Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio.
Ladies and gentlemen.
Welcome to part two of the bow Laked Lou episode of Quest Love Supreme. You know, we talked about his his beginnings with singing with his brothers growing up in New York, and of course giving Curtis blow uh making classics with utfo uh the real rocks.
In Lisa, Lisa and Calt Jam.
We even give a little shout out to Tony Marrish in this episode, not to mention Shoel Patsey Riley working with James Brown making movies with Kidd and play Uh. Of course we're going to get into their work, all setting and sinking Backstreet boys.
You know, so much work, so much genius.
This is part two of the bow Laked Lou episode of Quest Love Supreme.
Enjoy lout tell me you're her best James Brown story. Man, let's go, because I feel like I feel like there's gonna be five of them.
Man, crested so many, Okay, I know I'm trying. I want to. I'm gonna tell all of them, but I need some.
I need a few.
You haven't repeated yet, at least.
On some you know something I'll be honest with you, like you.
But I actually avoided hearing that, like I was waiting for this moment to happen, this interview with him, that I actually muted.
I don't know anything.
I purposely wanted to hear the first time when I had my first platform to interview.
I get that you want to be unted, Lou interview. Yes, okay, tell us the story.
Only because that uh, that clip that people watch where James is kind of off the hook and loopy, you know, with the glasses and he's interviewing the lady. I would like to think that that was taking a break from the I'm Real video set because he's dressed the same way as he is in the video. So I'm assuming that whatever he was on during that interview was also in all club.
So go ahead, Lou, uncle Lou, please tell us one James Mall story so that won't get you in trouble because we loved and I'm good friends with his daughter.
Yea god, but but but I'm but I'm gonna speak, but I gotta speak.
We got clean clean it up.
Then sorry, no, no, no, So here's the deal with mister Brown. That's all we ever called him when when we got the when we got the uh, the call to do an entire James Brown album from Johnny Musso who's executive as Scottie Brothers at the time, when mister Brown recorded Living in America.
And then when we got that call that you know.
Mister Brown, James Brown would love you guys, you know, to do a whole album with James Brown. That's the call we got. We were blown away. And the first thing we started hearing was that, oh man, when y'all work with James Brown, man, it's going to be He's a task mask man, and he's mean.
We hear all these stories. So I said, before we go in the studio.
With him, let me call somebody that that worked with him, just so I could be ready about for anything. So I called Dan Hartman, who I didn't know, but I got his number because he did the Living in America and he worked on the Gravity and he did Gravity and he had his own hits We light my fire and so I get on the phone with him, introduced myself and I said, yeah, man, we're about to work
on a James Brown album. This bow Lad full Force and you know, can you you know, we hearing rumors and this, and you know we when we love James Brown. So he said, all right, well, the first thing, you don't call him James. You called him mister Brown first and foremost that's all you ever call him mister Brown. I'm like, okay, okay. Now he's kind of particular in the studio. And so what happens that the first day that mister Brown, we had songs ready and everything like that.
So the first day that he came that he was coming, we sent Paul because nobody puts us in awe, but mister Brown put us in a little owe. But we sent Paul to go get him. Paul, you're the welcome committee for mister Brown. And Paul went to get him and greet him at the elevator and he was mister Brown was wearing like a handkerchief around his neck sometime of like crazy hat. He had like shades on, like red shades. Oh wow, some bootsy college shades.
And he had some heels on, and.
He was just a legend, just legend derry. And he came walking in the studio. Paul said, how are you doing, miss Strong, Just coming and meet the rest of the guys, and he came in there. Gentlemen, gentlemen, gentlemen. Now, I love y'all. I love y'all, like y'all my son. So hey, I just want to know that we're gonna have a good session and we're going to do that. And then thank you, mister Brown. We didn't understand what he said, but thank you until now the time and your right question.
At the time we was working with mister Brown, he was in trouble with the law in and out. You know, sometimes we didn't have a session because he was, you know, like in jail and he let out and he was just going through stuff, go through so much stuff that sometimes that affected like him in the session and we would just be working with him and we would start wondering,
you know, is mister Brown because he's old. That's why some of the odd things, but just a lot of crazy, like we're like every now is shop.
We used to come to the studio lot.
And whenever he would come, like oh lord, because mister Brown stopped for him for everything, no matter what song was doing. Alright, Reverend's here, and Reverd would come unannounced. He never like scheduled or nothing like that. And mister Brown would go talk to me. I remember mister Brown was wearing some red shades, and Reverend Shopping says mister Brown because he called them mister Brown. Also, mister Brown,
how you doing. How's everything red? I'm wearing red shades, but I'm seeing blue.
You know, I'm telling you.
One time, one time, he uh, we were taking pictures and all the photographers taking pictures of us and mister Brown in the studio taking pictures.
Snap snap, snap, snap snap.
Then all of a sudden, all right, it's enough pictures, so stop the pictures. Then I of know where mister Brown goes into a damn split, a hard split, so hard that you can hear the floor and go boom, and he just rolls up. He did it out of nowhere, and then the photographer's like, let's not put that again.
That again.
He said, nope, you should have took the picture when I did it.
Then he just walked.
It was it was at one time using the studio and he was on to the door and the door was open, right, but he's pushing he's pushing the door one way and he's pushing it and he's pushing the door another way. But the door is just standing by itself. This is a studio door. We're going, mister.
Brown is everything.
Okay, Now I'm just showing y'all how I'm opening and closing the door at the same time. Okay, okay, mister Brown, I got it. It was some of those moments we know he was going through stuff we never too We never told it in public, a lot of things, but you know, it was crazy. I I remember when we wanted to use Mac on the album and I said, you to do a couple of songs, and he told us, well, when Masio comes, I want to make sure that I'm
not here when y'all are working with him. I don't mind him on the album, but I don't want to be here. Yeah.
Yeah, So he's on, he's on keep keeping. I think he's on. Lock him in the studio while he's still.
Yeah yeah keeping. She looks all types of good and then the ballot you know.
Right, Wait a minute, Okay, Well one, it's not lost on me.
The the the meta, the meta levels of irony. Yes, I'm real, which is the fact that he is singing out against the very thing that keep bringing him back.
Yo, this is a moment of mirror. You are repeating your clip on an unsung I'm just saying, yes, it was your reaction, but I love it.
I never got an answer to it. So it's how.
I mean, what did you guys explain to him that that, no, you should, you should embrace this more, because you know, George Clinton famously was like, hey, I'll even lower my rates so you guys more of me, right, and said his legend. But I mean, what do you what did he think of when he first heard these tracks? Like did he even comprehend that he's singing over Bobby Bird's hot pants on cumming drums or right?
Well, I don't think he really comprehended that much because he was actually he was actually getting paid for it. He his only thing was, I don't I don't. I don't got nothing against these rapists, but man, I just I just wish I would get paid because they use them. My voice isn't record and this and that and this that and that's when we came up the song I'm real. So it's like what people's taking from him were like throwing it right back to him in his own songs
that we're producing with him. You know, his main thing was he just felt disrespected that he hears somewhere and he loved the rappers because remember he worked with African Baan Bada, but he was still he was still upset that he wasn't getting paid for it, and at that time the sample laws was not even I think our record kind of helped it because he was literally on there on this video. All you copycats out there, get off of my tip, because I'm James my records till I'm paid in full.
You know, he was, He was making a statement there, and I remember I remember after that that the Sonic came out with something about you know, James Eric Beer and.
I got so and that's true, but he wasn't getting paid. That was his music, his vocals, and I think after I'm real then they started to get the sample lows together, not only for mister Brown but for every every other legend.
I was gonna ask, did he live to see the residuals of his the samples? I don't try and remember that.
But yeah, yeah, yeah, because we did that album eighty didnt eighty eight?
Eighty eight?
Yeah? Yes? So yeah, yeah, State trying to get permission and paying for him to use James Brown's samples no rapper kids do that like what they did in the past, just blatantly take it. Now, when we were taking his stuff, we was doing it with him, you know what I mean. So it's definitely a difference. And he accepted that because like, well, at least I'm here with Jellen, we're doing it together. And he got published for all the songs I did.
With him, So I would assume that when you guys are doing I'm Real the album, this was pre pro tools.
Yes, so from a one.
To ten, how I want you the word nightmarish?
But how much of a task is it cutting his vocals and cutting just all right, ladies and gentlemen, you're you're you're not looking at Loo's.
Face right now.
As I asked this question, But the way that he closed his eyes already gave me the answer I wanted. How much of how much of a task was it? In whatever it was their copy paste culture back? How did you get his vocals to because it felt natural? But for me, I felt that every line I was listening to was either perfectly placed or just a lot of cut cut page jobs there. Okay, from one to ten, how you don't even have to give the story from
one to ten. How hard was it in placing his vocals and giving a complete song?
Damn, Chris, that was a good question. The way he did that, that was you did that.
I'm giving you now a number to take you.
But question, you're so, you're so, you're so interesting, You're so introspective with it, and it's like.
It was you at the studio with us.
Dude, you think I'm lying at the intro of the show, I am a product.
When you're like damn, when when on your last day on earth, you're like, damn, what is my legacy?
When you when you know something, quess Like I said, when we was working with mister Brown, this was the time when I know he was going through things. So so in the beginning, I would say, the first session and the first song we did was a song called Time to Get Busy, and he was perfect on that one. Perfect. But as the days as the as each song, it became a little harder because she was still going through
his own personal stuff. So what we did, man, So what we did is that with mister Brown, Time to Get Busy, I would say, was like the kind of the only song that he did from start to finish, and he kind of knew everything. But then as after we was going, it was getting a little harder and he was going through stuff, and we would have the lyrics and at one time he asked us, y'all got any cue cards? You know, cue cards? And we're like
cue cards. But so so what we did, and not on every song, but just some songs, we would actually physically be there with him, Like me, I would be there with mister Brown and then Paul, because me and Paul spearheaded mostly the writing of the lyrics song and working with him actually in the studio.
So when I did I'm.
Real my song, I'm there with mister Brown in the booth with him physically mm hmmm, and we would go line by line basically.
God, yo, Christian McBride, if you are listening to this podcast, we were so right.
We called it.
We literally said, I bet you every line had to be cut and paste because it was too perfect. And I've never heard him sing structured lyrics before because a lot of this stuff was freestyle and and that, and I just never really heard him sing that structured before. And I tried to imagine, like, well, is the lyric sheets on the on the Nightstand.
Is he Yo, I've been dying to know that answer for thirty years.
Man.
I was about to say, was this a conversation with you in Kristin in high school?
Or I'm talking to Kristen McBride right now as he saw the story.
Like, I'm sorry.
Wait, So then I gotta ask how did he how did he managed?
So?
Okay, So there's another thing about me more than being a James Brown fan, I'm the biggest horrible James Brown song fan. Like I'm I have an addiction to like every album past, like Mother's Nature, to even the record he did with Leaders of the New.
School, like everything in between that. So yeah, I can't get it any harder. He tried to. He tried to do Static Part two when Leaders in the New School Music Factory.
So the thing is how to it's your money wind up on that record because I sometimes do a horrible James Brown set where it's just the songs that and that's the thing. The greatest thing about James Brown to me is that he was never mediocre. Like a lot of the artists that we have disdained for, it's usually because they're just mediocre. Yeah, but if they make classic ship. If they make horrible ship, at least it's interesting. And I always wanted to know. I knew y'all had nothing
to do with it's your money. Obviously he was a placeholder. But how did that wind up on the record? He just insisted, or you can need it.
No, here's the deal. He he he literally asked the record company, and a record company said ask full force, and what are we going to do? And he played it for us and everything.
Oh no, listen, he played it for us, and you'll make.
It like y'all like it doing the demohead thing.
No, never, I never, I like, all silent looking to the floor.
And that's my double that's my double trouble story fante.
For the first time I played that ship still a premiere.
All them guys are like like what I was like, Oh, this song sucks.
So then oh man.
When mister Brown, we, I mean, how are we gonna say? No? I mean he wanted it on there, he asked.
He said, man, I love it that this could be on it.
Bubba, but it was the last song on the album. I think. But you know we we said, I mean, what come on question? You wouldn't even have said no. To mister Brown if that's the first time you met him, and he came to and said, I would love to be on the album. Do you mind? What are you gonna say? Question?
Wait, sut up, I was gonna say, I already know, I already know it was. It was the day after the album got mastered and I heard this song.
I had a Rich like, yo, where the fuck does this come from?
And he's like, you know, al insisted it go on the record like he.
Did it with There was a quest love album with Al Green called Babies Making Babies bo I'm sorry, sorry, sorry sorry.
The same thing happened to me, uh lou where with Al Green I made I pulled a full force, got Al Green back to his Willie Mitchell thing and the last song he just you know, like my manager Rich at the time told me, He's like, well, the way I see it, you know, at least he did a song that could fit on the end of a Tyler
Perry movie as the credits go up bruh. So he's like, it won't be a total loss either people will just ignore it, or at best it'll go I'm the Tyler parent credits for the End of the Family reunion movie.
Oh my god, you just know the algree no matter what.
Wow, that that is crazy, lou.
Do you know what happened? What the status is of the real rock Sanning?
Like what is she?
Yes?
Is yet? Yes?
Well she's she's and she's still beautiful as ever. So it's two just two real rock Sands. The first, you know, after the whole all the I say, I said, be, let's do a song called the Real Rock Sandes. So me and be wrote the lyrics. We got this light skinned girl by the name of Elise Jack and she did She's the one you hear on the record. But then things didn't work out with her contractor or whatever, so we got a Puerto Rican girl, the Fine and Beautiful,
Not that Elisee Jack is not fine and beautiful. She was a light skinned girl, but she did the record.
More light skin for you, looking right right about.
But then we got Joey and Martinez to actually be the real Rock sand She was the one in the video with Utfo Roxanne Roxanne and then she had records of her own like Bangs Zoom, let's go go with yeah in England and the UK and she has.
Y'all ever do anything with HOWI Team Maw. Speaking about that record, Joan, howid T have any dealers with Yeah.
We worked with Howie because how he was part of the real rock stand with hit Man Howie T. Howie T co wrote Alice I Want You Just for Me with us when he's the one that came up with the drum beat, the dope drum beat and.
Everything like that.
Jerry and everybody else could get the whole track, but how he came up with the drum beat, and back in the day because it was nineteen eighty five, we didn't know any better.
But I would have to.
Say, looking at it the way it trans transacted, he should.
Have been a co producer with us on that record too.
He was a co writer, but it should have said produced by full Force and hit Man Howie T. Because he's the one that came up with the dope drum loop and everything like that. And then that song with the syncopation in it and with the music and the jazz kind of sound loops. You know, it was definitely like some people call that the first new Jack String record, but we don't. Let's go go yeah, No, Alice I Want just And then we incorporated some of that with bangs.
Let's go go with the real rock sand. But the real rock sand. Joyne Martinez, she is, she's doing she's doing great, man. And she's still looking beautiful.
Man.
I send you a picture of her.
She's she's dope. She's still doing her thing. You know.
Wait, what's up?
We just recently discovered the sample that came from it. All right, So here's the deal with with baby Let's go go. I thought it was downright genius. I'm like, yo, are they playing? Uh what do you call it? When when you do a base uh jack open stories? Does it h triads? Not triads?
But uh fretless?
Yeah, yeah, but it's it's the sound of of portrait and tracy like when you're right right, try not harmonical pisocado when you're playing harmonics on bass. And at the time, I thought, Yo, this is some downright I never heard a song just utilized bass harmonics before in this level. And then it maybe like last year, a year before I discovered the Pat mcthany record from which it came from. Who put that track together?
Be fine put that track together?
And what how was he doing? Listen to that?
Because out of Pat mcthaney's discography that album. It's so weird that Pat mcthany's two biggest samples in hip hop are off of records that are like it's it's almost like it would be the chitlings of his career.
And you know, I'm not.
I know, opinions are subjective to like what people gravitate towards, but even jazz fans like have a bracket for the Pat mcthany records they listened to and along with karas One sampling springs dot Here Yet for Love's Gonna Get You that particular song that you guys did, it was like it was on an album that nobody would touch of his and I always wanted when we discovered that sample, it was like me and a whole bunch of producers wear Jazzy Jeff's house and we hear it and we
wanted to punch a hole in the wall because we never once thought there was anything dope on that record. What in the hell was he doing with that, with that, with that album that called him like what yeah, I.
Mean, will all of us like be Jerry? You know the music we tapped into all kinds of music. That's why with full force. That's six different heads. And when he came up with that, I'm like, hey, this is dope. I remember you texted me about that. You know, I found that used. I'm like, yeah, very obscure because we'd always look for a lot of obscure shit, even from popular popular musicians too, you know what I mean, and
just use it, you know what I mean. And in that particular song, I mean, be through the Kitchen sinking that we even had bugs Buddy in there and we threw Alison there.
To go to the Oh we did everything.
Yeah yeah, yeah, but yeah, man, we just we just come up with different ship and Be came up with that and we're like, yo, that's that's crazy. And it was top ten joint man spent in the UK the smash like we didn't know it's gonna be that big, you know, and Joan would go and perform and plus
she was great. You know, I would have to say the real rock saying Joe and Martinez had to be one of the first female rappers to kind of introduce femininity to the female rap game because everybody like Salt and Pepper at the time, even Chante, they were wearing the big dookie chains and all of that stuff, like how to do to her? But she came in all feminine and just killed it.
You know, she was his always like she's light skinned and she's Hispanic.
Okay, and.
All right, so I gotta keep on pushing because there's too many we gotta get to the We didn't even gott.
We didn't just ask one thing for my child.
Question.
Well, first of all, did you name Cheryl?
Did you how did she get her monica pepsi?
And she's and she's dark skinned by the.
Way, listen, she's your point on the board.
That's the only one you got so far. But yes, we had girlfriend, they had some right what happened with what happened with Cheryl when we got Cheryl? Because like I tell you, me and Schell, we were friends before anything. We should to do church plays together before there was a Tyler Perry. We used to do plays and stuff like that and everything. And the first time I heard
us saying, I'm like man, shes blew me away. So once we know we was going to get her a deal with us over Columbia Records, then came the name. I said, Now listen, we're gonna have to name your nickname because all of our acts we got crazy names. So we got to find a nickname for you. And I said, here's the nickname. We're gonna give you, Magnolia And she said huh. I said, yep, Cheryl Magnolia. Riley really satiddy. Because who have a bubbly personality, which she did.
We decided to call it Pepsi.
Now that idea was from our Steve Salem may he rest in peace. He just you know, we just saw pepsi can there and he said, well who you always says she's got a bubbly personality, Why aren't we throwing pepsi and put two eyes at the end, call it Cheryl Pepsi ymy, and I said, perfect. That goes along with bull Leg lou Shy shy educated rapper Lisa, Lisa.
This is funny because these are long nicknames.
Yeah, we're keeping the names great.
You know, at any point did anyone actually approached the Pepsi company to.
When we tried at the time, But Pepsi wasn't like, didn't take off right away.
But we tried at the time and.
It just never happened, you know, back then. But I see, you know, but we got a number one record out of it. Thanks for my child was PEPSI killed? Of course?
Oh my god, I told Lou. I cried on the phone with Luda the other day when I really realized that he was responsible for that song. Because being a twelve year old at night, listen to my pink Cassio, I was like, no, And it's funny because I was like, I had a whole relationship with that song, and.
I had no why are you laughing?
But you wait because I thought you were about to tell me being a twelve year old single mother.
Well no, we stopped that before that. Well yeah, so story however, listen to that song and knowing as a grown up, it's like, I don't know what why I had such an affinities for that song and played it on.
I didn't realize, Like when I was a kid, I didn't. I had no idea what that song was about.
Yeah on and yeah, yeah.
I was saying, my mom, I'll be ripping my mom, and she.
Was singing, I'm like that.
But and it is ill to hear your baby mama song.
Ever, she said nicely, she said, I mean, she said it was passive aggressive.
Yo, did you see the video Fars Whitterker did the video and you know you see the demand running in slow motion that wanted to get the hell out of there. He wanted to leave. It's crazy, that's but that song, that's so much a special song because I actually wrote that song. But like I said, everything is written and produced by full Force, six of us, but we split everything six ways and the credits as well. But when I wrote that song, I wrote it because I saw
it was three things. When my was coming off the road. My wife at the time when I was married, she had a miscarriage and man, I was just coming off the road and I went straight to the hospital after hearing it, and there she was. She looked like, you know, she'd been through World War three. But then the following year, you know, we tried again and then we had a
beautiful baby girl. And at the same time, I had a friend of mine as a female who had a baby and then her the baby's father just kind of ran away, just left advantage.
And she was so heartbroken into that.
And then I used to see Cheryl Pepsi right, I to see Cheryl taking care of handicapped kids because she was a nurse. When I at the time, and she was like a mother to all of them.
So that's when I came up and I.
Wrote thanks for my Child from scratch, and then I went to Baby Jerry and Jerry did the the track to it, and I'll never forget playing it for the guys. And when it came to that chorus thanks for my child, I remember my brother Beefine just dropped his head down and went, oh, like you almost got shot. That is like such emotion. I remember mixed Master to Ice from Utfo said, Yo, lou man, you made me put some more money to my my babies from the black Yeah.
And to hear a man wrote that, and it sounds is such a perspective of something that a woman would want to say and articulate.
It's just it's.
Fast, it's fascinating, Louke. So I just I appreciate you for that, all right.
Lou yo, dog you you and you.
You took on the challenge. You tried it. You took on the challenge in nineteen eighty eight.
And this is definitely during the what's her husband's name of Jack Gordon. You you took on LaToya Jackson as a client of which you know at the time. This is when Michael was making his comeback. This is when her youngest sister, Janet is, you know, making a credible moves.
With with her record. Can you speak on the experience.
That it was producing uh LaToya Jackson's I think at the time that was her third Yeah, that was her third album.
What what was that experience? Like?
All right, well, we were say from one to ten, how we really we really it always have to be interviewers like you to bring that up. We really bring that up whenever we're speaking of interviews. But I gotta say she was a sweetheart to work with. I know, but but yeh had his challenges there and Jack Gordon was present like every time.
Oh, she's just much she's much talented than Janet. You know, she's much chalented. She's definitely better than that. She can sing better too. It she danced better too, you know. That's what Jack Gordon used to tell us all the time, like all the time.
And but we we worked with her. I didn't think the first single was a good way to go, called You're Gonna get rocked, and yeah, kind of had her out of her element, you know, pull his sleeves because Latoya's Thrown Down.
I don't know, but that was Bee's idea.
I gotta give credit to be in fact that I would say that's the only song that Full four didn't produce that was produced solely by be Fine and written by him. I'm just kidding.
That was I was like, wait a minute, there's there's all yours.
In that song.
There's break.
No, that's a joke, but it was okay.
There was a couple of singles, like a song called You Blue.
I thought should have been the first release because Paul is singing underneath her on every line and you hear him singing with her. But you know, it was it was a e for effort and you know, she's a sweetheart, and you know, I got nothing bad to say about her. She's cool.
But it had his challenges, you know what I mean.
Especially man, we did this ballad called I'm Not Giving Up on Love, and you know, but I purchased it.
I purchased it because you know, that was.
A hard one to do.
The ballad was really that was really hard. You're talking about cutting paste. That was like another James Brown, but she wasn't James Brown. And but it was kind of hard to do that one, but some of the other songs were such a wicked love was pretty good. You blew you're going to get rock. I wouldn't have came out with that first. It felt kind of gimmicky, but you know, I did this thing. You know, it's so really good in Japan. That's that's a lot again, you know.
But but she as a person, she's a sweetheart.
It was so crazy.
I'll never forget because.
That was the time she was going through stuff as well with Jack Gordon. I got a phone call at my house. I don't know how they got my number to this day, but it was Catherine Jackson and Joe Jackson. Wow in Brooklyn. Both of them call me in Brooklyn on the phone and they were saying, yeah, we just want to know what's your address. You know, this is a guy Jack Gordon. You know they kidnapped our daughter and it's brainwashing her. I said, oh, really, well, they
were working with her. She's not here with us in Brooklyn, but we're working with her in the Manhattan studio. But I didn't give them the address because I didn't know what the hell was going on. But they kept saying that he's a Brainwasher. He's no good and you know, we don't know where our daughter's at buck It's crazy. And I remember after talking to him, I said, yeah, but but she's safe and sound. We see at the studio. And I remember telling Jack Gordon and LaToya I said, Yo,
your parents just call my house. I know, I got my number. And Latoy's like, hmm, see what are they trying to do this so they won't mind their own they won't mind their own business. And then Jack Gordon says, yeah, they're terrible people. They're terrible people. That's what Jack Gordon would say.
Yeah for him, Yeah, this is to put in perspective like this is I think. Also this is when the.
Boy Yeah yeah, the Playboy issue was in sort of conjunction with the release of the album. Yeah yeah, Oh god, Okay, where do we want to go? Do we want to go to the movies at or do we want to go?
Yeah, we gotta get movies. You got to house party. We gotta tell house party, come on, we got to okay.
Yeah, so can you talk about your remember you wanted a.
Two part episode?
No, this is it is a two party, this is it?
Yeah, So can you talk about how you guys got involved with House Party and how it changed your career.
Yeah, I mean we're celebrating thirty year anniversary of House Party, you know, and it was is it's great. I always I always say it's the story of my life every time somebody wants me to say what I said in the movie, or sometimes I don't even wait for people to ask me. I just do it because I know they want me to say it.
So, so, how annoying was it?
How annoying was it at the time where like people would expect you come. That was almost like that was almost like your version of I'm Rick James bitch like his she right right exactly.
So well, it was never well, you know what, it was never annoying to me at all because I created it.
So it was, it was, it was all good. I remember.
The only person that never liked it was Donnie Simpson. I'll never forget him called me up, yo, man, what you had to do this stupid annoying, irritating boy throughout the whole damn movie? Why why he hated it? Literally? But we got But we got the movie because Reggie Hudlin, who was the writer and director of House Party and
his brother Warrington Hudland, the producer of House Party. Reggie literally wrote us as a description in the originals in his original script as a description Robert Ford Junior may he rest in peace because he was part of the production team that used to do the Curtis Blow albums that we was a part of. He was good friends with Reggie, and he was written Reggie and he read a script and he said, Prince, you're reading your script and you're describing, and it described it because at the
time it wasn't kidding player. I think it was jazzy Jeffrey Fresh Prince first.
And then kidn't play.
So the script just said the two individuals whatever the name was said in the script it says, well, the two individuals is acostant by bullies with great physiques and droopy Jerry curls somebody like full force as a description. So Robert Ford says to Reggie, Reggie, why don't you just get full Force? And they said, yeah, you think they could act act? He said, well they did cursed Groove that wasn't really acting, you know, yeah, And they said,
I said, get bookfore us. So Reggie Hudland called it. My brother Paul, and he told Paul, he said, listen, man, we would love if you guys could come and maybe read for a part. I'm doing a new movie house Party. You know, if you and your brothers could come. Blah blah blah blah blah. So the three of us went there. They just wanted to see if we had any chemistry. And of course me and my brothers had chemistry since we were young anyway, and I remember when we did
some improv. They just want to see some improv. Yeah, we did some improv amongst ourselves and we got.
The part right then and there, you know, So we was hired to do house party.
We did the table read with everybody you know, Martin Lawrence, the late Robin Harris, the late John Witherspoon, George Clinton was there. It was crazy teacher Campbell. And we're reading from the script. Now as we're reading our lines, my brother's lines, our lines is nothing like what you saw
in the movie, like not close. So I went back to the whole tell with my brothers and I said, guys, I don't I mean, we're bullies, but we're bullies with with with no personality, somewhat like how you guys were in crush Proof. I don't want to do that again. So I changed one of the scenes. I said, okay, B, because BT's name in the script was pee Wee. That was my brother be fine, I said, I'll switch let me be pee Wee. I'm smaller than you and Paul, let's change up this scene right here. I think it
was the lunch Proof scene. One of the scenes, but I changed it up. I came up with and I'm going to talk like this about the whole movie. And my brother B is like, what fuck you gonna talk like that? I'm just not talking like that, you know, sort of a and this is before Erkle and all of that stuff. But my reasoning for talking like that, And then I said, I wanted to come up with like some type of catchphrase, and that's when I came up with I'm gonna take you're freaking out kick like that.
And then I also came up with the catch trase I smell ice. So those two I came up with. And what happened is that we went to our trailer and we went to perform it in front of Reggie and Warrington, hoping they would do it. I said, listen, if they don't, they don't want it, then we'll go back to the regular way on the script. But if they like it, then it's good. After they saw us do all of those antics and the voice change and the kick your fucking ass and I smuggling and all
of that, Warranton Huddling pointed and said keep it. And when they said keep it, we changed. We changed every scene lines that was in that movie. So everything you see on in the house party is created by me and my brothers, you know, our part. And then everybody else in the cast started making up stuff to I remember kids saying, they started finding out me. I'm making up all that shit. And the kids said, yore Lou,
how about if we did stuffing like this. You come to the door and you say, I smell pussy, and then we go, yeah, we went smell pussy to approach of dicks. That's funny, me kid, do that. I think Reggie will like that. In fact, don't tell first, let's just do it, and we did. Reggie loved it, you know, and even Teacher and AJ. There was no dance battle in that script, you know, the AJ did the choreography
for her and Tisha. They kind of came up with that whole idea of a dance battle, and they did it for Reggie and Warrington because after we was making up our ship, then everybody else was making up ship. The only one that didn't have to stick to the
script and nothing like that was Robin Harris. He just did his thing everything on that party and we did that and we never knew that it would become the classic that it that it has become, because it still plays good today when you watch it, you know, and
it was just amazing. And not only that, but also to have our song and my type of hype to be the main song is because of House Party, and my type of hype is our most popular the you know, full fourth song ever, you know, it went gold because of House Party And can I.
Ask a question about that song?
Mm hmm.
Do you guys use the same consistent engineer for all your albums up to this point we're using as the same engineer.
Well one and well we used three different engineers, Quest Left and all the UTFO stuff. Glenn Roses did the first release a Lisa album, and then Tony Maserati he did everything after that. And here's the thing, Tony Maserati was an assistant engineer Sigma Sounds. He was in New York City. He was an assistant. He was an assistant for Glenn. But we love Tony.
We love Tony.
So Glenn decides that he's going to go on vacation, even though we had sessions to do, and he felt that when he went on vacation, we was gonna stop ship. But we said, you know what, let's try Tony. You know, Tony's just an assistant. So we went to Sigma So I said, Tony, like you do some us. The first thing Tony did with us was was James fucking Brown and let me tell you something, mister my bet. That was the first thing he did.
Was because we were doing that, Glenn thought we were wait for him. We inserted Tony.
Even the manager of Sigma Soule said, listen, we can give you guys a head enginet because Tony's just an assistant. But we had confidence in Tony and we still keep in contact with Tony. He was talking, we were talking on the text thread like just a couple of weeks ago. He had a new baby, baby boy and everything, and we inserted him as the head enginere and we never looked back. We used Tony for everything. Ain't by type of hype as Tony James Brown. And I'll never forget
when we're in the studio, mister Brown. But you know we said, we said. I was there with mister Brown, and I said, all right, played play that vocal back, Tony that mister Brown just did. And Tony's like, uh, I just I just rased it. I raised it by accident, and and I said, and then mister Brown like stopped everything. So mister Brown said, uh, what's your name? He said, my name is Tony Maserati. Where are you from? I'm from Boston, sir? No, no, no, no, where are you from?
I'm from Boston. No, No, where are you from? And Tony said his hands was all sweaty and he was nervous, and mister Brown just kept asking where are you from? So from that whole session, I said, oh, Tony, we're going to do this vocal again, and we just had mister brownside did the vocal again. But all throughout that session, mister Brown kept saying that Tony Maserati, where are you from? And you go up to Tony, where are you from? Exactly?
But he's a great he went on, I mean, forget it, Tony.
He did Crazy in Love, He did.
Everybody and he's still doing it. So we's so proud of him. But that was the guy.
And he used to do the editing with the rais of blade and cutting the tape something. Yeah, he was a master at that too. I'm like, man, how could people do that and and the edit be good?
But Tony was so dope at it?
You know?
But times have change, haven't they.
I was, Yeah, I was asking because sonically, like between even now, like when I spend Alice or any any of your any full four songs, just the son there's a sonic difference, and ain't my type of hype that's way different than your other records. And always wanted to know if you used someone different that you weren't using between eighty five eighty six like earlier Full Force and Okay, you gave Tony his start, Yeah, yes he did.
And he and he he always gives us props, you know. Yeah, game Star, did.
You ever have because of the door that you opened with comedic acting for House Party, did it ever cross your mind that you could possibly be the.
Black male blank if you will.
On the voice over too.
Yeah, yeah, man, I mean I do all kind of crazy voices, and you know, I do a lot of imitation voice, but I never pursued it. I remember Dawn Lewis, actress, Dawn Lewis a good friend of mine. She's she's a massiveat voice characterization. She could sound like a Jewish old man and she's crazy. She always told me that I should get into that, but I just never did. But if I did, I know i'd beat dope at it. You know, got a million voices.
I was about to ask you how many characters, because sometimes when we've talked, I get I get a whole female that is not even overdone, just literally some.
Chick that I just don't know.
Yes, ma'am, So how many characters are in your head?
You have kind of.
No, no, no, no, I mean no, because I know he has characters. I feel like this woman, whoever this woman is that calls me sometimes, she's somebody she has.
A name that calls you.
It's a woman that calls me sometimes and.
Yeah, and she thinks it's you calling as a character.
I think I've discussed before that you have.
Yeah, it's a woman a mirror, it is a woman.
It is a it might be a white woman. I'm trying to tell you woman. She definitely likes.
So you guys are practical jokers, I assume, yeah.
Yeah, I'm a big I'm a big prankster. I'm such a big kid, even to this day. I got exploding pens. I got oh she like like when we worked with Rihanna. Rihanna was seventeen going on eighteen at the time, and I remember coming out into the studio with an apron it said mouchoke And I'm like, yeah, I got a new vegetarian restaurant, you know, and we have you know, vegetarian sausages and everything like that, and she said really yeah, And then I lift up the apron and there's like,
you know, a bildo hack behind there's a joker. She's laughing. She's crack of the hilly one. You miss it out. And I got stickers, crazy stickers.
I'm so immature, the stickers.
I remember putting a sticker on Eddie Murphy's back that said stand back, I just parted and Bullleg and lo is my hero ro bow Leg Loose for president and on everybody's back Russell Simmons, it's just ridiculous, and Gerald Lebert, may you rest in peace. He said, Yo, don't touch me, don't even hug me, you know. But then he came back and he did Jerl.
Lebert stickers himself are so funny.
So I'm a big kid for sure. Frankster.
You answer her question, how many characters you got?
Man?
I got a bunch of different voices. Man, you know the fake girl's voice and you know cartoon voice. And I did this movie called Who's the Man? And I was.
Talking like, yes, motherfucker, please, motherfucker please you.
Now you used to try to do like Imprescious. I don't know if you remember the late great comedian. He used to be in Hollywood to try to do Paul Lynn. You know, crazy?
Did I just revealed my age?
Like no, no, no, I just forgot. He was in a square, That's all right.
You were in weren't you in Definite Temptation?
As well?
Were you?
Were you you in Deaf Temptation? We were singing what movie you was in? Some of you were in?
You were singing, Yeah, yeah, who's the Man?
I sang in that. I sang in the church, in the church.
Okay, who's the Man? I'm tripping the.
Barber killer sang precious Lord, Oh, precious Lord. And it was supposed to be Mary J Bli was doing it, but she wasn't gonna She didn't she wasn't going to do it for some reason. And I remember the late great Bernie Mack and Bill Bellam coming into my trailer and they said, you'll do man, Mary J. Blige is not going to sing it. Man, I think it'd be dee. But if you sang it in the church, I mean, even though you're having to character forty and they wouldn't
be expecting it. And that's how I got to sing Precious Lord, you know. For the next day, I went in the studio, knocked it out and sang it.
I was wanting to ask you, lou, what was the significance of your braid?
Man?
I always like that, Yeah, what's the significance of that?
Well, here's the deal.
It's no fucking significant watch or whatever.
And I don't and I gotta listen. I gotta cut this ship off. Sometimes. My daughter was born and she just know me always wearing this damn braid?
Is that your hair?
And their?
Is that your hair? My hair?
Because that's a bee.
That's a whole. And when we had Jerry Curls, I would we'd have like a little braid and I put the bead through here and I've had it since since we first came out as full.
Yes, that's the trademark. That's a superpower.
I'm always in the movie and I remember when when do wims? When when do you wims? Used to see me. He's like, when are you gonna cut that ship off?
So this is so ages, Manna, We're gonna be done with that ship.
And I'm like, you know, one day I'm gonna cut it off. I thought I had a name for it.
I really didn't know why.
I don't know why I keep hanging.
I remember Anthony Anderson one time I presented him with the woods somewhere and he says, Yo, man, I love this brother, but as anybody ever wanted, why the hell he wears this damn bead? And watch her? What's what's going on with that? And then you know, I showed the bead and he goes, oh, you got a nappy patch?
So what the world isn't now? Actually it's hit me right now, obviously, louse. That is your voice at the very end of Leader of the Pack.
Yeah, that's me.
You know. It's where DJ's.
Were by not even doubles, but quadruples of that particular
twelve minch. You want to know why, right when Philly, because everything that Jazzy Jeff would do, everybody would follow and suits also DJ cash money, But Jazzy Jeff developed like a bird chirping scratch, and cats would buy the Leader of the pat Utfo twelve inch just for whatever that beak is right before you say, Wow, I'm sorry for that, but that one, like Philadelphia, just has a very different relationship with that twelve inch only because that
was the perfect sound to start doing the chirping bird scratch, you know at the time when Jeff was innovating like the Transformer scratch and all these type.
Yeah, right, but the.
Chirping scratch, that was the record that you would have to play just for that one before you start doing your your female operator boys.
I'm sorry, right exactly exactly.
All right, we got to get into the wow at the time, at the time I was living when when the Roots lived in London.
That's you know a lot of people don't know that both Backstreet boys like basically what I call the Disney Orlando set up, Britney, Backstreet, anybody associated with Disney that during that time period, they all kind of got their traction in Europe first before TRL really started playing them regularly. So how did how did you guys even wind up being the producers of a lot of these acts that wound up selling diamond, like Backstreet Boys and syncing Brittany all these acts.
How did you guys wind up doing that?
Well? What happens that I had a meeting with Barry White, who was the president of Jive Records at the time, and and and remember there's six people in full force, and we split this way. I mean, not everybody wanted
it that way with the majority rule. It was my idea that But then after a while, you know, it's like, damn, we need to We've been doing a lot of R and B and we the Samantha box of course, But I man, man, I think if we if I went to Barry, I said, you, Barry Man, you got some white people that we could produce, you know what I mean, because we know it might go a long way. The way Job Records was handling stuff, it got might go
a long way. To add to our you know, situation with doing a lot of R and B and stuff. So he said, and you know what we got these young guys did They huge overseas. They're not known yet in the United States, but they might be good for you to work with. And he showed me this video called quit playing Games with My Heart by the fact that's okay, And I took that video back to the guys.
I played it.
I played it in in the studio and I said, guys, we gotta get on this project. You know, they're not knowing in the United States, but they're big, big, huge overseas and I'll never forget it. After they we saw the video again, Baby, Jerry just came up to me and he said, yo, lou man, I got a song that I've been toying around with. And then Jerry started singing me the hook but my love is oh I have to kids, what thought you? I don't, thank God, can believe. And I looked at Jerry. I kissed him
on the cheek. He's my cousin, and I said, Jerry, that is a fucking smash And man, I took that song into Job Records and they went crazy for it so much so so much so that said, we're gonna fly you guys out to Orlando. You're gonna record that song with the Backstreet Boys. This is incredible And that was the start actually of us doing you know, the boy bands and Brittany and Justin Timberlake and LFO, some of those people's passed away from made the rest of peace.
And I'll never forget flying out to Orlando and there he was with the Battre Boys. Now, we was instructed to have the youngest member, Nick Carter, sing the lead of the whole.
I was going to ask, how did how we wind up singing? And I'm a shame that I know that, but yes, I'm a music ed how wee wind up singing that join? Because that's I didn't Tito or Marlin to sing. And it's like, wow, I'm.
Sorry, way wrong, But you know, well, okay.
If you're seeing the Jackson's, I think they would expect you would expect Michael. No no, no, no, no, no, no disrespect because I know those guys. I'm just saying that if you have a Jackson's, you're expecting Michael maybe Jermaine to sing. And Howie wasn't the.
Go to singer. So how did that happened?
Wow, that's crazy quest. Well, the thing about it is this, when they told us they wanted Nick Carter to sing the whole song, I already had in my mind that I was gonna they was going to supervise me in Orlando. So I arranged with the vocals who would sing Watt and Wear. I said, Okay, they're talking about Nick because all the women love Nick.
The girls love Nick. Like Clive Cole, who owned Jive Records.
He was like, Nick, do it because Nick, Nick is all the women Nick the good Nick do the song. Let him do theod song. I said, okay, no problem, let Nick do the old song. But what we what I ended up doing. I said, okay, listen, in my mind, I'm saying I want Nick to open up just to satisfy the company.
Okay.
Then I saw Brian Littell sang as well. I knew AJ was AJ was like the soul soul guy singing, but I noticed Nick never. I noticed how we never sung anything. And because of my love for the tempations, that was my inspiration to have them sing it in parts, even though the record company didn't want it. And I said, I said, to Brian. Trust it, Brian, So, Howie, I know he doesn't sing anything.
He doesn't lead singing.
He's oh no, no, no, he's just background. He doesn't do anything. He's just a background guy. He just does background. I said, he got the high voice, but just background, just background, I said, I said, okay.
Then I pulled Howie to the side.
I said, you're how we I know you don't sing any leads. Is there a reason why you singing leads in any of the songs? I don't know. I don't know why. I said no, I said, sing something for me, and he sang a little something for me, and I just wanted him to do a lead vocal, which was the first lead vocal he ever had in his life with the Backron Boys, and I gave I said, well listen, you're going to open up the second verse of it.
And I'll never forget when we were reporting Howie AJ came in there and he's like, whoa, Howie, me here? How we doing the lead? And then he said, wow, how you got a personality now, And it just made me feel good to have how he just sing a part of the song. And if you look at that video and you hear the song. All of them have parts. Now Kevin he does the bass and I'll sing it to you. He does on the album version where they do the tongue twist of harmony parts that my brother
Paul made up. And that's how how he got to sing that. And I'll never forget how he was so indebted to me. Still to this day he gives me props. And he brought me to his house for dinner. After dinner, I said, hey, Howey, I said, just in front of his parents and everybody, I said, am I the first black guy ever to eat here? He said, yeah, yeah,
you are who. Years later after that, when I went to his wedding, I got up and I sang for him and his bride at the wedding, and then I did a poem and I said, yeah, you know what I'll never forget when I got Howie to do his part, and I went to dinner and I said, am I the only and I and I was the only black guy ever comes house? And I was like, look around, I'm the only black person here at this wedding, So how.
We keep no?
No?
But that's not how we got to singing, you know.
And I love how he's a good guy with a good heart, and you know they let him sing other songs after that.
Hey, when when you guys get your clients. For instance, when when Jimmy Jim did the show, they spent about two weeks with Janet Jackson before they even stepped in the studio, which you know, fourteen days is a long time when you're on a budget to just be hanging with someone. How long do you have to have personal time with your client before you decide.
This this this is a song I have for you? Or were you.
Guys just making I mean, you know, now we have like beat tape makers. All right, let me hear your beat tape and I'll decide what I want. Are you guys crafting these songs after you meet them or do you have them ahead of time?
Yeah, we kind of craft them actually before we meet them kind of, and then and then afterwards we would do some songs, like when we worked with Jasmine Guy, who I love She's a sweetheart. Still when we worked with her, I remember we did a song called Johnny Come Lately for the album, which we crafted for her. But then during the album process, then we came up with you know, her her big hit, which was try Me, and we came up with that for her, specifically for
her after meeting her and and vibing with her. So sometimes it's different. You know.
The Weather Girls, we knew their history and we did three songs with them, and we just did it to fit their vocals, like Martha, Martha Wash and Isorah Armstead Make she rest in peace, you know.
And that's how we would do it with the different artists, different people. I remember.
I remember I wrote a song called.
Love Love, what is it? Love my weight and lo love my weight in love or something like that. But it was a positive song. And I remember Martha's like, nah, I'm not doing that. No, we already did this Rain and Man and two tons of Fun, and no, I'm not gonna do that song.
But once she heard it out, so I'll do it. But it was a positive, upbeat song. But we don't I don't think we've ever spent like two weeks. I remember when we was with Brittany.
We was in there for about a good while just phoning in her vocals and everything, so much so that one of her earliest recordings we did with her is called Love That heard away.
You could you could.
You could go right to YouTube and hear it. It's definitely the best ever Britney vocals you ever want to hear, like ever compared to all the stuff she did after it, because I know, I always give my brother Paul prompts. He's like one of the best vocal producers I've ever seen. How he could transform somebody's vocals and just have them doing their thing, you know. And he's like such a
stickler for the background, just like my father was. You know, when we worked with Patti LaBelle, I remember Patty LaBelle hit an off note and Paul stopped it and Paul said, your Patty, you just there's an off note right there. So we got to fix that. And we're like, oh, ship just.
Steal it right, what the hell?
And he said and she goes, no, no, that was off, that was off. No, No, let me played back. It's just a little on the bend. She says, what bend. We played it back and she said, oh, yeah, you're right, just a little a little off.
You're right, You're right, Okay, go ahead, y'all got lucky. That could have went a whole other way. Hey, we were lucky.
What is the divisional label of the six of you as far as all right, So say if say, if sh Shire or Baby Jerry writes a song by themselves, is it already agreed upon that the sixth of.
You wrote it?
Or you know, or do you guys just say okay, well you did this one by yourself, so you get on da da da da da da da, or you know, how how is it? How does it work in the studio? Like does designated people do the music? This designated person there for the engineering, this designated person do the vocals? Like how do you guys divide the work amongst each other?
Yeah, it's a it's a different vibe like Samantha Fox. Mostly that's like a me and Jerry thing. Sometimes it just be me and Jerry in the studio with crazy Samantha Fox, who's who's always beautiful to work with. But it would be me and Jerry. And then say, like if the person writes the song, that's who's spearheading the session.
Like B did I wonder if I take you Home?
Kurt would help in with some of the music things, and B wrote the lyrics, but then you know, I'd make out some vocal licks like take me take me, take me home, and you know, and thanks to my child, basically just did it byself. So we kind of give each other our own space. Jerry came up with all I have to give, but I'm I arranged who would sing what, but then would vocal produce the vocals and Jerry would help them there also Jerry, me and Kurt
did I'm real. Kurt presided over the whole track and everything like that.
So everybody has their.
Own thing and it would always still say written and produced by full force. And yes, we split everything no matter who did what six ways.
So how do you, guys, what happens if you're in a situation where it might be territorial, where if you write a particular song and you hear it a certain way, and then.
Kurt says, hell, I got a idea for that.
Do you let people at least audition and the idea and if it does work, you keep it. If it doesn't work without a doubt, And how do y'all handle disagreements?
That's how we are. So if we disagree on something the person who wrote the song, then we would just bend to them and just say all right, all right, no problem.
But a lot of times.
Everybody's open to add their own ideas, even of the song that I might wrote, and you know, no, no, that's kind of corny. Lude no, no, no, no, let's do this. Like I wrote all of my Mind for Full Force, which was a top ten song for us, and it was a slow song, All of my Mind talking.
About very mean song, right, that was one of the meanest because.
The pity Yeah y'all, y'all.
Even Love Us for Suckers to a cold boy out.
Because women, you know, women dog us all the time in songs, so we got to show that women could break our hearts too, you know. So all of my Mind, you know, Love Us for Suckers is another one. I'm unfaithful I can.
Be the song that was Yeah, yeah, we.
Go right back at that. But we all hear each other's ideas, man, and we always just like let it out. There's never no big arguments and there's disagreements. We'd all come to an agreement and we just let everybody, you know, just do their thing, you know what I mean. So that's how we that's how we work.
I was gonna say, when you guys were working with Samantha Fox, mm hmm.
Yeah. At the time, you already know where I'm going with it, so.
Go ahead.
No, Well, you know, there was a a a notable Thesbian also with the name of Samantha Fox. And I think there was definitely a group of people that thought that you guys were producing for the foreign actress of the name Samantha Fox.
They did, You're right, definitely right, Not wow, I missed that, but yeah, and.
Then right, I Well, the thing was is that all Samantha Fox's songs, you know, touch me, I want to feel your body, naughty girls, and he loved to. We naturally thought that, oh, she retired from the porn world and now.
She's singing, she's just saying about it, only.
Only to find out that, you know, there there was an actual another Samantha Fox.
And this one was not that person, but.
But the but the real Samantha Fox, the singer Samantha Fox. She was in England called the Page six girl on some magazine. It wasn't a pornal magazine, but it was a magazine where it would show her her top, not naked, but her breast.
As a page six girl, she was.
She was the precursor of Kim Kardashian like, not exactly socialite.
I mean, well that would have been Pisa Door.
But oh wow, I haven't heard that name if forever.
Kind of Yeah, well, Terry Jimmy did the album with Pias, didn't they chit ching?
Yes they did, that's right.
I got the cassette. I remember they. I remember one of them.
I'm feeling her when the workers sent me the cassette, I'm like, wow, they did a Pia Sodora.
And I know it was a money.
Grab, but it was still it was still interesting, it was still good production.
I might be wrong, but didn't you guys work with Selena?
Yes? Yes, we did make she Rest in Peace? Uh we were the last American who's the last American producers to work with her? Because that album I'll never forget. I was at Electra Records, which no Emi Records, my bad Emi Records, and I just was talking to Nancy Brennan, who was in an A and R executive there, and I saw overhead a TV and there's a video and Selena was on this video singing and dancing and she's singing in Spanish and I was saying, yo, who's that?
And she said, oh, oh, that's ol ti Haano artist. Her name is Selena. You know, I'm like, man, she's fine and look like she's performing and you know, I've never seen it or heard of her before. And then I told I said, yo, is the way we could produce something on her. I don't care if we even have to produce something in Spanish And she says, well, Lou, you know what, We're getting ready to do a half all English album with her. We're getting ready to do
an old English album. And I'm like, really, we would love to work on that album. And she got in touch with Selena's brother, Abe Criintonella Junior, and we met with him and just so happened. He was a big fan of Full Force, and just so happened. Before Selena made it big, Selena used to perform Samantha Fox songs. You know, I won't have some fun in her shows, and that's how we got to work with her.
And it was so crazy.
Because we would do it. We would did a version. We did a song Missing My Baby with Selena, and when she had to come in to do the background vocals, like the next day, she had to come back to New York to do it. That's when I got a phone call from my mom and like, nobody heard of her back then, We just people just knew he was producing a girl named Selena. And then that's when she said, are you sitting down? I'm like, sitting down? Why are you guys staying down? For Selena? Selena died today? She
got killed. I'm like, what?
Who?
We were so blown away, and because she's such a sweetheart and she's a practical joker herself, but she was so blown away shocked, I mean very shocked, stunned. And then you just start seeing on TV. That's when a lot of people start knowing who Selena was because of what she passed. And I said, wow, crazy, Well I knew. I just knew that they were not going to go through with it with the all English album anymore. I
figured they were just going to scrap it. But what they did is they said, after some weeks past, the father who was like presiding over the whole project, he called me and he said, look, listen, we want you guys to come up and finish and do the background vocals for the song missing My Baby, and you guys finished that off, and because we're gonna do a half thing, this half Spanish album. That's how we want to do and I'll never forget it.
Man.
We flew down there to Corpus Christi, Texas, and it was still hot of her passing, because you still see flowers and candles right outside the studio. And we went inside the studio, man, and her leads was already recorded, and it just sounded so eerie hearing her sing through the studio and there we are doing the background vocals. We did the music already and there we all singing the background vocals to it, and you still hear her singing.
And then after we finished doing what we did, the family came into that room, her father, her husband at the time. They came in that room to hear the song that we did, missing my Baby, remember the time missing my baby.
Right yeah.
And then there it is playing and you hear the cryings and the size we even had tears.
And then when it was finished.
Her father ab Quintonella Senior stood up and started applauding for us, started clapping, and then everybody else follows suit and started clapping for us. I'll never forget it, and it became it was on the album Dreaming of you album. We even produced it and we got I got my wish. We even produced the Spanish song on there, called Technocumbia, and the song was a huge blockbuster, you know, and another piece of platinum on our wall.
But her legacy was incredible.
I didn't know so much of her legacy until we was working with her, you know. But it was a great experience. She was a great person too, you know.
Who I always wanted to know. Were there any close calls in your career as far as artists You almost work with, but from one way or another, like it never got to work out, Like you were supposed to produce blah blah blahs record and something happened.
Or yeah, you know, we were supposed to do Gladys Knight and the Pips. This is when he she did safety over time for me eighty three. Yeah, the other time for me was the safety other time for me? That wasn't eighty.
Three eighty three are anything? Love overboard?
And was yeah, love overboard, that's right, Love over boy.
We're supposed to we've been We've been spoke.
To Bubba Bubba Knight and everything like that.
But for whatever reason, you know, you know, Steve Salem was working with ideas. It just didn't happen. But yeah, we were so close to that one. You know, that would have been fantastic, you know, even you know, and then our ego kind of got in the way. When even though we worked with the in Sync, we did like three songs and their albums, the only Diamond album which were part of, which is Proud of. We were supposed to do this.
Song and our ego got in away.
We wrote this dope song, but they wanted and we wrote it one hundred percent, but the record company felt to let Max mart because Max Smart was having mad doing the damn thing. They said, listen, guys, we want to do that song. Maybe you guys wrote a hundred percent, but we just want Max to produce it, and our fucking ego got in the way. No, no, no, we want produce it like we produced the don't tell us what to do, And they said, okay, fuck it, fuck that.
Then we just want to do it. But for that particular song they didn't want it. It's a perfect pop song, so gotten away that and I remember, even though she didn't blow.
Up, but I just loved Shane.
She was like fourteen years old, and we we We got a chance to work with her later, but at that time, I remember getting we was getting the contract backs to us, back and forth.
We're going back and forth.
Oh you almost said. The first record that Brian Larene.
Did, yeah, we was.
Yeah as.
Can You Dance? Joran? Yeah.
Bruce durn was her managing the time. I was just a lover with Shane's voice, even at such a young age. But that that that never came and we almost had a chance to produce my my favorite group in the world of Temptations, but that didn't come through as well. A lot of ship that didn't come through them, Like oh man, but story about it?
You know, Hey, look, can you just I'm sorry, can you remind people real quick? Because I remember when the whole story came out about you guys producing in Sync, I was more team in Sync. I just started telling people that y'all did the whole album.
But can you can you remind people the three the three songs on that Diamond record and and the what we did.
We did I Just Want to Be with You, which is a song that they released. It wasn't released in the state it was on the album. It wasn't released in the States, but it was released overseas and it was like a top ten joint and that was like one of their favorite songs. They performed it on every concert that they did.
Then we did a remake called.
Everything I Own, which was which was originally done by I want to say, was it yes or not? Yes, it was done by another popular but we did a remake of it Everything I Owned. That was like one of the first times we actually saw the vocal wizardry of Justin timulate it. I was like, man, okay, Justin, you know, I want you to double your voice and do the same kind of thing, you know, whatever is he was just he was just incredible.
I just got to say it.
But jayc was too, But Justin was on just some on the level. And you want to know something, they all they all love black music. Justin Justin timberlate that that that he used to do like imitate Usher dances and everything Usher and everything black. He just let everything black and.
One more times can't.
Right now everything I like the way you say black, everything black.
No, No, he loved he loved he loved the black music, just not the women, not the women.
But I got God told you Lucy satting you up.
I wasn't I wasn't. I wasn't. I wasn't. I wasn't. I wasn't. I wasn't I wasn't.
I'm sorry I had to do that.
Ladies.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
You know it was it was so it was so much.
It was so much so that they did the story of us for Vibe magazine and Baby Jerry did a quote and Vibe Magazine and he said, yeah, man, you walk into there and you see in sync, and you see this kid, Justin Timberlate and he's just just singing Brian mcnight songs and he's doing like usher dancing to doing Usher dances, and then he's just incredible and and and Justin was so excited about out that. And when we came back to work with What's Cherry? What's Cherry?
What Cherry Cherry? Man? Thanks for saying that, man, Oh, thanks for saying that in five magazine and their picture was in Vibe magazine. It's so back. She wasn't Britain because we were talking about us doing these pop facts. But he just loved being revered by black folks. Listen, do you remember question I failed for that? So I'm not I have nothing Train Awards when he won.
Yeah, the point.
When he did he wear carroles that night, I can't remember.
He loved it. That was kind of crazy to me.
But yeah, and the mirror I'm not being I'm not being funny and mirror I felt like I felt when I heard Gone for the first time.
I was one at my black radio station in Philadelphia.
That was like, let's just play this record and not say who's singing the song?
Like, so I fell for it. I'm just all right. Yeah.
Oh, by the way, I think Bread is the group that did everything I owned.
Uh, yes, yes, indeed.
Wait, boy, wait you mentioned nineteen eighty three. All right, and we're gonna wrap this up soon.
But it just hit me.
Maybe there's there's one question. I there's one factoid about your career.
I didn't know.
I didn't know that you guys had worked with Bob Dylan. Can I ask if this was the Curtis blow connection to Bob Dylan?
Or yes?
Wait, what's that.
You know?
I'm you No, No, I put two and two together and all right, Well, one, when salam Remy was fourteen years old, he had talked Curtis Blow into doing a cover of Magilla Gorilla Why anyway? Anyway, Also on also on that record, I had the America album.
So I do know that.
Bob Dylan had sung on Curtis Blow's America album. And I think I forget the producer at the time that was also working with Bob Dylan.
It might have been. Was it Bill Laswell?
I forget who it was, but it was like someone that had some sort of street cred. It was either Bill Laswell or it could have been Arthur Baker, but like somebody who was not Rick Rubin, but like the white guy that was sort of in hip hop circles.
And so I just put two and two together.
I'm like, well, you guys work with Curtis Blow, and yeah, it makes sense that that's how it went down. So he chose you guys to sing background on a joint that was on the Infidel's record exactly.
And actually we did two joints, but that one made the one of them made the Infidel's album, which is called Death Is Not the End. And how that happened was we was working.
With Curtis Blow at power station in New York and they just heard ours because we were singing back on focus to songs we did with Kurt, and they.
Would walk in and out and they would hear it.
And then all of a sudden, one of his assistants came to us and like, hey, when you guys are finished, just one guys, if you guys could come lay down some background vocals to a new artist that a new artist client will pay you something for.
The new artist client of ours. And we said yeah, okay, And we weren't known then, but we was down to do it. This is right before we signed with Columbia Records, this full Force and whatever, and we went to perform for this new We went to go in there to see this new artist. And when we walked in there, because remember our music, we stemmed all the way back from when we were kids seeing all these artists at the Apollo Theater like from everybody. So we saw fucking
Bob Dylan, were just so blown. That's a new artist. Wait a minute, that's that's art. That's Bob, that's Bob Dylan, and it's Bob Dylan man. And he walked over to us, how y'all doing, y'all doing good? How y'all feel shaking our head? And how you're doing. Yeah, yeah, I just like to hear y'all vote do your vocals on these
two songs of mine. I really loved that. And we were going and we just stayed there and we did background vocals on two Bob Dylan songs, and then we was appeared on the album because we were known then through the Least Release and coaching with Full Force. You know, we saw our name on the sticker with credits Full Force.
And with Bob Doling.
It was incredible, you know, incredible.
All right, So I I was going to ask the last question, did you guys have anything?
No, no, no, I just.
Want to ask one laugh for you. I just want to lou, have we been keeping you on screens for too long? Because I just realized that, you know, we as we talked, as we're talking about the future, the presents and whatnot, that you have your own battles with health and your eyes. So I was just curious. I was like, wait, are you supposed to be looking at screens as long?
An? Oh no, no, yeah, I'm fine. I'm fine. I got central vision is still good. I'm keeping being proactive with my eye. I got this disease called retinies, pigmentos at least the blindness. But I'm proactive with the treatments of it. Like I'm going to do this treatment called the hyperbaric oxygen therapy which you get into the chamber and you.
Ain't Michael Jackson thing.
Yeah, but it's in the eyes because what it does installs the progression of any more sight loss, Like I don't have any peripheral vision anymore, but I just got my central vision, so you know, it's it's it's all good. So I'm good, man, I'm just I'm happy to be doing this show ques to tell you truth, man, I love it.
And this is the last question I want to ask. I want you to ask about your your dad and what he taught you and your brothers about being men, because I feel like watching you guys, there are no barriers. Y'all have this kind of love that I can kiss my brother on the cheek, I can, you know, It's just it's no barriers. So I'm curious as to what your father told you.
What a man are you? You are your brother's keeper?
Yeah, that too, but just too, and how they operate as men without barriers as well, like not have you know, not the extra extra manly all the time.
And even though yes, yeah, yeah, well my father didn't kind of teach us that, but we kind of got that also from our mother. So my mother and our father kind of kind of did that for us. And just to be real with it, because even though we were machra when we're full force, you know, we still got our emotional side and illness as well, even though we're men. You know, the bottom line is that, yeah, if I want to cry, I could cry and just
feel feel the whole uh love scenario there. So my mother and my father may rest in peace, taught us that, you know, taught us not the whole grudges because I don't hold grudges at all. And my thing I'll never forget. I mean, I'm saying this public people, I'll never forget. My father's wife at the time wasn't my mother. It
was his wife before he passed. You know. We just used to always have some back and forth with her, and I'll never forget when we had to run in and she jumped in my face and said, all right, well you're going blind. You're going blind. She said that to me at the nursing where my father was, and I was like, it's okay, and I walked out, and she like taunted me, She's so stupid, But that was okay.
Two weeks later, I forgave her. I reached out an olive branch to her and I said, well, listen, I just want I don't want to hold any grudges, because of course we still wanted to know what was happening to my father since she was the healthcare proxy and everything and controlled all that stuff. So I forgave her. I just don't like to hold grudges for anything. The only time I holdly grudge is if somebody does bodily harm or fatal bodily harm to my family or friends,
then I'm holding a fucking grudge. But other than that, I don't like to I like to forgive the best way I can. And my mother and father taught us that. They told like, my mother always says she has three wonderful sons. So even though I'm the primary caregiver for my mom, my brother's pitching as well, we all are caregivers to her, and I always like hearing her saying she has three wonderful sons because she has her health challenges now but we have to be there for her like she was there for us.
It's just like my brother Paul.
You know, when my brother Paul was fighting for his life with the cancer. I mean, and Paul is like mister invincible, you know, it's like for him to have cancer, it was like a mind blow. He's eight years cancer free now, but when he was really fighting for his life, we had to have a bone marrow stemself transplant. I was just one hundred percent match. Thank god, my brother b Fine said, man, I thought I was going to be the match because me and.
Him look more alike.
I'm sorry, being but I was his match. He finan for his life. He needed sick he needed Paul was always positive though, no matter what, he was always positive. You can never see a chink in his armor except behind closed doors. I maybe saw it twice, but an outer thing, think positively positive because he's not like that.
Then we don't even get to a transplant. But when he was fighting for his life and they said he needed six million stemselves, I was the one at home taking Nu pigeon shots, like injecting myself twice a day for two weeks to harvest my own stem cells to give to my brother. And when I went into the hospital, they said, listen, your brother needs six million stemselves. If you don't give him enough, we're going to take a cafeter to your chest and try to extract, try to
extract more that we could do. Now, here's what can happen during this procedure, what we're doing now, you could bleed to death. Your spleen could bleed, and this and that and.
Blah blah, all kinds of stuff.
And then they said, would you still like to go through it this? And I said, of course I was. It was my brother, you know who wouldn't. And they said, you'd be surprised, mister George. I said what I said, Do some siblings have done that?
Knowing that?
They said, yeah, some they get so scared that yeah, then they back out. I'm like, oh, I'm not going to back out. So we did the damn thing, and instead of giving Paul six million stemselves, I was able to give him nine million steps. Wow. I became. I became a conduit from God to help save Paul's life and these eight years cancer free right now, I just told him I wish he had some damn stem cells
form my fucking eyes. You know, I was turn the paper, but it's all good man, and Paul's just doing his thing. You know, even even before it's themself transplant, he was at the hospital still working out when he was supposed to doing push ups and doing stuff for me. He was like he was like an inspiration over there.
That's why.
Yeah, I monitored his progress on his Instagram and it's beautiful to see him.
Uh. I wanted to.
Know, even without uh, even without what we're going through in UH COVID and quarantining, how do you currently stay creative?
Like is music still.
A first love to you as it once was, or are you just at another place in your life where you're just enjoying life and you know, what is your relationship with not with the music business, but just with creativity in general, and you know, kind of your relationship with music.
We still love music, I mean that's our fiber from the beginning. So it's just a different space and time now with how music is now, it's like anybody could buy music now. I mean Jimmy jam sent Paul pull men at check out my new single. He sent them by phone. I mean, look, how look how tithes of change. It's a single and I feel and I love, I love Jimmy jim and Terry Lewis. They're like heroes of ours.
I'll never forget when they won their Grammy and they did an interview for Billboard magazine and in it because of Alice had came out, and they gave us prout by saying, yeah, man, right now, our favorite group is Full Force and our favorite song is alex I Wann't You Just for Me? And we're like, man, that's coming from Terry losing Jimmy Jam. But the album that they've done, and like the single with the Babyface that they did,
I mean, it's a good record. So in today's age of music, I mean, you know, they don't they don't rever it like how it should because back in our era that have been a huge deal.
Are you kidding? You know, Terry losing Jimmy Jam doing an album together, that would be a huge deal.
You know the fact then now Isa days, it's a whole it's a whole difference there.
And I'm not a hater or anything like that, but I'm saying it's just, yeah, different times, not exhausting, just a little disappointing. Sometimes with the way how music scenario is. You know, I know, we got the whole TikTok and you just buy stuff. I miss the days. I mean,
I mean, call me a dinosaur if you want. But I love going to the record store and staying in the record ours for hours looking at the album covers and the credits on the back, and buy my Temptations album and buying my motortown review and buying this and buy that, and even the cvs. I love that, you know. So our music thing is still good because we're still doing music. We're still producing songs and everything like that and streaming and everything like that.
One of the exciting things that we did, at least for me, which was last Christmas.
You know, we did our first ever full force Christmas song, which we we did it like maybe a month before Christmas. But next time, being that it's a Christmas song, we'll be able to promote it better.
But we did a rendition.
Of Silent Night, which we actually dedicated because you know, the Temptations have.
They say in my mind? Did you say in my mind?
First they had a classic legendary version of Silent Night and a classic legendary album Christmas album by the Temptations. But this was when Eddie Kendricks was singing lead and then Melvin Franklin was singing song. So we did a version of that and and I gotta pat myself on the it's on YouTube.
You see the video.
Did the videok, And and we did it. We literally dedicated it to Melvin Franklin right in the beginning.
I talked.
I said, we'd like to dedicate the song.
To Melvin Franklin Temptations who did a classic version of Silent Night and made it even a double classic. And we sang and then we have a friend of ours from the neighborhood. We didn't even know he could sing until like a few years ago that he sang the Melvin Franklin part.
Now he's not Melvin.
But we did it justice. And you know when I know we did it justice. I got a thumbs up from Otis Williams Otis when he heard it called he called me and he said, that's beautiful and I love the way you opened it up by giving introduction to Melvin Franklin. And we dedicated it to Temptations. Listen, we're not stupid. We're not going to do a remake and you know, leave it alone, don't compete. It's not comparab We're just dedicating it to the temptation giving them homage.
Eddie Kendrick's daughter Ika Kendricks listen to it, call me up, Lou. That was beautiful. So I got her blessing. And then Melvin Franklin's wife, widow Kimberly English, she sent me a long text about it and she gave me blessing. So I got blessing from Melvin's wife, Eddie's daughter and Otus Williams. So I knew our job was done with that. So that was exciting for me. And you can go look it on YouTube. It's dope performance. And then I said, hey,
why were added? Let's do another Cristmas song. And we also did a version of in this funny Christmas song but it's dope. It's called twelve Christmas performed by the House Party Bullies Lack.
I'm definitely looking this shit up now.
We did a video to that and it's hilarious.
I'm looking it up immediately.
It's hilarious.
I have to say that this definitely lived up to my expectations. This was worth the ten year or fifteen year or twenty year wait that I've been dying to have a real conversation and pick your brain about everything that you've done creatively. Just know that every aspect of
your career I followed it. I'm such a fan of you guys, and I'm really appreciative of everything that you've contributed, everything from your skits to your songwriting, to your backgrounds, to your drum programming, to every everything that you guys have done. Thank you, man, That's all I can say, and I really appreciate that.
Before I go, can I ask you a questions?
Did you like when music was changing up and they were taking out the live, live feel of stuff. Did you ever conform to like or given or whatever to like the drum machines and stuff like that, or accepted it even on the mental aspect of.
It, you know.
I mean at the time when we came in the game, like we were the oye guy out, like, all right, you guys are playing instruments. So you know, when our when our second when our third album, Illadelph Half Life came out, I felt a pressure to maybe maybe conform and and try to be as normal as possible. But I mean at the end of the day, I just I learned everything about studio technology. So my old thing
was like, Okay, well, I'm gonna try. I'm still drum but I got to figure out how to make my drums even sound more pliable to hip hop it so that it doesn't feel as foreign, you know. But yeah, I've learned since then to learn every aspect of the game.
Even when I hang up.
Now, I'm about to do something I rarely do. I gotta cut a demo for this project I'm working on now, which none of the roots are here. So I'm gonna try and do everything by myself, which to be rather a nightmare.
But you gotta get rest.
Okay, I'm not going I know.
I haven't announced it yet, but I guess this episode will come out later. The Oscars desired me. So I'm the musical director of the Oscars this year.
Yes, it was very it should be loud.
It's the Oscars and you black congratulation.
It's Reggie part of the production team on the Oscars this time, Reggie Hudling.
No, it's it's it's Jesse Collins who did BT wow the.
Super Bowl to so Steven Sodenberg.
Steven Sadenberg's directing it and Jesse Collins is producing it.
And that question with the drumming and the drum machine, because I never forget my brother be Fine, who was doing drums. I remember when we went into the studio and it's the first time because you know, he played live drums and all all cried out and all of that stuff. But then when we had he we had to do a drum machine thing. I'll never forget him sitting in the booth and he was so dejected because he couldn't believe that he was doing the first song
without any live drums. He just couldn't accept it in the beginning. And then later on he adapted to the technology that he was programming drums and all that, but he was so crushed at that.
I'll never forget that.
You know, it's crazy.
No, I'm not. I'm not crushed.
I on other ways to be creative, and you know, like it's I consider just drumming just one eighth of everything that I you know, I still got to engineer these records.
I still have.
To figure out everything else. So you know, not at all, I'm not discouraged at all. I just I learned everything.
I hate you, but yo, man, I just want to say also questions.
On top of that, Man, thank you my brother, thanks for the respect and the love. It's boomerang right back to you. I appreciate you being part of our unsung. I'll never forget that as long as I live. My pleasure.
Thank you for acknowledging my birthday too, brod Is.
Should you know that you and.
Pe Wee Herman are the number one acknowledgers of everyone's holiday and birthday?
He came out in the snow to the forty ninth, Yes he did.
He did.
I say thank you because your birthday party, your birthday celebration was crazy. It was so creative and I was like, man, I can't believe this. You know the whole movie I think I was with the Final the Final Web was I doing? No? The hard did they come? That's the movie? But it was so creative, that whole thing. Then I got to meet I'll never forget this is a crazy story, but I got to meet Karen Parson's just love it.
That is the random.
Oh, I just love from the press, just loved period. And I'll never forget when I met her there how how I said wow, Karen. So great to meet you. Because my boy that was with me, you know, he nearly fell off the seat to get to her to take a picture, took a picture. I said, yeah, listen, I'm because listen, I take myself for granted all the time, so I don't know. I said, listen, I'm bow legged lout right from four for us, and I take a picture because first of all, I know who you are, right,
I don't. I don't take that for granted. So we took a picture and it was just, it was just, it was just a crazy party. And I gave you, like I'm always giving out plaques just for me. I'm not the Grammys of America.
Love.
I gave quest a beautiful plaque from I still have it, yes here here, and I told him please don't use it as as a frisbee, but from my heart, you know. And yo, man, thank you so much for thank you for being a friend. Man, I'm so proud to call you my friend. I'm so proud of you and all of what you do as well, my brother.
Thank you that I appreciate it. Thank you man.
All right, Well, ladies and gentlemen, I hope you enjoyed this episode of Court Love Supreme with our steam guest Full Legg Flue of Full Force.
When we have a team Sapree. My name is Quest Love and we will see you on the next program.
Thank you.
Yo.
What's up? This is Sponte.
Make sure you keep up with us on Instagram at QLs and let us know what you think.
Who should be next to sit down with us? Don't forget to subscribe to our podcast all right peace.
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