That moment you are watching an interview on Youtube and think to yourself, man… this guy being interviewed looks familiar… Then as they share their story you realize you were a part of it!
I was watching an interview on Lewis Howes’ vlog series The School of Greatness with Jesse Itzler and kept thinking how familiar Jesse’s voice sounded. Then he spoke about his previous life as a rapper and mentioned his stage name ‘Jesse Jaymes’ and my memories came flooding back in. He mentioned creating theme songs for different NBA teams with different artists and how that was his first taste of real money as he sold over half a million units… and it completely clicked… I worked on those records!
The session stands out in my memory for me for a number of reasons:
This was early in my career, around 1998 or so, and, at 20 years old, I had just become chief engineer at this small studio in NYC. I loved Hip-Hop.. so when I found out the client coming in was Kurtis Blow @kurtisblow and we were re-making his famous classic ‘Basketball’, I was thrilled!
The producer came in and introduced himself as Preemo. I’m almost completely sure it was DJ Premier, who also went by that name. Preemo and Kurtis were amazing and we were working together to record the track again and track the vocals for these team specific customized versions of ‘Basketball’. We went through so many teams! After a while this white guy walks into the session wearing a head-to-toe tracksuit. (was it red and white?) Full on Run-DMC vibe. I had no idea who he was, but everyone greeted him like long-time friends. He was very chill in the back and only chimed in from time to time. He brought a lot of positive energy to the session.
Randomly, my boss (owner of the studio) walked into the session and tried to establish how cool he was by insulting me in front of the guys (this was typical with him, unfortunately)… Kurtis heard this from the booth and immediately lit into my boss told him to leave me alone. He, Preemo & Tracksuit proceeded to put my boss back in his place. I tried hard to hide my smile as my boss retreated from the room. There was something that happened inside me when these titans of Hip-Hop (and tracksuit guy) defended the honor of the least significant person in the room.. it made me feel appreciated and worthy to be there. It was a real example of integrity and humility and left a lasting impression.
At one point Tracksuit took a call on his cellphone and the next thing I knew he made a call to book a few first class tickets to Morocco (or somewhere exotic) for a party or something for the following day! At that point, I made the decision that he must be the richest person I’ve ever met. I’ve actually mentioned that experience with regard to never judging a person based on their appearance. Funny thing is, I could never remember Tracksuit’s name… until yesterday… when I happened to watch the ‘School of Greatness’ vlog where Jesse Itzler was interviewed. When he mentioned his previous rap name, Jesse Jaymes, it all clicked.. like a dusty filing cabinet opening. “I know this guy!”
Flash forward, in the interview, Jesse mentions that he went on to sell at least half a million of those CDs and that the CDs that we worked on were a big part of his subsequent major business moves. It was a real delight to put the pieces together and see the story completed. To see how the small part I played in helping engineer these tunes ended up impacting the life and business of someone who today is doing such an amazing job inspiring and encouraging others to build their ‘life resume’… Such a treat to see that arc of my work and be able to add that entry it to the resume of my life. Thanks @jesse.itzler and @lewishowes for the amazing interview.
Check out the inspiring interview here:
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