00:00A lot of the times when I couldn't remember things about certain clubs that I DJed,
00:03I would just have to listen to a song from that year.
00:06I made all these plays like 97, 98.
00:08Oh my god, I can smell that club.
00:10Hey, it's Rolling Stone.
00:12We're here with...
00:13Mark Bronson.
00:14Mark, can you shuffle your music library?
00:16I can, and I will.
00:18I'm noticing as I'm looking at your phone, the shuffle is actually not on,
00:21so let's turn that on.
00:21What the...
00:22Bring that down again.
00:23Okay, bring that down.
00:24Listen.
00:24I will only listen to the songs in the order in which I intended.
00:28Wow.
00:28No, I'm kidding.
00:29I forgot where the button was, my bad.
00:31Okay.
00:32This song is called One in a Million, and it's by Aaliyah.
00:38I remember, I think the year I started DJing,
00:41Aaliyah's first single, Back and Forth, came out,
00:43and it was a great party song.
00:45People loved it, but One in a Million,
00:47it was from her first record working with Timbaland and Missy.
00:50Shit just fucked everybody's head up because their production,
00:54so it was like the future, her voice, the way she looked,
00:57and I remember bringing it home and like putting on my record player
01:00and sitting on the edge of my bed.
01:02The 808s were like rumbling.
01:03I had these like cheap ceramic tile floors.
01:05The bass was shaking and the crickets are singing,
01:08and then she comes in singing, and it was so modern and crazy.
01:11It was like scary.
01:12All the records you played at that time in the club were like faster tempo.
01:16Nothing was this slow.
01:17So you had to like think about how you were going to like play it in your set.
01:20Like it was kind of like terrifying the first time I played it
01:23because I knew I just kind of had to hit stop on the record that was playing,
01:26and the record just slows down.
01:27It's like, and everybody just went crazy.
01:30I'd never done that with a record before,
01:31but these records were so different in tempo and style.
01:35Oh, cool.
01:35Another great 90s jam, Candy Rain by Soul For Real with Heavy D.
01:44Even though Bruno's like a full decade younger than me,
01:48I remember when I first met Bruno Mars bonding over this song.
01:51Like there's a number of songs in this era
01:52that like weren't maybe the biggest commercial pop hits,
01:55but were just so beloved.
01:56But this record just went off so crazy.
01:59I remember playing it in a club.
02:01It was just such a beloved record.
02:03Do you have a specific memory tied to this song?
02:05Yeah, I do.
02:06I also remember actually making a complete ass out of myself
02:10with this DJ Stretch Armstrong that I really looked up to
02:12because right when this song came out,
02:14it had the same sample as this AZ song.
02:17So I went up to him.
02:17I tried to like pretend I like knew something.
02:19I was like, oh, do you think that they sampled that because AZ did it?
02:22And he's like, oh, you dumb ass.
02:23It's like a famous Heavy D song from 10 years ago
02:26that they're just remaking.
02:27And I was like, hmm, marijuana coke.
02:31Crush on You by Lil' Kim featuring Lil' C's
02:34and Biggie Smalls.
02:40Another legendary, iconic song from that era.
02:43Like, that's enough for the whole club to go crazy.
02:47I think like records like that.
02:48Records like Big Pun, still not a play.
02:50You just hear that boom.
02:52They're just like those records that were just like club crack.
02:55What is the best part of the night for you to play this song?
02:58That would be like 1.30, like at the peak of the night.
03:01A lot of the clubs you would play old school and classics and disco
03:04as long as you could.
03:06Like almost like keeping them at bay,
03:08like until you played the biggest song.
03:10And by the time you played like the new shit
03:13and the big records like that,
03:14people would go crazy.
03:15Oh, this is a song called
03:17Never Stop by the Brand New Heavies.
03:24This incredible band from the early 90s from England
03:26that were like that first wave of,
03:29just before Jamiroquois,
03:30like bringing back all that old 70s funk and soul.
03:33And I remember sneaking into their first New York show
03:36when I was like 15 years old.
03:38It was at this place called the Village Gate.
03:40And I was just such a huge fan.
03:42And there was this legendary New York party called Giant Step.
03:46They just had their 35th anniversary last week
03:49and I DJ'd it.
03:50So having snuck in at 15, like,
03:52yo, let me play it.
03:52I'd be like, no way, kid.
03:54And like being there, playing their 35th anniversary,
03:57playing records like this,
03:59playing records like Diggable Planets and stuff was nice.
04:02When I wrote this book Night People about the 90s in New York,
04:06and it's true, like a lot of the times
04:08and I couldn't remember things about certain clubs that I DJ'd,
04:10I would just have to listen to a song from that year.
04:13Or like, I made all these playlists, like 97, 98.
04:16And like, I would hear a song like Busta Rhymes,
04:17put your hands on my eyes,
04:18could see them be like,
04:19oh my God, I can smell that club.
04:21Like, it was just so crazy how visceral.
04:23So I was making all these playlists
04:25to put my brain back in those rooms.
04:27I'm curious what song you think people should be putting
04:30on their playlists.
04:32Well, I just actually made a song with Ray called Suzanne,
04:36which I hate using the word.
04:38I'm very proud of it.
04:39It's like, fucking good, am I your mother?
04:41Like, but I think it's a great song.
04:43I love Ray.
04:44I loved working with her.
04:52I know you write about this a little bit in the book,
04:54but I'm curious if you had to make like an elevator pitch
04:56of what a night person is.
04:58Fucking delinquent, no.
05:00There's people who enjoy a night out
05:01and then there's night people.
05:02You know, there were people who went out
05:04because they wanted to dance.
05:05They wanted to meet people.
05:06They wanted to get fucked up.
05:07They wanted to get laid.
05:08There were a lot of us who were like,
05:10kind of cracked and broken
05:11and maybe daytime was a bit like harsh.
05:14So night gave you this extra coat of armor
05:17that you could do anything.
05:19You feel like when you meet someone,
05:20you can clock if they're a night person right away?
05:21I still love like being up late nights now.
05:24It's in the studio more than it is the club,
05:26but I can kind of clock it.
05:27There's just like this extra different buzz.
05:30What are the non-negotiables
05:31of what a perfect nightlife venue has?
05:33Listen, I played like in basements
05:36and like weird, like cramped closets
05:39where they just like the sound system was shitty or whatever,
05:42but it just went off like nothing else
05:44because it's just like, it's the crowd.
05:45It's really the people and the DJ that makes a spot.
05:48So the non-negotiables is like people
05:50who like the same good music that I do.
05:52A great DJ and like three drink tickets.
05:56The sweet spot.
05:56Yeah, non-negotiable.
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