One Song - Teena Marie's "Square Biz"

Episode Date: May 22, 2025

Teena Marie is one of R&B’s most enduring artists, and in many ways, she perfectly encapsulates what it means to be Black famous. This week, Diallo and LUXXURY break down her 1980 hit “Square Biz��� and explore the nuance of her legacy.  They revisit her career-breaking collaborations with Rick James, celebrate her musical prowess, and ask the question: Is Teena Marie “blue-eyed soul” or in a league of her own? One Song Spotify Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/40SIOpVROmrxTjOtH7Q1yw?si=e7bd872adc3044ad Songs Discussed: Square Biz - Teena Marie (00:00:31) "Lovergirl" - Teena Marie "Loverboy" - Billy Ocean "Behind The Groove" - Teena Marie "Ghetto Life" - Rick James "On The Wings Of Love" - Jeffrey Osborne "Tutti Frutti" - Pat Boone "Tutti Frutti" - Little Richard "I'm A Sucker For Your Love" - Teena Marie "It Must Be Magic" - Teena Marie "Super Freak" - Rick James "Portuguese Love" - Teena Marie "Wake Up" - Bill Wolfer "1, 2 Step" - Ciara feat. Missy Elliot "Rapture" - Blondie "Firm Biz" - The Firm "Emergency Room" - Ford & Lopatin "Gnarly" - KATSEYE Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Luxury. I've been looking forward to this episode for a minute. Today's song comes from one of R&B's most enduring artists. And in many ways, she's that white artist who perfectly encapsulates what it means to be black famous. Not only was she a beloved and respected singer, but she was also a brilliant songwriter, arranger, and producer. And on today's song, she did it all. Today's song peaked at number three on the R&B singles charts in 1981 and has since become a fan favorite. Everybody, get up.

We're talking about one song, and that song is SquareB. Biz by Tina Marie. I'm actor, writer, director, and sometimes DJ Dea Diallo Riddell. And I'm producer, DJ, songwriter, and music college's luxury, aka the guy who whispers Interpolation. And this is one song. The show where we break down the stems and stories behind iconic songs across genres and tell you why they deserve one more listen. You will hear these songs like you've never heard them before. And if you want to watch one song, you can watch this full episode on YouTube and Spotify. And while you're there, please like and subscribe. So luxury, what was your first introduction to Tina Marie?

the day song? Well, I first heard Tina Marie because she had a hit song when I was a kid called Love her Girl. And not only is that an incredibly good song, I at the time was like obsessed with the fact that there was a song called Lover Boy and also

a song called Lover Girl. And it was kind of around the same area and I would be like excited to tell people about this fact. You don't understand. It seemed like these songs are related. They're almost the same title. It's like a response to the other one. So that was exciting to me. beyond the song itself being insanely good. But as far as the song,

a funny story behind that, I have to give props to my buddy, Devin O'Brien, who is my first bandmate. He was the bass player when luxury began, the two of us worked together to make a band out of nothing.

And he answered a Craigslist ad, and he was very funny, and he would just bust out random, like, he would just say things out of the blue from like 70s funk songs. So we'd just be like hanging out doing nothing,

or I'd be in the middle of piecing together something in Protol's and he'd be like, square, I'm talking love, like, and just a little piece of it. And then that would be it. And like it would take a long time for me to piece together. Oh, that's a song that exists by Tina Marie.

When I heard it in the world, I'm like, oh, that's what Devin's been saying all this time. What about you, Diallo? When was the first time you heard Tina Marie? I'm sure I heard it in my childhood. But the first time that I realized, man, maybe I'm a Tina Marie fan was when I was playing Grand Theft Auto in 2002, Vice City. just one of the most important video games that I ever...

I feel like you mentioned it a lot. I do because I feel like a lot of us DJs and people who like music, like we rediscovered the 80s in a real way around this time. I'm not a gamer, but this is the game and had like a radio station in the game, right? It had a five or six radio stations. They were all very niche.

And on their R&B channel, you had Behind the Groove by Tina Marie. And that was like such a great song. And it also had a ghetto life by Rick James. I would always make the argument that possibly Grand Theft Auto put Rick James back on everybody's cultural radar. They had great songs on there. We know from season one of Jay Chappelle that he did a sketch about Grand Theft Auto. So we know he was playing it.

And I am convinced that that also put Rick James back on his radar. And that skit put Rick James back on everybody's radar. I'm Rick James, bitch. Enjoy yourself. And it's going to tie into our story. because, you know, at that time, when this game is out, Tina and Rick, they're all having a bit of a comeback moment. And besides being just featured in Grand Theft Auto, she now gets signed to Cash Money Records, and they release her album, LaDonia, which was at that time her highest charting album ever. What year is this?

This is in 2003. But what I most remember from this period is when she reunited with Rick James for an iconic performance of their duet, Fire and Desire, on the 2004 BET Music Award. This looks like when your uncles and aunts have had too much to drink at a family gathering. And they're like screaming out. I'm feeling the passion. But yes. Not feeling the accuracy. I'm feeling the accuracy.

But you know what? They've earned this moment. Both of them have come back from like these really excruciating periods of cultural irrelevance. We're so happy for them being there. Drug addiction, all these kind of things. And yet they were able to emerge in 2004. And I think sadly this is like the last time that you'll.

see them perform together because Rick died a couple months later. Again, he was having the comeback, like 2004 was such a comeback year for him. But then I think he went on tour and he thought he could, you know, party like it was like 1979 again. He's 56 at this time. Yeah, so he wasn't

long for the world. But as far as Tina's concerned, she was, I mean, look at that video. She is a white woman performing on BET Black entertainment television and the audience is going nuts. Yes. For her. They are literally standing up clapping. They are in awe. of her total performance.

And I just feel like that video is just like, it's a tiny window onto the love that she had. And I have so many questions about that. Of course, we're going to get into that today. But, like, I grew up knowing Tina Marie only from those two experiences and almost nothing else. There wasn't any real Tina Marie on my radar. So it's fascinating to me to, like, learn,

literally preparing for this episode, how important she was in the black community. Let's go ahead and define what black famous is, or at least what we're saying on this episode. I love this quote. from Tana Hasi Coates. He's got this quote. He says, the term blue-eyed soul is presently being affixed to her, but it borders on

disrespect. It's like black people, we liked the arithmetic. We liked Madonna and some of that haul and note stuff. But Tina Marie was beloved. She was not simply in that George Michael father figure category. She was of that Shaka Khan, Freddie Jackson, Jeffrey Osborne, Denise Williams stamp. You did not hear Tina Marie and say, I thought she was black. You simply said, no, seriously, I'm sure she's black.

And the thing I love the most about that quote is with the exception of Shaka Khan, Freddie Jackson, Jeffrey Osborne. These are artists that are almost only exclusively known in the black community. And yet, in the black community, they're huge. They are every bit as big as freaking Bon Jovi. And I will admit to you, I know very few Denise Williams songs, maybe one. Yeah, no, exactly. I think she had like one crossover hit.

But like Jeffrey Osborne, you know, like, and. Is he on the wings? of love. Yeah. On the wings. Oh, that's pretty good song. That's the only song I know by I know. That's a great song.

But I mean, like, you might walk into like Amoeba Records and ask like the, you know, diminutive white girl behind the counter like, hey, you got any Jeffrey Yawsborn? And she'll be like, what genre music is that? And we'll get into it a little bit. But like, it is interested to me that someone is talented as Tina Marie never really found like that huge white audience in the same way that famously everyone from Elvis to Eminem was able to tap into. It's just like she belongs to the black community in a very different way. And this phenomenon of these sort of outliers, it's not exclusive to like black artists, white artists.

There's also like, you know, Robbie Williams is famously this massive UK pop star. But in the U.S., I mean, even put this movie out, which I don't think did that well, he's just not up there with the greats in the same way. And it's like, why is that? It's hard to put your finger on why some people cross over and others don't. Absolutely. Especially Robbie, because you got the sense he really wanted to be the one man Beatles and it just never happened. Or the one monkey Beatles, whatever the hell that was. What the frick is that? But they did a movie where he played a monkey. And this ties in perfectly to this idea of blue-eyed soul, right? We've had this conversation a few times,

the Amy Winehouse episode, go back to that. Hollow Notes, we talked a little bit more extensively about it. It's this phenomenon where we can sort of name a few artists that are white artists that the black, either the black community has embraced, similarly, with or without the white community also embracing it. But also there's something about their music, which has elements of black music in it, which is also hard to be. pinned down. We're going to get into it a little more specifically when we get into the stems of this song. But just to be clear, the term blue-eyed soul comes into popularity in the 60s. I think it's first used to describe maybe the Righteous

Brothers, but certainly Dusty Springfield qualifies. And as I mentioned, HoloNotes, Amy Winehouse, maybe Robin Thick, we get like Tom Jones, Joe Cocker, Michael McDonald, the Doobie Brothers, the Beejis, right? These are all artists that are white, but are clearly bringing something of black music into what they

do, and it can be hard to sort of maybe pin down what that is. But we can kind of recognize it as being appreciative of black music and sort of doing it a good service. Right. But I think that's what that quote from a Tana Hasi, it just made me chuckle because there does seem to be a difference between like, you know, a Justin Timberlake leaving in sync and then doing black music with the express purpose of still being a major pop star. I think the classic example is like Pat Boone. Like Pat Boone has his cover of Little Richards Tootie Frutie, which is not blue eyed so the opposite. Let's hear a little bit. What is it?

Oh, Rudy. Let's hear the Bob-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-A-B-B-B-B-T. What is it about this that is the opposite of New York. I mean, I've never felt more Connecticut. This is literally an attempt to take a song by Little Richard. Oh, Rudy. Trudy-Foodie, oh, Rudy. Which was a black artist making, who wrote this song, right?

And presenting it to a white audience in a way that would be, quote, according to the mores of the era, respectable for white children to listen to. And as a result, there's something very interesting that happens where it's, I mean, for lack of a better word, it's whitified. But it is, I think, intuitive

that that is not blue-eyed soul. It is intuitive that that is doing the opposite of respecting black musical traditions in some ways. So that's Pat Boone, far end of the spectrum over here. Over here, back to blue-eyed soul territory. Not only is Tina Marie living in this area, but as to quote Nelson-Jor.

the writer, Tina Marie, quote, is one of the blackest white artists that has ever been. I think that's fair. But you know what? I think that she's even blacker than a blue-eyed soul artist. And I think what set Tina Marie apart from these other blue-eyed soul artists was the way that she embraced black culture. I mean, like, so genuinely, so authentic to her experience. And I think that has a lot to do with her roots.

You have to understand she was raised in Oakwood, which was a historically black area in Venice. It was actually called Venice Harlem at some point. And so from a young age, like Tina is. growing up embedded in this community. She had a black godmother and a best friend who was black. I mean, like, she was listening to black music. Like, for her, it's not artifice.

You know, it didn't just come, it didn't just bring up one day when she's like, I think I'm the same black music. Like, she had already been raised there. You mentioned her best friend going up. So just to be clear, this is Mickey Boyce, who we're going to be talking about later because she's on the song. She, and they stay friends throughout her career, in fact. And her best friend, Mickey tells this story about once Tina Marie's mom came to pick

her up and the mom was white. And Mickey Boyce was like, I had no idea until that moment. So for Tina Marie, her default community was the black community. That was her community. Smoky Robinson was an influence on her. Absolutely, yeah. Apparently, Smoky was a big influence on Tina when she was in high school,

not just because of being a singer, but also because she was a burgeoning songwriter. In fact, in high school, her friends would call her a little smoky because they had about the same range. And that's what makes it a dream come true when she gets signed to Motown when she's 19. Now, it would be a couple of years before she actually started working with Rick James. When she first got to Motown, she was working with different producers, and nothing was really hitting at that moment.

And then the way Rick tells it, and I love this quote, he says, quote, I was around the Motown office, and I heard this little girl singing her ass off. I walked in and here's this little short, Munchkin white girl. I said, wow, you're really great. Are you a Motown? I love the idea of Rick just walking around Motown to hearing people singing.

That sounds like a fun off. Munchkin is a fun word for his vocabulary, too. Well, you imagine he was probably a little kid watching a lot of them. Oh, yeah, it was a vase. You're right. So after that, Rick not only decided, to produce her first album, but he also took her under his wing, teaching her how to produce, arrange, and record music.

And in 1979, her debut album, Wild and Peaceful, came out. And her first single was a duet with Rick James. It's the classic, I'm just a sucker for your love. And already from that song, we're already sort of teasing up what's going to be happening later on this episode, you're hearing firsthand some of the things that you would not be hearing at the time in a Fleetwood Mac song. You're not going to be hearing Debbie Harry hitting,

some of those notes or making some of those blue note bends and lingering and kind of the growl. Like that's not coming from the sort of pop music tradition. We're already hearing that in 1979. It's so interesting. I want to talk a little bit about this album art. Yes. There's something going on or not going on in the album art that's very noticeable. There's something you don't see on the cover. Exactly. We got to point out the fact that Tina's face is very strategically, we should say, absent from this album cover, which just contains a sort of abstract image of the sea and some clouds. It looks like the background of a successories poster. Maybe it's the literalization of a quiet storm, which would have been the genre on radio, I suppose, that they might have fit into at the time.

I can totally see that. It's a little bit of a quiet storm, but it's definitely not her face. That's definitely not what I'm seeing there. But you know, I'm glad you brought this up because this was a tactic used by the music industry at the time to actually usually do the reverse. It was usually done to sell black music to white audiences.

So instead of having the beautiful faces of a Miles Davis, James Brown, or the Isleys on the cover, they would actually have just some random people on their rug. Some hot white chick. Yeah. Some skinny white chick. Listening to their record player. So let that go forth from this place.

Apparently our grandparents would not buy music unless there was a racially similar face on the cover or a quiet storm. Listen, it's worth calling attention to the fact that similar thing happened to arguably Tina Marie's male counterpart in Black Fame land. Talk about Bobby Codwell, right? Same thing happened to him. Yeah, there's just like that picture with the silhouette of him. But listen, Barry Garty might have known what he was doing because people fell in love with Tina's talent first.

And they didn't realize she was white until she performed on Soul Train with Rick James in 1979. When Don Cornelius, like, interviewed her after her. You can feel that he's, like, confused. He seemed perplexed that this voice came out of this tiny little white lady. With your background, Tina, where did you begin your singing career? Well, I was raised in Venice. Oh. And I've been singing on my life doing the musicals.

and Smokey Robinson songs and just everything. I like Don to ask you. So how did this all come together? Yeah. Such a loaded question. Yeah, yeah. And yet she handles it perfectly because she's like, I'm from Venice and she gives the crowd a thumbs up.

So that audience, the Soul Train dancers, they would have known what Venice at that time meant. Listen, I'm really... It's something totally different now. No, I'm really struck by this idea of in-community because we have this idea of the black community. It's a term. And she's calling out her community.

And she's saying, I'm part of this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what that is. Don asked a loaded question. She gives, I guess, for lack of a better term, a loaded answer. Yeah. But one that's very coded, and she's accurately stating what that code is. Yeah, and also at the time of this performance, Rick had already had a hit with, number one, in fact, with you and I.

So obviously his co-signing of Tina Marie was a big deal. It absolutely is a big part of her getting creed with the black audience, of that community. And it's important to note that this was the only album that he worked on, with Tina. So very quickly, she stood on her own merit and she started to produce and write her own music. But by the way, for those of you watch it on YouTube, Rick's hand, I don't know. Moving around. It's like sort of on her ways. Yeah. Yeah. There's something going on there. Right. Yeah. I mean, that's the question on, I think everyone's mind. Certainly was on mine. Like, was there a friendship that went beyond friendship? What was happening with her? They didn't have

a short-lived relationship that by all accounts was, as we can expect, very tumultuous. And I believe Tina Marie herself called it off because she, He saw how he was on the road. She's like, that's not how I'm going to be. And he wanted her back for many years. I think that's part of what the song Fire Nice is about. I can sort of see that. But here's the thing.

At the end of the day, even when they broke off the romance part of it, they continued to sort of like be in each other's like creative circles. They were creative soulmates. She said that was my creative soulmate. I was kind of like a female Rick. And I think that you can continue to see places where there's sort of, even if they're not in the same studio,

they're bouncing ideas off of one another. I totally agree. And by the way, perfect example of that. The title track from this record that Square Biz is on, it must be magic. Notice this section towards the end. Oh, temptation.

Sink. Which is, of course, a nod to Super Freak, which had just come out a few weeks earlier. When Rick James sings. So I love that they were able to interpolate from each other and obviously, you know. I just have to point out the phrase temptation sing factors into our story.

Oh, right, because we got a song. Because when we did our song together, Black nerd. Yeah. At one point while we were recorded, I just said, Tim Chish! Sing! And by the way, really cool fact is that at the time when Super Freak came out on street songs,

and It Must Be Magic came out, those albums were number one and number two at the same time. So I love that they were able to share their success together in this moment. I did not know that. I also think she's holding a wand. Is she holding a wand on the cover of It Must Be Mad? That's the longest wand in history. I just got this.

It's a play on the title. I'm only just noticing that. What were the art direction all this? They were like, okay. Tita, you're on a scary planet full of rocks. All art direction. We got a magic wand. All art direction before the late 80s, early 90s was literal.

It was so literal. It must be magic, so let's have a magic wand. Before we move on from, it must be magic. I need to hear a little bit of possibly my favorite. My favorite Tina Marie's song. Oh my God. I can't wait. We got to hear it.

This is Portuguese love. Man, that song is epic. That one hits hard. It sounds like white wine and the Rockford Files on TV. It sounds like Don Perriot. Caviar and Filet Mignon in a pre-carbon Beach era Malibu. Perfectly put... I see so many things when I hear that song.

I have nothing to add to your vision. I just want to go to there. I want to go there too. So it must be magic. The second album that she wrote and produced for herself. And I gotta say she's writing the music. She's arranging the music. She's producing her old record.

Like not a lot of artists are doing that during this time, especially not the female arts. Like, is there anybody else in this period? Well, artists, you're right. Like Stevie Wonder, I suppose. But female artists is a priority doing it. Kate Bush, maybe. springs to mine, but I'm

trying, I will probably think of more later, but Kate Bush, maybe Tina Marie, and a handful of others, certainly. A handful of others. I mean, like, she's in a very rare space creatively for female artists. Absolutely. All right, so let's take a quick break, but when we get back, I am excited to hear Tina's musical prowess on full display

in the stems of square abyss, and I'm even more excited to dig into something I hadn't considered before. Is Tina Marie one of the very first female rappers? Who? Hold on your answer. TBD. We'll get into. to it when we get back.

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free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. All right, folks, welcome back to one. song luxury. Before we get into the stems, what can you tell us about the production of the song? Right. Let's talk about the album. It Must Be Magic. Recorded in 1980 to 1981, produced

by Tina Marie. She had a little help. There's a gentleman called Bobby Brooks, who's credited with recording and mixing. Tina Marie was wearing a lot of hats as the vocalist and vocal arranger and producer. She needed someone to actually run the boards and make sure stuff was getting on the tape. So that gentleman was the in-house

engineer at Motown Recording Studios in Los Angeles and had worked on a bunch of Rick James records, including street songs that we talked about. You can sort of hear a similarity in the way that they're missed. There's a lot of sonic similarity. Some members actually have Stone City band of Rick James' band are on this record that we're talking about.

Did some Daz band, did some DeBarge. So one of the unsung heroes of this song is gentleman Bobby Brooks. Give him his flowers to Bobby Brooks. That makes so much sense because when I listen to this album and I listen to Rick James of the same period, they have such a distinct sound. It's not princy.

not Earthwind and fire. Like, it's its own little thing. Yeah, I agree. You're right. It's bringing it's, it's, it's funk, but it's kind of hard. It's got kind of a rock funk to it, which is a big part of the Rick Jane sounds. But you can also hear the 80s coming in these, in these songs in ways that you don't hear it in like maybe a Tower Power record. I did actually just realize something that there is, listen, we have to tell that we've told the story about the Rick James stealing princes keyboard. Yeah, sure. Yeah. I just realized that that was for the street sounds record. And there's an Oberheim on this track, which I think is the instrument. So I wonder if it's the same stolen Oberheim from Prince could be on this song. Could be. We're not sure. Just dawned on me,

that's another connection that may be honest. We'll find out. We'll find out. Let me listen to the Oberheim later in the stems. Is that Prince's Oberheim? How did the splits shake out on this song? All right. Well, Tina Marie's 50-50 partner on this song from a songwriting Splits perspective is our other unsung hero for this episode. That's Alan McGrear. Alan McGreard had been her bass player for a couple records and on and on this song, where it is, he's playing bass and is the co-writer of it to kill it on the base. I cannot wait to play some of these funky bass lines. Yeah.

Let's dig into the stems. Let's start with the drums. Let's do it. So this is a 114. That's like a really also another kind of Rick James like funk tempo. It's not quite disco, which is a little faster. 120 and about. Yeah, man.

So let's listen to these. Paul Hines is playing the drums. Let's listen to these sort of funk rock drums, but they are very funky. I got to warn you. I think let's say groove. Because I think it's a groove. 114 is such a nice groove. Yeah.

And actually to be, here's a differentiating factor too. There's a lot of syncopation in this and it's super exciting. And it's really tight. That high hat. Open hat. That's so sick. And there's a clap going on too. Let's layer the clap in.

Which is so Rich James. That's a big one. That's a big 1981 sound right there. And then there's some percussion going on. And one fun thing about that percussion. I noticed there was kind of. an unusual credit. There's a credit for vocals in parentheses percussion. I was like, what does that mean? But if you listen in that percussion track, you can hear Anthony Brockert, her brother.

Christopher Anthony Bohem are both doing these fun little vocal things. Let's listen. So that's what that vocal percussion got it was for. I was like, let the zombies in. So in the mix, that full beat sounds like this. And now that we know those vocals are in there, just adding a little something something yeah it also has like that nice double clap in there which is always fun yeah was that woodblock sounding thing the cabasa yeah well there's a cabasa is the shaky sounding thing

oh okay and the woodblock is da da da da da da da da da they're both here they're both in there together okay so the cabasa comes in in the pre-chorus when it does this a little shaker and what's so smart about that I love it is listen to how that locks in with the drumbeat and then it'll lock in with the baseline. I'll play it for you separate and then together.

And in the baseline, he's doing the same thing. And it's just tight. Tight. So good. That is a juicy. That's only two and a half bars of juice. Juicy juicy juice. It reminds me of like a cash-a-song-a-song that I can't quite put the finger on.

The baseline? Yeah. Yeah. The second of start, I was like, wait, is that a sample? Is that something like that sampled at some point? Yeah. It's so good. It's so tight.

If you guys can see the studio, everybody was like, everybody was responding physically to what we were listening to. I only have one word and that's tight. You tease this with a little bit of bass. I'm going to ask you to go there. Let's go there.

It's time to go there. So that we can hear some Alan McGrear. Alan McGrear, co-writer and the performer of this insanely sick baseline. Ooh, I just noticed something in the drums, by the way.

Listen to there's like a 30-second note. 16th notes or did, but he goes like, like, listen, I'll play it for you because it's like super cool. You don't hear a lot of 30-second notes in my eyes.

Very rare. So that's Alan McGrear playing the bass line. He does what can only be described as a stone groove throughout these eight minutes. With little variations and pops. He's slapping and popping. You're hearing the slap. You're hearing the pop. Popularized in the mid-70s, Stanley Clark and Jacko and everybody.

And then in the pre-chorus, he moves to the only other musical section of this song. Now, it should be pointed out that this is a classic example of a group. This song is a groove-based song where musically you kind of have one thing throughout the whole song. It's the E, G, B, the whole time. They're just kind of going between those three notes. But there's this one little pre-chorus that breaks it up

so that the chorus can go right back to it. So here's the only other different musical part of the song, the pre-chorus. And let's listen to Alan McGuire play the bass line here. And now we're back to the same groove that was in the verse for the chorus. Which is the verse and the chorus. It's the verse is the chorus.

musically speaking, yeah. And it makes sense. I mean, like, they have a song called Behind the Groove, which is, I think, structurally very similar. Well, and I also think what we're doing is sort of setting up a little bit about, like, what musically is happening in the song that puts it in the black musical tradition. From a music, from like the instrumental standpoint, before we're getting to the vocals, even, this bed of music is less likely to be found in a, in a blondey song, for example,

or our Fleetwood Mac song to use those examples again. As it is, this, this, we, as we just made the connection with the Rick James recording engineer and the fact that some of the musicians are also on the track, this could be a Rick James song so far. What we're hearing is the sort of elements that we'd be finding in a Rick James song and not necessarily on pop radio. I mean, whether you're talking about Bernard Edwards or Flea for Bernard Chay Peppers, I just love a bassist who's doing way more than you thought he needed to do.

I love the bass part of this song. Let's dive into some guitars. Who's on guitar here? All right, on guitar, according to the credits, and it must be said that this is one of those records. where we have to kind of extrapolate from the credits that are for the entire record. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Who's on each individual song?

And then our deeper research has seemed to verify that this is Joseph Andre Parson on guitar, although Tom McDermott is also on the record. And there's three parts, actually two guitar parts. So definitely, I would say, possibly maybe one of those two names. So here's the first part. And I'll put in some drums so you feel the tightness together. Actually, you know what's interesting because there's a lot of looseness in that. Yeah. By contrast with how tight the rest of the groove really is, which I was sort of just noticing, like, it's a little, I wouldn't call it sloppy. It's certainly groovy and funky, but it's like, yeah, it's not lighting up as no- perfect as the other one. But it does provide a little bit of lightness to all the rhythm section. That's a good word for it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a great word for it. And then in the pre-chorus, so that's the other example of like, the experience of this guitar player is pretty much seven and a half, eight minutes of that. Except in these pre-s, which break it up a little bit, here's what he goes to in the pre-chorus.

So good. So good. Funky stuff. I really like what you said about adding a little bit of lightness, a little bit looseness to it. If the whole song was just that, it could easily be the soundtrack to your yacht rock party. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then when we get into the breakdown a little bit later, the guitar is playing this melody that you may be familiar with from the vocal. It's doubling the one of the weird vocals. One of the really cool moments where Tina Marie is sort of finding creative ways to use her voice. And she's doing this melody. And I'll play it first and then I'll build it. I'm going to square miss. I'll bring her in. The Oberheim is also backing that up. So in the mix, these are the three elements that together kind of make the weirdness more weird, I think, because their instruments are matching it. It reminds me of like the Daleks on Doctor Who or something like. It's very like early 70s version of robot.

Yeah, exactly. I'm talking square biz. Maybe they need to be in the studio. I want to hear some pianos, my man, because I think that the piano does something interesting. I got good news for you. It starts with a glissando and then goes right into the groove. Let's hear both of those. It's a little sparser than I thought it was going to be. But it comes in when you need it to. It does everything you need to do. I'll throw in some drums. And we'll hear how it interacts and provides contrast with the busyness of everything else, right?

It fits in those spaces. Yeah, you know what? If the piano is doing something fancy. Yeah. It'd be too busy. Because don't forget, we also have the guitars. All this busyness needs a little chill. The piano's like, I'm just going to be a bed.

I'm just going to be a foundation and a bed for the rest of everything else is going on. Yeah. It's really just a whole note. Yeah. One, two, three, and then it adds those little things. Yeah, what's the piano doing anything interesting there? Let's listen to that. Yeah, let's listen to it in the turnaround. That's the pre-turner-round.

That's the pre-turner-around, whatever. Not really. No, not at all. Keeping it simple. And that is to name them. It's another question mark, but probably Alan McGrear, though also credited as keyboards on the record are Bill Wolfer, James Stewart.

And also Tina Moore. Bill Wolfer. We know this name. I love that, dude. Yeah. He did so much good stuff with Michael Jackson. And yeah, he's a goat. Yeah.

He may be on this track. We're not sure. It happens. It happens. Awesome. Listen, 70s, 80s record makers, be more clear with your credits, please. I know it's impossible not because that was a long time ago.

but it's the future now. If you get a time machine, clarify some of these issues for us. It would really help. By the way, we mentioned Bill Wolfer. You should definitely check out his song, Wake up. It's an amazing song. That's what the piano's doing,

but there's also a synth on there, is there not? That's right. There's this Oberheim, which who knows could be Prince's Oberheim. I'm not saying it is. Like, super freak and some of that stuff sounded a little more princy. This does not sound as Princey.

And what's happening is pretty minimal, too, in the verse. So I'm going to jump to the pre, which is where we have a little bit over-over action, Oberheim action. Kind of mirroring what's happening in the more percussive side of the rhythm section. Putting the piano back. So that's the Oberheim. Yeah, that's not just like the piano.

It's not doing too much. It's not doing too much. It's just adding other layer. It's putting a little more color in that space. There's already so much going on busyness happening. There wasn't much required in terms of parts. About a square busyness. And like function in terms of like a rhythmic.

part, it's just like a little sound, a little bit of sonic color. No, 100%. A little bit of a layer there. Now, this song comes out in 1981. So I think the one thing that, you know, would not have happened if it had just come out maybe two or three years later. Yep. Are the horns.

I just feel like horns were very much like a late 70s, early 80s thing. Absolutely. Saxophone kind of takes over about mid-80s. Like, everybody was like, you know what, but as a solo. It's a solo. Florence, more specifically. Tell us what's going on with the horns. because they're up in the mix.

For the horns, we know that Daniel Lamele from the Stone City band, that's Rick James' band. They call him the punk-funk horns. So he gets the arrangement credit for this. There's a co-arrangement credit, I think, to Tina Marie herself. And we're not sure exactly who all of the trumpet players are. We're pretty sure, though, it's Kenneth Scott, Eric Butler, Gerald Albright, and possibly also Cliff Urban.

And we also know for sure that they sound like this. That sounds like, welcome to. day in LA, local news. It really does feel like the end of the era that you were saying. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I mean, like, without all the other music around it, yeah. It could easily be the theme song to like a local morning news show.

Yeah, or announcing the King in 1100. This is Marina del Rey Channel 4. Yeah. Either a news broadcast or like, you know, some sort of entry in a Monty Python movie for the King, you know, Holy Grail. I guess it could be fanfare. Yeah, you're right.

That's the word I'm looking for. Very fanfare. Hey, if anybody needs fanfare, it's Lady T. Yeah, there you go. She's earned it. Yeah, let's hear a little bit in the mix. Here's the pre-chorus, and I'll bring some other stuff in. This is my favorite part.

It's why I can't stop going back to it where stuff's super locked in. Whoa. All right, that was kind of a clam. Let's listen to that clam up close. Someone hit a wrong note, and then he did it again. But they corrected it in time. Is that in the final mix, though? Hold on.

I think they might have kept that. It's probably in there. I think it's in there. Just Barry. Yeah. It's pretty low in the mix. But you know what? You can keep it in there. It's musical. And makes it interesting. Makes your ear tickle a little bit. Listen. They're like, I don't think Barry caught it. Well, listen, it's Tina Marie. So without any further ado, let's get into her vocals. They mean, like, you know, the world to us, Tina Marie fans. So where would you like to start us off? So one thing that I would notice in the, so you know how the song starts with like that gang vocal? Like the, who! Yeah. When you get into the, the stems you learn one learns that it's not a gang vocal at all it's just a bunch of Tina maries so let's listen yeah we got a bunch of Tina's individually doing a there's one of those

one of those so there's like four or five of her who's making it sound like a gang and that's the glissondo on the piano and this big kind of party atmosphere yeah listen this isn't in the final version but it's in the stems let's listen to what didn't make the cut everybody Detroit, Pittsburgh, Arizona, LA, Atlanta, Hey, Shytown, Motown, Motown, Wotown, Hope, Wonderland, New York, hit on this, hit on this. The city callout. Which, you know, yeah, exactly, there's a whole genre of city callouts. East Coast, West Coast worldwide.

Yeah, exactly. It's just one way to like, you know, build up the campaign and make sure everybody knows And, you know, like, Japan is in the house. Yeah, I'm from Japan. I love this song already. He knows. He saw me. No, I love that kind of opening.

But you know what? They didn't need it. They didn't need it. And they decided to cut that and start with this. Flash, dancing to the latest. Swabbed it on the greatest. Ooh, his show is moving me. Blue note.

That's what I said. I mean, you know, she's singing this, right? Yes. But when you isolate her vocals, this sounds a lot more like rap than I ever thought. So don't you have no doubts, I'm going to spell it out. I'll hip you to the tea that is. I got the best of most, baby, from coast to coast, and I don't want to boast, but I love you, square biz. The cadence is very, like, rhythmic.

Yeah. It's rhythmic, and she's not putting a whole bunch of the melisma on the individual syllables. You're right. And it's also very 1981 rap, which is. Yeah, bu, bu, bu, bu, but, ba, blah, ba. I'll hit you to the tea that is. Like, you know, that's like very much, wow, it's just totally different. In my brain, that's always been a lot more singing.

Yeah. That's interesting. You're totally right. I never noticed it. So you said that. By the way, what is Swab de Bone? I think she's speaking French-ish.

Swab, you know what it is? I bet it's this. It's so funny you're saying that because I remember when I was a kid, my dad would say, I think it might have been a phrase in the 80s, Swave and Debonaire.

Yeah. I think she's referring to Swab and Debonnear, which is like what they would have said about, you know, some movie star from the 30s was Swab and Devinner or something, right? I bet it's just some old slang. At some point,

Swab and subon was like a, And then it became swabbed, the bone. Swat and Devin Air. Well, we're about to get to the chorus. Speaking of old slang, Square Biz, like... Yeah, what does that mean? You know what? Until we did this episode,

I just assumed that Square Biz was just like, hey, straight up. Yeah, me too, actually. That's what's real. And we're not far from the answer, because according to Tina, Square Biz is something that her basis, Alan McGree, who we've been talking about,

used to say all the time, this was his way of saying, that's for real. That's, okay. You know, so it's legit. Yeah, Square and business. Square biz. She heard it. She loved it.

She thought it would be a great title for a song. That's awesome. And she's referring to herself or is she referring to a lover? Like, what is she doing with that title? No, she says, but I love you square bids. Yeah. Like, what does that mean? I love you straight up.

Dead ass. She's not talking to square bids. I mean, we could go. I thought that square bids was like the, the object of her vote of what she was speaking to. I'm talking square bids. I got something to say to you. You thought square bids.

I love you. No, she's saying, hey, I'm talking square biz. I'm just talking straight up. I'm going to keep saying straight up. Yes. But dead ass, whatever works for you and your generation, that is what SquareBiz essentially means. Let's hear some of that chorus.

I'm talking Squabbybiz to you, baby. Square, square biz. I'm talking love. That is. That is. To you baby. Wait, wait. Is that not the final?

Hold on. No, but you know what? I'm playing the wrong one. I played the wrong one. Are you sure? Because I think she isn't it a layering thing? Yeah, but that wasn't the final one. Here's the final one.

I'm talking square this to you. There it is. It's that bend. That is square, squarebiz. That little blue note right there. Square, square bis to you, baby. Square is, I'm talking love. That is so interesting that I played the wrong one and then played the right one.

And the difference was the addition of blue notes. There were three blue notes in between the notes that, again, go back to Don Penn for more of a technical explanation. Yeah. But that took it from Stevie Nix to Tina Marie right there, the use of that particular. particular those three bands. But both are in the mix. They're both in the mix. It's true, but like that's the more prominent one by far. Yeah. So let me just say I have in the stems, there's about six layers of vocals. And in the final mix, there's, it's not, it doesn't feel layered. So the one we played for you last, the most recent one was what you're really hearing. Yeah, that's what you hear. And there might

be one or two or even three. And the rest is like sort of like a foundation. If they're even in there, because sometimes you just get outtakes in the stems that were not used at all. They may or may not be there. definitely those blue notes are part of the song canonically. Like that's a big part of what makes that melody so like you kind of lean in like uh like that's it's interesting that by mistake I played the other one that didn't do that and it was less so. I was like this doesn't sound right. This doesn't hit his heart. Well I just figured it was like maybe a layering thing but like I didn't realize that she did one take where she clearly hit all of the

notes that you know as a fan of the song you hear when you listen to the song. And again you might be right. That might be in the mix but it's it's not as prominent. It's not as loud. It's not as the decibel level is much higher on the prominent one. And I mean, like, I have so much respect for her knowing that she actually wrote this and arranged this. Like, this is actually so much more complicated, musically speaking, than I would have ever thought it would be. She didn't just come in and bring all of her vocal prowess to it.

Like, these are her words. This is like her arrangement. Like, it's fucking dope. You're absolutely nailing it because it's both, both in terms of the melodies and the lyrics and the delivery of what we heard. But we're only... into the song about a third of the way. And for the rest of the song, while we do hear the verse and the chorus and the pre again,

we also hear all these really creative other things she does that she's doing. That are just different musical ideas. Now, that makes me want to ask a question. Is she the only voice that we hear on this song? Are there background vocals? There are background vocals. And one fun thing about the background vocals is that as part of the background vocal part, they tell you who they are.

Jackie Jill and Mick and Lady T. We're talking square beans. Everybody's. Dancing on the tea. That's right. Jackie, Jill, and Mick and Lady T are the background and vocalists, and that's Jackie Ruffin.

Jill Jones, who we know from our Prince fandom. This is the same Jill Jones that is in Apollonia 6 later. Wow, okay. And is in the movie Purple Rain as a waitress. But she hasn't met Prince yet. She starts at age 15 as a backup singer for Tina Marie.

I know that. And I only learned that through researching for this episode. So that's the Jill. Mick is, Mickey Boyce, the childhood friend who's also on this track. And Lady Tee, of course, is Tina Marie. That's right. Backing up herself. Backing up herself.

Exactly right. Let's listen to some of the background vocals. Ooh, that second one, by the way, that was great. That was high that harmony is. Listen to that. One of them is, there's a really high. That's like Roger Taylor from Queen level. Like, That hurt.

It hurt when I did it. When she did it, didn't hurt. Oh, this sounds so good. It sounds so good. I want to bring up this rap that Tina Marie does, which honestly, before we started researching this episode, I hadn't considered it a rap. I definitely did not see.

I definitely didn't make the connection to Missy Elliott either, which we'll get a little bit into. What's the Missy Elliott connection? Well, we're going to get into it. Before we get into that connection, I apologize to all the historians and the fans and the fellow artists alike, who did consider a rap from the first time they heard it. I was in the minority.

Luxury, can you play the top of her rap? It's technically verse four. Oh, baby, what's happening? I'm Trevue Lady T. I've heard a boatload of other ladies' raps, but they ain't got nothing on me. A boatload. I'm listening by for one, a hundred pounds of fun.

I like sophisticated funk. It is so Sugar Hell Gang. It is so proto-wrap. It is. And now that I'm like, how do-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. How did I not hear the rap in this? Just to jump ahead, so Missy Elliott

interpolated that verse from SquareBez into her featured verse on Sierra's One Two Step. Let's hear a little bit of that. I know you heard about a lot of great MC, but they ain't got nothing on me. Because I'm five for two, I want to dance with you when I'm sophisticated fun. I eat feeling me yon and I'm nice and young.

Best believe. Like now I can't unhear that. I'm like, she mentions her height. It's almost like it's an interpolation more than even an homage. It's an interpolation of Tina Marie's verse from SquareBiz. That's brilliant. And let's put it in this proper historical context. Blondie's rapture had come out just several months before a square bit.

Exactly. Exactly. Yeah, I mean, to be clear, Rapture wasn't the first rap song. I mean, Sugar Hill Gang came before that. There's even arguments that Fat Back Band was the first recorded rap before that. But it was certainly the first on pop radio to break through in such a huge way. And even when the square biz comes out, rapping on a song is not a common thing.

Right. It's still unusual. It's still new. Right. I mean, it's just interesting thinking about this moment and how actually both Debbie Harry and Tina Murray were in community. Like, they were legitimately, they would hang, they would hang out with Sheik and they would go to the hip. They were like early pioneers of bringing hip hop into like pop music into the mainstream. And they were going to the Bronx. They were going to like all of these parties. I think that's, I think that's where I I differ a little bit only because when it comes to Debbie Harry, I don't think she was frequently going to the Bronx. I think that she was meeting the Bronx in the downtown Soho scene.

Even if she was going to the Bronx, I do think Debbie Harry is like she's ensconched in her new way. She's more of a tourist. And she's like, look at what those guys are doing over there. As opposed to Tina, who is basically in the black community like, hey, I'm going to do this thing that I'm totally enmeshed in, you know. I think that's perfectly plain. You're right.

you're calling attention to what I was thinking about. There are stories, many stories about how Nile Rogers and Debbie Harry went to the club and they heard the Nile Rogers in Sugar Hill Gang. So, like, you are aware that there's some type of connection going on. But it's more of a, like, shared musical tourism amongst all of these artists. I'll even give her more good.

It's not as native as, I think, what you're saying. I think Debbie Harry and Chris and Blondie are meeting rap where it's at, but I don't think that, but I think that, like, Tina is actually where a rap is at. There's a difference there between meeting and just living inside. If I were holding this, I would drop it right now. That is a mic drop moment, my friend. Oh, but you know what I mean.

Tina was actually totally aware of the song Rapture. She says, quote, it made me want to do one only in more of a funk style. Well, it's perfectly put because what I'm listening back to Blondie's rapture, she's syncopating-ish. She's doing some of the cadences. I guess we were just sort of pointing out that all rap cadences in this moment were on the simpler side because we hadn't gotten to Rakimya.

We hadn't gotten to like Biggie yet. at the time rap flows were there was a shorter there was a smaller subset of choices people were making right so maybe both teen and marie and blondie are coming from that early proto rap rhythmic choice situation but blondies doesn't flow as much i would say there's a flow situation well again you know the only other thing i'll say is that blondie we had been already been introduced to her as like a singer and so when she moved into rap she made it like very pronounced like, oh, I'm rapping here. Like I said, I never actually considered even the verses of SquareBiz to be wrapped to my ears until this week.

Yeah. And I think that was just because in my brain, it was a lot further for Debbie Harry to go from her regular thing to rap. Oh, right. So it's like I sort of a pronounce thing. Whereas Tina Marie, whether she was singing or rapping, it was all sort of like Tina Marie very much a part of this Rick James, you know, post-funck sound. that they were doing between like 79 and 1981. I think one of the biggest differences, too, as we were discussing it,

is like just the sheer dexterity required to get all those syllables out. There's a lot of content, information, syllables that are coming out really quickly. Almost all of us can do the Debbie Harry rap at karaoke. But ask me right now to do that, Tita Marie.

And I'd have to study it. I need some time. Oh, she's on it, man. Yeah. All right. So having heard and discuss the rap factor. I mean, it's not a rap song, but it's kind of a rap song. Does this song belong in hip hop history, basically, in some place? I think maybe it does. I'm almost

embarrassed how much I just never thought about it. What about you, luxury? What do you think about Square Biz? Has it been historicized in the same way that the rapture has? Absolutely unsung piece of hip hop history that we just listen to. So I'm glad that we're surfacing that for those who didn't know. We've talked

a lot about the fact that she was in she was embraced by the black community. more than, you know, than the white community and the fact that she never really did cross over. Why is that? Why do we think that is? I have thoughts, but I don't have like a definitive theory. Like, it's crazy that I probably knew two Tina Marie songs going into this with all the music that I love. Even all the crossover genres, even my love of funk and disco didn't lead me to a lot of Tina Marie exposure in my life. You know what's interesting? This is my theory. This is just my theory.

I did there a couple of things going on here. One, just like, Rick James, she was not shown a lot of love by early MTV. Yeah. So, you know, MTV famously did not really do a whole lot of black music until they decided that Michael Jackson was going to be their guy. So she missed that part of the boat. I think just from where the music industry was at that time, white executives, primarily white male executives at that time, did not know what to do with Tina Marie. Because on the one hand, she was very black, but like, they didn't know how to, they didn't know how to market that to a white audience. Yeah. So I think all of this sort of gets put into the mix so that the industry didn't

know how to sell her to white people. She wasn't particularly interested in crossing over that big. That's not the sense I've ever gotten. So like she was just, she was just that, you know, white girls singing black music for other black people. And in this era, there's a lot of like radio stations are very niche oriented. There's black stations and then there's like white stations and there's jazz stations. I suppose to this day some of that still exists. Genre-based. But back, but back back then it was especially so. So choices were made about financial expenditures that were based on a lot of like, you know, safety. They're fear-based, like what worked before we're going to do again. We're not going to take a chance. And this music is absolutely music that musically fits in in between a Rick James song and maybe a CB wonder song and maybe a James Brown song.

The music itself has within it components of black music historically, R&B, funk. It's all of this is there in the music. And in the note choices and in the delivery, all the stuff we've just been breaking down. So it sounds like something that fits, quote, unquote, into black music in 1981. And nobody was willing to take a chance. Let's try it out on top radio. Hey, let's play this after ACDC goes off. Like, that was not going to happen. Or maybe they did take a chance and it didn't go right away.

And maybe that goes back to even with the music she recorded at Motown sitting on the shelf. They were just like, we're not sure what to do with this. They didn't know what to do with it. Absolutely. Speaking of her music being shelved by Motown. Yeah. Exactly what came out of that was she sued and won a case to the degree that it became a precedent known as the Brockert Initiative.

By the way, Tina Marie's real name is Mary Christine Brockert. So it's named after her. Yeah. And why did she sue? What was her situation? Because they wouldn't put out her music. They just kept her signed to the label. They kept her sign to the label.

So she was not free to, first of all, the music was locked in a vault somewhere. Literally locked in a vault. She wasn't able to record for another label because she was under contract. Under contract. So she sued. She won. And now artists are able to, if the situation arises, that they, that your label won't put out the music isn't putting out what they recorded. They can invoke, as it were, you know, this Brockert initiative precedent as being like, oh, well, you have to let me go as a result. You have to give me an opportunity to either be with another label who will release my music or give me my music or release it, basically.

I think she's at the heart of a very good precedent there. There's nothing worse than them not allowing you to release music, but then also say you're under contract. Yeah, that's crazy. She also had a big influence on hip-hop and R&B. Like there was a song by the supergroup The Firm, which was not. Az Z, Foxy Brown and Nature, interpolated square biz for their song, Firm Biz. A Z, V-12's crazy, I ball with the firm's first lady, I brawl with those who hate me. And everybody from Mary J. Blige, to Alicia Keys,

even Linnie Kravitz, have all cited Tina Marie's influence on their music. So her effect on not just pop culture, but specifically black music is absolutely there. She was a once-in-a-lifetime artist. And I think, you know, as we said at the top of the episode, the color blue eye soul almost doesn't do it.

the proper justice. Tina herself said in an interview with Essence magazine, quote, I'm a black artist with white skin. At the end of the day, you have to sing what's in your own soul. I think she is possibly the only white artist I know who can get away with that quote. Exactly. You know what's interesting is that the more we talk about this, the more I realize the fact that she never did blow up with the white audience, the fact that she didn't cross over and therefore bring a whole bunch of, for the lack of a better term, a whole bunch of white fans into the black tint. Also, help solidify her standing within the black tin. It was also like, hey, I didn't, you know, I didn't sell out. I didn't sell out. A whole bunch of people over here. So, you know, just love me.

And can I just say she's a voice that is missed, you know, like I think that when we got to see her perform with Rick in 2004, it sort of seemed like a happy ending to their story together. I'm not sure that we saw a whole lot more of Tina Marie before she then passed away. And she's one of those voices that we miss. You know, it was literally a gift. from God and, you know, we miss it. We miss Tina Marie. Okay, luxury, it's time for one more song. This is the segment where we share a deep cut or hidden gym with you, the one song nation and with each other, sometimes for the first time. Would you like to go first? Sure, sure. This is a song. It just popped in my head the other day,

and I listened back to it. I was like, oh my God, I forgot how good the song is. It's called Emergency Room by Ford and Lopatin, which is Daniel Lopatin, also known as 1-0-0-Trix. Never. He had a brief supergroup with his buddy, Joel Ford. I like how it's just a little bit weird. It's like 3% weird. And the rest of it should be 7% weird. But it is interesting. What year did this come out?

This is 2011. Okay. Awesome. There's some luxury sounding things going on in this song too. I mean, it influenced what I did next. So it's interesting that you hear that in there. Thank you. I dig it. What about you, Dialla? What's your one more song? My one more song is by the group Katzai,

what they're calling a global girl group. but I really like the drums and the way that they're mastered on this song. Are they K-pop or is... They're not K-pop. They are from Korea, Switzerland, the United States. They're a little bit like a Benetan ad-looking group,

but they're called Katzai, and I really just like this song. It's called Narley. I love that song. It's got an international sound, and I think it really makes me think of hyperpop. It's its own genre. Hyperpop is what people are calling artists

like Trelly X-E-X. and Sophie, it's like pop, but it's like kind of got an aggressive edge. And I think that's really cool. As always, if you have an idea for one more song, you can find us on Instagram and TikTok. You can find me on Instagram at Diallo, D-I-A-L-L-O, and on TikTok at Diallo-R-R-L-O.

And you can find me on Instagram at L-U-X-U-X-U-Y and on TikTok at LuxuriaX. And follow One Song on Instagram and TikTok. Go follow at One Song podcast for exclusive content. You can also watch full episodes of One Song on YouTube and Spotify, just search for One Song Podcasts. We'd love it if you like and subscribe. Yeah. And I'm going to try to do this more

for videos. If you're listening to the podcast, you can't see, that I've seen this gesture with a triangle under a chin, and I think it looks cool. So be sure to check out the One Song Spotify playlist for all the songs we discuss on our episodes. You can find the link in our episode description. And if you've made it this far, we think that means you like the podcast.

So please, don't forget to give us five stars, leave a review, and share with someone you think would like it. It really helps to keep our show going. All right, luxury, help me in this thing. I'm producer, DJ, songwriter, and musicologist luxury. And I'm actor-writer-director and sometimes DJ Diallo Riddle. And this is one song. We'll see you next time.

This episode is produced by Melissa Duenas. Our video editor is Casey Simonson. Our associate producer is Jeremy Bimbo. Mixing by Michael Hardman and engineering by Eric Hicks. Production supervision by Razak Boykin and additional production support from Z. Taylor. The show

is executive produced by Kevin Hart, Mike Stein, Brian Smiley, Eric Eddings, Mark Wao and Leslie Guam.