It’s the concept of sitting in a taxi cab and writing “lonely” on the window and looking from the outside, it would be backward. I think it was called “Dying on the Inside” or something like that, and then there was another song called “YLENOL”, which spells “lonely” backward. It was a song that was going to actually wind up on my first album, but we ended up not going with it. Ne-Yo, Usher, Kirk Franklin & More Honor the Women 'Behind Every Man' in OWN Series First Look…ĭo you remember the name of the song that you performed? So I’m like, “This is a bust, but I don’t care, because this ain’t what I’m here for anyway.” She says to me, “Are there any artists out there who keep you on your toes?” I said, “Not really,” ‘cause I’m not really trying to be an artist right now. I’m all in her face with it, and the whole time she’s giving me a complete deadpan, no emotion whatsoever. So me not being one to back down from a challenge, I perform the records. I’m hungry - and all of a sudden, that’s the audition. We literally came up for him to say “hey” to a friend, and was headed to get something to eat. So she’s bopping her head slightly and turns the music up: “Get up, show me something.” So if I’m shopping a record, it’s going to be my voice on it. Now, I write and reference all of my records. Then she says to him, “So what have you been up to?” : “I’m working with writers just like this one.” So we start playing the music. So clearly she’s somebody, right? So I’m in the corner of the room, twiddling thumbs and waiting on them to do the whole “reunited and it feels so good” type thing. I just know that this is a really, really, really big office. His friend was Tina Davis, who at the time was head of A&R for Def Jam records. But he was like, “Let me run back up because I learned that a friend of mine from high school works here and I haven’t seen her in years. So we didn’t go in ‘cause we had already been there trying to shop songs a few days earlier. We were in New York shopping music around different labels, playing songs for A&Rs and whatnot, you know? So it was the end of the day, and we’re headed back to the hotel and it was on the way to the Def Jam building. He was a part of Somethin’ For the People. But my vocal producer and head engineer, everybody calls him Sauce. You said that I was part of your high school career, so you may not know a group called Somethin’ For the People. So what made you decide to pursue becoming an artist? What switched?Ī happy accident, to be honest with you. There was no artistry at this point, it was just writing. I’m gonna just write for other people.” So there was no balance. Dre thing happened, I’m like, “All right, clearly I’m not supposed to be an artist. So I wasn’t trying to be an artist at this point. At the time we knew it was something special, but we had no idea that it was going to do what it did. And “Let Me Love You” was the second song that we did. just happens to be working for Mario that week. But I didn’t know the slew of hits that he had already had. And if you ever find yourself in Miami, look me up…” At the time I didn’t, I didn’t know who Scott Storch was. was like, “You’re dope, but I’m going to go in a different direction.” So I run into Scott as I’m leaving, and he’s like, “Yo, I don’t know what the hell Dre talking about, but you’re dope. I remember I was feeling a little down, because declined. But in the process of these meetings, I met Scott Storch. So I do the records - and ultimately he ended up going with the other guy, cause he was a little bit more “hood” than I was. I’m like, “Yeah!” And then he would play the song that was attached to the track. So he would play the track and say, “You think you can write something to this?” He was trying to decide between me and this other artist, whose name I cannot remember right now. So every track that he gave me already had a song on it. I go in, and of course it’s the iconic Dr. Dre, and it was potentially to sign me as an artist. Okay, so short story: I got a meeting with Dr. So when I did the Mario record, I wasn’t trying to be an artist at that time. That Mario record was kind of the marble that you put at the top of the snow hill and when you push it, it just gets bigger and bigger, bigger, bigger.īut how was that hustle back then? You know, trying to secure a record deal, but also writing on the side.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |