Talk talk to We're just two unapologetically black women with an opinion to talks.
What's up y'all? Thank you for tending that for a new episode that we talked back A show dedicated to you dreamers and chasers and everybody else in between. This is your co hosts a j holiday What's Up Town.
And this is dedicated to you, hosing you niggas too, because we forgot about y'all.
I love all of y'all, this special group. Hey, ye, what's so child? What you got going on?
Girl?
I'm just so happy that this weekend is over. I felt overwhelmed with life, so yeah, celebrating that white Man's holiday, I didn't celebrate.
I stayed in the house.
I was.
I was on my porch watching all the madness downstairs, because you know, it was just madness going on. And my friend was on the phone, one of my guy friends, and he was like, you just look down there like an auntie, just staring at them kids down there, like.
Like Blue Ivy in New Orleans. Remember that that video of Blue Ivy looking down at all the peasants, the people out there cutting up like ill. I didn't do much this weekend either, just hung out, played the house a little bit. That's about it. Chilled out. I ain't even had like no barbecuing or nothing, which I don't really eat. People should have to bring my own salmon to people barbecues nowadays.
Baby, I ordered. I didn't even go to nobody's barbecue. I just ordered something from a restaurant. Like, fuck it.
I saw a fucking tweet that said, this generation don't even cook out no more. All they do is do drugs and torqu.
Right, that's it, shake the ass and do drugs.
My family actually did had a bit have a big ass cookout back at home, but I missed that. I wasn't in town at my family's restaurant. Shout out to Bertha's Kitchen in Charleston, South Carolina.
My my mom and my sister was at you know, at home, and they lit the grill and then cut that motherfucker off and went and bought an indoor grill and grill in the house. It's like it's too high.
Girl, Okay, So why An article came out saying that fourth of July twenty twenty three was the hottest day in history for the planet, just like average heat for the whole world yesterday. Well, excuse me, July fourth was the hottest day for planet Earth. And I believe it because bitch I could see the heat.
I didn't.
I didn't even go out in it. I was looking for my patio and anytime I felt overwhelmed with the heat, I just ran back inside. Baby, I didn't do nothing.
Yeah, like this type of heat, you gotta wash a couple of times. Beink just be smelling like outside all day long.
Just stay down here, big mama, y'all.
Today we have a special guest. When we talked back, y'all, he is uh responsible for a lot of our favorite songs like Sweet Dreams, Beyonce, Good Morning with Diddy. Uh, there goes my thing. Okay, I'm auditioning. Also, I'm sorry, so I might be whistling and singing a lots okay, and twork city girls. I just found that out the hell, y'all, we have mister Rico love or we talked back, were good, all.
Right, it's too hot, it's getting too high.
It was good in this in this on this level though.
Yeah, how do you.
Feel about the setup. It's nice, right, you know, maybe you can get on after we finished little something for it. Yeah, that'll be dope.
I don't think we got no sticks.
You're gonna have to hit it with your hands.
I don't know that. So okay, Rico, let's get into it. So our listener, we want them to get to know you a little bit. Tell us how you started Turn the Lights On?
How Turn the Lights On came about? Yeah, Well, a friend of mine, Ma'am's Taylor. He was a co owner of this club in La called Area. So we stay hang out in this spot like every weekend. When I say like, it would be like Lindsay Lohan, Kim Kardashian, you know, Paris Hill, and this was like a Wednesday night was the party, but we would come and go frequently because he was one of the owners.
So there was a DJ and then those type of clubs.
The DJs played the same kind of set list every night, and they played a song by Pink Floyd Caught the Wall, and.
Then in the song they say, hey, teacher, lead those kids alone, and all the lights would go crazy in the club.
So I would say, like, every time that part would build up, I would say, turn the lights on, like to myself. So one day I was in a studio and I always a climactic part of the record, every time it builds up and right before the drop, I would just say turn the lights on. And my good friend Mams Taylor, he was like, you should say that in all the songs you write.
That should be your thing.
So I started doing it, and at that time, top liners and just anybody who's not educated on educator how music work. So, a producer is a songwriter, lyric and melody person is a songwriter. We're all called songwriters, but they are top line, which is lyric and melody. That's the guy who writes the lyrics and words and melody. And there's a producer, guys who historically has been known to produce the music. He's considered the producer, even though
the top line guy could also be the producer. Now, when I was coming up in the business, the top liner didn't get the recognition. It was always the guy who made the beat.
I e.
Timberland, Rodney Jerkins, Pharrell, you know those guys who made the tracks. So to give attention to people like myself who were writing a lyric and melody, I started doing my tags on every song that I wrote and putting the turn of lights on records, and that's how it came.
About and it became a thing or everybody does it now.
Everybody does it now. Yeah, And a lot of people credit it to hearing me doing it early on, and a lot of people just feel like this is just a new wave and either way is great because we all that's our calling card. We're only as good as the last thing we've done. And to make sure that our name makes noise in the marketplace, we have to establish and brand ourselves.
That's super important.
Wow, see how you're I thought the whole time, y'all was just like he want to fuck with the light song?
And that's what I think. That's when people started doing I mean that's what I did. I was like, go ahead, nigga, turn the lights on.
You said, do that ship. That's a that's a good way to look at it too.
All.
Talk about your creative process, because write in these beautiful songs. There goes my baby, Like it's so like eloquent and thought provoking, Like how what is your creative process to make these songs that everybody jams too?
You know, I just I think, first and foremost I'm a fan of really great songwriting. You know from the Beatles to Stevie to you know, def Lepper to you know Mariah Carey and Janet and all those classic iconic songs. So what I think my process is more than anything, is understanding of chord progression. I think a piano progression or a guitar progression, those four chords. I think there's
so many different melodies live inside of those chords. So my process is usually sitting at a piano singinge at the guitar and I don't play instruments, but sitting with a piano player, sitting with a guitar player and going through a chord progression and the one that sticks, I try to make a melody fit inside of that progression. And that's usually how I create. It's kind of like
building it around the actual song. The reason why is when the song is stripped and it's just the lyric and the guitar lyric and the piano, then you know the full essence and you can feel the melody, and you can feel the richest and the wholesomeness of the melody. And when you have a rich, wholesome melody, you can build music around anything. But you can't you can't make a shit song sound great. But what you can do is you can make a great song sound greater when
you put incredible production around the song. So I want to make sure that if you strip all of my songs, it still feels good without music, the lyric and the melody stand alone.
So I listen to Apple. I usually stream my music on Apple right, and anytime like I'm listening to a new song or maybe like a song I hadn't heard in a long time, I always go to the lyrics. Who the fuck wrote this is? I feel when I hear certain things in the song, like who wrote this?
Also taking consideration for a sample or interpolation, that person is credited. So a lot of times when you see like ten fifteen names is because if they sample more money, more problems by Diddy and Mache and Biggie right, they sampled that that not only did mais Diddy a memo or cVj or whoever.
Made the beat and Biggie.
Not only are they sample or they credit, but the people that they sample from them are credited. And then if they sampled somebody where they sample from. So a lot of times you see all these names and they'll be like, oh, such and such. Got all these people writing a song, you know, it's the sample that's everybody this, but they deserve the credit because their contribution to the original record made the song with it is. So when you look at that, a lot of times it's that myself.
I'm what they call one hundred percenter or a fifty percent, So I write majority of every record I've ever written, I written.
By myself as well.
There are no no disrespect to people who collaborate, But my process was always kind of so fast that I wrote a lot of my hit records alone, so you would only see my name and maybe a Jim Johnson or a Danger or and sometimes the artists will get publishing on the record. That's the real estate, and they own that real estate. So to pay attacks sometimes you have to give a piece of the publishing to the artists, which is fair business, and so you'll see their name.
But for the most part, I kind of like try to stay away from the heavy samples, you know what I mean.
On some records I had.
Thrown back was a heavy sample. There a lot of people original.
Yeah, yeah, Warwick put me back like yeah, that was my first first song I wrote, So that was that's amazing.
That was a heavy sample song.
But uh, and they took fifty percent of that record too, Yeah, so which to you know, they deserve it. That that production and that riff and that transition and the progression. It was just timeless and it just it made for us. It made it very easy for me.
To write the song.
So, okay, a song like there Goes My Baby was like a fat ass walking by your girlfriend, Like at the time, walking by.
With no draws on you was like the head goes lines like how does it?
How does like how do the thoughts come to you?
Is it something like that?
Or oh?
I was really it was I had just suffered a really crazy tragedy in my life, to be totally honest, and I went straight to the studio the next day. So when I was writing the record, honestly, it was an idea about this girl is the most beautiful girl in the world, and I didn't realize it until just this moment, and she's taking forever to get ready. I'm sitting at the edge of the bed and I look and I see this girl and I'm like, oh my god,
there goes my baby. So forgetting you, No, no, really, you know you're sitting it funny, but a lot of times men will forget what they have or the quality of the women.
That they have.
So sometimes familiar, yeah, you get really and in all things, right, don't we get familiar with? You know, in business we get familiar with and friendships and relationships and all these things. So the idea of the song is for a guy to just kind of sit back and reflect.
Like, oh shit, my shorty is bad. You know what I mean?
Girl, look at you. So I wanted to create a moment that it has so many different meanings but just felt so good. Like the gold for every song is to make sure it just feels good to people and they can interpret it anyway they want.
And even when they listen to it now.
I bet when people listen to it now, when he says, bet you ain't know what, I'll be checking you out.
When you be putting your heels on.
I love that song.
It's so perfect baby, how you work it baby, Like he's like, wow, I love the way that you be poking it out.
Give me somebody. It's like he's paying attention to her now in this moment, you know.
And then also a little nugget was that I was a huge fan of Usher and Chili dynamic.
Everybody, when you're listening.
To the second verse, I said, I get the chills whenever I see your face and you in the place, I feel like I'm in a movie.
Baby. I'm like, ooh wee, baby, like water falls, your hair falls down to your waist.
Can I get a taste? No need to creep, because baby, I ain't a shame my coring there. I was naming TC songs.
You was getting him some.
Everybody else.
I was trying to drop the nuggets in there to like, I wanted to hint at this idea him and Chili. I always thought that that was an incredible pairing. And and I love Jen, you know, I was just current girlfriend and I think she's amazing. But at that point in my life, I was so young and I was so enamored.
With you, and everybody wanted Chili, right yeah, and.
Chili is just such a you know, and beautiful. So I just kind of threw that nugget in there. A lot of people may miss that, but when they listen, when you listen to that, my baby, listen that second verse. I definitely had Chili in my nice.
Okay, I got a question.
Because it's a lot of niggas out here making beautiful music for Facebook and SoundCloud and that's it, right, and then it never goes nowhere. How did you get into a place where everybody is like one, let me get Rico love on it. Let me get Rico love on it.
First of all, blessed enough and fortunate enough to have existed before social media, so which is an incredible asset and a credible tool to so many creatives, but it also widens. It doesn't see. The door to go through to make it is the same size. It's just the access to get to that door. It's easier.
You get what I'm saying.
What I mean by that is there are one hundred and fifty thousand songs uploaded every day to Spotify. So what that means is we're going down one door, one corridor. But it's just the directions to get there is a lot easier. Whereas back in the day, you had to know somebody, you had to perform, you have to be super talented. People had to see something special in you. They had a team that would cultivate and develop it. Now it's like develop it at home. Do it yourself,
put it out. If it sticks, we want to give you money for it. So in that sense, the business is a lot more difficult, but in another sense it's a lot easier because you can upload something, put it out, if it connects, if you build an audience, you can gain revenue from it, you can build a following, you can potentially get it will make a lot of next thing.
You know, you outside and stay singing.
But booty brown whatever you know, girl don't do sexy in you know, hold on my boy, excuse me my booty whole brown. That's wild.
It's funny because I don't go out a lot. But I went out a few weeks ago and I saw gods singing it, and I.
Was like, you saw dove all weekend this past weekend. You've all had his? Uh the guys was somebody comment and was like, I swore I just heard somebody say ski we.
Man just the way of the world.
So that was actually one of my questions though, because of social media and stuff. So even back then, do you think it's in your opinion, is it talent or hard work that actually gets people?
Hard work is gonna always get you, keep you consistent. Now, The thing about getting in the business is because it's such a crap shoot, you can get in it. It's a roll of the dice. You can roll seven and on the first row and you can actually make it into the business. But there's a technique and the skill that comes into consistently hitting your number. And I think that it takes hard work to sustain anything, right, but to get in the business, it does not necessarily take
the hard work, and that's the problem. For some it takes extreme level of consistency, persistence, and hard work, but for others it's just I threw something up. I started rapping six months ago. I started rapping a month ago, my first song I put out here. So then what happens is those who stick around, they are the ones that you know are actually talented. So when Glorilla first came out, you didn't know what it was going to be. But I see the consistent work. I can tell that
she works extremely hard. So when I watch it, I'm like, Okay, everything that's happening for her she deserves because she didn't just take it. Now, Cardi be the same way. Cardi B is an artist who I didn't think was super talented. But the work that as into it, and the consistency
and the dedication to the craft. So if you can find a way to obsess over the actual art and not just over the making the money, then I think that And obviously you want to be lucrative, you want to make money, you want to be successful, But if you could find a way to obsess over the art, then I think that's more.
About character than it is about moods. And I say this a lot. Your character should be consistent. Your mood can change. Who you are is going to be consistent. The way you do anything is the way you do everything.
So when you when you think about that, you've got to understand, like if somebody was in the trap and he was dedicated, little baby was in the streets and he was known for getting to some money. So his dedication to consistently be able to earn in the streets transitioned over to his music, and when he started making music, he took the same mindset, the same hustle, the same consistency. The way you do anything is the way you do everything, and that's why he's able to sustain success in a
music business. And I think that if you ask me what's more important. I say, the hard work is more important. But we live in an era where the talent is not even necessarily more point, it's about how.
Much motion you have.
If you got enough movement and traction around you as an artist, if people believe you, if people buy into you, they'll convince themselves that they like your music. And that's the difference. Now, if you have convinced them to love you and you make great music, it's an incredible win for you.
So when we talk about business, you know, people say, oh, business is business, But like you said, how you do one thing is how you do everything.
So do you.
Go along. Do you think that a person can separate their actual personality from the business, you know, because people do a lot of shady shit in business, right, And though you'll say business is business, right, Yeah, I think, but that's you. That's how I feel.
Yeah, I think there's a.
Whenever there's paperwork, whenever it is a huge conglomerate that has to earn, it has to make money off that like X's and o's, you have to understand that they are going to stick to the rule book. And when you go into a contract, you're making relationships with this president.
You're making relationship with this A and R. And you believe that because this A and R told you that he believed in you or she believed in you, and they brought into your brand and they put their arm around you, and they fuck with you for a long time, and then things started to change and you weren't as productive and you weren't as financially lucrative as you once were. Then you believe that the portrayal was between them and you. No, what happens is they have a higher ups that they
have to answer to. Even the CEO has to answer to somebody. Right, he's the chief executive operator. Right, he runs the machine. But they are boards and they are ownership. That says you have to answer to us, and you need to make sure that you're turning this around. So when you don't do what you need to do, you blame the inconsistency of the business. It's no love in the business. It's no love in industry. And the problem is that people think that the music business is any
way different than any other business. Whenever you have legal and you have paperwork, you have people that have to be paid, and you have checks and balances, there will be a time where they're gonna ask who was productive and who was not, and if you were productive. I don't care how long this relationship has lasted. I don't care how cool you are. I don't care how much I love you, how you know my kids, and how we hung out, and how you at one point you
were the king of this label. If you no longer earn, then our time together has to end. And that's with sports, that's in McDonald's, that's in anywhere. So I think that people have this idea that the music business is more shady or more about business, and business is business than any of the corporation or conglomerate. They all function in a way that says, if you are productive, you have a space here at the table.
Now, We'll keep you.
Around as long as we can until I have to answer to my higher upts to say, what's up, what's up with?
What are we doing with this?
Because every time they do a project, every time they go to the studio, we gotta pay for this. Every time they put out a song, we gotta pay them this because of the deal that we differ in back in the day that earns them certain amounts. It's costing
us too much. We gotta get rid of it. So in a sense, people will say the business is shady, But every business that has to do with paperwork is going to go by what the paperwork says and they're going to honor that paperwork for as long as you are beneficial to them.
Right.
And on top of that, everything in life is negotiable, so get a lawyer, you know, reade check.
But even with that being said, everything is if you are productive, then you can change any contract. That's the crazy thing about the business. The lady God got first deal is not the same deal she did after album. Our first album came out and was extremely successful, she was able to say I want to do this, I'm not doing another record, and at the end of the day she's so successful that we have to come to the table. And that's how you have to look at it.
So if you aren't successful, you have to understand it's the reverse that they're going to say, yeah, we know we did this paperwork, but we really kind of just want to seven times. It's costing us too much, So we have the right to get rid of the situation
and walk away from the situation at any moment. Just like you should have the right to say, hey, I just sold thirty million albums, I would like to redo my entire deal in structure it differently, and I would like this person not to be involved.
Y'all can pay them. I would like this person not to be involved. Y'all pay them off.
I want to have so ownership and partnership between you, me and the label, and we'll and guess what, the record company will sit down and go see you. You could have discovered that. You could have came and brought it to the table or him the table and the rec company company and say, hey, here's a check.
We're sorry.
Stallion. I think is an example of that right because she did not. She wasn't trying to leave. Say he's speaking on that ship, I'll talk about it right cause she wasn't trying to leave five and one. She just wanted to renegotiate her contract. Like I'm pretty sure.
Say this, she's I'm gonna say this, and I'm gonna say this about all things, all things in life. I don't care what a person has told you. I don't care what you heard and how emotional how they may have been when they said it. We only know their perspective in that point of view, and it wouldn't be fair for us to even give an idea of what happened based on one person's take on it.
Now I'm talking about her contract, I'm not talking about the widow shit. But we don't have her contract either, you know what I mean, signing with her Essentially.
I can't speak on it. But what I can't say is I only.
Know that she got an apology from that nigga.
You know, sometimes you got to apologize.
And what's the other rapper from Texas? She just left five and one as well, Erica.
You know what's really unfortunate though, also is that there's situations where sometimes I've signed a lot of female artists and I haven't been able to break a female artist. And the problem is that no matter what I've invested into them, Like if you look on my page, anybody who followed me to know that I'll post my artists five hundred miles an hour, i will always promote and talk about my artists. I'll put everything I have into them, and when it doesn't work out, people forget all of
those things that you've done. They only believe, only realize. Oh, it didn't work out, it must be Rico's fault, right, right. Meanwhile, they never made a dollar for me in no way. All I've ever did was put into it and it never gave me a return on any of those situations.
Right. So, regardless of whatever I've read comments from people that says Rico did this, and Rico did this, and Rico did this.
So even when I look at a situation like, well, oh, didn't another girl quit or leave his label, or didn't another girl do this, I still only know that person's perspective, because when you are the boss, when you are at the top, it does not benefit you to go back and forth on social media with somebody, Oh, this is what really happened. It's not becoming of a boss. It's not becoming of a leader. This doesn't look cool. So a lot of times we have to allow, especially in
this business. Sometimes for rant, sometimes the artists will go crazy and lose their mind on you, and sometimes you just have to allow it because as a boss, you can't be what it is just too much. So that person could be wrong, this person could be right, and
vice versa. But I think that to assume that just because this person says something that has to be true, then that part of it, or just because this person didn't respond to it, that you saw a fit that it has to be true is not necessarily the truth.
Absolutely. I get that, you know, because I am tired of battling people's perspective nowadays.
And over time, over time, everything, especially especially.
Is the internet bit at this point, over.
Time, regardless or whatever, the truth will come out or or things will play out, and people will see consistencies and the characters and they'll see it. They'll watch and notice some things, and I'm saying, oh, all right, this is starting to make sense.
You know that thing?
Okay, I have one question before we go to break. Give us your mount rushmore of r and b artists writers, But what however you want to throw it? Okay, Michael Jackson is number one period off the wall. I'm gonna have to go with Stevie Wonder. Yes, And then you get two people.
It's four I'm wrong with you, Yes, And then I gotta go Usher just because not just because he discovered me, but I just listened to his tone. I think this is the most incredible distinct tones in the history of music.
And then you gotta go Beyonce because the only reason I can't say Prince is because I can consider Prince more rock R and B. So, but if we want to go straight R and B, I gotta go with Stevie, Mike, Usher, B because there are people from before my era, during my era, and you know, the ones that I think I patterned my love for music behind.
I like, but I definitely Prince.
Yeah, no, no, I love Prince, But I'm just saying, if I had to choose between Prince, Michael and Stevie, I think Prince was a way more well rounded artists and all genres. So if you gave me around rushmore music in general, then I would have to take out Usher and B. I would put Prince in that spot. But if you give me R and B, I got
to go. I prefer these people because of sentimental value and reasoning also as well as iconic figures that they are and impact and the contributions they made to the R and B art form, And it's.
You know, entirety absolutely, So one more question before we go to break, who is on your hit list? Like of people you haven't worked with yet and you want to work with.
Wow, Rufus Wayne Wright is an incredible artist. I think you guys should look him up.
His Uh.
He had an album called want One that changed my life. I used to be extremely homophobic, as most people in our community were, and when I heard this record he wrote called Natasha.
Where he was Rufus Rufus Waynwright.
He has a song called Natasha and I interpreted him telling his girlfriend he was gay, and I just thought it was genius. So Rufus Wayne Wright is one of the guys I would love to work with. I definitely would love to do an entire project with Kanye West, like if Me and Ye could do Me Too project.
Keep telling Yet, did y'all see him yesterday? Well, I don't know. He has this other page. I don't know what I'm gonna show you right now, speak pages.
Speaking of other pages and artists, let's always say Kendrick Lamar and I love his new account.
What's they called it? The Burner?
Yeah and so and then finally, Uh, I know that this is I would love to do an album with Usher and I've done a project for I've done a lot of his songs that I've britten up. It's one I got even new records getting ready to come out of him soon. But I would want to do a whole album with me and Usher, like, just let me executive produce the project.
That would be my dream.
Why you can't make that happen? That should be.
Easy, right, It's not easy, but I would love for it to be.
I should make that happen, all right, y'all. So it wouldn't be right to have somebody on we talk back named Recal Love and I talk about love because y'all know we love talking about relationships. I'm actually tired of it. But anyway, So this past week, I was having a conversation with a friend of mine and we started talking about unconditional love, right, and so I asked him is it possible for him? Does he think it's possible for
him to love someone unconditionally? And he was like, you know, I don't think, like he didn't know he was unsure, right, But I'm like, no, you know, the only person that I love unconditionally is me, right, because I'm always forgive myself. I'm always have empathy for myself. But sometimes people do things that are kind of unforgivable. You know what I'm saying. You like if I walk away, is that really displaying unconditional love? So how do you feel about unconditional love?
Yes, because love is a feeling, because love is a mind, a space that you place somebody in your heart, in your mind. Then unconditional love it has to exist to me. And also because of my belief system, right, so, I believe in God, and I believe God and God in such a strong and reverence. I have such a reverence for him, right, and I understand that if love is God, then it's never ending, It's always present, it's always an
existing thing. Now my actions behind how I allow this person to fit into my schedule, until my life, until my psyche, that's different. But the feeling I have for someone is unconditional, So meaning I never in the history of my life would go out of my way to hurt anyone. I never would try my best to target someone and say, let me figure out a way to get this person.
I don't think anybody ever consciously thinks that.
But I can remove myself from anybody who who I don't feel like have my best interests in mine or if we don't feel like we're any longer compatible. But the love that I have for them will make it so that in any situation, I genuinely, from the bottom of my heart want what's best for them. So I don't think that unconditional love is unreasonable. Off it's task to ask for or or a thing to ask for.
But I just think that to ask to somebody is always present in your life and always is the go to person for you when you need them, that part
of it isn't reasonable. But when we think about love, even though love is an action, we also have to remember that love sometimes means that I love you enough to give you the space because if I love you right, but you are allowing me in my own mind because obviously we make our own choices, but you aren't allow me to be the best version of myself, then for the better of our relationship, I'd rather remove myself because sometimes you're removing yourself for a time can mean that
you'll reconcile later in a time where I was able to heal.
From some things, you was able to heal from some things.
We can really participate in a relationship, friendship, whatever that is in a more mature space, but that love can never not exist. So that's why when I tell people people disagree with me strongly when I say that you can only be in love once. So a lot of people get angry when I say that. I don't know why they get angry, because that's just my perspective. But I always tell people I believe you can only be
in love once. I believe that we are wrong about so many things already, No, but I just think that we can. We're in a space where so many things can be wrong. We can say we're wrong about so many things, but we refuse to acknowledge that maybe we were wrong about being in love with somebody, you know what I mean?
And absolutely, and I think that uh good, right.
A lot of times spent with a person and you'll believe that that was my soulmate, And that doesn't mean that that's not necessarily the truth. And what it can mean is that for that period it didn't work, and then it can work later.
It can be that also.
But I do believe that if it's only one person for me, how can I be in love with others? The way love works, in my mind is ongoing thing. It cannot turn off. You can't turn love off. So when I think about love, I think about God and I know that there are inconsistencies and everything that we do, but the one thing that has to be constant is our want for somebody to do well and to be
the best version of themselves. There was an interview with Kim Kardashian said the other day, like, I want the old Kanye back, right, I want the old I want to I want to have that back. So what that tells me is that her love for him didn't change.
She was in a situation.
From her perspective, and I don't know both sides of the story, but from her perspective, what she's saying to me, in my opinion was this no longer worked for me when he was this way, and it was changed that happened. But if he was this way, we could still have worked it out. But for this, this was destroying me personally. So when I look at that, I realized.
That their no, No, the condition is where she stayed.
You're still gonna have boundaries with boundaries.
And exactly she's her staying was the condition.
Her love for this person is unconditional, because if I couldn't stay because of this, but if it was this way, I could stay.
But the love didn't can't go anywhere.
And I think that that's fair, and I think that sometimes we kind of like refused to really recognize, like when.
People are like, I've been in love six times, how is that love? Don't work like that because you can be out of it. It's a covenant.
So once you, I feel like being in love and loving someone is totally two different things, right, because being in love is a state of mind. So if you're in a relationship and you're not doing things to continuously fall in love with your person every single day, you're arguing, fussing, fighting, you like your draws on the floor, like you're going to be falling out of love, right, So I agree with you.
I don't think you can fall out of love though. That's the thing that's only if you.
I think saying there's a line between love and what I'm saying.
Is that you can believe that you were in love with this person at that time time, Which is why I agree with you when you said you only can be in loved one and.
You can realize later that I was not in love with this person. So what happens is is.
Usually when you get the new dig I could not have possibly loved that nigga, because I love this man.
I just think that over time you'll realize, like, oh, this has run its course, and I felt like this was something, But over time I realized that I'm not willing to endure any of this that's going on with this person. So now sometimes you're not willing to endure those things with a person because they are hooked on drugs because they went to jail doesn't mean that that might not be the person that you were meant to
be with. Sometimes you might end up with the person you weren't meant to be with and the person you were truly supposed to be with. Is the three relationships ago. I think that's very much possible. But I also know that if I say that I'm in love with someone and I really mean it in the true essence of what love means to me.
To me, love is a covenant.
Love is a covenant that is un You can't break this covenant because I correlate love with God. So the consistencies of who God is. And also I guess it's up for debate because some people don't believe in God in the way that I do. So that's why when people get frustrated with my perspective. I'm always kind of like puzzled because I'm like, this is my perspective.
Do you believe in the internal God or the external God? Because the mine is internal?
See, I believe that it doesn't. God is omnipresent, so his everything about who God is is internal. But we are God's work in the earth. So I am the external working of who God is and who God is in me. Right, So I do understand that that over time, things can reveal themselves to you and you realize I thought that this was this, but it wasn't, and that's okay. I was wrong about this thing. Doesn't mean I went bad for that person. That doesn't mean I regret the experience.
But what I can realize is that this is what not what I thought it would be or what I wished it to be and what I tried to force it to be right. And I also believe that when you do find that thing and everything about you, everything you believe, everything you thought that you would never do, it'll trigger those things and it'll make you decide to do things that you know.
I've been doing a lot of shit lately. I don't never do like, what the fuck is happening? All right?
So based on your definition, that means that you feel like most people have never been in love.
I can't judge by most people. That's not my business.
I'm telling business. My perspective is how I believe what I believe love to be. I do believe that people use the word loosely. I believe that people use most times loosely. I believe people call something amazing, that it's just okay, or they're brilliant.
I just think that that's so.
I think that I do believe that when it comes to being in love, people can become you know, I was in a space maybe a couple of years ago, two years ago, where I was like everybody I was going out on a date with.
I was thinking, oh wow, this could be it. Oh my god, because I thought that's what I wanted, you know what I mean.
So then, unfairly, given a lot of maybe a few people too much time that I feel like, maybe I realized shortly after that it wasn't warranted.
Right.
So I think that we go through these phases in our lives where we think certain things. Who I am today is not who I was a year ago. Who I am today is not who it was five years ago, so I had to give myself space to grow and understand through those things. But I think love is the same way. The love is one of those things that you can't outgrow. You can grow to a different space than who you are. But it goes back to mood
and character. Your character is one thing, and your mood is a different thing, and how you behave and how you respond to things should not be based on your mood and only be based on your character.
And that's how love is.
I respond to you based on how much I love you and how mad you upset you made me. And I think that when you realize what something with love truly is, then it's defining how to correct.
Yourself in those senses. You know what I mean.
And when I respond with love, I think more so about what's best for all parties involved, and not just how I feel in the moment.
What I was about to say it was God is love right, But in the Bible it was a lot of ship God was doing in people right, a lot of wraths. Do you feel the wrath of God? Right? So it was always what do.
You do to people.
Cause destruction? God did cause destruction in the Bible to people.
Yes, no, no, let me tell you.
Let me tell you what.
So let me tell you. Everybody died.
It wasn't everybody else.
But again, it's all about perspective, right. God hates sin, right.
But what sin sin? It is objective.
So that's what I'm saying. It's all about perspective. Didn't under saying that, Yes, you did, So it's all about perspective.
God hates sin. So God said to everybody. He said, to everybody, this is going to happen to this place. If you don't get right in this place, I'm gonna flood this place.
I love the place. Say it to everybody. He told noa, no one told that.
He told everybody. But that's how God speaks, right, But that's how he speaks Noah.
Okay.
So so what you have to understand is Noah was saying, if you behave this way, if you're doing this, and a lot of times, and I think that's the reason why a lot of people blamed And it's a whole nother conversation. People blame Solomon and Moore the destruction of it on home seules, and it wasn't the case, they were all forms of perversions, bestiality, people having checked with children, animals,
battylon if they talk about the exactly. But the point is he said, I'm going to bring wrath on this land. I'm going to destroy this place. This is what's about to happen. And Noah for over a hundred years, he said, everybody, get right, I'm telling you, he's about to destroy this place. He did not say I'm going to burn you, because if that was the case, he.
Wouldn't have to do it. He could have just picked off people. That's not what he did.
What he said was I'm going to destroy this place. And it was even a time where he said, don't even look back, don't turn back.
Yeah.
So what I'm saying is and even and I know a lot of people even look listen to that, who aren't you know, from where from that space and he think is ridiculous.
Even if you don't believe the stories are true, look at the examples of the times that we live in now. So even if you think that that sounds cool, fory, that sounds crazy, you have the right And I'm not going to argue that with you. What I will say is, if you look at the details of it, and you say that God never ever said I'm going to burn this one.
Man, I'm going to do this.
He said, get right, because I'm going to destroy this place, and if you're in it, that's what's going to happen.
But I feel like I'm one with nature, right, So if somebody said I'm about to destroy this place, I feel like I'm a part of this place. Especially if I'm outside somewhere in a park, like I feel like I'm a part of that place. If I'm swimming in ocean, I'm a part of that place.
That's a perspective. But I also realize that wherever I am there is a place. So if this place does not exist, it's sentimental. If this place may have been to me, I will be another space. There will be another place if you if you know, if you understand who you are, and that as long as you exist in any place, that that is the place. And sometimes places and times in particular, places have to end. So I wouldn't be more attached to the forest or the river or the ocean that I am.
To my own.
Personally, I'm Pocahontas, though.
That's fair.
Low homemade stupid.
Do you want to get into our game?
Before we get into the game, let's go to commercial right quick? All right, Rico, we want to get into a game we call trading places. Right. I know you see a thousand podcasts online it's always the man versus woman battle. So we want to ask you a series of questions. But it's you waking up tomorrow and being a woman for a week. Love. So first, are you paying for the first date as a woman?
No?
Okay, no, not at all, not at all. Okay, it's a good answer. See, I believe in gender rows.
Yes, come on, man, what are we doing? Game over? Nothing needs else to be said?
All right?
Would you go fifty to fifty on rent or mortgage with your significant other?
So I think that it's a man's responsibility and every I've only been in one major relationship where I've lived with a woman, but I've never ever had a woman contributed in any way.
To any bills in that home.
We ain't gonna be mad.
Yeah, but I also don't believe that that's necessary. That's just my way of doing it.
So when I look at anybody who does anything different, I always give that leave that up to them. And the decisions that they make. If the woman is okay, we've gone half with her man, then that's not my business,
you know what I mean? Recently, And I think that the fact that people were in such an uproar about it, most women who were upset about it were mostly the ones who can't afford to go half on any rent anyway, right, So I think that to be upset about somebody else's situation that they are happy with it is fucking ridiculous. So yeah, I've never lived that way. But I also know that sometimes you might be in a situation in the bond.
I'm in the bond. They think, sometimes you might be in.
A situation where things are going good and they abruptly go bad. It would be amazing to have somebody there who can say, don't worry, you've been holding it down for all this time until you.
Get back right at least landscaping.
Right.
Yeah, that's true, I get it.
But I just think that it's incredible to have somebody who could be there to pick up some slack if need be. And I think that, I think in my heart that a woman who is in love with a man and really cares about him, if things go bad. I think she can't wait to help, she can't wait to jump in grateful, you know what I mean. And sometimes a woman might not be in a position to do so. So that's no shade to women who may
not be in a position to do that. My mentor my mentor my daughter who's eight years old, I want a groom and build her up to be a woman who's self sufficient and who has everything, can handle herself and take care of solf. But I also know that she's in a relationship with a man, he's gonna have to take care of her because she's used to her father taking care of her. So in order for me to give her away in a sense, then I'm giving her away to somebody who's gonna take on the role
that I have in her life. But I don't feel like it'll be a chore for him because his relationshipship. When I'm in a relationship, it's not a chore for me to do for the woman I'm in a relationship with.
So even in the job of a man.
I think my opinion is to make sure he takes care of the home in that particular way, and the job of a woman is to make sure she takes care of home in the way that she takes care of so I just think that I.
Believe in those role.
I saw a video the other day. It is very quick. It was an Asian guy Asian family getting married, and the woman was he was handing his daughter off, and he told the groom, if at any time you fall out of love with my daughter, please just bring her back to me. That's some art of warship because basically, to me, what he was saying is I'm gonna kill you.
I think I interpret that differently.
I would say the same thing, because what it's saying is if you don't want to be here, then don't make my daughter suffer through you.
Not bring her back.
How about you bring her back to me and I'll be there for her with that unconditional love.
I would prefer that you move on with your life and let me be the person, be the figure for her that I've always been. I've relinquished that duty and that title to you to have give it back to me, because I always take it back. I don't think it was anything malicious about that statement. It was like, we go through things and sometimes a man or woman can wake up one day and realize I don't want to be here anymore.
So he's saying, don't treat it like shit, don't talk down to it.
So they were never in love by your definition, we're never getting married.
I don't know what.
I can't speak getting married.
Are you getting on one knee as a woman and asking for a man's hand in marriage?
No, you're so in love though, you know, and he hasn't asked for fifteen years. Middle part or side part as a woman?
All right, it's down the middle.
That's my thing.
Bust out after y'all know.
I like bangs.
Bangs are back and style. I like bangs. Yeah, I'll be missing my forehead though sometimes you miss your when I get a bang? Yeah? Yeah?
Are you smashing on the first date?
You only got a week as a woman now.
I don't judge.
I judge everything about the chemistry, right, So if you if it's in the moment and it feels good, then go for it. I wouldn't judge a person off of that because I know guys who hung out with a girl and they be like, man, I've been dealing with Shorty for months. I never and we haven't been able to do nothing then I know guys meet her hang out and they do it the first day because the
connection is different. I don't judge a person by that though, right, I judge a person off of even when we're talking about bills and all that stuff. I believe in gender roles, but also believe in giving it time and having a true, genuine connection. I believe that if a person is expecting me to do something for them without me knowing them, if it's a prerequisite to us going on the date, is that I cash out her money for her babysitter.
That's wild. That's a wild one because you don't have kids, Like, why these guys gotta pay for your baby?
Like it? Yes, but it's certain scenarios I've had. I've had a person.
I invited a person out to hang out with me and they asked me to send them money for outfits. It's like, I'm responsible for your first impression. Like, imagine if you've told somebody you're responsible, that's my first The first impression I'm going to have is how you look, how you dress, how you whatever, everything is exactly. You're telling me that I'm not only responsible for getting you there, feeding you, clothing, you want me to clothe you and
style you for to make the first impression. So I think that a lot of times they are requirements that were based upon the relationship. If the relationship is to the point where a man is all right, if there's a level of convenience.
Money is only for convenience, in my opinion.
And if I say to a person I want to see you and they say, well, I can't see you because this is in my way. If a man has means and he wants to see her bad enough, then he should if he would like to get rid of that hurdle, right, and if that means that means a monetary thing, I'm gonna get rid of that because I want to see you this much.
Now. If a person says, hey, I really want to see you.
I'm married, get rid of her husband.
No Columbia next time.
If a person is like, hey, let's hang out. Yeah, sure, let's hang out. Oh well I would I can't because I gotta pay this bill. And it's like, well, we don't need to hang out, Like why, you know what I mean, it's not that serious. But if it's like I really want to see this person, every time I try to see a ship. This thing is in a way, this thing is away, this thing is away.
Let me try to get rid of so I can get close to her, you know what I mean. Yeah, that's fair.
Yeah, that's fair.
That's fair.
You woke up pregnant this morning, okay from one night standing? What you're doing?
Oh my god, I know. I love the babies. Depends on what it depends on my financial situation as a woman. I think everything should be based on what you could actually do for your child. That's it.
So if I personally as a woman, would be able to take care of my child on my own, then I will keep the child. If I if I'm saying I'm going to depend on this person who is a stranger to me what I don't know, then that's added extra pressure to me into my life, fighting with this person to take care of a child that they potentially might not want to or might not have the bravery, or might be a coward or might you know.
Everybody doesn't take that responsibility.
So what I would do is if I had the financial means to take care of the baby independent of anybody else, then I'm keeping a baby.
If not, then I probably wouldn't.
Y'all heard, hum Rica, No hold on, I got one more question because this is like, I feel like this is a scapegoat type thing men do. So at any given moment, you're asked what you want to eat? Do you know what you want to eat? What you're eating, y'all? Do I want to eat what you're eating right now? You're hungry? What you want to eat?
Yeah? I want to eat some steak and shrimp.
Where you want to go at?
You know?
Because that's the thing men always say, women on them. Yeah, I feel like y'all put it off on us because y'all don't never know what y'all want to eat.
What's crazy about men, know, is men think about where they're going to eat two days in advance.
That is not true because they get to the menu and be mad because there's nothing they like that.
Flying back to Miami tonight, I'm not gonna eat this late tonight. But let's say I was flying back in the afternoon, I already have in my mind what I want to eat when I get home.
I'm already thinking about it.
Yesterday I was I was thinking about, Yeah, I want to go when I'm here, I always go to the watermen. So I'm always thinking, when I get to Charlotte, I'm going to the watermen, Like that's I'm going to stake forty eight. That's just what I know what I'm gonna do with my mind. I'm already mentally preparing myself. But
when I get to Charlotte, I'm going here. When I go to Vegas, when I go to La there places that I love to go to, And I'm saying, when I get there, I can't wait because I'm gonna go there. So men already prepare these things in their mind beforehand.
I don't think. So I'm talking about a cohabitation situation or a date, you know what I'm saying, Like you hitting me up asking me what I want to eat, and you're mad because I don't know right now, But what do you want to eat? I don't know. When you get there, you see the menu, you don't like it. Once I pick a place that's happened to me a thousand times, I feel like like this is what I wanted.
And especially now because I'm eating a certain way, I know exactly what I'm going to eat forty which I'm gonna eat, so it's easy for me but I can't speak for nobody else.
I don't know. I can tell this is.
Thank you.
I like hugs, y'all.
All right, so we're going to get into our final segment. I talked to you about it a little bit earlier. Do you have your story ready for our SIMP series?
SIMP series? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I have some SIMP stories. Real easy way to.
Say this, and simps are necessary, y'all. Okay, don't get us wrong.
I was in a situation where, uh, a woman asked me to help her out of a situation and really look out for her.
And then so I did. I sent I sent her some some funds to take care of a situation. And she was in a barn and I looked out. And then.
The following week, I'm like, yo, let's hang out. She's like, yeah, I'll be there. And then she told me, yeah, I'm coming in. And she called me a little while before and said I gotta leave town. I gotta leave town. And you know, I'm like, oh, she gonna make it. She renigged on it. And then I decided to go a different place instead of going to where I said I was gonna go. She was there with some with some very cool rappers that I actually like.
Yo.
And it was awkward because they recognized me and they're like yo, and I'm like, hi, guys, I bought her outfit.
Nice linking can I said with you, guys, I contributed in some way to this outing some same ship ship.
So what does she say for?
Nothing? Not a word? Act like she didn't see me.
What how much money was it? Can you share?
I'm not gonna share, man.
How much money was it?
Was?
It like over ten grand?
No?
Fuck?
No, okay, afford it? I'm bitch, Why you disappear?
It was?
It was It was a little bit of b It wasn't. It wasn't those pennies.
Though, Yeah, like you never spoke to her ever again in my life.
Damn bird brings no no, no, no, the girl the bird you know, you know.
Yeah, And it was crazy because you know, you think about it, and these guys were, you know, on the top of the world at the time, and I was, you know, I was in a I was in a breakup, right, So I wasn't totally I was single at the time, but like in a breakup single, Yeah, a few months you just kind of like you're single, You're moving around. So I'm just like, oh, ship, I'm gonna go hang
out with Shorty. I'm gonna do this and then and a lot of times people get back in relationships because of moments like that, Yeah, I.
Should have sent you home, like, ain't nothing out here, man, I'm gonna make it my bench.
And I'm gonna tell you it was the Migos.
Oh hell no, she played.
Like, but I say this, I'm saying it was the beginning of their career, believe it or not.
When Migos first came out, they was on fire with Basachi and then I did a song called they Don't Know, and Migos wrapped on them.
They remixed they Don't Know.
So they was already like I'm not gonna say fans of me, but I just think they respected my work and like so they had their remix and then they started really buzzing. So you know, I was in that playboy mode ifew you know, you singing for a little while.
You're like, I'm about to be outside real quick.
So I meet the Shorty and she like yeah, and I'm like I really need some help with this, and I'm like, okay, cool, I send it a little bread and then she's like, we're supposed to link up that night, and she curved me. So I'm thinking she probably thinking he's not gonna come over and he's not going to this, because I probably.
Usually wouldn't have. I was like, let me just pull up to this and I see them.
That was God because she would have still been taking money for you right now.
She wouldn't have still been taking money. I'm not gonna get.
Probably wasn't she Probably only I'm talking to you because you saw her with the finesse. That's what I'm saying.
She would have still been coming out. I consider it to be my decision because I would have never spoke to her again. You know what I'm saying.
Had you not seen.
Yeah, then she could have still been to be finessed right, Yes, bi weekly like she didn't like she ain't.
Give a fuck. She didn't send me a text on SOT nothing. What's good.
I don't play with people like that. What happened? What happened? That's crazy, that's awful. Maybe she listens to the show.
If you do, you really reco an apology?
Oh his money bag? Fun that apology? Pay me right?
What a sympo?
No, sim's unnecessary. Dumb bitches are also necessary. Man, they are because it's not like it's a bad thing. I think men call other men sims. Women really don't use the term like that, Like we will call a woman a dumb bitch, right, I.
Think y'all kind of see niggas a simps sometimes, but we.
Don't see what I'm saying, Like we see a lick. Absolutely some of them have on their forehead.
I was, Oh my god, got licked next to them in your phone.
I've never.
I think.
But we all are corny to somebody, you know what I mean? It looks cool somebody somebody that you know.
Is that that what you something like? I accept that. I try to be as cool as I possibly.
Can, But I know myself.
I think it's necessary to get played to be well rounded, though, Right, you gotta take a l sometimes so you can be humble.
Yeah, you probably played somebody, So it's coming back around Jesus. But I'm Karma. I do the coming around, all right, y'all. I do the coming around. Yeah, this is a good episode, a great good interview.
Yeah all right, tell everybody was next where they can find you?
Okay, So I really want to obviously songwriters my passion. I'm a passionate father, So I'm in a men's group for dads, you know what I mean, So the dads can come together. It's like a network where we can kind of communicate and we can exchange energy and advice and how we can uplift and build each other in our communities. And what we're gonna do is in each meeting, we raise money for one father who may be in need of something specific to help do something great with
his kids. So we're going to be creating that in it's called because I'm a Dad, and that's gonna really soon. We're gonna be rolling that out. Also, the reco Love webinars that we we Love Music conference that I do
around the world teaching about songwriting and production. That's something I'm super passionate about and building it my multimedia group where I'm able to develop not just artists and writers, but also actors and poets and you know, creatives in all art forms, finding finding spaces for them to exist and express themselves without the burden of the financial, uh, you know, burdens that people have and they're trying to
making the business. So that's more My passion is making sure that we can pour back into creatives and put back into our community of creatives. You had a nonprofit, so it's it's essentially a for profit business though, because we want to be able to have avenues to where after they receive funds and they do well, then there's a commission that they paid back.
I guess I was referencing the thing for or the Dads.
Will be nonprofit. Yeah, sure, yes, but the multimedia company will kind of develop acts. We want to make sure that we can help give them resources and then the company.
Can earn off of.
That's super cool.
Doing the music for a new TV show called Black Hamptons. This is the season two of the Black Hampton's on BT, so I'm the music supervisors for them. We did I did the first season and now I'm working on the second season. I'm super excited about that. I'm super excited about Usher's new album.
Just really a new album coming.
Yeah, it's nice, excited babies babies coming. I just was with him.
He played me to like every song, because you know, I did the songs that I've done, but we took a car ride and he just played me everything and it was exceptional. It is an exceptional body of work. I can't wait for the world to hear that. Obviously, I just had a success with Romeo Santos and Justin Timberlake with Sin Finn. Anybody who's familiar with Latin but shot the music number one.
But chat the song in the world.
So excited about that and excited about the work we're doing with the BMC, the Black Music Collective. I'm the chairman of the BMC, which is a subsidiary of the Grammys. We created something dei effort where we kind of like making sure that we hold feet to the fire, make sure that black people, women and people of color represented properly inside the Recording Academy. Last year a Recording Academy Honors Award show, we honored Lol Wayne, Sylvia Own, Missy Elliott,
and doctor Dre. This year, we're cooking up some exceptional for the Grammy for Grammy Week, and we're doing some amazing events around the country around building awareness to black creatives on what was available for them.
And I missed that in your introduction, y'all. This is Grammy nominated recal love also and.
Also also I'm helping Music Cares with this hip Hop initiative we're doing for the next three years, we're gonna be funding and helping a lot of hip hop artists.
So if you are hip hop artists and.
You need help, you need money, and you need a roof for your house, you need your teeth fixing, you don't have the funds for that, come to music Cares you submit and.
Fix the current the existing ones first or y'all.
Yeah no, but yeah, the teath that you have, now, let's make sure we got those more.
But if it's a lot of things that we're doing, and it's a lot of philanthropic work, but also also a lot of entrepreneurial work that I'm really focusing dedicating myself on. And I created the Love Foundation where I were doing these recordings at my house. I created it because I keep my kids seven days on and seven
days off. So when I'm with my kids, I was finding that I was spending a lot of time picking my daughter up from school, picking myself up from school, see them for a hour, go to the studio, come back, they sleep, I wake up.
I take a miver.
Yeah you didn't see them.
So what I started doing was I started recording in my home and setting up the cameras and doing these sessions, inviting people over, and we've been making great records and I'm able to have my kids come in and out. So it's called the Love Foundation, and we just make really dope records. And we've been documenting, documenting the process, and we're going to make it into like this little series.
Well you're busy. I know, I'm not doing enough out here.
Apparently you got we like to lay down, got to do as much as possible to make sure some stick.
I know, man, I gotta get better at that. When I hear people like that was a nice little rant about all the things like am I not doing enough? I'm like, damn. After I leave here, I was going to sleep. Just go ahead and plan for tomorrow, matter of fact, because that's the way what would rical Love do? All Right, y'all listen. This is a fantastic episode, y'all. If you enjoyed it, tune in every Thursday on iHeartRadio Apple Where but the fuck you get your podcast at?
This is your co host, A j Holiday two point on Instagram. Y'all follow me down. If you won't get on listen, check out. We talked back ent dot com. Also, we got some merch up on there now. Check us out. What's up Dan, y'all.
It's official tam band. Follow me on Instagram.
I love y'all.
Thank y'all for tuning in.
Remember to speak now and never hold your peace Jesus