Ep 190: Dance, DJ Nights, Reggae Parties and a Poetic Odeyssey ft Cav Manning

Cav Manning [00:00:00]:
There's a familiar story there from from anybody who was a kid at that time, seeing these parties in Caribbean neighborhoods, listening to reggae music for the first time and running in and out of your uncle's and auntie's legs, trying to get to the chicken. You know? Someone gives you a little a little gives you a little alcohol that you shouldn't have had.

Raphael Harry [00:00:32]:
Yeah. You know?

Cav Manning [00:00:33]:
You're a little you're a little tipsy. They find you they find you asleep in a corner somewhere with a chicken bone in your mouth.

Raphael Harry [00:00:56]:
Hey everybody. Rafael Harry here. You are listening to White Label American. On this show, we dive into unique and diverse origin stories from immigrants and allies. Join us weekly as we break barriers, connect the past with the present and peek into the future. Welcome to another episode of White Label American. Thanks for sticking with us from day 1 to year 6 of this podcast. I'm your host, Rafael Harry.

Raphael Harry [00:01:25]:
And it's always a pleasure to bring you each episode of this podcast. If you are new here, welcome. Stay a while and invite your friends, even your enemies. You know, we accept you know, just don't tell them, you know, you you know how to figure it out. But you can invite everybody and your loved ones. If you have a secret family, invite them, you know. I ain't judging you. There's always room for more listeners.

Raphael Harry [00:01:50]:
We'd love to hear from you. So stay tuned for how to get in touch. Your support means the world to us. So I'm honored to have a legend. Yeah. This is a legend that we have in the studio today. And this episode is gonna take us through a lot of storytelling, and we're gonna be going across the ocean to, a country that, you know and when when those of you who know me through sports, through the soccer world, you know that, I don't support the country that we're gonna go to today. But outside of that, when it comes to movies, one of my favorite of all time comes from our same country.

Raphael Harry [00:02:31]:
So, you know, that's how, you know, I'm a complicated human being, which is, you know, that's how you know I'm human. I'm an AI. Right? So with that being said, I have the huge honor of talking to a storyteller today. He's, appeared in music videos tied to some of, you know, some greats out there and, you know, from soul to soul, damn. What's the name again? Roots, Roy Ayers, MC guru, Beyond. Man, he he's he's interacted with a bunch of people. He's DJed. He's written.

Raphael Harry [00:03:12]:
He's, man. He he dances. So while we get to the question of that involves dancing, you you know, that's like, we we already solved that equation. So I have the pleasure and honor of having Kev Manning in

Cav Manning [00:03:29]:
the studio today. How are you doing, my brother? I am doing pretty well, Rafael. Pretty well indeed, sir. I'm a I'm a little bit stressed because I'm trying to find a place to live, as I told you. Yeah. But, apart from that, there's, you know, it's good. But, you know, you know how stressful trying to find a new place can be.

Raphael Harry [00:03:50]:
Yes. I I can relate to that, especially in New York City. And, hopefully, you know, I'll put word out there. And, you know, by the time I put this recording out, hopefully, we would have, we would have gotten some good news on that front. Yeah.

Cav Manning [00:04:04]:
Boom. So wait. What was the film?

Raphael Harry [00:04:09]:
Oh, it was double 0 7.

Cav Manning [00:04:11]:
Oh, which one? Man, I What's your favorite? Who's your favorite Bond?

Raphael Harry [00:04:16]:
I gotta go recency bias, Daniel Craig.

Cav Manning [00:04:19]:
Daniel Craig. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

Raphael Harry [00:04:21]:
Alright. Alright. At first, I didn't I didn't like him when he was cast. I was like, oh, they got a blond dude. And then, you know, when I saw Casino Royale, I was like, man.

Cav Manning [00:04:32]:
He proved himself.

Raphael Harry [00:04:33]:
Man, that opening that opening scene, that was it. That was so they got me. They got me with that. Just the opening scene of Casino Royale.

Cav Manning [00:04:41]:
Good punch. Yeah. He was a good punch.

Raphael Harry [00:04:44]:
And rest in peace, you know, that bond. Because that first bond, I said, oh, no. They got it. We he he did. But, you know, hearing him talk about the character afterward, I was like, yeah. You know? It made sense. You know? You you was born for the modern times. And, he brought changes that are going forward, I think they will make that adaptation that he wanted to the character now.

Raphael Harry [00:05:10]:
I love seeing that.

Cav Manning [00:05:11]:
Yeah. I mean, you know, it was great to see, the evolution of Bonds.

Raphael Harry [00:05:18]:
Oh, yeah.

Cav Manning [00:05:19]:
You know, I think he he he encapsulated the evolution more than anybody else. But About Sean Connery.

Raphael Harry [00:05:27]:
Brought me into the game. My favorite bond is

Cav Manning [00:05:29]:
Sean Connery. You know what I mean? Like, I can't I can't lie. Sean's still, like, Sean is still my favorite. He's still the smoothest to me.

Raphael Harry [00:05:39]:
Yeah. I I there's a I think there's a universe out there where I got it right with mimicking Sean Connery's accent. Because when I saw his movies, I was like, I want to sound like this man. I wanna speak like him. That was it. But, with time, I I will lose that. I will lose interest in achieving that goal. But I just as soon as I had him speak up, like, ah, this is it.

Raphael Harry [00:06:04]:
I wanna sound like James Bond. Mhmm. Then I would see, oh, wait. There's another Bond? Wait. There's a different person playing Bond? Wait a minute. Sean Curry? Wait. I thought it was Sean Curry that was born forever. I never realized as a kid then that, you know, actors get old.

Raphael Harry [00:06:17]:
Yeah. And then he cast the promo. Well, yeah, I was like, oh, man. So at first, I was like, oh, I didn't realize that they had tapes in the house of multiple Bond movies. I can't remember which one was the first that I saw, but all I knew was Sean Connery. I said, I want to sound like him. Yeah. And then, Roger Moore.

Raphael Harry [00:06:36]:
I saw Roger Moore's movie. I was like, wait. He don't look like Sean Connery. What? What? What what happened here? Oh, man. Yeah. That was my introduction to being recast.

Cav Manning [00:06:46]:
There was a big change between Connery and, Moore.

Raphael Harry [00:06:53]:
Yeah. Well, we've given I think we've it's been the cut's out of the bag now. People already know where we're talking about. So with that being said, can you introduce the audience to your place of birth and what childhood was like for young Kev? Well, I,

Cav Manning [00:07:12]:
I was born in London, in North London, a place called Tottenham. Tottenham, not Tottenham Court Road. Everyone gets that confused. What's

Raphael Harry [00:07:22]:
the difference?

Cav Manning [00:07:23]:
Tottenham Court Road is in Central London

Raphael Harry [00:07:25]:
Okay.

Cav Manning [00:07:25]:
Or the West End as we refer to it. And Tottenham is a borough that's far out. It's that kind of place where at the end of the night, if you party in Central London, at the end of the night, when people are getting lifts home, nobody wants to give you a lift home to to Tottenham Oh. Because it's too far. Yeah. You know what I mean? They'll give you a lift part of the way, but not all the way.

Raphael Harry [00:07:50]:
You know?

Cav Manning [00:07:52]:
So, yeah, I grew up in Tottenham, working class. It was a working class neighborhood, very mixed. Mhmm. Caribbean, strongly Caribbean, and white and working class, and, discovered a love of music through my brother, discovered a love of the stage through school. And eventually, I started to go to clubs, as while I was at school. And at school, I was doing drama. I was doing plays and, getting lead roles and stuff like that. From what age? Oh, from about, my first play, I think I was around 8, at Saint Paul's and All Hallows in Tottenham.

Raphael Harry [00:08:50]:
Okay.

Cav Manning [00:08:51]:
After that, I I went to Saint David and Saint Catherine's in Hornsey, and that was, like, a different planet from Tottenham. You know, Tottenham was very working class and down to Earth, and Hornsley was a little bit more middle class. Oh. You know? Yeah. So got introduced to a whole other, demographic of of children. You know? So trying to sort of integrate where I was coming from and find that common ground was interesting. But at school, yeah, at school, I I went into drama. And as I got older in school, I discovered clubs.

Cav Manning [00:09:41]:
I started to go to clubs and would dance at clubs. At the same time, I'd be sneaking into my brother's bedroom and listening to his records Oh. And praying to god that I didn't scratch them.

Raphael Harry [00:09:57]:
You know what I mean? If I scratch

Cav Manning [00:09:59]:
one of his records, that's a time bomb. That's a time bomb that's waiting to go off.

Raphael Harry [00:10:04]:
You know what I mean?

Cav Manning [00:10:06]:
Yeah. I still remember the terror, bro.

Raphael Harry [00:10:10]:
That's tough. I still You know what? I I fear, but I still had to listen. Yeah. I've forgotten about that terror of listening to records and not scratching them. Mhmm. You know, because the CD did something and kind of replaced that. And so it's like, oh, all the CDs that you you think, oh, yeah. I didn't wanna scratch a CD, and then I forgot about it.

Raphael Harry [00:10:35]:
Yeah. You know, I did not want to scratch vinyl because you play them and you oops. Exactly. Did I scratch? Oh, that like, if something happened, there was nobody in the house, and you silently put it back, then push it into the middle of the pack. You know? Yeah. Act like nobody and then, oops. And I'm gonna read my book right now and all that kind of stuff.

Cav Manning [00:10:55]:
Exactly. It's like not only not only are you, like, Scratchy brother's record, but I I was in his room. I wasn't even supposed to be in his room. You know what I mean? You know? So the crimes just pile up. Multiple indictments. Yes.

Raphael Harry [00:11:18]:
You know?

Cav Manning [00:11:20]:
So, yeah, put the music with the dancing and started to go to clubs. I was taken to clubs actually by, like, there's a group of older kids, mixture of black and Greek kids. Wow. And, because blacks and Greeks used to hang together Mhmm. Back in back, you know, back in the day. And, there were a lot of Greek kids in the neighborhood, families. And so they took me to my 1st nightclub. You know what I mean?

Raphael Harry [00:11:56]:
Okay. Who who come who come back to that?

Cav Manning [00:11:58]:
No. Not my first not my first nightclub, but the first time I went out Yeah. With, like, some older guys. You know what I mean? My dad owned a nightclub. So I was in there, you know

Raphael Harry [00:12:08]:
Okay. Plot twist.

Cav Manning [00:12:09]:
Yeah. Plot twist.

Raphael Harry [00:12:14]:
Okay. We'll we'll come back to that. We'll come back to that. But Yeah. Staying with your childhood

Cav Manning [00:12:19]:
Yes.

Raphael Harry [00:12:20]:
Going back to the very beginning Yes. What's the meaning of your name or your names? And is there a story behind how you came to have those names?

Cav Manning [00:12:35]:
Well, no. I don't really know I don't really know where my parents got the idea to name me Caven, c a v e n. Okay. You know? From what I can find about the the sort of lineage of the name, it, it comes from islands. Ah. Comes from islands. The meaning of the name Kevin, it means handsome one.

Raphael Harry [00:13:06]:
Well, bitch.

Cav Manning [00:13:07]:
Yeah. I mean, hey, man. Could have been worse.

Raphael Harry [00:13:09]:
You know what I mean? Could have been ugly one.

Cav Manning [00:13:16]:
Yeah. Could have been alright one. Yeah. I mean, that's as far as I I know about really, that's as far as now I know about my my my first name, Kevin. I know that there's a, a town in Ireland called Cavavan, c a v a n Okay. Instead of e n, which is what I am. But, yeah, I mean, my parents are both from Jamaica. They left Jamaica in the sixties and came to the UK.

Cav Manning [00:13:56]:
My my father was like a race car driver Oh. In Jamaica. Stacked up his money and came to the UK, because the UK will offer him many opportunities.

Raphael Harry [00:14:11]:
Oh, yeah. What what what's that what's that group called again?

Cav Manning [00:14:14]:
Windrush Generation. Yeah. Windrush Generation. Offering many opportune work opportunities and stuff and, you know, come to come to England. The streets are paved with gold and Yeah. You know, that whole craziness. Mhmm. And, they got to find that the streets were paved in concrete like everywhere else.

Cav Manning [00:14:33]:
Oof. You know? And the reception wasn't so warm No. For them. No. You know? They were detested. I mean, this cycle has happened too many times throughout history.

Raphael Harry [00:14:49]:
That's right.

Cav Manning [00:14:50]:
You know? The latest people the latest people to arrive, they're hated. Mhmm. The latest people to arrive are gonna take all your jobs. Yeah. You know, the latest people to arrive are, you know, they're a threat.

Raphael Harry [00:15:06]:
That's true. And it's it's

Cav Manning [00:15:09]:
It perpetuates and perpetuates and perpetuates. And here we are still talking the same stuff.

Raphael Harry [00:15:14]:
Same stuff.

Cav Manning [00:15:16]:
You know? But, anyway, my parents my parents came to England in the sixties. My dad set up a construction company, and, my mom worked as well, and she ran the household. You know, they were making inroads. Very determined. My dad did really well, And, eventually, he bought a property and had a club in the basement and a hairdressers on the ground floor and a restaurant on the floor above that. You know? Yeah. Straight entrepreneur. So in my youth, in my early teens, I'd go to the club.

Cav Manning [00:16:07]:
It's called the 777 Wow. In in in Hackney, Stoke Newington.

Raphael Harry [00:16:15]:
That sounds familiar.

Cav Manning [00:16:16]:
Yeah. It's around for quite a long time. A lot of people know it. You know? I'm always surprised when people were like, the 777 was your dad's. You know? Because they used to hang out. It's like one of their first places

Raphael Harry [00:16:30]:
Wow.

Cav Manning [00:16:30]:
That they went to too Yeah. As well. You know? But, yeah, I used to sort of pick up glasses in there and entertain people. You know, I was just there. I'd entertain people, you know, at my little dance routines

Raphael Harry [00:16:44]:
and

Cav Manning [00:16:45]:
stuff like that. And I and before the DJ would come, I'd DJ. I put records on, you know, until my dad chased me off.

Raphael Harry [00:17:01]:
Oh, man. Yeah.

Cav Manning [00:17:04]:
So Starts with the beginnings, man. And

Raphael Harry [00:17:06]:
My next question still tied to childhood, but, I have a feeling that you might have already answered this question. However, I still have to ask it. So sticking with childhood and I will limit you to, let's see, age 13. So from baby to age 13. At this moment, what would you consider your favorite childhood memory to be? Oh,

Cav Manning [00:17:42]:
honestly, maybe Christmas. Why? I used to love Christmas in our house. You know, my mom would go all out. Like, the house would be so, vibrant. You know? The foods, you know, the the fact that everybody would be there. The whole family would would gather. And, I just remember it being a really happy, happy time. You know? The smells coming from the kitchen.

Cav Manning [00:18:27]:
You know? Yeah. I just remember being happy. I was those times being very happy and, feeling blessed. Feeling blessed. That's the one that that's that's some of the strongest memories for me. Helping my mom cook all these things, you know, and spending so much time in the kitchen with her and being excited for what I knew, the feast that I knew that was coming. You know? Yeah. Yeah.

Cav Manning [00:19:02]:
Yeah. So 13. What else? Maybe, my first heartbreak. Wow. I think my first heartbreak was in there in that in that situation. The first time I fell in love with a girl and was heartbroken. That's definitely in there. That was major.

Raphael Harry [00:19:23]:
K. That's the first on the podcast.

Cav Manning [00:19:27]:
That was major for me.

Raphael Harry [00:19:28]:
Yeah. I like that you you you put that in there because, yeah, I don't think anybody has come up with the, with the first time they they fell in love and heartbreak being favorite. So why would you have that as a favorite memory?

Cav Manning [00:19:45]:
Because, yes, there was heartbreak, but there was all this all the sort of feelings of joy No. Bliss Yeah. And happiness and that kind of rush of love, you know what I mean, that I hadn't experienced before. You know? Overwhelming overwhelming feeling, which was followed by the exact opposite. You know? Just as powerful, but, all on the other side of the scale. Yeah. You know? I I okay. So I fell in love with this this girl at school, this Greek girl.

Cav Manning [00:20:34]:
Right? And, and she didn't know anything about it. And one day, I was like, I'm gonna I think I'm gonna write her a poem and express my feelings. You know? So I wrote this poem. Took me ages to write it. You know what I mean? And then the day came. It's, like, the day came. 0 0 hour.

Raphael Harry [00:21:02]:
You know

Cav Manning [00:21:02]:
what I mean? It's time to sort of give it to her. Yeah. So I you know, through the through the, classroom telegraph, the note got passed. You know what I mean? And ended up on her desk. And I I was like it was torture, man. Like, at the corner of my eyes, sort of, like, seeing what's going on now. She's got it. Oh my god.

Cav Manning [00:21:28]:
She's got it. Is she gonna read it now? Is she

Raphael Harry [00:21:30]:
gonna read later?

Cav Manning [00:21:31]:
My god. She's reading it now. Now?

Raphael Harry [00:21:33]:
Why are you reading it now? Don't read it now. She's opening it. Oh my gosh. She's opening it. She's reading it. Oh, man. That's She's

Cav Manning [00:21:45]:
reading it. She's reading it. And then she smiled. You know? That's a good sign. That was I was like, that's a good that

Raphael Harry [00:21:52]:
was a good sign. A good sign.

Cav Manning [00:21:53]:
She's smiling. She's smiling. You know? And then she looked over. Hey. And I was like, I think that I think that maybe

Raphael Harry [00:22:05]:
that was a success. Yeah.

Cav Manning [00:22:07]:
I mean, I

Raphael Harry [00:22:07]:
was thinking I I wanna get I wanna get ahead of myself.

Cav Manning [00:22:10]:
For the world. I wanna get ahead

Raphael Harry [00:22:11]:
of myself, but it looks like I might end.

Cav Manning [00:22:14]:
I'm like, bad bad one. So she was very taken by the poem, and, that was that put a couple seeds in my mind. 1, do not underestimate the power of words. Mhmm. Alright? I became very I fell in love with words at the same time. Wow. You know? I'd always been sort of, like, love to read and stuff and but I was like, okay. I didn't you know, I I wasn't a confident some kind of confident, you know, dude at school jock.

Cav Manning [00:22:58]:
Yeah. You know? No. I wasn't that. I was, you know, chubby and funny guy, you know, but not I wasn't a magnet for the attention of girls at all. You know? So this was I was really taking a risk here. You know?

Raphael Harry [00:23:18]:
Yeah. I I can see that. Well, not not your appearance, but the the reaction because, yeah, that that I'm just I'm recalling the first time I ever wrote something to a girl. And I'm also remembering when a friend had me deliver his his letter to a girl. But he plagiarized, who sang the song? I'm your lady. Hey. Hey. Yo.

Raphael Harry [00:23:47]:
My man. He flipped it to your I'm your I'm your man and your your your my lady.

Cav Manning [00:23:56]:
Not enough distance.

Raphael Harry [00:23:59]:
He he maybe started a new policy back then that, anybody hands me a letter, I gotta read it first because when the girl the girl read the letter, I was the girl was like, no. You're not going anywhere. You she was with our friends. Like, I gotta read this letter. They started laughing right in front of me. I was like, oh, I'm not the one who wrote the wrote the letter. And she's like, mhmm. But you delivered it.

Raphael Harry [00:24:19]:
And it

Cav Manning [00:24:20]:
Oh, you didn't proofread it before you before you gave it

Raphael Harry [00:24:23]:
to her. Oh. Oh. And she's like, I know this song that is this is a song that the guy copied, by the way. I was like, oh.

Cav Manning [00:24:30]:
Oh, no. How dare they?

Raphael Harry [00:24:33]:
I turned and looked around. I saw the guy jumping over the head. He jumped over the school face. He was like, oh, god.

Cav Manning [00:24:42]:
Did you ask him to write it for you? Oh. Did you ask him to write it for you? No.

Raphael Harry [00:24:46]:
No. He he gave me the letter to deliver to the girl. Oh. Oh.

Cav Manning [00:24:49]:
Oh, he was the one who was interested in it. Yeah.

Raphael Harry [00:24:50]:
He wrote the letter, and then I was like, what the hell did this boy write? I feel like I'm the one who whose rep is being tarnished here. And when I looked behind, I saw I just, like, jumping over the fence. He was right. He was running for Out of there. Out of there. If you saw that girl, probably, he he he like, you turn and go take the different gates.

Cav Manning [00:25:11]:
Was he sort of break her into laughter? Yeah.

Raphael Harry [00:25:15]:
He was I was

Cav Manning [00:25:15]:
like I thought she saw

Raphael Harry [00:25:16]:
him for 2 weeks straight. She just started busting out laughing. Yeah. She she made fun of me for like 2 years because of that letter. I was like, girl, I'm not the one who wrote it. I didn't proofread it. That was my mistake.

Cav Manning [00:25:28]:
You're just helping out your friend.

Raphael Harry [00:25:30]:
Oh, man. I was like, no. After that day, anybody brought a letter to me, man. Can you deliver this letter to me, girl? I'm like, hold on. Hold on. Hold on. I got her. What what did you write here? That's how I stopped one guy who copied, songs of Solomon because, yeah, he copied his from songs of Solomon.

Raphael Harry [00:25:46]:
Because I was reading, I was like, this sounds familiar. I was like, why are you describing what her breasts look like? And I was like, have you had a conversation with this girl for, oh, no. No. No. I was like, this word why the wording so familiar? Oh, it's from the book of Solomon. Songs of Solomon in the Bible. Mhmm. It's like, man.

Raphael Harry [00:26:05]:
Yeah. It's not gonna happen twice. We're we're not doing this twice.

Cav Manning [00:26:07]:
You went back to the original source.

Raphael Harry [00:26:09]:
Go. Right, Sophie? You wanna tell Adam, man?

Cav Manning [00:26:12]:
Go. Something a little bit more current.

Raphael Harry [00:26:14]:
Get back to work.

Cav Manning [00:26:15]:
Something a little bit more current, my friend.

Raphael Harry [00:26:16]:
I mean, it was for for us, it was I I don't know. I wasn't yeah. I I did copy from songs, but you're throwing your own words in there. You mix it up. So, yeah, that was a shortcut around it. And by the way, listen

Cav Manning [00:26:30]:
came off the dome, son. Uh-huh. Mine came off the dome.

Raphael Harry [00:26:32]:
It's like I think for a lot of us, some of us did that. I think it was part of the way of finding ourselves. Mhmm. But at the same time, I think I think that was our introduction to, don't just go copy an artist's work and put it in there and say, oh, because that boy's letter was long, the one who wrote the first letter. Mhmm. I said, oh, actually, he probably wrote, like, 3 songs in there because it was, like, this long letter. I still remember how long it was.

Cav Manning [00:27:01]:
And I was just You wrote a compilation album?

Raphael Harry [00:27:03]:
Yeah. It wrote an album. But it was See, it's an album. Everybody knew the songs. So Yeah. It's not like, oh, I don't know this. So if you you pick a song, at least somebody doesn't is not playing everything on the radio, but these are songs that are playing

Cav Manning [00:27:20]:
every single time. For guts.

Raphael Harry [00:27:22]:
Oh, man. By the

Cav Manning [00:27:23]:
way The lowest score for creativity.

Raphael Harry [00:27:25]:
For the audience, if you guys, yeah, share your stories. Let me know what you guys did, how it worked for you. If you received a letter or you wrote a letter, yeah, let us know. What did you guys do?

Cav Manning [00:27:35]:
Yeah.

Raphael Harry [00:27:36]:
How did you guys go about yours? Were you composers? Did you plagiarize? Don't worry. We won't report you to your teachers. I don't know. Statue of limits. It's gone past Statue of Limits. So you're good for now.

Cav Manning [00:27:48]:
You're good. Yeah. We wanna see those young love letters.

Raphael Harry [00:27:52]:
Yeah. If you yeah. If you wanna send letters in, send them in. No. Let's let's let's see how great some of you were. Little Shakespeare's and,

Cav Manning [00:28:00]:
And Raphael won't laugh. Yeah.

Raphael Harry [00:28:01]:
I won't laugh. No. No. No. And I won't let that girl read the letter. Well, she's a grown woman now. Probably 5 kids.

Cav Manning [00:28:07]:
No names. Yeah. No names.

Raphael Harry [00:28:08]:
No names. No names, Shelby. Mentioned. Don't worry. I won't let your husbands know, by the way, or your pastors. Oh, man. So, was it from that was it before you wrote that letter, you had been introduced to storytelling? Or what do you remember to be your first story that was impactful to you? Wow. The first impactful story.

Raphael Harry [00:28:40]:
Yeah. And it could come from any medium. It doesn't matter.

Cav Manning [00:28:44]:
Really, I would say I would say that the stories that really hit me hard were those movies that were coming out as back in the day Mhmm. When I was young. Those, you know, in technicolor. You know what

Raphael Harry [00:29:11]:
I mean? Panoramic vision. You know

Cav Manning [00:29:16]:
what I mean?

Raphael Harry [00:29:16]:
Those

Cav Manning [00:29:16]:
those movies, like, you know, big those big budget movies from back in the day, Spartacus, you know, like, Cleopatra. Mhmm. I I used to love I used to love those movies and those stories. All of that early storytelling, from from, black and white movies with, Humphrey Bogart

Raphael Harry [00:29:49]:
to

Cav Manning [00:29:52]:
the full color adventures that they used to have with, you know, Burt Lancaster or or or Kirk Douglas or who who whoever, you know, those big stars were. And also the comedies with Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe. I just feel like the storytelling back then was exquisite. You know? We had some really, really good stories told well, which has you know, I'm not complaining about I'm not complaining about the present movie making, system, really. There's still fantastic movies being made, but I do have a soft spot for, old old Hollywood. Yeah. You know, Sidney Poitier and, you know, people like that. James Dean.

Cav Manning [00:31:02]:
Yeah. Love that. I love that area of storytelling. But, also, like, you know, you you asked me before, like, favorite memories. One of them is definitely the parties that used to happen in my house that my mom and dad used to throw. And, those parties felt like a story in themselves.

Raphael Harry [00:31:28]:
In what way?

Cav Manning [00:31:29]:
You know? Well, like, I would I would visualize, like, the way that the guys would dance, and they'd have, like, the kerchief in their back pocket. Oh. And take the kerchief out and mop their brow when they're dancing to the reggae music. And it seemed very sort of like Tudor Tudor England Mhmm. To me. You know what I mean? It had this sort of, like, essence of of that pomp and and peacocking that you used to get centuries before. You know what I mean? Like, Elizabethan times where the people used to dance on the floor and use their handkerchiefs and you know? There's, like, a I felt that there there's, like, a link from that age to this age, but this is, like, the new black Tudor Renaissance. You know? So I feel like there's there's there's a story there.

Cav Manning [00:32:30]:
There's a familiar story there from from anybody who was a kid at that time, seeing these parties in Caribbean neighborhoods, listening to reggae music for the first time, and running in and out of your uncle's and auntie's legs, trying to get to the chicken. You know? Someone gives you a little a little gives you a little alcohol that you shouldn't have had.

Raphael Harry [00:33:02]:
Yeah. You know?

Cav Manning [00:33:03]:
You're a little you're a little tipsy. They find you they find you asleep in a corner somewhere with a chicken bone in your mouth.

Raphael Harry [00:33:16]:
Yep. That was one way to get busted. It's yep. That's sleep.

Cav Manning [00:33:19]:
That's always the way to get busted, man.

Raphael Harry [00:33:21]:
That sleep is unbeatable. It's, that's one of the best sleep ever. You know? Yep. That's, I think that thing is kind of universal, man. The kids staying nice too, man. Yeah. I do remember sneaking in, like, oh, my my mom was drinking.

Cav Manning [00:33:36]:
Way past bedtime.

Raphael Harry [00:33:38]:
Yep. Dancing. They were they were having

Cav Manning [00:33:40]:
some parties. Yes. Dancing with your cousins.

Raphael Harry [00:33:42]:
I see I see my mom's cup food. I see that she was drinking Guinness stout. I got my for some reason, I got Coke in my hand. Like, got my Coke cup, and I was like, oh, if I pour a little of that Guinness into the Coke, it's black. Right? It's black. So nobody would know that I'm drinking Guinness. Right.

Cav Manning [00:34:02]:
I was like, what? 3? See.

Raphael Harry [00:34:03]:
I was 4 or 5 and drank it and, boy, it was bitter. So I finished my Coke. I poured the whole thing into my mouth and drink it. And, man, I don't even know where I passed out. But yeah. But the nice day in school, I was telling kids, like, man, I drank Guinness, put some Guinness in my Coke and drank it. And you're like, what? Oh, man. You just like, yeah.

Raphael Harry [00:34:25]:
I was I was like, yeah. This is the man. He's the real man. I go, man. Glad to come to one of your parties next time. I didn't tell. I was like, beat up. It's very beat up.

Raphael Harry [00:34:35]:
I don't even know. I was like, I drank it all.

Cav Manning [00:34:39]:
Man man thing.

Raphael Harry [00:34:40]:
I I didn't mention the the the sleep part, but

Cav Manning [00:34:42]:
Man thing.

Raphael Harry [00:34:43]:
Left the sleep part out of it, but y'all sound like, you know, like, I drank a whole with my weakness. Put a whole bottle in my mouth. Drinking drinking the whole bottle, like, yeah.

Cav Manning [00:34:54]:
Right. Didn't even affect me. Didn't even affect me.

Raphael Harry [00:35:00]:
I still dance the night away. That's right. So when when you run into some somebody was at the party, how many decades later, like, oh, I remember this boy. It was the boy who was sleeping at that party. He fell asleep at I was like, man, that that's how you remember me? Goddamn, man. That was like 30 years ago.

Cav Manning [00:35:17]:
We've all been that kid. Yeah.

Raphael Harry [00:35:19]:
Yeah. We've

Cav Manning [00:35:20]:
all been that kid. Trust me.

Raphael Harry [00:35:23]:
That's why you'd be like, goddamn. I thought I got away with it. No. Everybody

Cav Manning [00:35:28]:
knew. Afraid not, sir.

Raphael Harry [00:35:30]:
Everybody knew. There might even be pictures. Good thing no cell phones. There might even be photos. There might be photos, but yeah.

Cav Manning [00:35:39]:
Probably Sketches then. It's ruined. Sketches.

Raphael Harry [00:35:47]:
That's why I'm glad there was no social media, and there was no cell phones back then because, yeah, they would have Twitter. Sweet. Tweet it out. Here I come. So I don't have a mattress of vitamins to sell you. Still, I've got something even better, behind the scenes bonus episodes with full videos available exclusively on Patreon for just $3 a month. Yeah, that's cheaper than that fancy cup of coffee. Whether you're a capitalist, socialist or however you identify, you can even be demure.

Raphael Harry [00:36:27]:
Feel free to contribute what feels right. You'll be supporting a great cause, helping me improve content and maybe even enjoying that seasonal pumpkin spice latte. Don't you just love pumpkin spice season? Go straight to patreon.com/whitelabelamericanpod. So, we already know how you got into DJing and your influences for storytelling. What was your official moment of dancing? Like, the dance you learned at school, is it the the same type of dancing that you get into professionally?

Cav Manning [00:37:09]:
Beginnings of yeah. Like, when I when I, first started to go to clubs on my own Mhmm. This is after the phase when I was hanging out with older boys. Yeah. There were clubs that I wanted to check out. I kept hearing about, hear about, and I didn't have anyone to go with. So I was like, you know what? I'm just gonna go on my own. And I I went I went to the electric ballroom in Camden Town where George Power and Paul Anderson were DJ ing.

Cav Manning [00:37:44]:
And, there was a very stern woman at the door, and I've somehow, I'd gotten, like, this ticket where you're getting free before a certain time. Oh, and have a ticket. Yeah. And, she she was looking at everybody's tickets and taking forever to to look at it. She's seen this ticket a 1,000 times, but she's looking so slowly and the queue. Everybody's like, you know, 10 minutes to look at the ticket expires 10 minutes, 7 minutes, 8 minutes.

Raphael Harry [00:38:25]:
You know? She was from the future. She was she was making sure you guys were in is is this AI, or is this real? She was I remember that. Knew.

Cav Manning [00:38:31]:
I remember that tension in the queue. And I got in there, and my mind just exploded, man. Like, I already sort of I already could dance. Like, I went out to I've been to other clubs, and places, and I was definitely uninhibited when it came to, like, getting my groove on. But I wasn't I didn't consider myself anything. You know? I was just another person dancing. But when I went to electric ballroom and I saw what people were doing in there, I was like, I I'm I'm now I'm a disciple. You know? Now I'm a disciple.

Cav Manning [00:39:20]:
I am committed to the faith of Boogie. Alright. You know? And that's what it was all about back then. It was Boogie. Boogie Music that came boogie music and early electro were kinda dropping at the same time at that at that stage. Boogie music was kinda like the offshoot of jazz funk. You know? But a little jazz funk and a little electro mixed kind of vibe. Mhmm.

Cav Manning [00:39:53]:
A lot of boogie music was along those lines, and there was straight electro. And and I saw people, like, doing moves and really focused on the dance floor in a way that I I hadn't really I'd seen be I'd seen before, but this was, like, the high church Mhmm. Of dances. You know? A lot of great dancers, man. And I was just like, oh my god. This is me. And so for the next few years, I was all about Electric Ballroom. Paul Anderson, may he rest in peace, was, you know, a massive DJ in the UK who I'd been to his I've been to his, parties before, Electric Ballroom, a couple times, but this was the party that really was like, now I know.

Cav Manning [00:40:53]:
Now I know how it all came together to me. Like, his his music and the way he played it and how people reacted. I'm like, oh, this is his this is his main gig. You know? And for good reason. Like, it was such a, you know, dynamic atmosphere in in in electric ballroom back then. I was I was hooked. And then you had all the boogie and electric people downstairs, and then upstairs, you had the jazz dancers.

Raphael Harry [00:41:20]:
Oh. Another discipline altogether. The same venue?

Cav Manning [00:41:24]:
Same venue. Wow. You know, different style of music, very fast paced and and, organic sound. You know what I mean? Not the electro vibe. This is

Raphael Harry [00:41:36]:
organic sounding. And So are these when was the crowd mixed, or was it, like, one demographic? Or

Cav Manning [00:41:45]:
Very mixed crowd. Very, very mixed crowd. All kinds of races and backgrounds, and, sexes. This is in Camden. So it's still pretty, like still, you know, it's still pretty local at the you know, local vibe. It wasn't like going to the West End. West End was another, you know, Central London

Raphael Harry [00:42:13]:
Yeah.

Cav Manning [00:42:14]:
Is another vibe again. It still kinda felt local, but it also felt like this is felt cutting edge in a way. Mhmm. You know?

Raphael Harry [00:42:23]:
Like, ahead of its time?

Cav Manning [00:42:24]:
Little little yeah. Ahead of its time or for me, right on time. Oh, okay. You know? Then I was going back to school, telling people about where I'd been, you know, and how you know, they were like, you went to electric ballroom? Yeah, man.

Raphael Harry [00:42:41]:
I went to electric ballroom, man. You know, it was fantastic. I really had a good time.

Cav Manning [00:42:47]:
You know? Because nobody went to places on their own, really. Yeah.

Raphael Harry [00:42:51]:
I was I was gonna ask, like, it well, wasn't it dangerous, like, for you going on your own?

Cav Manning [00:42:56]:
No. I I you know, I kind of eventually I don't mean

Raphael Harry [00:43:00]:
anything like you were gonna get stopped or anything, but, like, just you living?

Cav Manning [00:43:06]:
I didn't feel like I honestly didn't feel like I was in danger. Okay. And that's just that's me. It's not like things didn't happen there Mhmm. To people. I guess, you know, I just was lucky that people my vibe was just giving off the thing of just leave him.

Raphael Harry [00:43:31]:
You know

Cav Manning [00:43:31]:
what I mean? I I guess.

Raphael Harry [00:43:32]:
I mean But you still got that vibe. That's why I was like, I'll bring you here when I met you. So I can see it back there.

Cav Manning [00:43:45]:
But, over the you know, after, like, 2, 3 times, 4 times being there, I already met people. Nice. You know? I already met people. We were, at the time, there were no trains after, like, midnight. So we'd be coming back home on the night bus, and, there'd be a crew of us going in the same direction.

Raphael Harry [00:44:12]:
Mhmm. You

Cav Manning [00:44:13]:
know? And that became the crew that would then meet at Electric Ballroom and then go to other places together.

Raphael Harry [00:44:19]:
You know? So wait. I I I thought when I visited London for the first time in 2015 and there was no trains after midnight, I thought that was like I I thought it was the recent thing. So London been like that for a long time? Man, that's that's

Cav Manning [00:44:37]:
London was like that forever. I mean, like, when when, like, when did it become the the sub the the underground became 24 hours maybe 4 years ago, something like that.

Raphael Harry [00:44:51]:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think I saw that headline. I was like, yeah. I probably missed out in a relationship because of that. I was like, man. I'm I'm coming from New York.

Cav Manning [00:44:59]:
You let that stop you, bro? We used to, I came

Raphael Harry [00:45:02]:
in doing 24. I I don't like buses. I like taking a bus.

Cav Manning [00:45:05]:
I got to know You couldn't ride bicycles. I got to know London, fire, 1 girls, and 2 buses. You know, if a girl lived in South London Yeah. We'd have to find the bus to get there.

Raphael Harry [00:45:20]:
Yeah. I mean, they ended up to come across. To know London.

Cav Manning [00:45:23]:
That's exactly how I got to know London. North, south, east, west.

Raphael Harry [00:45:27]:
I'm the opposite. I don't know. Trains are not

Cav Manning [00:45:29]:
Go into the art, these are the girls.

Raphael Harry [00:45:32]:
I mean, girls still make me know places. I know.

Cav Manning [00:45:35]:
Definitely. Definitely. You know?

Raphael Harry [00:45:37]:
So how did you get into, your first dance, your first music video?

Cav Manning [00:45:47]:
My first music video, I think, was was, Soul 2 Soul Fair Play video, which was Fearplay came out first. It was like a club underground smash. Yeah. But it wasn't the it wasn't the tune that crossed them over to the mainstream. Mhmm. It was a tune that put them on the map. And, Soul 2 Soul used to have a Sunday night party in the West End at a place called Africa Center. And by this time by this time, I, you know, people knew I could dance.

Cav Manning [00:46:43]:
You know? I I I, like, had a reputation by this time as being a good dancer. I'd formed with, 2 of my other friends. We've together, we formed the company boys, and we all had blonde hair.

Raphael Harry [00:47:03]:
Ah, okay. So I think I

Cav Manning [00:47:05]:
We all had blonde hair.

Raphael Harry [00:47:06]:
We were dancers. I was gonna ask you if that was you that I saw in the video that I I recognize.

Cav Manning [00:47:11]:
Yeah. So, I think for some reason, like, Mark, my the people, the guys I was with in, in the company, Mark and Brian, they went around for that fair play video. I don't know why. But I went down there and just it was basically set up like a club when you went in and you danced and, you know, didn't feel like a video shoot in a lot of ways. Just felt like another night out. You know?

Raphael Harry [00:47:49]:
Oh, wow.

Cav Manning [00:47:50]:
And, but it was a video shoot, and I can be seen in Soul 2 Souls fair play getting down with my blonde head.

Raphael Harry [00:47:59]:
Yeah. Yeah. I noticed that I was like, yeah. Someone there's a guy in the blonde.

Cav Manning [00:48:03]:
Pop head.

Raphael Harry [00:48:04]:
Oh, like, I was like, nah. That can be

Cav Manning [00:48:06]:
You noticed me?

Raphael Harry [00:48:07]:
I was like, I

Cav Manning [00:48:07]:
You saw the blonde hair?

Raphael Harry [00:48:08]:
I saw the blonde hair. I'm like, is that him? Nah. Right? No. I'm not sure. I gotta ask you to cook this up there.

Cav Manning [00:48:16]:
Yeah. I think that was the first video.

Raphael Harry [00:48:20]:
But,

Cav Manning [00:48:23]:
like, when we started the company boys, we were in so many different things. You know? We were we were in so many videos. We so many fashion shows. We toured the world. And why

Raphael Harry [00:48:38]:
did you pick the name Company Boys?

Cav Manning [00:48:42]:
I mean,

Raphael Harry [00:48:42]:
it's a cool name, by the way.

Cav Manning [00:48:44]:
Right. You know you know, it speaks to it speaks to, you know, middle management middle management in some some in some, you you know, in some business. And they they've been like, that's what they've done for the years, but we wanted to flip it.

Raphael Harry [00:49:08]:
Ah.

Cav Manning [00:49:08]:
You know? Like, yeah. We're the we're the new company boys.

Raphael Harry [00:49:11]:
Nice. You know?

Cav Manning [00:49:12]:
We're the new we're the we're breaking the boundaries in this industry, in this business. You know? Nice. So we turned it from something that's pretty bland in a way Mhmm. To something interesting.

Raphael Harry [00:49:27]:
Have you thought about using writing a script or something based on

Cav Manning [00:49:34]:
Based on those days? Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because I think

Raphael Harry [00:49:37]:
you got something there.

Cav Manning [00:49:39]:
Yeah. Abs yeah. There was a lot of adventures back then.

Raphael Harry [00:49:43]:
Which countries did you visit?

Cav Manning [00:49:45]:
We visited we did, 2 tours in Italy, 2 London club tours in Italy where we where we hit most of the Italian cities. We did we went to Tokyo. What was that like? It was it was crazy, man. Like, we're talking about, the late eighties in Tokyo. We were over there for a fashion show for a fashion house called Men's Tenereass. And, you know, it was just freaky being, like, 3 blonde haired black guys in in Tokyo. Like, people didn't know what to do with us. You know? They were fascinated.

Raphael Harry [00:50:46]:
Yeah.

Cav Manning [00:50:48]:
There was always this fascination. But it was more you know, they they thought that if if they were freaked out by us, like, we were equally kind of there was a that that kind of cultural divide. You know? This was all so new to us. Yeah. But while we were there, we were with a big bunch of people. There were, like, 20 20 people over there to do this show. They were actors, the dudes who starred in a musical called Absolute Beginners, Eddie something or other. He was out there.

Cav Manning [00:51:35]:
The guy who would go on to become, DJ Fabio, like the Cool. Like the one of the biggest names in in drum and bass in the UK. He was out there. One of the guys from the Pasadena's, like, chart topping British soul act, he was out there. There was a whole bunch of people from different different areas of entertainment. You know? And, so it was like it wasn't it was kind of an honor to be to have been chosen. We were all chosen by a guy called Chris Sullivan who, ran the WAG Club at the time, which was a club in Central London that everybody in our scene went to. Yeah.

Cav Manning [00:52:32]:
It's just, you know, one of those places. Like, Prince was Prince showed up there one night and Oh, wow. People like that. You know? It was it was a it was a cool cool spot. Mhmm. So he took us out there. But something happened, and he he wasn't able to actually be at the show. So we're out there, and there's no creative direction.

Cav Manning [00:53:01]:
So now we have to, like, choreograph. We have to choreograph the show while we're out there. So you know

Raphael Harry [00:53:08]:
what I mean? Improvise your way?

Cav Manning [00:53:09]:
Yeah. Well, we no. We choreographed it, man. We we we put it we did it. We worked together, and we put the show together. And it was it was great. It was a great show.

Raphael Harry [00:53:19]:
Awesome.

Cav Manning [00:53:24]:
It was it was really interesting seeing the Japanese, Japanese way of working. Like, I've never seen anything like that.

Raphael Harry [00:53:42]:
How did that stand out to you?

Cav Manning [00:53:45]:
They was people were so, everybody was so deeply invested. Like, simple mistakes created huge repercussions. Mhmm. You know? Like, I remember during the fashion show, they wanted us to wear particular underwear, and my underwear went missing. And the girl who was my allotted dresser was just, like, a nervous she had just had a nervous breakdown

Raphael Harry [00:54:23]:
because she

Cav Manning [00:54:23]:
couldn't find him. You know? So we're dealing with that behind stage 2. Wow. You know, girl in tears, like, you know, like, her career's over. That kind of stress and dedication to the details. Mhmm. You know? So that was, that was pretty that was pretty stunning to to to see that.

Raphael Harry [00:54:51]:
So how long were you guys in Tokyo for? A week. Wow.

Cav Manning [00:54:57]:
We stayed there a week. Like I said, there was a big group of us that went out there. But after we left, there a few people stayed behind, and it was a different experience for them. You know? They were on their own, and they definitely came across some a a different kind of really an isolation. You know? Mhmm. They felt they felt very isolated. I'm not I'm not saying that that's the general experience of people in Tokyo on their own, but if you don't know you know, if you're if you're not a of a personal disposition yourself to break the ice with people or if you don't know a bunch of people. Yeah.

Cav Manning [00:55:46]:
You know, I've you know, that stuff can wear on you. The isolation can wear on you.

Raphael Harry [00:55:53]:
So they stayed behind because of the experience. They wanted to They just wanted to

Cav Manning [00:55:59]:
Hustlers, man.

Raphael Harry [00:56:00]:
Yeah. Okay. Agree.

Cav Manning [00:56:01]:
Hustlers. You know?

Raphael Harry [00:56:02]:
I I think there's something about Tokyo, like, Japan in general that, I know a bunch of people who once they experience it, the the their story that they experienced Japan first time, and they're like, I ain't coming back. That's you know, until something like the isolation happens, life in general happens, and then, oh, there's more to it than the short period I spent. Mhmm. And then that decision has been made. Either I go I fully commit to it, or I'm out of that bubble that, you know, that 1 week, 2 weeks, or 1 month bubble that they thought that, oh, this is the whole country. So, yeah, there's a guy who I thought I would even interview him, but he used to have a channel on YouTube, Black experience Japan, and he interviewed a whole lot of, black folks who moved from all over the world to Japan. And you got I've got witness a lot of that, but I do know a lot of Racism? There's it's some of it. Yes.

Raphael Harry [00:57:05]:
But some of it is the there's the cultural, because a lot of people use the language of there's the racism, but there is seems a little bit weird that all foreigners get it. They hit all foreigners. They're saying, not just like, oh, you blacks, or you get it separate from white. But at the same time, there's layers to it. Of course. However, there are some people who are like, yeah. I ain't leaving. Like, I've seen people interviewed on that channel.

Raphael Harry [00:57:35]:
They've been there for 20, 30 years. There's one guy who I'm trying to get on the podcast. He just moved back with his he married a Japanese lady, and, they're they're now in Atlanta. But he was there for, like, 20 years plus. Had kids, and then he moved back. There's like, the guy who actually makes the T shirt I'm wearing right now, he's he's like that. He got stationed there and set up based in Tokyo. I was like, yeah.

Raphael Harry [00:57:59]:
I ain't coming back. Right. So and but inter he's been on the podcast, and we we became friends afterwards. And, yeah. And so anytime I need it, I need a T shirt, he designed a T shirt for me Mhmm. And sends it. So I'm like, wow. You you're not coming back.

Raphael Harry [00:58:12]:
And there's another guy who, he actually works for this I've got in the city he's in. He's, like, on the tourism board or something like that. He's an outgoing personality. Very if you go on his social media, he's very funny guy, but nothing now. He's just opened a bar. But he he's not the type who, like, oh, highs, all that counts. But he's he can tell he can break it down to you, the layers of how he's he had to be comfortable being, like, the only black person in this town where he moved to. But he's that type of person that can navigate that.

Raphael Harry [00:58:44]:
Right. Yeah. Yeah. So he tells that if you wanna come, these are the kind of things. Now if you wanna stay in Tokyo, you'll see a whole lot of people there. Go stay there. If you wanna come to where I am at, this is what you deal with. Be ready.

Raphael Harry [00:58:57]:
So so I'm like, oh, so when you watch that channel, you see people talk like this. People will, like, they give all the stories, and you're like, oh, it's very real. The it breaks that bubble of Mhmm. Something like, you know, around the time when you guys went stuff like that wasn't out there. Yeah. I've seen a, a black lady who's a lawyer out there, and she helps people who, like, oh, they they oh, Japanese women are all nice, and there's no yeah. There's something called divorce. It happens.

Raphael Harry [00:59:23]:
And then when there's divorce, their custody laws don't work. Like American custody laws. Then you find out, oh, you need a lawyer on that side who knows how to navigate that, and that's our business. Mhmm. So I was like, oh. So I learned a lot watching that channel, and I was like, oh, okay.

Cav Manning [00:59:39]:
You I mean, yeah. You're right. It's not it's not, it's not any particular race. I remember I met, when I was out there, I met a white, model who who was out there through her agency. She was doing shows and stuff, and, she was so lonely. You know? Mhmm. She was so, so lonely. So we kinda struck up a friendship for the time when I was there.

Cav Manning [01:00:16]:
It's pretty cool. I'll go and see her. I'll go and see her, runway shows and stuff like that. Yeah. But, yeah, she she was grateful to have someone to talk to and stuff. You know?

Raphael Harry [01:00:31]:
Yeah. I can I can relate on that because there's stuff that you know, I have some young ones who are like, oh, you know, I watch anime and all that? Like Mhmm. And if I don't seen that channel, I wouldn't have seen people who were like, oh, I would I moved to Japan. Why do you move to Japan? Oh, I watch anime. Okay. That's good. I'll try to learn Japanese because I watch anime. And then I arrived there, and I was like, oh, it's actually a real place.

Raphael Harry [01:00:55]:
Mhmm. Yeah. People there. And, a lot of them haven't seen people like me before, and they're like, oh, we got questions now. Yeah. And some of them, when you sit down on the train, they're like, they move. Like, damn.

Cav Manning [01:01:07]:
Hey. But

Raphael Harry [01:01:08]:
I mean Guess what? Some Same

Cav Manning [01:01:09]:
thing happens over here.

Raphael Harry [01:01:11]:
You know? But it's a little bit different from here, but at the same time, they move away, but it's also the other sister. And then you speak oh, you speak Japanese? Okay. I move back. You know, I did meet, there was, you know, I used to be in the navy. And when I was stationed in the Middle East, a former shipmate of mine, he was married to a Japanese woman when he got transferred. He he came from Japan. He was, yeah, he got transferred from Japan to, where I was in the Middle East, Bahrain. Right.

Raphael Harry [01:01:43]:
And he was one of those that married a Japanese woman. And they arrive, and he had told me oh, she just had a baby, so she had to wait for, like, 3, 4 months before she came with the baby. And he was like, oh, you know, she's led the cultural thing, but they do love black people. You know? But, they're fascinated. It's kind of it's a fetish with some of them. Right. So I didn't get it at first. But, every time I came around, she just started giggling.

Raphael Harry [01:02:09]:
Like, where she she would be, like, bowing down. I I always found at first, it was cool. And then by the 3rd day, I was like, okay. This is getting too much. Like, you know, every time I said something, she would giggle and then bow down. I'm like, girl, calm down. You know, the first the greeting was cool. You have to be doing this.

Raphael Harry [01:02:25]:
And then one day, she we passed something to her husband, and he's like, I don't know how to say this to you. I was like, is this your way of asking for a threesome, or what the hell is about to happen right now? I don't get it. And it's like, my wife is a little bit shy about she has a request for you, and she said something Japanese. I was like, yeah. I don't understand what you said. I know you can speak English, though. Like, she loves your eyebrows. And she like, you know, Japanese women don't have eyebrows.

Raphael Harry [01:02:54]:
Like, it doesn't grow for them. She she just like to touch your eyebrows. But she doesn't want to just rush touch it, like, without permission. I was like, that's why she's been struggling to stay for, like, 5 minutes. And she should just, and then she would go hack in the corner. It looked like a 5 year old girl. I was like, wow, this is, you know what? Let me put you out of this music. Go right.

Raphael Harry [01:03:20]:
Alright. I don't know. Normally I don't do that for people, but she can't get it out of the way. Then maybe this is going, this is going to make you the happiest woman in the world. I don't know about it. Alright. And she, that was like that. This is real.

Raphael Harry [01:03:36]:
Wow. And she came out.

Cav Manning [01:03:37]:
Your eyebrows are just that sexy, bro. Yeah.

Raphael Harry [01:03:40]:
I mean, but I when I was a teenager, I've I've been in the western part of Nigeria, and women were talking about it. And as a teenager legendaries. Is to touch. So I shaved I shaved everything out in, you know, out of rebellion. Like, damn, I'm tired of women talking on my eyebrows. So I shaved all of it. So it's not even as long as it once was. Yeah.

Raphael Harry [01:04:01]:
Because since then, it never grew back to the point where they were all touching. But, yeah. But after that reaction, I was like, damn. Did I if you had seen what it was when I was a teenager, oh, you would have just collapsed. Because I was like, damn. This is but and that was a good reaction that I got. But, I guess if I'd been over there, I don't know what reactions I would have gotten. But then she was like, oh, you know, they'll be well, women have surgeries to have, like, black people's eyebrows.

Raphael Harry [01:04:28]:
I'm like, I don't know if I wanna die information, but that's good to know. But yeah, but she was from Nagasaki. Right. So but it's it's something that, sometimes, you know, you get the good side. You you get some I guess I'm not a problem.

Cav Manning [01:04:44]:
Really good I had a really good time out there. We we did it was pretty wild. You know what I mean? We had a good we had a good time, like, in the in the different parties and clubs that we got invited to. The nightlife was bubbling. You know? But like I said, we were moving in our own with our own group.

Raphael Harry [01:05:09]:
You know

Cav Manning [01:05:09]:
what I mean? There's a big group of us at the time. I do have friends. I mean, we made some we made some met some lovely people, Japanese people. But nowadays, I do have friends that have, married married Japanese women and have moved out there and have been out there for some time now, you know, and love it.

Raphael Harry [01:05:32]:
Oh, yeah. I got I got friends like that too, and that's that's not one but one reason for moving out there. Marry a Japanese woman. That's why it's the that's the final reason why I never got stationed in Japan because I started seeing that happening. I was like, nah. I ain't gonna get married. I can't get I can't fall from a Japanese woman, and then they get stationed there like, ah. Next thing, Facebook profile pic photograph changes too.

Raphael Harry [01:05:57]:
Yep. They're like, oh, no. They got you too? Yeah. Like, hey, man. You should come this station there. I was like, no. Then I'm I'm I'm gonna be yeah. Next thing.

Raphael Harry [01:06:07]:
I'm in a relationship. No. But, I wish I had gone, though. I wish I had gone. I would have yeah. That was that was a that was a knucklehead too. So yeah. But no.

Raphael Harry [01:06:18]:
I've I've, I'm happy for all the guys that I know. Although, like, 4 of them are divorced now, unfortunately, but that is part of life. So if it happens, it happens. The one they are still the ones who happy marriages, but, you know, beautiful kids came out of it. So Yeah. Yeah.

Cav Manning [01:06:33]:
Japan is supposed to be one of the countries that are asking for people to immigrate over there to to try and, Yeah. Boost their boost their, The aging population. Yeah. So They need to boost their infancy rate.

Raphael Harry [01:06:48]:
So they they get it. Some of my friends have been helping them out. You know? I could have helped them a long time ago, but I'm taking now. Or you can you can make me a good offer at the same time. I'm available to be.

Cav Manning [01:07:00]:
Right? With those eyebrows, bro? My eyebrows.

Raphael Harry [01:07:02]:
You know?

Cav Manning [01:07:02]:
You're gonna be getting, like, top offers all day.

Raphael Harry [01:07:08]:
So with that being said, how did you end up in New York City?

Cav Manning [01:07:13]:
What made you make that move? Oh, okay. This is a big one. Right. So I had, like, I had a publishing deal with Chrysalis. Well, before that, I had a band called The Vibe Tribe, a 13 piece live band. Oh. And, we had toured. We played a whole load of venues up and down, the UK.

Cav Manning [01:07:48]:
We had supported, different artists like Warriors and Guru and and, The Roots, Far Side. And got to a stage where I wanted to, go solo. And so I got a publishing deal, and I was working on a album with a producer. We we formed a group called Scooby. Scooby? Scooby.

Raphael Harry [01:08:30]:
And Like Scooby Doo?

Cav Manning [01:08:31]:
Like Scooby Doo. Oh. And, also, like, Scooby was also, like, code for a weed as well at the time. Ah. Ah. And, so we formed this group, and we got a publishing deal with Chrysalis.

Raphael Harry [01:08:46]:
And

Cav Manning [01:08:50]:
there was there was some time taken off during the summer. And then after the summer, we were gonna come back and finish up the album and, you know, take it from there. And during the summer, I discovered that they decided my other bandmates decided that they wanted to take it in a different direction, and I was no longer in the band. You know, this is after, like, writing all the material and everything. Me. Oh, wow. I wrote all the material. Yeah.

Cav Manning [01:09:25]:
And, so, I mean, for for a little while, I looked into doing a solo solo thing. But then a few they were they were like a rapid succession of earthquakes that happened in my life, and, people were dying. I know. You know, drugs and stuff like that. Yeah. Several people who friends of mine died, And, I was at the thing that this made me decide to come to New York, I was at, awake for 1 friend who committed suicide. And while we're in there, like, all morning, the passing of of of my friends, the news came that that very day, someone else had committed suicide. Another friend Wow.

Cav Manning [01:10:43]:
In the say in the same circle. Yikes. You know? Yeah. And I was like, you know, I don't know I don't know what is creating this, creating this atmosphere, but I don't think it's healthy, clearly, and I need to go and be somewhere healthier, more positive. And so I decided, like, that that after hearing the news of the second friend's death Yeah. I was like, you know, I think, someone had offered me to to me come to Brooklyn, before that. And that was when I decided, yeah, I think I'm gonna I think I'm gonna try Brooklyn.

Raphael Harry [01:11:34]:
Have you been to Brooklyn before?

Cav Manning [01:11:36]:
Yeah. I had. Due to the videos and stuff. Yeah. Well, we came out here with a a a house kind of act called, sweet. It's a song called Sweet Harmony by, an act called Liquid that got up got quite high up in the British charts.

Raphael Harry [01:12:04]:
Sounds familiar. Yeah.

Cav Manning [01:12:05]:
Because we used

Raphael Harry [01:12:06]:
to get British charts in Nigeria.

Cav Manning [01:12:08]:
Yeah. It was a big tune. And, so I came out here with him. Came out here to do a video for, a singer called Starliner. I came out here, and I came out here with, I came out here another time to just hang out, with a friend of mine who went on to become, like, one of the biggest artists out of the UK called Hassan Hajjaj. Don't know if you've heard of him, but he's like you know, he's he's a photographer, and, just a style creator Right. Become really large recently. So, I've been out here maybe 3 or 4 times before

Raphael Harry [01:13:00]:
Name's not on Adi Syshim and the database. I can

Cav Manning [01:13:03]:
Yeah. Hassan Hejaz. Probably

Raphael Harry [01:13:05]:
have, but it's not ringing

Cav Manning [01:13:07]:
in there. Yeah. Everybody's everybody's worked with him. It's it's crazy. You know? Very proud of what he's what he's managed to accomplish.

Raphael Harry [01:13:16]:
You know? So what's your first impression on your first well, first or second visit to whichever visit that got you to spend more time in New York, Brooklyn before you decided to move here.

Cav Manning [01:13:34]:
Yeah. That was probably the, the time the trip that came out here with Hassan. He showed me a lot of stuff, you know, mostly in Manhattan. Not so much Brooklyn at the time. But I had a friend I had a friend who lived in Brooklyn, so I came out to Brooklyn to visit her, at the same at the same time. And interestingly enough, she was like, I just got this demo, of this artist that you should you should really listen to on a cassette. And, she gave me the demo on cassette. And and guess who it was? D'Angelo.

Raphael Harry [01:14:18]:
What?

Cav Manning [01:14:22]:
D'Angelo, bro.

Raphael Harry [01:14:23]:
Oh, man.

Cav Manning [01:14:24]:
So I was listening to his stuff mad early. But, yeah, Hassan. When I came with Hassan, at the time, he had a a clothing label called RAP, Real Artistic People. And he was working with Triple 5 Soul and all these different brands that were big at the time. And, so I'd come out and we'd hang out and we'd go to parties and, you know, he knew different production companies and you know? And while I was here, I was like, I think that I could I think I could if I was here, I could make it work. You know? Like, I think I could I think I could find a way to make it work here. But I had no intention of moving at the time. And then fast forward a few years, and the, you know, just the mood in England was so different, so much darker.

Cav Manning [01:15:20]:
And, I was like, I got an offer of somewhere to stay, in Williamsburg. And I was like, you know what? I'm gonna try it. So that was really the motivator. I was just trying to you know, I feel like I need to rescue or protect my happiness in a way.

Raphael Harry [01:15:46]:
Which is very important.

Cav Manning [01:15:47]:
Yeah. Very, very important. Please, people do that.

Raphael Harry [01:15:50]:
I agree.

Cav Manning [01:15:51]:
You know, do not put your happiness to the wayside and forget the main source of, you know, happiness is is a source of fuel just like everything else. You know, you need happiness in your life to balance out everything else that's going on. So protect it and treat it as the valuable thing that it is.

Raphael Harry [01:16:21]:
So was there a possibility of moving to a different city in the United States other than New York?

Cav Manning [01:16:33]:
Well, you know, it it's taken a while for me to accept that, yes, there are other places in America

Raphael Harry [01:16:44]:
that No. No. I I mean, before you moved to New York City, like, going back now No. Yeah. There there

Cav Manning [01:16:52]:
was no other place.

Raphael Harry [01:16:53]:
Not a place. It

Cav Manning [01:16:54]:
had to be it had to be New York. Okay. And, then when I was listening to artists like Biggie Yeah. You know, then I was like, I'm digging Brooklyn. You know? K. Brooklyn. I'm digging the bro I'm digging the Brooklyn vibe. You know? So, so when I got a chance to move out here, and and it was Brooklyn, I was like, okay.

Cav Manning [01:17:20]:
That's where I wanna be. And, so came out here, moved to Williamsburg, and, I've been here now for, I don't know, maybe 28 years, something like that.

Raphael Harry [01:17:36]:
So what would you consider your favorite New York moment or experience to be?

Cav Manning [01:17:46]:
Favorite New York moment? It's been so many. There's been so many. Actually, when it comes to New York itself, one of the things I love is the plethora and the multitude of musical free events in the summertime.

Raphael Harry [01:18:25]:
That's true.

Cav Manning [01:18:27]:
I love it.

Raphael Harry [01:18:28]:
That's true.

Cav Manning [01:18:29]:
That has that's a jewel in New York's crown, That I love a lot of other places, they don't have it. They don't really think about having it. I don't think they realize the difference it makes to a city, you know, to have all these great artists, accessible accessible artists, wonderful performances for free. It's an amazing gift, really.

Raphael Harry [01:19:11]:
It is.

Cav Manning [01:19:12]:
It's amazing gift to the people, to the populace. But break it down to one moment for one particular thing. Okay. Alright. I think one of my most memorable moments was after 911, when people were really depressed and scared

Raphael Harry [01:19:46]:
Yeah.

Cav Manning [01:19:47]:
And, unsettled and rocked by what had just happened. Unsure of what happens next. I was doing a party in Williamsburg, a place called Black Betty. And I used to do, like, Friday nights did Friday nights there for, like, maybe 5 years. And and one night, it was a night maybe a week after 9:11. Yep. It was the Friday. And, you know, I wasn't like like, people really wanna come out to, you know, party, and Mhmm.

Cav Manning [01:20:43]:
People do people really wanna, you know, dance now? And, yes, they did. You know? They read they came out, and if they they danced. They cried. Mhmm. They sang. Mhmm. You know? That was one of my sort of, it was a wonderful it was a wonderful moment where people where you could visibly see the healing process taking place and and people looking attempting to look forward a little bit and connecting with their hope and their optimism again. You know, it was important.

Cav Manning [01:21:41]:
It was important. The whole city was going through through that. That was a microcosm of what was happening in many different ways across the city, and I felt very privileged to, be a part of any positivity that was gonna try and be lifting people up at the time. Yeah.

Raphael Harry [01:22:05]:
Thank thank you for sharing that. I couldn't the podcast right there. Good. That was tough to top.

Cav Manning [01:22:14]:
Oh, yeah.

Raphael Harry [01:22:15]:
But that that's

Cav Manning [01:22:15]:
I've seen a lot of things in this city, man. You know, been here for a very, like, over the years, all these different situations that just have bonded me in a way to New York. I have I have a home in London, but this thing in New York is my home as well. You know? They're both as important to me, and I love them both. I've experienced a lot of different things out here. You know? Like, I don't have any family Mhmm. In the States. So most of the time, I've well, you know, it's different experience when you're somewhere and you don't have family.

Cav Manning [01:23:17]:
You pretty much you have no umbilical in a way. It feels like you have no umbilical cord Mhmm. Attaching you, or not as strong as one as you would like. But, you know, I guess that was what Facebook was for. Facebook reconnected me with everybody. You know? Is that is a crazy that was a crazy moment too.

Raphael Harry [01:23:45]:
Yeah. Well, before the owners decided it's, not what we thought

Cav Manning [01:23:52]:
it was for. Mhmm. Because it's completely something else now. Right. But at the time, like, it definitely you know, when I needed to reconnect with my peoples from all over, that was that was the vehicle that enabled that to happen, and, grateful for that. Yeah. You know? Grateful for that.

Raphael Harry [01:24:16]:
I agree. I'm grateful too because it's connected me with a whole bunch of people. Yeah. Not I never thought I will you know, I thought I'd lost to time. Mhmm. And then

Cav Manning [01:24:27]:
All of a sudden, there they are.

Raphael Harry [01:24:28]:
Yeah. Yeah. Well, thank you, Zuckerberg, for that. Still, I give you the middle

Cav Manning [01:24:35]:
finger. Yeah.

Raphael Harry [01:24:38]:
You you didn't know who went to. You could have stopped there, but, you know.

Cav Manning [01:24:42]:
They never do.

Raphael Harry [01:24:43]:
They never do.

Cav Manning [01:24:44]:
They never ever do.

Raphael Harry [01:24:46]:
So Well, I could talk to you all day, but I gotta start rounding this up. We definitely gotta bring you back because yeah.

Cav Manning [01:24:53]:
Yeah. We haven't even penetrated what's going on, man. Yeah. The new the recent stuff.

Raphael Harry [01:24:57]:
No. We're not gonna get to that today. We're not gonna but don't worry. Y'all write him and ask for more so that I bring Kev back to get more.

Cav Manning [01:25:06]:
I would love to come back and tell tell more.

Raphael Harry [01:25:09]:
There's some stuff I gotta ask you before we officially wrap up this episode today. Okay. Usually I use this question to stare up some controversy. However, you're it's gonna be difficult with you because you're, you're a professional dancer and you've been in you you you're a professional, writer, artist. So, yeah, this one is, yes. There's no way that it won't stay up the controversy right now. It's it's gonna be

Cav Manning [01:25:46]:
We'll see. Because you

Raphael Harry [01:25:47]:
know, the way I ask this question is, you know, everybody who comes on this podcast, we assume you're a dancer. If you say you don't dance, we stop recording, and we'll kick you out of the studio. Now I can't do that. That doesn't fly anymore because this is when the guest usually says, oh, yeah. I I dance sometimes. I dance when nobody's looking. But, nah, I can't even I can't even use that threat. Doesn't fly anymore.

Raphael Harry [01:26:10]:
So, so, anyway, I'll just go straight to my music question. Sure. So we need you to give us 3 artists that you enjoy. However, there's a caveat. Well, 3 artists that can keep you dancing for at least an hour. Mhmm. But the caveat is you can't name the most popular artist. You can't name you can't give us, you know, the most popular names.

Raphael Harry [01:26:36]:
You can't give us, yeah, you can't give us the hottest names. You can't give us hottest names from the past. You can't give us hottest names names from the present. He can't give us names that can, you know, get let the audience discover something. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, he can't give us the Michael Jacksons.

Raphael Harry [01:26:52]:
He can't give us the Beyonce's. He can't give us Afrobeats. No? Afro there are people naming all the Afrobeats. I'm like, okay. That's out. Out. Thank you for that. My piano too.

Raphael Harry [01:27:01]:
I love us. My my my piano is, like, my one of my favorite. But you gotta give us something that people have probably never heard before. And so so it's also ruled out to, you know, just

Cav Manning [01:27:14]:
okay. So first of all, I would say, artists well, Royers is always close to my heart as an artist.

Raphael Harry [01:27:40]:
Yeah. But does does it count as

Cav Manning [01:27:43]:
As of too big a name? Mhmm. Is that too big a name?

Raphael Harry [01:27:46]:
I'm I'm I'm saying, you know, we got Alright.

Cav Manning [01:27:48]:
Alright. Let's move this. Alright. Let's go deeper.

Raphael Harry [01:27:51]:
Put him on his with the scale of the guards on the way. Oh, up. Up. Up. Up. Still yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Raphael Harry [01:27:55]:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Let's do it. It's doing it. It's doing it.

Cav Manning [01:27:58]:
Okay. Alright. So let's go let's go a bit deeper. I would say one of my favorite albums is by an artist called Johnny Hammond. Mhmm. It's called it's called Gears. And, from the days when I used to go to jazz funk clubs and stuff, Johnny Hammond, Gears, the whole album, I loved. Like, it's exquisite.

Cav Manning [01:28:31]:
If you haven't checked it out before, I would strongly advise that you go and take a listen. It ranges it ranges through all kinds of different musical styles, but so, so deeply funky and so deeply influential. Mhmm. Like, a lot of artists, have expressed their love for him, you know, like Jamere Quai and

Raphael Harry [01:28:56]:
Oh, that's a name

Cav Manning [01:28:57]:
I haven't had in a minute. Yeah. Oh, it's like that.

Raphael Harry [01:29:01]:
You still alive? Yep. Okay.

Cav Manning [01:29:04]:
Yep. It's still it's still alive, kid.

Raphael Harry [01:29:05]:
Or anything, but just like Yeah. For more. Jamere

Cav Manning [01:29:08]:
Quai hasn't released any I don't think he's released any made anything major in in a while, but he had a good long run. Yeah. You know? And, me could still pack out. You know? People still would love to see him live. The next artist, I would say, there's an artist called Omar Omar. In the UK. Okay. A singer has been around for a long time.

Cav Manning [01:29:37]:
He, started, I believe, in the, like, late eighties, and he's still going today releasing music. Oh, wow. His music is a mixture of funk, reggae, African influences, hip hop, and but just blended in such a unique way. Nice. You know? And always in a way that gets you makes you just wanna

Raphael Harry [01:30:15]:
You can't sit still.

Cav Manning [01:30:16]:
Yeah. You can't sit still, man. Like, you know, he he always manages to get me. Alright. You know? And during

Raphael Harry [01:30:23]:
That that's what I'm talking about.

Cav Manning [01:30:25]:
Yeah. Always managed to get me. Omar. Omar. Yeah. Check out check out Omar from the UK. Okay. I believe he he, he he last year, he was over here.

Cav Manning [01:30:38]:
I was so mad because one of the dates got canceled, so I couldn't go and see him. Oh, no. He was performing in, Harlem last year, and the date of cancel, I missed it. But, if you get a chance to see him live, go and see him live. Or if not, like, check out his albums, man. Like, especially, like, like, the first three, four albums that he made. He's still making great music today, but those those those albums were groundbreaking at the time for me musically. And the 3rd artist that I would like to tip my hat to, I wanna make this I wanna, honor, a woman for the 3rd artist.

Cav Manning [01:31:39]:
But which woman should I honor? Old man from Tottenham? I could alright. Let me let me,

Raphael Harry [01:31:50]:
Greek?

Cav Manning [01:31:55]:
I think I'm gonna tip my hat to, Janet Kaye, who was a who a style of reggae music was birthed in London called Lovers Rock Oh. In the late seventies. Lovers Rock. Yeah. And, I had that. And she made possibly the most, the most hallowed, the most, admired, the most remembered, lovers rock tune for that era, which is called Silly Games.

Raphael Harry [01:32:49]:
That's probably a song that I've heard.

Cav Manning [01:32:52]:
Yes. Janet k Multiple songs.

Raphael Harry [01:32:56]:
Online games.

Cav Manning [01:32:56]:
Reminds me of all the reggae parties I used to go to when I was a youth, all the blues dances with the dreads, you know, in in Tottenham and North London, heavyweight sounds. I remember going to heavyweight sounds, and how a load of different different sounds that were that were killing it Yeah. At the time, when sound system culture was huge in in the UK. Mhmm. But, Janet Kaye. Yeah. Check out silly games if you haven't heard it.

Raphael Harry [01:33:34]:
Definitely not.

Cav Manning [01:33:35]:
Definitely a a perfect microcosm of a time and place.

Raphael Harry [01:33:40]:
Nice. Nice. Oh, well, 3 good. Very good recommendation. See, that that's what I like to. Alright. It worked. It worked.

Raphael Harry [01:33:47]:
My style worked.

Cav Manning [01:33:49]:
I I should have named some new artists too because I like you know, there's a lot of new artists Alright. That's 1. Some really creating some really good music. You want 1? 1. Let me think. Alright. I would say, tall black guy. That's the name? That's his name.

Raphael Harry [01:34:11]:
Oh, I was about to say, are you who's the that's the last name. There's actually a tall black guy who's on my street, and he's part of a group. Right. Tall black guy. Tall black guy. Are you trying to describe that guy, or is that the artist? But That's a good

Cav Manning [01:34:25]:
the name of the artist. Tall black guy. Guy. Makes, makes music that, reminds me of the music that I fell in love with originally. You know? It it has the same kind

Raphael Harry [01:34:41]:
of vibe. Was that?

Cav Manning [01:34:43]:
Well, he he mixes a lot of, soul and funk, and he uses he chooses, to source his music from those kind of eras.

Raphael Harry [01:34:55]:
A lot

Cav Manning [01:34:56]:
of it. Okay. You know, he re he remixes classic tunes as well. Mhmm. But he's just got a really, really cool sensibility when it comes to creating, beautiful music.

Raphael Harry [01:35:15]:
Now is he really that tall? Mhmm.

Cav Manning [01:35:18]:
Is he really that tall? He is really that tall, bro, and he's really that black. Alright. And he's really that much of a guy.

Raphael Harry [01:35:25]:
Okay. So he's keeping up with it. Yeah.

Cav Manning [01:35:27]:
It's not false. I'm not type. Not all false. No. Okay. He's correct in all three points.

Raphael Harry [01:35:31]:
Alright. So second to the final question. Yes. You in New York city. Yes. You're in Brooklyn. Yes. When it comes to your favorite go to cuisine.

Raphael Harry [01:35:47]:
What's that

Cav Manning [01:35:49]:
Gotta betray some culture right now. My favorite cuisine is the same as it was in London, which is Caribbean food. No. No.

Raphael Harry [01:36:02]:
No. No. No. No. We're not going

Cav Manning [01:36:03]:
Yard food.

Raphael Harry [01:36:04]:
No. No. No. We Caribbean is a whole, what, 20 24 countries? Food. No. You gotta pick 1. 1 go buy 1 country so that food. Can write in and say, hey.

Raphael Harry [01:36:16]:
1 of us You can go we'll know. I'll tell this guy, and I'll be like, alright. I'll give you his I have to draw press and he can

Cav Manning [01:36:22]:
go after that. You're asking me to draw a line in

Raphael Harry [01:36:25]:
the sand.

Cav Manning [01:36:25]:
Hell, yeah. And the line will

Raphael Harry [01:36:26]:
be drawn

Cav Manning [01:36:27]:
gonna come out. The line will be drawn around Jamaica. Jamaica? Yeah. That's what that's the food that I'm on.

Raphael Harry [01:36:32]:
Down on

Cav Manning [01:36:33]:
Jamaica. Down on Jamaican food. Alright.

Raphael Harry [01:36:34]:
You heard it from me.

Cav Manning [01:36:35]:
Absolutely. Yard food as we call it. Yard food.

Raphael Harry [01:36:38]:
Alright. Do you wanna buy my Jamaican jersey? You're right. Some piece. Jamaican.

Cav Manning [01:36:43]:
Your current what? Yard food. Sabangi.

Raphael Harry [01:36:46]:
Chicken. Jerk chicken.

Cav Manning [01:36:47]:
Mhmm. I was actually the first Don't play.

Raphael Harry [01:36:48]:
Food, the first food I had in America at the restaurant was Roti. Uh-huh. Yeah. They asked me if it was goat roti or chicken roti. I said, give me that goat.

Cav Manning [01:37:00]:
But I'm upset though because, I think my favorite Jamaican restaurant, which is on Fulton Street is closed. Oh, no. Yeah. On Fulton? Yeah. It's called, it was it was called Tasty Patty. Oh, nice. It's on Fulton Street just across from Restoration Plaza. And I think it's closed, man.

Cav Manning [01:37:19]:
You know?

Raphael Harry [01:37:19]:
Man, it's tough time for restaurants, man. Very tough time. It's it's yeah. It's not easy for them.

Cav Manning [01:37:26]:
Very tough time for restaurants, man. I wish, yeah, I'm I'm hoping that it's it's just a temporary situation and that it will reopen. Yeah.

Raphael Harry [01:37:34]:
I hope so too because I love to go try, yeah, parties. So it's, I I don't I try.

Cav Manning [01:37:41]:
They weren't even making patties, like, man. That's funny. There's, like, a patty shortage going on in New York right now.

Raphael Harry [01:37:46]:
Oh, man. That don't break my heart like that.

Cav Manning [01:37:48]:
I had to switch I had to switch to Haitian Haitian patty.

Raphael Harry [01:37:51]:
I I got a Haitian sister who she she hooked me up on that, so I can't I can't allow blasphemy against theirs right now because sometimes I get free parties from it. So No.

Cav Manning [01:38:01]:
I had to switch to I love the Haitian patties, man. Yeah. Yeah.

Raphael Harry [01:38:04]:
I love I mean, I still swear. We we call it meat pie. That you know?

Cav Manning [01:38:07]:
Meat pie.

Raphael Harry [01:38:08]:
Yeah. It was until I met my Trinidadian sister that, she was like, why why you call that? It's it's parties. I was like, what the hell wrong with you? It was just when I was, like, a year in America, and that's how I got into a fight. But, you know, I mean, she's still buddy for me. But, Yeah.

Cav Manning [01:38:22]:
She didn't, she didn't break off the friendship. Yeah. Yeah. But, I did the one of those cultural about it. Slip ups.

Raphael Harry [01:38:29]:
Because I I took a bite. I was like, girl, there's meat pie. I'm like, no. It's just It's a patty. It's a patty. I was like, it has chicken patty. It has, good no. Beef patty and Fish patty.

Raphael Harry [01:38:42]:
Patty. Other yes. Fish fish pie then, and but what the hell wrong with you people? What? I was like, But, yeah, I'll land. I'll land eventually. Okay. Okay. You guys got it. But in my end, you guys still call me to buy.

Raphael Harry [01:38:58]:
Mhmm. I mean, if you buy

Cav Manning [01:39:01]:
We like everything. It's cool, man. As long as it's delicious.

Raphael Harry [01:39:04]:
That's there you go. There you go. So, my brother, thank you for talking with us today. That is definitely part 1. This is definitely part 1. We're gonna bring

Cav Manning [01:39:14]:
it back together. The time just zips by, man.

Raphael Harry [01:39:16]:
I That's what that's what happens when

Cav Manning [01:39:18]:
Have we started yet?

Raphael Harry [01:39:19]:
Hey. That's what Apple's what the chemistry is good. You know? We got 2 cool people chatting. But, you know, we gotta wrap it up so that, you know, other people can come in here and record. So final question. Okay. What would you like to leave the audience with? It's your freestyle moment. If you wanna drop a rap, if you wanna, you know, sing, it's up to you.

Raphael Harry [01:39:40]:
But the final thing.

Cav Manning [01:39:43]:
What do I wanna leave the audience with? Let me,

Raphael Harry [01:39:52]:
Drop a poem. It's up to you. I have

Cav Manning [01:39:54]:
a little bit of a poem. Yeah. I can do, like I think I can do the first verse.

Raphael Harry [01:39:59]:
Okay.

Cav Manning [01:40:00]:
And, it was about, like, I told I told I told, everybody about the Greek girl Yes. At school. But my first serious time I fell in love, like, the first like, as an adult, this poem is about her. And, like, I can only remember the I'm only gonna remember the first verse right now. Oh, worries. Hopefully, hopefully. Alright. It goes like this.

Cav Manning [01:40:36]:
She was perpendicular, peculiar, irregular, acutely unfamiliar, like strange fruits. Shoot from the hip, kick like jackboot, fly without the parachute, spacewalk without the suit. Could she be an escapee from a mental institute, or have I the crazed eye, hypnotized in pursuit on a mad dash like the crashed bandicoots? Dynamite lives like nights in Beirut. Electricity. I don't know if I'm really ready to handle this. But from the first kiss, we were lunatics, progressed to sex power trips. She was Betty Blue to my black Heathcliff.

Raphael Harry [01:41:21]:
Thank you very much, Rafael. My man. Look. If I if I had written that, man, I I probably could have gotten that, Bahraini princess that I tried once. You know? I once wanted to catch when I was in the Middle East, but my wife my wife already knows the story, so she she cool with that. But, yeah, that's why I don't own an oil field in the Middle East right now, but I I didn't know how to compose words like that. But Aw. Hey.

Cav Manning [01:41:48]:
Thank you.

Raphael Harry [01:41:49]:
As we say, mbana in my language

Cav Manning [01:41:52]:
Thank you, WLA.

Raphael Harry [01:41:53]:
Hey. My wife's people say,

Cav Manning [01:41:56]:
and, Yeah.

Raphael Harry [01:41:59]:
Do you have anything you would like to plug in?

Cav Manning [01:42:01]:
Oh, okay. So, we didn't even get to the part where I all get about my organizing of parties and stuff.

Raphael Harry [01:42:08]:
Oh, yeah.

Cav Manning [01:42:09]:
Stuff that we're doing nowadays. But,

Raphael Harry [01:42:10]:
we're definitely doing the part 2. We're gonna talk about that.

Cav Manning [01:42:14]:
Okay. Yeah. I would definitely love to come back for a part 2. Who owe you that? We have, our storytelling sessions in Flatbush. So if you go to at gallery particular, on Instagram, you can get updated on that. Or if you come to my Instagram page at Comrade, lower dash, Cav, at Comrade, lower dash, Cav on Instagram, you'll be able to get informed of our storytelling session. If you wanna tell a story, come through, please. Welcome you.

Cav Manning [01:42:55]:
And then, also, we have a reggae party happening in Atlanta, at Miss Icey's in Decatur, and that's reggaerewind. And the next the next reggaerewind party will be on at, December 7th in, Atlanta, Saturday, December 7th. And, again, come to my Instagram page to find out details for that at comradecav@comradelowerdashcav. We will we will be having a big New Year's Eve party that I throw with my I wonder crew. And, the reggae party, reggae rewind will also be launching in January in NYC as well. And you can find out all these details at Comrade Cav on Instagram.

Raphael Harry [01:43:47]:
Awesome. I gotta send that information to my twin who lives in Atlanta. She's called my twin, but we're not biological twins. Yeah. So she she she would definitely come out with that. Please. Yes. Meet her, you're gonna be like, goddamn.

Raphael Harry [01:44:03]:
Goddamn. Yeah. That's all I'll see. Yeah. But, yeah, all the links will be in the show notes. So if you didn't catch it, the links will be in the show notes, and you can definitely check all of them out. And please do, and he's a great guy. Go support, you know, support keep supporting the show.

Cav Manning [01:44:20]:
And support White Label American as well.

Raphael Harry [01:44:23]:
Do that.

Cav Manning [01:44:24]:
Yeah. Super dope, man.

Raphael Harry [01:44:25]:
Thank you.

Cav Manning [01:44:25]:
Thank you, Rafael. Thanks for asking me to come and participate. I've had a great time. The time has just whizzed by. Right.

Raphael Harry [01:44:34]:
Well, Cav will be back. Trust me. You see it in great movies. I'm telling you right now, Cav will be back. it's gonna be a recurring guest. We're gonna have him here at Ashwin, our number one, guest who always comes back all the time and, you know, Kevin and Ashwin

Cav Manning [01:44:50]:
on the same podcast. I would be happy to.

Raphael Harry [01:44:52]:
You guys will love that because Ashwin will have plenty of questions for Cav. So trust me on that. So with that being said, keep the love coming in, share with your friends, check out our merch, donations, and 5-star reviews. If you give 4 stars, you're a hater. You know that. So thanks for being part of our journey. 5 star. Thanks for the privilege of your company.

Raphael Harry [01:45:15]:
Thanks for listening to White Label American. If you enjoy the show, please give a 5-star review on your favorite podcast app. You can follow the show on all social media platforms. Visit the White Label American website for links for donations, episodes, feedback, guests, merch, and newsletter. Don't forget to download the free White Label American app on the Google Play Store and Apple coming soon. Thank you for the privilege of your company.