Foreign of sitting down with the bishop Marvin Sapp and we got to talking and and I know and you you’re like Sean I I am a student of 80s music it really influenced me and we got to talking about his Beginnings with commissioned in the 80s Fred Hammond all
Of those guys and how they were so edgy at the time and they were kind of a cross between they were the the r b gospel how much of an influence did that group have on your life huge had to because I’m listening to you I’m like I know he was listening to
Commission bro you know I was all in on Fred like like the like those are our guys man all of those those songs you know coming up uh oh man now I’m having I’m having moments or whatever but all of those guys commissioned um like I always I was in a music group
Before I long before I went to college and long before I got record deal my very first music group was a Christian group called the Christian stars of life and it was like six or seven of us we all had Jerry curls and and suits and it
Was the craziest thing to ever see but uh we were learning that even in the church it was like okay well you know outside the church you got a Michael Jackson but then there’s also a a Jermaine Jackson and then there’s a you know so in our you know we know the guy
That does this part and then we also looked at like The Temptations you know this is the guy with the high voice this is the guy that’s got the bass and so I can remember you know I’m saying we had in our groups those different rows carved out in commissioned without
Question uh was one of the voices that are so memorable John P Kee like The Clark Sisters all of that very very huge influences on me interestingly enough people don’t give that group as much credit as they should because so many of the uh R B singers r
B groups soloists and groups that came out of the late 80s and 90s they got the Melodies and harmonies from that group the thickness and the fullness of those vocal harmonies if you go back and you listen to uh Christopher Williams like Don’t Wake Me I’m Dreaming all of that you know that
Tone that Tremor that all that was captured from Commission absolutely okay um let’s move this thing on a little bit you are six eight yes sir you ever play ball I suck are you serious I suck at basketball one of the worst times in my life one of the
Best times and worst times I was I can remember a prayer sitting in my front front of our house my dad got a a old piano that was sitting in the front of our house when I said I wanted to learn how to play piano and I could literally
Sit there because my pops made me play for hours I could look out my window and see kids down the block playing basketball uh-huh and I’m sitting on the piano crying mad cause I’m sitting there and I can’t go outside until I get two hours of piano playing in literally
Probably one of the worst memories I can remember is when I finally got to Sarah High School I got there in the 10th grade it was like a 9th 10th 11 12 type of school so most of the kids before me got there in the ninth grade they were
There like a year before me so I got there in the 10th grade I come in with my Jerry curl this is about the time everybody’s doing the ball head freak thing back then everybody got the low Seasons or ball head Cuts or whatever I come in with my
Jerry curl in the 10th grade A year later uh six foot five named Jordan right so the six foot five Jordan shows up to the school and it’s like yo we got joy and this is at the Heyday of you know Michael Jordan stuff and now Jordan
Shows up to your high school six foot five oh man they were sure I could ball nothing bro nothing it was sad it was embarrassing uh and even even I’m a quick study because I I spent time to to learn the game I’m playing with guys I’ve been playing since four and five
Years old you know three years old drilling basketball so I can here’s here’s the moment prayers I knew basketball was not for me here’s here’s my defining moment I’m in a game in my 11th grade year I think uh no I was in the 10th grade year I’m I’ve
Advanced even throughout that year we’re in a game I get a breakaway in the game I take the lane and I go up and I get a slam dunk in the game wow and the people in the crowd are like ah he should have reversed that I was like I’m done
I’m done nothing I do can be enough like for me Duncan in a game was like I was like oh my God I dunked in an actual game they’re thinking man as big as you are you’re supposed to reverse that I was like okay this is not I’m not gonna excel at this
Bro oh man okay so high school you figure out yo everybody would expect me with my height and my size to be balling but this ain’t it for me do you turn your attention full on to your gift at that point or is it later in your life where you stop seeing
Yourself as a kid who I play the piano in church I sing but no this is really my calling this is this is my gift prayers I didn’t know it was a gift it was just what I did I did it because I was brought up and you play the piano
And you play it for the church so it wasn’t like oh I’m gifted to do this like that’s just what I did like even when I was on at high school I never those kids never like came to my church it was a Catholic High School so they
Weren’t coming to the Baptist Church in my hood you know the school was in Gardena all guys Catholic school so it was like my world of gospel music in my church and my family that was like belonged to me and then I was like leased out to the school to go there and
Get my education and to be a part of that amazing group of guys that I came through there with but it’s great that you asked the question the way you did because I do remember the moment when I realized I had a gift because I had been clowned I’ve been ridiculed about not
Being able to ball uh very embarrassing moments you know playing sports uh wasn’t even allowed to play my senior year because my pops was like nah your grades are dropping and so you gotta Lock and Load and so so the moment that it happened for me prayers that that
Defining moment uh it was at a high school talent show I was a senior and I remember um it was in the gym uh they cleared all the basketball stuff and you had all these parents and all these kids sitting up in the bleachers of Sarah High School
Gym they wrote out a piano I was one of the last people that that performed for this talent show and I sat down to the piano and I started playing Lionel Richie’s uh Jesus’s love and I did the father help your children it got so quiet in that gym
And after I did that song playing it and singing it on the piano the Roar and the eruption that came from those parents and those in my peers for the first time like it was like it was like they were saying oh that’s it it’s not basketball it’s not it oh wow
That’s it that’s him and I remember sitting there on that piano I don’t know why I’m getting emotional right now bro um I remember sitting there in that moment hearing that and feeling that and that was a moment it hit me and it was like oh maybe this is it right here
Maybe this maybe this right here is my space I’ve done it just because I’m a kid that was trained to do it but I’ve never done it outside of Sunday morning at church and now I’m doing it and there’s a whole audience there that’s erupting over it maybe this is
Maybe this is a part of who I am and that’s when I realized that music was the gift that God gave to me senior in high school I’m so so so happy you broke that story down the way you did um I want to take a moment for anybody
Who’s listening to this because they really need to rewind that part listen to it again and listen to it again and I’ll tell you why if you ask 90 to 95 of the people on planet Earth what is it that you want to do with your life what’s your calling what’s your
Purpose they will all tell you no I don’t know I don’t know what’s your gift I don’t know and they always overlook that thing that they just have been doing and have been bringing them Joy it hasn’t been bringing the money but in my spare time
When I’m by myself when I’m with people this is the thing that I do but they never look at it as this is my gift this is my purpose this is what I should be putting all of my energy into that’s what God put me here to do so I’m
So happy you broke down that story because people overlooked the obvious they’re looking at what society says is uh uh a career or you know would I have to get a degree and no sometimes it’s most times it’s as simple as the thing you do all day every
Day without even thinking about it the thing you do best that nobody can do but you and the thing not only that you love to do but the thing that God loves you to do that thing right there is has gold man let’s go not just what I like to do but
The thing that I like to do that God likes me doing well said I love it um okay so so you have that Epiphany moment the the clouds open up the sun shines in oh my God this is like like I was never gonna be in the NBA this is it
You go on to college um Pepperdine if I got this correct that’s correct let me ask you something Kim Fields went to Pepperdine were you there when she was there that’s my homie right there out of here yes sir we were in classes together uh her brother uh is a
Fraternity brother of mine like she was a capital sweetheart when I pled she was one of our sweethearts bro stop lying kid you not okay you could you I see the brand I’m I’m looking let’s let’s be clear let’s get the brand up to there we go yes sir
Shout out to all the pretty boy noobs out there yo yo okay you pledging spring 89 Spring 89 last of the Divine did you did you go through the old school way of pledging at that time or did they switch it around I went through the old school way
Bro and and so let me give you a uh this was at a period where of course they were cracking Downs on hazing and things like that and of course Kappa facade is a non-hazing fraternity uh I came to Old School uh I came through old
School and uh you know let’s let’s just say I was I I’m honored that I was I got the the respect and the notoriety with the brothers that were brought in an old school way and and I’m not saying it’s always the best way and I’m not saying that there aren’t
Unhealthy things that every organization probably does traditionally that should not be done um but um I was I was brought in before a lot of the crackdowns and everything happened with with trying to make organizations more safer to enter my my entry into cap Alpha Psi was not safe
Can I say it that way okay so so and just so you know um I’m gonna give you a pass because some of my best friends are uh cappers uh I’m from New York we go a different way blue five so so let’s just be clear
Okay I’m from the East yeah yeah yeah you’re handling your business I I get you I understand you know the crazy thing is you and I Sans so so you you spring 89. okay there we go we say it um are you serious that that Kim Fields
Was was a captain sweetheart yes sir what did her brother pledge before you or after you her brother pledged before me and pledged me wow wow what type of big brother was he he was not kind he was not kind I got introduced to a phone book by her brother
Because I forgot to call him okay I’ma leave it at that will you leave it at that we ain’t gonna go too deep all right um you graduate what’s your degree in organizational Communication minored in business what was your plans upon graduating were you like yo I’m gonna chase my career or
Did you just do what most people do I’m gonna use my degree go out get a job um my plan was um to use that degree and organization of communication for those that don’t know what that is it’s beyond communication like before a camera or before like commentating or something
Like that it’s the study of how organizations work or or how things become functional or dysfunctional so it’s the story of how if you have a president who’s in the penthouse and you have the mail room in the basement what happens on those floors between the presidential suite and the basement
And what happens if the presidential suite is somewhere in the middle on a side office where you can look down the hall and see your business associates in the centerpiece and then the mail room is maybe up a floor beneath that it’s this the study of structure of systems
And how to make them more functional and Building Company morale and stuff like that like that’s what I studied and my idea was I’m gonna go to law school I wanted to be a lawyer I knew a a black professor uh uh Dr Bernie James who was over the Pepperdine law school
At the time I befriended uh him and his wife and his family and so my plan was I’m gonna go to law school uh after graduation and so I remember actually sitting with them he was a big jazz music fan he loved to trumpet he played trumpet and I remember sitting with him
And uh asking him did he have any regrets in his life he didn’t say a regret but he shared that he always wondered that if he had pursued music would he have been excellent or really really successful at doing that and that kind of stuck with me because I was like
Well I’ve wondered what I could do musically as well before taking this Pathway to law school uh and maybe the window for being in the music business is a lot smaller than the window of going to law school like I’m 53 right now if I wanted to go to law school I’d
Go to law school now but that window of the music business is open and closed only for a brief amount of time for anybody that’s interested in that so I took at that time before I go to law school I need to take a shot at this so I did
Land a job at a company after graduation called Williams television time in Santa Monica I used to buy airtime for infomercials I was very good at what I did and started moving up within the company uh and at that same time while I was doing that and preparing to go to
Law school that’s when I buckled down and said you know if I’m gonna take a shot at getting to the music business now is the time
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