Legendary  Producer Moe Z MD (@MoeZMD) chopped it up with The Hype Magazine about  numerous topics including Prince’s style of music influencing his own  writing styles and vocals infused with funk. He speaks on a rare  unreleased remix of Prince’s “Halls of Desire” which he did for Tevin  Campbell and the effect that Prince’s passing had on him.

He takes  us through his humble beginnings at Antioch Baptist Church in Long  Beach California, where he honed his skills on several instruments  favoring the Drums. He learned lessons from Earth Wind and Fire’s  attitude towards music and people and remains very humble since his days  as a backup singer for the group. About EW&F Moe says, “Maurice  White’s production of the group and how they did vocals shaped me as a  producer and everything had to make sense.” Moe also reminisced on  working with Radio and beatboxing against Snoop at an early battle  between Snoop and another artist.

Moe has also worked with everyone from New Edition, Morris Day, to Michael Jackson and he shows no signs of slowing down.

We  covered his early recording days with Tupac Shakur and the pain he felt  when Pac was shot and when he was killed. Moe delves into how he  secured work and tours with John Cougar Mellencamp even though Dr .Dre  was John’s first thought when reaching out to a producer from the Hip  Hop community. Moe is so much more than a Hip Hop producer as he has  crossed genres his whole career, but when you’ve worked with the best in  Hip Hop, we as a culture take notice of that and we salute you.

How did you come up with the name Moe Z MD?

I  was about 14 or 15 and I really started listening to Prince and he had a  drummer at the time name Bobby Z and I said you know what, I can be in  Prince’s band and I’ll be Moe Z and also Prince also had a name he used  when he was producing. He would call himself Jamie Star so I took the  star and I made Moe Z Star and that’s what I was known us for a while

How did Prince’s passing affect you?

It  was real hard for me because for a lot of my early life music that I  did was patterned off of the funk Prince did with his vocals and even  his writing style. It was a real big influence musically in that way and  it was like my brother that I grew up with passed away. I saw his  growth throughout the years and followed him and I followed his  struggles in his ups and downs so it was like a family member died it  was really hard. I actually had a chance to do a remix for a song he did  with Tevin Campbell which is called “Halls Of Desire” and I did the  remix but they never used the single but I got a chance to get involved  with something that he was involved in early in my career and that was  pretty cool.

How did you get started as a musician? Was it by ear?

Yeah  actually we would go to Antioch Baptist Church and the musicians that  they had were very inspiring and they made me want to do what they were  doing so at first I watch the drummer, his name was Mike Withers. I  watched him play and I used to be on the floor with my sticks trying to  mimic him but everybody else was so good to so I wanted to be everybody  and my Daddy got my sister a little toy piano and I started messing  around with it and I tried to play everything that came on TV  commercials, little pieces of shows and I developed my ears so I started  being able to follow along with things. I started making sense out of  it and I just applied that to each instrument. It’s the same theories  just different fingers and I love the drums the most because you have  the most responsibility because everybody’s following you and it’s a  challenge and that’s the instrument that I love the most that I have the  most fun playing.

What did you learn from touring with Earth Wind and Fire early in your career that you still carry with you till this day?

Earth,  Wind and Fire I would definitely say it’s an attitude towards music and  towards people. They were real humble but very smart musically and that  was the impact it had when I saw them and when I was able to go and  sing with them it was like watching them in their element live. They had  so many hits that it kind of made it important for me to write songs  that would last more than just the time period that it’s in. When I  really started paying attention to Earth, Wind and Fire I was older and  it had been songs from the 70s and now I’m in the 80s and understanding  it and I’m getting more in tune with it and I was really seeing what  they were doing and I was approaching it from a different standpoint so I  think really just listening to Maurice White’s production of the group,  analyzing that and how they did the vocals just really shaped me as a  producer. Those are the things I look for in all songs. I look for  continuity and for things to make sense, not just random instruments or  random vocals, everything had to really make you listen back to it. It’s  a pattern. It’s more thought than normal.

[youtube  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O97BXHF19N8]What was it like working  with Radio which led up to you meeting and working with Tupac?

I  met Radio of course in Long Beach and we were kids and we were young and  the day that I met him he was beatboxing for Snoop in front of the high  school and Snoop’s battling one of my homeboys and I was beatboxing for  him and it’s like the mid 80s [Imitating Buffy from the Fat Boys] and  Radio was awesome at scratching without a microphone and it was loud and  the beats that he was doing was like, what!? That’s why they called him  Radio because he could make sounds that were incredible He was the  second one out of Long Beach to get a record deal and that was with  Interscope and that was before Snoop and those guys got signed and  originally my guy Keith Clark, who was one of my mentors was producing  the project and they were having some issues so he asked me if I wanted  to do some stuff so I hooked up with Radio and we made up a bunch of  stuff that was like some gangsta stuff but then Snoop came and signed  with Interscope and his gangsta stuff had gotten bigger and bigger and  they had tried to make us make Radio sound more like Heavy D and  eventually they wanted us to go back and revamp stuff as the gangster  stuff got bigger. So we revamped it and did more gangster stuff and by  this time to Pac and everybody had signed. Tupac was in John McClain’s  office because that was Radios A & R was and Pac was like, “Who is  that?” He was listening to the music so John told him who I was and at  the time I had been producing but the things I had done were with Pop  music so now this is Rap and I had escaped from Pop and this was my  first professional rap thing so Tupac wanted me to do three remixes, one  was “From The Cradle To The Grave,” “Running From The Police,” and  “Lord Knows.” So I flip those trucks and I didn’t do too much to  “Running From The Police” but I did some stuff to it and actually had  Radio on the hook doing some rasta and they sent the tapes to Tupac and  by the weekend he had gotten the cassette and asked me to send him some  beats overnight. So I put some beats on there and he chose one but I  didn’t know which one it was but by that following week I was in New  York, they flew me out there to record it and that’s when he told me  that “From The Cradle To The Grave” was going to be on the radio and  they were going to make it for single. It was originally an R&B song  that I had for someone that had returned it because they couldn’t do  anything with it, so we spent like an hour just trying to get to all of  my files together and Tupac finally played the cassette and I was like  oh that’s an R&B song and Pac said, “Well it’s a rap now nigga,” so  we start laying it down and by the time I finished it they had all  written something to it, It was Tupac & Tha Outlawz but at the time  they were called Young Niggaz and they were really young, I think the  oldest one was Edi and he was 17 and the rest of the guys were younger  than that and Pac was like respect Moe Z and he was really rough on them  and everything so we recorded the song I came back to California and  they told me he was going to use one of the remixes that I did on the  album and it turned out to be “Lord Knows” and Tony Pizarro had a  version and they kind of blended the two make that particular version of  “Lord knows.” Then we took a break for about six months. I guess Tupac  was going through whatever he was going through and he came to  California in September and then it was on. I had never recorded that  much. I’m a person that records every day, mostly all day since I was 10  years old, ever since I figured out how to record from tape to tape  before I knew about multitrack but Pac wore me out because I had never  recorded like that from overnight into the next night but I got used to  it and after that we were cranking them out.

When John  Cougar Mellencamp’s people originally tried reaching out to Dr. Dre for  some drum loops how did you get that gig instead of Dre?

I  think it was his manager who was actually making the calls called my  publisher and my publish of course said no, you don’t need Dr. Dre you  need Moe Z. So my publisher calls me and says “hey how would you like to  produce Johnny Cougar?” and I was like that’s great, so now I’m leaving  Hip Hop and going into Rock which is something that I knew I could do  and I had the chance to prove myself and another genre which is now the  fourth genre that I’ve had to prove myself in so I flew all my equipment  out to Indiana to John’s studio and he said listen, “I got Raphael  Saadiq out here to do some stuff and I wanted him to do some drum loops  but he really ended up just playing Bass on a couple of songs. I got  Junior Vasquez who is Madonna’s producer to do some stuff. I just want  to see what you can do and this is the last song on the album let’s just  see what you can do.” It reminded me of cradle to the grave because  that was the last song on Pac’s album and he said, “Why did you bring  all of this stuff,?” and I said I was told I was producing you and he  got a hearty laugh out of that and he said, “No I produce myself, I just  need some drum loops so let me see what you can do,” so he starts  playing the song on the Acoustic Guitar and everybody’s around figuring  out what we’re going to do and I got my headphones on so they can’t hear  what I’m doing but I can hear what they’re doing so I’m throwing in  samples of the D.O.C. and I’m scratching and I had the turntable so I  went hard on it and we laid out a few tracks and he said, “What else you  got?” So I started laying down different parts like the Organ and while  that was playing back I was singing background, like mumbling  background parts to what he was doing and he was like, “Ohh put that in  there,” and 10 minutes later I’m stacking vocals and going hard and he  says, “Moe that’s really good. I like what you did there, what do you  think about touring with the band?” and I said okay. They had to get  used to me because I came in from Eastside Long Beach shit and it was a  culture shock for me and for them and we had to get used to each other  but we did that pretty quick because I understood the music. With  jumping genres as long as you understand the music and you put your  heart into it people are going to feel it

How did u feel the 1st time that you heard that Pac had gotten shot?

Ohhh  That was really rough. I was at the house and I was actually writing  something for Radio’s album and he had left and said he was going to  come back and we were going to do some more work. About a week or so  before that I had been in the studio with Pac talking with him and my  sister about the case that he was going through and he was about to go  to court for it and he was telling us what was happening and so we were  already charged up. I was supposed to go to that session and record but  because I was recording Radio I couldn’t do it and so I remember just  being on the floor after we had gotten in from the studio and I was  writing and it was on the news that he had gotten shot in the studio and  I’m like I was supposed to be there I’m glad I didn’t go but at the  same time I felt bad because I wasn’t there to be there for him and by  the time we had developed a brother kind of relationship and I would  page them to go to the studio in the morning to make sure that we all  got and things like that. After he got shot it just change the course of  everything then we tried to keep working when he went to jail and we  even tried to get a vocal of his on the phone when he was in jail and we  couldn’t get it so that was the last time I heard his voice on the  phone or in person or anything like that because when he went to jail it  was like I want to get out but I can’t help you. I really wanted to  help him and I really wanted to be there but I was struggling it was  just really painful you know I couldn’t be there for him.

Where were you at when you heard about the Vegas shooting that he passed away from?

I  was on tour with John in London when I heard about it and I had talked  to Edi and Hollywood and K Dog I forget what they call him now but I had  tried to talk to him when they was at the studio doing the death row  thing and I was trying to get in touch with him like you know, what are  you doing but they told me Pac didn’t really want to talk and I felt  like he was kind of looking out for me because I voiced a strong opinion  about not working with Suge Knight. I just didn’t like his personality  and he was very rude to me when Dr. Dre introduced me to him. He slapped  my hand out the way and he slapped my Dad’s hand out the way, he was  just really rude so I had voiced to him that I wasn’t going to be  involved with him and he was like, “Dr. Dre’s my favorite producer. I  love their whole get down and I want you to get down.” I was like that’s  cool but it was really a lot more to it and things just weren’t like  you think they were. Pac did have his own label Out The Gutter Records  that was on Interscope and he had aspirations of bringing out my label  Funk House and some of the artists that I had that were on his album and  I saw a bright future and it wasn’t one where we were dealing with  Death Row.

What are you working on and what can we expect in 2017 from Moe Z MD?

In  2017 I’m revamping my label Funk House internationally and for the last  10 years I’ve been developing artists and songs and creating the  environment and getting the business part straight so that we can  operate as an independent but fully functional label taking it to a new  dimension I’m still doing my productions. I’ve been working with Lil  Half Dead on his album called Dead Serious in 2012 and we’re going to  revamp that and bring it out under Snoop’s label. I’ve worked on a song  with RBX it’s called “Three Alarm Fire,” and I’ve been working with Bad  Azz. I’ve been doing stuff with him. I’ve got a new project that I’m  right in the middle of with Morris Day and that’s going to be a fun  album. We did a dedication song to Prince on there so I wrote and  produced the majority of it, 8 out of 10 songs and with that I’m just  having fun with the production in keeping along with the legacy of  working with these legends. In08 and 09 I was part of Michael Jackson’s  camp as a producer. I can’t really talk too much about that [Laughs] but  you know it’s just keeping everything going and I also love to give  back so I have all these artists that I’m getting back to and bringing  them on and they have a lot of diverse energy. I can’t name them all  because there’s too many to name but I’m working in a lot of different  genres. Gospel, Rock, Alternative Rock, three different styles of Rap  and R&B and it’s not age-specific it’s about the talent. I’m trying  to take it back to where it used to be, it’s about the talent but I’m  going to promote it like it’s a new day.

Give some final words to the young producers and artists coming up today?

When  you’re chasing your dreams if you’re really focused on what you’re  doing and you want to pursue that don’t let anyone stop you from doing  that.

Second, make sure that you have your business straight in  all aspects and if you don’t know what all the business is, find out and  ask questions because you don’t want anyone to be able to take your  money from you.

Third, do what you do from the heart and just be  humble with it because it’s all about the best quality of what we can do  and don’t settle because if we settle we don’t get out of it what we  need to get

.https://www.thehypemagazine.com/2016/08/the-production-of-a-legend-the-moe-z-md-story/

 John Mellencamp has spent a career reinventing his music. He has come out with  songs that have touched many genres including rock-n-roll, country, folk, blues,  soul and even a touch of hip-hop. John has always done a great job of  surrounding himself with talented musicians and producers who could take his  vision, and help him develop it and make it a reality. When MOE Z MD joined the  band in the mid ‘90’s, Mellencamp fans were in for a treat with both studio  recordings and live performances. MOE left his mark on John’s music on such  albums as ‘Mr. Happy Go Lucky,’ ‘Rough Harvest,’ ‘John Mellencamp,’ and ‘Cuttin’  Heads.’

Live performances included hyped up fresh versions of old classics such as  “Lonely Ol’ Night,” “Crumblin’ Down,” and “Pink Houses.” MOE Z MD used his  outstanding vocal range as well as his diverse and wide range of musical and  studio knowledge to help John during that period.  This article takes a look  back at that time and talks with the man who ignited a spark into songs that  have been played for years as well as new creative music being heard by  Mellencamp fans for the first time. 

 How MOE Z MD and John Mellencamp Crossed Paths
“I had been producing Tupac Shakur, and John was looking for Dr. Dre. He had  called his manager Harry Sandler, who hooked up with my publisher Larry  Robinson, and he asked him how to get in touch with Dr. Dre. Larry was like, why  do you want to get in touch with Dr. Dre for John Mellencamp? “He explained that  John was doing a new thing and was wanting to hook up with Dre and try to create  this vibe. Larry explained that it was going to cost a ton of money, Dre gets  like a million a song,” he explained. Robinson told Sandler that he knew of a  guy who was real hot producer and in fact, had learned some stuff from Dre, and  has some of the same styles. Sandler said that sounded good and wanted to talk  to him.

“So My publisher asked me if I wanted to produce John. So I’m thinking okay, I’m  going to go out there and take all my instruments and do like I normally do  producing. So when I get there and meet John and the band and we sit down and  he’s telling me what he wants me to do. He saying he wants me to create a drum  loop to go into this song, which was “This May Not Be The End Of The World” (off  of the ‘Mr. Happy Go Lucky’ album). “He tells me to create a loop and that he  wants something really cool, that goes with the song “Key West Intermezzo (I Saw  You First),” MOE explains. Raphael Saadiq from Toni Toni Toni came in before to  do the same thing but ended up just playing bass on the song. “He said he wanted  to see what I could do.” MOE played organ on the song and said that Babyface  ended up producing it. On the ‘John Mellencamp’ album, MOE’s sister Keila did  the Vox on “Days Of Farewell.”

“He asked me why I brought all this stuff with me and I explained that they told  me he wanted me to produce him. He started laughing and got a good laugh out of  it. So he said ‘let’s see what you can do with it’ and we started putting this  song together, started playing it. We separated it and starting coming up with  things we thought would go well with it. I’m in the corner with my drum machine  and keyboards. They are playing guitars, and we’re just creating vibe. So they  started recording parts and I started laying my stuff down and added extra  things, keyboards and samples and scratches and stuff. I added background vocals  as well. He was like ‘wow man, this came out great. Let’s just mix it and see  where it goes from here.

“He was like, what would you think about going on tour with us, and I was like,  ‘yeah, I would love to, I’m cool with it.’ I didn’t hear from him for like six  months, and I figured awe, he isn’t going to do it. Then they hit me up and say  alright we’re going on tour in two months and we need to fly you in for  rehearsal. I was like whoa…life is changing for me. Rehearsals were like three  weeks long and every day.

Rehearsals went well for MOE Z MD and the band. He has a lot of background in  many musical genres and was able to incorporate new and different things into  many of John’s songs that had been played for so many years before. One of  Mellencamp’s hits from the 80’s that fans noticed MOE on immediately during the  live shows was “Lonely Ol’ Night” for John’s 1985 ‘Scarecrow’ album.  MOE’s  contributions to the live version of that song nearly a decade later gave the  song new life with background vocals that he added. “A lot of Mellencamp’s songs  that I was familiar with, Patty (Peterson) and Crystal (Taliafero)…and even Mike  Wanchic’s vocals were real instrumental in what the vibe was. So when I caught  the vibe, I really caught what they were doing, and my voice was higher, so I  was able to sing stuff that Mike sang when he was young and he couldn’t do it  anymore,” he explained. He said that John loved it because he could hit the high  notes, but he felt a couple times in the beginning that Pat Peterson might have  been a little frustrated by it. “I wasn’t trying to take her part on anything  because she was the queen,” he said with a laugh.

MOE talked about the creating process on John’s 1999 self titled ‘John  Mellencamp’ album.  “It was interesting because he had the songs, but we (the  band members) would like do our own perspective on them. We would sit in the  corner and think about how we would approach putting stuff on it. He let us be a  little more creative on it, and even write stuff on it. Andy (York) wrote a  song, Toby wrote a song and I wrote a song on there too,” he said. MOE Z MD has  writing credits along with Mellencamp and George Green on the song “Break Me Off  Some” off that album. “He was letting us experiment with different sounds. Dane  (Clark) and I went into the studio by ourselves for like a week just to create  beats and he would write songs over them. Or he would give us songs and we would  put stuff to it. The thing that sticks with me is from the time I got there  until the time I left, which was a six year period, the range of albums and  changes in sound were incredible. In fact, we did ‘The Best That I Could  Do’ and ‘Rough Harvest’ back to back within like three weeks of each other. They  were completely different. We even had to dress different. When we did ‘Rough  Harvest’ we would have to come to the studio in suits every day. They would take  pictures. You know how the Beatles would have always have cool pictures and  stuff. We would have to do that. There were always little challenges and things  to keep us interested. 

 MOE Z MD was with Mellencamp from 1996 to 2002, which covered the ‘Mr. Happy Go  Lucky’ album through ‘Cuttin’ Heads’ albums, with ‘The Best That I Could  Do’, ‘John Mellencamp’, and ‘Rough Harvest’ in between. “After I left the band I  even came back and played on “Walk Tall” and Babyface played organ on that. He  was cool about that. Whenever he worked with cool people he would bring me in. I  thought that was really cool,” he said.

“It’s funny because my main background element isn’t really hip hop, but it’s  funk. So Jon E. Gee and I were like kindred spirits because he loves funk and I  do to. I was able to adapt to different styles though. I grew up playing gospel  and I even played a little rock. I had a funk band, and then I started producing  pop music. I learned hip hop on a dare. I have a friend who raps and he asked me  if I could do something for him, and I was able to do it,” he explained. But  with his background being so diverse musically, MOE explains that this is why  he’s not a huge hip hop fan. “There is a lot of hip hop I love, but I love so  much other music,” he added. 

 He plays drums, bass, guitar, keyboards, saxophone and trumpet. He has had the  opportunity to sing background for Earth, Wind & Fire, and on Phillip Bailey’s  solo gospel album. He has also worked with gospel singer Edwin Hawkins.

He said he doesn’t really prefer one part of the music over the other. When it  comes to performing live, producing in the studio or engineering, he said he  loves them all the same. “No matter what project I’m involved in, I’m always  listening and helping correct parts. I listen to every instrument to make sure  everything is flowing in the right direction. I enjoy all that stuff and I have  the ability to excel in it. People tend to listen to me,” he said.

While with Mellencamp, he said his favorite song he worked on with John and the  band was “This May Not Be The End Of The World” off of the ‘Mr. Happy Go  Lucky’ album. It was mainly because of the energy. The energy changed after  that. After Kenny (Aronoff) left the band we had to get Dane, and the whole  energy just changed and the studio was more tense because it was like, trying to  establish Dane’s sound and trying to get away from Kenny’s sound,” he explained.  “We didn’t want it to sound mousy either. So it was kind of tense.

MOE’s last tour with Mellencamp was the ‘Cuttin’ Heads’ tour. The Wallflowers  opened for John and the band on that tour. “So while they were opening up for  us, they were also recording demos for their album ‘Red Letter Days’. I used to  hang out with them, and do harmony parts with them and sing background parts for  their demos. They took it to the record label and they wanted me to sing on the  album. I came out and sang on the album, and then they asked me to go on tour.”  He was with the Wallflowers for about eight or nine months. 

 Working with Tupac Shakur
Tupac had listened to what we had done in the studio and said ‘whoa, who’s  that,’ and they told him it was MOE Z MD. He said they called him up and told  him they wanted him to come down and do remixes on three cuts. They had the  vocals on there and just wanted him to change the music. “So I did that, and I  did this song “From The Cradle To The Grave.”” He said they did it on a Friday,  and they gave it to Tupac on a Monday, and they told me they wanted me to be in  the studio in New York on Wednesday. It was like that fast,” he said. MOE got  there to work on a song called “Outlaw.” “The day I met him he came in the  studio and he was pumped up and he was like, ‘man that song is so hot, I’m going  to make that the album version, not a remix, because I love it,” he said. He  explained that the problem was the contract listed what MOE did as a remix, and  not the album track, so he didn’t get the publishing money for it. “That hook  was my hook and I made the music. Then on the album credits it says that it was  produced by Tupac and Syke, and noted that it was mixed by MOE Z.

“To me he was real creative lyrically. We worked together on how the hooks  should go. We just worked close together. Sometimes I would beat him to the  studio in the mornings and he would call and say ‘what’s up MOE Z, I stayed out  too late last night, and I’d be like ‘ah come on, we’re already in the studio,  you can make it.’ We were real close like that. I was one of his favorite  producers,” he explained.

MOE said that he was devastated when Tupac died. “I was in Germany with John (on  tour). The first time he got shot and didn’t die, I was supposed to be at that  studio session and didn’t make it because I had another session I had to be at  out here in L.A. He didn’t die, so when he got shot again, I just figured he  wasn’t going to die. And so, it was devastating to find out that he really did.  And that’s all he talked about when I was with him. He talked about dying, and  how this world and all this stuff that in the world was…(bad). He was just real  down. There was nothing uplifting. He got to where he was just talking about  death. ‘I see death around the corner’ and all that stuff. MOE Z said he thinks  Tupac knew he probably wasn’t going to live to be an old man.

“There was one time when we were recording. He had people in the other room that  were artists. He was getting his facial scar made for the movie Gridlock. So he  was working on shooting a movie at the same time he was working in a recording  studio with three different producers in three different studios.”

“He would go until he couldn’t go anymore, then he would sleep, and then he’d  wake up and go. That was his life. He wasn’t going to the clubs. Sometimes he  would stay up drinking, but he really wouldn’t go anywhere.”

MOE Z MD spends a lot of time producing and creating hooks for artists. He does  play out live at three different churches in Long Beach.

He actually is mentioned on a Snoop Dogg song “Take Me.” Snoop actually talks in  the beginning of it me a shout out, referring to me as Moe Z Starr.

How Did The Name Come About?
When asked how MOE Z MD came about, he explained that MOE came from Maurice. “My  dad just called me that out of the blue one day, he said ‘he Moe’ and I was like  ‘Oh wow.’ I was a real big Prince fan right after my Michael Jackson phase, and  Prince had a drummer in his band called Bobby Z. I thought, if I was in Prince’s  band I could be MOE Z. When Prince would produce other people he would go by  Jamie Starr. So that turned into MOE Z STARR. Somebody asked me once what the Z  stood for and before I could answer somebody said Mozart. I’m like ‘hmmm, yeah,  Mozart.’ As time goes on I meet Dr. Dre and he’s working on the ‘All In The Same  Game’ record that came out in 1988 or sometime. I was in the studio with him  going ‘Dr. Dre, man, I want to be a doctor.’ He looked at me and said, ‘MOE Z  MD’ and I said ‘well there we go, and I’ve kept it ever since…Moezartt the Madd  Dr.”

Meeting Michael Jackson
MOE had the opportunity to meet Michael Jackson. “Michael Jackson actually hired  me to be one of his producers for his album he was about to work on after the  ‘This Is It’ tour. So I was writing songs for a whole year, sending him demos  and everything. One day I’m going to Church’s Chicken and I hear (on the radio)  that Michael Jackson died. I’m like ‘oh my God.’ This was my comeback and he  died,” he said.

 “I’m doing a lot of things musically right now. I’m working with a lot of up  and coming artists and have artists that have been out there like OG Domino, a  rapper from Long Beach. In the early 90’s he was one of the pioneers with Snoop  and all those guys. So I worked on an album with him, but it’s a gospel album.  So he’s coming from a different perspective on that. It’s really good to because  it’s not like your regular gospel album, it sounds like the street (musically)  but what he’s talking about…you’re like ‘alright, that’s cool.’” Moe is playing  on the album along with producing it and engineering it. The CD is titled ‘Get  It Right’ and should be out soon.