Enjoy this one y’all…
“Greater Than the Sun” feat. Phonte
Directed by: PhilTheGod
Co-Starring: Jacinte Blankenship
Album: SunStorm
Tag Archives: Phonte
SoulBounce Names Zo! Their 2010 Producer Of the Year!
Source: SoulBounce · By Ivory
While here at the SB headquarters we don’t always see eye-to-eye in terms of music, one thing we do agree on is that 2010 was, indeed, the year of Lorenzo Ferguson better known to all as Zo!. Many of the Detroit-bred, D.C.-based multi-instrumentalist and producer’s melodies provided the soundtrack to our 2010. Let’s face it, he seemed to be everywhere this year. Zo! managed to hit us off with stellar production work nearly every season this year, making him easily the SoulBounce Honors 2010 Producer of the Year.
Zo! kicked things off in the spring, when his fellow Foreign Exchange Music labelmate YahZarah released her highly-anticipated album, The Ballad of Purple Saint James. He lent his production talents to her single “Cry Over You” featuring Phonte. The funky, upbeat track provided the perfect backdrop for YahZarah’s sassy rebound tale.
By the time the summer release of his own full-length FE Music debut, SunStorm, we were practically foaming at the mouth with anticipation of the musical delicacies our ears were about to feast on. And boy, did he not disappoint. Drawing comparisions to Stevie Wonder‘s Songs in the Key of Life, SunStorm served up a delicious composition of musicianship and artistry. As previously stated in our review of the album, “While some producers may stumble when their musical ambitions find them dabbling in different genres, Zo! expertly navigates vast musical terrain.” Nearly six months later, this album continues to amaze with his wide-range of talents, sprinkling in a dash of jazz here, a spoonful of broken beat there and a whole lotta fun, spirited soul and hip-hop ingredients in between.
In with the cool weather of the fall, came the equally-cool third group project, Authenticity, from The Foreign Exchange. While most production was still held-down by FE co-founder Nicolay, Zo!’s fingerprints still remained all over this album. Picking up where the group’s previous project, Leave It All Behind, left all, this album was melancholy and slightly-experimental, where LIAB was hopeful and soulful. Zo! even took a turn on the mic–albeit a talkbox mic–on “Don’t Wait.” Whether he was leading us through the highs of love or guiding us through the dreary days of heartbreak, Zo! consistently used his musical prowess to help bring the vivid emotions to life. Through his fingertips, we were able to feel sentiment just as clearly as we could hear it.
And to think, Zo! managed to deliver a crop of good music all while holding down a full-time gig as a music teacher in Washington, D.C. By showcasing us such a versatile range of musical portraits in 2010, we can only imagine what Zo! has in store for us in 2011. If next year is anything like this past one has been, then you better make room on your iPods for more phenemonal music.
TGRIOnline.com reviews N’Dambi and Zo! Dec. 10th Show at Black Cat, Washington DC
Source: True Genius Requires Insanity · By Marcus Dowling
On paper, a night featuring heralded underground soul songstress N’Dambi and local DC cause celebre with national trending aspirations Zo! (government name Lorenzo Ferguson) sounds like a recipe for success. The two artists represent the twin hopes for traditional rhythm and blues style in the 21st century. N’Dambi, a former backup singer for Erykah Badu, carries forth the Nona Hendryx meets Nina Simone style artistry of her mentor, music as art, art as music, a funky melange of rock and soul. Zo!, alongside his Foreign Exchange Records supported “Sunstorm All Stars” supporting cast is a producer, composer and songwriter par excellence, a little bit of Isaac Hayes, a little bit of Smokey Robinson, with a spoonful of Ramsey Lewis tossed in for good measure, a feel good sultry blend of adult contemporary music. He’s not concerned with popping bottles, he’s concerned with getting deeper into the heart of the matter. However, on this night in Washington, DC, what was drawn up on paper, failed to materialize, as a night with the best of intentions fell short of their destination.
This is not to say that it was a night that was without spellbinding performances. Zo and his Sunstorm All Stars are the best live act in soul music today. Having witnessed their live show twice this year, it’s easily the best ticket in the genre. It has everything you’d expect from the more mainstream side of R & B, just not wrapped in a broadcloth of tawdry behavior. This is classic music by extremely talented musicians who know what that means. Lead single from Zo’s latest album Sunstorm, “This Could Be The Night” is a sensual jam with a George Benson swing, meaning that for more modern ears, it recalls Montell Jordan’s “Get It On Tonight,” in that it’s grown and sexy without being debased. The set features the ever dapper Ferguson behind a dual decker keyboard and organ, a consummate band leader, leading his charges through a tightly produced set that highlights exquisite artistry. Though Monica Blaire was not present, Deborah Bond’s take on the 11 minute suite “Make Love To Me” was absolutely magical. The song is a moody jazz winner, allowing for a virtuoso female vocalist to improvise and reach an orgasmic peak under the blanket of restrained elegance. If not aware, it is the year’s finest soul performance, and absolutely worthy of consideration for achievement.
This is not to say that the performance by the Grammy nominated N’Dambi was by any means without merit. She’s a toned statuesque rock star with great presence and a glorious red dyed afro/mohawk. Her album Pink Elephant is a heartfelt, earnest and well meaning melancholy burner of a soul record. Owing a great deal more to a bohemian aesthetic than the uptown swing of Ferguson, the performance was not entirely well received by a crowd who had been inspired to move, groove, get turned on and turned out by the Sunstorm All-Stars. If she followed a more muted performer, the likelihood of an entire room being captivated by her would have occurred, however this was not the case. Opener “L.I.E.,” a tale of a cheating male who travels to his lady loves along both ends of the thoroughfare is excellent, as was the single most responsible for Pink Elephant’s success, “Can’t Hardly Wait.” In abiding by a performance standard that involves a loose band performance, and an insistence upon intimate discussion, for the N’Dambi loyalist, it was an ideal environment. However, if looking to be blown away by a performance, that would appear to not be her strongest suit as a live artist. Adopting some of the more captivating aspects of the live performance of her mentor Ms. Badu is an absolute necessity.
Overall, this was a phenomenal evening of diverse styles of soul music. However, in slotting the honed and crafted Sunstorm All-Stars in front of the thinking woman’s sensual bohemain jam session of N’Dambi, the night was a study in styles instead of a fully realized total night of complete entertainment.
Zo! + N’Dambi @ The Black Cat in Washington D.C. – Friday, December 10th
On Friday December 10th, I’ll be presenting my latest release, SunStorm LIVE along with my band, vocalists Kenny Wesley, Deborah Bond, and my brovah from anothah, Phonte. This will take place at the Black Cat in Washington D.C. opening for Dallas-bred vocalist, N’Dambi. I hope to see a lot of you all there as this will be a helluva show…!!
Playing the Talkbox on The Foreign Exchange’s “Don’t Wait” – 08.09.10
I thought it would be fun to record myself laying down the first layer of talkbox vocals for The Foreign Exchange’s “Don’t Wait” track from their album Authenticity. This didn’t end up being the final take, but it’s very close… Those of you who have played around on the talkbox before can truly understand the musicianship and craft of the late Roger Troutman. He did this for a LIVING. Wow… Huge respect, and enjoy!
Studio Campfire Stories: The ‘SunStorm’ Edition – “All Is Well With Love” and “MakeLuv2Me”
11. All Is Well With Love (feat. Chantae Cann)
Before I even begin this story, just understand that there is always one… No matter what album you work on, there is always one joint that is just a pain in the ass to complete. Welp, ladies and gentlemen… Allow me to introduce you all to one of my most beloved tracks, “All Is Well With Love!”
I recorded the original chord progression for this song at the tail end of 2009, it was a couple of days after Christmas to be exact… December 28th, 2009 (I’m great with numbers and dates, what can I say). Upon hearing it and talking about it, the first idea that Phonte and I had was having someone sing the joint in a different language – in this case, Portuguese. Phonte threw a couple of names my way that I wasn’t quite familiar with, but in trusting his judgment I was like, “I’m widdit.” It turns out that a couple months later he discovered that he had a direct contact with one of the artists that we wanted to sing on the song. We reached out to the artist’s assistant who responded by saying that she was swamped and would not be able to record the song… BUT, they wanted a copy of the song to listen to. Ummm…. that would be a “hell” and a “no.” Not too long after that, another female vocalist was suggested to us and… uhhhh, quite simply just did not work out…. A month and a half later, a musical friend of Phonte’s suggested we check into a friend of hers who she thought would be perfect for the song. Phonte hit me up, told me about her and sent me an mp3 of her work and her vocal ability was absolutely ridiculous… she was saingin’ that damn song… in Spanish. We were both impressed and ended up reaching out to her via email. A few days went by, and there was no response at all and finally after a week, we pretty much considered that attempt to be a wash. A good friend of mine and talented vocalist suggested that I try his vocal coach – a jazz vocalist who he said occasionally sings in different languages. He put us in contact via the good ole message inbox on Facebook… Once again, a few days went by…. a week…. two weeks and I heard nothing back. So if my math is correct, that would make FOUR failed female vocalist attempts!! Y’all exhausted yet? Now at this point, we were damn near close to putting the APB out on Twitter like, “Who sings or know someone who can saing in Portuguese?!” Not sure what would have happened as a result, but we were at our wits end. The song was truly in jeopardy of either getting scrapped or just absolutely reworked into something totally different. Just when we thought it was the end of road in regards to finding vocalists, up steps Atlanta-based Chantae Cann. Phonte hit me up one day and told me about her and sent me an accompanying .mp3 so that I could hear what she sounded like. I opened the inbox to find the Jaspecs joint “Find My Way To Love” from their The Polkadotted Stripe album. Now I was familiar with Jaspects as my brova Asheru had worked with them in the past… But I did not know who Chantae was, until I double clicked that mp3……
That VOICE…. It was so different… commanding, full …and sexy. It was exactly what we needed for this joint (tentatively titled “6/4” because that is the time signature it’s written in… Matter of fact, there are some stores online who actually have this song listed as just that, “6/4”). But this time, I made sure not to fall too much in love with her voice just yet… she still had to agree to sing first! Phonte spoke to her and locked in a date for studio time…THAT’S when I started to get hyped up about it.
Since the vocalist was put in place, I had to rework the music piece. The problem I encountered was that for WHATEVER reason I did not record the original composition to a metronome or a click-track – meaning: I recorded it “free form,” which means my speed or tempo could have easily swayed fairly noticeably in some spots. So when I sent the track to my brovah Biscuit to record his live drums on, he had no luck in synching it up for his recording. Therefore, he had to record them “free form” as well. The first draft he did, he didn’t even let me hear… but the second time around, the drums were craziness. I was so excited about how good the drums sounded that I damn near forgot the direction we were trying to take the song into. So I had to re-record my key and bass parts all over again AND write a brand new hook… something that was more definitive and a tad bit stronger than the original draft. So one night after a long day of teaching and a four-hour rehearsal with Ab, I went home tired as all hell and re-recorded my parts… to a METRONOME this time (*applause*). I sent it on through to Phonte and he recorded a reference with the scratch vocals and we finally had a song!!!
Now for the fun part…
Someone put Phonte up on this Brazilian-jazz player who would be able to take the song that was written in English and translate it to Portuguese so that Chantae could sing it. Perfect!…. Well… Perfection on paper, I guess. Phonte was in correspondence with the gentleman via email and phone. He agreed to be a part of the process and received the lyrics typed out in an email along with the rough joint in English as an attachment… A couple of days went by with no response. He was reminded of the tight deadline that we were working with. Well, his response was that ‘love poems’ take time and should not be rushed…. But the song had already been written and referenced in English to be translated. We could understand if there were parts of the song that could not directly translate and would therefore throw off the cadence of the original lyrics, but at this rate, we felt that our only option was to abandon the original idea of recording the song in Portuguese altogether. So Chantae got into the studio with Phonte and held it DOWN – I don’t give a damn if the song was sung in English, Portuguese, German, or French…. She would have put out quality work in any circumstance. Once the vocals were laid, it was just a matter of getting the remaining players on the same page to complete the song, which at this point was the easy part. My man, “Biscuit” Bynum laid the drums (on TWO separate occasions), the horn and flutes were laid soon after (which Phonte did those arrangements), then the congas…and lastly the acoustic guitars were recorded by Omar Hunter-El. And dammit, we were FINALLY FINISHED.
This joint was actually the last song completed for the entire album, which made it even more of an accomplishment… Because “All Is Well With Love” ALMOST never happened.
12. MakeLuv2Me (feat. Monica Blaire)
Ahhhhh, the closer. The history behind the MUSIC of this track is involved enough for a blog series of its own… Please allow me to break that part down first (the condensed version) and then I’ll get into how it developed into what it ultimately became.
There was a time between 2005 through about 2008 where I spent a significant amount of valuable time working on an album with a female vocalist (no names) whose project never saw the light of day. There were no features on the album, just me on the music and she on vocals. As a matter of fact, this album was completed… I’m talking mixed AND mastered. The only thing that needed to be done was the artwork. But due to… well, I don’t know exactly WHAT it was due to. All I know is that in the summer of 2008, I started getting calls from her brand new manager (after we had been in direct contact for three years) saying that she didn’t want to put the album out anymore. Hmmm… Interesting. This particular music originally served as a remix for the unreleased album… Reason being, with one more song to finish for the album to be completed, the artist expressed to me that she wasn’t able to write anymore material… and we needed a strong closer for the project. So I ended up taking her vocals from another song on the album, started and completed the remix process and the next thing you know, we had a finished project. The vocal portion only covered about 3 minutes and I took the remaining 7.5 minutes as an opportunity to put my own personal musical ‘stamp’ on the song… yes, I wanted to ‘show off’ again (see the “Flight of the Blackbyrd” story). It seemed to have worked out nicely… BUT, things have their proper places in life and happen for reasons much bigger than our own reasoning… THIS song is a perfect example.
So after completely scrapping the aforementioned project and hitting the “mute” button on all vocal tracks in the Pro Tools sessions, there was one session in particular that I kept in mind for my next solo project… I had to keep that 10 minute joint for myself!!
But who the hell would I get to write to and MURDER a 10 minute track?!……..
….I’ve known Monica Blaire since maybe 2004 or 2005 – always been good people to me… and supportive (I can actually remember her buying Re:Definition from me at a show back in ’05 when it came out). I can even remember playing keys behind her once in late 2005 at Alvin’s (I think I still have a few pics from that show too). After I moved to the East Coast, we reconnected via Waajeed and PPP when we started performing with them in March of 2009. And I’ll say this about Blaire… If you ever meet her, she’s such a sweetheart. She’s a genuinely free-spirited, ole happy ass love-to-laugh type of person who is even pretty shy at times. NOW, if you have ever had the pleasure of witnessing her take over a stage?… That shy shit goes out the window, QUICKLY. The stage transforms her into something serious… she is a dynamic performer, someone who you can’t never seem to keep your eyes off of. Once we reconnected, we talked about working together on something… at that point I couldn’t put my finger on what we would do yet. BUT, I knew it wouldn’t be too hard putting something together with her because she is a multi-dimensional artist whose creativity can carry her in so many different directions. Knowledgeable about her passion for performing and understanding her natural ability to pull the listener into any song she does was what provoked me ask her to record this particular joint last summer. I remember telling her about the style of the song and warning her that it is in fact, over TEN minutes long…. I received the ‘O.K.’ and soon after, I emailed her the full instrumental….
Then in August of 2009, I was on the elevator going down, about to leave the apartment to head out to a midnight rehearsal. I received Blaire’s text while on the elevator….
“Yo, just sent the joint FINALLY!! Lemme know what ya think…”
As soon as my elevator TOUCHED the ground floor, I hit the button next to “15” and went RIGHT back upstairs to my apartment so that I could listen to this song as I was HIGHLY anticipating what she recorded… I damn near powerwalked to the apartment, opened my email and loaded the song up. What I heard come through those speakers was EXACTLY what I envisioned for the music. The joint was SEXY… From the lyrics, to her vocal presence, to the delivery…. all the way down to the reverb placed on her vocals. I KNEW we had something because first of all, when was the last time you heard a 10 minute slow grinding sexy song? This song was definitely ten-minutes for a REASON. Secondly, in the era of ‘slow’ songs that either a.) all sound like hip-hop joints or b.) contain straight-to-the-point-leaving-nothing-to-be-desired-type lyrics where the artists will simply tell you through the duration of the track, “I wanna fuck ya girrrrr-huuuurrrrrrl!” – even the title became significant with the use of the word “love.” I mean, who falls in love anymore? And the fact that she recorded to ALL 10 minutes of this song showed me how much of a pure artist Blaire is. She took my challenge, found her place, and completely conquered it… with intention AND purpose.
Studio Campfire Stories: The "SunStorm" Edition – "This Could Be the Night" and "Flight of the Blackbyrd"
9. This Could Be the Night (feat. Eric Roberson, Darien Brockington & Rapper Big Pooh)
The funny thing about making music, or art for that matter is that you never know what you’re sitting on. I had been sitting on this drum pattern for about 2 or 3 years not knowing what to do with it… just the bare drums exactly how you hear them in the final song. It was something that I would listen to every quarter or so, mess around with it, get mad with what I recorded and scrap it altogether. I had even done a song where that drum pattern’s tempo was cut in HALF… It just still wasn’t there yet. FINALLY, one day during the recording of SunStorm, I finally came up with a chord progression that I was happy with and actually kept it! But the joint had been sitting for so long that even when I found the progression that worked, I was still skeptical. Even when I would include it on a CD with the rest of the album formulated around it as just an instrumental, I would think, “It will get life once vocals are recorded on it.” I ended up tracking it out and sending it through to Phonte so we could have the usual “who do you think would fit on this joint” talk. We talked about Erro (Eric Roberson) being a part of the album pretty much from the beginning… in fact, when I first met him back in December 2007 in Chicago, we spoke about working together, but it just never came together……
The first time I heard vocals on the joint, it was Phonte demoing the hook that he wrote for it. That is what changed my whole perspective… “WOW, this may become a JOINT!” The next version I heard was Darien’s verse and his re-singing of the hook…. Ok, now we’re getting somewhere. The NEXT version I heard was of Erro’s verse and hook. We then combined that with D. Brock’s and dammit we had a song!… It wasn’t done yet though… My two brothas FROM Little Brother decided to pull a ‘fast one’ on me… So after receiving the next draft of vocals, I heard the ‘announcer’ list the performers. Eric Roberson… check, Darien Brockington, check… The Rapper Big Pooh…. HOL’LUP, WORD?! I actually brought it back some so make sure I was hearing it correctly… NICE! At that point, I had know idea. So of course, once Big Pooh’s verse came on, I damn near started partying in the studio because the joint was RIGHT on time and was an excellent addition to the song. Eight bars of energy, where the music drops and it’s just he and the drums mainly… The change follows behind with D. Brock for four bars and right back into the closing hook and vamp… All of a sudden, this 2 to 3 year drum pattern had a promising pulse. Once again, you NEVER know what your music or art may become. I can never really explain it straight up… I can only continue to share these stories with you all and allow you to find out for yourselves.
Oh and make sure you read the story behind the making of the video for “This Could Be the Night” as well…
10. Flight Of the Blackbyrd (ft. Phonte)
The actual motivation behind this song is pretty interesting. Those who know me personally understand that I am pretty laid back for the most part, but that I am very competitive. It is part of my personality, it’s a motivator for me, and I guess it’s simply just the way I am wired. Hell, I played baseball through college so it was a NECESSARY trait if anything and I definitely have not “grown out of it”. The reason why I remember the exact date of my creating this song is because another one of my brothers and great friends in music, Nicolay released his excellent City Lights 2: Shibuya album. Where’s the connection? Well, I haven’t even told Nic this… But I remember sitting at the computer and logging on to Twitter and seeing everyone talking about the new City Lights 2 album. So I’m reading, retweeting the album link, checking out all the positive comments…. and it hit me. My competitive side began to talk shit to me…
“Uhhh… what the hell are YOU doing right now?! Your people are releasing dope albums and you’re sitting up on TWITTER. GET yo punk ass in the studio!!” © My Competitive Conscience
This is yet another advantage to working closely with kats who are so great at what they do, because it causes you to HAVE to be on point at all times. I put my computer to sleep and walked into the studio and a drum pattern just kinda came to me (higher power) that happened to be written in 3/4… Hmmmm, that’s kinda different already. The chord progression soon followed and not too long after that, a “B” part (a section where there is a change in the music – kind of a “part 2”). I laid the song out FULLY, the intro piece, main part, the piano solo, the percussion breakdown (where I used percussion instruments that I bought specifically for the “Perfect Angel” remake), and the B part. …I got Phonte on the phone and told him I would be sending a new one through. I sent him the instrumental and heard nothing back……………
…The next morning, I woke up to a text at about 6:55am……
Phonte: You at the crib?
Me:Yeah
P: SENT.
M:Got it… putting it on the iPod and listening on the way to the craziness (a/k/a WORK)
P: Nigga, call/text/IM/two-way/smoke signal me as SOON as you finish that shit
Maaaan, look. There are some songs that you listen to the first minute or two of them and know you’re sitting on something special… THIS was that song. As soon as I heard Phonte’s vocals come in, I was like… “This is it, this shit is CRAZY.” I called him right back on the way to work and we were hyped up about this new joint… and the ideas started pouring. The next thing I know, here’s a final version of the song with trumpeter Stan Graham goin’ off on the joint with Phonte doing horn arrangements. DOPE. Overall, this joint took us the least amount of time to complete… Less than a day.
Musically, this was my “show off” joint all because my competitive side took over for a minute. Thanks to my FE family for pushing me to make music like this joint in particular and not even realizing it! lol
Studio Campfire Stories: The "SunStorm" Edition "SunStorm" and "If I Could Tell You No"
7. SunStorm (feat. YahZarah)
I started teaching back in the summer of 2006 and the first summer that I took off wasn’t until 2008. I was so damn excited about having an entire summer to myself that as soon as I got home from the school on the last day, I went to work in the studio. The FIRST joint that I put together wound up being the music for the title track of this album… “SunStorm.” Once again, the drums were done first and they resulted from me being in such a happy ass mood, I can’t really describe it any other way. The drum pattern made this music what it wound up becoming. The feeling that I got from it was one of ‘freedom’ and ‘fun’. With that being said, I distinctively remember figuring out a synth bassline that was very busy while keeping the fun and free elements in that music. And just like 95% of the music that I make, I played that synth bassline part all the way through the entire song. I think that when you actually play all the way through your piece, you are able to capture MUCH more of a feeling than that of a looped track. I don’t think that the bassline should hit the same way in the first 8 bars of the song as it does coming out of the first hook, for example. The second half is what put it over the top… I made sure to send it to Phonte as soon as I was finished. He hit me with a text back, “I’ma MURK this joint!!” He was originally going to keep this one for himself… but ended up sitting on it after writing about 50 different things to it and not feeling satisfied with anything – I understand that pain FULLY (wait ’til you read the “This Could Be the Night” story).
Enter YahZarah… Now, I’m gonna tell y’all this right now. This is as straight up as it gets. When it comes to vocalists… Not female vocalists… When it comes to VOCALISTS. YahZarah is the best vocalist that I know, personally. She’s just absolutely unfair. Plus, the fact that she’s sitting a lotta people DOWN live makes her a threat to a lotta folks …..and I love her to death! Phonte and I talked about having her cut the song because…hell, it seemed like a perfect fit. She ended up gettin up with Phonte and recording her vocals and I’ll just say this… When Phonte sent it to me, we knew we had something – not just with the song, but with the entire album. This was the song that made us kinda look at each other like, “This is gonna be something crazy.” It was STRONG and perfect as the title track. And let me just say that my favorite part of this song comes during the second hook at about 3:55 when Yahz hits the, “WHOOOOO!!!!!” I get goosebumps EVERY TIME I hear that.. Why?! Because that is raw emotion displayed in a recording and to have captured that is priceless to me. Also, when someone busts out with ‘WHOOO!!’ that means something was so good that NO other adjectives worked in that space… It’s just a great moment that was captured and I’m glad it happened on my album. …Oh and for the record, YahZarah recorded her vocals sitting down. That’s a bad woman….
The second half of the song where Phonte comes in was actually supposed to have a few kats on it. It was gonna be Phonte, Jesse Boykins III, Darien Brockington, and another favorite vocalist of mine Ab. But sometimes, you listen to a song that if it is changed, no matter what the change is it probably will not work like that original take. That was the case here. The original take felt so good and came off so correctly that it was not changed. Darien did however complete the final two lines AND you can hear Jesse’s adlibs over top of “You can lay me down…”
8. If I Could Tell You No (feat. Jesse Boykins III)
This was actually the only joint on the album that Phonte and I worked on together from scratch. Back in November 2008 when The Foreign Exchange first started touring Leave It All Behind, we did a date in D.C. Anytime kats are in town, we normally take advantage of that time and get in the studio to do SOMETHING… It doesn’t matte if it’s a full song, a demo, a couple of ideas… Something is getting done. This time around, he told me he had an idea to do a jazzy joint, which I was all for because I hadn’t done anything like that yet. So, I loaded up a new Pro Tools session, set the mic up for Phonte, sat down at the keys, programmed some ‘dummy drums’ just for tempo and arrangement’s sake and we got to work. The demo version is actually rather entertaining. There’s a part where I went to a change before he was expecting me to do so and right in the middle of singing the melody he says, “Awwww man, you fucked me up!” LMAO!!! Classic material right there. The chords from the demo are basically the same as the finished product, the arrangement is different, but you could tell what direction the song was headed into. We actually held off moving on the joint for awhile… No reason in particular, we just didn’t get to it.
Finally, Phonte was hittin me up saying that he had gotten in contact with Jesse Boykins III and needed me to record a music reference so that he could reference the vocals for Jesse to sing… So I sent him the song with the same dummy drum track from the original demo, but I relaid the piano and bass parts for a more ‘official’ reference (the piano part I recorded for that particular reference actually lived long enough to see the final cut). When he sent me the vocals back, I was like, “WOW.” It was kinda of the same feeling I got when he first sent me vocals back for our “Africa” remake for the 80’s album because again before my very eyes, I saw Phonte expand as an artist. I mean, dude was doing jazz riffs! The hell? It sounded great… And we ALMOST kept Phonte on the joint. But the feel that we wanted for the song was a smoother sounding voice and delivery. So we passed the song on to Jesse and he hurt that joint! It was EXACTLY what was needed… His tone and voice fit the music perfectly – and for his version I finally re-recorded some live drums, which remained on the final cut. With Jesse’s singing and the addition of trumpet player Stan Graham, the feel of the music placed me in a classy jazz club circa the 1940s, where folks thought it looked cool to smoke cigarettes and once this song came on, people began to “make eyes at one another ‘cross the room.” It was a well designed curveball for the album and something that I haven’t seen done on a project of mine. Overall, it was great to have everything come together as beautifully as it did…
Studio Campfire Stories: The "SunStorm" Edition – "Be Your Man" and "Free Your Mind"
5. Be Your Man (feat Darien Brockington)
Musically, the instrumental for “Be Your Man” was one of those joints that just kinda came to me. I vividly remember arranging the drum track first because at the time my intention was to lay something slower and also very simple… So I laid a simple ‘one-two’ or ‘march’ pattern for the drums at first. But in playing around with the pattern a little more, I ended up bringing the rimshot in simply for the additional nod factor and purposely left the hi-hat out (I actually experimented with an eighth note hi-hat pattern but hated how it sounded, it didn’t work at all). The chord progression was something that I worked out through playing around on the keys, it wasn’t planned… It was definitely a feeling, and I liked how it moved – pretty, but contrastingly dark. Once the progression was found and practiced, I played the chord stabs and allowed them to act as the eighth-note hi-hat rhythm instead of using an actual hi-hat. The live bass served as the glue for the music and the spacey sounding pad was the additional ‘candy’ and it was to my liking… still simple and now more mysterious. Once I sent this piece to Phonte and we got on the phone about it, he already had in his head that D. Brock was the man for the job, which completely worked since at that point Brock didn’t have a feature on the album yet.
Now, I wasn’t there for the writing process and recording session that took place for “Be Your Man” but according to Phonte, he and Darien were able to return to their circa 2003-2004 writing form by locking themselves in the studio for a night and knocking out a masterpiece. I mean if you listen, the vocal arrangement and harmonies are vintage Darien and Phonte. When he told me that, my mind immediately went to their writing efforts for FE’s “Come Around.” Understanding how much I dig that song, it made me proud beyond words as a producer to have had a hand in bringing Phonte and Darien Brockington back to their co-writing comfort zone they had abandoned for a few years. Phonte sent the the joint attached to a message that simply read, “Hit me back when you check this.” Of course, once I got the song back with D’s vocals on it… I hit Phonte back with the ever-so-popular, “The-hell-were-y’all-DOING-in-the-studio?!-DAMN!!” phone call.
6. Free Your Mind (feat. Lady Alma)
Lady Alma and I have a history that dates back to the good ole MySpace days. We would correspond off and on as early as 2005, always saying that we should be getting together to work on something soon… Fast forward to September 2009, she happened to have a gig in D.C. and The ELs were the band that was set to back her up for it. We had a rehearsal scheduled up at Rock Creek Academy (the school where I teach music) and while we were getting set up and running through a couple of her joints, Alma happened to be running pretty late. Now, the primary reason why I knew we would get along so well was pretty simple. For the entire duration of our rehearsal, I was lacing her with direct and indirect jokes about being so late… Because in my slightly twisted opinion, if I can joke with you and on you at a rehearsal even when we first meet, then you’re alright with me – that is definitely a gauge that I utilize. And low and behold ever since that day of rehearsal, we’ve been good friends.
On top of being a great person… Lady Alma can SAING …YES… SAING, with an “I”. This was extremely evident once we hit that stage with her the following night at Station 9 in D.C. The band consisted of Biscuit on the drums, Omar Hunter on bass, myself on keys, and Lady A on vocals, jokes, ackkin a fool and entertainment. She was all over that space during her performance all while singing her ASS off. I remember calling Phonte sometime that week and telling him that I needed to get her to do something for the album. As a matter of fact, Alma and I talked that weekend and I told her that I would construct something especially for her that would be intended for SunStorm. Since I had a drum pattern in my head already at that time, it didn’t take too much longer to put the music together for her. After recording it, I sent it through to Phonte just to get another opinion on it, and sent it to Lady Alma – We actually started tweeting each other about my sending the song to her. I remember her calling me and saying that I was ADD because of all of the different changes contained in the piece. LOL Once she recorded the joint and sent is back to me, I was thoroughly satisfied and she was just as humble as anyone I’ve ever worked with. After sending the draft version of the song, she was texting me asking my opinion… almost nervously! I got her on the phone and assured her that she had absolutely NOTHING to worry about, I mean damn… vocally, she showed no mercy on that song. Another thing that I LOVE about her performance on the song is that the first time I heard it, I said to myself… “Welp, that’s Lady Alma.” Meaning, her personality is all spilling over in this joint… “Let me lay it back a lil bit…” <— THAT’S Alma. “Plus I know you wanna hear a little bit of this, Zo”…then she just starts scatting. Word? THAT’S Alma! I was able to vividly picture her performing this song live as I was listening to it – now that’s a great performance.
Once again, as a producer I felt accomplished because she stated that the track really made her work (hence the “Zo…. I’ma get you for this one” line in the song). It is an awesome feeling to be able to stretch artists’ abilities who are already experienced and extremely talented with my music…
Studio Campfire Stories: The "SunStorm" Edition – "Say How You Feel" and "For Leslie"
3. Say How You Feel (feat. Phonte & Carlitta Durand)
In April of 2009, Phonte and Carlitta were both in town for a video shoot with my brovah and good friend, DJ Roddy Rod. If I remember correctly, the shoot was on a Saturday and I was mad that I couldn’t make it to the group video shoot at night because I had a two shows with The ELs scheduled on the same day. But when Sunday came around, the two of them made sure to stop by the house to hang out for a little while. The day was interesting because being that I lived in a 17-story building, the apartments didn’t have thermostats that controlled ‘heat’ and ‘air conditioning’. So therefore, the entire building would have to be ‘switched over’ to heat when the weather typically got cold (around Oct/Nov) and would switch to a/c when the weather typically warmed up, which was normally around April. Well… the air conditioning had not yet switched over to a/c and the day that Phonte and Carlitta decided to come over, the temperature was in the upper-90’s… and I lived on the 15th floor. So the heat in the apartment that day was damn near unbearable, the humidity was up, and it was just plain uncomfortable. Realizing this, I stopped up at Target in order to get a fan big enough to accommodate kats… The problem was, OTHER folks in the area had the same idea that I did, which equated to a “late arrival” (about 1pm). When I got to Target, the big floor fans were GONE and the only fans they had left were a couple of small joints that were gonna do NO good in the heat we were gonna be smothered in. But, I bought one of them anyway and took it back home. By the time I got there, Phonte and Carlitta were already in the spot and sitting in the living room. We plugged in the fan, sat very still and checked out a couple of movies… aaaaand as expected, that little ass fan was moving NO air around in the apartment.
I decided to take them back into the studio to listen to a newer joint that I was in the middle of working on that was still sitting in the sequencer. I pulled the joint up and played the four-bar loop that I demoed and Phonte sat down, said, “Let’s do it then” and proceeded to start humming basic harmony lines to himself…. Well, that was easy. After that, I tracked everything out in Pro Tools and recorded the bass and re-recorded the basic keyboard parts right then and there while they waited just to have some type of reference. Once the music was recorded, the three of us gathered around the instrument mic that I have in the studio and recorded about three and a half minutes worth of handclaps. This is not a big deal in room temperature conditions, but in 90-degrees?! We finished recording handclaps lookin like we were training for a damn 50K race. So after a water break, the two of them dug in and began to write. The writing process wasn’t too long and tiresome, it was the actual recording process that proved to be the energy drainer. I can still see Carlitta sitting down on the floor of the studio with the fan sitting directly in front of her hot as hell… But she ended up baring down and knocking all of her parts out after Phonte laid his vocals down. A little later on in the night, we ordered pizza from Papa John’s in a sad attempt to rejuvenate, but in the long run, I think it just managed to increase levels of ‘itis. My mixing efforts at that point were definitely sidetracked by thoughts of melted cheeses, tomato sauce, toppings……… and crust……………*salivates* …and damn cheese sticks….. Apparently I’m getting sidetracked right NOW.
Anyway, I completed the music for the song a couple days after the original recordings took place… Keep in mind, I STILL didn’t have A/C that day either thus making “Say How You Feel” the hottest (temperature-wise) damn song I think I have ever recorded. AND, it was the only song on the album where ALL of the artists were recording together in the same place at the same time…
4. For Leslie
I came up with this chord progression and pattern at the worst possible time… while sitting in a slow-moving boring ass two-hour meeting at the school I work at. Therefore, in order to keep the music in my head, I was forced to hum the melody and tap my foot or nod my head (to remember the drum pattern) for the duration of this drawn out meeting. At the close of the meeting, I literally ran down to my music room so that I could record the idea onto the ‘voice memo’ application on my iPhone (I actually still have the original recorded piano on my phone). I was then able to take it home and put together an arrangement that worked for it.
One day while on the phone with Phonte, we were discussing the type of instrument that would sound dope over this particular track. I think we covered damn near the entire spectrum of instruments from the piano, to the guitar… to various woodwind pieces. From there, he started telling me about a flutist he knew of who was based out of New York named Claudia Hayden. Now, she told him to hit her up if he ever needed her to get down on some music… Welp Claudia! Guess what?! This was the perfect time. I looked up a couple of her performances on YouTube and was thoroughly impressed with the clips I saw of she and her band. Her playing was concise and I liked how she made the flute “talk” to me during her performances, which is exactly the type of style I needed on this piece. He contacted her and she turned it around with no problem… Not wanting to lose the instrumental element of my previous solo albums, I wanted to make sure that this sentimental piece of music was included…
Zo! 