I have to start this story off correctly. A few folks know, most don’t…. But uhhh, Carmen Rodgers threatened me via text message on some Suge Knight shit almost a year to the DAY that I’m writing this. …Well, not quite to that extreme, but I did fear for my life…. Ok, well… I kinda didn’t. ALL I’m saying is, don’t let her innocent looks fool you… She’ll cut’cho ass for an album credit!! The exchange went something like this… AND it was completely outta the blue.
Carmen: “Oohhh. If I’m not on your record… ooooohhhhhh!!!!!! lol”
Me: “I’m getting feature threats?!!?!! LMAO …Don’t worry, We’re working to find something that is right for YOU.”
Carmen: “Hahaha!! Feature Threats!! Thanks for thinking of me… I’d love to be a part of your work…anytime YOU’RE ready.”
Scary, right?…angry ass Carmen. Gonna threaten me, laugh about it, and then be all sweet just ONE text later? As I said, I feared for my life, man…….. kinda. As a result of this exchange, we got her in the studio ASAP. Hahahaha (Now I’ll probably start receiving ‘threatening’ texts from others in order to be on a next project… Lawd.) Carmen got in the studio with Phonte in North Carolina in December and recorded the hook for “Show Me The Way”… This was definitely one of those joints that when I heard just her part, I said to myself… “Oh, we’ve got one on our hands.” Everything about it just WORKED. From the catchiness of “Tell me what am I to dooooo, when it feels like I am looooosing yoooooooou…”, to when she brought the harmonies in on, “show me the way back baaaaaby…” I still let out an enthusiastic “Whoooooo!!!!!!!” about every third time I hear those harmonies too, just for the record. Good shit Suge Rodgers!!
Now, after hearing the way that Anthony David got up on the …just visiting three album and absolutely BODIED the “Playing Your Game, Baby” joint by channeling Barry White in every way possible, it was pretty much automatic… I HAD to have him feature on the new album whenever it was time to get in the studio with it. When creating the instrumental for the song, I was definitely pulling influences from some of that early/mid 70’s “Motown Sound” (see also: “Greatest Weapon Of All-Time”). When studying that sound as a whole and the producers who were putting that music together, to me it was usually comprised of many simplistic layers of instrumentation that usually formed one beautiful piece of music. It was fun, driving, upbeat, and easy for masses of people to digest once written to. That was my main inspiration behind incorporating the heavy snare drum and the wah-wah guitar lick throughout the majority of the song. I updated it some by utilizing my trusty Moog Minitaur synth bassline on it rather than recording a bass guitar line – I figured that the synth would add a nice contrast to it stylistically.
Phonte got a hold of the instrumental and let it sit for a minute until Carmen arrived in NC to record. He then wrote the hook for her and got with my homeboy from the D, Scorpion of Windimoto (some of y’all may remember him for his jive talking abilities at the beginning and ending of “This Could Be The Night”) to complete the writing for the rest of the song. He then recorded a reference to send over to Anthony David to check out. The way that A.D. completely made this joint his own was DOPE to hear. I can remember sitting at my desktop with the volume almost all the way up (I was still critiquing so TOO loud meant I may miss something) and hearing Ant go in from the first note!! As soon as you hear him sing, “Myyyy, myyyyyyy, mah, myyyyyyyyy, myyyyyyyyyyyy” you know EXACTLY who it is. Even if you don’t, he was sure to place his stamp throughout the duration of the song. For example, the staccato feel of the vocals at the top of the second verse, “..That. Won. Ders. If. I’ll. Everrrrrrr” or the accents placed on “OUrrrrLOveWOntEVer be saaaaaaaaa…” during the second pre-hook. It always feels good as a producer when the vocalist not only brings their A-game to your material, but also allows their total character to shine on the song. To me, it’s a sign that they enjoy and more importantly trust your music enough to be themselves on it. The way that Anthony and Carmen bounced off of each other and truly complemented one another just added another beautiful layering to the music that cannot be written or manipulated in a Pro Tools session. Now let’s see if I can get the two of them on stage to perform it live while on tour… Atlanta perhaps? *rubs chin*
Those who know me and my preferred musical tastes are fully aware of how much love the music catalog of the great Leon Sylvers III. As a kid, there were two albums that I would run REPEATEDLY… Shalamar’s “Three For Love” and “Friends” where Mr. Sylvers was the producer on both. Matter of fact, I used to love anything on that Solar Records label ….Why? Because not only was there some great music being released through them, but I used to get a kick out of how dope the vinyl label looked as it was spinning around on the turntable. That alone would fascinate me for at least a song or two… Once I got older, picked up the bass guitar and revisited some of these songs that I grew up with I noticed that the basslines within Leon Sylvers’ production work were pretty challenging. The bass is so noticeable that instead of playing a supportive role, it’s damn near carrying the entire tune. When I found out that he was also the one playing these lines?!… I got SUPER inspired. So much so that his work was added to my “go to” list in regards to shedding on the bass (Jamerson’s work, some disco jams, and various mid and up-tempo 70’s/80’s songs are my other “go tos”). So one day I was messing around on the bass and kinda thought to myself, “I don’t even have an uptempo ‘jheri curl jam’ in my catalog… It would at least be FUN to try and construct one.”
“We Are On The Move” began on the bass… It was actually the only song on ManMade that I wrote on the bass guitar. I wanted the bassline to move, be playful….but remain funky – I wanted it to “carry” the record. A good number of uptempo records from the late 70’s/early 80’s have very memorable basslines and I wanted this one to be no different… PLUS, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to show off my bass playing a little bit. A lot of folks aren’t aware that I play anything outside of the keys. ……Soooooo with that being said, I wanted to make sure to add in a guitar part in there as well. What it ended up becoming was 30 seconds of me playing two instruments that most of my listeners don’t even know I play… bass and guitar. Once the keys roll up into the first chord, that’s a clear indication of jheri curl juice beginning to be flung freely from that “yellow bottle” saturated moistness of a hairdo a/k/a …the official start of the party.
The original instrumental for this joint was titled “Eighty Three” as in the year 1983 for obvious reasons. The music for the joint literally took me back to that particular era. I can remember playing this one for everybody in The Foreign Exchange live collective at my house the night before we hit the Capital Jazz Fest stage last year and from their reactions to the just the music, I could tell that I had something pretty special on my hands. Once the crew and I returned hom from that early/mid June 2012 +FE run, Phonte and I got to work. Phonte was sent the instrumental and immediately sent me a vocal referenced version back. We had ideas…. We had HUGE ideas. And they seemed to come through for this one piece by piece….
First of all, I think I let out a clear, “OH SHIT!!” when I heard Gwen Bunn hit that “Get ready!!” on the hook because I didn’t tell Phonte exactly where I pulled inspiration from to create the music, yet he wrote an almost Shalamar-inspired hook for it providing me with further evidence as to why we work so well in that studio. We had a couple of challenges in getting a lead vocalist, that is until we turned to the brotha Eric Roberson. Now as busy as Erro remains with EVERYTHING, he always seems to have time for our music and it’s a blessing to have a kat that talented in your corner – especially since I was a fan of his before we started working together. Now he has appeared on my last THREE albums (ManMade, …just visiting three & SunStorm). Phonte hit Erro up with the reference and he turned it around in less than a week… I mean, the dude is a PROFESSIONAL and I love working with him for that very reason. He simply gets the music, walks in a studio, murders it, sends it back to you, and keeps it moving like nothing ever happened…. But right before the final lead vocal was done on it, Phonte said, “Ive got an idea for the ending… just give me a minute.” …..Ok, bet. Now, I admit I can be a bit impatient sometimes. So I created an ending of my own…. One that has a few percussion instruments on it and once the song is completely over, it breaks off into a SECOND part… and that was cool. But one morning at about 6am, I got one of those, “G MUTHAFUCKIN MAIL” texts from Phonte and I already KNEW what the deal was. I opened the email and there was a new version of the song. I played it through and didn’t notice anything different…..UNTIL
*chiiiiiimes* into……. *conga playing*
“Wait…… Hol’lup. Who?……. What the f…… YOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!”
Phonte had gotten Brevan Hampden to add some live percussion playing at the end of the song and it took on a whole new LIFE. I think I played that shit about 25 times in a row that morning. From there, I added a synth line and rhodes key chops at the very end of it so that the joint would in the words of Phonte, “go out in a blaze of glory”. We wanted the listener to be PARTYING by the end of the song. And then to hear Sy Smith, Erro and Phonte go back and forth as if all three of them are on stage together clowning out…. maaaaan, that was a treat for me. And when Erro says, “Come on, come ON, Come OWN, COME OWWWN!!!!” …That’s when the stage is set for a full out “dance as if you could give a damn about ANYthing else in your life right now.” Brotha was tryna bring some MJ to the table on this joint… We hear you brotha Erro, we hear you.
Me and Sy just before hitting the stage for the first show at Blues Alley in DC. (June 2012)
I’ll just say this, first and foremost so that I can go ahead and make it very clear… Sy Smith is one of my favorite people to work with. PERIOD. And I don’t have to run down her mile-long resumé for you to understand why she is head and shoulders above everyone else. Beyond sitting kats down with her vocal ability, the woman is about her business. Both of us are very experimental and free when it comes to recording material as well as the live presentation of it. I think it’s just a matter of not wanting to miss out on coming up with dope musical arrangements by becoming too “scripted” because that’s not what great artists allow themselves to do. And she is just that… A great artist and an even greater person for those who know her up close.
Anyway, let me wrap that on up before y’all start droppin’ streams of thug tears and shit…
Instead, allow me to drop this fun fact of the day… Take a guess at who completed the very first song for each of these four releases: …just visiting too, SunStorm, …just visiting three, and NOW ManMade. If you guessed “Sy Smith”, you sir or ma’am are smarter than the average person who posts and misspells shit regularly via Twitter! (Weeell, technically she AND Phonte were on the first joint completed for JV3 (“Black Cow”), but it still counts).
I can remember very clearly how I came up with the music for this one. I was messing around with different drum sets or “patches” and came up on a set that reminded me of some Ghettotech or Electronic sounding music from back home. Being as though I had never really gone that route musically before, it then became a “self-dare” to create a Ghettotech/Electronic-inspired drum pattern JUST to see if I could come up with anything that would make it work. So instead of using thick, gritty basslines to define the song’s concept, I decided to dress it up with a piano line, a pad that continues throughout the piece and a sparse, yet kinetic bassline that moves in and out of the drum pattern itself – Pretty electronic music. Once I finished, I sent it to Phonte and when the “Who’s gonna be on this one” conversation took place, we said almost simultaneously, “Sy…” It was very much a no-brainer. The bright and quirky feel of the song fit her perfectly.
I’m sure I have said this before, but Sy is one of those artists who I can send some music to with NO instructions outside of, “check it out” and she’ll send something back to me laced fully… The same thing happened to set the tone for SunStorm when she sent me back “Greatest Weapon Of All Time.” I get Sy the music and keep it moving onto something else without any worries whatsoever. At the end of May 2012, I remember getting a text from Sy saying that she had sent the new joint through – Checked my email and sure enough, there was a new one from her engineer Grant Nichols and the typed out lyrics from her… DOPE. The subject heading of Grant’s email read, “Hashtags & Do-Rags.” At first glance, I was like, “The hell does that mean?”… After realizing that was part of the hook for the sont, I kinda shook my head laughing while thinking, “Man, that line is Sy as hell.” Even with a short wait, the anticipation was killing me while the attachment downloaded and iTunes opened up and run it. She had already told me how much she loved the music, but I was completely on the edge of my seat to see what she ended up creating with it. So finally, the song started…. Immediately Sy opened up with a bit of vocal gymnastics, almost a quick ‘warm up’ to tease the listener before the music kicks in fully. They way she phrased and enunciated words like,
“DIZ-zy,”
“desti-NA-tion,”
and “in-spi-RA-tion,”
I heard her personality come to life in that first verse and prehook. As a producer, that is priceless recording in my book because now listening to this song you know off the break that it’s nobody but Sy and it was your music that brought it out. But once that hook came in… the only thing I could think was, “Oh…. She done made this a jam.” I placed a synth line in the hook that she followed perfectly:
“Let’s….take….this….train…as far as it will go”
Joint was just…. catchy and exactly what this fun ass song needed…. a FUN ass chorus. Of course, later in the song she manages to jump through more vocal hoops and harmonies that usually welcomes a small bit of jealously into the hearts of the singing-challenged *clears throat* …such as myself. I ended up calling her after a few listens and the the thing that got me was, she was just as hyped up about the new joint as I was! The first thing I told her was… “Hashtags & Do-Rags?! That’s so damn YOU!” I remember her telling me, “I knew I couldn’t write anything ‘regular’ over that music, kinda like when I heard “Aquarius Rising”“ The randomness of “Hashtags…” was semi-inspired by the way that Sheila E. used to give her songs these titles that when you would check out the back of the album, you were kinda just left scratching your head with sheer confusion – “The Belle Of St. Mark” and “Merci For the Speed Of A Mad Clown In Summer,” are pretty solid examples. We later shortened the title to a more simple, “The Train”. …I mean, it’s not like it’s gonna stop people from calling the song “Hashtags and Do-Rags” ANYWAY. If I know my people the way that I know my people… I am fully aware that we could give not a damn about a song or a movie title. For example, can you please tell me the last time you heard someone refer to the Tina Turner biopic as What’s Love Got To Do With It and NOT “The Ike and Tina Movie”…….. I’ll wait.
*crickets*
…………I rest my case.
Seriously though, when I really think about it this song kind of embodies our “Sy Smith + Zo!” live performances. The joint is upbeat, fun, and randomness always equates to good music being made. Being as though we were making appearances in different cities cuttin’ up on stage throughout the majority of 2012, this was the perfect joint to set off ManMade with. Sy has now hit lead-off for my FOURTH consecutive album… Talk about consistency!!
I’ma tell you som’n straight outta the gate… See Smeet (Sy Smith) and I were happy as hell to have even arrived in Atlanta on our correct flight being as though we almost missed our 3pm plane leaving from LaGuardia in NYC…………….. *sigh* I took a cab, she was picked up late, etc., etc., Long story. But once we DID land at Atlanta’s Hartsfield Airport, I was informed that all of the tables for our show the next night were sold out. Now that’s the type of news you like to receive upon arrival to a city that you’re about to play. We got off the plane, rented our cars and rolled the hell out. I dropped my stuff off in my newly checked in hotel room and then stepped right back out so that I could hit up Moods Music in Little Five Points to go and holla at my man and owner of the store, Darryl Harris. Walked up in that mug and saw that +FE Music was a bit deep in there, which is what I like to see… I got caught up a little bit on my CD collection (I am STILL way behind on newer stuff), which I knew would happen because I can never go into Moods without dropping all my damn money in that place…
+FE Music… Stocked up in Moods Music
After leaving Moods, my only focus was to take my hungry ass on a mission to find the nearest Zaxby’s. Normally when I’m traveling in the south, I’ll make it a point to hit up either Waffle House or Zaxby’s. Now, for those of y’all who aren’t familiar with Zaxby’s and their Chicken Finger Plate, this used to be my CRACK while in college at Western Kentucky Univ., the joint changes lives man. Funny thing was, when I finally tracked one down, ordered my usual and sat down to eat… I got to about the third chicken finger, started stalling a bit and thought to myself, “How in the HELL did I used to eat so much of this back then?!??!!!” 33 is NOT the new 21. My body is smarter and has been spoiled with better food… It now has an unhealthy food quota. Honestly, I was just ready to go to sleep after that. Instead, I stopped off at Kroger to grab a few SmartWaters on the way to rehearsal to meet up with Sy, guitarist Brandon Thomas, and drummer Quinton Robinson. We ran through the entire set, Brandon and I linked up on chords and the entire crew synced up changes, breaks, vamps, etc…. Even after ending rehearsal at midnight, I still deemed it necessary to keep going and meet some friends at Gladys Knight’s Chicken and Waffles spot directly up the street from my hotel on Peachtree…. and I did have the sweet potato cheesecake, which was damn RIDICULOUS (I ate it entirely too quickly to take a picture of it…. Sorry).
I decided that I would use the day of the show to finally catch up on some much needed REST. My plan was, well… to do absolutely NOTHING until soundcheck. But first, I found a Jimmy John’s that was relatively close to the hotel and as I walked in, I encountered a man already inside the store attempting to purchase 24 bottled waters, ok that’s already weird………BEST of all, trying to “negotiate” a wholesale price for them. From what I understand, I think they have places like Costco and Sam’s Club for that… No negotiations required. Anyway, I got my food and took it back to the room…………. And fell out for some hours.
Soundcheck was at 6pm, so I headed up the way to Apache and met up with Sy who was already in front of the venue ready to go. Oddly enough, the soundman was there about 10 minutes later (I say oddly enough because this rarely happens). So wait… The soundman was on time? The weather was excellent? AND the chef who was already there let us know where we could park for free and for how long?……Atlanta seemed to be treating us pretty well so far. We went in, set up, did our line check real quick and headed back to the hotel to get ready for the show. While back in the room, I began receiving texts saying that there was a nice sized line out in front of the venue waiting to get in… that was GREAT news. PLUS, the fact that we knew that we had a nice surprise set up for the show…. The brotha Anthony David was set to perform our version of Barry White’s “Playing Your Game, Baby” (from …just visiting three). This was gonna be dope for a couple of reasons: 1. AD and I had not met face-to-face yet. We had worked together, conversed on the phone a few times, reached out to each other via text… but never met in person. 2. We had never performed this song live before in ANY city. The crazy thing is, we weren’t even gonna do the joint!! I hit up AD a couple weeks prior to the show to see if he was gonna be in town so we could get up for a drink or meet up in the studio or something. I was just happy that we were gonna be in the same city at the same time for ONCE. But the Monday before the show he sent me a text… “Wait, did you want me to do the cover at your show?” …And I basically told him not to worry about it because I hadn’t asked kats to learn it and I wasn’t gonna ask him to perform it if the joint wasn’t ready. But AD asked me for the song parts and talked about lining them up in Abelton Live and performing it that way. So I was thinking… “Oh damn, he WANTS to do the joint!!” Sheeeeeeiiiit, in THAT case…!! I hopped on de text to Sy and was like, “Ayo, what’s up with Anthony David doing the Barry White joint for Saturday?” ………..Sy: “HELL to the YEAH!” ….And there it was. I hit Brandon up and sent him the song to learn and we were then good to go for the show…
Once we ended the set and finished on up, Apache Café applauded loudly and gave us a helluva standing ovation, which in most cases is always a little crazy to take in because it’s an ultimate show of appreciation after a performance and I’ll never forget it. We came off stage and I got to kick it with one of my homeboys that I grew up with from 2nd grade on, also DJ Jon Doe of Prophetix, Carmen Rodgers who came through after the show to see us, and I finally got to meet a kat who I have been communicating with off and on for damn near 11 years, Count Bass-D. And he introduced me to Dionne Farris who was also at the show… DOPE. Kats chatted it up until it was damn near time for the spot to close down… We walked out of Apache Café in full agreement that this was not only our BEST show, but our SMOOTHEST show in terms of travel, soundcheck, treatment by the staff at the venue, accommodations, performance, etc… UNTIL…………..
I got to my rental car that I parked in a small side parking lot for $3.50 and damn if that mug didn’t have a BOOT on it. Maaaaan, I have NEVER had a boot on a car before… So immediately got pissed because I PAID FOR PARKING via Parkmobile. Now, Parkmobile is an app you can download on your phone for free and it allows you to set up an account where you can pay for parking via your credit card. I actually love the app because it keeps you from having to keep a ton of change in your car for meters, but that night… somebody was on some BS. Sy was waiting in her car for me and I hopped in her passenger seat and called the 800 number that was stuck on my window, gave them the information they needed and they said the person who booted the car would be dispatched immediately – He’ll be there in about 20 minutes. Sheeeeeeiiiiiit. I hung the phone up and dude was pulling up.
I got outta Sy’s car and said, “Y’all don’t honor Parkmobile payments?!”
He said, “Is that how you paid?… Man, don’t tell me you just paid it like a half hour ago!”
Me: “Nah man, I paid at like 9:30p!”
I proceeded to show him a text AND an email that I received with the date, time and license plate no. proving that I paid the parking fee. Dude saw this and took the boot off. I made sure I was good to go without paying anything and I got in the car and headed back to the hotel… The adventures of life on the road are never-ending, I swear… but even that situation was resolved extremely quickly. So thank you Atlanta for a helluva night on May 5th…!!!
The journey to New York City began early Thursday morning when I hopped on the DC Metro and made my way to Union Station. I must have gotten there almost two hours before my train was scheduled to depart (because half of the time, I don’t trust the Metro to get me to my destination without breaking down). I was able to take my time, grab something to eat, pick up my Amtrak ticket and relax until it was time for the train to depart… Our guitarist, Zach Cutler who was also on the same train walked up to the gate, guitar on his back ready to go. We finally boarded the train and everything was smooth sailing… Well, until some lady who smelled like a can of Glade sat next to me and would periodically turn around to her husband and converse loud as hell with him, which turned into no sleep on this train for me! Then, halfway into the ride, the power on the train decided that it wanted to take a break and soon after we began to gradually slow to a stop. We sat there motionless for about five minutes and the train conductor got on the intercom system and announced, “The train is having engine troubles… We are gonna have to reset the engine.” RESET the engine?… Is it WiFi? Call me slow, but I’ve never heard of resetting an engine before. Well, whatever they had to do worked because a few minutes after that announcement, the power was back on and we were moving again (the power continued to cut in and out throughout the remainder of our trip). When we finally arrived at NYC’s Penn Station, I was just happy to be there without any further engine resetting episodes. I got in touch with the promoter as he was en route to pick us up… He got us and took us to the hotel to check-in. I think I had time enough to unpack what I needed for the show and take a quick shower. Not too long after that we had to hop right back in the car and head down to DROM for load-in and soundcheck. But FIRST… We stopped by some spot (I can’t think of the name of the place right now) and I ordered a helluva gyro, it MAY have even been called “Helluva Gyro” on the menu…… Well, maybe not… But maybe that’s how I should have placed my order with the waiter. Lawd, the damn sauce that came with it??!! Once I got it and took it outta there, the thing lasted all of five minutes in the car… I was ignoring texts and missing phone calls because of this food. The joint reminded me of Olga’s Kitchen or Coney Island back home… All I needed was a damn Faygo Redpop with it to make it complete *slips into a detailed daydream* ……………………… *shakes out of it* Anyway… We hit soundcheck at about 4pm at DROM – walked inside and Sy and flautist Monet Cherise were already in the spot so knowing that we were kinda pressed for time, we quickly set everything up and prepared to run through the set with everyone. Our drummer Brandon Williams came through and set up the kit some time later and we knocked most of the set out during our soundcheck time that was seemingly cut very short. We were also joined by saxophonist LaDarrel “Saxappeal” Johnson who along with Brandon was there all the way from Detroit (they both played with us at our Detroit show), so we were all hyped up and ready to put it on the NYC crowd…
Sy rockin’ the synth bass and Zach Cutler behind her on guitar. Photo by Sean J Rhinehart
When showtime finally arrived, there was a brotha onstage who I guess was the host for the night?… Perhaps? He was telling some half assed jokes and seemingly killing time that we didn’t really have. As a matter of fact, he was so busy joking that he failed to introduce the two of us as a duo. We both walked on stage after the introduction and I walked behind dude and put my arm around his neck to choke him…….. jokingly – I was a good sport about it and focused on the task at hand, which was putting on a great show. But the next time a host fails to simply READ or do their research and introduces us as just Sy Smith… Or just Zo!, I’m clowning that individual thoroughly before we begin our show…
Me on keys and Monet on flute. Photo by Sean J Rhinehart
The show began on a high note and remained that way… I was impressed with the New York crowd because they were PARTYING, which was different because I normally see NYC as the cool, laid back kats who wait until AFTER the show to give you proper praising….. Not at DROM, they were IN it and we loved every minute of it. Sy’s good friend, talented vocalist and musician Gordon Chambers came on stage and joined us for our rendition of Sy Smith’s “Nights (Feel Like Getting Down)” – and the brotha showed no mercy on that second verse, c’Lawd!! At another point in the show somebody yelled for us to do “Groove Is In the Heart” by Deee-Lite – random as shit, yes I know…. BUT Sy “You didn’t think I was gonna take your off-the-wall request and put it overtop of some shit you’d NEVER expect and still kill it” Smith obliged by singing it over the intro music to “MakeLuv2Me”. How ’bout THAT for a crowd pleaser?… Just a FUN, fun show. The fact that we had Sax and Monet to sit in with us with the woodwind instruments just added to the musical chemistry that was in place on stage. The feedback that I received after the show was that people left the show on a musical high, which always gets me excited because I feel as though we have done our job… I got to catch up with a few great friends of mine immediately following the show, including my musical brother AB, Darien Dean, and EVEN saw my dude Illmind in the crowd rockin’ with us… That was dope being as though he and I haven’t chopped it up since around 2006. So we packed it on up and got ready to get on down to Atlanta the next day…
