Friday at Night Flight
Night Flight Studio, Fort Washington, MD


Donnell recording new vocals
Picture taken by and Copyright - Jordan Rich (Note: Picture artificially brightened by flash, it was darker than it appears.)

Familiar Faces
When I first arrived at 2:45 PM, Scotty was the only one there. Scotty said that Rich is currently working with J-Lo, but she has her own engineer, which is why he is still in town. I asked him about how to spell Cue Recording Studios. He went on to tell me about them - they used to be the premier studio in the area, with Night Flight second. Cue has superior architecture; it has a number of separated studios in a single building (Night Flight is an add-on to a house). Night Flight used to be all analog, Cue went digital before them. Scotty's cousin, Rich Harrison, had used them for years. Cue is more designed for live rock acts. Rich liked the separate studios so he didn't need to worry about being bothered. Night Flight has Pro Tools HD, which Cue does not have. When Scotty became Rich's primary engineer, he decided which studio they used. Scotty talked to Jeff, the owner of Cue, who said he'd buy anything Rich wanted. Scotty insisted on Pro Tools HD, which allows for digital recording with the analog warm feel. Scotty said (to me), "Without HD, you might as well record to analog tape." Jeff declined, so Scotty moved Rich's business to Night Flight. In order to give Rich the privacy he wants (making sure people don't try to ask him to listen to their songs, etc.), Scotty makes sure that when Rich is in the studio; no one who knows him is also scheduled. Scotty said he had recently worked with Mariah Carey and Gwen Stefani - "She's a sweetie." Scotty said that Night Flight is now the premier recording studio in the area, with Cue second. Central was the earliest adopter of audio engineering software, but they've fallen behind. Omega Recording Studios in Rockville is now right behind Cue.

He had gotten a call shortly after I first arrived. He told me about it - a producer wanted to edit tracks in Pro Tools that had been laid down in Logic. Scotty said that it was actually pretty easy, but that Cue had had trouble figuring it out. I told him that the University of Miami has a digital guru, Ken Pohlmann, who has consulted with virtually every major corporation in America. I told him that Miami has a music engineering undergraduate program, but to get into the Masters program, you have to have a bachelors in electrical engineering. Scotty said that he has a bachelors in electrical engineering. He thought he would work as an engineer and do music on the side, but especially after talking with others in the same boat, he found "There was no on the side" (time). So he moved on to music engineering.

Scotty worked on the track Holla At Your Boy. Donnell felt that Mike hadn't quite hit the vocals the way he wanted, so he wanted to decide whether to either electronically "fix" Mike's vocals or go with the earlier recorded Tony Sharpe vocals. There was some weird buzz noise that Scotty worked on getting rid of.

Donnell arrived not too much later. Scotty told him "He (Scotty) had been fifteen minutes late". Donnell said, "What!" Scotty told him, "Stop performing for your man..." and then told me, "Donnell's not usually like this." Donnell immediately ordered lunch from Yum's Carryout. He insisted they have the best spring rolls. He said that even Mr. K's, a Chinese restaurant on K St in DC, "Where you had to wear a jacket or they would provide you with a blazer", didn't have food as good. I told him about my friend Tung's aunt, who used to send him spring rolls when we were roommates - she has three industrial kitchens in her house with enough stored food for six months.

Scotty slowed down the live tracks. Donnell said, "We should call this album '88' because the whole album is 88 beats per minute, the national beat."

It came up in conversation that I had worked at Rhino. Donnell asked me what I did there; I told him "Master use licensing." He said, "So that's why you asked that question." I had asked Donnell about who does the mechanical licensing for their album since there are cover songs on it.

We talked about sports; Scotty said that John Paxson should be fired for releasing Carlos Boozer from his option. I corrected him, that it is Jim, John is with the Chicago Bulls. I told them both about CarlosLoozer.Com.

Donnell re-recorded his own vocals, to replace the old band name 911 with the new one Familiar Faces. When he first went to do it, the speakers suddenly cut off - the system had to re-boot. Scotty called Donnell back in and said, "That's never happened before." The one song in particular that needed the 911/FF change had "Day Day" as the background vocalist. Scotty asked Donnell, "What's up with Day Day?" Donnell said he's nuts and told a story about him that I can't print here.

Donnell talked about Christina Milian doing a movie ("Be Cool", the sequel to "Get Shorty") with John Travolta. He said he had never seen her - I said she's from this area and that I had heard she has pictures on Cutie Central. Scotty said she's from Waldorf. Scotty said that his buddy Lance works in promotions at WPGC, so he gets all kind of invites to movie premieres - Scotty no longer has to pay for movies. Scotty later said that Lance, having gone to a recent Familiar Faces show, said that "It was cool hearing Donnell shout 'Yeah!' in person."

I also told Donnell that Kip Lornell, co-author, with Charles Stephenson of The Beat (so far the only book on GoGo), had forwarded me an email. He said he's met Kip. A woman named Marceia Cork sent the email. She is the leader of a GoGo group called "Marceia Cork Presents Metropolism" and wants to go national. I had emailed her back and she wanted to meet me today (Friday), but I had forgotten to email her back. I said to Donnell that one of the difficulties is that there are "Thousands of groups in every genre trying to go national." He said that (in GoGo), "That's really not true - by their actions, a number of groups in GoGo are not trying to go national. Ghingus is the most marketable person in GoGo, but he is happy where he is." He said Chuck Brown is too old to make it national. "James Funk has the gift of gab, but that's not enough." Little Benny has personality. Sugar Bear, he and Ghingus are the best bets to go National. I pointed out that Big G is on HBO's "The Wire", "That should get him national attention." He said that Big G is doing that and his radio show because Jauhar arranged them after having a discussion with Donnell about this. He said Chuck Brown's I Need Some Money, Trouble Funk's Don't Touch That Stereo, and EU's Da Butt have had success outside the area. I also pointed out Chuck Brown's Busting Loose and he agreed. Also, Donnell said that no live GoGo album has made it outside the area, and no studio GoGo album has made it inside the area. He said Rich Harrison, Chuck Thompson, and Chink Santana have made it outside the area. I realized this was good material and started filming. I pointed out that Me'Shell NdegeOcello and Ginuwine have made it outside the area and specifically came from GoGo groups (Scotty later said that Rich was in a GoGo group as well, a Washington Post article, "Quietly Making Some Noise" by Chris Richards on October 9th 2005 confirmed he played keyboards for Perfection Band). Donnell later talked about Mr. Cheeks and his one hit, Jeeps, Lex Coups, Bimaz and Benz (since I don't think Mr. Cheeks is from DC, I don't know how this is related). Donnell suggested may he should give me a copy of the album (Evolution) to listen to. He said he thinks GoGo can still go national, "Look how long it took Reggae and Rap", although he concedes that Reggae had the benefit of a whole country's support. He said that right now, the radio stations will only play GoGo by request and only the young request. He also said only young people like Usher, he would never buy Usher. He also talked about how fake the lyrics of Confessions are (about Usher's relationship with Rozonda "Chilli" Thomas of TLC), "If it was true, where's the baby?" He told me that Trouble Funk's style is what GoGo is right now: "The whole band playing the same melody."

I asked Donnell to confirm all of the releases 911/Familiar Faces has had. What I know of are: Blueprint, the Chuck Brown Concert, and six PAs as 911: November 4th 2001 Tradewinds, May 5th 2002 Metro, August 3rd 2002 Metro, April 27th 2003 Tradewinds, May 7th 2003 Cada Vez (actually Donnell said this is the compilation listed below), and October 30th 2003 Club U. As Familiar Faces, there is the March 31st 2004 Takoma Station and a compilation I heard earlier at the Xcalibur. Donnell said he didn't think there were six PAs, but there is also a 911 Compilation. I told him I know there are six, but I bought them all when they came out. He said, "So you're the one."

A video of Alicia Keys' Diary came on and Scotty said that Rich was in love with her, she is constantly touching you. Scotty had temporarily saved on of the files on Whop's hard drive due to lack of space. Whop is the leader of Whop-N-Em, a band which also features Tony Sharpe and Ricky Wellman. I told Donnell that Demetrius Owens, the percussionist at the live recording, told me he was Ricky Wellman's nephew. Donnell said that he didn't know that.

Donnell and I had a discussion about Kobe Bryant which I filmed. Donnell likes Kobe but hates the Lakers, I feel the opposite on both counts, personally I think anyone who is a Bullets/Wizards fan must be masochistic.

We discussed the Pro Tools software - he said it first came out in 1990, but it was not widely accepted because it took longer to do things than doing it without software.

Donnell and Scotty agreed that Eminem was the most talented rapper out there, Donnell was impressed with his hooks as well as his raps - he said, "Remember how terrible Rakim's hooks were?" Scotty talked about how Eminem was devoted to his group D12, when none of them are worth it. He said of their talent, "You know in movies that after the trailers they have that message, please take your baby out if it starts crying? That's what those guys are."

We watched BET on the studio TV (we watched MTV and HBO during the other studio sessions) - Terror Squad was being interviewed. When they showed the video, Donnell said that Remy Martin probably doesn't look that good without makeup. He did say she looked better when they interviewed them. Donnell talked about how Fat Joe doesn't have the charisma or looks to get much and they only have the one hit. However, Scotty said, "He does have the hit of the Summer."

Kanye West came on and Donnell said he was a fluke. Scotty said that he does have the first rap song about God. Donnell pointed out that Doug E. Fresh had All the Way to Heaven. Scotty rephrased what he said, "The first rap song about Jesus" (Jesus Walks is the song). Donnell said, "That's about one religion, Christianity." Scotty told a story about how Rich and Kanye were both interviewed for a magazine by a British writer named Omar (who had an accent like a New Yorker, Scotty said, "New Yorkers are very British in style"). Rich's article was good, but Kanye was trashed as "Kanye was a total jerk". Scotty gave details. He also said that Rolling Stone "The biggest artist kiss-up," had cancelled an interview with Kanye. He said Jigga also didn't like working with him. Apparently in the studio, he is hard to work with because he will request a thousand different alterations with Roc-A-Fella's blessing. Donnell said that's good because you can give different radio mixes and people will notice it.

At one point, Donnell saw an ad for Shyne's new album, "Godfather Buried Alive". He was disappointed because the word Godfather popped up first and he was hoping it would be about the movie. He said maybe there will be a Godfather IV. I said III was terrible. He said it wasn't all bad, just the acting of Andy Garcia and the daughter.

Donnell said that the two biggest sports events in the DC area are Redskin's season opener and Maryland ACC basketball. I told him and Scotty that you have to give around $2,500 to get a chance to buy season tickets. He said that Chris McCray, who played with his son in AAU basketball, gives him tickets when he wants to go. He says that Gary isn't a good recruiter, whoever is supposed to be the star never ends up being a star. He also said that Stevie (Francis) told DJ (Strawberry) not to go to Maryland, that Gary is a liar.

As an overall review - the studio recording and editing process is very tedious. After discussing options with Scotty and running out of time, Donnell decided to go with the Tony Sharpe version of Holla at Your Boy.

Donnell said there were three things he wanted to do/see tonight and couldn't decide (or remember the third thing); two of the things were to see Denzel Washington's new movie, the remake of Manchurian Candidate, and Mike Tyson's fight. We finished a little after 7 PM.

I decided to hang out in College Park before going to Safari Steakhouse. I killed time going to the record store CDepot, where I used to buy all my commercial GoGo, but more recently, I have discovered that Best Buy has a much better selection, even though they put it under Rap. I went to Cluck-U and saw in person for the first time the local rapper and Tupac look-alike, Lee Majors. I left College Park around 9:30; it ended up taking half an hour to get to the exit for Annapolis Road because of the construction on I-495.