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
Dante Ross: Part 2
In Part 2 of our conversation with legendary A&R exec and producer Dante Ross, the ride gets even crazier.
Dante breaks down the highs and lows of his time at Elektra and Def Jam, working with iconic artists like Brand Nubian, ODB, MF Doom, and Everlast. He shares the wild backstory of Whitey Ford Sings the Blues—from late-night jam sessions to a near-fatal heart attack that almost stopped the album before it started.
We also get into the aftermath of success, chasing the next high, and why Dante finally decided to write the book everyone told him to write. This one’s about friendship, survival, reinvention—and keeping it honest.
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/
Now for part two of Mixed and Mastered with Dante Ross. Welcome to Mixed and Mastered, the 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.
Speaker 2:So I decided that day I want to work at Election Records. So he hired me. So that's what that was like the thing though it was, it was not necessarily the rap stuff but he told me I signed Anita Baker, I signed Parliament, I signed Keith Sweat and I was like, wow, but he's like I've worked with Richard Pryor, I signed him and I was like, really, he's like he's the craziest fucking guy in the whole world. But when he told me that, when he told me he signed the Pixies and played me Tracy Chapman, that's when I decided I had to work there. So I went to work at Electric Records.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and there you worked with Brand Newbie and Leaders of the New School and Old Dirty Bastard and Delta 40 Home of Sapien and P-Rock and Seal. Smooth Yep, that was an amazing roster, bro.
Speaker 2:That was a crazy run.
Speaker 1:A crazy run.
Speaker 2:I remember that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you were running, you were rolling, you were rolling man.
Speaker 2:Jesus Christ, I mean, look, we never had the promo team that did those records justice. And and I got sick of hearing that from everyone too like if those records had been a jive, I would have five platinum records, at least gold records, you're right you know how many gold records I had at Electra one yeah no one, one one. I had one gold record at Elektra Records. Pete and CL didn't go gold.
Speaker 1:I think it's gold now, but at the time I'm saying that's incredible, I did not know that 150,000 sold with a smash hit record with a hit record pushing it yeah, and we never had a great promo guy.
Speaker 2:The best guy we had was Ruben Rodriguez and he had his own label, so he cared about Digable Planets more than my group.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he cared about his own shit and they won gold, they won gold.
Speaker 2:So he, yeah, but Kraz, you know. And I signed KMD, obviously. Oh yeah, kmd, mf Doom. But my first record was a flop Shazzy. I came out the gate with a flop that only J-Zone remembers, Wow. So it didn't work. And who was next Was Nubian, next, next, and they limped out of the gate. Ruben Rodriguez hated them.
Speaker 1:What was the first single?
Speaker 2:Feels so Good, feels so Good. And B-Side was brand brand, brand newbie and he hated them. He hated them. He was everything they hated. Yeah, you know, and they were everything he hated. You know he's a bougie dude. He wore like a meat coat, you know the whole thing you know, one of those his hair.
Speaker 1:He's, you know, one of those His hair.
Speaker 2:He had the Peebo Bryson going on, absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Give us a little story.
Speaker 2:He wasn't, he never liked me. He hated me. You know, he hated me.
Speaker 1:Look man, I went to work with size 40 jeans and a skateboard and a backwards baseball hat. He was not jacking me at all. Yeah, he wasn not jacking me at all.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he wasn't. Yeah, he wasn't, he wasn't rocking with me and, um, brand new being. You know, he, he, if it was up to him he could, he would have fired me, but he couldn't because craz loved me, because craz craz made me a vice president really early. I I was the youngest vice president history warner music group up to that point, wow. So I think I was 25 years old, 26 years old, I was the vice president and I became senior vice president.
Speaker 1:Um, yeah, he, he, um, craz loved me and and look, I had all those great records leaves a new school which buster came out of it and I had a great run, but you know, all good things come to an end yeah, they do, and you know, and so from there you go to I went to def jam, you did.
Speaker 2:I had a label deal at def jam and I I did A&R there as a vice president and it was terrible.
Speaker 1:Now, what period of Def Jam was this? Because Def Jam has had its period, the G-Funk period.
Speaker 2:Warren G is the guy. South Central Cartel is on the map. I go there, I sign Trigger the Gambler. The record doesn't. It's not good. Me and Lior go to war. I have zero hits. I work on the Nutty Professor soundtrack. It's a bad fit.
Speaker 1:You're dying, you're dying.
Speaker 2:It's a bad fit.
Speaker 1:It's a bad fit.
Speaker 2:It's a bad fit. I should have never done it. I had my own label no Doubt Records. No Doubt Records, no Doubt. The band comes out. It's all fucked up. Everything that could go wrong goes wrong.
Speaker 2:I end up deciding to not go to work. I'm not going to work anymore. I'm not going to the. I'm not going to go to the office anymore. I'm out. I'm out and I have a contract. They got pay me overhead. I'm not going. I don't return leo's calls. I start making.
Speaker 2:You know, I always made beats. I produced shit for brand newbie and for poobah. Oh, also I did a solo grand poobah record which was a hit. Yeah, um, electro, which should have been a gold record but it wasn't. Absolutely had a huge single, you know, 360 yep. So my grand poobah is the best, worst artist I ever worked with in my whole life, one of the greatest rappers, top of the food chain. But the guy who will leave you stranded in the airport waiting for him six hours, not show up, and just you know man, just the shenanigans. I love the guy, but shenanigans I still. I'm still holding resentments to this day.
Speaker 2:Sylvia roan took over and me and her weren't. We weren't a great fit, but in retrospect I should have stayed. I should have made it work. I was one of those guys like I didn't understand the fact that you don't love your job. I didn't love working for her, so I quit. And it was dumb because she was a great promo person, you know. I quit because the second, the second Grand Poobah record I'm under the gun. But I got Buster's solo record in my back pocket and I leave right after Dirty comes out. What I should have done is stayed and hired somebody and gone to work at Interscope. But I did a deal with Def Jam because I wanted to be my own boss. It didn't work out. I'm fucking. I'm just dying. I'm dying over there. But I started really focusing on making beats. Oh, I had Dell too. I had Elektra.
Speaker 2:And I produced stuff for Dell on that second record which performed, actually, I think, 350. It did pretty good 300. And that was a miracle making that record. Anyway, I had to redo the whole thing over. But anyway, I'm dying, I'm getting cooked at Def Jam and I just really focus on making music. And I me and Everlast have been friends since I met him at World on Wheels with De La Wow. We remained friendly. I was friends with them when House of Pain blew up.
Speaker 1:Well, you were gone from, Tommy Boy, when House of Pain blew up correct.
Speaker 2:I was gone.
Speaker 2:But they were. I was friends with them. I was friends with Muggs. I was friends with Cypress Hill, who I wanted to sign to Elektra and my boss wouldn't let me sign him because of Killing man. I should you know, that would have been another one of mine. But they went to Columbia and they sold way more records than they would on Elektra. So God bless, yeah, yeah, and I remain friends with him. So you know that's what it is. Mug's still a good friend of mine to this day, and so is B-Real. So I go to, I go back to my studio, I start making music and I linked up with Everlast. He was in New York. I don't know what the fuck he was doing in New York. I want to. We just started hanging. Oh, that's what it was. I'm in la working at def jam, but I put sadat x on loud and I put out sadat x wild cowboys record. I'm managing sex, wow, and you know it's so stupid.
Speaker 2:I could have gone and worked at loud and I did the deal with def jam yeah, with steve yeah steve tried to hire me to be his first a and r guy right when wu-tang came out because I had dirty. He was come and be the senior vice president here and I turned him down. So, anyway, and Steve, I love Steve to this day. He's one of my favorite people. What a great dude. So I linked up with Everlast in LA because of Guru. Rest in peace. We're staying at the Madrean Hotel.
Speaker 2:So is Guru's crazy ass. We go to drink with Guru, me and X, and he's like yo, everlast is coming. Everlast shows up and me and him. We just start vibing. He says I want to put X on the song on my House of Spain record I'm working on and I'm like let's make it happen. And Guru was like y'all motherfuckers is like the same dude, you're both the same crazy white dude. And Eric's like yeah, we've been hearing that for years and facts is that Muggs and him thought that me and Eric hanging out together during House of Pain first run was bad, that someone's going to jail. They're like someone's going to go to jail. So you know, that was kind of the you know the vibe. And but me and him hit it off. He flew X back out a couple of weeks later to do the song. He actually followed up on something.
Speaker 1:Someone who says something drunk follows up and actually came through with it. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So then he came to New York and he was running around. He was on House of Pain tour for the last record. They did a video for fed up. I'm in the video with guru on the remix with peter green. You know that is the actor he was. He's in pole fiction, he's zed wow. So he kills me in the video. I don't know, you can find it on youtube anyway.
Speaker 2:So so, but me and me and eric, we just start hanging out heavy. He's running around with me and my crazy-ass friends, my boy, manny Stacks, who's locked up right now he got 20. Shout out to Stacks I love you. And we're running around the streets of New York bugging out, just bugging out. He's staying with me. We're just doing crazy shit. Then I went to L, to LA, just to go. I was with this girl and she was driving me crazy. I was like I'm going to LA for a minute. I stayed at Eric's house. He had stayed at my house, we were chilling and we went to the Super Bowl together. That year we drove from LA to Phoenix or Tucson or Scottsdale.
Speaker 1:I went to that Super Bowl in Phoenix. I went to that one in Phoenix, I went to that one.
Speaker 2:Steelers Cowboys. I'm a Steelers fan, he's a Cowboys fan. We had crazy tickets and we just you know, that was like my brother from another Like I was like. You know, sometimes you meet people and like that. One time you hang out you're just like best friends from that day on. It was like that. And I slid him a tape of beats. He was fucking with it. And then he was like yo, let's. So he like right, when the house of pain record comes out, right after they go on this little tour, he quits the band. He's like fuck this shit. And so tommy boy exercises the right to a solo record. We do demos, we start making a rap record. Meanwhile leo is paying me the whole time. That's so I think the deal finally comes to an end. I'm one of those dudes. I always land. I'm like a fleet frog. I go from lily pad to lily pad yeah when the clock's ticking, I catch another check.
Speaker 2:Yeah like I got the best luck like that. So so I'm just I'm all you know, because I think it's like I'm not a big God guy in a traditional sense, but I think I'm always protected, like I'm always protected. That's why I made it out of the Lower East Side. That's why the dude got shot 20 feet away from me in Detroit on the Airbnb in Rakim Tour, and we didn't get shot. You know. That's why, like I've seen all this shit happen, I've been like you know, look, guns have been pointed at me more than once in my life and I didn't get shot, and you know. So you know that's all something bigger than me. There's a reason. So I'm always protected. That's like another example of being protected my deals running out, I catch the check to do Eric's record. We start making a rap record and it's going cool. You know, albie, the great Albie, was my A&R guy, albie Ragusa.
Speaker 2:Albie and Monica give me the job. Albie is super tight with Eric, super tight with me. Yes, so me and Albie did this club. That's another thing I forgot. Me and Albie did this club. White Boy Wednesdays. It was a party called Thing Me, stretch Me. And Albie did this club. White Boy Wednesdays. It's a party called Thang Me, stretch Me, stretch. Nick Quest did album.
Speaker 2:The five of us own Jewels, dj Jewels. We do this party called Thang. It lasted for like a year and change. It's like our version of Soul Kitchen. Everyone has to pay $5. We give you a blunt at the door so you can smoke weed there. It's at the Space Island Lounge, which is a reggae club on the Bowery, and so that's what it is. And Eric came one night and he was with Albie this is where it all started and he was looking up. It was a tin ceiling. He was looking up at the ceiling. I said what are you looking at, bro? He said, man, I just ate some mushrooms and that ceiling's moving. I started laughing and he pulled out a bag of mushrooms and me and curious ate mushrooms with him. We hung out to like the next day. So that's when our bond was formed.
Speaker 2:It was like voltron yeah yeah, that was like that's when we really first became good friends. And then when we went to la, we were kindled. So we came to new york and I had my studio in the basement. He he's staying at my house. I always, you know, I'm really into writing and I wrote about in a book but I'm going to work on. My next thing is I'm going to work on the screenplay on this, because my writer friend said this is the part that you need to make a screenplay next. I'll talk about that later. So I always say we were like two men who were lost at sea and we found a life raft back to land. Right, we had nowhere to go but up. Our best days were behind us. People, the odds were that we were going to crash out.
Speaker 1:That it was over. They wrote you off.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was like you're on a downward cycle, bro, you know. So we're in New York making a record and I was quite popular with the ladies At that time. I had a revolving door and Eric would always be like Jesus Christ bro. So he's on my couch, staying on my couch, and I walked in with this girl and she looked Irish. She had like ivory skin, beautiful blue eyes. She's a model girl, she's very beautiful. And he looks at her and he looks at me and he goes home team. And I said home team Because he's Irish, right. And I started I was like what does that mean? He's like, oh, he's like. I was like, oh, you're Irish, he's Irish, you know. She's like yo, he doesn't look like the guy from House of Pain.
Speaker 2:I was like don't get too excited, whatever. So you know, one thing leads to another and I end up going. I go to the bathroom, I'm in like my boxer shorts and I hear, oh so Eric had come to the studio. I had a guitar in the studio and he asked if he could borrow it, because I knew he played guitar a little bit. He could play guitar. He to borrow it because I knew he played guitar a little bit he could play guitar. He was playing, like you know, he played ACDC songs and all this other shit, but I didn't know if he could really play. I didn't know he could really play and I came out the bathroom, or I was going to the bathroom, I was going to it and I heard him playing. He's playing a song, strumming on the guitar, and I said what the fuck is that?
Speaker 2:it was almost like when I heard that tracy chapman song or like when I heard, when I heard, like cat stevens, when I was a little kid I heard wild world I was like that song is so beautiful. Or even like um, use me by bill withers, like you know, I'm a sucker for, for an acoustic guitar and emotional vocals and and, um, what the hell is that? That's super cool. He's like oh, it's a song I were, I wrote, I said play that. Again, he's played it. He started singing it, he's singing the song. And I said, and I was blown away, I was like yo, we got to record that. So that song was what it's like, wow, and it's exactly as is on the record, like the, the melody, the, everything, the chords.
Speaker 1:You basically just plug the mic in and just let him go.
Speaker 2:It's exactly that song, minus the drums and the strings, no bass, but it's that song. And I was like we have to record that. And he goes, I'm not ready to do that yet. I said why. He said, well, once I do that, I can't, I can't rap anymore. I said, nah, you're bugging. And, um, I said that because me and him both were into rage against the machine shit. I saw rage against the machine open for house of pain before they had a record deal or before the record was out.
Speaker 2:They had been signed. Wow so, and another fantastic band. So he had turned me on to Soundgarden. No, I knew Soundgarden, but he really got me to listen to Soundgarden. He turned me on to Radiohead. I didn't know they had anything good besides Creep, but he made me listen to Pablo Honey. And then I turned them on to a lot of music as well older punk rock stuff. I got them into the Clash. So we were really into turning each other on to music. This was a place that we met and I stayed on them. Usually my rule of thumb is don't push too hard, because the artist doesn't listen. Make them always think it's their idea.
Speaker 1:It's a fine line. It's a very fine line.
Speaker 2:You know that song you want to do. You know what I mean, like convincing they came up with exactly yeah, but this time I didn't do that. I didn't play sight games with eric. I just was like we, you got to do that, you got to do that, and then he played it for my partner.
Speaker 2:Rest in peace, john gamble john production partner, my studio engineer, my, my brother, john, gave me the look and John hardly ever, ever, like, gave me the look. Like what the fuck? He gave me the look like yo and then he was like, he was like yo, you gotta get him to do that. So me being slick, I was like yo a couple days, like maybe a week later, I was like yo, we're the part of the studio today. Eric's like really. I was like, yeah, john wants his of studio today. Eric's like really. I was like, yeah, john wants his guitar back. So so he brought the guitar. I got there before him, I called him from the studio, so I I figured out approximately the tempo of the record and I took the drums famous breakbeat. I chopped them up and I said, yo, man, play that record again. And then I played the drums bomb, play. That shit fit like a hand in a glove, like bong, and we knew we had to do it.
Speaker 1:He recorded it as an air person. It's such a you can't even describe it. When you get one, it's a feeling you can't describe it to somebody who hasn't done it. But when you hear that one, it's like the best sex you've ever had in your life. It's like, yeah, you can't you chase that high for the rest of your life.
Speaker 2:It's like God, it's a God shot Like boom. Literally it only happened to me a few times in my life, literally, you know, literally I get a handful of times in my entire life the record I go.
Speaker 1:I know that's a hit, but there's also records that are hits.
Speaker 2:This is different. This is different. Right, there's a record that's like great. You're like, yes, that's great. Yeah, happened to me with grand poobah. He did the rhymes on step to the rear in one shot. He did that shit because, yo, we were going to make another record and poobah, you know how long it took to track a song.
Speaker 2:Back in the day, me and my partners had made another beat for him and he walked in and he was like I can't fuck with it. We're like I hate you right now. So my partner, gibi, rest in peace. Gibi, yep, he was like, looked at me. Like you know, gibi was like the coolest cucumber on the block Absolutely no one was cooler than that dude. And talk about like me and him together with the ladies was like ridiculous. Like you know, he taught me everything I forgot. Like that guy was like the biggest influence on my whole life. So he looked at me and was like I got this kid Like and he pulled out his. He had a little box of S900 discs and he went up to the S900 and he played the loop that is Step to the Rear, and just looped it. He started doing it by hand and Puba was like yo. That's that shit and bong. And then we laid down the loop and a kick and a snare. There's nothing else in that record and one piano hit.
Speaker 1:And he rapped it all the way through.
Speaker 2:Yo, he rapped it in one shot and I was like this is the greatest record we ever made. We were both like what the fuck? So you know, we did that whole song in like four hours. So you know, that was maybe the only other time.
Speaker 1:it was like you know, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Let me ask you a question.
Speaker 1:Let me ask you a question. So the House of Pain comes out, I ain't going to say blow up, explodes, explodes. Three million albums or so.
Speaker 2:Three albums, no, no, I think the single's like damn near diamond, but the album, I think, is two or three million, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So it's crazy time you win Grammy, which is crazy right, oh, but you're talking about.
Speaker 2:You mean what? It's the Everlast record. Whitey Ford Sings the Blues.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, I'm sorry, I'm saying House of Pain, I and Whitey Ford Sings the Blues. Yes, yeah, I'm sorry, house of Pain, I'm saying House of Pain, I'm tripping Everlast, everlast, everlast, triple Platinum. Yes, yes, yes, excuse me on that.
Speaker 2:But what you forgot is that he had a heart attack before the record came out. So we were doing the last song in the whole album. I hadn't been back to New York for eight or nine months. I want, I'm paying rent on my house, I want to fucking go back home and I'm, you know, a lot of Eric's fucking a tax man's on him. It's just, it's dark. We do the last song on the album, called it's called Tired.
Speaker 2:He starts complaining about him chest pains. I said, yo, we got to finish the fucking record ready, bro, like I'm fucking, I got to go home. He, you know, I didn't know how to drive. I'm living in la in my girl's house because I was living with eric. But I was like I can't live with him and make a record, I'm gonna kill him. He's gonna kill me. It's like it's too much me, him and john in one house, forget it.
Speaker 2:He's complaining about chest pains. He says he had food poisoning. He ate at this terrible restaurant all the time, damiano's. I was like how could you eat that shit? Like only irishman eats at a time. Thinks that's italian food. Like you know, get you, get a better diet. Kid like stop, you know so, and I was also like that's when I first really got into working out. I was like working out like all the time because I was so bored. He slept at two o'clock. Every day I get up like eight o'clock. So so you know, I'm like so fucking, I have like five hours to kill every morning. So I go to the gym and I got the call from John that he had a heart attack in the middle of the night. I got a rule like don't pick up the phone in the middle of the night because either someone died or someone needs you to get back to jail.
Speaker 1:It's never good. It's never good Someone's in jail or someone's dead.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I didn't pick up the my girl's house. I finally picked up on. She was in Vegas at a trade show and he said yo, dante Everett had a heart attack. I went to the hospital. John looked like he'd seen a ghost. He said right before you got there he had a. He went in a fucking cold red cardiac arrest. He might die. So he almost died. He was on 48 hours. Wow.
Speaker 4:And we'll be right back Ready to launch your podcast. Merrick Studios offers comprehensive services, from concept development and seamless production to strategic marketing and monetization. Let your story take the mic. Visit MerrickCreativecom slash studios and let's get to work.
Speaker 3:Master the art of lyricism with Pendulum Inc. The first school for rap. Learn elite techniques through immersive lessons, real-world exercises and guidance from hip-hop icons. This is where MCs sharpen their skills and glow boldly on the mic. Ready to level up, Visit PendulumInccom and start your journey today. And now back to our show.
Speaker 2:He was born with congenitive heart valve disorder. He was taking Coumadin. It was mixed, prescribed blood thinner, so that's why I had a heart attack, so anyway. So I finished the record he was laid up. I took it back to New York and I finished it without him. So Jamie Stow, pete Rock's engineer, mixed it with me and John, we finished it. It was to me the best record I'd ever made. Took me out of my rap comfort zone. It was my version of Check your Head, you know. Very different record Nothing like it.
Speaker 2:But we're playing instruments.
Speaker 1:Nothing to say. No, it's a whole different thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah right, it's like total and completely inspired by Check your Head and by Beck and by Rage Against the Machine. You know, cake, I had done these demos with this band called Roguish Armament before that and we almost got a deal and all fell apart. But it was like rock rap. It was pretty cool. So I knew I could kind of. I had like every label tried to sign but just all fell apart. So I knew I could kind of figure that formula out. But Eric was a great songwriter, which those guys weren't. He could actually write songs, songs, he's a good singer. So he was laid up and I finished the record and and we turned into tommy boy. He told me sam crespo said yo, your record is great. Now they're gonna sell this one. So I was happy, then sad in the span of 30 seconds and sam kept it real with me because I knew sam forever yeah anyway.
Speaker 2:yeah, the record comes out, so ask your question.
Speaker 1:I'll answer it. So what kind of mind fuck is it to become a Grammy-winning smash album producer?
Speaker 2:You know it was different emotions. So the good part of it is we walked through hell to get to heaven with that record. Yeah, and they say I'm a believer that hell, hell and heaven are on earth. Right, I don't believe in mystery shit. Yeah, Like to go up to the sky type shit. Yeah, I don't believe in none of that. So you know we walked through hell broke. You know he was broke and I was broke. You know he was broke and I was. I had had a terrible breakup with this girl in new york and and we made this beautiful piece of art that was centered in our deep friendship and um, we.
Speaker 2:The other thing is we made it in the house. We never went to a major studio. We mixed it in a big studio but we made the whole thing at home, home recording, because I've seen the beasties. G son and I had my studio in new york, so we just built a version of my studio in New York and Eric's house. So we did the whole thing in the house horns, everything. There's no live drums on the record, but we did all in-house, except for strings. We did that in a big studio. So that was a ticket and um, you know, the record comes out and it blows up. So I felt that we had earned every inch of that success. Eric almost died.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I never worked harder on a record in my entire life. I never wanted a record to count more.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I feel like he felt the same. John certainly felt the same. We were granted all of these gifts. So, yes, a mind fuck the posers were. We worked really hard and believed in our bond and made this great record. That's the good stuff. The bad stuff is I got everything I wanted, and sometimes that's not good that's that actually what I was going to say.
Speaker 1:I wasn't going to say that particularly, but yeah, it's kind of like. You work hard, you guys are fucking damn near like in your boxers making jams you know what I'm saying Like eating pizza and shit. And then this thing takes over the country and the world. You know, it becomes this monster, it becomes its own thing. It becomes so big. It's so big, it becomes like its own kind of entity. It's just moving and all this money is coming in and people are calling you and come work with Like how did I don't know how?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you said you tried to get everything that you thought about. It didn't come out of the gate fast.
Speaker 1:No, not out of the gate, not out of the out.
Speaker 2:It came out in August. He won on tour in September played a show in New York, killed it Cone Island High John Leland, my old friend John.
Speaker 2:Leland, he did a stunning review in the Daily News, stunning. The record got very good reviews but it wasn't selling. But a station in Seattle started to play at the end and it performed and then K-Rock started to play it. So from August, september to December it keeps going up. By December the second to last week of Billboard reporting the single goes number one alternative record in the country. The album was top five sold a hundred thousand records that week. Our biggest week 103 000 records. I was at a christmas party. I want to say this for loud jeff fenster was there. Fenster fucked me on this deal on that alternative band Roguesh Armament. He fucked me royally. The band broke up. He came up to me and goes congratulations, you have the number one alternative record in the country. And he had a hat on. I took his hat and I threw it across the room. I said don't fucking talk to me.
Speaker 2:And Maria Ma was there and Lisa, and they got between me and they said don't do it, dante, don't hit them, don't do it. Come on, don't do it. They're like hugging me, we're so proud of you and, um, that was cool, my sisters, because they were really good friends of mine, yeah, it was like lisa, rose, my, my smoke weed partner, so and maria had gone out give me for a long time. So you know we um, you know it was great, but then you know, I also had a little too much access to the world.
Speaker 1:That's what I want. That's kind of what I was leaning on. How do you cope with that, that level of everything.
Speaker 2:You know, I bought a place that was upside, you know. I bought a place. I bought my first place, which was great in me packing, and I bought too many gold chains, a Rolex. I dated a lot of women. I was like, hey, let's go to the Bahamas.
Speaker 1:Let's go over here. Let's go to Miami. Let's go to Miami.
Speaker 2:Let's go. Let's go to LA. I'm just doing it, spend money like stupidly, cause I got a big publishing deal as the first time I had. Like it's the first time I could say I was a millionaire, yeah, I got a million dollars, yeah, and a house. And you know I was, um, I was in crazy good shape. I was super dedicated to working out and I guess that's when I started boxing, doing jiu-jitsu and stuff, so I was really into being fit. But I also was drinking like a fish and, yeah, man, I lost sight of some things. But what was great is I got to work with a bunch of cool bands and do a bunch of cool shit John Spencer, blues, explosion, korn, the Getaway People, rozelle. You know I got a label deal from Steve my champ which wasn't very successful but was a lot of fun. I was too focused making records for other people because I could go and pick up a $60,000 check here, $100,000 there.
Speaker 2:You know, and I became also, like the biggest rock rap remixer, one of them. So if I didn't do it, if Butch Vig didn't do it, I did it. Whether it was Incubus, korn, the Deftones, I did all that shit. And all those gigs were $25,000 pop gigs. So you know, and I lined them up for days. I produced Naina Cherry, all this shit, man. I went to england and produced some shit. I tried to be a songwriter. I wasn't very good at it, but I got to blue santana and I got a song that won a grammy on supernatural and those checks never stopped coming.
Speaker 2:So that was two grammys. So I got my grammy for everlast is oh, for best alternative song. The grammy I got for santana is for Best Alternative Song. The Grammy I got for Santana is for Album of the Year, so that's the real Grammy.
Speaker 1:Where do you keep your trophies?
Speaker 2:My Grammy is right. The Santana one, I think, is right behind me. I think it's right there. There it is in the corner. I don't know if you can see it. That's my.
Speaker 2:Grammy and for Best Alternative Song. You know what you get you get a fucking medal. Then you get another statue, you get a medal and a plaque. So I got the plaques and you know, I got the Santana Gold Records. It's a platinum. It's a 12-time platinum at 120. And I worked on three records with Santana. I liked working with them a lot and you know, I producer a failed songwriter. I was not a great songwriter for 10 years and I did that for 10 years from 1999, 2000 to 2010 or so, and tell me how you just run.
Speaker 1:Tell me, because people have told me this over the years but I haven't had the I don't know the gumption on whatever to do it. But tell me how you decided to write this book, my dad?
Speaker 2:is a writer. He published 11 books. Oh, wow, when I was a kid I won a new. I didn't win it, sorry. I came in second in a New York City sports writing contest. I was in middle school. Wow, I wrote about baseball. Red Smith, a famous writer.
Speaker 1:You know, sports writer Red Smith.
Speaker 2:He was the judge, one of the judges. My family had a mutual friend with his, james Roach, another sports writer, and he became my friend and told me I should be a sports writer and I have this book he gave me, called when the Strawberries Turn Red. It's about baseball, he told me. In the book he said to Dante, you're on your way to the greatest job, to the greatest job you'll ever know. Wow, and he signed it. So I always want to be a writer. I always had literary aspirations and I feel like I had the second best job in the world, right.
Speaker 1:Red probably had the. You know it was a great job.
Speaker 2:I mean not even that I did it that good, it's just the opportunity to do it, the job itself for a music nerd like us. Like what do you want? To be an A&R guy? It's like you're the biggest music fan in the world, right, Absolutely, and that's all I ever been, really. So, um, I wrote the book cause I'm a good storyteller. Like 20 different people that told me to write a fucking book, and including Sasha Jenkins, rest in peace.
Speaker 1:Wow, god bless him, god bless him.
Speaker 2:He, um, and me and him had a very intricate relationship up and down, sometimes good, sometimes bad. So by no means am I like, I don't want to be like. You know that was my best friend in the world. But he, when I I wrote for mass appeal and he was like you should go write a book, cause I was, he got, he plugged me into writing mass appeal. There were some issues where me and him at the end wrote, like you know, two thirds of the magazine. So so he was one of the guys and a few other people Mel DeCole, quest, eric People were like dude, fucking, go write a book already, shut the fuck up.
Speaker 2:So me and my dad we're going to write a book together. My dad got sick. We started to write it. I have the first like 80 pages. We wrote together. But my dad got sick. He got cancer. He had a couple of bouts of chemo before he was in remission. But he got sick and we put the book down because he had to live the end of his life and I wrote the book when he was dying. I wrote it and then, after he passed, I couldn't look at it for five years. I just couldn't look at it.
Speaker 2:It's been around that long.
Speaker 2:Well, it hasn't been. So I fast forward to about he died in 2011 to about 2015, 2016. I picked it up at the urging of his friend, who was also older, and he told me you should write this. You need to write this. So I'd send him the manuscript. He asked to see it. I said no. He said you should write it but rewrite it. So I spent some time rewriting it. Then I put it down again.
Speaker 2:So I had this literary agent who is the worst human being in the entire fucking planet. He ended up getting sued for millions and millions of dollars. I won't say his name because he's such a prick He'd probably sue me, but you know who you are and you're a prick, if you ever hear this. I met him in jujitsu by choking the shit out of him. So you should have realized I might choke the shit out of you one day.
Speaker 2:That said, it didn't work out. During the pandemic, I rewrote the entire book and there had been a publisher who I don't love now after the book came out, but he had wanted to do the book prior to the rewrite. I did the rewrite, he got me an editor and we put the book out. So that's the process of it, but the gumption came from being a good storyteller and also the want to connect with my dad and the man who told me to pick the book back up QR Hand Quentin Roosevelt Hand my godfather. He passed away during the pandemic so I got to be with him right before he passed away. I drove up to the bay and I stayed with him for a couple of days just to see him, because it was important.
Speaker 2:My dad wanted me to always take care of him if I could. So my dad left behind some things and we took care of QR. That's the best we could before he passed away.
Speaker 1:That's beautiful, it's beautiful.
Speaker 2:So that was the book could before he passed away. That's beautiful, beautiful. So that was the book and that's why I wrote it, probably to be close to my dad, and also I felt like I have a story to tell that is much bigger than just the music. So that part is the obvious, the bells and whistles. But I have an intricate life story and it's very cathartic to put your life on paper and not to lie about it. So a lot of people write a story about themselves and it's not very objective.
Speaker 2:I had a friend of mine who wrote a book and I won't say his name, but his book was. He was always Superman. And I had a friend who's a great writer, seth Rosenfeld, screenwriter, mostly playwright and Seth, his word of advice for me was be really honest about your faults, your shortcomings, and celebrate the wins, because that's what makes a book good, that's a good story Ups and downs. So that's what I tried to do when I wrote the book. I tried to just keep it honest. You know, I'm also, like long-term member of a 12-step program and in the 12-step program I belong to rigorous honesty is at the center of it. So being rigorously honest is at the center of my story, so I try not to lie. You know I'm an honest person.
Speaker 1:Congratulations, man, on everything you know. Thank you, we could do this five hours, seven hours. Yeah, man, yeah, like 10. Thank you.
Speaker 2:We could do this five hours, seven hours. Yeah, man, yeah, like 10. Easily, because I love talking to you, because we know so much For the people who are listening.
Speaker 1:we skipped over a lot of shit With all the shit we talked about.
Speaker 2:we skipped over a lot of shit we skipped over, like the last 10 years kind of.
Speaker 1:We both worked at.
Speaker 2:Warner Music Group. Jeff was at Atlantic, I was at Atlantic. I was at ADA, yeah you were at ADA, yep, yep. That's a story in itself.
Speaker 1:I'd come down to your office and we'd commiserate. You know.
Speaker 2:Yep, I mean, jeff was there when I found you, were there when I brought in Made in Tokyo.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, absolutely. You had Ugly God, yep, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Little Dicky, little Dicky, who Atlantic passed on upstreaming Guys like a megastar.
Speaker 2:You know they. You know it was one of those. You know those meetings where we do the meeting and I got to say, little Dickie is so little, he's so little Dickie. He goes. How do you feel, craig? How do you feel about being on Atlantic records? And he goes well, it sounds great if you guys want to write the check. And you promise me I'm going to be bigger than Macklemore. And Julie goes. What are you crazy? No, I can't promise that. Who can promise that? I can't, no one can promise you that. And he goes. Well, that's what I mean. And so the meeting's like, everyone laughs and the meeting ends. And you know, craig, what do you think? And Mike Kaiser goes. I love him, I think we should do it. I don't know why. It's like the only time Mike Kaiser ever looked out for me in my life.
Speaker 2:He helped get me the ax. He put my head in the guillotine is what I heard. Mike, I grew up with you. I got your first job at Def Jam. I hope you hear this. Mike, I grew up with you. I got your first job at Def Jam. I hope you hear this by all I've heard behind the scenes. You helped chop me up. You helped barbecue me Anyway, one day you'll explain that. And Julie was like he's a charmer, and I, when she said that, I knew it wasn't going to happen.
Speaker 1:It was over.
Speaker 2:It was over. Wow, wow, wow. Yeah, you know it was a weird place working there, but it was a weird place.
Speaker 1:It was a weird place, but we, you know we're here now. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:I did fucking eight years there.
Speaker 1:So I did three years there, 16, 18.
Speaker 2:I started at Warner with Todd, todd, lior and Joey. Then they put me at ADA because I found Macklemore and Lior told me to bring it to Kenny. So I went to ADA, I became senior VP at ADA and then it all went away. Yeah, like it always does, all good things come to an end, man, they do. No one stays at a record label longer than 10 years.
Speaker 1:No man, anyone, no one stays at a record label longer than 10 years. No, that's miraculous. It's miraculous. This is like some lady like in royalties or something you don't really see some shit like exactly, but the creative admin. Exactly, but the creative positions don't last.
Speaker 2:Yes, we got okay you know it's crazy between my two stints at the warner musical. It was we in the beginning, between a lecture and ada warner brothers. I worked there a total of 17 years Wow.
Speaker 1:It's crazy, that's a run.
Speaker 2:Two different ones.
Speaker 1:Two different empires. Yeah, quick, very quick, a couple questions, quick and you've got a million of these. But tell me one artist you wanted to sign but you didn't or couldn't.
Speaker 2:Tribe Called Quest.
Speaker 1:Million of these, but tell me one artist you wanted to sign, but you, but you didn't or couldn't. Child called quest. They broke my heart, okay, okay, okay. Tell me one or two of your favorite artists and why everybody gets this question everlast, because he's one of my best friends okay I still talk to him almost every day.
Speaker 2:Um, he's my and we had the craziest experience working together. It was life-defining. So things aren't always life-defining Right and the other one is very, very hard to pick between Dirty and Doom. Okay, say them both Dirty and Doom, probably in part because they both passed. Doom because he was subjected to the craziest ordeal coming from kmd to become mf doom and died and experienced this rebirth career-wise, and he was fucking hilarious, just hilarious, the funniest dude ever. Love him to death. What a great guy. And Dirty, because Dirty was dirty and there's only one Dirty Like Doom and Everlasting and Singular. But All Dirty Bastard was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that will never happen again. It never happened the same way again. He was like a shining star, a Halley's Comet. He was, like you know, scorched earth times 10.
Speaker 2:And making that record was not easy, getting it done, but it was an experience that changed my life and told me to believe in myself, because I knew more than most other people around me who doubted it. And I loved him for the experience of the record, like the album cover, just that alone and how it went down, with Danny clinching him and the art direction which came from him and all of it was a once. This is why, this is why I do what I do. Yeah, that is the experience. That is the reason you do it. To have have lightning in a bottle and to capture it, yes, to bring the fucking ball in the end zone when there's the most formative defense in the world in front of you To win game seven. That's what that felt like to me. So working with him, is that that experience? So all dirty bastards.
Speaker 1:Okay, and last question, I tailored this for you. Tell me two of your favorite downtown restaurants, that's a good question. You're a low-key foodie.
Speaker 2:I love to eat, I try not to say foodie. Okay, interesting, interesting. So they have to still be open. No, no, no, of course not. So I'm going to pick my favorite burger spot, because I've gone here since I was a kid and that's a corner bistro. Okay, every time I go to New York I go there because it's the best affordable burger in New York. It's unchanged by time. It's not a smash burger 20 bucks. You get that thick burger with the fries and the same.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love that place, this is my spot. And then you know it was Da Silvano. They closed.
Speaker 2:So, I ate at Silvano forever because they took such good care of me there. I knew Silvano and that place is just unbelievable. The food is so good. So Bar Pitti, which his wife owns Silvano Clothes, is right next door. I love that place.
Speaker 2:But I go to a place called El Posto, which is owned by my friend, julio, who used to own El Bogato. So him and his wife, beatrice, own it. So it's on 2nd Street, the block I grew up in New York. The food is amazing and they treat me great there. So that's where I go a lot. When I go to New York I always have a meal there. The food is, you know, four or five stars. The service is five stars and I love eating on the block where I grew up. So I go there as much for walking past my childhood house where I played stickball, right next door to as much as a restaurant. I love the restaurant. The food is tremendous. If you are in New York, go. I love the El Bogato. I think the food here is better than El Bogato. So that's my two spots. Okay, that's it. That's it. That's it we done. Shout out to Winsome in Brooklyn too. That's a great one. I don't know if you know that place, but go there.
Speaker 1:I don't know that place. No, okay, well, thank you, dante Ross. Thank you, Jeff Sledge this is in the lobby of the Gavin. That's where we really clicked. Yeah, that's. You know, Sean always loved you, so I loved Kazoff, you came with high recommendations because Sean could do no wrong. You used to call me Mighty Joe Young. Wow, he was the only guy that I would lie to you. You're Mighty Joe Young, Sledge Yo you cannot call someone that today. I miss that guy man.
Speaker 2:I love him. He was the best. I miss that guy.
Speaker 1:Rest in peace to the captain. Rest in peace to Sean Kazoff. You know I'm a Rushki Sledge, I'm a Rushki he believed in me before I believed in myself. Yeah, yeah, sean was. He was from another era, he was special.
Speaker 2:He was a special dude you know who who says that about him too, ali Ali's always like man Sean. He signed Tropic Quest and no one knows that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I always tell people he signed Tropic Quest and he won Again. I'm going to end this after this. He brought Farside to Jive. He gave me that cassette. I swear to God I was confined. It had passed me by on the cassette and we passed, I passed on Farside.
Speaker 2:They were too much like leaders, I had to say from Paul Stewart, you know who was going to sign Tribe Called Quest.
Speaker 1:Who's that?
Speaker 2:I left Tommy Boy to sign them to Elektra.
Speaker 1:Really.
Speaker 2:And Jive paid $350. I was willing to pay $375. They would have kept their publishing, but Jive was a better label.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And that's why they went to Jive.
Speaker 1:Yeah, wow, wow. Thank you, man. I really appreciate this man. Thank you, man. I really appreciate this. 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 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.
