Latest / The Breakfast Club / LaRussell Speaks On New Music, Russ Partnership, Dealing with Success +More
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Wait that ass up in the morning Breakfast Club Morning,
- 0:04Speaker 1: everybody is DJ Envy and Angela Yee, Charlomagne the guy.
- 0:09Speaker 1: We all the breakfast club, good morning. We got a
- 0:11Speaker 1: special guest in the building, Russo, I'm man, my guy,
- 0:15Speaker 1: what's up? My brother? How are you feelings? Time block
- 0:19Speaker 1: for a hot minute came and he dropped like a
- 0:21Speaker 1: good forty balls, sixty balls, and then you got the
- 0:28Speaker 1: new project out. I don't even like to say you
- 0:30Speaker 1: got a new project out because I feel like you
- 0:31Speaker 1: dropped every week. You know, we got to I hate
- 0:34Speaker 1: when life's going great? Yeah, what's this? Number twenty one?
- 0:36Speaker 1: Number twenty one? Why so much music? Um? Why not? Okay, right?
- 0:43Speaker 1: Why not? What makes this one special? More special than
- 0:46Speaker 1: the other twenty though? Um? I think they're all special
- 0:50Speaker 1: in their own way because they're different timestamps in my
- 0:52Speaker 1: life and in my journey. This one is very reflective
- 0:55Speaker 1: of my current process and just going through the journey
- 0:59Speaker 1: of success and vigating what I've been going through. So
- 1:01Speaker 1: it's just special because it's in this moment. It's now right,
- 1:05Speaker 1: We'll never get down again. Now. You also talk so
- 1:09Speaker 1: much about being independent and the value of that. Come on,
- 1:12Speaker 1: and starting your own businesses. We know you have a
- 1:14Speaker 1: good company, but you do have a deal. What's the
- 1:16Speaker 1: deal with Russ? And so I have a partnership with
- 1:19Speaker 1: Russ a fifty fifty split and that's for one project
- 1:22Speaker 1: which I'll probably deliver at the top of next year.
- 1:24Speaker 1: And he's just gonna, you know, do what he do
- 1:27Speaker 1: best and I'll do what I do best and delivering music.
- 1:29Speaker 1: But yeah, it's partnered and just not the one I
- 1:32Speaker 1: thought this was the album. No, no, yeah, we got
- 1:38Speaker 1: a whole lot of it. We got a whole lot
- 1:40Speaker 1: of it. You said, well, made part up with him?
- 1:42Speaker 1: Um man. He was just early in and very um
- 1:48Speaker 1: very resourceful when just you know, he showed a lot
- 1:52Speaker 1: of love early in appreciation and being that he went
- 1:55Speaker 1: through this process, he understood what I needed more than
- 1:58Speaker 1: the majors, Like they weren't offering me what I actually
- 2:01Speaker 1: needed to get to this level. Right, it was too much.
- 2:04Speaker 1: It would have been restricting. I dropped fifteen albums just
- 2:08Speaker 1: from the period of me going viral till now. If
- 2:11Speaker 1: I would have signed to a label, I probably would
- 2:13Speaker 1: have only got three out and maybe they would have
- 2:15Speaker 1: got a bigger push, but maybe not you know, so
- 2:18Speaker 1: it was like they were stifling what I was actually
- 2:20Speaker 1: trying to accomplish. And he was very hands off. Most people,
- 2:23Speaker 1: when you signed a deal, you can only release music
- 2:26Speaker 1: under that deal. I've been releasing me everything I've been
- 2:28Speaker 1: releasing since then, I've owned completely, so I'm just still
- 2:32Speaker 1: able to do my thing. But is it lucrative because
- 2:34Speaker 1: you know, you dropped so much music, right, do people
- 2:36Speaker 1: get a chance to really ride to it and understand
- 2:39Speaker 1: it and sit with it and live with it? Or
- 2:40Speaker 1: is it it's almost like it happened so much if
- 2:47Speaker 1: you sell ten products, you know, versus one during a
- 2:52Speaker 1: period of time. Of course it's lucrative because I get
- 2:54Speaker 1: paid in the perpetuity I owned it for the rest
- 2:56Speaker 1: of my life. I'd rather be getting paid rent from
- 2:59Speaker 1: ten houses than is one that real estate man real estate. Yeah,
- 3:04Speaker 1: absolutely of them, you know, But do people get to
- 3:12Speaker 1: digest it enough? Like, you know, because you sit with music.
- 3:14Speaker 1: But sometimes music like when when sometimes when artists have
- 3:17Speaker 1: too many tracks on the album, don't really get to
- 3:19Speaker 1: get to track twenty six, You know what I mean?
- 3:21Speaker 1: Because you know, I think it depends on how great
- 3:24Speaker 1: the music is. The people who want to digest it does,
- 3:27Speaker 1: and the people who don't don't. You know, my my
- 3:30Speaker 1: thing is, I'm never worried about that. I'm just creating
- 3:33Speaker 1: from my heart. I'm not really creating with the idea
- 3:37Speaker 1: of can you digest this or not. This is just
- 3:39Speaker 1: what I'm feeling and I'm sharing it. You could either
- 3:41Speaker 1: accept it or not. It's a different day and as
- 3:43Speaker 1: two where artists have a lot more freedom because I
- 3:45Speaker 1: think there's so many more resources in ways to just
- 3:48Speaker 1: reach people directly and not have to go through a
- 3:50Speaker 1: whole system to get that done. Definitely, and it's beautiful.
- 3:53Speaker 1: So this last album we actually sold prior to releasing
- 3:56Speaker 1: to DSPs through a platform called even and I sold
- 3:59Speaker 1: it direct to my fans. We sold four thousand albums
- 4:02Speaker 1: and did a hundred K and revenue prior to even
- 4:06Speaker 1: coming out. Most artists would have to wait for DSPs
- 4:09Speaker 1: and wait for streaming. To make that amount. Through streaming,
- 4:11Speaker 1: you'd have to stream twenty five million times and streaming
- 4:14Speaker 1: pay quarterly, so you wouldn't get that. I wouldn't see
- 4:17Speaker 1: what I made until next year probably if I had
- 4:20Speaker 1: to rely on streaming. It would be interesting to see
- 4:23Speaker 1: what the NBA Young Boy would have done. If you
- 4:25Speaker 1: want to be insane. He puts out as much music
- 4:28Speaker 1: as you did. He doing. If any of them, Drake,
- 4:30Speaker 1: Kendrick Cole, any of them run display the way I've
- 4:33Speaker 1: ran it, they'd make four times more than they should.
- 4:36Speaker 1: Like you should buy the art from the artists. There's
- 4:38Speaker 1: no way, there's no reason you should want a L.
- 4:40Speaker 1: Russell product, but got to go somewhere else to get it.
- 4:44Speaker 1: That doesn't make any sense. It's like my shows, we
- 4:46Speaker 1: sell our own ticket and if you want to see L. Russell,
- 4:49Speaker 1: you have to talk to L. Russell. Can we talk
- 4:51Speaker 1: about your growth as a human being and as an
- 4:53Speaker 1: artist and how that's reflected in your music even in
- 4:56Speaker 1: your name using your real name? Now? Definitely, I mean
- 5:00Speaker 1: I'm just able to speak on things I wasn't able
- 5:03Speaker 1: to prior because I didn't have the knowledge or the
- 5:05Speaker 1: insight or the information or the emotional intelligence. Like a
- 5:09Speaker 1: lot of people hit me about certain songs, They're like, man,
- 5:11Speaker 1: this was exactly how I'm feeling. A lot of us
- 5:14Speaker 1: are feeling these things, but we can't express it because
- 5:16Speaker 1: we don't have the ability. So, you know, as I've
- 5:18Speaker 1: grown as a as a person, I've just been able
- 5:21Speaker 1: to express more and the music has gotten better just
- 5:24Speaker 1: because it's closer to home, it's realer. That's one of
- 5:26Speaker 1: the things I love about you, the fact that you
- 5:28Speaker 1: are able to talk about your the traumas you've experienced,
- 5:31Speaker 1: but more importantly, the healing you've received. When when did
- 5:35Speaker 1: that journey start? When did you start getting that language?
- 5:37Speaker 1: When you start doing that work on yourself? Man Um.
- 5:41Speaker 1: I was working at this job called UTC, and I
- 5:44Speaker 1: sat across from this girl named Rita, And it's like
- 5:48Speaker 1: an aerospace company and they do a lot of contracting
- 5:51Speaker 1: for military different stuff. But I was working across from
- 5:54Speaker 1: this lady name Rita. She was from Singapore and like
- 5:58Speaker 1: her English was broken, so people used to really talk
- 6:00Speaker 1: to her much. But I used to chop it up
- 6:02Speaker 1: with her. And one day she gave me this book
- 6:04Speaker 1: called The Freedom Simplified. It was a short read, but
- 6:08Speaker 1: that shit changed my life. It was like, it's kind
- 6:11Speaker 1: of like Buddhist text, just like life principles. And that
- 6:15Speaker 1: was the first time I read in a long time.
- 6:17Speaker 1: I used to be like, I'm not reading because in
- 6:19Speaker 1: high school I always had to read, you know, stuff
- 6:21Speaker 1: based on school that wasn't interesting, but that just shook
- 6:24Speaker 1: me up. I went on Amazon and end up buying
- 6:26Speaker 1: hell of books after that, and it just start slowly growing.
- 6:29Speaker 1: I start getting around people who had similar thoughts, and
- 6:32Speaker 1: the homies start pouring into me and just life through experience,
- 6:36Speaker 1: just naturally growing and learning more therapy or anything like that.
- 6:40Speaker 1: I just recently start going to therapy, and I don't
- 6:45Speaker 1: know if it's for men. I don't know if I'm
- 6:47Speaker 1: getting I feel like I had an expectation going into it,
- 6:51Speaker 1: and you know that always kind of deviates the process
- 6:55Speaker 1: a bit because you may not get what you expect.
- 6:57Speaker 1: So I'm not sure how it is for me. But
- 6:59Speaker 1: I started going recently. What made you go? Um, just
- 7:05Speaker 1: wanting to kind of work through some of the emotions
- 7:09Speaker 1: I've been dealing with and just kind of like, uh,
- 7:12Speaker 1: you know, some days you wake up and you tired
- 7:14Speaker 1: of doing trash stuff or like being in a certain
- 7:17Speaker 1: way for that moment you feel me and and and
- 7:20Speaker 1: then the moment it's like, I'm gonna go to therapy,
- 7:22Speaker 1: right and then you start, and then you know through
- 7:24Speaker 1: that process you either love it or you don't. Your
- 7:27Speaker 1: title of the new project, man, it's it's it sticks
- 7:30Speaker 1: out to me just because I feel like self sabotage
- 7:33Speaker 1: is that in all time high? I hate when life's
- 7:35Speaker 1: going great. Yeah, you know that's something that I had
- 7:38Speaker 1: to talk through with with with my therapist. Like, you know,
- 7:40Speaker 1: when things are going good, embrace it. I don't think that,
- 7:44Speaker 1: you know, the other shoe was about to drop of,
- 7:46Speaker 1: something bad is about to happen. Just embrace it. Is
- 7:49Speaker 1: that what that title of signifies. Definitely, that's exactly what
- 7:52Speaker 1: it is. You know, I've struggled throughout this journey to
- 7:56Speaker 1: stay on a high, and not that you're supposed to
- 7:58Speaker 1: stay on the high. You know, you're supposed also to
- 8:00Speaker 1: kind of go up and down and stay kind of
- 8:02Speaker 1: neutral button. I'm usually extreme, I'm very high on very low.
- 8:07Speaker 1: And that title is very reflective of just that process,
- 8:10Speaker 1: going through the changes that comes with success and and
- 8:14Speaker 1: just all the anxiety and all the pressures that come
- 8:17Speaker 1: with it as well. It's a lot of work for
- 8:19Speaker 1: you too, the way that you operate, it's a lot.
- 8:22Speaker 1: It's more than the average person. But people feel like
- 8:25Speaker 1: they can really connect with you. I said, you did
- 8:27Speaker 1: a pop up show in Brooklyn, and they said you
- 8:28Speaker 1: were outside greeting everybody. Yeah, of course I'm in a line. Man.
- 8:33Speaker 1: We sold out five hundred tickets in eight hours. Wow. Literally,
- 8:37Speaker 1: well I was the night before. I was like, man,
- 8:39Speaker 1: I want to do a pop up show. Yeah, And
- 8:43Speaker 1: I saw the tickets to a platform our own equity
- 8:45Speaker 1: and it's called what's TBA Black Owned Tech, and um yeah,
- 8:48Speaker 1: I was like, I want to do a pop up
- 8:50Speaker 1: And originally we thought it was gonna be like fifty
- 8:52Speaker 1: two one hundred people, just some light and we end
- 8:54Speaker 1: up doing over five hundred tickets that stuff. And I
- 8:56Speaker 1: see that you actually do research to see where the
- 8:59Speaker 1: demand is so you know where you're gonna go next
- 9:02Speaker 1: because you can see where people are huge Larussell fans,
- 9:04Speaker 1: So yeah, it makes sense to go here because then
- 9:06Speaker 1: we'll sell those tickets right, and and our base is
- 9:09Speaker 1: really tapped in, like you know, we I'm able to
- 9:12Speaker 1: go to a city and say hey, I'm here and
- 9:14Speaker 1: get a whole bunch of you know, like we we
- 9:17Speaker 1: have a high engagement rate. And you do to pay
- 9:20Speaker 1: what you want? Deal, right, did you do? Show? These
- 9:23Speaker 1: shows are offer based, so we do pay. We do
- 9:26Speaker 1: proud to pay shows where you could pay absolutely anything,
- 9:29Speaker 1: and sometimes like at home, we'll do that. Like right now,
- 9:32Speaker 1: we're doing a cafe. You can pay whatever. But these exactly,
- 9:35Speaker 1: but these shows are offer based. So you go through
- 9:37Speaker 1: the site and you make an offer on what that
- 9:39Speaker 1: ticket is worked to you, and we either accept or
- 9:41Speaker 1: decline the offer. Is that Is that lucrative because I
- 9:44Speaker 1: see you do that. You do that with your mom's cafe,
- 9:46Speaker 1: you do that with the merchandise. Is that lucrative? Very
- 9:50Speaker 1: because you're like, so for the backyard shows across a
- 9:55Speaker 1: span of four backyard shows, people people don't hold the
- 9:57Speaker 1: bay shows. Just explain I built a residency in my
- 10:01Speaker 1: backyard so we don't have to deal with the politics
- 10:04Speaker 1: of the venues. And we did four really big shows
- 10:06Speaker 1: in the summer. I was coming out this is my crib,
- 10:09Speaker 1: my childhood home. And across the four shows, we generated
- 10:12Speaker 1: about seventy five thousand dollars. And it's because off the person,
- 10:16Speaker 1: only two hundred people can come to each show, so
- 10:19Speaker 1: off eight hundred people, right. And it's because when you
- 10:22Speaker 1: do offer base, you never know what you're worth to
- 10:26Speaker 1: someone else. Right, If I change your life through music,
- 10:28Speaker 1: or if you just really loved Larussell, you're gonna shoot
- 10:31Speaker 1: me a little bit mole. You know a lot of
- 10:33Speaker 1: artists my size, they go do shows, and their ticket
- 10:36Speaker 1: price probably like twenty five dollars, fifteen dollars. My last show,
- 10:40Speaker 1: the average ticket price was seventy five dollars. And that's
- 10:43Speaker 1: because we allow the people to choose. But that experience
- 10:45Speaker 1: is worth but we also provide so much more. I'm
- 10:48Speaker 1: at the front door doing wristbands after the show. You
- 10:51Speaker 1: could actually talk to me at the crib. My pops
- 10:53Speaker 1: is cooking, my mom's here, so it's a different extent.
- 10:56Speaker 1: You're putting the wristbands on people, and I'm wrist banding people.
- 10:59Speaker 1: I'm doing that everything. I'm kissing babies. Man, come on,
- 11:02Speaker 1: are you putting them tight so they can't slide it
- 11:04Speaker 1: off and pass it to somebody else? But man, my
- 11:06Speaker 1: fans don't even do that. We don't even have to
- 11:09Speaker 1: worry about it. We built great energy. They fuck with me.
- 11:11Speaker 1: You don't feel a way with people knowing where you live, nah,
- 11:15Speaker 1: because I've lived there in my whole life. Just more
- 11:19Speaker 1: people now already know. But I mean, what we've built,
- 11:22Speaker 1: it's like a safe keeping the hood, Like everybody looks
- 11:25Speaker 1: out for it. It's like na this is this is ours.
- 11:28Speaker 1: You feel me, so we don't have to deal with that.
- 11:30Speaker 1: Have you had anybody like just pop up when it's
- 11:32Speaker 1: not a show, like I want to meet Lar Russells. Yeah, yeah,
- 11:35Speaker 1: a couple, a couple of half, a couple of half
- 11:38Speaker 1: and you know that's nothing but a trip outside. I
- 11:40Speaker 1: didn't Hey, don't you come around here again? But I'm
- 11:43Speaker 1: gonna show you that love. We're gonna embrace you and
- 11:45Speaker 1: tell you something. Man. I love l Russell Man. I
- 11:47Speaker 1: love for a bunch of reasons. Number one, there's a
- 11:49Speaker 1: dope lyricists, very intelligent young man. But also, it's not
- 11:53Speaker 1: about what you say yes to. It's about what you
- 11:55Speaker 1: say no to. I saw you say no to some
- 11:58Speaker 1: really I'm no need to say no names to some
- 12:01Speaker 1: really incredible shit earlier that I know would make the
- 12:04Speaker 1: average young man be like, oh, I'm absolutely doing it.
- 12:07Speaker 1: And I remember you hit me like nah, it's ain't right.
- 12:10Speaker 1: It wasn't right, and I was like, I mean, it
- 12:14Speaker 1: don't be right, it don't be right. And that's the thing,
- 12:17Speaker 1: like when you don't say no, later on, you're gonna
- 12:20Speaker 1: feel it no matter what, and you're gonna have to
- 12:23Speaker 1: sit with it and I'm somebody it'll bothering me. It's
- 12:26Speaker 1: gonna absolutely bothering me. So those nos early really saved
- 12:29Speaker 1: me because, like I said, if I would have took
- 12:30Speaker 1: them early deals, I would have been hindered. I wouldn't
- 12:34Speaker 1: have been as big as I am. Now how long
- 12:36Speaker 1: ago that? It hasn't been a year. It's been about
- 12:38Speaker 1: a year rough, Yeah, it's been one year. You know
- 12:40Speaker 1: we started. It was like three thousand followers at that
- 12:43Speaker 1: point to now almost over five hundred k, so it's
- 12:47Speaker 1: been one year. I remember when Jova first hit me
- 12:50Speaker 1: about you. He sent me the freestyle that that that
- 12:54Speaker 1: Wallow posted. Yeah, and I didn't get a chance to
- 12:56Speaker 1: listen to it because I was traveling and he hold
- 12:58Speaker 1: on ever duties. He takes me back, like, you ain't
- 13:00Speaker 1: listen to that free stuff, but right clearly because he
- 13:02Speaker 1: knew that if I heard it, I'd be on it.
- 13:04Speaker 1: And I'm like, God, damn, who is this? Come on?
- 13:07Speaker 1: And it was you come on? And I saw you
- 13:09Speaker 1: say on a Power one or six that you were
- 13:11Speaker 1: willing to die to try to get as big as
- 13:14Speaker 1: Drake independently. Yeah, you think that's possible. I think it's
- 13:18Speaker 1: very possible, especially now. Like early when I was thinking
- 13:23Speaker 1: that I was, I used to tell we used to
- 13:24Speaker 1: go on label meanings and I used to ask them,
- 13:26Speaker 1: do you think it's possible to be as biggest drake
- 13:29Speaker 1: as an indie? And we used to get a lot
- 13:31Speaker 1: of doubt and like, I don't know, you'd have to
- 13:33Speaker 1: go through this, this dude through this system. And it's like,
- 13:36Speaker 1: if I got here independently, I can only get bigger.
- 13:41Speaker 1: You know, I know what I did to get here.
- 13:43Speaker 1: So if I do at times ten, that means I'm
- 13:45Speaker 1: gonna get it ten times multiple on my growth. If
- 13:47Speaker 1: I do that times a hundred, I'm gonna get a
- 13:49Speaker 1: hundred times multiples. So yeah, I definitely believe Saw. I mean,
- 13:52Speaker 1: I'm here and I'm completely independent. You feel me on
- 13:56Speaker 1: this platform. Most of the people who come on here
- 13:58Speaker 1: have a label behind him as part of their pr
- 14:00Speaker 1: rollout there press, but we don't have a label behind it.
- 14:03Speaker 1: What are some of the stresses that you deal with? Though?
- 14:06Speaker 1: Like I said, it is a whole lot more work
- 14:07Speaker 1: when you do run things independently, but I understand the
- 14:10Speaker 1: financial payout is greater. But what are some of the
- 14:12Speaker 1: stresses um? Life just not having adequate time to to
- 14:23Speaker 1: cater to everyone and everything, Um, dealing with the emotional
- 14:27Speaker 1: trauma that kind of comes with the changes that come
- 14:30Speaker 1: with success, like just the change of dynamic and relationships,
- 14:35Speaker 1: not being able to do certain things like I usually
- 14:38Speaker 1: take my daughter to school and pick her up, so
- 14:40Speaker 1: like when I'm out and gone, I don't get to
- 14:42Speaker 1: do that and get to cultivate that situation and just um, yeah,
- 14:46Speaker 1: it's really the time spot that stresses me most. And
- 14:50Speaker 1: just um, whenever I do something that's like against my
- 14:56Speaker 1: soul or feel like I'm not being the greatest human
- 14:58Speaker 1: or I didn't I didn't acting my best interests of
- 15:01Speaker 1: a situation. Could you see yourself doing a more long
- 15:04Speaker 1: term situation, a deal, a partnership, Yeah, definitely, But I
- 15:08Speaker 1: think the way that we structure it would be kind
- 15:11Speaker 1: of different than labels do deals. So they like to
- 15:13Speaker 1: do things and like four albums or five albums versus
- 15:17Speaker 1: I'm somewhere where it's like if we do long term,
- 15:20Speaker 1: it's like, Okay, I'll release music with you for a
- 15:24Speaker 1: year or so and we'll split back in But you know,
- 15:26Speaker 1: it's just it just has to be restructured a different way.
- 15:29Speaker 1: Because how they do it now doesn't make sense. Like
- 15:31Speaker 1: one offer, I got offered a three sixty for like
- 15:35Speaker 1: ten percent of three of me, right, but they didn't
- 15:38Speaker 1: offer me a percentage of the company, which is crazy.
- 15:41Speaker 1: It's like, why would you want a percentage of mind
- 15:43Speaker 1: without giving me a percentage of yours. People want to
- 15:46Speaker 1: sign to, you know, the Rock Nations and the Death
- 15:49Speaker 1: Chams because of the artists that was there prior, but
- 15:52Speaker 1: they don't have equity in those companies. I'm only going
- 15:54Speaker 1: to go sign a rock Nation because Cole was there,
- 15:57Speaker 1: Rihanna was there, Yay was there, but you're not going
- 15:59Speaker 1: to give me equity for bringing me here, right, So
- 16:02Speaker 1: TDE everyone wants to be there because Kendrick was there,
- 16:05Speaker 1: but either he may not have equity and TDE so
- 16:08Speaker 1: it's like they're they're offering that s these scenes that
- 16:10Speaker 1: just doesn't fully make sense. But instead of the equity,
- 16:12Speaker 1: wouldn't they be investing in you? Wouldn't they be giving
- 16:15Speaker 1: you probably money, resources, access to things that you mad
- 16:19Speaker 1: And that's a that's a one time loan for a
- 16:22Speaker 1: lifetime of equity on day end, two hundred and fifty
- 16:26Speaker 1: thousand dollars right now, for a lifetime or equity. Ain't
- 16:28Speaker 1: no fun. That that's not that's nothing. But they're getting
- 16:32Speaker 1: able to arrest of their life. Label will say that
- 16:34Speaker 1: that you know when they make an investment, but I
- 16:36Speaker 1: mean you're different. But when they make an investment into
- 16:38Speaker 1: an artist, you know, they might sign a hundred artists,
- 16:40Speaker 1: nine of them brick out nine of them. We never
- 16:43Speaker 1: hear about as fat as that. What that got to
- 16:45Speaker 1: do with me? My dad ain't got decisions. You feel
- 16:52Speaker 1: me like, nah, that that's not real. And it's like, bro,
- 16:56Speaker 1: we make the product. I don't really care what you're doing,
- 17:00Speaker 1: Like you selling my shit. I mean what you're selling,
- 17:04Speaker 1: everything that you're making money off of is something that
- 17:06Speaker 1: I made. How am I getting the lesser end of it?
- 17:10Speaker 1: So what would be a fair deal to you? Um?
- 17:17Speaker 1: I think fifty fifty profit shares are fair fair with
- 17:21Speaker 1: the proper amount of equity to establish what you're trying
- 17:24Speaker 1: to create. I think that. I also don't have a
- 17:27Speaker 1: problem with people getting paid in the perpetuity off of
- 17:31Speaker 1: houses they help build, right, But if you come into
- 17:34Speaker 1: a system that's already fully established, you should be assistive.
- 17:38Speaker 1: You should have been taken over. We created this already
- 17:41Speaker 1: got this motion. It's different when you help build someone
- 17:44Speaker 1: in front the ground. But if you didn't help build
- 17:45Speaker 1: a house from the ground, why would you, you know, Like,
- 17:48Speaker 1: they're just something that don't make any sense. I wonder
- 17:50Speaker 1: if it's in the future, it's gonna be like more
- 17:53Speaker 1: licensing deals that labels do with artists. Yeah and established
- 17:57Speaker 1: I think so, yeah, yeah, And that's starting to happen now.
- 17:59Speaker 1: You're seeing a lot of that, Like people are licensing
- 18:02Speaker 1: in music, and that's because they understand. Like, man, we're
- 18:05Speaker 1: getting to the point now where we're realizing the labels
- 18:08Speaker 1: really it's not much that they're offering when you're somebody
- 18:14Speaker 1: who has something going already beyond capital, it's not much
- 18:18Speaker 1: they can really do for you now, because you get
- 18:21Speaker 1: the visibility, you get the eyes. You know, it's not
- 18:24Speaker 1: too many platforms you can't get on. I've seen you
- 18:27Speaker 1: do everybody just about you know what I mean, So
- 18:30Speaker 1: I get it. And you also practice what you preach
- 18:33Speaker 1: with your business. So I saw you've been for a
- 18:35Speaker 1: while now filming videos with artists as well, and you
- 18:38Speaker 1: don't charge them, right, you guys just on the back end,
- 18:42Speaker 1: not even fifty fifty. Sometimes it's less than that, like
- 18:45Speaker 1: I'll split the back end, however makes sense to accommodate
- 18:49Speaker 1: what we're getting done. So like, especially with us, we
- 18:52Speaker 1: don't walk away with fifty because we have a whole
- 18:54Speaker 1: team that help. So some of us are only getting
- 18:56Speaker 1: eight to ten percent. Then yeah, the artists get the
- 18:59Speaker 1: greater hand half of it because they created the product.
- 19:01Speaker 1: But yeah, we don't charge anyone, We just split the
- 19:03Speaker 1: back end. No, he's really about it. He's tried to
- 19:06Speaker 1: give me splits on problem. I'm like, no, bro, I
- 19:09Speaker 1: don't do that. But in second, I wouldn't do that.
- 19:14Speaker 1: I wouldn't take that from you anywhere. Wich is just crazy.
- 19:16Speaker 1: Why is it illegal? Because it would sway what DJ's
- 19:21Speaker 1: play or what personalities talk about. Like I like to
- 19:23Speaker 1: keep my stuff organic, Like if I'm talking about you,
- 19:26Speaker 1: is because I actually genuinely enjoy you. You know what
- 19:28Speaker 1: I'm saying. You can't pay. You can't pay for my
- 19:30Speaker 1: opinion on something, right, But if you talked about someone
- 19:33Speaker 1: and show them love and then they give you equity
- 19:35Speaker 1: after right, they can't sway you because you already did
- 19:38Speaker 1: the d You feel me and I feel like you
- 19:40Speaker 1: should own equity and things that you helped build, like
- 19:43Speaker 1: you posted me so many times at my platform grew right,
- 19:47Speaker 1: Why didn't you have equity in it? Now? I remember
- 19:49Speaker 1: you were striving towards veganism. Yeah for a period of time.
- 19:53Speaker 1: Did you get there yet? I think I'll lasted a
- 19:55Speaker 1: good two three months and then I start missing the
- 19:59Speaker 1: good things in Nah, but I did pretty well. You know,
- 20:03Speaker 1: black bean patties really helped me get through that. It
- 20:06Speaker 1: was rough. I didn't have all the proper knowledge, so
- 20:08Speaker 1: I went into it um amateurish, which led to me
- 20:12Speaker 1: just kind of eating the same as I was already eating,
- 20:14Speaker 1: just without the meat exactly. So what made you even
- 20:19Speaker 1: want to do that? What was that damn doc? The video? Right?
- 20:28Speaker 1: Did it? Did it piracy or something like? It didn't?
- 20:35Speaker 1: To me? I was like, I was to change my
- 20:37Speaker 1: life's what's meat? What was the name of that doc?
- 20:40Speaker 1: Didn't make you feel any different during that period of time? Um,
- 20:47Speaker 1: things was a blurred in that period of time. Life
- 20:52Speaker 1: was life? All right? What the health? What the health?
- 20:57Speaker 1: That was the name of the health? The health? I
- 20:58Speaker 1: ort to go back to the name of the album.
- 21:00Speaker 1: I hate when Life's going great? Yeah, you know, people
- 21:02Speaker 1: assume that that's what you live for. With life is
- 21:04Speaker 1: going great, you say you hate it? Right? What moment
- 21:08Speaker 1: made you hate life being great? Not one specific moment,
- 21:14Speaker 1: but like a culmination of things, Like I say, just
- 21:19Speaker 1: having to seeing your relationships change and some relationships where
- 21:23Speaker 1: you want like this and now you start to kind
- 21:25Speaker 1: of grow apart. That's really the most tedious part for
- 21:28Speaker 1: me because I've started this with a large group of people.
- 21:31Speaker 1: But as you kind of progress in scale, everyone can't
- 21:34Speaker 1: go to the top of the mountain, and it's like
- 21:36Speaker 1: you start to realize that everyone wasn't climbing. Some people
- 21:40Speaker 1: was on your back right, and you just can't make
- 21:43Speaker 1: it up that way because it's not the same journey.
- 21:46Speaker 1: So just really as you go and progress, that's the
- 21:50Speaker 1: biggest part for me is having those relationship dynamics change
- 21:53Speaker 1: and just like I say, having to go through the
- 21:55Speaker 1: different emotions that comes with that. Who in your family
- 21:59Speaker 1: is a pastor man? Because you got a level of
- 22:00Speaker 1: spirituality about you that that I can tell it's just
- 22:04Speaker 1: rooted in you. Somebody is in the church or somebody's
- 22:06Speaker 1: a passage, I'm not sure, man, It's a lot of sad.
- 22:09Speaker 1: Guru I'll be watching a whole lot of sad Guru
- 22:11Speaker 1: and a whole lot of reading. So when I first
- 22:13Speaker 1: got back into reading, I would only read books I
- 22:15Speaker 1: was by Indian mystics, so I was getting a lot
- 22:18Speaker 1: of like Eastern wisdom versus R and Um. It's just
- 22:22Speaker 1: really changed the way I view life and see the
- 22:26Speaker 1: world and the way that I navigated. How does it
- 22:30Speaker 1: change the artist that you used to like? Because I
- 22:32Speaker 1: know you've referenced that too, that we're your heroes, but
- 22:36Speaker 1: now you're like, I can't really relate to that type
- 22:38Speaker 1: of right anymore. Man. It changes it a lot, But
- 22:42Speaker 1: it also makes me um just more receptive to how
- 22:47Speaker 1: human everyone is. Like, you know, you it's really great
- 22:51Speaker 1: to see your heroes without their cape, so you don't
- 22:54Speaker 1: you don't you know when they stopped being super you're
- 22:56Speaker 1: not let down and disappointed because you realize, oh, that's
- 23:00Speaker 1: a regular nigga. You feel me. But when you're not
- 23:02Speaker 1: looking at it like that, you see them as this
- 23:04Speaker 1: big thing and you give them some sense of hierarchy,
- 23:07Speaker 1: and I could really just destroy everything you once felt
- 23:10Speaker 1: for them. So I just no longer put people on
- 23:13Speaker 1: that pedestal. It makes you realize that the success is
- 23:17Speaker 1: probably more attainable than you ever thought it was. Oh man,
- 23:20Speaker 1: very much. So. I don't I don't feel like there's
- 23:22Speaker 1: anything I can't do. If it just comes down to work,
- 23:26Speaker 1: there's nothing I can't do. And that's why now we
- 23:29Speaker 1: feel it's like, you know, we don't need a label.
- 23:31Speaker 1: I do feel like I could become as big as
- 23:33Speaker 1: Drake as an end because I know it's just work
- 23:35Speaker 1: and that's one thing I'm willing to do. And you
- 23:38Speaker 1: be getting calls from a lot of the big the
- 23:40Speaker 1: big dogs. You don't want to know. Just you know,
- 23:45Speaker 1: back to back to to your childhood crib when you
- 23:48Speaker 1: called your moms, I said, Mom, I want to do
- 23:50Speaker 1: a concert in the backyard. How was that conversation? What
- 23:53Speaker 1: the how? How did you reply? Uh? Exceptional? I said,
- 23:57Speaker 1: Ain Nigga was about to build a purgle in the
- 23:59Speaker 1: back grabbed the himlet. He said, what's the burglar? I said,
- 24:02Speaker 1: You're about to see the next thing. You know, we
- 24:05Speaker 1: built it up. You know it was. My mom is
- 24:07Speaker 1: just the realist, coolest in the world on earth. And
- 24:11Speaker 1: you know it's like, whatever we say we're gonna do,
- 24:13Speaker 1: that's what we're doing. She ain't got no issue with it.
- 24:16Speaker 1: And you y'all put out the tail from the Town Project.
- 24:19Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, I was doing the People's Project. Yeah, okay,
- 24:23Speaker 1: what's it called? The People's Projects? So they're they're a
- 24:25Speaker 1: group in Oakland that really really helps the community, really
- 24:29Speaker 1: serves out there, like they feed the community, they give clothes, hygiene,
- 24:34Speaker 1: and they've been building for a long time and they
- 24:36Speaker 1: just tapped me in to be a part of that project.
- 24:38Speaker 1: So it was a really dope community thing. They got
- 24:40Speaker 1: a lot of the Bay on there. Who's going to
- 24:43Speaker 1: whop Dad? All black offset gym? It's it's a it's
- 24:48Speaker 1: a heavy Bay lineup. How do you become such a
- 24:51Speaker 1: lyricist coming from the Bay, Not like, you know, the
- 24:54Speaker 1: guys from the Bay weren't snapping, But your sound is
- 24:56Speaker 1: different than a lot of them. Man. When I was
- 24:59Speaker 1: growing up, my pops played a lot of holes and
- 25:03Speaker 1: a lot of nois. Like, I grew up on a
- 25:04Speaker 1: traditional base last, but also grew up on just a
- 25:07Speaker 1: range of music. And when I got to the age
- 25:10Speaker 1: where I started being able to consume music on my own,
- 25:13Speaker 1: I was heavy on the Kanye's and the fifty cents,
- 25:16Speaker 1: and then I finally got in the hole and and
- 25:19Speaker 1: you know Drake Wayne, so I didn't really um. All
- 25:23Speaker 1: of my influences was was a lot of heavy lyricists.
- 25:27Speaker 1: And you wear crocs like brothers in Brooklyn? Right now,
- 25:34Speaker 1: when did that start? Probably like twenty eighteen. Uh. I
- 25:42Speaker 1: don't even remember how I got to the crocs. I
- 25:44Speaker 1: think my daughter's mom sister had bought me something like
- 25:48Speaker 1: the first pair she has. Something. I was like, man,
- 25:50Speaker 1: let me try um, and I put my foot in them.
- 25:52Speaker 1: Things comfortable. I should do something with make your own crocks. See,
- 25:59Speaker 1: I was thinking about that, but I really love crocs.
- 26:02Speaker 1: So hopefully they just taff in because you know, they
- 26:04Speaker 1: do a lot of the little things that jewelry and stuff,
- 26:07Speaker 1: not jewelry but whatever that you can put on in
- 26:09Speaker 1: those really well. So we made our own. We actually
- 26:12Speaker 1: have some yep buttons. We got jib you know what's
- 26:15Speaker 1: so crazy? Like I love I love the easy slides,
- 26:18Speaker 1: and I always say I hope the easy slides don't
- 26:20Speaker 1: become a symbol of hate. And every time I say that,
- 26:22Speaker 1: somebody be like, buy crops. Where the crocs? Right, I'm like, word,
- 26:27Speaker 1: I don't know, not crocks is cool? And then they
- 26:29Speaker 1: got the little piece on the back. So if you
- 26:30Speaker 1: gotta move, you got kids, you gotta move, Just put
- 26:32Speaker 1: the thing in the back and out of there. When
- 26:34Speaker 1: you think about that, though, since you yeah, can you
- 26:37Speaker 1: separate a person from the music that you love or
- 26:40Speaker 1: even from the brand that you love? Like maybe somebody
- 26:42Speaker 1: is like, I still love the Yeasies, I'm still wearing
- 26:45Speaker 1: my Yeasies, or are you like you know this person
- 26:48Speaker 1: did this? I don't mess with them anymore. So therefore
- 26:51Speaker 1: none of their products or music. It depends on to
- 26:56Speaker 1: the degree of which they've done. Um, Because I feel
- 27:01Speaker 1: like throughout life we have to separate product from people.
- 27:05Speaker 1: A lot of these people are kind of sick. We
- 27:07Speaker 1: just don't know the people behind the product, and they
- 27:10Speaker 1: all have the same that you're like, we don't know
- 27:12Speaker 1: who owns a lot of radio and probably tell if
- 27:16Speaker 1: you do, you know, we never know how didn't even
- 27:18Speaker 1: it's a lot there, but yet we still support it
- 27:22Speaker 1: and we consume it. So I think it just depends
- 27:24Speaker 1: on the degree of what they've done. Um, I'm able
- 27:28Speaker 1: to separate the art until it's like, ah, you're you're
- 27:33Speaker 1: a little extra sick, and I just can't support it
- 27:35Speaker 1: because I'm putting money in your pocket and I'm generating
- 27:38Speaker 1: revenue for you to continue doing what you're doing. You know,
- 27:42Speaker 1: it's interesting to me and I want to discuss this
- 27:43Speaker 1: to how you look at women right and your growth
- 27:46Speaker 1: and maturity in that respect and taking accountability for things,
- 27:50Speaker 1: but also saying I'm not using the word bitch anymore
- 27:53Speaker 1: to refer to my girl because a lot of people do, like, Yeah,
- 27:56Speaker 1: that's my supposed to be a compliment and the intention
- 27:59Speaker 1: is not supposed to be. But words do matter. So
- 28:01Speaker 1: can you discuss your growth in that area? Uh a
- 28:07Speaker 1: journey that I'm still traveling. I haven't been the best
- 28:13Speaker 1: towards women like previously, just throughout my journey and sometimes
- 28:16Speaker 1: even now, but I think that's something that's self reflective.
- 28:20Speaker 1: I don't think men can respect women until they respect themselves.
- 28:23Speaker 1: And a lot of men can't respect themselves because they
- 28:26Speaker 1: don't know how. They've never been respected throughout their journey
- 28:30Speaker 1: in life and through their child childhood. They've never been
- 28:32Speaker 1: nurtured or nourished or it just poured into so it's
- 28:36Speaker 1: very very difficult for you to go pour into someone
- 28:39Speaker 1: else and you don't even know what. That's like, that's true.
- 28:42Speaker 1: I mean healed people, healed people, right, like you know,
- 28:46Speaker 1: like if you can the people all talk about you
- 28:48Speaker 1: projecting hurt, you could project healing as well. Definitely. Yeah.
- 28:52Speaker 1: You um, you open up your mom's cafe, and that
- 28:55Speaker 1: cafe is paid with No, not my mom's. It's called
- 28:57Speaker 1: MOBOs Cafe, Okay, but it's a pay what you want cafe. Yeah.
- 29:04Speaker 1: So we just made it proud to pay to the
- 29:06Speaker 1: end of the year and I just covered the bills
- 29:08Speaker 1: for the next three months so everyone can just go eat.
- 29:12Speaker 1: Where is it. It's in Valeo. Yeah, it's been there
- 29:17Speaker 1: for years. Yeah, it's one of my favorite spots to
- 29:21Speaker 1: go to. And the owner there is a big fan
- 29:24Speaker 1: of the platform. Man. He just man. I tossed him
- 29:27Speaker 1: an idea earlier this year to do like a one
- 29:30Speaker 1: day brunch, right, and a bunch of people came out
- 29:32Speaker 1: and pay what they wanted. So this time we're just
- 29:34Speaker 1: in a grander position and it's like, let's make sure
- 29:37Speaker 1: people can eat at the very least, we just want
- 29:39Speaker 1: to make sure everybody can eat. You shouldn't had to
- 29:41Speaker 1: go through the day hungry. I thought you bought the place,
- 29:44Speaker 1: Na but next year we're actually going into partnership. So
- 29:48Speaker 1: I just bought it out. We know that. Yeah, we
- 29:50Speaker 1: know you love a partnership. Yeah, partnership. What at what
- 29:54Speaker 1: point do you think you'll love when life's going great?
- 30:06Speaker 1: I think that's something that can happen any day once
- 30:10Speaker 1: the work is done internally, because life is actually exceptional
- 30:16Speaker 1: right now. Just some days I can't fully accept it
- 30:19Speaker 1: because I'm still working through things that I've done or
- 30:23Speaker 1: you know, still trying to get past things that I
- 30:25Speaker 1: feel emotionally about the past. But once that's through, I
- 30:28Speaker 1: think I'll really be able to enjoy it. And I'm
- 30:30Speaker 1: currently on that journey of just working through all that. Now.
- 30:33Speaker 1: I bet you just helping you to appreciate the money
- 30:35Speaker 1: more because in famous you said, you know, money can't
- 30:38Speaker 1: money can't make you rich at all. Money cannot make
- 30:42Speaker 1: you rich. And yeah, man, I'm very appreciative because the
- 30:45Speaker 1: money is just a tool, you know, Like it allows
- 30:48Speaker 1: me to do a lot of things that I wasn't
- 30:50Speaker 1: able to do, like I could feed the community for
- 30:52Speaker 1: the next three months. Now, you know, some money to
- 30:55Speaker 1: me is just a tool. I don't really I don't
- 30:58Speaker 1: really splurge or get excited. I'm not impressed by most things,
- 31:01Speaker 1: so I'm really able to utilize this money to truly
- 31:04Speaker 1: help and cultivate my team and have my homies with
- 31:07Speaker 1: me and change my family's life. What was the significance
- 31:10Speaker 1: of dropping on your birthday? Man? Universal alignment? I don't know.
- 31:18Speaker 1: It just it just felt right. It just felt like
- 31:20Speaker 1: the time, you know, on my birthday, I always tried
- 31:22Speaker 1: to do something somehow, always end up giving a gift,
- 31:25Speaker 1: you know, instead of giving one, And it just felt
- 31:27Speaker 1: like universal alignment. It was the right time. I feel
- 31:30Speaker 1: like I was. I'm just coming of age and life
- 31:33Speaker 1: is just kind of traveling right now, so everything just
- 31:36Speaker 1: kind of aligned for it to happen. And I'm still
- 31:38Speaker 1: waiting on the little Russell Symbol project. Come on when
- 31:42Speaker 1: he's that coming go on? I don't even know, you know,
- 31:45Speaker 1: me and Symbol just be kicking it. We were never
- 31:48Speaker 1: in the studio creating music. We just be hanging out
- 31:51Speaker 1: like I'm somebody where all of my artists homies. I'm
- 31:54Speaker 1: always just like pull up, let's ride bikes, or if
- 31:57Speaker 1: we're just rehearsing and chilling. It's never really on music.
- 32:00Speaker 1: I don't really collaborate much. I like to just be
- 32:03Speaker 1: in my space when I create and make music, and
- 32:05Speaker 1: if I feel inclined, I send stuff sometimes, but it's
- 32:08Speaker 1: never really about music. To me, music is just an
- 32:11Speaker 1: extension of who I am and what I do. Any
- 32:14Speaker 1: produces you you want to work with. I love atl
- 32:20Speaker 1: Jacob shit as of recent um, but I don't really
- 32:24Speaker 1: have any too many specifics. I just you know, I
- 32:27Speaker 1: love to work with the people who want to work
- 32:29Speaker 1: with me. Yeah, well, you know we can't let you
- 32:32Speaker 1: leave without hand some boss. Come on, you know, we
- 32:35Speaker 1: know we got Come on, you need to beat you
- 32:38Speaker 1: on a cappella? What you want to do? Let me
- 32:40Speaker 1: get a va. We gotta send one in. Come on,
- 32:42Speaker 1: you gotta beat Yeah, yeah, can you send ready? Like
- 32:48Speaker 1: she She's like, I know this rapping valeo. We hear
- 32:54Speaker 1: again and why breckfast love is not the same. A
- 32:58Speaker 1: year later, tell jazz sack check ins, wonna do TSA
- 33:04Speaker 1: still got shoe box money, won't do bills? Hey, we
- 33:07Speaker 1: don't do that, thirty and let's just bids credit billion evaluation.
- 33:12Speaker 1: That's what the bids hated. I heard the crown heavy Lucky,
- 33:15Speaker 1: I'm big hated Lucky I'm thick hearted. I would have crushed.
- 33:18Speaker 1: Niggas offered me bread crumbs, offered me tea with it.
- 33:21Speaker 1: They say it's just business. I don't agree with it.
- 33:24Speaker 1: Were on the masses, Now we're on the pub tool,
- 33:27Speaker 1: we're on the parking lot. We bought the club too integrated, verdically, y'all.
- 33:31Speaker 1: Niggas blew it came out the dirt. That means we
- 33:34Speaker 1: grew it. This ain't the prophecy nigga. We knew it.
- 33:40Speaker 1: Ain't winn this in God work, winn this in black gold.
- 33:44Speaker 1: Knew it was less. Travel still took the back row.
- 33:46Speaker 1: We spent the own bread, We spent the own loop.
- 33:49Speaker 1: Why would our outsource hired my own proof. I'm getting
- 33:53Speaker 1: better at it, honey, Kate. Deal still dressed like I
- 33:55Speaker 1: never had it. Renovations is expensive. Flip it five times,
- 33:59Speaker 1: and I still got my crocs on. My mama got
- 34:01Speaker 1: a podcast. I'm gonna putting my pops on. Give me
- 34:04Speaker 1: two years. I'm hating the jersey up. I'm the new way, y'all.
- 34:07Speaker 1: They playing what their jersey tucked. Please do not compare
- 34:10Speaker 1: me to them. I am here, I am him God buddy,
- 34:13Speaker 1: I got scars on my list. I got muddle on
- 34:15Speaker 1: my cross, I got blood on my hands. I'm being worldwide.
- 34:19Speaker 1: I get loved when I lay you could player, you
- 34:21Speaker 1: could playing. Y'all can never understand I chop my arm
- 34:24Speaker 1: off before I take these niggas hand and end up
- 34:26Speaker 1: like Fossa trying to trust these lying niggas. Dash that
- 34:32Speaker 1: check in won't do Tessa still got shoe box money.
- 34:35Speaker 1: We don't do bar fay. We don't do that thirty
- 34:38Speaker 1: unless it's bids credit billion evaluation. That's where the bids hated.
- 34:42Speaker 1: I heard the crown heavy lucky. I'm big headed, lucky,
- 34:45Speaker 1: I'm big hearted. I would have crushed. Niggas offered me
- 34:48Speaker 1: bread from offered me tea with it. They say it's
- 34:51Speaker 1: just business. I don't agree with it. Huh Ussasa what
- 34:58Speaker 1: we're doing. I want to ask the RUSS one more
- 35:02Speaker 1: day because you said something that wrap that made me
- 35:05Speaker 1: think of it, and I saw Drake say this the
- 35:07Speaker 1: other day. I saw Drake say this the other day
- 35:09Speaker 1: and Drake was like, you know, people say things like
- 35:12Speaker 1: it's business, never personal personal, but no, it's always personal.
- 35:15Speaker 1: It's always personal. They say it's just business. I don't
- 35:18Speaker 1: agree with it. The way you do business is a
- 35:20Speaker 1: reflection of your being. I don't do bad business because
- 35:23Speaker 1: I'm not that type of nigga. If you're able to
- 35:25Speaker 1: fuck somebody over and do bad business, that's because of
- 35:28Speaker 1: who you are. Wouldn't sit well with you if you
- 35:30Speaker 1: wasn't a gentleman. We appreciate you too, don't want to
- 35:35Speaker 1: follow you. Yeah, I'm at LaRusso on everything got good
- 35:38Speaker 1: company is not the same. It's the breakfast d