The Questlove Show - Questlove Supreme: Mark Ronson

Episode Date: July 14, 2021

This week on Questlove Supreme we break bread with a 7 time Grammy winner, who also happened to produce one of the best selling singles of all time, on top of bringing the best out of Amy Winehouse! Mark Ronson is a lot of things and they all come back to the music. Listen as Quest and Team Supreme dive into a life filled with musical wonder, without limitations and get to the root of the magic of Mark Ronson. 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 IHeartRadio. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of Questlove Supreme. I am your host, us love. We have Team Supreme with us. You know what, guys, I've been getting a lot of feedback on the internet. It's insane that I'm not asking enough of Team Supreme of where their life is right now.

Shut up. Wow. They actually care. They care about us. Someone wants to like, yo, you used to check up on how Fonte's house is doing and any repairs. So I'm, I'm, I'm. asking. How's your how's your time been Fonte in the last month or so?

It's been good, man. Doing more repairs, we did, we did windows and we waiting on like windows like to come because like they measured something wrong so they got to come and replace them. But we did windows.

What else I had to replace? I had to replace my HVAT unit that went out. I think that was actually last summer. That went out. You mean recording. Right. Oh, yeah, my age back. No, no, no, my age back.

My AC. Yeah, man, okay. So I do that. Yeah, HV, A.C. So did that. And, yeah, but other than that, we're chilling, man. I'm cool. It's good to hear.

Steve, how's your life going? It's going. Keeping it moving. I'm inspired by the reopening of everything and hoping that. Have you been going places? Oh, hell no. So you're just happy of places opening, but you're not going to these places. I'm finding, I'm finding my solace in work, going to work every day as we have been for a long time.

But now that the audiences are coming back, it's, it's another step. It feels good. I feel you. Last night, I went to a, I went to a brother love event. And I think I think I stayed of all of two minutes. Oh, brother love. I'm sorry, that's the other one. Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. The missus wasn't happening that like the second we walked in and it was like a nightclub. She's like, oh, hell no. I thought I said and love her more, Amir. Are they requiring at Fallon, are they requiring like vaccination or for the audience? Like, what's the protocol? You got to get, you got to get vaccinated and, you know. Get the little handwritten cars that they had the kids filling out.

at CBS. Oh, homemade bootleg joints? They're hammered. That's great. Leah, how are you? I'm great. I'm great.

Working a lot. Podcasts after podcast. Oh, and by the time... Yeah, you got three podcasts. You're like Questlove here. I'm trying to be, sir. I'm trying to diversify.

And by the time this podcast airs, I would have had my first museum showing. My father would have had his first museum showing for his photos at the National Museum of African American Music in Tennessee. So we've been curating that. Indiana for Black Music Month, and it's been a lot, and it's, I'm just happy that it's probably going to be over by the time y'all is. I'm worried to fuck up.

Congratulations, man. That's so. Thank you. That's what's up. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we are honored to have a gentleman with us. Yes, I consider him a gentleman and a friend. He's pretty much accomplished the world in the past two decades.

Wait, side question. Mark, does it even feel like you've been, you're like a, you're a 20-year veteran. You're a 23-year veteran. Like, you're not like our kid brother anymore. No. You're in a, I was just looking like, wow, Mark's been doing this shit for 20 years. You're like, damn, Mark looks old. No, you look the same.

That's what I was about to say. You look the same. No, I guess none of those things. And, you know, of course, we all know, like, as you get older pockets of time, they're quicker because they're less a fraction of your life. But it is bizarre. And I think like when like certainly to me the people I grew up, you know, looking up to you, Q-Tip, like you don't, like when you guys, then I'm not trying to blow you up turned 50. Like I certainly like you didn't feel 50 to me at all.

Like that's kind of bizarre. But maybe that's because I need to just not think that anybody's older who's older than me. You literally, if I were to see like my memory of you as a 19 year older or a 20 year older versus now. I wouldn't tell the difference. Right. Like you have a gene and you, that might be the cousin to Black don't crack because you look the same. Jew don't stew.

I don't know. What is it? That's stupid. That's stupid. Anyway, y'all, you know, he's accomplished musician, a songwriter, producer, label CEO, and still an accomplished DJ. If that doesn't impress you, you know, check his resume. Name him.

Adele, Winehouse, Mars, Merriweather, Cyrus, Waleigh, DeAngelo, freaking D'Angelo. Freaking Duran. Oh, my God, I can't wait to get to that part. Seven-time – am I getting the number right? It's definitely seven-time Grammy winner? Yes, yes. Okay, including the coveted producer of the year. I'm only asking you that because even now, like, people keep –

fudging my numbers and they never get the number five right they're like two-time grammy a winner quest love three time i i kind of want to be that guy that's like far time grammy yeah you know i i can't do that ladies and gentlemen please welcome to quest love supreme the one and only mark ronson sir yes i don't know yeah where are you where you right now mark you're in your your lab yeah i'm in my lab uh in soho in New York. I just moved back in. This is a place I actually had in the mid-2000s, right,

when I met Amy and, you know, I was in this place for a couple years and then moved back to England for a while, moved to L.A. and, you know, because of COVID and people fleeing the city like they did, I was walking past this building. And it was actually on

Amy's birthday. And I was just like, I was like feeling a little sentimental. Like, let me just buzz up and see what's in there. So, I buzzed in the landlord. I kind of gave, I have horrible making long-winded stories that don't get to the point. So please put me back on my class. Welcome to Quisle of Supreme.

So I was like, hey, I don't know if you remember. I'm Mark. I used to be on the fifth floor and I got it done. I just thought, because I wanted to come upstairs. He's like, what? You want to rent the space again? And I was like, yeah, yeah, that's it. I want to rent the space again.

So I came upstairs and I see this. abandoned probably what was like a jingle house in between when I was here last and I was just like, wow, I mean, and you know, New York rents are a bit of a song right now. And I took this place back over. So, you know, I really just came in thinking of Amy, it was her birthday. I just thought, like, maybe I get a little picture. I remember what that room felt like. And then it just led to me being back here. And then you got kind into ringing it again. Yeah. But I love, I did, I forgot this place has a really good vibe. It was never like a very, like a name studio, like a hip factory or, or, you know, power station. But the, but Nora Jones's first record, you know, the big one was made here. We did

most of Back to Black, like all the demo and writing. So there's like, you know how just places have a juju. Like it's just, there's just something in the walls. It's just obviously kind of nice. Yeah, I'm telling you right now, don't give it up because, I mean, I have a, I have a certain prestition when it comes to whenever producers upgrade. And so the place where you found that magic, and I know in producers minds is like, I got to grow and I got to expand. But I can show you the history of where the slow wane starts. And it's usually when success comes in and then they upgrade and then they upgrade and

then shit's not the same anymore. So, you know, if this is, if that's your spot where, you know, your, your, the good vibes were, then I'd tell you to, you should keep that spot. You should keep it. I definitely. I've been on the other side of that equation too. I moved into this like basement kind of hole. It was mildew and like damp in the East Village.

Love it. And in like 2003. And I remember getting a call from this guys and I was like, hey, hey, you know, the Strokes used to have that room and they're working on their second record and they're really having like a hard time. Like they might want that room back because that was their weird magic room

where they, it was called the transporter room where they made the first record. And I was, yeah, I was a big strokes fan. So I was just like, yeah, fuck it. I'll move out of here. It never happened in the end. But like, I know that that, what that is like, obviously. Right.

Yeah. All right. So I'll ask you, and I actually said this on, your podcast that, you know, I purposely held back from asking you certain questions in real life, knowing that one day you'd eventually make it to the show, so I didn't want to waste any answers or whatnot. So, for those of us that don't know, could you please tell us where you were born? What city you were born in New York?

Yeah. I was born in London. My parents are English. And then I moved to New York when I was eight. and I was pretty much, I consider myself a New Yorker, like, definitely, but I have ties to London, I have my family there, a lot of family there, I go, I've spent time there. I didn't really realize, weirdly, until I started making music, and the music came out, and it did well in England and, like, went, like, fucking sold eight copies here that I had to be like, oh, maybe this

connection to England that I, like, completely forgot about most of my life, musically is more, it's kind of more in my output than I really realize, you know. So, wait, let me ask you about your time in England. First of all, are you consciously aware or unaware of when your accent sneaks in and sneaks out? Yeah, it's fucking terrible. I mean, I used to hate it. I mean, when you moved to a country, I moved here when I was eight from England and, like, you know, kids are merciless of that.

age and they tease you and I you know they call me call me which doesn't make any sense because wait wait you were commie yeah they call me like shut up call me like you know because it's like the middle of like the you know the cold bore something right I have a funny accent and then um and then you try and lose it to fit in as quickly and then I would go back to England to see my friends they'd be like why do you sound so American like I realized it was just my you know my little like it was I was never going to be able to kind of sound like I was from one place I hear when I'm in England and my voice starts to change in the back of a tax center. And part of it, it makes me think, like, what am I like this spineless guy who can't commit

to one accent? Am I such a chameleon? Am I so, like, unsure, like, or trying to please people in public scenarios that I'm that easily? But I just, I realize I have no control over it anymore, so I just fucking, I've just given up. No, you definitely talk like you. Like, I don't think you talk American or English, but, like, I always, you know, I always, wondered in your head are you trying to navigate the vehicle so that you don't reveal your

English side to us and if you're over there you don't reveal your American side to them? No, because I definitely, I've definitely sounded American as soon as I went back to England the first time. I'd only been in America for like a year and they're like, why do you sound like a fucking yank now, mate? And, you know, obviously there were nine-year-old kids. They didn't sound like a like a like a pub bartender but yeah no I hear it when I'm like I mean we all have all these different mechanisms

that we use to assimilate you know their social mechanisms how we just like if you're standing next to someone they crossing their arms and suddenly you start crossing your arms it's just like coding and genetics and evolution but I just like you know

poor Josh Stone she got it really bad she was like the first person her and I remember Madonna right everyone's like why they fucking sound like that now. Josh Stone for sounding America, Madonna for sounding English. Right. And so I always was like, oh, is there something that when you sound, when you switch it up that much, is that inauthentic? Like, that's the only thing I didn't want to be read as inauthentic. But you had a valid reason for sounding like that. They did. Well, I don't know about Josh. I didn't know about that. But Donna, Madonna just came out of nowhere and was like, why does she

sound like that? That happens though, yo. Like after a year, I was saying the word, yeah, after everything. yeah mark see you play the drums yeah yeah like oh yeah yeah yeah exactly and everything has to end exactly in england all the sentences end like on a slightly higher note than they started and you say yeah at the end so it's like all right so i'll see you at the club lady yeah bye like everything just like goes into this like uh lilt it's kind of like Brooklyn Brooklyn like when we first got here to record do you want more like every that whole era of like 93 94 especially like Like when Tarek was hanging with like the Gangstar Foundation and all those cats. And they were just talking mad Brooklyn.

But like everything was interrogative. Like they were, it was as if they were always asking questions. Yeah. Yo, how many pairs of Puma's you got? Yeah, right. You're going to eat that over there, kid? Right. Like everything is a question.

Yeah. And using the word Aggie, which I've yet to see any other place in the world use Aggie, except for Brooklyn. Agie. Yeah. Aki. My sister, weirdly, Charlotte, uses that word all the time, but just only from, like, hearing it in Jay-Z songs, and she just loves that. She just always goes, like, why are you acting all Aggie? That's pretty funny.

Right. Mark, what was your first musical memory? I have, like, almost snapshots in my head, like, partial memories. I remember having a little trap drum kit when I was three or four. I remember also having it was either a Sony or Fisher Price record player that was like plastic Was the brown joint

Or like a little tan one like a little tan joint Where is it? No this one was like primary colors It was like red maybe it was just like an English one It was like red yellow green And I just remember Lifting the needle and putting it down on the record And just that excitement when the first like crackle

happen and then like just being like whoa i can control this i mean it's so not i mean it's it's not even deep enough to compare it to djang because it literally is djang but um yeah those are some of my first first memories mark i'll be the first to admit i was today years old before i realized that you are not at all related to mc ronson no which i think the whole world thinks you are yeah your stepfather is mic jones how is this a common mistake that all of us have made yeah because in my mind your dad was mick ronson and i'm like no his dad was mc jones from far now i get it yeah no it was crazy because even before like wikipedia like in the early 2000 when i first came out like you know wikipedia has made it pretty common that if like somebody gets a fact wrong

it just kind of just stays there it stays there right but this is weirdly like one of the examples of a wrong fact staying there before Wikipedia. And I think it was because when I first came out in England where I had my initials, like my only success, really, with my solo record, the first one that they knew, yeah, they knew that my stepdad was a musician named Mick. Or they knew I was related to somebody in music named Mick and my last name's Ronson. So it must be Mick Ronson. So this started to get written a lot in the times of London or something. And And Mick Ronson's poor, like, widow, Mick Ronson, obviously being the genius arranger,

guitar player for Boeing and Spiders and Mars, writes to the newspaper. And she's like, she's like, if my, you know, thinks that I'm some, either some weird bastard child that he had out of wedlock or maybe somebody claiming falsely to be the son of McRonson, and she sued the newspaper, I think, because she was like, you know,

I think that was probably stressful for her to be like, wait, is there some fucking Ronson running around here? Wait, she sued? So I think McRonson's widow sued the paper that time. But then, you know, obviously I did my best to clear up. And also because, you know, I'm proud of my stepdad. I don't want people to think I'm trying to ride off the coattails of some wrong information. But yeah, I'm not related to McRonson, just a fan.

Damn, I never, it never even occurred to me that I can just start suing people for false rumors or whatever. because yeah yeah i Wikipedia insists that my grandfather is um a member of the dixie hummingberg's beachy thompson yeah i saw that i was like for real and people but the thing is like reporters just fall in love with this whole thing of like wow three three generations of music makers your grandfather's in the rock and roll hall of fame your dad was a legendary doo-oper now it's you and now i just i don't have the strength anymore i actually met beechy thompson's family Like, I think maybe a nephew or two lives out in L.A. And they just, they're claiming me now.

So, yeah. We got the same last name. Yeah. You might as well just move it. When myth becomes legend, print the legend. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly.

Also, Wikipedia is like the easiest thing to sort of fix anyway. So what? Like, there's just some guy that whenever someone works for you, change it, it just goes back and just puts it back. Like, we like the old way. Yeah. Yeah. I, too, try to erase it, and it just winds up back there, like, three days later, so forget it.

Yeah. Can't do nothing about it. My favorite, like, weird thing on somebody posts on Wikipedia that was just so preposterous that I just had to laugh and leave it, was that it said it was like, you know, all the way down, the thing, personal life, he grew up and da-da-da-da, it's like the fourth paragraph. It's like, and also at the age of six years old, he actually wrote the theme song to the hit cartoon Thundercats. but originally wrote it as a tribute to Benedict Cumberbatch. And the theme went Cumberbatch, Cumberbatch, Cumberbatch. Oh. I was like, I can't even take that out.

It's too good. That's awesome. All right. So there you have it, y'all, exclusive. You've firstly written the undercast theme. I'll take that. I'll take that. So in growing up, you're saying that drums might have been your first weapon?

Yeah, when I was, my parents were kind of like, they liked to party. There was always people over in the house, and I would wake up in the middle of the night, and I would probably, I'd walk into what I'm told and vaguely recalls this sea of grown-ups, smoking, drinking, whatever, probably walking through the room, getting pat on the head. And I would just go straight for the speakers, wherever the music was playing, and I would sit in front of the speakers and just close my eyes and play air drums to like whatever was playing. That was my like zone. And Simon Kirk, the drummer from

Bad Company and Free, was there one night and just was like a friend and of my parents was like, hey, like he looks like he'd have fun on the drums. Like he kind of looks like he knows what he's doing, get him a kit. And they got me a little kit. And my dad, my real dad, loved music like a typical English soul boy in the 60s.

Like had stacks, Winder K-Frog, like all those 45s and you know northern soul stuff northern soul stuff too and just that's what he played in the house so that's kind of just what it was like it was like groove music you know and that's what i was kind of drawn to can i just wanted to ask what your parents did because i feel like yeah it's some way your life has been romanticized or even it's hell of dope yeah as far as my dad managed bands and he uh he came from like a kind of like you know family that was like you're supposed to like North London Jews are like a very, I wouldn't say insular, but it's like you do the family business, you go. It was like old school tradition, this kind of thing.

My dad's family were like one generation removed from being like fucking butchers on brick lane. Like not quite peeky blinders, but like that kind of shit. And so my grandfather made this successful business like gas stations. It's like that's what you do. You go work in the family business. So my dad was loved music and they just weren't trying to hear that. so that he kind of like became a little bit of like the black sheep and he went and managed bands and did all this kind of things and do you remember the band rochford yes yeah Andrew roachford yeah Andrew rochford yeah so he managed roachford uh

this was like a little later but yeah he like discovered andrew was in another band and was like hey the keyboard player is really good you should fucking go do your solo shit so he kind of you know plucked the Andrew out and you know you know those first couple roachford records and he just loved music and stuff and he loved to part party and so did my mom and my mom was from Liverpool and she was just kind of you know wonderful mother you know kind of dynamic persona okay and how many of them there is it how many ronsons there's okay so there's my mom and dad had three of us and then my dad remarried had three more ronsons and my mom remarried and had a couple more jones so there's 10 10 brothers and sisters altogether.

Yikes. Yeah, it's a lot. Okay. Speaking of which, yeah, I was going to say, Lai'ea, it's Andrew Rochefort who would bring, if you remember, New Jehan, from 3-7,09 in the Black Lily days.

Okay. To our very first show when we moved to London. Okay. And that's how we met New, and then New became our tour manager. Wow. At the time, she was dating Rochford, so that's how we knew him. Okay.

Yeah. That's how we knew him. All right. So, in addition, like, I know, of course, I know Sam DJs. I know that C. Ronson is, I assume, fashion designer. Yeah. And that's not your shout-out on the Jay-Z record, but your sister's. Yes.

Exactly. You'll take it. But, like, is anyone, any of your other siblings, are they, accomplished musicians as well or just in terms of producing and songwriting yeah my brother's like my brother alexander's really talented he's in l.A and he's more in that kind of like avant-garde la scene like he did stuff with ariel pink before it was bad to say aerial pink's name i guess but um but yeah just like just cool more weird shit than i do and And then my brother Chris actually lives in Miami, and he's like part of Terror Squad,

and he like makes music with like Poo-Barre and Scott Storch. So like, yeah, everybody has the kind of musical gene somehow, except my family in England, who I'm very close with, they all decided to like do real shit. So they're like lawyers and, you know, business and that kind of stuff. I see. I heard a story once about you and I thought this is where that we kind of have this thing in common

can you talk about your interning at Rolling Stone at the age of 12 I believe Yes So you know one of the parks of growing up in New York City And on the Upper West Side And my stepdad being a musician It's like you know The cool people were over a lot of the time

And whenever I Jan Wenner would come over, the founder of Rolling Stone. I knew exactly who he was. I was a nerdy kid. I read, I loved music. I loved everything about it. And I would read Billboard and the trade mags and liner notes and stuff just because I just wanted to absorb all of it. So when Jan would come over, I would always just like want to grill him about stuff.

And I'm sure it was sweet and to a point it was probably annoying because he just wanted to hang with the grownups too. but I would just ask for it. Really imagine like why did Jagger get like four and a half stars for a primitive cool? Yeah, yeah.

Why did you give the police don't stand so close to me 86 remix such a bad something like I would really like it was like showing that I was probably read it and I think like he was very sweet to me

and probably part exasperatedly once he was like listen just stop I'll give you a job this summer just like stop bothering me please so so yeah Yeah, I went to Rolling Stone, and for the summers when I was 12, 13, 14, I was, I interned there. And I was just like manning the phones.

I was doing all sorts of shit. Like that time, they had their own chart. They had their own album chart, which was a very random thing of calling up mom and pop stores, around 30 mom and pop stores. And then they would average and then make their own chart, which is kind of weird because they could have just called Billboard and like, hey, what's the top 10 this week? But, you know, they had their own shit. So that was partly my job to call these mom-pop stores. My voice hadn't even broken.

I was like, hi, I'm calling from Rolling Stone and we just want to know your 10, you know. And then I would have to compile the chart, then go down to the art department and tell them what the number one album was so they could put the little picture in the box at the top. The box. Damn, so you were responsible for that? I used to read that shit religiously. Yeah, nobody should have made me responsible for that. So I went down to the art.

department and that year the Batman soundtrack, the Prince soundtrack, that week was number one. Right. And they were like, go tell Jenny and the head of art department, it's the Batman, you know, it's the number one record. So I go down and I'm like walk around. I've never been in the art department before. It's a different floor. I'm like, hi, like, I'm looking for Jenny.

And they're like, she's just there. And I'm like, Jenny, she's like, what do you want, kid? I was like, Batman's number one. And she just thought it was like a prank. Like some kid just came down to just say like he loves like. Batman or something. And I was like, yeah, it was the album. A win is a win. A win is a win.

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

bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The 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 Cliverts Show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you're 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. What's up, everyone? I'm Ago Wodom. My next guest, you know from Step Brothers Anchorman, Saturday Night Live, and the Big Money Players Network. It's Will Ferrell. Woo, woo, woo, woo. My dad gave me the best advice ever. I went and had lunch with them one day, and I was like, and dad, I think I want to really give this a shot. I don't know what that means, but I just know the groundlings. I'm working my way up through, and I know it's a place they come look for up and coming talent. He said, if it was based solely on talent, I wouldn't worry. about you, which is really sweet.

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 Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I was going to say that out of all of your life accomplishments, that's probably the one that I'm super jealous of the most because, you know, like my relationship with that periodical, like I'd spend endless Saturdays going through, like back then, you know, if you didn't, we had a large library in Philadelphia. but our local ones, of course, like they maybe have like two years of back issues and then you

wouldn't see anything. So you would have to put these, you know, these scrolls in, like the way they used to preserve. Oh, micro-fish. The micro-hame for that one. Yeah. Right. And so just eons, just hours upon hours upon hours of like, they would just keep the entire Rolling Stone collection, like, you know, 13 years of.

of, they would have like somewhere between like 73 to, you know, whatever year it was at the time when I was doing like 87, 88. And I'd sit there endlessly. And like just all my walls were wallpapered with all the lead reviews. So like Robert Risko. Yeah. So when I turned 40, I think Jimmy did this for me. Jimmy had Robert Risco do a caricature of me. Oh, cool.

And that, yeah, that's, I was like, wow, man, you fucking working that Rolling Stone. That's crazy. Yeah. And now being, like, obviously I was aware that it was special in being there. But now, like, I realized, like, the people I was around are grabbing coffee for from, whether it was David Wild, David Frick, Anthony DeCardis, Sheila Rogers, who went on to be the music booker at Letterman, like, all these people that, like, had this little, like, like, I was just their little pet, like, toy. Like, it was fun. And they all thought it was kind of amusing that I was.

uh in there but i also like do you think they're aware that you were that 12 year old kid now uh david wild like definitely comments on my twitter and he'll be like hey i'm you know whatever and sheila rogers when i've you know when we played letterman before she's always uh been sweet so yeah somehow they kind of kept track i had this you know phase where i didn't really have any of my first musical success on my early 30s so really my 20s while i'm making as a hip-hop DJ was not something that really registered on Yon Wenner's radar, you know? So I think he would always be like, hey, what are you up to? Oh, yeah, he's still doing the clubs, great.

So when Amy came out, and obviously she was on the cover of Rolling Stone, it was a big thing. I have this letter still framed from Yon that's just like, hey, Mark, so glad that you know that you finally made something of yourself essentially. Yeah, like, congrats on the Amy record. It's fantastic, and that kind of meant a lot to me. Wow, but he also hip-hoped you. that's ill. Like, I mean, it was a compliment,

but it was also a slap in a face to like your, keep doing that little rap thing. Cool. Yeah, keep doing your little rap thing. Yeah, your little rap friend. And in that moment, I was like, yeah, that's a whole moment and being a, you know, a hip hop artist, icon or whatever.

Exactly. Yeah. Mark, do you remember the first album that you purchased? I know there's a weird question to ask, being as though you grew up in a musical house. So I'm certain that collections, all right, well, let me put it this way. What was the collection like in your household as you growing up? And then do you remember the first album that you went out and purchased with your own money?

Yeah. Away from your parents' influence. Yeah. So the collection was like certainly my dad. We left England when I was six or seven. So, you know, I'd come back once or twice a year to see my dad. that was always just like I remember really clearly

like my dad playing he loved Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five so the message in New York, New York he would always play those and me and my sisters would jump on on the bed and you know that was a very when you're a kid like that song A, like it's so clear

that you can understand every lyric it's so hokey and even though you don't know what you're talking about you're just like I remember just learning that wrote and then I also remember like things because he probably, he didn't really get three feet high and rising, but probably someone told him that he liked like, hey, you should

check this out, this is the new shit. And he kind of probably took it home and was like, oh, this is a little too like avant-garde for me or something. I remember him giving me that. But the first time I really remember buying something for myself was like, I got my pocket money. This is New York and I went to the Tower Records

on 66 to buy a 12-inch. I think my step-dout was like, here's 10 bucks. Go buy a couple 12 inches. And I bought Just Bugging by Whistle. Whistle? Wow. And Sly Fox, let's go all the way. Yeah.

Yeah. And maybe something else. And then that's the first things I remember, like, really, like, this is my own money. I want to get this. Oh, wow. Okay. By the way, listeners, maybe I found out maybe three years ago that one of the members as sly fox was um

Bouty Collins's main singer the one that sings real cartoony. Okay. He sings like, yeah, same. Yeah, yeah. Like the, uh, damn. Almost like the Ohio player is a,

Gary, I think Gary Mubbong. No, not Gary Shadda. I think Gary Mubbong Cooper. Oh, okay. I hope I get this right because anytime I get P-Funk trivia wrong, they, you know, they beat up on me. Like you up.

I love when, like, When I listen that record now, it's so funny because, like, you don't have any of, when you're a kid, any of that, like, uh, snary attitude or, like, jadedness. And now I'm like, oh, my God, if I was 20 when that record came out, I'd be like, what the fuck is this Prince rip off? You know, he's singing exactly like Prince. I mean, the beat is incredible. It's an incredible song. But I love when you hear songs from your youth and you have none of that, like, barrier, jadedness. You're just like, this is my shit.

And that is still, I still, that still is on a lot of workout playlist for me. song. I'm still trying to figure out how come no one never made the correlation between the Boogie Boys A Fly Girl and that song, which was the R&B version of

Fly Girl. Like, it's just They took the drums off of Fly Girl, right? Or was it just the same program? I believe they just took the same track. I mean, it's sort of like can't trust it and don't be afraid. Like obviously. Right. Right. It's the same two inch. They just, you know,

Right, exactly. Aha, on that, I didn't think about that. Nah, it's the exact same track. That Sly Fox record was like one of the first records to be like huge on alternative rock radio

and R&B and hip-hop and just pop because it had that dumb beat that just spoke to everybody, which was kind of cool to me. Wait, what's the name of it again? Well, let's go all the way. You would know as a flag girl. Here's the weird thing.

I actually thought when Jay-Z used it for... I know what girls like. I know what girls like. I thought that was going to blow up for him. Yeah. Come on, Fonte. You were like 12 back then. No, that was my first.

Because you know where he fucked up at with that? Because he started the album off with a million and one and rhyme no more. Right. And I was like, whole shit. Here we go. Yes. And then, yeah, the Black Street joined. and then it was the flag of nigger.

No. It had a, even I like, in my weird, like, even though I was like a club DJ, so I was just like looking for anything that was like commercial and balancing. Like, I could even feel like there was something sticky there on that record. Like I was like, this feels like, this feels like a reach. And that had the city is mine on it too probably, right? The city's mine. Yeah, that was that out of it.

That's because. You're kidding, Germany. That's because that song had been remixed on the playground about 50,000 times by the time he put that version out because like kids was just making cheers that was a cheery. Right. Y'all remember that? Y'all remember that? Ah, you're right.

Yeah, you know, you're right. Yeah, it was the, yeah, but. It was a cheerily thing. I don't know. I feel, I don't know. I get frustrated that he denies it like a bastard son and. What girls like? The Girls Like record.

Well, yeah, I mean, just that album in general. That album had moments. It was, I mean, it's not a bad album. But it was, yeah, most defining song is on that moment. Which one? All right, here's the deal. You know how, like, at the beginning, Earth Went and Fire obviously didn't plan on September being the biggest thing they ever did. Being the one. Right.

But how that was chosen, even though they did, like, Shrine Star and all this other shit. I feel like the song that really defines Jay-Z isn't even a sit. I think imaginary players. Right. That's the one. Yes. Because. J.C. song.

It's arrogant as fuck. Like, yeah. I feel like, you know. I love that record. That's the one. Yeah, he just like, whatever. I'm not going to like, my face off 12 inch, like that was a song I love to play. Word, you like face off.

Well, I just as a club DJ and then back and forth and I just like, that was just like one 12 beats per minute. Like I needed that in the set at that, at that moment. I'm looking now back and I realized. That was the one that was over to Somalcos. The shaft you were. Yeah. Yeah.

I'll never figure that ever since hearing Jadikis's version of how. that song went down. Like, I'll never see it the same again. Basically, like, they, they were on, like, a trip from the UK, and they had to go straight to the studio to do their verse. They couldn't shower or anything. So it's like, after they got out of customs, you know, they were on a nine-hour flight and then had some customs thing for, like, four hours, and then had to go straight to the studio, or else they were going to not be on the record. And, you know, Jada just has this, like, weird other take about it that totally takes me out of what I thought

that was. Also, pitchfork 8.4 for volume 1. They just recently re-reviewed that? I don't know because I just Wikipedia because I wanted to remember what's on that album because I was like, oh, actually who you with, face off, imaginary player. It's this very strong

album, but 8.4. Yeah. You know what? I like that record. So I will quasi-agree, even though he hates that record. And his fan base is like... He was trying to chase Puffy.

Bad boy had shit on Slash. It was like, it was 97. It was time to do like... Yeah, it's understandable. It's like we get it, but no. Right. It wasn't it. Yeah, you know.

You know, it's funny. We were talking about, we were talking so much about God, now I'm such an idiot. But when we, when I interviewed me for my podcast and we talked about the huge album and then the one for, the first one for,

inner scope and you weren't really swearing it off like in the way that we're talking about jay but you were kind of you know saying like it was rush and you were trying to make a record maybe to fit where you were and i think don't say nothing came up and and i was trying to please uh yes i was trying to please my label president so but i was sitting i was sitting the other day uh with my girl now fiance who's 10 years younger than me yeah don't say nothing by the way man i thought I'm sorry. Congratulations, both. She's an awesome actress.

I'm a big fan. Thank you. Thank you. I'll tell her. You said that. And don't, or hopefully she'll listen to this. Or both.

Don't say nothing came on. And she's like, that's my shit. And I, because she was a teenager. Like that age when it comes out and you're just like, oh, I just fucking love this.

Like you have no context. You're not thinking like where it rests in the canon. You're just like, uh, uh, you know, like it's just, yeah.

She's not being a music snob like the, like, all in context. Yes, exactly. Well, I'm extremely, thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah. Can I ask, speaking of that, snobbery, I wanted to ask Mark a set question because I'm so

curious about where you started like working out your sets and how you started like refining and knowing what to do and what, what the crowd wanted and what crowd wanted what. And what crowd was important to you? In the beginning, I would just go and I would walk. watch Stretch Armstrong and Clark Ken and Goldfinger and just rip up all of their routines. Like, I'm not afraid to say, like, I know I stretch when he first came in a sense, like, was not happy with me. Because I wouldn't literally rip off his mixes, but he invented this, or maybe not invented, but his big thing was this thing where you'd be playing a song. And then the line that everybody would sing, you'd turn the volume off.

So it'd be like, double X posse. Like, oh, no, my gym hat broke. Bro, yeah. Joom, jim, jim, gudjidjoo. Right, so before they do,

you go the next song, on the thing. And I just thought, it was like, Uptown, baby, Uptown, baby, we gets down, baby, you know,

dun do do do, and ah! Like, so this was, so, and I loved that. I thought it was so clever, and I just started doing it all the time. And then obviously,

in the beginning, you're just picking up scraps of the people that you, that you look up to. But I guess I also, I loved what was called rare groove music, like from all that kind of like mid-tempo 90s, like, you know, not really rare records, but don't look any further. Baby, I'm scared of you, Sylvia Striplin.

And I would play all those, and I love building a night, and I was never afraid to play like seven hours. Like, I just loved playing, and eventually I got this sort of reputation as this DJ had good taste, knew the classics, new hip-hop, knew how to build a room, and that's when, I guess, also Puffy and Jay and those people were coming to. the clubs I was playing. So it was all this kind of nice dovetailing of, I was, I was going to say, what was the name of the club? Damn, now you're, now you're pulling me out where now I'm remembering that maybe I was a New York club kid for half a second. Because I definitely remembered, what was the club that was across the street from Justin's? Oh, yeah. Yeah,

I've just been there a lot. Yeah, on 17th. That was Cheetah. Cheetah. That was Cheetah. And a Monday nights. And Jay shouts that out and do it again on one of those songs. Yeah, man.

And he says, I used to fill it on Cheetah. And then I did Wednesday nights at Shine and then Fridays at Life. So every night that he mentioned in that, Cheetah Monday night, Wednesday nights at shine, effing with the model bitches Friday night at life or whatever it is. And I was like, those are all mine. Right. No, he used to, yes, he would often be there. Like, it was an event.

Like, until the APT came along. Yeah. And solidified Mondays. Yes. Like, you were basically, you know, usually my club nights would be, like, if back then, especially on two inch real, you know, a mix with Bob Power would probably be something, like, kind of like eight, nine hours or whatever. So, you know, if you're starting.

at three in the afternoon or something like we get there late and the reel gets there at four you know bob is basically like you know get out of my hair and come back at midnight like let me at least get the you know get the mixtrate first before you guys start micromanaging so usually you know on on Mondays or whatever coming to you play and whatnot what was it all right so well to be i just wanted to clear out too because jules and julian were the main DJs on monday specifically a cheater but they would let me fill in it all I play the basement. Otherwise, I don't think they're mad at me.

Usually I'd watch your sets. Right, right. So that's like my memories of it. All right. So one of the discoveries we made in the last five years of doing the show is that, you know, a lot of our, a lot of the accomplished producers that we admire were great DJs. And, you know, that's the case with Jimmy Jam, definitely the case with Dr. Dre. and then, you know, when I brought this up to Dre, he explained to me that because of the

duress that he was under, he would say like if you basically played the wrong song, you might risk the club getting shot up. Yeah. So he was hyper aware of what he played, and he says that that informs him of how he produces, because it's almost like there's no room for experiments. You have to be spot on knowing what your audience responds to. So for you, though, in that particular atmosphere, because the thing is, is that I know I can get away with murder. And you heard me experiment and do crazy shit often.

But I know I can get away with murder in front of a particular crowd that will let me do that. But, you know, my clientele was really never Puff or Jay-Z or any of those, like any of those parties that, you know, Steve Stout's going to show up at. So what is it, what is the, what is it like when you are the attraction at these particular parties? Because is it like what you really want to do or what you think serves them that keeps you working? Like what mind state are you in? It's a little bit of both. You know, I, I love starting the night at 10 p.m. Because you could start building and you could play classics in different records and R&B.

build it into the hip-hop. I hated coming on at 12.30 when the party's at the peak and it's like, what's the first record? Like, that just gives me like the anxiety of life. But the parties that I was playing, I was pretty like, you know, this was, I was never on the mic. This is before people really cared or even looked at the DJ. Like, they only looked at you if you fucked up, really. So, like, I love the anonymity of being a DJ and just keeping the night rocking and that, that was it. But I remember, like yeah occasionally I'd throw a curr ball or you know after eight years of playing the same kind of show I'd be like oh I wonder

if I could sprinkle like rock and roll in here or something and I remember the the Benjamin's was the biggest record at the time and there was that rock and roll remix of it and I was I wanted to play somehow I wanted to play back in black by ACDC by the end of this

set I was like I just got it you know when you go to the set and you're just like if I can just play these one or two songs for me tonight like that'll kind of That'll do it. That'll do it. And I remember I was like, all right, so right on the biggie, I'll switch to the rock version, right, on the biggie verse, because no one's going to stop dancing, no matter what the fuck's happening if Biggie's rapping, right? And then right on that thing when he goes, that's all about the Benji. Dan, nah, nah, nah.

Obviously, like, ACDC is, like, kind of in the books as, like, as a hip-hop breakbeat in some ways, but not in the clubs where it was, like, a lot of, you know, people coming to. It's not like Billy Squire, a big beat and that like that. And it was like, you know, a lot of like cool people in downtown types. And then a lot of like drug dealers who were spending 20 grand at like a banquette to like look cool. So like one of the banquettes was right behind the DJ booth. And right when I played that, once that was playing for like eight seconds, his drug dealer with like his friends and a lot of money and champagne everywhere like leaned over to me. And it was like, what the fuck are you playing?

I mean, I can't remember exactly what he said. But there were like times where it was like definitely like you couldn't get too. creative but um i think that yeah i had a mix i was playing those crowds some night and then sometimes i was playing for like slightly more like kind of you know just like miscellaneous crowds you could play more underground shit or different stuff so at this period when you're kind of like the the the darling of of hip new york society as far as like being their go-to-d-d-j um you know like you were doing the campaign with Alia for Tommy Holfick or whatever. So we knew you as DJ Mark Ronson.

Like, what is, how are you navigating in this double Dutch game of how to get in the rope so that we now know that you are a musician and a producer? Like at what point are you trying to figure out how to really get inside of this thing so that we take you seriously as a producer? Yeah. Well, I was trying all the time to be. honest. Anytime I met someone at the club who rapped, be like, come to my house tomorrow, like

1 p.m. and, you know, let's make shit. And that was like when someone introduced me to Saigon when he had just got out of prison. It was like that, you know, Saigon and I would be together every day making music. But I really didn't know what I was doing. I probably thought I did. Like,

everybody does at that age. Oh, I'm fully formed. I'm arrived. I know what I'm doing. And I was just figuring it out. And then was this, wait, let me interrupt one second. Was this Was the first entry like, okay, you're going to be making rap beats and work with rappers? I think so. And if that's the case, what was the album, what was the hip-hop album that called you to,

this is exactly what I want to do? Mecca and the Soul, brother. Yes. Yes. Yes. Because although I think main ingredient is probably my favorite of the two, but mecca is still. I mean, that's, yeah. It's funny.

You said that. I ridicule Kanye for saying that publicly, but when I really think about it, I have a way different relationship with me. Even though my, it's almost like Control is my favorite album, but I knew that 1814 is the better record. Right, right, right. For me, I think it's only because the main ingredient is all that we had living in London. Yeah. And this is without the internet, without computers, without change the station. Like, you could turn it on the radio and you got to listen to Scatman.

and 42 billion times. And, you know, like, for real, like, Scatman was the only thing on radio in Jamarquai. So it's like, ah, put that Pete Rock thing in. So even though I never say that's my favorite record of theirs, but I have a way more fuzzier memory of that saving my life than Mecca than the Soul Club. Yeah.

It's weird. What was it? What was about Mecca for you, Mark? Like, what was, what, how? Why was that your kind of one? I played in a band. I played guitar in this band in high school, and my drummer, Scott, was just like,

he just loved rhythms, and he was a really good drummer, and he did want to talk about, like, Dave fucking Debra. I don't even know these drummers and paradiddles and, like, real, like, he was just into rhythms, interesting rhythms. So he discovered it.

He loved it, obviously, probably, because, like, the drum fills and the things, da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-d-d-st spoke to him. And he just played me, reminisce one day we'd come home from like a band rehearsal maybe like a really late night gig and I was sleeping on his floor and he he played it for me and I was so moved by it I'd never heard a rap song that really hit me like that hard in the emo way and I listened to it probably 11 times in a row that night after you went to bed I was just like wanted to keep hearing it over and over and I think that

that was probably one of the first things we had rappers come up on stage with us when we were like this band but we were like sloppy kids like we were not uh holding it down. So I was just like, okay, well, I'm not a rapper. I don't know anything about producing, but I love this music, and that's what kind of led me out of the band and to become a DJ. And then, so that's why, though, it still has that, once I did discover production, I think that was always this kind of like, I don't know, touchstone. What year did you start DJ? Uh, 90, 93. So just at the end of my senior year. Um, and I remember the first four 12 inches I bought at Rock and Sol I bought

Time for Some Action Rebirth of Slick Ziggy Raking in the Doe and the original Wutank Yeah The original You said the original Of protect your neck

The original On the Shalin records Whatever The disc makers Yeah Yikes Okay I hope you still got that

Because that shit is worth money Man listen Yeah It's worth money now I still say 93 was the best year I don't care with nobody Really 93's your year musicly, yeah, it was hip-hop.

It was amazing. So what was your, what was your weapon of choice when you are making these beats? Like, what did you, did you start off on the 3000? I went in the story to get this MPC 60 or I kind of saved up, or I had enough for half of it. And then I was like, I want to pay for this on Layaway or whatever it is. And he was like, well, by the time you're ready to pay it off, actually the MPC 3,000 will be out. So I managed to get that. It was a year later.

And I had made really archaic beats. My stepdad, you know, being a musician, had an S-900 or a Kai. I don't even know which one it was in his studio. It was the 950, yeah. The 950, the racked out. And I made some really like, like, really like rudimentary beats where I didn't know how to adjust the time, but I knew that if I could get the samples to be exactly the same tempo and length, that if I just hit play on both of them at the same time,

I could kind of make it work. And someone was like, this kid that I was making beats for in my school, was like, you know, that's what DJing is essentially, like blending two things together on time. You'd probably like that. And so that was part of the reason as well that I'm sure that I've kind of led me to the path. But MPC 3000 was my first beat machine. Oh, also side note, speaking of your stepfather,

he's not to be mistaken for Mick Jones of the clash. Not to be mistaken. That's another Mick Jones. Yeah, I was about to say, you got crazy, it's a lot of, Mick Ronson for Mick Jones.

I know. The Mick Jones and the other Mick Jones. Yeah. Yeah, still legendary, but yeah, I was going to say. Because I was like, wait a minute. Your dad's not in the clash. Oh, right.

Yeah, exactly. Right, exactly. Okay, so would you would you say your first, steady client was Saigon? He was the first, like, I guess, rapper. There were some rappers from my school.

Like, I went to Vassar College for one year, and there were some rappers up there who I worked with Lodi and Ian, lovely guys. And then I came back to the city and someone introduced me to Saigon. So he was like the first person. It was like over my house. And actually, John Forte as well at the time.

I was good friends with John. And we had this weird, production duo called Epstein and Sons. I have no idea why we called it Epstein and Sons and he would be over at my place all the time and so yeah and then

Saigon sometimes would bring down like Stick and M1 from Depp Prez and I remember for very obvious reasons being like very nervous when they came over to my house I don't know what they're going to think of me and then also being slightly disappointed when they weren't

like horrible to me like almost like standing in the front sitting in the front row at Don Rickles concert and he doesn't insult you. He doesn't insult you? What did I? What's going on?

That's why I paid for. No. They were, they were very, very cool and and patient with me because I really know now that I didn't

know what the fuck I was doing. But the person that really plucked me from like just anonymity like just to kind of DJ was like DJing the hot parties was our friend Dominic Chenier. Dominic Chenier.

Yeah. So tell the story of how that morphs into you. Can I say that is Nicka like your first like major work as a producer, Nicola Costa? Of course, by country mile for sure. Okay. Wow. So wait, I worked on like your first production. I was like.

Yeah, that's why I was so fucking spoiled. I laugh about that. Like the first time we go into the studio, it's like I've been in the studio. It's like you and people. Hino and Jane, somebody was just saying, like, don't get used to this. Like, I remember that. For real, yeah. Yeah, this is one of those legendary moments where, where, you know, like, electric lady is just going to be just an open house of whoever comes in. And, you know, it's not, it's not normal for a person to be generous and let, like, usually, like, if someone

finds a good sound in a good room or whatever, they, like, lock it down. And they're like, no one else goes in this room but us. But it was almost like, you know, Dee was like, well, you know, obviously, if I say 3 p.m., I'll be here at 7 or 8 p.m. So, you know, whatever y'all do in the daytime is cool with me, as long as that, you know, once I get there. So we would just take advantage of all those early hours

and work on other things. I kind of feel like that album needs to be re-released in a way. Released? Yeah, because I feel like there's a whole generation of people who don't understand. Stan Nick Acosta killed that shit and then dropped the mic and was like, I don't know, that's what it's Yeah. Yeah. It was the 20th anniversary like last week and I was like, you know, Nika doesn't get,

you know, a lot of people, a lot of people, a lot of people, like, oh yeah, fuck, I love that song. My fiance partner or whatever included like people, because it was in the Hill Figure commercial and then everybody got there something, you know, ended up as the, yeah. Mine was so heavy for you. that was my favorite journal on that record. So about for you, I used the one. I love that song.

Yeah, no, she really wrote some wonderful songs on that record. Thank you. So what was the collaboration process like with you, Nick, and I assume Justin also worked Justin Stanley? Yeah. So Dom would come to the parties that I would DJ, like life and stuff, and he would be like, I'd be playing one of my regular sets. I'd be like, Rufus de Chaka Khan, EPMD, then a biggie,

and then at the end, maybe seven nations. An Army. That probably wasn't even out yet, but some kind of rock shit missed you by the stones. And he was like, he's like, I don't know if you make music or not, but like I have this singer and I just like, she's incredible. She has the best voice. And all I know is that her record's supposed to sound like this DJ set. It's amazing that Dom saw something in you. Yeah. That was Dom's real gift. Dom was able to see something in you that you yourself wouldn't see. I would almost say like, you know, all right, you know, like Puffy kind of has that. He can sell you the Brooklyn Bridge thing against your will.

Or there's something about him that makes you say yes, even if it's like, like I know instantly when he calls the phone, I'm like, no, I'm not doing this gig. I can't spend. What's up, Playboy? You, we got magic to me. And then suddenly you're like, yes, did he, I will do the gig for 70% off the price that I normally charge. Yeah. But Dom also had.

Don was just one of the greatest motivational pushers. Like he's the one that talk All that All the magic that came from Electric Lady Chances are Dom was there as Yeah

The foundation of Yo do this idea So, you know He he Yeah so he did And he's like I'll come to your studio Because I was probably just like

Yeah I make beats or whatever He's like let me come to your studio So he'd do So I had this little studio in my bedroom and his apartment on Sullivan Street and he was doing space jam at the time where it just finished it and he was like,

I need a remix of Seal did fly like an eagle and I need a hip-hop remix so why don't we try? I think that was like just to see if I could do anything. A test it. Yeah, and it was not very good. And I tell you, I almost feel like I can still remember him almost like holding my hand through like

the production of this remix to try and get me to make it better. Like I, like, you know, like I was doing these kind of Stevie-J puffy type drums, a lot of shakers. Yeah. Yeah. Before the top thing. Yeah, all of it. And then, but then somehow I

must have done something that just gave him a little more faith. And then a couple months later, he brought Nika to my studio. And I still didn't have the match for her musicality, but then Justin, her husband came into the equation

who was very musical and knew his way around his studio. And then that was kind of the trio. You were there for that, Steve, were you not? Yes, I was there for the band. I remember this. Yeah. Russ did all the work out, but I'm the secret sauce.

It's the same old story. You got the bacon. I get it. Yes, I already did. I'm sorry. No, those were very, very cool sessions. I mean, very memorable for me because I was just starting out too. Yeah.

And the music was so good. So happy to be. Because I had to do all kinds of different sessions where the music was a varying degree. of quality, let's say. I was about to say, if you're an engineer on a session that of a song you don't like, then I don't even know what that's

like for a person. You know what I mean? Just to be held against their will listening to a song where the shit ain't good. It's not good at all. Yeah. I remember, like, my favorite was just because, man, that shit could still be... Right. That shit could come out tomorrow

and I'd still ride for that thing. And that's also one of my favorite. I would probably say that's probably, if I were to compile a top five of like my drumming performance, because the thing is, the weird thing is, is that I'm serving the song so much that I'd never get to not have fun,

but just be myself. I don't know if it's like me being tofu. Like I have to bend to the will of what the song sounds like. Dishes. Yeah. Yeah. And just because usually if I wind up sounding like Steve Farone, that's more like the natural me.

Yeah. That's not me trying to sound like a breakbeat or me trying to redo this beat or not get kicked off my own song. Yeah. Because it doesn't sound hip-hop enough or whatever. So it's, but yeah, I'll say that just because was one of my probably, I'd put that in my top five, like drum sounds that I actually. that I dig.

I need to listen back. I remember Billy Preston came in and we were really excited for him to play piano. That was the whole thing. And he came into the studio and we were like, wow. And he just like sat there and listened to the whole thing. I was like, nah, the demo piano is pretty good. And she was like, no, no, that's just something that I just played, like, just for you guys. I don't hear it.

I'll play some clab though. And like that was it. There was like no chalking. We were just so psyched. Like Billy Preston is going to play piano and this thing. And he was just like, no, we'll play some. Clap for you. 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, 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 a 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 podcasts. I'm Ego Wode. My next guest, you know from Stepbrothers, Anchorman, Saturday Night Live and the Big Money Players Network. It's Will Ferrell.

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 IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. How long was it until you got a chance to work on, I'm about to say the Uwi record, not Ui, here comes the Fuzz. Your first solo joint. Yeah, that was basically

off the back of Nika's album. There was like a lot of buzz about it just before it came out and it was in this Hill Figure commercial and I had this little moment of like you know, it's never better than the moment just before the record comes because it's just like the possibilities are endless and you just look like it you know that's whatever so i got this deal with electro records that thing at the time because you know i had his little name as a dj nowhere near like the name recognition of the clues and the flexes and the people that were getting those

big mixtape deals but i also had this record that people were excited about and like a feather and this slightly new sound so i got this deal and then uh then took took me a year to make that record and that came out in 2003 and I got dropped a week after the album came out because it's oh wow wait what a week pretty much got dropped like the record I think they spent a lot of money on it had a lot of big cameos on it though they did but um I think that it just it you know did it charted in England where it was sort of like a you know number 12 or something but still I was going to say I heard a lot in Europe, yes. A lot in Europe.

It was big enough to make a little dent there. But no, I remember having to pay out of my own pocket to get Nate Dogg and Ghostface to come out to do the Craig Kilbourne show because at that point, like a week later, a lecture just like closed the budget. Wow. So how did you, at least at that point, I think this, that, the fuzz came out with like 2002, 2003? Yeah, it was like around.

Okay. So at that point. like were you your own point person like did you know rivers quomo and jack white and like all the people that were on that that first record for the most part the people that i didn't really know personally were rivers quomo and jack white because they were sort of more from rock world and jack was in detroit and rivers is l a that wasn't but anybody else i could kind of call because of by you know just being in the new york club for so long and i even remember when yesin then most came and we did our song,

we were like, you know what sounds so good on this? M-O-P. Like, wouldn't it be cool if it was just like the 70s when like Eric Clapton would call up

like Dwayne Allman and be like, come down and play on this thing? I was like, well, let's just try and call them and see if they'll come. So we were like called

Lay's or whatever, the manager, and then they did come. They just, they came three days later. We just didn't know. I was still waiting in the studio. They came Sunday afternoon,

but it, you know, it was amazing. But, no, all the people, free, Sean Paul.

These were just people that I somehow had a relationship with from just like one degree of separation in the clubs or just like I knew them, you know? Okay. When did, when did, because around the time, but I, I mean, I knew your, the stuff you did with Neck and everything, but around the time that I came, became familiar with you, with the hip-hop stuff was with Saigon, the, because I had the Dundt Dundt Dundt record. And then also with, with Ron Fest, y'all were working. Yeah, of course.

How did, how did, how did all that come about? We used to play the foreign exchange record so much on the tour. Oh, wow. Thank you so much, man. Loved it. Thank you, bro. That came about through my friend, Ron Minor, DJ Indiana Jones, who, you know, passed away really sadly in the past. Yeah, yeah, I know.

Yeah, it's crazy when you start talking all these people that just don't seem that far away in your life, they're not with us. But anyway, Ron was, Ryan Fest was Chicago, but was living in. Indianapolis at the time and Ron I knew and it brought him to New York and we just started hanging out and I just loved the way that he just liked all this weird other shit too because I'm not very good at making straight up the middle music to a fault I can't like pick a genre even within one song but me and Rhymefest had a lot of fun together and then he kind of came on the road and then we had a label put out his record and yeah yeah was a Lido Was that the only, was his record the only record that came out on that label?

Or did you put out anything else? Daniel Meriwether. Oh, that's right, Daniel Meriwether. Right. And the first Waleigh album. Wait a minute. Yeah. I've, I've totally forgot.

Before he went to Mayback. Everyone was way better after they left us. No, Daniel Merriweather sold a lot of records. Because Love and War, that was yours, right? Love and War was the one you did. Yeah. Yeah. So cool that you know, that's great.

Daniel would love listening to this. Wait a minute. Ah, damn. This is killing me now. Because I was under the impression. Okay, I'll admit, there's a lot of, like, transparency admissions by Questlove this episode.

Yes, of course. I, when I saw your label name, I couldn't, for some reason, it just read Dildo to me. Wow. Wow.

But I didn't expect that to come out. Right. But the thing is, is that when I read it again, I was like, oh, all I do, because he probably loves it for Stevie Wonder record. What is the name of your label? Well, that's the thing. It was all I do for the Stevie song. But the first records that Saigon, you know, put out a few singles with us and he would just yell out, Alito, like at the end of the song, we're like, okay, well, the first person who said our name as public record is already said. Alito. You know it's not a great That's exactly what it was. I heard him say and that's why I thought the label name

was because Ryan Fiss was hollet too. Alito. Yeah. Yeah. It's not a good sign when the people within the label can't even agree how to pronounce the title. So, you know, that's how it was. But how did you say it, Mark? Yeah, what was the, why'd you

name of that? I don't know because Dildo was already taken. So we're like No, that's stupid. I just love this TV song and I should have just made everybody commit to one pronunciation. Oh, so it is all right then. I was correct.

I was correct. It is all I do. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh. Okay, I was getting worried about myself for a second. I was like, damn, I have that wrong the whole time. When Music Soul Child album came out, was you mad? Because it was like, everybody got those.

Just. The run on. Yeah, I just want to sing. No punctuation. But for some reason, they couldn't get all. all I do. That's just... I love the idea of like this kind of like bad, like nerdy comedy sketch of like mispronouncing

all the famous, famous rap label. So it's like, I'd like to play this record by Bidboy. Bid boy records. Oh, wait, that's another. See, I wish Unpaid Bill was here. It just hit me. I was trying to figure out, remember when we were trying to figure out what a Mondegris. was like the prince way of writing things out and it's called amanda green i was i was trying to

figure out who's the king of mondagreans now and that's yeah that's music soul child's lame music yeah unpaid bill is not here for that all right so with hashtags my mom's hashtags on instagram are just like crazy run on sentences that are just wild okay so mark 2006 man i mean i probably told you this story before but To even the amount of paralyzed producers that sat and tried to figure this shit out when we got back to black. And I got a call from Jazzy. I didn't get a call. I was in, I was in Barcelona.

And Jazzy Jeff instant message me, whatever, AOL, instant message. And he's like, man, I'm depressed. And he's like, what? He's like, Ronson's king. I was like, huh? And then he sent me the file to the album. And literally, I called and I was like, wait, who produced this? And he says, Mark Ronson.

I said, no, no, no. DJ Mark Ronson? He's like, yes, that Mark Ronson. No, DJ Mark Ronson, like, you know, NBC 60 with the New York Knicks beats. That Mark Ronson, he's like, yes. and I was just frozen, yo. I sat, until showtime, I sat in that room and listened to that album for seven hours. So how did you connect with Amy at the time?

Like, he just explained the working relationship. Yeah, like, well, I remember just on that jazzy, Jeff thing. I remember this, because records weren't so global, then, they didn't just blow up like this. So, like, I didn't know if people in America had heard the album yet. And I remember being about to board a plane in some airport somehow. And there was a message from Jazzy Jeff. And I heard on my phone. And he goes, yo, Mark, this is Jeff.

He had never called me before. But, you know, we were cool. And he was like, what you just did, like, everybody's fucking with this. Like, that was the first call I got from one of my peers or someone I looked up to is this affirmation of the record. It meant so much. I remember exactly. I was standing outside looking at the window at the planes on the ground.

When I listened to that message from Jeff, that's how, like, much it meant to me but um to go back so i met amy because uh i had had a little bit of you know heat off of that uwee record in england just people kind of knew i wasn't guy moot who was the head of emi music publishing at the time amazing air cool guy uh call me and he said hey amy winehouse is in uh is in new york for a couple days uh you want to meet with her and i didn't have fucking shit else going on anyway but i was like yeah i remember that that girl because I because made you look is one of my favorite tracks of all time and I loved her song in my bed I used to play it you know in the sets here and she came to the studio and I met her

and I actually met her at the front door and she came up the same time and she was like yeah I'm here to see mark runton I was like yeah I'm mark and she goes no no like Mark runston I was like no no I'm here and she goes I thought you were like an old guy with a beard or something like I I think she just, like, probably heard my name for longer, like, thought I was somebody, whatever. She was an old guy. Yeah, just like a different, like an older producer or something. She thought you were Mick Ronson. Yeah, that's it, exactly.

Or Rick Rubin. Exactly. So we, like, went and we went and sat in Lepin Cote de the end on Grandin Mercer, and we just talked for a minute. I instantly liked it because she was so funny. I mean, you know. And we came up into my room, and, you know, usually at that point it was this thing where I'd play beats for people. do you like this, do you like this? But the minute she started talking about music,

I just knew that I had nothing near what she was talking about, but it was so exciting. And I said, what kind of record do you want to make? She says, well, they play this stuff down at my local, like the Shangri-Laws and stuff. So we listened to it. It was maybe a little familiar with something from like a Scorsese film, but that wasn't my shit.

And then I was like, well, listen, I don't have anything like that, but if you come back tomorrow, like, let me just fuck around tonight and come back and see if there's anything you like. So I stayed up all night and I was like running around in this live room back here, lesson with every fucking instrument. And I came up with the chords on the piano for back to black. And I just put a little like kick and tambourine on it and put a fucking reverb on everything because I was like,

oh, she likes this shit. That's what it sounds like. And she came back the next morning. And I was like nervous, but I was also so delirious from being up all night, like lack of sleep working on this thing. And she sat behind me and I just kind of hit play. I was like, yeah,

I made this thing last night. what do you think? And she just kind of had a head down like this. And then it finished. And she just looks up and she goes, yeah, I love it. I want my whole fucking album to sound like this. Because she never, she had such a,

I wasn't even a poker face. She just never was going to like, gosh. She didn't, you know, that wasn't her thing. And so she like took the CD, ran in the back room, wrote like the words and the everything in like an hour. And she stayed in New York an extra five days. so we could do the rest of the songs and demo them. And then I was using every plug-in in the book to try and make it sound old.

I didn't know what the fuck I was doing. And just about that time, I had met Dave Guy, and he had been playing on some other stuff I was doing. I had started to do this version record of these covers. So they were playing. I didn't know how to record a band. I could barely just record a horn section. So they had just played me this Verizon commercial they had done with Sharon Jones

that was like a cover of Signed, delivered or something like that and I was blown away I was like wait you guys made this like like today like how this you know this sounds old I don't understand how this happens like yeah it's Gabe man he's a genius engineer it's the guys and we play and this is our other band so I asked Amy I played it for Amy I was like yo this shit sounds incredible like we let me go ask this band to play these demos these songs been working on she said I play it first she goes yes the nuts like that was her expression of something was really good She liked that fucking Verizon commercial, whatever it is.

So by that point, you'd never heard of Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings and just that whole underground Brooklyn-y? I knew the stuff on Pure because I had sampled something off there on my first record. So something else they had done, but I didn't really know the Brooklyn scene. And because I got dropped from my label, rather unceremoniously a week after my album came out, apparently some of the samples hadn't been paid for either. So when I finally met Gabe Rock. wait did you do brand new from rhyme fest no no i didn't

oh okay i thought that was your joint okay um i was walking past the mercury lounge i probably knew somehow how i was going to get in touch with the daft kings but i didn't really know and it said tonight Sharon jones and the daft kings i was like fuck these are the guys i'm looking for you know so i walk in off the street and gabe's kind of like closing up his base

the gig is over i'm like hey i start talking a mile a minute probably trying to give him the cell and da-da-da-da-da. He, like, clicks, he's like, aren't you the guy that sample? Yeah, I never got paid for that song that you sampled from your record. I was like, I'll definitely take care of that. Yeah, I'm so sorry. And da-da-da-da, and like, can you just come and like,

can I play these demos? And like, if you like him, maybe like we could work something out and we could do the record it. And so I think Gabe just relented eventually. And he came to my studio a couple days later. Amy was already back in London. And I played the demos. And Gabe was like, okay, well, I have to check with Homer.

Like, Homer, it's hard for him to get someone to watch his dog a lot of the time. And like, he's didn't care. Like, they're so in their own world. He wasn't caught up. There was nothing that would have enticed him about money. I think he always found, and he said this before, the Amy songs quite intense emotionally and, like, a little down. And their music is so uplifting and soulful that, like, he also wasn't quite sure about, like, the lyrics and stuff. You know, it wasn't really his thing.

He's a very pure, like, instinctual. guy gave but we got it together and uh we caught amy wasn't here but i had all her vocals from the demos on a cdj that i brought to the studio and the band you know doesn't play to click so the band would start and i would run amy's a cappella on a cdj speeding it up and slowing it down with the band so they could hear the vocal while they track like uh you know so you're pitch well not pit, but you're changing with the CDJ, tempo adjust and with the CDJ.

So they hear her voice while they're tracking from the demo, and the one song I really didn't have an arrangement that I liked for was, you know, I'm no good. I kind of hated it, and I didn't know what to do with those chords, because it was kind of like, it reminded me of like

a Spanish flamencoe thing because of the chords, and I had this very on the nose beat that was like, boom, but it heard that. And I remember just playing that one for the band. We had already done back to black and some of the other shit. I was confident enough to be like,

I hate this thing that I did. Can you guys just think of anything cooler to just play right there? And I think like three seconds Homer and Nick looked at each other. I was just like, how about? Doon, do you doon, doon, do. And I just remember just being like, this is one of the greatest moments of my life. I know it.

I know it, you know. So you did all the tracking at Daptone Studios? The reason I'm coming off the mic is because I just found, because these are the lyrics to Back to Black, how she wrote them in the back row. And it's got, these are going to a museum and shit, but like just for the last couple of days I get to hold on to him. But yeah, it's even got like a phone number of this guy,

like Broncas, who used to do this thing last night's parties, who she must have got his number the night before. Right. All the other shit. That is amazing, man. What museum is it going to be in? Oh, anybody who wants it. I mean, I just realized, like, I found these rather recently,

and I just realized that I do not need to have these. These need to be somewhere where people can, like, see it and enjoy it. Yeah. Gotcha. Okay. I wanted to ask you, Mark, man, what was the, what were your thoughts on the Amy documentary? The one that came, the one that came. I saw it in theater.

I can't remember the name of it some years ago. But I think it was just, it might have been just Amy. What were your? your thoughts on that and do you think that captured in your opinion you know who she really was as a person the i remember the first hour of it i was just in love with it because you got all of the joy of amy all the humor the wit like the talent i hadn't even really understood how amazing the lyrics to songs like fuck me pumps and stuff on the first album that i wasn't that familiar was until i saw that I was like, wow.

And it was like spending time with an old friend. The second half is very hard to watch, but I thought it was well done. I have a little bit of a problem relationship with it because, you know, Ray Calsbert and her dad are people that I care about and that Amy cared a lot about and probably wouldn't feel great about them being treated disparagingly. But then it was also brutally honest film. So I thought it was very difficult to watch. I've only seen it once, but I did think it was a powerful film that was like, I think as I saw that center film and I was like, the other documentary that guy made first, and I was like, this guy's going to make a movie as weighty as her work.

Like, I feel like she deserves a great filmmaker. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm 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 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 Vodom. My next guest, you know from Step Brothers Anchorman, Saturday Night Live, and the Big Money Players Network. It's Will Ferrell. Woo! Woo! My dad gave me the best.

vice 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. Yeah. Listen to Thanks Dad on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. This is what I want to know. Because you and Salam sort of held the majority of the weight of the album of that production. Yeah. Are you two comparing notes? Are you hearing each other's demos? Because the thing is, is that sonically, that album sounds, you know... It's seamless. It's absolutely seamless, but, you know, how are you two even knowing what the... Do you... Are you guys even comparing notes, like, what the other is doing to make it that way? And who sort of gets the... Who's the 51% to the 49? Like, who decides...

song order and all that stuff. Really, I'm asking why was addicted treated like a bastard stepchild? I know that wasn't your song, but in the London version, the album opens with Addicted. Wow. In the American version, it's like the last song.

The American version opens with rehab. And I'm like, wait, what the fuck? Yeah. Because they're like Americans have short detention spans. We have to get to the hit. The song they know. I really don't know I'm sure she had nothing to do with that either

but yes I think to be fully honest Salam and her had an incredible musical bond and Salama's made many of my favorite tracks like Stone Cold fucking classics I mean just the fact that he bought you know you said I mean you said your 12 inch was breaking the dough I'm like man yeah that's a full circle moment Fuji la all of it

and but I think that they were doing a similar thing a little closer to what they had been doing on Frank, and Salam heard the demos or Amy said she was very excited about it, and then Salam took it in more of a live direction that maybe he would have done anyway, but I think he was probably excited to get to do that as well. So initially his work was more contemporary and whatnot, and then once you brought it to the 60s, then he adjusted his music accordingly?

Yeah, that's what I've been told, yeah. Oh, okay, important, okay, I guess. you know in a in a year of highlights like in 2006 2007 especially when you win producer of the year like what's what's going through your mind as they're reading off the nominations and i mean by that point were you basically like i got this or no no because it was still like you know timbuland was up and I was like they could easily give it to him for like a life service, whatever. But, you know, I'm not an idiot again. I'm not going to pretend like I know what ticks Grammy voters boxes.

And this was like a record that really fell in that zone because it had touches of the classics in the past. And it's like a nod to the old school shit. But no, I don't. I do remember I was very hungover at the Grammys, which because I was just like part. Like that was my first time at the rodeo. Suddenly I kind of made it. Like I'm like high-fiving Rian at some party the night before. Like with my stupid like Beatles blowout bob or something that I was wearing.

But I was pretty hung over. It was very surreal. I do remember when they read out producer of the year. My friend had to like kind of like shake. It was like, hey, they said your name. Like, you know, like it's in the movie. But the Grammys themselves, I took my mom. And, you know, we sat next to each other.

Obviously it's my first time there. But like, you know, there's no food. There's no water. You're hung over. It's like that, you know, it was basically like sitting next to my mom in synagogue on Yom Kippur. It's like the same thing. It's just like, okay, when is this going to end? But it was also a magical night.

Where do you keep your Grammys? Right now they're in storage. I knew it. Because I'm like moving in between places. But, yeah. Only ask because, like, majority of people use them as door stops or, you know. Well, kind of like, yeah. Yeah, whatever.

That's the thing. And I remember it was so cool, like, when we got the ones for Amy that Gabe Roth from, you know, Dav Tones was just so cool. And he, like, sent his to his grandmother because that's how little he cares. But at that point, like, mine would definitely on the fucking mantle. Like, it was the first thing you saw when you walked into a house. And so, yeah, he was a little more spiritual than I was. I want to ask you about Valerie, man.

That, what made y'all cover that song? Because I was surprised. Even though I knew the album, you know, version, it didn't occur to me. I'm like, this is a cover. I thought that was her song. You know what I mean? What for you y'all to cover that? So basically, I'd finished.

I've been doing this album of version of like concurrently. And basically it was because I was tired of in my DJ sets whenever I played a song occasionally by the Smiths or radio head of like maybe being in danger of getting a bottle thrown at my head. So I was like, I wonder if I can take these songs that I love by these bands and like re- and just cover them and just make them in a way that I can play them in my sets. So I made this covers of like, you know, these are rock songs. And at the very end, I was to finish back to Black with Amy.

I was like, hey, it would be a shame. We've done all this work together if you weren't on my record. Like, we should think of something. Do you know any guitar songs? Because all she knew was fucking Nazmos and like, you know, the new birth. So she said, she's like, wow. on point. I was like, I she was like, I know this one song they play at my

local, it's called Valerie. And she played it for me, the Zutons version. And I kind of didn't hear it at first because it was like a stodgy, kind of rock, like mid-tempo, stonesy thing. But she knew those two chords, those classic two soul chords going back and forth was like, and what her voice would sound like over it. And we

just wrote a quick chart, went in the room. It was the first time she had met the Dap Kings. They'd played all over a record. The record was out, but she had never met them. So it was kind of a magic moment. She once called me actually from England when she must have first got the album Brooklyn.

She was like, is there a Mac? Do you mean to tell me there's someone named Binky Grip Tite who played on my album? And I was like, yeah, he's fucking amazing. And so she came to Brooklyn. It was a big love in. And then we were like, let's do this Valerie song. And we played it. And they did it in a really nice, like, what's that band that Curtis Mayfield produced,

the young kid. Impressions. The impressions? The five stair steps? Yeah. As two sisters and two brothers, they did try love again. The creation, creation, creative for. Creative source?

No, fuck. I wasn't creative source because that was what you're going to. Okay. Well, anyway, they were like one of those, like they were like a kind of, they had a big song, try love again anyway. So they did it in a very Curtis, like, 1966 style. And I liked it, but there was just that greedy, like, hit maker fucking part of my brain that, like, literally everyone's packing up the instruments. I'm like, you guys are going to kill me.

But can we just do, like, one version where, like, you just really just go like, doonka-dun-dun-do-dun-ch-do-do-ch-do. Like, really simple, like, just dumb. And so they're like, oh, like, open the guitar case back up, go back in and plug in. And then that was the version that was kind of like, yeah, because it was popier and more instant like that. No, I love that song, man. What was, you mentioned radio head, what radio head song would you tell you in the club? The natural four. The natural four was the band. Okay, okay.

The radiohead song, well, I used to, Q-Tip loves Radiohead, and whenever we were in his car, he would play Just. We would listen to a lot of Radiohead, but the song Just, and that guitar part in the middle, Dan, dan, dan, dan, dan, da, da, dan. Like, I was so in love with that thing. I would just want to play that part. over and over again.

So I would just, you know, that was the song we covered. So y'all, that was like, say, yeah, that was the bins. Y'all was like bins. I didn't know if he was playing, like, kid A shit. Wow. I probably would have, but I wasn't, like, crowds weren't cool enough. I don't think I ever played Radiohead actually in the club, but you could play the one just, you could totally do that.

Idiotac. And that's, yeah. I'm going to say, idio tech, that's my, that's my sleeper. Yeah. You know, like when you wind down the set and you know it's going to be empty. play ediotic yeah everything that's right place when they play that live like that is so

fucking euphoric when he's on the electric roads and just the kick drum okay so I gotta know Glass Mountain Trust oh my God man first of all for real for how did you

how did you wind up pulling that off and how long did it take and how many Advil did you have to take okay so this is a thing and I feel feel I almost have guilt of like I feel like I'm not worthy of having like the one

DeAngelo song from like that came out during that era almost and like I wish that if I knew it was going to be that I had made it a better song or something but Dom was just back in my life at that moment and coming to the studio and we were making

the studio at Tommy who does all the Menahehan Street band and Charles Bradley stuff and the Budos band at his studio in Brooklyn. And a lot of people were coming in and out. Mary J. Blige had come by, John Legend. I was working my record.

So Dee came by and just, like, had that Jesse Johnson guitar and, like, just jammed with us one night. And it was kind of fun. And then I just had this track. And the thing that's just kind of funny is that, or funny or whatever you want to call it is, we had just made up in that old days of, like, putting a blank CD with,

the track on it to give to somebody. I was like, well, what do I write on it? And I just asked for my friend Anthony who corroded. He's like, I don't know, just write Glass Mountain Trust. That sounds fine. So I brought it to, gave it to Dom and brought it. And Dee was co-writing lyrics a lot at that time with the woman who was in Funkadelic, was it? Or do you know what I'm talking about? Oh, yeah. Angie. She co-wrote Black Messiah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. What, Andy Stone? No, no, no. You're talking about Kenra Foster.

Kinjor Foster. Yeah. Andrew Foster. So, and then so, you know, the song, the CD was out for a week, turned to three weeks, turned to two months, and Dom kept being like, no, it's going to make mastering, don't worry. And like, sure enough, it did. But when I finally saw Dee, like, much later, he was like, go, man, he's like, that song's so cool. And, you know, I'm so sorry, it took so long. But, like, I was just really trying to get to the core of what Glass Mountain Trust meant lyrically. And I was like, oh no.

Like, this is a joke. He thought that's what it was. It's a joke title. Like, he was just taking, he just wanted to make sure that he, like, honored. He was like, and he did make it really cool. It was about smashing, like, a mountain in half when you, like, feel like you're being trapped in a, by a lover. Like, I have some shit. And I was just like, wow.

Right. Can you get that song? I just see it on YouTube. Yeah, it's out. Yeah. It's on his own version. It was no, it was on my album record collection, the next album. It was on.

I'd never heard D sing aggressively, so it might sound silo-ish a little bit because he just never sings in that. In the particular way that he's singing it, it's like he has his way of singing on his records, but this is very different than his other records. Yeah, it was interesting. Yeah. Yeah. Man, I just wanted to tell you, you know what I mean, just I'm so glad we're having a chance to talk.

I just wanted to thank you for the Uptown special record, man. Like, I love that album. Like, that's my favorite one of yours. And it very much for me was somewhat of a main ingredient kind of effect. Just because the first single, like, when I heard Uptown Funk, I was like, okay. I mean, I thought it was like, all right, this is cool. Yeah, yeah. But I'll check the album.

And then I heard the album and I was just blown the fuck away. I was like, yo. So just, man, I mean, from the songwriting, perspective, the writer that you bought in, Cheybon. Michael Sheybin, yeah. Yeah, Michael Shevin, yeah. Talk to me about that. Like, what was he, was he just sending lyrics?

Did he help with melodies? What, because he's, what was it like working with a writer for a record? Well, I knew I wanted to make an album that was like a little more sophisticated musically, and Jeff Basker had, like, written Trice Sleeping with a Broken Heart and, like, a couple of these things that were just, like, really cool, clever, quarterly. And I knew he was a Berkeley guy, and we had met through Bruno. So I was like, let's make some Steely Dan shit. And then, like,

we had some cool chord progression. I love that fucking song. Oh, dang. So we started, we started writing some songs. And then we tried to do our shitty version of, like, Steely Dan lyrics. And they sounded, they were so bad. They were, like, the worst, like, 70s,

AM rock one hit wonder, like, when people tried to start making clever stories after Steely Dan, but they were just, like, not, like almost like a little, like, a ride like the wind. We were closer to Christmas. of a cross ride like the wind. So we're like, well, what do we need is to get an author to write these lyrics instead?

So I was like, well, I love this guy, Michael Schabon, and I feel like I saw his name on an email once, so I was supposed to be BCC'd, but everybody got C-C'd, so I'm going to write him. I feel like I know this guy loves music, and I wrote him a really polite thing, and I said, I'm a huge fan of yours. You wrote my favorite book of modern fiction,

this book, Cavalier and Clay, and I said, do you want to try and be a part of this thing? like yeah I love fucking Steely Dan they're my fit some of my favorite authors ever let me come down and and and mess with us so we were in uh venice at jeff's spa um and we just started doing it sometimes he would give us lyrics and that would kind of just like sometimes it was great reading lyrics because suddenly melodies would like form in my head melodies i never would have thought of if i was just like sitting down so that was fun and then sometimes we'd just give him the songs with like a melody going

Dan-N-N-N-N-N-or-D-D-A. It would be like, now you have to make syllables to all of that. Fill it in. Yeah. Yeah. Nah, man, that record, that was just such a,

it was such a big, just a surprise because I didn't. Because Uptown Funk was like big and, you know, glossy and kind of like, it became just this monster hit. But the stuff on there, like the summer breaking and with Kevin. I'm really proud of that stuff.

Really. Like, oh, man. I love those songs. I mean, now I listen to it and I feel like we were going a little, like two on the nose for the CD-Dand, like, really, like, the music and the lyrics and all of it, but, like, it's, I still really, I still really, I mean, I haven't listened to it in so long, but I'm proud of that music.

Yeah, it's odd to y'all, you thought, silly Dan. I didn't get that vibe. I mean, now that you say it, I hear it, but I wasn't thinking that. I definitely, like, when I heard in case of fire, to me, it sounded just like some kind of dirty, like, bar band shit, you know what I mean? Yeah. You know what I mean? I was like, yo, this shit is cool. I had that riff around forever, and it was actually like I wrote it as a coda to like a fucking Rufus Waynwright song and he never wanted to use it.

So I gave Rufus publishing on that riff because I was like, well, this kind of, this riff really did come because I wrote as a coda for your song. Yeah, I saw you gave publishing on two on the I Can't Lose Joint to Pal Joey. Oh, yeah, because of the drum. The drums, yeah. The drum break from hot music, yeah. And the singer one that talked to me about that, because I hadn't heard of her before, and I read the story of how y'all were looking for like a singer

for that particular song and y'all kind of wanted to get kind of an unknown, you know? Yeah, me and Jeff decided, Jeff is like very smart and, like, has his very, like, it gets caught in an idea and it's like there's no stopping until we get there. And he's, he had this idea that we should really, like, if we wanted to make an album influenced by blues, R&B, and Gospel, that we should drive from New Orleans all the way up, like the Delta along the Mississippi,

the same way that that music also migrated. And we should drive there and go to churches and everything. And look for singers, too. So, like, our dumb ass, all we were missing was the Blues Brothers suits and the sunglasses. But it was amazing, and we did. And, like, we went, like, that's why, like, we went to, like, Jackson, Mississippi. Like, that's why that lyric ended up in Uptown Funk.

Because, like, Bruno, it's just like, you went to Jackson, Mississippi, and we went to, you know, found mystical in, uh, in Louisiana. Yeah. Baton Rouge or was in? In Baton Rouge, exactly. Sorry, I was just my brain is spacing now. But, yeah, and so all that stuff that happened on that trip,

and then Keanu, we met in Jackson, and she was just an incredible singer and just had a great tone in a nice burnt bit to her voice. And we just, yeah, we just put it on the whole record. How did you get the story of Stevie playing harmonica? And I totally understand you're so real for bringing them back for that second, like using it again for cracking the pearl parts. Because I would have did the same thing.

I'd have to re-rock that shit again. Yeah, yeah. What was that like, man? I had this song that we had written, and I had this melody to this Michael Schaven lyrics. And every time I tried to sing the words, I didn't really like it that much. I just felt like it should be instrumental.

And then I got so caught up in my head. And, you know, Stevie, like, a lot of us, my favorite musician of all times, particularly as harmonica playing, is so evocative. And I just started saying, like, out loud to myself, you know, the only thing that should really play this melody is Stevie Wonder on the harmonica. And I was, like, making sure not to say it out too loud

because it sounds crazy. And I had this thing, and towards the end of the record, I was just like, I'm just going to send, Rob Light at CIA, who I just signed there, and he was like really cool. And he said he was close with Stevie. I was like, can you just send this thing to him and just see? And I wrote a really, you know, note. Fuzzy note.

Yeah, real nice posted note. And then it's like, yeah, same thing, D-Day, like day before mastering. I get this thing in my inbox that said, Stevie harp session. And it was so intense to see it. I actually couldn't even, like, open the session. I was just sitting in front of the space bar for, like, 20 minutes because I was, like, the magnitude of this moment. I just hit the start, and it sounded exactly like I thought it was going to sound but better.

It was like, it was just such a crazy thing to hear this thing that you love so much. It's defined so much of what you do, like play this thing back. Yeah. Nah, that was, that's a great record, man. I just, I just want to just thank you for that. That record really, it really resonated with me, and it got me through. just that time of my life. I was running that shit nonstop. Thanks so much, man.

Thank you, man. Okay, I know we got minutes left and we didn't even get to your Oscar. Okay. So I will just, I will basically. That did happen, right? Yeah. I will basically try to figure out how to wrap this up. So by this point, of course, now the world is coming to you.

Work on my shit. Work on my shit. And you're getting bigger, bigger caliber names working with you. Just in general, like when you, you, what is the criteria of what you need in order to inspire you to work with someone? Because I'm certain that you might have had some nose that weren't just, I don't have time to do it, but I don't know that's a fit. Because I also know that producing people is also like babysitting them, learning like Jedi

mind tricks. So before you take on a client, like, for instance, you doing the, the Joanne record with Gaga. Right. Like, do you, is there an initial play date period to see, is it dinners first to see if you're the guy for the job or not or, you know. Well, I knew her from a while before and then I saw her blow the hell up because I had worked while they was on our label and she was on that first chilling song. That's right. She was on, yeah. Okay.

And that was just before she blew up. And then I remember, you know, seeing all the milestones along the way until she was like global domination. Right. And so, yeah, she had just finished the Tony Bennett thing, and I finally had like my first hit kind of like Uptown Funk. And she was like, let's mess around. And we just, yeah, it's always like a play date first. Or like, let's see how we vibra. Let's just do five days and see how it goes.

And we had an instant rapport. And that's how it always goes, really. I mean, I'm kind of still terrified. Like, I don't really love working with big people. because the expectations and I love working with new artists because they're so excited and the joy of them being on their first voyage

is so that's like my fountain of youth almost. But I think also sometimes it's just because... Okay. Yeah. And then sometimes it's probably because I'm like a coward and I don't want like the fucking heads of the labels like leaning down on me like you better deliver a hit. Like there's something about when the expectation

is off. All my biggest stuff has really come in my lowest period. It's kind of like Amy, nobody was checking for me. Then I had a couple of hits and no one's checking me for again. Then I worked with Bruno and then like just these kind of ups and downs, you know. So I'm too like fucking sensitive to depression and all that shit. But one of my, I don't know if you remember this, Steve, but one of my favorite moments in life, I think, I don't know why, but I believe that me and Steve got to witness Gaga listening to the Joanne.

record. Yeah, an electric lady, right? In his completion. Oh, so we were all there. Were we all watching us? Yeah, we were recording an episode of Quest Love Supreme and we was like, who was that girl over here? Yeah.

Was it with Chappelle? Yeah, I think so. Yeah, might have been Chappelle. Okay, I totally forgot that. Yeah. And we were kind of watching her, like she was kind of dancing like nobody was watching. Like obviously she didn't know that we were watching her behind the, in Studio

St upstairs. Well, they had covered most of the, there was a big glass window that looked into the control. I didn't know it was you guys because also Frank Ocean had been in a lot and he's like very secretive like everything gets boarded up. So there was just a sliver of glass that you could just kind of see at the top and Gaga was going so crazy that night. I remember and she was like flipping her hair around as a blonde so like I remember Chappelle saying like all we could see was just some crazy white woman like whipping her head like the blonde hair was just like whipping around like a lasso and and yeah

And that was, God. Because we were trying to get the attention, like, yo, y'all see us in here, right? And then when we realized that she couldn't see us, but it was like a police station, like, yeah, I was like, oh, she. Because Mark was there. That's great.

Yeah, I think I remember being, I think I was in the room that night, because I remember that dance. This is, yeah, this is definitely. Yeah, fulls are real. I know you have to go, but I got to ask this one last question.

And this is such an anti-climate. So I want to know how did you guys manage for, and I'm speaking of shallow. how did you guys manage to bypass the Oscar rule of no more than four people writing a song? Because it's you, Wyatt, Gaga, and... Anthony. Yeah. So it's four.

Yeah, it was four. But is that the rule you can't have four? Is the rule two or something? So the rule, it has to be like an exception. Like in order, when I saw those four names on the ballot, then I instantly knew, oh, this is winning because they broke the rule for this. Because even with like other situations

where like in Common Song, like he just had to pay Rhymefest a grip of money to, you know, that sort of thing. Rhymefest got a Grammy eventually. I mean, an Oscar eventually because I saw it. So there must be something that on the night only certain people maybe get up or something. Right. Okay.

Invites. Or maybe Rhymefest doesn't have an Oscar. Maybe he doesn't. Maybe he does. No, I've seen Rhymefest Grammys, right, of course, for Jesus Wallace. But yeah, you're right. I think. Right.

Yeah. In the Oscars, you can't have more than three writers on a song. They're trying to change the rule now, but I was like, damn. Like, because when I looked at it, I was like, somebody's going to get gagged here. Yeah. Like, who draws the shortest straw? But what was it like that night to win that Oscar? I mean, it was so nuts.

I mean, it was just there. and I'm not going to lie like it's always a little like people were telling us on the right car with the whole time like you know you're the show and this thing and it's like let me just enjoy like

but let me be surprised whatever it is because then the only thing you have is disappointment like you don't know you never know until they open that a fucking envelope

what's going to happen Chadwick's widow yes exactly so so so so but that moment when they said it and first Bradley and Gaga gave that incredible

performance before and I was just like a fan in the audience like oh my God Right. And then they said it and we just got up. And it was actually kind of funny, like, because at the Golden Globes, they had said that I was allowed to give the speech.

And I thought that was really sweet. And maybe they were like Gaga's might win the actress, so she's going to speak later. So at the Golden Globes, I was, you know, really nervous. But I wanted to say and thank Bradley and be eloquent, whatever. At the Oscars, I was like, nobody wants to hear us speak. This is Gaga's night. And I was kind of the bad guy amongst Andrew. and Anthony, who are two of my closest friends,

I was like, we just got to shut up. And they're kind of like, what, not even like, thanks, mom. I was like, I just don't think it's the night for that. So everyone was like, all right, asshole. So we're on the way to the Oscars, and they read out the thing, and they win, and Gaga goes up, and she makes this beautiful speech, and then she just, and da-da-da-da-da-da-and I went,

and then she just took to me and goes, and Mark, so I'm like, oh, fuck. So I just say something really quick, like, hey, you can't thank yourself, so we would like to thank you, But like I look like such a dick to my friends. I'm like, no one's going to speak on TV unless it's me. Right.

But it was the most magical night. And I just remember the four of us feeling like such a crew like that night and just like running around and fucking just feeling like it was wonderful. And then everything else like that after that sucked once we left the shrine or whatever that building was. No, it wasn't. It was dope. It was one of the dovest parties I've ever been to. I was within a relationship and I was a lot of fighting and shouting and not it wasn't It was the late night feelings record right

Thank you for that record by the way late night's feeling Thank you for that record by the way Mark I know you got to go Can we plug the Apple show really quick? Yeah, I was wondering when he's gonna mention the pie again The fader on coverage You know the where I interviewed you know cover stars the fader obviously has a great track record of getting people right at that moment just before they blow off and take over the world And you're still our most popular downloaded episode from so far from that. Thank you for being on.

I love being people's first pilot episodes of their podcast. Yeah. So thank you, man. And that was great. And then I've done this show, which you're also in, Watch the Sound for Apple Plus, which is a six-part documentary series on sort of like how music is made. Like each episode is a different subject. Distortion, reverb, synthesizes, drum machines.

auto tune and samplers. So it's like everybody from yourself to McCartney, to Tame and Polly to Too Short, to the BCs, to Premiere, to Wale at T. Payne, talking about these devices and why these devices gave them superpowers that they didn't think that they knew how to be creative and lifting the veil of how this shit gets made

and just in a very human and creative way. So I've been working on that for the past year and a half, so it's very exciting. Great idea. It's brilliant. Yes, dope content. Mark, all sincerity, man. I'm an immense fan of yours, and it's really dope to see you, not even come up.

Flourishing, flourishing. Yes, yes. You've passed arrived. Is there anything that you've yet to do that you want to do? I think that I just still, like, sometimes when I come here and start to sit down to write something, like I know I'm still learning. I know I'm still getting better. my biggest records behind me for sure but I still feel like oh yeah I want to learn that

thing today and like or like I want to be able to get back that feeling when I was on my MPC whatever it is so like I'll never I there's I think that's the thing that still drives me coming here every day and being like I can still be better I'm not sure if there are milestones so to speak but just making music still I don't know when I'll get forward that you is that the mic that you is that the mic you track vocals on the the 7b or is that the one you use no this is just what I is when I'm on a fancy podcast. This is the SMF. Hey.

What's your kind of go to in the studio? I like anything. There's a, I like trying different shit out. Sometimes there's just like shitty stuff that's like underdog mics or whatever. But I mean, the 77, the ICA is always incredible. I mean, that's the 44. But the SM7 is always great too.

It's good enough for Michael and Bono and fucking whatever. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, I can't wait to hear. the results have set microphone on on Yeba's record when it finally

she's the light of day. Are you doing that? Are you doing, you're doing the whole record? We did it. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And Jill Scott called me

about that record. She loved it. Yeah. Wow. It's dope. Mark, well, we thank you for coming on the show. Thanks so much.

So nice to see, meet you. Steve. Thank you. I bet you're the best for me. It was nice. Thank you.

Hi. V. Okay. See you later. All right. I'm going to be happy. Mark Bronson and Fonticelo and Laia and Sicken Steve is Kuzlob signing off. Questleff Supreme.

Check out next time. Yo, what's up? This is Fonte. Make sure you keep up with us on Instagram at QLS and let us know what you think and who should be next to sit down with us. Don't forget to subscribe to our podcast. All right. Peace. Much Love Supreme is a production of IHeart Radio.

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