Latest / The Breakfast Club / INTERVIEW: Mad Skillz Talks 'The Seven Number Ones' Album, Rap Ups, Uncle Murda, Ghostwriting, Grammy's + More

Transcript

INTERVIEW: Mad Skillz Talks 'The Seven Number Ones' Album, Rap Ups, Uncle Murda, Ghostwriting, Grammy's + More · The Breakfast Club

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Wake that ass up in the morning.
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: Breakfast Club Morning everybody, It's the j n V, Jess,
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Hilarie Charlamagne, the guy.
• 0:08
  Speaker 3: We are the Breakfast Club. You got a special guest
• 0:10
  Speaker 3: in the building.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Yes, indeed got.
• 0:11
  Speaker 3: The brother skills.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: What up? Man?
• 0:13
  Speaker 4: Are you feeling?
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: You know? Same?
• 0:16
  Speaker 5: It's different air freshener, Yeah, I mean just trying to
• 0:19
  Speaker 5: keep it pushing.
• 0:19
  Speaker 3: Have you retired the wrap up? So do you have
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: to do like because you gotta break it.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: I mean the year it's a little easier, but it's
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: just diddy, But do you do the wrap up?
• 0:28
  Speaker 5: Still haven't done the wrap up since like twenty I
• 0:30
  Speaker 5: think the last one was twenty twenty two. For two years,
• 0:33
  Speaker 5: so yeah, like two I stopped after like two years.
• 0:36
  Speaker 5: I think I did the last one over like holes
• 0:38
  Speaker 5: like on Core. I promoted it as like the last one,
• 0:41
  Speaker 5: and then after that, I just I had a chill
• 0:44
  Speaker 5: December like that song used to take up so much
• 0:47
  Speaker 5: of my life at the end of the year, bro,
• 0:49
  Speaker 5: I ain't didn't get to do Christmas shopping.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Go you know what I mean? Put up nothing.
• 0:54
  Speaker 6: You gotta go from January all the way, like all
• 0:57
  Speaker 6: the eventful things that happen.
• 0:58
  Speaker 7: Oh you you're gonna have to do this ship. This
• 1:01
  Speaker 7: shit is crazy.
• 1:02
  Speaker 5: People say that every year though, they like, you got
• 1:04
  Speaker 5: to do one this ship, And I'm like, actually, I
• 1:06
  Speaker 5: don't you know what I mean?
• 1:08
  Speaker 4: Did you know Murder have real issues over there?
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: Nah?
• 1:11
  Speaker 5: Nah, No, it was just like it was just fun.
• 1:13
  Speaker 5: It was, you know what I mean, Like I never
• 1:15
  Speaker 5: I never ran in the murder or nothing. And even
• 1:17
  Speaker 5: if I did, we probably would have just looked at
• 1:19
  Speaker 5: himself and started laughing, you know what I mean, Like,
• 1:21
  Speaker 5: I know, he a character and that's what he do.
• 1:22
  Speaker 4: Imagine deeping over a wrap up should collaborated one.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: Though, that's you know who said that first?
• 1:27
  Speaker 5: Clock Kent?
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: Really why Kent was the first person that said that.
• 1:31
  Speaker 5: And actually this year, after you know, Clock passed, I
• 1:36
  Speaker 5: did think about it, you know what I mean, like
• 1:38
  Speaker 5: that he asked me to do that, you know what
• 1:39
  Speaker 5: I mean. In twenty eighteen, I was super stubborn, still
• 1:42
  Speaker 5: battle rap mode. I was like, nah, I never do that,
• 1:45
  Speaker 5: But then after Clock passed, I actually thought about it.
• 1:47
  Speaker 4: Y'all still got time, gotcha listen.
• 1:50
  Speaker 5: I just I just ain't gonna rap as long as him.
• 1:52
  Speaker 5: I'm three minutes in and our attention spans too. Sure
• 1:56
  Speaker 5: you gonna go fifteen minutes, Like, I ain't rapping that long.
• 2:00
  Speaker 7: Nobody, y'all got fourteen days left.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: He got fourteen days. He on the clock.
• 2:06
  Speaker 8: Congratulations to being nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Spoken.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: Word Poetry Album. Thank you?
• 2:11
  Speaker 4: What is that? What's that?
• 2:12
  Speaker 8: It's a stupid question, but to you, as a rapper,
• 2:14
  Speaker 8: rappers are poets.
• 2:16
  Speaker 4: What is the difference between poetry and rap? At least
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: from the.
• 2:20
  Speaker 5: Great on once you take the music out, you know
• 2:23
  Speaker 5: what I mean, it's it's it's poetry, you know what
• 2:25
  Speaker 5: I mean. I feel like all MC's are poets. So
• 2:28
  Speaker 5: you know, the Grammy had it in a category before
• 2:32
  Speaker 5: where it was a lot of other things happening in
• 2:36
  Speaker 5: the same category. So maybe like a poetry album or
• 2:39
  Speaker 5: spoken word album would be in the same category as
• 2:42
  Speaker 5: like somebody reading the children's book and shout out to
• 2:44
  Speaker 5: the brother j Ivy j Ivy who won last year.
• 2:48
  Speaker 5: Yeah he he kind of advocated for it and let
• 2:52
  Speaker 5: them know, like, yo, this is different, Like we shouldn't
• 2:54
  Speaker 5: be competing against Barack Obama reading his book like we
• 2:58
  Speaker 5: ain't go that's not spoken words. So he pushed forward
• 3:01
  Speaker 5: to be its own category. Now it stands on its
• 3:03
  Speaker 5: own and I got nominated this year. So it's wild,
• 3:05
  Speaker 5: it's crazy, go up against it's me. I want to say,
• 3:09
  Speaker 5: Malik yusef omar o'mary got one. I can't remember who
• 3:15
  Speaker 5: else is in Mary Harwick. Yeah, Mari Harward got one
• 3:18
  Speaker 5: old Queen Sheba.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: And and an amazing artist named Tank from Tank in
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: the Bankers.
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: Many How many times have you been nominating for Grammy?
• 3:26
  Speaker 5: I got nominated once as a writer when we did
• 3:29
  Speaker 5: the Nikki album The Pink Print in twenty fifteen, but
• 3:32
  Speaker 5: I think we lost to Kendrick that year. But this
• 3:34
  Speaker 5: is the first time I've ever been nominated as mad Skills.
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: Now you got to say exactly because people are gonna
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: take that.
• 3:39
  Speaker 5: Like I wrote a hook, I wrote the Night is
• 3:45
  Speaker 5: Still Young, and I did that with like Tehran est
• 3:48
  Speaker 5: Dein like it was like three of us.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: Nikki Nikki write all her bass, all her boss. Now
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: we lost. I think we lost the Ka that year.
• 3:56
  Speaker 4: So what would win the Grammy mean for you?
• 3:59
  Speaker 5: Oh man, listen, it would change my life and just
• 4:03
  Speaker 5: you know, for the creatives in Virginia. Man, who are
• 4:06
  Speaker 5: you know? Doing their thing and just pushing the culture forward.
• 4:09
  Speaker 5: It like we always talk about Philly and va Is
• 4:12
  Speaker 5: being like the red headed step child in the music industry,
• 4:15
  Speaker 5: you know what I mean. But we collaborated a lot,
• 4:17
  Speaker 5: so it would mean a lot, man. And this is
• 4:19
  Speaker 5: probably my most personal project today. I ain't never been
• 4:23
  Speaker 5: this person of my music. And I almost wasn't even
• 4:25
  Speaker 5: gonna put it out. Wow, And my wife was like, no,
• 4:27
  Speaker 5: you should. You should really put this out, and I
• 4:29
  Speaker 5: was like, bad, it's too personal, Like I don't you
• 4:31
  Speaker 5: know how we I'm like, man, I don't need everybody
• 4:33
  Speaker 5: knowing my business like so to be rapping for thirty years.
• 4:36
  Speaker 5: And then the first time I really get personal and
• 4:39
  Speaker 5: vulnerable on the project, it get nominated for a GRAMM.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: Crazy.
• 4:44
  Speaker 8: What made you want to do a poetry album versus
• 4:46
  Speaker 8: a traditional hip hop? Alb especially saying that she was
• 4:47
  Speaker 8: getting so personal right.
• 4:49
  Speaker 5: I started it And when I started at it, the
• 4:51
  Speaker 5: first two songs was like raps, but they were so
• 4:54
  Speaker 5: I was I was moving like and I was like,
• 4:57
  Speaker 5: I gotta slow this down. I want people to be
• 4:59
  Speaker 5: able to digest this. So I tried it another way.
• 5:01
  Speaker 5: And then once I started sending the song around there
• 5:03
  Speaker 5: like friends. They was like yo, nah, keep going. And
• 5:06
  Speaker 5: the song the album is called the Seven Number Ones,
• 5:09
  Speaker 5: and it's about seven things that happened in my life
• 5:12
  Speaker 5: that literally changed the direction of my life. So the
• 5:15
  Speaker 5: first song was like my parents meeting. The second song
• 5:18
  Speaker 5: was when my mom used to play music around the house,
• 5:20
  Speaker 5: my first love, you know what I mean, my first
• 5:22
  Speaker 5: daughter being born.
• 5:23
  Speaker 8: So it's all first and that's how the album came about.
• 5:28
  Speaker 8: Is about my parents. Yes, you got your grandma featured.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: On Yes, which is crazy.
• 5:31
  Speaker 5: So if I went to Grammy, like my grandma would
• 5:34
  Speaker 5: get you know what I mean, a participation plaque like
• 5:37
  Speaker 5: so to be at ninety seven years old, you know
• 5:39
  Speaker 5: what I mean. So yeah, I used to sit down
• 5:42
  Speaker 5: with her and I never knew how my parents met.
• 5:44
  Speaker 5: So I just had a phone and just throw it
• 5:45
  Speaker 5: down and record her just so I could go back
• 5:48
  Speaker 5: and listen to it later. And I put it on
• 5:50
  Speaker 5: the album and it's like the hooks. So my grandma
• 5:53
  Speaker 5: is actually featured on the first song.
• 5:54
  Speaker 8: Didn't that The crazy thing? How much we don't know
• 5:56
  Speaker 8: about our parents. Yes, they had a whole life before us,
• 5:59
  Speaker 8: but we don't ever sit down and talk to him
• 6:01
  Speaker 8: about it.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: Yes, man, it was.
• 6:03
  Speaker 5: It was therapeutic for me to learn because my mother
• 6:07
  Speaker 5: died of a drug overdose, like a heroin overdose, like
• 6:10
  Speaker 5: when I was like thirty three maybe, So it wasn't
• 6:14
  Speaker 5: until like American Gangster came out and I watched it
• 6:16
  Speaker 5: and I remember seeing them going back and forth bringing
• 6:19
  Speaker 5: the work from Vietnam and my stepfather, I mean, my
• 6:22
  Speaker 5: father went to Vietnam.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: So I made the connection, like damn, my father was
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: the person who.
• 6:27
  Speaker 5: Turned my mom on to that, and they died thirty
• 6:30
  Speaker 5: years later, like to the day. So it was just weird,
• 6:33
  Speaker 5: but to not have that but then to realize it later,
• 6:37
  Speaker 5: so yeah, man, it's a real thing. The album is crazy.
• 6:40
  Speaker 5: It's definitely very introspective and vulnerable.
• 6:42
  Speaker 6: And then it's also very personal. The track about your
• 6:45
  Speaker 6: parents because it's how they passed his try that they
• 6:49
  Speaker 6: both died from drug over there.
• 6:50
  Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, both died from a drug overdose. And when
• 6:53
  Speaker 5: I was little, they was like, oh, you know, your
• 6:54
  Speaker 5: father died from a heart attack. But then later on
• 6:56
  Speaker 5: as I got older, like they was real with me
• 6:58
  Speaker 5: and they told me what happened.
• 7:00
  Speaker 7: And was this the most emotional track?
• 7:05
  Speaker 5: Yeah, that one and the one about my daughter, Like
• 7:07
  Speaker 5: I literally said, you know, I played my daughter's songs
• 7:11
  Speaker 5: all the time. Like I posted a video the other day,
• 7:13
  Speaker 5: like of her getting in the car and I wanted
• 7:15
  Speaker 5: to play the song. So as soon as I get
• 7:18
  Speaker 5: in the car, I play the song. I'm guarant played
• 7:20
  Speaker 5: the song. She's like, yo, I watched someone play something.
• 7:22
  Speaker 5: She said, did you do a wrap up? And I
• 7:24
  Speaker 5: was like, nah, it's kind of a wrap up, but
• 7:29
  Speaker 5: it's about you, you know what I mean. So I
• 7:30
  Speaker 5: played it for and I always got cameras around, so
• 7:33
  Speaker 5: I had to go pro and the dash or whatever,
• 7:34
  Speaker 5: and I'm taping her reaction. And then I showed it
• 7:37
  Speaker 5: to a couple of friends and he was like My
• 7:38
  Speaker 5: man was like, oh, you should do a video for this.
• 7:40
  Speaker 5: And I was like, bro, this is the video like
• 7:42
  Speaker 5: me and her sitting in the car listening to how
• 7:45
  Speaker 5: I Because I was scared when I first I was nineteen, Yeah,
• 7:48
  Speaker 5: I was nineteen.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: That was nineteen years old. I was skying you know
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: what to do? You know what I mean?
• 7:51
  Speaker 5: So to see her now as an adult and to
• 7:54
  Speaker 5: be able to flourish in life, that's all you want
• 7:56
  Speaker 5: for your kids. She's thirty one there thirty one. Yeah,
• 7:59
  Speaker 5: So we said that call me in and I'm a
• 8:01
  Speaker 5: cry and I'm a cry about my kids. As soon
• 8:03
  Speaker 5: as the glasses came up, everybody was like, oh, I
• 8:05
  Speaker 5: know you about to cry. And I'm like, man, listen,
• 8:07
  Speaker 5: if it's something I'm gonna cry about, it's gonna be
• 8:08
  Speaker 5: my kids.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean?
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: Do you have those conversations with your daughter that you
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: never had what your parents about?
• 8:13
  Speaker 5: Yes, you do have this cond yes, And I try
• 8:16
  Speaker 5: to make sure that my kids know things about my
• 8:20
  Speaker 5: life and early on in my life, I wasn't perfect.
• 8:22
  Speaker 5: I was a mistake. I made mistakes. I was a
• 8:24
  Speaker 5: young father. But to be able to move forward.
• 8:27
  Speaker 8: And learn from those mistakes, those are things that helped
• 8:29
  Speaker 8: me in my life.
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: Now those mean a lot because I do that with
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: my kids. So I try to talk about everything that happened,
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: especially my parents' is a lot.
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: But like if you talk about I don't.
• 8:37
  Speaker 4: Even know how my parents.
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: Met, right, but I just think about it like I
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: just didn't think about it.
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: But my kids know that. You know, whatever how you
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: and your wife dad is right?
• 8:46
  Speaker 6: Are you taking more personal when people critique tracks like
• 8:49
  Speaker 6: this that are so personal to you.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: No, not really.
• 8:51
  Speaker 5: I mean, once you put art into the world, it's
• 8:53
  Speaker 5: gonna get critiqued, you know what I mean. Period, I
• 8:55
  Speaker 5: always felt like whatever it is, once you put a
• 8:57
  Speaker 5: song out, people have the option to either say, Yo,
• 8:59
  Speaker 5: that's fire, that's trash, you know what I mean. But
• 9:02
  Speaker 5: for me, this project has been able to connect with
• 9:06
  Speaker 5: people in a way that a lot of my rap
• 9:09
  Speaker 5: albums never did because people are like, Yo, I listened
• 9:11
  Speaker 5: to your project and I thought about my number one
• 9:14
  Speaker 5: like you know what I mean, Like like you thinking
• 9:16
  Speaker 5: about the first time you started djaying, and you thinking
• 9:18
  Speaker 5: about I want to be on radio, Yo, I want
• 9:20
  Speaker 5: to be a comedian.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean.
• 9:21
  Speaker 5: Like those moments stick with us, like I could ask you,
• 9:24
  Speaker 5: like I can ask all y'all, Yo, what you was
• 9:26
  Speaker 5: doing Like November nineth, nineteen ninety four. You probably like,
• 9:30
  Speaker 5: I don't remember, and I'd be like, Yo, where was
• 9:31
  Speaker 5: you the first time you heard ill Matic? And you
• 9:33
  Speaker 5: bet yo, I was in my Man Carbs High School?
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean. The music attaches to the memory.
• 9:37
  Speaker 7: I mean, I was two years old, so I don't
• 9:39
  Speaker 7: know what I was doing.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you probably something with a bottle.
• 9:42
  Speaker 7: You know what I'm saying.
• 9:43
  Speaker 8: I definitely remember the first time I was heard imadic.
• 9:45
  Speaker 8: That was a good question from j just though, because
• 9:47
  Speaker 8: it's like somebody is different. Somebody be like yo that
• 9:49
  Speaker 8: but no whack yo.
• 9:51
  Speaker 5: Right yeah yeah, nah, yeah you're talking about I get it.
• 9:55
  Speaker 5: And that's the reason why you can't dive too deep
• 9:57
  Speaker 5: into the comments. And I saw somebody yeah it was
• 9:59
  Speaker 5: kind of corny, and I'm like, all right, cool. It
• 10:01
  Speaker 5: ain't for you, you know what I mean, But for
• 10:02
  Speaker 5: me it was super therapeutic. I was still go right,
• 10:06
  Speaker 5: not as much as I used to, just because the
• 10:09
  Speaker 5: music now is a little different.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: I mean, I can get in that bag easy.
• 10:12
  Speaker 5: But the calls don't come as much from the younger
• 10:14
  Speaker 5: artists because they want to keep all of they publishing
• 10:16
  Speaker 5: and all of they I still get calls from some
• 10:18
  Speaker 5: of the ogs, but you know, I just I mean,
• 10:21
  Speaker 5: put the pen to the paper.
• 10:23
  Speaker 8: However, you ever have ideas for artists like you see
• 10:25
  Speaker 8: that you love and you like I have songs, and
• 10:29
  Speaker 8: I'll be like, yo, like I have I have songs
• 10:32
  Speaker 8: like complete verses and hooks, and I'll be like, yo,
• 10:34
  Speaker 8: this would be perfect on this person.
• 10:35
  Speaker 5: This to be perfect on this verson, but sometimes we
• 10:37
  Speaker 5: won't have the same vision. So I hold on to
• 10:40
  Speaker 5: songs a lot and just sit on them, and you know,
• 10:44
  Speaker 5: we just we just do what we do. But I
• 10:45
  Speaker 5: never want to die with the art in me, all
• 10:48
  Speaker 5: stuff on a hard drive, you know what I mean.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: I want to put it out.
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: I was gonna ask, you know, with all the writing
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: that you've done, how lucrative is publishing? Did you get
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: all the publishing that was deserved or a lot of
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: times they just gave you a check and say you're
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: not gettingne of that published.
• 11:00
  Speaker 5: In the beginning, I mean, yeah, yeah, in the beginning,
• 11:03
  Speaker 5: most of it was like you know, quick little bags here,
• 11:06
  Speaker 5: you know what I mean, brown paper bag money. Then
• 11:08
  Speaker 5: I learned about publishing later and how lucrative that could be,
• 11:12
  Speaker 5: but I never did a publishing deal, So for me,
• 11:14
  Speaker 5: I always I always was able to wait for my money,
• 11:17
  Speaker 5: like nobody was able to dangle, you know what I mean,
• 11:20
  Speaker 5: a couple hundred thousand in front of me, and I'm like,
• 11:22
  Speaker 5: I gotta get that now, because I'm like I can
• 11:23
  Speaker 5: wait six months for mine, you know what I mean,
• 11:24
  Speaker 5: because when it come, I know it's going to be
• 11:26
  Speaker 5: more than that, and there's so many stipulations on publishing
• 11:29
  Speaker 5: now and this, that and the third.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: So I'm like, man, I don't really want to you
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: know what I mean.
• 11:33
  Speaker 5: I never really wanted to wait, wait, like take a
• 11:36
  Speaker 5: loan from them and then just have to deal with
• 11:38
  Speaker 5: the paying them back.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: So I'm like, I wait for my bread is it's.
• 11:41
  Speaker 8: Still an unwritten rule that ghost riders aren't supposed to
• 11:44
  Speaker 8: talk about who they rolle for because it's not taboo
• 11:46
  Speaker 8: no more for people to have.
• 11:47
  Speaker 5: I mean, yeah, it's not really you know, I don't,
• 11:50
  Speaker 5: but you know what I mean, I never really revealed.
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: Well I won't say I never really revealed, but.
• 11:55
  Speaker 5: I make more money when they ain't nobody talking about ghosts, right,
• 11:59
  Speaker 5: you know what I mean?
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: Oh, And if people work with me, they know.
• 12:02
  Speaker 5: Most of the time, I just ain't gonna throw them
• 12:04
  Speaker 5: out there under the bus for no reason.
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: But sometimes people just know about it. They be like, oh,
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: I know you wrote that.
• 12:10
  Speaker 5: Earlier this year, I did a show in Virginia and
• 12:12
  Speaker 5: I actually performed the song that I wrote, and then
• 12:15
  Speaker 5: it was in like a McDonald's campaign, like maybe like
• 12:17
  Speaker 5: a month later, and people was like.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: Oh, you wrote that, And I was like, I've been
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: wrote that, you know what I mean.
• 12:22
  Speaker 6: I feel like a lot of rappers these days, a
• 12:24
  Speaker 6: lot of younger rappers, they feel like they lose credibility
• 12:28
  Speaker 6: if somebody, if they if it gets out there, then
• 12:30
  Speaker 6: somebody goes writing for them.
• 12:32
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean sometimes you just in the studio and
• 12:34
  Speaker 5: it's just help. You're like, yo, what if you say
• 12:36
  Speaker 5: it like this?
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean?
• 12:38
  Speaker 5: Like even like like like for instance, my homeboy KP
• 12:41
  Speaker 5: k KP the Great he ended up on Kendrick's alright,
• 12:47
  Speaker 5: but only because Pharrell was like, you know, we gonna
• 12:52
  Speaker 5: be all right, And he was like, Yo, I think
• 12:55
  Speaker 5: you should say it like we gonna be all right.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: He was like really, he was like, yeah, it just
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: sounds slim. Get that way. You got writing credit. Gotta
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: grant me like he just told him how to.
• 13:04
  Speaker 5: He just took something as small as Pharrell saying it
• 13:07
  Speaker 5: one way and for real being you know in siund
• 13:10
  Speaker 5: minded body going yo, KP told me to do that.
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: He's owed some credit off.
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: That's why because most people wouldn't have did that, would
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: have said I got said wait, it gave a little checking, you.
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: Know what I mean. But but and That's the thing
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: about it.
• 13:23
  Speaker 5: To be able to be in a room and collaborate
• 13:24
  Speaker 5: with your friends, you know what I mean, and make
• 13:27
  Speaker 5: something dope with your family and your friends. You don't
• 13:29
  Speaker 5: care about the credit because like like Quincy Jones always
• 13:32
  Speaker 5: sad when y'all start talking about money, God lead the
• 13:35
  Speaker 5: room anyway, I agree.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean?
• 13:37
  Speaker 5: So you we ain't here arking about something that we
• 13:38
  Speaker 5: ain't even made no money over yet.
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: Like what's the point. It stops the creative process.
• 13:43
  Speaker 8: When when you hear people that you when you wrote
• 13:45
  Speaker 8: for somebody, and then you hear people say that person.
• 13:47
  Speaker 4: Is the goat you ever be like, I listen, actually the.
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: I put I put it to you. I put it
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: to you like this.
• 13:55
  Speaker 5: Sometimes I always say, like, you know, if I fix
• 13:58
  Speaker 5: people's roofs on they houses, and people was like, oh,
• 14:01
  Speaker 5: I like his roof, I like his roof, his roof
• 14:03
  Speaker 5: is dope, And I'm like, they ain't even seen my roof,
• 14:06
  Speaker 5: And I'm cool with that. But hopefully if I did
• 14:08
  Speaker 5: my business right from making all these roofs, I got
• 14:10
  Speaker 5: a nice roof too, you know what I mean.
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: Just look at it that way.
• 14:14
  Speaker 8: How did you get the opportunity to write jay Z's
• 14:16
  Speaker 8: rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction.
• 14:18
  Speaker 5: That came from Questlove. He called me and he asked me.
• 14:23
  Speaker 5: It was weird how he said it. I just I
• 14:25
  Speaker 5: was in a barbershop.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: I picked the phone. He was like, Yo, when's the
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: last When did you stop listening the whole? I was
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: like what? He was like, when did you stop listening
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: to jay Z? I was like what you mean? He
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: was like, I heard you say before.
• 14:38
  Speaker 5: Like back in the day, like you would be able
• 14:39
  Speaker 5: to hear jay Z verse or a line that you
• 14:41
  Speaker 5: could just quote it, Like when did you stop? And
• 14:43
  Speaker 5: I was like, I said maybe the last thing I
• 14:46
  Speaker 5: might have checked out. I was like four four four
• 14:48
  Speaker 5: you know what I'm saying.
• 14:49
  Speaker 8: He was like, all right, cool, I need I need
• 14:51
  Speaker 8: you to do your thing, but the way you do it,
• 14:53
  Speaker 8: like wrap up style, but with like all of the
• 14:54
  Speaker 8: quinn essential jay Z lines you know what I mean,
• 14:57
  Speaker 8: like I will not lose and you know what I
• 14:59
  Speaker 8: mean all this stuff.
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: So I was like, all right, cool, and he was like,
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: and I need it in nine days?
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: Wow?
• 15:04
  Speaker 5: And I was like wait what He was like, I
• 15:06
  Speaker 5: need it in nine days. He was like, I'm about
• 15:08
  Speaker 5: to pitch it to Beyonce because at first Beyonce was
• 15:11
  Speaker 5: supposed to do the whole thing. I think it was
• 15:13
  Speaker 5: Beyonce's idea to have different celebrities say different lines. So
• 15:19
  Speaker 5: once I started writing it, we started going through the
• 15:23
  Speaker 5: entandres of who would say each line. So that made
• 15:26
  Speaker 5: it even doper for somebody to say a line that was,
• 15:29
  Speaker 5: you know, textbook with them. So having like Will Smith
• 15:33
  Speaker 5: say you know no more big Willie my name, you
• 15:35
  Speaker 5: know what I mean, like those type of lines, and
• 15:37
  Speaker 5: then even having Date David let Himan say the CBS
• 15:41
  Speaker 5: line I keep one eye open like CBS. That was
• 15:44
  Speaker 5: the hardest part of the whole thing, and David led
• 15:47
  Speaker 5: Himan was like, yo, y'all, this is the line y'all
• 15:49
  Speaker 5: want me to say, Like I just it don't feel cool,
• 15:51
  Speaker 5: and we're like, yo, if you say this line, it's
• 15:53
  Speaker 5: gonna be the dopest line in the whole thing, and
• 15:56
  Speaker 5: it was. And then to have Blue at the end
• 15:58
  Speaker 5: say the ghost write a line like it was just.
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: Dope, man.
• 16:01
  Speaker 5: And he hit me afterwards. Didn't had my number, but
• 16:03
  Speaker 5: he just hit me afterwards and thank me, and I
• 16:06
  Speaker 5: was just like wow, like you wake up to a
• 16:07
  Speaker 5: text from Hole saying that was dope, Like thank you,
• 16:10
  Speaker 5: Like that was crazy. He didn't have your number because
• 16:13
  Speaker 5: he asked quest love for it.
• 16:14
  Speaker 4: Oh got you got?
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean?
• 16:15
  Speaker 5: Like billionaire Hole, I ain't had that number, you know
• 16:18
  Speaker 5: what I mean? I had two thousands, ninety hos, you
• 16:21
  Speaker 5: know what I mean.
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: But shot to jay z.
• 16:23
  Speaker 4: Man becoming mad Skills. At what point, uh, when did
• 16:27
  Speaker 4: you drop the mad from your name?
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: No? No, no, it's still Mad Skills. It's still Mad Skills.
• 16:33
  Speaker 5: Around the time when I was on Raucus, I was
• 16:34
  Speaker 5: going by skills for a little bit, but then one
• 16:37
  Speaker 5: of my partners told me. He was like, man, why
• 16:39
  Speaker 5: you change your name. I was like, I ain't want
• 16:40
  Speaker 5: to start sounding the old school. He was like food, Nike,
• 16:42
  Speaker 5: don't change Nike. He was like, they make you know,
• 16:46
  Speaker 5: they might make ad Max's Air Force ones, but Nike
• 16:48
  Speaker 5: always Nike. And I was like, damn, you're right. So
• 16:51
  Speaker 5: I just went back to Mad Skills after that. That
• 16:53
  Speaker 5: made him like ninety eight nine And then no, I.
• 16:56
  Speaker 7: Was about to ask you about the documentary you dropped
• 16:59
  Speaker 7: on YouTube.
• 16:59
  Speaker 5: Oh yeah, now these girl brunch I did a during quarantine.
• 17:04
  Speaker 5: I did a h a like a stream kind of
• 17:08
  Speaker 5: like D Nice was doing. But I accidentally created a
• 17:11
  Speaker 5: sorority of women that still stick together to this day
• 17:14
  Speaker 5: through a stream, you know what I mean. And I
• 17:16
  Speaker 5: made a film about it and put it out, and uh,
• 17:20
  Speaker 5: these are women from all over the world, all over
• 17:22
  Speaker 5: the United States, and they still link up to this day.
• 17:25
  Speaker 5: And they called a brunch club and they just it's
• 17:28
  Speaker 5: just dope, man to be able to connect people through music.
• 17:31
  Speaker 5: And you know what we was going through and COVID
• 17:33
  Speaker 5: was hard, but you know, people like D Nice and
• 17:35
  Speaker 5: Jazzy Jeff. For myself, we was online DJ, and those
• 17:38
  Speaker 5: people still stuck with us. You know, he'd still do
• 17:40
  Speaker 5: club quarantine concerts and whatnot. So it's people that was
• 17:44
  Speaker 5: attached to that and are still attached to it to
• 17:47
  Speaker 5: this day.
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: So I made a documentary about its artist. No, no, no,
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: it's it's I was just playing songs.
• 17:52
  Speaker 5: But the women that were on there, they accidentally started
• 17:57
  Speaker 5: becoming friends. So now they go on trips together, they
• 18:00
  Speaker 5: go to you know what I mean, they go to
• 18:01
  Speaker 5: New Orleans, the Essence Fest together. It's like like eighty
• 18:04
  Speaker 5: of them, you know what I mean. It's crazy. So
• 18:06
  Speaker 5: it's a dope movie. I throw it on YouTube and
• 18:08
  Speaker 5: if you ever want to see the store, you can
• 18:09
  Speaker 5: check it out on there. It's called Mad Skills in
• 18:11
  Speaker 5: the nineties, girl, bru.
• 18:12
  Speaker 8: Why you haven't written any like TV shows or movies
• 18:15
  Speaker 8: and stuff like that boot boom.
• 18:17
  Speaker 5: So listen after the wrap up, you know what I mean.
• 18:21
  Speaker 5: I'm chilling and I'm watching y'all. I was watching y'all
• 18:25
  Speaker 5: and my wife ended up saying she was wanted to
• 18:28
  Speaker 5: watch the show in the show called Supercell. So we
• 18:30
  Speaker 5: started watching super Sell and I'm looking at the show
• 18:33
  Speaker 5: and I'm like, rap Man. I was like, why do
• 18:35
  Speaker 5: I know that name?
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: Baby?
• 18:36
  Speaker 5: She was like, I don't know. We watched the first episode.
• 18:39
  Speaker 5: I was like, Yo, this shit is dope.
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: I was like rap Man, Like why that name just
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: sounds for me.
• 18:44
  Speaker 5: We watched the whole show and I kept seeing created
• 18:47
  Speaker 5: and written by rap Man. So I seen him on
• 18:50
  Speaker 5: the Breakfast Club and I'm like, Oh, that's the dude
• 18:53
  Speaker 5: that did the show.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: Like why, I feel like I know him? Yo? Why
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: Win searched his name and.
• 18:57
  Speaker 5: He used to do the UK wrap up for like
• 19:00
  Speaker 5: ten years, so he was doing wrap up. I think
• 19:03
  Speaker 5: he said that so I DMed him and I was like, yo, Bro,
• 19:06
  Speaker 5: I checked your show out, man, Like, you know what
• 19:09
  Speaker 5: I mean. I think it's dope, great work. I said,
• 19:11
  Speaker 5: I remember you from back in the day, used.
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: To do the Rapper. He was like, oh, man skills.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: I bet your old ship Bro. I'm sorry, man, I
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: took your old ship man. I used to do the
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: UK version. Man. Man, it's amazing to have you in
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: my DMS.
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: When I was like, Yo, it's crazy, right, I was like,
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: it's crazy to go from writing wrap ups to writing shows.
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: And I tell my wife that.
• 19:31
  Speaker 5: She like, yeah it is, And I'm like, you know
• 19:35
  Speaker 5: what I mean. So I'm like, I definitely got some ideas.
• 19:37
  Speaker 5: I pitched some shows shout there like James Samuel and
• 19:40
  Speaker 5: we got some things in the work Black thought.
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: You know, QUESTLA two and.
• 19:43
  Speaker 5: Five Entertainment, Like, I got some I definitely got some
• 19:46
  Speaker 5: things that could make it the television.
• 19:48
  Speaker 4: It only makes sense. I feel like that's the next,
• 19:50
  Speaker 4: the next level for you.
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 19:51
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I got like at least three shows that I'm
• 19:54
  Speaker 5: trying to pitch one. I've already pitched two more like movies.
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: So yeah, what did you start DJ DJ? When I
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: was little you know what I mean.
• 20:01
  Speaker 5: I started taking it seriously in probably around twenty fifteen,
• 20:06
  Speaker 5: twenty sixteen.
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: I used to tow with Jazzy Jeff.
• 20:09
  Speaker 5: So after that I always knew how to, you know,
• 20:13
  Speaker 5: I always knew how to you know, play records and
• 20:15
  Speaker 5: blend or whatever.
• 20:16
  Speaker 8: But parties was a whole different thing. And I tell
• 20:19
  Speaker 8: people all the time, like.
• 20:21
  Speaker 5: You know, you can sit in your room and practice scratching, cutting, fading,
• 20:24
  Speaker 5: but you can't practice reading the room, you know what
• 20:27
  Speaker 5: I mean?
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: If you can tell you that.
• 20:28
  Speaker 5: And DJing is the one job where you know instantaneously
• 20:32
  Speaker 5: whether you're doing a good job or a bad job.
• 20:34
  Speaker 5: You play a song, everybody stopped dancing.
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: You're doing a bad job.
• 20:37
  Speaker 5: So for me, djaying, the passion that I lost in
• 20:42
  Speaker 5: rapping I found in DJ. So I started going heavy
• 20:45
  Speaker 5: with it. And it just people like Jazzy Jeff, Clock
• 20:49
  Speaker 5: can Ki Capri was all of them was supportive, you
• 20:52
  Speaker 5: know what I mean. So I just started doing parties.
• 20:54
  Speaker 5: I've been I've been doing parties ten ten eleven years.
• 20:57
  Speaker 5: We just did a party homecoming a bunch of parties. Yeah,
• 20:59
  Speaker 5: I always you always win you in VA. So yeah,
• 21:01
  Speaker 5: I love DJing.
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: I love it.
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: I want to talk about what has happened in VA
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: the last couple of years. Of course, I went to
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: Hampton University and when I went there, it seemed like,
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: you say, VA was the outcast.
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: But now I.
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: See everybody in VA coming together to make VA great,
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: from the fight to push your T's festival to Pharrell's festivals.
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: To break down what's happening in Virginia because it's something
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: I've never seen before, which I love.
• 21:23
  Speaker 5: You know, all those years of getting overlooked even though
• 21:26
  Speaker 5: we have you know, some of the greatest musicians and artists.
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: In the world. Athletes as well, Yeah, athletes.
• 21:31
  Speaker 5: As well, Ai vic you know what I mean. Like
• 21:33
  Speaker 5: we always had a chip on our shoulder, you know
• 21:36
  Speaker 5: what I mean. So, and it was never really unified.
• 21:39
  Speaker 5: So now it's becoming unified to where, you know, we
• 21:43
  Speaker 5: having festivals and we supporting each other, we writing records
• 21:45
  Speaker 5: with each other, collaborating and just helping the younger generation
• 21:49
  Speaker 5: come up. Because I want people to, you know, I
• 21:52
  Speaker 5: want people to look back at Virginia and be like, damn,
• 21:54
  Speaker 5: they stick together, you know what I'm saying. Like, so
• 21:57
  Speaker 5: like on this album, I got hell of people from
• 22:00
  Speaker 5: the Crib, you know, did Hooks, did production. So like
• 22:03
  Speaker 5: I said, winning this Grammy, you know with my friends
• 22:07
  Speaker 5: from the Crib means more because I could have got
• 22:09
  Speaker 5: any producers, you know, I could have hollered at some cats,
• 22:12
  Speaker 5: but I wanted to do it with my friends and
• 22:13
  Speaker 5: my family. So Virginia is always home. Man, Like they say,
• 22:16
  Speaker 5: it's something in the water and it always will be.
• 22:18
  Speaker 8: You know what that dread because right you had a
• 22:20
  Speaker 8: you know, pushing and the clips, the clips and Parral
• 22:26
  Speaker 8: and the Neptunes, yeap clips and Neptunes, and then you
• 22:28
  Speaker 8: had Missy and Town Timbland, Missy and Magoo. But it
• 22:32
  Speaker 8: almost feels like in a lot of ways Va Young
• 22:34
  Speaker 8: they gave a sound away, Yeah, they.
• 22:36
  Speaker 4: Gave what if they would have just kept that sound
• 22:38
  Speaker 4: with just ba rgis.
• 22:39
  Speaker 5: I always thought about what if Pharrell and Chad had
• 22:45
  Speaker 5: did like a many fresh you know what I mean,
• 22:47
  Speaker 5: and only rocked with my my homies and my crew
• 22:51
  Speaker 5: is only getting this vibe like Manny was just Wayne
• 22:54
  Speaker 5: Juviie hot boys, like you know what I mean. I
• 22:56
  Speaker 5: felt like it could have been something special, but it
• 22:59
  Speaker 5: and it's still grew into something special. But you know,
• 23:01
  Speaker 5: you can't tell them another man what to do.
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: But did they try?
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: Did they try with clips and try a lot of it?
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: And I don't think people understood the sound right.
• 23:08
  Speaker 5: It was so futuristic, you know what I mean when
• 23:11
  Speaker 5: it came out, Like Teddy Riley didn't know what to
• 23:13
  Speaker 5: do with them in nineteen ninety three because it already
• 23:15
  Speaker 5: sounded like twenty twenty five then. So I think the
• 23:19
  Speaker 5: world had to catch up with Pharrell and them sound
• 23:21
  Speaker 5: and Chad, and once they.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: Did, everybody wanted it.
• 23:24
  Speaker 5: And you ain't about to turn down Britney and Justin
• 23:27
  Speaker 5: and Michael Jackson, and you're not about to turn down
• 23:29
  Speaker 5: those production cos.
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: S think with Timberlande, I think Timberlande was the same,
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: like his sounds was so futuristic, he wasn't gonna.
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: Turn down why you know what I mean? Why so?
• 23:38
  Speaker 8: But Tim is an amazing dude, man, And so it's
• 23:41
  Speaker 8: in Neptunes. I love those dudes absolutely.
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: Man, Well the album is out right now. It's streaming now.
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: It says something.
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: About voting, so the Grammy can vote on it starting again.
• 23:51
  Speaker 5: No, they can start. It's starting. It started last week
• 23:54
  Speaker 5: and you can vote up until January third and I
• 23:57
  Speaker 5: am in the Best Spoken Word Album category or for
• 24:00
  Speaker 5: the album it's seven number one. So we just are
• 24:02
  Speaker 5: here campaign and if you listen to the project and
• 24:05
  Speaker 5: you like it and you are a Grammy voter, but
• 24:07
  Speaker 5: feel free to, you know, click that button for your boy.
• 24:11
  Speaker 4: Writing is such a lost start, man.
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: It is. I still write, I still lyric.
• 24:14
  Speaker 5: I still literally walk around with a book and a pen,
• 24:17
  Speaker 5: like I like to see my ideas. The phone is cool,
• 24:20
  Speaker 5: like I could put in a voice note or whatever
• 24:22
  Speaker 5: go into my notes, but I like to be able
• 24:24
  Speaker 5: to open it up and see it and when it's done,
• 24:26
  Speaker 5: cross it out, you know what I mean.
• 24:28
  Speaker 8: So for me, I walk around with pens and paths
• 24:31
  Speaker 8: and things like that. I still like the physically right absolutely.
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: And lastly, New Year's Eve, you're gonna be at the
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: R and B Block party. My family's doing it with you,
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: of course, family, Antonio, get your tickets now if you're
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: in Norfolk, if you're in Virginia, the seven five seven,
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: it's the Norfolk Scope. Tickets are still available as you
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: as Brian Michael Cox it shot the bank is is
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: everybody is everybody, so RB if you're out in Virginia,
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: make sure you pull up on them. The R and
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: B block Party is one of my favorite thing needs
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: to do throughout the year, so definitely get your tickets.
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: Appreciate you for joining us.
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: Thank y'all for having me.
• 25:04
  Speaker 8: Man I will catch y'all, happy, have holidays, Good New
• 25:07
  Speaker 8: Year to all of y'all.
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: Appreciate you. Charlote. Let me come up, my guys.
• 25:11
  Speaker 3: It's Mad Skills, It's the Breakfast Club.
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: Good morning peace. Wake that ass up in the morning.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: Breakfast Club.