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Leather
hats, sandals , sport jackets and baggy pants. These cats could have
easily fit in with some laid back dudes like Frankie Beverly & Maze.
When we were rockin’ Bomber Coats, Shell Toe Adidas and mock neck
shirts these Brooklyn Emcees were on some true grown man shit. When cats
were talking about their cars and being microphone masters, Whodini was
telling us the true meaning of Friends and stressing the importance of
“One Love”. Its my honor to speak with the rapper Jalil. JayQuan:
What year did you start Emceeing , and what was it that made you want to
be an Emcee? Jalil:
The gift that the God gave me for that goes way back before Hip Hop.
Many members of my family were part of the Last Poets at one time or
another. Abu Mustafa he passed away – may Allah be pleased with him ,
and just coming up on H. Rap Brown and stuff like that. When we were
comin’ up in the neighborhood we heard stuff, and I was always known
for flippin’ some kind of advertisement
,or commercial into a rap – not really knowing at the time what
would come later. But it was the mid seventies man, early young boy
stuff. JQ:
And you were born and raised in Brooklyn? JA:
Yeah we are all from Brooklyn. But when you speak of doin’ in front of
a crowd and getting’ attention in junior high school that’s another
phase. Then you had the disco era of Hip Hop. …” On on on on &
on like hot butter on say what - popcorn” – and cats in the parks with their
systems. I mean the Bronx did their thing with scratching and tricks ,
but if you talk to old school Brooklyn cats they will tell you!!! I mean
we had Grandmaster Flowers man !!!! JQ:
I was gonna ask you about Flowers. We have a story comin’ soon on
Flowers , a lotta cats from Brooklyn and even the Bronx bring his name
up to us. JA:
Yeah man come on – where do you think Flash got his name from?…..he
used to say a lil rhyme like (Jalil says that he needs to step out side
of his prayer room to recite these lyrics to me)…” of all the
insects in the world I’d rather be a fly , so I could get between your
mommas bra , and suck her titties dry”. You had that style , I mean
its the 4 count style but it was the thing at that time. JQ:
Yeah sounds like D.J. Hollywood….. JA:
Yeah , but we were sayin’ that before we heard of Hollywood. I heard
of Hollywood in the 10th grade. This stuff im tellin’ you
is 8th grade for me. It’s the same 4 count, but the words
were just the dj sayin somethin’ while you were doin’ the hustle.
Just like Frankie Crocker, Hank Span & Gary Byrd (legendary New York
Radio jocks). They were
influences on that era…. JQ:
A lotta Brooklyn cats tell me that the biggest difference beteen BK
& the BX is the music that you rhymed to. Im told that the BK style
was more up tempo & dance oriented…… JA:
If it put people on the floor in BK we rhymed to it. Whether it was
James Brown, Bra by Cymande , To Be Real by Cheryll Lynn , BT Express or
Love Is The Message which is older than all those.Love Is The Message is like ’71. Im
talking the original Love Is The Message , the one that you hear now is
not the first one. The first one was 2 minutes , and it was on a album
with Fanfare on it. They played it so much in the clubs that they had to
go cut another one a year or so later……But if it got the crowd on
the floor we did it in Brooklyn. When the Bronx did it and the other
elements started coming into play then it started to get dusted (slower
& funk oriented). But Brooklyn cats would rock the slow joints like Bra also,
but it was just a segue till the next song - little lines- We weren’t rockin’ full
rhymes like the Bronx.
JA:
Well I was a solo cat , in school doin' my thing.The God just started
putting people in my path. When I first met Mr. Magic , who was the
first to play Rap on the radio , it was only 2 weeks later that I met
Kenton Nix who did Heartbeat & Funky Sensation.
Magic is like my
pops as far as showing me how a pirate radio station is run , and goin’
with him to WBLS. Everything that I observed in that era was through
him. He was the one that the God put in my path…. JQ:…So
that’s where the Magics Wand song comes from? JA:
Well , its an extension. I was up one night listening to the radio , and
I was going from Kiss To BLS. I heard Mr Magic as I was going from one
station to another. It was like 2:00 in the morning on a Thursday…he
did Tuesdays , Thursdays and Saturdays. I continued to listen whenever
he was on , and I was like wow this guy is doin’ a lot for Hip Hop !!!
I got the idea to do an intro to his show. I called the station and told
him what I wanted to do. I put the whole South Brooklyn Projects -
Redhook & Gowanus on to Magic , they didn’t know about him
until then. We made the promo off of the SWAT beat. It was me & Ecstacy , but
we weren’t a group yet. We took it to Magic , and it was so hot that
he put it on that night and played it for 2 years straight!!!! It was
the first time scratching was ever broadcast on the airwaves. JQ:
Grandmaster Dee wasn’t down yet was he? JA:
No my Dj was Mike Brown , but a cat from Ecstacys group named Davy Mills
did it. We were scared that the radio wouldn’t play it ‘cus nobody
played scratching on the radio. But we finessed it , and put the
scratching under the beat , and it only dropped a couple of times. JQ:
What year was this- early 80s? JA:
This was 1980. JQ:
Let me back track – how did you meet Ecstacy?
So
2 years later Magic is the hottest thing , and he is the first to blast
Hip Hop on the radio. Now they NOTE: this is why I don’t do interviews via email. I love to get every little detail no matter how small concerning the early days of NYC Hip Hop. Only phone and face to face interviews give you the details and excitement that Jalil is giving me now!! When
he did stuff like that the phones went crazy , he was shuttin’ WBLS
down. It got so hot that some cats from London wanted to make a record
about him!! They actually approached him when he was at WHBI, but it was
solidified once we hit WBLS. Magic went looking for the bigger names
like Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5 and the Treacherous 3 to do
the song , when he has his man right beside him with the hot promo that
he is playing every night!!! Sometimes you don’t look right under your
nose for what you already have. I was like im not telling you how to run
your business , but don’t I get a shot? He said you’re up against
the Furious 5 and the Treacherous 3. I said yeah , but its not their
promo that you're playing every night!! He said I didn’t think you
wanted to compete with them. Im like I will compete with the world to
get my shot!! He said that he didn’t mean to offend me as an Emcee,
and he told me to have my stuff together. When I heard the track I was
like wow!!! It was hard to get inspiration , because after all I am
writing a song about another man. Whether he is my mentor or not its
hard to do that, so I looked at the element of Hip Hop, and that was my
escape route that made it easier. It
was an honor when cats like Mele Mel gave me props when we were makin'
the record , cus Mel is like whoah. I aint gonna lie I would have loved
to be in his shoes a couple of times back then. I just liked his whole
swagger. Only 3 cats really had the key back then – Mel , Moe Dee
& my partner (Ecstacy) they just haven’t heard my partner yet.
When I say the key , I mean they rap syncopated in key upon the music
scale. Later on you had LL Cool J, Public Enemy and cats like that who
could do it – but most cats cant rap syncopated and go up and down the
music scale. But Mel told
me that I had captured the essence of what needed to be said on the
record , and he told Magic that I was the one for it , because he was
gonna try the Furious 5 out . The rest of the Furious didn’t like the
decision to let us do the project , but Mel said that we had said what
needed to be said. JQ:
That’s interesting and true what you said about rapping to the scale.
A lotta cats, Emcees included don’t realize what a talent that is. JA:
Yeah man , to the public at that time only Mel & Moe Dee did it.
That’s why people loved their voices so much. Ecstacy was the lead
vocalist on most Whodini songs because anything that we could play he
could rap right to it in key. Later on you had Biggie and Pac that could
do it as well. I feel that Pac was a stronger lyricist , but Biggie
could flow syncopated a lil better. Cats that flow like that sound great
on any track, as far as their voice tones. Ecstacy just floats on the
track and it makes it hard for another man to follow him on a song. When
we set up Whodini songs I would ask Ex to just go in a talk trash on the
track, so I could get the key down to write the song. We did it with
“Freaks Come Out At Night”. He went in and just freelanced a few
bars and I told him to stop once I knew what key to write in. Then I
wrote “Discos don’t open till after dark , and it till 12 when the
party really starts”. Same thing with 80 percent of Whodini songs. The
first sounds that he spoke I wrote to. He would let me know the key ,
then it was all on me and the God.
JA:
Muslim!! I hung out with 5 percenters, but 5 percent starts from
Islam. I had my years off course , and its nothing im happy about , but
this game is a funny game. I was a lamb rollin’ with a pack of
wolves!! When the God blesses you with knowledge of self at an early
age, and you mix it with fame it takes you out of reality and you need to
surround yourself with others with knowledge of self. JQ:
Yeah man , I remember back in ’87 hangin’ out with y’all here in
VA at the hotel , and you had like 5 chicks in your room. I remember you
tellin’ Ex about it like it was a big dilemma. I told my man Devine
Mekkah how I wished that I had your problems!!! In fact my man
Elbravador has the picture on his website, and im gonna use it for this
interview. JA:
(Laughs) Yeah I got caught up in that world!! When you have that
knowledge you can use it for the benefit , or to abuse things. When
you’re in that fast life you take that blessing that the God gave you
and put it into something corrupted. JQ:
I am looking thru my crates as we speak. I see Thomas Dolby’s name on
Magics Wand. What role did he play? JA:
He was the brains of the music on that record. They wouldn’t let us
change a piece of that. I love it for what it meant for us , but if I
had to make it I wouldn’t have made it like that. But yeah he is the
father of that. JQ:
Allow me to ask a stupid question that I always wanted to ask. Is this
the same Thomas Dolby that did “She Blinded Me With Science”? JA:
(Jalil sings SCIENCE accent and all , and Jay is buggin again)…yeah a
keyboard wizard. JQ:
How did you get with a cat like that? JA:
‘Cus our label was in Europe. We set Jive records off in America
man!!! Ain't nobody heard of Jive in America till Whodini!!! JQ:
That’s right man. I was a record fanatic who knew every label , and I
never saw a Jive record till Magics Wand and Haunted House of Rock!! JA:
Yeah man it was us , then they brought you Billy Ocean and stuff. We set
them off in the Black Market. JQ:
How did you sign with them? JA:
Just through the Mr Magic Record , and then like I said I had worked
with Kenton Nix on Smirfathon , but he wanted to dominate so much of it.
He was a cat who the industry did wrong , so it was in his heart to do
somebody comin’ up wrong. Cats like that call it makin' someone pay
their dues. But it’s a difference between payin' dues and doin' somebody
wrong. JQ:Aight…I
used to see haunted House Of Rock in the stores , but I didn’t know
that it was a rap record. It looked like a rock record with all the
skeletons and stuff on the cover!!
JQ:
Y’all were rollin with big name people! JA:
Yeah we got a chance to work with Connie Plank , who did Devo &
Kraftwerk. But remember we were young cats who were from Brooklyn
working early with these people. A lot of these drum machines weren’t
even out and in our hands yet. The 808 (Roland) was big stuff for us. We
couldn’t tell them a lot about what to do ‘cus they were working with
fairlight computers 3 years before they got to the U.S. We had digital
sound way back then , and we were one of the first!! You can listen to an
old Whodini record recorded on a digital ssl board , some of these cats
were just catchin’ up 8 years ago. I mean no offense to Nas but when
he used Friends , or any of those dudes - none of 'em had that boom like the
real Friends !! With all the technology that they have today!!! JQ:
For what the industry deems a hit, would you say that your first hit was
Friends / 5 Minutes Of Funk? JA:
Yeah for what THEY see as a hit , but I say Haunted House Of Rock , cus
it set the fuel to the fire !!! JQ:
You wrote Haunted House by yourself? JA:
Yes JQ:
I used to love the vocoder version! It was as good as the original (JayQuan
starts chanting “Its just what you wanted , somethin’ funky and
haunted”) JA:
Right!! Right !!! (Jalil is very excited)….man if they could have left
us in charge of our careers!!! There would have been no stoppin’ us.
But the money got good , and people started tellin’ us what we should
do. When we started this the label didn’t know what to do with it.
When money started comin’ in all of a sudden they knew it all. JQ:
Your big hits started comin’ when Larry Smith hooked up with you
right? JA:
Man Larry…wow I don't know what we would have been without Larry!!
Larry was the key to the whole thing – Larry was the glue!!! God bless
Russell Simmons for introducing me to Larry Smith. JQ:
The first record that he did with Whodini was the Friends / 5 Minutes 12
inch right? JA:
Yeah!! Larry was playing with Kurtis Blow on Christmas Rappin’ and the
Breaks. He played with Orange Krush on Sucker Mcs by Run Dmc. Mr Magic
introduced me to Russell , and we became cool , then Russell introduced
me to Larry in the Disco Fever. Larry said to me “yeah i'll come grab a
check from y’all but frankly I ain’t impressed with nothin’ yall
have done”. I was like that’s cool , when you feel us holler . We
ended up becoming more friends than business associates. We talked about
all kinds of stuff that wasn’t music related , then he would tell me
about stuff that he had comin' up , and he let me hear his music , but he
never discussed doing music with me. JQ:
So he didn’t like anything from the first lp like Haunted House or
Magics Wand?
We
were really the first to play rock music. 5 Minutes of Funk actually had
a rock guitar originally instead of the bass that you hear. There was
beef with Run & them over that for just a minute. But go listen to 5
Minutes of Funk , and check the bassline. Its was originally a rock guitar. JQ:
So 5 Minutes Of Funk was created before Friends? JA:
Friends was a beat that I had hummed in the house for a couple of weeks.
I used to beat on my mattress. I had listened to “Why Cant We Be
Friends” by WAR. Where their record ends ours begins. That was my
inspiration for that. You bang on you pillows and mattress for a couple
of weeks , and you'll get the beat that you want. JQ:
Let me put it in perspective. When Larry invited you to listen to music
, one of the tracks was 5 Minutes of Funk? JA:It
was just the beat. We added some stuff together , the bassline was
something I was just humming , and he put the Funk on it with the mini
– moog. It was part rock guitar, and part bassline. When we went to
Europe to lay the track he left the mini moog in New York , and I was
real pissed. They couldn’t duplicate the sound of the mini moog. We
were forced to go with the Jazz Fender Bass , which I like the sound of.
That’s how the other cats got to get credit for being the first to do
rock & roll. Not that we wanted to do just rock , but it was a
mixture. They were also saying that we should take the guitars out
because the title had the word funk in it , but Parliament had songs
with rock guitars , so we could have done it. There was a lil beef about
that. But the title was based on 7 Minutes of Funk, which was an old
street record. JQ:
Yeah Flash and them replayed it on Superrappin’. JA:
Right. In fact after Flash heard it , he came to me and said how did
y’all do that? I slowed it down , sped it up and everything , but I
don’t hear 7 Minutes of Funk in there. I told him – no we just liked
the title , and seven minutes would have been too long. JQ:
That’s a hell of a 12” inch. There aren’t too many 12” records
that have 2 songs , and both bang like those did. Maybe Sucker Mcs / Its
like That and Request Line/ Roof is On Fire , but that’s about it. Its
2 classics on one record! JA:
Even that was our idea. 2 tracks on one joint. I used to say that I
loved how I could throw on my Blue Magic records and just let the whole
thing play. I said that I would like to make a single that you could
just let play like that. JQ:
Were you managed by Rush then? JA:
Yeah we were managed by Rush, but you wouldn’t know it , you barely
hear them speak on it. I guess they were mad that we left the family.
They watchin’ too much Highlander like “there can only be one”
(laughs – Jalil is a ill brother, and I caught him on a good day). JQ:
When did you start to be managed by Rush , was it right after Haunted
House?
JQ:
Where did the name Whodini come from? JA:
It was the label and all that. Remember that I was still signed under
Kenton , and we didn't want anyone knowing who did the record. That’s
why its spelled like Whodunit. It was a studio play on some real cats.
That was the way that the God seen fit for us to get in the game and
make our foot print ,so we welcomed it. But I wanted to have a name
change for Whodini several times. I came up in the era of the Black
Panthers , the 5 percenters and the Nation Of Islam , and im runnin' in
the streets of Brooklyn – the name Whodini don’t really say me. We
had a crew called Rappers Incorporated , and the Crowd Pleasers. It was
Jalil with Mike Brown & The Disco Enforcers. Whodini just didn’t
fit the attributes of Jalil , but that’s what the God saw fit to make
it happen with, so we stuck with it. JQ:Im
lookin' at the writers credits for Friends and I just see your name and
Larry Smith. Did you write Friends alone? JA:
Me & The Angels. I gave Larry credit because he came there with us ,
but he and nobody else had
anything to do with Friends. The music that
was added to Friends was the lil bassline (I cant mimmick the part that
Jalil is talking about in writing ,
so click here. But they had this one part that was taken out , it
was a Piano that was so hot that the record would have blown up more
than it did. They said that it was out of key , I was like y’all are
tryin' to sabotage stuff. That shit was so funky!! JQ:
There was more to Friends than what we heard ?!?! JA:
Listen!! You don’t
understand !!! There was a fight upon that not being in there. It was
the best part of the record. JQ:
Who played it, Larry?
JQ:
With the Escape lp did you make the other songs like Big Mouth , Freaks
Come Out At Night and Escape after the Friends 12” blew up? JA:
Nah man , we did that album in like 2 weeks. We just released the Friends
/ 5 Minutes 12” first. After we got 5 Minutes like we wanted , I
pulled out a tape of me hummin’ Friends , and I told him how I wanted
the drums and basslines to go. It was very primitive , and they were
laughin’ at me. Larry was like – it takes more than one bass drum to
make that beat , and I told him – hey that’s what im hearin’. So
that’s what he did he used 2 different kick drums. JQ:
You sound like contributed a lot musically as far as production!
JQ:
Damn man all these records have only your name on the writers credits.
Did you do all the writing? JA:
About 90% of it, yeah. Like I said things didn’t start changing for
the group until they brought all these extra people in!!! JQ:
When you say it went the other way and the sound changed , are you
speakin of the Open Sesame lp?
JQ:
I have wondered this for 20 years. – You guys had a hell of a dj.
Grandmaster Dee used to show his ass every Fresh Fest. How come he NEVER
cut on any records. Even Echo Scratch and Grandmaster Dees Haunted
Scratch had vocal samples and no scratching. How come y’all didn’t
let my man get down!!!??? JA:
Man they had a problem with that. JQ:
Who , and what was the problem? JA:
Larry man. There are certain elements that come into play. You have to
remember that we had a team surrounding us , but certain members were
closer to Run Dmc. As much as we were supposed to be one family some
people acted like they liked the other cousins better.
See man has his plan , but the God has his plan as well. When you
saw us live it was like an all star thing. You wouldn’t guess that
from the records , but live (at the Fresh Fest) you saw that harmony. So
what man was planning the God was smothering. To tell the truth if my dj
(Grandmaster Dee) had gotten that much recognition, he would have lost
his mind!! He already had the green eyes. JQ:
its funny, cus when I interview other djs, I always ask what they think
about certain other djs. When
I ask about Dee many cats say that they didn’t hear enough from him ,
or that he was a showcase dj….maybe it worked for the better because
y’all were the most mature group back then. I mean my moms wasn’t
into rap shit back then – only the early popular stuff by Kurtis Blow
, Sugarhill & Flash & the Furious. The Run DMC era was out of
her grasp , but she did like Whodini. Many adults did , and perhaps the
scratching would have turned them off…… JA:
Nah , it could have worked. We would have done it to perfection , but
certain people are scared of certain things. Im not too mad at it cus
Dee woulda lost his mind. Light skin , green eyes , gets more love after
the shows and shines on wax?…oh no (laughs). JQ:
Yeah a green eyed light skinned cat in the 80s. I know he was killin ‘em!!! JA:
It took awhile to turn it around from that too. But the 3 flavors worked
on ‘em!! But they were hard on a brother at first. JQ:
Lets talk about the Back in Black lp and its first single Funky Beat. JA:
That’s Drews (Grandmaster Dees) beat. Drew was an important element in
keeping me balanced with the beats. Im not gonna act like he wasn’t.
Drew was always the first to test my beats , and the final test also. I
had to make his head rock. When my djs head rocked then I knew I had it.
I had to really love somethin’ for Dees head not to rock , and I still
go with it. 90% of the time it had to move Dee or I left it alone.
That’s my motherfuckin’ man , and theres no other way to say that. JQ:
One Love, Growin Up , Im A Ho all kept the same production formula as
the Escape album right?
JQ:
Well you put the right thing on it. That’s one of your best songs and
your best video. JA:
Man the God did it, with the angels. We were working on “The Good
Part” in the studio. And both records are givin' us problems and
something just hit me “One Love, One Love”. I said put that other
track on , I think I got it. We worked on it for like 3 or 4 hours , the
angels came to see me and we had “One Love”. JQ:
Let me know if im getting too personal , but when people sample Friends
and One Love , are you getting the royalty for that? JA:Oh
we GOTTA get the royalty for that. We just should get 80% as opposed to
50%. I hooked Larry up , because Jive wasn’t payin him enough. If you
ever hear anything about us , one thing you won't hear is about us doin’
nobody wrong. I gave Larry credit for songs he didn’t author , he just
helped fix. I don’t regret a bit of it , cus none of it would have
turned out the same way without Larry. None of it!! JQ:
Did you guys have the first Gold rap album? JA:
I think Run Dmc or The Fat Boys had the first gold , but we beat em with
the first Platinum. We came from behind and zoomed pass them. That was
the Escape lp. Sucker Mcs / Its Like That came out a little before our
album. Since we were all Rush management we got to hear stuff before
everyone else. The record company asked us to make something like that ,
and I told them not to ask me to be another man again , or we would have
problems!! We come from the era where you had to be different. These
cats today couldn’t do like they are back then because even if it was
good , people would have just thrown it away because you sound just like someone else!! Jive Records had no idea the extent of
the Hip Hop market. It wasn’t just cats talking about themselves, our
stuff was so mature they had to open another market just for Whodini.
Jive didn’t know what to do with us – and they were gonna drop us. Russell said go ahead and drop em , and I will pick it up and
put it out , because you’re jerkin my boys around and you need to stop
and put some money behind them!!! The
first 2 or 3 weeks they shipped like 4000 copies. The 3rd
week might have been 8000. All of a sudden people started hearing it and
talking , but Jive was playing , and not putting no promo money behind
it. Next thing you know we are at 150,000 copies on the single and these
other cats are like 350,000 albums , then we are at 180,000 they are at
600,000. once we hit 200,000 the stores can't hold the record no more , and
thy are like GIVE IT UP!!! Next thing you know they telling us that we
are gold and headed quickly to platinum – all this in 2 and a half
months. When people heard the diversity of it , they started pickin it
up. The south and other places started picking their favorites and
appreciating the funk for what it was , and it took us to platinum. If
they had jumped on it right it would have been double platinum , plus we
know they stole 2 million or more copies anyway. JQ:
They stole ‘em? JA:
We had been platinum man , there was no sound scan back then. Look how
many people have that Friends single and Escape album. We probably sold
5 million albums – they were fuckin' us with no grease. JQ:
You are talking about Jive, not Rush? JA
Jive Records man – no sound scan. We go around the world and its like
how the fuck did y'all hear about these songs. We did 13 countries and
they all had the records. Them 1 million records sure reached a lot of
people. (laughs). JQ:
I was watching the video for “Rap Machine” the other day , and I saw
Kangol & Dr Ice , just like they were in “Freaks Come Out At
Night” years later. What's the relationship with y’all and UTFO?
JQ:
How was it rockin the Fresh Fest , was that a good experience? JA:
Ah man. I know I have said some things about cats , but touring with Run
Dmc , that was the best times of our lives man. It wasn’t until we all
got a lil too big for our britches that tensions arose , but it was love
for like 5 years. Sleeping on the same bus Jam Master Jay , and all the
rest of em. Nothin but fun
, we didn’t just share hos – we might have shared drawers too!! JQ:
Were there any rivalries on the road? JA
: It was lovely till the money started comin in. The Raising Hell Tour.
It was love till then , when you had that “this is my brothers
company”. Other than that it was all love. JQ:
When you did “Be Yourself” for the Open Sesame lp how did you get
Millie Jackson on the record.
JQ:
Whats you favorite Whodini song? JA:
That’s hard, cus it changes everyday , but the wittiest is Haunted
House ,and Magic's Wand might be the corniest, but it holds a special
place , cus it was first. Friends is good because I always wanted to
write a song that the world could sing. I prayed for that, and the God
blessed me. JQ:
I know Jermaine Dupri danced for you on the Fresh Fest , and later
signed you to So So Def , but how did you originally hook up with him? JA:
Jermaine Dupri and Chad danced on the Fresh Fest , but it used to be
Jermaine and this white kid – they were imitating Michael Jackson
& Paul Mc Cartney and all that. I got some shots of him that nigga
don’t like for me to show!!! He has his little curl and his make up
on. That was my dun dun. His
mom and them might be mad at me for turning him into the player that he is.
And God is gonna get me for gettin him his first piece of booty too!!! But he
could always dance and was always a cool likable guy. He is a business
mogul , and it causes him to be rough in certain situations , but he is
a cool guy. I see where people could see him as an asshole, cus he has so
much dough that it influences certain things, but Jermaine is a likable
guy !!! It aint hard to like him , that’s why Janet is with him , it
ain’t cus he is trickin' dough he is a likable dude and I love Jermaine. JQ:
How did the lp that you recorded with him do?
JQ:
Peace Jalil and thanks for your time!!! JA:
PEACE PS
– we also discussed the record that they did around ’94 with
Terminator X called “It All Comes Down To Money” , but my recorder
was full and didn’t catch it. He basically said that the recording
wasn’t promoted properly , and it suffered the same fate as
Terminators lp (Godfathers Of Threatt) © 2007JayQuan Dot Com *SPECIAL THANKS TO MY MAN BLAQSMIF* |
GROWN
MAN MUSIC – JALIL Of WHODINI By JayQuan Summer 2006.
JQ:
I have a record called Smirfathon that you made on a label called
Charlie Rock records. This was early 80s before Whodini. How did that
come about?
JA:
Ecstacy was in another group that lived in Gowanus projects , which is
my old stompin’ grounds. That’s where my family is from in south
Brooklyn. Ecstacy & his people were a few blocks away in Wycoff
projects. Grandmaster Dee is from Flatbush, and we connected in a
different funny way. Me and Ex (Ecstacy) connected ‘cus of the crews I
ran with battlin’ his boys. The crew I was with was busy chasin' chicks
, so I went to get Ex to be on the Mr Magic promo with me. At that time
I wasn’t interested in making a record , the promo for Magic was good
enough for me. When my crew was flaking , someone told me to get with
these dudes (from Wycoff) and I said -but they aren’t as good as my
crew. They were like- yeah but your crew is chasin’ booty , and you
gave your word on somethin’. Ex got down on the promo , it took about
a year or 2 for us to make a record – but that’s how we came
together. 
movin’ him from the pirate station to
WBLS. Prime time slot and he is doin’ big things and im rollin with
him , im getting the inside scoop on everything. This dude is like the
young Frankie Crocker in New York now!!! Magics doin' the damn thing on
the radio , and I am answering the phones and keeping everything tight!!
Jalil is no knucklehead – I know the streets but im well schooled!! So
im his protégé and telling him what's hot in the streets , and he is
bangin' it out. I mean it’s the middle of the day and he is playing
Dangerous Diseases in between 2 rap songs!!! What – Dangerous Diseases
in the middle of the day on the radio? (Jalil starts singin’ Yellow
Mans Dangerous Diseases – accent and all – JayQuan is buggin).
JQ:I
see that you have some Islamic elements about you , and you seem to be a
very spiritual dude. Were you ever a 5
JA:
(buggin’) That’s what we kinda wanted , but the label put the
skeletons on the cover. It fit the occasion so we didn’t mind. The
first part of that record is the invite to the party , and the second
part is about Emcees. Every monster and character in there is about an
Emcee that reminds me of them. If you listen close you can tell some of
them !! (laughs). I would fill you in , but some of those rappers might
read this. If they ain't know all these years , then they don’t need to
know now. The invisible man is the only one that’s not an
Emcee….Kenton Nix was supposed to do Haunted House Of Rock , but we
had to sever our relationship. Just imagine how it would have sounded if
he did it. He was a genius, who taught me so much about keeping rhythms
simple. Imagine how bassy it would have been like Heartbeat & Funky
Sensation. The cat from the Thompson Twins had to end up playing the
bass. Imagine telling a pop group to play this bass like Kenton would
have. 
JA:
It just wasn’t impressive. He appreciated what we did , it was
somethin’ different , but it was nothing that made him want to run to
us. I didn’t force anything to happen , it had to be a chemistry. But
this incident happened. Larry's bass player was working on a car , and he
sliced a couple of his fingers off. So basically Larry needed more money
to do what he had do. He called me up sayin’ that he needed some money
because of what happened with his bass player. He invited me to come to
his spot to hear some stuff and try to make something happen. He told me
that he had me in mind for some stuff he had done. The timing was
perfect because we were about to go into the studio. I picked out
certain tracks ,
JA:
Exactly! Right during the Haunted House. Even the name Run really
wasn’t – you know what I aint even gonna go there…. Really all
this means nothing ok Jay. But
JA:
Yeah !!! When we heard the final mix I was pissed. We left before the
final mix , and when we got back to the states and I heard it there were
fights , cussin and everything – man out of key my ass!!! Im like you
just threw it away!!! We didn’t speak for a few months over that. He
was sayin’ that he wasn’t tryin to sabatoge it , but I was like well
you may as well have been – you gon’ get the same ass whippin’
like you tried. Like if you come home from work early, and your wife has
on lingerie , and some cat is leavin out the front door , and she tells
you – we didn’t do nothing. Its like you should have , cus you gon’
get the same ass whippin!!….its that kind of situation. ( I cant say
it enough Jalil is a ill brother).
JA:
No doubt , noooo doooubt. I put it this way. Nothin’ made it out of
that studio without me likin’ it. Until it started goin the other way
, and that’s when you started hearin them other sounds too. And im not
pattin myself on the back
JA:
Yeah. And I wasn't ego trippin , cus if I was then you would have known
from the beginning that I was doing all that writing and production ,
but I wasn’t ego trippin. It was the fact people started hatin’ –
if it’s a good thing why mess with it – everybody serves their
purpose. Extra people are in the session , and we cant talk like we used
to. People bringin' they girls in the session, it used to be that I could
tell dudes “man get that shit out of here , and do it this way”. Now
I can't talk to cats that way cus their girl is there. The girls are
sayin ”well he ain't the producer , if the producer is sayin' this he
needs to listen”. We had harmony before , but now its combative and we
not getting nothing done. Im not knockin' nobody , but the blessings are
comin’ through me , so let me do this , then we can do what you want.
Now the bullshit comes into play. If it was up to me no outside people
would be in the session. That’s something else that Kenton Nix taught
me. If there is someone that is not involved in the session, then they
don’t need to be in the session. Let them hear it afterwards. If there
are too many people in there , then its too many thoughts and vibes. If
you ain't sure about what you makin , then you ain’t makin’ whats
right. The only people that need to be sure are the people involved.
Then you only need to let one or 2 trusted heads hear it , everybody
don’t need to hear the finished product.
JA:
Im not gonna lie. One Love got to be more Larry & Pete. They took
our ideas and went and did some voodoo to it , and we were like whoaaa
– what are supposed to do with this? We had the track for 2 weeks
before we had any idea what to put on it. We had no idea.
JA:
Dr Ice is my younger brother. We fell in love with their dancing and
took them on the road with us. On the Fresh Fest we just dropped Roxanne
Roxanne on ‘em. When we were on tour with Run Dmc and the Fat Boys we
were hookin UTFO up with the program directors in radio for
JA:
The record label wanted it. She was professional , and the best person I
have worked with in the studio. Even though she made some raunchy music
, these divas today could learn so much from her. She came in and
knocked right out.
JA:
It didn’t really do well.