Tag: Virginia

the time I went on a church trip to Norfolk

It was 1997, late March or early April. I know that because of Michael Jackson and The Notorious BIG. I’d mentioned to some guy; I think he was a stranger I met outside somewhere; that I was a big Michael Jackson fan and he told me that he had a new album coming soon. I was a bit skeptical because he’d just released the History album two years prior, but the guy even knew the title. It was my first time hearing about Blood On The Dance Floor, which was released two months later. BIG’s new album, Life After Death, had just been released. It was the newest and hottest thing out as far as rap music went, so it was mostly what we played in the rented Expedition or Escalade or Blazer we drove from (Detroit) Michigan to (Norfolk) Virginia.

Actually, Tobe was the main or only driver. I think PJ rode in the front passenger seat and it was Will who rode in the back with me. Monique and others went in a separate vehicle. I think they were either following us or leading because I remember us talking to them during a gas or bathroom stop. I also remember Tobe driving away as if he were going to leave Will. We all laughed as he ran to catch-up with us. I think it was PJ or one of the girls from the other vehicle who pointed-out how cartoonishly funny his legs looked as he ran, which only made us laugh more. PJ also laughed when Puff Daddy said “fuck the nigga next to you” on The World Is Filled, pointing-out how gay it sounded. We corrected him by explaining that he was talking about a girl.

I remember us eating “trip chicken”; chicken fried at home, usually by somebody’s mama, and brought along during a long road trip to eat at room temperature whenever hunger strikes. I don’t remember much else about the trip there, which, according to Google, took around ten hours. I don’t even remember arriving in Norfolk, Virginia. I know we stayed in The Omni Hotel though, which stood along The Elizabeth River, on a high enough floor to give us a nice view of the water. That view came into play when I met some girls out there and signaled for the guys, looking down at us from the hotel window, to come down. They saw me but couldn’t leave out in time because “Will was in the bathroom”. If it were me, I would’ve left him in there.

It seemed that meeting and fucking girls, at least one, was the main thing on Larry’s mind. I remember him complaining in frustration as we roamed the hotel one day, looking for anything we’d be willing to stick our dicks in. It wasn’t a major goal for me; I didn’t really expect to get pussy on a church trip; but it was funny seeing him go mad over it. The trip, which probably lasted for two or three days, is what introduced me to him and Jovaun. I think it was the first time we ever met. The overall impression they made was that of typical light-skinned black urban high school guys… who wore Nautica shirts and thought KRS-One was “wack”. At least Larry did. I remember him dissing him when his new Step Into A World video came on the hotel TV.

Larry and Jovaun were also pranksters. They put toothpaste on Eric one morning as he slept, which was funnier to them than me. Eric took it in stride. I don’t get the connection, but he said he thought he was dead when he awoke. Maybe he thought the toothpaste was embalming fluid. I don’t know. It was him who got lost at the mall though. I remember us walking around looking for him. This trip wasn’t my first time meeting him, but it was my first time hanging-out with him. Others complained about the way he inadvertently mean-mugged people, particularly strangers, but he was cool with me. I was with him when he stopped at the hotel arcade to play Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out and lost to Glass Joe. I made fun of him for years after that.

PJ dropped something in the bathroom and screeched like a girl, which was hilarious, but I don’t remember a lot else like us going out anywhere but the mall or eating anything but trip chicken. Tobe, who was romantically linked to Kita; I think that was her name; got mad at Monique. Something about her being in his business. Earlier I forgot to mention that when he finally stopped the SUV and let Will in, Will, who’d just been talking to Monique and them in the other vehicle, said out loud that her “breath stank!” Tobe reminded him, calmly and rather satirically, that the window was down as he rolled it up. I don’t know if Monique and them heard what Will said or not, but the whole incident was funny in an embarrassing sort of way.

I also forgot to mention that, according to Tobe, I got lost like Eric. He said that they were looking around the hotel for me one day. I think he even said that they called the local jail to see if I got locked-up. I had no clue. I guess I hadn’t told anybody when I went out walking that day, alone, to explore Norfolk on foot. That might’ve been when I met the guy who told me about Blood On The Dance Floor. I ended-up back at the hotel hours later, in a room with some of the girls, when they found me. A lot of people from Solomon’s Temple were at The Omni, clustered together in separate rooms. The main purpose of the trip was for church members to attend some sort of convention. I just went along for a vacation. It was an enjoyable experience.

a map of the United States

a map of the United States

Teddy Riley explaining his involvement in Michael Jackson’s Dangerous and Invincible albums

I was the scariest person on earth when I met Michael Jackson [laughs]. When I first met him he scared the [crap] out of me…literally. I was at his compound in a room that [housed] all his accomplishments. I saw his humanitarian awards…all of that stuff. And there was also a chessboard there in the middle of the room. So I’m touching it because it’s gold and platinum. And when I put my hand on the first piece Michael had his hand on my shoulder. And all I could do was fall to the ground. All I saw was Michael laughing. That put me at ease because usually when you are touching somebody’s stuff in their house they look at you funny, but Michael just laughed. My heart was calmed down, until it was time for us to go into the studio to work on Dangerous. But before that whole experience of working with Michael I was going through a big transition in my life.

Like I said, I lost both my brother and best friend. So, right after that Guy show I’m driving in my Ferrari. I had gone through so much and all I wanted to do was produce. So I get a call on my cell phone from Michael Jackson! He’s telling me that he wants to work with me! Michael was like, ‘Can you be here next week?’ That was the transition between Guy and me taking my career to the next level. I was struggling. I had moved back to the projects. I was going from hotel to hotel. And you know what saved me on my way to working with Michael? It was doing the remix to Jane Child’s ‘Don’t Wanna Fall In Love’. I can remember being in a hotel and Benny Medina (influential label executive) called me. He’s like, ‘I really want you to do this Jane Child remix because I want it to go urban…it’s too white’ Now, I already loved ‘Don’t Wanna Fall In Love’. It’s a record that I had wished I produced. And then Benny calls me! Funny how the universe works. I knew I was going to tear that remix up.

That song saved my life. I’m thinking $20,000 for that remix. I thought it would help me pay off my credit card because that’s all I had. I was on the outs with Zomba, so I wasn’t getting any money from publishing. They thought I was stocking songs away. But Benny got me $75,000! That money got my family back to New York. I was ready to move everyone to New Jersey to a three flat condo. But my mom told me she wasn’t going to move in with us until I brought her a house. And then my brother Brandon was shot. This was all in my mind going into Dangerous.

Bringing back Michael to his R&B roots is something that I stood for. I didn’t just want to go the pop route because that’s not what he called me for. He called me for that New Jack Swing. That’s what he wanted and that’s what he got. When I was working on ‘Remember The Time’ this was at the same time I was doing a remix for ‘D-O-G Me Out’ in one room, ‘Don’t Wanna Fall In Love’ in another room, and all of the other tracks I was presenting to Michael. I was at Sound Works studio in New York. I was using Q-Tip’s (lead MC and producer of A Tribe Called Quest) little studio he was renting out. When I told him I needed a studio to work on Michael Jackson songs he was like, ‘Oh, hell yeah!’

Working with Michael was like going to college. He basically gave me the map. He navigated me on how to actually compose. He taught me all the different ways of working with Quincy Jones and Greg Phillinganes. When I played my demos for Michael he stopped me at the fifth song, which was ‘Remember The Time.’ He took me to the back room and I thought I was going to get fired. I thought I had done something wrong, but it was a chord that he couldn’t get around. He didn’t know the church chords. The first chord you hear on ‘Remember The Time’ started off that song in a very church way. He never started off his songs in that way, and that’s why he pulled me in the back because it was so unusual for him.

Michael was testing me to see what the chord really was and what it meant to me. And he wanted me to play it right in front of him on this piano he had in his room. He was used to the straight C majors. He wasn’t used to the C augmented chords. I could say I introduced the New Jack Swing chords to him. All of those songs were great to work on: ‘In The Closet’; ‘Jam’; ‘Can’t Let Her Get Away’…that’s history for me. It was a great feeling to be a part of a huge selling album like that…over 30 million records of Dangerous.

Mike and me started the Invincible album in New York. That’s when Michael built this studio for me on the top floor of a building. He had Criteria Studios build me a studio in a penthouse in two weeks. I kid you not. I went home and Michael was like, ‘Go home…the studio will be built in two weeks.’ We finished everything else in Miami. When I started working on Invincible one of the songs that stood out for me was ‘Whatever Happens.’ It came from an artist that was signed to my label. We were going to sign him to Interscope, but this guy started tripping out. So I ended up going to the writers of that song and asked them could I produce the song for Michael. They let me do it. I told the label that I wanted a 40-piece orchestra to do strings on this record. And I told Michael that it would be great to have Carlos Santana on the song because of the guitars on there. Michael was like, ‘Okay, we will make that happen.’

I wanted ‘Whatever Happens’ to be special. But we had a problem. Santana didn’t want to leave the house at that time. He told us, ‘This is family time.’ He takes time out, for months, to spend with his family. So anything that would have to be done would be done at his home, so we went to his home studio. Santana was such a good guy…very spiritual. And he is a very big fan of my idol Miles Davis. This dude had a Miles Davis guitar and all these performances on video. During the guitar track to ‘Whatever Happens’ Santana was doing the whistling that you hear. And Michael loved it. I remember his excitement over the record. He said, ‘Let’s keep it!’ So we are working on the Invincible album and around the same time I invited Michael to Virginia. That was moment Virginia had a real respect for me. They were like, ‘If he could bring Michael Jackson to Virginia as well as Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown, he’s bringing revenue to the state. So we have to respect him.’ And I’m talking about getting respect from the political side.

I was in so much mess with this album [laughs]. Michael had me responsible for so many things. I remember Tommy Motolla (one-time head of Sony Music Entertainment) cursing me out telling me, ‘This will be the end of your career if you don’t turn over those masters!’ I had no idea that Michael had told him I had the masters [laughs]. I called him up and said, ‘My God Michael…you put me in trouble with Tommy Motolla. Do you know who Tommy Motolla is? But I ended up helping Michael. I took the masters and I held them for him. Michael was upset with the marketing plans for the Invincible record. I was going to stand behind Michael and that’s what I did. To me it was an album that was going to do the big numbers. But when Michael saw the marketing plans he told me, ‘I’ll be surprised if this album does only two million.’ They took money from his budget, too. I didn’t care about anything else. I just believed in Michael.

2012

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