EPISODE #002 (Mic Mich)

Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention please. The show starts in 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, go. This is a Chalk Production. Alright, this is Sunday afternoon. Sunday afternoon checking in with the Twisted Critics. Candy AM, you both here? Yes, sir. Alright, a little later than we normally do, but we got cattle later. So, you know, I had to get cooking done first before we jumped in here. But I miss y'all boys. How y'all both been doing?

Real good, man. I got no issues. Stuff's going well. AM, you holding everything down? I'm phenomenal. I miss y'all too. Well, with that said, the name of this episode is Mike Mish. But AM, why don't you do the honors this week and let the listeners, the fans, and anyone new to us know what the hell we are. Alright, as the Twisted Critics, we are those biasly unbiased brothers across the United States who dig music and music business.

Twisted Critics originally began as Doc and his cousin Tony Ganja in 2018. Now, it's relaunched with two new co-hosts, myself and the Candyman Condolario. Doc and I are active artists ourselves, and the three of us are collaborators, radio reviewers, friends, and current business executives for Hear My Voice Entertainment and publishing.

But starting this year, the Twisted Critics podcast is curating our own Spotify VIP playlist to better help promote our special guests and other songs that we love and enjoy. Due to our good and bad experiences in the rap game, our job around the industry, and many questions and misinformation we've heard at music conferences, we remember what it's like starting out, the mistakes and being told false info everywhere you ask.

So we're trying to provide direct answers, correct business practices, clear legal steps, and helpful resources. It's our mutual love, though, for our weekly calls, our ear for urban music and mathematical eyes on the radio charts, our reviews for record labels, our heated song debates, our guests, and our sharing a few drinks to build this therapeutic, productive, and often wild platform for you all to listen to.

Listen, if nothing else, tune in with an open mind, a notepad, a pen, and a full glass, people. Let's just raise this full glass. I want to make sure my brothers are getting their hydration for the day. 100%. And for you listeners, just make sure you have a full glass listening along with us too, and enjoy an informative, opinionated, entertaining, twisted vibe that you might actually learn something.

Please be interactive, send in your questions via our various social medias, and we'll not only give you a shout out on air, but we'll also give you the direction to your questions that you need. Us three are believers in the motto, a drunk man or woman tells no lies, and how we can equally be helpful and entertaining. We like to call it education through inebriation.

So right now we're going to go ahead and go to our first segment, segment one salutations. Yep. So my name is Candelario Yariad, aka Candy, aka Mr. Too Sweet in the Streets, Extra Spicy in the Sheets. I'm from Brownsville, Texas, the southernmost tip of Texas. I started out doing local parties, moved myself into the promoter space, and now I'm expanding my business as I join Hear My Voice Entertainment, where I focus on artist development, being the podcasting director, and the marketing.

I plan on expanding my musical market in the area I live in, and hopefully becoming a prominent figure within my community. I love it. My name is Arian Miller, aka Angry Man, aka rapper AM, BKA your mother's boyfriends. Yeah, so I rap, I dance, I sing. I'm a manager or an almost manager at Amazon. I'm a father, I'm a poet. I play the guitar, the piano, I produce, I fight. I love MMA, I box. I do a lot like freestyling.

I am, I'm gonna call myself an A&R for Hear My Voice Entertainment. I am a big hand in a lot of what Doc needs. Doc has a problem with anything, you know, trying to put to try. I'm taking a try out of my vocabulary. I'm putting together a lot of music, starting this week. So everyone's going to start to hear everything that I have going on. Doc.

Alright, so since I put you guys on the fire, I gotta step into it too. My name is Doc J, real name is Joselito, everyone calls me Jesse. I'm part Puerto Rican, part Italian, part Slovakian, so that means I'm a big mutt. I was born in New York, lived almost my entire life in Florida, in central Florida right now in Claremont. I am 40 something something. I have two college degrees, copyright trademark law and civil engineering in roadway design.

I started my path into music first doing poetry and rap battles. I did the whole South Florida Miami Dade Boca Raton battle scene. I got a few, I had a few poems published in some publications, one of them being for dare and I got money out of it. So that was pretty dope. And then I moved on and I got my first internship that was at Sony Music. I had a second internship at Atlantic Records and then the last one was in the legal department, a paid internship at Epic Records.

Since then I've been at media base since 2018. I basically monitored, verify and track charts and if you're an artist that actually owns your song that's on FM radio, we make sure you get your payment executed to you.

With Hear My Voice, I'm still an artist but I'm more into the executive side with this. I'm enjoying being a podcast host yet again. I said I would never do this again but these boys brought me back in and I just like chopping up with these guys like every couple weekends and we like to talk and argue music.

With that part of the show now because we are the Twisted Critics, I need you guys to raise your glass. What are you drinking on? Let's start with you, AM. What are you drinking on my brother? Alright so what's in this cup right here is called 10th Ward. Sin used to work at a distillery. He was a driver. That's something called 10th Ward. This is some gin.

And this, I have some Queens Bees Needs which is also 10th Ward. 10th Ward is a woman owned distillery. So these are my two little cans, my shot, and then I'm drinking on some premium elephant peels there. Heading all the way to South Texas. Candy, what you drinking on man? So what I'm gonna be sipping on is gonna be, I got the same bottle of Bucanas. I'm trying to finish it. I'm surprised I've been through half of it. And to sip on, I got me a Talboy, better known down here as a Mofle.

Just a little slang for y'all. But besides that, I'm excited to be here with y'all man. I'm planning on getting drunk today. Me too. What's up? What's you drinking on? Alright, so like normal, I got my Roman Coke. Captain and Coke. Captain, can you send me the sponsorship deals? I got some other goodies for you guys. So for my shot, AM knows a lot about this. So there's his sister. This is called Mamawana.

Dominican drink for celebratory reasons. It's part rum, part dart rum, part red wine, part honey. And all these roots, leaves, and barks that kind of gets you kind of feeling numb and, you know, weird. And the shot, you know all that? They call it liquor of Viagra. Tell them what it's called. They do call it liquor of Viagra in the Dominican Republic too for sure. And that's the whole like feeling tingly part of it.

And in the case I do have to take a shot, the special shot glass this week is an actual handgun shot glass. Love it. Alright, so segment two, Candy, tell them about our little scheme that we do on our guests. We're going on a segment too which is WFW. So as always, we as a Twisted Critics want to do our best to make sure that we, the guests, and you listeners, break the ice, get comfortable, get a little loose, jump in the fun by using our little

torturous buzzword as our banana peel each episode. So we do call that the WFW, our wrong fucking word of the day. Every time someone slips up and says that word, whether it's accidentally or purposely like me and Candy, everyone must take a shot. That means us hosts, our guests, and all y'all listeners, no questions asked.

With that said, I think it's AM's turn to pick this word. I know you read our guest bio, Mr. McClendon's biography also. What kind of devious term are you thinking of to mess up my afternoon? I'm gonna mess up everybody's evening afternoon. And what I, look, I thought hard, looked into his past, and I looked into his resume. And this week, for the wrong fucking word of the day, I gotta, I gotta create one, I gotta mean one.

I'm going with market, and we're gonna use any tense or derivative of it. So marketed, marketing, market, market. And I think I'm gonna get y'all. All y'all. You definitely get me. I think some of my reviews I wrote last week have the term, that term in there. So this is gonna be a lot of fun. Let's go ahead and slide into segment three, the time capsule.

So let's turn back the clock a little bit for episode two this week, consisting of the dates, August 26 through September 2nd. We're gonna first take a quick look into these days throughout urban music history. First and foremost, we gotta give props and pay respect for those who are not here anymore to receive those. Doc, why don't you kick this off with who we have?

All right, so starting August 26, we've got Ronald White from The Miracles, passed away in 1995. Moving on to August 27, Scott LaRock used to be down with Karras One in the Boogie Down Productions, BDP. I love that group. One of the, I think in the 80s was one of the most creative album covers I've ever seen in my life. Was it Sex and Violence was the name of the album.

August 28, that's a big day for me and it seems like a multiple toot of deaths as well. But we got Chadwick Boseman, passed away in 2020. Going into also August 28, we got DJ AM, passed away 2009. We have a very prominent actually Mexican figure. We got Juan Gabriel, passed away 2016. And then in 2021 we got rapper Lil Kauai.

All right, I'm bringing it up the rear. We're gonna have August 30. It's gonna be Chris Lighty in 2012. We have BG Lotto, August 31 in 2021. I did those backwards, I apologize. And then we have September the 1st, Hal David in 2012. Hal David's an interesting one because he's prominently more of a songwriter, ghostwriter. He's written records for Louis Armstrong, Aretha Franklin, heads like that during that time. Some pop artists too, Tom Jones I think he did something for.

So he's all over the panel with that. Sad seeing that and some of these bright smiling faces that I'm looking at on my screen right now. But it's, some of them kind of cut too short, you know what I'm saying. Chadwick, I love his movies. Same. I mean it's, you know, rest in peace to everyone passed away on that whole list and anyone that's not on the list. So I'm gonna take a drink to that for sure. On a happier note, let's move on to the birthday celebrations for all the Virgo crew out there.

You know I got y'all. For this final one, B-Day, shout out, we're going directly to Big Crit, August the 26th. I want to put that on my sub. Put that on my sub. He's turning 36 years old. We have Eric Bobo, a side press heel, August the 27th, he's turning 54. And then we got Murder Mace, August the 27th, he's turning 47.

I'm gonna pick up right after AM. We got Rod Wave, August 27th also just turned 23. We got a posthumous birthday, Michael Jackson, August 29th. That's like the GOAT, King of Pop, Michael Jackson would have been 65. And I also have Joe Budden, August 31st, he turned 42. I do like Budden, man. I do love Budden. That's one of my influences to my pen, for sure.

Continuing, we also celebrate MJG, August 31st, 51. We got Cat Williams, September 2nd, 51. And we got KC of Jodeci, starting 53 on September 3rd. All right, so with that, let me see if I can hit up our homeboy. I'm gonna drag in our special guest from California on a flight, red eye, and see if we can get him in here. I'm trying to hear now. Mike, Mike, you've been here. I just passed him the link. Let's see if he can hear us loud and clear.

Hey, hey, what's happening? I can hear you perfect, man. What's going on, y'all? I'm happy to be here. What's up? Mr. McClendon, Mike Michigan, Mike. All that good stuff. I want to introduce you to my brothers in arms, rapper A.M. from Baltimore and Candelario from South Texas. Hey, what's happening? What's wrong? I'm talking about Baltimore and Texas in the building.

All right, so this is your segment. This is all tailor made to you. This is shout outs to you. We're going to tell you the rules on drinking in a second. But we got to like actually pitch you and let the people know why I wanted you on the show. Mr. McClendon and I go back. We both worked in the radio business for some years. We ran into each other on social media. And then some years later, we ran into each other on Clubhouse, I believe, as well.

All the way back to his past. He's back from the golden age of hip hop, just like I am. He is a very successful track and field runner, not like I am.

He's had many hats, has had many titles, but he's a music executive, a creative consultant, at one time was a radio syndication producer. He now has his own publishing company. I believe it's called Magical Lessons, and he has his own publishing company for producers, I believe, called Constant Hits. Please welcome to the stage. Welcome to the phone and welcome to the Twisted Critics. Mike Mish, please, the floor is yours. Let them know who you really are.

Well, thank you. I want to first of all say thank you, Doc. It's a pleasure with that greeting. I appreciate that very much. Candy Aome, it's wonderful to be here. From Kalamazoo, Michigan. I've lived a little bit everywhere. I was an athlete, all the sports, baseball, basketball, football, track, volleyball, bowling, tennis, you name it, I was in it. You know, growing up, broken legs, Achilles tendon, all of that manifested. I went to the University of Oregon.

I'm a duck, ran track for the ducks. Fast forward, took an internship to Island Records in 1994, left college, and living in Brooklyn, met Bobby Isom on a stoop in Brooklyn one day, took me down the street and met Biggie Smalls and he gave me my name, Mike Mish. That's awesome, man. At one time my family all lived in, it was more Williamsburg, Brooklyn, but off of Metropolitan Avenue.

I remember the bank. I remember the original bank, that big tall long bank, and that was one of my, when I first moved to Brooklyn, if I saw that I was on the right track going home, because if you know you went on the wrong side of that bridge, you know, you was a red hooker. You know, it was something back then. We would only go back every summer, so I would probably get lost a lot. The only thing I knew was on our block there was a bodega called Del Valle Grocery. Yeah.

And it's been in the family for like 40 years and then they sold it to someone and changed the name, but that's how I knew where I was at. There was a record store I would always go to there to buy CDs and cassettes. Before we dig into the hot seat and the 21 questions and throw a lot of darts at you, Candy AM and I have a couple barbed wire banana peels ready for you. So, floating along the top of this entire show is what's called a W of W, wrong fucking word of the week.

If you hit this, this is all AM's fault. He's the one that hand selected this personally for you. He read your bio and picked something I think that's so devious that I'm going to mess up on it. Okay. And then later we'll tell you about a little drinking game we have at the end of the show called Seven Degrees of Separation. So, repeat both of those in your mind. If you do hear us while you're telling a story, bug out, make all this noise, sound like we're like, like a fire alarm is going off.

That means you're going to have to drink with us. Okay, cool, cool, cool. Perfect. Part your reputation definitely precedes you. You know, we definitely welcome you to the stage and you know, get your drink ready man and let's kick this off. Are you ready? I'm ready. So I'm starting off with the first question. You've moved around a lot. What has been your biggest adjustment living in New York versus Michigan and versus now California?

Well, Michigan is home and it seems like, you know, when you're home, you never really get the love that you're supposed to get. And then when I lived in New York City, nobody knew me. Right. So I got a chance to recreate my life, who I wanted to be. I even had different names. You know, I was Mickle A and then I was Mike Mish, you know what I'm saying? So, and it was a beautiful time.

And then like that was 94 to 99 when I was in New York and like Docket just said, that was the golden years of hip hop. And it's just like every day was a movie meeting people. One minute you're listening to Black Moon and you're like, oh, I'm moving to Brooklyn. I'm moving to Brooklyn, son. And then the next day you're chilling out with Evil D. You dig what I'm saying? Just like that.

And now California is like, you dig, you dig, you know what I'm saying? It's Fizz, baby. It's E-40. It's too short. It's MC Hammer. It's Fabby Davis. It's RBC. It's LBC. You know, RBC Posse. You know, everybody. You know what I mean? It's like the Bay is playaristic. I love California. I love being out here. LA is cool and everything. Everybody's got their choice of what they want, but I particularly love the Bay, you know, old town, the town, you know, the food.

You know, I'm living in San Rafael, so I'm kind of in the middle. You can go to the Rosa and Napa. You know, you can just do that whole thing all day long, you know, and I like the style. The comparison is I graduated just to make the start of the, you know, I graduated from I love Michigan. It's always going to be a little too cold, you know, a little bananas with the business like Florida is little bananas with the politics.

New York is always going to be the source, you know, say it's even though you move from there, you got to go back there because that's where that's the capital. You know, you know, and then out here in Cali is just, you know, a lot free. I feel a lot better as a mature adult. I like, you know, enjoying my life. That makes sense. Yeah. When I first met you, I think we met online and through the radio stuff that I've been doing for MediaBase.

I saw and saved your phone in your phone number in my cell and it's still saved to this day as a 407 Orlando area. Right. You also live in Florida, central Florida as well, too. And if so, where and when and how long did you stay here? I lived in Florida. I moved to Florida in 20 at the end of 2011 and I stayed in Florida for several years to probably we still have a home there. Winter Park and I do have my 407 so I never thankfully I've been able to keep that telephone number for a while.

But I have my children are there. They're teenagers. Shout out to Josh and Lily. You know what I'm saying? They're they live in somewhere in Brooks with crazy Florida Brooksville. The mill is hot. They live in hot Florida. You dig it? You know what I'm saying? Oh, Florida's hot right now. Right now. You know what I'm saying? So but yeah, I love I loved when I lived in a when I moved from Michigan to Orlando at that point, Orlando was terrific.

You know what I'm saying? But I got I learned a lesson. You know what I'm saying? I would have been working nice jobs, executive jobs all my life. But then when I moved to Florida, they wanted to relegate me to just be a delivery driver. And that was one of the biggest adjustments that I wasn't trying to hear. You know what I'm saying? I'm like, you don't go to college all your life and have all these high flying jobs. But then you just got you know, maybe not that I was I wasn't applying for.

It was just I wasn't ready for that life. You know, like people was just like, well, you might have had that up north, but you're not going to get it right here. Just kidding. Fun fact with the Winter Park, too. We live in Claremont in Lake County. We adopted 13, almost 14 months ago and our son, Hosean, we had to go pick up and stay five or six days at the Nick U. At the Winter Park Hospital, which is I believe it's a Advent Health.

So we had to go over there for that. So we were there stuck five, six days. Florida's cool, man. And it definitely is a spot, you know, where you can find your pocket and just chill. You know, I'm saying and I agree, I kind of found that out here in California for myself. You know what I'm saying? True. Chillax. I'm not to say I'm the most athletic. This question, you know, for track or what's more impressive, your 40 yard dash or 100 meter sprint.

And you still keep in shape today and you still sprint. That's what I'm trying to ask. That's a great question. I definitely still keep in shape. My thing is I like to play basketball and golf. I picked up the golfing thing now. I don't run. You know, the funny thing about like when I stopped running track, when I stopped doing sports, I stopped running period for a while. And then I blew up. I got really heavy. And then I had torn my Achilles tendon like late in the game.

And so that had made me add a little bit of weight. To answer your question, I ran a 429.40 and that was electric. And then in the 100 meters, I ran 10.4 in high school. I come from a ridiculous high school track program. We had a phenomenal program. My coach, Duckett, was TJ Duckett's father, Tico Duckett. Both of these brothers ran all up and down the Big Ten.

They both were NFL running backs, but they were also my teammates and my brothers. And I was lucky to have their father right that time when he was coaching Tico and TJ was a little boy. But my best event was the long jump. So I have the long jump record still in Kalamazoo for 33 years, 24, 8, and 3 quarter inches. And the crazy thing is in high school, I broke my leg twice playing football. What I'm finding now is you better stay in shape.

If you're in this hip hop game, you better stay in shape. You better keep yourself fit. So Mike, what A.M. was kind of saying there during our planning call, what does he run now? I want to know. I run all the time. I was trying to piggyback off what you were saying. So with your injuries, your broken leg and your Achilles, I identify with Achilles injuries.

Both of mine act up all the time when I plan ball. But how have you applied getting back or those setbacks to everything that you're doing with all of your ventures? How have you applied that? I could take that back maybe 25, 30 years when I had the broken legs. And I never gave up on myself. You know what I mean?

And I was high school. That had to be right here. And for me to break that record that's still there 33 years later after two years of breaking my legs, that pretty set me off of who I was as a person. And to let me keep it real, because it is Sunday, I do a lot of praying, A.M. I do a lot of prayer, fam.

I pray for you. I pray for me. I pray for things I haven't seen. I pray for things. You know, I feel like a time capsule because I'm saying the same stuff about prayer and God and it just translates. You know what I'm saying? Amen, man. Amen. All right. I'm next. You know, I've got to dig into a little bit of business. You and I are all about our ownership and getting things right.

So I noticed when I did my little stockish back on track and everything you own, I noticed you registered your McClendon Global Enterprises as LLC. When did you officially do that? And did you have like an OG project that forced you to want to do that? Like a release that you remember? Like I need to do this. Oh, terrific, Doc. Terrific question.

Yes, man. I was in a very popular city down south going through and I happened to lose every possession that I had in the world in this town on this little break. And in that was all of my music files, all of my zip drives, everything that I had produced for all my life because I was going from one to the other, just like that.

So I was so distraught. I just about gave up. And then I just said, you know what? I'm not going to let that happen. And I decided to go ahead and I wrote a song and I said, you know what? The next song that I write, I'm going to copyright it and I'm going to have my own LLC. And it felt good. You know what I'm saying? And I think the first song that I did was Wave or Joe Montana. And Joe Montana was actually a really good hit, but it was a political song.

And then it was like 2017. I was like just figuring out, oh, I can upload this to the DSPs and all this and that. Start my own business, start fresh, start it and do it right. And then and then and once again, God has blessed me, man. I got way more better music than I had before. My thing is as long as you are flexible and you can actually just breathe in and be patient, everything will work itself out, you know, for sure.

Now, one thing one thing I do, I got to say this because I know I've just met the gentleman, but Doc, man, I want to give you right here your flowers right here because you're one of the most knowledgeable brothers I've ever met in this game. Like, amen, amen. And it's not a greedy thing because you got enough game fans to be a multi-millionaire with every other paragraph that you give to be quite honest.

So I really want to thank you for being here. This makes this makes me look like damn, Mike, you actually do know some people. I think it's only fair if we take a shot. I think it's only fair. I think it's only fair just for the shout out to me. This is all about you and you giving me flowers. So I agree with Candy on this one.

Well, I couldn't I couldn't be here without you thinking of me and then going back. And then we talk like talking and we talk for a couple of hours, like long time about deep dives. Some of the things that we talk about aren't comfortable as an artist as a producer when you really when you really want to get into the business, you know, it's not cool to find out. Hey, Mike, you know, four thousand nine hundred and ninety eight of those five thousand records you got ain't no good.

Fresh out of college at the first taste in the industry. What roles and tasks did you do for Island Records internship? I first moved to New York when I got there. I walked. I caught the train from Jersey. You know about Jersey. I was coming from Brick City, Newark. I caught the path. I got off the path at 23rd Street, didn't know where I was going. Totally walked the wrong way. He made all the way down to Chinatown. And then I turned around and had to walk all the way back.

Some brother in a red convertible drove by me and I was like, hey, bro, hey, man, where's Island Records? It's over there somewhere. It was Chris Rock. And so I felt stupid because the building was really right there. And so then Russell Simmons came walking out and got in the convertible and they drove off. Now, this is very crazy because Chris Rock was the very first person in New York.

I've been there all day now. I had set this internship up and I get there and the girl that met me was Liz Esteban. Beautiful, beautiful Cuban girl. Right. Come to find out she was Gloria Esteban's cousin. So Liz is like, oh, yeah. Hey, your internship. Let me go walk you on over to who you can be working with. I'm thinking I'm going to work with her. No, no, she had me going back here.

But before she did that, she introduced me to this brother named Lackdow, who happens to be a writer for The Source. Imagine you're a hip hop dude and you go into your first day internship. You go up in there and he introduces you to a dude that you know in The Source who does who critiques The Source records. So I'm sitting there like, gang, it's like one, two, this is candy. This is one, two. Boom, boom, boom. Chris Rock, this, that, Russell Simmons, all that.

So then I get there. Finally, I meet Luana Earl Graves. They were my boss, Earl Sellers and Luana Graves Sellers. So I walk in there, she's like, hi, Mickalay. I'm sorry. We are getting ready to go to New Orleans with Ronnie Jordan to the Essence Festival, but we'll be back in a week, maybe two. So you're going to run the office while we're gone. First day.

I'm like, okay. And then Earl Sellers is in his chair and he turns around and let me tell you something. Don't you say a f***ing word to anybody. Don't you tell nobody our f***ing business. Don't you say anywhere where we're going. I'm going to tell you this. This phone rings. Don't you answer it. But you better answer it. You understand what I'm talking about? This phone rings. You better answer it. So he's going off on me, right? And I'm like, yes, sir, yes, sir.

So the very first day, it's the R&B and rap promotions for Island Records. And he gives me two Eric B and Rakim Paid in Full records. And he goes, tonight, what I want you to do, I want you to go to the Palladium. I want you to take these records right to the front. I don't give a f*** the line. I want you to go right to the front, show the man at the door of these records and says, Earl Sellers told me to tell you to let me in.

This was my first assignment, can you? So I was like, OK, I get there. This humongous dude is at the door. He lets me in. But as soon as I get there, God bless the dead, it's Big Cap and Funkmaster Flex. And they're in this little itty bitty room. As soon as you walk in, Funk Flex and Big Cap in about six turntables. And I give and I hold those records. Big Cap snatches the bait for record. Oh, shit, give me that son. He takes it.

He pulls out the vinyl and then all of a sudden he's. I know joke. And then he's handing flex to other ones. Right. And I know this little doom doom doom doom doom doom doom doom. Just put that in your mind, man. Yeah. I've said that was my first day. This was my first day, bro. Ninety four. Dig into the 1994 Biggie story for me. How did you meet and work with him? You already you already spoke about it, but I kind of want you to go more in depth.

Like, how did the interaction go before and how did he actually name you? It was 94. I had been in Brooklyn probably about maybe three or four days. I had been fortunate enough to meet some guys at the barbershop that introduced me to the guys who own the studio on Gates Ave. The Paul Robeson Theater. And they were producing like, you know, M.O.P. And and and at the time they were easy. Mo be was their people.

Fast forward. I'm sitting on my stoop, which was on Vanderbilt Street, which has now disappeared in downtown Brooklyn. And this kid named Bobby ism, fam, comes up with this flyer and he hands me this flyer. This is Biggie Smalls. And I go, who's Biggie Small? You don't know. You don't know who Biggie Smalls is. I say, yeah, I'm going to come get you. I'm going to take you. I'm going to show you who Biggie Smalls is, man. Bobby, me and Aaron, we walking down the street and we're singing.

It's unbelievable because all this stuff is on the radio. You know, this is 94. I'm like, oh, yeah, man, this is tight. You know, now I know that I have an internship. And at the time, I came to New York with the idea that I wanted to create a television show called The Rooftop, which I wanted to interview guests on top of the rooftops of Manhattan, overlooking Manhattan, just some fly stuff. You know, that's what I wanted. That was my dream.

We walk in this club and Bobby ism is like, we're talking. So Aaron sees Biggie and he stopped like Daffy Duck did when he saw the go. Now, Biggie's back was turned. It was like he was a sumo wrestler, y'all. So I tap him on his back, y'all. And he whips around on me and he has this eye. It was going this way and another eye was going that way. He was like, what's up? And I'm like, yo, Biggie, what's up?

I literally he was towering over me. I'm like, yo, Big, what's up? My name is Mike. I'm from Michigan. Yo, word, word, Mike, Michigan. What's up, Mike? What's up? Like, yo, man, I got this show called The Rooftop. I want you to be the first guest on my show, man. It's overlooking Manhattan or Brooklyn or wherever you want. Some fly shit, man. We can talk about your career and where you want to go and everything.

He goes, word, word, Mike, Michigan. Dab me up. Yo, man, I like that, Mike, Michigan. Go tell Puff. Go tell Puff. I said, give his car to you. Tell Puff to give his car to you. And then Bobby ism comes over to me like, yo, B, I can't believe you did that. But that was incredible. That's what's up. That's what's up. That's a beautiful story, man. My next question is an easy one. Me and you are kind of elder statesmen. I'm never going to say my age exactly, but we're from the culture's golden age.

But for you, Mike, what is your personal no explanation needed? Just your your order, your personal Mount Rushmore, your all time top five emcees of all time. It's a hard one, Doc. That was a hard one. I know there's no cop outs, no cop outs. You got to got to have a top five out of the top. I mean, is it but to be honest, it would be it would be Carus one to Pock Biggie, George Clinton and Redmond.

So piggybacking off a doc, what two or three artists accurately describe like your style of music the best, like two or three, two or three. E 40 because E 40 is so free and I love E 40 because he's free and he's good. So that makes me gives me encouragement. All those big legends up here. Cube is one of is very influential to me. Rock him. So, so one thing I'm going to take it just from the reviewer side, because I know exactly where candy was coming with this question.

So there's a lot of people that fuel influence my pen, but if it was like a journalist reviewer was going to give an unbiased review like Nas, Talib Kweli and Joe Budden makeup doc. Like that's whether I like those artists or not. That's what the description will be. So like what would be a journalist saying about you? Wow, that's a great question. I would I would say Nas. I would say I would add I would add Nas, Redman and Buster.

Okay, you got to a mind that's hilarious. That's cool, right? So it's on me. That's crazy. So in your bio, we all notice everything that you've done, right? I personally personally want to know what is your absolute favorite role? My favorite role role. Yes. Or in any of the any anything that you've done. Your favorite. Favorite position that I ever had was when I wrote a film and became the production manager for that project.

I had one of the film doing the movie taught me that that's all kind of hats. You know what I'm saying? And I thought it was successful. So to answer that, that was my most favorite thing that I've done. My movie producer. I got you with the next question. So what's harder for you writing good music or writing a good script and why? Great question. But writing a script comes to me like I'm telling a story when I get that vibration.

You guys when I get that when I get that thing at three in the morning, I hit that record button and I just talk in that microphone like I don't know nothing. You dig it? And I just keep on talking and I just keep saying all the crazy things that come to my mind. And in this scene, you're going to do this and in that scene, you're going to do that. So writing the films, I got to I'm giving a little game away, but I record myself.

I record myself when I get into that moment, when I get in that Zen moment, you know what I'm saying? Just like just like a real good MC gets that freestyle Zen. You just hit that button and you know it's it. You thought about it, you presaw it, you ripped it. You know, you heard that beat, you killed it. You like, damn, I didn't even know I was going to do that. No, I'm not going to take that over again. Master that. So, you know, believe it or not, that reminds me so much of A.M.

A.M. be throwing stuff on the wall. Oh, I like that. I've watched people out here make careers off of a record, and that's respectful. The story you told me, the story you just told us right now remind me something I was listening to. I love Drink Champs like that. We could call it competition or not, but it's definitely inspiration. I've done shows with EFN and they had genuine and a few episodes ago.

And it's the theory of quantity versus quality, you know, throwing spaghetti at the wall, kind of like Candy said about A.M. a little bit. Hey, hey, hey. Yep. Hey, hey. But no, he was saying like, you know, he did the whole artist thing, you know, writing a million songs, you know, 20 songs a week and stuff and seeing which one's catching which not. Yeah, it didn't pop off for him. None of the spaghetti stuck, like he said, until he found the beat that Timbo did for Pony.

Right. And he let himself down. He says, I'm going to actually let Static Major write this course, you know, and then they spent a few weeks to write one record, not a few hours to write one record. It's that effort that quantity versus quality. And he goes that one record. I have a 31 year career because that one record. You know, yeah, yeah, I mean, and since I'm on this podcast, I would would not be me if I didn't shout out Funkmaster Jackson, Tom Jackson.

He was the he was the J Master J of Kalamazoo and also my big brother, Rob Lue, you know, saying the day before mentoring was a big thing. He was in college. I was in junior high. He was looking out for me then telling me when I was in junior high, I was going to be a star. What is your most successful song and what is your personal favorite song of all time that you've made yourself?

That is not fair, man. You made me hit a pause. What is my that's why I asked both because I know I understand the question. Okay. Okay. My favorite song of all time that gives me goosebumps still is when I did Where Did My Fire Go Live with my band, Gorilla Funk Mop. Yes, I can't even release that joint, but that is my favorite personal record. My most successful record of my career is about three records about the same. Stay, Waves.

No, they're all about the same amount. Same spins. Waves, Stay, Mind, Body and Soul. It's probably my best song. Being in the music business this long, what sort of thing has stayed the same versus what's changed so far in the music market? Oopsie. Oh, man. Candy, you could be on ABT with this, bro. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. I know I use that word. Did you? Yes, he did.

Did you take a shot, Mike? Yes, he did. Mike, by the way, the WFW that AM so properly set up for you was the term market and any derivative of it. So marketing market did. So, salute to you. I go, salute. Gene, don't kill us. She's gonna be like, you ain't done with the interview yet. Great one, Spotify. Well, man, to answer your question, you know what the funny thing is, can I just be real. One of the things that doesn't change about hip hop is sexual outbursts of energy.

That's one of the things that like, let me just keep it real. Most of the hit records that you hear out here have to pertain to love tugs of the heart, whatever that is. And in hip hop lately, it's the ladies twerking.

It's that raw energy. The females are not playing around right now. And Mike, even the R&B music nowadays, I think AM and I have had this conversation multiple times, actually. The R&B music of our time versus the R&B music of this time, the R&B music of our time would make you want to marry someone. The R&B music of this time makes you want to rape someone. I'm like, I just don't.

You know what, as wild as it is. See, and that's the answer to Candice's question. When you said what has been the same and what has changed, the reason why I went that way is because I was at a awards thing in LA. And I'm looking at this and I'm like, Doc knows and AM, you guys know what I'm saying. You get in that inner inner, you can't really change that inner inner room.

You know, people get afraid to leave their, their comfort zone and that comfort zone right now is exploiting us sexually, to be quite honest. You yourself, I'm hearing you speak. It sounds like you don't suffer from can teach an old dog new tricks like you don't, you don't put yourself higher than the current situation you you're always learning right now what's one or two. Yeah, what's one or two industry topics you want to learn going into 2024 What do you want to add to yourself.

TV sinking film sinking. I want to have a catalog of man if you go on Mike Mish man, you can play me damn near for 24 hours. So what does that mean TVC that means to me that I need to. I watched this whole world. I've helped a lot of people. I love hip hop. I love everybody. I just want to be loved and accepted as well I want to give a lot in this game.

And I know that what I put into this game was tangible. Wonderful. I just want to be involved. So to answer your question to all the people out there, even Doc and those. Once I get my business right, man. Put me in the game. He keep hanging out with Doc man he can't. So candy I would be rich. I know. Yep. No, no, no. Can't answer that question for you. What's really great with our distributor and publisher symphonic distribution and hear my voice.

When you go to symphonic distribution, symphonic distribution in Tampa Bay in their headquarters, they actually have a wing just for sync licensing. And what what Mr. McClendon is talking about is sync thinking his music per a license to a movie TV show and or a video game. So what's cool with that is instead of struggling like let's let's not even like let's take out the equation of selling CDs like when I DJ I still sell CDs to this day.

He Mike only wanted to stream instead of struggling over zero point zero zero zero six four cents per stream. You get a check at the beginning of every season like the NBA will buy your song the rights to your song and a light as a sync license. Yeah, for sure for 2k or for their streaming and stuff for sure. Well, like the NBA playoffs they'll pay you 28 to 30 grand just to play your song during those nine weeks.

Yes, please. So is 30 grand going to make you rich more than likely not. Will it pay for my mortgage. Absolutely. And then on top of that, it's a straight up check. You don't have to worry about the performance of streaming it could get streamed once or a billion times.

You're still going to get that check up front that that that honestly candy is where I really want to go with my with my life form because like I would if I can learn that or be involved in that type of vibration because I've made the music over this 30 years to fit anything that you want. It's me, we're done. My last question and the last question is going to close the question is going to be in your opinion. What's more meaningful loyalty or respect and why

do you think you can be loyal to people all your lives. So the best thing to have is respect. Respect is the respect going forward in the 20,000 going forward is a lot better than loyalty. If you can find loyalty, and you have found something that's much more valuable than respect. And you shouldn't even broadcast the loyalty that you have. But you should be pushing for respect, because respect is the only thing in this world that you need.

So we're now going to start 100% facts. This segment. Each week, we're going to start into the guts or get into the guts of radio success facts about how artists are performing at radio and what Dr. J does for work at media based chart Mac. Number one spot baby. So at the number one spot, the tippy top of the charts. So at Urban National Radio format, put it on the floor by Lotto with 6811 spins per day last week, it earned a gold plaque.

It's August 4 2023 as currently at number two at rhythmic club charts. I'm gonna say this for you doc and everybody Lotto is even if you don't like her music. She's never going to lose.

I have a love hate relationship with her whole entire career because when she had energy come out where it sampled Mariah Carey's classic fantasy featuring odb. Yeah, he had the nerve to every interview stop when they asked her you know what your feelings about the original the classic she goes, what classic I've never heard the song in my life mine's the only classic.

That would hurt you that would make you mad I can see that bad I'm like you probably don't want to fuck with her from that. I have respect for the people you steal the song from and pay like that's just now do it did I bump this record yes I did bump this record but at the same time, but you see

what you just did that that's why I love you doc because you have the right, because you're for personal, and you had every right to be like, no, because of your, you see what I'm saying candy. See that's the. When you have integrity. Man, it is hard to get away from integrity when a when a when I am but when candy gives the intro to the show every single time before you got on air we're always saying a speech that were the bias the unbiased judges and reviewers of music.

And I have a lot of people my own age to say I'm biased and I'm like, how am I biased if I'm bumping the records that you like as well so it's like, I can separate my personal opinions with what I predict it's going to be a game recognize game man I just feel like that's what sexist artists sex like, I'm not a really big fan of Travis Scott, but I know a good song when I hear it. Yep.

Still talking about put it on the floor. It was shipped on for 20 820 23 by stream cut slash RCA records is a one off single that she premiered at Coachella 2023 a debuted at number 48 on urban and number 41 on club and was and quickly shout up it was produced

by Bo Grizzly squat beats who beats and DJ Prince. Nice in the description of it, and actually everyone in that's in the room with exception you might we actually all reviewed it for her label to me it was a base heavy aggressive ratchet trap club bop, which takes a little jab at court Larry she's kind of like throwing some jabs at her. She then released a derivative remix of it featuring Cardi B three weeks later which further boosted on the radio charts.

And then mid April, that's when we reviewed this for bumping and dump it right smack dab and me working on the slides of our pilot podcast episode. So I actually wasn't on that panel, but these two gentlemen were. So I'm gonna I'm gonna do a little game with you, Mike. Okay, I want you to tell me who you think predicted this record better. They both were wrong. But who do you think predict better. Don't get me mad don't get mad at me I'm gonna go with candy. Okay.

So they both were close on different charts so right now it's number one on urban and number two at rhythmic club am predicted to be 20 to 30 at club, and it would peak 35 to 45 at urban. So that was a little wrong but hey he was higher on the club side candy. Yes 25 to 35 and urban and 40 to 50. Yeah, I thought it was gonna be that good to be honest. As you can see that this is one thing that I talked to them every single week about.

I'm very, very, very, very strict and stingy with my strong bumps. 100%. I'm super strong so it's like, I might like something so that's what that's the way we use those terms, like it strong weak bump, love it strong bump, kind of dislike it weak dump. I hate it strong dump. Right, right. And the way you think of it in your head is like you have to be very selective of how many strong bumps you replace with another strong bump.

That's why it's like when I predict something's gonna be a strong bump it's usually a top 10. When you give something a strong bump like that. How long does it last on the charts, as opposed to something that doesn't get a strong bump. So it got shipped to the radio a week after we reviewed it in mid April and still on the charts today. Shipped to radio what that means to the people that don't understand that. So the radio station, I'm sorry the record label will pay money and put together

press kit packages and one sheeters and actually mail and market. And they're the single to all urban formatted radio stations they mail it to every single radio station in the US, with the hopes that hey, will you play my record. And email or physically no it's all physical mail it's all physical disk. Hey Mike, you guys can take a shot of. Yes I do. So I want to take a shot real quick I know we just hit it. So, for the WFW, stick one shot real quick. Okay, let me, hold on let me catch up.

My god I do not drink like this. So, you. I don't I quit drinking this is this is like, this is a, this is a blessing I'm doing this for the show. Amen. So we have some new breaking singles. Here we quickly highlight which new songs are breaking on entering the urban radio charts. And it looks like we have five day views this past week, am I'm gonna go ahead and pass it on to you man. Right on this fuck. I'm drunk as fuck y'all usually don't get me this fucked up.

I'm gonna go ahead and pass it on to me featuring tiger and YG I think I like the song. When I listen to it, ship the radio 72323 debuted at number 29 and urban with over 100 and 100, 1193 1193 spins per day last week, distributed by IC Entertainment Warner produced by Dr. Luke, Ryan O. G. and K BZ and it also debuted at number 31 on rhythmic slash club.

The second highest breaking record is main one Mario featuring little Wayne and Tyga. I think this is going to be little Wayne second hit of 2023 which is pretty dope. The third highest breaking record is the one that we shipped on 72123 it debuted at number 41 on urban with over 771 spins per week last week, distributed by Sony slash Republic slash Epic Records. It was produced by Mike Crook extend on a one and it also debuted at number 46 on rhythmic club stations as well.

Sierra featuring Chris Brown should to radio on August 4 2023 debuted at 42 urban with over 723 spins per day last week, distributed by beauty marks entertainment uptown 2.0 and Republic Records produced by precision production. Jelly bangers. Mr. camera also debuted at 39 on the rhythm and charts and club stations. So, going on to that I passed it over to, to am going on with ski.

I think it would have been better had been camera, but we're going to ski by sexy red ship the radio 71223 debuting at number 44 urban with over 675 spins per day last week, distributed distributed by open shift distribution produced by take what up, also debuting at number 48 rhythmic club. And then our fourth newcomer on the charts this week is millions by via ship to radio on August 14 2023 debut and at number 45 of the 45 charts on urban with 609 spins per day last week distributed by

public records produced by as is the shake and Tim nine also debuted in that number 46 on rhythmic club as well. So continuing on that, we have our whole crew who has reviewed most of these on our weekly panel already let's see how much we agreed or

agreed on sweeties birthday. I am fortunate didn't get to go but Rob did so I'm gonna go ahead and read from Rob from the mob. So on 722 he said, another birthday song that will have the birthday girls going crazy in the club beat is sleazy has bad intentions, high

hats kicks and crispy sweet brought that hood raunchiness that tiger brought the hype. Why'd you was okay, then really impressed me with his verse. He went ahead and ranked it 20 to 30 on rhythmic club 40 and 50 on urban, he gave it a week bump. And what did you think about the record. I said that I got here you before you wrap any beat that has any beat that he has his hand in it goes meaning it slaps was awesome. Makes me work for like OT Genesis. I also hear this at any club that I go to.

It's a very, very smart song. We love birthday songs, sweetie did her thing on her part very well. Maybe feel like I was hanging out with the ladies. Why'd you came through with some dope as well. He said I'm gonna start strong. And I loved it. 20 30 club 40 50 urban I probably should have did put it higher because I enjoyed it.

So this is one record that I was, I think I'm going to be more right with my prediction over these two gentlemen, but I was the only person on the panel that actually we dumped it. I didn't hate it. I just didn't like it. So what I said was this is what I reviewed as it was flirty high fee go dumb party bot produced by Dr. Luke Ryan og and KBZ jittery bass jumpy 808 rolled high hats and mini claps.

E 40 would rip the sound they should have featured him in it. Subpar birthday hook lazy arrangement. I'm not a fan of sweeties tone and cadence here, especially the intro. Eight. I'm gonna act like a ho yeah no not from Doc. Tiger's we're already a shots in and I'm not acting like oh so let me stop you right there. You are so dope you know what producer would be great when an artist before the song even comes on.

I'll be right back. So all right. Eight shots of Mac like a ho yeah no Tiger steady flow and sarcasm works well on it while YG brings the Cali vibes but flow is sort of the, the BTQ needs work to sound synthy and cheap throughout not trash yet more flaws than pros but it's sweetie she's gonna chart. So possibly five through 15 on club and 10 through 20 on urban with a shorter shelf life we dump.

Next up is the new Mario single main one four of us reviewed it on this panel and they were all bumps Rob from the mob here until next episode so I'm going to read his for him. Rob said on 720 Mario always comes play with it. Tiger delivers well on topics like this little Wayne does his part to perfection track is a vibe. These lyrics will have the ladies and their feelings something to think about if you are out there playing the game.

Beat smooth and wavy dope summer trap. I'm bumping it 25 to 35 on club and 40 to 50 on urban gave it a strong bump. He's the one person him and candy were the people that love this record. I went a week bumped it on 720 I said may knows new singles revised from a net only 2020 release that's remastered they remove Tory Lane's from it and added little Wayne and tiger to it.

He's got a nice singing kicks bursting 808 claps and shattery hi hats. Dig in the tone pace falsettos and harmony runs a Mario vibes very much tiger's style so he fits it. Wayne seems recorded elsewhere and drowned in that robotic auto tune that I'm not a big fan of, but he was charismatic and he had a signature flow.

I've been here before I appreciate the beat much beats much better EQ and a summer night feel. It's not going to be a smash it but it's definitely going to chart, possibly 25 to 35 and club and 30 to 40 on urban. Now, do you mind if I ask you a question. Your. So, you are a senior, and you brothers do the charts. It sounds like that performance on the record is very important.

Sound quality is the biggest thing that am and I will hammer. If it sounds like you recorded in a damn tin can in the desert, I'm going to call you out on it. So, basically you let you eliminate anything that doesn't have any professional quality. And then the next thing you eliminate is something that doesn't have low.

Yeah, like that was my biggest thing with the record before this one, I felt like why do you was offbeat, and I'm going to call him out on that just a little bit I like I like the record I don't love it, you know, I reviewed many one.

I don't mind. Look, look, look, I heard it a while ago and I don't remember if that playlist did or not, but I enjoyed everyone on it's good to hear Mario still saying tiger had a hand in a beat for sure, and he wrote it as well and as usual tiger fashion aka he has one flow to the all the beats that he

was like schoolboy cute because they're all in the same gang, blah, blah, blah, never changes but I'm not upset with it can't Wayne came through with some dope flow, and a couple of quotables as well. It was a really good, nice summer, Bob Mario with the dope runs in the background it wasn't overdone and all the effects and the focus were clean, which is a really really big deal for me and my ears. I gave it a 3040 club and a 4050 was the second one urban I think 4050 or week.

So you have like a light over you right now you might not be able to see it but there's this light. This whole show is like, like, it's not on this side it's on this side. It's on my upper try to move it. You can't see this light but it's a big white light. So what I want you to do after the show is go back to your angels and tap in what angels is on you on this so because it was always on the

side of you, fam. I'm saying he has a protection over him. Do you see where you think I'm like, you can't know straight up straight up. It's, it's, it's, I didn't mean to interrupt the flows because that's that's great analogy on those records. So going on to me. I know I went ahead. So believe it or not when I was listening to it, I was in the McDonald's drive through, and this had me vibing through the McDonald's drive through.

I was flirting with the, with the lady at the window, trying to get an extra order of fries, this beat off the beat. Yeah, off the off like the beat and the music this be it reminded me something that Chris Brown would be on kind of has like an old school vibe to it little Wayne's part was awesome. I just didn't like the last two lines where I felt like he really mumbled on it. He mumbled overall but he was just the last two lines were really strong on it.

But, uh, I think Mario had like a soft seductive, like his voice is soft and seductive. It doesn't change how you can dance vibe to the song. I think I gave it a 25 to 35 club and 40 to 50 urban but I strong bumpers I really resonated with it.

It's our third debut example. Sierra's How We Roll. Four of us reviewed it. Three bumps one dub and I'll start with me. On 83 I said the beat is dope the 808s are clean and it knocks. Sierra has some crispy vocals to makes people to dance inside or in front of a mirror.

I like the bridge, a lot really really stuck out to me. Chris Brown showed up with a dope verse and he matched the vibe of the entire song very well overall a very fun song they work well together. The back and forth that they had going on was awesome. And the good vibes were good and the mix was also good 3040 urban 4050 club and I gave it a week bump. On 83 I said it's crazy that 2024 is CC's 20th year in music. Holy hell.

RIP low fi R&B. I disliked her little rap intro and thankfully a chill vibe kicked in right afterwards, produced by Precision Productions, Deli Bangers and Mr. Kamara. Relaxed keys, thumpy snares, hats, claps and cymbal effects. She's smooth and starts off with interesting lines like look at me like that again we go make another kid. You my heart on your rib.

I was like that's deep like that's that's biblical you my heart on your rib. Hey shout out to Russell Wilson letting Sierra go ahead and get busy 20 years later after she don't need to do it. But then her writing kind of fell flat afterwards, not exactly the best chemistry as neither of them really layered over each other well on that record.

Chris Brown's verse is a tad better yet he could have he couldn't decide on one flow he kept switching it up every two lines I'm like pick one flow and stick with it. The one thing that impressed me about you is like, you're so into detail about these records I'm like, you can literally tell when it's been a rerecord. Yep, the star.

The line where he goes the bridge where he kept saying like that like that that that that that that was started getting annoying for me. Not trash by any means but just mediocre. I prefer to see them both dance on videos and this being a radio hit being nice I guess 20 to 30 on urban 25 to 35 on club, but I would actually suggest they ship this to adult R&B quiet storm stations in my opinion. So I give it a weak bump but I think it would do better on R&B stations.

I said, a seductive mix with two very vocally talented artists in the genre. Breezy didn't this doesn't disappoint strong lyrics with a soft and alluring voice, complimented with Sierra's voice and her vocals. The beats overpowering at times but overall a good song. I liked it. I just don't love it. So I hit it. It was going to be a 4050 both on urban and club, which I think I should have been higher on both with their, with their power with the power of their names for sure.

But both the words charting now they both just made you get a 0% on that one. Oh yeah, for sure. I mean, and one thing I wanted to say like because like I'm kind of the outsider looking in and in this point because you guys are all the professionals right now.

But as an artist on the outside looking in and listening to what you, how you are professionally critiquing it. It's amazing, because these artists that you're talking about our established, they know the rules, their establishments know how to do it. So artists like myself will be like giving her all hundred percent am you know what I'm saying. You know I mean, we need to learn how to adjust doing the doing it right, so we can be critiqued eight six months later.

Mike this next one is going to be specifically one for you then because it's so interesting because take someone like sexy red is very popular on tik tok. So it's going to cross over to radio but what our national reviews due to her music, it takes her songs from being on the charts for five to eight weeks. It takes it away from being a song that's on the charts for 24 to 30 weeks. For sure. So, the fourth song we look at obviously we talked about right now sexy red ski.

I dumped it, one of us. I was the only one who liked it. And I said, it sounds like it really sounds like her other songs, but it doesn't differ, it doesn't differ and she from her sound sorry if I couldn't say that I'm a little drunk. I'm going to give it a 4050 on urban. I didn't think it was a turn on club, I get a week bump, but passing it on to Doc though I know he was very different on what I said, for sure though, like Doc what did you say on that.

So what I said was, and I strong dump this so this is a rare strong dump from down. Rare. So, so July 11, I said this is what we what I faxed to her label follow up to pound town is another loud bassy messy hoish me man them. According to her a ski we is a guy you call to pull up, you show you show up with your girlfriends

you know swerve them anyways, and now he's stuck at your house. Alrighty then take Keith lays out a menacing but generic trap beat of hollow snares looped organ chords dark bells and murky deep bass has cocky hood rap charm that I actually like, but real subpar lyrics and was she was totally offbeat. The dumbly repeated squeeze squeeze squeeze squeeze a noise the hell out of me. Real basic and the ad libs don't sound synced correctly in time.

There's likely a fan base for this for sure that will relate to it, but to me it's ignorant. She's a new ratchet star this year but in my opinion like pound town this is trash. I'm guessing 20 to 30 on urban and 25 to 35 on club and am said, lol, and capital letters, it's going to do numbers. But this is ratchet rap, and I'm dawning this a new genre. Now, the mix wasn't bad until she started the verse.

I'm going vocally god damn it I hate this shit. I want to be nice, because I know she did the booty hole brown song, and she might do well but I'm sorry. The beat is mixed like shit. The vocals are too fucking loud. The effects are poorly done. And this is obviously a quick grab to keep her music coming with her recent, I guess fame from my booty hole brown.

She's not even on beat. And she sounds like she's yelling. They are something like they are not ready to rap 3040 urban and club and watch this shit post higher than what I just said she's wrong. It's going to post higher than what both you and I said I may be wrong on this one too. To be honest with you, this show is not for. It's not for artists that have a weak heart. No.

It's not for artists with a weak heart though. The industry is not for artists, the industry wants you to tell you that you're great. You sound good, but they only want to tell you that when you've given them the money to pay for the promoting 85,000 remember that number 85,000 new songs go up to Spotify per freaking day. That is 84999 song that's your competition. And if you don't approach it like that you already lost. That's as real as I can be you're competing with 84999 artists per day.

Actually, actually I love that information. Just the facts. Yes, that's yes. So, this is where we separate radio from streaming, and the men from the boys. Everyone knows the old saying that men lie, women lie am lies doc lies. But numbers don't. So, we'll fire through some of the more meaningful stats and actual movements on the national urban charts.

So, AM, let me get you real quick. Biggest three risers for this week. Mountdown Travis Scott featuring Drake paint the town red doja cat good good usher featuring summer Walker, and I'm gonna go up and down one more time. 67.4% more now up 1712 spins per day good good up eight spots from 23 to 1568.2% more now 2549 spin per day. If am taking the big risers I'm going to take the big losers. I have the three biggest drops of the week.

We have a number one reflections by dusty stay true featuring to see that's down 16 spots from 24 to 40 now. It's 44.7% less spins and it's now at 779 spins per day. Number two biggest loser is pound town to with sexy red featuring Nicki Minaj it's down 15 spots from 17 to 32 it's 45.6% less. Now at 1100 I'm sorry 1018 spins per day.

Number three is the previous number one hit ain't gonna answer NLE chopper featuring little Wayne is down 10 spots from number 25 to number 35 29.2% down less, and it's 946 spins per day. I'm gonna go ahead and give respect to the indies this week. Number one we have curious by Eric Bellinger which I'm a big fan of core day and fabulous up 16 spots with 2100 96 spins per day of 3.4% increase.

We have number two point me to by Fendi the rap rapper featuring Cardi B of 18 with 2157 spins per day 22% increase. We had number three Taliban's by Byron Messier up to number 20 with 1889 spins per day with 4.2% increase. We have chromosomes by key lot with, which is up to number 21 with 1846 spins per day with 7.3 increase going on to that doc what what do you have coming up right now.

We're coming up to actually segment five. We're talking about the radio our IPs right now ending on August 20 2023, as the title suggests on this segment we're given the final farewell to singles that officially died and fell off the charts, whether we wanted them to or not commercially. This week we had five condolences to mourn and Barry so candy and am and I will both kick this off candy you kick it off first who's dying first.

So we have act bad by Diddy featuring fabulous and city girls. It was shipped early June, and then a 2.5 month run it peaked at number 17th it had no plaques. Always always by Daniel Caesar ship late April 4.5 month run peak that 16 and it received a gold plaque certified.

I'm sorry to Danny on that one but I had never heard that fabulous record and never heard it. So must have happened. Yeah, it was on the radio for two and a half months like like like candy said but it didn't earn a plaque, you know, so

three of the deaths were give it to me by Miguel they ship it shipped in early May four month run on radio it peaked at number 32 and it did not earn a chart. So going on to I'm geeking by DG featuring love Tyler is shipped mid May, so had 3.5 month run it peaked at number 23, it had no plaques.

And the last up up the rear like I like it the hillbillies. I like giving it not getting it the hillbillies baby keen featuring Kendrick Lamar ship late May three month run peak at number 27 and did not receive a plaque. Doc, take us into segment six into this edutainment please segment six edutainment this is actually my personal favorite part of the show it's where we make the listeners usually the that emailing us questions the star of our show.

But this week's a little special candy let me know what's going on. Yeah, so if you didn't know already, we have a Facebook page. So it's www.facebook.com slash twisted critics. We have a mailing list if you aren't already subscribed and a twisted critics business email which is twisted critics at mail.com, where you can send in business questions now. Normally, we make listeners, the stars, but if you three don't mind.

I have a question where I want to ask myself this week. Hi, my question, which I feel like everyone should be asking but they aren't. Can you please explain these current big class action lawsuits, where we've been the headline against both series XM and distro kid.

Because I already know you know how I feel about this story. I love them and hate them now. But I know you've been you've been much more in depth to exactly what's going on. Hell yeah. So first of all, sounds like candy wants to spotlight all for himself on the section but I'm cool with that. Do you know about the class action lawsuits going on on the two companies that candy called out that are in the headlines right now serious.

And all of a sudden my body felt like some kind of way. So tell me. All right, Doc, how about you let us know. Alright, so there are two lawsuits that are going to class action lawsuits for the people out there that don't know what a class action lawsuit is a typical lawsuit is one person versus someone.

And the other is a class action lawsuit elevates to the federal level and this is something that affects 1000s and 1000s of people, and therefore the penalty is going to be huge it's going through federal court. And once the judge makes that ruling for the total amount and damages of the violations, everyone that sign up for that class action lawsuit splits that. So the very first one that candy brought up is the serious satellite class action lawsuit serious XM.

And this is going to be their third $150 million lawsuit since 2017. What's crazy with this one bro like is this one is for unpaid digital royalties, every time they get hit with one of these class action lawsuits for $150 million, they quickly settle and pay it out there

and then this year 2023 with the amounts that they're taking in, they're going to cap over $8 billion in profit this year this is going to be a record high for them. So not saying that $150 million is dropping the bucket, but they quickly settle because they're

they want to keep that profit rolling in of $8 billion. It's crazy bro so that's the very first one and then like candy asked. The second one is actually against distro kid, and this was brought on by an artist to artists collaborate in New York, and the other one is out of Virginia, and where it spurred and came from this was they collaborate on a record they had a fallen out of finances they're both names are on the copyright.

And then when the girl made the motion and sent a cease and desist letter with their lawyer to distro kid they quickly pulled down the record at the cost of the other artists, they're actually guilty of three violations that they're bringing the court in this class action distro kid does a horrible job of verifying copyrights or whose names are on the copyrights, or even making you guys tell you that the name that you will have a copyright I know am you bit through them.

And I don't think there was any like checks and balances to ask if you had a copyright Am I wrong. It wasn't no they didn't they didn't have me sign anything and they didn't ask anything for any kind of information verification.

That's crazy man so that's the very first violation they are not properly checking or verifying copyrights and or registration for publishing number two they are unfairly yanking down clients music when they the second they get a copyright take down notice it's literally when they see that letter, no yank that song down and pull it off all their streaming services and the DSP's at the cost of you the artist.

And then the very third violation which is a really bad one is copyright law says, if it's a copyright related or infringement related claim, the artists who owns that song whether they have a copyright or not, legally enforced 14 business days to rebuttal and and make a claim at that take down notice with the yanking down the song within the first five minutes again that letter they're not giving you the artist, the actual right that you have a 14 days to kind of dispute this.

So, three federal level violations. I have no idea what this one's going to amount to what I'm hearing it through work is this one will probably be in the 250 to $450 million range. And that's all class action lawsuit whoever puts their name in the pot. Between a certain date, they're going to get part of that money.

So I have a question, a question. If anyone is affected by this, and if they're interested in finding out what they can do, could you let us know who they can contact for this please. Hell yeah bro I had to dig for these information but for the very first one the the serious satellite at serious exome class action lawsuit from sound exchange.

Yeah, sound exchanges using the attorney Scott zebra, and he's from Oppenheim and zebra law. If you've been using serious satellite, xm or serious xm and your music has been played on there, and you feel like they've been hitting up your pocket and not paying you

correctly. That's the attorney Scott zebra is the one that you need to reach out for that one. And then for the second class action lawsuit for against district it's Megan key and who's an attorney out of Oregon who works for information dignity alliance. So if you want to be part of that class action lawsuit once that that's settled in court and the, and the judge gives a violation amount. You reach out to that attorney to be part of that one.

My thing is, Doc, what you're doing is, brother, I, I commend you, I will be with you 100% when you want to stand up and do the business right. We are those guys, I'm with you, because like, because like I, I know your heart. You don't like what they do, and you don't like what they do you just want them to do the right thing. Just do just do the right thing be honest. Yes, you know, there's nothing there's nothing. There's nothing better than relationships.

100% I agree on that I'm saying, like, I might not be nowhere in this music industry, but dog on it. I have relationships. Yeah. So, so, so, but that goes back to the reason why you, the reason why Doc I know you, you like, because look man you're a different breed bro 100% he's like industry way.

Look bro I've been in this music business, 30 years. You hit it differently. Yeah, it's the way it look. I know who you are and I know you're like, Oh my god, let me just finish. Dr. Smart is a mug, we trying to give you your flowers. This is Doc this white Doc is the best right here. No, straight up straight up. You know what I'm saying. So, he'll, he'll, he'll, he'll, he'll love you and tell you, you fucking up.

You do it correctly. But I think we should go into segment seven. Mike, I really want to make you the star of this I'm gonna go ahead and step, take a step back. I'm gonna give you my spot, just in case we haven't drank enough yet. This is a spot where you fuck shit up right.

Like I mentioned before, we at the Twisted Critics are now Spotify playlist curators will use this game, each episode tests out our music knowledge and memory, a theory proposed in 1929 as resurrected by the movie industry in the early 90s. This was a joke conception that every actor or actress was somehow related to and or linked through movie roles to Kevin Bacon, by six degrees or connections or less.

We are crazy enough to test the same theory with urban music. It's a rapid fire 10 second limit to give an answer. Obviously, no cheating right. Each mistake, any of us make, we all take a shot. Worst off, Mike's in the third seat today so I'm giving a mic to Mike with AM and Doc, so I have no control over drinking or not. So, I'm gonna drink with you guys, whether y'all get it right or not. I'm out of liquor.

I'm not a drinker. And I've done a lot of talking, but I so respect every single one of you. This has been one of the best experiences I've ever had in my life. Like candy was saying I opened up the slide and closed it but anyways, the last record we left off with last show. This is the part where you the guests are the curator of our playlist. So forever this will land and be posted through Spotify that you control.

Put your thinking cap on the very last record that we did and ended Tony ganja show with was renegade by Jay Z feature in Eminem. You got 10 seconds to connect any of those artists to a feature with somebody else. Daisy. Umbrella with Beyonce. I do definitely candy saved you through your lifeline he picked Jay Z and Rihanna. Yeah. He did he saved me on that one. Thank you. What you got umbrella. All right. So so am am I'm gonna pick.

Let's say I'm taking Rihanna from his connection and I'm connecting Rihanna to Neo. And I love you. That's what I'm doing. If you want to do connection. No, no, it's AM's turn. Mike. No, it's not. No, it's not. Oh shit. I am number three. You are number three. It's your turn. Yeah, my brain is inebriated. We're going to use We're drinking. Yeah, you can say you can. We're still drinking. We know by Neo. Yeah, I love Neo. Oopsie. We're taking shots. Black men eat great.

Black men eat grapes is good for your health. Latino men eat grapes is good for your health. All right. First, eat great. This is a secret. This little great like like see how it busts. That's what you need, baby. We need a bus. You heard it here first. Candy. I think you tried to connect. Who do you try to connect that to? I'm going to take a shot. Let me check it out. I don't know how I did it, but I drink this whole bottle.

Yeah, you didn't do it. So it's OK. It's called. She is called. She knows. She knows. She knows. Juicy J is on the song. Let me write that down. I'm going to take the shot. Hey, shout out to hear my voice. This is what we do on a weekly basis. That's what we do, baby. All right. So Candy Pick Neo featuring Juicy J. She knows. Man, if you guys could see my writing right now, it's a fucking cluster. Get Doc. I'm looking at your background. Doc has so many CDs in his background.

Y'all can't even see this. I'm over here like that role over there. The fourth down. I just wanted to see which one he would go to. So Mike, Mike, Candy actually saved a M by connecting Neo to Juicy J. And she knows. Can you connect Juicy J or Neo to somebody else? Chicago's best. No idea. Mike features features. I just did. That's not a feature. No, no idea. Is it produced? That's not a feature. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think we need to take a shot. Oopsie.

Oh, Mike, you didn't connect me to anybody. I'm going to I'm going to save Mike Mish on this one because he's completely fucked up. Don't edit that bad. I'm not. I'm not. So I'm going to connect. Mike, Mike, I'm going to connect Neo to Jay-Z for you on the song crazy. Yes, I like this song. I did too. Now it's my turn. I got you right here. Hey, I'm going to show my shot right here. Take it. Oh, my God. My goodness. I'm sorry, Neo. And I'm sorry, Jay-Z. Yeah, they're going to be so mad at you.

I'm mad at you. Oh, my God. So I'm connecting Jay-Z to Biggie, Brooklyn's finest. I'm connecting Biggie with Bone Thugs and Harmony. Oh, yes. The notorious connected Bone to Biggie by Notorious Thugs, by the way. That is what it's called. Notorious Thugs. My bad. Armed and dangerous. KT Minis hangar. Mike, Mike, you got to connect either Biggie or Bone to somebody. You got 10 seconds. Bone to R. Kelly and Biggie to Rihanna. Biggie to he looking at me like I'm crazy.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Big Rihanna wasn't an artist when Biggie before Biggie died. So you know we're going to take a shot for this one. I'm trying to wait for him to name the song. Oopsie. Oh, fuck. What is it called, Mike? What is it called? It's actually a mix with armed and dangerous and the Rihanna stuff. But armed and dangerous is the name of the song. It's called Notorious Thugs. I know. I've heard Notorious Thugs mixed in with the Rihanna joint.

OK, OK. So, Mike, Mike, before we take a shot, I'm going to save you. No, no, no. Let me say this again. I have heard the armed and dangerous can't too many to hang with us. Hey, that's OK. But that's a DJ mix. That's not a real record. No, it's not. No. Right. Right. I mean, he's laughing at me like crazy. I'm going to save you. I'm going to connect Bone Thugs and Harmony. I'm going to connect Bone Thugs with Tupac on Thug Love. Nice. And with that, we survived more shots.

Right. I'll take that. I will take that. All right. So look, look, I'm intoxicated, but I actually wrote down everything we did. Yeah, I'm intoxicated. No, no, put that back up real quick. Mm hmm. Jay-Z and Rihanna, Umbrella, Neo. Yep. I wasn't off. I was just tipsy. Jay-Z and Biggie broke down. Actually, the best Biggie and Underground joint is The What with Method Man. With Method Man, yes. You could have said that, but you didn't.

Well, I'm having grapes. I'm just getting my, I'm just now focusing. I was tipsy. All right. All right. So with that, with that, we're done with Seven Degrees of Separation because I don't want to die and take even more shots. All right. So we're going on to our segment eight outro. Every single time that Seven Degrees kicks our ass, honestly. Good times, though. Might admit, you're officially graduated to be an official Twisted critic.

We all got twisted. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Raise the roof, as you will. Jesus. Doc, I'm going to kick it over to you. Hey, thank you, guys. I know I made some mistakes along the way. No, no, that is what it takes to be a Twisted critic. We all make mistakes. Doc, let me kick it off to you real quick, Doc. Mike, you handled yourself pretty well, although you made us drink a lot during Seven Degrees. But thank you. We had fun today.

But yes, thank you for the stories. Thank you for the fun. Thank you for your point of view. Thank you for the insights. Collectively speaking for all of us, A.M., Candy, and myself, Texas, Baltimore, and Florida. I want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for sticking with us, thinking with us, and drinking with us. You've graduated to our brotherhood. And part of the beauty of being the Twisted critics is you will always have an open door invite policy.

Anytime you have a new project, new event, new album, hell, in your case, a new job knowing you, just give us a phone call and consider us a second home that you can call and talk about what new stuff is going on in your life. Thank you so much for the invitation. I appreciate it so much. And you know what? You guys are amazing. I appreciate every single one of you. This has been wonderful. And A.M., take us home, man.

I can barely read my screen. Mike, aka West Coast Mitch, we all mean that from the bottom of our hearts. We appreciate you being here, love talking radio with you, and hope you had a good amount of fun with us. Now, if you'd like free, feel free, look at that. Feel free to use this spot to big yourself up, your company, your social medias, plug anything and everything that you have coming up soon. It's on you, Mike.

Well, wonderful, man. I'm going to be producing a movie called I Can't Stress Right Now. It's a film that's a single. It's a weed strand. It's a whole movement. We out West. I'm trying to get with E40, JTunes, Trey Jones, everybody. We doing our thing. I'm having a great time. And the one thing before I leave, listen, you don't know where hip hop can take you, but just go with hip hop, man, and believe in yourself. Hip hop is the movement. All right, Doc.

What's candy candy candy. I'm gonna put this on you since you're the youngest. Do you have anything to plug in any socials anything for here? My voice. Anything for Candelario. Let us know. So at the moment, personally, I really want this podcast to blow up, man. This podcast has so much knowledge. This podcast has Mike Mitch has a M and most importantly, it has the doc J and was always.

All right, so currently I'm working on two previous singles, one with cynic and one that I was working on with myself. One of my producers literally I'm writing a second verse for them have a remix master it and all of that. Me and Doc have two songs that we're working on right now I'm going to rewrite my verse for that, maybe two more times. I have another song that I'm working on with a friend of mine that did one of those contests that has Jen Benton on the verse, I'm a fuck

up doc said it earlier but he wasn't playing with your three projects that I'm working on saying last name I have to finish that and then I have to eat piece that I have to start and finish producing for my son is going to school, I'm going to I'm going to start running as much as I can. I'm only going 10 miles per week five miles per day that I do run. That's his personal stuff. Last thing, angry man.

What you running track, what you running track. I have to ask. Yeah, I run I run I run now, like I didn't I wrestle, I wrestle and see I didn't I should not my elevator pitch is going to be pre written because I literally mean you are so so so so similar I do. I'm sorry I interrupted that like vibe right there. I'm so similar bro when I bro I get man I'm gonna get on a flight right now come kick it with my family, you know, you said you started running. Listen, listen.

I know you all heard me and I've been a little tipsy but on the most. I want to thank everybody here from appreciate that brother has been like, I listened to y'all vibe and listen to your podcast candy. Yeah, and him. Y'all the greatest man doc, what do you got to do that I'm going to start copying off am because like we got facebook.com at, I'm sorry facebook.com backslash doc J entertainment, facebook.com backslash twisted critics.

And other than that, it's the whole movement twisted critics hear my voice entertainment. You guys can reach me through drj 18 at Bell south.net. The movement here my voice is the whole show here my artists I stole that from am, and we are with Mike miss tonight. Yeah, Mike Mitch. Hi, so with that said we're going to do our same thing as we do a salutation we do a goodbye am candy. We're gonna go, barriva, which is Spanish for up. Spanish for down, which is for the middle. Let's go in baby.