[0:17]Uh you know, another aspect of, of the let love, you know, for me like even the, the seed of why this book and different things came up, the the the album was because, you know, I was having a conversation with my daughter.
[0:36]My daughter called me, um, really late one night and I thought it was one of those good calls, you know, your daughter call you like, she don't call me too late usually, so I'm like, first of all, I was worried like is everything okay?
[0:46]But then when I picked up, she was talking to me like, cool in a regular way, she, she'd been drinking, so I mean, I I was like, man, I'm the cool dad. She calling me while she drunk, you know, So, she, uh, you know, the conversation continued on and it didn't go that way.
[1:05]It ended up being, she was not not happy with me as a father and she she, you know, and she spoke about certain things that she felt where I failed her as a father.
[1:15]So it was really like, and you know, when I, when we continued the conversation, it was really at one point me wanting to defend myself and and say, well, I did what about this?
[1:26]But then eventually, what I understood was just to be, just to listen, right? And just to, like allow her to give her perspective and it gave me another perspective on love by doing that because love ain't always what I think or trying to fix it. It's just sometimes just listening and understanding somebody and respecting their perspective.
[1:46]So, um, this story is and this song is called show me that you love. And um, it's that it's a story about that call and um, it's featuring Simone Pendela Hughes and Jill Scott and um, it's you know, y'all check it out.
[7:16]This is show me that you love. That piano was played by James Poyser, the incomparable James Poyser. James Poyser is uh, one of the great pianists, musicians who produced on albums from Voodoo D'Angelo to like played on albums for Lauren Hills Miss Education, to the Roots.
[7:38]He's part of the Roots Collective played on all like water for Chocolate Electric Circus.
[7:46]All like he played on a lot of the stuff. He's one of the like unsung heroes in music. Um, just because he's touched so many So Mama's gun. Just I can go on for list for classic albums and he he blessed that up blessed us with that solo.
[8:07]Uh, no, you know, well, the question just so I don't know if y'all can hear it. One, one
[8:14]Oh, I'm sorry. I was like uh, how does that process work if you were writing songs about your family, your mother, your daughter, do you give them a heads up beforehand or do you complete it then show it show it?
[8:24]Yeah, I mean, I usually just write it to be honest and then cuz it's what I'm feeling and then I do have to sit down and have that talk like And I mean, in me and my, my daughter, we really had to like talk this through because this is a situation that was really, really real like it was like issues there.
[8:43]And she was mature enough to be like, yo, we need to your therapist, let's sit down and talk to your therapist together and um, like work through things and I think even the conversation before I even started writing about it in the book or or talking about it on the song.
[9:05]We were in the process of resolving and and just working through things and even, you know, her just being able to open up to me about the places where she wasn't happy was like progress.
[9:10]You know, um, even though it didn't feel good, it still was her living in her truth and being able to be truthful.
[9:16]Yeah. She spoke about the song. Oh man, she she loves, she loves the song. She she said, you know, when I played it for her, she was like, she was tearing up and said, man, you really understand you understand if I think the song may hurt know that I hurt her and like in another way.
[9:37]So, um, yeah, she really is into it. She was like proud of me in a way. Did you did you mean for this album to be an emotional healing album? Cause it is very emotional.
[9:51]Yeah, it is um, I I believe I was just, um, creating from a place of my heart and my spirit and and I was when I said reference Marvin Gay, I was just thinking about how some of his projects like to hear my dear album was an album where he just was bearing his soul and he was that type of artist and I feel like, you know, throughout my my career, I've been very personal and like talked about things that I go through, but it's different when you start peeling off them layers and you kind of like raw like about things that you never shared or like when I talked about in memories of home, was something that I tucked away in my mind and didn't even think exist until I was doing a film project and it was about that subject and I was like, wait, this happened to me and it was like the memories came back.
[10:44]So when I'm in that state of being raw, it's going to come out emotional in certain ways anyway.
[10:51]It's not like a um, like a um, me sitting there saying, well, let me be emotional.
[11:00]Is really just being in my truth and if you know, um, and I think that's the only, that's the, for me the best artists that I experience whether it's John Coltrain or you know, basquiat, they never like, I don't think they told us what to do.
[11:57]They just let the spirit come through them and and that spirit's going to tell you what you need at that time.
[12:03]Um, so that's what I believe. Yes, yes. Do you have like a ritual like when you go in the studio like something that you always do like either to relax yourself or something that you just do?
[12:13]Yeah. She said, do I have a ritual when I go into? Yes, I actually do have rituals that like, um, some of that includes like just having the things, the the things that I like, whether it's just water, I like Paulo Santo.
[12:29]Uh like, you know, I like that I've wrapped about that like I like Palo Santo. And then, you know, I actually, you know, a lot of the times just go go say a prayer before I step in the booth and um, and you know, I do do different thing other things that I won't reveal.
[12:47]But but I mean, it ain't nothing crazy but it's just about to yeah. Some of them are sacred sacred rituals. I do. But anyway, um, so yeah, so that was that but I do have those rituals when I go in the booth.
