Mixed and Mastered
Mixed and Mastered is the podcast where the untold stories of the music industry come to life. Hosted by Jeffrey Sledge, a veteran music executive and former VP of A&R at Atlantic Records and Jive Records, each episode dives deep into the journeys, challenges, and triumphs of the people shaping the sound of today. From label executives and producers to artists, songwriters, and managers, Jeffrey brings you behind the scenes to meet the minds driving the industry forward. There’s a gap in the marketplace for these voices, and Mixed and Mastered is here to fill it—one conversation at a time. Because the best stories are told by those who lived them.
Mixed and Mastered
Jasper Cameron
In this episode of Mixed and Mastered, Jeffrey Sledge sits down with legendary songwriter and producer Jasper Cameron to explore his journey from Atlanta church pews to crafting chart-topping hits. Jasper shares how Atlanta shaped his view of success, the church’s role in honing his talent, and how mentors like Dallas Austin opened pivotal doors.
They dive into Atlanta’s tightly knit music scene, the rise of artists like Lloyd, Sammy, and Nivea, and the balance of writing mature songs for young voices. Jasper reveals behind-the-scenes stories of hits like “You” and “Girls Around the World,” working with icons like Christina Aguilera, and navigating the ever-changing music business.
From CeCe’s star power to the complexities of girl groups and the magic of demo sessions, Jasper offers rare insights into what it truly takes to create music that moves the world.
Mixed and Mastered is produced and distributed by Merrick Studio, and hosted by music industry veteran, Jeffrey Sledge. Tune in to the discussion on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you catch your podcasts. Follow us on Instagram @MixedandMasteredPod to join the conversation and support the show at https://mixedandmasteredpod.buzzsprout.com/
This week on Mixed and Mastered. I'm talking with Jasper Cameron, legendary songwriter and producer behind some of the biggest hits in R&B and pop From you for Lloyd, promised for Ciara, Dirty for Christina Aguilera and Bedrock for Young Money. Jasper moves the culture. This is Mixed and Mastered with Jasper Cameron. This is Mixed and Mastered with Jasper Cameron.
Speaker 1:Welcome to Mixed and Mastered, a podcast where the stories of the music industry come to life. I'm Jeffrey Sledge, bringing you real conversations with the people who have shaped the sound of music. We're pulling back the curtain on what it takes to make it in the music business. These are the stories you won't hear anywhere else, told by the people who live them. This is Mixed and Mastered. These are the stories you won't hear anywhere else, told by the people who live them. This is Mixed and Mastered. Mixed and Mastered with Jasper Cameron. Yes, sir, my man, my man, this is my guy right here, man, this is my guy. What's up, sledge? How you doing, man? I'm blessed and highly favored, brother. I see, I see You're always blessed and highly favored. That's why you're still here. You better know it. That's why you're still here, man.
Speaker 1:Yes sir, let's jump right into it. Let's start at the beginning. Okay, born and raised in. Let me ask a question real quick, because I'm still learning the specifics of Atlanta. So Adamsville, is that considered the west side or the south west side? Oh, because that's not SWAT.
Speaker 3:That's not South West. Well, it's like it's almost like part of Adamsville could be in the south west but the other half is going to be on the north west side. So it's just like it's like a split, like on one side it passed MLK, to the left it's swats. On the other side it's going toward Bankhead, and that I got you and that's just on one. You know what I?
Speaker 1:mean you cross the street and you're on one side. You cross the street on the other side. Okay, I got you, I got you, I got you, I got you. So tell me about growing up you, about you in particular.
Speaker 3:Yeah, when I, when I watched many times now, when I watched the movie atl, yeah with, I always thought like that looks like your upbringing that, that, that, that um, the skam ring in my neighborhood, the skam ring in adamsville, see so the cascade skam ring in adamsville. So that's what, that's my whole everything, that's my life in my neighborhood.
Speaker 1:right, that's your world, that was your world. Tell me about growing up on the west side as a kid.
Speaker 3:Man. You know it's one of the most unique experiences that I didn't know was unique coming up because in my area coming up, I grew up with Killer Mike. Me and Mike went to elementary and high school together. Ti Lil' John went to my high school Shout it out. Carlos Walker from Bowling Homes you know what I'm saying. Like all of them, like you know.
Speaker 3:So Jamal Lewis, the football player he grew up down the street. So all of us grew up together, around each other. But our neighborhoods were unique because you seen from the lowest to the highest classes, so you would see people who may not have so much, but they always mixed and mingled with the people who had things. So it was never far-fetched for us to know we can have it. We always seen success all around us. We've seen black doctors, We've seen black dentists, we've seen black pastors with a lot of money, we've seen street guys with a lot of money. So everything was all together. So I didn't realize how unique that was. So I went to other places and we never felt like we couldn't do it. We always think success right in front of us, no matter how long the totem pole we started.
Speaker 1:We always knew we can get it. That's beautiful, that's beautiful. So I did a little research on it and I saw that you was a church kid. Yeah, you better know it. Yeah, you grew up in the church.
Speaker 3:My mama going to get us up every Saturday to go to choir rehearsal my whole family, matter of fact, dc Young Fly his daddy, was my preacher growing up. Reverend Whitfield, dc Young Fly daddy he way younger.
Speaker 3:Junkie, way younger than us. His daddy passed the church in the bluff, vine City. That's where my mama side of the family from Vine City you got to know that real West Side Great Springfield Baptist Church and my whole family went to that church. So we all went to that church, my whole family. Every Sunday was like a family reunion. That whole church was my whole family and every Saturday, no matter if we had football practice or what, we'd go on a choir rehearsal. So I definitely grew up in the church.
Speaker 1:Wow, wow. I think about that because I grew up the same way, back when my grandfather was a deacon, my grandmother was an usher board, and I always wonder if that's still going on with the young kids. I hope so.
Speaker 3:I hope so too, because you know what, even though I didn't even think about certain things that the church was providing for me at the time, I realized how much it meant to me later on. You get what I'm saying Ain't nothing like a solid foundation. Without a solid foundation, man, the building going to fall down. So I realized, man, that solid foundation is so important, and it provided one for me, like even if I didn't know what the preacher was talking about.
Speaker 3:I knew every Sunday I was gonna see my family. I knew. Every Saturday I learned how to sing in church. I learned how to play piano in church. So it was providing me something to set me up for life that I didn't even know. So that's why it's so important. Community is so important.
Speaker 1:It teaches you the respect of your elders. All of that and all of that and the world the way the world works, the way it works All of that, yeah, yeah, you know, ms Sonson, slipping that little candy. You know what I'm saying. Oh, come on, Come on, come on now, yeah, man, all of that, so All of that. So tell me about singing in the church.
Speaker 3:Well, what happened was in my family you had to participate in something in the church. Either you was going to be on the usher board the junior usher you was going to participate in something. My mama and my brothers and sisters, my nieces, always tell me my daddy's side of the family super music inclined. Also on my daddy's side, they're from LaGrange, georgia. The church was actually next door to my daddy's house where he grew up. So we go down to the LaGrange, we walk straight over to the church next door. So on both sides it was a strong foundation like that. But yeah, growing up you had to participate in church. It wasn't no doubt about I ain't participating in something, you're gonna have to do something, you know. I mean you're gonna do something. So they automatically knew I was gonna be in the because I think I used to sing all the time, so my mom was not doing being quiet. So that was that's what I participated in looking backwards um, we're gonna move.
Speaker 1:looking backwards does do you find like you singing in the church and, like you know, watching the people playing the piano? Did that come later on in you writing songs and arranging records?
Speaker 3:For sure, For sure, I still use all those tools. I learned my harmony. How do I arrange the songs? How? I program my keyboards when I'm playing it, how I program my drums, that feeling that you need to make you feel something when you sing low, when you sing high, when you sing calm, when you take it down all of that comes from church.
Speaker 3:My mama make us listen to the whiners man, all of that stuff, like it all came back. But you know, subconsciously you do that stuff but you don't really know, you don't. You'd be like man, wow, and you realize how much you use it. But I still use all those. I use so much of that stuff every day, still writing songs, still producing songs.
Speaker 1:Wow, wow. So music all about feeling, yeah, no you ain gonna find no more feeling than in church, and I think that's what's you know. Again, before we move on, I think that's kind of what's missing in a lot of singers today they're not coming from the church. Yeah, they're not they.
Speaker 3:I think they created like the whole point of really doing music. You really want to make people feel something. Yeah, you want to make people feel something like because if they ain't feeling it, how they're gonna connect to it? Without no feeling there's no connection. So I think a lot of that is missing, you know. I mean maybe they connect on other ways, but I know that part is a big piece of connection music music, spiritual music come from the soul.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely. That's why people cry sometimes. I don't know. You feel it. Yeah, you're feeling it. So you got your start professionally, I guess, with Joyce Irby. So tell me about that.
Speaker 3:Well, in high school I started a group and we started renting out this studio. My man, leonard Watkins, started managing us. He had a little studio in East. Point.
Speaker 3:And we used to rent our studio time and what happened was she came over one day to rent some rehearsal space for her band and he told her well, can you listen to my group that I work with? She listened to us and she realized then we could write songs. So you know, joyce come from songwriting. Like you know, her band, climax, she wrote us on and she's the first one to sign Dallas Austin. So she come from working around songwriters and producers. You know she came up with LA Babyface, jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. So she knew, and when she heard our song, she's like whoa, these guys can write. You know what I mean. Like you know, we can put it together. Right then. And there she's like oh, I want to work with, going to get them a deal as well, but y'all going to write the songs. So that's how we met. And then, right then, she plugged us right in the game. She took me to meet Dallas. That was like man, josh, can I sign Jasper?
Speaker 1:yep, we working on all the groups and stuff, and it put me right in the game so tell me about that first meeting of the first, you know early part of working with Dallas oh man, dallas man, you know, see, of the unique ones you know most people don't know too many people these days that produce and write.
Speaker 3:I'm like that, I'm 100%. That's what we call 100%. Pharrell can do it, babyface can do it, r Kelly can do it, those kind of people. You know what I mean. But these days you look on people and you see so many people on splits you you don't know, but Dallas was like one of those guys. Jermaine Dupri can do it. You know what I mean, jermaine.
Speaker 3:Dupri can do it too, but they write the song and they produce it and do the beat. Well, when I first met Dallas actually he was doing a session with the group Lloyd had a group called In Tune. I was right, I wrote all Lloyd demos, okay, and Joyce had got him a deal writing a song for Lloyd. He's like man, my friend be writing all my songs, can he come up here and help me, help you finish? Lloyd was nothing but 11 or 12, but I had been working with him since like 9 or 10. So Dallas, yeah, in the group. So Dallas was like, well, call your friend, he's writing songs with you. So Lloyd called me, like, just come in. I'm like, come on, so I go to the studio, started playing songs and singing them. He like you do that, okay, okay, I'm going to keep you here. So after that, after he seen me play piano, sing all the songs and I could write all of them, he's like man, we're going to stay working. So then he signed me in.
Speaker 1:He just kept me up there. Wow, now, who did you work with when you were working with Dallas?
Speaker 3:Man, he put me right in the game with everybody, man, because you got to think at that time okay, we met doing Lloyd album, but right then Joyce also signed Sammy, so she brought Sammy up there to get a solo deal through Dallas through Capital Freeware, his label. So we went top, we hit the ground running Lloyd, lloyd group. Sammy TLC he was always, you know, he always working on them. Wow, and Sammy TLC, he was always, you know, he always working on them and really, man, he was making so many people through that man.
Speaker 1:Did he have Monica at this point?
Speaker 3:Yes, sir, monica was on her second album at this time Wow. Wow, yeah, mo was on her second album, so anybody around Atlanta was up there during that time, wow. So it was like it was right into the game, you know, right into the game, and he was at his height right then.
Speaker 1:I think it was so interesting with Atlanta more than I think, any other place that I've ever been, how and I saw you say this before Some of y'all came up together and everybody kind of knew each other and everybody except for the skate, and that's one thing that was great about the ATL movie back to that was they were showing how that skating rink in that case was like a center for everybody and everybody was in there. Yes, and that's the truth.
Speaker 3:That's the truth, like in Atlanta. You see everybody there, you see everybody at the malls. You see everybody. Everybody knew everybody who connected some kind of way, anybody that popped up in Atlanta some kind of way, anybody that popped up in Atlanta some kind of way. Everybody got a connection to him if he was really here.
Speaker 1:That's amazing man. So tell me about the. You said Dallas had Dark by this time at the studio.
Speaker 3:He had Rowdy Records, which he was signed to. He had the record label. He had Free World Records too, through Capital, which Sammy was signed to at the time. Then he had Dark Productions. Dark was the leg that had the producers and writers signed to it. So you know, tim and Bob, the production duo, came out of Dark Wow, and the healers who did Cupid for 112 come out of Dark Wow. Man, so many great producers came out of Dark. The mix engineer, leslie Brasway, came from out of Dark. He was a producer too. He had a lot of producers signed up for him.
Speaker 3:Everybody was the hub for everything. Oh man, come on the hub man. People don't understand how special it was to be able to be around the studio back then. It ain't like now, where everybody and it wasn't an easy way to get in and it was just so much harder to really enter into the real business. Back then it was special.
Speaker 3:I see everybody up there. We see everybody up there. You know we see everybody, from Stevie Nicks to Christina Aguilera. Like everybody in there, it went from top to bottom. Anybody like top to bottom, you meet them any genre in there. Because Dallas did everything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he did all those genres of music too.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so he put me around all of that. He put me right in there.
Speaker 1:Wow Go get it. That's incredible. So tell me about after you get straight. So after you were working with Dallas at DARF, you went on to Tell me about Lloyd. Tell me more about Lloyd Young.
Speaker 3:Lloyd.
Speaker 1:Yeah, tell me about Young Lloyd, young Goldie.
Speaker 3:Young Goldie, my boy Young Lloyd.
Speaker 1:Yeah, tell me about Young Lloyd, young Goldie, young Goldie, my boy, my little brother.
Speaker 3:Tell me about that. Well, the thing about Lloyd was like I said, when we met Joyce Irby, she met us. She knew we could write songs. We were teenagers at the time, we was late teenagers. She wanted to get a young group because she always wanted a group like. So I found two guys that went to my auntie church and then she went in the phone book and was going through the elementary schools to try to find other ones. One of the first schools she found was a school called Avondale. Avondale Elementary was on the east side of town. She called Avondale Elementary. The principal picked her up and transferred her to the music department and the music teacher at the school said I got somebody. I know exactly what kind of student you're looking for. I got somebody for you. So she went out. So she went out to meet. She said I'm going to go see who the teacher got. And it was Lloyd. He was a little boy like nine, and when she met him she was like oh my God. And she called us and said look, I think I got it. I think I got it. I got met a star. We got a meeting. We got a meeting.
Speaker 3:Within the next couple of days we're going to meet at the Red Lobster on Candler Road. Y'all got to come out and meet us at the Red Lobster on Candler Road, right by South DeKalb Mall A-Town. Y'all know what it is because he from that side over there. When I meet him the first thing he said, when he ran up on me, you saying he run up on me in the red lobster, he don't know me, he see me. He look at me and say, oh yeah, you saying shouting. And he started singing. I said, oh my God. I said this is me. I said what?
Speaker 3:He wasn't shy at all, he just went for it At all ready, like it's like anybody with eyes and ears going, oh my god. So that's how we met. And then at that point she's like jasper, I'm gonna put lloyd, you, you're gonna help him write all the songs, his demos, or whatever. You know, I mean to get the group together. So at that point she just put us we was working every day, and then she got it. She got my group of deal, got his group of deal, but we was always connected since then so how did you come up with the concepts for writing his records?
Speaker 3:Because he was young. See, the trick with Lloyd is this he edgy, but he was so young, he always was edgy, that's just naturally in him. So I'm like you know what For him, we got to write songs for kids, but it can't be corny, because he never was that kind of kid. You would forget he was a kid, you know what I mean. Like you would sit and talk to the Lord and forget he was a kid. So I'm like we just gotta write songs. He more like write songs for me. You know what I mean.
Speaker 3:I just can't say certain things, but like so it was almost like he was older, because he was always with older people, because he always was mature in that kind of way. So I would write songs. For him was like, okay, I got to write songs a certain kind of way for him because he a kid, but he not no kiddie kid, yeah, yeah yeah, you know what I'm saying, so I got to make it appealing for his age group, but I also got to make it believable and he can get beyond his age group.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, and he did yeah he did Yep, so what's the first project you dropped with Lloyd? He was in a group called In Tune.
Speaker 3:It was called Tune Time. But before then what was so crazy? We started working on Lloyd. We met Sammy, was going to put Sammy in the group but we decided to give him a solo deal. So actually Sammy's album dropped first, even though I met Lloyd first. Sammy's album dropped faster because Sammy got signed to Dallas and Dallas was moving faster and Dallas did I Like it so fast for Sammy that really the first project that came out that I worked on was Sammy's album.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's incredible.
Speaker 3:So Sammy kind of skipped the line a bit, yeah because he was an incredible kid and the tricky part about writing for Sammy was he sang like a grown man. So you couldn't write super kitty kitty songs for him either.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like Johnny Gill, that's why Dallas, did I Like it?
Speaker 3:He's like I gotta make a kid but I gotta put some thump in it. I gotta make you know what I mean. So Dallas met Sammy and did I Like it? So quick and the song took off so fast we had to rush and do his album.
Speaker 1:Oh, so you were chasing a single.
Speaker 3:basically the first song he ever recorded, signed to Dallas, was I Like it. We was in Nashville on a ride trip. He flew in me one day and wrote I Like it, played it for Capitol Records. They went crazy, put it out it's gone. We got to finish the record.
Speaker 1:That's a trip. Yeah, sammy dope, sammy dope, sammy dope. So now I'm going to swing back around to something else. When did you meet Noonie?
Speaker 3:Noonie Lee man, you know. So I'm a city. So they started renting a room and Jazzy started being up there every day working. So me and Jazzy got tied like that because I had another room and Noonie was his manager, so Noonie used to be up there every day. So I was with them every day, all day, and they was more like Dallas was so advanced in the business you know Dallas had been but Noonie and them I ended up hanging with them a whole whole lot. So I just got tight with them and I would end up being with them every day because we were sharing. When they moved into the dark studio and got a studio room, we were there with each other every day, all day. Wow. And then he realized I was a certain kind of guy. So he's like oh, he like you know what I mean, so you know. Okay, just like this. So he started having me with him all the time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, noonie, noonie's somebody I want to get on this podcast because you know Noonie doesn't talk a lot People don't really understand what he had going on and how he attacked the publishing side.
Speaker 3:Oh yeahris hicks chris hicks.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's the chris. Chris ryan newton tr.
Speaker 3:They had a real rack. They, them boys, put that work in. They put food team.
Speaker 1:Absolutely I'm gonna tell you, uh, how we got we. I think I don't even know we was connected like this. When we connected, so real quick story. So I was at jive and this dude kept calling me. He called me like once or twice a week. He kept calling me. I was like I didn't know he was. I was like, oh man. So one day I just picked up what's up man, like who are you? Because I didn't. I don't think I had an assistant at the time. It was coming right tomorrow.
Speaker 1:So he was like man, my name is ciel and I got this girl. Man, I'm in atlanta. I think you white, I knew you know where I'm going, right. I'm like, oh man, sorry, man, send me your songs. Man, send me your songs. Yeah, send me some songs. And I'm like, wait a minute, what's going on here? These records are great. I was like there's something that ought to be funny here. This can't be real. So I flew down to Atlanta. Pcl picked me up in his raggedy car at the airport and we sat down to talk. He said a girl named Nivea yeah, nivea was about 14, 15 at the time and the demos was all noontime producers. It was Brian Cox, it was yourself, it was Teddy Bishop. All these people was on there Like don Bishop, all these people was on there. Don't mess with my man. That was the demo. He just put out the demo Jagged and it was already on and everything. It was like, wow, that's what I saw. Really, what was happening in Atlanta, all this stuff, especially with Noonie.
Speaker 3:Yep, that CL was hustling that CL. I remember when I first met you because you signed Nivea CL came and he was putting together songs from everybody. He wouldn't have got that.
Speaker 1:He wouldn't have got that deal boy, he wouldn't have got that deal. He made it happen. God bless him. I got to reach out to him. I ain't talked to him in a long time.
Speaker 3:You know what's so crazy. That was one of my first times ever going to New York was with Nivea up and working battery studios up there with y'all. Yeah, yeah, yeah man, I was still on the minute phone but I was so broke I got to shout out CL man, for real.
Speaker 3:CL was like you want to come up here with us and cut these vocals. I said, man, come up here with me. I said, man for sure, I'm like, man, I'm going. It's early in the game, man, it was so cold up there man, I ain't even gonna have no money. Man CL went and bought me a Sherilyn dog. This, show you how to grind, son. I was like, come on, they're gonna still get you a coat. And I was still on the minute phone. He was like come on, we gonna grind it up. Man, I'm telling you it's gonna make sense. And look where it went Up in Battery Studios dog.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man. We go back, man, we go back, that's when.
Speaker 3:I first met Jeff. That's crazy. He showed that that was so crazy.
Speaker 1:He made it. He kept calling me. He kept calling me. I picked up that phone. That's how he got. That's really why he got her sign. He was cold calling me. I didn't know CL. I never heard of him. I kept this 404 number. He just kept calling my phone.
Speaker 3:And one day I had to start to pick up almost like what do you want?
Speaker 1:man Like what's up? He did his hustle thing. You know, hey, man, I'm going to sing some music and when he sent me the records I was just blown away because I was like whoa, we were like radio ready, Like what's going on? How do you get the records with Jagged Edge? And how you got Brian Michael Cox. What is this?
Speaker 3:She was super young and I liked her To this day this is one of my most popular songs I ever was involved with at 25 Reasons.
Speaker 1:25 Reasons.
Speaker 3:That's one of them songs in my catalog people still love to this day. Shout out to Nivea man, thank you for signing the dog. Thank day, yeah, man. Shout out to you man, thank you for signing the dog.
Speaker 1:Thank you, yeah, yeah, yeah, I met you and Toy Yep Yep Me and Toy Yep Exactly Toy Green Yep, yep, yep. Those are the days, man.
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Speaker 1:I got so much to talk about with you. Man, tell me about that first Lloyd album. Was you on the first no?
Speaker 2:you wasn't on the first album you was on the second, one, second album.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so the first album was what?
Speaker 3:Southside and hey Young Girl.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay, yeah, okay, you wrote most of that.
Speaker 3:Well, I wrote like two or three songs on that album.
Speaker 1:Okay, and I was so crazy.
Speaker 3:Those songs actually Lloyd did when he was like 15 or 16. They were older by the time Irv got them. Wow Like what happened was Lloyd had got a solo deal with Magic Johnson we was cutting demos and he had got a record deal with George was still his manager, I remember Magic had that deal.
Speaker 1:He had a box on his label.
Speaker 3:And the way he even got signed to the label was Dave Gates that used to run Dallas production side was running Magic Johnson label side and I had sent the demos to Dave. I'm like Dave, you heard the new stuff Young Lloyd been doing. I sent it to Dave. Dave, I'm going to sign them over here. So he did a deal with Magic Johnson, right, but the project never came out. So what happened was he kept all those songs. So now we're like, okay, the album ain't coming out.
Speaker 3:So the next thing we know LA Reid Mark Pitts heard Lloyd demos one day in dark His lawyer, ron Sweeney, intercepted the meeting and called Irv. Irv met him before he went over to holler at LA again and Irv was like I ain't letting them go, man, I got to sign this boy and Irv took him to the Shunter Platinum Party that night and man, ever since then Lord was like man, I think I'm going to sign with Irv. And so it went fast. You know what I mean. So so that's why he had most of those songs Like Southside of hey Young Girl was actually like a year too old before they even happened, maybe even more than that, because he did those songs around 15 or 16. And they came out. He was like 18.
Speaker 1:Wow, wow, and then so you had success. Yep, then it was a hit cup with you, correct, yeah?
Speaker 3:Well, what happened was? You know, at that time, right after that, irvingham went on the trial. So you know, that's when Irvingham was going through that trial. But at the same time Irvingham was going through that trial, hurricane Katrina hit Lloyd, whole family from New Orleans, yes. So all of them had to move to Atlanta. So his whole family moved to Atlanta. So at that time, irvingv, we was in limbo because we didn't really know what was going to go on, so because Irv couldn't do nothing. So we were like, man, we better do something. So we did the U song me, big Reese and Lloyd.
Speaker 1:We did the U song and we hit the streets with it. Did you think it was a hit?
Speaker 3:Man, I knew it felt special. You don't know if a song is going to hit the world, but I knew it felt special.
Speaker 1:You don't know if a song is going to hit the world, but I knew it felt special, I knew I liked it, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3:I like man, this thing rocking the beat, rocking the melody's hard, I'm like. I like it, man, I really love it. And I'm like man, I think it could be special. You know what I mean. But there's so many factors in a song being a hit so you really can't never say I know it felt special. Okay, I knew it felt special. So what happened was, at the same time we was writing a producer for a lot of people. So it was this artist in atlanta named tango red that was managed by a guy named jerry clark. Jerry clark at the time had tango red to deal with warner brothers and we had just did his single that featured lloyd. But jerry clark predicate pedigree was radio. So we told jerry clark, man, we think this could be. We started leaking the song to all the DJs.
Speaker 3:We started leaking it to all the DJs. Dj, now you know what I'm saying. Drama, all of them. Everybody know each other. So we started leaking the song and we got with Jerry Clark. We're like hey, jerry, we think we got something. Man, we know, tango just had Lloyd featured on his song. Come Help Us Work Radio and we'll put Tango on Lloyd's song. And what happened was we did that, but we, at the same time, lloyd, been friends with Lil Wayne. We always had the Lil Wayne verse. We just held it.
Speaker 1:We held the Lil Wayne verse To the original. You had Tango on it, I had.
Speaker 3:Tango on it. Wow, you know what I'm saying I didn't know that. So it started hearing Atlanta Radio and they started taking off like wildfire. Like wildfire, boom, boom. But at this point in time we still didn't know what label we were going to. We just knew we had to do something. We just had to do something to keep them going. You know what I mean Because you know we're all family, so it's like man, that's my little brother. We got to do something to keep it going.
Speaker 3:You know, what I mean. We put the song out and started catching and what happened was it was elapsing his deal with Murder Inc at the time. It was elapsing his deal, so it was an out. At the same time, the record going. It was an out for him to get out, but some paperwork stuff happened that he ended up still having to stay with Irv. And that's how Irv got the new situation with Universal. Because the song was so hot that Universal gave Irv a new deal. But it was because of the US yes for sure, because the song went crazy. It was going so crazy Because, really, to be honest with you, we thought we had a deal. We were going to go to Atlantic Records at the time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because I think I remember you always. I had to look it up because I thought Sylvia Roan did that record.
Speaker 3:Now Sylvia actually came back. See, because Sylvia was head of Universal when we had to go over there. But see, what happened was we was going to do a deal with Atlantic because we thought we was out of the Irv situation, but through paperwork or whatever you know politics and all that, he had to stay with Irv and Sylvia was like man. Because Sylvia was like man, because Sylvia was over on Universal Motown at that time. So with Irv, when he got a new deal, that's when Sylvia was the head, that's the connection with Sylvia.
Speaker 1:I got you, I got you we always had a good relationship with Sylvia.
Speaker 3:You know from her lecture days. You know what I mean. I met her through Dallas. You know her and Dallas always been tight. When she got a chance to do that, you know we was like okay, good, we don't want people to see us, we're still going to be straight.
Speaker 1:That record man.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Today's. It's still playing.
Speaker 3:It's gone man, it's still one will go viral. Man, people remake it. You can't buy that. You know what I mean. You can't buy no music or no song touching people like that. As much as people say they might know, all the time, you don't really know. You never know. You don't know.
Speaker 1:I got so many stories of artists. Man, get a quick one Mystical hated, shake your Ass.
Speaker 3:I can believe it.
Speaker 1:He was so mad that he thought we ruined his career. I bet you did. He's like yo, you're ruining my career with this nigga. I hate this song. We know what happened.
Speaker 3:You know what happened? Changed his whole life, changed Pharrell's life, changed a bunch because it was just special. But I realize a lot of times artists, they don't connect to their best, they don't connect to those biggest records like that, because sometimes they don't see, they just don't connect to it because they don't. Sometimes you can see a person better from the outside than them looking. You know what I mean. It's like when you look in the mirror sometimes you may think you look weird. But other people, man, you know I mean, but you're like what? But you know, through your own lens it'd be kind of weird sometimes yeah, I saw.
Speaker 1:I saw something on instagram, uh, about two weeks ago, what I recently keisha cole said she hated love I can believe it hated it.
Speaker 3:She's a hate this song the more I realized that most artists best and best, biggest and records, even if they don't hate it. They just didn't feel like it was that special. They might be like I know it's cool, you know what I mean. I did that in 10 minutes, I just did that you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so real quickly you'll understand because you know the history. So when Did I Love Go by the Supremes, dinah Ross, yep. So the story is the reason she's singing like man, man, man.
Speaker 3:You want to sing?
Speaker 1:She hated it. She said I'm going to sing this song bad. I'm going to sing this song bad, so I don't have to sing it. And we know what happened.
Speaker 3:Hey man, that's so crazy man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's crazy man.
Speaker 3:Really she put the perfect vibe on the song Because she sounds she put the perfect vibe on the song she sounds so sad it made the song go.
Speaker 1:It didn't even realize it. She thought she was sabotaging the record. They ain't going to use this shit. I'm a barely singer. I'm a thing talking. You can't stop the magic. Can't stop the magic and you can't out, thank God. Can't stop the magic. Yeah, now you definitely can't out. Thank God, you can't out. Thank God, god man. So wait. So I'm going to finish up a lawyer. Then we're going to jump around a bit. So let's go to Girls of the World Girls- of the World which actually is better than you.
Speaker 1:I can see that.
Speaker 3:It got that knock on it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it got that. Knock on it. Man, you were reached. Man, you were reached. Yeah, tell Reese. I said what's up by the way. I always yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:So tell me about that. Well, see, what happened with Girls Around the World Okay, coming around. Okay, so Street Love album come out Coming around on Lessons in Love album. We was like, okay, we're going to try to keep the magic going. And Lloyd was walking around. He kept singing his bass line. He said, man, we got to do a song with his bass line. He kept singing it for about a week. I said okay. So one day we was in the studio. I'm like man, let's work on the idea. You got Lloyd. So we called in the bass player. He was like man, you got a bass line. So Lloyd kept singing that bass line. So he loaded up the Ashley's clip on the MP and he was like man, we're going to make it. Okay, I see how we're going to do it. So the big dude playing the bass over the drop.
Speaker 3:We added the strings and the keys and me and Lloyd started vibing out to the verses and Lloyd and Reese went in the studio and Reese just kept acting like a DJ. He kept saying girl all around the world, girls all around the world. So he kept playing. You know, slick Rick, you know what I mean. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we're like, okay, yeah, we're going to keep that out through the whole song. He's like we're going to keep that. I'm like, yeah, we're going to keep it, we're going to let that go down the whole song. We're going to have the hook. We're going to fly it through the whole song like a DJ.
Speaker 3:So we came with the verses and I was like man, I got to make sure this hook right. So I was like I got it. So I ran to the studio. I'm like Lord, come say that I got the hook. So Lord, come to the studio. He's saying the hook. We was like, oh Right. Then, right out there, we was like who we going to put on it? We was like we can all. Wayne, still the hottest. Really, he's never been at this point.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Wayne jump on it. We were like, oh my God, you could tell he wanted to do it. But what ended up making that project a little weird was Lord had did this song. That was kind of pop call in the A. I didn't feel like it. Supposed they spent a lot of money on this song and it had a Luda feature and they wanted to put it out. And I'm like y'all shouldn't put that out right now. We're going to spend too much money. So they put the song out and they spent a lot of money. It didn't go nowhere, so we had to leak all around the world right after that.
Speaker 1:You leaked that.
Speaker 3:We had to leak it because the other song they Sia was like okay, we got to shoot this video, Cancel that. So they spent a whole lot of money on a single with Luda and all of that. The song didn't do nothing. So they had to put the Girls Around the World out and they came and it took over. So they gave them a hit for that album. You know what I mean. We had to leak that again. We had to do the work.
Speaker 1:Wow, wow, wow, real quick, fine two, five, two. Which is it man, which? Is it Whatever they? Needed to be Nah nah nah, we're not going with that answer. If you're five two, it's five two. If you're fine, you're fine. Tell us what it is, because the people need to know.
Speaker 3:They'll never know, they'll never know.
Speaker 1:I let you cook it, don't be real.
Speaker 3:That's club talk man. We talking to a girl. We telling the girl you fine man, yeah, she fine too, but I want to. You know what I mean. You smoking yeah, that's player talk man. You know that's game man. You know what I'm choosing you, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So tell me about Ciara CeCi. What up? Ceci? Still poppin' man, still poppin' man. Special from the first time I ever met him. Man, special from the jump, like for real, to be honest with you. Special from the jump.
Speaker 1:From the gate.
Speaker 3:From the jump special, and I'm just talking about personality. Yeah, star power, I'm talking about you know, because most people think it's just, it ain't talent alone. You know how many people we know can sing but they can't. You know the other stuff. You know it take more than that.
Speaker 1:Or the other way. Sometimes your voice, stuff is okay, but you got so much star power. You got so much star power, it works.
Speaker 3:And people are like they can't really sing. But I like them. You know, I'm going to tell you something, man, that girl, cece, sounded so good on the mic from her very first time Like her very first time recording. She was in a girl group, I didn't really know at this particular time. My guy TA, what up, ta, Anthony Tate, he put together a little girl group.
Speaker 3:It was in high school. He was like man, I got this girl group See if I can do a song, you know, do a demo. Well, CeCe had just gotten in the group. We didn't know the group dynamics. It was another girl that was really supposed to be the lead singer, but when they come in the studio, cece got on the mic and just sounded.
Speaker 3:She just sounded like it. You know you can't buy that man. And no, this wasn't even no auto-tune or none of that. Back then she got on the mic and was like man, this little girl is going to have to lead the whole song. So we kept CCing her most of the time. We didn't know that was causing problems in the group, because we don't know that she just joined the group last week or two days ago.
Speaker 3:We don't know that she. Just, you know what I mean. We don't know that. All we know is she the one sounding like the star, she the one look like? She felt like the star. So we found out later on how the girls felt the way. But, man, what we going to do? You know what I mean. I'm going to tell you what's so crazy. The song we did was a song called A Girl Can Mack. What ended up happening was the group broke up. We ended up setting the song to 3LW. 3lw took the name of the song and made it their second album. Title A Girl Can Make it. Wow, they didn't even ever use it, they just took the title. But that was the song we cut on CC and that was CC's first time in the studio. Wow. So from the jump, man, she just sounded like it. You know it's some people that can sing, but you put them in the studio. They really don't know how to deliver in the studio. That's a different skill set.
Speaker 1:Totally different.
Speaker 3:I promise to God man, the first time she got to start singing me and my man, Rico Lumpkins, we was like she's going to have to sing. This girl sounds like money on the mic, sounds good on the mic. She just sounds good through your speakers. She sounds good on radio. She just got the tone to just sound good. She always had that and she always had the personality and she always had the work. She was always ready for it. Let's work, let's go, let's get it.
Speaker 1:So how did she end up with getting signed to Jazzy?
Speaker 3:So what happened was that girl group broke up so TA was still managing. So TA was like man, I think I'm going to still work with Lil Cece. He called me one day saying Lil Cece, man, I'm going to keep Sierra and try to get a solo deal because you cut some demos on her. So he was going around cutting demos, so we cut some demos on her solo and at this time Jazzy on fire. So, like I'm saying, all of us in the same studio, you know what I mean at this time. So Shaq was like man, I'm going to take, I'm going to take the jazz, see if Jazzy want to do a deal with us or something. So he introduced her to Jazzy. Jazzy was like man, she dope, I think we could do something. So Jazzy signed up. He wanted to work with us on. We started putting records together and that's the day we know Jazzy got a meet with Shakira, la and they like they ready to sign.
Speaker 1:They going Noonie again yeah.
Speaker 3:Jazz and Noonie got to meet with Shakira, LA and LA like I want to sign, Wow. But we haven't cut demos on them. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Did they keep any of the demos that you'll cut for that first record? Oh for sure.
Speaker 3:The title On my first album, a song called the Title, where I sent for that. I did that demo as a matter of fact, and Adonis, that was a demo on that demo too, adonis, that, and I record the slow song that every girl love to sing and I. That was on her demo. That was on her demo package. The Jazzy Face songs are all the songs he had already cut, like a bunch of songs he had already did. It was on the. You know what I'm saying. It was already. It was already up in the news and all that.
Speaker 3:Well, goodies with Lil Jon. They recorded. They did that after she had signed the deal.
Speaker 1:Oh, they did that after.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they did that. After she did the deal, she had went down to Miami and worked with Sean Garrett and Lil at the same time. You know what I mean All of us around each other. Matter of fact, Sean, all of us was around each other at the same time.
Speaker 1:Wow, yeah, I remember that because that's when LA left Arista Yep and they merged.
Speaker 3:Yep, and they didn't really know how they was. Yep.
Speaker 1:They didn't know what to do, so they did. I remember Barry Weiss gave all the A&R people like people. He listen to these people, you listen to these people, let me know which ones you like. Yeah, he said let me know which ones you like and I tell you the one I like. That he passed on. He's like I don't know, Lupe Fiasco.
Speaker 1:Wow, for real, Lupe was signed to LA he sure was he sure was I was like there's something about this kid, I don't know, but I kind of like him. He was like yeah, yeah, and he still dropped him. He dropped him, he couldn't keep everybody.
Speaker 3:So who else dropped him around that time? Because I know one, j Quan, was super hot with that tipsy at that time.
Speaker 1:J Quan was on fire. We kept J Quan. We kept the Youngbloods, that was all through. Jermaine we kept, obviously. We kept Ciara. Of course we kept Usher I'm blanking, I don't know who else we kept and who we dropped, but it was a bunch of. It was a bunch of artists that Arista had and y'all had to go through all of that to figure out who y'all were. We had to make sure we wasn't missing anyone. Yeah, we kept Sierra. I think Felana. She was manager of Sierra she worked in marketing.
Speaker 1:So when they merged, some of the staff also came over. Alana came over, petros came over, and so Philana was working marketing, but she was also managing Sierra, so she was working it. And that's when they had that little mix up with Petey Pablo. All that because they wanted to shout out and Goody's at the same track.
Speaker 1:Yeah, all that it all worked out though Both records blew up, and Goody's at the same track. Yeah, all that, it all worked out, though. It all worked out. It all worked out. Both records blew up. Hey, that was a special time, wasn't it? It was an amazing time, bro. That was an amazing time man. Yeah, sierra, she'd come through all for some time. Yep, I mean, she's a star and all that stuff to say she would do what you told her you think she should do, but she would really listen, she'd always listen.
Speaker 3:She'd be like hmm, she wouldn't just blow you off like that. She'd pay attention to everything. She'd always listen, she'd always take it all in, even if you think she ain't man, she always plugged in.
Speaker 1:Always plugged in man. Always plugged in yeah, so that was an amazing time. She had Dad and she had one. Two steps with Missy yeah, it went crazy. You with Luda yeah, dancing in the car.
Speaker 3:We shot that on Peter Street you know who that was Matter of fact.
Speaker 3:If you look at that video, you see Gucci man in the video just before he popped off. Wow, we had the whole hood out there with us. It was crazy. So tell me about Promise. Oh man, promise, that was one of them records man for real. To be honest with you, she's super hot at this time. We're going to the second and we're going to the second project. We're going to the second project and we ain't know what. You know, we kind of just trying to figure out what we can do to stay special.
Speaker 3:So, one day Ethiopia hit me, ethiopia. She was like, hey, polo, go to the studio. Polo, I think Polo and Elvis might got something. So I go to the studio, so Polo and Elvis, they're like man, we made this last night in LA. You know what I mean, let's see what we can do. So they played the track and I'm like, oh, this is smash. I'm like our job is not to mess this beat up. I said man I had to fly to town.
Speaker 3:I said I got to fly Today. I got to fly to town to finish this Lorde song in LA, but I'm going to be back in two days. We're going to get on it. I said, hold the track for me the next two days. They held the track. So CeCe hit me. She's like we're going to meet the studio today. Let's finish the track. The truth of the matter, the song is what she was going through. She had just got through a breakup, but she's very, very pro-love. So, CeCe, don't get that. Cece, her like everything is all about optimism with her. She always like that.
Speaker 3:She's like it don't matter, I'm gonna always believe in love and if I find somebody else to make me feel special, I'm still gonna. I'm gonna do all this is what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna always believe in love. She's saying all this. We was starting like man, I don't know. We got to do something to make it feel a little bit more special. I said something more special. So, me and CeCe, we said okay. Then we started coming up with them vibes, you know, in that higher range that she do up off set. We were like, ooh, that's it, so, oh. So we started putting all them words together that she was talking about. We know, we arranged all the words and we put all the words together. We came up with them melodies, me and Hunter Studio and we started putting all them harmonies on there and we would start. We put it together. We like this, feel like something. You know what I mean. This feel soft, we feel this, but it come from a real place.
Speaker 3:Our life was going on. They came back in and heard that they was like oh my God.
Speaker 3:Because that rain shit, because we always keep it, we try to keep it, we keep it, vibe, you know what I mean Track moving a certain way we're going to keep it moving because she dance. So we don't yeah, so we kept it on that man. It ended up right man. It just ended up being what it was and when people heard it, it cut through the radio. It didn't feel like nothing. Cut it, cut through it, it killed them. So when it came out, man, if we was getting them calls, we were like, oh, killed them again. We were like, oh, but what's crazy? I don't think the label liked it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we weren't sure honestly, because, if I remember correctly and it's been a minute so I could be fuzzy I feel like the label wanted something a little more tempo.
Speaker 3:And I can see that. But see the reason why we knew it was going to work, because she already just had the tempo to get up from the mood soundtrack, so she already had that momentum going. And what I realized was sometimes, really more than tempo, you really want impact. So sometimes it's hard to hit impact with a record. You feel slow. But see, like the way we wrote it, we didn't write it like a slow record. Like I said, we kept the tempo.
Speaker 1:It's bouncy, it's a lot of movement.
Speaker 3:You know she's going to deliver the dance, so it's going to feel like that. So that's why we was like oh, I can see why you would be like, should we put this out? But we just knew we kind of felt like people were going to like it. So that's when we gave it to Grand Street. Grand Street got it.
Speaker 1:It was over.
Speaker 3:It was over with Boom.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, another one, another one. I remember it's been a minute. I think I liked the record. Yeah. But when I saw the video I was like holy. I'm going to tell you, man, when I seen that video.
Speaker 3:I'll never forget. We was in the studio, I think, me and Polo. We was in the studio. Cece hit me like I got to come show y'all the video. We ain't really knowing what to expect from the video. You know, we just think. You know, we know she's going to deliver, but we don't really know what it's going to be. Man, we've seen that video. When we saw the video we said, oh, this is really out of here. We're like oh, this is really out of here.
Speaker 1:That video, man, that video.
Speaker 3:Yeah, when we seen that video it was like, see, and that's what you do special songs with special artists who are going to deliver it the whole way, because at the end of the day, you could have a special song, but if it's not delivered all the way through, you get what I'm saying Artists- need to have a good thing to work in.
Speaker 3:You know a lot of people. They just think it's all about. No, it ain't all about. The songs Like to reach its best level, you need all the proponents working the right way. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:And when we see that, If I remember correctly and I could be wrong and somebody you know, correct me if I'm wrong I feel like CeCe was the first one on a video to rock like the baggy sweats. Well, she brought it back.
Speaker 3:Well, you guys, you got to think it was kind of like she kind of brought it back with the boots. You know the jolts, yeah, with the boots.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the jolts in the hoodie.
Speaker 3:It kind of had been years Aaliyah and all and TSC and all of them, but it kind of got glitzy. It kind of got the girls in the heels and all of that, it kind of got that way, which is cool, but she brought it back.
Speaker 3:She's like no, I'm going to put this baseball cap on on this slow song. I'm going to put them baggy sweats on, I'm going to get on this wall and rock. I'm going to have these Jodecik comeback boots on, I'm going to have these girls with me and we're going to rock. We're going to be sexy in baggy sweatsuits. Exactly, she just brought it back around.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean? She just brought it back around, yeah, man. So tell me about Christina Aguilera.
Speaker 3:Christina man man. That was one of the best experiences ever. She came to work with Dallas on her album Okay.
Speaker 3:Because, you know, on her second album she wanted to get away from the lollipop thing because she really wasn't. She wanted to get dirty. She wasn't over there, she wanted to get dirty. You know, she said that she's like I'm getting away from this lollipop, I want it to be edgier. You know what I'm saying. So she said that. So she came and in the studio and she really was hanging out a whole lot and what happened was she just kept you know, we just kept a friendship going and her ex-husband, Jordy, was my partner. He used to be Dallas' assistant.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 3:And so one day Jordy hit me like hey, christina wants you to come out here to LA. She, she, she. She got the track. She knew she knew the rock wilder trap was going to be a single. She knew she wanted a hip-hop. She knew what she needed. You know what I mean. So she knew she wanted that kind of feel. So she's like, she got the rock wilder trap. Man, this is going to be a single. We just got to figure out how to put it on. So I flew to LA Most of the time in the studio. Man, she's one of the most incredible vocalists ever.
Speaker 1:I can't.
Speaker 3:And I went out there and that's when I met Belaywa. If anybody know Belaywa from the Clutch, you know well Belaywa. He got a punch hit right there. That's why I met him because he was already the record with Christina at that time.
Speaker 3:They had his track up and we put the finishing touches on Dirty and man, she hit one of the most incredible runs I ever heard in one take. That run in Dirty that she did One take incredible in the booth, for real, vocally. Oh my God, I couldn't believe it. She hit that run. I looked at my label like whoo. She knew she won it, whether it was going to be the biggest hit ever or not. She knew for real. I had to get myself out of the pocket lane.
Speaker 3:I got to make them know I'm grown for real, for real. She knew she won it. It worked for her Like it wasn't the biggest hit in the world, but it worked for her to get what she needed to get, because that's what she had.
Speaker 1:That's what she had to go.
Speaker 3:She had a beautiful song on that album. That album still stripped. That stripped album went crazy but she knew she needed to. A lot of times, man, they kind of they could feel like I gotta kind of, I gotta kind of show them who I really am. If I'm a last cause you know what I mean. If I'm a last, I gotta show them who I really am.
Speaker 1:I'm really dirty, I'm dirty you know what I mean writing. That did that open up a lot of. You could start getting a lot of my pop calls after that uh well, yeah, but you know what I'm saying?
Speaker 3:Like yeah, but man, I was so in it, then you know so around. I was just rolling, but it wasn't really like a whole lot a lot of pop calls, just because that wasn't a super pop song. So it was kind of like you know, people were still calling, though they were still calling and do some things.
Speaker 3:but it was kind of like, you know, people were still calling, though they were still calling and do certain things, but it was kind of like it wasn't a whole, whole, whole lot of pop, pop, super pop calls. But you know what's so crazy, I was around all that pop stuff anyway because I was signed to Dallas. You know, I hadn't been around Dallas so I was seeing all of that anyway. So you know, I was in a blessed situation to be able to get my shot really at all that if I had something. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Yeah because it was right there all the time anyway. Yeah, did you write correct me. Did you write Bossy?
Speaker 3:Yep, co-wrote it. Yep Me, sean Garrett, and Narva Yep with a T.
Speaker 1:I did not know that that's a crazy story too. Yeah, I swear to God. Yeah, there it is. I was like doing my research. I was like wait a minute, what?
Speaker 3:Me, now, me, me, sean. Sean had worked with her in New York, but that's so crazy how that song happened. I was sitting in the studio and one day at least that's what her knowledge was living in Atlanta and um was married. She came by the studio. She said, just by God's idea, on this CD, I think you could finish it off for me, I think it could be special. She gave me the CD and I was just sitting there. Then my partner come in our novel and I was like, hey, novel, load this up, see what this sound like in the studio. So, novel loaded up, he like, oh, this is kind of good, jasper, we can freak this out. Okay, so Screw stuff, we chop it up. They had the hook idea already, but I didn't know who came. I didn't know none of this. I just know Khalees came and said finish it. And so we finished it or whatever. We chopped up the track and the arrangement and everything. I also didn't know that Shundra and my other friend produced the beat. You got to think, all of us.
Speaker 3:All of us We've been around each other forever. So I just really wanted to finish the idea, because she asked me to you know, when somebody personally say you know, it's a different thing. It's different than a label calling you she ain't really the type of person to do that with everybody. You know she want them real. Fly girls. She for real with it.
Speaker 1:We're in the same area in New York.
Speaker 3:I know how she get down. If I can, I want to give her some. She put it right in my lap. So when we did the idea, we gave it to her. We kind of like, we made it sound, we made it personalized for her, we put all the grills. I knew all of that, so it was custom written for her. You get what I'm saying. So we put all that in the song and I'm like, okay, this could cut through. You know what I mean. I put the screw part on now. Diamonds on my neck that's me doing all that. Diamonds on my neck that's you doing that, that's me doing that.
Speaker 3:So we were making a little hip hop, you know what I'm saying, making a little edge or whatever. So we sent it back. So me and Arvind, we sent it back. I think one of man. We think this is going to be a single. We're like really, I'm like I'm glad I'm down. That's crazy. So she was like man, this is going to come out, this is going to be the single. So I'm like, okay, let's run with it, let's do it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was so crazy. It ended up being I ended up co-doing it, but the people already yeah your family. But it was just so really. That's why, man, when it's magic man, it's magic Like you can't even explain a lot of times how this stuff be happening, man. You just got to really try to be engaged in it and you get the opportunity to try to take it. Do your best if you can.
Speaker 1:I got to ask you about one more group we could talk. You've done a million people. Oh no, with new kids on the block.
Speaker 3:That was crazy. That's when they had the idea to do it with Interscope. You know, that was I remember. So at that time, you know, polo, he was in business, him and DJ was in business, dj, jimmy Nephew. So it was just really one of those things being in the studio, me and Polo come up with something and they want to do it. You know what I mean. So it wasn't even really. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:How were they in the studio, were they cool?
Speaker 3:I wasn't even there, see, I just did the song.
Speaker 1:Oh, you just did the song and sent it.
Speaker 3:Yes, we do it together, me and Polo, but then it was time for them to cut. They ended up cutting.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay, okay.
Speaker 3:What? Okay, okay, okay, um, uh, what about?
Speaker 1:um bedrock tell me about bedrock.
Speaker 3:Oh, bedrock, now that was a crazy story. Well, what happened? You know, you know, lord, like he talked with wayne and all them young, whatever. So, um, what happened was at one point in time when mario was supposed to be assigned to young money, he was gonna do a deal with young money but something happened with the deal. So they had this song idea and they were like man, see if Lloyd can come with a hook with it. So Lloyd, cousins and Ryan hit me like hey, man, tesla just sent me this beat with. They want Lloyd to do a hook and see what you can come up with.
Speaker 3:So Lloyd came over to my house because he lived right around the corner this time. So me and Lloyd go to my basement and we and we was just vibing to it, they had a hook on there at first. We like we could do. I think we could do something better than this. So what happened was me and him came up with the bedrock hook and the words came from he was on the episode of Wildin' Out and he said a corny joke talking about they called me Mr Flintstone, I can make you bedrock. So I say we're going to take that and we're going to do the hook. So I chopped up his vocal. I can make you a bedrock. I chopped that up. I chopped it up to make it a little rap for you, because at that time Wayne was doing that with his verse or something like. We'll put it on you, lord, to make you give it a little stud on the bedrock part. We'll just make the hook sing along.
Speaker 3:We did that hook in about seven minutes, man, and just make it. You know. You know what I mean. So we sent it back to them and at first they didn't really know. They were like well, we kind of like our other version better. And we was like y'all thought that other version better, all right. And so what happened was the bedrock version. They leaked it to see how people respond. When they leaked it it went like wildfire and everybody like bedrock, crazy, crazy. So they're like man, we got to shoot this video. So that's how that happened. But we did that in my basement. We did that in about 10 minutes.
Speaker 1:Just messing around.
Speaker 3:Really, because they give you the opportunity. You just want to give them something you know what I mean. That's one of the things where, like you say, Ryan, our Lord, cousin here, like Jocelyn man, see, see, see, a lot of, that's his nickname. You know, a lot of the time I come up with something and so we send it back to Ted. Yes, yeah, and so we took the opportunity to try to come up with something and it worked.
Speaker 1:Wow, wow.
Speaker 3:And so what are you working on now, man? You know what's so crazy. Now. I still just work with my team. I still work with Lloyd all the time. I still work with CeCe all the time. I got one of my other homeboys, blanco Brown. He's a country artist. He had a big song called the Get Up, which is a country line dance. One of the biggest line dance came out like 2019-20. It was one of the biggest country line dance songs. He got a deal at Broken Boat Records in Nashville. So he's been in country music way before the first bubble. So I worked with Blanco Brown Actually, his group assigned to me they're the ones singing background on Street Love, on Lorde album and Sierra Get Up remix but he was writing and doing country music. So I still work with him and, man, I got producers and writers I work with and we just create songs all the time and we just create content and I'm just working with my people, man.
Speaker 1:That's good. You just do what you want to do.
Speaker 3:Yeah, man, do what I do. It's a blessing. You do what you want to do when you want to do it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's basically. You got to do what you want. You're not running around with like a chicken with your head cut off.
Speaker 3:It done, worked out for me, man. I ain't gonna tell you no story. I couldn't even write this script.
Speaker 1:You can catch Mixed and Mastered on Apple Podcasts, spotify, iheart or wherever you get your podcasts. Hit that follow button, leave a review and tell a friend I'm your host, jeffrey Sledge. Mixed and Mastered is produced and distributed by Merrick Studios.
