Static was the kind of person where I was like, 'Okay, let me just bring him out by himself.' Even though he was in a group, he had maybe the most swagger out of my camp. He was the kind of person that just stuck out in the group. Even though I didn’t meet him first, he was like the key to the group. That’s why I did the video and put him in it.
HIGHER LEARNING
After Static dropped out of school, he kept singing in Playa with Smokey and Black. Smokey’s mother had an in with Jodeci, and the group wound up backstage at a Louisville concert in 1991. There they met the man who would change their destiny.
BLACK: The first dude I saw was Dalvin [DeGrate]. I was like, “Can we sing for you?” And he was like, “Let me get DeVante.” The first thing we sung was a Boyz II Men song, and DeVante was like, “Y’all don’t know no Jodeci songs?” So we sung “Stay.” He gave us his pager number.
DEVANTE SWING (producer/founder, Jodeci): They called me every day.
SMOKEY:And try our best not to blow this nigga up.
BARNETT: Static looked at DeVante as a genius, and Jodeci was at the peak of their career.
LIL D (manager): If you look at pictures of Static back in the day, his whole style, hairdo, swag, was all DeVante. Static loved DeVante. [There’s] an old video when Static first got started, and DeVante was calling him on the phone and telling him that he’d just let Suge [Knight] hear they music. So Static called Black and Smokey into the room, and said, “Hey, come here, check this out! Suge like our music!”
SMOKEY:There were times when me and Static would be on three-way with DeVante for hours, just listening to each other breathe.
DEVANTE: They were all young. Like 16, 17.
SMOKEY: [DeVante] didn’t have a problem with that. He would just sit on the phone, looking at a movie, or whatever the hell he was doing, and we’d just be sitting on the damn phone for hours.
ANDREWS: Static told me what he learned is that DeVante had more money than K-Ci and JoJo—but DeVante don’t sing. That’s when he realized that songwriting makes the most money.
BARNETT: After six or seven months, Static is still near U of L just living. He called DeVante and said, “I got to get away from here.” He was... lost. So DeVante flew Static out.
DEVANTE: I ended up moving them into my house in Jersey.
BLACK: That’s where we met Missy, Timbaland, Ginuwine, Magoo...
DEVANTE: All these muthafuckas. And they all met Static. The only people who didn’t meet through me were Missy and Timbaland.
MISSY ELLIOTT (rapper/songwriter/producer): When I first met Static, I thought he was a cutie. He had this lil’ swagger about him. There was this dance he would do called the “Louisville Slugger.” He stayed brushing his waves! He kept a toothpick in his mouth.
ANDREWS: DeVante gave them all their [stage] names.
RAYMOND: Next thing you know, [they] were out on the road with Jodeci.
ANDREWS: He said he would sleep on the floor. Boxes were everywhere; he would just sleep on cardboard. [When] DeVante went out of town there would be like six people lying in DeVante’s bed.
SWADE: Every time Static came home, he would come to church. You could tell they were up there starving.
ANDREWS: I remember him asking me for like $30…that's where Ramen Noodles came in. He had a bunch of ways to make Ramen Noodles. He would never tell his mother how bad it really was.
RAYMOND: But I knew that they didn’t have a lot of times. I remember one time I sent him some money after I had got some income tax back and he said, “Man, that money came right on time, we haven’t ate for two days!”
BLACK: Some days we didn’t eat a thing...but water. You can’t eat water, but we tried.
GINUWINE (singer): Playa was one of DeVante’s favorites.
ANDREWS: [Static] was DeVante's favorite. When DeVante went to meet somebody big, he would always take just him.
DEVANTE: Static is one of my favorite people. He was a real dude; he wasn’t a punk type of dude. If Static didn’t like something he’d just straight up tell you, “Naw, I don’t feel that dog, naw dog.” But at the end of the day you wanted to be around him because he had so much energy. All the way around he was inspiring.
BARNETT: That's why Static was on the single “Gin and Juice” with DeVante, off the Dangerous Minds soundtrack.
BLACK: I think DeVante shot that whole video with his own money and everything.
DEVANTE: That was fun with Static. Static was the kind of person where I was like, “Okay, let me just bring him out by himself.” Even though he was in a group, he had maybe the most swagger out of my camp. He was the kind of person that just stuck out in the group. Even though I didn’t meet him first, he was like the key to the group. That’s why I did the video and put him in it.
BARNETT: DeVante saw Static as what Snoop is right now: somebody who can rap with melodies.
DEVANTE: And I told him, “Static, you should just start rhyming instead of singing,” and he started rapping. For him to be a singer he was writing raps, and it was crazy.
MISSY ELLIOTT: By the time I heard Static sing and rap, I was his number one fan.
DEVANTE: Static was a real dude; wasn’t a punk. If Static didn’t like something, he’d tell you.... You wanted to be around him because he had so much energy. He had maybe the most swagger out of my camp. He was the kind of person that just stuck out in the group.
SMOKEY: We moved to Rochester, N.Y., in September 1994. This is when the writing begins.
JIMMY DOUGLASS (mixer, producer): Static was part of the production team that DeVante put in place. I think he was only 19 at that time. DeVante had everybody writing. And he set up this competitive “the best of the best would rise” [thing]. He made everybody work hard.
BLACK: That’s where Da Bassment was formed.
SMOKEY: DeVante was busy working on The Show, The After-Party, The Hotel. Most of the music we did was with Timbaland.
TIMBALAND (producer/rapper): Static was a humble, nice guy—creative and talented. I always knew he was going to be big because he worked hard.
GINUWINE: First thing I did with Static was “Pony.” Timbaland was supposed to use that for an interlude. I was like, Are you crazy? That’s a smash! We went line for line on the verses: Once he did the hook, I was like, Oh my God!
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