The Bobby Brown Episode

Bobby Brown used to be treated like a punchline or a headline, but we’re not doing that here. We’re giving him his full respect as an R&B icon and a central architect of the New Jack Swing era, while still telling the truth about the pain, the mistakes, and the resilience that shaped his life!

We start with the roots: Roxbury, Boston, and the kind of early trauma that can push a kid toward either destruction or purpose. From there, we walk through the New Edition machine, the choreography grind, and the music industry contracts that left young superstars fighting for fair royalties. That business context matters, because it explains why success can still feel like a trap, and why Bobby’s solo leap wasn’t just ego, it was survival and ambition colliding.

Then we hit the run that changed everything. We break down what New Jack Swing really is, why Teddy Riley’s sound became the blueprint, and how Don’t Be Cruel turned Bobby into a once-in-a-generation crossover star. We talk through the singles that owned radio and dance floors, the stage persona that sparked controversy, and the way those records still hold up when you care about groove, vocals, and craft.

We also get real about the Whitney Houston chapter, addiction, jail time, grief, and why Bobby’s role as a father doesn’t get enough attention. We end with the comeback years, Alicia Etheredge-Brown’s steady presence, and the life Bobby has fought to keep. If this conversation adds value, subscribe, share it with a fellow R&B head, and leave a review with your favorite Bobby Brown song and why it still hits.

Transcript

Welcome Back And Why Bobby Matters

SPEAKER_01 1:25

But then again, there's a lot of people out there that want to hold it back. What can happen?

SPEAKER_00 1:34

You're the rock, the Rocky of RB. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the Disco Hicks podcast or the Disco Hicks Show. I'm dropping a needle in another episode, and today, an instant classic. I'm hitting my boy Bobby Brown. And again, I'm joined with Sean P. What's up, my brother?

SPEAKER_04 1:56

What's up, my brother? Back for another one.

SPEAKER_00 1:58

Yeah. Oh, I've been, you know, um, I've been waiting to do this. So I had a couple of people drop out on me or, you know, um, or just been too busy. So I'm thank you. Thank you. I want to thank you for your time because I've been wanting to do this for so long. I've been sitting on these Bobby Brown notes for maybe over a year, bro. Um, but yeah, he just um, you know, Bobby Brown is one of my all-time favorites. If when people ask me what is my route, uh Mount Mount Rushmore of uh musical influence, Prince, Prince, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, and Bobby Brown. And Bobby Brown represent new edition because if I could put all six heads on there, I would do that. But yeah, he's a lone representative. So DeFor, Prince, Michael, Stevie, and B Brown.

SPEAKER_06 2:46

I'll say this. I was reminded of how much of a fan of his I am doing my research on him.

SPEAKER_00 2:53

Oh man, dude. Uh that console I sent you, did you get a chance to see that?

SPEAKER_06 2:58

I seen quite a bit of it. Uh oh man, dude, that was born in Japan, right?

SPEAKER_00 3:04

Yeah, I was out, I was out my seat, man. That took me back. Yeah, and then like I sent it to you. I sent it to my boy E West, who he was originally supposed to do this. He was with me during this Bobby Brown time. Yeah, he was and uh he was with me around this when we was when I was going around doing every little step routines everywhere, and I wanted him to be a part of this, and so I sent it to him as well. And I said, Man, you gotta watch this, man. This reminds you why this man was a big deal, yes, man. Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_06 3:41

Yeah, uh, I did a lot of dance, I've done a lot of dancing and singing over the last couple weeks, man. In the mirror and everything.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

Oh, so yeah, I I just finished um watching a documentary. I think it was a four-piece uh biography. I forgot what channel was on.

SPEAKER_08 4:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 4:02

It's pretty current. I mean, it went back, but it you know, it has uh it had Ricky, Ronnie, uh the every little step joint.

SPEAKER_06 4:10

That's not that one, is it?

SPEAKER_00 4:12

No, it was a documentary. It was a documentary, and uh his wife was narrating, so it had uh some uh M MCA execs in it as well. And man, it was pretty man. If you get a chance to check it out, I you know when you said you did your research and you was speaking about his wife. I thought maybe that's what you were talking

Concert Clips And Bobby Nostalgia

SPEAKER_00 4:30

about. That you you probably had seen that documentary.

SPEAKER_06 4:32

That's probably the one. That's probably the one of the queen, man. Uh uh, she's my hero.

SPEAKER_00 4:39

Oh man, no doubt, man. I mean, yeah, we get into that. Uh yeah, big ups to the Lysia, Etheritch Brown. Yeah, big ups, uh salute, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 4:50

Salute Queen, salute queen.

SPEAKER_00 4:52

Yeah, dude, that's an understatement.

SPEAKER_06 4:54

She almost need her own. Uh she almost need her own show, man.

SPEAKER_00 4:58

Oh man, with such strength, such strength, man. Yeah, to hold that brother up because he need to be held up, all the stuff that he went through. Yeah, all right, man. Yeah, all these nicknames, you know, his the original bad boy and RB, the king of stage is what they still call him. King B, uh Flash B, the bad boy from Boston, bad boy Bobby Brown, King of RB. I mean, uh, even the king of New Jack Swing.

SPEAKER_06 5:30

King of New Jack Swing.

SPEAKER_00 5:32

That's all these names, man.

SPEAKER_06 5:34

Yep. And then listening to especially the telly Teddy Riley joints, you can you can hear uh tech Teddy Riley's signature uh touch on all his stuff.

SPEAKER_00 5:46

Oh yeah, man. That's yep. I can't wait to get into that because um New Jack Swing has a huge impact on my life. Yeah. I mean, I was in high school when you know all this stuff was popping. So, you know, we talking about my formative years when I'm in high school and then went to college, and I'm a dancer too. What?

SPEAKER_06 6:08

Oh, dude, yeah, uh, yeah, I think that was pretty much all our lives that we weren't afraid to dance, and especially in college. Like, I mean, we had the kind of music that got us on the floor.

SPEAKER_00 6:20

Yeah, Bobby and and Hammer. I mean, oh yeah, big time. It was getting double teamed like a mug.

SPEAKER_07 6:25

Yeah, yeah, man.

SPEAKER_00 6:26

Um, yeah, Bobby Baresford Brown, man, born in Boston, Massachusetts. Uh Roxbury.

SPEAKER_06 6:35

Roxbury, Orchard Park projects.

SPEAKER_00 6:38

Yes, man. And um the uh they talk about, and I was looking at the documentary was touching on the uh the racial tension that was out there at the time. Yeah. Um it was just because they were, you know, Orchard Park projects, as you say, and they were segregated in this little this project, and right, and then um they were right in the middle of all that, and he was just talking about the police brutality, even see his mom get hit with a Billy Club a couple of times.

SPEAKER_06 7:07

Yeah, that was uh very traumatic. I think that kind of that was in the beginning stages of his trauma.

SPEAKER_00 7:16

Yeah, uh, and I mean at an early age he uh experienced his his best friends getting killed.

SPEAKER_06 7:22

Yeah, that was tough. Go ahead, I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_00 7:24

No, go ahead, man.

SPEAKER_06 7:25

You know, I was gonna say, yeah, um, they had stole some bikes. And you know, they was young and wild, had a lot of freedom. I would and uh and I thought about I was like, man, he came from a two-parent household. Well, when you got about six, seven, or eight siblings, I'm not sure exactly how many siblings he had, uh, he probably had a lot of freedom. So they took them bikes and ended up somewhere, and I guess the kid got mad because somebody was sitting on the bikes that they had stolen.

SPEAKER_00 7:53

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah, and uh altercation ensued, and he got he got stabbed, man.

SPEAKER_06 8:01

Yeah, yeah. And to see somebody die that young uh that was your best friend, uh it's traumatic. I I I didn't go through the same exact thing, but I had a cousin and when I first got to Insta High School, ninth grade, um, his name was Tony, Tony Shaffner. He's the son of uh my cousin, the late grade Katherine Shaffner from the Marvel S. I remember playing basketball, man, and he ended up um ended up a week later, somebody ended up uh shooting and killing me. That might have been a little longer than a week later, but uh to lose I didn't see it, but to lose my cousin that was a heartbreaking thing. So to actually see that for him that young, again, that was the beginning stages of that of uh Bobby's trauma.

SPEAKER_00 8:51

Yeah, he said uh he saw him take his last breath looking at him. Yeah, I couldn't even imagine.

SPEAKER_07 8:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:59

Um and then um it wasn't the situation when his mom, when his mom got beat by the police, wasn't he taken away for uh for a short second? Um he ended up at uh at a church, I think.

SPEAKER_06 9:14

He sure did. He did. He was uh his mother was addressing she was in the wrong because she was addressing the police, uh, I think arresting some other guys from the neighborhood. So she she was, I guess, trying to step in and she ended up getting beat on, and they couldn't uh and he he like you said earlier, he saw that they couldn't get in touch with his father. So they sent it to like this um it was a Catholic church. He ended up going to a Catholic church, uh and which is deep because uh his father was a construction worker, but for them not to be able, but I guess not though. You figure out, I mean, like, I guess we're spoiled with the way communication is now back then. If you weren't at home, if you didn't answer that phone, uh you didn't see that person until you actually ran into him.

SPEAKER_00 10:02

So yeah, and that's and then he said uh he got that the uh priest tried to touch him and um he did touch him, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 10:14

He did touch him again, another traumatic situation, and uh he retaliated.

Roxbury Roots And Early Trauma

SPEAKER_06 10:20

I think he ended up punching on the priest, and um there were conflicting reports. I I heard that he had ran away from that that home or the church when that had happened.

SPEAKER_00 10:32

Yeah, that's what I saw too. He ran away. Um, because his brother Tommy found out about it, and he said uh Tommy said that uh their mother kept them from going and put put hands on the priest. Yeah, yeah, you're right. And it also Bobby was saying that's when he found out that you know his his mama his mom was a hustler, she yeah, sold dinners and also she sold dope. Yeah, and uh he said he came on to make some chicken and he thought the cocaine was flour and batter. The chicken and cocaine.

SPEAKER_06 11:06

I felt so bad for him when I when I that's messy came across that man. I was like, damn, like he could have died from that, yeah. No, for for real, because I'm quite sure he probably was turning the hell out that chicken in that in that powder.

SPEAKER_00 11:24

You know how like you say the chicken grease. I don't know what they say. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_03 11:36

Dope chicken, bro.

SPEAKER_00 11:38

Oh man. So, yeah, so just having all that, and then he said, after all it, I mean, incident after incident, he said he was motivated to get the heck out of the projects, man. Yeah, yeah, big time. So he started pointing to his talent. He was a senior dancer, he was in all those talent shows, and I don't know. Um, good friends with Ricky and Mike.

SPEAKER_06 12:00

Yeah, and uh, I think uh Ricky stayed in the same housing projects. I I don't know if the Mike, I'm not sure if Mike did, I know Ricky did. But they were in the same neighborhood.

SPEAKER_00 12:12

Yeah, uh so it was just those three, and then um they decided uh start a group, and uh Ricky suggested this kid Ralph Transplant, man. Let's check him out. And bring him down, brought him to the fold. Yeah, um, yeah, started getting a little traction, and that's when he uh uh look for the surface of Brooke Payne, who was uh Ronnie DeVoe's uncle, uh the the infamous or the famous Brooke Payne, who's like he's like the seventh member of New Edition in all the choreography choreography and everything, right? Matter of fact, he the one he the one who started Ralph and Bobby smoking squares, man. He said they would be in a hot gymnasium practicing over and over, but as he was practicing brick paint, he'd be smoking cigarettes, man.

SPEAKER_06 13:05

And uh Yeah man. And they about the same age, because he uh he's well no, actually, I'll take that back. He's he's he's quite a bit older than him, he's actually 66. So yeah, yeah. But you know what was funny too, is uh real uh throwback real quick. As kids, we used to buy those fake uh cigarettes uh in a package, like they used to sell cigarette candy. Um so that kind of I probably uh sparked a lot of kids' interest to want to smoke cigarettes.

SPEAKER_00 13:42

Oh, yeah, yeah. And he also and he also spoke spoke about when he was eight years old and he took a sip of beer, and I did that. I used to do that all the time. My mom, like, oh go grab me a beer. Yeah, she said, go grab me a beer, man. Yeah, open it, take a swig, man, and give it to her.

SPEAKER_06 13:59

That baby, that baby boomer generation, they was real nonchalant. Now they beat your butt. Yeah, but they was nonchalant about you having a sip of that alcohol or something, you know. They was real nonchalant. Matter of fact, they would send us to the store. The grass.

SPEAKER_00 14:16

Yep. So when I got older, when I had my own children, no surre bob. Absolutely, no, mm-mm. I kept it away from them. I had his own, don't touch nothing. Matter of fact, matter of fact, I end up getting a small like one of those college small free refrigerators. Okay. And I had that in my room and had my beer in that. Yeah. I wasn't having it in the main refrigerator. Yep, absolutely. Uh, but yeah, don't. So let's keep it moving, man. So we know about new edition, and um uh Bobby had that solo spirit, as you would say. Yeah, and he just couldn't control it. You know, as uh I remember matter of fact, I remember back in '84, my dad had a girlfriend, and um, and I had this I had the new edition album. And I had the album, and she grabbed, she looked at it, she was and she pointed at Bobby Brown. She said, That one there, he's something else. And so yeah, and I was like, oh, okay. And so that's that was starting to pique my interest on him, because I was always a uh Mike Vivens and Ralph fan. That's who I gravitated to.

SPEAKER_06 15:30

Me too, yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_00 15:32

And then I started hearing more about Bobby, and then I you started seeing the footage uh him just going extra to all the, you know, just doing his ad libs, going extra on his solo parts and yeah, pumping and hit pumping the speaker, pumping the floor.

SPEAKER_06 15:46

Yeah, yeah, yeah. He was a little out there, really out there.

SPEAKER_00 15:53

Yeah, you know, it just had that that uh that solo spirit and also the fact that they went on tour with Ray James.

SPEAKER_06 16:01

Man, he said Rick used to uh used to tell him, watch my show. Like, you know, he would encourage him to watch his show. Because I mean, truthfully speaking, even like when you look at now, he was a solo artist. You know, compared to everybody else.

SPEAKER_00 16:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 16:23

Uh I don't I one thing I didn't get a chance to do, I didn't get a chance to really compare his solo uh career to Johnny Gill's. Uh, but according to his hits, he he had more success as a solo artist.

SPEAKER_00 16:38

Oh, right, yeah, for sure, man. Yeah, uh yeah, it's blowing out the water. He just uh uh Johnny was uh man, he was a child prodigy, and he came up and he was you know, he had that voice, and he you know, when you think about Johnny Gill, you think about Stacey Laddisau. I still do when I think about Johnny Gill, I still see Stacey Laddisaw, perfect combination, you know, those songs that they sung together. Um yeah, he as far as like soul, I think like RB hits, but Bobby was a crossover, he was crossover, big time. Uh so yeah, with all these antics, all these Bobby Brown antics, uh it'll start to weigh on the crew on the crew. Uh the record labels like he's messing y'all money up. If y'all want to go further, y'all might have to do something about this kid.

SPEAKER_06 17:29

Right. And look, not to cut you off, he was messing he they he probably wanted to say messing our money up because they got robbed tremendously. I think their first royalty check, I think when they had come home off a tour, going all them places, he said their royalty check was like a dollar and eighty-seven cents.

SPEAKER_00 17:51

Yep, yep, yep.

SPEAKER_06 17:52

I mean, I mean I'm gonna get into that.

SPEAKER_00 17:55

So, yeah, that was uh Maurice Star and Streetwise Records. Yeah. So uh when they found out they um so they went to MCA. MC MCA brought them uh bought them out of their their contract or streetwise, but they end up going, they went to the fire, they jumped out the fire and paying into the fire. So they signed up with a production company. So you know anything about production companies, yeah. They work for the work or record company, so uh, so their checks is different. So the record companies pay the production company, and the production company paid them, and they pick and choose how much they're gonna pay you. Right. And so even though you sell all these records and all that and go on all these tours, you gotta listen to the uh yeah, to the production company. So this production company was called Jump and Shoot. And and knowing that uh, as we know, that new edition sophomore album went double platinum, we had Coolin' Al, Mr. Telephone Man. And um Yeah, so they had to legally buy themselves out. So what ended up happening is when when Bobby got voted out the group, MCA said, all right, we'll get y'all out to a production company, but each of y'all gonna have to pay us a hundred thousand apiece. So they were uh, you know, so they had everybody had to do that. But when Bobby got let go out the group, he he was no longer underneath no additions. He didn't have he didn't have that debt anymore, bro. Okay. So four of them had to take on five uh uh five hundred thousand dollars.

SPEAKER_06 19:36

Wow. So if I'm not gifted, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:41

And you know, also they were about to let him go.

SPEAKER_06 19:45

Yeah. He was rebellious, as he was, as he said, he was a bad boy.

SPEAKER_00 19:52

Uh MCA was about to let him go, but um what ended up happening, MCA, MCA had the right, the first right of refuse refusal, which made Bobby Brown was a re uh restricted free agent. So MCA was like, the execs were saying, once a name, always a threat. You know, he got a name out there, so we're gonna keep him. We're gonna came out, we're gonna try to see what we can do with them. And that's what they did, man.

SPEAKER_06 20:22

Wow, yeah. That music business is uh as we see, artist after artist after artist. It's just it's nasty work, man. Nasty work.

SPEAKER_00 20:32

Yeah, so that brings us to B Brown's first project, King of Stage, man. Do you what was you doing when this came out, bro?

SPEAKER_06 20:43

That was 86. I was 13 years old. Um Run DMC was real, you know. King of I mean, was it King of Rock? Yeah, the their first album was still heavy in my rotation. Uh, my cousin and them guys, they was all wearing the

Talent Shows And New Edition Origins

SPEAKER_06 21:00

dookie ropes. Kind of was piggyback off our 88 uh podcast. We was kind of in the beginning stages of uh how fashion really, really is. I didn't have the money, and my mama was not gonna spend that type of money. Uh but I was in the girls and falling in love with listening to these songs and different things like that. Uh, and uh the song uh I need a girlfriend. That was off that album, right? Yep, yep. My probably my favorite song during that day. I was I was on that tip, I need a girlfriend tip in 86.

SPEAKER_00 21:37

Bro, the video. Just think about the video. And one thing I talked about before, uh the season of fall is my favorite uh season. Okay, yeah, mine too, man. It's romantic, bro. Yeah, it's it's you know, you got the leaves, and you got the change, and uh the it's starting to get cooler, he's starting to wear hoodies and sweaters, and yeah, they start to go out on Dates to the movies and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_06 22:02

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_00 22:03

Cider Mills and the and cuddling season. Thank you. And man, how perfect for an album to be released. The first single is a ballad girlfriend. Yeah. And if you look at the video, the video depicts Fall. It looks like Fall. He's in school, starting school. Oh man, I was I was living at the time. I was because the song was released October 27th. Okay. Halloween. And um, and so yeah, it just was uh man, I was into it so much, and the video resonated. We're going to Inkster High and checking out the new girl.

SPEAKER_06 22:50

Like, oh a lot of cuties at the high. Shout out to it. Yeah, so like so.

SPEAKER_00 22:55

I wonder, I wanted to relive that video with somebody. Hey, Me Too, man.

SPEAKER_03 23:00

Me too.

SPEAKER_00 23:02

Oh, dude. I just uh that video was so charming, man. I wanted to be in that video, and I just was feeling that he, I think he was he he wore a clock watch, like uh I remember the clock watches, stopwatches that we was wearing, man. I had me I had me a red, I had me a red stopwatch. Okay, yeah, and he had his stopwatch on in the video, and um, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 23:26

Yeah, that was you described it to a T. That's exactly how it was, bro. And that song set it off.

SPEAKER_00 23:35

Yeah, and um what also helped the fact that it sounded like New Edition, yeah. New edition could have done that song, but B Brown did it, sir. Uh and the next single that was released was The Girl Next Door. Girl Next Door, yeah, that was uh produced by Larry Blackman from uh uh cameo.

SPEAKER_06 23:57

Cameo.

SPEAKER_00 23:58

Wow, I didn't know that. Oh man, in the video he whore the the cod piece, man. The little the cod piece that Larry Blackman was wearing back in candy.

SPEAKER_08 24:08

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00 24:09

Ow! And um so you can see he hit his influence in that video, but it was like uh it was it was funky. You could tell Bobby's direction was more going to a funky direction than when new edition was more clean cut, wholesome, even bubblegum, as you will, you know.

SPEAKER_06 24:29

That's and that's what he said. He was kind of tired of the kitty, the kitty style that they were trying to box them in.

SPEAKER_00 24:37

Yeah, yeah. Uh, this album didn't do too well. The the two singles that was released did uh more so girlfriend was a hit. Uh, I think the girl next door was mild hit, and then they also released 17, which didn't do too much anything. Right. So at that time, the King of Stage album was the lowest uh selling album on NC Records. Oh wow, yeah, it was the worst selling album. And uh one of the execs execs uh on that document, he said, man, we wasn't he said we were into platinum and and gold. He said, Man, 300,000 records? No, we wasn't into that. So they was thinking about dropping my guy, they were thinking about dropping that guy, man.

SPEAKER_06 25:26

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was a rough patch for him. Um he probably was questioning himself if he had made the right decision and leaving the group.

SPEAKER_00 25:37

Yeah, well, yeah. But he had that fire in him, bro. And the one thing about a fire, man, it takes a lot to take it out, you know.

SPEAKER_08 25:46

Definitely.

SPEAKER_00 25:48

So so we're gonna go talk about um New Jack Swing, bro. Let's want to hit let's talk about New Jack Swing for a second, yes, sir. Um, we you brought up 1988, right? And we did the hip hop, man. Just as big as hip hop RB 88 was off the charts, bro. And then you got and then we got the um uh New Jack City. No, that means New Jack Swing was just in this emphasis stage, and it was about it was blowing up. Yes, it was. For you people don't know a New Jack Swing, we gotta know what it is. But it's it's it's a fusion of hip hop rhythms, drum beats, machines, and traditional soul vocals. That's what you got.

SPEAKER_08 26:34

There you go.

SPEAKER_00 26:34

And let's see, and let's let's um I'm talking about some of these albums. Man, we got Guy's first album, uh Guy, released uh June 14th, 88. Groove me, baby. Yeah, man. I like all that stuff, man.

SPEAKER_05 26:52

Man, new jam, oh jam. That was my joint. Teddy jam for me.

SPEAKER_00 27:00

Boom, chick, boom, boom, chick-a-boom, boom, boom. Yeah. Uh you got new edition, harp, any heartbreak. Damn, bruh.

SPEAKER_06 27:11

I said, man, it was it was some killer music coming out back there.

SPEAKER_00 27:14

Yeah, Prince Love Sexy, man, Alphabet Street, man. I'll be sure and fact mode was out, man. He was another new jack album. Uh Anita Baker giving the best I got. Karen White, Karen White, uh Tony Tony Tony's first album, Who today, man?

SPEAKER_06 27:35

People talk about Tony has done it again.

SPEAKER_00 27:37

Yes, and then people don't talk about today when Big Bub, man. He, you know, him or me. Yeah. Yeah. Do you want him?

SPEAKER_06 27:46

He didn't see that. Uh oh man, what was the name of that track? Why you want it? Why you want to dog me out? Was that him?

SPEAKER_00 27:53

That wasn't uh uh I think I think that's when he was solo. Okay, but this when he was in the group, that's when he was in the group today. Okay, uh then you got Neither Baker, give me best I got, shot eight, uh Showman and Pride, uh Luther Bandross, Any Love. Um and out of all those albums, what do we still talk about?

SPEAKER_05 28:14

Don't be cruel, because I would never be that cruel to you. Like I said, bro, I've been dancing and singing all week. That's my point right there.

unknown 28:25

Duggatoom boom duggatoom.

SPEAKER_06 28:29

So all look, I got my heart broke quite a bit from them Insta Hot Girls, too. So I sang that song a lot.

SPEAKER_00 28:40

Oh bro, don't say no names, but you know, don't hey, don't get me caught, don't get me stuck on the sack chases, man. Jeez. Oh that changed that changed the whole game. Yeah, if you had a loop, man, you so real quick.

SPEAKER_06 28:57

I want to interject this real quick because I have I spoke about that. That because I was in the girl, I want a girlfriend stage, and you figure that was like the starting or the beginning of like the dope era where guys were making so much money. So you had our culture, you had the the auto workers that were making a lot of money, and you had the dope dealers that were making a lot of money, and they spoiled the young girl so bad.

SPEAKER_00 29:23

Thank you. Stuff that you know, you want stuff that you can't get, and so I'm looking at the clothes and I'm looking at the girls, but I wasn't willing to go and do all that to get that though. Much as I wanted the clothes and the girls,

Royalty Checks And Industry Traps

SPEAKER_00 30:00

uh, I wouldn't about that life though.

SPEAKER_06 30:03

I did dribble and dabble after high school. I did dabble and dabble a little bit, uh, but by the time I had gotten to it, it started to kind of it got real serious, real, real dangerous, and um it started to fizzle out a little bit. Uh so yeah, I didn't have the run that those guys, especially them guys in '88, yeah, 86, 87, 88, them guys had a because I mean, man, some of my crushes, them girls had on new gym shoes every day almost.

SPEAKER_00 30:34

Yeah, man. Yeah, can't compete with that. But what I would say, thank you, Bobby Brown, because if it wasn't for your influence, yeah, because I was hey bro, I was a dancer, I was a shy guy, but Bobby's influence, Bobby's influence catapult me to like want to do it in on the stage. So I was getting into talent shows, man. And I was doing the talent shows, and so I wasn't a dope dealer, but I was a dancer, and I got my girls that way. How about that? Next up, Big Brother.

SPEAKER_05 31:02

What's up?

SPEAKER_08 31:04

Yeah, Bobby.

SPEAKER_00 31:07

Why do you want me to talk about that? All right, June 20th, 8th, 1988. Man, you gotta man, I'm happy. Man, I and no, this is such a contrast where we did Tupac, and I was that was such heavy content. Anybody, this is very heavy, but with Bobby, you got closure. Uh, with Tupac, and we didn't get any closure because he ended up passing away, but uh getting killed. But man, this this is this redemption, this redemption story of Bobby Brown. Man, let's get it to him. So uh uh don't be cruel, sold 12 million copies, bro. Woo!

SPEAKER_06 31:47

Yeah, that was unheard of. You know, Michael did his thing, but like for for like in Bobby's case, yeah, that was unheard of.

SPEAKER_00 31:59

People, if you don't know about this man, from the fall of 88 to the fall of 89, he owned the industry. Yep, he was the man, he was in the man, you know, and we're gonna talk about some of his his uh sexual conquests, as he said, so he and he bagged some ones, bro.

SPEAKER_06 32:28

Oh bro, yes, he did.

SPEAKER_00 32:30

Uh so don't be cruel released May 16th. And I remember when that came out, my brother, I was on the phone with my brother, because my brother moved away. He was at this time, he was, I think he might have been in Atlanta. Uh he was like, uh, have you heard Don't Be Cruel by Bobby? I'm like, nah, and sure enough, as he told me that, informed me about it, turned on the radio, it was on.

SPEAKER_05 32:55

I was like, Oh, I was blown away, bro.

SPEAKER_07 33:01

It was so funky, man.

SPEAKER_06 33:04

Yeah, it was. It was like for me back then, because I was I was I really I love New Audition. Um, love that music. I was heartbroke that they had he had left the group, that they had broken up. Like to me, that was that was like the fat boys breaking up, you know, heartbreak. But it was just it was relieving to see that um he was still doing great music and they were too.

SPEAKER_00 33:32

Yeah, and um, yeah, so like I said, that was May 16th when Don't Be Cruel was released. So my pride of got leaked, and I remember it got leaked, but it was released October 11th, uh, 88, 1988. Uh, but it got leaked, and it was it was one of those when the DJs went and listened to the album, and I'm about to play this. And like, man, the record didn't give you permission, but people just go ahead and just play their song that they like, and I remember listening to prerogative for the first time because both of those songs were on the radio at the same time, okay. And prerogative just like you know, don't be cruel, which is a funky and it just hit you your chest. But prerogative was thank you, Bobby Brown and Teddy Riley. The fact that what made y'all even use that word, man? Dude, what made y'all use that word? Thank you for that, man. Man, that expanded my vocabulary because no one was I I have I wasn't around anybody that was using that word.

SPEAKER_06 34:35

No, yeah, now that you say that, even when I think about all the rappers and even a lot of the music that we listen to, yeah, we we weren't honed in on that that type of vocabulary during that time, and to make a song about it and and it be funky, and it's like it's his signature song, and it's a staple.

SPEAKER_00 34:56

And when you go back to say New Jack Swing, that usually is the uh example of New Jack Swing. Is that that my prerogative, man?

SPEAKER_06 35:06

My prerogative, yeah. Uh just the energy as soon as he heard Teddy Raleigh play, he was like, I I gotta do something, I gotta have that. I gotta have that beat right there.

SPEAKER_00 35:17

Yeah, and but initially, of course, he was bumping heads, you know. He said he had an issue with authority, so he bumped hands with Teddy, yeah. Uh he bumped heads with uh LA and baby face, yeah, yeah. So the record is uh MCA told both of those producers, uh, well, one set and then one solo uh producer told them, like, don't worry, because it's either this is this is it, if he don't do this, or he just he's out of the industry. So that was that was Bobby's motivation to go back and just like all right, because uh Teddy said when Bobby first did the first take, he said, You that's not what I want you to sing it. Like, he said, I'm Bobby Brown, I got I got I got the girl next to her girlfriend. Who are you? You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_07 36:03

Like, yeah, I seen that, yeah. Speak on that, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:10

All right, man. Um that brings us to Rony that was released December 27th, 1988.

SPEAKER_06 36:18

Man, yeah, it was it was released when? You say when?

SPEAKER_00 36:23

December 27th.

SPEAKER_06 36:24

Man, do you figure that's a Christmas time song?

SPEAKER_00 36:28

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 36:30

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:30

And then that video was released.

SPEAKER_06 36:34

Another classic track.

SPEAKER_00 36:35

Yeah, and then the videos, the live video, so we know uh when he was on tour. He was in uh Georgia.

SPEAKER_07 36:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:44

And now I'm let I'm gonna play the clip.

SPEAKER_02 36:48

You were in Ohio and you did some of that, and uh something happened. What happened?

SPEAKER_01 36:53

Well, I was I was I was arrested. In fact, that was the song I was doing. I was arrested for um in Ohio you can't movie his way. It was actually Georgia. It was Georgia.

SPEAKER_02 37:06

Nope in the clip. Oh, goodness. You robbed him again. No problem. Good. Good. I was kind of embarrassed.

SPEAKER_00 37:16

Wait a minute, I gotta I gotta give box in the I got and and his act bring a girl on stage, and he sings it, he sings Rony to him, and then he just he he pumps the heck out of him, gets on his knees, there's all types of just sexual behind him, in front of them, uh, on the floor. It just so in Georgia, man,

King Of Stage And First Solo Steps

SPEAKER_00 37:40

uh they had the ludacy uh law out there, and he uh they told him they warned him, like a lot of acts, they warned you before you're gonna say don't do that, don't perform that. And somebody defiant like him, you don't tell somebody don't do that.

SPEAKER_06 37:54

You know, you know, you know who went to got arrested for that, believe it or not.

SPEAKER_00 37:58

Yeah, no, go say it because I was gonna use it.

SPEAKER_06 38:00

Elvis Presley.

SPEAKER_00 38:02

Thank you. There you go.

SPEAKER_06 38:04

Yeah, so you know if they if they arrest Elvis, Bobby didn't stand a chance.

SPEAKER_00 38:11

No, but you know, also, too, man. You know, Elvis got pushed back because they thought he was trying to be black. Yeah, you know, uh he so yeah, they just yeah, man. It was they was trying to make an example of that game, but definitely um uh the number four single release, every little step, released January 31st, 1989.

SPEAKER_06 38:33

You better be there, man.

SPEAKER_00 38:37

Uh I love that song so much, bro.

SPEAKER_06 38:40

Me too. No matter what time of day it comes on, it's funky. It could be four in the morning, it could be early in the morning, it don't even matter.

SPEAKER_00 38:51

Yeah, it's such a feel-good song, yeah. You know, uh it hypes you up, and in the video, it's just iconic, you know, uh, with his dancers, uh heart and soul. You got Caleb and Derek, uh the heart and soul those. He he he had three heart and soul dancers, uh, but Caleb Derek, and I think the other one name was William. Okay. Um he was William was in if I'm not mistaken, William was in the My Prerogative video, and then Caleb replaced him, and he was in uh every little step video.

SPEAKER_08 39:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 39:30

Yeah. Uh then that brings it back to rock with you. All the way, man. That was I mean, we're talking about the copy man. Back in the day when our albums, they would like an album would last on the radio for about a year and a half sometimes.

SPEAKER_06 39:45

And you know what, brother, and not to cut you off. It just hit me real quick. You had a bad boy just singing love ballads to women. And they were all great songs, man. Great songs. That that album right there. Uh, I mean, you just named all of them back to back to back to back. Just great, great songs. And again, I think about the music today, uh, the content. That that was that's another thing that's just so refreshing. Is uh good good work, good art without just a whole lot of just crap in it.

SPEAKER_00 40:21

So yeah, I want to go back to uh every little step, man, because he had different versions on it. I I don't listen to the album version too much. I like the remix with the uh the more funkier beat and the rap with the rap um in there. But um I love the I do well, I do every now and then listen to the album and because it can has a different lyric. See the remix repeated the same um same verse. This one had different. I can't think too straight. I'm all confused. She mustn't put a thing on me. Yeah, yeah. No words, there are no words that can't explain. I live in an excess. Oh man. Uh, but yeah, uh man, 89. So I was in my senior year, and I was dating Kim Stubbs. What up, Kim?

SPEAKER_06 41:08

Kim Stubbs, what's up, Kim? I was in love with Tawana Green.

SPEAKER_00 41:16

What's up, Tawana?

SPEAKER_06 41:17

That's my home.

SPEAKER_00 41:19

Yeah, yeah. Uh Tawana, man. Did you see? Uh this is side. Well, I'm about to sidetrack real quick, but Tawana, uh, when I made a post about uh the soft tissue paper, did you see that?

SPEAKER_06 41:34

Oh no, I didn't see that.

SPEAKER_05 41:36

I said, I said oh about the jingle, uh yeah, the dingleberry, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:42

And she asked, like, what are dingleberries? The fact that I had to explain what a dingleberry was was so funny. Hey man, I had the when I was responding to her comment, I'm laughing the whole time. Oh bro, oh man. And so when I was getting back to Kim Subs, my birthday, January 6th, 1989. You know, yep, yep, our twins, and uh and um Yelandry Crawford. Okay, we all got the same birthday, and uh so and um when we was this back in the day, we go to the super eight by the uh by the airport, get rooms, yeah, and I got a room for my birthday.

SPEAKER_06 42:37

Right across it was in the Denny's parking lot, it was by the Denny.

SPEAKER_00 42:40

Yeah, dog, yeah, dog that's a spot, boy. Boy, um had a hole, had a room full of people, and back in the day, that's when Arsenia Hall was popping. Yeah, man. Man, look, man, we turned on R Senior Hall. I had no idea who the guests were when they announced Bobby Brown as a special guest, uh, musical guest, dude. I went crazy. I was like, thank you for my birthday, Kim. And run around the room, and Kim starts like, Man, this you I don't believe how you go crazy over another man. I was like, Man, I'll be proud, baby. Be proud. What hey, I could be I could be following worse dudes, man. This was my dude, man. So uh so in that particular episode, Louie Anderson and Robert Downing Jr. was on that uh episode of our Arcina Hall show.

SPEAKER_07 43:42

Okay. One of my favorite actors, man. Oh yeah, Tropic Thunder, bro. Oh man boy, the the brother he played in that. Yeah, incredible, man.

SPEAKER_00 43:54

And what a and well, also what a redemption story as well, man. He was almost he was almost.

SPEAKER_06 44:00

Kicked out of Hollywood, man. Yeah. He was almost to you, Robert.

SPEAKER_00 44:04

Yep. So, man, like I said, Bobby Brown owned the summer of 1989. You had the Ghostbusters soundtrack on my on our own, May 30th, man, 1989.

SPEAKER_06 44:19

Yeah, that's my I that's one of my favorite songs of his, too, along with the Gon'Be Crew album.

SPEAKER_00 44:25

That was funky. It was man made it to number two. It was at number two for three weeks. And during that time when it was doing its thing, every little step was on the charts too. So at one point in time, if I'm not mistaken, I need to go back. But forgive me if I'm wrong. But I believe at one point in time, every little step was number one, and our on our own was number two song. Uh number two song of the cover. Damn. Yeah, he owned it. And he owned it, man. Come on. What?

SPEAKER_06 44:57

Yeah. That was a great year, bro. And the Pistons won the champ. Oh, they I think they, I don't know if they they won 89.

SPEAKER_00 45:04

Yeah, 80. Yeah, yeah, 89. Yep. That's great. I was, I was, yeah, I was loving life, bro. Went to ground the steak, went down there, took my dancing behind down there. That's why I got the that's where you heard the name Disco. That's where I got it, man. Okay. Dude, dude from Chicago. He saw me dance and he called me Disco and it's stuck ever since. Um Babyface Tender Lover

What New Jack Swing Really Is

SPEAKER_00 45:30

remix. Had Bobby Brown on there, man. Just blew it up. Um, do you know the song She Ain't Worth It by Glenn Medeiros?

SPEAKER_06 45:39

No, I don't, but let me write that in my note. Glenn McDerriss.

SPEAKER_00 45:45

M-E- Yeah, M-E-D-E-I-R-O-S. She ain't worth it. Bobby Brown was on that. That song was that song, May 8th, 1990, made it to number one.

SPEAKER_06 45:56

What was the name of it? She ain't worth it. She ain't worth it. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 46:00

Yeah. It was just, it was just a weird pairing, man. So it's I I he might be on MCA. Probably was an up-and-coming artist, man. Let's put Bobby Brown on the track. Okay. And it worked, bro. Yeah. Yeah. And it worked, bro. Okay. Okay, so we know he was, he was, he had been on, I think he was on our senior hall three different occasions. One with when Ralph was on here doing his stuff with a Stone Cold gentleman, one of my favorite performances.

SPEAKER_08 46:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 46:31

1990. He was um on American Music Awards. He did uh yeah, he did uh let's see. Yeah, I think he won the award that year. Let's see.

SPEAKER_06 46:44

He has he did win a Grammy for Don't Be Cruel. He was nominated like 18 times, but he only won one Grammy, so he did win a Grammy for that.

SPEAKER_00 46:57

Okay. And I think too, what he was good at too is he used to re he would release uh remix albums. Yeah. And he had the album called Dance You Know It. Yeah, and that that went platinum. They had the remixes of uh Rock With You, like the Rock With You, the video version, which is my favorite version of it, and um Every Little Step with the uh with the rap in it.

SPEAKER_06 47:22

He did he did have a uh quick insertion, he did have a little cameo in Ghostbusters 2.

SPEAKER_00 47:33

Yeah, he was yeah, he was the doorman, yeah. I think he asked him, could he uh something about the Pro Time Pack or something? It's like nah the series equipment or something like that. Yep. Uh and so in 1990, Bob purchased that 14,000 square foot mansion, man. In Atlanta, right? Yeah, yeah, and he had, and that's all they talked, they bro also talked about the fact that he was ahead of the time. He knew that music was uh Atlanta was gonna be the music hub of the future. Yeah, and he went down there, built the studio, boss was it boss studios, I believe.

SPEAKER_06 48:11

Boss Studios, yeah. I think that was the name of it.

SPEAKER_00 48:13

Boss Studios, and the house that he bought was from an adult film mogul, Mike Thieving. Yeah, he was a man, he was stuck out, bro. Like uh Scar Scar Scar called him the Scarface Appon.

SPEAKER_06 48:28

Yeah, yeah. He ended up killing somebody, like he had this dude. He had got out of he escaped from prison. He he was a wild, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:38

He was a wild dude, bro. Wow, dude. If I'm not mistaken, didn't he uh didn't he come up with the um uh peep show? I think he came up with the peep show.

SPEAKER_08 48:49

Okay, I believe he came up with yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00 48:52

I think he came up with the peep show, and then somebody else copied the peep show and he killed that guy.

SPEAKER_06 48:59

He was his rival, yes, yep, that's what it was. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 49:03

He killed that guy, man.

SPEAKER_06 49:04

And it was it was Boss Town uh recording studios, boss town, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 49:09

Boss Town, man. Yeah, thanks for it. Yeah, boss town, bro.

SPEAKER_06 49:13

You know who bought it from him, right?

unknown 49:15

Who's that?

SPEAKER_00 49:16

Jermaine Dupree.

SPEAKER_06 49:17

Yeah, trivia question. Uh no, um Outcast. Okay, yeah, and they they renamed it Stank Onia, and they still own it.

SPEAKER_00 49:27

Okay, oh, bad, good man. Thanks for bringing that in here, man. Yeah, um, yeah, and I yeah, I just want to bring up that Mr. Thieves was out cold, bro.

SPEAKER_06 49:38

Yeah, he was a gangster. He was a true definition of a gangster for sure.

SPEAKER_00 49:44

And um, they a lot of people said that they felt that that mansion was haunted, and Bobby even said so. He had sex with a ghost. Hey, but one of my favorite stories around this time was about when Bobby was hanging with Mike Tyson in Japan. When Mike Tyson was about to fight Buster Duck.

SPEAKER_06 50:06

I I didn't know until I did the research.

SPEAKER_00 50:09

Yeah, dawg.

SPEAKER_06 50:11

He partied with Bobby Brown the night before the fight. The party animal.

SPEAKER_00 50:20

He said Bobby and Bobby said we were in the room with uh uh 2 uh two dozen women. He's like, we just was getting it in. He said, I kept reminding Tyson, we got a fight tomorrow. But it's a Tyson just wanted to keep on partying. And he said he said what he said, he said what Bobby said, he said he didn't he didn't go to sleep that night, but Buster put him to sleep later on. He said he said, put cut that out, don't make sure people hear that.

SPEAKER_06 50:52

Rocka bye, baby.

SPEAKER_00 50:55

And I was in college when that happened, because I was dude, man.

SPEAKER_06 51:00

Cause what year was that? That was uh 90, 90, 90, yeah. Yeah, I was uh what was that? I was uh I was a junior. And I think I was at a club, oh my goodness, I forget the name of the club, Club Ferrari, I think that was the name of it. And I watched it, they had a big screen TV in there. And I just remember the club was kind of dead that night. Uh, but I just remember seeing Mike Tyson fall into the ground. I could not believe it.

SPEAKER_00 51:29

Because the word got out. I was over, I was in I was in school. It was just February 11th when this went down. So I was at Gram Estate, and word got out that Tyson lost. I was cracking up. Everybody was people all upset, man. I was cracking up, man. I was like, yeah, I saw it coming because he was knocking people out, man. You could tell he was at the eventually you couldn't help but take people lightly, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_06 51:58

I didn't see it coming because he was a menace up until that point.

SPEAKER_00 52:02

Yeah, I'm not with Buster. I didn't think it was him. I know somebody's gonna put hands on him, but I didn't know it was gonna be Buster.

SPEAKER_06 52:09

Yeah, yeah. And then also when I think about the motivation behind Buster doing winning that fight with he had lost his mom. Yeah. So he didn't have nothing to lose.

SPEAKER_00 52:22

Yeah. The third album, Bobby Brown, Bobby album, uh 1992.

SPEAKER_07 52:32

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 52:33

Oh, I wore this. Oh, oh man, that's the only thing I listened. This came on August 25th, 1992.

Don’t Be Cruel Breaks The World

SPEAKER_00 52:40

And when I first heard humping around, I was like, oh, he's doing it again. Oh back to the big big brown. But he didn't say that in the concert, he said B D Brown. But it's nasty self. Talking about uh he when he performed, he didn't he he wore no underwear, you know, so he can he know get loose, bounce, bounce around, yeah, crazy and um yeah, uh humping around good enough, man.

SPEAKER_06 53:16

Yeah, that's a classic, too.

SPEAKER_00 53:18

Yeah, man, he man, look, uh yeah, humping around good enough was released in October '92. If it ain't good enough, man, man, uh Teddy Raleigh was on one, bro.

SPEAKER_06 53:29

Yeah. 14 tracks on that album.

SPEAKER_00 53:33

Yeah, getaway. Uh that's the way love is. I could take it away. Yep. That's the way love is. Yeah. And then a duet with Whitney Houston, something in common.

SPEAKER_06 53:48

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 53:49

Uh, and two can play that game.

SPEAKER_06 53:51

Two can play that game. Now, was that that was that part of uh he was in that movie, wasn't he in that movie? Two could play that game.

SPEAKER_00 54:02

I believe so, man. I didn't I don't think I've seen that one, man.

SPEAKER_06 54:06

Okay. Yeah, I think that's what with Morris Chestnut and uh Vivicum. Yes, yeah. Yeah, he was in that movie.

SPEAKER_00 54:15

Okay, yeah, I didn't see that one. You uh do you get the list of movies he was in? Because he he was hitting them up a little, he had a little cameos in the 90s.

SPEAKER_06 54:23

I mean, he had quite a few, I do. Um that's crazy. Uh I know that Ghostbusters 2, the Panther. Did you watch Panther?

SPEAKER_00 54:33

Uh yeah, yeah, yeah. Thanks. Yeah, yeah. But I checked it out on our YouTube. That was cool. I found it because they had they had a whole bunch of different uh resolutions. I found the the best one. It was pretty good, though. Check that one out. Um, yeah, Panther. Um Thin Lie Between Love and Hate.

SPEAKER_06 54:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 54:52

That's my favorite Bobby Brown movie.

SPEAKER_06 54:55

Man, he did, he did, he did in Panther. He was really good. Like he all his characters were believable. Yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah. He did a good job. I I think he, I, in my opinion, I believe he had a a uh a career in in acting alone. I wish you could have seen him more on the big screen.

SPEAKER_00 55:20

Yeah, you know, we one thing we just we haven't uh uh brought up what uh Whitney Houston's name, but they tied it not July 18th, 1992. July 18th.

SPEAKER_06 55:32

That was and when uh when 2000 when did it get uh 90 92 92, okay. Yeah, it was a lot going on in the world in '92. Um we were dealing with a lot of racism, uh, black men. That the dope game was just it had reached its height, and there was a lot of killing, a lot of people going to jail. And I believe we were in the that was actually was that the year of the riots in LA? I know that's around the Rodney King time, if I'm not mistaken. I want to say so. Because I I know that Rodney King was beat on my birthday, March 1991. Is he the 91 or 92?

SPEAKER_00 56:18

Yeah, it was uh uh it was April 29th. Yeah, 29th to May 3rd, yep.

SPEAKER_06 56:24

Yep. So that was in 92?

SPEAKER_00 56:26

Yeah, 92.

SPEAKER_06 56:28

So here's the significance. That's why I say mentally I was out of it. So um on March 3rd in 1991 is when Ronnie King got beaten on by the police. And then that was my birthday. He was so he was beat on my birthday. My mother's birthday is April 29th. So on 92, uh a year and a month later, that's when the riots were.

SPEAKER_00 56:54

Yeah, yeah, man. Uh how long were they, how long did they stay married? Uh they made it to 2007. Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_06 57:05

Okay. So they were married a long time.

SPEAKER_00 57:07

Yep, married a long time, man.

SPEAKER_06 57:10

I know this, I know um the way that they got together, it wasn't uh I think a lot of people thought that he was just trying to chase her down and that he was just he became head over heels for her, but he wasn't, she wasn't like when he saw her, he wasn't like like because he dated Janet Jacks. He was in love with Janet.

SPEAKER_00 57:34

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 57:35

It wasn't the same situation with her. She kind of, she really kind of she pursued him. She pursued him, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 57:43

Yeah, yeah, she pursued him, and he was like, then he just they became friends, and the history's after that. Uh I did want to talk about some of this. Um they humping around. I'm gonna go back to that album real quick. Humpin' around made it to number three.

SPEAKER_06 57:59

On the billboard, yeah. Dang, he was just killing them.

SPEAKER_00 58:02

Yeah, good enough made it to number seven. Wow. Getaway made it to 14.

SPEAKER_07 58:08

Yeah, golly.

SPEAKER_00 58:11

Yeah, he was just he was just doing his thing. He was he was just huge, man. And that album went three times platinum.

unknown 58:17

Damn.

SPEAKER_00 58:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 58:21

Salute.

SPEAKER_00 58:21

Yeah, salute. And then he he knows then he released um, then he released, like I said, a rema uh remix album, remixing the key key of B, which is an album that I was listening to when I was in the army. I was in the army around this time, and it's 93 and 94. And then he released a posse album called B Brown Posse. Yeah. Um, I liked it because I was a B Brown fan. If you're a B Brown fan, you probably purchased this and and checked it out. But uh it would it didn't go mainstream and even yeah, people just didn't gloss over. But it was two songs on the album that I did like. Uh, but yeah, uh yeah, I was bouncing that CD.

SPEAKER_06 59:02

I was looking up, I was trying to write down or uh log all of his albums, but I got to look at it, all the remixes of stuff. I was like, I ain't gonna be able to write all this down, but I know I'm gonna go back and listen to all of that stuff. This is quite a bit I haven't uh heard.

SPEAKER_00 59:18

Uh one thing I'm gonna go back to 1990, he reunited reunited with New Edition, and they went to uh they was on MTV Music Awards, they performed there, and which got them in talks into re uh getting back together in all six, and they did an album Home Again, it came out what '96.

SPEAKER_08 59:39

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 59:40

Um did a good album. Uh that the album did, I think, three platin, either either two or three times platinum, but the tour was just uh terrible, man. Ended up falling off. Uh, they said when uh Whitney came on tour with Bobby, he Bobby even admitted he said his focus was on his wife.

SPEAKER_06 59:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 59:58

And uh he just wasn't even thinking about performing as much.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:02

And and uh yeah, and so I do want to interject this too. You could tell that he was um, you know, once he had fallen, he had married her, that the story is still is unbelievable. Him uh locking himself in the bathroom before the day that he was supposed to marry her.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:21

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:22

His his current wife, and she the one that talked him into coming out of the bathroom to go ahead, and that's when he had discovered when he saw his wife that she was snorting cocaine.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:38

And um, yeah, so yeah, and that's when he said we were more alike than I thought. And yeah, but yeah, she he said he said that was his earliest stages, and he said, like, that was my earliest stages, but apparently she had hadn't already been doing it, yeah. Um, so yeah, her her public persona didn't match what she was really was.

SPEAKER_06 1:01:02

Not at all, not at all. And because she was she was looked at as more polished and more uh um righteous, even really, even still to this day, you know. Uh she still kind of upholds a very uh uh with witty, you know, even though the cocaine and the drugs played a huge role. Uh and it's I want to for him, I just want to say in this podcast, God bless him, because he was kind of blamed for her downfall.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:01:38

That wasn't the case, yeah. At all. No, that wasn't the case.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:44

Yeah, because she was the he was called the bad boy boston, bad boy Bobby Brown, and she was the princess pop, uh, princess of pop. And yeah, but the people that know her, yeah, one of the things, but people that knew both of them knew what the real deal was.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:01

Yeah, and I want to interject, I want to give a shout-out to all uh black fathers, um, and especially Bobby, that regardless of where he was in his career, and you could tell when you have a relationship with your children, you can tell. And especially in the new, I think it's the every little step uh show, um, his kids adore him, man. Yeah, his children adore him. So even during his, you know, his having fun as a man and being young and rich and misguided and drugs and everything, he still maintained a loving relationship with his children, even when he was with Whitney.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:43

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:44

My kids are coming over for the holidays. They're gonna be here, regardless if you're beefing with their mama or if the mama's beefing with Whitney. My kids is gonna be around, and you can see that even like in his older children, you can see that. Yeah, they love him, man. And that's huge.

SPEAKER_07 1:03:01

Yeah, he needs to be respected.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:05

Yeah, and more so, and I'm glad we're doing this podcast and talk about more often because when you talk about Bobby Brown, you don't talk about how good of a father he is. You always talk about that other crap that that sells tabloids and clicks and all that. But no, man, this man is a he's a family man. Yeah, yes, he is kids.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:26

And regardless of the regardless, you know, there'll be people that be like, oh, if he was such a good father, he wouldn't be sleeping on these women, he wouldn't be doing all these drugs. Even through all the turmoil, he remained a dad.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:39

Yeah, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_06 1:03:41

A loving dad at that.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:44

You know, uh, I'm not gonna, you know, I talked about it on my other podcast, the gospel twins. And I, you know, I fought I fathered three daughters by three different women. Okay, but I I end up raising them all by myself. Wow, that was a situation right here.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:59

Salute to you, bro. That's big. That's that's to be commended, man.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:02

That's to be commended, and so I uh thank you. So I uh I honor Bobby Brown because he was a Bobby Brown boy too, huh? Man, yes, sir. Uh so um man, this album right here, this forever album, which didn't catch on. I love this

Hits Run And Stage Controversy

SPEAKER_00 1:04:30

album. This album came out November 4th, 1997. And feeling inside, uh, my let me go scoot. I turned anybody that was around me at that time, I turned them on to this album. Uh my mom was one of them, and she would play. All right, uh let's see. He has a song with Wendy Houston on there, but I'm gonna get on that one. It to me, it started the album started to hit track two. It's still my thing. It's like a my prerogative type of song. Yeah, uh, feeling inside is is the first single. I think that was the mistake.

unknown 1:05:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:10

It's a good song, it's funky, but I don't think it's a lead single. I don't know what I don't know what the execs or the no, but he this was all him. This is all his people, all his producers. Okay, so I don't know. Maybe he just felt close to that song. For but to me, the best song on the album is give it up. Oh man.

SPEAKER_08 1:05:35

Track seven.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:36

I mean, my homies jocking you, even my homies, yeah, man. He said, I don't want to, I don't want to have to break them down.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:44

I have to be honest, I do have to go back and listen to this album again. I did not give it as justice because I was mourning the loss of Tupac in 1996. Okay, I was also mourning um. I don't know if do you do you remember Love French? She went to Inkster High School.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:04

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:06:06

She was a real, really good friend of mine. She passed away in 1996.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:10

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 1:06:11

Um, and we go so going into 97 when that album dropped, I was just mentally out of it. And then we ended up losing Biggie in March. So I was I was I had got away from RB um during that time. Okay. I do have to go back and and smoke that up over.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:32

But I'll tell you this though. Um 5, 6, and 7.

SPEAKER_08 1:06:36

Okay. Bangers.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:38

5, 6, 7. Bangers, bro. Bangers. I they still in rotation. Okay. You know, when I got my Bobby Brown new edition mix, those songs are included. Uh, I wish Give It Up would have been on the radio. My place, he released it as a single, but I just the album didn't get in too much promotion, man. Because it easily, I can easily hear my place on the radio and been around the world. Those are two. My place and been around the world are some dope ballads. And um give a nice vocal performance on there, but give it up is the energy, man. It's just energy. It's the classic Bobby Brown, My Prerogative, Every Little Step, uh, get away energy. That's what that's that's what that is.

SPEAKER_07 1:07:22

All right.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:24

And then that brings us to uh this other album, the masterpiece. I did listen to this album. It's only I don't, he didn't even release any song. Yes, he did. My bad. I take that back. The song Get Get Out the Way, bro. You know that song?

SPEAKER_06 1:07:45

I do not. I do not.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:47

Write that down. Get out the way, by the way.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:49

Get out the way. Okay. Add that to the list.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:51

Okay, listen to this song. And you can't you cannot tell me he was not talking about Whitney Houston.

SPEAKER_08 1:07:58

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:59

Okay. Angels of Fortune, she ended up passing, so I don't um uh yeah, just I hope the energy because I know that was at the time when she had kicked him out. You know, we know about when she got when they got a divorce, her family was on in her head. She kicked him out.

SPEAKER_07 1:08:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:17

And he said he left everything.

SPEAKER_07 1:08:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:20

He said, cars closed. He said, I just left. And that's when he got messed when he started messing around with uh with Karen Stephens, man. Super head. Yeah, and she's gonna take a picture of him on down his luck on the couch passed out. She's gonna take a picture of that or no video. Man, that was that sucked, man. Seeing this man down down his luck, and you're gonna do that.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:42

Yeah. Do brothers bad, man. Do brothers bad.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:48

Yeah. Um, he has a song there, Don't Let Me Die. Uh people thought it was about Whitney, but it was about his mom. Yeah. And that brings it to man, he lost his mom, he lost uh his dad.

SPEAKER_06 1:09:01

Yeah. And Whitney, they all were within maybe what two years of each other.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:06

Yeah, he lost Bobby Christina.

SPEAKER_06 1:09:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:09

He lost Bobby Brown Jr.

SPEAKER_06 1:09:11

Jr. Yeah. I don't think people realize, and not to cut you off, we already talked about everything, not everything, but a lot of the traumatic stuff that he went through to lose his mom first, then his dad, because he was close to both of them, then to I've done that. I've I've lost the ex-wife. And it it affects you a different way. Even, you know, me and my ex-wife, we were really good friends. It was rough once we got divorced, but we became good friends and we were raising our children uh as really, really good friends. I'm not sure what the atmosphere was with Bobby and Whitney during that time. I'm quite sure they were somewhat cordial. Um, but yeah, that that's a heartbreaking because you lose the child of your the mother of your child and a friend, and they shared some history, a lot of history together.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:05

So I don't think they were talking at the time because her family was in their head. So she was separated. Because not only Whitney was separated from him, but probably Christine was also separated from him. Because when she when she passed away, remember they went they didn't allow him to the funeral.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:20

He was that's right. They did him. They kicked him out. Yeah, they kicked him out. Right, you're right. They kicked him out. So that makes it even worse because he was again looked at as a villain. Uh, and that wasn't the case.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:34

And his and his daughter was, man, they were strained, you know, they were strained relationship, and he was trying to reach out, but she was listening to whatever who was in her head, her family and her her new boy, her new boo, uh, who was uh was found liable of her death.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:53

And that's another thing, bro, because you got three daughters, I have two. Um, I have great relationships with my daughters. They have pushed me to the point at times of unbelievable anger. Um, and they're not even out of my house yet. Uh, so to have a daughter that doesn't listen to you, and you're trying to just be a parent to them. Uh, and then so was him and Bobby, they were kind of beef, they were beefing them when she passed away as well, right? Who? Uh Bobby Christina.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:27

Yeah, yeah. She wasn't, yeah. Like I said, they were the family was um Whitney's family was in her head, so yeah, okay. They didn't have a relationship at that time.

SPEAKER_08 1:11:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:35

So he was it was tore up, man. You have all that loss, and then you the the person that you really could like connect, you have a daughter, you know, your daughter that you had with this woman that passed away, and you can't even just sit there and just console them. And then also Bobby Christina's uh siblings, man, they felt a certain kind of way because they wanted to reach out and wanted to be surrounding her, you know, because they know she was dealing with this stuff during this time, but she she put a wedge, a wall between them and yeah, it's just unfortunate, bro.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:07

That's tough, man. That's that's when you when you die with unresolved, well when people pass and you have unresolved uh issues, um, that's a tough thing to to have to deal with, you know?

unknown 1:12:22

Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:23

And uh what about did you like the song with uh Thug Leaven with Jai Rule and Bobby Brown?

SPEAKER_06 1:12:29

Believe it or not, I did. Oh, man, what? I did, yeah, yeah. I did, bro. I was a that was it was a class track to me because I I was a fan of Murder Inc. Yeah, uh, and I I was happy that because out of everything that he would had gone through, was going through, they they didn't just throw, he wasn't just thrown to the wolves. There was to me, that was the brotherhood coming in saying, bro, we got you. Come on, make some money, make some music. Uh we're gonna hold you down.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:58

Yeah, I mean, he had like uh when he got out of jail, Chris Rock was there, you know.

SPEAKER_06 1:13:04

Yeah, yep, he sure was.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:05

Chris Rock was there. He said he just wanted to make sure he was good and everything was alright. Yeah, uh, that was love, bro. That was love because he didn't have he didn't have to be there, man.

SPEAKER_06 1:13:15

No, absolutely, absolutely. Being there for people when you are going through something, that means so much. That means so much more than uh uh, hey man, I'm proud of you. That means so much more when you see people's faces, uh, when you're going through some tough things. So man.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:38

So we didn't talk about uh prison. So he did some, he said he only got arrested one time. That was for the DUI, but the other time he was going to jail because of probation violations.

SPEAKER_06 1:13:49

Yeah. You know, he did uh 75 days in Florida in uh 2000 for violating his parole. He did eight days in Georgia in 2003. Uh I forgot what that was for. Um, he did 60 days in 1996 uh for something crazy. I don't know, it might have been, I'm not sure exactly. He said what that was.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:13

You see that when his uh when he was calling home from from from prison and he put his son on the phone, and his son asked him asked someone asked him how he was doing, he's like, What you expect I'm doing? I'm in jail. Made him cry, man. And uh Whitney had to console him. Yeah, come on, B, man.

SPEAKER_07 1:14:32

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:34

Yeah, but it that was a blessing, and you know, that was a blessing in disguise because he was able to kick the drugs, the drugs, yes, man.

SPEAKER_06 1:14:43

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:43

Uh so he said when Whitney picked him up, he was like, She still was doing the drugs.

SPEAKER_06 1:14:48

He was like, Yeah, she wanted him to do it with her.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:52

Yeah, he was like, I'm done with that. He said, but alcohol, he still was he still liked to drink, though. It was just the alcohol, yeah, alcohol, yeah, at that time.

SPEAKER_06 1:15:00

I'm so glad he didn't because uh uh I did hear him say that he had snorted heroin one time, yeah. I'm so glad he didn't get into uh shooting up, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:12

Yeah, that that probably been it, yeah. Yeah, man. But yeah, back to this course, man. I know you're getting bored. Dealing with him. Oh no, you miss my love and my thug and my thug loving.

unknown 1:15:29

Yeah, oh yeah.

Mansion Myths Tyson Nights And Acting

SPEAKER_00 1:15:31

Oh man, what about this crazy story about when Bobby Brown got kidnapped?

SPEAKER_06 1:15:37

Unfrecking believable. Oh, man. More trauma, more trauma, more trauma.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:47

Oh, man.

SPEAKER_06 1:15:48

He he knew he probably knew he was gonna die. Yeah. So just imagine your, and I'm being funny now because he, you know, he's doing okay and he's he's living well now. But his cholesterol and blood pressure was through the roof for that entire time that they uh messing with some gangsters.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:08

Yeah, yeah, was it uh David Popcorn Collins, man? Former gangster in the city. Yeah. Hell for ransom, man. Was it $400,000?

SPEAKER_06 1:16:22

No, no, that's what they got. But what's crazy is that I think Bobby had owed somebody like $25,000 and the preacher crew he bought the uh he bought the debt from the guy that Billy that Bobby owed the money to. He was like, I I I'll take care of it. So that $25,000 turned into 400 grand for ransom.

unknown 1:16:48

GSP.

SPEAKER_06 1:16:51

So yeah, we this how much we needed. Say she showed up with the bread, gave it to him, and you know.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:00

If I'm not mistaken, she didn't have nobody with her, did she?

SPEAKER_06 1:17:03

No, she didn't. She came like solo, and what's deep is is uh they were trying to clown him for uh talking about he was a crying wreck and he was this and she showed up just as smooth and walked in there, didn't carry all the gangsters that was in there, gave the money, and then she got her husband and she took off. But man, there was also talking about there was a guy that was burning hair off of his scroll.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:30

Yeah, come on, man. I know, man. That crap, man, talking about him crying. Man, he's human, man. What? Exactly.

SPEAKER_07 1:17:40

Exactly. So yeah, that was that was crazy.

SPEAKER_06 1:17:45

Uh I did have one question. I don't know if we touched, we actually didn't touch on it, uh, which is another trauma situation. The friend that got killed in his Bentley, yeah, he told Shannon Sharp that that that car took 178 bullets and he didn't get touched not one time. And I wonder in the movie, it seemed as if that that friend was somebody that was trying to talk to his sister or one of his siblings or something like that. I don't know if that was actually was that if that was just in the movie or if that was the reality of the situation.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:22

I don't know, man. I by him being an executive producer, I I don't know, I don't know, man. It seemed like he was trying to make it true to life is possible. So I'm I'm gonna assume that is true because I've heard him talk about that.

SPEAKER_08 1:18:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:35

Um, so yeah. Uh yeah, man. What was that? Um yeah, yeah. Hey, I was hey, I was just about to come to that. Uh what's that? Um it said 1995. Brown was with Stephen Sealy, and Sealy was targeting a drive-by shooting. Sealy Sealy Brown's sister's boyfriend was killed, and Brown was unharmed. The shooter, John Tibbs, took a plea in 2001.

SPEAKER_06 1:19:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:04

So that was his sister's boyfriend. Yeah, Brown's parents, Carol and Herbert Brown, died within a year of each other. Okay.

SPEAKER_08 1:19:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:12

Okay. Uh let's go back a little bit. So in 2000 and 2005, that's when he did the the Bravo TV TV show, B and Bobby Brown. I was all in, bro. Yeah. I was all in. I don't know about you, but I was all in.

SPEAKER_06 1:19:28

I was. And that was what year was that? That was what's 2005.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:19:32

2005. Actually, no, I'll take that back. I was uh because I got married in 2006.

SPEAKER_08 1:19:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 1:19:40

So I spent all of 2005 being nervous and trying to figure out how I was gonna be a husband to my wife. So a lot of planning that year.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 1:19:56

And a lot I I worked my tail off.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:59

Okay, all right, man. Yeah. Uh have you ever listened to one back and seen some of the episodes?

SPEAKER_06 1:20:05

Like some of the nope, but I'm going to, like I said, this is I'm I became a fan again, so I'm I'm about to dive deep into um even though we we were supposed to do this earlier, I did more research, but like I uh unlike the the Tupac, uh we love pop. Like you said, it was it was tough uh doing the research on him because it was such a sad ending. Um, but this is a story that had a lot of sad stories, but a great ending. Yeah. So there's so much this it's a lot to his story, man.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:39

It's a lot to his story. All right, so uh man, think about that show. It was raw. It was this you saw where we talked about him being a dad. That's the first time you I mean you saw it pops out at you, you know, because you seen it on television, yeah. And it was even a situation where I it might have been Mother's Day, man. I think he had his kids over for Mother's Day, and then Whitney would just, she was just disgruntled, just always she was at times hard to get along with. And you also could tell that she was always slapping him in his head because man, he would flinch, man. A lot of times when she would she reach a certain tone, he would flinch, man. Yeah, not I mean, because he knows, yeah, you know, it's that he'd be laughing and giggling, but he knew it was coming. Yeah, and uh and what you saw and what you realized that oh, he's not the problem, yeah. It's her.

SPEAKER_06 1:21:37

That's exactly what that that series showed, even though um we've talked about her family, and everybody still wanted to blame him for her being the way that she was. That wasn't the case. Wasn't the case.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:53

No, it just yeah, it just was crazy. I was like the stuff they was doing and saying, you could tell they was just, you know, they was it was a hot mess, but you could tell we was he was trying to clean up and get better, yeah. And she was just in the in the middle of in the middle of it, but she didn't necessarily have to be in it, but she's decided to go and I'm gonna be in it. And I remember Johnny Gill was like, I don't know if that was a good idea for her being in it, and it wasn't because it definitely showed showed uh what was going on.

unknown 1:22:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:27

Now let's get nah, go ahead.

SPEAKER_06 1:22:30

No, I was gonna say, you know, not to put anybody's um baby mama on blast or anything like that. Uh men that have multiple children uh by multiple women, um you deal with that. Uh you deal with the women not being able to get along, you deal with the it's it's sometimes there the the women are jealous of the fact of how you might treat uh other your other mother's children or whatever. Um you can tell he went through that, but that's again why I say I love him as a dad because he made sure that no matter what the women were going through, what what he did personally as far as if he slept with this one or slept with that one or whatever, he made sure that his kids knew each other. Uh and I love like in the the the new episode, the new show with his current wife and his uh younger three children, how they love the older brother and older sister.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:33

Yeah, Landon and La Princia.

SPEAKER_06 1:23:37

Yeah, Laprencia, yeah. So, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:41

Yeah, and and yeah, and a salute to those siblings, man, because uh that documentary I watched, man, they just you could tell they stand up people, they love their family, they love their dad. Yeah, uh, I believe La Princia talked about the uh situation where when well Bobby because Bobby took his kids on tour. He had his uh yeah, he was in he was in Japan and Whitney showed up, and La Princia was with her mom, and yeah, and Whitney showed up, yeah, she showed up and said La Princia's mom was was acting out and said Whitney was calm, cool, and collected, and then said, you know, I'm gonna take you from that B.

SPEAKER_06 1:24:22

Yeah, yeah, crazy.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:26

We're talking about the princess's pop, man. All right, man. Uh going that's 2010. Brown and uh Alicia Etherich tied a knot, man. And they were friends, like we we spoke earlier. Friends, like when he was getting married to Whitney. The fact that she spoke, you know, talked him into getting married, and then now they this you know they kept that friendship, and she ended up being this agent and helping him stay clean, man. Salute to that lady, bro.

SPEAKER_06 1:25:00

Mrs. Mrs. Alicia Etheridge Brown, God bless you. Uh the women we just talked about, she's the opposite of what he was dealing with in those situations. Um, she knows his story. Um had a front row seat to his story.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:20

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_06 1:25:21

And to be there by his side, to marry him, giving three children, and to be his manager.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:32

Four, bro, four now.

SPEAKER_06 1:25:35

Oh, wow. Oh, God. I got four. Yes, four. And to just, you know, to be there to monitor his life, to still love him, and still be making love to him and giving him kids, and just uh she gives him a reason to live.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:55

My bad, my bad. I'm sorry, bro. You're right. She had three, he had three with her, and he had four prior.

SPEAKER_06 1:26:01

Okay, yeah, there you go. So you have seven altogether. Uh, so but to give him three children, um, to still be loving on him and to, you know, be his manager. Uh, and you could tell in his interviews, he's happy, he's not disgruntled. You don't hear her arguing with him on the side or anything like that. Like, everything is, you know, unless my wife wants me to do that, you know. Like, I I just I love her, man. I I she needs to teach. Uh uh, she needs to teach. If she could teach these young women to follow in those footsteps, I know it's a lot of women that probably call her a pick me or whatever,

Whitney Marriage Addiction And Fatherhood

SPEAKER_06 1:26:40

I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:41

But incredible woman, man.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:44

Incredible.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:45

Yes. Uh they were engaged in 2000, May of 2010, and they end up getting married June 18th, 2012.

SPEAKER_06 1:26:54

2012. So they what 14 years strong.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:58

Yeah, and she just she holding him up, man, holding him down. And uh he also talks about um he talked about him being in an accident. He had two heart attacks. He had two stents in his heart. So you when you see him now, you see that uh he you know with the weight gain and his his breath. And so, yeah, that's why, you know, I was like, that's why he don't go crazy on stage, man.

SPEAKER_08 1:27:24

You know, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:25

Uh man, having two two stints in your heart is crazy, bro.

SPEAKER_06 1:27:31

God got him. Hey, God love, God loves us all.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:27:36

Um, but there's definitely a reason why he's still around. He's been praying for a lot, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:42

Yeah, and the angels follow him because uh all those near closes or close calls, or whatever you want to say, man, and just yeah, he was there, bro. He could have just died when he was a kid and he was a teenager, you know, he's like in his twenties and thirties, now he's in his fifties, just when God. God is keeping them, man. So yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:28:02

Amen.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:03

Yeah. So yeah, but Bobby, father, seven children. And then we know that Bobby Jr. passed uh in 2020. 2020. In 2020, and Christian and 15.

SPEAKER_06 1:28:15

Yeah. So that's five, yeah, five-year gap in between the deaths of two children. So he's seen it all. He's seen his parents pass. He's had a wife pass. He's had children pass.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:30

Um it's he's all that he's a transitor two. We ain't talking about the gummy hairstyle. Man, I definitely had that boy.

unknown 1:28:40

What?

SPEAKER_06 1:28:41

Yeah. I thought I had a quick little stint with it. I didn't know he said it was a mistake. He was too busy talking in the chair, and I guess the guy sliced him up. And then he said that he went to Quincy Jones' house and he saw, I don't know if it was Quincy Jones' grandfather or somebody had on the wall had the same haircut.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:02

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cause uh yeah, the Faye. Even though Hammer was wearing those diaper pants, Bobby wore them too. I wore them because of Bobby Brown. And um he he brought back the pat leather shoes. I had me a couple pair of pat leather shoes, bro.

SPEAKER_08 1:29:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:20

The pat leather with the uh with the steel toe on the outside. Uh I went to Fair Lane with the Siblies man, got me those shoes. And I looked at bro, and I looked at the receipt, it's at Bobby Brown's. Yes, sir. Bobby Brown's. Uh then we talked about the new edition mini-series. The new edition story came out in 2017. Then he came out with his Bobby Brown, the Bobby Brown story 2018.

SPEAKER_06 1:29:51

I watched it last night.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:53

Where'd you see it on? I can't find it, man. What did you see?

SPEAKER_06 1:29:56

Uh YouTube.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:56

Okay, I'm gonna go YouTube.

SPEAKER_06 1:29:57

On YouTube, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:58

Okay, uh, I was looking for it. I think I think that's some type of licensing thing going on with that.

SPEAKER_06 1:30:04

Yeah. Um the new edition, both of those, those the actors in both of those movies, excellent job.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:12

Yeah, Woody McLean did a great job playing Bobby Brown.

SPEAKER_06 1:30:16

Great job, bro.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:17

But what I didn't like though, man, I'm I'm a nitpick uh about the Bobby Brown. Come on, man. We Bobby Brown didn't stay slim the whole time. Now stop it, man. Yeah, that's true. Like, come on, you know what I'm saying? Put a little belly on the dude, and you know, to make it more real. I was like, Bobby didn't look like this when he was this age, nah. Facts, no, but yeah, dog, and then um every little step, the book, auto autobiography. Uh, listen to that, I listened to the audio version of that. Uh that came out March 14th, 2017, my brother.

SPEAKER_08 1:30:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:59

He uh he narrates it, narrates it himself. Uh it's a good man. If you listen to it, you're gonna it's gonna take you a while to get listened to his reading. Ah, like, because I know, I mean, the stuff that he was talking about, you know, like we talked, we touched on the Janet Jackson and he loved her. I remember her he talked about kicking her out the hotel room and she was out in the hallway with uh with a uh comforter and or or she, whatever. Uh uh talked about having sex with uh Madonna. See, but I that's Madonna, yeah, oh yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:31:36

Oh wow, Madonna got she got around because Tupac was uh when it was all down through there too.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:43

Dennis Robin, she loves some brothers. Oh yeah, yeah, oh yeah, man. She, you know, she I think that's one of her proclivities, bro. She likes she like she liked them brothers, man. You know, and because he like all her all her boyfriends are exotic, you know, they uh you know, black or hispanic looking, you know, she just the queen of the pops.

SPEAKER_06 1:32:04

That's got to be an on top of the film world, have all that money. He had so much money, he would do stupid stuff. Like he said, if they were riding down the street and he saw somebody with a really nice car, he would buy the car for that person right then and there and drive it for a little bit and just abandon it and leave it. Um but to do that, then to be messing around with Janet and then Madonna and then Whitney.

unknown 1:32:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:32:31

Yeah, because I remember Ron DeVoe was like, he said when they got the invitation, like, oh, he really gonna do this. He's marrying Whitney Houston.

SPEAKER_06 1:32:40

Yeah. Cause I don't think any of them other guys, I don't I don't know if if any of them, they kind of all have women that are not in the spotlight like that.

SPEAKER_00 1:32:50

Uh Ron is the only one. Um Okay. His wife was was in with 3LW, what one of those little no, one of those groups. 3LW. One of those groups. That's what let's look that up real quick. But yeah, she was a singer, she's in one of those 90 groups, man.

SPEAKER_08 1:33:06

Okay. Uh let's see.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:10

Yeah, man. But yeah, hey, you got anything to say, man? We might be about before we about to close.

SPEAKER_06 1:33:16

Uh, I want to say uh I am in the cis in the season of uh supporting uh black men. Uh I'm also in the season of uh supporting uh black businesses. So Bobby Brown has the company, Bobby Brown Foods.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:34

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_06 1:33:35

So Bobby Bobby Brown Foods.com. Uh support that brother. Um you know I can speak. I also go ahead. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:46

No, so I can speak on the season. The scene is on fire, bro.

SPEAKER_06 1:33:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:33:51

Okay. I'm going to grab the cookbook uh this week. Um he enjoys cooking. I love that about him. Uh again, man. Salute to uh salute to Bobby Brown uh for still being around. Um thank God that he spared his life. And I hope, because uh I'm in, I'm approaching my 12th month of sobriety. And that was one thing that uh kind of I can relate to him on when he was saying um in the show with his wife how you know every day he deals with not drinking. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then having to deal with the loss of children and all of the pain that he's gone through, those things will drive you back to those vices. So uh I just want to say, man, salute to you, Bobby. Uh it's been a pleasure doing this. I hope you, I hope he, I hope this comes across your radar that he gets a chance to listen to this uh podcast.

SPEAKER_00 1:34:48

Yeah, B, because I'ma say this, man. When I was I saw you at uh the palace, Auburn Hills back in '94. Um yeah, it was a '93. '93, my bad. It was 93. Uh, my girlfriend, my baby, my daughter's mother at the time, we were dressed like twins. I would never do that again, but we was dressed as like and we were at the top level, and you know, I was like I said, I was dancing, man. The spotlight was shown on us, man. And Bobby said, I see y'all. And I remember y'all never forget that. So yeah, B, you probably don't remember that, but I do. And uh man, just huge influence to me. Like I said, I was I was shy. I could dance, but shy, I would dance in my room. But Bobby's influence and and and the new Jack Swing music influenced me to put it to the stage and getting these talent shows. And and then just everything else, my he it he helped influence my dress. I just like danced the type of music I listen to and why I listen to it. I like that funk. I mean, you know, I like the new jack funk, I like the funk that he brought to it, and just him just being resilient because uh they talked about in the documentary, like, God don't give you more than you can handle, but like, man, God, you can't you put a lot on this man play. So you must know he's strong.

SPEAKER_07 1:36:15

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 1:36:17

And you and thank you, father, for keeping that brother. Amen. You know, um yeah, man. I mean, I back in the early 2000s, because I was every people who knew me know I was a huge Bobby Brown fan. I would get so much flack, and but now I can stick my chest out, like, yeah, that's my guy. You know what I'm saying? Um, a lot of people, it's people his peers and still not didn't make it. He's here and take care of his family, just seeing this with his children, his wife. Yes, you know, another salute to her for being his backbone and always just man, I could just go on and going, and I won't, though. But love you, B. Um yeah, just thank you, man. Thank you for what you've done and for my I mean, just me podcasting, bro. Um, yeah, just giving flowers to all the people that uh put into my life and put into that influenced me. Uh and Bobby Brown, but I couldn't wait to do this. And um here did that, did Prince, did Michael, the Stevie gonna be another animal, man. I just woo, it's gonna be a lot doing that one, man. So but uh but yeah, uh but big ups, new edition, Bobby Brown, and then also we didn't touch on he he was tight with his brother Tommy and he lost his brother Tommy. Uh in that documentary, I could tell he might have had a stroke or something, so uh, he probably had some health issues that uh you know took him out. But man.

SPEAKER_06 1:37:47

Tommy was the older one that was his manager.

SPEAKER_00 1:37:49

Yeah, that that he looked, yeah, it looked like Bobby. They know they kind of, you know, he was always he was in the he was in in videos. You would see him in um he was in the hump around video.

SPEAKER_08 1:37:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:37:59

He

Alicia Etheridge Legacy And Final Salutes

SPEAKER_00 1:38:00

was in and being Bobby Brown, he was there, they did a cook-off. Because you know, you talk about uh Bobby likes to cook. Bobby uh had a contest against his brother, he cooked some shrimp. He was had a contest who who had who made the best shrimp, Bobby won and all that. But yeah, man, what a podcast. What what a journey, what a what a career. Yes, way to be celebrated. I'm glad that new edition are getting there, finally getting their flowers, and I'm glad that he's back in the group touring with them. Uh uh and I don't want to say this, man, but I get a finger to uh I'm not gonna say which finger, but I get a finger to Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for snubbing them, man. Um they definitely should be there. He should be there as a solo artist. Y'all make it happen. Make it happen. Make it happen, man.

SPEAKER_08 1:38:54

Make it happen.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:55

All right, my brother.

SPEAKER_06 1:38:56

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:57

Yes, uh, people, yeah, like I always say, share your gift, always be you, and keep those classics current. And peace out.

SPEAKER_09 1:39:11

Thanks for tuning in to the Disco Hex show where the stories live on and the music never fades. If you enjoyed today's episode, please like and share, subscribe, comment, and rate, and keep the conversation going. Remember, always be you for the GF Classics, guys. Until next time, you can see that.