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UR011: Speech, Eshe, and Rasa Don (Arrested Development) [1993 MTV Unplugged]
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Southern alternative hip-hop pioneers Arrested Development (Speech, Eshe, and Rasa Don) join the show to talk about the stunning MTV Unplugged episode and album they delivered during their explosive ’92-’93 whirlwind. They also discuss their brand new track – “All I See is Melanin” – that’s available now!
If you dig the show, want to share your own Unplugged memories, ask a question, request a show topic, or connect with the pod for any reason, there are a couple ways you can get in touch:
- You can email me at unpluggedrevisited@gmail.com,
- You can reach out on Bluesky at @willhodge.bsky.social,
- You can leave a voicemail (that’ll maybe get played on the show) by dialing 234-REVISIT (234-738-4748)
Recommended![UR014: Mark Bryan (Hootie and the Blowfish) [1996 MTV Unplugged] image](https://media.zencastr.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=112,quality=85/image-files/66ea0b235fcf51d2c9a0b7cd/43cbefc3-777c-4d93-9915-92abd82876d2.jpg)
Transcript
Introduction to 'Unplugged Revisited'
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to
00:00:14
Speaker
Greetings and salutations. Welcome back to Unplugged Revisited, the podcast that celebrates, critiques, and dives deep into the last three and a half decades of MTV Unplugged. I'm your host, music journalist, pop culture anthropologist, and Unplugged obsessive, Will Hodge.
00:00:29
Speaker
By now, if you've tuned in to more than one or two episodes of Unplugged Revisited, you know that one of my most favorite Unplugged topics is how mind-blowingly transformative the hip-hop shows
Hip-Hop's Limited Presence in MTV Unplugged
00:00:40
Speaker
were.
00:00:40
Speaker
And also that one of my most oft-levied Unplugged complaints is how frustratingly few of them there actually are. Because when Unplugged got hip-hop right, man, they really got it right.
00:00:59
Speaker
My guests this week, well, first I'll let them introduce themselves. What's up, yo? It's your boy, Rise. This is your brother, Speech. And greetings, this is Ishii.
Arrested Development's Acoustic Innovation
00:01:08
Speaker
And we are Arrested Development. That's right.
00:01:11
Speaker
The multi-platinum, multiple Grammy-winning Southern alternative hip-hop pioneers, Arrested Development, are prime examples of this point. In fact, in 1992, a phenomenal year for adventurous, envelope-pushing hip-hop from the likes of Dr. Dre, Eric B. and Rakim, Gangstar, Beastie Boys, and many others, MTV tapped Arrested Development to do the first hip-hop unplugged devoted to a single group, thanks in large part to the zeitgeist-capturing phenomenon of their debut album, Three Years, Five Months, and Two Days in the Life of, and its chart-topping Prince sampling debut single.
00:01:46
Speaker
Tennessee Tennessee.
00:01:55
Speaker
Not only did Arrested Development have a singularly cool sound, an immediately identifiable aesthetic, and a revolution-minded, consciousness-lifting message, they also perfectly embodied just how magically transcendent hip-hop could be on the unplugged stage by exemplifying the alchemic sonic beauty of live acoustic sampling, which is the art of transforming the repurposed snippets of Sly and the Family Stone, Earth, Wind & Fire, Minnie Riperton, and others found on their album,
00:02:23
Speaker
distilling them down to their most essential melodic and rhythmic components and then re-translating them live through a dynamic full band performance. And in the case of their Unplugged, Arrested Development added their own signature stamp to the live acoustic sampling concept by augmenting their more conventional acoustic instrumentation like guitar, bass, piano, and two drummers with African folk instruments like the kalimba thumb piano, creative hand-made instruments like a horn made out of a Quaker Oats can,
00:02:51
Speaker
and a brilliant array of assorted percussion. And don't forget, at the end of the day, Arrested Development is first and foremost a hip-hop group, so they naturally had a turntable in their unplugged arsenal as well.
00:03:03
Speaker
And for anyone potentially balking at the electrified instrumental outlier, I'll just remind you that Springsteen's cranked amps twin electric guitar barn burner of an unplugged was filmed just three months prior, so sometimes it really does pay off to tweak expectations.
00:03:18
Speaker
arrested developments unplugged both the episode and the album proved to be a phenomenal snapshot of a successful young band instantly thrust into the pop cultural gauntlet who responded to the challenge by leveling up their game and firing on all creative cylinders But I feel like I'm getting ahead of myself a little bit.
00:03:36
Speaker
I'm incredibly excited to get to my interview with frontman Speech, choreographer, dancer, vocalist Ishii, and drummer Razadhan. But as you're well aware by now, before the interview is the intersection, and before the intersection is the announcements.
MTV Unplugged Episodes on Paramount+ Update
00:03:50
Speaker
So, you know, let's get into it. Announcement 1 My first announcement this week is just a friendly reminder that if you're a fan of MTV Unplugged, which I'm assuming you are if you're listening to this incredibly niche podcast, MTV has uploaded a substantial amount of their Unplugged archive onto Paramount+. plus Now, again, while it's not every single episode, it is still a huge trove of Unplugged awesomeness, and they have made some changes since the initial upload.
00:04:17
Speaker
For example, the thumbnail to the 2002 Dashboard Confessional episode has now been corrected to a proper shot of Chris Carraba, and there's no longer a picture of Hootie and the Blowfish's 1996 episode, which was absolutely hilarious while it lasted.
00:04:32
Speaker
Some of the little glitches are still there. For example, Alicia Keys' 2005 episode, the 99 Alanis, and the 93 Nirvana one are all still showing up under the Season 1 list of 1990 shows.
00:04:44
Speaker
Plus, some of the artists who played the show twice seem to only have one of their episodes available. Like, R.E.M.' 's 2001 Unplugged is there, but not their 91 episode. And Neil Young's Anomalous 90 Unplugged and Branding Only concert video is there, but not his more popular album-generating episode from 93.
00:05:04
Speaker
But again, i can't stress enough how awesome it is to have so many great Unplugged episodes that haven't been available for years now so easily accessible. It's been such a blast going back through what's currently available, so please keep on coming MTV.
00:05:17
Speaker
Oh, and the full Arrested Development episode is there as we speak, so if you haven't seen it in a minute, or maybe even at all, it's an absolutely incredible feast for the senses. So go check it out.
00:05:28
Speaker
Announcement 2 As is thankfully turning into an almost recurring bit on the show, an awesome Unplugged Revisited listener has let me know of another MTV Unplugged Two-Timers Club member I missed in my initial batch of 40-plus inductees from a few
The Two-Timers Club: Unplugged Appearances
00:05:44
Speaker
episodes back.
00:05:44
Speaker
This incredibly welcomed correction, and I mean that genuinely. I love being made aware of any Unplugged Two-Timers I neglected to mention. And who knows, I just might get enough of them to warrant a part two at some point.
00:05:56
Speaker
So yes, this correction comes from listener Scott Spranzi, aka Cover Stars on Blue Sky. Scott writes, I'm caught up with all of the Unplugged revisited episodes. Told a friend that the ultimate compliment was that you made the Chris Carraba episode interesting for me.
00:06:11
Speaker
When you can make the story compelling even for unfamiliar listeners, you're doing a great job. Forgive me if I missed you mentioning it, but wasn't Peter Holesapple on multiple episodes of Unplugged? First, thank you so much for the kind note, Scott.
00:06:24
Speaker
It really does mean a lot to hear that folks can still enjoy the podcast, even if an episode is on an artist they aren't already fans of. And second, yes, my friend, your hunch was absolutely correct.
00:06:35
Speaker
Peter Hulsapel, who was the co-founder of early 80s college rock cult faves The DBs, did in fact appear on Unplugged twice. I initially wrote back to Scott that I knew Peter had played a little guitar, bass, and organ on R.E.M.' 's 91 Unplugged, but that I didn't know off the top of my head of a second appearance for him.
00:06:53
Speaker
However, I was familiar enough with his career to know that after his time touring with R.E.M., Peter went on to play with Hootie and the Blowfish for quite a while, so that's where I was going to start investigating. Scott said he would check on his end too and let me know.
00:07:07
Speaker
The funny little button on the story is that when I got home, I looked up the Hootie Unplugged from 96 and sure enough, there was Peter playing organ, accordion, and guitar. I wrote Scott back to tell him what I found and to thank him for letting me know about Peter's Unplugged Two-Timers Club, Bonafides.
00:07:22
Speaker
And he responded back by saying that on his end, He had also verified it was the R.E.M. and Hootie episode by, well, just checking with Peter Holesapple himself. So there you go, straight from the Holesapple's mouth.
00:07:35
Speaker
Thank you again for the heads up on this, Scott. And if you want to hear what Peter Holesapple's up to these days, he's got a brand new album coming out on April 12th for Record Store Day. It's called The Face of 68, and it was produced by Don Dixon, who I'm forever indebted to for co-producing R.E.M.' 's debut full-length album, Murmur, and its follow-up, Reckoning.
00:07:54
Speaker
Peter Holsappel, welcome to the MTV Unplugged Two-Timers Club. Alrighty, I think that'll do it for this round of announcements. Let's make our way into this week's intersection for Arrested Development's MTV Unplugged from 1993.
Arrested Development's Impact on Hip-Hop
00:08:10
Speaker
For some episodes of Unplugged Revisited, the intersection, the part of the show where I analyze where an artist was at in their career and where Unplugged was at in its run when the two crossed paths, it can sometimes require a bit of a longer chronological wind-up.
00:08:24
Speaker
For example, 10,000 Maniacs had almost a half-dozen albums under their collective belt when they played Unplugged. and Nathan East had been a chart-topping professional bass player for over two decades when he played on Clapton's Unplugged.
00:08:36
Speaker
You get what I'm saying. But Arrested Development is a little bit of a different story because they were one of the bands that played Unplugged after releasing only a single album. Now, to be sure, it was a huge album.
00:08:48
Speaker
Three Years was an incredibly fresh and popular record that permeated multiple corners of 92-93 popular culture. It reframed certain elements of hip-hop, especially the infusion of live instruments before that became more prevalent, and transcended the bounds of its own genre to greatly impact and inform mainstream Top 40 pop.
00:09:08
Speaker
So I think that's how I'm going to approach the intersection, by outlining the frenzied, nonstop whirlwind of a year Arrested Development experienced between the March 92 release of three years and the March 93 broadcast and release of their MTV Unplugged episode and album.
00:09:24
Speaker
Arrested Development first formed in my hometown of Atlanta, Georgia in the late 80s, and here's Speech talking a little bit about their foundational roots from an old MTV documentary called Past, Present, and Future.
00:09:36
Speaker
It started about four years ago and it started with me and Headliner. I met Headliner at a music school in Atlanta and I was looking for a DJ. Headliner was that man. And then I found him, we started doing music together and stuff and experimenting with different things and musically. And then as we started to grow as individuals, we started to become more conscious about our African roots and our heritage and culture.
00:09:59
Speaker
And through that, we wanted to have a dancer to like express what we were saying visually as Sister Ishii was that sister that did that and she's an African arts dancer, traditional African arts dancer.
Origins and Cultural Focus of Arrested Development
00:10:12
Speaker
And just for fun, here's how Bob Dylan contextualized them on an old episode of his far too short-lived theme time radio hour. Here's a song that came out 10 years ago. The album was called Three Years, Five Months, and Two Days in the Life of, and the band's name is Arrested Development.
00:10:30
Speaker
They kind of updated the Sly and the Family Stone sound by the hip-hop generation. After getting signed, Arrested Development recorded and self-produced their debut album, Three Years, Five Months, and Two Days in the Life of, a title they chose to acknowledge the amount of time between forming the group and landing a record deal.
00:10:48
Speaker
The album was released on March 24, 1992, and immediately kicked off an explosive period of activity and popularity for the group. But before I get into the album specifics and that crazy year, let me briefly talk about the state of hip hop in 1992.
00:11:04
Speaker
Now, I know there can be arguments about which specific years of the 80s and 90s actually bound the canonized capital G-A Golden Age of Hip Hop, but no matter where you fall on the polemic bookends, it's safe to say that 92 was smack dab in the middle of the Golden Age.
00:11:21
Speaker
Hip-hop had been crossing over to the mainstream top 40 pop singles chart since the mid 80s when Run-DMC's Walk This Way hit number four on the Billboard Hot 100.
00:11:36
Speaker
By 89 and 90, more than half a dozen hip-hop songs had landed in the mainstream top 10. But they were mostly of the pop-polished, radio-ready, party-rap variety. Like Tone Loke's Wild Thing and Funky Cold Medina.
00:11:48
Speaker
Young MC's Bust a Move. MC Hammer's You Can't Touch This. And the first hip-hop song to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100, the Queen David Bowie cut. Oh, sorry, sorry. I mean, Vanilla Ice's Ice Baby. Alright, stop.
00:12:02
Speaker
Stop, indeed. But by 91, many of the hip-hop songs crossing over to the mainstream top 10 were reflecting the creativity, attitude, grit, and stylistic sonics of the genre a bit more faithfully, like LL Cool J's Around the Way Girl and Naughty by Nature's Jackson 5 interpolating smash hit OPP.
00:12:27
Speaker
In 92, seven hip-hop songs landed on the Billboard Hot 100 Top 10, with two of them reaching all the way to number one and camping out there for a bit. They were Criss Cross's Jump, which was a number one for eight weeks, and Sir Mix-a-Lot's Baby Got Back, which was number one for five weeks.
00:12:43
Speaker
And by the way, as a fun little unplugged aside, the song that hit number one between those two in the summer of 92 was Mariah Carey's cover of I'll Be There from her
1992 Success: Chart-Toppers and Awards
00:12:53
Speaker
legendary unplugged.
00:12:54
Speaker
Don't you know?
00:13:03
Speaker
But as with most genres, the most electrifying, invigorating, and trailblazing stuff wasn't always what was crossing over to the mainstream. Some of the most innovative and groundbreaking musical statements in 92 hip-hop, Eric B. in Rakim's Don't Sweat the Technique, Dr. Dre's The Chronic,
00:13:19
Speaker
Gangstar's Daily Operation and Beastie Boys' Check Your Head weren't exactly showing up on Top 40 Radio. Though, as a side note, I should mention that 92 was the turning point of all that, as the 93 Billboard Hot 100 featured nine hip-hop songs in the top ten, including Naughty By Nature, Salt-N-Pepa, Onyx, and two tracks from Dre and Snoop, and nine more in the top 20, including Tupac and Digital Underground, Diggable Planets, Cypress Hill, and two songs from Ice Cube.
00:13:47
Speaker
I can't believe Today was a good day.
00:13:56
Speaker
All that to say, I see Arrested Development's Three Years album as one of the indelibly foundational keys to the bridging of hip-hop artists getting all manner of mainstream accolades without having to intentionally finesse production choices for radio, or employ extraneously novel story points as emissaries for the music, or worse, try to be comical, whimsical, or quote-unquote palatable by minimizing themselves for access.
00:14:22
Speaker
Arrested Development was radical, political, motivational, and revolutionary, both in message and music. Brothers with the AKs and the 9Ms need to learn how to correctly shoot them.
00:14:33
Speaker
Save those rounds for revolution. Poor whites and blacks bum-rushing them. They wrote thought-provoking, socially conscious, self-reflective lyrics about social injustices, pride, racism, community, revolution, and activism.
00:14:47
Speaker
They promoted multiple elements of African culture and history, and they tied it all together with some of the most singularly imaginative past-meets-future musicality that the early 90s had to offer.
00:14:58
Speaker
And they achieved an incredible amount of notoriety and accolades for doing so, including quadruple platinum certification for their debut album, three top ten hits, two Grammy wins, an MTV Unplugged episode and album, and much more.
00:15:12
Speaker
Okay, so back to March 24, 1992. Three years comes out, Tennessee is picked as the lead single, and a wildly exciting and undoubtedly exhausting year immediately ignited for the group.
00:15:33
Speaker
Tennessee is famously anchored around an iconic one-word lyrical hook lovingly lifted from Prince's Alphabet Street, which I will not include a snippet of here so as not to incur the take-it-down wrath of the Prince estate.
00:15:45
Speaker
And it also features a percussive sample from the brand-new Heavies song B&H,
00:15:54
Speaker
and a lyrical homage to Curtis Blow's 1982 album track, Tough. I don't want a lot, I want just enough. So why is it got to be so damn tough? Right out of the gate, Tennessee went gold, the music video was placed in heavy rotation as an MTV buzz bend clip, and the song triple placed on the charts.
00:16:13
Speaker
Number one on Billboard Hot Rap songs, number one on Billboard R&B singles, and number six on the Billboard Hot 100. In July, they released their second single, the Sly Stone interpolating people every day.
00:16:34
Speaker
which also went gold, also hit number one on the Hot Rap Songs chart, also went top 10 on the R&B and Pop charts, and also got a heavy rotation push on MTV. Additionally, in July, two films came out with Arrested Development song placements.
00:16:49
Speaker
The three years lead-off track, Man's Final Frontier, could be heard in the Eddie Murphy-led rom-com boomerang, and a new track called Oh No could be found on the soundtrack to the We Don't Die We Multiply animated comedy, Bebe's Kids.
00:17:03
Speaker
Oh!
00:17:12
Speaker
In September, Three Years got its first platinum certification and Tennessee won Best Rap Video at the 92 VMAs. And spoiler alert, they repeated the next year and won the same award at the 93 VMAs for People Every Day.
00:17:26
Speaker
In October, they performed on Saturday Night Live. Ladies and gentlemen, arrested development. In November, their brand new song Revolution played over the end credits of Spike Lee's huge Malcolm X film and was also the opening song on the soundtrack.
00:17:51
Speaker
In December, they released Mr. Wendell as a single and 3rd verse, same
00:18:09
Speaker
December also found them playing the MTV Drops the Ball New Year's Eve special alongside 10,000 Maniacs, Alice in Chains, Mary J. Blige, Boyz II Men, Spin Doctors, and others.
00:18:19
Speaker
And if that list wasn't 1992 enough for you, it was also hosted by Halle Berry and Dan Cortez. 22,000 people are expected to be on hand for the world's wildest street party.
00:18:37
Speaker
Yeah! December 92 is also when Arrested Development filmed their phenomenal MTV Unplugged.
00:18:50
Speaker
And it goes a little something like this. They shot it during the same filming session as KD Lang and the fabled and foibled Neil Young episode, the one that he refused to let air, and it took place at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York, which hadn't been used for an unplugged taping since a trio of 1990 episodes, which were with Crosby, Stills, and Nash, the Rat Vixen shared episode, and Aerosmith.
00:19:12
Speaker
Unplugged was in a really cool place at the end of 92. That summer, Mariah Carey's episode and EP release generated a global number one hit and had gone double platinum on its way to quadruple platinum.
00:19:24
Speaker
Eric Clapton had just released his episode as a full album that August, which would go on to sell over 26 million copies worldwide and firmly legitimize the Unplugged concept.
00:19:35
Speaker
However, some of the show's other big critical and commercial standouts are Nirvana, 10,000 Maniacs, Jodeci, Rod Stewart were still to come in the following season. Clapton hadn't even had his big six-win Grammy moment yet, so Unplugged was in that really exciting spot of undoubtedly being on the come-up, but having not yet officially arrived, which often provides a really cool window of unpredictability and creative risk-taking.
00:19:59
Speaker
I'll dig into more detail on Arrested Development's Unplugged performance in just a second, but for now, let's complete that year-long timeline. In January 1993, Three Years was officially certified double platinum.
00:20:11
Speaker
In February, Arrested Development appeared on In Living Color, and they also won two Grammys, Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group for Tennessee, and one of the Big Four, Best New Artist, being the first hip-hop group to do so.
00:20:25
Speaker
The Best New Artist is...
00:20:30
Speaker
Arrested Development. They also performed People Every Day during the broadcast. And in March of 93, they won Best Rap Album at the Soul Train Awards, their MTV Unplugged episode was broadcast and its companion album was released, and three years, five months, and two days in the life of officially turned one year old.
Visual Storytelling in Unplugged Performance
00:20:50
Speaker
What a ride. so in the midst of all that craziness it would have been completely understandable if arrested development would have just phoned in their unplugged performance but they did nothing of the sort instead they delivered one of the most musically and visually adventurous unplugs of the whole run I won't go beat by beat.
00:21:08
Speaker
You can listen to the album yourself, which I recommend, or even better, stream the episode on Paramount+, plus which I highly recommend if it's an option for you. But just to give you an overview, it features the six core members plus 11 other singers, musicians, and dancers on stage.
00:21:26
Speaker
The stage itself is full of storytelling visuals in every nook and cranny. They played eight songs from three years and three completely new non-album musical interludes.
00:21:36
Speaker
Their live acoustic sampling chops were insanely on point as they interpolated Sly Stone, Minnie Riperton, Earth, Wind & Fire, Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, and more.
00:21:47
Speaker
and their instrumental arsenal ran the gamut from a plugged-in turntable to a homemade horn with two drummers and a trio of percussionists falling somewhere in the middle. Even just the opening two minutes features Baba OJ's goosebump-inducing spoken word intro backed by an atmospheric flute i
00:22:08
Speaker
that flows into the familiar vocal hook of Steve Miller's Fly Like an Eagle
00:22:16
Speaker
that flows into an interlude snippet of Tennessee,
00:22:30
Speaker
which flows into a Sly Stone transforms into the bass line of many Rippertons when it comes down to it,
00:22:51
Speaker
so that their first official song of the set list, Give a Man a Fish, can finally drop in.
00:23:02
Speaker
It's an insanely cool and creative sonic table setting for what's to come, and it's wild to think they were able to craft such a unique unplugged during an already head-spinning schedule. I mean, the Harlem Renaissance evoking jazzy interlude of the getting,
00:23:20
Speaker
up the back-to-back joyful explosion of fishing for religion,
00:23:32
Speaker
Into the Junior Wells harmonica hook drive of Mama's Always On Stage.
00:23:42
Speaker
Go ahead, Wendell.
00:23:45
Speaker
relaxed and regrooved unplugged exclusive version of mr wedell
00:24:00
Speaker
Okay, okay. I gotta to stop because I don't want to steal too much thunder from my jam-packed chat with Speech, Ishii, and Razadan. So let's get into it. Here's my unplugged, revisited chat with Arrested Development.
00:24:13
Speaker
I've got the utmost pleasure to be joined on the show today by three members of the uniquely Southern hip hop collective that I call hometown heroes, but that the late Baba OJ would often refer to as the dynamic, the sensational, the phenomenal, the revolutionary musical vagabond family of the South arrested development.
00:24:32
Speaker
but what <unk> That's right. Speech. Ishii, Razadhan, thank you all for coming Unplugged Revisited to revisit your 92 episode of MTV Unplugged. Word up, man. Thank you.
00:24:44
Speaker
It's pleasure to be here. i love that introduction. Awesome. I know. why why try to Why try to top it when it's already been done so perfectly, right? All right, well, let's set the stage for this discussion by talking a little bit about that whirlwind year that y'all experienced between your debut record coming out in March 92 and your Unplugged episode being broadcast in March of 93. So just to list a few notable moments from that sort of 365-day window.
00:25:14
Speaker
So you release three years, five months, and two days in the life of, which goes double platinum within the first year on its way to quadruple platinum. You release three singles that all go gold and land in the top 10 across rap, hip hop, and pop charts, and including three number ones within that mix.
00:25:32
Speaker
You win two Grammy Awards, including the huge Best New Artist Award. Your song, Revolution, plays over the end credits of Spike Lee's Malcolm X and kicks off the soundtrack as the lead single.
00:25:43
Speaker
And oh, yeah, by the way, you also filmed an episode of MTV Unplugged that aired essentially a year to the day after three years was first released. So, I mean, I get winded just reading that not even everything list. So how in the world did you all navigate and survive that sort of awesome 92, 93 craziness?
00:26:04
Speaker
Wait, let me. Right. As Raza so nicely pulls his Grammys. And is that a VMA? Got a moon man back. This would be the only time that this makes sense. There we go. Look at that.
00:26:17
Speaker
That year was crazy. it was It was like a whirlwind because I remember um Tennessee being a buzz clip, right? And then it blew up. MTV buzz clip. MTV bu buzz clip. And then it blew up. Next thing I know, we're on tour, a Chitlin Circuit tour. yep And we were just moving from place to place to place to place. And you know ah I remember we did a show and I looked to the right of me and Lennon Kravis is on the stage with us. And I'm like, what?
00:26:44
Speaker
Yeah. It was just so much happening the time, but it was, it was, it was a lot of good energy and it was, everything was just moving so fast. Yeah. I was just thinking about all of the stuff that he said. It it was, um that was like a super, super tour.
00:26:59
Speaker
We're like tour babies at that point, learning how to like really tour, you know, like it was awesome. Got to learn about a lot of like For me, learning about a lot of brands, you know, endorsements and stuff like that, getting to work with a lot of different people.
00:27:16
Speaker
It was really a good um catalog builder. You know what I'm saying? and It was a good time. was good time. Yeah, I mean, for me, it was amazing, but it was also overwhelming because everything you just mentioned, Will, you know, obviously was happening.
00:27:31
Speaker
And then simultaneously, like Ishii was saying, we were touring club to club to club, venue to venue. We were touring overseas. So we were doing overseas work. We were working on, you know, in the studio for songs like Revolution.
00:27:44
Speaker
We were working on this piece with Unplugged. So what it felt like for me is like it was just like a very extremely busy schedule. And Unplugged was just sort of like tucked into that extremely busy already existing schedule. Yeah. That had a lot to do with a lot of different things and all of it was new for us. So we were learning to all at the same time. So it's one thing to be an established act and to have like, you know, hundreds of interviews in a given week.
00:28:15
Speaker
And then all these shows, all these tours, award shows, all of this stuff. But it's another thing to add to that, all of it being new to you. You know what i mean? So, yeah. You know, yeah, so it was it was definitely a tough thing.
00:28:28
Speaker
And to add to that, lastly, think Ishii was probably 17? was 16 when we came out. Yeah, and I was 21. Roz was probably 21, 20. you know. yeah so you know Yeah, and there was no grit for that.
00:28:41
Speaker
It was just like being creative. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I hear that that. That's definitely that's a that's a young person's game to be able to do all that within a year. That's for sure.
00:28:52
Speaker
So I know you filmed your Unplugged in ah like December of that year, like you're saying, kind of in the middle of it. Do you remember where exactly in that timeline, like the offer that Unplugged came through? Like how long did you have to prepare between knowing you were getting it and having to to actually go film it?
00:29:09
Speaker
So if y'all remember, i know for me, I don't, I remember us, and I want to say it was Sire. SIR Studios. SIR. Yes. I remember Mary J. Blige was also preparing for a tour during that exact same time. So we were hanging with her. think Jodeci. Weren't we also doing Saturday Night Live? was something else we were playing at the same time too, right?
00:29:35
Speaker
Yeah. It was Saturday Night Live. We had Saturday Night Live soon. So we're practicing all of that, and I think that's what made it easier. And also for me, I do remember getting the... I remember us having like two days or three days to prepare.
00:29:49
Speaker
and And for me as a producer, I remember so far at that time, I think, I might be wrong, but I think Tribe Called Quest and LL were the only hip-hop artists to ever do an unplug.
00:30:00
Speaker
And then we were third. So it all came together really quick. And from a business standpoint, EMI... I learned that they were trying to do well in their fourth quarter. So they wanted to purposely rush this out in order for them to capitalize on the success of the album and sort of do well in their fourth quarter.
00:30:21
Speaker
So I think I was in on a business meeting with that. And um again, learning all of this stuff, like, what do they mean by that? What's going on with that? And then us doing this album. So it was definitely a ah tripped out moment. And then we brought in Mark Batson as a producer, who is one of the producers under Dr. Dre.
00:30:42
Speaker
At the time, he was a good friend of ours. And a master composer. So obviously we had our initial album out, but we wanted help with transforming it into a fully live thing.
00:30:54
Speaker
So he was sort of like the music supervisor of that and music director of of helping us to, you know, transform it to all the way live. So, yeah, he was very instrumental in helping us.
00:31:06
Speaker
Wow. But you know, the good thing about it, when things were thrown at us at that time, we were so prepared because we rehearsed all the time. So, you know, prior to us coming out, we were rehearsed eight hours a day at this place called Rehearse Too Much here in Atlanta.
00:31:22
Speaker
Yeah. And we rehearsed all the time. So we were just prepared. So, you know, if we had to get prepared for something in a small period of time, a short period of time, we were able to do it. So it was it was great. Just, I remember the process being fun. i know that much.
00:31:37
Speaker
and And I will say for me, like in today's times, artists like Dolce, for instance, and what she just did on the Grammys, right? Reminds me at least of what we were doing in 92 and 93, I should say. Like unplugged, meaning these jazz interludes, the sort of the rearrangements of the original tracks, having dancers like obviously Ishii is our dancer, but like, and I know you did all the choreography, but I remember like Fulani from Gumbo was part of a dance team. Yeah, uh-huh. And we had done some, like you had done some like routines for jazz, like, you know, the Gittin, for instance, was that whole routine. It was kind of paying homage to the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance. Exactly. So, you know, we were sort of incorporating way more.
00:32:21
Speaker
Yeah, we did all that in that small room. Exactly. Exactly. We were kind of practicing for about three things yeah at the same time. Unplugged, S&L, and tour. Yeah.
00:32:35
Speaker
In tour, yeah. And we were in front of a live audience that night. yeah so So like we had to do it in you know maybe one take, if I remember correctly. We just did it one take. We killed it, though. It was awesome. You guys seem to have like this uniquely creative space carved out within like the 92 hip-hop scene. And I mean, this is the same year as Dre's Chronic and Eric B. and Rakim's Don't Sweat the Technique and Gangstar's Daily Operation, Beastie Boys Check Your Head, all that sort of stuff.
00:33:02
Speaker
How did it feel to get tapped to actually do kind of what you were saying earlier? You guys were actually the first hip hop unplugged devoted to a single group because that LL, Tribe, Dayla and MC Light, that was all one show. That was the ah Yo Unplugged sort of crossover collaboration show.
00:33:20
Speaker
Wow. ah beyond the but So you guys were actually the first, you know, unplugged devoted to a hip hop group. So, yeah. How did it feel within that 92 space? You know, it's not like there wasn't any competition. So for you guys to get that tap, how did it feel?
00:33:32
Speaker
Great. ah great It felt great ah because, you know, one thing I can say about Arrested Development, we've always been a ah strong live performance group. So I think it gave us the opportunity to kind of show all the talents and the gifts of everybody that's part of the group. So.
00:33:51
Speaker
It was just awesome to get on stage and dance. And even for me, like to be able to sing and dance and do all that the same time and then kind of cross genres, not just doing African dancing, but doing a little bit of tap, a little bit of ballet, a little bit of modern because I got a chance to dance on the grand piano. That was pretty cool. I always wanted to do that.
00:34:10
Speaker
So it was just, it was amazing. Like it was really, really cool. And And just to have the opportunity our first time out, you know what I mean, was even better because it takes people years to get those top opportunities. So super grateful.
00:34:24
Speaker
Yeah, I was going to say, I think we just um we hit the rainbow. Like, you know, when you get um like that group. The group play, everybody's um fresh out of school, really focused.
00:34:37
Speaker
And the the creative love that was in it just allowed us to just kind of like ride that wave. When I think about it, even when you're when I hear and I think about it now, i'm like, that was a lot of stuff happening at one time that was like some very pivotal moments in our career to like help us to, you know, really have these conversations, you don't think about it, you know, but I'm glad it, um i'm I'm totally glad for it.
00:35:02
Speaker
But yeah, when you go back, when I think about it, um the visual, like the feature saying, like, from the, a musician's perspective, I could see the room now and remember all the players coming in, like, what is it, Cash? Cash?
00:35:16
Speaker
And enough Juju. Juju. Kundalini. And man was like the, the um ah my cast from Milwaukee, all of the percussion players coming in.
00:35:27
Speaker
it was a lot of people and a lot of stuff happening. But somehow the fluidity just kind of kept going. You know, so that's at least that's the creative side. I can't imagine what um but speech was experienced to him, a headliner and and whoever was kind of doing the more, um you know, managerial and really handling things because, you I know, like you said, they were they were throwing it on you.
00:35:54
Speaker
And now when you look at it, you get I'm sure you use it for your own um your own label. But it's like, wow, who does get that kind of responsibility? I think it's because we had such a fluidity that they just said, you know, they can handle it.
00:36:08
Speaker
you know Yeah. And I mean, I remember you know conversations and sort of groupthink about like, OK, hip hop obviously is based on two turntables and a microphone, really.
00:36:21
Speaker
And we're hip hop. But at the same time, already when we were touring, we were touring with drums, which was Roz. So we already had elements of live in our music, which was not the norm. The only band to do that prior to us was Stetson Sonic. So we were already doing something, ah you know, sort of against the grain as we were touring around the world musically.
00:36:46
Speaker
And then we started adding, as time were gone, bass players like Foley and others, um you know Kamal and and stuff like that. So it started to, like Roz was saying, we already had this sort of fluidity in our sound that it made sense to try to broaden the scope of what we were going to bring to the table for our Unplugged instead of just stick to sort of a turntable and microphone setup, right? And then as far as how we felt about the opportunity, given that, you know, the chronic was out, obviously, you know, so many legends were already doing their thing during that exact time for us. I think the reputation that we had was that we're groundbreaking.
00:37:30
Speaker
So I think MTV wanted to, you know, feature us like Ross said, because they knew we could, We could bring some some additional aspects to what hip hop already brings to the table. We could bring that plus some additional aspects.
00:37:45
Speaker
And we were just the thing to talk about. It so it reminds me very much of Dolce for this year. She is the talk of a lot of people because of the fact that she's bringing something fresh to this particular time of hip hop.
00:38:01
Speaker
And we were doing the same thing. It reminds me of when the Fugees came out and Lauryn Hill and the Fugees was bringing something very unique to hip hop at that time. And so when that happens, people really want to make sure that that particular group or artist gets a chance to showcase what they're bringing to the table.
00:38:19
Speaker
And so I think we were just that artist at the time. So whoever played Unplugged before us, for me, it wasn't a hip hop group. I think it was a rock group. It felt like we should be next.
00:38:32
Speaker
So when that opportunity came, it was like, yeah, it's this is dope, especially because it's MTV and we're like MTV babies at this point. Like, yeah yeah you know, we're doing the beach and we're yeah in the Hamptons. every You know, we got the MTV. It's like, yeah, this is perfect.
00:38:48
Speaker
i I do remember that. I was thinking that like, oh, okay, this is dope, you know. to do this unplugged in, especially when it was turned into an album. and Come on, man. go Another unique thing about our crew was that during that time period, we were doing, and I hope it's during this, maybe I'm wrong about the time period, but we were doing rock festivals like Lollapalooza. So I know our Lollapalooza was 93.
00:39:12
Speaker
Was it? so I thought it was 94. Was that 94, 94? No, I think it was definitely 93 or two. Because we did Woodstock too. Remember that? Yeah, that was later. That was 94, 95. Yeah, was Woodstock, yeah.
00:39:23
Speaker
Okay. I think we were doing like Lollapalooza, which was Arrested Development was the only hip hop crew on on the lineup, other than if you want to include Rage Against the Machine. So Rage Against the Machine, Fishbone, Arrested Development, Primus, so on and so forth.
00:39:38
Speaker
We were already as well, just like primed to break the genre barriers that was happening at the time. So, you know, you had hip hop and you had alternative and, you know, the Seattle sound.
00:39:50
Speaker
We were already sort of just, you know, making our way into that, to that space. Like, nah, we're going to, we're going to switch it up and and do some shows with rock groups. And, and so it was just, it was a very interesting time. So I understood why we got that call as opposed to some of the other acts at the time. So I'm done.
00:40:09
Speaker
I love it. I love it. I'm curious, um you know, kind of talking about all these unique elements that that you guys had, where not only is it foundationally rooted in hip hop, but y'all had so many extra layers woven
Stage Visuals: Pan-African and Southern Motifs
00:40:22
Speaker
in there.
00:40:22
Speaker
What were some of the conversations you were having at the time about how to approach your Unplugged with that dynamic infusion of so much African history and culture in the song choices and the stage design? In fact, let's Let's start there with the stage aesthetics. You've got those life music banners on the Pan-African flags and the wagon wheel propped up on the piano. There's barrels and buckets and milk jugs and moss all over the stage.
00:40:47
Speaker
Tell us about the visual storytelling you were looking to do with your Unplugged stage setup. My first thought to that was, if you've been to Arrested Development show before Unplugged, it's just that. Yeah.
00:41:01
Speaker
You know what I'm saying? Like, that's our stage. And so when it I think when it became time to do that, it was like, and okay, let's bring our stage to TV. You know what I mean?
00:41:12
Speaker
That's exactly what we did. That's exactly right. I ain't got nothing to add to it. For us, it was just bringing up because we always tour with the Pan-African flag. yeah We always tour the ba hay bales, the jugs.
00:41:26
Speaker
And shout out to Peebo, who was our stage designer. We came up with the design, but Peebo was the one that had to execute it. yeah So he executed it every night throughout the world. The clothes hanger, remember? The clothes hangers.
00:41:39
Speaker
Yeah, all of that. And that was just us trying to sort of bring that that rural southern energy mixed with Pan-African, you know, African liberation type looks, you know, saying so a mixture of those things.
00:41:51
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Probably if it wasn't for the animal. We probably had some goats and some chickens or something. We had animal um restrictions on, you know, abuse to animal type of things where you couldn't bring livestock.
00:42:07
Speaker
And so, you know, we had to sort of make arrangements to where we didn't have any livestock and stuff. like we wouldve We would have done that. Oh, man. Well, now next time I watch it, I'm going to have that extra layer in my head now, too. I'll just I'll plug them in visually myself.
00:42:22
Speaker
That's awesome. Well, let's talk also a little bit about um the sonic storytelling that that you guys did on your Unplugged. You had some conventional acoustic instruments like piano, bass, guitar, two drummers, actually.
00:42:34
Speaker
Then you also had a turntable, of course. And then you also had like a handful of of homemade instruments. Like one of my favorite visuals of the whole show is during Give a Man a Fish, where in the same frame you can see Headliner on the turntable and David Pleasant playing what looks like a a horn made out of like a Quaker oats can or or something like that. Yeah. Talk to us about those instrumental elements, the acoustics, turntables and handmade folk instruments.
00:43:00
Speaker
They all seem to have a specific place and a purpose in creating y'all's unique live sound. All of this stuff is um is an organic sound that was already within the elements of the music created. Probably in that stage, everybody was just getting to bring out. You could see it visually for the people. But every night, if you go to a rest development show, you'll still get all of this stuff.
00:43:22
Speaker
Ishi would have stuff with her. Yeah, tambourines and cowbells. Some bongos would be set somewhere. It's always with the anticipation, too, I think, of, like, acoustic.
00:43:33
Speaker
you know I definitely, yeah I remember us being very intentional about like having African instruments mixed with um basically people that didn't have the means to get the real instruments.
00:43:45
Speaker
The way instruments were initially created was just making the best out of what you had. So we wanted to represent that whole level of creativity and culturalism. So, yeah, so we wanted to have all those different kind of sounds on purpose. We had the kalimbas, the thumb pianos going on throughout the performance, too. So all of that was on purpose. And it was sort of like a cultural orchestra that we were trying to create. So, you know, a lot of different hand instruments and and acoustic instruments.
00:44:11
Speaker
It reminded me of a revival. You know how you see a church, people just grab stuff, make the sounds. So that's what it gave me that very much. So very. Yeah. Tent revival. Tent revival. Exactly.
00:44:24
Speaker
Yeah. Very, very homegrown, down home, that yeah real soul. you know There we go. I love it. You know, i love a good revival, man. Southern Pride Funk revival. Oh, yeah.
00:44:35
Speaker
Yeah. And real, real everyday people is to say like sort of um giving credence to the community getting involved in a sense, like from a visual standpoint, just like the community is involved.
00:44:49
Speaker
Beautiful. and And speaking of those instruments, I was kind of just curious as a side note, um did you catch any static from MTV about having the the very plugged in turntable or at that time where they kind of getting a little more lax with if ah if one or two of the instruments actually required electricity?
00:45:05
Speaker
Yeah, um that's a great question. I think that they definitely relaxed with it. we didn't I don't remember us getting any real slack with that. yeah um Because, you know, of course, what I'm plugged, and maybe I'm wrong, maybe the other groups that I'm about to mention, but a lot of groups still had electric guitars and stuff like that. And maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I just don't remember it correctly. But like, you know, there was some plugging in.
00:45:27
Speaker
Yeah, one of the most famous ones was actually just a couple months prior to y'all. ah Bruce Springsteen did his Unplugged and he he came out, did like one song on acoustic guitar and then just the whole band was just electrified the rest of the night. Like it was it was just like a normal ah Bruce Springsteen concert. And so when they put out the album, they actually crossed out the U in the end. And so his album, his Unplugged album actually said Plugged.
00:45:52
Speaker
Right. Exactly. is Yeah. I do remember this because during that time period, if you look at any of our records down at the bottom right hand side, you'll see power to the vinyl.
00:46:04
Speaker
And we were doing campaign to make sure that vinyl records would survive at the major label. So we wanted to make sure that that the turntables were still represented because we're hip hop crew. So like, right, right. um Yeah, if you look at the bottom on the backside of any of our AD records during that time period, you'll see what I think was power to the vinyl.
00:46:25
Speaker
And like I said, we were literally doing yeah behind the scenes like work to rally major labels to not like freeze out making vinyl, to make sure that vinyl was still being made. So we were actually activists behind the scenes doing that. So we wanted to make sure that we also represented vinyl on the show.
00:46:46
Speaker
Oh, that's amazing. That's so cool. Yeah. And for any vinyl fans out there, before we actually started recording, I did go ahead and put plea in to speech to repress the vinyl because my original run is getting a little dusty. So we'll see what happens. Fingers crossed everybody out there for that.
00:47:05
Speaker
so So moving into the actual performance, um the whole show kicks off with this like incredibly beautiful sequence of Baba OJ's spoken word intro backed by that flute, which moves into the vocal hook of Steve Miller's Fly Like an Eagle, into Arlie's interlude snippet from Tennessee, into Nadira doing the Sly Stone vocal hook.
00:47:25
Speaker
And then that mini Ripperton bass line drops in to start Give a Man a Fish, And that whole journey all happens like that's just the first two minutes of the performance. Like, how did that whole opening sequence come together? Because that is just jam packed, creative beauty. Well, first of all, thank you so much.
00:47:44
Speaker
um For me personally, as a producer, intros have always been the most important part of the show to me. So I wanted to make sure that, number one, we featured that acoustic, tribal,
00:47:56
Speaker
traditional indigenous sort of energy to the whole show and have Baba as the elder sort of start the ceremony. So to me, that was just important. Me and Baba wrote that intro and he memorized it and just went for it, but he wrote a lot of it himself.
00:48:13
Speaker
I wrote some of it just to give him an idea of what I was hoping to accomplish. And he wrote the rest because he talks about the history of his life really and you know, sort of goes through all these various major um accomplishments or life ah events that he's that he's seen with his own eyes into where we are at that point.
00:48:32
Speaker
And then going into like the whole time keeps on. Yeah, time keeps on slipping, slipping. Yeah. So like um that to me was just sort of saying how much has already happened yes and that the movement moves on. Like here we are now, we're continuing this movement in a sense.
00:48:50
Speaker
Yeah. And then going off course to give a man a fish, which happened to be the song we usually started our shows with anyway, like before unplugged, we usually started with a man a fish. So we just found a new way to approach that usual intro.
00:49:03
Speaker
Cause I think at that time we were doing color purple intro. yeah we were So on our regular show, on our regular show, we was doing a ah song from color purple. I forget the, that the very, yeah.
00:49:14
Speaker
Yeah. know When they were in the field, they feel yeah yeah when they were either getting, going through the rite of passage or something like that you know that. We used to use that. And so we didn't want to do that for unplugged, but we just sort of created a new version of that in a sense and let Baba speak his thing and then go on to give a man a fish. Yeah, it was it was crazy. I was telling speech. I listened to the album this morning. Right.
00:49:38
Speaker
And I had listened to it in some time. I revisit it, you know, every now and then. But I mean, to hear Baba. Yeah. And, you know, he's no longer with us. It just did something to me today yeah um because I was so young back then. Yeah. I was a teenager. I'm 50 So it's like so many years have gone by and just to hear it. And I think the whole show was just, I was like, wow, that was amazing. But I have to say one of my favorites that really ah stood out to me was Mr. Wendell.
00:50:12
Speaker
I love the way. The way we did it. The way we did it. It was just so dope. And then going into people every day, was just, it was laid back. It was so dope.
00:50:23
Speaker
Yeah, it was it was amazing. The whole show, um I appreciate it then, of course, but but when you're in it, sometimes it's like everything is moving so fast, but when you're years removed from it and you can go back and listen, you're like, wow, that was, we really had a dope album.
00:50:40
Speaker
i gotta check it out I haven't heard it. I haven't seen, i haven't listened to that album in decades. Let me take you a little bit back. So the the thing that Speech and Bob wrote together, that took Bob about a month to to learn.
00:50:57
Speaker
I remember this because he was, you remember? It took him a month to learn because we were doing it. yeah Every night he would have a little bit more of it. And by the time we got to MTV Unplugged, which you're right I don't think we were originally writing for MTV Unplugged, was it?
00:51:14
Speaker
I feel like it was a part of the show. And then Somehow you added some more stuff or whatever. But by the time we got to end MTV Unplugged and he had finally memorized it, he memorizing and did it in the show, um some shows before.
00:51:28
Speaker
But when he did it there, man, I just brought yeah um and brought the tear to my eye because it was so beautiful with all of it. the the orchestrated how it was orchestrated together it's definitely a body of work that i'm glad i was a part of like you but when you go and really really hear the whole ensemble i feel like we're the the first to do the orchestra even though that wasn't the orchestra but we orchestrated like i'm sure we were the first to do something like that you know and when you hear baba's part it's like
00:52:02
Speaker
Wow, he finally got it. yeah so lets move you know yeah And I love, too, what was beautiful, like the people that were there, the audience, they were sitting on the floor. yeah you had people standing up. yeah So it was like it was more like a it felt like a family reunion gathering versus a performance.
00:52:19
Speaker
It just felt like yeah we were all at someone's home and just jamming. but just yeah it So it had that really good vibe. And I remember after we were done, people were like, wow. Like it was even the people from MTV were like blown away.
00:52:34
Speaker
So it was an incredible, incredible bit experience. Yeah, that that's so true. there There were some audience members that even made it up on stage by by the end of people every day. they I was like, wait, are they are they in the band? Oh, no. pulled them up. They're just making their way up.
00:52:49
Speaker
Yes, they were. So people were behind us. They were behind us, too. I was playing the drums with that double drum thing. That was people standing behind us. So that was another part to to play um double drums with Juju, both of us knowing when and when to come in and when to go out, and because I was doing vocals, too, and dancing it sometimes. Yeah.
00:53:13
Speaker
That was like crazy. It was crazy. Yeah. That was a very orchestrated situation. That just to, just to go back to Baba OJ's part for a second. I, it's so interesting to hear y'all talk about that. It, that it might've taken a little bit for like, like his brain to maybe get it all locked in place because that delivery felt like it was not remembered, but like just coming like straight from his bones. Like it,
00:53:34
Speaker
Yeah, it opens that show in a way of you're just like, especially as a dumb little 12 year old watching it. I was like, I have never seen anything like this. Like I am I am locked in everything that comes in.
00:53:45
Speaker
And ah and yeah, then towards the end, like even when he comes out and and even he's dancing as well. likeably Sometimes it's fun just to go back and and look at at old videos, like live videos of y'all shows um just to see him dancing. Cause yeah, I have no skills. So, so even as a young buck, I just took all of his moves. I was like, I can do that. Right. Right.
00:54:09
Speaker
So wait, one more thing. So in Baba's defense, because I know he would say this, it wasn't about him learning his lines. It was about him being able to deliver it the way that speech wanted him to. gotcha yeah Because he was the perfectionist. yeah He would say that, I'm going to do it right when I come with it.
00:54:32
Speaker
It's going to be right. So he cant he came with it. We were just like, oh, man, you did it. Let piggyback off of you because but like I really got to shout out, Baba. Rest in peace, my brother. Because Baba, this is bringing me to tears now. but Baba, um When I met Baba, he was a banker. He wasn't a hip hop artist. He wasn't an artist.
00:54:54
Speaker
He never toured anywhere with any music, none of that. He was a banker. And he was 57 at the time, which is a year older than what I am now. So he was basically 57, asked to be in a rap group back in the 90s or late 80s, actually.
00:55:07
Speaker
Anyway, my point is Baba jumped headfirst into this whole hip hop experience. Mm-hmm. and really owned it. And this dude just owned his part. Like this dude just owned it. Like Baba came on the stage every night before Unplugged and of course for Unplugged and just owned it.
00:55:25
Speaker
And just, he was so important to the success of the group, but also to people, their curiosity and their admiration for who we are as a group.
00:55:36
Speaker
He was so important to that, like worldwide. like In Africa, in Australia, like people would bow to Baba when we would go to indigenous communities in Australia, like for the Aboriginal community, people would bow to that brother and like give him so much praise. And same with in a lot of African communities we went to when we toured South Africa, just bowing to him, like, because from their culture, that's what it meant to have this elder there, you know?
00:56:03
Speaker
And I'm just so so proud to have him in the group and we miss him so much. And, um, You know he meant so much to just what we were putting out there. And I think it's a big reason why so many people had to pay attention because of him, you know, like, you know, what he brought and just how unique it was to see an old man in hip hop at the time.
00:56:24
Speaker
yeah Right. Yeah. me i your Nope, there you go. I'm a I think I'm a Bama, yeah. Oh, that's amazing. I know, right? Love it. ah All right. well um Well, let's talk a little bit about, because one of one of my favorite things to talk about with Unplugged is is the far too few, in my eyes, hip-hop groups that actually got to do an Unplugged, because I really love the concept of sort of live acoustic sampling. um You know, the art of transforming these intricate sound collages and multi-layered samples from the album.
00:56:56
Speaker
and kind of distilling them all down into ah into a live setting. when When you take a song like Natural that's built around that earth, wind and fire, sunshine hook, how does that creative process play out within the band to get that sample to actually translate live just as powerfully as it does on the album?
00:57:15
Speaker
Yeah, that's a great question. Like for me, again, this this was a very experiment and so experiment of period of time for hip hop, but also for music. I mean, you know, during those late eighty s early 90s,
00:57:32
Speaker
music was going through a revolution. It it reminded me of the sixties where I think it was the most, and and in hip hop, we call it the golden era because it was the most innovative across the board musically. I mean, there's so much going on. So I say all of that to say as musicians,
00:57:51
Speaker
which I'm not, I mean, I'm a producer, but I wasn't a i don't play an instrument. So that the musicians that were playing instruments on our show, they just really wanted to do service to the originals, you know meaning the original like Earth, Wind & Fire sample, which is what we what I'd used on Natural, and then pay homage to how we flipped it for the record. You know what mean? So...
00:58:15
Speaker
But you know at that time, this was pre-Roots, who the Roots would do an excellent job at bringing the very unique loop sound and hip hop aesthetic, but still have it 100% or at least 99% live.
00:58:35
Speaker
They would do that later. At our time, we weren't as focused on trying to make sure it sounded exactly like the record. Because those times that time period was so intermixed. Like I was saying, i mean we were we were doing rock tours.
00:58:50
Speaker
We were doing you know stuff with Nirvana and Primus. Yeah, we were doing reggae shows. Reggae shows. So we were we were able, and it was allowed in a sense during that particular era, to take it further and and just to try different things. And so...
00:59:08
Speaker
I think we're finally getting back to that because we did a Roots tour with the Roots in December of last year. it was this year. It was the summer of of last year. It was August and September. Okay, so August and September, we did a Roots tour with them.
00:59:22
Speaker
And in my opinion, at least, they have finally, I don't even know if they just started doing it, but they've opened up. the musicality of their show, similar to what we did in the nineties, but right now where they stick to the groove of the main track, but then they go far out. Like they do their, um their biggest song, um,
00:59:44
Speaker
But then it went about what's that song called? With that, Erykah Badu. That, that song, they really went there with like drum and bass on it. They like, they really took that song through a metamorphosis in their live show that reminded me of how we did on MTV Unplugged back in 93.
01:00:03
Speaker
So, i mean, I don't know. I'm just saying we tried to stick to the music and at the same time we dared to go a lot of places, too. So we did both. Yeah, yeah. I love that. And Ishii, you already kind of mentioned Mr. Wendell, but I was going to ask that that sort of relaxed groove version with the flute and the acoustic guitar.
01:00:21
Speaker
Was that an unplugged specialty or had y'all already been doing it that way in concert? And we never did it that way. Never did it that way. That was totally the first. Oh, yeah nice. It was dope. I was listening to it today and I was like, yes, I love this. So I would love to hear like that more. It was incredible.
01:00:39
Speaker
It was. And I think, you know, yeah um if I'm not mistaken, to me, I felt like our single, I think that was our single at the time, like in the regular world, like outside. Exactly. Yeah.
01:00:50
Speaker
Because of that, it was already a hit song the way it was. And so to me, I felt like this is an opportunity where the song is already doing what it's doing out there the way it's already constructed you know on the record.
01:01:04
Speaker
Why don't we do something 100% unique with this particular song? And the words of that song, I think, was probably the biggest hook of that song. So I mean, the sure, the music meant something to people too, but The words of that song, to this day, I talk to people who say, you know, my view of the homeless is because of the song, Mr. Wendell. So like, I think we knew that we had a chance to do a lot of different stuff on the underlay of that song while still keeping the lyrics so that the lyrics can still be potent for people. But the underlay could be totally something different and even maybe accent the lyrics even more with the way we did it on Unplugged.
01:01:42
Speaker
Yeah, it was beautiful. I think, I think, again, me listening to it now in my full adult self, it was like I was thinking about the whole show. It was like we we we entertain, but we also educate it.
01:01:58
Speaker
yeah And it was also um a collaborative celebration with the audience. yeah So it was like they were a part of the show, too, if that makes sense. yeah So when I when I heard Mr. Wendell, it really resonated with me differently because of how it was
Cultural Authenticity in Music Performance
01:02:15
Speaker
presented.
01:02:15
Speaker
And I was just like, oh, man, I forgot we did it like that. You know, I really loved it. I'm going listen to this record. I loved it.
01:02:24
Speaker
Right, exactly. Well, I'd like to ask about the trio of songs in your unplugged set list that actually weren't on three years. um So we already talked a little bit about time at the beginning.
01:02:36
Speaker
But how about the Gittin, that spoken word skit with Ishii's dance routine and that jazzy piano, bass and drums? What was the inspiration behind that sort of comical interlude? Like how'd that come to be?
01:02:47
Speaker
Well, from a musical standpoint, I was really inspired by Mr. Wiggles by ah Parliament. On the Aqua Boogie album, I forget what it's called. that Maybe it's called Motor Boogie Affair, I think it's called.
01:02:58
Speaker
There's a song on there called Mr. Wiggles. do doo doo dooo do do do do And I always loved that. I was always planning to make a song for Arrested Development using some elements of that.
01:03:10
Speaker
And anyway, long story short, I felt like the Unplugged was a great chance to sort of do an interlude with that energy from it. So it had this swing groove. um And of course, Ishii came up with the dance routines. And I know you used Fulani because he was a dancer. He was in that.
01:03:26
Speaker
I forget who else was on that track. I think it was just me and Fulani. I really loved it. That's my favorite part is that little part in the beginning. I loved I loved it because me, especially again, bringing something to hip hop that you don't regularly see. It was my opportunity growing up ah being traditionally trained in ballet, jazz, and tap, and all that. i was like, ooh, I get to do some extra stuff.
01:03:54
Speaker
And um also just to show people that we are so, we have so many dimensions to our our art. You know what I mean? And um it was it was a beautiful, know,
01:04:07
Speaker
uh homage celebration to the harlem renaissance it was it was a wonderful wonderful thing and i think felonnie did a great job he did he killed y'all y'all felt so good together it was awesome yeah it was fun i remember yeah yeah felonnie felonnie is part of a group called gumbo that at the time i was producing their album anyway so like he was part of our family anyway so yeah no i think that from the time i got in the band is the band always felt like it was um You know, I think speech, Tim, you didn't go to like an art school, but going to an art school, you know, you're not around the traditional people. You know what I mean? Like I went to school with goth kids and, you know what I mean? All kind of kids in Philadelphia. So Arrested Development is like ah going to Juilliard.
01:04:56
Speaker
Yeah. Seriously, like look at all of those people and it was like that all the time. So like when I think about the performances like being actually visually where you can see them visually,
01:05:09
Speaker
that's ah that's a um That was like an every night show, you know? If every night would have been recorded to look at now, wife a lot though a lot of those bands wouldn't last, man, because people would want to see you know more performance. um I mean, ah if you think about it, I mean, really, it's like when you come to the people would say, oh, you guys are like watching a play, you know? Yeah.
01:05:33
Speaker
And so to see it over and over, I'm like, oh, this is like a regular show because there was a lot going on. yeah So being doing that was like, it was it was easier.
01:05:47
Speaker
yeah i think if the band wasn't touring and doing as much stuff, it probably would have been ah maybe a little bit more complicated to get all the people. But since Arrested Development's beginning, at least from my inception,
01:06:00
Speaker
it's always been like a ah carnival, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah. So it's like that's the first one. That's the one where you can just keep watching it it over and over. like the Right? Yeah.
01:06:12
Speaker
So true. The other non-album track that was on Unplugged was... ah Searching for One Soul, which came after Natural. So Ishii, that dynamic dance that you're doing and and the kalimba thumb piano playing behind you, the percussion trio, um talk to us about what you all were, you know, expressing and channeling there, because that was also just such an incredibly beautiful and kind of tender moment in the middle of like some really like frenetic, incredible music as well.
01:06:44
Speaker
ah Thank you so much. You know, for me, again, it it was just about showing the world what we had to offer and just me representing young Black girls, you know what I mean, ah in in that space, in time, in art.
01:07:01
Speaker
So for me, it was just... Really important. Paying homage to my mom. She was one of the first Black-owned dance schools in Atlanta, Georgia. So back in the 60s. Ah, shut up. Billy Gaither. Yeah, Billy Gaither. My mom, rest in peace. yeah But ah it just, you know, for me, it was important to...
01:07:19
Speaker
show that part of me, yeah that extension of of myself, which is my mom and it all, I'm carrying all these people on my back. You know what I mean? These dancers from Judith Jamison, one of my favorites from Alvin Ailey, she was i recently passed.
01:07:34
Speaker
yeah um Debbie Allen, I mean, ah Dance Theater, Harlem, every, you know, so many people that have inspired me, you know, to be um great and excellent.
01:07:46
Speaker
and pave the way. So for me, I just wanted to bring that to it. And I was grateful that I got the freedom, ah you know, to do it, just do what you do, you know, whatever. it was, I felt like it resonated with me first and the audience.
01:08:01
Speaker
And I'll say from a musical standpoint, during our shows, we used to have a section where one of our songs on our first album, Eve of Reality, would play. And Eve Reality by nature is this very like serene nature, sort of, almost like ah Andre 3000's last album, yeah his flute album.
01:08:20
Speaker
like It's almost like a joint from there. And um during that, even during our like what I consider raucous shows, like our hip hop shows, on tour on Lollapalooza, rock crowds like mosh pits.
01:08:34
Speaker
We would then slow down the show on purpose and do this even reality reality where Ishii would dance. And so to me, from a musical producer standpoint, I wanted to make sure we had a chance of something like that on this Unplugged. And that turned out to be what it was. Like, you know, Ishii could do her thing.
01:08:53
Speaker
Yeah. See, even that, I don't like, can you, you can't do that today. Like that was the big moment. Like really like when he just said um even reality, like wow, just like this is like just dancing. This is no band.
01:09:10
Speaker
Right. You know, it's like Ishii's dancing saying and yeah, in front of thousands of people. And it was like, all right, cool. This is a dope song. this is interesting.
01:09:21
Speaker
Yeah, it's crazy. Like just boundaries being broken every every show. you know Yeah, absolutely. one One last question about the set list. um As a viewer, it was certainly um surprising to not get an unplugged version of Tennessee that night. You know, like what drove the decision to not have your huge monster hit like in the set?
01:09:46
Speaker
Gosh, i didn't remember we didn't do that. I know. You know, I think. It was so jam packed. You didn't even miss it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I think. Wait, we didn't do Tennessee. I know. Right. Yeah, I guess not. Wow.
01:09:58
Speaker
Did do some type of vocal to kind of, if you will, sprinkle that in a little bit. Yeah. Pay homage to it. yeah But we didn't do the song, but she did did do a vocal that kind of said,
01:10:13
Speaker
Something that she did every night on the show. Yeah. She sees in the top a little bit. Yeah, yeah she did. She did. Yeah. I mean, to be honest, I don't remember everything, but I remember that that was definitely part of our playbook was to not be as predictable to always do things.
01:10:31
Speaker
every one of our top selling records, you know, like not always do that, especially if we felt like we gave you enough to really chew on and and didn't rob you, you know, of, of some special moment.
01:10:43
Speaker
Like, so we, we tended to do that sometimes. Like we just didn't give you everything every time. And I think that was apparently one of those times we did that. Yeah. So what I was going to say, Will, is that we just were probably, Speech is probably going to announce it at some point.
01:10:58
Speaker
they um They actually recorded it, but they didn't put it on there. And then, you know, we kind of have those files still.
01:11:08
Speaker
Well, if that's true, break breaking news. Is that true, Ross? Is that true? Oh, man. Wouldn't that be dope if they like recorded it, then they saved it for like the big anniversary. Exactly. Yeah. We're waiting on that deluxary issue. Yeah. Right.
01:11:25
Speaker
and that's funny. That's amazing. You heard it here first. That's right. Oh, man. That would be great. That's amazing. Yeah, that would be great. We we got to an unplugged tour. Oh, yeah. I'd like to revisit that album and in order. You know what i mean? Let me tell you, when you hear this album, going to be inspired. i am I'm going to listen to it today.
01:11:42
Speaker
This is amazing. I'm going to listen to it. I'm going to listen to it today. It was dope. Yeah, that that's a whole other level because that that that is like a musical... That was a blowout.
01:11:52
Speaker
That was a blowout. Yeah. We've kind of gone over it, but the the level of players yeah that we're around in just that week...
01:12:03
Speaker
was just amazing. All these guys are like, um, folk are playing with Shaka Khan and, uh, Mary J Blige is in ah one room and, um, Jodeci is there and SNL and MTV and all of this at one time.
01:12:19
Speaker
It's like, um, you know, it's like, it's good for the senses. It was, I think, um, but when you think that when I think now the level of players, like, um, Kundalini is like crazy.
01:12:30
Speaker
laly crazy Yeah. dude is just brilliant. You know, brilliant he's literally amazing. Like his, that piano stuff still like when you hear it, just like, oh wow. yeah Yeah. And he was having a great time doing it. Like love your so shots like that was easy. Yeah.
01:12:46
Speaker
ah I will say, Speech, if you've got Paramount+, plus they they just uploaded a big archive. It's not complete, but a big archive of Unplugged. And so if you've got Paramount+, plus you should watch it as well. Because, yeah, it's as amazing as it is to hear it, like seeing it.
01:13:02
Speaker
It's just, it's ah it's a complete buffet. It's a feast for the senses. We'll do that. I'll do that. Yes. yes You know, it's funny because, again, like I haven't listened to that record in probably 20 years. So yeah it'd be good to just watch it and and revisit.
01:13:15
Speaker
Yeah. And you know, the the beautiful thing about um is when it's great, you can always go back and revisit it. facts And it's like timeless. It it never, like when I listened to the Unplugged album, it literally took me right back to that moment when I was a teenager.
01:13:32
Speaker
And the feelings I had when we were creating. yeah And I was like, wow, this is really cool. You know, it just made me feel alive again in that in that space. yeah So I'm so grateful and I encourage everybody to listen to it.
01:13:48
Speaker
Yeah. Perfect. Well, ah last question. um So just last month, Arrested Development released the amazing new track, All I See is Melanin, which you've described as a soul-stirring anthem that pays tribute to the beauty, strength, and unity of the Black community.
Celebration of the Black Community in New Track
01:14:05
Speaker
So Speech, you sound absolutely amazing on it. The bass line is such a killer hook. And as an old-school Atlantan, I really and adore the Freak Nick 96. Shout out.
01:14:15
Speaker
Ah! um Plus, I just always love to hear, you know, new Arrested Development out in the world. um So wonder if you could just tell us about the song's message and about the inspiration that birthed this infectious new track.
01:14:28
Speaker
Yeah. So the the song was just an inspirational song, really, just to inspire the Black diaspora. Of course, everybody from all walks of life and heritages should rock to this.
01:14:41
Speaker
But um it's it was written to inspire the African diaspora. you know Right now, politically, a lot of things are being rolled back that many generations fought to get.
01:14:53
Speaker
So we're sort of saying, look, we love you. We know that you have done amazing things. And we have way more amazing things coming forward in the future. And we see you.
01:15:03
Speaker
And that's what it is. It's just like, we see you. We see you. We are with you. At the end of the day, that's sort of the point of the track. We just released a video for it too. And it's crazy. Ishii co-produced the entire video. She did all the choreography. She came up with the video concept. It was fun. And she's in the video, of course. And then, so it was just ridiculous. It's dope.
01:15:24
Speaker
And I, I speech killed his verse. One love and Farida. It was awesome. So shout out to them. yeah It was amazing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's amazing. It's always a good day when you get an email in your inbox that there's new Arrested Development Media. Thank you.
01:15:39
Speaker
Thank you.
Reflections and Gratitude for MTV Unplugged
01:15:40
Speaker
That's beautiful. All right. Well, Ishii Razadon's speech again. I appreciate you all so much for taking the time to be on the show with me today and for reminiscing about your incredible MTV Unplugged episode.
01:15:53
Speaker
Thank you again. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for having us, man. Thank you for doing it too. Good luck knocking the smile off my face for the next couple weeks after talking to those three.
01:16:03
Speaker
My thanks again to Speech, Ishii, and Ra Zidane for going back more than 30 years with me to talk Unplugged, and for also still giving us new jams, as Arrested Development's new single, All I See Is Melanin, is available now.
01:16:16
Speaker
In fact, here's just a little taste of that to whet your appetite. All I see is Melanie, beautiful Melanie. All I see is Melanie. All I see is Melanie.
01:16:29
Speaker
Love, love, love that
Enduring Quality of Speech's Music
01:16:30
Speaker
bass groove. And even three decades later, speech still just sounds so good. Okay, I feel both spiritualized and spent. So I think that should do it for today's show.
Connecting with Listeners and Future Episodes
01:16:40
Speaker
If you want to connect with the show for any questions, corrections, or anything else, you can email me, unpluggedrevisited at gmail.com, or leave a voicemail by calling 234-REVISIT or reach out on social media.
01:16:53
Speaker
And as always, please take a moment to follow the pod on your platform of choice so that it'll automatically pop into your feed when it goes live. I'll be back in two weeks with a topic I'm really excited to dig into.
01:17:04
Speaker
It's around one of the more storied entries in the Unplugged canon that involves one artist but three distinctly unique Unplugged episodes. And although I won't be talking to that specific artist directly, the folks I will be talking to have some really cool stories to shed some insider light on the whole mysterious and magical saga.
01:17:23
Speaker
Also, as a tease, I may or may not have already said the artist's name somewhere on today's show. Okay, that's enough hints. You can probably guess who and what it's going to be about. But if not, well, just stick around for the next two episodes.
01:17:36
Speaker
Part one is dropping in two weeks.
Closing Message and Next Episode Announcement
01:17:39
Speaker
Until then, my friends, be kind to yourself and look out for each other. Unplugged Revisited is a Son of a Butch production. The show is written and hosted by me, Will Hodge.
01:17:49
Speaker
The show is edited by Amanda Hodge and myself.
01:18:03
Speaker
That is the beauty of Unplugged.