Jay Poww In Studio with Mason & Starr
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FunTranscript
00:00What's been going on?
00:01Oh man, a lot has been going on.
00:03I have launched my seat company.
00:05I run a company that does seats for Can-Am.
00:09We do splinters, Rikers, everything.
00:11Now what's Can-Am?
00:12Can-Am is the company that makes the slingshots.
00:16You see all the Detroiters riding around in the slingshots?
00:18Yes, yes.
00:18Or the three-wheeler, Rikers.
00:20They make all those machines.
00:22The water, the ski-doos, all that.
00:24So my company makes the custom seats for it.
00:27Wow.
00:27So Detroit, we stand up.
00:29When we customize ostrich, alligator, diamond stitch, whatever it takes, we make it all.
00:34So I have to make sure I'm multifaceted.
00:37Music is not the only stable that we run.
00:40But now we're running in Can-Am and we've taken it nationally, internationally.
00:43What made you decide to go into the industrial industry?
00:48Man, I bought the bike.
00:50I bought a Riker, Can-Am Riker, because my wife said,
00:53you're not bringing no more two-wheel bikes home.
00:55No more motorcycles for you.
00:57So I was like, all right, I won't get two wheels.
01:00I came home with three.
01:01So I got three.
01:02I got the Riker.
01:03And I started customizing it.
01:05And I'm like, you know what?
01:05I want to do a seat.
01:06Did a seat for myself.
01:08And then everybody started asking me, what's going on with the seat?
01:10Where'd you get the seat from?
01:12I said, man, I made that.
01:13And the light bulb went off.
01:14Like, you know what?
01:15There's something right in that.
01:16So I started it, built an online website.
01:19Before you know it, I started out about three seats a week.
01:21Now we do about 300 seats a month.
01:23Wow.
01:24At about $200 a pop.
01:25You do the math.
01:26That is great.
01:27So I got a question because I am, and long before it got popular, right, I've always
01:33liked old school cars and motorcycles.
01:36We go back to OutKast and them various establishments.
01:40So I want one.
01:42Okay.
01:42I want a trike, a customized trike, and I want a chocolate brown, chocolate brown, and
01:49peanut butter brown, right?
01:51I already know the specifications.
01:52I need you to help me find a sponsor that will pay for that.
01:56Okay.
01:56And then we can put my dog on the other side.
01:59Yeah, yeah.
02:00Coco put the guests to work.
02:03Listen, you know we go back 100 years.
02:05Hey, listen.
02:05Listen.
02:06That's a small thing to a giant.
02:08Real talk.
02:08Let's do that.
02:09Real talk.
02:10Say that.
02:10Yes.
02:11Yes.
02:11Because I want one, and when it get hot, I'll be like, is that Coco?
02:14Man, I'm out.
02:15By the time you figure it out, I'm bleeding.
02:18That's it.
02:18Let's go.
02:19Wow.
02:19So you can make any type of custom seat.
02:22If we do any type of custom seat, we not only do the custom seats, we have a wrap company
02:26that we've aligned with that does every color wrap that you possibly want.
02:30Wow.
02:31Power Custom Collections, which is the brand.
02:33Okay.
02:33Okay.
02:34Okay.
02:34And PowerCustomCollections.com.
02:37So anybody who might want to go on the website, you can see everything.
02:39From the trikes, the trike you want, the color you want, the seat you want, whatever you
02:43need.
02:44It is put together.
02:46It's an online business that's running itself.
02:48I love it.
02:48So you all could do, so if you do my seat, then you could do a couple jackets and then
02:54a couple pair of boots to match it.
02:55Look at that.
02:56You do everything.
02:57Whatever you need.
02:58I love that in you.
02:58We could do a new chain for you as well.
03:00Yes, yes.
03:00I need an old chain to get a new one.
03:02Okay.
03:03We were talking about that.
03:03When I meet J-Pow, it was a bucket list that I needed early.
03:12I wanted to always be an artist manager.
03:15When I was 14, I wrote Ashford and Simpson.
03:17They wrote me back.
03:18I told them I had an artist, right?
03:21And she could sing.
03:22She could really sing.
03:23They wrote me back.
03:25It's like, wow, they wrote me back.
03:28I didn't know how to get them music or anything.
03:30I just knew if they said something, if it was a bus trip or something, I could get her
03:33there.
03:33But so I always wanted to do that.
03:37So Uptown, no, Motown was giving, the president of Motown is the late, what was his name?
03:46He was the one who hired P. Diddy for Uptown Records.
03:50Andre Harrell.
03:51He was in town, and they were casting.
03:53They were looking for acts from Motown.
03:55I said, I'm going to go.
03:56Anybody they don't want, I'm going to scoop them.
03:59If I see somebody I like.
04:01Wow.
04:01So I go.
04:03These guys went on stage and performed.
04:08There was a total of five members of the group, but only three of them were there.
04:14And Jay was there.
04:16And I said, hey, can I mad at you guys?
04:19And he said, who are you?
04:21What do you do?
04:23And I said, well, I really want to do artist management.
04:27I do radio.
04:28So his brother said, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
04:31I heard of you.
04:32Because they're from Lansing.
04:34So he said, okay.
04:36I said, just give me 60 days.
04:38If I don't do anything, we're good.
04:39The long story is, he was the one who basically said right then and there, yeah, go ahead.
04:47You think you can try it?
04:48Go ahead.
04:49And anybody kept prefacing this.
04:51You ain't see our whole group.
04:53You ain't see our whole group.
04:54He was just sprinkling magic dust in my ear by saying that.
05:00Because I thought what I saw was equipped enough.
05:04Miller London said, man, these guys can sing.
05:09Now I need an A song from them.
05:12I said, no, I just get Miller.
05:13I just gave you seven.
05:14He's like, nope.
05:16Those are all B songs.
05:17So he said, where'd you get the songs from?
05:22I said, well, their producer wrote these.
05:26He said, what did they write?
05:27I said, they can write.
05:28He said, well, where is it?
05:31I said, I'll be back.
05:32So I was in California.
05:33I came back.
05:34Went to their house late at night, as soon as I landed.
05:38Said, I know you guys do music.
05:42Do a song for me that you guys did.
05:45Give me your top three songs.
05:47They did a song.
05:48They started the song off, and in 20 seconds, I said, that's it.
05:52They hadn't sung one lick.
05:54Not one lyric at that point.
05:57But I knew in the moment Jay Powell opened his mouth, I said, this is it.
06:04This is the song that he told me that I had to have to come back to California with.
06:10I never got back to California fast enough.
06:13Because someone locally heard the record and called Freddie the man, who was Madonna's manager.
06:23And it just snowballed from there.
06:29We tried to get the local radio station to play it.
06:32And the guy would just laugh and kick me out of his office.
06:36Until a local competitor of his, not local, a national competitor of his in D.C.
06:45Put a local group on from their cassette and got all that credit.
06:52This guy couldn't.
06:53He wanted the credit.
06:54So he put, yeah, Shy was the group.
07:00So he put it on, and it just went.
07:06Long time.
07:07UNV.
07:07Something's going on.
07:09Still being played around the planet today.
07:12Changed my life.
07:13That song changed my life.
07:15Took me to about, let's see, I've been to every state in the country probably at least three times.
07:20Three different countries, that song changed my life completely.
07:24Wow.
07:25100%.
07:26That's so magical.
07:27Changed mine too, because listen, I was kicking it with, never mind.
07:31And then he wrote, he didn't write the song like in some studio or anything like that.
07:38He went in some corner somewhere in Lansing, wrote the song.
07:42I kept asking him about the song.
07:43I mean, but the lyrics, I'm falling out of love with you.
07:46Listen, whoever wrote that.
07:47I wasn't in some corner, I'm going to just keep it 100 with you.
07:51I was sitting on a bunk in the county jail for riding around with a suspended license.
07:57Yes.
07:58So here's what we had to do.
08:01Everywhere he went in America, we had to have it.
08:04We had to get a judge to grant him permission to be in that state.
08:09Crazy.
08:10Could you imagine the work, but for what he was doing and what I wanted him to do, was
08:17just go back to the county for just two days and write again.
08:22Just two days.
08:24But boy, what was going through your mind?
08:28Because your situation, of course, would depress anyone.
08:32At the time, it's one of those situations that you have when you are struggling artists trying
08:39to make it, and that woman that you with is extremely high maintenance, and she wants
08:44you to be something that you're not at that point, and she don't see the vision.
08:49So at the time, something was definitely going on, and I knew based on the situation from
08:56a friend of mine, that he was like, listen, man, she ain't the one for you.
08:58I'm telling you, I didn't want to hear it, but in actuality, something was going on.
09:03So when I found out the reel, sitting on that bunk, it was like, it just poured out of
09:07me like a conversation.
09:08And that's all right to this day, like a conversation.
09:10Miller London, who worked for A&M Records, had just signed Janet Jackson and told me,
09:17if no one signs your group, I'll sign them.
09:21And he said, because I'll sign them, somebody's going to sign them.
09:25He had just did Shirelle and Alexander O'Neal and Janet Jackson, and Miller wanted them
09:33to succeed, and thought that they were great.
09:35So imagine being in that house that night.
09:37It's just me and them, right?
09:39And I live in it.
09:39Westbrook and Finko.
09:41So we sitting in the chair, and they start.
09:47I hear like 40 seconds of the song, and I told them to stop.
09:51He's like, cut it out.
09:51That's it.
09:52That's it.
09:52Don't do no more.
09:53Don't do no more.
09:53Don't do no more.
09:55Just stop.
09:56That's the song.
09:56I need you to work on it.
09:58And then my soul would, I said, well, go, okay, but go ahead.
10:01Finish it, though.
10:02Wow.
10:03To just sit there and hear that.
10:05And to them, it was just one of their songs.
10:09It wasn't necessarily a song.
10:11They didn't think of it the way I did.
10:12It's just they were ready to do the other three or four songs I asked them for.
10:16So you said Miller, he said, you got to have a hit, an A hit.
10:18Oh, yeah.
10:19He said, you got to have an A record, and it's got to be a hit.
10:21He said, all those seven songs.
10:22And so this producer didn't do that song.
10:26He did.
10:27Jay Powell did that song.
10:29And that producer sent me to hell with lawyers.
10:34But I had an Italian hitman.
10:39Oh, Lord.
10:40So.
10:41Now, how, statute of limitations, how many years?
10:44I didn't say his name.
10:46Like, he said, I had an Italian hitman.
10:47Yeah, but.
10:48Who, who, wait a minute.
10:49Who picked up the phone when I told him that these people were giving me hell because they
10:54didn't write the song.
10:56Jesus.
10:56He said, here's what I want you to do.
10:59I want you to go to your attorney.
11:00I want him to get the rights to the name of the group because they didn't create it.
11:07And he says, I don't want you to pay attention to anything their attorneys say.
11:11He called me back a day later and only said these words.
11:16Hello.
11:18These are the times that test men's souls.
11:23And he hung up.
11:25In other words, he was saying he didn't give a damn what he was saying.
11:32Get the paperwork done because he's coming to Detroit.
11:36So this guy gets on a plane from Hollywood.
11:41Comes to the neighborhood to see them and was ready to suitcase them back to California the next day.
11:50It was, it was, it was quite a journey and all tribute to Jay Powell and the uniqueness of his writing.
11:56And to Miller London for saying it has to be an A.
11:58Oh, Miller.
11:59An A song.
12:00Because, because I want to say my traffic director, Leslie, she just hit me.
12:04She said, that's steel.
12:06Oh, absolutely.
12:07Absolutely.
12:08Period.
12:08So for a song to have longevity like that, like right now, I feel it like the first time I heard it, that is, that was, that's an A song.
12:16What year was that, Jay?
12:17That was 1992 when it was written in 1993 when it went number one.
12:22So I'm just sitting here like, wouldn't it be nice to do a concert and showcase and present, reintroduce the world to those groups from our city to this generation?
12:41Oh, yeah.
12:41And there were, there were a few.
12:42Absolutely.
12:43The two girls of Fabu was another group.
12:46They got their deal because of us.
12:48Fabu.
12:49One of the brothers came to them, but they went through us first and signed Fabu.
12:54And what about the bodies?
12:56The body sisters?
12:57No, no.
12:57They were before us.
12:58Oh, okay.
12:58There were two groups that followed UNV.
13:02Fabu and Seven Mile.
13:04Seven Mile.
13:04That's it.
13:05Used to be the one I love.
13:07Yes.
13:07Yep.
13:08Man.
13:09And they all came through us.
13:11Wow.
13:11The one time, the one time I got a chance to get with my classmate to show him that I did something too.
13:19I was unable to.
13:20I had to ride around in California with the agent.
13:23It was Arsenio.
13:24They did his show.
13:26He scrapped all the other groups.
13:29They were, first of all, a fill-in.
13:31Yeah.
13:32But then he had other performers.
13:34He heard them and scrapped everybody and made them the only performer.
13:38Why am I looking at that show in my head with the outfits y'all had on?
13:42Yeah.
13:42We were, think about it.
13:43Back then, we were the only group rocking, dressing really nice.
13:47Yeah.
13:47Yeah.
13:48With the different color blazers and all that.
13:50Yes.
13:50Yes.
13:51Absolutely.
13:51We rocked.
13:52We brought that to the forefront.
13:53Yes.
13:53When everybody was in the crazy boots and the saggy jeans, we was sharp all the time.
13:59Yes.
14:00Girl, man.
14:01It was an amazing time.
14:04But why?
14:05Why?
14:06Why?
14:06Why did the booking agency guy want to ride around with me and talk that day?
14:11Because you was a safe person for him to talk to.
14:14No, he wanted to, he was booking dates, so of course I wanted to do it.
14:20That was money for the group.
14:22And he, you know.
14:23That, Montez.
14:25B-E-T.
14:27Was that a, yeah, Montez.
14:28Oh, man.
14:29Montez Miller said.
14:31Shout out to Montez.
14:32Yes.
14:33Mason, your group, tell them we got them.
14:36We're putting them on video.
14:37So the record label went bonkers.
14:42Hold up.
14:42Not even to do that, Montez did the classic, iconic move and put our poster on Martin in
14:49the radio studio.
14:50Oh, the Detroit move.
14:51Oh, Montez.
14:52Wait a minute.
14:52But let me say this.
14:53Montez is from Highland Park.
14:54Let me just throw that out there.
14:55Montez went in.
14:56You know, that's it.
14:57Montez Miller, who we're speaking of.
15:00Montez.
15:00She put in the Martin.
15:02In the Martin radio studio.
15:04You will see the four, our first album cover on Martin's wall.
15:08You know, so many people hit me about that all the time.
15:10I just saw your poster on Martin's show.
15:13Oh, Montez.
15:14I can't.
15:14I can't.
15:15So it just, it followed suit.
15:17Martin was about me.
15:19The group was our group.
15:21Jay and the song.
15:22Boom.
15:22Montez Miller making moves.
15:25The label said, you're doing New York in three hours.
15:29They were pissed because they cut deals when they put groups on video.
15:35So to get other groups that are not as popular on.
15:40But Tez, she was moving.
15:42So I just listened to him and took it.
15:45And, and, and, and, and again, real quick, I know I've done this story before, but just real quick.
15:49We, we found some young people like Max, who was going to do the video for $3,500.
15:55We were ecstatic.
15:56I said, I said, man, I'm going to give you 5,000 and I'm going to try to get you seven.
16:02No.
16:03That record label called me and they said, I want you to have a seat and pull up real close.
16:08They said, there's a guy named Hype Williams who's going to do your video.
16:13I was like, oh, he's good.
16:14But listen, I got some kids.
16:16He says, no, let me tell you.
16:17He did say Hype Williams.
16:18Y'all heard that, right?
16:19And how you just said, no, no, no, I'm going to get back to Hype's name.
16:24So I said, no, no, these kids got a great concept.
16:27They know how to do it urban style.
16:29They got their own stuff and I only have to pay them $8,000.
16:35He said, let me tell you, Mr. Mason, how this works.
16:40You're going to pay Hype Williams $250,000.
16:45Wait, oh.
16:45And he's going to shoot and he's going to shoot your video and then you're going to pay a guy in your market to go to your radio stations another $100,000.
17:01I said, no, no, no.
17:01I got Detroit.
17:02I don't need nobody to pay a guy in Detroit.
17:05They told me.
17:07They said, you don't understand.
17:09You're going to pay.
17:10They called the person's name.
17:12I said, no.
17:13And then when they called his name, I said, I know him.
17:16They're like, yeah.
17:17And you're going to pay him.
17:19I said, I ain't even got to pay him.
17:20I know him.
17:21He'll just do it.
17:23I said, but I don't need him.
17:25Already got it on all the radio stations.
17:28It don't work that way.
17:30But they smartened up.
17:32They flew him everywhere, put him in five-star hotels.
17:36They had to do a tour in the South.
17:37They told the label, don't give us nothing.
17:39They got them an 18-passenger van and drove through the South so they could put that money in their pocket.
17:45They did the group Shy.
17:47While Shy was on the road, they bought them a mansion and made them all live in the mansion and took their money.
17:55We was on Westbrook and Fingo until we was on tour.
17:59And then they came in and robbed our house completely.
18:02Yes.
18:02Wait, wait.
18:04Hold on.
18:04You said they took the refrigerator.
18:06They took the refrigerator.
18:07Listen, but this is what happened.
18:08So what happened, they was playing basketball with these kids, right?
18:13So they were like, they weren't paying attention to them.
18:16They telling them, we got record out.
18:18You know, we on TV.
18:20We do stuff like that, take tours.
18:22Them kids were like, yeah, okay, dude, give me the ball.
18:25And they were watching Video Soul.
18:28Saw them on Video Soul.
18:29They said, oh, the house is ours.
18:32Went in the house, took stuff, defecated on the beds.
18:36Crazy.
18:37Yes.
18:38They were so mad.
18:39We made some hands.
18:39Saved the day.
18:40We came home off tour.
18:41He didn't even let us go to the house.
18:43He said, listen, I remember this like it was yesterday.
18:46He said, listen, nobody's going to the house.
18:48We got everything removed out because they took our clothes.
18:50They took everything.
18:51They said, y'all not going to the house?
18:52We're like, what?
18:53We ain't going to the house.
18:54Mason said, look over there on the desk.
18:56It's four keys.
18:57We all have four individual keys to the Riverfront Apartments.
19:01Riverfront.
19:02What was it?
19:03Riverfront Apartments.
19:03Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
19:04Riverfront.
19:05Yep.
19:06Mason said, y'all, this is where y'all at.
19:07This is where y'all have arrived.
19:08And the record company didn't pay for it either.
19:10I paid for it.
19:12Mason said, because they were paying.
19:16They were good and they were deserving.
19:19And I love them to death.
19:21John, you've got a new song.
19:24I got a new song.
19:25And it's so fitting with everything we've been talking about.
19:28It's called What Happened to Love Songs.
19:30And it's basically just talking about what happened to romantic love songs that made you
19:34feel something.
19:35Made you feel like you wanted to cry.
19:37The words just meant something to you.
19:39Every line could be a soundtrack to your life.
19:41What happened to those songs?
19:43And we need to bring it back.
19:44It's time to come back to Feel Good Love Songs.
19:45Where can they find the song, Jay?
19:47The song is downloadable on all digital platforms.
19:50Of course, Apple, Spotify, every digital outlet out there.
19:55The song actually premieres on Valentine's Day.
19:58But it's out early now this week.
20:00So we want you to go out and download it.
20:02You can definitely follow me on Jay Powell of UNV on Facebook.
20:05Jay Powell of UNV on Instagram.
20:08Jay Powell of UNV on Twitter.
20:10Jay Powell on UNV just about everywhere.
20:11So Jay Powell, Jay period, P-O-W-W.
20:15Love you to death, man.
20:16Good job.