Fugees' "Ready or Not" w/ Wyclef Jean

♪ Ready or not, here I come ♪ ♪ You can't hide, I'm gonna find you ♪ ♪ And take it slowly ♪ - The first thing she starts to sing is "Ready or Not." Like, there was no like, "I'm gonna sing two or three." And I was just like, "Yo, this is hard." - So, luxury today, we're talking about a song that really challenged not only what hip-hop could sound like, but what success could look like. - That's right, Diallo, with its eerie, minimalist textures and abstract, yet socially-minded lyrics. The song is a fan favorite on one of the best-selling records of all time. - That's right. And to help us deconstruct this classic, we're joined by one of the architects behind the sound and the vision. Like, let's y'all, we're talking one song, and that song is "Ready or Not" by The Fugies. ♪ Ready or not, here I come ♪ ♪ You can't hide, I'm gonna find you and take it ♪ (upbeat music) - I'm actor, writer, director, and sometimes DJ Diallo Riddle. - And I'm producer, DJ, songwriter, and music college is luxury. AKA the guy who whispers, "Interpolation." - And this is one song. - The show where we break down the stems and stories behind iconic songs across genres. And tell you why they deserve one more listen. - You will hear these songs, like you've never heard them before, and you can watch one song on YouTube. While you're there, please like and subscribe. Our guest today is one of the creative visionaries behind The Fugies. And beyond The Fugies, our guest has built a prolific and dare I say, unparalleled career as a solo artist, and songwriter, and producer, to artists as diverse as Santana. (upbeat music) Destiny's Trial. (upbeat music) Shakira. (upbeat music) One of my personal favorites, "City Hut." (upbeat music) Please give it up for Grammy Award-winning artist, producer, composer, and icon. Whitecluff, John. (clapping) - Thank you so much for coming to our show. - What up, my brothers. - We got a lot to talk about. - We saw your show last night at Blue Note. It was insane. It was amazing. - Yo, but what's crazy? You only see me looking at y'all? - I kind of did, but I was hoping. - I thought I was hoping. - You don't know. - You don't know. - I was like, yo, these dudes are either two DJs from like Europe somewhere. (laughing) - We stand out in the crowd. - I said, one probably from Sweden. - Which one is that? - And the other one from Legos. - Oh man. - You're from Legos, you're from Sweden. - That makes sense. - I was hoping Atlanta, but okay, that's fine. (laughing) - There's so much energy and like the build from beginning to end, you had us like, enthralled the whole time. And then you had everyone in the audience jumping around and dancing at the very end. - It's carnival. - It's straight out carnival, you know? And not definitely. I don't think the Blue Note Los Angeles is gonna be the same. - I don't think it means no. - It can't be the same, baby. It can't be, it can't be the same. You know, like for me, just I used to, I was happy my high school teacher was there. He was like a whiplash. He was like like, you know what I'm saying? - He was on high and he was like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Even like yesterday, like he gave me a flashback yesterday. He almost scared me again. Like, you know, he scared me when I was 14, but that flashback, he was like, I told them, you must fart in unison. (laughing) And you're almost all smelters. - Jesus. - I was like, huh? - It's like, you're white story. - I was like, thank you, sir. - I mean, he would have been tall then. - He's very tall, man. - No, he was, he's definitely tall. But, you know, it was just like, I was born in Haiti and then we moved to Brooklyn. New York City, we lived in the Marbleville projects and after that, my cousin got killed. You know, it was just crazy. And we moved to Jersey. - Right. - And then in Jersey, I would say like Newark. Between Newark and the Starring's, that helped shape the line. You know, a lot of people, I don't know if they're like, Frank Sinatra, like Cool and the Gang. - Yeah. - And I think like one of the early recipes that we had that nobody known and the gait, the Fuji's was originally signed to Cool and the Gang. - Right, in first record, you did with the producer. - Yeah, and then Calise Bayon, who a crazy composer. He the one with the jungle boogie, all of that. So he literally took me under his wings. - That was blended on reality. - Blundered on reality, yeah, man. - So today, we're talking about Ready or Not from the score. And I want to zoom out for a second because this album came out in '96 and I felt like y'all were moving differently. Y'all were bringing in singing, live instrumentation, global samples. You're also just like, y'all felt like some true hip-hop heads from New Jersey in some ways. You know what I'm saying? Like before that was, like, understood what that was. Creatively, 1996, me was grouping you guys with the roots and outcasts and social mischief. And I was thinking about this. None of these groups were from New York, but they all had sort of that East Coast influence, you know? And so, when you were making this music, were you consciously thinking about pushing boundaries or were you just instinctually making the music that you wanted to hear? - I mean, so we, I was like influenced too by like, hieroglyphics. - Yeah. - You feel what I'm saying? Like, they're casual and casual. So like, it was a lot of that going on. And I would say like, just underground. So the sonics of the underground, whether it was East or West, there was a consistency to that vibe, you know what I'm saying? So you're not thinking about it. You're just doing it, you know what I'm saying? So for me, I was like just a young composer coming from the church. And my early, just fell in love with sonics. Electronics. - I'm sorry, what church was that? - So I'm from like the church of the Nazarene, it's the straight up gospel Caribbean church, you know? Every Sunday worship, you know, be careful, like, you know, you start talking in tongues, you know what I mean? That kind of energy, straight up like that penicostal energy, where the church is like created for like 70 people, but there's 300 people in there and that energy's going. So sort of like coming from that energy and directing choirs and all of that. I fell in love with producing hip hop, but one of my greatest inspiration is Salam Remi. Like, that's like, one of the original originals. - So Fujila was the first song that you worked on that ended up on the score. It was also the debut single of the album. I remember this song like it was yesterday. Let's listen to a little bit of Fujila. ♪ We used to be number 10 ♪ ♪ Now we permanent in one ♪ ♪ And the battle lost my finger ♪ ♪ Might be in my heart ♪ ♪ Pistonized, so it's crazy ♪ ♪ Blood becomes what I'm selling up ♪ - I still remember hearing this on Emerson College Radio and being like, "I gotta get this." And I had just bought my Gemini Scratch Master, which was the first thing I mix I ever owned. If I bought it used, it was already beat up. But I took my little bit of money that I had in college and I went down to, it was either Roxbury or Dorchester, bought the 12 inch, you know, I had a little leftover. Might have bought Shookwinds by, Shookwinds by Jim. And Timber's is rising by MobD. And I bought Resurrection by Com. 'Cause I wanted that 12 inch. It had the extra P remakes, which I still remember the most beautiful, shattered large, professor, one of the most beautiful remixes of all time. That song is, Fujila is still, it still grabs you. - And that's a Salam Remi beat, right? - Yeah, so Salam, like we like brothers, you know what I mean? And like coming up, it's like, I would just say like, our relationship was probably be like similar to like Quincy and Ray Charles. It's just two different composers coming up and sharing ideas. And Salam did that beat. Originally, that beat was for Fat Joe. - Yeah. - And he passed on it? - I'm gonna let Joe say that part, you know what I'm saying? Joe probably gonna say, we stole this beat. - Okay. - Why did you, why did you know you needed that beat? Like what about it appeal to you? - What the thing is, when we heard that beat, the beat just sounded like, you know, 'cause we called ourselves like the refugees, right? And there was an energy of that beat, where the beat was so, one of the things about the Fuji's because we were so musical at the time. And we showed up and it was like, oh, so more band orientated from the gate, more so than sample orientated. So the label was like, literally, you know, y'all gotta find a producer that's, that's very connected to the streets. And I remember Salam one of the things he told me, he was like, man, he's like, man, you too much of a nerd, like we gotta like, we gotta like, you a nerd from the projects, we gotta knucklehead this up for many. And when I read that beat, I was like, this is perfect. I could talk some knucklehead shit on this beat. - Absolutely, that's right. - Meaning it was like less esoteric and like, it was more of a straight beat. - Yeah, and then the Fuji's is like early Lakers. You know what I'm saying to you, it's like, it's just the best players, right? So it's like you have like magic and Korean. - You know what I'm saying? Like, you know what I mean? Like Lauren's straight up magic. I'm straight up Korean. And she look at it as, - Price is AC green, more than worthy, right? And like, don't sleep, like something's going to happen. 'Cause prize will save one thing, one bar in that bar. Everybody comes to shit. - My thought shifts, my energy or whatever. So the minute I heard it, man, it automatically called to me like, we used to be number 10, now we permanent, 'cause we was like, if we're gonna settle the score, we gotta let them know, you know what I mean? And then you have a course. Miss Hill was just amazing with her, we was talking about albums earlier, just the architect of soul music. Like, she taught me about soul music. Like I would teach her about compa and stuff coming from the islands. So we always talked about like that mix, you know what I'm saying? That sort of like what made the vibe kind of-- - You sort of, it's part of what you're referring to, her literal knowledge of like 70s fun, like soul record collection, or was there something else? - A record collection, her movie collection. She's the first, there's a movie called Black Orpheus. (upbeat music) - Love like Brazil, like she put me up on that. So yeah, so you gotta think so. - A fail, never. - Super early, you know what I mean? And then there's a band out of Haiti called Tabu Combo. You know, now if you look at it, Compa is a genre, now it's out of Haiti. It's a genre, but back then it was in a genre. Like as far as the way you look at it. You know, it wasn't like Grammys, like think about now what the nominees are. Now you can go on any streaming service in type Compa and the actual genre pose up. So can you imagine like 30 years ago, we just going through all of these genres that are not popular yet. - Yeah, yeah. - When you talk about, you were more of a band. I'm curious what you mean by that, 'cause obviously for those who don't know, you're a multi-talent, multi-instrumentalist. We saw you last night performing. You were doing the Jimmy Hendrix guitar behind your neck and with your teeth. You got a 12 member, you got a 12 piece band on stage. - Is she okay? - Are your teeth okay? - One drop of your teeth, we're okay. - Uh huh. (laughing) - Have a look. - It looks good. - Are you recovered nicely? (laughing) - After all the bleeding and my gun. (laughing) - So when you say the Fuji's were a band or you had that approach at least? - No, of course, yeah, definitely like the Beatles. Or like the wall, like Pink Floyd. Like that's how we write, you know what I'm saying? - You mean the instrumental side? - The group side of both. - The group side, the idea of like how we set up the shows. 'Cause at the time, it was like literally like you were saying, so it was like the Fuji's and the roots. - Yeah. - Or like literally like the band. - So, but at a very young age to decide like, nah man, we're gonna be a band. Like 'cause it was very important to set that precedent from the gate. - You mean you didn't want to show up live with just three MCs and a DJ and a turntable? Was that sort of what you're talking about with the band? - Well the thing is, I felt like why just do that? - Why just do that? - Because when we look at it, there were people doing that already. But the wreck is the vinyls that we was like, it was like earth one and fire. It was like cool in the gang, stylistics, you know what I mean? And when we look, it was just bands, you know what I'm saying? So we was like, oh we still have a DJ, the foundation, but then we was like, but we straight up gonna bring the art of it, the bass, the music and all that. 'Cause in Jerry One on production also on bass, amazing. - I went back and I listened to a lot of the classic hip-hop albums of the 1990s, you know, I was listening to the opening of Ready to Die by the Torrance BIG, The Chronic, and of course I was listening to the score and I was sort of struck by how cinematic the classic albums of the '90s, especially in hip-hop, felt. And my theory is that we didn't have social media, we didn't have a lot of access to movie cameras unless you were John Singleton or Alan Hughes, but y'all would make us movies on these albums. Like they felt bigger than just a collection of songs. They felt like a movie. Did y'all feel that in crafting? - And I'm like the score. - Well, I think like to us like when we look back at it, it's no different than what Gershwin did, you know, Quincy Jones, right? And I think that that's the word. Like I think hip-hoppers were getting underestimated as far as like they wasn't looking at us like composers. Like it's like-- - There's no saying rap is crap. - Yeah, so then, you know, you got bought, but now you can rate us with all of them from these intros that you're talking about. And it was sort of like, as a composer in my head, if some kid isn't suiting somewhere and gets a hold of this cassette tape, right? Ain't no television. Ain't no nut, right? We're talking about 30 years ago, right? And I'm just saying, so then what I gotta do is have him feel this visual audio thing. And I think in that connection, I think, we connected like that, the chronic and, you know, a lot of different albums. Remember 'cause back then, right? Hip-hop records like the intro was a very big thing. It's like the sort of a film, right? - Yes. - And that to me was audiovisual. It was a very important part of it. - Couple of things real quick. Vocab remixes. Nappy has remixes. These were remixes that brought in that live instrumentation that somebody who's listening to it, like I can immediately tell. That's a real guitar on that track, which was not always the case. - First acoustic, first acoustic hip-hop song ever. Yeah, and history is vocab. Vocab remix is so dope. I'm gonna play a little second for the room. There's a little bit of vocab remix. - Yeah, this one is me and Jerry wonder. Straight up, y-clap. - Straight up. - Yeah, straight up, y-clap, Jerry, woo. Still here. ♪ And you know one, two, three ♪ ♪ The crew is car at FU-G-E-E ♪ - And I remember seeing the video on rap city back in the day and just being like, yo, this group is different. - Yeah, you saw Jerry with the one finger base car. - Yes. - Absolutely. - And that's from the old fat algorithm. - Yeah. - Remember, that's the one. - Oh my gosh, that's the one. - Yeah, we used to watch a lot of cartoons though. - Gotta watch the cartoons. So there's another collaborator on the score that we want to take a moment to mention, Mr. John Forte. He passed away recently. I can't imagine how that feels, but I would ask, what would you like our listeners and the people to know about John and his contributions to the score? - Well, I think like John, in general, is contribution to the world, you know what I mean? I think the best way, people be like, yo, explain the score. And I said, like, think of it like stacks, you know what I'm saying? Like the best musician, John, the stacks, the label. And then think of just the Motown, like the band that actually means playing. So yeah, the funk brothers. So I think like that was us. Like we was like the funk brothers, you know what I'm saying? You had like Miss Hill, we had a certain level of grooves, you know, and she was boom boom. Then you had, then Forte was her friend. She bought him Forte. And then Forte, sonically. - She brought him Forte. - Yeah, that was Lauren's friend. So she bought him Forte. Then I got cool with Forte. And me and Jerry, we first cousins. And, you know, so we've been literally playing together since we've been like kids, kids. - So that Jerry wanted. - Jerry wondered. So you can imagine that combination. So what happens is, I would say, and I had said that, I would say the score would not have sounded the way it sounded without Forte's contribution. I think with Forte, he bought a sonic lens that didn't exist. Because when we was talking early, and we was talking about like, so's a mischief, remember? And I was saying so. So the best way I could say like Forte was our Q-tip. That's the best way I could explain it. Like Forte, this Q-tip is amazing. And he has a hip-hop science, a low-fi science. You know, he's one of the greatest producers. - Which I don't think we knew in the, I didn't know as a casual hip-hop head. I was ahead, but I didn't realize in the '90s, I assumed Alicia Heemahame was doing all the producing. You come to find out years later that like, a lot of that stuff was just in Q-tip's head. - Yeah, it was in his head. And what I mean by that, you know, and I learned that from like Michael Jackson. 'Cause you always was like the orchestra losing your head. - Right, right. - And think about it. So today with AI and different technologies, you could just have an idea in your head now, right? And then you could spit it out like that. And then I would say that that's one of the things of Forte. I literally, you saw how you was saying the Q-tip thing. So I think because the group was so big, I think the Forte part was just missed. So it's important that within the course of legacy, we explain how amazing Forte was. Man, when I tell you Forte for the world though, dude, when Forte went to prison, like, I have people that said my band, like one of my sound dudes, he was writing letters to Forte in prison. Forte literally reformed the area where he was at. Learn how to play guitar, started giving music lessons, you know, tech lessons, all kind of stuff. And then get a pardon from George Bush, and then comes out of prison and reforms itself with the whole new form of music, you know, whole new energy. And so that's what I tell you. So this is like reform for the world. So I think like when people get into the John Forte documentary, you know, in his life, you know, they always call Forte the fourth Fuji. And I stand by that. He's definitely the fourth Fuji. Yeah, we love that, we love that, and much love and much love and condolences to his wife and family. Definitely, and I'm just glad like, 'cause when we did the Fuji reunion, we got to do the tour and board everybody out. So just that boy, man, it's smile on us. We bought Forte, we bought the outs, just the, so it was great to see him. He was like with my daughter and all of the kids, like that even touched him when they heard, like, you know what I'm saying, like, John Forte, Pat. and all of them are like 21, 22. So, The coolest thing for them was smoking weed with John Ford. Like it was like, yeah, that's beautiful. All right, we're going to take a quick break, but when we get back, we're going to hear the song ready or not, like we've never heard it before as we listen along with the man who helped create and crafted the one and only, why clap, John? When we get back. All right, welcome back to one song. Here we are with the incredible white clothes, John, and he's going to help us break down, ready or not. Luxury, my man. Shall we start with the drum? We're just going to listen to the beat and then I got so many questions. So we're going to get nerdy. We're going to nerd out. OK, so now, I know you're getting into the beat. Yeah, but as you get into the beat, I just want you to watch my hand draw. Yeah, right? So I'm in the cafeteria. It's important. OK, right, just the cafeteria. Right hand is high-hat, left hand is good. So listen to the drums, but watch the hands on the table of white leather song. Like any time. On commence. Is that school kid lunch table beat making? Is that what you're saying? Yeah, baby, talk about it. Man up black, we're rockin' up. Straight up cafeteria beat. Yeah, in my brain, right? I did this beat on an NPC 60, right? Exactly what you just seen. You know what I mean? Very cafeteria, one, two, three, four. Because it got to be simple because the punch lines, right? Because it's going to be all about these punch lines. So go on with this story, but I have two questions. Yeah, I've nerdy questions. Go ahead, I'm ready. You're a question number one. You mentioned the Lyn 9000, so what is the sound source of your kick, snare, and hat? And is it a Lindrum snare pitched up? And if not, what can you reveal about the source? Well, the source, my whole source are two things. Lyn 9000, that was one of my original source. And my other source was a VFX keyboard. Okay. So it had beats in it, it had beats in it, I had to have everything. So that was my plug in, like meaning like this little piece of hardware of this VFX was my plug in. So you recorded from those sources into the NPC, what? So the Lyn, yeah, the Lyn 9000 at one time, that was my computer, because it's just the easiest sequencer for programming. Yeah, for programming. It's like logic right now. You know what I'm saying to you? So in saying that, and then I started programming on the MP, and then I started, of course, you know, the samples are very short, like you could pull in, because you, I'm from the floppy disk, from the small floppy disk, because you only have a few seconds or whatever. Right, that's the whole time. So one of the things that I like to do, the tape machine that we had was a 456 AmpEx rail. Okay. I've found to be amazing sometimes, was to take like the kick source, throw it to tape, okay? Sample it back from the tape from the tape, because the tape gets it sort of saturated sound. Well, it's the same, it's the same, it's the same wave, like different ways, moving a wave around and just trying to get it to patch it differently, you know what I'm saying to you. Yeah, that's one of the things, you know. We're going to just talk about the snare, like I'm just, that's the deep rabbit hole of this moment. Is the snare potentially, if you remember it, without having the snare from the Lynn that you then threw, pitched up? No, that's just, that's the snare that I sampled from a record. I cut it straight from a, and I wanted the snare to feel like a live snare. I needed it to, to cat back. So it's, um, it's from, remember back in the days, it was so much break me. Right. It was just going through records that I knew or something, alternate beats and breaks. Yeah, just to get down, like you looking for the part of the record that just snapped, you know what I mean? And then I wanted something that back, I needed it. And then also to, um, you guys, your drummers, right? So I needed something that felt like hip hop, like low fire times, but then I needed it to snap like a live snare, um, if you noticed though, the snare has a rim shot with it. Oh, is it layered with a rim shot? Of course. Now if you're listening to, to it again, you're going ahead, like the snare got a rim shot. Cause they're lining like it's layers, it layers like that. Like you can. But that was in the sample or you layering the letter. Later. Okay, I laid that. Yeah, I laid that. A lot of the cheat codes for me with the drums that I used, um, was R8, the R8. What's the R8? It's a drum machine. Oh, I don't know that one. Who's it? Is it a Roland or? Yeah, it's a Roland. Okay. Yeah. Um, so you don't know that. I don't know the R8. All right. Say I get out. Yeah. Yeah. Whether it be sounds in there, then I'll be like, Oh, that's the Fuji set. But it was like a lot of that in the church we used to use for like electric sounds. Okay. Um, and then so a lot of that fusion again, right? Because when you're trying to build the sound, you're trying to take three and four sounds and compile it into like one weight. Yeah. Oh, man. Thank you for that. Nerta. Here's part two of the nerd question. You just played the beat. You just played the lunch table beat, right? With kick and snare. So here's my question. When I tried to recreate it. And I'm going to do a very poor job with you, the creator sitting next to me. But tell me. Sound like you were genius already. No, no, no, no. Uh, the genius is right there. I was challenged to get the kick snare and high hat. Same time. That would be like. Yeah. It's a little messy. Yeah. Were you doing that? Or did you put a high hat on a loop like this and go. So now watch this. Yeah. So again, with my hands. Yeah. So with my hands, if we're on the MP, we got. Right. Okay. You are doing high. Now watch this. Yeah. Because there's a drummer. Like once my patch is out, I always like naturally, like just. Right. Because I'm feeling it with my hands. What you're doing for our listeners with your left hand, you're doing kick and snare. And your right hand. That's right. Over the right time. So I do that on the MP. When is time to record. You get more precision. I get more precision. Yeah. Of course. Of course. I want to separate the tracks. Yeah. You know, I do, it's like you're demoing the energy that you want to feel. And you're also acting as the drummer. So you're the musician playing the beat. Yeah. Also too. And then the MP see how to certain swing to it. Like the way like the kids use fruitedly loops. So the MP and the SP just had its own swing to it. Yeah. So it was like it times is dope. Like when you feel it, that was not strictly straight. No. It's like it's what it like reminded me of how Barb Marley's bass player would play. Where it's like just like one millisecond behind the groove. And then, you know, it's family man. We love it. Yeah. And it sits like, you know, in that energy. That was so fun. Thank you. That was the nerd out of you. You rocked it. You rocked it. That was good, man. All right. Well, I mean, let's talk about the sample. How did you come across this song by Anya Boudica? You know, the, I say now that I awake sleepwalkers awake those who could relate. That's a movie sleepwalker. Y'all ever seen it? No, but I know the story. You were sleeping and you woke up, right? Yeah. So so I was watching sleepwalker just to say like so watching that sample. Like so you wake up and automatically I was like, yo, I got to cut that right. So keep in mind right. So back then it was like VCR as you feel what I'm saying to you. You're going to cut that VCR sound back to the tape. And that's sort of like so that humming, I lived with it a little bit just. And then I was like, okay, I got to hit the record stone. And then when I hit the record stone, I was like, okay, this is Anya. And then I was like, yo, who's Anya? How did you figure out that what you heard was Anya? That would you had in your head when you got to the record store? How did you know what to ask? Prisha's Am. Because I know that whole sample. Prisha's Am. Prisha's Am. I know all of that. And then I knew about like Gagorian chant. Okay. And so I was very like advanced when it comes to like, you know, signings. So Anya had that distinctive at the time, right? She's the only one who figured out how to lay these vocals in a Gagorian chant way. And it was just insane. So that sort of like was the start of how this thing came to be. And that was the start. So you mentioned that you taped the song on VCR. When you get to the record store, let's just follow this thread. Yeah. You get to the record store. You buy the record. Is it vinyl? Is it CD at this time? No, everything is vinyl. It's vinyl. Yeah, yeah. Everything is vinyl. So you bought the her first record. Her first title. I got Anya's record. But I also sampled it from the VCR. That's what I was going to ask you. Because there's something about the sample in the mix. Yeah. That is not. It's very low five. It's warm. It's warm. It's completely warm. Any kind of warbles from speaker to speaker. It warped warm. It came from an S-900. Which means once I warped it, put it on an S-900. And I put the little filter on it. That's why it sound like that. It sounds amazing. It doesn't. It doesn't sound like the record. You added effects in a way almost accidentally. Because you're pulling it from the VCR with its low five resolution. Straight out low five resolution. Yeah. Yeah. a lot of that like I love that kind of stuff. I was trying to figure out like what you how you treated the sample like did you add some like you know I think that the the story. No the trick was the Akai S-900 yeah it was like 12 bit or even 8 bit maybe I don't even know it's low five though it was low five you know and then there's a filter on that S-900 that you just go you can drop there right there right there and I just used the love to do that to samples yeah that gives it more vibiness yeah it gives it a darkness which is similar because it harkens to our episode about Wu Tang because Riz is doing a kind of similar thing with consciously first of all taking his VCR right and getting some of that of those samples 100% like VCR is Oka said tape you know a lot of it a lot of it when you sample it directly from the VCR right it's a natural filter it comes with an it's natural mist of dirty sound already that's a play in within itself and that's a plus because you wanted to sound different that was a sound of a ground back then yeah yeah yeah grime grime yeah that's how it started let's listen to what the original sounds like and then let's talk about how you transformed it and again we'll do my best to sort of show it recreate it and you'll correct well you'll correct the record as it happens so there can be absolute accuracy the original version was a little faster around 99 100 bpm here it is and that's it just that it's a four bar loop basically it's pitched down two half steps or a whole step so that sounds like this which just a whole step down like is already like darker sounding and it's a little slower about 10 bpm it's slower and that's that's our loop and by the way now that we've heard the beat and the onion sample it's off to the vocals from here that's the entirety of the track yeah that's the entirety right I did the beat in like 15 minutes like too easy was there just was there a base one question I have was did you overlay like two bass notes like every four bars yeah two bass notes oh that's it yeah oh there was very simple so simple yeah so simple I call it like the three the three sonic stereo right and I think we still live by that the three sonic stereo as a music theorist right I think that the human ear automatically plays within a stereo precision right I think your nose ankles the middle right and I think you're right here and you're left here right two different you know even though it's all coming like this three sonics automatically drives it home like you don't need much when you're seeing like the street bands or you look at the Jimmy Hendrix band it's no more than three people yeah so sometimes like less is better so like we're we're in an area right now we're sonically where less is better these beats that you're loving are really three sonic beats these 808s that are layered over and over it's still the same 808 the drum that you hear is still a stereo bus and in the vocal now even with the auto tune it plays part of like what you call a horn a vocal horn so for me the best records always start with like the three sonic stereo for me that's amazing I love that very yeah it always start and and I think it's just band orientated so when me and Jerry are playing it's like Slime Robbie one on the drum the other on the bass you know I'm saying that my man Joe gets on the guitar if he gets off the guitar he gets on the keyboard and it's still like that's that's felt it's inviting it's it's the three sonic stereo to me is the invitation to like the ear you know I'm saying to you like you know how they say like less is better yeah yeah a lot so three is show up a lot how many mics do you rip on the deli three sonic stereo oh wait what three sonic stereo how many mics do you many money many then on then up yeah I think you're giving the keys the kingdom yeah well I think like a lot of the producers that are doing now a lot of the plugins that we we're seeing like at the end of the day I can have a kick and I can make it sound 30 million different ways but the genesis of it is still one let me just quickly because we've mentioned it and I want to play it for you so here is that bass that you referred to it's just these two knocks and then I'll give you the context because it's I didn't notice it till I was really digging deep into it but here's that here's the bass line like that's pretty much it and I could tell you what that is yeah what is that I would I wish someone can guess it played again listen what is that people you could you guess it is it a sample or is it from a synth it's a sine wave it's a sine what oh yes I hear that now okay play it again because it almost doesn't have pitch it borders are not having pitch there you go yeah it's the cunk theory what's the cunk there I love all these theories teachers remember the cunk the dude that was playing the cunk on the show that theory it lives in between like the no lives it's like the Thelonious Monkshire that lives in between that's just a sine wave that is so cool man let me give let me give you the car that's a straight-up sine wave anybody that want this sine wave right now if you have on as a car as 900 pull it up right now keep it at 440 standard and pitch that shit down and it's going sound just like that literally the fundamentals of sound are sine waves and this is like it's so fundamental that it hasn't even formed a pitch yet half of the score is all sound really that's super cool man you heard it here first and you're right out I'm having the time of my life over here oh yeah yeah I'm about it for real man this is that is very hard to hear in the mix but just for context it's happening I'll point it out as it happens here's the final track think fast don't pitch my hips that's it and you only have that like every few bars yeah that's so cool right and then right and then the theory of the sine wave so we pitching it down so that means it's living within a low frequency right so we in the club right because now when the shiggins in the club people want the bottom you know what I'm saying to you so how do you sneak the bottom and I felt like a lot of the 808 was being stretched you know I'm saying it was like you know it's like long and I was like yo this feels so beautiful how can we get something to sit right under the kick you know and it's just a punch because it's a very short sound straight punch and that moment at boom straight punch and then it goes away and you miss it you wanted to come back yeah man that's so cool what a cool detail that we have revealed on one song one song exclusive white lives y'all awesome man thank you well one last part of the sample which is just to separate the two and to really call attention to what's happening in here because what's interesting when you think about it is that you know on two in two ways of speaking that will get you Anya and her compatriots in Ireland there are participants on this song they are part of the Fuji's in so far as their recorded parts are in the sample right so let's give it a little bit of shine to Anya for a moment 100% shout out to Anya shout out to Anya who we know you have a great story that we want to hear in a moment first of all just for those who don't know by the way this is she's one of the biggest selling recording artists alive today a new age superstar with 80 million records sold worldwide but she's an Irish woman born Anya Patricia Brennan in Gweedor county donegal Ireland her whole family is musicians she was very briefly in the family band which is Klonod a band people have heard of I didn't realize until I was researching that she had briefly been in that band and she left with her managers Nikki and Roma Ryan who I imagine our names that are familiar to anyone who's looked at the credits who are these other people in the credits of this Fuji song it's Anya and her manager and her manager's wife who's the lyricist now why is that interesting and important when we get to the splits later because Anya is not singing any lyrics she's literally humming let's listen to that here is just the isolated vocal that's about ten hums and in spite of in spite of the absence of lyrics the third member of the Anya crew who is paid out from this song and I'm looking forward to talking to you about that whole situation was the lyricist and there are no lyrics so that's an interesting little fun fact think about meanwhile on the music side of it we're hearing literally well it's five chords but they're not really chords let's listen and we'll talk about it so that's I didn't have that little bounce do it has a little bounce to it with a different beat this could be really goofy right you're literally hearing just the four chords are implied simply by the notes those are five individual notes i'll play it for you she bought a Juno 106 turned it on went to patch three. Literally it's a preset and I'm going to play her original version, so it's pitched up by two half-steps with. So those, that's five notes, there's no chords at all, no intervals. It's very simple and streamlined and haunting and of course it has that very under water feeling, which when I saw the video I was, it feels so perfect for what the sounds are. So the song, again with the pronunciation, could be Boadecia, but apparently the original Celts would have had it as Budica, because the song was recorded for a BBC documentary about the Celts, about the history of Celts. So baked into the sound and the title itself, which means victorious woman and it's about the character Bodica was the queen of an ancient British tribe who led a failed uprising against the conquering Roman Empire in 60 AD. So this is like the Joan of Arc of the Celts. So there's this fighting woman story buried in the sample and then it finds its way into your song and that energy and that history makes so much sense. It's like this incredible confluence of sound and history and meaning. Yeah, I think I think the thing is like when people here hip-hop, they just take the word as in people who rap and they're going to tell street stories. I want to explain the hip-hop is the culture and inside of the culture, if Bach was born in a culture, Bach would be hip-hop. So there as an, you know, my name is John Wyclef. I'm named after the historian from England. I have an English name and I'm a, you know, my dad was a theologian. So I don't just listen to things. I hear things in a different form. So think about John Wyclef. He reformed the church and so the idea with what we was trying to do is like, yo, we're going to like reform where we come from. We're going to have you have a different sense of thinking of what you think we're supposed to be, right? Because you're like, okay, we're from the projects, you know, and this is what we're supposed to talk about. And then we're like, no, you know, actually, no, we actually reading the Lutheran doctrines. And you're like, now, what is that? Martin Luther, no, I'm like, this is what inspired the Lutheran church. So in saying that, I was inspired and moved by what India was doing because it's sort of like, it just, it just, I felt like it called me like some church. It was like, it felt like amazing grace, but just in a different form. Right. And I was like, yo, and not even knowing all the stories, right? You felt the stories. I felt the story because the power of music is that you don't need this explanation to feel what's really happening. Yeah. And now on the nerd shit, you said Juno, Juno 106 was like one of the first Junos. Yeah, the third one. Yeah. And then so all of the Junos have this sound on it, right? They have the boom, boom, boom, boom. So as like, yeah, exactly. So like, as a crazy, like, synth head also, you know what I'm saying? I was like drawn by that corky, like, I was like, you know, how the hell this freaking, like, Juno sound is against this chant. This shit is just crazy. It's like the, it's like this checks the position of of eras of like centuries. Yeah. But you see when you isolate the darn doughnut, like you said some goofy shit, it automatically sounds like Napoleon Dynamite. When you played with that, Anja's vocal on top. Yeah. Yeah. Sure. Yeah. Dude. Yeah. He is never going to talk to me now. Anja's vocal. No, Anja's dope. The Gregorian chant connection. So interesting. Because I totally hear it when you say that. Is it because her vocal has all the reverb? Because it's drenched. It's like, it's like really long reverb. Yeah. So if we're talking effects on the effects, the, the, the, vocal chant sounds like it's very Taj Mahal. Right? So when you go into your effects, you have like hall, medium, the space, like a giant space, of course, the space. So within a vocal like that, you throw that Taj Mahal behind it. It's going to go crazy. Well, the, or Gregorian chant to your point, like it does like an old, like Notre Dame in Paris, like some giants. Yeah, because the theory of it is like, because when you, when you talk about air and space, that's why with, with, with, with, you could be like, okay, give me a small room verb. Right? You condense it. But the idea of like Gugorian chant is war. It's, it's, it's heroic. Right? So the idea of a Taj Mahal makes it endless. Yeah. I'm saying it's like, you know, big game of throwing type shit in the back throw. Yeah. And there is war. You're right. There's like some fear and some, it's like a battle cry, like a churchy battle cry from the year 1300 something. Yes, sir. So we read the song was released without in his, uh, sample being cleared. And you had to get on the phone with her after the fact to have her approve this sample. What's the story there? Yeah. I mean, again, like coming from where we came from, um, delivering this album, right? Um, you know, you're moving fast. We're moving fast, but at the same time, we don't know the, the complexity of, of the overall business. It don't like, you know what I'm saying? And, and, and, and, and nobody as Sony, where rough house thinking, why Clevve John from Haiti grew up in Brooklyn, marble project, they moved to Newark and he started somehow found this woman from Ireland. It's sad. I was like, no, no, no, it was everything fly. But I just, I just think everything was moving so fast. Fuji law was already killing it. You know, I'm saying to you, um, you know, so at the time I managed it, David Sonnenberg, you know, saying, got on and I had to get on. And of course, Sony had to remove all of the albums from the shelf or a deal had to be made immediately. You feel me? So the deal was made. And I think that what secured this because the India team are very religious, like be clear. Yeah. Like they're very religious people. They're pretty through kids on another continent. That's right. And so I think that, you know, my explanation for all of this was like, you know, this is like, if you look at the way like John would subscribe this from the book of Revelation. You know, this is like, I'll call to our people like this is you on the phone with Ann. Yeah. This is like me explaining everything like ready or not. And then I'm already John Wildcliffe. Right. So and then now when you pay attention to it, it's just another preacher kid who is, is explaining to his generation or her generation, how they see the streets and what's going on, what to be fearful of, what can happen, what to do, what to not do. How we could go down? So she got that to her. Yeah, but we still have to pay them. She's like, that's beautiful. Yeah. She's still got to see some money. You're such a preacher now. Put some in the collection way. And the interesting thing too is you also are underrated in bringing Anya to hip-hop culture because you weren't the last one by any means to sample. Not just Anya, but this song, which boat that you have however you want to pronounce, it finds its way into, into winens. It finds its way into the weekends. Doug, you don't want me to start to sound like little Richard. I am the original of a lot of shit. Country music. Anya, I bring next thing. You know, man, let's go. But yeah. And by the way, they're sampling this part of the song. They're sampling it essentially the way you sampled it. Which is a nod to you, which is a nod to you. Yeah. Well, what I'd love about it is again is, you know, when you hit a whole record, right? Any producer knows that's the best part of the song. Yeah. Like the most catchy because his start is going to hold another wave. I was like, I don't think this way is going to work. You found the loop. You found the good one. I found the get down. Let's get to the vocals because they are classic. And why don't we start with the chorus? Ready or not. Here I come. You can't hide. I'm going to find you and take it slowly. Sorry for stopping it there. We're just going to go piece by piece. There's so much to talk about. Tell us about the first time you heard that hook or how it came to be in the song. Well, big shout out to Miss Hill. And again, now this is where we talk about the, the, the Rookal Boyle. That gumbo, the mashup. Yeah. And right, that's a mashup, right? Yeah, that's a mashup. Yeah. Because now I do this beat, right? And now Lauren is going to come with this thing and keep in mind, I didn't hear the Delphonics. Right? I've never heard of the band. You don't know. I don't know. Right? Keep in mind. I don't know. Right? This is where now the same thing I was doing with the crisis. Like when she come as a, she, you know, her science is brain now. And that's the first thing she's saying. Like she heard what, so what we've been going to be the slowing the story that was in a hundred the beat with the Anya sample. That's all there was. Yeah. And I was, I was in a little room in a book of basement upstairs. I like staying in a little debate. The studio is very wonder. Yeah. Yeah. Jerry daddy, my uncle. Okay. So, so that's the basement. And then I'm, my room is like right upstairs. And that's why I was cooking up the beat in the room. Is yours? That's you. Yeah. Me and my NPC wake up with a sleeper than that. And she walks in, and she's like, and the first thing she starts to sing is Ready and Not. Like there was no like, I'm going to sing two or three, and I was just like, yo, this is hard. So for me and my brain, I just know like, Lauren just created this crazy hook, you know what I'm saying too, which was called Ready and Not. - You didn't know he was bringing it from her memory, but again, it's that genius Fuji's fusion thing is happening. - Listen to the original just for people to know what we're referencing. This is the Delphonics. Ready or not, here I come, parentheses. Can't hide from love. 1968. ♪ Ready or not, here I come ♪ ♪ You can't hide, gonna find you ♪ ♪ And keep you happy ♪ - It should be pointed out part of her genius is not only is she interpolating or interpolation in the line, she's reharmonizing it because it's not the core changes. - No, and then so keep in mind. - They're different. - Yeah, so they always say like, the best thing about art is like, when you look at something, you're not really copying it, but you inspire by it and you're about to flip it completely different. So I would say the genius of how Lauren hears things, like, you know, like, we've known each other like forever. You know what I'm saying to you is, so she's been like, she's been like, stormed. She stays like, you know what I mean? So she heard it, and now when she sings it, she's gonna decode it and it's gonna talk to her generation, like how she wants to portray it. And so she was raised with all of this music. So she just has a way of like, when she flips it, it's just gonna be crazy. - So she brings the Tina Marie Ula-la to Fuji-la. - Same thing. - Yeah. - Yeah, like, you know, again, that hook-driven ideology of something that live in the back, 'cause we all like, what we don't even understand, right? The key is I was subconscious. So the human, 'cause you don't even know why you like it. 'Cause you will hear something and your body starts, you know, then I can watch it with my daughter generation. Like, sometimes a person ain't have to say nothing. There's something that happens and they're like, and then I could decode it in the back and I could hear, so she was great at having you reminisce off of something that you don't even need to know what it is, but it's in your back, if you grew up in America, you know, it's in somewhere in your mom's grave, it's a baby grave, there's a corn memory there. And there's something, the special brain, it takes a special kind of brain. First of all, for that to evoke that, but to sing in real time. What is a completely different set of chords, to find the melody and to find kind of entrance, and she flips it a little bit rhythmically slightly. - Straight genius. - But it's straight genius to be able to do that, because if I played the same chords as the Delphonic song, that's one thing. But different chords and you're not messed up by it? - No, no, no. - That's crazy. - I'd love to hear verse one of the song, "Classic Verse." - Now that escaped sleep walk away, those who covelate know the world ain't cake. Gel bars ain't golden gates. Those who fake, they break. - There's so many lyrics there that I would love to ask you about. But I always thought it was Joe bars and golden gates, which is a totally different meaning than Joe bars ain't golden gates. Which is correct. - Joe bars ain't golden gates. - You know, Joe bars. - Genius of win. - You know they ain't golden gates though. - How what? - I said, "The Joe bars ain't golden gates." - Oh, they really aren't. - They really aren't, but what does that lyric mean to you? - I mean, "Jell bars ain't golden gates." Basically, you know, we can't, I try to tell the youth, you don't want to glorify the prison system. 'Cause you know what I'm saying? It's like a badger honor to go to jail. But I'm letting them know that OGs that I know that go to jail. You know, they're like, "Yo, it's not golden gates. "You all want to come this way." You know what I mean? - You don't want to end up with a 400 pound date. - Yeah, you know what I'm saying? - I got a good question on the chronology of if I rolled the world in there. 'Cause that's a nice reference. ♪ I roll the world, imagine that ♪ ♪ I free all my soul ♪ - If I rolled the world, not as featuring Lauren Hill, that single comes out in June '96, but you've written this song the year before, right? So it's the chronology of that line being in here, which came first, that if I rolled the world, the Kurtis Blow, yeah, yeah, Kurtis Blow, yeah, of course. - And Kurtis Blow was my first producer. - Let's hear a little bit of a first blow, if I rolled the world. ♪ Living out through the depression ♪ ♪ I do the worst ♪ ♪ I do the worst, I do the worst ♪ - So was that your idea to bring it into first of all, A song, and if so, was it this song first, and then the not a song or the other way? - No, the not a joint. Like, I just loved the, if I ruled the world, but my vibe was more in the Kurtis, and my vibe was Kurtis Blow, if that makes sense. - Yeah. - So because I ruled the world with the nots and Lauren was, I think it's after. We talk about that subconscious thing. That's in the back of your head. I'm more dramatically like vibing, but again, that's a Lauren ad link. - Oh, that's her ad link, got it. - Right, you're filming so we would check it. - Was that a coincidence that she's ad-living that with your connection to Kurtis Blow? - No, let me tell you, we just, you know, in studios, do we want to do this? Like, we could start pulling up shit, like, my fucking station, in three months later, it happens. Like, yeah, okay. - That's the one I mean. - It's something that you just toss in there, throw away, ad-lib. - Can literally spark a million hits afterwards. - Of course, like, one little teeny I did. That's why I say, everyone counts. - Verse two, another classic verse. This one by Lauren. Can you place that verse? - Do what you do, easy, believe me. For Indicors, give me he be jeez. So why you M.S.A. and Al Capone? I be needing a Simone. And defecate, you know, your microphone. - Don't do that. - I have questions about this. I always wondered what Rap Orgis with Porgy and Best meant. - You're gonna have to act slower than that. - Okay, I'll have to act slower than that. I also think it came at a time when, like, this is '96, like, bad boy is everywhere. I think the Junior Mafia album that come out around this time. Like, the amount of people who refer to themselves as Al Capone, Gambino, you know. That was like, that was all the rage. - Yeah, she said I was shit on all y'all. - She said I was shit on this microphone. - Literally. - While y'all claim an Al Capone. So February marks the 30th anniversary of the score. My friend, what do you think the legacy of Ready or Not is in the album at large? - Just timeless music, right? So everybody that's listening, I say, like, don't do music because you're like, there's a bunch of shit out here. And I just want to copy some shit and just go fast. Like, but if you take your time and you make timeless music, it don't matter what the year is or what the time, if you got to do music about, oh, this you got to come out right now, then, something's wrong, right? You got to do music like, well, you like, you know, I ain't saying hold on to the music. That's not what I'm saying. But I think the legacy of this score is just like timeless music. - So another part of the Fuji's legacy is how it opened the door for everything that came afterwards for you as a solo artist and as a songwriter and as a producer for other people. Even before we learned the sad news that we just learned, I had always intended to bring up this song. It's one of my absolute favorite songs of all time that you had a hand in. And that song is 99 Flash the Message by the good brother, John Forte. Let's hear a little bit of 99. - I love how you like, start it over. I like songs where the first thing goes, you say, down to the start. - I'm Phil Jackson with my crew. - Oh, that's right, though. You know, like, I got the best players. I'm like, no, no, run that playback. And as many of us know, that song uses an interpolation of this song, this is 99 Lufthole. (singing in foreign language) - Amazing interpolation at the time. Can I say for a whole generation of hip hop lovers, this song almost feels like the end of a certain era in '90s hip hop because I feel like it came out in '98. That's the last year of something. It's before, you know, I feel like the Neptune's in Kanye. I think Super Thug by Noriega came out in '98. Have you ever thought about the shifts and the changes in that way? 'Cause I do feel like 98, 99 is a time of great change in the culture. - Yeah. No, I just think like, you know, everything has a season. But a genius, a season and a genius that define time are two different things. I think that, you know, a hundred years from now, a kid's gonna find that 99 balloons record and play it, you know what I mean? Same way they're gonna find a score. So I think again, and then they're gonna do their own version the same way we did our own version. So I think again, like with the Neptune's and what Ye did and everybody continue, again, I think everyone just paints, you know, amazing art. I just think, you know, we just, you know, we painted a basket piece so it's hard to move us. - You know, just plays these, that's gonna become the sound more of like the 2000's. But like, this is like a perfect time for me personally in music. me like, yeah. August records, you have the Carnival, which is your album. It's one of my favorite albums all the time. I have so many memories of songs like "Anything." ♪ We were born into the Carnival ♪ ♪ Anything can happen ♪ ♪ What, say what, say what, say what ♪ ♪ Anything can happen ♪ - "Bubble Goose." ♪ We jump out the car in Carnival ♪ ♪ And then there's bubble blues ♪ - "Gon' 'til November." ♪ I don't know if I'll be gone 'til November ♪ ♪ You tell my girl, you'll I be gone 'til November ♪ - I'm talking about your three-sonics theory. When you played it in concert last night, I was like, "Where are my violins? "I need my strings." But it's such a beautiful song. These are beautiful albums. - All right, so this year marks another big milestone. It's 20 years since your global smash with Shakira, hips don't lie, which not everybody realizes is a remake, right? It's technically almost a remix. - This is "Dance Like This" by Like Let's Show 'em. ♪ You dance like this ♪ ♪ You make a man want to spend his ♪ ♪ Come and sing down my faith ♪ ♪ We'll be done, thank you, that's all ♪ ♪ I love how there's elements in there that are identifiable ♪ in the final global billions of strings smash version. But what's different is, I mean, I hear the beat is different and obviously the vocal is different, but is it the same music bed? Otherwise, what did you change to remix the song to make it into hips don't lie? The 2005 Shakira, featuring Wyclef, smash hit. - Well, I think again, I think it's the collaboration of Genius, right? Shakira is a genius in our own right, right? So when we went into the studio, like you have to think it's the best combination and Shakira ain't just gonna come and sing the song. Like that's not what she do, she's like me. Like she's like, okay, we're gonna bring the Kumbas, you know, this in my country, Colombia, you know, I can hear the socks, but you know, so. So I think that. - I'd love to have been in there. (laughter) - Sure you would. (laughter) - But yeah, but what made it amazing again was look at it like two composers. One from the Americas, right? You know, Shakira, Colombia, Lebanese. What happens when they get in the studio? One kid from a hip-hop culture, right? Another kid, so automatically, like, I'm like, yo, how do I, you know, Lord, Taree, I can beat a gun Shakira out. - Yes. - You already know. - You're still, I was gonna say, to compliment you, you're still taking that underground. - You're thinking that hip-hop underground, Spanish Harlem, Lord, Taree, Peter Guss, and your. - That energy, that energy. - Yeah, right next to like international, you know, Latina superstar. - Yeah, 'cause you know, I'm from hip-hop. And I think like, hip-hop is the best form of music. And what I mean by that is the only form of music that's all forms of music. - It really is. - But I think to your credit, your genius is that you'll take something like that one element out of the Lord, Taree, and Peter Gunn's song. I think it was that song by Jerry Rivera. (upbeat music) - Because that is sampled from an old Latin song. - Right, right, there's a connection to the Latin. - I would not have even been thought of no shit like that. If I was in a hip-hop kid, right? So at the end of the day, as a producer mind, the, I'm gonna go sample, oh, where's the original, right? I mean, I'm gonna look for the original. Also, like, so being like Haitian, Dominican, Cuban, Jamaican, like that whole area, like we the Roca Poeal. So as much as they played English music, like in the house, more gospel stuff. But when I went to my uncle, it was everything coming out of Columbia, out of Cuba. So this is not, so here in those horns, and then seeing a hip-hop producer do it. Again, it's just, for me, I always reference hip-hop because I'm like, people be like, yo, well, describe, say, yo, it's literally like the new jazz fusion. It's the only thing, like you could pull. I could pull a country piece. I could, there's no other kind of music do you could pull. - There's so many layers and so much lineage in what you do and how you do it. It's not just, it's not just, it is the international part, but it's not just that. It's also the historical layers. You're kind of tracing it back in time. You're making connections. You seem to be suggesting that some of them are conscious, but some of them just came out of like, you didn't realize that it was in your subconscious, like we were saying before, and it just sort of appeared in this moment because it was the right thing. - If you're inspired and you craft the best music, it's gonna find its way. And I always tell all of the young producers and different people coming out there, when I was young, I used to want to be so validated. Like when you're young, you'd be like, yo, I want to win Grammys. I want to be boom, boom, boom. I want, didn't you start traveling the fucking world, right? And you go into like, the depth of like the earth, right? And next thing you know, like, freeing, walking with the Eskimos, you know what I'm saying? Hey, your dogs and shit. And then you know, and you hear one love, one heart. And you like fucking Bar Mali don't have no Grammys, no nut and he's the biggest artist in the world. So again, I say just do like, just do your best one song. You know, I mean, create your one song and it's gonna happen. - Whiteclubs, John, it's such a huge honor to have you on our show One Song. And what is going on in your world that you want to listen to know about? You have some projects coming out. Tell the world what's happening next. - All right. So I need the whole world to pay close attention. This is me, the human, man versus machine. Starting in March, March, April, May, June, July, August. I'll be dropping seven albums. Each album reflects me bending the last 30 years in the genre. So I ain't gonna tell y'all, yo, man, I was the first one to do country music and hip hop. No, with the country album, you could trace back to me and Kenny Rogers. The jazz album is dedicated to Q. The hip hop is gonna be called Black Moses. Groan and sexy, y'all already know that's gonna be, y'all gonna be crazy. The reggae album is nuts. So everybody was like clef is out of his mind. How is he gonna get all these? - So every album is like a different genre, different genre. - Yeah, every genre it reflects me bending the past. So we have a full compa album. And y'all ain't gonna be able to sit down on that one. It's gonna be called like the compa invasion, inspired by the British invention, so look out for that. So we're very excited about that. We'll be hitting the tone. Also, me and Miss Hill will definitely be doing a couple of Fuji dates, you know what I'm saying? Like a couple of while Clevverloin dates. And also, we've been talking about some form of a remastering of the score and some of the materials that were unreleased, you know, files from through the years. How can we give the fans some of that? - There's some B sides and some. - Yeah, some some very cool like, 'cause remember, we kept going back in the studio. - Absolutely. - And just the thousands, you guys. - Yeah, like me and Jerry El, we kept trying to, which is very cool. So look forward to all of that. - We were all right. - We are looking forward to it indeed. - All right. - And then the next show you come to the Fuji's, I mean, the Wild Clevver show. - Yes. - I'll make sure the strings are there for Guns and No Guns. (laughing) - I will be there in every show now. You can take my money. Thank you so much for coming on the show, sir. - Thank you so much. - As always, you can find us on Instagram and TikTok, you can find me on Instagram @Diallo and on TikTok @DialloRule. - And you can find me on Instagram @LUXXURY and on TikTok @LuxuryXX. - And you can follow our podcast on Instagram and TikTok @AtOneSongPodcast for exclusive content. You can also watch full episodes of OneSong on YouTube. Just search for a OneSong podcast. We'd love it if you'd like it subscribed. - Also, be sure to check out the OneSong Spotify playlist for all the songs we discuss on our episodes and find the link in our episode description. - And if you've made it this far, you're officially part of the OneSong Nation. Welcome, give us five stars, leave a review, and send this episode to a fellow music fan. It really helps keep the show thriving. - Luxury helped me on this thing. - I am producer DJ, songwriter, musicologist, and every Friday night from 10 p.m. to midnight KCRW DJ Luxury. - And I'm actor, writer, director, and sometimes DJ DialloRule. - And this is OneSong, we'll see you next time. - This episode was produced by Melissa Dwayne, as our video editor is Casey Simonson, mixing by Michael Hartman and engineering by Eric Hicks. This shows the record produced by Kevin Hart, Mike Stein, Brian Smiley, Eric Eddings, Eric Woll, and Leslie Guam.