R&B Money: Jermaine Dupri

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Breakfast Club – R&B Money: Jermaine Dupri

Episode Information:

• Title: R&B Money: Jermaine Dupri
• Release Date: June 2, 2025
• Host/Author: iHeartPodcasts
• Description: The Breakfast Club is renowned as "The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show," featuring DJ Envy, Jessie J, and Charlamagne Tha God. This episode delves into the illustrious career of Jermaine Dupri, a pivotal figure in the R&B and hip-hop industries.

---

Introduction to Jermaine Dupri

The episode begins with Tank and Jay Valentine setting the stage as authorities on all things R&B. They warmly welcome Jermaine Dupri to the "R&B Money" podcast, highlighting his legendary status in the music world.

Notable Quote:

Jay Valentine [03:03]: "We are the authorities on all things R and B."

Early Beginnings and Studio Setup

Jermaine shares his humble beginnings in music, starting at a young age. He recounts the challenges of not knowing industry professionals and having to rely solely on his creativity.

Notable Quote:

Jermaine Dupri [04:15]: "I remember the first time I met you when I was working with Jagged... we were breaking the ice and getting to know each other."

Tank elaborates on how Jermaine's studio, Noontime, was more than just a recording space—it was a comprehensive compound equipped for all aspects of music production and artist development.

Notable Quote:

Tank [10:02]: "Yeah, I mean, it wasn't always like that. I think I gathered that stuff from being young and not knowing people."

Kris Kross and Artist Development

A significant portion of the conversation focuses on Jermaine's discovery and development of Kris Kross, the young rap duo that brought him considerable success. He explains the innovative idea of having Kris Kross wear their clothes backwards, which became a cultural phenomenon.

Notable Quote:

Tank [32:15]: "They were walking through the mall with their Jumper backwards, and the mall stopped."

Jermaine discusses his approach to artist development, emphasizing the importance of identifying genuine talent and fostering it, even if it meant stepping outside his comfort zone.

Notable Quote:

Jermaine Dupri [38:55]: "Because most people don't know what they're good or bad at and won't be honest with themselves."

Transition to R&B and Formation of Xscape and Jagged Edge

Transitioning from pure rap, Jermaine delves into his venture into R&B, forming groups like Xscape and Jagged Edge. He highlights the challenges of adapting to a different genre and the learning curve associated with producing R&B music.

Notable Quote:

Jermaine Dupri [46:47]: "We are the authors on all things R and B."

Tank reflects on the industry's reception to young R&B groups and the difficulties they faced in gaining acceptance in adult R&B radio formats.

Notable Quote:

Tank [45:43]: "I know where they had to be. It was home for them, their home."

Collaborations with Usher and Mariah Carey

Jermaine shares anecdotes about working with superstars like Usher and Mariah Carey. He narrates the spontaneous creation of hits like "Nice and Slow" with Usher, showcasing his adaptability and creative prowess.

Notable Quote:

Jermaine Dupri [60:44]: "She wanted to sing over street Hoodie going. Whatever it is. Hood New York. That's what she comes to the studio like. She's the rapper."

He also discusses his efforts to mentor Usher, contributing to the latter's rise in the R&B scene.

Notable Quote:

Tank [62:14]: "I took Usher in, I started talking to him, I started training him. I started doing everything that I thought he needed to become who he is today."

Challenges and Industry Insights

The conversation shifts to broader industry challenges, particularly the lack of collaboration within the R&B community compared to the competitive nature of hip-hop. Jermaine and the hosts express concerns about the fragmentation and lack of camaraderie among R&B artists.

Notable Quote:

Jermaine Dupri [108:37]: "We were never taught that R and B was a team sport."

They discuss the importance of fostering a collaborative environment to elevate the R&B genre collectively.

Notable Quote:

Jermaine Dupri [109:24]: "And it's gotten even more watered down that we don't even have groups."

Future Plans and Closing Remarks

Jermaine reveals his ambitious plans for the future, aiming to release more records than he has in the past two decades. He emphasizes the importance of keeping R&B at the forefront of the music industry and nurturing new talent.

Notable Quote:

Tank [124:56]: "I plan to put out more records this year than I put out in probably the last 20 years."

He concludes with a commitment to honoring R&B legends like Stevie Wonder and Prince while infusing his unique style and passion into future projects.

Notable Quote:

Tank [117:54]: "The R in R B is Stevie Wonder. So that voice has to be Stevie. He is the voice of R B."

Conclusion

The episode wraps up with heartfelt appreciation from the hosts towards Jermaine Dupri for his invaluable contributions to R&B and the broader music landscape. They encourage listeners to support and collaborate within the R&B community to continue its rich legacy.

Notable Quote:

Jay Valentine [128:17]: "You are one of the greatest of all times."

---

Key Takeaways:

• Jermaine Dupri's pivotal role in shaping modern R&B and hip-hop.
• The innovative approach to artist development, exemplified by Kris Kross.
• Transitioning and adapting to different music genres.
• Collaborations with top-tier artists like Usher and Mariah Carey.
• The need for increased collaboration and camaraderie within the R&B industry.
• Jermaine's ongoing commitment to producing and mentoring the next generation of R&B talent.

Notable Quotes:

1. Jay Valentine [03:03]: "We are the authorities on all things R and B."
2. Tank [10:02]: "I think I gathered that stuff from being young and not knowing people."
3. Tank [32:15]: "They were walking through the mall with their Jumper backwards, and the mall stopped."
4. Jermaine Dupri [38:55]: "Because most people don't know what they're good or bad at and won't be honest with themselves."
5. Jermaine Dupri [62:14]: "I took Usher in, I started talking to him, I started training him."
6. Jermaine Dupri [108:37]: "We were never taught that R and B was a team sport."
7. Tank [117:54]: "The R in R B is Stevie Wonder. So that voice has to be Stevie."

This episode offers an insightful deep dive into Jermaine Dupri's enduring influence on R&B, his strategic artist development, and his visionary outlook on fostering unity within the genre. Listeners gain a comprehensive understanding of the challenges and triumphs that have defined Jermaine's illustrious career.

Transcript

[Tank]

This is an iHeart podcast.

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[Jay Valentine]

R and.

[Tank]

B Money.

[Jay Valentine]

We are Tank J Valentine. We are the authorities on all things R and B. Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Tank.

[Jermaine Dupri]

I'm Jay Valentine.

[Jay Valentine]

This is The R and B Money podcast. The Authority.

[Tank]

Do you know what it is?

[Jay Valentine]

Do you know what it is? On all things R and B and.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Anything else that comes with music, you.

[Jay Valentine]

Have to understand, today is the day of reckoning.

[Tank]

Yeah.

[Jay Valentine]

We got a great in the motherfucking building.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Stick on it, big dog.

[Jay Valentine]

Super vegan.

[Tank]

Yeah, yeah, super.

[Jay Valentine]

I don't need a drink to make these hits for anybody. Beat. Write it.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah.

[Jay Valentine]

Melody.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Hall of Fame with it.

[Jay Valentine]

Rap.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah.

[Jay Valentine]

Hall of Fame.

[Tank]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Jay Valentine]

You niggas ain't in the hall of Fame that bad.

[Tank]

I don't need to know no niggas.

[Jay Valentine]

There's only two niggas in the hall of Fame.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Ah, man.

[Jay Valentine]

One of them sitting right here with us.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yes, sir.

[Jay Valentine]

And he had birds.

[Tank]

Part of the intro.

[Jay Valentine]

He was a birdman, too.

[Tank]

All in the interest. Oh, my God.

[Jay Valentine]

Ladies and gentlemen. Is him. That's the best way I can say it. The Mr. Jermaine J.D. dupree in this month. Come on.

[Tank]

What a hell of an intro. God damn.

[Jay Valentine]

Yes, sir.

[Jermaine Dupri]

You got to be right.

[Jay Valentine]

You earned that.

[Tank]

Okay.

[Jay Valentine]

This ain't. Bro. I remember the first time I met you when I was working with Jagged in the studio. Late 90s. They was already cracking, and they had wrote a little song for me on a beat Cox beat. We was in the studio, and me and Brian was kind of cool. Brandon was giving me the superstar shoulder.

[Tank]

Cold shoulder.

[Jay Valentine]

You know, Brandon, he don't fuck with nobody. I gotta get noticed. I don't know this nigga. I don't know this nigga, right? And so we. We breaking the ice and getting to know each other. Like, yeah, you know, we. You know, we gonna do some hoop. I'm like, hoop?

[Tank]

Hoop?

[Jay Valentine]

Where? At Jermaine's studio? It was Jermaine's studio.

[Tank]

Oh.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Cause y' all wasn't at Jermaine's studio.

[Jay Valentine]

No, we were at noontime.

[Tank]

It was at noontime.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah, yeah, okay.

[Jay Valentine]

He's like, yeah, yeah, we're gonna go to Jermaine's studio. I said, well, can I go? Can I travel to Jermaine's studio?

[Jermaine Dupri]

Etiquette, though.

[Jay Valentine]

Etiquette.

[Jermaine Dupri]

That's etiquette.

[Jay Valentine]

That etiquette. Listen, he's Jermaine Dupree, right? You just don't p. Nah, nah, I'm not pulling up that master anyway. I don't know this nigga, right? Nah, I'm not nobody. I'm no one.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Hey, listen, if you pull up as that nigga, too, you always are remembered as that nigga.

[Jay Valentine]

That nigga just Roll up in here, start eating snacks, playing basketball. No, no, no. I said. Y' all think it'll be cool? Nah, that's cool. Come with us. Jd. Super cool. Meet JD for the first time. Big fan, man. So dope, man. I was on. I told him I was on tour with Drew Hill when I was singing backgrounds with Genuine. And when that remix came on, that whole arena. So I hoop against your guys.

[Tank]

That's right.

[Jay Valentine]

You know, some of the greatest singers. One of the greatest groups of all time. And I kicked their ass.

[Tank]

Oh, hey, hey, twins. Y' all gotta come here, man.

[Jay Valentine]

Come on.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Cause I wasn't there, so I can't say what happened.

[Tank]

They wanna be ready for this.

[Jay Valentine]

Donny Scott's gonna test it. I think I might. We playing half court. I might have had two dunks in a half court game.

[Tank]

Oh God.

[Jay Valentine]

They switched on me so many times. I didn't know who was checking.

[Tank]

You dunked on my gym?

[Jay Valentine]

Absolutely.

[Tank]

Oh, okay. That's. That's pretty impressive.

[Jay Valentine]

Absolutely.

[Tank]

My rims is high. That's why I asked that they a little higher than regulations.

[Jay Valentine]

That's my point. That's the point of really the story.

[Tank]

Yeah, yeah.

[Jay Valentine]

Some of y' studios couple rooms.

[Tank]

Right?

[Jay Valentine]

Right. Maybe a pre production. You know what I'm saying?

[Jermaine Dupri]

Little NS 10 in there.

[Tank]

Little NS 10 in there.

[Jay Valentine]

You know what I'm saying? No board. Ain't got no boards. Now you ain't got no board. Yeah. JD's got a fully mix master gym, hoop, massage parlor, vegan ice cream distribution.

[Tank]

Strip club.

[Jay Valentine]

Strip club.

[Tank]

I had to put a strip club in the studio. This was Nelly's request. We had a room. Nelly was like, hey man, let's stop going to the strip club. So we'll stay in here and make music. Make that a strip club. And I was like. And then we figured it out.

[Jay Valentine]

I'm about to say it should feel like an easy answer for you.

[Tank]

This is Magic City.

[Jay Valentine]

King of Magic City.

[Tank]

I like going to Magic.

[Jay Valentine]

I like.

[Tank]

I love going to Magic.

[Jay Valentine]

I like the wings.

[Jermaine Dupri]

I knew you about to say you eat the wings.

[Jay Valentine]

Come on. I really only go for the wings. Yeah, the women are an added bonus. Okay, shout out to Magic City and the women who adorn the facility and Mr. Magic himself. We love you here at RV Money.

[Jermaine Dupri]

We need magic.

[Tank]

Oh, matter of fact. Matter of fact, yes. I'm doing a documentary. The Magic City documentary is coming out in May. It's. It's on stars. I think I might be saying it's too early, but it is what it Is. It's exclusive here. Okay. And it's a documentary, so we do have to get magic on here.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah.

[Tank]

You know, the weekend.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Are they having a party?

[Jay Valentine]

Are you having a long.

[Tank]

Well, last year, Last year, we did. I took. We did a Magic city pop up that's out by Southwest.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Okay.

[Tank]

That was crazy. So people been asking me, doing it. We're gonna definitely have parties, know that. Release.

[Jay Valentine]

Yeah. Release party.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah, release party. You know, it's not really. You need to be there to cover it.

[Tank]

You can't not be there, bro.

[Jay Valentine]

You, you, you, you, you go back. So, I mean, me, Me bringing up the, the, the studio story was just. I had never seen nothing like that. And I had been to, you know, I had been to a few studios in my day, and then noontime, I thought was just an incredible facility of wow how all those producers and writers were all in this space. But going to your studio was the first time I seen, like, a compound. That was my intro to what a compound looks like, where whatever you need to get done, whether it be rehearsal, get in shape, the music, you don't have to leave. You don't have to leave. The development is all right here. And I feel like that is a testament and a secret. Not even really a secret, but just a secret to your success in that you were, you were instrumental in, in the, in the developmental process. Like, you're more of you. You're like in a. You're like a genius. A and R. Right. With all of these tools at your disposal. You can write it, you can do so you can rap it, you can got the melodies for it, you got the. No, it should be about this. You got all of that. And so. And then it's got to look like this. And then, no, you got to move like that. Like, you're doing all of that, and you have the facility to do it in.

[Tank]

Yeah, I mean, it wasn't always like that. I think I, I, I think I, I gathered that stuff that you're talking about from being young and not knowing people. Like, I was too young to actually even have to know studio engineers in the first place. So you don't. You, you got to do it yourself, right? You know, I mean, like, I couldn't have nobody come to my house. I was too young and I had no money. Right. So I couldn't be like, yo, I come over here, help me record this, or whatever it is. Was just always just like, Even, like writers. It's like now when we write, I see people calling writers somebody, and I Might call me like, J.D. who. Who you want to write on this song? But even then, I. I ain't know no writers with nobody to write. It was like, you got. I want the song done. I'mma do it. I got to do it. It ain't even. Not I'mma do it. I got to do it because there ain't nobody else around here.

[Jay Valentine]

Like, it was out of necessity.

[Tank]

Yeah, but it's like. It's almost like a gift and a curse because it's like I was young. I was so young, I couldn't. I had no access to people.

[Jay Valentine]

How young were you when you started?

[Tank]

When I first started writing songs, yeah. Probably 15.

[Jay Valentine]

You was making the beats and everything?

[Tank]

No, I was actually making the beats in my head because I had no money to get to the drum machines, right. So I would. I would make. I would completely, like, think about how I wanted this music to sound all the way in my head. And then I go to the studio and I try to tell somebody to do what I wanted them to do. And they used to be like, boy, you can't do that. We can't take nobody's music and this. And I'm like, man, like the age I was. If I would have. If they would have listened to me, I probably would have been like the first person to ever sample. Got you a full record. The way I wanted to sample the record when I was 15. They was like, you can't do that. You can't steal people's music. This was these guys at these other studios telling me, and I'm like, well, I don't. I mean, I'm not thinking I'm stealing, but I'm just like, this what I want.

[Jay Valentine]

How do we use it?

[Tank]

How do we.

[Jermaine Dupri]

I want the rappers sound like that.

[Tank]

Yeah. And then they was like, well, now we. We'll remake some. We'll remake it. They start trying to remake it. That's when I. That's when the producer hunger came. Because it's like, I need to learn how to do this so I can do it. Because they not listening to what I'm saying. It's not going the way I wanted. It's cool, but I hear it some other kind of way.

[Jay Valentine]

And then. What was your. What was your first purchase as a producer?

[Tank]

My first purchase was a. I think it was a 626 rolling drum machine. It might have been a 707, but one of them little. It was like, it wasn't no bigger than this and it cost two. I think it was 250. And I had to put it on layaway.

[Jay Valentine]

What?

[Tank]

Yeah, I had nothing. You know, I mean, but I put it on layaway and I. I go cut people's grass around the neighborhood. Give me like $10, $20 this, that, and the third. And I go back and get that drum machine. When I got the drum machine, it ain't had no. It had all these whack rock sounds. Like it wasn't like stock sounds. So once again, I had to start imagining that this gonna be the 808. This how the snare gonna sound. So I make the beat. But I wasn't thinking that. It didn't sound like what sounds. I kept thinking in my mind when we get to the studio, by the way, I didn't even know if this was possible. Cause the MPs and none of this.

[Jay Valentine]

Stuff was like MIDI and triggering, right?

[Tank]

That type of thing. I didn't know it was possible. But I was just saying, like, okay, it gotta be a thing between what I got in the studio, right? So I kept thinking in my mind, when we get to the studio, I'm gonna tell the guys, take this kick. Keep the pattern, but change that kick out. And give me something. Give me the money stuff. The 808s and the stuff.

[Jermaine Dupri]

They don't realize, they don't even have those sounds there.

[Tank]

Give me the money Give me the stuff that I want. So that hunger just from there just, you know, it just started unraveling. Like, me seeing them and me telling them, like, oh, okay. And them showing me I could do it. And I'm like, okay, I got it. I just gotta get to the equipment. I gotta find. I gotta get to it. And once I got started getting. So I, I, I produced the Silk Times Leather album. And that didn't do great, but it did well enough for me to get $15,000. Right. When I took that $15,000, I bought all equipment.

[Jermaine Dupri]

And you're how old at this point?

[Tank]

16? 17.

[Jermaine Dupri]

15,000 at 16, though?

[Tank]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Jermaine Dupri]

You're a double.

[Tank]

This was. Yeah.

[Jermaine Dupri]

15, 60,000 as a teenager. You like, oh, I got some bread.

[Tank]

Oh, I'm good. Yeah, all the way. Good.

[Jermaine Dupri]

And you went and bought all equipment with that?

[Tank]

All equipment? All equipment.

[Jay Valentine]

And where you set up?

[Tank]

I had my room looking like this. All equipment. Your bedroom? My bedroom.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Look, that's what it said. That's the setup right there. The bedroom.

[Tank]

100%.

[Jay Valentine]

And did you start having people come through like.

[Tank]

Yeah, yeah. Then people started coming through, like, JD Got the studio, you know, What? I mean, jd. JD got a studio. That's like, when so. Well, they didn't start coming through. Well, they were. They was coming through. It was like some local kids that was coming through. I had a four track. I had some turntables.

[Jermaine Dupri]

So you DJing already, too?

[Tank]

Yeah, yeah, I've been DJing. I was DJing since, like, 13, 14. Like, once I went on the Fresh Fest, I learned how to DJ from, like, Jam Master J, Grandmaster D, all of these guys that was out there, they was DJing, they just show me stuff, and I just was, like, intrigued by the DJing, too.

[Jermaine Dupri]

So when did you drop out? Because you obviously ain't going no. Damn.

[Tank]

Yeah, I dropped out. I dropped out of school at like, 14, 15.

[Jermaine Dupri]

So you never really went to high school? He was like, nah, this is. This is school for me.

[Tank]

Well, no, I didn't, but I knew that. Well, what I'm saying, it was like I was going to school. Then I went to the Fresh Fest. When I went on the Fresh fest, I was 12, 13, 14. Yeah. So when I went on the Fresh Fest at 12, this is pre Atlanta music. Like, ain't no music scene in Atlanta when I'm going on tour, right? So the rules for a kid entertainer, nobody in Atlanta don't know what that is, right? Like, this ain't la, right? This is like, this is Atlanta, you know? So my mother and them, they don't know. You know, they don't know what they doing either. My dad, you know, they hear about you can get tutors and this, that, and third. So we go to the school board and tell them that I'm going on tour and I need a tutor. And when I get the tutor, the tutor's going to take my credits. And y' all going, you know, we going to make it work.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah.

[Tank]

And they said yes. But then when I came off tour, they was like, we can't accept those. Those credits or we can't accept the grades and stuff that you was doing. And I'm like, whoa, wait a minute.

[Jermaine Dupri]

So you was actually doing the work?

[Tank]

Yeah, I'm like, I've been doing all this work on tour, and now y' all telling me you can't accept it. And that's the day I said, oh, no, I'm good. My parents was basically just. They was disjointed in the whole decision. My mother wasn't with me doing nothing. Like, she was trying to make sure I was going to school.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah.

[Tank]

Me going on tour, I don't. She didn't know like, this is all new about all new.

[Jay Valentine]

Who was your guardian when you're going on tour?

[Tank]

Well, my dad was. Was the. Was like the production manager for the tour.

[Jermaine Dupri]

So he was out with y' all.

[Tank]

Yeah, my dad was out there, so that was. That's. That. That's how my mother went on and rationalized. Went along with it.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah.

[Tank]

But my dad was actually also working.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Right.

[Tank]

He's also. He was out there working as a. You know, as a production manager. So move around. So I was out there by myself.

[Jay Valentine]

Oh, my God.

[Tank]

Yeah, yeah.

[Jermaine Dupri]

So would you. Would you say then that, in a sense, Pops was the first identifier then of, like, he got something different with my dad?

[Tank]

Yeah, yeah. My dad was my manager. My dad was my manager for basically my whole teenage. You know, for a long time, my dad was my manager and that. But once again, that's also, like, me not knowing nobody. I know my dad. I don't know nobody else. Right. I know my dad. This is what you want to do. I think this is what you want to do. I don't even know if this is what you want to do, but I'm going to put you in it. I'm going to put you in it. You know what I mean? So I saw my dad always as a. As a manager type of figure.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah.

[Tank]

And when I created Kris Kross, I called him and told him, like, I got this group. You gonna be they manager. And that became our rollout.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Man, I can't wait for Deuce to call me and say he found Kris Kross. I can't wait for my son to be like, dad, I got it.

[Jay Valentine]

When I created Kris Kross at, what, 17?

[Jermaine Dupri]

What are you now?

[Tank]

17?

[Jay Valentine]

Cause somehow at 17. Yeah, I know what the people need. I know what they want. I know what's gonna shake this shit up at 17.

[Jermaine Dupri]

That's crazy. That's crazy.

[Jay Valentine]

It speaks more to what I'm talking about.

[Jermaine Dupri]

So do you. Do you go the regular route of let me just go try to get them a record deal? Do you say, let me try to go get me some kind of production label deal? Or do you just.

[Tank]

I don't know nothing.

[Jermaine Dupri]

You don't know that.

[Tank]

I don't know nothing.

[Jermaine Dupri]

You just like, I just want to get.

[Tank]

I just want to make a. I seen these kids at the mall, and I saw people reacting to them, and I'm like, who the fuck are y' all? Who are y' all?

[Jay Valentine]

Why?

[Tank]

Why? Why? The girls at the cookie company giving y' all free cookies, and they ain't giving me shit.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Right.

[Tank]

Like, what's going on right now. I thought I had walked into, like.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Nickelodeon because you're not that much older than them.

[Tank]

Yeah, no, I'm not that much older. They was 11, 12. Yeah, I'm 17. So I met we all at Greenbrier, and I'm like, what's. What. What the fuck is happening?

[Jermaine Dupri]

That's the hood mall, too. People that don't know, that's the hood mall, too.

[Tank]

That's not like.

[Jermaine Dupri]

So. So to get that reaction.

[Tank]

Yeah.

[Jermaine Dupri]

To get that reaction at the hood mall.

[Tank]

Oh, yeah.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Us in the Bay. That's east. My mall.

[Jay Valentine]

Yeah.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Don't this no more.

[Tank]

Yeah.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Shot up too many times. So if you get it cracking there.

[Tank]

100%, the world going to lose what I'm saying. So. So I'm watching little. Well, they ain't even little girls. These girls, they got jobs, so they working. They are 17, at least 18 years old. They react. They look. They looking at these guys like they are superstars already.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Wow.

[Tank]

And they treating them like that. And they. They playing with it, too. They running over there talking to the girl. Run back.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah, yeah.

[Tank]

They doing all this. And I'm standing there in the middle of the mall watching this, like. And I'm like, don't nobody else see this? What's going on? So then I'm like, who the are y' all? He's like, what you mean, who are we? And I'm like, okay, cool. Y' all ain't no stars or nothing. It's like, nah. I said, y' all rap. Dark Skin Chris was like, rap. Like he said. And it's crazy because this is a time period where young didn't want to rap. Rap. Rap was like, for young people. That wasn't a thing. Not. They age, like, 11 and 12. They weren't thinking about rappers. So when I say you rap. They looked at me like, rap. But niggas don't do that. Like, that's how they. That was their reaction. And I'm sitting there having this conversation with them in the middle of the mall, and my mind just start going, J.D. if you could write these little boys a song, they out of here. If you can figure it out, they out of here. You get it together. They out here. Yeah, they already got it. You get it together. My mind doing all that in the mall, I'm trying to figure it out right there in the middle of the month.

[Jermaine Dupri]

By this time, you already got your studio, you got everything.

[Tank]

No, no, no, no, no. Like, that's what I'm saying I had to sell something about the suit. Tom's leather, sometimes leather. They gave me the ability to get the equipment.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah, but that's what I'm saying. You got. You got that set up though, now.

[Tank]

Yeah, but it's still in my room, right? It's in my bedroom. And I just. Like I said, I got they number. I still ain't never. I mean, it never made no record though. Right. I think the thing that got me that conversation was that in Jet magazine, I think they did an article on female rappers and they listed silk Times leather. And they showed a picture of them and dark skinned Chris mom noticed the girl from the Jet magazine. So she made them realize, oh, he really. This is legit. It's legit. Yeah, because they was on some. Who the is this trying to talk to us.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah, right.

[Tank]

So she made it where like, y' all should probably may want to listen to him. I seen them in the book. So thank God to her because they weren't trying to hear me. Right? And for the longest, for like two weeks, I couldn't get. I'm like, y' all gotta come over my house. And they was like, go over your house? Right. You know what I mean? They thought I was like a predator or something, like. Cause they had never been approached like that, like. And that's what I'm saying. And it's crazy. I'm telling them, come to my house. That's where the music was at. Yeah. So you gotta imagine 11, 11, 12 year old kid and somebody old telling you, you gotta come to their house. They like, nah, these little ghetto kids too, they like that.

[Jay Valentine]

Yeah.

[Tank]

You know, I mean, we ain't doing that. So I had to break the ice with them, but. And go. I start. So I start doing stuff like, I'm gonna pick y' all up from school on Friday, whatever. What are we gonna go hang out, blah, blah, blah. So I start doing stuff with them and start hanging out with them, and I start playing music in the car like Ice Cube or whatever was out. And they singing the lyrics like they wrote it. Right. They know every word. They ain't never seen no lyrics or nothing. And that's when I start saying, man, if I could learn how to write songs good enough that they like it, this could work.

[50 Cent]

If you're not watching BMF on Stars, you're seriously missing out from executive producer Curtis 50 Cent Jackson. The highly anticipated new season is coming, and Meech and Terry are leveling up. They're expanding their empire, launching a music label and making major moves in hip hop culture, even hitting the 1995 Source Awards. Oh, and did I mention Lamar is back. You already know that means trouble. The rest of the Flannery family is also feeling the pressure. Charles and Lucille are facing the consequences of Meech and Terry's actions, and Nicole is caught in the middle, dealing with her own growing pains. This season brings more drama, more heat and more star power. Get ready for guest stars like Kofi Cerebo, Skai Jackson, Tyler Lepley, Clifton Powell, Rockman Dunbar, Saweetie, Miles Truitt and more. The cast is stacked and the storylines next level. BMF is where drama, hustle and hip hop collide and this season the stakes are higher than ever. Believe me, this is the season everyone's going to be talking about. Don't miss the explosive season premiere June 6only on Starz and the Starz app.

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[50 Cent]

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[Jermaine Dupri]

So really what you were doing was turning the consumer into the artist. Because they were really like you said, they were consumers.

[Tank]

Yeah.

[Jermaine Dupri]

So now. And you know that they're your target audience. So if they like it. Yeah, 100% the kids around the world will like it.

[Tank]

Yeah, if they like it. And it's crazy because what I always hear people when Jay Z told people that he didn't write his raps, right? And people was like, people find that so crazy, right? Even me. I did at first, but I never realized I was already doing it with Kris Kross before. Cause that's what I wanted them to do. I wanted them to like memorize these words and stuff without seeing the paper and like you just feeling the song. Yeah, this is gonna be y' all song. You like it? Hell yeah. Like, you know what I mean? Like, I needed that energy. So it's, it's, it's a crazy process that, that I learned about these kids. But it definitely, that I had to get, I had to get sharper, I had to get better. Cause I was writing songs. Yeah, I was writing songs at first and they was just like, you know, they was gonna do them, but I didn't get that energy yet. Right. And I had a song, the first song because I had left, I was living in my closet right at my house. So, so, okay, so listen, I gotta go back. I gotta go back. All right, so listen. So Ian Burke, Shout out to Ian Burke, shout out to Amber. Ian Burke was around this whole period, right? Ian Burst, the only guy I actually know that. I felt like was moving around Atlanta. I could trust him. He'd come talk to me, blah, blah. Me and Ian got cool in this time period. He started finding artists, and he found this girl from Philly, a female rapper. And he's like, J.D. i got this female rapper. I'm gonna bring it to your house. Now he was coming. These people started coming to my house. Like it was the studio. It's my mother's house.

[Jermaine Dupri]

So he brought to mom.

[Tank]

Yeah, he brought Left Eye to my house. I heard a rap, I said, okay, cool. But she had no place to stay, you know, I mean, she was fresh up from Philly. And my room was just 24 7. It was just 24 7. It wasn't no sleeping. I'm like, you just kick it here. So for like a week, she basically was staying in my closet at the house. Because my mother. I didn't want my mother to know what was going on in there. It wasn't nothing but music going on, but still, my mother would have been like, why that girl you staying over here? You know what I mean? So. But she stayed. And in the midst of her staying, I thought I had found it. I was like, oh, I'm a sample. The girl is mine. Michael Jackson, Paul McCartney. And I'm gonna write some raps about Chris and Chris fighting over Left Eye.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Okay. I see the vision.

[Tank]

Yeah, I see it, I see it. Yeah. But left out. One left out. Yeah. She wasn't even in tlc, so she just was a girl. Yeah, that could rap. This was the vibe I was on. I'm like, this gonna go. And that song just wasn't. It didn't come out. It didn't come out. I had to keep going, keep going. That ain't it. That ain't it. I had an idea, but that wasn't it. I ain't know how to make that. That's. I guess whatever, but it didn't work.

[Jay Valentine]

Are you self auditing at this point or so? Are you? Or you got some. Some. Some trusted ears where you're playing stuff for them, like what you think and.

[Tank]

Nah, just me.

[Jay Valentine]

Just you?

[Tank]

Yeah.

[Jay Valentine]

You're self auditing?

[Tank]

Yeah. I go off of the light in your eyes if you. If I play you something and you don't. You don't. Yeah, you don't do that. I automatically do like this. Oh, shit.

[Jay Valentine]

Okay, start over. Yeah.

[Tank]

Yeah. I don't need. I don't need a bunch of people telling me I could tell when it's. When it's dead. When it's not. Yeah, you give me. Everybody give you that without even knowing it. They give it to you. You know what I'm saying? I could play something right now. Somebody come from back there and come in here, I'm like, oh, we got.

[Jay Valentine]

Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah.

[Tank]

Oh, we need to pay attention to that. And I won't even say nothing. I won't even tell people that I saw that. I just go off of that vibe. That's where I'm going. That's the energy. I start following.

[Jermaine Dupri]

So how long does it take you to get to. To the hit? How long does it take you to.

[Jay Valentine]

Hit or even just the records that make sense to.

[Tank]

It's crazy. Cause I don't have a time.

[Jermaine Dupri]

No, I'm talking about.

[Tank]

Oh, for Chris.

[Jermaine Dupri]

I'm talking about for Crisscross. Cause now.

[Tank]

Okay, yeah, so two years.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Oh, shit.

[Tank]

Yeah. I was 17 when I found Kris Kross. They ain't come out till I was 19.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Artist development.

[Tank]

Yeah, producer development, artist development, producer development, writer development. We all had to learn. We was learning. We was learning. And, yeah, once we got. We started getting close. Chris came to the house and he had on this Jabot jumper. And it was so big. And I was just like, man, you should flip that shit around. And he was like, for what? I'm like, I don't know. Just flip it around. Let's just see what it looked like. He flipped the Jabot jump around. I'm like, that cold, huh? And they was looking at me like, no, I'm like. I said, listen, let's go to Lennox Square. With that. With your jump on backwards. He's like, why? So let's go to Lennox. We went to Lennox. He walking through the mall. He the only person with it on. He's walking through the mall with a Jabot jumper backwards. And the mall stopped. And I was like, what the Just happened? Like, people was like, what the. Where you get that from? Why your clothes? Like, what is this? They don't even know this kid. It's people just coming up to him like, where did you get this outfit from? And I'm like, what? It can't be this easy. It can't be this easy. It's your regular jumper. I don't always want to tell people, like, you can't be that stupid. It's just he got to jump on backwards. But I'm just like. I'm watching it and I'm like, this can't be. This is crazy.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah, that's wild.

[Tank]

And I'm like, we Gonna have to do this gonna be y' all thing. Y' all gonna wear y' all clothes backwards. And that's what. That's what. Then from there, I wrote jump in 25 minutes, probably.

[Jay Valentine]

Did you produce it too?

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah, of course he did.

[Jay Valentine]

Of course he did.

[Jermaine Dupri]

So you don't have so. So def. At this point?

[Tank]

Yeah. Oh, no, I don't have so. So death at this point. You don't have so. I don't have so. So death.

[Jermaine Dupri]

You take the record to Roughhouse.

[Tank]

It's on Roughhouse. The next Crisscross blows up the record. Go number one.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah.

[Tank]

I think my birthday came around, and I had a little birthday party at my house. Ian came to my house, and he brought these girls. Another. Some more girls. The girls he brought to my house was Escape, right? He had them sing Happy Birthday to me. After they sang, I'm like, I with y' all. I' ma sign y' all to my label. I don't have no label. I just said it. I saw Massign on My lady. They feel like, for real. I'm like, yeah, I'm signing on my label. I don't got no label. I had no conversation.

[Jermaine Dupri]

You got a hot 100? 100?

[Tank]

Yeah, I got a hot 100. I'm just like, I'm gonna be able to do. Yeah, yeah. I said, I'm gonna do it. And then, like, after I said that, I think two weeks later, Sony was like, you know, we want to give you a production deal if you can bring out some more artists. Can you bring more artists? And I'm like, yeah, I got this group already. I'm about to sign them.

[Jermaine Dupri]

My happy birthday.

[Jay Valentine]

Happy birthday.

[Tank]

I called him immediately like, yo, I'm definitely gonna sign y' all.

[Jermaine Dupri]

And then I gotta ask, though, where's Left Eye?

[Tank]

Oh, so. So if you. If y' all watch the. The TLC movie, they had a meeting with Pebbles and left. I called somebody in. In. In. In VH1, but they cut me out. When she makes that phone call. Yeah, she called me. When she called me, she said, they want to sign us. What you want to do? And I was like, damn. And I was so into Crisscross that I was like, you know what? If they sign y' all, just let me produce some songs on the album. Y' all go ahead. And I just let them go.

[Jermaine Dupri]

So they were actually signed to you?

[Tank]

Oh, no. TLC was my group before they went to Lafayette. Cause once. I mean, Ian. So we jumping all over the place. But Ian found T Boz and Then he put T Boz and Left Eye together. Then they start coming to my house and we start making. I start making demos for them. And it was the first R and B music that I ever tried to write was for tlc. I never wrote R B song ever. I tried it with T Boz.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah. So I heard this other thing. It's a rumor that you did the choreography for ABC before Kris Kross.

[Tank]

I might have. I might have.

[Jermaine Dupri]

That's even crazy.

[Tank]

I might have. I might have. I can't take full credit, but I was around. I definitely was around.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah, yeah.

[Tank]

The word I got, I was around. I don't remember it to be that, but I was definitely around.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Cause to do so. Cause ultimately, you know, that was part of the song, you know what I'm saying? With ABC and bbd, and. You know what I'm saying? I mean, abc, not bbd. I'm sorry. ABC and Crisscross, they had.

[Tank]

They.

[Jermaine Dupri]

It was like a little kitty beef.

[Jay Valentine]

Yeah, yeah.

[Jermaine Dupri]

And the fact that you would have worked with ABC as well.

[Tank]

Nah, they are. We. Are they from College Park. We all them my little homies. The only reason I dissed Kris Kross, I mean, the only reason I dissed ABC on that song was that I was trying to establish Kris Kross as rappers. And I was like, I don't. I want y' all to let people know that y' all rappers this date. What they doing? They singing. We rappers.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Okay, we rappers.

[Tank]

We might be young, but we rappers. And I just kept thinking, like. Like I said, all I'm listening to is Ice Cube.

[Jermaine Dupri]

NWA they dissing everything.

[Tank]

Yeah, yeah. Matter of fact, no. Vaseline just came out and, you know, so Ice Cube going crazy.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah.

[Tank]

And I'm thinking, like, in rap, just the only way you get people's attention. This is the only way you really get people's attention. And Jump actually became such a big song, people don't even pay attention to the fact that it's a diss record.

[Jermaine Dupri]

It's a dis record.

[Tank]

Yeah.

[Jermaine Dupri]

All right. So let's get back to xk.

[Tank]

Okay.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Let's get back to xk. Let's get back to xk. So now you got a deal.

[Tank]

Yeah, now I got a deal.

[Jay Valentine]

And an R B group.

[Jermaine Dupri]

And an R and B group.

[Tank]

An R and B group, which I never did before.

[Jermaine Dupri]

It was just purely because you just like I. I with him.

[Tank]

No, it was purely because I had thought about this once Crisscross blew up, that I didn't want to be pigeon held in rap. And I didn't think I was the greatest rap producer.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Okay.

[Tank]

I didn't know what type of producer I thought I was. But I'm saying I didn't think that I could come right back with a successful rap race.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Your self auditing is.

[Jay Valentine]

Yeah, I told you. I'm telling you.

[Jermaine Dupri]

That is. That's the key.

[Tank]

Yeah.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Because most people don't know what they're good or bad at and. And won't be honest with themselves to say, you know what? I'm probably not as good doing that.

[Tank]

Yeah. I mean, I'm thinking I'm on the clock at this point too. So you got to start thinking when you're on the clock. Okay. You got crisscross day number one. You know the records, you know it's gonna pass.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah.

[Tank]

And then once it passed, the hype of who you are, what's going on, that's gonna pass. Right. So I'm just like, no. And then I'm like, let me. I don't want my label to be a rap label. I want my label to be all things. Right. So I'm just like, I'm do an R B group. Colombia didn't expect me to say I'm coming on.

[Jermaine Dupri]

They think you're gonna.

[Tank]

They like what? A R B group like. Yeah. And they like what R B have you done? Nothing. So we just gave this a deal.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Here goes the kid now and his.

[Tank]

Kid go do some. He never did before. He can read the money.

[Jermaine Dupri]

I already know what that means.

[Jay Valentine]

Was like, so you gave the kid how much money he doing what with?

[Tank]

Yeah. So yeah, I mean, you know, I went in the studio at Xscape. I mean, by the way, every this starting. Things are starting to happen. So I don't want to make people think that. So an important piece of that puzzle was that this writer named Emmanuel Seal was looking for a home. Right. And I got a call that he was looking for a home. And once I had my label, people knew, okay, JD Got a label deal. So once you say you got a label, you start attracting things. Absolutely. And I didn't know what manual seal was. I didn't know. I didn't know what was going to happen. But I needed somebody to play for me. I knew that I needed that because I'm signed to R B group. I can't sample my life away like this. Yeah, Right. So Manuel comes into my life and matter of fact, I go meet him at like an hotel. And when I walk in the hotel, he's playing the piano that's in the Hotel killing. That sound like a concert. And I'm like, what the. Who is this? He's like, yeah, I'm the guy that's supposed to meet with you. I'm like, oh, let's go.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah, right.

[Tank]

I take him back to my house in College Park. Me and him talk, I tell him what I want to do, and I start working on Escape album.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Is he from Atlanta, too, or.

[Tank]

No, he from IL, Illinois.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Manuel Seal is special.

[Tank]

That brother is special 100%.

[Jermaine Dupri]

And y' all marriage, y' all, man. The records that y' all have done together, it's top tier.

[Tank]

And Manuel. Manuel is. Manuel is a. When I met Manuel, he. He could do anything. That's what. That's what me up. Is that anything? I told him to play, he could play it, or he'll play something that I didn't expect him to play. Whatever it was, he just was like, he's probably one of the most musical guys I done met ever. So we start working on Escape album. I did a whole album in two weeks.

[Jermaine Dupri]

The humming coming at you. Album.

[Tank]

Yeah.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Two weeks.

[Tank]

Two weeks.

[Jay Valentine]

At this point, are you establishing. Because JD Has a sound. I know JD Drums anywhere. I know when I hear them.

[Tank]

Okay.

[Jay Valentine]

At that point, making the Escape album, is that when you establish those drum sounds?

[Tank]

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know if that album sounds like what you think JD Sound like just kicking it. Yeah, it sounds like. It sounds like that. I don't know. I don't. I really don't know. I know that I got my drum machine now. I'm trying to make beats, but I don't know. By the way, I'm going into this, I don't know what's gonna happen.

[Jay Valentine]

Got you. So you're not. It's not a conscious thing. You just making the music.

[Tank]

Yeah, but I'm writing the songs. I don't. I mean, you know, I mean, like, I'm. I'm. I'm really, really trying to get this group out, right? And I'm really like, I don't have that label. Ain't told me nothing. I'm just on this clock of myself, and I'm like, man, let's go. I gotta go. And. And. And nothing about me thinking about writing songs even popped in my head that I couldn't. I just started writing and manual plays something, and I'm like, no, I wanted to go like this. And I was trying to make it so close to rap. That's why it's just kicking it. Sound Like a sound.

[Jay Valentine]

Yeah.

[Tank]

And that's why it's called just Kicking it. Because I'm writing it like it's rap, right. And I'm just. And I'm starting to think about, like, I'm. And I'm starting to with girls too, right? So I'm with girls. So I got a little, Little education to have with girls. So my first mindset was every man want a woman, they could cook them up a good meal. I'm thinking, like, what. What a want from a girl? Not right. What the girl want from. So, So I wrote it from that perspective, and people was like, she talking from the man perspective. I'm like, yeah, that's. That's how I wrote it.

[Jermaine Dupri]

That's why I connected to it.

[Tank]

But I, I, I, I thought, you know, I didn't think that was going to work at all. I'm writing all them songs.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Escape was gonna work.

[Tank]

Not, not big because I'm writing the songs and I know that I don't have no, I don't have no chops in R and B.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Right.

[Tank]

You know, I mean, I'm just praying.

[Jermaine Dupri]

But I'm trying to sparkle in people's eye.

[Tank]

No, no, not at all. Escape was tough, man. It was a hard group because, you know, people didn't think they was cute. Biggie had made dreams of RB and I RuPaul before I. Them ugly Escape, that. That was. That was hard, right? Like, right. I'm out here dealing with this, right? So I took a stand that was like, okay, y' all think they ugly, Cool. Find me somebody can sing better than them, right? I start acting like just going off of their talent, pure talent. But, yeah, it was hard. It wasn't. You know, En Vogue was out at the time, right? So Escape coming out. When In Vogue is out, these little girls, they look like hood and distance there. That ain't flying. And Xscape is young, right. It's another thing. Xscape is a young group. I'm making R B music. And R B radio told Columbia that the music sounded too young. So I'm, I'm. I'm almost in a space where it's like where I want the record to be. They're not even playing it because I.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah, I'm thinking of what those records sound like in relation to the other R B at that time.

[Tank]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Jay Valentine]

It was, it was real, wasn't.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah. Wasn't singing. Just kicking it.

[Tank]

Yeah. No. So Adult Radio, what they call adult radio now.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah.

[Tank]

Is where I wanted Escape to live. They. I Couldn't get them to live there for nothing. They kept telling. They told the PDs, the record, the radio guys. These songs sound too young. They don't sound like I I station. So that's why I say, like, all that young. I'm the person who brought this to the music, to modern day music.

[Jay Valentine]

And what broke that conversation for them?

[Tank]

Forex K. Yeah. It never. I had. I had to keep. I had to start dressing them and I had to start trying to like, I think the second album, I wasn't trying anything. I went to Don Warren and got a song and let her write the song. Cause I was just trying to figure. I'm like, this group has to be.

[Jermaine Dupri]

But you had success on the first album, though?

[Tank]

No, no, we had success. But I'm just saying, as an R and B group, I knew where they had to be. It was home for them, their home. You can't be a R and B group chasing hip hop, okay? And I was just like, determined to try to get these girls. And I'm like, man, these girls can sing their ass up. They sing a cappella. It's the best thing in the world. They sing the national anthem. It's the best thing in the world. Why y' all treating them like.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah.

[Tank]

And I'm not knowing that. I'm basically doing something from a younger perspective that ain't been done.

[Jermaine Dupri]

That's crazy. I would have never thought that.

[Tank]

Yeah.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Cause from outside looking outside, looking in.

[Jay Valentine]

Yeah.

[Jermaine Dupri]

At that.

[Jay Valentine]

Looks like it's all year.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Is that 93? 94. Somewhere around.

[Tank]

Yeah. 94.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah. So I'm like, fresh.

[Jay Valentine]

Looks like it's all working.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Going from middle school to high school. This feels like every young girl that I know.

[Tank]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Nah, they weren't.

[Jermaine Dupri]

You know what I'm saying? Like, that's why you're creating the music for my life at this point. Flat out, I'm in the bay. Crisscross now. Escape all this and this. And they're all around my same age. I might be a little younger, you know what I mean? But I'm like, this is. I see me. This is my reality right here. Xscape looks like my neighbors. Those look like my girls. The girl that in the Banneker Homes in Fillmore, she looked just like her. So for me, I. I don't. I don't see the difference. And what the. Obviously what the labels and what the. The radio is saying that the kids.

[Jay Valentine]

Would want, trying to manage it.

[Tank]

No, they don't. They're not even. They're not. They're not even focusing on kids. Yeah, they focusing on 25 and up, I think.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Right.

[Tank]

Or maybe 35. Yeah, they, they, that's what they're doing. They're. They paying attention to that. And 35 and up radio stations weren't fucking with a state.

[Jermaine Dupri]

That makes sense. That makes perfect sense, though.

[50 Cent]

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[Jermaine Dupri]

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[Tank]

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[Jermaine Dupri]

So, okay, so now you got two.

[Jay Valentine]

You got two.

[Jermaine Dupri]

And then you get the brat.

[Tank]

The brat comes. Kris Kross got a show in Chicago. Ed lover and Dr. Dre from MTV Raps, they was on the tour as like the emcees, this emcee and the Kris Kross concert. And in between Chris and Chris coming on stage, they bring all these artists. They let people come on stage and do something. And they brought Brad on stage and she rap in Chicago. Light skinned Chris car be right after that. He was like, yo man, this girl out here, she cold. And I'm like, female rappers, they suck. Like, I'm not. First thing you said, yeah, female rappers suck. Ain't nobody listening to that. I got off the phone, he's like, nah man, you got to listen to her. She cold. And I'm like, we don't even. I'm telling him we don't listen to no female rappers. Like who getting ready to listen to female rap. I thought it Was the worst idea in the world. I never was like, courting brat. Trying to get her to come to Atlanta. She started pushing her own buttons, right? So she came to Atlanta. She called my phone and she was like, I'm here. I didn't know she was coming, but she came. She was like, I'm here. So I'm like, you know, and I'm, I'm trying, I'm trying not to be completely on new that I'm just gonna listen with an ear, right? So I go pick her up, or I go to the hotel, pick her up. And I gotta stop and get gas because I live on the south side. So when I stop and get gas, I go in there to pay the gas. She put the CD in the car, and I get back in the car, turn the car on, and the. Come on. I'm like, who the is this? Who touched my radio? And I'm like, who is that rapping? She's like, that's me. And I'm like, oh, wait a minute, wait, you had.

[Jermaine Dupri]

She came to Atlanta. You don't even. You hadn't heard nothing yet?

[Tank]

Never.

[Jermaine Dupri]

You just going off of Chris telling you that she was good.

[Tank]

Yeah. I never heard of that. And she was so, like, persistent. You, you gonna check me out? I'm like, okay, cool. I was taking her to go back to my house to do like a little audition, I guess. Basically, she put the CD in. As soon as I hit that came on, I'm like, who is this rapping? She's like, that's me. And I'm like, oh, maybe this, maybe this might work.

[Jermaine Dupri]

It went from hell no to maybe.

[Tank]

Yeah. I'm like, maybe this might work. And brat to this day was the hardest project I ever did in my life, though.

[Jay Valentine]

Really?

[Tank]

Yeah, because I, I, I never had it. I couldn't. I made, I made two, three songs a day. And I never could. They were, they never was right for me.

[Jermaine Dupri]

So you sign her, but you can't figure it out?

[Tank]

Yeah, I can't figure it out.

[Jermaine Dupri]

So how do you land on Funky five?

[Tank]

I don't know. Two years. We, I mean, it took two years for me to get functified out. Like, literally, we making song after song every day. Song every day? Every day. As a matter of fact, I think during the escape video, I pulled up in my truck trying to play a demo of a song that I did with Brett. And I ain't tell nobody. I just try to pull up to the video playing some loud music scene, and ain't nobody giving me Nothing. Ain't nobody come from behind the back room Ain't nobody giving me.

[Jay Valentine]

Yeah.

[Tank]

And I'm like, oh, man, this ain't gonna work. I knew I shouldn't with no female rappers. That's how I'm feeling.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah.

[Tank]

And then one day, me and Manuel in the studio, we playing around with the between the Sheets. And I start rapping, right? I start rapping. And then she jumped in, rapping behind me. We freestyling like, oh. I'm like, no, I ain't thinking about it. I'm not about to. I'm not making a record. That's what I'm saying. I'm not. I'm not being a rapper. I'm not doing this. And she like, yo, we should make a song like that. You should rap. And I'm like, no, I'm not rapping. I don't wanna. I'm. Y' all. Put y' all out. She's like, nah, let's do it like this. So then I'm like, okay. I start thinking about it, and then I start writing the verse. Like, open up the doors. Open up the doors. Let the funk flow in. You know? I mean, I start writing my part, right? Her part. And then I'm like, this how it's gonna go Then we gonna do it like this. We do that song. I'm thinking it's just for the car at this point.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah.

[Tank]

Like, I'm putting this out. I put. We do that song. We get that going. Start coming in the room. What the Is that? What is that? Yeah, I play the song a little louder. Everybody like, hey, man. Yeah, J.D. you gonna rap? I'm like, oh, I don't want to be no rapper right now. Not yet.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah.

[Tank]

All right. But it just. It forged me to do that, and that's. That's how the song came. And then I want to say, somewhere in there, they asked me to do.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Usher in the middle of you doing Brat?

[Tank]

Well, I mean, I think in between, you know, in between these projects, Kris Kross, Escape, Brat. Somewhere. Somewhere in there, it might have been at the end of the funk, the fire, whatever it was. I'm not really knowing the dates. But in between there. That's when they asked me, you know, would you work on this Usher project?

[Jermaine Dupri]

And did you know him already?

[Tank]

Yeah, he came to Kris Kross concert and he wanted me to sign him, and I said no.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Well, that answers the question, because I.

[Tank]

Was gonna ask you.

[Jermaine Dupri]

I'm serious. I had this in my head. I was gonna ask you, were there any artists that you had passed up on that became huge.

[Tank]

Yeah. Usher. Usher. Okay.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yep, yep.

[Jay Valentine]

And why did you say no?

[Tank]

Because I was having conflict with Chris and Chris parents, and I just was like, I'm not dealing with no more kids. Like, I'm not with no more kids. Because y' all parents don't. They ain't they not. They weren't at the room with us. They didn't watch me talk to y' all. They didn't watch us talk. But now they. They end up. They trying to get in here. I gotta deal with them. So I was just like. And it was like, when I met him, it was right at the height of that. Right. And we had a meeting where the parents had gotten to Chris parents. They had gotten in an argument at the lawyer's office. And it was just like, oh, this ain't what I signed up for.

[Jay Valentine]

Gotcha.

[Tank]

Right? So. And when Usher came, he was a teenager once again. And I was just like, nah. Cause AJ brought him. But I'm like, it's a mom somewhere.

[Jay Valentine]

Oh, it's a mom.

[Tank]

It's a mom somewhere.

[Jay Valentine]

Oh, there's a mom.

[Tank]

It's a mom somewhere. And I just was like, you know, I ain't had the capacity to do it.

[Jay Valentine]

Yeah, she don't play. There's a mom.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah. But even understanding that, though, I think because that's. In this business, we see talent, and sometimes we just jump at it even when we. We don't have the bandwidth.

[Tank]

Yeah. Like I said, even with tlc, that's why I let TLC go. I didn't have a bandwidth. I didn't have a label. Right, right.

[Jermaine Dupri]

But that's what I'm saying at that point. You don't got no label.

[Tank]

Yeah, I don't have no label. When I'm talking to tlc, I'm trying to get Crisscross sign. And, you know, today I could do both, but back then, I ain't had a bandwidth. I just was like, I was giving Crisscross all of this energy, and I was kind of like, giving Teon and Left Eye, like, some little energy, but they weren't getting the full play right. So I just was like, you know, I started thinking as a producer, like, y' all make the album. Let me just do some songs on the album. Yeah, I'll get some producer credits.

[Jay Valentine]

What do you think prompts the call to do Usher? What nuance that you've created or what? What piece of music that you've done?

[Tank]

Well, they came, they came, they came, and they asked me to do a remix of Think of you. So all. You know, I'm saying all the time, I think LA was like, his voice is changing. We need. But we need to make this song. I want to put a bridge in the song so people can start hearing his voice. And I didn't know what a bridge was. I mean, I think I thought I knew what a bridge was, whatever. But I'm like, okay, cool sneak.

[Jermaine Dupri]

I hit records.

[Tank]

He like, I ain't know what that was.

[Jay Valentine]

He gonna figure it out, though. No, I know. Bring him cinema.

[Tank]

I told him, come over. I did a remix and then I put the bridge in Think of youf. And they got that back. And Usher was like, man. Cause I also. I made Usher come to my studio and re sing his part, Right? That was the thing about remixes that I was like, you could re. If you gonna do a remix, come sing it over. Let's really make it remix. So he came and he sung that bridge part. And I wrote the bridge and I sung the bridge to him. And he translated my terrible notes into what he. What it was supposed to be.

[Jay Valentine]

Can we get an example out of here?

[Tank]

And he translated it into what it's supposed to be. And then it was just Bryant Reed, shout out to Brian Reed, la's brother. He was the A R at the time. He's like, man, we love this. We love this. Could you. You think you could go in the studio with him? And I'm like, I guess, you know? But they was like, you know what? We don't want to rush you. We want you to do what you did with Kris Kross. We want you to take him. Take him in, dress him, make him your artist.

[Jay Valentine]

Hmm.

[Tank]

That's what they. You know, and that's what I did. I took. I took Usher in, I started talking to him. I started training him. I started doing everything that I thought he needed to become who he is today.

[Jay Valentine]

Wow.

[Tank]

Wow.

[Jay Valentine]

So.

[Jermaine Dupri]

So when you're making these records. But what is. What is Columbia saying, though? Because that's not. That's who your partner is. Sony, Columbia is your partner.

[Jay Valentine]

Are they like.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Are they like. At some point, they're like, wait, that's not your. That's not an artist that signed it. So.

[Jay Valentine]

So.

[Tank]

Well, they don't see it happening. They don't see it till it happened.

[Jay Valentine]

Gotcha.

[Jermaine Dupri]

I'm sure they would not have been happy.

[Tank]

Yeah, they wouldn't. They probably wouldn't be happy. They would have been high. Yeah, they probably. But I mean, I was. I'm bringing. But you still do. I'm bringing groups. I mean, I'm delivering escape album. I'm delivering brat second album. I'm giving them. I'm giving them product that, you know, it's not like I'm not doing the work.

[Jay Valentine]

Yeah.

[Tank]

So, yeah, that. That. Yes. I get into the Usher record. I don't know anything about male r B as far as writing songs and making. I don't know nothing. I just know what I've heard, but I don't know nothing. And I'm just like, all right, we're going to try this. I don't know how this is going to work out, but we're going to try it, you know? And it's crazy because I wrote nice and slow. The night before, I was doing this test photo shoot for Usher. So I was gonna do a test photo shoot where I went to the, like, one of them good hardware, good stores. They're like sporting goods stores. Like dicks, maybe, right? Pause. And I went in there and I got all these shoulder pads and. And I'm buying, like, dress. Usher, like, just all kind. I'm just trying anything. So we do a photo shoot the day that. We do the photo shoot the day before that. I wrote nice and slow and I'm like, this the single. I'm telling.

[Jay Valentine]

Did you have the track or any of that stuff?

[Tank]

Like, yeah, we did it. We did the song. I. We did the song because I got. I got Usher at my house. So we recording. We trying to make. We making my way. And like I said, I did nice and slow. We going to the photo shoot. I tell LA at the photo shoot, I like this the single. He's like, nah, that ain't the single. Like, this the single, man. This. This is it. Like this. Jamming like, what are you talking about?

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah.

[Tank]

He's like, yeah, it's all right. I dropped my head. Go back. My God damn. It's all right. And by the way, they only paid me to do. They paid me to do four. Four songs. I think four to five songs. So I don't have you make me want it yet. I feel like I finished the project without you. Make me wanna. I go up to LA's office. I play nice and slow. I think I play my way. One day you be mine and just like me these songs. And I'm like, this it. Let's go. You put the rest. Put. Do whatever you want to do it. I'm good. And he sat there, he listened to them four songs and he ain't giving me nothing. Like, nothing Just like, you think this it? And I'm like, all right, I'm going home. Go back to my house.

[Jermaine Dupri]

I'mma go home.

[Tank]

I'm gonna go home. I left his office. I went home. I said, man, we got to do something better than this. We gotta make something. I got an idea. I stopped making beat. He started playing a little guitar riff. I'm like, oh, yeah. Think, think, think he playing the actual guitar. Think, think he playing it to the beat. I'm like, oh, yeah. This sound like it right here this week. This gonna be it. When I started writing the song, you make me wanna. Yeah, you wrote.

[Jay Valentine]

You make me wanna.

[Tank]

Yeah. 100% nice and slow. 100%.

[Jermaine Dupri]

At this point, the situation's out of control.

[Jay Valentine]

It's out of control. I never been.

[Jermaine Dupri]

This man right here is out of control.

[Tank]

Oh, yeah. But I mean, you Make Me Wonder was like a rap song to me. That's. But. Because that's what I started thinking. I started thinking that I was like, J.D. you a rapper. You trying to just. Cause you did escape. You ain't no R B. Yeah, you better get back to that rap and do some rap. So then I start writing it like a rap. You make me want to leave the one I'm with. The new relationship with you. This is what we do. Think about the ring and all the things that come along with it. You make me. You make me. I'm writing it like a rap song. The same thing with Nice Red.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Jay Valentine]

MC Hurricane. Understand.

[Tank]

Hurricane. That's. That's who he is.

[Jay Valentine]

That's who I am.

[Tank]

All right, all right.

[Jermaine Dupri]

You know, you know, you know, you.

[Jay Valentine]

Know all the code for that, right?

[Tank]

Same thing with Nice and Slow. I'm right. I stopped. That's why I thought Nice and slow was a go, because I put so much rap into it.

[Jay Valentine]

Yeah.

[Tank]

7:00 the dot. I'm on drop top cruising the streets. That's a rap song.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Absolutely right.

[Tank]

And I'm thinking, like, I got this little talking. He doing some rap. And the Pope Pimp had came out around that same time. So I'm like, we're gonna take the little Pope Pimp and we're gonna spell your name. Us. H E R I A O M D. I'm trying to do what them was doing. Pope Pimp, Just to add a little bit of that. I thought that was the one.

[Jay Valentine]

It was the one.

[Tank]

Yeah, it was the one. I mean, it was actually first number one.

[Jay Valentine]

Just had a one. Two.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah, yeah.

[Jay Valentine]

It was a hell of a one. Two.

[Tank]

It was first number one hot one.

[Jay Valentine]

It wasn't number one.

[Tank]

Not hot 100.

[Jay Valentine]

How did that get up?

[Tank]

Oh, it went number one. R B. But I don't know what it did on the Hot 100. But as far as his first Hot 100 record was nice and slow.

[Jermaine Dupri]

And this is your first time writing for a male R B artist?

[Tank]

Yeah.

[Jermaine Dupri]

You the cheat code.

[Tank]

Cheat code, Bro, I don't know if I'm the cheat code on full Bob Dylan.

[Jermaine Dupri]

This nigga's on full Bob Dylan out here, dog.

[Jay Valentine]

He's a master auditor.

[Jermaine Dupri]

This is. Nigga, that's. That's crazy, because these are all first for you.

[Tank]

Yeah.

[Jermaine Dupri]

It wasn't like you, like, were bumping your head on other projects that maybe did this or that. No, no, no, no, no, no. First R and B singer they send to you, you give them a number one. Hot hundred. Hot 100. Number one.

[Tank]

Yeah.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Come on, bro.

[Jay Valentine]

Yeah. That's not normal.

[Tank]

Huh?

[Jermaine Dupri]

That's not normal.

[Jay Valentine]

It's not normal.

[Tank]

I don't know, man. I don't know. I don't. I don't. I'm not even paying attention to if it's normal or not. Like I said, I'm just trying to. I'm just trying. I don't even know what I'm doing. I. I honestly didn't know what I was doing with my way album. I just was trying. Whatever.

[Jermaine Dupri]

And that album ends up selling how much?

[Tank]

I think 5 million.

[Jay Valentine]

Oh, he was him. He was him.

[Tank]

Yeah.

[Jermaine Dupri]

That's when you start buying the Bentleys. And that's when.

[Tank]

It started getting close. It started getting close, and then.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Have you bought Southside yet?

[Tank]

No. Hell, you bought the studio. Yeah. This all 90s.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Okay.

[Tank]

I. I'm writing so much, though. I'm writing so many songs, and I'm. I. Where I'm writing songs where I do, like, I'm gonna write a song for somebody, escape or whoever I'm working with. And then after I finish writing that song, I'm making dumb demos for me to just ride around to and listen to. Right. So I'm not even. But in these dumb demos, these are not songs that I'm thinking gonna come out. I'm just doing it because I feel like I'm so right. So I'm in my. You know, I'm in there. I'm taking other people. I mean, making full beats. I might take a beat. So I took the mob deep record Shook ones, and I was like. All I like is them jazzy hoes, them type. Making all my Clubs. I start doing the Jazzy Hoes as a ride around mixtape for me. Like, I'm just gonna do this. I'm gonna listen to this in the car.

[Jermaine Dupri]

I love this.

[Tank]

And I'm just making this. I'm making mixtape songs just for me to listen to. I'm not even thinking about. So then my homeboy Steve Prudhomme from here.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah, yeah.

[Tank]

They heard my little mixtape one day in the car. They was like, what the is this, J.D. and I'm like, this is. I just be making. Just to be doing whatever. And them start singing the Jazzy Hoes. They like, man, you need to make an album. I'm like, nah, don't. I'm not with that. I'm cool. I'm gonna keep finding. I'm trying to stay away from it. And then they. They like, nah, you need to make an album. So then people start pushing me make an album. So then I think it was the one of them movie soundtracks. I don't know what movie soundtrack it was. Me and Brett talks.

[Jay Valentine]

Was it?

[Tank]

Oh, good. Yeah. Me and Brett put the party continues out.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Okay.

[Tank]

Right. And that the party continue was basically like, it was me and Snoop record first. That's what it was. So it was me and Snoop. Me and Snoop had a song on the soundtrack. I took Snoop off and did a remix with the brat of that song. And that song became my song. And it was basically like my first record that I put out on my album. Me Brat. And I put Usher on the hook, right? And I start saying, I guess I'm. I guess I'm gonna make an album, right? I guess I'm gonna make an album. And I'm getting a little courage because everybody's saying it. So I'm like. I said, I pay attention to the energy. So people saying, everybody tell me I should do it. So then I just start going full force on trying to make my own out.

[Jermaine Dupri]

And that's with life in 1972.

[Tank]

Yeah. Like in 1472. Yeah, yeah. But I gotta backtrack. I gotta backtrack. So I made it. I made just kicking it and just kicking it. Got the ears of Mariah.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Just kicking it there.

[Tank]

Yeah, Just kicking it. Got the ears of Mariah. She wanted a record that felt like that on her album. So, you know, I got the call to go in the studio with Mariah. I didn't know that that's what she wanted, but that's what. That's what she was after. That's what she was looking for. And we went to studio it was a different type of vibe for me. I had never been in the studio early in the daytime, leaving at like 7 o' clock in the day at night. So I'm nervous as. I don't know. I'm like, I. I don't know why I'm doing this project. Because I'm like, she's like a superstar. Superstar.

[Jay Valentine]

Yeah.

[Tank]

And I'm little. I don't know, you know, I don't even know why I'm posting. I don't know why I'm here. Because I'm thinking they using different chords than what I'm on.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Bring out, bring out that other key on.

[Tank]

Yeah, I think I'm thinking the one I can't afford. I'm thinking, you know, bring me down. I'm thinking they use it all. Different chords, they got different keyboards.

[Jermaine Dupri]

That's what the music sounded like. The music sounded like that. That's an honest assessment.

[Tank]

Yeah, so. So I'm thinking, like, I take manual with me to New York. Me and Manuel go to work with Mariah. I'm like, man, I don't know what this gonna be, man. You know, just Mariah Carey, dog.

[Jermaine Dupri]

How was the floss? To the, to the, to this. To the women, when you say, yeah, you know what? I'm gonna be in New York, man.

[Tank]

I don't even think about the women. I'm. I'm 100 locked in. Like, I can't this up. But I'm feeling like I'm gonna fuck up. I'm believing I'm gonna fuck up. Cause this is also the first project that I ever did outside of my studio. So I'm nervous.

[Jermaine Dupri]

That is one thing you just. You kept saying, yeah, I had him come to the house.

[Tank]

It's the first time they had me come to New York. And I'm like, oh, this ain't gonna work out. I ain't got my records. I don't just anything I might need. I can't take all that to New York with me. So I'm already feeling like, this ain't gonna be it. This ain't gonna be it. And she start coming to the studio. She came in the studio and she was like, I want to make a record like this. And I'm like, what you want me to do with this? She said, I want to sing over this. And it was Cream Wuang Clan. And I'm like, right. Came in here. I'm like, what?

[Jay Valentine]

Who are you?

[Tank]

I'm like, you want to sing over this? She's like, yeah. Then she played another Record. I'm g. Sing over this one. I'm like, I'm looking around like, what the Is going like this. Mar. Care. You want to. You want me to make this for you? I'm not doing that. Cuz you. I'm not going to be the person to this up. I'm not doing that. You're not good. They not going to do that with me. She was like, listen, this what I want to do. And I was like, oh, okay. So I started following her lead and she was like, you know, I need something like just kicking it. But I wanted to be pretty, but I wanted to have that ghetto shit on it that y' all got and just kicking it. So Manuel started playing. He started playing that on and she like, yes, change the key. Change the key to where she wanted it. Then I put the 808s on there and always be my baby comes to life.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Wow.

[Chamberlain University Advertiser]

Wow.

[Jay Valentine]

Just keep winning.

[Tank]

And that's the beginning of me and Mariah's relationship.

[Jermaine Dupri]

And that was absolutely a number.

[Tank]

Yeah, 100%.

[Jermaine Dupri]

And this is the first session.

[Tank]

I mean, we did two records. It's the first two. One of. The first one of two songs. We had a week in the studio and that's. That's what we came out of. I mean, we made the cream, but it didn't come out right.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Right.

[Tank]

It didn't come out right. I wasn't. I was also not completely dialed into Mariah yet as far as like putting her over top of cream. I. It didn't make. It didn't make sense.

[Jermaine Dupri]

It didn't make sense.

[Tank]

It was like, I'm like, you're not. I'm not. I'm not doing it. I'm not gonna be the guy to do that. Not realizing that she basically was creating hip pop music. She's actually the creator that like. Ariana Grande singing over something.

[Jay Valentine]

100.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah.

[Tank]

Katy Perry singing over something.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah, yeah.

[Tank]

She's the person who created that sound. In her mind, she did this and she's still that person to this day. She wants to sing over street Hoodie going. Whatever it is. Hood New York. That's what she comes to the studio like. She's the rapper.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah.

[Tank]

I want. This is what I want to sing over.

[Jermaine Dupri]

And it's been successful. It's worked.

[Tank]

Not 100. Yeah. So we do.

[Jermaine Dupri]

We do that hooking Godly.

[Tank]

We do. Always be my Baby. I think I. You know, by the way, it's the third single, so I'm thinking, whatever. My little Mariah Carey didn't work it's cool. I'm on the album. She, you know, whatever. Always Be My Baby comes out as a single. That record goes number one on R B charts and Hot 100. I'm like, oh, okay, that is there, you know? I mean, so I'm like, I'm gonna get you to do a song on my album. She calls me and tells me what you want the song to be. Well, if you're gonna do a song, it need to be this. She sent me, sweetheart, and I'm like. She's like, let's remake this. I'm like, all right, cool. Whatever.

[Jermaine Dupri]

You know Mariah Savage?

[Tank]

No. Yeah, she. No, she knows. She's the artist that actually made me realize how lazy artists actually are. You know what I mean? Because she comes to the studio, she know what the fuck she want to do. She know what it's supposed to sound like. She's. She's. She's. She's very direct to what she's doing. And other artists come to the studio. They don't do. They don't. They just be sitting around like. You know what I mean?

[Jay Valentine]

Just waiting for you to deliver whatever it is.

[Tank]

They just don't have that. She made me realize, like, as an artist. Yeah. Oh, it's another level to this artistry shit. Like, yeah, it's definitely another level to it. So I did that. We did sweetheart. I think I had sweetheart first before money, anything, Right. And Columbia's thinking that they gonna release my album. I got a Mariah Carey single. This seems like the thing, but like I told you before, I don't like to barter the energy from other people with my records. I don't. I don't. I don't really like that. And in the midst of me making life in 1472, I listened to a DJ clue tape, and Jay Z had took the Drew Hill beat and rapped over it as a freestyle. And he said something. He did my cadence. Y' all wanted this. I'm gonna make you there. He did. He did all of this, right? So I'm a little kid. Well, I'm not a little kid, but I'm a kid from College Park, Georgia, and Jay Z's like, this underground rapper that he supposed to be the one, right? And I'm infatuated rap music. So I'm like that. Listening to me. That with me.

[Jay Valentine]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Tank]

That mean he know who I am. I'm do a record with this. And I seen him. We did a great day in Harlem photo shoot, and I seen him out there. And I'm like, yo, I want to do a song with you. And he's like, all right, what's up? I'm like, you come to Atlanta, let's make a song. He's like, cool. I get his information, get him a ticket to Atlanta. I go pick him up from the airport. On my way to pick him up though, I'm listening to his album. I'm listening to can't knock the Hustle because I'm trying to get in Jay Z mode. I'm trying to get rapper mode all the way. By the way, I'm in a Bentley too. I got my Bentley. I'm going to get it.

[Jay Valentine]

Here we go.

[Tank]

Yeah, that was a continental T that big boy, big dog. Yeah, yeah. So I'm going to get hove from the airport. I'm racing down Old national and I'm playing can't knock the Hustle and I'm switching lanes and all this, right? I'm trying to get there fast. I'm running a little late. And then I'm hearing the song, you know what I'm saying? It's an out of state kicking up top game deep in the south, switching for lane, screaming through the sunroof, money, anything. I'm like, I'm doing this.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah, yeah. Yes, you are.

[Jay Valentine]

Yeah.

[Tank]

This is what I'm doing. I'm moving right, I'm switching lanes. I'm. I'm doing this. I'm in the car like fish, like I'm wilding, right? And I hit rewind. I heard him say it again. I'm said, why would this say deep in the south? He not from Atlanta. And that one word, the south, made me pay attention to that whole phrase.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah.

[Tank]

And I'm like, I'mma sample this. I'mma sample this part. That's going to be our song. Cuz I don't have no song. He on coming to Atlanta. I don't have no song.

[Jay Valentine]

Never have a song.

[Tank]

I don't have no song. I'm just trying to wing it. Here's the song that dangerous as hell, man. So my nerves be going crazy. I'm trying to. I know. It was like the artist gonna be in like a minute. What you got? I'm trying to. I'm trying to find something. I can figure it out. So I'm doing this. I'm going to pick him up. He get in the car, he's like, what you got? I'm like, shit. I don't really got nothing. But I was listening to this and I think we should make this the hook. He's like, what? I'm like, this part right here, screaming through the sunroof, money, anything. That's how I feel right now. He's like, all right, okay. And I'm not even paying no attention to him. He wrote his rap without even hearing the beat. He writing his rap as we riding to my house. In his mind.

[Jay Valentine]

In his mind doing that.

[Tank]

I'm like, what does this? But I'm not really paying no attention. I'm thinking, he listened to the music I'm playing or whatever. We get to my house, I take the week in the knees beat. I loop that stop. I'm like, we're gonna do it on this beat. He's like, all right. Where the engineer. I'm like, what? We just got here? He's like, I'm ready. I tell the engineer, I'm say, he ready. That went in the booth two minutes after we got to my house. Verse laid. I'm like, when the. Did you write this verse? Because by the way, I'm not even realizing that what he did, I do all the time already. But I'm still used. I'm still. I'm writing on paper.

[Jay Valentine]

Yeah.

[Tank]

I'm still believing that it's got to be on paper. And that's the first time I seen him do this. This no writing. So I'm like, this. This must have had a verse already. Give me an old ass verse, but I ain't say nothing. Yeah, the verse was hot, right? So then I had to write my verse and I'm like, I got this rapping, rapping, rapping. Like he really rapping. Yeah, J.D. you gonna do this? You got a goddamn rap.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah.

[Tank]

So then I had to start writing me a rap. I'm trying to write me a rap that sound like I'm in. I'm with this at least. At least I'm writing around in there. So I'm trying to get that. I get my verse. And then he give me a third verse. I ain't got no more lyrics than me that day. So his third verse, he leave without hearing my third part on the song. But yeah, that's how the money anything came. So once we finished the song, all I wanted for my career was to be placed in the same space as real rappers. Yeah, I didn't care if the records were number one. I didn't care if they was. I thought that was all for my artist. What I wanted, I wanted people to respect me for where I came from. I'm a hip hop person, right? So I'm listening to DJ Clue tape, and I'm like, if I put a rap record out, I want to be number one song on Clue tape. I want him to play my record. This is going to be the first song on the mixtape. That's all I cared about. So we finished Money and thing. I called Clue. I'm like, yo, I got one. I need this to be the first song on the mixtape. I sent it to him. He's like, you got it. You got one. I'm like, yes. I go to Columbia. Oh, I go to Columbia. I'm like, this is my first single. They looking. They say, why? I said, why not? It's Jay Z. Yeah. They like, who the is Jay Z?

[Jay Valentine]

No way.

[Jermaine Dupri]

He not on the radar yet. 100 not on that radar.

[Tank]

Yeah, he's not on their radar yet. I'm like, who the is Jay Z? I'm like, listen, he the hottest little. He the hottest underground from New York. What's going on? Jermaine, you have a song. Mariah Carey, you have songs with this person?

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Tank]

Why are you trying to make a song with Jay Z? We don't even know who he is.

[Jay Valentine]

But you gotta remember I'm in the dmv. Jay Z is a thing for us.

[Tank]

Yeah.

[Jay Valentine]

So when that song drops, for sure.

[Jermaine Dupri]

For the streets for sure. We're talking about a building. Mariah Carey also keeps the lights on in 100% in Jermaine, you have a record with her.

[Jay Valentine]

I get it.

[Tank]

Yeah.

[Jay Valentine]

I get it.

[Tank]

Y' all supposed to be coming with that Fourth of July.

[Jay Valentine]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Tank]

I give them money and thing. They don't have no real enthusiastic actions for me, but I'm like, cool. I don't give a. I'm on a Clue tape.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah.

[Tank]

This is gonna be the first song with Clue tape. We good.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah.

[Tank]

That's all I cared about. And then, you know, money, anything came out, and I feel like that's my. That's my biggest non. Number one record. I feel like that recording. Number one.

[Jermaine Dupri]

No, it went number one to me.

[Tank]

That's what I'm saying. But by the way, it's a. It's. It's like a classic rap songs.

[Jay Valentine]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Tank]

And I feel like you're wrapping your.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Ass up on it.

[Tank]

I feel like. Thank you. I feel like for. To have that, you got to have some kind of, you know, I. I'm not considered as like the poppy rap. Nobody look at me like I'm a poppy rap guy. They look at these rap songs like they real raps and That's. That's all I wanted. That's all I cared about. So I was. I'm completely pleased with that. Yeah.

[Jay Valentine]

Now that record worked. Yeah. You come to DMV? That record work?

[Tank]

Oh, no. 100% in the DMV. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. It definitely worked.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Let's get to the brothers.

[Jay Valentine]

Let's get to the.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Let's get to the brothers.

[Tank]

Okay. So in the midst of this.

[Jay Valentine]

Yeah, yeah.

[Tank]

Candy comes and says, I got a group I want you to see. I'm like, okay, cool. You. They good? She's like, yeah, they good. They twins. I'm like, okay, cool. She bring the twins to my house. They get up in front of me and they sing. And I'm like, I don't really know what to do with y' all.

[Jermaine Dupri]

It's just them, too?

[Tank]

Nah, it's the whole group.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Oh, the whole group. Okay.

[Tank]

Yeah. But I'm. You know, I never did a male group before, so I don't know what to do with them either. Only thing I could think about was that I said, okay, good. I'm assigned, y' all. I signed them and we got in the studio. Now, me, I don't know what to do with them. So I start doing what I did with Escape, right? Escape could come to my house and sing acapella, and I'll put a beat. Scratch something from turntables and put a beat under there. Jacket came to my house, and the first session. I'll never forget this, the first session, we got in the biggest argument ever, and them turned me into a R B junkie based on that. That's when I became R B guy. Like, they singing, and I try to put a beat under there. And Brandon Brown was like, man, we ain't Escape. We ain't Escape. We want some chords. We want some up. We. We want some. And I was just like, damn, I don't know how to do that. This is what I know how to do. I know how I mean, right? And they was just like, nah, man. And it was like, we got an argument, cuz. I'm like, this. The. That work, right? I want to hear y' all sing over this beat. That ain't R and B, Nick. That ain't what we trying to do. We were R B group, and I was like, oh, okay, R and B crew. So then I start doing my little studying and I start working with Jagged. We did the. The way you make me feel. The way. The way you feel or something. Like, I think that's the first song. I don't remember this. Yeah. And I put me and Brad on the song. That's the first time they came out. And that song didn't work, right. It got a little buzz, but it didn't work. Because I also was trying to figure out how do I market this record, right? So I was thinking, like, I got to be able to put it somewhere where I'm gonna be able to put my hands on it and do it the same way thing. So I put me and Brad on the song, thinking that it was gonna go to that channel. It was lukewarm. It didn't do nothing. And then we shot a video for I Gotta Be. Right? We shot a video for Gotta Be. And it wasn't crazy yet. The video was just like a regular video. But the song went to R B radio and they came back and it was like, they like this song. This song could work, but the video ain't good, right? So then we shot another video for the song and put Destiny Child in there. They got Beyonce and you know, we got. Got them because they on. They on Columbia. So, yeah, they want to barter the energy. And Gotta Be took off and Gotta Be became jagged. First number one record that I need. But through this whole process, I'm learning chords, I'm learning. We go. I'm going deep down in R B. I mean, I was already, you know, Teddy Ride's my idol, Quincy's my idol. I was there, but I'm still like so hip hop. I was like, not. I don't like a lot of that. I don't like all them pretty ass chords and this thing. That was my mentality. But them maybe I had to get into it. So I start. We making records. We making records every day. You know, I mean, we did the. The. The Gap Band remake because them sounded like, you know, I mean, Charlie to me. And we just start. I just start getting into R B. Just doing manual. Come on, let's get some deeper chords. Let's go. Let's go. And jagged. They really. The ones that got me like on my R. Yeah. Really? Really.

[Jay Valentine]

Did you write Gotta Be?

[Tank]

No, no, they wrote all the songs. Yeah, Jackie wrote all these songs. Yeah.

[Jermaine Dupri]

And that. That album, that was really a wake up call to the industry about Jagged Edge though.

[Tank]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Everybody was paying attention.

[Tank]

Yeah.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Once that second album came out, it was like, oh, they legit?

[Jay Valentine]

No, they were. Them.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah. These. These guys.

[Tank]

Yeah, Yeah. I mean we still. It still was tough though that like Keys to the Range didn't really do what we wanted it to. Do. So I just. So this is also me. I'm nervous because I. You know, me and Manuel did. Gotta be. So they first number one record was me and Manuel.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Okay.

[Tank]

Me and B. Cox never did a record with them like that, right? So we in there working. I'm just nervous. I'm. But they had success with the ballot. People with them on the ballots, we got to make another ballot. The day before that, I had just gotten an argument with my girlfriend about me working in the studio all late at night, and she's sending me messages like, I hope the studio keep you warm at night. You. You know, you. You act like you. You gonna be young forever. You ain't getting no younger. Let's get married. I'm like, out of here, right? The response is hilarious. I'm surreal. I'm like, nah, God, you don't know.

[Jay Valentine]

Who you talking to.

[Jermaine Dupri]

I think I've seen that same text before.

[Tank]

I'm like. I'm like, I get it. So it had the same reaction. So I'm like. I'm like, oh, girls want to be married. Like, I felt. She. She made me really believe that women wanted to be married. That's what they want. Their destination is to get that ring right? Right? I'm mad. I'm having this conversation. Brian, start playing these chords. I call Jack. We gotta do this song called let's Get Married. They like what? I'm like, yeah. They come. I got the hook, and they. They with it, and they start writing, let's get married.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Let's talk about this might as well line.

[Jay Valentine]

That's the line minus, well, we ain't getting no young. We might as well.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Like, depending on what city you in, it's might as well.

[Jay Valentine]

Might as well.

[Jermaine Dupri]

It's classic, but it strikes this chord in women. Have you ever had a conversation with a woman about let's get married?

[Tank]

I haven't.

[Jay Valentine]

I haven't.

[Tank]

What they say the nigga who wrote.

[Jay Valentine]

It has to do.

[Tank]

I never have.

[Jay Valentine]

Because Smart as well. Because you don't understand that Women don't get that. A lot of times the man at that point is just folding, right? He's just folding under depression. He's got the text right, Right. He didn't answer. Like, Jermaine, he wanted to keep his woman, right? So he said, I might as well. Come on.

[Tank]

Yeah. I mean, that's what. That's what it said to me. She said it. And from there, that let's get married. And me writing what I got out of that conversation with her led me into, like, My writing style of today, and it just led me into like, okay, I'm gonna start putting life into it. Life into these songs.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah. Which you have.

[Jay Valentine]

Which you have.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Which you absolutely have, my brother. Oh, my God.

[Jay Valentine]

Okay, so let's get married. It's going crazy.

[Tank]

Yeah.

[Jay Valentine]

What makes you say, this is how we remix this song, man.

[Tank]

Okay, so let's get.

[Jermaine Dupri]

This is the wedding song of all weddings, the red reception song, by the way.

[Tank]

It's not a pretty picture for me because in the midst of this, Hiram Hicks calls me and says, I got this new group. And I'm like, cool. I'm not thinking about the group being competition to Jagged Edge, but whatever. I'm just trying to do projects. He's like, I need you to do a remix. I'm like, what? He's like, this group, Drew Hill, they got this song called Sleeping in My Bed, the song number one. But we need. We need to up tempo remix. And I'm like, oh, we need something. We need something to keep, you know, give us some more legs. Mix show type of.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah.

[Tank]

And I'm like, okay, all right. I start going back to do what I do. I start messing with the turntables. I find a beat. I'm like, yeah, you need to fly them to Atlanta and we gonna. I'm have them resync it. And they flew. They. They all flew to Atlanta, but the only person came to the studio was Cisco. Huh.

[Jay Valentine]

Interesting.

[Tank]

So Cisco come to the studio and I'm like, where the rest of the group at? He's like, I don't need them. Play the beat.

[Jermaine Dupri]

That was the comment. Wow. Okay.

[Jay Valentine]

Yeah.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Play the beat.

[Jay Valentine]

Play the beat.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Play the beat.

[Tank]

I was. I. No, I'm like, okay, it wasn't like a diss.

[Jay Valentine]

David Ruffin.

[Tank]

It wasn't like. It wasn't like a diss, but it was just like, I got it, I got it. Yes, I got it, right? So I said, all right, we're gonna do it to this beat. And I start playing. And he's like. And I said, you gotta chant. You gotta make lyrics. Go to this beat. So. So I'm like, me and Brad should get on this. All right? So I'm going.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Everybody mad.

[Tank]

I'm going. So we're going. And we make a remix, right? This remix comes out. Usher called me. Why the you give them that song? I'm like, it's a remix. It's a remix. I didn't give him a song. Now you gave them that beat. Get out of here, Usher. Okay, man. Usher's mad to this day about this song. I should see this. He gonna be Usher. You ain't had to get him that beat. Jagged, come to the studio. Why you get them that beat? Yeah, I'm like, what you talking about? That. They. They. That's our competition, and you gonna help them. So I'm like, oh. I'm like, y' all got a number one record right now? Nah. That. You gave them that beat. So then I'm. I'm. I'm feeling bad. I'm feeling bad. I feel like I done let my guys down. You did.

[Jermaine Dupri]

You did. I mean, looking at it from the outside. Yeah, I'm giving. I'm playing Devil's back.

[Tank]

You did okay.

[Jermaine Dupri]

You got a.

[Tank]

You got a.

[Jermaine Dupri]

You got a four.

[Jay Valentine]

You gave the cop who's in competition.

[Jermaine Dupri]

With another four guy group a smash.

[Tank]

I didn't know that. It's a smash, though. I didn't know something. At this point, I'm just doing a re.

[Jay Valentine]

Doing smash. It doesn't matter. It doesn't.

[Tank]

No, I don't know that. You don't know that's gonna happen.

[Jermaine Dupri]

It's a remix called Jermaine for a Reason, Brother.

[Tank]

But it's a remix, all right? So I'm. I'm not actually thinking that it's going to translate into what it translated into. It started turning crazy. Going crazy. Every club, every radio station, every club. Then the song, the remix replaced the original in number one.

[Jay Valentine]

Yes.

[Tank]

Yes. So now it's really. It's a hit. Like, what it is, right? Jagged. It's up, man. Every time I see them, that's what the conversation is. That's up. You gave them that song. Gave him that song. So then I'm like, I gotta find. I gotta remix one of these records. I gotta do something. I gotta figure it out. I gotta make. I gotta make them a killer remix. We gotta do it. So he started getting in the studio. Me and Marcus Jefferson. Mark, he put the Run dmc. We ain't gotta change the lyrics. I'll make it. Oh, wait. Do it work? Yeah. Okay. I'm saying. Cause, like. Yeah, that's why I said it. I'm saying it because I'm like, oh, I got it. These gotta see, first of all, that's how the remix came about. I had to do it because they was on my head, and I had.

[Jay Valentine]

To find the greatest remix of of all times.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Work really well under pressure, brother. Yeah.

[Jay Valentine]

Yes.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yes.

[Tank]

I don't know that.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Those two remixes. Nobody has R and B remixes like that. It's Only other, only other R and B remix that's even mentioned is the Jodeci remix.

[Tank]

I mean, the swv, Michael Jackson shit, Human.

[Jermaine Dupri]

It's amazing.

[Jay Valentine]

Amazing.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Not for the streets.

[Jay Valentine]

But it ain't.

[Jermaine Dupri]

It's not for the streets.

[Jay Valentine]

It ain't Ralph.

[Jermaine Dupri]

That's not a street record. You know what I'm saying? Like, this is literally it ain't Ralph. These are R and B hip hop remix records for real. You know what I'm saying? And Jodeci was the only one before that that had that. Yeah, that still gets played that I can think of now. You know, listen, the comment section, Go go crazy one.

[Jay Valentine]

That was good. Not in the same vein though. Not the way you did it, but that was kind of groundbreaking. R. Kelly, down low.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yes, yes.

[Tank]

All his remixes. Yeah, yeah. R. Kelly was.

[Jay Valentine]

But in going back to our original conversation, to this day, there's nowhere you can't go where somebody has just got married. And that song does not play.

[Tank]

Yeah.

[Jermaine Dupri]

It's the reception record.

[Jay Valentine]

Impossible.

[Jermaine Dupri]

It's the reception.

[Jay Valentine]

It's not a real reception. Black, white, Latino, age. I don't care what you got to play that, playing that.

[Tank]

So this song comes out. Jagged Edges aren't. You know, it's a they ballot group. They having success more on ballots. Then stations like power106 here in LA pick up let's get married remix got run deep. Reverend run on it. Jagged Edge start doing interviews at power106. They doing KMel. They start hitting these other stations. They don't want to make no more slow records.

[Jay Valentine]

I respect it.

[Jermaine Dupri]

That's what they said.

[Tank]

Yeah. They're like, we are.

[Jermaine Dupri]

No, no, no. We've seen the world, seen the light.

[Jay Valentine]

Yeah.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah.

[Tank]

We don't want to make no more slow records.

[Jay Valentine]

Yeah.

[Tank]

I'm like, that's what y' all make. Nah, that.

[Jay Valentine]

I respect it.

[Jermaine Dupri]

So they go back to the hip hop shit that you wanted to do in the beginning.

[Tank]

Yeah.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Okay, okay.

[Jay Valentine]

I see where you going with this, J.D. your top five R B singers.

[Tank]

Singers.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Singers. Sangers.

[Jay Valentine]

Come on.

[Tank]

Michael, Luther, Stevie.

[Jay Valentine]

Yes, sir.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yes, sir.

[Tank]

R. Kelly and Usher. Yep.

[Jermaine Dupri]

I gotta cover everything that will tell.

[Tank]

About COVID Yeah, yeah.

[Jay Valentine]

I cover the spectrum. Okay, okay. We got through that.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Hey, there go to singers.

[Jay Valentine]

Okay.

[Tank]

I mean, I, I want people to know Usher, Usher's really serious about singing. Like I, I, you know, he really takes that singing serious. Like he really be practicing, really doing. Like, he really take it serious. Just like you just like I'm watching you do this for y' all to see him do that and make a song like that off top, that means he can write. He writes about anything. He. You never have writers block.

[Jay Valentine]

Never.

[Tank]

Because you have no fear of just saying whatever's right on you at that time. Right. And that's. That's. That's the. That's a genius in writing. Yeah, yeah.

[Jay Valentine]

Your top five R B songs.

[Tank]

I'm gonna go with this one first because I've been thinking about it. We've been talking about it. This lady in my life, Rolling Stone said, come on, speak on it.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Speak on it.

[Tank]

I don't know what you talking about, first of all. But just the ad libs on that record is so R B. The mike say, stay right here with me Stay right here with me don't you go nowhere.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah.

[Tank]

That's some pimping.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Tank]

Stay right here with me yeah. Forever. All over and over. That song is like. It's the most R B ever. I don't even understand how you can say that. But that's. That's one of my favorite songs.

[Jermaine Dupri]

They was on some clickbait period. That's all I could think of. They was on clickbait.

[Jay Valentine]

Somebody there believe that? Dumb. They should be reprimanded. And whoever proofread it, they should be reprimanded.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Them too.

[Jay Valentine]

Whoever printed it.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah. We can find out the name.

[Tank]

Oh, yeah. Now they had the name in my comments. They definitely told me then. Another Michael song is human nature.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah.

[Tank]

These are crazy songs.

[Jay Valentine]

Michael got two of them in the top.

[Tank]

Okay. Oh yeah. 100. I like it. My style of R B. So I gotta go with like make it last forever. Yeah. You said this is my. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Jermaine Dupri]

It makes perfect sense. Yeah, it makes perfect sense.

[Jay Valentine]

Absolutely.

[Tank]

Just the type of R B records I like.

[Jay Valentine]

Yep.

[Tank]

Top five. It's a hard one. But let's wait a while.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah, yeah.

[Tank]

Crazy song.

[Jay Valentine]

Crazy song.

[Tank]

Crazy song. No denying like crazy song. Jam Lewis musicians. They somewhere else with that.

[Jay Valentine]

Yeah.

[Tank]

Ignition.

[Jermaine Dupri]

The remix.

[Tank]

Usually I don't do this. It don't get no better than that.

[Jay Valentine]

Yeah. Oh my God.

[Tank]

That's a song right there. Well, nah, it's crazy.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Running her hands through my beep beep.

[Tank]

Yeah.

[Jay Valentine]

I've never written a song.

[Tank]

I got this one thing. I was going to talk to you about that I wanted to come here talking. How do we get R B on one accord? And why do you think it's separated? There's a certain group of guys and a certain group. There's another guys that don't Actually coincide with each other. And I don't. I don't for the life of me. Rap is not like that. Right. If a rappers over here. This rapper's trying to get on the same space as this person. But R B, we got these five artists on this side, on this side that don't really swing in the space of the artist that's on this side. And I feel like that's what dampers R B from being successful.

[Jay Valentine]

Absolutely.

[Tank]

And I'm saying it more like with your challenge. The challenge. The. The challenge is where I believe I'm really seeing it, because I'm like, okay, so I see the people that's doing it, but which one of these guys that's on this left side gonna take this challenge?

[Jay Valentine]

You thinking. You were thinking the same thing I was thinking. I was like, I haven't added some people like, yeah.

[Tank]

So that's what I'm saying. Why. What do you. What do you think is the. What's the reason that. That it won't. It. It don't happen.

[Jay Valentine]

I think that. I think that R and B guys, most R and B guys aren't from a competitive space. Rap guys are from a competitive space. Rap is. Let's get in this cipher and let's go at it on the street. Most of these guys, most of R and B guys, especially from where we're from, would just be the one plucked out of this place, one plucked out of this church. You know what I'm saying? Or maybe this. This doo wop group or whatever. But in. In. In our arena, there is no specific space where we actually build a camaraderie competing against each other. And so that's what makes it hard for us to come together and collaborate. Right? And then the other nuance that I think is very, very looked over is that a lot of R and B guys didn't play sports. Like, me and him got close because we were ultimate competitors on the basketball court. And I was like, oh, I'll ride with this nigga anywhere on a song n through the hood, whatever. I know his level of competition. Like, what he. What he bleed, I bleed. I always do whatever with him and guys that don't have that. He's my ultimate point guard. I don't need the ball if I know he got the ball. Kill him, Jay. Kill these niggas. I'll run the floor, nigga. I'll play lockdown defense. I could never get the ball. I would never scream at Jay, like, nigga, go crazy if you see me get it to Me, but that's the team, you know, the gamesmanship that we're missing.

[Jermaine Dupri]

We were never taught that R and B was a team sport.

[Jay Valentine]

Nope.

[Jermaine Dupri]

And it got. And it's gotten even more watered down that we don't even have groups. Right. So you don't even see that camaraderie. You don't even see the guys in the group together. But I also blame it on, you know, because, yes, I come from the creative side, and I've done all these things on the creative side, but I also consider myself an executive. It's also the executive's fault because they've kept artists away from each other. I don't get on that song. It's always a manager. It's always an executive. Maybe they not always black. That's saying, hey, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah. This your space.

[Jay Valentine]

Yep.

[Jermaine Dupri]

This. You don't share that light. Instead of saying this all of our life, we stronger together, homies. Even making phone calls, calling Tank, calling Usher, calling Chris, calling Trey, calling Rob when he was out, like, literally making those phone calls and say, hey, man, you know, nigga, I was with such and such. That nigga cooling motherfucker, bro. Y' all niggas need to. We haven't really had that in the R and B space. I've lived in the rap space. I've done records. You know what I mean? I've had artists sign you. Of course you have. You know, it's a different world. 2R B aren't picking each other up from the. From the airport.

[Tank]

Shit.

[Jermaine Dupri]

You said earlier, a nigga is not taking the underground R and B singer who he thinks is on his way up, Preach. And saying, I'm gonna pick that nigga up from the airport. We gonna do a record together. I'm gonna fight my label.

[Jay Valentine]

He gonna get the first single over the biggest artist in the world right now.

[Tank]

But why. Why you think that is? Why you think they. Why? Why you think that? Why?

[Jermaine Dupri]

I think it's learned behavior. I think it's learned behavior because that's just what it's been. It's just. It's just what it's been for so long that now. These conversations, though, of you saying why now Opens up the floodgate for niggas to make those phone calls, you know what I'm saying? Us having this platform where we talk about, you know, where James Fauntleroy says he wants to work on the New Mario project, and then they do a project together. You get what I'm saying? Where now these connected worlds and these conversations, because what we say here goes out.

[Jay Valentine]

But then, you know what I'm saying? So I can also add to that leadership also reflects that, too. Because whoever's back then, whoever was holding the mantle, kind of dictated how we operate.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah.

[Jay Valentine]

You know what I mean? Like, for sake.

[Tank]

For.

[Jay Valentine]

When Rob had the mantle, wasn't no other R and B nigga get none of that. Good luck. I am king. And niggas who've stood on that I.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Am king stage when I get the crown.

[Jay Valentine]

When I get the crown have always stood alone. The first person that I've seen to operate like a full rapper and say, let's get it in. Send it. I'll send it back to you tomorrow is Chris Brown. He's the first person. I don't. Nigga rap, Afrobeat, R B, country song. Said it. If I'm with it, I'm with it. I don't. I don't. I don't care. If you ain't even signed this rock.

[Tank]

And I mean, that's. And that's. That's how it should be. That's what I don't. That's what I'm saying. I don't understand it. Like, even. Like I said with your challenge right now, I'm waiting to see one of these artists do it. Because I'm saying I don't understand what the.

[Jay Valentine]

That come. A lot of that, too, comes from.

[Tank]

What? Fear. Fear. What?

[Jay Valentine]

Singing is different from rapping.

[Tank]

It is 100%. You gotta know how to sing, like, sound on here.

[Jay Valentine]

Rapping has gotten to a point where.

[Tank]

Anybody can do it. Yeah, everybody can't sing. I agree.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Cause there's some really good singers that don't sound good on that challenge.

[Jay Valentine]

Listen. And then when Mario just did it.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Got busy.

[Jay Valentine]

He put. He put some additional fear. I ain't. Man. I ain't messing with that.

[Tank]

No, he did. He did. I.

[Jay Valentine]

With that challenge, though. That's that challenge. But I'm looking for, like, you said cassette, though. What a cat said.

[Tank]

Yeah.

[Jay Valentine]

Or it's like, oh, I don't want to do. That's Chris Brown. I ain't trying. You know what I'm saying? Let him have that. No, it's us. It all contributes to the pot. The bigger this is, the bigger we all are, which is what this challenge is showing you.

[Tank]

Yeah. No, we need it. We need it.

[Jermaine Dupri]

I appreciate these conversations change that.

[Jay Valentine]

Yep.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Cause these conversations make people look at these things differently. Maybe it's not this specific challenge, but maybe it's the next one. Or maybe guys Are like, okay, you know what? I'm in on that. I'm fucking with that. You know what? I do got a record that I need we whoop on, and we should do some shit together and we should tour together and we should.

[Tank]

Like.

[Jermaine Dupri]

The thing that you and your father created, the Scream tour, the fact that it's still going this long, Right, Is amazing, but it shouldn't. Only. It shouldn't take artists 20 years to jump on these tours together. We gotta have that now.

[Jay Valentine]

Yep, bro. Budweiser, Superfest, Drew Hill, Genuine Aaliyah, Mary J, Bone Thugs and Harmony, all platinum artists, all with number one records. Yeah, all of them.

[Tank]

I mean, that's bossu fest, though. That's what you know?

[Jermaine Dupri]

But I'm just saying we gotta need it.

[Tank]

Yeah, we need it all summer.

[Jermaine Dupri]

We need it.

[Jay Valentine]

Where is the tour right now? Where it's not. I'm the big artist, and I got four little guys under me where it's really collaborative, where at any night, it's anybody's night.

[Tank]

Right?

[Jermaine Dupri]

And who they don't care about. Who's closing?

[Jay Valentine]

Don't matter who's closing. We can rotate this if you want to.

[Jermaine Dupri]

We gotta get to that space.

[Tank]

Like Triple Threat to him.

[Jermaine Dupri]

We gotta get to that space.

[Tank]

Dvd, Al B. Suge, Bobby Brown. That shoot was a tour right there. Come on. That was. That was.

[Jay Valentine]

Who gonna get it? Yeah, listen, I watched Bobby Brown go crazy right before New Edition go nuts on their Heartbreak Tour. Wouldn't lead a stage pants with the. With the. With the thing down here.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Parachute.

[Jay Valentine]

Parachute. Hammer pants.

[Tank]

Yeah, yeah.

[Jermaine Dupri]

We got to get back to that. But we gotta. We gotta continue these conversations.

[Tank]

Yeah, I'm gonna try to do my best, you know, I mean, I'm gonna try to do my part, keep doing my part, try to make it. You gotta get it back into the. You know, make sure that R and B, R and B gotta get back to the forefront. For sure.

[Jay Valentine]

Yep. Two more things from you before you leave. Let's make a Voltron, man. Let's make your super R and B artist, man. Making your super R and B artist. Where you gonna get the vocal from? Performance style, styling. The drippity artist. And who gonna produce and write for this motherfucker? Your super R and B artist? One vocal that you would make, that you would take to make your super artists.

[Tank]

Your voice would be. R. Kelly.

[Jay Valentine]

Performance style.

[Tank]

Yeah, the performance style would be. We see performance style. I'm gonna go with Michael.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah.

[Jay Valentine]

Rob. Mike.

[Tank]

A lot of people ain't gonna. A lot of people don't go with that because they ain't really actually see him. No.

[Jay Valentine]

What do you mean? A lot of people do go with that.

[Tank]

Yeah, but I'm saying majority of people don't. They never really seen Michael.

[Jay Valentine]

Actually, like, video of Michael is still. Is still better than live.

[Tank]

I'm saying to be there.

[Jay Valentine]

Oh, yeah.

[Tank]

It's a whole different ball game.

[Jay Valentine]

The styling of the artist.

[Jermaine Dupri]

And she like to put groups in dicky suits, man.

[Tank]

You know.

[Jay Valentine]

Whose style you taking for that?

[Tank]

Kanye.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Risk taker. Gotta be a star. Gotta be a star. Nigga's a star.

[Tank]

You want to be a star, you got, you know, I mean, Kanye is.

[Jay Valentine]

You going to the Runway.

[Tank]

He's one of one, man. He's one of one. I don't care how niggas feel about him. He's one of one.

[Jay Valentine]

He is who he is.

[Tank]

Yeah.

[Jay Valentine]

The passion of the artist. Heart of the artist who mean it.

[Tank]

I'm gonna go with Prince.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah. That's real passion right there.

[Tank]

Matter of fact, I'm gonna go back to the beginning. The R in R B is Stevie Wonder. So that voice has to be Stevie. He is the voice of R B. He's made every type of R B record that we. Everyone think of, and he's created it. It's just.

[Jay Valentine]

It's his.

[Tank]

It's his. Everything that everybody does, they got pieces pulled from Stevie Wonder. So I gotta give Stevie that. He's the voice. Prince with the. The, you know, Passion. Yeah, the passion.

[Jay Valentine]

You gotta be really passionate to sit on a horse butt naked.

[Tank]

Yeah.

[Jay Valentine]

Cause that had to hurt.

[Tank]

Well, you gotta be passionate just to. I mean, Purple Rain was a passionate movie, man. The idea what he was doing, the love for performing, the love for putting it all into the music and doing the way he did it. We. I. We ain't seen nobody black do that.

[Jay Valentine]

Yeah, yeah.

[Tank]

You know?

[Jay Valentine]

And who's writing and producing for this artist?

[Tank]

Quincy and Rod Templeton.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[Jay Valentine]

That's pretty nasty. That's nasty.

[Tank]

Yeah. Them boys bad rod. Temper them, Quincy.

[Jermaine Dupri]

All right, so we come to the very, very important part of the show, all right? When you tell us a story. Funny or up or funny and up. The only rule to the game, you can't say no name.

[Tank]

Name. Yeah. So this story, you know, if the cameras was around, life would be so much different. If y' all would have saw this, just, you know, it's a group of individuals that came to the studio to play basketball. It's a group of individuals that I'm in the studio working with to Basketball individuals, they out there playing basketball, they're not paying no attention to what's going on in the studio, but they are some kind of way, but they're not really, you know, And I don't know, like, me, for the first time, I let all these in at the same time. I don't know why for the life of me, but I did. I let them go play basketball while I'm in the studio doing what I'm supposed to be doing, knowing that's not safe. That's not what you're supposed to be doing. And one of them found in the studio that the other one was out there, and then they had a meeting in the middle studio. That was like the most. I don't even know how to say it. It's just crazy ever, the things that were said. But the disrespect, the unbelievableness about this. I was in complete shock in my own studio. Like.

[Jay Valentine]

So you didn't know that they didn't rock with each other.

[Tank]

I did, but I didn't. Because it's all. It's competitiveness. It's a competitiveness. We know it's a competitiveness. But to hear what was being said in front of the person and they right there in front of each other was mind blowing. And I will never have enough. I will never allow that to happen in my studio again. Somebody's at my studio view in my studio, and somebody say they want to come by artists. I'm. Yeah, no, it's closed. I tried to let everybody in, and this was. This could have been really bad. This could have really got bad. And I'm just gonna leave it at that. Let people try to figure this out. But this was. Wow.

[Jermaine Dupri]

But nothing happened, though.

[Tank]

Nothing happened. Nothing happened.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Just disrespect.

[Tank]

But the district, the level of disrespect was on a hundred, like, unbelievable, by the way. There's no way possible that you could say the things that was being said.

[Jay Valentine]

And not get shot at.

[Tank]

Right? Because it's no way that. It's true. One artist is higher than the other artist. Just so y' all can notice. It's one artist. That's. That's a. You know what I mean? So it's no way possible that you can say, oh, I. I never with you. How. How is this possible? There you go. There you go.

[Jay Valentine]

I gotta know what the. Is going on.

[Tank]

Yeah.

[Jay Valentine]

It was rough for you to make up new rules. It had to be.

[Tank]

No, it had to. You know, because, I mean, like I said, I never really. I. I I never thought that this could get to this space.

[Jay Valentine]

Gotcha.

[Tank]

Right? You know, I mean, I just thought that, you know, of course everybody's competitive. Everybody's making music, everybody trying to be stars. Nobody's more competitive than Bow Wow. Right? Bow wow wants. He's at. He beef with me. He's so competitive. Like, you don't. It's like. Right. So you have people. I, I'm, I'm. I'm used to that level because that's what it is. Everybody around me is. They all competing for time. My time.

[Jay Valentine]

Yeah.

[Tank]

Record. So I'm used to it. But this was, this was some other. I just didn't. I didn't expect it. And I walked in into it and I was just like, wow, okay, well, how we keep this from being somebody head getting splattered or something in my studio? Because I ain't trying to do that. It was like that. It was definitely crazy like that. I don't know if that's the story I want. I can't say no name. I can't say no names, you know.

[Jay Valentine]

Well, hey, man, manage your studio space properly. Okay? Don't invite rival gangs, rival artists, rival group. Control your space, man.

[Tank]

Yeah, yeah. Make sure you let everybody per jd. Everybody do what they got to do.

[Jay Valentine]

Insurances to cover the type of shit that can go down.

[Tank]

Oh, God. Disgusting.

[Jay Valentine]

Amen, brother. J.D. we are appreciative of your time as we are. As we are fans first. We are those who you've inspired. You have been our study guide and material. You have. You've. You've. You've been the, the voice and the soundtrack to our lives. You continue to be. Cut that shit out. And you're. You are one of the greatest of all times.

[Tank]

Thank you. Appreciate it.

[Jay Valentine]

Absolutely. My brother.

[Tank]

And you know, my brother, my guys. What is the one of this 150, right? This was me.

[Jermaine Dupri]

It's 150.

[Jay Valentine]

It's 150.

[Tank]

It's150. Congratulations.

[Jay Valentine]

We needed you.

[Tank]

Congratulations.

[Jay Valentine]

Listen, we needed you. Congratulations for 150.

[Tank]

Congratulations. I gotta be. I'll be back. I'll be back. Because this year I'm put. I'm. I plan to put out more records this year than I put out in probably the last 20 years.

[Jay Valentine]

Really?

[Jermaine Dupri]

Just this year you gonna put out more records?

[Tank]

Yeah.

[Jay Valentine]

Okay, cool.

[Tank]

I plan. Come on.

[Jay Valentine]

I feel good about that.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah.

[Jay Valentine]

I feel good about. You know what I'm saying? I feel good about it.

[Jermaine Dupri]

You gonna get your week?

[Jay Valentine]

Yeah, I'm getting.

[Tank]

He gotta get his week. I'M signing Division.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah, yeah. We rock with Division.

[Tank]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Jermaine Dupri]

We need Division on the podcast.

[Tank]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Jay Valentine]

I'm churning them out about that collapse. I think I hit him about something, too. I was like, man, you know, if you got something on them, y' all working. Let me get on that. He ain't hit me back.

[Tank]

Oh, he ain't hit back. Yeah, there you go.

[Jay Valentine]

See, Now I'm coming to you.

[Tank]

Yeah.

[Jay Valentine]

Division.

[Tank]

Exactly. Yeah. We gotta. Come on. We gotta make it happen. Yeah. Now I'm going. I'm going. I'm trying to go crazy, you know what I mean? Like I said, I have a. I have a goal. If I go, something must happen to me. I want. I need my music played at the Oscars.

[Jay Valentine]

I love that. I do.

[Tank]

I love it, like, for real. I just think that, you know, you got. That's a thing that I want to do is try to leave a real soundtrack, like my soundtrack that people. You could just play this. All this music as a thing.

[Jay Valentine]

I got an idea. I'm not gonna say it on here.

[Tank]

Oh, okay. Oh, yeah. And I'm doing the Quincy Jones Tribute of Essence.

[Jay Valentine]

Hey, yeah, yeah.

[Tank]

My Quincy Jones Tribute of Essence will be the one, I believe, that everybody's been looking forward to seeing. I thought Queen Latifah was amazing last night doing Ease on Down the Road. But what I' ma do at ESSENCE is different than anything that y' all seen as far as a tribute to Quincy. And it's gonna really tie in the young people and the older people to understand who Quincy Jones is and what he was to me as a musician. And I'm excited about that because it's gonna be, you know, them. I'm bringing out the.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Let me know if I should black those days.

[Tank]

Yeah, you got black them days out.

[Jay Valentine]

Rehearsal is.

[Tank]

You got. Come on. Yeah, you got.

[Jay Valentine]

Come on, know.

[Tank]

Yeah, yeah.

[Jay Valentine]

I don't care what it is. Go, go, go without.

[Tank]

Come on. N. It's going to be a tambourine. You can see on.

[Jermaine Dupri]

On Secret Guard.

[Jay Valentine]

Come on, man. Secret Guard.

[Tank]

Come on, man.

[Jay Valentine]

Better believe it. Come on, man.

[Tank]

All right. Yeah, we gotta go audition.

[Jermaine Dupri]

I'm gonna go audition.

[Jay Valentine]

I'm gonna send him my tapes into my reel.

[Jermaine Dupri]

I'm gonna get my elder barge.

[Tank]

I'm gonna get right. I'm get right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Jay Valentine]

You gotta have the debarge.

[Tank]

You gotta have a Debarge.

[Jay Valentine]

Come on, man.

[Tank]

He look like a debarge, don't you, man?

[Jay Valentine]

What?

[Tank]

Yeah, defend it.

[Jermaine Dupri]

You know, we always shouting out, bunny.

[Tank]

Come on, man, you looking like a debarge.

[Jay Valentine]

We thank you, brother. 100%, man. We appreciate you. And, you know, I'm pro.

[Tank]

Like I said, I'm pro. Keep R B alive. I'm glad that y' all got this. I'm glad that y' all got, you know, that y' all getting everybody on the show. And I'm glad that people coming here. I saw la. He didn't even know that y' all had the whispers on here. Like, you know, I mean, I. I like the fact that y' all have y' all hitting all.

[Jay Valentine]

Yeah.

[Tank]

You know, hitting. Y' all hitting from all angles. That's dope.

[Jay Valentine]

Yes, sir.

[Jermaine Dupri]

And we depend on people like you to make phone calls that we don't. We can't make sometimes. And say, you know what? You need to go down to the R B money.

[Tank]

Yeah.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Let me go sit down with the brothers.

[Tank]

I got you.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah.

[Tank]

I'll be back. When I come back, we're gonna talk about a whole 10 new records. That's my goal.

[Jay Valentine]

Yeah. Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Tank. I'm Jay Valentine and this is the R B Money podcast, the official authority on all things R and B. Yeah.

[Tank]

Yeah.

[Jay Valentine]

For the last 30 years. Huh? And still.

[Jermaine Dupri]

Yeah. Yeah. And the new and the new, both.

[Jay Valentine]

Of them, our brother, Jermaine Dupree.

[Tank]

Yeah. Thank you. Yeah.

[50 Cent]

If you're not watching BMF on Stars, you're seriously missing out from executive producer Curtis 50 Cent Jackson. The new season is coming and Meech and Terry are leveling up. They're expanding their empire, launching a music label, and even hitting the 1995 Source Awards. Oh, and did I mention Lamar is back. BMF is where drama, hustle and hip hop collide. The drama, top tier, the stakes higher than ever. This is the season everyone's going to be talking about. Don't miss the season premiere June 6th only on Starz and the Starz app.

[Jay Valentine]

Meetings, deadlines, emails, millions of notifications. Don't you wish you could escape the chaos? Fortunately, that's where the all new Nissan Murano comes in. With available features like the relaxing massaging seats to ease stress and the beautiful skyline views that bring in natural light. It's like cruising in your own personal oasis. If you need a set of vibes, 64 colors of personalized lighting and a Bose premium sound system have you covered. Hands down, the all new Nissan Murano is your stress free getaway. Because sometimes the greatest rush isn't rushing at all. Drive the all new Nissan Murano today.

[Tank]

Panoramic moonroof, ambient lighting, Bose and massaging leather.

[50 Cent]

Appointed seats are optional features hey, this.

[Chamberlain University Advertiser]

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[Tank]

Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest for Albertsons and safeway. Now through June 24th.

[Rocket Mortgage Advertiser]

Score hot summer savings and earn four times the points. Look for in store tags on items like Pringles, Ritz crackers and chips, sliced.

[Tank]

Soda, Wonder Buns and bread and Natural Choice lunch meat.

[Rocket Mortgage Advertiser]

Then clip the offer in the app for automatic event long savings. Shop in store or online for easy.

[Tank]

Drive up and go pickup or delivery subject to availability restrictions apply. Visit Albertsons or Safeway.com for more details. This is an iHeart podcast.