Fugees' "Ready or Not" w/ Wyclef Jean

Ready or not, here I come, you can't hide. Gonna find you and take it slowly. The first thing she starts to sing is Ready or Not. Like there was no like, I'm going to sing two or three, and I was just like, yo, this is hard. It's a luxury today. We're talking about a song that really challenged not only what hip hop could sound like, but what success could look like. Let's try to deal with its eerie, minimalist textures and abstract, yet socially minded lyrics. The song is a fan favorite on one of the best-selling records of all time. That's right. And to help us deconstruct this classic, we're joined by one of the architects behind the sound and the vision. Like Lesions. We're talking one song, and that song is Ready or Not by the Fouji's. Ready or not, here I come, you can't hide. Gonna find you and take it. I'm actor writer director and sometimes DJ Diallo Rittle. And I'm producer, DJ, songwriter, and music college is luxury. AKA the guy who whispers, interpolation. And this is one song. The show where we break down the stems and stories behind iconic songs across genres. And tell you why they deserve one more listen. You will hear these songs like you've never heard them before. And you can watch one song on YouTube while you're there. Please like and subscribe. Our guest today is one of the creative visionaries behind the Fouji's. And beyond the Fouji's, our guest has built a prolific and dare I say, unparalleled career as a solo artist and songwriter and producer to artists as diverse as Santana. Destiny's Trial. Shakira. One of my personal favorites, City Hut. Please give it up for Grammy Award winning artist, producer, composer, and icon. Thank you so much for coming to our show. What up, my brothers. We got a lot to talk about. We saw your show last night at Blue Note. It was insane. It was amazing. Yo, but what's crazy? You only see me looking at you? I kind of did. But I was hoping. I thought I was hoping. You don't know. I was like, yo, these dudes are either two DJs from like Europe somewhere. We stand out in the crowd. I said one probably from Sweden. Which one is that? And the other one from Legos. Oh, man. You're from Legos. You're from Sweden. That makes sense. That's what we're going to land up. Okay. That's right. So much energy and like the build from beginning to end, you had a like enthralled the whole time. And then you had everyone in the audience jumping around and dancing at the very end. It's kind of all. It's straight out carnival. You know, not definitely. I don't think the blue note last sentence is going to be the same. It can't be the same. It can't be the same. You know, like for me, just I used to I was happy my high school teacher was there. He was like with plash. He was like, you know, he was like, yeah, I even like yesterday. Like he gave me a he gave me a flashback yesterday. He almost scared me again. Like, you know, he scared me when I was 14, but that flashback. He was like, I told them you must fart and unison. And you're my soul. You're all smelters. I was like, huh? I was like, you're like this story. I was like, thank you, sir. I mean, he would have been tall then. He was very tall, man. Now, he was saying he's definitely tall. But you know, it's just like I was born in Haiti. And then we moved to Brooklyn. New York City. We lived in the Marbleville projects. And after that, my cousin got killed, you know, it was, it was just crazy. And we moved to Jersey. Right. And then in Jersey, I would say like Newark. Between Newark and the star, and that helped like shape the line. You know, a lot of people, I don't know if they're like Frank Sinatra, like Cool In The Gang. Yeah. And I think like one of the early recipes that we had that nobody known and the gate, the Fuji's, was originally signed to Cool In The Gang. Right. In first record, you did with the producer. Yeah. And then Kalice Bayon, who a crazy composer. He the one with the jungle boogie, all of that. So he literally took me under his wings. So that was blended on reality. So today we're talking about Redier Not from the score. And I want to zoom out for a second because this album came out in 96. And I felt like y'all were moving differently. Y'all were bringing in singing, live instrumentation, global samples. You're also just like, y'all felt like some true hip-hop heads from New Jersey in some ways. You know what I'm saying? Like before that was, like, understood what that was. Creatively, 1996, me was grouping you guys with the roots. And outcasts. And so it was a mischief. And I was thinking about this. None of these groups were from New York. But they all had sort of that East Coast influence. You know? And so when you were making this music, were you consciously thinking about pushing boundaries or were you just instinctually making the music that you wanted to hear? I mean, so we, I was like influenced too by like, hieroglyphics. Yeah. You're feeling like, damn. Casual. Casual. Casual. So like, there was a lot of that going on. And I would say like, just underground. So the sonics of the underground, whether it was East or West, there was a consistency to that vibe. You know what I'm saying? So you're not thinking about it. You're just doing it. You know what I'm saying? So for me, I was like, just a young composer coming from the church. And my early, just fell in love with Sonics. You know, I'm sorry. What church is that? So I'm from like the church of the Nazarene. It's the straight up gospel Caribbean church, you know, every Sunday worship. You know, be careful. Like, you know, you start talking in tongues. You know, I mean, that kind of energy straight up like that penicostal energy, where the church is like created for like 70 people, but there's 300 people in there. And that energy is going. So sort of like coming from that energy and directing choirs and all of that. I fell in love with producing hip hop, but one of my greatest inspiration is Salam Remy. Salam Remy, like that's like one of the original orrogues. So Fujila was the first song that you worked on that ended up on the score. It was also the debut single of the album. I remember this song like it was yesterday. Let's listen to a little bit of Fujila. I still remember hearing this on Emerson College radio and being like, I got to get this. And I just bought my Gemini scratch master, which was the first time I've ever owned. I bought a user's R2B up, but I took my little bit of money that I had in college. And I went down to, there was either Roxbury or Dorchester bought the 12 inch, you know, had a little leftover might have bought shook ones by Shruth Bhattu and Timber's Risen by Mob Deep. And I bought Resurrection by Com. Because I wanted that 12 inch. It had the X-Trapi remix, which I still know the most beautiful, shout out to large professor, one of the most beautiful remixes of all time. That song is, Fujila still just, it's still gradually. And that's a Salam Remi beat, right? Yeah, so Salam, we like brothers, you know, and I mean, and like coming up, it's like I would just say like, our relationship was probably be like similar to like Quincy and Ray Charles. It's just two different composers coming up and sharing ideas. And Salam did that beat originally. That beat was for Fat Joe. Yeah. And he passed on it. I'm gonna let Joe say that part. Joe probably gonna say we stole this beat. Okay. Why did you know you needed that beat? Like what about it appeal to you? What the thing is, when we heard that beat, the beat just sounded like, you know, because we called ourselves like the refugees, right? And there was an energy of that beat where the beat was so, one of the things about the Fuji is because we were so musical at the time. And we showed up and it was like, oh, so more band orientated from the gate, more so than sample orientated. So the label was like, literally, you know, you got to find a producer that's, that's very connected to the streets. And I remember Salam one of the things he told me, he's like, man, he's like, man, you, like you too much of a nerd. Like we got it like, we got like you, you, you a nerd from the project. We got a knucklehead this up for a minute. And when I was like, this is perfect. I could talk some knucklehead shit on this beat. That's right. Meaning it was like less esoteric and like it was more of a straight beat. Yeah. And then the Fuji is like early lakers. You know what I'm saying to you was like, it's just the best players, right? So it's like you have like magic and Korean. You know what I'm saying? Like, you know what I mean? Like Lauren straight up, magic. I'm straight up Korean. And she look at it. And she says, probably just AC green. Okay. More than worthy, right? And like, don't sleep. Like something's going to happen. Because prize will say one thing, one bar in that bar. Everybody comes to shift my thoughts shifts my energy or whatever. So the minute I heard him, man, I it automatically called to me like, uh, we used to be number 10 now. We permanent because we're like, if we're going to settle the score, we got let them know. You know what I mean? And then you have of course, Miss Hill was just amazing with her. We was talking about albums earlier, just the the architect of of soul music. Like, she taught me about soul music. Like I would teach her about compa and stuff coming from the islands. And so we always talked about like that mix, you know what I'm saying? That's sort of like what made the vibe come. You sort of it's part of what you're referring to her literal like knowledge of like 70s funk record like soul record collection or was there something else? A records collection or movie collection. She's the first, there's a movie called Black Orphids. I love like Brazil. Like she put me up on that. So yeah, so, so you got to think so. Yeah, super early, you know what I mean? And then there's a band out of Haiti called Tabu Combo. You know, now if you look at it, Compa is a genre. Now it's out of Haiti. It's a genre. But back then it was in a genre like as far as the way you look at it. You know, it wasn't like Grammys like think about now what the nominees are. Now you can go on any streaming service and type Compa and the actual genre pose up. So can you imagine like 30 years ago we just going through all of these genres that are not popular yet? Yeah, when you talk about you were more of a band. I'm curious what you mean by that because obviously for those who don't know, you're a multi talent multi instrumentalist. We saw you last night performing. You were doing the Jimmy Hendrix guitar behind your neck and with your teeth. You got 12 member. You got a 12 piece band on stage. Are you okay? Are you okay? You're playing a lot of wonderful. I'm trying to be a teacher. Okay. How do you look? It looks good. How you recovered nicely after all the bleeding in my gun. So when you say the Fuji's were a band or you had that approach at least. No, of course, yeah, definitely like the Beatles or like like like the wall like Pink Floyd. Like that's how we write. You mean the instrumental side. The group side of both the group side the idea of like how we set up the shows right because at the time it was like literally like you were saying. So it was like the Fuji's and the roots were like literally like the band. So but at a very young age to decide like, no, man, we're going to be a band. Like because it was very important to set that precedent from the gate. You mean you didn't want to show up live with just three MCs in a DJ and a turntable. Was that was that sort of what you're talking about? Well, the thing is I felt like why just do that? Why just because yeah, because we look at it. There were people doing that already. But the wreck is the vinyl. So we was like was like earth one and fire as like you know cool in the gang, you know stylistics, you know me. And when we look it was just bands, you know, I'm saying so we was like, oh, we still got how to DJ the foundation. But then we was like, but we straight up going bring the the the art of it the base, you know, the music and all that. Because in Jerry one on production also on bass amazing. And I listened to a lot of the classic hip hop albums of the 1990s, you know, I was listening to the opening of Ready to Die by the Torius B.I.G. The chronic and of course I was listening to the score and I was sort of struck by how cinematic the classic albums of the 90s, especially in hip hop felt. And my theory is that we didn't have social media. We didn't have a lot of access to movie cameras unless you were John Singleton or Alan Hughes. But y'all would make us movies on these albums like they felt bigger than just a collection of songs. They felt like a movie. Did y'all feel that in crafting an album like the score? Well, I think like to us like when we look back at it, it's no different than what Gershwin did. And I think that that's the word like I think hip hoppers were getting underestimated as far as like they wasn't looking at us like composers. Like it's like, what happens crap? Yeah, so then you know, you got bought. But now you can rate us with all of them from these intros that you're talking about. And it was sort of like as a composer in my head, if some kid isn't suiting somewhere and gets a hold of this cassette tape, right? Ain't no television. Ain't no nut, right? And we're talking about 30 years ago, right? And I'm just saying so then what I got to do is have him feel this visual audio thing. And I think in that connection, I think we connected like that, the chronic and you know, a lot of different albums. Remember because back then, right? Hip hop records like the intro was a very big thing. It's like the style of a film, right? Yes. And in that to me was audio visual. It was a very important part of it. A couple of things real quick. Vocab remix. Napier has remixes. These were remixes that brought in that live instrumentation that somebody who's listening to it, like I can immediately tell. That's a real guitar on that track, which was not always the case. First acoustic, first acoustic hip hop song ever. Yeah, and history is okay. Vocab remix is so dope. I'm going to play a little second for the room. There's a little bit of vocab remix. Yeah, this one is me and Jerry wonder. Straight out wide cleft. Straight out wide cleft Jerry. Woo! Still here. One, two, three. The crew is gonna rap. Oh yeah. And I remember seeing the video on rap city back in the day and just being like, you know, this group is different. You saw Jerry with the one finger bass card. Absolutely. And that's from the old fat algorithm. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Yes, you're right. Yeah. Yeah, we used to watch a lot of cartoons though. Got to watch the cartoons. So there's another collaborator on the score that we want to take a moment to mention Mr. John Forte. He passed away recently. I can't imagine how that feels, but I would ask, what would you like our listeners and the people to know about John? And his contributions to the score. Well, I think like John in general is contribution to the world, you know what I mean? I think the best way, like people be like, you explain the score and I say, like, think of it like stacks. You know what I'm saying? Like the best musician. The label. The label. And then think of just the Motown, like the band that actually has the playing. Yeah, the funk brothers. So I think like that was us. Like we was like the funk brothers. And you had like Miss Hill, who had a certain level of grooves, you know, and she was boom boom. Then you had then Forte was her friend. She bought him for tape. And then Forte sonically. She brought him for tape. Yeah, that was that was Lauren's friends. So she bought him for tape. Then I got cool with for tape and me and Jerry, we first cousins. And you know, so we've been literally playing together since we've been like kids kids. So that Jerry wondered. So so you can imagine that combination. So what happens is I would say, and I had said that I would said the score would not have sounded the way it sounded without Forte's contribution. I think with for tape, but he bought a sonic lens. That didn't exist because when we was talking early and we was talking about like, so's a mischief. Remember, and I was saying so. So the best way I could say like Forte was our Q tip. Right. That's the best way I could explain it. Okay. So I think Forte, this Q tip is amazing. And he has a hip hop science, a low five science. You know, he's one of the greatest producers, which I don't think we knew. And I didn't know as a cat as a casual hip hop head. I was ahead. But I didn't realize in the 90s, I assumed Alicia he Muhammad was doing all the producing. You come to find out years later that like a lot of that stuff was just in Q tips head. Yeah, it was in his head. And what I mean by that, you know, and I learned that from like Michael Jackson, because he always was like the orchestra losing your head. Right. And think about it. So today with AI and different technologies, you could just have an idea in your head now, right? And then you could spit it out like that. And, and then I would say that that's one of the things of Forte. I literally, you saw how you was saying the Q tip thing. So I think because the group was so big, I think the 14 part was just missed. You know what I'm saying? So it's important that within the course of legacy, we explain how amazing Forte was. Man, when I tell you Forte for the world though, dude, when Forte went to prison. Yeah. Like I have people that send my band like one of my sound dudes, he was writing letters to Forte in prison. Forte literally reformed the area where he was at. And how to play guitar, started giving music lessons, you know, tech lessons, all kind of stuff. And then get a pardon from George Bush. And then comes out of prison and reforms itself with the whole new form of music, you know, a whole new energy. And so that's what I tell you. So this is like reform for the world. So I think like when people get into the job for a tape documentary, you know, in his life, you know, he's always called Forte the fourth Fuji. And I stand by that. He's definitely the fourth Fuji. Yeah, we love that. We love that. And much love and much love and condolences to his wife and family. Definitely. I'm just glad like, because when we did the Fuji reunion, we got to do the tour and board everybody out. Yeah. So just that boy, man, his smile on this. We bought the forte, we bought the outs. It's just so it was great to see him. He was like with my daughter and all of the kids, like that even touched him when they heard like, you know what I'm saying? Like John Forte and all of them are like 21, 22. So the coolest thing for them was smoking weed with John Forte. Like it was like, yeah. That's beautiful. All right, we're going to take a quick break. But when we get back, we're going to hear the song ready or not. Like we've never heard it before as we listen along with the man who helped create and craft at the one and only. Why Clevjong when we get back? All right, welcome back to one song. Here we are with the incredible white class, John. And he's going to help us break down ready or not. Luxury, my man. Shall we start with the drum? Let's we're just going to listen to the beat and then I got so many questions. So we're going to get nerdy. We're going to nerd out. Okay. So now, yeah, I know you get into the beat. Yeah, but as you get into the beat, I just want you to watch my hand. Yeah. Right. So I'm in the cafeteria. It's important. Okay. Right. Just the cafeteria. Okay. Right hand is high hat. Left hand is good. So listen to the to the drums, but watch the hands on the table of white. Anytime. On commence. Is that school kid lunch table beat making? Is that what you're saying? Yeah, baby talking. Man up, rock, we're rockin' on straight up cafeteria beat. Yeah. So in my brain, right, I did this beat on an NPC 60. Okay. Right. Exactly what you just seen. You know what I mean? Very cafeteria. One, two, three, four. Because it got to be simple. Because the punch lines, right? Because it's going to be all about these punch lines. So go on with the story, but I have two questions. Yeah. I've nerdy questions. Go ahead. I'm ready. Nerd question number one. You mentioned NPC. You mentioned the Lynn 9000. So. Yes, we could go back to that. What is the sound source of your kick, snare, and hat? And is it a Lindrum snare pitched up? And if not, what can you reveal about the source? Well, the source, my whole source are two things. Okay. Lynn 9000, that was one of my original source. And my other source was a VFX keyboard. Okay. Right. It had beats in it. It had beats in it. It had high hatchet, everything. So that was my plug. Okay. So you recorded from those sources into the NPC. What per. So the Lind. Yeah, the Lynn 9000 at one time, that was my computer. Okay. Because it's just the easiest sequencer for programming. Yeah, for programming. It's like logic writing. Yeah. You know what I'm saying to you. So in saying that, and then I started programming on the MP. And then I started, of course, you know, the samples are very short. And I was like, you could pull in because you, I'm from the floppy disk. From the small floppy disk. You know, you only have a few seconds or whatever. Right. So one of the things that I used, I like to do, the, the tape machine that we had was a 456 AmpEx rail. Okay. And what I found to be amazing sometimes was to take like the kick source, throw it to tape. Okay. Sample it back. From the tape. From the tape. Right. And then you can just sort of saturate it. Well, it's the same. It's the same. It's the same wave. Like different ways moving a wave around and just trying to get it to patch you differently. You know what I'm saying to you. Yeah, that's one of the things. You know, we're going to just talk about the snare. Like I'm just the deep rabbit hole of this moment. Is the snare potentially, if you remember it without having the snare from the Lin that you then threw pitch stop. No, that's just, that's the snare that I sampled. Okay. From a record. I started cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering cheering You guys your drummers, right? So I needed something that felt like hip hop, like no fire times, but then I needed it to snap like a live snare. If you noticed though, the snare has a rim shot with it. Oh, is it layered with a rim shot? Of course. Now if you listen to it again, you're going here, like the snare got a rim shot. Cause like, it layers like that. Like you can kept it. That was in the sample or you layered the letter. Later. Okay, I laid that. Yeah, I laid that. A lot of the cheat codes for me with the drums that I used was R8, the R8. What's the R8? It's a drum machine. Oh, I don't know that one. Is there a rolling? Yeah, it's a rolling. Okay. Yeah. So you don't know that? I don't know the R8. All right. Say I get out. I'll check the one. Yeah. Oh, that's the Fuji set. But it was like a lot of that in the church we used to use for like electric sounds. Okay. And then so a lot of that fusion again, right? Because when you're trying to build the sound, you're trying to take three and four sounds and compile it into like one way to make some sounds to you. Right. Oh, man, thank you for that. NERDA. Here's part two of the NERDA question. You just played the beat. You just played the lunch table beat, right? With kick and snare. So here's my question. When I tried to recreate it, and I'm going to do a very poor job with you, the creator sitting next to me. But tell me. Sound like you were genius already. No, no, no, no. The genius is right there. I was challenged to get the kick, snare, and high hat same time. That would be like, it's a little messy. Yeah. Were you doing that? Or did you put a high hat on a loop like this and go? So now watch this. Yeah. So again, with my hands. Yeah. So with my hands, if we're on the MP, we got. Right. Okay, you are doing high hat. Right now watch this. Yeah. So when I would demo it, because there's a drummer, like once my patch is out, I always like naturally, like just, right? Because I'm feeling it with my hands. Yeah. What you're doing for our listeners with your left hand, you're doing kick and snare, and your right hand. That's right. Over the right time. So I do that on the MP. When it's time to record. You get more precision. I get more precision. Just precision. Yeah, of course. Of course, I want to separate the tracks. I can send to you. But for the bop and the vibe, you know, I do all, it's like you're demoing the energy that you want to feel. And you're also acting as the drummer. So you're the musician playing the beat. Yeah, also to, and then the MP, see how to certain swing to it. Like the way like the kids use fruity loops. So the MP and the SP just had its own swing to it. And it was like, it times as dope. Like when you feel it, it's not strictly straight. No, it's just like, it's sort of like reminding me of how Barb Marley's bass player would play. Austin. Where it's like just like one millisecond behind the groove. And then, you know, it's family man. We love it. Yeah, and it sits like, you know, in that energy. That was so fun. Thank you. The light snow that was the nerd out of you rock. You rocked it. I see. I mean, I was good, man. All right. So I mean, let's talk about the sample. How did you come across this song by India? Boudica. So the, I say now that I awake, sleepwalkers awake, those who could relate. That's a movie sleepwalker. You're ever seen it? No, but I know the story. You were sleeping. You woke up, right? Yeah. So, so I was watching sleepwalker just to say like so watching that sample. Like, so you wake up and automatically I was like, yo, I got to cut that. Right. So keep in mind, right? So back then it was like VCRs. You feel what I'm saying to you? So you're going to cut that VCR sound back to the tape. And that's sort of like so that humming. I lived with it a little bit just. And then I was like, okay, I got to hit the record. Stoke. And then when I hit the record. Stoke, I was like, okay, this is in you. And then I was like, yo, who's in you? How did you figure out that what you heard was in you? That would you had in your head when you got to the record store? How did you know to ask pre-sha's am? Because I know that whole cello with. I know all of that. And then I knew about like, go, goorian chant. Okay. And so I was very like advanced when it comes to like, you know, signings. So India had that distinctive at the time, right? She's the only one who figured out how to lay these vocals in a goorian chant way. And it was just insane. And so I was like, was this start of how this thing came to be? And that was the start. So you mentioned that you taped the song off the CR when you get to the record store. Let's just follow this thread. You get to the record store. You buy the record. Is it vinyl? Is it CD at this time? Now everything is vinyl. It's vinyl. Yeah, yeah, everything is vinyl. So you bought the her first record, her self-titled record. I got in you's record. You know what I'm saying? But I also sampled it from the VCR. That's what I was going to ask you. Because there's something about the sample in the mix. Yeah, that is not, it's very low five. It's warm. It's warm. It's completely warm. And it kind of warbles from speaker to speaker. It warped warm. It came from a S-900, which means once I warped it, put it on the S-900 and I put the little filter on it. That's why it sound like that. It sounds amazing. It doesn't, it doesn't sound like the record. You added effects in a way almost accidentally because you're pulling it from the VCR with its low five resolution. Straight out low five resolution. Yeah, yeah. That is so. I did, I did a lot of that. Like I love that kind of stuff. I was trying to figure out like how you treated the sample. Like did you add some like he keeps the distortion? No, the trick was the a chi S-900. It was like 12 bit or even 8 bit maybe. I don't even know. It's low five though. It was low five. You know, and then there's a filter on that S-900 that you just go. You can drop it right there. And I just used the love to do that to samples. It gives it more vibiness. It gives it a darkness. Which is similar because it park into our episode about Wu Tang. Because Riz is doing a kind of similar thing with consciously, first of all taking his VCR right and getting some of that those samples. 100% like VCR is O-Cocentate. You know, a lot of it, a lot of it when you sample it directly from the VCR right is a natural filter. It comes with a natural messed up dirty sound already. That's a play in with it itself. And that's a plus because you want it to sound different. That was a sound of a background back then. Yeah, yeah. Grime. Grime, that's right. Grime a great. Yep, that's how it started. Let's listen to what the original sounds like. And then let's talk about how you transformed it. And again, we'll do my best to sort of show it, recreate it, and you'll correct. Well, you'll correct the record as it happens. So there can be absolute accuracy. The original version was a little faster around 99.100 BPM. Here it is. And that's it. It's a four bar loop basically. It's pitched down to half steps or a whole step. So it sounds like this, which is just a whole step down. Like is already like darker sounding. And it's a little slower. About 10 BPM is slower. And that's that's our loop. And by the way, now that we've heard the beat and the onion sample, it's off to the vocals from here. That's the entirety of the track. Yeah, that's the entirety. I did the beat in like 15 minutes. Like too easy. Was there just was there a base? One question I have was, did you overlay like two bass notes like every four bars? Yeah, two bass notes. But that's it. Oh, there was very simple. So simple. Yeah, so simple. I call it like the three, the three sonic stereo. Right. And I think we still live by that. What's that? The three sonic stereo as a music theorist, right? I think that the human ear automatically plays within a stereo precision. Right. I think your nose ankles the middle. Right. And I think you're right here and you're left here, right? Two different, you know, even those all coming like this, three sonics automatically drives it home. Like you don't need much when you're seeing like the street bands, or you look at the Jimmy Hendrix band, it's no more than three people. Yeah. So sometimes like less is better. So like we're in an area right now where sonically where less is better. These beats that you're loving are really three sonic beats. These 808s that are layered over and over, it's still the same 808. The drum that you hear is still a stereo bus. And then the vocal now, even with the auto tune, it plays part of like what you call a horn, a vocal horn. So for me, the best records always start with like the three sonic stereo for me. That's amazing. I love that very. Yeah. It always starts. And I think it's just band orientated. So when me and Jerry are playing, it's like Slime Robbie, one on the drum, the other on the bass. You know what I'm saying? And my man Joe gets on the guitar. If he gets off the guitar, he gets on the keyboard. And it's still like that's that's how it's inviting. It's the three sonic stereo to me is the invitation to like the ear. You know what I'm saying to you? Like you know how they say like less is better. Yeah. Yeah. So three is show up a lot. How many mics do you rip on the deli three sonic stereo? Oh, wait, what three sonic stereo? How many mics do you mean any money? Meaning. Then on and on. Yeah. I think you're giving the keys to the kingdom. Well, I think like a lot of the producers that are doing now, a lot of the plugins that we were seeing. Like at the end of the day, I can have a kick. And I can make it sound 30 million different ways. But the genesis of it is still one. Let me just quickly because we've mentioned it. And I want to play it for you. So here is that bass that you referred to. It's just these two knocks. And then I'll give you the context because it's. I didn't notice it till I was really digging deep into it. But here's that here's the baseline. Like that's pretty much it. And I could tell you what that is. Yeah. What is that? I would I wish someone can guess it. Play it again. Listen. What is that people? You could you guess it? I tell you. Is it a sample or is it from a synth? It's a sine wave. It's a sine wave. Oh, guess I hear that now. Okay. Play it again. Because it almost doesn't have pitch. It borders on not having pitch. There you go. Yeah. It's the concrete theory. It's the concrete theory. I love all these theories. Teach us. Remember the cuck the dude that was playing the cuck on the show. I like the cuck that theory it lives in between. I like the cuck the note lives. It's like the Thelonius Monkshire that lives in between. That's just a sine wave. That is so cool. Let me give you the right. That's a straight up sine wave. Anybody that wanted to sign wave right now. If you have on a as a car as 900. Pull it up right now. Keep it at 440 standard and pitch that shit down. It's going to sound just like that. It's going to sound literally the fundamentals of sound on sine waves. And this is like it's so fundamental that it hasn't even formed a pitch yet. Half of the score is all sound. That's super cool. You heard it here first. What a nerd out. I'm having the time of my life over here. Oh, yeah, yeah. I'm about it for real. That is very hard to hear in the mix. But just for context, it's happening. I'll point it out as it happens. Here's the final track. I want to play with pellets from me in the back. Gun blasts think fast. I think I'm hit. Don't pitch my hips to see if I still. That's it. And you only have that like every few bars. Yeah. That's so cool. Right. And then the theory of the sine wave. So we pitching it down. So that means it's living within a low frequency. Right. So we in the club. Right. Because now when the shiggets in the club. And people want the bottom, you know what I'm saying to you. So how do you sneak the bottom? And I felt like a lot of the 808s was being stretched. You know what I'm saying? It was like, hmm. You know, like, oh, I was like, yo, this. Spills so beautiful. How can we get something to sit right under the kick? And it's just a punch because the very short sounds. Straight punch. And that moment it. Straight punch. And then it goes away and you miss it. You wanted to come back. Yeah. That's so cool. What a cool detail that we have revealed on one song. It's a classic. White L'Jole. Awesome, man. Thank you. Well, one last part of the sample, which is just to separate the two and to really call attention to what's happening in here. Because what's interesting when you think about it is that, you know, on two in two ways of speaking that will get you. Anya and her compatriots in Ireland there are participants on this song. They are part of the Fuji's in so far as they're recorded parts are in the sample. Right. So let's give it a little bit of shine to Anya for a moment. 100%. Shout out to Anya. Shout out to Anya who we know you have a great story that we want to hear in a moment. First of all, just for those who don't know, by the way, this is she's one of the biggest selling recording artists alive today. New age superstar. All time. All time. 80 million records sold worldwide. But she's an Irish woman born. Anya Patricia Brennan in Gweedor County, Donnacle, Ireland. She had an internal role, families, musicians, she was very briefly in the family band, which is Klanod, a band people of her, I didn't realize until I was researching that she had briefly been in that band. And she left with her managers, Nikki and Roma Ryan, who I imagine are names that are familiar to anyone who's looked at the credits, who are these other people and the credits of this Fuji song, it's Anya and her manager and her manager's wife, who's the lyricist. interesting and important when we get to the splits later because Annie is not singing any lyrics. She's literally humming. Let's listen to that. Here is just the isolated vocal. That's about 10 hums. In spite of the absence of lyrics, the third member of the Anya crew who is paid out from this song. I'm looking forward to talking to you about that whole situation. Was the lyricist and there are no lyrics. So that's an interesting little fun fact. Think about, meanwhile, on the music side of it, we're hearing literally, well, it's five chords, but they're not really chords. Let's listen and we'll talk about it. So that's, I think it has that little bounce, too. It has a little bounce to it. With a different beat, this could be really easy. Right. Yeah, it could be a goofy beat. You're literally hearing just the four chords are implied simply by the notes. Those are five individual notes. I'll play it for you. She bought a Juno 106, turned it on, went to patch three. Literally, it's a preset. And I'm going to play her original version. So it's pitched up by two half steps. So that's five notes. There's no chords at all, no intervals. It's very simple and streamlined and haunting. And of course, it has that very underwater feeling, which when I saw the video, I was, it feels so perfect for what the sounds are. So the song, again, with the pronunciation could be Boatissia, but apparently the original Kelt would have had it as Budica, because the song was recorded for a BBC documentary about the Keltz, about the history of Keltz. So baked into the sound and the title itself, which means victorious woman. And it's about the character Bodica was the queen of an ancient British tribe who led a failed uprising against the conquering Roman Empire in 60 AD. So this is like the Joan of Arc of the Keltz. So there's this fighting woman story buried in the sample. And then it finds its way into your song and that energy and that history makes so much sense. It's like this incredible confluence of sound and history and meaning. Yeah, I think the thing is like when people hear hip-hop, they just take the word as in people who rap and they're going to tell street stories. I want to explain that the hip-hop is the culture. And inside of the culture, if Bach was born in the culture, Bach would be hip-hop. So there as a, you know, my name is John White Kletz. I'm named after the historian from England. I have an English name and I'm a, you know, my dad was at the origin. So I don't just listen to things. I hear things in a different form. So think about John White Kletz. He reformed the church. And so the idea with what we was trying to do is like, we're going to like reform where we come from. We're going to have you have a different sense of thinking of what you think we're supposed to be. Because you're like, okay, we're from the projects. And this is what we're supposed to talk about. And then we're like, no, you know, actually, no, we actually read the Lutheran doctrines. And you're like, now, what is that? Martin Luther, no, I'm like, this is what inspired the Lutheran Church. So in saying that, I was inspired and moved by what Kenya was doing. Because it's sort of like, it just, it just, I felt like it called me like some church. You know what I'm saying? It was like, it felt like amazing grace, but just in a different form. Right. And I was like, yo, and not even knowing all the stories. Right? You know what I'm saying? You felt the stories. I felt the story. The power of music is that you don't need this explanation to feel what's really happened. Yeah. Now on the nerd shit. Yeah, that's what I mean. Now we're talking about. You said Juno. Juno, 106 was like one of the first Junos. Yeah, the third one. Yeah. And then so all of the Junos have this sound on it. Yeah, yeah. They have the boom, boom, boom, boom. So as like, yeah, exactly. So like as a crazy like synth head also, you know what I'm saying? I was like drawn by that quirky like, I was like, you know, how the hell this freaking like Juno sound is against this chat. This shit is just crazy. You know what I mean? It's like the it's like this checks the position of of errors of like centuries. Yeah. But you see when you isolate the darn darn not like you said some goofy shit, it automatically sounds like Napoleon Dynamite. When you play it without Anya's vocal on top. Yeah, sure. Yeah. Dude, yeah. He is never going to talk to me now. Anya's vocals. No, Anya's dope. This is the Gregorian Chan connection. So interesting because I totally hear it when you say that. Is it because her vocal has all the reverb? Because it's drenched. It's like it's like really long reverb. Yeah, so we're talking effects on the effects. The vocal chat sounds like it's very Taj Mahal. Right? So when you go into your effects, you have like hall, medium, the space, like a giant space, of course, the space. So within a vocal like that, you throw that Taj Mahal behind it. It's going to go crazy. Well, the or Gregorian Chan to your point. Like it feels like an old Notre Dame in Paris, like some giant. Yeah, because the theory of it is like, because when you talk about air and space, that's why you could be like, okay, give me a small room verb. You could dance it. But the idea of like Gregorian Chan is war. It's heroic. Right? So the idea of a Taj Mahal makes it endless. I'm saying it's like big game of throwing type shit in the back. And there is war. You're right. There's like some fear and it's like a battle cry, like a churchy battle cry from the year 1300 something. Yes, sir. So we read the song was released without Inya's sample being cleared. And you had to get on the phone with her after the fact to have her approve this sample. What's the story there? Yeah, I mean, again, like coming from where we came from, delivering this album, right? You know, you're moving fast. We're moving fast, but at the same time, we don't know the complexity of the overall business. It don't like, you know, say, and ain't nobody as Sony aware of how it's thinking. Why Clevjan from Haiti grew up in Brooklyn, Marvel project. They moved to Newark and he started somehow found this woman from Ireland. Sam was like, the shit. Wait, so they didn't know that it was a sample? No, it was everything fly. But I just, I just think everything was moving so fast. Fuji law was already killing it. You know what I'm saying to you. You know, so at the time I managed it, they've signed a book, you know what I'm saying? Got on and I had to get on. And of course, Sony had to remove all of the albums from the shelf or a deal had to be made immediately. You feel me? So the deal was made. And I think that what secured this because the Inya team are very religious. Like be clear. Yeah. Like they're very religious people. They're pretty tricky. Kids on another continent. That's right. And so I think that, you know, my explanation for all of this was like, you know, this is like, if you look at the way like John would subscribe this from the book of Revelation, you know, this is like I'll call to our people like. This is you on the phone with Anya. Yeah, this is like me explaining everything like ready or not. And then I'm already John Wildcliffe, right? So and then now when you pay attention to it, it's just another preacher kid who is is explaining to his generation or her generation, how they see the streets and what's going on, what to be fearful of, what can happen, what to do, what to not do. You know, I'm saying how we could go down, you know what I mean? So she got that to her career, but we still have to pay them. You start to pay. Yeah. She's like, that's beautiful. Come on. Yeah, she's still got to see some money. Yeah, you're such a preacher. Now put some in the collection. Yeah. Lovely. And the interesting thing too is you also are underrated in bringing Anya to hip-hop culture because you weren't the last one by any means to sample, not just Anya, but this song which Boatichia however you want to pronounce it finds its way into into winens, it finds its way into the weekends. Doug, you don't want me to start to sound like little Richard. I am the original of a lot of shit. Country music. Anya, I'm pre-nexting you know. acoustic guitar. Man, let's go. But yeah. And by the way, they're sampling this part of the song. They're sampling it essentially the way you sample it. Which is a nod to you. Which is a nod to you. Yeah, well what I'd love about it is again is, you know, when you we hit a whole record, right? Any producer knows that's the best part of the song. Like the most catchy because it starts going to a whole another wave. I was like, I don't think this way is going to work. You found the loop. You found the good one. I found the good down. The good down. Well, let's get to the vocals because they are classic. And why don't we start with the chorus? Sorry for stopping it there. We're just going to go piece by piece. There's so much to talk about. Tell us about the first time you heard that hook or how it came to be in the song. Well, big shout out to Miss Hill. And again, now this is where we talk about the, the, the Roku Boyle. You know what I mean? That gumbo, the mashup. Yeah. And, um, right, that's a mashup right there. That's a, yeah, that's a mashup. Yeah. Because now, um, I do this beat, right? And now, Lauren's going to come with this thing and keep in mind, I, I, I ain't hear the Delphonics, right? I've never heard of the band. You don't know. So I don't know, right? Keep in mind, so I don't know, right? This is where now the same thing I was doing with the crisis. Like when she come as a, you know, her scientists brain now. And that's the first thing she's saying. Like she heard what, so what we've been going to be the slowing the story that was in a hundred the beat with the Anya sample. That's all there was. Yeah. There were no, I was, I was in a little room in a book of basement upstairs. I like staying in a little debate. The studio is very wonderful. Jerry Wunderers. Yeah, Jerry, Jerry daddy, uh, my uncle. Okay. So, so that's the basement. And then I'm, I'm, my room is like right upstairs. And that's why I was cooking up the beat in the room. Okay. And she was answering, you know, she, yeah, me and my NPC wake up with a sleep with it at that time. And, um, and she walks in and, um, she's like, and the first thing she starts to sing is Ready and Not. Like there was no like, I'm going to sing two or three. And I was just like, yo, this is hard. Like, you know, I mean, so for me and my brain, I just know like, Lauren just created this crazy hook, you know, I'm saying to you, which was called ready and not bringing it from her memory. From her memory. Again, it's, it's that, that genius Fuji's fusion thing is. Let's listen to the original just for people to know what we're referencing. This is the Delphonics. Ready or not. Here I come. parentheses can't hide from love. 1968. It should be pointed out part of her genius is not only is she interpolating or interpolation in the line. She's reharmonizing it because it's not the chord changes. No, and then so keep in mind different. Yeah. So they always say like the best thing about art is like when you look at something, you're not really copying it, but you inspire by it and you're about to flip it completely different. So I would say the genius of how Lauren hears things like, you know, like, we've known each other like forever. You know what I'm saying to you is so she's been like, she's been like, um, storm. She's things like, you know what I mean? So she heard it and now when she sings it, she's going to decode it and it's going to talk to her generation like how she wants to portray it. And so she was raised with all of this music. So she just has a way of like when she flips it, it's just going to be crazy. She brings the Teneamory Ula-la to Fuji-la. Same thing. Yeah. Yeah. You know, again, that hook-driven ideology of something that live in the back. Because we all like, we don't even understand, right? The key is I was subconscious. So the human, because you don't even know why you like it. Because you will hear something and your body starts, you know, and I can watch it with my daughter generation. Like sometimes a person ain't have to say nothing. There's something that happens and they're like, and then I could decode it in the back and I could hear something. So she was great at having you reminisce off of something that you don't even need to know what it is. But it's in your back. Yeah. If you grew up in America, you know, it's in somewhere in your mom or crazy, there's a body, there's a corn memory there. And there's something that the special brain, it takes the special kind of brain. First of all, for that to evoke that. But to sing in real time, what is a completely different set of chords to find the melody and to find kind of, and she flips it a little bit rhythmically, slightly. Straight genius. But it's straight genius to be able to do that. Because if I played the same chords as the Delphonic song, that's one thing. But different chords and you're, and you're not messed up by it. No, no, no, no. That's crazy. I'd love to hear verse one of the song, classic verse. Now that I escaped, sleep, walk away. Yeah. Those who covalate know the world they kick. Gel bars ain't golden gates. Those who fake they break. There's so many lyrics there that I would love to ask you about. But I always thought it was Joe bars and golden gates, which is a totally different meaning than Joe bars ain't golden gates. Which is correct. Gel bars ain't golden gates. You know, Joe, you know, they ain't golden gates. How what? I said, the gel bars ain't golden gates. Oh, they really aren't. Yeah, they really aren't. But what does that lyric mean to you? I mean, gel bars ain't golden gates. Basically, you know, we can't, I try to tell you, do you want to glorify the the the prison system? Because you know what I'm saying? It's like a badger honor to go to jail. But I'm letting them know that all the OGs that I know that go to jail, you know, they're like, yo, it's it's not golden gates. You all want to come this way, you know what I mean? You don't want to end up with a 400 pound date. Yeah. I gotta go question on the this, the chronology of the if I rolled the world in there. Because that's a. That's reference. If I rolled the world, not as future in Lauren Hill, that single comes out in June 96. But you've written this song the year before, right? So it's the chronology of that line being in here, which came first. If I rolled the world, the Curtis blow. Yeah, yeah, Curtis blow. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course. And Curtis blow was my first producer. I love that. Let's hear a little bit of a here's blow. If I were to. So was that your idea to bring it into first of all, a song? And if so, was it this song first and then the not song? Or the other way? The nots joint. Like I just loved the if I ruled the world. But my my vibe was more in the Curtis and my vibe was Curtis blow. Okay. That makes it. Yeah. So because the I ruled the world with the nots and Lauren was, I think it's after we talk about that subconscious thing. That's in the back of your head. I'm more dramatically like vibing. But again, uh, that's a Lauren ad link. Oh, that's her ad link. Got it. Right. You feel me? So we was that a coincidence that she's ad living that with your connection to Curtis blow. No, let me tell you. We just, you know, in in studios, do we want to do this? Like we could start pulling up shit like more fucking station in three months later. It happens. That's the one. It's something that you just toss in there throw away. Adlib can literally spark a million hits afterwards. Of course. Like one little teeny. I did. That's why I say everyone, everyone counts. Verse two, another classic verse. This one by Lauren. Can you place that verse? I can do what you do. Easy. Believe me. For Indicors, give me he be G. So why you in this state and alcohol? I be needing a Simone and defecate you know, you're like, oh, don't do that. I have questions about this. I always wondered what rap orges with poor, you and best meant you're going to have to. Excellent. Okay. I'll have to ask Lauren that. I also think it came at a time when like this is 96, like bad boy is everywhere. I think the junior mafia album that come out around this time. Like the amount of people who refer to themselves as Al Capone, Gambino, you know, that was like, that was all the rage and. She said I was shit on all y'all. She said I'm a microphone. Literally. Why y'all claim an Al Capone? So February marks the 30th anniversary of the score. My friend, what do you think the legacy of Ready or Not is and the album at large? Just timeless music. So everybody that's listening, I say like don't do music because you're like there's a bunch of shit out here and I just want to copy some shit and just go fast. Like but if you take your time and you make timeless music, it don't matter what the year is or what that's all. If you got to do music about, oh, this you got to come out right now. Then something's wrong. You got to do music like well, you like, you know, I ain't saying hold on to the music. That's not what I'm saying. But I think the legacy of the score is just like timeless music. So another part of the Fuji's legacy is how it opened the door for everything that came afterwards for you as a solo artist and as a songwriter and as a producer for other people. Even before we learned the sad news that we just learned, I had always intended to bring up this song. It's one of my absolute favorite songs of all time that you had a hand in and that song is 99 Flash the Message by the Good Brother John Forte. Let's hear a little bit of 99. I love how you like started over. I like songs where like the first of those, you say, you say, not of the stuff. I'm Phil Jackson. I'm not sure. Oh, that's straight up. You know, like I got the best players. You know what I mean? I'm like, no, no, run that playback. And as many of us know, that song uses an interpolation of this song. This is 99 Lift the Lift. Amazing interpolation at the time. Can I say for a whole generation of hip hop lovers, this song almost feels like the end of a certain era in 90s hip hop because I feel like it came out in 98. That's the last year of something. It's before, you know, I feel like the Neptune's and Kanye. I think Super Thug by Noriega came out in 98. Have you ever thought about the shifts and the changes in that way? Because I do feel like 98. 99 is a time of great change in the culture. Yeah. No, I just think like, you know, everything has a season, you know what I'm saying? But the genius of the season and the genius that define time are two different things. I think that, you know, 100 years from now, a kid's going to find that 99 balloons back and play it, you know what I mean? Same way they're going to find a score. So I think again, and then they're going to do their own version the same way we did our own version. So I think again, like with the Neptune's and what Ye did and everybody continue, again, I think everyone just paints, you know, amazing art. I just think, you know, we just, you know, we painted a basketball piece. So it's hard to move us. You know, just blaze these, that's going to become the sound more of like the 2000s. But like, this is like a perfect time for me personally in music. I mean, like you had Rogas records. You have the Carnival, which is your album. It's one of my favorite albums all the time. I have so many memories of songs like anything. Bubble Goose. Gone to November. I'm talking about you three Sonic's theory. When you played it in concert last night, I was like, where are my violins? I need the strings. But it's such a beautiful song. These are beautiful albums. All right. So this year marks another big milestone. It's 20 years since your global smash with Shakira, hipst don't lie, which not everybody realizes is a remake, right? It's technically almost a remix. This is Dance Like This by Like Left Show. It dance like this. She wake up and I want to see some Spanish. Come and sing down my faith. Believe that. Thank you. That's the, that's the, the way you need me. I love how there's like elements in there that are identifiable in the final like global billions of strange smash version. But it's what's different is, I mean, I hear the beat is different and obviously the vocal is different. But is it the same music bed? Otherwise, what did you change to remix the song to make it into hipst don't lie the 2005 Shakira, featuring Wyclef smash hit? Well, I think again, I think it's the collaboration of genius, right? Shakira is a genius and our own right, right? So when we went into the studio, like you have to think it's the best combination and Shakira ain't just going to come and sing the song. Like that's not what she do. She's like me. Like she's like, okay, we're going to bring the Kumbas. You know, this is in my country, Colombia. You know, I can hear the socks, but I'm out. You know, so, so I think that, I'm sure you would. But what made it amazing again was look at it like two composers. One from the Americas, right? You know, Shakira, Colombia, Lebanese. What happens when they get in the studio? One kid from a hip hop culture, right? Another kid. So automatically, like, I'm like, yo, how do I, you know, Lord, Tareek and Peter, Guns Shakira have? Yes. You're ready. You're still, I was going to say to compliment you, you're still taking that underground. You're taking that hip hop underground, Spanish Harlem, Lord, Tareek, Peter, guys and your. That energy, that energy. Yeah. Right next to like international, you know, Latina superstar. Because you know, I'm from hip hop. I think hip hop is the best form of music. And what I mean by that is the only form of music that's all forms of music. It really is. But I think to your credit, your genius is that you'll take something like that one element out of the Lord, Tareek and Peter Guns song. I think it was that song by Jerry Rivera. Because that is sampled from a old Latin song. Right. Right. There's a connection to the Latin. I would not have even been thought of no shit like that if I was in a hip hop kid, right? So at the end of the day, as a producer, my, the, I'm going to go sample, oh, where's the original, right? I'm going to look for the original. Also, like, so being like Haitian, the Dominican, Cuban, Jamaican like that whole area, like we don't record pollo. So as much as they played English music, like in the house, more gospel stuff. But when I went to my uncle, it was everything coming out of Columbia, out of Cuba. So this is not. So hearing those horns and then seeing a hip hop producer do it again. It's just for me, I always reference hip hop because I'm like, people be like, yo, well, describe say, yo, it's literally like the new jazz fusion. It's the only thing like you could pull. I could pull a country piece. I hope there's no other kind of music. Do you could pull in? There's so many layers and so much lineage in what you do and how you do it. It's not just, it's not just, it is the international part, but it's not just that. It's also the historical layers. You're kind of tracing it back in time. You're making connections. You seem to be suggesting that some of them are conscious, but some of them just came out of like, you didn't realize that it was in the back in your subconscious, like we were saying before. And it just sort of appeared in this moment because it was the right thing. If you're inspired and you craft the best music, it's going to find its way. And I always tell all of the young producers and different people coming out there, when I was young, I used to want to be so validated. Like when you're young, you'd be like, yo, I want to win Grammys. I want to be boom, boom, boom. I want, then you start traveling the fucking world, right? And you go into like the depth of like the earth, right? And next thing you know, like, freeing, walking with the Eskimos, you know what I'm saying? Hey, your dogs and shit. And then you know, and you hear one love. One heart and you like fucking Bar Marley don't have no Grammys, no nut, and he's the biggest artist in the world. So again, I say just do like, just do your best one song. You know, create your one song and it's going to happen. White Club John, it's such a huge honored have you on our show, One Song. And what is going on in your world that you want to listen to, know about you have some projects coming out? Tell the world what's happening next. All right. So I need the whole world to pay close attention. This is me, the human man versus machine starting in March, March, April, May, June, July, August. I'll be dropping seven albums. Each album reflects me bending the last 30 years in the genre. So I ain't going to tell you, you know, man, I was the first one to do country music and hip hop. No, with the country album, you could trace back to me and Kenny Rogers. The jazz album is dedicated to Q. The hip hop is going to be called Black Moses, grown in sexy. You already know that's going to be the on the album going to be crazy. The reggae album is is nut. So everybody was like clef is out of his mind. How is he going to get all these? Every album is like a different genre. Every John, it reflects me bending the past. So we have a full compa album. And you're not going to be able to sit down on that one. It's going to be called like the compa invasion. Inspired by the bridge. So look out for that. So we're very excited about that. We'll be hitting the tone. Also, me and Miss Hill would definitely be doing a couple of Fuji dates. You know what I'm saying? Like a couple of while Clevver Law and dates. And also we've been talking about some form of a remastering of the score. And some of the materials that were unreleased, you know, files from through the years. How can we give the fans some of that? There's some besides and some some very cool. Like because remember we kept going back in the studio. Absolutely. And just thousands of you guys. Yeah, yeah. Like me, Jerry, we kept trying to, which is very cool. So look forward to all of that. We were all right. We are looking forward to it indeed. All right. And then the next show you come to the Fuji's. Yeah. I mean the Wild Clevver show. Yes. I'll make sure the strings are there for Guns and the Bulls. I will be there in every show now. Take my money. Thank you so much for coming on the show, sir. Thank you so much. As always, you can find us on Instagram and TikTok. You can find me on Instagram at Diallo and on TikTok at DialloRule. And you can find me on Instagram at LUXXURY and on TikTok at LuxuryXX. And you can follow our podcast on Instagram and TikTok at at One Song Podcasts for exclusive content. You can also watch full episodes of One Song on YouTube. Just search for a One Song podcast. We'd love it if you'd like to subscribe. Also, be sure to check out the One Song Spotify playlist for all the songs we discuss on our episodes. And find the link in our episode description. And if you've made it this far, you're officially part of the One Song Nation. Welcome. Give us five stars. Leave a review and send this episode to a fellow music fan. It really helps keep the show thriving. Luxury, help me on this thing. I am producer DJ, songwriter, musicologist, and every Friday night from 10 PM to midnight KCRW DJ Luxury. And I'm actor, writer, director, and sometimes DJ DialloRule. And this is One Song. We'll see you next time. This episode was produced by Melissa Dwayne, as our video editor is Casey Sarmonson, mixing by Michael Harmon and engineering by Eric Kicks. This shows the record produced by Kevin Hart, Mike Stein, Brian Smiley, Eric Eddings, Eric Woll, and Leslie Guam.