Latest / Earn Your Leisure / Shyne EXPOSES Diddy Fallout, Survived 10 Years In Prison, Music Comeback & Plans To Run Belize 🚨

Transcript

Shyne EXPOSES Diddy Fallout, Survived 10 Years In Prison, Music Comeback & Plans To Run Belize 🚨 · Earn Your Leisure

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: See what was stolen, what happened?
• 0:01
  Speaker 2: What does that mean?
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: People within my own political organization tried to overthrow me.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: It was a cool attempt.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: So what does this moment feel like for you?
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Man? If it was not for religion, I don't know
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: where I'd be. Losing a seat is not as bad
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: as spending ten years in captivity. When Puff says that
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: he shot up the club and he made Seane take the.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Fall, that struck a nerve.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Ten years behind the wall, thirteen years the party lost,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: My career lost everything. Everybody knew that I was thrown
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: under the bus and I was the fall guy.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: And let's talk about the journey.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: I wasn't infatuated. I wasn't smitting. It's not like, oh,
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: you know Puff. It was like, no, I could be Puff,
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: and yeah, that sounds great. But I was eighteen nineteen
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: and the beat was over here and I was over there,
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: bottles and bottles of crystal everywhere I go. Now, when
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: I got into the studio, the music wasn't sounding the
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: way it was supposed to sound. I was being a superstar,
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: but not putting in superstar work. When she told me,
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: you're nobody like you haven't sold one record. Nothing devastated
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: me more than that.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: What do you rap about? Now?
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: You don't have to be a dope boy to make
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: great records. Greatness is greatness. It doesn't matter the genre.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: All right. Gosh, no, that's not how I want to start.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: They're America.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: I'm only what you made me.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: That's a fact.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: Man.
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: We got we got our good friend, the good brother
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: Shah and the building. Man, it seems like just yesterday
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: we got introduced and we did art Bozo shout to Steve.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: Just telling somebody about that year. Respect to Steve O.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: December twenty twenty one. Yes, yes, when you guys were
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: just you know, emerging and you know, young superstars in
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: the making with the vision of everything that you have today.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: But yeah, we did the art Baso E y L
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: on the couch.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: I had all the art, the artwork, Yeah, yeah, he's
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: I brought.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: A bunch of paintings from some of the most promising
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: artists and Belize and yeah, we did the exclusive sit.
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: Down that't wasn't in Miami. That's a fact. And then
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: ever since then, man, we've been locked in.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: Yes, yes, absolutely, we've been locked in Atlanta to support
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: you guys.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: We spent three days with.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: You, did a panel, we had the Noble Dinner.
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: Yes you know, he was outside with.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: I don't remember that. It's Women's month and so you
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: guys always have you know your your your female supporters
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: are top tier. I mean some of the most extraordinary.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: Women diplomat support ya. This guy is a real diplomat.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: And the ratio you know my brother is is Lenny s.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: Nobody has a more incredible ratio than Lenny s. Which
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: you guys.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: Come closet it. I appreciate it.
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: With so man's it's so much has happened since then.
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: I know we got the show coming up, second, showing
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: up Kingsta.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: It's gonna be my hype man right here, right, no
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: set it up.
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: When they dropped the joint the club, I was like,
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: you won't even do it. He was like, nah, I
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: got it.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: It's gonna be my hype man.
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: Were ready to go do it so first and foremof
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: thank you for joining us.
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: Brother.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: It's a pleasure to be here from Belieze, Paradise, Belieze.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: I've been traveling the last couple of weeks. I just
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: came from l A in Las Vegas. I was working
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: with doctor drey And and I went to see Mason Camp.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we heard about that. Shook the room. Shook the
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: room with that one. I mean, just kicking up with
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: my sitting up in my room. What do you say?
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: I said, he shook the.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: Right right right? I get that that was a good one.
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: So so what we've been up to, man, I know,
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: all right, let's talk about the journey.
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: Because when we met you, you was in politics.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: I'm still politics, very much committed to the people of
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: Mesopotamia and serving the people of Belize and hopefully one
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: day becoming the Prime Minister of Belize. When unfortunately a
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: year ago, a few days ago makes a year March twelfth,
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: I lost my seat in the House of Representatives. I
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: maintained my seat was stolen. A lot of fraud took place.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: So since then I have been focused on private sector
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: investments in Belize, doing resorts, doing a Brooklyn chop house
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: and Belize from my god Dondh. Yes, that's coming, absolutely,
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: and some real estate developments for like a marine community,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: vacation community, beach community. But more important than that, I
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: would even say, because the platform to drive the traffic
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: to consume that for me is going to be returning
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: to the stage May Second Theatre at Brooklyn, New York
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: to launch my world tour, which will begin here in
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: the United States, and then we'll go to Europe, Africa, Asia,
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: Latin America, Caribbean. Yeah, and as well, I had when
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: I put out the documentary The Honora Will Shine on Hulu,
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: I had mentioned that I wanted to put out new music,
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: that I wanted to attach albums to the film projects.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: But I never had the opportunity because of my occupation
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: in parliament. And I wasn't just a member of parliament.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: I was the opposition leader of Belize.
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: And so to put it in perspective that would be like.
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: Kim Jeffries for people right like you'd be like you
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: was like Hakim Jeffrey, So he was a pretty high
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: ranking member and the.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: Beliezing the Prime Minister then myself.
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: So when you say they was stolen or it was
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: what happened? What does that mean?
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: Well, we had an internal conflict where people within my
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: own political organization tried to overthrow me. It was a
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: coup detacted attempt, and so I had to take them
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: to court and then get a restraining order and interim injunction,
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: but unfortunately the judge didn't make a determination in the
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: case until after the elections. So the people that were
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: trying to overthrow me were purporting to be the leader
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: of the party and then they were appointing candidates to
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: run against the official candidates, and they appointed someone to
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: run against me. And so in my constituency, the people
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: have never voted any color but red. They've never voted
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: for any party except the party that I led and
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: the party that I was the member of Parliament for.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: But then there was a confusion, which was fraud in
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: my humble opinion, which that led to it being stolen
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: because the people were confused. They would genuinely confuse who
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: is the UDP candidate.
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so how does it work now?
• 7:10
  Speaker 4: Because you said you're still in politics, obviously you still
• 7:13
  Speaker 4: have ambitions to be the primes to do you have
• 7:16
  Speaker 4: to go that whole process again to.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: Get my seat back first and foremost, so I'm going
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: to recall the current area representative in a couple of months.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: Our constitution and Belize allows for a recall petition. So
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: if you get I believe I think you got to
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: get fifty one percent of the registered voters in the
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: constituency to sign. I believe it's fifty one percent, or
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: maybe it's thirty percent. Actually no, I think it's thirty percent,
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: and you need fifty one percent of sixty percent of
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: the registered voters have to come out to vote on
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: the petitioned fifty one percent of that. Then we'll have
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: a by election, so that that's the first first step.
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: So the seat is still there, the prime minister seat.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: Well, you don't run for prime minister. You need to
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: I need to get my seat back. Then there's going
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: to be a convention in the United Democratic Party in
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty seven, which is next year. Next year, in November,
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: there'll be another convention for the leader of the party,
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: and then hopefully in twenty thirty when the general elections
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: are due, I'll be the leader by then. I'll have
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: my seat by then, and I could lead the party
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: to the majority in the House of Representatives. Because unlike
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: your presidential election system in Belize, the system is a
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: Westminster parliamentary democracy. So it's first past post. Whoever gets
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: the majority of seats in parliament, they formed the government
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: and their leader becomes the prime minister.
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: Okay, how's your how's your mental health?
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: Let's do a mental health check, because you've been through
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: a lot as far as being incarcerated, being exiled, out
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: the country, moving, you know, you had a lot going on,
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: and then I know you had very high hopes of
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: becoming the head of the country that didn't work out.
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: So how's your how? How's mental how's how? How is
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: your mental health? And how has your mental health journey been?
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: Because it's I know it would take an adjustment to
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: do ten years in jail come home. I know you
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: was very religious at one point you moved to Israel.
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: Your life had a variety of different stages like walk
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: us through that journey.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: I think that's one of the reasons that I went
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: to Israel, because spirituality has always been what has given
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: me great mental health, what has given me peace, h
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: and allowed me to retain myself sanity. If it was
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: not for religion, I don't know where I'd be. But
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: religion has a boundary, and I'm fortunate that I have
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: evolved to a level of enlightenment. So it's not that
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm not religious. The Judaic religion is the
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: formation of my foundation that allowed me to evolve to
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: a level of enlightenment where now I'm not bound by
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: the rigors and the dogmas of religion per se. But
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: I live in a space of humanity, a space of enlightenment.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: Be honest, be kind, be compassionate, be tolerant, to have integrity,
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: to have character. Yeah, and I'm empowering people. I'm looking
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: to uplift people. I'm not thinking in terms of myself.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: I'm beyond myself. Religion creates infrastructure sure to get to
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: that point. Some people may not get to that point
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: in this lifetime. Some people may get to that point
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: at a later stage in their lifetime. I'm fortunate to
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: have gotten to a stage so I can drive on
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: Shabbat uh. You know, I don't have to wear yamaka.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: I don't need to live in Jerusalem.
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: Are you kosher?
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: I don't eat non kosher food, but I would eat
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: at a non kosher restaurant. But I would not eat
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: non kosher food. I don't eat scavengers.
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: I don't eat pork. I wouldn't eat meat if it's
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: not kosher meat at a kosher restaurant. But I'd eat
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: fish and chicken anywhere. But that's just for me. Those
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: are my sciences, you know. But like I don't wear sids,
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: it's I still wrap my tofiling. But that's all personal,
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: private things. Uh, And that's why I say so a
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: religious person from from that real religion may say that
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: I'm not religious, doesn't really matter to me because where
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: I'm at is, as I said, a level of enlightenment.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: So I don't need to be with a rabbi. I
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: don't need to be in Jerusalem because I've evolved to
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: a level where my connection with the creative of the
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: universe is second to none, and I'm on a path
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: of where I need to go as far as serving
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: humanity and serving my ultimate purpose. So I'm great as
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: far as losing my seat. Of all that I've been through,
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: losing a seat in Parliament would definitely not rank on
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: the top of you know, things that would shatter me,
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: because that seat was me serving the people I volunteered
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: to help and to go to Parliament and be their
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: advocate and be their voice. So yes, you know, you
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: feel a way man. You know I was on a
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: path to really making their lives better and hopefully becoming
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: the next Prime Minister, which would make so many people's
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: lives better outside of Mesopotamia. But then it's like, you
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: know what, this is a journey. You don't just decide
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: you want to be prime minister and that happens overnight,
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: or it happens in a couple of years. The current
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: prime excuse me, the current prime minister, he's been in
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: politics for twenty years or maybe actually twenty five years.
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: Before he became prime minister, he was minister, he was
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: deputy prime minister. So you know, while Barack Obama may
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: have only been a senator for a couple of years
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: and then he became president, it doesn't always happen like that.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: So there's nothing to necessarily be shattered about other than
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: the betrayal of my party colleagues and the coup detach.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: But that inspires me to keep going and to keep fighting,
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: because these are people that never lead the country, and
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: if they were to ever get the opportunity, they'd be
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: worse than the current government. And so for me, it's
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: not a matter of sitting there being depressed. I took
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: one day to reflect and I went back into my
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: It was March twelfth. March thirteenth is a fast day
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: for me because I fast on Mondays and Thursdays. So
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: I did my fast and I reflected and I said, Okay,
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: I'm going back to Mesopotamia on March fourteenth, going to
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: help all the people that I promised on the campaign trail.
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: I gave out a power industrial power washer to a
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: young man that wanted to start his own car wash,
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: and I kept doing that up to now. When I
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: go back home next week, I'm going to give out
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: laptops and small business grants. And so my commitment remained firm.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: And then in that reflection, I said, you know, it's
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: time for me to work on that album. Came up
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: with my list Doctor Dre, Swiss, Beats, Timberland, Riza Boy,
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: Wonda boy, A Pool Bear, Alchemist, no Id, and the
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: list goes on. You know, I have film projects that
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: I need to work on about my life, my memoir.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: I said that. You know, it was my twenty fifth anniversary.
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: This is the year of my twenty fifth anniversary. From
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: September twenty sixth, twenty five until twenty six I said,
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: I need to return to the stage. A better way
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: to celebrate my twenty fifth anniversary than to return to
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: the stage. So I didn't have time to get into
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: a slump, and that's never really been me. Like, you know,
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: even when I was incarcerated, I put out a number
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: one album and I was always the best version of myself.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: So thank god I've never had those challenges right, definitely
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: as a human being. You know, sometimes you're like man like,
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: you know what's going on. But for me, my spiritual
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: connection is what lets me know that what's going on
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: a part of the process. Nobody becomes Michael Jordan, nobody
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: becomes Derek Jeter, nobody becomes one of the greatest of
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: all time. Nobody becomes Bob Marley, nobody becomes Malcolm X,
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: nobody becomes Barack Obama without going through the most rigorous
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: process that makes you want to give up, that makes
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: you want to just say, what is going on here? Yeah,
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: it doesn't happen like that. The price of admission is
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: excruciating pain and suffering. But listen, losing a seat is
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: not as bad as spending ten years in captivity. Losing
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: a seat in parliament is not as bad as being
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: deported and not being able to return to the States
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: and losing my career and you know, losing all of
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: the promise and potential that I had. Right, So I've
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: been through the worst of my life, Thank God, right
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: to be able to say that. Okay, you know, I
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: have a few years until the elections. So I go
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: in the studio with Doctor Dre. I'll go in the
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: studio with hip boy Albom studio with Timberland. I'll go
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: in the studio with Swiss Beats. You know, I'm going
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: to return to the stage in Brooklyn Kingstad where I
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: grew up at and sell out the show. That's you know,
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: that's like a blessing. I'm so happy right now. I've
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: never been happier.
• 17:16
  Speaker 4: To be honest, we are happy for you to see
• 17:18
  Speaker 4: that evolution. I told you the first time we met,
• 17:22
  Speaker 4: I got a car in the year two thousand, two
• 17:25
  Speaker 4: thousand and one, and I told you the first CD
• 17:27
  Speaker 4: I put in, Yeah, was accurate.
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: You got.
• 17:29
  Speaker 4: I had the cameray Toyota camera. It was a ninety
• 17:32
  Speaker 4: six Toyota Camy. First CD I put in was your joint.
• 17:36
  Speaker 4: So they're America. That's why I want to do the
• 17:39
  Speaker 4: real America. I'm over what you made, young black You're crazy.
• 17:44
  Speaker 4: Please save me. You can't compare them.
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: Too many people.
• 17:48
  Speaker 4: It's fire, but I wondered. You said that the religion
• 17:54
  Speaker 4: gave you the foundation. Yeah, and there was a point
• 17:57
  Speaker 4: in time where I thought that the music wouldn't come back.
• 18:00
  Speaker 4: I thought that, you know what, you're going to leave
• 18:02
  Speaker 4: it behind. It was part of your journey's part of
• 18:03
  Speaker 4: your career. Did you find at a point it became
• 18:06
  Speaker 4: therapeutic or was that always God's calling, like the music
• 18:10
  Speaker 4: was always there was something he was going to come
• 18:12
  Speaker 4: back to.
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: Once a musician, always a musician. But I will not
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: hold you. I definitely did not. It's not what I
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: was thinking about to lead a country, to have the
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: burden the responsibility of creating solutions for people's lives, policies
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: and healthcare policies, as far as economic development policies, as
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: far as citizen security, education, housing, infrastructure, agriculture, there's so much.
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: When you want to be a leader, you guys know me,
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: I don't front, I don't cap. So it's not as
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: if I was just saying I wanted to be the
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: Prime Minister for the sake of I'm hip hop. Whatever
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: we do, we want to be the best at it.
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: And I wasn't in a space of being the best
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: at it for vanity's sake. I was in the state
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: of my enlightenment. If you're going to I want to
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: help people. All of our politicians have been failing people
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: for decades. They get there, they don't deliver, and it
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: just seems like a vicious cycle. So for me, my
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: challenge was to be able to get there with solutions.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: Not currently the opposition in Belize, all they do is
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: say is what's wrong with the government. That's not what
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: I want to be. I want to have solutions so
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: that when I get elected to the office of the
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: Prime Minister, we can solve problems. Right, So that takes bandwidth,
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: intellectual capacity, intelligence, great research, immersing yourself in policy making
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: throughout the region, throughout the world, looking at what other
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: democracies are doing and how they're solving these problems. So
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: it's great study and as I said, a great immersion.
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: So I don't have time to do what I'm doing
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: now because what I'm doing now, that in.
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: Itself is a great science.
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: Right when me and Dred when we made our records,
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: that is, you know, Harvard PhD level and beyond in
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: another galaxy. So it takes a lot to make a
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: classic album. It takes a lot to put a performance
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: together and a tour together. Those aren't things that you
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: just slightly do. Right. We're professionals. We're Grammy Award winning
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: the Best on Planet Earth level, and to perform at
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: that level, I would have needed great bandwidth. So I
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: wasn't even considering that. But if you go back to
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: when I was doing the press run for the Honorable Shine,
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: I said that, you know, I want to put out
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: an album attached to the documentary and to the other
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: film projects. But in practical terms, it just wasn't doable
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: because of all that I just said, I just wouldn't
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: have the bandwidth to give a superior product, and I
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: couldn't do that to my legacy.
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: I want to talk about the music, everything you got
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: going on, but I feel like you're you're a man
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: that wears many hats and you're not just a rapper obviously,
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: so you have valuable insight and takes. So I want
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: to talk about Israel. You live there, Yeah, so you
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: have a unique perspective that most people don't. What is
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: your take on the current situation and what was your
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: experience as a black person living there?
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: Uh? My experience was I did not face an apartheid.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: I did not face any discrimination, per se. I lived
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: in a religious cluster. In a religious cluster, I was accepted.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: I lived in at the whaling Wall, and I didn't
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: see the things that some people claim. What I saw
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: was a security situation, a legitimate security situation. Two brothers,
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: because Ishmael and Israel are both sons of Isaac. So
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: Jews and Arabs are only separated by religion. You know,
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: one believes in Islam and the other believes in Judaism,
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: but they're the same blood. Yeah, but I wasn't necessarily
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: focused on that because I was there studying you know,
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: the Five Books of Moses, who is Lam claims Moses.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: His name is Musa. You know, everything in Islam is
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: in the is in the Torah. But I wasn't focused
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: on that. But yeah, so as far as what is
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: happening now, I let me say this, being religious doesn't
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: mean that you're a Zionist. So being religious has nothing
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: to do with people who and again it may not
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: dawn on some people, but when you go to the
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: Books of Moses, Jews have been in Israel for thousands
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: of years.
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: Well they always, They were there when it was a
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: country called palistin They.
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: Were there, indeed, and before it was a country called
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: Palestine and was called Israel. If you read the Quran
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: and you read the Five Books of Moses, it refers
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: to a land of cannon, and then it's called Israel.
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: Now this is by the testament of both Muslims, Jews
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: and Christians. There is a time where it becomes Palestine,
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: and whoever lives in the land of Palestine is a Palestinian.
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: So practically and technically speaking, Jews would be Palestinians, Arabs
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: would be Palestinians, Christians that lived there would be Palestinian.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: Anyone could be Palestinian. But my position is a two
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: state solution as per the United Nations Charter. It's complicated. Yes,
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: you know, Jews have a legitimate claim that they've been
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: there for thousands of years. Arabs claimed that they migrated
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: there as well, or they were born there as well.
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: And I believe the United Nations Charter of the partition
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: was the most practical solution and I would like to
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: see that come to fruition where there's a Palestinian state
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: for Arabs and whoever else wants to live there. And
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: the continued Jewish state that has Arab Israelis and Christian
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: Israelis and anyone can live in the state of Israel.
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: I think the problem that you have is that in
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: a state of hamas Palestinian state, you can only be
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: one religion. You know, your orientation, the way you dress,
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: everything is dictated in extreme terms. And their position, their
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: charter is that Israel does not have a right to exist.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: So I'm a centrist. I want to be in the middle.
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: I want to find a solution. There are over forty
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: Arab states, there's only one Jewish state. I accept that Palestine,
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: it'd be one more Arab state because of what the
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: United Nations had agreed to, and so that we can
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: have a solution. Fine, but the solution will never be
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: that Israel does not exist. It will never happen. Right,
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: We're wasting our time if the position is going to
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: be that Israel doesn't have a right to exist. But
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: I don't associate myself with some extremists in Israeli government
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: and in Israel that don't accept that there should be
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: a Palestinian Arab state. I don't agree to that, But
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: I answer the question because as a journalist, investor, I
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: want to be respectful and polite, but respectfully, my concern
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: is believes obviously what happens nonetheless, what is happening in
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: Iran in these different places in Venezuela and Cuba, it
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: impacts believes though, and so that's why I answer your
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: question as well. When we think that terrorists, that people
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: who are extreme people who feel that because you know,
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: you dress like this, or because a woman wears tight clothes,
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: or because you know a woman shows her faith, she's evil,
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: She's the devil. That's how these extreme religious zealots think,
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: and that's how they feel, and they believe that we
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: should all be destroyed. So you know, Iran, the dictatorship,
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: the Ayatola, they sponsor terrorism all around the world, and
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: they're reviled and loathed by their Arab neighbors. So when
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: the United States and Israel eliminates those threats, I'm sorry,
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: I support it. I believe that they have to have
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: a comprehensive plan of exit, and you know, we hope
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: that it's not going to be Afghanistan and the back
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: all over again, where it becomes a quadmyre But listen,
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: when Obama eliminated Kadaffi in the worst way. It was
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: terrible what they did to Kadaffi, how they dragged them
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: through the street. It is terrible. But he had intelligence
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: from his CIA and his military apparatus, and that's what
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: they felt they needed to do. And Biden Bush one,
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: Bush two, President Trump Clinton, They've all felt the same
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: about iron It just so happens that this is the administration.
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: Have to get out.
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: But let me just follow a word quick with your
• 28:40
  Speaker 3: political question. Yeah, my last of political question. Yeah, you
• 28:43
  Speaker 3: asked somebody that has aspirations of being president of belief
• 28:47
  Speaker 3: or prime minist of beliefs. Yeah, should the Caribbean nations
• 28:51
  Speaker 3: I'm counting believes as the Caribbean as.
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: They are, they are a part of character.
• 28:54
  Speaker 3: Should they be in support of Cuba, a country that
• 28:57
  Speaker 3: has supported Caribbean NA for over fifty years?
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: Most respectfully, I appreciate the sentimentality of what you just said,
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: but principally I can never and will never support dictatorships.
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: That is a dictatorship in Cuba. You're not going to
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: allow to be you. You can't have freedom of press,
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: you can't criticize the president, you can't criticize the state.
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: We have to underdate.
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: They put people in jail, they kill people for dissenting.
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: They have a safe country. I don't know about that.
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: I really don't know. I couldn't imagine. And you have
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: to remember who you're talking to. You're talking to someone
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: who is the opposition leader of beliefs. I used to
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: go in the House of Representatives and shut the House
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: of Representatives down. I used to tell the Prime Minister
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: all types of things, legitimate information and intelligence that I had,
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: and the Speaker of the House would be like, hold
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: on done, you know, parliament is over right. But nobody
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: would arrest me. Nobody would be outside, uh, you know,
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: to shoot me. Nobody would come to my house and
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: kidnap me and tie me up. In Cuba, that's that's
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: you wouldn't even you wouldn't. You don't even have opposition leader.
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: You don't.
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: The people of Cuba don't even have an alternative right,
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: So so for me, I'm sorry, my good brother, you
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: know you're my good brother. I respect you. I've never
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: understood the fascination with dictatorships, but I get it. There
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: was a time long ago, and one of my heroes
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: would agree with you. He would be very sympathetic to Cuba.
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: A gentleman by the name of Michael Manley. He was
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: the Prime Minister of Jamaica. That's my political hero. But
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: I totally disagree with him on the alliance with Russia
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: in Cuba. It's an access of evil. It's making a
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: deal with the devil. Because at the time, it was
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: a different America. They felt like, you know, America was
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: racist and America wasn't doing right with African Americans and
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: brown people. That was a different America. I believe that,
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: but I get you. So there was a relationship forged
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: there to be against the real apartheids that were happening,
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: the real Jim Crow, the real people drinking at different
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: water fountains. So yeah, America didn't really have a moral
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: compass at the time. And so yeah, aligning with dictators
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: it kind of made sense because it's like, well, you know,
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: you don't even give us equal rights in a country
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: that we built. You traffick us to a country we
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: build it, and you treat us like this. Right, So
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: I get it, But now is the time to transition.
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: I think we've long arrived at a time to transition
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: to aligning ourselves with people with democratic values. I can
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: live with myself aligning with people who don't give their
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: populace the same opportunity that I have to be great,
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: the same opportunity that I have to criticize governments, the
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: same opportunity that I have the choose. At least the
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: people in Belize and the people in America get the
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: choose who they want right now. I don't get into
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: your politics as far as the performance of President Trump.
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: I didn't get into the performance of President Biden. But
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: however the people feel about the state of affairs in
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: the United States right now, If they're not in accordance
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: with going to Iran, if they're not in accordance with
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: whatever the policies are of the current administration, midterms coming
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: up in November, you get the vote. The people in
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: Cuba don't have that alternative. So how can Cara com
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: nations that are democratic nations not align themselves with the
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: United States when it comes to the removal of these
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: dictators such as Maduro and Cuba.
• 33:17
  Speaker 4: So I appreciate you man, he's a well versed person
• 33:21
  Speaker 4: and very intelligent.
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: You alluded to the music.
• 33:25
  Speaker 4: I want to talk about it because you said that
• 33:27
  Speaker 4: there's there's three albums, not just one three said this
• 33:30
  Speaker 4: is not just honorable I got it, the honorable Rap
• 33:33
  Speaker 4: Prime Minnesota that I think is ADUPE title and actual
• 33:36
  Speaker 4: intelligence Intelligence.
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, come on, man, you know I got you, bro,
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: You know I got you.
• 33:40
  Speaker 4: So I wonder how do you envision those laying out
• 33:44
  Speaker 4: and let's break down the titles, because, like I said,
• 33:46
  Speaker 4: Rap Prime Minister, I think you told us that before
• 33:48
  Speaker 4: and now you actually I may have said that off record, yeah,
• 33:51
  Speaker 4: but now you put it out to the people.
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: I'm like it too, because you know, I don't want
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: anyone to run with anything. Things are moving fast in
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: the culture. Yeah yeah, and you know certain things that
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: I saw and that I was doing months ago, it's
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: all happening. Like I went on, I decided I was
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: going to go on tour to celebrate twenty five last
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: year in September. Hope is going back on stage.
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: Now, there's a couple other guys.
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: On No One on the thirtieth anniversary.
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, of a reasonable doubt.
• 34:21
  Speaker 4: Yeah, Wayne just announced he's doing a twenty year anniversary
• 34:23
  Speaker 4: of the card.
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: So you know, it's just important to put certain things
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: out there so no one can rewrite history. Right.
• 34:30
  Speaker 4: Yeah, So how are you envisioning the layout because the
• 34:33
  Speaker 4: producer list is crazy. You talked about uh Dre, which
• 34:37
  Speaker 4: that's crazy. You didn't even know him, but you were
• 34:39
  Speaker 4: able to work with them. How are you envisioning like
• 34:42
  Speaker 4: each producer is getting it? Each album has a different theme.
• 34:46
  Speaker 4: How is this going to be worked out?
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: What I'm doing right now is just following the thriller
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: template that I got from jay Z. And I've told
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: the story before, maybe it when jay Z came to
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: see me in Rykers Island in maybe two thousand and four.
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: Maybach just came out, pulled up in Rykers, Allen and
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: the mayback. We sat in the lawyer's station for visits
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: with those held in captivity, and he was talking to
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: me about moving forward, and we put out The Godfather
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: Buried Alive. It was number one. But then he was like, well,
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: what's next? You know, we can't just make another album.
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: And that's when he went into his conversations with Michael
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: Jackson Quincy Jones about the making of Thriller, and the
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: information that was given to him by Mike and Quincy
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: Blessed their souls was that every song had to be
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: better than the other song. So you make a thriller.
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: That's when you make Billy Jean. That's when you you know,
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: you just keep going and going and going. And so
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: that's the mindset. And that's why my my my producer
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: list is like that because I'm so excited about Dre,
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: which is, you know, I'm in a dream. But then
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: you hear the Swiss records like fall Out, you hear
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: the Swiss record, but then you hear the Timberland.
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: Records and they all picked up the call.
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: I don't want to say easy, like it's easy, but
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: I think the same love and respect that you guys
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: have for me relationships everybody that I mentioned, by the
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: grace of God, they have that love and respect for me.
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: Some for me as a human being, you know, not
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: as much as the music. And Dre is particularly that person,
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: because you know, like what can Dre do next? Like
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: what what else? Drey doesn't have to do anything? He
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: was a billionaire then and then you know when now
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: he's a billionaire again, and like what else can Dre do?
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: But for our connection, it was more as a leader
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: and my evolution, you know, on being in the opposition
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: leader of the House office and the things I wanted
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: to do for believes he was really impressed with that,
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: and that's how a conversation started. And when we had
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: that conversation, we had so much in common with where
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: he was doing in Compton, with the hundreds of millions
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: he was investing in education and philanthropy. And then it's like, oh, man,
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: come on, let's go downstairs. Let's go listen to some music. Right. So,
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: so hit Boy, you know, Big Boy, that's my guy.
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: He's my plug anybody I want to talk to when
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: I go to LA he puts it together. But it's
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: not like Big Boy telling Hip Boy, yo, please talk
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: to Shane. It's like when Hip Boy, when Big Boy
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: calls hit Hits on the phone, like yo oh Shine
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: is my favorite rapper ever, one of my you know,
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: like all time. And so that's the energy, that's the energy,
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: that's the energy, by the grace of God. You know,
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: when I go to see Tim, it's like, you know,
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: he's a legend, he's a goat, but you know he
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: respects the contributions that have been made, Like it's so incredible.
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: When I went to see Tim, I got a gift
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: because I didn't have Polo to down on my list.
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: Most respectfully, and his catalog is incredible, but I just
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: didn't have him on my list that he wasn't on
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: the vision board, and he happened to be there and
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: we had a whole versus in the studio because he
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: was so excited to meet me. And again, he loved
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: the music, but he loved the human being, the leader,
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: you know, the hip hop that fit the evolution, and
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: he gave me some of the best music that I've
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: ever heard. When you hear Polo to don when you
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: hear the Timberland records, Like I said, listen, the Swiss
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: record was so crazy. Me and Dre working on our
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: music and I played them the Swiss. He like, let
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: me help you with that.
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: What is the What is the raps?
• 39:21
  Speaker 3: That would be my question because when you came out,
• 39:23
  Speaker 3: you were nineteen years old, coming from Brooklyn. You was
• 39:28
  Speaker 3: a street dude, and the raps match that Godfather Barrier alive.
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: We know that. But then your life just changed.
• 39:35
  Speaker 3: You became religious, you became a father, you became a politician.
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: You're in your forties. What do you rap about now?
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: Why can't the conversation that we have been having for
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: the last forty.
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: Five No, you can, but you can't. You can. And
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: that's what I think. It's exactly that is that what
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: we rap about. I mean, where your life is at.
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: Don't want to give everything away.
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: But no contemporary I'm off for.
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: I'm definitely not gonna be nineteen year old shit. And
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry for anyone who expect. And I tell you
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: one of my someone a young man that I'm so
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: impressed with, and I'll say a young man, no disrespect.
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: He might be you know, I don't know his age,
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: to be honest, because I haven't done much research. But
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: someone that I just got turned onto. I might be
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: late to the to the party. It's stove god asking
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: me like, who's who's in New York? Who's the new
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: young artist that that you like? And I would never
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: say the things that he said because I'm not living
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: here and I don't and and and on my leisure.
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: You know, if i'm you know, out the dinner or
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: I'm at the house, that's not what I'm listening to.
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: But because i'm you know, I'm getting you know, back
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: into the arena. I'm getting ready for you know, the
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: NBA season or the NFL season, the mL BE. You
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: gotta look at what you know how the terrain is
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: right and and draw inspiration, and I draw inspiration from
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: what is the art of hip hop? What makes stove
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: god Uh impressive to me? Not because he's talking about
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: you know, heroine and narcotics and all of that. It's
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: his wordplay, his penmanship, the metaphors, the triple entendres, how
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: he's painting on the canvas, his personality, that talk like
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: he's New York right now.
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: That's why when I heard the titles, I'm like, yeah,
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: is what I'm.
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: Saying is I could I could give you Shine Poe
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: without being nineteen years old, because for what may shine
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: Shine was a lot of the thuns that impressed menticity
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: and a lot of the things that impressed me about
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: stove Guard. It was my attitude. It was that talk,
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: it was the wordplay, it was the melodies, it was
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: the flows, it was It's a lot that goes into
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: making a classic album.
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: And I still got the formula.
• 42:06
  Speaker 4: So that's why when I the titles, when I heard honorable,
• 42:09
  Speaker 4: I'm thinking, we're going to get the Sean who is
• 42:12
  Speaker 4: living in this moment, right, the honorable right, And then
• 42:14
  Speaker 4: I'm thinking the rap Prime Minister is like let me
• 42:17
  Speaker 4: get on my ship, like, let me show you how
• 42:19
  Speaker 4: this really works. Like when I hear rap Prime Minister,
• 42:23
  Speaker 4: we heard that we're rocked in Big Daddy can Big Dad,
• 42:25
  Speaker 4: So I'm thinking like, oh, here come the wordplay and
• 42:28
  Speaker 4: then the last one, the actual intelligence is like the
• 42:31
  Speaker 4: conversation that we've had that on on camera and it's like, Yo,
• 42:34
  Speaker 4: this is one of the most brilliant people we've ever met.
• 42:36
  Speaker 4: That's in my mind how it's being is being mapped out.
• 42:39
  Speaker 4: Am I off task by.
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: Put all that together on every album and the bottom
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: line is making hits because most respectfully, that's why every
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: platform is different. What you'll get from a lecture is
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: different than you know, what you'll get if you go
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: to my show. My performance is a celebration of great music,
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: right for you to bop, for you to dance, for
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: you to you know, for you to get in your feelings,
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: for you to get inspired, for you to get excited. Music.
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: I remember where I was when I you know, go
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: back to certain songs. So making a song is different
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: than anything else that you would do. And to make
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: great songs, it's a formula. The beat has to be incredible,
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: your flows, your melodies have to be incredible and then
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: you just be you the content that That's what people
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: are not understanding. You don't have to be a dope
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: boy to make great records. You don't have to be
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: a gangster to make great records. I go back to
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: Bob Marley, who made more hits than Bob Marley.
• 43:56
  Speaker 2: Well, hip hop is a different genre.
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: Not at all all. I vehemently disagree. We I'm talking
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: at a level of greatness. Greatness is greatness, it doesn't
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: matter the genre. And all I'm saying is Michael Jackson,
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: Bob Marley, jay Z, Big Nwa. What do they all
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: have in common? The Beatles, you know, Rolling Stones, Marvin Gay,
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: They all have in common that they made classics, they.
• 44:30
  Speaker 3: Make record We're just getting to this, all right, hip hop, right, Yeah?
• 44:35
  Speaker 3: I like to think of myself as a hip hop
• 44:37
  Speaker 3: is storian. I think we just got to the point
• 44:39
  Speaker 3: where we're at adult contemporary hip hop being accepted mainstream.
• 44:44
  Speaker 3: So all right, so Nas could come out and rap
• 44:47
  Speaker 3: about real shit that he's dealing with as far as
• 44:49
  Speaker 3: casinos and it's adult rap.
• 44:51
  Speaker 2: Jay Z for for four album. That wasn't always the case.
• 44:54
  Speaker 3: Previously, Elder rappers or rappers that were in their forties
• 44:58
  Speaker 3: try to stick rap like they were twenty and it
• 45:01
  Speaker 3: didn't make any sense at all.
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: I vehemently disagree with you. Let me interject, Let's go
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: back to the foundation, mister hip hop has rock Hem
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: was never selling dope.
• 45:15
  Speaker 4: But offens we never no, no, he was paid in full.
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: But no, no, no, no no. But you're missing my point.
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: When co quest episode know what I'm just saying, they
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: also never got to wrap at forty exactly. No, but
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: it doesn't I'm not with the ages. Throw that in
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: the garbage. What I'm saying is when hip hop first started,
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: there was no such thing as gangster rap. So the
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: point that I'm making to you is what hip hop
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: was all about was always making hits. And what it
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: doesn't change. The reason Rock Cam is Rock Chim is
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: because his flow was incredible. Let me finish. The reason
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: Big Daddy Kane was Big Daddy Kane was because his
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: flow was incredible. The reason KRS one was KRS one
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: right is because when he hit, his flows was incredible.
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: I think you know a little bit too much on
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: the lecture side sometimes, but you.
• 46:21
  Speaker 2: Know that was that was not a Brooklyn bias. Man
• 46:25
  Speaker 2: do that in Brooklyn.
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: If you didn't know KRS was born in Brooklyn. Listen,
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: let's let's bet we could bet.
• 46:35
  Speaker 2: With Bronx claims it and that's a bias. No, don't
• 46:38
  Speaker 2: do that.
• 46:40
  Speaker 3: Let me let me, let me reframe this from a
• 46:42
  Speaker 3: hip hop perspective. Right, It wasn't necessarily because even now
• 46:46
  Speaker 3: there's there's rappers that don't talk about drugs at all.
• 46:48
  Speaker 3: Hip hop has always been centered to the youth. It's
• 46:51
  Speaker 3: always been a youth culture. It's been a youth culture.
• 46:54
  Speaker 3: It says the youth. This is what I'm trying to say.
• 46:57
  Speaker 3: Who says the youth need to be thugging and bugging?
• 47:00
  Speaker 3: Who says the youth? And then look at look at
• 47:03
  Speaker 3: Jay Cole. No, No, but what I'm Cole is not
• 47:05
  Speaker 3: a gangst the rapper, No, and the youth. Look, that's
• 47:08
  Speaker 3: what I'm saying. But now Hendrick is not a gangster rapper.
• 47:11
  Speaker 3: But now we have to we have the transition of adult.
• 47:16
  Speaker 3: We didn't have Rock Kimmingdham wasn't thirty forty years old
• 47:20
  Speaker 3: when they was rapping. I'm saying now is the first
• 47:23
  Speaker 3: time in history that we have adults forty years old.
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: That's a different conversation than you're asking me what am
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: I going to be rapping about? And how is that
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: going to transition? That's different.
• 47:37
  Speaker 3: No, because that's the conversation because you got two groups
• 47:40
  Speaker 3: of people. I think you got the older people that
• 47:43
  Speaker 3: and when I say old, the people I'm in that book,
• 47:45
  Speaker 3: I'm forty two. You got the older people that rap
• 47:48
  Speaker 3: about stuff that's really relevant to what somebody forty two
• 47:51
  Speaker 3: is going through.
• 47:51
  Speaker 2: That's what I want to listen to.
• 47:52
  Speaker 3: Then you got people that's forty five that's rapping to
• 47:56
  Speaker 3: try to make songs for the club.
• 47:58
  Speaker 2: There's a disconnect because you're not in the club.
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I wouldn't because I never want to
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: be the art police. I never want to be the
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: music police. Opinion.
• 48:08
  Speaker 3: You're a hip hop we're not doing that. You've got
• 48:10
  Speaker 3: an opinion. Man, We can't be politically correct. You're not
• 48:12
  Speaker 3: talking about policy. We talked about rap. Be politically correct
• 48:15
  Speaker 3: when it comes to policy. This is rap politically correct.
• 48:19
  Speaker 4: Hold us up to the front, right.
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: Well, No, I'm telling you this is my this is
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: my principal position. I'm not going to tell a forty
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: five year old that wants to still live like he's
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: you know, twenty year old. Not to do that, that's
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: up to him, like, you know, let him be great
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: if that's if.
• 48:39
  Speaker 2: It's not connected, that's on him.
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: Let us take that l But I'm not going to
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: sit here and say I'm not I'm not even thinking
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: about that because I don't really like I don't get
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: into people's minds and why someone would do that. I
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: know why I'm not going to do that. I know
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: what I'm going to do, but I'm not going to
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: say because then maybe uh uh, you know, hop might
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: come out with some young hove or some you know,
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: young boy hits and we will never even see. And
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: that's what I love about music, and I love about
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: creativity because someone can always do something that you didn't
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: think was practical and it just there's no way he
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: could do that, and they'll come and they'll do it right.
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: That's what I love about creativity. So my thing, and
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: that's why I'm having so much fun because I'm gonna
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: be me who I am today. And I agree with
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: you on that point that there are people that have
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: grown up with me that want to hear the conversation
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: about you know, getting to a trillion dollars and growing
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: GDPs and you know, investments, and you know, instead of
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: instead of buying watches, Uh, you know, uh, building an
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: entire community. Uh, you know. But the challenges that we
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: face as human beings never really change. We always have betrayal,
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: we always have heartbreak, we always have disappointment. So all
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: I'm saying is the canvas is there, and it's just
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: for me to paint my truth. But all that matters
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: at the end of the day, because your truth can
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: be as compelling as possible. If it's not a hit,
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: then it's like you in the wilderness. You're in the
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: forest and nobody, Nobody's going to.
• 50:35
  Speaker 2: Listen to it.
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: So at the end of the day, it got to
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: be Hits content comes after the fact. But as far
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: as my integrity, my artistic integrity, I'm not going to
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: be the person trying to chase the ghosts of nineteen
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: year old shop.
• 50:49
  Speaker 4: How is this working for you? You have a a
• 50:51
  Speaker 4: two part question. You have a list of producers that
• 50:55
  Speaker 4: are coming together to make the project.
• 50:56
  Speaker 2: You said, we got a switch joint, we got a
• 50:58
  Speaker 2: pharrel joint.
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: I already got all my beat. I mean, like there's
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: one person. I'm so fortunate. I'll get to your room,
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: like boy Wonder. I hit him. I said, listen, you
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: know it's time. He said, say no more. He sent
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: me a file, and of that file, I walked away
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: with a whole album. I could do a whole album
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: with him, just boy Wonder, just boy Wonder, right mids
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: ups slows, just him alone. That's how fortunate and I am. Yeah,
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: And it's it's like that all across the board. I
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: hit Rizza.
• 51:45
  Speaker 2: That's the one I really wanted to talk about.
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: Oh man, because I did mention riz You mean, I.
• 51:48
  Speaker 2: Know I'm saying you haven't mentioned that the track is
• 51:50
  Speaker 2: done yet, because you.
• 51:51
  Speaker 4: Said you got you got the rest of build the track,
• 51:54
  Speaker 4: because you know why Frizzia I think I think he
• 51:58
  Speaker 4: kind of gets slept. It's weird that he's slept throwing
• 52:00
  Speaker 4: because we grew up in the era where he was
• 52:02
  Speaker 4: making all the Butang tracks and then.
• 52:04
  Speaker 2: It was singular producer. But he also but then he's
• 52:07
  Speaker 2: the CEO, yeah nco. But then he he didn't work
• 52:10
  Speaker 2: with a lot of other artists outside of Will exactly. Well.
• 52:12
  Speaker 4: He's on life after Death, which I think is an incredible,
• 52:15
  Speaker 4: probably the best double album. But he's also on my
• 52:17
  Speaker 4: Twist Dark Fantasy, so it tells about that evolution, how
• 52:20
  Speaker 4: he's grown. But you haven't heard anything in the past
• 52:23
  Speaker 4: few years from him as a producer. So when I
• 52:25
  Speaker 4: saw Rizza and I didn't hear you say the track
• 52:27
  Speaker 4: is done you, I'm like, how is this?
• 52:29
  Speaker 2: What's up with the resids? Oh situation.
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: I'm not I'm not giving out all my secrets as
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: far as was done was not done. All you gotta
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: know is he gave me the messiles. Yeah, he gave
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: me incredible records that that he gave me exactly what
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: I wanted when I knew he was capable of because
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: the the approach that I have, it's not necessarily you know,
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: what have you done lately? You know, did you make
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: a hit in the life last couple of years. No,
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: I'm just I'm enjoying myself and I want to work
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: with who I want to work with. I want to
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: you the same way people admire me and I'm their favorite.
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: Ras is one of my favorites. And so now you
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: know if he'd have gave me or if I couldn't
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: find because nobody's going to give you one hundred percent,
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: and so sometimes even your favorites will give you ten.
• 53:27
  Speaker 2: But if I walk away with five, I'm good.
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: If I walk away with one from my favorite that
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: I love and I did it, and I'm telling you,
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: I walked away with a few from Rizard that I love,
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: and I don't take I'm my my My grading is harsh.
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: I'm stringent. I'm not because I believe that what I
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: have to deliver and what I want, not what I have.
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: What I want to deliver, I want to deliver with
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: when I'm listening to whoever, when I'm listening to that
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: Don Tolliver, or I'm listening, uh, you know to whoever,
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: to a Burner Boy or to a whiz Kid, or
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: you know to Chris Brown or whoever's putting out those
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: great records, to a Drake, to a Kendrick putting out
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: great records. And I know how I feel when I'm
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: listening to those great records and oh, just hit after
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: hit and it just keep going. And that's what I
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: want to create. I'm not going to create anything less,
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: so it starts with me. So if I don't love
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: the record, so I'm not doing anything because it's so
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: and so.
• 54:33
  Speaker 2: So.
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: The only reason I'm working with SO and so is
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: because I know that they could give me what I love.
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: And I'm not been disappointed. Everyone has hit.
• 54:43
  Speaker 4: This is the second part because I got the list
• 54:44
  Speaker 4: of producers here, the one name, and maybe.
• 54:48
  Speaker 2: You've worked with them or with this something growing. I
• 54:51
  Speaker 2: didn't see Premier.
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: Premiers on the list. Yeah, I reached out to him.
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: I'm just waiting to hear back.
• 54:57
  Speaker 2: I can live with that.
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: He's no ideas on the list.
• 55:00
  Speaker 4: I saw that that bad Boy era.
• 55:04
  Speaker 3: You you owned your masters and you owned the publishing
• 55:09
  Speaker 3: exact correct.
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: I owned my publishing always from the beginning, the beginning,
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: but I didn't own the masters for the first album,
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: second album.
• 55:17
  Speaker 3: Yes, how did you own your publishing from the beginning,
• 55:20
  Speaker 3: because that was always a big thing with artists saying
• 55:22
  Speaker 3: that they didn't have their publishing. So how did you
• 55:25
  Speaker 3: have enough leverage, enough knowledge at that young age to
• 55:28
  Speaker 3: even fight for that.
• 55:30
  Speaker 2: Most artists they get a watch and they they cool.
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: I was. I was very fortunate to just have intuitive
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: entrepreneur's spirit. I'm an entrepreneur by birth. I'm a leader
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: by birth. Uh, you know, I got to chalk it
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: up the genetics. I have some powerful brains that I
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: inherited respectfully. You know, I was always a reader. I
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: was always someone that immersed themselves and reading. I remember
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: one of the first books I read that I remember
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: to this day was Michael Eisner's biography about Disney, and
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: then I would end up putting out the documentary with Disney.
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: Read that when I was like ten years old. Yeah,
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: so I was always reading and my brain was always
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: working in the hand of God, you know, has always
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: been on me. And so when Chris Lighty, I met
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: everybody i'd met Puff, I rapped for Puff thanks to
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: Mark Pitts, I gotta call him as soon as I
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: leave here before he goes to Japan. I missed him
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: in La But yeah, so I had wrapped. You know.
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: I got discovered by kidnamed Austin. Took me to Don
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: Pooh doing Brooklyn chop House together by Guymani Helly, Hollywood executive,
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: and so we were making our rounds. Rap for Puff,
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: go with Mark Pitch, rap for him, rap for un Uh.
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: You know, I think I rapped for Sylvia Ron that's
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: like my mother. She's one of the most incredible human beings.
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: And that was like in September, October November, no deal
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: signed yet. You know, I ran up on hole you
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: know that story, that hilarious story we don't need to
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: repeat here. And then Chris Lighty. I got the call
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: to go see Chris Lighty at the Deaf Jam building
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: on Arrack Street, and that changed my life because once
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: I went into his office, he was like, all right,
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: you know, I hear you know everybody's after you. All right,
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: you know, I want to hear what you know, what
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: you got going on. I play you this this dat
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: tape from a young producer. His name is Swiss Beats,
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: and our moonwalked all over the Swiss Beats like you know.
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: He was just playing beat after beat and I just
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: kept bong bong bow and he's like, all right, stop,
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: you can control him. I can contain himself. He's like,
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: you're not leaving here unless we sign the deal. He
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: took me into Leo's office. I did the same thing.
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: It's when I first met earth Gotti. I was talking
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: crazy and that's jay Z's best friend. But I was
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: talking about you know at the time, because he threw
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: my tape away. Yeah, and that's what really put me
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: in a position to have incredible leverage because once Puff,
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: I think I think that all the moguls, all the CEOs,
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: they're all friends and they all compete with each other
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: and are inspired by each other. So I think Chris
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: and Leo thought they had the deal done and they
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: called Puff like to talk to talk crazy like yeah, yeah,
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: you wait because remember deaf Jam wasn't you know, like
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't say death Jam was cold because they had meth.
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: You know, meth. People sleep on meth. We were talking
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: about sleeping on resident people sleep on that.
• 59:02
  Speaker 2: Him and red Man we're talking about.
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: Sleep on meth.
• 59:04
  Speaker 2: Red Man DMX around this is.
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: No no and't come yet. But this is ninety seven. Uh.
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: We just heard X on double No, not double up
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: on Harlem World. We just was hearing X on twenty
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: four Hours to Live. We just was hearing X on
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: stay out the dug. If I get you on this
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: under one running Clay, hold on, hold on, he was
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: on fire right, he's better than so but as he
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: but he's building. But but you know, uh, prof is
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: still prough and bad boys, bad boys. It's ninety seven.
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: It's nobody else is life after death. There's no way
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: out life after Death World, there's nobody else, right, everything
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: else is building, but remember Ex's building on Harlem World, right,
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: and then building on on on Mister Smith, you know,
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: respect to the to.
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 4: The ip that we can't we can't leave everygotty out
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 4: the conversations recipes, Yes, Jo rules happening at the same time.
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: Yes, yes, but I'm just showing you how it's building then.
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: But so it's puff. Everything is puff, Bad Boy. Everybody's building,
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: and then we'll get to what happens in ninety eight.
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: But they're building, but it's not the ninety eight hard
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: Knocked Life. Dark Hell is hot jah Rue, you know,
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: put it on me. You know, Murder inc. Death Jam
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: is not there yet. But I just wanted to give
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: respect to to Uncle el And and MEF.
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 2: So you signed your deal in ninety seven.
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: In ninety eight, but I'm just telling you when I
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: met with christ I met with Chris December of ninety seven,
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: so it was still all all Bad Boy. Yes, Michael Jackson,
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: Quincy Jones the biggest record company on planet Earth. So now,
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: and I'm just going into the leverage we get to
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: ninety eight, but in ninety seven, I'm telling you that
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: they're chasing Puff, and so the conversation is like, yeah,
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: we're about to catch you. Watch right, is what I think.
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: Because then Puff hit the line and he's like, yo,
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: come to California. I'm ready to sign a deal. Come down,
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: and he had a better offering. No, no, no, no, no,
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: hold on. So we get to California. First time, I
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: leave Brooklyn, I leave New York. Me don pooh, Matt Middleton.
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: I land in California. Go checking the Beverly Hills Hotel.
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: Eddie Murphy coming out the elevator. I'm getting on the elevator.
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: I'll never forget it. Got to tell you that story.
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: Go to record plant, j Lo Puff. At the record plant,
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: j Low was doing I'm Sorry. Puff is doing the
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: Godzilla record.
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 2: With me.
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he's recording that. He comes out he's like, well,
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: you know, I know everybody wants you. I know what's
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: going on, but you know I'm not I'm not gonna
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: do that. If you want to sign with me, you know,
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: let's sign. And I'm like.
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, of course.
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: Before he was like, yeah, you nice, but I gotta
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: teach you, you know, how to make hits, and he
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: kind of left me on ice. Now he's like, listen,
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: if you want to sign less, sign now and and
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: you know, welcome to the family. And I was like yeah,
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: but everyone was after me so that now I'm taking
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: pictures with Puff and well there was no there was
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: no social media back then. But I don't know how
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: it was going viral, but it was going viral that
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: I'm out in LA with Puff and the deal is done,
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: and you know, I'm the newest bad boy. Uh. So
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: Puff is at a mega mansion in Muhullan and has
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: a party. Is everyone is out there for Soul Train Awards.
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: So Le or Russell, Chris Lighty come to the house
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: for the Soul Train Award party. Everybody, Chris Tucker, you know,
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: NBA players playing basketball. Everyone is at the house. So
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: they pulled me to the side, like yo. Meanwhile, my lawyer,
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: Matt Middleton, He's like, listen, they'll give you anything. Everybody's
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: prepared to give you anything. So I'm like, okay, what's
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: Puff offering? All right? Telling me you want triple that.
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: So that's what I said. I had an entrepreneur's spirit.
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: I was not like I was impressed, but I wasn't impressed. Uh,
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: the hand of God was always with me as to
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: just my vessel expanding and expanding, and I didn't necessarily.
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: It's kind of it's a gift in the curse because
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: I didn't feel Puff was doing me a favor, but
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: he was. It's a great opportunity. But I was great
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: because everybody saw what he saw. It's not like he
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: saw it and you know, he's manufacturing me. Everyone that
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: ever heard me rap thought I was incredible initially except Jay.
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: But I was literally sitting there running the numbers up
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: because I wasn't infatuated. I wasn't smittening. It's not like, oh,
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: you know Puff. It was like, no, I could be Puff.
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: I could be I always had that mentality. I was
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: just shot when I was sixteen, So like in ninety six,
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: I was shot. In ninety seven, I graduated. I'm delivering
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: messages like I went through so much coming from Belize,
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: not even a toilet system. Father bannon me, poor mother.
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: And where I'm at right now now, I'm in Beverly Hills.
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: Every record label want to sign me. I, by the
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: grace of God and my mother got myself there. I
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: never had any help.
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: I had an uncle who loved music and used to
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: give me advice. So so basically no, I had that
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: entrepreneur instinct, and I just kept telling Matt, running numbers up.
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: If Puff is saying one point fifty, tell deaf Jam
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: four hundred, tell Sylvia five hundred, just keep running the numbers.
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 2: Up, numbers up, man, and we ran them up.
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: The publishing thing that's not even on the table let
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: PUFB know, no publishing off the rep. Off the rep.
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: That's that's a deal breaker, non starter, right, and so
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: nobody else could get the publishing. I did a great
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 1: I don't remember the lady's name, but I did a
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: great deal joint venture with PolyGram. But I just kept
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: running the numbers up and people kept accepting the number.
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 3: What was your deal? It was a million dollars advance.
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 3: Uh yeah, publishing. You had your publishing deal with You
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 3: had an apartment? None, I was just that if you had
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 3: an apartment though, right was what'd you saying? You say
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 3: it was like soho or something like you had like
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 3: a luxury apartment in Manhattan.
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: Well no, well, uh, Puff had an apartment like next
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: to al Pacino.
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 2: Okay, so that was his apartment.
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but everybody would go there. Mark Curry everyone you know,
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 1: like Mace used to be there. But I was in
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: Fort Lee. I was, I had a I had a
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: penthouse in Fort Lee. Uh yeah, Bigs, Rockefeller they were
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: out there too. But but yes, I just kept running
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: the numbers up and I had that entrepreneur spirit. But
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: ultimately I also had uh the genius because I think
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: people who make it the furthest are people that have
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: honest self analysis uh and can rigorously assess themselves and
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: and and and do the heat check and be able
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: to say, uh, nah, you know, maybe a little bit more. Nah,
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: I'm not quite ready for that. No, I don't have
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: that information. And instinctively they asked me about this the
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: other day. Jay Z went from uh shadowing jazz. His
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: name is based on jazz. Jay Z is jazz right,
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: jas had ended that Hawaiian and Sophie. He went through
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: a process before we got pay Day Distributor CEO of
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: Rockefeller Records, along with Damon Biggs. Right, there was a
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: process before you got there, X and and and D
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: and WY and rough Riders. There was born loser On
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: Sony before we get rough Riders, uh JV with with
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: death chair right, a lot of what we saw where
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: people going through processes. Puff was you know Andre Herrel
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: before Andre Rall, he was dancing in videos and I'll
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 1: be sure videos or whatever videos he was dancing and
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: their processes that people have gone through before you get
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: to that point of being a CEO. And I think,
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: for what I ultimately became, I went through the right process.
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: I think if i'd have gone you know, one of
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 1: the things Jimmy told me, because he had Jimmy wanted
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: to sign me as well. I forgot to mention that,
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 1: and he said, listen, you know, I'll give you anything
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: you want, but what I want from you is to
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 1: be self contained. If you're gonna come to interscope is
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 1: because you're gonna be death Row. You know you're gonna
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: be aftermath. You know you are gonna do your own thing,
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 1: and I'm just gonna support you. And yeah, that sounds great.
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: But I was eighteen nineteen. I had never even been
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: in the studio. I had gone in the studio one
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: time and the beat was over here and I was
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: over there. You know, nobody's told don Pool you asked
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: me about that the next time you go to Brooklyn Chophouse.
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: So not to say that it couldn't have worked with
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: death Jam or in the scope, but in the mall
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: the worlds of Kanye. I guess we'll never know, right,
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: but I felt I felt the need. I went back after,
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: you know, buying out the whole Iceberg store in Beverly Hills.
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: We went back on and living in the Peninsula for
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: weeks and driving the six hundred. We went back to
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 1: New York. Met guy by the name of Eric Nickson
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 1: was working for Violey to death Jam, and I was
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: living in the Saint Regis. I was going to they
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 1: were waiting to close the deal. I would go to
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: John McNeill every week, or at least a few times
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: a week, just to keep getting money while they're waiting
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 1: to close the deal, because that's how bad they wanted me.
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 1: I'm living in the Saint Regis and I just wake
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: up one day and I called Mark Pitts and I'm like, yo,
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: let's signed the deal with Puff. And again, remember I'm
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 1: not pressed. I left the the Mega mansion. I left,
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 1: you know, whatever off he had on the table, and
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: Puff was Puff. And this is before Hard Knocked. Life
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: is dark and Hell is Hot and Forever came out
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: and he went flat on his face. This was before that. Uh,
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: this was him at that.
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 2: That was it. That was a chief shot. No, I'm
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 2: just say he fell flattering. Come on after forget that
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 2: was that.
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: It was bad boy.
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 2: We called.
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: What happened after that? Come on, Black Black Rob, Come on,
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 1: No Black Rob and g deb that ma.
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 2: I'm saying they had a researcher, they had research, sir, Sir, sir,
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 2: yeah what yeah you said.
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: This is ninety eight, sir. You know what it was
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 1: crazy that ain't come on till that til two thousand
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 1: and one. ROBBIEO god Bless his soul, Nay come out
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: the number one two thousand, two thousand.
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 2: I think his album came out after my album offs
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 2: off FeNiS.
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: We're talking from ninety eight until until Bad Boys comes
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: out and and will come out Puff and Bad Boys Cold.
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 4: Nothing is happening to find cold because he has number
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 4: one records R and B, R and B, the number one,
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 4: number one public gat Me number one was a number
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 4: one record. Bro Godzilla was a number four. I don't
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 4: think they're great song I got hot, were talking.
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 2: I don't go from no Way out to the fact
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 2: forever come on album?
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah, sure, give you know when you came out bad boy,
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 3: was we brought I brought bad back.
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: Robbie, Rest in peace to Robbio.
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 2: That's true. Don't get me wrong. Don't get me wrong.
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 1: Let me correct the record, because yes, total was hot.
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 2: One twelve was still hot.
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: One twelve was hot. So I take Thomas, let me
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: revise it, get all time. Yeah, so yeah, Carl Carl
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: is bringing him back. That's on the R and B.
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 1: So he's stayed hot on the R and B, respectful,
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: So let me correct that he stayed hot on the
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 1: R and B. But it wasn't the it wasn't. Remember,
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: claim the fame is life after death, no way out
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 1: Harlem world. That's to claim the fame. So if you're
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 1: not there, then you're not anywhere, right but respectfully faithful
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 1: still hot, Yes, faithful, still hot. Total was still hot,
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 1: one twelve we'll still hot, respectfully revised. And then Carl Thomas,
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 1: Carl Thomas really brought, really really took it like.
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 4: And the yeah you're talking about for sure. Yeah, and
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 4: that before.
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 2: Some arrange I wish I never met.
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 1: Did you know did you I'm about to give it
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 1: to you? Did you know? I was on the remix.
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 3: I heard it with L Like you said, that's that's
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 3: the that's the face. That's the faces people.
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: Is that that's a capital S capital that's that's that's
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 1: that's that's my sister from Oakland. That's Keisha.
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 4: Yeah, but you are on the faith in Karl Thomas Joint.
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 4: When they did the video, you wasn't in a video.
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah that's because you know, yeah.
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 1: Because I was telling the truth. So I didn't even
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 1: get my grammy.
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 2: Uh, that's a facmination for that.
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 4: Here's a crazy part. People not gonna remember this. Yeah,
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 4: we heard about you before we ever saw you.
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I think the first time I see you, and
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 2: maybe this I could be wrong.
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 4: The first public appearance I ever saw you on was
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 4: like t R L and that was because they had
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 4: just signed you and they brought you up there and
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 4: I was like, everybody was like, oh that's him.
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 2: That is in my awfulness.
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 1: Well, I definitely had the buzz.
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 2: The buzz is there everybody heard about for social media.
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 2: That's what we never saw.
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 1: But remember everyone was trying to sign me. So I
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 1: was buzzing from the door. Ben wore was incredible and yeah,
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: so it was incredible buzz. Uh Yeah, it was incredible.
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: Buzz I was moving. I was moving like a superstar
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 1: out the gate, you know, like I was Folklore.
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 2: I was, you know a.
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 1: Hundred you know, lead the six hundred dead door open,
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: come back and get in the next morning.
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 2: You know, Gucci park I was in Gucci every day,
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 2: you know.
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 1: Yes, the Platinum roll. First person to buy the the
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 1: Automa Pique introduced Automar to the hip hop world. Asked,
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: asked Jacob the jeweler, No lies told nobody else was
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 1: buying a piece. I was the first one. I bought
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 1: the titanium ap from him. Ask him he could correct me.
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 1: No one was wearing the ap uh in ninety eight. Uh,
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 1: no one in hip hop at least. So yeah, I
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 1: was on you know Altpo without being a snitch. Rich Porter,
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 1: Uh yeah, a z you know, Frank Matthews from Brooklyn hereo.
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 2: You know, it was interesting and it was on it.
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: So that's so a lot of that had the buzz, right.
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 1: I was running around with hold on, I was running
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 1: around with the pop divas, the brat divas. No, I'm
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: just telling you. So it was it was, it was,
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 1: It was. It was a lot. It was a lot.
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 1: You know when so so so then when I was
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 1: going in the studio, when I was going, you know,
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 1: bottles and bottles of crystal everywhere I go. And so
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 1: now when I got into the studio, the music wasn't
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 1: sounding the way it was supposed to sound. And that's
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 1: where the comparisons came in because I was doing the
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 1: most the whole year ninety eight, you know, being a superstar,
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 1: but not putting in superstar work in the studio to
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 1: get superstar material. And so when I did go in there,
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 1: you know, records were getting leaked because I had built up,
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 1: you know, so much anticipation. Some would say, you know,
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 1: animosity because as I said, I was you know, taking
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 1: away the CEO's girl ended up becoming his baby mother. Respectfully,
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 1: she was incredible, like you had to be there. So
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 1: there was a lot of there was a lot of
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 1: negative energy, like like who does this guy think he is?
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was a lot of out the gates stead
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 2: and so.
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 1: But and as I was saying.
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 2: And you was like a one man army too, that
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 2: was the time where everybody had the crew.
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I didn't have a crue by yourself. And listen,
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 1: you you hit a baritone it's twenty eight years, nineteen
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 1: ninety seven. It's twenty nine years at the time.
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 2: I never know what you sound like like Corilla Black
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 2: sounds like that.
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 1: But the baritone is the baritone has not changed. But
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 1: I believe what happens is as I said, I was
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 1: doing the most so I wasn't on my superstar performance level.
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 1: Hadn't had much experience in the studio. So as you're
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 1: getting in there, uh, you're not performing at high level one.
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 1: So the records weren't the hit records that you heard
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 1: on the Shine album. Definitely nowhere close to the right
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 1: one number two. Whenever you hear someone new or see
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 1: someone new in the NBA or anywhere you have that,
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 1: that's what we're do. It's the right. When we saw Kobe,
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: we were like Michael Jordan, but then Kobe ended up
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 1: being Kobe. And now we see other players and we like,
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 1: he remind me of Kobe. Right, Maybe not the best analogy,
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 1: but it's some you know, unfortunate for how things turned
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 1: out with this gentleman. But there was a time where
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 1: he was like one of the goats and and surpassed
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 1: the person he was compared to. And that's r Kelly,
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 1: who was compared to Aaron Hall when, Yes, I know
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 1: when when when I remember when when he first came out.
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 2: You know a lot of people that felt.
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 1: That he was you know, there was an Aaron Hall time.
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 2: That's a fact.
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 1: And then and then R. Kelly became you know, one
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 1: of the best musicians, musicians, musicians ever, right, regardless of
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 1: the things that he's away for right now, respectfully, the
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 1: victims pray for them, pray for him. Uh yeah, let's
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 1: not forget. So I'm just saying for me. Uh, I'm
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 1: always me, I'm always him. So what that did is
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 1: it inspired me to get myself together. So when the
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 1: stuff leaked, I was getting the feedback, you know, and everybody,
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 1: you know, everybody and the.
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 2: Thousand and one.
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 1: So hold on, So so I'm swiping, sniping the CEO's girl.
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 1: Then hold on then now then hold on.
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 2: Got yeah, you got cha, you got cha? Yeah, where
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 2: to go? Left? Way to go live.
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 1: But I'm tying it in because then now the feedback
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 1: is negative, so that he's like, yeah, don't put him
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 1: in the studio. Nobody's feeling him. We're about to shelf him, right.
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 1: I'm just trying to show you how it ties in
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 1: right nold On before we get there, Before we get there.
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 1: That's that's why I don't you know, I'm always grateful
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 1: and when I talk about people, it's always with love.
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 1: And I always have to give Brandy the credit for
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 1: getting me right. Because we had a situation with her
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 1: and a rap superstar female and they had an argument
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 1: relating to Shine And this was like the end of
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 1: ninety eight. Like I said, I was doing the most.
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 1: I was not focused, uh not performing top tier in
• 1:19:58
  Speaker 1: the studio. No, it's whole year passed by and my hits,
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 1: I have the greatest hits, but it's not the greatest
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 1: hits in the studio. It's another greatest hits.
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 1: Uh So Brandy is like, after the argument with the
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 1: rap superstar female, she calls me and she's like, Brooklyn,
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 1: my god, guy, you're doing the most.
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 2: Guy, Guys, you want to.
• 1:20:30
  Speaker 1: Tell me, you want to tell me, but then you
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 1: want to do the most. Right. I'm starting to think
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 1: there's the bias there, that the Upper New York bias,
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 1: is that Mount Vernon bias there.
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 1: But but but back to Brandy and me giving her
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 1: her flowers, right, because because as I always put on
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 1: the record. I admired her. You know, meeting her was
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 1: a dream come true. I had the biggest crush on
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 1: her and just having you know, been able to be
• 1:21:09
  Speaker 1: invited into her world and spend time with her was
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 1: one of the greatest things that ever happened for me.
• 1:21:15
  Speaker 1: But when she checked me and told me, like, yo,
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 1: you know you're wild and you like, you know who
• 1:21:22
  Speaker 1: I am. You can't be treating me however you think
• 1:21:25
  Speaker 1: you could treat me, you're nobody, Like, you haven't sold
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 1: one record? Stone Like, because I couldn't, I couldn't say.
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 1: What could I say? What could what could I say?
• 1:21:41
  Speaker 2: You have to get in the booth?
• 1:21:42
  Speaker 1: What could I say? I was like, I was like
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 1: say less, okay, you know all right, you're right, You're right.
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 2: So that was the motivation.
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 1: Nothing devastating me more than that. I mean, but you know,
• 1:21:55
  Speaker 1: obviously the record label not putting me back in the
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 1: in the booth, you know, because you know the CEO
• 1:22:03
  Speaker 1: is feeling.
• 1:22:04
  Speaker 2: In a certain type of way. It's a lot happening,
• 1:22:06
  Speaker 2: but you obviously reconnected with him. This is my point.
• 1:22:09
  Speaker 1: After that, once she once that exchange happened, I was like,
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 1: nobody's ever going to talk to me like this again.
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 1: I am going to have hit records. I am going
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 1: to sell millions of records. I am going to be
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 1: the superstar that I came here to be, and that's
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 1: starting now. And I was like at the end of December,
• 1:22:30
  Speaker 1: right around New Year's and I and I you know,
• 1:22:34
  Speaker 1: stopped going out, started going in the gym. And I
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 1: found Puff as soon as the New year was over
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 1: and made amends. And I was like, listen, I need
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 1: the Holy Grail. I need the instruction manual. I need
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 1: all the secrets so that we can make this classic album.
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 1: And I'm going to do everything in my power to
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 1: make sure that I realized my full potential. And I
• 1:23:04
  Speaker 1: started in January ninety nine and uh, and that's how
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 1: we got the Bad Boys because I was shadowing him.
• 1:23:10
  Speaker 1: I was on my understudy protege mode, and that's all
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 1: I was doing, right, That's how I got on Sitting
• 1:23:17
  Speaker 1: Sitting at Home. We did the Sitting at Home. That
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 1: was really my first set off where you know, the
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 1: label felt that that was that was that I delivered
• 1:23:28
  Speaker 1: because one thing, you know, I give Puff. You know,
• 1:23:30
  Speaker 1: he's he's harsh when it comes to if it's great
• 1:23:37
  Speaker 1: and if it's not. And then with all the criticisms
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 1: that we were getting because of what was being leaked,
• 1:23:43
  Speaker 1: it was like, listen, we're not putting anything out unless
• 1:23:45
  Speaker 1: it's undeniable. And so they thought that the sitting at
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 1: home was undeniable and they were banging that in the club.
• 1:23:53
  Speaker 1: And then I did the uh. I think I did
• 1:23:55
  Speaker 1: a one twelve, the one twelve remix. I forgot the
• 1:24:02
  Speaker 1: name of it, but I did a one twelve remix
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 1: that was hitting as well. And so there was the
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 1: build up, and then in August of ninety nine, I
• 1:24:12
  Speaker 1: got the the beat for bad Boys in the Hamptons.
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 1: We were in the Hamptons. Maybe it was a little
• 1:24:20
  Speaker 1: bit before August because we were still finishing Forever. So
• 1:24:24
  Speaker 1: maybe it was July, right because Forever came out in August,
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 1: so we were still finishing up July. Maybe it was
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 1: even June. Maybe it was before August. It was June
• 1:24:33
  Speaker 1: for some reason. I remember August. Maybe we were coming back.
• 1:24:36
  Speaker 1: Maybe we'd already put out Forever and he was still
• 1:24:39
  Speaker 1: working on music, but we were working on music along
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 1: with Junior Mafia and a bunch of I think the
• 1:24:44
  Speaker 1: Locks were everybody was out there in the Hampton's working
• 1:24:46
  Speaker 1: on music for Puff and that's when he gave me
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 1: the eazy op beat and he was like, if you
• 1:24:59
  Speaker 1: body this beat, you're out of here. This is it
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 1: right here, this is your moment. You did the remix.
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 1: You're right. I remember I had Oh I was on
• 1:25:07
  Speaker 1: it Forever album as well. I was on the reverse
• 1:25:11
  Speaker 1: track and I and I wrote the remix for pe
• 1:25:15
  Speaker 1: for him, and yeah, like I was the momentum. You
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 1: could tell in ninety nine, the momentum was building. I
• 1:25:23
  Speaker 1: did that guy in the UK, I forgot his name.
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 1: He's where everybody goes the freestyle and to go on
• 1:25:29
  Speaker 1: his show. He's a big radio.
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 2: Host, Tim Westwood.
• 1:25:33
  Speaker 1: Tim Westwood. Yeah, that freestyle it was credible, if I
• 1:25:37
  Speaker 1: do say so myself. But yeah, and I went in
• 1:25:43
  Speaker 1: and I did the most with bad Boy. You know.
• 1:25:48
  Speaker 4: Can't can't I ask you this though, because at the time,
• 1:25:52
  Speaker 4: this time period you're talking about, that's August ninety nine,
• 1:25:55
  Speaker 4: I mean even to recently when I saw you with
• 1:25:58
  Speaker 4: Cam and Mace, I was like, damn, I never really
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 4: thought about how your relationship was, right, like you and
• 1:26:03
  Speaker 4: Mace because at the time he is the superstar that
• 1:26:06
  Speaker 4: is carrying the torch outside of a puff at the time, and.
• 1:26:09
  Speaker 2: Then you're the next superstar.
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 4: But your times kind of did they cross paths or
• 1:26:15
  Speaker 4: did like did you have a relationship at the time,
• 1:26:18
  Speaker 4: Like the story he told I was like, I didn't
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 4: even know that they was cool.
• 1:26:21
  Speaker 1: You know that that was my guy. He initially obviously
• 1:26:25
  Speaker 1: the branding thing happened, so there was you know, a
• 1:26:30
  Speaker 1: little confusion, if you will. But him and I became
• 1:26:36
  Speaker 1: close because remember I was on the second album, But
• 1:26:39
  Speaker 1: that was as a result of you know, us connecting
• 1:26:43
  Speaker 1: and as he said, you know, he definitely gave me
• 1:26:47
  Speaker 1: the information and the manual as to his experiences and
• 1:26:53
  Speaker 1: what he went through and things that I needed to
• 1:26:56
  Speaker 1: avoid and how to deal with the system and how
• 1:26:59
  Speaker 1: to to make it to the to the superstar level.
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 1: We definitely hallom together, you know, definitely know his guys
• 1:27:08
  Speaker 1: with my guys. How do you God bless his soul.
• 1:27:10
  Speaker 1: How he's one of the people that really solidified the
• 1:27:14
  Speaker 1: Pole name because you know, from Harlem and they, like
• 1:27:17
  Speaker 1: I said, the way that I moved, they felt that
• 1:27:20
  Speaker 1: I gave him that Pole vibe. But I have to
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 1: give it to like an executive who was my friend
• 1:27:27
  Speaker 1: Tracy Waypole's along with another executive or uh Ronda Cohen.
• 1:27:33
  Speaker 1: You know, they think Tracy she was at Death Jam
• 1:27:36
  Speaker 1: then went to Sony. Ronda was at Deaf Jam as well,
• 1:27:41
  Speaker 1: and they were like, you know, sisters. Uh, but they
• 1:27:45
  Speaker 1: knew Alpo, so you know, they used to be like, like,
• 1:27:49
  Speaker 1: you look like him, you act like him. But I
• 1:27:52
  Speaker 1: didn't snitch like him. So but anyway, record, but being
• 1:27:58
  Speaker 1: me and Mace, yeah, me and Mace, we definitely, you know,
• 1:28:01
  Speaker 1: he definitely was a brother. He definitely you know, before
• 1:28:06
  Speaker 1: he left and even after he left, uh, you know,
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 1: I would see him. I guess when we would go
• 1:28:13
  Speaker 1: to Atlanta. Yeah, but because remember he hadn't left it.
• 1:28:17
  Speaker 1: I think he left.
• 1:28:17
  Speaker 2: After Double Up.
• 1:28:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:28:21
  Speaker 3: Let me ask you this because I feel like in
• 1:28:23
  Speaker 3: Vestments was almost like a bad boy reunion with backstage.
• 1:28:26
  Speaker 3: We had puff Obviously he was the Headlina, he was there, Loom. Yeah,
• 1:28:31
  Speaker 3: shout out to the brother. Miya, y'all was speaking. You
• 1:28:34
  Speaker 3: spoke with part It seemed like you. It was a
• 1:28:35
  Speaker 3: good I remember I put you on FaceTime. Actually, I
• 1:28:38
  Speaker 3: felt like that was a good He was in a
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 3: good space for him.
• 1:28:42
  Speaker 2: Where did it? Where did it go wrong?
• 1:28:44
  Speaker 3: Like as far as because obviously you had the issues,
• 1:28:47
  Speaker 3: it seemed like that that had been made whole. Y'all
• 1:28:50
  Speaker 3: were in a good space and then shortly after that
• 1:28:54
  Speaker 3: was his downfall and everything fell apart from him. But
• 1:28:57
  Speaker 3: now it seemed like you're not in a good space
• 1:28:58
  Speaker 3: for him when they fall apart.
• 1:29:03
  Speaker 1: It's not for me a matter of not being in
• 1:29:06
  Speaker 1: a good space necessarily, because I'm not in a space
• 1:29:13
  Speaker 1: at all. I'm always focused on what I'm doing. However,
• 1:29:19
  Speaker 1: when media pundits asked me questions, I have to answer
• 1:29:25
  Speaker 1: truthfully and how I got to a truth where I
• 1:29:33
  Speaker 1: mention how I feel based on what was historically factual.
• 1:29:45
  Speaker 1: So the questions are, what do you think about the
• 1:29:50
  Speaker 1: woman who says puff shotter and it wasn't you. Then
• 1:29:53
  Speaker 1: it's like, yeah, well I've been saying that. So what
• 1:29:56
  Speaker 1: am I supposed to do because we read can sile,
• 1:30:01
  Speaker 1: I'm supposed to rewrite history. I'm not the one that
• 1:30:05
  Speaker 1: you know came forward after all these years and said, no,
• 1:30:08
  Speaker 1: it wasn't shying that shot me. It's puffed. They shot me.
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 1: And for the record, I could show you email after
• 1:30:14
  Speaker 1: email NBC New York Times TMZ, everyone asking me to comment,
• 1:30:21
  Speaker 1: and I declined comment. But then there's sensationalists journalists here
• 1:30:27
  Speaker 1: and there, and believe that as the leader of the
• 1:30:29
  Speaker 1: opposition that should have nothing to do with me being
• 1:30:33
  Speaker 1: the leader of the opposition up to try to try
• 1:30:37
  Speaker 1: to draw me or just to you know, just just
• 1:30:41
  Speaker 1: that it is whatever the restive is. And then for me,
• 1:30:45
  Speaker 1: I'm about transparency and this is not Cuba. Journalists can
• 1:30:50
  Speaker 1: ask you what they want to ask you, no matter
• 1:30:52
  Speaker 1: how off uh it is. And and unlike some leaders
• 1:30:56
  Speaker 1: that will tell you stick to the script, I'm you know,
• 1:30:59
  Speaker 1: I'll I don't want to run away and never want
• 1:31:02
  Speaker 1: to take away a journalist's freedom to ask what they
• 1:31:05
  Speaker 1: want to ask. And as a matter of historical fact,
• 1:31:08
  Speaker 1: I had always maintained that I didn't shoot those people,
• 1:31:12
  Speaker 1: that I was defending myself, that the bullet fragments weren't
• 1:31:15
  Speaker 1: mine because they never took the fragments out.
• 1:31:18
  Speaker 2: So that's how we get to talking about puff.
• 1:31:21
  Speaker 1: It's never me going from being in a good space
• 1:31:25
  Speaker 1: to a bad space. But I will touch So that's
• 1:31:28
  Speaker 1: where it started started. There. Then there was a lawsuit
• 1:31:33
  Speaker 1: from Cassie and to tell you instinctively. Initially, I felt
• 1:31:41
  Speaker 1: sorry for him. I felt that he was under attack
• 1:31:45
  Speaker 1: and this might have been some systematic orchestration to destroy
• 1:31:49
  Speaker 1: another icon the way they did Michael Jackson and the
• 1:31:52
  Speaker 1: way that they've done to our icons. Passed instinctively, That's
• 1:31:58
  Speaker 1: how I felt. That's the record. But then when the
• 1:32:03
  Speaker 1: Little Rod, oh suit King, I'm just I'm I can
• 1:32:07
  Speaker 1: only give you my truth. You could laugh, right, but
• 1:32:10
  Speaker 1: little I'm not laughing. But made made the Love Album,
• 1:32:14
  Speaker 1: which is one of the greatest albums. I can't listen
• 1:32:17
  Speaker 1: to it right now because.
• 1:32:18
  Speaker 2: Of the Taylor record we can listen to.
• 1:32:20
  Speaker 1: I can't listen enough. Man, I don't. That's why I
• 1:32:23
  Speaker 1: didn't watch the Diddy documentary.
• 1:32:25
  Speaker 2: Fair Enough fifty. The Little Rod just went too far.
• 1:32:28
  Speaker 1: Hold on, man, let me tell my story. What I'm
• 1:32:32
  Speaker 1: saying is, we don't know what any We don't know
• 1:32:35
  Speaker 1: what the truth is. All we know is what people's
• 1:32:37
  Speaker 1: truth are. Nobody wanted to believe me. At a point,
• 1:32:40
  Speaker 1: people thought that I was capping, that I was being
• 1:32:43
  Speaker 1: a bitter you know rapper, that it's.
• 1:32:45
  Speaker 2: Not pro fault, it's your fault. And come on, we
• 1:32:47
  Speaker 2: all know what happened. So the Little Rod story changing,
• 1:32:50
  Speaker 2: hold on, I can.
• 1:32:52
  Speaker 1: Only deal with what spoke to me, right, And I mean, listen, man,
• 1:32:57
  Speaker 1: I don't want to get into nobody's orientation. People's intimate
• 1:33:01
  Speaker 1: lives don't matter to me. But when Little Rudd says
• 1:33:06
  Speaker 1: that Puff says that he shot up the club and
• 1:33:11
  Speaker 1: he made Sean take the fall, that struck a nerve.
• 1:33:17
  Speaker 1: And if you watch when me and Mace were talking,
• 1:33:20
  Speaker 1: we both me and Mace both agreed that, yeah, that's
• 1:33:23
  Speaker 1: something that Puff would do when he off that pink,
• 1:33:27
  Speaker 1: that pink cocaine or whatever it is that he does. Yeah,
• 1:33:32
  Speaker 1: he'll get to talking and get and I'm like right,
• 1:33:36
  Speaker 1: I'm like no, like really, that's what you're out here doing.
• 1:33:40
  Speaker 1: Like ten years behind the wall, thirteen years deported, lost
• 1:33:48
  Speaker 1: my career, lost everything. I would have been a billionaire.
• 1:33:52
  Speaker 1: And people like to talk about what this one would
• 1:33:54
  Speaker 1: have been and that one would have been if I
• 1:33:56
  Speaker 1: would have gotten all those years out here after Shine album,
• 1:34:02
  Speaker 1: Godfather Buried Alive album. Right, So let's not rewrite history.
• 1:34:09
  Speaker 1: So when people say, well, you was on stage with him,
• 1:34:12
  Speaker 1: well yeah, because I moved on and I re created myself.
• 1:34:17
  Speaker 1: I resurrected myself and I had my own success in
• 1:34:20
  Speaker 1: a political leadership and I let that go. But then
• 1:34:24
  Speaker 1: when everything is coming, the lady's saying that, yeah puff
• 1:34:27
  Speaker 1: shot her. I seen who shoot me? It wasn't Shine,
• 1:34:30
  Speaker 1: all right, Yeah okay Cassie all right, yeah okay. Then
• 1:34:33
  Speaker 1: now a little rod like, come on, that's a lot.
• 1:34:38
  Speaker 1: And I actually talked to him. He hit me like yo,
• 1:34:43
  Speaker 1: I'm like, well, what do you I'm not saying anything
• 1:34:46
  Speaker 1: that's not true. I always felt that way. I've always
• 1:34:50
  Speaker 1: maintained how I felt. I just decided to put it
• 1:34:54
  Speaker 1: past me because I need to move forward. And even
• 1:34:58
  Speaker 1: right now, if you didn't ask listen I did, I
• 1:35:00
  Speaker 1: guess I can't say what media it is on your media? Well,
• 1:35:05
  Speaker 1: I was on BT yesterday. What's the what's the Rodney?
• 1:35:10
  Speaker 1: What's the lady's name? From BT? All right? So respecting
• 1:35:15
  Speaker 1: Mia Belle, she's from Hot ninety seven. She viewed me
• 1:35:19
  Speaker 1: for BT and we didn't talk about this, and we
• 1:35:23
  Speaker 1: could have kept going. I'm just saying if you if
• 1:35:26
  Speaker 1: you don't bring it up, I won't talk about it.
• 1:35:29
  Speaker 1: So it's not that Sean is out here, you know,
• 1:35:32
  Speaker 1: going from when we were in a good space, to now,
• 1:35:35
  Speaker 1: it seems like we're in a bad I don't care
• 1:35:38
  Speaker 1: to talk about it, but if if you asked the question,
• 1:35:43
  Speaker 1: it's information. I feel that I that I have to share.
• 1:35:47
  Speaker 1: But you know, I'm in such a great place right now.
• 1:35:49
  Speaker 1: I pray for Cassie. I pray for those people, for
• 1:35:52
  Speaker 1: Little Rod, for everyone, because respectfully to Alex who made
• 1:35:57
  Speaker 1: the documentary and to fifty who supported her, I'm not
• 1:36:01
  Speaker 1: going to be the one to disbelieve anyone because I
• 1:36:03
  Speaker 1: remember what it was like for people not to believe
• 1:36:06
  Speaker 1: my truth when everybody knew that I was thrown under
• 1:36:09
  Speaker 1: the bus and I was the fall guy. But notwithstanding,
• 1:36:13
  Speaker 1: I also pray for Puff. I pray that he is
• 1:36:16
  Speaker 1: able to reform, rehabilitate, and ultimately have his redemption, return
• 1:36:25
  Speaker 1: to the streets, to be a father to his children,
• 1:36:30
  Speaker 1: and to do whatever it is that he can to
• 1:36:33
  Speaker 1: make amends for the damage and the destruction that he caused.
• 1:36:38
  Speaker 4: And Yeah, I want to talk about you man, Yeah,
• 1:36:41
  Speaker 4: I want to talk about May second, I want to
• 1:36:43
  Speaker 4: talk about coming back to Brooklyn, being in Brooklyn, celebrating
• 1:36:48
  Speaker 4: twenty five years of the self titled album Shine.
• 1:36:53
  Speaker 2: I mean, what does this moment feel like for you, man.
• 1:36:56
  Speaker 1: This moment I'm so related, is so so everything that
• 1:37:01
  Speaker 1: is happening right now. I say that, you know, God
• 1:37:06
  Speaker 1: is the ultimate screenplay writer, He's the ultimate director. He's
• 1:37:12
  Speaker 1: definitely created a movie for me, a motion picture that
• 1:37:17
  Speaker 1: I just I couldn't imagine it all happening the way
• 1:37:22
  Speaker 1: that it is happening. You know, I always say to
• 1:37:24
  Speaker 1: God when I pray that I have suffered for so
• 1:37:28
  Speaker 1: many years, all those years in captivity and then being deported.
• 1:37:33
  Speaker 1: As much as I love the believe, we got to
• 1:37:34
  Speaker 1: make sure we talk about believes what we're gonna do
• 1:37:36
  Speaker 1: with Brooklyn chop House, the resorts, investment opportunities there. We
• 1:37:40
  Speaker 1: need to do investvests and believes. I've been telling you
• 1:37:43
  Speaker 1: all that for years. But yeah, I always say to
• 1:37:47
  Speaker 1: God when I pray that, you know I was deported
• 1:37:50
  Speaker 1: for all those years. As much as I love believes
• 1:37:53
  Speaker 1: in his paradise. It's not about not wanting to be
• 1:37:57
  Speaker 1: in Belieze, but as an entrepreneur, someone who had such
• 1:38:00
  Speaker 1: a vast portfolio and such great opportunities in the United States,
• 1:38:05
  Speaker 1: to not be able to travel here to do my business,
• 1:38:10
  Speaker 1: to continue to pursue my dreams, and my professional life
• 1:38:16
  Speaker 1: was devastating. That was another sentence.
• 1:38:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I can imagine I could be depression.
• 1:38:24
  Speaker 1: You know, it was tough. So but I would say
• 1:38:28
  Speaker 1: to God, find it's my journey, my price of admission
• 1:38:32
  Speaker 1: for now what you see happening, right, So when I
• 1:38:38
  Speaker 1: get the grace of doctor Dre and Risen Timberland and
• 1:38:42
  Speaker 1: Swiss and all these and Hip Boy and Boy Wonder
• 1:38:46
  Speaker 1: and all these incredible people that I want to work
• 1:38:49
  Speaker 1: with in polo, that's what I prayed for. That. Well,
• 1:38:55
  Speaker 1: let the next thirty years be you know, a trillion
• 1:39:01
  Speaker 1: times better, better than the past. Bad man to suffer.
• 1:39:06
  Speaker 1: And so when you see these things happening, I prayed
• 1:39:08
  Speaker 1: for this. I prayed for this, and so that's what
• 1:39:12
  Speaker 1: this moment on May second, because they're going to be
• 1:39:15
  Speaker 1: an entire tour of the United States, of Europe, of
• 1:39:19
  Speaker 1: uk Africa, Latin America, Asia, the Caribbean. That's what I
• 1:39:25
  Speaker 1: prayed for. This is a celebration of triumph, of resilience,
• 1:39:30
  Speaker 1: of Old Poe, New Poe. It's a celebration and totality
• 1:39:37
  Speaker 1: because those people that love me, those people that have
• 1:39:41
  Speaker 1: been with me since I was a nineteen year old child.
• 1:39:45
  Speaker 1: They've grown up to some of them. Some gen zs
• 1:39:48
  Speaker 1: are just getting onto it. Like this kid rock Star, right,
• 1:39:53
  Speaker 1: He's a young Caribbean kid. He's Barbadian and Trinidadian and
• 1:40:00
  Speaker 1: he knew bad boys and so he was playing some music.
• 1:40:04
  Speaker 1: I was like, man, I need to let you hear
• 1:40:05
  Speaker 1: the album. I need it. And when he heard the
• 1:40:08
  Speaker 1: Shine album, he fell out. When he heard the Godfather
• 1:40:13
  Speaker 1: Buried Alive album, he was floored. The point I'm making
• 1:40:18
  Speaker 1: is there are people that love Shine and they never
• 1:40:22
  Speaker 1: got a chance to have this celebration. And that's what
• 1:40:26
  Speaker 1: this is going to be, a worldwide celebration starting in
• 1:40:29
  Speaker 1: Brooklyn of the legacy of Shine.
• 1:40:32
  Speaker 2: Can they get tickets?
• 1:40:34
  Speaker 1: I think there's still some tickets left. Go to Shine
• 1:40:38
  Speaker 1: Underscore BZ and press the link in my bio. Yeah,
• 1:40:43
  Speaker 1: and get your tickets before they're.
• 1:40:45
  Speaker 2: Gone, before we leave.
• 1:40:46
  Speaker 3: Talk about believe your country that you love so much.
• 1:40:50
  Speaker 3: You're always a great patriot for the country. I know
• 1:40:54
  Speaker 3: J Prince got what does he got?
• 1:40:56
  Speaker 2: Like? He has Hillo Island.
• 1:40:58
  Speaker 1: His real estate portfolio is expanding rapidly. He started off
• 1:41:06
  Speaker 1: with one island. Now that island is fully developed, He's
• 1:41:09
  Speaker 1: developing another island in Amberger's Key, what we call San
• 1:41:14
  Speaker 1: Pedro in Belize. He bought thousands of acres of farmland
• 1:41:20
  Speaker 1: I think last year the year before that, he bought
• 1:41:26
  Speaker 1: a mega mansion that's in like the Jungle. River vibe
• 1:41:33
  Speaker 1: is real estate portfolio is exceptional. So yeah, he's down there,
• 1:41:39
  Speaker 1: and that's the direction that I'm going. So you know,
• 1:41:43
  Speaker 1: I'm finalizing several partnerships to do the same thing, but
• 1:41:50
  Speaker 1: more on the development side, whereas he's doing some development.
• 1:41:53
  Speaker 1: I think the farmland is for him personally, he's big
• 1:41:57
  Speaker 1: on that. I think the Jungle mega mansion is an
• 1:42:00
  Speaker 1: another place that you know, he may like to go,
• 1:42:03
  Speaker 1: and even the island, it's like where he goes for
• 1:42:08
  Speaker 1: for for New Year's Eve, right, But for me, I
• 1:42:11
  Speaker 1: want to develop things like that more for consumption of
• 1:42:17
  Speaker 1: the tourists, right. So I want to create a river experience,
• 1:42:23
  Speaker 1: high lux river experience, Jungle experience, high lux beach experience.
• 1:42:29
  Speaker 1: And so you know, the first places I'm going is
• 1:42:32
  Speaker 1: San Pedro and Placentia. So we're gonna build five star resorts,
• 1:42:39
  Speaker 1: Brooklyn chophouse, restaurants, yeah, tourism shops. Yeah. When can we
• 1:42:45
  Speaker 1: go to believe I gave you invitation.
• 1:42:48
  Speaker 3: No, but I want to go when you're there, like
• 1:42:50
  Speaker 3: I gotta go, Like you know, you gotta I gotta
• 1:42:52
  Speaker 3: get the full I gotta get the full experience.
• 1:42:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we just got to coordinate. I'm going back home
• 1:42:59
  Speaker 1: next week, but I'll only be there for Easter.
• 1:43:03
  Speaker 2: What's big? Like, what's a big day? They have Carnival?
• 1:43:05
  Speaker 1: Like, wait, you should come for Carnival because I definitely
• 1:43:09
  Speaker 1: I should have breaks around there from the tour. Well, say, yeah,
• 1:43:13
  Speaker 1: September is a great time to come because that is
• 1:43:15
  Speaker 1: our most important month, most important days of the calendar,
• 1:43:21
  Speaker 1: because we have September tenth, which is the Battle of
• 1:43:24
  Speaker 1: Saint George's Key Day, which is when you know, we
• 1:43:29
  Speaker 1: defeated the Spaniards and along with the British, so the
• 1:43:35
  Speaker 1: enslaved Africans, along with the British enslavers, you know, came
• 1:43:42
  Speaker 1: together and we defeated the Spaniards. And then September twenty
• 1:43:48
  Speaker 1: first is our independence day, so we celebrate I believe
• 1:43:54
  Speaker 1: forty five this year. And my other political hero, which
• 1:43:59
  Speaker 1: is George Price. He was the first prime minister, first
• 1:44:02
  Speaker 1: premier of Belize, and he led us to our independence
• 1:44:05
  Speaker 1: and then Carnival is in between that, which is like
• 1:44:08
  Speaker 1: I think the seventh is the second week of September,
• 1:44:13
  Speaker 1: so I think it's right before. I think it's either
• 1:44:16
  Speaker 1: right before they do it depends how it falls. Usually
• 1:44:19
  Speaker 1: falls on a Saturday, so it's like the Saturday before
• 1:44:25
  Speaker 1: September tenth, because we do it September tenth on September tenth.
• 1:44:28
  Speaker 1: But I think we do Carnival first week of September,
• 1:44:31
  Speaker 1: so that would be a great time.
• 1:44:33
  Speaker 2: Not the only country in Central America that speaks English.
• 1:44:36
  Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, Remember we are a part of Central Latin
• 1:44:42
  Speaker 1: America as well as a part of the Carica in nations.
• 1:44:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so but you're on the Central America.
• 1:44:49
  Speaker 1: Yes, we are. Literally we land border Mexico and Guatemala
• 1:44:56
  Speaker 1: and the Bay of Honduras.
• 1:44:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:45:00
  Speaker 3: No, we should definitely go. It's after fast fast, you know.
• 1:45:05
  Speaker 1: And there's so much this some real estate, so much
• 1:45:07
  Speaker 1: to look at as far as real estate investment, agricultural opportunities.
• 1:45:12
  Speaker 1: Uh there, but tourism, tourism is really the safe Beaches
• 1:45:18
  Speaker 1: is a one a one. And again every time I
• 1:45:21
  Speaker 1: do interviews such as this, these projects that I have
• 1:45:25
  Speaker 1: coming out, uh you know, they're all being used as
• 1:45:30
  Speaker 1: a vehicle to promote and market Believe. So now it's
• 1:45:33
  Speaker 1: a great time to get in because, by God's grace,
• 1:45:36
  Speaker 1: I'm going to be extremely successful with the film projects,
• 1:45:39
  Speaker 1: with the music projects, with the touring, with everything that
• 1:45:42
  Speaker 1: I'm doing. The memoir. We talked about the memoir. Uh
• 1:45:45
  Speaker 1: yeah uh, and and so everything that I do with
• 1:45:48
  Speaker 1: my partners, who are going to be some of the
• 1:45:50
  Speaker 1: biggest distributors, the biggest publishers in the world, is all
• 1:45:54
  Speaker 1: going to be at the highest level and I'm going
• 1:45:56
  Speaker 1: to use it all to put a spotlight on Belief.
• 1:45:58
  Speaker 1: So now's a good time.
• 1:45:58
  Speaker 2: To get in. Is a tour coming to a Belize?
• 1:46:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah? When we do the Caribbean.
• 1:46:04
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 1:46:04
  Speaker 3: My last question is you know people that speak Spanish
• 1:46:07
  Speaker 3: they say that like when you whatever language you dream in,
• 1:46:11
  Speaker 3: that's like the dominant language. So you speak English and Spanish,
• 1:46:15
  Speaker 3: you when you dream in English, that's when you know
• 1:46:17
  Speaker 3: you've officially made the switch over and you're like a
• 1:46:19
  Speaker 3: full time Okay, Brooklyn and Belize, when you dream, you dream.
• 1:46:27
  Speaker 2: Brooklyn, Like, what's your because you speak?
• 1:46:29
  Speaker 3: You speak how you're talking now, but I know you
• 1:46:32
  Speaker 3: speak the Patois you walk both sides of the street,
• 1:46:34
  Speaker 3: Brooklyn Vietnam and.
• 1:46:35
  Speaker 2: Then you, you know, Brooklyn Vietnam. I know you, I know.
• 1:46:38
  Speaker 3: It's both, But what's that what's that like, what's the
• 1:46:43
  Speaker 3: one that's.
• 1:46:44
  Speaker 1: Like unquestionably believes?
• 1:46:47
  Speaker 5: Okay, it will always be belize first, yes, everything believes,
• 1:46:53
  Speaker 5: But I don't, you know, it's it was a very
• 1:46:58
  Speaker 5: very tricky question to put.
• 1:47:02
  Speaker 1: I am so, I am so transcendental and and I
• 1:47:08
  Speaker 1: I'm just I'm me in totality because believes birth me
• 1:47:14
  Speaker 1: and believes is my everything. You know. But but it's
• 1:47:18
  Speaker 1: like when God created man and woman, if you you know,
• 1:47:22
  Speaker 1: you read it, it says that you know, the wind
• 1:47:24
  Speaker 1: had something to do with it, the earth had something
• 1:47:26
  Speaker 1: to do with it, you know, the water had something
• 1:47:29
  Speaker 1: to do with it. Like God went to all of
• 1:47:31
  Speaker 1: them and said, you know, I'm going to create this
• 1:47:34
  Speaker 1: this you know, human being. You know, I want you
• 1:47:37
  Speaker 1: all to be a part of it. You know that's
• 1:47:38
  Speaker 1: you know, you read that in the Kurdan and you
• 1:47:40
  Speaker 1: read that in the Bible, in the Torah. So that's
• 1:47:43
  Speaker 1: how I look at myself, right, But definitely it's beliefs.
• 1:47:48
  Speaker 1: And then yes, Brooklyn, Brooklyn definitely played a part, a
• 1:47:52
  Speaker 1: massive part. New York played the part. But then listen,
• 1:47:56
  Speaker 1: I'm in California when you hit a hit board California.
• 1:47:58
  Speaker 2: Bop, going back to Cali vibs. Got your man?
• 1:48:04
  Speaker 3: How can I prett cop you cooked out with him?
• 1:48:09
  Speaker 2: Come on, I love to see who you didn't mention.
• 1:48:11
  Speaker 2: I was one of the first said you got the
• 1:48:12
  Speaker 2: All Star. You didn't mention cal it but obviously we
• 1:48:15
  Speaker 2: see you a cald a lot. Yeah he didn't. He
• 1:48:17
  Speaker 2: thought of producer though, what you mean he produces? Yeah,
• 1:48:21
  Speaker 2: he made, he made records, produce.
• 1:48:24
  Speaker 1: Come on, let's not man. You want to spare the
• 1:48:31
  Speaker 1: CEO not to.
• 1:48:38
  Speaker 2: You didn't say Mustard to beats on the beat.
• 1:48:42
  Speaker 1: Mustard is incredible, right, but like Mustard is like I
• 1:48:49
  Speaker 1: think he's.
• 1:48:49
  Speaker 2: Like out of here.
• 1:48:51
  Speaker 1: But I did hit him.
• 1:48:53
  Speaker 2: He's on your list.
• 1:48:54
  Speaker 1: He wasn't on my list.
• 1:48:55
  Speaker 2: Now I got this from you. I did send you
• 1:48:58
  Speaker 2: that list. It's on your GPS. But the clothes I
• 1:49:03
  Speaker 2: put him on the list.
• 1:49:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he wasn't on the I'm never gonna be the same.
• 1:49:10
  Speaker 1: He wasn't on my initial list. I'm not gonna lie
• 1:49:12
  Speaker 1: to you. But then after the fact, I was like, yeah,
• 1:49:17
  Speaker 1: I did hit him. But then the reason maybe the
• 1:49:20
  Speaker 1: reason I didn't put him on my list initially because
• 1:49:24
  Speaker 1: like I feel like he's so it's like, it's so
• 1:49:28
  Speaker 1: obvious that I would go there, right because he's out
• 1:49:33
  Speaker 1: of here right. And then after that, I said, you
• 1:49:37
  Speaker 1: know what, it shouldn't be. I shouldn't discriminate because he's
• 1:49:41
  Speaker 1: so gone and it seems that he's on another planet
• 1:49:44
  Speaker 1: right now. You know what, Yeah, a shot mustard might
• 1:49:47
  Speaker 1: you know, might actually happen.
• 1:49:49
  Speaker 2: I like that.
• 1:49:50
  Speaker 4: I will say this, man, I've told you this personally
• 1:49:52
  Speaker 4: when we first met that huge fan.
• 1:49:54
  Speaker 2: I think with people who know me since I was
• 1:49:57
  Speaker 2: a teenager, you know, like you're my guy.
• 1:49:59
  Speaker 4: Like a couple of people that you're one of my guys,
• 1:50:02
  Speaker 4: and they will tell you shouldn't meet the people that
• 1:50:03
  Speaker 4: you admire because it'll go terribly wrong for you. I
• 1:50:07
  Speaker 4: will say that it's been the complete opposite. I said
• 1:50:09
  Speaker 4: that you've been a good brother to us. You've blended
• 1:50:13
  Speaker 4: your time, your service, and your intellect. So I appreciate it, man,
• 1:50:16
  Speaker 4: I appreciate this.
• 1:50:17
  Speaker 1: Thank you.
• 1:50:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, shining my brother.
• 1:50:19
  Speaker 3: Get your tickets, King Stata, This show will sell out.
• 1:50:24
  Speaker 3: Special guests alert there will be some special guests.
• 1:50:26
  Speaker 2: We can't tell you all that.
• 1:50:27
  Speaker 3: You can't just know shipping under school BZ, get your tickets.
• 1:50:33
  Speaker 2: Brooklyn alone should sell out. Just in Brooklyn alone. That's easy,
• 1:50:37
  Speaker 2: all right. God, thank you for rocking up to see
• 1:50:38
  Speaker 2: you next week. Please please,