Questlove Supreme: Mark Ronson

Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio.

Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to another episode of Course Love Supreme. I am your host Quest Love.

We have Team Supreme with us. Uh.

You know what, guys, I've been getting a lot of feedback on the internet's and saying that I'm not asking enough of Team Supreme where.

Their life is right now? Someone actually, wow, they actually care, they care.

Someone went like, yo, you used to check up on how Fante's house is doing and any repairs.

So I'm I'm I'm.

Asking how how's your uh, how's your time been?

Fonte? The last month or so, it's been good man doing doing more repairs. We did.

We did windows and we're waiting on like windows like the gum because like they measured something wrong so they gotta come and replace them. But the windows, but else I had to replace. I had to replace my age rat unit that went out. I think that was actually last summer that went out that went recording right No no, no, my a, Yeah, so I do that.

So did that and yeah, but other than that were killing man. I'm cool. It's good here.

Uh Steve, how's how's your life going?

It's going keeping it moving. I'm inspired by the reopening of everything and hoping that have you.

Been going places? Oh?

Hell now, so you're places opening, but you're not going to these places I'm finding.

I'm I'm finding my solace and work, going to going to work every day, as as we happened for a long time. But now that the audiences are coming back, it's uh, it's it's another step.

I feel you.

Last night I went to uh, I went to a brother Love event and I think I think I stayed of all of two minutes.

So I'm sorry.

That's the other Oh yeah, oh.

Yeah, the miss the missus wasn't happening that like this second we walked in and it was like a nightclub.

Are they requiring at at fallon? Are they requiring like vaccination or for the audience, like what's you gotta get?

You gotta get vaccines and and.

You know cars that they had the kids feeling out at the CBS.

Oh guard homemade bootleg joints their hand. That's great. How are you?

I'm great, I'm great. Working a lot podcasts after the podcast.

And you got three podcasts, you're like your like quest love.

Here, I'm trying to be sir, I'm trying to diversify, and by the time this podcast airs, I would have had my first museum showing. My father would have had his first museum showing for his photos at the National Museum of African American Music in Tennessee. So we've been curating that, me and Deianna for Black Music Month, and it's been a lot and it's I'm just happy that it's probably gonna be over by the time you'll have.

Word to fuck out. Congratulations, man's thanks, that's what's up. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. We are honored to have a gentleman with us. Yes, I consider him a gentleman and a friend. He's pretty much accomplished the world in the past two decades. Wait side question, Mark, does it even feel like you've been You're like a you're a twenty year veteran, you're a twenty three year veteran, Like, yeah, you're You're not like our kid brother anymore.

You're you're You're.

I was just looking like, Wow, Martin's been doing this shit for twenty years.

Yeah, Mark looks old.

That's what I was about to say. You look the same.

No, I guess none of those things And you know. Of course, we all know that as you get older, pockets of time, uh they quicker because they're less a fraction of your life. But it is bizarre, And I think like when like, certainly to me, the people I grew up, you know, looking up to you Q tip like you don't like when you guys And I'm not trying to blow you up turned fifty, Like I certainly

You literally, if I were to see like my memory of you as a nineteen year old or twenty year older versus now, I wouldn't tell the difference, right, Like you have a you have a gene and you that might be the cousin who black don't crack because you're you look the same, Uh.

You don't, stew I don't know.

What anyway, y'all.

You know he's accomplished musician and songwriter, producer, label CEO and still an accomplished DJ. If that doesn't impress you, you know, check his resume. Name him Adele Winehouse Mars Meriwether Cyrus Wialle DiAngelo freaking Duran Duran. Oh my god, I can't wait to get to that part. Seven time? Am I getting the number right? It's definitely seven time Grammy winner. Yes, yes, okay, including the coveted Producer of

Guys.

Yeah, where you Where are you right now? Mark? You're in your your lab?

Yeah, I'm in my lab in Soho in New York. I just moved back in. This is the place I actually had in the mid two thousands, right when I met Amy. And you know, I was in this place for a couple of years and then moved back to England for a while, moved to la and you know, because of COVID and people fleeing the city like they did. I was walking past this building and it was actually on Amy's birthday and I was just like like feeling a little sentimental, like, let me just buzz up and

That's what.

Okay. So I was like, hey, I don't know if you remember, Mark, I used to be on the fifth floor and I got it done, and I just thought because I wanted to come upstairs. He's like, what, you want to rent the space again? And I was like, yeah, yeah, that's it. I want to rent the space again. So I came upstairs and I see this abandoned probably what was like a jingle house in between when I was here last, and I was just like wow, I mean and you know, New York rents are a bit of

Back here, and then you got cond into ring it again.

Yeah, but I loved I forgot this place has a really good vibe. It was never like a very like a name studio, like a hip factory or you know, power station. But the but Norah Jones's first record, you know, the big one, was made here. We did most of Back to Black, like all the demo writing. So there's like, you know, just places have a juju like it's just just something in the walls.

It's just.

Kind of nice.

Yeah, I'm telling you right now, don't give it up, because I mean I have a I have a certain superstition when it comes to whenever producer's upgrade, and so the place where you found that magic, and I know in producers' minds is like.

I gotta grow and I gotta expand. But I can show you.

The history of where the slow wan starts, and it's usually when success comes in and then they upgrade, and then they upgrade and then it's just not the same anymore. So you know, if if this is, if that's your spot where you know you're you're, you're the good vibes were, then I tell you you should spot you should.

Can I definitely I've been on the other side of that equation too. I moved into this like basement kind

Uh?

What that.

Right?

Yeah?

All right?

So I'll ask you, and I actually said this on your podcast that you know, I purposely held back from asking you certain questions in real life, knowing that one day you'd eventually make it to the show. So I don't want to waste any answers or whatnot. So great for those of us that don't know, could you please tell us where you were born, what city you were.

Yeah, I was born in London. My parents are English, and then I moved to New York when I was eight and I was pretty much I consider myself in New Yorker, like definitely, but I have ties to London. My family, there, a lot of family that I go.

You know.

So wait, let me ask you about your your time in England. First of all, are you consciously aware or unaware of when your.

Accent sneaks in and sneaks out?

Yeah, it's fucking terrible. I mean I used to hate it. I mean when you moved to a country. I moved here when I was eight from England, and like, you know, kids are merciless at that age, and they tease you, and I you know, they call me, call me, which doesn't make any sense because yeah, they call me, call me, like shut up, call me, like you know, because it's like the middle of like the you know, the Cold

No, you definitely talk like you like I don't think you'd talk American or English. But like I'd always wondered in your head, are you trying to navigate the vehicle so that you.

Don't reveal your English side to us?

And if you're over there, you don't reveal your American side to them?

No, because I definitely. I've definitely sounded American as soon as I went back to England the first time. I'd only been in America for like a year. And they're like, why you sound like a fucking yank now, mate? And or you know, obviously there were nine year old kids. They didn't sound like a like a like a pub bartender. But yeah, no, I hear it when I'm like, I mean, we all have all these different mechanisms that we used

Right?

But and so I always was like, oh, is there something that when you sound when you switch it up that much? Is that is that inauthentic? Like that's the only thing I didn't want to be read as inauthentic.

Reason for sounding like that? They did well. I don't know about Josh, I didn't know about that.

But Donna, Madonna just came out of nowhere and was like, why does she sound like that?

That happens though, Yo, Like after the year I was saying the word yeah after everything yeah rum yeah yeah, like.

Oh yeah yeah yeah exactly, and everything has to end exactly In England, all the sentences end like on a slightly higher note than they started, and you say yeah at the answer, it's like, all right, so I see at the club lady yeah. Fuck. Like everything just like goes into this like lilt.

It's kind of like Brooklyn, Brooklyn, like when we first got here to record do you want more? Like every that whole era of like ninety three to ninety four, especially like when Tarik was hanging with like the Gang Star Foundation and all those cats and they were just talking mad Brooklyn, but like everything was interrogative like they were it was asked if they were always asking questions.

Yeah, Yo, how many pairs of booms you got?

Yeah?

Eat over there, kid, Like everything is a question.

Yeah, And using the word aggie, which I've yet to see any other place in the world use aggie except.

For yeah, my sister. Weirdly, Charlotte uses that word all the time, but just only from like hearing it in jay Z songs and she just loves that show. She just always goes like, why are you acting all Aggie?

Right? Mark, what was your first musical memory?

I have like almost snapshots in my head, like partial memories. I remember having a little trap drum kit when I was three or four. I I remember also having it was either a Sony or Fisher Price record player that was like plastic, like.

A brown joint or like a little tan one, like a little tan joint, whereas.

No, this was like primary colors. It was like red. Maybe it was just like an English one. It was like red, yellow, green. And I just remember lifting the needle and putting it down on the record and just that excitement when the first like crackle happened, and then like just being like whoa, I can control this. I mean it's so not I mean it's not even deep enough to compare it to DJ because it literally is DJing. But yeah, those are some of my first first memories.

Mark.

I'll be the first to admit I was today years old before I realized that you're not at all related to Mick Ronson no, which I think the whole world thinks you are. Yeah, your stepfather is Mick Jones. At how is this a common mistake that all of us had made. Yeah, in my mind, your dad was Mick Ronson, and I'm like, no, his dad was Mick Jones.

Now I get it.

Yeah, No, it was crazy because even before like Wikipedia, like in the early two thousand, when I first came out, like you know, Wikipedia's made it pretty common that if like somebody gets a fact wrong, it just kind of just stays there. It stays there, stays there. But this is weirdly like one of the examples of of a

Damn.

I never It's never even occurred to me that I can just start suing people for false rumors or whatever, because yeah, you know, Wikipedia insists that my grandfather is a member of the Dicks Hummingbird's Beachie Thompson and people. But the thing is like reporters just fall in love with this whole thing of like wow, three three generations of music makers. Your your grandfather is in the rock and roll Hall of Fame. Your dad was a legendary d opera. Now it's you and now just I don't

So yeah, it's like we got the same last name. You might as well.

Just myth becomes legend, print the legend exactly, fuck exactly exactly.

Also, Wikipedia is like the easiest thing to sort of fix anyway, So what like there's just some guy that whenever someone works for you change it, it just goes back and just puts it back like we like the old way.

Yeah.

Yeah, I to try to erase it, and it just winds up back there like three days later, So forget it.

Yeah, I can't do nothing about it.

My favorite like weird thing on somebody posts on Wikipedia that was just so preposterous that I just had to laugh and leave it was that. It said, it was like, you know, all the way down the thing personal life, he grew up in Dada dah, it's like the fourth paragraph, it's like And also at the age of six years old, he actually wrote the theme song to the hit cartoon ThunderCats,

That's awesome, all.

Right, So there you have it. You're all exclusive. You sleep writ in the ThunderCats. I'll take that. I'll take that. So in growing up, you're saying that drums was might have been your first weapon.

Yeah. When I was my parents were kind of like, they liked to party. They had a lot. There was

Can I just want to ask what your parents did, because I feel like in some way your life has been romanticized or even hell a dopey as.

Far as my dad managed bands, and he he came from like a kind of like you know, a family that was like you're supposed to like North London Jews are like a very I wou'd say insular, but it's like you do the family business, you go. It was like old school tradition, this kind of thing. My dad's family were like one generation removed from being like fucking butchers on brick Lane, like not quite peaky blinders, but like that kind of shit. And so they so he

And how many of them?

How many Ronsons there's Okay, so there's my mom and dad had three of us, and then my dad remarried had three more Ronson's, and my mom remarried and had a couple more Joneses. So there's ten, ten brothers and sisters altogether.

Yike, yeah, okay, speaking of which, Yeah, I was going to say, why it's it's Andrew Rochfort who would bring if you remember New Jehan from three seven thousand and nine in the Black.

Lily Days to.

Our very first show when we moved to London, Okay, and that's how we met New and then New became our tour manager.

But at the time she was dating Roachfort, so that's how we knew Okay, Yeah, that's how we knew him. All right.

So in addition, like I know, of course I know Sam DJs, I know that she Ronson is I assume fashion designer? Yeah, and that's not your shout out on the jay Z record, but your sister, yes exactly, you'll take it. But like, is anyone any of your other siblings? Are they accomplished musicians as well? Or just in terms of producing and songwriting.

Yeah, my brothers, like my brother Alexander is really talented. He's in LA and he's more in that kind of like avant garde LA. Seemed like he did stuff with Ario Pink before it was bad to say Ario Pink's name, I guess, but uh right, I forget. But yeah, just like just cool, more weird shit than I do. And uh but and then and then my brother Chris actually lives in Miami and he's like part of terrorist squad and he like makes music with like poohgre and Scott Storage.

I see, Hey, I heard his story once about you, and I thought, this is weird that we kind of have this thing in common. Can you talk about your interning at Rolling Stone at the age of twelve?

I believe yes.

Wow, So you know, one of the parks of growing up up in New York City and on the Upper West Side of my stepdad being a musician. It's like, you know, the cool people were over a lot of the time, and whenever I jan Weena would come over, the founder of Rolling Stone, like I knew exactly who it was. I was a you know, nerdy kid. I read. I loved music, and I loved everything about it, and like I would read Billboard and the trade mags and liner notes and stuff just because I just wanted to

Really am as in, like why did Jagger get like four and a half stars for a primitive cool world?

Yeah? Yeah, Like why did you give the police don't stand so close to me eighty six remix such a bad Like I would really like it was like showing that I probably read it. And I think like he was very to me and probably part exasperatedly once he was like, listen, just stop, I'll give you a job this summer, just like stop bothering me please. So so yeah, I went to Rolling soon and for the summers when I was twelve, thirteen, fourteen, I was I interned there

Responsible for that.

Yeah, nobody should have made me responsible for that. So I went down to the art department and that year the Batman soundtrack, the Prince Soundtrack that week was number one, and they were like, go tell Jenny and art the head of art department. It's Batman's you know, it's the number one record. So I go down and I'm like walking around. I've never been in the art department before.

I was going to say that, out of all your life accomplishments, that's probably the one that I'm super jealous of the most because, you know, like my relationship with that periodical, like I'd been endless saturdays going through like back then, you know, if you didn't we had a large library in Philadelphia, but our local ones of course, like they maybe have like two years of back issues

So like Robert Risco.

Yeah, so when I turned four party, I think Jimmy did this for me. Jimmy had Robert Risco, uh do a caricature of.

Oh cool and that. Yeah, that's that's amazing. Wow, maybe Rolling Stone, that's crazy.

And now being like obviously I was aware that it was special in being there, but now like I realized, like the people I was around are grabbing coffee for from whether it was David wild David Frick, Anthony the Curtis, Sheila Rodgers who went on to be the music booker at Letterman, Like all these people that like had this little like like I was just their little pet like toy, Like it was fun and they all thought it was kind of amusing that I was in there, But I also like, do.

You think they're aware that you were that twelve year old kid? Now?

David Wilde like definitely comments on my Twitter and he'll be like, hey, you know whatever. And Sheila Rodgers when I you know, when we played Letterman before, She's always been sweet. So yeah, some somehow they kind of kept track. I had this, you know phase where I didn't really have any of my first musical success from my early thirties. So really my twenties, while I'm making is a hip hop DJ was not something that really registered on Yon Winner's radar, you know, so, so I think he would

Wow, But he also hip hopped you.

That's ill, Like I mean, it was a compliment, but it was also a slap in the face to like.

Keep doing that little rap cool keeping.

In that moment, I was like, yeah, that's a whole moment and being a you know, a hip hop artist icon or whatever.

Exactly, Mark, do you remember the first album that you purchased? I know, there's a weird question to ask, being as though you grew up in a musical household.

Yeah, I'm certain that collections.

All right, well, let me let me put it this way. What was the collection like in your household as you're growing up? And then do you remember the first album that you went out and purchased with your own money?

Yeah?

Away from your parents' influence.

Yeah, so the collection was like, certainly my dad we left England when I was six or seven, so you know, I'd come back once or twice a year to see my dad. That that was always just like I remember really clearly, like my dad playing He loved Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, so the message in New York. He would always play those and me and my sisters would jump on the bed and you know, that was a very when you're a saw, when you're a kid, like that song a like it's so clear that you

Oh wow, Okay, by the way, the listeners maybe I found out maybe three years ago that one of the members of sly Fox was Booty Cowns is main singer, the one that sings real cartoony.

Okay, yeah yeah, like uh damn almost like think Gary.

No, not Gary Shot. I think Gary Mubum and Cooper.

Okay, I hope I get this right because anytime I get p funk uh trivia wrong, they you know, they beat up on me.

That I love. Like when I listen to record now, it's so funny because like you don't have any of when you're a kid, any of that like uh sneary attitude or like jadenness, And I'm like, oh my god, if I was twenty when that record came out, I'd be like, what the fuck is this Prince rip off? You know he's singing exactly like Prince. I mean, the beat is incredible, is an incredible song. But I love when you hear songs from your youth and you have

That song.

I'm still trying to figure out how come no one never made the correlation between the Bookie Boys A fly Girl and that song, which was the and B version of Yeah Fly Girls, Like it's.

Just what's just they took the drums off of fly Go right?

Or was it I believe it's sort of like can't trust it and don't be afraid.

Like right, right, right, it's the same.

It's the same two inch they just you know it right exactly.

Yeah, I didn't think about it.

It's this, It's the exact same track that side Fox record was like, uh, one of the first records to be like huge on alternative rock radio and R and B and just pop because it had that dumb beat that just like spoke to everybody, which was kind of cool.

Wait the of it again because some of us, well, let's go.

All the way. You know, it's a flag girl. Here's the weird thing. I actually thought when jay Z. When jay Z used it for I know what girls like, I know what girls like, I thought that was gonna blow up for him.

Yeah, come on, you were like twelve back then.

Nah.

That was my first because you know where he sucked up at with that, because he started the album off with a million and one in rhyme no more.

Right, and I was like, holy ship, here we go.

Yes, and then yeah, the Black Streak joined and then it was the Flager Nigga.

No.

It had a even I like in my weird like even though I was like a club DJ. So I was just like looking for anything that was like commercial and bouncy, like I could even feel like there was something sticky there on that record, Like I was like, this feels like this feels like reach And that had the city his mind on it too, probably c Yeah, that was that's because in Germany.

That's because that song had been remixed on the play around about fifty thousand times by the time he put that version out, because like it's was just making cheers.

That was a check y'all remember that.

You're right, Yeah, you're right, Yeah, it was.

Yeah, But I don't know, I feel I don't know.

I get frustrated that he denies it like a bastard son and.

Girls like the girls like record.

Well yeah, I mean just that album in general, that album had moments it was I mean, it's it was.

It's not a bad album.

But it was most defining song is on that moment and which one?

All right, here's the deal, you know, how like when at the beginning, Earth Wind and Fire obviously didn't plan on September being the biggest thing they ever in the one, right, but how that was chosen even though they did, like Star and all this other shit. I feel like the song that really defines jay Z isn't even the sits. I think imaginary players. One yes, because of the j C song. It's arrogant as fucked, like yeah, I feel like you know, I love that just one yeah, he.

Just like whatever, I'm my my face off twelve inch, Like that was a song I love to play. I love it well. It just says a club DJ and then back and forth. And I just like that was just like one twelve beats per minute, Like I needed that in the set at that at that moment, I'm looking out and that was the one.

That was over the it was over to.

So yeah, yeah, I'll never figured that out ever since. Here in Jadakiss's version of how that song went down, like I'll never see it the same again. Basically, like they were on like a trip from the UK and they had to go straight to the studio to do

That was also Pitchfork eight point four for Volume one.

They just recently re reviewed that.

I don't know because I just wikipedd because I wanted to remember what's on that album because I was like, oh, actually, who you were face off Imaginary Player, this very strong album. But eight point four, yeah, I know what.

I like that record, so I will quasi agree, even though he hates that record. And f was trying to chase Puffy. He was trying to chase Puffy bad Boy, but it was like it was ninety seven. It was time to do like.

Yeah, we it's understandable. It's like we get it, but not right. It wasn't it.

You know.

You know, it's funny we were talking about we're talking so much about God Now I'm such an idiot. But when we when I interviewed me for my podcast and we talked about the huge album and then the one for the first one for Interscope, and you weren't really swearing it off like in the way that we're talking about Jay, but you were kind of you know, saying like it was rush and you were trying to make a record maybe just to fit where you were, and

Yes, I was trying to please my label president.

So I was sitting. I was sitting the other day with my girl now fiance, who's ten years younger than me. Don't congratulate.

She's a.

Thank you, thank you. I'll tell her you said that, and don't or hopefully she'll listen to this or both, but don't say nothing came on. And she's like, that's my ship. And because she was she she was a teenager like that agent. It comes out and you're just like, oh this, I just fucking love this. Like you have no context. You're not thinking like where it rests in the cannon. You're just like, you know, like it's just Yeah, she's.

Not being a music's not like y'all the rest of us.

Yes, exactly. Well, I'm extremely thank you. I appreciate that.

Can I Speaking of that snobbery, I wanted to ask Mark a set question because I'm so curious about where you started like working out your sets and where you how you started like refining and knowing what to do and what what what the crowd wanted, and what crowd wanted what and what I would.

Import to you. In the beginning, I would just go and I would watch uh Stretch arm Sean and Clark Can and Goldfinger and just rip off all of their routines, like I'm not I'm not afraid to say, like I know, I stretched when he first came and I said, it's like was not happy with me because I wouldn't literally

I was going to say, what was the name of the club? Damn?

Now now you're you're now you're pulling me out where Now I'm remembering that maybe I was a New York club kid for half a second, because I definitely remembered what was the club that was across the street from Justin's.

Oh yeah, yeah a lot, Yeah on seventeen That was Cheetah. That's Cheetah and a Monday Nights and Jay shouts that out and uh and do it again on one of those songs. Yeah, man, And and he says, I used to fill in on Cheetah, and then I did Wednesday Nights at Shine and then Fridays at Life. So every night that he mentioned in that Cheetah Monday Night, Wednesday Nights at Shy and Evan with the Model bitches, Friday Night at Life or whatever it is. And I was like, that's are online right now?

He used to.

Yes, he would often be there, like was an event like until until the ABT came along and solidified Mondays.

Yes, like you were basically.

You know, usually my club nights would be like if back then, especially on two inch Real, you know, a mix with Bob Power would probably be something like kind of like eight nine hours or whatever. So yeah, you know, if you're starting at three in the afternoon or something like, we get there late and the reel gets there at four, you know, Bob is basically like, you know, get out of my hair and come back at midnight, like let me least get the you know, get the mixed straight

What was it all right?

So well to be I just wanted to cut out too, because Jules and Julian were the main DJs on Monday, specifically a cheater, but they would let me fill in or I play the basementwise.

Yeah, I usually I'd watch your sets, you know. So that's like my memories of it, all right. So one of the one of the discoveries we made in the last five years of doing the show is that, you know, a lot of our a lot of the accomplished producers that we admire were great DJs.

And you know, that's the case with.

Jimmy jam Uh, definitely the case with doctor Dre. And then you know, when I brought this up to Dre, he explained to me that because of the duress that he was under, he would say, like, if you basically played the wrong song, you might risk the club getting shot up. Yeah, he so he was hyper aware of what he played, and he says that that informs him of how he produces because it's almost like there's no room for experiments. You have to be spot on knowing

So what is it? What is what is the What is it like when you are the attraction at these particular parties?

Because is it like what you really want to do or what you think serves them that keeps you working?

Like what mind state are you in?

It's a little bit of both, you know. I love starting the night at ten pm because you could start building and you could play classics and different records in R and B and builded into the hip hop. I hated coming on at twelve thirty when the parties at the peak and it's like, what's the first record? Like that just gives me like the anxiety of life. But the parties that I was playing, I was pretty like, you know, this was I was never on the mic.

So at this period when you're kind of like the darling of hip New York society as far as like being there go to DJ you know, like you were doing the campaign with Aliyah or Tommy Hillfig or whatever,

Yeah, well I was trying all the time to be honest. Anytime I met someone at the club who wrapped and be like, come to my house tomorrow like one pm, and you know, let's make shit. And that was like when someone introduced me to a Psygom when he had just got out of prisoner, was like that, you know, Saigon and I would be together every day making music, and but I really didn't know what I was doing. I probably thought I did like everybody does at that age.

And then was this, wait, let me interrupt one second was this was the first entry like Okay, you're gonna be You're gonna be making rap beats and work with rappers, I think, I think. And if that's the case, what was the album? What was the hip hop album that called you to This is exactly what I want to do.

Mecca and the Soul Brother Yes, no, yes, yes, because although I think main ingredient is probably my favorite of it too, but Mecca is still I mean, that's yeah.

It's funny you said that.

I ridiculed Kanye for saying that publicly, but when I really think about it, I have a way different relationship with me even though my face it's almost like Role is my favorite album, but I know that eighteen fourteen

What was it? What was about Mecca for you? Bart? Like? What was what?

How?

Why was that your your kind of life?

I played in a band. I played guitar in this band in high school, and my drammer, Scott was just like he just loved rhythms, and he was a really good drama and he'd want to talk about like Dave fucking I don't even know these drummers and paradiddles and like real like he was just into rhythms, interesting rhythms. So he discovered it. He loved it obviously, probably because like the drum fills and the things Dada Da da Dat spoke to him and he just played me reminisced.

What year did you start DJing?

Ninety three so just at the end of my senior year, and I remember the first four to twelve inches I bought at Rock and Sall. I bought Time for Some Action, Rebirth of Slick ZIGGI Raking in the Dough and the original Yeah, the original of Protect Your Neck, the original, the original Risk.

Makers Orange and Yeah.

Okay, I hope you still got that because that shit is worth money, man, Listen, Yeah, it's worth money.

Now still say ninety three was the best year.

I don't care really ninety three years music. Yeah, it was amazing.

So what was the what was your what was your weapon of choice when you are making these beats?

Like, what did you did you start off.

On the three thousand and I got I went in the store to get this NPC sixty or i'd kind of saved up or I had enough for half of it, and then I was like, I want to pay for this on layaway or whatever it is. And he was like, well, by the time you were ready to pay it off, actually the NPC three thousand will be out. So so I managed to get that. It was a year later

Oh.

Also side note, speaking of your stepfather, this is he's not to be mistaken for Mick Jones of the Clash.

Not to be another second, that's another Mick Jones.

Yeah.

I was about to say, you got crazy Mick ronson Mick Jones, the mc jones and the other mc jones.

Yeah, yeah, still legendary.

But yeah, I was going to say, because I was like, wait a minute, you're not.

In the class, right, yeah, exactly.

Right, exactly, Okay, So would you would you say your first steady client was Saigon?

He was the first, like I guess rapper. There are some rappers from from my school, Like I went to Vassar College for one year, uh, and there were some rappers up there who I worked with, Lodi and Ian lovely guys. And then I came back to the city and someone introduced me to Saigon. So he was like the first person that was like over my house, and actually John Forte as well at this time as good friends with John, and we had this weird production duo called Epstein and Sons. I have no idea why we

Yeah, and so tell the story of how that morphs into you can I say that is Nikga like.

Your first like major work as a producer.

Of course by a country mile for sure.

Okay, wow, so wait I worked on like your first production.

I was like, yeah, that's why I was so fucking spoiled. I laugh about that, Like the first time we go into the studio, it's like I've been in the studio. It's like you and Pino and Jane. Somebody was just saying like, don't get used to this, like I remember that real.

Yeah, yeah, this this is one of those legendary moments where where you know, like Electric Lady is just going to be just an open house of whoever comes in, and you know, it's it's not it's not normal for a person to be generous and let like usually like if someone finds a good sound in a good room or whatever, they like.

Lock it down and they're like, no one else goes in this room but us.

But it was almost like, you know, de was like, well, you know, obviously if I say three pm, I'll be here at seven or eight pm. So you know, whatever y'all do in the daytime is cool with me as long as that, you know, once I get there, so we would just take advantage of all those early hours and work on other things.

I kind of.

Feel like that album needs to be re released in a way released, yeah, because I feel like there's a whole generation of people who don't understand nick A Costa killed that shit and didn't drop them like it was like, I don't know that's what.

Yeah, it was the twentieth anniversary like last week, and I was like, doesn't get you know a lot of a lot of people anytime that song comes up, people like, oh yeah, fuck, I love that song. Was like my fiance partner whatever included like people because it was in the Hill Figure commercial and then everybody got there's something you know ended up as the Yeah.

I was so have oft for you. That was my favorite rong on that record. I love that song.

Yeah, no, she's she really wrote some wonderful songs on that record.

So what was what was the collaboration process like with you uh Nikka and I assume Justin also worked justin Stanley.

Yeah. So so Dom would come to the parties that I would DJ, like Life and stuff, and he would be like I'd be playing one of my regular sets. I would be like Rufus, the Chaka Khan e p MD, then the Biggie and then at the end maybe Seven Nation Army or that probably wasn't even out yet, but some kind of rock shit missed you by the Stones. And he was like, He's like, I don't know if you make music or not, but like I have this

It's amazing that Dom saw something in you that was Dom's real gift.

Dom was able to.

See something in you that you yourself wouldn't see. I would almost say, like, you know, you know, like Puffy kind of has that he can sell you the Brooklyn Bridge thing against your will or I mean, there's something about him that makes you say yes, even if it's like like I know instantly when he calls the phone, I'm like, no, I'm not doing this gig. I can't spend what's up, playboy?

Yeah.

But Dom also had Dom was just one of the greatest motivational yes pushers.

Like he's the one.

That talked all that all the magic that came from Electric Lady. Chances are Dom was there as the foundation of YO do this idea?

So you know he he yes, he did, and he's he's like, I'll come to your studios. Because I was probably just like, yeah, I make beads or whatever. He's like, let me come to your studios that we do. So I had this little studio in my bedroom's apartment on Sullivan Street and he was doing space Jam at the time or it just finished it, and he was like, I need a remix of Seal did Fly Like an Eagle? And I need a hip hop remix, So why don't we try. I think that was like just to see

You were there for that, Steve, were you not? Yes? I was there for the back. Yes, Rush rusted all the work out.

But I'm a secret sauce.

It's the same old story. He got the bacon, I get it.

Yes, I'm sorry.

No.

Those were very very cool sessions. I mean very memorable for me because I was just starting out too, and the music was so good, so happy to be because I had to do all kinds of different sessions where the music was of varying degrees of quality.

Let's say, I was about to say, if you're an engineer on a session that of a song you don't like, then I don't even know what that's like for a person, you know what I mean, just to be held against their will listening to a song where shit ain't good, it's not good at all. Yeah, I remember, like my favorite was just because man, that that shit could still be.

That shit could.

Come out tomorrow and I'd still ride for that thing. And that's also one of my favorite. I would probably say that's probably if I were to compile a top five of like my drumming performance, because the thing is, the weird thing is is that I'm serving the song so much that I'd never get to not have fun but just be be myself. I don't know if it's like me being tofu like I have to bend to

Hip hop enough or whatever.

So it's but I'll yeah, I'll say that just because it was was one of my Probably i'd put that in my top five, Like drum sounds that I actually that I dig I.

Need to listen back. I remember Billy Preston came in and we were really excited for him to play piano on it, like that was the whole thing. And he came into the studio and we were like wow, and he just like sat down and listened to the whole thing. I was like, nah, the demo piano is pretty good and she's like, no, no, that's just something that I just played like just for you. Go I don't hear I'll play some clad though, and like that was it.

How long was it until.

You got a chance to work on I'm about to say the OUI record, not OUI your You're here, Here comes the Fuzz, your first solo job.

Yeah, that was basically off the back of Nika's album. There was like a lot of buzz about it just before it came out, and it was in this hill Figure commercial and I had this little moment of like, you know it's there. It's never better than the moment just before the record comes out, because it's just like the possibilities are endless and you look just look like it,

Wow, So how did you at least at that point, I think this that The Fuzz came out with like two thousand and two, two thousand and three, three, Yeah, it was like around okay, So at that point, like were you your own point person Like did you know Rivers Cuomo and Jack White and like all the people that were on that that first secord.

For the most part, the people that I didn't really know personally were Rivers Cuomo and Jack White because they were sort of more from rock world and Jack was in Detroit and Rivers's la that wasn't but anybody else that could kind of call because of b you know, just being in the New York clubs for so long. And I even remember when Yes Seen Then Most came

Okay, when did uh?

When did because around the time, but I mean I knew you're the stuff you did with Niak and everything. But around the time that I came became familiar with you with the hip hop stuff was with Saigon Us I had to done Didnt record and then also with ron Fest.

Yeah how did how did?

How did all that come about?

We used to play the Foreign Exchange Records so much on the tour.

Oh wow, thank you so much.

Loved it. That came about through uh my friend Ron minor DJ Indiana Jones, who you know in the past. Yeah, yeah, I know. Yeah, it's crazy when you start talking all these people that just don't seem that far away in your life. They're not with us. But anyway, Ron was Ryan Fest was Chicago, but was living in Indianapolis at the time, and and Ron but I knew, and it brought him to New York and we just started hanging out.

Yeah, was Alito?

Was that the only was his record the only record that came out on that label?

Or did y'all put out anything else?

Daniel Merriweather right, and the first album Wait a minute, Yeah, I forgot before he went into may Back. Everyone was way better after they left us. No, Daniel Mary, Daniel Marray that sold a lot of records.

His love and War that was that was yours? Right? War was on you there?

Yeah, James Saw was my I love that song so coolly, you know that's great. Daniel would love listening to this.

Wait a minute, damn, this is killing me now because I was under the impression. Okay, I'll admit there's a lot of like transparency admissions by quest Love this episode. Yes, of course, I when I saw your label name, I couldn't for some reason.

I just it just read dildo to me. Wow, But I didn't. I didn't expect that coming.

But the thing is is that when I read it again, I was like, oh, all I do because he probably loves it for Stevie won the record.

What is the name of your label?

Well, that's the thing. It was all I do for the Stevie song. But the first records that Saigon, you know, put out a few signals with us, and he would just yell out Alito, like at the end of the song. We're like, okay, well the first person who said our name is public record has already said Alito, you know it's not a great.

That's exactly what it was. I heard him say it.

Yeah, And that's why I thought the label name was because Brian Face will hol it to Alito.

Yeah, yeah, it's it's not a good sign when the people within the label can't even agree how to pronounce this the you know, the title, so you know that's how it was.

But how did you say it Mark.

Yeah, what was the why'd you name it that?

It's so I don't know because dildo was already taken. So I just love the TV song and I should have just made everybody commit to one pronunciation that's correct.

I was correct.

It is all I Doah, Okay, I was getting worried about myself for a second. I was like, damn, I have it wrong.

The whole time when music Soul Child album came out, was you mad? Because it was like everybody got those.

Just what But for some reason, I love I love the idea of like this kind of like bad like nerdous comedy sketch, of like mispronouncing all the word famous famous rap labels. So it's like I'd like to play this record by good Boy.

Oh wait, that's another see I wish I'm paying Bill was here. It just hit me.

I was trying to figure out remember when we were trying to figure out what a Manda Green was, like the Prince way of writing things out, and it's called a Manda Green.

I was.

I was trying to figure out who's the king of Manda Greens now? And that's yeah, that's music Soul Child's lame music unpaid bill is not here for that, all right.

So with hashtags, my mom's hashtags on Instagram are just like crazy run on sentences that are just wild.

Okay.

So Mark two thousand and six, Man, I mean I probably told you this story before, but to even the amount of paralyzed producers that sat and tried.

To figure this shit out.

When we got back to black and I got a call from Jazzy, I didn't get a call.

I was.

I was in Barcelona and Jazzy Jeff Instant messaged me whatever AOL instant message and he's like, man, I'm.

Depressed, and he's like what, He's like, Ronson's King. I was like huh. And then he sent me.

The fiul to the album and literally the I called it and I was like, wait, who produced this? And he says Mark Ronson. I said no, no, no DJ Mark Ronson. He's like, yes, that Mark Ronson. No DJ Mark, like you know NBC sixty with the New York Knicks beats that Mark Ronson.

He's like yes. And I was just frozen. Yo.

I sat until showtime. I sat in that room and listened to that album for seven hours.

So how did.

You connect with Amy at the time, like he just explained the working relationship.

Yeah, like, well, I remember just saw that Jazzy Jeff thing. I remember this because records weren't so global then, they didn't just blow up like this, So like I didn't know if people in America had heard the album yet. And I remember being about to board a plane in some airports somehow, and there was a message from Jazzy Jeff and I heard on my phone and he goes, yo, Mark,

So you were Mick Ronson, Yeah, that's it exactly, or Rick exactly.

So we like when and we went and sat in Lapang coutiden On Grand and Mercer and we just talked for a minute. I instantly liked it because she was so funny, I mean, you know, and uh, we came up into my room, and you know, usually at that point it was this thing where I'd play beats for people, do you like this?

You like this?

But the minute she started talking about music, I just knew that I had nothing near what she was talking about. But it was so exciting, and I said, what kind of record do you want to make? Because she says, well, they play this stuff down at my local, like the Shangri Laws and stuff. So we listened to it and it's maybe a little familiar with something from like a

So then talking about by that point, you'd never heard of Sharon Jones and the dap Kings and just that whole underground Brooklyn E.

I knew this stuff. I'm pure because I had sampled something off there on my first record, so something else they had done. But I didn't really know the Brooklyn scene, and because I got dropped from my label rather unceremoniously a week after my album came out. Apparently some of the samples hadn't been paid for either. So when I finally met Gabe, bro oh, wait, did you.

Do brand new from Rhymfest?

No? No, I didn't.

Joint.

Okay, I was walking past the Mercury Lounge. I probably knew that somehow how it's gonna get in touch with the Dap Kings. I didn't really know, and it said tonight Sharon Jones and the Dapkings. I was like, fuck, these are the guys I'm looking for, you know. So I walk in up the street and Gabe's kind of like closing up his bass. The gig is over. I'm like, hey, I start talking a mile a minute, probably trying to give him the seal and da da da he like clicks.

Doom? June?

Doom? Doom did you do do? And I just remember just being like, this is one of the greatest moments of my life.

I know it. I know you know.

So you did all the tracking at Daptone Studios.

The reason I'm coming off the mic is because I remember I just found because these are the lyrics to back to Black, how she wrote them in the background, and it's got these are going to a museum and ship but like just for the last couple of days I get to hold on to him. But yeah, it's even got like a phone number of this guy like Broncas who used to do this thing last night's party, so she must have got his number the night before and all the other ship.

That is amazing.

Man, What museum is it going to be in?

Oh? Anybody who wants it? I mean, I'm just I just realized, like I found these rather recently, and I just realized that I do not need to have these. These need to be somewhere where people can see it, enjoy it. Yeah, got okay.

I wanted to ask mart Man what was the what were your thoughts on the Amy documentary, the one that uh, the one that came.

I saw it in theater.

I can't remember the name of it years ago, but yeah, I think it was just It might have been just Amy. What were your thoughts on that and do you think that captured in your opinion, you know who she really was as a person.

I remember the first hour of it. I was just in love with it because you got all of the joy of Amy, all the humor, the wit, like the talent. I hadn't even really understood how amazing the lyrics to songs like fuck Me pumps and stuff on the first album that I wasn't that familiar was. Until I saw that, I was like wow, and it was like spending time with an old friend. The second half is very hard

This is what I want to know, because you and and Salaam sort of held the majority of the weight of the album that production. Are you two comparing notes? Are you hearing each other's demos? Because the thing is is that sonically that album sounds, you know, it's seamless, it's it's it's absolutely seamless.

But you know, how are you two even knowing what the do you are you guys.

Even comparing notes? Like what the other is doing to make it make it that way? And who sort of gets the who's the fifty one percent of the forty nine? Like who decides yea song order and all that stuff. Really, I'm asking why was Addicted treated like a bastard step job? I know that wasn't your song, but yeah, in the London version, the album opens with Addicted.

Wow.

In the American version, it's like the last song, like, yeah, the American version opens with Rehab and I'm like, wait, what, Like.

Yeah, because they're like Americans have short detention spans, we have to I don't I really don't know. I'm sure. I'm sure she had nothing to do with that either. But yes, I think, to be fully honest, Solam and had an incredible musical bond, and uh Slam has made many of my favorite tracks, like Stone.

I mean, just the fact that he bought you know you said when you said your twelve inch was breaking the dough, I'm like, man.

Yeah, that's fujila all of it. And but I think that they were doing a similar thing, a little closer to what they had been doing on on Frank and they heard and Slam heard the demos. Amy said she was very excited about it, and then Salam took it into more of a live direction that maybe he would have done anyway, but I think he was probably excited to get to do that as well.

So initially his work was more contemporary and whatnot, and then once you brought it to the sixties, then he adjusted his music accordingly.

Yeah, that's what I've been told.

Yeah, okay, okay, I get it.

You know, in a.

Year of highlights, like in two thousand and six, two thousand and seven, especially when you win Producer of the Year, Like what's going through your mind as they're reading off the nominations. And I mean by that point, were you basically like I got this or no?

No, because it was still like, you know, Timbaland was up, and I was like they could easily give it to him for like a life service whatever. But you know, I'm not an idiot again and not going to pretend like I know what ticks Grammy otis boxes and this was like a record that really fell in that zone because it had touches of the classics and the past, and it's like a nod to the old school shit.

But it was.

It was also a magical night.

Where do you keep your Grammys?

Right now? They're in storage