Latest / The Breakfast Club / INTERVIEW: Kem Talks Career, R&B Then vs. Now, Struggles, Sobriety Journey, ‘Give My Love’ Line Dance +More

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INTERVIEW: Kem Talks Career, R&B Then vs. Now, Struggles, Sobriety Journey, ‘Give My Love’ Line Dance +More · The Breakfast Club

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Don't love every day? Up waiting Click yours up? The
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Breakfast Club. You're finished for y'all done morning.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Everybody is the j Envy Jess, Hilarious, Charlamagne the Guy.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: We are the breakfast Club. Lola Rosa is here with
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: us as well. We got a special guest in the
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: buildings in this new single comes out this Friday. Give
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: my love, Ladies and gentlemen, Cam welcome.
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: What's happening? How are you feeling, brother, I'm good, I'm good.
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: How's everybody?
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Black? And Holly fav Man? You are a legend. You
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: know how many people love you? Man?
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 0:30
  Speaker 4: Yes, I say that with gratitude. This gratitude, man, this
• 0:38
  Speaker 4: gratitude to be to be doing what I do for
• 0:41
  Speaker 4: a living for over two decades and I don't feel
• 0:44
  Speaker 4: like I'm done yet.
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: That's that's that's that's really really a blessing.
• 0:47
  Speaker 5: Why do you think you have the connection with the
• 0:49
  Speaker 5: audience that you do because you bay your souls, because
• 0:52
  Speaker 5: you're so vulnerable.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: It's because they can, you know, maybe.
• 0:54
  Speaker 5: See some of their struggles and struggles you've been open about.
• 0:57
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I think it's the vulnerability. I think it's the
• 1:01
  Speaker 4: authenticity and you know, and I'm making music in the
• 1:04
  Speaker 4: tradition of you know, Luther and Marvin and all that
• 1:10
  Speaker 4: great music that we grew up at, the Eisley Brothers
• 1:12
  Speaker 4: and Patty. You know what I'm saying, I'm holding I'm
• 1:15
  Speaker 4: trying to keep the light on for what I feel
• 1:18
  Speaker 4: is good R and B.
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: And I think people appreciate that.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: But you're independent now, so you pay everything. So how
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: does that feel, that part of the business feeling?
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: Well, it's incredible.
• 1:26
  Speaker 4: I started as an independent though, right My first album, Chemistry,
• 1:30
  Speaker 4: I released on my own label, Chemistry Records. We sold
• 1:33
  Speaker 4: that's when we you know, was selling CDs literally out
• 1:36
  Speaker 4: of my trunk, seventeen thousand units on my own. So
• 1:40
  Speaker 4: I'm just returning to I've come home. You know, it's
• 1:45
  Speaker 4: a full circle moment. Twenty three good years at Motown.
• 1:48
  Speaker 4: You know, Motown was good to me, and I was
• 1:50
  Speaker 4: definitely good to Motown.
• 1:54
  Speaker 6: You know, kept the lights on.
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we kept you know, we kept it pushing.
• 1:57
  Speaker 4: But in this season of my life, you know, as
• 1:59
  Speaker 4: a husband, the father, we got a lot of kids,
• 2:01
  Speaker 4: a lot going on, and I'm thinking about my legacy
• 2:04
  Speaker 4: and how I want to move forward more equity, Uh,
• 2:07
  Speaker 4: more autonomy, you know, so I feel real good.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: I feel the majority of your money was probably made
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: touring or right touring.
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: Yeah, touring is definitely the gift that keeps on giving,
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: as well as publishing. You know, publishing right, because I
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: write most of I write most of my stuff.
• 2:24
  Speaker 5: You know, you've been very open about things like, you know,
• 2:26
  Speaker 5: homelessness and in addiction before finding like you.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: Know, your your breakthrough.
• 2:30
  Speaker 5: How did those struggles shape you as a as an artist?
• 2:34
  Speaker 4: Look, coming through the other side of my darkness is
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: really the foundation that that's got me sitting here with y'all.
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying my testimony is is everything
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: you know, and the music is infused with it. And
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: I just I don't just look at what I'm doing
• 2:53
  Speaker 4: as as an entertainer, you know, I'm I'm in the business,
• 2:56
  Speaker 4: you know, and I'm in the game, But I also
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: look at it as ash as many in a way.
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying, People who are going through
• 3:04
  Speaker 4: you know, hopefully I say something that that that resonates
• 3:07
  Speaker 4: with them, that helps them, helps pull them through the
• 3:09
  Speaker 4: other side of their darkness too.
• 3:11
  Speaker 6: What made you give it up?
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: What was that that final thing that says, I'm going
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: to give this up and I'm gonna change.
• 3:15
  Speaker 6: When you talk about the drugs.
• 3:16
  Speaker 4: And alcohol, you know, I know it sounds, it sounds trying.
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: People say it all the time.
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: It's a cliche, you know, but it's like you get
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: sick and tired of being sick and tired.
• 3:27
  Speaker 7: Man.
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: You know, I got sober when I was twenty three
• 3:30
  Speaker 4: years old and in and out of jail, hospitalized because
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: of my addiction, strange from my family, you know, couldn't
• 3:38
  Speaker 4: go home.
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: Sleeping outside.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 3:40
  Speaker 4: My friends were people that my contemporaries were. You know,
• 3:45
  Speaker 4: they were in school, they were in college, they were
• 3:46
  Speaker 4: starting their careers. Saturday night, they're out on dates, They're
• 3:49
  Speaker 4: doing the thing.
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: You know what. I'm eating out of trash cans, you
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: know what I'm saying.
• 3:52
  Speaker 4: And I'm you know, when people think my story is
• 3:54
  Speaker 4: is uh is one of rags riches, but it's really
• 3:58
  Speaker 4: the story of the of the product son.
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying.
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: My parents, you know, two cars, and I mean, you know,
• 4:03
  Speaker 4: I want to send me to school and like all
• 4:05
  Speaker 4: of that, you know, but yeah, I got sick and
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: tired of being sick and tired, and I and I
• 4:10
  Speaker 4: gave up on my idea.
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: Of how to change it myself. Right.
• 4:17
  Speaker 4: There's an adage I love that says, when the student
• 4:19
  Speaker 4: is ready, the teacher appears.
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 4:20
  Speaker 4: When I gave up, when I surrendered. You know, God
• 4:24
  Speaker 4: brought some people into my life who showed me how
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: to how to live a better way.
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: And I've been doing it ever since.
• 4:30
  Speaker 5: If you don't mind me asking, how did the addiction
• 4:32
  Speaker 5: start with a recreational.
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: Or Yeah, it started recreationally.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 4:40
  Speaker 4: You know, man, the first time I had a drink, man,
• 4:42
  Speaker 4: it was like, you know, and you know I was,
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: I was, you know, I think to some degree, we
• 4:49
  Speaker 4: all have some degree of dysfunction and in our homes,
• 4:52
  Speaker 4: and I just I didn't have I didn't have any
• 4:55
  Speaker 4: coping skills, right. And my parents, you know, God bless them,
• 4:59
  Speaker 4: they did the best they could. We were you know,
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: we didn't talk about anything in our house.
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: You know, we didn't. Uh, there was anxiety.
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: And what I know now is is childhood depression and
• 5:08
  Speaker 4: and and eighty AGD.
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: We didn't have them labels.
• 5:10
  Speaker 4: You know, everybody, we all depressed, just get up and
• 5:13
  Speaker 4: put your head down and plow through it.
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: So all of those things.
• 5:17
  Speaker 4: So by the time I found alcohol and drugs, dude,
• 5:21
  Speaker 4: it was like a light.
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: Went on, you know what I'm saying.
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: It was a place of uh you know, I thought
• 5:25
  Speaker 4: that it was a place of of of refuge.
• 5:28
  Speaker 7: You know.
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: I was, I was I was free to be me.
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 5:30
  Speaker 4: I was the the life of the party, you know,
• 5:33
  Speaker 4: until until I wasn't.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: So my my upbringing was it was it laid the
• 5:39
  Speaker 4: foundation to seek something outside of myself, to to to medicate.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: You know, as soon as you often just offmosa shut up.
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: So it's all good.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: Now.
• 5:51
  Speaker 6: You mentioned your parents, you know, so I'm sure your parents.
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: Had to kick you out to get to YouTube, to
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: get to where you need to be.
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: The best thing that ever happened to me was my
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: mother army out of the house, break that down.
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: Because a lot of parents won't do that because they
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: feel like that's their son. They don't want to, but
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: I feel like, sometimes you have to.
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: You have to.
• 6:07
  Speaker 4: Yeah, she had to. It was the best thing that
• 6:08
  Speaker 4: ever happened to me, you know. And uh, and when
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: we and when we do that, And I'm saying that
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: as a as a father, and I don't know that
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: I'd have the courage to do that, you know what
• 6:17
  Speaker 4: I'm saying, even haven't had the experience, but you know,
• 6:20
  Speaker 4: and because there's a there's a risk and when we
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: when we show that type of tough love to someone,
• 6:26
  Speaker 4: there's a risk that they won't make it, you know
• 6:28
  Speaker 4: what I'm saying. But there's also a risk that that
• 6:31
  Speaker 4: they'll die in their.
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: Darkness, you know. So I'm glad that my mother made
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: that choice.
• 6:35
  Speaker 6: What's your relationship after?
• 6:37
  Speaker 8: Uh?
• 6:37
  Speaker 4: Oh today, it's all good, right, It's all up, you know,
• 6:41
  Speaker 4: it was it was necessary my mom's and my mom's
• 6:43
  Speaker 4: in recovery too.
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: The whole the whole.
• 6:46
  Speaker 4: Dynamic in our house, you know, shifted, you know. And
• 6:50
  Speaker 4: uh and we were we did a lot of great
• 6:52
  Speaker 4: a lot of good work to get to a to
• 6:54
  Speaker 4: a good place.
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: And we lost my my my father last fall.
• 6:58
  Speaker 4: But you know, we're all all in a good place, man,
• 7:01
  Speaker 4: and I'm grateful for it. Curse breaker, I would say,
• 7:08
  Speaker 4: as far as addiction is concerned. As far as addiction
• 7:11
  Speaker 4: is concerned, my mother, my mother.
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: Got sober first, you know.
• 7:16
  Speaker 4: And I and I and I have I have continued,
• 7:20
  Speaker 4: I have continued the I like that I'm gonna take
• 7:23
  Speaker 4: that with me, I have continued the curse breaking, you know,
• 7:26
  Speaker 4: and uh and and hopefully my children will will will
• 7:29
  Speaker 4: carry it forward.
• 7:32
  Speaker 9: You say that, you know, y'all didn't talk about things
• 7:34
  Speaker 9: in your house when you were younger, before your father's
• 7:38
  Speaker 9: passed and leading up to that. Did you guys get
• 7:41
  Speaker 9: to have those conversations? Did you say, you know, we
• 7:43
  Speaker 9: didn't talk because we didn't talk about anything. Can we
• 7:46
  Speaker 9: talk about it now?
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah?
• 7:47
  Speaker 4: Yeah, we were Yeah, we're you know, we were good,
• 7:49
  Speaker 4: you know, and you know, and I think that that's
• 7:52
  Speaker 4: that's not exclusive to our culture. But I'm sure that
• 7:55
  Speaker 4: you know our culture we identify. You know, you talk,
• 7:57
  Speaker 4: you know, grown folks are talking. You're going another room.
• 8:00
  Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying, You're you're seen and you're
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: not and you're not heard, you know what I'm saying.
• 8:04
  Speaker 4: And uh, you know, but but uh, we did a
• 8:07
  Speaker 4: lot again, we did a lot of great work to
• 8:09
  Speaker 4: get to the other side of that.
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 8:10
  Speaker 8: Yeah, What were the conversations like while you were going
• 8:13
  Speaker 8: through the homelessness and trying to figure out that, I know,
• 8:16
  Speaker 8: you got kicked out of a rehabilitation sent at one point,
• 8:18
  Speaker 8: were your parents calling and checking in on you and
• 8:20
  Speaker 8: y'all were talking then, or like, was it just solely
• 8:23
  Speaker 8: just you?
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: You know?
• 8:24
  Speaker 4: When I was I spent a lot of time in
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: the UH, in the Salvation Army and the soup kitchens
• 8:29
  Speaker 4: UH Detroit Rescue Mission in Detroit, and and and during.
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: That time, I would I would try to I would try.
• 8:37
  Speaker 4: To go home, you know, and and prove to my
• 8:41
  Speaker 4: folks that that I had that I had changed, you know,
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: that I had turned over a new leafs so to speak,
• 8:47
  Speaker 4: But I hadn't really I was. I wanted to change,
• 8:51
  Speaker 4: but I had the I may have had the outward
• 8:54
  Speaker 4: appearance of change, but I didn't even know what change required,
• 8:59
  Speaker 4: you know, I'm saying.
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: So there were conversations.
• 9:02
  Speaker 4: They came and visited me in some of the rehabilitation
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: centers that I was in, and I was really trying
• 9:09
  Speaker 4: to get back into their good graces.
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: But by the.
• 9:12
  Speaker 4: Time I was really, really, really ready to stop. I
• 9:16
  Speaker 4: wasn't concerned about repairing my relationships, right, I wasn't concerned
• 9:21
  Speaker 4: about getting back into the good graces of anybody. I
• 9:24
  Speaker 4: was just trying to stay alive. I had to do it.
• 9:26
  Speaker 4: I had to do it for me, right, not because
• 9:28
  Speaker 4: of my job, not because you know, you know, and
• 9:31
  Speaker 4: I'm talking to addicts who are out there, not because
• 9:33
  Speaker 4: I want to. I want to, you know, get my
• 9:35
  Speaker 4: wife back or get my kids back. No, I need
• 9:37
  Speaker 4: to do this. I need to do this for me,
• 9:39
  Speaker 4: you know what I'm saying. And and then hopefully all
• 9:41
  Speaker 4: the things, all of those other things will be will
• 9:44
  Speaker 4: will will be added, you know. And yeah, yeah, but
• 9:48
  Speaker 4: my parents stayed, they support, they wanted the best, you know,
• 9:50
  Speaker 4: but you know I was you know, I was crazy, drinking.
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: Using right, showing up, showing up drunk. You know, you can't,
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: you can't. You can only help somebody that want to
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: help themselves, you know what I'm saying.
• 10:09
  Speaker 9: So it wasn't stay in.
• 10:12
  Speaker 4: It wasn't stay in situation. I mean we got and
• 10:14
  Speaker 4: you got breathalyzed every time you you know, you came back.
• 10:17
  Speaker 4: I mean but you you know you could, you could,
• 10:19
  Speaker 4: you could sneak I mean, you.
• 10:20
  Speaker 9: Know, got you right?
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: Not the first time, not the first time.
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: I completed I completed a program and it was still
• 10:28
  Speaker 4: a resident and you know, I completed the program and
• 10:31
  Speaker 4: you know, and can and continue and continue to use
• 10:34
  Speaker 4: So I mean, you know, you only but you're only
• 10:37
  Speaker 4: you're only you know, cheating yourself.
• 10:40
  Speaker 5: So I wonder if those programs, this might be a
• 10:42
  Speaker 5: stupid question, I wanted those programs actually work. Are Is
• 10:45
  Speaker 5: it just something that gets you to realize I gotta
• 10:48
  Speaker 5: make a chance.
• 10:51
  Speaker 4: That's a great point because we live in a in
• 10:54
  Speaker 4: a culture, in a society where, well a certain segment
• 10:59
  Speaker 4: of society where people think, you know, somebody has a
• 11:03
  Speaker 4: you know, a celebrity has a has a flare up,
• 11:05
  Speaker 4: get cut, and then they go to rehab for like
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: two weeks.
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: He's in rehab.
• 11:08
  Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying, two weeks, two weeks. I
• 11:10
  Speaker 4: mean that's you know, that's a place to start. But
• 11:12
  Speaker 4: you're talking about an overhauling your entire life.
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying. You can't. You're not gonna
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: get better in two weeks. You know what I'm saying.
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: You can.
• 11:20
  Speaker 4: You can abstain, you can get some some some clarity,
• 11:24
  Speaker 4: you can get you know, a you can.
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: Get some tools. But it took a lot for most
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: of us.
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: It's taken a lifetime to become the peak for our
• 11:33
  Speaker 4: dysfunction to reach its peak. It takes time in order
• 11:37
  Speaker 4: to get better. So you leave treatment, you got to
• 11:39
  Speaker 4: continue to be, to be doing something. You know what
• 11:42
  Speaker 4: I'm saying, and it's it's you know, the internet is littered,
• 11:46
  Speaker 4: you know with stories of people who've been to treatment
• 11:49
  Speaker 4: and and didn't make it, you know, and you know,
• 11:52
  Speaker 4: so yeah, yeah, yeah, So.
• 11:53
  Speaker 5: When you was at your lowest point, like, what was
• 11:55
  Speaker 5: that thought, our moment that made you believe you could
• 11:58
  Speaker 5: still change your life?
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: Music has always been a light.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: Makes me.
• 12:10
  Speaker 9: M hmm, it's okay.
• 12:14
  Speaker 4: Music has always been I've always known that that's what
• 12:20
  Speaker 4: it was. So I would be in the Detroit Rescue
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: Mission on a piano in the corner, writing the writing
• 12:30
  Speaker 4: the churse for my first album. You know what I'm saying, right,
• 12:34
  Speaker 4: Nothing nothing is wasted. You know you're talking to you.
• 12:37
  Speaker 4: You know, nothing is wasted your struggle, whatever you're going
• 12:40
  Speaker 4: through right now, if you get honest and surrendered to it,
• 12:43
  Speaker 4: nothing is wasted, you know because that first album, dude,
• 12:47
  Speaker 4: that's all Salvation Army, right, that's all Detroit Rescue Mission,
• 12:53
  Speaker 4: that's all you know. So music was always was always
• 12:57
  Speaker 4: a light pulling me through. I wanted to be you know,
• 12:59
  Speaker 4: I'd be you know, somewhere sleeping on the Detroit on
• 13:03
  Speaker 4: the Detroit River bank and right across from the Detroit River,
• 13:06
  Speaker 4: you know, the windsor you know, and at night, dude,
• 13:09
  Speaker 4: I'm you know, I'm home. I'm trying to nurse a
• 13:10
  Speaker 4: can of King Cobra till the next day. And I'm
• 13:13
  Speaker 4: looking across then there's all these lights. There's all there's
• 13:17
  Speaker 4: all this life, you know, and I'm not a part
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: of it.
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: It's like, dude, how do right? I saw this? But
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: how do I get to how do I? How do
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: I get to that?
• 13:28
  Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying? How do I how do
• 13:30
  Speaker 4: I get to the to the next thing? You know,
• 13:32
  Speaker 4: that that that God has for me? And uh, you know,
• 13:36
  Speaker 4: and and and and surrender, surrender. You know, I just didn't.
• 13:40
  Speaker 4: It's not overnight, you know, I just didn't. I just
• 13:43
  Speaker 4: didn't show up.
• 13:44
  Speaker 5: It's so powerful, man, when you trapped in darkness, the
• 13:48
  Speaker 5: light is there, right, you just have to, you know,
• 13:50
  Speaker 5: have the clarity to see it. And I guess that's
• 13:52
  Speaker 5: why you self medicaid, because when you self medicated, you
• 13:54
  Speaker 5: don't see it right.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: You have to let go.
• 13:57
  Speaker 4: You have to be willing to let go of what's
• 14:01
  Speaker 4: holding you back to get to the other you got
• 14:03
  Speaker 4: to be willing to let it go.
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: You gotta be willing to let it whatever it is,
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: you know.
• 14:08
  Speaker 4: And we're just talking about, you know, addiction, but that
• 14:12
  Speaker 4: those principles apply to everything. Whatever you're trying to get
• 14:17
  Speaker 4: to the other side of, it applies to everything. You
• 14:22
  Speaker 4: know what I'm saying. So you know everything, it applies
• 14:25
  Speaker 4: to everything, you know.
• 14:26
  Speaker 9: So this is amazing just hearing your journey and the
• 14:29
  Speaker 9: things that you were going through. I grew up listening
• 14:32
  Speaker 9: to you. I would wake up Saturday mornings. It was
• 14:34
  Speaker 9: it was chemistry and Anita Baker in my mind it
• 14:37
  Speaker 9: would be ringing through the house, right and your voice right,
• 14:41
  Speaker 9: I we love the music and the whole time you're hurting,
• 14:44
  Speaker 9: you're going through this. So it's just amazing to be
• 14:47
  Speaker 9: able to hear your story now, right. And I also,
• 14:52
  Speaker 9: you had said that your music was your therapy, you know,
• 14:55
  Speaker 9: et the time of homelessness, right when you're away from
• 14:57
  Speaker 9: your community. Have you ever done any other therapy like
• 15:00
  Speaker 9: real therapy?
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah?
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah for sure, yeh yeah, yeah yeah yeah. Dude.
• 15:04
  Speaker 4: When I get when I signed, when I when I
• 15:06
  Speaker 4: signed my contract uh with Motown, I had a panic attack.
• 15:14
  Speaker 4: First time I ever had one, Wow, And I didn't
• 15:17
  Speaker 4: know what it was, right, and I'd lived with depression
• 15:21
  Speaker 4: like you know, you just get up, and yeah, I
• 15:25
  Speaker 4: had you know the degree of my depression is not
• 15:27
  Speaker 4: as severe as as as other people obviously, but I
• 15:30
  Speaker 4: had never and I didn't know, you know, and I
• 15:33
  Speaker 4: felt like I was underwater.
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: I thought that.
• 15:38
  Speaker 4: Getting a record deal, which I had been you know,
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: proverbally chasing like all of my life, I thought that
• 15:45
  Speaker 4: that was going to be the cure all. When I
• 15:47
  Speaker 4: got the record deal, now I'm cool, right, But there's
• 15:50
  Speaker 4: all this other stuff, all this other all this other
• 15:53
  Speaker 4: baggage that still needed to be to be unpacked.
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: It didn't more to say, man, say more money, more problems.
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: It didn't.
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: It didn't resolve you know, a lot of issues. So
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: I ended up.
• 16:05
  Speaker 4: I was I was talking to someone, a friend of mine,
• 16:08
  Speaker 4: and I was explaining to her how I was feeling.
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: And she happened to be.
• 16:12
  Speaker 4: A child psychologist, and she said, have you ever been
• 16:16
  Speaker 4: diagnosed with depression? And I said no, you know no,
• 16:20
  Speaker 4: And she recommended a therapist. So I saw a therapist
• 16:23
  Speaker 4: and you know, and educated myself. I was on medication,
• 16:28
  Speaker 4: you know, for a while, and you know it was
• 16:31
  Speaker 4: it was, it was. It was life changing, you know,
• 16:34
  Speaker 4: we are. And that's after I think I got a
• 16:37
  Speaker 4: record deal.
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: I was.
• 16:37
  Speaker 4: I had been sober for maybe ten So these layers
• 16:41
  Speaker 4: are there are layers to our lives, layers of the
• 16:44
  Speaker 4: onion that we peel back. And there's more to discover,
• 16:47
  Speaker 4: there's more to unpack. There's always always more to.
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: Be done, you know. I don't know.
• 16:52
  Speaker 4: There's a lot of stigma, and not as much today
• 16:54
  Speaker 4: probably as as you know, I mean that was twenty
• 16:57
  Speaker 4: three as as there used to be about you know know,
• 17:01
  Speaker 4: you know the Black Church and were talking about you
• 17:02
  Speaker 4: know you only need Jesus, Like, yeah, you need Jesus
• 17:04
  Speaker 4: and a therapist, right, you need the Jesus and a therapist.
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: And you might need some and you might need some
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: some some medication. You know what I'm saying.
• 17:13
  Speaker 4: Don't let those things keep you from getting from getting
• 17:16
  Speaker 4: the help that you need.
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying, How.
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: Did you get your deal? So you said you got
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: your deal? You said what you thought your problems will
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: go away?
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, how did they? How did you get your deal?
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: I was selling the Chemistry album off the.
• 17:30
  Speaker 6: Trunk, off the trunk.
• 17:31
  Speaker 4: You know, I was, I was, I was passing CDs
• 17:34
  Speaker 4: out in the streets, you know, in Detroit. I put
• 17:37
  Speaker 4: some people on the plane the flash to Chicago and
• 17:40
  Speaker 4: past CDs out in the streets.
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 17:42
  Speaker 4: I was literally, you know, living in uh in uh
• 17:46
  Speaker 4: in Detroit. And you know, my neighbors thought out they
• 17:49
  Speaker 4: didn't know what I was doing. I'm out my pajamas,
• 17:53
  Speaker 4: ups trucks, you know, loading CDs. I couldn't keep them in,
• 17:56
  Speaker 4: you know, I couldn't keep them in the you know,
• 17:58
  Speaker 4: the beauty the beauty so Plat store.
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: So we were.
• 18:01
  Speaker 4: I had my own, my own barcode, you know what
• 18:06
  Speaker 4: I'm saying. I was set up as a you know,
• 18:08
  Speaker 4: set up as a as a as a business. My
• 18:10
  Speaker 4: then manager, Toya Hankins, and we were just you know,
• 18:12
  Speaker 4: we were just hustling. So every time a CD sold,
• 18:16
  Speaker 4: there was a blip on billboard.
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: Right, it wasn't a lot, but it was a there
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: was a blip. And then we.
• 18:21
  Speaker 4: Started to get local airplay and Detroit uh d C,
• 18:27
  Speaker 4: Miami started playing love Calls before we ever had a deal,
• 18:32
  Speaker 4: you know, and and uh so, you know, and you know,
• 18:36
  Speaker 4: if you get the and and I don't know how
• 18:39
  Speaker 4: you well, I don't know how you You know, you're
• 18:42
  Speaker 4: obviously not selling CDs today, but if you get the people.
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: Behind you, industry will follow.
• 18:49
  Speaker 5: M How were you able to create a soundtrack of
• 18:53
  Speaker 5: love during that dark time in your life because you
• 18:56
  Speaker 5: you didn't love yourself?
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: Right? I don't know if you had somebody, but how
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: were you able to write?
• 19:01
  Speaker 10: You were really honest about all the things you were
• 19:02
  Speaker 10: going through to.
• 19:03
  Speaker 4: All of my all of the early records, are all
• 19:09
  Speaker 4: of the records up until I met my wife are aspirational, right,
• 19:19
  Speaker 4: you know, skinny, dark skinned kid, shy. You know, I'm
• 19:22
  Speaker 4: a I'm an introvert pretending to be you know, an extrovert,
• 19:27
  Speaker 4: you know, shy, you know, don't get you know, want
• 19:30
  Speaker 4: to want to look from the pretty girl, want the
• 19:32
  Speaker 4: you know, so I'm I'm that's you know, too afraid
• 19:35
  Speaker 4: to talk, you know.
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: So that's all.
• 19:37
  Speaker 4: Of my songs work, that's all inspirational. It's all aspirational,
• 19:42
  Speaker 4: and it's all you know, when I did have a
• 19:46
  Speaker 4: girlfriend and then the loss of the loss of love,
• 19:49
  Speaker 4: you know that first, you know, you know that first,
• 19:52
  Speaker 4: the first album Chemistry is it's all of that, you know, Yeah.
• 19:56
  Speaker 9: That's crazy. How you say you didn't even know how
• 19:59
  Speaker 9: to talk? Man, your music got so many guys cheeks.
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: But I can do that. I'm standing at so my brothers.
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: I'm standing in the gap for my brothers. Right, you
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: ain't got the words. There's a kid, there's a chem
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: record for it, right, yeah.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: So love inspire your music or the music inspired or
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: where you love?
• 20:16
  Speaker 6: Mhm?
• 20:25
  Speaker 3: Both both both right? And people talk about you know.
• 20:33
  Speaker 4: And then I used to be in bands and they
• 20:35
  Speaker 4: would be you know, everybody's we were coming up in
• 20:38
  Speaker 4: Minneapolis sound it was it was you know, Tony, Tony Tony.
• 20:43
  Speaker 4: It was all the dance tracks and all the all
• 20:45
  Speaker 4: my my bandmates and my musical peers. You know, they
• 20:48
  Speaker 4: were chasing this thing, dude. And I'm sitting over here
• 20:50
  Speaker 4: in the corner with these little quiet ass.
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying. Are you always writing the loves?
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: You know?
• 20:56
  Speaker 4: While you always was like, dude, that's I don't know,
• 20:58
  Speaker 4: you know, that's just you know, that's just that's just
• 21:01
  Speaker 4: what it is. And I and I'm you know, and
• 21:03
  Speaker 4: I'm grateful for that, you know, because I think that.
• 21:09
  Speaker 3: All that ails the world is a lack of love.
• 21:12
  Speaker 9: Mhm.
• 21:13
  Speaker 5: To some degree, No, I think not even to some degree.
• 21:16
  Speaker 5: I think that's what's missing. Because love gives you empathy, love.
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: Gives you caring.
• 21:20
  Speaker 5: If you got those three things, you'll show up and
• 21:23
  Speaker 5: be the human that we need you to be.
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, Love, empathy, and care.
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: That's it, you know, yeah for real? Yeah? Yeah?
• 21:31
  Speaker 9: Looking back now, right, what are you most proud of
• 21:34
  Speaker 9: now about your journey back?
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: Then?
• 21:39
  Speaker 4: I am most proud of being being sober, because upon
• 21:45
  Speaker 4: that is, you know, upon that, that's the foundation for
• 21:51
  Speaker 4: everything else. If I'm not sober, I mean, that's that's
• 21:54
  Speaker 4: you know, I mean, God in sobriety. You can go
• 21:57
  Speaker 4: which one comes first, because if I if I'm drinking, dude,
• 21:59
  Speaker 4: I God may still be with me, but I'm not,
• 22:02
  Speaker 4: I'm not.
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 22:07
  Speaker 4: Sobriety is is probably the first thing upon that everything
• 22:11
  Speaker 4: else is built. And after that is uh, you know,
• 22:15
  Speaker 4: it's my is, my family, my kids, my wife and I.
• 22:19
  Speaker 4: We've got seven kids between us. The oldest is thirty,
• 22:26
  Speaker 4: the youngest is one. You know what I'm saying, So
• 22:29
  Speaker 4: we you know what I'm saying.
• 22:35
  Speaker 6: How did you meet your wife?
• 22:36
  Speaker 4: I met my wife at a show in Atlanta, right,
• 22:42
  Speaker 4: and I was never I was never the artist who
• 22:47
  Speaker 4: is you know hey, you know, yeah, go give you know,
• 22:52
  Speaker 4: bring that one back, and go bring that one back.
• 22:54
  Speaker 4: And my wife came to a meet and greet on
• 22:58
  Speaker 4: a tour that I shouldn't that I well, I you
• 23:01
  Speaker 4: know that at the time, I didn't feel like I
• 23:03
  Speaker 4: should have been on We had just we had just
• 23:06
  Speaker 4: it was just me, but we had just This was
• 23:09
  Speaker 4: twenty twenty fifteen. So in twenty fourteen, you know, me,
• 23:14
  Speaker 4: Joe and Charlie Wilson, you know, we was out killing
• 23:18
  Speaker 4: him for months, right, and then and then I came
• 23:20
  Speaker 4: back and tried to do and do do another two.
• 23:24
  Speaker 4: So we had been out there. So I've really felt,
• 23:25
  Speaker 4: you know, that I shouldn't have been out on the road.
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: But you know, where you where you are, we.
• 23:34
  Speaker 4: Don't all what what what you What you think you're
• 23:38
  Speaker 4: someplace for is not necessarily why you're there. We think
• 23:41
  Speaker 4: we're there for one reason, but there's something there's something else,
• 23:45
  Speaker 4: something else is going on. And and I met my
• 23:48
  Speaker 4: wife at a at a meet and Greek. She hates it, dude,
• 23:51
  Speaker 4: because when we get into a caller, oh yeah, meet
• 23:53
  Speaker 4: and Greek I got you meet and Greek.
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: Right, you gonna see this, We're gonna have a right,
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: that's my nigga meet and greet.
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: It was a divine meet and greet.
• 24:03
  Speaker 6: Though she knew she was the one, HU knew she
• 24:07
  Speaker 6: was the one that suit as metal.
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: Oh boy, there was something that made me want to.
• 24:16
  Speaker 4: Stay in contact with her, right, which I never you
• 24:20
  Speaker 4: know in my you know, and I'm lame, I'm a
• 24:24
  Speaker 4: I'm a square, right, I'm asking her she got a
• 24:27
  Speaker 4: you got a business card? An't nobody carrying businessess?
• 24:31
  Speaker 9: You don't even know if she got a business card?
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah, but I met I met her, I met her.
• 24:36
  Speaker 3: I met her at a show. Yeah, I met her
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: at a show. Yeah.
• 24:40
  Speaker 8: And then so after that, like not that night, but
• 24:43
  Speaker 8: like following the show. You guys keep in contact you're dating,
• 24:46
  Speaker 8: Like what's the.
• 24:46
  Speaker 4: Kept in contact via uh social media? And then on
• 24:55
  Speaker 4: in our first date was I flew to Atlanta and
• 25:00
  Speaker 4: I was in I was in Detroit.
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: Detroit was home, and I flew.
• 25:03
  Speaker 4: To Atlanta on New Year's Eve of twenty fifteen for
• 25:09
  Speaker 4: our first date and we had we had sushi and
• 25:12
  Speaker 4: then we went to a watch night service at the
• 25:15
  Speaker 4: church to bring in the new year, and you know,
• 25:21
  Speaker 4: I mean it's right there, you can go, I can
• 25:23
  Speaker 4: go on. I mean it was, but it was it
• 25:25
  Speaker 4: was divine right because it was lined up. Everything was,
• 25:28
  Speaker 4: it was lined up. And then you know, we tried
• 25:31
  Speaker 4: to remain you know, good Christians.
• 25:34
  Speaker 6: And then that.
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: And when she said, you know, she told me she was.
• 25:45
  Speaker 4: Pregnant with my first son, and I got the news
• 25:50
  Speaker 4: and I was like, okay, it's like okay, all right.
• 25:56
  Speaker 4: So I'm like, you know, I'm going I'm going all
• 25:58
  Speaker 4: I'm going all in, you know. And I went and
• 26:01
  Speaker 4: I went all in, you know, and haven't and haven't
• 26:05
  Speaker 4: looked back through that whole story.
• 26:07
  Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying. We got selling kids, So
• 26:11
  Speaker 3: you know, girl, you know what I'm saying.
• 26:17
  Speaker 5: Now you gotta do girl, Girl, when you write songs
• 26:22
  Speaker 5: like give my Love, do you write from a place
• 26:24
  Speaker 5: of healing You've already reached her from like pain you
• 26:27
  Speaker 5: might still be processed.
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: Give my Love is give my all.
• 26:36
  Speaker 4: All of the music since I've met my wife, there
• 26:38
  Speaker 4: is a much and and I was concerned about that
• 26:43
  Speaker 4: about like how is this going to you know, we
• 26:45
  Speaker 4: talked earlier about you know, my my angst and my
• 26:48
  Speaker 4: aspiration for love. So now that I'm in this relationship
• 26:51
  Speaker 4: with this with this woman, you know, the most spiritual
• 26:56
  Speaker 4: you know, I.
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: Mean, how is that going to affect my writing? So
• 26:59
  Speaker 3: now my.
• 27:00
  Speaker 4: Writing is is richer it is you know, I'm talking,
• 27:06
  Speaker 4: I'm thinking, I'm really thinking about communicating you know, the
• 27:11
  Speaker 4: ebbs and flows of my relationship with my wife and
• 27:15
  Speaker 4: and the spiritual component to to our to our relationship.
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: Yes, so give my love.
• 27:21
  Speaker 4: All the music is still inspired by love, but now
• 27:23
  Speaker 4: it's it's it's really inspired by love in a in
• 27:26
  Speaker 4: a much deeper way.
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, what about music in general?
• 27:30
  Speaker 5: Like is it do you right from a place of
• 27:33
  Speaker 5: healing or from like pain?
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: You might still be.
• 27:37
  Speaker 4: I don't I you know, I talk about my pain
• 27:42
  Speaker 4: and my writing only in retrospect, not in you know.
• 27:48
  Speaker 4: I mean, I you know every day, you know, I mean,
• 27:50
  Speaker 4: you know, it's up and down, in and out you
• 27:53
  Speaker 4: know all the time. You know, we only post the
• 27:55
  Speaker 4: good we only post the good stuff, right, but it's
• 28:00
  Speaker 4: mostly it's mostly uh, the pain is is in retrospect.
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: Or it may be.
• 28:06
  Speaker 4: Lessons that that I'm that I'm learning the single that
• 28:09
  Speaker 4: that we're that we're dropping. Next is called Rock with Me,
• 28:13
  Speaker 4: and it's talking about uh, it's talking about wanting a
• 28:17
  Speaker 4: relationship to to grow, understanding that in order for a
• 28:21
  Speaker 4: relationship to sustain itself, both y'all gonna have to You
• 28:25
  Speaker 4: got to you know, you got to grow and you
• 28:27
  Speaker 4: got to make room for the other person. And rock
• 28:31
  Speaker 4: comes out this Friday comes Give my Love.
• 28:33
  Speaker 6: But rock with Me.
• 28:34
  Speaker 3: That's all good, Lauren.
• 28:36
  Speaker 9: You can resonate with that. She in the new relationship.
• 28:38
  Speaker 9: The way is going, so I don't have to stop
• 28:45
  Speaker 9: saying that.
• 28:45
  Speaker 8: Don't disturb our exactly to get there, y'all will be
• 28:49
  Speaker 8: invited to have you seen because I know to show
• 28:53
  Speaker 8: up nothing my wedding.
• 28:55
  Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, look like it's all get trickis when you
• 28:59
  Speaker 3: said something like.
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: That, get don't What are you doing Kim with rocking?
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: What you look like?
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 29:07
  Speaker 9: What you look like?
• 29:08
  Speaker 10: Give my love? I saw that there's a blind dance.
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, don't look at oh.
• 29:17
  Speaker 8: No, yeah, a different, different person.
• 29:26
  Speaker 10: This is the daytime.
• 29:29
  Speaker 6: Different.
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: She had a thirty day alcohol fast. Yeah, would be forever.
• 29:35
  Speaker 4: But you know, when you when you do, when you
• 29:37
  Speaker 4: do find the one, when the dust settles and you
• 29:39
  Speaker 4: find the one just just just just holler at your boy,
• 29:42
  Speaker 4: I got you. I'll sing I'll be happy to you know,
• 29:44
  Speaker 4: I'll call you Jesus Christ.
• 29:48
  Speaker 10: And you're not invited.
• 29:50
  Speaker 9: Like so you were about to say, is a line dance?
• 29:53
  Speaker 8: Yeah, I was trying to distract, but yes, there I
• 29:56
  Speaker 8: saw that as a line dance.
• 29:57
  Speaker 4: Got a real question, there's a the line there's a
• 30:02
  Speaker 4: line dance to give my love?
• 30:03
  Speaker 8: Yeah, when you perform at these venues, because I'm seeing
• 30:06
  Speaker 8: the people do the line dance on stage with you
• 30:07
  Speaker 8: and people are out and people are drinking, how does
• 30:10
  Speaker 8: that ever like bother you because you've been sober for
• 30:13
  Speaker 8: so long or how does that work?
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: No?
• 30:14
  Speaker 3: It doesn't. No, this is it's just uh me being sober.
• 30:18
  Speaker 4: It is just a choice for me, you know, and
• 30:22
  Speaker 4: you you know, and you you know. I mean people
• 30:24
  Speaker 4: innocuously offer the offer and I'll just say and I'll
• 30:28
  Speaker 4: just say no thank you.
• 30:29
  Speaker 3: Like she didn't have to.
• 30:30
  Speaker 4: You know, I appreciate that, but she didn't have to
• 30:33
  Speaker 4: write it's just no thank you and you just move on.
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: It's no, you know, just so aggressive. Did not.
• 30:47
  Speaker 10: Have to because he was trying to push it over
• 30:49
  Speaker 10: here on me.
• 30:51
  Speaker 4: Have a mimosa, this will be the most dangerous morning,
• 30:56
  Speaker 4: escorted out the building.
• 31:00
  Speaker 9: I was more about the line dance. Did you did
• 31:02
  Speaker 9: you feel pressure to do it? Or did that just happen?
• 31:04
  Speaker 9: Did you make up the line?
• 31:05
  Speaker 4: That's like what Kenny J who's a line dance choreographer extraordinary,
• 31:12
  Speaker 4: you know, we we we called him to put a
• 31:14
  Speaker 4: line dance to it, and uh and then he taught
• 31:17
  Speaker 4: it to me. Got you you know, and you know
• 31:21
  Speaker 4: and and and we did it, you.
• 31:22
  Speaker 3: Know, we did.
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: I still can't get into me a one, So I
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: got a long ready to be confused on left right.
• 31:28
  Speaker 6: I can't get none of these lines. Yeah, just I'll
• 31:30
  Speaker 6: be trying.
• 31:31
  Speaker 8: I have a question about about one of you older
• 31:33
  Speaker 8: songs about I Can't Stop loving You Sometimes.
• 31:34
  Speaker 10: You said a lot of those songs were aspirational.
• 31:36
  Speaker 8: But I was reading the article on ebony and they
• 31:38
  Speaker 8: talked about that song being about infidelity.
• 31:40
  Speaker 3: That particular song is about infidelity.
• 31:42
  Speaker 10: Was that aspirational?
• 31:44
  Speaker 3: No no, no, no, no aspirational? No no no no no no.
• 31:51
  Speaker 4: The love love songs are are aspirational, give my love.
• 31:56
  Speaker 4: And there are those songs that are that are autobiography,
• 32:01
  Speaker 4: auto bio graphical, and I Can't Stop Loving You as
• 32:06
  Speaker 4: one of those, And yes, it is about infidelity.
• 32:09
  Speaker 3: It was about.
• 32:10
  Speaker 4: Uh me being I was, I was in a relationship
• 32:14
  Speaker 4: with someone and I stepped outside and uh and people
• 32:20
  Speaker 4: and the and the strange thing about I can't Stop
• 32:22
  Speaker 4: loving you. It was like probably next to love. Well,
• 32:25
  Speaker 4: it's it's a big record, and people always want me
• 32:27
  Speaker 4: to sing that they wet and I'm like, dude, have
• 32:29
  Speaker 4: you listened.
• 32:29
  Speaker 6: To the lyrics of the song?
• 32:32
  Speaker 9: You wasn't that goddamn shadow.
• 32:33
  Speaker 3: You stepped out?
• 32:36
  Speaker 5: The wife replied to an aspirational cheating song like if
• 32:38
  Speaker 5: you're what I just can't stop thinking about you eating?
• 32:40
  Speaker 8: Yeah, it would, it would, It would would ask that
• 32:43
  Speaker 8: because you said all those songs are aspirational.
• 32:45
  Speaker 10: But then I read that article, so I was confused.
• 32:47
  Speaker 3: No, no, no, that's that's that's had a.
• 32:49
  Speaker 10: Track in my mind because I also didn't know it
• 32:50
  Speaker 10: was a song about infidelity.
• 32:52
  Speaker 3: There.
• 32:52
  Speaker 10: I thought it was just a love song. Yeah, stop looking,
• 32:55
  Speaker 10: But I.
• 32:56
  Speaker 9: Can see why people want you to sing in it
• 32:58
  Speaker 9: there wedding, I ain't gonna lie. That song puts you
• 33:00
  Speaker 9: in a mood where you just want to love up
• 33:02
  Speaker 9: on your die or your girl. Whatever. You know what
• 33:04
  Speaker 9: I mean, They not even listening to it because I'm
• 33:07
  Speaker 9: I'm gonna be honest. So she just said that, I mean,
• 33:08
  Speaker 9: i'ma be honest So she just said that I had
• 33:10
  Speaker 9: no idea that it was about infidelity.
• 33:12
  Speaker 3: And it is aspirational in the sense that I want
• 33:16
  Speaker 3: to be a better man.
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: M hmm.
• 33:20
  Speaker 3: I'm gonna come on.
• 33:20
  Speaker 4: I'm gonna come on the radio and tell then tell
• 33:22
  Speaker 4: the whole world that I cheated on you.
• 33:24
  Speaker 3: Dang, and I can't. I can't stop loving you.
• 33:28
  Speaker 9: Hm, there's some narcissistic as ship. I'm gonna tell the world.
• 33:36
  Speaker 3: I'm gonna you know, right, guess it.
• 33:39
  Speaker 8: Gave you something you had to like like, you couldn't
• 33:42
  Speaker 8: go backward. You only could go forward from there because
• 33:44
  Speaker 8: you didn't you said it to the world. So you
• 33:45
  Speaker 8: have to be better.
• 33:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I am better.
• 33:48
  Speaker 9: I love that.
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: You know that. They always say faith with our works
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: is dead.
• 33:53
  Speaker 5: Right, So do you think your faith saved you or
• 33:56
  Speaker 5: did discipline?
• 33:58
  Speaker 3: Say both?
• 34:01
  Speaker 4: It's both, it's both, right, yeah? Faith without yeah, yeah
• 34:05
  Speaker 4: you can. You know, when you ask God to move
• 34:10
  Speaker 4: a mountain, you bring a shovel with you. Right, there's
• 34:15
  Speaker 4: there's work that needs to be done, you know, and uh,
• 34:19
  Speaker 4: you know. Yeah, there are things that you can do
• 34:23
  Speaker 4: and there are things that you can't do.
• 34:24
  Speaker 3: You know. One of my favorite.
• 34:26
  Speaker 4: Prayers is the prayers is the serenity for got gramm me,
• 34:28
  Speaker 4: a serenity to accept the things I cannot change and
• 34:31
  Speaker 4: the courage to change I can't.
• 34:32
  Speaker 3: So what is mine? So right? What is mine? What
• 34:35
  Speaker 3: is God's to do? And what is mine to do? Right?
• 34:39
  Speaker 4: If I can't do anything about it, I can? This
• 34:41
  Speaker 4: is you know, this is then this is in God's hands,
• 34:44
  Speaker 4: you know. But what is mine to do? I'm I'm
• 34:48
  Speaker 4: expected to to get busy.
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: So do you see your career as a calling or platform?
• 34:55
  Speaker 3: I see it as a calling mostly right.
• 35:03
  Speaker 4: And there is a there is a deception in the
• 35:07
  Speaker 4: world that we're living in right now. Everybody wants to
• 35:11
  Speaker 4: have a platform. Everybody got you thinking about your gym
• 35:15
  Speaker 4: shoot line on my new cologne.
• 35:20
  Speaker 3: Enough, right, But everybody don't have this jewelry that I do.
• 35:23
  Speaker 3: This jury, this jewelry that I designed.
• 35:26
  Speaker 4: You need to be you know. And I'm you know,
• 35:29
  Speaker 4: and I'm I am an author. I'm an author, and
• 35:31
  Speaker 4: I'm a you know. I was on the phone with
• 35:33
  Speaker 4: somebody said, well, you're not just an arse anymore. You
• 35:35
  Speaker 4: the host of km TV, you know. And so it's
• 35:37
  Speaker 4: just trying to find the balance in that in order
• 35:41
  Speaker 4: to stay in order to for one thing to feed
• 35:43
  Speaker 4: the other, right, in order to be you know, you
• 35:45
  Speaker 4: got to be on social media in order to I
• 35:47
  Speaker 4: mean you got to do to it to an extent,
• 35:49
  Speaker 4: but really not getting away from that. This is you know,
• 35:54
  Speaker 4: trying to be mission driven, you know, calling driven, you
• 36:03
  Speaker 4: know what's really really important, right, and not chasing, not
• 36:08
  Speaker 4: chasing the trends, not you know, everybody's skipping.
• 36:11
  Speaker 3: You need to skip you know.
• 36:12
  Speaker 4: Well, right, it's like, yeah, yeah, this this is a platform,
• 36:17
  Speaker 4: but it's it's it's more than that first, you know.
• 36:23
  Speaker 3: So I'm still you know, I'm still working all that out.
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 36:27
  Speaker 5: My man and Paris, he always says that people you
• 36:31
  Speaker 5: have to do things for intention, not attention exactly. And
• 36:34
  Speaker 5: we're in an area where everybody does things for attention,
• 36:36
  Speaker 5: but what intention exactly?
• 36:38
  Speaker 4: You know, right, everybody we want to be influencers, like dude,
• 36:41
  Speaker 4: just you know, can I can I'll I'll do good
• 36:44
  Speaker 4: to influence my household, right, my community, right or the
• 36:50
  Speaker 4: people that I'm meeting everything. I'm just that I see
• 36:52
  Speaker 4: every day deal with how are you dealing with them people?
• 36:55
  Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying, As opposed to being at
• 36:57
  Speaker 4: the at the at the whims and the EBB and
• 36:59
  Speaker 4: flow of strangers and people that you don't even know
• 37:02
  Speaker 4: you know, and then taking hits right, you're all off,
• 37:07
  Speaker 4: you know, off center because of you know what I'm saying.
• 37:11
  Speaker 4: It's like really really having to be you know, really
• 37:14
  Speaker 4: be uh, you know, intentional.
• 37:16
  Speaker 9: I really want to know this about you. Who is
• 37:19
  Speaker 9: your mount? Who is on your mount? Rushmore of R
• 37:22
  Speaker 9: and B and.
• 37:23
  Speaker 3: Sould Oh, yes, there's a lot of people.
• 37:25
  Speaker 9: Okay, so it's not just FU.
• 37:29
  Speaker 4: And I'm a songwriter first, so I dig songs, right,
• 37:31
  Speaker 4: so I'm you know, the songs have have affected me,
• 37:34
  Speaker 4: so it can.
• 37:35
  Speaker 3: Be you know.
• 37:38
  Speaker 4: That, Well, there'll be you know, Prince and Michael would
• 37:42
  Speaker 4: be I mean, you know, but I mean, but there's
• 37:46
  Speaker 4: you know, but there's Luther, there's ron Eisley. I'm working
• 37:52
  Speaker 4: on some right now. I'm like, dude, I may have
• 37:54
  Speaker 4: to call you know. Ron Eisley to me is like
• 37:56
  Speaker 4: if they did a time capsule of somebody to represent
• 38:00
  Speaker 4: R and B.
• 38:01
  Speaker 3: And soul like his voice is that to me? You know? Everybody?
• 38:05
  Speaker 4: Or Earth Went and Fire, you know, and then the
• 38:08
  Speaker 4: songs and then the you know the new artists that
• 38:10
  Speaker 4: are you know October London and uh and I was
• 38:14
  Speaker 4: just listening to uh uh uh the Star Kendrick Lamar
• 38:18
  Speaker 4: and and and Scissor you know, and uh you.
• 38:22
  Speaker 3: Know every summer walker.
• 38:24
  Speaker 9: Do you like giving?
• 38:26
  Speaker 3: You?
• 38:26
  Speaker 6: Who giving is?
• 38:27
  Speaker 9: I got to put you on with Giving He's great, yea.
• 38:32
  Speaker 3: And everybody's talking about R and B is you know, like.
• 38:34
  Speaker 4: Dude, you can get you can push a button and
• 38:37
  Speaker 4: listen to all the R and B that you want
• 38:39
  Speaker 4: to listen to.
• 38:40
  Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying. You know, you did an.
• 38:42
  Speaker 9: Interview back in November where you said that you wanted to.
• 38:46
  Speaker 3: Collaborate with Yeah. Absolutely.
• 38:48
  Speaker 9: Did you hear anything from our team? No, No, I'm
• 38:50
  Speaker 9: still because that would be amazing.
• 38:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah that would That's that would be my jam, right yeah? Yeah.
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: So how do you measure success now?
• 38:58
  Speaker 5: Is it about the awards and the about how many
• 39:01
  Speaker 5: live your music questions?
• 39:03
  Speaker 4: You know, that's that's tied into the for me, that's
• 39:06
  Speaker 4: tied into the platform question. You know, I I you
• 39:13
  Speaker 4: know some of the things that I haven't hit. You know,
• 39:15
  Speaker 4: I haven't wont to Grammy. I've been nominated, you know,
• 39:17
  Speaker 4: but I want to Grammy. You know, I want to
• 39:18
  Speaker 4: make some more money. I want number I want more
• 39:20
  Speaker 4: Number one records. I want all of those things.
• 39:23
  Speaker 3: There allow all of these marks that I haven't hit yet.
• 39:27
  Speaker 4: And you know, the good thing is is that I
• 39:31
  Speaker 4: don't feel like I don't feel like I'm done.
• 39:34
  Speaker 3: But if I was done, I've been doing this for twenty.
• 39:36
  Speaker 7: Three you know what I'm saying, right, I had you know,
• 39:41
  Speaker 7: it's like no, you know, I've had. I've been I've
• 39:44
  Speaker 7: had great success doing what I do and you know,
• 39:51
  Speaker 7: keeping my head above water and and.
• 39:54
  Speaker 3: And you know, and just being cool. It's been good.
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 39:58
  Speaker 3: Do I want more?
• 39:59
  Speaker 4: Yes, more is on the table, you know what I'm saying,
• 40:01
  Speaker 4: But I'm not, you know, I have to be.
• 40:05
  Speaker 3: I'm I'm I'm grateful for what has been.
• 40:07
  Speaker 8: You Do you ever have days where you like lose
• 40:10
  Speaker 8: the passion or like you're like drained or because you're
• 40:13
  Speaker 8: you put so much into your music? Yeah, what are
• 40:15
  Speaker 8: those days like for you? We're like writer's block.
• 40:17
  Speaker 4: Or writer's block is uh you know, really the biggest
• 40:22
  Speaker 4: job for me is writing is the hardest thing. It's
• 40:26
  Speaker 4: the it's the hardest thing, and it's the most rewarding
• 40:29
  Speaker 4: thing because nothing, nothing, you know, for you know, for
• 40:32
  Speaker 4: what we do, you know, as an artist, as a
• 40:35
  Speaker 4: song you know nothing. Everything starts with a song, you know.
• 40:39
  Speaker 4: So the hardest thing is to and we're calling my
• 40:43
  Speaker 4: team and I were calling this the this season or
• 40:45
  Speaker 4: return to love and just returning to the love of it.
• 40:50
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 40:51
  Speaker 4: It's just sitting down at the because when I started, dude,
• 40:53
  Speaker 4: I could sit at a piano or keyboard like all
• 40:56
  Speaker 4: day and not move and not have to find anything,
• 41:00
  Speaker 4: you know what I'm saying.
• 41:00
  Speaker 3: And now it's like I'm looking for something when I
• 41:03
  Speaker 3: sit down, you know what I'm saying. So now I'm
• 41:06
  Speaker 3: just you know, just flush out every every idea.
• 41:10
  Speaker 4: That's the most challenging thing, just to sit and just
• 41:12
  Speaker 4: everything don't have to be you know, my albums, all
• 41:15
  Speaker 4: the albums are not they're all not number one, they're
• 41:17
  Speaker 4: not all supposed to be number one records, they're not
• 41:19
  Speaker 4: all radio songs, they're not all you know, and just
• 41:21
  Speaker 4: let and just just you know, and just and just
• 41:24
  Speaker 4: let it flow.
• 41:25
  Speaker 5: Yeah, So brother, thank you for your testimony many and
• 41:29
  Speaker 5: thank you for you know, you know, turning your testimony
• 41:31
  Speaker 5: in the art that that heals man.
• 41:33
  Speaker 4: Thank you, thank you, thank you for having me. It's
• 41:35
  Speaker 4: really really been a blessing to be here today.
• 41:37
  Speaker 6: Thank you. Let's get into the single you want to
• 41:38
  Speaker 6: introduce it.
• 41:39
  Speaker 4: This is a rock with me and you're hearing it
• 41:42
  Speaker 4: right here. iHeartRadio. This is the Breakfast Club. Come on now,
• 41:48
  Speaker 4: it's the Breakfast Club.
• 41:49
  Speaker 6: Good morning, every day.
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: Up the Breakfast Club.
• 41:55
  Speaker 3: Finish, y'all done it.