Special Guest: Tyrone Hinds
Intro.
Tyrone is a very unassuming character. I’ve known him for years. His humility belies his knowledge. It was nice to get the opportunity to pick his brain and delve into his past. The conversation was a meaty one, here’s what he told me about a trip he made to New York to meet music’s greats, Lyor Cohen, Jimmy Iovine and eventually Dr Dre, as they bid to sign and work with a certain artist Tyrone had been co-managing at the time. Ms Dynamite.
New York, New York
Okay. So Ms. Dynamite, at the time, was signed to Universal. And as you know, Universal has got other subsidiary labels around the world. And, at the time, they wanted to break Ms. Dynamite in America.
Lucian Grainge from Universal sat me and Desmond down and told us we’ve got two labels that would like to take Ms. Dynamite on. One was Def Jam. That was Lyor Cohen, at the time. And the other was Jimmy Iovine from Interscope.
So we had to have a meeting with both Lyor Cohen and Jimmy Iovine on a certain day. Desmond and I went to go to the meeting. We had to meet Jimmy Iovine first. He was flying in from Los Angeles to New York, because we were staying in New York at the time. So Jimmy came over. We did the meeting. It was fantastic meeting the guy. Nice guy. I didn’t know who he was at the time, but I just knew he was a big player.
The Defiant Ones.
You mentioned the Netflix documentary ‘The Defiant Ones‘. I thought it was a very good program, or should I say ‘Documentary’, sorry. I met Jimmy first before I watched that. So when I met Jimmy first, I saw how he was. And then when I watched the documentary, I saw ‘exactly’ how he was. The connection came through.
It all made sense. I thought to myself, “He ain’t lying.” Yeah, he ain’t lying. That’s how he is. Yeah so, good documentary. Anyway, going back to when he made the meeting about Ms Dynamite. I mean, I won’t discuss everything that was said in the meeting. But it was a very good meeting. Positive. We were happy with them allowing us to have our own free will as far as being creative.
Time Waits For No One.
Lyor Cohen was meant to meet with us meeting that on the same day. Yeah, we were supposed to have two meetings. Unfortunately, he never made it. So our flight was scheduled to go back home the next day. And the next day, I think Kevin Liles, he called, and he said sorry that we missed the Ms Dynamite meeting, and if we could stay an extra day for the meeting with Lyor.
At that time, I told my partner, “If you want to stay, you can. My flight’s booked for this time here. Jimmy Iovine made the meeting. He came all the way from LA to New York. He made it.”
I had to return back. I had other schedules on, and I couldn’t really stay an extra day. So we decided that we were going to leave. The person who made it on that day was Jimmy. That’s who we’re going with. So that’s how it all happened.
When it was time to record the album, Dr. Dre wanted to work with Ms. Dynamite, so they sent for us to come and meet them, for Ms. Dynamite to meet Dr. Dre. That’s how it all happened. And we went to Jimmy’s house. That’s how we all got together. I’m saying it so humbly, but yeah, that’s how it happened.
Dre & Dynamite.
We had a good discussion. And I remember having a conversation with Dr. Dre, or Andre, should I say, about why he liked Ms. Dynamite. And he said that she doesn’t go around the whole block to get a point across. She’s straight to the point.
I thought to myself, Dr Dre… “King of controversial, NWA“, that’s what his whole career was built on! Do you know what I mean? So it makes sense that it resonated with him. Unfortunately, they didn’t get to work together in the end because of nature, Ms. Dynamite fell pregnant, and nature took its course. She was ready to be a mom, so it never happened so to speak. They never recorded together.
But meeting them people was a great experience.
