In part one of two, legendary rapper and literal “Boy Genius” Kwamé Holland gets nostalgic with Team Supreme as they discuss the “golden era” of hip-hop.
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Of Course. Love Supreme is a production of I Heart Radio. This classic episode was produced by the team at Pandora Lads and Gentlemen. This is part one of the two part QULS classic which Man We All Know and Love Kuami one of those bucked out illness stories in classic hip hop. Every story Kuamy tells him and he goes to Rome. Man has to be heard to be believed without further ado. This is part one. Quamis interview on q l S from October three, two thousand eighteen, and enjoy sub Prima rogue called Subma Sama rogue called sub drama Sa rog called Subma prima roll call. Yeah, yeah, yeah, life, It's cool like quarmin Roger down, some premo roll call, some prima roll call. My name is Fante, Yeah, like Joe text, I got you? Yeah, my only question? Yeah, where's touching Roma? Rolla prima rogue call. My name is Sugar. Yeah, I'm a sweet thing. Yeah like Hawaiian Punch, Yeah, kool aid or Tango, rolla prima roll call. I'm unpaid bill, Yeah, and we've gone too far. Yeah. When quest love eats dinner, Yeah at an oatmeal barre su su primo roll call that a roll calls my name and the mic is mine. Been a fan of Kwame, Yeah since eighty nine. Supremo road car Subma su primo roll call. I'm like em. Yeah, Quama, thank God for him. Yeah, poke it outs all day. Supremo roll sub prima sub primo rollo. My name's Qualm. Yeah, y'all see me while yeah, Quest put me on this spot with this free style roll call. Sma su primo roll call, Suprema sub primo roll call sub prima su su sub premo role called subprima. So okay, so Bill just out at me. Yeah, I was eating oatmeal for that choices. Man, that's great. Yeah, that's fantastic. I eat oatmeal and I ordered a chicken, a grilled chicken. Sellad, Wait a minute, we're healthy. Yeah yeah yeah I can. I can eat now, like you know what I mean eat. He just puts told me your tooth still hurting? No, no, no, no, no not now. Yeah. Weeks ago when I was absent, it was up. But my Obamacare, I'm good. We were having the all important cream if weed versus steel cut oatmeal question, wondering what exactly the steel cut referred to. It's just don't like the marketing steel cut like there's nothing tasty or advertising about It's not steel. Try to market steel cut like free range. Know what I'm saying. It's true for some not for nothing. There's a frozen version of still cut oatmeal. You can get a trader Joel's it's really good. You just microwave for two minutes. It was that trader Joe. You go. You can't get it, an MP can get it exists something. Yeah, man, they called Aldeas in the East Coast. The amp is the place, the town you got associated, you know, yeah, the only place where we could talk about supermarket and supermarkets before we even introduced Yes, ladies to tell me this is another episode of course Love Supreme Quest Love, Say what's up? Team Supreme? Uh? Today we have a favorite, a personal favorite of mine. Don't forget Bill. But it's bigger than everybody. Yeah, you know, and on the low for all of the no, but for for all the props that I give to Daylight transforming my life. If you really inspect a lot of photos of me between eighty nine and I will say that our guess had a big hand and life and fashion choices. Yeah, I probably rock that. Actually, yeah, Trek and I at one point the the uh when we were Black to the future. Um, we went to hats in the bell for you to buy those hats with the with the propeller on it because Kualamite rocked it. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome the legendary yea yeah, qualm all know love, yes, man, we all know love. What's up? Bro? I'm man? How are you? Thank you for having me? Man, thank you for doing this. You know this, this, this is this is honor for all of us. Thank you. Um. Yeah, So where'd you grow up? Up? Grew up in? Is that? My? How you doing? Where'd you grow up? Let's go back to the beginning. Let's go back to the beginning. Where are you from? I don't know where you're from. I am from East Elmhurst slash Corona, Queens, New York. So you started out as in New York. Yes, okay, okay, you were born born in Queens. My whole family is in Queens. I when I got my deal, I was in Queens in because it was and they liked me, so I would be here a lot. No, seriously, at one point I was just like, maybe he's from yadon no you know what it is. Um my manager Dave who is here, he's from Yaden and tap Money who's also from Yad and he wanted to say he's from West Philly, but he's lived in Yate and more more than West Philly. But anyway, Um, Tad tap Money forgot right. He saw the video and I was like, yeah, so Tad was I met Tat. I met Tad, Steady b and Cool C before I came out. I was tagging along with Kid and Play and Herbielove Bugg and we they had a show in Richmond, Virginia with Steady and Um. The show got snowed out, so we were stuck and this we couldn't even get to the hotel. We were stuck in the venue overnight and we all just got cool and Tad was real cool, and I was like, hey, man, you know I got this. And I pulled out the post board of the mock up of my first album cover. Yeah you know about to be coming that. Hopefully I can get to do shows with you guys and everything, and Steady and Cool see, they were all right, but Tad was more personalble and then we just hung out. We wrapped all just pretty much all night. And then when my original DJ B flat wasn't able to rock with a anymore, my first person I called was Tat, so that became my Philly connection. And then I got when started hanging out and Philly with Tat, got very cool with E S t Um, Chuck KNIGHTE Wood, he would and we all just was a little click. They were yep leading to doing. They would all coming to my house. They would stay weeks in my house. I would stay weeks to their house. My mother be like, Okay, when are your friends going back to Philly because we were like sixteen, seventeen, eighteen years old, So that was that you You guys were like our native tongues. Yeah. Yeah, So when you came in Coach signed Philly. Mean, that's the first time I felt like, Okay, Philly can be cool. Because again, I mean, you're you're not saying what you really want to say about cool and study, but you know, they were just they were post drug dealer cool. Like no, no, you know what it is. It's not it's nothing to say good or bad about them, but they just weren't the kind of guys that I was you know what I'm saying. You know, we're not from we didn't have the same way a length, so it wasn't I would never be hanging I would never hang out with them where Tat it's cut from that same cloth, so you know I would definitely hang it with Tat and and you know, so that's how that's pretty at. Yeah, Okay, I just thought you had property and I should have had smart. So in in Queens, what was your what was your experiences of music? See my neighborhood. You know, you know, everybody likes to really pig up their neighborhoods. But for me, I think my neighborhood is a very special place in Queens and anybody can look it up. So if you go the history of East Town Herst Corona UM, it's right next to La Guardia Airport. So literally you can, like my grandmother's house, my house, I can walk to the airport UM and within that neighborhood post I mean pre rapped you had uh Ella Fitzgerald, Harry Belafonte, um, Louis arm Strong, uh Um, James Brown was in St Albans, but but he wasn't. He wasn't in that um I'm sorry. Um, I want to say Dinah Washington. Um, and a lot of a lot of influential blacks moved to this area of Queens. But then when you get into the hip hop era, you had Kid in Play, Herbie Lovebug, Eric b Cool, g rap Um, myself, Uh, Salt and Pepper. We were all within a three to five block radius. No. No, it's closer to the city. So we're like fifteen minutes the most into New York City. So we're Northern Queens. Jamaica's Southern Queens. So, um, it's it's I would say the equivalent of Winfield maybe Winfields Lash, you know West Philly area. Um, yeah, but it's not it's not Overbrook Farms. You know what I'm saying. It's not that, But it's it's it's it's pretty cool. And then you have some ce East Elmhurst is more of the homes with front yards and backyards. Um. I lived in a row home, so most like the Philly Holmes. Uh, my grandmother would have a house with a front and backyard. But then you have Corona and that side is Northern Boulevard. You crossed Northern Boulevard. Corona is a little bit more grittier than East Elmhurst. So I lived in between both neighborhoods, you know, my whole childhood pretty much. And so from there, Um, my parents got a divorce was fourteen. Um. A couple of years later, my father got remarried and moved to Inglewood, New Jersey. So now I'm in Inglewood, New Jersey. And in Inglewood, New Jersey, my best friend was Redhead Kingpin um, and so I had all of those queen's guys next to me, and then my best friend that I first the first kid meet when I moved to Inglewood is Redhead, and then you have Big bubb from today Um and Redhead. He said, Yo, this lady gonna give me a deal and you should come to right who We go to Sylvia Robinson's house. So, so Sylvia Robinson offered me a deal at fifteen so and it was so funny because at the same time I'm saving up money, I'm you know, I'm making demos, I'm trying to impress Herbie and he runs around with my demo. Sylvia, here's the demo and the deal's coming at the same time. But the difference between Atlantic records, uh Sony Columbia Um then Sylvia. Sylvia's was like a one page note and so, you know, just to you know, just to give a quick recap, those are like the different people I feel like, Mr Rogers, those are the people in my neighborhood. Those So before the rabbit Hole nerd Um right now we're hanging on everywhere. So were you signed before Redhead or did he signed his deal? Red Redhead and a group called New Style later known as Naughty by Nature they decided to sign and they she wanted to change sugar Hill Records to Bone of Me and I was like, I don't even know that even sounds hip hop. You know, she owned Bone Records. Yes, I remember that label. Yes, So she was boning me and and New Style came out on Bone of Me. Read got out of it because he was under age and he lied about his age and he was sixteen as well, and he got out of it. I never signed. Then. We were we weren't good kids, you know, I'll be honest with I'm not even alled of you. We weren't. We were good kids, but we didn't always do good things. So we got in trouble, all of us, like at the same time, were running around in the street. Yes, we got, we got. It was like stupid, like stupidity. It's something I would never even talk about in detail. But it was me, Read and a couple of other guys and we did something stupid. And at that point my father was like, um, some of the guys actually got into real trouble. Some of us didn't get thank god, didn't get into any major anything. But the thing was, you're moving out of Jersey. This is the wrong environment for you. Mind you, this was a very nice neighborhood. It wasn't anything grimy in the stretch. It was just board kids doing stupid stuff. Yeah, so he moved. We I moved back to Queens. So now I'm in South Side Jamaica, Queens with my mother. And then in that neighborhood you have a different type of element. The block was cool, but then you had like you had you know, real killer drug dealers and you know these type of people that were that every volt. It was safer for you to be in that in Queens than it was to be in England. Well here's the other side. He decided to move two. I have a farm in Virginia. He moved on to the farm. Um So when he moved on to the farm in Virginia, I was there was no way I was going to move on the farm. I just got a record deal. There's no way I'm living on the farm. Said well you can. You can wrap from the farm and you just come to New York and hands like, there's no way I'm doing that. So I ended up back in Queens with my mother, and like I said, that close area where my mother was was cool, but the surrounding, like everybody that like fifty cent wraps about and all this kind of stuff. Those were people that came to my house that I knew like they were actually that part of Queens. So so it was a whole another environment living there. And so, okay, Queen, there's such a folk glory about Queens, when so you're saying that there's multiple sections of Queens, like the tripodic West Queens versus the Rundy MC Queens versus. So I lived. So so my part of Queens was q tip um Sweet Tea. We all lived in the same little section. Um Tip was a little bit further out. Tea was in between me and where where m q Tip was. So that section is south Jamaica right where Rundy M C L COO J J. Rule. They're in Hollis there on the south side of Jamaica. But they're not the furthest south part of Jamaica. And if anybody needs to understand queens, look at the map, look at Long Island. At the end of Long Island is Brooklyn and Queens. They're literally together. It's one thing. And but then you have Northern Queens. So for example, you have parts of Queens and Northern Queens, say Flushing Queens. If I take any of you guys, the Flushing Queen, knock you out and drop you in the street, you would think you were in Hong Kong, Hong Kong. Have you ever been to Hong Kong, you would literally it's the same thing, the exact same. Yeah, but go in and when I was a kid, it was white, it was Italian and black. So flash forward, say thirty years, it's all one section Korean, one section Chinese, and then a small section Japanese. All the street signs are in Asian, all the stores it's one thousand percent, So that's that's Flushing Queens. But then you go further towards Brooklyn, and you say you're in Richmond Hill. Richmond Hill is it was when I was a kid, predominantly all Irish. Now it's all South American, so it's Peruvian and stuff like so. And when I was my neighborhood, Corona, it was all black. Now it's probably black, mostly South and Central American, you know. So it's Queen Yea beating nuts are from Corona as well. So Queens is such a diverse area. And then there's a part of Queens that most Queens people don't even know about called Malba. Malba is if you know, the White Stone Bridge is right under the White Stone Bridge. If I take you to Malba, you would think you were in bel Air or or Um Beverly Hill, somewhere off the water Um for neighbor seas you're driving, the cops will be there in one point four seconds. If you have a darker shade, there's there's no dark shaded people in that area. And and that's by whites. That's that's next to the White Stone Bridge. And then you have other real diverse areas like Bayside. And you know Left Wrack is Left Wrack is one neighborhood from mine that goes into um mass Beeth and mass Beeth is another very diverse area. This it's it's crazy if I take you on a Queen's Toys because everybody that's a Queen's Bridge, Queensdge. You know Queen's Bridge, right, yeah, Queen's Bridges. You can walk to Manhattan from from Queen's Bridge. You can walk over to Bridge. It'll take you five minutes and you're on fifty six Street and First Avenue. So what we So, how did hip hop reach you at a young age, because I'm almost certain that other boroughs were like another world to you or another city. Hipop. Hip hop reached me in nineteen seventy nine. I can remember exactly what I was doing where I was at. I was playing with Star Wars men on the floor with my best friend's name is dak Car and me and Dad Car laying Star Wars and Rappers. Delight came on the radio, and from that point, literally from that point, I begged my mother to buy the record. My you know, I'm six years old. I see the recognition of you know, sugar Hill the label. So anytime I go to a record store, anything that said sugar Hill was bought and that's from six years old. Anything affiliated with Sugar Hill, which was Enjoy Records was bought period. It was I didn't have to hear it. I didn't know it. My favorite record to this day is Freedom um Perious, five Um and eighth Wonder the sec the second and the third record I've ever bought, still have the exact records. So so hip hop, but I never understood that hip hop was an actual It's weird, it's you know, it became a culture. It became what I was doing, what all the kids were doing. We were all breaking, and we were all doing graffiti. We were all you know, everybody wanted to turn tables, every you know, everybody wanted the whole elemental aspect of hip hop. Um. And then there was a guy on my grandmother's block, rest in Pieces name was Messiah and Messiah was partners with Red Alert. So I used to beat box as a little kid. So I would go to Massiah's house and Massia would put me on the phone with like uh Africa, Islam or people like that. At this little kid beat box, I had no I have no clue what it was, but it was just all immersing, you know what I'm saying and and and you know, running around the neighborhoods looking for uh refrigerator boxes to to break on, um, you know, tying our tying our jeans up with shoelaces, and and putting on union jack hatson and getting our you know, the what do you call those things? To press on letters on our sweatshirts and spiked spikes fashionable even way before years the record budget to even oh no, and I was I was all into the gear everything, you know, getting your name belt, that was like that was life for us in the fifth, six, seventh, eighth grade. You know, that's that's what we did. So can I ask what your parents did because you mentioned your dad went to a farm and I just really threw me for a second. Well, my father, my father, Um, you know, my father recently passed not even a month ago. So so my father was a very incredible person. My father, Um, he worked for the light company Contentison. But my father was like the weirdest hustler type dude ever and we didn't understand it as kids. Just to give you a quick view of my pops. Pops used to push a seventy eight VW red and white van had no heat and no air conditioner, so in the middle of the winter, he would line the van with quilts and and plastic and put a kerosene heater in the middle. In the middle of the van, was like and would tell us, y'all hold onto that so it don't tip over and be driving around. So and these are things that my father would do. But there's a reason that I didn't know at the time. So you know, it's gonna be a funny story that turns into a tragic story. So so it's one of those stories. So um, So we would come home and it would be no phone service. So my father would climb up the phone pole, do some jiggery and be like, okay, look, if you pick up the phone, don't say nothing. If you hear people talking, just hanging up. Now. If you hear two rings, that's your grandmother, and then you pick up the phone. If you hear three rings, that should hunt. I'm like, what so, but my all all this while my pops had a job. You know, it wasn't like he was on drugs or anything crazy. He had a job. My mother. I'll get into my mother in a second. So the reason why all these crazy things would happen, or like I remember one time we came home and the whole basement was ransacked, just wrecked, and we're like, so my mother thought, mind you, I used to sneak my friends and to breakdance. We all have breakdance battles in my basement, so she thought that that's what I did. And apparently my father designed some pipe to plug into the wall so we would get free gas like getting so we were getting free gas for a whole year made and the gas company found out broke into the house and ripped the whole thing out. So I got in trouble because my mother thought one of my friends that like she thought that I was responsible for somebody breaking into the home. So long story short, he was putting his mother his money aside because his sister was dying of lupus and he was paying for all of the medical bills. But we didn't know that, you know, and his sister was like, you know, pretty much a surrogate mother. Her kids were like my brother and sister. So you know, that was a weird thing. And it kind of like that was like the string that kind of broke my parents marriage up because it was just like, look, man, I can't keep living like this. In my pops like, well, look I'm trying to, you know. And so then on my mother's side, my mother, my grandparents on my mother's side came from a different type of situation where my grandparents and my father's side were more blue collar. My my grandfather, he was a newspaper publisher, so he had a one of the first black newspapers in New York called the New York Voice. It was a New York Voice in the Amsterdam News. And he was from He was from Iowa. He lived on He grew up on Indian Reservation, actually Native American Reservation. He worked his way. He was a porter. Then he became um, a roadie for Benny Goodman. So we started rolling with Benny Goodman and he started Then he started rocking with um um, I'm losing my plays the vibes line lamp and I'm sorry. So he started rocking with Lionel Hampton, which gave me my first drum set. So my first my first um instrument was from Lionel Hamptons. But that's a whole So everyone's grandfather always rolls with and he met my grandmother because my grandmother was a show singer. So so they met on the road, and you know, he was the type of dude that you know when he met her. She was real pretty she and also my grandmother was the first black Pepsi model. So so he was the kind of guy that he bagged a bad chick, but then he wanted to do bad chick things anymore, so he did. He brought her the queens and gave a bunch of babies, and one of the babies with my mom. Wait, what's Corean Drew or Conan Davis? And right now probably to see everybody else is listening, is I'm like okay, So so you know, you know at that time, did you have um, no, you I can ramble, so you can ask so so so that so and on my grand my father's side, my grandfather was a detective and my grandmother was a social worker. So it was just two different types of family and they all supported in a different way. You know. So like my grandmother has you know, both grandmothers have grand pianos in their in their in their house. So you know, I'm I'm teaching myself how to play stuff. Um, you know, my grandfather very encouraging with music, Like I said, takes me to Line Hampton's house. First time I've ever been to a house with a a person and a butler. I was like, yo, the only person I thought would have a butler was like Bruce Wayne. And I get to this man's apartment, which looks just like the building looks just like George Jefferson's apartment. We get up there and the butler comes with a tray, and I'm like, where are we at? Mr Hampton comes out and you know, and he just talks to me about music, and I'm talking to him and I'm talking about run DMC, and he's looking at me like at this point, nine had to been like eight and nine talking to me about you know, hey, man, who do you like Furious five? Manute the message? He's like, what, yeah, you know? So it gives me the drums and the only thing I play on the drums is Planet Rock, the message Freedom, eighth, Wonder And then because a lot of them had horns, I would go to school and learn how to play the trumpet, so all I would play was just I would just play the rap records. After I learned how to play Freedom, that I don't want to play the hunt anymore. I'll just stopped playing the trumpet, you know so, And even with the piano is like I heard the rap, different rap records or just different records in general, and I love just playing that. And then but I hated lessons. I just hated the lessons part. But you know, so you didn't want to practice that much. I wanted to practice what I made up. I didn't want to do scales. I didn't want to do for the least. I don't want to do none of that fingering all that. I hated that. And my my teacher, mis Phunter, she was the type you know, you play and you use the wrong finger fingers, that's all she was saying that I would have to do like you know, like piano recitals. It was probably the most nervous I've ever been in my life. My legs was shaking. Hated it. Hated it. You mentioned for the least, uh uh that the Alicia Keys not tune. Yeah right, y'all got no satisfied. That was just one time. When I seen the show, it was gonna start off real deep, like you know, all these all these courts lose down now trying to help. It was like, you know, ten seconds and Sutton, Yeah, we love you, come on down. I love this ship OUTA this is what's wrong. So you're you're saying that a hip hop as an m C. When did you figure out this is this is my path? My um Well, first of all, like you know, just as a kid, I would write and compose things, but I knew I couldn't sing anything, So you know, rapping was like the best case scenario at that point. And you know, I loved Mellie mel I love Tela Rock, you know I loved And then and then somebody came to my house with a tape said you got to hear this guy and you put the tape in and it was Lotty Dotty, not the record, It was just Lotty Dotty somewhere in the park. And then it went to treat it like a prostitute. And I was like, what did I just witness just now? And then I started getting I started getting stuff that me and Rick a very cool, me and Doug a cool. I got stuff from Rick that he doesn't even remember. I was like, yo, this this one thing where you I say the whole rhyme to him and somebody's on a drum machine and he and it turns into like, um, Indians, what's the what's the song? David Crockett. So some of those rhymes Davy Crockett, I definitely do. I just gotta find them, but I definitely, Um, but I just got so immersed into Rick and then on one end Rick and then on the other end cool g Rap and because I knew Ge, it was just another thing. So so then you know, the sound emersions is like, Okay, you know, I'm starting to write stories. And the funny thing is I'm writing these stories and they're just dirty, just nasty, dirty stories. And I would do these rap battles and I would win with the stories and stuff, and it was, you know, they would call me baby Rick and this that in the third and or you know I would I would definitely like I would interweave slick Rick and cool gi Rap if that makes any kind of sense. So so um, and then you know, being around her being and Dana Dane came around, and Dana Dane to me, was just as greatest Slick Rick. So I started shadowing Dana all the time. And but I think the click was two things that happened. It was a place I wish still existed called us A United States of America. In Queens. Every Sunday somebody would perform. I'm talking about Eric bing rock him this Sunday, New Edition, Next Sunday, l O who j Next Sunday, Every Sunday light clockwork. It was the greatest breakdance place. If you ever watched B Street when they go to the Roxy in Battle, just picture that we're just in Queens. It was that and that's why B Street resonates with me so much, because it was something that was actually real for me. And so we went to see cool gi Rap perform. He had only two records. It's a demo and I'm Flying, I'm Flowers the flip side. There's only two records he had and he got up there and to see the girls in the that I do in the neighborhood, can you curse? Absolutely so. Girls in the neighborhood that wouldn't do nothing would be like, I want to fuck him now hearing like a good girls that that I just go to school with, saying wait, we see him every day. We used to call him I'm dual. We see I'm dual every day, and all of a sudden he came. He came out. I remembered this in a dapper Dan Louis. Now, you know, everybody had a Muslim. I never knew what his name is, but we back in the days. He was upd um sorry gee, And and he came out in this He came out in this uh Louis Vatton suit. He had a Gucci link on with some medallion, a head full of Jerry curls with a fade what gold teeth. But I was the thing, you know, you know the girl and you know, and and and he's vomiting. I'm flying And then he throws out these dollars and then he threw out then he threw out roses and all these girls. This is pre cane, So we're like to do that, what the fuck? And the girls? But it's still didn't click. So then I asked my father. Then a couple of like in the summer, this was the winter, that summertime. Um, I'm sorry, this was later. Second. The first thing that happened was I asked my father to take me to a slick Rick Dougie Fresh concert at City College in Hallarm So my pops would take me anywhere anything music related. He was with it. He'd take me. We get in that bus and he was with it. He bought me turntables. He was one percent. I'll get into him, but you know um, and I'm gonna tell the story. I know you can relate to this one. So we get into the story. We get to the City College and Doug comes on. He's doing his Dougie Fresh records. He had a couple of records before the show. Then he then a magician comes out. Wait what a hip hop magician? So the magician comes out and he to the beat. He's like throwing fire out his hands and all this crazy ship. So I'm like, all right, that's cool. And then the music stops and all you hear from the back of one to one to y'all the chicks win. Rick saunters out in this Fela suit and balies his his cano and shades and he was just like, yo, what's up y'all? And all the chicks was losing their brains. I was like, that is it. I have been sanctifized, Like Jesus touched me at that one was anything I want. I was going to school to be an illustrator, I was God was in art school and I'm like, I'm not doing no art. I was a science major, also a fux science the devil. No way, I'm not doing this for a living for the rest of my life. There's no way. Rick she did, Lotty Dotty did the show, He bounced chicks, was losing the absolute minds. I was like, oh no, this this gotta be my life. Man, I can't. I cannot not do that. But like to touch on my pop real quick, he this is how my father was. I'm a heavy Prince fan and so you know, I'm like Prince like I relate to the musicality of Prince, but I relate to the style of Morris Day. So I'm oh, I remember seven seven seven three eleven. That's like one of my first records also that I've ever bought. I bought. You know, I don't think my father let me buy um dirty Mind album because of him and his draw No, no of her father, but you know, like and I remember bringing home like your why is there a thick on the cover? Like what is going on? You know? So, so I was doing a talent show and I was gonna be it was a toss up between getting my boys together and be coming the time or just doing it alone and being print. So my mother had a purple raincoat. Put the purple coat on. She had this blouse. Put the blouse on. Put on my jeans. She had these purple suede boots. Put them boots on, put this little thing around my hair had had a bush, and I'm downstairs practicing let's go crazy, and my father walks in the baby the fun. I feel like stories like that. So he was like, what the funk are you doing. It's Prince Man, He said, Prince, what the fun? And I'm like, yo, it's print. So I showed him purple rain He said, this bullshit, come with me. He took me to the He took me to the video store. You know there was no Blockbuster. They took me to the video stores like give me whatever you have on Jimi Hendrix, James Brown and Little Richard. And he made me sit down and watch every documentary on those street. Said, now there goes prints. That's what you want to do, that's what you wanna be. You gotta know who these guys are. And so you know that was his thing. Can we stop um? For all of you that are listening to this episode. This is why we do this episode. Parents, I want you to teach your children do exactly what he said. Musical punishments are great. I was. I wish I had musical punishments. My parents. You couldn't punish me with music, they said, little listen to that. Okay, okay, yeah, give me more of that. No, dude, you know, listen to him. Two men got me John Coltrane for a month. So you know, it's like even with Mar's Day, he saw mors Days like you like what he has on. I can take you to where exactly you can buy every one of those things. We went to Stacy Adams I got. You know, so my eighth great prime I pretty much had with MOR's Day had because he took me to the actual place. So so you know, that's the type of you know, Popsy wasn't. I'm not saying my mother wasn't as encouraging, but my mom's was the type of person was like, stop doing that beat stuff with your mouth. It's gonna mess your mouth up. Your lips are gonna be distorted, it's not gonna look right. Tie your shoes. You're gonna get flat feet. You're not gonna be able to walk right. Stop moving your body like that. You're gonna get stuck that way. Your head is gonna break. Don't spin on your head. It will break it. We can't afford the hospital. Stop can ask? Are you only child? I had a little brother, Okay, yeah, okay, okay, So so you know so, and that was cool because you know, I had a little brother and my little cousins. If I couldn't get like a record or whatever, I would like, look my brothers three, tell them you want funk you right on up. Tell them you want super rhymes. Super But you know, so my brother would go ask for super rhymes while I went and got These are the breaks, you know what I'm saying. So so and then you know, then then we would do like we were the type. We were like the Double Trouble or something. We'll come out, we gotta show for you, and then we put on the brakes and we would perform the brakes fo you know, for dinner and stuff like that. So we were those kids. Um and yeah, you know so, so that back to your question, because I went around it, that slick rick moment, that cool g rat moment. I was like all right, yeah, this is okay. So how far was it in the future until you we're on stage for the first time doing your pre deal pre deal immediately No no, no, no, immediately. It wasn't don't got your deal at sixteen? Right, yeah, So so say sometimes marketing, you were really sixteen when you did. I got my deal at sixteen. By the time Boy Genius came out, I was about to be seventeen. But um, I always did shows like you know, um, I hate saying this in front of you, but you know I used to kill the drums man, Like seriously, I was like all my things, so my thing I used to be good enough to win. My school would pimp me out and druma at the same time. Sometimes I would That would have been such a dope marketing angle for you, saying Anderson Park is the only person has ever done that. You know, what I'm saying is that when I was a kid, when I was when I was a kid, fifth six, seventh grade, and they got win that I that I played like that, it would be just like showtime at Kama's Apollo. They would just say, okay, today you're going to the fourth grade class and you're gonna play the drums for them and the way planning rocking period. Yeah, you know, so so you know, me performing that was like that's what I love to do. So you know, when the time when it was time to rhyme, like literally, the teacher would be like, look, we're going to roller skating today and there's gonna be a DJ and a microphone qualm A don't rap that that would be the prerequisite. And this is you know, six seventh grade. So you know the first time I was really like serious, serious? Is that same place? USA? There was a rap contest every month or something, and so the winner would get to go on tour to all the other usas. It was probably four more like one in Rhode Island, one in Dustin, there was a Philly one, and you know, so it was like an East coast thing. And I was like, so just to give you the people in this contest was myself. I won one, Master Ace won the one before that, Father MC won the one before that. I can't remember, super Lovacy casting Overrud won the one before that. So it was all it was four of us that would be out doing these USA shows. You know. So I say, if if it was the month that I was in my competition, the special guests would be super Lovac, Um, Father MC or Master as you know. But we all, you know, we all got cool pretty much from the from that experience. UM, and then you know Super got they got their deal first, and then you know Ace got his thing with Juice Crew, you know for them he came after me. But no one got deals per se from it. But that was the performing experience. Like the biggest, the most coveted thing that I have is the trophy from that USA. It's in my case I still have. It's broken. It looks like a piece of garbage, but you know, no one won't know what it was. But you know, they're like, why is this thing sitting there? You got all these plaques, why is it sitting right? And no, man, that's that's the my first award. What were you perform at that time? Story Romes, It was like, yeah, I had a beat box. Yeah I was gonna say, did you have a foil to do music for you? Or yeah I had I had the beat box, and then um, you should have drumming ron at this game. I used to I used to use this doctor rhythm drummer. I would make a beating and you know, if if the beat box wouldn't come, or I would have the doctor rhythm whatever the beat was, and he would beat on top of it and then you know, and then I would run. But it was mainly like story, nasty, dirty story rhymes that get people to go year old. Yeah. And then to the point where I remember my father and mother found one of the romes and this is after they find so they find around it fell out and it was just like pussy, bitch, fuck, oh, you know, all this stuff and you know, being like trying to be like slick, you know, always has like a song that is attached to it. You know, I funked it so good. She was like damn, damn so so so, but my mind was the actual dao. So so my father was like, um, my mother and father sat me down and this is I can remember so vividly because they were split up for a while and this was the one time they were together and they sat me down and said would you say this? Mama was like, would you say this filth to me? Like? No, what you say it to your grandmother? No? And we're in my grandmother's house get your grandmother right now and read this line to your so. My grandma's like, what's going on, She's like, sit down, read it. The bitch was sitting on my lap and I began to wrap whatever whatever the mind was, and my grandmother was like, she just got up and walked away. Let's hear it for hip hop humiliation. That's weird. I got it for phoning it right. You know, did you so to get a record deal? Did you finally feel like vindicated, like, okay, now this this is paid off well before before I get to that. My rap name that was the big issue. Oh woman, My rap name was Sweet Daddy jazz k g Q. That was your whole, whole thing, whole name, Sweet Daddy jazz K. Everyone's first name. Where's your first rap name? Fonte? Before a little brother Fonte. It was psychological, that's not even that bad, but it was. But the real company came. You already know. It was p S Y K A L O G I K A L with a question mark. It was yeah, it was yeah, it was horrible. Yeah, I remember, man. It was like being in the studio one time and Dana Dana Dane was like, look, man, I don't know how to tell you this, but that's the stupidest name. And I looked up to Dana so much. I was like heartbroken. I was like, for real, man, He's like, yo, I don't know anybody with the name Kwami. I don't want anybody with that name. Just use your name. And Salt, which was with was in the next one, going yeah, that's a stupid ass name, you know. Yeah, so Salt and Dana killing me, and Salt is like, you know you, we know what you're doing. We know when we go away, you're coming here and you steal the drum machines and you make this music and everything. You like a little little boy genius. Why don't you just call yourself Kuamine the damn boy genius or something not sweet daddy jazzy k. I'm like, and that's how that's how the whole thing started, so honestly, man, like really like you were one of the first, yeah, the first nerds. Like when I bought The Boy Genius, I mean that Albam King, I was like ten, I think and seeing you know kuam E, but then reading the credits and seeing your name was Kwamie Holland that was one of the early times I saw, I was like, man, I could just be fine Toe, I could just wrap under my name. The first cats that inspired me to do that. You were the first hip hop nerd, so that that's probably what it was. Okay. So there's an associate of yours that I've been dying to interview, and I really don't know that much about him. Can you speak of one of my hip hop idols as a producer, Herbie Love? But yeah, please, Herbie is the most elusive man on the planet. You do not know a country here. It could be anywhere. Literally, he's the He's the male Carmen san Diego. Like I can take to Herbie. Where are you? I'm in Haiti. Where are you? I'm in France. He was ware Miami. That's That's one of my dreams. My personal top five interview goals is definitely Herbie. Wanted wanted Herbie. I'm telling you, Herbie is like to run into her It's just you. You'll run into Herbie in the weirdest places, like, for example, you know, I keep in touch with you know, my old crew with Salt and Pepper, Kid and Play Dana Dane, Sweet tie Um and so most of us still keep in touch in some way, shape or form, so it'll be like one that was like sometime last year, I'm talking to Play. He's in l A. I'm I'm in New York, and we're talking on the phone and we're like, man, we should find Herbie and throw him at dinner, an appreciation dinner. I was like, yeah, if you can find him, like everybody has his number, but you just gotta find him. And I swear to you, like forty five minutes later, Play calls me up, Yo, I'm walking down the fucking block and here goes Herbie and he puts Herbie on the phone and then I talked to her before a minute. Play talked to him for a minute, and then nobody sees him again after that, just some it's like random. So I have not physically seen Herbie. The last time I physically saw him was when Vachon was doing these hip hop honors and they were honoring Salt and Pepper and we were going down the the step and Repeat and Herbie wasn't invited, but Herbie was on the in the press line with a camera crew and a microphone that said HTV. He's like, yo, you want to do an interview. I'm like, what the hell are you doing? Yeah, you were there. He was there, and he said, I own a TV station, So that sounds I'm doing I'm gonna do. I'm doing interviews. I was like, are you coming inside? I think no, I ain't going in there. It's crazy. This is Let me Herbie is Let me honest. Let me get you how to understand Herbie. Herbie is the type of guy. He is the template for any ball out producer. He is the template. Like when I say the template puff Jermaine used to shadow Herbie all the time, you know, and Herbie is the only person I've literally like Herbie would pick me up one time, like we were just hanging out. This is like in the mid nineties. We we reconnected and we would just hang out every day for stupid stuff. Let's go get white Castle, let's do this, let's do it. And every single day, a different brand new car would pick me up. It would be a Hummer, would be whatever was hot at the time. But I've never met a person with forty cars. Like literally, no, I'm not I'm being literal. I've been in a garage that a friend of ours own and I was like, nine elevens Benz isn't like like who he said, all this is, this is what Herbie stores all his cars. But then go to l A and see the same amount of cars, same amount of cars in l A. You know it was didn't go to Miami and see the same like what are you doing? But he was not. But when I say when I say that, it wasn't like he was the type of person that would super blow his money. He would just come up on I don't know how he did it, and he made you gotta understand. Salt and Pepper has sold a lot of records, more than any female rapper. And they never want to say this, but like those albums sold five six seven million copies, and Herbie wrote all the rhymes and did the did all the music. So you're getting and you're getting those that royalty. That's a lot of money. And then you have Push It Pushes now a commercial song. So it's like and and he's the only producer that I know that was able to have say because there was some acts that people just never heard of anymore or heard of period. But he would have ten separate acts with ten separate deals commanding ten budgets at the same time, you know, and and and I think that the one thing that I, you know, have always respected and he puts the battery in my back as a producer, you know, always respected him as a producer. Um, a lot of people think he produced my stuff and that's that's f she never did. But um, as a producer, I had to give him so much respect for doing that. But I never understood why it never left his camp, Like why didn't you produce a record for Madonna? You know, why didn't you produce a record for I remember he did a remix for R. E. M. One time, and you know, we thought that was a big deal. But um, it never went past that. But didn't really have to because he had he had his own And and I never understood why if you were a captain of a ship, why not make everybody be on a record together. Everybody was so about themselves, including me, that we never figured that that switch out, you know what I'm saying with each other debut? You yeah, my god, Tarik lost his mind when he first saw it's the man we all knowing love, like, because he was trying to describe I didn't have uh, MTV in my part of town. So basically Twee would record it for me and then give me the tape on Monday. So he would describe it to me and he's just like, Yo, this is video Malcolm Jamara warreners in it kid and plays in it, and he's he's re enacting the entire video. Like so Tarik had already from and he starts with the Sesame Street thing. One of these kids, don't think he's like, He's like he basically said, it was like a cross between because like I was like, you know the premise of Class Act, the movie that was I was there that new great beats, I have a great Class Act. It was sleeping right, No, I got it was the worst best experience in my life. So I was supposed to be Doug e Doug's character. I got the role. I actually got the role. I flew to l A to start shooting and play goes, what are you doing here? I'm henna work? He even not he we wanted him, so, so they they chose Douggy Doug, which was a good choice. He's a comedian. I'm so not so that was cool. Yes, So they lobbied for him. That and so they said it had no idea that I even tried out. So they said, well, we will write apart for you. So they wrote apart called squirrel e Kid. Yeah. Um, I had to wear my own clothes. I had won my propeller hat and the the premise was the bully guy he I'm tired of him bullying me, so I pull out a thirty and he's supposed to knock the thirty eight out of my hand, pick me up, throw me out the window. So he does that. So in rehearsal, instead of him knocking the gun he was supposed to knock the guns this way out, he does it to where the gun comes this way and it whole side of my face, like the blood everywhere. Everything was crazy. So they had to shoot me from one side and then this random stunt guy was to do they throw out the window. But I was like, it's like, you know, it's a it's a it's a mistake. They thought I was gonna shue the movie company. I was just so hyped to be in a movie. I was like whatever, And then you know, I had a busting lip for like two weeks and then kept it pushing and so you know, but you know, that was an example of how you could be in the same crew, but yet you're still doing your your your thing, you know, because I cann't place you the lobby for me to be in the movie a little bit more, I could say that I'm not I'm not bitter about it, and we've talked about it, so it's nothing against them. They were on a path that they wanted to be on. But I can't understand, like, why why wouldn't Salt and Pepper be Tsina Arnold and I mean Titia Campbell and j sounded like why why why wouldn't that be s wait? Because Harvey did. But but I do know that story, that story was, that movie was made for no. It was originally written for um Groove Be Chill, but Groove by Chill wasn't big enough. They didn't, you know, they didn't think that was gonna be big enough to carry a movie. So then it was submitted to Jeff and Prince and I don't know what that politic was, Okay, So real quick house party. Yeah, you remember when Will and Jeff had their own Freddie song night Maryline Street, Well, New Line Cinema had already designated who's the most popular rap group out there. Yeah, the Fat Boys. So basically Will and Jeff. Will and Jeff had basically messed up the Fat Boys nightmare theme because their ship was way bigger than they. So New Line Cinema trying to sue Will and Jeff. And then this movie comes up because the Hutler Brothers really went jazzy jumping the Fresh Prince based on parents just don't understand and so a bunch of red tap whatever, and you know, they're like, no, they're trying to see us anyway from Nightmareland. We don't want a New Line Cinema. So then they went to Kit and Play. But but so what I'm talking about with Groovy Chill is pre all of that. It's the inception writing a script, and with them in mind, I think it was like Groovy Groove by Chill and Finesse and sent Quiz. That was like the inception of the script from from what I was told. You know, I could be wrong, so um, you know, so so, but just imagine it was a salt and pepper kid and play movie or you know. And then another thing with the House Party that was my other movie failure. I guess I was. I went to l A. I went to live in l A to be in the house party. Um, you know, Herbie gassed me up. You know, you can make a second album, you can make music for the movie and yeah, and then I get to the set, there's no nothing for me to do. But yet if you look at the movie, just like ten quam, look like in the house partying and all this stuff, and I'm like bumping the table. So I couldn't have done that, Like really, I couldn't have. Yall couldn't have said, okay, holmy, you can go. I can I can dance. You know, I could have danced well enough for the movie. So so it was things like that, even if you were family, are you saying that there was just in house competition with this is my do Daine like go get your don't use my platform. So they couldn't see the bigger pictures. I think the biggest picture with Salt and Pepper, and Salt and Pepper's platform allowed everybody else to be on a platform. For example, that n W a movie that you everybody saw straight out of Compton, that tour that they were on. That was me n W A easy kidn't play Salt and Pepper Um there that night I was on that tour, Yeah, so so, but but that took place because the power of Salt and Pepper was like, well, if you want salt and Pepper on this tour, you gotta take Kwama and kidn't play. But it was cool, you know, And the cool thing was that's how my my breakord sales grew because in the beginning of the tour they had no idea who the hell I was. By the end of the tour, you know, things were popping um and that honestly, the tour was only two weeks week and a half. It wasn't even it was supposed to be two weeks. I was but two weeks. To a kid, they're doing something they've never done before on tour, and it was so dope because it was like, you know the ordinances there, you know, no curse and no you know all these ordinances. So we would do things like all right, easy would come into our dress when we will all do things together. If anybody knows about tours, sometimes the closing acts always had the louder music, always have the better everything. But they did not want to do everybody had an equal sound, everybody at equal stage, um freedom room. But the plan was, Okay, look this is how we're gonna do kuam A. You're gonna go on and then you're gonna run off, and then Easy is gonna come on. Easy is gonna say all types of craziness and w A is gonna come in. We're gonna say all types of craziness. And on the last song, kidn't play, run on stage, Easy and them are going to jump in the crowd and run out straight out the arena. And this is thirty twenty thousand Seed arenas every night, so that's to avoid that was we were. We were playing trickery on the local police. We couldn't and it got to the point because of the police, it got to the point that we all no hotel within that city would accept us, so we would have to go to outlying cities and change our names. And it got even worse. Imagine a thirty thousand cedar no security because all the local cops, no, all cops boycotted, so they're like, look y'all want to say funk us funck y'all hope y'all die in there. So we would have to get on stage and be like, look, it was like local security guards with like yellow shirts and ship and we would have to be like, look, they want us to kill ourselves tonight, So what are y'all gonna do? We know this gang's in here, we know, we know what the type, we know this all types of people in here, but they want us to die. You know, Pete was on some of the show, so you know, Chuck would get in and say what he had to say that everybody speak their peace, like yeah, but but what we we It was so cool because the cleaner acts did pick up for the for the quote unquote dirty or acts. You know, too short was on the show, so whoever dirty comes on, has a clean guy gotta come on right after that. So it was just to make you forget. But it was never it was never um, it was never a thing where it was like I sold this many records so I'm going on last or anything. It was nothing like that because we understood it was us against them at this point. So we're on this, We're on this crazy tour and you know, probably the best two weeks of my life. You know, I imagine an n w A and kitdn't played tour like I mean, I mean it makes sense, but because hip hop got so divided. Yeah, like what about the fans who just came to see the good and fans who just came to see that there was no such thing the roots and future performing, you know what I mean. But see, you gotta you gotta nervous over territory. So like if you were I mean, you could be hitting in New York, you know, but you played. It happened for n W like that. By the time we reached we did the spectrum in Philly, it was cool, but once we went past Philly, kind of all bets was awful little bit for for well, at least Too Short n W A. It was a different story, but Too Short like Dumb Records never really reached the East Coast, but anywhere pre Philly, from l A to d C, Virginia. Too Short was the first rapper I've ever seen get on stage and never say a word. Thirty thou people knew every line to every song and at the end of the show, what's my favorite word? And that was the end of the show. Okay, Now, oh god, Now I got someone that has been in front of thirty thousand people during the classic hip hop era. My version of touring is very blue collars. You know. I mean you've seen a you know, Granola Cereal and Dave Matthews playing on Matthey's playing on the p A system in between acts. What give me? Just give me life on tour in nineteen nine, what's going on? So let me know everything? From from women on down? It was It's like, I'll give you like my stories, man, I'm telling you these things are crazy, like it'll be things like you pull up to a city. The reason why we were doing arenas because rap was so rap was like if I don't know if anybody's ever experienced a Mexican act that comes to like say Madison Square Garden or something like that, they don't because it's so compartmentalized. Everybody just goes to one place to see it. There were no clubs, you know, there was no club dates or anything. It was just like, all right, there's these rappers. How do we get everybody who likes rapping one place at one time? Do the basketball arena? You know? So it was like that. Um. So we would get to town and it would be things like um, just personal experience that got pull in and there will be a girl standing in front of the hotel, where's Carmel, Like, who's calling back? Carlo got the streets, where's Carmel? And that country puts out it's literally literally it'll be something where my point like he's in the back of that bus and by the time she got to the back of the bus, she was butt naked, like butt naked, big three hundred pounds. I want quant Carmel where he had rotten nap and and it'll be like it would be weird things like that, or I'll give you a um Milwaukee story. So the smaller obscure towns are the more craziest. Yeah, Calama Zoo, Madison, Wisconsin the craziest place, Calama Zoo. The references good. So like in Milwaukee, imagine like you know, we weren't in the fly hotels. We didn't get boutique hotels or anything. We were in holiday ends and Best Westerns or whatever. So the only people that could even match up with rappers at the time were drug dealers. Where you have like say you know, you come to say a route show, You'll be have actors there, You'll have um um athletes there. At this time, we weren't necessarily cool to Like Michael Jordan would never show up at a rap show. Malcolm Jamar Warner would yeah, yeah, but he was our age so it doesn't count. But Michael Jorge somebody like a baseball player, basketball player, an actor. For the most part, the biggest person that would ever show up to anything would be Bobby Brown and Mike Tyson, so you know that those guys would be the ones that would run with us. But anybody else we were like those nasty ass rappers. They hudlums and so so, so we weren't ever any anything posh. So we would get to like say, the holiday in and the only people that would be around us were the local drug dealers. So you know, like we knew them all, we were friends with them all. So those are all of them, all of them, J Prince. Everybody you just run down the line. Whoever was hot at the time was popping. Everybody who was popping, and they were young enough to like rap very well. But see, but but that's when we we go to Houston. That's who who took care of everybody? You know, that's not see I don't want to stay. This is before getting to the story. I don't understand the the flashing lights over the name J Prince, I don't get. I don't personally understand because he was just homie when we got to um. He had the rolexue hook up, he had the club hook up, he had the girl hook up. He would show you know, you know, uh Scarface, Yes, scar Face would come. He would be at every show before he was Scarface, scar facing Bushwick Bill. We would know them because they had a laminate. They used to rock laminates from every single show that ever happened in Houston. Ever. They would always be in you know, Dana used to live with J. Prince, so you know, I don't. Yeah, So so you know in Dana wccole, Yo, man, this dude got elevated in his house. So so you know, and all we knew was J Prince had rap a lot records and you know, like, okay, so I don't I personally don't understand Prince. Yeah. I don't good that you don't because it might be a little and it's maybe I don't don't very well. But yeah, no, no, what I'm saying, it's maybe my lack of my my ignorance and research. I can only go. I can always you know, go back and see, Okay, what do I Maybe you was a dude everybody loves, but it's just it was just never a situation. You never had to check in with anybody when you got to a certain time. You never it was just everybody. So I'm saying the people that, so to add on to that or ask going to that, when did you lose that feeling? Like when did hip hop suddenly become a foreign city to you? Like, wait, what's going on here? Like I wanted to tell my Milwaukee story. No, no, no, but that's like, that's so Milwaukee. So so we're all in this holiday inn and it's nothing but the local hustlers in the hotel with us. So imagine you have one side of the hall and all the rooms are connected. So it's my room here, Tasha, who sings only you here? Tap money here? You know, everybody and all of and how we usually do it. Told us leaves the six in the morning. If you missed the bus, you left, and so flavor flavor, somebody would always be on all bus because they would always miss But we have these connecting rooms and so at some point all of us could be in one room and the other four rooms could be empty. So I'm in my room packing. Tasha's in one of the room. She comes back to my room. She goes back to her room and she starts crying, what's happening? Bot This brand new louis for time bag and my ship is going like, how who could have gotten into your room? But basically, somebody went into one room, gotten and started robbing room. So the hotel manager brings her license up. They found the bag and the license on the ground in the lobby, so they bring it back up. She puts the bag of way, goes like a dumbass, goes into another room. They come back into her room, steal the bag again. So we're like, all right, that find his back. She's hysterical her mother gave it us bag, blah blah blah. So we start knocking on every door. Mind you, there was a guy that would come knocking on the way. Man, we're the party yet, Man, we're the party yet. So he was the scout. You know, nobody's paying attention. So we're knocking on the doors and we opened one door and I see the scout dude, and I'm like, yo, man, he was in my room and so little me, I'm popping ship. He don't know that I got like twenty dudes in the hallway behind me. So I bust open the door and her bag is hanging on the um on the door on the side door. So I said, you got my ship. You came in my room, valuated him doing all those New York Shire She's like, man, you better back up. I said, if anybody comes to me, punch him in the face. So one guy comes up, knock him and then all I hear they had a sweet All I hear, is there you go? I kid you not like seven dudes came out of this back bedroom with guns. But this is the the click speedos on what speedos, Cowboy boost and the cowboy hat and sub automatic machine gun. Yeah. I was like, what, yo, you ever see you ever see that that gift where with Homer Simpson just backway the Irish exit, Yo, I was like, But it was things like that that would always besides the girl. It was like so many weird girl stories, like girls with it will be like pulling up and doing a instore when there were record stores to do in stores at and you do the instore, these like little kids being in little girls and being there and um, and then like two hours later, you get a knock on the door and is grown woman to show up to the to the room and this nice dress, like yeah, I found out you were here and I'm gonna and then you know, you're like seventeen, you're ready to get in and and she goes, you know, you don't remember me. I was the girl you met at the in store, the twelve year old. She's like it was like a whole and it was like and and and it was like, yeah, I stole my mom's she worked nice and she don't know I took her dress, blah blah blah, like what we gotta get you home, you know, and you know what it was like. It was so crazy. It was and it started to be known that these young girls were doing it or it was and I don't know, it might happen still like this today, but it'll be things where girls are being the room and you're here, husband's just knocking on every door crying with exactly, or it'll be things like, um, this was the crazy thing. Whole Moms would bring their daughters and like because the mom wanted to meet, say LLL. The daughter wanted to meet me, so the MoMA Black, I'm gonna just leave her here in the room with you. I'm gonna go meet you know. It was stuff like that, The mom wanted to meet Albie Shore, Bobby Brown or Keith sweat Train, and then then then and then the worst then the craziest thing, you know, because back then music literally, at at this point before I say, pre ninety two, music was just hot. Music was hot music, and anybody went on tour with anybody, you would have the whole sheriff's department. They know somebody was in town. The whole sheriff's department would show up at the hotel, knock on every door and check I D. And there's been many, especially roadies, many Rohadi's arrested for suspicion of statutory rate because they would have a girl in the room. The girl would be fourteen, the roadie would be twenty something. They would check I D. The girl wouldn't have any I D. So the girl would have to call the parents. The parents was superheated at the fact that this random guy from Bushwick whatever it is, with their daughter. You know, it was crazy stuff like that. You know, you know, nobody was smart in any sense of the world. It was just like Pete Bobby Brown, prebody, No, this is current Bobby. This is Bobby Brown and his Bobby Brown was this was during the same time. This is all at the same time. I feel like during that that's when it shut down, like mid nineties, between Bobby Brown and Luke Luke. Yeah, yeah, so so. But but to your question about um, what, yeah, I know, I women, I know, women, you know it was. But but see the thing is, it wasn't. We look at it as a certain way now, but I think back then it was just I want to liken it to Woodstock, you know how everybody wild out in Woodstock and no one put you know, like there was sex on the lawn and in the mud and all that. But nobody said, well that was a whole doing it. You know, nobody did that. It was just like people doing sex and drugs. So in the eighties, I would say, I would think from Mellie Mail's time all the way up to say, there was no definition of it. It was just kids gone wild. It was literally that. Because then after that then the label started and freak nick started to coming in and then all this all this crazy stuff. Then things started. It started to have an ugly face to a lot of things that were going on. But I think to answer your question, when I think the end of I would say an era, golden era, I would say um with death, row with with n w A, honestly with UM, the beginning of bad Boy. With with that. It started to put things in boxes and rappers. We definitely all wore our costumes at the time, but now there were designated costumes that you had to wear. If you were from the East Coast, you had to look like this, and you had to wrap like this. If you were from the West Coast, you had to look and wrap like this. And MTV came into full stream, like every neighborhood started to have that cable now and your MTV wraps is now really at its height. And that was the imagery that was pushed across the world. So that's why a lot of people will think rap starts with Tupac and Biggie, because that at that point is where it turned into a corporate hydra and and and I don't think people understood what they were falling into because it was now now there was money, you think a commercial. Yeah, you understand what a top artist gets on tour, right, quest So the top the top pay for somebody in nineteen ninety was maybe I remember Salt and Pepper was getting twenty two thousand UM a show, you know, and that was like, oh ship, yeah, that sounds great. Mc hammer was probably the top um and he was at five. That's crazy. A good a good rapper, like if you're really popping and you have like maybe a goal out because like selling goal is now the equivalent of like twos platinum. So if you had a goal to platinum album, you can probably get twelve to fifteen thousands. Your agent, well, no, no, I see him, Mark Mark Um Mark, I see him was was my agent at the time. But you know there were several agencies that we would just bounce from. You know, there was all these weird little agencies and but you know, so the money wasn't you know the hottest you know, I was pushing the Volkswagen. You know, that was like the hottest whip, you know. And you know the only person that had like a super ill car besides Herbie every b for some some reason pulled out a Rolls Royce one day and everybody was like, how the hell, how the hell? It was an old one, but it was like, how did you get that? You know, no, no, not, you would be surprised. Not um and um I think that. Um. I think that at the glow of of of hip hop and being a rapper and being in hip hop at the time was a full body experience. So people just acted that way. Then once came along and you you started following the mega trends, it just it just turned, it turned everything into a big money game. People made a lot of money, ladies and gentlemen. I hate to do this to you, but you're gonna have to wait for part two with our interview requam me on Quest Love Supreme and which he gets into it about the big situation and produce him for a lot of hip hop notable. Uh so, we'll see you on the next round Quest Love Supreme only on Pandora. Sorry see you, Quest Love Supreme. 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