Sunday Music: When Picking On Your Friends Makes A Hit ("Sometimes" By Bilal)

You know when somebody tells you how something is made, and then you just can’t get it out of your head?

“Sometimes” was a quasi hit for Bilal. It’s a song full of nuance. It feels vulnerable, and in the early 2000s, it was a different type of exposed to hear - all grey with no blacks or whites:

It gets stuck in your head too. It’s that kind of song. And your brain just runs with these ideas if you let yourself, which is one of the great gifts of Bilal’s approach. It’s true artistry. It’s uniquely him and his style.

I had never heard the origin story of the song though.

And, when I did, I can’t hear the song the same way anymore. Not because it ruined it. The story probably makes it even better, honestly. But I can’t hear it the same way because it is so obvious where it’s from. I simultaneously can’t believe I didn’t figure it out and know exactly why I didn’t figure it out sooner.

I was watching a Live at Glasshaus performance by Bilal (with Robert Glasper, Questlove, Burniss Travis, and Common), when 20 minutes in we get the story of “Sometimes” from Questlove. I’m going to paraphrase for clarity, but these are my notes from how he told it.

In 1996, Questlove is at Electric Lady Studios in New York working with D’Angelo on Voodoo. It was taking way longer than expected. In a brilliant move, Questlove tells everybody else he’s working with to come setup in New York because he was going to be there for a while.

D’Angelo is in the A room, Common is in the B room, and Erykah is in the C room, with all sorts of people in and out, from Dilla to Bilal to Q-tip. It was a scene. If you’re Soulquarians aware, you already know, and if you don’t, you should look this era up.

On an otherwise normal day, Common walks in all excited to tell Questlove and a small group of musicians that he’s going to audition for a role as a detective in a movie. He’s going to be an actor. The group is confused, but impressed. None of them were multi-hyphenate yet. But Common branching out was inspiring.

Common goes on to tell them that the co-star was going to be “old girl from Destiny’s Child” (which, he meant Beyoncé, “old” is just alt slang for “you know who I’m talking about”). Now the group is really excited for him. He walked out of the room glowing with his friends’ support.

[Imagine a fade out. Common exits looking excited. Now we fade back in for his return. Cut to Common walking back in through the door, and...]

His shoulders are hunched. He’s completely dejected. His friends are gathering around asking what happened. Common tells them, “Mos Def was there.”

Mos had been acting the better portion of his life already. He was the last person you’d want to compete with for a role. So the friends start to do what friends start to do, and they start picking on Common.

First they’re playing a Mos Def song. They’re changing the lyrics to “Umi Says.” They’re harassing him. Then Questlove asks James Poyser (keyboards, producer, and massively important to that moment), “what was old girl’s song?” And he called it out and they launch into “Bills, Bills, Bills” by Destiny’s Child.

Everybody is howling at this point. Common is covering his face. Bilal though - is getting very interested in this mashup of a beat. “Umi Says” and “Bills, Bills, Bills” has a thing going on. He wants to record something on it.

They waved to the engineer, and in one-take, they capture “Sometimes.”

Now if you listen to it, you hear that “Umi Says” groove at the top, followed by a subdued but very recognizable “I-don’t-think-you-do” pre-chorus pulse of “Bills, Bills, Bills,” and the track goes back and forth from there. You hear it and you hear what Bilal must have heard first in only his head. It makes COMPLETE sense.

All because their buddy didn’t make the cut in a movie and they had to make fun of him.

Every great creative moment of my lifetime rhymes with this story. Making a small group of friends smile is always present. Nothing great happens in complete isolation.

Even the hits start by making a few friends smile. That’s a truth. Every time. And,

Sometimes it really does just work out.