Bonus Episode - Interview with Donwill (The Groove Suite)

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

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[00:00:00] Intro Theme (Music by Danya Vodovoz)
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[00:00:29] Introduce the Show
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Jay Ray: What's up everybody. Welcome back to cue points. The podcast that drops the needle on black music history. Well today for our final feed swap for this season. Uh, we are featuring our friend, Mr. Owl, P y'all may remember Mr. Al Pete from when he appeared on cue points. But today we are sharing the show, the groove suite. So in this episode, Al is having a conversation with Don will. 

You may know Don will from the group, Tonya Morgan. as well as, the podcast, the Almanac of rap. It's a great episode. We know that y'all are going to love the groove suite and y'all should make sure you follow the show. So to follow the grooves suite, you want to go to their link tree, which is L I N K T R dot E E forward slash the groove suite. That is S U I T E once again, that's link tree and their link tree is the groove. 

Sweet. Enjoy the show. 

[00:01:36] The Groove Suite Intro
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Mr. Al Pete: What's happening? What's happening to my people is Mr. Al Pete with the NPN Network. The Gru Suite.

Gru Suite podcast, GRU Suite Mix Show. Thank y'all for hitting play. Listen, we finna get into a good interview with a good brother that I've been following for a great minute. Um, you know, that, that whole, like shooting your shot action, it was cool for me to just kind of be like, Hey, I want to interview you.

They got the new song out. Um, Tanya Morgan, they had the song out and, um, I was like, well, let me see if I can get them on the show. Cause I feel like the groovers on the show would definitely love this song. If they haven't heard it yet, you're going to hear it today on this interview. So, um, yeah, we have, but nevertheless, make sure before we get into it, make sure you follow the NPN, uh, network, which is NPN management and the group suite on Instagram, that's where we get busy shell dope music and all that great stuff.

So without further ado, I want to bring. Don will up in the building. What's happening? Good, sir. It was good, man. 

[00:02:54] Diving Deep with Don Will: A Conversation on Music and Podcasting
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Mr. Al Pete: Listen, um, first off, thank you very much for, uh, taking the time to, you know, to, uh, you know, to, to, to sit down and talk with me for a minute about podcasting music, two of the things that I love.

Um, so it's cool to, um, be able to talk to somebody who I've been following it for a minute. So thank you on that. First off. And, um, second off, um, I, I have a podcast crew that I hang out with man, content creators, a couple of shots out of them, but, um, one of my homies, uh, Dominic Lawson, he won the Webby award.

So while I was watching. Well, when I was watching, I saw that you won an award and I, and I felt like, I felt like we, we had won when I say we, I mean like just hip hop, you know what I'm saying? And just for you being a, uh, a musician, a hip hop musician, as well as getting into the media space with podcasts and, and with the show that you do, um, uh, I'm like a rap.

I was like, man, this is such a great win. It's such a great win. So congratulations on that, uh, personally for sure. 

Don Will: Shout out to your man, Dominic. I don't think I'm, I don't think I know him personally, but, um, you know, it's dope to win, it's a really dope thing, a dope accolade to have, and like speaking to what you said about you feel like we won, it was, uh, I think Jazzy Jeff, Jazzy Jeff was there and you know, I, I know him personally and when he saw me when he was like, it was the same thing.

He was just like the, like, you know, I don't, I hate to say the little guy because. You know, we're all of equal talents and abilities. It's just the, the light shined on you, but just a dude who's like, you know, the indie, the indie artist shit, man. Yeah. Is that when you, when you see somebody who, you know, you can, I love you, I level with, it feels, it feels different, you know?

Mr. Al Pete: Yeah, man. And you, I mean, that was a major stage. That's a major award show, definitely in the podcasting space. So this is a, uh, and not saying that other awards aren't regal, but this is definitely a regal thing. Award. Um, and again, I just like to see hip hop being presented in that manner. So, uh, congratulations again on that.

Thank you, man. 

[00:05:09] Exploring the Almanac of Rap with Don Will
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Mr. Al Pete: So let's, uh, speaking on the, on the podcast, first off, I know we're, we're here for the, for the song, the new song, but like the, um, the almanac of rap, um, like you're, you're definitely an almanac on it, man. I I've listened to every episode. Um, my two favorite are, uh, of course, Fonte. I'm a, I'm a major fan of Fonte.

So I thought that Fonte conversation was great. Anytime Fonte can be able to speak is, is great. And I think you compliment you. You complimented, you know, that conversation very well with that. And then the one with Artistic. So Artistic is from, uh, you know, he's from California, but he went to FAM. He went to, uh, FAMU in Tallahassee, Florida, which is two hours away from me.

And, um, so it's always interesting to see. Him speak on California, on Florida stuff, being the fact he's from California. And I think, well, matter of fact, you did an absolutely great job narrating that show and really just giving us the history of. Um, having somebody else give us the history of this and give you your input on it.

So those were my two episodes, but tell me about, uh, the almanac of rap. Like, how did that come about? What made you just say, Hey, I'm just going to do it. Yeah. Well, to 

Don Will: speak to the artistic episode, and this also speaks to like just the show, the ethos of the show in general. Um, a lot of the almanac of rap is about me getting expert.

Analysis and opinion. So I don't purport myself to be an expert on things. I perform myself to be somebody who's curious enough to talk to somebody who would know more than me. Um, a lot of times I do know a stuff, like there was an episode where I brought, um, it was either the tick tock episode or the episode about Chicago house.

I was talking to somebody about, um, just dance music and dance hip hop. And I'll ask leading questions. I don't know the answer to them, but like the audience just needs to hear someone explain it to them. You know what I'm saying? That's not me. Um, I bring a guest on for a reason, but with that, yeah, artistic is just such a, he's such a, uh, knows everything.

[00:07:19] The Creative Process Behind the Almanac of Rap Podcast
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Don Will: He's the, he's a real almanac, you know, uh, but, uh, the show came about, I want to say the tail end of the stay inside pandemic, you know what I'm saying? Like the pandemic never ended, but when everybody was in the house. Um, I got reached, somebody, a friend of mine had a show on Sonos, shout out to DJ Lindsey.

She's a fucking dope DJ in Atlanta. Um, she had a show on Sonos called Black is Black and it's a great show, was a wonderful show. She reached out to me saying Sonos was looking for other, other shows and specifically like not, not like a mass search, but they were interested in what I would, what I would bring.

So I kind of just put together a show modeled after what I was doing on my Twitch stream, which is playing music and dissecting it. In a different way. So not like, I don't know, not like the Dissect podcast where they're like breaking down the songs and telling you about the, the decisions they think the artist would've made or bringing the artist in, but Mm-Hmm.

Like playing Monte Jordan, get it on and not stopping the record and talking about how this shit is such a creepy record or playing like a cool J song and like being like, this nigga is a maniac, . He's crazy. You hear what you're saying. Um, but so like it was, it was just. fun, silly, whimsical analysis of hip hop.

And I think that a lot of the hip hop analysis that we get is either super academic, which is great, or it's gossip based, which is what it is. And I wanted to bring something different to the table, which is kind of treating it like pop culture and treating it like fun. You know what I'm saying? It's not always about archeological researchers digging through their crates and figuring out why this sample and this kick drum and talking about sine waves and shit.

It's literally just like, yo, Montell, why are you picking up another woman and bring her to the club where you left your girl at? Like that's, that's weird, you know, like just, just being silly like that. So the show itself, um, it, it comes from just those conversations you have with your friends about bars and witty bars and not like, who's the best rapper or, you know what I'm saying?

Why so and so whack, but just appreciating who an artist is for who they are, you know, 

Mr. Al Pete: gotcha. Gotcha. Y'all did it on the, on the, uh, what is it? The comedy rap, comedy, hip hop. Episode. Yeah. Yeah. Ah, man. When, like, I didn't even know Dragnet was, I, I totally forgot that whole dragnet reference, but when I heard it, I was like, dang, man.

I, I almost went back to the, to the, to the movie to see what that was about. But I mean, I, I do love, uh, how you bring things, you know how you have things in the middle, like Yeah. Not, like you said, super academia. And super like gossipy trash type talk or whatever. So it's cool to be in the middle though.

And it's cool though, that, you know, your knowledge too, man, like, you know, you like, you know, your stuff, it's not like. You just kind of like facilitate, and I know you, you know, you saying you bring other people in, but I mean, it's, it takes art to you to bring somebody in that understands that part of, of, of the conversation that you're presenting.

Absolutely. Yeah, I'm 

Don Will: definitely, um, I'm no slouch. I know my shit, you know, but I like to have conversations with other informed people, people who may know a little bit more than me or who can challenge the things that I do now in order. Bring me to a, you know, a different understanding of things. So like.

The, the comedy and hip hop episodes specifically, um, I, I wasn't aware of the Tom Hanks drag that rap. I wasn't aware of, um, Mel Brooks is hitting the rap. Um, I wasn't aware of a couple of things that, uh, Dialo brought up and in researching them, it was like, Oh, you know, like hip hop and the influence of pop is so wide that everything, but you can note, like, You can know like the, the, the shape of things in general.

So when he, when, when he was explaining to me, I was like, of course, drag, that would have a hip hop rap. And of course that was, that was good enough. The Chet Hanks being weird or Mel Brooks would incorporate rapping into like his musical New York has gone to New York. I'm sorry about that. Nah, you're good.

You're good. You know, like it's, it's, it's a really fun show to make and, um, it's a lot of work, but the work itself is just. a reflection of how much I care about the subject. And it's also one of those things where like, I get to illustrate, I get to find a thread in my mind and illustrate it to people.

So like the comedy, I'm one of, I'm trying to think of how the comedy hip hop series even started, but like a different episode is the artistic one that more or less was because I just dropped episode today. I wanted to ask artistic. I wanted to ask somebody who had the better discography, who had the better, who runs the rap game, not who runs the rap game, I'm trying to frame the question correctly, who has the better discography, the Bloods or the Crips, which is a really weird question.

It's a silly question, but when you think about it, Snoop is like, Snoop, he's, 

Mr. Al Pete: you know, But he's a 

Don Will: quick, you got YG, you got DJ quick, you got Chris Brown, Lil Wayne, whoever, but like who has the better discography overall? Are we going to like, this, this question came about around the time of versus. I was like, that would be a crazy verse.

It's just like a blood versus a crip. When you think about it, when you think about it, that thinking about the question led me back to the, uh, bloods versus crip banging on wax album that came out in the nineties, right on the heels of the gang truce, Um, and digging deeper into that thread, you find out that Jim Brown, blaxploitation and football fame orchestrated the gang truce.

And the gang truce happened, I believe after, um, the Stop the Violence, um, the LA Stop the Violence song. And like, like you just keep, the rabbit hole just gets deeper and deeper and deeper and like the parody rap joint part of that, I figured out, I found out where, um, the rap and Duke was. You know what I'm saying?

And I guess just. You just end up at these strange places. Oh, I'm sorry. I, so that's the thing about talking to me as I go on tangents of that. 

Mr. Al Pete: My 

Don Will: mind is like this, but yeah, so I wanted to ask artistic about that. And in doing so, I figured I might as well get some musical education too. Like, cause he.

about the LA scene in general. So we ended up talking about just the history of LA's hip hop scene. We talked about, you know, um, the difference between crump and, um, jerking and why jerking and crumping never didn't have the staying power of say crunk or you know what I'm saying? And like, whatever. And he's just like, well, he, he blew my mind when he explained to me that like jerk that, um, DJ mustard is essentially like the product of jerk.

Yeah. I was like, blew my mind. I never thought about it 

Mr. Al Pete: like that, but yeah. When he brought that up in the episode, I thought that was very interesting too. It was a good tie in. Like it, when he said, well, when they brought out the music, you're a jerk and all this other stuff. So I was thinking about that era of music.

Of course, being a DJ, you know, we had to play it from time to time. So like, and I was thinking about it, but then when he tied in the whole Musta situation, I was like, okay, this makes like total sense. It makes total sense. So it was cool. It was that aha moment when he mentioned Musta's name for sure.

Don Will: Yeah. Cause like, so at its root, the music, the podcast is a music discovery podcast. And when Sonos reached out to me, you know, they're a audio company and they wanted somebody to do like a, just a radio show where they play music and talk about the music. And me being the type of person that can't just do a thing in its simplest form, I was like, how can I make this extremely hard for myself?

I can conduct interviews with people about music and make songs about the interview, uh, make, make mixes about the interview. So like the first episode I did with, with Jean Gray, and we talked about Unhinged content, and I was talking about how LL Cool J is a maniac, like, you know, it's documented, he says he's a maniac and Gene was just like, well, I say to you, LL Cool J is not unhinged, he's whimsical, I'm actually a maniac, I've killed more people on my record, I've done all these things and no one thinks about it or talks about it, but we talk about that and we talk about like fun moments like Prodigy saying he'll throw a TV at you, Um,

yeah. Is a, a a a man. He was a maniac. He was a maniac. Yeah, he was a maniac. . Um, I got, I, I brought Wyatt on to talk about Wyatt Anac. I call him Wyatt. Wyatt Homie Wyatt. I brought him on to talk about, um, rap exploitation flicks, which are basically, yeah, the films that would come in the back. It's like, you know, the back when people were buying CDs and CDs were selling, they started putting DVDs in the CDs, and you could, you know, kill a season in.

I got the hookup or, um, about it, about it, all that stuff. Like it was like, like the direct to DVD era, like, like before to be, was to be, we had CDs, we had DVDs and you know, a lot of that stuff lives on to me now, which is why I love to be, but. Before that, man, you would just go to the barbershop and do about three movies.

And one of those movies would be a really bad movie produced poorly by a rapper. 

Mr. Al Pete: And we watched it like it was, it was, it was nothing else. And it became, it became a classic indirectly. 

Don Will: Yeah, exactly. Because like, you know, it became a cult classic. It achieved status within the hood. Like, oh, you ain't seen this shit.

Like you gotta see this. You know what I'm saying? And it's, it's, it's. Things don't get that designation anymore because they're not as um, it's more it's easier to make It's easier to make like a movie or like an album You can shoot it on your iphone put it on youtube whereas back then to distribute it.

You had to be like, all right We got to have a budget, enough of a budget to press this up. We'll worry about the actual quality of the film later, but let's just shoot it. Right. And then you end up with some 

Mr. Al Pete: crazy movies. Right. Absolutely. Absolutely. 

[00:17:57] Navigating the Challenges of Producing a Weekly Podcast
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Mr. Al Pete: So, uh, one, one more thing before we go into the, to the song, um, the word ethic, I know before we hit record on this, you mentioned that you was doing these shows biweekly and so the, the infrastructure of these shows.

I would think, you know what I'm saying? Setting up the interviews, doing the, I mean, doing your research and then doing probably like a second round of research being the fact you got to grab all the sound clips, et cetera, et cetera. Um, how, how do you manage to do that? Because you said you was doing this bi weekly.

I honestly thought, I was like, he probably lined them up and probably took like a month or so and kind of just recorded each episode and. And then we just, you know, every week pass by a episode drop. So explain that process to me. Okay. 

Don Will: So the first season was biweekly and the first season with Sonos that I did with Sonos, um, shout out to the Sonos team, the people who helped me produce episodes and mixed episodes, uh, Dana walks, sensational.

Mixer, engineer, live engineer, uh, shout out to Saida, shout out to Asha Palmer. Um, yeah, the team over at Sonos was great. They kind of gave me a long leash to do whatever I wanted to do as long as it met up to an audio standard. Um, but with that, those episodes were bi weekly and the only thing that I wasn't doing In that capacity was the mix and master.

Everything else was on me. So the booking, the editing, the writing, the hosting, the researching, all that shit was me. This season, I decided to go weekly. And I'm still doing all the jobs. Plus I'm mixing it, man. I'm doing the mix too. Like, so, and I'm doing this, I forgot socials and all that stuff. Um, and I'm not as organized.

I'm, I'm pretty, I'm okay. Let me, let me stop. Like stop, uh, being self what's the word for it? Self deprecating. I am organized, but I'm also kind of impulsive. So I just, I just one day woke up, like you got to just start a season two. And I started it and I decided to do a weekly and I've been doing them pretty much like the day before the episode comes out, I'm uploading it.

It doesn't exist. It doesn't exist. Like the episode that just came out didn't exist a week ago. Like I'm, I'm making this stuff on the fly. It's, it's a lot and I wouldn't recommend it. Um, a lot of it is just. A lot of it is just, um, consequential. You know what I'm saying? Like it's me not having the time to do things ahead of time.

Right. And me wanting to do things my way. So season three will absolutely be one in which they'll be, they'll be canned and they'll be uploaded and they'll be done. In my mind, that's how season three is going to go. Cause right now, man, this, this shit is, it's hectic, 

Mr. Al Pete: but I can't, I mean, and, and correct me if I'm wrong, but I do feel like, you know, it's, it's, it's a good little bit of glory for the hecticness.

Like I, I, I know for me, sometimes I put myself in these hectic situations. And I'm like, well, especially when it comes to like music or like podcasts and definitely what kind of DJ mixes. I'm like, all right, let me have this organized confusion type of action going on. But it, it, it gives me like this.

this energy or whatnot. So I don't know if that, if that, that's how you feel when you're doing your shows, like it gives you this type of glory or like accomplishment feeling when you, when you, when you're against the grain 

Don Will: like that. Yeah. The thing for me is that I work best under a deadline. I work best against like, not a self imposed, if you don't get this done, nothing happens.

I work best when it's just like, if you don't get this done, Like the money's on the line or like, you might, like, it has to be something, something like, like tangible and real, like at the finish line, in order for me to like really take the thing seriously. Um, so me completing everything ahead of time, just, I have too much time.

Like I need a deadline. And I also, speaking to the reward thing, it feel, I get the satisfaction of releasing an album. It feels like, like, it feels like making and releasing an album every week. You know what I'm saying? Which in practice sounds insane. But prior to the, you know, like I put out two EPs during the pandemic, I put out a safe EP called safe and one called space, two solo EPs that I completely produced, wrote, mixed and released within a week.

Like, so I've, shout out, and the person who taught me that is Jean Grey, shout out to Jean Grey, but like, just working, giving your full self to a thing. A lot of times you can't, if I have space to walk away from something for too long, I'll stop working on it. You know what I'm saying? Like, if I'm like, I have hundreds of songs in my hard drive that just will never see the light of day.

Cause I'm like, I'm, I'm, I'm tired of working on that or it's whatever it is. It's not urgent. It has to feel urgent. And part of creating a sense of urgency for me is having a deadline looming. Um, it's not the healthiest way to work. But it's my way to work and until I can find a healthier way to work, it will be my way to work.

Um, it's been, it's been a fun process, man. Even though it's stressful, even though, you know, I'd stay up sometimes till two, three in the morning for two nights in a row. You know, it feels good when it's done. 

Mr. Al Pete: Yeah, I agree. I agree. And you said the one thing that I, you pulled it out of my brain with that.

When you said, That it's like releasing an album, like every episode is like releasing an album. And I know for me that I like that challenge of it. I love the challenge of it. So, and, and the fact that you can do it on your own is like, do it your way. It's like the best feeling too. So, but great job on the, on the, on the, on the podcast, man.

I'm definitely looking forward to the season three. I mean, all the episodes that's coming up, man, I just appreciate them. So I'm looking forward to the season three. All right. 

[00:24:29] Transitioning to the New Song: "Don't Look Up"
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Mr. Al Pete: Well, since we're talking about albums, let's get into the new song. Don't look up now. This is a jam. Thank you. Thank you. Oh yeah.

And I got, and I don't know why, I don't know if I asked or not. When I reached out to you about getting those, uh, those versions or whatnot, but I do need those, those versions, like the clean versions, all that stuff. Whenever you get a chance, you can send that pat to me, man. Cause that definitely is going in my mix shows and all that stuff.

And I got other curators shots out of soul curators. They, they make playlists, they do mix shows, all that stuff. So, and we, we talk about that type of music and I'm, I'm saying that type of music. And quotation marks, because it's that whole, uh, as everybody else will say, like conscious music, but we really big on that, like grown man music, neo soul, you know, all that, whatever that encompasses.

So like life music, life music. Absolutely. Cause I, and I, and I, and hopefully it wasn't a disrespect for saying that, but I just know when we have to, when we talk to other people, we had to identify like that. So people can be like, ah, okay, so you're talking about so and so versus this. Yes. So. 

Don Will: Like, you know, part of, um, part of bridging as a bridge between the show and the music, part of the thing that I've been examining this season is genres, like, you know, what, what, what we're, what we're kind of hinting at is genres, and I think that for what we make.

Which is Boom Bap, you know what I'm saying? Boom Bap backpack is, I won't say it's a dirty word, but it's not a marketable term. Like, you don't hear a lot of people saying they make Boom Bap or like, they make backpack rap. I mean, I think that, I think that Westside Gunn says he makes Boom Bap, which is nice because he's putting, He's giving a, he's giving a, a, a, a boost to the genre, but a lot of people just have shied away from making bone bat because it's not marketable.

It don't chart, you know what I'm saying? And they, they want to do other shit, but for this, for don't look up and the stuff we're doing with six senses, rubber souls, I selfishly, Tovon and 6ix, like, look, I want, I want to DJ this shit out, man. Like I, at my DJ gigs, I play a lot of, I'm going to play a lot of funk.

I play a lot of soul. I play a lot of disco. I play a lot of boogie. I want to be able to slide a target Morgan jam in there and not have it feel like I got to bump the BPMs up and have us wrap it off, pitched out fast. Nah, man. Just let's just make ready made songs. So we got like about. Like that groove, that kind of like, like upper, like that 100 to 110 BPMs, like fun, funky shit.

We got like about eight or nine, maybe 10 of them. That's, that's, that's kind of the vibe of the new project. 

Mr. Al Pete: Ah, new project, new project. That was one of my questions. Okay. Cause I, cause I listened, I read, uh, I want to say it was two dope boys. And you mentioned like, you say, you don't know if it was going to be an EP or, A song or whatever, you know, you didn't know that.

And I, and I, I thought that was cool that you said that, but now that I got you on record saying that, you know, project, yes, sir. 

Don Will: You know, ever since Kendrick Lamar called an album, an EP, what is, what is anything anymore? You know, nothing has any, no, I'm saying like, we, we definitely put out a project where, so we're just grappling with how to get the, The full body of work to people.

Um, and what we decided on was to do a series of singles. So, you know, drop a new single every month and at the end of, or, or whenever we see fit bundle enough songs to either come as an EP or bundle them as a LP. 

[00:28:11] Streaming vs. Tangible Music: A Creative Dilemma
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Don Will: But I am so just, I don't care about streaming. I would care more about streaming. If we had a large following and large audience on streaming, like by all means, when I say I don't care about streaming.

I'm not telling you not to stream us, please stream us. Maybe then I'll care, but you know, like my thing is more or less like pressing it up on vinyl and selling it or making tangible art projects that are fun to make. Like it's not really packaging digital content isn't really fun. 

Mr. Al Pete: It's limited, it's limited.

I mean, and you know, you can get it out to everybody within a couple of seconds or people can get it within the 24 hours, but like, and it's funny cause I was on a hip hop panel yesterday. And we was talking about technology and all that. And I was saying how. You know, it, it, it was a mission. It was a mystique to create something and have a tangible, and we would, we would get the album and play it for like years or revisited and, and that type of stuff.

So, yeah, I, I totally agree with that. 

[00:29:17] The Power of Physical Media and Music Interaction
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Don Will: And you know, the other thing about physical media is that I say this a lot, like, If you think about how many rap songs or how many songs in general that you know the words to and you can sing along to that you don't like, those songs are probably songs that existed on an album that you bought and you just had to sit through that song because it's easier to sit through it than to fast forward it.

Absolutely. Like, and you don't have to do that anymore. You can skip it. You can like make your own playlist and the way that you interact, the way that you interact with your music is different. Like, like the song that we're talking about that we released this It's out now. Don't look up Spotify, Apple title, whatever.

It is competing with every single other thing in your phone or the computer. Literally, like you can be listening to that song and then a text message come through and it's like your job saying you got to come in. You, you offer that work, you offer that song and you're like, damn, let me text this motherfucker back.

Or, you know what I'm saying? You, you're on Instagram scrolling while you're playing and you're like, it's background music. 

[00:30:12] Navigating the Digital Music Landscape
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Don Will: So it, the way that we interact with music now isn't, I'm in the mood to hear something new. It's. There's something new. Let's play it. Like you don't really interact with music the same.

So I'm just trying to figure out a way to make people interact with the media different. And when I say I don't care about streaming, I'm not anti streaming. I'm just not really, I'm just aware that streaming is. A billboard. It's not streaming is marketing, but you know what I'm saying? You got to get people in the door to store.

So if we got a, we got a song about Spotify. Cool. If you playlist it, then that's getting you in the door. Like you gotta, every platform has their own ecosystem, a way you can engage with the content. You have to still algorithm. I'm, I'm all over the place and I'm sorry, I'm kind of scattered 'cause my No, you're good.

I'm following brother. I'm following algorithmic. It's the same thing as if I put up an Instagram post. Um, is if you follow somebody on Instagram and once you follow them, you don't, you'll see their posts for a minute, then it stops If you don't engage with their content, if you don't like their stuff, if you don't, if you don't share their stuff.

If you don't leave a comment, the algorithm says, oh, you're not interested in this. You just care for a second. It's the same thing with music, because once you. Once you post something on Spotify or, or title or Apple, it's, it's just content, even though it's a song, it's content and it's on the listener to share it and engage with it.

It's also on the artists to promote it, to be shared and engaged with. And it's a much easier game for me to be like, Hey, here's a piece of vinyl. I would love if you bought it. You know what I'm saying? 

Mr. Al Pete: Nah, I get it. I get it. But you know what? I think, um, I think Bandcamp is good for that. For me, me personally, when I go to Bandcamp, I feel like.

I'm like purposely there to like purchase and get a little bit of more of what the artist is regardless if I know them or not. So I mean, that might help. I mean, it's still a form of streaming, but still like band camp for me, like, like when I got, you know, when I got on band camp and saw your song. I was like, okay, well, let me buy it.

You know what I'm saying? And then I felt, I felt more attached to it, but I understand. I see what you're saying about the whole other stream is we're not against it, but it feel good to have somewhat of a tangible type of. You know, at least I got an email saying that I could download your song versus

Yeah. Like I, I 

Don Will: think that Bandcamp, I think that, uh, for what it's worth, engaging with stuff on Bandcamp is different. Like you're, it, it exists outside of the, the, the larger streaming ecosystem, like the Bandcamp plays don't towards. Streams. I don't think I could be making that up, but it counts to you.

Yeah. Yeah. It counts to me. It's definitely a barometer to me. But like the thing about band camp is that the audience that goes to band camp is a different audience. Like if you say, if you say I have, if you, if you put a post, like I have a new song out, here's a band camp link is a Spotify link. The people that choose whatever, like it's just two different audiences.

It's like, It's like a person that wants to get a hamburger. Like, are they going to cook it at home or are they going to buy it ready made? You know what I'm saying? Like where are they going to buy the meat from? Like it's, it's that level of granular, um, um, analysis for your audience. But all that tech marketing.

Like internet analytical shit aside, we made a jam and we got a bunch of jams. This is one of those songs, man. Like it's, it's fun. And even though, um, you know, the, the content of the song, the, the lyrical content of the song is a little bit about, you know, we recorded this one. We recorded this like maybe like a year and a half ago, maybe a year ago.

Okay. Um, we recorded a lot of this stuff a while ago, but you know, shout out to my guy, six cents. Um, he. He produces fully produces. So like, you know, he'll bring in like live bass and the mixes, he makes sure everything sounds great. So it's, it's not like a, it's, it's harder to get stuff out fast when we work on stuff like this, because it's a slower process.

It take more time to cook, but it tastes better when it's out. You know what I'm saying? 

Mr. Al Pete: Absolutely. Absolutely. And you say you got more, uh, more records like this, right? 

Don Will: Yeah. 

[00:34:37] Upcoming Collaborations and Features
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Don Will: We got to join the next one coming up. The next one coming out is a joint called Move featuring, this is exclusive, a joint called Move featuring my guy Matheon from, uh, I believe he's, he's based in DC, got him on vocals and got him on, um, like doing some bass and some, some, some guitar shit.

Um, the last joint, um, Don't Look Up features Mia J, a really dope vocalist. We got a joint feature of my brother Nicholas Ryan Gant, really dope dude. We got a joint. Um, got a joint feature by guy Rob Cave, dope lyricist, Less Than Dairy MC. We got, we got a couple more features that are pending, like, you know, but I'm, I'm trying to make sure that, um, try to make sure I'm shouting out the ones that are like tangible and actual and ready as opposed to the ones that are theoretical.

But you know, it's, it's, it's fun, man. We're having fun with it. Like, you know, we're making sure that we're not getting bogged down in the vanity metrics, the analytics, the, the, how do we, whatever, whatever. At the end of the day, we just been in a group chat, talking, sharing memes, laughing. Six just had a baby.

Shout out to Lil Julian, aka Juju. That's our colleague. Congratulations, yeah. Uh, and Von is, Von is living in a covert. Von is somewhere down South. I don't want to say where he lives, cause he's in a covert. He gets mad when I tell people where he lives. Ha ha ha. Bovine is in the south, you know what I'm saying?

If you tell him I said what up, uh, no, you tell him you said what up, not me. I talked to him. Ha ha ha. 

[00:36:15] The Joy of Music and Brotherhood
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Don Will: Yeah man, so we're just, the extension, this music is the extension of brotherhood. We're just having a good time, man. We, we, we're happy. We're all in good places. Things are good. So we're just making music that feels as good as we feel.

You know what I'm saying? 

Mr. Al Pete: Yeah. The, uh, the, the don't look up, that's what I get from it. It definitely seems like a, you know, a conversation or like a, okay, well, this is the realistic aspect of like what life could be, but it's like, you know, I'm getting pulled back in this other way. And I'm like, all right, let me, you know, let me stay focused.

Let me, you know, let me keep, keep abreast of, of, of, of the things. That's what I'm, that's, am I kind of correct on that? yeah, I think, I think based 

Don Will: on this conversation, you can kind of tell that I'm the type of person that when I get involved in something, I'm fully immersed and my blinders are on. So there's a bar about like, um, I ain't trying to do shit, nothing.

Stay at home, sit at home and just sit. Might take a little walk, grab a coffee. That's it. Six and mom, he had to put me back in because I literally. Like I'll, I'll make an album in a week, then I just won't think about rap for a month, two months, three months. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like sometimes I get so far out from it that I wonder, am I still in it?

And that's what, that's what that line six and mile P had to put me back in. Like it's hard to, It's hard to, it's hard to do everything all at once seamlessly. So sometimes for me, when I'm a podcast mode, working on podcasts, I'm not rapping when I'm in DJ mode, doing DJ gigs a lot, I'm not really rapping.

But when I'm in rap mode, rapping, I'm tearing motherfuckers 

Mr. Al Pete: heads. You locked in. Yeah, you locked in. Oh, I know. 

Don Will: Yeah. But, um, yeah, it's, so bars like that, they're just like, And, oh, and I wrote that song like right when I had moved into this new, this new place that I'm in. So, you know, I'm talking about like my kicks, my kicks being a little old, my hoodie ain't brand new, but I just bought a brand new couch.

You know what I'm saying? Shit is great. Like it's a choice. I can either spend 300 on these shoes or 2, 000 on this couch. That's where we're at, but I'm back on buying shoes. 

[00:38:26] The Art of Performance and Audience Engagement
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Don Will: So I might have to change that bar up when I perform it, but that's the other thing too, is thinking about performances, you know, like the relationship we're trying to figure out when to perform, where to perform, how to perform, you know what I'm saying?

But. And trying to figure those things out. We're also just having fun, man. Like not letting those conversations or those concerns affect the fact that we're just dope rappers who want to make some music, you 

Mr. Al Pete: know? Indeed. Indeed. I, I love it, man. 

[00:39:00] Celebrating Hip Hop and Life Music
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Mr. Al Pete: And I appreciate it, you know, from a fan for sure, because I, I, I mean, just from day one, from hearing Tanya Morgan, Darnwell, like, uh, Von P, hearing y'all, man, it was just like, you know, I.

Put y'all in that I, I wanna say, for lack of better phrase, put y'all in that category of like, of life music. Like I have this bubble of life music that I listen to, so it's cool to hear the ty, you know, the, the new Tie Morgan joint. 'cause I'm like, yeah. And it was a up, you know, it was a up tempo joint too.

I immediately thought about when I dj I'm like, yeah, I can slide this in. Like you said, you slide into some funk, like I love playing funk, soul. All that stuff, man. I just love when people just really get busy at bars and just, and I'm able to like facilitate that. So to be able to slide something in that I actually love and like listen to outside of me, DJing, it's a whole tribe that I have, the groovers.

I have a lot of people that listen to the 

Don Will: groovers. Yeah. The grooves. As, as, as, uh, you know, it works like I've, I've, I've put it in the middle of sets, like those kind of sets where you need like a bridge to get the hip hop or a bridge to get out of, out of like a, out of like a hip hop, like it works cause it's the, it does the thing that you need to do without, without being jarring to the audience.

Like what is happening? What is this nigga doing? Like it just, you know, by the time, by the time they realize what it is, they groove into it anyway. You know what I'm saying? Right, 

Mr. Al Pete: right, right. And 

Don Will: that was, that's always the challenge with. Certain kinds of hip hop, life music, hip hop, you know what I'm saying?

Like, I don't, I don't take offense or to it being called life musical, as long as just don't call the shit whack. That's all I'm saying, . Fair enough, fair enough. You do think it's whack. If you do think it's whack, don't talk about it. Talk about some shit you think is dope. That's, that's what I'm on. You know what I'm saying?

I don't, I don't really do too much talking about things I'm not appreciative of or things I don't enjoy, and I feel like more people should do that. But, uh, with that being said, you know, the, the song. I'm going to send it to you right after we get off this joint, man. It's, I can't wait for you to start sliding into some sets.

Listen, 

Mr. Al Pete: I got, I got three gigs this weekend, so it's going, it's going to get slid into them and straight up. So matter of fact, I'll matter of fact, I'll do your solid. I'll record video. I'm actually going to Cancun tomorrow to do a wedding. So, uh, I definitely slide in, I get some video and send it to you, man.

So hopefully you can use it for promo or just to look at it and be like, man, my damn music in Cancun. So. I will 

Don Will: absolutely post repost, whatever posts that you like, 

Mr. Al Pete: you know what I'm saying? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. All right. 

[00:41:36] Asking Don Will A Question from Pod Decks
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Mr. Al Pete: So, uh, last, well, last thing, I like to kind of be fun with it. It's got one question for you real quick, but before that, please go, uh, stream.

Don't look up y'all, please go hit it. Look it up, look it up, actually go to band camp and, and, and buy it. I, that's my preference, but if you want to do Apple, Spotify, et cetera, That's fine, 

Don Will: but as long as you can buy them in the Apple store, too, they sell music wherever you, whatever 

Mr. Al Pete: you do, do it, please.

Yes. Yeah. All right. So I, um, I have these, uh, cards, they're called pod decks. I go between those and like the griot. I have the griot black question. Black is questioning shots out the Panama Jackson. I follow him, but I like to pull a question, a random question and ask it and then you can answer it. So, 

Don Will: um,

Mr. Al Pete: I asked this question. I pulled three cards. So it says, if you were a bartender, which famous person would you like to serve

Don Will: with serving them? Does that mean I get to like talk to him and chop it up with him casually? Or like what I get? That's what 

Mr. Al Pete: I'm thinking too. I'm like, I'm thinking this person is kind of sitting at the bar, probably taking a break or, you know, kind of wind it down or whatever. So. You know how you say, you know, you go to a bar and you, you, you would have bought tend to be having a conversation.

Yeah. 

Don Will: You know, I think that the person I would like to serve would be Tracy Ellis Ross. Okay. And I say that because one, she is gorgeous and I would love to just look at 

Mr. Al Pete: her. Definitely. I can't definitely. I can't 

Don Will: do. I think that either her or Issa Rae, but, um, Again, both of them gorgeous, but also I think both of them probably, well, one, when I say Tracee Ellis Ross, she is fascinating.

And I think that, I think that we don't really get to, I would love to have like a candid conversation with her or see how she, you know, like, like Diana Ross might pop into the bar and shit. She might pick up the phone and Diana Ross is on the phone and she's like, yeah, mom, like nigga. Tracee Ellis Ross is the one and Issa Rae is the other one.

Mainly because Issa Rae is. She is, she's, she's built a cottage industry around herself that is powerful. She's like, so like just being able to like be around her and see what she's been up to would be fascinating. 

Mr. Al Pete: Yeah, for sure. Those, those were good choices, brother. Good choices. All right. So we are, we are, we're at the end.

[00:44:10] Closing
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Mr. Al Pete: Like, I don't want, I don't want to keep my man's long on here, but listen, I appreciate you, Don. Well, I appreciate all the contributions that you give to, to hip hop. From a, from a hip hop lover. I mean, i'm a, i'm a musician as well and all that stuff, blah, blah, blah. But like from a fan. I just appreciate you and your contributions to hip hop and just to the music world in general and uh, congratulations again on that award.

I'm, I'm sending you more blessings on getting more and more and more awards. Thank you. And um, yeah, that's what it is. So let the people know where they can find you at. Listen, I'm, I'm, 

Don Will: I'm on everything is Don Will, D O N W I L L, all one word, no space. Um, Everything. Uh, Instagram, Twitter, X, Venmo, Substack, my website, everything is Don Will.

If you type it in Google, you'll find me. And yeah, uh, Almanac of Rap is out now. The second season is wrapping up. Third season coming soon. And if you're ever in Brooklyn, stop by Littlefield. In Brooklyn on Monday nights, I DJ a comedy show and I'm there every Monday. 

Mr. Al Pete: Okay. Word, word, word. All right. Well, don't, don't hang up real quick.

I'm going to close out, but, um, so my people, thank you so much for hitting play on this. Hopefully you got some gems. Please go check out. Tanya Morgan's don't look up, go check out Don wills, all his stuff, go to his website, follow him on Twitter. Um, everything, all the, all the things and make sure you follow us as well.

The group suite, T H E G R O O V E S U I T E and MPM management until then y'all be good. Great. To the top.

[00:45:49] The Groove Suite Outro
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Mr. Al Pete: The Groove Suite podcast has been brought to you by Mr. Penis's Neighborhood and The Groove Suite. Make sure you stay in tune with us on our socials, on Instagram and Twitter at The Groove Suite and on Facebook, The Groove Suite podcast.

If you want to email us some music, tell us that you like us. Email us at groovesuitejacks at gmail. com. New things, new things, new things, new vibe, new soul, all that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you to everybody who supports us, rock with us and vibe with us. The Groove Suite.