Episode Summary
This week we're looking back at some of our favorite moments from the show. Join us as we reminisce (pun intended) about what made us laugh while making these episodes. If you're new to the pod, this is a great way to sample the back catalog. And for our long time listeners take a listen to see if some of your favorite moments are here. We'll be listening to clips from the episodes where we talked about - Tevin Campbell, The 1995 Source Awards, Mary J. Blige, Missy Elliott and more!
Transcript
Christina: Welcome back to They Reminisce Over You. I'm Christina.
Miguel: And I'm Miguel. For this episode we've put together some highlights of some of our previous episodes. Moments that gave us a chuckle and we thought that you might enjoy them as well.
Christina: Especially if you are just discovering us now, this could give you some ideas of maybe which ones you might want to check out that you haven't heard yet.
Miguel: Yeah. You'd get a little sample, as a treat. This will give you a little roadmap of They Reminisce Over You and where you should go from here.
Christina: So feel free to go back and listen to those full episodes, if you haven't heard them yet. Or sit back and check out this episode where we're going to play clips of some of our favorite moments.
Miguel: And since we're sharing some of our favorite clips hit us up on social media @troypodcast on the bird and the 'gram and let us know what some of your favorite moments of the podcast have been so far. So the first one we're going to play for you guys is a clip from episode two called "Where The Fuck Is Tevin Campbell?" We gave it that title because at the time he wasn't active on social media and he had deleted his accounts. And we were just basically saying where the fuck is Tevin Campbell? And we need him, we want him to come back. Ironically, after this episode was released, Tevin came back to social media. So I'd like to think that this episode brought him back to social media. And I will take credit for it.
Christina: Well, I don't know if I'm willing to take credit for it, but he did hit us up on our 'gram.
Miguel: He did.
Christina: And confirmed our, um...theory.
Miguel: Yes. I had a theory that he was channeling Whitney Houston in all of his music and he basically confirmed it.
Christina: Yeah. So if you were like, that ain't true.
Miguel: Yep. Tevin himself.
Christina: Tevin told us himself.
Miguel: That he was, he was inspired by Whitney Houston. So if you don't believe us, go to our Instagram and check the post[1]. It's there.
Christina: Yeah, it's like way back though, 'cause this was our second episode.
Miguel: Yeah it was our second episode, so you're going to have to dig for it. But we talked about his voice and how it changed from his first album to his second album. How some of the songs weren't appropriate for his age.
Christina: Talking about, "I'm gon' do you after school, like some homework."
Miguel: Like some homework and talking about, you've "got your bags packed, ret' to go," but you ain't living with nobody right now. So we're going to play that clip and here we go.
[playing clip from episode 2]
Christina: It is also funny that, I was saying how I thought he was a girl in this song, because by the time the album came out, his voice had dropped it a little bit.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: But it's just funny 'cause you know, we were watching the, those YouTube twins that react to different songs.
Miguel: Yes.
Christina: And they thought he was a girl[2] in "Can We Talk," and I'm like, his voice had dropped by then.
Miguel: Yeah, he was getting a little deeper at that point.
Christina: Yeah. Like, he still has a high voice but I'm like, he sounds like a boy to me, I mean, I guess…
Miguel: We knew who he was.
Christina: We knew who he was and we're not just hearing like, a five second clip on TikTok or something, right? So I thought that was funny.
Miguel: Yeah. He was recording these songs for his first album when he was like 13 to 14. And the content that he's singing about is not for 13 and 14 year olds. Like what 13 year old should be singing, "tell me what you want me to do." Come on, man.
Christina: Yeah.
Miguel: You should be thinking about doing your homework.
Christina: Well, I mean, that's probably why he was getting these comparisons to Michael Jackson. I mean, Michael…well, in The Jackson 5, he was…yeah, yeah. When he was singing The Jackson 5, he was quite young and he's singing about relationship stuff.
Miguel: Yeah. He's singing about like, we living together.
Christina: Yes.
Miguel: Don't leave. Why you got your bag—
Christina: What do you mean don't leave? Where is she going? She lives with her parents, in theory, she should.
Miguel: In the hallway? "Ret' to go"
Christina: "Ret' to go." Yes. Not "ready to go."
Miguel: "Ret' to go." Come on, man. You 13 years old.
Christina: Well, "Tell Me What You Want Me To Do" was actually the song that made me a fan.
Miguel: Okay.
Christina: So when I heard that song, I was like, oh, it's that "Round and Round" kid. And he sounds like a boy now.
Miguel: Right.
Christina: He's singing these grown ass songs. But I mean, I was a kid at the time too. So it didn't, it wasn't weird to me because when you're a kid, you just don't—
Miguel: I didn't catch it at the time because I'm only a year older than he is. So he was just a kid who was singing.
Christina: Yeah. And he was older than me, even though he's still a kid, he was older than me. So it wasn't that weird to hear him singing about "tell me what you want me to do."
Miguel: Now that I listen to it as an adult, like you had no business singing these songs, man.
Christina: Well, by this time I had started to develop my own taste in music. So this song, uh, not only did it make me a fan of Tevin, but it also is reflective of sort of my, what is it called? Like coming into my own tastes of music. So that song is very, representative of the kind of stuff that I was starting to really like personally, and not just sort of just listening to what everyone else was listening to.
Miguel: Okay. Yeah. I think it's funny that he was getting these comparisons to Michael Jackson. Only because he was young and he's singing R&B music.
Christina: And he's got that high voice too.
Miguel: Yeah. But vocally and the style of his singing—
Christina: Prince.
Miguel: Sounds nothing like Michael Jackson. Not Prince either.
Christina: I think he sounds closer to Prince.
Miguel: Nope. I'm going to blow your mind with this one.
Christina: Okay. Alright.
Miguel: Listen to any Tevin Campbell song. I don't care which one it is. Anything after "Round and Round," Whitney Houston.
Christina: Whitney Houston? I'm going to have to listen to this again and think about that.
Miguel: Listen to any of his songs, he is channeling Whitney Houston.
Christina: I guess maybe the Prince and Michael Jackson comparison is easy to make just because of again, because he has like a high, I don't know, musical words, but he has like, a higher voice. So it's, I think it's easy to just be like, oh, Michael Jackson.
Miguel: Yeah, that that's what it was. But listen to it again.
Christina: All right.
Miguel: Once we're done recording, go back and listen. Listen to all of the songs and imagine Whitney singing them.
Christina: Okay. So maybe because I finally discovered hearing Prince so prominently on "Round and Round," I kept just hearing Prince after that.
Miguel: Well, on the first—no second album Prince did like five songs.
Christina: I was going to say especially, well, we'll talk about that album but there's definitely some Prince influences though.
Miguel: Yes. Because he's a huge Whitney Houston fan and pretty much emulated Whitney Houston.
Christina: Right.
[music break]
Miguel: All right. So this next clip is from Episode 16, "Usher: These Are My Confessions." Usher came out saying some inappropriate songs as well, just like Tevin Campbell did.
Christina: Definitely. His was more egregious I think.
Miguel: They were. Because I think he was actually younger than Tevin at the time that he was doing these songs. But what we're talking about in this clip, he was actually 18. So I'll allow him to—
Christina: Yeah, it was that first album that was really out of pocket.
Miguel: Yeah. So, we're talking about him and his performance on "Nice and Slow," specifically the video where Christina remembered that Kimora Lee Simmons gets kidnapped and they put her in a cage[3].
Christina: Yes. Not only does she get kidnapped, they put her tall ass in a cage.
Miguel: I didn't remember any of that. I went back and watched the video after we recorded and it was fucking hilarious. So here's a little clip about that and about how Usher dominated the year 2004 with the Confessions album.
Christina: Actually, I don't remember if it's in this clip, probably is, but him dominating with the Confessions album really showed the change in his audience. And you can really see it in this TikTok challenge[4] that's been going around right now, where people are asking their friends and coworkers where Usher was at seven o'clock on the dot.
Miguel: And some people know where he was.
Christina: Yes.
Miguel: Other people don't.
Christina: And there's a very, uh, clear demarcation? Is that the word?
Miguel: Line of demarcation.
Christina: Of who knows where he was and who doesn't know where he was.
Miguel: Right. And think about that while you're listening to this clip and also think about where Usher was at seven o'clock. Do you know? Because I know.
Christina: I do too.
Miguel: All right. So on that note, let's check out the clip.
[playing clip from episode 16]
Miguel: Another song that's really inappropriate, even though he's a little bit older now is "Nice and Slow." But at least he was a little bit older, so I'll accept it at this point.
Christina: I think at this point he should have at least been 18.
Miguel: I wrote it down here. So he's 19 on this album.
Christina: 'Cause it was 1997.
Miguel: Yeah, so I'll accept it at this point. Like it's a little more believable than on the first album.
Christina: Yep. Was it "Nice and Slow" that Kimora Lee Simmons was in the video?
Miguel: I don't remember. I didn't watch this video.
Christina: Because there's a video, I'm pretty sure it's "Nice and Slow" where she gets kidnapped by some gangsters or something.
Miguel: Oh man.
Christina: I think they put her in a cage?!
Miguel: I definitely need to look this up.
Christina: Definitely Kimora was in it and I'm pretty sure there's some kind of kidnapping and he had to go rescue her.
Miguel: Okay.
Christina: But I, I'm having visions of her being like locked up.
Miguel: That's funny.
Christina: I watched a couple videos, but not as many as I usually do.
Miguel: Right.
Christina: Didn't get to it this time.
Miguel: Okay. So, we move on to Confessions.
Christina: And I did not realize how big this album was until we saw some random tweet.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: About the Billboard Top 100, 2004. So we've talked about the Billboard Top 100, many times, being like, that's the non-genre specific chart, right?
Miguel: Right.
Christina: And so, when we say non non-genre specific, usually you have to be really popular as a Black artist to like, get number one hits on, on that chart or to chart a little higher there than like on the R&B/Hip Hop charts. Usher dominated 2004. Not only was 2004 the first time that every single number one hit on the top 100[5] was by a Black artist, he dominated for six months.
Miguel: Yes.
Christina: With different songs from this album. Like, that is wild.
Miguel: It's crazy. Basically, 28 weeks of the year, Usher was at number one. From February to August.
Christina: Yeah
Miguel: Except for one week in July, where Fantasia snuck in there.
Christina: Somehow.
Miguel: And then Usher went right back to number one.
Christina: Which I'm kind of surprised Fantasia was able to sneak in as well, but just because of the type of artist, she is. On like the, top 100—
Miguel: Right.
Christina: To hit number one, even if it was just for a week.
Miguel: Was this when she was on American Idol? Maybe that had something to do with it?
Christina: Well, it had to be after.
Miguel: Right. But maybe that had something to do with it. Like, here's the one from American Idol, check out her single[6].
Christina: I guess.
Miguel: But for the weeks from February to August, he was number one. And then did it again for another six weeks in the fall.
Christina: So it was like Usher year.
Miguel: Basically. More than half the year, he was number one on the charts with different songs from this album.
Christina: I just pulled it up. So it started with, "Yeah." From February 18th to May 15th, that song was number one. Not just on the charts. Number one.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: So February to May. And then followed up with "Burn" from May 22nd to July 3rd. Then Fantasia snuck in for that one week. And then "Burn" came back for another week. And then "Confessions, Part II" for two weeks, and then got knocked out by "Slow Motion."
Miguel: Soulja Slim and Juvie.
Christina: And then he ended up, back in the fall with "My Boo" with Alicia Keys from October 30th to December 4th. So it was just like Usher year. And we're just looking at the number one week. I'm sure he was in the top 10.
Miguel: Right.
Christina: Probably the whole year.
Miguel: Yeah. You couldn't get away from it. Like I knew it was big, but I didn't realize more than half the year he's was number one on the charts big.
Christina: And it's also interesting, as we said already about the top 100, that this year, every single number one artist was a Black artist.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: I was looking at the number ones from 1990 up to 2004. And there's always been a lot of Black artists, but not surprisingly, kind of like after 93-94, was when there were more. Because as we know, hip hop was starting to get more popular and R&B, especially like R&B infused hip hop too. Because prior to that, in like the early 90's, it would be like Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, like more of the pop artists. So it's not surprising that after '93-4, that there started to be more Black artists, but it's pretty interesting to see like every single artist at number one and then Usher being half of the year.
Miguel: Yeah. That album has sold over 10 million copies. And this is physical copies. We're not talking streaming numbers. This is when people were still going out and buying CDs. That is ridiculous.
Christina: Well the thing that's hilarious about this album too, so, you know, called Confessions and he's confessing about cheating and blah-blah-blah. Everybody mad at him and thinking he talking about Chilli because they were dating and they broke up around this time. But all this time it was Jermaine Dupri's story.
Miguel: Yeah. He's singing tales of Jermaine's outlandish life. And I never really understood why people would think that he's singing about Chilli. On "Confessions, Part I." He says that he was hanging out in LA with his ex. "Confessions, Part II," he says he ended up getting a girl pregnant that he didn't even know. It's like, these are two different people. So come on, read the context clues people. He's not talking about Chilli. I was able to figure that out. I didn't need Jermaine to come and say, hey, he talking about me.
Christina: This ain't about him and Chilli.
Miguel: I always thought that was funny though.
Christina: Well, even though this album was obviously super huge, as we had just explained, after doing these re-listens, I realized this is also my favorite album from him.
Miguel: Me too. Like, as a full album, this is probably his best one.
[music break]
Miguel: Okay. This next one is from episode 9. It's about Mary J. Blige called "No Hateration, Holleration, in this Dancery…"
Christina: Of course. It had to be.
Miguel: It had to. And that tells you what we were on in this episode. T his specific clip though, is the transition of Mary going from My Life and the turmoil that was surrounding that album and how it sounds, transitioning into the Share My World album.
Christina: Yep.
Miguel: I also compared her first three albums to the Chicago Bulls second three-peat. If you're a sports fan, that analogy will make sense to you, if you also like Mary J. Blige. And I also mentioned that Mary and Kim were like Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen during that run.
Christina: Yes.
Miguel: We gonna check that out, right now.
[playing clip from episode 9]
Christina: And then the album ends with "Be Happy."
Miguel: 'Cause that's all she wants. To be happy, but—
Christina: And she deserves it.
Miguel: You've listened to the intro all the way to "No One Else" and she's not getting through to K-Ci or the unnamed person that she kept talking about in the commentary since she wouldn't name him. But then you get to "Be Happy" and it's like, you know what? Fuck it. I'm done.
Christina: I just want to be happy.
Miguel: I just want to be happy. And if that means I gotta be by myself, then I'm going to be by myself. That's the way I read it is this entire album is her begging for this man to come around.
Christina: Right.
Miguel: And then he doesn't and she's like, all right, I see what's going on here. It's time for me to move on.
Christina: I just want to be happy.
Miguel: I'm moving on. And I'm going to be all right, basically. And it's a perfect setup for the next album, which is Share My World. Just listening to it, it sounds a lot like a person who has gotten out of a toxic relationship and is trying to get her shit together.
Christina: I don't know what the timeline is, but after K-Ci, she dated Case and ended up in another not so great relationship with him.
Miguel: I'm going to go out on a limb and say during the time of this album—
Christina: She let him go too?
Miguel: I don't know if she had let him go or maybe they weren't together.
Christina: Yeah.
Miguel: But this sounds like a single woman. This sounds like somebody who has found out who she is and is like letting the world know.
Christina: Yeah. Like, even though she's still sort of like singing, she still has the heartbreak songs and whatnot, but there is…some of that melancholy sounds like it's gone.
Miguel: Yeah, it's not you did this to me.
Christina: Yeah.
Miguel: It's more of just general—
Christina: Yeah.
Miguel: I'm unhappy with whatever's going on in my life right now.
Christina: Yeah. It's not as specific.
Miguel: Yeah. I'm begging you. No, it's just general, I need some love.
Christina: So this album, no more Diddy.
Miguel: No.
Christina: She mostly, it was a lot of Trackmasters. Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis and Babyface, and Rodney Jerkins. He who will not be named.
Miguel: Yes, the nigga who shall not be named, and that song is a banger too.
Christina: I mean, this was a no skip album until he had to go and ruin it.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: Even though she's not working with Diddy on this album, the sound is still basically the same in the sense that she's still carrying on that R&B, hip-hop relationship.
Miguel: Uh, it's a lot more polished and it's—
Christina: She sounds seasoned.
Miguel: Yeah, she sounds seasoned and the world knows who she is.
Christina: Right. She knows that we know who she is.
Miguel: Right.
Christina: Like, she's arrived.
Miguel: And when we were in the car the other day, just talking about this album and whatnot and this analogy came to me. Uh, it probably won't make much sense to you, but if there's anybody out here who's a basketball fan and was a basketball fan in the '90s, this will make sense. All right. So, Mary's run from What's the 411? to Share My World is basically like the Chicago Bulls second three-peat.
Christina: Okay.
Miguel: When Jordan came back from retirement the first time. What's The 411? kicked it off. You've got the peak in the middle and then, you watched The Last Dance with me. So Share My World would be The Last Dance season.
Christina: Okay.
Miguel: Where they couldn't be touched. Nobody was better than them and everything that they did was just amazing. I say that because the song with her and Lil' Kim, they were on that song like Jordan and Pippen.
Christina: That one is a classic!
Miguel: Yes. They were like Jordan and Pippen on that song. And when I was sitting in the car and said 72 and 10, write this down, send me a text right now. This is why. I was putting it all together. The only difference is My Life would have been before What's the 411? to make this Chicago Bulls analogy perfect. But you know, it's my analogy so I'm going to do it the way I want. Because the first season of the three-peat was the most wins that they had '95-'96, but this was the second one. Almost a perfect analogy, but, I think it's brilliant.
Christina: Well, I can't argue with you because I don't watch basketball like that. But I do get the Jordan and Pippen reference though at least. This was a great feature to have Lil' Kim on.
Miguel: And I'm not a big Lil' Kim fan, but the one song of hers that I do love "Queen Bitch." And that's what this song samples, and it's not in the credits, but Biggie wrote this verse. You cannot convince me that he did not write this.
Christina: It sounds like Biggie.
Miguel: "Dipping on your ninja Honda with Tanisha and Rhonda."
Christina: Yes.
Miguel: That's Biggie. And I don't care what anybody says. He wrote this verse. So he's the Pippen in this situation and Mary's the Jordan, but I'll let Lil' Kim get in it.
Christina: She still had to deliver it though.
Miguel: Yeah. She served it.
Christina: Because if it was him, it wouldn't have been bad.
Miguel: No, it wouldn't have been this.
Christina: But this had to be Lil' Kim though.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: This is like the perfect match.
[music break]
Miguel: All right. Our next clip is from episode 12, about Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliot called "Beep. Beep. Who Got the Keys to the Jeep?"
Christina: Also our most popular episode.
Miguel: Yes. Our most popular episodes. So if you haven't listened to it, go check it out. It's really good.
Christina: The numbers speak for itself.
Miguel: Yes. "Men lie, women lie, numbers don't." From Shawn Carter[7] a few years back. But in this clip we were talking about Missy being the lead singer in Sista, where we both heard her first on Gina Thompson's, "The Things You Do."
Christina: Where we couldn't stop saying "he-he-he-he-how."[8]
Miguel: You have to say, even now. "He-he-he-he-how, he-he-he-he-he-he-how"
Christina: If only this were a video, we could do that little shuffle dance.
Miguel: Exactly. We'd look like fools doing it. But anyway, we also talked about her remixes, her songwriting and production before her album came out, realizing that we knew who she was before we knew who she was. So let's listen to that clip right now.
[playing clip from episode 12]
Miguel: She got her start early on with DeVante Swing, part of a group that he had locked in his basement for about a year.
Christina: And they were literally called Da Bassment. Well, the Crew.
Miguel: They were Da Bassment Crew, but he also called them the Swing Mob. And that's where she got her start in a group called Sista.
Christina: I didn't actually know about her affiliation with DeVante and the Swing Mob until after she had already gained fame with her solo work in her first album.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: Because I think at that point, I just thought of DeVante as being part of Jodeci.
Miguel: Right.
Christina: And was this discovery was like, wait a minute, he was out here nurturing all these artists.
Miguel: I knew, but I didn't know that she was affiliated with it, if that makes sense. Because I had seen the Sista video, "Brand New."[9] I just remember seeing it on BET all the time. It wasn't a great song, but just seeing DeVante and Dalvin in the video. Oh, DeVante putting his own little thing together. And I guess these girls are a part of it. So that was my first introduction to Missy. But I didn't realize it was her until years later.
Christina: Yeah, I never actually heard any of Sista's music, but I remember seeing a picture in a magazine. I think this might've been Word Up! magazine. Just one of those teen magazines, gossip mags. It wasn't The Source or XXL, But I just saw a picture and I was like, wait a minute, I know that face.
Miguel: Well, I didn't even recognize her at that point either, because like I said, I'd seen the video and I do remember being shocked that she was the lead singer because, duh, colorism. And was like, oh, we're going to let the chubby dark-skinned girl be lead? But when you're that talented, you kind of have to.
Christina: You have to be.
Miguel: So I was shocked at that. And then, like I said, the song really didn't do too much for me, and I really never heard their album. And then just researching this, it never came out. So that's why I had never heard it again. But the next time I saw her was, I think what's her name? Gina—
Christina: Gina Thompson.
Miguel: So I really didn't pay attention to the song much either until she started "he-he-he-he-howing" in it. And I'm like, the fuck is this? Who is this person? And why are they, "he-he-he-he-howing" on my TV?
Christina: I liked the song. I don't know if I've ever heard any other song from Gina Thompson, but she was…
Miguel: No, me neither.
Christina: One of Puffy's artists and, same thing, so I'm watching the video, I'm hearing the song. All of a sudden this car drives up. This woman jumps out and starts rapping. All right. Okay. And then that "he-he-he-he-how, he-he-he-he-how" I'm not gonna lie. I was like, this is weird.
Miguel: Yes. Because who wouldn't think it would be weird other than her?
Christina: And then she's doing this little shuffle dance and stuff too.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: Even though I was like, who's this weirdo? She definitely left a memorable impression.
Miguel: Oh yeah.
Christina: Because the next time I saw her, I'm like, oh, it's that "he-he-he-he-how" person. You're just like why is she always doing this.
Miguel: See, I didn't even put that together because I saw her in another song. I don't even remember what it was. But it was like, okay, here's this short-haired chick again that was in this Gina Thompson video. And then I see her in another song after that. It was like, who is this person?
Christina: Was it "Steelo"?
Miguel: It might've been.
Christina: 'Cause she did like a couple of features around this time.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: And I can't remember if she actually made that little sound again, but—
Miguel: She did it in two other songs after that.
Christina: I remember the associating the "he-he-he-he-how" with her.
Miguel: Yeah 'cause every time I would see her, it would be like that's the "he-he-he-he-how" girl. And why is she with Diddy all the time? So I just assumed she was some new Bad Boy artist that he was trying to just get some exposure for. Yeah. She was just on everything at that point, she was on a New Edition song. She was on "Steelo." It was MC Lyte. That's where I saw her again, the "Cold Rock a Party."
Christina: Oh.
Miguel: 'Cause she's on that too. And just a whole bunch of other remixes that she was on. Basically her and Busta Rhymes were just everywhere at this time.
Christina: Yeah. So at first, honestly, I feel bad saying this, but I didn't think much of her. Because it was like these little, small features.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: And I just, at the time, I just couldn't wrap my head around who she was.
Miguel: Right.
Christina: And even though, you know, I saw her on "Steelo" for example, I didn't know she was like a producer and a writer, right? It was just like, who is this?
Miguel: Just listening back to all of this stuff over the past couple of days, now you can recognize it.
Christina: Oh yeah.
Miguel: Like, I listened to these songs, like from Total and SWV and all I can hear is Missy. Even when she's not singing, that's what I hear. But at the time we didn't know who she was, so it didn't stand out as much.
Christina: After listening to her albums, Tidal had a playlist of like, produced or written by Missy Elliott. So I was like, oh, let me just go through and listen to other people's songs. And there are some that it's obvious because she's on the song.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: But there are some where she's not even on the song or officially not on the song. And now, like you were just saying, I'm like, how can I not hear Missy all over this?
Miguel: That's all I could hear.
Christina: In the background. I know you won't know this song "Confessions" because it's from Destiny's Child's first album. Missy's doing these sort of background ad-libs.
Miguel: Okay.
Christina: And it kind of sounds like she's on the phone and she's just, little ad libs while they're singing. But near the end of the song, she actually is like "Misdemeanor. Destiny." And I'm like, oh, Missy. Duh.
Miguel: Yeah. Just right there in plain sight and didn't even notice it.
Christina: So one of the interesting things about doing this podcast is when we revisit these artists. As much as we have loved them for years, it's very different to reflect back, now that they have a full body of work. And also just listen to it all at once.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: Even though she released a lot of albums.
Miguel: A lot.
Christina: Every one or two years, which is a lot.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: You're still waiting one or two years in between to hear this new music. But hearing all of it within a span of less than a week, I was like, wow, Missy is prolific.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: And I did not even really understand that without actually consuming everything in such a short amount of time.
Miguel: And same here. I didn't even realize how much music she had been a part of, over the past, what? 25 years or whatever. And I did realize that she hadn't had a full album out since 2005. 'Cause she's still been writing and producing for so many other people. She's still been around the entire time.
Christina: Yeah. Like when I was pulling up her artist page to start going through the albums, the two things I noticed was she was releasing music all the time. And she had big hits on every album. And then, I was kind of surprised to see it just stopped in 2005. And I think because she does so much work for other people and I've always listened to her music that it never felt like she disappeared for me.
Miguel: Right.
Christina: Right. But I have a confession to make.
Miguel: Okay.
Christina: I realized going through this, that I have never purchased or owned an actual Missy album.
Miguel: Wow.
Christina: Yeah. I shocked myself because when I was listening to it, I was like, wait a minute. I never listened to a Missy album from beginning to end before.
Miguel: Okay.
Christina: And I feel ashamed. But I'm confessing this.
Miguel: We might have to slide you over to Skillz podcast[10] so you can give your hip hop confession.
Christina: These are my confessions. Do I even want to admit in public that I've never listened to an entire Missy Elliott song—Missy Elliott album before?
Miguel: Well, you have now. You've admitted it.
Christina: So it's too late. I've said it.
Miguel: You did. It, it's funny that you say that you've never had one and I've had all of them. And I didn't like her at first. Like I said, I thought she was weird. It really didn't click for me until probably the Aaliyah stuff. 'Cause I guess I needed that Missy/Timbaland connection to make it make sense for me. Them together is what brought everything out, I guess.
[music break]
Miguel: This next clip is from episode 6, about the 1995 Source Awards.
Christina: A wild night.
Miguel: Yes, there, there was a lot going on. Flavor Flav had a cast on each arm. Mobb Deep broke the microphones. So there was a lot distortion.
Christina: The people booing in the audience was just as loud as the people on stage.
Miguel: Yeah, it was a lot. So if you get a chance, go to our website, we have a link to it, so you can watch it as well[11].
Christina: This was also the infamous night where Andre 3000 was upset that they weren't getting the respect that he thought they deserved and said, "the south got something to say!"
Miguel: He meant that shit.
Christina: He definitely did. Cause he was mad, pacing back and forth. But in this clip, we wanted to highlight some other hilarious moments that maybe you forgot about or don't get talked about as much.
Miguel: Yes, because everybody talks about him and Snoop. But in this clip, we're specifically talking about two things. The 69 Boyz performance. There was a whole lot of ass shaking and twerking going on, from four dudes.
Christina: In New York in '95.
Miguel: So it got the response that you thought it would. But surprisingly, the Notorious B.I.G. was grooving to it.
Christina: Yeah, he was there to have good time.
Miguel: He was enjoying the 69, the 69 Boyz performance. We also talked a little bit about Jermaine Dupri and Da Brat performing as well. So we're gonna check that out right now.
[playing clip from episode 6]
Christina: After this awkward, um, presentation and OutKast getting booed and stuff, we go into a performance by the 69 Boyz.
Miguel: The 69 Boyz, of all people.
Christina: They doing "Tootsee Roll." And it's hilarious.
Miguel: Like, they get booed when they first come out there. People are like, get them off the stage.
Christina: But what's so funny is like, you know, it's this high energy song.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: And you know down in Florida and stuff, everybody twerks. Men—male, females, whatever. Everyone's—
Miguel: A whole lot of ground humping and ass shaking was happening at this point.
Christina: It was hilarious because you have all these like, New Yorkers, these, you know, listening to like Wu-Tang, Biggie type. And then you got the 69 Boyz up there just twerking, ass shaking, humping the ground. Ass up in the air and it just looks so out of place.
Miguel: And what's funny about this is—
Christina: And everybody's just sitting down.
Miguel: Everybody's not reacting or anything. I don't know if this is some creative editing or what, but they cut to Biggie and he was grooving.
Christina: Yeah. I mean, when they cut to people in the audience, you can see some people nodding their heads and stuff. I don't think it was creative editing in the sense of like, he was nodding to something else. But no one was, nobody was live enough to like actually get up and dance.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: So even if you're like nodding in your seat, as a performer I would imagine, especially, I'm sure they're used to much more high energy audiences, right?
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: As a performer I think it would be weird if you're over there with your ass up, twerking and everyone's is just sitting in their seats.
Miguel: But Biggie was feeling it though. Biggie's like, this is my shit right here.
Christina: But I just think it just made it seem so much more awkward, because of the environment they were in.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: But if you looked at, there's some footage from the '94 events when Luke performed. Although they had girls on the stage too. So maybe that helps—
Miguel: Yeah. That changes things.
Christina: Because everybody was really into it. But they, you just got these four dudes twerking.
Miguel: Right. Humping the ground.
Christina: To a New York audience, it just makes it look so awkward. It's like, this is not Freaknik.
Miguel: Not at all.
Christina: It seems so out of place. Everybody here wearing Tims and stuff.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: And you over here with your Harlem Globetrotters shorts on.
Miguel: And there was a time when they were showing some crowd shots I'm like, is that somebody sitting there with a ski mask on? So I rewind it and yes, it was.
Christina: Not surprised.
Miguel: And then as I'm watching the rest of the show, I started thinking about it. Oh, it was Ghostface. Because this was at the time when he was covering his face. Cause when Wu-Tang performed later, I saw him on the stage. Like, oh, that makes sense now. It wasn't just some random New Yorker in the crowd with a face mask on.
Christina: Well, there might've been somebody else.
Miguel: It's possible that it could been, but it was Ghostface.
Christina: Well, not all the performances were, um, met with boos, shall we say?
Miguel: No.
Christina: Jermaine Dupri and Da Brat performed after. And it was, they weren't hype, but it wasn't, there was no booing. Like people generally enjoyed it.
Miguel: Yeah, they got some polite claps.
Christina: It was, yeah, it was noncontroversial. There was a lot of, I guess, underhanded comments.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: Not necessarily like, JD wasn't being underhanded in a negative way in, in the sense of like, trying to be petty. He was just like, well if these people are not going to shout them out, then I will.
Miguel: Right.
Christina: Right. And then—
Miguel: And at the same time, everybody who came out it was like, "What up New York? We love New York!" Blah, blah, blah. But New Yorkers get up there and it's like "Brooklyn!"
Christina: Yeah. See, I was just about to see that. It's like, they all knew. They're like, we gotta be nice.
Miguel: Right.
Christina: 'Cause we're in New York. So everybody's trying to be polite, like, "What's up New York?"
Miguel: Accept us please.
Christina: Yeah. Well, after watching, the show I've had I'm gonna "Give It 2 You" stuck in my head on and off for like two days.
Miguel: Yeah, me too.
Christina: Word up. Hey.
Miguel: Hey.
[music break]
Miguel: Okay. So this next clip is also from The Source Awards episode, but it's the bonus that we did couple of days later. It's the story of Questlove talking about running out of the theater when Snoop came on stage and he ended up getting D'Angelo's Brown Sugar tossed into his hand. And that led to them on a lifelong friendship. So we're going to listen to that one. And then that will take us into the D'Angelo clip. Episode 28, "How Does It Feel?" But I'm not naked. Got my abs out right now.
Christina: Oiled up.
Miguel: Yeah. All greasy with my cornrows. So in this clip, we were talking about how the sound changed from the Brown Sugar album to Voodoo album. And a little bit about how the album was put together with a lot of different jam sessions and whatnot. How they were freestyling a lot of this stuff. So, wanna listen to it right now?
Christina: Let's listen to it.
Miguel: Okie dokie.
[playing clip from the bonus episode]
Miguel: Questlove said that as soon as John Singleton said that Dr. Dre won, he grabbed his date's hand and was like, we, we outta here.
Christina: Oh, I'm gonna have to rewind that and look.
Miguel: He said he got up, he got up and left.
Christina: Oh, Quesltove said that?
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: Okay. I thought you said John Singleton, but then why would his date be on stage with him? Okay, so Questlove.
Miguel: He said he grabbed whoever it was with him, her hand, and they ran out of the theater. He said, as he's running away, he can hear Snoop on stage saying "y'all ain't got love for Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre?" So he says he's running out of the theater and he's out in the lobby and somebody is now chasing him, trying to give him a cassette. He's like, "You need to listen to this. You would like this. This is something that's up your alley." And the guy handed him Brown Sugar by D'Angelo.
Christina: Wow.
Miguel: And he said he took it from the guy.
Christina: Huh.
Miguel: And if there had been a garbage can around, he would have thrown it away. Cause he's like, "I ain't trying to hear your demo tape right now." It wasn't D'Angelo who gave it to him. But it was just somebody handing out cassettes and whatnot.
Christina: Huh!
Miguel: He said he threw it in his pocket. They run down the street. He said they ran 10 blocks back to the hotel. So he gets back to the hotel and he pulls the tape out of his pocket and he's looking at it. And he sees on the back of it, that it was engineered by Bob Power, who was doing The Roots stuff and Tribe Called Quest and the another, a lot of other hip hop stuff at the time. He's like, oh, so if he's involved and it, this must be good. And he said, he listened to it and it was like, I need to get in touch with this guy. And he said, it took him like a year before he finally got in touch with him. But that started him and D'Angelo being friends.
[playing clip from episode 28]
Christina: So this one definitely sounded more experimental than Brown Sugar. Even though Brown Sugar kind of ushered in a new sound, it was still, you know, more R&B. Whereas this one, you can hear a few more of those hip hop influences, but now you're also hearing more like funk bluesy, Jimi Hendrix and Prince, which are, some big influences for him. And you can really hear that now. And the album very much sounds like a big jam session, which it basically was. Can you imagine how much recorded music there is that we will never hear?
Miguel: Well, from everything I've read or seen about it, they would just go in and do stuff all the time.
Christina: Because I think in the intro I said, and he was a one take singer, because he had mentioned that he does like to record his vocals in one take, because he likes how it just sounds natural the first time around. So it's like how many songs are there if you're a one-take singer?
Miguel: Which kind of goes into what we were talking about yesterday, about whether he's a whispering bitch[12] or not. And I said that he's a mumbling bitch, not a whispering bitch.
Christina: Because he doesn't enunciate sometimes.
Miguel: Yeah He's on his SZA. Well, nah. SZA, it's different with her.
Christina: That's a different sound.
Miguel: But anyway, I'm thinking they're just basically freestyling a bunch of stuff and then whatever comes out, we're going to keep it.
Christina: Cause he's like, when he was mentioning his one take he's like, even if I'm mumbling, I want to keep it.
Miguel: Which makes sense if they're just sitting in there jamming for hours. I read pieces of a Rolling Stone interview because it was behind the goddamn paywall[13]. But Touré was saying how they would sit around and watch movies for hours. And then they would go in the studio and just start jamming and playing other people's music. And eventually as they're playing, it would transform into something else.
Christina: Okay.
Miguel: So I'm assuming that's how they did a lot of it. Where you start just playing a Prince song and next thing you know, you're freestyling at the end and now the music is changing and here we are with whatever comes out.
Christina: Yeah. So this kind of felt less cohesive as a full album because it does sound like basically what we were just saying, a big jam session. So it's a little bit of this, a little bit of that little bit of this, a little bit of that. Even them just leaving like chatter in it kinda made—I guess that's probably what they wanted.
Miguel: Yeah. You get a lot of that on the other stuff they were working on around the time, like Common's album and Erykah Badu's album. There's a lot of that feel to it as well.
Christina: Yeah. And they were all recording in the same studio right?
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: The, um what's it called again?
Miguel: Electric Lady.
Christina: Yes. So they were talking about how like, people would just drop by.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: Like Common and Erykah and just kind of come by and hang out.
[music break]
Miguel: This next clip is from episode 29 called, "Nayhooooooo!"
Christina: You forgot to outstretch your arms.
Miguel: They don't know that.
Christina: Okay. Picture the rain coming down.
Miguel: I had my fist balled up.
Christina: Miguel's got his fist balled up. His chest is open.
Miguel: My eyes were closed. So in the "Nayhoo" episode, we basically ranked our favorite… I was going to say—
Christina: You can't even get it out?
Miguel: I was going to say our favorite to worse, but that's a little bit harsh.
Christina: No, no, no. We had, we did break them down into tiers.
Miguel: Yeah. We broke down the male R&B group of the '90s into different tiers. So we went from the highest tier to the lowest tier. Some people fell in the middle where Silk was. So this clip is about Silk's "Freak Me" video.
Christina: Mmhmm.
Miguel: And the lack of confidence that I thought that they had singing "Freak Me."
Christina: If you just want to hear Miguel's impression of Silk, listen to this clip.
Miguel: They heard a little bit just now with the nayhoo, but there's more singing. You too.
Christina: Yeah. But see, I be dropping little sing songy here and there all the time. You don't as often.
Miguel: That's true, that's true. So we're going to listen to that clip right now.
[playing clip is from episode 29]
Miguel: And I mentioned that I wanted to say something about Silk. So I'm watching the, the "Freak Me" video and the guy who sings the chorus with the high voice, the other two dudes who are doing the little raps, you can just look at them and they don't even believe the shit they're saying. It's like—
Christina: I have to watch that.
Miguel: There's a complete lack of confidence in the shit that they're saying, and you can see it in their eyes. But then Lil' G comes on and he's [singing] "Let me lick you up and down" like, killing it. But these two are just "Yeah."
Christina: Oh.
Miguel: "I want to be your man."
Christina: Maybe they just there to be cool.
Miguel: Like you don't believe any of this.
Christina: I can't get over the "meeting in my [singing] bedroom bedroom bedroom." I just, I can't. It's too much for me.
Miguel: That's another one that I was laughing at yesterday. I don't even remember the line that I texted to you. Then he followed it up with, "be there or be square."
Christina: Something about, um, was it something about your steelo?
Miguel: I'm going to look it right now.
Christina: I thought you were talking about 702.
Miguel: No, I was talking about these dudes.
Christina: Oh.
Miguel: Where is it? "You jiggy and you know, I'm feeling your steelo." Like, he didn't believe that. He didn't say it with any confidence, but Lil' G comes in singing the hook. You can tell he meant that shit. Yeah, I just wanted to get that off my chest. It's like, y'all don't you have no confidence in yourself. You don't believe in yourselves.
Christina: The only song that I actually like. Like will take the time to listen to of Silk is "Hooked On You." But that [singing] "bedroom, bedroom, bedroom." But remember we saw a video of one of these bands, the school bands played that song?
Miguel: Yeah. That's um, it was a marching band. What school[14] was it? I don't remember. It was one of the HBCUs and they played that.
Christina: When you showed it to me I was like, "I know this song. What is it?" But then when they got to the "bedroom," I was like, "it's Silk".
[music break]
Miguel: All right. So this next clip is probably the favorite clip of all of our recordings in a year and a half. We're talking about episode 24, "Montell Jordan: One Hit Wonder?" Question mark.
Christina: Where we discuss whether he actually is a one hit wonder or not. Spoiler alert, he's not.
Miguel: He's not. We don't think he's a one hit wonder and we use this episode to prove it.
Christina: Right.
Miguel: Basically we're going to put you in on a little secret. Whenever you see "one hit wonder" in our titles, we know they're not one hit wonders.
Christina: We're just here to dispel that.
Miguel: Yes. We're trying to lure people in with the track titles.
Christina: A little click-bait.
Miguel: Yes. So in this clip, we're talking specifically about the "Get It On Tonight," song and video, and just how ruthless Montell Jordan is in this song. Ruthless and disrespectful.
Christina: Yeah.
Miguel: He called his woman a chicken.
Christina: Yes.
Miguel: Twice.
Christina: And complaining to the woman he's cheating with.
Miguel: That his woman is a chicken.
Christina: And as if those lyrics aren't bad enough, the video takes it to a whole 'nother level.
Miguel: Yeah. The video sets it off, which is why it's my favorite Montell Jordan song and video.
Christina: It's a bop.
Miguel: It is. It's undeniable.
Christina: Just remember... (imitating Montell at the end of the video).
Miguel: Yes. If you know, you know. So let's get into that clip, right now.
[playing clip from episode 24]
Christina: The last song I wanted to talk about is from his fourth album. Again, if he was a one hit wonder, he wouldn't have made it to a fourth album, is "Get It On Tonight."
Miguel: And this is probably my favorite Montell Jordan song.
Christina: Well, you and many others, because it was number one on the R&B/hip-hop charts for 38 weeks.
Miguel: With good reason.
Christina: Yeah. So February 11th. Took The Hot 100 folks a lot longer. April 11th and peaked at number four. So.
Miguel: Yeah I'm not surprised that it was—
Christina: We partied to it for a whole two months before everyone else got to it.
Miguel: Yeah I'm not surprised that this one was high on the Billboard charts as well.
Christina: So I guess like, between this one and "Let's Ride," they kind of like, neck and neck in terms of popularity.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: But this was his last like, major hit.
Miguel: Right.
Christina: He's definitely had more songs and more albums and stuff after this, but this is like his last major hit.
Miguel: Yeah this is by far my favorite Montell Jordan song. And the video, not even close, hands down, my favorite Montell Jordan video. And I'm gonna tell you why.
Christina: Tell me why.
Miguel: So first of all, we were talking about this the other day, he has the Motorola Timeport two-way pager. So he's actually using the pager in the video and of course, product placement. So they keep shooting, zooming in on his text messages.
Christina: Yes, and it looks so bad watching it in a 2021 lens.
Miguel: Yeah. So for those who haven't seen the video, here's the premise. He's going to a party with his girl. He doesn't want to go. She's like, come on. My friends are here, blah, blah, blah. He looks her in the face and is like, "I'm not fucking with them tonight." So she goes into the party by herself. He comes back to the car and starts texting this friend.
Christina: Mmhmm.
Miguel: She says, "Hey, Montell, it's Tiff. Just wanted to say what's up." He replies "My lady's stressing me!" Exclamation point. She replies to that, "Too bad. What are you getting into tonight?" So what does this nigga reply with? "You."
Christina: Ugh. At least he didn't reply with you making my nature rise.
Miguel: I'm getting into you tonight and then he drives to pick her up. And here's where it gets funny because this is what? '97, '98?
Christina: Um, something like that.
Miguel: Somewhere in there. In theory, you can—
Christina: Oh no, 2000.
Miguel: 2000? Okay. So in theory, you can navigate the streets a little bit better than you can today without like, getting caught with camera phones and like, TMZ and all these other tabloids, because he's still a celebrity. But your man is six foot eight. Wherever he goes he's gonna stand out. So she takes him to all these spots where they might not be noticed. So the first place they go to is a rave. She's dancing her ass off and he's just standing there all annoyed. Like, I don't want to be in here. This place is terrible. So then she takes him to a Latin spot. So they do a little salsa dancing. He gets a little rum and Coke in his system. He starting to loosen up a little bit. The third spot they go to is a hip hop club. That's the last place you wanna be as someone who probably knows the world probably knows that you got a girl and that ain't her.
Christina: And even if in the video, he's not "Montell Jordan," this is where his peoples are.
Miguel: Yeah. So you gonna go where people probably know you and again, you can't blend in cause you're 6' 8". So why are you doing this? You can't be incognito anywhere in the world at six foot eight and being Montell Jordan, who has hits on the charts at the time.
Christina: Well, according to him, she's a chicken. So maybe he's thinking she'll be too dumb to notice.
Miguel: And he called his girl a chicken.
Christina: "You are all I want girl."
Miguel: "She's a chicken."
Christina: "She's a chicken." Wow.
Miguel: That's harsh.
Christina: Rude.
Miguel: I was watching the video and as I was telling you, the one that I watched doesn't go all the way to the end because now, first of all, he didn't even go pick her up, after the party was over. Like she, she comes home and he's already in the fridge pulling milk out and singing, "My baby's stressin me." And she comes in and says something to him but I don't remember what she said.
Christina: Right.
Miguel: Because the video cut off at that point. But she said something to him and then he repeated something to her and she just kind of stormed off. And then he started singing, "my baby's stressin' me," again. So if anybody out there can remember what she said to him[15], let us know on Twitter or Instagram. Because I really want to know. Cause I don't remember.
Christina: I totally forgot about this until you mentioned it. And then I was like, oh yeah. Cause he was getting snacks.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: And he's just kind of singing the "My baby's stressin' me."
Miguel: He didn't even go pick her up after the party. Like, it's one thing for you to run off and spend the night with another girl. You at least took her home. Go back and pick your girl up at the club.
Christina: And then he told the other girl that she's a chicken. Just leave her! How about you just break up?
Miguel: Hey, I don't understand what the relationship was at the time, but yeah.
Christina: There's a lot of things that someone might call me, but if you call me a chicken, we're gonna have problems.
Miguel: To somebody else too.
Christina: To somebody else. She's a chicken. Wow.
Miguel: Oh man. Yeah, that was very disrespectful. But at the same time, it's my favorite Montell Jordan song.
Christina: I do quite enjoy the song even though it's ridiculous.
Miguel: It is. It's completely ridiculous.
Christina: It's ridiculous, but it is catchy.
Miguel: But those text messages were cracking me up. And they were real text messages. Unlike Kelly Rowland.
Christina: With her Excel.
Miguel: Using Microsoft Excel on the two way.
Christina: And you got Kelly like, "what's Excel?" when somebody finally asked her about it. I'm like, girl, I know you lived a great life if you have no idea what Excel is.
Miguel: She has no idea. People had to explain to her what Microsoft Excel was.
[music break]
Miguel: Okay. I think we're going to wrap this episode up here. Did you enjoy listening to those clips again?
Christina: I did, although I didn't enjoy some of the early episodes when we were still figuring out our audio issues.
Miguel: Some of the audio doesn't sound as good as it does now, but we were trying.
Christina: We were learning. We're not podcast experts.
Miguel: Exactly.
Christina: We are now.
Miguel: Eh, I wouldn't say experts, but we're a lot better than we were January 1st, 2021.
Christina: Yes.
Miguel: On that note, we're going to get out of here. Thank you again for listening to They Reminisce Over You. You can check us out on social media @troypodcast on the bird and the 'gram. If you want, you can also go to troypodcast.com and check out our transcripts and links to different things that we've spoken about during these episodes. Or if you just want to check out previous episodes. We also have a playlist for pretty much all of our episodes on the website. So if you like music, go ahead and click those. They're entertaining. And that's pretty much all I got for this week. So we'll see you in two weeks.
Christina: Miguel's ready to go eat some chicken.
Miguel: Oh God. Yeah. I'm about to go eat some chicken so we'll see you guys in two weeks.
Christina: Bye.
Miguel: Bye.