Conversation Piece - Saturday, June 20, 2026

Follows the audio · click any line to jump

1. The arms of night.
2. KPFK 90.7 FM, Los Angeles.
3. What it is, good morning.
4. I am Angela Birdsong, your conversation piece host,
5. coming from KPFK studios with the real day-to-day happenings.
6. of urban living locally and worldwide today on Conversation Peace, a Father's Day special.
7. As I present to some and introduce to others, my father, the late, great Edwin Birdsong.
8. Welcome to Conversation Peace.
9. Mirror, mirror on the wall Tell me mirror, what is wrong?
10. Can it be my De La clothes Or is it just my De La sound?
11. What I do ain't make believe People say I sit and try
12. But when it comes to being De La It's just me, myself and I
13. It's just me, myself and I
14. Oh, Daddy. Oh, Daddy.
15. It's not a good concentration, P.
16. Hey, Daddy. I've got to go to Louisiana.
17. Love you, love you.
18. Ooh-wee.
19. My daddy was one of a kind,
20. and I know most will say that about their fathers, too.
21. And you are right.
22. All of our fathers are one of a kind,
23. uniquely and wonderfully made,
24. knitted in their mother's womb
25. by the hands of Yahweh's grace and mercy.
26. The conversation piece show you're about to hear with my father, Edwin Birdsong, was recorded at the Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice for Radio Justice Los Angeles, where Radio Justice was housed.
27. It was the day before my father died.
28. The show was scheduled to air the day after he passed away, and it did air on that Tuesday after the King holiday.
29. It will be the last interview of my father that just happened to be on my show.
30. That Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. weekend started off with taking my father to a play,
31. Martin Duty Calls, at the West Angeles Theater on Crenshaw Boulevard in Los Angeles,
32. directed by David Wendell Boykins and created by Roy Parker and Chaz Ingram.
33. They all were on my show before another time and just loved the play.
34. It was great.
35. I drove that night in my newly used car given to me by my father.
36. Daddy often, well, always bought used cars.
37. He would always say, don't buy retail, baby.
38. He always said that he enjoyed thrift shopping, negotiating, low balling, looking for errors in a product to bring the price down, including at finer stores.
39. Anywho, I drove that night in the third and last car my father will ever buy me.
40. After the play, I said, Daddy, let's take the long way home tonight.
41. We headed north on Crenshaw Boulevard to the 10 Freeway East to the 110 going south to the 405 going north and we you know we ended up in the city of Inglewood
42. Instead of going south on Crenshaw to the city of Inglewood. So if you're from Los Angeles,
43. you know we took the long way home that night. I'm glad we did. Undecided who will be the third
44. guest on my show that I was going to record on Sunday about the state of hip-hop music,
45. I wanted to get a seasoned musician on my show. And after one failed attempt and a bunch of
46. brainstorming, I realized that that seasoned musician, artist, publisher, producer, composer,
47. arranger, singer, songwriter, that guest needs to be my father. The day we recorded the show,
48. my father wanted to drive his more new used car. It was still used, but it was more new than used.
49. At that time, I had been doing radio for 10 years.
50. I started doing radio at KPFK on Some of Us are Brave, a black women's collective.
51. Shout out to Tonde Seasway, Shemaranga, Jan Robinson Flint, Sister Charlene Muhammad, Rhonda Dixon.
52. And because of the homework assignment given to me by my father, that's how I started doing radio.
53. Daddy often gave homework assignments.
54. I call them life work assignments.
55. Let me say this. My father was not the best father for small children. He was not around. He was doing music and he was doing music in a huge way.
56. However, as I got older and practiced the art of giving grace, having mercy, and the joy of forgiveness, he was the best father ever and a wonderful grandfather and a great grandfather to my sister's children and my brother's children and their children.
57. So yeah, he lived to be a great grandfather.
58. So, there was no homework assignments given as a small child. But into my preteen years came advice about boys in life, encouragement to go to law school, which I did not do, and to learn audio engineering at the age of 13, which I did not do either.
59. Uh, daddy gave me his glossy eight by 10 public relations photos. They were always signed with his, you know, very distinctive signature saying, keep getting A's. Daddy loves you. Well, that same photo, my brothers and sisters and I got photoshopped, removing what he wrote to use on his funeral program.
60. Well, I can go on and on about my father, Edwin Birdsong, from saying, you know, he would always say, everybody loves daddy. And it was so true. And it still is so true. And, you know, from booking his flights, being his road dog, going backstage, music studios everywhere, the NAMM show.
61. Hey Ray thanks for the passes Reading his music contracts with my older brother going on road trips which he loved doing He loved going on road trips and just playing music you know and so many wonderful precious memories Now that I think about as I writing this my older brother and I we did go to a lot of concerts backstage studios as preteens and teenagers too
62. Oh, I miss him so much.
63. I miss the advice.
64. I miss the life work, the laughs, the conversations, the music.
65. than simply being his daughter.
66. Yeah.
67. That day at Radio Justice with program manager Adam Rice,
68. audio engineer Joseph Tucker,
69. the other two guests, my cousin, Michael Washington,
70. creator of my opening and closing theme song,
71. and Chris DJ Stress McManus, founder of the Producers Corner,
72. we enjoyed our time recording.
73. that show on that Sunday. May you not only enjoy hearing this conversation piece, Father's Day
74. special, may you remember to enjoy every moment of life and living. To learn more about my father's
75. music legacy, the Edwin Birdsong Experience, go to edwinbirdsong.com.
76. Thank you.
77. Hold on, hold on, I'll shake, baby.
78. You're speaking to me out there.
79. You can get it.
80. I don't get enough.
81. You can get it.
82. Cause you've been fooling me.
83. Welcome back to Conversation Peace.
84. I am your host, Angela Birdsong, with my father, Edwin Birdsong, multi-Grammy winner and nominee.
85. Now, we were talking about the state of music and what have you, but before we get into that further,
86. let's bring in Mr. Birdsong, Edwin Birdsong, my father.
87. Hi, Dad.
88. Hi, baby.
89. I am so excited to have my father on my show.
90. So, Dad, why don't you tell us briefly about how did you get into music?
91. How did you start learning how to play the piano?
92. Tell us that story.
93. Well, I started to play the tabletop.
94. And my mother said, you're really serious about this.
95. I said, yes, I am, Mama.
96. and went from the tabletop to piano.
97. And I had a piano teacher.
98. She loves two doors from us.
99. So that was my first teacher Miss Splatley and I remember she said music is art expressed in sound
100. So I remember that all the way through
101. my musical training.
102. And I went from there,
103. playing in my father's church, the Salt Lake Rock Baptist Church on 83rd and Broadway in Los Angeles.
104. And I went from there playing the organ and the piano.
105. And from there, I went to watching other people play.
106. So I learned how to play the 12-bar blues, and that's where it took off.
107. So I played the blues every night from Los Angeles to Germany.
108. And that's when I was in the service, and I played just music, music, music.
109. and I watched other people play
110. and I learned and I went to Manhattan School of Music
111. on the upper
112. east side in Los Angeles, I mean in New York
113. and then I was studying
114. theory and I said
115. theory is nice but I want to learn how to
116. I said, okay, so I went to, I tried to transfer from theory into competition.
117. And they said, well, you'll have to finish up this next semester.
118. And of course, I said, I'm going to finish up right now.
119. So I wrote a song with cello and flute and French horn.
120. And I presented that to Juilliard.
121. And they said, we'll take you.
122. So that's when I left Manhattan School of Music and went to Juilliard.
123. And that was it.
124. I studied and studied and studied and tried to get it right.
125. And that's what I had to do.
126. Okay.
127. And later, much later, much later, five albums later, decades later,
128. we move into this music we call hip-hop right dad yeah and then you started to come across these
129. cats these these djs in new york city because you were living in new york city at the time
130. and they started using your music and their music started to get picked up by record labels
131. and a new resurgence of your publishing started to emerge.
132. That's true.
133. And I came from...
134. some guys that, first of all, hip-hop started in uptown in New York,
135. the Bronx and uptown Harlem.
136. So I was part of that.
137. I was party to that event of people coming up with just rhyming to other music.
138. And then it went from rhyming to rap.
139. And it kept going on from there.
140. So when I heard the first rap record, I said, oh, this is nice.
141. And after that, you know, the guys from Jersey came up with Hip, Hip, Hip and Hop, you know.
142. And those guys, they made so much money that that was rapper's delight that you were talking about, brother.
143. And so I. Yeah, so.
144. So I just, you know, I moved along and I played jazz uptown, you know, with Count Basie's and Wells and all the uptown clubs.
145. At that time, people were using their Hammond organ, so that was really up my alley because I played the organ in church, so it was natural for me to play in a club.
146. So I went to the Army, and I went to Germany, and I went from there.
147. Well, actually, I came in to see the weekend, the other people that were playing.
148. I say, wow, these guys are playing.
149. I play better than all of them.
150. and sing too.
151. So I said, okay.
152. So that's when I started.
153. I got my,
154. I got a tenor sax,
155. drums, and organ.
156. And that was it.
157. It was called the Sounds.
158. And it went from there
159. to all the way coming back to New York.
160. And I had fun.
161. doing my music and doing stuff with other people like Rory Ayers.
162. He was going to Jefferson High School and I went to Fremont.
163. And we were actually rivals because Jeff was a black school
164. and Fremont was becoming a black school,
165. but it was at that time,
166. there were a lot of white people that went to Fremont
167. and went to Gompers And you know so I always had all kind of people around me So it wasn it wasn just black playing with black
168. I played with everyone. And I had my first group.
169. I had, you know, a white boy to play the trumpet, trumpet.
170. and I had drums and other people that I did stuff with.
171. So I always had all kind of people around me.
172. So that's why I love everybody.
173. I have a lot of friends that are white,
174. have Mexicans, Germans.
175. you know so God has been very very good to me because I always referenced
176. everything that I had to do coming from God so that's where that's where it
177. comes from and that's why when I do music right now when you hear the stuff
178. that people are using, like the one that people, this group, Daft Punk, found my song in Paris
179. and found it and used it and made it harder, better, faster, stronger.
180. And that came from Cola Bottle Baby.
181. And from there, I was very lucky that Kanye West heard the song and he resampled it.
182. And then what he did, he went around the world,
183. which means that when you have you can have a hit and it can be just natural national which means
184. it's in you know in the states but when you get a song that goes around the world that's money
185. and thank god god that did that for me and uh i got some money
186. right and and of course right and part part of that um the the being able to get the money
187. is because dad was introduced to the publishing game that he you know one of his very close
188. friends who's deceased now um really good attorney um johanna vagoda i believe that's
189. how you pronounce his name johannan yes johannan had told dad man don't just be playing up in the
190. clubs on on uptown you need to know how to set up your business affairs and and get your your
191. your publishing together and that's why he's able to still sign off on synchronization license
192. agreements and mechanical license agreements because he has has his publishing um so dad that
193. Cola Bottle Baby, which album was that on?
194. That was the album that I did with Gamble and Huff.
195. Okay, so that was 1979 with Philadelphia International.
196. Correct.
197. The self album Edwin Birdsong which I think is your fourth album Correct We going to have to take a break But what I want us to talk about is people are sampling dad music Michael music is being enhanced as he
198. exposing it internationally. How is this affecting the state of music? When we turn on the radio,
199. Do we like what we hear? Do we like what we see when we're listening to the streaming music?
200. Let's get into that conversation when we get back from this break.
201. You're listening to Conversation Peace. I'm your host, Angela Birdsong, and we'll be back.
202. My microphone.
203. Judge Mathis, your eyes give you a crucial sentence.
204. You need at least 12 jewels to practice.
205. You're too enthusiastic, male groupie bastard.
206. Still trying to convince us some more.
207. Pretending you're raw, that's what you need a minister for.
208. Again, it's the law, got you up against the wall.
209. We the gulliest, okay, then it's us against y'all.
210. Mic skills, tight drills like a Michael Gilles.
211. Like when he rifled the bill, it's how I stifle the ill.
212. Slide off, kid, and let a grown man finesse it.
213. We bold and impressive, that'll I manifest.
214. Some new product from a known team.
215. They can know me, and you can bet they know free
216. So here we go for your stereo
217. And you can tell that it's real when you hear me go, hear me go
218. Skills
219. Top rank, point blank, we vital
220. Spit flows, flip shows, peep the recital
221. Skills
222. Now, you feel it when we drop those
223. Hot, stop, pose, kill it, wish we got those
224. Skills
225. It's the music that the street loves
226. We stuck, it's now reppin' this with deep love
227. Skills
228. Gangsta, duelin' again, rulin' again
229. Watch as we do it again
230. You little suckers know better, I go head up
231. If your man left a joint in the whip, then tell him go get it
232. We hold it down like a holy crown
233. Fools acting like they know me, throw me phony pounds
234. Oh, f*** that, I'm sitting back like an aristocrat
235. Shell shock, chief assassin with a whole f***ing list of cats
236. Thought you was on the case, but you missed the fact
237. You still talking this and that, I'ma make it simple, Jack
238. I doubled up and tripled that, soldiers where your pistols at?
239. Life wrong, move, lose the gift of that
240. Why they calling us the most consistent, most significant?
241. Some more slick s***, fulfill your need and catch a joyful rush
242. Enjoy your Dutch, haters annoyed with us
243. Oh boy, it's us, you know the face from the club
244. Blazing the dust, with my niggas raising it up for these
245. Skills
246. Top rank, point blank, we vital
247. Slip flow, drip shows, peep the recital
248. Skills
249. Now, you feel it when we drop those hoppies
250. Stop foes killing, wish we got those
251. Skills
252. It's the music that the street loves
253. Each star is now repping this with deep love
254. Skills
255. Gangsta, dueling again, ruling again
256. Watch as we do it again
257. Brothers are amused by other brothers' raps
258. So forget the bull's text, catch others for checks
259. All for respect, all for the bread
260. For the chance of success, they might hand him his head
261. Remain humble cause I know enough
262. Plus the road is tough, especially when you roll with us
263. But I'ma stay with my peeps, stay in these streets
264. Where I'm spraying and I'm playing for keeps
265. Cause I got those skills
266. Top rank, point blank, we vital
267. Spit flows, whip shows, peep the recital
268. Skills
269. Now, you feel it when we drop those hot boots
270. Stop foes killing we got those skills Welcome back to Conversation Piece with the Producers Corner Chris DJ Stress McManus one of its participants Michael Washington Edwin Birdsong one of the most sampled artist in hip and I am your host Angela Birdsong
271. Now, Chris, you had said earlier that the Producers' Corner is having an effect on the state of music today.
272. explain that well what i'm doing is is you know producers that like you can see mike mike said
273. himself because he was doing it and then he wasn't doing it for a while and then once he saw it and
274. made him come back and want to do it again that's one reason right there you know saying like people
275. it's a lot of people that tell me the same thing they're like yo i stopped doing music and then
276. when i started doing this watching the show getting involved because i just wanted to just
277. become a part of it because it's a kind of like a community at the same time it's like everybody
278. you know it's it's like everybody coming together all around the world who feels a certain way about
279. things and they they don't feel like that there's a lot of people around them you know as in real
280. life regular life that inspires them to do anything so to me it was all about an inspiration for
281. others you know so if everybody's coming together and getting inspired by each other they're all
282. going to just get get get better and they're all going to make the music better no so because
283. everybody's mentality now is like like mike said earlier in the tour he said he sees our heads
284. our heads bopping or whatever at different times that's telling him okay i'm doing something right
285. with this one you know what i'm saying like boom that's and then usually what you do right
286. is what you is what you really work with you know i mean and you learn more as you keep going on and
287. And that goes for anything in life.
288. You know what I'm saying?
289. What is it about current hip hop that you would like to see change?
290. I came up, you know, I came up in the early 80s with this hip hop.
291. And it was always, I always liked to have, you know, it was not only style or whatever that you had your original, but I wanted to have, you know, them certain Adidas sneakers that no one else had.
292. You know what I mean?
293. So if I go find them, I'm not going to tell nobody else where I got them
294. because then they're going to go get them and everybody's going to wear them.
295. It's the same thing with the music.
296. The music today is the problem there is.
297. There's no leaders.
298. There's nobody.
299. There's nobody.
300. Now, I'm not saying this period with people.
301. I'm talking about the majority of the commercial radio.
302. You know what I'm saying?
303. People tend to follow what everybody else does,
304. like, for instance, the auto-tune or whatever,
305. and they just think that they need to do that to have a good song.
306. and what is crazy they'll get on the radio you know the radio will play a song like when you
307. first hear but what is this you know keep playing and playing and playing and playing and playing
308. and playing it and you might be at work and you're harmonizing it in your head by accident because
309. they played it so much in your head you know what i'm saying so it's like the the state of music
310. is like the the independency the independency is is where i always liked it anyway like i could
311. tell you artists that are doing it today that i love and then not only the artists even that
312. we're out in the 80s and the 90s i'm still making music and i still like it it's just that it's not
313. hitting the majority of the world you know i mean because it's all money you know i mean it's all
314. it's i don't know it's not something i like like i'm not a fan of nothing that's going on on the
315. major radio i don't ever listen to it and and rock him said this a long time ago he said when
316. he's making music he doesn't pay attention to what no one else is doing he just does what he does
317. and he puts it out because he doesn't want to have no reason
318. for you to feel like you sounded like someone else
319. because back in the days, Master A said it on the symphony,
320. there's a sign at the door, there's no biting allowed.
321. You know what I mean?
322. Some people don't understand,
323. It's okay now for everybody to be the same.
324. You know what I mean?
325. Like before, that wasn't cool.
326. Like if you sit down to like somebody, you'd be like, yeah, this dude sound like him.
327. Like, you know what I'm saying?
328. Like that wasn't allowed to do that.
329. Now everybody's the same.
330. Everybody's doing the same things that actually when we came up at that era time, they're doing things that we thought that wasn't cool.
331. You know what I mean?
332. But you know what I mean?
333. And now what wasn't cool is cool.
334. You know what I mean?
335. I'm not putting no certain things, but just period.
336. You know what I mean?
337. Like, oh, we wouldn't do that back then.
338. What are these kids doing?
339. But at the other side of the fence, you can't blame the newer generation and all that if nobody ever taught them.
340. So the reason why I do stuff like this, the producer's corner, is the people can see this like, oh, that's pretty cool.
341. I want to do that.
342. And they start seeing it's a competition thing.
343. You know what I mean?
344. And it's a competition is what hip-hop all is, period.
345. any element from break-in to graffiti to dj-ing to rapping to anything was all competition you
346. know i mean i'm gonna be the reason why you take my you don't you take your tape out of your deck
347. because they're gonna keep my tape in your box that was the whole reason it's not like that today
348. it's all the same every every 18 songs you hear on the radio almost sound the same i don't i was
349. never about that.
350. Right, yeah, it's like there's
351. complacency and
352. the music-bility right
353. now. So, Dad, what do you have to say about
354. all that? Well, you know,
355. I have always
356. experimented
357. with
358. stuff
359. and, like,
360. for instance, next week
361. there's the NAMM show
362. that's coming into
363. Anaheim
364. Anaheim, and it's going to be about 3,000 people that's doing music from around the world.
365. China, Japan, Korea, the Middle East.
366. So all these people are going to be there trying to sell their own stuff,
367. meaning that you have some drums that you don't hear all around in Los Angeles or California, New York, but around the world.
368. So I try to listen to everything, and I try to incorporate my stuff with other stuff that I heard.
369. And I thank God he's always been on my side trying to do some stuff that no one has ever heard or had a chance to manipulate.
370. So I get, I will get, you know, I have the Pro Tools and all these different programs that other people have.
371. you can almost do everything
372. in any of the
373. genres
374. like I said like Pro Tools
375. Reason
376. and it goes on
377. you know
378. all of those things you can use that
379. to do the music
380. but you have to use your own
381. I try to put it in my mind and regurgitate it out to the other people So I don try to sound like no one else
382. But some people say that I do sound like someone, but I don't know who they are.
383. and they don't know who I'm doing my stuff with
384. because, like I said, I tried to live a whole life.
385. I'm a vegetarian, and I try not to eat no meat,
386. so my music is from God.
387. I look at it like that
388. you know so
389. it's always
390. another guy
391. because when I listen to the stuff
392. I heard the stuff
393. that Drake is doing
394. the stuff that
395. guys
396. from here in
397. Los Angeles
398. doing that stuff
399. Kendrick Lamar
400. thank you
401. Thank you. See, my daughter, she's she's the one that knows more about music than I know, because she's she's always been into the music when she first learned to play the piano.
402. So she's she's doing all kind of stuff.
403. Angela. So.
404. Well, well, thanks, Dad.
405. But, you know, your father is always going to compliment you.
406. And thank you, Dad, for always showing that love to us.
407. But I go back to what your music teacher said, that music is an art expressed in sound.
408. And it sounds like we're everybody here is saying that the current artists and musicians are forgetting how to express that individual, independent, innovative sound that's coming from within them.
409. and maybe the record companies, the labels, the A&R directors
410. are sort of like have them on an assembly line
411. and saying this is what we want
412. and taking away that creativity.
413. Mike, you got anything to say on this?
414. Well, yeah, I think me and Chris grew up around about the same era
415. and back then it was about originality
416. and you have to prove yourself and what type of skills that you have.
417. So what actually did for me when I saw somebody wearing a dress,
418. in a rapping um trying to sell music on a to some music video and i had a gun in there like
419. i'm done so i can't listen to this i'm gonna stop so i don't pretty much listen to that anymore so
420. i just it's just too much it's just watered down pretty much everything sounds the same
421. i just can't can't follow that there's no can't get with that trend i just don't do it
422. right and then of course so the producer's corner is a place that anyone can go if you meet
423. the guidelines. So Chris, how does one participate in the producer's corner to bring out that
424. innovation within them? All they got to do is participate. There's no rules for anybody who
425. can't get involved. Anybody in the world could get on it. You know what I mean? So it's just go by
426. the rules, put your beat, and you get heard. The whole world is going to hear you too. I mean,
427. I mean I don have millions of viewers or stuff like that We still on an independent level you know what I mean And that what I like more than anything I would rather you know they could say like
428. say if Dr. Dre could come hang with me in the studio,
429. I'd be the best in the world.
430. But to me, it's the same because when you go out
431. and you make your own identity as a person,
432. you know, like as independents,
433. and you go make that as a person, as an artist,
434. you get more respect from that than anything else.
435. You know what I'm saying? Because you went and did it on your own. You know what I mean? Like, that's what I'm letting the producers do that. You know what I mean? It's like I do the show when I'm on it, but it's not all about me. It's actually nothing about me. I'm just sitting there, you know, people, everybody knows me. It's like me just bringing a whole bunch of people together and they get into challenges and it's that easy.
436. right you're you're you're the vehicle so we're we're gonna we have only a few minutes left
437. according to my engineer who knows but i'm going to ask you guys um briefly who influences you
438. who influenced you when you first started and who influenced you you now michael uh wow good
439. question would have to be back then. Run DMC, Rakim,
440. Coogee Rap, and now Dre.
441. Mr. Birdsong.
442. I go back to
443. I met a friend last night
444. and he went to
445. Manhattan School of Music with me.
446. Yusef Latif
447. and Yusef
448. played with
449. Cannonball
450. and of course he played
451. with his own
452. stuff but
453. I go back to the guys that
454. played jazz
455. because that was
456. always
457. you had to try to
458. play your own
459. sound like when you hear Dizzy Gillespie and you hear Miles, those guys are different,
460. that plays the same horns, but they have their own way of getting it over to people.
461. So same thing with the piano. Oscar Peterson and people that's doing music, you have to do your own music.
462. You have to sit and play and play.
463. You have to play with the rhythm and scenes.
464. You have to play with the other things.
465. When you see anything that you can use to make music, make a sound,
466. try to use it however you can use it.
467. Because if you come through God, it will come out to be God's music.
468. So I look at it like that.
469. Okay.
470. Okay.
471. So we, and then of course, one of your influencers that you said DJ Stress was Molly Ma.
472. and he's a good friend of my father's so dad what was Marley been doing in the
473. music more Molly is doing some stuff we doing stuff together I met Marley and Queensbridge when he was 16 years old he wasn even supposed to be in there Because it was a you know he was a DJ and was doing the music
474. So I went up to him and said, man, look, play this song here if you can and tell me how you like it.
475. and that happened to have been Rapper Dapper Snapper.
476. So Marty heard that, and he immediately started to play it,
477. and that's the same song that Dre did on Snoop Dogg's first album,
478. used a rapper,
479. dapper snapper.
480. And when I saw Dre,
481. I said,
482. man,
483. how did you pick out this part of the song that my favorite part of the song?
484. How do you find it?
485. And,
486. and Dre looked at me and said,
487. man,
488. this is what I do,
489. brother.
490. And,
491. uh,
492. so,
493. so Jerry,
494. Dre,
495. Dre is like one of,
496. one of,
497. one of the people that I love,
498. just like Marley.
499. Marley was doing stuff, like you said, Larry Smith.
500. He did all of that stuff with Houdini and all that stuff.
501. Those were my people.
502. In fact, Larry tried to get in my group, and I said, man,
503. like, come back tomorrow.
504. Come back next week.
505. But anyway, we laugh about that because he's done so much music from other people.
506. All the stuff that Russell was doing came out of Larry Smith's basement.
507. So all of those little guys from Hollis, because I lived in Hollis,
508. and that's all of that stuff that came out of there
509. like LL Cool J.
510. When Marley did Mama Said Knock You Out,
511. that was LL Cool J and that was Marley that did that.
512. So Marley was always ahead of everybody else
513. by using stuff that no one else was using,
514. but he was using James Brown as the rhythm.
515. And, you know, so you have to look,
516. you have to listen to everything.
517. I mean, when you talk about Marley,
518. Marley right now, if I call him right now,
519. he's doing the same thing.
520. Music every day, all day long, always doing music.
521. The same thing with Stevie. That's Wonder. Stevie, I did the horns on Do I Do for Stevie. Do I Do, that song. And Stevie and I has been friends for 40 years at this point.
522. and he's very very of course he's still stevie wonder and when he when he's doing new music
523. he's doing it you know and
524. Like I said, Dre, I love Dr. Dre and Marley.
525. Those are the guys that...
526. Let me say one guy, the guy that did...
527. He used...
528. The song they did was one of my songs.
529. and the guy that did it was from New York
530. and the song was Me, Myself and I by De La Soul.
531. And of course that was one of the biggest songs in hip hop
532. because they got a thing from the,
533. when they call it in Washington,
534. they used that song as one of the four best songs
535. that was done with the guys from,
536. the guys from, they were down with,
537. Russell also.
538. And, you know,
539. the one that they did,
540. you know,
541. I'm trying to remember the name of the song
542. so I can really tell you
543. the name of the song.
544. But
545. stay with
546. this show here.
547. The Producer's Corner.
548. Stay with the Producer's Corner
549. and
550. And I will try, at some point, I will try to get with him and do a monthly thing with him.
551. Because he's done 71 shows at this point.
552. So I can come in and say, Mr. Birdsong, what do you think about blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
553. and I'll do five minutes for him each month or each year or whatever
554. because I like what he's trying to do, the producer's corner.
555. And Mike is my cousin also.
556. I mean, it's a family.
557. And I will definitely try to do something with you
558. to explain your
559. lesson
560. to us
561. people
562. around the world.
563. And I do
564. five minutes
565. every month.
566. Whatever, brother.
567. But I definitely
568. want to do something with you.
569. So that'll
570. be good.
571. I'm honored that you say that to me.
572. Well, I really
573. I love what you've done
574. for music because
575. when you say you're going around
576. the world
577. that's great
578. and
579. other things that we'll talk about
580. with
581. my daughter I'm sure that you'll
582. probably come back on to
583. conversation
584. peace
585. that would be great man Like I said I humbled that you guys even asked me When Mike asked me I like hell yeah let me know I do it Yeah man
586. Especially, like I said, Mike is my cousin.
587. So here we go.
588. Right.
589. And thank you, Michael Washington.
590. I have another cousin over here, too.
591. Adam Rice.
592. It's pointing to Adam Rice, the engineer, radio man extraordinaire right now.
593. Well, of course, it looks like we could continue going on, but we have to bring this show to an end.
594. So before we end, if everyone can just give us final thoughts, which will include how to find your music or how to what your websites are in your social media spots.
595. Mike?
596. Michael Washington, a.k.a. M. Wash Soul.
597. You find me on SoundCloud.com.
598. And that's M. Wash Soul.
599. at soundcloud.com
600. and me
601. Edwin Birdsong
602. you can find me
603. anywhere in the world
604. I'll find you
605. right just google him
606. just google it
607. just google Edwin Birdsong and you will
608. be able to find
609. find daddy
610. right
611. and when it comes to
612. the producer's corner
613. he's pointing to
614. because Chris is a phone guest.
615. So whenever he's talking about you, Chris, he's pointing to the speaker.
616. You can't see him, but he's pointing to you.
617. So I'm very proud of you, son.
618. I'm really proud of you.
619. And we're going to make it go around the world a couple of times.
620. For real.
621. So, Chris, last thoughts and your contact information, please.
622. you can get a hold of we have a website
623. www.theproducerscorner.net
624. you can get us on the Facebook
625. the producers corner group the producers corner
626. page the producers corner Instagram
627. the producers corner Twitter
628. then me DJ
629. Stress I got my DJ Stress
630. page on
631. Facebook and then I got
632. DJ Stress 1-2 on Instagram
633. DJ Stress on Twitter
634. and
635. I mean I think you can find
636. YouTube, The Producer's Corner, YouTube, DJ Stress.
637. Right.
638. Okay.
639. So here, Underground Hip Hop Creations on The Producer's Corner,
640. sample challenge every Saturday evening, 4 p.m.
641. Eastern Standard Time, broadcast via YouTube Live.
642. Go to theproducerscorner.net for more details.
643. I'm over me
644. First one to set you free
645. All you gotta do
646. Don't be scared, don't be ashamed
647. Coming far away, coming far away, I want to be your rising sun.
648. Hey!
649. And make you hotter, hotter than the summer sunshine.
650. I want to be want to be your rising sun Don make you hot hotter than the summer sunshine don need no coat Come on don you want to go
651. Gonna make your temperature go up, go up, go up, go up.
652. I want to be your rising sun.
653. I want to be your rising sun.
654. I don't need no.
655. And make it hotter, hotter than the summertime shine
656. I won't have been, gonna be your rising sign
657. And make you hot, hotter than the summertime shine
658. Don't need no rope, cause I know
659. You're gonna blow your heart storm
660. And make your halfway up
661. I want to be your rising sun
662. I want to be your rising sun
663. And make you high
664. And turn me the summer
665. And the summer
666. And the summer sunshine
667. And the summer sunshine
668. Make you
669. Come on, Ted
670. Feel the future
671. Come on
672. All right.
673. Come on.
674. His father's church, his early stage
675. My Daddy, Edwin Birdsong is still a crate digger's treasure
676. The man who didn't just play music
677. He engineered the future
678. The architect of the groove
679. Who provided the DNA for Daft Punk's
680. Harder, better, faster, stronger
681. And the soul for Kanye West's
682. Stronger
683. Both songs garnered Grammys
684. Daddy used to always say
685. I knew that Cola Bottle Baby was a hit,
686. but I just didn't know that it would take decades
687. for it to happen.
688. Cola Bottle Baby was released in 1979.
689. And as we know, harder, better, faster, stronger, 2001,
690. and Kanye West stronger in 2007 To learn more about my father music legacy the Edwin Birdsong Experience check out edwinbirdsong Remember the revolution will not be televised It will
691. be sampled. Happy Heavenly Father's Day to my daddy. May you rest in peace and music
692. and paradise to rise up in power. Love in action, daddy. I love you.
693. Happy Father's Day to my Conversation Peace guest, Chris DJ Stress McManus and Michael Washington of M. Wash Soul for the opening and closing theme song.
694. Go to theproducerscorner.net for details about the weekly sample challenge on Saturdays.
695. Happy Father's Day to Adam Rice for editing the show.
696. And thank you to our listening audience.
697. If you missed any part of my show today, or you simply want to replay, revisit, and review today's conversation piece or any of my previous shows, they are available for 60 days on the air date, after the air date, on our website at kpfk.org.
698. If you can't find it there, then please go to mtasproductions.com where you also can reach me on social media.
699. Follow KPFK on all social media platforms
700. Give us some love, give us some likes
701. As you listen to us worldwide anytime on kpfk.org
702. I'm Angela Birdsong once again
703. Thank you for allowing me to share this very special experience of conversation peace with you
704. Remember to be on guard, stand firm in the faith
705. Be brave, be courageous
706. and let all that you do be done with love.
707. Next, Freedom Now.
708. Hey folks, join me every Saturday at 12 noon on The Signal, news information and analysis.
709. I'm your host Dino.
710. Every week we bring you vital information to help you break down what's happening globally, nationally, and right here at home.
711. That's every Saturday at 12 noon on KPFK 90.7 FM and online at kpfk.org.
712. Hi, everyone.
713. I know you've heard our fundraisers and likely thought, yeah, I should likely give something
714. back to KPFK. Well, now's the time to do it. We all understand the value of separating luxuries
715. from necessities and deciding what's truly essential. KPFK is one of those essentials.
716. We provide in-depth, cutting-edge, intelligent coverage, and it starts with our amazing staff
717. and volunteer programmers and with your financial support.
718. Contributions from our listeners add up to the largest share of funding that pays the
719. bills here at KPFK.
720. This is Margaret Prescott, host of Sojourner Truth, encouraging you to become a KPFK Sustainers
721. Circle member now.
722. A sustaining contribution of just $20 or more a month is one of the most popular levels
723. for our donors and it takes just minutes to contribute. Just go to kpfk.org slash support
724. then click sustainer circle or call 818-985-2711. Thank you.
725. So much for your donation to KPFK Radio.