D’Mile

This is an I Heart podcast. Guaranteed human. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm Jay Valentine and this is the R&B Money podcast and today I got everybody's favorite producer. It's the producer's favorite producer. I think we probably gonna, we might roast him off. Hopefully we don't die tonight. We gon' definitely risk it all. On my mama. You about to love this episode today. I got my good brother, the amazing, the greatest Haitian. They might get mad at me for telling that. D-Mile. What's going on? How you doing, bro? Chillin', chillin'. Good to see you. Hey, bro, this is like the Loch Ness Monster. Right. Yeah, man. I'm outside now. I'm outside. So, all y'all that been looking for D-Mile? Here I am, man. I found him. I found him. Hey, man, it's good to see you, bro. Man, good to see you too, man. Listen, obviously a lot of people publicly don't know you. Was that done on purpose for you? I feel like at first it was. I kind of just like focused on the music and then you was loving to do that. I kind of didn't like attention. I still don't, but I'm way more open these days. But then it kind of just became a part of my thing. So I don't think it was always intentioned the whole time. It was just like whatever comes, whatever comes and then just. Like you said, it became part of your thing. It's like, oh, yeah, yeah. I want to go to Rouse. Exactly. Right. But I can't. Right. I'm D-Mile. I definitely got to come through. I definitely started like it. So I was just like, I'm cool with it. Like if I can just still live and do all that and not even show up and show my face and all that stuff. But. People don't understand, man, the luxury of that. Yeah. Of being able to do what you love in the entertainment space. Right. Because that's the, you know, when you sign up for entertaining or entertainment, it becomes a thing where you have to show up. Yep. But being able to make a living in the entertainment world and not have to go to things. Yeah. It's actually pretty fucking cool. Definitely. Definitely. I went through that phase for sure. Sure. You know what I mean? People bring up my artist days and I'm like, yep. When everyone felt like it was about to just get too cracking. Yeah. I was like, all right, I'm out. Exactly. Yep. Yep. Middle of a song. Yep. Don't do a video for it. Yeah, right. Whatever. I'm just like, totally got that. Ah, too many niggas is noticing me. I gotta get up out of here. Right, right. You know what I mean? So I understand, bro. Like, and that's a, that's a space that I don't know if everybody respects. Right. You know, being able to just go to the mall. Yeah. Or go to the store. Yeah. Just be on the plane and nobody, let you sleep through your flight. Right. You know what I mean? You probably ain't going to be able to sleep through your flight after tonight, bro. No, man. I know. They're like, I see you want to produce my son. Right. Yeah. I'm ready for it now. Let's, I mean, it's time to. You don't really have none of the producer trappings, neither, bro. You don't got no big change. Chill. Got my damn Apple Watch. Yeah. Got my answers, you know what I'm saying? But besides that, I'm chilling. But now they going to know the name of the company too, though. Definitely. Yeah. So let's, let's go back though, bro. Yeah. Take me back to Flatbush. Take me back to New York. Boy. Yeah, we going back and back. Yeah. So yeah, I'm born and raised in Brooklyn. Started getting into music since I was like three, really. My mom and dad, they are musicians. My mom, she passed away a few years ago, but she's. You got a license, bro. Thank you, man. She was like a known singer in the Haitian market. And my dad was a known producer in the Haitian market. So all my life, I just been around that. Like. Are you your only child? For 10 years I was, but now I'm not. Yeah. Now I have two, I have two siblings. But for a while it was, it was just me. So growing up, we were just always like, like literally, we were like, we lived in the basement. It was like a two-storey, two family home. Yeah. So we lived in the basement. So all the equipment right there. Yeah, exactly. Like we lived in the back. Yeah. Exactly. So all the equipment was right there at my disposal, you know, and I was just curious, you know. Super musical house too, though. Super musical house. Yeah. It's funny because obviously I'm in the music business, but I don't have a whole bunch of music going on in my house all day. Yeah, that's crazy. Did you have a lot of music in your house? Just as soon as you wake up, you're just hearing. Yeah. Because my dad, he gives, to this day, he still gives private lessons at the house. Yeah. So. He teaches piano? What did he teach? He teaches piano, bass, guitar, drums. Like he has, he has like a lot of students. He like has a students that he can make a band with. Like in the school. Wow. Like that. And he's done that. Like he's gone out and done gigs with his students. You know what I mean? To this day. Like people dropped out of college, like go to Berkeley and then they work with him and like, I'm paying too much money. Like I learned so much more over here. No offense to Berkeley. But. Well, you know. But that's what my dad was doing. And I've heard that so many times. But yeah, to this day, he's still. Do you feel like when you were born, that it was one of those things like he's going to do music? Yes. In your parents' eyes? Like we give him birth. Oh, in my parents' eyes? We give him birth to a musician. I don't know. I feel like, I feel like, yeah, it was there, but I don't think they wanted to force it on me. OK. Which I think was a plus because maybe if they did, I probably wouldn't want to do it. So it never felt like something that they were just like setting me up to do. It just, organically, became a love of mine. You know? So what'd you start with first? Keys. Piano, I think. Yeah. So you guys had a piano in the house? Yeah, we had piano in the house. We had piano, guitar, bass. I remember someone bought me. I had my first fretless bass. The first bass I ever had was a fretless bass, which was the hardest version of a bass. So you literally grew up in a house that looked like School of Rock? Is what you're telling me? Sure. Let's say that. Instruments everywhere? Yes, definitely. Oh, that's great. Yep. So I had it all, you know, and that's why I'm able to play all those instruments today. Drums was my favorite, but I didn't have that at home. There were no drums, though. Yeah, there was no drums. Until later, we moved and then we had space for drums. Yeah, you can't be playing bass. Yeah, bass. And the bass is drum. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Probably kicked out for that. Facts, yeah. All right, so you take on instruments at the age of three. And what's the process for you as far as is it, OK, I'm going to be a musician. I'm going to play in church. I'm going to write songs one day. Like, in your mind, is there anything other than it just being a natural thing to just play instruments? Early on. I don't know. I can't pinpoint exactly when, but I know it was at a young age that I knew that I wanted to do like music behind the scenes. And essentially, that was being a producer. I never thought about being an artist, even though one time I had a chance. OK, you got to tell me about that. You about to be a rapper? You about to sing? No, sing, sing. So around when I was like 15, 16, I had access to a studio from a family friend of my dad's. They knew each other from back in Haiti and all that stuff. And he lives in Long Island. Still lives in that same house where I used to work at. And I would just do these demos and have all these tracks, but no one to write to them. So it forced me to kind of just write to my beats, write to the tracks. And sing, which I was not like, that's not my favorite thing to do. So you know Wycliffe? No. OK, all right. No, no, no. But I had all these songs that I wrote and sang. And it got to some people's hands. And somehow, someway, I almost had a chance to be signed to Universal at 19. You're about to be the Haitian tank. Right, yeah, maybe. We're not the Haitian tank. I think I was being compared to Neo. No, because you are 100%er. Well, yes. Right? That's what I mean. We talked about that earlier. It's not very many, especially from an artist standpoint, of guys who literally write the songs, produce the songs, sing the songs. That's different. Yeah, but I didn't have a voice like him. OK. All right, so you were. But everything else, yeah, that would have been, you dead right, you dead on. So he said you had a chance. Does that mean you actually took, did you take the meetings and the whole thing? Yeah, I went up to the building. Did you audition? You did the whole shit or no? I can't remember if I auditioned. But I remember everybody wanted to sign me in the building, except for Sylvia Rohn. She was like, no. She was the only one that didn't believe it. I should probably thank her. So at this time, though, has you placed anything on anybody? Has you done anything? Has your break yet as a writer or producer or any of those things yet? I know when I was 19. I just can't remember. But you said 15 at this point, right? Well, I started making music and demoing music when I was 15. But by the time I was 19. It's when you took this meeting. Yeah, that's when they wanted to sign me. Yeah. So around that time, I can't remember when it came out or whatever, but around that time was when, well, maybe it was when I was 20. So I think I didn't have anything. But right after my first placement was on Rihanna's very first album. Yeah. First placement. Yeah. Good job, man. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think anybody knows the song, but hey. Yeah, I heard it. I still got Rihanna. I heard it. I did my research. Right, right. I was like, yeah. This doesn't sound like D-Mile. Yeah, exactly. But it don't really sound like Rihanna either, because she had to make that kind of that transition. It was more of an island feel. Yeah, exactly. Initially with her first album. It's OK. So how do you land a record on Rihanna's first album? Man, me and my partner, we were just in New York grinding, just trying to sow the seeds and let everybody know who I am. And we ran into this group called Full Force. You know Full Force. Come on, I'll do that. Yeah. Hey, man. Hey, man. Do not do, hey, this group called. Yeah. You know. We talk about full. We talk about buff. Yep. Body slam. Yes. Them guys. House party. Yep. Come on, don't do this, dawg. Do this. This is my guys, bro. For sure. This is my guys. The youngest might not know. No, no, no. Listen, if you watch the Army Money podcast, you know who and what the fuck is Full Force. Thanks. Legends. So yes. Yeah, so we ran into them. On the street? No, no, no. I think, I can't remember. I think they found us. OK. Because they were doing, they did all the boy band shit. Yeah. They did all of the back street, in-sync type. You know what I mean? Exactly. That's what most people don't know about Full Force. Right. Yep. So by this time, they had already done that. Yeah, they did all of that. Yeah, OK. So at this time, they were already trying to work on stuff for Rihanna. And they heard this track that I did. Which funny story, that specific track was something like, I used to just take acapellas and remix them to my own beats. OK. So I actually remixed Destiny Child's Soldier. Oh shit. And made that beat. But then they heard the track and they were like, yo, we want to write to this for Rihanna. This new artist named Rihanna. I'm like, I don't know who that is. But then they told me the story. They told me how she was like, they wouldn't let her leave the office to us or like all that stuff. Yeah, the priority. Yeah, exactly. It's the priority of the building. Yes, yes. So that happened. So that's where La La La comes from. Exactly. Wow. So they wrote on that. And then she hopped on it. And I'm just like, OK, this is cool. You know what I mean? So yeah, that's how that happened. So you have that in place. You got this record deal that don't happen. Because Sylvia ain't fucking with you. She's like, nah. No, but was it a situation though where she was like, all right, well, I don't want to do an artist deal. But I want some of these songs. Because that happens too a lot of times. She just wasn't rocking. I don't think she was rocking. I never met her. OK. You know, man, I forgot the other guys that were there. But like, he was one of the execs. But he was like a known producer as well. I'm tripping on the name right now. But anyway, he was like championing. And then everybody else, I kept hearing like everybody else in the building rocks with me. But she was the only one. If that story ain't true, somebody can tell me. But that's what I was doing. She looked like that. Right. Right. But I never met her. So I don't really know what she was thinking. But I don't think they were even interested in me as a producer either at that time. Yeah. So from Rihanna. Yep. What transpires for you? Do you get a publishing deal? Nope. Are you? Not yet. So no real attention is happening yet though. Not yet. Because what most people understand is album cut. Right. Album cut don't really move the needle. You know what I mean? Unless somebody says, hey, you can sign to me through something. Right. Right. And they start doing the co-pub deals. All that. Yep. Signing me as a producer, signing me as a writer type of thing. But I think for the average person, they're just like, oh, well he had a Rihanna record. Right. Right. And that's tough to explain to people who haven't done it. Right. And who aren't in it because they think, oh, one, you're rich. Right. I'm sure at this point you will. Not at all. Not yet. Not at all. It has not come. Not at all. And then royalties take a long time to get there. Correct. Yep. What did you, do you remember what your first fee was? What was your fee for that record? Do you remember your producer fee for that? Oh, God, I don't. I don't. I feel like it was in the teens. Yeah? I feel like it was in the teens. Off the rip? It might have been less. I really can't remember. Dang. But I feel like if anything was in the teens, I know it was in the 20s. Yeah. Yeah. But a brand new producer getting a. Early teens. Yeah. Early teens. 12, 5. It's not quite a teen. Below teens, exactly. Right under a teen. Right, exactly. No, no, no. Listen. Yeah. I thought you was going to say, bro, they gave me 2,500, 5,000 baby. You know what I mean? It wasn't that low, but it wasn't crazy either. Yeah. Well, that time was different in the music business. Exactly. Yeah. You know what I mean? Where upfront fees at that point was actually astronomical. Oh, God. I was here in Timberland and Pharrell getting hundreds of thousands of dollars. Oh, yeah. I'm like, damn. Let's take me back. Yeah, they was getting that back. Yeah. All right, so you got one placement. Yep. What's the mindset now from a production sense of what you feel like you needed to do to grow your career? I think I was just seeing what that happening, I was on the right track. And I just wanted to keep going. And just keep like sowing the seeds, letting everybody know. Whoever is down to listen to my stuff, whoever is down to work with me, I love working from scratch, like in the studio with artists. At that time, nobody was letting me do that. Oh, yeah. Ain't no kidding. You know what I mean? In the studio. What? Yeah, exactly. What's his name? Right. Who out me on? Right, exactly. Because that's literally how this shit goes. Yeah, for sure. So did you have a manager at the time? So you do have things set up for you? Yeah, yeah. So I have a production company, Medina Entertainment. And I have two partners, brother Sean and brother Colin. So we came up from the beginning together. I still rock with them to this. Oh, y'all started from the ground together? We started from the ground. I love that, bro. So I love that. Shout out to those brothers. Oh, yeah, for sure. So Sean has been playing the role of my manager. He was like really my manager just for the sake of our business. He was just doing that. Yeah. So yeah, it was really him just really making all the moves, you know, making the connections. He used to drive Tony Braxton when she was doing Broadway. Uh-huh. So he had kind of a little relationship with her there and Tamar, which, you know, later on I got to meet her. But yeah, he was just around and he knew a lot of people because he was like just in the mix of a lot of things. In New York, like New York was back then, New York was like the spot, you know what I mean? And are you in Brooklyn still at this point? Still in Brooklyn. Yep. Still in Brooklyn. And then one thing led to another. I started going to this church in Queens. Were you playing in the church or she's going? Not officially, but yeah, every once in a while. So it was the Greater Allen Cathedral, but they had a youth church, like a block and across the street away from the main church. And it was like me and my friends from high school, some of my friends from high school invited me there and I just kept going since. So I would play there every once in a while just, you know, for fun or just to help out or whatever. But you know Stanley Brown. Mm-hmm. He was the MD at the main church. And I guess one day Rodney reached out to him, Rodney Jerkins, dark jacket. Okay. And he was like, man, I need some help. I need to build a team or whatever, blah, blah, blah, blah. And Stanley started hearing about me. I'm not even sure how that happened. But he started hearing about me and then inquired. And we sent him, I'm sure one of my CDs at the time, little CDs of like tracks and songs and all that stuff. And he sent it over to Rodney. And it was just one song specifically that made him be like, yeah, I need this guy. It was this song called Approach. He said Approach? Yeah, it's called Approach that I did all by myself. Years later, actually I gave it to Joe Thomas. Oh, shit. And he hopped on it. It was a bonus track on, what's the name of the album? I'll think about it later. But anyway, that song got me to Jersey with Rodney. And that was the beginning of just like a whole nother step of my career. Is that considered, because obviously I'm from the West Coast. Yeah. So is that considered like a world away? Because you're like, it got me to Jersey. Yeah. It was definitely a long bus ride, I'll tell you that. I hated riding over there. It was like two and a half, three hours. But for me at that time, it was just like... You would take the bus over there? Yeah. I think the first time I went, yeah, I took the bus over there. And every once in a while, I would take the bus over there. Yeah, three hour bus ride is not close. Yeah, exactly. It's not close. Right. And it's like closer to Philly, because it's an Atlantic city. Okay. So I had to go all the way over there. Yeah, because for us, I think we always, especially being in front of Bay Area, we look at New York and New Jersey as like Oakland and San Francisco. But it's 15 minutes. It's a 15 minute over the bridge and you. And I think what is Manhattan, was it Jersey City that I like that? Yeah, yeah. So I think coming from the other side of the country, that's how I always thought about it. Like, oh yeah, that's quick. Right, yeah. Three hours ain't, yeah, that's far. And I learned that later when you just said Atlantic City, because I liked the gamble. And I remember being out there one time and it is like, yeah, yeah, yeah, man, we're gonna run up to AC. Yep. I said, oh, come on. And I'm like, yeah, it's gonna take us about, nah, I ain't going. In fact. I'm gonna be right here at this hotel in Manhattan, chilling. Yep. No, no. Yep. I'm cool. And then you got to think for me, I still had to take a train or a bus to Manhattan to get to the bus. To the bus to take you to Jersey. It actually took all day for me. Nah. It took all day for sure. Yeah. I hated it. But she was after something. Oh yeah, for sure. It was great. So now you work with Rodney. What's that process for you? It was great. Just kind of seeing, I remember the first time I actually finally, like we went up there and I met him. Actually, no, I'm tripping. The one time, I met him once before we went out to Jersey. He was at Sony Studios, which is like, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. He was at Sony Studios, which doesn't exist anymore in Manhattan working on, I think it was Beyonce. I think it was around the day Javud Times. Okay. So yeah, we got to meet like briefly there. And he was telling me how much of a fan he was and all that stuff. Then after that day happened, I didn't hear from him for like months. So I'm like, okay, I guess it's not happening. This is music business. Yeah, exactly. And then one day out of nowhere, he was like, yo, can he pull up today or tomorrow? And that's when I drove out there. Oh, well, took the bus out there. Yeah. But getting there and seeing him, like he was in the middle of working on a project or finishing up a song. And just kind of just seeing his process. I felt like I could, I just felt like he was like the older me in a way. Cause I felt like I just understood his process and with me not knowing or being that close to someone that big at that time as a producer and seeing how he works. I was just like, yeah, I can relate to this. Like this, I can see myself doing that at that caliber. But it was crazy. And then after that, we were there. I was there for two, three years. A lot of great stories, ups and downs. That's when I got my like Janet placement there. Okay. The feedbacks. Yeah. And before that, actually, I did have that Mary J song going to break through. Oh yeah. But that was before meeting him. And one of my guys played on that record. Really? Lauren Dawson. Oh, snap. Yeah. Yeah, man. I've known Lauren bro since I was a teenager. That's crazy. Yeah. On a writing trip, I think, when I was like 18 or something. Yeah. And I met him years ago. Yeah. Yeah. Because the Virgin that ended up coming out for that song was not exactly how I had it. They cleaned it up a little bit. Okay. And they added all the stuff. You're a young producer. That's what happens. They're like, ah. My partners hated it. But I was like, I get it. It made sense with the Florida project. You know, but yeah, that's crazy. Small world. Very smart. Especially music business. Yeah, for sure. So you went, you went riding, you get feedback. Yep. Do you feel a shift yet? Within, within where your career is going. Yeah. You know. Within the industry. Yeah. Yeah. And obviously at the time, also being, you know, signed to someone who was that high level in the industry. Right. The phone calls are different. Yeah. The, you know, people pulling up to the studio. Like you said. Mm-hmm. I mean, I want to get in with you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now it's like people are coming there to work with y'all. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm sure that was a whole different. Yeah. And I think that was a great experience for you at that point. Yeah, sure. You know, I mean, for me, of course, he was the main focus because he's dark child. Mm-hmm. So anybody who came over or came through was really for that. But we, the opportunities were there for us. And I always used to think like, because there was a bunch of us there, like that, that building, it was so many times that people in there, I felt like we were the, the X-Men of music. But like unknown. Right. Right. But, but yeah, no, it was, it was just, it was just, you know, crazy to see who would just walk in the, in the building sometimes. And even the days like when nothing's happening, like, you know, sneaking, like, look at his files to see, like some secret Michael Jackson shit that, you know what I'm saying? That he was working on that never came out or, you know, et cetera. Like, and just being just a fan first of him and the music that came out, the music that didn't come out, just being there for certain things, just being able to help in any way, you know, whether it was something that I was looking for credit for or not, you know what I mean? But I was really just like a team player. Right. But, you know, just that access was, was the start of it. Do you, do you look back now at that as, in a sense, your college? Yes. It was my college. Your education. Literally. Into the music business. Yeah, definitely. I spoke about this as well earlier, where people look at kind of the beginning stages of their careers and they glance over it, maybe sometimes in not the most positive way. And I tend to feel that way with people or take that from people who maybe weren't continuing their success. Right. Where they just, where they're harboring on really the, the college years. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The college years. You said it was ups and downs. It's different. Like when you're working with people and at that time working for someone. Yeah. Right. Because you have to understand what that is too in this business. A lot of people think, oh, I'm working with such and such. No, no, no, right now you're working for. Sure. Yeah. With is more of a partnership. Yeah. You know what I mean? But if I'm bringing you in, I'm feeding you, I'm, all these lights, all this thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You work for me. Which is not a bad thing. Right. It's not bad to work for someone. Right. But I think in music, these lines of, we all did it. Yeah. Which we did all do it, but someone, someone has to get us there. Yeah. Someone has to put us in front of a Janet Jackson. Right. You know? Yeah. And I look at mine early on, I look at my, you know, my early, my early stages of in the music business as my college. I didn't go to college. Right. You know what I mean? So I'm like, this is, this was me going to college. Yep. 100%. And paying my dues and getting my degree. Yep. I might not have a master's from Berkeley School of Music. Right. But I got a master's from the music industry. That's right. Yep. School of Music. That's exactly how I feel. You know what I'm saying? So I just, I take it for what it is, man. And that time was what it was. And, you know, hopefully, I'm, I'm, I want to say hopefully, I feel like I'm continuing to use things. Oh yeah. That I learned. Sure. From that time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So did, had you done a deal? Had you done like publishing and all those type of things? Yeah. So I was published under him. Okay. So it wasn't a production deal, but it was a, it was a publishing deal. But he basically treated me like one of his producers, you know, even though it was just published under him and, you know, like took us in as a family, as a family. Man, he had, there was a few of us. And so I'm right as two at that time. So, but yeah, it was a pub deal. Yeah. Yep. That was my first one. And I think when you talk about checks, I don't think that, that definitely was a low one. That was a low one. Yeah. You want to tell us the number? I can't remember. I do remember, I'll give him this. One day he gave me out of nowhere, $10,000 bonus. Okay. If that's great or not. I mean, it's a bonus, but I feel like the original price wasn't crazy either, but at least it was easy for me to recoup. I think my first, I think my first publishing deal was for $75,000. I feel like it was around. And I got, yeah. Ah, that's, ah, yes, yes. I think I got the $37,000 five to kick it off. I got my half. Yep. And then ran through that. Yep. No, we're going to run through that. Yep. And I needed like another 10 or 15 for equipment. Yeah. And then I wrote in sync celebrity. Yeah. Out of there. Yeah. Read negotiation. Yep. Yep. And then I, then Tyrese, I liked him girls drop two months later. I'm like, oh, yep. You motherfuckers, I'm back. That's funny. You know, that was the first, that anything I was the first album I've ever purchased with my own money. No shit. It was that and us as 87101 87101 at the same time. I was a same buddy at the same time. Appreciate it, man. You helped me get all my publishing deal. Thanks. Because I hadn't been signed to that publishing deal for maybe six months. Crazy. And I got cracking. Yeah. Yep. That's great. And I was able to, you know, work my magic and go give me a bag. Yeah, you killed that. You killed. Man, they killed that. I was like, wait, so they sold how many first week? Right. You say 1.3? Right. Oh, thanks and change. Yeah. Yeah. So no, but I mean, you know, but they they published, they got it. They were smart enough to do a deal with me early on. Right. And they were able to publish this new young writer. Who they got for pennies on the dollar. Right. Worked out for everybody. Worked out for everybody. Worked out for everybody. You remember what you bought with your publishing money? Your first your first check. With the 10,000 or with the bonus? I bet you it was equipment. I bet you it was. So you was you was very invested. Yeah. I bought a pair of jeans, I think. Yeah. That makes those daddy clothes for sure. Yeah. I went to the mall, bro. And I had I had 5,000 cash on me. I said, yeah, I need I need to feel it. I need to feel all it, you know, the right. I need to have a hundred. And I went to the Beverly Center and I couldn't find anything. Word. And I just bought a pair of random jeans. I said, I got I'm buying something. I'm buying something. I left them all with probably forty nine hundred and sixty dollars. And jeans were cheap as fuck. Right. Yeah. I mean, I was like, I bought something. Right. Thanks. I bought something. It's like some Levi's and nineteen whatever the fuck. Right. In the nineteen hundreds is my kids. Right. Right. Right. Dad, you were born in 1900s. Yeah. Yeah. We all we all. I was born in the nineteen hundreds, man. Right. But all right. So now you now you were riding. Mm hmm. You got the placement. You got you getting a bonus. Yeah. Right. And you're there for a couple years. Yeah. At what point did you step out on your own? So when I and what was the shift for you? Were you like, all right, it's time. Things just kind of happened. But let's see, I was with him from 2005 or 2006. 2009 shit changed. OK. I. I think I was starting like my name was definitely going around the industry. And I think people were more and more realizing. My talent on my own as well. Mm hmm. So I was starting to get calls directly to me, you know, for me. And you were assigned. Yeah. A producer anyway. Right. So it wasn't like you had to go through a project. OK. All right. And I already had placements and I already was getting that. But it was just like it was starting to level up a little bit. And then like the type of people that were seeking out for me. Mm hmm. So at that time. The one thing I can remember, it was kind of like coinciding with what with my transitioning and leaving Rodney. I met Puff. OK. Yeah. And he was working on this album at the time. Was it the Dirty Dirty Money Out? Dirty Money Out. OK. Yep. So going back to Joe Thomas again, there was another song that I did called Triple Black Room, which was also a bonus on this album. Joe, why you can't put my nigga on the bone? It's man. I did have his first thing on that album. Well, Tank used to put me on the bonus too, bro. Like he asked me to sing on a record. I thought I was cracking. Somehow I end up on like a Target Warlock. Right. Right. Right. For sure. But I did have the song called Emergency. That was his first thing on that one. That one did what it did. But all the other songs I did with Joe were bonuses. And it was like it was like Target only bonus. So you have to go to Target. You know what I'm talking about then. Yep. I'm telling everybody. I'm like, yeah, you know, I got this. Exactly. I'm fishing. Please go to Target. You know what I mean? Thank you for talking me into singing on the song. Right. And again, it's only a Target. So I said, I only sing a Target. Right. Fine. So anyway, somehow Puff heard it. OK. And it had like this Prince vibe. It was like the 80s, whatever. And he was like, whoever did that, I need that guy for this album. So I met him and I remember one time, one night, he had all the Rodney's camp go out there. But already on the side, Puff was reaching out directly to me as well and my team to to work on it. I don't think Rodney knew at this time, but whatever the case, we all went there. He was playing all the ideas he had at the time. I was blown away. I was just like, what the hell did I just hear? And I remember going back to the studio and just like making tracks from that from that point on, like, you know, trying to send him some shit. And then he had me come to New York at Daddy's house, his studio. And for like two or three years, we were working on that project, like on and off. Yeah. But, you know, like, once we really got into working on it, I had already moved on for Rodney. OK. At that point. But that was like the first main big thing that. That you were a part of me that I was a part of outside of that. Yeah. Listen, that album, that last train of Paris album is actually really dope. Fireman. Yeah. So really, really dope album. Yeah. All right. So now when do you get your first hit record? So Janet was, but it was like number 19 on the Hot 100. And that was like everything to me. So that was before all of that. But honestly, after that, my next one was Leave the Door Open, which went number one, which was years later. Wow. Like as far as like overall, how it hit. Yeah. I might have had some R&B ones. But sort of. But feedback also. And when I said, because I know feedback is a hit record. Yeah. I'm saying for you. Yeah. Because feedback was also a co-production for you, right? Yes. Yeah, yeah, it was. At least that's what it says on it. But yes. But you get what I'm saying where, you know, where someone's like, OK, D-Mile did. Right. Exactly. I guess it depends on how you look at a hit, because I mean, after I left, I think the one thing that really did another transition in my life for me was starting to be able to executive produce projects. OK. So the first project I executive produced ever. Shout out to Sean Barron. Oh, yeah, man. He's killing. And yeah, I think it's like cousins. Everybody's saying like literally. There's like three of us. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Y'all look like cousins. The thing we all related. But he gave me my first shot at executive producing Diggy Simmons's album, his first album. OK. Which Tank was on. He did. Yeah. He sang on Special Edition. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that was my joint. Oh, shit. Yeah. So you did the whole Diggy album. Yeah, I did like half the album. OK. But I over, you know, I helped oversee everything, you know, with everybody. And yeah, that was like my first thing. I had my engineer mix. Almost every song, if not every song. So yeah, that was like my first real thing. And then after that, Sean Barron again introduced me to the Thai Dollar Sign, where we got to work on the free free TC album. OK. And I thought I thought I knew you did stuff on Beach House. I didn't know you did stuff. Well, yeah, all the yeah, my bad. All the mix tapes and EPs. Yeah, I was on every project of ties up until honestly, his last project I didn't get to do. And of course, the Kanye stuff, but every other project before that. But free TC, I think was the, you know, when that came out and the reaction to that, I think that did that did something for me for sure. Yeah. Yeah. So the calls were a little different after that point. Yeah. Yeah. Not me because I think Thai called a lot of people off guard. Yeah. People didn't know how talented, how musical. Yep. How great. Yep. Thai Dollar Sign is. 100%. You know what I mean? So obviously being a part of that, I'm sure the phone calls were definitely like, oh, yeah, yeah, I need some of that sauce. Yeah, yeah. Because that's that's our business, right? Where it's like something jumps off. Right now, Leon Thomas, everybody's trying to figure out how to get to every single person that played whatever part in that album. Exactly. Just how it goes. So no, I absolutely, I absolutely understand and get that. Let's get to Bruno. How the fuck? Right? Because like, listen, music business is a music business. Yeah. Yes, we be knowing each other. Yeah. We come across each other. Yep. But it don't always turn into we're going to work together now, especially with them and them already having their production team. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. How did that work for you? So funny enough, I feel like my my my story and my life. In music, it just had like different phases. So like as as I was saying about the Thai Dollar thing, how that kind of shifted stuff to me. Another shift and probably the biggest shift that really changed everything for me was working with Lucky Day. One of my favorites. Yeah, that was. At a time when both of us, honestly, and even my engineer, all kind of felt like quitting. Like, yeah, we don't want to do this, you know, like, what was she going to do? I don't know. I was going to go home. I don't know what the fuck I was going to do. Well, you back in the Brooklyn basement. Yeah, right. So like a biggy rap song. Yeah, I was just I was definitely at that point where I felt like I knew I wasn't going to do it. OK. But I was like, today I feel like quitting. And I even posted it and everything. But, you know, some people. Are you one of those guys? Yeah. Not always. Hey, guys, right. I'm quitting. Right. It was the only time I've done it. Don't quit. Yeah, right. But anyway, he just happened to come to me right around that same time, right on time. And he said to me like Lucky, he sat down with me. It was like, you know, I think I want to do a project and this is going to be my last attempt. And if this don't work, then I'm quitting. Right. Oh, shit. So I was just like. Fuck everything else. He's not signed. But I don't care. Let's just like he played me like two songs he already had with Camper at the time. That's on the album. And I was like, yeah, let's just work. And we spent like. Maybe months to a year working on that project. And it was just us having fun. Not giving a fuck about what anybody else thinks. Not caring about how it's going to come out. Or whatever. Let's just do this for us. And let's just see what happens. Are you writing and producing for anyone else at the time? Probably on and off. But my main focus was him. So how do you survive it? I had some, you know, I had some pub money. OK. You know, I had a by that time, I had a publishing deal, like another one. OK. That was way more than my first. OK. So I was. I was something or you bought equipment again. You just bought more equipment. Yeah. I mean, I bought a bunch of shit. Equipment, cars. OK. OK. Yeah. That's that's. I know that's like. Come on. Yeah. That's how you get to the studio. You still riding the goddamn bus. No, no, no, no. All right. My I had like four BMWs in my life. Just back to back to back to back. And I'm sure all of that was part of that. But yeah, man, we we started work. It was working and then, you know, one thing led to another. He got a deal. Shit came out. Response was crazy. And that's the painted out, man. And that's the painted out. Great album. Yeah. You know, Ro so Mo is one of my favorite songs, which was the first. I think it was the first song we did once we decided we were going to work on a project. Oh, shit. Yeah. Oh, that's great. Yep. Yeah. I would have kept working at this. Yeah, exactly. I love this. I love this. Let's keep going. Right. So what, a year later, I was two thousand nineteen and came out. Yeah. So like the end, like August two thousand nineteen. I got a call from James Fonlaroy, who I know is on the show. That's my guy, the codis. He hit me on a Wednesday and he's like, yo, what you doing on Friday? I'm like, I'm not doing that. I don't think I'm doing your Bruno wants you to come by. He wants to meet you. And I'm like, OK, cool. So at this point, you'd never met Bruno. You never. I actually had him once. One time he had an artist that, you know, at the time that he was trying to, he was trying to do the exact thing. Yeah, it didn't work out, but I was working with her and he came in the room and kind of helped us with a little bit. He doesn't remember this. So I met him that one time and I remember going in the studio. I was on the phone with my partner, brother Sean. I'm like, yeah, I'm supposed to be working with Bruno. Got this artist named blah, blah, blah. And then I look up and he's sitting right there like, oh, shit. So that was funny. But so, yeah, that was that was like a quick meet. But because the real meat was James. Yeah, wrote on the 24 karat magic magic. No, but I'm not on. I know that. Oh, yeah. But he wrote on the last train to Paris record. Yes. OK. So now, yeah, I'm going to put it all together. Yeah, OK. From when he was working with Justin and they doing. Yeah. What would they they would do? The wise. Yes. OK. Yeah, yeah. So I've known him since Rodney days. Like I've as soon as we moved out here, he was like one of the first people I met. Follower. Yeah. Yeah. So now he's making a phone call to you. Yeah. Bruno, I want to highlight you. Right. And we get in the studio. We talk. He's you're filling me out. We're just talking. Like he's asking how how do I work and all that stuff. I remember telling him, like, I'm pretty much open, you know, whatever you need. And the first thing we start working on, honestly, is a version of leave the door open. It was called something completely different. That was the first thing you know. It was a completely different. I know what I know what I'm going to do when I come to your studio. Or actually, since I'm here today, I'm going to say, hey, right. What is the first thing you've done? Yeah. Play that for me. Right. Because it's something to that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he he, man, he's a genius first off. Yes. So he already had the idea for the concept and he was just playing around with kind of the world of where he wanted it to go. So that version, nobody will ever hear. But that was literally the first thing we worked on. It wasn't like I had a track and we were working on that. Yeah. We built something from scratch. And it was built off of whatever I did. He kind of was having at the time. What was it? Intended for silk sonic? No, at that time, none of us knew what it was like he was just writing. Yeah, he was just writing, you know, I mean, that's kind of how he works. He'll start writing and then try to find a world in the process. And then once he has that eureka moment, he's like, OK, now I know what we need to do. So at that time, he didn't know what he was trying to do. He just knew he was trying to work on another project. And then we actually were working on something else on the side at that time. So we kind of had like two different focuses. And then the pandemic happened. And everything slowed down. So that kind of changed. The panoramic did it. Exactly. That kind of fucked up that side thing. But, you know, we went back to leave the door open. We actually did smoking out the window before the pandemic happened. And that was kind of what birthed the idea of the group of the group. Yeah. Yeah. Smash. Yeah. Smash is. Yeah. What did that feel like? Oh, man, when it came out. Or just when it hit number one. On the hot one on it. Man, I remember what the shit. I think it debuted number two and that was great for me already. I was just like, shit. It debuted. Don't get that thing. So like, I think Drake was the only person in our way to get it. Shit, bro. I could look back and make sure it. But I think. But when we finally hit it, I was just like, wow, I finally did it. And it's not that I was trying, you know, all this time, all these years. But when it when it happened, it was like, wow. And I 15 years in at this point. Yeah, something like that. Right. Yeah. And I. I was actually mostly surprised at something being something that musical going up that. Yeah. Now, I had a conversation with with Philip Lawrence about what. We have been able to do as. Black creatives with Bruno. Yeah. Like our people. Yeah. You know what I mean? And and because I'm very honest about what music is and what music looks like. Right. Right. And I don't know if it works in the same space if he's black. Right. I'm just very honest about that. You know what I mean? And I'm very appreciative of the people who get to work with Bruno and get that off. Yeah, yeah. Thanks. And be musical because I've worked with artists, black artists who have taken those same type of shots. Right. And it's like. Yeah. Yeah. I know what you mean. This feel old. Yeah. Or this feel this or this feel it. It's a lot of other excuses other than it's great. Yeah. For sure. I get that. You know what I mean? And and the fact that Bruno makes sure he taps in. Yeah. And all of y'all that are part of it are fucking amazing, bro. Man, I appreciate that. Like you're my friend, but I'm a fan of what you do. Appreciate that. Like you're incredible, bro. Thank you, man. Philip Lawrence is incredible. Brody is incredible. Yeah. James Follower. Like all of them, man. Going down the line, bro. Like. The music you guys create. Yeah. It's timeless. Bruno is a vessel. Yeah. Definitely. You know what I'm saying? Definitely. And he studies, man. He studies. It's clear. Yeah. 100%. It's clear. Yeah. And like I said, bro, I'm from the outside of it. Mm hmm. Looking in. I'm just appreciative that y'all get to get that off. Get that off. Yeah, exactly. Man. I'm looking at him crazy. Like, you sure? When that shit came out, I was just like. And he probably like, why not? Right. Why? It should be that way. Exactly. It should be that way. It should be why not. Yeah. Right? But obviously we got our color lines. We got the shit that we deal with within music. Yeah. Something with Justin Timberlake. Mm hmm. You know what I mean? Mm hmm. That's my guy. Bro. Yeah. That's my dog. Yeah. That's my white nigger. Yeah. Like, let it out. Right. He's like, oh, you brought that, man. That's just Jake. That's my white nigger. Yeah. It's 100%. 100%. So I understand. Yeah. And I get to see it up close. And like I said, even from the sidelines of it, I'm super appreciative because. It's great music. Yeah. It's great music. It's family friendly. You know, it get risky at some point. I mean, we'll get to that risk at all. Yeah. Right. You see my work. You see what I'm doing here. Yep. I can play the music with my whole family in the car too. Right. You know what I mean? And that means something to me as well. Yeah. Definitely. All right. So yeah. All right. We're going to get back on track though. So now you got these high 100 number one hits. Right. You going crazy. Then you say, I'm going to tap in with my partner from a Dark Child Days. I'm going to tap in with Victoria. That marriage that y'all have is so special. Yeah. And once again, from the sideline, I've watched it. Yeah. Because I never forget Ghazi, who I grew up with in the Bay, calls me one day and he says, I need you to meet with this artist. And I was like, what's her name? He's like, Victoria Monay. I'm like, I think I heard of her. And me and her hop on the phone. And we're like, all right, we're going to go to lunch. We go to lunch and I look at her and I go, I know you. And she was like, yes. I know you. Right. It's like, but that wasn't your name. Right. Right. Yeah. You know how she's trying to figure it out. And she goes, no. I sang for you. Signed a dark child in a group. And I go, you're the girl that I pulled riding to the side and said her. Wow. Oh, everything I love. I feel like I might have heard this too. Anyway, go ahead. I literally said, because I don't know. Rodney had just called me. I think I was for something. And it was the studio right there off of the 101, Merrill Rose issue, whatever that is over there. And I think that was Dimitri Spencer's studio back in the day. Yeah. Yeah, I think that was Dimitri's studio. And they sang for me and they were from Sack. Yeah. And obviously I'm from San Francisco. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it was that whole, you know how shit starts. Yep. It's like it starts formulating. Yep. As we're sitting there having lunch. Mm-hmm. And I'm like, oh, yeah. Yep. You've been special. Yep. I was like, yes, you've been special. Yeah, definitely. And you know, I ended up finding out, you know, I was working together because I had heard your name. And I'm like, oh, this is crazy. Yeah. Was it just a conversation because y'all were already homies? Yeah. So I mean, shoot, a lot of people don't know. And I might have said this somewhere, but she used to live with me. So yeah. Shit. OK. What, the music business? Yeah, exactly. Hey, man, I need somewhere to stay. So and it's so funny because this was after I left like the Rodney situation. And we had an apartment in North Hollywood. Well, neither one of y'all live in apartments nor more. Yeah. In fact, boy. But we had an apartment. Apartment 211 was that was our apartment number. But that's like arm robbery. That's just 211 is an arm robbery. You know, that's the thing. I didn't realize that. It's cold for that. I'm like, yeah, listen. Maybe I should go over the different number. But that was what it was. Oh, that's what it is. Right. So but it was three of us. It was a three bedroom. So it was three of us. We were all with dark child. One of us was an engineer. Another one was a producer. And then of course me, but I had just left. So how I met Vic was I had a friend that I went to high school with named Latoya. And she was a dope thing. I'm such a friend to this day. I'm still a fan. She's so dope. Like she, you know, but she called me telling me that, yo, she has an opportunity to be in this group with dark child. You know, he's he's forming a group. The group's called Purple Rain. So she asked because she's from New York to be able to stay by us while she's like doing the auditioning or whatever they were doing. Yeah. So I was like, yeah, you know, I made sure all my boys was cool with it. And she came and somehow it turned into all three of them come in and stand with us. So Vic was one of them. Oh, shit. Yeah. And they were there for like maybe a year or two, maybe a year before they found their own place and all that stuff. But they were heavily working with Rodney. So that's how me and Vic met. And, you know, that that group didn't work out. You know, things happened. But me and Vic just kept that relationship. Yeah, stay locked in. Stay locked in. And that's the thing I think everybody's not meant to be in a group. Right. Right. It wasn't that the group wasn't good. Right. Because I remember them. Yeah, they were fired. They were dope. Yeah. She just seemed to be a solo artist to me. Yeah, yeah. No, I get it. You know what I mean? Trust me, I get it. So I've been in this business a long time. I see so many artists. I see so many producers. I see so many writers. Yeah. And I just, my opinion is my opinion. Yeah. And but I trust it. Yeah. You know, like I'm one of those people too, though. That I trust my opinion. Yeah. Right or wrong? Yeah. You may tap me five years from now, I'd be like, Jay, you said, I did. That. Yeah, I get it. Thought that shit was going to crack. Yeah. Guess it didn't. Yeah. But I trust my opinion. Yeah. And what I see in Victoria Monet. Yeah, man. Yeah. It's like that girl. Yeah, she's another one. Like anything that she ever put out, even from back to Mix Tapes, the EPs, I was in one way, shape or another, a part of it. Yeah. And then it just grew and it turned into like, you know, the Jaguar album, me executive producer in that. And, you know, or being a big part of that up until today, like she will always work together. Yeah. That's how I look at it, for sure. Did that success feel different for you because it was ground up and... 100%. Somebody that you were in the trenches with. Yeah. I was so proud when she won those Grammys. Yeah. So proud. I think we all were. Yeah. I mean, obviously you were a part of it, but I think the community. Right. Literally. 100%. Right. We have certain artists that all of us have championed. This is Leon Thomas. I go back to that. Yep. People are just like, yes. Yeah. Kalani getting a record like folded. Yeah. Yes. Yeah, right? Because this process that we go through within the music business, this overnight success of 10, 15, sometimes 20 years, till you get your chance to be who you're supposed to be in the game and you didn't quit. Yep. People celebrate that. Yes. I know I do. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? I absolutely do. I know Tank does. R&B Monday, that's what we're about. Exactly. We love to see, hey man, you know that was such and such from. Yeah. That's Dom and Darius that got the residuals record. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. You know what I'm saying? So I think that is something that is really cool to watch. Yeah. I think it's important for people to know too. That's why I appreciate you doing this. I appreciate you calling me. Yeah. I spent a minute even on my line, but no, because once again, bro, if I rock with you, I rock with you. Yeah, man. There is no, and I don't care. Number ones or not. Yeah. If I rock with you, I rock with you. This show for me is a labor of love. Yes. Flat out. 100%. You know what I mean? For our company, we created this so that we could put a spotlight on our people. Right. In a positive way. Yep. And be informative so people could understand the process, how this goes. No, this is not overnight success. Right. For sure. You know what I mean? It took years to get to Jaguar. Right. For her to have that moment. Yeah. For her to curate it the way she did. Yeah. And to do it with somebody who she had been locked in with for years. Years. Literally a roommate. Yep, literally. That got to be celebrated. Yeah. It has to be celebrated, bro. So that's why for me, I'm with all this. Yeah. I want to have these conversations and I want to talk to the people that really create this shit that we love and that we breathe and that we're a part of. How many Grammys did y'all win on that? She won three. I got one that year. OK. Ha ha ha. Yeah, he is a producer, guys. Right. He gon' floss a little bit. He might not wear a lot of jewelry. Right. But he got hardware. Right, right. But for R&B albums, I was able to get that. To get a brand for that. And then from Silk Sonic. Yeah. Three? That year? That year. Three that year. Song of the record of the year and then R&B album again. So, bro, song of the year. Yeah. That's such a special trophy. Yeah. Like people, they, everybody get caught up in a lot of other things. There's so many songs. So many songs, yeah. That is the trophy. Yeah. In my opinion, maybe because I'm a songwriter and I just, you know, I look at it that way. But that's the trophy. One song. That means I had the best song this year. Whatever y'all could argue. Niggas be hating on the Grammys, niggas hating on everything. Yeah, right. I had the best song this year. Bro, did you cry? Almost. Come on, Dodd, you can shed a thud to here, bro. Yeah, I know. But the reason why I cried when we won that was because literally days before my mom passed away. Yeah. So I dedicated it to her and I was like, I choked a little bit. And then I was like, all right, I know they'd be quick with the timer. So I'm like, let me just say this is for her and move on. Yeah. And I appreciate Bruno because I think he didn't realize or he didn't know for sure that I was there. So when he saw me come up, he's like, I think they had a whole bit and I did that they were going to do if they won, which they did. But when he saw me, he just like, now fuck that. Say something for your mom. He literally said that. I was like, oh, shit, I didn't know this was going to happen. Bro, that gave me chills. Yeah. You see what you're saying. Yeah, man. So. Now Bruno, a real one. Yeah, he's a real one for that, bro. Always, man. That's my guy forever. Yeah. So, you know, it was short and sweet, but it didn't come out, but it was about to. But yeah. Yeah, bro, that. Yeah. And then. Yeah. It's not over. It's actually just starting. Bro, you got a fucking Oscar. Yes. And the little we call it the Omar. I keep forgetting that. You got Omar. Right. You got Omar Gooden. He's following Cosme. Omar, Omar Cuba Gooden. Right. See, it's not that. Bro. A Oscar, bro. Crazy. Finally, it caused me Oscar to this day. Yeah. What did I say when I walked in here? Where's the Oscar? Oh, I left it home. Yeah. That one stays home. It's at the villa. Right. It's just there. Right. Bro. That one was crazy. Did you ever imagine? Not at all. See, because that's the shit, right? Yep. We get in this to win a Grammy. Yeah. We get into a winner of Grammy. Yep. All the rest of the thing. You can start winning Emmys. You can start winning Oscars. Yep. Actually, so you're the third Oscar winner I know. Really? Yeah. Man. You, Jamie, and Michael B. Oh, yeah. Crazy. I don't think I know no other ones. I might. Yeah? I don't think so, though. You know Jon Batiste yet? I don't. I don't. I don't know Jon Batiste. Who, brother? Amazing. Amazing. Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. I wanted Jon Batiste to pull up. Yeah. Bring Oscar. Respects. Shit. Bring Oscar. Bring the Oscar. But yeah, I want that one. I mean, you know her. I don't. You don't? I know her in passing. So she's a lot younger than me. Sure. She's from the Bay Area, obviously, as well. Yeah. But she's a lot younger than me, and I had only heard of her years earlier as Gabby. Right. Yep. I didn't even know her, literally. So no, I don't know her. OK. I don't know her. All right, so then you. I think I might have met her in passing once. Got it. Got it. But we don't know each other. Yeah, yeah. Amazing. Incredible. Yeah. How does that transpire? Man, I was in the middle of working with Bruno. I think on the set, yeah, it was on the set of an album, still figuring that whole thing out. And one day I get a call. They asked me to come and help her with like she has this movie that she has to do a song for. And it was Judas Is The Black Messiah. So I'm like, all right, I'm supposed to be working, but let me see if I can get out. Or maybe it was like a day that I was off from Bruno, so I was able to go. Yeah. So I went and pulled up on them. We got to watch. Like they sent us the movie before everyone came out. We got to watch it. We had popcorn and all that shit. Watched it from beginning to end. And we were like kind of blown away with the movie and what the story was. And then right after, we were like, all right, let's try to do some shit. And I'm like, how am I? How are we going to do anything? Because they were asking for something that was like more uplifting and more upbeat. Yeah. Movie so sad, especially how it ends and all this stuff. So I'm like, I am not in that mood of being able to do this. So I'm kind of like leaning on Gabby to see what she's feeling, seeing what Tiara is feeling. And then she picks up a bass and just starts noodling around with something. And I'm like, that sounds cool. Then she puts the bass down, goes to use the bathroom. I pick up the bass. And I don't think I played exactly what she played, but it still sparked the whole thing. By the time she came back, we had a track that she was like, oh yeah, I like this. And then her and Tiara started writing to it. But it was late. So we got, I feel like maybe we got to writing a hook or something like that. Then we just called it a night. It was like, we'll come back to it tomorrow. But I couldn't come back the next day. So I left them with the track. They finished writing to it the next day and sent me it over. And then I did some post-production, sent it back. They sent it to the movie people. They loved it. Whole time I'm not thinking, no Oscar's going to come out of this or anything. I'm just like, I just wanted to help her. Yeah. And next thing you know, shit comes out. And it's a pandemic. You watch it from home. Nobody went to the movies to watch it. And now we're hearing Golden Globe talks, Oscar talks, and all that stuff. And I had to do freaking Zoom interviews with people. And next thing you know, we're nominated. And I'm like, how the hell did this happen? So you had to go on a campaign. You did the whole thing. Yeah. I was just writing with her campaign. Straight up, the three of us were campaigning. And who were the writers on there? It was me, her, and Tara Tonnes. And Tara Tonnes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. She's dope. Yep. Everything was just moving so fast. It was kind of overwhelming for me that year. Because that year, I also won Song of the Year again. That was my first song of the year. And then a month later, I won an Oscar. So I was like, what? Hey, man. And for my last trick, I've also won Song of the Year twice. And I'm pretty sure you're the only one who's done that. Yes. Apparently. This is crazy. I'm like, how? And I think I'm the first one in 35 years. I think Lana Richie was the first to win a song and Oscar in the same year for two different songs. I saw that. How are you pouring so much champagne, good brother? You pouring so much. These are the magnum bottles of ove that you just pouring out at this point. I look up. I'm like, how the hell did that happen? Like, straight up. And the second year in a row that you won it is for? That was for Lea to Drogba. For Lea to Drogba. Yeah. And then the first one was, I can't breathe with her. Oh. Which the three of us also won. I can't breathe, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's the first one you win. And that's during the pandemic, right? That's during the pandemic. The second one we won, the pandemic was over. But that was when the Grammys was in Vegas. In Vegas. Which is popping. They should do that one more time, at least. Hey, Arvy. Arvy, let's go back. Hell yeah. The Valentine likes the gamble. Good luck out there. Come on. He's ready to win another song of the year. Right. Put it back in Vegas. Right. Yeah, man. This run. Insane. Could you imagine it? No. Never. You know what? When I thought about this, when I was younger, the only vision I had was being at the red carpet at the Grammys. Not even winning. For some reason it was just. Just the red carpet, though. Just the red carpet with my lady, my wife. You know? Yeah. And then. That actually happened. But like everything else after that was not. I just wasn't thinking about that. I don't know why that was like the thing about everything else. Yeah. The celebration of it all. Yeah. Have you gotten used to it? No. I don't think so. I don't think so. Because I'm always like, you know, I mean, it could never happen again. So when it does. So do you take all the homies? As much as I could. Yeah. Yeah. How does your dad feel? He's your music teacher. Yeah, exactly. He's over the moon. He's always proud. How do you pronounce your name? Dernst. Dernst. Yeah. Because Nick, I was going to call you Dernst. Yeah. Yeah, everybody. I was going to call you Dernst. I seen it. I said. Trust me. I've heard. I've called him Dernst. You know what you want to know? The worst thing I've ever heard? Dust. I don't know how she got. What? It was a teacher in my, I was in elementary school. She didn't like you much. I think, so I said my name and she was like, what? Dust? I'm like, no, I said Dernst. Yeah, I'll never forget that. I'm like, that was the worst version of my name that I've ever heard. So big Dernst out here floss it. Right. Yeah, come learn with me. Right. That's all right. You want to win an Oscar? Right. You want to win 100,000 Grammys? I taught my son? Yeah. Listen, my son go win an Oscar. They'll never hear the end of it. Trust me. My dad. Well, honestly, it's a little bit. Oh, my daughter. My dad definitely talks about me to his students. But what also happens is my dad will tell my, I mean, the students will tell my dad. Stuff's done. Yeah. OK. Yeah, yeah. That's dope. He's like, oh yeah, I heard you had this song with Lady Gaga or whatever. Yep. Transitions. Right. Die with a smile. Yeah. Once again. Yep. What the fuck? Yeah, that one. Bro. Yeah. Dog. Yeah. I saw the video they're performing in front of like 400,000 people. Oh, yeah, that was crazy. That was crazy. I'm in the studio with, I'm in the studio with Fondler Roy. He like, Valis, I look at this. Because also I was telling him a story about me having a meeting with this, we'll call him an executive. OK. Telling me how Die with a Smile wasn't a hit. Really? Wow. Early. Yep. I ain't gonna lie. People say, you know, we listen and we don't judge. Yeah. Not me. Right. I listen and I judge the fuck out of you. This is my camera right here, right, Tiki? This is my camera. So if you say some dumb shit to me, I'm gonna judge you on it. And I'm like, you're crazy. Yeah. He's like, no, it's residue from, it's stardom residue. Wow. Stardom residue? The fuck? Uh-huh. It's Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars. You can't miss. Right. I said, and you also can't forget it. Right. Right. And I started singing certain parts and he was like, oh, yeah. I said, you want me to sing more? Right. I'll sing more. Right. This is a smash. Yeah, man. So by the time I go sit with Fahleroy, at this point, you guys, if you're ruling the world. Yeah. And I tell him the story and he goes, let me play you something. And he pulls up the video of them. I don't know where they're at. They're somewhere overseas. Yeah, I think it was just Gaga. It wasn't both of them. Yes, it's just Gaga. And I think she did a free concert or something like that. But it was so many people out there. So many people singing that song. Yeah. You couldn't even hear her. How does that feel, bro? Amazing, Doug. Amazing. I never had that feeling. I wanted. Man. I've been in the hood. Right. They singing along to when we and you just hear, fuck. And I'm like, this is great. Right. Right? But honestly, that felt better than the leave door open and all that stuff. As great as that was for me. And that was like my first number one. Yeah. Man, when Die With A Smile came out. And he held on to that song for like a year. He didn't know what to do with it yet. Working on basically the romantic album. So it was a different vibe. But I never forgot about that song. I was just like. How good is you, bro? Yeah. From a lyric standpoint, melody, when it gets into the you. I was like, ah. Insane. Because as creatives, and honestly, I take this. I'm going to rewind a little bit. The executive that I'm sitting with has never written a song. He's an executive. Which we respect him. And I sit on both sides of that fence. Right? Like I've signed artists. I've signed publishing deals. I've written songs. I've sang songs. So I have all the conversations. I'm like, listen. What'd you say? You sounded like a suit. Yeah. I didn't. You sound like someone who's never written a song. Yep. And doesn't know when that sweet spot kicks in. Right. Definitely. If the world was ending. Already. Got him. I want to be next to you. Right. Ooh. Right. Ooh. Exactly. Come on, bro. That's the key part right there. Come on, bro. That the hundreds of thousands of people at the concert are going to sing along to. Yeah. How could you not hear that? Yeah. You don't write these songs. Right. You haven't written a song. You don't know that feeling. You don't have a heart. That it got down. What? See, now you keep going further. Yeah. Got a dance. Get tricky. Get tricky. Y'all be letting these people control your careers. Man, listen. She's heartless souls. Yeah. But we could, that's another conversation. Every now and then we got to have those conversations, bro. But that song, man, is incredible. Man, thank you. Congratulations, man. I'm just glad to have been a part of it in any way. Yeah. You know. And as you see, bro, I just love to celebrate y'all. Yeah. It don't matter if I'm a part of it or not. I did it. I wasn't even. Even if I came to the studio and you played it for me. I'm like, nah. I heard it. Right. Right? Like when we did, when we did Celebrity, they had just finished writing Gone. I'm spiced. Yeah. Spiced. But the fact that I could tell the hood with Justin, my white-nigger, Timberlake, had on the way, I could, I was like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, yeah. Drop this. Yeah. It going to be the white-nigger that all the black girls love. Yeah. I knew it. Yeah. It's like, that record is going to take him to a place that this instinct, it ain't did it. Yeah. And it's going to take them there, but then he off. Right. I just knew it. Yeah. It's like, this is different. Yep. So when you get a chance to hear something first, Yeah. somebody play you a record. Yep. Tank playing me, please don't go. I'm like, oh my god, bro. Yep. Y'all killed this shit. Yeah. Those would be the best, like the joints that you get to hear before it should come out. The best. The best. And the saddest things is like the incredible records that you don't get to hear. That never come out. And I am the friend. Yep. That'd be like, hey, where's, man, that's how I was with no bullshit with Chris. He played it for me amongst 80. Word. And I said, hey, there's a song that you played three hours ago. Yeah. Can you play that one again? Mm-hmm. It's like, it's something about bullshit. Yeah. Yep. Oh, I think I love that one. Yeah, that shit is crazy. Please play it again. Yep. Because when you get to hear that, man. Yep. Bro, I thought, record playing, I still remember it. Yeah. Oh, record playing, man. He's playing me, he plays me no bullshit and induces. Oh, yeah. Amongst. Yep. The other records, I'm just like, nigga, those two are. You got to hear, bro. As Clive would say, those are all timers. Yeah, right. You know, it's an all timer. Right. You know what I mean? A real copyright. Bro, like, you got real copyrights out here, dawg. Man, I just looked up and yeah. Have you, you know, in your business a little bit, but I know they've been calling. Have you done the catalog deal? No. But yes, they have been calling. What's your thoughts on that? I'm still, I'm kind of like. You on the fence? Yeah, I'm not sure yet. Yeah. But I should learn a little more, but I'm learning and kind of understanding kind of the things you can do. It's a real conversation within our industry now. Yep. And everybody can't do one. Right. Every, people be talking about it. I'm like, nigga. Yeah. You placed half a song. Tell me about you doing a catalog deal. Right. I ain't doing no catalog deal. Relax. Right, yeah. But then there's guys like yourself. Yeah. Who, these records are so massive and you've done so many of them. And then they come to you and they're talking these multiples. This 10, 12, 15, some odd X deals. How do you turn that down? I don't think everything that sounds good is good. Respect. You know? All money ain't good money. Yeah, all money ain't good money. Not saying they bad money. Yeah, the thing is where I'm at, I just don't know yet. And I usually don't like to move until I fully understand something, but I guess that's where I'm at. And I did learn that you don't have to sell your whole shit. You can do pieces, get some of it back later or whatever. I'm just like, OK, whatever. I'm not going to worry about that now, but maybe one day. Yeah. But at the moment, no. Shout out to the catalog companies though, because I do like the work that they're doing. And I like to say, what do you think? What do you think about it? What do you think I should do? What I think you should do? Keep writing massive records, bro. Yeah. You don't, because I look at that as one, if you need the money. Right. Just be honest. You're going to be honest with it. If you need the money. Clearly, you don't be buying bullshit and chains and shit. So you don't need the money. You know how to survive. You survived off that bonus that you got earlier 100 years ago. You did that. You know how to do well with your money. You don't mind living in an apartment if you got to. Thanks. Right? Yeah. And that's just from the financial literacy side of the music business. People, we do a lot. We do too much at times. Definitely. Right? We go beyond our means. And it puts us in spaces where we have to do those type of deals. So you asking me about you, just the demo I know, I don't think that you need to do it. Right. And I think that as you continue to grow your catalog, it continues to grow. The numbers grow. Right? And if, like, as in anything, when, if you have a chance to wait, it's going to probably be greater later. Exactly. Yeah. But I do like the work that they're doing. I really like Harborview and what they've been doing with people. I just actually went to one of their events that they did. They did the deal with Quincy Jones estate. Yes. Yeah. And I went to their event, Superdope. They throw very fly events. And I like what they're doing. I like, you know, and I've had conversations with them about how they do their business. Right. So understanding it more, like you said, there is more than one way to skin the cat. Right. For sure. So, but I do think it's been a great influx of capital within our industry. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. And for the people that have been able to do those deals that may have needed those funds to either go start another business, get out of them, some of them getting out, get out of the music business, or if it's an estate plan, or whatever it is, listen, it's banking for us, which we've never truly had real banking within our industry. That's real. It's super upside down. That advanced quote unquote loan. Yeah, exactly. And the terms of that loan is really bad for us. So, you know, they were talking, they've been talking real numbers with the catalog thing. Yeah, you're right. But yeah, so I just, you know, I wanted to ask you about that because everybody's not in position for it to be advantageous for them. And for you it is, if you wanted to. Yeah. This latest Bruno album. Yes. Was it like Top Secret? We gonna lay low and just do some cool shit? I had heard about it a little, but it wasn't loud. And I felt like that was on purpose. And I'd be hearing about everything. But it wasn't loud at all. It was like, Bruno got some shit going. For real? Yeah. Yeah. D-Mile ain't working with nobody else right now. Yeah. Right. Philip Lawrence, you know what I'm saying? James Finlay Roy's kind of low key. How long was that process? I'm gonna say three. I mean, if you want to count. Three years. Yeah, I want to say three. Wow. People taking three years to make an album. Just to make it, not even saying between albums, but just saying three years to actually focus on it. You can hear it. Sure. Yep. You can hear it, bro. That album is incredible. Thank you, man. Album is incredible. I can breathe now. Bro. Yeah. And I'm sure, what day they say, air tastes different out here. Yeah, right. You're in Rancho Cucamonga now. You're the suburbs now with it. Right. Because y'all debuted at number one. First time for him. And definitely first time for me, but for him, that's crazy. For y'all. Yeah, for both of us, yes. Once again, bro. Is it a new feeling though? Or is it like, oh, I know what this feel like. Keep it real with me, dawg. It was a little both. OK. I think it was a little both. I mean, it was just like, shit, we did it again. All right, cool. But yeah, it was familiar. And I was just like, honestly, after working on the SILXONIC album, and I always tell people, working on that, because I didn't know how hard it is to work with him in a good way. But it was draining for me. And shout out to Anderson Park too. Yes, shout out to Anderson Park. Guys, shout out my fellow Blazion brother. Yes. I mean, we got to stick together. Oh, yeah. So shout out to him, because SILXONIC is incredible. He killed it. Yeah. That took a lot out of me just how hard we had to push to even get that. So when we came around to working on this project, it was a lot of kind of the same things. But because I'm used to it, I'm like, I know this is all going to make sense once it's over, once it's done, once he sees the movie. The completion of it. The completion of it. Like, it's going to work. And he's going to make sense of it all. And at times, I'm just like, I don't get what he's thinking. Or he might not get what I'm thinking or whatever the heck. And it just all comes together. He just knows how to deliver when it's time. So I trusted it so much more this time. And it was just kind of like going with the flow a lot of the times. And even as far as it coming out, just seeing the result of it, I'm going with the flow of that too. I'm just like, yep, he probably knew that was going to happen. And he knew this was going to happen. You know what I mean? And just like. Do you have a number one meter in your head? No. You can't hear it? No, I don't like to think like that. OK. Yeah. That's probably why God ain't never gave me a hot number one. You're right. Hot 100 because I was like, yeah. Yeah, right. I did it. I know I did it. Wait, it didn't? Right. It didn't? Right. It didn't go hot number one? First, maybe next week is going to do it. I feel like maybe only once in my life, I might have caught something to smash. It might have been the Janet song, but I've never really made claims like that again. Yeah. Yeah. The first time I heard blame it, I was like, oh my god. Yeah. Oh my god. Yeah. Well, other people's records, I probably might do it, but for my stuff, no. But yes, blame it. Sheesh. Honestly, go back to when Tank sent me the initial idea of when we. He tells the story. I'm like, nigga. Yeah. Oh, they're going to sing this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Thanks. Ain't like, you don't think it's too? No, it's not. It's perfect, bro. It's, let's take it from there. It's aggressive. It's got to stay aggressive, come on, let's. Yeah, yeah. Thanks. You know? Yeah. But yeah, bro, you've, which I did with that album. And I told Philip when he was on the podcast. Chacha Chacha is my favorite record on there. Love that song. It's probably because I told him it's a juvenile sample. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm a hood nigga, man. And he's working that back. I like it like that. You have to do it. You have to do it. Come on, man. He's like, man, do we give up the money? I'm like, yeah, dog is worth it, dog. Let's pay that, man. I mean, shit, he did it on with the sample. What's my guide, man? Oh, God. I'm tripping, too. Gold all in my chain. Yes, exactly. Don't believe me, just one. Don't believe me, just one. Just got jeans. You got to know when it can't be switched. Exactly. Hey, man, what they want? Yep. They want 80? Right. So we got to split 20% between four of us. Right. Hey, man, whatever. It's worth it sometimes to be worth it. I live by 100% and nothing is nothing. Yeah. Give me a slice of the pie. Yep. How many of us in this room right now? OK, this is what it's split up to be. Yep, I'm with that. Let's rock. Yep. It's cool. We get it on the next one. Yeah, exactly. Because the re-up is the re-up. Yeah. When you're a part of something special and something that's earth-shattering, life-shaking, which y'all have been part of, come on, bro. That conversation goes far beyond. Yeah. If I walk in the room and say, yeah, yeah, yeah, you know I wrote risk at all. Right. Every ear is going to perk up. Yeah, right. Just is what it is. And they may, I might have just said risk. See y'all, no, no, no, no, no, we should. Instead of trick it all, trick it off, we should risk it all. And walk out the room. Right. Boom. And now I'm part of the record. You're on the record. No matter how much I walk out. Don't nobody know. It don't matter. You're on there. And now I get you right for Rihanna. Right. And Olivia Dean and Victoria Monet. Exactly. You know what I'm saying? So I'm all for it, bro. Yeah. If whatever you got, if things need to be shifted around tweak to get to that hit, you got to get to it. You got to get to it. You got to get to it. So you got a label. Yes, I do. So I knew that was coming. That's so, you know what I mean? You got to have a label. Yeah. You got all these hits. Yeah. How long were they pitching? Or were companies coming to you? No, because not a lot of people knew. I think there was one label that knew that we were trying to start that. And. And as y'all can see, this is the label. Vanta. Vanta. Vanta. Yep. So and we wanted to go with this guy and this squad, but things didn't work out. And, you know. Oh, the initial deal you were going to do. Yeah, man. OK. So the first one didn't go through. It didn't go through. It didn't work out. Still my homie forever, you know. But then the Disney thing came up. So did Mickey Mouse call you? Mickey called me. No. Because you know my next thing, I got kids. Right. Is do I need them tickets? No, I don't want tickets. I want passes. I want to be able to go when I want to go. That's what I meant. Yeah. But you know, we got to clarify in our community. Because you know what I mean? And you're like, hey man, he told me I'm good. Right. And then the next time I wasn't good. Right. Exactly. I'd be waiting at the Disneyland door like this. Like who are you? No, I talked to Deep Al. Right. He said, Mickey said. Wait, so OK. Yeah. You do a deal with Disney. Yep. Please explain. Man. I clearly have never done a deal with Disneyland. So. Shit. Well, you can't cuss because we talking about Mickey now. I know. Yeah. You know, they got the Disney clauses and shit. Well, I ain't got, I ain't signed to Disney. So, hey. Right. Listen, you Mickey Mouse motherfuckers. Let's do this deal. I'll take it back. Go ahead. Yeah, man. We were just in the process of forming this label together. And, you know, we're just started getting around. Who's at Disney? Like. Like, well, they got Disney music group. That tapped in with you though. Like, give me a little breakdown. I got a meal. OK. He's an exec at, you know, one of the top guys at Disney music group. And I know they focus on like soundtracks mainly, then on that and all that stuff. But they also have artists and all that stuff. But this is not because it's not Hollywood. Because Hollywood records was a part of Disney too. Correct? Am I right? Yeah. They're still around too, I think. Yeah. OK. Yeah, they are. Because they were doing, I want to say, I want to say, like Trevor Jackson or not even, I'm not even, I'm not even going to make that Trevor. Yeah, everybody came through there. But like all the young, like the Jadons and when they were all kids, I think. Right. Shit, was Molly Cyrus through Hollywood? Yeah, she was. If you were singing and acting in part of that, you were kind of on Hollywood. I'm probably fucking it up and throwing the artists over there that she did. Sure. Probably wrong. But they were. OK, right with Simone. I think was on Kiki Palmer. Someway, Shape of Phone, they were over there. All of them. Right, just the name of all. All of them. Right. But that was a part of Disney as well, right? Or is a part of Disney? Yeah. They're still there. OK. But where is it? You're strictly Disney. Yeah. The Mouse. Yep. Mickey and Minnie. Yep. Donald Duck in there. Yep, all of them. All right, California Adventures. I'm on my way. I've never been to Disney World. Right. You know what I mean? Have you been? Finally once. Yeah. You went. After this deal, yeah. Did you have like the Zoom Bass and all the cool shit too? We were just, I don't remember how I got in. It's one of those. You went when they were close. I went when. I went when. You went by yourself with the people. With the guys, you know, to see your guys. Bob and them. Yeah, yeah, OK. All right, I got to meet the people. Yeah. I managed to go back though, because I only was there for like, I was only able to get on one ride and I had to fly back out here. See, this is what happened when you're too big time. The doors start opening up. You think they're never going to close. So you just go on one ride and then you leave. Right. Maybe take your ass back to Disneyland. Get on every ride two or three times. Yep. And enjoy this shit. I know. I had a flight to catch. Man, that flight could have way out of it. I know, right? I'm going back though. I'm going back for sure. Vanta slash Disney. Yeah. Yep, the bag. Yep. The bag. Yep. A lot of great opportunities. And is Disney self-distributing or? They're distributed under Universal. OK, so under Universal Group. Yeah. Yeah. So anything that comes out, you know, ultimately goes through them. So tell me about these amazing artists that you're signing. Yes, I have three. Since now you're Barry Gordy. Right, since yeah. Come on, Barry Gordy. Like, how did that happen? But yes, I have three artists now. One named Rudecat. OK. He's like alternative. He's a dark-skinned brother. Super dope. I love his like his mind and all of that. And actually another artist introduced me to him. And then I have Samara Sin, who's a rapper, who's doing her thing right now. She's super talented. And, you know, for somebody who's been only doing it for like a few years, you know, she's made it. It's starting. OK. It's making more. Yeah. People starting to hear about it. Oh, man, what? OK. And then. And then we got somebody in the building. Yes. Come on, man. Come on, come on, dude. Pull up, pull up. Come on, come on. Do your introductions, man. Come on. Listen, I'm turning you into a 90s executive. I know, right? I'll show you to the, you know what I mean? This how this shit used to get cracked. Facts, facts. Yeah. So, then, you know, this is my new artist. And we doing it. Come on, dawg. Come on. Who we got? Who we got pulling up, man? Because they got the beautiful India Sean. Come on, India Sean. Thank you. I need a longer introduction than that. What's going on? What's up, y'all? How you doing? I'm good. Enjoying the conversation? I got this man to talk. Can you believe that? Right. Yeah. On camera. I know. He's doing a good job. Thank you. He's doing a good job. Barry Gordy. Right. Yeah. So, come on. Introduce the world to yourself. Let us, let us know. You will not even know. I mean, I'll let you do it. What? Do what? You'll let you introduce yourself. Oh, yeah. I'm India Sean, singer-songwriter. Los Angeles, California native. But I also rep the ATO. Oh, both. Yeah. I gotta rep both. And I'm a Vantarist. Yes. Yes, yes. After that. So, when can we expect some music? I mean, there's a lot of music out there already. I'm talking about why you're here today. Come on, come on, come on. But you can tell about the music that's out too, but I'm like, you know, let's get into what they... Well, I just dropped Rain on Me. Yes. Yes. And the EP is here, subject to change. And that means is it going to be change in it or is it what it is? Because the title might seem like you might change it up. Now, the music changed a lot. Yeah, okay. Oh, no, it's here. It's here now. Yeah. But you got this other record that I heard. Okay. I'm very excited about it. And I don't get very excited very much. Okay. I can have my moments. This is Marmalade record. The men love that one. It's so funny. I really like that record. Okay. I really, really like that record. It's fun. It's just a good time. That's what we need, right? It's like Pop Soul. Okay. Love that. Pop Soul. Yes. To me, it's just, you know, my own and, you know... It has a little disco vibe to it. Yeah. That is Pop Soul. Pop Soul. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, it absolutely could have rose skate to it if I could roll escape. Right. I've been good at it. I ain't gonna lie to you. I roll escape like I'm on a skateboard. Right. My left foot stay down. And I just be kicking my right. I totally get that. And then when I hit the corner, I just do like this. I don't move. So it just, it takes me. Right. I think they have accessories for that. Nope. I wish I would. I wish I would be in there with a roller skating walker. Right. Not the Valentine. I already look crazy enough doing the one leg. But I figured out it made it look cool. Right. We got to make it look cool. But that song is a standout to me. I really like that record. I really like that record. Really, really do. So tell me about your journey to get here. To get here today. What a journey it's been. Yes. Because we've met on that journey. Yeah. Somewhere along the way. Yes. Somewhere along the way. When you were in full songwriter mode. Yes. Yeah, probably. Yeah. You were locked into the songs for other people. It was a short stint. But I gave my best effort. What pushed you into that space where it was more of, OK, I'm gonna focus on being a songwriter. Yeah. So I think I just saw the potential for earnings. OK, come on. We got to get to the coin. Be real. We got to get to the coin. We need to. I don't know if you all probably can't see your boots because we shoot up here. I'm listening. Boots ain't free. And they are made for walking. Right. Yeah. I mean, honestly, I was having fun at the time. I was riding with my sister and a friend of ours, Keisha. Shout out to y'all. And we formed a little team called Full Circle. OK. We were riding in my dorm room. And we actually were having a really good time. So did you go to college in Atlanta? I went to Georgia State University. Oh, so that's what kicked off the, OK, the ATL thing. OK. From college. So me and him went to college. I finished high school and went to college. We're the only two that didn't go to college in this interview. I mean, industry college, you got your degree. You got your music degree. You're smarter than us. Go ahead. Little bit. So you went to Georgia State. Yeah, I went to Georgia State. I actually dropped out when I did my publishing go. OK, you ain't smarter than us. But I went back. No. I went back. And I got my degree. OK. I dropped out of high school, whatever. I was like, this is not for me. Right. You said, no, no, no, no. All you teachers, I'll be back. Right. That's hilarious. So you go back. Yes. Get your degree. I did. I did go back and finish. But in between, I had come back to LA. And I was doing the riding thing, that rat race of just trying to get placements and living in the studio. Literally. Literally. Yeah. Record plant. We've all been there. And being exposed and introduced to so much greatness, I mean, from Dr. Dre to Chris Brown, all the people, everybody. So were you doing more session work or just pitching? Were you able to get in rooms and really be able to write with the artist the whole thing? No. I wasn't. Chris, yes. We were fortunate to work with Chris. Shout out to Chris because Chris is so non-industry. I tell people all the time, because some people feel like he's been over times, he's been too accessible. I'm like, no, he changed what the superstar can be. You can be an accessible superstar, especially if you're Chris Brown. You know what I mean? Chris Brown got features with people that probably he shouldn't have. Probably they probably, you know, whatever. You can say I might be one of them. But the fact, though, like you said, y'all was trying to get in the studio with people and being able to get in the studio with a top guy, if not the top guy. That's not normal. Yeah. You know what I mean? And there's so many people who have that story of, oh man, Chris Brown let me in the studio. Yeah. Great. It was definitely my proximity to the producers that I was working with at that time. But I think he is one of those artists that just loves music and appreciates and recognizes talent. And he doesn't mind giving people a shot. And being in the studio with him, I mean, it taught me so much because he's such a machine. Like, melodies really. As you pass the mic around, and he's not stopped. He's the inner child of Bunny. I randomly ended up on a big stage one day. I was like, great. Y'all need me to clear what? Yeah. It's like, yeah, we think you're singing on. I was like, you see me this song? Yeah, there I go. That's hilarious. All right, it's clear. But you're right though. You're in the studio with him. And it's literally like, India, go lay that down. Yeah, what you was just humming over here. He literally operates like that. Amazing. Amazing. So you're writing. You're in with Chris Brown. You're making your rounds around LA, Atlanta. Yeah. What made you say these songs need to be for me? I mean, honestly, there was a part of that journey that was unfulfilling. And I don't feel like I was in the most nurturing environment. I don't feel like I was in the most safe environment. And I definitely wasn't being encouraged to sing. So I mean, I was told at some point that I shouldn't even demo songs. So my spirit was so crushed at a certain point that I was like, OK, I'm going back home to my mama's house. I'm going back to Atlanta. I'm going to finish my degree. And I'm just going to make a project for me. Like much in the vein and spirit of what D and Lucky did at that time. Like I'm just going to make one album and see what it does. And I went home and made my boyfriend at the time. We made my first album, Origin. He had never produced anything and learned how to produce. And we made this album. I love you. I'm about to learn how to produce. Oh, this is great. That's right. I don't think I've ever learned how to produce this. Keep my girl. That's it. Yeah. Damn. Shout out. Shout out to you, bro. That's incredible. He's a special guy. Yeah. And it actually made some waves in Atlanta at the time. I remember my album release party for that was wrapped around the block. It was crazy. Shout out to Paris Kirk, my manager at the time, who just really was doing everything he could to support me. A couple of years later, I did a joint project with James Fung or the Outer Limits EP. And so as he was talking, I was thinking about how much our journeys were interwoven. And we're probably passing each other. At this point, you guys hadn't met each other? No, we had. Well, we had. OK, OK. Once. Yeah. That is the story, actually. We need to tell that one. But yeah, did my EP with James and worked a bunch of odd jobs after that in between just trying to figure things out. It's the worst job you had. The worst job probably selling insurance to old people. Like calling numbers all day long and getting hung up on and cussed out. That was that was worse. It was cussing you out. It was cussing me out. I was telling somebody the other day, I was like, I kind of can't wait to be old. Because I already don't really have a filter. You can cuss people out already. For sure, you can definitely get cussed out fucking with me. But as an old man, it's going to be a movie. What you say, you young punk? Is everything going to start there? It don't matter. Man or woman. What, young punk? It's an old man. The 85 and 90. Is she going to do a push me? Right. Can't push me? Or you can, but it's totally abuse at that point. So you're selling them insurance. Yeah, well, okay. So this is actually a great segue because my next worst job was probably delivering food, like postmates. OK. So I moved back out here. I was like, OK, I got to be in LA. This is what's happening. If I'm going to push my music forward like this is, like I had outgrown Atlanta a little bit. And I was just hustling. And that's why I used to pray every time I got in the car, please don't let me see anybody I know. Because at this point, I have a lot of industry relationships connects. I'm like, God, don't let me see nobody. I know. And then I ended up one of my friends' names popped up on the thing. I'm like, Lord, I got to go bring this boy some chicken. And I told him why. I texted my son, I'm about to bring in your chicken. He was like, what are you talking about? I'm like, I'm your postmates driver. And we sat down. He was like, what's going on? Why are you doing this? Come to the studio tomorrow. I came to the studio the next day and made a song with him. His manager at the time came right after me and heard the song. I was like, who's this girl? So I had to pull up to my office. He became my manager. He introduced me to back to D. Yes. Well, yeah. That my relationship with him ended up getting me signed to Epic. Shout out to Zeke, who just. Yeah, absolutely. Congratulations, good brother. Yes, sir. Yeah. What a. CEO, chairman, all the cool shit. What a guy. You deserve it, Zeke. We love you. But Zeke signed me to my deal at Epic. And that's how I got reunited with D. And I don't even, he had to remind me of the first time we met, which was crazy. I was 17. Yep. And Fred Jerkins had discovered me online and flew me to Abseek in New Jersey, where he was getting his footing. App who? Abseekin. Yeah. OK. I've never, as you can tell, I've never been to Abseekin. Yeah, that's so. It's like the middle of nowhere, right? Abseekin abs in New Jersey. Please. OK, go ahead, please proceed. And I met LaShawn Daniels during that trip. Oh, my brother. Oh, my god, man. That's all my brother. LaShawn, man. And he vocal reduced me and I demoed one of his songs there. And it was just the most beautiful trip until. Until I had to, I had to audition, basically, for Rodney and everybody, the Birchette sisters who were there at the time, amazing songwriters. And then D was in the room. I don't even know. I was in there. But he was there. And I had to sing in front of everyone. OK, so? I had a song called Little Sister that I would, I would murder this song. Well, it was. Well, I think that was the song that I sang. No, no, no, just stay there. Right. Little Sister. Yeah. Are you singing about being a little sister? I was singing to my little sister. I was singing to your little sister. Yeah, like it was like a very like comforting song. At the time, I don't know, it was working for me. No, no, no. I'm just asking. But I started the song way too high. And then when I got to the high part, I just collapsed. And the way it goes. Yeah. Yeah. Very dramatically. I love the cliff. Yeah. And so everybody had to go around the room and say what they thought about my performance. Oh, shit. Yeah. And. Were the church niggas mean? That's so funny that you said church niggas because they were like, you need to sing a gospel song next time and you need to. That was like most of the feedback. What did you say? I feel like, I don't remember, but I feel like I just said something quick. Like, yeah, I liked it. I'm sure I didn't go into no detail with you. Absolutely. Yeah. I'm sure I didn't. But yeah, I do remember that. Definitely. But, you know, 15 years later or yeah. I did a whole project together when she was at Epic before we go, before we go deeper. And then, you know, it just kind of made sense to like our friendship, our working relationship has been. Yeah. So it was just like, I'm definitely going to still work with you. But also starting a label, you know, it kind of made sense. The stars aligned, the timing went, you know what I mean? And it just made sense, you know? So. Ask who you delivered the chicken to? Oh, no. Back to the chicken. I just wanted to know. Now where was it from? How did chicken last you to give the chicken? That's so funny. That's a good question. My friend, Britton Neuville, shout out to him, phenomenal songwriter. He just mentioned Olivia Dean. He, you know, has worked with her and so many other people. But, and he wrote Cali Love with me and Dee. Yeah. Shout out to Britton. Shout out to Britton who needed some chicken. And if you didn't, this. It's crazy how it all works together. We don't beat Mickey Mouse if you don't need chicken. I had to deliver that chicken that night. Right. Oh, I want to, I want to expound on that a little bit though. And I don't want to glance over the fact that you came back and got a job. Yeah. Because, no, no, don't roll your eyes. No. Because, and I even with a degree. With a degree, with a degree. Yeah. Right. Like life is life. And I say that and I said don't roll your eyes because so many of us in this industry get caught up thinking we can't work. Right. Yeah. We can't have a job outside of working within the industry. And I just, I just want to highlight that and tell you that I commend you. Thank you. For that, for putting your ego to the side. All it is. All it is is ego. For all of us. However we present our projector or whatever you want to call it, a lot of times it's just ego getting in the way of like, I got to eat. I got to take care of myself. And I got to, I got to take care of myself to get to the points that I'm trying to get to without having to do things that are against my morals. Right. Because your job ain't against your morals. Yeah. Some of these other things that people are doing are against morals and their moral compass. And sometimes when they don't like how that played out, now that somebody else's fault. Right. Instead of get your ass a job. Right. And that's why I said I wanted to highlight that and commend you for that. And I tell you I got the utmost respect for you. Thank you. I'm doing that because 95% of the artists, the producer, the creatives, would have starved or done something that maybe they weren't proud of. Instead of getting a job. Right. I never wanted to have this struggling artist storyline where I'm like sleeping out of my car like that would never, yeah, that never appealed to me. I was like, I want to be able to eat. Yeah. Before my show clothes and whatever. So I hustled. You were your investor. You were investing in yourself. Right. Would you get your degree in? Sociology and non-profit because I was trying to change the world. Come on, change the world. That's why we doing songs called Little Sister. Right. Because we want to motivate the baby thugs. You know. I see what she was doing. Listen, I tell you I'll be doing this. I'll be figuring it out. I'm like, oh, that's why. You've been eating it together. What? From the chicken to the, yeah. Listen, because sometimes you got to deliver the chicken to get to the chicken. So now that we're here and we're getting to the chicken, right? Subject to change. Mm-hmm. Marmalade. Mm-hmm. Rain on me. Column. How does it feel to be in this space now and doing your project signed to a major label, signed to one of my favorite producers in the world, Craig? How does that feel for you now to have that moment? I mean, I think it's the greatest stamp of approval and I think with all of the ups and downs and discouragements, I mean, who better to validate me and give me an opportunity than the greatest. Yeah. The goat. My favorite producer and such a great person. So I feel extremely grateful and I feel like I need to show up in every possible way to maximize this opportunity, you know, make the best songs I can make, have the best energy I can have when I walk into a room and just like give my all to this opportunity because it's been a long journey. Yeah. What do you see for yourself? I see hits on. Come on. Come on. Come on. I see some of them Grammys and Oscars. You should like steal one. Yeah, just borrow one just for the manifestation of it all. Steal it. Steal it. Just keep it. He won't even know it's gone. So generous. Just put it by, you know, put it on your nice stand. Right. Just look at it. Yeah. No, I never forget being at David Foster's house and he was using one as a paperweight. That's flex, by the way. Nice flex. David Foster. Linda invited me, bro. Yep. I was young. I was writing some cool records. She was like, you think you can write those records with me and David? Hell yeah. Hell yeah. It might be over. Right. Jeez. Using it as a paperweight. Yeah. It's possible to do so much that sometimes it's just holding down the paper. That was poetry. This shit is, you know, the opportunities that we get in this is as endless as we want it to be. Yeah. So, to see you now, same girl I saw writing for other people and now you've been able to write those songs for yourself is really cool. Yeah. And this is one of my favorite parts of the music business. Everybody has their stories. Everybody has the horror of it all. I don't. I don't. Because I get to see this. And I get to see people be, you know, put in a spotlight. And now I've been able to create something with my business partner that magnifies that life. Yeah. So, I'm thankful. Definitely. And I'm thankful for y'all even being here and for, you know. I'm thankful for you, man. Man, being able to pull up to y'all studio and hang out with y'all and talk about the journey and be early. Yeah. Right? Because I feel like this is early. This is early for me. And we've been early on a few projects where it's just like Coco Jones. She about to get cracking. Leon Thomas. She about to get cracking. You know what I'm saying? That makes me feel really good that they did their interviews even before the full breakout. So thank you. Thank you for pulling up. This is really cool. I'm excited for you. I'm proud of you. Thank you. I appreciate that. Just trying to be the king of the pivot. I'm proud of y'all trialing. You know what I mean? Right. Keep that foot down and keep that right one. You know what I mean? That right one's going to keep me. It's going to skateboard me to where I got to go. But this is really cool to see that you guys now have this label. I'm always in support of us having our own and creating our own things. In talking to the LA Reads of the world and Babyface and Snoop and label owners. People who've done their thing at a very high level. It's just, it's Ty Dallasign. Like Ty was on here talking about his label now. Him and Sean Barron. You know what I'm saying? Like it's incredible that we're in those positions now and I would love to look up 10 years from now. You're like, oh yeah, Jay. So come on. And I'm going to bring my new artist. Right. So we're supposed to do. We're supposed to be able to give back. We're supposed to be able to reach back to our people. And I think you have been a testament of that and an example of that of the artist that you've worked with. And if it's lucky day, if it's Victoria Monet, if it's India Sean, artists that maybe some people in the industry knew already. Yeah. They were just all my real friends. And then this... I'm always helping your friends. Right? I'm always there for you to help me with. Man. Where's my Haitian Patties at? I should be here by now. You promised me some Haitian Patties, man. I know. That's all me. But I think that's the thing we got here. Now I got to get controversial. So are you better than Wyclef? Who's the king of the Haitian producers? Oh, he's the man. I can't compare. Look at this thorn shit. What you doing versus against Wyclef? Oh my God. Actually, I don't know. That's a thought. Oh no. The Haitian verses would be crazy. That would be hilarious. That would go up, though. You think? What? It would go up. He come out with his guitar. You and your daddy come out. Did he bring out Jerry Wonder? And he got the family verses? He wins, man. He wins. I mean, I have some hands. I have some hands, bro. Right. You got jam, bro. But man, he did the Fuji's. The Fuji's. He had his own soul shit. Someone please call 911. Come on. What are we talking about? You got the Santana joint. My God. City High. I was just thinking about Claude at Ortiz. Get your ass kicked, bro. I just might have sent you up to get one, bro. I'm not even going to say nothing else. I already know. Wyclef. You know I'm waiting for you to get in the hot seat, bro. We talked. We talked. This is egging you on. I'm talking shit. Pull up, pull up. So, Tiki, what you got for me, man? You got any cool shit, man? Top five. Yeah. You're top five. I'm going to sing it to him. Top five. You're top five. Are we being singers? Are we being singers? Are we being songs? We've got to know before you go. Here on this show everybody want to know. What they want to know? You're top five. Yes. Right now. Top five. You're top five. Yeah. Very good. So we had this special part of the show. You tell us your top five. Yeah, he's still going. Not the Bending. Yeah, he's going to do his Bending knee at the end. Will you tell us your top five R&B singers and your top five R&B songs? We want to know. Which one do I go first? Let's go singers. I feel like that's tougher. Okay, fuck it. Let's go songs. I got to say usher. I'm trying to think which song. I even found the artist. For me, I love Superstar. Superstar is amazing. It's so good. It's amazing. Hey, you worked with usher. Yes, I did. I wish I did some on the confession album. Don't we all. I was too young. Don't we all know I was old enough. But I didn't make it. Let's go with that. So Superstar. Superstar. Okay. Anita Baker. Okay. Sweet love. You know, Kev on stage didn't know who Anita Baker was until like a couple years ago. There's no way. Yeah. You know, I'm still taking shots at you Kev. Church nigga. Church nigga too. But he know who Anita Baker is and sweet love. Right. It's okay. It's a sweet love. Yeah. Just because I grew up on that, like that's what my mom used to listen to her. Now I stopped. Chade was another one. Pick one of hers. Shit. No, you pick. I know. I'm just saying. You're five. D-Mile. Okay. It's not D-Mile Valentine's. No, I know. Top five. I was talking to them. Not you. All right. Starched. I got my one. I'm just trying to save it and get there. Oh, you trying to save? Yeah. I got my one. You playing spades? Yes. You trying to hold a big joke? Yeah. All right. Okay. Man, I'm on the spot. I can't think of nothing. Gone was, you know what? No, that's popped though. Listen, that is not popped. No, I was going to say celebrity. You can say someone. No, shit. You wild. Now that is funny because I hate that song. Actually hate celebrity. I'm such a huge Justin Timberlake fan first off. So I feel like I got to throw him in there. Gone is so good. But man, that first, his first two albums. Yeah. Justified and honestly, she should say it's love sound. I feel like that changed my whole life. So I want to throw something in there till the end of time. There it is. Yep. Till the end of time is one of them. In this life. Yeah. And there's so many more. So this is like the top five is kind of hard for me. I'm not good at this. So if anybody mad at my top five. Bad? Here you go. Yours. Exactly. Write enough records and you come on here and do your top five. Right. Right now, 60 miles top five. Okay, I'm listening. Oh my God. Earth, Wind and Fire. Yes. Come on. Come on. Earth, Wind and Fire. Which one do I pick? Which one? Your position. Reasons. Reasons that we're here. Yep. I could have done some Stevie. Five is not enough. You have four. Yeah, that's four. And then my very... What's the big Joker? The Joker for me is Michael Jackson, Human Nature. Okay. Getting no art in life. Hands down. I know you've seen this show, but I've tried people. That's a common one, right? Michael Jackson. Yeah. Common, no. I don't think it's common, but it's definitely being used. Okay. But it's a lot of Michael Jackson records that people... Yeah. You know. Yeah. For me, and I'm mad I didn't name Prince. Oh my God. Come on, what you got? What you got? The first two songs. So I'm going to say this. I was tripping as a kid. I did not like Prince. I don't know what the fuck I was thinking. But I had this guy. He was naked on a horse. Kids, you be like, I don't know. I had this guy that... He was an engineer. He was, I think he's still around. Pat Villala, who put me on to two songs I did not even know from him. And that was Ballad of Dorothy Parker. And if I was your girlfriend, I was like 13, 14 when I heard him for the first time. That's a wild record to hear. Right. And then his version of How Come You Don't Call Me, because I'm a huge Alicia Keys fan. And I heard her version. I didn't even realize it was really his song. You know what I mean? But then from that, I was just like... You took the deep dive. Oh my God. I got to go see him in concert at Madison Square Garden shortly after that. Me and my friend at the time, it would be like 14. And everything of his. But if I want to add a bonus, like one of those songs, but 17 Days is great too. Purple Rain, though. Yeah. Yeah. Right, top 12. But Human Nature. Human Nature, I just feel like when I hear that song, I feel like that shit came from heaven. Like they weren't in the studio. They didn't fucking like, you know, Toto was in it. It makes you smile. Yeah. It makes you smile. It just sound like it just happened. And I don't think I've ever heard another record that felt like that to me. Yeah. That's crazy. Yeah. Because you never could make people feel that way. For me, that is like, yeah. And Quincy is my favorite producer of all time. Top five singers. Singers. Because I'll let you do it backwards. So usually it's top five singers, top five songs, but you win songs first. Yeah. Your song's got. Whitney Houston. Mariah Carey. Okay. We get right to it. It doesn't matter if it's old and new, right? No. Whoever. I want to throw jazz and soul. Oh, come on. What? My favorite. I love her. Should I put a Aretha in there? Aretha Franklin. If you like. Oh, Donny Hathaway. That's a co-five. Yeah. That is a co-five. Donny Hathaway, bro. I like it. No arguments for me. Yeah. Now, you're Votron. Oh, yeah. When you build the ultimate R&B superstar, you taking the vocals. The vocals. Yep. Performance. Performance style. The styling. The clothes. The drip. And the passion. So those four elements. Yeah. That make this super R&B unicorn icon. Right. Who gonna sing? I'm thinking like super R&B, but I want a poppy kind of voice too. That, that, you know, can reach the world. Who got the world voice? I mean, Michael did it. So I'll go with Michael. Michael Jackson. Tito little brother. Right. Singing the song. Right. Performance style. Michael, I'm just kidding. Yeah, I mean, honestly, but I was gonna say it makes a Michael, Chris and Usher. I don't know if I can do that. You can. But yeah, it's all of them put together. So that's a triple threat performance. Right. But I also want a musician. Yeah. Okay. I like that. Prince. So those four are just Prince. So more. Shit. They dancing, do all the shit, but also play every instrument. Fuck it. It's my shit. That's fine. It's fine. It's fine. What thing I'm dressed like? As far as he was not Prince today. I don't know if that would work. I actually think it would work today. You think so? Yeah. You just got to be really great. I would be, I feel like it would be today's version of that. You got to be great. Yeah. You just got to be great. And on it. Absolutely. I agree with that. You got the drip for you. If you, for this artist that we're talking about though. I love Kanye's drip. Okay. I know that probably is like a, but man. Which version? Yeah. Like the older. You going to want this artist to look homeless? No, I don't want that version. Because that was a version? Yeah. Or you want to put a pink polo on it? Kind of like the 808s and Heartbreak era. So the windowsill glasses? Yeah. That was kind of fire. Okay. At least for an album. Maybe not the whole fucking. I'm rolling with you. You know what I'm saying? So Kanye. Yeah. I'll just leave that. Yeah. I mean, he sold the most shoes. Yeah. In the hardest of all time. Right. Clothes and shit. So I'm rolling. Right. Who's passionate? It's something about Jasmine, man. Very passionate. I feel like even with like her acrobatics and everything that she does. I don't think she's doing it to show off. No. I think she's doing it because it's really coming from her. That's what comes out. Exactly. I agree with you, bro. So, yeah, if that makes sense, maybe I'll just put her there. And I'm going to throw a curveball at you. Who producing this artist? Me. Well, I guess it ain't the curveball. I'm producing. As you should. As you should. I think he's getting records out of that. Right. I believe in you. Right. Michael's voice and your production. Right. Maybe he's doing it. Jasmine's fashion. You know. The mixture of the 12 niggas that's performing. Yeah. That makes a lot of people. Yeah. It was a lot. I don't know about the windowshell glasses for this artist. I don't know, but Kanye is the guy. Right. So, no argument out of me. All right. Tiki, what else we got? Mm. I said no names. I said no names. I said no names. I said no names. We were. You did that story. We were. Yes. Just you and you. Don't say she. I said no. No. Yeah. My personal favorite part of the show. Mm-hmm. Where you tell us a story. Funny or fucked up. Mm-hmm. Or funny and fucked up. Mm-hmm. The only rule to the game is D-Mile can't say no names. Right. This might sort of be a giveaway, but it's a funny story. So, I'm still not going to say the name. Okay. But I'm going to share the story. Before I moved out here, it was me and two other friends of mine that were in the process of moving out here. And trying to figure out how we're going to do that and live and all that stuff. Because, you know, at the time, we don't know what LA is. We think it's going to be too expensive, all these things, blah, blah, blah, blah. And got a call from somebody who was out here that we were working with. And he said that he would help us with finding a place and go half on. Mm-hmm. I know where this is going. Right. Go half on it with the three of us. And we came out here. He said he had, actually he said he had it already. Like he had a place for us already. So we came out here and we're trying to figure out, okay, where are we staying? We end up staying at a, I don't even know how to describe this. And I don't want to even give a raid the name of that place. But it's a church out here in LA. Where you're staying at the church? Yeah, well they have, so it's a church that also has like a place for trouble kids. Yeah, it's going to be missionaries. Yeah. It was a place for like kids, like they, you know, that probably had like a bad life and, you know, trying to change their life around. Kind of foster. Yeah. Kind of time thing. YMCA-ish. So you guys foster kids now? I mean, we might as well have been. Okay. I'm following you. I'm just, I'm asking because I need to know some stuff sometime. Yeah. So you're staying at the church? Yeah. They have a bigger building, which it's, it used to be a hospital. So it still looks like a hospital. Yeah. You could see it coming off the 101. You probably know what I might be talking about. Okay. So anyway. You staying at the hospital? Yeah. So you know, all the kids stay, they live and all that stuff. Every room has bunk beds and like shared showers, I think. Like, you know, I was just like, okay. How old are you this time? We were, I was 24. Okay. Okay. I think when I moved out here. All right. 23, 24. And we were in that place for like a few days, a few days. And at first I was like, man, this is crazy. We're out here. We're in LA. I'm like, I'm not even thinking about like, yeah. I was still, I was kind of blown away by like what the church was doing. I thought it was great and all that stuff. I remember calling. Focus on the good. Right. Focus on the good. I see the good out of everything sometimes. I remember calling my partners back home, brother Sean and brother Collins and kind of telling him like where we at and how, you know, how it's been so far. And I'm telling them like, yeah, they got this and they got that. And you're like, nigga, are you at a foster? And I'm like, no, no, but it's different. It's like, but it's different. It's not the church. It's theirs. So I'm like, after thinking about it, and I was mad at them at first. And I'm like, man, they don't get it, man. They don't get it. They're trying to tell me, bro, this is not a home. And I was just like, no, he really did put us up there. And then, man, there's another side to the story too. That makes it a little worse. So one of us out of the three of us that moved out there was not, um, for whatever reason allowed to stay with us. We didn't know that. Like we were all, we all flew out for this guy. Okay. But this one dude, I guess cause he was like newer on the squad or whatever. He, um, there was some weird, some weirdness going on over there, but we were like, yo, just come with us. Just stay with us. I mean, it makes sense. We all go into the same place. We all out here for the same reasons. Yeah. Yeah. The next morning, pull up to our first day of work, first day of studio and said person sends dude home. What's like, just like away. You got to figure it out kind of thing. I'm like, what's going on? We go up me and the other person and basically getting trouble for letting him stay with us, which is a place that's open to, right. And I'm like, what? Okay. So that was weird. And that dude had to figure it out cause he actually flew, flew out on his own just trying to, you know, get shit going. Trying to make it. Trying to make it. And so he had to just make calls to anybody who, who can, he didn't really know anybody out there, but he knew a friend of a friend that let him stay in the back of something that wasn't even really part of the, it was, it was crazy. So yeah, that, that was like my first experience when we went out to LA and we didn't have a house. After all of that, we still had to live on our own crib, which hindsight, I'm glad we ended up doing it ourselves because now, you know, we didn't owe anybody nothing. Right. So, but the, yeah, the thing that lured you here was, oh, it's going to be easier because he got half. All we got to come up with is this. He already got the spot. Right. Y'all don't know y'all going to live at the hospital. Right. Exactly. How long are we out here? I think it was two weeks. Oh, okay. It was two weeks. It was two weeks. Oh, okay. Two weeks. No, it's like that. Because then we finally had crib. And luckily, you know, I'm not dug in it. Right. At the hospital on the bunk bed. Boy. On the hospital bunk bed. Right. For two weeks after you told me. Yep. That you had something. Oh, man. The violence in me. Yeah. Yeah. That's probably why I don't got all the hit records you got. Because I oughta whooped that nigga. I already know at some point. It's part of the story. I mean, like. What, y'all did whooping? No. I mean, some of us might have wanted to. No, we did not. Everything else was good after that. Okay. But then it worked out. Yeah, it worked out. Ever just keeping real though? Like, bro, I didn't. No. I just need y'all to come out here. Yeah. No. It was just like, they figured it out. Right. And we did. Which is. Yep. And then, um, yeah. So that, I guess that's it. That was, that was my, that was the beginning. Yes. It's not funny about that story. It's all fucked up. It's all fucked up, bro. I'm, I didn't find a humor. Right. It's fucked up. It's like dark humor, maybe. Right. I ain't got nothing funny though. It's fucked up. Right. But once again, like you said, it's part of the journey. It's part of the journey. It's part of how it goes. Yep. And, you know, listen, I have my stories, obviously. We all do. I don't even remember getting put in a foster home. I remember telling, I remember telling, actually, I think all three of us were with this guy. You know, Audrey Person, Justin Timmelakes, uh, yes, yes. I remember us telling him this story. And we were at the studio. I forgot what we were there for, but we were just kicking it with him and we telling him like our whole thing. And the way he just started laughing at us and joking about it. And then, you know what he compared us to? You remember that commercial with the dogs in the arms of an angel. Bro. Oh, that's cold. I wanted to be mad, but the shit was so funny that we all just started dying laughing. I was just like, yo, these niggas definitely just compared us to some lost dogs and shit. The rose that leads to success, bro. Bro. It's different. Well, you know, we're still out, you know, well, one of us lives in Vegas, but, you know, we're all doing something. Yeah. We're all doing something today. Man. The guy, you know, that wasn't allowed. Yeah. He got cracking too. A lot of TV stuff now. Oh, that's dope. Yeah, man. That's dope, man. I'm glad to hear y'all survived, man. Yeah, you did. And we didn't hear about y'all in the first 48. Right. Because some first 48 is shit going on, man. It's tough. Yeah, man. Now, but, Bro, thank you. Thank you for your contributions to the game. You know what I'm saying? Like, for real. Thank you, man. And it's not taking lightly at all, you know, and I think at times in our industry, and as we have successes, and sometimes when we have multiple things that are happening for us, we forget to look and say, damn, this is cool. Yeah. And I hope today made you look at it like, bro, this is cool. Because maybe some things popped up in your head, whatever, you know what I mean? What we get to do is really cool. Definitely. And to reach the levels you've reached is not everybody get to see that, bro. Yeah. So congratulations once again, man. And shout out to Vanta Records. The beautiful India Sean. Listen, she got the music coming out. The records is out now. Y'all make sure y'all go check out. Thank you. Subject to change, which is not subject to change at this point. This is coming out. We talked to Mickey. We talked to him. The mouse is going to put it out. It's going to happen. The Phantom Mouse. Bro, congrats. Like I said, once again, congratulations on everything, man. I hope we can continue to do more of this. Yeah, man. Anytime, really. And I just want to continue to celebrate y'all. Appreciate that, man. So I'm Jay Valentine. This is D-Mile, India Sean. It's the Army Money Podcast. I'll see y'all next week. Thank you. Woo! Woo! Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah! This is an I Heart podcast.