Latest / The Breakfast Club / Best Of Full Interview: Marsha Ambrosius On Linking With Dr. Dre, Blending Genres, Self Care, New Album + More

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Best Of Full Interview: Marsha Ambrosius On Linking With Dr. Dre, Blending Genres, Self Care, New Album + More · The Breakfast Club

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Wake that ass up in the morning.
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: The Breakfast Club Morning. Everybody's the j Envy Jesse, Larry
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Charlamage the guy. We are the Breakfast Club. We got
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: a special guest in the building. Yes, indeed we have
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: Marsha ambrosis. Welcome back.
• 0:13
  Speaker 3: What's happening, Hi, guys Marha seven eight years.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: Eight nine years, spend a long time crazy. How are
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: you feeling?
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: I'm great?
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: How are you doing well?
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: That's black and Holly favorite.
• 0:25
  Speaker 4: I mean, you got so many classics to me late nights,
• 0:27
  Speaker 4: early morning, friends and lovers, Nyla, you've done it again
• 0:31
  Speaker 4: with Casablanco.
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: Thank you you heard it?
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely, they gave it to you.
• 0:36
  Speaker 5: I feel it's such a vulnerable feeling when people would
• 0:39
  Speaker 5: like have it now, it's like not real, but this
• 0:43
  Speaker 5: is all the dream.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: Well, congrats, thank you. So I heard it was your
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: mom that actually uh got you the link back up
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: with doctor Dreams.
• 0:52
  Speaker 5: What she did, in true scalse of fashion, the Liverpudlian
• 0:56
  Speaker 5: that she is, she hit me up and said.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: Using words we have no idea.
• 0:59
  Speaker 5: That was means you were born and raised in Liverpool, Liverpudlian. Right,
• 1:03
  Speaker 5: so I'm born Liverpool born and raised. So my mom
• 1:07
  Speaker 5: calls me.
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: Me. Mom calls me and says, oh, Marsha, have you
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: spoke to her, ma'am doctor Dre lately.
• 1:13
  Speaker 5: No if I don't even think she referred to him
• 1:14
  Speaker 5: as doctor Dre. She just said Dre like I was
• 1:17
  Speaker 5: supposed to know who that was. And I'm like, no, mam,
• 1:19
  Speaker 5: I haven't spoke to Dre lately. And I was like,
• 1:21
  Speaker 5: all right, I'll call them up. So this is around
• 1:23
  Speaker 5: about the end of twenty twenty December, so I give
• 1:28
  Speaker 5: him a call, say what's up. We reconnect. It's like,
• 1:31
  Speaker 5: I'm working on a couple of things. I'll send you
• 1:33
  Speaker 5: a couple of ideas.
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: So we started shooting ideas back and forth what would
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: then be the GTA video game.
• 1:42
  Speaker 5: But I didn't know that that's what was being worked on.
• 1:44
  Speaker 5: You know, Dres just like, let's just work. You never
• 1:46
  Speaker 5: know what's going to happen. So we're going back and
• 1:50
  Speaker 5: forth and a couple of weeks go by, and the
• 1:54
  Speaker 5: top of twenty twenty one, he had a brain aneurysm
• 1:58
  Speaker 5: and I was on the treadmill when I found that out,
• 2:00
  Speaker 5: like looked at my phone and you know, it popped up.
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: Whatever news outlet, and it was like what I just
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: talked to him like less than twenty four.
• 2:07
  Speaker 5: Hours ago and made all the calls, found out everything
• 2:11
  Speaker 5: was okay and stable. Twenty four hours after that, he
• 2:15
  Speaker 5: called me said.
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: Look, Marsh, I'm cool.
• 2:18
  Speaker 5: I'm in recovery, but I want to get back to work.
• 2:20
  Speaker 5: So I want to get you out to LA and
• 2:23
  Speaker 5: let's just figure some things out.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: So he in a hospital bed calling you like, look,
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: we got to get back to work.
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: All I know was like plugged up, plug up. On
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: the way back, I said, okay, doctor Dre, whatever you say.
• 2:33
  Speaker 5: And within a couple of weeks, I was in LA
• 2:37
  Speaker 5: most of that year twenty twenty one, and the creation
• 2:42
  Speaker 5: of Casablanco happened a couple of months after that, so
• 2:45
  Speaker 5: it was really all the GTA stuff. And then I
• 2:48
  Speaker 5: told Dre that I was overdoing this artist thing. Nyla's
• 2:53
  Speaker 5: mothers now and I just want to chill, like I
• 2:57
  Speaker 5: just want to produce and write. I've never been a
• 3:00
  Speaker 5: uh pick me. I want to be in front of
• 3:02
  Speaker 5: the cap No.
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: I was done, and he said, yeah.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: Nah, are you was done with music?
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: Really?
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 3:10
  Speaker 5: An artist like I was always going to create, but
• 3:13
  Speaker 5: the whole being the artist thing. I was like, I've
• 3:15
  Speaker 5: done everything that I could possibly do on a this
• 3:20
  Speaker 5: bucket list that I tried to create for myself, I've surpassed.
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: My bucket list was on the bucket list.
• 3:25
  Speaker 5: I'm just curious get signed, win a Grammy, lose some Grammys.
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: I don't know, like work with.
• 3:34
  Speaker 5: My favorite artists, like regular stuff, but my actual things.
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: I didn't write, Oh.
• 3:40
  Speaker 5: Work with Michael Jackson, work with Prince, work with Stevie,
• 3:44
  Speaker 5: work with Doctor Dray. I didn't write those things out loud,
• 3:47
  Speaker 5: but I wanted those things, and it achieved that. By now,
• 3:50
  Speaker 5: this is twenty four years in for me, so I'm like.
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: Ah, what's next. I'm on my Quincy Jones mission.
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I know, you write for other people and produce
• 3:59
  Speaker 4: for other people with just something about your sound and
• 4:02
  Speaker 4: your music that I don't think.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: Nobody else can deliver.
• 4:04
  Speaker 4: Your voice, your energy is something about a Marsha ambrocious
• 4:09
  Speaker 4: album that's just different than everything else that's out there.
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: This is true.
• 4:13
  Speaker 5: I'd done those I felt like I'd said all the
• 4:17
  Speaker 5: things that I wanted to say up until that point.
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: I say all that to say.
• 4:21
  Speaker 5: I told dra this over like we had a party
• 4:25
  Speaker 5: for the kids at his crib chilling, and I'm like, look, Dread,
• 4:29
  Speaker 5: I want to do this no more. I'm really into producing,
• 4:31
  Speaker 5: I'm writing. I love this team. I want to stay creative.
• 4:34
  Speaker 5: But as far as me doing it, and he was like, yeah, nah,
• 4:39
  Speaker 5: I just want to keep you creative. I just want
• 4:42
  Speaker 5: to keep you inspired. And we did one song in particular.
• 4:47
  Speaker 5: I can safely say the titles now.
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 4:49
  Speaker 5: So we started with a song that used to be
• 4:52
  Speaker 5: called Curfew because there's a line where I say, let's
• 4:55
  Speaker 5: fall in love before the street lights come on. And
• 4:58
  Speaker 5: I was like, mm before curfew. Andre was like, no
• 5:01
  Speaker 5: one likes curfew. No one likes the curfew. So it
• 5:03
  Speaker 5: was we used a sample from A Night in Tunisia. Oh,
• 5:09
  Speaker 5: and I called it too Nizzian Nights.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: Oh that's that class. It's a classic jazz record, right.
• 5:14
  Speaker 5: So it's a classic jazz record. It starts the way
• 5:17
  Speaker 5: we sampled it. We used this elaborate piano intro that
• 5:21
  Speaker 5: Bluetooth came up with, and I just started singing this intro,
• 5:25
  Speaker 5: and then that A night in too Nisia hits, and
• 5:27
  Speaker 5: then it goes to an entire nas situation and then
• 5:32
  Speaker 5: the Mary thing gets into it, and it's just all
• 5:35
  Speaker 5: of these things, and it was that magic happening in
• 5:39
  Speaker 5: the studio at.
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: That moment that we knew, you know, you know, you know.
• 5:44
  Speaker 5: It was one of those moments like sometimes in the
• 5:46
  Speaker 5: studio you're creating and it's like, oh, this is fire,
• 5:49
  Speaker 5: it's cool, We'll go home.
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: Listen to the beat.
• 5:51
  Speaker 5: Everyone in that room felt something shift, felt something new happen.
• 5:57
  Speaker 5: And to have done everything that I've already done musically,
• 6:01
  Speaker 5: everything that Dre has done, we'd never done this. So
• 6:04
  Speaker 5: we were onto something and it felt like we had
• 6:07
  Speaker 5: to see it through. So Casa Blanco became a destination.
• 6:12
  Speaker 5: Casa Blanco became the mood, the vibe, the standard, and
• 6:16
  Speaker 5: we just took.
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: It from there.
• 6:18
  Speaker 4: I like the pedestal you put hip hop on on
• 6:20
  Speaker 4: this album because just because just musically, it just shows
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: how much of a classic musical art form hip hop is.
• 6:27
  Speaker 4: The fact you can go from a that Tannisian records
• 6:29
  Speaker 4: like from the forties, right, yeah, the fact you can
• 6:31
  Speaker 4: go from nat to.
• 6:33
  Speaker 5: No to nineties, right and it blends perfectly, seamlessly. It
• 6:37
  Speaker 5: doesn't a lot of things that we did on this
• 6:40
  Speaker 5: album shouldn't make sense. Like I truly believe we will
• 6:44
  Speaker 5: be in the Guinness Book of World Records for how
• 6:47
  Speaker 5: many things we sampled and the way that we sampled them.
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: So no we tang.
• 6:53
  Speaker 5: Duke Kellington and Michael Jackson aren't supposed to fuse. But
• 6:58
  Speaker 5: on thrill Her did you know? So it's yeah, it
• 7:02
  Speaker 5: was a wild ride, but one of the most amazing
• 7:06
  Speaker 5: experiences I've ever had, not only recording it, just the
• 7:10
  Speaker 5: entire process even getting to this point, even it's taken
• 7:13
  Speaker 5: so long to get a release date for it to
• 7:15
  Speaker 5: be available, like the entire thing has just been No
• 7:19
  Speaker 5: one's done this before.
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: Now, how you talk about you talk about inspiration right
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: in Charlama, say how you inspired so many people, But
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: you must have inspired Doctor Dre as well, because we
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: haven't heard music from Doctor dra we haven't seen him
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: executive produce things. We've only heard rumors, and like it's
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: almost like a teathing.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: Ever comes out.
• 7:35
  Speaker 4: You hear Doctor drect reduced such and such album, but
• 7:38
  Speaker 4: you never hear this.
• 7:39
  Speaker 5: He recently said this in a bit in a in
• 7:42
  Speaker 5: an interview he recently did and said, and I absolutely
• 7:45
  Speaker 5: believe this.
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: He may have only released.
• 7:48
  Speaker 5: Five percent of the music that he's ever recorded. Wow,
• 7:52
  Speaker 5: and now working with him as extensively as I did
• 7:55
  Speaker 5: during the pandemic.
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: It's absolutely true. And he doesn't do it purposefully.
• 8:01
  Speaker 5: It's because he loves the creative process, and it's like, no,
• 8:05
  Speaker 5: this is just for us, this is ours.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: What did you do? How did you? How are you
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: one of a few people do you think happen?
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: I'm the only.
• 8:15
  Speaker 5: Only there's not one person before or after. I don't
• 8:20
  Speaker 5: even think this happens again that has an entire project
• 8:24
  Speaker 5: solely produced and mixed by Doctor Dre.
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: How did I do it? Not clear? But I know
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: that I did it.
• 8:35
  Speaker 5: I know that this is something that he'd never done,
• 8:38
  Speaker 5: and I feel like that that was the driving force for.
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: It to be something new.
• 8:42
  Speaker 5: He could have just did a hip hop rerecord. It
• 8:44
  Speaker 5: could have just been a soul armed. It's none of
• 8:47
  Speaker 5: those things. It's something so specific, so different, but so familiar,
• 8:54
  Speaker 5: and I feel like we were both going through a
• 8:57
  Speaker 5: similar situation. It was he had health scare, Eyda healthscare.
• 9:01
  Speaker 5: The pandemic is happening. It felt like the end of
• 9:04
  Speaker 5: the earth during that time, so it felt desperate in
• 9:08
  Speaker 5: a way. It felt if we don't do this and
• 9:11
  Speaker 5: this world ends tomorrow. What's the mark that we actually
• 9:14
  Speaker 5: leave on planet Earth? And musically, like you said, I've
• 9:18
  Speaker 5: done things that you know, a Marsha Ambrosius album is
• 9:21
  Speaker 5: this specific thing. If I had to leave it all
• 9:25
  Speaker 5: on the floor and put up my triple double and
• 9:29
  Speaker 5: win a chip, that's this album.
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: If it was all said and done.
• 9:33
  Speaker 5: Like okay, apocalyptic world that we're now in because of
• 9:38
  Speaker 5: the pandemic and many other things, it was that it
• 9:40
  Speaker 5: was out of desperation and feeling like I could have
• 9:44
  Speaker 5: lost my life.
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: Drake could have lost his. We didn't.
• 9:47
  Speaker 5: We survived these things. We're now post COVID. How do
• 9:52
  Speaker 5: we navigate through this? And what does that sound like?
• 9:56
  Speaker 5: And that's why and how this happens. So yeah, drab
• 9:59
  Speaker 5: and inspired by me, I'm inspired by him and it
• 10:04
  Speaker 5: just took off.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: That's what the title means.
• 10:07
  Speaker 5: So Casablanco I initially within a week of recording what
• 10:12
  Speaker 5: we knew this was going to be. After Tunisian Nights,
• 10:16
  Speaker 5: he threw out some album titles, a couple of which
• 10:19
  Speaker 5: were things like I sing or I Sing more of
• 10:24
  Speaker 5: a one of those, and I was like, Drake, we
• 10:28
  Speaker 5: need an actual title, like what is this? It was like,
• 10:30
  Speaker 5: I mean you sing motherfucker is it? So I'm like, no, Dray,
• 10:33
  Speaker 5: it needs to be a title, like what is this thing?
• 10:36
  Speaker 5: So I was in a spoiled circumstance where I'm driving
• 10:41
  Speaker 5: through the Beverly Hills, like just Hollywood Hills every day
• 10:46
  Speaker 5: to the destination to record, and it felt very vintage Hollywood,
• 10:53
  Speaker 5: like the lights, the lambs. It was glitz, glamour, red carpets,
• 10:57
  Speaker 5: the whole nine, and I felt under dress for the
• 11:00
  Speaker 5: studio every time I.
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: Got there based on what we were creating. And so
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: it was strings.
• 11:04
  Speaker 5: It was a symphony, but it painted these pictures and
• 11:08
  Speaker 5: I was like, no, it feels like a place. It
• 11:10
  Speaker 5: feels like Casa Blanca. And it was like, okay, Casa Blanca,
• 11:16
  Speaker 5: it said, but nah, it's that Dray shit. So it's
• 11:20
  Speaker 5: a little bit more gangster than that, like Casa Blanco,
• 11:25
  Speaker 5: like Giselda Blanco. So the fusion of that very vintage
• 11:31
  Speaker 5: jazz Hollywood feel meets hip hop is how Casa Blanco
• 11:37
  Speaker 5: became what it was.
• 11:39
  Speaker 4: What it is and all you make it feels like
• 11:42
  Speaker 4: it's soundtracks to make love to, of course, like nothing more,
• 11:46
  Speaker 4: nothing less.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: Why is that.
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: I have no clue. It's just in me. It's ridiculous,
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: Like I've had this.
• 11:53
  Speaker 5: Well, a friend of mine recently was like, how do
• 11:55
  Speaker 5: you even come up with another one this? Why not
• 12:01
  Speaker 5: even in a place of desperation, and even in a
• 12:04
  Speaker 5: place of the world was over, I still find a
• 12:08
  Speaker 5: song to make love to.
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: And it's a gift. And it's a gift.
• 12:16
  Speaker 4: One night stand music too good to have a one
• 12:19
  Speaker 4: night stand too, Like, that's not the type of music
• 12:21
  Speaker 4: you have one night stand to.
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: Well, that was the point.
• 12:24
  Speaker 5: My one night stand is now ten years long, okay,
• 12:28
  Speaker 5: And I'm saying so I definitely lent from other experiences
• 12:35
  Speaker 5: and wild drunk nights over the course of you know,
• 12:39
  Speaker 5: Grammy open bar. You know, it gets very ridiculous. So yeah,
• 12:45
  Speaker 5: those those one nights, they're a part of that song too.
• 12:50
  Speaker 5: But ultimately it's that one night that could be your forever.
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: Have a bunch of people that'll be like, you shouldn't
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: have one night stand?
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: Why not?
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: Exactly?
• 12:59
  Speaker 5: I don't know where it's gonna go. Like if you don't,
• 13:01
  Speaker 5: everything is a one night stand if you think about it.
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: So we've all done it.
• 13:05
  Speaker 5: It's whether or not it lasted or it didn't, but
• 13:07
  Speaker 5: you shouldn't be Oh, I'd never do that if I
• 13:11
  Speaker 5: didn't do it ten years later in a seven year old,
• 13:15
  Speaker 5: maybe that doesn't happen if I don't just you know
• 13:17
  Speaker 5: what I mean, Like if I don't say.
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: Hey, I gotta I want to ask. So I want
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: to go back to what you said. You said the
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: health scare in your child. How did that change your life?
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: With the healthcare in your child? Because I guess if
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: the baby was six seven years old, happened right before COVID,
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: so you pretty much raised the baby during COVID.
• 13:33
  Speaker 5: It's just COVID babies are different. It's ridiculous, Like, but
• 13:39
  Speaker 5: for me, how it all changed.
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: It changed all of us, you know. So it was.
• 13:49
  Speaker 5: Being a bit more sensitive, being a bit more open,
• 13:52
  Speaker 5: and I feel like.
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: All of our issues, all of our.
• 13:59
  Speaker 5: Mental health, health, everything was on the table because we
• 14:03
  Speaker 5: could all see each other. Now we had way too
• 14:05
  Speaker 5: much time to spend with ourselves. So you were like, oh,
• 14:08
  Speaker 5: you're I see you and we're going through exactly the
• 14:11
  Speaker 5: same thing. So there was much more, well for me anyway,
• 14:15
  Speaker 5: much more dialogue. Even though suicide skyrocketed, like all of
• 14:20
  Speaker 5: these things, all of these numbers, all of these things
• 14:23
  Speaker 5: are happening, and I have my baby, I have my husband,
• 14:28
  Speaker 5: I have my own bubble that allowed me to feel
• 14:33
  Speaker 5: safe amidst the chaos like it was. It still is chaotic,
• 14:38
  Speaker 5: but that was my peace and me being able to
• 14:43
  Speaker 5: be grounded, so that that definitely helped. By at the
• 14:47
  Speaker 5: same time, being in a dark place. I don't think
• 14:51
  Speaker 5: there's anything that could bring you out of that, and
• 14:53
  Speaker 5: that was terrifying during the pandemic. And I'm pretty sure
• 14:57
  Speaker 5: for anybody where you're like, not even your kid could
• 15:00
  Speaker 5: bring you. No my mother, my father, my brother, like
• 15:04
  Speaker 5: close friends could. This is what Casablanco ended up being.
• 15:11
  Speaker 5: Casablanco when the timing of it all was I could
• 15:16
  Speaker 5: see the light at the end of the tunnel. Now
• 15:18
  Speaker 5: I was over the other side of that dark place.
• 15:22
  Speaker 5: And even with this tentative, oh there's going to be
• 15:26
  Speaker 5: a release date or we had think about the samples
• 15:28
  Speaker 5: on this album, we literally took over a year to
• 15:31
  Speaker 5: clear the samples, and I didn't mind that because I
• 15:34
  Speaker 5: felt like I still needed time to heal. So waiting
• 15:39
  Speaker 5: for this release date was almost like when I say
• 15:43
  Speaker 5: a death date. It was Okay, that's the end of
• 15:46
  Speaker 5: that era. So whenever it was happening, it was like, Okay,
• 15:50
  Speaker 5: now it's June twenty eighth. I was like, that's the
• 15:52
  Speaker 5: end of all this madness that I had to get
• 15:55
  Speaker 5: through to get to it. So it was like, if
• 15:58
  Speaker 5: I can survive that long, I made it. So what,
• 16:02
  Speaker 5: We've got a couple of couple of days to go
• 16:04
  Speaker 5: until we get there. I didn't think I'd see this
• 16:07
  Speaker 5: moment at one point. So to get here and to
• 16:11
  Speaker 5: be happy and to be in a space that I'm in,
• 16:13
  Speaker 5: it's just wow.
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: Wow.
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: Is that where the song I guess self care on
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: right might come.
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: But even that is a song to make.
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: Love to yea a form of self care.
• 16:25
  Speaker 5: Right, it's self care. It's being in tune to oneself.
• 16:29
  Speaker 5: Put the do the math one plus one is there?
• 16:32
  Speaker 5: Do you? So? Yeah, self care And no matter who's
• 16:37
  Speaker 5: wrong or who was right, it was just don't leave
• 16:41
  Speaker 5: me and don't leave that feeling.
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: And once the.
• 16:45
  Speaker 5: Music started, it was all of those emotions and even
• 16:49
  Speaker 5: in that, like you said, it all came back down
• 16:51
  Speaker 5: to in true Marsha ambrosiest fashion right in that love song. Still,
• 16:59
  Speaker 5: so I'm just glad to be able to do that.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: What's the wrong right part of it? Though? Like what
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: let mean, who's wrong self care? Wrong right with?
• 17:06
  Speaker 5: So initially those were two separate songs, and the self
• 17:11
  Speaker 5: care was I needed to do me figuratively literally, so
• 17:18
  Speaker 5: by the time we got too wrong right, it's me
• 17:21
  Speaker 5: inviting that person then into my space and it's given
• 17:25
  Speaker 5: me good like you so hood like please don't go.
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: It's that.
• 17:32
  Speaker 5: You're so wrong right now for even trying to let
• 17:36
  Speaker 5: me let my guard down. Because I was so cool
• 17:38
  Speaker 5: with just letting me do me and then here comes
• 17:44
  Speaker 5: this m this ugh, this fine dark chocolate swept me
• 17:52
  Speaker 5: off my feet and let me put my guard down,
• 17:56
  Speaker 5: and I'm a leo and that's hard for me to do.
• 17:59
  Speaker 5: So when it has happens, it's both terrifying.
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: But the the fear.
• 18:04
  Speaker 5: And the lioness comes out in aggression and anger and
• 18:08
  Speaker 5: a lot of sexual appetite that is or you know
• 18:15
  Speaker 5: anyone that knows that knows, And yeah, that was You're
• 18:19
  Speaker 5: so wrong right now.
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: What did y'all meet? Where did you meet your husband
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: on tour?
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: On tour?
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: How did that go down? Because when you're talking about him,
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: you just you started mouse started salamating and you just
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: start getting together.
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: Turn it in beyond.
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: Because you say, I'm thinking about the song wrong, right,
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: and I'm like.
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: Hey, and be thinking about your man. Turned.
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: I'm just saying. I'm just saying she was just so excited.
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: I'm just asking that's where the music love is love.
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: It got me thinking about my wife. All right, I'm sorry, get.
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: It, it's fine.
• 18:52
  Speaker 5: No. We met on on tour ten years ago and
• 18:58
  Speaker 5: I saw him.
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: It's ten years later. I said, you know, when you.
• 19:05
  Speaker 5: Know, you know, and you keep like all the movies
• 19:07
  Speaker 5: that you see that's corny shit, like never happy, Yes,
• 19:10
  Speaker 5: it did.
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: It was.
• 19:12
  Speaker 5: I seen him and he had a red fit on
• 19:16
  Speaker 5: and I was like, who is that? And I approached
• 19:22
  Speaker 5: him like yo, what's up? And we got to talking
• 19:25
  Speaker 5: and we haven't stopped talking since.
• 19:27
  Speaker 4: You need to write a book called one Nights Thing,
• 19:29
  Speaker 4: because there's so many people who think you got to
• 19:31
  Speaker 4: make the man wait thirty days or sixty days or
• 19:35
  Speaker 4: ninety days.
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: There's so many formulas to it. MAFE.
• 19:39
  Speaker 5: You don't just follow your intuition because it all depends
• 19:42
  Speaker 5: on what type of person you are, Like there are
• 19:45
  Speaker 5: people that are I've never been I'm not approaching unless
• 19:49
  Speaker 5: I know it's for sure.
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: I don't know.
• 19:52
  Speaker 5: There's many formulas to it. So even if I did
• 19:54
  Speaker 5: write a book, I'm going with what worked for me.
• 19:58
  Speaker 5: I'm not giving you the manual to how this works out, like, ooh,
• 20:02
  Speaker 5: you too can find your ten years later, you know
• 20:05
  Speaker 5: what I mean. Like, I'm not giving it as game
• 20:08
  Speaker 5: like that.
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: I'm saying, if you.
• 20:11
  Speaker 5: Saw what it was that you wanted and you didn't
• 20:13
  Speaker 5: make your move, that's on you, because then you will
• 20:15
  Speaker 5: sit there and ponder and be like, well, what if
• 20:19
  Speaker 5: I just said something?
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: But if I just approached. But by the.
• 20:23
  Speaker 5: Time that I did, and it was what it was,
• 20:26
  Speaker 5: and I knew that it was more than just that
• 20:29
  Speaker 5: one night in Philadelphia, that one night in Chicago, that
• 20:34
  Speaker 5: one night in Virginia, that one night in La Now
• 20:37
  Speaker 5: it's many nights. Now it's all you want to move in? Sure,
• 20:42
  Speaker 5: moved in together. And then it's oh, you want to
• 20:44
  Speaker 5: go back to the UK for Christmas with me, meet
• 20:46
  Speaker 5: my whole family.
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: Sure? And then by April we were pregnant. Wow, that serious.
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: It counts ridiculous when I say no.
• 20:55
  Speaker 5: When I say ridiculous, it's like, that's the timeline though,
• 20:59
  Speaker 5: you know, and we were both very sure.
• 21:03
  Speaker 4: I can't remember what song it is. Maybe it was greedy,
• 21:06
  Speaker 4: what's the what song? Maybe I'm tripping it sound you
• 21:08
  Speaker 4: was talking about having a threesome.
• 21:09
  Speaker 5: Oh, thrill Her. That was a dream not really came true,
• 21:14
  Speaker 5: but a fantasy. So thrill Her was a drunken high night.
• 21:20
  Speaker 5: I want to say I took that story from what
• 21:24
  Speaker 5: was it?
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: Atlanta?
• 21:26
  Speaker 5: No, this one might have been at LA. It was
• 21:28
  Speaker 5: definitely a Grammy week and I painted the picture. He
• 21:32
  Speaker 5: came in drunk as hell, give some head. Then a
• 21:36
  Speaker 5: knock at the door and it's another chick. I'm like,
• 21:39
  Speaker 5: who the is this? And I'm like, oh, it's about
• 21:44
  Speaker 5: to go down. Oh it might have been a Philly
• 21:46
  Speaker 5: story too.
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: There's like a lot of stories involved.
• 21:51
  Speaker 5: So yeah, when people hear this album, they can claim
• 21:53
  Speaker 5: them yeah that was me, and then.
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: Uh, it's just great. I love that you. Yeah, it's
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: a it was a wild night, but it was a dream.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: Who knows, Okay, I don't know. It sounded real to
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: me either.
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: Sounded real to me too.
• 22:15
  Speaker 4: And the album is very like nineteen ninety now, like
• 22:18
  Speaker 4: how do you have such a nostalgic feeling, but feeling
• 22:20
  Speaker 4: but keep it fresh, because.
• 22:23
  Speaker 5: That's what I mean. Any hip hop conoissour or R
• 22:28
  Speaker 5: and B head nineties is just it's unmatched. It was
• 22:33
  Speaker 5: a time if it weren't outside, just say that. And
• 22:36
  Speaker 5: I feel like with this album to have grasped what
• 22:42
  Speaker 5: the NASAs of the world were doing then the Mary's
• 22:45
  Speaker 5: of the world were doing then, but making it now.
• 22:48
  Speaker 5: It's because that was timeless and that's I think we're
• 22:53
  Speaker 5: all the same age, like our generation of timeless like,
• 22:56
  Speaker 5: whereas our parents it's Temptations, it's you know, earth wind Vice. Okay,
• 23:01
  Speaker 5: even later than that, but it was timeless music. So
• 23:06
  Speaker 5: it survives now and sounds fresh now because it was
• 23:08
  Speaker 5: that good then. So I couldn't integrate, I want to say,
• 23:12
  Speaker 5: couldn't didn't really want to integrate what we feel like
• 23:16
  Speaker 5: hip hop is now or R and B is now.
• 23:18
  Speaker 5: I can only lem from what I really know and
• 23:21
  Speaker 5: me creating in my creative process has always come from
• 23:25
  Speaker 5: the Jodasy era.
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: It stops and starts there.
• 23:29
  Speaker 5: It's Jodasy, that's my R and B like ultimately, so
• 23:34
  Speaker 5: my hip hop is nas it's Jay So it's all
• 23:38
  Speaker 5: of those things in one album. That make it fresh
• 23:42
  Speaker 5: because it was good then, so it's gonna be good now.
• 23:45
  Speaker 5: Like singing what's a classic to you give any class? Right,
• 23:51
  Speaker 5: so you sing that now it's then, but it's absolutely
• 23:56
  Speaker 5: now because it was that good then. And I feel
• 23:58
  Speaker 5: like I've always, when I say, attempted to write timeless
• 24:04
  Speaker 5: music for me to sing say yes or Butterflies. Now
• 24:07
  Speaker 5: I can, but that is twenty four years ago for
• 24:10
  Speaker 5: me in my real time times four years later, absolutely timeless.
• 24:14
  Speaker 5: So to create a Casa blanco and know that twenty
• 24:18
  Speaker 5: four years later that can still live, that's the goal.
• 24:22
  Speaker 3: It's like, what is your tomorrow?
• 24:24
  Speaker 5: And musically I've been doing things that could live for
• 24:28
  Speaker 5: tomorrow whenever that future is.
• 24:30
  Speaker 4: I just love the fact that a nas illmatic can
• 24:33
  Speaker 4: inspire something like this because when I hit it out,
• 24:36
  Speaker 4: I hear a lot of I hear a lot of illmatic.
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and that was unintentional.
• 24:41
  Speaker 5: I guess with that first Tunisian Nights, it's trying to
• 24:45
  Speaker 5: outdo how we implemented unintentionally nas in there. And it
• 24:51
  Speaker 5: was all of these things because hip hop back then
• 24:53
  Speaker 5: was still lending from classic jazz records, so it only
• 24:57
  Speaker 5: made sense that we not only borrowed from what the
• 25:01
  Speaker 5: nineties did with those samples, but reinventing and elevating them
• 25:06
  Speaker 5: in the only way that a doctor Dre can And
• 25:11
  Speaker 5: did you know?
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: So I was gonna ask, you know, you talk about
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: doctor Dre only releasing five percent of the music that
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: he actually made. How much music did y'all make and had?
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: What was the process of trickling it down from the
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: amount of songs you made to this eleven?
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: You know what's crazy?
• 25:30
  Speaker 5: We made about twelve or thirteen songs really and knew
• 25:34
  Speaker 5: when it was time to start. We knew it when
• 25:36
  Speaker 5: it was completed. And the only reason why the other
• 25:39
  Speaker 5: two didn't make it is because one of them it
• 25:43
  Speaker 5: made the album play a little longer than we felt
• 25:46
  Speaker 5: comfortable with and it matched another song on there like evenly,
• 25:50
  Speaker 5: like if you had to get rid of one of
• 25:51
  Speaker 5: the other definitely that one though, and one of them
• 25:55
  Speaker 5: we couldn't clear, like get nah.
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: One of them.
• 25:59
  Speaker 5: So I was like, okay, we can't clear that one.
• 26:03
  Speaker 5: We have an album and Dre in the creative process
• 26:06
  Speaker 5: has like a whiteboard on the wall, We'll write the
• 26:09
  Speaker 5: titles for each song.
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: We just looked at it and was like that's it.
• 26:14
  Speaker 3: That's it. We're done.
• 26:16
  Speaker 5: So between April, end of April twenty twenty one and
• 26:21
  Speaker 5: end of May, we were completely done with recorded and vocally.
• 26:25
  Speaker 5: I recorded everything, written everything, and we took a couple
• 26:30
  Speaker 5: of weeks off and reconvened and dre said twenty seven
• 26:35
  Speaker 5: piece orchestra.
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: So we were at Gower Studios.
• 26:39
  Speaker 5: Eric Gorefain did the string arrangements and we were in
• 26:43
  Speaker 5: with the orchestra listening to them go crazy on this
• 26:49
  Speaker 5: album that we created, which was already doing what it
• 26:52
  Speaker 5: was going to do. This symphony just took it to
• 26:57
  Speaker 5: another place, like just didn't even make any sense. So
• 27:02
  Speaker 5: by the time that's happened, it's just timeless in that way.
• 27:09
  Speaker 4: How does you know, really thinking about your mortality and
• 27:12
  Speaker 4: like you know, maybe I guess, being face to face
• 27:15
  Speaker 4: with definite way, how did that change just everything about you.
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: As an artist, as a person.
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: I don't know if you can see it.
• 27:24
  Speaker 5: I'm so happy and chill, like nothing can really like
• 27:28
  Speaker 5: phase me. And if it's anything that does kind of
• 27:33
  Speaker 5: interfere with my peace.
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: It's whereas I would get upset.
• 27:38
  Speaker 5: Or combative or defensive about things in the past, it's Okay,
• 27:45
  Speaker 5: that's how you feel cool, Like there's so many more
• 27:49
  Speaker 5: important things than being mad about anything or holding onto
• 27:54
  Speaker 5: things unnecessarily, like that brush with what you think death
• 28:02
  Speaker 5: looks like, and that flash across your eyes of like
• 28:06
  Speaker 5: like that was it. The things you think were important
• 28:12
  Speaker 5: never were, And by the time you get your life back,
• 28:17
  Speaker 5: it still feels.
• 28:18
  Speaker 3: Like that, like it's not important.
• 28:22
  Speaker 5: Importance, Like prioritizing the importance of things in your life changes,
• 28:30
  Speaker 5: like it's not important.
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: But you know, with you taking so much time off,
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: it's part of the reason, Like I just don't want
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: to deal with the noise, with the people talking, with
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: the social media, with the conversations. It's just you have
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: a clear mind when you don't deal with things and people.
• 28:47
  Speaker 3: Not necessarily that. I love people. I love the Internet.
• 28:51
  Speaker 3: It's very entertaining space.
• 28:53
  Speaker 5: So it was never that it was the obligatory having
• 28:59
  Speaker 5: to do it, the whole artist thing. It's the interviews, right,
• 29:07
  Speaker 5: it's the no Now I have an itinerary.
• 29:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah, let's just live with chill and maybe.
• 29:14
  Speaker 5: Do stuff for fun and live how the other side
• 29:18
  Speaker 5: lives or whatever you think.
• 29:20
  Speaker 3: That looks like it was always that, But as far
• 29:23
  Speaker 3: as noise, I think I've I forced myself.
• 29:28
  Speaker 5: To engage to get perspective on where people are actually
• 29:32
  Speaker 5: at in their lives, to understand me more, if that
• 29:37
  Speaker 5: makes any sense, because I couldn't. I think during the
• 29:40
  Speaker 5: pandemic we all internalized a little bit more and.
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: Understood ourselves a bit more.
• 29:46
  Speaker 5: But I think not enough people were sharing that for
• 29:50
  Speaker 5: the fear of being looked at crazy, because you have
• 29:52
  Speaker 5: more time to think about who you were, why you
• 29:55
  Speaker 5: were and if all I had to end tomorrow, what
• 29:59
  Speaker 5: what did you do? You were here, so all of
• 30:01
  Speaker 5: these things are happening, and I was okay with noise.
• 30:08
  Speaker 5: I feel like I was more terrified of the silence.
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: We say okay with the noise, meaning you didn't mind
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: people discussing and talking and oh not like, but you
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: feel like you're still there.
• 30:22
  Speaker 5: Yeah, Like if I if I wasn't there, I don't know.
• 30:27
  Speaker 5: I want to say, it doesn't matter. I think I
• 30:29
  Speaker 5: was engaging in conversations and catching up with at such
• 30:34
  Speaker 5: and such on a Twitter or at blah blah blah,
• 30:37
  Speaker 5: because it was oh, we're still here, We're still able
• 30:39
  Speaker 5: to communicate you okay, but it was negative or positive.
• 30:43
  Speaker 3: It was like you've made time.
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: You're talking about it regardless.
• 30:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so it was like you've made time.
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: It's the fear of not talking about you.
• 30:51
  Speaker 3: But yeah, I didn't mind that. It was life.
• 30:54
  Speaker 5: I was comfortable with again and all of it in
• 30:58
  Speaker 5: all of its noise. So I think for anyone during
• 31:02
  Speaker 5: the pandemic, that silence, it was like the zombie apocalypse, like,
• 31:08
  Speaker 5: is anyone here? Am I crazy by myself? We're all
• 31:11
  Speaker 5: gonna die?
• 31:12
  Speaker 3: What's happened? Like? It was the silence, especially if.
• 31:16
  Speaker 4: You've never if you've never done any internal work, you
• 31:19
  Speaker 4: never did no therapy, if you never did no meditation,
• 31:21
  Speaker 4: if you never have it on no healing journey, and
• 31:23
  Speaker 4: that was your first time having to deal with yourself.
• 31:26
  Speaker 5: That's noisier than anything. You and your thoughts by yourself,
• 31:34
  Speaker 5: screaming at times, and then it was quiet, but then
• 31:38
  Speaker 5: it was peaceful, and then it was okay, let me breathe,
• 31:42
  Speaker 5: and everyone okay, everyone good, you know, And it felt like.
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: That you learn new about yourself during that time.
• 31:52
  Speaker 3: I have way more patience than I thought.
• 31:56
  Speaker 5: I'm terrible, like terrible, like Uber eats, where you at
• 32:01
  Speaker 5: with my food delivery?
• 32:03
  Speaker 3: You said you made a left turn? What do you
• 32:05
  Speaker 3: mean you're still waiting. What do you mean you're.
• 32:08
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm terrible. I don't like waiting. I got no
• 32:11
  Speaker 5: patience and I hate waiting.
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: So get your.
• 32:16
  Speaker 3: Favorite line.
• 32:18
  Speaker 5: Yeah, patience didn't have any Now I have all of
• 32:23
  Speaker 5: it because it's oh, it's not happening right now?
• 32:28
  Speaker 3: Cool before What do you mean why went.
• 32:33
  Speaker 5: I don't even care when they don't care. It's I
• 32:35
  Speaker 5: can't do anything about time, and it's I thought I
• 32:42
  Speaker 5: had time at one point and when I realized I
• 32:44
  Speaker 5: had none. Oh, Now I'm patient with everything because now
• 32:49
  Speaker 5: I feel like I've held onto more time than I
• 32:52
  Speaker 5: could have had.
• 32:53
  Speaker 3: So that's different.
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: I was watching the R and B Money podcast shot
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: the tank end you comment. I guess you were joking.
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: I don't know if you were joking or not talking
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: about you thought Stevie Wonder really can see now, and
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: people took it as they were mad at you for
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: a little bit mad at me.
• 33:08
  Speaker 5: How I don't know, because if you're a Stevie Wonder fan,
• 33:14
  Speaker 5: what I said was he can see if you listen
• 33:20
  Speaker 5: to the music.
• 33:21
  Speaker 3: To be one of the.
• 33:24
  Speaker 5: Most prolific, descriptive songwriters of our time, how can he not?
• 33:31
  Speaker 3: And maybe not in the way that you believe that
• 33:33
  Speaker 3: that is.
• 33:35
  Speaker 5: But his pen game makes you visualize us with actual sight,
• 33:42
  Speaker 5: visualize everything. He was saying, that's a gift.
• 33:48
  Speaker 3: That's what I said.
• 33:50
  Speaker 5: Yes, he can see because there's no way. He says,
• 33:53
  Speaker 5: I never dreamed you'd leave in summer, and I literally
• 33:56
  Speaker 5: see the summer day he's referring to.
• 33:59
  Speaker 3: That's not fair. Mary wants to be a superwoman, and
• 34:04
  Speaker 3: I know who Mary looks like.
• 34:05
  Speaker 5: I've already made that character. The song plays a nice
• 34:09
  Speaker 5: see it Stevie more than any song where I are,
• 34:14
  Speaker 5: I believe on planet Earth has made me see a
• 34:16
  Speaker 5: song the way Stevie does.
• 34:18
  Speaker 3: That's what I said. I said, what I like, I said,
• 34:22
  Speaker 3: That's why.
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: I said, I get what you're saying. He might be blind,
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: but he got vision.
• 34:25
  Speaker 3: It's a difference, speaking of vision. To use that song
• 34:30
  Speaker 3: on Casta Blanco. I remember Dre, actually he might.
• 34:36
  Speaker 5: Dre was nervous about using the Stevie record or like
• 34:39
  Speaker 5: asking him, like, yo, listen Stevie and see what he thinks.
• 34:42
  Speaker 5: I'm like, okay, crazy, but yeah, we got to use
• 34:46
  Speaker 5: visions on Casa Blanco and with Stevie's blessing and bucket list,
• 34:54
  Speaker 5: Like wow, this fake bucket lists. I keep making up,
• 34:58
  Speaker 5: like I'll check that one off.
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: You know, did he want to hear it?
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: Or oh yeah, yeah hear it?
• 35:03
  Speaker 3: So I mean we had to go through that process.
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: But did he love it? Did he give any creative input?
• 35:08
  Speaker 5: We had creative input because I did curse in that
• 35:12
  Speaker 5: song at some point in the bridge. But I when
• 35:16
  Speaker 5: I curse in music, it's for emphasism.
• 35:20
  Speaker 3: So I think with this one, I've taken it too far.
• 35:24
  Speaker 5: Steve was like now, now, now, and he might have
• 35:27
  Speaker 5: cursed during and like not like he might have cursed
• 35:31
  Speaker 5: trying to tell us not to curse.
• 35:33
  Speaker 3: But it was necessary. I took it out. It makes sense.
• 35:37
  Speaker 3: I didn't have to.
• 35:39
  Speaker 5: I wanted to in that emotional moment though, and did
• 35:43
  Speaker 5: and maybe live Steve you.
• 35:45
  Speaker 3: With it.
• 35:47
  Speaker 5: Still sing that same line that I did. But yeah,
• 35:51
  Speaker 5: it was a it was a wonderful experience.
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: Did Stevie FaceTime zoom?
• 35:57
  Speaker 5: I want to say it was a phone call that
• 35:59
  Speaker 5: I and dre It spoke to him also, So yeah,
• 36:04
  Speaker 5: how involved is d We're just gonna let that one
• 36:07
  Speaker 5: do this cool?
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: You call it as long as you caught him. Absolutely,
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: you caught it smooth. I love it, FaceTime, I love it.
• 36:20
  Speaker 4: How involved is Dre as far as creative direction and
• 36:23
  Speaker 4: like just taking your input?
• 36:25
  Speaker 3: Oh for this.
• 36:26
  Speaker 5: This was a complete hand in hand fifty to fifty
• 36:30
  Speaker 5: battle of the creative minds. And his respect for me,
• 36:35
  Speaker 5: My respect for him allowed us to really do this.
• 36:41
  Speaker 3: And he's a genius. I'm me and he's he said
• 36:53
  Speaker 3: that I was a genius.
• 36:55
  Speaker 5: You are to me, which is it's crazy to hear
• 36:59
  Speaker 5: it from from who I'm looking at, a genius and
• 37:04
  Speaker 5: he's looking like it's like the Spider Man me. We're
• 37:06
  Speaker 5: all doing this in the studio and he's like, yeah,
• 37:10
  Speaker 5: I'm Dre and I do this thing. But I ain't
• 37:13
  Speaker 5: tell Michael Jackson what to do, so that you're absolutely right,
• 37:17
  Speaker 5: I did that one. So there was just a respect
• 37:21
  Speaker 5: level there and he let me push boundaries in a
• 37:27
  Speaker 5: way that I'd never done one this Dray's budget and
• 37:31
  Speaker 5: he's literally saying, no limits. You can do whatever you want.
• 37:35
  Speaker 5: If you had to make the perfect song and implement
• 37:38
  Speaker 5: all of these things, what is that just do it.
• 37:42
  Speaker 3: I didn't think that.
• 37:45
  Speaker 5: Me having Wu Tang, Duke Kellington and Michael Jackson on
• 37:49
  Speaker 5: one song was possible until we did it. I didn't
• 37:53
  Speaker 5: know a Patrece Russian and the Mary j and Mary
• 37:56
  Speaker 5: Jane girls one song could happen, but it did. All
• 38:00
  Speaker 5: of these things were happening because Dre said no limits
• 38:10
  Speaker 5: and it's unreal, for real, for real, I if I'm honest,
• 38:21
  Speaker 5: I've never done anything like this, like I've made music.
• 38:25
  Speaker 3: Before, but with the creative freedom.
• 38:29
  Speaker 5: And no limits on it allowed me to do things
• 38:34
  Speaker 5: that I'd never done ever and may never will. Might
• 38:41
  Speaker 5: really truly be the one of one, and I'll be
• 38:44
  Speaker 5: okay with that.
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: Dannswer you don't think you'd put out another album as
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: it is.
• 38:48
  Speaker 3: It's not even another album, it's not another this.
• 38:52
  Speaker 5: I'll create music for the rest of my life, whatever
• 38:56
  Speaker 5: that sounds like, whatever that looks like. But this, in
• 39:00
  Speaker 5: its moment, it's like, we can't recreate the timing of
• 39:08
  Speaker 5: when these health scares happened, the desperation of what's happening
• 39:12
  Speaker 5: with Planet Earth, the uncertainty of life, and why we
• 39:16
  Speaker 5: made this album.
• 39:18
  Speaker 3: You know, we can only do celebritory like.
• 39:24
  Speaker 5: Happy to Be a live albums after this, you know,
• 39:27
  Speaker 5: everything else is kind of just a But this album
• 39:32
  Speaker 5: was made because we didn't think we'd ever get the
• 39:34
  Speaker 5: chance to make one again.
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: How was it when you played the record for method
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: Man during the Roots Picnic?
• 39:43
  Speaker 5: Most of my best friends standing behind me waiting to
• 39:47
  Speaker 5: just hold him, like give me a mother man, please,
• 39:52
  Speaker 5: because you listen to I mean, he's a dream.
• 39:56
  Speaker 3: I can still say that.
• 39:57
  Speaker 5: I know I'm married, my husband knows what it is
• 40:00
  Speaker 5: the man, so.
• 40:01
  Speaker 3: To play him.
• 40:04
  Speaker 5: I remember when I was writing that moment in the
• 40:08
  Speaker 5: song and the go outside and the rain sample is happening,
• 40:12
  Speaker 5: and I knew the beat was about to come in,
• 40:14
  Speaker 5: and I'm like, you got that, emmy T H O
• 40:18
  Speaker 5: D man, do that thing you do those hands, kiss
• 40:23
  Speaker 5: on this and make it dance, Take it baby, giving
• 40:27
  Speaker 5: you permission with persistence.
• 40:29
  Speaker 3: Oh I l O V E I T And I.
• 40:33
  Speaker 5: Can't get enough of this ocean flow below my legs,
• 40:38
  Speaker 5: swim in it, go diving inside inside my love babe,
• 40:43
  Speaker 5: love you babe.
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: That's what right, ain't it?
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 40:50
  Speaker 5: So you film me like so to play it for him.
• 41:02
  Speaker 5: Fantasy bucket list. You can't make up like this method Man,
• 41:08
  Speaker 5: play wet the method Man, and just to see him
• 41:13
  Speaker 5: blush when the moment came in.
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: And him do a little two step.
• 41:17
  Speaker 5: Right, two step to that give me all the audibles, said,
• 41:22
  Speaker 5: he's going to be the leading man in the video,
• 41:25
  Speaker 5: and it's you know, the Minie Riperton inside me at
• 41:30
  Speaker 5: the end, and it's just all the things. It was
• 41:33
  Speaker 5: a fantasy. All of this feels very surreal, like it's happening,
• 41:39
  Speaker 5: but it's happening in real time. Like I get to go, hey, Stevie,
• 41:43
  Speaker 5: listen to what we did with your Hey, George Benson.
• 41:46
  Speaker 5: Here's Patrice Russian he is married, here's Nah's here's plain it.
• 41:51
  Speaker 5: Just yeah, so Meth, thank you, Meth, my leading man.
• 41:57
  Speaker 4: I've got a couple more questions. You said you didn't
• 42:00
  Speaker 4: tell Michael jacks what to do. Dre didn't tell Michael
• 42:02
  Speaker 4: Jackson what to do.
• 42:03
  Speaker 3: Drey didn't.
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: Okay, okay.
• 42:05
  Speaker 5: So he's saying, basically his nod to me was I'm
• 42:09
  Speaker 5: Dre and I've made several other goats, but you know
• 42:13
  Speaker 5: I didn't tell Michael Jackson what to do.
• 42:15
  Speaker 3: That was you.
• 42:16
  Speaker 5: So it's I'm coming to the room with something that
• 42:20
  Speaker 5: he's never done. Wow, So don't devalue what it is
• 42:23
  Speaker 5: with you in the room. And I get that, and
• 42:27
  Speaker 5: you have to understand the amount of people that have
• 42:29
  Speaker 5: probably crossed parts and been in the studio with Dre
• 42:32
  Speaker 5: and possibly gotten to a stage where they thought maybe
• 42:36
  Speaker 5: a project is happening. This part has barely happened. For
• 42:40
  Speaker 5: like I said, that five percent is just the creating
• 42:43
  Speaker 5: of the music. The actual artists that get to be
• 42:46
  Speaker 5: at this part only happen if you're the five people
• 42:51
  Speaker 5: that you can count six or seven maybe, but don't happen.
• 42:55
  Speaker 3: So it was it was that it's I'm one of
• 43:01
  Speaker 3: MJ Cultable what yes.
• 43:05
  Speaker 5: And wanted to be like I think that was the
• 43:09
  Speaker 5: I had a spoiled experience. I was just getting to
• 43:11
  Speaker 5: you know, Atlanta, then get to Philly, get signed by
• 43:14
  Speaker 5: the end of that year. Now I'm in the studio
• 43:16
  Speaker 5: within less than a year of the time it took
• 43:19
  Speaker 5: me to get to the States.
• 43:21
  Speaker 3: Then worked with Michael Jackson because he's heard this demo.
• 43:24
  Speaker 5: And we were here in New York Hit Factory and
• 43:30
  Speaker 5: he was there to out. Michael Jackson was there in
• 43:33
  Speaker 5: the studio two hours before call time, just warming up
• 43:37
  Speaker 5: his vocal. He was that guy like he was great
• 43:40
  Speaker 5: because he worked like unlike any other. And I'll never
• 43:50
  Speaker 5: forget the first moment where he goes in the booth
• 43:54
  Speaker 5: like that glass behind there, and it was I'm at
• 43:57
  Speaker 5: the mixing board and Bruce swedeon or so too.
• 44:01
  Speaker 3: Andre Harris is at the board.
• 44:03
  Speaker 5: I have the talk back button, and the first chord
• 44:07
  Speaker 5: happens and Mike just whispers like butterfly, and I just
• 44:11
  Speaker 5: started crying Wow, immediately, just couldn't even hold it back.
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: Was just.
• 44:16
  Speaker 5: I'm in the studio, I'm twenty two, twenty three at
• 44:19
  Speaker 5: that time, like those were my younger years, my formative years,
• 44:23
  Speaker 5: and I'm doing this at that age.
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 44:26
  Speaker 5: And then it was taught back one more time, might
• 44:28
  Speaker 5: get your timing right, one more time, might make sure you,
• 44:31
  Speaker 5: like vocally produce that entire song. But when I press
• 44:35
  Speaker 5: play is only when I can hear the reality of
• 44:39
  Speaker 5: that because it's steamless.
• 44:40
  Speaker 3: There's nothing wrong with that song.
• 44:42
  Speaker 5: And he allowed me, at my very young, naive, very
• 44:49
  Speaker 5: green to everything industry, not only do me retain all
• 44:55
  Speaker 5: my publishing and flourish in that studio as a vocally,
• 45:02
  Speaker 5: as a vocal producer, producer and writer for that record, and.
• 45:07
  Speaker 3: Mike was just the king for all reasons.
• 45:13
  Speaker 2: Can you take us back? How did he hear butterflies.
• 45:14
  Speaker 2: How did he hit a reference track? I said, I
• 45:16
  Speaker 2: wanted that well.
• 45:18
  Speaker 3: I'd written the song.
• 45:21
  Speaker 5: When I was about sixteen seventeen in Camberwell, South London,
• 45:27
  Speaker 5: about a boy that worked in McDonald's. I don't even
• 45:30
  Speaker 5: know his name. I just knew that he was a
• 45:32
  Speaker 5: neighbor's friend and he was fine as hell.
• 45:34
  Speaker 2: He gave you butterflies every time you went.
• 45:36
  Speaker 3: Every time.
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: So I recently put to McDonald's giving you bubble gud.
• 45:41
  Speaker 5: Then there's that I wasn't eating McDonald's like that though
• 45:43
  Speaker 5: I never really ate my well, I did kind of,
• 45:45
  Speaker 5: but I was basketball back then, so I was in
• 45:48
  Speaker 5: athlete mode for sure. But Camberwell, the place that the
• 45:54
  Speaker 5: McDonald's is in, is called Butterfly Walk, and I never
• 45:58
  Speaker 5: put that together until we recently went back and started
• 46:00
  Speaker 5: taking pictures there and I.
• 46:01
  Speaker 3: Was like, look at God, look at that.
• 46:05
  Speaker 5: So I ended up writing this song. Get to Philadelphia,
• 46:07
  Speaker 5: year two thousands. That's a couple of years after that.
• 46:11
  Speaker 5: Meet the team out of Touch of Jazz. One producer
• 46:13
  Speaker 5: in particular, Andre Harris, who'd done two of my favorite
• 46:18
  Speaker 5: Jill Scott songs, Long Walk and the Way, and I.
• 46:21
  Speaker 3: Was like, who did those two. Oh, that's Dray, that's Andre.
• 46:25
  Speaker 3: I was like, I want parts.
• 46:27
  Speaker 5: So within a week, Andre Harris and myself had recorded
• 46:31
  Speaker 5: Say Yes and Butterflies together, So Say Yes was for
• 46:35
  Speaker 5: Ron Eisley. So we did that demo together, and that
• 46:38
  Speaker 5: was with the intent that Ron Eisley was going to.
• 46:40
  Speaker 3: Do Say Yes for his album. He just didn't take it.
• 46:43
  Speaker 5: Restless History and then Butterflies a few days after that,
• 46:47
  Speaker 5: five or slow in the morning, six or so in
• 46:49
  Speaker 5: the morning, play the chords and like Dre, slow those down.
• 46:53
  Speaker 3: YadA, YadA YadA, and Butterflies happens. And John McClain, who
• 47:01
  Speaker 3: ended up signing Flower Tree to Dream Works, was Michael
• 47:06
  Speaker 3: Jackson's personal manager, so he has the demo, plays it
• 47:10
  Speaker 3: for Mike, so listen, you have to listen to these girls.
• 47:12
  Speaker 3: Listen to this demo, and Mike was like, I want
• 47:15
  Speaker 3: that one.
• 47:16
  Speaker 5: Just Butterflies. Mike, you can have the entire album. Can't
• 47:20
  Speaker 5: want it.
• 47:20
  Speaker 3: It's yours. I don't have to do another thing.
• 47:23
  Speaker 5: And that's how we heard it. We got the call
• 47:26
  Speaker 5: in Philly out a touch of jazz. Everyone thought it
• 47:29
  Speaker 5: was a prank. Call went to voicemail the first time,
• 47:32
  Speaker 5: and then I think Jeff spoke to him, Well, Carvin
• 47:34
  Speaker 5: spoke to I think Carvin said he spoke to him.
• 47:36
  Speaker 5: He thought it was dre messing around.
• 47:37
  Speaker 3: We were practical jokers back of the day. And Mike,
• 47:41
  Speaker 3: you don't really know. You think you know his voice.
• 47:44
  Speaker 5: Mike had a deeper, raspier voice, and I think he
• 47:47
  Speaker 5: only used a higher tone just to preserve his greatness,
• 47:51
  Speaker 5: like he didn't want to use or project. He was
• 47:53
  Speaker 5: only using that for the booth or the stage, and
• 47:55
  Speaker 5: that's it. So by the time we've spoken to him,
• 47:59
  Speaker 5: this is the summer of two thousand. I was in
• 48:01
  Speaker 5: the studio with him in New York the following year March,
• 48:04
  Speaker 5: so it's like that quick wow.
• 48:08
  Speaker 2: Now you also mentioned Flower Tree fans were always would
• 48:11
  Speaker 2: will flowr you ever do an album together again? Or
• 48:13
  Speaker 2: that chapter your life is over?
• 48:15
  Speaker 3: Who knows? No chapters are closed.
• 48:17
  Speaker 5: And I think rewinding to what you said about you know,
• 48:20
  Speaker 5: when I met my husband, I did a Flowa Tree
• 48:23
  Speaker 5: tour twenty fifteen twenty sixteen, and that's when I met him,
• 48:27
  Speaker 5: and then got pregnant the following year on the other tour,
• 48:29
  Speaker 5: so it was like a back to.
• 48:30
  Speaker 3: Back hey reunion. It's all love and yeah, who knows?
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: Now?
• 48:33
  Speaker 2: Also, I seen Amanda Seals was on Club Shah and
• 48:37
  Speaker 2: talks about she said that she thinks she wanted her
• 48:39
  Speaker 2: to quit flow a Tree? Was that true?
• 48:43
  Speaker 5: The loaded question quit flower Tree is very vague. What
• 48:49
  Speaker 5: was happening with Amanda Sells? And this is what because
• 48:52
  Speaker 5: I won't spend a lot of time in this.
• 48:54
  Speaker 3: This is like a quick bit. When did we lost
• 48:56
  Speaker 3: through the Breakfast Club?
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: Because this is like seven came up.
• 49:00
  Speaker 5: Yes, So initially the first thing I said about Amanda
• 49:05
  Speaker 5: Sales is sorry, Like I can play the clip, you
• 49:08
  Speaker 5: can go to YouTube and see it, and it was
• 49:11
  Speaker 5: she was put in a position that she shouldn't have
• 49:13
  Speaker 5: been in the first place, the label and management of
• 49:16
  Speaker 5: trying to re establish what that was and it just
• 49:19
  Speaker 5: didn't work. So by the time we've put all of
• 49:22
  Speaker 5: these things into action, we've rehearsed a show and you've
• 49:25
  Speaker 5: given it to the public. Everyone has gone, oh nah,
• 49:30
  Speaker 5: and there's nothing I can do about that part. And
• 49:34
  Speaker 5: this is also seventeen years ago, three weeks of a
• 49:37
  Speaker 5: summer toll. We may have done like fifteen or sixteen
• 49:40
  Speaker 5: shows and it just didn't work out. And that was
• 49:44
  Speaker 5: the end of that, really, but we've had nothing but
• 49:48
  Speaker 5: for me, And I'm saying like I, well for me,
• 49:51
  Speaker 5: we'd had nothing but positive interactions thereafter. Like I saw
• 49:56
  Speaker 5: her twenty thirteen, we took pictures together, we reminisced, and
• 50:00
  Speaker 5: she'd been texting me throughout the years after that, nothing
• 50:04
  Speaker 5: but positive vibes. So I'm in a good space right now,
• 50:11
  Speaker 5: seventeen years later. So for whatever she believes that was,
• 50:15
  Speaker 5: I don't think publicly we can do this combative. Well
• 50:20
  Speaker 5: you said this happened, or I said this happened. I
• 50:22
  Speaker 5: know exactly what happened on my end, But you know,
• 50:25
  Speaker 5: it's kind of seventeen years ago. I've done all this
• 50:31
  Speaker 5: healing between now and then. I'm not the same Like
• 50:33
  Speaker 5: seventeen years ago, two thousand and seven, I'm still talking
• 50:38
  Speaker 5: to Michael Jackson at that point, I've still got prints
• 50:40
  Speaker 5: on speed dial, Like I was still very much Grammy winning,
• 50:45
  Speaker 5: Grammy nominated me. That was in a position to do
• 50:51
  Speaker 5: what I wanted to do at that point, moving forward.
• 50:53
  Speaker 5: And here we are seventeen years later, and I'm still
• 50:59
  Speaker 5: moving on. I wanted to moving forward, and Casa Blanco
• 51:03
  Speaker 5: with Doctor Dre's about to drop and just in a
• 51:06
  Speaker 5: different space.
• 51:08
  Speaker 4: You know, on the song Greedy, it makes me wonder
• 51:11
  Speaker 4: that your husband ever hear certain lyrics and be like,
• 51:13
  Speaker 4: you're talking about us because you say it's never enough
• 51:15
  Speaker 4: to love you, same old lamb old. Ain't no way
• 51:17
  Speaker 4: I'm ever gonna take that shit. I'm giving you everything
• 51:19
  Speaker 4: and this the thanks I get.
• 51:21
  Speaker 3: Don't play that shit, even if it was Greedy.
• 51:27
  Speaker 5: During that time and even during the creative process of
• 51:30
  Speaker 5: Casa Blanco, my husband and I had a conversation about
• 51:38
  Speaker 5: where I was at mentally to create.
• 51:44
  Speaker 3: The actual.
• 51:49
  Speaker 5: Basically, he said I didn't have to be married mash
• 51:53
  Speaker 5: and come from that space. And I understood what he
• 51:56
  Speaker 5: said when he said that, because the love songs different
• 52:00
  Speaker 5: if I'm attached to the relationship I'm in and having
• 52:06
  Speaker 5: to kind of skirt around what that looks like. Those
• 52:09
  Speaker 5: songs sound like don't Wait the Baby or just like
• 52:11
  Speaker 5: old Times.
• 52:12
  Speaker 3: And they're different. With this.
• 52:16
  Speaker 5: It was you need to stretch that panem write from
• 52:19
  Speaker 5: a space of you doing you and what does that
• 52:23
  Speaker 5: sound like. So by the time I got to Greedy,
• 52:26
  Speaker 5: I was angry at the world, like it's never enough
• 52:29
  Speaker 5: to love anyone or anything, and then be satisfied in
• 52:36
  Speaker 5: a way that you feel like you put your one
• 52:40
  Speaker 5: hundred in and they only claim it's thirty percent. So
• 52:44
  Speaker 5: I could give you the moon and it's like, well
• 52:46
  Speaker 5: where the sun at? Like it's the Moon family that
• 52:50
  Speaker 5: you don't want to you know.
• 52:52
  Speaker 3: And I feel like Greedy I.
• 52:54
  Speaker 5: Was talking about everyone. It wasn't even just about him,
• 53:01
  Speaker 5: it was everyone and everything playing this tiger war of
• 53:05
  Speaker 5: if you're not next to me, you feel as though
• 53:09
  Speaker 5: you're missing out on something that you only gain by
• 53:12
  Speaker 5: being with me or taking something from me.
• 53:16
  Speaker 3: I'm like, what's the endgame? Like what exactly do you want?
• 53:19
  Speaker 5: Because you're really upset, like you mad as fuck that
• 53:23
  Speaker 5: you're not around me like that greedy.
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: M I love that song music on my mind.
• 53:33
  Speaker 4: You said it's a it's that Wu Tang me to
• 53:36
  Speaker 4: Cold Traine, And what I love about that is like
• 53:38
  Speaker 4: what I told you earlier is like you're putting hip
• 53:39
  Speaker 4: hop on this proper pedestal of being like a classic
• 53:44
  Speaker 4: musical art form?
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: Was that intentional throughout the project?
• 53:50
  Speaker 5: Maybe not intentional, but my affinity and adoration for hip
• 53:55
  Speaker 5: hop has stemmed from me knowing.
• 54:01
  Speaker 3: All the words to beach street breaking, like.
• 54:06
  Speaker 5: Being overseas, getting all of these imported hip hop twelve
• 54:12
  Speaker 5: inch records from my uncle and hip up you the
• 54:18
  Speaker 5: love of my life, and I feel like on this
• 54:22
  Speaker 5: album it only made sense that I made sure that
• 54:27
  Speaker 5: that last music of my mind was my love letter
• 54:30
  Speaker 5: to music, and I couldn't fit everything in, so I
• 54:34
  Speaker 5: just gave you the bullet points of what those errors
• 54:37
  Speaker 5: and time. So yeah, WU tang it to shout out.
• 54:40
  Speaker 5: I even shouted out Mace and Cam before I even
• 54:44
  Speaker 5: know they would reunite.
• 54:45
  Speaker 3: This is twenty twenty one. I'm calling this out.
• 54:48
  Speaker 5: And I know what Horse and Carriage did for me
• 54:50
  Speaker 5: in the nineties, you know, So it was all of
• 54:53
  Speaker 5: these small nuds to things and this is in the
• 54:56
  Speaker 5: same breath I'm saying, you know, MJ. J. Dillar, Marcus Miller, Murder,
• 55:02
  Speaker 5: Max cam Killer, miss Paid, Funkadelic, George Clinton, and I
• 55:07
  Speaker 5: even shout out Luke Skywalker, just things that I've loved
• 55:11
  Speaker 5: over the course of my life. And if that were
• 55:13
  Speaker 5: my last speech to planet Earth, like it's been real,
• 55:20
  Speaker 5: this was it. That's what music in my mind, and
• 55:23
  Speaker 5: that last statement was the last thing that I say,
• 55:26
  Speaker 5: is dr e that Mamba mentality, the game winning shut
• 55:33
  Speaker 5: for the three cod.
• 55:36
  Speaker 3: Swish.
• 55:38
  Speaker 4: It's good, great way in the project. That's right, great
• 55:42
  Speaker 4: for the fantastic album.
• 55:43
  Speaker 2: Comes out next Friday, June twenty eighth.
• 55:46
  Speaker 3: Oh my goodness, when you say it out loud, it's real.
• 55:48
  Speaker 2: That's right next Friday.
• 55:49
  Speaker 3: Oh man, listen, but what do you want to hear
• 55:54
  Speaker 3: off the album? What do I want to hear that?
• 55:56
  Speaker 2: You're gonna allow us to play because we got to
• 55:58
  Speaker 2: get it from you.
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: Guys everywhere.
• 56:02
  Speaker 3: Might be wet, we might be self care wrong.
• 56:05
  Speaker 2: Riot, you can do you can do both both.
• 56:08
  Speaker 3: Thrill has a thing though that thing is a story.
• 56:13
  Speaker 2: We ain't enough time for three, but we got two.
• 56:14
  Speaker 2: We will.
• 56:16
  Speaker 3: It's pick one.
• 56:17
  Speaker 5: Used to be done at the board, like Okay, what
• 56:20
  Speaker 5: we're saying thrill her?
• 56:21
  Speaker 3: What scart?
• 56:23
  Speaker 2: Okay, cool, thrill her and we let's do it all right.
• 56:26
  Speaker 2: We'll get that on. Thank you so much for joining us.
• 56:29
  Speaker 2: The album Casablanco comes out next Friday. Today, the track
• 56:33
  Speaker 2: listing is released. You guys can check that out and
• 56:35
  Speaker 2: we appreciate you for spending it with us today.
• 56:37
  Speaker 3: Thank you so much for having me.
• 56:40
  Speaker 2: It's Marsha Ambrosis, It's the Breakfast Club. Good morning, wake
• 56:43
  Speaker 2: that ass up in the morning.
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: The Breakfast Club