Curtis Daniel III is the Co-owner and Co-founder of Patchwerk Recording Studios in Atlanta, Georgia. Some have called Atlanta the “Motown of the South” at least in good part due to the work Patchwerk has done.
Patchwerk has been responsible for recording one groundbreaking record after another, starting with Outkast, and including artists like Goodie Mob, Ludicris, T.I., Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Jay-Z, Nas, and others like Ciara, Whitney Houston, Beyonce, Usher, John Legend, Mariah Carey, and tons of others. Curtis was a full scholarship, Division 1 football player at Michigan State before he switched gears. He’s now a 25+ year veteran of the entertainment industry, a husband and a dad, and one of the most connected, and nicest, folks in Atlanta. I’m excited for you to join me in this conversation with Curtis Daniel III.
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Music referenced in the episode: Spotify playlist.
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Curtis Daniel III
- Website: https://www.patchwerk.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frittyloc/?hl=en
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BRENTON HUND PODCAST
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- Email: brentonhundpodcast@gmail.com
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SOCIAL MEDIA BY: The Social Sweetheart
- Website: https://www.socialsweetheart.co
- Email: thesocialsweetheart@gmail.com
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LOGO DESIGN BY: Taylor Hembree
- Website: https://taylorhembree1993.wixsite.com/ohokmedia
Curtis Daniel III is the Co-owner and Co-founder of Patchwerk Recording Studios in Atlanta, Georgia. Some have called Atlanta the “Motown of the South” at least in good part due to the work Patchwerk has done.
Patchwerk has been responsible for recording one groundbreaking record after another, starting with Outkast, and including artists like Goodie Mob, Ludicris, T.I., Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Jay-Z, Nas, and others like Ciara, Whitney Houston, Beyonce, Usher, John Legend, Mariah Carey, and tons of others. Curtis was a full scholarship, Division 1 football player at Michigan State before he switched gears. He’s now a 25+ year veteran of the entertainment industry, a husband and a dad, and one of the most connected, and nicest, folks in Atlanta. I’m excited for you to join me in this conversation with Curtis Daniel III.
=================================
Music referenced in the episode: Spotify playlist.
=================================
Curtis Daniel III
- Website: https://www.patchwerk.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frittyloc/?hl=en
=================================
BRENTON HUND PODCAST
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/brentonhundpodcast
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brentonhundpodcast/
- Email: brentonhundpodcast@gmail.com
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SOCIAL MEDIA BY: The Social Sweetheart
- Website: https://www.socialsweetheart.co
- Email: thesocialsweetheart@gmail.com
=================================
LOGO DESIGN BY: Taylor Hembree
- Website: https://taylorhembree1993.wixsite.com/ohokmedia
Welcome to the Brenton Hund podcast where you and I get to sit down and talk to some people who have cracked the epic combination lock that is the music business. These are people I've met over a decade's long journey in the music industry, scrappy and clever folks. From turmoil to triumph, disarray to discipline, we're about to find out what they know. Here we go. In this episode, you and I get to walk the gold and platinum record lined halls of Patchwerk recording studios in Atlanta, Georgia, as we sit down with Co-owner and Co-founder, Curtis Daniel III. What's the difference between West Coast and East Coast rap? who proclaimed that the South's got something to say baby. And why do some call Atlanta the Motown of the South? We're gonna find out. Patchwerk has been responsible for recording one groundbreaking record after another starting with Outkast, and including artists like Goody mob, Ludicrous, T.I., Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Jay Z, Nas and others like Ciara, Whitney Houston, Beyonce, Usher, John Legend, Mariah Carey and tons of others. If you like Hip-Hop and R&B, you're gonna love this episode. If you don't know much about Hip-Hop and R&B then this is just the primer you need. Curtis was a full scholarship division, one football player at Michigan State before he switched gears. He's now a 25+ year veteran of the entertainment industry. And one of the most connected and nicest folks in Atlanta. I'm excited for you to join me in this conversation with Curtis Daniel III. All right, welcome, Curtis.
Curtis Daniel III:Hey, man, in these days and times is glad to be present.
Brenton Hund:Yeah, glad to have you here. Thanks for joining me today. I thought we'd kick us off with a rap and hip hop 101. And I wondered if maybe you could just help us level set. Help us understand, going back to the the 90s or maybe the 80s and talk about the West Coast, East Coast rivalry and rap and hip hop and then how Atlanta came onto the scene, and then what that looked like.
Curtis Daniel III:All right, so So I'll start early. So I'm 48 I was born in 72. And I always tell people having perspective is a blessing. And being that our first real hip hop record was uh, you know, in my mind, was Grandmaster Flash and Melly Mel the message. And I was, I happened to be seven years old. So I understood it, I knew it. I fell in love with it. It was different. And it was cool. And I always tell people when I think back as to why I fell in love with hip hop, is because hip hop didn't have any rules. Hip Hop was original. It was groundbreaking. And it was different. And probably the reason why I'm struggling with hip hop now is because it's monotonous. And they're copying people and they all sound the same. But but growing up in LA, really from Carson to be specific. You know, I always tell people I love I love East Coast music. Because that's at one point that's all we had if you fell in love with hip hop back then you fell in love with East Coast music whether it was Run DMC, EPMD, Public Enemy, it was all East Coast yet. Our evolution it took me a while to get into West Coast music and I still aren't as good as I am with old school, East Coast because I'm about lyrics. And I kind of like people to be spitting in metaphors and, and similes and stuff like that or whatever. But I kind of I jumped on in with NWA. I mean, I used to - my mom used to go to the swap meet out in Crenshaw. And that's where the rodeo - the rodeo swap meet - is where Dr. Dre now you sent out sell all a mixtapes and stuff
Brenton Hund:swap meet is an old school term. So for the younger listeners, can you describe what a swap meet is?
Curtis Daniel III:Well, they call it a flea market. So for us in LA a swap meet was on Saturday and Sunday morning, a drive in movie theater. Basically everyone would come in like independent store owners, and set the shops up in between the microphones where you would hook into your car, and they would have a booth out there. And so one of the booths was, you know, Dr. Dre and him and the Wrecking Crew and they used to be out there mixing and selling mixtapes. And then I think the other thing that nobody ever hears this part of the story, but back then, you know, before these big cable conglomerates used to have like a lot of local programming we used to have Carson cable from Carson. And I used to have these guys, uh, it was DJ and all the time and showing parties and stuff and so we kind of got into it then and start emulating it. You know, we pulled out the cardboards and was trying to do to breakin was halfway trying to rap and beatbox and all that stuff or whatever. So I was all in man.
Brenton Hund:And and you mentioned breakdancing so were you breaking back then? Was that early 80s?
Curtis Daniel III:Yeah, man, you know, we did everything we was emulating. I mean, you know, we was we was going I mean the guy. They called him turbo, who was on breaking, who's famous for doing the broom scene. He now he went to my high school. He was older than me, but he used to dance with the band. And so we were emulating, man. I mean, we had the baggy pants, you know, we had the bandanas. We have rockin beatboxing we was doing whatever before the term culture. We want what the culture was doing. We was trying to do our version of it. So those movies like crush groove, and Beat Street and stuff like that, though those, that's what we was trying to do whatever we saw them doing. And NLA was cool because it was an alternative to we had sports, we had gangs. And the braking was an alternative where you can call somebody out from a neighborhood instead of fighting. We would have been our parks would have like our rec centers without breakdancing contests and stuff like that. So different people from neighborhoods will come in and and we're battle we was into the battle. You know what I mean?
Brenton Hund:Yeah, absolutely. I mean, for me, I remember that from I don't know exactly when it started, but it crossed over. I remember in the early 80s and of course, we were all trying to breakdance I mean, I've got strengths and I've got weaknesses and let me tell you breakdancing was a weakness of mine.
Curtis Daniel III:Oh, yeah, man, I you know what I feel like I fit right in my role always tell people. I've been around it my whole life and close enough to put my hand on it. But I was never the best breakdancer, I was never the best DJ, I was never the best radio host. I'm in my perfect role now still behind the scenes, but I'm close enough to fill in and smelling and touching or whatever. So I always respected the people who can do it better than me. But I was right there at the edge of the circle. I just would never jump in. You know, I mean,
Brenton Hund:I wonder if you're-- that that perspective, was able to give you some kind of unique insight. Because you know, the word on the street is everybody says Curtis knows a good rapper, Curtis knows good hip hop. He knows what's good. I wonder if that perspective of being just outside looking in rather than right in the middle of it being the artist was helpful to you in that regard?
Curtis Daniel III:Yeah. And I think the other thing to bring is that well, we have to realize is that so in my mind, I feel like I can judge somebody that's talented. I feel like I've I've heard all the records. So I know was dope and was good and what's unique. But back in the days, you got to remember that we we decided we didn't have a top 10 list for hip hop because it wasn't a category. We didn't have a billboard. We didn't have all these playlists. We listen to songs. And if they were dope, we said they were dope. And like always tell people back then you got to think about some of our classic, the Doug e fresh to show and La-Di-Da-Di is just a 12 inch. A lot of in the beginning, no one believed in hip hop or rap and they didn't want to pay or spend the money to record these albums. So a lot of these classic records were just 12 inches. And so it wasn't until these 12 inches would Run DMC and stuff like that started selling, that the corporation's came in and say, You know what, we can make some money off of this. So before, if you were to be a rapper signed to a label, you had to be one of the best of the best. And you had to have something to say because it wasn't like they was putting out 20 rappers a week. Right? You know what I mean? So the competition was fierce and you had to be unique. You had to have your own style you had to be talking about something and and you had to be dope. So the criteria to be a rapper was so hard that people weren't in it. It wasn't until it got commercialized, that I feel like they they got watered down. So now every label that 30 rappers they're not even the best of the best. They're just associated with somebody else that's already someone and so us growing up even you you heard a record and if you liked it, you liked it. It wasn't because it was on the radio 40 times a day or was a video was on the internet. He was like issues jammin and that's what it was. So to me, I always -- my criteria now is like, Okay, this song is dope, it don't matter who would have said this right? It doesn't matter how much money is behind it, I just hear raw and this record is good. I can't be programmed and sold. So it was so so so for me, I've never heard of Migos album mudrick cardi B because that's programmed. And whenever I tried to listen to it, it didn't, it didn't resonate with me. So I just left it alone.
Brenton Hund:It was much more disaggregated back when we were kids, you know, regionally there would be regional acts that were that were happening because it wasn't -- there wasn't a national -- there was no internet, there wasn't any anyone socializing? Who the powers that be thought was the top 10 or whatever, you were listening to a lot of different things I think locally, which is probably, you know, in large part why you had a New York epicenter and an LA epicenter and they were different. Now there's now there's sort of everything is everything.
Curtis Daniel III:Yeah, and so that you know what, like, you just it just gave me a tool when you made that point. Because even now, my thing is, I like rappers from all over the place. But I want the rappers to sound like they from there. I want my New York rappers to rap over New York sounding beats and not over these down south. I want the West Coast people to sound like they from the west coast. And if you from the Midwest, you can kind of blend it together but the regional flavor is what made it though, when you when you had E40 from the Bay, Twister from the Midwest, you know, whoever EPMD from the East Coast or something or Black Moon, one of my favorite rivers, you would soon as you heard them wrap you can tell where they were from where now, everything sounds the same. And that and maybe that has to do with a lot of these -- before a lot of the radio stations used to be used to be independently owned, mom and pop owned. And now it's just one or two big corporations that have a national playlist. And it's redundant. You know what I mean?
Brenton Hund:Yeah, and you mentioned -- I wanted to call out you mentioned La-Di-Da-Di that was Doug E Fresh and and Slick Rick. That's considered one of the most sampled hip hop tunes in history.
Curtis Daniel III:Yeah, all they got was a 12 inch man when Eric being rock him came out all I got was an A side and a B side man.
Brenton Hund:We were listened to a lot of Slick Rick in the late 80s and early 90s. I think as I was looking back on it, I listened to more probably New York rap. I was listening to public enemy and Slick Rick and Tribe Called Quest and Beastie Boys. Run DMC, of course.
Curtis Daniel III:Yeah, they was doing it. And you know, the thing was, was sad is like when you asked about it, I don't think it should have been -- Nobody, all of us that love hip hop, it wasn't an either or, you know what I mean? We had enough clarity to listen to East Coast down south slow music Shar de, Prince, Michael Jackson, I don't know who made it either/or, like, you have to be either or because we like both of the most of the people from the west coast. You know, their whole thing was to be accepted or acknowledged from the people on the east coast. You know, they wanted them to say, All I want is Rakim to say I'm dope And I you know what I mean? That's what they but I think that, you know, is a combination of, you know, New York, people kind of being snobby and saying that's not real hip hop, that's not rap. And they just was kind of shitting on people for a long time. So when, when everything flipped around, I mean, it went to the west coast, but when it came down here in Atlanta, or in the south, really Atlanta, they let me go, you know what I mean? I'm not letting it go.
Brenton Hund:Well, and to that point, East Coast rap was not Atlanta, East Coast rap met New York. Oh, yeah. So So Atlanta popped into the scene. fact check me here, but it was essentially outcasts that just bust the door open in the mid 90s.
Curtis Daniel III:I think they dropped that that first album about 93.
Brenton Hund:Yeah. And there was a famous award show at Madison Square Garden, where outcasts one Artist of the Year, and you know, gave a speech something about Atlanta and
Curtis Daniel III:South's got something to say baby.
Brenton Hund:Yeah. And it just lit on fire. And it seems like after that happened, then you had laface Records patent and patchwork was just at the epicenter of all of that. And I want to I want to get into that. But talk to us a little bit about what it was like when Atlanta started to light on fire in the mid 90s at that point.
Curtis Daniel III:I mean, we always tell people we missed the first OutKast album we opened up in 95 So we worked on ATLiens in pretty much every other projects since then,
Brenton Hund:which is at ATLiens was considered one of their one of the best
Curtis Daniel III:Yeah, they i think that you know, there were people before outcasts but outcast, like you said was the first one to go on. National and have that level of success. And OutKast just had everything man from the production. It wasn't. It wasn't beats, they was rapping over music. And they brought some people behind them being the Goody mob and the Dungeon Family and all that stuff. But yeah, being here at that time. I mean, it was, it was awesome. I mean, always now, you know, you look at things and you tell people, sometimes you can have a great idea. But if the timing is bad, it won't work. You could have a bad idea. But if the timing is perfect, it'll pop off. We were blessed to have a good idea. Bob was blessed to have a whole bunch of money. And we were blessed with the right timing to be around when they were just ready to take off and Atlanta was not about to let it go. So yeah, it was cool. Like I tell people, you know, we kind of grew with the industry, we started out in a in a converted house in a one room facility that really wasn't good enough to do mixing. But in about and 99, 2000, we moved to this $5 million facility is a world class facility. And I always tell people, it's a it's a parallel to, you know, it's one thing to be like, okay, we did all this recording in 95, 96, 97. And it was growing and we were growing. But our groups were having to fly to LA in New York to get their records mixed and mastered. We didn't have a commercial world class facility here in Atlanta. And once we built this room and open it up in 99. I mean, I've never looked at the parallels, but it allowed our artists to stay home. And it just really took off and we have a facility for we have a facility where if they want to brag about daddy's house in New York, or criteria Miami or whatever, to the hot studio, West, West West, whatever it is in LA. Atlanta can brag about our studio and they like nah, we stay at home. One of the things that people walk out of here shocked is how the level of the treatment that they get treated. But I always try to tell people that even these plaques on the walls behind me I think that's a ludicrous at the TLC. These people weren't super Ciara. Nobody knew Ciara when she came here. And we treated her like that's what they all say when I watch them later, they'd be like on came in here and they treated me like a superstar. Man, you all are superstars to us all of these different people. When we started working with them, none of them had plaques. Nobody knew who ludicrous was. Nobody knew who cheney was. Nobody damn sure knew who T.I. was or Ciara, or you know, none of these people. So we realize that we're part of the process. And you know, for new artists, you know, before people see you, you're going to be judged on the quality of your music, not not only creatively, they don't even get into the creative part. But the first thing that they hear is sonically does it sound pleasant? Does it sound like the rest of the stuff? And if it does, then they're gonna give you an opportunity to listen to it.
Brenton Hund:Absolutely. Absolutely. All right. So I wanted to go back to our definitions here. So we talked about East Coast, we talked about West Coast, and I wanted to throw a couple of terms at you and have you helped define them for us and then we can move on. So your thoughts on trap? So Atlanta word? Would you call that an Atlanta word?
Curtis Daniel III:Well it's a worldwide word now, I think that it's always been hard to just have hip hop. There's all these sub genres in every other category of music but there wasn't any for for hip hop. I think that is two parts of threat that I think that nobody's ever talking about because there's always some type of debate on who started it originated between ti and ghetto mafia. ghetto mafia said at first T.I. named a album called trap music but in my opinion,
Brenton Hund:you guys did that record?
Curtis Daniel III:Yeah, yeah, we did that record. And but my my opinion Well, not just my opinion, but if you were to play tips music, most people wouldn't say that it's trap music. It doesn't sound like trap music. He called his album trap music or whatever, but it doesn't, he doesn't make trap music in my opinion. Now, there's three producers they all worked here and I think fat boy, shorty red, and man Don't Let Me, and zaytoven, those are the people that are kind of like the originators or have their Sam so shorty red was working with Jeezy and zaytoven and fat boy was working with Gucci man. And I think they created the sound of trap music. You know what I mean? So that that's just my opinion. But yeah, it started local. But now it's it's everywhere. And so like I heard somebody talk about, you know, we're being blessed it because it was like there's other studios that they, you know, they stay responsible that the beat This is Michael Jackson did this there. But there aren't any studios that are affiliated with the whole genre of music and we're blessed to be like, Yeah, all that stuff was created here. You know what I mean?
Brenton Hund:Yeah. And then Southern rap. I mean, is that outcast? Would you say they started that? Is that a real word?
Curtis Daniel III:Yeah. Even pimp C them. You know, he said, Pimp C was real specific. He says he makes Southern rap tunes. And so between them and their music between pimp C and 8 ball, and mjg and outcasts, that all kind of fits together. And it was kind of popping in and then Houston came along. And so you know, a little Southern, Southern rap music. Yeah, I would say that. Yeah, I think I think those three pimps he, he kind of called it that Southern rap tunes. Outkast never said what their music was because it grew into all kinds of different stuff. Right? And 8 ball of MJG Yeah, man, those people are classic. And in the south, and they make Southern rap music definitely
Brenton Hund:And to differentiate from from New York rap, which was
Curtis Daniel III:Yeah, I'll say I always say New York is boom-bap. Yeah. You know what, that's why I was telling you what outcasts when you came to the south, it was music. It was more musical live instrumentation. New York rap started off with the breakbeat. So they did, maybe they didn't have a band or anything. And they just took a disco record. And whenever it broke it down, they took the break beat and they rapped over it. So it was the boom and the bap. That's it was a broken down the break beat. It didn't have all the music or anything. It was just a boom and the bap. You know what I mean? And then I think they kind of got 808 from from down here in the south or whatever. But yeah, to me, that's what I want to hear. I want to hear your dude spitting over some boom bap just raw, grimy, and go forw it. You know what I mean?
Brenton Hund:And then you get a little bit of a repeated sample like a public enemy that became very popular and and at least in my mind, that's reminiscent of New York rap.
Curtis Daniel III:Oh, yeah. New York rap was noisy, aggressive. I mean, it was a bare minimum, or it was noisy and aggressive. And they was going to get it. But then, you know, there was New York people sampling jazz, and doing different things like that. It wasn't one thing it never was. And the crazy. the crazy part about it is everybody loved it. So why did they stop doing it?
Brenton Hund:Yeah. Yeah. All right. So then what about Bass?
Curtis Daniel III:So bass to me, man, I'ma tell you, I didn't know anything about that until I got to college at Michigan State. And then the weirdest thing happened to me at Michigan State is their thing was, they would only play rap music when you went to a party about the last 15 to 20 minutes. And I could never figure it out. And it was like, they said that they couldn't dance off of rap music. So all they played, they would play some house or fast or bass music and you know, in LA I think Snoop Dogg did a skit when it was clown and Luke man, because that's kind of what we just call it a booty Shake music. We didn't think that they was rapping. There was it was man he was moving stuff in LA we cool, right? We have it's hot out there. We walk a little slower. We relay back. We just stand up there. Dude, one little girl, man one, nobody out there dancing often and fast stuff. So when I got to Michigan, and then when I used to come back home to LA, and I would bring a couple of them records they would talk about them. And I said all I would say was you ain't never been to a party and you ain't seen what the girls do to these records. And if you was at a party, you would like this record so they use the cloudiness over those records. But that's what I thought a bass music was Florida music. I didn't know Atlanta until I learned the history had a bass scene but when I think of bass music, I think of Florida in fast temple. You know, just dance and it's almost like you don't even have to dance on beat the the music is so fast. It'll just catch you even if you just move in or whatever. So I thought that that was party music.
Brenton Hund:And, literally, you know, huge subwoofer, low end pushing kind of music.
Curtis Daniel III:That's why I said I was listening to fat boy talk on our 25th anniversary footage we were working he was saying that the people from New York got the 808 from down south because if you listen to and it's true, because when I'm out walking or working out and you listen to some of those older hip hop classics, they don't have any low end they won't hit they won't teach you in the chest because they didn't add it in there. So it was it wasn't until he came down south and they said they went saw two Live Crew and they put all in big old speakers on the stage that they was like what is that and I think it was what they said Marley Mar is the one that took the 808 from the down south and start putting in an East Coast music. Yeah.
Brenton Hund:Very cool. So then Atlanta is happening in the mid 90s. We've called it the Motown of the South. I mean Literally, it's just it became one artist after another after another, just all of them blown like rocket ships for a little background. I grew up in Virginia, in Charlottesville, and in the 80s it was just a happening local and regional music scene there. And if you include Virginia Beach and Richmond and Charlottesville, you had Bruce Hornsby. Then you had groups in Charlottesville indecision and skip Castro band, which were sort of the precursors to Dave Matthews, which was of course, you know, the giant rocket ship and we all watched it go up, right? So, and Atlanta in the mid 90s, one after another after another after another. What was it like just watching these Rocket Ships go up?
Curtis Daniel III:It was incredible man. I remember at one point, we were out of the country, me and Bob. And I want to say we was in Jamaica, we were in Barbados, and we were flying back to the United States on 9/11. So we got stuck in Jamaica for extra seven days. I remember we went out to the club. And we were just sitting there. And I still think we were in a small studio at this time. I can't remember. And but I remember they played if they play 15 songs, nine of them we worked on. And I remember I looked at him and I said, I can't believe this shit is going around the world. And it was an honor to be a part of that stuff. You know what I mean? We was just, I think Atlanta. I don't even if our music had been made somewhere else, it wouldn't have work. Atlanta is just special. Because, you know, we you know, you would when I when I came out here, like I said, I will go to clubs, and the whole club would be lit, right. And they would be playing music that I'd never heard before. Yeah. And that was the thing that see Atlanta built everything up. It wasn't a gimmick. It really was built from the ground up. It was somebody making a song, taking it to a DJ homeboy, and they plan it in a club, and they go to the strip club. And then they go to the regular club. And then the club program director is in the strip club of the club. He's looking at everybody reacting to these records just like I am. And it gets to the radio. And then it so Atlanta is the perfect incubator, like and i right now there was a friend of mine, bam, bam, shorter. And he always says that right now the biggest r&b singer is Beyonce, right? If you want to be Beyonce, you come to Atlanta, because Atlanta has the infrastructure to take you from zero to 60. Right, you have the graduates of our program that you can see that they weren't anybody first that they were popular in LA in New York, and they came to Atlanta, it's like you said they was just some people on the streets of Atlanta. That just went on a bar here. So that that leads to the credibility and it draws rather creative people to the market. You know what I mean?
Brenton Hund:It's like, if you're in country music going to Nashville,
Curtis Daniel III:man, I'm gonna tell you what, Brynn I can't believe how big if you familiar with the he had to country rap song the Blanco, Blanco, Blanco brown. Man, when I heard his records, he was so to me. I was drawn to it because it was different. It was unique. He could write and the production it was dope. So we got his records and sent them to all these different record labels, but then they come back with the what do we do with this? And how does this work? And then man, he then blew up 200 time and it just be like, man, I'd be telling people, if I'm in this position, I've been here 25 years and I know all these and ours. They're looking for something that's already out there and you know, so it was weird, but yeah, you know, Atlanta special,
Brenton Hund:you know, well, and then not only did you have this conglomeration of rappers just sort of in Atlanta at the time but then you also had these record labels and some producers I mean, laface Records in the what is it late 80s or early 90s I think you got Did you guys record every single La Face artist practically?
Curtis Daniel III:We worked I mean, we got here in 95. So most of that we got a chance to work with all of them. But But again, see what I keep saying is you got to think that see LA and New York, they had the record labels so they was based off of the label and and you know, the executive stuff. Atlanta always had the music and that's what was missing. So we've had it ain't just rap, man, all that r&b. And them, songs that was coming up out here from Usher to 112. The jagged edge to Monica escape, Ciara, we had the R - neo and them - we had all the r&b too, so we had the best musicians and producers who were making songs, not just beats and then we had the dopest writers. And so that's what I always tell people that what what is different about Atlanta, you gotta imagine that if your routes start with organized noise man, he started good as a Like if that's your DNA is that everything is from organized noise. They wasn't using samples and scratching and doing bare minimal stuff. So all of these people that you see now, they grew up on outcast and organized noise and Goody mob and all this stuff. So they are soulful. And they have spirits. So to me, always think that the soulfulness not the trap, but even our trap music, Gods soul and spirit to it. And that's what people don't get like you. You can't. It's just different doing, you know, black music to be like when you fly here, and all your flight attendants are black. And then you go to the airport area. And then you got seven different eight different radio stations. And then your mayor is black, and then the police chief is black. And then you go to a studio, and they're your age, and they look like you, you know, to write and deliver these records, you have to be in a space where you feel safe enough to be vulnerable. And Atlanta gives people that so you know, we get a lot of people we worked on a lot of NAS projects. We did big pimpin here, a lot of cash money, a lot of people came to Atlanta, to feel good about what they were doing. And to make a lot of the records. You know what I mean?
Brenton Hund:Well, you know, it's outcome based when it when it sounds good, and the artist likes it, and they have a good experience, it becomes a no brainer. You know it, what you were talking about reminded me I've heard something about Atlanta, hip hop is that, you know, what's the common denominator and one of the common denominators is there kind of isn't a common denominator. Because there's such a variety and mixture of like you were describing sort of melodic and songs on the one end, and then you've got beats, and you've got trap. And you've got a mixture of West Coast and East Coast kind of all happening. And really a lot of mixture of styles and thoughts and genres all fusing together in different ways. So
Curtis Daniel III:But look, let me say this, too. So imagine this, Brenton, you are up and coming artist, right? And you got your first deal. And before you either going to New York or LA is too expensive to be a starving artist in LA or New York, no doubt UK, Atlanta just adds it's the spot for you to start and grow. But you can't afford to start and grow in New York and LA because it costs too much. Yeah, you know what I mean? So you it's all kind of stuff before you even get into the music that contribute to these people being it I mean, if you got a budget to do your first album $60 or $80,000 that ain't gonna do you nothing in LA or New York, but in Atlanta. You can do something, you know what I mean?
Brenton Hund:Definitely. So, let's go. Let's go way back. Now I want to talk about your your early days with Raz Kaz and how you got the label started and then how you got the studio started. And then maybe even before that, I'm interested also in your your football experience, because you were a division one full scholarship, football player at Michigan State. I mean, to go from an experience at such a high level in one discipline, and then move over to an experience at such a high level and another discipline. You know, one of the things that fascinates me and it makes me curious about your story is what skills and disciplines you took from football at an extremely high level over into music.
Curtis Daniel III:Yeah, we didn't have any excuses in football man, you couldn't you couldn't be late no matter what. It didn't matter if you had the flu, if you had laryngitis or whatever. So in handball, you learned that there's no excuses. in football, you realize that you can't be great without your teammates that if one person misses the assignment, on any given play, you can give up a touchdown. The information from California going to Michigan, it was eye opening. I didn't you know, I didn't have a pair of pants when I went to Michigan. So just dealing with the four seasons and stuff like that the different music, and then going to these different places like Flint, Detroit, Grand Rapids and stuff like that. It just made you grow up. And so when I was there, I mean, my whole thing. I have an article, I think they probably wrote in my first week when I was on campus, and it was like, What do you want to do? I said, whatever I want to do, I just don't want to go back home. And not my parents been married now for like 51 years beautiful home, but I was like, it was more of a theme that if I'm not at home, then I must be doing something to be successful. So I didn't care what I was doing. And I read it and I said I kind of want to run a business. I had a degree in psychology. So for me, my favorite sport plan was baseball, where I grew up,
Brenton Hund:what did you play?
Curtis Daniel III:I played pitcher man, pitcher catcher shortstop. And then when I got older, I didn't want the ball to hit me. So I was standing in the field if I wasn't pitching but I used to strike about
Brenton Hund:What did you pitch?
Curtis Daniel III:What do you mean?
Brenton Hund:What was your pitch?
Curtis Daniel III:I had all of them, I used to throw the knuckleball. And you still breaking ball fast
Brenton Hund:You had all the junk?
Curtis Daniel III:all of it. That's why I mess my arm up. So
Brenton Hund:I played baseball as a little little kid and you know, went to baseball camp and pitched to and all I wanted to do is throw all the junk I just never had. I never had any junk as wild as hell. But I could throw, throw hard. Yeah, and I could throw I could throw an okay, changeup
Curtis Daniel III:to have people running, throw the ball at your head, and it'd be a strike. But But what what ended up happening and where I went to the high school was a power school, they used to be ranked nationally. And so I seen all my friends getting football scholarships, and I don't see anybody getting anything from baseball. So I made a business decision to be like, you know, I'm just going to play football so that I can go to school for free. And going into my senior year, I was out and listen to my coach and I play summer school summer league basketball, and I tore the ligaments in my knee and I didn't tell anybody. So I just played my whole senior year with the ligaments torn until I got a scholarship and then when I got the campus I told the people in my practice three or four times and told him my knee hurt. But football to me always tell people you know, I didn't love it like my roommates, them dudes, I never been back to my high school game. I don't really care. I ain't coaching them knows that I wish they cared. They loved it. If the coaches cussed him out, and they didn't get the place, some of them would quit and try to transfer I used to be like, I don't care, almost a pay for me to go to school, but during so the first year I couldn't get on the field because I had surgery. Second year, I wasn't good enough. The third year I was going to play but I had a spinal injury. And they told me I was one hit away from being paralyzed. On my left side, same injury there. Michael Irvin moves Johnson got narrowing that a spine. So that ended my football career. But what it did do is it allowed me to finally like when we were in school, we couldn't take classes past two o'clock. So you know, or three o'clock in, it eliminated a lot of classes that you wanted to take. So it played out for me they you know, I got injured. They came to me and asked me, you know, that I want to be around the program helped him coach and do all this stuff. And I was like, Well, if I don't do that y'all still won't get my scholarship is like yeah, I said, I could still get my tickets to the game. It was like, Yeah, I still come to training table. I say yep, I said, I'm not I'm not coming over here for 2, 3, 4 hours a day. So what ended the first thing it did is I ended up started taking classes that out. So the first class I took was an African American women's study class. And then that was the first time I started meeting regular students that went on the football team, and in any kind of open the university up to me. And, you know, so from there, Bob, I was there with Bob that recruited Bob Whitfield. He went to Stanford, Danny green came to Carson and I was trying to go to Stanford to and Danny Bob was a 4.0 student all the way through high school,
Brenton Hund:and then played for the Falcons.
Curtis Daniel III:Um hmm, I was in I was a 2.5 student and that's when he told me you can't go to Stanford son. So Bob went to Stanford. He got drafted when he was like 19 Highest Paid lineman in NFL history. I'm at Michigan State. We got a mutual friend at home that's rapping. I'm thinking he's the most talented person on earth, which he still is Raz Kaz
Brenton Hund:I can you and Raz and Bob are all from
Curtis Daniel III:the Patch. That's why it's called Patchwerk. So we from Carson, but the neighborhood is called the cabbage patch gangsters. Okay, so we say we're putting in work for the patch. Yeah. And so I just told Bob, you, you got some equipment, you need to send it to him, man, you ain't doing nothing with it. And we were just naive. I think I might have been 21, 22 or Bob was 22, 21. And I was about 20 or 19 Raz was about 18. And our idea was that we would cut a cut a record and then he would get signed.
Brenton Hund:Just easy as that?!
Curtis Daniel III:naive as day man. And well fearless. Yeah, we cut the record. And then nobody wanted to sign him. So we still was young and dumb. It was like, man, we can just put shit out ourselves. And that's what we did. And once we put it out, it created a bidding war with every single major label. We ended up signing the reason why people don't know he saw Rick Rubin came to Carson. They have GM everybody but Raz ended up signing with priority because razz did the song called nature of the threat. And every other label was worried about the lyrics and priority looked at him and said, Man, we put out NWA, you can say what you want to say. And he ended up signing with Priority when we did the first album, and we realized that we spent over 200 some thousand dollar recording it production and recording. And us still being young and naive, said we should just build our own studio. And so we
Brenton Hund:Priority put out body count.
Curtis Daniel III:Yeah, they put out that they didn't care that
Brenton Hund:I wanted it. That was he talked about Just as a as a small tangent, so it's interesting. You know, you're you're, we're about the same age and your story and my story have some interesting connection points. And I remember it was 1991. And we I was all into Jane's Addiction and Soundgarden. And Smashing Pumpkins and stuff like that. And I went to that first Lollapalooza tour, and it was playing, and he brought a heavy metal band behind him, and it was body count before they released their record. And I'm telling you, I had never, ever heard anything like that. And I walked through, they were playing as I walked into the festival grounds, and and I just stopped cold. And I was like, I've never heard anything like that. It was awesome.
Curtis Daniel III:So let me ask you something. So was it was I because I'm not in - I wasn't into that. But musically, was the music good that they did? It was real rock or it was real metal.
Brenton Hund:It was like, it was like rock/metal, right. And iced tea in front of that. So in my mind, that's what opened the door to all of this rap rock. Like, like Rage Against the Machine. None of that existed. I mean, I had never heard anything like it. And I couldn't believe it. When I heard it. It was amazing. I thought it was great. So So anyway, that so and body count was the was the heavy metal band, and that's the record that it put out. And priority was the record label. And so this is the overlap, then coming back to your story, then rats got signed with with priority.
Curtis Daniel III:And him and ice T are great friends. You know what I mean? Because, like I say, a priority. They started with the California raisins man. And then they ended up with NWA and all that stuff. And then yeah, iced tea, but they were like an independent major that was like, we're about the art man say what you want to say we'll stand behind and we'll deal with the repercussions. And so a lot of the people from the west coast. That was our outlet that was our Def Jam was priority.
Brenton Hund:So then you and Raz and Bob, you got your own label decided to put put some stuff out in your own label. And then how is it that you then made it out to Atlanta?
Curtis Daniel III:Because Bob got drafted by the Falcons. How guy so like rats always tell you that the studio was supposed to be built for him, which he thought we were gonna build in in LA but we built it here in Atlanta. And then we just started so we didn't even really do his first album here. We started working. Our first client was OutKast. His second album, we flew in here and we worked on it. And then we had artists named Mean Green and Blue. But we always started off with as a 100% commercial facility, meaning that we weren't an artist based facility or record label or publishing company, the public income a record this studio belong to Atlanta, right. We kind of folded them in into it or whatever. But yeah, we were in Atlanta because Bob got drafted by the Falcons.
Brenton Hund:You also mentioned Rick Rubin. He's, of course, was Beastie Boys and Public Enemy Run DMC. I mean, renowned, you know, Star catcher. So Raz was was being looked at by all of these folks
Curtis Daniel III:came to Carson in a Bentley and pick him up. You know? Yeah, they all like I said,
Brenton Hund:Were you ever starstruck?
Curtis Daniel III:I wasn't there. I was still, you got to figure Bob was here, Rams in LA. And I was still in Michigan. But I mean, you know, like the, the, the star struck, you know, like, I mean, I can't I mean, like I you know, if I'm star- if I'm here after two o'clock, and when Dr. Dre came for a week, I was here long with the whole city of Atlanta, after 2pm Yeah, when Dr. Dre came, you know, cuz I'm from LA and that was big. And then you know, yeah, yeah, you know, Jay Z. You know, I didn't come in. I didn't come into the room to meet Beyonce. She was here for a week, Missy was here. Again, Alicia keys and stuff like that I didn't come when we did. We did Mariah for like two weeks. And so like it's a delicate balance band. Because sometimes if I come meet the client, then they'll stop going through the proper channels. They just want to talk to me and start asking me a whole bunch of stuff. Right? So some of them sometimes they'll get offended if the owner don't come in and greet them. Yeah, sometimes once they meet me, then they don't want they gonna start asking me for everything and think they don't got to go through the front desk and stuff like that. So it's a weird balance in a one person I was scared of, because I was such a huge fan I had so much respect for her was Regina Belle. And I used to be for our football games and stuff. I used to go to sleep to her cassette tape. And so when I saw her on a schedule, she had come for about four times Brenton and I was scared to talk to her I would not I was so intimidated. And then one day she walked by and I said Miss Bell, can I talk to you? She came in. I said Curtis I'm on of the owners of the studio. I've been scared to talk to you for the last year - she was like, what?! So. So anyway, she was so nice, right? So I got her number in my phone. We call we talk from time to time. Yeah. And then it was because of the way she reacted towards me. When my other favorite singer Patti LaBelle came here, I wasn't afraid to go up and talk to her. And she was like, that's my sister. And, and, and that's one of the lessons that I've learned. And I learned that lesson first from Little Kim and I in a lot when we was doing Junior mafia, and I had heard all these stories. And I was like, I don't want to meet her man. So the lesson that I learned is that the bigger the artists, the nicer they are, I mean, I my preconceptions of little Kim from reading magazines and see a video that she was a beat. And she was the nicest person on earth. And so over the years, I've come to realize that the bigger the artist is, they realize why they Blessed is because of a fan base, and they gonna take the pictures, kiss the babies and come into office and speak. The new younger artists. They think that they got to be asked Oh, and they bigger than people and they just walk by you. So from Little Kim to TLC, to Regina Belle to Patti LaBelle to Jay Z. The bigger the artists, the cooler the experience has been with them. You know what I mean? And I was a lesson. I felt bad. I mean, I'm telling you, man, I ain't want to see little Kim. You know, I just thought I thought she had some preconceived ideas. And it was it was totally totally the opposite. Even Bobby Brown, Whitney Houston, man them people be so cool. You know what I mean?
Brenton Hund:I think it's kind of like that in law with you know, big time lawyers. I would suspect in sports. It's similar, you know, the people who, who are secure in their their achievements don't have to try to prove it to anybody,
Curtis Daniel III:man. They realize why they blessed. Yeah.
Brenton Hund:So then I also wanted to ask you about growing up what kind of music you were listening to. And then I know, in college, you had a radio show, I was curious to what you were, you know, what you were into in the early days, that would have been formative.
Curtis Daniel III:I mean, all hip hop, man. I mean, I didn't you know, we used to, I mean, well, we, you know, we used to listen to, you know, I mean once I heard the message, you know, and then it went to the Sugar Hill gang were rappers the light, and then it jumped over to it. Run DMC, the Beastie Boys, I just love hip hop, it always spoke to me. That's what I wanted to listen to. Before the games and everything. Now as far as music. What I tell people is unlike a well written song, now I wasn't into live. I didn't like the way live sounded. I just started to appreciate that a little bit, probably about 10 years ago, but I liked hip hop, man, and I like people to talk shit and, and be honest, man, and, and be different and not try to sound like anybody else and actually be saying something because typically, if somebody even now which was it was the day that they told me I need to listen to something. The first thing I'm gonna say is what are they talking about? Right? Meaning what are they rapping about? And if they saying shit, then I don't want to hear. They may be like, man, he'd be spinning some game, talking about this to pod that it is and I'm like, Okay, well, how's it you know, is he dope? And they'd be like, yeah, that's all I need to hear. But my first introduction is, What is he talking about? So, you know, that's what I like. So now I remember at one point where I thought the rap was so fascinating, like it was fake. It wasn't real. That I thought that r&b was realer than rap. Like when Usher albums was dropping out the way they was Neo and Sean Garrett and Johnta Austin was writing them songs. I was like, to me, hard is real. And I'm like, these r&b dues is real. And in the rappers man, listen to what they say. And so for me, it's always been about the lyrics. So if somebody's saying something, that's the first thing of Chardonnay is saying something. Michael Jackson is so gangster with his pen. And they just think he just be saying it. But if you listen to the lyrics, and just read them out, so I'm usually drawn in and that's why I like rap so much. It was more so about, what is he rapping about? And then the music is just an accompaniment for me. So I'm always big on lyrics. You know what I mean? It ain't rapping about nothing, and I really don't care man, right? I mean, I really don't. I'm not gonna listen to it. And so I grew up with hip hop, everything that's poppin I was there. So I was there in 79. I was there through the 80s whatever was poppin I had it we bought records when a homeboy had turntables. We will leave us our lunch money if I wouldn't buy and pigeons. I was mine albums. So we bought he will buy one copy, I will buy another copy. So the funny thing is a lot a lot of times whenever I hear old records, always remember what the center than the album cover and everything look like. So so going into college, we did a hip hop show where it was called the cultural vibe. Friday nights, we had the number one hip hop show in the state of Michigan. And again, I always been around the music. So when we started in like the seventh grade, my homeboy got turntables. I knew how to operate the crossfader to up and down and switch records. But I've never could blend them. So the only time I really DJ is when he wanted to dance. And I would just cut the record, I knew how to pick good records. So my right, my skills didn't matter. And then when I got to do the radio show, a friend of mine was a DJ. And I used to we used to do pre production, we used to go record it on reels. So I used to do a lot of like me need to play this record or pick this and you've gone too far with that, and all that stuff, or whatever. So like I said, it's just what I'm doing now I'm around it. And I know it well enough that I respect it enough to know that I need good people who are talented to do it. But I still appreciate it. And I tell people now I'm one of the last fans left. I don't want to be I don't want the music early has done in the studio. Because if I get it early, I don't I don't get the enjoy with the rest of the world. So I typically try to wait for stuff to come out and hear what everybody else hears so that I can get excited about it. Just like they do.
Brenton Hund:One of the last fans left. I'm writing that down. I like that.
Curtis Daniel III:Yeah, man. I'm a fan. I don't I don't produce, I don't write, I don't sing. I don't rap. I'm a fan man. You know what I mean? That's what I am. If you make some dope, I don't care if it's on the radio, I'll be telling people, some people to come around here. And I'll be naming these songs and they'll never perform these records. And I'd be like, Man, that's the dopest I thought to Jeezy all the time. I think he said, What do you say I'm a creditor? I pray three times a day. And I'm like, Man, that line is so hard, but he just would look at me like, it's just buried in the album. You know? Yeah, that's a dope line.
Brenton Hund:What a nugget. you were mentioning DJ. I had one story. When I was in college, I had a friend who had some DJ gear and was was real good at it. And of course, I've been a musician since I was a little kid. I play guitar, mainly by play drums and tinker around with a little bit everything. And I just sort of thought like, oh, let me take a spin on your DJ gear and he's like, Alright, so I got up there. And oh, my God is that hard? Like, it is real technical. Like I just kind of thought like, Oh, you know, I could do to do some scratching. I have such respect for DJs actually, who are DJs who are actually spinning, you know, crossfading matching beats scratching, unbelievable,
Curtis Daniel III:man, I thought my soul if I could do anything, and music, I wouldn't be a DJ. So to all my friends, I'm the one with the playlist and play stuff, whatever. I've been doing it. So I thought I had my chance man and I spent about within pioneer cdjs came out. I thought it was my shot, man. And I bought two of them things and I bought a mixer and I took them home with some little speakers. And I still couldn't make the beats go together. And so I gave up I brought them to the studio and we started renting them out but yeah, man you know, it's it's a it's a talent. And like you said, from the time that we grew up, those people had to do that stuff manually. In real time in real time. Yeah, yeah, it should Britain The thing about it is them records was made in real time. Yeah, what a no, go back and punch me in it was like saying that shit. Now. That's a good take. We keep in that. So the cool thing is to watch these people who have the skill set, that if all the computers went down, they can just get two turntables and a microphone and do it. Yeah, I respect the hell out of it. I respect the fact that they adapted and moved along. But if in case of emergency, right, they can rock a party with the basics.
Brenton Hund:Absolutely. Now there at Patchwerk I feel a strong team mentality over there, part of me has to wonder if some of that comes from your football, discipline your football, just how you described, I mean, everybody's got their assignment. And everybody's important. I know, you train people from the ground up there, you try to take people who are you know, you think, Oh, you want to find someone who's had the most industry experience is like not I'm gonna start fresh, and you build them up, and then they graduate and they go elsewhere, and they do great things and flying the nest seems like actually part of the program over there.
Curtis Daniel III:Yeah, the institution is only as strong as alumni. So we're not trying to hold on I mean, it's when it's like, you know, like, it's like an idea. If you have a whole bunch of ideas, you need really trippin about one that somebody may have stolen, because, you know, you're capable of coming up with new creative ideas. So for us, when we get a talented person that's coming out of school that may be green, and we're gonna teach him stuff and show them how to do stuff and they become great. We're not worried about clawing and holding on to that person and being dead we may go fly. We just bringing another person is because we confident in the system that we have. And so you know, I think those people appreciate it. Some of them, you know, I literally have to push him out and they may be mad at me for a couple years, but they did They go on to fly, and they don't realize how great they are until they go somewhere else.
Brenton Hund:Well, and you said something about being great that struck with me. greatness is sometimes monotonous and tedious and boring, just like showing up on time. You know, that's great being responsive, that kind of thing. And and, and I wonder if some of that is just your personality Curtis, or whether some of that came from football. And whether some of that is learning the hard way in the music business or what
Curtis Daniel III:You know, most of my characteristics... Like I said, I'm blessed. My parents were married 52 years. And, you know, I did it. When my daughter was born, I talked to my parents, and got a got a backstory on the history of you know, how they weren't allowed to go to school, they grew up in Louisiana, their parents were sharecroppers. So the only time they went to school is when it rained. And so my dad's always been been a hard worker. And he has always taught me lessons. And he always whenever we was doing something he always hidden was hitting home on the best way to do it. I mean, he gonna tell you the best way to wash the dishes, he wants to do the glass as far as do this, do that. And then he gonna tell you the best way to clean the stove. And then use your rag to do to counter it. And if you cut the grass or water the grass, or washing the car, use the angle, so the water, so all of that started with him. So he's telling me the techniques. I think that that's what's separate greatness. Always say that when you are a professional boxer or athletic or even when I got the Michigan State, we all kind of had the same talent label. But what made you great it was your technique. Your hands right where your feet right was your positioning, which alene so it's all technique like always say when evander was fighting Tyson Tyson was getting out technique he handed was rubbing on his head with his beard. He was just technique. And um, so yeah, Dad always, always could go back to him no matter what, show on her telling me the best way to do something. And then my mom's gift was, you know, music. And she was the one that always said that you can do whatever you want to do. But then she would follow it up with, you just got to put in the work. And so I was naive enough to believe that I can do whatever, all I got to do is work at it. So even to this day, when there's a task or somebody asked me to do something, I'll never say that, I can't do that. I'll be like, give me a minute. Let me do some homework. Let me study it. And let me figure it out. And I'll get back to you. Because it ain't really anything that I don't feel like that I can do a circle draw, I can't draw. But um, but but but that's where that came from. And so, you know, when I'm here at the studio, I remember I had a list of the best way to do everything all the way down to which way to put the toilet paper on the road. And I would just be like, Look, man, do it like this. And then I will tell the people when they grow, I said, Look, you're gonna start out with a double yellow line, the double yellow line, me Don't cross it. I don't care what time of day it is. When you get in here and be a little bit older, and you prove that you understand the way we do stuff, then I'm gonna put you on a broken line. That means that if it's three o'clock in the morning, and nobody's around, you can go around the car. And then I want you to think for yourself. But you know, doing it the best and most proper way that you know, even our interns they come in and Manet on training wheels, and might be like, you got to do your session like this, do it like this, label it like this, do it like this. And then once they demonstrate that they gotta have an understanding, he'll be like, Okay, well, you can start doing it what you think is best, but we got to give him that them guidelines first so that we can be great, man. Now, these are the best ways to do things. And what I'll be telling them is the younger people because I've listened to them. And I say, well, that's what you think. I'm telling you what I know, I've been here 25 years, and then I'll tell them, you can do what you want to do. If it don't work, you're gonna have a problem. If you do it the way I tell you to do it and it don't work, then that's on me.
Brenton Hund:Do you think there's anything that that defines you or a story that that has defined you that's that's sort of created who you are or a set of stories in particular that we haven't already mentioned?
Curtis Daniel III:Oh, yeah. Well, my wife passed. You know, I mean, happily married 34-35, wife took a trip to Africa. Coming back, stood up on a plane. They said she had a blood clot they did emergency landing brought the plane down in Boston. 12 days she never woke up. We was there. You know, just getting over or getting past and getting through that. There's nothing nothing in here. My eight year old nephew two years later died on Christmas. My wife died on my dad's birthday. And my nephew died on Christmas. He lived two miles from me. We were really close had a tumor. It really don't matter. Nothing else is everything else is bullshit. Like, you know what I mean? So you'd be like, you know, I was at the point where, like I say, thank God for my friends and family, the people that surrounded me and wouldn't let me go. That right there. I mean, I thought I was tough before. I know why people don't make it. And so that one right there like, yeah, that changed everything. And I think I missed work for about 53 days. And then even when I came back, the biggest struggle was my talent was multitasking. And I couldn't, I couldn't do more than one thing. Like, if people was calling me and asking me questions, I think I would come in and do a half an hour, and lead, come in and do an hour, build up two hours, then next week, fall back, don't come in. It was bad. I couldn't go to the grocery store. I will hear records, you know, and all this stuff. So it was it was a tough challenge. So anything that comes up, you know, like I keep saying it's about perspective. So when you've been through that, you know, I don't be trippin man. I'd be like it is what it is. And if somebody has a problem, and they yelling at us, like, I'll tell them hey, man, we are our job is to we try to be great, we are gonna make mistakes. But before you even go on and yell out, just just know, we're gonna resolve the issue and go ahead and have the floor.
Brenton Hund:So yes, it essentially made you stronger. It sounds like -
Curtis Daniel III:Yeah, when you in that hospital room. And the only thing that you weren't with that you ask him for is more time. Yeah, yeah. That's what you asked for. That's what you prayin for. That's what you asked for. That's what you begging for. That's the most important thing. And if you didn't know when you in the hospital rooms with your niece, I mean, which a nephew or your wife, you will be it'll be shown to you that that money, anything doesn't matter. You just want more time.
Brenton Hund:And then but then you made it through. You're remarried.
Curtis Daniel III:Yep.
Brenton Hund:You've got a beautiful daughter.
Curtis Daniel III:Oh, yeah. Yep,
Brenton Hund:And you built it back.
Curtis Daniel III:Yeah. Yeah. Like I said, Man, it's, uh, you know, it makes you believe that you can do some things because that's the thing that you didn't think, you know, I didn't think I would ever get over that. And you just kind of, you know, my thing was when it happened. I remember I was like, You know what, I got a kind of just make a list of things that I need to do, even though I don't want to do and they may seem funny, but I was like, I needed to shave my hair and brush my teeth. And then I was like, You know what, whenever I feel bad, I ain't gonna be drinking and I don't smoke. And so I ended up saying that I was just don't work out in time. I'm not stressed out. And so I lost a lot of weight and got healthy, whatever. But I gotta tell people, man, you better when when it happened. You better write some stuff down. Yes, you know you need to be doing and just force yourself to do it. Because otherwise you'll fall off. You know what I mean?
Brenton Hund:It's It's amazing. You know, when you get to that point, you sort of have two directions you can go is what I hear you saying?
Curtis Daniel III:Oh, yeah, yeah, well, so so here's the you hit it on the head. So my thing was, people are either gonna look at me, and they're gonna say, ever since his wife passed, he then went this way. Or ever since his wife passed, he hadn't been the same. And so I'm trying to be great. So that people go back to that point, and be like, she's why or this is why that Angel. That's why so already knew. I'm like, they don't look they looking at you, either you're gonna fall off. Or they're gonna say, Man, once your wife pass, you change. And it's been about 12 years in the first person told me that, about three months ago, almost made me tear up. I've never actually bothered to say it. But one of my homeboys in Ohio, he was just having a conversation. He's like, Man, you change man, since your wife they made you more compassionate. You this up this, this this and man, you just, and I was like, it's like when you try to lose weight. You don't want to tell anybody you waiting for one person to say, Hey, man, your face look, whatever. So literally, for 12 years, I had been working. And nobody had ever just blatantly said that. And he I finally got about 12 - 12 years later, somebody said it took that long.
Brenton Hund:That's amazing. What an unbelievably powerful story. You know, and I think what's what's beautiful to me about it is what you did with that, and how you turned it around and and packaged it as something that was going to make you stronger. Oh, yeah. Well, listen, Curtis, it's been been a real easy and fun friendship. I think I've known you for a decade or something like that now. I think I think it was because you tweaked your back or show or something and you went to see my wife for physical therapy.
Curtis Daniel III:Yeah, I had a back surgery man, your wife was like, I mean, again, so is kind of like in you know, in a world where you here real recognize real, like, it doesn't matter if it's in business or if it's in service, I mean your wife is the best. Like, I mean, I was like, Man, this lady is good. She's good. Yeah. And so it was funny with Stacy, I would get around and start bragging about her to other people and she would kind of push back and I'm like, I already know what greatness looks like she got it. You know what I mean?
Brenton Hund:Yeah! You've been so gracious with your time. It's awesome to talk to you. I just want to thank you for appearing on my show and talking to me.
Curtis Daniel III:Yeah, I'm interested to see how you edit this man.
Brenton Hund:It's always better after post production, right?
Curtis Daniel III:Oh, yeah.
Brenton Hund:All right. Hey, thanks a lot. Curtis
Curtis Daniel III:Alright Brenton. Thanks, man.
Brenton Hund:Hey man, havea a great one. Thanks so much to Curtis for spending so much time with us. And thanks to you for listening. If you like the podcast and would like to help, please subscribe and leave a five star review. Brenton Hund Podcast extras are available on our Facebook and Instagram pages. Please follow us. There's a link to a Spotify playlist in the show notes with music referenced in today's episode. In the meantime, have a great day and I'll see you next time.