Latest / Caught on the Mike... / GOD CMPLX with Sol Messiah -Producer- DJ- Artist- Rhymesayers Entertainment

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GOD CMPLX with Sol Messiah -Producer- DJ- Artist- Rhymesayers Entertainment · Caught on the Mike...

0:00
SPEAKER_01: Disclaimer.
0:01
SPEAKER_01: The views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities they represent.
0:11
SPEAKER_01: Listener discretion is advised.
0:42
SPEAKER_01: On timeless offerings from DLT, Madonna, Monica, Boys to Men, and much more, my next guest work can be heard on offerings from David Banner, Nappy Roots, Millionaire, Believe Quali, Dead Fred, and of course, Da Rock.
1:00
SPEAKER_01: His own album, God Complex, drops on September 30th, and I am excited to welcome Soul Messiah to the show today.
1:08
SPEAKER_01: Ladies and gentlemen, this is Caught on the Mic.
1:16
SPEAKER_01: Ladies and gentlemen, I cannot tell you how excited I am about this interview.
1:22
SPEAKER_01: I have been listening to his new album that drops September 30th for the past two weeks straight.
1:36
SPEAKER_01: Good, good.
1:37
SPEAKER_01: So God Complex, this has been a long time coming, right?
1:42
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's been a actually a very long time coming.
1:47
SPEAKER_01: I think we're gonna get into that because if I understand correctly, the inception of the album started like as early as 1993.
1:56
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
1:56
SPEAKER_00: So you want a few people to get it right.
1:58
SPEAKER_00: It actually started then.
2:00
SPEAKER_00: I just never I would start, stop, start, stop, and then finally, 30 years later, basically say, you know what?
2:09
SPEAKER_00: Let's just do it.
2:10
SPEAKER_00: Now none of the songs, there are no songs from back then that are on this album, but um just the concept of the producer DJ doing an album started back then when I was producing.
2:21
SPEAKER_00: So that's where that came from.
2:23
SPEAKER_01: Let's kind of talk about your trajectory into that because you started off as a b-boy, if I understand correctly.
2:33
SPEAKER_01: How did you come into that and find yourself on the path to being a DJ and producer?
2:40
SPEAKER_00: So in the tradition of hip-hop, when I was younger, everybody did something, and most of us did several parts of the the culture.
2:48
SPEAKER_00: So if the culture is four basic facets, which is MCing, DJing, graffiti, and b-boying.
2:56
SPEAKER_00: I did the DJ, graffiti, and b-boying.
3:00
SPEAKER_00: Some people did all four, but my thing was that my specialty was DJing and B-boying.
3:06
SPEAKER_00: I was pretty good with the graffiti, but not like my partners.
3:09
SPEAKER_00: And uh so this is around 1982 for me.
3:14
SPEAKER_00: And then I'm a little older than I look, and put it to you like that.
3:18
SPEAKER_00: And and then uh around 85, 86, I got I was always b-boying, I b-boyed up till my first child was born, 1995.
3:28
SPEAKER_00: But I was really serious about the DJing.
3:31
SPEAKER_00: I I'm a technical cat, so I love uh technical things.
3:35
SPEAKER_00: So I was really into that.
3:37
SPEAKER_00: So around 1988-89, I really got into making original, or we in hip hop we call original beats with samples and adding sounds to them, right?
3:46
SPEAKER_00: But the breaking was paying the bills.
3:50
SPEAKER_00: I I danced with a crew called the Rocksteady crew out of the Bronx, and I would travel back and forth from Atlanta to New York, working with Crazy Legs and the crew, and we traveled around the world and we would teach breaking and do demonstrations.
4:03
SPEAKER_00: So that was paying the bills, but uh I ended up hooking up with a cat named Dallas Austin, and Dallas Austin is a big RB producer, and um his team, his big brother actually came to me and said, We need that hip-hop edge that you do with the DJing and the cuts and the scratches and the samples and the drums.
4:23
SPEAKER_00: So I brought that into the camp, and God blessed to be able to work on a lot of big acts, yeah, the like the acts Michael Jackson, Madonna, Bjork.
4:34
SPEAKER_00: I got to do a lot of work with a lot of those uh acts, but my heart was always into the boom bap.
4:41
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
4:42
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so so um working with Dallas is what really got me into full-fledged uh doing production because when I had that first child, I couldn't travel like I wanted to.
4:56
SPEAKER_00: You know, they'd be like, We're going to Japan, we're going to Canada.
4:59
SPEAKER_00: And I'd be like, you know what?
5:00
SPEAKER_00: I just had a baby, I can't just run out on the lady and be like, I'll be back.
5:05
SPEAKER_00: So the production was more stable, so I could sit still at home and go to the studio and come back home.
5:11
SPEAKER_00: So this is pre-studios at home.
5:13
SPEAKER_00: We didn't have studios at home back then.
5:14
SPEAKER_00: We had to go to a studio.
5:15
SPEAKER_01: For those that don't know, some of the legendary albums that you worked on, you worked on Another Bad Creation, you worked with TLC, you worked with Boys to Men, you name it.
5:27
SPEAKER_01: And I gotta tell you, I think a lot of those albums changed the way we see both RB and hip-hop music as it is today.
5:37
SPEAKER_00: It did.
5:38
SPEAKER_00: Yes, it did.
5:39
SPEAKER_00: Um, because it was a traditional RB lane, and then there was a traditional hip-hop lane.
5:44
SPEAKER_00: But what what me and Dallas and the crew did was we put scratches in songs, we put hip hop beats and drums and samples into RB.
5:54
SPEAKER_00: Now, don't get it twisted.
5:55
SPEAKER_00: Teddy Riley did it, did it first, right before us, but but we bombarded the industry with with cuts in like anything.
6:04
SPEAKER_00: I mean, from Monica, and she had she had outcasts on her album.
6:07
SPEAKER_00: People don't even remember, but we we we did it in we put it in everything.
6:11
SPEAKER_00: We worked on a lot.
6:12
SPEAKER_00: We worked on what's her name?
6:14
SPEAKER_00: What's the lady's name?
6:16
SPEAKER_00: Uh Fleetwood Mac, the singer in Fleetwood Mac.
6:19
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, Stevie Nicks.
6:20
SPEAKER_00: Stevie Nick.
6:20
SPEAKER_00: We went with Stevie Nicks, right?
6:22
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
6:23
SPEAKER_00: They want hip hop, you know.
6:24
SPEAKER_00: I mean, they want hip hop drums, we they want that, and so you know, we started to add that in, and it literally, you're right, it changed RB.
6:32
SPEAKER_00: It changed it.
6:34
SPEAKER_01: I don't think everybody has a full scope, or just you know, your average Joe has the full scope of the elements that make up the culture.
6:43
SPEAKER_01: What were some defining moments for you and some inspirations for you, both musically and artistically, and from the b-boy side of things?
6:54
SPEAKER_00: Like, well, with with b boying, um, so I grew up doing it as a kid, right?
7:00
SPEAKER_00: And my dream was so I saw what this movie called Wild Style in '82.
7:05
SPEAKER_00: I saw Flash Dance, and they had these breakers in the street and flash dance, and I was like, yo, as my cousin.
7:12
SPEAKER_00: You see these dudes uh breaking in the street, and we didn't know who they were.
7:17
SPEAKER_00: And then so from digging around, you got cousins.
7:19
SPEAKER_00: I was living in Atlanta at the time, I had cousins from New York, and they was like, That's the Rocksteady crew.
7:23
SPEAKER_00: So then you learn out who to learn who the Rocksteady crew is, and then of course, everybody wants to be in the Rocksteady crew or their rival crew, the New York City Breakers.
7:31
SPEAKER_00: So I was like, I'm gonna be in the Rocksteady crew, and they were like, Yeah, right.
7:36
SPEAKER_00: How are you?
7:37
SPEAKER_00: And and what we call the country back then in Atlanta.
7:39
SPEAKER_00: You live, we live in the country.
7:40
SPEAKER_00: How are you gonna get with the Rocksteady crew?
7:42
SPEAKER_00: I was like, I don't know, but I'm gonna do it, right?
7:45
SPEAKER_00: And it was, you know, of course, no one believed it.
7:48
SPEAKER_00: I did.
7:49
SPEAKER_00: And uh one day my brother came to me, late 80s, and he worked in this spot downtown, and he said, Yo, I met Mr.
7:56
SPEAKER_00: Wiggles from Rocksteady Crew.
7:58
SPEAKER_00: I was like, No, you didn't.
8:00
SPEAKER_00: He said, Yes, I did, and I told him that you would wreck him.
8:03
SPEAKER_00: I was like, Wait, you told one of my idols that I would beat him in breaking?
8:09
SPEAKER_00: He was like, Yeah, this is the phone number right here.
8:11
SPEAKER_00: This is the hotel they staying at.
8:13
SPEAKER_00: Gave me the phone number, and I was like, uh, okay.
8:17
SPEAKER_00: So I called him.
8:18
SPEAKER_00: He said, Come down here and meet me.
8:20
SPEAKER_00: Your brother told me that you would you would wreck me.
8:24
SPEAKER_00: So I went to meet him at his hotel downtown Atlanta, and he answered the door.
8:29
SPEAKER_00: Him and this guy named Quick Step, who's all who was also in the Rock State Crater time.
8:33
SPEAKER_00: Quick Step, they opened the door, and he's like, you know, peace.
8:36
SPEAKER_00: We met each other, it was cool, and they pushed the beds apart.
8:41
SPEAKER_00: They pushed the beds apart, and he's like, Let's go.
8:44
SPEAKER_00: I said, Go where?
8:47
SPEAKER_00: He's like, Let's break.
8:48
SPEAKER_00: I was like, Okay.
8:50
SPEAKER_00: So we we we we got down.
8:52
SPEAKER_00: They had a little boom box and we danced, and it wasn't really a battle.
8:55
SPEAKER_00: They would just go, I would go, they would go, I would go, they will go.
8:58
SPEAKER_00: Then they was like, you know what?
8:59
SPEAKER_00: Do me a favor.
9:00
SPEAKER_00: This is my phone number in New York.
9:02
SPEAKER_00: If you come in New York, hit me up.
9:05
SPEAKER_00: I want to introduce you to the crew, and you gotta battle crazy legs if you want to get in the crew.
9:10
SPEAKER_00: I was like, what?
9:11
SPEAKER_00: First of all, I'm excited on one hand and I'm terrified on the other hand, because it's crazy legs.
9:17
SPEAKER_00: Come to New York, battle crazy legs.
9:19
SPEAKER_00: I thought that's what we just did.
9:21
SPEAKER_00: So about maybe six months later, I end up in New York.
9:27
SPEAKER_00: I call them nervously.
9:29
SPEAKER_00: I called them, and they was like, meet us at this warehouse.
9:32
SPEAKER_00: So I'm like, ah, it's nighttime.
9:34
SPEAKER_00: I was like, okay, I went to this warehouse down in Manhattan, and it was the rap party for a movie.
9:39
SPEAKER_00: And uh there's all these movie stars in there.
9:43
SPEAKER_00: It was weird, and it was it was dope though, and it was the brother, I always get his name wrong.
9:50
SPEAKER_00: There were two brothers, they were actors, and one was a dancer and a singer.
9:54
SPEAKER_00: What is his name?
9:56
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna get in a minute.
9:57
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, we met them, and then crazy legs and then were there, and he was like, Yo, I heard you you're breaking and you want to get in the crew.
10:02
SPEAKER_00: I was like, sure, but I didn't battle him there.
10:05
SPEAKER_00: He said, wait till tomorrow.
10:06
SPEAKER_00: And so after that party, we went to the studio and I battled Crazy Legs.
10:11
SPEAKER_00: He wrecked me as usual, and he said, You in.
10:14
SPEAKER_00: Oh, wow.
10:16
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
10:16
SPEAKER_00: So then from there, from there, from then on, they allowed me actually to take Rocksteady crew out of New York and start my own chapter in Atlanta.
10:24
SPEAKER_00: And I did, and I started to travel around the world with them and and uh train with them and did all types of stuff, and that was like dream come true.
10:33
SPEAKER_00: It was dream, it was in my friends at home.
10:35
SPEAKER_00: No one believed me because you know it was pre-internet, so it was late 80s, early 90s.
10:39
SPEAKER_00: So I can't prove I can get a if I can get a picture taken and then let them see it, but no one will believe me.
10:45
SPEAKER_00: They just think I'd just be leaving town.
10:47
SPEAKER_00: I was leaving town already.
10:49
SPEAKER_01: Well, you know something we both have in common is we're both a lot older than we look, and I I think we can both count our blessings that there wasn't any internet in the late 80s, early 90s.
11:01
SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
11:02
SPEAKER_01: So we could just tell stories all day long.
11:05
SPEAKER_00: Yep, nobody can say anything and then know how we actually look.
11:09
SPEAKER_00: Oh my god.
11:10
SPEAKER_00: Right?
11:11
SPEAKER_00: I looked a lot better than that.
11:12
SPEAKER_00: I was a lot slimmer.
11:13
SPEAKER_01: Same, same.
11:16
SPEAKER_01: So, one of the things that I love about your music and your production style is it's really layered.
11:22
SPEAKER_01: Um so who are some of your influences musically that kind of lend to that?
11:28
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm from the South, as you know, in Atlanta, and one of the things a lot of people don't know is we are big on bands, marching bands, jazz bands, symphony.
11:40
SPEAKER_00: Those are one of the things that they made us do in the south in school systems.
11:44
SPEAKER_00: Everybody had to pick up an instrument, and everybody had to be in some type of organization, and you either play ball or you in the band.
11:52
SPEAKER_00: I'm rather small and don't feel like getting beat up.
11:55
SPEAKER_00: So we went to football.
11:57
SPEAKER_00: So I was like, you know what, I'm gonna do and pick up these instruments.
12:00
SPEAKER_00: So I grew up dealing with music, right?
12:04
SPEAKER_00: So being in the band was a big influence on what I do now, if you listen to the sound.
12:09
SPEAKER_00: And my father was an avid collector of wax back then, was only wax, eight tracks and cassettes, but he was an avid collector.
12:17
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, all the jazz, the soul, you know, uh uh uh the the rock.
12:24
SPEAKER_00: Like I would just sit in the in the living room and look through his records, and we would listen to records.
12:30
SPEAKER_00: So that soulful sound, Quincy Jones, Curtis Mayfield, and all the early greats.
12:37
SPEAKER_00: I was into that.
12:38
SPEAKER_00: I like soulful music.
12:39
SPEAKER_00: And so you'll hear a lot of uh it's funny, they'd be like, he used soulful samples.
12:44
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, sometimes a lot of it though is musicians.
12:47
SPEAKER_00: I have guys that I've played with since the early 90s, late 80s.
12:51
SPEAKER_00: Like uh, for instance, I got this cat that plays on all my music named Preston Crump.
12:56
SPEAKER_00: Preston Crump is a bass player, he's also the same guy that played on Invogue, TLC, Boys the Men.
13:02
SPEAKER_00: He played on uh All Outcasts.
13:04
SPEAKER_00: If you listen to All Outcast music, he's the bass player and all my music since I've been doing uh production, and he's mad soulful.
13:11
SPEAKER_00: So he did Dr.
13:13
SPEAKER_00: Dre and Eminem, forget about Dre.
13:15
SPEAKER_00: He did that, you know what I mean?
13:17
SPEAKER_00: Like he does all of these amazing big records, so I make sure that I keep that element in all my music.
13:22
SPEAKER_00: So the whole soulful 60s, 70s rock and RB is my my bass, you know what I mean?
13:30
SPEAKER_00: So, so and I and I fit that around whatever MCs I'm working with, in particular, as of late, people know it's mainly Saw Rock, and your work with Saw Rock is amazing, indeed.
13:40
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, bro.
13:41
SPEAKER_01: I told you before we started recording this that I've been listening to the album for about two weeks now.
13:47
SPEAKER_01: I was in upstate New York last week working for the day job, had my AirPods in.
13:52
SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm listening to God Complex start to finish over and over.
13:57
SPEAKER_01: And anytime somebody bothered me, I get so pissed off because I was so immersed into that music.
14:04
SPEAKER_01: And I'm glad you mentioned the Atlanta element of that because that is kind of indicative of a lot of artists from Atlanta.
14:14
SPEAKER_01: Does Atlanta get the love that it really deserves?
14:18
SPEAKER_01: Because I don't feel like it does.
14:19
SPEAKER_00: You know, they say that it's like the center of hip-hop now, but normally it's not right.
14:25
SPEAKER_00: And unfortunately, uh uh uh the artists that we are that are supposed to be the kings of hip-hop, they're not really doing musical stuff though.
14:33
SPEAKER_00: They're just doing the cutting cookie cutter.
14:35
SPEAKER_00: I guess it's called trap.
14:36
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what they do now, what it's called, but it doesn't since 1992 or three RB and hip-hop has been the biggest thing in it well in the world, it all came from Atlanta.
14:50
SPEAKER_00: I mean, any stuff that you recorded, people people who are recorded, if they might have been from New York or LA, but they all came to Atlanta to record, you know what I mean?
14:58
SPEAKER_00: And and and or pick from the producers and artists and and and and musicians here.
15:03
SPEAKER_00: And um, and the writers, most of the writers are here, or or you know, because when the face records came here about 91 or 92, baby face and la read, it really started to take over because that was Arista Records, uh Clive Davis, and he would frequently come down here and and people don't understand and know that a label like Arista would sign a thousand artists a year.
15:28
SPEAKER_00: You know that one thousand artists, but you would only see ten.
15:33
SPEAKER_00: Right, but it was a lot of recording going on, a lot of music being made.
15:37
SPEAKER_00: So uh I I I think it's people know Atlanta, but you really have to like I give a lot of respect to some cast I came up with was organized now as they're they're my age, and they did really did uh do some really groundbreaking music with Outcast at Goody Mob.
15:53
SPEAKER_01: You know, it's funny you touched on the point about Arista Records signing a thousand artists, and you'd only hear 10.
15:59
SPEAKER_01: One of the conversations that I have a lot of the time with my friends about the music industry, you know, they're quick to point the finger at the internet saying that internet killed the video star.
16:11
SPEAKER_01: Like if video killed the radio star, internet killed the video star, right?
16:15
SPEAKER_00: Right.
16:16
SPEAKER_01: But from my perception, it was always the labels oversigning talent that killed the industry.
16:23
SPEAKER_01: It was almost like they they let themselves get too bloated, and instead of like really capitalizing on the talent pool that they had hoarded up, and they just do it so you don't go nowhere else to do anything, and that made a lot of us discouraged.
16:37
SPEAKER_00: So people would get signed, they they get a budget, they record an album, but they're never gonna come out.
16:42
SPEAKER_00: So they're frustrated.
16:43
SPEAKER_00: They not shit, they shelved, not shelved like sitting on the record shelves, they're shelved.
16:47
SPEAKER_00: So you sign this contract, you got some money, and back then the money was totally different from now, it was a lot of money, and you never see them.
16:54
SPEAKER_00: Like to this day, I still wonder where are them people?
16:57
SPEAKER_00: It was so many people, right?
16:59
SPEAKER_00: Like tons and tons of artists, but you don't see them, and then yeah, they they were bloated.
17:04
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you could you'd hear of whole albums getting recorded that never saw the light of day, and there were really interesting artists recording those albums, even as recent in the past 10 years.
17:15
SPEAKER_00: Man, I had a group so dope named Jadis, J-A-T-I-S.
17:20
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I recorded them in '98.
17:23
SPEAKER_00: I didn't end up getting them a deal until about 2001, and it was on loud records.
17:28
SPEAKER_00: So Wu-Tang, Mob Deep, uh Akon, uh, you know, all of the big the big groups, David Banner, all of us around the same time.
17:39
SPEAKER_00: And Jadis was one of them, and they were what you would people would, if you heard them, you'd be like, Outcast part two.
17:46
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
17:46
SPEAKER_00: In other words, another Atlanta group with good hip-hop soulful beats.
17:50
SPEAKER_00: And never saw the light of day.
17:52
SPEAKER_00: And because it was moving around.
17:54
SPEAKER_00: I think loud shut down.
17:55
SPEAKER_00: We went over to Sony.
17:57
SPEAKER_00: I was at the this, it's funny.
17:58
SPEAKER_00: The AR for 50 Cent and Nas was my AR for Jadis, but still never came out.
18:04
SPEAKER_00: You know, it just moved you around.
18:06
SPEAKER_00: And then to shut you up, they would pay you.
18:08
SPEAKER_00: They'd be like, oh, and what you're gonna do is say no, right?
18:11
SPEAKER_01: All right, give me the money, or they'd pass, they'd pacify you by putting you as a feature on somebody else's track.
18:17
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, man, it's crazy.
18:19
SPEAKER_00: I ended up moving that one of the cats, uh, he went over to Eminem, sign Eminem, uh Bobby Creekwater.
18:25
SPEAKER_00: Wow, and uh, he was in Jadison.
18:27
SPEAKER_00: That still never came out, you know what I mean?
18:30
SPEAKER_00: But it's a game, and you have to learn how to play the game.
18:32
SPEAKER_00: And like I always tell artists, learn facets like learn the engineer, learn the master.
18:38
SPEAKER_00: If you're not rapping, learn to produce.
18:40
SPEAKER_00: If you're not producing, do management, do whatever you gotta do, start a magazine.
18:44
SPEAKER_00: That's back then old school.
18:46
SPEAKER_00: Start a magazine, now it's a podcast.
18:48
SPEAKER_00: Do something so you're not stuck, but you still can add to the culture.
18:51
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
18:52
SPEAKER_01: I played in rock bands for probably 15, 20 years, and I towards the end of it, I realized, man, I'm much better at the production part of it than I am and the performance side of it.
19:03
SPEAKER_01: And so that's that's where my heart was at.
19:07
SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, I I found that my artistic sensibilities kind of dropped by the wayside.
19:12
SPEAKER_00: Right.
19:13
SPEAKER_01: Let's talk about artistic sensibilities and this album, this awesome album, God Complex, that drops on September 30th.
19:22
SPEAKER_01: As we said earlier in the podcast, this has been something you've conceptualized since as early as 1993, and it had a lot of stops and starts.
19:32
SPEAKER_01: Why now?
19:33
SPEAKER_01: And what is the concept of God Complex?
19:37
SPEAKER_01: Because it does feel like there's a connective tissue throughout the whole album.
19:41
SPEAKER_01: Am I missing something there?
19:43
SPEAKER_00: No, you you you're right.
19:44
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so um, like you said, around 93, was I was around it was so I was in the okay, I was with Dallas Austin.
19:55
SPEAKER_00: It was a group of producers, and so we would have people around us like I'll give you a good example.
20:01
SPEAKER_00: Let me start here.
20:02
SPEAKER_00: You keep me on track here.
20:04
SPEAKER_00: I remember um we had an office downtown and a studio downtown.
20:10
SPEAKER_00: In the office, a young cat came around and he was like, Yo, I'm trying to uh do this music like you guys do.
20:18
SPEAKER_00: And his name was Puffy at the time.
20:21
SPEAKER_00: Puffy.
20:21
SPEAKER_00: Puffy said, I'm trying to do this.
20:23
SPEAKER_00: I got artists, right?
20:24
SPEAKER_00: He brought two dudes with him.
20:26
SPEAKER_00: He had this older dude who I knew he was, uh easy rock, uh, Craig Mac.
20:31
SPEAKER_00: And he said, I got this other artist, this young cat, and it was this short, chunky dude, and it was Biggie before Biggie was big.
20:39
SPEAKER_00: Right.
20:39
SPEAKER_00: And he rapped.
20:40
SPEAKER_00: I remember Biggie rapped for us, and I was like, yo, this dude is pretty dope.
20:44
SPEAKER_00: This might go somewhere.
20:45
SPEAKER_00: And and so he started bringing producers around because he saw that Dallas had a group of producers around him.
20:52
SPEAKER_00: In other words, he emulated a lot that he saw.
20:54
SPEAKER_00: He was a smart guy, by the way.
20:56
SPEAKER_00: Puffy.
20:56
SPEAKER_00: And so he started bringing all these producers around.
20:59
SPEAKER_00: So all the producers ended up kind of linking up.
21:01
SPEAKER_00: So you had Dallas's crew, which is me and a couple other cats.
21:05
SPEAKER_00: You had the what they I think they call them the hitmen now, uh Puffy's crew, hitmen.
21:10
SPEAKER_00: So all these producers, uh Diamond D was around, Eric Sermon was around, uh, this guy named Wokey, who was BBD, uh, new editions producers.
21:21
SPEAKER_00: All of us were around, and everybody was trying to put their bid in and do their thing.
21:26
SPEAKER_00: And that's how I started to decide that I'm gonna do my producer album and I'm just gonna get different artists.
21:33
SPEAKER_00: Now I was starting to stop and start and stop.
21:34
SPEAKER_00: And like I said, life went on, and I ended, I did a lot of things.
21:38
SPEAKER_00: I went through, we won't go through the catalog, it was a lot of things, but I ended up meeting and recording later in the 2000s, being recording Saw Rock.
21:46
SPEAKER_00: So with Saw Rock, I recorded 13 albums, literally.
21:49
SPEAKER_00: We released 13 albums, 12 before we met Rhyme Sears.
21:54
SPEAKER_00: So I worked with one artist, and I'm still gonna work with forever, but I was like, you know what?
21:58
SPEAKER_00: I wanted to do something when I was young.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: Hunger and I'm going go on and do it.
22:03
SPEAKER_00: Now, I came up in the culture, so I ended up dealing with a lot of uh uh information, a lot of I was into knowledge, I still am, I'm into knowledge itself, right?
22:13
SPEAKER_00: So, in other words, that's studying self, know that self, as they say, in Kemet or Egypt.
22:18
SPEAKER_00: And um, a lot of people look outside them, this deals with the concept of God complex.
22:23
SPEAKER_00: A lot of people look outside themselves for spirituality, look outside themselves for what would validate them or make them feel good, but we don't realize that what we call God, Allah, Jehovah, Yahweh, whatever it is, is in us, just like it's in the plants, right?
22:38
SPEAKER_00: And so the concept of God complex is what it sounds like and not what it sounds like.
22:45
SPEAKER_00: So a complex is something that you can have mentally, or a complex can be a physical uh being, an item, a building, whatever it is.
22:55
SPEAKER_00: So I look at it like the body, man's body, woman's body is a complex, and in that complex is the energy of what we call God, which is the all.
23:05
SPEAKER_00: So in that are all types of aspects, all types of feelings, emotions, anger, love, all that.
23:13
SPEAKER_00: So I said, you know what?
23:15
SPEAKER_00: This body of work, which will be in several installations, this is the first, will be the crown chakra, the throat chakra, in the chest, down in the midsection, down the legs.
23:26
SPEAKER_00: It's a complex, and all of those aspects, different MCs will be able to express themselves through my complex, which is the God complex.
23:37
SPEAKER_00: And um, I just decided, man, I'm gonna I'm gonna start.
23:41
SPEAKER_00: Plus, I'm an empty nester now.
23:42
SPEAKER_00: That helps.
23:44
SPEAKER_00: A lot of people understand I I could have just started with that.
23:46
SPEAKER_00: My children have moved out, so now I can do what I want to do.
23:48
SPEAKER_00: But no, truly, I am an empty nester, and it allows me to be able to travel and and and and and and and tour with Syrock and do all these different things, and um the music is just a big part of it because I always DJ for her behind her, but a lot of people don't know that I do all her music, right?
24:06
SPEAKER_00: So basically, that's what that is.
24:08
SPEAKER_00: The guy complex in a nutshell is us and everything that the world is made of is inside of us, and so you could say it's a complex, and then like I mean, I did use the word because it's gonna pull people in, and even the picture on it, it's like, wait, are you a monk or are you black Jesus?
24:25
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I'm all of that.
24:28
SPEAKER_00: So, whatever it is you take from it, wait till you hear this Planet Age song by design eye song, you know, this Sarag lyric, you know what I mean?
24:35
SPEAKER_00: So it's just basically the culture all encapsulated in one.
24:38
SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes, and this week you dropped a new video with evidence, which is probably one of my favorite songs from the album.
24:46
SPEAKER_01: Limitless, so good.
24:49
SPEAKER_01: What's the what was the concept behind the video?
24:53
SPEAKER_00: Um, so limitless.
24:55
SPEAKER_00: Um it was Ev's idea to use, you know, this is it's mad dark, and it's a lot of lights, and he uses a lot of neon lights, but we shot through a puddle on the ground.
25:07
SPEAKER_00: We was on Venice Beach at night.
25:09
SPEAKER_00: He got a broke foot, by the way.
25:12
SPEAKER_00: So he out there with a broke foot, so you can't move much, he don't move much anyway.
25:16
SPEAKER_00: And we he's he's like, see these puddles on the ground and the ripples in the water.
25:20
SPEAKER_00: He's like, That's limitless, and that's what I want to do for the video.
25:23
SPEAKER_00: So basically, they put the camera down into the water to the puddle, and then we stood over the puddle, and so the reflection of it and it will ripple.
25:33
SPEAKER_00: And the only reason the rippling happened because we made mistake and kicked the puddle and it didn't ripple, then he's like, That's it, and uh it's a lot of reflection, a lot of uh uh uh limitless imagery, as he as he put it.
25:47
SPEAKER_01: I love that puddle, yeah.
25:49
SPEAKER_00: And and and you know, it was he he's he's a real conceptual dude and he's laid back.
25:53
SPEAKER_00: What they call Mr.
25:54
SPEAKER_00: Slow Flow, he is literally that, so so it was it was dope, yeah, yeah, for sure.
26:02
SPEAKER_01: And I tell you, like, there's something really special about what Saw Rock has been doing the past couple of years.
26:09
SPEAKER_01: Like, you almost feel like she's on the cusp of something, but you can't put your finger on it, you can't define exactly what it is.
26:20
SPEAKER_01: But man, people are gonna be putting some respect on her name really soon if they aren't already, right?
26:25
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, she's uh it's funny you say that.
26:28
SPEAKER_00: You you you you you overstand where she is.
26:31
SPEAKER_00: She's one of those MCs where in the tradition of you know, I call the true school, not old school, in the tradition of true school, we our stars pre-2000s were what we call conscious artists in it.
26:45
SPEAKER_00: That could have been a man, a woman, it didn't matter.
26:46
SPEAKER_00: Lauren Hill is a perfect example of yes, she was conscious, she was rhyming better than all the dudes, and she was singing.
26:53
SPEAKER_00: And Sky Rock is right there on the cusp but people have to decide because you know, and I I always tell her, I'm I'd be like, I'm sorry.
27:01
SPEAKER_00: She'd be like, What do you mean?
27:03
SPEAKER_00: Excuse me, men, we are bugged out to where we don't want to give props to women for doing what they do if and a lot of times better than what they do, because there's some achieves more weird stuff that we have, you know what I mean?
27:19
SPEAKER_00: But soon, I think soon it'll break through.
27:23
SPEAKER_00: And you know, you people be like, You've done 13 albums.
27:26
SPEAKER_00: The world thinks she's done one, so you know what I mean.
27:29
SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
27:30
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, exactly.
27:31
SPEAKER_01: So she's just getting started.
27:33
SPEAKER_01: How did that relationship, that working relationship with her start?
27:37
SPEAKER_00: Uh we that's funny.
27:39
SPEAKER_00: Uh we were friends, and then I was recording Napy Roots.
27:44
SPEAKER_00: I was in the studio with Napy Roots, so sometimes she would visit me in the studio.
27:47
SPEAKER_00: She was visiting me in the studio and she made a joke one day.
27:49
SPEAKER_00: And she said, she didn't do music, she didn't do poetry, she didn't do none of that.
27:53
SPEAKER_00: She was in college.
27:54
SPEAKER_00: She said, I can I can rap, I can write a rap.
27:57
SPEAKER_00: You know, and you'd be like, okay, yeah, whatever.
27:59
SPEAKER_00: So anyway, I'm working.
28:00
SPEAKER_00: She's like, no, she's like I can write a rap.
28:02
SPEAKER_00: Give me one of them beat CDs.
28:04
SPEAKER_00: I was like, B C D.
28:06
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, okay, I gave her a B C D.
28:08
SPEAKER_00: And then she came back with a rhyme, and I said, spit it.
28:13
SPEAKER_00: And she spit it, and it was dope.
28:16
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, wait a minute, you wrote that?
28:18
SPEAKER_00: She was like, Yeah.
28:20
SPEAKER_00: I said, you know, go in the booth, and she spit it.
28:23
SPEAKER_00: And the funny part is one of the early songs that she wrote is we don't throw anything away with Sarah.
28:28
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna put you like this.
28:29
SPEAKER_00: When we record, it's out.
28:31
SPEAKER_00: And um, she ended up non-stop.
28:34
SPEAKER_00: She found out she had a gift, and it was a joke.
28:37
SPEAKER_00: It was a joke.
28:37
SPEAKER_00: She just was like, I can do it, and she literally could do it.
28:40
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know where it comes from.
28:41
SPEAKER_00: I don't bother it.
28:42
SPEAKER_00: I don't try to tell her what to do with it because I feel like I messed it up, and now she's mastered it.
28:46
SPEAKER_00: I mean, she went from making a joke about rap into doing a song with black thought, going toe-to-toe.
28:51
SPEAKER_01: Right.
28:52
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, for sure, for sure.
28:55
SPEAKER_01: And your your I almost said CD release party.
28:58
SPEAKER_01: That's uh that's dated.
28:59
SPEAKER_01: That tells me how tells everybody how old I am.
29:02
SPEAKER_01: But your album release party is September 28th at aisle 5 in Atlanta, Georgia with Saw Rock.
29:11
SPEAKER_01: How excited are you for that?
29:13
SPEAKER_00: I'm very excited because, like I said, it's a dream come true for me.
29:16
SPEAKER_00: So, like, I'm gonna make everybody in Atlanta.
29:21
SPEAKER_00: They know I've been here.
29:22
SPEAKER_00: You gotta come out.
29:23
SPEAKER_00: But you know, like I said, I I told Slug from Atmosphere, he told me actually.
29:27
SPEAKER_00: You know, he told me one day, he said, I said, y'all put out a lot of records.
29:30
SPEAKER_00: Like every six months to a year, they dropping a record.
29:33
SPEAKER_00: He said, I'm 50, I'm gonna put out a record to the day I leave.
29:40
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, me too.
29:41
SPEAKER_00: So this is just the beginning.
29:44
SPEAKER_00: This is my first album, and I'm gonna keep I got instrumental albums out, but I'm gonna keep doing it, and I and that's why I'm excited about this first one.
29:51
SPEAKER_01: I can't wait for the rest of the world to hear it.
29:54
SPEAKER_01: Trust man, I I've kept it to myself, but whenever it drops, I won't be keeping it to myself anymore.
30:00
SPEAKER_01: And those of you that are listening to this podcast, there are three singles from God Complex available on all the streaming platforms right now.
30:09
SPEAKER_01: Uh, Soul Supreme, Rocksteady, and Limitless featuring evidence.
30:15
SPEAKER_01: All of these songs have great features on it, excellent music.
30:19
SPEAKER_01: I cannot wait for everybody to hear the whole composite, man.
30:23
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I appreciate you, man.
30:25
SPEAKER_00: I'm excited.
30:26
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if anybody's ever told you this, but thank you for your contribution to the culture, to our listening enjoyment.
30:38
SPEAKER_01: It didn't happen overnight, so thank you for everything that you've done so far, man.
30:43
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, man.
30:44
SPEAKER_00: I appreciate you, and I plan on hopefully doing much more.
30:48
SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes.
30:49
SPEAKER_01: So, final thought right now, with everything we've been dealing with the past two and a half, three years, what is your advice for making the world a better place right now?
31:01
SPEAKER_00: I always tell people, number one, treat each other good.
31:05
SPEAKER_00: No matter what.
31:06
SPEAKER_00: Life is shorter than we think.
31:08
SPEAKER_00: So if you got problems, you got something you're dealing with, if it's something that can be solved, let it go.
31:14
SPEAKER_00: Make sure you take care of your family, get some sleep, and eat right.
31:19
SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes.
31:21
SPEAKER_01: Well, I gotta tell you, Soul Messiah, if you ever find yourself in the backwoods of Lincoln, Nebraska, there's a uh there's a seat at my table for you, my friend.
31:33
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, man.
31:34
SPEAKER_00: I appreciate that.
31:35
SPEAKER_01: Great conversation.
31:36
SPEAKER_01: I can't say enough how privileged I feel I am to have had it.
31:41
SPEAKER_01: This is honestly one of my most favorite conversations I've had thus far.
31:47
SPEAKER_01: I hope you enjoyed it.
31:49
SPEAKER_01: Make sure you give Rhyme Sayers entertainment a follow on all forms of social media.
31:55
SPEAKER_01: Make sure you follow Saul Messiah on all forms of social media.
32:00
SPEAKER_01: And while you're getting generous with those social media follows, make sure you follow Cot on the Mic on all forms of social media.
32:07
SPEAKER_01: Visit me www.codonthemic.com.
32:11
SPEAKER_01: Also, I appreciate those five-star reviews on the Apple Podcast app.
32:17
SPEAKER_01: Give me a rating on Spotify as well.
32:21
SPEAKER_01: I would really appreciate that.
32:23
SPEAKER_01: This has been Caught on the Mic with Michael Clark.
32:26
SPEAKER_01: I'm Michael Clark.
32:27
SPEAKER_01: Until next time, thank you.