"The Tootsee Roll Story” Thrill of 69 Boyz on Hits, Addiction & Life | Felix Sama Podcast #8

**Felix Sama** (0:06)
The 69 Boyz did what every artist wants to do. They made a record that moved the clubs, crossed over to mainstream, and still feeds the culture decades later. This conversation should pull out the real story behind the hit, the team, the business, the lessons, and what Thrill sees when he looks at today's music industry. What are you living at in Jacksonville now?

**Thrill** (0:29)
No, I live down by Tampa near Lakeland.

**Felix Sama** (0:32)
Okay, okay.

**Thrill** (0:33)
What's small?

**Felix Sama** (0:34)
You like it out there?

**Thrill** (0:36)
Yeah, yeah, it's quiet. It's like in between Orlando and Tampa, Albondale, Lakeland area. It's real quiet.

**Felix Sama** (0:45)
Yeah, man, that life on the road, boy. You gotta love it.

**Thrill** (0:48)
And do it, it's a good thing, you know.

**Felix Sama** (0:50)
You're used to it. You probably feel like naked without it, man.

**Thrill** (0:55)
I used to I when I used to come on off the road from the first run with Tootsey Roll, I would get hotels. I wouldn't stay at my house because I was just so trained. You know what I'm saying? Like for a good six months, I had to I went through that.

**Felix Sama** (1:09)
That's crazy. I would never I would never have a problem going back home.

**Thrill** (1:13)
Yeah. Yeah. No, it's just it was just so trained in me, man. I think it was a part of the just the detox of, you know, going from two days and just constantly 365 days a year.
You just don't know how to function. Sort of like when you go from being clearheaded and then you get addicted to a substance. You feel like with that substance, without that substance, life not moving as fast. You know what I mean? So it was just fame was the substance and not just being out there in that motion. I guess I was trying to continue living that part of it until I had to snap out of it and realize, you know, hey, that part is over. Go to this phase, you know, because it's still all the alphabet and you got to conquer each one. But sometimes we get stuck on the F of fame and don't want to move to the next G of gross and how to manage it.
And H of health and humanity. You know, every alphabet partakes in it. And we have to stop at everyone and respect the process. But sometimes you get stuck at different. Some of us get stuff stuck at X, S for sex. And we just get a bunch of babies and can't move past that letter. You know what I mean? So but I got past it.

**Felix Sama** (2:35)
Interesting observation.

**Thrill** (2:37)
Yeah. That's how I work sometimes.

**Felix Sama** (2:39)
I always love talking to you because we have these profound conversations and we really dig deep into, you know, the history of the nineties and the music that we were making.
And the things that I was doing on the radio, the things that I was doing in the clubs. Obviously, you know, the 69 Boyz was, was a big part of my music catalog and my heavy rotated go-to records. So, you know, we're gonna, we're gonna talk about bass music. We're gonna talk about teamwork. We're gonna talk about longevity. Longevity. We're gonna talk about touring. We're gonna talk about ecosystems, maturity, today's artists, the legacy that you guys are laying down. What do you want people to remember about the 69 Boyz when it's time to shut it off?

**Thrill** (3:29)
Yeah, man, that we, that our goal was to make music for people to have fun.
It's in us and destiny and no matter what era we came from or no matter what walk of life we took to get there, because people don't realize in the 90s, all the street dudes, it was based music period. So it's not like we had gangster rap and the gangsters did no gangster dudes was partying. And then we was going to dance with the girls in the club in the biker shorts. You know what, I'm going to have fun. So you know, I want people to know that it wasn't about the thing for us. We always felt that if it was a party that the party would need party music and we wanted to supply that.

**Felix Sama** (4:12)
Yeah. And I know that you've mentioned before that some of your inspirations were the two live crew and groups from Miami.
How much did that take a recording in your music? How much of that substance took to the studio with you? How much of that did you take to the studio with you?