Category Archives: Personal

Zo!’s Top Five Moments of 2011 – #1 Going Home and Receiving A Long Ovation at The Foreign Exchange Show in Detroit

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May 8, 2011, Mother’s Day…

The +FE crew and I were set to take the short 2-hour and some change drive to Detroit from Cleveland to play our 4th show of the scheduled seven-show tour of Midwest cities. I was up and ready to go this particular morning as we were creeping up on the show date that I was most anticipating. Going back home to perform is always motivational to me because I’m able to catch everyone up on what I have been up to musically  – The same people who saw me making music out of my bedroom in my parents’ house in what I used to call “Crowded Room Studios,” as there was more music and equipment in that spot than space to move around. To be able to bring new levels of success home to folks who have supported you from day one is truly a blessing… So needless to say, I was a bit anxious for this one. As soon as I found out the show was confirmed, I started to text a couple folks here and there and sent a few DMs via Twitter just to make sure that kats were blocking that date off far in advance because at that time folks kept asking, “When are y’all gonna come to The D?”  …The thing was, May of 2011 wasn’t our first time playing in Detroit. The first +FE show at home was over two years ago in June of 2009 and I remember being hyped up for that one too, but this time was much different. First off, the buzz around the show was crazy and the people who were creating it seemed to be super excited. Secondly, there had been four +FE Music releases since that last show: City Lights 2: Shibuya (Sept. ’09), …just visiting too (Nov. ’09),  SunStorm (Jul. ’10) and Authenticity (Oct. ’10). One thing was starting to become crystal clear to us… Detroit was ready, I just didn’t realize how ready.

I’ll put it like this, I was so amped up about the Detroit show that thinking back on it, I barely even remember the actual drive from Cleveland… I remember stopping once for gas after Toledo, but that’s about it. The next thing I remember is checking in to our hotel and asking, “Ayo, who’s coming to the house before soundcheck?” Our bassist, Kush El-Amin and drummer Tim Scott Jr. said that they would roll so we dropped our stuff off in our rooms and proceeded to head out to my parents’ house. As soon as we walked in, I as I normally do when I get home, went straight for the refrigerator to grab a water and a Faygo Redpop to take with me. But to my surprise, Moms had baked a damn sweet poe-tay-toe pie for our arrival… Yep, I said Poe. Tay. TOE. So, uhhh… the three of us had some pie. ….And uhhh…. y’all thought I was greedy as hell? The brotha T. Scott had two pieces.

After we left my parents’ house, I took the fellas to The Bread Basket for a Rueben and some Better Made chips…  For the record, I am currently salivating just looking at the picture below.

After taking our food to go, we only had enough time to head back to the hotel and pick up the rest of the crew for soundcheck at the Magic Stick. Upon arriving to the venue, I started feeling anxious… At that point I just wanted the show to BEGIN. I hadn’t gone home to play in a year and a half, hadn’t been home with +FE in two… everyone was sounding all extra excited about the show – I was truly on edge……… A GOOD edge. Plus, the entire crew knew how big this show was for me… With all that said, I still wasn’t aware exactly how big.

We headed back to the hotel in order to change and get everything ready to go right back to the venue for the show. I was surprising cool, but I could feel my heart rate noticeably increase before taking the stage. Everybody in the crew was looking at me like, “You ready? Are you ready?” I was ready as hell… Normally, the time that we have backstage usually drags along anyway. But for the hometown show, time seemed to be moving at 120 seconds per minute. …..When we finally took the stage, I was the first to walk out to a sea of Detroit faces. I thought to myself, “This crowd is KILLIN the last one… They’re ready.” We proceded to start the show and the crowd was with us the entire time. During the set, I saw a ton of familiar faces, which made me feel even more at home… But still once again, I wasn’t ready.

Now… for those of you who have ever attended an +FE show, you know that there is a portion set aside during each show where Phonte introduces the entire crew individually… The order is normally: band members, vocalists, and last, of course is Nicolay. Well… for the first time in our touring history, the introduction order was different and to say that it caught me way off guard would be an understatement. Phonte went through and introduced everyone and I noticed that he skipped me… I was thinking, “Ok, he’ll probably do it after Jeanne and Sy.” Welp! After introducing Jeanne Jolly and Sy Smith…. He introduced Nicolay. *blank stare* I wonder if anyone has pictures of my face during that time, I’d like to see them because in my head it was, “Oh shit! WTF?… I’m going LAST at the CRIB? This is crazy….!” The next thing I knew, Phonte told us to cut the music and proceeded to go into my introduction. I’m sure I was standing there looking silly and lost as hell leading up to….

“Give it up for your own… Lorenzo Ferguson a/k/a Zo! y’all!”

The place just got LOUD…….. and I couldn’t do a damn thing but stand there and cheese.  In normal situations, people cheer, yell out, etc. and I’ll show love back by waving, bowing or something to make sure that they know I appreciate them. This time was a little different… Detroit got loud…. Matter of fact, Detroit got loud and HELD it. I was smiling… waving………smiling some more………. waving……  That’s when I first realized, “Oh damn, they’re not stopping!” I was completely in the moment at this point, plus my parents and younger sister were in the audience as well so this just became a helluva moment for me. I didn’t know what to do anymore or how to react – I just started looking around with the “This can’t be real” face on and man, it felt GREAT – SO great that I THEN thought to myself, “Oh ok, I see…. these negroes are tryna make me cry now.” And damn if I didn’t feel a lump in my throat – Man, this ain’t good. I just kept thinking, “Naaaah man, I’m not going… I’m not going. Breeeeeathe.” Of course, the more I thought that…. The louder they seemed to get and the bigger that lump got. THEN, I turned to my left to look at the crew, you know, just to kind of get their take on things and they were no help at all as Sy and Jeanne both had their hands on their mouths in the “Awwwww” position looking like THEY were about to cry. SHIT!! It was settled… I definitely wasn’t looking over at the crew for ANYmore support. The crowd thought they had me though!! – Because after awhile, instinctively I took my cap and covered my face with it while turning around. *sigh* This did nothing but fuel it and made them cheer even louder. Their loud ovation went on for a solid couple of minutes. I know I may seem to be making light of it, but it was by far one of the most unbelievable moments of my music career up to that point. Of course I’ve already had a few of my people jokingly say, “Aw man, you were about to cry, you were about to get emotional?” Maaaaaan listen… You work this hard for this long, keep it up after moving away from home and then return to that type of hometown love… If your throat doesn’t lump up from a reception like that, you may need to check and see if you have a pulse. I have never gotten an ovation like that before or since… That was a moment that left me truly humbled and I will never forget it.

Zo!’s Top Five Moments of 2011 – #2 My First Trips Overseas b/w The Release of ‘…just visiting three’

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Performing in Amsterdam • Photo by Sarah Jane Van Beek

I quickly went from having never traveled to Europe… to traveling to Europe three times in the first three months of the year. In January, I went overseas with The Foreign Exchange for our first European Tour as a collective, which covered London, Amsterdam, Paris, Köln, and back to London for a second show. While the tour was extremely tiring and my feet hung off of the ends of ALL of the beds in the hotels, I was very grateful to see the outpouring of love we received in each city. These kats were hyped up to see us and their energy was taken in and transferred right back to them via our shows. We were also fortunate enough to get together with the talented and VERY quick learning drummer UK Laurie Lowe who held us down on stage the entire time we were over there. BIG up…!! I know I’m leaving out a ton of details, so please don’t hesitate to click on each city above to read my write-ups on each date…

In February, I went back over to Paris with DC based, Grammy-nominated artist Kokayi at the Maison des Arts festival playing alongside Jean Grae and Pharoahe Monch… Talk about FUN. We arrived in Paris a day early, so we were able to walk around the city and take our time to really take everything in. This is generally uncommon during multi-city touring where you usually arrive to a city, check-in, soundcheck, get ready fo the show, play the show and get ready to do it all over again the next day. I experienced some excellent food, beer mixed with tequila, as well as a pigeon that decided he needed to initiate me by letting himself loose on my hat and coat. Great… The show itself was crazy… Especially when I was able to see kids start to breakdance on the sides of the thatre. I was looking like, “Wooooooooow, for real?!” Fun, fun times…

I think the most memorable time overseas was the last time I went, in March with Sy Smith – these were actually the FIRST of our “Duo” shows. We had two shows scheduled in Paris at Bizz’Art and London’s famed Jazz Café. But our schedule was pretty interesting. Despite playing the Paris show first, we flew in to London’s Heathrow airport the morning of Thursday, March 3rd where we were picked up by one of the vocalists and taken to our hotel. We had the rest of the day to explore London, or rest before rehearsal began that night with the band. The next morning (the 4th) we took the train to Paris and was greeted by our promoter upon arrival who then walked us to our hotel to check in and gave us a brief tour of the city as well as the venue we were going to be performing in the next night. We had some wine, did an interview, rested up and enjoyed a helluva dinner at a spot across the street from our hotel. The actual day of the show, March 5th… We met up with the Paris band at the venue who we could already hear rehearing our material as we walked in. That crew of musicians was on POINT. I actually remember thinking to myself when I heard the second keyboard player, “Damn, he might know my shit better than ME!” That Paris show was NUTS. Bizz’Art was filled up, the people were into the show from start to finish and showed their appreciation afterward by forming a line to the merch table where we were seated that seemed to never end. I was extremely grateful.

The following morning (Sunday the 6th), we took the train back to London to check back into our hotel and prepare for our first performance at the Jazz Café. After a quick soundcheck and a couple of interviews, we got started that night and had a BALL. Although we didn’t get on stage until late, the London crowd had a lot of energy for us. I can still remember a few kats on the sides of me who were actually “studying” what I was playing… I could tell this, because I would hear them comment or say, “Whooooo!!!” after I would hit a certain series of notes or chords. Now THAT was kinda crazy as I hadn’t experienced that before. We ended the show with an “acoustic” encore, just Sy singing and me on the keys, which gave us the idea to make our going out on the road as a team more permanent – Combined with the love we received in both London and Paris, the Zo! + Sy Smith show became solidified. Now the question is… When can we go BACk overseas?!

                                                                                                       

I’m gonna let ch’all in on a little well-known secret among us artists… Releasing new music NEVER gets old. One of the reasons is because we are always being asked, “So what’s next?” “What are you working on currently?” I had a couple of people ask me “When’s your next album coming out?” just three days after I released SunStorm in 2010. To have your current music, your “baby” see the light of day and watching people react to it in realtime via Twitter, FB, etc. is one helluva reward in itself. This time around, I was able to SEE people’s first time reactions to the new music in the form of a series of …just visiting three listening parties. The first one was the night of its release at a very intimate setting in Washington D.C. at a spot called Tap & Parlour. Right at midnight, while the album was being released online, I got up on the mic to introduce the new material to everyone in attendance and DJ 2-Tone Jones spun it straight through. To see people react to …just visiting three’s song selection, yelling out “SOOOOMEBOOOODY TEEEEELL MEEEEEEE” during the hook for “Everything She Wants” and yelling out “OHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!” when “Playing Your Game, Baby” started…. and ANOTHER “OOOOHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!” when Anthony David proceeded to start singing and take ownership of the song. I was sitting in the spot with my laptop open reading reactions to the album and experiencing them all at the same time. That feeling was absolutely priceless… I can’t wait to do it again in 2012.

Zo!’s Top Five Moments of 2011 – #3 Rock Creek Academy in D.C. Closes Down = Full-Time Musicianship…

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Friday, August 5th began early for me as I was picked up from my hotel room in Houston at about 4:45am to catch an early flight back home after wrapping up another successful listening party for my then new release, …just visiting three. For those of you who know me personally, along with others who happen to follow me on Twitter or Facebook know that I taught Music at a Special Education Charter school in Washington D.C. (Rock Creek Academy) to high school kids for five years. Well, August 5th is significant because it marked the last day of summer school at RCA, which also meant that our staff had the entire following week off before it was back to the start of yet another fall semester. I would ALWAYS take the summers off, just so I could regain my sanity and have some time to myself in regards to being productive in the studio without having to worry about my day job. Despite not working in the summer, I was still able to remain connected to the happenings in the school because I still received work emails on my phone. That morning, we all received an email from the CEO of the school that read like this:

After reading the email, I saw nothing out of the ordinary. Normally when we would get this same type of email at the end of each semester or summer session, it would serve almost as our “enjoy your time NOW… because in a week, it’s back to the plantation!” warning. Even with seeing and reading this email, I was so determined to keep the school out of my mind until it was actually that time to go back in there to work – I think any teacher can relate to that. At the time I was focused on my upcoming trip to Atlanta that I had scheduled for another …just visiting three album listening party at Moods Music that Sunday, the 7th. Soon after returning home from Atlanta on Monday, August 8th, received a text from a friend of mine who was formally employed at Rock Creek Academy with me…

“You hear about RCA?”

I responded… “No, what happened?” …but I already pretty much knew what she was about to respond with. When folks text you out of the blue asking if you’ve “heard about” someone or something, it is rare that a positive update will follow. She then proceeded to tell me that the school had shut down and that there should be a letter in the mail formally confirming this. I got up and walked outside to check the mailbox. Sure enough there was a large white envelope from Rock Creek Academy, Inc. that contained one letter of recommendation, a letter instructing us on how to keep our health benefits, and a two-page letter informing us that our signed, upcoming 10-month teaching contracts were “terminated” effective immediately due to the permanent closure of the school. Although the news came as no surprise to many of us (even though we were “assured” throughout the spring semester of 2011 that we had nothing to worry about as the school would remain open in the future), it was kind of a shock when it actually happened. What wasn’t a shock though was the fact that the two-page letter was dated Friday, August 5th… The same day the CEO sent out the “not-so-out-of-the-ordinary” email above thus confirming in print what we all already suspected… He knew. How far in advance did he know the school was shutting down? There’s no telling, but I think he was aware of it way in advance. Personally, I have always thought that was shady as shit… Regardless of what it was, what I SAW was the door to “Full-Time Musicianship” fly wide open, which was excellent… There was also a HUGE change taking place, which set the stage for a rather intense mental battle to take place… The battle started off as a back and forth debate…

“But you’re making a huge impact in some of these kids’ lives” vs. “You’re also making an impact in people’s lives who listen to your music”

“You are salaried at the school” vs. “Music isn’t salaried, but you can definitely work to make it very consistent”

The debate slowly started becoming a bit one-sided…

“Your being an artist was not at all respected by the school at all… Until it was time to show you and your students off” vs. “Your art is respected by your listeners and supporters”

“While you ARE salaried, the school has it set up to where they are not paying you for two consecutive missed days whether you have leave hours or not” vs. “You can go out on the road whenever you need to – No permission needed, no leave slips”

These were all factors that I was weighing when deciding whether or not to go back into the classroom as a music teacher. The thing is, I am very passionate about passing music down to the younger generation of kids – whether it comes in the form of music theory and education or just simply letting them hear my favorite Earth, Wind & Fire record to expose them to what I think is “good music.” I think that it is our duty as music lovers to expose these children early to some good undeniable music. It’s always silly to me when I hear people complaining about what our kids listen to, yet they have never once schooled a kid on anything music-related. Let these kids hear some stuff and pass some history along with the song and they just may surprise you by taking to it. I eventually decided to continue passing along my knowledge of music in the form of private piano lessons, which actually started at the top of this month… Despite not working in a formal classroom setting, music education never stops.

The one thing that I’ve learned since becoming a musician full-time is if you want to know how people truly feel about you, go into business for yourself and start doing what you love as a profession. Maaaaaan, that shit is TELLING!! The few things that I have learned about myself have been interesting as well. For example, I realized that once I get focused on productivity and being consistent whether in the studio, the gym, or on-stage, I have an extremely low tolerance for folks with constant negative energy. I wasn’t fully aware of that until recently and I have certainly had to adjust accordingly. On the other hand, my family and close friends have been nothing BUT supportive in my recently enhanced musical journey and to them I would like to say, “Thank you” and “I love you” for it because honestly, it is part of what drives me during some of those “low” days. Overall, the school’s immediate closure has certainly opened up brand new opportunities as well as a brand new purpose and motivation behind my music career that has resulted in a greater amount of shows and studio time and subsequently a lesser amount of sleep. I am extremely anxious to let you all hear what I have been working on since the closing of Rock Creek Academy and thank YOU for continuing to support what I love to do and that’s create and release quality music.

Zo!’s Top Five Moments of 2011 – #4 First Videos Placed in Rotation

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Valentine’s Day 2011 – I had just returned home from the school (or “that PLACE” as I would call it) after a typical day of working as a student bodyguard (a/k/a a teacher) and proceeded to send texts to numerous people in my phone letting them know that If they were close to home, pull up in front of the TV real quick and turn on VH1 Soul at 6pm EST… My video for “This Could Be the Night” was set to make its second television appearance (It was run at 10am earlier in the day). I was very promptly informed by my mother who called that morning and left a super excited voicemail, “It came on! Your video was on this morning!!” (To this DAY, she either emails or sends me a text whenever she happens to catch my video) Her voicemail was then accompanied by several texts and tweets that said the same thing. To me, this was pretty exciting being as though prior to the release of SunStorm, I had no videos. We shot footage for “This Could Be the Night” in June of last year. At the time of the shoot, I was told that the final product would be included in the MTV Networks rotation a/k/a VH1 Soul at a later date… after several steps were completed, so I thought to myself, “Just be patient, it’ll show up.” Hell, most times I would pretty much just put it out of my mind for long periods of time so I wouldn’t have to think about it. This was a fairly important accomplishment for me because a producer is normally more behind the scenes and not necessarily looked at as a “frontman.”As a matter of fact, there have been people who I have run into who had been listening to my music for some years, but barely knew what I looked like. So even just for visual’s sake, I felt that a video would be a great look… After seeing the final cut of the video, I was extremely satisfied with the result and couldn’t wait until folks would be able to see me, the crew, and hear my music on a channel that they were familiar with. When the video finally DID air, I stood up so that I was basically positioned in the middle of the living room floor, grabbed the Verizon cable remote and mashed my thumb on the “Volume +” button, which resulted in the TV blaring throughout my house. From there, I was just kinda staring motionless at the screen as if it was the first time I had ever seen my own video… I know that YouTube and other video-based sites are now almost as relevant as television, but there’s still something about seeing and hearing your work of art being displayed on TV that is still rather fascinating to me (you can tell this is my first televised video, huh?). I got on the phone with my parents and spoke with them while one of my cousins called me and screamed into the phone as if she saw me performing at the Super Bowl during halftime. If I remember correctly, the video ran right after The Foreign Exchange’s video for “Maybe She’ll Dream Of Me” – Definitely a surreal moment.

During the space of time that in which I was waiting for “This Could Be the Night” to air, I was contacted by some of vocalist Conya Doss’ people to meet with them about possibly co-starring in a video of hers (“All In You”) that they were set to shoot in November, 2010… Wow, word? Now that was something different and completely unexpected… I’m definitely no actor, nor had I ever been specifically asked to appear in someone’s video before. Regardless, I set up a meeting with them and talked about the “good guy” role I would be playing in the video and I agreed to do it. I ended up shooting the scenes for my part in a day… The next thing I knew, I had “This Could Be the Night” in rotation… and was simultaneously co-starring in another video that was also being run on television. NOW, I get texts and emails from moms that look something like this… “Both videos were on today… Your video came on at 20-after and your acting video came on at 45 after…” (She passes along the times because she knows that the video shows run the videos in the same order each time they air that particular day). That’s her all DAY… Super informative #1 fan.

“Greater Than the Sun” was a video that Phonte and I discussed shooting early on in the planning process of the album, simply because we knew how easy and stress-free it would probably be. When we eventually shot the video back in February, it was the easiest for kats to shoot… we were in Atlanta for a hot second, shot, and rolled out – AND I had some Zaxby’s while on the set!! BUT on the other hand, it has been the most difficult to get into rotation due to editing issues… The most interesting piece to me and my sense of humor is reading the comments made via YouTube as some think that Phonte is the one driving the car, somebody else thinks that Kareem Johnson produced the song and not the video… It kinda had me thinking, “Well shit… What do folks think I do anyway?” haha …Phonte isn’t driving to go and pick himself up from his house in the video! lol Maaaaan, a brovah can’t get credit for shit! LOL But I love how the bright video directly reflects the mood and the content of the song… Perhaps one day soon we’ll be able to enjoy the second video from SunStorm on TV as well…… Two outta three ain’t bad… That’s two more I had on TV this time last year!

Zo!’s Top Five Moments of 2011 – #5 The Co-Signing of “Flight Of The Blackbyrd” by Original Member Of The Blackbyrds, Allan Barnes

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Whenever I do a cover of a song, or in this case an original piece that serves as dedication track paying homage a favorite group (The Blackbyrds) and favorite production team (The Mizell Brothers), the way that I judge the finished product is by asking myself, “Do you think that this piece can be presented to the original artist… WITH confidence?” If the answer to that question is a “yes”… I keep it. If I feel otherwise, I will not hesitate to start over or completely scrap something I don’t deem high-quality enough to keep around. With that being said, let’s discuss a phone call I received the afternoon of January 18th while I was in the classroom teaching… I couldn’t get to my phone obviously, so I let it go to voicemail. When I finally had a free minute to check it, I looked and saw that it was saxophonist and original Blackbyrds band member, Allan Barnes who called. Oh damn, word?! Now, I had not talked to him since the summer of 2007 when I went back home to play keys in Detroit’s CityFest with my former band, The Gorilla Funk Mob (ironically, I actually JUST found footage of this performance on YouTube last month). From checking the voice mail, he was giving me a shout letting me know that he was in D.C. for a day or two… Alright, sounds good to me. So, I called him back and we chopped it up about that for a few minutes. Suddenly, it hit me… I need to ask him about hearing “Flight Of the Blackbyrd” from SunStorm!! A friend of mine and GFM drummer, Tate McBroom told me that he played the record for him a few months prior… Being an original Blackbyrd, I was anxious to hear his opinion first-hand…

Me: I’ve been meaning to ask you about this for a minute…. Have you heard the “Flight Of the Blackbyrd” joint?

Allan Barnes: What? Your joint?

Me: Yeah… The one that just came out last year.

AB: Oh yeeeeeeeah!! That’s the SHIT man!!

Me: *Trying my best not to attempt a back flip that I know I can’t execute*

It was probably the shortest and most direct approval I had ever received, but it didn’t lessen how humbled I was, especially being as though the only other song I have ever received praise for from the original artist was my cover of “Star Of the Story” by Heatwave…  Of course as soon as I got off the phone with AB… I passed the positive news along to Phonte.  

Allan’s words came in addition to what happened soon after SunStorm was released in July of 2010. Larry Mizell Jr. tweeted Phonte and I regarding “Flight Of the Blackbyrd” giving the Mizell Family’s approval… (I wish I would have favorited that tweet). Talk about HONORED. You never know who is listening and possibly enjoying your music – particularly when your music is “to” them…

September 11th… We Have History.

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My first birthday cake (9/11/79)… I was probably analyzing the best method of attack.

At approximately 10:50am in 1978, September 11th and I began to form a bond that would go on to last a lifetime to say the absolute least. This would become the day that as a kid I would get so hyped up that I would establish countdowns to simply because the date would involve celebration, presents, and most importantly… FOOD. In grade school, 9/11 was the day that marked my becoming another year older, which meant I could puff my little bird chest out a little bit more. THIS of course meant I was more… well… “grown”… or so I thought. I mean saying, “I’m 10” always sounded so much better than saying, “I’m 9” combined with whatever large fraction I could find to attach to my age in attempts to make myself sound even older, right? There were some 9/11’s where rather than baking a cake, Moms would make my favorite pie (cherry) and put birthday candles in that! Other times, I may have asked her to bring in cupcakes in for my classmates on 9/11 so that they could partake in one of my favorite pastimes: being greedy as all hell. Then of course, the highlight of my 9/11 was coming home after school and asking Moms if I could open the gifts that she and Dad picked up for me, not realizing at the time how fortunate I truly was………….. Well, then I would tear those presents open as if I had no home training at all.

Yeah, September 11th and I go back a quite a ways…

The World Trade Center Towers, NYC

9/11 began a bit differently in 2001. Already graduated with Bachelor’s in Studio Art (Graphic Design), I was still living in Bowling Green, KY working on pre-requisite courses for an MBA Degree a/k/a “I didn’t know what then hell I wanted to do with my life at that particular time.” Young, silly-acting and all set to turn 23, I began the early morning hours by running my mouth on the phone all night, which consequently caused me not to get much sleep at ALL, with the exception of maybe 30-45 minutes on the couch of my apartment after finally laying down at about 5:30am. One of my cousins from Florida called me to wish me a Happy Birthday…… At 6-something AM. He hit me with, “Happy Birthday cuuuuz…”  My response was something like, “#@%&!!!!, You realize it’s 6:00 in the damn morning??!…. Well… At least you called, thanks a lot.” After getting off of the phone with him, I decided like a crazy person to drive to campus so that I could get an early morning workout. Surprisingly, I had sufficient energy to start and complete the full workout routine. Upon finishing, my number one objective for the day then became: GET SOME REST… IMMEDIATELY. I got back to the apartment, took a shower, and was fully prepared to get in the bed, cover my face with the covers to help shield any additional morning sunlight that wanted to try and peek through the blinds and then drift off into dreamland. But by the time I peeled the covers back, the phone rang… I didn’t answer it. I had sleeping to do. …The phone rang again…. Same thing, I didn’t answer it. I definitely wasn’t expecting the phone to ring a third time in a row. So finally, I decided to pick it up…. It was one of my boys calling from campus. No “Hello”, just straight to…

“AYO… They flying planes into the Twin Towers!”

Wait a minute… Huh?! THE Twin Towers?…. What do you even say to that? Except for, “The hell are you talking about?!”

“Maaan, turn the TV on CNN! It’s on there!”

I hung the phone up, went downstairs and turned the TV on and not only was it on CNN, but on EVERY channel there was a shot of the Twin Towers. By this time the North Tower had already been hit, was still on fire and some of its floors were engulfed in smoke… The first thing I thought about was my best friend and then former roommate who had JUST moved out of the apartment to NYC two or three weeks prior. I was trying to call him… Nothing. I couldn’t get through – there were way too many calls going to New York at the time and the phone carriers were overextended. As I was attempting to call him, the calls began pouring in to my phone. To this day, I have never witnessed that much call activity on a phone that I owned in my life. Birthday wishes quickly turned into a, “Maaaan, this shit is crazy!” conversation… My mother even called and said,

“Are you watching the news?!! ………OH!! Happy Birthday.” 


That was a pretty hilarious moment to me looking back on it. But I think the seriousness of 9/11/01 REALLY sunk in when I saw the second plane hit the South Tower on live television… I was actually on the phone with someone at the time and we BOTH blurted out, “Oh SHIT!! ….Did you see that?!?!!” …and then there was just silence. I later found out that a young lady I grew up with was actually able to evacuate from one of the towers and avoid harm. Ironically enough, her first day on the job happened to be Monday September 10th, 2001.

The main question of the day became, “Where are they gonna hit next?” And even more importantly, WHO exactly is “they?” I even remember the mall in Bowling Green, KY closing down early that day and I thinking…. “Maaaaaaaan, terrorists ain’t thinking about attacking the damn Bowling Green mall!!” This was one day that I will say that there was entirely too much going on, but there was absolutely nothing you could do about it but remain glued to the news. Oh, and I failed to mention the fact that I had an Economics exam scheduled for 5:30pm that day as well… Let’s just say I didn’t get to finish studying for it. And that sleep I was attempting to get all day, that didn’t happen either. And while I was hearing that campuses were canceling classes nationwide, we still went to Economics class that evening and took the exam. It was the only thing I got a “B” on the entire semester… But on the way back from class, I stopped through Best Buy and scooped up the following new releases…  Jay-Z’s The Blueprint CD and the Blow DVD.

No one really understood just how deeply we would be impacted by 9/11. It hit me like a ton of bricks when I was on a plane less than two weeks later. I sat down in my assigned seat and noticed that I had an entire row to myself. Hell… I had damn near the entire plane to myself! It seemed to have come with a cost because for the first time, I stood in a security line for almost an hour and a half. I remember being sent to a checkpoint of security where they would look through you bag in front of you by hand – tossing, lifting, shaking and adjusting the clothing in your suitcase until they were satisfied that you were “clean.” There were so many copycat acts of terrorism that followed that it just got to be ridiculous. For example, we can blame kats like Richard Reid for our having to place our footwear in a bin and having to walk through security detectors shoeless. The proces of catching a flight and even picking someone up from the airport hasen’t been the same since. Things changed damn near overnight pretty much to the point where we can specifically point to two very distinct eras in modern history, “Pre-9/11” and “Post 9/11.” 

Showing no mercy on my birthday cheesecake during a restaurant celebration in September 2001 …Normal activity.

Well… Post-9/11, I have chosen since its first anniversary in 2002 not to watch the news or any 9/11 related documentaries that day. As a matter of fact, I’ve watched one documentary on 9/11, of which I checked out only once back in 2003. It was so extremely detailed, well produced and ridiculously heavy that I don’t feel the need to look at any others… Since 9/11 and I have such a rich history, I will continue to utilize it as a day of celebration with my family and close friends… AND a celebratory alcoholic beverage…. AND a helluva plate of food!!  

“Happy B-Day! Love, Zo” was the cake I made to mySELF in 2001… 

Prayers and respect to those who were affected by the events of 9/11.

Love to my 9/11 Birthday family… Miz Korona, Jade, Curtis, and my brotha Grap Luva…

Dear Macaroni & Cheese.. I Love You… Love, Zo.

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A Macaroniconic Creation by Zo!, Thanksgiving 2010

 

By now, it’s no secret that me and food are extremely close and have a very special relationship. So much so, that each morning I wake up, it is not out of the norm for me to map out an entire day of meals in my head simply because I’m that excited about having a “clean slate” of menu choices… Oh yes y’all, it’s serious. But there is one food in particular that I could probably eat at least once or twice a week for the rest of my life and I never get tired of it… Macaroni and damn cheese. Or to put it as the late, great Bernie Mac would probably put, Macaroni and… muthafuckincheese. To me, mac and cheese is “main dish material” while the chicken, steak, or whateverthehell that is served with it automatically becomes the side dish. Percentage-wise, my plate will run anywhere from 40-50% macaroni, and the rest will be left for the remaining 2-4 items that have been included for dinner. As a matter of fact, I’ll tell y’all how I became ruined… In college, I learned how to make my own from scratch….. and perfect it. I then became an official “Macaroni Snob.” Now, I can’t even eat everybody’s macaroni… Or better yet, I won’t eat everybody’s macaroni. I mean come on, you’ve had bad macaroni and cheese before…It’s pretty much tragedy on a plate. It’s even worse when someone hypes up a family member’s mac dish to you…


“Maaaan, you’ve gotta try my aunt’s macaroni… It’s CRAZY!! Best you’ll ever have!”

 

………then you have a sample of it……… *delivers a STRONG screwface* and it tastes like some damn noodles with Kraft cheese slices sitting in milk. That is the WORST. You’re left standing there damn near feeling sorry for the family as you wonder if that’s the best they can do as a unit! *reminisces on Wonder Mike’s last “Rapper’s Delight” verse*

Now while I don’t remember when or how my connection with this dish became so deep, I do know that it was early on in my life. With that being said, let me tell you a story…. Mac and cheese and I have a rich history.

Before I share this story, I need you to understand that I played baseball from the age of 9 until I was 22 years old and didn’t break ANY bones. I played football a couple years in high school… NO broken bones. Matter of fact, I have had a broken bone only ONE time in my life… I was in kindergarten, which probably meant that I was all of about 5 years old and I was doing what most little kids do during the day – “Plaaaaaying” © The classic 5-year old answer to “What have you been doing today?” Well, in the middle of my playing around… Moms made an announcement that absolutely made my entire day.

“I’m making macaroni for dinner…”

 

I know what you’re thinking… “Your mother made macaroni for dinner, ONLY?!” NO. See, that’s the only thing I remember HEARING. To ME, whatever she said probably sounded like this…

“I’m making MACARONI and dfnkjandsljnf and nfjdlkadjsnfanadn for dinner…“

 

From that information, a shot of adrenaline went through my body that resulted in my jumping up and down repeatedly literally cheering for my mother and yelling her praises so loudly that the whole house could hear it, that is until…………………. *hangs head in shame* I lost my balance. Instead of jumping up and down and landing on my feet, I somehow lost my footing as some young kids do and I landed on my left arm. My excitement instantly turned to pain and my “hip, hip hoorayin'” turned into some pretty intense crying as the bone in my forearm made my arm look like I had two elbows. My father who was home and heard me crying in pain sat down and “re-set” my arm a/k/a put the bone back in its place BEFORE going into ER. I can remember going to the emergency room and getting the official word that I had in fact broken my left arm. They put that itchy ass plaster cast on my arm to wear for 8 weeks or so. I remember going to school and having my little unsteady handed friends sign with their “well wishes.” Pure hilarity. I even remember getting the cast OFF and thinking about how light my arm felt now that it was free. Anyway, I’m telling this story to get to the bottom line…. and the bottom line is: I broke my arm due to excitement caused by… MACARONI AND CHEESE. Now if that ain’t some history…..

…and after all that, I don’t think I even GOT any mac and cheese that night.

So… I Done Messed Around and Got A Hat Endorsement

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Picture taken from the “Who’s Wearing Belfry Brand?” section of HatsOnTheBelfry.com

This is a pretty big deal to me since I have never been asked to endorse anything before until James Sackor (who I am pictured with) with Hats On the Belfry approached me with his card after a Foreign Exchange show in Baltimore back in June and told me that if I needed anything with regards to hats, hit him up. I stuck the card in my wallet (which can be classified at times as ‘No Man’s Land’) and did not see the card again for another month or so. Needless to say, I got back in touch with James in July, worked out the endorsement and I have been getting all of my hats from their stores ever since. Props to y’all… Now let’s see if Yamaha is willing to join in on the endorsement fun!

Ali “Ollie” Woodson (October 12, 1951 – May 30, 2010)

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Allow me to begin by stating very clearly that The Temptations are the greatest singing group to ever do it… period. My mother brought me up on a heavy dose of Temptations music, which left me completely biased when it came to the whole “Temps vs. Tops” argument (if you want to call it that) even as a 6-year old – There was never even been a competition in my opinion. The Temps had the vocals and five-part harmony down to a ridiculous science, their choreography was flawless, even well into the 80’s and 90’s, but the one major factor that allowed the group to stand so far apart from others was their ability to consistently enlist powerful and audience captivating lead singers. From one of my favorite lead singers of all-time, David Ruffin, to the incomparable vocals of Dennis Edwards, to Mr. Ali-Ollie Woodson…

In the mid-80’s, while my mother was putting me on to all of the classic Temptation records, she was also running the current Temptations albums on repeat. Whenever the Temps released a new one, she would pick up a cassette tape for the car and a vinyl copy for the record player in the family room. In 1984, I listened to their Truly For You album (“Treat Her Like A Lady”) up until 1985 when Touch Me was released… Then ’86 when they dropped …To Be Continued, which contained the single “Lady Soul” all the way up to 1987 when they put out Together Again (Actually, Dennis was the lead singer for this album, but Ali came back for their 1989 release, Special). Most of these songs are so embedded in my brain that even after not hearing the music for more than 20 years, I can turn it on now and recite most of the words. Needless to say, it always breaks my heart when we lose one of their members and in this case it effected me no differently. We have lost yet another extremely talented member of the Temptation family, not only vocally, but the brotha wasn’t too bad on them keys either!

Ali-Ollie Woodson, may you rest in peace… Your talents will be missed. Case in point… see below.

My Dilla Memories…

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I distinctively remember the first time that I heard Jay Dee, and actually KNEW who I was listening to (I owned a some of his music at the time but never put two and two together). It was The Pharcyde’s “Runnin’ (Remix)” back in Late ’95/Early ’96 and I was a senior in high school. My boy Dwight who was a classmate of mine at St. Martin DePorres HS (Detroit, MI), hit me up and was telling me about his trip to the record store that day. He and I would always catch one another up on the latest store run to see who could take home the most obscure, yet dopest finds. It was almost a silent challenge, competitive and rewarding at the same time because it was our way of discovering new music. Anyway, included in his store run was the maxi-single for “Runnin'”. So, he told me to check for the remix done by a cat named Jay Dee whom he had heard was from Detroit, which at the time was a pretty big deal. There wasn’t a lot of national exposure coming from the D around 95/96. So I was like, Bet! I’ma start keeping an eye on him for that reason alone. Things looked good from the break as I opened up my Labcabincalifornia CD jacket, read through the credits as I always do and quickly noticed that under all of my favorite joints I saw “Produced by Jay Dee”, “J. Yancey”, or “EPHCY Publishing”. Not too long after that, I heard about the Busta Rhymes’ “Woo Haa” single which contained the “Jay Dee Bounce Remix” and a “Jay Dee’s Other Shit Remix”. I happened to be in Record Time in Roseville when I heard the latter… It was purchased on the spot. THEN I bought the single for De La Soul’s “Stakes Is High” where he produced the actual song and the remix. Reading liner notes is what let me know that he was also a part of The Ummah as I would once again see “J. Yancey” show up in those writer’s credits. Well damn!! It looked to me like this dude was starting to build up a very solid body of work. So continued to keep my eyes and ears open for him. Then about a month before I went away to school, Tribe Called Quest’s Beats, Rhymes & Life was released and for a couple months it was ALL I listened to. When I heard “Get A Hold” for the first time??? That filtered bass kicked in at the end of the second bar and MAN I looost it… But a lotta folks felt that the addition of Jay to Tribe’s production team crippled their sound. …….NO. I never really understood the criticism that BRL and later The Love Movement received… I’m a big fan of both albums.
Sidenote: Hilariously enough, “Find A Way” from The Love Movement is the song that singlehandedly made me go and get a powered amp and a pair of 12″ speakers installed in my truck in 1998.

Sometime in 1997, while away at school I remember hearing from another one of my boys back home that Jay was in a group called Slum Village. So, fast forward to around the spring/summer of 1998. I just so happened to be messing around in the school library on one of my favorite websites at the time, Sandboxautomatic.com and came across a new 12″ by Slum that I hadn’t seen before on the site. The joint had “2U4U”, “Fantastic”, “I Don’t Know” and “Players” AND instrumentals for all of them (except “Players” if I remember correctly). I proceeded to click on the link where I could listen to a snippet of the songs…….. And that’s when I heard “Players” for the first time and DAMMIT, my jaw dropped to the floor, literally…

WHOOOOOOOOOA. What. In. The. HELL. Is. THIS?!!?!!??!!?!!???

Up to that point, I hadn’t heard anything that sounded like it. The simplicity of it and the way it utilized space. The claps, the almost “airy” texture of the song created by the ambiance of the “Claire” sample floating in the background… and that bassline?! BRUH…. THAT. BASSLINE. Look man, I was hooked. I was so hooked that I would head BACK up to the library after lunch, right before baseball practice, or in between classes STRICTLY to hop online, go to Sandbox and listen to that same 60 or 90-second snippet of “Players”. This went on for a few weeks until I actually bought the 12″. As a matter of fact, being as though I had no credit card of my own I had to use my boy’s card and give him the cash. That wasn’t an obstacle to me, I didn’t give a shit… I had to have that song (I still have that 12″ in the collection to this day). When those joints showed up two years later on SV’s Fantastic Vol. 2 (except for that OG version of “Fantastic”), I was ALL IN. “Conant Gardens” Dope. “I Don’t Know”. Yep. “Jealousy”. Solid… And then it happened again…. This time I heard “Climax” for the first time and that shit was simply a MASTERPIECE. I was so far in a zone when this song came on that I damn near ran my car off the road in my own neighborhood. How much does a song have to effect you to run your ass off the road??!!?! It was almost like I had found “the answer”. THIS is what I’ve wanted to hear music sound like… This is IT.

I wasn’t fortunate enough to have worked with him on any music, but I did meet Jay on just one occasion in 2003. I’ll never forget it – February 14, 2003, it was the middle of the afternoon and I was in Barak Studios in Southfield, MI. As a matter of fact, we were ALL at Barak Studios that day. If I remember correctly, T3 from SV was in there, Young RJ, Black Milk, Phat Kat, Nick Speed, and Que D. Most of us were just hanging out in the lobby part of the studio cracking jokes, talking shit, whateverthehell… The door opened up and in walked Jay Dee with Karreim Riggins. I was just standing there, probably with a blank look on my face like, “Oh wow.” Here comes damn Jay Dee holding a bag of McDonald’s with this huge grin on his face. I’m pretty sure that at the time he had just gotten over being sick because RJ Rice (Barak Records’ founder) kept commenting on how healthy he looked. RJ was actually the one who introduced me to him… and anyone who knows RJ, knows that was a helluva introduction. …Be sure to read the following quote in your best “RJ” voice.

“Yeah mayne, this is Zo!…he plays keys for Slum! …….This nigga bad mayne!” © RJ

As I stood there giving Dilla a pound along with a “what up”…I started thinking to myself…Damn, this is the same cat who did (name your favorite joint here). Even with all of the accolades, the credits and the genius shit he was doing, he was as humble as anyone I’ve ever met – famous or not. 

February 10, 2006 was the same day that I moved out here to Maryland… It was an exciting time for me because I felt as though I was moving on to start building a new foundation on the East Coast. Little did I know, the word ‘transition’ would reveal itself as having a double-meaning.

After being on the road pulling a full U-Haul trailer for about nine hours on pure adrenaline and NO sleep whatsoever (yeah, yeah, yeah…unsafe, I know this), my phone started BLOWING UP at about 4:30p or so with all types of text messages and calls. I was in the middle of moving boxes and furniture into my new apartment in MD with my uncle, so I couldn’t get much of a break to even look to see what was going on. Finally, it just became too much and I stopped what I was doing to pull my phone out and see what it was that I was missing. I looked at the phone and saw that I missed about 7 or 8 calls and had 15 new text messages. Wow, I had only been gone from Michigan about 9 or 10 hours… Folks back home must be hitting me up to wish me well on this new journey! ….Wishful thinking. When I checked the first text, it read, “Did you hear Dilla passed?” Hold on….. what?? …The second wasn’t much different, “I’m hearing Dilla died, have you heard anything? Tell me it’s not true.” I was literally numb and thinking, “This has to be a rumor… Gotta be.” But it was only a couple months prior that Questlove posted some video clips on Okayplayer’s message boards of Jay performing overseas …….in a wheelchair, due to his health. And when I say that was some of the most heartbreaking footage to watch. The voice was there so it was definitely still him, but he was frail and almost a shell of himself – it hurt to see him perform like that. To this day when I hear “Baby” from The Shining album I think about watching those clips simply because Dilla doesn’t sound like himself on that track at all. He sounded tired and worn down… You could tell he was fighting to continue to create. Another thing, most of us as fans didn’t know how much his health had taken a toll by that point so the news hit us all over the head like a brick. BUT in the days after those clips were released here in the States, we were all assured that Dilla’s health was improving. So, I even thought back to those videos, “But credible sources have said that he was getting better…” I still didn’t believe it. ANYTHING to discredit this shit. Then almost right on cue, my phone started ringing again…. It was a friend of mine from high school. I answered the phone and I could just tell – I heard it in his voice when he started talking. I didn’t say, “Hello”, “What up?”…nothing. It was just,

Me: “Man, is it true?”

Response: *sigh* “Yeah man………………. This shit hurts.”

And he was right…. it did hurt. I mean, I didn’t even know Dilla like that. We never made music together …we never hung out. I had only met him the one time …but damn if hearing about his passing didn’t affect me like we came up together. Hell, it took me such a long time to get all the way into Donuts (which was released on his birthday, only three days before his death) because the album felt almost like a eulogy to me… damn near equivalent to “the end.” He was the only one of my musical heroes who I felt I could actually reach out to. He was a huge part of the reason why I could take Detroit music out of town with me and be proud of where I’m from. He was one of the dudes whose musical work ethic I patterned my own after. I wanted to work just as hard or harder to build up a consistent discography like he did. This is why I always say that music is one of the most intimate, emotional, and personal things you’ll ever experience because connecting with a person’s music is like connecting with a part of that person. When you create timeless music, to the music fans and listeners… you are never gone.

This is a celebration of life and music. We miss you, Dilla Dawg….

Rest In Peace …James “Jay Dee/J. Dilla” Yancey
(02.07.1974 – 02.10.2006)
My personal favorites list…

“Me & Those Dreamin’ Eyes Of Mine (Jay Dee Remix)” D’Angelo (1996)
“Get A Hold” Tribe (1996)
Word Play” Tribe (1996)
“Players” Slum Village (1997)
“That Shit” Tribe (1998)
“Don’t Nobody Care About Us” Phat Kat (1999)
“Look of Love Pt. 2” Slum Village (1999)
“Look Of Love (J-88 Remix)” Slum Village (1999)
“Let’s Ride” Q-Tip (1999)
“Eve (Jay Dee Mix)” Spacek (2000)
“Climax (Girl Shit)” Slum Village (2000)
“Nag Champa” Common (2000)
“Fall In Love (Remix)” Slum Village (2001)
“Without You (Remix)” Lucy Pearl (2001)
“Fuck The Police” Jay Dee (2001)
“Shake It Down” Jay Dee (2001)
“Let’s Take It Back” Jay Dee (2001)
“As Serious As Your Life Gets (Jay Dee Remix)” Fourtet (2004)
“Love It Here” Elzhi (2004)
“Move Pt. II” Oh No (2005)
“E=MC2” Jay Dee (2006)
“Won’t Do” Jay Dee (2006)
“Nasty Ain’t It?” Phat Kat (2007)
“Move” Q-Tip (2009)