Latest / Caught on the Mike... / KING ISO

Transcript

KING ISO · Caught on the Mike...

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities they represent.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: Listener discretion is advised.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: With the killer flow, thoughtful lyrics, and unrelenting determination, Omaha, Nebraska's own King ISO has been making a name for himself the last few years while cementing his place in the legacy of hip-hop.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: Taking his spot on Tech Nine's own strange music record label and being mentored by the man himself, he's not only worked with Tech, but also other legacy hip-hop artists like Twista and the one and only Dwayne the Rock Johnson.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'm proud to know the man and now call him a friend and welcome him on today's episode of the podcast.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: Ladies and gentlemen, this is Caught on the Mickey.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: Oh man.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: Ladies and gentlemen, Strange Music's own and Omaha, Nebraska's own.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: King ISO.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: How you doing, my friend?
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: Man, I am blessed.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: Man, I have no complaints, man.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: How about yourself?
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: I am amazing.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: I have been listening to your music pretty much nonstop the last two weeks.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: That means a lot, man.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: I hope you like it.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: And what's great about it is my 14-year-old son is totally all into it now.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: So I get to share that experience with him.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: Oh man, man, I appreciate that.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, man.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: Without any further ado, let's talk a little bit about your story.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, man.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, my artist's name is King ISO.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a Navy brat.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_01: I was born in Newport, Rhode Island.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, moved around a lot, you know.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um, long story short, man, I ended up in um Omaha, Nebraska, where a lot of my family's located.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_01: I have an older cousin, I want to say around the age of like between 10 and 13.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: He ended up getting me into music.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm saying?
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: And um prior to that, my stepfather was always the one playing a lot of hip-hop music.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: So I loved, I fell in love with the craft, you know, late 90s.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it was it was a lot of bone thugs being played, a lot of Tupac, ice cube, you know, West Side Connection.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: You know, a lot of the pioneers of uh hip-hop music is is what I is how I got introduced.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: So I fell in love then.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: My older cousin, uh, he just started taking me to a studio and showed me how to write bars.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_01: And next thing you know, I was teaching myself how to produce and play music, and you know, I was born.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: The artist in me was born, you know.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a lot of good hip-hop in Omaha, Nebraska, and I really appreciate you drawing attention to it.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I appreciate that, man.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, there's so much talent here, and I feel like we're in the beginning stages of um starting to get, you know, the you know, the global recognition that we deserve.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: There are incredible singers, producers, rappers, you know.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: We have Terrence Crawford, you know what I mean?
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_01: You know, there's there's a lot of things that are happening within the Omaha or just Nebraska community as a whole.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_01: And um, I'm proud to represent where I'm from, you know what I mean?
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I played in bands for many years in Omaha, Nebraska, and I just happened to get out of it a couple of years before you got into it, and I'm super, super bummed out that we never got to cross paths in my time playing music.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: Oh man, you know, you know, the beautiful thing about you know, always having that um that that love and drive and ability to create music is it's never too late.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, we could we could end up putting something together if you want, man.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_01: I like I'm I'm always open to it, especially being home team.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: For real, man.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get in the weeds about how you started making waves and what brought you to the attention of somebody like Tech Nine and where you're at now.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: I I don't I don't want to give everybody like a uh an avatar movie because that's how long it would you know what I'm saying?
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_01: We'd be talking for like four hours.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_01: But um, after uh my older cousin, he goes by the name of Snake Lucci.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: Back then he went by Snake.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um, he funded and helped me put together my first album when I was like 16.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_01: I self-produced it.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: It was called The Reality Show.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_01: And we were making some waves, doing some, doing a lot of local stuff and beginning to do like little mini tours in like nearby, you know, cities like we'll go to like Des Moines, Sioux City, stuff like that, just kind of starting to branch out.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: He ended up going to uh prison for a while and it put a halt on everything.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, I went through a lot of um crazy stuff in my early teens, you know, dealing with you know mental health and stuff like that and the mental illnesses that I was diagnosed with.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um so I had like, you know, a couple instances where I was homeless, you know what I mean?
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: I got into some legal trouble here and there, and I ultimately just had to get my life together.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: So after I had my first son in 2011, um, me and his mom broke up.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: I was back homeless again.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, a buddy of mine, uh Tabo, who I was making music with at the time, we ended up getting like this small little office space.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um I used to right by this park I used to sleep in.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_01: It was a lot going on.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_01: So we ended up getting this uh rental space and then um uploading tracks to SoundCloud.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_01: So I was uploading a lot of tracks to SoundCloud, and next thing you know, uh fans were bootlegging it and throwing it on YouTube.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't know nothing about YouTube, I didn't even know how to navigate Facebook or none of that stuff at the time.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: So uh one day he looked up and he was like, yo, man, you got like hundreds of thousands of players on YouTube, bro.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_01: Like we can do something with this.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: And um, I started uh uh getting the attention of a cat by the name of Twisted Insane.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: And um he had this group called Brainsick Music.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: We became really good friends, and um I joined his group.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_01: And when I started making, you know, a lot of royalties at first, I was able to get myself out of that homeless situation, and me and my firstborn son mom got back together.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: We ultimately ended up splitting.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: Me and uh Twisted, we we were on the road doing shows and stuff like that.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we bumped into Ritz, who was on Strange Music at the time.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_01: We got the freestyling back and forth in his hotel room.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: He went back and told Tech Nine about me and was like, yo, there's this there's this kid from Nebraska.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: You really need to find him and you need to do something with him.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: This is at the time he was getting ready to, I believe, leave.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_01: Tech said he was trying to contact Twisted and a couple other people about me, but they would never make the connection.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: It was like they just wouldn't give him the information.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: So he pulled up on us at a show in Kansas City, and he watched my whole show set, and he was like, yo, people were saying that you're the new Tech Nine, or like you're the next generation of me type stuff.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: And he was like, I had to see it for myself.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_01: I was blown away.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_01: And um, he gave me his number and he said, We need to do something, we're gonna do something because you have too much talent.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_01: Those were his exact words.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: He watched me do my show set after that.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um, he invited uh me, Twisted, I forget who else was on the road with me that day.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: We went to his house, he played us some unreleased stuff from an album he was working on, and he was like, I'm I'm gonna find something for you.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: And um, long story short, um, you know, me and the guys ended up having like a difference.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna just call it a difference.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_01: Me and Twisted ended up having like a difference, and ultimately, man, I fell out with one of my best friends, and um, I feel like it was all over the Tech Nine situation.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: There was a lot of satire going on on the internet, the little little back and forth stuff.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_01: And then it was like some brother stuff, man.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I still consider him, I still consider him a brother.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_01: I don't have nothing negative to say about him.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm grown, it was like five years ago.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_01: But it was tough because I had so much emotionally invested into that, and like I literally have brain sick tattooed on my body.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but ultimately we it just didn't work out.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_01: And um tech feels like because he put his spotlight on me, that's the reason.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, everybody else agrees, you know what I'm saying?
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_01: That's when the split happened.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: So after that, he was like, yo, I mean, your whole group abandoned you, you know what I'm saying?
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: So he was like, I need to get you on this road.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_01: We need to do something.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_01: He was like, I feel kind of bad, man.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: Like, he was like, I'm I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna help you out.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: And um, I was putting this album out called Dementia at the time.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_01: And he even offered to send it through his guys that he has uh um, what do you want to call it, with like a deal through, like with N grooves and RBC and all of them.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: He was like, Man, hold tight, I can put you with these people.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, I ain't tripping off none of that.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: Let me just get on the road, I'll throw my album out.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: I just I was just ready to move.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: We did the tour, I had crazy results.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: The fans were chanting ISO every night.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: Travis O'Gwin started to see it, and I I sold the most merch on the tour next to Tech Nine, which was crazy because I wasn't even assigned artist.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_01: Next thing you know, I get home from that.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, three months later, Tech and Travis O'Gwin invite me to dinner.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_01: Travis offers me a deal at Strange Music.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's amazing.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: How does it feel to have somebody go from hero to mentor like that?
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: And that's gotta have a pretty profound effect on how you perceive yourself.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I'm a firm believer in destiny.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_01: Like, real quick, how the universe likes to do its thing.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_01: I opened uh a sampler CD of Tech Nine probably when I was like like 12 years old or something like that.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_01: It was for Angelic, right?
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: So I open it up and I, you know, I put it in the uh the CD, they like the little six CD dish changer.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: And um, next thing you know, I just hear it and I'm like, this is the first thing I ever heard.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: And they were giving out free CDs back then just to get people hyped up for the album.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, who who the fuck is this?
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: Like, this dude is I've never heard anything like this before.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_01: And I fell in love with his artistry because it was so different, it was rock, it was it was alternative, it was hip-hop, it was rap, it was it's like everything bald in the one.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, I've never heard nothing like this.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_01: So we were on Limewire and Kazah and all of that shit.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_01: I was just grabbing you know what I'm saying?
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_01: Everything Tech Nine I could find.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: And then I want to say a few years later, um, I ended up bumping into him.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I came to a show.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: I was I wasn't even old enough to get in.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: And um, that's where if you find the infamous picture of me and him, I was like 14, 15 years old in that picture.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_01: And I remember standing in the front row and I was like, one day I'm gonna do that.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I want to do that.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_01: I want to be with these guys, I want to do that.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_01: They were still moving around in sprinter vans, right?
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: So you gotta think 20 some odd years later, after I've been through just the ringer in life, you know what I mean?
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: Like mental hospitals and all of that.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_01: And it's crazy because his mom was, you know, the one who inspired him to talk about the stuff that he talks about, other than, you know, of course, like the doors.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but his mom grew up in mental hospitals, and um I we found out that me and his mom took the same medication.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm saying?
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_01: I don't believe in, I don't believe in coincidences.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_01: So like, you know, I was uh I was under the Board of Mental Health or on the Board of Mental Health, and I had uh um had a like it was mandatory that I took uh a shot of how dog because I used to cheat my pills.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_01: So I used to one shot in this arm, one shot in this arm, and I was a zombie and I just had the craziest experiences ever.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_01: And there's like a part of my life that I don't remember because that is the side effect of all of that.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_01: There's like times where I might not might not have even been coherent and knowing what I said or did.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_01: Like there's this blacked-out part of my memory.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_01: So to have him go from that to somebody saying you got too much talent, and knowing that he identifies with what I dealt with because that's what his mom dealt with.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_01: And next thing you know, I think me and his first time on screen together, he did a uh series called Cathartic.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_01: And in the cathartic series, I'm sitting in the middle hospital as a patient with him.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_01: That's how crazy the universe is.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_01: And then he had named, if if you go watch it, though he named it um IG Amus Valley, and that's his mom's name backwards, which is uh uh Marisou.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm saying?
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_01: So I was like, I had a real like crazy moment there.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, bro, like this is a part of my life, like I've been through this, like outside of just like acting, and then it's like this is how this is full circle, this is how the universe works.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: And he's a legit friend.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: We hung out for six months to damn near a year before we did any music.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: There's a certain commonality about guys like you and I that are very transparent about the state of our mental health and how that lends into our sense of needing to be creative.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like through this podcasting journey, I've met a lot of UFC fighters and a lot of my musical heroes, and it's kind of lent to this sense of imposter syndrome where I wonder when am I gonna wake up from this?
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: That's gotta be kind of similar for you as well, doesn't it?
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's uh it's something that I've I've had to come to grips with and just understand that it's like, okay, this is something that doesn't have me, I have it, and I have to, you know what I mean?
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_01: I have to find ways to manipulate and maneuver around it because it's there.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't control me.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_01: I just have to recognize when, you know, it's almost like, you know, what do they say?
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_01: Life is uh 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_01: That's kind of how I, that's how I use my, you know, you know, the diagnosis that I have and the things that I deal with mentally, it's like, okay, I recognize when these things are happening, how I choose to either respond or ignore can ultimately uh shift what's going on in my day-to-day life.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: So I just I've had to become more aware.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_01: I used to be like a I used to I used to be like a hoarder when it came to shit.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_01: Like, in and it and it and it wasn't because I was trying to keep it, it was more so like I just kept packing it in and just not going through it.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_01: Like, yeah, just put this in a drawer, just put this in a closet, and these are all of my problems.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_01: And next thing you know, I have a mess.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, you know, uh the the uh analogy you use with like waking up from it, it was more so I had to like really wake up and realize what it what it was.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_01: Because I I would like I used to be obsessed with living in a dream state.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_01: You feel me?
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_01: Like I would sleep my days away, like I would literally just medicate myself to sleep and just like drink, pill pop, smoke, do everything so I didn't have to deal with reality.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_01: So and then to wake up from that and then get myself back together to actually live out what is a dream of mine is is how the universe works in a crazy way.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: So as a result of all of this, what is the most surrealistic experience that you have had so far?
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: Man, I I I think oh wee, that's a tough one.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I'm not gonna lie, like if I if I just had to like off the top of my head, it would literally be able, it would literally me, it would literally be me being able to um like call technology friend.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: Like that, like because you know he's not like the you know the uh the other mainstream cats who have had all of this publicized success.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_01: He's somebody who did it outside of the industry, but to me, he was always like a little Wayne or an MM.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_01: Like he's always been in my top five.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: So he has he has the accolades and the respect of the greatest MCs to ever do it, and outside of rap music.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: So you got Elton John that'd be like, yo, Tech Nine's my favorite rapper, you know.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you have Lil Wayne that will say Tech Nine is my favorite musician.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_01: You have MM giving him praises, and these are like this is like the pinnacle of music everywhere.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: You got people like The Rock who isn't even in the music business who will say Tech9's my favorite rapper.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_01: So it's like it doesn't get any bigger than that when you get praise from just everyone.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_01: So for him to be like, yo, like I want to pass the torch to you is a very surreal thing, you know, especially where I come from and also how high I hold him, you know, in that particular regard.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, holy moly, like me, you know what I'm saying?
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_01: So it's it's it's very surreal because I never would have thought that I'd be touring with him, doing songs with The Rock himself and uh producing platinum hits for him like Red Kingdom and you know, and then that getting us to the Super Bowl and stuff, like all of that shit just seems like, and it's because he's my friend, you know what I mean?
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's literally because we have a super dope relationship with each other.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: Do you think that audiences now and fans now are reading more into that level of authenticity?
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason I ask is because of labels like Strange Music and the Rhyme Sayers from Minneapolis not necessarily having the commercial success as some other hip hop artists, but having a lot more credibility due to their sense of authenticity and the freedom of being their most authentic selves.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, man.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_01: They you know with me it's and it's crazy because I don't I don't necessarily identify as one of those people who would compare right the lack the lack of you know uh commercialized success.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_01: I was always like, if I found something that I thought was dope, like I loved it.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: Like one of one of my other favorite MCs, period, just period, is immortal technique, right?
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_01: So like immortal technique to me, I'm like, this dude, this dude changed my life.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm saying?
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_01: Like this dude influenced me to like really tap into you know historical events and like really talk about something almost the same way that Tupac did.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_01: It was like every time I listened to him, I learned something new, or I gained some more insight on something that I didn't know about.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, yo, like this dude is different.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I like he's to me, he's like he's like a Nas.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, you know what I mean?
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_01: So it's like Yes, that's a that's a really good comparison, right?
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_01: Because Nas has always been a historian.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: Nas is always gonna inform his listeners and try to put him up to date on what's going on in the world and also do it in a dope, you know, adult fly guy kind of way, you know.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, Emoto Technique to me is like the same way, but he doesn't have the same commercialized success as a Nas, but I would put him right there.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_01: So it's like, you know what I mean?
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_01: But I understand dealing with tech because tech has um always expressed that he's like, well, people don't put the certain, you know, the highlight on me because I wasn't on BET and MTV my whole career.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_01: I wasn't on the radio like that.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_01: But if I would have been, then he would be where a lot of these other cats are because people were able to see it.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_01: So you had to be one of those people who were going to shows or going to Sam Goody and Best Buy and just knowing and doing your, you had to really be a hip hop head.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm saying?
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_01: Because if you just have what the radio fed you, then that's why a lot of people look at certain people on these top 50 or top 10 lists, like, yeah, that's that's accurate, versus us.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_01: We're like, nah, you guys are missing a whole lot of other people that that are you know what I'm saying?
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes, and the industry has changed so much in the past five years, let alone the past 10 years, with how much streaming has taken over, let alone YouTube, because that's how 90% of new artists are discovered anymore.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's crazy, man.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_01: And it and you got to think about there's a respect factor in in pioneering when when you have people that were literally out of the trunk before the digital age.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_01: So these people had to go from city to city, meet person to person, build crowd to crowd, five people come to a show, then 10 people, then 50, then a hundred, then you get 10,000.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_01: Through consecutive and subsequent touring.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: It's crazy how they did that.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_01: You got people like uh Master P who did that out of the trunk.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm saying?
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_01: So to look at the blueprint that they they people like you know, No Limit and Strange Music have laid for independent music is insane.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_01: And it you you can't do it again because now we're in a digital age where imagine if imagine if Tupac had a Twitter, man.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm saying?
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: Like, like I could get on here and I could like, you know what I'm saying?
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_01: Like though like it was like it was like magic back then.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_01: It's like you see them, then you don't.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: you see them is when they want to be seen.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_01: Nowadays, I feel like people are spoiled with the constant feed of content.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_01: No pun, no pun intended.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm saying?
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_01: Like you're on your you're on your feed getting fed content all the time.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: Like we never could see what Biggie ate that day.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm saying?
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_01: Unless he was unless he was just strolling down the street and some news cameras, you know, saw him it's like we couldn't see what shoes he wore that day.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_01: We saw what he wore on the cover of that magazine or in that video.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_01: Nowadays it's like every and it's and it's almost like a level playing field because if you pay these curators over here or if you know a good guy over here you can get put on the playlist with legendary people.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_01: So it's like I kind of battle with that because I feel like there's a lack of respect for a lot of the artists that came before us.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: Because on one side of the fence you have the good part of it where everything's going back to the era of the mixtape in a way where through mixes and playlists new artists are discovered that way.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: Then there's the other side of the fence where because people can cherry pick and put these compilations together right you're missing out on whole concepts and fully fleshed out art.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: Like how certain songs and skits tie into each other and tell a whole story like Raikwan's Cuban Lynx album or Jiz's Liquid Swords and other albums along those lines.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_01: So I battle that like the old Ice Cube albums man.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_01: Ice Cube really got me on on my on my skit game.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_01: It was like yes it was like a movie.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_01: When you put it in it was like a movie starter like Dr.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_01: Dre when when he did 2001 and it's like there's skits and it's like it it glued the album together to where it made the whole listening experience a big and cohesive experience.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_01: It's not like oh we'll just skip around and shuffle it like you could press play and you have the whole movie experience.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm saying?
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_01: I call them audio films.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's that's what they are to me.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_01: Like a lot of those even like with Eminem bro like Eminem had funny skits but it was still like dope you had certain skits that lead in the songs and it made it seem like a whole entire movie and I I still use that uh format to this day.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm saying?
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_01: So there's man so there's there's like you know there's there's different artists now who are more single driven and you know the songs are shorter because they're we're we're in this we're in this space now where they're like oh the attention span of kids and this that and the third and then you have like the death of the third verse and songs aren't songs are never more than five minutes and it's like back then bro people would do three four verses you'd have a double disc you know what I'm saying and now it's like people are just trying to get that streaming number right where it where it hits and then just don't give them any more I'm like man I I want to give my fans like 20 23 songs at a time.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_01: Always yeah sometimes labels will advise against it because that's just the climate that we're in and you know I believe uh certain certain payouts stop at certain places but to me that's not just what I do it for.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_01: I do it because I'm a lover of the art you know what I mean and the craft and I want my consumers to be like yo like he gives a fuck about us as his listeners.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's scary because it makes you wonder if All Eyes on me would come out in 2023.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my God.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: I could only imagine bro I could only imagine could you imagine if the world was robbed of all eyes on me man oh my God yeah you're right you're right you're right yeah I love that you have such a sense of connectivity with your fans and demonstrate that through your advocacy of good mental health practices and being conscious about your mental health you're about to launch a project called Project Be Well.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about that.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_01: Okay so it's pretty much an indie label Travis O'Gwyn helped me start it when I got into a situation with one of my albums and he was like you need something of your own and we could get these albums all together because I still had one that was entitled the insanity plea that you know Twisted Insane had and we had to we had to get that I had another standalone album of my own called um autophobia and then we had Dementia which was the one I dropped when I was on a road with him prior to being signed.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_01: We took these three albums uh distributed them through Project B Well which is distributed by It Goes Up so essentially it's the same exact um machine as strange music.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_01: The way that I came up with that I always wanted to do something that was like okay the first project I ever did under the name ISO was like a mixtape and it was called Project ISO right so with B Well I um I like B Well wasn't Project B Well wasn't the first name that I went with it was uh I'm trying to think of what it was but it wasn't available so I was like okay I just went back through my discography I was like what can I call it whenever like this was the start of ISO is Project ISO so we can do Project B Well and with B Well man I just I really wanted like I'm still in the beginning stages of putting it together.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_01: I have a lot of things written down I have the logo I have um some artists that I'm looking at you know bringing over um it's not just gonna be just a hip hop a rap thing like I want to do everything.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_01: So I've been looking but I really want it to be something to where it just it's it's all about like awareness man.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_01: Like I want when people when they come experience whatever we got going on it's like they care about our well being so you know our mantra is like you know think well speak well be well and I wanted to I wanted to really have that impact and you know that's what it's gonna do.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_01: Man I love all that and you've been on a marathon of shooting music videos lately too haven't you man so like I got um a bunch of like feature videos I did I did one with uh the homie Echo that just came out it's called 21 shout out to Echo super dope video I did one for the homie Screwface who's a big uh big cat out here yeah um I think that drops a couple days yeah I think for either Friday or Saturday the song is super duper dope.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_01: I just did a video for um for my my OG Snake Lucci the one that got me in the music.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know when he's dropping that I I I could imagine it would be in a few days or a week or so um and I just did one for X rated for his new album.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_01: Nobody's heard anything like that.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_01: So you got an exclusive right there.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_01: Woo it's a crazy it's a crazy dope song man it's his first project on strange music and um that's super dope.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_01: And then I have I have a video from Get Well Soon that we want to put out for I'm okay that uh didn't get dropped last year.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like we got to put it out because the video is so dope.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_01: And once we get that out we're gonna get into my new album.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_01: So what can you spill about the new album?
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_01: Man the new album is so personal to me.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_01: This is my first time even speaking about it either you know what I mean like on a on a platform like this but it's um it's one of those ones man it's one of those ones like with every album I always try to go back and really get in depth you know about my story and find things that I might have missed or like oh this was important I need to share this with the audience but this particular one it it's like it's really it's really an open like I'm an open book on this one and it's very very very personal and I think this is going to be one of those ones.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_01: So with everything that's gone on the past two or three years your album Get Well Soon featuring on the song Face Off with the rock and tech nine getting to go to the Super Bowl the continued development of your career what is your advice for making the world a better place as you see it right now with everything that's gone on man I had a talk with uh somebody who I love we we got on the subject of God which is always a a tricky and touchy subject because you know there's so many different beliefs you know what I mean there's a there's a there's a cornucopia of like you know I got to talking about energy right and I said okay no matter how you want to look at it and no matter what you believe in what they said was I don't know if I necessarily believe in God but you know like the dark energy and stuff like that like I can see that which means they identify with seeing negativity a lot more than what you would see positivity right and that's all that's all a perspective thing which is also subjective but I said okay you know scientifically and just I just feel like just a reality of the situation is you know energy can't be created nor destroyed everything here it just is it just exists right and I said what I try to do with energy is I realize the multiple forms I know that there are dark energies out here I know that there are low vibrations I know that people wake up and choose hate you know and some people are hurt and it it has to come from some place right it's I don't feel like it just comes from nowhere like it just exists there it attach it attaches to them something happened to them I'm one of those people who a lot of dark stuff happened to I went through a phase in my life where I just wanted to burn the world down because I was like the world did this to me I'm in I'm in the mental hospital I'm homeless I don't have nothing to eat like I'm so angry and if there is a God out there I'm angry at it you know I went through this phase and then one day it clicked and I was like you know what I need to hold myself accountable for how I'm reacting to what's happening to me and what I'm putting in the world.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_01: So the more that I was mad and the more that I was like I just wanted to just burn everything down and have a sense of reciprocity the more it just continued this cycle of damage.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_01: The more I was angry the more I was like oh this girl cheated on me I'm gonna cheat back on her these dudes did this to me I'm gonna do this back to them.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_01: The more that I did that nothing never changed.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_01: I got to a point I was like you know what let me forgive everybody and let me mean it and let me just try to do something different.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_01: Let me not be the reason why people like myself feel the way that I feel because I felt like somebody hurt me, I take that energy, I pass it on to somebody else I feel like I'm just as bad as the person who put that on me.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_01: I have now become my abuser in taking people like myself and putting them in a situation I'm inadvertently just from expressing anger or just having impulses to want to communicate that I feel some type of way.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_01: I chose to accept the fact that a lot of people are hurt.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of people are going through things that are inexplainable to them they don't know how to necessarily communicate what they're going through.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_01: They have their own traumas they have their own demons they are wrestling and at the mercy of their mental every day I can't and I don't want to be somebody who contributes to that energy right so I was like I need to do some self-healing I need to forgive a lot of people that did horrible things happen to me man.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_01: And I and I'm open about it like you know I I I've been jumped I've been shot at I've been beat up stabbed I've been I've been molested I've been abandoned I've been you know what I mean I've been like you know through a through a lot of crazy stuff when I was a child and I was like I don't want to be this grown ass angry kid because I feel like that's what a lot of people are and I feel like when you talk to people when you get to you get to the nitty gritty of why the way they are everything connects back to their childhood.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_01: The more you get to unpack, it takes you back to where you started.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_01: And you're like oh when I was a kid my mom used to you know this would happen between mom and dad and da da da and then this happened and certain people said things to you you internalized it you have these voices in your head that aren't yours from things that you heard and vicarious trauma you might have witnessed and went through or you went through yourself or with another sibling or other kids and you grow up and you are the way you are because of what happened as a kid.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_01: And all these things that happened to me as a kid it made me question like I don't know about religion I don't know about God I don't know about this.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_01: Well you don't have to believe any of that in my opinion if you don't want to but you have to be aware of energy there is to me energy if you don't believe in a God let's say energy is God like you can create energy you can create a certain energy that's that's already there you know what I mean and you can pass it around it's like some people wake up and it's like oh I'm just having a bad day and then the way you choose to move from realizing you're having a bad day you ever have a morning when you get up and you like all right I'm already not liking this day.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_01: Now you're late you you spill your coffee on your pants you catch every red light and you you cussing out everybody and the day just progressively gets worse and I'm like because you're putting that energy out there you know what I'm saying and that's kind of like that's that's that was my that was my wake up call for me I'm like yo I keep getting mad at everything and I'm doing stuff to people I'm doing this and I'm you know what I'm saying and it's landing me in situations now I'm in I'm in mental hospitals or I'm incarcerated or I'm like I don't have nowhere to go now I'm burning bridges and like I'm just an angry being and it all traces back to my childhood and I was like I can't I can't do that.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_01: I have to be aware of energy energy is everything.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_01: So I've been doing a lot of self-healing and there are people older than me who if you listen to somebody talk long enough you'll always hear it go back to their childhood.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_01: And that's all I've been doing I just I've just been unpacking.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_01: So what I would say you know I'm I know that was long but I needed to get that out but No I love it.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate you man like if if I had to you know talk about trying to make the world a better place you know as I see it like you asked is just realizing that things can and will happen to you and things have happened to all of us but it's up to us to try to be you know the difference and understand that some people just need patience some people need help some people don't have the understanding or level of understanding that we have you know at the end of the day I feel like people just need love bro like that's it I feel like if I wake up and I choose love and I move out of love there are gonna be times when it's not reciprocated but I don't do it just for it to be reciprocated.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_01: I do it because I mean it and I want to be a beacon and I want to be a pillar of strength and love and like and you know just motivation for people who feel like they don't have it because some people just need that you know what I'm saying we got a it's a lot of it's a lot of war it's a lot of conflict it's a lot of poverty it's a lot of hunger it's a lot of you know like just you never know what people are going through and I feel like some sometimes we get caught up in our own shit so much that we tend to think we're the only ones going through it.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like bro everybody's going through something whether you rich poor no no matter what like because you got rich people that are dying by suicide you got poor people that are dying but it does like the the mental battles that we have do not discriminate.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_01: You never know bro and trauma comes in all shapes sizes colors circumstances so it's like we can't judge nobody man and we can't we can't exclude nobody when it comes to healing you know everybody needs some sort of healing and somebody to just be you know feel safe with you know what I'm saying the world changes into a dangerous place when everybody feels like everybody's out to get them or you know or they feel like they can't trust nobody or love nobody and these are things that are developed in our childhood in our in our young adolescent years our young adult life and then we get older and then it's just this is just the way we are when stuck in this way of thinking.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_01: And I've been in and out of therapy man recently and I've been unpacking a lot and I'm like yo I gotta I gotta get back to that child and and I gotta have some conversations with him because we're forced to grow up fast.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_01: Especially our generation we were forced to grow up fast.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_01: We were outside we were uh exposed to a lot of stuff we didn't necessarily need to see and we had to take care of ourselves so when do we when do we ever get to just be a kid bro when do we ever just get to that's why like now bro like I I go do things I wanted to do as a kid like bro like I I'll go get the new Mario Kart I I got a turbo man doll sitting in my window I go get the GI Joes I wanted because I'm like I never got a chance to just be him yes and whether whether people understand it or not is that you never stop being a kid you the just the world just revolved and you got some you got some gray hairs now you know what I'm saying like that's I got grays coming in but I'm getting older you know what I'm saying it's like but that doesn't mean that that kid disappeared I'm still that person you know what I mean so I I think I think about the youth bro that's my thing like I really think about like a baby is born not hating anybody a baby just wants some milk some love some shelter you know what I'm saying and and some and some rest bro you know and then if you look at a lot of toddlers bro like they're just these these beautiful creatures man who ain't tripping off nothing they're not exposed to how the world is they're not exposed to people like they they just want to watch cartoons man just kick it.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_01: They're big old balls of light and love bro and I'm like man if we can get back to that and just we ain't worried about nothing man love man love you know right like kids want to you a kid sees another kid it's like yo they they link up they're playing they don't even know each other's name I've watched my kids run around the park with people they've never seen again in life yeah and for that moment bro they were like best friends versus people turning their nose up at people because they look away or so it's just like where did we go wrong?
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm saying?
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yes there's a lot of value in tapping into that sense of innocence when we held it the tightest and you got me with that Mario Kart thing man because not too long ago I bought myself one of those arcade one ups of Mortal Kombat for the same exact reason man.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_01: You can do it man I feel like the more you get back into your your younger self you'll realize where a lot of things started to go wrong.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_01: It's a lot to unpack.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_01: There's so much trauma that we just because we grow up and it's like we work go to school work go to school work go to school now I gotta pay for this now I'm working like everybody's just working working working working working and then going through things going through things going through things that we kind of forget to enjoy we kind of forget to like address problems.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_01: And another thing too I forgot to mention is you know like when we're kids bro we didn't really have the voices that we necessarily needed.
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_01: You know I I grew up around people where it was like I did what I was told and I didn't really argue that.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_01: You know I didn't really express myself on how I felt number one I didn't know how and number two I didn't feel like I had a place to and that's not their fault but there's a lot of people bro like kids don't feel comfortable saying things that they're going through to adults number one they're either embarrassed they're scared and like I said they just don't know how.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_01: And if you grow up like that especially us being men you know we live in a you know this is you know be a man you know tough it out you know what I'm saying no crying blah blah blah and then you grow up and you have all of these suppressed emotions and then one day you just pop and that's what happened to me.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I went on a rampage for like 10 13 years of just crying and angry and just you know what I'm saying and feeling like some people the people that seem emotionless are the people who have the most emotions because they're so angry.
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_01: Some people are just they just seem cold it's like nah there's something in there.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot in there.
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_01: That's how people get cold you know what I mean so yeah man like just realize that man you can like a simple conversation with somebody and actually giving a fuck about what they you know are going through as a human being could change so much.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_01: Like asking somebody how they day went ask them not asking them about work or what they can do for you like I don't need a favor I don't need a money I don't need a share I don't need a like I don't need none of that I just want to know if you're okay.
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_00: There are two phrases that tie into all of this perfectly the first one being be the person you needed when you were younger.
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yep and the second one being is be that person you needed on your worst day.
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yep amen super real state super real that's very real I love it you've got two shows coming up in the area the first one on April Fool's Day April 1st at the Bourbon Theater in Lincoln Nebraska for real?
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah yeah that falls on April Fool's sir and the second one is on 420 in Omaha Nebraska at the waiting room lounge I'm super excited for that one.
• 43:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yes I know I'm planning on being there.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_00: I got you man hit me hit me personally man oh man that's awesome we'll swap numbers as soon as we're done recording.
• 43:59
  SPEAKER_00: I got you brother yep yep but yeah man 420 man it's gonna be a crazy show i'm I'm ready man i'm ready to uh i'm ready to get back out here on the road and and and and talk to the people because that energy is much needed i've missed i've missed the fans you know what i'm saying this chat has been a blast i love it i love the music king iso man i love you and your music my friend love you back the world's a better place with you in it my friend likewise man and we got we gotta do this again and this is probably like the favorite one i've done so far because uh there's a lot of similarities you got a lot of insight i i like your setup i like your approach i like i like the energy man so anytime um you want me to get on here and talk about something man like uh you know i got you bro i got you i'm gonna take you up on that how amazing was that episode sometimes you just gotta let your guests go and they say some of the most profound things search out big iso on all social media platforms and if you haven't listened to it yet listen to get well tune its latest album as soon as you can my favorite song is hypocrite it has some very deep emotional resonance with me check it out ISO is amazing glad to know it while you're searching things out on the internet make sure you search out caught on the mic on all your favorite social media platforms give me a follow at www.caughton the mic dot com I always appreciate those five star reviews on your favorite podcasting platform and I appreciate your support this has been Caught on the mic with Michael Clark I'm Michael Clark until next time thank you