Marsha Ambrosius sits down with our very own Mike Street to talk all things "Casablanco" all while reflecting on her richly deep music-making journey!
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00:00New York City, the Hard Rock Hotel, Marsha Ambrosius.
00:08Hey.
00:09What's going on with you?
00:10Long time no see.
00:11It's been a while.
00:12You know what?
00:13Before we get to the business, I'm going to start off with a quick story.
00:16Okay.
00:17All right.
00:18So last time you were in my town, in my studio, we did a meet and greet for a bunch of winners
00:25and we were coming out of your song, Say Yes.
00:29So they were like, we're going to talk after Say Yes.
00:32And Marsha starts singing the end of the song and she's staring me in my face while she's
00:40singing.
00:41Hey, husband, don't.
00:44She's staring me in my face.
00:45Before I met you, babe.
00:46It was before you.
00:47And she's staring me in my face and she starts with all of those primal noises at the end.
00:51Primal.
00:52Yeah.
00:53Oh, you know that primal.
00:55And it just went quiet.
00:57And I had one where I just said, yes.
00:59And everybody in the room just started laughing at me, but it was like, yo, I was stuck.
01:07You took the words out of my mouth.
01:08And that's the power of music.
01:11That's the power of Ambrosius.
01:12And the power of my music.
01:13There you go.
01:14I get it.
01:15I get it.
01:16I do.
01:17And I've used my powers for good.
01:18Clearly.
01:19Yeah.
01:20Yeah.
01:21I hate to see you from any other way.
01:22Absolutely not.
01:23Sometimes.
01:24Maybe.
01:25So let's talk about the business at hand.
01:26The monster album, Casablanca.
01:27Yes.
01:28The name.
01:29Yeah.
01:30I think I know where the name came from, but.
01:34Okay.
01:35The name came from the feeling of creating the music.
01:38Now I had a spoiled experience working with Dr. Dre in Brentwood, in L.A.
01:47It was very much red carpets, white tablecloth settings, and the lights and the moon and
01:56the stars.
01:57It was, it set the mood and tone for what we were going to create.
02:02So once we decided to make a jazz album, Casablanca felt like the place to go and listen to it.
02:09Okay.
02:10You know, so it was Casablanca because it felt very vintage Hollywood, but you know,
02:16it was Dre and Marsh, and it was hip hop.
02:18So it was like, Dre's suggestion was like, nah, let's change the A to an O, call it Casablanca,
02:24like Griselda Blanco, Gangsta.
02:26So I was like, musically, those things kind of connected and made that feel how it felt.
02:33Because when I listen to the album, you'll start off and it's giving me Cotton Club,
02:40Intimate Jazz Club, and the next thing you know, it flips to 1990 Hip Hop Club, mid track.
02:47But it's all woven together so tightly and seamlessly.
02:51It's like thousand count sheets.
02:54It's pretty much like, give or take a few thousand counts.
03:00It's yeah, it was very rich, you know, and creating it very much Harlem Nights, Cotton
03:09Club.
03:10But then that Nas beat will drop or that KRS will drop and something will happen that
03:16just kind of keeps your head nodding and you're rocking to, you know, an upright bass and
03:21a symphony all at the same time.
03:23And then Smiling Billy Sweet Part Two sample drops in there.
03:26Oh, the nerve.
03:27The nerve.
03:28It was the audacity.
03:29I hate you for that.
03:30The audacity of us to actually do what we did.
03:36Like it's literal, audible orgasm.
03:40That's a great way to put it.
03:42So I have to ask, were the tracks done before the vocals?
03:47Like, you know, did you write to the tracks or was it like everything on the spot?
03:51We're going to make this happen.
03:52On the spot.
03:53Just as we're sitting here.
03:54Just imagine a mixing board and a microphone in the room.
03:58And it's all of us.
03:59It's myself, Dre.
04:00It's the ICU.
04:01It's Trev.
04:02It's Bluetooth.
04:03It's Focus.
04:05And we're building, ground up all of these moments, just taking a slow climb, but making
04:14this moment just in the moment.
04:16So Bluetooth will play the grand piano and it will start.
04:20The first song we recorded was Tunisian Nights.
04:23So that intro will be, there's something that I need to tell you.
04:28And as it keeps going and growing and the strings that you can hear and then the Charlie
04:33Parker drops.
04:34I'm like, oh, now we're really swinging.
04:38Now I can see what dress I have to have on, you know, to then Nas dropped.
04:44So we're reacting in the studio in real time, like, oh, like everyone's going crazy in there
04:51while we're making it.
04:53So it's almost like the songs, they were writing themselves all at the same time.
05:00Like, I've never had a moment where, okay, we'll listen to the beat.
05:02I've got to sit down for hours and kind of pan it out.
05:06It was happening while it was happening.
05:09So I heard the beat drop and was like, hey, been around the block a few times.
05:12That means I'm old now.
05:13I've been around the block a few times now at that point in my career.
05:19And I've seen a couple of things that I like, like I've worked with the best of them.
05:23But right now, let's fall in love with the music again.
05:26See, I saw you zoomed by that.
05:29Let's hit the break.
05:31Put it in reverse.
05:32There's a lot of people who are being introduced to you for the first time, you know, which
05:37is cool because discovery these days, you know, especially with music, is at an all-time
05:41high.
05:42So run down the list of some of these people you've worked with.
05:47Well, let's go from the very beginning, because if you don't, I will.
05:53You can show off on my behalf.
05:54I'll be semi-modest, but where I did get my biggest break was very early in my career,
06:02the year 2000 in New York City, I got to create the song Butterflies with Michael Jackson.
06:09Now prior to me creating it with Michael Jackson, I wrote that song when I was 16 about a boy
06:15that worked in McDonald's in Camberwell in South London.
06:19He was fine.
06:20It was gorgeous.
06:21And I had Butterflies for him.
06:22But then years later, I get a publishing deal.
06:26It's deemed as an interlude, but I get to Philadelphia while flowetry is happening.
06:31And I create that demo with Andre Harris.
06:35John McClane hears it, plays it for Mike.
06:37The rest is history.
06:38I'm here in New York.
06:39She called him Mike.
06:40That's how you know you somebody.
06:41It's not Michael Jackson.
06:42It's Mike.
06:43For me, I got to meet Mike, not MJ, like just Mike, Michael, when you had to be really sure
06:51about what you were saying to him.
06:52So, yes, I got to do that earlier in my career, all while sprinkling a song with Bilal, Jill
06:58Scott, Music Soulchild, Glenn Lewis.
07:04That was one of my favorites.
07:05Glenn Lewis.
07:06Just excellent.
07:07Daily, Alone Together.
07:08I've written for a few.
07:09Alicia Keys, Jamie Foxx.
07:10She's smiling behind the shades, by the way.
07:11I'm trying to think like it's so much.
07:12I have to literally Wikipedia myself.
07:13Like, what?
07:14Haven't you done?
07:15Like, if I go with my hip hop features, that's Jay-Z, Nas, Kendrick, Drake, No Particular
07:33Order, Freeway, Royce Da 5'9", even Tech N9ne, Kanye, Big Sean, 2 Chainz, Lil Wayne.
07:49I don't know who I haven't featured with as of right now.
07:53Tyga.
07:54It's so random.
07:55Like, I've got so many.
07:56What am I missing?
07:57Am I missing anything?
07:58Outkast.
07:59For crying out loud.
08:01The Art of Storytelling Part Four.
08:04Yes.
08:05And I was just with Andre 3000 at the Blue Note Jazz Festival.
08:09You're dropping a lot of names, Marsha.
08:10I know, but like, it's just been my life for two decades straight now and counting.
08:17Dr. Dre, Snoop.
08:21It's ridiculous.
08:22I don't know.
08:23I have a ridiculous, unrealistic life when it comes to music.
08:27Nine Grammy nominations.
08:28Nine.
08:29Nine Grammy nods and one win.
08:30Dang.
08:31Justin Timberlake's Cry Me A River.
08:32Cry me, cry me.
08:33Was that your vocals in that?
08:34Yeah.
08:35I hate you for that.
08:36It's just, you know, another early 2000s moment.
08:37I'd done the Butterfly's demo that was circulating and there was this Marsha Ambrosius from Liverpool
08:38chit-chatter around the world.
08:39And I was like, I don't know.
08:40I don't know.
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10:55I don't know –
10:5616
10:57s
10:59To
11:01Di
11:02on
11:15the
11:17to sneak peek the tim once you like expose the split in the skirt like don't get it messed up
11:23i've got my bamboo earrings on and my tins but i'm standing here in a ball gown and that's literally
11:28what the music sounds like and looks like for sure so you're dead on with that okay now you
11:35you you've made it hard for yourself because you're gonna have to try to outdo this eventually
11:41i don't that's the beauty of this album when we made it and why we made it
11:46can never be replicated we can build off of what that feels like but to outdo it
11:52it's just to live it now because that music there's so many moments within it um i feel
11:58like the nostalgia of it just like your throwback playlist that's what casa blanco feels like now
12:04so we've created a timeless effort into giving all of these respectful nods to music that we love
12:11in one space so it can be listened to forever just as your forever playlist stays forever
12:17so yeah i'll make more music maybe will it be that maybe not right but it will it will
12:23i perform that and will i build on what that is forever because it's ours i have to yes you know
12:29so it's mine ours mine and dres but yeah it's it's mine all right so your music is going to
12:37live forever okay if i wanted to introduce somebody who didn't know marcia ambrosius
12:45to a quintessential collection like five songs it's like five it doesn't have to be your favorite
12:53no because i know all of the all of your creations are like your kids you like them
12:56differently for different reasons at different times okay but if you had to introduce i am marcia
13:04this represents me okay five songs this week and by the way it doesn't have to be songs that you
13:12actually performed it could be stuff that you just helped create okay i'll go with butterflies for
13:20sure michael jackson uh say yes yes this was supposed to be for ron eisley but he didn't
13:27take it so that was he did not do it he passed so yes he did yeah so that one okay so that's two
13:36already i've got three more sheesh um far away um i would go with why you hate the game
13:48the game i felt like that's when i was like i could just do hip-hop
13:53like features forever that was that one for sure dang is that four that's four
13:59somebody give me a fifth please that's not fair okay um i'm gonna go with tunisian nights
14:08okay because that was the intro to the new album well that song too yeah but the very first song
14:14that we recorded for it because i felt like it opens a portal for all of the music that i created
14:23in one symphony like in one sitting that's all of it right there okay dang that was tough
14:31five is tough man that's that's horrible it happens when you have so much so much
14:36you know creative energy and things that you put into the universe yeah give me 20 next time okay
14:4342 marsha ambrose i appreciate you stopping through thank you so much