love this ship. I'll leave you. That's what That's my home. So you're you're saying that a hip hop, I mean as an m C. When did you figure out this is this is my path?

My well, first of like you know, just as a kid, I would write and compose things, but I knew I couldn't sing anything. So you know, rapping was like the best case scenario at that point. And you know, I loved Mellie mel I loved Tela Rock, you know I loved and then and then somebody came to my house with a tape said you got to hear this guy, and he put the tape in and it was Lotty Dotty, not the record, It was just Lotty Dotty somewhere in

It was a.

Place I wish it still existed called USA United States of America. In Queens. Every Sunday somebody would perform. I'm talking about Eric being rock Him this Sunday, New Edition, Next Sunday, l O Cuja next Sunday, Every Sunday Light Clockwork.

It was the greatest breakdance place.

If you ever watch B Street when they go to the Rocky and Battle, just picture that with just in Queens. It was that And that's why B Street resonates with me so much, because it was something that was actually real for me. And so we went to see Coolgie Rap perform. He had twenty two records. It's demo and I'm flying I'm Fly with the flip side, and that's only two records yet. And he got up there and to see the girls in.

The that I in the neighborhood, can you curse? Yes, absolutely so.

Girls in the neighborhood that wouldn't do nothing, would be like, I want to fuck him now hearing like the good girls that that I just go to school with, saying, wait, we see him every day.

We used to call him Abdul. We see Abduel every day.

And all of a.

Sudden he come.

He came out, I remember this in a dapper dand Louis suit. Now you know everybody had a Muslim. I never knew what, but we back in the days that he was.

Up doing.

Sorry g and and he came out in this. He came out in this uh Louis Vatan suit. You got a Gucci link on with some medallion, a head full of Jervy curls with a fade what gold teeth.

But that was the thing.

You don't believe he thought that was you know, she rapped with the curl and you know, and and and he's rhyming on fly.

Then he throws out these dollars and then he threw out. Then he threw out roses and you all these.

This is pre king. So we're like that, what the fuck and the girl, but it still didn't click. So then I asked my father. Then a couple of like in the summer, this was the winter, that summertime. I'm sorry, this was later. Second, the first thing that happened was I asked my father to take me to a Slick Rick Dougie Fresh concert at City College in Harlem. So my pops would take me anywhere anything music related.

He was witted.

He take me. We get in that bus, and he was witted. He bought me turntables. He was one thousand percent. I'll get into him, but you know, and I'm gonna tell the story. I know you can relate to this one. So we get into the store, we get to the City College and Doug comes on. He's doing his Dougie Fresh records. He had a couple of records before the show. Then he then a magician comes out.

Wait what a hip hop magician? So the magician comes out and to.

The beat, he's like throwing fire out his hands and all the crazy shit.

So I'm like, all right, that's cool.

And then the music stops and all you hear from the back is one two, one two, y'all the chicks win. Rick saunters out in this FeelA suit and ballys his his cano and shades, and he was just like, yo, what's up, y'all? And all the chicks was losing their brains.

I was like, that is it. I have been sanctified. It's like Jesus touched me.

At that one. I was like, fuck anything I want. I was going to school to be an illustrator.

I was.

I was in art school, and I'm like, I'm not doing no art. I was a science major. Also a fuck science touched by the devil. No way, I'm not doing this for a living for the rest of my life. There's no way. Rick she did, Lotty Dotty did the show. He bounced, chicks was losing their absolute minds. I was like, oh no, this this gotta be my life.

Man.

I can't. I can'tnot not do that. But like the touch on my post real quick. He this is how my father was. I'm a heavy Prince fan, and so you know, I'm like Prince Like. I relate to the musicality of Prince, but I relate to the style of Morris Day. So I'm all, I remember seven seven seven ninety three eleven. That's like one of my first records also that I ever bought, I bought. You know, I don't think my father let me buy Dirty Mind album because of him in the drawgs. No, but you know,

Like? What is it?

You know?

So, so I was doing a talent show and I was gonna be It was a toss up between getting my boys together and be coming the time or just doing it alone and being prince. So my mother had a purple raincoat. Put the purple coat on, she had this blouse, put the blouse on, Put on my jeans. She had these purple suede boots. Put them boots on.

Put this little thing around my hair.

I had a bush and I'm downstairs practicing Let's go crazy, and my father walks in the baby.

The fuck I feel like building and mir stories like that.

So he was like, what the fuck are you doing. It's prince man, he said, Prince what the fuck?

And I'm like, yo, it's Prince. So I show him purple Rain. He said this bullshit and come with me. He took me to the He took me to the video store. You know there was no Blockbuster. They took me to the video store and it's like, give me whatever you have on Jimmy Hendrix, James Brown and Little Richard.

Wow.

And he made me sit down and watch every documentary on those trees. Said, now there goes Prince. That's what you want to do, that's what you want to be. You got to know who these guys are.

And so you know that was his thing. Wait, can we stop for all of you that are listening to this episode. This is why we do this episode.

Parents, I want you to teach your children do exactly what he said. Musical punishments are great, John Coltrane.

I wish I had musical punishments great.

My parents knew you couldn't punish me with music. They said to then, okay, okay, yeah, give me more of that. No, dude, you know, listen to him. Two man got me John Coltrane for a month.

So you know, it's like even with Mars Day.

He saw Mars Day.

He say, you like what he has on?

I can take you to where exactly. You can buy every one of those things. We went to Stacey Adams I got, you know, and so my eighth grade prime I pretty much had with Marris Day had because he took me to the actual place. So so you know, that's the type of you know, pops he was. And I'm not saying my mother wasn't as encouraging, but my mom's was the type of person was like, stop doing that beat stuff with your mouth. It's gonna mess your mouth up. Your lips are gonna be distorted, it's not

It will break it. We can't afford the hospital, you can. I ask? Are you the only child?

No?

I had a little brother.

Oh okay, yeah, okay.

So so you know so and that was cool because you know, I had a little brother and my little cousins. If I couldn't get like a record or whatever, I would like, look my brother's three. Tell them you want funk, you right on up. Tell them you want super rhymes, super but you know, so my brother would go ask for super rhymes while I went and got these are the.

Breaks, you know what I'm saying.

So so yeah, and then you know, then then we would do like we were the type we were like the Double Trouble or something. We would come out, we got to show for you, and then we put on the breaks and we would perform the breaks for you know, for dinner and stuff like that. So we were those kids, and yeah, you know, so so that back to your question, because I went around it that slick Rick moment, that cool Gie Rat moment, was like, all right, yeah, this is okay.

So how far was it in the future until you were on stage for the first time doing your ship pre deal like pre.

Deal immediately No no, no, no, no immediately.

It wasn't you'll get your deal at sixteen, right, yeah, so so safe that was marketing. You were really sixteen when you did.

I got my deal at sixteen. By the time Boy Genius came out, I was about to be seventeen. But I always did shows like you know, I hate saying it in front of you, but you know I used to kill the drums man like I'm seriously, I was like, all my things, so my thing I used to be good enough to wear my school would pimp me out and.

Drum at the same time. Sometimes I would that would have been such a dope marketing angle for.

You saying Anderson Park is the only person that has ever done that.

What I'm saying is that was a joke when I was a kid.

When I was when I was a kid, fifth sixth, seventh grade, and they got win that I did. I play like that. It would be just like showtime at Kwame's Apollo. They would just say, okay, today you're going to the fourth grade class and you're gonna play the drums for them, and they set up way planning rock.

You need to get out of the fourth period. Yeah you know.

So so you know, me performing that was like, that's what I love to do. So you know, when it time when it was time to rhyme, like literally, the teacher would be like, look, we're going to roller skating today and there's going to be a DJ and a microphone. Kwame, don't rap that that would be the prerequisite. And this is, you know, sixth seventh grade. So you know, the first time I was really like serious serious is that same

You know.

So if say, if if it was the month that I was in my competition, the special guests would be Super Levec Father them See or Master Ace.

You know.

But we all, you know, we all got cool pretty much from the from that experience. And then you know, Suit got they got their deal first, and then you know, Ace got his thing with the Juice Crew, you know for them see he came after me. But no one got deals per se from it. But that was the performing experience, like the biggest, the most coveted thing that I have is the trophy from that USA. It's in my case I still have. It's broken. It looks like a piece of garbage, but you know, no one will

Yo?

Man?

That's that's my first award.

What would you perform at that time?

Story rhymes?

It was like it was your own material. You just had a beat box. Yeah. I was gonna say, did you have a foil to do music for you?

Or yeah?

I had. I had the beat box, and then you should have drumming run I used to.

I used to use this doctor rhythm drummers. I would make a beat and I, you know, if the beat box wouldn't come or I would have the doctor rhythm whatever the beat was, and then he would beat on top of it, and then you know, and then and then I would rhyme. But it was mainly like story nasty dirty story rhymes and get people.

To go six years old.

Yeah, and then to the point where I remember my father and mother found one of.

The rhymes and this is after they they find the story book.

Yeah, so they find around it fell out and it was just like pussy bitch, fuck o, you know, all this stuff and you know, being like trying to be like stick you know, always has like a song that is attached to it. You know, fun is so good. She was like dag old dad, so.

So like that. But my min was the actual day.

So so my father was like my mother and father sat me down and this is I can remember it so vividly because they were split up for a while and this was the one time they were together and they sat me down and said, would you say this?

My mother's like, what you say this filth to me? Like, no, what you say it to your grandmother? No?

And we're in my grandmother's house. Get your grandmother right now and read this time. So my grandma's like, what's going on? Like, sit down?

The bitch was sitting on my lap and I began to rap what whatever in mine was.

And my grandmother was like, she just got up and walked away.

Let's hear it for hip hop humiliation, that's weird. I got it for honing it, got it right, you know.

Did you so to get a record though?

Did you finally feel like vindicated? Like, okay, now I'm this, this is paid off well before before I get to that. My rap name that was the big issue. Oh my rap name was sweet Daddy Jazzy k g Q. That was your whole, whole thing, whole name, Sweet Daddy Jazzy k GQ. Everyone's first name. What was your first rap name? Fante before Little Brother Fante?

It was psychological that's not even that bad, but it was.

But the real comedy called Yeah, you already know. It was p s y k A L O g I K A L with a question mark.

Backward.

Yeah it was. Yeah, it was horrible.

Yeah, I remember, man, it was like being in the studio one time and Dana Dana Dane was like, look, man, I don't know how to tell you this, but that's the stupidest name I never heard. And I looked up to Dana so much. I was like heartbroken. I was like, for real, man, He's like, yo, I don't know anybody with the name Kwame. I don't anybody with that name.

Just use your name.

And Salt, which was WIBB, was in the next one, going yeah that's a stupid ass name. Yeah, so Sault and Dana killing me and Saul is like, you know you, we know what you're doing. We know when we go away, you coming here and you steal the drum machines and you make this music and everything. You like a little little boy genius. Why don't you just call yourself Kwame the damn boy Genius or something not sweet Daddy jazzy k. I'm like, and that's how the whole thing started.

Honestly, man like really like you were one of the first nerds. Yeah, the first nerds. Like when I bought The Boy Genius, I mean that came in. I was like ten, I think and seeing you know Kuame, but then reading the credits and seeing your name was Kwame Holland that was one of the early times I saw. I was like, man, I could just be fante. I could just wrap under my name. The first Cats inspired me to do that. You were the first hip hop nerd, so that that's probably what it was.

Okay, So there's an associate of.

Yours that I've been dying to interview, and I really don't know that much about him.

Okay, can you speak of.

One of my hip hop idols as a producer, Herbie love Buf Yeah.

Please. Herbie is the most elusive man on the planet. You do not know what country he is now. It could be anywhere. Literally, he's the He's the male Carmen san Diego. Like, I can text Herbie, where are you. I'm in Haiti. Where are you? I'm in France, Africa.

Spoke to him.

He was where Miami.

Okay, that's that's one of my dreams, my personal top five interview goals.

It is definitely Herbie Love. Yeah, I want to. I wanted Herbie too. Herbie.

I'm telling you, Herbie is like to run into herb. It's just you'll run into Herbie in the weirdest places, like, for example, you know I keep in touch with you know, my old crew of Salt and Pepper, kidd and Play, Dana Danes Sweet Tea, and so most of us still keep in touch in some way, shape or form. So it'll be like.

One.

It was like sometime last year, I'm talking to Play. He's in La I'm in New York and we're talking on the phone and we're like, man, we should find Herbie and throw him at dinner, an appreciation dinner. I was like, yeah, if you can find him, It's like everybody has his number, but you just gotta find him, and I swear to you, like forty five minutes later, Play calls me up, yo, I'm walking down the fucking block, and here goes Herbie and he puts Herbie on the phone,

So that sounds about right.

I'm doing I'm gonna do. I'm doing interviews. I was like, are you coming inside? And I ain't going in there.

It's crazy.

This is let me, Herbie is, let me, let me get you to understand Herbie. Herbie is the type of guy. He is the template for any ball out producer.

He is the template.

Like when I say the template puff Jermaine used to shadow Herbie all the time, you know, and Herbie is the only person I've literally like, Herbie would pick me up one time, like we were just hanging out. This is like in the mid nineties, we reconnected and we would just hang out every day for stupid stuff. Let's call get White Castle, let's do this, let's do it. And every single day a different brand new car would pick me up. It would be a Hummer, it would

But he was not.

But when I say, when I say that, it wasn't like he was the type of person that would super blowers money. He would just come up on I don't know how he did it, and he made You got to understand Salt and Pepper has sold a lot of records, more than any female rapper. And they never want to say this, but like those albums sold five six seven million copies, and Herbie wrote all the rhymes and did them, did all the music. So you're getting one hundred and

You know what I'm saying, each other's videos.

That's how you guys are down with each other because when you're debut you Yeah, my god, Tarik loss his mind when he first saw it's the man we all know love like because he was trying to describe I didn't have uh MTV in my part of town, so basically would recorded for me and then give me the tape on Monday, so he would describe it to me, and he was just like, Yo, this is is video.

Malcolm Jamal warners in it, kidding plays in it.

And he's he's re enacting being tired vidic like, so Tarik I had already from and he.

Starts with the same street thing. One of these kids don't think he's like he's like.

He basically said, it was like a cross between because like I was, like, you know, the premise of Class Act, the movie that was.

Me and I was the nerve that new break beats was Duncan Penner hughes.

Yes, I got a great Class Act. I want to hear it please, I'm in Class Act. You know you wouldn't get it was sleeping right, No, I got it was the worst best experience in my life. So I was supposed to be Dougie Doug's character. I got the role. I actually got the role. I flew to La to start shooting and play goes, what are you doing here? I'm here to work.

He said, no, you're not.

He we wanted him, so so they they chose Dougie Doug, which was a good choice.

He's a comedian.

I'm so not so that was cool. Yes, So they they lobbied for him that and so they said it had no idea that I even tried out. So they said, well, we will write apart for you. So they wrote a part called Squirrelly Kid. Yeah, I had to wear my own clothes. I wore my propeller hat and the the premise was the bully guy he I'm tired of him bullying me, so I pulled out a thirty eight real, yeah, and he's supposed to knock the thirty eight out in my hand, pick me up, throw me out the window.

So he does that.

So in rehearsal, instead of him knocking the gun he was supposed to knock the gun this way out, he does it to where the gun comes this way and it whole side of my face, like the blood everywhere. Everything was crazy. So they had to shoot me from one side. And then this random stunt guy was the do they threw out the window. But I was like it was like, you know, it's a mistake. They thought I was going to shoot the movie company. I was

Why wouldn't that be Salt and Pepper?

Wait, because Harvey did it.

But but I do know that story, that story was, that movie was made for Prince. No, it was originally written for Groove be Chill, but Groove be Chill wasn't big enough. They didn't they you know, they didn't think that was gonna be big enough to carry a movie. So then it was submitted to Jeff and Prince. And I don't know what that politic was.

Okay, So real quick house party.

You remember when Will and Jeff had their own Freddy song night Mare Online Street, Well, New Line Cinema had already designated who's the.

Most popular rap group out there? Yeah, the Fat Boys.

So basically Will and Jeff, Will and Jeff have basically messed up the Fat Boys Nightmare theme because their ship was way bigger than that. So New Line Cinema tried to sue Will and just yes, yep. And then this movie comes up because the Hutler brothers really want Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince based on parents just don't understand, yeah, and so a bunch of irritate whatever, and you know, they're like, no, they're trying to sue us anyway for Nightmare Online.

We don't want New Line Cinema. So then they went to kitt and Play.

But but so what I'm talking about with grooveby Chill is pre all of that. It's the inception writing a script and with them in mind, I think it was like Groovy grooveby Chill and Finessence and Quiz like that was like the inception of the script from from what I was told. You know, I could be wrong, so you know, so so, but just imagine it was a salt and pepper kid and play movie or you know. And then another thing with House Party, that was my

Y'all couldn't said okay home and you can go.

I can.

I can dance, and you know I could have danced well enough for the movie. So so it was things like that, even if.

Y'all were family.

Are you saying that there was just in house competition with this is my Dodaine like, yeah, go get your don't use my platform, worm to so they couldn't see the bigger pictures.

I think the biggest picture was Salt and Pepper, and Salt and Pepper's platform allowed everybody else to be on a platform. For example, that n W a movie that you everybody saw straight out of Compton, that tour that they were on. That was me n W. A easy kidn't play Salt and Pepper.

That night I was on that tour. Yeah, so so.

But but that took place because the power of Salt and Pepper was like, well, if you want Salt and Pepper on this tour, you gotta take Kwame and can play. But it was cool, you know, and the cool thing was that's how my my record sales grew because in the beginning of the tour they had no idea who the hell I was. By the end of the tour, you know, things were popping and that to honestly, the tour was only two weeks, week and a half.

It wasn't even it was supposed to be two weeks or got yeah.

No, no, no, that was it.

But two weeks to a kid that doing something they've never done before on tour, it was so dope because it was like, you know, the ordinances, they're you know, no curse and no you know all these ordinances. So we would do things like all right, easy would come into our dress room, we'll all do things together. If anybody knows about tours, sometimes the closing acts always have the louder music, always have the better everything. But they did not want to do everybody had an equal sound,

So we would have to get on.

Stage and be like look, it was like local security guards with like yellow shirts and shit. And we would have to be like, look, they want us to kill ourselves tonight, so what are y'all gonna do? We know this gangs in here, we know, we know what the type. We know there's all types of people in here, but they want us to die. You know, Pe was on some of the shows, so you know, Chuck would get in and say what he had to say.

I got to say that everybody speak.

They piece like, yeah, but but but we we It was so cool because the cleaner acts did pick up for the for the quote unquote dirtier acts. You know, too Short was on the show, so whoever dirty comes on, has a clean guy gotta come on right after that.

So it was just flash.

But it was never it was never. It was never a thing where it was like I sold this mini record so I'm going on last or anything. It was nothing like that because we understood it was us against them at this point. So we're on this, We're on this crazy tour and you know, probably the best two weeks of my life.

You know, imagine an n W A and Cann't play tour like I mean, I mean, it makes sense. But because hip hop got so divided, was before the early nineties.

Yes, what about the fans who just came to see the good and fans who just came to see the There was no such thing the thing.

The roots in future perform you know what I mean?

But see you Gotta, you gotta.

Was there any nervousness over territories? So like if you were I mean, you could be hitting in New York you know you played.

It happened for NW like that. By the time we reached we did the spectrum in Philly, it was cool. But once we went past Philly kind of all bets was off a little bit for for well, at least too short n w A. It was a different story, but too short. Like them records never really reached the East Coast, but anywhere pre Philly, from l A to DC, Virginia.

Two shows.

Was the first rapper I've ever seen get on stage and never say a word. Thirty thousand people knew every line to every song and at the end of the show, what's my favorite work? And that was the end of the show.

Okay, Now, oh god, Now I got someone that has been in front of thirty thousand people doing the classic hip hop era. My version of touring is very blue collar you know. I mean you've seen it, you know, yeah, Granola, cereal and oatmeal. Dave Matthews playing on the.

K Mathew's playing on the PA system in between acts. What give me? Just give me life on tour in nineteen eighty nine, what's going on? So let me know everything.

From women on down. It's like, I'll give you like my stories, man, I'm telling you these things are crazy. Like it'll be things like you pull up to a city. The reason why we were doing arenas because rap was so rap was like, I don't know if anybody's ever experienced a Mexican act that comes to like say Madison Square Garden or something like that, they don't because it's so compartmentalized. Everybody just goes to one place to see it. There were no clubs, you know, there was no club

You know.

So it was like that. So we would get to town and it would be things like just personal experience. I got pull in and there will be a girl standing in front of the hotel where's Carmel, Like, who's Carmel? And we wearing the poke dot got the street, where's.

Carmel and ready to put out It's literally literally it'll be something.

Where my boy he's in the back of that bus and by the time she got to the back of the bus, she was butt naked, like butt naked, big three hundred pounds. I want to Carmel where he had rotten now and see and it would be like it would be weird things like that, or I'll give you a Milwaukee story.

So so the smaller obscure towns are the more craziest.

Yeah, Calama Zoo, Madison, Wisconsin.

The craziest place the Calama Zoo. That way, Michigan. So like in.

Milwaukee, imagine like you know, we weren't in the fly hotels. We didn't get boutique hotels or anything. We were in holiday inns and Best Westerns or whatever. So the only people that could even match up with rappers at the time were drug dealers. Where you have like, say you know, you come to a say a Root show, you'll be have actors there, You'll have athletes there. At this time, we weren't necessarily cool to like Michael Jordan would never show up better rap show.

Malcolm Jamal Warner would yeah, yeah.

But he was our aide, so it doesn't count. But Michael Jorgan somebody like a baseball player, basketball player, an actor. For the most part, the biggest person that would ever show up to anything would be Bobby Brown and Mike Tyson, So you know that those guys would be the ones that would run with us. But anybody else we were like those nasty ass rappers they hudlums in so so

Very well. But see.

You know, but that's when we go to Houston, that's who who took care of everybody? You know, that's not see I don't want to stand this is the before I get into the story. I don't understand the the the flashing lights over the name J Prince, I don't get. I don't personally understandstand because he was just homie when we got to He had the Rolex hookup, he had the club hook up, he had the girl hookup. He would show you know, you know, uh Scarface, he was

Prince.

Yeah I don't.

That's good that you don't because it might.

And it's maybe I don't. I don't. Yeah.

No, No, I'm saying as maybe my lack of my my ignorance and research I can only go I can always you know, go back and see. Okay, what do I.

Maybe you was a dude everybody loves, But it's just it was just.

Never a situation. You never had to check in with anybody when you got to a certain time. You never it was just everybody. So I'm saying the people that, so to add.

On to that or ask going too that, when did you lose that feeling? Like when did hip hop suddenly become a foreign city to you? Like, oh wait, what's going on here?

Like I wanted to tell my Milwaukee story. No no, no, no, no no, but that's scond that's so Milwaukee. So so we're all in this holiday inn and it's nothing but the local hustlers in the hotel with us. So imagine you have one side of a hall and all the rooms are connected. So it's my room here, Tasha, who sings only you here, tap money here, you know, everybody and all of and how we usually do it to

Oh shit.

So we're like, all right, we gotta find his back. She's hysterical, her mother gave her his bag, blah blah blah. So we start knocking on every door. Mind you, there was a guy that would come knocking on the way, Man where the party at? Man where the party at? So he was the scout. You know, nobody's paying attention. So we're knocking on the doors and we opened one door and I see the scout dude, and I'm like, yo, man, you was in my room and so little me, I'm

So I say, you got my shit. You came in my room. You violated.

I'm doing all this New York shit.

He's like, man, you better back up.

I said, if anybody comes to me and punch him in the face. So one guy comes up, whoop knock him and all I hear they had a suite. All I hear is.

There you go?

I kid you not like seven dudes came out of this back bedroom with guns.

But this is the the click speedos on wait what speedos?

Cowboy booth, oh god, and the cowboy hat and sub automatic machine guns.

Yeah, I'm like you. I was like, what yo. Ever see that that gift where Homo Simpson just back the Irish exit, Yo, I was like.

But it was things like that that would always Besides the girl, there was like so many weird girl stories, Like girls it'll be like pulling up and doing in store when there were record stores to do in stores at and you do the instore and there's like little kids being in, little girls and being in and and then like two hours later, you get a knock on the door and his grown woman to show up to the to the room in this nice dress. She's like, yeah,

She's like, what it was like a.

Whole lot and it was like and it was like, yeah, I stole my mom's she worked nice and she don't know I took her dress, blah blah blah, like we got to get you home, you know, and you know what it was like. It was so crazy. It was and it started to be known that these young girls were doing it or it was and I don't know, it might happen still like this today, but it'll be things where girls are being in the room and you hear husbands just knocking on every door crying where's mother.

Exactly.

It'll be things like and this was the crazy thing. Whole moms would bring their daughters and like, because the mom wanted to meet say Ll, the daughter wanted to meet me. So the mom would be like, I'm gonna just leave her here in the room with you.

I'm gonna go go beet l.

It was stuff like that, the mom wanted to meet Alby Shaw, Bobby Brown or Keith Sway strain up. And then then and then the worst then the craziest thing, you know, because back then music literally at this point before ninety i say, pre ninety two, music was just hot. Music was hot music, and anybody went on tour with anybody, you would have the whole Sheriff's department. They know somebody

It was just like Pete Bobby Brown, prebody, No, this is pre.

This is current Bobby, this is Bobby Brown, is Bobby Brown was this was during the same time. This was all at the same time.

I feel like during that's when it's got shut down, like nineties between.

Bobby Brown and Luke Luke. I feel like, really, yeah, the idea thing like yeah, so so.

But but to your question about what, hey, I know.

I women, I know women. I mean, you know it was.

But see the thing is, it wasn't. We look at it as a certain way now, But I think back then it was just I want to liken it to Woodstock, you know how everybody wild out in Woodstock and no one put you know, like there was sex on the lawn and in the mud and all that. But nobody said, oh, that was a whole doing it. You know, nobody did that. It was just like people doing sex and drugs. So in the eighties, I would say, I would think from Mellion Mail's time all the way up to say ninety

Then things started.

It started to have an ugly face to a lot of things that were going on. But I think to answer your question, when I think the end of I would say an era, a golden era, I would say with death row with with NWA. Honestly, with the beginning of bad Boy, with that, it started to put things in boxes and rappers. We definitely all wore our costumes at the time, but now there were designated costumes that you had to wear. If you were from the East coast, you had to look like this and you had to

You know, think about it.

I got a Sprit commercial.

Yeah, you understand what a top artist gets on tour, right, quest So the top, the top pay for somebody in nineteen eighty nine, nineteen ninety was maybe I remember Salt and Pepper was getting twenty two thousand a show a show, you know, and that was like.

Oh shit, twenty But in nineteen eighty nine that was major.

Yeah, no, that sounds great.

Mc hammer was probably the top and he was at twenty three to twenty five.

That's crazy.

A good a good rapper, like if you're really popping and you had like maybe a gold out because like selling gold is now the equivalent of like two times platinum. So if you had a goal to platinum album, you can probably get twelve to fifteen thousand.

Your agent nor well, no, no, I see him, Mark Mark Mark At, I see him was was my agent at the time.

But you know, there was several agencies that we would just bounce from. You know, there was all these weird little agencies and but you know, so the money wasn't you know, the hottest you know, I was pushing a Volkswagon. You know, that was like the hottest whip you know, and you know, the only person that had like a super ill car besides Herbie. Every Beat for some some reason pulled out of Rolls Royce one day and everybody

Ladies and gentlemen.

I hate to do this to you, but you're gonna have to wait for part two with our interview with Kwame on Quest Love Supreme and which he gets into it about the big Ee situation and produce him for a lot of hip hop notable.

So we'll see you on the next go ROUNDO Quest Love Supreme only on Pandora. Sorry, See You.

Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. This classic episode was produced by the team at Pandora. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.