Camden (2024) s01e03 Episode Script

1
- Yeah.
- Speed.
Yeah.
All right, this is Ahmir. Take one.
Question: What is the title of the film?
The working title is Camden.
Oh, boy.
Okay.
Camden is like the East Village
in New York.
It's a little gruddy. It's punk rock.
It's bars and amazing venues.
It's just an incredible place
to see a show.
If you come to New York,
you don't go to Times Square.
You go the Village
or you go to parts of Brooklyn.
In Philadelphia, you go to South Street.
And so walking around Camden Market,
it was like, "All right, this feels
like South Street", where we lived.
I knew that's where
the thrift stores were. The flea markets.
We're going sample shopping,
looking for records.
There's a lot of punk rock energy,
which is cool.
And, you know,
hip-hop and punk rock go hand in hand,
so there was, like,
a cool connection there.
Everything I ever learned in my life
that still has me here to this day
is because of Camden.
Just living over there
prepared me for life as I know it.
We do this late-night show
in the United States called
Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.
Like, "We finally got to the mountaintop."
By, like, 2009,
The Roots had success in hip-hop,
having travelled the world
at least eight times over.
Except for, like, Antarctica.
In my mind, I'm like,
"Wow. We've really made it."
But getting here, this was hard.
In America,
by the time the '90s came along,
the idea of a live band
was an obsolete idea.
So, we had to busk on the street corners
as a means of survival.
Philadelphia really had no outlet
for us to express ourselves.
And so we had to find a place
that could embrace the modern musician.
My manager was just like,
"We're fucked."
He said, "Look. We need a plan,
and we need a plan now."
He's like, "This is what we're gonna do.
We're gonna move to London."
Huh?
We kept hearing buzz
that there's this deejay over there
that's, like,
playing our records in the club.
Camden was really important to me
because it was the place
that I started, quite young,
playing at upstairs Electric Ballroom
on a Friday night.
I used to open the night there,
and I remember I would always be hungry.
And I'd go into Electric Ballroom with
my records before the queues were formed.
And the first one I'd put on
would be the Philips version
of "A Night in Tunisia" by Art Blakey,
which is 18 minutes long.
And I'd play that, run outside,
go downstairs, run outside,
go to Kentucky, get some dinner, and I'd
get back in by the end of the song.
That was my routine every week.
Back in 1990, it was that mad time
when acid house and the rare groove scene
were all coming together.
The sort of mix that I was coming up with,
which was more rare groove.
It was funk, soul, beginnings of hip-hop.
And I'm like,
"What am I gonna call what I do?"
And so came up with this concept
called acid jazz.
Out of all the deejays at the time,
I kept hearing this name on the jazz tip,
and that was Gilles Peterson.
I was given one of his Jazz Juice
compilations, which was fantastic.
And I remember thinking,
"Who's this kid
that's put all this jazz stuff together?"
Because a lot of it
was stuff I didn't know.
Well, don't you just hate him?
Don't you-- Ah, goodness.
I'm never gonna be
as big as Gilles Peterson.
Stop.
So I'm just here stuck in Camden, London
It's fair to say that probably
one of a handful of deejays
who've actually
consistently taught me something.
Definitely give Gilles Peterson props
for that.
Camden's a bit like its own,
sort of, city within a city.
And within that, there was
a bunch of really great music venues.
And so as a deejay, for me to
kind of get my word across,
I used to play on different scenes
during those golden days.
If I hadn't succeeded there,
I wouldn't have been a deejay.
It made me.
In the mid 1980s, London had
a thriving jazz scene at club level.
With the backing of Phonogram Records,
a specialist label, Talkin' Loud,
was formed
to release music by the prime movers.
I'd set up a record label
called Talkin' Loud.
It was independent, and, you know,
it was a pioneering label,
but we had no clue what we were doing,
and there was no, sort of, mentors for us.
So I needed to, kind of, bring in people
who were gonna be friendly,
and wanna take this to a global level.
For me, obviously, with the label,
Talkin' Loud,
you know, I think we're able, finally,
to see the vision
that I had originally about the label,
which was--
- You had?
- Well,
- with you, of course, my darling.
- Only joking.
Darling Norman, um,
who was obviously a part of Talkin' Loud
for the first three or four years.
Norman was the first person
I called up to help me at Talkin' Loud.
So, you know, Omar,
the Young Disciples, Galliano, Incognito,
those first four groups,
Norman was really important with me
to make sure that we had success
with those groups.
Working with Gilles,
that was the best decision I ever made.
We've had a lifelong friendship,
even though he's Arsenal
and I'm Tottenham, so
We really shouldn't get on,
but we try to keep football out of it.
You can't pigeonhole the music anymore.
Not only are the crowds changing,
but, you know, you're getting rappers
playing with jazz musicians.
But it's also merging that with hip-hop.
Hip-hop was just beginning
to get into that new phase,
and so, as deejays, we're playing hip-hop,
but we're waiting for
the next hip-hop thing to come along
that's, kind of,
really gonna get it right.
And, suddenly,
I get this CD from Philadelphia.
I shall, proceed ♪
And continue to rock the mic ♪
I shall, proceed ♪
And continue to rock the mic ♪
I shall, proceed ♪
And continue to rock the mic ♪
I'm like, "This is it."
You know, double bass, really good MCs,
I cut some dubplates, and I play it.
It becomes big.
Just blink yourself away? ♪
Just think ♪
What was great as well, at that time,
was that there was
this interesting exchange of influences
that would be happening with the
American artists coming over to Camden.
The myth of Camden started bearing fruit,
and, suddenly, they would realise that
Camden's really interesting musically,
and it was diverse as well.
I think the advantage of being here
is the constant change,
the constant pressure,
the constant competition.
And that's what makes
the music so exciting,
because people are always
trying to better the next man.
And that's how you get change.
London's the place. Come to London
'cause this is where it's happening.
We landed in London,
and I didn't know what to expect.
You know, there was a certain arrogance
we had 'cause, like,
"Yeah, we're Americans.
We're number one. Like, we're first.
We're the innovators." And all that stuff.
So, our first night in Camden,
we go in this nightclub,
and we go in the deejay booth,
and they put on
Anita Baker's "Sweet Love".
With all my heart ♪
I love you, baby ♪
Is this 1986 over here?
Like, these motherfuckers playing
"Sweet Love" by Anita Baker.
We were so arrogant.
Like, we were just,
like, high-fiving each other,
like, "Yo, these backwards motherfuckers.
They dancing to ballads over here.
What the fuck?"
And then when they started drumming
- I'm in love ♪
- I'm in love ♪
- Sweet love ♪
- Sweet love ♪
Hear me callin' out your name ♪
And I just stood there frozen, like,
"Where the hell are we?"
- I'm in love ♪
- Sweet love ♪
- Sweet love ♪
- Don't you ever go away ♪
I've never seen this in America
in my life.
Like, "What is going on?"
I'll never forget
my first night in London, ever.
Came in super arrogant
and left super humbled and like,
"Oh, I got some growing up to do
and a lot to learn."
'Cause I didn't learn anything
living in West Philly.
So
'Cause, baby, I believe in this love ♪
That's another thing why Camden--
It was so unique.
'Cause we experiment.
Nothing's too sacred for us.
We'll play around.
We'll meddle with anything.
We'll fuck it up.
But out of that creativity
will come one game-changing gem
that make you dance, that make you
sing along, make you smile.
And at the same time, educate you.
- Love me sweetly, baby ♪
- Sweet love ♪
- Love me sweetly, baby ♪
- I'm in love ♪
Sweet love ♪
I organised a meeting with Questlove,
and I said, "We really like
what you're doing, you know?
I really want to sign you
to my label in England."
It was just amazing, fresh,
new music that no one else was doing,
and they were just, like,
tick, tick, tick, tick.
No one's doing that. Bang.
Powerful, massive, important.
These guys are gonna last forever.
He believed in us and saw things in us
that we didn't even see in ourselves.
They knew where they were, who they were
And I just kept saying,
"What's wrong with this guy?"
Like, "Doesn't he know that it's over?"
Like, I was just ready to just go
to doom and gloom.
Like, "We'll never make it."
That sort of thing.
But he just thought we were
the greatest thing since sliced bread.
I can't quite believe that we, uh--
That I-I actually was part of their story.
Somewhere in there.
When we got to Camden,
we weren't swimming in money.
Gilles says, "Look, I got some studio work
for you guys to help sustain you.
There's a particular studio
that allows you
to have residency inside the studio
as you record."
So, we earned enough money to,
like, get us a nice place.
It was an apartment loft.
We were above a fish and chips shop
that filled us up every night.
First of all,
th-th-the size of the fish over there
I don't-- It was, like-- What
is it? Nuclear engineering or whatever.
But, like for three pounds,
you would get, like,
this fish the size of, like, my thigh.
We were literally, like, hand to mouth.
Like, day by day.
"Ooh, another day. Another day."
Another day of, like,
not falling over the edge.
And my managers were like, "Yo, Gilles,
any gigs you can get us?"
He'd told our agent to, like,
book us a weekend at the Jazz Cafe.
I'll never forget the first Roots show.
I mean, it was a moment, you know?
When the Roots played at the Jazz Cafe,
people were talking about that
for-for-for months to come after that.
It became a legendary show.
And so, after that,
all the Americans had to play there.
The reason why we got so many gigs
is because we were the dependable outfit
that was always ready on standby
when name-rap-group-here
would fuck up and miss the flight
and not wanna come over.
"We'll-- We'll take the gig."
And literally, you know,
"Ladies and gentlemen, we don't have, uh,
Group Home with us, but we got the Roots."
And they were just like
The Jazz Cafe was always just a--
I'm not saying that's the place
where stars are born,
but it's such a rite of passage.
We got the one and only, Questlove
steppin' up.
Deejaying also gave me the upper hand
because they would slide me £150,
which was gold back then.
"I ain't giving this to the Roots.
This is my money."
So I found my hustle.
I was just always waiting in the wings.
I didn't have deejay equipment
or any of those things to practise on.
So I would spend
about five hours in record stores
listening to what they would play
on the system.
I was like, "Wow."
Like, in the States,
you always have to keep up
with what's current and what's new.
But over here, I can play the records
that's in my record collection.
Camden allowed me to experiment
in ways that I could never get away with
in Philadelphia.
A big part of my musical education
was just always, always spinning there
at the Jazz Cafe.
We had total creative freedom
in many of the venues.
And it allowed me to learn to mix.
One of the founding venues,
from a club culture point of view,
was Dingwalls.
It was fantastic.
Once a month,
I used to ram out Dingwalls on a Friday.
Get 700 people in there.
Everyone was welcome.
I was trying something completely new
in the face of acid house,
and my raison d'être then
was about making Black house records
acceptable to Black audiences.
'Cause up until then, it was a no go.
"House music, nah.
No, house music's for white kids."
Norman was the first person
really to bring house music to Camden.
Brave man on the decks.
He stood up
and played the music he believed in,
and, yeah, a pioneer.
Now, this is the man responsible
for running Talkin' Loud here at Dingwalls
on a Sunday afternoon, Gilles Peterson.
I'd go to his Sunday session at Dingwalls,
and I'd hear stuff there
that would blow my mind.
So I'm being educated.
Every day's a school day in Camden.
As long as you leave yourself
open to being taught,
then you'll get
the best enjoyment out of it.
I would always be in the club
just studying what people were playing,
what they're listening to.
It was over there in London
where I really truly learned
the art of risk-taking.
So, you best believe,
once I came back to the States,
like, fresh from the gym,
suddenly, the world started to open.
I remember
we were mid-recording "You Got Me".
And it was good.
However, I'm like,
"Nah, it sounds too normal."
Somebody told me
That this planet was small ♪
We used to live in the same building
On the same floor ♪
And never met before
Until I'm overseas on tour ♪
How can I prevent the hip-hop elite,
the judgemental people, from doing this?
Like
"I got it.
Why don't I introduce
drum and bass to the States?"
And I told my engineer-- I said, "Yo.
Put the reel back up for 'You Got Me'.
Erase my drums, and I'm gonna redo it
drum-and-bass style."
It was one of the hardest
drumming challenges I had.
You know that you got me ♪
If you were worried 'bout where ♪
I been or who I saw or ♪
I wanted that whole song
to be like an adrenalised jam,
sort of, close to that "Sweet Love" moment
that I had five years before.
And the GRAMMY
goes to "You Got Me"
by the Roots featuring Erykah Badu.
Having just moved back to the States,
that was, sort of,
my farewell in the rear-view mirror
of what my life was for the last
five years living off of fish and chips.
That was my swansong.
My-my send-off to-- to my life in London.
Everything we learned in Camden,
we're still applying to our lives today.
If you're a kid wanting to break in music,
that has to be your starting ground.
That's your ground zero.
Here we go. These guys
smashed it down at Lovebox on Saturday.
They've brought it,
stepped up to the plate.
And it's all because of this man,
Mark Ronson,
playing tunes for the next 45 minutes
in the Boiler Room.
It's undeniable that my musical tastes
were obviously shaped by the first
eight years that I lived in London.
The excitability around music.
I mean, in-in England,
like, people place bets
on what the number-one song
at Christmas is gonna be.
I mean, that's how much of a pastime--
And it's hard to explain that to America,
you know?
At that point,
I'd been deejaying in New York clubs,
but clubs had gotten a bit stale.
The spirit and the joy
and the fun of dancing and deejaying
had gone out of it for me.
So I came back.
I played most of my London shows
in Camden.
That's where I wanted
my validation to come from.
And it was just, like,
this incredible energy.
The venues there are just--
They have history. They sound great.
I learnt about Camden
really through Amy.
I spent the most time there
because I was with her,
crashing her house,
whatever we were doing.
I put my first album out when I was 27,
Here Comes the Fuzz.
And it came out, and it sold three copies.
It just tanked.
And then, suddenly, Guy Moot, who was
the head of EMI Publishing at the time,
was like, "Hey, this girl Amy Winehouse
is in town. Do you wanna meet with her?"
So she came to my studio,
and we just hit it off.
It was only five or six days
of doing the demos
of all those songs
we did on Back to Black.
The funny thing is that,
if the record company really thought,
like, it was supposed to be
a huge hit or she was, like, a giant star,
they certainly
wouldn't have put her with me.
Like, you know, at that point,
I was a pretty unproven producer.
Jazzy Jeff DMs me.
And he's depressed.
And what he's depressed about
is he's coming to grips with the fact
that "that" Mark Ronson--
Like, literally, we dropped
the word "that" from Mark Ronson's name
maybe, like, ten years ago.
Like, "Wait, who produ--
No, no, no. 'That' Mark Ronson?"
'Cause in our minds,
Mark Ronson was always the opening deejay,
dragging his records, like, the little
skinny kid that you let open for you
before you do your headline set
or whatever.
So I'm like, "You're trying to tell me
'that' Mark Ronson produced this record?"
I think everyone was a little surprised.
I was like, "Oh, you mean, like, you
thought that I sucked until I did this?"
Amy Winehouse, man.
Her manager had hit up my manager
and gave me the number,
and I called her,
and she was like, "Let's hang."
She's like, uh, "All right,
I'm gonna take you for some magic."
And she takes me to this place.
The block just looked like
There's dog faeces over there
and garbage over there.
And I was like, "Oh, London has a-- a
sketchy part of it that I didn't know of."
And no one's fazed that Amy Winehouse
and Questlove are in Beigel Bake.
Yes, please.
And I was like,
"Well, what should I get?"
And she's like, "You want salt beef."
The first bite of it
just sparked off like
Like this-- this angelic C chord that
you hear at the beginning of The Simpsons.
Like-- It was like, "Yo, what the hell?"
She's like "I told you, right?"
And that was always our thing.
Every time I'd come to London,
we'd go to our spot
and have the salt beef sandwich.
And, um
Yeah, so
Even to this day, my version of, like,
visiting her gravesite is,
any time I'm in London,
it's in my itinerary.
Like, before we go to Heathrow, I need
a two-hour period to go to Beigel Bake,
and having the world's best sandwich.
That's my connection to Amy Winehouse.
The last time we played
the great Roundhouse, Camden, 2015-16.
And you can see me
mixing up the brew, you know?
The witches' bitches' brew.
So, this is what actually gets me
through the-the show,
even on a sunny day.
I would tell you what's in it, but I'm
gonna have to deal with you afterwards,
so I think I'll let that relax
for a minute.
But, yeah,
seriously looking forward to it,
'cause it's been a while since
the old pandemic and this, that and other.
And, like I said, you know Camden
it's a hard place to rock.
And I guess, pressure's on.
Let's do this!
Keep ♪
Keep ♪
Keep ♪
Keep ♪
Keep ♪
Keep on moving ♪
Don't stop like the hands of time ♪
Click-clock
Find your own way to stay ♪
The time will come one day ♪
Why do people choose
To live their lives? ♪
Oh, why do they choose ♪
To live this way? ♪
Keep on moving ♪
That was one of
the most important records to me.
When I heard "Keep on Movin'",
I was like--
I don't know why, but it just--
I didn't listen to any music
like that before.
Caron Wheeler's voice,
those chords and that drumbeat,
I can still hear it,
and it still makes me feel, like, chills.
It's our time ♪
Time today ♪
The right time is here to stay ♪
Stay in my life ♪
My life always ♪
Yellow is the colour of sunrays ♪
Soul II Soul really, like--
They were everything to me.
There are so many sounds in that record
that were like a real about-face for me,
as far as pointing me in the direction
of the kind of music
that I wanted to make, definitely.
Yellow is the colour of sunrays ♪
- Keep on moving ♪
- Keep on moving ♪
Don't stop ♪
Keep on moving
Don't stop, no ♪
- Hands up high ♪
- Keep on moving ♪
Jazzie B was one of
the most important British acts ever.
His contribution, second to none.
Look what Soul II Soul did for UK music.
Unsurpassed.
It's fair to say, he opened the doors
still further for people like me.
Keep on moving ♪
One time,
we were doing a party for i-D magazine.
I get this call,
"Norman, we'd like you to do New York."
And I'm like,
"What? Wow! Who else is going?"
"Oh, we've asked Jazzie B, Soul II Soul."
Christmas.
So, me and Jazzie go there.
The week we're there,
they were number one.
Soul II Soul was everywhere.
I remember we were driving around in
in a limo.
Every shop you went into,
you heard Soul II Soul coming out.
And that was mirrored
here in the UK as well.
It was fantastic.
In Camden,
I'm gutted that I wasn't in the video,
'cause I got invited to come to the video
where they're walking down
Camden High Street,
but for some reason, I couldn't be there.
Gutted.
Camden plays a vital part
in the journey of Soul II Soul.
We came into Camden very early '80s,
and Camden, at that time,
was considered very derelique.
A bit intense.
But it just had this youthful energy
at the time.
So, it totally suited us
and everything we were about.
In the early days of Soul II Soul,
we had market stalls.
We were selling music and stuff,
and, naturally, played music in that
traditional sound-system-type mentality.
So, part and parcel
of the connection with Camden
was also the fact that it helped
as a revenue for the sound system.
The majority of the--
the guys from the Caribbean,
or, you know, um, from the West Indies,
were always, um--
That was the main thing we had,
you know, was the parties, socialising,
and sound system was a big part of
our lives, you know, and our upbringing.
When Soul II Soul came along,
there was nothing
that was representing London, Camden,
like Jazzie B and Aitch.
You know, their team,
their crew, their sound.
So, when they managed
to turn that into music,
"Keep on Movin'", "Fairplay".
- Hello, we're Soul II Soul.
- We're Soul II Soul.
And you're watching
Europe's rock show Countdown.
It was the first band
that the mainstream couldn't avoid,
but have to play. They had to play it.
Jazzie B, Soul II Soul,
they opened the door for everything
that's happening today with British music.
Whether it's Stormzy.
Whether it was Adele or Amy Winehouse,
you know,
the door was flung open by Soul II Soul.
Back to life ♪
Back to reality ♪
Back to life ♪
Back to reality ♪
Back to life ♪
Back to reality ♪
Back to the here and now
Oh, yeah ♪
Show me how ♪
At that time, we had no predators.
There was nothing like us.
maybe I could be there for you ♪
Having the sound system enabled us
to do these gatherings/parties in Camden.
However do you want me ♪
You had a lot of goths there.
Punk was huge,
and then Black people.
That sense of the community.
That's where we're from.
So we would've taken all these elements,
and that would have been mixed up
in that idea of the recipe
of what Soul II Soul became.
Back from a fantasy, yes ♪
What I loved was the way the Black
community in America embraced him,
and showered him with loads of awards
and acknowledgements.
You're really big
in the States right now.
What was the first moment you went like,
"Wow, it is true. We are really big"?
I think it's probably the time when we
went out to pick up the Soul Train awards.
And I-- You know,
we met loads of people and stuff
- Mm-hmm.
- and it kind of sunk in then.
The fact that America
had embraced what I'd done so much
got me to humble myself.
However do you need me ♪
Meeting with like-minded people,
it was just fantastic.
However do you want me ♪
This picture here,
my first performance
at the Palladium, New York, 1989.
Myself and the legendary Chuck D.
However do you want me ♪
Oh, yeah. Uh-huh.
And, uh, this is my man, the jazz man.
- However do you need me ♪
- How ♪
- However do you want me ♪
- Oh ♪
- However do you need me ♪
- Tell me now, how do you want me ♪
However do you want me ♪
When Soul II Soul came about,
there's nobody that ever did better taking
the combination of rhythm and blues,
a lot of organic sounds, the hip-hop vibe,
but also a little jazz in there.
And this stuff was already
in people like Jazzie B as a deejay.
Jazzie was, like
I mean, dance music.
At that particular time in music
in the United States,
it kind of ran off
to drum machines and synthesisers.
And Jazzie, he stepped into
that world very powerfully,
but he kept the aesthetic
of real musicians.
We wanted to become fans of that area.
You know, what could we take from here?
Who can we work with?
I mean, what can we absorb?
So when I travel, I fly
the flag of Camden, 'cause it's our turf.
The Americans, when they come over
to get a sip of the tonic of Camden,
and, um, hopefully that helps them
to lubricate their ideas
and their energies
and their artistic, um, flair.
Public Enemy was one of the first.
We were one of the first that--
We wanted to do what Hendrix did.
'Cause we knew that we were
so out of this world and different
that we knew it would be difficult
to really plant in the United States.
And we felt that we can do anything
and be anyone in the UK.
"Too Black. Too strong.
Too Black. Too strong."
Show 'em that we can do this
'Cause we always knew this ♪
Ha ha, yeah, boy ♪
Bass! How low can you go? ♪
Death row? What a brother know ♪
The first time coming to the UK,
it was like
a total upside-down culture shift for me.
It was cold. It was damp.
We took it upon ourselves to hit
every stage we could hit with vengeance.
The Hackney and the Brixton
and then Camden.
I remember Electric Ballroom.
It was so hot in there that
each and every song that we performed,
between two or three songs, I would
go back and get drenched with water.
And pour water all over me.
And then hit the stage again.
Better keep tellin' me to turn it down ♪
But, yo
Flavor Flav ain't going out like that ♪
We had an enthusiastic audience
all over London.
This is one of the biggest
Public Enemy fans in London.
Uh, you know, she has all our tapes
and all our records and--
Get outta here.
We're proud to have you aboard, miss.
There's not just Black people
here today. There's white people.
They can relate to it as well. Understand?
And they've got something to say
for us as well.
The music is what draws everybody.
It's a tough beat.
All of their beats are tough.
It attracts kids.
We got to plead the Fifth ♪
They always respected my point of view.
It was like, "Yeah,
you've come to the real spot, Chuck."
All right. I see that London
is the capital of the world in hip-hop.
That really seriously
gave us the confidence
that we could do some things
back in the States.
So, those are my-- my biggest impressions
of going back and forth to Camden.
So in the '90s, there was
a-a-a select group of acts that got it,
that realised that they wouldn't
catch on in the United States.
Acts like the Black Eyed Peas.
They would know that,
"Okay, we're in the United States.
We can't get this love.
We gonna go over to the UK."
That's the joint, that's the jam ♪
Turn that shit up, and play it again ♪
That's the joint, that's the jam ♪
Turn that shit up, and play it again ♪
I like the way the rhythm
Makes me jump and move ♪
It gots the feelin'
That makes me wanna do my do ♪
First time going to London--
What was it? Kingston P--
What was it called?
We were staying at the Kingston--
No, that wasn't the first time.
- Kensington Posthouse.
- Kensington?
Yeah, no. But that was--
When we were playing Jazz Cafe,
we weren't even staying there.
- What was that place?
- - Uh--
We were staying at
the Kensington Posthouse
when we were playing Hammersmith.
What was the name of the hotel, though,
that we were at the Jazz Cafe?
Jazz Cafe? We were staying in some--
I don't even know
if that hotel is still around.
So, to that point,
I just felt like we had made it somewhere,
because we were in a different country.
And we had been different places before,
but London
was always synonymous for music.
And what's happenin' here
Seek one to help you ♪
Feelin' a peace of mind
Let your spine unwind ♪
Black singers, in America,
that are having a hard time fitting into
whatever the status quo of what "Black"
is supposed to be in America,
they find a home in Camden.
to make my point ♪
Get down and dirty
'Cause that's my joint ♪
Ha! We preferably make all points ♪
In the '90s,
gangster rap was the business.
You wanted to make money,
you wanted to have a career,
you look like the flock.
So we were the opposite of that.
We-- We weren't gang-banging,
even though we'd just got off of Ruthless,
which is, like, founders of gangster rap.
We were the-- not that.
We looked like we got beamed in
from the '70s, in the '90s.
I mean, we look like
we just came off a spaceship now.
But that's not what the Black Eyed Peas'
attire was like in '98.
And so, what does that mean?
That means it's Camden.
We hitting up all the thrift stores.
We going shopping trying to get,
like, bargain deals and stuff.
We found our herd.
We found our flock in Camden
playing the Jazz Cafe.
That's where the vibe was at.
It had a stairs-- We would perform
on the stairs, remember that?
- We would jump off the balcony.
- Mmm.
So, it was just that energy
that we-we felt going to the Jazz Cafe.
- Jazz Cafe gave us
the freedom to improvise.
I mean, we used to improvise a lot,
but a lot more there 'cause we've
run out of songs after a while, you know?
You just gotta, like,
"Oh, now we gotta fill up
a three-hour show. What we gonna do?"
So we were able to dance, to freestyle.
And it was a place
where you can go see other bands perform,
like Black Star and the Roots.
People that we were inspired by.
Our modus operandi as a group was,
like, no matter where we were,
we would always make sure
that we befriended
whoever was, kind of, under the radar,
under the mainstream.
And you would always find
groups like that at the Jazz Cafe.
I enjoyed the aftershow
more than I enjoyed the show-show,
- 'cause you're corralling outside.
- Oh, yeah. Yeah.
You're hanging out trying to figure out
what we gonna do afterwards.
It's memorable.
And it was word of mouth 'cause
there wasn't no social media back then.
It was, like, flyers--
- Why you making us sound like we old?
- I mean, it's true.
- It's true.
-"And there was no phones."
And it was like,
"We-- We had to use the red phone booths."
It's true. Talking about '99, shit.
-"Remember the wall phones?"
And pigeons. Then we'd be, like,
"Go, find" "find a place."
So, going to Camden,
it felt like we had a home.
We have been blessed to have a career
by playing the Jazz Cafe.
Still to this day, where's my career?
It's in the UK.
All the time, I come back home like,
"Why am I coming back home? I don't know."
This is where my freak--
This is where my career's at.
And the BAFTA goes to
Summer of Soul.
When we won,
my heart just, like "What?"
Man.
We did a few after-parties.
And now it's time to get back on the plane
to go back to the United States,
and I'm like,
"Hey, driver, what time
do we have to be at the airport?"
And he's like,
"Well, you know, seven o'clock."
And it's, like, four-something.
I say,
"Yo, um, do you mind doing me a favour?
Can you take me to the Jazz Cafe?"
He says,
"Jazz Cafe? It's like-- It's closed now."
I say, "I know. No, no.
I wanna go to my apartment."
He said, "Well, what's the address?"
I said, "I don't remember the address,
but I know how to get there
if you go to the Jazz Cafe."
So he drives me to the Jazz Cafe.
I was like,
"Okay, I remember my way home."
I make a left and then, I think,
right before the bridge, I make a right.
Made a few false turns,
and then, finally, there it is.
My old apartment.
I just wanted to sit
in front of that apartment,
and just look at the ghost of me
looking out of my bedroom
wondering if I have a future.
And it was just
a really beautiful, silent moment.
And then
I said, "Fuck. This is how it ends."
Two cop cars pulled up,
and I was like, "Look,"
I said. "I know this really sounds weird.
Um, I'm a movie director,
and I just won a BAFTA,
and 30 years ago,
my band and I used to live in this loft.
Just for sentimental reasons, I wanted
to just visit where-- where I started,
'cause I-I used to live in this town
for, like, five years."
He says, "Man, that's beautiful.
That's great. Congrats. Have a nice day."
And he just left and
But