W e are J u st Written by Liz OneLove As he checked in to his hotel on the way to a studio meeting, Rico Crowder made time to chat about old school stories and his band’s unique sound. His enthusiasm for music shined through the whole conversation as we talked about everything from Master P to Marvin Gaye, and what’s next for Sons of Funk. L : Tell me about how Sons of Funk was born and about Master P. Q & A with Sons of Funk ’ s Ri c o Crowder
L : What happened next? R : So fast forward we get to deal with P, we get all this money right. He gave us all a hundred thousand dollars apiece and I’m just like, I’ve never seen that much money in my whole entire life. P said, “I want you guys to come to L.A. and I want you to do the song I Miss My Homies.” So we boarded a plane. We’ve got to L.A. and we started doing I Miss My Homies. It turned out R : I always attribute myself to being like Forrest Gump. You know, it’s like I always ended up in these wonderful situations. When I was 13, I got my first record deal with Motown. I just happened to look out and this guy was playing the guitar across the street from my house in the park.I went over there and was like “Hey, man, can I play the guitar?” He’s like, “sure” and then “hey, you play pretty good for a little young guy.” I said I got a song I recorded...so I played it for him. I had a little cassette player and he was like, “is this really you? Hey, man, go home. I’m going to have Anna Gordy, Marvin Gaye’s wife, call you and get you a deal with Motown. And it actually happened. And the guy was Anthony Carmichael, the guy who actually produced Lionel Richie. He just happened to have some family that lived in my neighborhood. to be a really, really big record for all of us. L : Did you always want to be in music?
R : Sons of Funk is a group we all started from Richmond, California, and that’s where I met Master P. We were at a barbershop. I walked in and I saw, picture it- this guy and these other guys and they had these gold teeth. I was like, wow, who are these kids? So about five minutes later, Master P walks in. And he walks in and he has this bigger than life personality. He’s extremely hilarious, he really could have been a comedian because he’s this funny. So he had everybody laughing. He said (to me) ‘I saw you the other day at the Black Family Day in Sacramento. And you guys had everybody going crazy, like, man’. I said, thank you. He said, Hey man, if ever you make it, can you help me? And if ever I make it, I’ll help you. Now, at this point in time, I was as broke as the glass on the concrete and I was like, “Yo, I help you, brother.” And he said, “OK, I help you.” So he started really doing a lot of things. He started learning how to really market records and everything and looked around. He had a record deal.
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