Martin Luther McCoy: From Dreamgirls to The Roots and Beyond 🎬 | SWAY’S UNIVERSE

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the texture of this man's voice has
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transcended time and errors I know it
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for a fact because we are from the same
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region of Northern California Heather uh
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brace yourself because we got another
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Bay Area representative
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in in your proximity here we go all
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weekend and now today yes you too oh my
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gosh was before it was did shout out 40
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water what it do come on man you know
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we've had a lot of folks up who do we
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have up here re J Valentine came up here
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he's from your neighborhood absolutely
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okay I was just with Larry June at the
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juneth festival on stage introduced him
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he's from your neighborhood does that
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mean rbl posi from your
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neighborhood Point HP come on man this
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man has done a lot um I'm really proud
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of him you may have seen him in Dream
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Girls Across the Universe on the movie
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about the Beatles His Rebel Soul music
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project um has been incredible his debut
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the calling was incredible I was there
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when he was rocking with the roots and I
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didn't know how that I didn't know
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how it happened them being from Philly
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he being from where we're from Wow but I
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knew that he was stepping in the right
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directions cuz simultaneously King Tech
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and I was supporting the roots on 106k I
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first heard proceed come on first her
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proceed was on K with Sway and King Tech
1:28
come on and then this man had has
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sustained throughout the years and I
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recently saw him at Yoshi's in East
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Oakland performing with the one and only
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Robert Glasper and I said listen why
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haven't we sat down yet amazing amazing
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amazing you know it's been it's a long
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time the mark ladies and gentlemen
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introducing to you man one of the Bay
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Area Treasures if I will Soul music
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pillars if I will and the man is humble
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uh almost to a detriment but we going to
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bring it out today Martin Luther McCoy
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is here ladies and gentlemen hey welcome
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welcome welcome
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finally come on man Bay Area stand up
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Bay Area let's go come on this is one of
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bars hello man I'm I'm in the room bro I
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watch yall on you know what I'm saying
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in the room like get a picture PPP just
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going man yeah hey man when did you
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start because you got with the roots in
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the early '90s I got I got with I met
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with the roots um just incidentally or
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coincidentally bumped into a studio
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session that they were having I think
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they were working on common album and I
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was uh rolling out here with Jeff Austin
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and Lamar Davidson and U Vino moika and
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we just kind of crashed a session at
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Electric Lady Land and then some of the
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friends of mine in the Bay Area have
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always been affiliated with the root
2:51
since they first started so um my actual
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linkage with them happened you know it's
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God so I'm going to tell you a quick
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long story okay um late '90s that's when
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that happened over Electric Lady Land so
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late 90s I'm trying to figure out how to
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get back and forth to New York City and
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just kind of get myself more ingratiated
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and seen out here the roots was doing
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the the wetlands the uh the $5 shows on
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Sunday W Wetlands I got a chance to rock
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with them Saul Williams introduce me to
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that whole the amazing The Amazing poet
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absolutely uhhuh so now let's fast
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forward about two or three years and
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Saul hits me up one day and was like hey
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man you ever heard of this dude named
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Cody Chestnut and I was like n why he
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was like cuz there a dude on the stage
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with a flower in his hat singing a song
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that says if Mary had my baby girl
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tonight I'd name her rock and roll I was
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like what he was like yeah he's coming
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up to open up for me at this show you
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should uh you know come check it out so
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me and Cody met that night in San
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Francisco at a Saul Williams Show and it
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formed a a super Brotherhood should we
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say so we started going back and forth
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to La doing shows with each other and at
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the same time what I didn't know is that
3:57
Don Ray Cody's manager at the time had
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worked out something with the r and they
4:00
were about to do a song and all of that
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stuff took off so now Cody's on tour
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with the roots what bu do and whatnot my
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grandmother passes um in like March or
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something like that February excuse me
4:13
and so I go down to Texas and
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coincidentally Cody is opening up for
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the roots in Houston so I'm like yo I'm
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in town I'm gonna come through so Cody
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is like sure and brings me up on stage
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and when he does that the roots is kind
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of like well you know this cat might be
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cool cuz they were about to change
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guitar car players and bass players and
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whatnot they were going through some
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changes so by the time we get to New
4:34
York I wanted to go see Quest Love's uh
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60,000 albums collection okay and u a
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mutual friend was like Hey Quest I know
4:42
somebody that wants to audition for
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guitar and it was like Martin Luther he
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was like okay bring him down so we sat
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up and talked and next thing you know
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Cody was going back to Atlanta on tour
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with his album and I was about to go
4:53
back to California and they was like you
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want to go overseas for about a week I
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was like let me check my calendar got
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going on and it was like yeah I got a
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bag a guitar and two shirts and some
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shoes let's go so we shot over to Europe
5:06
and that turned into like hey well we
5:08
got this other thing going on in two
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weeks you want to go to Japan I was like
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Japan well let me check you know what
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I'm saying see so the thing is Jeff and
5:16
I we were working on uh releasing my um
5:19
uh Second full length album Rebel Soul
5:21
music and we kind of put that on pause
5:23
and was like let's check out this Roots
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thing for a minute and that turned into
5:26
like a like a threee four year impact
5:29
wow and so I started rocking with them
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on and off at that point and we still
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get up you know from time to time wow
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man I did not know that Martin Luther
5:37
McCoy all right hey hey so prior to that
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when I think of the bay area and I'm
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naming all these names and then it even
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when it comes to our our Legacy slide a
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Family Stone
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Confunction um Sheila E Tony Tony Tony
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all of these different bands that have
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come Pointer Sisters that have come from
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um the Bay Area did you have family
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members that were in music or how did
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you what was your entry point no my
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entry point with music would have been
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my best friend growing up Aladdin and
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Pascale we used to go dance on the
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Friday nights and do the competitions
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and you know strutting the break dancing
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thing came after but we were strutting
6:16
and pop locking and booing so one day he
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was like we we should start a group and
6:20
it was like a new addition was out back
6:21
then and we had to have two or three
6:23
different voices that could cover all of
6:25
the parts you know we had the steps but
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I was like okay to to really get off
6:29
into this singing thing somebody is
6:31
going to have to also take the business
6:32
side because we always heard about the
6:34
Fallout the uh the artist dying Penny
6:37
list or publishing getting snatched away
6:39
and production points and not really
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knowing your business and so my father
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is an entrepreneur you know shout out to
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Marshall Texas uh Harold J McCoy Senor
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came from Texas and when he got to
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California you know um black men and
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women had a hard time uh
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self-determining what kind of uh future
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we wanted for ourselves so you had to
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really work three or four jobs just to
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try and get to par not to get above but
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just to get to par so my spirit is
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thinking about how to make sure I don't
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fall into the same traps by studying the
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information and I had to make a a a real
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hard decision go off to school or go
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pursu the dream and you pursued the
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dream I went to school oh damn I went to
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morehous okay right damn I like that BL
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okay he went to school right get that
7:24
man a round of
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applause he prepared for the dream
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uh-huh right so the whole time that I'm
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in school I'm thinking about how to be
7:33
on both sides Entertainer or
7:34
entertainment law why not have both so I
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was right in working with a shout out
7:39
Randy Rand and some of the other Dallas
7:41
Austin different cats joy that were in
7:43
Atlanta because you just G to throw
7:44
Dallas Austin name Joy come on are heavy
7:47
way see but see here's a deal they weren
7:49
there was uh yeah um uh zetra Smith and
7:53
her daughter Kim these are people that
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were from the bay area that I had a
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relationship with that kind of allowed
7:58
me to hang around okay so TLC was just
8:00
was just forming at the time Usher was a
8:02
little dude when I just you know was in
8:03
the room checking him out doing his
8:05
thing and these people were they was
8:07
into the business back in San Francisco
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shout out Russell Gatewood and uh the
8:11
other production Partners I was working
8:13
with we wanted to form our own music
8:15
company so Not only was I out in school
8:17
pursuing education I was also trying to
8:19
get that music industry education
8:22
because some of these conversations with
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people you just can't have unless
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somebody brings you into the room yes
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and I was like you said ma sometimes I
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am modest to a fault because I'm not
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trying to outshine whoever is shining
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but I do have a voice but my voice I
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wasn't feeling like it was going to be
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appropriate to just kind of you know
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sing whatever was popular in the modern
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era I needed to speak from the heart or
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else my voice wouldn't allow me to
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really share like that so if I'm going
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to get in the room in the cipher I can't
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do all of the whatever is popular just
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because it's popular I just got to speak
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from what you know life has shown me as
8:53
experience and share that with people
8:55
because that's the kind of family I was
8:57
raised in you know we going to keep the
8:58
integrity you know first I love that man
9:01
I'm Martin Luther McCoy here I'm looking
9:03
at I've watched him his whole career
9:05
yeah now we get to talk Russell Russell
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gate what Rick and Russ Russell gate
9:10
yeah Rick and Russ popular um just
9:12
pillars in the Bay Area Community just
9:14
being DJs famous DJ world famous DJs
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party throwers Vibe creators you know
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Jeff and I we known each other for years
9:23
as well you know and that's what got us
9:25
into the music business because the DJs
9:28
y'all was the Gateway y'all was the way
9:30
for us to get a shot to get on a
9:31
microphone or to get our voice heard or
9:34
to have our Legacy emazing into the
9:36
culture because the DJ's got to spin the
9:38
record well the the industry of uh make
9:40
you believe that now the playlist is
9:42
more important than the DJ but I'll ask
9:45
you as an artist when your song is on
9:47
the playlist how does it differ from
9:49
when a DJ is actually playing the song
9:52
well a DJ is like a chef it's like um
9:54
you know someone who's preparing a meal
9:56
DJs love the audience you a way that a
9:59
chef loves serving food and food as
10:03
medicine can heal and Inspire and
10:05
elevate a playlist is dope if it
10:09
includes your music and the rest of the
10:10
songs are dope and you like that but
10:12
it's more static it's more it's not the
10:14
same kind of personal relationship so
10:17
when the DJ because DJs can blend in a
10:19
way that the playlist can't right you
10:22
can mix shade with Tupac or the Eagles
10:25
with you know what I mean whomever but
10:27
the playlist is just going to kind of
10:28
like rock song after song okay Martin
10:31
Luther McCoy say you got a show while
10:33
you out here tell me about these show
10:35
Absolutely you know well you know
10:37
fortunately I've been uh blessed to be
10:38
with u um different types of
10:41
organizations and one that I'm a part of
10:42
is is uh called Moon medicine and moon
10:45
medicine is uh led by our lead Visionary
10:48
artist uh interdisciplinary artist sford
10:50
Biggers it also includes jahi Sundance
10:53
um uh Rich Medina uh Mark hin uh
10:58
sometimes Andre Simone own base Andre
11:00
talking about we going into themers come
11:02
on so we're doing something special for
11:05
uh sometimes Mich onello could be yine
11:08
it could be a pharoh m it depends on
11:09
what the mood is okay and we're going to
11:11
do something for the New York school
11:13
board tomorrow and then uh later on that
11:16
night I'm bringing the band uh Mark
11:18
Kelly from The Roots Kirk uh Captain
11:21
Kirk Douglas from The Roots incredible
11:22
you know I'm talking about big Rick on
11:24
drums uh Matt Wong on uh piano we're
11:27
going to do a show over at New BL a
11:29
seven show is at 8:00 p.m. sharp where
11:31
I'm sharing some of the new music from
11:32
the album welcome back love welcome back
11:34
love let's talk about that welcome back
11:37
love welcome back love we need it well I
11:39
know I need it because you know my ears
11:41
they they kind of Flatline if I'm
11:43
hearing the same message or the same
11:45
subject matter in our in our popular
11:48
music I'm not going to say it's not ours
11:50
because we have to embrace all of this
11:52
it's ours it's our culture or else
11:54
somebody else can dictate everything
11:56
about it and I'm standing in opposition
11:58
direct opposition to that I need to give
12:00
us an option so I'm putting out music
12:03
that is welcoming back love into the
12:05
Airways into our into a mental chamber
12:08
for something for you to you know
12:09
meditate on a certain Mantra you know so
12:11
the album is it's also like my welcome
12:14
back to myself as an artist because uh
12:17
you know a lot of people was like well
12:18
where you been for a while in in
12:20
unfortunately we have family members and
12:23
we love them to death but they might be
12:25
on a path that um there's no way to stop
12:28
the direction in which their life is
12:31
predetermined to go yeah and when that
12:33
happened to my brother and I lost him it
12:35
just kind of pulled me back from um
12:37
wanting to be out on front and center
12:39
stage because so much of a strong uh
12:42
impetus as to why I even wanted to get
12:44
out there and do it yeah was a part of
12:46
my relationship with my brother so
12:48
losing him made me just sit up and think
12:49
for a while like what am I about to do
12:51
now because the person I I played the
12:53
song for first the person that
12:55
criticized it first he'd be like nah put
12:57
on some Rick James now put yours on you
13:00
got to go do something to that you know
13:01
what I mean wow that's good advice right
13:03
you know what I mean I'm like what about
13:05
Steve n that's Steven one I don't want
13:06
to hear that stive stuff give me
13:07
something that's hard so these were the
13:09
kind of conversations that also uh
13:11
prompted me to do things with my music
13:14
right and make a decision as to what I
13:15
was going to write about or wanted to
13:17
share so anyway how did L your brother
13:20
you know um he had just some darknesses
13:24
man that uh and addictions okay that uh
13:26
he wasn't really willing to let go of
13:28
mhm and um not wanting to take care of
13:30
himself our mental health and our
13:32
physical health is so necessary we can
13:34
get to a point where we're just like oh
13:36
eff it man you know it's going to be
13:37
what it's going to be but I'm of the
13:40
mind that as long as I got air in my
13:41
lungs I can improve what it is versus
13:44
just letting it go out on some it's
13:45
going to be what it's going to be so I
13:47
got off tour I got I had to get away
13:49
from the roots for a while and be in
13:51
lock step with him to try and stop what
13:54
was inevitable then I had an album to
13:56
finish so I went down to Atlanta got
13:58
into studio for about 3 weeks with some
14:00
of my guys by the time I came back oh
14:03
boy was laid out on the couch wow in a
14:05
position paraphernalia around them and
14:08
uh that was that that was that so now I
14:11
got this great album I'm ready to
14:13
produce and put out and d d d but my
14:16
spirit and my soul is in such ache that
14:19
I I just can't even think about what I
14:21
want to do in front of people because I
14:22
don't want to see nobody of course you
14:24
know what I mean shortly thereafter my
14:27
father passes and that changes the the
14:30
structure of the family and now there's
14:32
a lot of weight on my mother and as far
14:34
as family business and as far as dealing
14:36
with things that she cancer survivor
14:39
over 30 years two or three aneurysms you
14:41
know brain operations Still rocking
14:43
strong um to God be the glory yes but
14:46
she needs an allyuh she needs somebody
14:48
that's going to help stabilize things
14:50
and I no longer can now just get up and
14:51
be like I'll see y'all in a few years
14:53
you feel me I needed to be there so
14:56
those things are now starting or have
14:58
you know leveled out a lot more than
14:59
they were in the late 2010s and the
15:02
early 20 you know something teens yeah
15:04
so now we're in the 2020s and uh yeah
15:06
welcomeing back love let's go we're
15:08
going to welcome back love with you say
15:09
your brother name three times for me
15:11
let's represent him if you don't mind
15:13
hm7 dou extra large you know the S of
15:16
the streets Harold J McCoy Jr we see you
15:18
baby there you go I love it man okay
15:21
give it up for Martin Luther
15:23
McCoy let's play a song man you brought
15:26
this guitar we got to put it to work
15:32
make it move by knowing god is on our
15:36
[Music]
15:40
side believe one thing no one can make
15:45
you more than you
15:48
[Music]
15:51
so but don't you
15:55
ever don't give up the spirit of the
16:00
rise rise
16:03
rise woo baby you got to
16:07
rise you got to
16:10
rise you got to
16:16
[Music]
16:22
rise baby you got to R
16:25
[Music]
16:32
don't give up the spirit of the Phoenix
16:36
rise R rise don't you
16:43
ever don't give up the spirit of the
16:47
Phoenix
16:56
Right Martin Luther McCoy y'all live in
16:59
studio baby wow song Rise man hey we got
17:03
Jason on the line from Baltimore Jay
17:05
what up what up Jay hey Jason hey man
17:08
Mar MC bro y' man you the truth bro that
17:11
took me from the left lane literally to
17:13
the right lane cruise and literally I'm
17:15
on the road man that's that like keep
17:17
doing what you do homie man I appreciate
17:19
it appreciate the eardrums on this man
17:21
it's music it's medicine it's some
17:22
Mystic medicine and you heard it I
17:24
appreciate you bro they can get this
17:26
music right oh yeah you can find it
17:29
available my full name Martin Luther
17:30
McCoy as in the real and that's going to
17:33
be on all your socials and all your your
17:35
streaming platforms and that song is
17:37
available yes sir there you go Jay
17:38
you're a citizen man morning we going to
17:40
go to Michigan we got someone by the
17:42
name of Martin Luther go ahead man for
17:45
real yeah yo what's up my brother hey
17:48
salute to that you understand but yeah
17:51
that's my real name Martin Luther as
17:53
well I had to call in you got a fam
17:56
right now so keep going I'll support you
17:59
keep going bro I appreciate you
18:00
listening man thank you very much all
18:02
right man you're super citizen brother
18:04
way in the morning man what I like to do
18:05
we got Lila half way coming up next
18:07
that's your girl I know right y'all work
18:10
together we haven't worked together yet
18:11
but I'm angling you know what I'm saying
18:12
I'm trying to this is it that's why I
18:15
put you in position King
18:17
very very that's going to be a duet for
18:20
that asterisk you understand get her and
18:23
let her let you play Let's see what
18:24
happens it feel serend Snoop and Jamie
18:28
Fox did it
18:29
hey got his guitar we'll play one of her
18:32
songs now all right you cool with that
18:34
yeah let's get it see if we can get her
18:36
to do something what we'll do is let you
18:38
play and say hey Lea you want to jump on
18:40
that I think it'll work you think it'll
18:43
work what do y'all think what the room
18:44
thing let's go she got a song called
18:48
Black what is it called black girl black
18:51
black is it just black off of her um her
18:53
new project is called V black vont black
18:57
you know what that is that's that
18:59
pigmentation with no doubt now that's
19:03
going to Define all colors there it is
19:05
that V black here it is

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