Rich Younglord
Appearances
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
We were planning to have bigger success on the second album before he passed. I was just lucky that I got to work with him so closely in passing and then that representing and taking the torch for him. That record, I think I'm very proud of that I got to be a part of his story.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
Working with them, Fat Joe, they're cool. Good people, good people, man.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
Wow. You know what? Real estate, just like music, kind of like accident. Before I even go in there, I want to say I'm really thankful that I met this brother by the name of Clarence Avon who passed about a year ago. I was able to build a great relationship with him and kind of talk and get some lessons from him. And one thing I learned from him is that, you know, you can do anything.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
You're not just one mode. You know, you don't have to just do one thing. You don't, you know, because a lot of times as creatives, oh, I'm a producer. You get that kind of role stuck in your head. I'm a producer. No, that's not all you can do. You can do this, you can do that. And what he kind of taught me was to try things He's like, something's going to work.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
Your greatness is in more than one place. You don't know where it's going to do. So you got to try. And it's all good. So that always had me with an open mind for anything. And I was able to become really close with this guy. His name was Oscar Dayes. who I met when I was a teen. He was a manager of this group called the Barrio Boys. It's so funny.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
They were like nothing in the States, but they were like the Jacksons out in Latin America. And what was so revolutionary about him was that he was a black guy, didn't speak any Spanish, and he had a Spanish group he put together. It was successful. So years later, he said, hey, man, you should get into real estate.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
you know you should get into uh flipping houses because you know you have you know you you'll do really well in it and and it goes in one year out the other year uh for the most part I wasn't really thinking about it because I'm in my music zone but then you got Mr. Avon's you know lessons always running through my head so I said oh okay okay so one day I went with him to a closing.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
And on this particular deal, he made $300,000. I'm like, what just happened? He didn't rob nobody. He didn't have to... Like in music, for you to make that money, so many stars have to line up at the same time. And it's totally out of your control. You know what I'm saying? But this, no. It's a little bit more... you can kind of ensure things happen.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
Man, I didn't know it was going to be a part of my journey. You know, when growing up, I remember going to a party. I was probably about 13. My mom had this party and I have a cousin. He went to Harvard Law School and he came back to the party with this girl that he was dating from the law school. She was like up to that point, the most beautiful woman I've ever seen.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
And I'm like, what just happened?
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
You know? So after that, you know, I kept, it's like, you know, going up to his house and like, so he kind of explained to me and what flipping that, the concept of it and the, the way to do it was, I guess, left to your own individual formula to create. But I found that I had, I did in fact have a unique,
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
way to do it because I was in the music business and in the music business a lot of my contemporaries you know some years we make a ton of money and then the next year we might not make the same amount of money but some guys are still spending like the year before you know and that's how you get into financial trouble so hey if you're in trouble I'll let me do a short sale on your house you know what I'm saying and I'll make sure you make some money too
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
and everybody's happy. And then also with music, a lot of guys get divorced. And a lot of times, so one or two things happen when they get divorced. One, they have to sell the house. And then two, The wife gets the house. And in that situation, she's going to need to sell at some point because without the husband, chances are she can't handle the overhead that comes with the house.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
It's just a matter of time. You know what I'm saying? So I was interjecting myself into those situations and became known as a person that could help you in those situations. And that started...
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
me off and running and not just like you know small houses you know like big houses and big divorces and big this you know yeah that started me in a game and then once you know you you uh get comfortable with it show yourself and then I started doing you know three houses at a time and five houses at a time you know once you build a team but it was a lot because I
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
never was the person to pick up a hammer. I didn't know anything about that world. So I felt that that's one way that I can get taken advantage of. So thankfully there were YouTube.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
I would kind of create my scope of work that watch on YouTube, everything that needed to be done so I could communicate clearly with people on what needed to be done, how long it would take, how much it would cost, what materials were needed. And I could tell if somebody was on the point based upon what I see on YouTube. And it took a while until I built my team.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
But once I got that, you know, we were on the pocket, man.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
So in my mind, I was like, I got to go to Harvard Law School. That was my plan. And then when I went to high school, met this girl and I was trying to get her phone number. I was walking her to the bus and after she left, this guy who was like watching me, he came up to me and said, hey man, is that your girlfriend? So I was like, yeah, you know, wishful thinking.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
I think my because is to balance the books. And let me explain that. I feel that in my life, I've been blessed with so much love, support, and teachings. I'm not going to say that, hey, I'm a super smart person, just get this. I've been tutored. I've been mentored. I've been helped so much that allowed me to do these things. There's so many people that poured into me. It's not even funny.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
And so my whole thing of balancing the books is make sure that I'm able to do the same thing, you know, do the same thing for my kids that would, that my parents did for me, which was a lot, do the same thing for random people that have done for me, you know, like it's, um, so much. So man, my life is like, uh, It seemed random at the time. But now hindsight is 20-20.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
I could see that I was moved into certain positions to meet certain people, to get certain things. And when something, let's say, doesn't go right or something like that, I'm never upset about, let's say, if I lose money on trying something on a venture or something like that. It's more of disappointing all the people who pour it into me. That being able to
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
do right with what they gave me, you know? But I'm so blessed with those people. So kind of balancing the books, you know, and in order for me to balance the books, I have to, you know, have the quote unquote success or the resources to do that, you know? So yeah, you know, my parents gave me a great experience as a kid. So I want my children to have the same.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
You know, my parents, you know, when I first made the decision, I wanted to get into the music thing. My parents really were a mess with me because I used to flip flop from idea to idea. But once they saw, once I was able to prove to them that this was it, they came through big time. And by helping me with like, you know, equipment, like, you know, one of, I give you an example.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
I had this one machine, SB-1200, which was amazing. the machine at the time. But it was just one machine. I needed more. So one day my father went in to get a lotto ticket and he came out and I'm like, man, why'd you get that loud ticket? I'm getting a lot of ticket.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
You know, I start hitting him in the head and two of my brothers are with me and they, they joined in and start hitting him in the head too on my behalf. And we hit him in the head so hard that he took me to Sam Ash, which is like the guitar center in New York. And he said, he said, get whatever you need to compete. Don't worry about the price. Get whatever you need to compete.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
And, man, it felt like Christmas, man. It was Christmas. We came home. My mother was like, what the hell? You know what I'm saying? Because, you know, I came with all this stuff, spent all this money. I'm sure it wasn't in their budget. But, you know, him doing that. And then maybe it was like a month later that I got with that boy. And I was able to recoup that.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
But him pouring into my vision, my dream. like that. It's like, so I have to be able to pour into my children's vision. I want to do that. I want to help. I just want to be a resource for people to help so I can balance the books because I'm not, this is not me. Me being here, all of these records is not me at all. I'm telling you, it's a collection of people that have poured into
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
And he said, man, you have great taste. He said, are you into music? And I was like, yeah, sure. And he gave me his card. He said he owned the studio around the corner and I was welcome to come by whenever I want. And I took him up on his offer. And he was a legitimate player in the music business. He was Greg Troutman. He had a partner, Tony Dofat, who was also a prominent producer at the time.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
So I just want to be able to balance the books. That's my whole thing.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
Right. So that just happened as well, you know. So, you know, when Flippin' Houses, of course, I have my music niche, but that, you know, like I'm trying to do multiple deals. So I'm doing all types of marketing. And one of the marketing that worked, one piece of marketing that worked at the time, really good for me was Bandit Signs.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
And I put banded signs near hospitals or just major intersections. And one day I got a call from this woman. And her name is Miss Babette. Her name was Miss Babette. And she was a 75-year-old Jewish woman. And I went and met with her. She wanted to sell her house. And we worked out a great price. We're ready to go. Then I do my little research, and she doesn't own the house.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
And the reason why she doesn't own the house is because it's her mother's house, and her mother had just died maybe four or five months ago at this point. So I was like, okay, well, she had a brother who died. So I'm like, okay, you just have to become the administrator and all that stuff. It seemed like an easy process. I set it up.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
And during this process, instead of it taking a few months, it ended up taking two years, right? Two years. And during this time, this woman would call me and she would ask me to take her to the supermarket, take her different you know, small things, but the deal that we worked out was so good. I'm taking it to the supermarket. It's not a problem. I'm having somebody deliver something.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
It's not a problem. So through that, you know, we got to talk many times and just have good conversations. And one day she called me and she was like, Rich, what, is taking so long. I want to sell this house. She's like, my friend, let's change the name to protect the innocent. Let's say my friend, John doesn't believe me that I'm going to sell the house.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
You know, I keep telling him to sell the house. I was like, your friend, John. So I said, well, let me meet this friend, John. Right. Because it sounded, you know, I asked her a few questions. He's like, He's in his late 50s. She's under my care. You know what I'm saying? Even though we're doing the deal, I'm seeing she doesn't have a lot of family and I'm just hearing this.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
I want to see, make sure that he's not taking care of her. And I met him and you know, they were friends and he was actually, he had a whole family, you know, and she was friends with the whole family, I guess, but she had given them some money or something like that.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
And, you know, when, what I realized is that when the older person's connected with somebody, it's like, you can't, there's nothing that I can necessarily do, but keep an eye out on what's going on and try to make sure everything is is on point. So I would kind of just make sure that I would be involved a little bit more. And that family ended up moving in with her.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
So the process took like two years. And what we found out the problem was is that once she, her mother died, so it was being held up by the nursing home. The nursing home that her mother was in, they wanted their money. They were owed some money. And they didn't believe that they would
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
And Tony was producing Heavy B's Blue Funk album and Mary J. Blige's remix of the 411 album. And I got to sit in those sessions and you know, then I got the bug. Then it was all about music from then. So it was really right timing. There you go.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
if she was the head of the state, that they would get their money because once her mother died, she took out $300,000 from her mother's account. I said, Ms. Betbet, what did you do with this money? She's like, oh, I went on a vacation. I had to buy a few things. I'm like, you know, that money, $300,000 just don't disappear. So I'm thinking maybe she hid it in the walls or something, you know?
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
But maybe she gave it to her friends. We don't know. So once she we got I had to pledge payment. You know, I guaranteed the payment to let her become the administrator. And of course, you know, yeah, I'm buying a house. You know, I'm not, I'll make sure they get the money. So once she becomes administrative, we go into her mom's safety deposit box.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
We find out the mother has like over a million dollars in bonds in the safety deposit box.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
So she's happy since I get them a new place. She moved, the family moves with her. They, Clearly kind of try to take advantage, but there's nothing I can't do except make sure that she has full control and that she's making decisions that she wants to do.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
So the day, no, maybe about a week after I get her the new place, maybe about three days before we're supposed to close on me purchasing the house, she goes into a coma. Right. And she is like, you know, they're like, yo, you know, call the family. You know, she ain't coming back. So I'm, you know, like, oh, because I invested lots of funds.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
But even beyond that, at this point, you know, I've gotten to know this woman. And she's a friend. So, you know, I go to the hospital and, and they're like, you know, highly unlikely she comes out of this. So, but maybe about three weeks after she comes out of the coma, right. Miraculously.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
So I'm like, wow, you know, during this time, the family that she took in, you know, they are trying to become the administrators of the estate to take control of funds and everything like that. And, um, So when she comes back, she's like, you know, I want to sell you the house. You know, she's real like, you know, we're really tight, you know?
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
And we set up to do the closing in the hospital. Our attorneys are going to come to the hospital and everything. And the day before that happened, she goes back into She comes out and I say to her, I say, look, if you're coming back to sell me this house, don't worry about me. I'll be all right. Do what you got to do. Go on whatever path you have to go on. Then the next day, she passed.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
And so what that did was that stopped the friends from getting the estate and I was... And her nieces, yeah, family. And they agreed to honor the contract that she signed. And I still, I was able to purchase the house and they were able to get that money and it was kept in front, you know, within the family. So I said, wow, man, I was amazed. and experience.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
And then, you know, I also started working with another senior from a sign. This is all from bandit signs because seniors are old school. They're not on the Internet anymore. they're not, uh, you know, like that. So if they sell a house, I need to sell a house, you know?
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
So this woman, she was, uh, older and she felt that like one of her tenants was like, you know, taking advantage of her, like maybe. So she had all these problems with the house. The town told her to get out of the house and she wanted to just rid herself of the situation. So, um, I'm looking at everything and I'm like, well, the best way to do it is a short sale.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
But she was an older woman who's proud that she makes all the payments. And I'm like, you can't live here. You can't. So stop making these payments. And I had to get her kids involved because one thing I don't, ever like to work with seniors by themselves. I wouldn't work with children by themselves. I want families to be involved because I'm not going to take advantage of them.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
I want them to know that as well. It's just a family thing. And we were able to get her out of that situation and I took care of all of the liens and all of that stuff and was able to get the house. But a lot of times that happens where to get fines for certain things, violations. They don't understand how to take care of it.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
And then sometimes, you know, the family just, it's time for them to downsize and go to like an assisted living facility or something like that. So a lot of times I would help facilitate that, find a place and do all of that work to get them in a place and then, you know, sell the house and, you know, do all that stuff.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
So I became, I guess, just by accident or by my way of marketing, the old school marketing that I would end up working with a lot of seniors. So I kind of created a system to help them, help them understand what, their level of understanding. And what I mean by that is not that they're stupid or anything, but instead of having everything online, which we do, but have some stuff on paper.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
They need to touch things and have the patience to explain the process and really make moves within their best interest. So I'll give you an example. One lady called me. She wanted to get rid of her house, she had like a lot of stairs. It was like one of them townhouses kind of thing. So it was a bunch of stairs and she felt that she wasn't going to be able to do the stairs for much longer.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
But she had, you know, she was almost done paying it off.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
And, you know, now rents anywhere are just super high.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
And, you know, I was like, look, you have to stay here. let's you know I'll help you shoot I'll even front the cash and you can pay me back monthly to get you one of them elevated things just because there's the money you get from selling this house
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
you know, even if we sell it to somebody from retail in today's rent, it's going to last you, you know, maybe three years, you know, and then you're done. You know, she was like in her late sixties. I'm like, you know, you still have a lot more life to live, you know, and you need to be flexible with what you can do when you need to do it.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
And right now, you know, a mortgage was like a mortgage and maintenance, maybe like,
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
fourteen hundred dollars you're not going to get that anywhere not even in senior housing which is right backed up forever so you know and i just felt like all right you gotta stay here what do you need to do to stay here you know so once i uh you know i said wow man i gotta get you know some information out there to to let them understand because she i understand she wants a place that you know condo she lives
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
Well, I'll say this, you know, Toya's B.I.G. didn't listen to anybody. He knew what he was doing and he did it. You just kind of sat and watched with him, especially when I was around him. But LL Cool J, there's a reason why he's been able to stay consistent and be successful is because he encourages direction. He wants to hear your point of view. He wants to hear what you're thinking to help him.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
elevator, but with that, you can't control the expenses like you can within a home that you have. Sometimes they need to stay. That has become a way for me to find leads that nobody wants to deal with. A lot of people don't have patience. I don't want to take the time to deal with that.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
But it's also become a way for me to then balance the books and help out because that's how I would want to be treated or how I would want my parents treated.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
You got to
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
push it forward so i i'm happy that i'm able to do that and help that community specifically and i'm glad that i don't i'm in a position where you know i'm not uh desperate for dollars where you know i have to take every deal or every situation has to become a deal for me where i can truly put the situation and people first and see what's the best route for everyone involved
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
Well, thanks for having me. And for all the people that listen to your show that are in the beginning of their flipping career, are in the middle. I just want to tell you that referrals are real. So always treat people good. Always do the best thing in a situation because even if the deal can't work and you do what's best for the seller's situation, they will spread the word.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
Because everybody knows somebody that's in trouble. And a personal referral is 100 times more powerful than any letter you can send or any type of advertising that you can have. That is something else. It guarantees deals. Literally. So I would say at the beginning of your flipping career, look around. at how you can help more people and the deals will come, period.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
Oh, man, you can definitely find me on Instagram at Rich Younglord, I mean, at Instagram or, you know, Facebook. But also you can check out likeagenius.com, you know, where... I kind of give a bunch of tips for flipping and stuff like that. And if you have seniors that need any help for any reason, you can email me directly at rich at like a genius dot IO. And so hit me up.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
And if there's any way I can help any of you guys move forward, be successful, you know, please, please give me more opportunities to help them balance the books.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
And I think that's what allowed him to have
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
success in so many different decades is he's he welcomes that production you know and I really appreciated that with him and he actually taught me so many skills that allowed me to not only produce other great people but deal with people in life period you know he man I'm so thankful for my time with him and it was oh man it was just such a great experience and then another really cool thing is early on I got to meet Babyface
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
And I got to sit in a bunch of his sessions when he did his New York sessions for the Waiting to Exhale soundtrack. I got to sit in his sessions and watch how he communicated with the artists. So you see somebody like Diddy who's always screaming at people, yelling at people. Babyface is very quiet. He's very cool. But don't let that fool you because the power is still the power.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
So he'll be calm and he'll whip you. you wouldn't even know you whipped, you know, but he didn't raise his voice, but it, he got the message across and I loved it. And I think that, that I kind of went that direction, you know,
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
All right, so let's start with LL. So we were working on some songs, and this one song we wanted Casey and JoJo to sing the hook on. And, you know, they were hot as fish grease at this time.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
And they came in the studio, and I couldn't give them direction. They would not take direction from me. You know, I would say, hey, I want it done this way. And they wanted to do it a whole different way. And they came in, intoxicated the total, like,
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
worst scenario that you can imagine and ll could see that i was drowning you know so he put me to the side he's like look i'm gonna show you how to deal with situations like this he's like you know so he was like you know sometimes you gotta let people express themselves hear them out give them a little bit of what they want and have them give you a little bit of what
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
you want and go back and forth until you get everything that you want and then scrap what they want, you know? And, you know, once I had that kind of blueprint, it allowed me to do that. And not only with just them, but anybody else who was really like, stuck in their opinions. A lot of times rappers welcomed direction.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
Artists period because they don't want to be in there alone and a lot of times as focused as they are as successful as they are these guys have some insecurity sometimes, so they want to be assured. So you got to create that atmosphere where they can totally give you the best that they can.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
Well, I'll say this, you know, Toya's B.I.G. didn't listen to anybody. He knew what he was doing and he did it. What's one of the projects you're most proud of? I can't give you one record, but one thing I'm super proud of is growing up.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
And I learned all of that from LL Cool J. Now, Babyface, which was real cool, and you're right, he is one of the most just influential R&B writers, producers that ever existed. And I got to meet many of But what was real cool with him is just his focus and his ability to get what he wanted. And how I met him was in 1995, I was kind of supervising a Faith Evans session
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
at this place called the Hit Factory. And at this, this was a big studio, you know, so at any given time you have a whole bunch of people working through. And at that point you could kind of like knock on the doors and meet people. And he came into the faith session just to say hello. And I didn't know him, but he's baby face.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
So I'm bugging out and I'm like, Hey, you know, I say, I can't think of that. So I'm like, do you teach? You know, he's like, teach, you know? So I just got to start the conversation. So I asked him if I could take him to lunch. And he was like, you know what? Sure. He said, meet me at the studio at noon. So I was there and he didn't come until about four.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
But I was still there waiting because I knew he had to come in. Sometimes, I'm sure you meet a gazillion people. So when he came in, he was like, surprised, but he allowed me to sit in the sessions. And I got to witness him produce Mary J. Blige's I'm Not Gonna Cry, Let It Flow with Toni Braxton, the song he did for Faith. I don't remember the title, but a bunch of phenomenal, great sessions.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
And what I got to see is, and I copied this whole formula from then on, as far as like the the way he ran things, but he would do all the backgrounds. And then what he would do is he would let the singer, their interpretation about three times, the whole song. And then he would break down certain things that he wanted and do about another five takes of what he wanted.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
Then he would comp the vocals to get each line the way he wanted.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
and that was the first time I saw that you know I was like oh my gosh that's so cool because we at Bad Boy didn't do stuff like that and it was great so I kind of got to understand you know first you need to do all the background vocals to have it there do that on a whole separate day so when they come in and do the leads it's just fresh for them you know and then give them direction but let them express themselves and then you come back and hone in on what exactly you want and
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
Referrals are real. So always treat people good. Always do the best thing in a situation.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
How that helped me is when I started really doing vocals, and I've never been a master vocal producer, but I was able to camouflage that by just letting them do some really cool things and then becoming a monster comp artist as far as like, you know, tweaking it. And then thankfully technology changed with Pro Tools and all that stuff. So it made it easier to do so.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
You know, stuff was a little late. I could move it back. I could really get it the way I hear it in my head. But that comes from faith. So I'm so thankful for that experience.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
I think that one thing when I look at my production career, I think it's funny. When I first got with Bad Boy, he didn't like my music, right? He liked the fact that I made it into the office and I was so young. He said, you know what, you're just like idolizing the wrong people. Because at that time, when I got in, it was like Pete Rock and the whole East Coast thing.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
And he had a different vision. So I think that as I got to sit in those things, my vision kind of became that. So I think my sound was heavily influenced in what he was doing, what we were doing at Bad Boy as a company. It had a distinct sound as far as the drums we would use, all that. placements of the percussions and samples sampled heavy.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
And then I think I grew into not using samples because it just became very expensive. And, um, but I think my sound overall on the hip hop side, the songs that would, I would say would represent my sound is a big pun. I did a song called you ain't a killer. That was his first record, uh, But I loved it because it was like an East Coast mix with some West Coast vibes. And it was hard.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
So I really loved that kind of vibe. And then there's a song that I did for New Edition called Love Again. It was on the Home Again album. This song was not successful at all. But I felt like there's certain songs when God is in the room with When you could just feel that energy. And I felt like that was one of those songs. And they were like one of my favorite groups.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
And I'm like, wow, I got to work with them. So that was cool. But outside of that, there was a record, Come To Me. That was the first single on Diddy's press play album. That was, the sound of it was amazing.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
was great it was like sonically you know it was like you talk about Dre his his mixes were always great and I think that that record right there will be one that you can always play forever because it was Sonics yeah yeah man but I I'm so thankful to have that experience that uh that creative energy is like um you know being a part of a great song is one of those feelings that like
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
It's like my children being born, like how I would feel, you know what I'm saying? Like how I felt when they were born. It's just one of those great feelings whenever I hear it on the radio. When you first do it, it's just a great feeling.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
I'm so thankful I got to have a lot of those feelings.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
Yeah, yeah. Project that I'm proud of. I'm proud of, I would say all of them, but I think the, I have to say, I mean, I guess I can't give you one record, but one thing I'm super proud of is growing up Like, even before I thought of doing music, you know, I'm from New York, the Bronx. Molly Mall was like an idol, you know what I'm saying? You know, I got to look up to him, RZA, all those guys.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
And I got to work with a lot of their artists, you know, like Master Ace. I got to work with, you know, LL. I got to work with Poojie Rap. And those experiences were were real cool. But I think one of the records I'm super excited about is actually a record that's about to come out next year. It's a record for Ghostface Killer.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
And it's weird because I stopped like creating full time, you know, some time now. But it's a record that I knew was for him and I sent it to him like maybe eight years ago. And then he, you know, I got a call like, you know, a few months back, like, yeah, he's ready to do it. I'm like, what? So I think that is real cool.
Mick Unplugged
Rich Younglord | Bridging Music and Real Estate: Insights from Rich Younglord
Whenever that is released, it's going to be on this new album that it's, I just like the experience of connecting with the artists and working with, let me say it's so hard. Big puns. First single off the second album. That was one record that was, really connected to because he was a friend and we had success together on his first album.