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But we’re gonna be able to just grab briefcases and get on a plane and just go somewhere and play a show. It’s gonna feel like some Dilla, but it’s gonna be me singing. We just going out, it’s just gonna be me and him, just us with everything, with a DJ and a bass player. Actually me and Ali is doing a project called “Saadiq and Shaheed,” and it’s pretty cool. As much as I’d love to give it to my fans, you know, I would love to be on stage wit - that was actually Ali Shaheed Muhammad, he has some room in my studio that he uses every day. I’m just going forward with people who really wanna work and have the same focus as me. In 2018, I just decided not to do that anymore. I think I’ve lended too much to people, I’ve given too much of my heart to people like that. I would love to, but going backwards is OK, it just never felt right now just where everybody’s at in their place. Would you ever reunite with your groups from the past?
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Just kinda distorted stuff, more effects, more visual stuff happening. Really strong beats and me using more of my tenor voice to feel a little young Stevie a little bit. More like Lucy Pearl, or me kinda reaching back to my Sly & The Family Stone roots, but at the same time still sonic boom. This is a little dirtier than that, but it’s definitely a lot of effects, but it’s a lot of undertones of guitars and me playing bass, a lot of crazy bass. Muddy Waters, Rolling Stones, more of that. I played on the words, you know, Stone Rollin’. Stone Rollin’ was more of a Chicago blues, rock and roll, kinda like Rolling Stones thing. It’s a hybrid of, I would say, Instant Vintage, but it’s a little more colorful than The Way I See It, that was more like a ’60s record. It just shows that if you love what you do - and I actually do, I love what I do - you just put your head down and keep working and good things, amazing things, can happen.
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When Mary comes over you gotta pull out all the bells and whistles. Cause you know I don’t do anything for awards. Were you surprised by the Oscar nomination for the song? And the camera is very consistent in her eyes, which means she did a great job. Because that’s the hardest thing to do in acting, is to be believable and have the eyes that the camera can stay on. Even when she wasn’t speaking, I was still looking at Mary. I was watching and critiquing Mary really hard. What do you make of Mary’s performance in particular and the way she inhabited that character? I felt like Mary’s character was the person who was putting her differences aside to make everything work with both families. You will fight, but you don’t wanna have this struggle all the time. I was just so glad it lined up with the stories, with her character, the husband, the son going into the military and coming back feeling like he had no worth. She lived it, she walked through the mud, she was there in the shoot taking it on. I think it aligned very well because Mary was such an intricate part of being in my face and talking about it. Now that you’ve seen it, how do you think it aligns with the message of the movie? “Mighty River” came about without you having seen the film.
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Blige Thrilled at Becoming a Double Oscar Nominee They both looked at me very weird when I said that. I just knew that this piece, this film, with Mary and Taura, we had to say something about rivers. I’m a huge Al Green fan, and Al Green had, “Take me to the river.” You know. I always wanted a song that talked about the river. People sing “The Jordan River.” Then I started listening, a little bit further into my music school, I fell in love with Neil Young, and he used the word river. I grew up in church, and there was always a song about - a negro spiritual or I’d sing like, classical negro spirituals in high school, at my high school in Oakland, and you read about the Jordan River. The same goes for “Mighty River.” Why was it important to have it be a center theme to it?įor me, I love songs that have something about a river in it. There’s an overarching theme among Oscar nominees for best original song that’s about inclusivity. We just kinda sat there and put no pressure on anyone, but it was a lot of pressure. Going over and over the lyrics and the words. Her and Taura grabbed a pen, I grabbed the guitar, we sat down and we kept conversing. She basically sat down and gave us the scope of it. When I get back, I’ll have an opportunity to have a song in this piece, in this film, and I wanna write something with you.” So I called my writing partner Taura Stinson and Mary came by the studio and told us about the film. “I wanna work with you.” So we always kept that stream open, and she called me and said, “I’m working on this movie. When see Mary as a writer and a fan, I’m always like, “What are you doing? What are you working on? When do you go back to the studio?” That’s a normal thing I’d say to Mary.