*The Urban Bridgez caught up with singer/songwriter Mr. Dalvin of Jodeci fame to dish about his career, legacy and new solo venture.
Back in October Dalvin released the single “GoodTimez,” featuring Tali. He also recently produced the remix to Jodeci alum JoJo‘s latest single “Special” featuring Snoop Dogg.
In his UB interview, Mr. Dalvin talks about his new projects, his favorite and least favorite Jodeci songs and why he’s releasing new music now. Check out excerpts from the conversation below.
“GOODTIMEZ” AVAILABLE NOW !!
VIDEO dropping November 5th pic.twitter.com/F2l8LZp0o6— MR. DALVIN (Jodeci) (@MrDalvin) October 23, 2020
UrbanBridgez.com: Tell us about your new single “GoodTimez” and why you decided to release it now?
Mr. Dalvin: I was actually working on a solo album and I was going a totally different direction. I was just driving one day on the freeway, and the words came to my head. I was thinking it was cool, specially with the times we’re all in now. I just wanted some positivity man, not that the records I was already making wasn’t but it was just in a different direction. Instead of something more club I was like let me make something a little different. I remember going right back home and recording the song once it came to me on the freeway. The words just came to me out of nowhere.
Talk to us about the process of being independent and working on and putting out your own music?
Mr. Dalvin: With my first solo album, I wasn’t really 100% in control of anything. Right now I am, and it’s unfortunate as artists that sometimes people don’t see your vision or where you want to go. They only see how it can be lucrative and profitable. So sometimes that puts you in uncomfortable situations. Not really being able to showcase your artistry because you’re being led like a sheep or something. So when COVID happened, I had a chance to sit down. And to really understand what the game of music is now. As an artist and back in the 90s it was so different. Even listening to music on the radio, everything is different. So I had to figure out I guess how to be heard in this new age of how we hear and distribute music. So I started with K.A.M.P. Muzik, because I have a lot of younger artists that come up to me because they’ve known about what I’ve done.
They show me love and I honestly I learn from them too. It’s to be able to incorporate something that you do know, with something that you don’t know. That’s how this new age of distribution, creativity and how to create music. It’s old technology, old drum machines, etc. Now it’s all done on a laptop, so it’s totally different. So this is where they help me. So the knowledge I have is a lot deeper than what they know about. Like the actual artistry of what I’m doing. They know how to transfer my knowledge into this new technology. I have a few younger artist, along with myself that are coming out on the label. Incredible artists and writers and they’ll be featured on my record. So like I was saying with COVID, it gave me a chance to sit down and focus. I had to sit down and learn a lot, that I didn’t know. Before that I was in the studio everyday with my nephew, DeVante’s son is a producer. We had a game plan and then the breaks got put on everything. Sometimes we laugh at our own plans, our plans are not God’s plans.
UrbanBridgez.com: Facts.
Mr. Dalvin: So I was forced to make a straight beeline into a new avenue. That forced me to learn the technology, that I had depended on so many other people to do. My thing is I make beats and do production, but I take it to the studio and have the engineers lay it all down and I record my vocals. Now I’m actually forced to buy the programs, buy logic, get mics and put a studio together in my house. So I had to learn it. I was on YouTube a lot, on the phone with DeVante a lot because he knows. It’s like I had to reprogram my brain. But it’s been a good experience man, just learning. That was the engineering part, I knew everything else like stacking, etc. I was forced to learn in 2020 and with all of these digital platforms we have (laughs).
UrbanBridgez.com: You recently did the remix to JoJo’s latest single “Special” featuring Snoop. Tell us how that all came about?
Mr. Dalvin: Well you already know I was the remix guy for Jodeci, I did most of our remixes like with Wu-Tang. I had got out of production for awhile, but when COVID happened I was like I’m gonna start making beats again. So JoJo had released the single and came to me like, you know what I kind of miss those Mr. Dalvin remixes. So I thought, what better way to give all of my new technology a spin? So I decided to remix Special for him. I told him, I don’t know how it’s going to turn out, because I’m like a fish out of water kind of. The great thing I did like four different versions. Every time I sent him one, he was like this is dope let’s use this one (laughs). I started challenging myself and really getting into it. He wanted to use all four of them, but I think the final one I brought him and the one with Snoop, was the one I really liked.
GOODTIMEZ out now !!! Click the link in my bio check it out #feelgoodmusic thanks to my team @symphonicdist @presentmediapr @Mr_Midaswellsby thanks for the promo ad pic.twitter.com/w3SRKALwSF
— MR. DALVIN (Jodeci) (@MrDalvin) October 3, 2020
UrbanBridgez.com: You helped write and produce some of Jodeci’s singes as well, out of the group’s catalog what are your favorites and why and not necessarily ones you penned?
Mr. Dalvin: As crazy as this sounds, Cry for Me would probably be my favorite Jodeci song. It’s crazy man, if you ask anybody what Mr. Dalvin’s favorite Jodeci song is. They would not choose Cry for Me. I’m not really a sensitive emotional person, to write a song like that and my brother kind of is. So he can tap into that deep emotion like that. Performance-wise it’s Freek’n You. So it varies, but my least favorite is Feenin. (laughs)
UrbanBridgez.com: Really? I wouldn’t of thought that.
Mr. Dalvin: I’m gonna let you in on something, the reason why is because me and my brother argued about it. I didn’t like that snare that he put in it. So we would always argue about that (laughs). But my brother is a genius and was like I’m keeping it like this. But it was one of our biggest records, just one of my least favorites.
UrbanBridgez.com: What was your biggest accomplishment as a member of Jodeci, I know it was many being apart of one of the baddest groups to hit the studio and stage?
Mr. Dalvin: Appreciated! As you said it’s so many I’ll go off the top of my head. Like changing the laws in Japan not sure if we changed it forever but that day we did. We were on a bill with James Brown and that is my favorite artist of all time, I was just blown away. It was us Mary J. Blige and James Brown and when we got on the stage and they sing every word, but don’t know a lick of English. So we had a translator on stage for when we talked to the audience. So after every song we did, nobody would clap they would just bow their heads. So I went to the lady off to the side of the stage translating and told her, if they don’t clap for us, we’re going to leave the stage. But I also said some explicit words, dropped some F-bombs and the whole nine (laughs). Because it’s hard to perform when people are just looking at you like Zombies (laughs).
We needed to speed up the energy of the crowd and you know they love you because they’re singing every word. But then it goes dead silent after you sing (laughs). They had these armed guards like walking up and down the aisle. It was comedic like a comedy, not really but that’s what it looked like to me. So I talked to the lady and whatever she said to these Japanese people, but you saw an older person jump up and another one started clapping and yelling. I ran out and dove in the audience, and from there on it was just an explosion. The armed guards was trying to calm everybody down. But yeah we tore the place down. So James Brown was standing on the side of the stage right and he said y’all boys was real good, but let daddy do his thing (laughs). I’m like ain’t no way James Brown can come behind that, no way. When I tell you and I wanna say around then he was in his late 60s. When I tell you this man took the stage and I just felt great being able to witness. I had never experienced being at his concerts before and realized then this is why this man is who he is. Like you just got chills watching this man. And the thing is until then, I had never known he could play every instrument.
UrbanBridgez.com: Me either.
Mr. Dalvin: He got on the drums, got on the organ, got on the guitar and played every other instrument. I never even knew that. I was just like wow, we ain’t did nothing. And every time he spoke, he never spoke in English, he spoke in Japanese the whole time. He’s a seasoned professional and I felt it. I was like, we have a lot of work to do.
Now even more with the success of the New Edition biopic, the Jodeci one has been on a lot of minds lately. What’s the latest?
Mr. Dalvin: That’s the burning question, people really want to know. The biopic is in the works, in talks and has been that way for a few years now. People have to understand that these things take a long time. New Edition’s took 11 years to make. Biopics take a long time because it’s not just us four coming together and say let’s do a movie and we do it. It doesn’t work like that and many people do think it works like that. A lot of the parties have to come together and agree to certain things and terms before you can move forward. It’s also not always the members of the group, although we could all make it a lot easier.
Everybody develops over the years if you’ve been in a successful situation whether it’s a group or business or anything. As individuals, you come up with your own teams, your own lawyers, etc. And everybody has to all agree. Sometimes it can get complicated because somebody may want this and somebody else may want that. So until that agreement is done, it’s hard to move forward. So we’re all just trying to focus on everything that makes sense and not just with the group. You can’t just put out a movie and people watch it for a few weeks and then go on to the next thing. You have to see how it’s going to benefit you. Because you’re giving them your life, your life’s work. For someone to portray you in a certain light, so you want to be done right. It has to be the right director and the whole nine. When it’s all over and said, you want to be proud of what’s presented.
Read the full Urban Bridgez interview here.
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