Everything you ever wanted to know about the “Nastee” theme song from the man who wrote it

If you ever listened to Nestor Aparicio on the radio anytime from 1994 through 2014, you heard the opening theme song many times. “Do you want to get Nastee?” was a line written and rapped by Kwame’, who is involved in the National Hip-Hop Hall of Fame induction ceremony on August 23rd. Last month, he appeared in a community event here at Gwynn Oak Park and the stars aligned to allow him to finally face the music of being a very fun and important ingredient in the sound of the history of Baltimore sports radio.

Nestor Aparicio interviews Kwame, the creator of the “Nasty” theme song, on his 27th anniversary show. Kwame discusses his career, including his first album “Kwame, the Boy Genius” (1989), which went gold, and his hit single “Only You” from “A Day in the Life” (1990). He recounts the impact of his song “Nasty” on Nestor’s radio show and the broader hip hop community. Kwame also shares his involvement in the Hip Hop Museum and Hall of Fame, set for August 23, and his upcoming album “The Different Kids” (August 29). They reminisce about the early days of hip hop, Sugar Hill and Kwame’s influence on artists like Bell Biv DeVoe.

• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Kwame’s induction into the National Hip Hop Museum Hall of Fame on August 23rd.
• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Check out Kwame’s new album “The Different Kids” when it releases on August 29th.
• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Arrange a non-crab cake or salmon dinner meeting with Kwame in Baltimore.

Kwame’s Introduction and Nestor’s Background

• Nestor Aparicio introduces the show and mentions the Maryland crab cake tour starting on the seventh, coinciding with their 27th anniversary.
• Nestor shares a story about Kenny Abrams, a former Raven, who introduced him to Kwame, who is going into the Hip Hop Museum and Hall of Fame.
• Nestor expresses his excitement about having Kwame on the show and shares his long-standing connection with Kwame’s song “Nasty.”
• Kwame shares his surprise at hearing his song “Nasty” mentioned after 36 years as an artist.

Nestor’s Music Critic Journey

• Nestor recounts his experience as a music critic at the Baltimore Sun in the 1980s, interviewing artists like Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, and James Ingram.
• He describes how record companies would send him CDs and cassettes, and how he became known as “nasty Nestor” among kids who called him their “crazy uncle.”
• Nestor shares a story about discovering Kwame’s song “Nasty” at a record store and using it as the theme song for his nationally syndicated radio show.
• He mentions how the song has been a part of his life and how people still recognize it and sing it to him.

Kwame’s Early Career and Impact

• Kwame talks about his first album, “Kwame, the Boy Genius,” released in 1989, which was a gold album and had significant singles like “The Man We All Know and Love” and “The Rhythm.”
• He explains how his unique style, including wearing polka dot shirts and ties, started a fad in the hip hop community.
• Kwame discusses the evolution of MTV and how local video shows like Video Music Box in New York were crucial for the hip hop community.
• He shares the story of his second album, “A Day in the Life,” which included the platinum single “Only You,” and how it was an experiment to change the perception of hip hop on daytime radio.

The Evolution of Hip Hop and Kwame’s Contributions

• Kwame talks about the shift in hip hop in the 1990s, with artists like Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, and Naughty by Nature becoming more prominent.
• He describes his third album, “Nasty,” and how it was influenced by the song “Don’t Stop the Music” by Yarbrough and Peoples.
• Kwame shares his frustration with Atlantic Records for not releasing “Nasty” on streaming platforms, despite its significance in the hip hop community.
• He mentions his ongoing negotiations with Atlantic Records to re-release “Nasty” and how it was the last echo of the Golden Era of hip hop.

Kwame’s Legacy and Community Work

• Nestor and Kwame discuss the impact of Kwame’s music on different generations and how his songs have been sampled and referenced by other artists.
• Kwame talks about his work with youth, running workshops and creative writing programs, and his commitment to community outreach.
• He shares a story about performing at Gwen Oak Park during a community event, despite torrential rain, and how the sun came out just in time for his performance.
• Kwame expresses his gratitude for being inducted into the Hip Hop Museum and Hall of Fame, alongside other notable artists like Kid ‘n Play and Dana Dane.

Kwame’s New Album and Future Plans

• Kwame announces his new album, “The Different Kids,” set to be released on August 29, which he describes as a full-circle moment in his career.
• He shares his excitement about the upcoming induction ceremony and concert at the Wooly Mammoth Theater in DC on August 23.
• Nestor and Kwame discuss the importance of the Hip Hop Museum and how it honors the contributions of artists like Kwame.
• Kwame reflects on his journey from being a young rapper to a respected artist and producer, and his commitment to giving back to the community.

Nestor’s Personal Connection to Kwame’s Music

• Nestor shares his personal story of discovering Kwame’s music and how it has been a part of his life and radio show for decades.
• He mentions how he has always been proud to use Kwame’s song “Nasty” and how it has been associated with his show for many years.
• Kwame expresses his appreciation for Nestor’s support and how it has helped keep his music alive and relevant.
• Nestor and Kwame discuss their plans to meet in person and share a meal, with Nestor promising to find a suitable vegetarian option for Kwame.

Kwame’s Influence on Other Artists

• Kwame shares a story about writing the rap for the song “Poison” by Bell Biv DeVoe, which became a significant hit.
• He describes the process of creating the rap and how it was well-received by the band members.
• Nestor expresses his admiration for Kwame’s contributions to the music industry and how his songs have influenced other artists.
• Kwame talks about his ongoing work as a producer and his commitment to creating music that resonates with different generations.

Final Thoughts and Future Plans

• Nestor and Kwame discuss the importance of preserving hip hop history and the role of the Hip Hop Museum in honoring artists like Kwame.
• Kwame shares his excitement about his new album and the upcoming induction ceremony, and how it marks a new chapter in his career.
• Nestor expresses his gratitude to Kwame for being a guest on the show and for sharing his story and music with the audience.
• They conclude the conversation with plans to meet in person and continue their collaboration and support for the hip hop community.

Hip Hop Hall of Fame and creat…areer beyond the song you know

Mon, Aug 04, 2025 4:58AM • 33:53

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Hip Hop Hall of Fame, Kwame, Nasty theme song, Baltimore, music career, rapper, Sugar Hill, Golden Era hip hop, Atlantic Records, community outreach, hip hop museum, new album, induction ceremony, youth workshops, creative writing.

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SPEAKERS

Kwame Holland, Nestor Aparicio, Speaker 1

Nestor Aparicio  00:01

Welcome home. We are W, N, S T. Am 1570 task of Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive. I’m promising you we’re gonna get the Maryland crab cake tour back out on the road. We begin on the seventh it is our 27th anniversary, and I it is really sweet serendipity. I was actually just wearing this shirt around the house today because I have it. It’s from an HBO, a show called vinyl nasty bits was Mick Jagger’s kids band, and so it’s a shirt I’ve had for a decade just kind of hanging out. I had an opportunity this month to on my timeline one of my old friends from the ravens, Kenny Abrams, who was one of the really good humans I met along life’s football journey was out at gwyne Oak Park and put videos up of a rapper who has been a part of my life. He’s going into the hip hop Museum and Hall of Fame down in DC later this month. And there’s all sorts of things swirling I literally would have loved for about 25 years to get this artist on the program. I’ve been pronouncing his name wrong the whole time, so we’re going to go soup and nuts with all of this. But Kwame, it is an absolute pleasure to have you on, and I cannot begin to tell you that probably not a week of my life goes by where someone does not come up to me and whisper in my ear. Do you wanna get nasty? What everybody get nasty? Let’s operate so yes, I’m making you laugh. Now, how are you

Kwame Holland  01:37

I’m good. You know, that is the first time in my 36 years of being an artist that someone has brought that particular song up out of all my other songs, that particular song. So I’m shocked to hear that somebody is bringing the song nasty up, all right, so

Nestor Aparicio  01:58

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I’m making you blush. You’re making me Bush, this is my 27th anniversary. It’s complete serendipity that you’re on, um, because, like, this just happened. I remember in the 90s saying to my producer, Ray Bachman and Andy Mueller, long time producers of my radio show, find this Kwame guy. Find this so let me tell you the story about how it happened. I was a music critic in the 1980s at the Baltimore Sun. So I interviewed Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, just threw the James Ingram on me, all black, white, young, old Patti LaBelle just I was the music critic at the paper when I was really young, like Cameron Crowe, kind of young. And I always got, um, the record companies would send me CDs, albums first, then CDs, sometimes cassette tapes, but CDs primarily once we got into that air in the late 80s, early 90s, when you made your name in the business. I remember the first time I had a record label. Person. I’ll tell me about Afrika Bambaataa and this Run DMC thing and the Aerosmith thing, and I had seen Sugar Hill gang Rapper’s Delight sequence. I had Grandmaster Flash. I had Sugar Hill album. So I’m a widely varied music guy, but in the early 1990s I took the calling myself nasty Nestor, because Nestor such a weird freaking name, right? So like to say in my name, resetting, giving the phone number, like the spelling’s weird on my name, so nasty, Nestor was what two kids called me, that I was, like their crazy uncle. Instead of calling me uncle and Nestor, they called me nasty Nestor. So when I went on the air, I had this nickname I’m at the musical Exchange, which was this giant used CD record store. They had 7845 they had everything. Chris had everything in his store. Yep, I remember this promotional item, a CD. And he knew I shopped in his store, and I was making a name for myself on radio. I’ve been on radio a year or two or three. Is like 9394 somewhere in that range. He had this promo disc, and I swear I tried to find it today. I didn’t. I actually bought your real CD. So I had the real CD. Okay, just so, you know, but I couldn’t find it. It got burned down. I did find this. This was the nasty nationwide theme song I was nationally syndicated on Sporting News Radio your song played. You got ASCAP on all of that 30 years ago, believe me, you did, um, and your song, I brought it home. He played it in the record store for me that day. I said, spin this. And he put it on, and I heard, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom boom. At the beginning of it, do you and I’m like, everybody get nasty. And I’m like, I’m using that song, that song played for 20 years. Kwame, wow. Like, so I thought somewhere along life’s journey, someone. May say to you, there’s this sports radio guy in Baltimore using your tune, dude, so now you’re going in the Hall of Fame. And I’m like, I gotta get him on, man. You were in Baltimore a couple of weeks ago. I told my wife the legend of you, I swear to you. Last week, I was at Costa sentimonium, and a girl came up to me, up. I mean, not a girl. She’s in her 40s, and she sang the song for me and said it was her mother’s favorite song because her mother listened to my show.

Kwame Holland  05:28

Wow, wow, wow. That’s that. That’s amazing. You don’t you never know where certain songs take you, because my perspective is something different when it comes to that song, it’s not a negative thing, but it’s a, it’s a different perspective out of out of the records that I’ve made as an artist. So it’s very interesting. They to hear this story, and, you know, I love it, and I’m thankful that you, you played that song for that time that’s That’s crazy to me. That’s crazy. Well, what’s going to

Nestor Aparicio  06:03

be crazy is when people hear this in my community, they don’t know any they think maybe somebody did you know Baltimore had a nice hip hop scene, and they think somebody just sort of did it for me. And I’m like, No, I found it in a record store. It’s a real thing. You’re a real artist, and you’re a legendary artist in your space, in your world. And I’ve tried to say that to people when they’ve come up to me, I’m like, That guy did a lot of stuff, man, like, so I just want to learn about your stuff and your art and your music and what you were doing in Baltimore. You’re here doing you do good causes, you do good things. And more than that, I’ve been trying to promote the hip hop museum because, you know, Master G and Sugar Hill when I snuck into the Baltimore Civic Center about 82 to see them play. So how far music has come from when you were a kid doing something that was maybe more isolated, like skateboarding was in East Baltimore, just sort of on the outside. And now, being as we all get older, you know, a respected artist as you should be,

Kwame Holland  07:10

yeah? Well, I gotta just start from the start. I was a kid. I started in 1989 my first album, I was 16. My first album was called Kwame, the boy genius. That was a that album did very well. It was a gold album.

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Kwame Holland  07:33

The main singles off of that record was my introductory record was called the man we all know and love. And these are staples in the hip hop community. Anybody that that knows their that can go back with with their hip hop will know these records. They did very well. And so you have the band we all know and love. And there was another single called the rhythm, and that album garnered like four singles. But the funny thing was, it also started a fad in hip hop at that time, 1989 where all the kids were wearing polka dots because of polka dot shirts and ties that I would wear, and not intentionally. I wasn’t trying to intentionally make a fad or anything like that. It was just things that I like to match. So it was like a black and white shirt with a black and white polka dot tie, or vice versa. And I would take that same time, that same shirt, and just use it on a picture, use it in a video, using it or whatever. And

Nestor Aparicio  08:37

well, you’re very visual, right? I mean, I think your age. MTV was well created at that point, right? Like, videos were away. Everyone saw music. They didn’t just hear it, right?

Kwame Holland  08:50

MTV was well created, but not for rap. So, you know, outside of Run DMC and Beastie Boys, that was like the only rap on MTV at the time in 89 and so we had this, you know, we were creating our own lanes. There was so many local video shows that that that the hip hop community would latch on to, like, I’m from New York. So in New York, the biggest video show was a show called Video Music Box. And then you had the box in the boxes where you can pay and watch videos. Um, those were the popular shows. And then MTV rap started to to roll in around 8990 it started to roll in, and it it got, you know, it reached its height in by the mid 90s. But when I first came out. It wasn’t, it wasn’t merely the spectacle that it became. And you know, from there, I went on and did my second album. Second album was called A Day in the Life. And you know, I’m 17, my. Stories were about I’m a very visual and I’m a very storytelling type of person, and all the stories that I tell come from more of like a real place, but from a kid’s perspective at the time. So the second album was called the boy, I mean, a day in the life, and that had a single called only you. Only you became, I would say, probably my biggest record. I was a platinum single, and that single did very well. But the thing was, that song was an experiment, because during that time in 1990 most radio stations would not play hip hop from 6am to 6pm they would have this thing called the no rap work day, and with the exception of people like Jazzy Jeff in the first Prince, or maybe Heavy D or again, like a Run DMC or a LL Cool J you know, with like, I need love songs like that would get daytime MC Hammer would get daytime play. But the majority of rap records wouldn’t. And you know, for me, I wanted to, I wanted to change that. I wanted to change it. For me, I wanted to wake up in the morning and hear my own song. So I made a song where it was 50% singing, 50% rapping, 100% danceable. And that song was the template for a lot of songs that got big in the 90s, like Bill Biff DeVoe, poison. It was definitely the template for poison. It was definitely the template for records, like a lot of records, so many records that that record became the template for and it worked for me, and it worked very well. And so we have the second album. The second album does well, and then rap begins to shift, and rap now we’re getting into the 90s, and rap starts to take a turn, and people like myself kid and play big daddy, Kane Slick Rick, we were, we weren’t as street oriented or as As as grimy as the newer rappers that were coming out, like, you know, like this, the Snoop and drays and the naughty by natures, even the some of the Tribe Called Quest. It was just more of a harder edge stuff. And, you know, my stuff was more of a fun type thing, but I did my third album, which brings me to You nasty, yeah, I’m

Nestor Aparicio  12:42

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holding this right now because I I’m reading the liner notes, and it said, adaptation of, don’t stop the music, like Arbor on peoples, don’t stop the music. And I love, love, love that song. I shouted that song out three weeks ago when we lost, uh, him, haven’t ago, yeah, and I play that, I think that might be the greatest song of that era, and I never associated it with nasty until an hour and a half ago when I got the liner notes. So yeah, maybe that’s the groove in the hook that I felt because I knew that song and late 70s, early 80s, yeah, a dance hall hit,

Kwame Holland  13:23

yeah. And you know that album, that album is bittersweet for me, because I was going through issues with my record label, and that album was shelved for a year or year and a half. So by the time that album came out, the landscape of rap really changed, and that nasty album was probably the last echo of what we call Golden Era hip hop. And you know, in certain places, it’s still the song did well. Nasty did well in certain places. But if you flash forward it now, it didn’t do as well. To the point where, if you go on iTunes and you go on Spotify or anything like that, Atlantic Records has still yet to put that album up. They have all my other works up, because those works did way better than nasty. But you know, there’s people like you, like a lot of people that I come across, that really love that album and love that song, and it’s not available. So currently, I’m in negotiations with my former label, um Atlantic Records to get that album re released on streaming platform so people could just enjoy that that particular album in that time. And like I said, again, I appreciate you for rocking with it. You know,

Nestor Aparicio  14:53

listen, man, anyone that’s tuning in, I’ve waited 35 years to talk to you. That song’s been associated with me. You wrote it 92 I went on the air in December of 91 Camden Yards opened in April of 92 the Ravens didn’t exist. That song was, I would say, somewhere in 94 345, maybe at the certainly by 95 I could go back through my tapes and you know what era it came. But once it came, you know, I would play that. I would play the Janet Jackson song, nasty, nasty boys. Then the Beastie Boys, you know, had a hello, nasty album name. And then people would just drop stuff off with any nasty reference, like genuine, who I’ve always wanted to get on the show, and I almost had him on a couple years ago, had a song called Pony. I mean, huge, huge song. And there’s a point in there, there’s a beat where it says we’re going to get nasty baby. So I used to sample that out as part of when I would go to breaks in and out of breaks, it was like bumper music around here. You know, pronounce your name? For me so ever I’ve been saying it wrong for 33 years, and I looked it up African heritage, born on a Saturday, maybe, um, tell me about Kwame, not Kwame.

Kwame Holland  16:14

So Kwame the original saying, the original pronunciation, the name is Kwame, and Kwame means born on Saturday. My parents, you know, very Afrocentric, 70s parents. They named me after the Ghanaian, the president of Ghana. Ghanaian president, Kwame Nkrumah. He was like a very he was like an activist and and they named me after the but my mother wanted. My mother didn’t want to name me that at all. So she wanted to name me after my grandfather. I would have been named Kenneth if, if, if she had it her way, um, but so she decided to put an accent over the E and name me Kwame instead of Kwame. So you have basketball players, you have mayors, you have all these different people named Kwame, like Kwame Brown and I can’t Kwame Kilpatrick from Detroit, and all these other thing, other people with that name. That’s great. But the weird thing for me since now, I’ve been around for 3536 years, I run into kids named Kwame, and I run into so many kids, adults now, 35 year olds on down that are literally named after me. It’s funny, like you

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Nestor Aparicio  17:40

never met a Kwame when you were a boy, there was no other boy named it’s just me. My name’s Nestor. It’s so bizarre. I use nasty, literally, yeah,

Kwame Holland  17:49

so, so, like, I would be in like, say, a 711 and there’s some kid that’s across the counter with a name tag that says Kwame. And I’m like, Hey, that’s a nice name. Where’d you get it from? And they’ll be like, Man, my mom named me after some rapper. Man, I don’t even understand why she named I was like, Oh, for real. Like, I get that. I get that all the time, all the time. Fantastic. Yeah, so, so it’s amazing.

Speaker 1  18:14

That’s a blessing, right? Yep,

Kwame Holland  18:17

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didn’t want to name you. Kwame, yeah, exactly, exactly.

Nestor Aparicio  18:21

Well, for any of you who’ve ever heard the nasty theme song over many, many years, or many of you have come up to me in a bar, a restaurant, an airport, a Ravens game, an Orioles game, wherever, and sang the song. This is the artist. I am so happy that you’re happy with me. I wondered forever, like, I don’t want to piss off the rap guy from New York, you know

Kwame Holland  18:45

what I mean? And Nestor, let me tell you something. I’m not the rap guy. I am not that, that type of rap guy from New York. I don’t get pissed off by anybody. It was like, hey, whatever. Well, you

Nestor Aparicio  18:56

were here a couple weeks ago doing a good turn. Talk to me a little bit about your work, certainly about the hip hop museum down in DC, and you being honored and blessed this month with being put into the other side of being famous. To call yourself a Hall of Famer. Um, it really has come a long way to and a lot of things in our lifetime have just as to what was considered to be not cool, not on the right side of things, and now to be honored in different ways, and also to be able to contribute to young people.

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Kwame Holland  19:27

Well, for me, I’m a, I am a, you know, I can’t just call myself a rapper or an artist. I’ve, you know, I’ve done in my career. I’ve done so many things, you know, I’ve I’m a major I’m a producer. I’m a record producer. I produced records for people as like, anywhere from 50 Cent to Will Smith to Christina, Aguilera to Mary J Blige to Jay Z to Fantasia. I’m just looking. That, like platinum, like plaques and stuff on the walls, just I’ve been blessed to have a very long career just in music, but at the same time, I don’t think that you can just do that without giving back in some kind of way. So throughout my career, I’ve always taken the time to either run workshops for youth, run creative like creative music workshops, creative writing workshops, because I believe in in fostering the arts, especially within school age kids, and just doing community outreach, and no stage is too small or too big. So for example, at at Gwen Oak Park, it was a event called nappy day, and it was held by a group of of community business owners, um, and, and they, they set up in Gwen Oak Park. You know, it’s, it’s a community event. People come out, they get to to patronize the businesses at the same time. What was amazing that day? It was torrential raining that day, and by the time I thought the show was going to be canceled, so I’m just sitting in Baltimore, and by the time it was time for me to get on stage, the sun came out. It was hot as hell. It dried up, and I was able to perform sweltering, but I was able to perform at the same time, and it was a cool event. And with the hip hop museum based in DC, um, I’ve I live, it’s weird. I am a very young at heart type of person, as you can see, you got Voltron and transformers and people, Herman and all this kind of stuff I have. My studio is like a Toy Museum. I collect toys. I have a toy company and, and I’m just all about being youth oriented and and, and being as youthful as I possibly can, because that’s just my just how I am as a person. So to be inducted into a museum, I feel like they’re turning me into a relic. But, um, I think it’s cool. I think it’s it’s weird for me because, like I said, I’m, I’m always, I’ve always been on the fringe. I’m not mainstream hip hop. I am not underground hip hop by any means. I’ve always been on the fringe the records that I’ve produced. I’ve produced big pop records. So I’ve been, I’ve been in that space R and B records. I’ve been in that space and rap records and so but it’s never like, you know, I’m never like, that, that, that, that mainstream guy. So to get honored like this, I think it’s just a surreal, surreal moment and and I think it’s very dope. It’s myself, kid in play, the rapper named Dana Dane, a rapper named sweet tea. And so the biggest surreal moment is all of us come from the same musical camp. Some of us come from the same neighborhood in Queens, New York, East Elmhurst, Queens, New York. So to have us all as full adults getting honored at the same time. Is this a real moment? I think it’s very I think it’s a cool thing I’m getting

Nestor Aparicio  23:49

right off the press release here, because Karen set this up. My thanks to Karen, my thanks to Kenny abers. My thanks to Kwame for spending some time with us here. The National Hip Hop museum announces its newest Hall of Fame honorees are going to be kidding play actually met those fellas at a le Steinberg Super Bowl party a couple years ago. Jungle Brothers. DJ Red Alert, Dana, Dane, Juan may sweet tea and DJ Hollywood, the hip hop honors 2025 grand deduction ceremony and concert, because it’s gotta be some music. It’s on the 23rd of the month, Saturday, the 23rd of August, at the wooly mammoth theater. It’s down in DC. You can find out all this information at national Hip Hop museum.org, I’m certainly going to throw out a link, lots of music being played, lots of things going on. The mayor’s coming over, and they’re going to sort of shut the city down a little bit for you guys in DC, this is a newish kind of museum, couple years old, right? And I mentioned Sugar Hill. Give me where you were in life the first time you heard Rapper’s Delight. Or

Kwame Holland  24:47

I can tell you, I can tell you exactly what I was doing, exactly where I was what I was doing. I was six years old. I had a best friend named. Dakar calendar. We were at his mother’s house. We were playing with Star Wars figures, and the radio station in New York was WBLS and rappers. The light came on. It changed my life. Immediately. I wanted to know what that was, who that was and how it got made. That was a turning point in my life that I remember vividly. And from that point, I would call the radio station every day, Rappers Delight Rappers Delight Rappers Delight Rappers Delight to the point where, when I called, they would say, okay, Kwame, we’ve got, we’re gonna play Rapper’s Delight. And that’s when I knew what my calling was. And it’s, it’s so surreal to me, because, like you mentioned, Master G the surreal thing, to make a long story short, when I was in high school, my parents got divorced and I ended up moving to Inglewood New Jersey. And while I was in Inglewood New Jersey is when I made the demo for my first album. I was in the ninth grade, 10th grade, and when I was playing the demo for one of my friends in school. And he was like, I want you to, I want to play this for my mom. I was like, Why do you want to play this song for your mom? Like, what are you talking about? And he was like, um, trust me. So I go to his house, and then when I go to my friend’s house, I’ve known this guy this whole year, I go to his house. It’s a mansion. I’m like, the hell some Fresh Prince of Bel Air stuff. So I go inside the mansion. There’s a butler. I made the whole nine. I’m like, What the hell is this? And then his mom comes down, and his mom is Sylvia Robinson, the founder of Sugar Hill records. And I’m like,

Nestor Aparicio  26:57

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Baby blue with the candy cane on there, the whole deal?

Kwame Holland  27:01

Yeah. I’m like, wait a minute, what? And it was crazy, because when I walked up there was like, a Ferrari. It was a Ferrari in the driveway, but there was no tires on the Ferrari. I was like, Wait, it was a Ferrari, like, on cinder blocks. Um, it was the Magnum PI Ferrari. I’m freaking out. It was a Rolls Royce Butler’s maze. And here comes Sylvia Robinson, and she offered me a contract. That was one of my already had a contract offer from Atlantic Records, but she offered me a contract for Sugar Hill records. So that was a a surreal Turning Point moment for me as a kid. You know what I’m saying? Because these are the people that I’ve listened to and that I grew up on. And here we go full circle, and I get this contract. And I want to mention, because I know we got to go, but I want to mention I do have to

Nestor Aparicio  27:48

go, man, I’m out. I’m gonna get crab cake with you. Man, I owe you. Do you eat crab cakes? I

Kwame Holland  27:54

don’t eat I don’t eat shellfish, but I’ll let you eat it. And I’ll,

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Nestor Aparicio  27:58

I’ll, I’ll have some vegetable crude. I whatever you want, man, I’ll eat

Speaker 1  28:02

buffalo wings. Oh, I’ll get you some chicken. Good. So

Kwame Holland  28:09

my first my I have a new album coming out. The new album is right around the same time as the induction. My new album comes out August 29 so it’s my fifth album is called the different kids. So you know, if, if you haven’t, you know, if you don’t know my pedigree as an artist, you can go back and go on. You can look at all the different albums that I have, but check out the different kids, because it’s like a full circle moment. So I’m getting this induction. I got this new album, new video, all that kind of stuff. So it feels good. I

Nestor Aparicio  28:41

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was the only kid in the neighborhood first. If I grew up in an all white neighborhood, I was Hispanic, but kind of white, and nobody knew what Sugar Hill was. I remember going over to sound waves at East Point mall and asking for it, and they’re like, oh, so we get that from the city. So they got it for me on a 45 and I brought it home. Was the short version. It wasn’t the complete Like, it wasn’t the 12 inch, it wasn’t the it was a radio edit, and so it was missing a verse or two that I didn’t learn till two years later because I didn’t have any access to it. But yeah, and then they came to town, and my neighbor was the guy who worked at the arena, tearing the hockey boards down and putting up concerts and stuff. He snuck me in to see Sugar Hill. And I had to, like, Wait where the workers waited in the locker room all afternoon while they broke the hockey thing down. And then I got to sneak in and watch master G and you know, Grand Master Flash is a part of that. So, like, this is 8182 you were, like, born, right, basically, right. No, 8182

Kwame Holland  29:40

I was, what? Five, seven, yeah. I was, yeah. I was, like, 878,

Nestor Aparicio  29:47

yeah. Well, I It’s amazing. If you didn’t move to Jersey, none of this would have happened for you, right? No,

Kwame Holland  29:53

no, I already had my deals. I just gotta, you know, I had three deals on the table. The Sugar Hill thing in Jersey was like the third. Nestor deal on the table. It was a crappy deal, but that’s why I ended up going with Atlantic Records. But it still was a surreal moment for me to to get that opportunity.

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Nestor Aparicio  30:13

Well, this is a surreal moment for me to have the man who wrote what around here they call the nasty theme song. But I would always say, No, that’s a real song. There’s a there’s a rapper named Kwame. Now, I know I’m pronouncing it wrong, Kwame, and here is the album. And I had no idea that Yarbrough and peoples were a part of that. And before I let you go, I did Google this. You gotta tell me my wife, there’s a couple of songs that when they come on, she loves those, these songs. She’s got three or four of them, whatever they you know the i’ll be sure song, she loves that one, but her, probably her all time favorite song that’s not Bruno Mars would be Belle biv DeVos, poison. When poison comes on, she’s in her lane, like, which, when rappers, the light comes on. I know every word. She thinks it’s funny, like, so I’ll sing it the whole time, no matter where we are. If it’s playing, I’m singing rappers like she’s that way with Bell Biv devone poison. You had a role in that? Yes,

Kwame Holland  31:10

yeah. So I wrote the RAPs to that song, and it was weird because I was in in the a car with Michael Bivens biv and we were going to a club out here in LA and he plays me poison. And he was like, I need raps to this, you know, I haven’t, you know, I haven’t come up with anything. So by the time when we get to the club, I don’t say anything. We get to the club, I hand him a napkin. I’m like, here goes your raps. And it was the you know, and it ended up on the record. So I told him how to say it. He remembered it, and the rest is history. What is the rap? Poison, deadly, moving in slow, looking for a mellow fellow like DeVoe getting paid late, so you better lay low screaming on hard money and the whole show the low crow ho should be cut like an afro. So what you saying? I can’t remember the rest, but Well, Bell

Nestor Aparicio  32:11

Biff DeVoe, now you know, yeah, there you go. Is that good? There you go. Well, there you know the rest of the story and the nasty. Thank you for allowing me to borrow sample steel. We did ask happen at the time I didn’t play, you got to

Kwame Holland  32:26

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bring the song back. Man, bring the song back. Just for for commemorative 35th anniversary.

Nestor Aparicio  32:32

Well, I thank you and thank you for your time. Congratulations. I want everybody to get down to DC, honor you come back to Baltimore, even though you’re not a crab cake guy, I’ll figure something out to be kind Yeah, and salmon,

Kwame Holland  32:44

you know, just give me, like, some salmon, some good vegetables, you know, I’m flexible.

Nestor Aparicio  32:50

You’re fishy. Okay, well, that’s good. We got, we got great rock fish in there. We, you know, we have, we have these invasive catfish that are eating all of the crabs. There’s big, they’re, like, job of the hunt. They’re huge. We need to eat those anyways. If no, no, no, catfish, I’m gonna find some. I’m gonna put work some vegetables and some cereal. Kwame, thank you so much for being a great artist and all the work and showing back up and bubbling back up into my life and being such a great guest out there. Go find his work. Go find the work down in DC as well. It is on August the 23rd they’re putting a whole bunch special people into the hip hop Museum and their hall of fame and the honorees you can find

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Kwame Holland  33:28

out. Make sure, go ahead, make sure you check out the new album, the different kids. The different kids. August 29 the different kids.

Nestor Aparicio  33:35

Alright, man. Well, thank you very much. Take a break. We’re going to get a crab cake. Luke’s covering the ravens, Luke’s covering the Orioles, and I’m covering a little, uh, nasty history here for our 27th anniversary. I gotta change the 26th oyster to a 27 we’re back here right after this. You.