Fab Morvan on the Rise and Fall of Milli Vanilli (Full Interview)

five more van for Milli Vanilli lag it's an honor to finally speak to you you know for me I do a lot of interviews but but the most special ones are always the ones of people out fans of when I was a kid right you know when I was growing up watching MTV when MTV actually played music videos and so on and you guys were huge at the time and keke baby yeah MTV really is what blew you guys up I think the songs without the music videos would not have been the same no doubt you know and girl you know is true came out the visuals of it it's just everything just sort of fit into place yeah and you guys you guys definitely did your thing but let's go ahead and start from the very beginning so Rob was German and you were French that's right so this was growing up in the 70s and 80s in France yeah how was it there's a lot of racism during that time or because I don't Rob Rob mentioned that he kicked you dealt with somebody definitely dealt with a lot but French sing a little different it was more you know more people from everywhere around the world from Africa I'm Creole you know the island so we have a more international and living in Paris which is an international City you know you had everything you know so but he was living in Minich in Bavaria and Bavaria is kind of a very conservative part of Germany and when he was growing up there was no black kids so you were the only one so what happened was at first you know got beat up on a lot but when he became of age and felled himself and got into breakdancing yeah he get the balls to like yo don't mess with me and then he became his philosophy was like it's better to be feared and to be loved and I was the opposite so we had that yin and yang thing going on don't now he was a break dancer for you you were not know is not I've learned dancing a study dancing and it's dance school and that's all so I got into you know the love of dancing music was always in my heart but when you're able to just you know combined movement and listen to the music and play with your body and express yourself because because and it's an extension of what you are and then the music comes next and then you start to sing and you know this is what I want to do so how do the two of you hook up initially we met in Munich Germany at first I was on his turf I was being true der and then you know we realized I was better - if you can't beat them join them and when we joined forces it was like wow we made a splash in Munich Germany and everyone knew who we were at first with dating the same girl and it was like yeah man who is he and it was just like a competition and it came a time where we're just like crossing each other all the time but there was a certain chemistry like man that dude's cool man could hook up you just like to you know be good to be because United you're stronger yeah and I was just from the outside and the people that I came with in Germany were just scattered and so we just you know how now then we felt like we loved the same thing we love music and I was like and when we started two speakers you know we spoke in English broken English at first and because you guys didn't have a common language your friend she's German you might be English so how did you guys communicate Oh spoken English Odinga yeah yeah we started English in school so you know so we understood each other you know but sometimes it's not what you say it's what you don't say so when we started hanging out in the clubs when there was a track some of the reformed he was like Derek and Dez I was there we were there for hours it was like he was never leaving as always as like man yeah man the open love love this love music so the next step is of course to to want to get into the music business yeah and to want to get with professionals so we were playing sucker with a lot of studio musicians we used to order Frank firing and from there you know we asked them the only one would love to you know do something with you guys and they were busy so during summertime they had a break and we would rehearse at them and we did a few show in Munich okay now at this point because at one point you guys wrote for models also yeah we do that too no hate it deals with that okay and we got successful at that or is it just like little money here no I was a little money in that we're doing shows as well we're doing one without that stuff yeah run away type stuff catalogue stuff and we were doing some some dance shows were you know as a whole is like a 20 minute thing and because you have a certain period of time in Germany which is doing Falls called fashion and there's a lot of lot of jobs are coming in so we Fashion Week basically a notable carnival a fashion that is carnival and during that time throughout Bavaria they celebrate like crazy you have Oktoberfest during that period gotcha and there's a lot of jobs coming in so we said why not do like like a 25 minute show and then I was doing Michael Jackson you know so really do Michael Jack oh yeah exactly you know and we had a few few like you know about 20 minutes and we were working it and stuff anyone type died died out and we were doing met more people than we do catalog stuff and just had to survive and but the main focus for us was like yeah we've gotta get with professionals so what we've performed with the band once finally people found us like oh yeah we heard like yeah I should come to the studio and that's how we started getting into the business now at which point did the name milli vanilli come about that was before you guys are now that way that was his Frank that was like a producer yeah okay so you guys won't call milli vanilli but no no no no okay so so you guys are just a group did you have a group name before really but no no it was just Robin tat Robin fab okay so you guys go and you hook up with Frank variant is I depressed fat Frank fine Frank Farian so what's interesting about Frank Farian is that he was an established producer already yes John Bonilla Bonilla enormous right now boney I'm a she has a very interesting story in the way they connects with you guys exactly now Frank Farian who is a white German do sir exactly goes and pick well he does a song himself with his own vocals yeah but instead of putting himself as the singer he goes and finds four Caribbean people right that's right and has them essentially lip-synching well just one of them one of them just wanted them bow be Pharaoh then the rest were female okay so he wanted to see oh did he think I don't know exactly what happened to bunny M but the male vocals were done by Frank so you have any you have the producer a white a white singer doing the vocals that a black lead singer is now lip-synching that's right and boney m ended up getting huge listen then they sold over a hundred twenty million records a hundred I believe that they're one of the super that got with diamonds diamond yeah one of the few and the big song was really my Baker so many men my Baker is for me growing up in Paris there was one of the biggest one actually Lady Gaga took that that's my mama took that sequence in printing her song oh that's actually boney m yeah kind of sample in a way it is okay so Frank has had experience already before he meets really Vanilli to take someone else's vocals and have a frontman one of those vocals and he's had tremendous success with that tremendous and which allowed him to have four studios SSL that's his cell knees through the whole rack right these are million-dollar mixing boards are talking there's not forget about that yeah and that was back in the days back her there when he got into his studio that was like you know gold records he worked with Toto it worked with tension Dobby were actually CD one they recorded I just called to say I love you I just called Telugu in that studio a lot of people throughout Europe his compound was very famous for the quality sound that he would produce out of that so a lot of people went through there okay so he meets you guys yeah and how does relationship initially start to form between you and Frank well the relationship with Frank started like as you know he was the father figure he was a man he has the recording studios to go records on the wall so we get in there we think like yo everything's on the up-and-up being on nothing you know so when we stand to like sign a contract he always his sign little bit of money okay cool how much money was it man it was 1,500 bucks at the time which was mushy no peanuts like nothing you're a dog you know like thousand-dollar dollars and nothing nothing okay but for us at that point you know we got nothing so you know you just put your name down here there was no attorney no management right who disliked what do we sign you but did you guys have any music at this point or no we did some things but it was some demo types yes I'm doing with type stuff okay no he meets you guys and he does he see the vision right away hears it take a little while for no he did he did the thing is we walked into a trap not knowing was a trap that dude was only looking for one thing only came to the forum and what did it look like that's all they wanted from us because obviously they had material already recorded because what happened was what I found out because I work with one of the original vocalist we perform in Germany with John Davis and he told me that the weight started on his end was like Frank called it because you would work with Frank hustling no all the time and he called me it started was just a very another one of those projects where he would sing on so do record it and then after that he would come back and say yo man I know that voice I know who's singing the other row cause like now you don't and it was kind of like secretive type start stuff and he would way like so what's up Luke Oh Frankie look took the project like all nothing right now so Frank would get the vocals and I would build the tracks and it would co people again and it would do in that order okay and then what would happen like yeah they would eventually we came into the picture and when we got started with the project and that they went crazy haywire and then wearing a suit you working in the album they were like cranking him because Frank was like clear on I got something right there with the music you know and and and with this plan like I got the puzzle together I got those boys I got the music you know they won't know what happened what happens you know we'll get to that in a second but they were working hard core four Studios working so you guys get signed to Frank yes as milli vanilli but he's working on the music completely separate from you guys you guys aren't involved in the creative we don't know that at all we figure that out like later words okay yeah so where does the milli vanilli name come about that came together with was you know we love the group coats critical eating okay no English band we are from the 80s late 80s and you know when we came up with the name you know we thought ice cream but nearly you know and then there was the when someone I would used to work for Frank my name is milli and then somehow after going back and forth we we did really for nearly and it sounded like but it was two guys you know yeah it felt like moving nearly but we were created it like this like okay Mill River nearly but afterwards we were like no no that's the name of the group and people would always say so who's really really nearly but we didn't intend that like that when we created it it was like yeah maybe you know two things what I had read that it means positive energy and Turkish that yeah that someone told us that you know so like so we ran with it you know it's one of those things you run with it until he comes what you and says a nah dude name does actually mean that not okay so just a made-up name yes made of name and it worked any work yeah so you guys are in there and you know Frank is sort of masterminding this whole this whole project yes now I come to find out as I'm doing the research for this interview that girl you know is true was actually released by a u.s. group from Baltimore called Newmark's that's correct and I looked up the song and is still on YouTube yeah it's the exact same song like this very little like I could see a few subtle changes in it but it's not almost exactly the same in terms of the click click yeah but the production we're talking about Frank Ryan induction then it's a little different but I feel like that the general melodies are known as general yeah it's pretty much there overall it was it you know 100% was ever watching this could actually look it up and you could I am talking about so what's interesting about the group Newmark's is a Baltimore DJ crew and one of the guys in new Marx is Kevin Liles Kevin Liles who went on to become the president of Def Jam the executive vice president of Warner Brothers next guy and he still you know III know you know I rent a camera every so often the man with the Air Force One yeah because he collects hair folks oh yeah yep and I think in doubt he manages trey songz and a okay artist as well right so did you actually know Kevin Laue did you know how many about new marks or anything else like that I know about the group and you found that later I found out a week later but any time you had no idea no idea because I guess what had happened was Newmark's had a few somewhat local hits they released girl you know is true in the u.s. it didn't really do anything but then in Germany it's already billed somewhat of a buzz that's right and they're saying to Frank probably heard the song in Germany yeah Frankie's too good his club in uh in Frankfurt and no they were American base in Frankfurt a lot of Americans were there and Americans would would go and hang and clubs where they would play American music so Frank used to hang out there and checking out the music that's how he got his music and as I checked out the people you only created music you would print a vinyl go to the club and check it out like yeah be like mmm okay I need to fix this I need to fix that but from that Club that's where you heard a new Marx right because he used to work with DJs right as well and what's interesting I guess is that after Kevin Liles went through you know co-writing the song and then trying to collect royalties and having all these problems that's what actually caused them to go and to move to New York and going in business and go into business with the music industry and then what went on to become the president of Def Jam I never beat Kevin it's not even that you never met him no crazy but you know I believe in something action equal reaction yeah always you know and sometime you know you just a situation can get either make you or break you but if you stand tall through it stand up and then you know get back to it you know you can do you thank ya you're stronger than me J what doesn't kill you makes you stronger so girl you know it's true when you heard it did you hear the new Marx version or did you hear Frank's version how it was the first time I heard girl knows she was instrumental okay stuff was banging like whoa and the big news like they said in his jab like check this out boom we were like whoa I could I mean I could see myself like I was like you know I love music a taste I felt music and I felt like that was a dope track okay but there's no vocals yet he's not vocally even though the vocals had already been recorded on American version if I knew that if I knew how a board would work it would have seen that that was mutable look athere I guess reconstructed about the instrumentals and everything yeah yeah but what happened was it was old sunshine in that room when we play that track and then we went to another room and that's when the dark cloud came in and that's when you kind of like told us listen and I didn't speak German at the time so he speaks - Rob okay and I'm trying to decipher I knew a little bit you know so I'm trying to figure it out and those guys like arguing or she rubs eyes going like war and then they do is like where and then Frank gets out the room no no and then he looks at internal of you is to like lip sync I'm like what is it up in a ballet you sign the contract and like I don't get it you know and I'm like no I doing that so we get out of the room Sigma ain't doing that you know so we went back to our hotel and we're like so what do we do we know if it stuff's crazy and then they called us and then it was to come back anyone like that like we received money throughout the month so while they were working we got money to pay the rent you know make the hair buy some clothes because it was important right because initially you guys didn't have the braids no we didn't you guys had one just short hair short hair short yeah okay good idea was the braids well what happened was in 1987 I believe on Newsies we're watching a documentary about pop icon's and it was very obvious to us from Elvis Presley Marilyn Monroe and Bob Marley and so on and so on their identity you could you'd know who that was because of the hair so we were like no something to that we got to do that because we wanted to get into music business and we thought like you have to have a certain identity what do we do so we said yeah let's try that no and when we try that then it girls like clay I guess I mean we were getting action but it was like whoa look that's the right decision because you mentioned the terms for Darby we help before you name was on before right he has but he had he had braids or yeah yeah yeah yeah they work for him in words for him so looking at that part of you know like pop icons you know they're always something that sticks out to you and we follow this right out okay so you guys here girl you know it's true yeah and you're told that you have to lip sync it yeah you go back to the hotel room what happens next what Nicole is back we come back and that's when we told that it's okay if you only do it and you clears back it was like oh okay but we got no money how much was it like a few thousand or a little more than it has two thousand five maybe not that much money not much - bro kids it was my money the world is like what we're gonna do I want it you know like what we're going to do like you know we're gonna have to find a job and we weren't really trying to hear that but we didn't know that we heard the track like wow you know yeah we thought the most positive thoughts but when that happened everything became like I'm gonna get out of here so it's like okay we do the job so you know you just work you pay me back you do it you pay me back in you know you done huh so that sounds good then we're against the wall you guys agree to do the lip-syncing but it was only just to pay back the money that you want yeah you guys didn't say okay we're gonna be a lip-syncing group no it was like let's do this and it get out of there but then it went crazy you guys agree to do the lip-syncing but it was only just to pay back the money that you own yeah you guys didn't say okay we're gonna be a lip-syncing group no it was like let's do this and it get out of there but then it went crazy okay so girl you know is true was one of the songs but there was a bunch of other song that came later okay well what was true was just so that guy releases a single first that was the first yeah I was it that's what he said he said hey you know we signed a contract we didn't even know no I remember I told you no manager no attorney so we signed his contract that was pretty sick but we never looked inside we were signed for three albums at this point we don't know the industry we're like totally naive but what you guys are I mean to be fair coming from where you guys are coming from with no hit records no experience you didn't really have a bargaining chip here nah you know I'm saying so yes you probably signed a bad contract but at the time you know people also have to understand about the music industry is that 90% of the projects a label puts out ends up losing money and 10% ends up making money which is why a record label is almost required to have contracts that may not be great for the people that do make money because in general they do lose money yes generally generally 90 if it's one of the worst businesses to be in you're better off with a lottery ticket than that now the right way now you got 360 now yeah a few less another exactly so okay so you guys agreed to do girl you know it's true yeah as a single now even though the single came out in Germany under new marks I guess you didn't really go anywhere so they're able to essentially put it back out more major level that's right mg and it's BMG okay machine you got the Machine by muscle so you go and put our girl you know it's true now were you performing it in Germany now what we did we did a small we need to do video so we went to a local TV station and recorded some some thing you know like you know I don't know I don't I don't think I've ever seen it anywhere but we did that thing and that thing in that part of Germany lit up and that's when Frank was like yeah you got to do a real video when I spend some money now we're gonna do for real and really like world so you know you gotta taste define only know when you get to taste yeah about the first time you have first done you know suddenly you know people say your name the amount of girls that I'm the traffic is getting bigger you know you you can enter any clubs you know your the hotel you dial two numbers the food comes up wow you can mess up your room have a party open your fridge or there's no not enough okay it's called front desk they fill it up I mean that's the life yeah so you go from having nothing to to be this this goddess dude that's like on television you're loved by everyone you're like the mayor everywhere you go people she ate one shake your hand they want to be with you they want to hang out with you it's heaven so you taste that thing you know and then then it's time for a single number two - that is that is baby I forget my number ok so one baby don't forget my number comes around with like yo you know we wanna you know in our mind you know naive like know that duty snap he looks at us like you can't man we can change the voices and we're like oh oh so you guys wanted to actually do the vocals moving forward yeah you know we were stuffed at the beginning but then ii like you and we told him you want to do that oh yeah you know could rush it up of course yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah of course we you know okay cool so in our mind it needs okay we do this again but I was totally delusional but in our mind no hoping and wanting to just be the to have the full package live your dream for ya right now we're just living like part of the dream but we loved performing so much and we do the tour in America a hundred six hundred seventy eight or eight months so girl your nose true blows up in Germany yeah all over Europe or just Germany now it blows up in Germany then it spreads out slowly but surely to each territories Holland bein Erie and that's when when we only rose to the top of the European charts then you started crossing over to America so that's before the second single and our first single first thing yeah so the first oh girl you know starting a played in America as well yeah yeah okay so then the second single is getting ready to come out and Frank tells you once again you're not going to perform on it yes did they try to play around your vocals at all or man no he just Center in the other time you get at it all okay I do had his very strict plan and he had his group of American older American musicians some of them were kind of heavyset not exactly photogenic but they had the chops to do what they had in shops and you know like those guys were cool looking you know but to Frank yeah he's not feeling the bill okay those guys we're going to be in the front and those guys were going to be in the back so the second single once again you guys aren't on it but you're you're loving the ride so far loving the ride so you can't get off the ride yeah at this point you've been subducted training no you can sit do this but I think that life knows that life and it feels good to be there you know if you travel the world but if but after every show you come back to your room after people leave the room after the after the party there's after party after party after party and at the end when everybody's gone it's you you alone that's when reality sets in and it's ugly well the second circle comes out yes in Europe again or oh then I think it went well then Grande went like you know where for because the deal with Arista that come after the first single everything was worked I believe that while movingly was rising in Europe talks where he's taking place right because they could tell like yeah we're gonna we're going to top of the charts in Europe your logical ways to run to the other side right because you guys are singing in English that's right you're technically German group exactly and London was popping so you know when you when London is popping then automatically snork yeah you know free DJ you know the cycle yeah for in London New York and then from New York it starts to pop to the rest of the country and then every other radio session starts they're known to play it essentially so when we went on the first time we went to New York we very no it's true and we were on the radio on the way to New York leaving the airport it was like movingly on two or three stations that's crazy we were just beaker yeah and you guys had two errors to deal at this point yeah we did but all that was worked out okay ahead of time because you guys did actually sign an Aristo no no Frank and his production company signed an we signed to a production deal - Frank fine yeah Franco sign to BMG and they decided to air stuff to Arista right Clyde days Clive Davis exactly oh so I mean even though you guys aren't directly signed to era so you guys are now heiress to artists and this William at the height of era so what's like Whitney Houston at the time yeah that's right on eros to like what are the artists run airs at the time man I don't remember because as a matter of fact when we came around you said at the height but he wasn't it was a dip it was a bit yeah it was a dip at that moment so when we came in was feeling like we blew them up again but there was a little dip Whitley was it was not so it was it was just like a so we came into the right time for them okay and by the time but that time because you said the second single had already come out right yeah and how's that thing will do in compared to growing those tree-killing great doing great doing great and you guys put out four singles yeah the singles are going oh it's true baby don't forget my number then on the rain girl I'm going to miss you all all four singles go to number one the album comes out and sells six million copies or more English seven seven million yeah in the u.s. in the u.s. internationally how big does it do 14 million albums and 33 name singles 14 so you go diamond on this album and you go triple diamond on the singles I mean that exactly triple down but you know what I'm talking I know he's done there are 33 with the in singles and it was crazy so if you just do the math let's say you wholesale albums of $10 each you guys made like half a billion dollars on just just the the music sales or so lots of money right not including all the other money around the tours and the merchandising and whatever else yeah so you guys are money machines at this point P much yeah now at this point at the height of it all describe to me what's going on with you guys ooh we're totally dysfunctional now we're like in order to forget the pressure that we're on because we were not happy you see it seems from the outside like everything is hunky-dory like they're on the road they're working the fans are screaming they're on the radio rotation they're on MTV but we wanted to sing and at first you know like I said we've gotten we say no we got a taste and then we stayed in there and then one single - single three singles and we're starting to like and then we were not into alcohol and drugs but then in order to cope with the situation and the schedule then we start drinking okay and doing drug work on drugs coke pot and so I had some hot Headz Iran everything you can name on the board on the menu we did it was just no need to escape that that pressure it was becoming too difficult and the fact that we couldn't share the secret so we had that thing like tucked in like to the side and we can share with no body so we hang out with people but then we have to like take a step back because we want people to find out which was going down well let's talk about two hours ago because Clive Davis is not just a paper music executive he's actually musician himself who knows music very deeply he's produced you know a lot of music before he became executive loan history long history he's you know I know people that have had to audition for Clive Davis in his office like he is a music guy this is the guy behind Whitney Houston Kenny's Chaplin Janis Joplin the list goes and Otto Hahn Moloch so yeah did you guys actually meet Clive Davis at any point I've seen pictures of you Clapton and I mean that meant obviously we met but we met we met in his famous office that he had a Terry stop there was very dim the light was dim and then you came in there like a long desk pictures of Ike iconic icon figures and then his ravages glasses and always like you know really calming and just welcome to America not really discussing anything but just welcoming us to the label and you know I look forward to to us do what we do and and see what happens did he know do you guys weren't actually singing on this album could this was Clive Davis are you here you hear what he said hear what he says you just said right now this is Clive Davis if a pen dropped in the building he knew yeah so he dropped it so you know come on he knew yeah man come on yeah you know you know so uh I don't know the details behind that you see that's been that's one infinite being kept really really really secret I don't know how he went about like saying because they had to be close to disclose that to him right but he's the president of Harris the record yeah so but I guess you said yeah yeah let's do it man it is a shame let's get that paper you know we'll see what happens later obviously because one when everything went down well everybody was gone the platinum records on the records would pull down real quick I heard because I met her I talked to an executive that was over there I was like yo man when that happened he's like I got that so you guys are on fire for hit singles diamond album everyone was down with Milli Vanilli and I think what made million billion mama yeah what made really Vanilli kind of work at the time was that hip hop was still building and so you you were the rapper in the group and Rob I guess is the singer that's right you know visually and it was sort of this interesting kind of hip-hop R&B pop kind of fusion combo yeah bill bill devoted something kind of in the same vein I feel yeah the rapping and the singing and so forth you know Bobby Brown you know they keep different groups were kind of playing around and you guys kind of nailed that sound laughing and singing and so Frank Frank really you know he's student of the game that is the student of music and we saw this this niche market it was like yell we put this like this anyways 100% it was right right so he knew like I said from the start here that he had that idea this plan very precise plan and he did execute it perfectly uh-huh I found out later that ie he knew something that would happen was going to happen bringing know how big we get right but he had the right idea so you guys are out promoting your music yeah and we're like worldwide I remember as a kid watching an MTV performance with you guys and afterwards you know on MTV you give like a shout out hey this is milli vanilli shout out to MTV something something and I remember as a kid watching this and seeing the two of you do this and I thought these guys can't speak English you heard it I heard it right away right and it was like I'm like this right here already doesn't make sense cuz cuz the English was still pretty bad like the way you're talking to me now was not the way you sounded back then no no it was very thick like you guys like you know we'll see like it took a few takes to sort of get that shot and rest of the boat yeah you're fresh off exact came in so yeah gotta get you know it's time to go let's go the accents were very very similar in accent and I remember thinking in the back of my mind saying this isn't science the same guys I'm hearing on the record because on the record the English is perfect - exactly and these guys are talking and isn't it doesn't sound that way so I'm thinking the back of my mind something seems off but Who am I I'm a kid I have no no influence whatever those musical ears you had early on in the game yeah exactly so I guess when that happened it did get on certain people's radar you know people started to notice something isn't quite matching up here they think all right in living color yeah okay what happened ecology the sketch I'm livin le I think you can find out on YouTube it was as free crazy too we were in London and at a hotel and we were like partying we're like a bunch of people in the hotel like you know lavish lifestyle table is full of food everybody's just loving the chin paying up call when you name it and what clicking Channel and then I'm clicking Charlie yo time looks like the world and I like it looks like a spoof I'm looking I'm like Benny looking good to me so I'm like yo need to hear this and we look at this I would like whoa I am liking that you know we recorded the last part of the sketch and we were like mmm - suddenly it was kind of like yo man people are like getting really they're getting close okay so in living color does a sketch basically making fun of your accents that's right and then Arsenal got onto got hip to that and we go after us because what happened was the original singers went on the show and I don't know if it wasn't going over all do whatever like there wasn't any of you that was that was given and it was Charles Shaw because the one thing people don't know is that gorilla is true the rapper longer knows true was not the same rapper as the other song Frank kicked a dude after four single okay that's what happened because he was talking about not only some some problems we took him but what happened was he got the open he started opening opening his mouth and then the other people that were involved in the project started to light the bandwagon so rumors occur rumors are coming here creeping and then there's a show that happens and the CD starts to skip well let me hold you yeah now that began that was you know we did a special with vh1 behind the music and I was something that they put it was a nice edit is great for TVs but that day really happened but he didn't change our lives because that was at the beginning of our career in America I haven't seen tour which will be brown aha so what happened well Julie brown downtown Julie brown sexy downtown do you remember and what happened was the trip yeah the computer skipped and it was not my part I was chilled I was like oh yes so he was passed so we went backstage and they were trying to fix the problem two minutes because we were known for the skipping you know back then used to do every Pete NOLA so we just went back out there and he'd be Damon it was no big deal no big deal at all okay that's not what started it all right OTV a little scared nice okay but it was those skits and people talking and everything else yeah okay if you guys are still plowing along and so don't wear anything do the American Music Awards happen first of the Grammys and I can see words American Music Awards happen you guys win three American Music Lamb which which one was it like best pop artists club I can't recall anything my brother okay no but you but that was that the first awards that you guys had won yeah that was yeah we did some small one but that was life right it was America Miss America how did it feel to win those three Awards he was amazing man it's hard to describe you know because you know you get those awards and you ecstatic but a minute you touch it it's like it feels like that's just gone yeah that's going to blow up in your face at some point at one point Rob did an interview with Time magazine oh that one and he said that here we go you guys are contributed more to pop music than Bob Dylan Mick Jagger and Paul McCartney oh my god now you know listen Oh Mike they robbed right they said rely it was wrong it wasn't you LT wasn't you dad listen even if you guys did all the vocals that was kind of a ridiculous statement okay me someone was someone with one album really can't say that now they contributed more than Paul McCartney of beginning your backstory first of all you know we had partied heavily the night before no still drunk as a matter if I still high okay and we get to the any of you and you know Rob spoke English well I spoke better and understood better and some time he put his foot in his mouth he was misunderstood he never said those words what do we say we were fans of Bob Dylan and the Beatles you know we were fans of it what he was trying to say you know it was trying to do on the pop level like we know we affect people to stand and but the journalist was like yo maybe he already knows like you're at a great story for know me go mad I don't get on the mind that I'm going to do this let me do this because you know we we actually try to get the tapes ah you know because you recorded the whole thing like you want to get the page will give us with tapes let us you know let me let's hear the conversation here cuz I know I would have said like yo man you crazy what okay quick so now I'll be so that's a rumor said that was you know and I was never actually said by back to the flip my Rob taken out of context out of context okay I mean listen you're completely honest with everything else that there's no reason no yeah for you to lie about this small small part of the story it's ludicrous man come on so you guys win these three American Music Awards yeah and that's nice but then the Grammys come now yeah every year when you have the Grammys there's a lot of categories in the Grammys sure you know they give out dozens of Grammys for some we don't even know but yeah best comedy album is right uh you know Best spoken word book you know best audio book there there's a lot of and they don't make the cut on TV edit right but there's four major awards important yeah and one of those awards is Best New Artist just kiss a death from menus been chance the rapper just won Best New Artist and Gabby - just passed you know being you know having the Best New Artist Grammy is the biggest award you could get as a new art it's a Medal of Honor see you guys go and win the Best New Artist Grammy how did it feel to go up on that stage except that'll work that was a crazy moment because uh we didn't expect it I remember watching the footage were front row and my heart just sunk I was like oh no no no now we have to go accept this in front of the world because obviously the Grammys is the pinnacle that's the top always it's always been like that so for us to receive that was like I looked at it was like oh oh so you got to play it up yeah just go to this lets get it you know and Rob what he said that night you know when we received the award took at news like for all the artists out there you know it was for four other artists we couldn't even yeah you know we were accepting it was like why what we say we come out like yo you know right like live on TV you know we don't do that it was like well I actually watched it and it's very ironic what he said he said there are a lot of other artists in this room and outside of this room that could achieve the same award so in a way he was almost saying it without saying he was saying it without saying it we had to do that so that was a conscious thing that you guys or spur of the moment a moment because he'll for us like just like we got the American doors and already we had this conversation like we're tunneling hey right daddy right I am right I am right you know so where we got on the stage obviously we had to say that we couldn't say hey thank you very much you know and now that you you recall the words for me yes exactly how we felt like you know this is for you you know we we stood for the dream because we came out from Europe Germany and BC being here on that stage in America I was sitting you know this award a grand of all award was amazing and that's what we said what we said we felt guilty um so if we carry that guilt like I said we use and after that oh my dude it was just like the path to destruction because we knew the wolves were coming okay we're gonna get us cuz you win the Grammy for Best New Artist yes you accept the award you take the pictures you do the the interviews and so forth it was a four days later you give it back but what happened was we did we didn't interview with a journalist from the Los Angeles Times and we said you know we're going to give it back so you guys win the Grammy for Best New Artist then a few months later Frank makes this huge announcement that's right why did Frank make that announcement it's a long story but in a few words we went against him and when we signed his contract with him something real strange happened in that room everybody's chilled what happened are we drinking champagne everything and he turns to rob and tell him don't ever try to [ __ ] me Walt gangster-like was like whoa and then he you know Rob tells me and like Stan that's kind of weird and we just kind of like okay whatever you know we kept drinking new stuff but that thing stuck in my mind and when we were going back and forth and butting heads it came to that point like yo that dude was like whatever he had created in his mind was getting out of control because he wanted us to come back and take care of second album right I had a three-album deal yeah yeah I'm like hell no we're doing that no now we want this we want this and we pushed him so hard okay because we didn't want to continue so you guys refuse to lip-sync the second album exact 100% even though but we didn't tell him we were playing with him okay we did we said you know what we're gonna mess him up we're gonna because he wants that money he wants that second one you want that second like oh we ain't gonna give it to him so we're just gonna plan seems like no one dish that we want dish now I'm running over here now what were you asking for more money okay because you know that's way comes down to says like no more he's like I'm going man you know he's like no I see let me know and all that you know but hundreds of millions of dollars are being made I mean did you guys when you go she ate your contract a couple times on the way no no okay you saw others going okay it's another story but so you guys are now battling with Frank over the second albums yeah yeah which is pretty much remain our decision we ain't doing that no more okay and he took balls so you guys are going diamond and so forth hundreds of millions of dollars are being made you guys are doing these major tours you guys are on TV as are these singles how much were you guys profiting yourselves by the time the first album is is now done and the Grammys won every give you any precise number but hear me out he blocked everything because of the fights we had so the only way we could make our money was on the road and tour in America so you weren't making royalties off that dude was holding everything because you were signed to his production company yeah that's what happened so in order for us to have some kind of freedom we said yo man we out of here name is piss and under staying here like no man we went over there because we knew over there we could get the tour going so we got all we needed from him any didn't think that he'd go up that much like we take control of our lives over there that's what happened and he was like yo you got to get back to Europe they're like no we're doing that we knew that we're not going to do that again it was crazy okay to do it again so he took balls for months like y'all will leave all that blood the thing that you have to know and that not many people know is that we were in the process of like preparing something else a transition we're going to make a transition and dude he heard about it though he jumped the gun okay so then it was impossible for anything to happen then there's a quote from Frank he says I made them rich Robin fab got two million dollars from us the record companies were very satisfied the real singers also got rich and Frank Farian get even richer only Rob wanted much more now man not true you didn't make two million dollars all the money we made was some toys and you know you're talking about there's you guys there's a production company there is eros - eros now as a parent company everyone's got their hands in the pie and therefore by time it trickles down to rob and fab is just tore money and the world tour was being booked so we were like yo forget about that dude because we got the world tour correct you just have a Gravier best new artist gravity everyone wants to [ __ ] with you exactly so here we go we lining up like world that in America Asia everything's gonna go down and the transition period the transition that we were working on but he heard about all that he was like I'm not gonna let them get more money and I'm gonna get paper on my watch and that's when he okay I am but by doing that he didn't just hurt you - he hurt his own brand as well but you know what this is where you see how crazy that dude that ego was crazy massive because he was like I don't care about the money at this point clearly rich you don't even okay buddy see how crazy that is so he goes up it himself he goes publicly and announces that Robin fab don't have any vocals on that album that's right when you first heard that announcement what went through your head really relief yeah it was like now I can at first was relief it was like I can I can walk free I don't have to carry that that that secret on my back you know it's on your back but it's in your gut and it's like you know it's always like when you're going to happen when he's going to happen when you're going to happen when he's a bum gonna explode finally explodes so then you feel like oh but then comes next no action equal reaction okay well you felt relieved how to rob you you wasn't happy even though we caused it he wasn't happy I wasn't happy as well I was relieved then I was like ah damn you know now our world is going to change we didn't know how how much he was going to change but it was going to change and drastic which means in one day and you know Fame as a way to just disappear step by step it's a gradual process but suddenly from one day to the next kaboom you're no longer that that came you know you're like that guy you didn't sing on the record you know and then the jokes are starting to pop but like for real right now I think I remember uh you're on TV raps did a skit about you guys I didn't see that you didn't see that one and you put lover and dr. Dre no I knew they were dead they call themselves silly Vanilli oh I think they had the braid wigs and you know how many Neeson many we were easy targets easy targets easy man I mean come on so well so the news comes out how long after the news coming out did you guys give back to granny's well you know everybody want to talk to us then so I think the first people who got to us was let's have big Los Angeles Times yeah I can't tell you exactly we went pretty fast okay yeah this was the first and let me tell you something that has to clear up is like I like it because you said we gave it back because in the press he's always said it was taken away yeah and it was they said it was taken away because of the fact that when we did an interview with the journalists we told him hey we want to give it back but he had an interview with Maris that same day they jumped at gone so then it was like we wanted back but in reality we wanted to give it back okay this was the first and only time in the history of the Grammys that a Grammy was returned right you guys did a press conference about it you had that thing saying I think you started the press conference by actually wrapping your part and girl you know it's true to try to show people that you actually I can it was a recording we recorded some stuff to let people know that yo we can do this okay yeah and I think I remember Rob saying he said no really we could sing and he am saying is you know girl you know it's true like you know to the but at that point the circus was not it over the full swing listen he was just he couldn't stop it at this point like it was just so massive it was it was Desert Storm and never nearly at that time you know he was everywhere and like I said we were easy targets and but you know what what I would hurt us what did hurt us most was we felt like we were part of the family you know there was they were a team of people that was Taft it was Marty you know because it's very pleased to think that those two guys are castrated the whole thing but somehow we took the whole bloody right everybody when I pointed singer night birds and I get the Helmand it's like those companies is very powerful company for advocate is behind Clive Davis the black the black clash got to us yeah and I'm Marian he was ugly singers the producers everyone was in on it everybody was in on it as MTV haha everybody so at this point we're like thrown to the wolves hanging out to dry and we have to defend ourselves you know class-action lawsuits so all this starts to explode implode I guess yeah the Grammy president at the time said I hope this revocation will make the industry think long and hard before anyone else tries to pull something like this again come on even though come on artists have been lip-synching and using auto-tune and this that and the third okay I'll give them that yes we didn't see on the records right but you know when out of tune came around Vishnu is cool you know came around the software then suddenly a lot of people were using it but to a point where they couldn't they wouldn't even they will even perform their own music and vocals on stage so it's any difference today's episode of the black couch is brought to you by the new Spotify original podcast mogul the life and death of Chris lighty hosted by Reggie Osei aka combat jack co-founder of loudspeakers network mogul tells the story of Chris lighty the music executive who changed hiphop and shade the careers of some of the most beloved artists LL Cool J Missy Elliott 50 cent nas Diddy and so many more but one of the most illustrious careers and music Chris lighty rose to the pinnacle of music success before an untimely end the story is more than just music is a story the American dream Chris lighty is an absolute legend in this music industry an incredible story something that I'm personally looking forward to hearing I can't wait to check this out produce my Gillman media and loudspeakers Network new episodes of the Spotify original podcast mogul and dental Chris lighty released every week starting April 27th only on Spotify did the lawsuits happened yes there were I think like 20 26 lawsuits were filed I own a lot man there was a lot of lawsuits little of man even you know what and it was even a criminal charges oh really in one County like we were small you know I try to put you in jail yeah I mean what's up with stuff you know but you know class-action lawsuit yeah you know it's attorney getting together they won't get paper yeah so so I remember there was a settlement at one point where Arastoo agreed not for a refund that's right but as a credits for anyone who bought a Milli Vanilli album and and single and what and held on and hold held on to the ticket stub okay right yeah and and and and went to a milli vanilli show they could get a credit for a future heiress to release they can get three dollars off a CD $2 off at a Tomlin and $1 off a single now it was estimated that the loss the label was like 25 million dollars but how many people really cashed in on this I don't know how many men know exactly but it's not compared to what they made like that was it sounds like one of these settlements that ultimately don't cost a label in you know it just sounds good on paper it sounds like they're sorry and whatever it because ultimately know what no one's really going to do this it's not even a refund and those lawsuit were like oh my son can't sleep anymore oh I'm so sad yeah like what why and what people got refund on concerts as well but that I don't know yeah but I know that was part of the one of the loss that's part of that yeah yeah but I you know I really kept myself away from I was just paying my attorneys over every month over and over to be like kidding again because no they were trying to they were attacking the label but there was soon us directly as well no it was like oh oh you got to pay all these lawyers fees Yeah right it was hard now at this point people started turning against Frank people start to turn against Frank as well yeah and Frank start a sort of fire back I think one of the things that Frank said was I have never heard such bad singers they wanted to sing they wanted to write songs and never happened instead they went to disco so far I am and slept all day all they ever really want to do was party someone who was like that can't make good music well the only true thing about that is we were partying that's clear yeah as far as him giving us an opportunity if he had anything on tape or anything you would have released that already right we were never given the opportunity to do that ever it wasn't no it was not even in the plan it was not in his plan the plan is you guys are in front the boys are in the back that's it how were the actual singers feeling about this we're always you never met you never met you kept a chef general separate separately and we met like you met one of them reels really short at this point we knew like yo that must be the guy that was bred how and we met shortly but Danny was like no those people can't hang out together so make sure we schedule them at different times at the studio before all this happened correct me if I'm wrong but when albums came out the vocalists and and so forth weren't always credited on albums is that correct that's correct so a year after this happened with you guys CNC Music Factory put out a song called make you sweat and they had this the sexy slim you know black girl doing the vocal you know and then we came to find out afterwards that she was not actually doing the vocals it was a woman named Martha wash who's more of a heavyset woman who actually laid the vocals she thought as a group and they sing It's Raining Men right exactly juice year she was a very accomplished thing around her all but I guess they they felt at the time that you know was in the right image for the different group like with you guys some very similar situation yeah she sued C&C Music Factory and I think the label so forth yeah she won the lawsuit of course of course she had to because she wasn't credited at all I guess of anything and I think that lawsuit after that lawsuit you actually had to credit vocals on albums it was mandatory at that point it actually changed the laws and he's okay and I think that that was you guys were sort of part of that whole I didn't know that you know avalanche that sort of happened during that time cuz I guess up to that point I'm sure this was happening constantly yeah you know yeah for especially in Europe that was coming practice I didn't know that at a time but when you know you look at documentaries and you checked in like yeah did you do wow I'm the major major songs you know and some people were never worked when I would never caught really yeah after year they just mentioned it yeah we talked about it now you said you went through a really really bad depression both for this man you just uh but I you know the one thing I always say this in every interview when they asked me about that that that period of time I tell people that I always foresaw the minimum a train stop I always saw that happening hitting the wall boom standstill it's like we knew in the fight you know when someone is about to punch you're like you flex right so when the punch comes you're good but when the punch comes by surprise it knocked out I don't see you coming here it was robbed you didn't see it coming we were pushing you know we wanted to get out but he didn't think that it would affect him like that they would take every single way I had a feeling that I like would be told it would be night and day but he thought maybe because of everything we were working on the world to was come in we're trying to work a new situation as far as Robin fab singing on a record move another team of producers but when he hit him and hit him hard so he went I kind of like I was in the process of stopping everything I would like y'all gotta stop the drug part because if I don't do that the edge is very close and I won't be able to get back up so I got to stop so I had that going but he went just to forget because it was painful sure cuz then then after that it seemed like people try to sort of pick up the pieces I guess um the original vocal vocalist try to come out with a group called the real Milli Vanilli when I was done by Frank Oh Frank Frank was behind that whole thing Frank try to put out the real yeah yeah it took them on the road they released an album they were on the road in today's territories yeah you guys came out as Robin fat yes and that was that situation was you know we had a manager at the time it was German who thought he could handle this thing and take it further and he got us administration with this independent label that had no power that never they didn't have the money to print records once we did the record and that's when my new manager came in kamalo and she was trying to fix that whole thing but we were already signed so it's like okay right let's do this this release one single let's get a video done and let's get it done you know but we finished this project they came out and sold 2000 copies because it was no records right store quite a difference from the 30 million that you guys me was a brand-new it's like henna you have those new glasses off here in the world looks very different now and what you guys are doing your own vocals at this point yeah yeah we actually did some do some some some touring some Club tours and here and there to let people know this is a new project this is a new right you guys went on our studio I think and well I don't know what what us in a DVD to countdown the one month countdown countdown and you know moving and I'm Robin starveling to perform and we did it and we killed it anybody can go back and look at that performance I killed it I can say that and guess that came after that were like yo factor this thing Rob wasn't there you know during the whole process of the record he had you know this drug addiction like acting in overdrive so he was kind of like and I was he was deep he was trying to get out of it it was fighting it but it was very difficult because the pain it really got to it couldn't recover from the punch well Rob at one point said that he felt like you guys sold your soul to the devil well you kind of you kind of did really you know we not realizing what we were doing you know if someone would have told me you know like you know in the night yo can't rewind like first thing I know now he's going back go let's go back to the beginning but that wasn't possible well but I think I don't know if it was you or Rob that said that even if you could rewind it you might still do it all over again no no no to go through that that's crazy me you wanted a pretend all so the heights of it yeah but nah man are painful man okay that's painful to know I the only thing I would change out of that would be singing the record and get Rob out of that drug habit okay that would be like the ultimate so after you guys put out your own project the Robin fab project you are starting to sober up Rob is in a back in a bad state still yeah how is your relationship with Rob are you guys still like brothers or their brothers to the end and I told him look you gotta clean up dude because if you want to go back to work because we went through Rob and fab and I pretty much did every tracks on the record because he wasn't there I couldn't you know deal with it it was just too hard to use yet gone so deep it was very difficult to get out of it and we tried as a team from my manager Kamala to to help him work walk on this path of recovery but addiction is she ain't ready yourself if you ain't ready to do it nobody can do it for you well Rob not only was doing drugs but he started doing crime well the crime happened because in fact that he wasn't there you know he wasn't there anymore she was doing things like you know he was hi there so we get arrested right she had P result in assault well what happened was I thinking he was high got into someone's car outside a lot I know he broke in with the door was open so he went in there I was left in there and the dude was like hell is that my car so open the door Rob jumped up and then ran and I ran into his house - who's crazy story there was robberies he was evolving nah no okay not that I know of that you know of but he had to go into rehab at one point well he had he had to do three months in jail well you know he did rehab he did a few reread I did too I'll be waiting I was wrong when he had jail time also yeah three months not a huge amount but not all much so then I get thought and I hoped it was gonna be good you do some time maybe like things around change Frank comes back yeah and starts to work with Rob starts work on music so I'm just gonna I'm just gonna have you read between the lines why and how because Frank came to help out the situation you know the crime situation yeah got him out of it you know paid but you know you know get nothing for nothing did Frank were you talking to Frank at all during this time hell no at all my manager Kamala wasn't in touch with the person that that was working for Frank Frank never spoke to me directly really nah man now we wait back then we did yeah but when everything went down was like yo one more do you feel the Frank came back because of guilt over the whole thing oh hell no no no the Frank ultimately made about listen a lot of billions of dollars it's above that it's about that paper man well for him I mean to be fair I'm just gonna you know as a third party here really do it I mean because Frank went on to continue to produce music and he was successful and everything else at that right yeah so if Frank never worked with you guys again he would have been okay Frank the only reason Frank came back in to rob his lies and try to get into my life again it was to do the same thing over again okay I'll do the same thing over again with the cat's already out the back I don't know but he won't heed that ye I stayed away from that situation my manager Kamala was was talking to them and when I heard that BL he wants me to to give back to Jeremy and like I ain't doing nothing so you were done with it I was done with it but Rob wasn't robbed entertained it listen he was rock bottom Rob need some money do you know in the end that fed you comes back and be like yo here's some paper you know what you're gonna do if you're in Rob's shoes and you got problems got drug addiction to go through and you wanna you want to get better but you know you need to someplace like yeah are you going to know before this happened before Frank came back Rob had multiple suicide attempts well one of them was really a cry for help well he slit his wrists at one point no that never happened no but that adds haven't heard of unity the one I heard about what you know we were you know he just he was at the Mondrian and it was just you know desperation he had threatened to jump from a nice yeah yeah I know you heard about that yeah for sure now we went together that Tom MIDI went to party went to Mondrian and just like went on the rampage he was clean and then once he started to mess around with it again it was like yeah I know something bad was gonna happen I didn't know where he was so Rob tried to commit suicide by jumping off a nine story window yeah and people were you with him at the time no I wasn't actually I was with him before like in real part I don't know what we're doing and then he went on his own because we were not living together anymore you know I was like we've gotta clean up my dude I'm trying to clean up so he's I'm gonna be around you and gonna clean up so we had to like separate okay and it's one of those nights you did too much and he started to replay everything or only start to replay everything axes and the jokes was so cold to like we were just nothing but a joke then you know didn't have like like we people don't realize that when you are this the celebrities you know like you know you're the star but didn't forget that you know also has you know the Machine your yes feelings digital you're a person if your person has been you know kicked up to the to the forefront you know yeah you're on TV on radio everywhere anything your famous but your human being and when is when they charge man they charge hard and it's hard to to walk down the street without it was hard to to feel at ease anywhere because right it felt like people were laughing so if I was in a place chillin and I would hear people laughing like mmm they're laughing at me right because you said you for a while you never even left your house listens I believe in my house for a long time years I like coming out like to go shopping at night late and we'll just go like I know there's not only no body but still people like me you know and that that encounter loans like ain't coming out I think we're not next time next time somebody else can go and get to the grocery stuff so then in 1998 Rob ends up dying you know so he ended up overdosing on pills and alcohol but what people were saying that it was a suicide I personally don't think so and that's another part of the story that down that I still have to investigate my dude was on his way to to India to sober up 100% and he was in a program in Germany by the state I think by Frank because Frank was quoting fraud to do whatever it was he wanted to do and for some reason then the day of his departure like dude parted his heart out so that makes no sense to me you're about to sober up but you know in the mind of an addict nothing is really clear until you're out of the tunnel so maybe just like back in the days we were like y'all we're gonna stop for one week so we called cold turkey one with nothing for the week after is like when double of bill double up so you know maybe it's one of those like I'm going to do one last time I'm gonna get high because I'm about to going to rehab I'm about to go clean up 100 percent so I'm gonna go hard so maybe with the medicine that he was on and what he took the hard said no mo right because he was only 33 years old yeah and you know it's funny because back in the days we were young like when everything was heavier like y'all man will be okay to just you know check out you know young forever Robin [ __ ] of expressly this young forever man like yeah man it was like I don't know man but he was like yeah man [ __ ] whatever I was like I don't know like I still think that I want to I want to go further here I think there's more to do I mean 33 you're still a baby at this oh man how old at this point I'm 50 yeah yeah he missed out on and you guys are same age right in his older by two next two years verse 31 so he was my big brother you know growing up together you know he's a big difference two years at that age makes a big difference so he was he was my okay it was the Big Brother pretty much but eventually when we grew up there I became the big brother and I tried and tried and tried and tried so many times you to have him to have him see the light but he couldn't see it as much love that I gave him you know brotherly love my food I love you listen you gotta get out of that because you know this is it can only end there's only a few scenarios you know this is jail this cemetery it's the hospital and all those avenues in any pretty but still and he was adopted and I believe that early on when we met there was always that he had that void I could see you know because he was adopted and it was something missing you know and becoming celebrities you know pop stars whatever you call it it was it was lovely no you know it's filled that void everybody was loving you you know but I grew up I had my family even though I came from a divorce background but I feel like it was a little more balanced he didn't have that so when everything went off balance he was just like wow it threw him off when you got the phone call the Rob had passed yeah and you were the closest person in his life for he's the only person that knows what it was like to walk in our shoes yeah well how badly did it hit you when you got that call well Kamala my manager got the call and then she she just like lost her stuff on the floor but as she was crying to the floor she I heard what she said before that and I knew this moment would come I just knew you were surprised he always surprised when he comes what you knew was coming but I knew it was coming I was hoping that you would never come when he came and he was like I love my earring for like a good minute he's like the ears ringing he was just like it was just intense you know losing someone that you care for is on the physical level psychological is different but on this physical level it was just at that moment and time when you get that news it was just a rush of adrenaline you're not moving but your body is just going through that the motion and then after that is just pure sadness loneliness my bro's go and we walked the valley of the darkness together and I thought that we would get out of the valley together you know I never would see sun shining and we go not to that mountaintop but to another keep doing what we do because we love music that's what we got into this game in the first place for the love of music but he wasn't there anymore and he was not going to we're going to have that at the precious life because I was growing I was doing a lot of work on myself I was reading a lot of stuff and I was going to share that with him as well now we tell him look man he's not you know the success not everything you know success is just it's just part of like you know it's a career thing you know you can you you have to learn to live without that and it wasn't done with that you know he wanted that life that life was pretty much everything for him because you know being loved even though his model was it's better to be feared than to be loved she loved that love when people acknowledged him they gave him attention being the center of attention love that you know I loved it too but I was more of a introvert I will shoot down with it my theme was you do that when I hit the stage I do my thing you know and I got I got with it as eyes as we were going through the process I I grew up as well but he was two years older you know so he receivers it was easier for him and my thing was from the get-go music was really what I wanted to do you know so when he left the building more than avarice and when I want to finish this I'm gonna do my project was called Love Revolution I wrote a song for him and you know I'm marked forever you know those are scars that the world never healed you know that yes they heal but the fact that he didn't have to go like that that was not necessary you should be here and you should have had the chance to just live another life you know because it I I look at life as like you know it's like a book with various with different chapters and through those chapters you will evolve you won't grow and if you focus on yourself and that goes for everybody out there it's never too late for anything as long as you focus on yourself and we treat yourself like your best friend and you surround yourself with the right people when it comes to anything I'm not talking about you know music industry I'm talking as you mean beans just live in life I'm all about the dream go hard life is too short give it all you've got are you continued to do music I am in music you became a DJ a DJ as well yeah and you actually worked with some of the original vocalists of Milli Vanilli I'm working with John Davis we're touring in Poland Czechoslovakia Germany I'm really turning this whole state East Bloc right now and Germany what was it like to get together because you guys were always separated before so suddenly I mean after all this exploded and you know there's no no barriers when you guys all do you get together with all the original enough to shun Johnny's the only guy that I that I jail will be able to cool vibe and did she let the other guys no no no no until now we haven't really Brad I met it was real short but John John was brought to Los Angeles by a guy called Jace Hall and we did a parody on video games with Mario Brothers okay and that was the first time I we got a chance to chop it up sit down and I was like yeah I'm a nice dude he's cool and since I was in Holland and he was in generator like y'all maybe we should do some gigs together they're like yeah really yeah be cool you know so we have this thing we call face meets voice and moving the experience and that's the building for what we do and we play the old songs in over 40 45 minutes we're killing him nice we do what we do but yeah it was very interesting for me to perform with him because on state who were four people there was two people but it was four people right and then he was doing my voice and he was that you would like you know I was performing it was always that dad voice so when he talks to me sometime and he says version like yellow flag back Wow yeah you know he's a great guys musician accomplished musician bass player and we know we were releasing music and when you keep the train going and now you know you have to diversify the portfolio as an artist so I work on various projects right I'm coming from the ears I'm coming right at one point I think you did like you're a spokesman for KFC I get a commercial commercial that sort of played off the whole Milli Vanilli and so far it's really close fun yeah I saw a little nuts yeah it was it was tasteful go check it out took that more than kids he is pretty cool at this point fast forward 20 years or twenty eleven years do you see any royalties Hannah off of you that I will hello even though continues you know even though my likeness is being used yes I don't see nothing you don't see nothing they looked on VEVO one of the videos like 30 million views now they're 20 million views and so forth and no matter what happened ultimately these are great songs that's it and I'm sure they're being played like right now someone's playing a Milli Vanilli's song Carrie right you're right you're right and a lot of and I believe a lot of babies were created from ordering a lot of relationship would work you know right what instigated by that music yeah that's it but you never saw anything now you and Frank don't talk at all hell no you still feel certain level of anger towards them Mel Russia you know no no you can't walk through life with holding anger towards someone I'm all about positive energy he did me wrong but you have to let it go you've got to let it go you know yes I talk about you know people want to hear the story and I'm able to tell you and finally people are listening and people like you now more I'm okay three years you know it's been a journey but now I got Vlad that's like taking its time to like because no we're here we're day here and it's important that they really truly get how you went down a lot of hangers we thought that yo those goes man now you know the story now you know exactly what happened and it was not our fault you know we we were naive we fell into the trap my do is strong like platinum right good Studios like of course you're going to trust him of course you're going to think they reduce everything gonna open up well and I think that people may say what they're gonna say you know you locate people always criticized and in the social media world we have today people always criticize that's just human nature but I think that if you would have put ninety percent of people in that space and said listen we're going to make you into a superstar what you mean say that nobody it wasn't like that it was like you're gonna understand then there's the big studio is Robin fab the track is dope there Greg vocals yeah that's what I'm saying but if you take when you take a lot of people who haven't accomplished anything musically yet and you give them opportunity and says hey you could be part of the song and this is a dope song I think most people would go would have had the same we made the same choices that you guys make and the way it was put well now that trap was sent per hear Queen it played as well and that's what happens you know I'm not the first has been played in the industry you know a lot of people came before me who suffered terribly you know and because because well the producer played then whatever the contract was wrong and people get stuck in you know and it's like mistakes we make because we don't have the right surroundings because those contracts was signed without attorney or management he was happy ain't nobody around though sign here he's the money cash right there you can add that right now once we signed close interesting we look at what happened in the last year or so there's a whole Drake Meek Mill situation oh yeah now Meek Mill now Drake wasn't lip-synching no but it was ghost was shown that he had a ghostwriter now when Meek Mill start going a Drake the cover to his diss record was this right here oh yeah I thought I'd dude yeah I was like oh no well they actually took now this is this is Rob I believe now that's me doing to you yeah okay yeah I was like you didn't have taken Rose like okay cool like so no need to know so they took your picture and superimposed Drake's face wouldn't know go right with well it was sort of as the owl logo but it's a ghost right for Ghost Rider AOR goose was in hip hop historically ghost writing is considered the biggest nono is blasphemy it's blasphemy a rapper is supposed to write their own verses to write their own vocals and so forth Meek Mill felt that he had ended Drake's career and absolutely nothing happened in fact Drake came back bigger than ever he dropped his new album which broke every every dreaming record and on Spotify it was like 70 million streams it was it was ridiculous so when you look at that and you look at what you guys went through how do you feel about it yeah I can't be mad no volumen no send you gotta you got to live your life you know this is what happened like I said you can't be bitter you can't stay in the negative stay positive if music is truly what you what you want to do and you have a love for it you get that bug when you got that bug when you're never done is never gonna go away ever so what am I gonna do I'm not gonna fight it I'm going to do it I love it and no matter how long it takes I'm gonna do this I said and people you know people will see yeah obviously I'm not working with a machine right now so in the same game but you're still supporting yourself hell yeah we're still healthy you look great by the way you look like you have it in you don't look 50 and 10 because I'll tell you something I was downtown during the photo shoot like it was like four days we black D came on the bike and looked at me said you look good so I know it's all good you know if you know ya in a few words and I was like oh that's cool yeah I like that you know and I've learned a lot of a lot of lessons and health is wealth you don't take care of yourself even trouble my dude so I've always known that the journey we belong so I would have to like adjust and change so at the age of 25 I stopped everything it would be a long journey and I'm glad that I did because now I'm good yeah and I wanted to do a biopic yeah man with the Rat Pack Brett Ratner yeah it involved you know he's connected to the hip hop community of course you know my dude knows you know this thing man is a visionary no doubt so I think that the fact that we are in cahoots is a good thing so it's going down just have to you know fix a few things because film business you know scheduling and getting things in order so that when you start to press to the red button here everything's gonna go but you know we would be coming I mean it's a hell of a story and they've got everything it's got all the elements of a Hollywood story it's a Hollywood movie like one-of-a-kind one-of-a-kind remember I'm at that I'm at the center of it and I'm still here still healthy still fired up about doing music and you know I'm going to be on that soundtrack yep and I'm talking to producers that you know that brett has been connecting me with so he's going down well our wish you the best my pleasure Megan there's a pleasure talking to you I'm glad I see the face behind the voice right you know and I am the subject of the energy I'm glad I did this I'm glad that my manager Kamala was able to cook it up and coordinate because uh I want to tell my story and I believe that not for my selfish selfish standpoint just like I believe that you should share with others always because you know there's things that you can't write down so verbal you know kind of a tribal thing and I consider myself a musician a songwriter and I believe that you know we are bites we are associated by tribe when it comes to artists and I want to share it with young ones out there not to do the same mistakes that I did so by just listening to Mysore you can learn but my story is also about you know making mistakes but you can listen you stakes don't repeat the same mistakes move forward go for it get yours nothing is impossible to stay strong and make sure you surround yourself with good people that you can trust because I'm some of the people that are the closest I'm not necessarily the best people for you to have around

Channel: djvlad

Views: 646,964

Rating: 4.8850651 out of 5

Keywords: VladTV, DJ Vlad, Interview, Hip-Hop, Rap, News, Gossip, Rumors, Drama, Milli Vanilli, Fab Morvan

Id: lqmO9VE0PuY

Length: 98min 4sec (5884 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 29 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/druiz4545]

I have always thought that the Grammy they took away from them should have been replaced with an Oscar for their great acting. They fooled the world for a long time. Don’t blame them. Blame it on the rain.

[u/bott367]

Sad thing is that lipsyncing live is common place for today's pop stars.