0:00

Quest Love Supreme is a production of I

0:02

Heart Radio. Ready,

0:11

ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another

0:14

episode of Quest Love Supreme. I

0:17

will say that this is a highly personal

0:21

episode for myself in

0:24

my professional this is Eddie and Arsenio

0:26

territory right here. It's

0:31

um. I will say that,

0:33

in my my thirty plus years

0:35

of being in this business,

0:38

I never thought the day

0:41

would occur that my

0:44

first interview with

0:46

the person who literally introduced

0:49

me to hip hop, whatever

0:52

happened on my platform.

0:55

That's that's that's how often

0:57

I dreamed of, like being

0:59

on a her show. I mean even when I was listening

1:02

to her, I didn't have dreams of beating a hip hop

1:04

But literally what

1:07

what you know, what Greg Mac means

1:09

to k d A y in l A, what

1:12

Mr Magic means

1:15

for New York City. I

1:17

will say that this, this this young Lady

1:20

um was was

1:22

not only crucial for the

1:24

Tri state area but in

1:26

hip hop in general, because I mean, at one

1:28

point, Philly was the second largest

1:31

hip hop market in the

1:33

In the first formative years of hip hop in on

1:35

Wax between like seventy

1:37

nine and eighty nine. Yeah, just any

1:40

major first, um, you know, the

1:42

first time I heard Cutting

1:44

Scratch It on Grand Master Flash on the wheels is

1:46

Steel, The first time I heard Pumpkin

1:49

play a break beat on on Spooney G's

1:51

Love Rap, the first time I heard Sucker Sees, the

1:53

first time I heard anything

1:55

by the Juice Crew, the first time got

1:58

the moment I first her rebel

2:00

without a pause, It's it's

2:02

this young lady on our show for all the routes

2:05

officionados. Of course, her

2:07

voice might be familiar to you if if

2:09

you hold our Things fall apart album Here and

2:11

Dear, She's on the without a doubt.

2:16

That was the best session ever. She

2:19

is the first female to

2:21

be on Wax as an MC, A

2:24

pioneering DJ. Ladies

2:26

and gentlemen, Welcome to the

2:28

person who introduced me to hip

2:31

hop, Lady B. I

2:37

feel so touched by that. But

2:40

you know what, as I approached, you

2:42

know, because as I approached this for yeth anniversary,

2:44

I've been doing a lot of reflecting and

2:47

just getting in my spirit with God

2:49

and just thanking him for being the person

2:52

who did what you just said that I did to introduce

2:54

a genre of music that

2:57

little had faith in. How the

2:59

political crap connected

3:01

to that, to get it on the radio.

3:03

And I know you say that the

3:05

little is the second. No I want, I

3:07

want. I want to tell the facts. And here's another

3:09

thing I decided to do for my fortieth I'm

3:12

usually very humble, not no mother,

3:15

come on bringing up when people say

3:17

you're a pioneer, you're an icon, you're

3:20

this year of that. And then I started thinking,

3:22

just the other day, we'll all here. I swear

3:24

to God, I was like, you know what on this is

3:26

the owners because you did it. And too

3:29

many times the brothers get all the accolades,

3:31

and we had sisters we don't. So yeah,

3:33

I'm gonna putting my fists in the air and I'm gonna say it

3:35

with my chest out that it wasn't

3:37

just as far as you know, people always say

3:39

New York was first, and then Phil he was the second biggest

3:42

um market. First of all, all

3:45

due respect to the only man who shared

3:47

my same story, and that is Mr Magic

3:50

in New York. I missed his brother so much, but he's

3:52

the only one that is parallel

3:54

with my life and what we did

3:57

and to fight to get it on fl

4:00

radio. And you have to understand

4:02

that I was the first one who played on FM radio.

4:04

But magic and we're doing was a college

4:06

thing. I kicked a all off on AM,

4:09

and then when Power ninety nine put

4:11

us on FM, that that made stations

4:13

across the country follow suit. You

4:16

understand what I'm saying, Like, I started this avalanche

4:20

of of of a culture and

4:22

I'm so proud to say that I did that.

4:24

And when I think back on just how much

4:27

freaking fun I had doing

4:29

that, I am so full of joy right about

4:31

now, like I'm I'm doing a lot of reflecting

4:34

and I'm like, Wow, I did that. I

4:36

knew these millionaires when they were broken, had

4:38

roaches in their apartment, and

4:40

I'm so glad to have helped them

4:43

follow their dreams and and and do

4:45

what they do. It's it's

4:47

amazing. It's it's you

4:49

have no you have no idea

4:52

how many brick walls I came across.

4:54

People, Oh, nobody

5:02

got time this Look, this ain't a radio show.

5:07

I'm sorry. Let

5:10

me just say. Let me just say that

5:13

you know you you you revealed how many

5:15

decades around the sun that you

5:17

were before we went on air, and I have to

5:20

say that you were still

5:23

a timeless teenager to me. You

5:26

you literally have not like this

5:28

is when she was nineteen as

5:32

as on air personality,

5:34

this is the same one, like nothing

5:36

has changed, nothing has changed at

5:38

all, Um,

5:40

you know this is I feel like this is

5:42

my first real conversation with you, Like we've seen

5:45

each other in passing and whatnot. But

5:49

I'm glad to finally get a moment to to

5:51

to wrap you because I have so many questions about

5:54

my hometown and what. You

5:56

know what I didn't get the experience that

5:59

you know you also helped pave the way. Well,

6:01

first of all, are you from Philadelphia? Born

6:04

and raised Hiladelphia?

6:07

Saying well, I was

6:09

born my family. My mother owned

6:11

a bar on Woodland Avenue in Southwest Your

6:15

mom owned the alley Alley's

6:17

Alley. Yes, that's your mom's Jordan,

6:20

that was I grew up in that.

6:24

That is correct. Allie's Alley. Is my

6:26

grandmother's name Ali, Yes, yes,

6:30

because I used to trolley

6:34

that's exactly where he was at the trolley barn. Yeah.

6:37

Yeah, it was my

6:39

mom's bar. And then she raised us in Winfield,

6:41

so I was literally I literally grew up from kindergarten

6:44

right two blocks and where Will and

6:47

his mom lived.

6:49

Talk about your your people real quick

6:51

because you have an interesting background, like ethnically

6:54

my Malaysian African

6:56

American connection, Yes, we

7:00

like to call it. My grandfather is from Malaysia.

7:03

He's Malaysian born in Singapore.

7:06

And my grandmother, um was

7:08

a prep of thing, was a little mixed up

7:10

everything, and uh they married

7:12

and had ten children and they raised them right there on Willing

7:14

Avenue. Quest Um. So

7:17

yeah, I had yeah, my

7:19

mother's my mother had uh ten siblings,

7:21

five with Arabic names, five with Christian names.

7:23

Is very blended, very

7:25

interesting family. So you were

7:28

always like around forty wooland

7:31

I, yeah, I did my homework at that bar

7:33

because I watched the glasses.

7:35

Yeah. Because literally

7:38

that that little grocery store next

7:40

door to Ali's Alley. This reason

7:42

I don't have any teeth now. All that

7:45

the damn candy to

7:49

Mr Luther, I used to tell him, you want to play my dentist

7:51

bill, I go in there, I go on my mom's bar.

7:53

I get like three dollars and that's penny

7:56

candy. That's three hun and

7:59

I'm with store

8:03

next door. Not to mention Jack

8:05

Meyers across the street,

8:08

this might turn into our city on Eddie. I'm sorry,

8:10

sorry, k

8:14

Man real rap, but yeah, so

8:16

yeah, that's that's where I Wentfield West Philadelphia.

8:18

Girl. My grandmother used to live

8:21

on King Ses

8:23

So okay, my grandma

8:26

lived one black over, so it was a oh

8:29

that's moved probably her

8:31

house, yeah, right behind,

8:33

right off the passco Oh

8:35

wow, because I know that sister Sledge and their

8:38

grandmam lived on

8:42

did they they Cathy's grandma.

8:44

I'm came from around an area too. Yeah, they

8:46

were like in the backyard of where

8:48

my grandma lived. That's where the grandma

8:51

lived. My brother took all of them on the prime.

8:53

Their mom wouldn't allow them at prime dates like he took

8:55

a at least three sister Sledges

8:57

on their proms, like everything together.

9:02

Miss Blow wouldn't let them go out on dates.

9:06

It was good to standing prom dude,

9:09

dude, every everyone has a Miss Blow

9:11

story about how strict she was with her daughters.

9:13

Whatness, I

9:15

guess you had to do that back then.

9:18

You know, of course she did. They were beautiful,

9:20

talented and if she hadn't there would they would

9:23

not be where they are today. Okay,

9:25

So, because your your

9:27

story is so loaded, I

9:29

want to I

9:32

kind of want to start with the

9:34

session that will start with to the

9:37

beat, y'all your twelve inch single? Okay,

9:39

So how how did that come to be? So

9:42

I'm the youngest of four, my oldest

9:44

sister, I learned and did

9:47

way too much before my time. But

9:49

I followed behind her like a little puppy dog,

9:52

which landed me in the

9:54

club scene. Kim Gray's Whispers,

9:56

Serendipity, he was that back then, Phil He had a club

9:58

night every night, like a Tuesdays

10:01

you win here, Wednesdays you went there Friday.

10:03

That was popping. That was kind of

10:05

the neigh No,

10:07

these were all like downtown like Kim Grays

10:10

and Samson. Serendippy's was down there. Club Whispers

10:12

like all our third teenth and Walnut. So it's kind of a

10:14

center city downtown

10:16

type thing. And I befriended

10:19

World be Free, the basketball player and

10:21

Darryl Dawkins, and they

10:24

hung out with my sister. They were older than me. I was

10:26

kind of like the little yeah, a little

10:28

one that followed behind, just trying to hang out

10:30

with the older kids.

10:34

You said, there's ten of you. What's the girl boy ratio

10:37

of your siblings? Two and two?

10:40

And it's just me and my brother. Now, I am

10:42

the youngest, and they're all three years

10:44

apart and eight years later. Yeah,

10:46

my mother went to get her appendix taken out and they

10:49

found an embryo. Here I am, who

10:52

was definitely definitely not planned.

10:55

Yeah. So anyway, I

10:58

started hanging out in the club scene, hanging

11:00

out with World and them and going up to New York,

11:03

you know, and I started hearing

11:05

hip hop. I'm like, this is dope, you know. And I wasn't

11:07

on the courtyards and the projects,

11:10

walking up to pissy elevators and ship

11:13

like listening to the hip like in the hip hop like. I

11:15

went to see what their culture was about.

11:17

And then I was working. I

11:20

called myself, getting a little part time job before I

11:22

went back to college, before

11:24

I went to college in the first place, and

11:27

um, I wanted to go listen, my plans

11:29

were to go to Howard All this got kick

11:31

to the curb and we tell you the story. That was my

11:34

plan. I wanted to be a lawyer, a

11:36

corporate lawyer, is what

11:38

I wanted to do with my life. This

11:41

is before this happened. And

11:43

being in the club, there was a DJ, Lawrence Levan.

11:48

He would break down these break beats and I would

11:50

put my trade down. I was a cocktail waitress. I

11:52

put my trade down, had no business being in there. Mind

11:54

you, I'm not twenty one yet. Put my

11:56

put my trade down and go. You

11:59

know, do what I heard, world, and I'm doing

12:01

busting round the

12:04

break. I was about to say, yeah

12:06

he was the world. World. No,

12:08

he took me around people that did

12:11

it. I understand what I'm saying. And then

12:13

I know, seriously, like we I'll be much shopping

12:15

for him for his first twelve hundreds, and we set up the tables

12:17

in the living room like it was a whole thing with us,

12:19

like his crew down. You couldn't tell Darl Dawkins

12:22

he wasn't a rapper. He had the whole, Remember quest,

12:24

I don't know, you might be too young, but he had

12:26

this whole. He had this whole set up

12:28

in his crib. He was chocolate, thunder, W

12:31

d U and K like they were. That's

12:36

how I got introduced to hip hop. These old

12:38

these older basketball players,

12:40

they were young at that time to me.

12:42

They were eight years my elder. And

12:45

and then um so I'm doing this and this becomes

12:47

popular and Kim Grays. Now they're telling

12:49

me put the trade down, going in and do your thing, Go

12:51

go do one of the run. So

12:53

then Parry Johnson, that

12:56

was the of Dr Perry

12:58

Johnson from w d A S Still

13:00

Alive. Yes, he's a real doctor

13:02

now. Actually went got a doctorate. He's and

13:07

you gotta slow down a second, sucking hook it up

13:09

for our listeners. So Dr Perry

13:11

Johnson was probably

13:14

one of our fran Yes,

13:16

he was one of the most crucial DJ's of Philadelphia.

13:19

If you're a fan of Bohannon's

13:22

Let's start the dance, come

13:25

on and do it, Come on and do it. There's

13:29

there's a special remix with a guy doing

13:31

like DJ rapping like shake

13:33

a boom boom take like if you just

13:35

look up Bohanon, Let's start the dance.

13:37

Dr Perry Johnson like his

13:40

his rapping over that song was

13:43

just as famous as the original song itself.

13:45

But it's such a he's a real doctor now.

13:48

He's a real doctor now and an author. He

13:50

had a book signing here, maybe

13:52

not that long before COVID. I

13:54

gotta meet that brother. We

13:56

can make that happen. I have his number in my s.

14:00

He would be so too,

14:03

it would be so touch. But anyway, he approaches

14:05

me to do this UM

14:08

hip hop song, and I remember calling world,

14:10

like, Yo, they want me to do a record

14:12

doing what you do, like with the sugar Hill guys

14:14

did, and blah blah blah. He's like, you're gonna

14:16

do it. I'm like, I don't want to do that. And

14:19

long story short, MEMI brown

14:22

another one on DJ and my sister

14:24

sat up drinking or doing whatever they

14:26

were doing, and UH took you three by

14:29

five cards and kept telling me to

14:31

tell them all my rhymes and they put them on cards and

14:33

they stuck them on the board. And the very next day I was in the studio

14:35

and I cut to the beach all when people wondering,

14:38

wonder why I hate the song

14:40

so much, even though it will go down in history as

14:42

the first female on WAX.

14:45

It was to a direct current song

14:48

that they really didn't make any money off of, so

14:50

they'd rather than do a new track. They made

14:52

me rap over this. So

14:55

mad about that. And secondly, come

14:57

to find out that the guy who on the label didn't even

15:00

really wanted to really hit UM.

15:02

It was more of a tax write off thing to him.

15:05

Um. He was kind of a cook. He didn't pay Frankie

15:07

Smith for Double Dutch Butts either.

15:10

Yeah, he was a real he was a real

15:12

shyster. And it was a one

15:15

take song. Like I was like, what I can do that part? They

15:17

were like, no, it's fine print. But

15:20

what was this records?

15:23

It was before yet MLT was t Ec Records.

15:25

It's a yellow label with black writing.

15:30

Yeah. So anyway, but

15:33

but here's the bright side of my to the beat.

15:35

You'll, lady be experienced to give you a little hip

15:37

hop history. I feel like I'm writing a book and telling

15:39

my truth because the stories.

15:42

No, honestly this is I've never told these

15:44

stories before, but I will say this, Um,

15:47

I didn't I got financially taken advantage

15:50

of with with this gentleman, and I didn't get

15:52

the money turned around to the song being the first

15:54

female and no one knew the hip hop was gonna

15:56

be that popular and messed around and win gold

15:59

so and wasn't paying me. But

16:01

then Mr Gangster himself, Mr

16:03

Joe Robinson, owner of sugar Hill Records,

16:07

step the dude got my master, pressed

16:09

it up and paid me for my song. Wow,

16:13

And you don't only hear stories about

16:16

Joe like that, Like that joke

16:19

it's a big joke amongst me and God

16:21

everybody else in the label. He was like lady, but he don't

16:24

e want to get paid. Joe

16:28

was like a dad to me, not to doctor. Forget

16:30

that I'm the one playing all of these records

16:32

coming out of his camp. Yeah,

16:36

I don't think he was pretty stupid.

16:37

He's very smart to be

16:40

friend me at that time. Were

16:46

you a communications major in college?

16:49

I was not, So here we go. So I remember I was

16:51

willing to go to college or whatever. And

16:55

my mother, my my paternal

16:57

father passed when I was

16:59

three is old from a heart attack. My mother remarried

17:02

and my stepfather passed when

17:04

I was about twelve eleven

17:06

twelve, So I had you

17:08

know, when when you're in the service, both of them were in the

17:10

Service, you can't go to college

17:12

for free. It's paid for it because your dad was

17:14

in the Service. So now I'm stuck

17:17

because I got this record

17:19

out and I'm getting shows, and I'm going up to Harlem and

17:21

I'm staying on stage with a microp It's crazy,

17:24

but I want to go back to school because

17:26

I got free school just sitting there. So

17:28

I came up with the great idea and once I got

17:31

you know, the record came out and I go to H A T. And

17:33

I get this job in the office job, and

17:36

I'm start begging him to let me play hip hop. I

17:38

said, well, you had to have a license

17:40

to be on the air. You don't have to anymore, but

17:43

back then the FCC required a

17:45

license. So I went to broadcasting school

17:48

while I was at the station and got

17:50

for three years and got my license for

17:52

three years. Damn broadcast.

17:55

I wanted it extra. There was different levels

17:57

of it, and I wanted, Yeah, I wanted

18:00

to do more than radio that license, like to do TV

18:03

whatever. It's

18:05

not like that anymore. That seen that change on that you

18:07

could just walk up the street and get a damn radio show. Now

18:09

look at um.

18:15

Yes, So for for our listeners listening,

18:17

she mentioned H A T. W

18:20

H A T was an AM radio station.

18:22

I knew as a kid. I knew it because, like my

18:25

the way that people always listen

18:28

to talk radio. Now, we had

18:30

a woman by the name of Mary Mason in

18:33

Philadelphia,

18:37

and I mean, I don't know how typical it was

18:39

for a black woman to have her own

18:42

platform to that of like, I

18:45

mean, who's just

18:49

something in terms

18:51

of like Alex what's his name? Like, let

18:54

me let me just share one Mary Mason stories,

18:58

um eighteen years old and

19:00

Nancy Reagan walks into

19:03

the lobby, the secret servicer

19:05

with her blah blah blah. She just doesn't pop up

19:08

right, dude, stop by to say

19:10

how to marry? This is how politically strong

19:12

she was. And she told

19:15

me, and I quote tell

19:17

that bitch. I want to what

19:21

I'm trying to get carter and off here

19:27

I am so here, I am y'all a

19:30

teams like how do I oh?

19:33

She told you that? Yes, so

19:36

I gotta go out here and look this lady in her

19:38

face and like, ma'am, I'm so

19:40

sorry that miss Mason. It's uh

19:43

flattered that you stopped by. However, her schedule,

19:45

you know, I had to go through the hole she bang.

19:48

But that's what she told me. I've heard her cursed

19:50

the mayor and hang up on him about her phillies

19:52

tickets like she ms Mason was

19:54

to be. She is the reason I have the backbone

19:57

and that my shoulders are back. And I've never

20:00

let anyone um talk

20:02

to me or try to get

20:04

over at least not knowing me. I mean, they ended up

20:06

a couple of times anyway, but they

20:08

had to sneak and do it. No, I've never

20:11

allowed anyone to um

20:13

be blatantly disrespectful in my face. If

20:15

you will, I'm gonna talk about that, the

20:19

original russellingball.

20:23

Like she's very controversial.

20:25

Also, like I know she supported like Frank

20:27

Brazil or she cried

20:29

he was a politician on the radio,

20:32

is what Mary was. And

20:34

I will have to say that she

20:36

walked her walk. She was dedicated

20:39

to this community of people. She

20:42

got on the air and talked about things

20:44

that other people wouldn't

20:46

even touch and called

20:49

people on it like she she

20:51

she may she

20:53

outwitnessed this woman change

20:56

lives. Yeah, and

20:58

she was something. And then you took the baton

21:01

and now you do the same thing well

21:03

later, because I mean I didn't take the time from her

21:06

then, because I take it. I mean she when

21:08

she passed up the time to me. I was doing hip hop. I

21:10

was crazy. We was having fun. Y'all was having fun.

21:12

You just said it. I was playing all that good stuff

21:14

with y'all. I just came. I just came

21:16

into my Mary Mason by right

21:18

now. That's yeah, okay,

21:22

So I I remember,

21:26

like discovering your show around

21:28

like late night

21:31

one. Um, you

21:33

know, every Saturday afternoon whatever, we my

21:35

brother and I would just record. Like everybody

21:38

says, I remind them of Paul's record.

21:41

Paul's record. Whenever I see Beanie Seagull, he goes,

21:43

Paul's record, your

21:45

world famous. Get your press

21:47

your paws, press your pause button. But

21:50

to have a radio show, and you were on for

21:53

like two to three hours, But I'm

21:55

thinking, like back in the eighty one, was

21:58

there even two to three hours worth

22:01

of quality hip hop to play? I

22:03

like, I like to explain it like this. I

22:05

laugh every time I hear the term digging in

22:07

the crates, and that's creates

22:09

with the nest because when I started

22:12

playing hip hop on the radio,

22:14

there was a crate. One crate. Was

22:17

it full? It was full to

22:19

the max. I mean not everything was, um,

22:22

I was picky, it was it was good enough to play.

22:25

Um. You know when when when we first

22:28

started, when we realized we could

22:30

take what we were doing in our backyards, in our neighborhoods

22:32

and our courtyards and put it

22:34

on wax, and that you know,

22:37

this was possible. Everybody tried

22:39

to do it, whether they could rap or not UM,

22:43

but I was very I think the thing

22:45

that UM Number

22:47

one, you have to understand when hip hop started,

22:49

it was its purpose was to stop

22:53

a terrible disease in the black community

22:55

that was full of violence and gang war and

22:57

and and it was it was

22:59

crazy. It was getting a little out of hand with it. So

23:02

hip hop gave I mean, I'm sure

23:04

if you spoke to an Africa band body he would co sign

23:06

this. But hip hop gave us a way

23:08

to battle each other and represent

23:11

our neighborhoods, not with knives and guns, but with

23:13

turntables and microphones and it

23:15

it became this thing like you you had to rep your

23:17

neighborhood with your rhymes,

23:19

and and god forbid if you bid anybody else's

23:22

rhyme. You had to come with your ship and it had to be real,

23:24

and it had to be raw, and it had to be authentic.

23:27

And everybody couldn't do that. Some people just thought they

23:29

could just get out a book of words

23:32

that rhyme and put some ship together and handed

23:34

to me to get on the air. And that that happened a line.

23:37

But if you if I couldn't understand

23:40

number one, what you were saying, like I,

23:43

um, no disrespect to what people

23:45

like these kids like the day or whatever. But mumble

23:48

rat was It just makes my skin

23:50

crawl because for me, a good m

23:52

C is very articulate. You can hear everywhere.

23:55

I don't care what what if he's saying something wrong, disrespectful,

23:58

I have to hear what you're same

24:00

or why did you waste that banging as beat?

24:02

Like why why are you here? Do

24:05

you remember like your first show and the

24:07

records that you had to play out of the crate,

24:09

like all right, this is my first show. I gotta get So

24:11

he had to understand. Then we kind

24:13

of got, um, you know we

24:16

did. You know? I laughed when I see Jeff and Cash

24:18

and and Richard Dean and them casts in U quest

24:20

and and bis maybe rest in peace go

24:23

deep into this this DJ thing. But you

24:25

have to understand when hip hop started, when we first

24:27

learned how to cut and scratch a

24:30

great peace. So that took up so much time because

24:32

not only am not gonna just take the train, but I'm gonna take

24:34

the train for about good twelve fourteen damn

24:37

minutes a lot of time. You

24:41

know what I mean, You're

24:43

gonna you're gonna cut that. What sucker,

24:45

I haven't see you. But then you got the flip side, and you

24:47

got the instrumental that you could cut in with that joint.

24:50

Then you got another DJ. At one time on Power

24:52

ninety nine, it was so dope, me

24:55

and Jeff Mills. May he rest in peace. Had

24:58

he yes,

25:00

he had two turntables on his side. I had

25:02

two turn tables and we

25:04

had a reel to reel, so we

25:06

have six elements corn

25:08

in. I'm cutting in of the songs in the people.

25:10

It was blowing people's my blue. We never crossed

25:13

my mind. I'm gonna just have a real dumb moment because I

25:15

know I'm not alone in this. I don't think it ever

25:17

crossed my mind as you were literally mixing records like

25:19

that. I remember Run and and

25:21

Down coming to my studio for the first time. They're like,

25:23

so you're gonna mix the record and interview us.

25:25

I was like, yeah, yeah,

25:30

you were more than just a personality. It's like, no, I'm

25:32

a big girl on a radio

25:34

and I still am. Yeah. I

25:36

was gonna say that you also, um,

25:40

you guys would at least on like the

25:42

like the midpoint, or

25:44

at least the last hour of the w

25:47

h A G portion of your show, like

25:49

you were also playing like craft

25:52

work, like what

25:54

what would become like b boy, you

25:56

know, like it's time. You have to understand. Break

25:59

dancing was amazing your element for us

26:01

in the beginning of this thing. So if if

26:03

you couldn't break to it, it definitely didn't get played.

26:05

And they demanded it because you

26:07

have to understand, I am taping

26:10

the only hip hop y'all gonna have for the week, and then

26:12

y'all with Jones into the next week, like I was the only one

26:14

with pepsdi understand,

26:17

I'm the only place you can get it. People

26:19

were driving you can ask Chuck d They

26:21

would drive down the Philly to take my show.

26:24

Yes, So it was

26:26

like that. It was it was like this thing and everybody

26:28

had to have it, and it was just

26:30

so much freaking fun doing it. It was so

26:34

and Mary Mason never said she she never

26:36

pulled your coat on anything, not a record. Nobody

26:38

ever said, listen, you can't be playing that no

26:41

more. It was never. We won't even mention discombobulated

26:43

Bob later. No, I'd

26:47

love this coombbator later anymore.

26:51

Okay, what is that song. That

26:56

all right, I'll get the six

26:59

in a second. Hey moreen we we had

27:01

a small controversy with mc breeze

27:03

discobobulated Bob later. But wait

27:06

before you before I go on, there's two things

27:08

I gotta ask you. One, how

27:10

often did you record your own shows

27:13

on w h A T he wants

27:15

them? I know so everybody

27:18

tap tap money, every DJ has asked me this

27:20

question. So in my possession, I have not gone

27:23

through them. I do have some real reels,

27:25

but as far as cassettes, people

27:27

have been given them to me over the years. I'll

27:30

meet a listener on the air and said, they used to take me

27:32

and they still have them. As a matter of fact,

27:34

I've been asking people to give them

27:36

back or I can make a copy off them of them

27:38

and give them back to them. Um, because

27:41

I I didn't even have a cassette player in the house,

27:43

but my niece and nephews brought me one. Actually,

27:46

so it's fly little Johnny

27:48

looks like a boom box. But his Gluetooth compatible

27:50

is so cute. But I haven't sent me here on my desk.

27:53

But I now want to get the cassettes so I can hear

27:55

them. But I do have like I do have some of

27:57

those real reels. You gotta convert

27:59

those in like I have to. I know

28:02

I'm getting to the point. COVID did

28:04

allow me to do a lot of purging, so

28:06

there is a little order to my madness.

28:09

So I'm getting it all together. At

28:11

least I know. Tapes are here, Rio,

28:13

the reals are here, and now I just gotta dive

28:15

into them. Okay, I gotta ask a question.

28:18

There's a record you used to always play and I thought

28:20

it was a Philly record, and

28:22

I'm just finding out that this guy is

28:24

from New York. But do

28:27

you know the whereabouts

28:30

of R C L Rock a k a. The

28:32

Micestro? Are you ready? Hold

28:34

your head? Hold your head, because you're not gonna believe this.

28:36

It's right here. Hit me Sunday

28:39

night. My show was sold out, by

28:41

the way, at the Dumb Music Center has been sold It

28:46

is it's

28:50

anniversary

28:52

in radio and hitting

28:54

the stage for the very first time at

28:57

the Dell. Well everybody

29:00

d around the nation because

29:05

I have to fulfill my obligation and

29:07

set you on a little vacation. But

29:09

you don't need no vessel. You

29:14

found r C Rock The Mike

29:16

stro Yo he's so hyped

29:18

about doing this show that me and Charlie Mack

29:20

were like, I don't know how old he is

29:22

now, And I'm like, does anybody tell

29:24

him he's gonna have to put a track behind him because he's not going

29:26

to make it do on the lyrics,

29:29

like, there's no way down

29:32

for him. This

29:37

is Sunday, Sunday

29:40

Night at the Dell be there

29:42

or b school Ware? Well, who

29:44

else is? Oh, you don't want to know. You

29:46

ain't ready.

29:49

I've never had E. P. M D. They will

29:51

be in the building because I've been doing

29:53

this for ten years now, I've never had nice and smooth.

29:55

They will be in the building. I have my iconic

29:58

sugar Hill game mel Email and his crew.

30:01

I have robbed saying shantage. I always trying to have

30:03

a female every year. She's my female. This year,

30:06

EPMG, Nicess coom Odd

30:08

will be in the building and

30:11

my headliner is Big Daddy King Yo,

30:14

man, Yo, you know

30:16

where the maxtro is. He's

30:19

gonna be on my stage. You gotta see this

30:21

video. I gotta I'm gonna say, send me your

30:23

number. I'm gonna send you this video that

30:26

he did. He is, He's

30:28

he's the Maestro. That's all I can say.

30:31

He wants some yo, lady beatish Bull or

30:34

see the rock. I'm coming down here to rock

30:36

the joint or that's like the

30:38

Chromo videos. But everybody people

30:42

doing oh when you have to do one too.

30:45

People are doing happy for the of the anniversary videos.

30:47

We're trying to make happy

30:50

for the Lady be. Spread the word, get everybody

30:52

to do it. Let's blow the spot up as

30:54

Dad Happy for the Lady Be. Let's go whoo

30:57

wow. So

31:04

I remember when you you came

31:06

to Parer ninety nine. I believe in

31:08

eighty four, like around fall of

31:10

eighty four. I'm

31:13

not even around around that. I

31:16

religiously remember this, But there

31:19

was a period in which you

31:21

were off of W H A T. Between

31:24

I guess like around eighty three or whatever. What happened

31:27

in that gap year? Like I didn't hear, like

31:29

I went from I went from H A T to

31:32

Power ninety nine, then Power

31:34

ninety nine fire me and I went up to New

31:36

York. I was on BS Okay,

31:40

so your original Sunday afternoon show

31:43

on Par nine. My original

31:45

radio gig was thirteen forty

31:48

am. First time hip hop was ever

31:50

played on X. Then I was approached

31:52

by D A. S. And this is

31:54

when power was just born. And you know, I justed

31:56

to be a country station, right, this

31:58

is when they decided to make it, you know, an

32:01

urban station. They both

32:03

made an offer, and honestly,

32:06

being a d As child and raised by Butter,

32:08

um definitely want his bonus children. I

32:10

um it was butter who gave me the name La DyB. By the

32:12

way, um wait,

32:15

I don't know what your real name is. Do we know what

32:17

your real name is. I

32:19

have a government name my family. But

32:21

Hi. Everybody calls me but Hi. That's what the B stands

32:23

for. Wow. Yeah.

32:25

So anyway, they both made an

32:28

offer, but ninety nines offer was more, and I

32:30

went to Butter kind of tyria because

32:32

I'm a kid and I really wanted My dream is to work for

32:34

D A. S. And and he told

32:36

me, and I quote and I love

32:38

him, forty said baby, I'm gonna need you to go

32:40

get that money. And

32:44

I was like, brother, he was like, listen here,

32:47

you'll shine. M hm

32:49

fly fly my child, fly, go get

32:51

that money. By this point,

32:56

we're going into the second phase of what hip

32:58

hop is, with the def Jam

33:01

era, with the Rush era. Who

33:03

did you mean when Russell finally got the deal

33:05

with CBS. Yes, that the whole

33:07

what I call the fresh Fest era where you're introducing

33:10

us to the fat Boys, where you're introducing us to the Beastie

33:13

Boys and run DMC and whatnot. I

33:15

do know that New York's resistance

33:18

to hip hop being

33:20

performed at least in Manhattan opened

33:23

the door for Philadelphia, uh,

33:26

to become the second biggest market. Because you

33:28

know, Chuff the East always tell me that the

33:30

most you know, they could they could play in Long

33:33

Island at that stadium, but they could

33:35

never play Madison Square Gardens. So to

33:37

them, playing the spectrum

33:40

was just as important.

33:44

Those are the brick walls.

33:46

I was telling you about a quest Like people

33:49

think that, oh, yeah, you know, we

33:51

start doing this and everybody you know, open

33:53

their arms and and and and loved on it.

33:56

No, we had to fight for a lot

33:58

of stuff that people take for

34:00

granted. Now, in my opinion, you have no idea.

34:03

We had politicians. I

34:05

don't know if you remember picketing at radio

34:08

stations no more. We

34:11

went through so much. Uh,

34:14

we went through so much. But you know, God

34:17

bless Russell forgetting that deal. With CBS,

34:19

because that's when you

34:22

know, now we see the

34:24

monetary value of it, and we

34:26

see that um, you know, you got executives

34:28

at CBS who were saying, damn

34:31

public enemy, and the BC boards are selling just as

34:33

much as Lutheran Michael. Wait, wait a minute,

34:35

Let's take a look at this right, and

34:39

those kind of numbers and and

34:41

and the masses that a

34:44

national distribution

34:46

deal brought to hip hop made

34:49

it. It was combustible. It

34:51

it exploded, if you will.

34:54

It touched a globe

34:56

something that was created

34:59

in the earls of New York and

35:02

by me hanging out with those

35:05

crazy older people had no business hanging

35:07

out with uh bringing it

35:09

to Philadelphia and and

35:11

and all of us collectively fighting for

35:13

um the time on the radio.

35:16

Here's the here's the thing. When I was on AM,

35:18

the woman who owned the station even on my

35:20

name. This woman walked by me every day,

35:22

never spoke to me, never

35:25

said anything. I had this little show

35:27

for a couple of hours on a Saturday. It grew

35:29

to a Sunday. They saw the numbers

35:32

started to grow, It grew to a weekly

35:34

show, and she started speaking

35:36

to me. Moral of the story, Hamas

35:39

Clark, how are you, mss die, how are

35:41

you? She didn't care nothing about me,

35:43

but I started making her so much money.

35:45

Like Billboard did this big article. I broke

35:47

records on AM ratings. AM

35:50

had never gotten ratings like that. So that's what

35:52

happened. Just ask forward

35:54

to where you're talking about. When you

35:57

know it's not about your trunk,

36:00

you go to the press and playing and press up your own type

36:02

situation, which is what it was. It

36:04

was like drugs, you know,

36:06

you didn't bag it up, you pressed it up

36:08

and then to the community.

36:11

So by the time you got the Power of ninety nine, though,

36:13

where was where was hip hop in this relationship with

36:15

radio? Because like by this time, where there are other

36:17

cities. By this time, you have to understand

36:20

that power is where I played Girls

36:22

of the World ain't nothing but trouble. Well,

36:27

yeah, this is when Jeff and and

36:29

and this is when Steady B and Will

36:31

were battling on the radio. I remember

36:34

that we had to make it some

36:40

of the songs they couldn't even wait

36:43

to get it to the press. I played a lot of ascetates.

36:46

You know what that is, you know, So

36:48

I played a lot of those that

36:52

I still can't find it's a whole different

36:54

mix. I have ascetates here in my storage

36:56

that I will not part with the sentimental

36:59

value. But well, I played it off, Cassette,

37:01

you know what I mean before it even got because they

37:04

wanted to have you up and get it out. What

37:06

what should also be noted is that, um,

37:09

I mean Para nine wasn't your only platform.

37:12

And what I want to know is hustlers

37:16

we were. I was a little promote. I did a hip hop parties.

37:18

We did after midnight. I was gonna say,

37:20

after midnight the

37:23

mecca, the mecca. That's

37:26

Philadelphia's rich, that's Philadelphia's

37:29

you know, I don't know which New York then you I

37:31

could compare to, but U second

37:35

Latin quarters

37:36

that This

37:40

is what I want to know. Though now I

37:42

was for I was forbidden to

37:45

go to after midnight

37:48

because of course, you know, parents were like

37:51

too violent was

37:54

after night. It was after midnight

37:56

as bad as all the authority

37:58

figures in my life told me that it was.

38:02

First of all, God bless the authority

38:04

figures in your life. Not

38:06

everyone survived the era of after

38:09

midnight. Um.

38:11

I will say that it was I

38:14

wish I knew the history. Um, the

38:16

owner passed away not too long ago too,

38:18

but I want to say before

38:20

it was a hip hop club, it was some kind

38:23

of seed underground

38:25

because they had like a movie theater in it,

38:29

this obscure off to

38:32

the side. Well no, he took in board to spaghetti

38:34

ware house and tried to make it. But there would it would nothing

38:36

would ever be as the undergrounds row down

38:38

was. You're going down these steps into this basement

38:41

and once you enter, you're in a whole different

38:43

world. You know. Me and Shante,

38:47

she brought me the tears, but we were talking about the

38:50

first time she in Business had

38:53

performed there, and picture

38:56

this. This is one of my favorite nights with

38:58

Business. Shanty. So um,

39:01

you know, Philly is what our fans are ignorant

39:04

say, boys, I'm Seante bigger. So

39:08

this so no business or beat box.

39:10

He's beatboxing. There's no record playing. He's

39:13

beatboxing for it and this nigga and Philly

39:16

yells out, yo, fucking

39:19

you suck you with something. It's something something

39:21

disrespectful. And she

39:23

she turned around, she looked at bus She said, give

39:26

me a good beat, Busy, and she came off

39:28

the stage and off the top of her head toward

39:31

this boy down your bum, youero

39:33

bum, You're a bum, You're a bum. Like

39:35

she just everything that he was wearing, she

39:37

talked about. She told him up down

39:39

to his sneakers, how his hair

39:42

was messed up, his breath stink it

39:44

was. And all you see is people are standing there like

39:46

oh, snaps, like get

39:49

up and like no, I

39:52

will never forget that night, like

39:55

not ever. That was the best.

39:57

It was the best forms ja that's

40:00

fresh big that came battle. I've

40:02

heard about this, but did it listen?

40:05

You don't even know. I don't know if do you

40:07

remember when what

40:09

was it called my year the World's Supremacy

40:12

Contest that Philadelphia DJ's

40:14

kept winning the DM. They hadn't

40:16

had the Marryott you

40:18

know before that. It was a convention.

40:22

It was the world Supremacy contest for the

40:24

best DJ. Yeah,

40:27

before your time, Jeff One,

40:30

miss one and cash Money one one

40:32

year, I'm

40:35

I'm judging and Jeff

40:37

One, I'll never forget that. That's the year

40:39

he took the basketball out and

40:42

put on the turntable and and Will was jumping

40:44

over the table and we're freaking out because he went Because

40:46

this is for all the DJs around the World. And

40:49

then the next year I'm on a judging

40:51

panel again in Cash Money

40:53

one, and they were

40:55

like I was influencing that the

40:58

judges, it's not how

41:00

fair Bill he keeps winning because

41:02

Lady b is you know,

41:06

they know. They were just saying, like I was yelling at the other

41:08

at the other day of the other. The judges like, you

41:10

can clearly see it's not because I'm from Philly. Like that

41:12

was dope. Like they had a whole tricks. Yeah,

41:15

it was a DJ contest. So

41:17

the following year they said I had to m

41:20

c the contest. I couldn't be a judge,

41:22

so we want to dispel you know that

41:24

rumor. And then this one and then this one.

41:27

I wasn't even a judge that year or so, right, Philly

41:31

stick out the best TJ. Well, we

41:34

did something and we still we still are

41:36

the best when it comes to the cutting and the scratching

41:39

and the transforming. I

41:41

lived and worked up New York for five years in the radio,

41:43

and I always with my chest out, I'm not scared

41:45

of you. I'm like, Okay, hip hop was born here.

41:48

Y'all got some dope mcs. When it comes to the tables,

41:51

Philly wins hands down. That

41:53

trained record a mix that y'all do up there,

41:55

and records are not playing

41:57

them long enough. Yes,

42:00

oh my god.

42:07

Are there any other legendary

42:10

after midnight stories? Like artist

42:14

who is an icon? Now, I'm gonna tell

42:16

you here, this is where, this

42:18

is where, this is why your

42:21

parents didn't want you to come to after midnight.

42:23

So we literally checked at the door.

42:26

We had the whole the wines

42:28

with the metal protectors and whatnot. And

42:31

I guess this guy got a little twenty five in and

42:33

his Timberland and Chuck

42:36

be and Flavor on stage is public enemies

42:38

on stage and we hear pop pop pop, and

42:41

everybody starts to scramble and

42:43

run. And that's the day

42:45

I found out that the s one ws

42:47

were really really security. That wasn't

42:50

a prop all. I remembers

42:52

being folded in half, and

42:55

next thing I know, I was down the steps in the dressing room.

42:57

I don't even know how I got there. That's how fast

43:00

they moved me. How

43:03

how often they gently took

43:05

my stomach and that didn't happen. That was

43:07

the only gun incident, but

43:09

it was one that I will always remember because

43:11

they literally took my stomach and with their hand and

43:13

they put my head down and then two brothers

43:15

had my elbows and the next thing

43:17

I know, I was downstairs.

43:21

Yeah. I will never forget the night

43:24

that you premiere Rebel without

43:26

a pause. I talked about this in my book

43:29

Like You and Snow.

43:31

First of all, where is Snow? I

43:34

just saw him at a balloon release

43:36

and memory of a friend that we lost, Big Bob.

43:38

Remember Big Bob that

43:40

passed away, well, his mom. He died during

43:43

COVID and we really couldn't do anything

43:45

special when the only year anniversary

43:47

not too long ago, as mom asked that we all come to the house

43:49

and release some balloons in his name, and we did.

43:52

We all showed up. I'm

43:55

guessing, gown, I'll talk about the informer. Okay,

43:58

no, but you're talking. So I want to get back to this

44:02

white boy. He came up with the term.

44:04

He used to say dope backwards, so we weren't

44:06

allowed to say the word dope on the air. We couldn't

44:09

say that was dope. So he made an ipot. Wait,

44:11

you weren't allowed to say dope. Yeah,

44:13

we got in trouble for saying dope. Apot

44:17

lifted and said it was just trying to be

44:19

cool. No, that was our way

44:21

of saying it without saying it. Why

44:24

did But anyway, let me tell you about Public

44:27

Enemy. Um, I had a

44:29

boss who said that I couldn't play Public

44:31

Enemy. That's what I wanted to know. Okay, um

44:34

forbid me to play Public Enemy

44:36

and I quit my job.

44:40

Is this not Harry Alan

44:42

Dave Allen? No, this is before dropped

44:45

no names and no, was actually

44:47

the guy before Dave? I

44:49

don't know, doesn't

44:51

even matter. He didn't want me to play public Enemy,

44:54

the black guy. Okay,

44:57

okay, okay, No,

45:00

he wasn't a black guy. But

45:02

anyway, I

45:04

I quit my job. I said, if I can't play them,

45:07

then I quit. And uh forced

45:09

their hand in them and went back in the

45:11

studio when I played him, but

45:13

I had to put my foot down. Yeah, I was gonna say.

45:15

The night you premiered Rebel without

45:18

a pause was like if

45:21

you guys are familiar with Orson

45:23

Welles and the Original War

45:25

of the World,

45:30

the World's when in people

45:32

thought aliens were invading the United

45:34

States. They

45:36

thought it was a real like news report, and when

45:38

it was just like back when they used to listen

45:40

to radios, you know that's sort of thing. And

45:43

all I remember was

45:47

Chuck d got to Power ninety

45:49

nine around one in the morning,

45:53

and the city I've never heard

45:55

like it was the It was the kind of

45:57

silence like when someone dies on a sick um

46:01

like

46:03

like you know, um,

46:06

you know, I used to go to school

46:08

with Monanka. She

46:11

worked for me. So

46:13

all ya were quiet in the studio and

46:15

he was like, look, I'm gonna go to

46:17

commercial right now, but I need you all to get

46:19

your tapes. I'm gonna play something for you that you

46:24

just I can't describe

46:26

what I'm about to play for you. Um,

46:28

they're my favorites to the day. But I'll never

46:31

forget the day being up in Def Def

46:33

Jam and New York and Russell

46:35

saying You're not gonna believe

46:37

this, this this this thing, hanted

46:39

it hank In chucting. I'm like, let

46:42

me hear it. I fell

46:45

in love. I felt

46:47

I rocked that casseet all the way back down

46:49

to turn right. It

46:53

was so in

47:00

general, what was the protocol

47:03

for like hip hop promotion

47:06

back then? Because I mean, besides

47:08

Mr Magic, I mean again, like you

47:10

are a major

47:12

portal, so like is it relationships

47:15

with Like when someone wants to break

47:17

a new act open like, how did someone approach

47:19

you about the Fat Boys? They

47:21

had to bring it to me, you know. Everybody

47:23

had to come to aybody had a record rep that

47:26

came and was the only

47:28

gig in town, right, be Like literally, I'm

47:32

gonna tell you I have. I lived in this duplex

47:35

apartment and you're

47:37

right. I was so broke. It

47:40

was my very first apartment. And I remember

47:43

the lady downstairs. She was cool with me. She would

47:45

let me leave the the

47:47

door that we shared open because they would

47:49

just come and stick the records and leave them

47:51

in my hallway.

47:55

Yeah, and they just leave them there for me. They got

47:57

to know where I live. Like all the promotion

47:59

man hung out at my career. It was like a damn

48:02

yeah. And I was never a problem. Damn

48:05

when I was young. It was like you

48:09

never felt in no harm's way. That's like, that's a beautiful

48:11

things. Another time, I gott understand. I still

48:13

got my crazy older sister around me too. And then

48:15

there's Dad, I mean, you know, and may

48:18

she rest in peace. My there was a straight gangster,

48:20

so I didn't fear too much. So

48:23

what I want to know is was there

48:25

an act that a

48:28

label or manager tried to push off

48:30

on you that you

48:32

weren't feeling at the time or whatever, and

48:34

you were like, all right, boll oh,

48:39

are you how honest? Are you allowed to

48:41

be when it comes to like

48:43

like that? I

48:47

no, I definitely that was one thing.

48:49

I played what I wanted to play. Um

48:51

And when have you been wrong? I

48:55

was wrong a couple of times. I was wrong about Hammer.

48:58

Well, really, you never know. It's never

49:00

played. You never played like I

49:03

did an honest make it to break it. I let

49:05

the listeners vote. It didn't vote. I broke

49:07

the damn records. Not my fault. The Philly didn't

49:09

like it. I forgot about making a break it.

49:12

And I would remember I would literally crack the record.

49:14

You can hear on the vinyl fall

49:16

on the ground. That was a real

49:18

thing. What was the record? What was the Hammer

49:20

record? Everyone

49:22

he ever gave was it? Like? And then it went pop

49:25

and then it came back around. I

49:28

remember the spectrum Hammer sent

49:30

it security people to come get me, and he was

49:32

mad. I went his dressing. When he's like, while you break

49:34

my record, I'm like, it's a contest, dude. I didn't

49:36

do it. Philly broke it record, I didn't break it. I

49:39

mean just a messenger on

49:42

something. Hammer's biggest fan

49:45

in seven Black

49:48

thought the Clones. It

49:56

was the way he went side to side. What would explain

50:00

because I didn't just lost so many points

50:02

with me just now and I I'm

50:04

gonna tell you, why don't

50:06

make me getting

50:08

started? Let me say that.

50:11

I'm gonna say I didn't say I didn't like and I just

50:13

it wasn't very yeah, no,

50:16

no, no no, I'm gonna tell you. Trek loves

50:19

the Apache breakbeat so much to

50:21

turn his mother out. Nobody's

50:24

going any wrong on it. So it was the beat

50:26

that got you because I

50:27

haven't no get just

50:30

love to turn his mother out. And I

50:32

think it but

50:37

literally, like the two acts that Trek

50:40

forced me to get onto that I wasn't

50:42

feeling initially was

50:44

Hammer and believe it or not

50:47

in w A because I

50:50

just looked at in w A and just said, oh, they're

50:52

gonna be whacked. You know. I didn't

50:54

okay, but here's here. Wait wait wait

50:56

wait because now and I

50:58

was like, you're blowing my mind because you are my

51:01

drummer forever in my head, Like I

51:04

put you synonymous with the beats.

51:06

So now you're scaring me, so

51:09

you have to understand. Wait wait, wait wait. So there's

51:12

there's Hank Shockley and Public Enemy,

51:14

and there's Rebel, and it's Fife for the Power.

51:16

It's all of that. It's all that

51:19

that drummage, all that

51:21

fly as beats, which n

51:25

w A emulated. So how

51:27

in the hell with all those banging beats

51:29

does West love not

51:31

like n w You're

51:34

gonna explain that ship to me. I'm

51:37

gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna bring it back to the roots.

51:39

That's simply because I

51:41

looked at n w A without

51:44

you didn't like girls, and it

51:46

was the look all

51:50

right, So say I get that part. I

51:52

get that part.

51:55

This happens to us

51:58

still reconceded to

52:01

this day. NAS will deny it. But

52:04

I realized, Okay, we did a

52:06

show at Radio City Music Hall once

52:08

and NAS was like going to do a walk on with

52:11

us, and we're sound checking, and

52:14

like NAS was losing his mind

52:16

at sound check. Now, mind you, this is

52:18

like two thousand and eight, and

52:22

you know I'm in I'm in the inn of your like

52:25

I have a special microphone that all only Roots

52:27

and Roots staff can hear me, And I was

52:29

like, yo, man, that is really giddy about us,

52:31

like in a way that I never

52:34

expected. And then ten minutes

52:36

later it just hit me, Oh,

52:39

this is the very first

52:42

time that Nas

52:44

in two thousand and eight is

52:47

listening to the Roots because

52:50

he was on the phone like with this boy, like, Yo, they

52:52

sound just like the record. They you could play

52:55

break fast da da And

52:57

so in my mind, I was like, oh,

52:59

yeah, so you one of them people that looked at us like

53:04

that was his very first time seeing you guys.

53:07

It's look, I'm just telling

53:09

you that in

53:12

case in point is that freestyle that

53:14

he did on fump Master Flex. A

53:16

lot of the a lot of the elation of

53:18

people looking at Ti ding

53:21

that freestyle was the fact that

53:23

they just never sat for

53:25

the point many.

53:31

I mean, it's like it's like it's like Dame Dash

53:33

from the Kanye record, Like, oh ship is not whack

53:35

like that that's what was

53:38

getting

53:39

run. So I like

53:42

I looked at in w A and was just like they

53:44

whack. And then

53:46

Tarik played me side one and straight out

53:48

Compton. I was like, wait, they

53:51

sound like East Coast,

53:53

Like I didn't know they were

53:55

real. So it's just I'm gotta

53:58

listen to it, and I'm gonna be honest. I've not

54:00

only did I think that they were corny and not.

54:03

I don't know. I just didn't believe it. I had

54:05

never been to Compton, and

54:08

like I said, I loved to beat my sister. Like I said,

54:10

she was crazy, she was a gangster. She I called her Dre

54:12

into the day she died. That was her nickname. Like she loved

54:15

n w Ray so much. Um,

54:17

but she blasted and and and But

54:19

then you know, I went to

54:22

Compton, went out west, and I

54:24

saw it. And then I had a

54:26

new respect for en w A after seeing

54:29

that, because back then there was another thing you

54:31

couldn't do. You couldn't rap about something that you weren't

54:34

like. You can't. You couldn't front like

54:36

you tough and knewhen you was a little punk like you

54:38

couldn't do that. That was forbidden for me. You had

54:40

to be what you were talking about. And

54:42

when I went out there, um remember

54:45

it was iced tea. I had

54:48

an artist ice cream tea.

54:49

And first it was her first

54:52

trip out west. She had a couple of gigs

54:54

lined up, and I had these kids I had to get

54:56

their parents to sign waivers and all

54:58

this stuff. And I turned around and he had taking all my

55:00

kids Compton like what

55:06

yeah that it was my artist

55:09

in the in the thing. Oh by the way,

55:11

um yeah, we just did an episode

55:14

uh with uh

55:17

Tracy Ellis Ross's dad Bob Ellis

55:19

and that ice cream

55:21

t was also signed on that

55:23

same level on m

55:25

c AD with

55:28

with Busy being whatnot was

55:31

big family. Yeah.

55:33

Um. Bob Ellis was

55:36

one of the nicest men I've ever met in

55:38

my life. But I had I

55:41

entered into a business venture. I made a bad deal

55:43

with a brother. I won't say his name, but I started

55:45

the first hip hop magazine. It's called Strictly hip

55:47

Hop. I've read Strictly hip

55:50

Hop and that was my magazine.

55:53

That yeah, that's my name

55:55

in the back of it. But

55:58

anyway, Bob Ellis, I went

56:00

to court with my partner. It

56:02

turned out to be a disaster, but Bibos

56:04

was very helpful and

56:07

helping me come and come up with cash for litigators

56:09

and stuff. I did fight a good fight, but

56:13

he was very It was very helpful

56:15

to me. Really nice guys. Bob was like our fifth

56:17

guest that had a lady b story. I'm trying

56:19

to remember some of the other folks, but he was

56:22

people. He was he was

56:24

really cool. I think it was Premier and some other people.

56:26

But I okay, I

56:29

gotta ask though, Like I

56:31

do know that when we were younger, like

56:33

you were like every body's

56:37

crush. You're literally everyone's

56:39

crushed. How did

56:43

you I can only

56:45

imagine. I mean, if we're now just dealing

56:47

with the politically correct

56:51

to very toxic male atmosphere,

56:53

and you know, especially in the music business,

56:57

how did you handle that back then? Again,

56:59

I was just as funny that you were

57:01

last because I was just we were just having a conversation,

57:04

me and Lee Daniels. I grew up

57:06

across the street from me, and really,

57:09

yeah, he's like my brother. Yeah.

57:14

Yes,

57:17

everything about Philly, all of the

57:19

damn name after us.

57:23

All the characters are named after like

57:25

Cookie. I want to say that Cookie, the character

57:27

of Cookie an Expire Empire, was my

57:29

sister. Oh which

57:31

sister? You was

57:34

my sister? I mean, I think that he got a lot of

57:36

what my sister was in our upbringing out

57:38

and created that character. Cousins.

57:42

I don't know because what

57:44

happened, you know, what happened to be a mirror left

57:47

and kind of got a little famous, and so his

57:49

trips to Philly were like, so during

57:54

that part, you was really super dude. He was really

57:56

getting the duperuper famous. Me.

57:59

Me and Lee been talking on the phone

58:01

for like almost a year and a half because

58:03

I was supposed to score Billie

58:06

Holiday. Not once did he

58:08

ever tell me he was from Philadelphia.

58:12

He probably going that you knew, but any who

58:15

asked me about um, what was the question

58:17

of me to me too?

58:19

Things so um

58:22

and explaining who my sister was. Again,

58:24

So me and we were having this conversation and we were just

58:26

talking about, you

58:28

know, some of our friends who had had

58:31

some difficult times and and things

58:34

happened to them or whatever. And I

58:36

have to honestly say I didn't have

58:39

too many meat definitely

58:41

no bad ones, but not too many even small

58:43

me too um stories

58:46

because people were scared of my sister. That's

58:48

crazy. I got more than you and you came back. I

58:50

remember I remember a guy I

58:53

thought he was fine. I wanted to go out with this guy

58:55

so bad. This biggest question is drug dealer

58:58

Da da Da. I hopped my hot as

59:00

in his car and we went for this ride and

59:02

we're pulling up to the CD Hotel

59:05

in Jersey and I'm like, what are we doing? Why are we

59:07

here? You know, I'm just got

59:09

no business being out or in this man's car.

59:12

And he said, and he was like, oh, we're

59:14

just gonna chill here for a minute to go to the movies. I was like,

59:16

why, I gotta call my sister and tell her. And

59:20

it was your sister. And I told him, and he put

59:22

me in the cur and he back, he lost the bridge

59:25

and he let me out front of my house. I never heard

59:27

from him. But wait, everybody

59:29

ain't now everybody.

59:33

Everybody tell me

59:36

in your career, nobody has tried to test

59:38

you. Oh well, I'm sure they have.

59:40

I'm just saying I don't have any moments where I would

59:42

have to, uh,

59:45

you know, take anybody to court and all this drama.

59:48

And that's funny because we were saying, and

59:50

somebody did do something to me, I would

59:53

if you. I laughed the other day and I said this and

59:55

this is a quote, if you bother touched

59:57

me wrong or disrespecting me. On Tuesday

59:59

at two k by two oh five, I

1:00:01

was telling like, we're not what that's

1:00:04

beautiful that you have some money to tell because you was

1:00:06

at home.

1:00:07

What hell?

1:00:10

Yeah, people approached me.

1:00:12

Yeah, I was back into a corner like, oh, I want to tell my

1:00:14

sister better move. That's beautiful. You

1:00:17

know. It's also rare that radio people never have

1:00:19

to move away from home. So the fact that you got

1:00:21

to stay at home and that you did

1:00:23

community, that's such a blessings.

1:00:27

Know my sister traveled with me. Um,

1:00:30

but that was just the way I was raising then

1:00:32

my brother you know, the nerd

1:00:34

or Harvard grad he um,

1:00:37

you know, just by bullying me all my life and

1:00:39

tickling me and wouldn't you know, sitting on me

1:00:41

and wouldn't let me up. I learned how to fight pretty

1:00:43

well, just getting out of those headlocks

1:00:45

and stuff with. How

1:00:47

do you feel now? Fast forward that a lot of

1:00:50

like, you know, not for nothing, some of your

1:00:52

brothers that you came up with made famous or now

1:00:54

kind of in the spotlight in that way

1:00:57

and the times of change, the things that weren't acceptable,

1:00:59

you know what's said. But I will say

1:01:01

that, Um, they

1:01:04

say success can make or break you. I

1:01:06

mean I've seen some brothers people

1:01:09

that I know that little very

1:01:12

disappointing and heart wrenching to uh

1:01:15

see where they ended up to see that money

1:01:18

and fame. Maybe I don't know what to blame it on.

1:01:20

I can't tell their story. Um,

1:01:23

changes I'm very

1:01:25

I'm very.

1:01:28

UM, I'm proud

1:01:31

to be where

1:01:33

I'm where I am now and standing these

1:01:35

shoes, and UM, I

1:01:38

like to raise every my nieces

1:01:40

and and and all the young women that I

1:01:42

can teach to put

1:01:45

those shoulders back and don't let you

1:01:47

men treat you. I remember when the r. Kelly

1:01:50

tape came out and I walked into

1:01:52

the radio station and the guys were in the conference room

1:01:54

looking at it, and they were really scrambling

1:01:57

looking for to be moote to have it off by the time

1:01:59

I hit the wre and that said

1:02:01

a lot because they were not going to be

1:02:04

watched that in front of me. That's

1:02:06

the respect that I demanded, you know what I'm saying.

1:02:09

And I remember, you know, like Shamara coming

1:02:11

to me, Why why don't they talk

1:02:13

to you the way they talk to me? And I was like, because you

1:02:15

allow them. See, when you stop

1:02:18

somebody in your tracks and go I have to say

1:02:20

that. You know. I'm I'm I'm a sports girl.

1:02:22

I hang out with the guys, but the conversation

1:02:24

a little left. Excuse me, lady in the

1:02:26

room. I say it all the time. Wait wait, went

1:02:29

too far and I went too far? Bring

1:02:32

it back. You have to demand

1:02:34

that kind of respect. Was there ever,

1:02:37

um, a time where you

1:02:39

just felt like, okay, this

1:02:42

this might be above my not above

1:02:44

my paper, righte but just sort of like where

1:02:47

you might have gotten exhausted and not really

1:02:49

know like where

1:02:53

you were, where are you stid with hip hop?

1:02:55

I know, I know that people often get

1:02:58

to that place where sort of like, okay, it

1:03:00

is this. I remember getting burnt out.

1:03:03

I remember being angry that it

1:03:05

got so watered

1:03:09

down that

1:03:13

I want to say most

1:03:15

of the time when I was up there in New York like three

1:03:20

bet that area

1:03:23

where you want w b ls. Wow,

1:03:27

Okay, you know I

1:03:29

didn't even realize that I was there when Frankie

1:03:31

Crocker was the program director And

1:03:34

yeah, what was he like? He

1:03:36

wasn't not not a

1:03:38

not a nice guy.

1:03:41

You're the only person I know that actually worked

1:03:43

in proximity of him, Like, there's

1:03:46

a story, here's a story. Um.

1:03:49

He would call these staff meetings crazy

1:03:52

early in the morning, and basically

1:03:54

talk about itself for like the

1:03:56

first forty five minutes, the

1:03:58

first forty five minutes, first forty

1:04:01

minutes, so

1:04:03

up, yeah, yeah,

1:04:06

And then um, I remember,

1:04:09

I'm just being sarcastic, and I was just like,

1:04:11

you know, Red Alert has all these contests, because I

1:04:13

was going up against Red Alert over at at Kiss

1:04:15

at the time, and I'm like, you don't

1:04:17

have any contests or anything for me to give away.

1:04:19

How am I going to compete? I'm not from New

1:04:22

York, you know, I gotta come here and

1:04:24

you know, get my feet wet. But y'all I need

1:04:26

some help. And he said,

1:04:29

well, what do you want, Lady B And I said, well, can you

1:04:31

I don't know, can they win a date with Big Daddy Kane

1:04:33

or something? And he,

1:04:35

you know, just showing off. He picked up the phone. He gets Warner

1:04:38

Brothers on the phone. Of course, he said, that's

1:04:40

done, deal. Do you want anything else? And I'm like, no,

1:04:42

that'll be enough. And

1:04:45

it happened. So it happens, so buggsy.

1:04:48

Um, So we

1:04:50

do the whole promotion. Cane goes on a date with the girl

1:04:52

we know, we do the pictures, blah blah blah and

1:04:54

we come back and Bugsy is on

1:04:57

the air signing one. He

1:04:59

was in New York, right, he's he's

1:05:03

only he's on Serious now and he's still on

1:05:05

Kiss I think so he Um,

1:05:07

he's going to crossover with Frankie Clarker,

1:05:10

and Frankie Clarker says,

1:05:12

yeah, Lady Bee's jeans are fitting a little too

1:05:14

tight to day, I might have to fire

1:05:17

her because you can't mess with company personnel.

1:05:20

Wow, And I was so, I

1:05:22

was so insulted. So

1:05:25

I immediately started the west the Woolling

1:05:27

Avenue and he came out quest and I'm like who

1:05:32

and came big Daddy came, saved

1:05:34

my job. But he put his hand over my mouth.

1:05:38

It was like it

1:05:44

was happened. That

1:05:47

happened, Gee, and that happened.

1:05:50

So those are some of my stories. I don't believe

1:05:52

I'm sharing these stories in public. This Mary, you're not gonna

1:05:55

tell us how the song came together, just

1:05:57

the booperty scoop or whatever. But

1:06:03

well, I was talking about the roots Yan But yes, that's

1:06:05

too, they said, they said that I

1:06:07

said it on the air. Um all the time.

1:06:10

They said, I said, I

1:06:12

didn't remember this, but Tyreek

1:06:14

and Mirror said that I said

1:06:16

something on the air without a doubt

1:06:18

all the time. And then they took school. He was school,

1:06:20

he's beat right, Yeah, And they

1:06:23

asked me to come in the studio. I might coming to

1:06:25

through you don't do what is it? We just want you to say what

1:06:27

you say with the radio without

1:06:29

a doubt. I'm like, that's all I gotta say. They were

1:06:31

like yeah, I'm like all right, what. Yeah,

1:06:34

we had the tape of an old of

1:06:36

an old show of first But you know, back

1:06:38

then it was fan radio and sometimes static

1:06:40

would be I mean, now

1:06:43

you know I I embraced in perfection

1:06:45

and mistakes and all those things. So I would

1:06:47

gladly sample someone with fan

1:06:49

radio static back

1:06:51

then. I love it. It's coming back to people.

1:06:54

It sounds like a cheap

1:06:56

radio. Let's get it to do it for real. So, and

1:06:59

it was the session they were blazing.

1:07:01

I was like, we're allowed to do this in here. This

1:07:03

is amazing. I

1:07:08

will say that. Um. Fun

1:07:10

fact, the Without

1:07:13

a Doubt is the one song that

1:07:15

we made that

1:07:17

wasn't recorded directly. Um,

1:07:21

we didn't do a lot of the

1:07:23

tracking. We didn't do that at Sigma. Initially

1:07:27

we had to use the studio on consha

1:07:29

Hocken and um

1:07:31

when we got to the studio, but I was in

1:07:33

Sigma, but that's where I came to you. We

1:07:39

did we did the tracking and consho

1:07:42

Hocken, and we did it on

1:07:45

Rick James's Knieve board that

1:07:48

he did for street songs. And

1:07:52

the engineer and the owner of the studio

1:07:54

that purchased games, uh,

1:07:57

collected all the cocaine residue.

1:08:01

But board had for at

1:08:03

least seven years,

1:08:06

and I swear to God it could fit like a

1:08:09

garbage back. So let me tell you

1:08:11

my Rick James story. That scared me. And I know you're

1:08:13

not lying. So when I was a

1:08:15

young girl, another one of my jobs at the radio

1:08:17

station was to get the artist to do drops. You know, I

1:08:19

need to do drops when

1:08:22

I'm in town. I listened to whatever, whatever, so

1:08:25

I never forget it. Crazy little

1:08:27

rocket roll white guy was our engineer. I

1:08:29

loved him. The name was Alan. He was like all over the place.

1:08:32

And Rick James walks into the studio and he

1:08:34

just doesn't He just lays down his long

1:08:36

line on the console

1:08:39

in the radio station, the radio station,

1:08:42

and I'm standing like, oh,

1:08:44

clap. I ran back and told

1:08:46

my boss. I was like, yeah, I'll do this off the chain,

1:08:48

like he's just doing lines right there.

1:08:51

And then Allen he was crazy. He was like, dude,

1:08:53

I want something. It was just a whole thing, and it

1:08:58

was a whole girl. It

1:09:01

was all I was like to like the

1:09:03

book. Sorry, I

1:09:06

was gonna say outside of hip hop, like

1:09:08

you also have interactions

1:09:11

with you know, nine

1:09:13

hip hop artists as well, and like,

1:09:15

at any point during

1:09:18

your first five to ten years of

1:09:20

being a radio personality, did

1:09:22

you also do non

1:09:25

hip hop radio as well? Like this

1:09:27

is Luther band rooms no three

1:09:32

tour tickets for the Jackson's, Like, I mean,

1:09:34

yeah, I had to. We did we did that other stuff on the

1:09:36

station. Yeah sure, I mean you know who

1:09:40

didn't know? I didn't go into regular

1:09:43

format for like, like you

1:09:45

said at the beginning of this, uh conversation

1:09:48

from you know, sevinge eighty nine, it was I

1:09:50

was I understand listening

1:09:53

audience, the privilege that you are listening

1:09:55

to not only did she DJ, not

1:09:57

only did she speak, she picked her own records. For ten

1:09:59

years at a as a radio person it just don't

1:10:01

happen. It just it don't happen. And

1:10:04

I'm gonna tell you enough. Well, sometimes I

1:10:07

guess I can tell us because he's no longer with us.

1:10:09

But Mary Mason's son was my job, was my boss.

1:10:11

And I remember

1:10:13

he got into an argument

1:10:16

with the guy at uh what

1:10:19

was running profile and

1:10:22

Corey um manny

1:10:25

Man Okay, I want

1:10:28

to say his name is Manny Anyway, they gotten this big

1:10:30

fight and I wasn't allowed to play um

1:10:34

run DMC And I

1:10:36

remember taking a marker because he didn't know one

1:10:39

wapper from the other, like he wasn't into hip hop,

1:10:41

so I blacked out the labels so

1:10:44

when he came in the studio I wouldn't get caught. What

1:10:49

I know, you have a billion of these stories man, like

1:10:52

you know, yeah, I had

1:10:54

to do that. He would kill He would come back to life and

1:10:56

kill me if he knew that. But yeah, I would black because

1:10:59

I just I'll sucker. I'm seeing so much like there's

1:11:01

no way I'm not playing this. Be you the reason

1:11:03

I rebelled. And then you want to say, lady,

1:11:09

can you can you settle

1:11:12

this this this Philadelphia rumor? Okay,

1:11:15

I'll try. I mean, I smoke

1:11:17

just as much as the rest of you. My memory could be gone

1:11:19

but go ahead. I mean, this is

1:11:21

this is thirteen year old, ninth grade

1:11:24

of mirror asking this question. Oh God,

1:11:26

yes I or what can I have do for you? Dear?

1:11:33

Were you at all engaged

1:11:36

to b J in the Morning from Power NAT

1:11:38

nine? Okay,

1:11:41

so let me tell you how that story started

1:11:43

you what? So,

1:11:46

first of all, we

1:11:48

had a promotional director. So listen,

1:11:51

we had a promotions director at the radio station. And

1:11:54

I want to say it was The Enquirer.

1:11:58

Anyway, it was an article written and

1:12:01

about all the radio stations in Philadelphia, and

1:12:03

they left us out. They left out

1:12:05

Power not n We got no mention. And

1:12:08

this promotion is director. She's pissed. She's

1:12:10

like, how the hell can they leave us out?

1:12:12

Where the number one urban station? Blah blah blah

1:12:14

blah blah. She goes, we have to come up

1:12:16

with a real great gimmick. Oh

1:12:19

no, no,

1:12:22

listen, listen, patients, my

1:12:24

brother patients. So she says, uh,

1:12:27

Felicia was Stride was just proposed to by

1:12:29

her husband what was his name? He

1:12:34

proposed the one the sports show, remember right

1:12:39

whatever one TV? Everybody knew. So

1:12:42

um, yeah, she says,

1:12:44

you guys should do some kind of you know, like, gag

1:12:48

like that and act like BJ's

1:12:51

proposing to you. So um he

1:12:55

we set it up. It happens post game

1:12:58

of a Sixers game. It

1:13:00

goes up on the screen. The whole nine. Um,

1:13:03

we couldn't tell our co workers. Um,

1:13:06

only the Probrium director new and this in his

1:13:08

in this lady. We had to act

1:13:10

like to really sell it. We had

1:13:12

to act like with our co workers that we were, you

1:13:15

know, dating, and um, they're

1:13:17

like, let me see you kiss and I fake kiss them,

1:13:19

and uh, we think he

1:13:21

proposed to me. At the game. It goes up on

1:13:23

the screen. The crowd is yelling,

1:13:26

um, say yes, hey no, A

1:13:29

lot of the crowd is going crazy, and I'm

1:13:31

laughing so hard, so

1:13:34

I grabbed my girlfriend. I put my head down

1:13:36

on her shoulder as if I'm crying, but I'm

1:13:38

really laughing. But I gotta try to pull him off,

1:13:41

so so everybody thinks I was crying and

1:13:43

you know, and I just ran off, like you know, I can't

1:13:46

give an answer now, I'm blah blah blah. Then

1:13:48

we milked it on the air. P J

1:13:50

proposed to me, will she say yes? Blah blah

1:13:52

blah. The whole Um, it

1:13:55

just got out of it just got out of hand. So then we're

1:13:57

hosting the new Edition show at

1:13:59

the Spectrum and we come out and

1:14:01

we make the announcement. Um, he goes, I want

1:14:04

to introduce you to my new edition. Lady B said

1:14:06

yes, because lot of states, he

1:14:08

said. But in

1:14:11

all of this hanging out and pretending,

1:14:14

he ended up really cracking on

1:14:16

me, and he ended up

1:14:19

really proposing to me.

1:14:22

And yeah, he proposed by putting

1:14:25

uh the diamond ring and an iced tray

1:14:27

and told me to go get him some ice or something

1:14:30

and I we got some ice and

1:14:32

he was like, look at the ice, and he was like looking at it. I was like, what

1:14:34

is in this? It was the whole thing. Anyway,

1:14:36

it turned out to be a very horrible relationship

1:14:39

and I might say he rest in peace too. It

1:14:42

turned out to be horrible, one of the worst relationships

1:14:44

in my life. But at first it

1:14:46

was a gag and then it really happened, and

1:14:49

then I really ran away from I just remember

1:14:52

the day after I

1:14:56

guess the Sixers thing happened. Just

1:14:59

everything that's all you know.

1:15:01

And this is before social media, so

1:15:04

we were this was

1:15:06

a very viral thing that

1:15:09

he was talking the barbershop. Yes,

1:15:12

exactly, and I

1:15:14

always wanted to do that. Wait, Frante, I gotta

1:15:16

explain to you because I know we'll

1:15:18

skip this can populated boobulated. Um,

1:15:22

he really want to. I really

1:15:24

wanted. I thought that's about to talk about. Yeah, what is

1:15:26

that? You? You would know him as Joey

1:15:28

b Ellis go for

1:15:32

the Rocky five dgger, right, But before

1:15:34

he was Joey b Ellis, the singing

1:15:37

the original drake, the singing rap.

1:15:41

No, no, that was a big deal. Like his thing was like

1:15:44

I sing and I raped, you know. Then

1:15:47

you know, people like what about t J. Swan, He's

1:15:49

like, well he can't rap, like so that

1:15:52

was his little niche Right soon about

1:15:54

like eight five, eighties six, he comes out,

1:15:56

um you know, after after

1:15:59

school he came out to do PSK and

1:16:01

totally just revolutionized Philly

1:16:05

hip hop. Right then there

1:16:07

came a whole slew of

1:16:09

other Philly acts with their little yellow

1:16:12

labels, with hand drawing cartoons and all

1:16:14

that stuff, design their own labels,

1:16:16

made their own clothes, right, and

1:16:18

that person was he was He

1:16:20

was called the singing mc breeze before he was

1:16:23

Joey b Ellis, and he

1:16:25

did he did a song

1:16:27

that was so popular, but unfortunately,

1:16:30

like the last verse was about

1:16:33

a melee that happened in a Chinese

1:16:35

restaurant, and of course, you

1:16:38

know, he's playing all the stereotypes of Chinese

1:16:41

people, like

1:16:45

yeah, and that was that

1:16:48

was like number instantly number one,

1:16:50

and I remember that Lorraine Ballard

1:16:53

moral oh yeah,

1:16:57

like Lorraine balot More was very offended

1:17:00

of the song and like gave a special

1:17:02

news like that's the first time we heard about like you

1:17:05

can't perpetuate stereotypes and you

1:17:07

can't say that exactly, and

1:17:11

he was just like, that's hip about

1:17:13

schooly d. Why didn't you haven't you asked me

1:17:15

about how much problem I had

1:17:17

with schooling. I didn't

1:17:20

even get I didn't even know this. You played PSK

1:17:22

and all his records so much, so Schooling

1:17:25

came to me right. I'm on,

1:17:27

I just got my job on FM. Can't

1:17:29

tell me nothing. I'm on the radio radio,

1:17:32

like this is this is real. It was

1:17:34

just a joke before this is real real. I got a whole

1:17:36

job and here comes school

1:17:38

he with his record with I

1:17:41

don't know at least twenty thirty curse words.

1:17:44

I'm like, school, what am I supposed to do

1:17:46

it right, and

1:17:48

he started crying, you

1:17:50

won't play my record. He's sitting on the curb. He's

1:17:53

so dramatic. I can't ask

1:17:55

school. He school. He would tell you the story that

1:17:58

I made his ass cry that he was sitting on

1:18:00

the curb and I wouldn't play a song.

1:18:03

So he would bring me like a six

1:18:06

minute song that had about,

1:18:09

like I said, a skillion fox in it, and

1:18:12

I remember me and Jeff

1:18:14

Mills taking it, putting it on real to real and

1:18:17

doing our own cut tape

1:18:20

edit on a reel to reel, like take

1:18:22

out his curse word, taping back up the

1:18:25

back on the real and

1:18:28

after after I took out the cousin word, school,

1:18:30

the song went from like six minutes to about

1:18:34

two fifty. And that's

1:18:36

the part I played until

1:18:39

the company had to do me a radio edit.

1:18:42

But at the beginning I had to do my own

1:18:44

radio edit. And that's the way. We didn't have the equipment

1:18:46

and stuff, you know, the technology we have now.

1:18:49

One of my one of my favorite nights of

1:18:51

yours was the the aforementioned

1:18:54

uh Steady B versus

1:18:57

Will Smith battle. Yeah, that's

1:19:00

tape I can't find, dude, Okay,

1:19:02

so Will Smith will forever, he'll

1:19:04

forever have my respect because

1:19:07

he somehow got the call. He

1:19:10

freestyled that Steady B was a Munchi

1:19:12

chi and I just

1:19:15

remember at

1:19:17

that point Steady Be actually wanting

1:19:19

to fight Will and them like and

1:19:22

I did not help matters any because I thought

1:19:25

it was the funniest I ever

1:19:27

heard. And I think the fact that we all

1:19:30

laughed made him really angry.

1:19:33

We were all laughing. But that was the error

1:19:36

when Seante stepped off that stage, That was

1:19:38

the error. When you had to come off raw, off the top

1:19:40

of your head and just you just had that. That

1:19:42

was actually, to me what you call free styling.

1:19:45

That was freestyling. People environment

1:19:49

underestimated Will because they were

1:19:51

like, well, you're not real hip hop, you're suburban,

1:19:53

you talk off proper. First of all, he

1:19:56

was a suburban. He lived in my neighborhood. But

1:19:58

he wasn't out there aang banging

1:20:00

and talk about to be grabbing his joint

1:20:03

and acting. And you know, we didn't come up in a one

1:20:05

parent household. We didn't learn how to respect women

1:20:07

and stuff. Just because he wasn't raised like that,

1:20:10

wow, not mean he wasn't apart

1:20:12

and just as authentic and trutor hip hop is

1:20:15

everybody else. That is what I love

1:20:17

the most about him. That's when When

1:20:19

was the first one you know

1:20:21

who made me? His

1:20:24

his lyrics made me smile. I'm called

1:20:27

happy hip hop didn't know. Everybody

1:20:29

else was all bravado. I got a big

1:20:31

bad Cadillac, I got this, No you don't, you

1:20:33

live in your mama house, like you

1:20:35

know what I mean? But Will was like the

1:20:37

first one. I mean, you know it

1:20:40

was it was It was funny, It was

1:20:42

funny, it made you smile,

1:20:45

and then you put a dope DJ like Jeff with him

1:20:47

and it was just the greatest combination ever.

1:20:50

Wow, I

1:20:53

can I can go on and on nerding

1:20:55

out forever. Um. It's been beautiful

1:20:57

seeing your friendship too, and how it's evolved

1:20:59

in stop you, Jeff and Will, and how they still

1:21:02

come out and support you. That ship is dope. I just

1:21:04

texted of the guy that's on the movie set with him. I'm

1:21:06

like, tell well, I need a one minute video of him congratulate

1:21:08

me for my forties. He think, I text

1:21:10

back, He's doing it as soon as he gets out of such

1:21:13

a suching like thank you. He never Jay

1:21:19

you missed was my thirties. He came home to

1:21:21

surprise me, like I didn't even know he was coming to the

1:21:23

show. He performed with Salt

1:21:26

and Pepper. He did what a man. He performed

1:21:28

with Chuck and flave. He got out there. He was a whole

1:21:31

s one w he did. He

1:21:35

stayed on stage all night and wait

1:21:38

and there's more it rain to wrench your rain.

1:21:40

It was like the hip hop woods Stock

1:21:43

people did not leave. They stayed in the rain.

1:21:46

Will was shaking me. Are you having as much

1:21:48

fun as me? I'm like, I don't think. He

1:21:53

stayed on stage all night and surprised me. It was the

1:21:55

dopest thing ever. Well, you

1:21:58

all your flowers and you know eighty

1:22:01

one, you just you

1:22:03

literally introduced me to the

1:22:06

world that I get to that I built

1:22:08

in an empire. I

1:22:12

want to thank you for that. And I'm thinking about

1:22:14

your radio mentees around here, because she got

1:22:16

a lot of those in the world too. I

1:22:20

love that one. That's that's my little many

1:22:23

lady, because she only and so she sit up there

1:22:25

and and act like she asked. But you

1:22:27

ain't let nobody say nothing to her either. She

1:22:29

was the only one to stads to speak up. Yeah,

1:22:32

that's right right' watched me be watching

1:22:34

me get that one right there. Proud of that one,

1:22:36

my dad, You watched me get fired two girls, So it's

1:22:38

all good. Uh

1:22:42

you have any you got any children? Like? No?

1:22:46

I tried, but my sister again.

1:22:48

I talked about her so much. She's been going

1:22:50

for two years now. No. My

1:22:52

sister gave me kids

1:22:55

and then my old man passed away on me and he

1:22:57

left me kids. So um and my mother

1:23:00

and a grandmother. Yes, to every extent

1:23:02

of the word um, I have taught

1:23:04

him to walk, talk, potty trained, school

1:23:07

meetings. I am a mother and

1:23:10

I am a grandmother, and I didn't know I literally

1:23:14

you know. I remember when my sister took ill, she

1:23:16

had a stroke, and I was taking care of her in her latter years,

1:23:18

and the doctor asked her, you know, you don't

1:23:20

have a high blood pressure or anything. You don't do

1:23:23

you worry about anything. It says you have

1:23:25

three children and seven grandchildren.

1:23:27

She says, no, I don't do that, my sister, and

1:23:30

she meant it. I

1:23:32

raised her kids. She was She called me her baby

1:23:35

daddy. She sent me, uh cards on Father's

1:23:37

Day. You're

1:23:41

the dopest daddy ever. That's dope. Yes,

1:23:44

they walked right past their mother, come to me crazy,

1:23:47

so discombobulated. But I'm not what

1:23:49

is this that that title? What is what is that song?

1:23:53

But if you just to you that

1:23:56

was the that was the I didn't know that offensive.

1:24:01

I didn't know that was the joy b Ellis mc

1:24:03

breee think got it? Got it? Google refers

1:24:07

to it if you remember the

1:24:10

follow up the Girls in Nune but trouble

1:24:12

song called just one of those days of

1:24:15

remember that right when when when I think

1:24:19

that too, we did. Boys in the world ain't nothing guys

1:24:21

in the world, ain't I remember

1:24:23

that one answer? But that

1:24:26

was my song. Like I'm just saying, when

1:24:29

Will talks about kicking the feli cat,

1:24:31

he's giving a reference to yeah

1:24:35

later, boom later, where yeah yeah, verse

1:24:37

one he kills the cat, he throws it on

1:24:39

the roof and yeah and

1:24:42

again. I

1:24:45

didn't realize that was the same song, exactly

1:24:48

exactly. Charlie mcasul

1:24:51

breeze open up my show Sunday

1:24:53

and I'm like, I

1:24:55

don't I don't think we have enough time. No,

1:25:00

I don't mean that disrespectfully. I don't matter

1:25:02

it sounded like, yeah,

1:25:04

no, it's just that we have so many artists and

1:25:06

I wouldn't mind. He opened up for the Juice

1:25:09

Food Battle. He still and he did

1:25:11

every word of Discombobby Beauley don't get it

1:25:13

twisted. Yeah,

1:25:15

I wonder if I had the time. I literally have seven

1:25:18

acts and you know they put us out of it. Yeah.

1:25:21

Yeah, I probably won't even I probably won't even get the MC.

1:25:23

I probably be like I'm next. Well,

1:25:29

I really hope that you seriously start

1:25:33

preserving your archives because you

1:25:35

are the history of hip hop. So I

1:25:38

am, and I'm going to donate some of

1:25:40

them. I wish you could see my, my, my,

1:25:43

she came down here. I have. I

1:25:47

have every gold album. I I'm

1:25:50

looking at run DMC, I'm looking at L

1:25:52

L. Jeff and Will. I'm looking

1:25:54

at this is hip hop history down

1:25:56

here. And I wanted to ask you beat so

1:25:58

um, I'm just thinking, now, what was your relationship

1:26:01

with the pop art guys like Lawrence

1:26:03

Goodman? Like? What was what was that? Like? Can

1:26:05

you tell us what no one wants to talk

1:26:08

about? Lawrence good sue

1:26:10

you? I was just saying, either do I because we'll

1:26:12

talk about it. I need freaking sued them because

1:26:14

I can tell you some ish. I

1:26:17

can tell you again coming in my house

1:26:19

threatening me and stuff. Yeah, and

1:26:25

he still alive to these days? Is he still? I

1:26:28

did see him not too

1:26:30

long ago. He's got all this great

1:26:32

hair, this really long beard. I

1:26:35

did. But it's a shame that you can't say

1:26:37

things because people might sue you. Yeah,

1:26:40

man, you never know, people

1:26:42

might get super so. Yeah,

1:26:44

I've I've heard many a story about the

1:26:47

pop art these but well,

1:26:50

I just don't let you know. Like I said, preferred to my sister

1:26:52

again, my sister shafted

1:26:55

um and thought of them as some kind

1:26:57

of jokes and she wasn't scared. So how truly was

1:27:00

and be scared? Well, can you just tell Lee Daniels that yes,

1:27:02

we would watch the movie because I know he's

1:27:04

thinking, yes,

1:27:08

who mad

1:27:13

keeps asking him you should do a movie or lady

1:27:15

be blah blah blah blah blah. He's gonna listen, He's

1:27:17

gonna listen. So who's gonna play? You be? Who is

1:27:19

it? Who? What's her name? Who's gonna be? No,

1:27:24

we're not No, we're

1:27:26

not okay, I'm

1:27:28

taking. I'm taking. I've told you all enough I'm

1:27:30

taking the rest of my grade. Okay, so you got

1:27:32

it in your mind, you just want to share it, Okay,

1:27:36

R stupid? This is who

1:27:40

the first time somebody's hanging up with us. I love it. Go ahead,

1:27:43

lesson. You can try to deny me all

1:27:45

you want, but I want lessons said

1:27:48

time I see you. Don't even say hello. I see him

1:27:50

like where my lessons? Yes, I

1:27:52

don't even say he first. No,

1:27:57

I've grown and what and what?

1:28:00

I don't have any more patience in the house to

1:28:02

take care of the kids are going I

1:28:04

could actually get me a set and bang out wake

1:28:08

up the name. I'm gonna have to send her a drum set

1:28:10

now, Okay, I

1:28:13

would die. I would die. That's that's the

1:28:15

That's the least I can do for you for changing my life

1:28:18

again. Congratulations on your forty

1:28:20

years as as a pioneer for changing

1:28:22

all our lives. We're all the better for it. And

1:28:26

another forty another four hundred years

1:28:28

of your legacy made it last show.

1:28:31

I mean, thank you so much. This has been so much

1:28:33

fun. I felt like I just had a whole conversation

1:28:35

with my homies. You did. That's

1:28:39

absolutely all

1:28:41

right. Well, I'll see you on the next

1:28:43

go around. Y'all, this is Quest Love on

1:28:46

behalf of Lady b Fan sing a little Sugar

1:28:48

Steve, J Bill

1:28:51

and Blind Ear. All right, next

1:28:53

time, Hey,

1:28:58

this is Sugar Steve. Make sure you keep

1:29:00

up with us on Instagram at q l S

1:29:03

and let us know what you think you

1:29:05

should be next to sit down with us. Don't

1:29:08

forget to subscribe to our podcast,

1:29:17

What's Love Supreme, is a production of my Heart

1:29:20

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1:29:24

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1:29:26

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1:29:28

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