Add a Little Sugar
Charlie Bereal
Feature Interview
“So that’s right, head down to Clifton’s BBQ on North Catalina Avenue,” says the deejay, in the midst of a live read - a jock with an old-school-lean, a dip in his hip and a glide in his stride. “It’s only fi’ dollars for the Hot Link Sandwich,” he continues. “That ain’t five dollars, that’s fi’, without a ‘v’ and without an ‘e’—no additives or preservatives. Now, dig it, we got a new cat on the stone-cold side of Death Row Records, and he’s lightin’ up the airwaves. Goes by the name of Charlie Bereal, which is all I’ll ever be. Real, baby. This here’s The Greatest, also featuring Snoop Dogg, a Libra. Stop whatever you’re doin’ and give ‘em a big ol’ round of applause. Blessed blackness…”
A slow-your-roll drum intro gets flooded with violins, horns and a harp as Charlie Bereal croons in glorious falsetto, recalling ’70s blue-heart sweet soul - the perfect diction of The Stylistics’ Russell Thompkins Jr, the delicate tone of The Moments’ Billy Brown, and a reverb that’s pure dramatics.
“This is for the greatest… greatest love of all time,” Charlie harmonises with himself, multi-tracked.
As owner and CEO of the reborn Death Row Records, Snoop Dogg lays down a laid-back verse, holding court like Harold Melvin over a Blue Notes session.
“Sunshine, blue skies, as we float - in a yacht, not a boat.” He raps to the object of his affection, no doubt from the opulent surrounds of his Beach City Music studio compound in Inglewood.
With a stable slanted towards classic R&B, Snoops latest signing, Charlie Bereal, is a bona fide soul maestro. Three albums in; Charlie’s self- released debut Testimony, sophomore set 11-11-11 (reissued by Colemine Records) and now his third album but first for Death Row, Walk With The Father – scrobbled by Snoop after a tip off from trumpet player and lyricist Josef Leimberg.
“I had these songs from back in the day,” says Charlie, from a sunlit corner of his home in Pasadena. “I let Josef hear them, and he offered to mix ‘em for free,” Rocking a Donny Hathaway-style leather newsboy cap, gold-rimmed tinted glasses, black leather jacket, tee and gold chain – he looks every bit the Soul Brother No.1.
“Josef said, ‘Hey man, you got about 10 nice songs here that sound like an album.’ He put that in my head.”
Multi-instrumentalist and arranger Leimberg is like a neo-fusion, next-gen Eddie Henderson—a spiritualist with a neat line in cosmic hip hop. He made his name on Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly, but Astral Progressions, his solo album, is his masterpiece. While Charlie sat on the songs - happy to throw out the odd single - Josef heard something bigger.
“Josef said, ‘Hey man, you know you got about 10 nice songs here that sound like an album.’ He put that in my head. Pitching it to Snoop was his idea.”
Charlie had crossed paths with Snoop before. As a crack session guitarist and sideman – working with Jay Z, Kanye West, Jamie Foxx, Missy Elliott & Beyoncé – Snoop (and occasionally a marijuana cloud) would often waft passed. The first time, his cousin, an engineer for Snoop, arranged a meeting giving Charlie the bigun only for Snoop to say ‘Hey’ and breeze straight past. The next time, Charlie, playing in Jamie Foxx’s band, was sat in a hotel lobby.
“Snoop walked in, like ‘laaaaaaaa’,” says Charlie, who starts to laugh, lifting his arms like the heavens opened. “And that was the Snoop Dogg right there, walkin’ with his long hair hanging down.”
Charlie sent Snoop three songs. Never Gonna Take Away My Love, Hope and Wherever You Are.
In the time it took to play them, Snoop shot back: “I want these cuz!” - with fire emojis.
“Snoop was like, ‘These are hot!’” says Charlie. “It felt like a good fit. Being around him backstage, Snoop always played old school ‘70s soul – Curtis Mayfield, Willie Hutch and The Delfonics - it was a no-brainer.”
At 11, wee Charlie Bereal met Snoop’s former labelmate and producer Dr. Dre. After Dre served time for the infamous high-speed car chase, Charlie visited his mansion with his dad - Dre’s parole officer.
“Dre asked my dad if he could sign me,” says Charlie, laughing. “My dad was like ‘Nah, you can’t sign him.’”
Death Row is transformed under Snoop. No longer all up in the news headlines for the wrong reasons. Studio A might glow Crip blue, but the vibes more blue lights in the basement.
“Before I signed the deal, Snoop asked me to pray on it.”
“It’s not the same Death Row anymore,” Charlie says. “Just from the talks me and Snoop had, he made me feel very comfortable – no negativity. He represents peace and love. We’re both god-fearing men.”
They had worked together once before, on Snoop’s Bible of Love project - an assignment that planted the seeds of their connection.
“Even before I signed the deal, he asked me to pray on it,” says Charlie. “It was such an easy decision for me.”
Snoop invited Charlie to create at his compound, complete with basketball court, a casino called Doggyland and movie studio. It’s where The Greatest Love Story was a shot, a promotional film directed by Snoop (who appears in it) along with Jo Lenz.
“Ah man, we got dope actors - Juliah Taylor plays Victoria; Big Jah as Sugar Bear; Watts Homie Quan - he’s killin’ it worldwide, funny, a great actor, real L.A. culture.”
It’s a showcase for the Death Row setup with show-stopping Bereal performances in the third act á la Purple Rain (with labelmate Danny Boy getting the Dez Dickerson support slot). But the highlight? Charlie, just his guitar and a falsetto, auditioning an acoustic version of Hope for manager Sugar Bear. The song, nodding to the Impressions and Curtis Mayfield, was also released to promote Walk With The Father. It opens the album, hopping straight onto the carousel like Some People which carries that same Impressions uptown soul bag.
“This one is for our city.”
Deverion Mavkey
“That’s definitely me paying my respects to Curtis,” says Charlie who counts Curtis Live! as a favourite album. “I wanted to give that that same energy to the world. To give God back His first fruits for blessing me - because so many people would love to be in my shoes.”
Already scheduled for release, the song dropped as Los Angeles burned – with the wildfires at their peak. Charlie like many of his peers (the director Jo Lenz lost his home), evacuated and joined community relief efforts. The message struck a nerve. “This one is for our city,” a fan commented on his post.
For the music, Charlie did most of the heavy lifting at home and at his Bereal Studio in North Hollywood, playing drums, bass, guitar and all the vocals. “All the bells and whistles were added at Josef’s.”
In an Instagram reel, Charlie’s at Leimberg’s Ironworks studio, walls lined with classic soul and funk LP’s - Love Unlimited, Leroy Hutson, Parliament, Mass Production - painstakingly adding fuzz guitar à la Norman Whitfield to My Only One, and the gorgeous, honeyed sound of the sitar to the Thom Bell-styled Never Gonna Take Away My Love.
“I’m in my Delfonics bag on that one,” says Charlie. “My wife is from Philly, and her cousin was related to William Hart. She told me, ‘You sound just like my cousin. We love you - keep doing what you’re doing.’ That gave me inspiration.”
The visceral beauty of those Philly sweet soul records is captured expertly. The raw, garage-band rhythm sections – the heartbeat – elevated by lush and sophisticated string and horn arrangements.
“I’m in my Delfonics bag on that one.”
“I wanted to use Josef’s expertise at arrangement, We were chilling in the studio, and he was like, ‘Man, these are some good tunes.’” Josef pulled out the horns. Called Ryan Davis on trombone, Edan Frei on strings, Sean Sonderegger on flute and horns - and that was it.
“Ah wow, so dig it,” says the deejay as Never Gonna Take Away My Love fades out. “I just chowed down my Po’ Boys Brisket – that ain’t ‘Poor’, y’understand, it’s Po’ – mighty fine brisket, care of Clifton’s BBQ on North Catalina Ave – and I get handed a note that tells me only four people make up that orchestral arrangement. Yo, for comparison? Don Renaldo’s Strings & Horns with MFSB had 17 players. That’s seventeen of the mutha-bleeeeep—” (the station producer censors quickly). “Imagine that. Four players. Have mercy, phew…”
The album centrepiece - and surely future single - is the gorgeous, sweet soul monster Wherever You Are, one of the initial demos Snoop heard. Charlie first composed it at Raphael Saadiq’s Blakeslee Studios.
“I was there for another artist, and the music just came to me - that hook, that’s all I heard. I wasn’t even thinking about using it for myself. Then Raphael walks in like, ‘Man, what’s this?’ He was like, ‘You need to keep that one - don’t give it away!’”
Sweet soul’s all over Charlie’s streaming playlist – along with neo-doo wop, Billy Stewart’s “Cross My Heart”, the Temprees and beyond.
“Man, that’s all I listen to. All day. The falsetto soul of the ’70s. I’ve been singing falsetto a long time – it just comes out naturally.”
Marvin Gaye - no slouch in that department – was another guiding light. Detroit’s finest inspired the title cut Walk With The Father (as he does, for labelmate October London, whom Charlie produced on Don’t Waste My Time from October Nights).
The song opens with the line: “I came to L.A. to be a star!” - a long-lost Trouble Man gem in spirit, complete with an a cappella coda à la I’ve Got My Music.
Marvin pulls up to him in a Rolls-Royce…
“My dad met Marvin,” says Charlie. “He was riding down Crenshaw on his motorcycle, and Marvin pulls up to him in a Rolls-Royce like, ‘Hey man, I like that bike!’ Then he says, ‘Let’s trade!’ So, my dad followed him back to the studio driving his Rolls.”
Marvin had a studio on Sunset Boulevard in 1975 and invited Charlie’s dad up to jam on percussion—though he cut it short, using the family as an excuse.
“My dad always said, ‘I couldn’t stay because of all y’all!’” Charlie laughs.
It’s fitting that the album was named after both the heavenly father and Charlie’s dad, who passed away.
“My faith in Jesus is my protection,” says Charlie, whose gospeldelic influences seep through every channel of his creativity. “It also sounds like something my father told me to do. That’s why I gave the album this name - because I’m walking with my father. He exposed me to this music.”
Also, in the Marvin wheelhouse is Wife Soul, which didn’t make the album but got released after Snoop heard it echoing through the Beach City Music halls.
“Dogg’s gotta say something on this!”
“He was like, ‘Mayne, wass that?! You need to finish that one.”
Snoop added it to Death Row Revue, an album showcasing the roster, alongside Charlie’s duet with Jane Handcock I Can’t Recall It.
“I write a lot of songs,” Charlie says, laughing. “That was one Snoop heard walking the hallways.”
Snoop was just as quick to decide to contribute to The Greatest.
“I had an open space, and I was like, ‘Dogg’s gotta say something on this.’ Sent it to him and he sent it straight back.”
Toxic Love, featured prominently in the mini-movie, is a scintillating ballad—reverb-heavy, nodding to Chi-Town’s The Sly, The Slick & The Wicked. Though, in a welcome change of pace, several tracks crank up the groove, adding variety.
There’s the chicken-scratch strut of Come Go With Me, featuring Aaron Frazer of Durand Jones & The Indications (Charlie’s due to work with him again soon).
“Uptempos aren’t my bag, so I brought in Aaron on drums.” TaRon Lockett plays drums on Energy, which credits J. Mo and the Greats - J. Mo being long-time collaborator and Grammy-winning guitar hotshot Jairus Mozee (fellow Grammy winner after Charlie’s award-winning guitar work on Bring It On Home To Me with PJ Morton, BJ The Chicago Kid and Kenyon Dixon).
“Jairus and I work together a lot—I mean a lot! One day we were at the house, and what you hear on that record? He freestyled that guitar solo in one take.”
“J. Mo freestyled that guitar solo in one take.”
Charlie wrote Don’t Want to Get Up with his wife, Cherese—a song resembling The Moments in party mode.
“Sometimes your girl or your wife gets on your nerves—won’t cook, walks in front of the TV,” Charlie laughs. “Couples go at it, bicker—we just wanted to make light of that.”
And what did his missus think of the pretend Jet Magazine cover—Charlie in furs, flanked by scantily clad girls like he’s at the Player’s Ball?
“She was OK with it, because she knows that it’s just a spoof. My daughter, on the other hand, was a bit more suspicious!”
Every weekday starts with Charlie taking his daughter to school. He then grabs a coffee at Copa, spends the day in the studio, collects his daughter, and heads home to his wife and son.
“I look at it like this: it took so long to get here, with the right people, that since this album came out, I've been working like I don't have a situation.”
Bereal’s on a mission. Prolific at Death Row, he’s landed tracks on upcoming projects by labelmates Jane Hancock, Jenn M and Kurupt.
“Man, I’ve just got so much music.” He says wide-eyed.
“Oh I’m sorry, ‘scuse me,” cuts in the deejay, mouth full. “I was just finishing off GG’s Combo from Clifton’s BBQ - that’s Grandma Gloria's Combo, a plate built by a queen. Mmm-hmm, delicious.”
“So that’s the lowdown on Charlie Bereal,” he continues. “The hardest working man in the soul business! You can check out Walk With The Father on Death Row Records—soon on vinyl. Online, on-rhyme and right on time. Dig it.” And with that, he fades out with an oldie but goodie – Charlie’s cover of Curtis Mayfield’s The Makings Of You.
Charlie’s strums his Fender Jaguar, and he begins to sing…
“Walk With The Father”
is available to Stream Here.
Words by Dan Dodds | Comic Art by Longnose
All photo’s by Dae & Dallas
Originally Published on this site March 27th, 2025