The Breakfast Club - INTERVIEW: Marsha Ambrosius On Linking With Dr. Dre, Blending Genres, Self Care, New Album + More

Episode Date: June 21, 2024

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Wake that ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club. Morning, everybody. It's DJ Envy, Jess Alari, Charlamagne Tha God. We are The Breakfast Club. We got a special guest in the building. Yes, indeed. We have Marsha Ambrosis. Welcome back. What's happening? Hi, guys. How are you feeling, Marsha? It's been about seven, eight years.

Eight, nine years. It's been a long time. Crazy. How you feeling? I'm great. How are you? Doing well. Less black and highly favored. I mean How you feeling? I'm great. How are you? Doing well. Bless Black and Highly Favorite. I mean, you got so many classics to me. Late Nights, Early Mornings, Friends and Lovers, Nyla.

You've done it again with Casablanca. Thank you. You heard it? Yes, absolutely. They gave it to you. I feel it's such a vulnerable feeling when people have it now. It's like not real. It's like this is all a dream.

Well, congrats thank you so i i heard it was your mom that actually uh got you to link back up with dr dre you know what she did in true scouser fashion the liver puddling that she is she hit me up and said you're using words we have no idea scouser means you were born and raised in liverpool Okay. A Liverpoolian, right? Okay. So I'm born, Liverpool, born and raised. So my mum calls me, me mum calls me and says, oh Marsha, have you spoke to him, Dr. Dre lately? I don't even think she referred to him as Dr. Dre.

She just said Dre, like I was supposed to know who that was. And I'm like, no mum, I haven't spoke to Dre lately. And I was like, all right, I'll call him up. So this is round about the end of 2020 uh December so I give him a call say what's up we reconnect he's like I'm working on a couple of things I'll send you a couple of ideas so we started shooting ideas back and forth um

what would then be the GTA video game but I didn't know that that's what was being worked on you know Dre is just like let's just work you never know what's gonna happen so um we're going back and forth and a couple of weeks go by and the top of 2021 he had a brain aneurysm and I was on the treadmill when I found that out like looked at my phone and you know it popped up whatever news outlet and it was like, what? I just talked to him like less than 24 hours ago and made all the calls, found out everything was OK and stable. 24 hours after that, he called me, said, look, Marsh, I'm cool. I'm in recovery, but I want to get back to work. So I want to get you out to L.A. and let's just figure some things out. So he in the hospital bed calling you like, look, we got to get back to work so I want to get you out to LA and let's just figure some things out so he in

the hospital bed calling you like look we got to get back to work all I know was like plugged up on the way back I said okay Dr. Dre whatever you say and within a couple of weeks I was in LA most of that year 2021 and the creation of Casablanca happened a couple of months after that. So it was really all the GTA stuff. And then I told Dre that I was over doing this artist thing. Nyla's mother's now. And I just want to chill. Like, I just want to produce and write.

I've never been a, pick me. I want to be in front of the camera. No, I was done. And he said, yeah, yeah nah you was done with music yeah really well being an artist being an artist like I was always gonna create but the whole being the artist thing I was like I've done everything that I could possibly do on a this bucket list that I tried to create for myself I've surpassed my bucket list my what was on the bucket list that I tried to create for myself, I've surpassed my bucket list. What was on the bucket list? I'm just curious. Get signed, win a Grammy, lose some Grammys.

I don't know. Work with my favorite artists. Regular stuff. But my actual things, I didn't write work with Michael Jackson, work with Prince, work with Stevie, work with Dr. Dre. I didn't write those things out loud, but I wanted those things, and I'd achieved that. By now, this is 24 years in for me. So I'm like, ah, what's next?

I'm on my Quincy Jones mission. Yeah, I know you write for other people and produce for other people, but there's something about your sound and your music that I don't think nobody else can deliver. Your voice, your energy. It's something about a sound and your music that I don't think nobody else can deliver. Your voice, your energy. It's something about a Marsha Ambrosius album that's just different than everything else that's out there. This is true. I'd done those.

I felt like I'd said all the things that I wanted to say up until that point. I say all that to say I told Dre this over, like, we had a party for the kids at his crib, chilling. And I'm like, look, Dre, I don't want to do this no more. I'm really into producing and writing. I love this team. I want to stay creative. But as far as me doing it, and he was like, yeah, no. I just want to keep you creative.

I just want to keep you inspired. And we did one song in particular. I can safely say the titles now. Yes. So we started with a song that used to be called Curfew because there's a line where I say let's fall in love before the streetlights come on. And I was like, hmm, before Curfew. And Dre was like, no one likes Curfew. No one likes the Curfew.

So we used a sample from A Night in Tunisia. Oh. And I called it Tunisian Nights. Oh, so it's a classic jazz record, right? So it's a classic jazz record. It starts the way we sampled it. We used this elaborate piano intro that Bluetooth came up with, and I just started singing this intro.

And then that A Night in Tunisia hits and then it goes to an entire Nas situation and then the Mary thing comes into it and it's just all of these things and it was that magic happening in the studio at that moment that we knew you know you know you know, you know, it was one of those moments. Like sometimes in the studio you're creating and it's like, oh, this is fire. It's cool. We'll go home, listen to the beat. Everyone in that room felt something shift,

felt something new happen. And to have done everything that I've already done musically, everything that Dre has done, we've never done this. So we were onto something and it felt like we had to see it through. So Casablanco became a destination. Casablanco became the

mood, the vibe, the standard. And we just took it from there. I like the pedestal you put hip-hop on on this album. I have to. Because just musically, it just shows how much of a classic musical art form hip-hop is. The fact you go from that's tenuisi records like from the 40s right yeah the fact you can go from that to not to 90s right and it blends perfectly seamlessly it doesn't a lot of things that we did on this album shouldn't make sense like i truly believe we will be in the guinness book of world

records for how many things we sampled and the way that we sampled them so no wu-tang duke ellington and michael jackson aren't supposed to fuse but on thrill her they did you know so it's uh yeah it was a wild ride but one of the most amazing experiences I've ever had, not only recording it, just the entire process, even getting to this point, even it taking so long to get a release date for it to be available. Like the entire thing has just been, no one's done this before. You talk about inspiration, right? And Charlamagne say how you inspire so many people but you must have inspired dr dre as well because we haven't heard music from dr dre we haven't seen him executive produce things we've only heard rumors and like it's almost like a tease nothing ever comes out you hear you hear dr dre's executive producer

such such album but you never hear this he recently said this in a bit in a in an interview he recently did and said and i absolutely believe this he may have only released five percent of the music that he's ever recorded wow and now working with him as extensively as i did during the pandemic it's absolutely true and he doesn't do it purposefully it's because he loves the creative process. And it's like, no, this is just for us. This is ours. So what did you do? How are you one of the few people that actually get your album out? Did you ever think it wasn't going to happen?

I'm the only. There you are. The only. There's not one person before or after, I don't even think this happens again, that has an entire project solely produced and mixed by Dr. Dre how did I do it not clear but I know that I did it I know that this is something that he'd never done and I feel like that that was the driving force for it to be something new he could have just did a hip-hop record it could have just been

a soul r&b it's none of those things it's something so specific so different but so familiar and i feel like we were both going through a similar situation it was he had a health scare i had a health scare the pandemic is happening it felt like the end of the earth during that time. So it felt desperate in a way. It felt, if we don't do this and this world ends tomorrow, what's the mark that we actually leave on planet earth? And musically, like you said, I've done things that, you know, a Marsha Ambrosius album is this specific thing.

If I had to leave it all on the floor and put up my triple double and win a chip, that's this album. If it was all said and done like, okay, apocalyptic world that we're now in because of the pandemic and many other things, it was that it was out of desperation and feeling like I could have lost my life. Dre could have lost his. We didn't. We survived these things.

We're now post-COVID. How do we navigate through this and what does that sound like? And that's why and how this happened. So, yeah, Dre being inspired by me, I'm inspired by him. And it just took off. Tell us what the title means so Casablanca I initially within a week of recording what we knew this was going to be after Tunisian Nights he threw out some album titles a couple of which were things like i sing or i sing more of a one of those and i was like drake we need an actual title like what is this it was like i mean you sing motherfucker that's it so i'm like no drake

that needs to be a title like what is this thing so i was in a spoiled circumstance where i'm driving through the beverly hills like just Hollywood Hills every day to the destination to record. And it felt very vintage Hollywood, like the lights, the lamps. It was glitz, glamour, red carpets, the whole nine. And I felt underdressed for the studio every time I got there based on what we were creating.

So it was strings. It was a symphony, but it painted these pictures and I was like, no, it feels like a place. It feels like Casablanca. And it was like, okay, Casablanca.

But nah, it's that Dre shit. So it's a little bit more gangster than that. It's like Casablanco. Griselda Blanco. So the fusion of that very vintage jazz, Hollywood feel meets hip hop is how Casablanco became what it was, what it is. And all you make it feels like is soundtracks to make love to. Of course. Like nothing more, nothing less why why is that i have no clue it's just in me it's ridiculous like i've had this well a friend of mine recently was like how do you even come up with another one this

why not even in a place of desperation and even in a place of the world was over, I still find a song to make love to. And it's a gift. That's a gift. What do you call a one-night stand? Music too good to have a one-night stand to. That's not the type of music you have a one-night stand to. Well, that was the point.

My one-night stand is now 10 years long okay and i'm saying so i definitely um lent from other experiences and wild drunk nights over the course of you know grammy open bar you know it gets very ridiculous um so yeah those those one nights they're a part of that song too but ultimately it's that one night that could be your forever that could be a bunch of people that'll be like you shouldn't have one night stands why not exactly you don't know where it's gonna go that's right like if you don't everything is a one night stand when you think about it so we've all done it it's whether or not it lasted or it didn't but you don't everything is a one-night stand when you think about it so we've all done it it's whether or not it lasted or it didn't but you shouldn't be oh i'd never do that if i didn't do it 10 years later and a seven-year-old maybe that doesn't happen if i don't just you know what

i mean like if i don't say hey i gotta i want to ask so i want to go back to what you said you said the health scare and your child how did that change your life with with the health care and your child because i guess if the baby's what six seven years old happened right before covid so you pretty much raised the baby during covid it's just covid babies are different oh they're different it's ridiculous like but for me how it how it all changed it changed all of us you know so it was being a bit more sensitive being a bit more open and I feel like all of our issues all of our um mental health it was everything was on the table because we could all see each other now we had way too much time to spend with ourselves so you were like oh you're I see you and we're going through exactly the same thing so there was much more well for me anyway much more dialogue even though

suicide skyrocketed like all of these things all of these numbers all of these things, all of these numbers, all of these things are happening. And I have my baby, I have my husband, I have my own bubble that allowed me to feel safe amidst the chaos. Like it was, it still is chaotic, but that was my peace and me being able to be grounded so that that definitely helped but at the same time being in a dark place I don't think there's anything that could bring you out of that and that was terrifying during the pandemic and I'm pretty sure for anybody where you're like not even your kid could bring you no my mother my father my brother like close friends you couldn't write your way up this is what casablanco ended up being casablanco when the timing of it all was i could see the light at the end of the tunnel now i was over the other side of that dark place and

even with this tentative oh there's going to be a release date or we have think about the samples on this album we literally took over a year to clear the samples and I didn't mind that because I felt like I still needed time to heal so waiting for this release date was almost like when I say a death date it was okay that's the end of that era so whenever it was happening it was like okay now it's June 28th I was like that's the end of all this madness that I had to get through to get to it so it was like if I can survive that long I made it so what we've got a couple a couple of days to go until we get there. I didn't think I'd see this moment at one point.

So to get here and to be happy and to be in a space that I'm in is just, wow. Wow. Is that where the song, I guess, Self-Care Wrong, right, might come from? But even that is a song to make love to. Yeah. I mean, making love is a form of self-care. Right. It's self-care.

It's being in tune to oneself. Do the math. One plus one is a do you. So, yeah, self-care. And no matter who's wrong or who was right, it was just don't leave me and don't leave that feeling. And once the music started, it was all of those emotions. And even in that, like you said, it all came back down to,

in true Marsha Ambrosia's fashion, right in that love song still. So I'm just glad to be able to do that. What's the wrong right part of it, though? What does that mean? Who's wrong? Self-care wrong right? So it, though? Like, what does that mean? Who's wrong? Self-care, wrong, right? So initially those were two separate songs. And the self-care was I needed to do me.

Figuratively and literally. So by the time we got to wrong right, it's me inviting that person then into my space. And it's giving me good like you so hood like please don't go it's that you're so wrong right now but even trying to let me let my guard down because i was so cool with just letting me do me and then here comes this this uh this fine dark chocolate sweat me off my feet and let me put my guard down and i'm a leo and that's hard for me to do so when it happens it's both terrifying but the the fear in a lioness comes out in aggression and anger and a

lot of sexual appetite that is or you know anyone that knows that knows and um yeah that was that you're so wrong right now where did y'all meet where did you meet your husband on tour on tour yes how did that go down because you when you're talkingall meet where did you meet your husband on tour on tour yes how did that go down because you when you're talking about him you just you started your mouth started salivating and you just started getting hot you turn it in beyond because you say i'm thinking about the song wrong right i'm like hey well i mean and be thinking about your man getting turned on i'm just saying i'm just saying she was just so excited I'm just asking

where did they meet that's where the music that's love is love it got me thinking about my wife alright I'm sorry it's fine no we met on

on tour 10 years ago and I saw him it's 10 years later you know when you know you know you keep like all the movies that you see that's corny shit like it never happened yes it did it was i seen him and he had a red fit on and i was like who is that and i approached him like yo what's up and we got to talking and we haven't stopped talking since you need to write a book called one nice day because there's so many people who think you

gotta make make the man wait 30 days or 60 days or 90 days there's so many formulas to it maybe you don't just follow your intuition because it all depends on what type of person you are like there are people that are i've never been i'm not approaching unless i know it's for sure i don't know there's many formulas to it so even if i did write a book i'm going with what worked for me i'm not giving you the manual to how this works out like oh you too can find your 10 years later or you know what i mean like i'm not giving it as game like that i'm saying if you saw what it was that you wanted and you didn't make your move that's on you because then you'll sit there and ponder and be like well what have i just said something what have i just approached so by the time that i did and it was what it was

and i knew that it was more than just that one night in philadelphia that one night in chicago that one night in virginia that one night in la now it's many nights now it's oh you want to move in sure moved in together and then it's oh you want to go back to the UK for Christmas with me, meet my whole family? Sure. And then by April, we were pregnant. Wow. It was that serious.

Sounds ridiculous when I say it. No, it doesn't. No, when I say ridiculous, it's like that's the timeline, you know. And we were both very short. I can't remember what song it is. Maybe it was Greedy? What's the song? Maybe I'm tripping.

It sounded like you were talking about having a threesome. Oh, Thrill Her. Thrill Her. Thrill Her. That was a dream. Not really came true, but a fantasy. So Thrill Her was a drunken high night. I want to say I took that story from, was it Atlanta?

No, this one might have been at LA. It was definitely a Grammy week. And I painted the picture. He came in, drunk as hell, gives him a head. Then a knock at the door and it's another chick. I'm like, who the is this? And I'm like, oh oh it's about to go down oh it might have been a Philly story too

there's like a lot of stories involved so yeah when people hear this album they can claim that yeah that was me and then which is great I love that for you yeah it's

it was a wild night but it was a dream who knows oh okay i don't know it sounded real to me either sounded real to me too and the album is very like 1990 now like how do you have such a nostalgic feeling but feeling but keep it fresh because that's what i mean any hip-hop connoisseur or r&b head 90s is just it's unmatched it was a time if you weren't outside just say that and i feel like with this album to have grasped what the the nazis of the world were doing then the marys of the world were doing then but making it now it's because that was timeless and that's i think our we're all the same age like our generation of timeless like whereas our parents it's temptations it's you

know earth wind fires okay even later than that but it was timeless music so it survives now and sounds fresh now because it was that good then that's right so i couldn't integrate i want to say couldn't didn't really want to integrate what we feel like hip-hop is now or r&b is now i could only learn from what i really know and me creating in my creative process has always come from the jodeci era it stops and starts there it's jodeci that's my r&b like ultimately so my hip-hop is naz it's jay so it's all of those things in one album that make it fresh because it was good then, so it's going to be good now. It's like singing, what's a classic to you? Give any classic.

Mary J. Blige, My Life. Right. So you sing that now, it's then, but it's absolutely now because it was that good then. And I feel like I've always, when I say attempted, to write timeless music. For me to sing, say yes or butterflies.

Now I can, but that is 24 years ago for me in my real time, 24 years later, absolutely timeless. So to create a Casablanca and know that 24 years later that can still live. That's the goal. It's like, what is your tomorrow?

And musically I've been doing things that could live for tomorrow whenever that future is i just love the fact that a nas ilmatic can inspire something like this because when i hear this album i hear a lot of i hear a lot of ilmatic yeah and that was unintentional i guess with that first tunisian nights it's trying to outdo how we implemented unintentionally nas in there and it was all of these things because hip-hop back then was still lending from classic jazz records so it only made sense that we not only borrowed from what the 90s did with those samples, but reinventing and elevating them in the only way that a Dr. Dre can and did.

I was going to ask, you talk about Dr. Dre only releasing 5% of the music that he actually made. How much music did y'all make? And what was the process of trickling it down from the amount of songs you made to this 11 you know what's crazy we made about 12 or 13 songs really and knew when it was time to start we knew it when it was completed and the only reason why the other two didn't make it is because one of them it made the album play a little longer than we felt

comfortable with and it matched another song on there like evenly like if you had to get rid of one of the other right it's definitely that one though and one of them we couldn't clear like getting a one of them so I was like okay we can't clear that one we have an album and Dre in the creative process has like a whiteboard on the wall. We'll write the titles for each song. We just looked at it and was like. That's it. That's it.

We're done. So between April, end of April 2021 and end of May, we were completely done with recording. Vocally, I'd recorded everything, written everything. And we took a couple of weeks off and reconvened and Dre said, 27-piece orchestra. So we were at Gower Studios. Eric Gorphane did the string arrangements and we were in with the orchestra listening to them go crazy on this album that we created which was already doing what it was going to do

this symphony just took it to another place like just didn't even make any sense. So by the time that's happened, it's just timeless in that way. How does, you know, really thinking about your mortality and like, you know, maybe I guess being face to face with death in a way, how does that change just everything about you as an artist, as a person? I don't know if you can see it. I'm so happy and chill like nothing can really like

phase me and if it's anything that does kind of interfere with my peace it's whereas i would get upset or combative or defensive about things in the past it's's, okay, that's how you feel, cool. Like, there's so many more important things than being mad about anything or holding on to things unnecessarily. Like, that brush with what you think death looks like and that flash across your eyes like that was it. The things you think were important never were.

And by the time you get your life back, it still feels like that. Like it's not important. Important, like prioritizing the importance of things in your life changes like not important but you know what you taking so much time off but it's part of the reason like i just don't want to deal with the noise with the people talking with the social media with the conversations it's just you have a clear mind when you don't deal with things and people. Not necessarily that.

I love people. I love the internet. It's a very entertaining space. So it was never that. It was the obligatory having to do it, the whole artist thing. It's the- Got to show up to interviews. It's the interactions. Got to be here on artist thing. It's the, got to show up to interviews. It's the,

got to be here on this day. It's the, no, now I have an itinerary. Nah, let's just live and chill and maybe do stuff for fun and live how the other side lives or whatever you think that looks like. It was always that. But as far as noise,

I think i've i forced myself to engage to get perspective on where people are actually at in their lives to understand me more if that makes any sense because i couldn't i think during the pandemic we all internalized a little bit more and understood ourselves a bit more but I think not enough people were sharing that for the fear of being looked at crazy because you have more time to think about who you were why you were and if it all had to end tomorrow what what did you do while you were here so all of these things are happening and i was okay with noise i feel like i was more terrified of the silence would you say okay with the noise meaning you didn't mind people discussing and talking and oh no like if no makes you feel like you're still there. Yeah. Like if I wasn't there, I don't know. When I say it doesn't matter,

I think I was engaging in conversations and catching up with at such and such on Twitter or at blah, blah, blah, because it was, oh, we're still here. We're still able to communicate. You okay? Whether it was negative or positive, I was like, you've made time.

You're talking about me regardless. Yeah. So positive I was like you've made time you're talking about me regardless yeah so it was like you've made time it's the fear of one and not talking about you I didn't mind that it was life I was comfortable with again and all of it in all of its noise so I think for anyone during the pandemic, that silence, it was like the zombie apocalypse. Like, is anyone here? Am I crazy by myself? Are we all going to die? What's happened?

Like, it was the silence. It was scary. Yeah, especially if you've never done any internal work. You never did no therapy. If you never did no meditation. If you never have been on no healing journey. That was your first time having to deal with yourself. That's noisier than anything.

You and your thoughts by yourself screaming at times. And then it was quiet. But then it was peaceful. And then it was. OK, let me breathe. And everyone, OK, everyone good. You know, and, let me breathe. And everyone okay? Everyone good? You know?

And it felt like that. What did you learn new about yourself during that time? I have way more patience than I thought. I'm terrible. Like, terrible. Like, Uber Eats, where you at with my food delivery? You said you made a left turn. What do you mean you're still waiting?

What do you mean you're... Yeah, I'm terrible. I don't like waiting. I got no patience. And I hate waiting. So, mommy, get your ass in here. Let's rock. That's my favorite line. One of mine.

Yeah. Patience. Didn't have any. Now I have all of it. Because it's... Oh, it's not happening right now cool before what do you mean what why when don't even care when i say don't care it's i can't do anything about time and it's i thought i had time at one point. And when I realized I had none, Oh,

now I'm patient with everything. Cause now I feel like I've held on to more time than I could have had. Gotcha. So that's different. I was watching the, uh, R and B money podcast shot the, uh,

tank and you made a comment. I guess you were joking. I don't know if you were joking or not talking about you thought Stevie wanted to really can see now. And people took it as they were joking or not, talking about you thought Stevie Wonder really can see. Now. And people took it as they were mad at you for a little bit. Mad at me how? I don't know. Because if you're a Stevie Wonder fan,

what I said was he can see. If you listen to the music to be one of the most prolific descriptive songwriters of our time how can he not and maybe not in the way that you a gift that's what i said yes he can see because there's no way he says i never dreamed you'd leave in summer and i literally see the summer day he's referring to that's not fair mary wants to be a superwoman and i know who mary looks like i've already made that character the song plays and i see it stevie more than any songwriter i believe on planet earth has made me see a song the way stevie does that's what i said i said what i like i said that's what i said i get what you're saying. He might be blind, but he got vision.

There's a difference. Speaking of vision, to use that song on Casablanca, I remember Dre, actually. He might. Dre was nervous about using the Stevie record. I was asking him, like, yo, let's hit Stevie and see what he thinks. I'm like, okay. Crazy. But, yeah, we got to use visions on Casablanca

and with Stevie's blessing and Bucket List. Wow. This fake Bucket List I keep making up. I'll check that one off. Did he want to hear it? Oh, yeah. He had it. I mean, we had to go through that

process but did he love it did he give any creative input we had creative input because i did curse in that song at some point in the bridge but i when i curse in music it's for emphasis so i think with this one i've taken it too far. Steve was like, nah, nah, nah. And he might have cursed during like, nah, fuck me. He might have cursed trying to tell us not to curse. But it was necessary. I took it out. It made sense.

I didn't have to. Wanted to in that emotional moment though. And did. And maybe live, if you're with it I would absolutely still sing that same line that I did but yeah

it was a it was a wonderful experience did Stevie FaceTime Zoom what did he do I want to say it was a phone call

that I had and Dre had spoke to him also so yeah how involved is Dre see we're just gonna let that one do this cool what you caught it you go as long as you caught it absolutely you caught it smooth too i love it you caught it no facetime line in facetime i love it cool how involved is dre as far as creative direction and like just taking your input?

Oh, for this, this was a complete hand in hand, 50-50 battle of the creative minds. And his respect for me, my respect for him allowed us to really do this. And he's a genius I'm me and he's he said that I was a genius you are to me which is it's crazy to hear it from who I'm I'm looking at a genius and he's looking like it's like the Spider-Man meme. We're all doing this in the studio. And he's like, yeah, I'm Dre and I do this thing. But I ain't tell Michael Jackson what to do. Aha, you're absolutely right.

I did that one. So there was just a respect level there. And he let me push boundaries in a way that I'd never done. One is Dre's budget. And he's literally saying, no limits. You can do whatever you want. If you had to make the perfect song and implement all of these things, what is that?

Just do it. I didn't think that me having Wu-Tang, Duke Ellington, and Michael Jackson on one song was possible until we did it. I didn't know a Patrice Russian and a Mary J. and Mary Jane girls one song could happen, but it did. And all of these things were happening because Dre said no limits. It's unreal, for real, for real, if I'm honest. I've never done anything like this. Like I've made music before, but with the creative freedom

and no limits on it allowed me to do things that I'd never done ever and may never will. Might really truly be the one of one and I'd be okay with that damn so you you don't think you'd put out another album after this it's not even another album it's not another this i'll create music for the rest of my life whatever that sounds like whatever that looks like but this in its moment it's like we can't recreate the timing of when these health scares happened. The desperation of what's happening with planet Earth, the uncertainty of life and why we made this album.

You know, we can only do. Celebrity like. Happy to be alive albums after this. You know, everything else was kind of just, ah, but this album was made because we didn't think we'd ever get the chance to make one again. How was it when you played the record for Method Man

during the Roots picnic? I've seen it on your IG. Most of my best friends standing behind me waiting to just hold him like give me a second method man please could you listen to my I mean he's a dream I could still say that I know I'm married my husband knows what it is method man so to play him, I remember when I was writing that moment in the song and the go outside in the rain song was happening and I knew the beat was about to come in and I'm like, you got that M-E-T-H-O-D.

Man, do that thing you do, those hands. Kiss on this and make it dance Take it baby Giving you permission with persistence O-I-L-O-V-E-I-T And I can't get enough of this Ocean flow below my legs Swim in it

Go diving inside Inside my love bae Love you bae That's wet, right? Ain't it? That's the song. The name of the song, wet. That's the name of the song.

It's okay. But you see, you feel me? Like, so to play it for him? Fantasy. Bucket list you can't make up like this Method Man play wet

for Method Man and just to see him blush when the moment came in him do a little two step right two step to that give me all the audibles said he's gonna be the leading man in the video

and it's you know the mini Riperton All the audibles said he's going to be the leading man in the video. And it's, you know, the mini Ruperton inside me at the end. And it's just all the things. It was a fantasy. All of this feels very surreal. Like it's happening, but it's happening in real time. Like I get to go, hey, Stevie, listen to what we did with your hey George Benson here's Patrice Russian here's Mary here's Nas here's playing it yeah just yeah so meth thank you man my leading man I've got a couple more questions yeah you said you didn't tell Michael Jackson what to do a dre

didn't tell Michael Jackson what to do Dre Dre didn't tell Michael Jackson what to do? Dre didn't. Okay, okay, okay, okay. So he's saying basically his nod to me was I'm Dre and I've made several other goats. But, you know, I didn't tell Michael Jackson what to do. That was you. So it's I'm coming to the room with something that he's never done. Wow. So don't devalue what it is with you in the room. And I get that and you have to understand the amount of people that have probably crossed paths and been in the studio

with dre and possibly gotten to a stage where they thought maybe a project is happening this part has barely happened for like i said that five percent is just the creating of the music. The actual artists that get to be at this part only happen if you're the five people that you can count. Six or seven, maybe. But don't happen. So it was that. I'm one of one. And MJ coachable? What?

Yes. And wanted to be like I think that was the I had a spoiled experience I was just getting to you know Atlanta then get to Philly get signed by the end of that year now I'm in the studio within less than a year of the time it took me to get to the states then work with Michael Jackson because he's had this demo and And we were here in New York, Hit Factory, and he was there two hours. Michael Jackson was there in the studio two hours before call time just warming up his vocal. He was that guy.

He was great because he worked like unlike any other. And I'll never forget the first moment where he goes in the booth, like that glass behind there. And it was, uh, I'm at the mixing board and Bruce Swede and Gaurav Sisal too. Um, Andre Harris is at the board.

I have the talk back button and the first chord happens and mike just whispers like butterfly and i just started crying wow immediately just couldn't even hold it back was just i'm in the studio i'm 22 23 at that time like those were my younger years my formative years and i'm doing this at that age and then it was taught back one more time Mike get your timing right one more time Mike make sure you like vocally produce that entire song but when I press play is only when I can hear the reality of that because it's seamless there's nothing wrong with that song and he allowed me at my very young naive very green to everything industry not only do me retain all my publishing and flourish in that studio as a vocal producer and writer for that record.

And Mike was just the king for all reasons. Can you take us back? How did he hear Butterflies? How did he hear that reference track and said, I wanted that? Well, I'd written the song when I was about 16, 17, in Camberwell, South London, about a boy that worked at McDonald's. Don't even know his name.

I just knew that he was a neighbor's friend and he was fine as hell. He gave you butterflies every time you went to McDonald's? What? Every time. So I recently put two and two together. You know they went to McDonald's giving you bubble goods. Then there's that. I wasn't eating McDonald's like that, though.

I never really ate McDonald's. Well, I did kind of, but I was basketball back then. good then there's that i wasn't eating mcdonald's like that though i never really ate my well i did kind of but i was basketball back then so i was in athlete mode for sure but camberwell the place that the mcdonald's is in is called butterfly walk and i never put that together until we recently went back and started taking pictures there and i was like look at god look at that so i end up writing this song get to philadelphia year 2000 so that's a couple years after that meet the team at a touch of jazz one producer in particular andre harris who'd done two of my favorite jill scott songs long walk and the way and i was like who did those two? That's Dre, that's Andre. I was like I want parts.

So within a week Andre Harris and myself had recorded Say Yes and Butterflies together. So Say Yes was for Ron Isley so we did that demo together and that was with the intent that Ron Isley was going to do Say Yes for his album he just didn't take it rest is history and then butterflies a few days after that five or so in the morning six or so in the morning play the chords i'm like dre slow those down yada yada yada and butterflies happens and john mclean who ended up signing flowetry to DreamWorks, was Michael Jackson's personal manager. So he has the demo, plays it for Mike. He said, listen, you have to listen to these girls.

Listen to this demo. And Mike was like, I want that one. There's butterflies. Mike, you can have the entire album if you want it. It's yours. I don't have to do another thing. And that's how we heard it. We got the call in Philly at a touch that's how we heard it we got the call

in philly at a touch of jazz everyone thought it was a prank call went to voicemail the first time and then i think jeff spoke to him or carvin spoke to i think carvin said he spoke to him he thought it was dre messing around we were practical jokers back in the day and mike you don't really know you think you know his voice. Mike had a deeper, raspier voice, and I think he only used a higher tone just to preserve his greatness. He didn't want to use or project. He was only using that for the booth or the stage,

and that's it. So by the time we've spoken to him, this is the summer of 2000, I was in the studio with him in New York the following year, March. So it's like that quick wow now you also mentioned Floetry fans were always what would will Floetry ever do an album together again or that chapter your life is over who knows no chapters are closed and I think rewinding to what you said about you know when I met my husband I did a a flowetry tour 2015-2016,

and that's when I met him and got pregnant the following year on the other tour. So it was like a back-to-back, hey, reunion, soul love, and yeah, who knows? Now also, I seen Amanda Seals was on Club Shea Shea and talks about, she said that she thinks you wanted her to quit flowetry. Was that true? It's a loaded question. Quit flowetry. Was that true? It's a loaded question. Quit flowetry is very vague. What was happening with Amanda Seals?

And this is what, because I don't spend a lot of time on this. This is like a quick bit. When did we last do the Breakfast Club? This is like seven years ago. When the nine years and all that came up. Yeah, so initially, the first thing I said about Amanda Seales is, sorry, I can play the clip. You can go to YouTube and see it.

And she was put in a position that she shouldn't have been in in the first place. The label and management are trying to reestablish what that was and it just didn't work. So by the time we've put all of these things into action, we've rehearsed a show and you've given it to the public everyone has gone oh nah and there's nothing I can do about that part and this is also 17 years ago three weeks of a summer tour we may have done like 15 or 16 shows

and it just didn't work out and And that was the end of that really. But we've had nothing but for me, and I'm saying like, well, for me, we'd had nothing but positive interactions thereafter. Like I saw her 2013, we took pictures together,

we reminisced and she'd been texting me throughout the years after that. Nothing but positive vibes. So I'm in a good space right now, 17 years later. So for whatever she believes that was, I don't think publicly we can do this combative, well, you said this happened or I said this happened. I know exactly what happened on my end but you know it's kind of 17 years ago I've done all this healing between now and then I'm not the same

like 17 years ago 2007 I'm still talking to Michael Jackson at that point I've still got prints on speed dial like I was still very much grammy winning grammy nominated me that was in a position to do what i wanted to do at that point moving forward and here we are 17 years later and i'm still moving on and moving forward and casablanca with Dr. Dre's about to drop and just in a different space you know uh on the song greedy it makes me wonder does your husband ever hear certain lyrics and be like you talking about us because you say it's never enough to love you same old lame old ain't no way I'm ever going to take that shit I'm giving you everything and it's the thanks I get don't play that shit even if it was

greedy during that time and even during the creative process of Casablanca my husband and I had a conversation about where I was at mentally to create the actual...

Basically, he said, I didn't have to be married, Marsh, and come from that space. And I understood what he said when he said that. Because the love songs are different. If I'm attached to the relationship I'm in and having to kind of skirt around what that looks like those songs sound like don't wake the baby or just like old times and they're different with this it was you need to stretch that pen and write from a space of you doing you

and what does that sound like so by the time I got to greedy I was angry at the world like it's never enough to love anyone or anything and then be satisfied in a way that you feel like you put your 100 in and they only claim it's 30 so i could give you the moon and it's like well where the sun at like it's the moon you know and i feel like greedy i was talking about everyone it wasn't even just about him it was everyone and everything playing this tug of war of if you're not next to me you feel as though you're missing out on something that you only gain by being with me or taking something from me I'm like well what's the end game like what exactly do you want because you're really upset like you mad as fuck that you're not around me like that.

Greedy. I love that song. On Music On My Mind, you said it's that Wu-Tang meets Coltrane. And what I love about that is what I told you earlier. It's like you're putting hip-hop on this proper pedestal of being like a classic musical art form. Was that intentional throughout the project? Maybe not intentional, but my affinity and adoration for hip-hop

has stemmed from me knowing all the words to Beach Street, breaking, like, being overseas, getting all of these imported hip-hop 12-inch records from my uncle and hip-hop, you're the love of my life. And I feel like on this album, it only made sense that I made sure that that last music on my mind was my love letter to music. And I couldn't fit everything in. So I just gave you the bullet points of what those eras and times. So yeah, Wu-Tang gets a shout out.

I even shouted out Mase and Cam before I even know they would reunite. This is 2021. I'm calling this out. And I know what Horse and Carriage did for me in the 90s. You know, so it was all of these small nudes to things. And this is in the same breath I'm saying, you know, MJ, J Dilla, Marcus Miller, Murder Mace, Cam Killer, Miss Patty, Funkadelic, George Clinton, and I even shout out Luke Skywalker. Just things that I've loved over the course of my life, and if that were my last speech to planet Earth,

like, it's been real. This was it. That's what music in my mind in that last statement was. The last thing that I say is D-R-E, that Mamba mentality, the game winning shot for the three, Kobe, Swish. It's good. Great way to end the project. That's right. Great for the fantastic album.

Comes out next Friday, June 28th. Oh my goodness, when you say it out loud, it's real. That's right. Great for the fantastic album. Comes out next Friday, June 28th. Oh my goodness. When you say it out loud, it's real. That's right. Next Friday. Oh man. Listen. What do you want to hear off the album?

Do I want to hear? That you're going to allow us to play because we got to get it from you guys. But we have it. Might be wet. Wet? Might be self-care, wrong, right? You can do both.

You can do both. You can do both. Thrill has a thing, though. That thing is a story. We ain't got enough time for three, but we got two. It's pick one. You tell us, wet.

We literally used to be at the board, like, okay, what we saying? Thrill her wet? Skirt? Okay, cool. Thrill her and wet.

Let's do it. All right, we'll get that on. Thank you so much for joining us. The album Casablanco comes out next Friday. Today, the track listing is released. You guys can check that out. And we appreciate you for spending it with us today. Thank you so much for having me.

There you go. Appreciate y'all. It's Marsha Ambrosis. It's The Breakfast Club. Good morning. Wake that ass up. In the morning. The Breakfast Club. Good morning.