- 3 weeks ago
As the Senior Producer for NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Concerts, Bobby Carter he’s brought on an increasingly-growing roster of emerging artists, big names, and icons to perform on the global stage. In this sit down, he’ll discuss how he’s been able to grab some of the greatest artists in music, along with how Tiny Desk has become so popular, bringing together viewers from all walks of life.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Essence Fest, good morning. How y'all feeling?
00:04Now, I know it's early, and I know it's humid, but we in the A.C., so I'm going to ask y'all again.
00:09Essence Fest, how y'all feeling?
00:13Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:14So, I just want to get a quick vibe check in here.
00:18How many of y'all, show of hands, have seen at least one Tiny Desk concert?
00:25Okay. Okay, that's good.
00:27But how many of y'all watch at least one Tiny Desk concert a week?
00:32That's what I'm talking about. I appreciate y'all.
00:35With that, my name is Bobby Carter.
00:37I am the host and series producer for the Tiny Desk concert.
00:41And, yeah, yeah, yeah, thank y'all, thank y'all.
00:46I'm a product of an HBCU. I went to Jackson State University.
00:51I'm born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri.
00:53I say all that to let y'all know that, you know, when it comes to the culture that we're doing, like, the culture is behind it.
01:01You know what I mean?
01:02I come from where y'all come from, so I appreciate y'all checking us out.
01:06So, Tiny Desk concerts and Essence Fest, we have a lot in common, especially this year.
01:11Because when you think about the lineup, when you think about Tank, Tank and the Bangers, SWV, Usher, Uncle Charlie, they've all played classic Tiny Desk concerts.
01:24But there was one.
01:26There was one of those shows that changed everything.
01:30With that, y'all, I want y'all to make some noise, because what we did last year, we're celebrating the one-year anniversary of this guy's show, and he is right here.
01:41He is a son of New Orleans.
01:44He is a legend.
01:45He is an icon.
01:47He is a hip-hop giant.
01:49I want y'all to make some noise.
01:51Matter of fact, get on your feet for the one and only, Juvenile.
01:55Now, yes, sir.
02:11So, listen, there's a lot to get to, Juvie, but I want to start April 11th, 2023.
02:25It was a tweet by this guy named They Love Mike, and they tweeted you directly, and they said, Juvenile, we got to get you to play a Tiny Desk, man.
02:38And your response was, you want to say it?
02:43I can say it.
02:43Matter of fact, I'll say it.
02:44I'm going to say it.
02:44Go ahead.
02:45Man, what the fuck is a Tiny Desk?
02:47And no.
02:51By the way, he said, what the fuck is a Tiny Desk?
02:53And then he said, no, I'm not going to do it.
02:56Already.
02:57And what happened after that, Juvie?
03:00Man, the Tiny Desk fan base tore me up.
03:04They tore me up.
03:05They attacked me.
03:05They started telling me all kind of stuff like, you know, you're making a big mistake if you don't go on Tiny Desk.
03:11You're not going to.
03:12Nobody going to never buy your records no more.
03:14I'm not supporting you no more.
03:15I was getting all kind of stuff.
03:17And my daughter, I got a call from my daughter.
03:19And she was like, Daddy, you about to mess up.
03:22You about to ruin your career.
03:23You need to really do this.
03:24Wow.
03:25So shout out to all the fan base out there, man.
03:29Shout out to my dude, Travis, for pushing me up to doing it, too, man.
03:32Yeah.
03:33Yeah, so between April and June, there was a slew of tweets.
03:39So once you found out what Tiny Desk was, after hundreds of thousands of tweets,
03:44you put out a call to action.
03:48You basically said, if this tweet gets 10,000 retweets, I'll consider.
03:53Right.
03:54And within less than a day, within hours.
03:59I'm going to say an hour.
04:00I'm going to say an hour, bro.
04:01Within an hour, it received 10, 15, 20 retweets.
04:06And I got a DM.
04:07And you were like, hey, I heard you the man that didn't make this happen.
04:14Yeah.
04:15I said, maybe if you want to make it happen.
04:18And we got it done.
04:21But there was so much that happened in between.
04:24How?
04:25There's so many things that make the Tiny Desk, that made that show so special.
04:28But the way y'all strategized, the way y'all put the band together, who y'all got, that's
04:36what really made it special.
04:37So tell me a little bit about the plan and how y'all put the band together, how y'all
04:40get like John Batiste to come from Paris.
04:43Yeah.
04:44Yeah.
04:44That was crazy, right?
04:45How did that go down?
04:47Well, I had just saw John like a week before we actually left to go do the Tiny Desk.
04:53You know, we was recording a song together.
04:54So John said, hey, you know, I know you haven't threw me an invitation, but if you're going
05:01to do Tiny Desk, you know, I would love to, I would come down and do it with you.
05:05I'm like, for real?
05:06Like, you know, I'm like, for real, bro?
05:08He's like, yeah, I'll come down.
05:10So, you know, we went to asking the fan base stuff like who y'all think I should have with
05:16me.
05:16And the fans right out the gate said, Manny Fresh.
05:20Yes.
05:20Right out the gate, Manny Fresh.
05:22I'm like, yeah, bro.
05:23I think that'll be the perfect.
05:23Make some noise for Manny Fresh, y'all.
05:25Yeah.
05:25The sound of Cash Money.
05:28So when they said Manny Fresh, a bell rang in my head, like, you know what?
05:34If I'm going to bring Manny Fresh and we're going to do this live band thing, right?
05:37Let me bring my dude who really, really does this live band thing all the time, Trombone
05:43Shorty.
05:44So including Trombone Shorty was like, that was like another no-brainer.
05:49And the fact that he came down from New York also to make that happen, that was like one
05:54of those, I can't explain it.
05:56It was something that, that week, everything fell in the right place.
06:00You know, like they say, something like that, everything has to be right for it to work out.
06:04That was just one of the perfect events that happened in my life.
06:07Everything is going good with me right now because of that.
06:11Everything is going good.
06:12It's going good for you.
06:13It's going great for us, too.
06:14But also, you know, you had John, you know, shout out my boy Alvin.
06:19Yeah.
06:20But y'all, y'all came with the dicky suits, the soldier rags.
06:25Like, how many people in here are from New Orleans, y'all?
06:28How many people in here?
06:31I ask because I've been to the city a couple times since.
06:35And when I bring up your show, the people, that was, that was the secret sauce.
06:41That was what the first Tiny Desk ever, where the star of the show was the city.
06:46When you hear it, when you see it, it's a dedication to New Orleans.
06:52You know what I mean?
06:53Yeah, yeah.
06:54So, I want to lift the veil a little bit.
06:58How much rehearsal time did you put into that leading up to when you first got to us?
07:05We rehearsed at home by Trombone Shorty Studio.
07:08Once again, shout out to him for letting us use his place.
07:10We rehearsed maybe one or two times.
07:13But we actually did a real rehearsal when we got there.
07:17And you saw how it was.
07:18The rehearsal was kind of like a concert a little bit.
07:20Also, we was partying, bro.
07:23It was...
07:24Definitely partying.
07:25Yeah.
07:25But, you know, we rehearsed.
07:27We rehearsed maybe two or three times.
07:29But it's never like actually doing it live.
07:33You know, rehearsal is rehearsal.
07:35That's really important to know because if you've seen the show, that show to me as a producer was kind of like walking the tightrope.
07:44Because the building was buzzing.
07:48If you all don't know, basically most of the people who, the audience that you all hear, that's just people who work at NPR.
07:55Yeah.
07:56It's all NPR staff.
07:58I know a lot of people hit me like, how can I get tickets?
08:00It's just a treat for people who work there.
08:02And if you happen to know somebody who works there, you might get in.
08:06So I say all that to say, the building was buzzing.
08:10You know, once we put it, once you tweeted out that it was finally happening and we were doing it for Black Music Month, you know, everybody was trying to get into the show.
08:18And it's a small space.
08:21It's a very small space.
08:22It is.
08:22It is.
08:23It is.
08:23It's small.
08:25The audience is two, three, four feet away.
08:28And it's just an energy exchange.
08:32So after rehearsal, you know what?
08:37I want to ask you a question because plenty of artists have told me this after they performed.
08:43Were you nervous?
08:45You know what?
08:45I think the time, the years of experience and me starting off, you know, being an emcee in a club, big mans and newtons like that, I think that kind of like, it helped me out.
08:55Because when I do stuff like that on TV, I'm never nervous for some apparent reason.
09:00I get nervous at events, other people's events, like weddings and stuff like that.
09:05I get nervous at that.
09:06But when I'm actually on stage and got a mic, I'm never nervous.
09:09I don't know why.
09:12Those juvie deuces didn't hurt either.
09:14Man, the juvie juices were being, the juvie juices were flowing that day.
09:19Yeah.
09:20I think I was the first person on juvie on there with my own drink, too.
09:24Yeah.
09:24Yeah, exactly.
09:25Because it was your own.
09:26That's how we got the truth, because it was your own.
09:28You know what I mean?
09:29Yeah.
09:29I appreciate that, too, man.
09:32I want to talk about how we put the set together.
09:38Because people don't realize, and we actually left some songs on the tape.
09:42We could have gone another 20, 30 minutes.
09:46The crazy part about that was, and I don't think people know, they told us we only had 15 minutes, something like that.
09:5315 minutes.
09:54Tiny Desk, our rule is we got 15 minutes to do the show.
10:00But what did we end up doing?
10:02I think we went 30 minutes, me and Manny Fresh.
10:05Then we did an encore.
10:09We broke all the rules.
10:11But that's what speaks to the energy of the room.
10:16I have been part of pretty much every Tiny Desk guy.
10:20We filmed about 1,200 Tiny Desks at this point.
10:24And there has never been an energy in that room like we had last year.
10:33That was crazy.
10:34So much so, you know, my job, like I said, my job, I'm like, it's like walking a tightrope because now my people looking at me like, we had 17, 20 minutes.
10:42But I'm like, look at this crowd.
10:45I'm like, look at Juvie.
10:47So, at some point, we just kind of let it go.
10:51But then, like you said, you brought it up a minute ago.
10:55Another first.
10:56We had an encore.
10:58Yeah.
10:58We had an encore.
10:59I just want to make sure.
11:01Has everybody seen that Tiny Desk in here, by the way?
11:07Because after we did back that ass up, we start to fade out.
11:14And I'm like, woo, we made it.
11:15We made it.
11:15And one voice in the crowd was like, do it again.
11:21Then Manny Fresh said, oh, y'all want an encore?
11:23Ran out in the crowd.
11:25And I'm like, but Juvie's like, well, fuck it.
11:30Let's keep it going.
11:31Let's keep it going.
11:32And then that's when it just got out of control in the best way possible.
11:40Unbelievable show.
11:42It's a first.
11:43But you and I have had a couple conversations since that has happened.
11:48I want to talk about the aftermath.
11:50Once that show comes out, what happens in your life, in your career?
11:58First of all, my followers go up on Instagram.
12:01I think I got like 100,000, maybe 100,000, 200 extra followers on Twitter, Instagram, everything.
12:08And the phone just went crazy.
12:11It's like when you win a Grammy or a Super Bowl or something like that.
12:14The phone just went crazy.
12:16Tours, shows, appearances, everybody tried to get a piece of Juvie.
12:21And at first, it was the Tiny Desk Band.
12:24We couldn't run with the Tiny Desk Band with the title.
12:27But I mean, even right now, the Essence, this is my second year in Essence.
12:32And I don't know if artists do Essence consecutive years, but I've been in Essence consecutive years.
12:37And it's been crazy since that day, man, just nonstop, traveling on the road, doing shows and events.
12:45You know, for us, for as much as it is done for you, it's really changed what we've done at the Tiny Desk.
12:56Because, obviously, a lot of your peers, they want to come in and try to duplicate the experience.
13:03But I tell people all the time, like, don't try to duplicate that.
13:08Because there's never been a story like that before.
13:14Right, look.
13:15And look, a lot of cats going to come on there.
13:17And like Run DMC says, a lot of cats going to come on there stays at night.
13:21But this is my house.
13:22But if you come to Tiny Desk, you won't try to outdo Jew, know what you're getting yourself into.
13:27And if you do outdo me, just know I'm coming back.
13:31I'm coming back, homie, for the title, homie.
13:33You heard it here first.
13:34You heard it here first.
13:36And look, I got something else I want to tell everybody that's here since I got y'all all here.
13:39If y'all want to see that Tiny Desk Band and see that performance, the same performance again,
13:45y'all can see us today at the Donner Color Explosion right there by the brewery, Urban South Brewery.
13:51Me, Manny Fresh, Turk, BG is coming through.
13:54I don't know if he's performing.
13:56And with the live band, and we're going to cut up.
13:58We're going to turn up.
14:00Listen, they're taking this Tiny Desk experience all over.
14:05While we got a couple minutes left, I was dead set on making sure if I had any conversation with anybody here at Essence Fest in New Orleans,
14:15it had to be you.
14:16We talked about the city of New Orleans.
14:22But when I've been with you, I've seen people come up to you and just really kind of share their emotions
14:29and share with you just how much you mean to them.
14:33But we talked about the band earlier when you said that John Batiste said, man, I'll come do it.
14:38It's nothing.
14:38You know, he came.
14:38Literally, John Batiste came from Paris, flew into the Tiny Desk, flew right back to Paris.
14:44Yeah, flew right back.
14:45So when I was talking to Alvin, they all had that thing in common.
14:49And we were in the back, and you seem a little bit uneasy with it.
14:52But you are a hero to these, specifically for the people in New Orleans.
14:57But we'll talk about hip-hop and music as a whole.
15:00But you are a hero.
15:01These people said they would drop anything to be a part of it.
15:05If you called, they said they're willing to drop anything, man.
15:09Yeah, man.
15:10And that's a blessing, man, to have somebody say things like that.
15:13You know, feel like maybe I did some things right in life.
15:17But, you know, that hero word, that's just a big word to me.
15:20Because when you say things like that, I think of firemen and people that's putting their life on the line for other people like that.
15:25True indeed.
15:25You know, I think about the servicemen and stuff like that.
15:29So, you know, when you say hero, that word just don't.
15:32I get that.
15:32I get that.
15:33You know, so.
15:34We'll just stick with legend.
15:35Yeah, I'll take that one.
15:36I like that one.
15:37Take that one.
15:39What we do at the Tiny Desk, when you look at how we line up, specifically hip-hop, obviously we bring in emerging artists.
15:46We bring in people that you've never heard before.
15:48But we put a lot of effort into honoring the legacy acts.
15:53And what we try to do specifically is remind people.
15:59You know, it's one thing to bring an artist to the Tiny Desk and have them perform.
16:04But it's up to the artist to deliver.
16:06We can't perform.
16:07We just provide the platform.
16:09But what we do with, like, SWB recently, what we did with Shaka Khan recently, that's just a reminder of the greatness.
16:18You know what I mean?
16:18We are just here to remind people of the greatness.
16:22Not just that, bro.
16:23Y'all using y'all platform and y'all give people like me that's kind of, like, out of the game trying to find its way back in.
16:29You give us opportunities like you breathe life into a lot of artists.
16:32That's why I felt like it was a great, it was real good to have Scarface on there.
16:37Because, you know, Scarface is my guy.
16:38Absolutely.
16:39And I always told him, like, man, you play guitars and stuff like that.
16:42The world needs to see that.
16:43And it was the same thing for me.
16:44I was doing all these shows and doing all these tours, and most of the shows was DJ shows.
16:50And I'm saying to myself, and I'm like, damn, I wonder if my fans really know I can really sing these songs for real.
16:57And that's what y'all gave me.
16:58Y'all gave me the opportunity to let my fans really see me in the right light where I wanted them to see me.
17:04So I thank y'all for that, man.
17:06No, thank you, man.
17:07Y'all make some noise for Julie.
17:08Yeah.
17:08But the reason I talk about the Legacy Acts is the musicality.
17:18Like, say what you want about music today versus what's happened in the 90s and the 2000s.
17:24But there's a difference.
17:25Like whatever you want.
17:27But those Manny tracks, like, it took a long time for y'all to arrange that.
17:32It's the musicality of those songs, man.
17:35It took a lot of work into that.
17:37Scarface, like, to see him, he's a real musician, man.
17:41But the thing that I love, one of the things I love most about the set is, like, you're an MC and you don't get enough credit as an MC.
17:50I know we talk about East Coast rappers and West Coast rappers, but, like, Southern MCs don't get the credit that they do.
17:58That's why you see it.
17:58That's why I'm going to put a Scarface on there.
18:00I'm going to put a Scarface on there.
18:02Right, bro.
18:02It's been that way for some apparent reason.
18:06Because one thing about the South, we don't have that hatred, right?
18:10We have that Southern hospitality.
18:11So we listen to East Coast music, West Coast music.
18:14We don't care where you're from in the world.
18:15We listen to everybody's music.
18:17And for some strange reason, everybody else, and I'm not going to say coasters, but everybody else, they just didn't want to give us our flowers lyrically.
18:26I don't know why, but you had cats like Scarface that been on fire with the lyrics, and you had Outkast on fire, you know what I mean?
18:35Then we came, No Limit, everybody came, and it took a minute before they started really giving us credit about the lyrics.
18:41And still today, we still don't get, they're not ranking us in that top ten.
18:45Well, they rank, they're going to rank, if you saw that tiny, they're going to rank you, then I don't care what your rank are.
18:49I got that, though.
18:50I got that, though.
18:51Let me tell you something, man.
18:52If you were outside in the 90s, like, when High Drop, you've never heard a song like that ever.
18:57It was one of those most original songs ever recorded.
19:00You know what I'm saying?
19:02Yeah.
19:02And we ain't got to talk about that, back that ass up.
19:06I mean, the song is 25 years old at this point, ain't it?
19:09Yeah, yeah.
19:09And I'm a DJ.
19:10I can't do any party.
19:13And no DJ, whoever the DJ, ask that DJ.
19:16You ain't doing no party without back that ass up.
19:19You can forget about it.
19:21Before we go, though, I want to talk about your legacy, man.
19:27You've been in it for a very, very long time, man.
19:30And I don't know if anybody saw the concert with Cash Money the other day, but you had a lot on your back, bruh.
19:40Let's just keep it real, man.
19:42You hit after hit during Cash Money and then after Cash Money.
19:46You did a whole other line of hits.
19:49Well, I'm going to give a little, you know, I'm going to be a little easier on Jeezy.
19:5312 years, it's kind of hard to get out and come back on the stage, right?
19:56And get, so, you know, that performance in the Superdome, to me, was kind of like their coming out party, right?
20:04Like, Bird ain't been on stage in a long time either.
20:07So it was kind of like practice for them.
20:10But for me, I feel like I had to back them up, you feel me?
20:13So I try to play my part as much as I can because my guy's been away for a minute.
20:18Yeah, for sure.
20:18But, I mean, you know, if you weren't in the South and you were just an average hip-hop listener, our introduction to Cash Money was you.
20:26Oh, yeah.
20:27Oh, yeah.
20:27Oh, yeah.
20:27You know what I mean?
20:28So it was only right to see you hold it down like that.
20:32It was fun, bruh.
20:33I ain't going to lie.
20:34It was fun.
20:35That stage in the Superdome, man, that was a crazy stage.
20:39I feel like I was walking all day from side to side.
20:41But it was fun.
20:42It was fun as hell.
20:44Can't lie.
20:45Well, you are the epitome of humility and being humble.
20:52But I just want to say, on behalf of everybody here and all your fans, man, you're one of the greatest MCs in hip-hop of all time, man.
21:01And I want you to know that.
21:03Thank you, my brother.
21:06Ladies and gentlemen, one more time, y'all.
21:09Everybody up to your feet, y'all.
21:11Y'all make some noise for Juvenile.
21:12On your feet, y'all.
21:15On your feet.
21:16Y'all make some noise for Juvie.
21:19The one and only.
21:23Hey, man, appreciate you, brother.
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