Ed Cage (EC) and Nicole Paris (NP)

EC: When mom was pregnant with you, I would get right up on her stomach and beatbox to mom’s belly [beatboxes] and you would feel the vibration –

NP: [laughs]

EC: – and when I did that you would just shake. And one of the greatest joys of my life was actually seeing you being born.

NP: Were you prepared at all to be a father?

EC: No –

NP: [laughs]

EC: – no, I wasn’t prepared. I was 16 when we had your brother, so when I said, ‘Okay I’m going to do this’, I threw everything into it.

NP: You had like two, three jobs… How many did you have?

EC: No I had four jobs –

NP: Four jobs?

EC: – I had so many jobs at one time, Nicole, I was going to the wrong job.

NP: You know, you being away so much growing up, that was hard.

EC: Yeah, I didn’t want to be the dude that came in and left. So I had to figure out how I was, as a father, going to connect. And you would always like to hear me beatbox, so you used to sit up on my lap and you would just bang your head trying to keep that beat going.

I remember one time, you was making a whole bunch of crazy sounds. And I told you, ‘I don’t know what that is!’ But then I had to check myself and say, ‘Well, whatever you want to do, Nicole. That’s what you do, okay?’ And now you go to sleep beatboxing, when you wake up we’re beatboxing. When we’re cooking, when we’re driving… So when you and I communicate with each other, we can do it by beats.

NP: Yes. Let’s say, if I don’t agree with something that you’re doing and I feel angry –

EC: Why you just roll your eyes at me? [laughs]

NP: [laughs] Because you make me mad!

EC: [laughs]

NP: I’ll do more of a bass beat, kind of like [beatboxes]

EC: Yeah, I can tell when you’re not feeling good. Because your beats are [beatboxes with low energy] Real down.

NP: Yeah.

EC: – But when you are feeling like ‘Oh, I’m ready to take on the world!,’ you’re [beatboxes with high energy].

NP: Right. Pops, I love the bond that me and you share.

EC: You know, baby. It’s – it’s something, Nicky. To see you go out into the world continually trying to be the best that you can be, I just absolutely love that about you. And as a father, that’s all I can ask for.