Welcome to Miss Funkyflyy's Web Pages!

If you have come to this page through a frame,
Click here to break out of it.

Home
Artists
What's New
Links
FAQ
Theme
About Me



Talk Turkey 2

Rahsaan Patterson (1997)"I have to say my father, because I grew up listening to all kinds of music. I think he's definitely shaped my musical taste. I come from a very musical family. My father's mother and his sisters used to have a Gospel group called the Gloryland Singers in New York City, I believe in the late '50's. My father, he used sing in church and he had a band. He used to sing James Brown tunes and that kinda thing. My mum sang in church, her sisters sang and all my cousins used to be in the church choir. We all come from music and singing in choirs."
Rahsaan Patterson on his background and who has shaped his taste in music the most. (May '97)

"I was asked by him, Curtis Mayfield, to come and produce two songs for his album and I did a song called 'We The People Who Are Darker Than Blue' and 'It Was Love That We Needed'. I did those two songs under a very unique set of circumstances. I was touring all over the country and parts of Canada, and as you know, Curtis is paralyzed from the neck down, and recording was very difficult for him. His body has to be in a certain position and he gets tired very quickly. But because I had downsized my studios and because I had become very good, very quick and very handy with some of the new digital recorders, I was able to bring a small recording apparatus, the size of my briefcase, into his bedroom in Atlanta and do all of his vocals right there, in his house. That made things very easy for him and his wife and everybody. They were really impressed with it, so I was very happy that I had downsized like I did. Nothing compares to it (working with Curtis). Nothing. I'm speechless."
Roger Troutman on working with Curtis Mayfield on his "Back To The World" album. (January '97)

Larry Dodson (1974)"It was hard living up to that. Allen's (the Bar-Kays producer, manager and mentor) vision of me was to be the black Mick Jagger. That's what he wanted for me. To be just as popular, to be every girl's dream, to stay weighing a hundred and twenty pounds. Always. He kept me on a diet, year in and year out. I could never gain a pound. He didn't not allow that. He said 'if you're gonna be a rock star and an idol, you gonna have to be this and this' and you know, his thing was 'when you're daring and think you've gone too far, you're only half way there'. That was his rule, that he lived by. We had to stay slim, all of us. We were not allowed to gain weight. The tailors would always tell on us. They'd say 'Larry's gained two pounds, I can't fit him in his regular stuff anymore'. Basically, all of us were thin anyway, but.."
Larry Dodson of the Bar-Kays on his "bad boy" image of the 70's. (1996)

"Sure I remember! It was called 'A Little Bit Of Something". The B side was 'My Heart Took A Lickin' But It Kept on Tickin'. I think I still have it somewhere in this house. I know I owned it until I moved, it might be still in a box somewhere, but I'm not sure where. I had played it one day for my band and I told them 'here's somebody that sent me their demo and they want to know if I would do anything with them. Give me your penny and tell me if you think they have any talent'. So I played it for the band and they went 'Naaah, she's somebody trying to sound like you!' I had this very highly, squeaky voice back then (laughs)."
Millie Jackson recalling her very first single on MGM Records, recorded in the late sixties. (November '96)

Roger Troutman (1996)"I was very concerned about that and I explained to Dr.Dre that he could do whatever he wanted to and I was there to help, but I wished that he'd respect my legacy and my integrity and he said 'don't worry about it'. So when the song came out, obviously, there was nothing negative, nothing about fighting or shooting or violence, it was basically a song about having a good time and partying and shaking it in California. Again, I thank God that I was connected with such a huge record and such a controversial group of artists and that they, being controversial, decided to take the main stream, universal, world-wide subject-matter, as opposed to something negative. And then we were successful with it! Dr.Dre's and 2Pac's fans could very easily have said 'this is too clean, this is too nice, we don't like it'. But I was lucky, through the grace of God, that everybody liked the song, even though it was cleaned-up, vintage, I mean, nothing negative, no gang-banging."
Roger Troutman on if he, by working with Dr.Dre and 2Pac on "California Love", was worried about being connected with the negative aspects of hip-hop, since Roger's always stressed the importance of presenting young people with a positive role model and promoting good values, "stay in school, don't use drugs", etc. (January '97)

"I started getting really comfortable with being in the background, supporting other vocalists and stuff. I wasn't particularly ready to be in the front, to have all that attention, so as I was developing my writing, I was actually trying to gain strength to be able to deal with all of this stuff. I guess now is the right time. I've had enough time to gather up the confidence that I needed to do do it."
Rahsaan Patterson on his period as a back-up vocalist. (May '97)

Robin S. (1997)"As a Dance artist, it was really, really hard to prove to people that it was really me singing, because there was a reputation of Dance artists just being 'a sound'. You know, mechanically done. And it was really hard, it took me almost two years to really prove to people that 'everything that you heard on the CD is what I'm going to do'. Dance artists were not taken seriously because they could not perform live, and/or they were lip-synching. I have a problem with that. See, I really believe that if people have paid their money to see you sing, then singing is what you're supposed to be doing. But the times are changing, my friends in the R&B world are really starting to take notice that Dance music has always held its own spot, it just needed the right people. I'm happy to say that I think I'm one of those people. At least I would hope that someone would consider me as one of the individuals that held that spot."
Robin S. on how come Dance artist only recently have started to be taken seriously. (April '97)

"Anybody can be nasty, but you gotta be funny with it."
Clarence "Blowfly" Reid on modern-day "x-rated" rappers, like the 2LiveCrew. (1991)

Adriana Evans (1997)"America's really big on labels, but I don't mind because I really like Maxwell and D'Angelo and I'm really thankful for what they've done. I think that had they not come out first, I wouldn't be getting this kind if attention. I think that someone has to come out doing something different first, in order for other people to accept difference. Generally, that's how it happens in the States. After my record was done, that was almost three years ago and it was on Capitol before we had moved to RCA, the concern was, this is pre-D'Angelo, pre-Maxwell, the concern was 'who's going to get this? There's nothing like that out. How are people going to digest it, what are they going to gage it by'. And then we had the whole period of the Capitol collision, when Capitol got rid of its black music department, and so the record got pushed back and we got moved to another label. At that time, D'Angelo came out and by the time my record actually came out, people would compare me to D'Angelo and this quote-un-quote 'neo-classic-soul movement', but before that, it was just kinda like 'what are you doing?' (laughs). It's easier now, because now they actually have a title for what I'm doing."
Adriana Evans on being compared to D'Angelo and Maxwell. (April '97)

Go to Talk Turkey Pt. 1

 
     

© Maria Granditsky August 1997.
All rights reserved.
No part of these pages may be reproduced or published without the prior written permission of the author. Do not save, link to, or in any way use the images on Miss Funkyflyy's Web Pages, without first obtaining a written consent from the Webmistress,
Maria Granditsky.
email


Home - Artists - What's New - LinksFAQ - Theme - About Me