Latest / Eating While Broke / CIPHA SOUNDS - Chinese Take-Out NYC
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Hey, welcome you. Welcome to another episode of Eating While Broke.
- 0:08Speaker 1: I'm your host, Colleen Witt, and today we are outside
- 0:11Speaker 1: the podcast studio and into Brooklyn, New York, Okay, and
- 0:16Speaker 1: our special guest today is Cipher Sounds, the legendary Cipher
- 0:22Speaker 1: Sounds DJ radio radio radio host turned stand up comic.
- 0:31Speaker 1: We got a lot of layers here that we gotta
- 0:34Speaker 1: call definitely layered, layered, and you pivoted a lot. So
- 0:40Speaker 1: I'm curious now on this episode, on on the New
- 0:42Speaker 1: York edition, we are not actually cooking in studio. We're
- 0:45Speaker 1: gonna do take out addition, So I want to know
- 1:11Speaker 1: what you ate when you were broke in New York
- 1:15Speaker 1: trying to survive. So what do you have us eating today? So? Um, Hi,
- 1:20Speaker 1: I'm very famous in New York. So uh, there was
- 1:25Speaker 1: a lot of things I ate while I was broke,
- 1:26Speaker 1: but this this year was my main go to. And
- 1:30Speaker 1: this is a New York staple. Now it sounds kind
- 1:35Speaker 1: of common. It's four chicken wings and French fries, which
- 1:38Speaker 1: you could get at any on any kid's menu in
- 1:42Speaker 1: any restaurant. Buffalo wild wings, red lobster, Applebee's, I mean,
- 1:47Speaker 1: but it's different. In New York when it comes from
- 1:49Speaker 1: the Chinese hood spot. I mean, this is not even
- 1:53Speaker 1: this is new. See the chicken wings and French fries
- 1:57Speaker 1: from the Chinese spot. It's something special about it. I
- 2:01Speaker 1: don't know why has nothing there's nothing Chinese about it. Yeah,
- 2:04Speaker 1: there really isn't that. But for some reason, the Chinese
- 2:07Speaker 1: hold in the wall spots in New York City make
- 2:09Speaker 1: them a certain way. I don't know if they all
- 2:11Speaker 1: talk to each other and have the same recipe or
- 2:14Speaker 1: they get the chicken delivered from the same spot. But
- 2:18Speaker 1: some dude, some dudes have variations. You could do four
- 2:21Speaker 1: chicken wings and fried rice. Some do four chicken wings
- 2:25Speaker 1: and an egg roll. I personally like the French fry aspect.
- 2:29Speaker 1: So this was like my go to broke meal coming up.
- 2:34Speaker 1: And how much was this when you were coming up?
- 2:36Speaker 1: Four bucks? Four bucks, five bucks sometimes and you know
- 2:42Speaker 1: you can add another wing. You can ask for extra
- 2:45Speaker 1: duck sauce, which I don't know why people in the
- 2:47Speaker 1: hood are so rude when they ask for extra duck
- 2:50Speaker 1: saw It's a thing you never seen that, Yo, give
- 2:54Speaker 1: me more duck sauce. I'm like, hey, just as nicely,
- 2:57Speaker 1: he'll get they'll give you more. So you do your
- 3:00Speaker 1: French fries with dusaus, you do the chicken with you
- 3:03Speaker 1: do you do hot sauce, duck sauce and catch up,
- 3:09Speaker 1: and then you can you have like a tri dip,
- 3:12Speaker 1: you know what I mean a little bit. That's why
- 3:15Speaker 1: they're so rude. Yeah, because give us the catch up
- 3:18Speaker 1: in the hot sauce. I don't see any duck. There
- 3:20Speaker 1: is no duck. Shouts, Well, you have to ask for
- 3:21Speaker 1: the duck shots. Did anyone ask who got this? Eagle?
- 3:25Speaker 1: Did not get this? I had? I had what do
- 3:28Speaker 1: you call it? The delivery service? Yeah, what is it? Delivery?
- 3:32Speaker 1: Rob Hobbs and those guys, and they delivered. Didn't have
- 3:35Speaker 1: that when I was broken. Yeah, well we were on
- 3:38Speaker 1: a tight schedule. So we're like order that and have
- 3:41Speaker 1: it delivered. It has to be delivered from a Chinese
- 3:44Speaker 1: guy on a bike from the restaurant. Yeah, because the guy,
- 3:47Speaker 1: the guy who delivered it was like Filipino or something,
- 3:49Speaker 1: and he came in a Honda Civic. He came in
- 3:51Speaker 1: a scooter. Scooter. Things have changed. So let's let's just
- 3:56Speaker 1: let's just try a wing so I can have this experience.
- 4:00Speaker 1: It from New York. Right, Yeah, I'm from New York,
- 4:01Speaker 1: but I live in l A. I've lived in l
- 4:03Speaker 1: A so long. But how you had this before? Right?
- 4:06Speaker 1: I've had this. I've had this. So you got to
- 4:08Speaker 1: pop off the wingy part. Sometimes you can get a
- 4:11Speaker 1: little meat meat and when you pop How did you
- 4:17Speaker 1: do it? I did it? I did it? Do you
- 4:19Speaker 1: do flats first or drum first? Let me tell you,
- 4:21Speaker 1: I'm a flats person. I don't. I don't you know
- 4:25Speaker 1: what I don't. I don't mess with the drum. When
- 4:27Speaker 1: I was younger, I was all about the drum. I
- 4:29Speaker 1: got older and I was all about the flat. What
- 4:31Speaker 1: is it about the flat that you like? Mhm? I
- 4:35Speaker 1: feel like the drum is always dryer. I'm gonna lie.
- 4:40Speaker 1: I haven't had this a long time. It tastes exactly.
- 4:46Speaker 1: It's hello, good yo. Let me yeah, this taste exactly.
- 4:51Speaker 1: How I remember, when was the last time you ate
- 4:53Speaker 1: this like this? Like straight up from a Chinese spot
- 4:56Speaker 1: like this? Oh man, I had to be like, but
- 5:00Speaker 1: you're were in two It had to be like two
- 5:04Speaker 1: thousand and four or something like that. Wow, that's a
- 5:09Speaker 1: long time. And I eat a lot of wings, so
- 5:12Speaker 1: funny because you look like you're a nostalgic land right now.
- 5:15Speaker 1: You're like, no, because you know, taste is one of them.
- 5:18Speaker 1: You know, taste and smell is one of the most
- 5:20Speaker 1: um sensory, provocative, uh mind melding type. You know, smell
- 5:27Speaker 1: is the most you remember the most when you smell
- 5:29Speaker 1: something like if a girl works past me with Chanel
- 5:32Speaker 1: number five, I instantly think of that bitch that broke
- 5:35Speaker 1: up with me. And I don't use the term bitch
- 5:39Speaker 1: in a derogatory sense towards females. It's more of a
- 5:42Speaker 1: hip hop colloquialism. Okay, well, what was going on in
- 5:45Speaker 1: two thousand and four? Yeah, but like right before before
- 5:52Speaker 1: and then I want to know two thousand four what
- 5:54Speaker 1: the transition was? But oh no, well, so yeah I
- 5:59Speaker 1: was broken at ups and downs? Right. So six, I
- 6:11Speaker 1: get the call the DJ for a little kim, So
- 6:16Speaker 1: did you not know that I'm listening? I'm so I
- 6:20Speaker 1: get to call it trying to be eating. This is gross.
- 6:24Speaker 1: Don't do that, you know. I just I want to
- 6:26Speaker 1: tell you something people actually hate when we're smacking on
- 6:31Speaker 1: the show, and I try so hard not to. I'll
- 6:33Speaker 1: be like trying to quiet and every once while I
- 6:35Speaker 1: get an item where we're both like, see, that's the
- 6:38Speaker 1: difference between podcasts nowadays. In radio, we used to have
- 6:41Speaker 1: this thing called a cough button. It's a button right
- 6:45Speaker 1: by the mic, like if you're about to cough or
- 6:46Speaker 1: do something you don't want people. It's almost like a
- 6:48Speaker 1: mute button and you hold it down. Podcasts don't have buttons,
- 6:52Speaker 1: no no, but we have at it, you know. But
- 6:55Speaker 1: we did everything in real time, but just smack quietly, smoothly.
- 6:59Speaker 1: So I have to call a DJ for a Little Kim.
- 7:04Speaker 1: So I go on the road with Little Kim and
- 7:07Speaker 1: Junior Mafia before her first album comes out. So we
- 7:10Speaker 1: were just doing promo shows and she was doing like
- 7:17Speaker 1: she didn't even have an album all yet. She had
- 7:18Speaker 1: like get money, get Money, remix players, anthem, a couple
- 7:23Speaker 1: of R and B for you know, features, and we
- 7:26Speaker 1: would do like, you know, we have to fill a
- 7:28Speaker 1: half hour or hour show, so we would do like
- 7:31Speaker 1: a Yo, here's a b I G. Here's your favorite
- 7:34Speaker 1: Biggie songs and he's like your favorite West Coast. We
- 7:37Speaker 1: would just make a show out of it. And I
- 7:39Speaker 1: was getting three hundred dollars a week and then like
- 7:47Speaker 1: then her album comes out, then she's popping, popping, like
- 7:52Speaker 1: we was going everywhere and the album's doing really well,
- 7:56Speaker 1: and then her videos come out like first Came No
- 7:59Speaker 1: Time In and the song Crushed on You. So we
- 8:01Speaker 1: all popping and they still give me three hundred a week.
- 8:03Speaker 1: That was like the promo tour money. So then I said, yo,
- 8:08Speaker 1: I just you know, I want to stay doing this,
- 8:10Speaker 1: but it's not enough to survive. I was. I thought
- 8:12Speaker 1: I was gonna get more, and then I had to
- 8:14Speaker 1: quit and they hired some other guy. He sucks, so
- 8:16Speaker 1: they called me back. Then I was getting three hundred
- 8:19Speaker 1: a show, and I thought I was rich, oh, because
- 8:24Speaker 1: they went from three hundred a week. So then it's
- 8:29Speaker 1: like we go out Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, we might
- 8:33Speaker 1: do we might do a some kind of big show
- 8:37Speaker 1: on Saturday. Then we might do an after party. So
- 8:39Speaker 1: that's two shows in one night. So I'm getting three hundred.
- 8:42Speaker 1: So I'm coming home with like twelve or fifteen hundred
- 8:45Speaker 1: a week, and I thought I was rich, and that
- 8:50Speaker 1: was how were you at that time? Yeah, you're you're
- 8:57Speaker 1: really rich at that time. And my rent was seven
- 9:00Speaker 1: hundred dollars, so I'm making that in a week plus,
- 9:05Speaker 1: right was a week, I'm making seven rent, Like in
- 9:09Speaker 1: my mind my rent is done God, then the rest
- 9:11Speaker 1: of it is just stacking up and you know. And
- 9:15Speaker 1: then that stopped. So I was just deejaying. And then
- 9:18Speaker 1: I started interning that on the radio for funk Master
- 9:21Speaker 1: Flex and he wouldn't pay me. He didn't pay me.
- 9:24Speaker 1: He paid me in knowledge and opportunity and food he
- 9:30Speaker 1: would pay for, like the food, like I order food
- 9:33Speaker 1: and you order yourself something, so like I had to
- 9:36Speaker 1: order him food and I would order like something like this.
- 9:39Speaker 1: I would order whatever. He always ate crazy, so I
- 9:43Speaker 1: would order extra because he never checked the receipt. So
- 9:47Speaker 1: I ordered something for right now, and then something I
- 9:49Speaker 1: could have for breakfast. So I'm like, okay, what will
- 9:52Speaker 1: if I hide this in my book bag? Won't won't
- 9:54Speaker 1: take gross in the morning, and that's it. And then
- 9:58Speaker 1: then I was back to broke, you know what I'm saying.
- 10:01Speaker 1: And then but I learned how to make money. Flex
- 10:03Speaker 1: wouldn't pay me, but he taught me how to make money.
- 10:07Speaker 1: So as I mean, it's still to this day, I
- 10:08Speaker 1: use Flex tactics. Now, where was the transition where you
- 10:13Speaker 1: you ended up not eating like what happened two four,
- 10:16Speaker 1: where it was like no more no. I still was
- 10:19Speaker 1: kind of broken two thousand four, but not eating this.
- 10:21Speaker 1: Um So, I'm on the radio. Let's see. I started
- 10:26Speaker 1: in nineties seven as an intern, and then I just
- 10:30Speaker 1: started DJing a lot more on DJ and every night,
- 10:33Speaker 1: sometimes opening for flex, sometimes getting my own gigs. And
- 10:38Speaker 1: I don't really I don't spend a lot. Like I
- 10:40Speaker 1: bought one chain it was fake. I bought a platinum chain,
- 10:45Speaker 1: but it was fake. Like I know this lady that
- 10:47Speaker 1: makes Julian. She goes, no, just get um well coded
- 10:51Speaker 1: and we'll put cubics of Coonian. And I was like,
- 10:54Speaker 1: oh yeah, let's do that. And then and then here's
- 10:57Speaker 1: the crazy ship. You can say whatever you want. Can
- 11:01Speaker 1: I see the effort? Thanks? Can't you say all that?
- 11:05Speaker 1: Um So, she's telling me a lot of famous rappers
- 11:11Speaker 1: at the time, we're getting fake chained. But it was
- 11:15Speaker 1: like they had real chains, but they would wear the
- 11:18Speaker 1: fake ones out in case they got robbed. Yeah, yeah
- 11:20Speaker 1: that makes sense, but you believe, you know they can
- 11:22Speaker 1: afford the real change. Where would they wear the real chains?
- 11:27Speaker 1: Do in their house? I guess depending on where they
- 11:30Speaker 1: were going, Like, if you're going to the tunnel, that's
- 11:33Speaker 1: where DJ. The tunnel nightclub chains were getting robbed on
- 11:36Speaker 1: the regular, so don't wear your real one to the tunnel.
- 11:41Speaker 1: But anyway, so I got one chain, I said. So
- 11:43Speaker 1: I wasn't really a flashy guy like that. So I
- 11:47Speaker 1: stacked all my money, stacked it, stacked the stacked the stack.
- 11:51Speaker 1: So I was DJ and a lot um. Then Flex
- 11:54Speaker 1: would get me certain well, you know, we would host
- 11:57Speaker 1: somebody's mixtape and we get like four brand he gave
- 12:00Speaker 1: me one, you know, we host like uh certain events,
- 12:05Speaker 1: and then like he got on MTV and he would like,
- 12:08Speaker 1: you know, you gotta pay sight for the drive or whatever.
- 12:10Speaker 1: So I was making like a little bit of money
- 12:12Speaker 1: here now, but I didn't wasn't spending a lot. So
- 12:14Speaker 1: I started stacking boom boom boom and then um. And
- 12:18Speaker 1: then when I got my own show on the radio,
- 12:21Speaker 1: that's when I started getting like popular, like getting real
- 12:25Speaker 1: good gigs like that, gigs that pay two thousand, three thousand,
- 12:29Speaker 1: five thousand. DJ was fun back then. Yeah, yeah, you're
- 12:33Speaker 1: making a lot of money. You were in heavy rotation.
- 12:37Speaker 1: How's your ego around that time? Oh, my ego got
- 12:39Speaker 1: checked so early. My boy Ari, he saved my life
- 12:45Speaker 1: this when I had to change. I took the chain
- 12:47Speaker 1: off after this night and I listen. I was in
- 12:50Speaker 1: the tunnel around Puffy, jay Z, Fat Joe, Big, Pat, Norri, DMX,
- 12:56Speaker 1: all these people and so like, I thought, oh, I'm
- 12:59Speaker 1: in the game. Ame I gotta get a chain. I
- 13:01Speaker 1: didn't really. I don't even like jewelry. I don't even
- 13:03Speaker 1: wear a wedding ring. Like I don't wear I don't
- 13:05Speaker 1: just like I have so many nice watches, I don't
- 13:07Speaker 1: even wear them. And I was in a tongue I'm
- 13:11Speaker 1: opening up. I have to be at the tunnel at
- 13:13Speaker 1: nine o'clock because it was it was the first five
- 13:18Speaker 1: girls free, so I had to be at the tone
- 13:20Speaker 1: of nine o'clock, the tone and get popping until twelve o'clock.
- 13:23Speaker 1: But I'm there eight thirty bringing in my crates. And
- 13:27Speaker 1: I said something to my boy like halfway I'm the ship,
- 13:32Speaker 1: like yo, just yo, yo, grab that one or some ship.
- 13:36Speaker 1: And he he's a little guy too. He's from Philly.
- 13:38Speaker 1: He's my one of my best friends to this day.
- 13:40Speaker 1: He grabbed my shirt and he said, Yo, don't you
- 13:44Speaker 1: ever ever talk to me like that again. He's like,
- 13:47Speaker 1: we've been with you. We're all in this together. We've
- 13:51Speaker 1: been with you since day one. Okay, you got on first,
- 13:55Speaker 1: but don't talk to us like you bigger than us
- 13:57Speaker 1: or anything. And I've it made it changed my life, Like, oh,
- 14:03Speaker 1: should I start to get gas? I mean, like that's
- 14:06Speaker 1: where Cifer don't get gas comes from that. I started
- 14:08Speaker 1: to get gas because I was like starting to be
- 14:11Speaker 1: known and it really and it made me realize it
- 14:15Speaker 1: doesn't matter, it matter, It does not matter. My friends
- 14:18Speaker 1: are what matters, you know. And I took the chain
- 14:21Speaker 1: off that day. What am I doing? Why am I
- 14:22Speaker 1: wearing this stupid chain? Yeah? It wasn't even like you
- 14:25Speaker 1: were into it. No, it was stupid. I was playing
- 14:27Speaker 1: like a role. But I was young, I was one whatever.
- 14:30Speaker 1: So have you ever had to face that ego beast
- 14:33Speaker 1: ever sinsor where you like? Good? I It might pop
- 14:36Speaker 1: up here and there, but I check it quick. I
- 14:39Speaker 1: check it with um. You know. I try to, you know,
- 14:45Speaker 1: put myself in reality, like this is a fantastic opportunity
- 14:51Speaker 1: that I have opportunities many but also it's all it
- 14:56Speaker 1: doesn't you know, it's not you know it doesn't matter.
- 15:00Speaker 1: You know, how you raise your family or how you
- 15:02Speaker 1: look at the world is what matters. But that don't mean.
- 15:05Speaker 1: I don't mean I take away the fun. I have
- 15:07Speaker 1: a lot of fun with a lot of dope people,
- 15:10Speaker 1: but I just don't let it get to me like that.
- 15:13Speaker 1: And I watched, you know, I've watched so many people
- 15:16Speaker 1: come in and nobody's blow up come back down, like
- 15:22Speaker 1: you know, you try to warn them, but they're not
- 15:23Speaker 1: you know, they're not your people like that, But I
- 15:25Speaker 1: see the come rich back to broke. Who who are you?
- 15:30Speaker 1: Are you open to naming like names of like who
- 15:32Speaker 1: you've personally seen like up and down the ladder? I uh,
- 15:40Speaker 1: I don't remember exactly. I just seen it so much.
- 15:44Speaker 1: Um I'll tell you Nikki though Nicki Minaj is one
- 15:47Speaker 1: of them that Nicki Minaj to me, she's not broke
- 15:50Speaker 1: at by any means, But Nicki Minaj to me is
- 15:52Speaker 1: the perfect example of who you see on the way
- 15:57Speaker 1: up is what you see on the way down. And
- 16:00Speaker 1: she treated a lot of people like ship and then
- 16:04Speaker 1: you know, now she's not nowhere it is how does
- 16:06Speaker 1: she was? Yeah? You know what I mean? And I
- 16:08Speaker 1: say that I don't want to say, like, I got
- 16:09Speaker 1: beef with her, even though I do, but you know,
- 16:14Speaker 1: I don't want to have be for her. She for
- 16:16Speaker 1: some reason we got I'm not be for nobody. My
- 16:19Speaker 1: name is clean in the streets. And she's the one
- 16:23Speaker 1: person that like just just some foul ship to me.
- 16:27Speaker 1: And I was just like and then, you know, look
- 16:30Speaker 1: at people like Nori. He was up down. Now he's
- 16:35Speaker 1: all the way up. He's all the way up, all
- 16:37Speaker 1: the way. When I say he's all the way he's
- 16:40Speaker 1: all but he's still I spoke to him today for
- 16:43Speaker 1: like two hours. He still calls me. I would say this,
- 16:45Speaker 1: Nori was my first rapper friend, and Aliyah was my
- 16:49Speaker 1: first R and B friend, You know what I mean.
- 16:53Speaker 1: He still calls me to this day and he's the
- 16:56Speaker 1: same Nori, but he's all the way up. Well, that's
- 17:00Speaker 1: like he hasn't changed. Even if you see how much
- 17:03Speaker 1: he's accomplished, always feel like people that are able to
- 17:06Speaker 1: especially in the industry, because it's so easy to burner
- 17:08Speaker 1: bridge with ego, like for him to be able to
- 17:11Speaker 1: accomplish what he's accomplished, he's clearly clearly a good friend
- 17:15Speaker 1: to people, right, but That's what I'm saying. The thing
- 17:16Speaker 1: about Nori is I watched him when he was just
- 17:21Speaker 1: you know, Nori had a couple of records out, and
- 17:24Speaker 1: he everybody would invite everyone to a studio, no matter
- 17:26Speaker 1: where you were. From first time I've ever met Two
- 17:29Speaker 1: Chains when he was Titty Boy, it was with Nori.
- 17:31Speaker 1: First time I've ever met UM three six Mafia was
- 17:35Speaker 1: with Nori. Every first time I met David Banner, they
- 17:38Speaker 1: would just come to his studio or his session that
- 17:40Speaker 1: he would always show them love. And now he's big
- 17:43Speaker 1: and they're big, and it's not like he just met
- 17:46Speaker 1: them to get him on his show. He's been knowing them.
- 17:49Speaker 1: He's been showing him love in New York. So now
- 17:51Speaker 1: it's coming back, you know, it's paying back. Yeah. So yeah,
- 17:55Speaker 1: I don't I don't let the ego. UM, I don't
- 17:58Speaker 1: let the ego get me. And then I fall into
- 18:01Speaker 1: situations where like, damn, if I was a little more um,
- 18:06Speaker 1: not egotistical, but if I was a little more loud
- 18:10Speaker 1: about my accomplishments, I might get more things at this time,
- 18:14Speaker 1: Like I don't shout my accomplishments a lot, where other
- 18:17Speaker 1: people shout them all day long. Yeah. So I mean
- 18:21Speaker 1: people like you're known as like a legend, like you know,
- 18:24Speaker 1: you're on that legendary, like you have your own brand.
- 18:28Speaker 1: So I feel like there's a lot of respect people.
- 18:30Speaker 1: There's a lot of stuff I got jerked on, missed
- 18:34Speaker 1: out on, or missed the opportunity, but I didn't. That's
- 18:41Speaker 1: weird because I didn't miss because I was doing another opportunity.
- 18:44Speaker 1: I just wish I would have, Like, as as I
- 18:46Speaker 1: looked back, I was like, I should have did that
- 18:48Speaker 1: instead of that. You know. I did an interview once
- 18:52Speaker 1: with Earthquake and he was talking about like, yeah, he's
- 18:56Speaker 1: the best, let me he's got story. But one of
- 19:01Speaker 1: the things he had said was like I think I
- 19:03Speaker 1: had said something along the lines of like what was
- 19:05Speaker 1: that moment that you made? And he had said something
- 19:07Speaker 1: about like just like it was, there's never a time
- 19:10Speaker 1: where you make. It's just more like, you know, did
- 19:12Speaker 1: you cash in on the opportunity, like the type of deal.
- 19:16Speaker 1: Like I feel like you're still moving and shaking, Like
- 19:18Speaker 1: even though we're in the beginning of your story, there's
- 19:20Speaker 1: there's so much to unpack with you, you know, because
- 19:23Speaker 1: now you're just a huge stand up comic now. You know,
- 19:27Speaker 1: I'm gonna say huge, but but you're making your waves.
- 19:30Speaker 1: I'm like a hundred enjoy the journey type of person.
- 19:38Speaker 1: That's why I'm able to do all this stuff because
- 19:40Speaker 1: I like does struggle. I like the the climb. You know,
- 19:47Speaker 1: some people only want to get to the top. I'm
- 19:49Speaker 1: enjoying every night. I enjoy it. Yeah, I I am
- 19:54Speaker 1: a person that like loves the hero's journey, the hero story,
- 19:58Speaker 1: hence eating wall broke. I for these. Tell me how
- 20:02Speaker 1: it was. Speaking of that, you you name dropped a
- 20:05Speaker 1: couple of people, Like, so I'll name drop please. Let's
- 20:08Speaker 1: start with the bay dropping, Like, what's up? Were you
- 20:10Speaker 1: and ali Leah? I love Aliyah? Um, i'mally at the radios,
- 20:15Speaker 1: I mean the rappers I met was at seven or
- 20:18Speaker 1: the people in the industry. I mean at that time,
- 20:22Speaker 1: how nanty seven was on fire and everyone had to
- 20:25Speaker 1: come there. So that's where I met a lot of people.
- 20:27Speaker 1: But Aliyah was super, super cool. I met her at
- 20:30Speaker 1: the radio station, and I also we really got cool.
- 20:32Speaker 1: And funk Master Flex was doing some kind of MTV
- 20:36Speaker 1: Beach House. He was DJ and the beach House one
- 20:40Speaker 1: of them MTV things, and she was there, and there's
- 20:43Speaker 1: a famous picture where her and Mark Ronson, She's wearing
- 20:46Speaker 1: the hill figure. I'm in that picture, but I got
- 20:51Speaker 1: cut off the one that the picture that blew up.
- 20:54Speaker 1: It was just her Mark Ronson, I'm in that picture. Um.
- 20:58Speaker 1: She was super cool. She used to call me like
- 21:00Speaker 1: she saw like I was, like she was. This was
- 21:03Speaker 1: like right before one in a million drop, so like
- 21:07Speaker 1: right before she really really blew up. And I don't
- 21:11Speaker 1: know if she got my numbers somehow. Maybe I don't
- 21:13Speaker 1: even know. I don't remember, but she would call me
- 21:15Speaker 1: and check in on me, like I saw that. I was, like,
- 21:18Speaker 1: you know, intern at the radio station, getting flexus food
- 21:23Speaker 1: and setting up his records, and she would call, how's
- 21:25Speaker 1: it going, How you doing, You're doing this? You're doing?
- 21:27Speaker 1: Do you feel good? Like you're not stressed or nothing? Like?
- 21:30Speaker 1: He used to make me blush like when she would call,
- 21:33Speaker 1: Did you know now? Was that that was? I have
- 21:36Speaker 1: to mention this thing? But was that after the R
- 21:41Speaker 1: Kelly like anything? No? No, that was after because that
- 21:47Speaker 1: was the R Kelly situation was her first album and
- 21:50Speaker 1: that was all you know? Did you kind of know
- 21:53Speaker 1: about it at the time, not more than we all
- 21:56Speaker 1: did more than anybody. Like when that was in the news,
- 21:59Speaker 1: I mean I heard a lot of ship about our Kelly,
- 22:01Speaker 1: but we didn't know, like like it was always like
- 22:07Speaker 1: it's always like there's a lot of people like, oh no,
- 22:11Speaker 1: he'd be, you know, be careful over there. He'd be
- 22:13Speaker 1: with the young ones like like that. Yeah, I don't know.
- 22:16Speaker 1: I'm a kid too, Like I don't know what this means.
- 22:18Speaker 1: You know, you guys were around the same Ageah, yeah,
- 22:24Speaker 1: she might have been a year older or a year
- 22:26Speaker 1: younger like Kim. Like me and Kim at the same age.
- 22:28Speaker 1: So like when I was on tour with little Kim,
- 22:31Speaker 1: she's a superstar, but we're the same age. Like when
- 22:34Speaker 1: we go back to the hotel, she was like a
- 22:36Speaker 1: twenty year old, you know, but she just had this
- 22:39Speaker 1: whole big persona. If you had to put three of
- 22:44Speaker 1: these ladies in like a order of great I'm gonna
- 22:47Speaker 1: you already know who I'm gonna ask about, party Ya
- 22:51Speaker 1: and Nikki We're gonna leave at Lauren Hills would trump
- 22:55Speaker 1: all of them. But like greatest, Like if you had
- 22:58Speaker 1: to choose like greatest in order, like who would be
- 23:01Speaker 1: your number one? I need I hate these lists. I
- 23:05Speaker 1: need more specifics, like in Wraps, Niki Nikki's the Nikki
- 23:11Speaker 1: Rice the dopest bars. Really yeah, I know she writes
- 23:15Speaker 1: really good, But I think Cardi right corn Oh, let's see,
- 23:24Speaker 1: that's what I'm saying. I don't want to take nothing
- 23:27Speaker 1: away from her. I respect her so much. Hold up
- 23:33Speaker 1: what I mean? Maybe some maybe some, but not there's
- 23:40Speaker 1: there's well maybe she just raps well on the beat,
- 23:46Speaker 1: incredibly delivered. But here's the thing, I know, all of
- 23:51Speaker 1: it in the industry knows who writes for her. She delivered.
- 23:56Speaker 1: She performs all your favorite arm by singers. Nine even
- 24:00Speaker 1: cent of them don't write their own songs. It's just
- 24:02Speaker 1: it's not even a thing like in hip hop. It's like, oh,
- 24:05Speaker 1: he's got a ghostwriter, he ain't writing his ship. But
- 24:08Speaker 1: and nobody can't already right, like the writer's right because
- 24:10Speaker 1: the writer and the performer is not the same thing.
- 24:13Speaker 1: So that's how I look at Cardi. But she kills
- 24:16Speaker 1: the performance. She kills. Let me tell you, nobody gets
- 24:19Speaker 1: me more. Not only does she kill the performance of
- 24:23Speaker 1: the rap, she kills it in in her life, Like
- 24:27Speaker 1: you can see she is who she is. Yeah, yeah,
- 24:30Speaker 1: My only problem with her is that I sometimes I
- 24:33Speaker 1: feel like she's just using hip hop as a step.
- 24:38Speaker 1: That's what makes me upset, like to get to movies
- 24:42Speaker 1: or TV or the next thing. Like I don't like
- 24:44Speaker 1: when people use music because it's easy to put out
- 24:47Speaker 1: a record to get to the next thing. I don't
- 24:49Speaker 1: know if that's true. That's just how I felt, because
- 24:52Speaker 1: she doesn't like if you don't write, then do you
- 24:54Speaker 1: really want to rap? It's different with hip hop? You know. Well,
- 24:58Speaker 1: I think I think heard one day rap wasn't something
- 25:02Speaker 1: that CARTI was like easy to acclimate to think. I
- 25:05Speaker 1: heard it was a little bit of work and I
- 25:06Speaker 1: don't even think she really wanted to do it right.
- 25:08Speaker 1: But but but someone had pulled her arm. But do
- 25:11Speaker 1: you think that's Nikki's anger? Sometimes because Nikki always seems
- 25:16Speaker 1: very to me, she comes off very defensive, and I
- 25:18Speaker 1: think it's because she's writing and a lot of people aren't. Yeah,
- 25:22Speaker 1: it could be part of it, you know, it probably
- 25:24Speaker 1: goes a lot deeper. Like I I feel bad for
- 25:28Speaker 1: what I said earlierou Nikki, like I wish she had
- 25:30Speaker 1: Like I don't know her well enough. I don't know her.
- 25:32Speaker 1: I know I had one really big problem with her
- 25:35Speaker 1: and I to this day it bothers me. But like
- 25:39Speaker 1: you know, I'm a big advocate of mental health, and
- 25:42Speaker 1: some people don't go get the help. You know, you
- 25:44Speaker 1: can see when you get the help that I've gotten,
- 25:48Speaker 1: you see and other people like, oh, you I need this,
- 25:53Speaker 1: you need a little of that, And then you can't
- 25:55Speaker 1: tell them that, especially if you don't know them. You know,
- 25:58Speaker 1: I said my therapist. My therapist is giving me months
- 26:02Speaker 1: free of how many people have sent to her months free,
- 26:06Speaker 1: Like she's like, you ain't gotta pace so many you're
- 26:10Speaker 1: advocate for for for therapy. Clear. Yeah. Yeah, so that's
- 26:15Speaker 1: kind of just I just want to get back on No. No,
- 26:19Speaker 1: that's me because every time you mentioned something like, oh wait,
- 26:23Speaker 1: let's stop um now. As far as performance and groundbreaking
- 26:29Speaker 1: is Kim, Yeah, okay, yeah, I agree with that everybody,
- 26:33Speaker 1: and one way or another, all these females are somewhat
- 26:37Speaker 1: trying to not all not all, not like a rhapsody,
- 26:40Speaker 1: but anybody who's sexy on stage in hip hop, you're
- 26:44Speaker 1: getting a piece of that from Kim. Do you know
- 27:07Speaker 1: who I actually kind of wish would have went further
- 27:10Speaker 1: is a mail liked her like I didn't. I mean
- 27:17Speaker 1: I was young, I was very young, but I did.
- 27:20Speaker 1: I did like her. Yeah, but some of these females
- 27:24Speaker 1: like not females or you know what. This show's making
- 27:28Speaker 1: me think too much. I hate it. I'm looking inside
- 27:31Speaker 1: too much because I'm catching myself saying these females, but
- 27:34Speaker 1: that would never that. Men do it too. I've seen
- 27:37Speaker 1: a lot of artists like get a little deal, their
- 27:42Speaker 1: first deal, and like just while out, like this girl flexed,
- 27:47Speaker 1: this girl that flex has signed to him? If that Michelle.
- 27:52Speaker 1: I remember she came to the office with like her
- 27:53Speaker 1: McDonald's receipts. I was like, Yo, you gotta give me
- 27:58Speaker 1: the money back for this McDonald's. I was like, you can't.
- 28:00Speaker 1: You're bringing McDonald's receipts. That's crazy, Like, but was she struggling?
- 28:09Speaker 1: You gotta do there was money given. That doesn't mean anything.
- 28:14Speaker 1: I can't do it. I can't ask another man paid
- 28:20Speaker 1: for my McDonald's. But what was it? A girl was
- 28:22Speaker 1: a female though? Right, That's okay. I'm just I mean,
- 28:26Speaker 1: I hate to be that hit the what it was
- 28:28Speaker 1: it called hypocrite whatever, it is, double standard, But I
- 28:34Speaker 1: can see why a man wouldn't do it. But I
- 28:35Speaker 1: could also see why a woman would. Why how? How?
- 28:39Speaker 1: Because you know it's like, first of all, she was struggling.
- 28:43Speaker 1: I'm just gonna put myself in her. She struggling, But
- 28:45Speaker 1: she got money. You gotta check to get the deal. Yeah,
- 28:50Speaker 1: maybe she didn't handle it right. Well, maybe I said
- 28:54Speaker 1: all meals covered by. But let's get back on you
- 29:00Speaker 1: for a second, and maybe we could pick two more
- 29:03Speaker 1: celebrities before, because I just want to talk about three
- 29:06Speaker 1: more celebrities. I want to talk about Ja. I want
- 29:08Speaker 1: to talk about I heard you you had did some
- 29:11Speaker 1: time in A and R. I want to talk about that.
- 29:15Speaker 1: And then I gotta I gotta talk about some comedy.
- 29:18Speaker 1: These fries are cold. Is there an air frier here? No?
- 29:21Speaker 1: Do you have an air frier, Michael? This guy's a microwave.
- 29:25Speaker 1: There is a microwave this Who is this person? He
- 29:28Speaker 1: said microwave. You can't put rise in a microwave. Let
- 29:33Speaker 1: me ask you a question. What's your name? But Cam?
- 29:37Speaker 1: Did you got a red lobster? You ever get cheddar
- 29:40Speaker 1: Bay biscuits? Do you ever bring him home? How you
- 29:42Speaker 1: heat him up the next morning? If you say microwave,
- 29:45Speaker 1: won't kick you out of the studio so fast. You
- 29:48Speaker 1: put him in an right, what kind of people are
- 29:53Speaker 1: you doing business with? You know what, he's young, he's young.
- 29:55Speaker 1: What are you talking about? You getting cheddar bay soup?
- 29:59Speaker 1: If you put them in the micro wave young, you
- 30:02Speaker 1: know what? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, you had a fried when
- 30:06Speaker 1: you were broke back in the day. Let me tell you,
- 30:10Speaker 1: eagle who put them onto the air fraight? I was
- 30:13Speaker 1: me right, give me my coup. Looking at it right now,
- 30:16Speaker 1: I was like, you need to get one of these
- 30:18Speaker 1: air fryers, like what I had to do to eat
- 30:22Speaker 1: broke back in the day. Air fry Nowadays, Oh my god,
- 30:26Speaker 1: you can make anything in the air it's the best. Yeah,
- 30:28Speaker 1: I agree. So let's talk about these names. Jay Z,
- 30:33Speaker 1: you gotta I'm a huge jay Z fan. I'm damn well,
- 30:35Speaker 1: like I have a I'm just giving perspective. I'm married
- 30:40Speaker 1: now and if you walk into my house, the center
- 30:43Speaker 1: of my house, like in the living room, there is
- 30:45Speaker 1: like a six foot painting of jay Z sitting. It's
- 30:51Speaker 1: no one in the world has his painting. By the way,
- 30:53Speaker 1: I'm waiting for the day that I have the opportunity.
- 30:55Speaker 1: I haven't signed this only painting, only painting in the world. Okay,
- 31:00Speaker 1: I love him sitting with his feet kicked up in
- 31:02Speaker 1: the projects with a cooler picture. Yes, I had it
- 31:06Speaker 1: sent to my mom. I had her custom make this
- 31:08Speaker 1: painting for me. Yes, I haven't. And my husband to
- 31:13Speaker 1: this day says, we gotta move that and put a
- 31:16Speaker 1: family portrait. And I'm like, yeah, it's not going where.
- 31:18Speaker 1: He's like, you can put it, you can put it
- 31:20Speaker 1: in the It's not going anyway. But it's literally yeah anyways,
- 31:30Speaker 1: but I promise you this is a fight that goes
- 31:33Speaker 1: out of my house like all the time. But if
- 31:35Speaker 1: you walk in my house, it's an original painting of
- 31:37Speaker 1: a rare picture. It was Respect magazine that actually published
- 31:41Speaker 1: the picture, and I knew the publisher and I was like,
- 31:45Speaker 1: I need that picture. And then uh, does the painting
- 31:49Speaker 1: look like the picture or did the artist take some
- 31:51Speaker 1: artistic liberties? It's my mother who did it, and brick
- 31:55Speaker 1: by brick bro your mother did your mother? Artists? Yeah?
- 31:58Speaker 1: You artist? So I have the only one. I assure
- 32:02Speaker 1: you I have the only one because I know no
- 32:04Speaker 1: one in the world has done that. So now that
- 32:08Speaker 1: I would love that, really, he would love it. Well,
- 32:10Speaker 1: if you got the plugs, you know, make it happen.
- 32:14Speaker 1: I assure you I have the only one that's fire. Yes, yes,
- 32:18Speaker 1: I'll send you a picture. So with that being said,
- 32:22Speaker 1: please tell me you got a good hope story with
- 32:24Speaker 1: a good hope. I storry I got a million stories
- 32:30Speaker 1: with hope, but like I don't nothing nothing like that
- 32:33Speaker 1: sticks out, like nothing funny. Oh he's super funny. I
- 32:36Speaker 1: feel like he's super sarcastic, super s Like. Then let
- 32:40Speaker 1: me tell you about Hope, I know whole on a
- 32:43Speaker 1: such a personal level. Um, wait, we want on a
- 32:48Speaker 1: personal level. Yeah, I mean I've never been to his house,
- 32:53Speaker 1: but I'm just saying, like I worked for him two
- 32:55Speaker 1: different times. Um, and then the last time, I was
- 33:00Speaker 1: a rock nation as an artist, so he kind of
- 33:01Speaker 1: managed me, but I was like also working there so
- 33:05Speaker 1: like I used to. So he started a label called
- 33:07Speaker 1: rock Loft Familiar. Um, when he was president of Deaf Jam,
- 33:12Speaker 1: he started rock Loft Familiar. And when you hear you've
- 33:15Speaker 1: heard of O g One, right, O g One is
- 33:18Speaker 1: the guy who the other guy who owned rock Loft
- 33:19Speaker 1: Familiar with him. So O g One is one of
- 33:21Speaker 1: my mentors as well. So O g One and j
- 33:25Speaker 1: other people who owned forty forty. So when I worked
- 33:28Speaker 1: for rock Loft, familiar with Wan. Wan didn't like to
- 33:32Speaker 1: be up at Deaf Jam. He's like, I don't like
- 33:33Speaker 1: being around all these music industry people. So he would
- 33:36Speaker 1: only go there for meetings, and our office would be
- 33:38Speaker 1: just in his office at forty. So every day after work,
- 33:43Speaker 1: j would usually go to forty forty, so we would
- 33:47Speaker 1: always be in the club. That's how I know Dez,
- 33:50Speaker 1: who's O g One's wife, who is now the lady
- 33:53Speaker 1: who runs rock Nation, but like she was like the
- 33:57Speaker 1: not the manager, but one of the owners of forty forty,
- 33:59Speaker 1: but she also man, so like these are my like,
- 34:02Speaker 1: this is like my family. So Jay would come in
- 34:05Speaker 1: there and it was like all walls down, Jay, right now,
- 34:11Speaker 1: James from Brooklyn, And you know you're from Brooklyn, right,
- 34:14Speaker 1: you know how you animals are like you people from Brooklyn.
- 34:22Speaker 1: You know you got that wall, that wall that comes up.
- 34:26Speaker 1: So I would see non wall hole all the time.
- 34:30Speaker 1: And then if me O g one and Jay in
- 34:33Speaker 1: a in his office or one office and we order
- 34:37Speaker 1: food chilling talking, this is when like I'll sell exactly
- 34:41Speaker 1: what this was. This is when Jay did the remix
- 34:45Speaker 1: to the Kanye song Diamonds Are Forever. So he had
- 34:51Speaker 1: just done it, and he was playing it in the
- 34:52Speaker 1: studio in the office over and over and and he
- 34:58Speaker 1: just kept playing it, playing and playing in it, and
- 35:01Speaker 1: like all he had was his verse. So it goes,
- 35:04Speaker 1: I got it from here, Yeah, damn, And I wonder
- 35:06Speaker 1: why he started it like that. But then when you
- 35:09Speaker 1: hear the song, you got Kanye's verse, and then Jake
- 35:12Speaker 1: cuts him off right, So he's playing that over and
- 35:16Speaker 1: over and over. Then t I comes in randomly, they
- 35:21Speaker 1: all start smoking cigars, and then Puffy comes in and
- 35:24Speaker 1: they all start smoking cigars, and I'm like, I'm around
- 35:27Speaker 1: my idols, I'm around rich people. I'm just ear hustling everything.
- 35:32Speaker 1: They're like two more people come in that he didn't
- 35:35Speaker 1: really know. They were like maybe Tis business associates or
- 35:39Speaker 1: somebody like they look white or European as suits. And
- 35:43Speaker 1: then I see the jay Z wall go up. Trew
- 35:48Speaker 1: super friendly, super nice and and friendly and um cordial.
- 35:53Speaker 1: But all the laughing and joking around he was doing
- 35:57Speaker 1: just two minutes ago stopped and he's and and I
- 36:01Speaker 1: was like, oh, he's he don't know them. I didn't
- 36:03Speaker 1: know who knows who. I don't know, he don't know them,
- 36:07Speaker 1: and he and the wall went up like fast, and
- 36:10Speaker 1: I was like, oh, so he knows how to turn
- 36:13Speaker 1: it on and turn it off whenever. But my favorite
- 36:16Speaker 1: ship is my favorite one. We're in rock Nation and
- 36:20Speaker 1: I was working. I was helping him with title when
- 36:23Speaker 1: it first started, and I don't know what. I think
- 36:27Speaker 1: they were just giving me a check, to be honest
- 36:28Speaker 1: with you, like we love sife, give him a check.
- 36:31Speaker 1: So so I was helping him with title, but nobody
- 36:33Speaker 1: was even listening to me. I was just there. So
- 36:36Speaker 1: I'm sitting at the with I was on the one floor.
- 36:40Speaker 1: Hose office was on the next law up and it
- 36:43Speaker 1: was no stairs. You had to take the elevator. Somebody
- 36:46Speaker 1: the receptionist desk looking for an envelope to FedEx something whatever.
- 36:50Speaker 1: He gets off the elevator, he walks into the reception area.
- 36:54Speaker 1: I look up, I see him. I give my head
- 36:58Speaker 1: nod and I looked back down. Keep doing what I'm doing.
- 37:00Speaker 1: He walks past me, walks halfway down the hallway and goes, nah.
- 37:06Speaker 1: I look over. He goes, I'm still jay Z get
- 37:11Speaker 1: excited when you see me and I was like, yo,
- 37:14Speaker 1: come on, and he walks back over to me. He's like,
- 37:16Speaker 1: you know what the fox is wrong with you? Wrote?
- 37:18Speaker 1: I'm like, what are you talking about? He goes, I'll
- 37:21Speaker 1: still jay z. I go we're at work, like you
- 37:26Speaker 1: want me to fan out of rapper fan out when
- 37:28Speaker 1: we're at work, and he got He's like, nah man,
- 37:31Speaker 1: nah nah nah, I'm just that walks away. I'm still Hove.
- 37:35Speaker 1: I'm whole. I'm h to the oh. I was dying laughing, yo,
- 37:40Speaker 1: because he walked past me like an employee, like what's
- 37:44Speaker 1: and then called himself like nah no, no, no, no,
- 37:46Speaker 1: that was too little of excitement, because you can't I
- 37:52Speaker 1: don't know if what they tell employees at work there,
- 37:54Speaker 1: but I'm sure they tell them don't get crazy when
- 37:56Speaker 1: Hove comes around. I've heard stories. I mean, I'm definitely
- 37:59Speaker 1: not trying to take him, but I heard stories of
- 38:02Speaker 1: like people like you know, like they said that like
- 38:05Speaker 1: you can't take pictures of them. And I heard like
- 38:07Speaker 1: someone had took a picture of him in the hallway
- 38:09Speaker 1: and they got fired and then like no phones were
- 38:13Speaker 1: allowed or some crazy stuff. I believe that you gotta
- 38:16Speaker 1: earn it you gotta earn it. Yeah, I've heard some
- 38:19Speaker 1: stories because there's some just high level people there in
- 38:24Speaker 1: the corporate in the in the corporation, but um, there's
- 38:28Speaker 1: also like just people who might not even really be
- 38:32Speaker 1: into hip hop that like work there. Yeah. Yeah, So,
- 38:36Speaker 1: and the turnover rate was high, you know a lot
- 38:38Speaker 1: of people. The company was growing so fast, people just
- 38:41Speaker 1: getting hired. And I'm sure they had to tell him, like,
- 38:43Speaker 1: I can't fan out over this guy, but it's hard.
- 38:47Speaker 1: He got that aura, Yeah, he got that aura. So yeah,
- 38:54Speaker 1: I'm in London for Carnival, which is like the London
- 38:58Speaker 1: version of Labor Day Parade in Brooklyn, and um, I'm
- 39:04Speaker 1: DJ for a little Kim the only doing like three songs.
- 39:07Speaker 1: And then Jay was there with Dame and they said
- 39:10Speaker 1: that d J Clark can't got stuck at customs. They
- 39:12Speaker 1: wouldn't let him in. So he's like, Kim, can we
- 39:14Speaker 1: use your DJ? So I d J for jay Z
- 39:19Speaker 1: and he went before us because Kim was bigger than
- 39:22Speaker 1: him at the time, and all he had, all he
- 39:24Speaker 1: wanted to do is ain't no and dead press and
- 39:28Speaker 1: so remember this, it's crazy to just imagine that Kim
- 39:31Speaker 1: was bigger than j it's crazy but bigger, like yeah yeah, yeah,
- 39:35Speaker 1: no no, but sometimes it's crazy looking back now. And
- 39:39Speaker 1: then like Jake comes in, that's that's biggest friend. They're
- 39:42Speaker 1: all like super excited to see him. But he wasn't
- 39:45Speaker 1: the biggest rapper. He was just biggest friend that was
- 39:47Speaker 1: coming up. And and so there's a West Indian day
- 39:52Speaker 1: Uh festival, So you know a lot of West Indian
- 39:55Speaker 1: a lot of reggae records on forty five. So on
- 39:58Speaker 1: a turntable, it's third D three and it's forty five.
- 40:01Speaker 1: So when you play forty five records, you have to
- 40:03Speaker 1: click the button and that makes the turntable go faster.
- 40:07Speaker 1: So then I go to DJ for J but it's
- 40:09Speaker 1: like yo, yo, yo, DJ got stuck with you. DJ
- 40:11Speaker 1: for Us, we're going on right now. So I grabbed
- 40:13Speaker 1: my record. I run up there and they're like yo, yo,
- 40:16Speaker 1: we're ready, were ready, go go go play ain't no first.
- 40:19Speaker 1: So I go up there and it's still on forty five,
- 40:22Speaker 1: so I go, I just throw the record on. It's
- 40:24Speaker 1: like doom doom, doom, doom, doom, doom, doom doom doom,
- 40:27Speaker 1: and you know he starts the verse starts right off
- 40:30Speaker 1: the top. So as soon as I'm scratching, he gets
- 40:33Speaker 1: ready to do the verse, and it's mad fast, and
- 40:35Speaker 1: he gives me this look like you just ruined my life.
- 40:40Speaker 1: You ruined my life, you ruined my career. And it
- 40:43Speaker 1: was the craziest look ever. And I was like sorry.
- 40:46Speaker 1: And so to this day he brings that up. To
- 40:51Speaker 1: this day, he'll bring you you remember you ruined my
- 40:54Speaker 1: show in London. I'm like, I didn't ruin it. We
- 40:57Speaker 1: just it was ten seconds. It's like it's brought it back. Okay,
- 41:01Speaker 1: so let's let's bring it to like when you were
- 41:03Speaker 1: a A and R. So tell us a little bit
- 41:06Speaker 1: about that experience, which one like, uh, let's just talk
- 41:10Speaker 1: about Drake or like that I heard did you do
- 41:15Speaker 1: did you have anything to do with Drake? Oh no,
- 41:17Speaker 1: I was supposed to tell us about it. I failed
- 41:20Speaker 1: miserably tell us about it. Tell us about it. Um,
- 41:25Speaker 1: I have a joke that I do that I couldn't
- 41:27Speaker 1: sign Drake and I didn't do it. But that's not
- 41:29Speaker 1: as the joke is like makes me look like a loser,
- 41:31Speaker 1: but really it's not. So so Toronto is like my
- 41:35Speaker 1: second home. So I was in Toronto every year for
- 41:38Speaker 1: for Caravan and which is the other West Indian festival.
- 41:41Speaker 1: But I used to be in Toronto all the time
- 41:42Speaker 1: my card and now will fish out like one of
- 41:43Speaker 1: my best friends. And I got introduced to Drake through
- 41:50Speaker 1: who's the guy that runs um the Ovio thing? Um
- 41:56Speaker 1: what's his name? Oliver Listen? I don't know. He runs
- 42:02Speaker 1: like he runs like the Ovo clothing all that stuff.
- 42:05Speaker 1: So he I was up there and they were like, yo, safe,
- 42:08Speaker 1: um this is when I I was. It was oh seven,
- 42:12Speaker 1: so I was I just I think I just left. Yeah,
- 42:16Speaker 1: I just left Rock at Familiar because I got a
- 42:20Speaker 1: job as a VG on MTV, and Hove said to me, yo,
- 42:25Speaker 1: you should take that job. You can always be an
- 42:28Speaker 1: A and R. You're not always gonna be the young
- 42:30Speaker 1: hot DJ that gets on MTV. So I was like, okay,
- 42:33Speaker 1: you're right. So I took it and then uh so
- 42:37Speaker 1: Drake uh people, they gave me his CD and if
- 42:41Speaker 1: you look it up, it's the CD where he got
- 42:43Speaker 1: the peak code on with the with the leaves with
- 42:46Speaker 1: the fall leaves behind them. You know I'm talking about
- 42:49Speaker 1: right if you google, I forgot what it's called. But
- 42:51Speaker 1: he got the peak code on and the autumn leaves
- 42:55Speaker 1: in the background, and then I was like I looked
- 42:57Speaker 1: at I was like, what the what the this is? R?
- 42:59Speaker 1: And B what the this? And then um and then
- 43:03Speaker 1: so he go here's the stories. He met me at
- 43:06Speaker 1: this place called Frands Diner, and he went to Toronto
- 43:08Speaker 1: those friends dinner and he was like, yo, I'm trying
- 43:11Speaker 1: to get a deal. But he was mad young, like
- 43:15Speaker 1: super young, and I just told him. I was like, yo,
- 43:19Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I'm not looking for artists right now because
- 43:22Speaker 1: I just got on MTV, like I'm I'm trying to
- 43:25Speaker 1: do my thing, you know, I'm not trying to sign
- 43:27Speaker 1: anyone right now. And he was like, no, I'm telling you,
- 43:30Speaker 1: I'm this, I'm that, And I was like, I believe you,
- 43:32Speaker 1: but I just I'm sorry, it's just not I was
- 43:35Speaker 1: starting to feel because I had gotten this whole Rhianna
- 43:37Speaker 1: situation where basically not taken away from me, and I
- 43:41Speaker 1: felt like I was like, I'm not I'm gonna focus
- 43:43Speaker 1: on me. Also, I was managing the group Need the Sky,
- 43:47Speaker 1: and they they were annoying me because like I was
- 43:52Speaker 1: doing more work than them, like I'm showing up early
- 43:55Speaker 1: I'm setting up to turn. I was DJ for them,
- 43:57Speaker 1: I was managing them. Sometimes it would be late. Sometimes
- 43:59Speaker 1: it would playing about the bread and I'm like, yo,
- 44:02Speaker 1: any bread, any bread you get for performing is worked
- 44:06Speaker 1: it like we gotta get to it. And so that
- 44:09Speaker 1: I was frustrated. So I was like, I'm not looking
- 44:11Speaker 1: for artists right now. I want to just focus on me.
- 44:13Speaker 1: I wish I could wrap, because if I could wrap,
- 44:15Speaker 1: I would outwork all of you. And that was my concept.
- 44:18Speaker 1: I mean that was my idea, um my mind frame.
- 44:22Speaker 1: So they're like a year and a half later, maybe
- 44:24Speaker 1: not that long, maybe like a year, Like he starts
- 44:26Speaker 1: getting the buzz like all the college girls like, oh, Drake,
- 44:30Speaker 1: Drake Drake. I was like, I know, I know someone
- 44:32Speaker 1: named Drake is that that that can't be the same kid.
- 44:36Speaker 1: And it was the same kid and then but I
- 44:39Speaker 1: was still cool with him. I'm still cool with him
- 44:41Speaker 1: to this day. My old manager runs over up. Mr
- 44:44Speaker 1: Morgan runs it like but like you know the famous
- 44:49Speaker 1: freestyle when he came up to flex and he had
- 44:51Speaker 1: the BlackBerry. There's like a YouTube video where everybody made
- 44:55Speaker 1: fun of him because he was reading off the black
- 44:56Speaker 1: berry that I'm the one who brought him there. I
- 45:00Speaker 1: brought him to Like, I was telling Flexio, this is
- 45:01Speaker 1: this kid, he's really dope. He's from Toronto. Flexis that
- 45:05Speaker 1: you love Toronto everything And I said, no, I'm telling you,
- 45:09Speaker 1: he's buzzing, like you know, we should get him up.
- 45:12Speaker 1: But he came up. But I didn't sign him. But
- 45:14Speaker 1: I could have signed, Like Rihana was responsible for helping
- 45:17Speaker 1: get a deal, so you helped get her. Oh, I
- 45:20Speaker 1: got her the deal, Like I got her the deal. Yeah,
- 45:26Speaker 1: and then um and then um, I almost got Damien
- 45:32Speaker 1: Marley a deal, but um, it was like very close.
- 45:38Speaker 1: But then the Marley family was like, because he was
- 45:40Speaker 1: trying to sign in the Rock Left Familiar. Rock Left
- 45:42Speaker 1: Familiar was like jay Z. It was called like a
- 45:44Speaker 1: world label, so we were trying to do Caribbean. We
- 45:47Speaker 1: were trying to do Spanish all that stuff, and the
- 45:51Speaker 1: Marley family was like, we don't sign to rappers. They
- 45:56Speaker 1: like they shut us down. Okay, Cube, Mr jay Z,
- 46:01Speaker 1: but we don't wear Marley Gonna signed to rappers. Man,
- 46:05Speaker 1: it was nasty. So where did comedy come into mix? Oh?
- 46:30Speaker 1: Because I didn't sign Drake so I got fired. Now
- 46:36Speaker 1: comedy came, um, my name dropping too much. We love it. No, no, no,
- 46:44Speaker 1: we love this guy. Yeh. So okay, there's a lot
- 46:51Speaker 1: of different So basically I'm no, no, no. There's a
- 46:55Speaker 1: lot of reasons why comedy came into play. First of all,
- 46:58Speaker 1: when I got my own show on the radio. My
- 47:00Speaker 1: first big show is called Cipher Saturdays. It was, you know,
- 47:05Speaker 1: difference between a jock and a DJ, like a DJ
- 47:07Speaker 1: mix his records and a job just talks like Andrew
- 47:10Speaker 1: Martinez is a job. So they gave me the show
- 47:13Speaker 1: on Saturday nine am to two pm. They wanted me
- 47:16Speaker 1: to be a job from nine am to noon and
- 47:18Speaker 1: then mix on Saturday at noon. Never been done before. No,
- 47:23Speaker 1: but you gotta remember everything we here nowadays is so common.
- 47:26Speaker 1: This was the first time ever there was a DJ
- 47:29Speaker 1: on the radio at noon on a Saturday. Because I
- 47:34Speaker 1: was like, yo, let me mix. My boss was like, yo,
- 47:36Speaker 1: you could be a jock. I was like, I don't
- 47:37Speaker 1: want to be a job. I just want to be
- 47:38Speaker 1: a DJ. She's like, I let you DJ, but you
- 47:41Speaker 1: gotta be a job because she saw something in me
- 47:42Speaker 1: that I didn't see at the time, that I would
- 47:44Speaker 1: be a good radio personality. I'm thinking noon on a Saturday.
- 47:50Speaker 1: Everyone's in their car, watching their car, doing laundry, grocery shopping,
- 47:55Speaker 1: like you know what I mean. Like it was like
- 47:57Speaker 1: untapped market as far as like mixing like party vibes.
- 48:03Speaker 1: So so anyway, when I got that show, when I
- 48:05Speaker 1: was doing the talking part, I would be doing pranks
- 48:08Speaker 1: because nobody's there on Saturday. There's no bosses in the building.
- 48:11Speaker 1: That was wilding out I was doing. I would call
- 48:13Speaker 1: one Chinese restaurant and then put him on conference code
- 48:16Speaker 1: with another Chinese restaurant and and even start yelling at
- 48:19Speaker 1: each uh, doing like that all the time, and then um,
- 48:25Speaker 1: y'all listen, if you want to have fun, try that
- 48:29Speaker 1: just and then go can't place the order, and then
- 48:32Speaker 1: that's what I gotta say, and just let it run. Um.
- 48:37Speaker 1: So I was doing these little pranks and everybody would
- 48:39Speaker 1: say to me, you're funny. You know you're funny on
- 48:41Speaker 1: the radio, like I'd be DJ and at night and
- 48:43Speaker 1: girls would calling to me like, yeah, yo, you're man funny,
- 48:45Speaker 1: you man funny, So like the hustler brain and me
- 48:48Speaker 1: was like, why do you keep saying funny? Like what
- 48:50Speaker 1: is this funny thing? The hustler brain nowhere in there
- 48:55Speaker 1: that I think I was a comedian. I was just like,
- 48:58Speaker 1: people keep saying, I'm funny, How can I make money
- 49:02Speaker 1: with funny? So I started producing a comedy show and
- 49:06Speaker 1: had it packed out because I was on the radio,
- 49:08Speaker 1: so I could, you know what I mean, the same
- 49:11Speaker 1: way I could had every DJ in the world was
- 49:14Speaker 1: doing a nightclub, not one DJ was doing a comedy show.
- 49:18Speaker 1: So I was like, I wonder if I could get
- 49:19Speaker 1: people to come to a comedy show and then from there.
- 49:23Speaker 1: But also before that, I was a DJ on The
- 49:25Speaker 1: Chappelle Show. So Dave we used to warm up the
- 49:29Speaker 1: crowd before we started taping, and I used to do
- 49:32Speaker 1: some DJ yo the Little John skit came from me,
- 49:35Speaker 1: you know, Little John? Um. Dave Chappelle's Little John was like,
- 49:39Speaker 1: what yeah, that came from me. I had a Little
- 49:43Speaker 1: John record and we would be working with the audience
- 49:46Speaker 1: and and Dave would say something. I would just scratch
- 49:49Speaker 1: in what yeah yeah, what yeah? And he was like, yo, yo, yo,
- 49:54Speaker 1: why why do you why do you keep doing like yo?
- 49:55Speaker 1: That's the thing people say when they hear a Little John.
- 49:58Speaker 1: And then like a couple of weeks he shot up
- 50:01Speaker 1: a little John sketch sketch. So anyway, so Dave was like, Yo,
- 50:05Speaker 1: you're funny. You should do stand up And I was like,
- 50:08Speaker 1: this is two thousand two three, How the fun what
- 50:12Speaker 1: I do? Stand up? What are you talking about? Like
- 50:14Speaker 1: you're an idiot? But this Dave Chappelle, he knew. And
- 50:17Speaker 1: then another time I was on when I was on MTV,
- 50:20Speaker 1: both Will Smith and Jamie Fox said, I was funny.
- 50:24Speaker 1: You're seeing a lot of funny keep popping up. I'm
- 50:27Speaker 1: just being me. I'm funny with my friends on a
- 50:30Speaker 1: road trip. Yeah. Yeah, well you sound like you're a
- 50:32Speaker 1: lot of fun to be. Oh no, no, I'm not
- 50:34Speaker 1: fun at all. No, no, no, i'm funny. I am
- 50:38Speaker 1: not fun. I am boring. So looking at Eagle, is
- 50:44Speaker 1: that I'm out? He was like, yeah, man out him Eagle,
- 50:52Speaker 1: Eagle with favorite Favery funny comedian him and all the
- 50:55Speaker 1: other younger comics. After the show, they're chilling, They're talking
- 50:59Speaker 1: about to go somewhere drink that. I'm in my car.
- 51:02Speaker 1: I'm out. I'm watching fucking Colombo in my car on
- 51:07Speaker 1: the way home. Um. But like Jamie Fox like, I'm
- 51:10Speaker 1: just being a VJ. And MTV and they're like, yeah,
- 51:13Speaker 1: you're funny. Bro was like really, why why are you
- 51:16Speaker 1: saying that? And Will Smith was like yo, he pulled.
- 51:19Speaker 1: He pulled me aside, goes, do you do comedy? I
- 51:21Speaker 1: don't know, I'm a DJ. Heees you should do comedy.
- 51:25Speaker 1: I was like wow, okay. So then they always funneled
- 51:28Speaker 1: around in my head and I started doing that show,
- 51:31Speaker 1: and then I started taking it seriously okay, And then
- 51:34Speaker 1: when did you actually step behind the mic and like
- 51:36Speaker 1: become standard? So I did. I would say I did
- 51:40Speaker 1: a year of my shows at this place called Comics
- 51:43Speaker 1: it's not there anymore, fourteenth to nine, and it was
- 51:46Speaker 1: called it Don't Get Gas Comedy Series. Everybody came to
- 51:50Speaker 1: my show, all rappers, I mean, Drake was there, a
- 51:53Speaker 1: little Wayne Rick Ross um t I. Everybody came to
- 51:58Speaker 1: my show then, Kevin Hart, my Gaps, Tracy Morgan. Like
- 52:02Speaker 1: my show used to be, oh, I don't know nothing
- 52:04Speaker 1: about sports, but they used to be crazy NBA players
- 52:07Speaker 1: and football players in there, like my boy, my boys
- 52:10Speaker 1: be like, that's John Starks. Just say something about dunking
- 52:14Speaker 1: on Jordan's. I was like, oh right, I gotta say that.
- 52:16Speaker 1: Go yeah, you're dun Dune Jordan, and the crowd was crazy.
- 52:19Speaker 1: I don't even know what the funk I'm saying, but
- 52:22Speaker 1: um so yeah. So then that became like this celebrity,
- 52:25Speaker 1: but the celebrities would all come. And then after a
- 52:31Speaker 1: year of that, I was just I was just going
- 52:33Speaker 1: on stage saying hi and then introducing the comedian. And
- 52:37Speaker 1: then I tried one little joke here, one little joke there.
- 52:40Speaker 1: It started to work. Oh that's funny, like da da da.
- 52:44Speaker 1: And then like a year of that, uh, some comics
- 52:48Speaker 1: step to me. Uh, Talent Capone, Will Sylvans, a couple
- 52:54Speaker 1: of those guys, Mark Vieira, they cornered me and they go, okay,
- 52:57Speaker 1: we need to talk to you. I was like, okay,
- 53:00Speaker 1: what the fuck And they're like, you seem to be
- 53:03Speaker 1: really trying to take this ship seriously, because when radio
- 53:07Speaker 1: people do a comedy show, they like kind of steal
- 53:12Speaker 1: jokes and try to just run off their radio fame
- 53:16Speaker 1: or whatever fame. Like He's like, they were like, you
- 53:18Speaker 1: you seem to really like this. I paid well. It
- 53:22Speaker 1: was a Tuesday night, pat everybody wanted to come to
- 53:25Speaker 1: my show, and I paid well. I didn't care about
- 53:27Speaker 1: making like I would pay a lot, and they were like,
- 53:31Speaker 1: if you want to take this seriously, you need to
- 53:33Speaker 1: know this doesn't count. I was like why, They're like
- 53:37Speaker 1: this your fans, these are your audience. They know you're ready.
- 53:40Speaker 1: You gotta go where no one knows you because you're
- 53:44Speaker 1: so They're like, come to like this little hole in
- 53:47Speaker 1: the wall or this little bar and queens or whatever.
- 53:51Speaker 1: And the next year was just bombings, horrifically bombing, just disgusting.
- 54:00Speaker 1: But I kept going back. So they were like you
- 54:03Speaker 1: you want to be a comedian, so you gotta like
- 54:05Speaker 1: now really and music and then so then then I
- 54:13Speaker 1: then I was on the morning show on Hot and
- 54:19Speaker 1: like a comic, like somebody like let's say Kevin Hart
- 54:22Speaker 1: like this before he was big. But he was like, yo,
- 54:24Speaker 1: you want to come to Albany with us this weekend,
- 54:27Speaker 1: but like we're leaving on Thursday. We gotta show Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
- 54:31Speaker 1: And I'm like, I can't. I'm on the radio. And
- 54:35Speaker 1: this is where when I had the chance to go
- 54:38Speaker 1: beat Rihanna's DJ, I said no because I was on
- 54:42Speaker 1: the radio, and I always regretted it. So then I
- 54:45Speaker 1: so then I started regretting when comics would ask me
- 54:49Speaker 1: to go open for them and I couldn't go. So
- 54:52Speaker 1: that's when I started saying, oh, I need to make
- 54:54Speaker 1: a choice. Che made the choice. Yeah, the last two
- 54:58Speaker 1: years of Hot Night Severn were horrible for me. Horrible.
- 55:01Speaker 1: So where can your fans or people that are interested
- 55:06Speaker 1: in seeing your stand up or find you get tickets
- 55:10Speaker 1: to your show? Like? Where can they all catch you at? Um? Well,
- 55:14Speaker 1: if I'm in New York, I'm a mostly at the
- 55:16Speaker 1: Comedy Seller. But do you do Instagram and all that stuff? Yeah,
- 55:23Speaker 1: it's just my name as Cipher sounds c I p
- 55:26Speaker 1: h A sounds um like. I always say the Comedy Seller.
- 55:30Speaker 1: But then also the Comedy Seller sells out every show,
- 55:33Speaker 1: so I don't even invite people there because we can't
- 55:35Speaker 1: get them in. Yeah, but you know people, you know people,
- 55:40Speaker 1: people are gonna want to So I started posting clips
- 55:44Speaker 1: on my Instagram about a year ago, And the only
- 55:47Speaker 1: reason why I do it is because my my hip
- 55:51Speaker 1: hop fans did not necessarily follow me to comedy, which
- 55:55Speaker 1: pissed me off, and I had a long talk with
- 55:58Speaker 1: a friend of mine. He was like, no, it's not
- 55:59Speaker 1: that they didn't follow you. You didn't tell them to
- 56:02Speaker 1: follow you like they're supposed to just do it, you know,
- 56:05Speaker 1: like you gotta tell them. So I started posting clips
- 56:09Speaker 1: and my only reason I post clips is for all
- 56:11Speaker 1: my old fans to see I do this now. Yeah,
- 56:14Speaker 1: that's my goal, and it's working. You know. I'm not
- 56:17Speaker 1: trying to blow up off TikTok and Instagram yet right now.
- 56:22Speaker 1: I just want I already have a fan base right now.
- 56:24Speaker 1: You're just like trying to make the official announcement that
- 56:27Speaker 1: there's a transition and happening. Guys, you want to keep
- 56:31Speaker 1: it with Cipher Sounds and everything he's doing comedy wise,
- 56:35Speaker 1: because he's officially in the comedy circuit. And I'm seven
- 56:38Speaker 1: years late and announcing this. So thank you so so
- 56:42Speaker 1: it's officially been announced that Cipher Sounds, yes, exited. But also,
- 56:47Speaker 1: like I said before, I don't care. I'm enjoying the journey.
- 56:50Speaker 1: Don't come whatever, come check them out because I know
- 56:53Speaker 1: I will be. Um, thank you so much. I didn't
- 56:58Speaker 1: get to any stories yet, all right, thank you so much.
- 57:04Speaker 1: Has got a microwave form these French fries. You thank
- 57:10Speaker 1: you so much for coming all the way down to Brooklyn,
- 57:12Speaker 1: because I know you absolutely look at you hating on Brooklyn.
- 57:17Speaker 1: Make sure you keep the energy for j Listen. Last thing,
- 57:20Speaker 1: I gotta go. I know you gotta go. We gotta leave.
- 57:23Speaker 1: Thank you, Charlomagne. Two things. One b K is the
- 57:30Speaker 1: stupidest thing in the world because it's two syllables brook Lynton,
- 57:37Speaker 1: so it should be b L. I don't know how
- 57:40Speaker 1: it became b K. It's so the name of where it.
- 57:44Speaker 1: I'm sorry, but look at eagles face. His wheels are
- 57:47Speaker 1: turning like listen, I don't know why you Brooklyn people.
- 57:51Speaker 1: Where do you live in brook Clinton? That makes no sense.
- 57:55Speaker 1: It's Brooklyn. Also, you Brooklyn people live on island. I
- 58:01Speaker 1: know you hate to admit it. I know you don't
- 58:03Speaker 1: want to admit it. You don't want to look at you.
- 58:05Speaker 1: Your hurt right now, you're upset. Look at the map.
- 58:09Speaker 1: There's a place called Manhattan, and to the right of
- 58:12Speaker 1: that on the map there's a place called Long Island.
- 58:14Speaker 1: The first place you see on that island it's Brooklyn.
- 58:19Speaker 1: But you live on Long Island. I'm sorry. I know
- 58:23Speaker 1: you guys. You guys are listened to the show, but
- 58:26Speaker 1: we have a we have a small audience here and
- 58:28Speaker 1: if you see Ego Ego wits in the house. If
- 58:31Speaker 1: you see his face, his jaws, like, I might not
- 58:35Speaker 1: listen if if you never hear from me again, I
- 58:38Speaker 1: was murdered somewhere in Brooklyn. Microware and French fried dudes. Well,
- 58:48Speaker 1: I just want to say, it's a pleasure having you.
- 58:49Speaker 1: We may have to do if I come back to
- 58:52Speaker 1: New York. We may just have to do another another
- 58:54Speaker 1: run of this because I feel like you have a
- 58:57Speaker 1: body of art of stories. Can we do it in Manhatan?
- 59:00Speaker 1: We could, We could, We could make an exception to
- 59:02Speaker 1: do it in Manhattan. Hopefully my budget will be bigger.
- 59:06Speaker 1: We're doing. I'll do it. Deal, deal, Now what we
- 59:10Speaker 1: gotta do to get this jay Z painting signed? Make
- 59:14Speaker 1: it happen. For visiting Long Island and coming to be it.
- 59:21Speaker 1: We really appreciate eating these wings. Everybody you can catch
- 59:25Speaker 1: Cipher sounds. Follow him on Instagram. I'll be checking him
- 59:28Speaker 1: out before I leave town. I'm gonna try and figure
- 59:30Speaker 1: out where you're as. I'll go to comedy seller tonight,
- 59:34Speaker 1: comedy seller. All right, it's good, it's any month. Brow