0:00

Where Were You in ninety two is a production

0:02

of I Heart Radio. A

0:04

special note, this episode contains

0:06

descriptions of violence. I

0:11

think that the aesthetic of hip hop changed right

0:13

under our feet as we were transitioning

0:15

from album one to album two. Ye

0:25

welcome to Where Are You In nine two, a

0:27

podcast in which I Your host Jason

0:30

Lafier, look back at the major hits, one

0:32

hit wonders, shocking news stories, and

0:35

irresistible scandals that shaped what might be

0:37

the wildest, most eclectic, most

0:39

controversial twelve months of music effort.

0:44

This week, I Feel Good alternative

0:46

to gangster rap. Arrested Development

0:49

burst out of Atlanta bearing messages

0:51

of peace, love and unity. After

0:54

they were acclaimed genre bending debut

0:57

album three Years, five Months

0:59

in two as in the Life of topped critics

1:01

polls, and won them a Grammy for Best

1:04

New Artist. They were poised to become

1:06

the next big thing in hip hop. But

1:08

if their success was enormous and immediate,

1:11

it was also fleeting. They had

1:13

all but disappeared. Three years later as

1:15

a new strain of hip hop, g funk

1:18

became the defining story of the genre. In

1:22

this episode, we examine how

1:24

Arrested Development sound and Values

1:26

were a refreshing musical change of pace,

1:29

but how they quickly fell out of stuff with

1:31

the trends that would dominate hip hop for the rest

1:33

of the decade plus frontman

1:36

speech joins us to discuss their breakout

1:39

single Tennessee, the deeply personal

1:41

real life events that inspired it, and

1:44

why the group was more influential than

1:46

many listeners realize. It's

1:53

strange to think of a time when legit

1:56

hip hop artist weren't some of the biggest

1:58

names in the country. A time before

2:00

Drake, Kanye West, Future,

2:03

Travis Scott, Cardi B and Nicki

2:05

Minaj, A time before Eminem,

2:07

t I Loew, Wayne, Nelly, Ludicrous

2:10

and Pitty Cent. A time before Outcast,

2:13

jay Z Puff, Daddy Tupac

2:15

and the Notorious b I G. A

2:17

time before Dr Dre and Snoop

2:19

Dogg. All

2:28

of those artists have had number one singles

2:30

on the Billboard Hot one hundred. We

2:33

can't really say they crossed over into

2:35

the mainstream because when they climbed

2:37

to the top of the charts, hip hop was

2:39

the mainstream. Now hip hop

2:41

is essentially pop, but once upon

2:44

a time, specifically at the beginning of

2:47

it was rare for a hip hop act to dominate

2:49

Top forty radio and have a gold record.

2:53

The biggest hip hop hits in

2:56

this case, I mean the hip hop songs were the strongest

2:58

showings on the Hot one. Drew did not

3:01

represent the prevailing sounds of hip hop at

3:03

that time. They could never be categorized

3:05

as gangster rap like Iced Tea and Ice

3:07

Cube, or hardcore hip hop like

3:10

Public Enemy, or East Coast hip

3:12

hop like a tribe called Quest, or rap

3:14

rock like Beastie Boys, or jazz

3:17

rap like De La Soule. Instead,

3:20

these chart conquering tracks came

3:22

with what you could call a quirky selling

3:24

point, a gimmick. Let's

3:26

look at a few of them.

3:30

The second biggest single was

3:33

actually a hip hop song, Sir

3:36

Mix a lots spunky Miami bass

3:38

influenced number one hit, Baby Got

3:40

Back was a bouncy oh to Plentiful

3:42

Booties that unfolded like one

3:44

big, fat joke, though, as

3:47

we covered in an episode one of the show mixes,

3:49

messaging was actually pretty damn sincere.

3:52

The track was so undeniable that it topped

3:54

the Billboard Hot one for five consecutive

3:57

weeks. The number

3:59

three single was

4:01

also a hip hop song. At

4:03

the time, criss Crosses Jump was

4:06

the fastest selling single in

4:08

fifteen years, and it stayed at the top

4:10

of the Hot one hundred for eight consecutive

4:12

weeks. Criss cross were the

4:14

dinky, dimple faced duo

4:17

of Chris mac Daddy Kelly and

4:19

Chris Daddy Max Smith, who were

4:21

only twelve and thirteen years old

4:23

when they recorded Jump their Stick.

4:26

They wore their clothes cartoonishly

4:28

baggy and backwards. No

4:31

irony here. Also

4:33

massively popular that year, House of

4:35

Pains jump Around, which reached

4:37

number three. I'm the Hot one hundred and snaring

4:39

listeners with its rollicking mix of rap,

4:41

rock, dance hall and club music.

4:44

Folks clearly wanted to jump in their

4:47

stick. They were a couple of proud white dudes

4:49

who had banded together to put out music and imagery

4:51

that celebrated their Irish heritage. No

4:54

irony here either, and let's

4:56

not forget though many of you would like

4:58

to Hammer formally mc

5:01

hammer, he had a couple of hits too. To

5:03

Legit to Quit arrived with an insane the expense

5:05

of fifteen minute music video featuring

5:08

cameos from numerous athletes and the

5:10

Dallas Cowboys, cheerleaders and a storyline

5:12

in which James Brown sends Hammer

5:14

to go take Michael Jackson's glove. The

5:17

uncut version also included appearances

5:19

from the likes of Tony Danza and Millie

5:22

Vanilli. Hammer's other big hit

5:25

was Adam's Groove, the theme song to

5:27

the movie The Adams Family, and

5:29

the video for that song, Hammer could be seen

5:31

dancing all over the Adams family mansion and

5:33

backyard cemetery. Sadly,

5:36

no irony insight here either, so

5:39

yeah, you get the point.

5:41

Pop charts boasted a wild,

5:43

goofy, messy all

5:46

over the map mix of hip hop,

5:48

and most hip hop heads would say I'm using that

5:50

term hip hop real loosely. And

5:59

then there was Arrested Development who

6:02

came out of nowhere and suddenly were everywhere.

6:05

Founded by college Pal's speech and

6:07

headliner, the Atlanta Georgia Outfit

6:09

would have a bigger year than any other

6:12

hip hop act. In fact, they

6:14

would have a bigger year than virtually any

6:16

other group period.

6:20

The best moments off their massive

6:22

debut album Three Years, five Months,

6:24

and two Days in the Life of Struck the

6:26

balance between thoughtful and thrilling.

6:29

They brought something to hip hop that was practically

6:31

unheard of in the genre at the time, Spirituality

6:34

Spirituality, and another oddity in

6:36

hip hop at that point, hopefulness

6:39

positivity. Their singles were accessible

6:41

and inspired, with seductive hooks

6:43

and memorable lyrics. They were instant

6:46

hits. So then, why

6:48

have arrested development becomes such

6:50

a footnote in hip hop history. The

6:53

answer, as you may have guessed, is complicated.

6:56

It is the result of too much in fighting,

6:58

too much fame, too fast, and

7:01

perhaps more than anything, a watershed

7:04

moment at the tail end of that

7:06

would change hip hop forever. Speech

7:15

was born Todd Thomas and raised

7:18

in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His

7:20

parents were civil rights advocates and very

7:22

active in the community, rallying together

7:25

black owned businesses and supporting the black

7:27

empowerment movement. They instilled

7:29

similar values and their children. Speech

7:32

recalls them frequently engaging him

7:34

and his brother in conversations around social

7:36

issues over the breakfast table. His

7:38

father owned a nightclub called the Fox Trap,

7:40

where Speech started djaying at the age of thirteen,

7:43

learning from the locals who played there. In

7:46

four he formed his first rap group, Attack,

7:48

the first rap group out of Milwaukee. As

7:51

DJ Peach. He'd spend records in rhyme.

7:54

Attack gained a local following and were active

7:56

for two years, but Speech left Milwaukee

7:58

for Atlanta in seven, partly

8:00

to avoid getting mixed up in the gang violence plagging

8:02

his city. There, he'd studied at the

8:04

Art Institute of Atlanta. His

8:07

first week at the institute, he put up a flyer

8:10

in the cafeteria saying he was a rapper searching

8:12

for a DJ. He spotted another student

8:14

looking at it and they start up a conversation. That

8:16

student was Timothy Barnwell, but

8:18

he would adopt the stage name Headliner. They

8:21

became fast friends and began making music

8:23

after class and speeches apartment and getting

8:25

gigs around the city. They changed

8:28

their name and style a couple of times, first

8:30

calling themselves d l R Disciples

8:32

of the Lyrical Rebellion and opting

8:34

for a gangst light vibe, then going

8:37

by Secret Society and emulating Public

8:39

Enemy. They finally landed on the Moniker

8:41

Arrested development. While

8:43

they were fans of gangster rap, Speech

8:46

and Headliner wanted to take their music

8:48

in a different direction. A Speech

8:50

said in a two thousand twenty interview with lad

8:52

TV quote, I felt like

8:54

just the gangster rap thing wasn't showing

8:57

who we really were. So I

8:59

felt like a us to developments music was a great

9:01

chance to put more flesh on the bones

9:03

of who black people are, What are

9:05

issues? Are things that were concerned

9:07

about. They thought black

9:10

culture had stalled, hence the

9:12

group's name arrested Development, and

9:14

they wanted to push the conversation forward.

9:16

They specifically wanted to underscore what

9:18

it was like to be black in the South. A

9:29

Speech told Select magazine when the

9:31

band started to take off, quote,

9:34

there's more black people in the South than in the

9:36

North, and this is the place where black people

9:39

first arrived in America. I think the

9:41

South is now the place of preference for black people.

9:43

There's a very African influence here. Headliner,

9:47

who had grown up in Savannah, considered

9:49

the political hip hop coming out of New York to

9:51

be an offshoot of activist Malcolm X's

9:53

Black militancy. Well. He and Speech

9:55

were inspired by the work of Southern civil rights

9:58

leader Martin Luther King Jr. Their

10:00

core tenants were peace, community

10:03

unity. They aimed to infuse

10:05

their music with an afrocentricity that

10:07

was uncommon in rapid time, and their

10:09

minds their authenticity, spirituality,

10:12

and originality would distinguish them from

10:14

other acts in hip hop, a genre that was edging

10:16

closer to the mainstream.

10:19

Before signing their record deal, Arrested

10:21

Development was a rotating collective of

10:23

around twenty members. At

10:25

live shows, Speech and Headliner would invite

10:28

their creative peers on stage, incorporating

10:30

cowbell players, African dance and

10:32

artists painting into their performances. When

10:35

they signed the record deal, they had to scale

10:37

back and settled on six chief

10:39

members, Speech, Headliner,

10:42

Babba o j air Lee, Terrie

10:44

mosho Ishi, and Razadan,

10:46

who started as a dancer before becoming the group's

10:49

drummer and graphic artist. He designed his official

10:51

logo when

10:56

he wasn't working as a barber at his day job.

10:58

Headliner was the cruise create digger, rummaging

11:01

through old records and selecting beats and

11:03

vocals for Arrested Development to sample. Some

11:06

twenty samples would eventually be cleared for

11:08

their first album, snippets of songs

11:10

from the likes of Minni Ripperton, Quincy

11:12

Jones, Rick James, John Lee

11:14

Hooker and Sly in the family. Stone Speech

11:17

would build on them, crafting compositions

11:19

diffused funk, soul, folk,

11:22

jazz and the blues. Some journalists

11:24

called their style alternative rap, but

11:27

Speech was never a fan of the term, finding it

11:29

reductive. Through Headliner's

11:31

girlfriend, Speech and Headliner connected with

11:33

Michael Malden, father of rapper producer

11:36

Jermaine dupri who incidentally formed

11:38

Criss Cross. Malton became a rusted

11:40

developments manager, but finding them a record

11:42

deal proved challenging. They were turned down

11:44

left and right because labels didn't know what

11:46

to do with them. Speech

11:49

had promised his mother that if he wasn't

11:51

able to snag a record deal, he'd moved back

11:53

to Milwaukee and returned to college. He'd

11:55

done just that when the label Chrysalis

11:57

decided to sign them, as he tells

11:59

it, it had seen how popular progressive

12:01

rappers De Las Soul had become after

12:03

the release of their critically lauded debut

12:06

album Three Ft High and Rising, and

12:08

wanted to capitalize on its success,

12:11

says Speech. At that point, we

12:13

were first just offering

12:16

a single deal. We had a whole album

12:18

like pretty much prepared, but the

12:21

single deal was Mr Wendell

12:23

Side A, and back then we had

12:26

A and B side Side B was natural.

12:28

Mr Wendell offered a portrait of its titular

12:31

character, a homeless man. It

12:33

was inspired by speeches own interaction

12:35

with men living on the streets of Atlanta near

12:37

the studio where he and Headline are recorded music.

12:40

The track, which sampled drums from Sly

12:42

and the Family Stones sing a simple Song,

12:45

was bubbly and buoyant with major pop

12:47

crossover potential, and it captured

12:49

the arrested Development ethos perfectly.

12:52

It was social consciousness and a pretty

12:54

package, a slice of colorful,

12:56

thought provoking storytelling anchored

12:58

by an infectious hoe tapping groove.

13:01

Mr. Wendell wasn't just a bum.

13:04

The song's narrator realizes he has wisdom

13:06

to share that because he's unmarred

13:08

by materialism, he may actually be more

13:10

in layened than those who choose to discount

13:13

him. But life had other plans.

13:15

Mr. Wendell would not be released as a Rusted

13:17

Developments first single. That honor would

13:19

instead go to Tennessee, a late addition

13:22

to the repertoire that while the label catapulted

13:24

the group's career and became their signature

13:27

song, Tennessee was literally the last

13:29

song we recorded for

13:32

the album. They ended up signing our album

13:34

deal. I think because

13:36

we had recorded

13:38

and shot a video for Tennessee, and I think they were sold

13:40

on us. Tennessee stemmed from

13:42

personal tragedy, it would become

13:44

a bomb for speeches grief. My

13:47

grandmother, who I spent all my summers

13:49

with in Tennessee, she passed

13:51

away of a heart attack unexpectedly, and so

13:54

we were all devastated. I was extremely devastated

13:57

because she spent I spent

13:59

a ton of time with this grandmother, and she

14:01

really was probably the biggest force outside

14:03

of my mom and dad to shape who I am

14:06

as a person. Speech and his family traveled

14:08

to Tennessee for her service. There,

14:10

he reunited with his brother, who had also gone

14:12

off to college. He was

14:15

at the funeral, and we all

14:17

left there with a sense of you know, renewal

14:19

and just striving to do our lives,

14:23

you know better, in her name.

14:26

And that same week, my brother died of asthma

14:28

tack. He was twenty nine, and

14:31

it just wrecked my life. Everything

14:33

was, everything was tentative,

14:35

there was no it was It was very hard for

14:38

me to collect hope. Tennessee

14:40

had been the last place Speech had seen his

14:42

grandmother before she passed, and now

14:44

it was the last place he had seen his brother.

14:47

To mitigate the pain, he headed to the

14:49

studio and began to write the track.

14:51

Tennessee is speeches prayer to a

14:53

greater power, but it is also the

14:55

sound of him processing the deaths of his loved ones

14:58

and the meaning of his life, his

15:00

race, his ancestry, his community.

15:03

Its course is simple yet profound, hookey

15:06

yet heartbreaking. Take me

15:08

to another place, take me to

15:10

another land, Make me forget all

15:12

that hurts me. Let me understand your plan

15:15

well, the song concludes without resolution.

15:18

You can hear the catharsis that brought speech. But

15:21

I told the label I really insisted on them

15:23

releasing this record. I told him what happened with my family,

15:26

and they loved it. They

15:29

really was in a mood where if

15:31

they didn't let me release this record first, I didn't

15:33

want to release anything. To me, nothing else mattered.

15:35

Releasing this single would feel like a form of closure

15:38

for speech. But he also believed in

15:40

the music itself. He knew Tennessee

15:42

was special. From an ancestral standpoint.

15:44

It was a gift from my grandmother and my brother to me,

15:48

But to me it was a gift

15:50

to hip hop. It was a gift to you

15:53

know, the world of music too. I feel

15:55

because it was doing some unique things and

15:57

it was bringing some unique things to the table. The label

15:59

of greed giving arrested development

16:02

nineteen dollars to make a video. Compare

16:04

that to Guns and Roses one point five million

16:06

dollar budget for the November Rain video. They

16:09

filmed it not in Tennessee, but in rural

16:11

Georgia at an old, dilapidated

16:13

house. Speech discovered that reminded him

16:15

of his grandmother's house, featuring

16:18

the band's friends and locals who

16:20

asked that they could be part of it. It included

16:22

shots of slave shackles they actually

16:24

were in the house, a sad remnant of its

16:26

dark past. Other shots included

16:28

artwork depicting black men being lynched. It's

16:31

easy to see why the black and white video

16:34

convinced the band's label to give them a full album

16:36

deal. It is, by turns celebratory

16:38

as a group spins records and dances

16:40

on the house's porch and around the property,

16:42

and powerful with its nods to

16:44

the South's complex, haunting history.

16:48

Speech for calls being around twenty years old

16:50

and going to a record store in Atlanta soon after Tennessee

16:52

was released as a single to see how it was selling.

16:55

After the guy there informed him that the only

16:57

people buying it were forty plus, he thought

17:00

a d were doomed, but then

17:02

MTV selected the video for buzz Bin, a

17:05

segment in which VJs gave cool

17:07

up and coming artists their stamp of approval, leaving

17:10

the network to put their latest video on heavy rotation.

17:13

Suddenly Tennessee blew up. The

17:22

track topped billboards Hot R

17:24

and B hip Hop Songs Chart and Hot

17:26

Rap Songs Chart, and pete at number six

17:29

on the Hot one hundred, eventually going gold.

17:31

It was also a hit among critics. A

17:34

review in the Los Angeles Times read quote,

17:36

some of pop's best moments come from groups

17:38

that seemed to arrive from nowhere with a confidence

17:41

and mature vision, and that's the case

17:43

here. Another claim the song quote

17:46

may go down in the history books as the

17:48

first major sad rap hit. Not

17:50

bitter, not raging or recriminatory,

17:53

just flat out soul and heaven searching

17:55

the heart. Sick Tennessee would

17:58

also be chosen is one of the Rock and Roll

18:00

Hall of Fames songs that shaped

18:02

rock and roll its

18:09

place in the nineties. Pop pantheon

18:11

is well deserved. Tennessee has

18:14

all the ingredients of a sonic game changer.

18:16

Slick record scratching, a juicy, shuffling

18:19

beat lifted from James Brown's Funky Drummer,

18:21

a go to sample at the time, a sticky

18:24

sing along chorus, speeches, honeyed

18:26

melodic flow, a rarity in hip hop

18:29

which often favored harder, more aggressive

18:31

rhyming, rafter shaking, gospel

18:33

esque belting from guest vocalist Dion

18:35

Ferris, vivid lyrics that

18:38

rustle with the cruelties of life and death,

18:40

the past and the present, and illuminate

18:42

the beauty and calamity of what it

18:44

means to be black in the South. I

18:47

mean these lines alone. Then

18:49

out of nowhere, you tell me to break out

18:52

of the country and into more country, past

18:54

Dyersburg, into Ripley, where the

18:56

ghost of childhood haunts me. Walk

18:59

the roads my four fathers walked, climbed

19:01

the trees my forefathers hung From

19:05

The beloved Truck also contains

19:07

a sterling sample of Prince single

19:10

Alphabet Street one word Tennessee,

19:13

heard most prominently at the beginning

19:15

of the song, and then buried in the mix a little

19:17

later. But the Purple One took notice.

19:20

At that time it was a wild wild West sample.

19:22

Why so we didn't really understand exactly

19:25

the laws. When the record got to like number

19:27

six, I think on the pop charts, and it went

19:29

down to seven, we

19:32

got a call from Prince's office. And because

19:34

it was just one word, I mean, it wasn't even a melody,

19:36

it wasn't just the word Tennessee

19:39

and so um,

19:42

we got a call and he said he wanted a hundred

19:44

thousand dollars for the sample. And

19:46

at that time, as a twenty three

19:48

year old guy, first album

19:50

ever, the very fact that

19:52

he asked for a hundred thousand was just mind blowing

19:54

to you. Now looking back, Speech

19:57

is grateful that was all Prince wanted. He could

19:59

have took it off the shelves. He could

20:01

have, you know, like a cease and desist order,

20:04

and he could have asked for half the song

20:06

rights are publishing, you know what. You could do pretty much

20:08

anything because the leverage was very much

20:10

on his side. Don't worry, there

20:12

was no bad blood. In fact, Speech

20:14

eventually even met Prince when he was invited to one

20:16

of his birthday bashes. Arrested

20:19

Development released their debut album, Three

20:21

Years, five months, and two Days in the Life

20:23

Of in March, in

20:25

conjunction with Tennessee. The title

20:27

referred to how long it took them to get a record contract

20:30

the way it was worth it. The record got raves

20:33

upon its release. Entertainment Weekly said

20:35

the group was quote perhaps raps most self

20:37

reflective act. The Chicago

20:40

Tribune called them quote a major new voice

20:42

in hip hop and praise their lack of quote

20:44

macho boasting and gangster posing. At

20:47

the end of that year, the Village Voices

20:49

Pass and Drop Critics poll declared

20:51

it the best album of rowing

20:54

Stone crowned arrested Development Band

20:57

of the Year after one of the group's

20:59

shows, director Spike Lee came backstage

21:01

to introduce himself. They would go on to

21:03

contribute a song Revolution to the

21:05

soundtrack of his Malcolm X.

21:07

Bile pick Malcolm X a bit ironic

21:10

given that they more closely associated themselves as Martin

21:13

Luther King. Three

21:15

Years, five months, and two Days in the Life Of would

21:17

yield two more top ten hits. The

21:19

reggae tinge feel Good Cut People every Day

21:22

boasted a superb interpolation of slying

21:24

the family Stones Everyday People and chronicled

21:27

a street confrontation between a man and

21:29

a rowdy gang who taunt him and grope

21:31

his girlfriend. The Metamorphosis mix

21:33

of it peaked number eight on the Hot one hundred and

21:35

number two in the UK. Speech

21:38

wrote it to illustrate the contrast between

21:40

his perception of black culture and pride and

21:43

that of most black men in his neighborhood back

21:45

home, As he explained to song

21:47

facts, they understood they were

21:49

black, but for them, black was Jerry Curls.

21:51

It was pimping. I had come to understand

21:53

the black culture had a lot more to do with Africa,

21:56

and it was different hairstyles we could express ourselves

21:58

with, like dreadlocks and braids. So

22:00

I would dress like that and a lot of the people around

22:02

the Milwaukee would sort of mock it. And so

22:04

the song was really just talking about this tension between

22:07

one concept of culture and another concept

22:09

of culture. At the end

22:11

of a d would

22:13

release its third single, Mr. Wendell,

22:15

which, like Tennessee, would peak at number

22:17

six on the Hub a hundred. Like Tennessee,

22:20

both People every Day and Mr. Wendell were

22:22

certified Gold. The band would donate half

22:24

the proceeds in Mr. Wendell to the National Coalition

22:27

for the Homeless in the United States. At

22:29

the nine Grammys, Arrested

22:32

Development would take home the coveted

22:34

award for Best New Artist,

22:37

becoming the first hip hop act

22:39

to earn the prize. Tennessee would

22:41

win for Best Rap Performance by a Duo

22:43

or Group. At the m

22:46

As, Tennessee would snag Best Rap

22:48

Video and Award. The group would win again

22:51

in nineteen three for People Every Day.

22:54

That same year, MTV would release Unplugged,

22:56

an album of their live performance at New

22:58

York's ed Sullivan Theater, making a

23:01

d the first rap act to get

23:03

an unplugged record. They were critical

23:05

Darling's Recording Academy Darlings,

23:07

MTV darlings, and fan darlings. Arrested

23:10

Development ticked all the boxes. They

23:12

could not have had a more auspicious start to

23:14

their career, or some

23:16

would say, a more abrupt ending. The

23:25

sophomore album, Singalamadouni sold

23:27

poorly, not even cracking the top fifty.

23:31

None of its singles reached the top forty. Arrested

23:35

Development had split up. Up.

23:46

Next after the break, we

23:48

explore what led to the groups unraveling,

23:50

including a lawsuit and why

23:52

are rusted development are often overlooked

23:55

or even dismissed in the annals of

23:57

hip hop. Was

24:10

a banner year for Arrested Development.

24:13

Their debut album, Three Years, five

24:15

Months, and two Days in the Life of would

24:17

go four times platinum and yield

24:20

three hit singles, all of which were

24:22

certified gold. Rolling Stone

24:24

named them Band of the Year, and

24:27

on the strength of their widely popular

24:29

releases, they would win a nine Grammy

24:32

for Best New Artist. They would tour

24:34

the globe, introducing some international

24:36

audiences to hip hop, but their

24:38

mainstream success was short lived. Their

24:42

follow up album, Singalama Duney

24:44

flopped. None of its singles

24:46

cracked the top forty. In fact,

24:48

the band hasn't had a top forty single

24:51

since Mr Wendell hit number six, and rarely

24:55

doesn't act that became so popular

24:57

and beloved fizzle so quickly, so

25:00

what happened well for

25:02

one eighties second album just

25:04

didn't offer the radio friendly bangers its

25:07

predecessor did. Speech

25:09

said it was too rushed. The group

25:11

was still touring and promoting the first LP

25:14

while he was scrambling to put together there next.

25:16

He was wearing a lot of hats, so

25:18

like similar to kids

25:21

now who are in their little home studios making

25:23

beats. I was that guy. But I

25:25

was also the rhymer and so I was the lead vocalist.

25:27

I was a DJ to some extent, and I made

25:29

the beat, so you know, like I sometimes

25:32

envied people like n

25:35

w A, who you know, Dr Trey was

25:37

sort of the producer, and then you know, Ice

25:39

C was mainly the main lyricist, and then there was other

25:41

members that did lyrics or or

25:43

a public enemy who had you

25:45

know, Chuck D and Flav and all that, but he had

25:47

the Bomb Squad who was the producers,

25:49

and it was a group of guys. You know,

25:52

having the follow up and having it just

25:54

on these shoulders felt unbearable,

25:57

and that I felt really really daunted.

26:00

You know. Another major reason the

26:02

group faded from the spotlight and

26:04

the roughly two years between Arrusted

26:06

Developments first and second albums, hip

26:09

hop culture completely shifted.

26:12

On December and

26:15

w A member Dr Dre released

26:17

his debut solo album, The Chronic, featuring

26:19

the lies vocals of Snoop Doggie Dog

26:22

and turned the genre upside down. Sample

26:25

and break beat, heavy party rap and

26:27

political rap gave way to g funk,

26:30

a new strain of hip hop that folded

26:32

in smooth parliament funkadelic snippets,

26:34

sparingly pairing them with airy,

26:37

soulful vocals and instrumentation. The

26:40

Chronic was critically held and went

26:43

multi platinum. Today, it

26:45

is regarded as one of the most important

26:47

albums of the nineties and one of the

26:49

most important hip hop albums of all time.

27:00

Andy Herman is a Los Angeles based

27:02

music journalist, podcast producer, and

27:04

longtime fan of Arrested Development's first

27:07

album, but he considers the Chronics

27:09

impact on the band and on rap music

27:11

as a whole undeniable. I think

27:14

hip hop just underwent this massive

27:16

see change with the

27:19

arrival of Dr Dre as a solo artist,

27:21

with the arrival of Snoop Dogg with

27:25

You Know. Gangster rap was not a

27:27

new thing in three

27:29

but it it sort of became

27:32

the dominant sound in hip

27:34

hop after that. Arrested

27:36

Development sound felt fresh when they

27:38

descended on the scene as

27:41

socially conscious, less antagonistic

27:43

hip hop acts were making waves,

27:45

But that sound an aesthetic swiftly

27:47

fell out of fashion after The Chronic introduced

27:50

a novel take on gangster rap and faunted

27:52

tougher flash year more Materialistic

27:55

Imagery, three years, five months,

27:57

and two days days had passed. It

28:00

mean, is as great as that album is, it

28:02

was a little bit of a fluke and a little bit

28:04

of just just arriving at the right

28:06

moment. I think just the culture, for whatever

28:09

reason, just kind of was ready.

28:12

You know. I think bands like pm

28:14

Don and day Las Soul and Tribe called Quest

28:16

to kind of prime the pump for this

28:19

more kind of left field style of hip hop,

28:22

and Tennessee was such a powerful single

28:24

that it just it kind of just kicked open

28:26

the door for this new group to

28:29

just have some commercial success with that sound

28:31

and that vibe. But I think in

28:33

a weird way after that, you

28:36

know, like mainstream rap

28:38

went in this much more kind of hard direction

28:42

and conscious rap

28:45

when in this much more kind of indie

28:47

minded, almost

28:49

sort of commercially averse direction.

28:53

And then where does that leave a group like arrested Development

28:56

Speech could recognize that the tides returning,

28:59

but lacking time and resources, all

29:01

while still trying to maintain the ethos

29:04

he and the band weren't able to move with

29:06

them. So we got you know, we tried

29:08

to do our best to try to ride

29:12

that fence of being who

29:14

we are, but still making sure we can

29:16

sort of grab hold to this new

29:18

movement of things. I think it was too little,

29:20

too late as far as trying to do that.

29:23

Navigating hip hop's new metamorphosis

29:25

was challenging enough, but arrested

29:27

development. We're also struggling as a group.

29:30

We were internally going through a lot, you know, because

29:33

of the success of the group and the moneys that were

29:35

being made, and especially by me being

29:38

the producer and writer, and those

29:40

that know about the music industry. You know, writers

29:42

and producers make certain moneys that the

29:45

artists that didn't write are produced don't make. So

29:48

I'm making more money than other people in the group,

29:50

and they we don't know how this all

29:52

works, but they know that there's more money,

29:54

and there's jealousy and anger, and there's

29:57

a lot going on. At that time, Headliner arrested

29:59

to Elepment's turntablist and co founder

30:01

was especially frustrated he didn't

30:04

think he was getting enough credit for his contributions.

30:06

Speech has said Headliner demanded

30:08

more ownership of the band and

30:11

refused to tour unless profits were divided

30:13

between them, but

30:15

Headliner has claimed they were partners

30:17

from the beginning, and that speech threatened to end

30:19

the group if he couldn't increase his ownership, as

30:23

Headliner told the Atlanta publication Creative

30:25

Loafing in two thousand six, quote,

30:27

the threat was everybody was going to be put

30:30

out of the band, and there was going to be no more

30:32

original members. So I sacrificed

30:34

myself to give everyone a shot, to

30:36

which speech responded quote, I

30:38

wouldn't consider him a co founder. Headliner

30:41

was instrumental to a D because he was the first

30:43

person that agreed to be in the band, and he believed

30:45

in my vision. Headliner

30:52

sued speech. They settled on

30:54

a sixty split. The tension

30:57

created a rift in the group. Money

30:59

became a huge issue. You it's members

31:01

were suddenly looking for their piece of the pie and

31:03

grew distrustful of one another, their

31:05

sense of community, their aversion to materialism

31:08

and greed a D. S Key principles

31:10

began to deteriorate. Everyone in

31:12

the group had their own sort of clique

31:14

of business people and a lot of times family

31:17

members that were their managers. Now and you

31:19

know, don't talk to this group member, talk to

31:21

the manager first. And you know, and everyone's

31:24

trying to strike deals and everyone's trying to

31:26

figure out ways to make more

31:29

money, but in ways that had little to

31:31

do with the creativity and the

31:33

actual point of the music. One

31:35

night backstage the Fox Theater in

31:37

Atlanta, contributing vocalist Dion

31:40

Ferris lost it and reportedly through

31:42

a charit speech, she quit

31:44

right before they were such a perform she later

31:46

scored big soul of it. I know in headliner

31:52

was ready to move on to We did a show in

31:54

Japan and or

31:56

a number of shows in Japan. Great run,

31:59

but remember a headline is saying at that run

32:01

that he's like, this is my last He was telling a fan

32:03

actually was like this is my last show. And

32:06

he didn't tell me at the time, but we weren't on

32:09

best terms at that time, so I

32:11

overheard it and I was like, oh okay.

32:14

That would mark the end of the iteration

32:17

of Arrested Development. Speech would

32:19

pursue a solo career and achieved great

32:21

success in Japan. When the group

32:23

returned in two thousand, Speech was

32:25

leading it, but the lineup had changed. Original

32:28

member Baba O j eighties elder

32:30

and Spiritual Guru would die in two thousand

32:33

eighteen. Arrested

32:37

Developments legacy is complicated. For

32:40

two years in the early nineties, they were

32:42

everywhere, but you won't find many

32:45

modern hip hop critics citing them is highly

32:47

influential in the genre. You won't

32:49

find them on all the best hip Hop albums

32:52

or Best of the nineties list, even

32:54

though they came out of Atlanta and racked

32:57

up the accolades and units in three

33:00

As I say this, they don't even have a mention

33:02

on the Southern hip Hop Wikipedia page. Some

33:05

have dismissed them as super earnest,

33:07

corny hippies or hip hop

33:09

for suburban white kids. I

33:12

would agree that not all of their spiritual,

33:14

naturie preachy stuff holds up today.

33:17

It can sometimes feel a bit suffocating, simplistic,

33:20

and idealistic. I would also agree

33:22

that their music took an anti gangster and for

33:24

some therefore an anti hip hop stance.

33:27

Just look at the song people every Day. I

33:29

would also argue that that was part of their

33:31

appeal for suburban white kids. Their

33:34

music certainly appealed to this suburban

33:36

white kid who growing up found a lot of

33:38

hip hop too aggressive. Eighties,

33:41

three years, five months, and two days

33:43

in the Life of was one of the first hip

33:45

hop albums I owned. I'd

33:47

fall from many more as I got older, but it

33:49

was a gateway. Andy Herman had

33:52

a similar experience with the album. He

33:54

wasn't initially a hip hop fan, but in his

33:56

teens, Adie hooked him. I think

33:58

that's that was maybe

34:01

kind of both their strength and their weakness in

34:03

a way, I think was that they played

34:05

to an audience

34:07

outside of uh

34:10

that that sort of core hip hop audience.

34:13

And you know, maybe that's why they

34:16

haven't gotten their due in hip

34:18

hop history, because their

34:21

appeal was so often outside of the hip

34:23

hop mainstream that I think

34:26

like a lot of hip hop heads maybe sort of look at

34:28

them with a little bit of suspicion. But

34:30

I think they deserve a lot of credit for

34:32

opening the genre up to a lot of people who

34:35

who wouldn't have found an entry point

34:37

otherwise. If the rest of development

34:40

are sometimes left out of the conversation surrounding

34:42

Southern hip hop, Speech asserts

34:44

that the band did break ground. In

34:47

his mind, their success served as a template

34:49

and opened doors for future Southern hip

34:51

hop acts. What out of rest of development? In

34:53

my opinion, there's no outcast, there's no

34:56

goody mob, there's no in my opinion,

34:58

Eric Abadou, there's no roots. I'm

35:01

not suggesting that they got their ideas

35:03

from us. I think they got their road

35:06

paved by what we paved earlier.

35:08

So it gave them an opportunity

35:10

to have a voice. And I don't

35:12

I remember literally um

35:15

my label playing me the D'Angelo

35:18

Brown Sugar album before it came out, wondering

35:21

if they should sign it, you know. I remember

35:23

the label showing me the Roots stuff, wondered

35:26

if they should sign it. Um

35:29

you know, because with

35:31

us being as successful as we were and yet

35:34

rooted as we were, these groups,

35:36

they felt that there was really money to be made

35:39

in that in that arena.

35:53

Up next, after the break Arrested

35:55

Development co founder and from that speech,

35:58

joins us to talk more about their mass of early

36:00

nineties success, the reasons for their undoing,

36:03

and why he thinks the group deserves a spot

36:05

in the hip hop history books. Welcome

36:24

back to Where Were You in ninety two. We've

36:26

been discussing Arrested Developments, rapid

36:28

rise, and swift

36:31

unraveling in the years that followed. Now

36:33

it's time to hear from the group's co founder and frontman,

36:36

songwriter, rapper, and producer Todd

36:38

Thomas a k speech,

36:42

so speech, I'm just wondering

36:44

where you were physically and mentally

36:46

in N two

36:49

was a phenomenal vieer in

36:51

many ways. I mean, I was a

36:54

hopeful artist, poor broke,

36:57

trying to um

36:59

make history, you know, trying to

37:02

breakthrough in the hip hop

37:04

scene, which at

37:06

that time, the South wasn't

37:09

really represented, so it was East

37:11

and West coast, and um,

37:14

ghetto Boys had a lot of success Luke

37:17

way down in Miami with more

37:20

of a coastal city as opposed to what I'm

37:22

considering South right now. So um

37:25

they had success, and so um

37:27

the South really hadn't made the name

37:30

just yet, and so I

37:32

was really hoping to break

37:34

through. And um, this is pre

37:37

LaFace, which was a very big influence

37:40

in Atlanta, and so I

37:42

was connected with as many people as

37:44

possible. We got a record deal. Um

37:47

it was with a record label that took

37:49

a chance on us, really because Chrysalis

37:52

at the time, which is the label we signed with, they

37:55

they didn't have any hip hop artists, um

37:58

per se, especially any coming out of the South.

38:01

So um they did have Gang Star on a

38:03

subsidiary label of theirs, and that they were one

38:05

of my favorites, so um

38:09

yeah, I was trying to break through and hoping

38:11

for the best and striving to

38:15

make our presence undeniable

38:18

in the music scene there was there

38:20

really just wasn't a Southern

38:22

hip hop wasn't really the thing at that point, and very

38:25

much East coast, West coast.

38:27

What do you think you and

38:29

the rest of the rest of the band brought

38:32

to the table that intrigues

38:34

chrysalists to sign you. I

38:37

think what we brought to the table is a lot. I

38:39

think we brought um melodic,

38:41

melodic rhyming to

38:44

the table of hip hop. I think we brought a

38:46

soulful energy and like soulful

38:50

um solo vocals to

38:52

hip hop music. And we

38:54

brought another level

38:57

of spirituality to the lyrics

38:59

of hip pop. We brought um

39:02

I think a wider scope of

39:04

afrocentric city to hip hop. I

39:06

think we brought UH men

39:08

and women being in the same group UH

39:12

doing hip hop music, which was very rare

39:15

to my knowledge. Literally, the only other rap

39:17

group that ever did it prior to us was

39:19

Funky four plus one, which had done it back

39:21

in the early eighties late seventies,

39:24

and we were a live band,

39:26

which the only hip hop act that I knew

39:28

that did that was stet Roots

39:30

weren't out yet. Statsisnic was the

39:32

first to do it. We were second. We had an

39:34

elder in the group, So we brought this whole

39:37

sort of communal community energy to

39:40

to hip hop where it wasn't

39:42

this generation gap anymore.

39:45

And um, so I think,

39:48

among other things, that's what we brought. Now, that's

39:50

not why Chrysalis signed us,

39:52

and that's why I separated the answer. Chrysalis

39:55

just wanted to capitalize on the

39:58

popularity of what was happening with day Soul.

40:01

Um They're three ft High and Rising album

40:03

was really a pop success, and it had a lot of crossover

40:06

appeal with songs like me

40:08

and Myself and I but also you know, I

40:10

know, and and and um, you know

40:13

other stuff. So basically, I think

40:15

they wanted to try

40:18

to get on that bandwagon in a sense. But

40:20

we had our own energy

40:23

and um, while we were definitely influenced

40:25

by Native tongues and by Jungle Brothers and

40:28

day Lin Tribe, we

40:31

had our own thing that we brought to

40:33

the table as well. Three years, five

40:35

months and two days in the Life of was a massive

40:37

success. How did you react

40:39

to that? Here you were thinking you weren't you know, you

40:41

waited three years to get this contract and

40:44

then you're gonna go with

40:46

another single and

40:49

suddenly you're one of the biggest bands in

40:51

the world. It

40:55

was unbelievable and it was surreal. I mean, you

40:57

gotta put yourself in my head at the time.

40:59

This is our first record, it's

41:02

our first time dealing with a

41:04

record label, it's our first time making money,

41:07

it's our first time touring the nation, and

41:10

I mean I loved it, but it was very

41:12

fast paced. Talk about

41:15

learning a lot at a fast pace. I mean it was just learning

41:17

everything from how does this industry work? And you know, still

41:19

learning and I'm thirty years in and

41:22

learning how to tour and you know, how to get along

41:24

with a band, how to keep the band together, how to you

41:27

know, navigate interviews. I mean, there's so many things

41:29

that you're learning. Offered the first

41:31

time you followed the record. When

41:33

you think Galamdooney, um and ninety

41:36

four, a lot of high expectations

41:38

and high hopes and um. And

41:41

you know, it didn't it didn't sell as well and

41:43

it didn't really yield um.

41:45

You know, many hits. Why

41:48

do you think that the follow up didn't

41:51

sell as well? I

41:54

have a few thoughts. I mean, first of all, I don't think we should

41:56

have released it when we did. We released it too earlier.

41:58

I mean we released it about a year after, you

42:01

know, well, being

42:03

our first one was in ninety two, and then we

42:05

released but we were on tour like super heavy

42:07

and doing a lot of promo for that year,

42:10

so you know, there wasn't a lot of time to

42:12

create it. That's number one. Number two, I think the industry,

42:14

it's sort of hip hop in particular,

42:18

the culture changed. You

42:20

know, hip hop at that time was transitioning

42:23

into a Wu Tang era, a

42:25

bad boy era soon after a

42:27

nas era, and it was more

42:30

gritty back to New York, Tim's

42:32

on the ground, you know, a

42:34

little bit of a hustle thing going on in the streets.

42:36

That that was the the energy that

42:38

was being brought out in the New York scene. And

42:42

you know, I think that it just the

42:44

the aesthetic of hip hop changed right under our

42:47

sort of under our feet as we were transitioning

42:49

from album one to album two. Um

42:53

so, and then I also think, to be honest, consciousness

42:56

in hip hop in general started

42:58

to become marginalized

43:01

from the industry. The industry was pushing back

43:03

groups like Public Enemy and

43:05

wasn't really promoting their music as well. Arrested

43:07

Development, Uh, Brand

43:10

Nubians, X Clan Paris,

43:13

I mean, all of these acts were sort

43:16

of being relegated to the side,

43:18

and what was sort of taking its place was this

43:20

more mogul oriented business

43:23

oriented. If you remember the imagery back then,

43:25

either you were on the streets with the Thames, or

43:28

you were in a private jet or a yacht on the on

43:31

the ocean, and you had the bikini women

43:33

and everyone's you know, a mogul

43:35

and an enterprising business person

43:37

type of thing. And so there

43:39

was just a total shift of

43:42

you know, emphasis of what hip hop was

43:44

sort of doing at the time and

43:47

not just seemed so ampathetical to what I lost

43:49

the development was doing. It

43:52

was all about, I mean, the materialism

43:54

and capitalism

43:56

was that's just the antithesis

43:59

of what used to literally right one

44:01

with nature, spirituality, community,

44:04

family, friendship, close

44:07

ties, the pure.

44:10

Yeah, you have to really think

44:13

about the core value, like the ethos

44:15

of arrested development, and that

44:18

was being put in question suddenly

44:20

was Yeah, but the fame and the money and

44:23

and and you know, we we touched on this earlier.

44:25

You know, like

44:27

I said, there's there's you know, bands

44:30

come about in different ways. You know, not every band

44:33

comes about this same way. So for us,

44:36

I'm sort of the mad scientist guy in the room

44:38

right in music. The rest of the

44:40

group members were conceptual

44:43

more so than they were like a band

44:46

member. So when we came to live shows,

44:48

they were way more involved because you

44:51

know, like Robs, one of our members, played drums,

44:53

Well the drums weren't on the record, they weren't

44:55

recorded on the record at all, but in

44:57

live shows he was playing them, and then you

45:00

know, so on and so forth. So that

45:02

kind of thing made

45:04

the group you know, fascinating conceptually,

45:09

but you know, for

45:11

the real like part of it, who's making

45:14

the songs, it's just a lot of times just me. So

45:16

it was it was really tough to be able

45:18

to navigate that that whole reality

45:21

now that we're huge, because

45:23

yeah, it does reflect that. Oh wow,

45:25

well Rose who plays drums,

45:28

who actually got in a band about a month

45:31

before we got a deal, wasn't on any

45:33

of the records per se. But of

45:35

course he wants to make a lot of money. You

45:38

know, this is his chance, this is his shot, but there's

45:40

no avenues for him to really make that money

45:42

because he didn't write the song and didn't produce it. He

45:45

wasn't on the record. So it's

45:47

a tough thing to sort of navigate because

45:49

like, well, how do we get everybody

45:51

happy and yet keep moving

45:53

on with what the

45:56

successful formula was in the

45:58

first place, that got us here in the first place

46:00

that was That was sort of the thing I was constantly

46:02

trying to balance, like how do we do that? You know? So

46:06

I think you you reunited?

46:08

And so five years later sent

46:11

you right in two thousand, did you feel

46:13

less pressure at that point? Did you feel even more

46:15

pressure? Because the eight years

46:18

had passed and in the landscape of change.

46:21

So by the time two thousand came, I didn't

46:23

We didn't even release that album the Arrest of Development

46:26

new record um in the United States

46:28

at all. We didn't even release it in the United States. We only

46:30

focused on Japan. So in that sense, it

46:32

was great. Japan was totally

46:35

in lockstep with us the whole time, so

46:38

when Arrest of Development stopped, they

46:40

were super on Arrest of

46:42

development. Single Ama duty did very well in Japan,

46:44

so that was great. Then I did

46:47

a solo album in ninety six. They loved that. It went

46:49

to number one for seven weeks. I did another solo

46:51

album, they love

46:54

that. Then I did uh solo

46:56

album in two thousand called Spiritual People. It was my

46:58

biggest selling solo album to

47:00

date. So when we dropped

47:03

the Arrested Development album, it was anticipated

47:05

heavily in that marketplace, and so we

47:07

toured really heavy on that record. It

47:10

was great for the group members because they didn't have

47:12

that solo career sort of run that I just had. They

47:14

were just coming back into the fold. But it felt

47:16

really big, and the press was

47:18

all around us, and the fans were

47:20

extremely excited, so it felt

47:23

really good as long as we weren't in the States. As

47:25

long as we were, it

47:27

was like everybody was on us. And Japan

47:30

is a big place, a lot of great music

47:32

fans, so it felt very It felt

47:34

very good, you know, it felt really good. So

47:36

that's how we felt when we got back into it in two thousands,

47:39

and it's it's what allowed us to sustain, like

47:41

even the new record for the f and Love and and

47:43

Don't Fight Your Demons, But prior to that. It

47:46

allows us. It allowed us to sustain

47:48

our integrity or what we consider integrity, and allowed

47:50

us to to sustain the sound

47:52

that we liked, the aesthetic that we like, and

47:55

it makes a really fun story for

47:57

people that come to our shows. Now they're

48:00

getting to hear of this catalog that they probably

48:02

haven't heard, especially if they're in the States, they

48:04

haven't heard a lot of it. But it feels

48:06

like it feels like they never left.

48:09

In some ways, you take Japan out of the situation,

48:11

we probably in every way

48:14

just would have not been in existence. Thank

48:17

you Japan. Yeah, thank you Japan,

48:19

Japan, because we're happy, you're

48:22

happy to still have you around. I

48:33

think Tennessee was

48:36

probably the first hip hop record that I

48:38

was exposed to in my

48:41

limited knowledge of it at the time, where

48:44

there was like something deeper being

48:47

talked about, Like I can't

48:49

think of any other like top ten

48:51

hit singles that are you know,

48:53

literally like a guy like you know,

48:56

addressing God and sort of you

48:59

know, questioning his relationship to God

49:02

and his faith. He sort

49:04

of explores the past in that song

49:06

in kind of a way that sort of mixes like

49:09

nostalgia and trauma I would

49:11

say in a way that I think is really

49:13

powerful. The

49:21

year is the

49:24

latest incarnation of Arrusted Development

49:26

is thriving. They released an album

49:28

for the fin Love and

49:31

have been performing it. The response

49:33

has been great. Fans of the band's

49:36

old school stuff are really loving their

49:38

new material. Young new

49:40

school audiences love discovering what was

49:42

happening in the nineties. It's good

49:44

vibes, but

49:46

there is pain in Tennessee. Tyree

49:49

Nichols, a twenty nine year old black man

49:51

who lived in Memphis, sustained severe

49:53

injuries after police beat him after a traffic

49:56

stop. Three days after the incident,

49:58

he died. Video footage

50:01

released in late January shows

50:03

the police kicking, punching, and pepper

50:05

sprang him as he screamed. The five

50:08

officers charged with nichols murder are

50:10

also black. The story is complicated,

50:13

maddening, and heartbreaking. How

50:15

can such senseless violence exists in this world?

50:18

What has caused it? How does

50:20

Nichols family, the Memphis community,

50:22

the country move forward after such

50:25

tragedy. My

50:28

mind does what it often does when it's trying

50:30

to process something so big, so sad

50:32

and inconceivable. It turns

50:34

to music. I think of a rusted

50:36

Developments. Thirty year old Tennessee, a

50:38

song about processing the big, sad

50:40

and inconceivable. It does

50:42

not offer answers, but it offers empathy,

50:45

some sort of solace and connection, a

50:48

step toward healing. I think of

50:50

its songwriter Speech and wonder where his

50:52

mind is. I

50:54

learned that is the video of Nichols beating is released.

50:57

Speech has taken to Twitter to share his thoughts.

51:00

He has written, Tyree Nichols,

51:02

is any one of us if the system doesn't fundamentally

51:04

change, My heart goes out to his fami

51:07

and loved ones. His next tweet

51:09

comes a little less than an hour later. It

51:12

is the chorus of Tennessee. What

51:14

do you think the legacy of

51:17

arrested development has

51:19

been? Yeah? I don't. I don't know for sure.

51:22

I mean, obviously that's for the people to decide.

51:25

I would like it to be that. You

51:27

know, it's about revolution, about

51:30

you know, really striving

51:32

to uplift you

51:34

know, all of us and take us

51:36

all to you know, another place. Where

52:26

Were You in ninety two was a production of I Heart

52:28

Radio. The executive producers

52:30

are Noel Brown and Jordan run Todd. The

52:33

show was researched written and hosted

52:35

by me Jason Lafier, with editing

52:37

and sound design by Michael Alder June.

52:40

If you like what you heard, please subscribe

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