ill spare you with all the initial july conversations about this event (dave calling and seeing what's up---)

i will say this though.

i fucks with dave chapelle.

why? cause he could easily associate himself with the "rapper elite" and leave us po folk behind. but he is harriet tubmaning this whole shit. and his put his money where his mouth is: investing in a film about music and lifestyle and use his celebrity to help us out.

even my tyrant ass business manager told me that "i was right about this one" (i accepted the music director for the chapelle show for lower than standard price simply because of the prestige that a job like this could bring and more than that i just wanted access to a whole slew of skits and stuff.....but i knew chapelle was bubbling under the megastardom radar and when it was time for him to graduate to movies, i wanted to be first in line to score for him. so thus i knew his comedy central show would be the "audition" to whether or not i could handle future projects---sure enough i got that call)

i'll say (beside my training the illadelphonics the songs (of course i knew that the arrangments would be changed once i got in front of the artists)) that the real "first" night of this "project" was the "phone meeting".

member how in high school you would call someone on three way and they would call someone on three way and so on and so on?


well this was that (except this was an ATT conference call) and so much fun.) it was me, erykah, riq, mos, talib, stic, m1, com, jill, dave, michel, and some producers and corey (the same corey that "bailed out" talib in "get by") who coordinated all of us. we laughed and joked, voiced some concerns. remembered that all of us did songs together and perhaps (in his best french) "tha that that youll peoplee shooould shud shud perhaps collaborate on songs together like like like a like a rill jahm seasssion" (mos: "everybody on the phone, this man is a genius, i trust anything the french say....i mean come on now you gotta love a man whose country gave us baggetes" lol)---

i asked them were there any concerns about the music. i figured that most of them wouldn't mind being as though this was really the okayplayer 2000 tour all over again.-- most said "no". but i knew better. i knew that some that wern't used to this experience (kanye who couldn't make the call because of usher tour commitments) could be a potential disaster if not treated with kid gloves. he could get overexcited about hearing his music played to the t by a non arsenion type band (he did). he could get picky on us re creating certain samples that were impossible (he did). he could call out songs that wern't in his initial 5 (he did). he could have guests that wern't cleared for the shoot (he did)---the key is to be prepared (i was)--

i will say that the next day call between the fugees was a lil shakey being as though this is the first time that the 3 of those guys were in communication with each other for 6 years. so to go from the miseduaction accusations ("that was about me" "this was not about him") to crack accusations to lawsuits to--precher's son album to donald trump doing skits on your album to mudslinging to the unplugged album to current 3.0 lauryn to "hey can we make this work?" was done with careful precision. and only a man like dave could pull this off. just like with the previous night's conversation (our lasted near 2 hours) dave's voice alone (the greatest voice in comedy since pryor) could have us bowling over.---and he used that same humor to keep the tense atmosphere with his cash cow from boiling over.

my money was on it just being a clef set.

i was given a 5 song request set from each artist that i backed (everyone except the fugees) and 2 days to prep my delphonics--the same okayplayer tour/jay z/extra ciricular cats i been rolling with since day one--(james p on keys, omar e on keys, kevin on guitar (aka "spacey"), me on drums, adam b on bass, jeff bradshaw on bone, matt on trumpet, and chris on sax)---because i had japan commitments i made james man over the crew til i got back (2 days before we shoot mind you).

so with MUCH BITCHING i told the production people i need more prep time ("the workout plan" alone took 6 hours of prep out of my day)---the only soulution was since erykah and com was was in chicago the same time i would be (rehersal was in new york on friday and the show was saturday) using my roots soundcheck for full prep rehersal (production people flew the illadelphonics out to chi town to meet me---thus why we used the horns and big daddy and g rap at the chitown HOB show....i mean they was there...so....might as well do a test run huh?)--

i had a feeling the erykah and jill would be somewhat problematic. and somehow i understood. i mean i had a list of demands. i demanded my crew should run the sound and that we mix this movie down (its a movie first yall before its a dvd)--cause i want to present the BEST presentation that i can. and i know that these two tyra---(jokes yall) i knew these two wanted to be on their best foot. so much to the chagrin to shawn gee (who already along with jill thinks that i "feel a certain way") i resigned from both jill and erykah and let both of them have their bands. for starters----both of them got mad cues and tricks and dynamics to the arrangments of their songs--and that was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay much more than i could remember. so it was a relief. a big relief.

thursday at the house of blues got off to a false start being as though i was still on japan time up at 4am. preping for erykah (who was NOT told she had rehersal at 10am--she didnt even leave dallas until 1pm). i called com's room (yes even though he got a crib in the chi he still stays at hotel when performing) and asked him to come instead so that the day wasnt a total waste. it was his daughter's first day of school so he had to do the daughter thing (and he went to register to vote too) but said he could come around 2ish.

it was suggested to me that i recap dead prez. but i told my people that sony was going to "stick it" to them by not signing their release forms (we begged "why? it can only help them") but they just did some revenge "because we can mUAHAHAHAHAHAH!!" ish)--so i held off until 1ish. we learned the new mos sutff until com came around. since we knew all the songs (and omar was his band leader) it was a breeze.---i found out that erykah's band was in the chi (not erykah) so thus i prepped with those guys instead.

once i realized that the "and on.." was not the "and on..." that i had worked on some 4 years ago--with all these gaps and stops and starts and stops and i'm like damn.....for a guy so hell bent on some prince like stop on the dime "good gawd (smack!) shit---i am really feeling rusty. and i did not want to feel the wrath of e. so i knew then and there that i was not gonna drum. but its not that easy to drop out because this is a movie. not a concert. everyone has to be cleared for performance because of union rules and whatnot.---so it was not easy telling production people that took 2 months to clear me with aftra that we will be needing more budget money for plane tix for flights and rooms for the drummers.

kane and g rap came in around 4ish. both acts have rocked with us before so i knew this was no thing. i will be honest. i was a lil jealous that riq gets to rock with his rhyme forfathers (both who were FLOORED once we played them the final "boom" sometime back---also both thought that riq nailed the "other" guy more...)--i got mad pictures dont worry. i mean what capacity can i work with clyde stubblefield or steve ferrone? surely not this....--strangest things was the songs that stick with me like a tattoo: "halfstepping" "men at work" "symphony" "set it off" "road to the riches" etc--did not come easy to these two (more g rap than kane)---so we had to overprep em by telling them ahead of time what we wanted them to spit and have dawn (my assistant whom i had to friggin muzzle from asking kane about the madonna/naomi threesome sex book shoot--she gave in day of show) have cd's and lyrics all ready for em. we went through it about 4 times. slowed it down a bit and riq assisted them with no sweat.

i took a nap and woke up at 830 in time to catch com's set. i went upstairs to prep my horns when i heard the opening refrain to "love of my life". i ran downstairs like a bullet cause it just hit me that i saw erykah's whole crew in the house--and remembering that the two wern't on amicable terms--i wanted to see if she would sing the song with him.

no dice. confused as to whether she should walk onstage to sing her parts (its been a year since they spoke/seen each other) she played the back.

rats. how am i going to get through this weekend with these two playing cat and mouse? i aint about to play divorce/favorites (they both help me with the mortagage payments if you know what i mizean)--but michele and dave suggested collabo's and just natuarally assumed on the phone call that the two would do their grammy award winning number one single (dead air on that request was the only awkward moment of the first phone call)

i really felt good about the chitown shows (despit the mc not comfirming if we were even ready to start yet (thus him getting booed after he stalled the set change)--but i knew i still had work ahead of me. (i got an 11th hour call from corey "bailed me out" smyth that dead prez was back on (damn!!! we aint learned one note!!!)

the show was over at 2ish (after party too) and lobby call was 5am. and i had about 30 hours of sleep to do--and once i was out....i was out like a rock.

i stayed up all night and barely made it to lobby call, because i still had 7 big ass bags from all the shit i copped in japan.

my first line of priority was copping my olympic nikes (gold dunks, silver/red/yellow/black/green/blue airs, and bronze air max) and then making sure we nailed "universal magnetic bboy" to sound JUST LIKE THE RECORD (yes we did it NGERO WHIUT!!!!!!)

i arrived at SIR at 12:30pm on friday. i wanted to get mos' stuff down pat with the band and then get jill's shit straight too.---so i had 2 hours before all of the aritsts came barging in for the initial "talk" and filming (rehersal was filmed too). we had initial trouble with the bassline and i wanted to make sure we had it right. i reach for my luggage bag and oh-my-god-where-is-my-17-inc OH FUCK!!FUCK!!FUCK!!!FUCKEDY---FUCK!!!!!!!!!!

that shit is at the security checkpint in chicago! if it wern't for the responsibilty on my hands with this movie id go apeshit...but i gotta keep it together. besides i got my lacy with me (harddrive of 160 GB) and all my important shit is saved.---

we all pow wow (sans fugees, kanye (ursher), kweli (beastie boys), and erykah (chitown show) and michele and tiffany (limos, actress in larry "kids" clark flim that has yet to come out) start the interview process. this goes on for an hour and i realize that i could have a potential disaster on my hands. simply because it would be so easy to sit to hear dave speak about world issues (my god this mofo got true knowledge of self)--but i am here for a reason. and i have yet to even start on jill's 2pm slot and its now 3:50!!!

as i watch jill fake it though "i need you" i realize its curtains for me and frank. her band is all in tact except the drums (adam is her bass player already)--and once you rock a comfortable pair of shoes--do you really wanna go down the runway in some shoes that you can't strut in? my pride aint that big. and on the real? id rather shoot these acts with my 8.0 pixel than play for em.--so a song into it i pull jill to the side and we BS with it (its ok ahmir its okay....and im like negro please im calling your drummer now)---that settled i got myself a lil 40 min break in.

mos came next. next to kayne i thought that mos would be the hardest to curb his enthusiasm for jamming past his time limit.

did i mention that we also got a 9pm sound curfew and a 20 min time limit to each artist?---i didnt know until corey "bmo" smyth heard our half hour version of "umi says"--pulled me to the side and now im a bad cop

20mins??!?!

20?!?!

"green eyes" is 14 mins in concert according to my rehersal cd.

the hell?

working with the mcs proved to be the easiest of the experience. because they welcome mistakes (with dilla as a muse....the more mistakes the better) and us "freaking some shit"--wheras a singer needs to know every move they are going to make ahead of time and only jazz singers can revel in surprises from their musicians.

we had so much fun doing the mos shit--it broke my heart to cut 4 songs away.

common told me to do DPs and roots next and he would come back from his meeting around 10.

all woulda been well until.

dave.

thank god for dave.


dave joined our post umi jazz jam and was scatting up a storm (the extra footage is priceless)--this led to skit ideas and the next thing i know...im holding off DPs for 90 minutes so that we can do some skits with mos and dave.

dave is also a jazz piano player on the low (wait til film comes out)--

dp's was the easiest to do cause they worked with us on the okayplayer2000 tour. we learned 2 new joints and came with some classic shit. i could sense that riq was getting restless (having been there since 2pm and it now being 8pm)--but once g rap came (after dinner break) which was 930, we got busy. kane told me that we need to do the brooklyn anthem ("warm it up kane") when we rock tommorow--and money was right. we did that shit JUST LIKE THE RECORD horns and all. EVERYBODY came to watch this moment.

so magic.

i ended the night recapping with common. freaking some shits in his verses and doing some ideas.--it was 12:30 and i have yet to come up with a setlist.
so i made one on the spot

kanye

-jesus walks
-two words (w/ freeway and mos)
-get em high (w/ kweli)
-through the wire

dead
-food clothes and shelter
-turn off the radio
-mind sex
-windows of my mind
-its bigger than hip hop

erykah
-otherside of the game
-on and on/and on/cleva
-green eyes

the roots
-boom!/poison/warm it up kane
-in love with the mic
-the next movement
-you got me

jill
-a long walk
-whatever whenever
-i need you
-slowly surely

com mos kwe
-my philosphy/ressurection
-i live in brooklyn/my life is real
-move something
-respiration
-universal magnetic bboy
-i used to love her
-the blast
-definition
-the light
-get by
-umi says

fugees
-?

but of course we KNOW this aint how it worked out.

the sound of god having gas woke me up. the most VIOLENT wake up call. i just knew this shit was canceled. it was a flood outside! and yet the show still went on. we got held up 45 minutes.

kayne was there since morning time. we rehersed. he looked like 4 songs? i tried to explain that between his 50 memeber marching band and his needing to be out by NO later than 3pm to catch his flight for the chicago ursher show--it would behoove him to leave well enough alone.

but this is kayne.

he said "do yall know spaceship?"
i looked at james like "what i tell you?!?!?"
we freaked it.
"selfish"?
same thing.
then i knew that he just wanted to see if we freaked his shit right.
but he was adding more and more and more

and im good with that. but he dont understand union rules and time deadlines and 7 other acts going on and movies and etc.--but hey...once he was on a roll (despite keith yelling at me like "RAP IT UP B!") he was calling them shits like james brown. i was fun. and he wasn't that hard on us (although he asked for the impossible replica of the sound of delay on the horn stabs for "we dont care"--) i think the best song was "spaceship". we realized that the union was going to have to look the other way while we used the lunch break to keep the time up.

@@@1/2 out of @@@@@. the opening act has it the hardest because they are the "soundcheck" of the show. thanks to his arsenal of hits the crowd was with him all the way. talib and common was hype. well common performed like he had 5 shots of red bull flavored blue mountain coffee. i also noticed his weirdo fashion sense has come down to earth even though him and mos now got this 40s shit going on.
freeway coulda made "2 words" a classic--but he came late. and we made that song a two parter. i think we didn't do "through the wire"

dead prez came next. to cut time i cut "food clothes and shelter". i felt like "turn off he radio" was a way stronger opener. the crowd (and cops) were thrown off by the fuck the police banter but man oh man---when we got to stic's verse in "bigger than hip hop" the place was on fire. i made him spit that shit acapella so the kids on the block could hear loud and clear.

@@@1/2 out of @@@@@.

my first break of the day and what do i do? i search for the alt room where i got jean grae and phonte and a few notables about to do some rooftop jamming. but--the rain started again on erykah's set. and michele wanted to wait it out to see if we could shoot it when it cleared.-- it seemed safe enough to go into the crowd to take photos. i make it around the stage, past the barricades....all through the crowd unscathed. i go alllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll the way to the top of the entrance gate to take photos and i here erykah go into "love of my life"--i didnt think much about it til i heard "yes yes yall you don't stop....."

me and res looked like "WTF?!?!?!?"---i ran to that stage with the quickness cause i knew this was too good to be true.----im so proud of this nigga. he is the definition of a real man who puts pride etc to the side to make magic happen. this was a highlight.

@@@@1/2 out of @@@@@

i ran back to prepare our entrance when ii discover that jill is now set to go on. erykah went on so early cause she had a show in trenton later that day. but i didn't want the both of them to go back to back.

but too late. eff it.

i get backstage and jill is pissed at her songlist. i assure jill i just spit out 4 song titles for the list sake and told her just follow the guidelines for time and she could do whatever she wants.

noone told jill about the 20 mins.

she's stressed so i run and hide realizing that jill scott is the only enterainer in this world that i am honest to goodness afraid of. she throws list away and goes off the top. she killed shit and im sure she has a large audience.

@@@@ out of @@@@@.

the pressure is on. its all black people and im performing at the kindergarden of christopher wallace (little cease was backstage rapping to us)---riq and mal are bitching that everyone is going over 20 mins and we are the only ones following the rules. so we add "web" and "the love of my life". being as though noone saw the $2 bill mtv show it is the law that we freak "you got me" the way we did it. and boy did we. and kane was so right about "warm it up". hub messed up by doing the "warm" bassline before we did "raw". the crowd went apeshit when kane came out. i said "this is the jay z moment" (jay was comfirmed to rock with us til the BOBW2 shit came up)---kane killed it. and even better, our saxaphone player chris freaked them bomb sqaud horn shrills so damn perfect.

i knew we had killed shit when a well known personal rival of the group was all up in arms on some morris and jerome shit watching prince do "i would die for u"/"baby im a star" at the end of purple rain. i felt we were the highlight (ok we cheated....erykah got the first shrill on "on and on" when she pulled hair off (afro wig) and reveal a mowhawk. but the first rebel rousing of a non participant was kane. that moment alone gave us a 5. and jill and erykah dueling at "you got..."

@@@@@ out of @@@@@.

we rocked black folks in BK.

no moment moved me more than seeing the erykah and common stepping to "the light" and then fred hampton jr. spoke to the crowd during "umi says" and the climax of celebration that occured was priceless. i remember C"BMO"S all in my ear making me do "i try" for kweli (side note to kayne--dude, make sure the sample you use is at least in 4/4 meter so that the general public can have a clue as to what the deal is with a pace of a melody (in other words that shit was hard to learn) we freaked the ronnie laws/"who got the props" loop on "i used to love her" hoping that buckshot (black moon) would take notice. but no dice.

@@@@1/2 of @@@@@

because of the nature of the fugees getting back together it was almost more tense than anything else. i mean sure it was an incredible site. but to me the experince of being around my peers was magic enough. unfortunately the only act i never got a feel for was the fugees. i was in a stall next to clef for a sec at rehersal. and lauryn was more guarded than ever. so it was a bitter sweet moment. and after talking to corey "fill it in" smyth the say after....lauryn was too happy with yesterday. i was curious as to where the "lost ones" pointing at clef while she sings was somewhat mind boggling.---but the night went off without a hitch. i could go on and on but this tool all night to write.

@@@@@ out of @@@@@.


if anything happens i will remember it and add it.


gnight!