Latest / Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam and Justin Richmond / Run The Jewels

Transcript

Run The Jewels · Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam and Justin Richmond

0:08
Speaker 1: Pushkin. Run the Jewel stormed into hip hop with a
0:15
Speaker 1: big sound in twenty fourteen, and over the last six
0:18
Speaker 1: years they've only turned the energy up. Killer Mike and
0:22
Speaker 1: LP weren't strangers to anyone following hip hop over the
0:25
Speaker 1: last couple of decades. Each made waves in their individual
0:28
Speaker 1: careers prior to forming the group, But there's something irresistible
0:32
Speaker 1: about these two guys from different ends of the hip
0:34
Speaker 1: hop spectrum coming together. Killer Mike's a brash, politically charged
0:38
Speaker 1: rapper from Atlanta with a tight connection to Outcast and
0:41
Speaker 1: the Dungeon family, and LPs, a white New York MC
0:44
Speaker 1: and producer known mostly from the underground. Together they have
0:47
Speaker 1: a combustible energy as they rap about revolution, weed or
0:50
Speaker 1: just boasting about themselves. They've also waded into the world
0:54
Speaker 1: of politics in very meaningful ways. Killer Mike was a
0:56
Speaker 1: surrogate for Bernie Sanders this last election, and a turn
0:59
Speaker 1: burn intro them at Coachella just a few years ago.
1:02
Speaker 1: What I'm trying to say is this is a group
1:04
Speaker 1: that's hard to put in a box. Run the Jewels
1:07
Speaker 1: fourth album comes out soon. They spent some time recording
1:10
Speaker 1: it at Shango Law and during a break For one
1:12
Speaker 1: of those sessions, they caught up with Rick Rubin. This
1:18
Speaker 1: is broken record liner notes for the Digital Age. I'm
1:21
Speaker 1: justin Richmond. Here's one of the jewels. In conversation with
1:28
Speaker 1: Rick Rubin. Killer Mike turns up a little bit late,
1:31
Speaker 1: so LP and Rick got to talk in first because
1:33
Speaker 1: LP was freshly stoned. The conversation starts in an unexpected place,
1:38
Speaker 1: what LP would do during the apocalypse. So, just a
1:42
Speaker 1: moment ago, you were theorizing on if there was an apocalypse? Yeah, yeah,
1:49
Speaker 1: I was. I always I always like worry about like
1:51
Speaker 1: my post apocalyptic career, you know, like what do I
1:55
Speaker 1: have to offer a post apocalyptic society. I don't know
1:58
Speaker 1: if it's much. It's certainly not like a brute straight like, uh,
2:02
Speaker 1: you know, maybe I could, you know, and I don't,
2:04
Speaker 1: you know, I'd probably be just some sort of like
2:06
Speaker 1: subjugated gesture, you know, like Princess Leia chained the jab
2:10
Speaker 1: by the hut, you know, like, uh, but maybe hopefully
2:13
Speaker 1: without a bikini on. And uh. And I'm always, yeah,
2:18
Speaker 1: just entertaining for food, you know what I mean, Like
2:20
Speaker 1: that's just entertaining for your life. And then I'm like, well,
2:24
Speaker 1: but then again. But I'm I'm not really a musician,
2:28
Speaker 1: you know, like I I make music, but like you know,
2:33
Speaker 1: I didn't follow through with the piano lessons. I didn't
2:35
Speaker 1: follow through with the trumpet lessons and the saxophone lessons,
2:39
Speaker 1: all of that shit. I tried it, you know. My
2:41
Speaker 1: father was a jazz piano player. He was he was,
2:43
Speaker 1: that was what he did. And I tried, but I
2:47
Speaker 1: was like, I remember standing in front of the mirror
2:49
Speaker 1: with a saxophone and trying to play along to like
2:51
Speaker 1: run DMC jams, and I was just like I looked
2:54
Speaker 1: at myself one day and I was just like, I
2:57
Speaker 1: can't do this. I have to put this down like
2:59
Speaker 1: I could, Like this is ridiculous. I look stupid and
3:02
Speaker 1: I just can't feel cool doing this, Like I need
3:05
Speaker 1: to learn how to make that. I need to learn
3:06
Speaker 1: how to make this music, like I can't, like I'm
3:09
Speaker 1: not going to make it with a saxophone. You know,
3:10
Speaker 1: are your first memories of music your dad playing, for sure?
3:16
Speaker 1: So would he play in the house all the time? Yeah?
3:20
Speaker 1: We had, you know, they lived in We lived in
3:23
Speaker 1: the West Village until I was until my parents split up,
3:27
Speaker 1: So I was there until about six and it was
3:30
Speaker 1: in the seventies and it was parties, and you know,
3:34
Speaker 1: like seventies parents didn't give a shit. They didn't give
3:37
Speaker 1: a fuck, and I kind of wish it was like
3:40
Speaker 1: that again. But like they would have crazy parties, you know,
3:44
Speaker 1: probably fucking doing cocaine and definitely drinking and smoking weed
3:48
Speaker 1: and crazy, you know, just rambunctious parties and people like
3:53
Speaker 1: Robert Crumb. We would show up to the to the
3:56
Speaker 1: parties and shit. And I was just a little kid,
3:58
Speaker 1: and my father had a piano and a little drum set,
4:01
Speaker 1: grand piano and a drum set and a huge record collection,
4:05
Speaker 1: and he would he would have me sit down and
4:06
Speaker 1: play drums with him. Wally Wally, he played piano for
4:10
Speaker 1: the guests. He's a he's a he's a born entertainer.
4:14
Speaker 1: You know. It was and and and and so it
4:18
Speaker 1: was that which was really interesting because I started to
4:21
Speaker 1: identify it as a phenomenon later where I was like, oh,
4:24
Speaker 1: I get it. Like from a very early age, I
4:29
Speaker 1: had music in my life as something that you participated,
4:33
Speaker 1: not just something that you witness, you know, because of
4:35
Speaker 1: my father and because there was a drum set, and
4:37
Speaker 1: because I would sit on his lap and play piano
4:39
Speaker 1: with him. It was something that you just did. You know.
4:44
Speaker 1: It wasn't like something like mysterious thing that just happened.
4:47
Speaker 1: It was something that that you that I felt comfortable
4:51
Speaker 1: with immediately, you know, because it was just like it
4:53
Speaker 1: didn't feel embarrassing or weird or like a stretch to
4:57
Speaker 1: try and make music. Eventually, when I started to try
4:59
Speaker 1: and make music, felt like a natural extension of what
5:02
Speaker 1: you're supposed to do when you have that in your life.
5:04
Speaker 1: So lucky to have that. It was and and and
5:07
Speaker 1: and and and. The other thing that I learned from him,
5:10
Speaker 1: which was really something that I'd take seriously and think
5:13
Speaker 1: about all the time, was that he you know, I
5:18
Speaker 1: grew up watching him play in restaurants and bars, you know,
5:23
Speaker 1: places where people didn't give a shit that he was playing,
5:27
Speaker 1: places where people were ordering their chicken in the middle
5:30
Speaker 1: of the you know, and he's sitting there playing, is
5:33
Speaker 1: really playing his hard out and singing and like and
5:36
Speaker 1: I would I would have to when I visited him,
5:38
Speaker 1: this is when I would see this, you know, I
5:39
Speaker 1: would go, you know, divorce parents, you'd go visit your
5:42
Speaker 1: your dad, and and I would have he'd have to
5:45
Speaker 1: go do these gigs, and so I'd sit at a
5:46
Speaker 1: restaurant drinking Shirley Temples and watching my dad basically just
5:51
Speaker 1: eat shit. There was something really uncomfortable and even sad
5:55
Speaker 1: about it, Like it's sad to me because I was, like,
5:57
Speaker 1: my dad's up there, these people are early paying attention,
6:01
Speaker 1: and I'm here to watch my dad play It sad
6:03
Speaker 1: for him at all? Do you think? Well, I mean
6:06
Speaker 1: that's kind of what what my point is. I feel
6:09
Speaker 1: like in the moment, it wasn't and in the moment
6:11
Speaker 1: he was. I mean it maybe a little frustrating on occasion,
6:14
Speaker 1: but in the moment he closed his eyes and he'd
6:17
Speaker 1: play piano. He'd like pull a melodica up and do
6:19
Speaker 1: like a solo and he'd be singing, and and I
6:22
Speaker 1: knew that he was happy in that in that moment.
6:24
Speaker 1: And I watched him do this over and over, and
6:26
Speaker 1: I it was always it always hurt my heart a
6:28
Speaker 1: little bit because I was, you know, it's my dad
6:30
Speaker 1: and he's singing, and I want everybody to pay attention
6:33
Speaker 1: or whatever. But he needed it, he needed to do it,
6:37
Speaker 1: and it made him happy. And doing that and being
6:39
Speaker 1: able to sit at the piano was something that it
6:41
Speaker 1: didn't matter that it wasn't a career. It didn't matter
6:43
Speaker 1: that it wasn't like, you know, it wasn't about accolades,
6:46
Speaker 1: or it wasn't really even it was. It was just
6:48
Speaker 1: that it was something he really needed. And I always
6:51
Speaker 1: held that with me because I was like, hey, man,
6:53
Speaker 1: if you can be happy just doing music, like it, really,
6:57
Speaker 1: it's a really good if you can find that. If
6:59
Speaker 1: you can really I'm being happy just doing music, then
7:03
Speaker 1: whatever happens happens with your career, you know what I mean,
7:06
Speaker 1: Like whatever may happen. Um, it would suck to to
7:09
Speaker 1: if your career didn't exist all of a sudden, the
7:12
Speaker 1: music didn't exist, you know. So and that ties back
7:15
Speaker 1: to the apocalypse thing because I'm like, well, after the apocalypse,
7:18
Speaker 1: you know, Michael probably be like a warlord. What I'm
7:21
Speaker 1: shooting for, yeah, or just to upload my brain into
7:23
Speaker 1: a computer. And I'm talking like society's crumbled, there's no
7:27
Speaker 1: more computer. It's just like man, right, so, and I'm
7:31
Speaker 1: just like, well, I always think about, like, well, what
7:33
Speaker 1: are my talents in a post apocalyptics landscape? You know
7:36
Speaker 1: what I mean? Right, Like it's like a court gesture
7:40
Speaker 1: type of thing, like like it's not gonna be muscle,
7:42
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like maybe it'll be brains,
7:45
Speaker 1: but probably not, you know what I mean, Like it's
7:47
Speaker 1: probably you know, that's probably a delusion on my behalf
7:50
Speaker 1: and and and so I'm like, damn, I better I
7:53
Speaker 1: better pick up the instruments again quick, because shit is progressing,
7:58
Speaker 1: you know, Like I need to get back on these
8:00
Speaker 1: piano lessons because you know, we might not be able
8:03
Speaker 1: to plug in the fucking drum machine. I guess that's
8:06
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. Rick, you the shit, bro? Yeah, what
8:10
Speaker 1: was it? What did records did your dad listen to?
8:14
Speaker 1: He was a big Fats Waller fan. That was his shit.
8:19
Speaker 1: He just it was. He was jazz head, but he
8:21
Speaker 1: listened a lot of shit. Man. I discovered all I
8:23
Speaker 1: discovered black music through my father. My father was a
8:27
Speaker 1: jazz man and all those records are all all that
8:32
Speaker 1: vinyl and everything. I just was. I would just he
8:34
Speaker 1: would let me go through them, listen, put them on
8:36
Speaker 1: the turntable, listen to it. I kind of had my
8:38
Speaker 1: my free reign over that, like, which is kind of
8:41
Speaker 1: amazing because record collectors would you Usually they'll just smack
8:44
Speaker 1: you away. But my dad was cool about it as
8:46
Speaker 1: long as I didn't fuck it up. And a lot
8:49
Speaker 1: of the first jams I ever sampled or anything when
8:51
Speaker 1: I finally got my hands on a sampler were from
8:54
Speaker 1: his record collection. Straight up. The first thing I ever
8:57
Speaker 1: sampled and looped up with. Uh remember mister Brown? Remember
9:04
Speaker 1: by Marley, mister Brown from from pre pre Whalers, Right,
9:09
Speaker 1: But um, yeah, that was that was beyond the digging
9:15
Speaker 1: for samples. Do you think that hearing jazz at the
9:19
Speaker 1: age that you heard it informed the way you approach
9:23
Speaker 1: music at all? I'm sure it did. I can only assume,
9:28
Speaker 1: so I don't. I couldn't pin it down. No, I
9:30
Speaker 1: couldn't tell you, like exactly what that was, except to
9:34
Speaker 1: say that I just had an inherited appreciation for pretty,
9:39
Speaker 1: really good music. I mean, like, I just feel lucky.
9:43
Speaker 1: I'm sure that's something something you know right now, there's
9:45
Speaker 1: some some child who's who's being exposed by, you know,
9:49
Speaker 1: to the worst music possible by their parents, you know,
9:52
Speaker 1: I feel like that's that's luck of the draw, you know.
9:55
Speaker 1: But I mean, you know, I eventually did a jazz album.
9:57
Speaker 1: I don't know if you know that I did a
9:59
Speaker 1: jazz albu them in like twenty fourteen. It was the
10:01
Speaker 1: first time and last time I'd ever done it, um,
10:05
Speaker 1: which is not to say I wouldn't do it again,
10:06
Speaker 1: but it was they stayed. These people stepped to me
10:09
Speaker 1: to do it. They were trying to mix things up
10:11
Speaker 1: and trying to and um, this guy Matthew Ship and um.
10:14
Speaker 1: And it was William Parker and Matthew Ship and a
10:16
Speaker 1: bunch of sort of free jazz you know, um um
10:21
Speaker 1: sort of titans. And I don't think it was even
10:26
Speaker 1: I did not have the skill set to produce a
10:28
Speaker 1: jazz album. But they were like, no, we just want
10:31
Speaker 1: your version. Yeah, And so that was and it was terrifying,
10:34
Speaker 1: and I was like, I don't know what I'm doing,
10:37
Speaker 1: but I was like, all right, do you like the
10:40
Speaker 1: way it came out? There's moments on it, man, my father,
10:43
Speaker 1: I got my father on it. Beautiful. Yeah, there's moments
10:45
Speaker 1: on it, for sure. And I think that there's a
10:48
Speaker 1: like a they got some like really really seriously good
10:52
Speaker 1: reviews from like high end like jazz critic type shit
10:55
Speaker 1: that I was like, and then there were people, I mean,
10:58
Speaker 1: it was very under I think it was kind of
11:00
Speaker 1: onto the radar, you know. But for my career, it's
11:02
Speaker 1: something that if people have been following me, they know
11:05
Speaker 1: that I did this, and yeah, there's moments that that
11:08
Speaker 1: are that are really cool. I didn't know exactly what
11:10
Speaker 1: to do, so I basically just went in and brought
11:12
Speaker 1: music and just told them to just basically improvise to
11:15
Speaker 1: my music that's truly a jazz spirit. Yeah, I mean
11:19
Speaker 1: they were. They were they're anarchists, you know, the the
11:23
Speaker 1: like truly anarchists, Like all those guys are as learned
11:26
Speaker 1: and as capable of like form and like they're they're
11:31
Speaker 1: as as the highest level musicians. But they rejected it
11:35
Speaker 1: years ago because they didn't think it was the It
11:37
Speaker 1: was the it was the true spirit of jazz. So
11:39
Speaker 1: they were like, no, we're gonna get in a room
11:42
Speaker 1: and we're gonna we're gonna sort of spontaneously together create something,
11:45
Speaker 1: and we're gonna move off each other. And that's the
11:48
Speaker 1: free jazz movement. And so I was like, what do
11:51
Speaker 1: you do with a bunch of people who are already
11:53
Speaker 1: just kind of like no rules? And the only thing
11:56
Speaker 1: I could think of was give them rules. So I
11:58
Speaker 1: was like, all right, well, here's some standards, like how
12:02
Speaker 1: what was it like? Like? What was it really cool?
12:04
Speaker 1: Get you oh man? Like, yeah, well I tricked him
12:07
Speaker 1: into it. That's dope. Did I tell you about I
12:09
Speaker 1: never told you about that. You I want you to
12:10
Speaker 1: tell the world you've told me about it. I liked
12:12
Speaker 1: the story. I tricked my father into being on the
12:14
Speaker 1: record basically because I was like, listen, Dad, I'm doing
12:17
Speaker 1: this record. I have no idea what I'm doing. Can
12:18
Speaker 1: you do me a favor? Can you record just off
12:22
Speaker 1: cassette or whatever? You doing some cool standards, some jazz
12:27
Speaker 1: stunting shit that you that you like, that you think
12:29
Speaker 1: would be cool. And and he did. And one of
12:35
Speaker 1: the songs that he picked was this really depressing fucking
12:38
Speaker 1: song that basically what it's called I think Yesterday when
12:42
Speaker 1: the moon was blue? Do you know that song? And
12:45
Speaker 1: it's it's hearing your strength essentially a strange father singing
12:49
Speaker 1: this song is probably one of the most like, you know,
12:53
Speaker 1: emotional things you can do. And he's he you know,
12:57
Speaker 1: it's just all about regret. Do you have the very
13:00
Speaker 1: of him singing it? By any chance? It's a really
13:04
Speaker 1: good I mean, the original, no good Dad's version my
13:09
Speaker 1: dad's version like the original before. So what I did
13:11
Speaker 1: was I had him do it and then I chopped
13:14
Speaker 1: it up and then I had them play and round
13:16
Speaker 1: it and I made it. I don't know, I don't know.
13:19
Speaker 1: I'd be curious to hear the song. Yeah, I'll play
13:21
Speaker 1: you the version that it ended up being. Uh. The
13:29
Speaker 1: other day, Rick was in and he was like, do
13:31
Speaker 1: you always uh get high when you work? And I
13:34
Speaker 1: was like no, no, no, no. I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah,
13:41
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna lie, Rick. I want to tell you
13:45
Speaker 1: that the thing that would make you think I'm a
13:47
Speaker 1: good person, shit is dope. Real g ship man, that's beautiful.
13:53
Speaker 1: Dad's voice is great. Really he he brought the house
13:57
Speaker 1: down on my wedding, which is which is coming up
13:59
Speaker 1: on a year. But my dad fucking made everybody in
14:02
Speaker 1: the entire wedding cry once, about three hundred and fifty people.
14:07
Speaker 1: You remember, I Dad, I remember, But I remember the
14:12
Speaker 1: first conversation I had with your dad via going back
14:15
Speaker 1: and forth for email. He let me know how proud
14:17
Speaker 1: he was of you and of us and what it
14:20
Speaker 1: meant to him. And then the first time I met him,
14:22
Speaker 1: I knew he was funny, but I didn't realize how
14:24
Speaker 1: much of a ball breaker he was. I think we
14:26
Speaker 1: were in Boston or something. He was walking down the hall.
14:29
Speaker 1: I'm the only person in the dressing room. He's in front,
14:31
Speaker 1: other people around him. I don't know. He said, oh shit,
14:35
Speaker 1: nobody told me you were black. Almost died laughing and
14:42
Speaker 1: didn't he capped the rest of them. It was not true,
14:46
Speaker 1: but he was no. I know, I knew. I totally
14:48
Speaker 1: know it was not true. I mean, I'm just saying
14:49
Speaker 1: like he's laugh lying. Yeah, just like he doesn't give
14:53
Speaker 1: a shit like I love that. I love that. And
14:56
Speaker 1: he also calls me something by proxy, so shouts out
14:59
Speaker 1: to the t a year, he hits me on the
15:01
Speaker 1: internet for some reason. We did something cool and he
15:03
Speaker 1: lets me know he's proud of this boy. What was
15:05
Speaker 1: the music in your household growing up? Man? Well, I
15:08
Speaker 1: grew up. There's a level past divorced parents, and it's
15:12
Speaker 1: called my grandparents raised me. So we just visited each
15:15
Speaker 1: our parents on the weekends. You know. I had five sisters,
15:19
Speaker 1: three with my dad, two of my mom, the one
15:21
Speaker 1: with two of me and my mom. With my mom,
15:23
Speaker 1: we grew up with her parents' house, so her parents
15:27
Speaker 1: played blues and gospel, and that's what I grew up
15:30
Speaker 1: listening to. My grandmother wasn't a fan of the deaf
15:33
Speaker 1: cha on records, house bringing in and the loudness of
15:35
Speaker 1: them and around vunctiousness. So and we were raising a
15:38
Speaker 1: really Christian household, working class black, working class black people,
15:42
Speaker 1: pretty conservative, you know, and their values and stuff. So
15:45
Speaker 1: like at six o'clock on Fridays, you don't get to
15:48
Speaker 1: play bluesy music. Were on Saturdays, blues music stop. Which music, Yes,
15:52
Speaker 1: it was called blues music. So any secular music ended,
15:55
Speaker 1: so it was gospel, you know what I'm saying. After that,
15:57
Speaker 1: So I'd have to sneak and listen to rap. But
16:00
Speaker 1: I grew up like really loving Buddy Guy, really loving
16:03
Speaker 1: bb King, Muddy Waters, Hollen Wolf, because this is what
16:06
Speaker 1: I played, and you know it's played. My grandmother played
16:08
Speaker 1: like she was a huge BB King fan. You know,
16:10
Speaker 1: she was probably how my daughter looks at Chris Brown.
16:12
Speaker 1: She loved Bobe and my grandfather loved Buddy Guy. And
16:15
Speaker 1: that's how I got into like the Chicago style stuff.
16:18
Speaker 1: So and gospel, a lots of gospel, a lot to
16:21
Speaker 1: gospel because we went to these small Pentecostal churches and
16:24
Speaker 1: the music was great. So I loved that part of
16:27
Speaker 1: the church. Hated going to church the rest of it, yeah,
16:31
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, not that I hated churches
16:33
Speaker 1: as your kid, you know, you're, yeah, your friends are
16:36
Speaker 1: on bikes and yeah, man suited up. And then for
16:40
Speaker 1: the hostel churches to you know, women were were all
16:42
Speaker 1: white and stuff. So it was really and it's long,
16:45
Speaker 1: so four to six hours, you know in churs and
16:51
Speaker 1: forty six hours. No, no, I could be like four
16:53
Speaker 1: to six hours. Like you're you go to church at
16:55
Speaker 1: ten in the morning, you might not come home to
16:58
Speaker 1: say two four o'clock, you know what I'm saying. But
17:01
Speaker 1: in that there's so much music throughout the church. It yeah,
17:07
Speaker 1: let you end up loving the experience once I get there,
17:09
Speaker 1: even though I was resistant, there were just all these
17:12
Speaker 1: incredible musicians. And when you're holding in sepeneal Costele, these
17:15
Speaker 1: their families that preach and that kind of go around
17:18
Speaker 1: doing revivals. That's what they do. So all these talent
17:21
Speaker 1: musicians would just kind of come through. So gospel music
17:23
Speaker 1: Charlie Caesar, James Cleveland, of course, Mahellia jacksonar is incredible
17:29
Speaker 1: steal Yeah, like stell Aretha. We could listen to by
17:34
Speaker 1: technicality because she was gospel and al Green was big.
17:39
Speaker 1: And my mom was sixteen when she had me. Mom married,
17:43
Speaker 1: I have two dads to have a non bio on
17:44
Speaker 1: a bio dad. So my mom married my dad, my
17:48
Speaker 1: non bio dad. I think he had about nineteen years
17:50
Speaker 1: old maybe, so I was about three, maybe going on four.
17:53
Speaker 1: And when she left, you know, she left to take me,
17:56
Speaker 1: and my grandmother was like, naw, y'all go off and
17:58
Speaker 1: be married and learn how to be married and you know,
18:00
Speaker 1: make more children. And so I stayed with my grandmother.
18:03
Speaker 1: My mom left me a huge record collection. Curtis Mayfield, Wow,
18:07
Speaker 1: Harold Melvin and the Blue Nose and see them just
18:09
Speaker 1: like a lot of stack stuff. So when my grandmother
18:12
Speaker 1: would shut the music down the house, meaning you know,
18:14
Speaker 1: no you could play music you had, you couldn't play
18:15
Speaker 1: the radio in the main room. I couldn't bump running down,
18:19
Speaker 1: you know. So I had to go to my room
18:22
Speaker 1: and my mom left me like what they would call
18:24
Speaker 1: components as you put the wax on, and I listened
18:27
Speaker 1: to like all the soul and all the funk, and
18:29
Speaker 1: then my dad my non boy dad she married was
18:32
Speaker 1: a huge Parliament fan P funk and he um. He
18:37
Speaker 1: just man. He was one of the best human beings
18:39
Speaker 1: in where I tell people all the time, like man,
18:42
Speaker 1: his capacity to love a kid biologically it's not his kid,
18:45
Speaker 1: but I fucked up his toy car collection. I scratched
18:49
Speaker 1: records trying to be a DJ, and he was just
18:52
Speaker 1: he was like his his basically his kind of like you.
18:55
Speaker 1: He was always just on some chill shit like you know,
18:58
Speaker 1: I can, I can. I can remember playing Two Live
19:01
Speaker 1: Crew back to back to back, and finally he came
19:05
Speaker 1: in like it took to take. He just took the take.
19:07
Speaker 1: He said, I'm only taking this because you keep rewinding
19:11
Speaker 1: the same part. And he just walked out. And Two
19:15
Speaker 1: Love Crew had that base you know, that was that
19:17
Speaker 1: was They were like Coventiti. He encouraged my music, and
19:20
Speaker 1: I didn't realize into a couple of years ago. I
19:23
Speaker 1: probably got my aesthetic from rock and roll from my
19:26
Speaker 1: biological dad who you know, you know, who was just like,
19:30
Speaker 1: introduced me to rock, let me encourage me to listen
19:32
Speaker 1: to Metallica. Was not surprised that I love Zapplin, Zeppelin
19:36
Speaker 1: and Sabbath and stuff. The Eagles was Big Pink Floyd.
19:39
Speaker 1: He introduced me to um. He liked bun Job. I
19:42
Speaker 1: never did so much, not that I didn't like him,
19:44
Speaker 1: I just he was really into him. It was Dad Rocket.
19:46
Speaker 1: I had a different rock entry as my older sister
19:49
Speaker 1: was most Yeah she's she's a she's a straight teen
19:52
Speaker 1: in the seventies, so but that. But for me it
19:56
Speaker 1: was like young It was like the clash. I mean,
20:00
Speaker 1: it was like Devo, you know, ultimately the police, yeah,
20:04
Speaker 1: you know, And that was my buyer. Dad. He was
20:07
Speaker 1: like he really let me be free. And I realized
20:09
Speaker 1: later Lane for he talks in rhyme, so I probably
20:13
Speaker 1: picked up my ability to put words together easily from him.
20:17
Speaker 1: Like if you asked him, like you know, they called
20:19
Speaker 1: him Big Mike. Of course he's the oldest. I'm I'm
20:21
Speaker 1: nup and my family and my daughter's Mikey. But it'll
20:24
Speaker 1: be like, you know, big one, how are you doing? Man,
20:25
Speaker 1: I'm pretty fast for a squall, you know, we got
20:28
Speaker 1: something well, and it'll just be like, you know, I
20:30
Speaker 1: got somewhere to be, I'm gonna get there for three
20:33
Speaker 1: just and it just effortlessly pours out of him, and
20:36
Speaker 1: I realized that I get older just hanging with my dad,
20:39
Speaker 1: I probably just kind of picked up a knack for
20:41
Speaker 1: it so cool. So you know, my parents, this was
20:44
Speaker 1: pre hip hop. No, yeah, yeah, yeah, you gotta think
20:46
Speaker 1: about it. I'm like, you know, it's just seventy eight,
20:48
Speaker 1: seventy now, hip hop was still something that was my
20:50
Speaker 1: parents then. Like so when you hear Gradmas's Flash, Furies five,
20:54
Speaker 1: Curtis Blow, I remember him coming to the Omni, performing
20:56
Speaker 1: for the Hawks, even Houdini, All that was my parents hype.
20:59
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. Like to me, it was
21:01
Speaker 1: it was music that I liked, you know what I'm saying.
21:03
Speaker 1: Like my mom I knew like I loved Donna Summer
21:06
Speaker 1: because she liked Donna Summing right big this because my
21:08
Speaker 1: mom is a free artist partier. But she played like
21:11
Speaker 1: the Furious Five, and she played Gramars Flash Free Slaves,
21:14
Speaker 1: she played Hurtis. I'm like, I like this, it's different
21:16
Speaker 1: from your regular music, but it's still your music. You know.
21:18
Speaker 1: They were still awaying tresh shoes like silk shirts, and
21:22
Speaker 1: it picked everything pivoted to me with Running Jay. When
21:25
Speaker 1: when I when those black sam and when it hit.
21:28
Speaker 1: It was just like, oh, this is the Mothers. Yeah,
21:31
Speaker 1: like exactly, and it was like fat boys running them.
21:35
Speaker 1: It was just like, na, this is not the same.
21:36
Speaker 1: Even though I still love the other acts and stuff,
21:39
Speaker 1: if this felt like mine. We kind of have the
21:42
Speaker 1: spirit and model ourselves after run dm SEE in a
21:44
Speaker 1: real way, like and the one of the one. I mean,
21:46
Speaker 1: we're literally in all black DWN. I'm on stage like
21:49
Speaker 1: two you know, two mcs in the DJ, like we
21:52
Speaker 1: believe because of run DMC that this this, you can
21:56
Speaker 1: rock a fucking stadium with two rappers in the DJ,
22:00
Speaker 1: don't need a fucking band and this and and maybe
22:02
Speaker 1: you can rock it better than a band ever could
22:04
Speaker 1: if you if you get it right, if you're a titan.
22:06
Speaker 1: And but I remember just seeing first of course the music,
22:11
Speaker 1: but also just seeing round DFC and being like they
22:14
Speaker 1: they they're clearly got there. They're currently cooler than most
22:17
Speaker 1: people that DC. They're better dressed yet than most people.
22:21
Speaker 1: It's still better dressed normal ship. And it's like I
22:25
Speaker 1: was like, it made you feel like you could be
22:27
Speaker 1: a part of run DFC. It made you feel like
22:28
Speaker 1: if you tried, yeah, you might, actually they might, you
22:31
Speaker 1: might You could probably do that, Like, yeah, I could
22:33
Speaker 1: probably put on that hat and wear that cool jean
22:37
Speaker 1: jacket and and and those sneakers. I like, you know,
22:39
Speaker 1: I like the way they ended up. I actually just
22:42
Speaker 1: talk to DMC recently in an interview like this, and
22:46
Speaker 1: he's he's great, and he was telling me the way
22:49
Speaker 1: that they ended up dressing like that was because that's
22:53
Speaker 1: the way Ja jam Master J dressed in real life. Yeah,
22:57
Speaker 1: and they saw him. It's like, he is the coolest
23:00
Speaker 1: guy we know. Let's just dress like him. Wed infected
23:03
Speaker 1: us too, you know what I mean. And and this
23:05
Speaker 1: many years later, and like, but it's always something that
23:10
Speaker 1: I keep with me because I feel like that's how
23:13
Speaker 1: I want people who listen to our music to feel.
23:16
Speaker 1: I want them to feel not like that they are
23:19
Speaker 1: gazing at something untouchable, that that they're two. Here are
23:22
Speaker 1: two guys telling you about about them, you know, their
23:26
Speaker 1: lives that you couldn't possibly imagine being a part of it.
23:29
Speaker 1: I like the fact that kids can, you know, I
23:32
Speaker 1: hope that kids can kind of feel like, man, we
23:34
Speaker 1: could be run the jewels, you know what I mean.
23:36
Speaker 1: Like these guys aren't flashy, Like these guys are they're
23:40
Speaker 1: not above us, you know. Um so I don't know.
23:43
Speaker 1: That always stuck with me and that just got me
23:45
Speaker 1: into it. That that was what got me into thinking
23:47
Speaker 1: I could be a rapper, you know, like, oh shit,
23:49
Speaker 1: maybe I can be a rapper. I mean I was
23:51
Speaker 1: rapping a ten. So this is me. I've drug a
23:55
Speaker 1: pair of Adida shell talls without the laces. Fourth, that's amazing, incredible.
24:05
Speaker 1: On field day with my dad, my dad got his feictured.
24:08
Speaker 1: Maybe no shoelaces not on as a child, you're not
24:12
Speaker 1: thinking maybe I walk? Yeah, I might have to be
24:16
Speaker 1: able to walk. We'll be back with more from Run
24:18
Speaker 1: the Jewels after the break, We're back with more from
24:25
Speaker 1: Killer Mike and LP. What was the first home grown
24:29
Speaker 1: hip hop that you heard in Atlanta? Oh, Mojo. Mojo
24:34
Speaker 1: was the first one. Mojo was the first one eighty
24:36
Speaker 1: two eighty three. I think Mojo works for the city
24:39
Speaker 1: or something now and people still showing love. But Mojo
24:42
Speaker 1: again was like my mother's style stuff, you know what
24:44
Speaker 1: I mean. The ship that hit Um later was still
24:48
Speaker 1: more mothers size stuff was Raheim. The dream DJ UM
24:53
Speaker 1: did well. DJ two was Holing else. So then you
24:55
Speaker 1: get Roger I don't know any of these now I
24:57
Speaker 1: got your comment. Then you got shot D, who was
25:00
Speaker 1: a kid who was from Queens or the Bronx. I
25:02
Speaker 1: think Jay might have been from Bronx, moved down south.
25:04
Speaker 1: He was on Luke record shy y s h y Yeah, yeah,
25:08
Speaker 1: okay exactly. So DJ Toomp, who later discovered a guy
25:12
Speaker 1: named Ti and created trap music, was his DJ so too.
25:15
Speaker 1: It's like fifteen sixteen years old. Right after that, you
25:19
Speaker 1: got a guy named Sammy Sam who has a record
25:22
Speaker 1: called Zone three. That's nimaz. It's like school of D's right,
25:25
Speaker 1: it's hardcore, describes Atlanta and tech wood homes because I
25:30
Speaker 1: don't know it and I'd love to let me just
25:32
Speaker 1: pull it up. Trying to find it on YouTube too,
25:35
Speaker 1: Sam here it is, yeah, man, yeah, I'm trying to
25:40
Speaker 1: find a record. He's like boring his zone. That's why
25:44
Speaker 1: on friend zone And that's no Lizzie. If you don't
25:46
Speaker 1: like it, then I tell you catch your Flizie. And
25:48
Speaker 1: it was so it was almost slick rick in it
25:51
Speaker 1: in its lightness and Canadad but dead fucking seriousness of it.
25:56
Speaker 1: And um yeah keylo to Me is the prototype for
25:59
Speaker 1: the create activity that has become Atlanta. You know what
26:02
Speaker 1: I'm saying. And who officially gave us out sound of
26:05
Speaker 1: course was was out outcast, but Sammy sam keylow success
26:09
Speaker 1: and effect the hard boys, UM who does not get
26:13
Speaker 1: enough credit. I want to play this and this is
26:16
Speaker 1: UM get on Mafia, And I can say get on mafia.
26:21
Speaker 1: Was they were? They were post outcast or right along
26:23
Speaker 1: like right after them. But they had a record called
26:26
Speaker 1: Straight from the Deck that I still think it's just
26:28
Speaker 1: one of the greatest raute records in the world. So
26:32
Speaker 1: these guys were from Decatur. And if you know anything
26:35
Speaker 1: about Atlanta, Atlanta is the city of Atlanta. Then you
26:37
Speaker 1: have surrounding areas the cat College Park, Whett County, so
26:41
Speaker 1: Amigos or Winnette County for instance. The cator is m
26:44
Speaker 1: Gucci Man East Atlanta indicate area Bluesy Twiny. You know,
26:50
Speaker 1: so that's Atlanta. Man. We you know, we've been been
26:55
Speaker 1: having fun a long time making dope shit. Atlanta Atlanta's
26:59
Speaker 1: run ship. Yeah, you know what I love about Atlanta.
27:02
Speaker 1: Though it doesn't run shit in the in the way
27:04
Speaker 1: that it's been ran before. It doesn't throw his tail
27:07
Speaker 1: around all others say throwing his tail around and gets
27:09
Speaker 1: biggest doun in the yard. It kills itself every two
27:11
Speaker 1: three years and reinvents itself, Like if you look at it,
27:14
Speaker 1: just means you have a progressive music scene no matter what,
27:17
Speaker 1: on all levels as progressive from from dudes like outcasts
27:20
Speaker 1: to you know to to which goes into rock music,
27:24
Speaker 1: which goes into do you know the rock star, which
27:26
Speaker 1: goes into the snap movement, which shoudy Low does not
27:29
Speaker 1: get his proper credit. Not only was he a rapper,
27:32
Speaker 1: he was a person as a as a drug game
27:35
Speaker 1: feeing that underwrote a genre of music, the whole snapping
27:38
Speaker 1: pops it like he underwrote those groups much like Gucci does. Now.
27:41
Speaker 1: Gucci deserves credit not only as a rapper, but just
27:44
Speaker 1: as like a mogul. He really is propelled a lot
27:47
Speaker 1: of careers. Man. I mean when I first heard Crunk It,
27:50
Speaker 1: it blew my mind. I loved it, loved it. Mike,
27:55
Speaker 1: Mike is a part of one of the seminal crunk
27:58
Speaker 1: hits I ever saw. I ain't never scared you play
28:03
Speaker 1: that to this day, Mike could literally go drop that.
28:07
Speaker 1: But I used to watch your shows and be like,
28:09
Speaker 1: damn this record is that was like one of the records.
28:12
Speaker 1: I was jealous of it. Shit Like, yeah, no, I
28:15
Speaker 1: ain't never scared. We rocked it a couple of times together. Yeah,
28:18
Speaker 1: I really enjoyed getting past that moment. Not like I
28:23
Speaker 1: don't love it, but like, as a musician, I was
28:25
Speaker 1: always one of my markers. I can I give enough
28:27
Speaker 1: records that I don't have to perform. You know what
28:28
Speaker 1: I'm saying, dude, You know how you always have records.
28:30
Speaker 1: You just pray you don't have to perform anymore after
28:32
Speaker 1: a while. Yeah, I'm not mad at it, but I'm
28:34
Speaker 1: just like, no, but you just want to move on,
28:37
Speaker 1: like you're just like it's every cycle of my career.
28:40
Speaker 1: I've been able to shed a couple that. I mean,
28:43
Speaker 1: here's the thing. We're super lucky to be in that
28:45
Speaker 1: position that people consider some jams from different phases of
28:48
Speaker 1: our career. I'd be important for us. But like, I've
28:51
Speaker 1: never liked looking back, I'm all because it's always felt
28:54
Speaker 1: like a waste of time to me. It was always
28:56
Speaker 1: like I was always desperately looking for the next idea.
29:00
Speaker 1: So there does come a point where you have to
29:04
Speaker 1: reconcile with that, Like you have to, you have to
29:06
Speaker 1: you have to become okay with you with even your
29:09
Speaker 1: your your musical output from your past. You know, like
29:12
Speaker 1: you have to make friends with it again, you know,
29:13
Speaker 1: because it is a party. It's the same. It's like
29:15
Speaker 1: it's like the same way. It's like the same thing.
29:17
Speaker 1: I'm learning about what therapy is, in other words, reconciling
29:21
Speaker 1: with who you were so that you can understand who
29:24
Speaker 1: you are now being cool with it, knowing that that
29:26
Speaker 1: was what just happened. It wasn't that, you know, like
29:29
Speaker 1: a real obsession guy like myself when it comes to music,
29:33
Speaker 1: couldn't go back and listen to one of my records
29:35
Speaker 1: and to hear a thousand things that I wished I
29:37
Speaker 1: had done. I do the same. Yeah, I think everybody.
29:39
Speaker 1: I argue with Scarface for an hour, first of all
29:42
Speaker 1: about like he had, Like I couldn't believe he's unsatisfied
29:47
Speaker 1: with his music. That's also the sign of why Scarface
29:51
Speaker 1: has a thirty two year career no wack albums, and
29:53
Speaker 1: style seems to be constantly progressing, because yeah, here we
29:57
Speaker 1: are and we're forty four, Yeah, and we still like
30:00
Speaker 1: we're here tweaking too, Like I literally for a months,
30:02
Speaker 1: just like I hate that verse, came back and tweaked
30:04
Speaker 1: two bars and love that verse because it wasn't about
30:07
Speaker 1: the verse. It was about those bars weren't right. You're
30:10
Speaker 1: not amazing how sometimes small details change your opinion of
30:16
Speaker 1: a whole thing. And also how delicate when you do
30:19
Speaker 1: catch something and then you try to improve upon it,
30:23
Speaker 1: how delicate that balance is. And sometimes you don't even
30:26
Speaker 1: know you breathe on it wrong and it goes away.
30:29
Speaker 1: And you know, anyone who's been making who makes records,
30:31
Speaker 1: nose that. Despite the fact sometimes that you might be
30:35
Speaker 1: able to get a technically better version of something that
30:38
Speaker 1: you did half the time, if not more, you just
30:41
Speaker 1: don't want to trade it for what the original saw,
30:43
Speaker 1: even if there was something that they fucked up. I
30:46
Speaker 1: said a word wrong, but the rest of it is
30:48
Speaker 1: so I can't, I can't. I'm just gonna have to
30:51
Speaker 1: let it be what it is like that Kurt really
30:53
Speaker 1: mean to say a mosquito my libido, I tell you.
30:57
Speaker 1: Dizzy Gillespie. Dizzy Gillespie plays and sack. It was one
31:01
Speaker 1: of the greatest hip hop lines of all time because
31:04
Speaker 1: immediately it wasn't true. Yeah, it was immediately not true.
31:08
Speaker 1: Is her first line but it was flies even as
31:13
Speaker 1: a kid, and because I knew who Disney Gillespie was,
31:16
Speaker 1: there's one on our new record, and it sounded so
31:18
Speaker 1: good I didn't give a fuck to correct. Well, it wasn't. No,
31:21
Speaker 1: I can't tell you whispers. It's an outcash reference. It
31:25
Speaker 1: named the members of Outcast, and it expanded, Oh, he
31:29
Speaker 1: but it's dope and I do not want to change
31:32
Speaker 1: because it's so I was wondering about that. Yeah, no,
31:34
Speaker 1: wonder because it's dope, funny. But Disney Gillespie plays the sack. No,
31:38
Speaker 1: nothing more honest than saying that, because it's just completely alive.
31:43
Speaker 1: It's just has nothing to do with anything. It's like
31:45
Speaker 1: no truth and yeah, you're just and everybody who heard
31:47
Speaker 1: it was like this, yep, he does because because you
31:51
Speaker 1: just said that. Shit so cool. So fucking Disney Gllespie
31:55
Speaker 1: plays the side. When we come back, we'll pick up
31:58
Speaker 1: with a discussion about Killer Mike and l p's lyrics.
32:05
Speaker 1: We're back with Round the Jewels. You've managed to straddle
32:10
Speaker 1: a boundary between talking about serious stuff, talking about political stuff,
32:15
Speaker 1: and also talking about gangster shit and crazy hip hop lyrics. Yeah,
32:19
Speaker 1: how does it feel to to dance between the seriousness
32:25
Speaker 1: of the message and the fun of hip hop and
32:29
Speaker 1: love of hip hop. Man, it's one of the most
32:34
Speaker 1: liberating things to be allowed to do because I loved
32:41
Speaker 1: my public Enemy, I loved my NWA and those extremes,
32:46
Speaker 1: and I love Bismarcki. Yeah you know what I'm saying.
32:49
Speaker 1: And to be able to have a style as gangster
32:52
Speaker 1: rap centered and based heavily revolutionary rap influenced by way
32:57
Speaker 1: ape and park and and morality base in terms of
33:02
Speaker 1: Southern lyricists like terms of face. Being able to be
33:05
Speaker 1: that hybrid, it's been an honor for me because most
33:08
Speaker 1: people you get accepted as the character you portray or
33:12
Speaker 1: the part of the ego you personify. And my main
33:14
Speaker 1: clubs like your shuts out the cubs, like you're in
33:16
Speaker 1: the back back there. But because says Man, He's like
33:19
Speaker 1: he never lets me forget. He's like, hey, you know,
33:21
Speaker 1: you're lucky cuzz because you get to be you, he say, really, people,
33:25
Speaker 1: just so just what I am on record is really me.
33:28
Speaker 1: And that's not saying you know, I'm going out to
33:30
Speaker 1: fight one hundred cops tomorrow, but like I am rebellious
33:34
Speaker 1: by nature, I'm also a fucking total chokester and shit talker.
33:38
Speaker 1: And if we sat in this room long enough, when
33:40
Speaker 1: I'm bored, I'm going to pick up a book and
33:42
Speaker 1: just read until I go to sleep, you know, so
33:44
Speaker 1: I get to be the kid I actually was, Like
33:46
Speaker 1: it was weird for me growing up being a kid
33:49
Speaker 1: understanding the economics of I want to go to the dance,
33:54
Speaker 1: I don't have sneakers sleep. He knows how to make
33:57
Speaker 1: fake drugs. I can go sell them and my uncle
33:59
Speaker 1: my uncle's neighborhood and doing that to get the new
34:02
Speaker 1: nikes and the fake goal tie for the dance, doing
34:05
Speaker 1: knowing how to do that, but still literally loving art,
34:08
Speaker 1: like to the point I go to new museums and
34:11
Speaker 1: and literally loving rap music and under like. So getting
34:14
Speaker 1: a chance to be that on record for me, I
34:16
Speaker 1: appreciate the fans for allowing me too, because I think
34:18
Speaker 1: most human beings are that complex, and we don't allow
34:21
Speaker 1: ourselves to become publicly. We present whoever we want the
34:25
Speaker 1: public to think. We are interpret us ass and we
34:27
Speaker 1: do not show our total or willing to show, and
34:31
Speaker 1: were allowed to do it. I think that also for us,
34:33
Speaker 1: me and Mike, there there are there are only a
34:37
Speaker 1: few advantages to being in your forties and in the
34:44
Speaker 1: current music land, you know, as a rapper. And you know,
34:48
Speaker 1: we don't talk about it that much in Asia is
34:49
Speaker 1: in the big deal, but what it is is a
34:51
Speaker 1: collection of experiences. And we're we're at a point I
34:54
Speaker 1: think when we're with our records and where we are
34:57
Speaker 1: in our heads. When we met up, we just we
34:59
Speaker 1: had the same we had the same perspective, which is,
35:04
Speaker 1: we don't want to do records where we don't have
35:06
Speaker 1: the room to make jokes or we don't have a
35:08
Speaker 1: room to make to cry like, or we don't have
35:11
Speaker 1: the room like like we we we don't want to
35:14
Speaker 1: present ourselves and and we we're we're we just neither
35:18
Speaker 1: of us ever really did where we were there where
35:21
Speaker 1: we chose an idea and decided to make that one
35:24
Speaker 1: idea exactly everything that we're supposed to do. Because if
35:28
Speaker 1: you if you really have to be careful managed when
35:30
Speaker 1: you're coming into this ship, if you're if you are
35:35
Speaker 1: if you're doing that, if you are choosing a thing,
35:38
Speaker 1: just a thing, and you're not punching out the walls
35:43
Speaker 1: like with the you know, by definition, with the variety
35:45
Speaker 1: of the different things that you can do. When you
35:47
Speaker 1: present yourself to people, you you are in very much
35:50
Speaker 1: danger of being a victim of the own thing that
35:53
Speaker 1: you created, the thing that you present. It can come
35:55
Speaker 1: back to destroy you, because if you're if you're an artist,
35:57
Speaker 1: you're going to want to to say other things than
36:01
Speaker 1: you are. Absolutely and that's literally what we do. I
36:04
Speaker 1: mean in terms of as you know, on some human
36:07
Speaker 1: shit like that's that you know, that's the art thing.
36:10
Speaker 1: I think that's the modus operandi for an artist is
36:13
Speaker 1: to be paying attention. And you want to you want
36:16
Speaker 1: to make an artist or you know someone who loves
36:18
Speaker 1: art is trying to make art expresses themself that way.
36:20
Speaker 1: You want to you want to kill their spirit. Just
36:23
Speaker 1: just tell them that they can't change, Tell them they
36:28
Speaker 1: can't change, and and and so there's a delicate balance
36:30
Speaker 1: between knowing what what what's awesome about what you do
36:33
Speaker 1: and what people connected with, but also having no shame
36:38
Speaker 1: about being able to just make like a really stupid
36:41
Speaker 1: joke and then say some feeling good about it and
36:44
Speaker 1: feeling great about it, and and and and and seeing
36:47
Speaker 1: literally absolutely no conflict about doing then something really poignant
36:50
Speaker 1: that is that actually does that meaning and the two
36:53
Speaker 1: are completely related. Why, because that's us, man. We're we're
36:56
Speaker 1: we're serious, we have we have real you know, real
37:00
Speaker 1: terms of real thoughts and and and discussions, uh even
37:03
Speaker 1: even in relation to our music. But we're also like
37:06
Speaker 1: you know, but but comedy and and and and sort
37:09
Speaker 1: of a joyous perspective is just as much of a
37:13
Speaker 1: of a of a joy for us and in what
37:15
Speaker 1: we do, and so we I'm so psyched that I
37:18
Speaker 1: get to be in a situation where we've where it's cool.
37:21
Speaker 1: It's like, it's cool, there's no there's no expectation other
37:25
Speaker 1: than to do it, to make it sound great, to
37:30
Speaker 1: to do it. So that's real. So connects and that
37:33
Speaker 1: you know, and so and and and it's terrifying to
37:36
Speaker 1: me to think that anyone would like stop us or
37:39
Speaker 1: wouldn't have you know, like there wasn't the room, No
37:42
Speaker 1: one's stopping you. Of course, you know, it's a fear.
37:44
Speaker 1: It's not about the world's out to get you. But
37:47
Speaker 1: it's something that I'm really I'm really happy about that.
37:50
Speaker 1: Like when I listen to me and Mike's music, I'm like,
37:53
Speaker 1: I like this because these are people, these are not
37:58
Speaker 1: not an idea different, Yeah, exactly. It's it's one of
38:01
Speaker 1: the things that I see as a limitation for certain
38:05
Speaker 1: artists who are very single focused in one place. After
38:10
Speaker 1: they've made a couple of albums like that, it's like,
38:13
Speaker 1: what's left to do that? Yeah, it's like we've done that.
38:18
Speaker 1: It's like, now, what, Like, why is it interesting to
38:21
Speaker 1: talk about the same subject again for ten more songs?
38:25
Speaker 1: I don't know, it's not you know what I'm saying.
38:27
Speaker 1: It's like, there has to be if to at least
38:30
Speaker 1: be looking at it, even if it's related to the
38:33
Speaker 1: same ideas from different perspectives. I agree, from all around
38:38
Speaker 1: finding what's interesting about it now that wasn't there before
38:41
Speaker 1: when you wrote a song about a similar topic. I
38:43
Speaker 1: remember a song I wish I was a little bit taller,
38:46
Speaker 1: wish I was a foller, wish I had a hour call.
38:49
Speaker 1: That record was so honest to me at a time
38:52
Speaker 1: where everything at the right time. Yeah, everything had been
38:54
Speaker 1: so hard and hardcore that it was the perfect You know,
38:58
Speaker 1: there's insecurity with being a teenage boy, you know what
39:01
Speaker 1: I mean, there's insecurities with being a man here, and
39:04
Speaker 1: that song did it and not in a whiny or
39:06
Speaker 1: what we would be considering hip hop suck away. Like
39:09
Speaker 1: it was just you know, it was very honest like
39:11
Speaker 1: that that that that that that stope to me because
39:15
Speaker 1: if you look at what rules and wrap now, it's
39:18
Speaker 1: the world to that perspective, to to to like, I
39:22
Speaker 1: look at the top guys now, the top guys that
39:24
Speaker 1: have a sensitivity that just wasn't allowed when I was
39:27
Speaker 1: that age, you know what I'm saying, And that's adult thing.
39:29
Speaker 1: Now we're expressed in a different way, like we're giving
39:32
Speaker 1: a sensitivity and then next we might be shooting a
39:34
Speaker 1: dog on a porch, you know, just to make an
39:36
Speaker 1: old lady cry. And in the ridiculous, ridiculous sense, Yeah,
39:41
Speaker 1: we're half real. You know, there's a half of a
39:45
Speaker 1: really human element or what we do that we're and
39:47
Speaker 1: we really aren't a friend to tap into that. But
39:49
Speaker 1: the other half is the Blues brothers fucking stumbling their
39:53
Speaker 1: way across America and getting in the gunfights, you know,
39:56
Speaker 1: and and why just because it's fun us. It's funny friends,
40:00
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's so you know, and and and
40:04
Speaker 1: and I love that, I love I love like the
40:07
Speaker 1: relinquishing of self seriousness, you know, like I don't. I
40:11
Speaker 1: think that you're doomed if you're coming into art thinking
40:15
Speaker 1: that you need to take yourself seriously all the time.
40:19
Speaker 1: Like that's a fucking trap, Like that's you know, like
40:22
Speaker 1: if you can't just pointing yourself and even saying like
40:26
Speaker 1: saying something that you don't believe, you know, saying something
40:29
Speaker 1: hilarious if it and not in the sense of like
40:34
Speaker 1: you know, but just being the ass, like letting yourself
40:36
Speaker 1: for the sake of comedy be a complete fucking asshole,
40:39
Speaker 1: of course, Like that's definitely in our wheelhouse, Like the
40:43
Speaker 1: more asshole is the better. Like, you know, we sit
40:45
Speaker 1: around and we just, you know, like, what's the fucking
40:48
Speaker 1: the Danny Brown versus that verse that record or that
40:53
Speaker 1: that my verse was all about. It was somebody I
40:57
Speaker 1: had watched on some fucking shit that was just shitting
41:00
Speaker 1: on black rappers and athletes, and I'm just like, god damn,
41:04
Speaker 1: like you expect this from Fox News? You expected from it,
41:07
Speaker 1: because I like, you look like my fucking on and uncle,
41:10
Speaker 1: like how are you shiitting on me? And that's where
41:12
Speaker 1: that verse just carved out rectly out of you know what, man,
41:15
Speaker 1: fuck y'all, Fuck this shit, This ain't killing like the activist.
41:19
Speaker 1: This is Michael fuck you render and and it is
41:24
Speaker 1: absolutely ridiculous. That record is an amazing record to Danny
41:27
Speaker 1: and and Pegs. Yeah you had brought him me inesterday. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
41:33
Speaker 1: kicking with us. Yeah. Man, the beat very original beat, Yo,
41:38
Speaker 1: it was. It was very original. It was wildest fucked
41:40
Speaker 1: to figure out that ride. I like figuring out part
41:43
Speaker 1: of the reason I think I proclaimed LP greatest rapper
41:46
Speaker 1: producer in one thing ever, because I see him writing
41:49
Speaker 1: them on the fucking ramps, and I see him developed
41:53
Speaker 1: these beats into something but a lot of times to
41:55
Speaker 1: beat saying an easy ride. Now the ride is doping
41:57
Speaker 1: us there, but we have to find it. And you
42:00
Speaker 1: seems at this point you come back maybe three people
42:01
Speaker 1: are like, god, damn, that ain't it. We got a
42:03
Speaker 1: sun about it on, Like, but that beat challenged me
42:06
Speaker 1: to find a ride that I loved. I came out
42:08
Speaker 1: of that motherfucker feeling like a better rapper, Like, yeah,
42:10
Speaker 1: you know that's all y'all going on. I think you
42:13
Speaker 1: told me the sample. Yeah. The beauty of the challenge
42:16
Speaker 1: when it forces you to go outside of your normal patterns. Yes, yes,
42:22
Speaker 1: because and there's only an elite group of motherfuckers that
42:25
Speaker 1: can actually write, you know, give you know that that
42:27
Speaker 1: like can find the pocket, you know, like because I
42:29
Speaker 1: was listening to it and yeah, I had to be
42:31
Speaker 1: like you heard Danny's Pocket and yeah, anyway, it's like, yeah, please,
42:38
Speaker 1: I want to tell kids too, man, you know shit,
42:40
Speaker 1: fuck music reviewers and who wrote what? Listen to the
42:44
Speaker 1: song yourself and see what you think. I saw a
42:48
Speaker 1: review of this record. It's not our record. I don't
42:50
Speaker 1: particularly but besides thinking, I got a dope verse, I
42:52
Speaker 1: don't have. I don't have much skin in the game.
42:55
Speaker 1: But I saw a review give a lazy review on it,
42:58
Speaker 1: like and I could and I went to to rap
43:01
Speaker 1: lyrics or quote rap Coote or whatever, and I realized
43:03
Speaker 1: he had literally just read the lyrics maybe listen to
43:06
Speaker 1: the song once and only highlighted really what was in
43:09
Speaker 1: the bars. I was just like, how lazy? And like,
43:12
Speaker 1: what tripped me out about that punk ass reviewer is
43:16
Speaker 1: he failed to acknowledge Danny's mister Servon shout out, which
43:20
Speaker 1: in the no lining sectrum, if you really the Nolan guy,
43:23
Speaker 1: you that's like to me, that's that rap nerd shit.
43:26
Speaker 1: I'm coming to you, listening to you because I trust
43:28
Speaker 1: your punk ass and you not even rap nerd enough
43:31
Speaker 1: to know, mister Servall. And then from a street perspective,
43:35
Speaker 1: the most honest thing said on that record was when
43:38
Speaker 1: Danny said he had to act like a thing to
43:41
Speaker 1: get out of getting the rest. I'm just like this
43:44
Speaker 1: niggas sings. You know what I'm saying, And that's what
43:46
Speaker 1: you lose. When when Al hit the fucking triple Lindsay
43:50
Speaker 1: flipp reference to Dad and the mom is just like,
43:54
Speaker 1: how the fuck can you listen to that shit? And
43:55
Speaker 1: I'd be like, oh man, I'm a sucking minds blown,
43:57
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? And then I think, and
43:59
Speaker 1: the flow are so interesting over the beat it's jazz exactly,
44:04
Speaker 1: exactly free exactly, it's free style. That was what the
44:06
Speaker 1: beat to the beat made us find a pocket, and
44:08
Speaker 1: everyone found a different pocket. It's three different styles. With
44:12
Speaker 1: each verse you hear the beating a whole different and
44:16
Speaker 1: that's that's that's to me, that's what's lost in the
44:21
Speaker 1: and the now of like man, it was so new
44:26
Speaker 1: and not on some super nostalgic it was all better
44:28
Speaker 1: than it was just so new that it was fleeting.
44:31
Speaker 1: You didn't know if it be around much longer, so
44:34
Speaker 1: you took all of it serious, like not to the
44:37
Speaker 1: point of art, just to like, let me learn this ship.
44:40
Speaker 1: Let me learn because I don't know how like I remember,
44:43
Speaker 1: and I know, you know, they said this ship's not
44:45
Speaker 1: gonna be around the former and the years and then
44:50
Speaker 1: just making music. How many years did I have to
44:52
Speaker 1: get the same lecture from people, from old people telling
44:55
Speaker 1: me every fucking time I fucking anyone found out that
44:59
Speaker 1: I was doing this shit. It through my youth. You
45:02
Speaker 1: had to endure the lecture. And that was that some
45:05
Speaker 1: guy who knew, some older dude who just knew that
45:07
Speaker 1: it was just a waste of time. Trust me, kish
45:10
Speaker 1: and disco, it's disc it's disco. I saw it, I
45:17
Speaker 1: lived through it, you know what I mean. And you're
45:19
Speaker 1: just like, no, we even knew then. We were like,
45:21
Speaker 1: you're wrong, you're wrong. It's a new form of fucking music.
45:25
Speaker 1: I remember being told it wasn't even music because we talked.
45:27
Speaker 1: Of course they still say that shit. It's like God,
45:30
Speaker 1: still try and say that shit. And now yea, and
45:33
Speaker 1: discoes not even gone for that man's everywhere right how
45:38
Speaker 1: to fuck you not. Jason Donald sum on the Sunday
45:41
Speaker 1: Smoking with your Wife Man. You know. Thanks to LP
45:46
Speaker 1: and Killer Mike for taking time away from making their
45:48
Speaker 1: new record to talk to Rick. Make sure to check
45:50
Speaker 1: for it once it drops wherever you get your music.
45:53
Speaker 1: You can hear more of their work together as One
45:54
Speaker 1: of the Jewels and their solo stuff by listening to
45:57
Speaker 1: our playlist for this episode at Broken Record Podcast. Broken
46:00
Speaker 1: Record is produced with help from Jason Gambrel, mil Lobelle,
46:03
Speaker 1: and Leah Rose for Pushkin Industries. Our theme music is
46:06
Speaker 1: by Kenny Beats. I'm justin Richmond. Thanks for listening.