00:00Hey, what's going on?
00:07I'm Rodney Rakai here at Essence Fest 2015 bringing you the love from the Verizon Super Lounge.
00:12And right now I am ecstatic because I have with me Philly's very own kindred, the Family Soul Family.
00:18How you doing, beloved? How you guys doing so far?
00:21I'm doing wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.
00:22How are you guys enjoying your Essence Fest so far? You guys finally got a break from the kids.
00:26You got six kids. That's a lot of babies. Any separation anxiety at all?
00:29Not at all.
00:31How about you, Pops?
00:32Not at all, baby. I'm here with my baby. We alone. We had a good time last night. We're going to have a good time.
00:38Turn up. Turn up. Turn up, man. I want to talk a little bit about the climb, the journey.
00:43When you're chasing a dream, a passion, and ambition, every moment truly does matter.
00:47But there are times when we look back in hindsight, we're like, man, that was the moment for us
00:52that let us know that this was the moment that this was for us, how we're going to feed our family.
00:56I know you have many of them, but what's the one moment you guys can identify that lets you guys know?
01:01Hmm. That's a good one.
01:03We probably have separate moments, but I think we can probably agree on this one.
01:06One, we had grinded. We were grinding out in this club every week, and we were performing there every single week
01:12and building up an audience. And one night...
01:14Just the very beginning.
01:15Yeah. One night, a record company executive came. It's very much like that fairy tale that artists tell, but it actually happened.
01:21Right.
01:22An executive came to see us, and the place was packed to the door, and our performance was on, and we were sweating, and everything was just awesome.
01:33And we were so hyped.
01:34That happened a couple of times, too, though.
01:35I'm sure.
01:36But this particular time, you know, this guy came in. He was so cool and honest and just a type of person we wanted to do business with.
01:44We decided right then we were going to sign to his record label, and it was Hidden Beach.
01:47And that night, we caught the trolley home. We were going to catch a trolley home, but we caught a cab.
01:52Oh.
01:53You balled out on him. Not even Uber the cab.
01:55You balled out on him. We was like, you know what? Let's get a taxi.
01:59Now it would have been an Uber, but you know.
02:01Yeah, and the Uber XL. So you probably would have did the Uber XL, not even the Uber X, because that's...
02:05You got to differentiate. Listen, I do this from time to time. I want to ask you guys, man, how do you manage all the aspects of your partnership?
02:13You know, you have the marriage, you have parenthood, you have the business, of course. How do you guys manage it all without going crazy, to be honest?
02:21Like, how does that work for you guys?
02:22Well, in terms of the career, for the most part, we have a very supportive family that steps in and helps us a great deal with the kids when we're all doing our thing with the music and what have you.
02:32But it's like with the family, I mean, we just put 100% of ourselves into whatever job we're doing at that time.
02:39When we're parents and we're at home and we're with the kids and we're taking care of their needs, we've got to put that 100% there.
02:44And we've got to put this 100% into this, because this is our job that feeds those kids when we go home and make us have a place to stay and a place to be with them.
02:51So it's just about putting your best foot forward, recognizing what the job is at hand, and just performing that task.
02:59I mean, of course, the good Lord and his blessings, you know what I mean, keeping us grounded, keeping us strong with faith.
03:05And we just go out there and put our best foot forward.
03:07Absolutely.
03:08You guys came out of Philadelphia during a time that I like to call a true renaissance during that era.
03:13A lot of art, a lot of great artistry came out of that city around that time.
03:16You had Jill Scott, you had Bilal, you had Flowetry.
03:18Of course, you had yourself, Music Soulchild as well.
03:20What is it about the city of Philadelphia that enables its artists to be so passionate and be able to stand the test of time with their content?
03:27Well, I know that there's, well, first of all, there's such a history there.
03:31It's a music town.
03:32You know what I mean?
03:33And then it's a blue collar town.
03:34So it's a town of people who are constantly hustling and trying to, you know, still trying to get there.
03:39You know what I mean?
03:40And I think that, and it's very a neighborhood kind of city.
03:43There's lots of neighborhoods.
03:44So there's a togetherness there.
03:46So as artists, many of us lived in the same neighborhoods, went to the same clubs, went to the same, you know, open mics and that kind of stuff.
03:54So we came up together.
03:55So it was a sense of camaraderie.
03:56And I think anytime you have an environment where you have a scene, it can't help for everybody to start to feed off of it.
04:03It's like healthy competition, along with love and support.
04:06When you mix those things together, everybody just gets better.
04:09But nobody saw it.
04:10And then by the time everybody saw it, they were like, wow!
04:12He was polished a little bit.
04:13Yeah, we were kind of polished by the time you saw us.
04:16But, you know, I think that's what it was, just building a scene and the kind of scene it was.
04:20And, you know, the root of it was Philly and what Philly's about.
04:23I'm sorry.
04:24I want to just jump in there a little bit.
04:25Like she said, it's a music town.
04:26And for that renaissance that came in that 2000s with all those artists that you named, we were all definitely inspired by the music.
04:33That came before us.
04:34And that sound of Philadelphia, Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, Philly International Records, Teddy Pendergrass, Patti LaBelle, the OJs.
04:39All that great music.
04:40We all grew up on it.
04:41It's like the water in the city.
04:43It's like we had to drink it.
04:44We had to eat it.
04:45And then we-
04:46We had to eat it.
04:47Yeah.
04:48The school kill.
04:49I talked to Jill Scott.
04:50Jill Scott said it's a school kill punch.
04:51That's what she called it.
04:52That's what she attested it to.
04:53Do you guys have any stories, any crazy jam sessions or anything like that?
04:56Oh, jam session stories?
04:57Oh man, we've been having a million jam sessions.
04:58Oh, sheesh.
04:59Yeah, I mean, I'll put you this way.
05:01If you had been a fly on the wall, you would see a lot of faces that you see now that you
05:04pay money to see.
05:05Right.
05:06You could have seen for free all in one room at one time.
05:09Yes.
05:10We were all broke and we were all happy and all struggling and striving.
05:13But I really think, you know, we had in common was art, the love of what we were doing.
05:17And, you know, so I guess the funniest thing would just be, you know, seeing all of us much
05:23younger.
05:24You still look good.
05:25You're black not cracking.
05:26You're good.
05:27Less kids.
05:28You know, less kids.
05:29You know, no albums, no touring, but still the same hunger and love.
05:32Yeah.
05:33Awesome, man.
05:34Well, I'm excited to see y'all jam right now.
05:35I know everybody out there is as well.
05:37Are y'all going to tear it down?
05:38Let me know.
05:39We're going to try to tear it down.
05:40We're going to try to.
05:41You're going to go ham on it.
05:42The hinges and we don't want the building to be left.
05:45All that tore down.
05:46All that tore down.
05:47Everything and everything.
05:48All that.
05:49I'm looking forward to it right now.
05:50I know you guys out there on Essence.com are as well.
05:53I'm Rodney Rakai.
05:54This is Kindred the Family Soul getting ready to rock out from the Verizon Super Lounge.
05:58We out of here, baby.
05:59Word.
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