The Questlove Show - Questlove Supreme: Styles P

Episode Date: August 16, 2023

Questlove Supreme's celebration of 50 years of Hip-Hop continues with Styles P. The LOX co-founder describes transforming his life through physical and mental health. The Yonkers, New Yorker tells how DMX was a trailblazer, his brotherhood with Jadakiss and Sheek Louch, and his dedication to showing authentic Black Love on television.See 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,

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

So let's get to it. Listen to the Clifford show on the 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. Questlove Supreme is a production of IHeart Radio. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of Questleaf Supreme. I'm sorry, the award with West Love Supreme. Yes, indeed. You host, Questo, with us. We've got Fonticelo.

Flip it up. Not the Blue Room. I kind of like this daytime. version of Questlove Supreme. Yeah, yeah. It's a little more coherent, isn't it? Get it out the way. What time is that out there,

Laya? Nine, yeah. I tried doing Questleft Supreme in the morning. I don't know that. Sorry about that. You're okay? You're okay? Yeah, it's noon here. You're waking and baking? I'm, so far,

so far just waking, but keep watching. I get it. I get it. And of course, Bill Sherman's probably on Sesame Street right now. So, well, I don't know. I mean, oh, wait, no. They can be on strike too. Strike, yeah, everything. Are the Muppet Sag actors?

Like, are they? It's like whatever's in the can and they got to put. I see, I see. Yeah, yo, ladies and gentlemen, of course, it would be remiss if in this year of our Lord 2003. If we didn't start celebrating hip-hop's 50th anniversary, at least with some key interviews with legendary figures that have pushed the culture forward. So basically, I'll say that for the last 25 years, we've watched this young man grow and evolve and expand. Definitely one of the most respected and consistent emcees in the game right about now.

Of course, he co-founded a beloved group in the culture of hip-hop. Of course, that's the Lox. He has an amazing solo career and has been pretty much part of a handful of songs that we all know by heart, including one. I forgot about the Rising Down record that you're on Rising Down with us. And I'll say that more importantly, he is pivoted to not only cultivating his music career, but also entering the health space, which, you know, was also influential to me. Like, it's good that both Fonte and our guest today are on here, and I kind of credit both men in their small, subtle ways with planting seeds about me personally

thinking about my time on this plane, on this earthly plane, and how I could make it and actually be exemplary, my damn self, taking my life series with my health. You know, our guest today has opened up juice bars across New York City, including his hometown of Yonkers, which I actually just found out is not far from where my farm is right now. He's bringing change to the community. He and his family has basically shown people the pathway to, you know, better health, food, body and mind. And, you know, he's an author. He's pinning novels.

20 albums to his name, Grammy nominations, and one of the best voices in hip-hop. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Stiles P to Questlove Supreme. It's good, man. How are you doing? What's up, family? How are you feeling? Feeling good, brother. Good to see you, man. Yeah, good to see you. Awesome, awesome. Right about now, where are you, what part of the world are you in? I'm assuming that you're in New York City. Yeah, I'm in New York outside of the gym. Okay.

Love it. Love it. That outside the gym sitting in the car. Oh, my God. Like, how long were you? you in the gym styles. I was in a gym about an hour. Yeah. I just left the gym, my damn self. But today legs,

cardio, what we do? Oh, today I just did cardio, to be honest. This is a, it looks like a windbreaker, but this is actually like a sauna suit. That's what it looks like. Do those doings work?

Yeah, definitely. They work out. Yeah, they could not just for a lot of people do it. They think you put on a sauna suit. One is great to sweat and lose but it's also great to get rid of toxins. It's a great way to get rid of toxins that kind of speed up your sweating, sweat a lot.

I'm big on sweating, stretching, sleeping. All the essence are very important in your life. You need to sleep and sweat as much as possible. What's your cardio choice? You walk, run, stair master, like what you do? I like the air bike a lot. Like the role machine. I hate the road machine, man.

I love the real machine. I hate the, my training uses that as punishment, yo. It's a good machine, though, because you get to work out everything. Today I got on the, I hurt my knee a little bit last week. I don't even know what happened. My knee just turned to my enemy out of nowhere, but it's feeling a lot better. It's called 40s, now. Yeah, my ballmaster went into my knee, and it ain't been the same since.

So today I got on to some of my seat, the elder people get on all the time, And I thought it was a joke because all you do is shit there and go like this. It almost killed me. Not the elliptical. You just sit down and do your hands like this. Oh, the bike, the bike join where your bike, you just put your hands.

Yeah. It's fighting with your hands. I thought it was sweet. That machine is no joke. You're right. I can attest to that. No, my enemy is a machine called, do you know about Jacob's ladder?

Oh, yeah. That's the, that's the, the Versa climber is the worst machine in the that's why it's always empty. Is that the steps? The steps? Did you just walk up the steps? Yeah, he just walk up an endless ladder. It's like the actual

easiest way to say you're mountain climbing without mountain climbing without a mountain. Oh, ooh, oh, oh. You make whatever part of your body is not in shape, that machine will let you know what part of the body that is. Before you worked out, what did you do? Like, what did you put in your body?

before you worked out. Today I didn't do anything but a juice. I had kale, cilantro, cucumber, lime juice. We did this previously with Dave Matthews, where I kind of just threw the script out and just kept the conversation going. Only because I'm so curious about this. I'm going to store sort of a stew

and kind of cast aside the Questleaf Supreme 101 questions because really, I'm being selfish and just doing it for my own benefit. But I've really, you know, I've been following your storyline in terms of you pivoting your life and taking your health seriously. And, of course, you know, you already know, Fonte already knows, like, I mean, everyone, everyone on this, on this current conversation knows that we're kind of in an arena. where it's very likely that in a flash, you could instantly leave this earthly plane in a matter of seconds. This morning was one of those mornings.

You know, one of my best friends in the world made his exodus to the next life. And it's almost to the point where it shouldn't be numbing when you hear about this, especially when you hear about, you know, it's more health-related. But just the fact that, you know, we're barely. getting the pleasure of celebrating our 50th birthday, let alone an older age. And so for me, I would like to know, what was the straw that broke the camel's back for you

in terms of, like, you got to make a change and you got to not only focus on your own personal health, but amplify that message for us that are out here listening to you? I believe being in hip-hop and, moving to a more affluent neighborhood was really my wake-up call, to be honest to you, years ago. You know, through hip hop, fortunate enough, I was able to move from where I originally lived. I think I want to say I moved, I'm 48 now around the time when I was 21, 22 is when I first moved to a better neighborhood

and just really noticing the differences in the stores and the differences and what being sold when you live in a more affluent neighborhood. And hip hop is a very braggadocious verbal sport, but it's unrealistic when you think of poor people. Like everybody, you know, naturally we're supposed to brag, say we better emcees and talk about your lifestyle. But when I started thinking about it,

how many people were aspiring to get things that most likely they wouldn't be able to get or wouldn't be able to afford and that their life is focused on that, do the hip hop it kind of made me change my outlook on the message i wanted to deliver so it was like bro you want a bentley but you can't afford a civic and to be able to afford a civic you have to have a certain work lifestyle work ethic and the best way to do that is to take care of yourself and between between that and then looking at the difference that uh a healthy lifestyle made for me personally the things that it was able to change about me um

Early styles, I would say my temper was extremely bad to the point where I was smart, but I would do stupid things. I let my ego and my pride kind of run my life and what I was doing. So, you know, I was not going to have security type of guy. If I have a problem, I'm handling on my own. And then that later on led me to being more cowboyish. And then I had to sit back and think, like, what's wrong with me? Like, I'm too smart to be this way, but why am I this way?

So I came up with my own hypotheses that I had some sort of chemical imbalance, and that was coming from what I was putting in my body. I was at the time I was around 240. I had post nasal drip, cyanitis, eczema, and a horrible temper. And just from juicing up and eating better, I noticed the change in myself. I noticed the change in my spirit. So it was like, you know, I started looking at things out of the boxing from how I normally would look at things. And then I kind of knew that was all due to me just changing my lifestyle and caring about myself more.

I think a lot of us, we say we care about ourselves. We say we love ourselves, but we're programmed and conditioned to do things that people before us did, whether it's our parents, our grandparents, our great grandparents, our neighbors, you know, we kind of put ourselves in a box of not treating ourselves right because people we love and that came up before us and around us don't treat themselves right. So we get conditioned to thinking we don't owe ourselves the best. Like I like material things, like, you know what I mean? But I don't love them more than I love my people. I don't love them more than I love myself.

And some of us, we don't even love ourselves enough because we don't really know. to like we run around we chase the dollar we chase the dream we're trying to be here for our family we're trying to have our families live a better life but that really all starts with your with your personal health and like you say when um you think about it in hip-hop we're the most influential genre that's across the world but we also the genre that suffers you know being that where mostly black brown people of color whatever you want to call it we don't pay attention to diabetes. We don't pay attention to high blood pressure. We don't pay attention to cancer. We don't pay attention to the things we're eating. We don't look up the ingredients of the things we're

eating. But you could go buy the best outfit. You could buy the best watch, buy the best car. Well, remember, my styles, it wasn't until what, the 90s is when brothers were still saying, I ain't going to live till 25 anyway, right? That was, that was a lot. Like, I'm 48. I know there was a time in my life. I didn't even think about making it to 50. The future. That wasn't even in my, you know, that that was like a bonus and a plus. And then we lose so many people, but we don't look at why. Like, in technology is so fast and speeding nowadays that we're not all taking care of ourselves properly.

So I think it's important to do that. The scope of how we look at things and how we're here for ourselves and our family. Real talk, man. Like, what year did you open your juice bar? 13 years ago, almost 14. The goal would be the first one. Yeah, I'll probably say, you know, and a lot of times, like, you know, like people who are pioneers and they never get the credit.

Like, you'll never hear anyone say, like, oh, LL Cool J's in my top five. Although we'll acknowledge him as God. We'll acknowledge him as the goat or whatever. But, you know, we'll always do like our, like, oh, well, this big daddy cane, cool you rat, da, da, da. But no one ever says LL. Like, LL is so good and so pioneering. it's almost like

thriller will never be in anyone's top five list as like albums that change my own. You know what I mean? Like it just goes without saying that if I really think about it. So there was a point in my life around 2009, 2010,

in which I think we were doing like the first, we did like the second roots picnic in Philly. And that's probably the one concentrated week in which I will return back to Philadelphia. like my home. Like, I'm here in New York because of the Tonight Show and all that stuff.

So I live in New York now. But when it's Roots Picnic Time between all the rehearsals and all that stuff, I'm going back to Philadelphia. And I don't know. Like, I do this weird thing. And when I was younger, I used to always, like, kind of ridicule. Like, you'll hear about, like, old ballplayers going back to their projects or whatever. And you'll be like, yo, what the hell are they doing?

Like, why would you put yourself in that dangerous situation? Like, I'd be super judgmental of that. But I'd also know that I do that to a lot. Like, I will, three in the morning, drive by my grandmoms house. Like, between, like, 11 p.m. to four in the morning, what I call chasing ghosts. Like, and I want to know, like, why do I have an addiction to, like, visit in the worst parts of my childhood just to, like, is this how I deal with the balance of connecting of, like, maybe feelings of guilt that I have of, like, where I am now, like the same thing, living in an affluent neighborhood or like, is this me balancing out?

But the whole point was that the second Roots picnic, another way that I go back to whatever, nostalgia is also a very toxic way, which is food. Now, Philadelphia is a food town. So, of course. It's the best. Right. I will make plans. Like, okay, on Tuesday, I'm going to go to this hoagie spot. And then Wednesday and Thursday, I'm going to go to my favorite cheese steak spots.

and da-da-da. So I remember the night before the night before the second picnic, I kind of overdid it on the cheese steaks and I felt horrible. And I realized like, yo, man, I went to my neighborhood and realized that everything that I've consumed all my life, which explains, you know, at some points, I was like 430 pounds. Currently right now, I'm like 290. But back in my 400 pounds days I've realized like yo like every

fattening food that there ever was it's almost like by design every like why are the cheapest foods the most horrible foods the most accessible right so then

skip to me seeing a clip of you talking about this it was like the ribbon cutting of your juice spot and when you said what you said I was like, Bing.

I was like, that's it. Not only am I going to turn my personal life around. And not to mention, like, Fonte had already, like, released a song about how, you know, we're getting older now and we need to, you know, he called it expensive jeans, pun on jeans. And that also planted a seed of me,

but when I saw what you did, I was like, that's exactly like, I'm going to have to, be the paradigm shift. So cut to now, like my entire investment portfolio is investing in plant-based, healthier, figuring out a turn into conversation around without people, like, rolling their eyes, like, all right, here he comes again, like preaching or whatever. For you, though, you influence me, and I'm not in your inner circle.

Is your inner circle taking note of this? And are you being influential on them or are they now looking at you like, here he goes again, like telling me to put the liquor down and I get to the gym with him. I get a bit of both. For the most part, I can say most of my inner circle has changed. I am, I guess I'm annoying with it, but I look at it like this. It's a war. Like, you know what I mean?

It's literally a war on people our color. that we don't know we're in. So I, and I also don't look at it like, I'm the leader of the pack. There's been Dick Gregory before me. There's been, talk about it, yes. There's been plenty of people who've done it. I'm just probably the most loudest, voiceless person in hip hop.

Even in hip hop, there's plenty of plant-based people. There's plenty of vegans. As you said, like, I'm haunted by going back to where I'm from because no pun intended, you do that because you connect it to your roots. And when you connect it to your roots, it's hard to forget where you're from. And when you escalate, you always want to somewhat stay in tune. I think that's the musical part of us is staying in tune with the foundation. But when you start understanding that it's a war, I don't really care how you look at me.

I don't care how annoyed you get. I do my job as a messenger. I am a messenger and I don't look at it any further than that. And if whether you take the messenger, you don't take the message, that's not on me. It's on me to make sure I just keep throwing out the message. So to be able to go from one juice bar and see the, you know, when I first started doing this, I'm Stiles P from the Lox, Hardest MC, you know, the guy who's done plenty of more than enough stupid shit in my lifetime.

of a guy with a history of violence. So when you understand that and you understand where that comes from, you don't really have time to worry about how people are taking it. When we're losing so many great people in our culture, when we're losing so many great people in our families and the streets, I don't really worry about how I rub you, long as I got the message out and long as I did my job. I was able to not only see my inner circle change,

but my neighborhood change. Through that, we have been able to connect with the mayor, build up parks. I'm doing something with the YMCA now, where we're going to have soup kitchens, and we're going to give out plant-based food. We're just going to keep pushing it forward. We're not going to worry about, I'm the, now Vegandale has a bunch of other rappers coming to it.

I don't think you've really got the time when we're doing what we do and when you're pushing forward, you don't have the time to worry about if you're rubbing people the wrong way or if they're tired of hearing you the message you hit them one day maybe sometimes when it's too late maybe sometimes early enough maybe sometimes just on time but as a messenger that that's our job and fortunately i have been able to see enough enough people change before for me like you you guys know this fun fun and you too was when somebody comes up to you and go yo your music has changed my life yo, this song means so much to me, yo, that performance means so much to me. That's a out of this world feeling. It really humbles you in a way that it's hard to put it in words. So for me, although God is family, it's always been God, family, hip-hop. The shift has been able to change to God is family, health, then hip-hop.

Because without health, we have nothing. until you really realize that like there's so much of us who suffer from so many things and it's just not cool to talk about. So I don't give, I don't, I don't care about if it's not cool. Now we're into making it cool. Now we're able to change. Now to say we went from one juice bar to five juice bars to almost six juice bars to now pharmacy for life online to a pharmacy for life brick and mortar. So what I do is understand is people are what they don't say is cool in front of everybody. They'll still come up to you on the side and go, yo, bro, how'd you lose that weight?

Yo, yo, yo. How's your skin looking like that? Oh, yo, bro. Oh, man, I see you can do pull-ups or stretch this amount of much and how do you do it. So it's about the impact and changing. And people, whether you do it intentionally or not, when people see you change, leading by example is the best thing you could do because even like we tell people in a juice bar

we give out a menu like literally I have five juice bars by how many people could physically make it to that juice bar and they're all in New York so what I do is tell people get a juice or get a blender if you come back if you come in our juice bar and you never come back

that's fine with me but take a picture of it and bring her home to your loved one at least do that and practice by example because you bringing your kid into the juice bar is beneficial for me, but your kids seeing you wake up in the morning, whatever it is, your partner, whatever you have, when they see you put the things in the blend of yourself and the juice, that leads by example. Like, our kids listen to us, but they watch what we do more than they listen to us. But also, isn't being an evolved man right now? Like, that is

actually trending. I was just talking to Freeway about this. And I was like, the fact that we have more emcees showing their full selves instead of just all of the best parts, I mean, Freeway being an example, and I was asking, I said it seems like it's a nice group of y'all who actually communicate with each other and lift each other up that way. Isn't that, it seems like that's the case in that way, right? Yeah, I don't think it's the trend. I think it's the shift in lifestyle. Thank God.

The kids would call it the trend. Yes. A trend will come and go. I think a shift and your lifestyle is being connected to somebody who genuinely cares about you. I don't, I'm not interested in having. And I think old hip hop is I have to have more watches than a better watch than you. My car is more expensive than you. I could buy more bottles than you.

I have more fine women around me than you do. Like my thing is I'm a married man. I'm a family man and I care about you for who you are. I want to be the best me that I could be. So fortunately it could help myself first and foremost. Then the loved ones around me. then my friends, my immediate inner circle, then my community. And if you move with life with doing that, I think that's the change that's needed.

That's the change that's needed because like, like Quix said, I don't know if I'm going to be here. Like, you know, I think people kind of look at life and I've lost enough people in my life, family members, close friends, people in a community where I know I'm not promised five minutes later. So I want to do what I could do to make the difference to say when I go, you're not going to think about the things you did. You're going to think about the things you didn't do. And I don't want that to be on my conscience the way I didn't push the envelope as forward as much as possible. No, I really want to, you know, thank you for that. Normally, we save this part for the end about where your life has changed. But for me, man, it was really important to hear that.

and I want people to hear that that sort of shift is important. Can I ask, though, especially in light of how we're dealing with mental health in the pandemic, was therapy at all a part of your shift as well? Definitely. My wife, my wife, thank God for my wife. Thank God. She made sure I implemented that within my routine. Even when I did, I forget, I've been on so few of them.

shows now forget it uh you did black love the boot camps black love was good for the for the mind and so but even um dr ish dr ish dr ish was a a great adding for my life because he helped me figure out a lot of things and now um what's crazy is i need to go to therapy more but i pretty much use my wife as a therapist which probably i'm like well then who does she use as a therapist because that means I think learning how to talk out, I think a lot of us have a problem with understanding that it's okay to not to understand

that your mind needs a break. Like even if you think about today's just life in general today, like I was telling somebody this the other day, besides having trauma, for me, just logging on the Instagram some days makes me need mental, makes me normally some kind of therapy

because if you think about it, like I was sitting, there's no way that you would have a conversation with this many people in real life. Real life. Like, I'm not hearing even over 150 people's thoughts a day and how do you feel the negative energy, their attitude. But when you log on, you're taking in so much. And the world's so fast.

And it's just so hard to even get a grasp of what's going on. And the back end of that of how you don't even know how you, if you've met people in real life or just seeing them on the Instagram. I don't know what's going on. So to take in that many people's thoughts, feelings, energy, what's on their mind. We all need some sort of therapy. We all need some sort of relaxation. Your mind needs a lot. Like we all, it's black people.

We have PTSD period. Just being black. So on top of that, I think about how fast things are moving, how fast technology is advancing. And human beings aren't advancing as fast as technology is. And all of these things, like, even me for the, like, the normal things that probably won't make the average person need therapy makes me need therapy. Like I'm thinking about how AI is coming. I'm thinking about like I log on. I went to see, I went to see this movie the other day Sound of Freedom, right?

After I left Sound of Freedom and I'm thinking, damn, all of this has happened. to the kids and, you know, people are losing their jobs, the AI. Then you get on Instagram and you got to hear everybody's personal thought, not on anything that's almost relevant. And it made me go, I need a break from the world some days. Like, I don't care about how she's dressed, he's dressed, who said what, what rapper did this, who doing what. I just want to live in a healthier world and contribute to that. But it doesn't kind of always pan out that way. So that alone could kind of break you down mentally. Like if you're not surrounding yourself around people who think like you,

who move how you move, you're going to need some kind of kind of therapy. And like I've lost the daughter to suicide. Me, myself, I suffered from rage before without knowing what was happening. Like you hear people suffering from depression feeling this way, but nobody speaks of the kid who suffers from rage. So, knowing all of the things that we deal with in our community like uh we the mind body and so i believe all three needs to be worked on constantly because you need to have them lined up to have the

best you in place so it's not just the body it's not just being healthy it's like i i live a healthy lifestyle more so from the health aspect of you know the physical health to spiritually and mentally be healthier to not not fall victim to the things that I usually will fall victim to because I don't feel good like like think about it like how many people you can get on Instagram and go I love red somebody's going to come on and go fuck red I hate red blues my color this and that like that's a lot to deal with and there's people who just come on your page saying negative shit that's because they don't feel good about themselves like so a person who doesn't feel good about themselves they're bound to push their negativity on you and if you're not in a mentally

healthy enough space to understand that that could ruin your day and bring you down which most aren't like you know what you're carrying about what strangers are saying about cyber strangers yeah yeah or saying about you like that's a that's a that's a we're in a we in a very different time like in this day and age like we're in a time you can't even disagree with someone mind. Like, you know what I mean? It's like, okay, you're, you know, if you're not a Democrat, the Republicans are mad at you. You're not a Republican, the Democrats are mad at you. If you're not either one, then everybody's mad at you. You can say something and people, instead of having a conversation or understand why you're coming from that point of view, they'll rather just

drag you and call you names instead of even understand. Let me have a conversation to see your point of view and why you feel that way. And I believe that's why healthy lifestyle is very important because it's not just about physically being healthy. It's about mentally being healthy. And then spiritual health means a lot too, which we really talk about on a day-to-day basis. But your spiritual health means a lot because you don't want just people coming in and putting their energy on you. I think we found another meditator. Have we found another meditator?

For sure. How do you take care of your spiritual health? Is it prayer? Is it meditation? What are your tools? Prayer, meditation, and surrounding myself around people I feel are spiritually grown or that can help me spiritually grow. I also like the ground. I like to take my sneakers off, my socks off, step on the dirt a little minute, get in contact with the earth. I like the star gaze. I like hikes in the nature. I yell, I scream, I cry, I laugh. I throw bold. I got styles pee.

I do what I got to do to make yourself feel better. You said something, now this is weird. You talked about rage, right? Yeah. And, man, I felt, ah, I got so, I got so envious because here's the thing. It took me, all right, so, you know, I'm certain that this episode will be on, in the month of vlog. around April and May, I realized something.

Usually the most stressful time in my life is between February and June, simply because of, again, the weight of throwing that festival in Philadelphia. You're going through everything. You're going through every artist. You're trying to cater everyone's needs. And, you know, so there's a lot of stress there. And I realized around May. how I've been doing this wrong the entire time. And I'm certain that almost 95% of humanity does the same thing that I do, which is,

I've only been chasing one emotion only, and that's happiness. I've been chasing happiness, which in the scheme of things, you think, well, what's wrong with chasing happiness? But then I realized that someone, someone had revealed to me maybe a year ago, and I didn't listen to him good that it's like, yo, Amir, there are over 48 other emotions besides happiness.

And they named the whole spectrum. They showed me a graphic chart. There's some dark shit like jealousy, anger, sadness. There's some light shit. Like laughter, like happiness. And so there's a whole spectrum of emotions.

And I only knew happy. You know what I'm saying? And so what I realized was that, you know, I thought whatever my, whatever my personality is to certain people like, oh, a mirror never gets angry and da-da-da-da-da-da. I realized that I'm absolutely not in touch with any other emotion besides happy. And that's why, like, most of us self-sooth. That's why, like, I always went to bad foods.

That's why another cat will go to cocaine. or another cat will drink to death or whatever. And so a friend of mine had gave me a link about a retreat that I should go to for people who've never, ever expressed rage ever. Because I told them that, oh, I never get angry. And when they said that, they said this to me, they said, you not getting angry, Amir? Yeah, so when's the last time you expressed your anger out loud? And I was like, oh, I said, probably.

maybe 20 years ago when I was angry that someone put the wrong mix on my album and now it's stuck on my record. I got angry. And they're like, you're telling me the last time he expects the anger was 20 years ago because of a mastering session glitch.

And I was like, yeah, I don't get angry much. And they were like, that, you just said the equivalent. Yeah, I'm about that. Right. Well, one, you take it out on yourself. He's like, at least, you know, you express anger, but you like, you know what, I'm going to eat these feelings away

instead of expressing anger. Right. And at that, not expressing anger is almost like you saying, you know what, I haven't urinated in two decades. And so I went to this retreat. It's a three-day retreat that I went to in June. And man, I realized with the exception of an occasional roller coaster,

And even then, when I think of my roller coaster experiences, my level of screaming is more like a Muppet, like that sort of thing. That's not like real rage. That's just like, you know, that sort of thing. This thing that I did, you know, they literally teach you how to scream. Like we had to spend 24 hours learning our baritone voice, our alto, like our chakra, like from our voice, from our throat to our stomach. So cut to us actually doing the rage exercise, and I didn't realize how much anger and rage I've had in me for five, like just bottled up.

Again, it's literally like not defecating for 50 years or taking. And I didn't realize that like, oh, the key to life is not chasing happiness. it's in the most healthiest way to express all emotions. Definitely. And I didn't really, so when you were like, yo, like, I was a rageaholic. I was thinking here like, damn, man. I mean, no, I don't want to be toxic to other people, but I wish I would have known what that feeling felt like, like to express anger, which I've, you know, never done outward. So I don't know, I just felt.

But I felt you on that, man. That's amazing, man. Thank you. 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 Cliverts 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. I guess I'd be remiss if we didn't talk about like your craft and your art.

Right. Like music memories and stuff. Not really because the craft, I think in the music business, that's what we do a lot. And we don't, these kind of conversations aren't held enough. Because people don't feel comfortable with talking about where they're at in life. Like, vulnerability. People don't want to feel vulnerable. You don't want to feel vulnerable. So like.

We weren't always allowed to feel vulnerable, y'all, too. We have to acknowledge that. Like, it took me for years to realize, like, I was the hardest MC out of rage, out of just really wanting to hurt something. Like, I had to realize later on, I was like, wow, I knew myself the whole time subconsciously. because I always told people I was a gangster and a gentleman. Gentlemen, yeah. Like, I'm the rapper who you can hear make some real gangster shit.

Then I'm the rapper who also got a song with Fonte. Right now. Right up. You know what I mean? I live, this and that. So I've always walked a fine line of balancing. So throughout my music career, I've been fortunate enough to say that I've been able to work with the greats

and be able to be myself genuinely on both sides. As I got old, it really took me to, as I got older, like somebody, I didn't think I really realized that one day until I had an interview. And somebody was like, you may be one of the only few artists who are walking that fine line who gets accepted and both work on. And that made me an appreciation of my craft and saying, oh, that is a pretty dope thing to be. But I also subconsciously realized I introduced myself as that in the beginning. I told people I'm literally half and half. So I guess to say what I'm saying is our careers sort of reflect our life and who we are. Like you've held in that rage quest, but you've always been the guy that people go,

I'm going to go fuck with him. We love these guys. We love what they do. Like my early career, I almost ruined my fucking career out of almost ruined my own career with not being into it. being too in tune with some of my feelings and then not. I think our careers are a reflection of who we are and we just have to learn other ways to be like it took me to learn. I like it got to a point where I said, I don't really want to feel like walking around with two guns all the time and embracing a certain energy. So I left the guns home and left the security, but I brought a good energy with me saying God's going to be my security.

and if it's my day to go, it's my day to go. That was written. But I also go somewhere in a light. And even with my history of the music I made and the music I'm doing and just being in a place of going, the people got to accept me for who I am. And I let the chips fall where they may. So I've been blessed to have a, you know, a great music career, I would like to say. I've been able to be around the grates and work with a lot of the grates and be on a lot of of songs. I feel like when it's all set and done, I've been a very hardworking MC. And I appreciate it. But my

journey now more so than my music career is to also make sure that people in music are also understanding to connect your career with your personal life and your health. Because without your health, you're not going to really enjoy your career. Since we are talking about career a little bit, and we talk about the 50th, it seems like, of course, you've been involved. in a bunch of stuff this year, but has there been anything that kind of really blew you away as a fan of the craft,

not just a participant in the culture? As a fan and a participant, I would have to say, not to be funny just because we're here. Yeah. But rocking at Grammys and being part of that for, you know, ah, every time someone brings it up, I forget.

That was one of the most beautiful things that I was able to participate in. I was say in my career, Before I got there, like this is what I'm saying about life and your health. Like even before I got there, I don't think I got to the first rehearsal that I understood the magnitude of it. Then when I got to that first rehearsal, I was like. And you saw. And salt and pepper, iced tea, L, L, Black Thought, ourselves, just the whole room and just understand that I was part of something that great

them to be fortunate enough to be there and to see all my childhood superheroes. So to see those coming up after me to be part of something that great was very, very, I want to say humbling because that's not the appropriate word. I think it's humbling. It was humbling, but it was more so of a realization of how great this thing of I was and how fortunate enough that my career has been to be called to be part of it. You know what I understand? No, I know, because I was wondering if you understood that the moment when the fans and the people watching that show saw the locksy y'all come on the stage, what that means to that performance, too.

Like, you understand that. Like, when they see you, it's like, oh, shit, yes, this is for real. Hell yeah, it was. It was just, it was beyond words. And I got the, and you know, it's crazy when you and your group members and, like, we all were saying the same shit. Like, this is absolutely fucking crazy. I was like a kid in a candy store. I was like, this right here is a moment that I will never forget.

Because I think, especially in hip hop, I think people get used to the other accolades. Like, all right, I got a home now. I got this amount of cars. I sold this much. For me, I'm, you know, I grew up in a time of hip hop where for LL. Ice T to know your name, know your song. for Rockham to want to hug you is beyond what something that I could express like that's better than any award that I could ever get to be acknowledged by the

greats to be loved by them to be respected by them as a big old award than any award that I could possibly get it's an unreal feeling we see when you to that point to speaking to your point about you that kind of getting no that accolades from the greats last time we saw each other uh the flesh it was uh kennedy center it was ferromanchi show we were in uh dc this is pre pandemic it's pre-cobit but we saw each other and it was in the hallway and i told pooh i'd never get it i was like it was our album made a little of watch it came out it just came out and i saw you and he was like yo like you know we got each other gave you a big hug and he was like yo man i love this record

it sounded like y'all missed each other you know i mean and i knew from you like i was like he know You know what I mean? So you was like, yo, man, sound like y'all missed each other, man. Like, I love this record. Like, you could hear it. And so I just really, like, hearing that from you like that, you know, I mean, that was it. Like, we didn't sell another record after that. I was good. And I wanted to ask, man, how do you keep a rap group together? Like, I mean, you, you know, she, like, how do y'all, because it's just three. A very rare thing for groups to, like, how do you exist? Brotherhood has to be more than anything. Like, where, where, where, where, where, we, where, we, we. I feel like the game has split up a lot of groups with them prioritizing the game over brotherhood. Like we made an oath when we came in with brothers.

Like if I don't get on a record for you to say kiss or sheik is better than me. I want you to say I'm better than them. You like my verse better. But when you don't, if you don't, I'm still cool because it's a win for the team and we accept it. But nobody gets on the basketball court looking for somebody else to be the MVP. But if you understand that team and brotherhood over everything, it keeps it together.

Like, our bond goes beyond music. Our bond will always go beyond music. Our family members rock with each other because we're family. We understand that is family first and everything else kind of just falls after. Like you can't let fame, materialistic things, money, women, what people say. what other men say, get in between what you have. Like what you have has to be sacred to you. You have to appreciate making music is something we love.

It's fortunate enough that we've been able to do it for, you know, this thing of our starts as a hobby, then you make it a job, and if you're fortunate enough, you get to make it a career. And then it's really fortunate enough people say, you know, you're doing legendary shit, and you work on being a legend. So understanding that, we've just always put ourselves and our brotherhood before anything else.

And we've always kept it that way. When do you pinpoint the time period of which the three of you said, let's start a group? Because I don't know the genesis of how you guys actually met. High school, Kiss and Sheek knew each other actually since I want to say single digits. I met them in junior high and then we end up going to high school together. Like they lived on the north side of Yonkers. I lived on the south side of Yonkers.

As an emcee, you get to hear who's the other MCs ringing around town and the name will always ring. And in high school we formed the group. It was bomb squad. It was more so like they were EPMD and I was K-Solo at first. Gotcha. Okay. And there was other people who rap, rap with the Bomb Squad also.

Their professionalism in the studio taught me a lot, very young. Like, when everybody else was banging on hoods and just kind of saying verses outside, they were making hooks. They had song format. They knew how to lay in the studio, sound the same that they sounded outside in the studio. So I guess my work ethic, I drive and just being close with each other. Like we would call each over over the phone saying each other's rhymes. Here, here's what's going on.

And just as we kept going on, actually I had a job at our job. How we got on is I had an odd job at our job. I was still part of me, but I was still truckloads of shit. And one day we just, I stole the truckload of tapes. Then we made a demo and that demo just kept circulating around. And their professionalism, and I think the trials of tribulations of us, what we went through in high school, what we was going through outside of school, having stock jobs, being part-time criminals, having dreams of being an emcees, and just sticking to the guns and believing in it, it formed something. And then when you split a piece of three ways or six ways or, or, whoever amount of homeboys is there,

when you get a couple, you know, you get a couple chicken wings and fried rice and you're breaking it down, that kind of sticks with you. You don't forget those times. And I think we never forgot those times and that's what always kept our brotherhood together. Like, even if you think about it,

I don't, at Bad Boy when we was there, that was like we were on the Chicago Bulls of Rap. And to risk it together, we're saying all right like uh fuck it uh we ain't feeling good here we don't like it here this and that all right we made it we can make it again so i think even going through everything we went through was kind of put us in a place in a position of saying you know what we have is always bigger than what the what the game is we had a brotherhood we built it together we we came about the mother together and knowing that it just it kept us tight

and we understood what we were. We understood that it was a brotherhood more than a group. You know, when people speak of Yonkers, of course, they think of you first. They think of X. They think of Mary. Were there any other hip-hop legends from Yonkers before? Ex-and-Mary were the first legend.

X-Nary were legends before we got on. Right. But that's it. Nobody was. Yeah, what may, there's also Bill Blas. He was definitely legendary. There was an MC I love. His name was Universal.

We had Khalif Kool. We had my man, OG, Dusty Mike. We had a few people, but I would say X and Mary were the first legends of the town. Like what makes X a legend is he was a legend. He was making solid music and tapes that. Everybody from our town pretty much knew X would be a star. I think what made him legendary is we happened to get on first. from rap but x is the one who brought us to rough riders brought rough riders to us and i think for us to

get on first and him i've never seen any bitter feelings towards towards that from x like i never seen you know because i think if the situation was vice versa i would have been pissed i think he had the confidence in knowing how much of the huge star he was he knew what was coming so it was important for us to though, you know, make sure he was on money, power, respect. And I just think he understood the magnitude of how big and how huge he was and where he was going to go in life. So I would say X and Mary were legendary before they were even known. Like, Mary would sing in the parks and the whole town would come out. Like, I knew Mary since single digits. I actually knew X and Mary before I knew Kiss and Sheke and Kiss. I knew

Mary because she lived up her and my cousin are close friends, which they still are to this day. Like Mary calls me Little Dave to this day. She won't call on BSB. To Mary, I'm little Dave. Like, you know what I mean? I knew Mary since I was seven. I knew X because he's from the South Side too, so he lived a few blocks from me. So I know if X from Rappi, it is extra curriculum activities in the neighborhood.

He was legendary. on both sides of the fence. So when I used to work at Roughhouse Records as an intern, and I joined Roughhouse right when DMX was signed to Roughhouse first. He had a single out called Born Loser. I believe that halftime by Nas, which was on the Zebra hit soundtrack, and Born Loser, that came in the box the same day. So I had to serve that to DJs.

Were you guys, like, aware of that level of DMX and, like, we knew him. Like, even in Zebrahead, you remember speaking of Zebrahead? Deshawn, I went to school with him. Word? Yeah. I went to. Oh, wow. I think his name is Deshawn Castle, correct?

I'm sure. Yes. You're right. Sean Castle, he used to wrap his ass off, too. That's another person who used to rhyme from Yonkers. I think, actually, I met Sheet through. from Deshawn and junior high. Me and Deshawn, I knew him, I got kicked out of that school,

but we went to, there was a school called Hawthorne for the gifted and talented. They kicked my black ass right out of there. I was too bad for that one. Is that the same Deshawn that was on the showbiz and AG album? Does he ever, did he ever, make any records? I don't remember if he was on showbiz and the AG album. I do know he was the star of Zebrahead, though. Okay, all right.

Gotcha. Yeah, I never knew his name, but he was dope. Yeah. So I actually met Sheikh through him in about seventh, seventh grade. So yeah, I didn't know, actually, we knew of the song. We used to play it. We used to love it. And that's another reason, like, God bless my brother,

X, why I have the utmost respect for him. Because most people, when they get an opportunity, they lose out. It doesn't work the way they work. they tuck their tail and make it back he never that's why he's the dog in real life he had dog drive he had dog will and you know

I believe he had a lot of dog in him and a whole lot of God in a mix because his driving his willingness to keep pushing forward was crazy and if you ever seen DMX in the battle his level was fucking insane it was the level of ferocity

tenacity forocity perrociousness was literally insane. At least the perception was, oh, you're going to be the first generation of privilege in hip-hop where, you know, your level of success is not going to be that of, like, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, or ultramagnetic MCs.

Like, you guys are actually going to be, like, national known and all that stuff. So just in the beginning, in the very beginning, when the bad boy thing seems to be real. Like, at what point did it get real for you to know that, like, Jesus Christ, like, we're literally about to, we're about to make it? I would say when we heard that,

I've heard the demo from Mary, and he heard it on the tow bus and he liked it, and he called us up. We pretty much knew that we were going to make it. That's one thing we had. We had a chip on our shoulder because we were from Yonkers. Like, because nobody from Yonkers was on. God bless the dead.

Heavy D was on prior to us. Brand new beings is from New Rochelle. Mount Vernon is after Yonkers. So the Bronx is before Yonkers. So we were literally, like, the Yonkers is attached to the Bronx. Like, as soon as you get out the Bronx, you're in Yonkers. So we felt skipped over for so long that we had to, I believe part of us getting on was we had the utmost confidence,

and we always knew our shit. We always rehearsed a lot. We always memorized everything we were saying. We always had good timing. So by the time we got to Puff and they said we have to meet them at his office and Ron, we were already on, we're getting on. There was no doubt about it in any of our heads. Like we were looking at it as like we're so overlooked.

But we're, we're fucking nice. That's how we used to go about it. And we traveled enough around and, you know, from different boroughs, different places and just wrapping our ass off to the point where we knew how good we were. So by the time we got there, and I would say that moment you're asking for is when we did your seat and then we found out Big was getting on, you'll see. We knew We knew we were in the books Because when Big met us I would even say before getting on

It's when Big met us And he said Y'all are fucking emcees Yeah You guys are emcees And I'm glad to have y'all here For us that meant a lot Because at the particular time

He was the king of New York He'd done something someone No one had ever did And it wasn't just rhyming good Because he rhymed well But it was the fact That he was such a well round the MC that he kind of did everything well and he changed the trajectory of how the game was

going he was big he was owning it he was making fat people proud he was saying things that nobody was even saying black and ugly as ever how like he was just going from a angle of saying shit that was like wow like uh it's it's crazy like you know what i mean i believe nage opened the door for our generation of rappers. Like he, he, he's the, I call him the baby of the grandmasters, which the lyrical grandmasters, which would be Koogee, KRAS, and Rakim. Nas body, all of that, but from the, the child who's seen crack outside and drug dealers and robbers and knew how to bring it to the table.

Then I felt a whole big, Wu-Tang, Nas and all of that's really, I mean, escalated it. But I felt big also was able to put the vision of what drug dealers wanted outside, what we were looking for, the finer things in life. I felt he was able to mesh it all and then just bring something new to the table. So for him to feel that way about it really made our confidence kind of boost out the door. Like we already was very confident. And then to get that love from somebody who was on, who was on top, who, you know, was being crowned the king of New York, meant a lot to us and then just being in them sessions and working with him speaking with them because besides that like when we got in the bad boy our rooms used to merge like we would go

chill with you and mafia and big they would chill with us we were smoked together we would drink together we were you know uh i got to see i got to see him making most of life after death so that kind of feeling just puts you in a whole new way of belonging like you you making something you're making To make it somewhere is one thing, but to question if you belong there is another, but to know you belong there is a whole other feeling. Like so we had that feeling of knowing we belong, so it just made everything kind of great for us. Quick question. How did you guys come up with the name of the group? Well, we were the warlocks.

Ah, okay. You were the warlocks and Puff told us the war is over, it dropped it, so. For real. For real. The war's over, so y'all can't be the warlocks, but we wanted to be still who we were. So then we went home, and I was like, you know what? Actually, what we were doing was, and music-wise,

was we were living off our experiences. And that's what we put in our music. So I was like, yo, living off experience, y'all. And it was like, that's it. That's us. Just a lot. Okay. I thought you guys were just enthusiasts for a really good bagels.

sandwiches, I didn't know where the locks came from. Wow. Sorry, Steve. Steal my joke next time. I wanted to ask, man, I read a interview or a quote somewhere where we're talking about the locks go campaign when y'all were getting off bad boy, that that was Puff's idea. He wanted to kind of make it, you know, kind of on some, you know, P.T. Barnum, like, make it a thing, you know what I'm saying?

that's that's a lot okay talk about it that's a damn lie no we we went with let the locks go because we understood that we didn't have the financial power or the lawyer power to deal with to to win the fight we were trying to fight but what we understood was that people who actually loved us on the street um at that time we did a lot of rumbling a lot of making our name known so people felt kind of connected to us and we were blue collar rap. So we figured we would do be smart about it and that we had. We was like, all right, we can't

win with money. We can't win with lawyers. But how do you pull out a strategy that works for you? And it's most and came up with, we're going to have the public join in and just tell people what we're going through. Because at the time court of the public opinion.

Embarrassed to say, I'm not and what's crazy about it is we had a standard industry contract. which we pretty much had a standard contract but we also like I said we were kind of I think with the epitome of blue collar and white collar mix and being street but being also a little a little nerdy like everything is if you sign a deal no matter how bad it is you should be able to renegotiate if you get get somewhere like if you sell drugs you know I sold 10 pieces for $10, that's $100.

Now when you tell me I'm putting out of an album, you know what I mean? I'm coming straight off the street, so there's no way I was going to read all this paperwork and everything that's happy. I wanted to be there, so I'm a sign. But if you're telling me, I'm only getting not even a dollar off this album, every album sold, or not even $2, now I got a problem. And we got to fix this. This ain't even cool. So we didn't really care about the image that everybody else was worried about.

So we came with Let the Lock, go. And we figured we'll use the power of the people, throw the t-shirts on on Summer Jam, let everybody see it and involve the people with it and have the people on your side. That's where raping you records came from, right? I just keep hearing that in my head because they'd be raping you, raping you, raping you. We just strategize and use what we felt would work for us, which was a campaign letting people know how we felt and that we didn't want to be there. Thanks for clearing that up, man. I read that before.

Yeah, thanks for you clearing that up for real. That's a damn, I'm a lot. He's good at it. So just in your career, like, what would you say is, can you name at least three, like, the magic moments that you were there for or that really impacted you? One getting on, when you first get on, I would say is, very impactful.

I want to say it's a particular time and moment, but as I said, I sat down and reflected on all the artists that I worked with or was able to work with. And it made me have a high level of appreciation for myself. I think when you take a conscious look at your catalog and are able to say,

oh, man, I work with him, I work with her, I did this, I've done that. It made me very proud. And then the Grammy's definitely was a highlight moment because I felt that was worldly. Like, you know what I mean? And how do you put this? When you could do a stadium and you could do a small room,

it puts you in a realization of what you mean to hip hop. Thinking about being on Biggs album, Holes album, a Roots album, doing a song with Mariah, you know, being on a Mariah album, being on a J-Lo album, being on a Taliban, I would say after verses too. I was just about to ask you about verses, yes, yes, yes. The after effect, the verses where kids came up to and us going, we're going to learn our rhymes.

We're going to stop rapping over the track. We're going to have our show tight. We see what our brotherhood brings to the people. That was very important because I didn't understand. I never thought the magnitude of the after, effect would be that big. That was a lesson. I'm so glad, yes. Yeah, so that was also a great moment in our career where we were able to say,

staying on the hamster wheel pays off. Like, you know what I mean? Being able to stay on that will and that workout and do what you do continuously, sometimes you don't get credit for what you do. You don't get acknowledgement. You don't get your accolades. You don't make certain lists. You don't get certain.

and acknowledgement, if you stick to what you do, it'll come around sooner or later, and versus show this that, because it wasn't about, we love their set, those are our brothers. But to see that many kids come up to us after going, we're going to learn our rhymes, and we're going to stop performing over that track

with the words on, meant a lot to us because we felt we now did what we were supposed to do for the hip hop we grew up on. And that's the one thing I was hoping. And I was like, out of everything they came out of that versus, I was hoping that young artists are watching this and seeing what to do and what not to do. Yes.

Yeah. So that meant a lot too. One more question before you go. Because you mentioned you and your wife, Aja, would do a couple of these shows. And I'm so curious because when we see as a consumer and as a watcher of these shows, when we see you and your wife on them, we know what that brings.

It brings a certain level of legitimacy to these couple shows, right? Because we know that y'all shit is real. Y'all work on y'all shit every day, whatever. But I'm so curious for you and Aja, what's your motivation for doing these shows? One, you want to build your marriage up. You want to learn what you can, but you also want to show people like we pride ourselves. There's never been a show where we weren't ourselves or somebody could pay us to be out of pocket or act uncivil. So we're big on black love and black family and doing what we can do for the black family and represent black love.

Thank you. Thank you. It means a lot to us to see y'all. Thank you. Thank you, brother. Steve, I know you didn't get your cream cheese. That's all right. I'm sure there'll be somebody else from a band called The Locks at some point.

Thanks. Plant base, cream cheese. There you go. There you go. Oh, yeah, I do like the plant base. They sell it into the joke. Yeah, yo, Stiles, thank you so much for doing this. And really, I really appreciate you for having the courage.

to really live in your integrity. And I know you're like, I'm not a leader, but you're an absolute leader, and you're a seed planner. And, you know, like, we're out here listening to you. And I'm especially out here listening to you. I thank you for that. So, because that'll make me,

that'll keep me on the straight and arrow as well. And then that'll inspire someone else and so on and so on. Now, man, from the time we met, like, first time, it was when you were at first kind of opening a juice bar, when we did the Farrow-March Black Canside video. I love that record, man. But we shot, you know, that in, you know, in your bar. And you just always been every time I didn't even think you even knew who we were.

You know what I'm saying? When Farrow hit me for that record, he was like, yeah, man, I want you do a hook. And I got styles. I was like, word, like style. I was like, for real. And I heard it. I was like, oh, this shit dope as hell. And so when I met you, man, you just always, every time we saw each other,

it was always loved. You just always been just one of the most solid dudes in this game, man. and I just want to just give you love and respect. I appreciate you having me on a project, bro. I told you, I'm a fan, man. I told you a big fan. And Quest, I owe you a personal thing. I was scared to do some.

I asked Quest for a request at a party. Dude. A record? To play a record? Not only did he request a record, I actually complied and did it because I'm world famous for not doing that. But on top of that, on top of that, to this day,

my first five records is dreams. I play that, he has me play Fleetwood Mac Dreams. Wow. And I was like, wow.

But I can love you, South Pete. I got scared. That was one of, see, I could admit to my feelings. I was like, oh, fuck,

I think I offended Quest. I knew better than the ass, but I was like, I had the ass this one. I felt like it was a good time to ask. Look, he waved me off. Like, no.

And then it was like, what record? I was like, three, Fleetwood Mac. And that shit, I appreciate that. Thank you. That's because you surprised them. You surprised them. No, because the thing was, I was in my join like,

oh, come on, man, I got this. I know what I'm doing. And then I thought about it. And I was like, wait, he don't even know that that's the perfect record to mix him right now. And I did it. And to this day is now, in my first 10 records, you brought that to my repertoire.

So thank you again. You're changing my, you're changing my health and my creativity. I got to request, a quest, love. Nobody does that. No,

you're right. I've been trying to, trying to get into play Aconelli for years. I think this is going to work right now. I'm going to, I got to give it a try. Yes, it worked.

I felt like, shitty, he waved off. I was like, oh my God. You waved off the Lep No, no, no, because I was,

it was like juggling plates. Like, trust me. And people, Yeah, don't, don't, don't get encouraged. Don't get encouraged at all. Right, you're not style speech. That was, and it was a vegan, it was a vegan plant-based right.

Shout out to dish, Daniel Hume, too. Yes. Oh, that was a, let me tell you some too, question. You are, you know what it is? You are absolutely astonishing, amazing DJ too, because that whole night was a lesson for me because I went, Oh. You know,

sometimes you think people are great just in their field. And I've seen Quest in other fields. But to rock that fucking party, what he was playing, what he was doing, if I was a DJ, I would have been taking notes.

I probably would have written everything down in my note, but you're a phenomenal, amazing person, and thank you very much. Thank you. And that's a big, for me.

I made it. I got to, that's going to go on my hip hop, on my hip hop, on my hip hop great things I did. I got a, I got a, I was able to make a suggestion and it happened.

You made it happen. Yes, you did. A rare moment in Questlove history. Thank you very much. On behalf of Steve, Infante, and Laiaaia and Unpaid Bill. And the great style of T's T. This is another classic episode of Questleff Supreme. See you all next, for a lot.

Questlove Supreme is a production of Iheart Radio. For more podcasts from IHeart Radio, visit the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite. favorite shows. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Cliford Show. This is a place for raw, unfilled conversations with athletes,

creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. So let's get to it. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok podcast network on TikTok. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.