it was powerful 20 years ago it actually is one of those records that strangely sounds newer today than it even did kind of 20 years ago to me what's even more frustrating is that the person who made it looks younger today [Music] than it's a crazy thing but that's life man that's what experience does for you when you come out the other side of it and you know yourself you understand yourself you like yourself all of a
sudden the years evaporating here about 20 years on from confessions it's good to see you bro 20 years what up Z man listen 20 years manzy I mean I think I've on this one album been along been here long enough to consider it a past
present future kind of experience you know being able to benefit from the past in the present moment being able to celebrate it you know and then also to allowing you know the greatness of what these songs represent to still have a
relevance in this time it's an album that sits at number 95 and apple music's first ever 100 best albums of all time out of every album ever created people who voted for this of which there were a lot from artists to people who write
about music to people who have put it together on playlists anyone who truly loves music and is passionate in the conversation puts confessions in the 100 best albums of all time and rightfully so rightfully so man it's a it's an
incredible you know collaborative effort so many amazing producers and that time me and LA Reid Mark pittz working together on this amazing album uh Jermaine Dupri Jimmy jimy Terry Lewis D vow it's like the avenges of that era of
music it's unreal Yeah man so many incredible incredible pieces of art Brian Michael Cox and JD together just you know we we hit a stride on 8701 but when we got to confessions it was like something that I mean I don't you know
we don't have uh of any footage of us making the album because we just didn't focus on it in that way and don't get me wrong I think we were early in kind of pioneering the idea of like having cameras around but it was such an analog thing to do in that time to set up a camera in the room or either have you know an extended member sitting in the room who was just cataloging or capturing or documenting is that man
think about the themes of this record right the idea of this unbridled uninterrupted honesty this album is called confessions for a reason having cameras in the room while you're creating confessions could have betrayed
the original idea of it you're right right this just the truth but I mean now it's just folklore it's just just you know I mean it's like what happened well we got in the room and we had God talk you know what I'm saying we were going
not good enough us I brought you to go a little deeper than that uh that's being the standard line since it came out we're going to go a little deeper than that all right all right all right all I I give you some insight everybody that happened to be a part of this album that was intimate in the moment right it was Mark pit and I'm I'm probably putting a lot of people on blast right now you got Mark you got you know you got uh JD
myself you know it was a it was a it was a an incredible effort and an idea but we all had dealt with this um very very specific situation where I was we were all in relationships with a woman and uh Daryl Jones actually was also too um was
in the room but we were all talking about the situation the fact that you know we're kind of in a situation where you with somebody and you got to let you got to let your woman know and then it just grew to it went to another level we
literally sitting in there talking about our like yo I'm going through this right now and this is I'm trying to figure out how to you know how to deal with this I'm like I'mma carry it meanwhile I know all the time I'm man I'm living wrong yeah I'm living wrong the reality is you know you go through it sometime to get to it great songs came of it great songs but I also think that you know an important moment in your career and also
in the ability for Superstars to acknowledge that heavy is the crown that that when you're having the kind of success having regardless of what everyone thinks your life is that's right that heavy is the crown I mean by the way I think we were trying to find more than just making great songs we were try to remind people of how incredible of a genre R&B was and what it represented as Hip Hop was making this transition and becoming more
relevant pop music was was continuing to drift rock and roll was still what it was very relevant in that time you know alternative music yeah and alternative genres were coming up and becoming more relevant we needed to you know really
shock the world world and it was only the truth of that moment you know if you don't go through anything that you don't you that you're not bearing within the process of making an album you're not really giving the the value you know
this is one of those albums that um when it came out it was people forget not those who heard it who were there but anyone who's subse subsequently discovered it uh this was a viral album when this came out it it became all anyone could talk about primarily because of the quality of the music and the fact that it felt like a blockbuster film when you listen to it it felt conceptual and deep heavy and beautifully produced but also because it
was you that was carrying everyone's confessions really and it and it became whether you meant to or not and that's going to be my question it became ultimately quite an important marketing exercise where it was like do we really
say that this has been a collective conversation that just adds up to one sort of experience that that this group of men have had or is it Us's confessions and no one really knew for a while well uh the collective of all of
it it was storytelling it was intended to arouse and Peak Interest so that people want to know more about this artist you up until that moment I'd not really spoken about my personal relationships and even though I was singing songs there was a question of rather these songs were relevant to my actual experience before then I didn't really have a major you know relationship that was noted and people would pay attention to and probably
Point songs to and this is the album that people correct me if I'm wrong aligned to your relationship with Chile from TLC that's correct yeah yeah yeah that is correct and so when this album comes out and everyone starts to make
that connection right you have every opportunity at that moment to loudly clear this up but it didn't seem to happen that way it felt like you know what to your point let's let this sit in the ambiguous space just for a minute
because people are excited about this and I wonder how conscious of that you were at the time or how looking back on it now maybe it was just happening too fast for you to put it out no it was actually happening uh so fast that we
could not catch up to it or the reactions that she or I would have it actually was an interview in Atlanta that she had where people asked her the question of rather infidelity was the reason why we broke up and you know she
didn't answer it in the way that they would have thought that she would have she kind of gave she alluded to so people instantly made the connection that confessions was what I was talking about it wasn't in the actual sense there was some uh there were un there was an unfortunate end to the relationship um but we we we resolved it dissolved it and moved on but uh it definitely became a grand conversation of rather there was a baby out there
yeah right yeah yeah there's a Tim stamp on this album and it's funny looking back on it now you know the success of it in many respects is owed to all of it the quality the Triumph the ab what you created but also the the craziness of it
and this is sort of the vulnerability of it yeah for men because men don't necessarily always have an outlet we're not really comfortable speaking to therapist in that way and if we've gotten to the place where we can be
honest where do we do we let it out in a barber shop bro you know what I'm saying we let it out in private quarters and there were not really a lot of spaces and things like or like moments where we could you know kind of make that connection in this way hell yeah that were you uh uh cultural albums and things that were relevant to us that we would all share in saying yeah but there was some really really unfortunate and
dark truths that that you know would unfold in this album is accountability across this album which is which is really interesting at a time I think when people look to Superstars to live their life freely yeah and and
ultimately follow a moral compass but do so in a sense of like hey success comes at a price this is not the life that anyone would really understand there's a lot of sort of these areas where it's just like just keep moving just keep
moving and it's like this is a moment where you stopped and you were like hang on you know there's nothing wrong with accountability there's nothing wrong with acknowledgement well first of all you're looked at as though you were a
symbol of perfection being an artist you can't go through the same things that we go through no it was a humanizing experience that made you say oh you go through the same things that I go through and experience the same feelings
and vulnerability that I do it was just the opportunity to be honest about it and it was probably the most honest I had been uh and then being able to look at the kind of unveiling of more of what we were talking about in those spaces yeah I cheated you know what I'm saying that was what all bad was about the fact that I was living foul out here in Los Angeles doing what I was doing and you know I wrote about it we wrote about it
and then we decided to go further cuz there's the next part to it it's it is it is a remarkable document in that regard and um and I think it's it's also you were you were a young man at that moment in time you know um you know it
was it was yeah that didn't justifi it though but yeah no no no not in relation to the behavior but in relation to this to the courage to actually start to communicate about that yeah right that that comes later in life right um I
don't want to draw any comparisons to other albums but we have some very special albums that acknowledge flaws and failings in The Human Experience but they tend to happen 10 15 years on from where you are at the desire and the
clearing of conscience right is what music offers us even if it's a positive thing that you choose to write down it's something that I thought about something I need to get out right so within this album cuz you know um Lauren Hills uh
education could be one I listened to that album a lot and thought about the honesty that was in it the vulnerability that was in that album and you know being able to now have my shot at it because people know this much about me
they know I'm an Entertainer they know that I want to please them with entertainment but they don't know about me they don't know it's not your true identity that right and me and JD we spent enough time together to lock into
a narrative and we were consistent and everything around it represented that we created the foundation we didn't come up with the name confessions actually to the end it started off as uh we just wanted to have real talk as men I went out to Los Angeles work with these two young incredible talented Aila Brothers with Jimmy jimy T Lewis who introduced me to them uh Mark buers brought me to Philly um you know by way of you know working
with uh Jan viow we created incredible records that would then kind of give the Nuance of other pieces of the story where with po bear and also to um uh Ryan Toby we wrote some real they wrote some really incredible records that I
felt like I could carry uh and then I had my part in in helping to articulate it uh vocally but man all of that collaborative effort and then my personal relationship with Robin Thick you know because I'd wanted to work with
him for so long this gave me that opportunity to be able to to try some new things cuz I felt like his R&B was just different his his music sensibility the quality that came from who he was it melodically Fierce human being his
Melodies are out CRA incred incredible I feel like this was an album that really put you on the world stage and you've been there ever since do do you recognize that I do I do I think that it was the one that um allowed my name to
be known around the world uh it was an album that would you know uh go on to be recognized for uh its certification in terms of how much how many albums that it sold and to this date it actually is the only one and no one's beat that that
record by way of the fact that we just don't necessarily consume music in the way that we used to as a tangible asset or or or or piece of Ip right there are artists that continue to to be inspired by this album that I think actually
carry the templa of concept forward I think summer Walker did that very much on her album and obviously you played a role in that so there's a nod there there's an honest genuine and transparent nod to what you do as an artist and as a writer and her version of that through her filter her life did you recognize that is that something that Drew you into the project of like Sumer comes at this from a very transparent honest point of view she has
her take too maybe it's just something about Atlanta artist that you know we have this ability uh to kind of band together even if we don't know each other we're inspiring each other and inspired by each other but yeah I'm very
happy that it could be of inspiration uh and then I could go on to have an incredible relationship friendship with with summer and encourage and support her um but man I just I mean 20 years it's like you just I guess you don't you
don't really think of any of these things when you're when you're just passion-based I was in a very um it was a defining moment I realized what I was going after I need the world to understand who I am not just what I do yeah and and what I am talking about is relevant enough for you to live through these experiences or either live with me through these experiences I don't want to see your little because you show you [Music]