The Breakfast ClubBest Of Full Interview: Marsha Ambrosius On Linking With Dr. Dre, Blending Genres, Self Care, New Album + More
Best of 2024 - Recorded June 2024 - Marsha Ambrosius On Linking With Dr. Dre, Blending Genres, Self Care, New Album. Listen For More!
Wake that ass up in the morning.
The Breakfast Club Morning. Everybody's the j Envy Jesse, Larry Charlamage the guy. We are the Breakfast Club. We got a special guest in the building. Yes, indeed we have Marsha ambrosis. Welcome back.
What's happening, Hi, guys Marha seven eight years.
Eight nine years, spend a long time crazy. How are you feeling?
I'm great?
How are you doing well?
That's black and Holly favorite.
I mean, you got so many classics to me late nights, early morning, friends and lovers, Nyla, you've done it again with Casablanco.
Thank you you heard it?
Yes, absolutely, they gave it to you.
I feel it's such a vulnerable feeling when people would like have it now, it's like not real, but this is all the dream.
Well, congrats, thank you. So I heard it was your mom that actually uh got you the link back up with doctor Dreams.
What she did, in true scalse of fashion, the Liverpudlian that she is, she hit me up and said.
Using words we have no idea.
That was means you were born and raised in Liverpool, Liverpudlian. Right, so I'm born Liverpool born and raised. So my mom calls me.
Me. Mom calls me and says, oh, Marsha, have you spoke to her, ma'am doctor Dre lately.
No if I don't even think she referred to him as doctor Dre. She just said Dre like I was supposed to know who that was. And I'm like, no, mam, I haven't spoke to Dre lately. And I was like, all right, I'll call them up. So this is around about the end of twenty twenty December, so I give him a call, say what's up. We reconnect. It's like, I'm working on a couple of things. I'll send you a couple of ideas.
So we started shooting ideas back and forth what would then be the GTA video game.
But I didn't know that that's what was being worked on. You know, Dres just like, let's just work. You never know what's going to happen. So we're going back and forth and a couple of weeks go by, and the top of twenty twenty one, he had a brain aneurysm and I was on the treadmill when I found that out, like looked at my phone and you know, it popped up.
Whatever news outlet, and it was like what I just talked to him like less than twenty four.
Hours ago and made all the calls, found out everything was okay and stable. Twenty four hours after that, he called me said.
Look, Marsh, I'm cool.
I'm in recovery, but I want to get back to work. So I want to get you out to LA and let's just figure some things out.
So he in a hospital bed calling you like, look, we got to get back to work.
All I know was like plugged up, plug up. On the way back, I said, okay, doctor Dre, whatever you say.
And within a couple of weeks, I was in LA most of that year twenty twenty one, and the creation of Casablanco happened a couple of months after that, so it was really all the GTA stuff. And then I told Dre that I was overdoing this artist thing. Nyla's mothers now and I just want to chill, like I just want to produce and write. I've never been a uh pick me. I want to be in front of the cap No.
I was done, and he said, yeah.
Nah, are you was done with music?
Yeah?
Really?
Yeah?
An artist like I was always going to create, but the whole being the artist thing. I was like, I've done everything that I could possibly do on a this bucket list that I tried to create for myself, I've surpassed.
My bucket list was on the bucket list.
I'm just curious get signed, win a Grammy, lose some Grammys.
I don't know, like work with.
My favorite artists, like regular stuff, but my actual things.
I didn't write, Oh.
Work with Michael Jackson, work with Prince, work with Stevie, work with Doctor Dray. I didn't write those things out loud, but I wanted those things, and it achieved that. By now, this is twenty four years in for me, so I'm like.
Ah, what's next. I'm on my Quincy Jones mission.
Yeah, I know, you write for other people and produce for other people with just something about your sound and your music that I don't think.
Nobody else can deliver.
Your voice, your energy is something about a Marsha ambrocious album that's just different than everything else that's out there.
This is true.
I'd done those I felt like I'd said all the things that I wanted to say up until that point.
I say all that to say.
I told dra this over like we had a party for the kids at his crib chilling, and I'm like, look, Dread, I want to do this no more. I'm really into producing, I'm writing. I love this team. I want to stay creative. But as far as me doing it, and he was like, yeah, nah, I just want to keep you creative. I just want to keep you inspired. And we did one song in particular. I can safely say the titles now.
Yes.
So we started with a song that used to be called Curfew because there's a line where I say, let's fall in love before the street lights come on. And I was like, mm before curfew. Andre was like, no one likes curfew. No one likes the curfew. So it was we used a sample from A Night in Tunisia. Oh, and I called it too Nizzian Nights.
Oh that's that class. It's a classic jazz record, right.
So it's a classic jazz record. It starts the way we sampled it. We used this elaborate piano intro that Bluetooth came up with, and I just started singing this intro, and then that A night in too Nisia hits, and then it goes to an entire nas situation and then the Mary thing gets into it, and it's just all of these things, and it was that magic happening in the studio at.
That moment that we knew, you know, you know, you know.
It was one of those moments like sometimes in the studio you're creating and it's like, oh, this is fire, it's cool, We'll go home.
Listen to the beat.
Everyone in that room felt something shift, felt something new happen. And to have done everything that I've already done musically, everything that Dre has done, we'd never done this. So we were onto something and it felt like we had to see it through. So Casa Blanco became a destination. Casa Blanco became the mood, the vibe, the standard, and we just took.
It from there.
I like the pedestal you put hip hop on on this album because just because just musically, it just shows how much of a classic musical art form hip hop is. The fact you can go from a that Tannisian records like from the forties, right, yeah, the fact you can go from nat to.
No to nineties, right and it blends perfectly, seamlessly. It doesn't a lot of things that we did on this album shouldn't make sense. Like I truly believe we will be in the Guinness Book of World Records for how many things we sampled and the way that we sampled them.
So no we tang.
Duke Kellington and Michael Jackson aren't supposed to fuse. But on thrill Her did you know? So it's yeah, it was a wild ride, but one of the most amazing experiences I've ever had, not only recording it, just the entire process even getting to this point, even it's taken so long to get a release date for it to be available, like the entire thing has just been No one's done this before.
Now, how you talk about you talk about inspiration right in Charlama, say how you inspired so many people, But you must have inspired Doctor Dre as well, because we haven't heard music from Doctor dra we haven't seen him executive produce things. We've only heard rumors, and like it's almost like a teathing.
Ever comes out.
You hear Doctor drect reduced such and such album, but you never hear this.
He recently said this in a bit in a in an interview he recently did and said, and I absolutely believe this.
He may have only released.
Five percent of the music that he's ever recorded. Wow, and now working with him as extensively as I did during the pandemic.
It's absolutely true. And he doesn't do it purposefully.
It's because he loves the creative process, and it's like, no, this is just for us, this is ours.
What did you do? How did you? How are you one of a few people do you think happen?
I'm the only.
Only there's not one person before or after. I don't even think this happens again that has an entire project solely produced and mixed by Doctor Dre.
How did I do it? Not clear? But I know that I did it.
I know that this is something that he'd never done, and I feel like that that was the driving force for.
It to be something new.
He could have just did a hip hop rerecord. It could have just been a soul armed. It's none of those things. It's something so specific, so different, but so familiar, and I feel like we were both going through a similar situation. It was he had health scare, Eyda healthscare. The pandemic is happening. It felt like the end of the earth during that time, so it felt desperate in a way. It felt if we don't do this and this world ends tomorrow. What's the mark that we actually leave on planet Earth? And musically, like you said, I've done things that you know, a Marsha Ambrosius album is this specific thing. If I had to leave it all on the floor and put up my triple double and win a chip, that's this album.
If it was all said and done.
Like okay, apocalyptic world that we're now in because of the pandemic and many other things, it was that it was out of desperation and feeling like I could have lost my life.
Drake could have lost his. We didn't.
We survived these things. We're now post COVID. How do we navigate through this? And what does that sound like? And that's why and how this happens. So yeah, drab and inspired by me, I'm inspired by him and it just took off.
That's what the title means.
So Casablanco I initially within a week of recording what we knew this was going to be. After Tunisian Nights, he threw out some album titles, a couple of which were things like I sing or I Sing more of a one of those, and I was like, Drake, we need an actual title, like what is this? It was like, I mean you sing motherfucker is it? So I'm like, no, Dray, it needs to be a title, like what is this thing? So I was in a spoiled circumstance where I'm driving through the Beverly Hills, like just Hollywood Hills every day to the destination to record, and it felt very vintage Hollywood, like the lights, the lambs. It was glitz, glamour, red carpets, the whole nine, and I felt under dress for the studio every time I.
Got there based on what we were creating. And so it was strings.
It was a symphony, but it painted these pictures and I was like, no, it feels like a place. It feels like Casa Blanca. And it was like, okay, Casa Blanca, it said, but nah, it's that Dray shit. So it's a little bit more gangster than that, like Casa Blanco, like Giselda Blanco. So the fusion of that very vintage jazz Hollywood feel meets hip hop is how Casa Blanco became what it was.
What it is and all you make it feels like it's soundtracks to make love to, of course, like nothing more, nothing less.
Why is that.
I have no clue. It's just in me. It's ridiculous, Like I've had this.
Well, a friend of mine recently was like, how do you even come up with another one this? Why not even in a place of desperation, and even in a place of the world was over, I still find a song to make love to.
And it's a gift. And it's a gift.
One night stand music too good to have a one night stand too, Like, that's not the type of music you have one night stand to.
Well, that was the point.
My one night stand is now ten years long, okay, And I'm saying so I definitely lent from other experiences and wild drunk nights over the course of you know, Grammy open bar. You know, it gets very ridiculous. So yeah, those those one nights, they're a part of that song too. But ultimately it's that one night that could be your forever.
Have a bunch of people that'll be like, you shouldn't have one night stand?
Why not?
Exactly?
I don't know where it's gonna go. Like if you don't, everything is a one night stand if you think about it.
So we've all done it.
It's whether or not it lasted or it didn't, but you shouldn't be Oh, I'd never do that if I didn't do it ten years later in a seven year old, maybe that doesn't happen if I don't just you know what I mean, Like if I don't say.
Hey, I gotta I want to ask. So I want to go back to what you said. You said the health scare in your child. How did that change your life? With the healthcare in your child? Because I guess if the baby was six seven years old, happened right before COVID, so you pretty much raised the baby during COVID.
It's just COVID babies are different. It's ridiculous, Like, but for me, how it all changed.
It changed all of us, you know. So it was.
Being a bit more sensitive, being a bit more open, and I feel like.
All of our issues, all of our.
Mental health, health, everything was on the table because we could all see each other. Now we had way too much time to spend with ourselves. So you were like, oh, you're I see you and we're going through exactly the same thing. So there was much more, well for me anyway, much more dialogue. Even though suicide skyrocketed, like all of these things, all of these numbers, all of these things are happening, and I have my baby, I have my husband, I have my own bubble that allowed me to feel safe amidst the chaos like it was. It still is chaotic, but that was my peace and me being able to be grounded, so that that definitely helped. By at the same time, being in a dark place. I don't think there's anything that could bring you out of that, and that was terrifying during the pandemic. And I'm pretty sure for anybody where you're like, not even your kid could bring you. No my mother, my father, my brother, like close friends could. This is what Casablanco ended up being. Casablanco when the timing of it all was I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. Now I was over the other side of that dark place. And even with this tentative, oh there's going to be a release date or we had think about the samples on this album, we literally took over a year to clear the samples, and I didn't mind that because I felt like I still needed time to heal. So waiting for this release date was almost like when I say a death date. It was Okay, that's the end of that era. So whenever it was happening, it was like, Okay, now it's June twenty eighth. I was like, that's the end of all this madness that I had to get through to get to it. So it was like, if I can survive that long, I made it. So what, We've got a couple of couple of days to go until we get there. I didn't think I'd see this moment at one point. So to get here and to be happy and to be in a space that I'm in, it's just wow.
Wow.
Is that where the song I guess self care on right might come.
But even that is a song to make.
Love to yea a form of self care.
Right, it's self care. It's being in tune to oneself. Put the do the math one plus one is there? Do you? So? Yeah, self care And no matter who's wrong or who was right, it was just don't leave me and don't leave that feeling.
And once the.
Music started, it was all of those emotions and even in that, like you said, it all came back down to in true Marsha ambrosiest fashion right in that love song. Still, so I'm just glad to be able to do that.
What's the wrong right part of it? Though? Like what let mean, who's wrong self care? Wrong right with?
So initially those were two separate songs, and the self care was I needed to do me figuratively literally, so by the time we got too wrong right, it's me inviting that person then into my space and it's given me good like you so hood like please don't go.
It's that.
You're so wrong right now for even trying to let me let my guard down. Because I was so cool with just letting me do me and then here comes this m this ugh, this fine dark chocolate swept me off my feet and let me put my guard down, and I'm a leo and that's hard for me to do. So when it has happens, it's both terrifying.
But the the fear.
And the lioness comes out in aggression and anger and a lot of sexual appetite that is or you know anyone that knows that knows, And yeah, that was You're so wrong right now.
What did y'all meet? Where did you meet your husband on tour?
On tour?
How did that go down? Because when you're talking about him, you just you started mouse started salamating and you just start getting together.
Turn it in beyond.
Because you say, I'm thinking about the song wrong, right, and I'm like.
Hey, and be thinking about your man. Turned.
I'm just saying. I'm just saying she was just so excited. I'm just asking that's where the music love is love. It got me thinking about my wife. All right, I'm sorry, get.
It, it's fine.
No. We met on on tour ten years ago and I saw him.
It's ten years later. I said, you know, when you.
Know, you know, and you keep like all the movies that you see that's corny shit, like never happy, Yes, it did.
It was.
I seen him and he had a red fit on and I was like, who is that? And I approached him like yo, what's up? And we got to talking and we haven't stopped talking since.
You need to write a book called one Nights Thing, because there's so many people who think you got to make the man wait thirty days or sixty days or ninety days.
There's so many formulas to it. MAFE.
You don't just follow your intuition because it all depends on what type of person you are, Like there are people that are I've never been I'm not approaching unless I know it's for sure.
I don't know.
There's many formulas to it. So even if I did write a book, I'm going with what worked for me. I'm not giving you the manual to how this works out, like, ooh, you too can find your ten years later, you know what I mean. Like, I'm not giving it as game like that.
I'm saying, if you.
Saw what it was that you wanted and you didn't make your move, that's on you, because then you will sit there and ponder and be like, well, what if I just said something?
But if I just approached. But by the.
Time that I did, and it was what it was, and I knew that it was more than just that one night in Philadelphia, that one night in Chicago, that one night in Virginia, that one night in La Now it's many nights. Now it's all you want to move in? Sure, moved in together. And then it's oh, you want to go back to the UK for Christmas with me, meet my whole family.
Sure? And then by April we were pregnant. Wow, that serious. It counts ridiculous when I say no.
When I say ridiculous, it's like, that's the timeline though, you know, and we were both very sure.
I can't remember what song it is. Maybe it was greedy, what's the what song? Maybe I'm tripping it sound you was talking about having a threesome.
Oh, thrill Her. That was a dream not really came true, but a fantasy. So thrill Her was a drunken high night. I want to say I took that story from what was it?
Atlanta?
No, this one might have been at LA. It was definitely a Grammy week and I painted the picture. He came in drunk as hell, give some head. Then a knock at the door and it's another chick. I'm like, who the is this? And I'm like, oh, it's about to go down. Oh it might have been a Philly story too.
There's like a lot of stories involved.
So yeah, when people hear this album, they can claim them yeah that was me, and then.
Uh, it's just great. I love that you. Yeah, it's a it was a wild night, but it was a dream.
Who knows, Okay, I don't know. It sounded real to me either.
Sounded real to me too.
And the album is very like nineteen ninety now, like how do you have such a nostalgic feeling, but feeling but keep it fresh, because.
That's what I mean. Any hip hop conoissour or R and B head nineties is just it's unmatched. It was a time if it weren't outside, just say that. And I feel like with this album to have grasped what the NASAs of the world were doing then the Mary's of the world were doing then, but making it now. It's because that was timeless and that's I think we're all the same age, like our generation of timeless like, whereas our parents it's Temptations, it's you know, earth wind Vice. Okay, even later than that, but it was timeless music. So it survives now and sounds fresh now because it was that good then. So I couldn't integrate, I want to say, couldn't didn't really want to integrate what we feel like hip hop is now or R and B is now. I can only lem from what I really know and me creating in my creative process has always come from the Jodasy era.
It stops and starts there.
It's Jodasy, that's my R and B like ultimately, so my hip hop is nas it's Jay So it's all of those things in one album. That make it fresh because it was good then, so it's gonna be good now. Like singing what's a classic to you give any class? Right, so you sing that now it's then, but it's absolutely now because it was that good then. And I feel like I've always, when I say, attempted to write timeless music for me to sing say yes or Butterflies. Now I can, but that is twenty four years ago for me in my real time times four years later, absolutely timeless. So to create a Casa blanco and know that twenty four years later that can still live, that's the goal.
It's like, what is your tomorrow?
And musically I've been doing things that could live for tomorrow whenever that future is.
I just love the fact that a nas illmatic can inspire something like this because when I hit it out, I hear a lot of I hear a lot of illmatic.
Yeah, and that was unintentional.
I guess with that first Tunisian Nights, it's trying to outdo how we implemented unintentionally nas in there. And it was all of these things because hip hop back then was still lending from classic jazz records, so it only made sense that we not only borrowed from what the nineties did with those samples, but reinventing and elevating them in the only way that a doctor Dre can And did you know?
So I was gonna ask, you know, you talk about doctor Dre only releasing five percent of the music that he actually made. How much music did y'all make and had? What was the process of trickling it down from the amount of songs you made to this eleven?
You know what's crazy?
We made about twelve or thirteen songs really and knew when it was time to start. We knew it when it was completed. And the only reason why the other two didn't make it is because one of them it made the album play a little longer than we felt comfortable with and it matched another song on there like evenly, like if you had to get rid of one of the other definitely that one though, and one of them we couldn't clear, like get nah.
One of them.
So I was like, okay, we can't clear that one. We have an album and Dre in the creative process has like a whiteboard on the wall, We'll write the titles for each song.
We just looked at it and was like that's it. That's it. We're done.
So between April, end of April twenty twenty one and end of May, we were completely done with recorded and vocally. I recorded everything, written everything, and we took a couple of weeks off and reconvened and dre said twenty seven piece orchestra.
So we were at Gower Studios.
Eric Gorefain did the string arrangements and we were in with the orchestra listening to them go crazy on this album that we created, which was already doing what it was going to do. This symphony just took it to another place, like just didn't even make any sense. So by the time that's happened, it's just timeless in that way.
How does you know, really thinking about your mortality and like you know, maybe I guess, being face to face with definite way, how did that change just everything about you.
As an artist, as a person.
I don't know if you can see it.
I'm so happy and chill, like nothing can really like phase me. And if it's anything that does kind of interfere with my peace.
It's whereas I would get upset.
Or combative or defensive about things in the past, it's Okay, that's how you feel cool, Like there's so many more important things than being mad about anything or holding onto things unnecessarily, like that brush with what you think death looks like, and that flash across your eyes of like like that was it. The things you think were important never were, And by the time you get your life back, it still feels.
Like that, like it's not important.
Importance, Like prioritizing the importance of things in your life changes, like it's not important.
But you know, with you taking so much time off, it's part of the reason, Like I just don't want to deal with the noise, with the people talking, with the social media, with the conversations. It's just you have a clear mind when you don't deal with things and people.
Not necessarily that. I love people. I love the Internet. It's very entertaining space.
So it was never that it was the obligatory having to do it, the whole artist thing. It's the interviews, right, it's the no Now I have an itinerary.
Yeah, let's just live with chill and maybe.
Do stuff for fun and live how the other side lives or whatever you think.
That looks like it was always that, But as far as noise, I think I've I forced myself.
To engage to get perspective on where people are actually at in their lives, to understand me more, if that makes any sense, because I couldn't. I think during the pandemic we all internalized a little bit more and.
Understood ourselves a bit more.
But I think not enough people were sharing that for the fear of being looked at crazy, because you have more time to think about who you were, why you were and if all I had to end tomorrow, what what did you do? You were here, so all of these things are happening, and I was okay with noise. I feel like I was more terrified of the silence.
We say okay with the noise, meaning you didn't mind people discussing and talking and oh not like, but you feel like you're still there.
Yeah, Like if I if I wasn't there, I don't know. I want to say, it doesn't matter. I think I was engaging in conversations and catching up with at such and such on a Twitter or at blah blah blah, because it was oh, we're still here, We're still able to communicate you okay, but it was negative or positive.
It was like you've made time.
You're talking about it regardless.
Yeah, so it was like you've made time.
It's the fear of not talking about you.
But yeah, I didn't mind that. It was life.
I was comfortable with again and all of it in all of its noise. So I think for anyone during the pandemic, that silence, it was like the zombie apocalypse, like, is anyone here? Am I crazy by myself? We're all gonna die?
What's happened? Like? It was the silence, especially if.
You've never if you've never done any internal work, you never did no therapy, if you never did no meditation, if you never have it on no healing journey, and that was your first time having to deal with yourself.
That's noisier than anything. You and your thoughts by yourself, screaming at times, and then it was quiet, but then it was peaceful, and then it was okay, let me breathe, and everyone okay, everyone good, you know, And it felt like.
That you learn new about yourself during that time.
I have way more patience than I thought.
I'm terrible, like terrible, like Uber eats, where you at with my food delivery?
You said you made a left turn? What do you mean you're still waiting. What do you mean you're.
Yeah, I'm terrible. I don't like waiting. I got no patience and I hate waiting.
So get your.
Favorite line.
Yeah, patience didn't have any Now I have all of it because it's oh, it's not happening right now?
Cool before What do you mean why went.
I don't even care when they don't care. It's I can't do anything about time, and it's I thought I had time at one point and when I realized I had none. Oh, Now I'm patient with everything because now I feel like I've held onto more time than I could have had.
So that's different.
I was watching the R and B Money podcast shot the tank end you comment. I guess you were joking. I don't know if you were joking or not talking about you thought Stevie Wonder really can see now, and people took it as they were mad at you for a little bit mad at me.
How I don't know, because if you're a Stevie Wonder fan, what I said was he can see if you listen to the music.
To be one of the.
Most prolific, descriptive songwriters of our time, how can he not?
And maybe not in the way that you believe that that is.
But his pen game makes you visualize us with actual sight, visualize everything. He was saying, that's a gift.
That's what I said.
Yes, he can see because there's no way. He says, I never dreamed you'd leave in summer, and I literally see the summer day he's referring to.
That's not fair. Mary wants to be a superwoman, and I know who Mary looks like.
I've already made that character. The song plays a nice see it Stevie more than any song where I are, I believe on planet Earth has made me see a song the way Stevie does.
That's what I said. I said, what I like, I said, That's why.
I said, I get what you're saying. He might be blind, but he got vision.
It's a difference, speaking of vision. To use that song on Casta Blanco. I remember Dre, actually he might.
Dre was nervous about using the Stevie record or like asking him, like, yo, listen Stevie and see what he thinks. I'm like, okay, crazy, but yeah, we got to use visions on Casa Blanco and with Stevie's blessing and bucket list, Like wow, this fake bucket lists. I keep making up, like I'll check that one off.
You know, did he want to hear it?
Or oh yeah, yeah hear it?
So I mean we had to go through that process.
But did he love it? Did he give any creative input?
We had creative input because I did curse in that song at some point in the bridge. But I when I curse in music, it's for emphasism.
So I think with this one, I've taken it too far.
Steve was like now, now, now, and he might have cursed during and like not like he might have cursed trying to tell us not to curse.
But it was necessary. I took it out. It makes sense. I didn't have to.
I wanted to in that emotional moment though, and did and maybe live Steve you.
With it.
Still sing that same line that I did. But yeah, it was a it was a wonderful experience.
Did Stevie FaceTime zoom?
I want to say it was a phone call that I and dre It spoke to him also, So yeah, how involved is d We're just gonna let that one do this cool?
You call it as long as you caught him. Absolutely, you caught it smooth. I love it, FaceTime, I love it.
How involved is Dre as far as creative direction and like just taking your input?
Oh for this.
This was a complete hand in hand fifty to fifty battle of the creative minds. And his respect for me, My respect for him allowed us to really do this.
And he's a genius. I'm me and he's he said that I was a genius.
You are to me, which is it's crazy to hear it from from who I'm looking at, a genius and he's looking like it's like the Spider Man me. We're all doing this in the studio and he's like, yeah, I'm Dre and I do this thing. But I ain't tell Michael Jackson what to do, so that you're absolutely right, I did that one. So there was just a respect level there and he let me push boundaries in a way that I'd never done one this Dray's budget and he's literally saying, no limits. You can do whatever you want. If you had to make the perfect song and implement all of these things, what is that just do it.
I didn't think that.
Me having Wu Tang, Duke Kellington and Michael Jackson on one song was possible until we did it. I didn't know a Patrece Russian and the Mary j and Mary Jane girls one song could happen, but it did. All of these things were happening because Dre said no limits and it's unreal, for real, for real, I if I'm honest, I've never done anything like this, like I've made music.
Before, but with the creative freedom.
And no limits on it allowed me to do things that I'd never done ever and may never will. Might really truly be the one of one, and I'll be okay with that.
Dannswer you don't think you'd put out another album as it is.
It's not even another album, it's not another this.
I'll create music for the rest of my life, whatever that sounds like, whatever that looks like. But this, in its moment, it's like, we can't recreate the timing of when these health scares happened, the desperation of what's happening with Planet Earth, the uncertainty of life, and why we made this album.
You know, we can only do celebritory like.
Happy to Be a live albums after this, you know, everything else is kind of just a But this album was made because we didn't think we'd ever get the chance to make one again.
How was it when you played the record for method Man during the Roots Picnic?
Most of my best friends standing behind me waiting to just hold him, like give me a mother man, please, because you listen to I mean, he's a dream.
I can still say that.
I know I'm married, my husband knows what it is the man, so.
To play him.
I remember when I was writing that moment in the song and the go outside and the rain sample is happening, and I knew the beat was about to come in, and I'm like, you got that, emmy T H O D man, do that thing you do those hands, kiss on this and make it dance, Take it baby, giving you permission with persistence.
Oh I l O V E I T And I.
Can't get enough of this ocean flow below my legs, swim in it, go diving inside inside my love babe, love you babe.
That's what right, ain't it?
Yeah?
So you film me like so to play it for him. Fantasy bucket list. You can't make up like this method Man, play wet the method Man, and just to see him blush when the moment came in.
And him do a little two step.
Right, two step to that give me all the audibles, said, he's going to be the leading man in the video, and it's you know, the Minie Riperton inside me at the end, and it's just all the things. It was a fantasy. All of this feels very surreal, like it's happening, but it's happening in real time. Like I get to go, hey, Stevie, listen to what we did with your Hey, George Benson. Here's Patrice Russian he is married, here's Nah's here's plain it. Just yeah, so Meth, thank you, Meth, my leading man.
I've got a couple more questions. You said you didn't tell Michael jacks what to do. Dre didn't tell Michael Jackson what to do.
Drey didn't.
Okay, okay.
So he's saying, basically his nod to me was I'm Dre and I've made several other goats, but you know I didn't tell Michael Jackson what to do.
That was you.
So it's I'm coming to the room with something that he's never done. Wow, So don't devalue what it is with you in the room. And I get that, and you have to understand the amount of people that have probably crossed parts and been in the studio with Dre and possibly gotten to a stage where they thought maybe a project is happening. This part has barely happened. For like I said, that five percent is just the creating of the music. The actual artists that get to be at this part only happen if you're the five people that you can count six or seven maybe, but don't happen.
So it was it was that it's I'm one of MJ Cultable what yes.
And wanted to be like I think that was the I had a spoiled experience. I was just getting to you know, Atlanta, then get to Philly, get signed by the end of that year. Now I'm in the studio within less than a year of the time it took me to get to the States.
Then worked with Michael Jackson because he's heard this demo.
And we were here in New York Hit Factory and he was there to out. Michael Jackson was there in the studio two hours before call time, just warming up his vocal. He was that guy like he was great because he worked like unlike any other. And I'll never forget the first moment where he goes in the booth like that glass behind there, and it was I'm at the mixing board and Bruce swedeon or so too.
Andre Harris is at the board.
I have the talk back button, and the first chord happens and Mike just whispers like butterfly, and I just started crying Wow, immediately, just couldn't even hold it back.
Was just.
I'm in the studio, I'm twenty two, twenty three at that time, like those were my younger years, my formative years, and I'm doing this at that age.
Wow.
And then it was taught back one more time, might get your timing right, one more time, might make sure you, like vocally produce that entire song. But when I press play is only when I can hear the reality of that because it's steamless.
There's nothing wrong with that song.
And he allowed me, at my very young, naive, very green to everything industry, not only do me retain all my publishing and flourish in that studio as a vocally, as a vocal producer, producer and writer for that record, and.
Mike was just the king for all reasons.
Can you take us back? How did he hear butterflies. How did he hit a reference track? I said, I wanted that well.
I'd written the song.
When I was about sixteen seventeen in Camberwell, South London, about a boy that worked in McDonald's. I don't even know his name. I just knew that he was a neighbor's friend and he was fine as hell.
He gave you butterflies every time you went.
Every time.
So I recently put to McDonald's giving you bubble gud.
Then there's that I wasn't eating McDonald's like that though I never really ate my well, I did kind of, but I was basketball back then, so I was in athlete mode for sure. But Camberwell, the place that the McDonald's is in, is called Butterfly Walk, and I never put that together until we recently went back and started taking pictures there and I.
Was like, look at God, look at that.
So I ended up writing this song. Get to Philadelphia, year two thousands. That's a couple of years after that. Meet the team out of Touch of Jazz. One producer in particular, Andre Harris, who'd done two of my favorite Jill Scott songs, Long Walk and the Way, and I.
Was like, who did those two. Oh, that's Dray, that's Andre. I was like, I want parts.
So within a week, Andre Harris and myself had recorded Say Yes and Butterflies together, So Say Yes was for Ron Eisley. So we did that demo together, and that was with the intent that Ron Eisley was going to.
Do Say Yes for his album. He just didn't take it.
Restless History and then Butterflies a few days after that, five or slow in the morning, six or so in the morning, play the chords and like Dre, slow those down.
YadA, YadA YadA, and Butterflies happens. And John McClain, who ended up signing Flower Tree to Dream Works, was Michael Jackson's personal manager, so he has the demo, plays it for Mike, so listen, you have to listen to these girls. Listen to this demo, and Mike was like, I want that one.
Just Butterflies. Mike, you can have the entire album. Can't want it.
It's yours. I don't have to do another thing.
And that's how we heard it. We got the call in Philly out a touch of jazz. Everyone thought it was a prank. Call went to voicemail the first time, and then I think Jeff spoke to him, Well, Carvin spoke to I think Carvin said he spoke to him. He thought it was dre messing around.
We were practical jokers back of the day. And Mike, you don't really know. You think you know his voice.
Mike had a deeper, raspier voice, and I think he only used a higher tone just to preserve his greatness, like he didn't want to use or project. He was only using that for the booth or the stage, and that's it. So by the time we've spoken to him, this is the summer of two thousand. I was in the studio with him in New York the following year March, so it's like that quick wow.
Now you also mentioned Flower Tree fans were always would will flowr you ever do an album together again? Or that chapter your life is over?
Who knows? No chapters are closed.
And I think rewinding to what you said about you know, when I met my husband, I did a Flowa Tree tour twenty fifteen twenty sixteen, and that's when I met him, and then got pregnant the following year on the other tour, so it was like a back to.
Back hey reunion. It's all love and yeah, who knows?
Now?
Also, I seen Amanda Seals was on Club Shah and talks about she said that she thinks she wanted her to quit flow a Tree? Was that true?
The loaded question quit flower Tree is very vague. What was happening with Amanda Sells? And this is what because I won't spend a lot of time in this.
This is like a quick bit. When did we lost through the Breakfast Club?
Because this is like seven came up.
Yes, So initially the first thing I said about Amanda Sales is sorry, Like I can play the clip, you can go to YouTube and see it, and it was she was put in a position that she shouldn't have been in the first place, the label and management of trying to re establish what that was and it just didn't work. So by the time we've put all of these things into action, we've rehearsed a show and you've given it to the public. Everyone has gone, oh nah, and there's nothing I can do about that part. And this is also seventeen years ago, three weeks of a summer toll. We may have done like fifteen or sixteen shows and it just didn't work out. And that was the end of that, really, but we've had nothing but for me, And I'm saying like I, well for me, we'd had nothing but positive interactions thereafter. Like I saw her twenty thirteen, we took pictures together, we reminisced, and she'd been texting me throughout the years after that, nothing but positive vibes. So I'm in a good space right now, seventeen years later. So for whatever she believes that was, I don't think publicly we can do this combative. Well you said this happened, or I said this happened. I know exactly what happened on my end, But you know, it's kind of seventeen years ago. I've done all this healing between now and then. I'm not the same Like seventeen years ago, two thousand and seven, I'm still talking to Michael Jackson at that point, I've still got prints on speed dial, Like I was still very much Grammy winning, Grammy nominated me. That was in a position to do what I wanted to do at that point, moving forward. And here we are seventeen years later, and I'm still moving on. I wanted to moving forward, and Casa Blanco with Doctor Dre's about to drop and just in a different space.
You know, on the song Greedy, it makes me wonder that your husband ever hear certain lyrics and be like, you're talking about us because you say it's never enough to love you, same old lamb old. Ain't no way I'm ever gonna take that shit. I'm giving you everything and this the thanks I get.
Don't play that shit, even if it was Greedy.
During that time and even during the creative process of Casa Blanco, my husband and I had a conversation about where I was at mentally to create.
The actual.
Basically, he said I didn't have to be married mash and come from that space. And I understood what he said when he said that, because the love songs different if I'm attached to the relationship I'm in and having to kind of skirt around what that looks like. Those songs sound like don't Wait the Baby or just like old Times.
And they're different. With this.
It was you need to stretch that panem write from a space of you doing you and what does that sound like. So by the time I got to Greedy, I was angry at the world, like it's never enough to love anyone or anything, and then be satisfied in a way that you feel like you put your one hundred in and they only claim it's thirty percent. So I could give you the moon and it's like, well where the sun at? Like it's the Moon family that you don't want to you know.
And I feel like Greedy I.
Was talking about everyone. It wasn't even just about him, it was everyone and everything playing this tiger war of if you're not next to me, you feel as though you're missing out on something that you only gain by being with me or taking something from me.
I'm like, what's the endgame? Like what exactly do you want?
Because you're really upset, like you mad as fuck that you're not around me like that greedy.
M I love that song music on my mind.
You said it's a it's that Wu Tang me to Cold Traine, And what I love about that is like what I told you earlier is like you're putting hip hop on this proper pedestal of being like a classic musical art form?
Was that intentional throughout the project?
Maybe not intentional, but my affinity and adoration for hip hop has stemmed from me knowing.
All the words to beach street breaking, like.
Being overseas, getting all of these imported hip hop twelve inch records from my uncle and hip up you the love of my life, and I feel like on this album it only made sense that I made sure that that last music of my mind was my love letter to music, and I couldn't fit everything in, so I just gave you the bullet points of what those errors and time. So yeah, WU tang it to shout out. I even shouted out Mace and Cam before I even know they would reunite.
This is twenty twenty one. I'm calling this out.
And I know what Horse and Carriage did for me in the nineties, you know, So it was all of these small nuds to things and this is in the same breath I'm saying, you know, MJ. J. Dillar, Marcus Miller, Murder, Max cam Killer, miss Paid, Funkadelic, George Clinton, and I even shout out Luke Skywalker, just things that I've loved over the course of my life. And if that were my last speech to planet Earth, like it's been real, this was it. That's what music in my mind, and that last statement was the last thing that I say, is dr e that Mamba mentality, the game winning shut for the three cod.
Swish.
It's good, great way in the project. That's right, great for the fantastic album.
Comes out next Friday, June twenty eighth.
Oh my goodness, when you say it out loud, it's real.
That's right next Friday.
Oh man, listen, but what do you want to hear off the album? What do I want to hear that?
You're gonna allow us to play because we got to get it from you.
Guys everywhere.
Might be wet, we might be self care wrong.
Riot, you can do you can do both both.
Thrill has a thing though that thing is a story.
We ain't enough time for three, but we got two. We will.
It's pick one.
Used to be done at the board, like Okay, what we're saying thrill her?
What scart?
Okay, cool, thrill her and we let's do it all right. We'll get that on. Thank you so much for joining us. The album Casablanco comes out next Friday. Today, the track listing is released. You guys can check that out and we appreciate you for spending it with us today.
Thank you so much for having me.
It's Marsha Ambrosis, It's the Breakfast Club. Good morning, wake that ass up in the morning.
The Breakfast Club
