Terry "TR" Ross

This is an I Heart Podcast. Guaranteed Human. No gloss, no filter. Just stories. Spoken without fear. A person who is not generous cannot be an artist. The world will be at peace only when it is ruled by poets and philosophers. Listen to my weekly podcast, the Pooja Bhachon on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Come for the honesty, stay. For the fire. And the Trap Nerds podcast, with more to be announced. And of course, it's bigger than podcasts. We're bringing the Black Effect Marketplace with Black Owned Businesses, plus the Food Truck Court to keep you fed while you visit us, alright? Listen, you don't want to miss this. Tap in and grab your tickets now at blackeffect.com slash podcast festival. The authorities on all things R&B. Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Tay. I'm Jay Valentine. And this is the only funny podcast this morning. Tell him what it is, dawg. The authority on all things. Yeah. R&B. Yeah. In the motherfucking building. I'm talking family member. Yes, sir. I'm talking day one. Di Aruno. Are you going to eat it? No, we're always. Oh, I go to that place, maybe, when I really mean it. There you go. Let's go, Tay. I talk about a man who saw my thunnist and my gifts from the beginning. And said I love that guy. Yeah, real exactly. I put money in that guy's pocket. Yes. I take care of this guy. Preach, man. Preach. Since the noontime days. Yes, man. Preach it, man. Preach it again. I love this man. I'm proud of you, dude. Tell me, T.R. Ross. Let's go, man. Let's go, man. Let's go, man. Let's go, man. Maybe don't know. No, they don't know. T.R. They have no clue. They don't have a clue. He's a telep. Tell them. Trenches. Trenches, nigga. Like, what y'all had when I first met you at noontime? It wasn't a trench, but it was trench mentality. Trench mentality. 100%. 1,000%. It was sunup, sundown. Sunup, sundown. Getting here and get to it made the best man win. That's it. That's it. I walked in and they're like, that's how you get cracking. All these niggas is monsters. That's how we made it happen. That's what we did. Teddy Bishop. Jazzy Faye. Brian Michael Cox. Brian Michael Cox. Jada. Jada. Dent. Dent. Donnie Scantz. Donnie Scantz. That was it. John Tay Austin. Yes. The twins. The twins. That's right, yeah. Jagged. Yeah. Yeah. Niggas. Yeah. I'm in there like, what the fuck is going every room? I'm going to tell y'all some shit real quick. And I was at a party. I was at Sal's house. A weekend's manager. And Mike Karen walks over to me and he says, I'm going to tell you something I never told anybody. He was like, I patterned my whole company out the noon time. He said, when I came down to Atlanta and saw what y'all had and how y'all had those producers in each room, and them niggas was always competing against each other because they leave their doors open. So if Jazzy's in there making a beat, Teddy hit at him and be like, oh shit, I got to make a fire beating Jada over here at a dick. You know what I'm saying? And that's how the competitive spirit between all of them made them better than Iron Shabbins Iron. So they was all competing against each other. And they knew people. I mean, dude, you got to understand. Not what every artist, R&B artist came to noon time. Absolutely. Came to noon time. You had to come through. Absolutely. You had to come through there. Yep. You know what I'm saying? So that was it, man. And you came through there, you saw it. Mike came through there, he saw it. And he was just like, yo. And the good thing about us was we weren't never wanted to be in front of the camera. So we were always in the back and we were doing the business part aspect of it. So a lot of times, you know, like the Puffs and the JDs, and they were in front of the camera. So it's different when you were in those kind of camps or when you were in a camp where niggas just handling your business. So we just handled the business. And that was it. And they appreciated it because we wasn't trying to take their shine. We let them do their thing, the producers, you know what I'm saying? So that was it. That's why it worked for however long it worked. That's why it worked. It was good competition, too. Good help competition. It wasn't like hateful competition. What was the setup of noon time as far as just the partners in it? Who were the people? I mean, just for people who don't know. Let me give you the backstory on that. So I'm born and raised in DC. My partners, Chris and Ryan, they from Oakland, right? So they came down. They were going to school at Howard from Oakland. So they came to DC. So this is this is a crazy story. So the reason how we really hooked up was because Chris has some cousins out here that was heavy in the game, like deep, deep in the game. And my mom lived in Oakland. My mom lived in Oakland. OK. Nolan Park Zoo. Oh, shit. OK. You know, yeah, gas station. Yeah, right there. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I used to come out to Oakland all the time. But you didn't know them at this point? No, I knew Chris all. I knew I knew Chris. My mom and Chris's mom were like friends. OK. So I've known Chris my whole life. OK. So one day, you know, I was in this is crazy. My mom was like, you need to meet Chris's cousins. His cousins and in LA. I was like, OK. So I met I hadn't seen Chris in years. Went up to his high school said, Chris, I need to meet your cousins in Oakland. And somebody told me I need to meet them. So I went to go meet them, went to go talk to Chris in the school. And they was like, well, you know, we'll we'll connect with you. Make sure you take care of Chris when he comes up to DC. Embracing, put him put him under your wing. I was like, no problem. Yeah. So Chris came, Ryan was Ryan came, came up there. So we started this this company, a. What kind of booking agency? So during that time, two short Luke, juvenile, not but he was juvenile, but the Chick Daddy. So we used to book shows at the college at Howard for for, you know, go around the city, booking these shows with these with these artists. So we started this company. It was called Ivory Coast. It was me, Chris and Ryan. So we did these shows and then Cassine went to Howard. It was like, oh, you guys need to come down to Cassine Reed. My wife is a mayor. Yeah, Cassine. Yeah. OK. He went to Howard. He was like, you guys need to come down to this thing in Atlanta called Freak Nick. And we was like, Freak Nick, what is that? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. What is that? Yeah, it sounds exciting. So. So we said, all right. So we did this show. And Atlanta, I mean, we had. I mean, we had. The big this was actually the biggest show in the history of Freak Nick. We had two short Luke outcasts before outcasts even came out. What's the other groups? It was a bunch of groups. I have the flyer show to you, but we did this show and we made we made we made a good amount of money. Right. So noon, he was already in Atlanta because he grew up in Oakland to, you know, he grew up in Oakland to he was already in Atlanta trying to do some music thing. So when we got to Atlanta, I'm like, yo, this shit is sexy. Like you you black, you can move around the police. Don't pull you over. I'm like, this ain't how we function in DC. Like you got a nice car. Naked, I said, yeah. So we moved down. We moved down to Atlanta and. And Freak Nick show. Y'all like, oh, we always we're here. Yeah. Right. See, but when we came down there, Niggas was already getting money in DC, like heavy like niggas on the same. How heavy I was in the game. Like it. Yes. So when we moved to Atlanta, we already had when I moved to Atlanta, I'm going to say I had a brand new the eight fifties before anybody had. I had a black one. I had a 300 ZX turbo. I had a McLaren. Are you going to crack? Listen, I had a McLaren and I had the the brand new SCC 400. Remember the joints, the convertible joints? Yes. The Lexus. When they came out. Is that what you was doing? Oh, I had had all of that. You should all that to Atlanta. Ship all of that to Atlanta, right? Chris had the Range Rover. Ryan had, I think Ryan had a Range Rover. So when we get down there, niggas was like, who is these niggas? Like these niggas, these niggas, these niggas, they playing no ball. They ain't they ain't no artists. Like, who is these niggas? Like, so that kind of attracted all of the the jazzy's and the Brian's and the teddies to to what we were doing. Because we weren't we weren't we weren't we weren't in, you know, we weren't in the game like that as far as as far as artists and, you know, being a ball player or, you know, that kind of that kind of thing. So we just set up shop. We set up shop. We figured out how to do it. And the reason why we really got put on. Well, we really were really set us off was how we parlay the play. So what happened with that was we had a group called Absolute. I don't even remember y'all remember Absolute. Come on now, don't tell me don't don't do that to me. You remember Absolute? Don't act like that. OK, we had a group called Absolute. You and niggas man. So we remember Absolute. That was our first group we had. So we was trying to shop Absolute. We were shopping them to the labels and Puff Puff Kevin Wells, my man. K. Wells, K. Wells took us to Puff and we he loved the group. He was like, yo, I want to sign them. Blah, blah, blah, let's go. So we was like, fuck, bro, we don't want we want we trying to be we trying to be our own back. Your own back. Yeah, fucking what you call. So we took them. We did we had another deal on the table with with Lior Def Jam. So it was like, we don't go to that. Tina Davis. Yeah. My girl, she signed and she was like, I love this group. I signed a group. So we said, all right, let's do it. So we said, we want to take the group to Def Jam. And we took the group to Def Jam. But Puff kind of got he was a little salty about it because we didn't bring the group over to him. So he was like, yo, who the fuck is who produced the records? Like, who are the producers on the records? And we was like, it was at that time, it was just Jada up and dead. Had produced the records on Absolute and Teddy to say he was like, man, let me let me let me sign the let me sign the producers. We was like, all right. So what we did was we said, listen, we're going to let them sign the producers. But every time it has to say, we produced by bad boy slash noontime. Right. Because at this point, Nooni is part. Yeah, yeah, we came together now. Yeah, we came together. We all came together. We knew he originally had the name Noontime. OK, so I'll meet you if we can back if we can backtrack for once. You and you and Nooni, you already you, Chris. Me and Chris already already. But when we came to Freak Nick, Nooni was already in Atlanta. Right. He was already moved there. He was the first one to move there. So we came down. He had he was trying to do music. He was doing his music thing. Right. So we just when we came down, we was like, yo, we know a lot of people. Let's just start. Let's just do the record label together. So we all we all four of us came together. So Nooni had money. He was getting money in the streets. We had money. We had money. So we just put it together. We bought a building. You sure? And you remember that? You sure did? We bought a building. We bought a little thing was on Walker Street. And then we moved to we paid. I'm going to tell you something. You know, King Plow, right? That's what you probably came. King Plow was the was the building that we bought. We paid three fifty four. On the railroad track. Yes. Yes. OK. That's the one you came to. But we have one. We have one before that. Got you. I was on Walker Street. When he came to was the one we bought. We paid three fifty four. For a building. A building. Three hundred fifty thousand square foot building. Ten thousand square foot building on King Plow. Like this is prime real estate right now in Atlanta. That's how much the building is worth now. Three million. Sheesh. Three million. They go for three million over. There's prime real estate. Three fifty and we sold it. We sold it. I don't know. Yeah, whatever. We'll get to that. Yeah. What? What? So Puff wants to produce this. So Puff Puff wants to produce this. So we say long as it's produced by bad boy slash no time. I mean, yeah, yeah, bad boy slash no time. So in that run, we were on everything. Jada up and then we're on all the stuff over at bad boy. Yeah. The faves, piggy, mace, all those records, all those records. And it was Jada up, produced by bad boy no time. No time. Yeah. So people started noticing like, who the fuck is these no time niggas? Like where they come from? So I tell you a funny story. So we had we came meet. I'll tell you a good story. Me and Shakir came out here to start Noontime West. OK. So Shakir was a part of Noontime in the beginning as well. I didn't know that. Like he was. I don't know how involved he was, but. Yes, he was supposed to be the fifth. The fifth guy. OK. Him and Nooni, I don't know what happened. They whatever. They something happened. I don't know the dynamic that happened between them. But something happened. Shakir, we didn't he didn't become a part. But me and him came on here to start Noontime West. So we were just going off to all the labels. Yab, Yum. Remember Yab, Yum. Yab, Yum. And we went to Crazy Edmonds. Yeah. Erica Grayson was over at Sony Music Publisher. Right. Remember her? Of course. Remember. So Erica was one of the first people out here to embrace us. So she. So we did a deal. And this is I mean, we did. J. Dub didn't have not one record out. He did a seven hundred and fifty thousand dollar publishing deal with no records. Zero records out. All he had was the. The. That was coming out. No, the shit that was supposed to be coming out on Bad Boy. Got you. That was it. This is coming out on Bad Boy. Seven hundred and fifty thousand dollar publishing deal. With no records in the marketplace. Yeah. And then Dent goes and does Survivor. And gets he can shake game him a five hundred thousand dollar publishing deal. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Let's get money off one record. So yeah. So then Beacocks comes. Jazzy comes. You know what I mean? This is after J. Dub and Dent, but Jazzy comes. Beacocks comes and Beacock story is crazy. Like he he used to he came. He was coming as like an engineer. Like, you know, most producers come. He came in as an engineer. I think it's passing out. We were passing out flowers on the clock line of campus. And they was like, we was looking for engineers. So Beacocks came and used to come over there and engineer. So then one day, you know how you in the studio, remember late late at night? And J, you remember this too? Like you would be in the studio and they just be sitting around kicking and talking and talking. And this is the time we had that. So Beacocks was real slick. So he would just put his that's in while we sitting around talking. A little back in music. Yo. Who did that? That's you. Yeah. Yeah, I produce. OK, baby, you. It sounds good. And that's how he got to be, you know, came on as a producer. Yeah. Yeah, just being in the studio. He wasn't, you know, and then Jazzy came on and you know how flamboyant. He was, you know what I mean? He's a light show. Yeah, he's just. He's a show. The thing is. He's a physical. So him and Nooni had a relationship. And then that's how that develops. And that's how they all came in. How was this set up, though? OK, so. Because you're saying you're signed them. To other entities, though. Right. Like you. What did you share in? Yeah, management share. Or was it? Yeah, we had that. We owned the publishing. OK, so you guys had a publishing company. Yeah, OK. Yeah, we got over and you and you managed 900 copyrights and you manage them as producers. Yeah, OK. And we manage them as producers. So the same thing with JD. We did with Beacocks. OK, same thing we did with Puff. We did with Beacocks. I was there when y'all did that. And you know how that developed was because. Somehow I don't know. Remember Jagged Edge, right? Of course. So Beacocks started working with them after. Nobody really wanted was really messing with Jagged Edge. So they came up with these incredible records. And JD heard them and was like, oh, this shit is this is this is fire. And that's how Beacocks got on with the Jagged Edge. That's what put him on on the map was in Jagged Edge because they was working together. Yeah, yeah. I used to go over there with him. I used to first go over there with them with no with Jagged Edge. And Jagged Edge. Yeah. So they used to be over there working, of course, at New Time. Yeah, yes. And it would be it would be Beacocks beats or whatever. They actually wrote a song for me. That's really how I see. So you know, cool with them. Yes. And then they were like, we going over to JD's. And I was like, they germane to pre JD. Yeah. It's like, yeah. I was like, I want to go. So Donnie was like, yeah, let's go, let's go. Donnie Scaff. Yeah, let's go. And I was like, cool, let's go. We go to over to the studio and that's where I'm saying. Beacocks and JD kind of developed. That's how they develop. They think and I'm watching him, you know, I don't want to say specifically that he coached Beacocks into DJing. But that's where I first saw Beacocks getting behind the turntables. That's probably learning how to DJ. That's probably that's probably. You know what I'm saying? Yes. And I was like, what are you doing? He said, you know, JD, be DJ. You got to learn how to DJ and got a lot of stuff. OK, sure. I mean, just watching this nigga fuck up the DJ equipment. But I'm like, all right, that record on that record. That's fine. That's where he. Yeah, that's where he got the job. And then Jagged is like, yeah, nigga, we hoop. I was like, nigga, y'all don't hoop. And I was like, yeah, nigga, we do hoop. And I was like, well, let's go hoop. And he was like, nigga, JD got a gym. I was like, a gym where? He had the little basketball. He was like, right down the hallway. I was like, down the hallway. Let's go get it. I can't believe that. The first time I was at the studio. This nigga has all this is everything. It's parquet nigga. Yeah, it was. Dumped on him, nigga. So crazy. Yes. You know when we bring him on? I can't wait to see. They got to validate it. This is real or not. I mean, I mean, Tank been dunking for you. He's like the fifth grade. I'm thinking of a slide. I didn't think you could. I couldn't think you could hoop. Nobody ever did. I didn't think you could. Nobody ever did. I seen the nigga, we played one day and I said, this nigga is jumping out of the gym, doing all these crazy. Yeah. I was like, you know, the nigga will dunk all vert. Vert. Now, ain't no way. Snigging at a snigger. Anybody. Snigging at a snigger. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So that all was pivotal for me. All of that. And pivotal for us too, because that's how the toy came into play, because you know she was dating one of the guys. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's how we met. That's how Toya came to us. It was from that, from that, that relationship. A reckless father like me. Join me, Pooja Bhatt, as I sit down every week with directors, actors, musicians, technicians and beyond. You don't need to work with the biggest people and the biggest sound to have great music. I have gone through the Saab Siddhi Khachakar, reached the pinnacle, stung by the snigger and I've fallen down again. Yeah. I am not writing actively anymore. And when I see my old work, it kind of saddens me. I'm only as good as the last shot that I gave. Mom's gone, but don't shut the theater. The show must go on. Listen to my weekly podcast, the Pooja Bhatt Show on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Come for the honesty, stay for the fire. I got so many questions. I mean, I know you too, you're my friend, but it's still like I got so many questions. Go ahead. Getting into the inner workings of like, your business is a different type of conversation. Right. You know what I'm saying? Because there comes a point where, for us, outside looking in, noontime is it. Right, absolutely. Noontime is a real one-stop shop where you can get your goods. And that's what we were. You know what I'm saying? And then there comes a point in time where, it's not anymore. It dissolves. And the bosses are kind of going in different directions. And that's exactly what happened. And what is, if not too much into it, how does that happen? Because you know the downfall of black men. There are two things that kill us. It's our egos and we don't share resources. So it was the egos. It was the egos. It was the egos. Like, you know, and that was our downfall. And had we stuck it out, like you said, like you said, all other people, people admire what we did. Like they like this, nobody did it like that. And that fashion, and yeah, it was the egos, man. It was just egos. It became a model. It was a model. Nobody had producers at one studio, this studio, that studio, that studio. And you know, Puff did with the hitman. But you're two of our guys. But they weren't, I don't know how they're set. I think he had like one or two rooms maybe in Daddy House. No, you had. We had four or five rooms. Continuously gone. Yeah, continuously gone. The producers had their own room. You know what I'm saying? We built the rooms specifically for them to have their own rooms. It's like, because I watch you all individually. I watch the things that you all have moved into and accomplished individually. And I'm thinking about all of that being under one roof. Jesus. Yeah, and it's like the amount of executives that we put out. Like Jaha used to work for us. Shakir used to work for us. April used to work for us. Wow. Shantay, Paige used to work for us. Shit. All came through Noontime. All came through Noontime. Yeah, they all came through Noontime. How long did you guys have the company? We started 2000, no 1990, probably 97. Because we moved to 97 to about, shit, I would say 2007 to 2008. About 10 years. Yeah. Yeah, about 10 years. And then Nooni and Jazzy started Show Now, which was Sierra. And yeah, Sierra was the other group they had. Cherish. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cherish was with the sisters, twins. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, they were dope. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wait, so, because I was going to ask too about Noontime. So you have all these producers. Polo was a part of that. How about I say, yeah, Polo, absolutely. Polo was it. See, Polo was the same as him. Nobody really respect, yes. He was in a group called Jim Crow. Jim Crow, he's in Jim Crow. Yeah. He was in Jim Crow. We got a deal with Jimmy Irving. And DJ. And that was at Noontime. DJ, yes. OK. DJ was just coming out of, he was in college. Yeah, he was in college. Yeah, he was in Boston College. We met up there with Jimmy. DJ brought us to meet with Jimmy to sign Jim Crow, right? And Jimmy was like, yo, hey guys, I love this group. This group is fantastic. We're going to sign them, but I want you to listen to something. Can you please take a listen to something and tell me what you think? He always wants you to listen to something. Yeah. He said, take a listen to something. Hi, my name is... Ha! Ha! Hi, my name is... He was like, guys, what do you think about this guy? He's like, who is that? He was like, this kid we about to sign, M&M. It's like, oh, so, I mean, the record was, it was a record. You can hear that from the beginning. As soon as you heard that record, you know what that was. And yeah, so he signed the group. Polo was a part of that group, but Polo was like you. Like, nobody, like he used to produce, but nobody, we wouldn't take him seriously. Yeah. You know what I mean? But Polo was a really fucking dope producer. Absolutely. Absolutely. You know what I'm saying? Super dope. Because that's what I was going to ask as far as like the transition of having all these producers, when did the artists come? You know what I'm saying? Because obviously that is the pivot, right? You have the producer, so you got the music, you got the writing. So a lot of people don't know this, but we signed to Shanti when she was 16. Oh, shit. Yes, Shanti was signed in Noom time. Yes, Kendall Mentor. You remember Kendall Mentor? The attorney? No. Kendall Mentor was introduced us to her. We signed her. Did a bunch of cra... Yeah, we did a bunch of crazy records on her. And then we got our first deal. We got our first deal with Sony. Ron... Ron was his name. Dave Sweeney, you remember Dave Sweeney? Dave Sweeney was over there. Ron, what was his name? Not Ron Gilyard. No, not Ron Gilyard. Attorney, he was an attorney, but he ran Sony. OK. But anyway, so we signed to Shanti. And we did all of these, like, huge, big, I mean, like really dope records. And we went over to Sony and Dave McPherson was like, I don't know about her. We was like, really? So when I tell you this other name, you're going to be like, damn, I forgot about that. Remember Chacha? Of course. So we had a female rapper named Chacha. He was like, Chacha, right? So he was like, we like her. Y'all need to put all your money behind her. Let's put the bag behind her. And that's what they did. They put we had Trick Daddy, we had Juvenile, we had Gyro. Went to go pay Jay-Z $500,000 cash. Sheesh. Get on her record. Yes. Yes, on Chacha's record. Five hundred. Cash. Do you do it? No. No, I don't know what happened. He was going to do it. He wanted to do it. I'm going to tell you he wanted to do it. But when I tell you she had absolutely everybody on that who was hot at that time on her record. OK. And Sony was like, yo, this is the artist we want to get behind. And we, you know, we knew in the game, we just this is our first. Our first. We just like fuck it, man. Y'all going to put the money behind her. So what happened was Ashanti, we still had her signed. And you know how you know how it is. Thank you. Artists, you feel like you're not paying attention to. Yeah. Yeah. They were like, yo, what's. Yes, man. And let me out. Let me out. Let me out. Yes. Yes. Yes. So and I remember this like like like yesterday. So the straw with Ashanti was she had got into a car accident. Right. Down in Atlanta. And they were her pet her and her mom were calling the guys down in Atlanta about about, you know, trying to get her help or helping her out or whatever. Trying to get you know what I'm saying. So I guess they didn't nobody return the calls or, you know, talk to the mom or whatever. So they call I was out here. Now, like I had already like relocated out here. They called me and they were like, Terry, Ashanti's just got into an accident. She's crying. She's upset. You guys, you guys are not, you're not, you're not doing right by her. We want to get out of the contract. So talk to the guys. We had a meeting about it. Talk to the guys. We had a meeting and we was just like, yo, we just want to let her go. And we let her go and her picked her up. Victor, rest of history. Rest of history. Yeah. But we had her sign to 16. Absolute. Absolute. Jim Crow. Ashanti. Yeah. Sierra. Sierra. Hold on. No, he got he got another like he got another like hidden gym. I got that that that didn't turn out to be an artist. Who? Tell us about the groups you signed. Oh, they got they got a certain famous, super famous actor in it. Oh, so so the first group. So so the first group I signed, this is a crazy story, too. The first group I signed was this group called Quatro. Quatro, OK. Quatro, everybody out of DC. OK. Good group called Quatro. I didn't know anything about music. Thank I just know growing up, I love music. My grandmother used to play the records and I just listen to them. I just love R&B. So I just I always wanted to be. So, you know, doing the street shit I was doing, I was like, I want to be an entrepreneur. I don't want to be. I don't want to be. You can't do wrong for that. Yeah. It's not going to happen. So you know, you know, you have King Pendrine. No, I'm doing this to get to something I'm doing this to get to something. Because the old man told me one time I sat down with him. So do hustling. Do he was like, yo, bro, let me tell you something. You ever heard of law averages? I was like, what is that? He was like, law averages mean at some point at some time, something's going to catch up to you. Yeah, it's called a law average. Do some of the. You can't you can't you do something now. He's gonna catch it. He's gonna catch it. Yeah. And he said, you have to have a mentality. You have a hustler's mentality, but you gotta channel that in another way. So that's what I was doing. So that's how we started the music. And then you know, once the new music executive, the new drug dealer was the new music executive. Music executive became the new, that was the sexy. You were sexy if you had the music, you was doing music. So that's what I did. So I had this, I started, I was like, y'all want to do something, man. Let me put, so Shantae Page, I never knew, I didn't anything about studio, never been to a studio, never been anywhere. She's like, I got this group. She's like, Terry, she called me one day and was like, yo, you got all this money. What are you doing with it? And I was like, I don't know Shantae. She's like, why don't you help me manage this group? Why don't you pay for some of this stuff and help me manage this group? I was like, all right. So we go, I started managing the group with her, started buying records. So my first record, first time I ever went to a studio, ever, I go into the studio, Shantae, we go, I'm like, damn, this shit sexy. Like, this is a vibe right now. This is a hell of a vibe. Studio music. And we go get a beat from this producer, $250 for the beat. Guess who the producer was? Who? Checkit Thompson. Get the fuck out of here. He's nigga bought a Checkit Thompson beat. Checkit Thompson. For $250. No way. I swear to God, $250. So going back to what he says, one of the dudes in the group was Michael Ely. Get the fuck out of here. Am I lying? He's so good. Get the fuck out of here. Michael Ely, I'll show you the picture. Michael Ely, we need you on the front. Hold on. I don't know what you be saying. Can I show you the picture? He got the blue eye. He got the red and he got the kid. Who was that? Who was that in that picture? That was my first group. Nigga, that is crazy. That's crazy. That's crazy. So were you able to get them moving at all? No, nothing. We actually, actually condesorter. Condesorter. You know who we fucked with? What's the dude that used to manage Teddy Raleigh? Gene Griffey? Yes. Okay. We was going to sign him to Gene Griffey. With some backdoor deal. I don't even know. You know it's going to be at Chochon. I didn't have no clue what the contract looked like. It was going to be ugly. It was going to be ugly. You know what I'm saying? So Gene Griffey, because he lived in DC, actually lived up the street. No, he was actually messing with this chick that lived up the street, the neighborhood I grew up in. And I used to see this red, this Range Rover. And like in the name, I'm like, who is this thing? Who is this dude? And then Sean Tay told me, he's like, yeah, Gene, Gene Griffey, he's being back and forth in DC. So yeah, we were going to do a situation with him. He used to be messing with Cliff and Jerry and them out there. Yes. Absolutely. That was your first interdent music business? That was my first interdent music business. How old are you at this point? I was probably like, this was it, right? Probably like 23, 24? Yeah. 23, 24? So by this time, you're like, listen, the money's going somewhere. Yeah, it's going somewhere else. I can't, you know, because I've seen too many people locked up there. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like I had that wherewithal to know that I can't, you can't keep doing this because it's going to lead to something crazy. And how long are you in it before you guys leave to Atlanta? Like, you know what I mean? So you had already been trying to figure the music thing out. Yeah, I had a video store. I opened up a video store thing. You had a lunch fast? No, I didn't have a lunch. I had a video store, had a courier service, and then, you know, it was so crazy. I had a video store. I bought a video store. What do you mean video store? A video store. Like Blackbuster. The corner blockbuster. They had a corner block like this. T.R. Listen. T.R. On Ninth Street. Ninth Street. Ninth and uh, what's it? S? Ninth and S? Get the fuck out of here. Yo. T.R. You was getting money. Yeah, listen. So listen, let me tell you some crazy shit. So I had a video store. So they had a basement in the video store, right? I had never, I bought the store, never been down in the basement in the store. You never knew it had a basement? Never knew it had a basement. But Gasper was in the basement. Oh, X-rated videos. That's where they kept the X-rated. That's where the X-rated shit was down in the basement, and I didn't even know it. So one of the employees that was working there said, yo, do you know there's a downstairs? And do you know what's down there? And I'm like, nah, what is down there? She's like, that's where the X-rated videos are. But negative. That's where the but negative. That's where I'd have spent a lot of my time. Him down. Him down. Him down. Hey, hey, hey. I hate when I look back on myself, back in the video store times, and I stopped the. That's the key trying to sneak to the big door. No, I wasn't sneaking. I just had to get up to the nerve because I was like, there's too many people in here to see me walk into the black door. Because that door was always a different color. And niggas knew when you walked back there, what you was going to do. He was going to get that big nasty. And I said, man, fuck these people. I'm going to serve myself. So that you know what I'm saying? They had. It was crazy. I don't know. We're going to see the others. Hey, that video store down the street. Oh yeah. That's a nice one, man. So how long you had a video store? Probably like nine months. You just trying to figure it out. I'm just trying to figure it out. I'm trying to figure it out. I know, like I said, I know I can't keep doing this. I got to figure it out. Yeah. You know what I mean? How much money did you blow initially in the music business? Because people be thinking like, okay, I'm going to just take this money from over where I'm getting it from. From my income tax. And then I'm going to be cracking at music in a week. You know what? It was kind of like the money that we did was when we put the good. We put the good use because we bought a building. We had a building. But even before that, like the money spent on Quattro. Oh, yeah. Oh, that it was into it. Oh, okay. Um, it wasn't, it wasn't that, it wasn't that much. I don't want to spend a whole bunch of money like that or not. I was spending money on goofy shit, but not that. Right. And the beginning because I was just, I was like, okay, this is, this is cool. But you know, Niggas was flying to Vegas and doing all the goofy shit behind the cars and all that shit that we do. You gotta go to Vegas. You know what I mean? Yeah. Taking trips, brats. Yeah. You know what I mean? Not the other way. Don't you do it. Don't do it. Don't do it. Don't do it. We're all beautiful in guys eyes. We are. The Lord made somebody for somebody. Oh, yes, sir. Love him. Stop it. Stop. You stop. Cut it out. Oh, yeah. Yeah. No gloss. No filter. Just stories. Spoken without fear. Addiction is a disease and it should be looked upon as any other disease. How did you cope with a reckless father like me? Join me, Pooja Bhatt, as I sit down every week with directors, actors, musicians, technicians and beyond. You don't need to work with the biggest people and the biggest sound to have great music. I have gone through the Saab Siddhi Khachakar, reached the pinnacle, stung by the snake and I've fallen down again. Yeah. I am not writing actively anymore and when I see my old work it kind of saddens me. I'm only as good as the last shot that I gave. I'm gone but don't shut the theater. The show must go on. Listen to my weekly podcast, the Pooja Bhatt Show on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Come for the honesty. Stay for the fire. So let me ask you a question. The history is because first of all it's crazy. Yeah. I got another one though that nobody really knows about. Go. I signed her when she was 13. Tory Kelly. You signed her? Yes. I signed Tory Kelly. She was signed to my production company. What? Yes, 13. And what was going on? So I signed her to Gaffin. Huge deal. They gave, let me tell you that this time they gave us, you know back then people was getting 13, 14 points. I got a 28 point deal with Tory Kelly. Back then. Yeah. Because back then it was 13, 14 points and 28 points. 28 points, got a consultant deal out of it. And you know who, and you probably remember her. You know who signed her and was polyanthin. Yeah. Yeah. Polyanthin. Signed her was like Terry, this is, I've never heard. So is this before JoJo comes out? Or is this after? No. This is after. Right after. You've seen a success. Yes. Of what JoJo is. Yes. Cooking in R&B, doing her thing, young girl. I don't know what JoJo is. A minute. Because JoJo came out in like 2005, 2004? Yeah, something like that. Okay. Yeah, this, then it might have been. It might have been. It might have been. Yeah. Well, Tory was only 13. So y'all do, so you signed her, y'all do a major level deal the whole thing. Yes. I did it. They gave me, like I said, they gave me a consultant deal. They gave us 28 points. And back then, you know, like I said, 14 points. That's for the artist and the fucking production company. Everybody got chopped that up. Yeah. Everybody got to chop that up. So I got 28 points and Poly was like, Terry, we're going to put the money behind this, man. We love her. Guess what happened. You know what happens in the industry. Somebody new comes in. Oh, the new regime. Yeah. The new regime comes in. That's the worst thing that could happen. That's the worst thing that could happen. Yeah. The new regime. The turnover was a kill. The new regime comes in. It's a new coach. It's a new coach. The new regime comes in. Guess who the new regime is? Ron Fair. And he said, hey, guess what? I don't want, we'll drop her. Immediately. They dropped her. He dropped her. Ron Fair dropped her? Dropped her. Yeah, I don't, she seems in line. That lines up with him. Yeah. He dropped her. Big voice. Yeah. He dropped her. Wow. He dropped her. So I'm in a dilemma. Now, Ron Fair dropped her. Now I have the opportunity to go and get her another deal. Because you know how you only got a certain time. Right. To go get her another deal. So I'm searching to, I'm not even searching to get another deal. Actually, somebody called me from MTV and they wanted to do, this has been when MTV, when they were doing the backstories on artists and they, you know, they were doing these like reality things. They first started doing the, this kind of shows. They were like, yeah, we want to do, we want to do a, we want to do a story or a current story. We want to follow her and her family and her journey. And I'm like, yo, okay. Yeah. And we can get some traction. Yeah. So I said, all right. So I called the mom and dad. And by this time, Tori was, she was 15 going on 16. And by this time I called her mom and I said, Hey, I got these people from MTV. They want to fly out and talk to you guys. They want to do a show. They want to do a show on Tori called the Tori Diaries or something. Something. It was really dope. Right. And she, they flew out. They met the parents. And then after that, I was like, okay, what are we doing? Like, are we going to do this? So the mom said to me, she was like, Terry, we have a dilemma. I'm like, what's the problem? She's like, Tori wants to, Tori wants to do American Idol. She'll be 16. She can go on there now. I'm like, what? I'm like, no, no, no, no. Can't, I can't. And then I called my attorney and I'm like, yo, he was like, you, she signed to you. You know, you have the opportunity to go get her another deal. So I contemplated, contemplated, man. And her mom, you know, she was crying one day on the phone and she was just like, we don't know what to do. She really wants to be on American Idol. And they gave me the story like, you know, she's been, ever since she's been an artist, we've been giving her, we've been telling her what to do. Now that she's 16, she wants to do something that she wants to do. You know what I mean? And I remember this like it was yesterday, man. I was, I was in DC and she had, she had, she had went to Idol, but once you go past a certain thing, that's when they started. Yeah, they, yeah, they were, yeah. So she was, I guess she had got past a certain thing and the mom called me and was like, this is the last day that we can move forward being under your contract. And I'm driving in DC. I'm down on, down in Chinatown. And I'm driving and I'm like, damn man. I'm like, man, this girl is fucking amazing. Like she's incredible. Like you can't let her go. I was like, I contemplated, contemplated. And I, I drove and I said, I saw a FedEx. I pulled over. I told the mom to fax me the papers to the FedEx and I signed a release at the FedEx DC. Wow. And later on I was like, you know what? It'll come back somehow. You know what I mean? This is something she, she want to follow her dreams. She want to be on American Idol. And I told her, I was like, yeah, like, yeah, who wins? I had known that the people that went, I don't really like, really, really like a lot of them don't really do anything. There's only a couple of them that really, really, really made me. Really take it there. Yeah, really take it there. So you sure you want her to be on Idol? Well, this is, you know, this is something she wants to do. So that was it. And I let her out. And that was it. People don't know how many of those, how many of those situations that we all come around or come across where we have to make human decisions. Yeah. Yeah. Of an artist is in front of you or assigned to you or whatever this case may be when you're doing business. And there's another opportunity for them. Right. That you don't want to stand in front of. Right. Yeah. That you want to give them that opportunity. Right. Because there are a lot of people in this business that would have said, oh, you signed me. I don't care. Yeah. I don't care what level. And I was at that point, but you know, I don't like the function like that. Yeah. Like I don't like the function like that. Because I know it's going to come back to me. Absolutely. And it has. And it has, you know what I mean? And like we had Latoya. Like, and this was around the same time Latoya was taken off. You know what I mean? We got Latoya. And I remember this too. When we signed Latoya, we made our album out here. I don't even know. You remember Molly? Of course I remember Molly out there in the valley. Yes. Yes. Yes. You don't remember Molly. I can't think of the name of that street. Molly had a studio to hunger. That was off the top. That's my studio, man. Yeah. Yeah. My studio, man. Absolutely. So Molly was this little white girl. She had a studio. Fire studio. Fire studio. Upstairs. Yeah. Compound studio. So that's what we recorded Latoya's album. We recorded it there. We did Torn. We did it there. We did Torn. And we did it there and got Toya Delac Capital. So you guys had did Torn before you ever did the deal? Yes. Okay. Yeah, we did Torn. Walk out the deal, walk out with Torn. Yeah, we walked out. Okay. So with the Torn, we was like, listen, you got to be so far from the dusty child thing. Like you, your shit got to be, you got to be doing some ghetto shit. Like your shit got to be straight ghetto, like damn their rap beats. So it won't be no confusion. You ain't trying to do this. You ain't trying to do that. This is what you're going to do. Yeah. And that's what we did. We like that's a sample of that Torn. You know what I mean? So we made sure we did so R&B, so R&B, so there won't be no confusion. And came out first week. She had the number one selling, she was number one, number one. It's the number one selling when she sold 300,000 records. Yeah. Her first week. Wow. Her first week. Worked. 300,000. No, and that's the thing though, because people had, they had written her off. Yeah, they had written her off. Right. We talked about that. Completely written her off. Completely written her off. But that's why we were like, you got to be anti whatever they were. You got to be totally different. Totally different. Totally different. That's the only way you're going to win because you're going to have so much hate on you. If you come out trying to be. And the comparison. The comparison. That's the conversation versus how good her music is. Yeah, exactly. So we made it, we made it. We just anti, anti Destiny's Child. It worked. And it worked. And it worked. Now, I'll tell you another story. So I had Toya. I had Tori. This is all around the same time. Singers. So, you know, I got another one. So I'm sitting up in Capital's office. Steve O. Steve O. Proudhon was the A&R. And you know how in the offices back then, people would send in CDs. And he had a box of CDs in his office. Right. You can't get to everything. You can't get to everything. Box of CDs and shit everywhere. So I'm looking in the box one day. And I'm looking. I was like, wait, fuck it. Bro, it's gorgeous. I'm like, who? If she can sing. I said, wow. So I put the thing in. And the songs were horrendous. Terrible songs, terrible songs. And then one last song. She did a cover. Many rippleton cover. And I was like, oh, this bro can sing, sing. Right. Leona Lewis. No way. I swear to God. I swear to God, Tane. No lie. So Leona Lewis. So I look on the CD. I look on the call to do it on the back. I was like, hey, bro, like is she signing you? Like he was like, nah, man. She was like, you know, her dad comes over here. They come over here. They just trying to, they trying to figure it out. And I'm just helping them out. She's not signing me. She's not signing anyone. I said, well, okay. I want to, I want to bring her over here. Right. So this dude says, okay, let me tell her dad, her and her dad. And I was like, all right. I'm waiting. I'm two days went by. I'm like, let's do that. So I called him. I was like, he was like, hey, bro, I was just about to call you. Man, talk to her dad and her and they've heard about noon time and they all the stuff that you, all the success that you guys had. She's, she wants to, she wants to listen. She wants to have a conversation. So I said, okay. So I get her and her dad on the phone and I hear her sing on the phone. I was like, yo, you need to come. I need to bring you over here immediately. Bring over here. Me set up in the, what's the studio that used to be on Sunset by Cross from the Mad Chinese Theatre and all of that. It was a studio over there. Somebody had a studio over there. Me and B Cox, I brought B Cox, I grew B Cox out here and we started working on our, working on our project. Did about four or five songs. And then she goes back to, no, first let me go back. So when she's here, while she's here, I take her to Poly Anthony. Do Jaha. Now Jaha had a deal over, he was a A&R at Geth, uh, Geth. He was an A&R at Geth. He's the one who signed Tori. He signed Tori and I brought him Leona and he was like, yo, I want to sign her too. Let's take her to Poly. So I take Leona up to Poly. She sings for her and incredible voice. And Poly was just like, I don't think she's, she, after the meeting, she was like, Terry, I like her, but I don't think she's a star. I want to concentrate on Tori. Right. She was like, let's just, let's just do Tori. So I don't even think it was about her, like, not really liking her, but I think she didn't want to have two girls, two singing girls, like the, even though Tori was 13 and Leona was probably about 18 or 19. So she probably didn't want to have two girls like that. So Leona went back over to Europe and Toya was taking off. Right. Now I told, I had a year to get Leona a deal, 12 months. I had a year to get her. That was your holding period. That was my holding period in her contract. She had a year. So she goes back over to London. Probably like a month or two goes by. I start getting the phone calls from the dad, like, hey man, what are we doing? Like, are we going to, are we going to, are you guys going to give us a deal? I was like, well dude, it's only been two months. Like I got 10 more months. Like, so this is Toya, Toya's taking off. Like a record of eight already came out. So we do, Toya does this show. She gets a book for this show over in Europe called the Mobos. You heard of that? It's like, it's a war show. It's like a war show. It's like our soul train. Yeah, it's like a B.A.T. Like B.A.T. is it? Yeah, yeah. Okay. So we get booked over there. So I'm called to dad. I'm like, yo man, I'm like, we on our way over there. I want to sit down with you guys and figure this out. I want to bring Leon on the back. Let's do this. So he was like, okay, yeah. He was like, that's exciting. I was like, I wanted to invite you guys to the Mobos, right? I get over there. I go meet with the dad. We sit down. We talk. He's like, Leon is excited about going. She wants to go. She's going to go pick out an outfit, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Next day comes. They don't show up. I'm like, what the fuck is going on? So come to find out she was doing X factor over there. The other American. The other American. Crazy shit. She's doing X factor, right? So I get back and I hit the dad. I'm like, yo, man, what was that shit about? Like, what's going on? He was like, oh man, you know, you guys are taking too long. I said, well, listen, man, you got another seven months, six months on your contract. I want to bring her back over there, back over here and finish her project. I want to get her a deal. I know I can get her a deal. And he was like, all right. So I started getting these frantic phone calls like, yo, hey, what are we doing? We got to get out of this contract. I'm like, I'm like, no, I said, listen, what I will do is whatever she does over there until it comes back to America, then I'll have the rights for that when it comes back over to America. And he was like, okay, okay, let's, let's figure that out. Let's work that out. So make a long story short. She was winning on X factor. So the reason why she didn't go to the award show is because people would start recognizing. They would recognize her. But you had no idea. I didn't know she was on X factor. Right? So they would recognize her. So then I get this call late at night one day. They was like, yo, my man called me and was like, my man, Damon, you know, Damon, my guy. Oh, yeah. He calls me and was like, yo, read this article. And it was like, Clive Davis signs the first X factor artist to the USA. I was like, huh? I was like, what? I'm like, no fucking way. I was like, dog, she's still in our contract. He was like, I know he's like, what, what the fuck is going on? And I said, man, listen, bro, this is some shit. So guess what? This is so crazy. Now, Jaha is working for Sony. He's working for Clive and Larry. Okay. Right? He went from Gaffin to Sony. So I immediately called Jaha, like Jaha. Yo, I said, dog, y'all got this girl over there. Um, he was like, who? I was like, you remember the girl I bought? She was like, who are you talking about? I was like, Leona Lewis. He said, we just had a company meeting and she is fucking priority over here. I said, I said, Jaha, I said, you know, she's still signed to me. She was like, oh shit, that's right. She is. I said, Jaha, I'm about to send you this contract and I need you to go tell the people at Sony that this girl is in a production situation and that this is a problem. This is a fucking huge problem. Right? So he was like, he goes back to the company and then Sony was like, we ain't got nothing to do with that. That's X factor. You guys need to talk to the people that X factor or what Simon Cowell, whoever the fucking was, that's the furnishing company that has done. Yes. So you need to talk to them. So I'm like, all right. So I go to my attorney and I'm like, yo, um, you know who it is. He used to be Barry's attorney. What's his name? Man, what's his fucking name? Uh, no, not job. He worked for job. Uh, okay. I can't. He worked for job. Okay. I can't work for him. Big attorney. Big, huge attorney. Black attorney. Okay. Um, way anyway. So I go to him and he's like, bro, we got us. We got to sue him. So you're going to have to sue him. You have to threaten to sue him. So we sued him and settled. We settled, but yeah, she was, she, she, she, she was signed to me and she was, she won the X factor over there and then Tory went to, uh, American, American Idol over here. So did you ever catch the fade with Simon Cowell or not? Did y'all fight? No, we didn't fight. We just, we just, we settled out. We, we, we got it. We got it straight. We got it straight. We worked it out. I'll tell you this. You can know how to pick them. That's one thing I do not. Female artists, you know how to pick them. Um, um, um, you're, you're, you aren't, you're eight for eight. I'm good at that. I'm good at, we, that's one thing I know. I know female artists very well. And we even had what you come sign us, man. Uh, uh, Nivia. Nivia was on no time. Yeah, I didn't know that. I didn't know that. Actually, I knew that. We had Nivia. We had Nivia. Nivia is super cool. Yeah, I love Nivia. I used to be on the road with Nivia. He's always doing a bunch of dates and shit together down south. So Nivia, we had Nivia too. Yeah. As you were getting, as you, as you guys were separating from the noontime thing, your mentality was, I got to keep the ball rolling. I got to keep the ball rolling. Because everybody didn't stay in music. No. Everybody started going, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Noice fashion. Yeah. Yeah. Ryan was doing Ryan Kenny. Mm-hmm. With Kenny. With Burns. Yeah. Chris went, actually Chris went to Dap Jam. He was over there with LA. Mm-hmm. Um, and then. And then Nooni and. Then Nooni was still. They had show now. Yeah, they had show now. They were still working, working show now. Um, and then I just, I just came on here and started, started managing, you know, Jason. Yeah. The, the, the guru of mixing. How does that happen? Because at one point. That happened because. Y'all were. The same. Y'all were partners. Yes. But, but Jason used to be the, used to work at DreamWorks. He was an A&R. Not, I know this. Right. So. So that's how we got close. Exactly. That's how, that's how all of us got close. Well. That's how. We was already. Yes. We was already cool. Yes. But then that's how I got close with Jason. Yes. Because of the DreamWorks. Yes. Because of DreamWorks. Yeah. Because of the DreamWorks. So that's how me and him met. And the crazy thing about that is when I first came out here, I didn't even know what mixing was. Like he was like, we were like, we had a record and he was like, bro, we got to go mix this record. And I'm like, mix, what the fuck is that? He was like, that's where they separate all the sounds. And I was like, okay. And that was the first time I even knew what mixing was. And he, he was, he was a producer actually. Jason was a producer. He's produced. Beckett, Beckett. DreamWorks. Yes. Jason was producing. Jason didn't really know song structure though. Yes, he did. He did. He did not. He knew a lot about, a lot about that. He taught me about, I didn't know about. I taught him some shit. Okay. Well, you taught him some, you might have taught him some shit, but he, yes. Okay. Okay. Because he definitely wasn't no mix engineer. No. At that time. No. Not even close. Not even close. No. He wasn't. Nope. In what? Initially. Well, okay. So maybe I have it wrong because Adagio was your group. It was my group. And he took to Jason and he facilitated the deal at DreamWorks. He facilitated the deal. I always thought y'all were partners. So him and Gerald Busby hit, that's like his god. That's his godfather. Yes, his godfather. Yeah. Right. So that's how that, that all played out. The DreamWorks portion of it. And you ended up getting a consultancy. Yes. At DreamWorks. Yes. At DreamWorks. Okay. So now you guys start working together. Yes. Making this project. And then one day Jason went off to, he was doing marketing for some marketing company. And then I get a call one day and he's like, yo, I'm over here at Larabee and I'm mixing now. I'm like mixing. What the fuck are you talking about? Yeah. He was like, yo, I'm over here. I'm a runner. He's a runner in the beginning. Yeah. He was a, he was an assistant. Like he was full. He was a run. No, he wasn't even assisted. He was a runner first. Yes. You know how niggas go get your phone. Yes. Yeah. And then he became an assistant for Dave Pensado. Yeah. He became an assistant for Dave Pensado. And he called me and was like, bro, I'm a need you. I'm a need you. I was like, what? He was like, I'm, I'm, I'm mixing now. And me and Dave. So I started managing me and Damon started managing Dave and Jason. So they used to do. I managed Pensado. Yeah. I don't know that. I managed Dave and Jason. Got you. Okay. And they had, they were, that's where the Pensado group came from. That's, that was Jason and Dave's mixing entity. So Jason, and I remember this crazy to how Jason really, how he got his first record that he mixed on his own. And I got a call from, this was when he was working real happy with tricky and dream and all of them. And they called and they was like, hmm, we want this record to be mixed, but we want Jason to mix it. We was like, what record is that? They was like, hmm, it's record called single ladies. So, so, So we get, we get a call and he's in a dilemma like, Hey, what am I going to do? They made me to mix this without Dave. How am I going to, you know what I mean? So that was the first record he mixed on his own was single ladies. Get the fuck out of here. Single ladies. That's the way to kick it off. That's the way to kick it off. Get the fuck off. Yeah. Thanks to tricky. You know what I mean? Tricky and dream, you know what I mean? Tricky and dream, bought him that record. They wanted him to do it on his own and that was, and they gave him a chance. He did it and killed it. Yeah. And the rest is history. Oh my God. And this had been the first time you had ever managed a mixer. Yeah. This is the first time I've ever managed a mixer. Before him and Dave, like at that point you were purely artists, producers, writers. Yeah. Because what's the, what's the difference in managing? I know the difference between managing an artist and managing an even producer or, you know, someone on the, from the behind the scenes, but there has to be differences in managing a producer writer than managing a mixer. Yeah. It's a big difference. So here's the thing. Can you kind of give us some insight on how you sell that? Is it traditional selling? Like, you know what I'm saying? Like you go into the office and like, oh, you want a mix? Oh, no, I got the mix for you. You got listen to this. Like, no, that was, that was sell itself. Yes. It was organic. Like, you know what I mean? Like it was an organic type of situation that manifested with that. Like that's something. I mean, you can go do that and say, hey, I managed this mixing energy. Here's what he's done. But a lot of that was just, it's for producers. You kind of walked, well, you kind of walked into something that had some legs to it. Yeah. Look, it's Dave was already. Dave was already. Dave was already. Dave was popping. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Dave was already, he was already, you know, people went to him, you know, they loved his vocals. They loved how he made their vocals sound. And that's what made Jason so dope is because he's knew how to make your beats that keep knocking, but to vocal sound. Vocal sound, good. Keep them stand out. And a lot of mix engines don't know how to do both. And, and now you have the new kid who's, who's first sold out. Who's first solo mix is this big fucking. This big fucking. So it's like the calling card is. Yes. You don't, yeah. There's nothing else to sell. Yeah. There's nothing else to sell. So he pretty much, you know, he's, that's like pretty much like self-contained. Like, you know what I mean? And you guys have been working together how many years now? When was that? When we, cause that's when I first met him. When you, what was that? That was 2000. 1990. 1990. I was like, cash money. Yeah. In 1999, 2000. In 1999, 2000. In 1999, 2000. Yes. Wow. That's when I first met Jason. I mean, I had known him probably for like a year when he came around. Yeah. Let's talk about when he came around. Sure. Let's talk about when he came around, man. You know, how you say this nigga life, man? I did. I did. I did. I did. I did. I did. I did. I'll just say, I'll just say, I'll just say, I'll just say I believed. Yeah. This thing. I believed. I heard a few things and I was like, this kid is nice. There's a difference. He's nice. There's a difference between believing and putting your money up. Yes. It is. There is a great difference. I think they have seen a nigga and be like, you tell them. What are you going to do? You going to help me with my talent? Shit. Keep back to me. No, no, this nigga was like this. No, nigga. Come to the studio. I need songs. Yeah. Man, I have my equipment on deck. Yeah. Nigga. Yeah. Nigga, way before a computer, nigga. He did. You came in with your keyboard. My PC keyboard and now that's work. Yes, he did. And I wrote the song. Yes, he did. He did. He did. Everything. He had all the first position. He had all, everything. He had everything. Yo, nigga, he came to the studio with his keyboard and his PC. He was like, nigga, I'm going to create a song. I'm ready to work. Right. And so, came in there, laid it down, gave them niggas their parts, sing this shit, nigga. Let's go. Sure did. And then nigga was like, nigga, because how old are you at this point, like 21, 22, 22 or 23. Wow. Yeah. This nigga is like, nigga, nigga, non-nigga. Yeah. You got it. We're going to do it. He said, I got to introduce you to Gerald. Yeah. And then Jason got to introduce you to Gerald. Yeah. And I went and said, and Drano has my background singers. Yes. Who I'm working on their shit too at the same time, I'm working on his. Because you have a record deal with this. I have a record deal. Your record deal. That's why I'm out there in LA. It's quiet. It's quiet. It's quiet. It's quiet. FL is about to run out. Lama intros. Are you going to run away? One of the others. One of the others. One of the others. And my hotel was getting ready to run the fuck out. Yes. I've always been always telling me that. I'd say, I'm not to not have nowhere to stay. He told me that. He told me that. No, he was. Because you know, niggas be lying. No. Cool. No. I'd say, nigga, this shit is almost over. Nigga was hanging. And nigga, Gerald Buzz, we said, I like your tunes. Yeah. I like your tunes. These are these are these are good good tunes good records man. I'm I like I like I like what you're doing and I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna give you 17 five You know, I was like this about to get 17,500 I was like, I was like, okay. I say I said, thank you so much. You know I'm saying like you grabbing, you know 17 five, okay. He's okay. So that's the total he's like this. He said no This is 17 five for two. That's it for you want two records for 17 five No, I want two records And one is for your group Diageo. Yes. Yes That was the first one. That was the first I was the one who I Should admit don't get that twisted J. I was the one who I should admit second one as a producer second one was going to Moe Yes After yeah, the dodgy Just you were first brother. Okay. I was one everybody know that I don't want niggas to be getting confused I don't know somebody else say that they was the first one to give you no do some I heard that somebody said that Ryan Alexander was the first one to believe I Have to give him that but not but not Alexander was the first one to believe I have to give him that right because he heard Maybe I deserve before anybody and he was sending me when he kept he was sending it He was the check was a day. Oh, it was oh, okay, and Barry Hengerson called and said you sell that song. I'm gonna kill you I said, but you told me to sell it And now everybody wants it now now why we can't let that go they didn't want me No, I'm hot Yeah CK he was deep it was about see that's that one. That's that I'm about to do you got you got no He ran up against a monster No, but if you would have paid for it if you to pay for it on time Yeah, if you know, no, it was a day late. Okay. It was a day late and a dollar short and Barry Hanks And what no you want nobody to play with that take sweating? Yeah, you don't really play with him at that time Not a first nigga Listen the motros always sent you away with a chocolate chip cookie sure did and a strawberry They'd already given you Sir you got your bill is for what's to get out of here you gotta get the fuck out of here I had nowhere to stay. It's alright. And listen tank. I believe when y'all I knew you was gonna be big, you know what happened. What I went and bought some rims Understood You know, I also had a video story Here's what's so crazy about you having a video store. I used to go get so many videos from the video store The niggas will borrow videos from me He might still have some videos that Didn't even know You might have them joints killing them then they started doing see a DVD I have insurance on those do like cuz niggas used to just keep the videos man. Like how did y'all know? Niggas just have to call and harass the video Yo, when are you bringing the video back like dude? I just want to hear your voice and kind and rewind please Hey, my nigga my nigga I'm gonna need that video bro. You got Sally goes black five days late nigga You got Sally goes black. You got Debbie does Dallas you had them for two months now. What are we doing? Come on my nigga? Oh You gotta be done with though You had to call let me blockbuster used to call you what blockbuster would be on an a maybe you're calling you like a motherfucker man But think about that though like I have to be a real honor system for you to just bring something back Cuz you wanted something. Yeah, but yeah, but think about it right now. Oh, no No, sir. Good luck. Good luck with that country. Good luck with that with your videos. Thank you. Fuck you on your video Come get me How does all this lead So you then becoming a board member and being on the board of Carnegie Hall Yes, yeah, that's a plate. How does that happen bro? So Jay that kind of came about because My whole life I value relationships like that to me is more important than anything. We've never not been friends You know, I don't have I can't I can't even I don't know I don't have any enemies Yeah, I don't know anybody that you would mention my name and niggas be like that niggas fuck nigga Yeah, I don't fuck with him like every is every I'm just cool because I know how valuable valuable relationships Yeah, that's the most important more than money to me man. Cuz you can get money and lose money I've had money lost money, but this kind of relationships are the ones that you know, keep you going Yeah, so I just develop a lot of relationships. So one day I'm doing I'm in the political shit this girl calls me and like yo, you know all of these celebrities You know these people Biden is trying to you know, figure out what he's wanted to do for his first hundred days in office And we need you to you know get these celebrities and get these influences to come on board For for this and I'm like sure I'm like, you know, I mean, so we used to do these zoom calls And it was be all these political people There's be like 60 people on these calls and this is a girl from DC her name is Lillania her mom is was the widow of Maron Barry, okay, okay, so there she's collect connected heavily in the in the political game. Yeah, so We used to do these zoom calls and I used to be on there and We would have Calls about all of this stuff and then I would always speak up and be like listen Y'all keep going off to all of these celebrities these older celebrities You trying to get these kids you got to get somebody that they can relate to like they're not gonna relate to these old people These older these older athletes or these older Entertainers so let's focus on getting like some of this somebody who's in a political space That's young that they're gonna listen to because they're not gonna listen to these other people so The dude one of the dudes that was on the call called me offline one day and was like, hey man He was like, bro, like you be on these calls and I lucked away you handle yourself And you know a lot of people what do you think about Carnegie Hall? And I was like Honey, oh, yeah, that's the fucking like that's the crim-doll a Krimmer Venues like he was like, yeah, you know Robert Smith is the chairman of the board and they really want to Bring culture over to Carnegie and I'm like, I'm like yeah, I'm in He was like, all right, I'm gonna I really fuck with you. I rock with you I think you think you would be perfect for this. I was like, okay Let me let me what do I need to do? He's like, okay I want to introduce you to the people at Carnegie meet me up in New York I'm have you go meet the people at Carnegie. So I went, you know, it's a county y'all They don't do the business we do especially not the music. Yes, right? Um, everything is chopped in like when they say they gonna do stop is gets done there like they booked stuff Three they booked like three and four years out. Right. That's not shit. We used to yeah, so I'm coming in so um So I went up there and I met with them and they were like, yo, we want to bring you on I was like, okay And then I'm in the hallway, right of Carnegie and there's there's these pictures old pictures of People in the old shows like black and white picture. I'm looking at the pictures tank I'm like, I said, God damn everybody's dressed up like We don't get dressed up. No. Yeah. Yeah, like people don't go to concerts. They don't get dressed up no more So I said, yo, I Told my man, I was like man, listen, we do anything over here, bro It has to be black tie and it has to be an orchestra company the artist Like that's what we got to do. I said, I want to make this where it's Totally an experience this ain't going like going to the barclays or going to Apollo No, you got to get dressed up and if you can't get dressed up this ain't the just a good venue Do you think the venue for you? Yeah, maybe you go to another one another con go see this artist in another another venue Night. I ain't having no hoodies and none of that shit. So the people at Carnegie was like, okay, listen, let's let's let's rock out and let's do it so It's a funny story so crazy. So we're in a studio Jason's mixing the record of D nice He's making it mixing the D nice record. Mm-hmm. So I'm in the studio. I keep looking at D nice. I'm like Is that when he had the D nice and neo record? No, it was a It was a record that they it was a older record that came back and redid okay, okay Um, and I'm looking at him and jahaz and you know, jahaz and D nice were they were rocking together I'm looking at the nice and I'm like I kept thinking this in my fucking head and so I said D nice. I went over to my say yo What do you think about Connie y'all was you want to perform in Carnegie hall? He looked at me. He said what he was like nigga. That's on my bucket list. I Said really I Said all right. I said what do you think if I could make it happen like yeah, if I could make it happen He was like I'm like man, let me let me figure it out So I sent the people I said listen, we should do club quarantine at Carnegie hall and they were like Who is D nice? I was like So of course they went and googled him. I said he was he was he was a guy doing COVID You know, he had everybody from from Obama to Oprah to Biden to everybody on this fucking live On his live. Yeah playing music doing COVID because nobody couldn't go out. Yeah, and I said he went from 10,000 followers to 3 million Followers, right? Yeah, you know what I mean? And they were like, oh, this would might be this might be nice. Well, let's do it So I hit jaha back and I told him said tell D nice. I got we we can do this show at Carnegie He was like No way. I was like, yeah, so we did the show the first show we ever did was club quarantine at Carnegie Hall Um When I tell you man people dress up it was Tank I know it's beautiful. Thank man. I'm looking at I'm looking at people walking in with gals and niggas with tuxedos on Yeah, I'm like look at our feet. Let's look This is Carnegie Hall. Yeah, so I said So the show was on and you know people was up and the rafters niggas was singing and dancing because you know D nice play all the dope music. He had Queen Latifah come out. He had slick Rick come out he had all these people come out performing and Everybody's dressed up and having a good time. So there's the guy over there who? Is the chairman of Carnegie who runs Carnegie? He was like he we were in the booth together, you know, they got them little booths. He looked at me He was like Terry. He was like I've been over here for 20 years man, and I've never seen a whole rockin Let's never felt like this. This energy is crazy And I said I was like, thank you and he was like and I was like even better I said look around and we started looking around in the in the audience, right? I said 99% of the people who are in here now have never been to fucking Carnegie Hall And I said we did this I said we did this and I've changed the culture at Carnegie Hall completely changed the culture at Carnegie Hall like now Before I used to stay stuck so they started to pivot for me because you know, we don't fuck like we don't function like that So I might call and say I need the book a show for a fucking may of this year Terry You know, we can't do that shows already booked so they'll start to go find dates and stuff and find people who ain't you know what I mean? Yeah, you know I'm saying so So then you know that so it's just it was just it's just a wonderful Experience man and the people that I have lined up coming over there is just is insane like Justin Timberlake us sure I mean these people that are off. I've already talked to them. They love they want to be Big band at Carnegie Hall Okay, big band and orchestra at Carnegie Hall done Frank Sinatra What's the other album Marvin Gaye's big band album I want to grab pieces big band pieces Go crazy. That's correct. That's that's that's amazing That's amazing with my tux on what you're sure and a shirt and you can take it off. Whatever. Nope You want to know you want to conduct the orchestra to nope. Okay. You want to sing? Okay? All right, and we're on Michael Buffer announced We can have that we have that His brother what do you do to UFC? We get the buff I need it. So Jay is We confirming this absolutely I need on on any if he confirms we confirm I Need Gloucester or Tim Carmen on piano like I need things To do it Feels like it can happen. You know, I loved I love in wine the summertime It's the best time I feel like we can do it this summer we get a summertime Can you find me a summer date? Let me let me find let me let me let me find out right now R&B money constituents We will be at Carnegie Hall Suited and booted. Yeah Tux then buck. Oh man this summer Doing the standards doing the standards big voice big band Curated one sound one side. Let me ask you a question curated by ten. Let me ask you a question. Yes Will this be your first time performing at Carnegie Hall? Absolutely. Yeah, damn So I'm gonna I'm another I'm another first pause yes Yep, yep, damn come on man. Keep come on. Make you collect the baby. I gotta keep collecting You know, come on man, you know, I'm saying summertime summertime When I leave here, I'm gonna call and see if we got any days in the summertime perfect We're gonna make it happen. I can't wait for the show. It's going to happen. Yeah, that's going to happen. Yeah Date and take is putting it out there that he wants to some date. Okay. He wants the time he wants it Tell me a date We can get the cook it I'm talking chart charts. I need to start looking for the big charts I'm in I'm talking in here nigga. That's what you're gonna do. You know, you go Three year old string. Oh Shit the upright. Yeah. Oh I want to say another story that That a lot of people don't know too. I used to manage them thug and got him his deal and In the scope deal. Yeah Yeah, I Yeah, Rob the bank to you I came through with that one. Yeah, no mask on From Toya, you know him and Toya. Yeah, so I got I got him his deal at any school Through Jaha again. Wow And then that ended up going to for real at first, right? That's in the whole It was it was um, I'll tell that story um Slim called me one night late night like yo, but you know and At in a scope or get over Jimmy always puts a producer. Yeah with the artist. Of course So slim calls me and was like man. Yo G And they want to put me in with they want to Pharrell to do my whole album. Mm-hmm I'm like what I'm like. I don't like slim. I'm like yo I said Man, that's gritty sound you got is like that's a real like real thing Thing nobody's fucking heard that nobody's doing that I said I'm ass and say, you know you for real is incredible. I'm like, I know for a friend and he's forever Like he's on fire. Mm-hmm. That's when he for hours on fire I said but his sound is a little too clean for you I said what we should do is get two or three songs for the for the females I can have for real do the songs for the for the bras You keep that same old tipping on foe foes and cuz nobody was like man Man, I've been listening to these songs for all these years. I was like slim when I first heard it It was something different New to you. It's new to us. Nooders everybody else gonna feel the same way. I felt like let's keep that same energy And then you didn't you did it's a separation for yes, then you do the Pharrell drinks He was like man They want me to do this I was like that's like man. I love Pharrell Real is incredible, but that sound your sound is your sound and you nobody's doing that right now You know, I mean that's coming straight out of Texas. Nobody's doing that nobody on the east is hearing that And he they he went, you know and did the thing with Pharrell and it worked out for him because Eventually and he just really got all of his shit back. He got all that money. Yeah, I did that deal Yeah, the deal didn't pan out the way and pan out the way but he got all his ownership Yeah, he got all the and really his independence. Yeah, he got his independence what she had and I begged him I begged like like and I heard him and the reason why I heard him cuz toy with toy you brought him up to me And she you know, they was going out or whatever She was like, you never heard of something. I was like, no, I never heard of them No, I never heard of them. So one day we was in the studio and I was sleep You know how you be half asleep in the studio, but you can still hear the music and I'm in there. I'm late I'm sleep and then he was rapping on one of these songs. He's I was like Fuck is that I said I said toya. That's him. She was like, yeah, that's slim. I was like, oh that nigga's incredible I said, bro, you don't want to deal. He was like, nah, gee, I don't want no deal man. I'm staying independent I don't want no deal. I was like, this is way before independent was even the thing. Yeah. Yeah And I was like he understood it. I'm absolutely and I was like he was like nah, I don't want no deal So one day he called me he was like Gee, I'm ready. He's like go get my deal. I said, alright I'm right over to job run over to Gaffin got him his deal big deal For him in his boss hog because he had a crew called boss hogs. Yeah got him in this deal deal deal a crew his crew a deal Sure did that's great. I did not know that. Yeah You get a shit. I've been doing you know, I listen. You know how you should manage Dave Hollister to With with Bernard. Yeah. Well, but not he was signed to them. He was managed. Yeah, I managed him. Gotcha. Yeah, that's how That's how I got to Did the album with Jason. Yeah, okay. Those are dangerous times. Yeah Yeah, I used to man. It's the man's Dave Hollister mixed up in They promise in his first video actually I was in this first video to his first one. Yeah, I Was like so who the who's what's going? He was signed to he was signed to Eric's labor. Listen, I mean you do you Get around the block you're your your your relationships Like speak to who you are. Yeah, the fact the fact that you've been able to Get so much done You know what I mean speaks to how the people in those positions view you right, you know I'm saying they know they know you're worth Worth the investment exact worth the time worth the opportunity And that that continues to ring Still what you start doing music in 97 96 90 96 97 Yeah, one more fucking time. Yeah, I think you've all did the freak Nick. I mean, I don't know if you got Yeah, listen, you know, I've I watched it. I haven't seen it. Yeah For bro. Yeah, I watch it. I didn't even know you did it You do so many things Nick documentary absolutely not And it's all you know, it's not you caught me and tell me that you're doing shit I mean it makes sense for you to do the documentary if that's the shit Listen, it went full circle. Yeah, I went to Atlanta for freak Nick and my first film was a freak Nick documentary Right, so it was I gotta watch it Now I gotta watch and that's what I was gonna say. I feel like When I when I look at you know your career and how long I've known you I feel like you've just mastered the art of the pivot You've always figured out The next move for yourself, you don't get too caught up in because that's the other thing in this business It's like and we talk about this. It's the nigga who got this. He's been trying to sell the same song Yeah for ten years. Yeah, and that and that In that connects to everybody in this business. Mm-hmm. Maybe it's not the actual song But yes, whatever you're doing song and trying to do the same song and dance that at some point It's like yo, maybe you should try something different. Maybe maybe your talents fit Somewhere else. Yeah And you know what I mean? And I and I think you know watching your career is even for me It's definitely been an inspiration for me appreciate it. I'm seeing someone like yourself and being like, you know And and obviously understanding what you come from understanding what I come from he comes from yeah like Saying you know because we were all supposed to be something Whatever people thought that was yeah, but we've all evolved into other you have to be a thing You know, I mean nobody ever thought that we would be sitting here behind them a fucking microphone Never thought yeah, I'm saying like we do this shit all the time. Yeah studio. We'll sit at the table fucking Jason Jost, but fuck dog bit me But you know, but y'all but but what I say about all of us is we know how to pivot Well, you know what's crazy too is that is that We weren't necessarily taught the pivot. No, no not at all right because because we come from a time where You do a thing and that's the thing you do And you you you do it until you can't do it no more you can't do it no more We've been we've been blessed to see opportunities outside Of our main thing right and understand how it could benefit You understand everybody benefit everything and everybody that were like, you know what that could add to Or that could be dope if and we don't come from that Which is crazy because like when if you were to get a branding deal back in the 90s or early 2000s or like that was just like What oh you got a what how'd you get like seeing Tyree's model? Right was like How do you do that? Yeah, all right. Yeah, I remember talking to Tyree's when he was First got his vj job. Yeah, nigga. Wait, you're doing what what are you doing? Yeah, like nobody was thinking I'm gonna introduce the dis and then I'm gonna talk to you So I'm like, huh people in the record business were like frowning frowning up on that. You shouldn't do that Yeah, you got to focus on your music. You got your artistry. Look, but all of that lended to Him being the superstar. Yes Yeah, and we didn't know that then it's something that grew on us and that as those opportunities came we were smart enough Say no, no, give me that But but but I would say all three of us we just not gonna let people put us in the box No, like I'm never going to be put in the fucking box. Like you can't put me in the box. No, I can't You can't I'm gonna fight fight the fucking way out. I'm gonna know my way out You gotta hear jay say take us too far. That's good. Fuck. I'm gonna do it. I mean you Because we all need that too though, but but you know why? Because we want the reward and you can't get the reward that reward unless you take chances. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah High risk high reward. Yeah At the end of the day, but you gotta tell you gotta have the nigga in the car with you that says we got too much dope I Can not I think once you get over a certain amount the charge is still the same The car Life is 10 keys you're gonna get the same amount of time. Yeah. Yeah Your intent is to distribute exactly. Let's just take nine Hey, like when you go to the bank and like how much do you all report this? Yeah, I can't report. Okay, but you do need that. But yeah, no, sometimes you do need that. No, we I agree We all need that right? We all need because I've done that voice that we trust Yeah, yeah, right and I think for for us that's been so big for us because we both trust each other's voices so much That y'all have it starts there It starts with respect. It starts with respect. Y'all are great together. Yeah. Yeah I like this guy, man. I really do. I like this guy, man Y'all are great together. I like that He always he always been the guy when I first met him tank, man He was I Shakir introduced me to him, man Our brother our and I was like, that's exactly that thing is that young thing is nice, man He got some swag to him. You know what I mean? And then when I found out he could really play basketball That's when the app that's when the real respect came out. That's normally where it starts That's interesting. All of a lot of them acts say they can play but they don't really play Or understand That's a whole nother part of basketball. Yeah Yeah, right, especially we've gotten older you you start to you start to you start to have a different love and respect for guys who Understand basketball. Yeah, it's like my nigga. If you don't know certain Basic things basic things you don't a basic. He does fundamental. He's fundamental Make the read make the read I'm diving son throw that You know what I'm saying? And listen, it is it is only a few of us that understand it in this business We play basketball with everyone. He's like, can this nigga? Yes. He's athletic. Yes. He can move Did you get to the spot? He I don't know if he can play basketball, right? There's a right the right way And if he understands the goddess on his team can shoot the shit out the ball This guy needs to have the ball in his hand. Tell me about and he needs to have it at this spot Yeah, this is a different understanding. I'm totally different understanding makes the game more fun and it's more fluid. It's you know We play a lot of basketball a lot of basketball and a lot of random ass jams. I remember the league man Do I got what two two championships and that means here you go with these championships That rings in that league man. You're gonna love that league man. Love He leaked mba e league. Yeah He was doing your thing over there tank doing my I was doing my thing but I brought him out of retirement I'm back. Oh, he did. He's back I'm back Tanked and wouldn't play in an adult league man. I'm back. I don't even do that at the district Oh, they got a listen. I don't even do that. I'm playing the run The private runs, but I'm not going to play in the adult. Why jake You'll be do real be real good. It's the ref. I wanted to be with the refs. Yeah, he always liked the ref I don't want to be with people are roughing themselves. I like that. He hated that Man Cuz I'm not gonna call it, but I'm like and you don't call files. Yeah You you do know what you just did come on. You got to call it. All right He don't call fucking files. Anyway, you're top five rmb artists Prince Chade Michael Jackson Stevie Wonder and us Kofi Kofi quick too quick quick nigga smart quick on his feet on his toes Hmm top five rmb songs Purple rain Chairs today Isn't she lovely You remind me And what's the other one? Um Jodecy song the jodecy all my life. Mm-hmm All my life is different different hit different that hit different when I heard different that had real but that's casey and jojo It is technically casey and jojo. Yeah casey and jojo. Yeah Well still Because it's tough. It's tough to follow jodecy Even as casey and jojo, right, right with something completely different. Yeah Now that was completely different and knock it out the park Super smash Um, let's make a voltron You're super rmb artists We need an art if every category you put one artist in the vocal The performance style the styling and the passion of the artist choose one vocal In history to make your super rmb artists what one vocal are you getting? Oh luther Hmm Okay, you sing lead and back. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah master. Yeah Loved it. Love loved it. I sound about a nigga that can sing so good. He don't got to do nothing else but sing. Yeah Yeah, he yeah No, like think about that Just stand there. That's it and sing the song And we are amazed. Yeah, did you see his documentary? That's how you know You can sing On a level that is godly Shout out to fox for that too. You know fox is uh a producer on that document. No, you know that? Yeah, okay Yeah, um performance style MJ I gotta go in. Yeah. Yeah, I'm wrong with that. I'm wrong. I gotta go luther voice MJ performance Moffill is gonna die At this concert you thought Moffill was faint Moffill's gonna go in the cardiac arrest At that show. Yeah. Yeah the styling of the artist. I gotta say Marvin style. I knew you were gonna say that I Knew you were gonna say that I gotta say his style His style why super fly He was he was eat. He just yeah, just own him. Yeah. He yeah his style. I own him. I loved his style. Yeah uh The passion of the artist The passion of the artist who mean it, you know who I really really like Oh Diana Ross. I love Diana Ross. I love I love Love her love Diana. Just her like her passion. It was just her passion exudes in her aura. Yeah Absolutely. That's what that's her aura. Like, yeah, like she was diva ish, but not like super diva ish Yeah, she didn't she she had to she didn't have to be it didn't feel mean. Yes. It didn't feel mean. She didn't have to say it Yeah, yeah, she didn't have to say it. That's what it is for a lot of people. It's stated. Yes She didn't have to say it. You just she exuded that she walked in you knew Yes, who was in the building who's in the motherfucking building. Yeah, roll out the motherfucking red carpet. Yeah Put on white gloves. Yes and act and act like you know, yes I loved her. I loved her her aura. Yeah And who would manage this artist? Hmm Who would manage this artist? Jay Fonitone What the fuck are you talking about? That would be so tough though because I say no to everybody You would say no to that. I would sound like nope. Let's go get this Jerry Spin them around and get these white gloves and keep it keep it to moving, huh? You know, we had we had this very important part of the show now We tell us a story. Mm-hmm funny or fucked up or funny and fucked up The only rule to the game which is easy for you because you know, we know what you come from is you can't say no name gosh, you still even tell us the game of the video I forgot the name We were in dc. Okay. It's artist. I was working with had a show and her DJ Kept messing with me and kept you know Trying to antagonize me So I beat up the DJ Well, you can't you can't okay. Yes, I guess I beat up her gj And the dancers and all the thing was in there screaming get up off of them. Please leave them alone Um, then once the artist found out She was like What did you do that at my show? And I was like listen your man Tested me and I had to I had to I had to show him what it was about We was in dc too. I was like, yeah, I really really wanted them to know You're in my home city. I'm gonna show you something And I beat up the DJ on show night on show night before the show right before the show Was he able to DJ the show? Yeah, he DJ He didn't he didn't he didn't say nothing else to me for the rest of the tour Oh, you stayed on tour. Yeah He stayed on tour because he's professional so it wasn't like We had to let him know we gotta get this little dust up going Yes, I just had I just had to dust him up a little bit. It's called a friendly thing. It's called a friendly thing Okay Niggas have to get back to the friendly And you know, Jay, I Me and you were kind of like we don't we don't we don't bother, you know, I'm saying like I Like it takes a lot to really push me over there. But once you do that, it's there's no there's no there's no turn off We're here because we didn't get into this To still be doing that right and I think that's the thing that a lot of cats don't understand They try to take it from oh, I was such and such in the streets and I'm bop bop bop And now I'm going to be this in the music business too. Like so why did you get into this thing? You know I'm saying yeah, like now if somebody pushes you to a point We're all men we're going to protect ourselves and we got to handle our business and that that is what it is, right That's the part I never understood about Where it becomes the bullying And that's what I'm going to be in this space, right? Because this should be you could have left that shit over there. Yeah, you know what I mean? That's why you've lasted so long. Yeah in this space because you understand like okay Some things I'm going to have to handle but I'm not running around beating up everybody. DJ. No Doesn't make sense. Yeah. Not even good for you not even wearing who I was on my shoulder. It's not good. It's not good for business. No But that was I like the friendly fade though. That's just it. Yeah, it was let's just get it on Yeah, and after we done cool. Were you good? You thought you thought something was different and you found out something wasn't You thought it was sweet on this side of the street. Yeah Yeah, yeah, he had to be saying some outlandish shit No, he called me a bitch ass nigga. No way No way He pulled out one now, what did you do? You did Tank I just lost it man. Like I said, bro. I'm very calm And but once you get me on that side, it's there's no turnoff. I've I've I've never imagined On this side Somebody calling you that I could never I couldn't even I've never that's the first time I've never been called that So that's why it just took me to the other side I black I blacked out really I was like a DJ nigga call you that in front of Oh, come on I could I wouldn't even know how to I couldn't even know how to live without living leaving leaving leaving leaving there Knowing that I let somebody that that has they like that's the whole that's total disrespect from everybody. We got to that setup Everybody's gonna disrespect. Let's just you let the DJ call you yet Yeah never So I beat him up pretty bad in front of the the dancers and all of that And that was it. You ever had a friend for you? I was a little nice. I have a bunch of friendly face. That's when it got at a certain age people just stopped wanting to fight me. Oh you You did With who it always starts with Bob always started it did somehow I Oh, you was you was basketball. Shit. Yeah, you mean like We don't yeah, yeah Yeah, but you know I always got to hear about nigga. You ain't here about bob and jack man It's always convenient that I'm never there It's always when I'm never there because I And then you know niggas play hoops together It's funny because you've probably been around somebody that that happened with but like you said it's That was a moment I never speak on that. We never gonna talk about that like that. Yeah, shit that happened this dude Yep, let me tell you something. All right. Know where this story goes. No, you don't know where this one. Not this one Okay, no, you don't know where this one's going He got somebody To give somebody a friendly face. Oh, I know that story. See at the gym. I know that story That was beyond vicious man. Yeah, and it was all because of him He was not because it was a good blame on that though I take the blame you take the blame because that's my friend Yeah, but you gonna let him. I'm not the blame hit you with that ball It's it's the equivalent you gonna let him To you letting the DJ call you Yo, you gonna let that dude hit you with that ball. Oh man Now it was this that that's a decision. I need to say that I don't even know what you say. All right. I like that's it I'll just get you. I'll just get you. I'll just get you. I'll just get you. I'll just get you. I'll just get you. It was the way he looked at me. Who? Oh, Jay? It was the way Jason looked at me. He looked at me. It happened. He looked at me and said, and I said, it was almost like he wanted to let it slide. And he was looking to me to see if it was okay to not let it slide. And I said, not today, brother. Fuck him up. You know that cost him a lot of money. I've heard it. I've heard it. A lot of money. I've heard it. I've heard it. I've heard it. I've heard it. I've heard it. I've heard it. I've heard it. I've heard it. We know each other. It wasn't cool like that. Friendly fate is like, hey, man, we got a mutual respect. We don't really want to hurt each other like that. But you know, let's go. Let's go take care of it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There you go. I'm going to like the first one. You are a brother and a friend. You are a name. You are an entity. Appreciate you. You are an important piece to this whole universe that we are all a part of. A great father. Great father. Great father. Of that. Because that has to be spoken about. Yeah. Right? Especially in what we do. Yes. This thing we do takes so much of our minds, of our time. So to say to yourself, I'm going to still be active. Yeah. And still like we've been in them gyms together with our sons. Yeah. We've been at graduations. Yes. We've been at like, I know about you going across the board to get your son. Yeah. You see, these are things that a lot of people don't do. Yeah. For whatever reason. But for the guys that do, we always like to give them their flowers for being that. I appreciate that. I appreciate that. You know what I mean? That's a real thing. And that is going to last us longer than this shit is. You know what I mean? What our kids become. Yep. How they feel about us. How they appreciate us, man. And you know I love your kids, man. Yeah. I know. I got to make sure I give you that. I appreciate that. I love that. Father to father to father. Yes, I love that. We all pray father right here. Love that. We don't have important things. Absolutely. Yeah. Well, we thank you, brother. We thank you for your time, man. We appreciate you. And I love what you guys are doing, man. I got the utmost respect for both of y'all. And this is, I just love it. I love it. And we'll see you this summer at Carnegie Hall. Yeah. See you this summer. You understand what I'm saying? Yeah. Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Tank. I'm a man of Valentine's Day. And this is the R&B Money podcast. The authority on all things R&B. Can't say enough about this brother, man. He is who he is. And anytime you hear that name, respect it and appreciate it. Our brother, Terry T.R. Ross. Yes, sir. Yeah. Yeah. Appreciate you, man. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.