The Questlove Show - Questlove Supreme: Bowlegged Lou Part 1

Episode Date: May 5, 2021

Ok we know we have a tendency to say this, but THIS is a very special episode of Questlove Supreme. Bowlegged Lou also known as Quest's "personal hero" changed what we knew about Hip Hop and R&B. Lou and his collective of brothers also known as Full Force reinvented and redefined these genres bringing a surplus of music to our ears that would launch and expand the careers of so many of our favorite artists. But that's not it! Can we talk about, their personal style doing the same for masculinity and the joy and hilarity brought by Lou's screen presence? Yes! We can also talk about wild stage shows, being the only hip hop producers to work with James Brown, beefs with Larry Blackman, hits for New Kids on the Block and the Backstreet Boys, playing our favorite school bullies (as we celebrate the 31st year of House Party) and so much more! So, yes to answer your question, this is part ONE of our episode with the legendary, Bowlegged Lou. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-heart podcast. Guaranteed human. 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,

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So let's get to it. Listen to The Clifford Show on the IHeard 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. 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

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and TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Questlove Supreme is a production of IHeart Radio. What up, Lou? What's good, bro? What's up, brother? How you feel? Good, man, good, man. Cool, man. It's cool, huh?

And he got a haircut for this? Oh, nice. Nice. You know what I mean? Nice. I had to shape it up. Outside. In my homie garage.

Oh, outside. Okay. Hell yeah. Outside, massed up in the garage. That's how we do it. I ain't thinking you with a haircut so long. I'm like, who is that? What his name is?

You know what I'm saying? I'm a dangerous man with some money, my puny. Ooh, and a beard. That's funny. That's funny. Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to Questlove Supreme.

I'm your host, Kirstlove. We have Team Supreme today. In the house, we have Lai'eah. Where are you right now, Laiaa? I am in Los Angeles. Los Angeles. At home, yeah, the show is. With a giant Talib Qaulip poster behind you.

Oh, no, that's common. I'm sorry. Both of them. It's that long time ago when they went on tour when Combin was wearing a knit hat. I see. I see. Eons ago. Eons ago.

I'm sick and Steve in the house. We're in the same place, but we're in separate rooms. What's up, Steve? I like it this way. You know, close by, but not too close. Okay. Farni, take a little. Fresh cut.

What up? Yeah, man. Yeah, man. Had to bring in the spring the right way. So went and got cut up in my homeboy garage today. This is your first cut in a year or so, or? Nah, it's only, I've been cut a few times, but it's only been over the year. I probably only got cut like two, three times.

So it ain't been. And every time I got cut, it was the same situation. We was cutting outside. So this is my first one in months. This is my first one of the year, for show. Okay. Cool. Cool.

All right. Well, good to see you getting fresh for 2021. What can I say, y'all? It's an honor and a pleasure to have our guest on the show today amongst his achievements, being one of the founding members of one of the founding members, of one of the most crucial production teams in hip hop culture and music. But dare I say, one of the first

major production teams in hip hop culture. Like previous to full force is arrival on the scene. I'll say that most music production was usually a one-man show or kind of a duo at best, but it should be noted that in addition to a vast array of the artists that they work with like UTFO, Brittany Spears, Lisa Lisa, Lisa Colt, Jam, In sync, Selena, Backstreet Boys, James Brown.

My favorite R&B name of all time next to Lilo Thomas, which is Cheryl Pepsi Riley. Yes. I always have to share a name with the zest of a gospel play announcer. You know, Richard Dimple Fields, Ricky Bell, Shannon, and Cheryl Pepsi Riley. Wait a minute. I'm joking right now, but I believe. No, that's real. Yeah.

Wasn't there a thanks for my child gospel play? I believe there was one. Really? I know she was in gospel plays. I don't know if it was a thanks for my child one. I believe I once heard. It's one of those things for my child moments in a gospel play. It's like way before Tyler Perry.

Anyway, I digress. Some of the greatest jams ever, name them. Roxanne Roxanne, Roxanne. I wonder if I take you home. Can you feel the beat? Stad it! Try me or as, Jasmine Guy pronounces it tri-may.

Tri-May. Tri-May. Tri-May. Tri-May. Tried out. Way, all cried out. Way, way, way, way, way, way, way more hits, more than, you know, if I name them all, we'll be here all night. And despite his and his team's penchant for playing some of the scariest villains on the silver screen,

Crush Groove and Hiles party. Yeah, I will say that they're probably. some of the nicest guys ever. And I just, I personally want to add that, you know, growing up, being 14 years old,

stuck with a very dweeby, nerdy voice disposition. Our guest today was a personal hero of mine because you just didn't see this level of nerdiness and funkiness and authenticness coming from the same source. So I'll say that he doesn't get enough praise for his contributions.

And I'm speaking for the entire force squad, they made an immediate impression on me because there was definitely a moment when I was like 15 trying to decide in the crack era of West Philadelphia should I code switch my way into adulthood or just be my nerdy self and I chose the latter wisely. So ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to Questlove Supreme, my personal hero, bow-legged Lou of full force. Yes, sir. Thank you, man.

What's up, what's up, what's up, what guys? Lou, I don't know if you remember, Lou, we actually met, this is probably, this is a couple years ago, the Harris family in Raleigh, North Carolina. They did Teen Fest, and you and your brothers came over to the crib, and we met there. That was like our first time. I mean, but, I mean, this was probably like 2015 or something. This is some years back, but they're just a great family, and they'd say, yeah, you know, the full force guys are coming over, and I was like, really? Wow. Y'all showed up.

I was like, oh, shit. That's really them. All six of them? Well, yeah, it was, it was Lou. It was Paul Anthony and then Be Fine. It was just, I think it was just three y'all that night. Y'all would do something for Team Fest. And I even called Ninth that night.

I was like, bro, you ain't going to believe this shit. You got to come over here. He was like, what you said? I said, bro, you just got to come over here. And he came over and like that whole night, me and him was just texting each other back and forth, like lines from house party and shit. Like, it was the funny shit. But now, y'all, y'all was good dudes, man.

It was good to meet your brothers, man. Thanks, brother, man. And I'm glad you shouted out the Harris family because there was Donna. Yeah. Donna Maria. Donna Maria. And her husband or ex-husband, I think, now. Was it Lenny?

Lenis. I think they still married. As far as I know, they still married. Hmm, okay. But anyway, still beautiful people regardless, whether together or apart. Wait, we always got to ask if couples have made it. past the pandemic, you know. I've taken count.

There's at least 18 of my friends that have kicked the book. Did not make it. Right. Did it make it. Wow. Lou, I know your brothers are Be Fine and Paul Anthony, but what's your relationship with Shashai Kurt and baby Jerry? Like, are they cousins?

or they're just friends? No, they're our blood cousins. So it's a family of fear. There are three cousins and, you know, we have family affair. Okay. So it's kind of like the Isley Brothers situation, which is three main brothers and then adding family members

and supplementing the group. Yeah. Yo, man, this is, what's weird is that you and I became friends on social media and I always wanted to interview you, which is kind of why I always kept a distance because I wanted to save our first conversation for the show. Oh, shit.

So if anything, I kind of, I made Jimmy Jam his proxy because I've already interviewed Jimmy Jam, so now Jam and I, like, talk every day. But this is, like, the moment I've been waiting for for the show, like, to use this as that moment. Where are you right now as we speak? I'm actually upstairs in my office. But I mean, I don't know what city you reside in now.

Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania, the Poconos. That's where I live. Wow. Oh, okay. Oh, you're my real? Yes, me and my brothers. We've been up here for like at least 15 years.

And, you know, the three of us, we just made a brother move from Brooklyn to here, you know. And my, I never really wanted to move here. but what made me come here is that Paul all of a sudden when he was going through his cancer journey, he just wanted to move. He just wanted to, we just, let's get out of Brooklyn. Let's just go. So I was my brother's keeper during all his cancer journey. So I'm like, okay, he said to me, he said, listen, this is what we're going to do.

I already spoke to be, you know, be fine. I spoke to be. And we said, let's all move together. And we just build some houses from ground up. We go to the Poconos. We don't want mom to live by herself anymore. so she'll live with you because you're not married anymore

you know me and be still married so that's what we're going to do and that's what we're going to do and I'm like and that was it I mean I'm like damn who made that decision it wasn't me but I was my brother I was my brother's keeper and I'm here now so it's all good how's it like with moms man

having your mom's in house how's it like well my mom's um I became a primary caretaker um last March when COVID started so she lives with me and it's all good. I'm just taking care of the best way I can, and my brothers are chipping and pitching, and she was, you know, she's got health issues,

but we're here for her, just like she was for us when we were growing up. So it's all good. I can dig it. So have you guys always made decisions with each other, like nomads? Because this is definitely like a nomad move, where no matter what happens, we all move together, which is weird because,

Once I became adult, the first thing I did was got as far away as possible from my family. You know, so funny is that Paul lives, that we live in the same cul-de-sac. He's, like, directly across from me. He wanted to be that close to our mom, so directly he could open his door. Hey, Lou, you're all right? And he'd say it, like, all the time, back and forth. My brother, B, he lives, like, I would say, 10 minutes from us. And he's like, listen, I don't mind living close to y'all,

but I just don't want to live too close. That was him, you know. But Paul's directly across for me, like directly across with our houses. Yeah. I just wanted to ask, like, what made the Poconos? Because y'all are from Brooklyn, so you could have did Jersey. You could just get to get Philly. You could, everything.

Why just the Poconos? I mean, got to ask Paul. I mean, him and B, they wanted to do that. And that's what we did. Okay. So it's all good. You know, I, um, yeah. I didn't really want to come out here, but it's just fine.

It's cool. But my nightlife is always New York City, you know, and it'll stay my nightlife, especially when COVID finishes up. But I was going back and forth anyway, because we still have like a little crash pad office in Brooklyn. But, yeah. Gotcha. Well, I'm from Philly.

So, you know, I used to go to the Pocahouners a lot. Are you guys near Strasbourg or is there another part of? You're close. You were close by Strasbourg. I got to ask you, are those? Are those, like, resorts still open, like, Cove Haven and Paradise Stream and all those... Like, dirty dancing. Still.

Yes, still. Yeah. The kind of circuit that my dad did was always, like, you know, you would do the cat skills, and then you do two months in the cat skills, and then we do, like, three months in the Poconos. And back then I was, like, too young because these were, like, newlywet resort. so you weren't allowed to, kids weren't allowed on the property. Oh, okay.

You know, that's where I did a majority of my MTV watching because I just had to stay in the house and watch MTV nine hours while they would work because kids weren't allowed to just walk around. Wow. Yeah, I kind of missed it there. So what part of Brooklyn were you guys from initially? Well, it began with me and my two brothers.

Like, we grew up as very young kids, and that's when we started, you know, singing, thanks to my father's one that groomed us for that. And we started out in Bedford-Stuyveson first. We lived on 670-Hawesi Street between Patchen and Reed. Then we moved to Kingston Avenue, which was Crown Heights, Kingston Avenue between Bergen and Dean. And then we moved to East Flatwich, Lennox Road between Schenectady and East 46.

So when we got to East Flatwich is when, you know, we became full force with our cousins because they was already living there. And what was the environment like in Brooklyn at the time when you were growing up? Well, in Bedstuy, I would have to say, no, no, yeah, in Bedstuy, I mean, it was cool. You would never know it was kind of crazy because we didn't in public school then. But I think when we went to Crown Heights in Brooklyn, man, we was just, it was just some good times. We'd be on the street corners playing Skelly right on the damn ground. Like every day we play Steel the Base.

We play Boots Up. And we would always go to the Kingston Park. I thought, you know, Boots Up is like, you chase people around the whole damn block. And then when you capture them, you lined them up against the wall. And it's almost like a firing squad, but instead of a firing squad, they all, with their butts out, wearing clothes, of course, and we would take these pensive pinker balls, like how you play-

And we were, and we threw it out of them. And we used to make some sore asses and it was crazy. But we were reckless. And they, you know, they were hurting people and making people bleed. That's what we played. We would take it to the next level in West Philly and use softballs. Oh, man. Oh, geez.

Oh, man. Ah, ass ball. Yeah, man. I remember that. I remember that. Yikes. Okay, I got to ask because the thing is, is that, I know, like, nothing irks me more when people make a big deal of like, you speak so well.

Because they're basically trying to say that the exterior from which the voice is coming out of does not match the voice, which, I mean, I grew up with that shit all my life. Like, I was always a big dude, you know, kind of scary looking or whatever. And then I start talking and they're like, they're totally disarmed. and but was it always that way for you when you were growing up in Brooklyn? I mean, not really, but, you know, I think, because I remember, I remember you broached that same, see, I remember everything. When we connected on social media, I think it was, what was in my space I'm thinking? Maybe it was a princester. Yeah, yeah.

Or etcher sketch, but you exactly mentioned that to me. You said, yeah, man, I remember when you guys did. soul train. Yeah. And Don Cornelius must have said twice in that inch you, well, you guys are very articulate and we really like you and you're very articulate. And, you know, because the way we looked and, you know, we came off with Jerry Curles. We're definitely the first R&B group to show physical fitness physique with our Jerry Curls.

That's lightly putting it that way. We were the first one to do us. So that's why people just made a lot of jokes. So people just thought differently. But when we started talking and flowing, you know, people get caught off guard, you know. I don't know why, but that's just how it is. You know, people think something else, you know what? I'll never forget when we were getting ready, when we was on the set of House Party 2.

And Ralph Tresman, who was performing in House Party 2, he did a number. Yo baby, yo joint. Right, right, exactly. He said to us, he said, man, let me tell you something, man. When I first heard that y'all were going to be in House party, I kept saying, saying myself, well, what the hell are they going to do? How are they going to, how are they going to say their lines? Are they going to say, look at Spot Run.

Look at John Jones. Look at it. I was like, you're crazy, man. He said, that's what I thought, man. That's hilarious. Nah, dude, because I was going to say the reason, before I got my current management now, there was like one dude in Philadelphia.

Philadelphia that might have been in some street activity in Philadelphia, and he wanted to, like, invest money in the roots and, like, you know, give us, like, a couple, like 20,000 to do a demo or something like that, but I kept thinking about you guys in Crush Groove and was like, nope, no, not. Not a problem. So how, well, okay, I always ask, what, do you remember the first album or, first record you ever purchased? The first album I ever purchased was the Temptations' greatest hits. And that's when they were still on Motown, and it was only like 10 songs on there. They didn't have that picture on the cover.

It was just The Temptations. Oh, that silver cover. Yeah, listing their greatest hits, like the way you do the things you do. All their early stuff, because I've been a Temptations nerds since I was in public school, always loving the temptation.

My brother Paul would always make fun and go, oh, you really like the temptations? All 25 of them? Okay. That was my group back then, and their legacy is still my all-time favorite. And I got every temptation album you can mention. You know, I love the temptations, the whole style.

What? Bearback, too? I got Bearback also. Ah, man, you nerd. You nerd. First time I heard this song, I lost my mind. I was like, what the fuck? Riding Bernda?

I got their winners and I got their losers. I got them all. Wait, no, this is, I mean, I didn't necessarily, I wasn't, I wasn't too discerning as a kid when records came in the house. But I definitely knew my dad's face when he brought home the house party album that came out. I think after a song for you, I think that was 76. And I remember, again, like I was five years old, so I didn't know what critically claim was or a good record or bad record. But I definitely remember my dad being not too happy with that particular Temptations record. And so, wow.

House party. I remember that one, too. Man, they did a house party album before the damn movie. Exactly. Exactly. Wait, what's the order of you and your brothers? Who's the oldest and middle and youngest? I'm the oldest.

Paul Anthony is the middle, and my brother Befine is the youngest out of the three of us. And aren't y'all the first generation? Like, aren't your parents from the islands? Well, yeah, Rikers. Oh, I don't know why I thought. That's funny. My dumb asspelled for that shit.

She was like, oh, wow, damn. I know, Rikers, right from the jump. My father's from St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. Okay, that ain't crazy. And my mother's from Santa Domingo, from San Diego. And I was born in, I was also born at St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. I was, like, three years old when I came up to New York, you know? Paul was, Paul was made in St. Thomas, but born in New York.

Oh, okay. Wait, in Santer Domingo, is that Dominican Republic? That's the Dominican Republic of my mother, yeah. Yeah. Yes, indeed. So what is that music? Summer of 1980, I lived in the Frenchman's Reef. Wow.

Really? What's that here? My parents did a, you know, like, my parents would do like three to six months residency at a resort. Oh, okay. The entire, the Frenchman's Reef, so like the Contiki and they would just go between St. John's, St. John's, St. John's, St. Thomas and St. Croix, I believe. St.

Roy. But we lived in the Prince Riefe in there. And all I remember was that's the first time I saw, like, old black men playing dominoes just on the street corner. Yeah, man. Dominoes is a game for the islands, man. But they were break the table, like. Domino, niggles. Right, exactly.

Like, that level of that. Or brother, brother, domino brother. No. No, you had it right the first time. Yeah, exactly. You had it correct the first time. So growing up in Brooklyn, like, what was just a musical environment? Like, what were the first shows you went to?

And how did that affect you and your brothers as entertainers? Man, well, what happens that as we were growing up, me and my brothers starting out, and we were so young when my father was assembling us to sing. Like, I think Paul had to be eight years old, third grade, and I was nine. and then my brother B. Fine was five. But Paul was the first one that started singing. And this was in, when we was in Bedstuy. And Paul was the first one of singing.

He was singing in the bathroom because we didn't have a shower, but we had a bathroom. And he was singing in the bathroom. And he was singing this song by Smokey Robinson called If You Can Want. And Paul would sing that song. And my father was like, oh, shit, honey. And she told my mother, he got a voice. And my father, he was one of those doing.

Duop singers. He would be on the street corners with his friends, and they were doing the duop harmony. They had groups called the Criterians. He used to even work with Frankie Lyman one time. But that was his thing. Wait, your father was in the Criterions? Yeah, the Criterians. Yeah. He was in that group. I know that. I'm a, I'm a doop kid myself, so I know that name. Wow. And they used to do harmonies, the house, and everything. He's the one that taught us about how to sing. harmony. And it would be me and Paul because I got interested because he was working with my

brother, so I got a little jealous, and he started working with me. My brother B-Fine wasn't really interested in singing, but my father forced him. And he said, and he would, he would, he would give him a spanking. If you don't sing, you do nothing else. You don't sing he had no choice. He had no choice but to sing.

I was waiting for the Joe Jackson story. All right. Yeah, that's like that, but he wasn't that mean. But, um, Once we started singing, then my Uncle Sito formed us as a group. He bought us these frills shirts and he made us a group. And we went by the name of the amplifiers when we were growing up in Brooklyn. And we started out so young.

But we would be singing the songs from the records, you know, Ball of Confusion, 25 miles by Edmund Snar, one of my favorite joints. And we would just be doing that as we're growing up. And then what happened is that they took us to the Apollo Theater. Because back in the day, before Showtime at the Apollo, of course, the Apollo used to have like shows every week. They would have like 10 shows every week, you know, two or three shows a day. And they had a high average night every Wednesday, way before Showtime at the Apollo. But every Wednesday, you had to win first prize four weeks a row.

And if you do that, you get to appear on the professional show. Well, we went on there and we did the song called Cloud 9, which was by the temptation. And we killed it like every week. And we won first place at the Apollo Theater every week. And then we appeared on the professional show with the late great Jotex and the Whispers, which was the Whisper's first time at the Apollo Theater back then. They had a song called Seems Like I Got to Do Wrong. And I'm telling you, before that, my uncle, my aunt, my father would take us to the Apollo

Theater, like religiously. We saw all these shows growing up youngster. you know, Joe Simon, you know, Linda Jones, may she rest in peace. Curtis Mayfield, Temptation, Supreme. I mean, yeah, I mean, everybody. You saw Linda Jones before. David.

Tyrone Davis, turn back the hands of time. I mean, we grew up with all that music lineage, you know, and Di Apollo Theater was magic, man. It was like magic. So that's how we started, you know, like that. Can you, all right, so I always wanted to ask, anyone that's ever participated in amateur night when they come on this show

and I always forget to ask them. Pre-show time at the Apollo, what is the actual ritual for getting on and then doing amateur night? Like, do you have to have core charts? Do you bring a cassette to whoever the MD is? Or do you just say,

we're doing my girl in, you know, in E minor, and they automatically know it. Like, what's the process of amateur night? Well, yeah, we had a guy with us named George McKinnett, so he knew a lot of the people back there. And the way we got through, we never auditioned or nothing. He was like, pay somebody under the table,

and bam, we would be on the amateur night. And in order to get there with the band, we would rehearse, the band were rehearsed with people, and if they knew the song, which they always knew most of them, they knew the song, they would just get the key. Or sometimes, yeah, people would bring in their music. They practiced for sheet music. Okay, we got it.

Sometimes the band didn't know a song, all right, you got to come up with another one. Do you got another song you know? And then they would know it. You know what I made? So that would be the thing. And we'd all be practicing and just getting everything together. And it was crazy. They used to have all the amateurs would be downstairs in the basement.

And you could hear like the professional show, like Stevie Wonder, stomping on the ground and you get on the stage, you can hear him from in the steel. Like, wow, Stevie Wonder, like stomping right now, singing superstition or whatever, you know, Mitch and Max, yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's how we would get it with the band members. And they knew Cloud 9, we didn't have to give them cord.

They just had to get it in our right key, and we was able to do it with the Apollo band. Yeah. Okay, I always wanted to know, like, if someone threw a curveball, like, I want to do Dionne Warwick? Do you know the way to San Jose? and the band would say like, no, we don't know that shit.

That's why I asked, like, did you have to, that explains why everyone did, like, Luther Vandros is if only for one night or... Yeah, right. All the open mic selection. Right, right, exactly. I get it now. A win is a win.

A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver 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 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 2, 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 podcasts. 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 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. So just leading into your actual recorded career, the first time I heard of you guys was on Curtis Blow's party time. but what was the first side that you actually cut, like the first time that you guys were in the studio recording stuff? The first thing that we ever cut, well, we did songs. The first studio thing we ever did was a song called Turn You On. And it was on a small little independent label in Brooklyn.

It was on Daz Records. And we thought we made it only because on Daz Records in Brooklyn was a big hit record called Super Rhyme Rap by, Jimmy Spicer. Yeah, Jimmy Spicer. Super rapping. Yeah. Right. May he rest in peace. And we're like, wow, we made it. We're on the same label as him. I mean, we didn't have no damn hit with Turn You On, but that was like our first joint recording it. I mean, like, after that, yeah, we worked with Curtis Blow. We did five songs on two different Curtis Blow's album.

And the first one, you know, we did a song called Big Time Hood and we did a song called Underfire. And we actually produced those songs, but at that time, we didn't really have much say. So we got the credit of co-writing it. And I got to give it. And the biggest song we did with Curtis was, yeah, party time. Party time. Whoa is party time. That song, he brought us on tour with him.

And we still weren't known, but he took us on tour and we did a tour with him, New Edition, Midnight Star, Rick James and Mary Jane Girls. And I'll never forget. Oh, wow. Listen, there's a crazy story. Kurt, if he hears this story, this is going to be my first time saying it because I want to give you the Jews. I want to give you to Jews quests.

I think I know this is going because Curtis told us this story about party time. But go ahead. You tell me the story. Did he do on the show? On the show? Well, anyway. Laia, he told us this story about doing it in D.C.

Yeah. Yes. Because that's the go-go joint. Is that to go-go, John? Yes, yes. Oh, yeah, he did. But he just talked about performing it. It probably ain't the same story.

Right, but go ahead. Oh, man, I hope I don't want to get mad. Say it, say it, man. But here's the deal. So, of course, we did the song, basketball. We co-wrote that, actually, and played on that with him. What? But part of the time, when we went on the road, oh, Lord.

When we went on the road, Kurt, this was the same time, New Edition, was starting to get really popular. And they just came out with their first album. And they was the opening act. Then after them, Curtis, then Midnight Star, Mary Jane Girls, Rick James. And this particular night, man, the promoter said, all right, Curtis, you're going to open up this night. And he was pissed. Now, they talked about this some kind of way in the new edition miniseries.

Oh, man, Kurt, don't get mad. Because Kurt is, you know, back then. So we're so upset. And remember, we're unknown, and we're cool. But he's pissed off. So he's so pissed off. He's pissed up at the new edition. Even though it wasn't New Edition's idea for him to open up.

Yeah, what, Nicole? Right. And he did not, he was so, he said, man, they should have some damn respect. They don't have no respect for me. And he was pissed now. So then he said to us, the band, oh, Lord. He said, okay, this is what we're going to do, man. And we can open up.

When we walk out of this dressing room, we're going to walk right past their dressing room. And we're going to say it soon as we leave there, I want all of us to say, punk motherfuckers from Boston. And it was like a chant. And he said, y'all with me? And in my mind, I'm like, but I like new edition.

We kind of liked them, but oh, well, and we all, we all said it. As we left the dress room, we were just all saying it like a chant, going past their damn dress room right up until the stage, and then he quiet us down from saying it. And I remember it like it was yesterday. It was crazy, but that was back then. Kurt's a whole different guy now. Of course, we followed suit.

We did what we had to do. And that was it. And was there ever a full force? New addition? Wait, new addition. Full force, collaboration. Well, on the basketball court, basically. We used to play a lot of games against them.

And then after they got tired of beating us, they said to us, you know, man, since you can't beat us, we might as well join y'all. And then they became part of our celebrity basketball team that played them. Oh, wow. Oh, yeah. We played against Arsenio Hall, Denzel Washington. And there was Mike Bivens and Ronnie DeVoe that played with us. Oh, they were the players.

Yeah, I know Mike can play. Ronnie played with us. He could ball his ass on. Dundrae Whitfield. Ecstasy from Houdini. May he rest in peace. Grand Master D. Man, those were our teammates, man.

And it was crazy, you know, the games we used to have against so many different people. The Full Force All-Stars we called ourselves. Hey, on those Curtis Blow records. Did you guys ever have any interaction or work with Larry Smith at all? Yes, the legendary Larry Smith. Yeah, man. It's hard, it's hard to get in. It's hard tracking him down.

Yeah. Well, I mean, of course, he's not here now. But people that work with him direct, yeah. Yeah, can you tell us about, like, his, just him in general and, like, his work? Yeah, well, Larry, man, man, he was a genius. You know, he played the guitar, of course, but he was just a genius songwriter. and in the studio, he was just really a workaholic and he always wanted stuff to get right.

And he was like Russell Simmons, like, go-to guy, you know what I mean? A lot of times with Run DMC, with Houdini, you know, with Curtis Blow. Larry was like a staple and he knew his music, you know what I mean? And if anybody says, no, Larry's not like that. No, it is like that. It is like that. It's always Larry's way. no matter why.

And he didn't want to hear nothing. So that's the respect he built up. So if anybody's like, I don't know. I don't know if Larry's doing it right. They don't say it to him. They say to themselves or amongst other people. And I'm like, you think Larry's right with that? No.

Why don't I say? No, this is it. I'm telling you. Hilarious. That sounds like working with Questlove. Okay. I get it. Okay.

Another question I've been dying to ask you. You, all right, you just got to come out and tell me the truth. Now, I'm skipping to you, TFO. Were those cuts on Leader of the Peck and especially the fade out on Roxanne, Roxanne, were those real cuts from Dr. Ice or from Mix Master Ice, or did you guys just sample, come on now, it's too perfect and too executed, or did you sample those sounds? because it's too perfect. Those are cuts.

Those are Mix Master Ice. No, for real, seriously. I wish my brother Bee Fine was here, because Beefine is the one that orchestrated all of that. And with Mixed Master, and he always told Mix Master, because he was definitely the first DJ in hip-hop. I don't know who else came before him

that would play like a musical instrument when he scratched. Right, right. On a lot of songs, no DJs was doing that. But being that B was a musician, he was a drummer as well, He orchestrated over and he arranged what Mix Master would do, you know, and Mix Master cutting up and scratching on many of those songs,

which a lot of DJs didn't do at the time at all. Another thing that you guys should be credited for was really the first time that we heard an actual authentic breakbeat on record. I mean, before then, drum machines would often or a live drummer of you in the Sugar Hill Enjoy era, well, it was often the music background, but, you know, the first time that I heard what we coined the term, a breakbeat,

was using Billy Squire's big beat for the educated rappers verse on Roxanne, Roxanne. Can you just explain just the whole, well, first of all, even before we get to that, who taught you guys or who do you credit as your teachers for learning how, to craft songs and produce songs? Or was it just trial and error all the time before

and then UTF is where you perfected it? Yeah, I would definitely say UTFO is where we perfected. It was trial and error on some of the things, but once we started producing UTFO, and I got to give like really shout to my brother, Be Fine, a Kurt, baby Jerry, the musicians of the group, and even shy shy, but they were the brainstorms with actually putting together the musical stuff

and you're right, Quest, and thanks for that because a lot of times we don't get that credit. I mean, I'm a modest brother, but I love to get credit where credit is due, and sometimes it's not due to us. But, yeah, that was like one of the first, like, samples. The first time that you heard a breakbeat, yeah. Exactly, like ever in a record.

And then after we did it on Roxanne, we did it on our own song, selfish lover, which was the first time a breakbeat was used in a record, a song. You know what I mean? And it was a solo-to-the-new Jack Swing. Right. Exactly. And so that was trial and error.

And plus, we were, you know, we had the soul of hip-hop anyway, growing up in Brooklyn and performing it in Harlem and in the Bronx. We were a local group, and we always wanted to fuse the hip-hop and R&B together. And sampling the Billy Squire thing, nobody's ever done that before. heard the big beat on many parties and hip-hop parties and stuff like that, but never on record, you know, and that was a big thing. And plus the fact that the late-grade educated rapper had the illest rap on that whole U-TL for Roxanne Roxanne. Yeah, I've memorized that shit and perform it like it was mine in the ninth grade. Well, okay, the reason why I ask that question

is because mostly the stories that I hear from any luminary in the 80s when it comes to production, with the exception of Marley Mall, most of the stories I hear is that, you know, most hip-hop productions are a rush job. And, you know, maybe a rare example, like Public Enemy would do pre-production in a studio where they have time to be creative and time to think of, new sounds or whatnot. but nine times out of 10, you're going to the studio, you got like two to three hours to figure out what you're going to do, and then it's a rough job and you're out of there. But that song's pretty, I mean, your production, no matter how sparse it was, was fairly intricate.

So I would figure that it would take more than just two to three hours to slap something together. So like, what was the production process like, as far as you guys coming up with ideas and, you know, you guys infused like humor and skits and all these things that I figure would take at least five to seven hours to sort of come up with. But in that time period, did you guys have the time in the studio

to do those things? Yeah, but when we was in the studio, we would do a lot of, like, you know, like you would call it, like if you're acting, you do dress rehearsal, or you would do rehearsing. We would go in the studio and not necessarily make the final recording of the joint. We would do all of our ideas there, come up with the ideas. And then after we finish, okay, y'all, we'll be back here tomorrow to finish it off.

So it was never a rush thing with us. We definitely took our time with all the songs and the intricacies of it. And we'd plan. And sometimes we'd get the ideas right then and there amongst ourselves. But a lot of times things could be pre-planned as well, but by getting them in the studio first and foremost. Okay, now, what should also be noted, and I think a person had to been alive at the time,

so I will say that probably one of the very first instances of what we'll say is pre-viral culture. Now, of course, you know, when something's done, it can go viral instantly and spread in milliseconds, but to be alive at the time when Rock Roxanne was out. The Roxanne was. Oh, thank you for talking about this.

I was waiting for this. Because, yes, all right. Come on. I was alive. Okay. Like, it was just, it was just one of the, it was, well, yeah, exactly. Like, you were 16 at the time this came out. You can't.

I was like, who is the real Roxanne? I don't know it's too confusing. Well, one, one I want to know is who, who was the conceptualizer of Roxanne, Roxanne, How did you get paired with UTF? And how much control did you guys have over the entire Roxanne phenomenon? Because there were at least nine to 11 answer records of various Roxanne's doctor. Roxanne's gynaecologist. It's all their fault.

I bet you were all their fault. Yeah, so tell me. That was a Roxanne's a man. No, those are Roxanne's a man. Every sort of record. Well, there was no Roxanne's a guy in a college disquest. There was a lot. But you're right.

You are right, my brother. There was actually 25, over 25 answerback records to that song. So. Yeah, it started the first disc craze. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So what happened was with UTF, well, in the beginning, What happened is that how they form first is that there's four members of UTIF, of course, Dr. Ice, Kangled Kid, the educated rapper may rest of peace, and mixed master ice to DJ. So what happened is that my brother B was going to going to a junior high school because he was in high school.

And he was going there because somebody was messing around with his girlfriend at the time. Somebody was like bothering her and teasing her and everything. and it was Cango Kid. Okay? So Mike Hughes of Code Jam, new Cangle Kid, and she kept complaining to my brother Bifung. You know, this guy keep bothering me. He keeps picking at me and bothering me.

He said, okay, I'm going up to school. I'm going to fuck him up. I'm just going up to your school. We're just going to bust his ass. So he talked to Mike Hughes of Coat Jam, because just before Mike became in Coat Jam. And Mike said, yeah, I know Cango, whose real name is Sean Fuqua.

So I know him. So, yeah, I want you to take me to him now. I want to see him, okay? took him to the school and he was going there to literally kick and get in Cango's face and bust his ass

for messing with his girl so what happened is that Mike said oh he's right there so he pointed to Cango and Cango was on stage during a talent show an auditorium

and he was dancing he was pop locking and killing it and my brother B was looking like an amazement wow Wow. I'm about the fuck that nigga up.

Exactly. So he goes to Mike. All right, Mike, man. I'm going to go, man. I kind of seen enough. Just tell him, tell him first of all that I came to bust his ass, but he's dancing real good. So I want to talk to him.

So you get his number. Give him my number and we'll connect, all right? And then my brother B just left. He left. And Mike Hughes told Kango when he was finishing everything. and Cager came back. He said, yo, man, did you see the guy that was next to me? You know, they were standing in me?

Yeah, yeah, he's a big nigga, man. Yeah, man, he came here to kick your ass. That's the boyfriend. That's a Renthus boyfriend, and he came here to bust your ass. He said, word? Yeah, word. But you danced real good, but he wants to have a meeting. He wants to have a meeting with you.

And that's what happened. We met with Cango. Cango brought in Dr. Ice. They danced for us because we used to do local shows, And they were like the first ones to do all the pop and lot. Because remember, remember when the hip hop started and they used to always have dances on the stage with them. All the rappers would have dances.

Kangol Kid and Dr. Ice was the first dancers to dance for a rap group, which was Houdini. Right. They were the first ones. But they started with us dancing on our shows, and we would bring them on and hear of y'all. And we was impressed with them. And then B said, you know, and then Kango said, go, be, you know, we could rap also.

So Yaka rap, said, yeah. They got educated rapper, and they formed the rap tree. They came. They kind of auditioned for B. B. says, yo, man, y'all are dope. And then they got mixed mass to ice and made them a group. And then Steve Salem, may he rest in peace, Steve Salem, who went to college with me, he was our co-manager. He's the one that took us in the group to select records, who was never a hip-hop label at the time. They just was a regular label, and we went there to record records.

Because if it wasn't for Steve Salem, we would never be writers and producers. We was only looking for a deal for full forces of performance. I didn't give a shit about writing and producing for other people. I just didn't. And I'm glad I was voted out. But Steve Salem said, listen, if you guys,

because we was getting our demos turned down, left and right anyway. He said, I think if you guys write and produce for other people, I think then full force would get a deal of its own. This was his gut. And he was right. Because the first production was UTF, then Lisa Lisa in color. Jim, real Roxanne, and then we got our deal.

But the Roxanne, Roxanne, they became, and here's the thing, we had a softball hanging out. That's supposed to be the A side, right? It's single. But my brother B just woke up and he said, you know, man, I came up with an idea, a concept, and let's just put it on the B side. It was like a throwaway idea. And he's going to send, I want to talk before Roxanne, Roxanne, he just picked the name because they liked the name.

He said, it worked for the police. He went to UTFO and he said, yo, we're going to do a B side. We're going to call it Roxanne, Roxanne, here's the concept. I want you guys to be, you guys going to be fighting over a girl and none of y'all would get the girl.

Because, you know, back in those times, you know, all the rappers got the girl. But my brother said it's going to be, nobody gets the girl, and each of y'all come up with your own rap. What was so dope about the song is that B also came up with the concept, which was never done on a record before.

each rapper had their own separate beat. Right. The rapper had big beat and Kango had his own beat and Doc had his own beat that we, that full force created, of course, except for the big beat. Actually, Kango might have created his own beat as well. But that's how that record was formed.

And it was just a throwaway record to be on the B side. And what happened is that, even though we was promoting hanging out, all of a sudden here comes this DJ, from New York City playing the wrong side, which we thought at the time. And it was DJ Red Alert.

Playing playing Roxanne, Roxanne, and we were pissed. Can you believe that we got upset in the beginning? And we called Red at his house. And we're like, yo, Red, and we woke him up. Yeah, what? Yo, you're playing the wrong side.

Don't play that. You got to play the A side. The A side is hanging out. You said, yo, man, I like the B side. I know, but That's not the A side. Well, it should be. Yes. I'm playing the B side. And the radio DJ was born.

Thank you, Ray. I'm playing the B side. And he stuck to that, the radio station, let him do it. And let me tell you something, that song caught on like wildfire. Before all the answer back records, that song was just huge. It was big. It was in top 10 Billboard magazine and the R&B charts. Yeah.

Well, it was one on the rap charts. So we were blown away. Then after the success and we're doing great, along comes this 14, 13 year old brat doing Roxanne's revenge. So she was after. See, that's why I was always confused. Okay. So that's why they called it Roxanne's revenge. Duh.

All right. Duh. Duh. I was five, Lou. Okay. I'm just putting it in perspective. No, there was a one to the last. left of that five. You were 15. Anyway, the magic, the magic of Roxanne, you're right, the magic

of Roxanne was also, it was the first self-deprecating song. So, you know, it showed, it kind of put hip-hop in a every-man position like, oh, that could happen to me. That always happens to me. I get rejected by a girl, right? And all you know, you know what, it's hit me right now? When Rick Rubin was on our episode, I gave him credit for sort of helming the song format in hip hop. But it just hit me that UTFO's album predated LL's radio, which it was unheard of at the time for a hip-hop song to be under five minutes because, you know, in the era of Sugar Hill and Club records, and they're not being a lot of hip-hop records, you would make them as long as possible so that you can keep the party going.

But, I mean, at the time, did you guys think that you were doing something revolutionary by making these, you know, 16 bar, maybe 24 bar verses with a chorus and a second verse and a third verse, which was absolutely unheard of then? Like, even a radio song, like, the message, and it's like that by Run the MC was like seven minutes and 50 seconds. Damn. These songs were one of the very first single-length hits.

Like, was that a conscious decision? Yeah, that was a conscious decision because, you know, we always involved ourselves in it. So, like, if you have a Roxanne, Roxanne's song, we would do the full-force harmonies, Roxanne, Roxanne, Roxanne, we always wanted to throw singing in a lot of the records. And we always made it, like you said,

not to be so super long, and nothing was wrong with the super long. songs like the message and everything like that. But we was consciously making it so it could be digestible, especially because we loved hearing the song on regular commercial radio as well. Because the hip-hop stations played anything, even if it was 10

minutes. But he was conscious of that for all the different songs, especially that first album, you know? And Kangal Kid was, we call him like a disciple of ours so much because he loved the production and stuff. He came up with the idea to do fairytale level. was the first time a rap group sang.

Saying, yeah. We did the backgrounds in the music, but Kangos sang, Doc sang, even educated rappers sang on the air, mixed math, but they did. And they used to perform that song on tour and the place would go crazy, because they went on tour at New Edition.

That shit was big. Yeah. That shit was bigger than, is this the end? Like, that shit was super big. Wait, it just hit me. There's a lot of firsts in your career. and it just hit me that you guys were also one of the first production teams to self-promote, if you will. People often credit it to Puffy to self-promote.

But, you know, the tag, full force get busy one time. Like that could have been the very first hashtag. Whose idea was it to always promote, you guys were always spicing up all of your productions with your production tag? like your own commercial. Whose idea was that? Man, I would have to say that was all of our ideas. I mean, and you're right, Quest. Thanks a lot, man.

I mean, wow, you're right. We did that on our own because we knew, like back in the day, a lot of producers, you know, before us, I would say Terry and Jimmy, they started getting no reality. They had their own style to just the address, but we said, you know, we want to make sure the producers get props in these songs like us.

So we would be like Alfred Hitchcock when a lot of our own productions. You know, Albert Hitchcock. Sneaking in his own movies. Yeah, sneak in here. So unassuming, but we'd make ourselves assuming, you know. And we would give those tags. Like, full force to get busy when the time was the idea of Paul Anthony. First time anybody said, get busy.

And I'll never forget, we went to a new edition, not new edition, new kids on the block concert. They were such big fans of ours. And we was like on the backstage. and we was, not backstage, it was like on the side stage, because Maurice Stark came and put us in the side, and then the New Kids of Black kept looking us to the side,

and then Donnie Wahlberg, I'll never forget this. He just stopped after their last song, and he said, you know, I just want to make mention here, there's a bunch of guys that's here right now that we look up to, because in Boston, the biggest full force record at the time was Unselfish Lover that we did. Right. And he said to the crowd,

all those white girls and white girls, and white white he said to them there's some guys in this business now y'all might hear arsonio hall say let's get busy but let me tell you who coined that phrase wow exactly yeah he said this he said it's a bunch of guys they go by the name of full force and we got some of the members here right now and i want y'all to give a big rousing no he said i want you guys to repeat after me and say this loud i want y'all to say full force get busy right now and i want y'all to say full force get busy one time. And I'm gonna bring them out. Y'all ready? Here we go. And they said it loud. All these white kids. Four boys. It was crazy. And here we all walking on stage. They didn't know who knew us from and they

clapping and screaming for us. And Donnie's hugging us. That was our first time meeting, meeting new kids. Wow. Hugging us. And he said, these are the guys, the corner of phrase. These guys are popular producers. And he was basically, doing like a bio giving us flowers there on that stage. And then we then he said, okay, now we're going to close it out. Y'all, y'all remember the song?

Y'all remember the hook? Oh, oh. Oh, there we are on stage doing that, singing the hook with new kids on the block because they were fans of ours with the whole self-promotion. And you're right, we said full force get busy one time on the song,

Unfaithful, don't even try it. Full force don't buy it. Right. A lot of our records, like on temporary love thing before it over, I go, as sure as my name is Bowleg and Lou, I'm blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And we would do the B-Sides quest. Like, we used to do skits on the B side. I know.

We were doing skits before De La Sol. I know. And I majored in theater, but I would have my fun on the B-side. So we would do a song like Unselfish Lover and on the B-side, we go, it's okay. It's. Okay. It was like a whole skit. And we set our names and just to let you know that we wanted to make sure we got our credit as producers as well.

When we did the first Lisa Lisa song, I wonder if I take you home. We made a conscious decision. I said, listen, guys, we're singing on this. We're doing the background vocals. We're doing the music. So just for the first album and the first single, it's not going to be Lisa Lisa in Coat Jam. No, it's going to be Lisa Lisa and Coat Jam with full force. I have a question to ask you. Okay.

I have a question. Okay. The whole world of Questlove Supremes knows that I am the authority on everything's soul train. So I have this question to ask you. The very first time you guys, well, first of all, I would assume that in 85, appearing on Soul Train would have been like a major bucketless moment. And based on the relationship that you, and the camaraderie that you guys had with Don Cornelius on the show,

that that meant something to you. But I always wanted to know, the very first time that you guys appeared on Soul Train, you guys were never announced by Sid McCoy on the top of the show. You kind of just came in as special guests. This is when you guys did, I believe Alice. You did Alice the first time. And you weren't credit.

Were you guys ever disappointed? Do you know what I mean by announced? You know the top of the show when Sid McCoy announces Soul Train, the hippas trip in America with guest starts. No, no, no, no, full force. And the Soul Train dancers. I always wonder why they never had you guys at the top of the show. Like, you guys were just announced as a matter of fact.

But I always wanted to. know, were you guys even aware of that or? Well, I wasn't aware, but the first time, but the first time we performed as full force, the group of ourselves, we did Unselfish Lover. Unselfish Lover. And then you did Alice during the interview. Exactly.

That was one of my favorite moments ever. Yeah. Because Don tried to stop us after a while, but then we ended it, legal, because he kept saying, all right, all right, hold on. Right. And everybody was cool with that. But before that, and I think they announces

at the top of the show for that particular show, but before Unselfish Lover, before the full force by full force, the first time we appeared on there was with Lisa Lisa, me and Paul, and we performed all cried out. Yeah. And that was the very first time we was on Soul Trade.

I don't think we were announced, and I think it was just, even then you weren't announced at the top, right? Does Lisa Lisa, not even coached him, I bet. Right. I was going to say, you're the only artist I know whose first two appearances on Soul Train were never announced by Sid McCoy.

I consider it an honor, at least if I were making music at the time, that if Sid McCoy says your name with this golden voice, that's sort of like, that's the thumbs-up thing. And you guys didn't get that moment until your third time on the show when you guys were promoting guests who's coming to the crib and love is for suckers and all that. I just want to go back because you mentioned this real fast, but I'm trying to figure out how you had the time

because you said you met Steve in college and you were a major when, what school and can you just talk about like being a theater major and what that did for the crime? Yeah, I went to Kingsborough Community College for two years, Brooklyn College for the other two years

and I majored in theater because it's a teacher of mine's in high school named Miss McKinley. She like really inspired me to do acting. And I was like, I was always crazy and still crazy to this day. And I always loved the acting. And when I majored in theater, it was a big deal because it was a predominantly white school.

And they were so serious with all their productions. And I was in every one of their productions, even plays that I hated, like Medea and Shakespeare. Yuck, but I still wanted to be on stage and audition for every play. And that's what I did. And I brought that. And before that, I used to do little plays with my brothers in our home. And the audience used to be family members Like my mother and father

We do little plays that I would write Just bullshit plays Nothing big And then we do this and do that And my brothers hated it But they still did it And we were young And that's where our chemistry

grew the three of us To have the chemistry To go on and pursue what we were doing You know But Quest I want to go back To what you said about Don Cornelius I know that you are such a

Soul-trained A fictional and educated and and and I heard you was doing going to do something on Broadway. Please put me down even from the usher in there. I don't care because I when I tell you I love with my heart, Don Cornelius as a man as a person. And I just love him. And I'll never forget how, you know, I had his home number to sell. And I was like, wow, Don Cornelius.

And then meeting him for the first time. And then we developed a chemistry that you can even see whenever we would come there. He would, like any groups that we managed, like Cheryl Pepsi Riley or the girl group ex-girlfriend, he would always want to announce us to come on stage to like sort of take a bow or something like that after he finished interviewing them. Or sometimes I'll call him on his birthday. Like I call people on their birthdays forever. You do. I call people on their birthday just to say happy birthday. This is way before Facebook and social media.

I got my old school calendar, people's birthdays, and I called them up. And Don Corners, I always used to do that. Through the ups and the downs with people, I don't care where they are in their career, whatever, I just always like to reach out. And with Don Cornelius, man, it was just such a great thing to do. I'm able to get my ex-girlfriend at the time. She was doing a project on Soul Train. And I got her to interview Don on the phone just for her.

And he did that for me, you know. He did your unsung. That's rare too. Along with Questlove, who before meeting Quest, we just met, like he said, through the social media thing, and I reached out to him

and asked would he be a part of our unsung, man? And Quest, I'll never forget how you said, oh, hell yeah, man. And you was just so great on the show. You gave us great props. And I'll never forget that, man. Don Cornettius.

Don Cornetus never did Unsung ever. And keep in mind, When people did that show, a lot of their film, a lot of their clips from their performances used to be them performing on soul show. The OJ's George Clinton Parliament Funkadel. And they always wanted to get him, but he never, never did it. Wow. I said, I would love to get Don Cornelius. They said, oh, he doesn't need to do it.

We asked him all the time. He always says, no, he doesn't care. I said, well, let me ask him. Well, we're not going to give you his number. I said, no, I got his number. I got his number. Let me see if you do it for us. And I called them up and he said,

all right, they've been asking me so many times, man. But, you know, if I got to do it for somebody, I owe them. If I got to do it somebody to do, I'm going to do it for you, man. I'm going to do it for full force. And that was his last televised anything on TV. Wow. And I have all the other footage because he was on much longer

than what they edited, like maybe two or three bytes, but I have the whole of him talking about us. And he was supposed to come to the screening of that unsung episode in L.A. He bought, he got tickets. I mean, not tickets, but he was going to be at a table. And he didn't come for some reason.

And then two days later. Wow. Wow. Damn. He blew me away. I was crying, man, like a baby. I was on the phone with Lee Bailey doing an interview with him, crying like a baby man

and we presented a plaque for Don Corners even though he wasn't there because we didn't know why he learned but we did a special dedication plaque for him there I said Don is not here but we want to do a special tribute for him

and I ended up giving the plaque to a Tony at Don's funeral but um okay great great man great man dog soul train what a come on a question you know

I know they have a term now What's the proper term, Ramirezel and Lou knows? You're a sole trainer-file. What's it called? A soul-a-file? A-sodranophile? That doesn't sound right. Yeah.

No. Anyway. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me. Clever 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 Step Brothers Anchorman, Saturday Night Live, and the Big Money Players Network. It's Will Ferrell.

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 podcasts.

I'll say that probably the other artist I've been dying to interview on the show, just so I can ask her this question, is probably the artist that you've had the best success with. Did Lisa Lisa ever tell you what her first thoughts were when she auditioned for you guys? Yeah, she was afraid. Yeah, I was going to say, what was the whole situation of you guys discovering Lisa Lisa and her coming to audition for you? How did you discover? Yeah, well, my brother Be Fine. He came up with the song, I wonder if I'd take you home. He wrote the lyrics.

I mean, we added the little extra stuff with the arrangements and the vocal. vocals and stuff, but B came up with the concept. He wrote the lyrics out, Kurt, Jerry, they all pitched in musically and everything like that, but it was B's baby. And now B, when he did that song, and he did the reference vocal to it, which was horrible, but he did it anyway.

You still got the demo? I think so. Why it was so horrible. But with that song, it was so catchy, and this was like right after literally Roxanne, Roxanne, started doing what it's doing. We was already crafting that. So B wanted, no matter what,

he wanted a Hispanic girl to sing that song. No black girl, just Hispanic. I wanted a black girl to do it because Cheryl Pepsi Raleigh at the time was my dear friend and I was in love with a voice. So I literally hear the demo with B's bad singing on it. I said, listen, B wants a Spanish girl to do this, but I want you to do it.

I want to sneak you in the studio and have you sing it. And then surprise B. But she didn't like the song. She said she was loyal to a group at the time, but I remember playing it for her and her husband. Yeah. I don't think they liked it. But anyway, B wouldn't have heard anyway.

He wouldn't have cared. He wanted a Spanish girl to do it. So Mike Hughes, we was auditioning girls. So Mike Hughes and Coach him, he's the one that brought Lisa to us because they used to see Lisa at the Fun House, the Fun House Club in Manhattan, where Madonna used to go to all the time.

Lisa would be there partying. And Lisa was, young at the time. But Mike would see her there. I think she was 17 or something like that. And he brought her to our basement in Brooklyn so we could hear if she could sing. We loved her look automatically. As soon as we saw her, we went, wow, I hope she could sing even a little bit. Y'all barely saw her face. She has a face and everything else. And she was Hispanic. So at that time, there was no, there's no

Spanish, there's no Puerto Ricans or Spanish girls doing anything in resembling dance, ambient hip hop combo. Nope, not one. This is before Gloria, right? That's what I didn't realize. This is before Gloria. This is for Shakira. This is before Jaylor. This is before Ricky

Martin, before any Spanish person. Can I ask, was what we know as freestyle? Freestyle, yeah. Was that, was that on you guys' mind at the time because, I mean, the only person I could tell that was like even trying to touch that was maybe jelly bean benitez.

Yeah. Liseette-Lor-Land-As. I mean, Shannon was sort of going there, but freestyle wasn't a defined genre, but were you guys trying to figure out how to corner that market, or did you know that if you found someone of that level, it could be big for the Latin X market? Well, you know something? That wasn't even B's reasoning. I didn't even hear the word freestyle until after we did Lisa.

I mean, Shannon kind of did let the music play and B disclosed to me actually today that him, Kurt, and Jerry used to be in basement and they loved the sounds of John Roby and what's John Roby's other partner that was... Arthur Baker? Arthur Baker, yeah. They loved those type of records

and they would try to emulate those type of records, you know? Oh, like no frills. So Shannon, who I think they let the music play, it wasn't called freestyle when she did it and I'm thinking because she was black because it wasn't until we did Lisa Lisa then other Spanish and Hispanic started popping out of nowhere

and that's where they coined the frame freestyle. What makes something freestyle y'all? I'm sorry. Act like I'm in elementary school. What classifies? You know the sound of Stevie B? Like imagine the sound of like Planet Rock. Not as fast. Not quite as fast. It would be like New Jack Swing, like adding, aren't adding sung vocals to a track that is breakdanceable.

Okay, okay. Let the music play. Let the music play is definitely, it falls in that lane. Okay. That's another one. Yeah, let the music play kind of falls in that way. Yes, yes. Okay.

Like the sound of Mantronics, the sound of the Latin rascals. Yeah. But all those people. But Hispanics was not doing it. They weren't doing it at that time, you know. They weren't just doing it at the time, but when we brought out Lisa, can you feel the beat? Can you feel the beat? Yes.

Everybody started calling a freestyle, and then you had people like expose and oil, hopping up out, and they called it freestyle because of the Spanish market, because of the Spanish artist. That's what we called free stuff. We started off with Lisa, and when Lisa came to audition to sing, she started singing songs that Mike Hughes from Coach Em wrote. So she was singing in an opera, and they were horrible. You know, my cues were like that she was singing songs like, to dance and to love to dance and to. And we're like, oh, my God, it's horrible. And it made her sound kind of shitty because of his songs.

So before she left, because we're like, oh, man, I don't think this is going to work. Before she left, because we loved her look so much, Paul said, listen, Lisa, before you leave, can you sing us something that's, more familiar because all she was singing was Mike Hughes's original corny songs. Right. And he knows that. He knows that.

So Lisa sang for us for your eyes only by Sheena Easton. I'm telling you know with that song. And that's And that's right. Why do I know that song? Yeah. And that's all she wrote. And we did, I wonder if I take you home with Lisa.

And B was always to the fact that he didn't want Lisa to the sat. He didn't want whoever was going to sing it. He didn't want like a Patty Ville or Christ. That's why Cheryl wouldn't work. Yeah. She was too polished. Just other young girls, especially Hispanic girls, when they could sing along.

They can sing alone. Girl next door. Girl next door. Yeah. Exactly. And that was the genius of that. And when that song came out, it was crazy because we took it to an independent label who was doing a deal with Columbia Records, personal records.

personal records, which was run by Juergen, Juergen K, and Don Oriolo. And I remember Steve Salem, may you rest in peace, and my brother B-Fine, went there. They loved the song, but they wanted another singer. I think Yergan's wife,

what's his name? I forgot. But they wanted another singer. So B thought about it, and Steve, and they said, nah, we'll pass. And they said, really? We're here ready to give you like a little deal?

Then we'll pass. And then they called the very next. day. All right, we'll do it with Lisa. And that record appeared on a compilation, which had songs like Buffalo Gal by Malcolm McClawn. Yeah, and that was the only new song on there. I wonder if I take you home.

And let me tell you, that song took off like, wow. It blew us away because we were in England working with Samantha Fox. When we came back to New York, they were playing that shit in the clubs. I'm like, wait a minute, where did you get this?

I'm like, it was, it was ridiculous how that song just took off, you know, and it took off so much from a compilation album that we were rushed to hurry up. Yeah. The rest of the album, yeah. Because the album was ready, but we just didn't finish the damn record. We had to hurry up and do the album, which we, which we didn't finish, you know. Really? Yeah.

That's crazy. Wait, there's another question I have. Were you guys ever involved with Little Tony Marsh? Because in Philly, her video burnout song was like a heavily, heavily played. What? Was heavily played, like, on our station, Power 99. And I know that, like, she was the one that found someone for me sketch. Like, she would do sketches with Lisa and whatnot.

But did you guys ever produce Little Tony Marsh as well? Or? Wow. She would love to hear you to say that. Dude, I lost my mind. I saw a post from Lisa on IG, and I happened to look at one of the comments, and it wasn't Tony Marsh,

but it was enough to make me, when I clicked, and I saw the face, I was like, wait a minute. Is this actual Tony Marsh? Like, I lost my, I didn't see the response if she responded or not, but no, I definitely know who little Tony Marsh is. Little Tony Marsh is now going by the name, of Tony Minaj. And she is the, she now...

Wait, what? Yeah, that's what she calls us up, Tony Minaj. But she spells it differently, M-E-N-E-N-E-G-E. And she's, and let me tell you something, she is such a talented, talented, singer, performer. She's incredible. She blew me away. I was so surprised.

But she's now the personal manager for Lisa Lisa. What? Yes. Wow, damn. Yeah, because what happens, that Lisa was managed by this other girl, this other woman named Steed. May she rest in peace.

But Stephanie was sort of a... She blocked a lot of things. She, for whatever reason, she didn't have much love for full force and whatever. Because we used to manage Lisa when Lisa was with us. We parted ways amicably, like we parted ways amicably with all our artists. But Tony Marsh was a background singer for Lisa on first tour. And that's how we knew Tony Marsh. But I remember video burn.

I'm like, wow, you did video burnout? and she did if she was with Lisa from then 80 85 86 till now you do back-up focus for Lisa on there and everything like that laia so little tony marsh had a there was a period in which like it's on apple music and so on apple music that's crazy see those are those are the type of songs where the vocals won't even start until the five minute mark oh okay how long the song right the intro is like three minutes um Video, there, you know, like, there was a period, especially between like 83 and 85 where, like, a lot of these weird novelty songs will come up, like Irene Kara had a song about breakdancing.

But little Tony Marsh's song was notable because it was about her addiction to going to the arcades to playing video games. That's real. That was real. Oh, hell yeah, man. That was real. Let my ass come home. Space invaders. Yeah.

Yeah, late because I was at the day. arcade. I get in trouble. Wait, Lou, are you at all aware of the prince you got the look story? No. Tell me. All right. I always wanted to know this. So there's, there's a friend of mine who, I guess at the time, like she was kind of messing with Prince or whatever. And at the time, she was like 18. So this is, this is like 1987. This is when Spanish Fly is out. Or this is right before Spanish Fly, the second Lisa Lisa album comes out. And she's in the breakroom of his studio while he's recording what we will know is sign of the times. And, you know, because of the age difference, I mean, he's like, at that time he was like 27.

She's 18. She's more in tune to like younger stuff and really not, you know, not on his level, you know, of where music is. And so Robert, Robert Plants, I'm sorry, Robert Palmer's video for Addicted to Love comes on. And she's like, oh, I really love this song. And Princess is like rolling his eyes like, really? That's, that's, I'm like, I'm fucking a god here. And this is what impresses you.

And so it was really getting under his skin. And he decided to, like, test her. Like, okay, so what do you like about this song? So, well, you know, it has a good beat and da-da-da-da-da. And Prince is like, no, you just like it. because you just see a bunch of women fake and playing instruments, but anybody could do that shit. I could do that shit.

And so he wipes, he stops the song he's working on, totally wipes the board. They're at Sunset Sound in L.A. And he decides, he says, I'll tell you what, I'm going to create a song. And I bet you that the only reason why you like addicted to love is because it's on television and you're just influenced because something's on television.

but if something of better quality were in your face, you couldn't even discern the difference. So basically, he created kind of you got the look with a chip on his shoulder. And he completes the song, and it winds up on sign of the times. And so he reminds the girl, he's like, all right, my third single is going to be,

you got to look, and I bet you any amount of money, now you're going to like the song because it's going to be a big hit. So, of course, you got the look comes out, and it's slowly riding up the charts and right when Prince is going to get cocky and be like, yeah, next week this shit's going to be number one lost in emotion comes in

Wow. And he was so angry at that shit because he's like, ah, you owe the number two, you didn't write no number one hit. Lisa Lisa and I like that song better. So it was like, wow. I know. Is that a story he told?

No, her name, okay, so, and, you know, Princess, a long line of muses. So kind of the... He's the only one he gets to call him that. I love it. I know, I know, I know. So kind of, kind of the last muse of the first phase of muses, you know, which starts with Patrice Russian and Vanity and Sheila E. and whatever.

Her name was, I think he, christened her Anna Fantastic. I can't. He christened her. He christened her. He christened. He christened, what's her name? Carmen Elektra.

He christened a lot of them. He gave her her name? I didn't know that. He names all of his women. He's like, what's your name? Nope, that's not your name. This is the name. Oh, Prince.

You motherfucker. You so lucky you ain't living in 2021. Oh. Oh. So, yeah. So basically, he lost a bet because lost the emotion

kind of took him out. But you won, Lou? But you won. But you beat him. But what I wanted to know was at least with the songwriting craft, you can definitely hear, especially on that second album, the

Motown influence. Yes. You know, obviously you know, back in my heart again and all that stuff. For the second album, what was you guys' mindset and producing like her second album. Yeah, well, our mindset was to kind of grow. Because, you know, when she came out,

would take you home and can you feel the beat, you know, we didn't want it to be, because the record company, like, going back to the first album, the record company did not want to release All Cried Out at all. They just wanted to keep, yeah, not at all. They just wanted to keep up-tempo songs and just make Lisa just this dance thing.

We did all cried out, but it's like, no, no. So we had to fight them on that. And when it was a single, it was, you know, the rest of the history. But for the Spanish fly, we wanted to elevate. That's when that album was called just Lisa Lisa and Co-Jam. You know, the first album was called Lisa, Lisa, and Co-Jam with Bull Force, but this one was just them. And Paul started it off with head to toe with the whole Supremes type vibe.

And then B spearheaded, the second one, lost in emotion. and we added a lot of the old-time things and elements to that song, to Lost the Emotion Head, and It was the number one record back-to-back on the pop charge number one and on the R&B charge number one, back-to-back. It was crazy at that time. And Lisa didn't even, Lisa was so surprised. She was like, damn, they really like this song? I'm talking about head to toe.

Oh, yeah. What y'all didn't know was that y'all were creating music for a new genre of things for kids, which was, let's go on the playground and create choreography and make our own dances based off of these songs. And that's the head to toe, I swear to God, that was the first time that across all the playgrounds, choreography. See, that's where you said that lie here, because I was going to say that head to toe and I remember there was a period,

like between head to toe, you guys' second album with Old Flames Never Die, and even with Lost in Emotion like I had a co-worker at a job I used to work at who was like slightly older so he was kind of like an uncle and he was one of them guys that was like see man they ain't nothing but Dinah Ross

they ain't nothing but Slime the Family Stone so I didn't even understand like what it meant to be derivative or that sort of thing over like so he was like explained to me like well see this reference is you know a sly reference that they did from this song and then that's when I started

to look for, like, kind of the anatomy of a song and how it comes from older songs. I never knew that before that moment. And that's when I realized you guys really won older adults. Yeah. Because you were speaking a new language, but, you know, adults. With the formula. Right.

You said kids got it and adults got it. That's, yeah, so with you guys' own career, I believe it wasn't the executive. of Columbia Rodriguez. What's his name? Ruben. Ruben Rodriguez. Yeah, Ruben. Was he sort of the, not the product manager, but was he like the head ANR? Or was he the, who's at the helm of

running things as far as Full Force and Lisa Lisa Lisa and Carl Jam? And Cheryl Pepsi Riley, because we were all in the same label and all part of the Full Force family. Ruben Rodriguez was the head of promotions, radio promotions. Um, Cecil Holmes was hit of, uh, urban A&R. So was Larkin Arnold and R. Wow. Wow. Yeah, yeah.

You talk how, yo, like, I, I remember his name from like back at Capitol. Marvin Gaye. Yeah, what Marvin and also doing the silvers doing Tavars and all that? What was Larkin was like? Larkin was very stern. He was kind of a stern guy. He was very serious, no nonsense. And when we came on there and, um, and it was actually his idea,

We didn't like the idea, but a lot of times we always tell people that our first full fourth single was a song called Alice. I want you just for me. Alice, I want you just for me. But it really wasn't. It was actually a song called Girl If I Take You Home, which was, and only because we had all that answer back stuff with UTF. Because there was so many answer back records to UTFs, Roxanne Roxanne, Roxanne, that we even jumped on our own bandwagon. And we were the ones to come out with the real Roxanne. So that was part of Full Forces camp.

I forgot to ask you. But Larkin wanted us, man, you think maybe you could do an answer back? I wonder if I take you home? I'm like, are you serious? You said, yeah, I think it'll work. And we did, girl, if I take, girl, if I take you home. And we even had Lisa sing a little bit in there. And they didn't really do it at high.

And I'm like, we didn't want to do it. But when we came out with Alice, you know, that was the charm for us. But Lark and Arnold, he was, um. Wait, wasn't Girl If I Take You Home On the B side of the 12 inch? It was on a 12 inch And the other side was a song called Let's Dance Against the Wall

But Girl If I Take You Home was the first single Alice was a single by itself With a lot of different Alice dub mixes And stuff like that on the 12 inch I was asking about Because I know on the B side There was like a version of I wonder if I take you home

On Lisa's 12 inch In which there might have been a rap Kind of the way like If you remember cameos, she's strange There was a she-s-change rap, but there was, there was, and the same for Atomic Dog. The B-side of Atomic Dog was Atomic Dog rap. On the B-side of the 12-inch of Lisa Lisa, it was definitely what I assume were you guys' voices doing a quasi-rap thing. And you're right, it was called Take You Home Rap.

Oh, okay. So this is not the same song? No, and that was on the Lisa album. The Girl If I Take You Home was a whole different thing. And, you know, Lark and Arnold, you know, you know, You know, he was a really no-nonsense kind of dude. And so no-nonsense that he definitely cost us a shot at being on the Crush Groo Soundtrack. I mean, the replacement song, of course, was not shabby, Terry Lewis and Jimmy Jam,

but Russell Simmons, when they did Crush Group, because at the time, Russell Shimmers just came up with Def Jam to be part of Columbia Records. and you had a lot of black executives because Russell did to deal with, you know, the white power of this bees, power of the bees, and a lot of the black executives were kind of feeling away. So Russell Simmons wanted our song,

Unselfish Lover with the big beat and everything. He wanted that to be the love scene when Blair Underwood and Sheila E. Ah, shit. Oh, shit. Oh, got you. That's what he wanted. He wanted that.

And Larkin Arnold is like, no. No, no. It's just going to be for the full force album. We was like, can it be in the movie? We were so excited that Russell wanted it. And Locke and all said no. So they ended up getting some, they ended up getting some corny song like Tend to Love

by The Force of News. But wait a minute. Okay, so you said something, and now I got to get back to the physicality aspect of Full Force. Is there really such a thing as an executive being, No nonsense with the six of you guys in the room. They got to have some balls. Now, I don't want to ask any pugilism questions.

Yes, pugilism? But I do want to know. And it can even be amongst yourselves. I'm going to look at it while you ask this question. Have you guys ever had a situation where y'all had to go full Brooklyn on someone in real life? Not in the movies. Okay. Or did motherfuckers leave you all alone?

Did they leave you all alone? Yeah, yeah. Nobody fucked with us. Even though we had our Jerry curls and even though Paul used to wear a little eyeliner and stuff like that, nobody fucked with us. I'll never forget, Fat Man, was a Fat Man Scoop? Yeah, Fat Man Scoot was telling me. He says, yo, man, I'm telling you growing up, man.

Y'all had the Jerry curls and all that stuff and dressed and crazy. Like prints sometimes. not even the hardest nigger back and they would want to fuck with y'all. And everybody just gave us respect because we was on tour. We did the fresh dress. We did a lot of fresh dress. We were like the only useful act on a lot of different fresh stress things. And the only time we went full Brooklyn and didn't come to fighting,

but we were kind of threatened sort of and was with when we was on tour with Larry Blackman and cameo. And what happened is that in our act, our act was a crazy wild full force act. And, you know, at the time, there was nobody in music, like flexing physical fitness. Like nobody was just us without droopy, Jerry Jones and everything. Oh, Paul and those shirts, yes. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Those shirts and those pants. I think that you have a shot of the pants right behind you in that photo.

Oh, yeah, with the microphone. Yeah, pants with your hand on your... Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's like with some... Oh, yeah, yeah, with the hand on the crotch. I thought that was a Larry Blackman move. I thought that was a cameo move, but go ahead. No, we had that way before Larry's codpiece.

I was doing that. Okay. The top really love thing, video, I got one with a microphone on there. But when we would do our shows, Paul, at the end of the show, I would say, ladies,

ladies, before we go, how many of you would love to see Paul Anthony take it all? And they would go crazy because we would bring the stripping mentality to the stage.

Nobody did that either. It wasn't no man in music shape like Paul. I was never, I'll never forget Michael Bivens go, yo man, how do you like when people be, you know, 50 cent Ella, they take off their shirt? I mean, y'all started that you know i said well whatever but but i remember when he took it off paul would take off his shirt

and and you know the women would go crazy and then after that i would say wait a minute y'all ladies wasn't that some cheap shit they go yeah i said well shouldn't he will everybody say cheap shit And then I say, he should finish the job, right? Yes. I said, ladies, everybody in the house, they pull it down. Pull it down. Pull it down. And then pull it down.

And then Paul would get up. And we would do the whole musical thing, like a drama show. And the music and Jerry would do the keyboards like Sinister. Wait, why just Paul? Have you seen Paul? Have you seen Paul? But they're all buff. They're all like Bill.

I know. started the ball rolling. After that, I would do some stripping, but my, well, let me show you you up, Paul. So what Paul would do, he would, he would unbuckle the belt and unbuckled this and we'd play the music.

Then he turned around and he said, man, y'all know I can't do that. He turned around and then he'd get his pants together. He turned back and he pulled on his pants and there was the G string and the place went So crazy

And then Paul would start flexing And doing his body build poses And the women would go so stupid I got into the act later And I think I did like maybe five times What I would do when I pulled down my thing My G string was Electric bulbs all around my shit

And it would be blowing in the dark We took up the lights in the whole venue And you just see my flashing lights on my shit See? When the first time I did it, I got electrocuted and I never did it again. Wait, what? Yo.

You know, it was electrocuted my nuts. And it was crazy. Thank you, Lou for your service. I appreciate you. That's our clip for the week. That is our clip of the week. That's our clip of the week. It is.

It is. It's so crazy. Roasting nuts. And you're also crazy with Paul because it was so ridiculous. I remember Jamie Fox telling us how he remembered our show. the way we came out. I bet he did. We would do stuff like the Alice sandwich.

We'd get a girl and bring up on stage and Paul. Oh, yeah, pick her up. Yeah, yeah. And Paul would grab her. Then I'd get behind the girl. Then Paul would pick me up and the girl up at the same time. I show is just bananas. Alice sandwich.

Alice sandwich. I remember that. You know? That was on a song. Yeah. And the show would be our show would be bananas and wow. So much so that at the end of the show and say, how many y'all would like to know which hotel we staying at tonight?

Then I go, I can't do that, man, because the people at the Marriott down there, 22 Jefferson Street, and we expect. See, you know what you just proved? You just, Paul, I'm thinking about Paul, Lord. You know what you just prove, Lou? You just proved that 2021 sucks. Like, we could never.

Like, that just can't happen. And no male artist is willing to give as much as y'all gave. Thank you. Wait, you don't think that's happening right now in Atlanta? And not in the same situation. They have their clothes on. The women are naked. It ain't the men taking their clothes off and doing that.

No, men don't do that. No, they make you take yours off even though you pay for your tickets. It's still happening. It's just happening in the DMs now. So check this out. So with that, Larry Blackman's manager or road manager came backstage to us. And he said to us, hey, listen, y'all, y'all got to stop that strip. Y'all got to stop taking off the clothes stuff.

And we're like, why? Yeah, Larry don't want that. Larry don't want no... Family show. Larry don't want that. This was during the word up... The word up tour of a level. Did like 25 dates for them.

And I said... So, wait a minute. Larry Blackman said that. Yeah, yeah. Larry Blackman said that. I said, well, listen, because we have so much respect for Larry Blackman and Cameo. Because they treated it's nice.

So I said, well, can Larry come back here and tell us that? can he tell us that that he doesn't want us to do the strip no more? Can you please tell him to come back here and let's talk and let's see what he has to say? And then the guy looked at us and said, oh no, no, no, Larry don't talk to the opening act.

He don't talk to open an act. Wow. So after that, we looked at him and Paul said, oh, really? Larry don't talk to open an act? All right, give this message to Larry. Tell him, fuck him, and that tonight I'm wearing connection. near a yellow G string.

All right. Tell them that. Tell them that. All right. And then we had, like, everybody on the road with us, our roadies was all from our neighborhood, from our Brooklyn neighborhood.

Some of the same guys that used to tell us, man, y'all should get a job, man. Why y'all rehearsing? Y'all should get a job. But we took them on the road with us, the summer tours. And we told them to get ready to listen. If anybody tries to fuck with our

or do one of those sabotaged shits, we're going to fuck them up. Bottom line. Yeah, oh yeah, it's definitely going down. Brooklyn style, without a fucking doubt. But nobody fucked with our shit. Nobody fucked because we were waiting.

We were waiting after we sent that message back. And there was no problem after that. We stay the same. Sometimes we don't even know Larry said that. He might not have said that. Right. But I remember us telling that story in front of Larry, which he didn't deny,

but we told that in front of him. When we had a seminar, it was us, Larry Blackman, and Ike Turner. Holy shit. Whoa. Yeah. May he rest in peace. And we told that story. And Larry just laughed.

You know, Larry just laughed. So, you know, that's the closest, though. Ladies and gentlemen, I know you hate it when this happens. But, yes, we are interrupting this powerful, bow-legaloo episode of Questlove Supreme to let you know that there is a part two. coming next week. All right. So make sure you join us for more full force stories, more Lisa Lisa stories, more Cheryl Pepsi-Rowley stories, more house party stories, more James Brown stories, more

bow-legged lewisies. All right? We'll see you next week. We'll love to free. Hey, this is Shigaste. Make sure you keep up with us on Instagram at QLS. Let us know what you think. And who should be next to sit down with you.

us. Don't forget to subscribe to our podcast. Questlove Supreme is a production of Iheart Radio. For more podcasts from IHart Radio, visit the IHart Radio 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 which I'm 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, unfilled 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 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. When a group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist, they take matters into their own hands. I vowed. 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, for wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slica Life 12 and TikTok podcast network on TikTok. This is an IHeart podcast.

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