Let The Record Show: The Foreign Exchange (2024)

Following our debut episode of Let the Record Show with Talib Kweli, for our new installment we sat down with the Grammy-nominated duo The Foreign Exchange, an R&B/electronic group made up of vocalist Phonte Coleman and producer Nicolay. For those not familiar, the pair formed in 2002 after meeting on the OkayPlayer.com message boards. They earned their namesake by recording their first album over the internet, without ever meeting in person. Coleman was 1/3 of breaking North Carolina hip-hop trio Little Brother, while Nicolay was a budding producer from the Netherlands.

When Phonte wasn’t recording rap verses with 9th Wonder and Rapper Big Pooh, he would sing his heart out, creating smooth, electronically-tinged R&B cuts with Nicolay. Eventually Little Brother would break up, leading Phonte’s Foreign Exchange side-project to become his full-time gig. Fast-forward to today, they’ve released six albums together and built a loyal fanbase in the process. You can currently find Phonte as co-host of Pandora’s Questlove Supreme with Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson. He also just released an album this past July with Eric Roberson called Tigallero.

Once again, Let The Record Show co-host Warren Peace and I set to find out what songs inspired both Phonte and Nicolay’s creative tastes and led to their sonic output as The Foreign Exchange. Tracking down a list of cuts from The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Michael Jackson, Prince, A Tribe Called Quest, and others, they took us on a musical journey of tasteful selections and incredibly personal anecdotes, discussed as the vinyl records revolved on a portable turntable.

Below is the abridged text of the entire second episode of Let The Record Show with The Foreign Exchange. Watch the whole video for Phonte’s brilliant Al Green impression and a surprise bonus track at the end. If you enjoy this, please like, follow, share, recommend, tweet, subscribe, etc so we can continue to bring more episodes like this. Thank you for your support. — Mike Pizzo

1. A Tribe Called Quest “Electric Relaxation” • Midnight Marauders, Jive (1993)

Nicolay: “I think this record is everything that got me started down the path that I went down, with mellow, jazzy hip-hop. If I had to give you the nucleus, the DNA of my sound, I could give you any Slum Village record, I could give you a lot of stuff, but it all comes down to “Electric Relaxation.” [That’s true] for a lot of people. Just the placement of the track on the Midnight Marauders record, the loop, the sample, how they treated it, the drums, the verses, the video all just… for me, it’s just the beginning.

Mike Pizzo: And Phonte, the group name Little Brother came from being the “little brother” of the Native Tongues, essentially.

Phonte: Absolutely. This record, I remember my first time hearing it, I was on my way home from a high school wrestling match… My man had a tape and he had let me hold it. I remember listening to it and listening to it, and I was like “Man, this is crazy.” And then you flip the tape over, and that’s the first song on side two. I was just like “Oh my god…” That was one of the first times I remember hearing a record and really just feeling like man, how will I ever be this good?

Just like what Nic was saying, that was the moment for me where I was like “This is what I what I want to be. This is where I am, this is my aesthetic, this is the lane.” That was it.

Warren Peace: The thing I liked about this record, it was the one on the album that kept the dance floor. It had that groove, it had that feel, but it also still hugged the underground lane.

Nicolay: And a beautiful record, the sample. I think it reminds me of [Pete Rock & CL Smooth’s] “They Reminisce Over You,” and tracks like that, where they are no longer afraid to make something that was aesthetically really pleasing. Also the loop, it’s like in threes, it’s something different… The phrase is kind of off too, it just kind of keeps repeating, but it never sounds the same. It’s really quite mysterious how they get you into that track.

Pizzo: And the big thing about this track a couple of years ago was that everyone was like “What are they saying on the hook?” And actually Questlove had solved the mystery, when he did something on OkayPlayer and they figured it out.

Phonte: “Relax yourself girl, please settle down.”

Nicolay: And I still don’t hear that. The “settle down” part, I don’t know how he says it.

Phonte: It’s one of those songs, that you could tell me that he is saying “Relax yourself girl, please sell your dog,” and if you think that’s it, you can hear “sell your dog” in it, depending on what they tell you it is.

2. Heatwave “Star of a Story” • Central Heating, GTO Records (1977)

Pizzo: A Tribe Called Quest actually sampled this record for “Verses of the Abstract.” And Smif ‘N Wessun sampled this too on Dah Shinin’, for “Nuttin’ Move But the Money.”

Phonte: This is one of my top 5 love songs of all time. It’s one of those songs I gained a new appreciation for once trying to cover it. It didn’t work… At the time we couldn’t do it — I think we could maybe do it now. But at the time we were working on Connected and wanted to have a cover and we were like “Yeah, let’s cover ‘Star of a Story.” So Nic did the track and it was dope. So, we had a homie who was probably technically a better singer than Johnnie Wilder (Jr.), who is singing lead on this, but the feel just wasn’t right. It was one of those things where it was really about the feeling of the song. Someone can be technically a better singer, a better player, whatever. But if the feel ain’t there, it really don’t mean nothing. We were really aiming high, we did it and we were just like “You know what? Nah.”

Peace: So will we see this on the Foreign Exchange Lost and Found? Bootlegs and B-Sides?

Nicolay: The “lost” (laughs). It’s a whole other discussion, but a lot of that stuff is — it’s the same as the Prince vault. There’s things that are not out there for a reason. Whether it’s not finished, whether we didn’t like it. Even after the fact, there’s not a really a point to showing people how it didn’t work out.

Phonte: If at first you don’t succeed, erase all evidence that you tried… But yeah, a beautiful song. The production, I can’t say enough about it.

3. Al Green “Look What You Done For Me” • I’m Still in Love with You, Hi Records (1972)

Pizzo: Al Green has a very signature sound in his production. You don’t even need to hear his voice, once you hear the track…

Nicolay: It’s those drums.

Phonte: Yeah, the drums. And the strings, that are always kind of tinny and a little out of pitch.

Nicolay: A lot of organ on it. It’s a very distinct style. It’s the snare and the tom hit for me always, on all of these records.

Pizzo: On this record, “Look What You Done For Me,” you can also hear that same kind of intro as on “Let’s Stay Together.”

Nicolay: Which incidentally was our first record together [Little Brother’s “Light It Up”]. Bringing it all back, full circle, tying the knots.

Phonte: This was a record that I did not appreciate until I got older. I remember my stepdad would play this record all the time, the Al Green album. I just remember being in the back of the car and he would play this. My joint on the album was “I’m Glad Your Mine,” because of the [Eric B & Rakim] “Mahogany” drums. It’s been jacked all to hell. “Dead Wrong” by Biggie and Eminem… “Simply Beautiful” is “Good to You” by Kweli and Kanye. “What a Wonderful Thing Love Is” is “Player, Player” by Big Mike.

Al was always one of my favorite singers…His process too, he would really just go in and freestyle. The dude was a genius, man. This whole album.

4. Stevie Wonder “Send One Your Love” / “A Seed’s a Star” • Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants, Motown (1979)

Nicolay: As a kid, my mom had this record and what I loved was the braille on [the cover]. I never really knew what that was and then my mom explained that Stevie couldn’t see, or can’t see.

Phonte: There are certain records in the Motown catalog that I could always tell when the artist was starting to fall off, when you didn’t see that record in [fans’] collections. Up until this point, you would go to any black household and you would see every Stevie Wonder record.

Nicolay: Because this came right off of Songs in the Key of Life.

Phonte: So you would see Songs in the Key of Life or whatever. So then when I went to my aunt’s house and the first time I saw this, I was like, “Okay, what record is this?” I didn’t even know what it was. It was the same way for me with Here, My Dear by Marvin Gaye… It was one of those things, but you listen to it now and you’re like, “Damn, this sh*t was dope!” But it just wasn’t for its time.

Pizzo: And this album was actually a soundtrack to a documentary about plants…

Phonte: The documentary is on Netflix…It’s best watched high.

Nicolay: I first saw it on YouTube, because I don’t think it came out at the time [that it was filmed]. Either way, it wasn’t widely released. At some point it ended up on YouTube, that’s when I first saw it and it blew my mind. Because as a child I had literally heard this album thousands of times.

My mom had it, she had a very weird record collection. So she would not have Songs in the Key of Life, but she would have The Secret Life of Plants. She would always have the kind of dark horse.

Peace: What kind of records would be sitting aside it?

Nicolay: A Nina Simone record, Neil Young, Crosby Stills & Nash, Beatles, Jimi Hendrix. Just a plethora of 60s and 70s stuff.

Phonte: I choose it specifically because “Send One Your Love” was the song that made me quit piano. I was going to try and take piano for a while, and my teacher was like “So, bring in a song that you want to learn.” I brought that sh*t in — and this was a lady that had been playing piano for like 30 years, she was like a classical, concert pianist. She was like “Okay, Phonte, I think this is an F minor 13 chord and then it goes into this…” and that was just the intro. It took her ten to fifteen minutes to just figure out the intro. So then I came in with “Mary Had a Little Lamb” after that. Next choice was “Lean on Me,” or some sh*t.

That was another thing, kind of like with the Heatwave stuff, covering songs you see what goes into them. The thing with Stevie that is so genius to me is that it seems simple, because his melodies are so simple. Very simple, very catchy. But the sh*t he is playing up under that? Oh my God!

My aunt, I think she had this record. I remember, it’s one of the few times I can remember as a kid seeing my mom and dad together. I remember being in the car, sitting in the back seat and my mom and dad were talking, and that song was on the radio. And that’s one of the few memories I have as a kid of my parents being together.

Pizzo: And then we have “A Seed’s a Star,” which was Nicolay’s selection from this album.

Nicolay: One of the things that I credit this album with, is my love and fascination for synthesizers. Stevie, at that point, was such a pioneer. I just heard all of these sounds, and as a kid you don’t what that is, you’re just like “Oh wow, that sounds amazing.” And now, getting into to music, and figuring out what Moog and Yamaha keyboards are, you learn what he used. He had stuff built for him. A lot of these sounds at the time, they were different than just a guitar or piano. He had vocoders on there. This record, in a nutshell, is just a world in itself.

Phonte: It was a dope record. Coming off of Songs in the Key of Life, what do you follow that up with?

Nicolay: I think a lot of people at the time were disappointed about it, but for me personally, I think it is a more well rounded record than Songs in the Key of Life. Maybe because it was a concept record. It’s very focused. This track is just crazy. He killed it.

5.Michael Jackson “I Can’t Help It” • Off the Wall, Epic (1979)

Pizzo: “I Can’t Help It,” was your track, Phonte. And Stevie Wonder actually wrote this, right?

Phonte: Yeah, Stevie and Susaye Greene. I think Stevie wrote the music and I think Susaye Greene wrote the lyrics, or co-wrote the lyrics. But this is actually one of the few times that [Stevie & Michael] hooked up and it was actually dope, because their other collabs were not good. They did “Get It,” which was on Stevie Wonder’s Characters album. They had another jam, “Just Good Friends,” which was on Bad. Those were not good. But this one, they got it right.

It’s just a perfect song. To me it’s a great example of the difference between being “correct” and being “right.” The last verse of this song — the kind of ad-libs he’s doing — he’s singing in the wrong key. It’s technically wrong, but that sh*t is right.

Peace: This album is loaded with hits, unbelievable songs. But like the previous records, you picked the slow song of the album. Did you always gravitate to the more melodic, more of a “feel” song, versus girl-get-up-and-dance tracks?

Phonte: I just always went where other people weren’t going. “Don’t Stop ’Til You Get Enough” and “Workin’ Day & Night,” that sh*t was everywhere. We were always dancing to those songs. They were at every family reunion. It wasn’t until I got older that I went past the hits and was like “Oh sh*t, what is this?”

Then when De La Soul sampled it on “Breakadawn” and mixed it with the Smokey [Robinson’s “A Quiet Storm”], I was like “Oh my god, ya’ll are assholes for this sh*t!” That sh*t was so dope.

6.Prince “Condition of the Heart” • Around the World in a Day, Warner Bros. Records (1985)

Peace: This was after Purple Rain. He was high on Purple Rain and then *boom*, this came out.

Nicolay: Yeah, he did most of it before he even embarked on the Purple Rain tour. So it’s essentially something that he had up his sleeve. It was his heyday, if you will. He did Purple Rain, he had this album up his sleeve, and once he came off of the tour, he was working on Parade, a month later. That’s not even counting The Family album, The Time, Sheila E, Apollonia.

This might get a little emotional… I still got a hard time with it, I’ll be very honest with you. This track, before he died, when I first listened to it, I just imagined him [by himself recording the track], because this is one of those records that is all Prince. The way that the record builds up, with the piano and the sound effects, I just always imagined him doing it alone at Sunset Sound in Hollywood. I think it’s one of those tracks — especially coming after the Purple Rain tour where everything was wild and crazy, a hundred people on stage — where he breaks it all down and goes for that gut moment. There’s a lot in it. Even going back to it and re-listening to it, there’s new stuff that pops up to me all the time. The lyrics are really good, his delivery…

Phonte: I have to admit, this was a cut I used to skip. (laughs)

Pizzo: It’s definitely a deeper cut.

Peace: This was the one where you went to take a shower and when you came out you were like…

Phonte: “Oh, it’s the same song.” (laughs)

Nicolay: I think it just shows his genius. Just the feeling, the passion. The fact that he could do that on his own, to me, still to this day, is something I could only strive for, and never — possibly ever — reach. And it’s probably right.

7. Beach Boys “I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times” • Pet Sounds, Capitol Records (1966)

Pizzo: With Pet Sounds, basically, when Brian Wilson heard The Beatles’ Rubber Soul, he was super-obsessive and was like “Okay, I’m going to blow that out of the water.”

Nicolay: And he kind of did, depending on what you believe. Then they did Sgt. Pepper’s.., and he did Smile and lost his mind.

Phonte: And lost his mind. That record just dropped a few years ago.

Nicolay: It literally did, it took him 50 years to finish that sh*t! Just to show you how shook he was. (laughs)

Phonte: The original Detox! (laughs)

Pizzo: I want to read this selection from Cuepoint. Charles J. Moss did a piece about Revolver, Brian Wilson, The Beach Boys and The Beatles. Listen to what he wrote:

“…as 1966 neared its end, the group began work on ‘Strawberry Fields Forever,’ a song written by Lennon that would guide the band’s musical direction in the coming year.

In 1967, when Brian Wilson first heard the song, he pulled over in his car, broke down in tears and said, ‘They got there first.” Then, later that year, after hearing the Beatles’ next album, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, he had a nervous breakdown.”

Nicolay: Isn’t that crazy? But how real is that? That somebody with his talent can still be trumped, in his mind, or even in the mind of others.

I could have literally picked each and every track on this album. I chose “I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times.” A lot of this record [is amazing], in terms of sound and instrumentation, and just how he formed the three-dimensional image of the sound, knowing that he was actually deaf in one ear and couldn’t really hear everything going on. He was one of the first to use electric bass and acoustic bass at the same time. He would have four or five guitarists do the same riff in unison. He would have crazy percussion instruments. And this was in the time when you couldn’t load the plug-in, you needed people.

This was the time when they had the Wrecking Crew, which was the group of musicians, because at that time, the Beach Boys no longer played on their own records. Brian wanted more and more, and so this is 20–25 people playing. If you want to talk about a perfect album, I don’t think they get more perfect than this. The vision, the lyrics… I think he’s called it “a teenage symphony.” It’s very angst-y, this record “I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times.”

Pizzo: Yeah and that encapsulates what he was going through and his whole creative process at that time. Because what the Beach Boys’ where doing prior was “Surfin’ USA” and all these cheesy “California Girls” type records. So when this came along, it was a statement.

Nicolay: His own band members weren’t f*cking with it. Mike Love famously just hated the record. He thought it was just a lot of hippy bullsh*t. He didn’t understand the lyrics. He wanted more “Help Me, Rhonda,” because that was money in the bank. It didn’t even sell as well when it came out.

Pizzo: But nowadays, Rolling Stone calls this the #2 album of all time.

Nicolay: Time proved what it was. He was already on his own trip. He was no longer touring with them, so there was already kind of a rift. So this was kind of the last hurrah for Brian Wilson, before he literally succumbed to his desire to keep wanting to one-up himself and The Beatles. The Smile story, which people may not know, is that he literally went crazy.

8 The Beatles “Dear Prudence” • The White Album, EMI Records (1968)

Nicolay: “Dear Prudence,” I think is evidence of the fact that Paul McCartney is one of the best bass players ever. People don’t really name him, but just how it starts is incredible. That bass line is brilliant.

Pizzo: Do you know the history of this song?

Nicolay: I guess it was when they were in India with the Maharishi, I think Prudence was the sister of Mia Farrow…

Pizzo: Yeah, and she got obsessed with meditation.

Nicolay: Right. They were trying to get her out of the room, literally. “The sun is out, the sky is blue…”

Pizzo: “Just chill on the meditation for a second. Really though. I mean we’re all for this sh*t, but you just need to come outside.” (laughs)

Nicolay: The Beatles telling someone to chill on the meditation in itself is very ironic.

Listen to all of the songs talked about in this episode in the Spotify playlist below.