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Kool & The Gang's Epic Journey to Rock Hall Fame | SWAY’S UNIVERSE
Oct 10, 2024
Subscribe now to Sway’s Universe for exclusive interviews with legendary artists and insightful discussions! Dive into "Kool & The Gang's Epic Journey to Rock Hall Fame" as Robert "Kool" Bell shares his incredible story on Sway In The Morning. Discover how Kool & The Gang's pioneering sound influenced icons like Jay-Z, Prince, and many more. Learn about their path to being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the legacy of their music, and the fascinating tales from their journey through decades of music history. From their early days in Youngstown, Ohio, to their global acclaim, this interview is packed with highlights, including tales of collaborations with legends like Earth, Wind & Fire and the Commodores. Don't miss this chance to hear from one of the most sampled bands of all time. Watch more from Sway's Universe and stay connected for more stories that shape the world of music and entertainment! CHAPTERS: 00:00 - Intro 01:36 - Kool & The Gang 03:02 - Kool & The Gang’s Influence on Hip-Hop 06:26 - Kool & The Gang’s Early Years 09:18 - Kool & The Gang’s Competition in the Music Industry 10:48 - Kool & The Gang’s Relationship with The Jacksons 13:11 - Kool & The Gang’s Music Being Sampled 19:10 - Kool & The Gang’s Relationship with Prince 21:24 - Tasting Kool & The Gang’s Champagne 23:18 - Kool & The Gang’s Champagne 24:08 - Kool & The Gang’s Influence 27:55 - Kool & The Gang’s Impact on Music 31:20 - Kool from Kool & The Gang
View Video Transcript
0:00
man that voice right there is a voice of royalty Heather be I already know it royalty from my hometown the man should
0:06
be revered the man should be celebrated if it were not for him and his IP his intellectual property and his
0:13
collaboration with some of his early players and collaborators there's a lot of people
0:19
who wouldn't have the success that they have in this business 100% a lot of people took the music that they made and
0:24
made hits out of the hits that they already made can you say Jay-Z fact
0:30
that's a can you say tribe call Quest can you say Lil Kim yes oh wow the list
0:35
goes on there's so many people who careers they have to owe to this man and what he was able to create with some of
0:41
the people that he created with we talking over seven time Grammy Award winner man give a round of applause
0:48
American Music Awards multiplatinum selling artist most sample band of all time 25 top 10 R&B hits 31 gold and
0:56
platinum album ladies and gentlemen he's not done he's not
1:01
done I remember not too long ago oh wow all
1:09
right went to a theater to see a cool in the gang
1:14
show always [Music] wanted to get inside the
1:20
B that's where I was like young when that came out but that was one of those Hollywood Swing come on man this man has
1:26
a list of hits that's longer than your arm I want to say happy born day to him and welcome him to the show The One and
1:33
Only the legendary the iconic Robert cool B from stand
1:41
up stand up got to stand up honoring
1:47
you we're honoring you yes wow yes man I I want to say
1:54
thank you man because I I'm a kid of the I was there in the 70s
2:00
and before rap music hot Jungle
2:06
Boogie Hollywood Swinging that was our rap music that was what the kids rock to
2:13
that's what the adults Rock to that's what the grandparents walked to and we had all of that music in common right I
2:21
learned about instrumentation I learned about playing live because of bands like yours bands like the commodor right
2:29
bands like earthwind and fire the bar Clays bands like Funkadelic all of these
2:35
different bands that we learn how to play instruments live because of you and
2:40
so I want to say man it's an honor to have you on my show I hit my mother because my uncle was a DJ Stan out of
2:47
the bay Stanley Waters salute to him I said my uncle's name come on Uncle
2:53
Stanley and they they made sure we knew good music thank you make sure we knew good
3:01
music so I want to thank you man cool from cooling the gang is here man hey okay let's start man this is what I want
3:06
to ask you man so much I want to ask you first of all congratulations they were recently inducted into the Rock and Roll
3:12
Hall of Fame that's Yes Man the ceremony is coming up coming up long time coming
3:18
long time you know we saw it back in 1964 even before the Rock Roll Hall of
3:24
Fame that's what I'm saying I was born in Youngtown Ohio I could have took a
3:30
know who was anymore to Cleveland come on man and I'm saying wait a minute now
3:35
I did uh 48 shows with Van Halen 10 shows with Kid Rock Elton John Da match
3:42
you that's is that The Rock and Roll come on you know I said well what y'all waiting for yeah they finally did it
3:49
they finally they got it right this time man come on man oh yeah and was worked for us because we were on the air
3:56
talking about Tribe Called Quest getting inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame so we started their campaign and
4:02
then we was like wait hold up cool in the game we got a piggy back that too and then Tribe Called Quest sampled your
4:09
music right right my son over there he knows all the sample I had to put somebody on Sample
4:16
Patrol name name the samples man you know them all yeah yeah go ahead and sit down he knows of them Ty you got him on
4:23
camera this is this is uh CO's son Muhammed go ahead brothered and I uh
4:30
say uh Happy Birthday pops my birthday was yesterday so we li G Li gang Libra G and um I would get
4:38
killed if I don't say I'm glad the strike is over I'm just going to say that okay um but yeah you have uh Joe
4:45
Buttons okay song Pump It Up which was his big one of his biggest ones right
4:50
you have uh New York State of Mind JayZ right oh
4:56
Nas New York State of Mind IL Matic album M out that's NT those drums on
5:03
that the drums on that nt Okay keep going uh got you got me got ra Kim uh
5:12
hope about Will Smith with some got the mace he named that you got I'm tried to
5:19
get a rockim one it's on U feels so good as mace L night L Kim Lil Kim um Angie
5:26
Martinez Angie Martinez right you got Summertime Will Smith obviously okay
5:31
Summertime Will Smith crazy wow it's two two it's two ra it's not mahogany and
5:36
it's not um and these are I get it it's two it's two it's twoim okay and these
5:41
are and these are not even all the ones that have been sampled we're not even talking about what's the R&B group that
5:47
uh uh Jade Jade right J oh okay yeah don't walk away don't walk away yo
5:54
listen to this so we went from jungle jungle
6:00
boogie right EPMD EPMD down you got it down you got the Shi you got my man
6:06
what's U I got five onon I mean you know it goes It goes
6:12
basic on with Tupac man on winter sadness oh Tupac and D'Angelo it says
6:18
here that Eric B and roim um sample cooling the gang for don't sweat the technique don't sweat the technique don't sweat the Techni I could think of
6:25
it that's it so let me ask you this cool when when when sampling first became thing many people frowned on it
6:32
especially people from bands like yours didn't want their music sample what was your thought process on it early on well
6:39
early on you know um it was going on and I didn't know exactly uh what they were
6:45
doing in terms of what lyrics they were using you know but as you know we at the
6:51
uh uh the last po yep you know uh they used uh four of our songs on the last port and that was like kind of rap sort
6:58
of you know where they were spoken word you know and we did um it
7:04
wasn't a little rap but you remember funky granny funky granny funky stuff
7:09
How it Go funky granny funky stuff yeah no I just made
7:14
that up I was in the spirit that was we were
7:21
doing back then you before you know uh uh hip-hop and rap came came about yeah
7:26
when I think of that your first album came out in ' 69 right and was it' 69 69
7:31
okay in that year when you look at what came out that year you had lad Zeppelin came out that year right The Beatles put
7:38
out um the Abby Ro album as well um the isy brothers put out a couple of
7:44
projects okay um and did did was it pressure where were y'all at and did you
7:49
feel the competition to like what was the competition like in that time well in ' 69 first of all you know we started
7:56
as a jazzy ass in ' 64 uhhuh and then we moved to the soultown band backing up a
8:01
lot of talent from Jersey City and they were trying to be like M toown review so we was the soultown band okay then we
8:08
went to uh cooling the flames and then our manager at that time we working on
8:13
you can't use that that's James man that's James Brown the flames right yeah okay we didn't want to have any problem
8:19
with the Godfather so we came up with the name cool in the gang and the first album came out in 1969 the song cool in
8:27
the gang made uh uh 40 and made it on the Billboard charts in 69 yeah they
8:33
thought it was a Puerto Rican band or something hey cool you know the sound cuz we wasn't singing it was all music
8:39
it was all music um what did y'all think of the Beatles I wonder what black artists truly thought of The Beatles
8:45
when they dropped well I mean the Beatles are The Beatles uh did y'all respect them though
8:51
as musicians or did you feel like um well they're doing what we do but they're from the UK well that's what
8:57
happened sway from the UK okay he want him to come and get down in America mhm
9:03
yeah yeah but y'all respected him though as matter of fact I I just played Liverpool okay about uh four weeks ago
9:11
mhow we blew them away and Liverpool in Liverpool yeah I
9:17
had been there before but had been there about 10 years maybe longer than that yeah wow man we got cool from cooling
9:22
the gang crazy when I think of the band um for cooling the gang I know back then
9:28
they had there be a lot of Battle of the Bands like I know everybody was cool but I know when y'all got on that stage
9:34
y'all was trying to take each other out right who who who were the bands that y'all really wanted to y'all competed
9:40
with well it was uh the uh Ohio players come on the Ohio Players come on George Clint he bought
9:48
the mother ship and so we couldn't compete with the mother ship that was big huh oh yeah he wasn't wearing no diapers or nothing like that all right
9:55
yeah yeah and there was a lot of other groups even with the ISA Brothers m you know some of the the GS we did with them
10:01
you know yeah what about um Frankie Beverly man and Maz oh yeah yeah we play
10:07
with him a lot I think Frankie was from Philly isn't he M Uptown Theater Philly
10:13
what was your relationship like with Frankie Beverly man it was great with him my uh my younger brother did the
10:20
lights uh we call him Rocky for uh Frankie B and um so I mean he he was
10:28
great at what he did yeah he had that you know the his fan base was solid mhm
10:35
solid as a rock come on man solid as a rock that's easy I remember um I don't
10:41
remember but uh through my history um I remember um The Jacksons you you had a
10:47
relationship with the Jacksons right the Jackson yes we did yeah and the E first EP they put out was a Diana Ross present
10:54
C right and introduced them to the world um what did you think of the Jacksons back back then well you know we're out
11:01
on tour uh with the Jackson when Michael was there and um the promoter at that
11:08
time who owned um what record label was that Tony was that record label that
11:14
they were on no no I'm talking about uh the silvers and all that Foster Silver Sound
11:21
New York New York sound of New York yeah but what was the guy that had to J Griffin Jan no that Griffin was another
11:27
one anyway he don't know okay anyway he saw us on tour he came he said listen not
11:33
Barry Gordy no okay no he said you guys are doing doing well he said but uh I
11:39
think you need a lead singer we said what yeah he said I think you need a lead singer you know so we thought about
11:45
it and um commodor was with uh had Lon Richie commodor had L Richie Richie and
11:53
um Earth fire had M Maurice White and Philip Bailey right right so we said
11:58
well maybe time for us to get a lead singer and that's when JT came JT Taylor
12:03
come on man get that man a round of applause the first
12:09
record my wife and I was hanging out in New York at Studio 54 uh-huh and um y
12:16
you and your wife was at Studio 54 back that was the pre party you
12:23
know it started but the thing about it that there was a ladies night uhhuh so I
12:29
went back to the guys I said I got the perfect title for the song that George Brown was writing uhhuh so my brother
12:35
said what uh I said ladies tonight he said wow they got one of those all over the world uhhuh Frankie Crocker broke
12:43
the record in New York Frankie Crocker the legendary iconic Frankie Crocker
12:48
power Chief Rock come on Frankie Crocker yep the guy I was talking about dick griffy dick griffy gyri so our records
12:56
he's the one that said K and that's JT came on board that's how came and the rest was history man let's take them
13:03
back to ladies night man we going to open up these phone lines 888 742 3345
13:10
man we got the one and only Robert K Bell from cooling the gang up in here man he how birthday on his birthday CH
13:17
and then before we go into this song Tell me about your champagne man what is this that was going to be my question okay oh okay your question oh yeah how
13:26
how did you get here this I think this is phenomenal yeah holding the first lady so you guys better get out there
13:32
and get you some champagne for your first lady first lady we going to come back and talk about this this champagne
13:38
we going to party right now turn your volume way past you in your truck you in your car we got cool from cooling the
13:44
gang in here I need all the ladies to call up right now 888 742 3345 let's
13:50
celebrate from cooling the gang is here man we just had to go through just some of the selections just a few of the
13:56
people that sampled you oh yeah H have you has some have you always enjoyed the way
14:02
your music has been sampled well most of it I mean uh Quest love told me he said listen you've been
14:10
uh sampled 1,800 times I said Quest 1,800
14:16
times I said wow I didn't know I didn't know that lot of was drum beast and NT and a lot of the other stuff that we did
14:23
back in the day uhhuh I said back then I should have put somebody on Sample Patrol then you said 1,800 times D I
14:29
didn't get paid 1,800 times you did we got later on but I think at that time I'm not mistaken uh president B Biden
14:37
was uh he's the way that made the move for these record companies will have to start paying yes for what they were
14:42
playing I paid them president you paid them have the sample cooling the game
14:47
absolutely what goes on we I we paid you
14:53
okay okay thank you very much you're welcome I should give you another a bottle of champagne
15:00
hey hey man let's do that man can we pop a bottle of champagne to celebrate your birthday yeah Tia just said that that
15:05
you got paid you got paid she got the manager right there if you didn't get paid Tia was
15:11
about to come get in your Pur I had to make I got paid on 1,800 samples yeah pretty much I'm yeah probably happen and
15:19
they probably all happened in the 90s from the 990s to like the 2000s khis used to have us his brother used to have
15:24
us on Sample Patrol cuz we used the hip-hop yeah absolutely we used the Hip Hop version cuz you know we we was in the hipop he said listen to all the
15:31
records and if you hear a sample let me know and that's how y'all did it my brother uh wife my brother wrote A lot
15:39
of them Jungle Boogie funky stuff all the stuff we were doing he he did all most of the horn line least 80 90% of
15:45
that oh is that is that the brother that converted to Islam yeah yeah right okay
15:52
so jungle buddy Boogie all that and and those songs came when JT wasn't in
15:58
wasn't in right that was the 70s we called them the gang heads okay the gang
16:03
heads in the 80s they said we went two pop nah that's when them bangers start
16:09
happening right yeah was the uh the Y old and peaceful project right and
16:15
that's when JT so all those Hollywood Swinging that was Prior prior but Ladies
16:21
Night Celebration crossover joint the crossover Joy all of that that's when JT
16:27
came on board did did y'all have any was everybody in the band happy about that or did they feel like the change was
16:34
something they were scared of when JT came over well we had just got the lead singer we were trying to find a way out
16:39
there yeah now diod doar who was a producer um he was saying oh you got to make room for the the lead singer now
16:47
because the lead singers was our horn section yeah you know we were banging with the horn section so we had to
16:52
rearrange the music a little bit the fit JT in there and we had some big hits
16:58
Miss l fresh mhm Get Down On It Get down on it we we didn't get paid for fresh we
17:03
didn't get paid for fresh why not they they didn't pay us they didn't pay the kids cuz fresh was our turn back in the
17:09
day oh fresh fresh that was our freshh you know back in the day everything was fresh has to watching be Street and all
17:15
that everything fresh fresh yeah we need to get paid for fresh I don't know if you gonna get paid for can't get paid
17:21
for everything mam my go you know produce was fresh before it was cool you know but I think that was
17:27
my point to what was saying and Mr Bell I think it was once we knew about
17:32
sampling that you had to pay it was better to take care of the business before your music came out cuz you didn't want them to come after you cuz
17:40
once you put the music out you know this way once you put it out and they was like oh you have a hit we want a bigger
17:46
percentage of the song than what you would have originally paid you know you the mercy of the the Creator say pull it
17:52
off they could pull it off the shelf what happened to Biz that's what happened with Biz Marquee you you I remember um Jungle
17:59
Boogie Madonna sample Jungle Boogie goodness for the Quint tartino movie did
18:06
y'all get paid for that okay good they got paid for that we got the fact
18:11
Checker in the building get on the microphone get on the microphone get on mic she wants to say something to you s
18:16
Janet Jackson you want this Janet jacksonan what movie you want this uh
18:23
John oh the song Jungle Boogie is in P fic and the scene that it's in which is
18:31
called uh Royale with cheese is actually a single that they get paid off of
18:37
because of that dialogue between um Sam Jackson and um John Travolta in the car
18:45
right before they go you know about the Royale with cheese and they're blasting jungle boogie in the car and that's a
18:51
very popular uh item it's called royal with cheese which is just a segment of
18:57
that movie wow wow man I like Tia man she just come let you know how you get the
19:02
money how you get the money I like Tia we all need a TIA on our team hey Prince
19:08
what was your like when I think of this these time periods I think of the Rick James I think of the princes those solo
19:15
artists that stood out awesome musicians the whole nine did you have a relationship with Prince at
19:20
all well Prince uh said that he uh started uh playing uh guitar listening
19:26
to Funky s uh Charles you trying to figure out how Charles was a one guy was playing those line uhuh yeah they did an
19:34
interview with him he he mentioned that about that that's so you guys influenced Prince then too yeah he used to open up
19:40
for us back in the day damn come on you didn't say that man come on Co you could have said that in the beginning said was
19:47
your relationship with pris he used to open up for me sway he was my he was my crowd
19:52
warmer wow prin was as you know is a great mus very talented musician uh we
19:58
were getting ready go on tour and Prince just did just uh built the paisy park M
20:03
and we needed a place to put our production in so Prince said okay you can use our place because we had the
20:10
pyramids and we doing all kind of things in this place there but Prince uh we were the first one to work in Paisley
20:16
Park really on the prince cool in the gang first one's work in Paisley Park Yo
20:22
cool you could just talk and drop gems you don't even know it like anything you say is kind of like a gym right now is
20:28
life let's go back to the champagne okay let's do it man come on and then we
20:33
going to take your phone call stop shaking the B don't do my bottle don't do my bottle
20:38
I open one already because for time we're back uh okay we we had 20
20:45
shows and the promoter came up to me he said listen you want to uh sell some champagne at your concert I said no I
20:53
don't think my fans going to want any champagne at the concert they wear t-shirts and caps stuff like that uhhuh
20:58
I said I want to get on the shelves she you get on the what I want to be on the shelves like Don perryon Chris style ver
21:05
CLE Co yeah I want to get up there E I came up with the name L and I I
21:11
wanted to I think it's the French famp pag like Eddie Murphy Coming to America LOL came to America we on cruise ships
21:19
and we're doing our thing there you go with the LOL champagne y all right come on let's taste this y'all come on come
21:24
on take one pass it down I think that's I think that's the block to block we tasting right there the Blan the Blanc what kind of y'all got three different
21:31
kinds or we have a uh Blan the Blan we have a grand crew which you you was shaking yeah
21:37
we this might have to come home with I'm sorry and we uh we have a Ros and we have a first lady Rosé which is named
21:44
after my mom the first lady beautiful which is but you're holding the pink bottle that's a real F of gills that's
21:49
real gills on this this is beautiful that was the first thing I noticed was the packaging as well and I asked about
21:55
it this is beautiful gorgeous now explain the grand crew cuz you told me it's the rarest of grapes
22:01
the grand crew Grand crew grapes yeah well you know when it's Grand crew is
22:06
like the top of the line up there you know like Sadam Peron uh those are Grand
22:11
grw graes the family that we with is the beralo family they go back about 100 years ago and they all stick together
22:19
and helping each other the D the Chris down so I'm trying to figure out how a
22:24
brother from Youngtown Ohio get up into the cartel [Laughter]
22:31
got to know some about to do a few favors do some free shows over there
22:37
yeah right and so you made it happen yeah so now is it available in stores for people to purchase yeah it's
22:44
available in uh uh Bottle King uh total to um a few restaurants in uh in Jersey
22:50
uh fabor swah hilly restaurant uh papon and uh it was available in Atlanta Ohio
22:57
uh Flor so we moving out there so so if you want to order if it's not available on your state you go
23:03
online.org what is it the co champagne. org theol theol spell it l e k l yeah I
23:12
just wanted them to hear them spell it I thought that was that that Oakland education kicking in
23:18
again Vegas we have a residency in you have a residency in Vegas is this already started oh yeah we are well
23:26
actually been almost about five or six shows there well our champagne is in Vegas also okay yo what is it like doing
23:32
Vegas for you is it just it's been great to get a residen we've been going to Vegas for over 20 years yeah I remember
23:39
the first time we went to Vegas oh wow we going to be in Vegas so we going down to uh the boulevard there and we looking
23:46
so where's this place at it started getting dark it was a nightclub
23:52
man y'all play the nightclub y'all bet y'all turned that thing out the first time in Vegas really yeah yeah but I
23:59
mean did you you still got to rock rather it's one or 100,000 right you still got to play you still hey that's
24:05
the name of the game man you ever been booed I don't think so I mean could have been I didn't
24:16
here absolutely cool y here's a toast here's a toast
24:22
here a Mohamed wants to get get his glass hold up get my taste there you go you know have give her give it here you
24:28
go you got more cups on yeah hold on Trac I got you all right hold on we going now usually we chill to about 40
24:33
something like the vice president is in the
24:39
building here Siri XM so we don't even have ice today man we can't get ice they gave out everything tax the ice yo all
24:47
right okay so hey here's here's a toast first of all thank you for your contributions to our lives thank you
24:53
your music has been healing throughout the decades and we done party to your music cry to your music is celebrated
25:00
now we going to sip to your music happy
25:05
birthday and I want to say thank you for being the coolest dad wow happy birthday
25:10
Pop thank you thank you yeah yeah man that the coolest D good
25:16
man he's a citizen yo man you a citizen you a citizen too who does the
25:24
phone DP right no no no Kanani over he's on the phone I I got like that dude I
25:30
got that 888 742 3345 I want to say one yeah have you
25:35
heard Prince do Hollywood Swinging no oh man he He Turned he he changed the
25:41
lyrics a little bit but was it was the groove out he was out in La Prince did it yeah Prince did Hollywood Swing wow
25:47
we GNA dig that up I'm I got to hear that so so he impressed you yeah he did
25:52
a great job he's talking about being in the hood and hey hey hey what you got to say but it was all about um Hollywood
25:59
Swinging Hollywood Swinging man there you go I love that so um Prince redid Hol who else did
26:06
somebody else redid it right J J who it was yeah J did as well yeah
26:15
yeah bro man y y'all a even got to work no more right damn you still love to
26:21
work okay you got a lot of people on the phone lines and I'm going try to go through as many as possible that's love
26:27
to let's go Desi is in Jacksonville what up Desi go ahead how you doing what's up
26:33
what's up blessed morning to everybody uh happy born day first and foremost thank you sir um very honored to to be
26:41
on the line I had another question posed for for lony when I came on but I was able to text my dad uh so shout out to
26:47
Michael who's a huge fan of yours um and I was able to get a question from him so
26:52
I kind of want to tie in and go ahead and ask his which was um at what point
26:58
you know looking at where you are now as far as all the sampling uh everything that you've given to to to the culture
27:05
thus far at what point did you know oh we we're a special band and and to you
27:12
what set you apart um as a being to know how special you you had the opportunity
27:17
to be well I would say I think was around wild wild and peaceful the record company came to us and uh so makusa was
27:25
out the producer he said I need you I need you guys to have this guy work with
27:30
you so we met with him we weren't feeling it so we went downtown and
27:35
called baggies we went at 8:00 in the morning by 12:00 we created funky stuff
27:40
Hollywood Swinging and jungle boogie no more problems from the record company after
27:47
that all four of those songs in all three of those songs in four hours yeah wow yeah yeah hey Desi great question
27:54
tell Mike um great question you both are citizens all right yeah SW all right we got Delle who's on the line from New
28:00
Jersey go ahead hey Delle hey what's going on I just want to
28:05
say happy birthday to Mr Co and if you don't take anything from Shade 45 every
28:12
day you learn something I'm like sitting here I feel like I'm going to a
28:18
cabaret they don't even have Cabaret no more these kids don't know what they doing right right well we got the legend
28:24
right here what I hope you appreciate we have them on the air today mhm realize how many like all the samples
28:31
you play I didn't know that they came from cooling the gang yeah yeah yeah they got the information here I mean why
28:39
call like he he real live he a real deal H fil it's I'm just listening to it
28:46
right now I mean my son knows a lot of it I didn't know all the different combinations of how they use us our
28:52
music man it's a great thing it's impressive man I man I'm glad you receive it like that because he was a a
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bunch of folks who felt in disenfranchised and you know in the late '70s they start taking the music
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programs out of the school system so we weren't learning how to play instruments so we had to buy recording devices and
29:10
Samplers to sample the sound and create collages that we made into our songs so
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if it wasn't for you A lot of these legendary hip-hop artist wouldn't be so thank you yeah well you know way that
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was the same thing with my my wife at the cool kids Foundation she wanted to bring music back into the schools M you
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know and uh it's what a six year coming up on Foundation we do a uh celebrity oh
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no you got you good yeah uh so um I came up with this idea uh Cherry Coke uh came
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to us and we had um a cool kids
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uh um back in the school thing where we went to 48 cities it was like stay in
29:55
it's cool to be in it's cool to stay in School mhm we get to Oklahoma and these
30:01
guys came up to us and they started singing uh in Acappella okay said okay
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so my uh cousin said hey let's take them to New York that group became color me
30:11
bad oh wow tox didn't know that I thought y knew
30:17
that I'm sorry I want to sex you up calling me back Cassandra Mills cassand who's working with us again now which
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sign my brother is working with you today yeah on on the cool kid Foundation yeah which signed my brother's group POV
30:32
yeah DJ Prince hakee you had him up there yeah he was in that group po PV right Cassandra Mills worked at J Warner
30:40
Brothers y right with um Irving as off and Charlie Miner okay and a guy by the
30:46
name of wendle green all right all right and wendle green signed me and my partner King Tech to Giant Warner
30:51
Brothers at the time that Cassandra did the color me bad project and they had a soundtrack to a movie that was big at
30:58
that time think of movie New Jack City New Jack City
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okay wle Snipes Wesley Snipes y City man we connected
31:13
man it's a family affair I'll drink today well you know what on this subject
31:21
s when you mentioned yeah still to this day how many schools when it comes to their art programs they don't receive as
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much much funding as they need and even when you think about the musical landscape right now cool like I feel
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like there's more producers than musicians currently and you know there's
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a lot of access there's a lot of ways that folks can um contribute to the making of music but I would love for you
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to share like your relationship with the bass how has it been beneficial to your life personally outside the the success
31:54
that it's granted you well going back uh to the school thing um uh when when music was in the schools
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I took a violin home didn't like it I took the cello home didn't like it I
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even tried to P the mellophone I didn't want to mess my lip up so I ended
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up so I ended up playing the Bas guitar I was uh placed down in the village and
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the first time I was I had learned how to play one song with Spike mickens his brother guitar player and my brother
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said why don't you come out and play that one song so that was a coming home baby play all on one string on one
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string I got through it wow and that's that was the beginning why one string because everything you can play on one
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stre back up to the top man okay I was a sax player I'm
32:45
sorry uncle khik was a sax player his brother was a sax player yeah yeah my brother yeah wow man cool from cooling
32:52
the gang is here Heather why you looking at me like that cuz I can't believe you sat in front of his face and told him you was a sex
32:59
I was I still am once a sax player you're always a sax player all right
33:04
want me you want to tell him some of your your high points any any concerts anything sixth grade how far back you no
33:11
I went Junior High we did some receptions I did good Rec
33:17
recital cool I could play bumblebee on the clarinet though oh okay it is I could play bumblebee on the clarinet
33:23
though okay from drum line all right anyway we got some other on the line
33:28
with us okay all right we got uh her on the line from akan Ohio her what up
33:35
man uh how's it going I'm glad to be on name's actually argel though arel um oh
33:41
arel my bad how you doing welcome to the show man we got the legend here cool from cool and the Gang go for it yes um
33:48
I'm actually from young son I'm living in AAR now I just wanted to thank you for putting us on the map you're one of
33:54
The Originals um a lot of people don't know about the city and brings to the country but thank you um I grew up
34:01
listening to your music and between you and Frank Sinatra it just reminds me of Summer and only people from Youngstown
34:07
would know that well hey youngstown's the town to get down the next door is
34:12
Cleveland where the Rock and Roll Hall Of fam is so all roads are leading to Cleveland we finally getting some
34:19
respect there you go man hey her you're a citizen brother you should
34:24
be there definitely so it's so funny that he's mentioning Young town because me being from Jersey City we never knew
34:30
at least I didn't know about the Ohio connection like even my cousin right now is listening he's like he can't get
34:36
through but he was like remember him from myg cuz Kevin Bell Spike mickens was my school guard I model my base
34:42
after cool tell him I talk to Brisco at times like so we know them from M who
34:48
are these people we oh wow Vegas so we know them from a gur projects in Jersey City New Jersey
34:55
so I'm learning something new today about Ohio because Jersey city has always saluted you as well wow well we
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came to Jersey City in uh 1960 so was only a youngster only for 10 years oh
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okay W she mentioned some some some some some family members yeah iin that's your
35:13
brother that's uh Uncle Michael that's Kevin right the Micha Kevin's older brother and uh brisco's one of the ogs
35:20
wow I didn't even know what she mentioned that Heather actually grew up in the Montgomery project I didn't grow up in mtgy Project sound like saying
35:27
that though but this is my older cousin who who this is my older cousin from mcgomery
35:32
projects who who knows no I lived in the mcgomery projects so 14th floor oh yeah
35:37
then from Pacific Avenue we have a a street name there then we move to mcgomery CU you have mcgomery Booker
35:45
Lafayette Lafayette you had to go through book Lafayette oh
35:50
man that's why when you called your group cool cool in the gang we thought it had some affiliation it didn't have
35:56
no affiliation for the projects no we were a good game oh y was a good game I got a little
36:03
history though you see T knows all about that we doing something else that a lot of people don't know about yet but I got to keep it as a secret right now for now
36:10
what you got a fonus past we don't know about yes Theon mon was my godfather tonus mon
36:18
that's true tonus mon was your godfather Davis uhhuh was to get in the ring with
36:23
my father my father was top five featherweight he won the Golden Gloves with uh Ohio several times and my father
36:30
told M I don't want to spar with you if I hit you in the lip I might you know destroy your
36:36
career you know what but he did a movie uhhuh he did a movie by himself he wanted to Miles wanted to box he really
36:42
wanted to bite your father no like that I mean boxing my father was beating them
36:48
guy down in Cuba yeah my father was down in Cuba beating them Cuban Fighters and the Cuban Fighters were good you can't
36:54
beat Cuban Fighters unless you extraordinary right right Miles Davis huh did you meet miles I only met them
37:01
once yeah right yeah what what advice like as we as we wrap this up coming
37:06
from the projects having the life you live a lot of folks believe if they grow up in a certain environment they don't
37:12
have a chance but you proven that wrong what would you say to people who grow up in a in a challenging environment about
37:19
how to approach life well I would say that understand what you you want to do you know uh we we went through that we
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had uh Hills and Valleys up and downs but we didn't give up you know uh songs
37:32
like uh we did let the music take your mind uh we did the uh the other one I've
37:40
been down too long you got to stay strong don't give up you got to keep on
37:45
lifting lifting to a higher higher PL of love and
37:50
understanding it is so stay stay stay busy Cu uh don't give up keep moving and
37:57
keep mov there you go man get this man a big round of applause man Mr Bell cool from
38:03
cooling the gang thank you brother yeah man you come back anytime man thanks for having me man come on we celebrated your
38:09
birthday with you man come on man and Chuck D and Chuck D is inducting him into the
38:15
Rock You Know flavor been to couple of my concert in Vegas he came on the stage
38:21
I yeah Flavor Flavor Flavor FL flavor flavor ion too that's our brother we got
38:26
to go out there when this happens right come to Vegas listen we doing after party at the House of Blues with uh Mary
38:32
J BL and Trico Quest you guys and then what else Tia what else what what Tia
38:37
said don't say nothing we said enough priv it's a private funny but your got okay I'll you
38:44
I'll put you you jumped up like she saw a rat or something like was like is a
38:50
rat in there you guys BL you got are C BL okay cool man well man thank you for
38:55
coming by cool I appreciate you brother I hope you had a good time man I
39:00
definitely enjoyed it thank you man hey you a citizen a sway in the morning is
39:06
to Len to Y every day have me a hold like that no more okay now now Kanani
39:11
knows man hey list let's end with a cool in the gang classic man and I want to thank y'all for tuning in we'll be back
39:17
tomorrow stay on the right side of positivity and on that not citizens we have nothing left to say
#Urban & Hip-Hop