Latest / The Breakfast Club / INTERVIEW: Rapsody Talks New Album ‘God Gotta Afro & Gold Hoops’, Spirituality, Afrofuturism, Collaborations + More

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INTERVIEW: Rapsody Talks New Album ‘God Gotta Afro & Gold Hoops’, Spirituality, Afrofuturism, Collaborations + More · The Breakfast Club

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Every day up the Breakfast Club. You know, I'm finished
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: for y'all, dummy morning.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: Everybody is the DJ Envy just hilarious. Charlamagne the God.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: We are the breakfast Club. Lawla roses here as well.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: We got a special guest in the buildings.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Y'all won't come back.
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: Ain't no special guests on family. How you feeling, Cousin
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: is here. I'm good, good, so good.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: A new album. God got an Afro and gold hoops. Yes,
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: break that title down, man.
• 0:32
  Speaker 4: I took a trip to Ghana before I went to
• 0:35
  Speaker 4: Joe Burgh to record the album. And we were up
• 0:37
  Speaker 4: one morning going to see the Ashanti tribe, right, and
• 0:40
  Speaker 4: They're playing this white, westernized gospel music and I'm like,
• 0:43
  Speaker 4: why am I listening to this in Africa?
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: The station at the station, and.
• 0:46
  Speaker 4: It just made me think, like, man, even in the continent,
• 0:49
  Speaker 4: spirituality and the sound of that and religion is co opted.
• 0:53
  Speaker 4: And I thought about America, like, you know, we're here
• 0:56
  Speaker 4: in America and Jesus is painted as white, and it's
• 0:59
  Speaker 4: like books are being banned and d I's going away
• 1:02
  Speaker 4: and they're whitewashing and rewriting history. So I was like, yo,
• 1:06
  Speaker 4: like we have to tell our stories. We got to
• 1:09
  Speaker 4: preserve our stories and our truth. So the first thing
• 1:11
  Speaker 4: is like, don't forget to see God in yourself.
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: Got it like you can't comprehend.
• 1:15
  Speaker 4: God in all reality, genderlest form, this shapeless, raceless, but
• 1:19
  Speaker 4: you know you got to see God in all things.
• 1:21
  Speaker 4: And don't let them say black people aren't in the
• 1:24
  Speaker 4: image of God either.
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: So that was it.
• 1:26
  Speaker 4: You recorded the whole album and Joe Bergh I recorded
• 1:29
  Speaker 4: four songs in Joe Bird the heart of It.
• 1:31
  Speaker 5: Okay, yes, why Joe Bird.
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: It was just calling me.
• 1:35
  Speaker 4: I hadn't been in like twelve years, but it's one
• 1:37
  Speaker 4: of my favorite places to go.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: Beautiful.
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: It was just calling me.
• 1:41
  Speaker 4: You know, everything I was attracted to, whether I was
• 1:44
  Speaker 4: looking at style and fashion or I was really in
• 1:47
  Speaker 4: the fella cootie listening to that. So I was just like,
• 1:49
  Speaker 4: I was just answering to calling that was in me.
• 1:52
  Speaker 4: I called my manager. I was like, I think I
• 1:53
  Speaker 4: need to go to Joe Bird to record this album.
• 1:56
  Speaker 4: So we just we just did with felt Good.
• 2:00
  Speaker 6: The title pairs ear rings well hoops with the airfro.
• 2:04
  Speaker 6: What's the significance behind that?
• 2:06
  Speaker 4: Man, I'm a woman, so it's like, you know, it's
• 2:10
  Speaker 4: for everybody else, but like when I look in the mirror,
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: I got to see God in myself too. And at
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: the time I had just cut my hair, I was
• 2:17
  Speaker 4: growing to fro.
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: I love gold hoops.
• 2:20
  Speaker 4: I was just like, you know, and we don't talk
• 2:22
  Speaker 4: about women in that light enough, so it was like
• 2:25
  Speaker 4: the a gold hoops is important, you know, So that
• 2:27
  Speaker 4: was it. It was just like, that's how I see
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: myself super black, I'm black Ninja, but I.
• 2:35
  Speaker 7: Think I please don't cry, right, like, please don't cry.
• 2:38
  Speaker 7: Felt like you was taking a lot.
• 2:39
  Speaker 5: Of armor off.
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: I was getting naked for the world for sure.
• 2:42
  Speaker 7: God got an afro and gold hoops. Feels like you're
• 2:44
  Speaker 7: putting something back on.
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: You said it exactly how I said.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: That's when I ask you about the title.
• 2:49
  Speaker 7: It makes a lot of sense because it feels like
• 2:50
  Speaker 7: you're putting back on identity exactly.
• 2:53
  Speaker 4: I got to take off with society, family, religion and
• 2:57
  Speaker 4: everybody put on me.
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: I got naked, but now I get redress myself.
• 3:01
  Speaker 7: You know, what did you rediscover about yourself between those
• 3:05
  Speaker 7: two albums?
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: Man? I think the one thing is like affirm and
• 3:10
  Speaker 4: validating yourself, like you're enough you don't have to try
• 3:14
  Speaker 4: to fit in any boxes or be any one thing,
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: and you can love blackness and be black and it's okay,
• 3:21
  Speaker 4: like there's space for it. Like I just stopped trying
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: to chase things validation, Billboard hits.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: What were you changing?
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: I don't feel like Rhapsody ever chases that Like Rhapsody.
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: I wasn't looking at jo Sign.
• 3:37
  Speaker 5: I was focused to chase validation, like I never.
• 3:40
  Speaker 4: Got that from either, maybe not in a sense like
• 3:44
  Speaker 4: everybody else does, where it's like something's trendy, like let
• 3:47
  Speaker 4: me be with everybody else. Mine was like when I
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: was growing up in what I thought validation and successful,
• 3:53
  Speaker 4: like especially in this business. You know, it was awards,
• 3:56
  Speaker 4: it was you know, Billboard hits the best of the best.
• 3:59
  Speaker 4: We're sitting in those seat. It's really not like that.
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: You know, you can sit there and you don't have
• 4:03
  Speaker 4: to be the best of the best and have the
• 4:04
  Speaker 4: best music. So you know, that was a disconnect. I'm like, yo,
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: if I want to be the best of the best,
• 4:09
  Speaker 4: this is is what Lauren and Queen Latifa and missy
• 4:12
  Speaker 4: Ellie and Jay and Nas and all these people. They
• 4:15
  Speaker 4: hit these markers Like I got to hit those markers,
• 4:18
  Speaker 4: you know, but it's all an illusion, is what I
• 4:21
  Speaker 4: found out. So you know, you just you walk your wall,
• 4:24
  Speaker 4: you know, and that's it. Whoever come along, they come along.
• 4:27
  Speaker 7: That's a great that's a great point, right because I
• 4:31
  Speaker 7: want like when you if the blueprint was the blueprint
• 4:34
  Speaker 7: just musically, but it wasn't nothing that, no sales or nothing,
• 4:38
  Speaker 7: it would still it would still be the blueprint.
• 4:40
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and that's it, Like, you know, we can't allow
• 4:44
  Speaker 4: people to put value on our art by those things.
• 4:47
  Speaker 4: It's really like, how are you impacting people at the
• 4:49
  Speaker 4: end of the day. For me, that's my measure, Like
• 4:52
  Speaker 4: when I go out in the world and I talk
• 4:54
  Speaker 4: to people and they tell me how my music changed
• 4:56
  Speaker 4: your life.
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: Okay, that's that's the currency for me.
• 4:58
  Speaker 8: So is that and that's your measure of success too,
• 5:02
  Speaker 8: absolute amount of people that are able to do that.
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 5:04
  Speaker 8: Yeah, when you and in free your mind you talk
• 5:06
  Speaker 8: about how you were putting a lot on you but
• 5:08
  Speaker 8: not enough God.
• 5:10
  Speaker 4: I always walk with God, but it's like you still
• 5:14
  Speaker 4: can overthink in it sometimes, so yeah, you gotta you
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: gotta surrender. And my manager gave me this great quote
• 5:22
  Speaker 4: a couple of months ago, She's like, we're in God's algorithm,
• 5:25
  Speaker 4: God's timing. I think it's more of that, you know,
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: like I know I'm walking an assignment of what I'm
• 5:30
  Speaker 4: supposed to do, but like you can't worry about it.
• 5:33
  Speaker 4: What comes, what doesn't come. Some things don't come because
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: it's divine protection. So you just you let it go
• 5:39
  Speaker 4: and flow. You know, everything is as it should be
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: if you if you're doing what you're supposed to do
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: your God's algorithm.
• 5:46
  Speaker 5: I think growing up with that does and take the
• 5:50
  Speaker 5: wrong way.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: I just feel like.
• 5:52
  Speaker 7: It's more discipline and practice than it is actual.
• 5:57
  Speaker 4: Your spirituality, absolutely, you know, like with Jehovah's witnesses kids.
• 6:03
  Speaker 4: So it's definitely that like going to the keen of
• 6:06
  Speaker 4: Hall to meeting three four times a week. Yeah, but
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: you know, one thing I am grateful for my mom
• 6:13
  Speaker 4: when I was like seventeen, Like she was like, you
• 6:16
  Speaker 4: have to make the truth your own, and that's something
• 6:18
  Speaker 4: that stuck with me always. So just saying that, you know,
• 6:22
  Speaker 4: I got to go in the world and just listen
• 6:24
  Speaker 4: to other people and how they practice in their relationship
• 6:27
  Speaker 4: with God and figure out what's true for me, you know,
• 6:31
  Speaker 4: And yeah, it life will will make you go inward,
• 6:34
  Speaker 4: you know, if you're not afraid to go in there
• 6:36
  Speaker 4: and look in the mirror, like it'll make you go.
• 6:38
  Speaker 4: And when you go, that's where you're gonna find God
• 6:40
  Speaker 4: the most, you know.
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: I think I.
• 6:42
  Speaker 7: Love that you start the album off with the intro
• 6:44
  Speaker 7: Peace God, because I don't know what it was about
• 6:46
  Speaker 7: the intro. It felt like a reminder, like it was
• 6:49
  Speaker 7: almost like, oh, shoot, just in case you forgot you know.
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, that's like I wrote it.
• 6:55
  Speaker 4: Like I wrote this album like it was a book
• 6:58
  Speaker 4: and it got banned, you know, and somebody found it
• 7:02
  Speaker 4: one hundred thousand years later, you know, one hundred and ten.
• 7:05
  Speaker 4: It could be ten years later, but they just found
• 7:07
  Speaker 4: it in the future. And it's like the first thing
• 7:09
  Speaker 4: I need you to know is like God again, Like
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: you gotta start with God. And that's why it's like
• 7:17
  Speaker 4: peace God. It's like five percent you be on the street,
• 7:19
  Speaker 4: Peace God. Like you know again, see God in yourself.
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: You know, your genius, your your strength, your power, your intelligence,
• 7:29
  Speaker 4: all those things.
• 7:30
  Speaker 6: Like yeah, I love that because that's that strengthens young
• 7:33
  Speaker 6: black women.
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean everybody, a lot of us, Yeah, but like.
• 7:37
  Speaker 8: A lot of us really need to, you know, especially
• 7:39
  Speaker 8: to youth.
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah, this lost child, I didn't know GPS.
• 7:44
  Speaker 6: It's like that this is this is a good message
• 7:47
  Speaker 6: for them. Is what else would you want, you know,
• 7:49
  Speaker 6: young black women to take away from this album, Not
• 7:53
  Speaker 6: that you specifically wrote it for just young black women,
• 7:56
  Speaker 6: but like, yeah, you know, I don't know. I feel
• 7:58
  Speaker 6: like it's so much message in your music, you know,
• 8:02
  Speaker 6: specifically for black girls.
• 8:04
  Speaker 8: I felt that though with the first song it felt
• 8:06
  Speaker 8: like permission a little bit, like all right, like we
• 8:08
  Speaker 8: can like I can step into whatever this error is
• 8:12
  Speaker 8: that she's about to walk me into and it's okay
• 8:14
  Speaker 8: if yeah, like permission.
• 8:16
  Speaker 4: It's just it's just like really learning to be with
• 8:19
  Speaker 4: yourself and know yourself and love yourself and be that.
• 8:22
  Speaker 4: You know the world is like that, it'll have you
• 8:25
  Speaker 4: chasing all these things from looks to you know, what
• 8:29
  Speaker 4: success is supposed to be for you, and especially you
• 8:31
  Speaker 4: know in my business, like a lot of women looking
• 8:34
  Speaker 4: sound alike. You know, there's nothing wrong, Like it's all
• 8:38
  Speaker 4: just be your authentic self whatever that is, Like your
• 8:40
  Speaker 4: truth is your truth, and I think anytime you operate
• 8:43
  Speaker 4: outside of your truth, you know, that's when you have
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: the friction in your life.
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: So just be your authentic self.
• 8:49
  Speaker 4: Don't look at the world and say like I have
• 8:52
  Speaker 4: to be this to be validated, to be successful.
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: Like that's what the bigger message is.
• 8:57
  Speaker 4: You know, when you look in the mirror and you're
• 8:58
  Speaker 4: at one with yourself and you have relationship with God
• 9:01
  Speaker 4: and you know your purpose and your assignment and you
• 9:03
  Speaker 4: walking out whatever it is, no judgment, but just let
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: it be true to you.
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: That's have you.
• 9:08
  Speaker 6: Always been like so grounded and so you know, no,
• 9:13
  Speaker 6: comfortable in yourself?
• 9:14
  Speaker 4: Absolutely not, no, No, This is a journey of becoming
• 9:18
  Speaker 4: of forever becoming. Yeah, I've gone through phases of it.
• 9:21
  Speaker 4: But you know life will do that to you. Like
• 9:23
  Speaker 4: we come in this world, like he says, naked, and
• 9:26
  Speaker 4: then you know we're raising families and you know your parents,
• 9:30
  Speaker 4: your family, they do the best that they can and
• 9:31
  Speaker 4: what they know to shape you and prepare you for
• 9:33
  Speaker 4: this world. And maybe that comes with things that you
• 9:37
  Speaker 4: know you'll keep forever. And some things you do like that,
• 9:39
  Speaker 4: ain't I want to let that one go?
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 9:41
  Speaker 4: Then you go to school and school does this thing,
• 9:43
  Speaker 4: and you have friends and know what they do their thing,
• 9:45
  Speaker 4: and religion and politics and all these things like you're
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: trying to figure it out and shaping you and you
• 9:51
  Speaker 4: got to get naked and then ask yourself, who am I?
• 9:54
  Speaker 4: You know what things really do fit me? And like
• 9:56
  Speaker 4: you say, you redress yourself. So it was a journey
• 9:59
  Speaker 4: for me, Like I went through it all. I've had
• 10:01
  Speaker 4: the highest high self esteem and I've had low self esteem.
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: Like I've tried to figure it out, you know.
• 10:06
  Speaker 4: But this is the most whole and peaceful and free
• 10:09
  Speaker 4: me that I've ever been.
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: I want to go go back. So I want to
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: go back a second. When you talk about you know,
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: the Kingdom Hall and Joeah Witness and this question for
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: both of you, I always had this question when you
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: started working on your craft, right for you with your
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: art with music for you is radio. Do you did
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: you ever feel like I'm not going to go to
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: that calling because you put so much time in the
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: Kingdom Hall and because you put so much time into
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: the church. Did you ever say I'm going against what
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: my what I thought the beliefs were as a child.
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: No, not me.
• 10:38
  Speaker 4: I know some people, you know, their experience is different.
• 10:42
  Speaker 4: I think a lot of times, again it has to
• 10:43
  Speaker 4: do with your village of upbringing. My mom is Jehovah's witness,
• 10:47
  Speaker 4: all my aunts, her sisters. But my dad was non denominational,
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: so I had a great balance about. There were some
• 10:53
  Speaker 4: families like you can't have friends out in the world.
• 10:57
  Speaker 4: You can't play sports and watch cartoons, can't eat lucky charms,
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: there's a leprechaun on the box, Like some people go
• 11:04
  Speaker 4: that deep, you know, you know, but like my dad
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: really like balanced us out, so you know, I played sports,
• 11:10
  Speaker 4: I had friends, like we were exposed to, Like I
• 11:13
  Speaker 4: could listen to certain music, you know. So and my
• 11:16
  Speaker 4: mom's the youngest of thirteen children, so she's like a
• 11:19
  Speaker 4: little more hip too.
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: So you know, they just allowed us to find our way.
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 11:25
  Speaker 4: Again, like she said, I've given you all that I
• 11:27
  Speaker 4: could give and teach. You know, it's up to you
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: now to do what you want with it. So you know,
• 11:32
  Speaker 4: I was allowed to find my way. And she's like
• 11:34
  Speaker 4: the biggest supporter ever in life.
• 11:36
  Speaker 5: You know.
• 11:37
  Speaker 4: Even in the beginning, I think I was sleeping in
• 11:39
  Speaker 4: the floor on the studio and on beanbag, and she
• 11:42
  Speaker 4: she came in one day I was at the crib.
• 11:43
  Speaker 4: She was like, I believe in you and I want
• 11:45
  Speaker 4: to help you, you know. So this was that time,
• 11:48
  Speaker 4: like it was like twenty twenty houses with cheap so no, no, no,
• 11:54
  Speaker 4: this was early twenty thirteen. She went and found like
• 11:56
  Speaker 4: a townhouse that was cheap, bought it for me, you know, like,
• 12:00
  Speaker 4: so yeah, that was that was you know my experience.
• 12:03
  Speaker 7: Do you feel like those three albums, these three albums Eve,
• 12:07
  Speaker 7: Please Don't Cry Now, God Got Afron hops, is that
• 12:10
  Speaker 7: like a trilogy because it's like womanhood, selfhood and like Godhood.
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: I couldn't have made this album without Please Don't Cry.
• 12:18
  Speaker 4: But to me, the trilogy is Eve, God Got an
• 12:21
  Speaker 4: Afro and then the next one will probably Adam m
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: m yeah, So those are the three Please Don't Cry.
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: Maybe that was the bridge.
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: You know, has Adam done already because it seems like
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: it's done on your mind already.
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: I finished.
• 12:36
  Speaker 4: I have about eighty songs for the album. When we
• 12:39
  Speaker 4: did Please Don't Cry, I wanted to drop three albums
• 12:42
  Speaker 4: back to back, but you know, I'm.
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: A different person, huh. But Adam and she because Hunt.
• 12:56
  Speaker 4: I'm thinking about maybe doing it with mad Live because
• 12:59
  Speaker 4: we still got project that's in the words, But I
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: don't know I'm seeing it through.
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: Who was it that Erica?
• 13:06
  Speaker 7: That's what Eric said, that she's doing an album with
• 13:09
  Speaker 7: an artist. Yeah, one of them songs. You got your
• 13:15
  Speaker 7: Erica about Apple Juice.
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: I got my D'Angelo on That was D'Angelo. It was
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: it was D'Angelo.
• 13:24
  Speaker 4: I mean we sampled one more again on Voodoo, and
• 13:27
  Speaker 4: when I was writing it, I wrote like three or
• 13:29
  Speaker 4: four rap verses, but it just didn't feel right. And
• 13:33
  Speaker 4: you know, I'm always working on becoming a better artist
• 13:35
  Speaker 4: and growing. So I was like, man, like, let's really
• 13:38
  Speaker 4: go up in songwriting. Like how D'Angelo approached this? You know,
• 13:42
  Speaker 4: what would he say? Like the King of talking about
• 13:45
  Speaker 4: black love?
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: You know?
• 13:48
  Speaker 5: So yeah, how do you lock in?
• 13:50
  Speaker 6: Like how do you what is your your process when
• 13:53
  Speaker 6: you're creating an album? Right, Like, because I know you
• 13:55
  Speaker 6: said this came to you, you know, and this album
• 13:59
  Speaker 6: came to you. You enjoying Issburg and the support, the planet,
• 14:01
  Speaker 6: you know, arranging the drums and things like that, but like,
• 14:04
  Speaker 6: how do you Where does your inspiration come from? Like
• 14:06
  Speaker 6: what how does rhap City create a body of work?
• 14:09
  Speaker 5: What do you need?
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: What inspires you?
• 14:12
  Speaker 4: My albums are always snapshots of my life, so whatever
• 14:15
  Speaker 4: I'm going through, That's that's what you're gonna get.
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: Like that portion, like please don't cry. I was going
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: through a heal and phase. I tell y'all, I just
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: got out of a relationship.
• 14:23
  Speaker 4: I was feeling it. Please don't cry. It was like
• 14:25
  Speaker 4: a return to self, you know. So at that time, like,
• 14:29
  Speaker 4: I'm rereading my favorite book, No Disrespect by Sister Soldier,
• 14:33
  Speaker 4: and then you know, that's talking about the relationship between
• 14:36
  Speaker 4: black and African men and women.
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: So I'm inspired by that. I'm in DC visiting my friends.
• 14:42
  Speaker 4: I have a good friend named Timothy Ann and works
• 14:44
  Speaker 4: at the Smithsonian of Black American History and Culture, and
• 14:48
  Speaker 4: she's like, Yo, come see this afro futuristic exhibit we got.
• 14:51
  Speaker 4: So I'm just looking at that, and I'm like, I
• 14:53
  Speaker 4: never really dived in deep to afrofuturism. So I'm listening
• 14:56
  Speaker 4: to Sun Raw, you know, and you know, I'm learning
• 14:59
  Speaker 4: about that. It's just that's like, so that's what I'm
• 15:03
  Speaker 4: putting into the music and the world that we're living
• 15:06
  Speaker 4: in right Like, you know, we're living in a world
• 15:09
  Speaker 4: that's very challenging, you know, especially for people of color,
• 15:13
  Speaker 4: black and brown. So you know, I'm taking that in
• 15:15
  Speaker 4: but at the same time, like you know, us, like
• 15:18
  Speaker 4: we knew it was gonna be a ride, but we
• 15:20
  Speaker 4: we always were built for it, like we've been doing it,
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: so we know how to have joy in it.
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: So I'm still, you know, figuring out what joy looks
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: for me.
• 15:27
  Speaker 4: Like I'm intentionally going out and spending more time with
• 15:31
  Speaker 4: friends because I'm a studio rat, but I'm like, you know,
• 15:34
  Speaker 4: to make music, you gotta live. So you know, I'm
• 15:37
  Speaker 4: getting on a plane and going to see my friends
• 15:39
  Speaker 4: and it's not so much about work.
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: It's like we live in life. You know.
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: We having house parties, were dancing, we're traveling. I'm going
• 15:46
  Speaker 4: to Brazil, like whatever it is. I just went, you know,
• 15:49
  Speaker 4: I didn't sometimes I would go by myself. You know,
• 15:52
  Speaker 4: I traveled myself a lot. So that's what this album is.
• 15:56
  Speaker 4: Like I'm just taking all those things and putting into
• 15:59
  Speaker 4: the music. In the last song act to Bloodline, Growing Older,
• 16:04
  Speaker 4: I'm at home. My momm got construction paper on the
• 16:06
  Speaker 4: floor and she's like, I'm putting rails in the shower
• 16:09
  Speaker 4: because we're getting older and I want to prepare and
• 16:11
  Speaker 4: I'm just like wow, you know, like we're in the
• 16:15
  Speaker 4: studio and I said, yo, Dnna, Like you remember the
• 16:18
  Speaker 4: point where you walked in the house and you realize
• 16:20
  Speaker 4: your parents got older.
• 16:22
  Speaker 8: It's such a crazy.
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Like I walked in, Man, it's felt like old
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: people are.
• 16:26
  Speaker 4: Here, you know, like you know, so it's everything that
• 16:30
  Speaker 4: I'm living in experience.
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: That's what I'm writing.
• 16:32
  Speaker 7: What about your bloodline? What about your bloodline makes more
• 16:36
  Speaker 7: sense to you as.
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: You get older?
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: Oh man.
• 16:42
  Speaker 4: The strength and the love of my people, you know,
• 16:45
  Speaker 4: like my people are loving people, all of ours, my
• 16:48
  Speaker 4: family especially, like how we take care of each other,
• 16:50
  Speaker 4: Like that's in our blood line, the strength to fight.
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: My father told me a story some years ago.
• 16:56
  Speaker 4: He said, don't you tell nobody, But I feel like
• 16:58
  Speaker 4: I can tell it now, Like you know, it ain't
• 17:00
  Speaker 4: it ain't nothing deep.
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: But he was like, you know, telling me a story
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: about my grandfather.
• 17:03
  Speaker 4: And he uh, he punched a cop in the eye
• 17:06
  Speaker 4: for calling him a nigga and went to jail for
• 17:09
  Speaker 4: two years. And I'm just like, oh, maybe it's where
• 17:11
  Speaker 4: I get my fight from, you know, Like it's things
• 17:14
  Speaker 4: like that that, like, you know, I take and I'm
• 17:16
  Speaker 4: proud of.
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: You know. My mom's dad was a sharecropper with.
• 17:21
  Speaker 4: You know, my aunts would tell stories of like there
• 17:23
  Speaker 4: would be two women down the street there wasn't a
• 17:25
  Speaker 4: man in the house and they have no food, so
• 17:27
  Speaker 4: they come down and he give them food, and.
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: She'd be like, why you give them? They ain't help
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: and help us do nothing.
• 17:32
  Speaker 4: But that taught her, like you take care of your neighbor,
• 17:34
  Speaker 4: you know, Like it's it's those things that that are
• 17:36
  Speaker 4: in my bloodline and I'm proud of.
• 17:38
  Speaker 5: What's what's the first thing about aging that you're actually enjoying?
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: Oh, when you don't give a f U c K?
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: Can I cuss up here?
• 17:45
  Speaker 4: Like yo, it's like you know you get that age,
• 17:49
  Speaker 4: you don't you just don't give a fuck, you know,
• 17:51
  Speaker 4: like it is what it is. You say what you
• 17:53
  Speaker 4: say kind with kindness, like you don't care about the
• 17:58
  Speaker 4: things that don't have that. You know, that's what it is,
• 18:01
  Speaker 4: like you really are free, Like that's what I like.
• 18:04
  Speaker 4: You know, you've gone through life, you experienced so much,
• 18:07
  Speaker 4: like you know, it feels good.
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: What doesn't you know what to look for? You know,
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: if you've done the work.
• 18:12
  Speaker 4: Everybody has their timing and in their journey. But in mind,
• 18:16
  Speaker 4: I'm just like Hey, I'm searching for peace. That's all
• 18:21
  Speaker 4: I want.
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: However it comes.
• 18:23
  Speaker 7: So pick a side is another dope record, right, Like
• 18:26
  Speaker 7: what do you no longer willing to be neutral about when.
• 18:29
  Speaker 4: You say, oh man, my integrity, Like I can't compromise
• 18:37
  Speaker 4: that for anybody, for anything, for no amount of money.
• 18:40
  Speaker 4: That was the first thing ninth one and gru told
• 18:43
  Speaker 4: me before I ever did anything.
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: They were like, no, you're lying.
• 18:46
  Speaker 4: You know, know what line that you won't cross if
• 18:49
  Speaker 4: they came and put a million dollar check, like and
• 18:52
  Speaker 4: they asked you.
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: To do something that was cross your line? You're taking
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: a check?
• 18:55
  Speaker 4: Like, nah, you know, so I had to defde was
• 18:57
  Speaker 4: the first thing I had to define. And I've always
• 19:00
  Speaker 4: moved toward that line. So it's that like my integrity,
• 19:04
  Speaker 4: my honor, like cold you know, they're not necessarily loyalty,
• 19:07
  Speaker 4: because we could be loyal to a fault, you know,
• 19:09
  Speaker 4: but integrity for sure.
• 19:11
  Speaker 8: I saw you talk about on the Effective immediately about
• 19:15
  Speaker 8: us protecting yes gene views, about protecting the art form
• 19:20
  Speaker 8: of hip hop and who we sit down with, and
• 19:22
  Speaker 8: what you just sent made me think about that. You
• 19:23
  Speaker 8: talked about how people like DJ Blad No Jumper, they
• 19:27
  Speaker 8: like Sully hip hop and the conversation and why are
• 19:30
  Speaker 8: we giving people that don't do it justice those interviews
• 19:34
  Speaker 8: in those conversations.
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah, like you know, baby Sam, what's up?
• 19:40
  Speaker 4: Baby Sam was talking? You know, we're talking about earlier
• 19:42
  Speaker 4: Like we have to tell our stories. That's exactly what
• 19:45
  Speaker 4: she said, Like we have to be the ones to
• 19:47
  Speaker 4: tell our story and protect our story because if not,
• 19:49
  Speaker 4: other people would do it for you. And you can
• 19:51
  Speaker 4: just you can't let that sit in everybody's hands, you know,
• 19:53
  Speaker 4: especially in this day and age, everything is clickbait. You know,
• 19:56
  Speaker 4: what can I get from your story? You know, like
• 19:59
  Speaker 4: people live hard lives and may be entertainment for some
• 20:02
  Speaker 4: and it may be funny, but at the same time,
• 20:04
  Speaker 4: it's real life and what are you doing and how
• 20:06
  Speaker 4: are you using that story? You know, Like shit just
• 20:10
  Speaker 4: be weird to me, like mad weird. And I'm just like,
• 20:13
  Speaker 4: there's so many platforms like this one, you know, Rob Markman,
• 20:18
  Speaker 4: you know people, Yeah, like people tore people that really
• 20:21
  Speaker 4: care about the culture and we live it, we live
• 20:25
  Speaker 4: it together, so you know, they protected in a certain way.
• 20:29
  Speaker 4: I just think, like, you know, do what you do,
• 20:31
  Speaker 4: but I think it's something to stop and think about
• 20:34
  Speaker 4: you know.
• 20:34
  Speaker 7: All the platforms like them to blame them if like
• 20:37
  Speaker 7: if these guys go up there and tell all of
• 20:39
  Speaker 7: these stories.
• 20:40
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean I get it, like everybody has free will.
• 20:46
  Speaker 4: But at the same time, like people, it's enticing, you know,
• 20:49
  Speaker 4: you feel like again, what am I? What am I chasing?
• 20:54
  Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying? Like what am I looking
• 20:56
  Speaker 4: for to get from this? Like is it something that
• 20:58
  Speaker 4: really is going to be good for me? So you know,
• 21:02
  Speaker 4: like it's just a crazy world to find your way
• 21:05
  Speaker 4: through it, you know, and some people don't make it
• 21:08
  Speaker 4: any easier.
• 21:09
  Speaker 3: That's all. That's how I look at it.
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: Do you look at that because they're a white boys
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: suit cause your name jump away?
• 21:14
  Speaker 4: No, because there's some skin folks that ain't I can't
• 21:17
  Speaker 4: folk too. But sure I ain't saying no names because
• 21:20
  Speaker 4: I don't like to give people that kind of light.
• 21:22
  Speaker 4: But yeah, it's just who you are, and like how
• 21:27
  Speaker 4: do you show up for the culture? You know, for
• 21:31
  Speaker 4: artists real journalism.
• 21:34
  Speaker 7: You know, I also think that some of these artists
• 21:36
  Speaker 7: aren't skilled enough to say what they want to say
• 21:38
  Speaker 7: in their music, that's true, so they got to.
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: Get on a podcasts.
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah, ain't not nothing wrong with podcasts.
• 21:43
  Speaker 4: I'm just like, you know, there are many a lot
• 21:47
  Speaker 4: of podcasts, so it's just like I just I just
• 21:51
  Speaker 4: I just watched man.
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: I'm just like that. That feels weird. That's all.
• 21:56
  Speaker 8: What's one thing that has come to you, whether it's
• 21:58
  Speaker 8: like a check or like opportunity were like, I'm good,
• 22:02
  Speaker 8: that feels weird. That's crossing the line. Mm hmm.
• 22:07
  Speaker 3: I don't know.
• 22:07
  Speaker 4: It's probably something I just don't retain it, like I don't,
• 22:10
  Speaker 4: I don't hold on to it. I can't think of
• 22:12
  Speaker 4: anything necessarily in recent times necessarily, I don't know. I
• 22:18
  Speaker 4: think people know too, like I don't be playing around
• 22:21
  Speaker 4: too much.
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: I have fun. I don't play around in that way
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: too much.
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: How much pressure is it?
• 22:25
  Speaker 4: Not?
• 22:26
  Speaker 7: Because you say on the album I can't remember the
• 22:28
  Speaker 7: exact line, but it's like if I showed some titties.
• 22:33
  Speaker 5: How much pressure is that for an artist, especially a
• 22:36
  Speaker 5: woman artist.
• 22:38
  Speaker 4: I mean, I necessarily can't speak for anybody's experience. I
• 22:44
  Speaker 4: can see how it can be like really challenging, Like
• 22:47
  Speaker 4: I have challenges myself and frustrations, but mine is never
• 22:51
  Speaker 4: like I'm gonna go do this. It's just like, man,
• 22:54
  Speaker 4: you just gotta buck up or just go do something else,
• 22:56
  Speaker 4: you know, Like those are the thoughts that run through
• 22:58
  Speaker 4: my head. But I can see how some artists, like
• 23:00
  Speaker 4: you know, they want they want success, so what they
• 23:04
  Speaker 4: think is deemed successful, and it's just like nothing else
• 23:08
  Speaker 4: is working, so let me just pop a little titty,
• 23:11
  Speaker 4: you know, because that's what that's all I see, you know,
• 23:13
  Speaker 4: like on a mainstream level, that's a lot of what
• 23:17
  Speaker 4: you see. You aren't too many other stories told, and it
• 23:20
  Speaker 4: ain't nothing wrong with it.
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: If again, if it's you. I love Little Kim. I
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: like how she came out. I just felt like that's
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: what's who she is. I love Carti.
• 23:28
  Speaker 4: Cardy gave up with the strip club, so like Carti's
• 23:31
  Speaker 4: just telling her story. But I don't think those stories
• 23:34
  Speaker 4: of everybody's story. And it seems that way to reach
• 23:37
  Speaker 4: a certain level of success in the world. Like I've
• 23:40
  Speaker 4: talked to some artists and they're like, yo, like I
• 23:43
  Speaker 4: really like what you doing.
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: I'd be wanting to do something in that world.
• 23:46
  Speaker 4: But you know, like you know, and that's yeah.
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: That they try to get you across that you're never
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: to make a record that sound was like this do
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: something that puts you in this is that one of
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: those lines did you talk about that you're not crossing
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: it from.
• 24:06
  Speaker 4: No, that's a mess for everybody else. That happened to
• 24:09
  Speaker 4: me like very very early in my career, like very
• 24:12
  Speaker 4: very early. I'm doing like the first records, I'm looking
• 24:15
  Speaker 4: for guidance and somebody I had just gotten off foot Actions.
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: I have my foot Action gear on and no, I
• 24:26
  Speaker 3: don't know sparingly, but I walked in and they ain't
• 24:31
  Speaker 3: even say like, what's up? How is your day? It
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: was just like I see.
• 24:35
  Speaker 4: What we could do with you put some heels on
• 24:37
  Speaker 4: the skirt and I was like, you know, crazy, But nah,
• 24:44
  Speaker 4: I haven't. I haven't had that, you know, not from anybody. Yeah,
• 24:51
  Speaker 4: you see it online. I see comments like yo, like man,
• 24:55
  Speaker 4: ain't nobody.
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: Gonna listen to you?
• 24:56
  Speaker 4: Like you ain't sexy, you don't show no ass, you know,
• 24:58
  Speaker 4: like the some of the world thinks that, you know,
• 25:02
  Speaker 4: because again that's all they see is what they think
• 25:05
  Speaker 4: success is.
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: But you can have a beautiful career and not be
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: plastered all over TV.
• 25:10
  Speaker 4: Like you can have a very healthy, wealthy life and
• 25:15
  Speaker 4: not be famous.
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 25:17
  Speaker 7: I also understand why we think that when the bars
• 25:19
  Speaker 7: that have been set didn't do that.
• 25:20
  Speaker 5: Laura Hill didn't do that exactly.
• 25:26
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and that makes you think, like what happened? You know,
• 25:29
  Speaker 4: these are just questions. This is what the album is.
• 25:31
  Speaker 4: I just wanted to start conversation like what happened that
• 25:35
  Speaker 4: it turned the ties? You know what I'm saying, Like
• 25:38
  Speaker 4: what is there another play? Like what's going on? Who's
• 25:41
  Speaker 4: controlling your image?
• 25:43
  Speaker 5: Don't even match?
• 25:45
  Speaker 6: Like y'all messages don't even match that type of image?
• 25:49
  Speaker 7: You know what I mean?
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: And you know, you know you got it's like you
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: know what I mean as a place a place what
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: I'm saying.
• 26:00
  Speaker 6: And if you're gonna say that, you can't come and
• 26:02
  Speaker 6: win dressing like no, you gotta be showing some some throat,
• 26:05
  Speaker 6: some ass, some all that if you're going, you know,
• 26:08
  Speaker 6: not necessarily.
• 26:09
  Speaker 8: Because like Jill Scott doesn't just walk around with her body,
• 26:12
  Speaker 8: but like she talks that she's crazy got Like I
• 26:19
  Speaker 8: think that's the thing.
• 26:20
  Speaker 6: Like it's a certainage about it though they not just straight.
• 26:24
  Speaker 8: I think it's an appeal. It's like kind of like
• 26:26
  Speaker 8: when it's like and you not on you, like it's
• 26:29
  Speaker 8: you meet Jill Scott and it's like okay, yes, now.
• 26:33
  Speaker 6: Listening to her talk about sex and like, oh my god,
• 26:34
  Speaker 6: please turn this off.
• 26:36
  Speaker 8: It's effortless with her, like there's just an appial that
• 26:39
  Speaker 8: she has that comes through.
• 26:40
  Speaker 4: I think everybody has a unique experience in a way
• 26:44
  Speaker 4: they tell their life. You know, like we all have sex,
• 26:48
  Speaker 4: we all do all these things, and it's like how.
• 26:51
  Speaker 3: Do you express it?
• 26:52
  Speaker 4: And a lot of the expression of it is the same,
• 26:55
  Speaker 4: you know what I'm saying, Like everybody having a human experience,
• 26:58
  Speaker 4: And I just think that's what it was Nine used
• 27:01
  Speaker 4: to tell me, Like people either want to be you
• 27:04
  Speaker 4: or they want to fuck you. You know, the guy's gotta
• 27:06
  Speaker 4: want to fuck you and the girls gotta want to
• 27:08
  Speaker 4: be so you get the fat asses, you get the
• 27:11
  Speaker 4: titties that sit up like you know, it's like damn,
• 27:14
  Speaker 4: like I dream of a body like that, and you know,
• 27:18
  Speaker 4: so I don't. I don't know, Like I think that
• 27:21
  Speaker 4: there's space for everything, you know, Like you can do
• 27:24
  Speaker 4: a lyric like that and dress like this, you can,
• 27:27
  Speaker 4: like I think that's what.
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: Makes it cool for some people. It's like Okay, you
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: talk of that talk, but you look different.
• 27:33
  Speaker 4: You know. It's just like how are you telling your
• 27:36
  Speaker 4: story that's uniquely to you? You know, everybody telling it
• 27:39
  Speaker 4: like little Kim now mm hmm, like everybody shouts the
• 27:42
  Speaker 4: Little Kim like hats offt like one of the most
• 27:45
  Speaker 4: influential artists ever. Like if you look, that's her blueprint
• 27:50
  Speaker 4: all over, you know, but it's I'm sure she's like yo,
• 27:53
  Speaker 4: I'm just me like how you gonna be you?
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: But she still had cool ass bars.
• 28:00
  Speaker 4: Fucking ship, I know, still talking real ship, like I'm
• 28:03
  Speaker 4: with you, rolling with niggas, can spit with niggas, Yeah,
• 28:05
  Speaker 4: I mean I want to hear everything about life, only
• 28:08
  Speaker 4: what you do in the bedroom, how your morning go,
• 28:10
  Speaker 4: how your weekend go?
• 28:11
  Speaker 6: Like who are some female mcs that you do like
• 28:14
  Speaker 6: that you would work with if the opportunity presented itself
• 28:19
  Speaker 6: new or just in general. It can be in general,
• 28:21
  Speaker 6: but I just wouldn't want to Maya who want Okay, okay,
• 28:26
  Speaker 6: you about the A and on my next project?
• 28:28
  Speaker 4: Okay, okay, I got you Maya to don like Maya
• 28:33
  Speaker 4: Don Cole my sister Tierra Wack. You know she's one
• 28:37
  Speaker 4: of the illis. Let me see, there's this artist out
• 28:40
  Speaker 4: of Philadelphia and a Neptune twenty one, she's fire. Let
• 28:46
  Speaker 4: me think there's so many, I'll be forgetting them, like
• 28:50
  Speaker 4: those are.
• 28:50
  Speaker 3: Just who yo, like at least just one record.
• 28:56
  Speaker 8: I was going to say a joint, but just y'are
• 28:58
  Speaker 8: so creepy.
• 28:59
  Speaker 4: No, but we always be talking about it, like I've
• 29:01
  Speaker 4: sent her, like at least two songs. I think I
• 29:03
  Speaker 4: sent her one or Please Don't Cry and one for
• 29:07
  Speaker 4: one something else. I just think, you know, either the
• 29:09
  Speaker 4: record then appeal to her or just the timing wizard right,
• 29:12
  Speaker 4: And then she hit me like, yo, let's go rap
• 29:14
  Speaker 4: on some althemis type joint we send and beats to
• 29:18
  Speaker 4: each other, but we just never we never finished. We
• 29:21
  Speaker 4: never get past that because you know, we get in
• 29:23
  Speaker 4: our own world.
• 29:24
  Speaker 3: So that'd be so tough. Everything in due timing.
• 29:27
  Speaker 8: When Tia Rock was here, she said that y'all talk
• 29:29
  Speaker 8: a lot just about like even like industry stuff, like
• 29:31
  Speaker 8: because she was talking a lot about how she feels
• 29:33
  Speaker 8: like her bars, like people overlook, like she's tired of
• 29:36
  Speaker 8: being humble about what people don't see when it comes
• 29:38
  Speaker 8: to her, and that you guys have conversations a lot
• 29:41
  Speaker 8: about just behind the scenes, like what we're watching and
• 29:44
  Speaker 8: how y'all feel and what things you think should be happening, right, Yeah.
• 29:47
  Speaker 5: She gets so frustrated. She said she only want rap.
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: No, we need tea. We need tea.
• 29:53
  Speaker 4: And that's the thing, Like that's the freedom part where
• 29:56
  Speaker 4: that don't even touch you no more. Like I've been there,
• 29:59
  Speaker 4: I've sat where she sat, and but that don't even.
• 30:02
  Speaker 3: Touch me no more. Like you gotta validate yourself.
• 30:05
  Speaker 4: And I'm glad that she talking, Like tell him how
• 30:07
  Speaker 4: cold you are, Like, just say it.
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: If you believe it, then that's what it is.
• 30:13
  Speaker 4: But yeah, like, and it's good to have village in
• 30:14
  Speaker 4: this because again, like we all have a human experience
• 30:18
  Speaker 4: every day. Ain't your strong it's mentally, you know, So
• 30:21
  Speaker 4: it's good to have somebody especially like you know, I've
• 30:24
  Speaker 4: been in it a little longer than her, so you know,
• 30:26
  Speaker 4: I can give her different perspectives and advice, and she
• 30:29
  Speaker 4: can give me something new, you know from her walk.
• 30:33
  Speaker 4: And yeah, like it's this industry can be very clikish too,
• 30:36
  Speaker 4: you know. So it's just good to have people.
• 30:40
  Speaker 5: You know, as a lyricist, what keeps you sharp?
• 30:43
  Speaker 6: Right?
• 30:43
  Speaker 5: I remember Bleak's been up here recently.
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: And he used to say that he used to go
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: to the studio and to be everybody in the student
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: made him want to want me. I want to write, right,
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: Jay is over here and Beanie's over here. So to
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: make sure that your shop and still nice with it.
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: What keeps you going?
• 30:57
  Speaker 4: I just I love it that much, you know, and
• 31:00
  Speaker 4: too like I want to always keep growing and getting better.
• 31:04
  Speaker 4: So you know, I'm always listening to that who's new,
• 31:07
  Speaker 4: who's fresh, Like you know, even my peers, Like it's
• 31:10
  Speaker 4: just healthy competition because you.
• 31:12
  Speaker 5: Talk about the quickest are you? Is it at time?
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: Now where you can go in the studio and everybody's
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: just spitting balls whether wherever they go. It's like that's
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: why I love what Nilo does with with the with
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: the newer artists, like they going there together and it's like.
• 31:24
  Speaker 4: That's how it came up that like you throw it,
• 31:27
  Speaker 4: throw it to the pack, and you know, like it's
• 31:29
  Speaker 4: made us fittest survive.
• 31:32
  Speaker 3: I want to get back to that, you know, Like
• 31:33
  Speaker 3: now I.
• 31:34
  Speaker 4: Go to the studio, it's just me the engineer. It's
• 31:37
  Speaker 4: small circle and too many people in there. But yeah,
• 31:41
  Speaker 4: when you get in with like other artists, like it's
• 31:43
  Speaker 4: love at the same time, it's like, hold on a minute,
• 31:45
  Speaker 4: you about to get me today, Like I still got
• 31:48
  Speaker 4: that fired me, you know, like, and I think it
• 31:50
  Speaker 4: makes for great music and it makes everybody better when
• 31:53
  Speaker 4: when everybody's like trying to be the best that they
• 31:56
  Speaker 4: could be, you know, so.
• 31:58
  Speaker 5: That you get in.
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: Of course, everybody says, hoole right, would love to hear
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: you with Hope, Like that's.
• 32:02
  Speaker 4: Yeah that I haven't gotten in were already. I mean,
• 32:06
  Speaker 4: Hope and Lauren are still top of the list. Andre
• 32:08
  Speaker 4: three thousand. Let me think, Uh, I wouldn't mind getting
• 32:17
  Speaker 4: in with Like I just did something for juvenile so
• 32:20
  Speaker 4: that that knocked out something.
• 32:22
  Speaker 3: I'm sorry, Julie. I don't know if I was supposed
• 32:23
  Speaker 3: to say that, but I couldn't help it. I'm excited.
• 32:28
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I work with so many people. I mean said
• 32:30
  Speaker 4: I want to do something with Tierra for sure. Yeah,
• 32:34
  Speaker 4: I want to do another one with Kendrick.
• 32:36
  Speaker 5: M hm.
• 32:37
  Speaker 7: You and Kendrick should have did a whole project always.
• 32:40
  Speaker 4: Well that was a conversation right around to Bim Butterfly.
• 32:44
  Speaker 4: He hit me, he was like, yo, me and and
• 32:46
  Speaker 4: Anderson have to do something. The whole project just you know,
• 32:51
  Speaker 4: never got to it. Wow, yeah, it would have been cold.
• 32:56
  Speaker 7: I want to go back to afro futurism, right because
• 32:58
  Speaker 7: you got the joint omg, yeah, the song ra record
• 33:00
  Speaker 7: and George Clinton's on there.
• 33:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, he did a little talking part at the end.
• 33:04
  Speaker 7: You think George Clinton, you think sun Rod. That's two
• 33:06
  Speaker 7: people who expanded the Black imagination beyond Earth other world cosmos.
• 33:12
  Speaker 7: Do you think black people sometimes need our fual futurism
• 33:15
  Speaker 7: because America has made our history so painful?
• 33:18
  Speaker 3: Absolutely?
• 33:19
  Speaker 4: Yeah, Like that's what it is like seeing black people
• 33:22
  Speaker 4: in the future, you know, and connecting it with you know,
• 33:27
  Speaker 4: they say people are the stars, you know, divine alignment,
• 33:31
  Speaker 4: the dogone people, like we we need that type of
• 33:35
  Speaker 4: imagination and fantasy. But also just like going back to
• 33:39
  Speaker 4: like the history of it all, you know, like they
• 33:42
  Speaker 4: like to say, Aliens built the pyramids, why came black
• 33:46
  Speaker 4: people have built the period?
• 33:47
  Speaker 3: Like you know what I'm saying, like that too.
• 33:50
  Speaker 4: Big black giants, Big black giants. I believe giants, architecture, Yeah,
• 33:57
  Speaker 4: everything so big walking through that.
• 34:00
  Speaker 3: I believe that too.
• 34:02
  Speaker 8: Sure aliens built the pyramids. They said that.
• 34:04
  Speaker 3: Too, white people. White people say that all the time.
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: You know, Mexican aliens idiot man, Go ahead, any question.
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: Who built the Pyramids of Mexico?
• 34:14
  Speaker 3: No, I don't.
• 34:18
  Speaker 5: Mexican? Black?
• 34:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah, black and brown baby exactly?
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: She said that ultra black.
• 34:36
  Speaker 8: I mean I canna play with.
• 34:39
  Speaker 3: She down for her bag?
• 34:40
  Speaker 5: Yeah?
• 34:40
  Speaker 3: You better, you better come on now, don't let them
• 34:43
  Speaker 3: do this stuff.
• 34:45
  Speaker 5: You said that.
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: Abandoned me?
• 34:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah? Well yeah, who made.
• 34:51
  Speaker 5: You understand the difference between being alone and being abandoned?
• 34:55
  Speaker 3: Wow? What a question?
• 35:02
  Speaker 4: Who made me realize the difference between being alone and abandoned?
• 35:07
  Speaker 4: I probably say that was that twenty twenty relationship, Like
• 35:11
  Speaker 4: I did the most growth from that and even learning
• 35:15
  Speaker 4: like being alone is not really being alone, Like you
• 35:19
  Speaker 4: may physically be alone, but that doesn't mean you're alone.
• 35:25
  Speaker 3: Yeah, like twenty twenty, that last relationship.
• 35:28
  Speaker 4: It made me look at myself, made me look at
• 35:31
  Speaker 4: past relationships, how I was showing up, how showing up
• 35:35
  Speaker 4: for other people and yourself looks you know, what genuine
• 35:40
  Speaker 4: love looks like. Yeah, I mean I I I'm not
• 35:44
  Speaker 4: gonna go into depth, but yeah, that just that part
• 35:48
  Speaker 4: of life, you know, like you sitting in your room
• 35:51
  Speaker 4: and you're trying to figure out, like what's wrong with me?
• 35:54
  Speaker 3: Ain't nothing wrong? With you.
• 35:55
  Speaker 4: Nobody really left you. They just chose happiness for themselves.
• 35:58
  Speaker 4: That doesn't mean you were abandoned. You know, you got
• 36:02
  Speaker 4: to learn from this, from from the situation.
• 36:04
  Speaker 3: So it was that, you know. And and two like.
• 36:08
  Speaker 4: That song, I wrote it more from somebody saying that
• 36:10
  Speaker 4: I abandoned them, when really I chose myself. I chose happiness,
• 36:15
  Speaker 4: I chose peace, and you still try to maintain a
• 36:19
  Speaker 4: friendship and they want more than that.
• 36:23
  Speaker 3: I'm not abandoning you. I'm just choosing myself, like you know,
• 36:26
  Speaker 3: And that's just what it is.
• 36:28
  Speaker 7: Like.
• 36:29
  Speaker 8: Yeah, was that the was that the relation following that
• 36:32
  Speaker 8: or I guess? And when you did that three am
• 36:34
  Speaker 8: conversation with ericab I do were you referencing that same relationship?
• 36:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah, oh okay, because you.
• 36:40
  Speaker 8: So okay, it makes sense because you were talking you
• 36:42
  Speaker 8: all were talking a bit about like walking away understanding
• 36:44
  Speaker 8: your own boundaries. Like there was like a shadow work
• 36:46
  Speaker 8: conversation there as well too. And I saw from the
• 36:51
  Speaker 8: beginning of the conversation to the end, just to turning
• 36:53
  Speaker 8: point you even had while sitting and talking to her
• 36:55
  Speaker 8: about the different things that you were understanding because she
• 36:56
  Speaker 8: was giving you such a different perspective.
• 36:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah, especially the one.
• 37:00
  Speaker 4: And I think I said something like, yo, when you
• 37:05
  Speaker 4: show up with love and somebody.
• 37:07
  Speaker 3: Loves you, like, why would they treat you bad? You
• 37:11
  Speaker 3: know what I'm saying? Like, and she was like I would.
• 37:15
  Speaker 3: I was like, what do you mean, Like would you be?
• 37:18
  Speaker 3: I would? Why would you do that?
• 37:19
  Speaker 4: Like if you love somebody, why do you take advantage
• 37:21
  Speaker 4: of them just because they're giving of you? Like? And
• 37:25
  Speaker 4: she was like, you got to learn boundaries, you know,
• 37:28
  Speaker 4: And that was one of the biggest AHA moments. I
• 37:30
  Speaker 4: was like, Okay, I still wouldn't though, you know, that's
• 37:33
  Speaker 4: just just me. But I understand the point that she
• 37:36
  Speaker 4: was making that boundaries are so important. And that was
• 37:40
  Speaker 4: another AHA, like to his point, like, yeah, like you
• 37:44
  Speaker 4: got to put up boundaries and choose yourself. But if
• 37:47
  Speaker 4: you continue to give and give and some people gonna
• 37:50
  Speaker 4: take and take, And.
• 37:51
  Speaker 5: How difficult is that?
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: Like you're saying, you travel by yourself, you do things
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: by yourself. More how difficult is that? Because I don't
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: do nothing by myself? Is very rare that I do.
• 38:01
  Speaker 8: I six, I heard about that that made it to
• 38:05
  Speaker 8: your starting people.
• 38:09
  Speaker 3: They hiking your leg up like a mad I ain't
• 38:15
  Speaker 3: gonna do I Love you interview.
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: Oh my god, how difficult was that.
• 38:26
  Speaker 3: In the beginning?
• 38:27
  Speaker 5: It was?
• 38:28
  Speaker 3: Now it's easy.
• 38:29
  Speaker 5: What was what was difficult in the beginning.
• 38:33
  Speaker 3: I didn't know how to.
• 38:33
  Speaker 4: Be by myself, you know, like like you feel so
• 38:38
  Speaker 4: much of your time and space where you don't have
• 38:40
  Speaker 4: to feel and hear things like I come from a
• 38:43
  Speaker 4: very big family, one of five, but my immediate family
• 38:48
  Speaker 4: I got eighty first cousins or something like that, like friends,
• 38:51
  Speaker 4: like always in the studio, like you know, you got
• 38:54
  Speaker 4: people and things just always. When you by yourself, you
• 38:58
  Speaker 4: hear everything, you feel everything. You gotta sit with yourself.
• 39:02
  Speaker 4: And you know, if you could do that work, they say,
• 39:05
  Speaker 4: like you don't really know how to love until you
• 39:07
  Speaker 4: could be by yourself and learn to love yourself.
• 39:10
  Speaker 3: So it's really easy for me now.
• 39:12
  Speaker 4: Like I enjoy time with myself, you know, I enjoy
• 39:18
  Speaker 4: sitting in the quiet and just auditing and.
• 39:21
  Speaker 3: Being with me. That's that's easy for me.
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: I was listening to the Oprah on K podcast.
• 39:28
  Speaker 7: Oprah was talking about how she liked to be alone,
• 39:30
  Speaker 7: and she said, I'm not by myself.
• 39:32
  Speaker 3: I'm with my with myself. That's my querious thing too.
• 39:35
  Speaker 5: Boy.
• 39:36
  Speaker 4: You know, I love my friends, but I'll tell them.
• 39:38
  Speaker 4: I'll be like, I need some time. Oh I love you,
• 39:42
  Speaker 4: but I need to I need to be by myself.
• 39:44
  Speaker 4: Like that's something I require. You know, your birthday January
• 39:50
  Speaker 4: twenty first.
• 39:51
  Speaker 5: Okay, Jebruary thirteenth. I'm like that too.
• 39:53
  Speaker 6: I'm the quarious I love to be by myself.
• 39:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Period.
• 39:59
  Speaker 4: But at the same time, I like my phone dry
• 40:02
  Speaker 4: his hell, Like anybody checked up for me today?
• 40:06
  Speaker 5: When people do it? She was like, damn, I got
• 40:08
  Speaker 5: to return to text.
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: I gotta call the you know.
• 40:11
  Speaker 7: Yeah, that's a bald't got malice for black love?
• 40:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah, shout out to rock Nation.
• 40:16
  Speaker 5: Man, they an r that.
• 40:19
  Speaker 3: One does not. Yeah, that's that's you know, that's my coworking.
• 40:27
  Speaker 3: Just show up.
• 40:33
  Speaker 7: What is the hardest part about black love? That we
• 40:35
  Speaker 7: don't romanticize enough.
• 40:37
  Speaker 4: Though, I think having empathy right, And I learned that
• 40:43
  Speaker 4: by rereading Sister Soldier's book No Disrespect. She has a
• 40:48
  Speaker 4: part where so it goes through her life, like again,
• 40:53
  Speaker 4: her relationship with men, whether it be her father, her
• 40:55
  Speaker 4: mother's boyfriends, her first relationships, like going from the suburbs
• 41:02
  Speaker 4: and going into the projects, and she's learning about everything
• 41:06
  Speaker 4: that's been done, from slavery to systematic racism, all the
• 41:10
  Speaker 4: things that have affected the family unit, the black family unit,
• 41:15
  Speaker 4: our relationship as men and women.
• 41:16
  Speaker 3: With each other. And she has a bar.
• 41:19
  Speaker 4: She was like, I'm not afraid of my people. I
• 41:21
  Speaker 4: don't judge my people. I know my people, but I
• 41:23
  Speaker 4: love my people. And it makes you you have empathy.
• 41:28
  Speaker 4: Like again, everybody's walking experience is different, you know, so
• 41:34
  Speaker 4: you know, you may see somebody and be like, yo,
• 41:37
  Speaker 4: why they act like that and dah dah dah, Like
• 41:39
  Speaker 4: their experience and what they had to go through is
• 41:41
  Speaker 4: so different and it takes time to find.
• 41:45
  Speaker 3: Their way through it. You know.
• 41:46
  Speaker 4: She talks about working in the welfare system and you know,
• 41:49
  Speaker 4: it's just one hotel in New York and there's kids
• 41:53
  Speaker 4: there and they're seeing drugs and some of them being
• 41:55
  Speaker 4: raped and some of them molested, some of them can't eat.
• 41:57
  Speaker 4: They go to school systems that are underfunc and you
• 42:00
  Speaker 4: got all these things and you expect somebody to come
• 42:03
  Speaker 4: out Okay. That's the empathy of it. And that's just
• 42:06
  Speaker 4: one building with hundreds of people, and then you got
• 42:09
  Speaker 4: all of these buildings in New York and then you
• 42:10
  Speaker 4: think about all over the country, all over the world,
• 42:13
  Speaker 4: and you you sit back and you're like, you've got
• 42:16
  Speaker 4: to have empathy. I can't judge my people because everybody
• 42:20
  Speaker 4: has a different experience and their timing and how they
• 42:23
  Speaker 4: get through it. Even if they're lucky enough to get
• 42:26
  Speaker 4: through it, it's gonna be different, you know. So you
• 42:29
  Speaker 4: learn to be a light and to be a source
• 42:32
  Speaker 4: for your people.
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 42:34
  Speaker 7: Malice is such an interesting choice too, because I think
• 42:36
  Speaker 7: about Malice's public spiritual evolutionness. I know y'all have some
• 42:42
  Speaker 7: fire conversations about God that probably.
• 42:44
  Speaker 3: We haven't even talked.
• 42:46
  Speaker 4: Yeah, Like you know, they were on tour when he
• 42:48
  Speaker 4: was doing that verse. I got that verse about two
• 42:51
  Speaker 4: and a half weeks ago.
• 42:53
  Speaker 3: Exactly. Yeah.
• 42:55
  Speaker 4: So as I put turn the album in and it's
• 42:58
  Speaker 4: not feature heavy like most of the projects are, and
• 43:01
  Speaker 4: Rock was like, Yo, like what you think about Malice,
• 43:03
  Speaker 4: I was like, dang, I ain't think about it.
• 43:04
  Speaker 3: So they sent it.
• 43:06
  Speaker 4: He he sent me a DM He was like, Yo,
• 43:09
  Speaker 4: that joint hard.
• 43:10
  Speaker 3: I got you. That was it. So we still have
• 43:12
  Speaker 3: some conversations to be had. Heed. Oh, happy birthday, Mallard
• 43:18
  Speaker 3: with a camera.
• 43:20
  Speaker 7: Yeah, the Free Your Mind record. What's something rahaps that
• 43:22
  Speaker 7: he had to free her her own mind from?
• 43:25
  Speaker 4: Oh wow, I think you know what I've been talking
• 43:35
  Speaker 4: about since I got here is just like you know,
• 43:37
  Speaker 4: I had to unplugged from the system, all the systems,
• 43:40
  Speaker 4: you know, the music industry, religion in a way, capitalism,
• 43:47
  Speaker 4: Like you just unplugged from and free your mind from
• 43:49
  Speaker 4: all of it and find your truth in it and
• 43:52
  Speaker 4: walk in that way. Like that's just it for me,
• 43:55
  Speaker 4: you know, Like I was like, none of this is real,
• 43:58
  Speaker 4: you know, so let me me turn it all off
• 44:01
  Speaker 4: and then open eyes and see, you know what I'm
• 44:06
  Speaker 4: attracted to, you know what's real for me?
• 44:09
  Speaker 8: You said the project is counter programming at work with
• 44:12
  Speaker 8: the their first song, So that's kind of where you're
• 44:16
  Speaker 8: taking the people to, like us freeing ourselves from those
• 44:18
  Speaker 8: things as well.
• 44:19
  Speaker 4: Yeah, like you know again, like it's just even just
• 44:22
  Speaker 4: this time, it's been happening since forever. History is being rewritten,
• 44:28
  Speaker 4: books are being banned, like you know, you're really figuring
• 44:35
  Speaker 4: out what the real truth is of all of it.
• 44:38
  Speaker 4: You know, we came over here on boats and we
• 44:40
  Speaker 4: didn't have pen and paper, and we had to pass
• 44:42
  Speaker 4: information down like it's just going back and preserving those things,
• 44:46
  Speaker 4: like go talk to your grandparents, you know, like preserve
• 44:50
  Speaker 4: that information. You know, read a book, you know, the
• 44:55
  Speaker 4: ones that they're trying to destroy. Now there's information, there's
• 44:58
  Speaker 4: codes in there. Like it's that like, don't let this
• 45:02
  Speaker 4: world or the systems tell you what's what, because a
• 45:07
  Speaker 4: lot of times it ain't real. You know, everything's being
• 45:10
  Speaker 4: shaped and manipulated. You know, the puppet odds behind the
• 45:14
  Speaker 4: curtain is really being controlled by a bigger force. Richard
• 45:17
  Speaker 4: Pride came out that curtain like it's not me, you know.
• 45:21
  Speaker 4: Like so that part.
• 45:23
  Speaker 5: That's why always people read Girl.
• 45:27
  Speaker 3: Just you got a book out too. That's the promo
• 45:32
  Speaker 3: the Death Do We Parent?
• 45:33
  Speaker 5: And I be reading Girl got read.
• 45:37
  Speaker 3: You gotta read Soldier.
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: I know for a fact she got a cold. Just
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: went to her.
• 45:45
  Speaker 8: You're talking about sister Soldier. You talk to the music.
• 45:49
  Speaker 8: It does for like a book. You said, the vibration
• 45:51
  Speaker 8: or the instructions and the vibration. I feel like a
• 45:53
  Speaker 8: book with you would be it would be like a character,
• 45:57
  Speaker 8: a character that I can follow through, but also like
• 46:00
  Speaker 8: you're bringing us through something.
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: She got the coldest.
• 46:02
  Speaker 8: But it's like around the way girl, and you think, so.
• 46:06
  Speaker 5: Learn research are you traveling learn about.
• 46:10
  Speaker 8: But you're also outside like you're around two. I think
• 46:15
  Speaker 8: that was what was so fly about the coldest winter ever.
• 46:17
  Speaker 8: It was like she was just going through real life
• 46:19
  Speaker 8: stuff and she was talking to us about stuff that
• 46:21
  Speaker 8: we was actually doing to Santiago. But when you get it, yeah,
• 46:24
  Speaker 8: well when now you get a little older, you're like, oh,
• 46:26
  Speaker 8: so like the the nods to the brown skin and
• 46:29
  Speaker 8: the black man is it's a little bit different than
• 46:31
  Speaker 8: what we thought on the surface. Yeah, I'm gonna do
• 46:33
  Speaker 8: with Charlottmagne. I want to do film first. We're gonna
• 46:37
  Speaker 8: put a book in there.
• 46:38
  Speaker 5: Yeah, which relationship with who Kid?
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: I see who Kid on the album.
• 46:42
  Speaker 4: So this album was executive produced with mister Porter, the
• 46:44
  Speaker 4: non Porter D twelve. He walked me through this whole
• 46:49
  Speaker 4: He walked with me through the whole project, and he's
• 46:51
  Speaker 4: the reason why the growth is in it.
• 46:54
  Speaker 8: You know.
• 46:55
  Speaker 4: I walked in his house to answer your question. That's
• 46:58
  Speaker 4: who Kid is his homie Like he was one like, yo,
• 47:01
  Speaker 4: we need new Kid on this. But I walked in
• 47:05
  Speaker 4: the house and me and we've been known each other
• 47:07
  Speaker 4: since twenty twelve. Twenty thirteen. I call him for every project,
• 47:11
  Speaker 4: you know. But I was like, I'm coming to Detroit,
• 47:14
  Speaker 4: and you know this is you know, I got my
• 47:16
  Speaker 4: own label now, like I'm just a more evolved human.
• 47:19
  Speaker 4: And he was like, I have a mission with you.
• 47:23
  Speaker 4: I don't want to do just like three or four songs,
• 47:25
  Speaker 4: like I want to walk with you the whole thing,
• 47:26
  Speaker 4: because I need people to see you how I see
• 47:28
  Speaker 4: you like. It's important that they see you how I
• 47:31
  Speaker 4: see you like. And he said that ten years ago,
• 47:34
  Speaker 4: but I just wasn't in a space to receive it
• 47:37
  Speaker 4: or meet him. And he was like, I know your path,
• 47:41
  Speaker 4: I know your struggle, but I know all your superpowers
• 47:43
  Speaker 4: and gifts and I'm gonna make sure that they see
• 47:45
  Speaker 4: every superpower. So he flew with me to Johannesburg. We
• 47:49
  Speaker 4: recorded there. I only wrote and recorded when I was
• 47:52
  Speaker 4: in Detroit with him, Like he's so important to this project.
• 47:56
  Speaker 4: It wouldn't be what it is without him. So you
• 47:59
  Speaker 4: know those little nuggets like getting a hoo kid or
• 48:02
  Speaker 4: some of the hooks on this project, like pick a
• 48:04
  Speaker 4: side he made to be and send it to me
• 48:07
  Speaker 4: with the hook on it abandoned me Like that was one.
• 48:11
  Speaker 4: He wanted to give the eminem but he was like,
• 48:13
  Speaker 4: I think this needs to go to you.
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: So yeah, well, let's play something of what you want
• 48:20
  Speaker 2: to hear.
• 48:21
  Speaker 3: Oh, when is this Aaron. Let's let's do pick a side.
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: Now.
• 48:32
  Speaker 3: Amanda right from Man.
• 48:34
  Speaker 4: She's from Barbados, Kendrick. She did something on Kendrick. I
• 48:39
  Speaker 4: can't remember which project it was, but she's she got flavor,
• 48:44
  Speaker 4: She's gifted. She could write, she could sing, she could
• 48:47
  Speaker 4: rap like she does all her own creative videos. She
• 48:50
  Speaker 4: makes her own clothes, you know, red carpets.
• 48:53
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 48:53
  Speaker 4: She's like, I don't like to compare people, but she
• 48:56
  Speaker 4: gives you the energy of like Rihanna, but she her
• 48:59
  Speaker 4: own artist.
• 49:00
  Speaker 3: Amanda is cold.
• 49:01
  Speaker 2: Let's get into it right now.
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: Just pick a side related.
• 49:04
  Speaker 5: I'm looking at the foreheads right now.
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: Rhapsody. We appreciate you for joining us.
• 49:12
  Speaker 3: Thank you all for having me, but Breathless Rhapsody.
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: Every day up, Wake Ago, click your glass up the
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: breakfast club. You're finish for y'all done,