NJS4E: Take me back to the beginning. How did you end up meeting DeVante Swing and then becoming a member of Da Bassment?

I was at high school but I had always been doing music. What happened was DeVante & the other members of Jodeci came to Rochester which was my hometown, to record The Show, The Afterparty, The Hotel. DeVante also came over there to produce an artist called Renee Anderson who had just gotten a deal with Interscope Records and she was from Rochester as well. When DeVante came to meet Renee, she introduced him to a particular family and this family ended up taking Da Bassment crew in- showing them around the area and helping them out whenever they could. Low and behold, during that time when they were in Rochester and were hanging with this family, I just happened to be dating a young lady that was part of that family. And it’s through her how I initially met DeVante. I was 18.

NJS4E: So like the others you were pretty young too. Did meeting him happen fairly quickly?

Actually, DeVante had been in Rochester a whole year prior to me meeting him. I worked 10 minutes away from the studio they used to record at but I never stopped by. Everybody used to always encourage me to go down there to introduce myself and show him my talent but I never did. I always thought if it’s meant to happen, it will happen. How we met wasn’t at a musical event, concert or anything like that. The lady I was dating usually attended this particular church on a Sunday and it was this same church that DeVante and everyone else would visit when they wanted to attend church.

At that time, I wasn’t really religious- I had no church background or anything, but because of this particular young lady and because she was at this church, I would occasionally go and visit. It just so happened that on one particular Sunday when I went to visit her, DeVante & Da Bassment crew happened to be there too. After that service, I introduced myself to DeVante and he asked me to do something on the spot-impromptu- so I started rhyming and singing, and he was thoroughly impressed. We exchanged numbers and he asked me to come down to the studio that Sunday evening.

That Sunday evening, my business partner and I went down to the studio and that’s when I saw everybody else for the first time. But that evening when I went down there, an altercation had broken out between someone from DeVante’s camp & someone from the city of Rochester and because he didn’t want me to get tied up in it & mistakenly involved, he told me to leave and come back later in the week. In my mind, at the time- y’know I’d been doing music so long and had met so many people who’d say whatever you wanna hear- I just thought he was just giving me the run around- I put it down to the fact that the moment had passed with him and nothing was to come of it. I totally stepped back from the whole situation- didn’t pursue it- didn’t call him or anything.

That following week, my mother took a phone-call while I was out and although she was familiar with the group Jodeci she didn’t recognise the name of the man on the other end of the phone, who wanted to talk to me- DeVante. She mentioned the name to my sister who obviously got excited – telling my mother "DeVante?! That’s DeVante Swing from Jodeci- you gotta get that message to Tobias!"

Obviously I got home later that evening and my mother gave me the message to call DeVante back and so I did. When we spoke, DeVante was like, "What happened, man? Where you been? I’ve been waiting for you to come into the studio! What’s goin’ on?" and so I told him I thought he wasn’t serious and that we were just a bit of entertainment for him that Sunday. He was like, "Nah man, I want you to come on over- I’m really interested in you being a part of what we’re doing."

So I went over to the studio and we began to discuss the work he was doing. He told me he was just about to go on tour with Da Bassment project and that he’d be honoured to have me be a part of Da Bassment crew. So of course I was like – yeah, cool! That must have been around the early part of 1995.

NJS4E: That must have been a special moment for you-especially to get signed by the man behind the biggest R&B group at the time? Were you a fan like the others?

Of course it was a special moment to be considered by DeVante to be a part of such a phenomenal movement. The idea of a highly creative musical movement comprising of singers, rappers and producers was something no one in hip-hop or R&B had yet thought of nor accomplished- that really was the product of DeVante’s genius and imagination. And the fact that everyone that fell under the group had supreme talents- to be considered to be a part of that amazed me at the time.

Even though I was a rapper and my musical style was hip-hop, I always appreciated Jodeci & what DeVante brought to the R&B industry- I mean, at that time the two titans in the R&B industry were Jodeci & Boyz II Men and DeVante’s artistry was undeniable. I always had utmost respect for him because of that.

You have to remember though, the way I met DeVante was different to the way the other artists met him. I met him on different terms- not as a die-hard fan looking to be signed and him being my producer. I met him in a social setting, man to man, establishing a relationship as a friend. That’s one of the main reasons I feel I have a very unique perspective on Da Bassment situation, only because I didn’t meet him in awe of his successes, Grammy nominations and platinum plaques. We met each other on a mutually respectful leveI whereby I met him as a man with a heart in his body just like I had a heart in my body - the musical opportunity really only came after when I joined Da Bassment at the beginning of 1995.

NJS4E: So were you the last to join out of the original members of Da Bassment then?

Yeah- I was the last artist that was part of the original Bassment crew. The group had already been formed for a while before me and were known as ‘Swing Mob’ initially. As the concept grew under DeVante, the name changed- probably around 2 years later- between ’92-’93. Da Bassment crew itself used to be called The 45.4 Q Clique.

NJS4E: ’45 point 4 Q clique’- what does that stand for?

Well there was this house that DeVante owned in New Jersey when he first got the inspiration to put the crew together. The address of that house was 454, Queen Anne Road. The 45 point 4 Q clique was an abbreviation for that. So that’s what Da Bassment crew was originally called and at that time he didn’t have all of the original members- he had Sista, Sugah, Darryl Pearson, Playa, Tim, Magoo & Ginuwine. In ’94 when he moved everyone down to Rochester to produce Jodeci’s album & Renee’s project- that’s when the rest of us joined including other Rochester artists- and the name of Da Bassment crew came up. And that name came up because of the way that the studio was-we all worked in the basement. Although there were multiple studio rooms in this one particular studio building we worked in, a lot of the groundwork was made in the basement of that building. And what we liked about that name was not just the fact that a lot of the work was done in the basement- but also the analogy behind it which we thought was kinda cool- the idea that the music we were living and doing at the time was taking it back to the old school basement party. That’s why the first single that was supposed to come out of the bassment project was "Nothing But A B Party Y’all."

NJS4E: Aaah, it all makes sense now. In DeVante’s "Gin & Juice" remix video you’re all wearing t-shirts that say "Nothing But A B Party Y’all" with the Da Bassment crew logo?

Yeah, we just liked the play of words and the connection- us being Da Bassment crew, working in the basement but also taking it back to the days of the basement parties. So yeah that’s how Da Bassment came about. The final five artists that became a part of the original Bassment Crew movement were Boogie (now called Bazaar Royale), Mr Brendal, a young lady by the name of Reebok, another female artist from Virginia, who ironically was called Virginia as well, and myself.

NJS4E: Who would you say you were close to in the crew?

I would say and I’m pretty sure everyone would respond like this, probably DeVante. But I had a more personal or intimate relationship with Playa – Static, Smokey & Black, and also with Sugah. I’d say I was closest to them. Actually I grew up with Tweet (an ex-member of Sugah who as you know came out as a solo artist) before Da Bassment, because she was from the same neighbourhood and went to the same high school and was real good friends with my brother and sister. I was very close to Mr Brendal and Reebok too. DeVante and I had a very good relationship but I would say those artists were my closest friends out of the crew. As a crew though we were very close in general, because obviously we were all part of the same crew- we recorded together, we travelled together, we lived together, we looked out for each other, we were working towards the same end goal together- so I mean if you think about a bunch of artists doing that day in and day out, it’s inevitable that those experiences would make you closer. We were a family.

Special Feature: Da Bassment - Accion Pt. 2

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