The Questlove Show - QLS Classic: Salaam Remi Pt. 2

Episode Date: February 27, 2023

In Part 2 of 2, Salaam Remi talks about making it in the music business, helping Amy Winehouse shape her style and shares his Tales from The Latin Quarter. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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and TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Questlove Supreme is a production of IHeartRadio. This classic episode was produced by the team at Pandora. All right, y'all. It's Laiita, and it's time for another Quest. Love Supreme Classic. This week, we continue with part two of Salam Remy. Yep, in part two, Salam talks about making it in the music business,

helping Amy Winehouse shape her style, and he even shares tales from the Latin Quata. Yeah, that and so much more. So let's get ready for part two of Salam Remy from May 2, 2018. Last week, or part one of the Quest Love Supreme interview with Salam Remy, We talked about his early one with acts like Curtis Blow and C. Rale and the house rockers

and touched upon his work with Fugis including their breakout single, the remix of Nappyhead. Salam also contributed Fujilad to the group's wildly successful second album, The Score. We ended up part one with a question about how the success of that album affected the members of the Fugees.

Here's the answer. In hindsight, and, you know, part family member and part outside of looking and whatever, Do you think that after 18 million copies of that album sold, did it serve them well or not? Hmm. Not like regrets.

If you could go back and redo it or get it, whatever. But in the aftermath of it, like, I think ultimately it served them really well. I mean, I have this thing with artists who have done 10 million albums. What happens after that? You know, whether it was Usher's confession. professions, whether it was, you know, not many artists have been able to come back and have an Adele moment when they did it twice. I think Black IPs might have done that a couple times in a row. You know, for Lauren Hill's career, it was the score into miseducation because I still see

the score is almost like a frank to back the black or like, you know what I'm saying? It's like a movement. Even though Blunt and the reality was there, there was something to follow up on that now gave you credibility. It gave everyone the opportunity to know your name. so now you had to just deliver on your next piece of work, not necessarily just have all those pieces. I think it served them well to now get their art and their ability to still all eat to this day, you know, based upon something that came out 22 years ago.

Why didn't you guys ever do anything else? Because after that, y'all never, you weren't no miseducation, were you? My last thing I did was the sweetest thing remix with the SWAT. Swat, yeah, so that was probably the last thing I did. But, you know, just in general, my conversation and who I am is something that's kind of happy, so I wasn't going to fit into a sad song mode.

It wasn't going to work. Even, you know, people talk to me about, you know, even my work with Amy Winehouse, and they're like, oh, sad songs. I'm like, nah, she's talking shit the whole time. Like, maybe in the morning when your dick works or, like, the lyrics are all about their tongue-in-cheek, you know, yeah, I cheated on you, but I heard love is blind. Like, it's all smarter. It's not love is a losing game.

It's not super sad, mad records. It's like, I'm a snap on you until you break, basically. I was trying to get fuck me pumps in my roll call, but I couldn't get the rhyme. Thank you, Jesus. Actually, that's something I wrote that I actually had prior to meeting. This is a story? What's, uh, you're trying to get a fuck me pump story from Salam Rumi right now? I know I'm like, I'm lyric about it.

Come on, dog. I didn't get the, I didn't even get to. get the nons yet. All right. My bad. Basically, this twisted pinky is the story. I have a twisted pinky.

That's crazy. Yeah, I dislocated it. And basically, there's a friend of mine who I recently just told three weeks ago where the story came from, but they showed up at my house with a home girl. They were really drunk. They couldn't get anywhere.

They got alcohol poisoning. Cool. All right, it's cool. I'm going to go get you out some water the next morning. I trip in my staircase. I hit my hands. hand, I have my finger in two pieces. I'm like, oh, I can't play guitar. I can't play

nothing. I'm my only broken bone in life. So I'm like, oh, word. That later, that day, I'm like, yo, where are y'all at? I'm at the studio. My fingers twisted. Oh, we in D.C. at the All-Star Game. Oh, these black girls, that's crazy.

Word. All right, cool. And then the lyrics for that song, basically, wrote itself. Ouch. Well, that was cute, a lot of sales. There you go. How did you, I know I'm quasi.

Okay, so you didn't work on Misad Education, obviously. What did you do between 99 and Nas comes in the picture, what, 2002? 2001. 2001, yeah.

What did you do? 99. What was I doing 99? 99, I bought SoundWorks, which is underneath Studio 54. So that became my studio base. I was working on a lot of my own label stuff. I had, all my artists went to jail.

Major Stress. I had a group called Major Stress. One of those people went to jail, Ross T. He had a $9.6 million record. So Ross had his whole album done. Ross went to jail. Is he still out of now? No, he's out of now.

He's been out for a long time. But basically that happened. And then I bought my studio and then I just started experiments. And I produced a group actually from Philly called Live and Direct. These four young brothers who sing and did some stuff. And what else? 99. See, I worked on virtual and Sally before that.

I'm trying to think what else came out around that. I was helping Angie Martinez with her up close and personal album. When you work with an artist, like is there any sort of modus operandi that or what do you look for when you decide, okay, I'm going to mess with them. Sometimes it's a relationship with somebody that brought them to me, but at this given point, I've kind of crystallized it. I'm into people with distinctive voices. And what I really do, you know, some people are just like,

well, I made the beat and that now I'm fitting this person onto it. I really try to talk to someone to get, figure out where's the resonance in their voice and then also in their lyrical voice. Then once I figure out where that is, I'm just trying to get them to illuminate and now build music around it. So by asking people, what's their favorite songs?

What are you like? What's your thing that you write to all the time? Everything else, I start getting a picture for who they are and who I wanna, I'm pretty much taking myself as a fan. Like, I don't know who you are. And now does their voice number one make me inspired? Like, you know, whenever I'm working with nods,

I wanna hear the smoke mouth. I don't wanna hear Nause sitting on the chair that's like Book of Rhyme's voice. I wanna hear, you know, the poison voice. That's where it came. I was like, yo, that sound like you had, your girlfriend's, in your mouth and a mouth full of smoke.

So I want to hear that little extra energy into it. I want to hear something that really sounds like people at their best. And really, it's great voices and then the ability to tell a story. If lyrically a bus your windows can continue to tell a story, if I heard Love's wrong with when I first heard her, her army, she started singing, Amy started singing, a girl from Eponema. And then, you know, the first thing we wrote was I heard love is Blind and Cherry.

So they were all about, like, the voices and the story. And then that inspires me to now sit down and work on a sonic palette that I feel like, you know, accompanies. So obvious follow-up question. And who's the 2018 distinctive voice that you're best motivating you that you haven't touched yet? The roots. The roots has been the new thing. Oh, is that for real? Y'all really?

Yeah. It's just we're, I want to come to him with definite song ideas first. and then he can play rich. Can we get the rap singing join finally? We'll do all that, but we're going to have to have material first. So we've been fishing the last few years creating songs and now we'll bring to him. The roots? Give me somebody.

Can I just ask? Can we go back to the voices? Yes, well we and we wrap a whole land. We all over. Honestly, I'm still looking for the voices. So I'm still open and looking for it. I hear some voices here and there. but I'm just definitely looking for new voices

to kind of inspire me. I'm at that point, though. I'll be 46 in a few weeks and I'm kind of like, at 50, I need thriller. So I'm looking for the opportunity to be able to take someone who's either around already and help them make that record that now pushes it past it. I look at it like how someone would have looked at Farrell

prior to happy and said, oh, man, you did it all already. Your day was there and he still made the biggest record as his career at a point where... 20 years in, yeah. somebody wasn't necessarily looking for. So I still feel like, you know, now I have a bliss on my finger. I've been sitting there playing my upright bass for the last few weeks, trying to find something that resonates with me first

and then resonates with my peers and then resonates with the world. Yeah, as I said before, the roots. There we go. How did you meet Nas? Nas I met, like, during that early period. Me and Ack and Ali went to junior high together. So when Ack and Nas were running, around trying to look for deals, I would always see Nause with him.

But during 2001, I ran into him when he was working on the Fubu album. He had a verse on the Fatty Girl song that I don't think ever came out. And I was doing a record for the Fubu album. The mom was working nice. I actually had a comedy. The only record that I actually never got paid for. Thank you, Shark. What song?

I was a Beanie Man song called Bad Man Business. So that's the only song I never got. Yeah, somehow, I don't know how they got away with that. But anyhow. Wait, Fubu had an album. It was really good. Fatty girl. I remember Fatty girl, that was my drums.

I had a copy of it. Right. I had a copy of it. Yeah. That was the chicken grease drum and Spanish guitar era of track bass. I ain't like none of that shit. Exactly. It seems so new at the time, so futuristic.

Just subbing it all that. I thought Dayla had a song on that album. Something like that. No, that's your thing of fat. from A-O-I, yeah, baby, right, basically. But during that time, so I ran into Nause in L.A.

He was like, yo, you got any beats on you? He was kind of out there, just laying low. And then I sent him... He came to you? Well, I saw him at that session. So I had already met him before

and passing in New York, but I saw him at the session because I was there to record Beanie Man and I were recording. It was like during Grammy Week or something like that. And then he was at the studio. So he was like, yo, what's up? Oh, dad, yo, another cat from New York.

What's going on? You got anything on you? So I gave him whatever. CD I had with me, then he exchanged beamed two-way numbers. And then he was like, he texted me like, yo, I need some murder music, something that sounded like whatever it was. So then I created what became what goes around.

I sat in the studio and messed with my organs and roads and pretty much composed that track. And then I sent him that, maybe a couple other joints. And then when he heard it, he was like, yo, I don't have anything that even feels like this. Because once again, I was on his jazz music. And even like when he talks about Iomatic, he's like he wanted stuff that it musically put you in a mood and then put the drums to it, not just something I was like running quick like G-RA. So what goes around was that.

And then he came back to New York and we started recording. What do you think about his? I mean, much has been said about from every hip-hop stand on the internet and many a chat board about his choice of music. Right. not matching the greatness of his words or whatever, like them not meeting. So, I mean, at the time, were you figuring, okay, this is finally a chance for me to give him what he needs or? I don't know if I was there.

I mean, this was like the Nasra Damas album was just out. So the Noshedomis album wasn't anyone's favorite Nas album at that time. I think that, you know, what was the leftover or whatever happened? You know, still for me, I was still. still in hate me now mode, which I always look at it and go, who in hip hop actually got away outside of part-time sucker by KERS1, but actually rhyming on something that sounded like that. But, you know, as hip-hop purist heads, by the time we got to it, it was written, I was like,

there's no large, there's no primo, there's no tip, like nothing. Oh, like, there's one primo? Like, I didn't get enough. I liked. Did you be asking him, like, why he didn't? Um, well, the reason why I think that during it was written time, he wanted to start it was written with Molly. So that's where on the rail and True Dialect came from.

And then Molly played it on the radio. And then he was upset because Molly played TrueDi or on the rail with, you know, put screwball or whoever on it. So then that's when he was like, you know, I need to find producers. So then he went to, got with trackmasters and they built what they built. Which

you know, to be honest, if he didn't ever go and make himself into a platinum artist one way or another, he might not still be around. So he did, you know, followed his interesting. You followed his instinct and did whatever it was he wanted to do with that. But also, also he felt like everybody else was rhyming in his flow. So he had to find a way to do something different because if he just kept rhyming in the same flow and everybody else was, it was weighing it down.

So, I mean, from my perspective, it was just like, all right, yo, we never linked. We both had similar tastes. We both will go webbed without a pause. We were still listening to an album and go, oh, not, story to tell us my dream. We still pick the same. We both, you know, what you want to eat? All right, cool. Fried chicken, macaron, cheese, candy, candy, it was like, Like we're the same, we have like mirrored kind of lives and even a lot of the musicians that were in his dad's band or the same cast that I work with all the time. So I don't know if I had a perspective like I'm going to do this. I was just like it'd be dope if we did some stuff. And at one point, like the night when the night before the Lauren Hill unplug was recorded, she came down to the studio while we were there and played us all the songs.

So that's the reason why she was horror. She was up all night. So she played you all 36 songs? She plays a lot of songs. And at no point did you go, wait, wait, save your voice. She wanted to let me hear the song. So it was that, it was getting late. And he left and then that was that.

But you know, the bottom line is that was part of the recording being how it was. But then she was also like, you know what? If my voice cracks, it cracks. You don't like it? Be out of you. Oh, you don't like me unless I pay this makeup artist and that hair dresser. Then you don't like me. You like what I just paid for.

what I just paid for. That was that. But my point is with Nas, I just think it was us also finding the chemistry to where he's able to come to me with I did, yo, I was listening to Bitches Brew yesterday. Were? All right, cool. Now I called my dude, you got the bass clarinet, and then we just go all the way

there. Y'all was listening to some Bessie Smith or something like that, and then I would just go in that direction. So we have loads of records that were just musically matched in that way. So are you able to, You're able to make beats in real time in front of your client? Yeah. Ooh, man.

I do that most of the time, actually. That's most of my records either while they're on the way or coming down the hole or because I'm taking off of what they're saying. I'm actually vibing off of their energy and what they're talking about. And I'm asking them, what do you like? Because I'm trying to figure out what notes actually resonate with them that's going to get them writing. And sometimes, you know, with Nas, if he likes a particular beat, he'll write 12 verses to the same track. and then I'll move them around and start building new tracks on.

Answer something for me. This is nerd shit. What drums did you use for Zonat? I can tell that's it. Is that a James break? It's blow your eye. Of course it is. Because the bongoes sound so familiar.

I was, never once it occurred to me. Just spin it backwards so you can hear what it is. Basically, I mean, that's been funny because the stand and world loves or hates that record. Who? There stands who hate that record. Like, that was part of the, I hate what Salam does with Nah's conversation. Who ever said that?

There's a lot of people. There's a lot of people that, that was like basically that era. But for me, there's two things. One, I never put my name on records. So when you hear him to yell my name on there, I wasn't there. They mixed it without me. So I never would do that. I wouldn't let him do that.

Because I feel like if the record is going to be dope, then like it because you like it. not because you said my name. So I don't tag records. I don't go, I'm going to make you dance. Like, I want the record to make you dance, not actually tell you that. And it wasn't mixed at.

And then Kay Slay was in the room when I was actually making that track. And it was the same day, like when I made probably get down. So I was just sitting there messing with different James vibes. And if you listen to how Nause sounds on the record, differently from how Jungle and Wiz sound on the record. Some people have different films of Braveheart. So they sound, you know, jungles versus this, whiz is that.

But if you actually hear him, cutting straight across it with his K solo type flow. You kind of hear more like what the record's rough really felt like. So the drums were crispy and popping, the bass was on it. But it was me just being backwards, Paul Revere meets PE. That's what it was.

I've never been on a chat room where they said that you're... Yeah. I've seen it on OK player before. Seriously? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, different people... Seriously? Probably. Yeah. Damn. That's the world. But I mean, just in general,

our work is in really... about beats all the time. Sometimes it's about different levels of song. And the reality is Nas picks his albums based upon what he said, not based upon who had to snare the week. Wow. And if the beat is too loud, he won't even actually rhyme on it. He'd be like, it sounds like it's yelling at me, turn it down.

Yo, it's some, like, successful platinum rappers hate loud music or loud drums. I think Jay once told me once, like, you know, like, He doesn't want anything to upstage his voice or outdo him. So they go more for bass than for big ass. Yeah. And for Nas, it's moves and core changes and other stuff.

Because once again, a lot of, you know, outside of Tupac, who would stack his vocals with six tracks or 50 who might do a few, Jay or Nas, they most of the time have one vocal track. One vocal track that's telling you everything you got to hear

at whatever tone he wants to tell it. That's stacking your voice rhyming on. I hate when pop does that. It's a sound for that. That's the T.I. That's the, no certain people will do that. Okay, I'm saving the best for less. All right.

Well, damn. Let me get, because Jasmine, too. Fuck. I want to get to, I got to get to, I got to get to Amy. Got it. So how did you just, how did you even? Like with Amy. So I did a record for Left Eye during that 2001 period.

That solo record? Yeah, it was a record called Black Party. Yeah. You worked on that? I did Block Party. Oh, shit. I finished. He was not a little M.

The Supernova. Supernova, yeah. It was weird. Basically, what happened with that record is that L.A. Reed had really wanted her to sign up to do that TLC album that was supposed to get worked on at that time. And she wouldn't do it. So she, Mark Pitts at first, like, he took a break after, I think, Big, past a couple of things went back to school and that became his first A&R project he needed to do and then he hit me up like

oh you work on different stuff whatever it was so then we linked and I did the block party record which for me it was always the thing of I have a theme like with Miss Dynamite with many artists where I just need them people to feel like they're a regular person from around the way so that was meant to be Lisa's block party in Philly you know the sound of it what's your name Lisa and where you from 9th Street it was just supposed to be an energy of a block party and having fun and come on dance with me Kea and Bryce and me kind of

messing around doing that and you know just even using the Kalimba song with an Udu drum. That's all that track it really is it's a kick. Earth 25 right? Yep So it's a Kalemba song an Udu drum and a kick and basically it was just kind of floating on its own world and you know I got

somebody to do. It was just a play play around record. So however it is that record because comes her single and they were supposed to shoot it on a block party in Brooklyn and then somehow they go shoot a video somewhere else and it doesn't pan out. But anyhow, Amy Winehouse hears this record and says whoever could figure out what to do with that record is who I need to produce me. They're going to know what to do with me. So she goes to... The most unlikely example of a record.

Yeah. Well, once again, it was Amy's heir who where she wanted to be. So she was like, that's who it is. So they went to EMI Music Publishing in London, really trying to get to me, ended up getting signed. During this interim, left eye passes, I moved to Miami. I'm like, if it's not good people, good music, good money don't call me. I'm semi-retired.

Or if it's good people and good music, the money's going to come. So that's been my mode since 2002 when I first moved. and what I looked after she passed at the first day that I met, Amy, was May 21st, May 27th, 2002, left out's birthday. So it comes back around. So basically, and that's what it was. She came in and Guy Moot in London convinced me to meet her. Just take the meeting. And I was like, just leave me alone.

No, just take the meeting, meet her. And she walked in, she had a little guitar, and Nick Schumanski was with her. with her. And I was like, all right, so what are we going to do? And she pulls out of guitar and she starts singing, girl from Nephema and those high ceilings in the room and the whole room lit up. And I was like, oh, you can sing. Because from the demos I heard of Amy, Amy, Amy and other stuff, I couldn't tell if it was another wannabe, a mime or whatever else. And I wasn't really, I was like, yeah, leave me alone. This isn't it. And basically, that was the start of it. And then that day, we wrote Cherry.

and I heard love is blind. When she passed, where were you when you got the word? I was in London. I was on my way to the house. Basically, she had messed up the tour. She was like, I think I messed up the tour. She didn't want to go on in the first place. So now I can go to Nikki's wedding.

Nick, who I met her with in the first place, was getting married. That was the manager that she wrote, you know, rehab, whatever else about. But they were similar in age. She might be a year or two older than her. And it was like her brother. So it was like, now I can go, I can go to Nick. Nikki's wedding. Okay, cool. The wedding was on Sunday at Lucien's house because Nick is Lucian's nephew.

I was, got there on Thursday. I'm always talking to a security guard, you know, Jamaica, yeah, wow, I go on, boss over here, man, cool, we're having our conversation. And I was like, yo, you know what? She wasn't drinking for like 10 days before that. She started drinking a little bit. I was like, you know what, I'm going on Saturday and make sure she's good. I was in Shepherd's Bush, not far away from where she was at, but I was like, I'm going to go

and make sure she's good before we go to Lucian's house on Sunday, just so no mess starts at the wedding where she might say something crazy, but it was supposed to be all jokes. Cool. And then Saturday, when I called me, I'm at the jerk chicken spot. Y'all want something, I bring some food. Then he hit me back and said she passed. She passed on a Friday night. Wow.

So I was close by and didn't get a chance to really go see her. Can you tell us something like dope about Amy that most people, wouldn't know that like you got to experience that you wish that people would know um one she's an absolute comedian um just constant constant constant constant got something smart to say like every fourth bar of the minute like you're not going to get past three bars and then she's not going to say something smart about somebody something um yeah that that was that and then also she remembers stuff Her memory was, like, super sharp. So if she remembered, your daughter must be nine now?

It was her, Brianna, right? Okay. Like, she knew everybody's kids, their names, where all the pieces were, of people that she maybe hardly saw. But, like, really had a strong memory and sense of who and what and kind of her perspective of why. Super impulsive and serious. Hey, see that song? Can you delete it from my iTunes so it will never play again? Like, it was that, like, have her iTunes or shuffle

and if something played she didn't like, just deleted. I never want to hear it again. Thank you. What did you think of the documentary? Was that a good representation of who she really was? I think the documentary was, I think the documentary was,

it was insightful for a lot of people who only saw her as, you know, a mime of herself at a certain point. At that point, but it was also being able to show humanized part of it, but what I didn't like about the documentary was that it villainized her father, which, you know, my friend, yes,

but that was that man's daughter and you don't turn around and put that man in a history book on video as... Just the enabler, the... But however you want to spend it, that's your perspective, so I didn't agree with that and you also don't turn around and say,

well, but then also the Amy Wilde's Foundation and England didn't have any go-away rehabs. There were none there. So they're actually opening those things. They're doing many different things that are possible. You just took the negative and then left it to negative because it suited your narrative better. And that's what I don't like about the idea of someone else

having the ability to taint your story one way or another. It's like, no, the truth in many different people's eyes is from their eyes, but that's not... I wouldn't do that. That's not right. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Clivert Taylor the 4th.

You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw,

unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment. And the next, we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger.

So if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford Show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. There's two golden rules that any man should live by.

Rule one, never mess with a country girl. You play stupid games, you get stupid prizes. And rule two, never mess with her friends either. We always say that trust your girlfriends. I'm Anna Sinfield, and in this new season of the girlfriends, oh my God, this is the same man. A group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist. I felt like I got hit by a truck. I thought, how could this happen to me? The cops didn't

seem to care. So they take matters into their own hands. I said, oh hell no. I vowed. I will be his last target. He's going to get what he deserves. Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe. On the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Ego Wode. My next guest, you know from Stepbrothers Anchorman, Saturday night. live and the Big Money Players Network. It's Will Farrell. My dad gave me the best advice ever. I went and had lunch with them one day. And I was like, and dad, I think I want to really give this a shot. I don't know what that means, but I just know the groundlings. I'm working my way up through and I know it's a place that come look for

up and coming talent. He said, if it was based solely on talent, I wouldn't worry about you, which is really sweet. Yeah. He goes, but there's so much luck involved. and he's like just give it a shot he goes but if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore it's okay to quit if you saw it written down it would not be an inspiration

it would not be on a calendar of you know the cat just hang in there yeah it would not be right it wouldn't be that there's a lot of luck listen to thanks dad on the iHeart radio app Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast

Oh, how do you navigate just sitting here talking to you seem to be a pretty laid back, like introverted, dude? How do you navigate the networking part of the game? Because you don't seem to be like to go out and party and, you know, anywhere. I did that. I did that in the 90s. That's over. I think in general, it's really first things first. You know, the reason why I've been in my space creating, I feel like the quality of products starts the conversation. So there was a point when a guy moved my public. Shand London was like, hey, you don't want to be 40 with a beat tape.

Like, what are you going to do? And I really took that on in my early 30s. Can you say that again? I mean, boy, he said, you don't want to be 40 with a beat tape. What are you going to do? And basically, you know, I was like, what's that? You play number three again, y'all crazy. Right.

Like, you know, I stressed out about it. Four sound like the Neptunes on that. You know what I'm saying? I love that movie. You know what I'm saying? So it's going to go through it. But basically, I just looked at it. like, yeah, you're right. So, you know, I attacked the Hollywood side of it in my 30s and really,

you know, got a space in Hollywood and really got it to movies and, you know, did the sex in the city movies and scored Tyson and really took some time to learn the whole process or what it takes to do that by scoring TV shows and different, all that stuff. And then, you know, by the time I was 40, then Amy had just passed. So I was like, Dad, I met her after my 30th birthday and she was going before my 40th, but she came and did something. So then I decided to go and, you know, have my labels at Sony, Flying Boot, Aladdin in Life, sign the Mac Wilde, sign the Hyattaheus Cia. All those different bands.

So I still felt like I was taking a coach's job and, you know, shaping it that way. And now that I've learned, you know, I had to cheerleader record by Omie on my label. And I was like, oh, a billion streams. Oh, this should do well. Oh, let me see. Oh, this is how y'all kind of stick. Okay, cool. So now I just understand, you know, I watched a lot of narcos.

Pablo will go to Bolivia and put it in cabs and do what he needed to do in order to have the product. And if we don't have the product, then there's no conversation. There's no reason why, you know, I'm not even going to say America. This planet is allowing large black man to come in and take their money out of their pocket unless I have goods. So back to Amy Wayne House. We just went out of little bit, please. Yeah. I guess the most important question is, one, how did, how were you, Amy and Mark able to,

assuming that you guys never were in the room at the same time? I never saw until the war shows. Okay. Mark Ronson, right? I'm just, okay, thanks. How were you and Mark Ronson able to sonically sort of achieve to have the same achievements on

back to black and make it sound like a cohesive record because I still feel like one person produced that record and why in God's name didn't the song that opens the UK version of the album not make a addiction addicted addicted why didn't that make the American version of the album

because that to me was like my favorite song on the album they took it off Actually, so for your first question, it's Amy. Amy tied the album together. All the songs, we actually just recently did a documentary with Jeremy, who's done like Catch a Fire and all that other stuff, the Phil Kahn's ones, which should be, I guess, coming out sometime soon. I think he's doing it in a can in a couple weeks.

But basically, all the songs that I did on Back to Black were recorded in between Frank and Back to Black. So all of my songs were really written first. So addicted and just friends were written to be Christmas bonus songs for Frank that we never ended up doing. So that were written probably the end of 03 into 2004 somewhere around there before everything else. It was written like probably the end of in 04. And then me and Mr. Jones, which was originally, Farquery, was around. and tears dry was actually written

during that process as a ballad which was sped up later but basically So your songs came first and then Ronson came in there So her whole mode of recording which she got for me which was basically we sit down and she might be playing guitar or just doing something basic and we would get the whole entire song

and then I would do the arrangements so that's how she got accustomed to writing so by the time she went to Mark we'd already gone to the record store we bought the 5 O'RLs, we bought the shangri lives we bought all the pieces. She already knew these are the things that I was around blank. I was listening to this. I'm listening to You All My Destiny

by Paul Inka. I'm listening to all these different records and she knew where she wanted to go. I'd started doing it when she got with Mark. They continued and wrote some more. And then she was like, well, Dag, I still have these songs I want to use them. So me and Mr. Jones, which I have versions that are kind of

more jazzy, was like, hey, why don't we put a walking guitar on that? You know, do-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d. Then she remember when I was doing bridging the gap for Naz, that Oolodaro was like, chik-a-boom, chick-a-boom. So that was kind of, she was like, let's put the shik-a-boom in the walking guitar

on me and Mr. Jones, so then that version becomes that, tears-dry on their own. I just felt like there was too many ballads. All Amy's songs were written at 82 beats per minute, kind of in similar chord frames. And I was like, we gotta speed it up. I had a multi-tube.

ain't no mound high enough. And I was like, I was listening to it without the song on it. And I was like, you know what, you could sing it over there. She couldn't figure it out for the longer. So I ended up singing it. And then she re-sang it over me. And then we did the whole track over. So that was the reason for it.

Just to give something that was an obvious up, up thing. You know, when we did the modulation on the original, she was like, no, no, no. It's going to sound like cool in the game. Take that off. So it was probably putting that in pocket. Were you using the same studio? because I mean now, especially in the age of where we are now with plug-ins and really, I mean, this album being a pioneering record and reestablishing that nostalgia culture, even though, yes, I know that that tone was, you know, doing their thing for at least six years with Sharon Jones and whatnot, but. Did we use the same studio for Mark songs and my songs?

No, no. I'm just, how did you, I'm especially for like, fucker. Like, were you using your studio you always used? Actually, at that time, all the songs for Back to Black, the studio that is now my studio in my house, she walked into my living room when I had two-story high ceilings, and she's like, I want to sing right here. And I was like, what?

She was like, no, can I sing right here? So I basically put a kit and put a piano and my amps and everything into my living room. So the sound of me and Mr. Jones is the sound of my living room. that is the room and she's singing standing in the middle of the floor with the you know pretty much a 47 in the middle of the room a little carpet underneath for the drums everything is in the room and then we would just move stuff around it I would just I would just never think that achieving that that sonic quality was even possible because even with Steve and I at electric lady studios like you know one would think that with the you know that some of the mics and and and and and the amps and the equipment is still from when Jimmy Hendricks was there. Right. But I wouldn't even fathom or think that that sound could be achieved.

And so, honestly, she's telling you, make it sound like the 50s, like how long, how long was the work process until you finally found a way to make them drums sound like? Honestly, I would give a lot of credit to my recording engineer, Frank Sakaro. How old is he? Frank is probably, something like 38. 39 now. At that time, he was in his 20s. What? But Frank was also a...

He liked music. He was a hip-hop head. He liked Beatles. He liked everything else. We recorded my songs on Back to Black on a through a Digio8 using digital performer. It was like basically Stompbox. We read about how Rick Rubin or different people would get a house and kind of record. I didn't have any equipment at the house. I had a studio downtown. But it was like, okay, we're going to record. hair. So he basically looked around it and I knew what I wanted to hear and he knew what I wanted to hear and he captured, you know, even what we were able to do with the Motown replay in that space. It was kind of like, you know, musicians was like, how are you going to do this? The horns were all done,

you know, on the, what is it, the Roland 8 track recorder, 16808 or something like that. The VS 1608, they were recorded in New York in the room, you know, Vincent Henry, who was my ace musician, who's played on everything from somebody else's guide to jiggy to whatever else, he would just be sending me horns in different pieces, all the flutes and all the arrangements and putting pieces together. But the way we were able to put it back together, re-amp it, put it through some music men still have all. You know, my sound works mics, the TLMs and the 47s capture it back,

but we know what we wanted to hear. So that process, I can't say it was hard. was just about focus and knowing what we liked. And basically, you know, as you know, collecting stuff that feels and sounds like break beats. So when you're saying, no, give me the green snare and you know exactly why you're going forward and everybody else might just be oblivious,

it's a similar process of just getting through it. But I never thought it was the equipment. I always thought it was the engineering. And I just never had the, you know, until I heard back to black, then it was like, okay, it is possible to achieve the sound. But even then once, I mean, once I figured it out, it was, you know, like by 2010 almost, like even five, six years after Back the Black came out.

I just, yeah, I mean, we really worked at it. And then those stuff that I did, even in New York, that kind of has that type of energy. For me, it was a thing where I was collecting records and I always liked the record. So my dad was like, Lupo Vangelo's. I'm like, all, cool. But the reason why I was sampling incredible Bongo band was because of the Sonics. It wasn't just because King Erickson was killing. Then when Michael Viener gave me a bunch of things, I was still trying to figure out.

I think I might even send you one time when we did Love's theme. I was trying to make the sonic feel as urgent, you know, and that's really what it is. Like, you know, even when I'm recording Nas, I'm trying to get the sonic energy. So I'm staying next to that speak and I feel like I'm moving. I'm imagining what Paradise Garage feels like. I'm imagining what the Red Zone feels like. I'm imagining what the FIFA sounds like. And if the Sonic warfare, as I call it, doesn't actually hit you the way it should, that's as important as the lyrics being stronger than the kick.

If the lyrics hit you the right waist, it's right. It's right. It's right. How do we get back to that? That's intensity in the samples. That's also intensity in engineering. That's intensity in the lyrics. It's about the way it's all coming together and then ultimately how it's captured.

If that song had a different mix, it might not have ever been what it was. was and I think that you know having that understanding and feeling that way about certain pieces of music I'm twisting knobs until I feel it which leads me to we're getting to the end of this journey but let's start the rapid fire shit the random questions which leads me to get retarded now yeah with cannabis oh he produced that yes I thought I thought Cliff always did that record who I thought why Cliff did though no no shit was pulling First of all, with the Hawaiian guitar thing in the... It was just...

It was such a radical record that I liked it, but I was just like... Why? What the hell was y'all thinking? So basically what some people do, they now call it, I think, Rhythm Roulette or something like that. I had a wall of records in my apartment, and what I say is grab me three records and Whatever three records you grab, I gotta make something. And that's the three records I pulled to that day. L.A. Boppers, Chante and Bez, and I want you.

And that's where it came from. So I basically had those records. And it was like, I want you. Get retarded. And that's what I picked off of the records. I could have sampled something else off the records, but that's what I caught and how it fell together. Now, in recording that, I'm certain that,

The energy and the excitement was in the air because the buzz on cannabis couldn't get any hotter. It was like what the energy that Eminem had, I feel like Eminem is the, and we can't discount the fact that Eminem's whiteness. We can't ever discount whiteness. Right. We can't discount. But what I'm just saying, Matt, at one time in 1996, there was hope and energy in the air that cannabis was going to be. BV underground lyrical match The Beast from the East

The Lost Boys joint Like that was his Matter of back That was like his winter war was first The very Yes The very first Even the first time I met Jay

Through Common He was like yo Can't wait to hear this cannabis record See what he got So What boy What were your feelings Of

What went wrong What'd you say That was the first CD I ever sold back to the store To be honest Damn Oh I mean

So yeah I thought I thought White Clef did that record because I didn't like that joint And so now I was like, man I was like, I'm going to fuck that up It took, no, no, no, no, it took a minute

But it was just like When I heard the Hawaiian Loop and I was just like All right, this is obviously some next shit that I'm just not up board Yeah, you're not ready for So did you kill cannabis or? No, that was actually one of the

No, that was actually one of the only joints that was on the other one walk left walk left walk left that's the one yeah that's the one i like second round knockout i like second round knockout but i knew it was least we know when biggie's death day is this weekend for all time died of march night funning your mom's your first second and third boy have your wife get on the home come in the far car and i knew it was over for cannabis like i don't know if y'all remember like when they used to have the thing it was on mtv and it was like basically they would like play a video and then they would have like people like talking about or give their opinions, whatever.

Yeah, it was like a kiss-a-distance type joint. And they played cannabis, second-round knockout. And I remember it was like these four, like, teenage, like, white kids. Oh, no. And they were all like, oh, well, you know, he's just sounds so angry. And, you know, he's just, this guy just, they were like this in the record. And when I served, I was just like, it's a rap. Because the hood, like, we loved it.

That was like, the hip-hop heads loved that record. But when I saw that shit, I was like. I mean, my perspective on. What do you think the disconnect was? My perspective on Cannabis's record, first, I didn't expect them to keep that track because we did that one, but we all just so did a record called Doomsday News, which was the track that Wyclef used for where Fuji's at years later. Dan, then, then, then, to-ton, to-ton, boom, boom. It started off the eclectic album. It's the first song.

Oh, wow. So that was actually on Cannabis's album. And, you know, that was a track that at one point, Hank Shockley, you know, two-wayed me or something at the time and asked me to do beats for a public enemy thing so that's what my mindset was with it that was the song I actually thought he was going to keep because it meant something for whatever

reason he decided not to use it and I think you know cannabis had beat selection issues as far as I was going to say but basically he always had the lyrics but he just kind of pushed the wrong way with it and the things that I'd actually recorded with him

that people never heard was I made him switch his flow I was like you said the best MC died on martial life. Look how many different flows big he has. Now you're just rhyming, rhyming, rhyming to the point where somebody was like, man, there was a guy down stairs. He was rhyming crazy. I was just cannabis. Ignore him. Rapity rap, right. And then after a while, you rapidy rap

yourself to a point where no one actually would hear how great your lyrics were because you gave it to all to us in the same cadence, which was unfortunate. And, you know, I did a lot of records with him that I thought were really dope, but he just basically... It's also Maddie Leaders in a way. It's like hip-hopy leadist in a way.

I don't need change my flow. It's the lyrics. He turned into a computer, really. I mean, he would rhyme and he was front of the first people. I saw that would write their rhymes in the computer and be moving it around. But it was just like you're so smart, you outsmarted yourself. Exactly. To the human connection, to the actual ability to really have a conversation in your songs on top of being able to rap really well.

Every cannabis experience I had starts with a start in the beat, like him getting on stage. And then like mid-first verse. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. And then he has to let you know exactly what he said. Oh, yeah, because that's what they do. The Fuji in the movie. Yes.

In the movie, yeah. Surprise. Did you like that? And that's the thing. It's like, if you have to explain the punchline, then it's not a good punchline. If you don't get it just off rip, if you got to break down, then that shit is well.

If you got to tell me his name, it really wasn't. I feel like that album was one of the many things that happened in 1997 that just really killed the momentum that the idea of New York was having in hip-hop and MC. There's a lot. There's the Wooten X Norey. There's, yeah, Cannabis DMX Nore, yeah. That was their freestyle. But, I mean, you know, D.MX Nore's had success.

Right, but that was like the Cole Kendrick Drake was DMX, Cannibal. Norrie freestyle on 997 and they all seem like they had it going just cannabis didn't keep delivering records that's all it comes down to you know having the greatest talent being the best musician doesn't mean you're the best composer being the best singer doesn't mean you have a good song so is that the producers responsibility or is that the artist's responsibility sometimes the artist has too much power and they just don't want to get out of their own way you know we all know some really really great talent that can't make a record or get it together you know 30 years in I can play you records that I did 20 years ago

wow this is great whatever happened to him let me try to find them you drive up the right alley yo like that's what it is and it's unfortunate but it's real Jasmine talk about Jasmine

Sullivan I'm sorry to see me Jasmine Sullivan Jasmine Sullivan for me it's like you know kind of where I want to be core business great voice great stories

and then I just got to find a good baseline And, you know, I worked with Jasmine when she was on job when she was 13 or 14, so we already had somewhat of a familiarity by the time she was on Jay Records. And then Peter Edge really wanted her to sing. She cut a version of, there's a song that Keon Bryce originally did that was on Naz Zop. There's a war on the streets. Basically, she cut a version of it. But then during that session, we also did Lions, Tigers, and Bears.

That's my ship. And another song. And basically she sing Lions Tigers and Bids, the idea. I was like, all right, hold up, gave her a click track, and then I just started playing around it, and then she finished the song to the track. And that became my mode of working, where she might sing me an idea or tell me an idea of a chord,

and then I would flush it out. You know, 10 seconds was like that. She had a thing. And then I just took it, played it, and expanded on it, whatever she was hearing. But our chemistry is like, you know, certain people I have large bodies of work We're just because we just work together when we work.

And I probably have 40 songs with Jasmine, man. Nobody's ever heard just in general. Describe her songwriting because I feel like that's one of the appeals of Jasmine, too. The way she... Yeah. I mean, she just go to the point. The reality is that, you know, unfortunately, unfortunately, I've been able to work with a lot of people who write autobiographically.

So there's a lot of stuff she said in the songs that she either went through or she did. Not much of it is just straight up imagined. and then now when they're at a really happy point in their life or a certain point, the songs, they don't know how they feel about the songs, so then that's not necessarily what they want to express at that point. And then that slows down the records coming up. I'll put it this way.

You and I both know the victim who got his car busted. We do. Anyway. No, it's like that. Did you work on the second album? I worked on all albums on today. I played drums on I don't know if you produced

The Nunga Nunga N'n'n'n'n' An amp record That's the one Okay Yeah They brought me the track And I played But when I was listening

To the lyrics I was like yo It's crazy redemption song Did she go through this shit? Yeah No she didn't That's the same person That she did the other thing

Well that's all that That was a whole same show There's no way That she went through Those lyrics in redemption Because the lyrics in redemption Because the lyrics in redemption One verse is

Her As the person Who's doing it And the other verse is her experiencing it. But did her herself, did she go through that shit? Yeah.

All right, they brought me a song, Redemption, said, yo, just put your drums on it. And I didn't bother to even listen to the song before I started. I just, I said, yo, Steve put it on the reel and I'm a drum to it, first take. And my jaw was dropping.

Because me and Laia knew Jasmine when she was sneaking into Black Lily as a 12, donor homework. As a 10-year-old. This is the same person to whom, like, her dad and Rich would beg the club owner to let this nine-year-old girl come upstairs. Her mother to this day goes everywhere with her. But all right, you know, she can't be everything at all the time.

Yes, she does. Yeah, man. But some of that was also metaphorical. Okay. Yeah, I was like, what the... The rock takes me. Yeah, the rock. I don't need you.

I wasn't supposed to be here, but I need that rock. Like, that's... I get it, but it's just still the fact that this ain't the you're on my mind all the time. Right. Right. When I raise your hair, your hair is very sweet. I'm just like she's a mature, like, you know, so what are her just her goals and what she wants? Because I also know that she feels a certain way that the world's embracing Adele, who is her age, and not her.

And yes, besides the captain obvious reasons. Well, she's mentioned that, you know, we're, well, I don't even know she's on social media anymore. Oh, Jasmine. I hope not about once every month or two. Right. I mean, the thing is, right now, I mean, I was around a few months ago. I just think she's happy, you know, because when many people, when they get to work and when they're really young, at some point, they want to catch up on life and not necessarily revolve their life around a recording or touring schedule. So from what I can capture, that's just where it's at.

And she has music. Like, you know, we got together for a couple of days, and chemistry-wise stuff comes up all the time. It's just, is that the priority is this record right now. You know, I think some music's going to come out really soon, though. But in general, you know, yeah, well, can you do that? Well, I'm insecure. All right, cool.

She's not going to say, but she'll just do it. But Jasmine's pen is next, next, next level. And I think, for me, it was the thing where when I first worked with her, you know, the labels, like, get Harold Lilly and get this person in. And I was like, nah. And by working on lines and tigers and then busher windows, they were able to see that her pen was better than everyone else's. The same with, you know, helping Lawrence Penn from Fujitam into where it became

or helping Miguel, you know, who had written many songs, but kind of helping them focus on different things with the all I want to use, helping Jasmine be able to focus. Amy, you know, Amy had different people that wrote, you see me flying stuff with her, but her pen was better than everyone else's. And, you know, I kind of play off. I ask the right questions while we're recording to help people kind of do it

and then I make them do it on their own. And sometimes it's challenging that they'll get mad and don't like it. And sometimes they actually rise to the occasion. When you walked in earlier, you talked about working on Miguel's new record, which is a total, he was not the artist I expected him to be.

Like when he first came out to bet, again, I thought it was just a regular, R&BR is, okay, yorn. And he's stepped outside of that box. So, I mean, how did he manage to do that? I think, once again, I was just seeing all the possibilities, you know, from the All I Want is U-Tam, that wasn't necessarily who he was.

McGill had been signed since I think he was 15 or 16. And he did Quicky and Sure thing, which were, you know, his number ones while he was still in another production deal years ago. So by the time he was really getting the chance to make his record, it was really kaleidoscope dream. And we actually did how many drinks and all I wanted you is the first day I met him.

When we first started how many drinks, he's like, it's two R&B. I don't want to be in the Donnell Jones land. I'd rather do something else. That's what I thought he was. And he said he didn't want to do that. So he was like, yo, give me something with guitars. So that's why I gave him to All I Wanted You track,

which I originally made for Celo. But it was just like, his guitars, yes. So then he went for it. it and it became what it was and it was still like him trying to find itself because he's like this so east coast and that's you and mark with that new york i'm from the west coast all right cool here take this lary shiffrabee you know and that became kaleidoscope dream because i gave him the dray beat the equivalent of the opposite and then he kaleidoscope dream and then he played the interim the part of the middle but the end of the day his signature shown to date is adorn which is

all produced by miguel that's him you know in his studio closet room you know in the late night just zoning and you know he has one of those before I let go ad lives at the end where people just know that song down to a certain point and he's developed into that and then you know his last album wildheart he did a lot of stuff that maybe wasn't received the way he wanted the two but that's part of you know the creative long-term process where you just make a record oh y'all don't hear it yet okay cool y'all get back to that one in five years take another one here here's where you are now so you know sky walk has been something different and come through and chill was just me pushing him. You know, he didn't feel like recording and I went and sat on the kit and started just hitting the sticks and being funny.

And then eventually, I was like, let's put on SoundCloud tonight. What? Tonight, let's go. And then he, you know, I got him to do it a few days later, but we put it up and it's been there for a couple years, but still people like the song. They like what they like. And you can't stop that. So two years later, cool, Cole's on it. It's the new single, the video shot. All right, cool. That's great. But for me, Miguel's still, hasn't even realized all of his potential yet. He's still four albums, and he probably got another five or six in them. A win is a win. A win is a win.

I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way,

this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for Raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment,

and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clivert Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So, if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok.

There's two golden rules that any man should live by. Rule one, never mess with a country girl. You play stupid games, you get stupid prizes. And rule two, never mess with her friends either. We always say that trust your girlfriends. I'm Anna Sinfield. in this new season of The Girlfriends. Oh my God, this is the same man.

A group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist. I felt like I got hit by a truck. I thought, how could this happen to me? The cops didn't seem to care. So they take matters into their own hands. I said, oh, hell no. I vowed I will be his last target. He's going to get what he deserves.

Listen to the Girlfriends. Trust me, babe. On the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever. you get your podcast. What's up, everyone? I'm Ego Wodom. My next guest, you know from Step Brothers, Anchorman, Saturday Night Live, and the Big Money Players Network. It's Will Ferrell. Woo, woo, woo, woo.

My dad gave me the best advice ever. I went and had lunch with them one day, and I was like, and dad, I think I want to really give this a shot. I don't know what that means, but I just know the groundlings. I'm working my way up through, and I know it's a place they come, look for up-and-coming talent. He said, if it was based solely on talent, I wouldn't worry about you, which is really sweet. Yeah. He goes, but there's so much luck involved. And he's like, just give it a shot. He goes, but if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat. Just hang in there. Yeah. It would not be.

Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot in luck. Listen to Thanks, Dad, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. When you did Mac Wild stuff, I was still calling him Michael Lee from the wire. And when he said, like, I was working with Salam, remember me? I'm like, I was like, get out of here. I never knew. Are you going to continue to work with him?

And how are you able to convince him when he could have easily, going younger. He knows the good shit though. He's old, right? More than anything else, how we first think that was I was in L.A. when I met him and then he would always come by the studio when we'd be talking about the lack of duck sauce in L.A.

And just like real missing New York, basically. So he would come by and I was a fan of him from the wire, but he was out there doing 9-0-2-0. But he would come by my sessions while I was working on Miguel or, you know, C.J. Hilton, whoever else he'd just be around me doing stuff and I heard him singing on something that I think who worked when Warren Campbell worked on this record called cold he had and I heard and I was like hmm okay cool your voice is getting there and he had some ability but I was also jumping off my

label at Sony and I was like all right cool here's the one two punch if you can sing these records then I can cut an album on you in the mouth everybody's gonna love you because you kid from TV and you know we can jump it off real quick and that's basically what I did over the Christmas holiday, he cut on it, he wrote Henny, he sang a Rico love song, a Fontleroy song, and he nailed it. I just brought him down to Miami for a couple days, and he showed more than, you know, anyone's potential thought of him. So I was like, cool, as soon as you finish TV in March, we're going to cut your album in a month,

we're going to shoot some videos, and then I have you done before you got to go back to TV. And that album became what it was, but it also was. It got nominated, too. It was Grammy nominated. Grammy nominated and it felt right and also it was just like a stamp in time that's how I feel about it you know at that time I stopped kind of doing records but I just really felt like it was a good expression of how we felt about New York R&B and also a quarter of the time when everybody in New York was like Atlanta's taking over like you know he'll Eric be for president

everybody for president Omar deep was my favorite joint and then what I did was instead of sampling the old records I went to primo I went to Pete I went to havoc and was like nah you're gonna produce it with me, get your disc out, and now cut them a check rather than paying a sample for something else. So Primo went back to the disc and got me the group home pieces and reprogrammed it. Pete pulled out SP-200 disc. We did that. You know, Havoc redid that beat. That wasn't actually the sample, but we was able to kind of put it together, and then they got their points. They got publishing. They got new bread. And that, to me, was also me, you know, paying back my community, paying back my community because if I would have cleared a sample

they still would never seen the check off of it. But Mac was still, and he was the perfect artist because at the end of the day he had the link to Wu-Tang. He had that and then he had the 902-10. It was like perfection. Like the wire, everything. When Meff came to the studio to do the hook on the album, he was like, who'd been messing with him?

I was like, what you mean? Like, who he'd been messing with? I'm like, what are you talking about? Dean's like, like, who's been doing this stuff? I was like, oh, me. He's like, because I heard some stuff before. it sounded like he was in a little, you know, rat house with his boys. This sound like a whole other level.

But once again, I saw the potential on him. Like, he still has more potential than he's actually realized. And then his last project, after hours, is something that he did. We did love in the 90s when he was doing the Braves TV show. So we had like some songs we didn't put out. And then, you know, he was moving on to doing other stuff. So he did his Bonnie and Clive record with Waleigh. And he had his after hours record that he wanted to put out.

And I was like, you know what? Just go ahead and do it your way. but I still, you know, were you work with them again? Yeah, for sure. For sure. It's like, you know, a little bro, basically. And he still passed through you. I got to come to Miami and vibe with you or whatever it is.

I'll probably see him all. Okay. How did hiatus? How did you discover them? Deep Prosper, actually. Deep Prosper? Deep Prosper? Of all people?

Deep Prosper actually brought that to me and was like, yo, this band. They're on band camp. They're kind of crazy. You know, you're doing some stuff with your labor. but Sony tell me for something there. And I was basically walking around Sony going, if I had a young Amy Winehouse,

where am I going to put that out? So I went to the Masterworks Jazz classical department and Chuck Mitchell, who was at Verve and did many different things and worked, you know, a downbeat and things over the years and was a great writer. And as well, I was like, look, I want to bring back Buddha records

because Sony owned Buddha, but they didn't have it for the world. So then I was like, well, since you can't do Buddha, let me do Flying Buddha, which was, you know, Flying Dutchman meets Buddha. And hi, this was, you know, they didn't want to do a deal with anybody, but they wanted to work with me. So that was just something great that where I was able to pick up what they already had

and talked to Amahawk, sent it to tip who doesn't like most stuff. He surprisingly said he wanted to rhyme on it. Cool, I was nominated. And then for their second album, I was able to kind of get in. And I didn't really mess with them too much when I let them record. I was going to say, there was a lot in there. They're all over the place. That album is like, you know, basically I took all of our schooling and everything we ever know and poured it in one record.

They got it off their chest. But at the same time, it was so much being there, the breathing underwater still got nominated. And, you know, Drake's. And Drake's sample the beginning of building a ladder, which is the only two things that I messed with them about. I made them recutting, breathing underwater until it felt like what I saw them doing boiler when we're on the rooftop. That's really their performance. And with the latter, you know, the intro wasn't right. When you get a group like that, like, are you ever afraid that you'll take?

Because what makes them unique is that they're not pop, that they're not easily digestible. But it's also like, do you feel like, well, I wouldn't be a smart producer if I didn't tell them this is a hook. This is 16 bars. This is. I think it was partially that. And I mean, they really want to be their own thing anyway. So they didn't really feel. pressure for me.

Sometimes Napalm would definitely be like, I don't want to make pop songs, but my thing is like, do I do? That's the way I kind of look at it with them. If we go to Stevie's Do I Do I Do All those notes in the middle of the hook, cool, that sounds like something hiatus might want to play. So a little less return to forever, a little bit more, do I do. Still, they're going to be who they are and really be musically pushing the envelope at all times.

But if we could still get something in between it, that actually, you know, sticks there, because ultimately Nakamura was great, but it was Love You a whole bunch of times in the middle, and nobody really knew that she was talking about something a lot deeper than that, but it was like, Hannah, my darling, love you. Okay, we know what you said. That was it. So, and they have other songs, they'll develop to it. That's the way I feel about it. You know, in the album or two, I don't think any artist just nails their whole life. They kind of got to get to that point. And now they're at the point where, you know, they're recording now. And it's going to come out different. Yeah, the lung was my record on that, on the Chudgeon Weapon.

That was, I love that. That album is just like, it's like a double album to me. It's like every song has three different changes. Three different movements. Yeah. Moves and changes. But they also, it took a lot out of them. So now they'll probably do shorter packages and have more because they still, you know,

they found dedicated fans who will sit there for three hours and not know all the words, but they will try their best to and really get into it. They just got to sit and watch them. Like, yeah. I mean, I'm amazed by their actual overall talent. And also what they get out of just being. forward them on stage they kill it most of the times they don't even have background

Are there any artists that you regret Not working with that you should have Or you know Any close calls Um I was hired to do And it didn't happen or Nah

I think that Um The only thing that I can say is that sometimes things don't happen When they could have I can't say that there's a real regret You know some of the most talented people I've met I haven't gotten the chance to make records with You know, there's an artist called, we put out an EP called House of Cry by a girl named Cry in Chicago.

Probably one of the most talented savant level people I've ever met just as far as engineers, records itself, sings, octaves and octaves. But just marketing-wise, I couldn't pull it together as a label to make her management, dad management, all of it work. But at the end of the day, you know, I have 60 songs from one of that I feel like still give me goose. bumps at first note, you know, across the board. I think that there are opportunities where some people just don't actually meet their mark. And hopefully at some point they will. You know, it's almost like a lot of Sugar Man's out there. Does she have any product online?

House of Cry EP is out there. Oh, okay. It's actually, it's really strong. Did we miss anything? I mean, well, there's a gazillion things you've done that we didn't go. Did you do the Ziggy, uh, toss it up, the low key remakes? All those jiggie stuff I produced. That was my first group that dad was basically like,

you going to school, so I was in school for business management. And I was like, well, I need six months off to do this album. So after that, if I don't get no work, I'll go back to school. I never went back. So that was my first full project. So the Roots album. No. The Roots album.

Let's talk about the Roos album. The stream of the thoughts, you know, the flow of it. Yeah. Well, we didn't reveal everything. Did it? All right, cool. I didn't understand what we just. We just let that slide past these five people.

Great. Thank you. Anyway, this is damn near a double episode. Yeah. Thank Jesus. We got a two week episode. Anyway, Salam. Yo, man, this is probably,

this is one of my, I love these. I didn't know you do that, did that episode. Where, you know. And for real, man, like, seriously, like just as a kid, like growing up. Whenever I saw Salam Remy remix on a record, it was official. I copped it. So just thank you for all you did.

You knew. It was official. Thanks. And it's so crazy that you just said as a kid because I'm sitting there going on. Damn. Yeah. Sometimes I feel it and sometimes I feel it like, damn.

I'm 30. I'm 39. So like Worker Man, Remedy. Like Super Cat, Dali. Well, not that got out of my baby. But I get a red hot. Yeah, that was like 92. That was 13.

It don't matter. Y'all look the same age. We also have to get you on chat with sugar, which is even deeper rabbit hole of information of music. Wait a minute. We like that. Wait. Speaking of Instagram,

yeah, because you and Steve, you and Steve do something very worried. Your Instagram is nothing but just clips of the moment. First of all, how do you find these high-level clips? You just take them off YouTube and... YouTube, sometimes daily motion,

just looking for stuff. Sometimes I'm actually searching on Instagram just by hashtag. I was about to say, aren't you about to run out of ideas? Like, You know what it was for me? Over the last year, I really felt like it was just like that thing. You know, we get to a point in life where we made a lot of records and I'm like, okay, why am I making these?

You know, when I'm working with artists, I'm making records to, oh, so what do you want to do today? Or you like this or you don't like that. Okay, I'm catering to them. I'm cooking for them. And I needed to get to a point where if I'm just making what I want to make, erase the black boy, you race the white boy. This is just me hearing it. I wanted to find my baseline.

I wanted to figure out where it was. So then I looked at it like core business, great voices, great baselines, great stories. So I just started looking at different people, Marvin Gay, Dennis Brown, the people I really liked, and then looking at just watching clips of people sing to see what's coming out of their mouth, seeing, I'm still looking for that voice. I'm looking to be wowed by somebody who can do it, but that also knows how to tell a story and write it. So that's really where it was born from. So I just stopped putting pictures of myself online,

which there haven't been any since last year, May. And then just continued to feed music and talk to me through that firewall. I mean, talk about that, then social media, we really got nothing to say. But as we get further and further away from the church, do you think it's even remotely possible now for those unique voices?

Like, for me, like, I love Dram so much because he has, a voice that's like when I first started it's like old dirty bass or whatever like just a very unique sounding voice do you feel as though

like might sound different if you cut his mustache I'm just playing I'm just playing no drum bass no but I'm in like no no I feel it just define unique voices

I'm looking for that there's still something that I feel like is tribal for me for all of us there's still a level of, you know, they'll have my Tatar salad concept where I just like, you know,

you go to any person in the label, say, I made a record called Who made the Tater Salad, and every black person in America's on Bible. You're going to sell four million copies. They don't know what I'm talking about. Doug Morris, Clive Davis, Jimmy Avine, Lucey.

Cool, but if you go to the most black American people and go, this is basically how I kept Live a Lie on Jasmine's first album. Peter, um, it's Tatarolid. Leave it alone.

What do you mean? this is something that I feel that's a but a love that sometimes it was not a jam that you're saying is a number one it's not a copyright but it's something that's making me know that she knows where I know she's giving me something that takes me home

and when we hear those songs when we hear the songs that are on our barbecue playlists when we hear that music that resonates when we hear cranes in the sky what is that? Where did that happen before? I don't know where it happened before but it feels right it's under my skin I think that that's what we're missing as far as even the analog conversation, the analog, no motion that happens with musicians is that, you know, sometimes when I'm just trying to show writers or, you know, I'm do camps in my house sometimes, I'm like, everybody sing amazing grace. Just pick a note and we just sing. Now put your hands out while we do it. We just feel it. There's something else. A resonance in vocals. There's a resonance in the resonance in the music.

And does that make you feel like that? You know, that needs to happen. He's deep, man. Yeah. So, I'm just something else. I mean, just within it, I just feel like there's something sonically that happens. It's how I feel about when the organ hits this at a certain time. I want to still feel open, but I also need that movement. Because if I ain't getting that, then, you know, I like this, this Heron-level music that's going to take me somewhere. Wow. Oxtale gravy, brown stew sauce.

He's a lot of oxal gravy. He's got to be something dark, something that makes me feel like, yeah. There we go. Well, bro, I thank you very much for coming on Quest Rock's a premium. Thanks for having, I love the opportunity to get done in my mouth. Yo, man. Thank you, left eye. These are my favorite moments of, you know, of the history of the show.

I feel like we could probably do enough with like five hours if I saw asking you questions, but we'll get to that. Give them one. Just please. No. Not at all. One for the one for the point. I have one for the road. I have one more question.

No. Come on. You guys want me to ask this question. Yeah, you guys. Because what's the likelihood or we're going to have a hip-hop pioneer from New York and not to ask? Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God.

Funny Latin quarter Oh, yeah Tailed from me Latin quarter They're Oh, that's the That's the Last of

The song I don't I can see you at Hope bacon that shit It is so good Yeah They were

They were They were They were They were They were They were They were They were

They were For all of our Mid Mid-classic era Hipop Uh acts And they got

tired of me asking Latin quarter questions But they're always the same ones too all the different people always kind of tell more or less the same story

The same movie The jacket Did I see it at the Latin quarter Yeah I can tell you What's your Melly Mollah Wait you have a Latin quarter story Yes he said it

I've been a line quarter couple songs Yeah I got to play for real You just want to play it again Yeah because he has a Mexican Moist singing The last Latin quarter story he had Was like he has a hundred

So those who don't know Fad that he is a tiny Mexican Yeah she worked Yeah Yeah Latin quarter I've been there twice When my dad was on promotion

Oh wow So then he would take me with him You know I saw You know You take me up to BLSC Mr. Magic You got to get something The Red Alert

So I went in the Latin quarter Paradise was outside At the door Um Stevie D Yeah I was like 14 13 14 I was the ice cap

I had a Curtis Blow record out I was popping You know But basically Stevie D from 4th MD's was there in the mink. Jerry curls on top, fade, earrings in his ears. Everything. He had a

12 hair styles. He had a bodyguard with him. Pretty much the same thing. His name was Katon. He looked like basically strong orangutangutin colored coat, light skin, almost like a freckle face redhead dude, but

mad cocked diesel, because you know Latin quarters was really rough, but Stevie D from Force of these was going in there. You know, I guess it was probably around tender love time, maybe just after that. I walked upstairs, you go up, turn around. Because also, I'd always like being over there

because the arcade was right underneath where the Latin Quarter's was. So that block, there was an arcade where you can pretty much walk through between 7th Avenue and Broadway underneath where that was at. And whenever we were at studios in the area, I'd always want to go to an arcade.

But anyhow, we get up in the Latin quarters. I see Scott LaRocque, standing downstairs by the booth. I see Eric B. I see biz Red Alert's up in the booth My dad's like Stay right here

I'm gonna get Red Alert The record Red Alert Teases the beginning A Rebel Without a pause Brothers and Sisters I see some kids Running from the back

Like yo he about to play it He about to play it They get over to the dance floor Brothers and sisters I don't know what this world's coming to Rebel comes on That's probably one of the first times I'm hearing it

And the kids in the middle of the dance floor Doing like the crazy dances To Rebel Without A Pose No laughing at the story No laughing at the story Thank you Salam No no no no no no no no Salam had a question for you

Just do we remember we have You said before we get out He can at least get one of his 300 out I was just saying What's your question? Yes I'll have some music ready For you to critique and Let him ask you don't know what he about this

No we ain't even going there Actually it's something A lot more I heard a story about you doing something with your drum technique, whereas in you were slowing tapes down crazy and then speeding them up with a really big kick. But I wasn't really clear on your process of doing that. Like, was that like something that you developed?

How did you arrive at, I'm going to slow this tape down? Very speed. Only knew of VeriSpeeting because once I discovered that Prince was very speed and his voice on Erotic City. And really, Stevie Wonder was very much. very speeding his voice on maybe your baby. Maybe your baby, yeah. Early roots demos or back when we were black to the future,

I had my dad's task cam four track thing. I realized like, oh, I can slow, you know, and so I guess I was being a, you know, a pseudo, I was trying to figure out like, techniques to get a better kick sound. So I'll say for like a lot of the Do You Want More record,

I would play the initial drum tracks at a higher, what is the IPS? Steve? Yeah, IPs, yeah. Yeah, higher and then we, and then it was low. I mean, it really didn't. It only served me well for you got me. you would slow it down you totally blinked yourself you said we would go high and then we would

oh and then slowed down normal i mean yeah it's you're saying you got me is where you crystallize it because it actually worked to the level where you wanted it to it got all the way through well yeah that's not the natural snares down i very speeded the the the tape down at the end that you got me there i always wanted you to well just all of it the whole thing once jill and scott did uh jill and scott that's funny I was going to do tails. No. Jill and Scott did the initial track to a click track,

and then I came in afterwards to drum to it. At first I did it at normal, and it didn't sound special. So then I very speeded the tape slow and drum to it. And then when we played it back at normal speed, it sounded like a higher pitch. And then when I was like, oh, I could do drum and bass. This is how Digo did drum on bass. Thank you.

It's not my. favorite but you know it's cool like when can you do part two to that song like can you finish it and then just really go in well water you did that I've done it before I did it on break you off I did it on water break you off my trick on break you off was I didn't want y'all to think that we were like being greasy R&B so at the mastering session I was like yo just give me two days and I said I got to add three more minutes of this song to wash away what you thought was the greasy arm piece also. Because there's a version to break you off that

Gerald Avert is all right. There's 11 versions. That was a good story. And Gerald Avert actually gave the better performance. I will say that. Somewhere, well, shit, I don't know. Maybe the phrenology reels

to burn to, I don't know. Oh, we'll see. Yeah, like a lot of Universal's reels and old movies like lot number five, which unfortunately is the I guess he said the letters P through T got damaged. So we lost all of D-W-W-M-more.

We can't find D-1-1. I can't find three songs on. I can't find no great-petender episodes or... Oh, if you see any of her anymore? No alibi. Can't find the two-inch reels. nor the Dats, nor the half-inch reels. Oh, wow.

So, yeah, like, pretty much we own the message to those songs. Yeah, I think about, like, yeah, like 30, I think, like 33 of our reels got this story. Damn. And a lot of D want more. And so as far as, like, extras and, yeah, that's not happening. You satisfied with your answer, Salon.

How you feel? Yeah, definitely. Okay. Now, we definitely got two-parted. Anyway, thank you. See what I did is. Thank you. Thank you for all right, man.

When we have a boss, Bill and pay bill. Sugar Steve star of chat with sugar on Instagram. On the sugar network. On the sugar network. Our own Ted Turner, Fon Tigaloo, and it's Laiaia. This is Questlove.

And this is Questlove, Why do I sound so tired? This is Questlove Supreme. We'll see you next go around. Thank you. Quest Love Supreme is a production of I-Heart Radio. This classic episode was produced by the team at Pandora. For more podcasts,

from IHeart Radio, visit the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits,

my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, the Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfills of conversations with athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated.

So let's get to it. Listen to the Clifford show on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok's podcast network on TikTok. When a group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist, they take matters into their own hands. I bowed.

I will be his last target. He is not going to get away with this. He's going to get what he deserves. We always say that trust your girlfriends. Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe, on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. This week on the Sports Slice podcast, it's all about the NFL draft. And we've got a special guest.

The director of the NFL's East-West Shrine Bowl, Eric Galco, joins the Sports Slice podcast to break down what really matters when evaluating draft prospects. From hidden traits teams look for to the biggest mistakes franchises make to the players flying under the radar. This is the insight you won't hear anywhere else. If you want to understand the draft like an insider, you don't want to miss this episode. Listen to the Sports Slice podcast on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slice of Life 12 and TikTok podcast network on TikTok. This is an Iheart podcast. Guaranteed human.