00:30:32.380he was a zoology major at Howard and he got his degree.
00:30:35.740And that was one of the iffy things that we didn't know if Mark was going to come be in the group or if he was going to graduate first and stuff like that.
00:30:43.280That was a big deal for him back in those days.
00:30:45.220But I think the real estate thing is what he kind of like primarily attached himself to.
00:30:49.800And I'm sure he's still doing some like music somewhere because he was talented.
00:30:55.020You can't just not do that if you've been doing it.
00:40:46.780And because he was the head radio guy at Hot 97, it was in his interest because his project, he played the song, like, Ridiculous.
00:40:54.020And it was, number one, how they did it in New York for some crazy amount of weeks, maybe eight weeks there, too.
00:40:59.420But the label, because we paid for it, not them, because we sought it out, not them, they weren't politically invested and they didn't do a video for it.
00:41:07.340Now, imagine Chey and Jay-Z had a video for that song.
00:41:26.620We had a statement that said, inside of your own face is a black face.
00:41:31.040And black, in that way, we were kind of like, it was like euphemistic for pure, for good.
00:41:37.540And we wanted to switch the narratives coming from Howard University, you know, with black meaning the opposite, devil food cake and all that kind of stuff.
00:41:43.660So that was our way of kind of giving back in a creative way, taking a stance for kind of innocuous, but not in a label kind of thing under loads of issue with that.
00:41:52.600And they put our album out before they put a single out for Blackface.
00:41:56.640And they didn't let the stores write on the bulletin board that Shai's coming on November or whatever.
00:42:01.760The album was just sitting there for, like, a month before a single even came out.
00:42:05.320Usually the single comes out for, like, a month and a half and whets the appetite.
01:00:28.100So it's interesting just to see, for me, how do they approach the internet age and the information age and having access to, you know, life just being so sped up.
01:01:37.100There's a lot of different pieces and places of information and a lot of data at one time trying to figure out.
01:01:43.100And it forces you to see not only the essential real quickly, but also delegate in terms of you might not know, but you need to know to find out who knows.
01:01:51.100And so it doesn't allow for deep tissue kind of interrogation of different kind of like a craft, like writing lyrics and stuff like that.
01:01:59.100It calls for what's the dopest hook, what's the dopest way, the quickest way I can get your attention, drag you in, and then swag it out.
01:02:06.100And so as a result, you see stuff like mumble rap come into existence.
01:02:10.100Going right along sociologically with, you used to be able to say, you know what I mean?
01:02:15.100Because you were seeking understanding.
01:02:17.100Now I leave off to feel me, but get the understanding, just can you feel me?
01:02:22.100So mumble rap, just like crump dancing, I see the parallels where the expression of it is purely your soul is being.
01:02:29.100But the way it comes across musically, if you're comparing it to an older, you know, version of, or iteration of music, it looks like it's coming out wanting.
01:02:37.100Just like texting by English teachers, look at texting, it's like, oh my God, that's the worst thing you could ever do, all these abbreviations.
01:02:43.100But the kids, yeah, yeah, but money was a part of it.
01:02:46.100So you got to use few characters as possible to still convey meaning.
01:02:49.100So how do you do that and still be effective?
01:02:53.100And so that's genius in that, but at the iteration in the time, as it's coming from the old way, looks kind of crazy until it finds itself.
01:03:00.100And now, now it's full out accepted and now it's something that's a thing.
01:03:03.100But, so I think we're in a growing pain, growing stages of something defining itself to where it can be like a stable spot, whatever the ocean of craziness around us is.
01:03:12.100Very, very well put, very well put for somebody like me, because, you know, the way you described it, I made a lot of sense on how things have evolved in music.
01:03:23.100If somebody is watching this and that they're diehard fans of yours and what you guys did in the nineties and they're a band, they're going to Morehouse.
01:05:31.100And the uniqueness of today's artists to go directly to the marketplace without having to deal with a label and the oversight.
01:05:38.100Um, cause it's my dissertation, I looked at how black males navigated spaces, inequitable power spaces, looking at black males in classrooms, black males in the label.
01:05:48.100And on the label, one of the lessons that we've learned dealing with that power is that once we're artists, once we produce an art piece, as soon as it's burst, it becomes product.
01:06:00.100And as product is part of the business side immediately.
01:06:03.100And so to understand that, that your art is going to be a product for somebody else to actually cut the check, to have the oversight and all the different processes.
01:06:11.100If you can control all that within yourself, you can put out a true expression of yourself and the people who resonate to that will resonate to that because it can be consistently given by you to them.
01:06:20.100And you might not be famous, but you will have a core audience that won't waver and you can maneuver that and you can grow that and you can nurture that and you'll control that.
01:06:30.100And so to own yourself, to own your identity is key.
01:06:33.100At the end of the day, it is the product.
01:06:36.100If you have a good product, people are going to pay for it.
01:06:38.100Whether it's a Chappelle, it's a Heart, it's a Billboard, Seinfeld, or it's a Shy, it's a Jodeci, it's an Usher, it's a SW, it doesn't matter.
01:06:47.100If you've got a good product, they're going to pay for that.
01:06:50.100And eventually someone's going to take notice of you.
01:06:52.100Guys, this is the last part of the interview.
01:06:54.100I'll give you a name of a talent and you tell me one word that comes to mind.