Latest / The Bootleg Kev Podcast / #72 - Drag-On
Transcript
- 0:03Speaker 1: Alright, hey, welcome to the bouleg Cavs show Man. Hope
- 0:08Speaker 1: everyone is enjoying their evening, etc. Whatever time of day
- 0:12Speaker 1: you're listening to this shit. All right, hey, listen, we
- 0:14Speaker 1: got a dope episode with dragon Man Rough Riders own
- 0:17Speaker 1: the legendary drag On. If you grew up like me
- 0:20Speaker 1: listening to DMX, listening to just Rough Riders, those compilations album,
- 0:25Speaker 1: you know all about drag Man. Drag was like, he
- 0:28Speaker 1: was like the proof that Eminem's proof. You know how
- 0:31Speaker 1: proof is? What the fuck am I trying to say?
- 0:35Speaker 1: He was the proof to DMX is Eminem, you know
- 0:41Speaker 1: what I mean? Shout out to drag Man, all right, listen,
- 0:45Speaker 1: had a dope conversation with him. Unfortunately, the audio got
- 0:47Speaker 1: a little fucked up. So if you noticed the audio
- 0:49Speaker 1: sounds a little weird, shit happens on our end. It's
- 0:52Speaker 1: all right. It's still still a good listen, so check
- 0:55Speaker 1: it out. Dragon talking about all kinds of shit, DMX
- 0:58Speaker 1: passing away obviously dope Rough Rider stories. Shout out to
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- 1:47Speaker 1: let's get into this interview with Dragon right now. Yo,
- 1:50Speaker 1: boutle CaMV Podcast Special guests. Man, the Dragon is here.
- 1:54Speaker 1: Thank yous going on? Bro welcome man, Yeah, yes you
- 1:59Speaker 1: are yo. So you just put your first album out
- 2:04Speaker 1: in how many years? My last album was Held Him Back?
- 2:08Speaker 1: So I think that drive in three or Old four,
- 2:11Speaker 1: So that was my last album. So that's almost twenty years. Yeah,
- 2:15Speaker 1: twenty years, because I mean it's close to twenty Why why,
- 2:19Speaker 1: like what happened? What has been going on with you? Like,
- 2:21Speaker 1: why has it taken that long to put a project out? Man? Well?
- 2:25Speaker 1: And oh six, no, oh seven? Eight, I had to
- 2:29Speaker 1: get my releasement for more for roth Riders. So I
- 2:32Speaker 1: finally got my releasement, but it took me years to
- 2:35Speaker 1: fight them to really get out of my contract with that.
- 2:37Speaker 1: And then and then by the time I got out
- 2:40Speaker 1: of my contract and eight, I had my daughter, me
- 2:44Speaker 1: going back and forth with lawyers and stuff like that.
- 2:46Speaker 1: Trying to get out of my contract. Made me go broke. Yeah,
- 2:50Speaker 1: I went, I went broke. I was twisted. My baby
- 2:53Speaker 1: mom was taking care of me for the first two
- 2:55Speaker 1: three years and I mean get oh, I mean and
- 2:58Speaker 1: uh then that for that uh I mean, uh, it
- 3:03Speaker 1: took me a while just to really start generating some
- 3:05Speaker 1: money again, world what I'm saying. So that was like
- 3:07Speaker 1: a real setback. Cause now I don't use all my
- 3:11Speaker 1: money to get out of my contract. But it wasn't
- 3:13Speaker 1: like I had other deals on the table right my
- 3:16Speaker 1: daughter now, which is on the table now. So I
- 3:19Speaker 1: me do with me just dealing with that and you know,
- 3:22Speaker 1: but by the same time in O six, I started
- 3:26Speaker 1: my company hood environment that I'm putting out on my
- 3:28Speaker 1: music on now. It just took ten years for everybody
- 3:31Speaker 1: to catch on, cause people didn't catch on to it
- 3:33Speaker 1: til like two thousand fifteen, two thousand six m and
- 3:35Speaker 1: then people started catching on to what I'm doing and
- 3:37Speaker 1: stuff like that. But you know, it's just been the
- 3:40Speaker 1: grind world in cause I was doing the real and
- 3:42Speaker 1: then everything out of the pocket. Yeah, I think it's dope,
- 3:46Speaker 1: like for you to be so transparent with that because
- 3:48Speaker 1: I feel like a lot of people they might see
- 3:52Speaker 1: rappers and think, well, you know, this guy was on
- 3:54Speaker 1: Rough Riders, he had a deal, he had two major
- 3:57Speaker 1: o uh major uh label releases and and uh you
- 4:01Speaker 1: know sometimes like a lot of times, rather like you're
- 4:07Speaker 1: like like it's it's it's hard to get really really
- 4:13Speaker 1: rich off a rap, you know what I'm saying, Like
- 4:16Speaker 1: you might get in advance, but you're obviously gonna spend that,
- 4:19Speaker 1: and then once that's spend, it's like, you know, So,
- 4:21Speaker 1: So I think that's dope because a lot of people
- 4:23Speaker 1: got to understand both sides of the coin. You know
- 4:25Speaker 1: what I'm saying, Like the end of the day, everyone's
- 4:28Speaker 1: bills need to get paid. That's right. Everyone bills got
- 4:31Speaker 1: to get paid. Everybody is parents now say so, you know,
- 4:37Speaker 1: and everybody got responsibilities at the end of the day,
- 4:39Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. So you know, it was
- 4:42Speaker 1: a real grind for me world because I already had
- 4:45Speaker 1: too much bread and then I was trying my best
- 4:47Speaker 1: not to go back to the street and stuff like that,
- 4:50Speaker 1: and then eventually I eventually had to go back to
- 4:53Speaker 1: hustling on the street, you know what I'm saying. So
- 4:55Speaker 1: you know, I was using that money to bring myself
- 4:57Speaker 1: back into the forefront. It took a couple of years.
- 5:00Speaker 1: It's because my career was pretty much over and five
- 5:03Speaker 1: I would say, oh five or six, she was done.
- 5:06Speaker 1: So you had to go back to get to putting
- 5:09Speaker 1: your feet in the streets and you getting money that way. Damn, Yo,
- 5:16Speaker 1: It's crazy because I always think of your story as
- 5:18Speaker 1: like kind of like a what if. Like damn, like
- 5:21Speaker 1: Rough Riders the hottest shit moving in music period, right,
- 5:25Speaker 1: Like I went to the Hard Knock Life tour and
- 5:27Speaker 1: I left before jay Z got on, Like I literally
- 5:30Speaker 1: was there to see DMX. That was it. I was there.
- 5:34Speaker 1: I think Jay did one song and me and my
- 5:36Speaker 1: cousins left. I was thirteen maybe, but we're there for DMX.
- 5:40Speaker 1: That was it, you know what I mean? But like
- 5:43Speaker 1: you were like the perceived air apparent to the throne
- 5:50Speaker 1: of rough riders. It was like you were on starking,
- 5:54Speaker 1: Hell is hot, You're on flesh, my flesh. You were
- 5:57Speaker 1: on the you know the rough riders call those rough
- 5:59Speaker 1: Rider compilations were crazy like and it really felt like
- 6:04Speaker 1: they were positioning you to be like, Okay, we got
- 6:07Speaker 1: exes the flagship, but we but obviously we got to
- 6:12Speaker 1: have some some young young guns as well. What what
- 6:16Speaker 1: do you think went wrong in regards to your career
- 6:20Speaker 1: and maybe just the whole entire rough rider situation because
- 6:22Speaker 1: it definitely there could have been worse situations for you
- 6:24Speaker 1: to be a part of it at that time, because
- 6:26Speaker 1: at that time that was the that brand was scorching. Yeah,
- 6:30Speaker 1: I mean you know, like what like what means that
- 6:33Speaker 1: I had like a manager that was like fully behind me,
- 6:38Speaker 1: you said, like I always shared with d MX. DMX
- 6:45Speaker 1: was like a real protector for me. So I mean,
- 6:47Speaker 1: you know, I mean, like his management. I had that management,
- 6:52Speaker 1: his movie agents. I had those movie agents, like I
- 6:56Speaker 1: never really had your own people. I'm going drag, right,
- 7:01Speaker 1: just drag, you know what I'm saying. I never had
- 7:02Speaker 1: a movie agent that was like, okay, I'm going hard
- 7:04Speaker 1: for just drag our auditions for those parts because X
- 7:08Speaker 1: put a good word in from me, like yo, I'm
- 7:11Speaker 1: not gonna shoot this X one unless you use drag
- 7:14Speaker 1: on as my brother. He looked like me, that's my homie.
- 7:17Speaker 1: It makes sense. The BIBB is there, let's go. And
- 7:19Speaker 1: that's how I got that right the next one. But yeah,
- 7:22Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. But you know that's how
- 7:24Speaker 1: I got that movie. Yeah, and then it led to
- 7:26Speaker 1: another movie and stuff like that, you know what I mean.
- 7:28Speaker 1: But the reason why that stops because I want something
- 7:31Speaker 1: happened with him as far as Hollywood it's out. Yeah
- 7:36Speaker 1: they yes, right, It wasn't like somebody else that could
- 7:40Speaker 1: be like okay, dragons. Also, those agents, those managers, obviously
- 7:44Speaker 1: DMX is gonna be their priority because at the time
- 7:45Speaker 1: he's probably bringing in so much money, you know what
- 7:48Speaker 1: I mean? What he what he sold thirty over probably
- 7:51Speaker 1: over thirty million vers just in by himself. I don't know,
- 7:54Speaker 1: it's crazy. I mean then, look, you did have a
- 7:57Speaker 1: lot of people who we see come out of cruise
- 7:59Speaker 1: that are you know, are big like that don't get
- 8:01Speaker 1: the chance to put out two albums. We see a
- 8:04Speaker 1: lot of like people who are get signed. Like think
- 8:06Speaker 1: about all the artists on Rough Riders have never even
- 8:08Speaker 1: dropped an album. There was a lot like when I
- 8:12Speaker 1: came to Roughriders, it was Casino big stand. Yeah, I
- 8:21Speaker 1: gotta go back. I'll go back to like the Rough
- 8:23Speaker 1: Riders like compilations and I see some of the artists.
- 8:26Speaker 1: Was somebody named Parlay? Was this Parlay? Uh? There was
- 8:32Speaker 1: a was there someone named I know remember young Bird
- 8:36Speaker 1: when he was a kid? Was was uh? I remember
- 8:39Speaker 1: when we first met Young Bird and extrap Young Bird
- 8:42Speaker 1: on that was we met him on what these bitches
- 8:47Speaker 1: want from that video set? Came through like a little kid,
- 8:52Speaker 1: But I ain't go from he always like Young Bird
- 8:54Speaker 1: was always like a boss, very talented kid man a
- 8:57Speaker 1: little kid when he came through right, but his entourage
- 9:01Speaker 1: he had like six different big who is this year?
- 9:05Speaker 1: Like he always moved like a boss even before he
- 9:09Speaker 1: was that. But that's one thing that I can vouch
- 9:10Speaker 1: for that dude. He always was a boss as a
- 9:12Speaker 1: little kid. Still is man doing his thing. Hit shout
- 9:14Speaker 1: out to hit maker man. He always like when I
- 9:18Speaker 1: met him, he was like, I don't know eleven, but
- 9:22Speaker 1: Boston it. He walked up on DMX with six big
- 9:25Speaker 1: security guard like, what's up? That's crazy? Got cool. At
- 9:31Speaker 1: the peak of the rough Rider ship, right you're on
- 9:36Speaker 1: tour your I mean, ship has gotta be great. But
- 9:40Speaker 1: like what like, like what point in time did you,
- 9:44Speaker 1: like do you remember vividly being like, oh, ship, we're
- 9:47Speaker 1: like the hottest motherfuckers in the world because legit like
- 9:51Speaker 1: rough Riders for like that run man, there was nothing.
- 9:55Speaker 1: It was like all this puff daddy shit was happening
- 9:57Speaker 1: and then boom, DMX came in, ripped all that ship
- 10:00Speaker 1: away and was like, nah, man, no more of that
- 10:03Speaker 1: shiny suit ship. This's a whole new energy. Like what
- 10:07Speaker 1: we did, we just made it fear for regular dudes
- 10:12Speaker 1: on the street, like just regular dudes that just happened
- 10:14Speaker 1: to be nice. We made it a big platform for
- 10:18Speaker 1: them to be successful too. You don't necessarily gotta be
- 10:22Speaker 1: fining around in the video and stuff like that. No,
- 10:24Speaker 1: disrespect to the boy. I'm a big fan of that,
- 10:27Speaker 1: of course, but no, but it was like you had
- 10:29Speaker 1: that big budgets to those kind of videos to where
- 10:32Speaker 1: we made it to where you can actually wear regular jeans,
- 10:34Speaker 1: and they told the homies to come out. Yeah, obviously
- 10:41Speaker 1: with X passing, man, I mean, share your thoughts, like,
- 10:43Speaker 1: I like, where were you at? Like, you know, obviously
- 10:46Speaker 1: you and X had a very close brother brotherhood, and
- 10:49Speaker 1: you know, I mean that poster has been there since
- 10:51Speaker 1: before he passed. X. More of my all time favorites,
- 10:55Speaker 1: you know. And I was ship that shit had me
- 10:58Speaker 1: fucked up man driving through New York City having Hot
- 11:01Speaker 1: ninety seven on and they're playing his ship and I'm like,
- 11:04Speaker 1: damn man, Like, but but where were you when you
- 11:08Speaker 1: found out about it? Man? I was in His family
- 11:11Speaker 1: actually called me, you don't like it's actually blood family
- 11:15Speaker 1: really called me, and it was like drag, you know
- 11:18Speaker 1: what I mean. You know, we're about to take him
- 11:19Speaker 1: off of the life support and stuff like that. So
- 11:22Speaker 1: I kind of knew he passed away before a lot
- 11:24Speaker 1: of people knew, you know, you know, like before the
- 11:26Speaker 1: media knew, you know what I mean. So I was
- 11:29Speaker 1: already hurt him down. You know what I'm saying, Yeah,
- 11:32Speaker 1: it's rough man, cause it it felt like we saw
- 11:36Speaker 1: that verses with Snoop, It felt like he was in
- 11:38Speaker 1: such a good place. I love to see him. I
- 11:42Speaker 1: love to see him with a belly because I was like, oh,
- 11:44Speaker 1: he's eating good, you know what I mean? Like good
- 11:47Speaker 1: and like the greatest part about that too, was that
- 11:51Speaker 1: dmx is was always a Snoop Doggie Dog fan. Like
- 11:56Speaker 1: when I was watching him versus and stuff like that,
- 11:58Speaker 1: that's all I was thinking about him because I know
- 12:01Speaker 1: the type of fan he is for Snoop. You know
- 12:04Speaker 1: what I'm saying, Like he really respected like like Snoop Dog.
- 12:07Speaker 1: He respect that dog. Right there, I ain't gonna fun.
- 12:09Speaker 1: That's one person that he always was a fan of.
- 12:11Speaker 1: So that's why we watched some of the verses, like
- 12:13Speaker 1: some of the records that he put on. Did you
- 12:15Speaker 1: see x get up like, oh hold on, this was
- 12:17Speaker 1: my really was fun? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, that was real
- 12:20Speaker 1: And that was actually like, oh snap, this is my
- 12:22Speaker 1: joint right, I remember? That was your relationship with x
- 12:25Speaker 1: uh Did you have one prior to the Rough Righters
- 12:27Speaker 1: thing or did you like how how did you come
- 12:29Speaker 1: into the fold. Were you like, like with him before
- 12:31Speaker 1: the rough Riders or like explain your guys' history. Uh, well,
- 12:36Speaker 1: D you know what I mean? You know, D the
- 12:38Speaker 1: general is the one that put me on the map,
- 12:42Speaker 1: the one that believed in me first before everybody. And
- 12:48Speaker 1: he brung me up to the studio and and it
- 12:52Speaker 1: was like to battle DM Max. But I didn't even
- 12:54Speaker 1: know it was a battle because I never was battling
- 12:56Speaker 1: at that time, you know what I'm saying. I found
- 12:58Speaker 1: out very fast though, you know what I mean. As
- 13:00Speaker 1: soon as I got in there, boom, he was right there.
- 13:02Speaker 1: They didn't quite waste any time too. I was like,
- 13:05Speaker 1: I got there, what's up? What are you doing? Yo?
- 13:06Speaker 1: Drag yo yo? Turn that beat on my quick boom
- 13:11Speaker 1: and it was straight like that. And then he just
- 13:13Speaker 1: started rapping, which was and then I'm listening to his
- 13:17Speaker 1: floor and the style of delivering. I'm listening to all that.
- 13:20Speaker 1: I'm like, Okay, this dude was incredible right here. But
- 13:24Speaker 1: at that time I was so hungry, you find trying
- 13:26Speaker 1: to say, so I still kept going back at him,
- 13:28Speaker 1: back at him, back at the back, And next thing
- 13:31Speaker 1: you know, a whole hour went bound. We were just
- 13:33Speaker 1: back and forth, trading bars, and even though I lost
- 13:36Speaker 1: that battle like the whole time. Yeah, I said, we
- 13:39Speaker 1: probably battle four hour. I lost four hour, you know
- 13:41Speaker 1: what I mean, But he respected it, like you know
- 13:44Speaker 1: what I mean, you know, like to the max. Like
- 13:45Speaker 1: he he just just like, you know what, I think,
- 13:48Speaker 1: we're gonna keep this dude right here. I like this
- 13:50Speaker 1: dude you gonna trying to say. And it was just
- 13:52Speaker 1: something that he always said that was just in my
- 13:54Speaker 1: eyes that reminded, uh uh that I always just minded
- 14:03Speaker 1: me right right right right, Yeah, yeah, I think like
- 14:08Speaker 1: you guys were it was It's almost like you guys
- 14:10Speaker 1: were so synonymous with each other, you know what I mean.
- 14:12Speaker 1: It was like, yo, you see DMX, you see Drag
- 14:14Speaker 1: Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah. I say, like like the
- 14:17Speaker 1: whole Batman and Robin thing that was set up us
- 14:21Speaker 1: our joint was actually genuine What year was that because
- 14:25Speaker 1: obviously this was prior to his first album, So when
- 14:28Speaker 1: like when was this? That was nineteen ninety seven, ninety seven,
- 14:32Speaker 1: album came out in ninety eight, album came out in
- 14:34Speaker 1: ninety eight. After that, you know what I mean, you know,
- 14:36Speaker 1: like right after we battled, It's like me and him
- 14:39Speaker 1: got super cool. So Or had bought a house in
- 14:42Speaker 1: North Carolina and sent us out there. So he worked
- 14:45Speaker 1: on his first album and I worked on my first album.
- 14:47Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying the opposite eight two oh yeah,
- 14:53Speaker 1: at the same time with him in the house in
- 14:55Speaker 1: North Carolina. While he was working on this shit in
- 14:57Speaker 1: their room, I probably was in another room in my
- 14:59Speaker 1: room was is working on my ship? Do you you know?
- 15:03Speaker 1: There's so many profound songs on his first album. I
- 15:07Speaker 1: think that Uh Damien is one that always sticks out
- 15:12Speaker 1: to me as one of my favorites. That's one of
- 15:14Speaker 1: the songs that he wrote in North Carolina with us
- 15:17Speaker 1: in the house, and that's one of that's great. You
- 15:19Speaker 1: said that in the world. I was like, he was
- 15:20Speaker 1: actually just discussing that that's one of the fastest songs
- 15:24Speaker 1: he wrote. He actually timed himself. He said, you know what,
- 15:26Speaker 1: I'm gonna see how fast I could write. You know,
- 15:28Speaker 1: I just wrote a song before that fast kind of fast,
- 15:32Speaker 1: but didn't have the hook. He said, you know what,
- 15:34Speaker 1: I think I could write even faster than that. And
- 15:36Speaker 1: I mean because I think he had just knocked out
- 15:37Speaker 1: a song with like two and a half hour's whole
- 15:39Speaker 1: song boom, right, so he try to top that, and
- 15:42Speaker 1: he topped it with Damien. He wrote Damien in an
- 15:44Speaker 1: hour and a half Wow, hook and everything that that
- 15:47Speaker 1: whole him playing two different people. Yeah, nah, that's X
- 15:53Speaker 1: doing that. And he wrote both of those parts and everything.
- 15:58Speaker 1: So you're you were in there while he's writing this,
- 16:01Speaker 1: and uh no, But I'm curious because, like obviously him
- 16:06Speaker 1: rapping from the perspective of the you know, the devil
- 16:09Speaker 1: or whatever you wanna called Damien. You know, yod what's up?
- 16:12Speaker 1: You are smooth? So like was like did he have
- 16:16Speaker 1: the like like talk about the concept, Like how did
- 16:18Speaker 1: he come up with that concept? Because if you guys
- 16:20Speaker 1: were there, I mean, that's crazy. That's that's one of
- 16:22Speaker 1: the crazier records on his first album. That like always
- 16:25Speaker 1: just sticks out to me. Yeah, yeah, like that right there.
- 16:28Speaker 1: That was something he was actually dealing with in life
- 16:32Speaker 1: and reality, you know what I mean? That right there?
- 16:33Speaker 1: So that was real FN, Like that was I'm telling you,
- 16:35Speaker 1: that's the fastest record if because it always fell to
- 16:38Speaker 1: me as a kid, not knowing any better. I always
- 16:41Speaker 1: thought to myself, Damn DMX sold the soul to the
- 16:44Speaker 1: Devil and then Belly came out, and then the opening
- 16:48Speaker 1: scene there's the Little Boy and he's quote shit from
- 16:52Speaker 1: Damien and I was like, oh my god, he did
- 16:54Speaker 1: sell this. This shit is crazy. Now. Mind you, I'm
- 16:58Speaker 1: a grown adult now and I'm no better her. But
- 17:00Speaker 1: like I really thought, I was like this motherfucker DMXI.
- 17:03Speaker 1: He's really like you know what I'm saying. Like, so
- 17:07Speaker 1: that was something he was like really battling with, just
- 17:08Speaker 1: kind of like the battle with just just just what
- 17:13Speaker 1: life generally like. He had a hard life. Yeah, so
- 17:19Speaker 1: you know what I mean, you know, just falls him
- 17:21Speaker 1: growing up as a kid and stuff like that. You
- 17:23Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. He's really from the streets, so
- 17:25Speaker 1: you know it's times he had to hold in the
- 17:27Speaker 1: street and being a homeless and I've been homeless. There's
- 17:30Speaker 1: a lot of artists that actually came into this game
- 17:33Speaker 1: being homeless of course and having nothing to go to,
- 17:36Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. So that was some of
- 17:37Speaker 1: the demons, you know what I'm saying that that you
- 17:41Speaker 1: might be fighting. It might be something like like I'm
- 17:44Speaker 1: hungry right now, and it's a lady and and that
- 17:48Speaker 1: person looked real nice and I'm hungry right now, and
- 17:52Speaker 1: I'm contemplating even though you're a good person, you might
- 17:55Speaker 1: you might but you like I'm starving, Yeah, but you
- 17:58Speaker 1: might have to make a hard decision. These are decisions
- 18:01Speaker 1: that he had to deal with. So he was just
- 18:05Speaker 1: he was just able to capture it, you know what
- 18:07Speaker 1: I mean, you know and put it in his music.
- 18:09Speaker 1: You know, I saw I watched the U the Rough
- 18:12Speaker 1: Riders uh bt thing. Uh I figured what what what
- 18:16Speaker 1: they call? I watched not not not the memorial the
- 18:20Speaker 1: documentary the docu series they did. Was it last year? Yeah? Yeah,
- 18:24Speaker 1: And I didn't realize that. Uh. It's crazy because Swiss
- 18:27Speaker 1: coming up as a young guy in the camp, you know,
- 18:32Speaker 1: with some favoritism because of the family situation. But there
- 18:35Speaker 1: was like a some of the other producers kind of
- 18:38Speaker 1: felt some type of way about Swiss's like a sentence
- 18:42Speaker 1: in in you know, obviously Swiss is an all time
- 18:45Speaker 1: great producer, Like how was how how was it being
- 18:49Speaker 1: around Swiss early on before he was like a thing,
- 18:52Speaker 1: because he became a thing real quick. His sound became
- 18:55Speaker 1: very distinct, very fast and automatically. I think everyone just
- 18:59Speaker 1: had was beats beats, But early on like you know,
- 19:02Speaker 1: he was a kid, he was started off as a
- 19:04Speaker 1: DJ obviously, but like, did you kind of always see
- 19:07Speaker 1: that in Swiss? Like I was like at the time,
- 19:11Speaker 1: I was just so busy working on my album. I was.
- 19:14Speaker 1: I was just working on Opposite at age two. Well,
- 19:16Speaker 1: I was trying my best to get beats from anybody,
- 19:18Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, trying to get some ship.
- 19:19Speaker 1: The DMX didn't take. You probably got all the hot ship. Yeah,
- 19:22Speaker 1: I was, I was. I was. I was actually trying
- 19:25Speaker 1: to get beats from uh Swiss, p K Grease right an,
- 19:32Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. You know, like a lot
- 19:34Speaker 1: of my stuff, I always work with a lot of
- 19:35Speaker 1: up and coming producers. But that's what I just always
- 19:38Speaker 1: was just focused on. I was just focused on that fire.
- 19:43Speaker 1: The rough Rider compilations were very, very historic, and you
- 19:50Speaker 1: had some of your I think some of your dopest
- 19:52Speaker 1: moments on those. Uh what was it like like when
- 19:57Speaker 1: you guys are making those compilations where they're record Like,
- 20:00Speaker 1: would you guys like purposely go in and be like, Yo,
- 20:02Speaker 1: we're working on Ride or Die Volume one, that's what
- 20:06Speaker 1: we're working on. Or was it like, hey, look who's
- 20:10Speaker 1: got extra records and everything I put together? Like how
- 20:12Speaker 1: how did those songs come to be? You know what
- 20:15Speaker 1: I mean? Like we are lay like we alay some
- 20:18Speaker 1: records and stuff like that, and some records to make
- 20:21Speaker 1: it there and some records to make it there, you'll say.
- 20:24Speaker 1: So that's what it really was, Like a lot of
- 20:26Speaker 1: people do it. The song with Me and juven Now
- 20:30Speaker 1: was gonna be on my album it made it to
- 20:35Speaker 1: and it might it might have should have been on
- 20:36Speaker 1: that on your album because that would have been a single. Yeah,
- 20:40Speaker 1: a lot of people say that, you know what I'm saying,
- 20:41Speaker 1: But they wanted that look for that. So it was
- 20:44Speaker 1: just like certain songs just where you know, I mean,
- 20:47Speaker 1: you know, like wherever they wanted it to go, you
- 20:49Speaker 1: know what I man me, My job is just writing
- 20:52Speaker 1: and just trying to lay as more songs as possible.
- 20:55Speaker 1: What was it like having the Locks be brought into
- 20:57Speaker 1: the fold? Because at the time I was se the
- 21:00Speaker 1: Locks were some of the hottest artists in New York.
- 21:03Speaker 1: There was the huge Bad Boys split and you know,
- 21:07Speaker 1: we are the Streets is a bible for a lot
- 21:09Speaker 1: of people out here, you know what I'm saying. But
- 21:10Speaker 1: what was that like, because like, Yo, think about the
- 21:12Speaker 1: competition within just the crew. It's you, it's X, it's Eve,
- 21:18Speaker 1: it's the Locks. I mean ship young one was fire.
- 21:22Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, Like, like, what what was
- 21:24Speaker 1: that like? Having the Locks come into the fold. I've
- 21:29Speaker 1: always seen them in the fold, Like I've never really
- 21:32Speaker 1: seen them out the fold. No matter where they was at,
- 21:34Speaker 1: it was always you know, they always was like Locks
- 21:36Speaker 1: are there before me? Oh they were there already. Yeah,
- 21:39Speaker 1: I mean I felt like, yeah, it was like some
- 21:40Speaker 1: younger ship. Really it was like some wild ship. Never
- 21:43Speaker 1: was really not there, you know what I mean. You know,
- 21:47Speaker 1: I mean like me, since the first day I got
- 21:50Speaker 1: over there, they always was there. X was there, you
- 21:53Speaker 1: know what I mean. You know, give me some some
- 21:56Speaker 1: some some of your fondest memories of being on tour. Well,
- 22:00Speaker 1: first of all, we could talk about the h There
- 22:02Speaker 1: was a rough Rider's Cash Money tour, which was pretty dope.
- 22:05Speaker 1: But the the tour that I remember that we talked
- 22:07Speaker 1: about was that Hard that Hard Knock Life Tour, which
- 22:10Speaker 1: is like a moment in hip hop method Man and
- 22:13Speaker 1: Red Man flying through the air. I knock like to it.
- 22:16Speaker 1: With the tour that prepared me for the Dcast Money Tour.
- 22:19Speaker 1: You know, I mean that actually prepared me, you know
- 22:21Speaker 1: what I mean, because I actually had to come out
- 22:23Speaker 1: twice and perform, you know what I mean. You know,
- 22:27Speaker 1: on the Hard Knock Life tour, you know what I mean.
- 22:29Speaker 1: So it gave me a taste of being an artists.
- 22:33Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. You don't performing in front
- 22:35Speaker 1: of hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people, you know
- 22:37Speaker 1: what I mean. So, you know, it kind of it
- 22:40Speaker 1: kind of molded me, you know what I mean. Of course, yeah, yeah,
- 22:50Speaker 1: what because I did that tour. The dynamic of Hove
- 22:52Speaker 1: in d m X at the time was so interesting
- 22:54Speaker 1: to me because obviously they were both at the top
- 22:57Speaker 1: of their game. There was all these rumblings about there
- 23:01Speaker 1: being that murdering group with him and jaw Rule and
- 23:05Speaker 1: and Hove and and uh. I think anybody who you
- 23:08Speaker 1: would have probably asked at the time probably would have
- 23:10Speaker 1: said the DMX should probably close that tore out, you
- 23:12Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. At the time, obviously jay Z's
- 23:15Speaker 1: the greatest of all time, but at that time DMX
- 23:18Speaker 1: was scorching, like scorching was there, like like how was
- 23:26Speaker 1: their relationship because we watched the Hard Knock Life documentary
- 23:31Speaker 1: like I mean, you know, like for a DMX and
- 23:35Speaker 1: and whole, Like I wasn't there for that, so I
- 23:37Speaker 1: don't really know what that was. I know it was
- 23:39Speaker 1: always mutual respect No, for sure, it was always respectful,
- 23:43Speaker 1: but like there had to be some sort of friendly
- 23:44Speaker 1: competition you would think between like I mean, you know,
- 23:48Speaker 1: but but that's just New York, Like, yeah, always who's
- 23:51Speaker 1: the King of New York? Talk? Yeah, that's that's that's
- 23:54Speaker 1: that's what that's about. That's that that's the New York
- 23:57Speaker 1: thing that you know what I mean, you know, we'll
- 24:00Speaker 1: always in competition with each other. You know, that's just
- 24:03Speaker 1: New York. So yeah, I feel like New York is
- 24:05Speaker 1: probably the most competitive city and hip hop everybody, especially
- 24:10Speaker 1: back then, because everybody was who's the King of New York?
- 24:12Speaker 1: I think he's gone, So who's the king of New York?
- 24:16Speaker 1: It was like is it Dove? Is it ghost Face Killer?
- 24:18Speaker 1: Is a DMX? Is it is it Fat Joe? Is?
- 24:21Speaker 1: That's crazy? So obviously you know what X passing the
- 24:25Speaker 1: way he did. Man, you know, he's had a troubled,
- 24:27Speaker 1: uh history when it comes to I mean also a
- 24:30Speaker 1: very open history when it comes to his his you know,
- 24:33Speaker 1: use of certain substances and stuff like that. Was that
- 24:36Speaker 1: something that was like was that something that everyone around
- 24:40Speaker 1: him kind of knew was going on? Or was it
- 24:43Speaker 1: something that became worse over time? Like yeah, with the drugs,
- 24:48Speaker 1: any drugs around me. Ever, not one time I put
- 24:51Speaker 1: that on my daughter. He knew nothing to do that
- 24:53Speaker 1: around me. So I don't really know too much about
- 24:55Speaker 1: the drugs, like like like far as the drug and
- 24:57Speaker 1: I put this on my daughter, my grandmam, Mom's everything,
- 25:00Speaker 1: like he never ever did. But did you guys know
- 25:05Speaker 1: that that was a thing or was it like if
- 25:07Speaker 1: you didn't see it, so you didn't really know? Or
- 25:10Speaker 1: I never really I mean, you know, he was such
- 25:13Speaker 1: a dope artist and I was just so focused on
- 25:16Speaker 1: that part of his life, you know what I mean,
- 25:18Speaker 1: you know, especially with him not trying around me, having
- 25:22Speaker 1: that respect for me. I just always looked at him
- 25:24Speaker 1: as the great artist that he is. That's it. I
- 25:27Speaker 1: never looked at him and no other way but that,
- 25:29Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. At what what what year
- 25:32Speaker 1: did you end up kind of starting to split away
- 25:35Speaker 1: from rough Riders and being around X so much, because yeah,
- 25:38Speaker 1: I think you said Helen Back came out in two
- 25:41Speaker 1: oh three, so at that point in time, I'm trying
- 25:47Speaker 1: to think, O three oh four, that's probably around the
- 25:49Speaker 1: time the Grand Champ is that Grand Champ type era? Yeah,
- 25:53Speaker 1: like three when we were shooting Crazy in the grade,
- 25:56Speaker 1: he was working on his third album, so he was
- 25:58Speaker 1: working on uh and then there was X. Yeah because
- 26:01Speaker 1: that's that was his third album. Yeah, hey, because you
- 26:04Speaker 1: said you were after with these Bitches one video, so
- 26:06Speaker 1: that was on that album. Did did your relationship with
- 26:10Speaker 1: rough Rider souring effect your like your relationship with X?
- 26:13Speaker 1: H Nah, me and X was always brothers, always going
- 26:18Speaker 1: to remain brothers, you know what I'm saying. So you know,
- 26:20Speaker 1: we always was genuine us, Like when we came across
- 26:22Speaker 1: each other, they were straight brothership. It wasn't none of that.
- 26:25Speaker 1: Let me like, like the relationship that me and X had,
- 26:28Speaker 1: it wasn't just it wasn't just based on music, you
- 26:30Speaker 1: know what I mean? You know, it was it was
- 26:31Speaker 1: like some real genuine shit. That's yeah, when's the last
- 26:34Speaker 1: time you spoke with him? That's my script that X
- 26:37Speaker 1: probably mean, I don't know, maybe like seven eight months
- 26:47Speaker 1: ago time. I mean like like it was months before
- 26:51Speaker 1: he passed. I mean because he was working on his album, right,
- 26:54Speaker 1: and I was working on Yeah, And I just did
- 26:58Speaker 1: a big transition movie from the East to the West.
- 27:01Speaker 1: So it was kind of hard for me when I
- 27:03Speaker 1: first got to the West because I didn't really know
- 27:05Speaker 1: how the West really moved like that. It's my first yeah,
- 27:09Speaker 1: so you so focused on his joint, I was just
- 27:11Speaker 1: focused on my Yo. Have to stop the Bootleg cav
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- 28:10Speaker 1: dot com. And we are super proud that they're presenting
- 28:14Speaker 1: this podcast. Let's get back to it. Yeah, I think
- 28:17Speaker 1: that there's obviously an unfair expectation when we see someone
- 28:21Speaker 1: like X pass away and how he passed away, where
- 28:25Speaker 1: you know, there's so many would have could have should
- 28:27Speaker 1: have that people try to bring up like, hey, well
- 28:29Speaker 1: you know, you know, maybe people closer to him could
- 28:33Speaker 1: have spoke up or or intervened or you know, had
- 28:39Speaker 1: an intervention or whatever the case is. But you know,
- 28:42Speaker 1: I think that I think that there was probably a
- 28:46Speaker 1: lot of that that we didn't see because I know,
- 28:49Speaker 1: I don't you know, obviously Swiss is you know, somebody
- 28:53Speaker 1: who was very close to X. But did you feel
- 28:56Speaker 1: like maybe looking back, that there were people around him
- 28:59Speaker 1: that could have maybe done more way back then. At
- 29:03Speaker 1: the time, X is the hottest rapper in the world.
- 29:05Speaker 1: There's boatloads of money coming in, so I'm sure that like, yeah,
- 29:09Speaker 1: some stuff was ignored because it's like whatever makes them happy,
- 29:12Speaker 1: We're just gonna do because the money's coming. Was there
- 29:13Speaker 1: something that you think, like like you like like thinking back,
- 29:17Speaker 1: was there more that you think other people could have
- 29:19Speaker 1: did not not necessarily saying yourself, of course, I just
- 29:24Speaker 1: always looked at X as an artist. I never looked
- 29:27Speaker 1: at him how everyone else views or or or how
- 29:32Speaker 1: someone else viewed that situation. I just looked at him
- 29:35Speaker 1: as one of the greatest rappers I've ever heard in
- 29:36Speaker 1: my life. I mean, he's obviously your brother, your friend, right, Yeah,
- 29:42Speaker 1: I mean I think it's a It's just it's just tragic, man.
- 29:46Speaker 1: Anytime someone passes from that, like it's like fuck man
- 29:48Speaker 1: like that, everyone starts to think, like, well, what could
- 29:51Speaker 1: have Like my mom's Like my mom's was a crackhead,
- 29:56Speaker 1: My pops was a crackhead. My uncle did drugs and
- 30:01Speaker 1: stuff like that. I had, I had so many you
- 30:03Speaker 1: know what I mean, don't like and I mean you know,
- 30:05Speaker 1: when you from the hood and stuff like that, and
- 30:08Speaker 1: you grew up around that, Like that's just all you know,
- 30:12Speaker 1: you pretty much numb to it, you know what I'm saying.
- 30:14Speaker 1: So you know, when it came down to the relationship
- 30:18Speaker 1: with me and DMMX, I just looked at him as
- 30:20Speaker 1: one of the greatest artists I ever seen in my life.
- 30:23Speaker 1: That's it, I I j I. I didn't really nomally
- 30:26Speaker 1: fond chance to life. I mean you know, I didn't.
- 30:28Speaker 1: I didn't really get into uh not me don't like
- 30:31Speaker 1: me and him always had a respect for each other
- 30:33Speaker 1: where I mean we didn't. I mean, don't we have respect.
- 30:38Speaker 1: We didn't dig deep and you know, I mean no,
- 30:41Speaker 1: like X was a older brother to me, you know
- 30:42Speaker 1: what I mean. You know, he wasn't like like somebody
- 30:45Speaker 1: I could be like ek So what they say, like
- 30:47Speaker 1: you find like I was his little brother, right right, right,
- 30:50Speaker 1: right right. I just looked up to him, like how
- 30:52Speaker 1: you would look up to your big brother. You might
- 30:55Speaker 1: not be knowing that he's out there robbing liquor stores
- 30:59Speaker 1: or whatever you find out own, you know, is your right? Yeah,
- 31:01Speaker 1: that's firsh shit, Mmmm, that's fair man. You talk about
- 31:05Speaker 1: the Cash Money Tour, which was a adupt moment in
- 31:07Speaker 1: hip hop to have both of those crews on the
- 31:09Speaker 1: road at the same time, obviously, Uh, I missed those
- 31:15Speaker 1: kind of toys. I feel like we don't get those
- 31:16Speaker 1: kind of toys and hip hop anymore, Like that kind
- 31:20Speaker 1: of energy where there was that bigger artist all together
- 31:22Speaker 1: at the same time on the same bill. I feel
- 31:24Speaker 1: like there's too much ego and hip hop now or
- 31:25Speaker 1: that kind of shit don't even fly no more. It's
- 31:28Speaker 1: just way too much egoye. You know, the word platforms
- 31:35Speaker 1: used way too much. Oh you know, I don't know
- 31:37Speaker 1: if I already want that on my platform. Yeah, there's
- 31:41Speaker 1: some bullshit. Everyone's so worried that. Yeah, Like think about it,
- 31:45Speaker 1: rough Riders in cash Money, two different genres, like not,
- 31:49Speaker 1: two different pieces of the country, two different, totally different
- 31:54Speaker 1: sonically movements coming together on the road is fucking crazy.
- 31:57Speaker 1: That wouldn't even happen these days, Like it fucking you know,
- 32:02Speaker 1: imagine if like Kendrick Lamar went on tour with fucking
- 32:08Speaker 1: NB a young boy. Yeah, people be like what that
- 32:13Speaker 1: don't even make sense? Give me some like what what what?
- 32:16Speaker 1: What's like your some of your favorite stories about that tour, Like,
- 32:18Speaker 1: give me a story from that tour that you kind
- 32:20Speaker 1: of look back on. That was pretty crazy. Just me
- 32:24Speaker 1: being able to actually come out every night and rob
- 32:27Speaker 1: the crowd. That's the biggest story for me, just me
- 32:30Speaker 1: actually going out there and representing trag. You know what
- 32:33Speaker 1: I mean. You know, that's the biggest story for me.
- 32:35Speaker 1: That's that's what I'm going always your mumbo, you know
- 32:37Speaker 1: what I man? You know, did you and Juvenile perform
- 32:39Speaker 1: together the record off the the last show in New York?
- 32:43Speaker 1: That's it? The ho tel We didn't perform in that
- 32:45Speaker 1: one time, but you guys did it do it once?
- 32:47Speaker 1: We did it once? And I think for New York?
- 32:50Speaker 1: Did you do that song together in the studio, because
- 32:53Speaker 1: nowadays we think so it wasn't together. I met him
- 32:58Speaker 1: for the first time. I guess has been out number one. Wow, Hey,
- 33:05Speaker 1: we got that song together. We got them that's it.
- 33:08Speaker 1: That shit is crazy on tour. Wow, that ship, that's
- 33:14Speaker 1: that's wold. You just put a new album out, which
- 33:18Speaker 1: is by the way you're spinning. Man, it feels like
- 33:22Speaker 1: you said, it feels like you had like you you
- 33:24Speaker 1: almost like you had a broke fucking point to prove.
- 33:27Speaker 1: It's been almost twenty years since the last one. It's
- 33:29Speaker 1: like you can't come with no bullshit. I mean this,
- 33:32Speaker 1: I mean, like this album right here. It started from
- 33:35Speaker 1: bof Part one and I had dropped that a couple
- 33:38Speaker 1: of years ago, and it did real good on the streets.
- 33:41Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. You know, the videos, like
- 33:43Speaker 1: some of the videos on there. I got two three
- 33:45Speaker 1: million views on my fan page, so it did real good.
- 33:49Speaker 1: Shout out to DJ get it right. Let me, he's
- 33:52Speaker 1: the one that actually started that because I didn't even
- 33:55Speaker 1: want to drop no mixed right my brother, but he
- 33:58Speaker 1: was like, nah, is doing good? Drag Ufonchin said like
- 34:02Speaker 1: you might could do it, And I mean I had
- 34:04Speaker 1: just dropped the Chok Them freestyle that did like three
- 34:06Speaker 1: four million on the streets, so h I mean you know,
- 34:11Speaker 1: so after that, it made me link up with them
- 34:14Speaker 1: and do part two. So we did Part two and
- 34:16Speaker 1: then we did Part three together. So Part four was
- 34:19Speaker 1: kind of catering to those fan base that loved that
- 34:22Speaker 1: uh saga, but I really wanted them to know that
- 34:27Speaker 1: I know how to do music too, so I put
- 34:29Speaker 1: a lot of different music and I mean, you know,
- 34:31Speaker 1: after the fourth or fifth song, if you notice the
- 34:35Speaker 1: album goal like another direction, which is me into a
- 34:38Speaker 1: biby type zone. You know what I'm saying, because you
- 34:42Speaker 1: know part one, two and three, I really was just like,
- 34:44Speaker 1: I'm back, I'm spitting part to talk about anybody. But
- 34:47Speaker 1: part four I didn't really care about that. I really
- 34:49Speaker 1: just wanted people to enjoy the project. Who's because there's
- 34:53Speaker 1: so many incredible MC's that are thriving right now in
- 34:56Speaker 1: hip hop. Who are some of the artists that you're
- 34:59Speaker 1: fans of that are currently kind of like on the
- 35:01Speaker 1: newer side of things. I like, I like Rowdy Rich
- 35:12Speaker 1: Roddy of course, of course, man, mm hmmm. I like
- 35:19Speaker 1: money Bag Yell, money Bag Yell's fire. Uh. You know,
- 35:27Speaker 1: I'm a big fan of Kendrick, big fan of j Cole.
- 35:30Speaker 1: You funk with any of the Griselda guys at all? Yeah, Yeah,
- 35:34Speaker 1: that Griselda ship is like that's the energy, like I
- 35:36Speaker 1: feel like he's been missing, man, that's the energy that
- 35:39Speaker 1: New York was once. Of course, I have much respect
- 35:44Speaker 1: for for Grazil Direcords, like all the artists is over there,
- 35:50Speaker 1: Bennie and like, yeah, and I'm a huge fan of them.
- 35:54Speaker 1: I mean, because they are just just keeping the hip
- 35:57Speaker 1: hop they their leaders and they know that they're not following.
- 36:01Speaker 1: They actually said, Uh, so you were in Exit Wound's
- 36:07Speaker 1: Cradle to the Grave. What are the movies? Were those
- 36:10Speaker 1: the two? Uh, I'm a Grave. I shot another movie
- 36:16Speaker 1: with me and Love and Doctor Dre shout out to
- 36:18Speaker 1: those guys are legends Cradle two. I mean Exit Woons
- 36:25Speaker 1: had Steven Segall Cradle to the Grave at jet Lye
- 36:30Speaker 1: at the time. I mean, obviously those are two of
- 36:31Speaker 1: the greatest like, uh, martial artists of all time when
- 36:34Speaker 1: it comes to just on movies, especially jetly Man. And
- 36:38Speaker 1: that was like early on in jet ly Is, like
- 36:41Speaker 1: you know, there was I feel like Jackie Channel was
- 36:42Speaker 1: like the first guy in the nineties that like like
- 36:45Speaker 1: was a superstar in China and crossed over and it
- 36:48Speaker 1: worked in America. And then there was jet Lye. What
- 36:51Speaker 1: was it like being on set with jet Lee? Like,
- 36:53Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, Like, cool, dude, you know
- 36:56Speaker 1: what I'm saying. You know, he's real short, you know
- 36:58Speaker 1: what I mean, And he barely spoke English, but he
- 37:02Speaker 1: tried his best to speak to me in English, you
- 37:04Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. So I kind of respected that,
- 37:06Speaker 1: you know what I mean because he know, his English
- 37:08Speaker 1: was real bad. I know, it might have looked like
- 37:11Speaker 1: he can talk you yeah, like a translator speech. Yeah.
- 37:17Speaker 1: It's the whole time on every single part to get
- 37:21Speaker 1: it right. Did you like, you know, acting wise, I
- 37:27Speaker 1: feel like Ex's potential as an actor wasn't even sniffed. Like.
- 37:30Speaker 1: I feel like it could have been so much bigger,
- 37:32Speaker 1: Like for some reason, I mean, I don't know, we
- 37:34Speaker 1: just stopped getting DMX movies. You know, we had a
- 37:37Speaker 1: there was so many fire ass DMX movies. I don't
- 37:40Speaker 1: know if it was whatever was going on in his
- 37:42Speaker 1: personal life and he ended up stopped acting as much.
- 37:44Speaker 1: But what did you like? Did he did he try
- 37:47Speaker 1: to like kind of give you a lot of pointers
- 37:49Speaker 1: on the acting ship early on, because he was a
- 37:52Speaker 1: solid actor, unlike Nasa Nas was a terrible actor in
- 37:57Speaker 1: that movie. I'm just going to shout out to Nas.
- 37:59Speaker 1: But Ex ex X is the reason why I'm in movies,
- 38:02Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. Of course, Ex is the
- 38:04Speaker 1: reason for Dragon. So anything you've seen that I did,
- 38:07Speaker 1: it's probably because he did it first and allowed me
- 38:09Speaker 1: to do it after. You know, what was it like
- 38:12Speaker 1: t describe Stephen Sigall as a very uh interesting fellow.
- 38:15Speaker 1: What was what was being on a movie set with
- 38:17Speaker 1: Stephen Sigga? Like it was real interesting cause he took
- 38:21Speaker 1: a liking to me, you know what I'm saying. For real,
- 38:23Speaker 1: you know what I mean. You know, out of everybody
- 38:25Speaker 1: on this set, he didn't really rock with too many
- 38:27Speaker 1: people like Steven sicgall An. They type of person that
- 38:29Speaker 1: if he rock with you, he rock with you. If
- 38:31Speaker 1: he don't, he don't it like like you know what
- 38:33Speaker 1: I mean. So you know he with him actually taking
- 38:38Speaker 1: a liking to me, like weird cause I grew up
- 38:41Speaker 1: on him, you know what I'm saying. You know, I
- 38:42Speaker 1: was a huge fan and all that. I was actually
- 38:45Speaker 1: able to tell him some of my favorite movies that
- 38:48Speaker 1: he did. Wow, Like you know what I'm saying, And
- 38:50Speaker 1: he was telling me what was going on at that time.
- 38:52Speaker 1: So I'm just sitting there listening. So you know it
- 38:54Speaker 1: was dope, you know, I mean doing like Steven Seaga
- 38:56Speaker 1: was actually a cool dude, super cool dude, super cool
- 39:00Speaker 1: dude with me dance serious, you know what I'm saying.
- 39:02Speaker 1: So yeah, you know what I mean. He used to
- 39:05Speaker 1: be in the studio with Casey and Jojo. So, I
- 39:08Speaker 1: mean he's into the music. That's so rare. I can
- 39:10Speaker 1: you imagine walking into a session and it's and it's
- 39:13Speaker 1: Casey and Jojo and Steven Sogal like all the time.
- 39:18Speaker 1: Were you ever in the studio with them? At the
- 39:19Speaker 1: same time, I was about to say, that'd have been
- 39:22Speaker 1: that's gotta be crazy. Yeah, he'snna tell me stories and
- 39:24Speaker 1: all that stuff. He just said this listen, like, you
- 39:26Speaker 1: know what I mean. But he's into the music the whole.
- 39:29Speaker 1: You know what I mean, You know he's aware. Yeah, damn,
- 39:32Speaker 1: that's that's wild man. The other thing I think that
- 39:36Speaker 1: is dope is like, you know, for people who are
- 39:38Speaker 1: watching this who might have the same situation, like you
- 39:41Speaker 1: have a speech impediment and you have never let that
- 39:45Speaker 1: be an excuse for you to do what you want
- 39:47Speaker 1: to do right, and you're also you know, some people
- 39:52Speaker 1: are shamed by that or they do their best to
- 39:54Speaker 1: hide it. But I think that it's important for there's
- 39:57Speaker 1: somebody who could be watching this right now who's going
- 39:59Speaker 1: through the same situation and might want to be a
- 40:02Speaker 1: rapper or might wanna think you might wanna do TV
- 40:05Speaker 1: or whatever. It might not think that they can you
- 40:07Speaker 1: know what I'm saying? And that's why, you know, I mean,
- 40:10Speaker 1: you don't like when I first let it out, you
- 40:12Speaker 1: know what I mean? You don't on a swed show.
- 40:14Speaker 1: You know what I mean? You know that I have
- 40:15Speaker 1: a stuttering problem. I actually went up there, not trying
- 40:17Speaker 1: to hide it and stuff like that. Right now, I've
- 40:20Speaker 1: been studying a little bit on this. Yeah, they pretty
- 40:23Speaker 1: much gonna see it. But I've been working on it,
- 40:25Speaker 1: you know what I mean. So I'm not as bad.
- 40:28Speaker 1: But if my studing is real bad, you know what
- 40:30Speaker 1: I'm saying, So I just stop hiding it because I
- 40:33Speaker 1: wanted people to know, all right, And I mean, you know,
- 40:36Speaker 1: this is my imperfection, perfection, you know I'm not perfect.
- 40:41Speaker 1: I want them you know. I mean, you know, because
- 40:43Speaker 1: I know it's a lot of people that's that's probably
- 40:46Speaker 1: capable of doing so many things that they be nervous
- 40:50Speaker 1: on how somebody's gonna look at it. Yeah, that'd be
- 40:52Speaker 1: the whole thing of when you stutter and you catch
- 40:55Speaker 1: a real bad studying and then you're wondering if they're
- 40:57Speaker 1: looking at you like you're crazy? Right right, right? Right? Yeah.
- 41:01Speaker 1: So with me being in a position that I am.
- 41:04Speaker 1: This is this is what let them know that Nope,
- 41:08Speaker 1: you have a studying problem. But you're not retarded. You say,
- 41:11Speaker 1: you're not slow. I'm very intelligent. You know. Oh you've
- 41:14Speaker 1: also got had an extremely successful you know, career using
- 41:19Speaker 1: your voice and and and I think that that's got
- 41:23Speaker 1: to be inspirational because that would be the single most
- 41:26Speaker 1: insecure thing that anybody could probably do. And that's decided
- 41:29Speaker 1: to be an artist, a musician, you know, saying a
- 41:32Speaker 1: rapper stuff like that. I really stopped doing interviews because
- 41:37Speaker 1: of my student And then I said, nah, you know what,
- 41:40Speaker 1: that's not a way where I can really show them
- 41:42Speaker 1: that it can actually be done with a studying problem.
- 41:46Speaker 1: I mean, you know I was born with this. I
- 41:48Speaker 1: got on both sides of my family. You know, my
- 41:50Speaker 1: father's stutter on my father's that's my father, Yeah, my mom.
- 41:53Speaker 1: So my grandfather stuff badly he said, which he just
- 41:58Speaker 1: me which he just passed away. But uh, he had
- 42:01Speaker 1: a real bastarding problem to the front where you came
- 42:02Speaker 1: to quotem on the phone purpose you know what I'm saying.
- 42:06Speaker 1: So you know I actually got it on both sides
- 42:09Speaker 1: of my family, you know what I mean? So I
- 42:11Speaker 1: just be wanting people to understand and know that it
- 42:14Speaker 1: could still be done. Even even with it. I could
- 42:18Speaker 1: bear them speeding, but I flat listen. I'm gonna tell
- 42:23Speaker 1: you this, man. I pressed play on your new project,
- 42:26Speaker 1: and I'm like, I haven't heard a Dragon project. And
- 42:28Speaker 1: since I was I was in high school, maybe even
- 42:31Speaker 1: junior high, and was riding around to yesterday and I
- 42:34Speaker 1: was like, yo, it might like I know, not even
- 42:38Speaker 1: gassing you man, like this might be the lyrically the
- 42:42Speaker 1: most tip top I've heard you. You was really getting
- 42:45Speaker 1: getting off, bro, because you know, sometimes you press play,
- 42:49Speaker 1: like all right, let me hear this ship. You know,
- 42:50Speaker 1: I'm afraid. I'm almost like, I'm afraid this just gonna
- 42:52Speaker 1: sound dated or something. It's gonna be. I had play
- 42:55Speaker 1: on that, bitch. I said this intro is grazy. The
- 42:59Speaker 1: next and I'm like, damn, and you had some lines
- 43:03Speaker 1: in now. I was like, yo, god man, Yeah, man,
- 43:06Speaker 1: I think, dude. I think, like I just had this
- 43:08Speaker 1: conversation with Jay Mills not too long ago, and I
- 43:13Speaker 1: think that there is a rare opportunity for artists such
- 43:18Speaker 1: as yourself who are lyrically inclined to really just you know,
- 43:25Speaker 1: thrive because I think the pandemic has made people listen
- 43:29Speaker 1: to music differently. When I like, most of the country
- 43:32Speaker 1: isn't standing on couches this the last year in the
- 43:35Speaker 1: nightclub popping bottles. They're in their cars or they're at
- 43:38Speaker 1: home listening in their headphones. So the substance and the lyrics.
- 43:42Speaker 1: That's why if you see the Grammy nominations from twenty twenty,
- 43:45Speaker 1: it was all real rap shit. It was Royster five nine,
- 43:49Speaker 1: it was Freddy Gibbs. It was all all lyrical, ill
- 43:53Speaker 1: rap shit. And I think that, you know, another thing too,
- 43:57Speaker 1: is like don't hold on to music anymore, you know.
- 43:59Speaker 1: I think if anything, if anything that Griselda and Westside
- 44:03Speaker 1: Gun and Conway and Benny the Butcher have taught us
- 44:05Speaker 1: over the last you know, four years, is run that
- 44:09Speaker 1: indie catalog up man, run it up for sure. The
- 44:14Speaker 1: music me I got dropped. I mean, you know, like
- 44:18Speaker 1: I started my own record label, Code Environment, and we
- 44:20Speaker 1: put out music every week, go every two weeks. And
- 44:23Speaker 1: that's not just songs, you know what I'm saying. But
- 44:25Speaker 1: we don't really rely on DJs, so we put the
- 44:28Speaker 1: song out with the video every day. So smart. So
- 44:31Speaker 1: when you first hear the record, you're looking at it.
- 44:33Speaker 1: That's fire. Yeah, that's smart. Man. Were you able to
- 44:37Speaker 1: make it to Ex's memorial service? How was it? Because
- 44:41Speaker 1: I mean I thought it looked so amazing on TV. Uh.
- 44:44Speaker 1: I mean, I know Kanye helped design like the stages.
- 44:47Speaker 1: It just looked great. Man, it really you know, it
- 44:50Speaker 1: was obviously a very sad day, but like, how how
- 44:53Speaker 1: was it for you to go to that? It was
- 44:56Speaker 1: a lot for me to go to that, you know
- 44:58Speaker 1: what I mean. You know, I was in denial for
- 45:01Speaker 1: a long time, so I like, like me, I had
- 45:04Speaker 1: a hard time accepting it, Like you know what I'm saying,
- 45:06Speaker 1: you know, I'm going to make my homie the rest.
- 45:10Speaker 1: Like I had a hard time accepting it. So I
- 45:12Speaker 1: actually booked my flight the day of, like I was
- 45:14Speaker 1: really contemplating it, you know what I'm saying. But I mean,
- 45:17Speaker 1: you know, overall, I'm just glad I went for DMX. Yeah,
- 45:22Speaker 1: I mean it also, you know, just has to bring
- 45:25Speaker 1: up so much old feelings and then obviously every i
- 45:27Speaker 1: mean everyone through probably through your hip hop career, was there,
- 45:31Speaker 1: you know, I mean, were you able to reconcile or
- 45:35Speaker 1: see anybody there? That you hadn't talked to for a while,
- 45:38Speaker 1: or I was just there for DMX. That was it,
- 45:41Speaker 1: in and out. I was there for DMX. DMX passed away,
- 45:45Speaker 1: So I was acting in such of that manner, you know,
- 45:48Speaker 1: I swet I saw, you know, obviously Swiss's speech I
- 45:51Speaker 1: thought was really I thought, I mean what he said
- 45:55Speaker 1: could be applied to anybody in your life, right, like
- 45:58Speaker 1: as far as just like being there for people, well
- 46:00Speaker 1: not just when they're gone, like being there when they're here.
- 46:04Speaker 1: What did you think of just the services? Like like
- 46:07Speaker 1: Swiss's speech, I thought was anybody should watch that if
- 46:10Speaker 1: they haven't seen it. You know, he kept it a thousand.
- 46:14Speaker 1: But what were your thoughts on what he had to say?
- 46:16Speaker 1: And my thoughts was on my speech. But you you're
- 46:20Speaker 1: to worry about your own ship speech. My speech was
- 46:25Speaker 1: really focused on what he had done for me. You
- 46:28Speaker 1: know what I'm saying and what he is to me,
- 46:31Speaker 1: and I'm hurting that he passed away. How hard of
- 46:34Speaker 1: that is is that to write, like to put that
- 46:37Speaker 1: together into words. See, my speech just came from the heart.
- 46:42Speaker 1: I didn't write it. So you just went up there
- 46:45Speaker 1: and just just told your truth. Man, just spoke exactly
- 46:47Speaker 1: what it was. You know what I mean. So I mean,
- 46:50Speaker 1: I mean, like like what it like with my speech
- 46:53Speaker 1: being straight from the heart world genuine It made me,
- 46:58Speaker 1: uh shed a tear, you know what I'm saying because
- 47:01Speaker 1: I know where. Let mean, you know where it came from, right,
- 47:06Speaker 1: a real place. I just I just wash, you know,
- 47:11Speaker 1: happy that everybody showed DMX love, you know, the love
- 47:16Speaker 1: that he deserved. You know what I'm saying. You know
- 47:17Speaker 1: that was my thing. My thing was just shown up
- 47:20Speaker 1: for the homie. That's Have you been privy to hear
- 47:25Speaker 1: his new album at all? Anything from his new album?
- 47:29Speaker 1: I heard two records from it, dope? You know what
- 47:31Speaker 1: I mean. You know what I mean. You know like
- 47:34Speaker 1: DMX never really put out too much songs that wasn't great.
- 47:39Speaker 1: He was just great period. This is true. I wish
- 47:42Speaker 1: we would have got more. Man. Yeah, I always think back,
- 47:45Speaker 1: like what if DMX just never let up on this
- 47:48Speaker 1: rap shit? A lot of people's careers would have been
- 47:52Speaker 1: because man, I feel like he let up and that's
- 47:54Speaker 1: when you had the job rule slide in and have
- 47:56Speaker 1: his like you know, the R and B wave. And
- 47:58Speaker 1: it was really only because that X kind of just
- 48:00Speaker 1: let up on this ship, you know what I'm saying,
- 48:01Speaker 1: and with it the acting and you know what I mean,
- 48:04Speaker 1: it was like it kind of left the hold. Yeah,
- 48:06Speaker 1: it's crazy. Would there ever be a or would you
- 48:09Speaker 1: ever consider being a part of a Rough Rider reunion?
- 48:12Speaker 1: I mean obviously without X that's gonna be hard to accomplish.
- 48:15Speaker 1: But focused on my record label called Hood Environment, which
- 48:18Speaker 1: we just dropped the album March fifth, and we're doing
- 48:21Speaker 1: successful with that company. That's a company I started since six.
- 48:25Speaker 1: It's two thousands, it's twenty twenty one. So this has
- 48:29Speaker 1: been a long grind. I got my release Smith from
- 48:33Speaker 1: Rough Riders in seven I was not men, you know,
- 48:38Speaker 1: and I started my record label from then. So it's
- 48:41Speaker 1: been so focused on that. I mean, you said that
- 48:44Speaker 1: that lawsuit kind of broke you, right, so I can
- 48:47Speaker 1: only imagine that getting on the other side of that,
- 48:49Speaker 1: like the animosity you might have towards Rough Riders in general,
- 48:53Speaker 1: like who told you that? No, I'm saying that you
- 48:56Speaker 1: said that after you got released that going through and
- 48:59Speaker 1: high and lawyers and stuff, you ended up like kind
- 49:02Speaker 1: of broke, end up. I ended up being broke. I
- 49:06Speaker 1: ended up being uh he had to go back to
- 49:09Speaker 1: the streets. But I had to go back to the
- 49:10Speaker 1: streets and restarted my career. So you ended up homeless
- 49:14Speaker 1: after Rough Riders, Yeah, I was. I was actually homeless
- 49:20Speaker 1: while I was still on rough Riers. You were homeless,
- 49:22Speaker 1: So so explain to me being homeless, Like, wouldn't you
- 49:24Speaker 1: say homeless? What does that mean? So you actually were
- 49:28Speaker 1: definitively homeless while still being on rough Riders? Right, So
- 49:33Speaker 1: I started my company and just kept building for the
- 49:37Speaker 1: past ten years. So did d n Y know you
- 49:40Speaker 1: were homeless or was that something where it was like
- 49:42Speaker 1: it was just that the relationship was so sour. I
- 49:45Speaker 1: don't know, Like, you know, like once I left Rough Riders,
- 49:48Speaker 1: I focused on hood environment. Right. Damn for people watching
- 49:54Speaker 1: this man, that that's that's a low that it's hard
- 49:56Speaker 1: to come out of being homeless, right, especially being Dragon
- 50:01Speaker 1: from rough Riders, hitting homelessness, having to get back to
- 50:05Speaker 1: the streets to get your money up. The perseverance that
- 50:09Speaker 1: that takes, the dedication, the like mental fortitude that that takes.
- 50:12Speaker 1: Then I let that shit break. You gotta be crazy, man, Yeah, yeah,
- 50:15Speaker 1: you know what I mean. You know, at the end
- 50:19Speaker 1: of the day, I don't really like rely too much
- 50:23Speaker 1: on the people that's down here on this earth with
- 50:25Speaker 1: me say, I rely on God. God got me, you
- 50:28Speaker 1: know what I mean. So you know I'm here on
- 50:30Speaker 1: the strength of God. I am living proof that God
- 50:34Speaker 1: will help you if you ask them, you know what
- 50:36Speaker 1: I'm saying. If you pray, if you prayed up, if
- 50:39Speaker 1: you keep yourself within the bubble of prayer, then God
- 50:43Speaker 1: will be there for you, and and and even for
- 50:46Speaker 1: the people that don't pray, but just believe in God.
- 50:51Speaker 1: God got them too, you know what I'm saying. So
- 50:53Speaker 1: my thing was just mean, Like once I did that,
- 50:55Speaker 1: I just focus on my company, and then the streets
- 50:58Speaker 1: started catching on to it. So I just focused on that.
- 51:01Speaker 1: How long was that period of time that you were
- 51:02Speaker 1: actually homeless, like before you got to play? Like how long?
- 51:06Speaker 1: Like how long was that? A year and a half?
- 51:11Speaker 1: Two years? Like wow, damn man, we look you came
- 51:14Speaker 1: a long way, bro, And uh as listen, you're a
- 51:19Speaker 1: part of history. You are a part of history, man.
- 51:24Speaker 1: And how did you think that the documentary came out
- 51:27Speaker 1: on BT the was it was? It? Was it? The five?
- 51:30Speaker 1: Was it five episodes? Something like that? Oh, you didn't
- 51:33Speaker 1: watch it. I didn't watch it. I thought I thought
- 51:35Speaker 1: it was dope. I mean again, I'm I'm a fucking
- 51:38Speaker 1: When I was a kid, I used to tag up
- 51:40Speaker 1: DMX and rough Rider logo on all my folders and
- 51:42Speaker 1: that was all the posters I had in my room.
- 51:44Speaker 1: And so it was just like, yeah, this ship is great,
- 51:47Speaker 1: but yeah, it's it's also kind of got to be
- 51:50Speaker 1: crazy too, because like you're kind of like a part
- 51:53Speaker 1: of a fraternity that will forever exist on this planet
- 51:56Speaker 1: that has nothing to do with hip hop. Like the
- 51:58Speaker 1: Motorcycle Club ship is so big, big just the culture
- 52:01Speaker 1: of that are that has nothing to do with the
- 52:03Speaker 1: music or the record label. It's just so big. It's like,
- 52:06Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, Look, your album is out,
- 52:09Speaker 1: are you? I hope you keep putting out. You're gonna
- 52:11Speaker 1: keep putting out more albums. Yes, we're working on I'm
- 52:13Speaker 1: already working on another project that's so dope right now,
- 52:17Speaker 1: it's out of here, you know what I mean. So,
- 52:20Speaker 1: you know, we don't have a name. Somebody just used
- 52:25Speaker 1: the damn name, but they didn't know which name was.
- 52:28Speaker 1: It was the name that just been used, right, So
- 52:32Speaker 1: I mean, you know, but they didn't know that that
- 52:35Speaker 1: was the name of right right, right right, So you
- 52:37Speaker 1: gotta switch the name of them, switch the name of now,
- 52:39Speaker 1: switching the name. But it's so good though, you know,
- 52:41Speaker 1: the music is great. It sounds super big, you know
- 52:44Speaker 1: what I mean. You know, it's it's it and it's
- 52:48Speaker 1: and it's actually better than bof four, you know what
- 52:50Speaker 1: I mean, because it got just a little bit more
- 52:53Speaker 1: of a music type of vibe on this joint that
- 52:55Speaker 1: I just know everybody gonna love. Hey, what I didn't
- 52:57Speaker 1: ask you about? I always was curious about Eve Man
- 53:00Speaker 1: and Eve was I think when we when we always
- 53:02Speaker 1: talk about the greatest female hip hop rappers of all time.
- 53:05Speaker 1: For some reason, I feel like people kind of just
- 53:07Speaker 1: don't bring her up. And I think that's just because
- 53:08Speaker 1: she hasn't been acted for a while. But like, uh,
- 53:12Speaker 1: what was your relationship like with Eve? So just like
- 53:16Speaker 1: any brother or sister relationship, highs and lows, and it
- 53:18Speaker 1: was always love that said sisters, you know what I mean.
- 53:22Speaker 1: You know you can actually go to my Instagram piece. Actually,
- 53:26Speaker 1: I think like my last post or the post before that,
- 53:28Speaker 1: you see when we sell each other, it's genuine, you
- 53:31Speaker 1: know what I mean? You know it's Brother's Sistance. That's it.
- 53:33Speaker 1: That's a beautiful thing. Man, we'll look drag on the legend.
- 53:36Speaker 1: Go get the album, go stream it, and man, welcome
- 53:42Speaker 1: to Cali too. Yes, yes, it's glad to have you
- 53:44Speaker 1: on the West Coast. I love the weed. Man boomed up.
- 53:48Speaker 1: See ready,