Sleepy Brown

Christina Lee

OK, awesome. Well guys, welcome to RBMA Radio. All this week, we are broadcasting live out of Atlanta. Today we are here with one of Atlanta music’s most crucial figures, Mr. Sleepy Brown.

Sleepy Brown

Thank you.

Christina Lee

Yeah. We are here to talk about ... I mean, we’re gonna talk about a little bit of everything, because, you know, your place within Atlanta music history is so crucial. We’re especially gonna be focusing today on an album by the name of The Vinyl Room. First of all, I figured we would start this a little bit not quite at the beginning, but kind of there, because I think I want people to kind of understand that you come from a musical background, but we certainly want you to explain exactly who your father is and why you decided to feature him on the track.

Sleepy Brown

Okay, my dad was in a band, a popular band in the ‘70s called Brick. A lot of people have sampled him. You might have heard it, Ice Cube “No Vaseline.” They had a song called “Ain’t Gone Hurt Nobody.” (sings “Ain’t Gone Hurt Nobody”) ... Y’all probably don’t remember this at all, but they were a really big band in the ‘70s. I grew up, you know, backstage at all the concerts. They used to come to Atlanta when, you know, we had the Funk Fest, when it would be like Cameo and Parliament and Brick and Commodores. It’s all these funk bands and, you know.

I loved growing up in that era because, you know, for me music was everything. You know, I was like, I didn’t know my dad was even a star. Tell you the truth, I went to a concert one night with my grand mamma. I was like six years old and the next thing I know, we were standing on the side of the stage and I looked and I see my daddy out there. I’m like, “What’s going on?” And he’s jamming like this and women reaching for him and I’m like ... Then I hear the song “Dazz” (sings rhythm track) . I’m like, I turned around and looked at my grand mamma, I’m like, “This is what I want to do. I want to do what dad doing.” Ever since then, you know, that’s just been my dream. I always felt like I had to keep that Brown name going. It was a beautiful thing to grow up in that era.

The funny thing is that Jermaine Dupri’s dad was Brick’s road manager. Me and Jermaine Dupri grew up backstage together. It’s a lot of history in Atlanta music.

Christina Lee

Yeah, absolutely, it seems like everyone knows everyone.

Sleepy Brown

Everybody knows everybody. Definitely.

Christina Lee

That’s right. Now, as far as your musical background, exactly how hands-on was your dad in trying to teach you?

Sleepy Brown

Well, I think my dad just wanted me to kind of go for it myself. Kind of like if you really want to do it, because that’s how he was. He would buy me instruments and he bought my first drum set when I was ten and bought me a trumpet. I used to play in the elementary school. I just didn’t really like to play. I love drums.

Christina Lee

Okay.

Sleepy Brown

He bought my drum set. Him and my mom were divorced, so I was really with my mom. At a certain age I went over there and stayed with him for a couple of months, and every time he would do a show at night at this club, and he always had this equipment. He would bring it home and I would stay up all night just trying to learn how to play.

I think that’s how he trained me. Just put in front of you and see if you’d go for it. Kind of like that.

Christina Lee

He gave you the necessary tools.

Sleepy Brown

Yeah, yeah. Definitely.

Christina Lee

Absolutely. Was it your dad that was in the Ben Hill neighborhood or was it your mom?

Sleepy Brown

My mom.

Christina Lee

Okay.

Sleepy Brown

Yeah. Me and my mom moved to Ben Hill from Savannah. We actually stayed in Atlanta for quite some time, but moved to Ben Hill. That’s where I really grew up at.

Christina Lee

Okay. Gotcha. I wanted to ask about something that is quintessentially Atlanta, but maybe people don’t quite know about as much, as like with the hip-hop thing. What can you tell the people about Yeeking?

Sleepy Brown

[laughs] Yeeking is a dance style that started in Atlanta from skating. It’s kind of like what the kids are doing today. That sounds funny saying the kids today. [laughter]

You know, Cam Newton doing all this and they go, “Yeek?” It’s kind of the same thing but it started way back with us. We used to dance off fast records that came from Miami, you know, like Luke Skywalker and all that 2 Live Crew music and stuff. We were dancing off that kind of stuff. It was a whole movement in Atlanta because the big thing back then was talent shows. Everybody that did talent shows back in the day ended up being big. The R&B group Silk, Chris Tucker used to do skits in between acts at his school, and everybody that went through that is kind of doing their thing. TLC, all of them.

Christina Lee

You were in a pretty prominent crew. If I’m...

Sleepy Brown

Yeah, I was in the best dance crew.

Christina Lee

What dance crew was that?

Sleepy Brown

We were called Guess [laughs].

Christina Lee

What made Guess so good?

Sleepy Brown

Because we were all broke, but for some reason ... [laughs] We were all broke as hell, but for some reason, we always came up with the craziest ideas to go on stage with. We would have on ninja suits and kind of act out like ... It’s just kind of hard to explain, you know what I mean? It was just such a big show for nothing. You know what I mean? The talent shows in Atlanta was so big they would be packed in there like standing room only around the basketball court. There might be this much room to dance because everybody done moved in. You know what I mean? It was just that kind of movement. It was really strong.

Christina Lee

These weren’t like one-off dance moves like with the Whip and Nae Nae, these were like full-on routines, right?

Sleepy Brown

You not gone get me to dance.

Christina Lee

What?

Sleepy Brown

Not gone get me to Yeek in here, gone have me hurting. I might not be able to perform tomorrow. [laughter] My back [laughs]...

Christina Lee

I just want the people to understand.

Sleepy Brown

Wow. Okay, yeah. It’s a pretty fast dance ... [laughs] It’s high-powered, it was all moves, it’s ridiculous. Really. If you really want to see the dance, you can look it up on Facebook or YouTube. Just put in “Yeek.”

Christina Lee

Nice save.

Sleepy Brown

Well, Yeek, you’ll see the whole dance thing.

Christina Lee

At this point, how into music were you? Were you already sort of fiddling around with equipment?

Sleepy Brown

Just a little bit, like drums. My favorite thing to do was close the door and take my little lamp and make a spotlight and play the Jackson’s album live, and act out the whole album. [laughs]

That’s how I trained myself. As a kid, you’re a superstar as a kid. I just had big dreams. I didn’t really take it seriously and really start producing until I was like maybe 18. It took a while. I was just a fan of music. I remember me and Rico, when I first met Rico, we went to the MC Hammer concert. He was like, “Yeah, I got an extra ticket, why don’t you come on?” Me and him ended up being Dungeon Family. We all were just big fans of music. We loved when artists came to our town. We loved everything about it. That’s really what it was. I didn’t really take it seriously, though, until I was 18.

Christina Lee

What was the turning point? What got you into production?

Sleepy Brown

When I was staying with my dad, like I said, he would bring the equipment home. I remember one night I said to myself, I was like ... My favorite funky love song was “Between the Sheets” by the Isley Brothers. I said, “If I can sit here and play everything over to the t and make it sound just like the record, I can produce.” You have to sit there, you have to figure out the chords. I don’t know names of chords or nothing. I play by ear. I’m sitting there like play it, ding ding ding, play it, ding ding ding. You know what I’m saying? Just sitting there doing it like that and then I finished it in maybe 30 minutes and was really shocked. It was like 3 in the morning and I went and woke my dad up. Like, “Dad. Listen to this. Listen to this.” That’s when he kind of knew it, too. He was like, “Mm-hmm (affirmative). You’re ready.” From there, I just started thinking of my own ideas to try to play.

Christina Lee

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. We’re going to play another record that I guess is largely considered the beginning for most Organized Noize bands, even though it might not be technically. Let’s see here.

(music: Outkast – “Player’s Ball”)

Okay. I saw you guys out there. That was amazing. Of course that is “Player’s Ball” by Outkast. What do you remember about recording that track?

Sleepy Brown

At the time, we were actually in 3 different studios doing 3 different projects. Me and Rico ended up riding to where Ray was and I remember we were starting to do the Outkast thing because we just did a Christmas song with TLC, “Sleigh Ride”. That’s when LA told us like, “Yo, you got y’all chance if y’all can come out with a Christmas record, we’ll put it on there.” We was like, “Okay.” We had ideas but they were kind of cool but not quite it. When we went over there and Ray was doing that beat for this group, Je Ne Sais Quoi, I believe. It was Left Eye’s group at the time, or Drip Drop. One of the two. We walk in and that beat is playing and me and Ric just look at each other like, “What the? Oh my God. What is this?” Ray’s like, “Yeah, I was going to give it to them.” Ric was like, “No. No you’re not. You’re going to give that to Outkast. That’s going to be Outkast’s record. That’s going to be Outkast’s record.”

We were like cool and then the next thing you know, it’s this record. I think it’s called “Hustler’s Ball” or something like that with this guy explain all the players that are pulling up at the club. Rico went in and kind of did that at the beginning of the record. When he said, “Man, all the players ...” I was like, it popped. “All the players came from far away.” It went smoothly like that. That’s when we knew that we had a sound for Outkast.

Christina Lee

That was it.

Sleepy Brown

“Player’s Ball” was the record. That was that record.

Christina Lee

Wow. Is it true that you were among the first people in Organized Noize to meet up with LA Reid?

Sleepy Brown

Yeah, yeah. Me and Rico, me and Rico was in a singing group together.

Christina Lee

What was it called?

Sleepy Brown

The You Boys.

Christina Lee

Okay.

Sleepy Brown

We had a chance to meet with ... We all grew up together with T-Boz, Tionne with TLC. When they got they deal, she always promised us that she would hook us up or tell Pebbles about us. Her and someone else set up a meeting for us. When we went in there, I was doing all the beats for the group at the time. Every time we played a record, Pebbles was like, “Who did that bass line?” Everybody pointed at me. She’d be like, “Who did that beat?” Everybody pointed at me. “Who did that?” Everybody pointed at me. She looked at me, she was like, “You need to meet LA.” I love Pebbles because, really, she’s the one that jumped it off for us. She set up a meeting. I went in and met LA and didn’t even sign with LA and LA bought me $10,000 worth of equipment.

Within the next 2 days, a big truck pulled up at the house and my mamma was like, standing like. I was like, “Yeah, mom, yeah. Yeah, I did it mamma. Yeah. That right.” Everything changed with me and mamma. She went tripping and [inaudible 00:17:05] and everything was beautiful. LA just took me under his wing. I played him one beat in the meeting and he was just like, “You got equipment?” I was like, “No, I work with my friend’s equipment.” He got the equipment for me. He took me under his wing and then I eventually brought Rico around to meet him. Once he met Rico, he fell in love with Rico because Rico is such a powerhouse with his talk. That boy can talk. He ain’t no joke.

Christina Lee

Right.

Sleepy Brown

Yeah. He make everybody laugh and smile and cry.

Christina Lee

Next thing you know, you get $10,000 worth of equipment to your house.

Sleepy Brown

You get, yeah. You’re good. You’re sitting at home working on beats.

Christina Lee

From what I understand, LA wasn’t all that knowledgeable in hip-hop necessarily.

Sleepy Brown

No. LA had no idea about hip-hop at the time. Outkast was the first. When Outkast came out and everybody found it was LaFace Records, they could not believe it. They were known for Babyface and Pebbles and Whitney Houston. They were a big pop label, like number 1 honestly. Then when Outkast came out with this slump record that sound like LA went to the hood and rolled by the hood somebody threw it in his car. Like he drive by like. It was like a, we felt great about that because we were like, “Man, LA we got you respect in the hip-hop game now.” Everybody trust your word because you trust us.

Christina Lee

Right, right. Exactly, exactly. Let’s see. At this point, the kid is singing the Jackson 5 in his room, having dreams of a solo career. Were those ambitions still on your mind when you guys were in talks with LA Reid and trying to get Outkast off the ground?

Sleepy Brown

Yeah, yeah. Every special moment I got in meetings and everything, I always sitting and thought about that. It’s funny because I was talking to one of my great friends, he’s a guy named Slick. He’s a writer. He wrote on the Sleepy’s Theme album with me. Me and him grew up together since elementary school and I told him, I said, “Bro, do you remember when we used to sit at the lamp post at night, sitting in the corner in the summer time talking about we wanted to be stars?” I always think about that when any great opportunity comes like that. To tell you the truth, to be honest with you, I really felt like it had to happen because it happened for my dad. You feel me?

Christina Lee

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Sleepy Brown

It’s like … what my dad showed me, it’s like if you really, really do something, and you do it to the t, and your way, it’s going to work.

Christina Lee

Yeah.

Sleepy Brown

It doesn’t matter. For years, you know, at first we could not get Outkast a deal. We stepped up to everybody. Everybody was scared of them. We stuck to our guns, and we just stayed true to what we did, because L.A. told us “no” at first. Then we came back and he was like, “Okay, I’m going to take a chance with you guys.” He took a chance with us.

Christina Lee

Yeah, exactly. Did you guys have, and by “you guys” I mean obviously Organized Noise, did you guys have conversations at this point about where you guys were headed and/or how your sole ambitions could potentially fit into all that?

Sleepy Brown

No, we just kind of ... This is how we felt, as long as we had a hit, any door would open. As long as we had a record that was just, I don’t want to say idiot-proof, but easy, you know, every time you hear it it’s just “boom”, you’ll win. That’s always been our goal. We knew we had talent and we could go in meetings and make anything happen, but at the same time we had to have the music to go with it.

We had to make sure that the crew and all the rappers were right, so that’s why you hear about the dungeon and how everybody sat down the steps, and we’d just be sitting there writing, and just writing, and just writing because we knew we had to represent. We didn’t want to come to the game, “Oh, they’re all right.” We wanted to come to the game and make some noise because we were like, “Man, Dre he representing L.A. to the fullest. I’ve never been to Compton, but damn sure love it.” I love Compton and I’ve never been, but he made me love it. You feel me?

Christina Lee

Yeah.

Sleepy Brown

That’s how we wanted to feel about Atlanta. That’s why we were like East Point, College Park, Decatur. Where you at?

Do you know what I’m saying? Let’s stand up. Let’s march on. Let’s move it.

Christina Lee

This is how bad you guys wanted it. You guys weren’t sitting on the stairs just because it was the most comfortable, but literally there wasn’t any floor in the basement, right?

Sleepy Brown

Yeah, but here’s the best thing about it, it was all dirt. We had an old raggedy speaker. We had a raggedy table with a raggedy speaker. We had an old table sitting up here, we had the MP sitting up there. The walls were all dirt. It might have been, like, from here, like this much room.

It was like two poles in there and then these raggedy steps coming down. When you hit play on that drum machine, it was the best studio in the world. You weren’t thinking about no dirt, you weren’t thinking about [inaudible], nothing. [laughter] Everything was great in there. I loved the dungeon. I laugh at Rico because sometimes we just have to go back. Let’s just go back down in the dirt man, and just see what we come up with. I doubt we can do that now.

Christina Lee

I bet you still could.

(music: Sleepy’s Theme – “Still Smoking”)

For those who may still need an explanation, who was Sleepy Brown at this point in time? You talked about it a little bit, but who were you at this period?

Sleepy Brown

I was just trying to figure it out as an artist because the one thing about it … to sing R&B music at that time it was totally different, so I wasn’t like the norm. Like a normal singer, you know what I mean? I was just trying to find myself in that game. I appreciate that everybody loved everything, loved the ideas and everything, but it was kind of hard to try to figure out where to go next. Being a young man with money, just acting a fool. It was all a lesson, but at that time, Sleepy, he was fun, but he was lost.

Christina Lee

How old were you?

Sleepy Brown

I was 26, 27.

Christina Lee

26, 27, still young and you have a lot of money.

Sleepy Brown

A lot of money. I was acting a fool. But it was fun, you’re young, you know?

Christina Lee

Right.

Sleepy Brown

I would tell any young person, “Man, have fun.” You’re only young once. I’m not doing it now, clearly. Ain’t that right, baby? I’m chilling, but it’s all a part of growing up.

Christina Lee

Speak more on how you weren’t part of the norm at the time doing R&B. Are you talking about R&B versus hip-hop or are you talking about R&B versus R&B?

Sleepy Brown

R&B versus R&B because I was never called a neo soul artist, you know the neo soul movement came in with D’Angelo and Erykah Badu? They didn’t really put me with that, which was kind of strange to me because that’s what I thought … I was kind of in that genre, but it wasn’t like that. I was with Outkast, so it almost made me a rapper, but I wasn’t a rapper. I was singing the hooks with them, but you never heard me rap on the Outkast record. I never rapped. I don’t do that, so by me being with them and I guess sometimes people would be like, “Well, he Outkast, so he really on some rap.” It’s not really ... It’s kind of hard to place it, you know what I mean? I always thought I was in that genre, though. That’s what I always thought.

Christina Lee

Yeah. So were your ambitions with this album to kind of prove that you were part of that? What did you want to accomplish with the Vinyl Room?

Sleepy Brown

I just wanted to do the funkiest, most wonderful, exciting album ever. I just wanted to do the most funkiest album ... When you play the album, I just wanted you to just sit back, and just ride out. If you’ve had a long day, play the album. If you’re smoking, if you don’t smoke ... Whatever you do, at that time when you got to relax, throw that on.

Christina Lee

I mean, depending, you could probably get a contact high from listening to this album.

Sleepy Brown

That’s what I’m talking about. That’s the greatest. I like that.

Christina Lee

What people have to understand about this album was, I guess, what got you to the point where you were like, “Okay, I’m going to break out and do something called Sleepy’s Theme.” What was your relationship like with Organized Noise at this period in time, and what were your feelings toward that sort of work you were doing?

Sleepy Brown

At the time, I really wanted to kind of start doing some stuff by myself. I had no problem working with other artists, but just like I said when I was young I saw my dad do that. That was in my heart, so where my heart wanted to go, that’s what I was going to do, so my relationship with them was not really shaky, because they understood completely where I came from because they knew that’s what I wanted but of course, when you have a business, you have other things that you have to do that should get done. I think that might have been just a little conflict that we did have but Rico totally understood, Ray totally understood. Matter of fact, Ray did the album with me. It was me, Ray, and Pimp C, before Pimp C passed, did the album with me.

I just wanted... I got Pimp because he was like a brother to me and if anybody knew where I was at, was him. Me and him, you hear the sound, you hear Pimp on, it’s crazy. I love that boy. I miss him to death.

(music: Sleepy’s Theme – “Simply Beautiful”)

Christina Lee

How did you meet Pimp C?

Sleepy Brown

Actually through Gipp. I was a big Pimp C fan, big UGK fan and I always wanted to work with him and meet him. I met Bun first actually and then Gipp was actually real good friends with Pimp and Gipp told Pimp to come by the dungeon. It was funny I was at home and I called, I was like, “What’s going on over there?” He was like, “Man, nothing. Pimp C’s about to come through.” “What?”

I flew over there and met him and we talked and stuff, hung out and then just became best of friends because I wanted him to know I connected with him on that level of funk that he was on. It was just ridiculous. You know what I’m saying? Me being a fan of Pimp, I just wanted to meet him and talk to him, even if we didn’t hang out then, I just wanted to meet him.

Christina Lee

What would you guys talk about?

Sleepy Brown

Man, everything, weed, women, cars, what old music we liked, just everything. Life. He was cold. He was a great dude.

Christina Lee

What sorts of music would you guys talk about?

Sleepy Brown

We would talk about Bobby Womack, Curtis Mayfield, Isaac Hayes ... He might be like sleeping, “Man ooh, watch this right here, I found this, I ride it right. Listen to this.” He would play this break that he found on Barry White. It was just like ridiculous, you know what I’m saying? He would screw it down and he was just a scientist at it. It was just beautiful.

Christina Lee

Was he the first person who you reached out for The Vinyl Room?

Sleepy Brown

No, the first one actually was Ray.

Christina Lee

Okay.

Sleepy Brown

I knew I wanted Ray to do it with me and Pimp was the second one because me and Ray were just working anyway and we actually did a song, “Choked Out Saturday Night,” and I was at his house in his record room, because he had a record room. All these crates and records and stuff and he had the turntables and drum machine set up on his little thing right next to, so he would just play his records and sample ... We ended up working on “Choked Out Saturday Night” at his house and I think that was the first record that really showed me that I could do the Sleepy’s Theme album.

Christina Lee

Yeah? What was it about that session that ...

Sleepy Brown

It was just that song to me, “Choked Out Saturday Night,” that sounds so Atlanta. It sounds like the old Atlanta, you know what I’m saying, when it was just ... I mean, it’s the same. It didn’t really change, but it was just beautiful, you know what I mean? It was just, it was simple. It was a little more simple back then. It was just a little smooth, you know what I’m saying? I just felt like that record sounded like I was rolling in a Cadillac about 12 midnight, going to another club. That’s what it sounded like, you know?

Christina Lee

Getting into some trouble, maybe?

Sleepy Brown

Yeah, getting into some trouble. We having fun. Fun stuff.

Christina Lee

Is it true that one of the other tracks in the Vinyl Room was initially for one of Pimp C’s solo projects?

Sleepy Brown

Yeah, actually that was, “Simply Beautiful.”

Christina Lee

It was that one?

Sleepy Brown

Yeah, it was that one. That was the one he played me that beat and I begged him for it. I was like, “Man, come on, man, you do beats all day, man. Give me that beat, man. Come on, Pimp.” Eventually, he did.

Christina Lee

How were you able to convince him though? I mean, that beat sounds great.

Sleepy Brown

Yeah, just hanging around him and smoking with him. I kept bugging him. Kept rolling up, kept bugging him. “Hey man, so what you think? Don’t you think that’s rent, right? I think you should give it to me, for all that, it would be right, right? Right?” [laughter]

Christina Lee

How did you form the group that would become Sleepy’s Theme? Because people have to recognize that you had actual musicians.

Sleepy Brown

Oh, great musicians. First of all, shout out to Preston Crump, played bass on all our music from “Cell Therapy” to “Player’s Ball”. He played everything, so that was the first guy that I got, Preston. The rest of the guys actually came from Society of Soul. When we did that album, we went out on the road for a promotional tour. Big played drums, everybody that was in the band played on that tour so I knew that was some of the baddest players in Atlanta, honestly from Billy Odum, guitar player, Big played drums, Eddie Stoke played keys, and there was such a ... In a pocket sound, so I knew those were the guys that I was going to mess with, plus we had great chemistry and I was free with them as far as being in the studio. I would just be like, “Play it like this.” I might give the line but I’m like, “Just freestyle it. Play it the way you want to play it.” If you feel it somewhere else, take it somewhere else. That’s kind of what it was.

Christina Lee

Yeah, and you had Keisha Jackson on here too?

Sleepy Brown

Ah, Keisha Jackson, yeah, that’s Millie Jackson’s daughter. Keisha Jackson is awesome, the greatest soul singer, slept-on soul singer I’m going to say too, because I really feel like if everybody really heard her heard her, they would fall in love with her voice because it’s just, as soon as she hit that first note it sounds like church by the start. It go, “Rrrrr.” You know what I’m saying? That organ open up and she’s ... beautiful voice.

Christina Lee

There was another interview where you called this your garage punk project which I thought was so interesting because you’re referencing all these older soul music so ...

Sleepy Brown

It was really garage funk bands.

Christina Lee

Garage funk? Oh, okay.

Sleepy Brown

Yeah, it was funk.

Christina Lee

What was it about these sessions that had you feeling that way?

Sleepy Brown

I kind of wanted to get that feeling of when my dad done recording. With that album, like on certain songs, it was just straight band, like, “Still Smoking,” it was just, we were all in the studio and Eddie started playing those keys but he was playing it real fast and I was like, “Just slow it all the way down. Just.” Whap. Boom. Just, like, “Funk it out.” You know what I’m saying? That’s how our sessions would go. If I walk in they might be playing something. I’d be like, “Man, that sound good if you did it this way.” Or sometimes, I would be in there playing something and you know, come up with a full idea so, that’s kind of what it was.

(music: Sleepy’s Theme – “Choked Out Saturday Night”)

Christina Lee

I really feel like you need to expand on what night time Atlanta is like, because this is broadcasting around the world. I want people to get a good idea what that was like for you.

Sleepy Brown

Well, night time Atlanta ... Right now it’s, well what it used to be is was all the strip clubs.

Christina Lee

Used to be?

Sleepy Brown

Yeah. Well it still is, but now you got all these regular clubs that are jumping too. Atlanta is known for the strip scene. You know Magic, GC, what’s the other one? Blue Flame, all them things.

Christina Lee

Which ones were your favorite?

Sleepy Brown

Gentleman Club. Gentleman Club. I think I rented a room. I think I had a little apartment or something, I don’t know. I just, I couldn’t leave or something or some reason.

Christina Lee

Hang around for a month.

Sleepy Brown

Yeah. Just paying rent per month. They actually had a great cook. Man that cook was insane. Big old dude, he’s wearing glasses down like this. “We ain’t got no more green beans. I make you some pasta. And something else.” Boy he could cook. He was awesome. Plus the girls too.

Christina Lee

So that’s why you lived there?

Sleepy Brown

Yeah.

Christina Lee

Well it sounds like a great time.

Sleepy Brown

You know what, that club, we raised so much hell in that club that when they closed it down they knocked the building down. They took it down. It was so much going on over that … because who owned it was Michael Childs, he got in trouble. Went to jail. It was so much going on over there they knocked the building down and make it into a little park. It’s crazy. That’s how much craziness went on over there.

Christina Lee

It’s all your fault.

Sleepy Brown

No, now don’t blame me.

Christina Lee

When you hear, just on a total side note, when you hear all the later rappers like … today and like Magic City and maybe even Follies or whatever, what do you think of all that? Of how the strip clubs have popularized and all that.

Sleepy Brown

I think it’s still the same. It’s been this way since early ‘90s, even before then. It’s still the same old thing. That’s what Atlanta is. It’s a party city. You come here to party and then once you get here and see how cool it is, and how cheap it is, you like I’m going to move down here. Now you’re here.

That’s exactly what happens. You always say you’re coming down here for a weekend with your friends, like, “We had a ball last ... How much it cost? Really? Okay.” Then you move, end up staying.

Christina Lee

Pimp C lived here. You got to understand that he was living here at the time.

Sleepy Brown

Yep. He was living here. Out there by Six Flags actually.

Christina Lee

It sounds like a great, fantastic time, but you said earlier that you were feeling lost. What was ... Why do you think you felt that way?

Sleepy Brown

Well, because I was just doing way too much, you know. Drugs to everything else. I was living like a rock star. When it came to organizing, though, it was kind like sleep is the rock star. I was just having fun. I didn’t have money, it was just whatever.

When I say lost, I was just saying just to the point where, you had to look yourself in the mirror like, “Hold on man. Chill out.” You know what I’m saying? “You’re doing way too much. Go to bed. You’ve been up for 4 days. What are you doing?”

Your self start talking back to you. You know how you know you need to go to sleep. [laughs] When you start answering yourself you’re like, “Okay, I need to go to bed.” It was just too much of that. Too much partying.

Christina Lee

Was it true that you weren’t really on speaking terms with Rico Wade for a little bit?

Sleepy Brown

Yeah, we fell out for a minute. What was crazy though, because it didn’t last long or anything. You know, because we’re brothers. This is the thing about it, even though we really weren’t speaking, I would still stop by the studio and play on stuff, and just leave. You know what I mean? Because we’re working. We really wasn’t speaking too tough, but we still worked together so we always had to still see each other. Eventually it just became from not talking to, “you hungry? You want to go somewhere?” Then talk about it. It was kind of like that. You know?

Brothers get into it all the time. Family just, that just how it go. Everything runs smooth and nothing goes wrong? Wow. That’s amazing.

Christina Lee

Explain to those listening what exactly was going on in regards to Organized Noize, Interscope, and then your place, or Sleepy’s Themes place within all that.

Sleepy Brown

At the time we did a $20 million deal with Interscope. I think the problem was when we went with LaFace, we had LA, the thing that LA did for us, since he was an artist and producer he understood us. He would let us know what we needed to do with certain things. We kind of needed that.

What Jimmy gave us, Jimmy just gave us the money, but didn’t give us the closeness. I think that’s what happened with us. Then we started thinking we had to just start going all kind of places. It lost structure to the company. That’s basically what happened. When I did the Sleepy’s Theme album and Jimmy found out, and was really kind of upset. We set up to have a meeting. I flew to L.A. Played the album for him and told him, I was like, “Man it’s no problem, because whatever you want Jim, of course.”

We sat there, we listened to it and he really didn’t like it. I was just like, “I can understand that.” At the time Sleepy’s Theme weren’t was playing on the radio. It was just, it was underground for what it was. I think that’s what happened with Interscope. Plus it was starting to be so much pressure on us, individually too. That happens with anything that starts to grow. Sometimes it will get too big for you. You don’t grow with it. It will get bigger than you. That’s what happened.

Christina Lee

How did it get to the point where you released it independently?

Sleepy Brown

Actually I met this lady named Eileen Burns and she actually owned a label that my father’s band was on, Brick, which was Bang Records. I went to the studio one night and she was up there and I played it for my dad. I was actually playing it for him. When she heard it she just fell in love. Was like, “Oh my god, that’s just beautiful, we can ...” I’m like, and I had nowhere to really take it because I was kind of holding it. We talked and I decided to do a little deal with her, this one album deal and we did that, shot some videos and stuff like that. That was the thing that I did, I went with Bang Records Company and basically put the album out through them.

Christina Lee

Gotcha. At this point, before you even got in talks with them, were you just thinking that you were just going to hold on to this for, until who knows when, or were you dead set on getting it out? How did you feel about the album?

Sleepy Brown

I was dead set on getting it out, I just didn’t know how. This was before downloads and everything, this is like hard copy CDs. They used to have this company that would print your CDs up. You get 1,000 CDs for $100 or something like that. That’s what was going on. If I had to do it and sell out of the trunk I was going to do it, but it just so happened I met her and she was so excited about the project. Way more excited than me. I was like, “Okay, you that excited, you can do something with it.” We kind of went with it. It didn’t work out how we wanted it to. We got some good things out of it. Of course, she got in some trouble with, I guess, IRS or whatever, and she dip. For a minute, the album was out but it wasn’t getting pressed up. They couldn’t press no copies up. We lost a lot on that.

Christina Lee

How do you feel about that album in retrospect?

Sleepy Brown

I’m glad I did it. Every time I listen to it, it just makes me smile because I just remember the moments of coming up with each record. I remember it takes me back to working with Pimp C. It takes me back to all the love that I had with the band in doing that album, because everybody wanted to be a part of it. I had Joy singing on it. Keisha Jackson. I had everybody in the family. I had CeeLo on a song called “Curse On You”. I had everybody on that album in the family. They wanted to see it done. I love it. The ultimate thing is, I would like to do a little small tour with it. Just go city to city and even if you haven’t heard it, just come out and listen to it. Vibe out with me. When you leave, you might love it.

(music: Outkast – “So Fresh, So Clean”)

Christina Lee

How did your relationship with Organized Noize compare at this period of time, to before you started Sleepy’s theme?

Sleepy Brown

This was when everything was groovy, you know what I mean? Went over Rico’s house like normal, normally. Started playing this little … started playing that little note. (hums melody) Ric heard it, he was like, “I don’t know, I think we might have a beat there. Let me see what I got over here.” He kind of started like ... and then we just started playing it. I went in … because I couldn’t come up with the words at the time. One thing I loved about Ric, Ric was real hip on just saying, just the hippest shit ever. I went in there and just did the little melody of it. Came back the next day, Rico told me. Said he woke up. Say he got in the shower, he was playing it. He was like, “Ain’t nobody know ... so fresh and so clean, clean.”

When I got there, he said, “I got it.” He told me and I went in and sung and it and it just ... it worked. It worked. It really worked. We’re like, “Wow.” You know what’s funny? Dre didn’t like that record at first.

Christina Lee

Dre didn’t like it?

Sleepy Brown

Yeah. He ... because Stankonia, that album, was where Outkast started going to more like Jimi Hendrix kind of like ... adding guitar, rocking, certain things. “Bombs Over Baghdad” … he just started doing a whole ‘nother kind of vibe, so at first “So Fresh, So Clean” is just a little too cool. A little too ... you know what I’m saying? Dre was … he was way more hype then. It took ... Big loved it though. I knew Big would love it, because I just knew he would love something like that. Once Big said he would do it, we kind of added a couple more things, Dre put his verse on it last. He was finally like, “Yeah, yeah. I do like that.”

Christina Lee

How long did it take for you to convince him like, “Dude, just get on this record already.”

Sleepy Brown

It wasn’t like that. We kind of knew, because when he heard it wasn’t really finished. We had the hook on it. It didn’t really had a bass line on it. It was just a beat with the chords. It was still kind of empty for him, so he couldn’t hear the full thing of it. Once we got Preston on it, he started playing it. He started playing that. Dre started hearing other melodies. That’s when he came with the “coolest motherfuckers on the planet.” It gave him that vibe, so that’s what it was.

Christina Lee

Yeah. Was it like that working with Outkast a lot of the time? Where you have one opinion … you have, Big’s feeling this way and you have Dre feeling this way?

Sleepy Brown

It started getting like that once they really started producing they own stuff. You know what I mean? That’s how it was. That’s what we wanted from them, because when we used to be in the studio, we wouldn’t be like, “No, you can’t watch. Go out there. Go watch TV or something.” We would be like, “Just sit right there.” They’ll see us program beats, playing all their stuff. We wanted them to learn, you know what I’m saying? Once they started “Bombs Over Baghdad”, “Miss Jackson”, we were just like, “Oh yeah. They graduated. They good.” They might not even need us no more! We were definitely proud of them. I was like, man. When Dre did “Hey Ya”, I was ... oh that was a sick record.

Christina Lee

You remember hearing that for the first time?

Sleepy Brown

Oh yeah. It was funny because when I heard that, I hadn’t heard what Big was going to drop yet. This is … I’m gonna make a jump but this is the how “The Way You Move” came to be, because I went over to Big’s house for a cookout. Big used to have this … that’s when he used to have the 200 CD changer. It’d be like 200 CDs staying up to here but they always changing. For some reason, I’m in the boom-boom room … we having a cookout … and that beat comes on. I was sitting there talking to my homie listening and I just stop. What was that? I started hearing that melody, “I like the way you move.” I ran to B, I was like, “B, I think I got something for you.” What I’m thinking is, we need something we was going to do with Dre, because Dre got “Hey Ya”. We got to get something … I was like, “Let’s go to the studio. I got ...” We went to the studio that night. It just came. It just came right then We were like, “Yep. It’s going to be something right here. This is going to be something right here.”

Christina Lee

You came straight from a cookout?

Sleepy Brown

Yeah, we came straight from his cookout. Straight to studio. Straight to Stankonia. Jump right on. Put the beat down. Took the CD out the CD changer. Took it out of the studio. Two-tracked it. Just jumped on it. It went. Then once we did that, we got the idea, then Big started building on it and got Debra to come in and play bass. (hums bassline) They started adding the horn. (hums horn) All that stuff.

Christina Lee

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. How did it feel to perform songs from the Organized Noize catalog when you guys did the homecoming concerts in Centennial Olympic Park? It was like 3 nights.

Sleepy Brown

That was one of the best shows we’ve ever done. I was really worried about the weather, or really worried hoping there weren’t going to be no fights. It was such a beautiful, beautiful moment in time for just Atlanta. The weather, the perfect … We got out there. We did the show. They had that box out there. It was just a beautiful … the sound was great. Everything went perfect. That was just … for all 3 nights to just go perfect like that … that was beautiful. That was one of the best concerts we’ve ever done it. Ever done it.

Christina Lee

I would love to take questions from the audience.

Audience Member

My name’s Tim Arrington, producer and trumpet player from Durham, North Carolina.

Sleepy Brown

Okay cool.

Audience Member

What do you think about Atlanta’s music scene now, and where do you see it going?

Sleepy Brown

I have … I’m going to tell you the truth … I have no problem with the music scene right now. It’s kind of like ... when I was young, and we had all the bass music, I would hear people saying, “Man, what is that garbage you playing? Stop playing it.” To us, it was that thing. That’s how I feel about this generation of hip-hop. I feel like the Young Thugs ... all this music, some might not like it, but who cares, that’s not for you. That’s for who likes it. You know what I mean? The same thing happened with NWA when NWA first came out, they got dissed like a ... Boy, I remember it was just like, “Man this is like ... what is this?” Snapping on it. But at the same time now they in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. To me, I love this generation of music. I think it’s really dope. I got love for my boy, Future, because Future is Dungeon Family. I’m with it. I love it. There’s nothing wrong with it to me at all.

Christina Lee

Especially in regards to Future, you’ve literally seen him grow up. You’ve seen him grow up into Meathead and then you saw him grow up into Future. When you’re listening to his music, can you pick out the Dungeon Family influences where you hear his stuff? Do you feel like you can detect that?

Sleepy Brown

The melodies, the melodies he sings. I think the melodies really remind me of just that whole Dungeon flavor. Future, the funny story is, I didn’t even know that Meathead had a record out and his name was Future. I had just came back to Atlanta, and I had heard his song on the radio, I think it was “Racks on racks on racks,” that song. I’m hearing this, right? I’m like, “Man, that voice sounds so familiar to me,” but I could not ... I just didn’t think about it. I went to the gas station. I was buying some cigarettes, which you should not smoke. Saw this CD of the ... I’m like, “Oh man, that’s Meathead.” I’m looking at it, it’s like Dirty Sprite. I’m like ...

I call Rico, because Rico’s his cousin. I’m like, “Ric, Meathead a...” He like, “Yeah, man. His name’s Future. He doing it.” I was like, “What?” Then I started getting into everything he was doing. I was so proud of him because I had no idea ... I was in Vegas. I had no idea what he was doing. When I went home and heard the streets and who they were talking about, I was like, “Wow.” Rico had actually put him out in a group called Connex. It was a pretty good album, just didn’t ... No support on it, never took it anywhere to get signed or anything. It was a really good album, and we always said he had that thing, like he was going to be somebody. When I got back to Atlanta and found out it was him, I just had the biggest smile. I was just like, “Wow. That is so dope,” because I was hoping that somebody from the Dungeon would come back and run something. Where’s everybody? What boy is it? Then to hear Future, that’s what I’m talking about. Represent, baby. That’s how you do it.

Audience Member

My question is, I feel like our generation, in general, is very creative with anything and I feel like we are the only people that can kind of stop ourselves. What are some type of words that you can give to us, or just ways that we can continue to keep pushing ourselves so don’t give up? I know it doesn’t happen overnight. It takes years. You know, it might take a long time for you to get where you need to be. I just want to know some type of encouragement, or even certain things that you’ve done that can probably be influencing to others.

Sleepy Brown

Don’t stop. The day that you stop is the day it’s over. That’s what we always believed at the Dungeon. It took us years to finally, for ... When LaFace moved to Atlanta, we still didn’t get with them until two or three years later. It takes time sometimes. You got to have patience and still believe in what you do. We sent music to everybody. Somebody might be like, “It’s okay.” Then this person might be, “This is whack.” Then this person might be like, “I hear potential.” I hear you all, but I believe in what I’m doing. By us being that way, that’s why Outkast is how they are today. You got to believe in yourself. I know that’s just a normal thing to say. That is so true. Do not stop believing in what you do. Period.

Audience Member

I just was wondering if you could elaborate on the atmosphere of the AUC back when you were coming up in the music industry, because I know that you and Big Boy had the song, “Morris Brown.”

Sleepy Brown

Yeah.

Audience Member

You know, they were a big part of the AUC back in the day, so I was wondering if you could elaborate on that?

Sleepy Brown

I think it was just a part of Atlanta. It’s like when you arrived in Atlanta, you had to go right through the college scene. That’s kind of what we were doing, playing new records, while we ran through slow, just to see if somebody turn around or something like that. That was a big part of just the South and our growth, the whole college scene. I love the college scene out here. It’s a beautiful thing. That’s all it was for us. It was about cruising through, looking at everybody, and that was it. Ride through, turn back around, ride through again, turn back around, ride through, get something to eat, turn back around, ride back through. That’s just all it was, but that was Atlanta. It was like Freaknik. Freaknik. Exactly what is was.

Christina Lee

What was Freaknik like for you?

Sleepy Brown

Freaknik was a bunch of traffic, but it was so much fun. That’s all Freaknik was. I’ll never forget, we were on 75, 85 right by the 20 Exit, and all of a sudden, all the traffic stopped and all the kids got out of their cars and started dancing on their cars. I couldn’t believe how crazy ... It was just ... Atlanta had just got really crazy. That’s when they tried to stop you from driving and just walk, walk around downtown. That, naw, that wasn’t it. Freaknik was all about driving around and just drive slow in traffic for hours, and looking at the next car, “Hey, what’s up?” That was all it was. And dudes with cameras. Oh and girls shaking their butt out the windows. Can’t forget that.

Christina Lee

Minor note.

Audience Member

I just wanted to ask how you remain so humble and personable because I feel the energy. I feel like it’s just speaking to a normal person. You have all this accolade behind you, and I just wonder how you remain so humble and relatable?

Sleepy Brown

Thank you. I actually get it from my dad. My dad is the most humble person in the world, and I think by him being humble, it brought a lot of gifts and a lot of openings for him. In my heart, you have to be a good person. You gotta treat people the way you want to be treated. I don’t want to be an ass to you and then expect that you treat me nice. My whole thing is, for music, I always think of myself ... It’s funny, sometimes I’ll go somewhere where they be like, “Man, Sleepy Brown,” and they be like, “You ain’t acting like no star.” I’m like, “No,” because to me it’s music. I love the fact that people love the music that I’m doing, but I can’t let it get to my head and walk around like ... Because then I’ll block my blessings.

Audience Member

I feel that your more behind the scenes, right? Your the producer, obviously. Your making these beats, making it possible for people like Outkast, paved that way for them. I don’t know necessarily how it works financially, but in the limelight, they are the ones, they are the faces of what you’ve produced, right?

Sleepy Brown

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Audience Member

Do you see that they may be ... Because I don’t see Outkast coming to an event like this.

Sleepy Brown

Oh no. They would.

Audience Member

They would?

Sleepy Brown

Yeah. I’m going to tell you like this. Dre is a little different. He’s more to himself. That’s why we always give him space, and let him do him. I can’t really say for Dre, but I know Big would in a heartbeat. I love Big Boi. If you want to meet somebody super humble, meet Big Boi. It’s ridiculous. I know he would be here. Time he found out what I was doing, he been posting on Instagram all day. That’s all he do.

Audience Member

What was one of the more fun songs that you recorded? What was your favorite? You know, you just had fun in the studio, it just came to you? On the flip side, what was the worst song? You know, that just took you forever to actually record it?

Sleepy Brown

Took forever to do it. The best song, I’ll have to say, it was a song I produced with Joi. It was called “Lick.” If you haven’t heard it, look that one up. It was in a couple of movies. That was a real fun and sexy record. The hardest record? Wow. I don’t know. That’s a good question, because if you know what? If it becomes too hard, I won’t do it. It has to be that, I have to feel like this is going. Sometimes you want to work for something to see if it will work out. But if it’s just now there? If it gets to that point, I’ll just be like, just go somewhere else. That’s kind of what it is, if that answers your question, if that was good.

Audience Member

I’m curious about, kind of that transition ... You’re in the studio, the sound sounds great, you can get it just the way you want it. Now you got to go out and deliver it live, in front of all these people. How do you translate that vision in the studio to the stage, and what are some of the things you’re thinking about when you’re making that plan about how I’m going to execute this on stage? Do you have any rituals that you go through before you hit the stage? What’s that process like?

Sleepy Brown

That’s a great question. As far as the show, I think it’s just about that feeling. Sometimes you’re not going to be able to get those same drums, because it might have been a drum machine. I don’t too much want to put the drum machine on stage with the band, because the one thing about Sleepy Theme’s band is that, that’s the great thing about it, is that groove of them playing live. They set they own tempo to it, you know what I mean? I think with that, it was just about us ... I want to make sure that everybody else play what they suppose to play to make it really come across.

As far as rituals, I just kick everybody out, and then look in the mirror and be like, “You gonna do this! Who gonna do this? You Brown! Show them what you do Brown, come on Brown!” Then I turn around and walk out.

Audience Member

I watched the Organized Noize documentary actually, on Netflix, it was pretty good. What I got from that is that you guys were a real family, the Dungeon Family, the crew. What kind of advice would you give to young guys trying to make their own crew? How do you handle situations where you have many artists? Like you guys, you have Outkast and Goodie Mob at the same time, how did you handle situations like that? How come Goodie Mob didn’t feel like, “Why did we not come out first,” and all this? I’ve worked for a lot of people, and these situations always come through.

Sleepy Brown

Actually Goodie Mob weren’t together, when we first did “Player’s Ball”. That kind of came after. What it was, Gipp was a solo artist, CeeLo was a solo artist, and Khujo and T-Mo were a group called the Lumberjacks. That’s how that was. Then Rico was like, “Why don’t we just put y’all together as a group, and we’ll do it like this.” I don’t know if it would have been a problem, because it really wasn’t a problem. They knew that we wanted to make Outkast the first ones to set the whole trend up, so what that deal was, on that Southernplayalistic album, if you listen to it, every song is not just us, it’s everybody’s ideas. We’re all in the studio. Like CeeLo went in, Ray was doing a beat, CeeLo went in, did a verse that became “Get Up, Get Out, Get Some”. You know what I’m saying?

That first album was really a Dungeon Family album. Truthfully. Outkast was just the face of it. Everybody’s ideas, that was definitely a Dungeon family album. As far as you trying to put a crew together, if everyone has the same love for what they want, and they see it over there all together, it works. If anybody look over here, look over there, they ain’t supposed to be in the crew, because they only looking out for themselves. We always looked out for each other. Period.

Audience Member

I’m a producer, so I have a couple production questions. I recall you mentioning Dr. Dre, and I remember when I went back and listened to Southernplayalistic album, and I was listening to The Chronic around that same time, to me some of the aspects of Southernplayalistic production wise, it felt like Atlanta’s answer to The Chronic.

Sleepy Brown

Absolutely.

Audience Member

What influence did The Chronic have on Southernplayalistic? My second question is what type of drum machines and instruments did you guys use on Soul Food, because to me, out of all the releases, it felt the most raw.

Sleepy Brown

Right. Okay, so, Soul Food was the SP 1200. You can tell how the bass … drum sound crunchy, yeah. So that’s the SP 12, MP 60, was mainly our main drum machines. As far as the first question, what’s funny is, I remember when The Chronic was coming out, and our record store Super Sounds had it a day early. We went and picked it up, because we knew for some reason that that album was going to be bad because we were already Dr. Dre fans. Period. We played it, and we listened to that whole album. We were like, “You know what? If we want to be seen, we got to be in competition with this. If somebody listens to The Chronic, there’s got to be somebody next to them listening to ours.” You feel me? So that was our main thing. You saying that, that’s exactly what it was.

Dre was that, it was that blueprint of showing us how to put an album together. To make it a story. That’s what I like about Dre. He would have breaks, he would, you know what I’m saying? You would swear you were watching a movie when you were listening to that album, just from beginning to end. That’s how we want to do. For sure.

Audience Member

Piggybacking off of the production, would you say is the difference between a beat, versus okay, this is a production?

Sleepy Brown

I think more production, from what it’s supposed to stand for, is more instruments I would say. A lot of people don’t think that just a beat is a fully produced song. It is these days. It doesn’t take a lot, what’s nice these days is that how simple stuff is, and how raw it is, and how it’s only a kick and the snare, and then this one sound. This little eerie sound. That sets the whole groove.

These days I think those kind of beats are well produced records too. They’re not easy to do. What Metro Boomin and ‘em doing, that ain’t easy to do, you just can’t go in there and think you’re going to do what they be, because it’s not like that. I really look up to a lot of producers these days, I like them man. I think what they doing is really fly. How they taking Fruity Loops and flipping it, and Ableton and doing this, because I don’t even know how to work Ableton yet. That’s what I want to learn how to work. I heard that is insane. I work with the Maschine, and the Native Instruments, I love Native Instruments, and all this stuff.

Audience Member

You mentioned the SP 1200, why was that the instrument?

Sleepy Brown

That was the one drum machine where it could take your drums and make them sound dirty like an old record. It really made it sound hip-hop. It almost really messed your sample up. Sonics on it were just like, “Woo,” like, “Ooh, that sounds nasty,” you know what I mean? If you put an 808, it don’t just go boom, it goes brrr. It buzzed you know what I mean? That’s what it is.

Audience Member

Tomorrow night? I was just wondering if you could talk about who’s playing, and what the setup is? Just like, talking just about how you approached what you want to do. This is first time you’re playing this album.

Sleepy Brown

Yeah, yeah. Actually not the first time we’re playing the album, but, in a long time. I got all the original players. Vic, Victor Cortes is on drums man. I call him Bigfoot, because he’s big, he’s just, you know, he’s heavy. Omar the percussionist. We’re basically just going to take the album and shake it up, put it in a box and shake it up and go ... Put our list in like, instead of doing it just like the album. I’m real excited about doing it. It’s going to be fun.

Audience Member

I know you have the Organized Noize reunion coming up next month for the One Music Fest. I just wanted to know what prompted you all to get back together?

Sleepy Brown

They called us man. It was something that we wanted to do, but there’s a lot of us man. It’s kind of hard to arrange that when Big might have a certain schedule, CeeLo got a certain schedule. It’s all about, just so happened this schedule came together. By blessing it came together. I was shocked. Like, “We gonna do it.” I was like, “We are? Okay.” I’m excited, this is a long time we haven’t done this. This is actually the first time we’ve ever performed the Dungeon Family album. We’ve never done this. It was just, man. Everything lined up right, that’s all I can say.

Christina Lee

Since the documentary was brought up, there’s an album to go along with it, right, The Art of Organized Noize? What’s the status of that right now?

Sleepy Brown

It’s being mixed right now. We actually, the song they’re going to make the first single is called “Pass The Kush”. It’s featuring Joi. It’s so raw and dub-funky, it’s ridiculous. I’m excited about that one.

Christina Lee

Who else is going to be featured?

Sleepy Brown

Well, me and Joi just kind of basically doing songs on there together. We’re going to put out volumes of the album, the second album is going to be more guest stars from people and stuff like that. This one is more instrumentals. This album, an artist can take the instrumental and do something, whatever they want to, because it’s going to be some instrumental, feeling the vibe on it. You can do something to it, whatever. We also are going to have songs on there, too, singing songs.

Christina Lee

That must have been really exciting to reunite with Joi.

Sleepy Brown

Oh yeah, that’s my sister. That’s my Aquarius sister. Her birthday is the next day after mine, so we just alike. We silly and everything. She’s always, I can just called her and be like, “Yo I got this beat.” Send it to me. Then she’ll write something to it. It’s that simple with Joi.

Christina Lee

Awesome. The final question I had was in regards to The Vinyl Room. Do you have plans to reissue the album?

Sleepy Brown

It’s actually up right now on iTunes. I didn’t say that though, but, it’s on iTunes.

Christina Lee

That’s okay though, I’m sure people are going to want to know how they can listen to it.

Sleepy Brown

Yeah, yeah, please do y’all.

Christina Lee

This was a really great conversation, really great lecture.

Sleepy Brown

Yeah it was nice. I had fun.

Christina Lee

Give it up for Sleepy Brown guys.