The Breakfast Club - INTERVIEW: Mad Skillz Talks 'The Seven Number Ones' Album, Rap Ups, Uncle Murda, Ghostwriting, Grammy's + More

Episode Date: December 19, 2024

The Breakfast Club Sits Down With Mad Skillz To Discuss 'The Seven Number Ones' Album, Rap Ups, Uncle Murda, Ghostwriting, Grammy's. Listen For More!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey everyone, it's John also known as Dr. John Paul and I'm Jordan or Joe Ho and we are the Black Fat Film Podcast, a podcast where all the intersections of identity are celebrated. This year we have had some of our favorite people on including Kid Fury, T.S. Madison, Amber Ruffin from the Amber and Lacey Show, Angelica Ross, and more. Make sure you listen to the Black Fat Fam podcast on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or whatever you get your podcast, girl. Ooh, I know that's right. Hey, y'all. Nimmini here. I'm the host of a brand new history

podcast for kids and families called Historical Records. Executive produced by Questlove, The Story Pirates, brand new history podcast for kids and families called Historical Records. Executive produced by Questlove, the Story Pirates, and John Glickman, Historical Records brings history to life through hip hop. Flash slam, another one gone. Fast bam, another one gone. The cracker, the bat, and another one gone.

A tip, but a cap, cause another one gone. Each episode is about a different, inspiring figure from history. Like episode is about a different inspiring figure from history, like this one about Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old girl in Alabama who refused to give up her seat on the city bus nine whole months before Rosa Parks did the same thing. Check it.

And it began with me. Did you know, did you know? I wouldn't give up my seat. Nine months before Rosa, it was Claudette Omen. Get the kids in your life excited about history by tuning in to Historical Records, because in order to make history, you have to make some noise.

Listen to Historical Records on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Wake that ass up up in the morning. The Breakfast Club. Morning, everybody. It's DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, Charlamagne the guy. We are the Breakfast Club. We got a special guest in the building.

Yes, indeed. We got the brother, Skills here. What up, man? How you feeling? How you doing, my brother? You know, same-ish, different air freshener. You know what I mean? Just trying to keep it pushing.

Have you retired the wrap-ups? Do you have to do, like, because you got to break it? I mean, same is different. Air freshener, you know what I mean? Just trying to keep it pushing. Have you retired the wrap-ups? Do you have to do like, cause you gotta break, I mean the year is a little easier, but it just diddy, but do you do the wrap-up still? I haven't done the wrap-up since like,

I think the last one was 2022. So two years. So yeah, like two years, I stopped after like two years. I think I did the last one over like, Hoes, like Encore. I promoted it as like the last one. And then after that, I just, I had a chill December.

Like that song used to take up so much of my life at the end of the year, bro. I ain't get to do Christmas shopping or go, you know what I mean? Put up the tree, nothing. You know what I'm saying? You gotta go from January, all the way, like all the eventful things that happen.

Oh, you gon' have to do this shit. This shit is crazy. It wasn't only these hella shit. People say that every year though. Like you gotta do one this year. And I'm like, actually I don't. You know what I mean? Did you and Uncle Murda have real issues over that?

Nah, nah, nah. It was just, like it was just fun. It was, you know what I mean? Like I never ran into Murda or nothing. And even if I did, we probably would've just looked at each other and started laughing. I know he a character and that's what he do. Imagine beeping over a rap hook.

Y'all should collaborate and do one. You know who said that first? Clark Kent. Really? Clark Kent was the first person that said that. And actually this year after Clark passed, I did think about it. He asked me to do that, you know what I mean? In 2018, I was super stubborn, still battle rap mode.

I was like, nah, I'd never do that. But then after clock passed, I actually thought about it. Y'all still got time. Y'all got your, Murda. I just ain't gonna rap as long as him. I'm three minutes in and out. Attention span's too short. Murda go 15.

Murda gonna go 15 minutes. Like I ain't rapping that long for nobody. Y'all got 14 days left. He got 14 days. He got 14 days left. He on the clock. Congratulations too for being nominated for a Grammy Award for best spoken word poetry album.

Thank you. What is that? And it's a stupid question, but to you as a rapper, rappers are poets. What is the difference between poetry and rap, at least from the Grammy perspective? Once you take the music out, you know what I mean? It's poetry.

I feel like all MCs are poets. So the Grammy had it in a category before where it was a lot of other things happening in the same category. So maybe like a poetry album or a spoken word album would be in the same Category is like if somebody reading a children's book. Yeah, and shout out to the brother. J. Ivy J Ivy who won last year Yeah, he kind of advocated for it and let them know like yo, this is different Like we shouldn't be competing against Barack Obama reading his book

Like we ain't go that's not spoken word. So he pushed forward to be his own category, now it stands on its own. And I got nominated this year, so it was wild, it's crazy. Who you going up against? It's me, I wanna say Malik Youssef, Omari. Omari got one, I can't remember who else is in. Omari Harwood?

Yeah, Omari Harwood got one. Queen Sheba and an amazing artist named Tank from Tank and the Bankers. How many times have you been nominated for a Grammy? I got nominated once as a writer when we did the Nicki album, the Pink Print, in 2015, but I think we lost to Kendrick that year. But this is the first time I ever been nominated

as Mad Skillz. Now you gotta say it exactly, because people are gonna take that and be like, you wrote for Nikki. Nikki will be on your ass. Nobody ever wrote for me, so clear. I wrote a hook. There you go, there you go.

I wrote The Night Is Still Young, and I did that with like Tyron, Estadine, like it was like three of us. Nikki, Nikki write all her bars. Okay. All her bars. Salute to Nikki. Did y'all win? Y'all didn't win that year. No, we lost it.

I think we lost to K-Dot that year. K-Dot, so. What would winning the Grammy mean for you? Oh man, listen, it would change my life. And just, you know, for the creatives in Virginia, man, who are, you know, doing their thing and just pushing the culture forward. Like, we always talk about Philly and VA

as being like the redheaded stepchild in the music industry, you know what I mean? But we collaborated a lot, so it would mean a lot, man. And this is probably my most personal project to date. I ain't never been this personal in my music, and I almost wasn't even gonna put it out. And my wife was like, no, you should really put this out. And I was like, man, it's too personal. You know how we all, I'm like, I don't need everybody knowin' my business.

So to be rappin' for 30 years, and then the first time I really get personal and vulnerable on a project You get nominated for a Grammy. Crazy. What made you want to do a poetry album versus a traditional hip-hop album? Especially saying that you was getting so personal. Right, I started it and when I started it the first two songs was like raps, but they were so I was moving like and I was like I gotta slow this down. I want people to be able to digest it. So I tried it another way, and then once I started sending the song around to friends,

they was like, yo, now keep going. And the album is called The Seven Number Ones, and it's about seven things that happened in my life that literally changed the direction of my life. So the first song was like my parents meeting. The second song was when my mom used to play music around the house, my first love, you know what I mean? My first daughter being born.

So it's all first. And that's how the album came about. Is Irma and Bernard is about your parents. My parents, yes. You got your grandma featured on it. Yes, which is crazy. So if I win a Grammy, like my grandma will get, you know what I mean, a participation plaque.

Wow, that's dope. So to be at 97 years old, you know what I mean? Wow. So, yeah, I used to sit down with her, and I never knew how my parents met, so I would just have the phone and just throw it down and record her, just so I could go back and listen to it later. And I put it on the album, and it's like the hooks.

So my grandma is actually featured on the first song. Isn't that the crazy thing, how much we don't know about our parents? Yes. They had a whole life before us, but we don't even ever sit down and talk to them about it. Yes, man.

It was therapeutic for me to learn because my mother died of a drug overdose, like a heroin overdose, when I was like 33 maybe. So it wasn't until American Gangster came out and I watched it and I remember seeing them going back and forth bringing the work from Vietnam and my stepfather, I mean my father went to Vietnam so I made the connection like damn my father was the person who turned my mom on to that and they died 30 years later like to the day so it was just weird but to not have that but then to realize it later so yeah man it's a real thing that album is crazy.

It's definitely very introspective and vulnerable. And then it's also very personal, the track about your parents, because how they passed, it's true that they both died from drug overdose. Yeah, yeah, both died from a drug overdose. And when I was little, they'd be like, oh, you know, your father died from a heart attack. But then later on as I got older,

they was real with me and they told me what happened. And was this the most emotional track to record? Yeah, that one and the one about my daughter. I literally sat, I played my daughter's songs all the time. I posted a video the other day of her getting in the car and I wanted to play her the song. So as soon as I get in the car, I play her the song. I'm gonna play her the song.

She like, yo, I said I wanna play you something. She said, did you do a wrap up? And I was like, nah. Nah. Nah. I said it's kind of a wrap up, but it's about you. You know what I mean? So I played it for, and I always got cameras around,

so I had the GoPro and the dash or whatever, and I'm taping her reaction. And then I showed it to a couple of friends, and he was like, my man was like, oh, you should do a video for this, that, and I was like, bro, this is the video. Like me and her sitting in the car listening to how I, cause I was scared when I first, I was 19.

Yeah, I was 19, I was 19 years old. I was scared, I didn't know what to do. And I mean, so to see her now as an adult and to be able to flourish in life, that's all you want for your kids. How old is she? She's 31 now. She's 31.

Yeah, so we sat in that car, man, and I'm a cryer, I'm all you want for your kids. How old is she? She's 31 now. She's 31. Yeah, so we sat in that car, man, and I'm gonna cry, I'm gonna cry about my kids. So as soon as the glasses came off, everybody was like, oh, I know you about to cry. And I'm like, man, listen, if there's something I'm gonna cry about, it's gonna be my kids. Yeah.

You know what I mean? Do you have those conversations with your daughter that you never had with your parents about? Yes. You do have those conversations? Yes, and I try to make sure that my kids know things about my life and early on in my life I wasn't perfect. I was a mistake. I made mistakes

I was a young father, but to be able to move forward and learn from those mistakes Those are things that helped me in my life now. Those mean a lot because I do that with my kids So I try to talk about everything that happened, especially my parents are still alive But like if you talk about I don't even know how my parents met right Especially my parents are still alive, but like if you talk about I don't even know how my parents met right Think about like I just didn't think about it, but my kids know that you know whatever I knew how you and your wife yeah, that's right You taking more personal when people critique tracks like this that are so personal to you No, not really. I mean once you put art into the world. It's gonna get critiqued

You know me period always felt like whatever it is once you put a song out people have the option to either say yo That's fire. That's trash. You know what I mean? Period. I always felt like whatever it is, once you put a song out, people have the option to either say, yo, that's fire, that's trash. You know what I mean? But for me, this project has been able to connect with people in a way that a lot of my rap albums never did, because people are like, yo, I listened to your project and I thought about my number one. Like, you know what I mean? Like, like you thinking about the first time you started DJing or you think about I I wanna be on radio,

I wanna be a comedian, you know what I mean? Those moments stick with us. I could ask you, I could ask all y'all, what you was doing November 9th, 1994? You probably like, I don't remember. And I'd be like, where was you the first time you heard Illmatic? And you'd be like, I was in my man Carver's High School.

The music attaches to the memory. I mean, I was two years old, so I don't know what I was doing. I was probably, yeah. You was probably someone with a bottle. You know what I mean? The music attaches to the memory. I mean, I was two years old, so I don't know what I was doing. I was probably, yeah. You was probably someone with a bottle. You know what I'm saying? I definitely remember the first time I was with her at Elmatic.

That was a good question from Jus though, because it's like somebody, it's different when somebody be like, yo, that Erwin Bernard whack, yo. Right, yeah, yeah, nah, yeah, nah. I keep talking about that. I get it. It was, and that's the reason why you can't dive

too deep into the comics and this stuff. I definitely saw somebody, yeah, it was kinda corny. And I'm like, all right, cool, it ain't for you. You know what I mean? But for me, it was super therapeutic. You still think they, oh, God. I was gonna say, do you still ghost write? Not as much as I used to.

Just cause the music now is a little different. I mean, I can get in that bag easy, but the calls don't come as much from the younger artists cause they wanna keep all of they publishing and all of they, you know, I still get calls from some of the OGs, but you know, I just, I mean, put the pen to the paper. You ever have ideas for artists?

Like you see certain artists that you love and you like- Of course. I'm like, I have songs and I'll be like, yo, like I have songs, like complete verses and hooks and I'll be like, yo, this would be perfect on this person, this would be perfect on this person, but sometimes we all have the same vision. So I hold onto songs a lot and just sit on them and we just do what we do. But I never wanna die with the art in me or stuff on a hard drive, you know what I mean?

I wanna put it out. I was gonna ask, with all the writing that you've done, how lucrative is publishing? Did you get all the publishing that was deserved or a lot of times they just gave you a check and say you not get none of that publishing? Do you eat off of it still? I mean yeah, yeah. In the beginning, most of it was like quick little bags here, brown

paper bag money. Then I learned about publishing later and how lucrative that could be. But I never did a publishing deal. So for me, I always was able to wait for my money. Nobody was able to dangle a couple hundred thousand in front of me and I'm like, I gotta get that now. Because I'm like, I could wait six months for mine. Because when it come, I know it's gonna be more than that. And there's so many stipulations on publishing now and this, that, and the third.

So I'm like, man, I don't really wanna, I never really wanted to wait, take a loan from them and then just have to deal with the paying them back. So I'm like, I'll wait for my bread. Is it still an unwritten rule that ghost writers aren't supposed to talk about who they wrote for? Cause it's not taboo no more for people to have writers. I mean, yeah, it's not really, you know, I don't,

but you know what I mean? I never really revealed, well, I won't say I never really revealed, but I make more money when they ain't nobody talking about ghost writing, you know what I mean? So, and the people work with me, they know most of the time I they ain't nobody talking about Ghost Riding. You know what I mean? So, and the people work with me, they know most of the time I just ain't gonna throw them out there under the bus for no reason. But sometimes people just know about it.

They be like, oh, I know you wrote that. Earlier this year, I did a show in Virginia and I actually performed a song that I wrote. And then it was in like a McDonald's campaign, like maybe like a month later, people was like, oh, you wrote that? And I was like, oh, you wrote that? And I was like, I been wrote that. You know what I mean? I feel like a lot of rappers these days,

a lot of younger rappers, they feel like they lose credibility if somebody, if it gets out there, that somebody is going to write for them. Yeah, that's how I feel. I mean, sometimes you just in the studio and it's just help. You're like, yo, what if you say it like this?

Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? Like even like, for instance, my homeboy KP, KP the great, um, he ended up on Kendrick's all right. But only because Pharrell was like, you know, we gonna be all right. And he was like, yo, I think you should say it like we gonna be all right. He was like, really? He was like, yeah, it just sounds slick in that way. He got writing credit, got a Grammy. Like, he just told him how to... Something as small as that.

Something as small as Pharrell saying it one way and Pharrell being, you know, in sound, mind and body going, yo, KP told me to do that. He's owed some credit off that. Oh, that's why. Because most people wouldn't have did that. That one would have said, nah, I said I'm ready to give them a little check. You know what I mean? But that's the thing about it, to be able to be in a room and collaborate

with your friends, you know what I mean? And make something dope with your family and your friends, you don't care about the credit. Cause like Quincy Jones always said, when y'all start talking about money, God lead the way. Sup y'all, this is Questlove, and I'm here to tell you about a new podcast I've been working on with the Story Pirates and John Glickman called Historical Records.

It's a family-friendly podcast. Yeah, you heard that right. A podcast for all ages. One you can listen to and enjoy with your kids starting on September 27th. I'm going to toss it over to the host of Historical Records, Nimny, to tell you all about it. Make sure you check it out. Hey, y'all, Nimini here. I'm the host of a brand new history podcast

for kids and families called Historical Records. Historical Records brings history to life through hip hop. ["History Records"] Flash slam, another one gone. Fast bam, another one gone. The cracker to bat and another one gone. The tip of the cap, there's another one gone, bash bam, another one gone, the cracker to bat and another one gone, the tipper to cap, there's another one gone. Each episode is about a different inspiring figure

from history, like this one about Claudette Colvin, a 15 year old girl in Alabama who refused to give up her seat on the city bus nine whole months before Rosa Parks did the same thing. Check it. And it began with me, did you know, did you know? I wouldn't give up my seat. Nine months before Rosa, he was Claudette Goldman.

Get the kids in your life excited about history by tuning in to Historical Records. Because in order to make history, you have to make some noise. Listen to Historical Records on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Broom anyway. I agree.

You know what I mean? So you, we ain't here arguing about something that we ain't even made no money over yet. Like what's the point? Yeah. It stops the creative process. When you hear people that you, when you wrote for somebody and then you hear people say,

that person is the goat, do you ever be like, I am actually the goat? I ain't thinking that. I put it to you like this. Sometimes I always say, if I fix people's roofs on their houses and people's like, oh, I like his roof. I like his roof. His roof is dope.

And I'm like, they ain't even seen my roof. And I'm cool with that. But hopefully, if I did my business right from making all these roofs, I got a nice roof too. You know what I mean? Just look at it that way. How did you get the opportunity to write Jay-Z's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction?

That came from Questlove. He called me and he asked me, it was weird how he said it. I was in a barbershop, I picked up the phone, he was like, yo, when did you stop listening to Hov? I was like, what? He was like, when did you stop listening to Jay-Z? I was like, what you mean?

He was like, I heard you say before, like back in the day, like you would be able to hear Jay-Z verse or a line, or you could just quote it, like when did you stop? And I was like, I said, maybe the last thing I might have checked out was like 4-4-4, you know what I'm saying? He was like, all right, cool, I need you to do your thing, but the way you do it, like, wrap-up style,

but with, like, all of the quintessential Jay-Z lines. You know what I mean? Like, I will not lose, and you know what I mean, all of this stuff. So I was like, all right, cool. And he was like, and I need it in nine days. Wow. And I was like, wait, what? He was like, I need it in nine days. He was like, I'm about to pitch it to Beyonce.

Because at first, Beyonce was supposed to do the whole thing. I think it was Beyonce's idea to have different celebrities say different lines. So once I started writing it, we started going through the entendres of who would say each line. So that made it even doper for somebody to say a line that was, you know, textbook with them. So having like Will Smith say, you know, no more Big Willie my name,

you know what I mean? Like those type of lines. And then even having David Letterman say, the CBS line, I keep one eye open like CBS, that was the hardest part of the whole thing. And David Letterman was like, yo, this the line y'all want me to say? Like, I just, it don't feel cool. And we like, yo, if you say this line, it's going to be the dopest line in the whole thing. And it was. And then to have blue at the end, say the ghostwriter line, like, it was just dope, man. And he hit me afterwards. He didn't even have my number. He just hit me afterwards and thanked me. And I was just like, wow. Like you wake up to a text from Hov saying that was dope. Like thank you, like that was crazy.

He didn't have your number. Cause he asked Questlove for it. Oh, got you. You know what I mean? Like billionaire Hov, I ain't had that number. You know what I mean? I had 2000's, 90's Hov's number. You know what I mean?

But shout out to Jay Z, man. Becoming Mad Skills, at what point, when did you drop the Mad from your name? No, no, no, it's still Mad Skills. It's still Mad Skills, at what point, when did you drop the Mad from your name? I don't know. No, no, no, it's still Mad Skills. It's still Mad Skills, right? It's still Mad Skills. Around the time when I was on Raukus,

I was going by Skills for a little bit, but then one of my partners told me, he was like, man, why you change your name? I was like, I ain't wanted to start sounding old school. He was like, fool, Nike don't change Nike. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He was like, they might make, you know, they might make Ad Max's, Air Force Ones,

but Nike always Nike. And I was like, damn, you right. So, Air Force Ones, but Nike always Nike. And I was like, damn, you right. So I just went back to Madskills after that. That would make them like 98, 99. And then it ended, go ahead, Joe. No, I was about to ask you about the documentary you dropped on YouTube. Oh yeah.

The 90s Girls Lunch. 90s Girls Brunch. I did a, during quarantine, I did a stream, kind of like D-Nice was doing, but I accidentally created a sorority of women that still stick together to this day through a stream. You know what I mean? And I made a film about it and put it out, and these are women from all over the world,

all over the United States, and they still link up to this day, and they call it the Brunch Club. And it's just dope, man, to be able to connect people to music and you know what we was going through in COVID was hard but you know people like D Nice and Jazzy Jeff and myself we was online DJing and those people still stuck with us you know he'd still do club quarantine concerts and whatnot so it's people that was attached to that and are still attached to it to this day so I made a documentary about it.

So it's artists? No, no, no. I was just playing songs. But the women that were on there, they accidentally started becoming friends. So now they go on trips together. They go to New Orleans, the Essence Fest together. It's like 80 of them.

You know what I mean? It's crazy. So it's a dope movie. I throw it on YouTube. And if you ever want to see the story, you can check it out on there. It's called Mad Skills and the 90s Girl Brunch. Why you haven't written any like TV shows

or movies and stuff like that? Boom, boom. So listen, after the wrap up, you know what I mean? I'm chilling and I'm watching y'all. I was watching y'all and my wife ended up saying she wanted to watch this show and this show called Supercell. So we started watching Supercell. And I'm looking at the show and I'm like, Rap Man.

I was like, why do I know that name, babe? She was like, I don't know. We watched the first episode, I was like, yo, this shit is dope. I was like, Rap Man. Like, that name just sound familiar. We watched the whole show and I kept seeing created and written by Rap Man.

So I seen him on the Breakfast Club, and I'm like, oh that's the dude that did the show, like why I feel like I know him? Yo, why I went and searched his name, and he used to do the UK rap up for like 10 years. So he was doing rap up. I think he said that. When he was up here, he said that.

So I DM'd him, and I was like, yo bro, I checked your show out, man, like, you know what I mean, I think it's dope, great work. I said, I remember you from back in the day, you used to I DM'd him and I was like, yo bro, I checked your show out, man. Like, you know what I mean? I think it's dope, great work. I said, I remember you from back in the day, you used to do the rap. He was like, oh man, skills, I bit your whole shit, bro. I'm sorry, man, I took your whole shit, man. I used to do the UK version, man.

Man, it's amazing to have you in my DMs when I was like, yo, it's crazy. It's great that you can put that accent on like that. Yeah, I know, right? That was pretty cool, I was pretty good. I was like, it's crazy to go from writing rap ups to writing shows and I tell my wife that, she like, yeah, it is.

And I'm like, so you know what I mean? So I'm like, I definitely got some ideas. I pitched some shows. Shout out to like James Samuel and we got some things in the work. Black Thought, you know, Questler, 215 Entertainment. Like I got some, I definitely got some things that could make it to television.

It only makes sense. You feel like that's the next level for you. Yeah, yeah. I got at least three shows that I'm trying to pitch. One I've already pitched, two more is movies. So yeah. Where'd you start DJing? Oh man, I was a DJ when I was little. I started taking it seriously in probably around 2015, 2016. I used to tour with Jazzy Jeff. So after that, I always knew how to, you know,

I always knew how to play records and blend or whatever, but parties was a whole different thing. And I tell people all the time, like, you know, you can sit in your room and practice scratching, cutting, fading, but you can't practice reading the room. You know what I mean? Envy can tell you that. And DJing is the one job where you know instantaneously whether you're doing a good job or a bad job.

You play a song and everybody stop dancing, you're doing a bad job. So for me, DJing, the passion that I lost in rapping I found in DJing. So I started going heavy with it. And it just people like Jazzy Jeff, Clark Kent, and Kid Capri, all of them were supportive. So I just started doing parties. I've been doing parties 10, 11 years. We just did a party homecoming.

Do a bunch of parties together. Yeah. He always win you in VA. So yeah, I love DJing. I love it. I want to talk about what has happened in VA the last couple of years. Of course, I went to Hampton University. When I went there, it seemed like you say

VA was the outcast, but now I see everybody in VA coming together to make VA great, from the Fight to Pusha-T's festival, to Pharrell's festival. So break down what's happening in Virginia, because it's something I've never seen before, which I love. You know, all those years are getting overlooked,

even though we have some of the greatest musicians and artists in the world. Athletes as well. Yeah, athletes as well, AI, Vic, you know what I mean? We always had a chip on our shoulder, you know what I mean? And it was never really unified. So now it's becoming unified to where we're having festivals and we're supporting each other, we're writing records with each other, collaborating, and just helping the younger generation come up. Because I want people to, you know, I want people to look back at Virginia and be like, damn, they stick together, you know what I'm saying?

Like, so, um, like, on this album, I got hella people from the crib, you know, did hooks, did production. So, like I said, winning this Grammy, you know, with my friends from the crib means more than... I could have got any producers, you know, I could have hollered at some cats, but I wanted to do it with my friends from the crib means more than, I coulda got any producers, I coulda hollered at some cats, but I wanted to do it with my friends and my family.

So, Virginia's always home, man, like they say, it's something in the ward and it always will be. You know, it's interesting, because right, you had Pusha and the Clips, the Clips and Pharrell and the Neptunes, Clips and Neptunes, and then you had Missy and Timbaland, Missy and Magoo.

But it almost feels like in a lot of ways, VA, they gave the sound away. Yeah. They gave the sound out. What if they would have just kept that sound with just VA audits? I always thought about what if Pharrell and Chad had did like a Manny Fresh, you know what I mean?

And only rocked with my homies and my crew was only getting this vibe. Like Manny was just Wayne, Juvi, Hot Boys, like you know what I mean? I felt like it could have been something special. But and it still grew into something special, but you know, you can't tell another man what to do with it.

But did they try? Did they try with clips and try a lot of it? And I don't think people understood the sound. Right, it was so futuristic. Right. You know what I mean? When it came out, like Teddy Riley didn't know what to do with them in 1993 because it already sounded like 2025 then.

So I think the world had to catch up with Pharrell and them sound and Chad and once they did, everybody wanted it. And you ain't about to turn down Britney and Justin and Michael Jackson and you're not about to turn down those production costs. Same Jackson and you're not about to turn down those production calls. Same thing with Timbaland. I think Timbaland was the same. Like his sounds was so futuristic,

he wasn't gonna turn down J.J.C. and Ali. Why? You know what I mean, why? But Tim is an amazing dude, man. And so is Soz and Neptune. I love those dudes. Absolutely. Yeah, man.

Well, the album is out right now, it's streaming. Now, it says something about voting. So the Grammy can vote on it starting with? Yeah. No, it started last week, and you can vote up until January 3rd, and I am in the best spoken word album category for the album, the seven number ones. So we just are here campaigning, and if you listen to the project and you like it, and you are a Grammy voter, feel free to click that button for your boy.

Writing is such a lost art, man. It is, I still write, I still literally walk around with a book and a pen, I like to see my ideas. The phone is cool, I can put in a voice note or whatever, go into my notes, but I like to be able to open it up and see it and when it's done, cross it out. So for me, I walk around with pins and pads and things like that.

I still like them physically right. Absolutely. And lastly, New Year's Eve, you're gonna be at the R&B Block Party. My family's doing it with you, of course. Family, Antonio. Get your tickets now. If you're in Norfolk, if you're in Virginia,

the 757, it's the Norfolk Scope. Tickets are still available. It's you, it's Brian Michael Cox. It's Shout The Bink. It's Izzy. Everybody. Yeah, the whole crew. Everybody. So if you're out in Virginia, make sure you pull up on them. The R&B Black Party is one of my favorite things to do throughout the year. So definitely get your tickets. Appreciate you for joining us. Thank y'all for having me, man. I will catch y'all. Happy holidays. Good New Year to all of y'all. Thank you. Appreciate you, Charlamagne. Happy holidays, brother.

Let me come up. My guy. It's Mad Skills, it's The Breakfast Club. Good morning. Peace. Wake that ass up. Early in the morning. The Breakfast Club.

Hey everyone, it's John, also known as Dr. John Paul and I'm Jordan or Joe Ho and we are the Black Fat Film Podcast, a podcast where all the intersections of identity are celebrated. Oh, chat. This year we have had some of our favorite people on including Kid Fury, T.S. Madison, Amber Ruffin from the Amber and Lacey show, Angelica Ross and more. Make sure you listen to the Black Fat Fam podcast on the iHeart Radio app,

Apple podcast or whatever you get your podcast girl. Ooh, I know that's right. Hey y'all, Nimini here. I'm the host of a brand new history podcast for kids and families called Historical Records. Executive produced by Questlove, The Story Pirates, and John Glickman, Historical Records brings history to life through hip hop.

["History"] Each episode is about a different, inspiring figure from history. Like this one about Claudette Colvin, a 15 year old girl in Alabama who refused to give up her seat on the city bus nine whole months before Rosa Parks did the same thing. Check it.

And it began with me, did you know, did you know, I wouldn't give up my seat? Nine months before Rosa, it was Claudette Goldman. Get the kids in your life excited about history by tuning in to Historical Records. Because in order to make history, you have to make some noise. Listen to Historical Records on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.