Tuesday at Rehearsal
Private Location

Familiar Faces
When I arrived, Godfather and Doc talked by their cars in the parking lot. DP arrived and joined in on the conversation.

Stomp sat in his car with the music turned up really loud. DP and Doc said his ears must hurt.

Donnell pulled up. He again wore his mustard yellow pants. We all walked into the rehearsal room.

Later Dwayne arrived. He wore a black t-shirt with the message written in white on it: "No job, no money, no car, but I'm in a band".

They went over the Lap Dance remix they used in the video. It will have two different sections. Donnell discussed hand signals to go back and forth between the two sections. They asked Donnell who sang on it - Day Day.

Doc talked about my email to him - he was confused due to my stream of consciousness writing. One of the questions I had asked was in an old blog entry where he talked about selling a bass cabinet to one of the sound men. He told me who he had sold them to and how he had bought more subsequently.

A while after that Duane Face arrived.

Donnell said Chuck Brown, the man (i.e. alone, not with his own band), will be sitting in on a show of theirs at Takoma Station. He asked how much of Chuck's material they knew. Godfather immediately started playing Misty.

Doc and I discussed a PFunk live video. He said he was interested in Gil Scott-Heron. I said that there are Gil videos commercially available. Godfather talked about how good he was. I talked about how much of an incorrigible cocaine addict he is. A judge a few years ago gave him a choice of entering a drug rehab program or jail and he chose jail.

Returning to Lap Dance: Donnell fooled around as he led the rehearsing. Godfather played with his eyes closed. They talked about the types of keyboard hits. They discussed using a tuba sound. Doc talked about a successful use of tuba.

Doc said, "Stomp, you scare me."

They went over Trina Was Great. Donnell talked about the drums on the track. Stomp didn't play anything. Donnell said, "You can make it sound better." Stomp said, "I can't, Blue was best". Stomp said that Blue missed a snare at least once on every song on Blueprint.

Donnell talked about how they have a formula that is working, but band members keep trying to change it. He talked about Common's The Corner not working because Stomp and Doc wanted to just play the sample.

Donnell discussed how to make the percussion section tighter. He said maybe Smoke should do all the timbale playing.

At 10:30, Doc had to go. Godfather, DP, and Stomp followed him out.

Then Lorenzo walked in and he, Dwayne, Donnell and I talked for an hour.

Donnell talked about how Rare Essence played Lock It for five years before recording it. He also said something must be terribly wrong if they didn't play One on One, that the crowd would ask for a refund. He did talk about how they would not have to perform as many Top 40 songs back then either.

Dwayne discussed the Hip Hop group he had worked with, 3LG.

They discussed putting a rider agreement into performance contracts with venues. Dwayne talked about how on Monday, he and other band members did not even have a place to sit down, much less something to drink (he didn't mean alcohol - he doesn't drink). Lorenzo said he has one; he will give a copy to Donnell. Dwayne said Halima will need a hot tea every show. I said, "At least a stool to put her tea and water on."

He talked about how starting in October, they will have a weekly show on Sundays at Xcalibur that will feature Halima.

Donnell said it is important that people buy into you as an artist. He mentioned for example how they would buy every Stevie Wonder album without listening to any of its singles because they would know it was good. That was back when labels worked on developing artists. Now the focus is on songs, but now you have to hear five singles before buying the album and you still may not want to buy the album.

Donnell said he went to an Anita Baker concert and she did not talk at all, just sang the songs. He said, "I have the damn album!" Then he said Patti Labelle will perform, she may not sing the entire performance, she takes off her shoes and sits down, but she gets a win.

Lorenzo asked when the next live recording was going to be. Donnell said he'd know because the band members get paid extra for recordings. He asked how many live recordings they have had. I mentioned some of them. Dwayne talked about there being some not commercially released that were on the streets according to one of his relatives. He said it was ultimately Donnell's fault because he hired the guy who records them. I mentioned how Pooh had also said that tapes were on the street, but Donnell challenged them to actually find someone selling them rather than relying on second hand info. In addition to the commercially available recordings, Donnell talked about the fact that a lot of people had copies of the Club U performance (don't know which date) that was broadcast on the radio. He said they (the radio station) edited out certain key aspects of the performance and a lot of Adia's singing.

Lorenzo said he's here to win. He said he would sell his car before his keyboard. That is the opposite of many musicians, I told the joke, "What do you call a guitarist without a girlfriend? Homeless..." Donnell laughed. Dwayne told another old one: "What's the difference between a musician and a pepperoni pizza? A pepperoni pizza can feed a family of four."

They asked who Adia sang with now, I said 4 Sho.

Donnell said, "Anthony Hamilton isn't saying anything Marvin Gaye didn't already say, but has a different way of saying it."

Donnell talked about how Marquis Melvin sang John Legend's So High, that all of the women sang along.

Donnell said, "That little girl (Halima) is one of the three tickets (to national prominence) I've seen. No one saw Chucky (Thompson). Big G has an incredible personality. So does Yannie. I thought Ms. Kim many nights was the best onstage. I think Halima has the most chops of those. She has the personality and does everything different. People criticize her for her crazy wigs, but she does it anyway." Dwayne said she has everything to win.

They talked about needing to show you believe you will win - if you don't, you've already lost.