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ELIJAH BLAKE - Plantains to Platinum · Eating While Broke

• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Hey, guys, welcome to another episode of Eating While Broke.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: I'm your host, Coley Witt, and today we have singer songwriter.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Grammy winning singer songwriter Elijah Blake is in the building.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: How are you.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: I'm feeling good. Yeah, you're feeling.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Comfortable in the kitchen to burn it down? Yeah, I'm scared.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: I was excited about it. I was excited about the plantains,
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: but I'm a little nervous. All right, why don't you
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: go ahead and tell me what you're gonna have us
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: eating today?
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: I am making. I'm making Haitian plantains today. Haitian just
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: because in my preference, in my opinion, that's the best plantain.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: It's close between the Dominican plantains and has, but I
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: think the Haitian plantains are the best.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: I want to see the difference because I know being
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: have jamake it. I don't want you to start asking
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: me questions about being Jamaican. But they usually just fry
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: the plantains, so there's a difference.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: You guys, see what the Haitian plantains is. There's a
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: little more that goes into There's like a juice marinaire
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: that's made that you dip it and fry dip it
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: than fried. So the flavor that it has in.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: Size, Okay, yeah, go ahead, oil the pot.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: So the ingredients ingredients you feel me? So we got Lemons,
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: we got Donalds, we got grape seed oil because I
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: just think this is a healthy alternative.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: I've been trying to Oh that's why I thought that
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: was special.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: No, I went I did an alkaline diet. I've been
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: into like what doctor Sabe has been preaching and stuff
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: like that. So grape seed oil is actually like a
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: super good alternative vegetable oil.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: And olive oil is better than olive oil too.
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: I think it is. Yeah, it's really clean for you.
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: If you've ever been to a Spanish market, chick, you
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: feel me? This where all the flavor is. I put
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: this in my.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: Eggs and everything your eggs.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, I'm telling you it's for another time. Take
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: a little bit and put it in your season for
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: the batter for the eggs, for.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: The batter for the eggs. What do you mean better
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: for the eggs?
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: Dominican perto Rican friends?
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: No? Is that why you thought I was Puerto Rican?
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: Or just because I look like a fake Puerto Rican
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: not a fake from New York.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: They're like your Puerto Rican. Yeah I heard it. Yeah,
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: but yeah, that's my grandmother used to just put a
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: little bit.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: Oh they whip it for like you when they're making
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: scrambled eggs, things in it.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: But this is one of the secret ingredients.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna check it out. I'm gonna take it out
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: solely based on how well you cook these plantains today.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: So go for it. Get in the kitchen. What are
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: we doing with oil in the pot?
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: Oil the pot. Get this thing going real quick.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: While you're oiling the pot. I'm gonna just go ahead
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: and get into it.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: Okay, let's do this.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: Is long before being a Grammy winning songwriter and singer,
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: long before the writing for Justin Bieber, Keisha Cole Usher
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: writing hits obviously, right long before it all, long before it.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: So take me back to what was going on during
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: this era of your life.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: So I came to you. I wasn't born in you.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: People don't know that. So I came to the United
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: States when I was like five or six years old,
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: and I didn't really It took me a while. Even
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: to this day, I don't I'm not excited about burgers
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: and a lot of American cuisine. I'm just now coming
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: around to it. But this is all I knew. My mother,
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: my grandmother, my family all made Listen, it just was
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: an easy.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: And you're coming from Dominican Republican, yeah.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: And it just was an easy grabbing and go. So
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: for me, I'm trying to pay attention. Am I doing
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: it right? You don't get to call Jennifer okay, okay, okay, okay.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: Jennifer is doing it wrong. That's why she knew.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: To wash it too. Yeah, Jenna's Dominican.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: Oh, she's dominic Yeah, so she understands.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: She understands. But yeah, this is one of my favorite things.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: And it just reminds me of home. Honestly, I always
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: eat things that remind me of home. Because then when
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: I got signed, I moved to Atlanta in ninth grade.
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: And again, you.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: Guys signed in the ninth grade.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: Damn from my space. Wow, I was putting up original
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: music yep from my space, and I was putting up
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: original music on YouTube as well. So yeah, I would
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: really say actually YouTube, because I was my Space had
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: went down, and then Priscilla Renee myself, Dondrea. I don't
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: know if you remember Dondrea. She was like killing it
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: on YouTube around that time when money Long before Money
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: Long was money Long, and we knew her as Priscilla Renee.
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: She was doing like original songs and covers as well,
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: and an executive from Atlanta Records reached out to me,
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: and then I flew out to Atlanta while Trey Songs
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: was working on the Ready album. This is before I
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: knew that Clay Songs and he was working on the
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: Ready album.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: I love how you said this what it was before
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: you knew you could write song?
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I didn't know. I just wanted to.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: I didn't know I had that head and saling this
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: came out.
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: I just was I just got tired of being broke
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: one day and I couldn't understand why songwriters have the
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: most money. Like the songwriters was pulling up in the cars.
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: The producers had better cars than the artist.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: So I'm just like and that the producers had better
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: cards than that.
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Sean Garrett pulled up and I saw what Johntay
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: Austin was driving, and I saw what like Brian Michael
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: Cox had and I was like, okay, And meanwhile, I'm
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: so hungry, I'm shaking in the studio.
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: There was a point in time work. I was just
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: having a regular conversation. I hadn't eaten in a couple
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: of days. I didn't want to call my mom and
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: tell her, like, I'm not eating because as a Caribe woman,
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: she would be like, why are they not feeding you?
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: And it's not necessarily that they weren't feeding me. I
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: just think that.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: She would have been definitely concerned. She probably would have
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: flown out there.
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: She would have said, come back and go to college,
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: or finish high school and go to college, because she
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: wasn't really In Caribbean households, you either become a doctor, lawyer, engineer,
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: or you're a failure. Like they don't want to hear that,
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: none of that.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: Can I cut that right?
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: I think so?
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: I don't think so.
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: But go ahead.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: We're gonna see.
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: I just it's just to squeeze it.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you cut it wrong.
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: House was good. The other way.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: You got more lemons you could try.
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: We just come to squeeze it though.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: Okay, don't see how you do it.
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: Yo.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: I can't wait for your family. I say, I'm gonna
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: send them the here. I'm gonna send them the video.
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: The question is myself is gonna be.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: Five Yeah, that's the real question. Okay, is he gonna
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: make them proud?
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm gonna make them proud.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: So so you're in high school basically, yeah, and you
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: start to discover Is that when you discover that songwriters
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: and producers make more money? Or is this right before college?
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: You're saying, No, I'm just now figuring just from me surviving,
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: I'm too proud for I didn't want to ask anybody
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: for money. I didn't I think the day everybody just
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: was moving and I was the youngest one in the crew.
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: So one day I remember speaking and Trey was like,
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: are you a nee me? And I'm like, I don't
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: think so why He's like, you're shaking And I didn't
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: know I was just I had been hungry for so
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: many days. I didn't know I was, but so many days.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I was just oh my goodness.
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because I was thugging it out, like I was
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: really just trying to get it. And again, there weren't
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: any writers that were coming to write for me because
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: Chef Tone was pulling up. He was writing for Trade.
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: Johnsy Austin was writing for Trading, and this little kid
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: in the corner that everybodys trying to get him a trade album,
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: you know what I mean. And my Karen there's all
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: there's this kid in the house that my Karen thinks
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: might be a star. But ain't the check don't reflect,
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: ain't no money behind me, the butget's not open. So
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: niggas is trying to get on trade, which I get.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: So just for me, I'm like, I'm wasting time. Let
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: me get to it. So I started writing songs on
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: my own and people are like walking by and hearing
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: my songs, and Bobby Trey had a road manager. His
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: name was Bobby. He was like, I think this nigga's
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: a storyteller. And I'm getting annoyed because I'm like, I
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: don't want to be a story I'm a church boy.
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: Give me the songs, I sing them, put my music out,
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: you know what I mean. That's that type stuff. So
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: then I remember I was singing upstairs one of the
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: songs and Trey was like, look, I'm telling you like
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: you have a gift of storyteller. And again me being
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: stubborn and being a little annoyed, I'm like, I just
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: want to sing songs. And he changed my life. Because
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: oh lord, you're not supposed to laugh at me.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: So you talk out.
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: I turned them all they down.
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: You talked out, like those are gunshots, bro, I told you,
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: don't let the water hit you know what the lemon?
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: Hell No, I'm a.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: Mask, and so tell you know, I like, you've never
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: been in the kitchen. You're good. I think you're safe.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: So go back to your story because you a good storyteller.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: Like they said where was a He was talking about
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: how they discovered you a good storytelling. You in denial.
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm in denial, and i just want people to
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: give me songs. So I'm writing these songs and again
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: once one day, write me a song, and I'm like,
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: right now, it's yeah, right now. And he puts a
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: beat on sk as another producer that's on songbook as well,
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: And the first thing I hear is, I think it's
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: time we take a trip to the band girl. Yo.
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: Body's talking and I'm loving what she says. Don't you
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: be your friend to let me little faint? You welcome
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: you to Super No. So at this point I'm like
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: going on like Super and me and Trey are such
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: a playful dynamic at that point, and he's like Dupa,
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: and we were like Jupiter Love and we're just branding
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: things with super And then one day I get a
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: call and Troy Taylor calls me. He's hey, Duper Love
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: is gonna make the album. What's your being? My information?
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: What's your again? I'm so broke right now at.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: This point broken, and you're discovering your anemic too, right.
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, broke anemic, just suffering. And I'm teaching dance classes
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: at this like White Dance studio. He's really off kids,
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: and I'm teaching for thirty dollars an hour because I
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: got a little one two stort to perform our high
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: school and stuff like that, barely making it by. So
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: when Troy Retch helps me register the song, I didn't
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: understand the concept of a songwriter who goes and keeps
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: track of every time a song plays on the radio
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: around the world, collects two cents here, twenty cents here,
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: or ten years cents here, a dollar here. I didn't
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: know that there was a BMI it does this for
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: you or p r oh.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: So when he asked you for the b and my information,
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: were you like, huh yeah?
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: But I called my dad. My dad already had one
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: set up for me.
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, my bad. I love that all right, go on.
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: He's super music, literally, like it's from the Philly scene.
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: Once I registered that, I went from being pissed broke
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: to bringing in six bands like a month or every quarter.
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: And I can't remember.
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: Exactly, My goodness, that's how long from that call to
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: you receiving the money? Was it like six months? A year?
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so they pay out quarterly, so I think from
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: that call it felt pretty fast. Me. I would say
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: about maybe two three months. I was in a penhouse. Oh,
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: because I've suffered long enough.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: So you called your dad and your dad was like, son,
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: already taken care of.
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah. He gave me the information because my dad was
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: also helping me release music when I was in high school.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: Oh, I love your parents, Pops.
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: Everything I got he taught me. He really taught me
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: how to format structure. So he was trying to teach
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: me about where we're at now, told me where music
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: was going to go, streaming wise, and my dad predicted
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: all that because he used to work for Apple Corporate
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: and stuff like that. And I think, just me being stubborn,
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: I wanted the record deal. I wanted to feel established
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: in that way, and his heart was so beautiful that
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: he let me do that even though he knew better.
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: I loved my father for that because he was like,
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: I'm just and.
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: This is yeah, but now you're saying that. He also
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: taught you these other elements of songwriting indirectly though, right,
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: So by the time you're in the studio, he baked
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: something into you. Right.
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: I had that ability because of him. I just didn't
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: want to use it. Yeah. But when I was doing
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: it just off of necessity putting original songs on YouTube,
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: my pops was like, format it this way, structure this way. Yeah,
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: and he really taught me how to like hone in
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: my runs. He's a really great piano player, an incredible musicians.
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: So by the time I got things started taking off
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: from me. People thought I had superpowers because my dad
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: was so strict on me. He was like my Matthew
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: nos or like my Joe Jackson in a way.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: I love that.
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So I go from being a starving artist and
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: then that's them that ended up breaking tray and taking
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: trade to the next level. So when Ready blew up,
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: everybody's like, there's a fifteen year old that rot and
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: Drew Love became instantly the fan favorite Yeah album, and
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: they were playing on the radio in Atlanta. So I
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: think that's how word got to Usher, and then I
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: went from that to working with Usher, Mary J. Blige
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: and Beyonce Keisha Cole all in six.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: Months after that, within six months. Yeah, how old are
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: you at the time? You're like fifteen?
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: You said, yeah, so I'm fifteen, So let's just say, yeah,
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: I'm like sixteen by the time everything starts to really
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: take off when the project releases and people start hearing,
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: and all I needed was a shot.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: Now with that shot, how does a fifteen or sixteen
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: year old know how to manage money?
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: My business manager, So yeah, the business manager I had
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: when I when everything took off for me as the
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: same business manager I have now and we're like family.
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: So he was really teaching me. He was like, you're
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: not going to become an etue Hollywood story remember those. Yeah,
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: he kept saying that he's not going to be that
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: on my watch, and till this day he's got my back.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: Okay, So he helped you manage And then what are
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: your parents saying? Was your dad like I told you
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: so soon?
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: My dad was very protective of me coming into it,
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: just because he knew how they steal and the music
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: industry teaches us and they just put us through things,
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: and he was really protective. But then once I got
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: signed to death Jam, that's when he was just like okay,
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: like I'm not going to be that father. That's like
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: in the way, like yeah, And to this day I
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: call him for advice and everything like that. But I
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: think once I got signed to death Jam, which I
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: probably should have had him hold on a little bit more.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: But why do you say that, Because I.
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: Really got screwed over in that deal. I really got
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: screwed over in that deal. And I'm not blaming death Jam.
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: I just think that a lot of promises were made
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: and me being so naive, I believed everything so much
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: so that I invested a lot of my own money
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: that I thought I was gonna get back, and I
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: didn't get it back. And I just assumed, like anybody
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: else would assume, like your talent alone, if you're talented
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: enough you sing the songs, probably, if you're just the
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: best that you can be, your music will come on.
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: And that's not about that, it's about so many other
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: things outside and around it that just it becomes exhausting.
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: And I remember Mark Pitts, who's one of my heroes,
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: who I worked closely with when I was working on
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: the Usher project, and who I remember. He told me,
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: he is like, don't lose that smile. And I'm just like,
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: I'm always smiling, like I'm a happy.
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: Person, smile heading on you, thank you.
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: But I literally was like, are you sound crazy? I'm
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: never gonna stop smiling and throughout life. And he told
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: me this, He's like, when I signed Chris Brown, these
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: guess I knew the star he was gonna be. But
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: he walked in and he had a smile that lit
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: up the room, and he was like, I don't want
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: to watch that same smile fade in you. Wow throughout
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: the years, the way that the music industry can just
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: beat on you and just take everything, take it in
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: dem your life. I was like, you're crazy, but I
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: have to admit, like, throughout the years, even when I
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: look in the mirror, I've seen that smile fade Wow
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: more and more because you become that you start off
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: as this kid that believes in this dream, and this
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: dream just's you're realizing, oh, this was a nightmare the
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: whole time.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: Why do you say it was a nightmare the whole
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: time though.
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: Just because the more you love it, the more it
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: takes from you. And I think as artists, right, especially
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: singers R and B artists, when they're saying the genre
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: is dying, it's not dying, but you're definitely fighting an
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: uphill battle because you watch rappers get on stage, right
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: and they get they make significantly more than the let's say,
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: like a new rapper versus a new singer would make
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: some significantly more a show than a singer would. And
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: they can get up there and sing over the track
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: literally like the same version as you're hearing on Apple
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: Music on the spot. They'll sing over the whole thing
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: and barely. Whereas as a singer, as an R and
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: B artist, you're expected a live band, yeah, background dances, choreography, rehearsal.
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: The real singers yeah, yeah, you know what I mean.
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: You're expected to put on a show. Yeah, you're protecting
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: your instrument, so there's a lot of it you're putting
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: into it for minimal return.
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: The return is your love for the art, your love
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: for the craft. So it's one of them things.
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: Man, How old were you when you signed the deaf
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: Jam deal?
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: When I signed the deaf Jam I believe I was nineteen.
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: Okay, and that's when he started releasing the reins. Yeah,
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: was there any other would you say, looking back, lessons
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: that you wish you could have not had learned head on?
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: It was all beautiful. I definitely felt like after I
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: left def Jam, I thought it was going to be
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: easier getting off that deal just because shit, they were
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: dropping everybody. So I was like, I didn't sell deeper numbers,
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: like just drop me. But it wasn't that easy.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: They didn't get any of yourublishing.
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: No, I was already signed to Sony okay.
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: So they didn't So there's no way for them to
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: get your publishing. Yeah, so it does make it easier
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: for them to possibly drop you. And that's what you wanted.
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: I wanted to get dropped, but it wasn't that easy.
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: There was like lawyers and conversations and how do I leave,
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: which songs can I take with me? Which it was
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: this long process. I remember even in the middle, I
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: just wanted to stay creative as an artist, that's how
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: we live. And I remember putting something up on a
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: SoundCloud this is fun just for fun covers or whatever,
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: and with intense the upload didn't even happen. I got
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: a DMC strike down this property. I remember it because
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: the image is painted in my face and said in
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: my head it said property of Universal Music Group. And
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: I was like, dang, I did sign that contract, Like
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: I don't even own me right now?
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: Even when you upload you saw that. Yeah, that's scary.
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah it was. It was a really And I got
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: this tattoo it says ilegitimate non carbo rundom, which it
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: says what illegitimate non carbo rundum, which is Latin for
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: fuck the system, because the system fucked me. Yeah, can
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: I curse on here? All right? But that's how I felt.
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: That was the one time and I've never understood being
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: Caribbean there like you're not allowed to there's a lot
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: of traditional things that you're not allowed to feel as
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: a man. And I remember growing up, I'd never understood
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: suicide or mental health. I'm just because this is how
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: I was raised with my uncles this land. I'm like,
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: you're good, like you got breath in your body, you're healthy,
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: you're good. But that was the first time I didn't
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: feel suicidal. But that was the one time I was like,
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: I understood the empathy that's required for somebody to be
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: put in that position, yeah, to think, yeah, I think
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: my faith in God I would. Luckily I've never been
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: there and I've never gotten that far. But for the
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: first time in my life, I was like, Oh, this
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: is the level of helplessness one can feel to just
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: not want to feel.
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a scary reality. Did you end up talking?
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: Are you only cooking those two little I want to
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: start you smashine. What are you doing?
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: So?
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: I'm just like, do you need a real fork? I
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: feel like I don't know if that's and smashed with it?
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: You know, I can use this.
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: Actually, I'm watching you. I'm trying to learn what you're doing.
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: I feel like, just so for all the listeners out there,
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: he's got planting cut in half. I thought he was
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: gonna do thin slices like the drinking stuff. Go for it, Elijah,
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: you are very entertaining. I don't know. Jennifer, come up
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: in here and cook.
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: I did do it wrong.
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: Actually, you slice it right?
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I did do it wrong.
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: Is the slicing? Is it the slicing?
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: I did do it I supposed to do this.
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: Oh you hear her in the back. There you go.
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: You're supposed to slice it? Yeah, I guys, I wish
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: you could watch this. Go to YouTube whatever you got
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: to watch this. No, I meant slice it the long way.
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: Is that how you guys do it? This? Yeah? Way? Yeah?
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, Okay.
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: I gotta take these ends because these ain't no good.
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: The ends aren't good because.
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: We're trying to get it shape.
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, now make more because I'm gonna want more
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: than three bites.
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: If it's good.
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: Did you call your dad when you were at these
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: moments of like despair?
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: No, I just got to the point where I can
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: call my dad for again.
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: As I was going to say, as a Caribbean man.
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: There's a lot of traits that I am like just
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: now learning to undo.
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: And you didn't like that one.
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: But I think I'm coming up with something right now.
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: Okay, okay, I'm I'm trust now.
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: My creative mind is moving.
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: By the way, that was like a measuring cup. The
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: bowl was supposed to be that. But I don't know
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: if you needed the bowl.
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: No, we don't need it. I'm gonna be Elijah's.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: I'm watching it learning, I'm gonna enjoy every bit of this.
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: So you so the whole time you can't call him?
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: Can you call your mom?
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: No? I used to really just go through things on
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: my own, okay, which is very unhealthy, but I was
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: actually did okay with it?
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: Is it because you like song wrote too? Did that help?
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah? That was like my therapy. So that's the only
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: place I feel safe to really tell people or invite
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: people in what I'm going through. I've just always been taught.
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: And my mom was like that, like she just got
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: shit done, didn't she Never I've never heard her complain.
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: I've never She's literally like the closest thing I've seen
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: to Superwoman. Four kids, three jobs, and we never felt
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: a lot of.
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: Kids and three jobs. What'd your dad do for work?
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: So were they together?
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: So here's the thing. So when I speak about my dad,
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: I don't like using step father or so I'm not
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: speaking about my biological father who taught me how to
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: sing and do music. Me and my biological father are
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: on the best term, is.
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: That the biological that did the be on my account?
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: No, yeah, me and me and my biological havn't father,
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: haven't really been close since like elementary school for a
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: multi not because he didn't try. I will always say
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: he wasn't one of the fathers that like didn't try
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: to be in my life. I maybe didn't try hard enough,
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: but he tried. But once I feel like my father,
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: who God gave to me, I never had to ask
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: him to be a father. He was always that in
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: some and to me that was enough. And my biological
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: father always had this rule that if I ever called it,
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: the only way I could disappoint it is by calling
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: another man father. And in my mind, you shouldn't have
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: left room for that to happen. Damn. You know.
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: You want to know something that's facts.
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: You feel me damn, And it's just like, how dare
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: you feel like demand something that you haven't really earned.
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: You're both fathers to Haitian No.
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: So my my father who has been really the focal
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: point of my life. He's trinidaddy in so both Caribbeans,
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: but two different sides. In Haitian culture, I will say
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: we can be toxic, and there's just in it. We're
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: so traditional that it can be toxic. And now I'm
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: not saying in a harmful way, I'm just saying that
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: I think a lot of my habits from not allowing
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: myself to feel, not being this open with my emotions.
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: Not that's a very common thing in Haitian culture. Just
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: figure it out. Gets But they're warriors. And yeah, whereas
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: my as David, he's I can communicate with him. He's
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: more compassionate, understanding, patient with me. And I'm just throughout
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: life I've strived to just be more like that. I
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: found that gets more things done. I'm more proud of that.
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: I've learned better through calm teachings and calm representation.
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: With your mom working all these jobs, with her remarrying,
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: I would assume she remarried.
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: No, she didn't. Actually, I feel like God only brought
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: him together for what he was going to mean to
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: her kids. I don't think that.
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: They really but they're not together anymore.
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: But you think they were ever meant to be together?
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, if that makes any sense.
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: So he was in your guy's lives for how long?
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: Then he's still in our life. He came in and
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: he never left our life. We called him father and
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: we met that check on him. I tell him happy Birthday,
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: like I talked to him every He's my father.
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: I love that, but they split? Yeah, how long ago
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: did they split?
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: They haven't spoken since since right before my do happen?
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: So since I wouldn't even go as far as to
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: be like that, they were like ever, like really there
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: was a moment where I was like, Okay, this could
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: be something, but literally we got along better with him.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: I guess we're I'm confused. I've met people that had
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: like great stepfathers and then like when the parents split,
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: they feel like they have to choose to stay by
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: their mind.
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: I've always felt that way, but not it was just
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: it was a completely.
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: Did you guys say something to like, hey, she.
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: Loves him the same way too, but you just said
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: that you know what I'm saying. She loves him for us,
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: She literally like loves our relationship. Yeah, she's not like
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: that at all, like with him. It's because again it's
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: not I think growing up you only believe that relationships
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: ending like animosity. Yeah, but some it's just I'm not
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: feeling you like that, you know what I mean. But
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: it's this game, like how could she be mad at him?
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: Everything I've become because of what this man.
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: Taught me, her children, and what is it unconditionally.
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: That's all she's ever wanted for us. We are her world.
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: And I literally think that so much load was lifted
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: off of her because she was doing everything on her
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: own and she never had to ask. I'm telling you,
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: like my father, he doesn't. He's not somebody you had
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: to ask for anything. He's just there. And for me,
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: that is what I want to mean to people, like
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: what I want to mean to my kids one day,
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: Like I don't want them to ever feel like they
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: have to ask me, because I feel like with my
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: biological father, there are certain things I would never discuss
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: with him because he would probably not even understand it,
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: or as somebody was coming to me like saying, hey,
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: I understand what you're going through and I don't even
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: community I haven't even communicated it yet. That's a deeper
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: kind of love to me.
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: Is he like doing more of the checking into type all.
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: The time, all the time. He watches over he handles
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: all my Spotify accounts, he handles all my music accounts
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: and everything like that. He watches my social numbers and
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: be like, son, you should post more. Yeah, like he
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: really it's a deeper kind of love, And for me,
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: that is who I feel God put on this earth
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: to train me up to be a that is a father.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a difference between I believe a biological dad
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: and a father figure.
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah yeah.
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: And to me, blood couldn't make him more of my father.
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: I've never really spoken about it like at length like this.
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: So it's beautiful. I've never even seen it at length.
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: But your mom was still hustling multiple jobs while raising
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: you said, three four kids, four kids.
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I've never felt her be absent. So weird.
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: And I'm like, I'll hear people talk about they have
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: three jobs and they came in as a.
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: Single Oh yeah, no, trust me. I have a neighbor
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: who grew up with a single parent, a single mom,
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: and she said that she never saw her mom. So
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: her goal was like, yeah, I'm a single parent, but
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: my kids are gonna see me.
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, I'm gonna make it. I'm
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: gonna make it work somehow. But you're saying your mom
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: didn't miss it be even with all those jobs, because
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: she's a truth. You said she's Dominican, Dominican true. I
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: don't say Jamaican's we always got a hundred jobs.
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, what I'm saying, it's culture. Yeah, and she never complained,
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: And I feel so bad for her because I'm just like, dang, like,
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: I never heard her complain. So maybe that's probably contributed
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: to why I don't ask for help. Yeah, because I've
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: watched this woman never ask for help, have all these
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: jobs and she's never.
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: And you never seen her cry or nothing.
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: Never. If I see my mom cry, my head might
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: explode because I just can't comprehend. My heart would break.
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: I've never seen her cry.
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Do you think that's a good thing? Though? Do
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: you look at women like differently because she's held this
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: bar of like strength.
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: I have to say yeah, I have to say yeah.
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: I just think that there's a new there's a new
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: normal that's not normal for me because of I was
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: raised very traditional. Again, it took my mom a long
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: time to assimilate. She's still simulating to American culture. So
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: now when I see like women be like, oh, is
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: this nigga gonna pay for my hair? Is gonna pay
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: for my nails? Done? Is this nigga gonna pay? I'm
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: not knocking it. I'm just not from I just can't
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: come because even if a man was to try to
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: do that for my mother. She wouldn't accept it. Yeah, yeah,
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: I just don't understand it.
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: I was talking more of the like the I feel
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: like the women not hating on women both. If you
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: came across a woman that was more like easily frustrated,
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: complaining a lot, and all of that, do you feel
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: like it would throw you a little bit? No, because
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: you'd be like, man, my mom did this and she
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: didn't even blink.
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but I also understand at the same time, like
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: I that doesn't bother me as much, just because I
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: have friends that are.
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: Those look official. I'm getting those look official.
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: I'm very proud.
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: I am personally.
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: Of you right now and that was good too.
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: Smell gup, but they look at you're almost burning them. Yeah,
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: but you want to know something, I'm very proud of you.
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: I know this sounds crazy, but like I was concerned,
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: especially when that I know.
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: You was because I saw you looking like when.
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: It popped and you ran. I was like, oh, yeah.
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: But this is actually like how I like mine a
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: little well done.
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: When you're writing songs for like Justin Bieber and Beyonce
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: and all these guys, what's the thought process of like
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: where you came from to where you are now? Did
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: you ever have an aha moment?
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah with my mom because again, because she made all
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: these sacrifices, there was a lot of pressure to, like
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: I said, become a doctor, lawyer or or engineer or
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: I failed, and there.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: Was to be something.
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah. There was one time she was like, are you
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: going to come back and just go to college because
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: I don't want the church laughing at me, like she's
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: really big in the church like that. And she was like,
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: I'm sure she went to church and was like they're
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: like where's Elijah? Or my nickname was Red, so there's
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: like where's Red and she's, oh, he's doing music. And
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: I'm sure there were like snickers. But when I paid
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: her mortgage.
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: Off, y'all, I was gonna say, but you're making a
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: lot of money and you said at that nineteen did
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: you ever send money back? Hey, surprise.
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: First thing I did was pay off her mortgage at.
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: The young teenage. At seventeen, I paid off her mortgage
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: and she still asked, though, if you went to college.
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: No, That's when she stopped asking no. So the like
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: I was saying, right when I went to Atlanta, and
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: things were starting to happen. It was like, are you
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: going to come back? Come on, I'm like this music
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: stuff like that, it's not a real thing. Come back,
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: go to college and do it the right way. But
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: when I paid her mortgage and she was like, oh
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: wait a minute now, like he said yeah, So she
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: couldn't wait to go to her friends and be like,
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: my son like paid off my mortgage.
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he sings yeah. So then when you do songs
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: for Beyonce and Justin Bieber, how is her response?
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: Then she can't believe it. But what really blew her
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: mind was there was I did my first headlining tour
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: two years ago. It was just by myself in an
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: opening acts, and my sisters surprised her and flew her
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: to Atlanta. So imagine a woman from the Caribbean Islands,
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: where there's.
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: Wait, she's currently where she currently.
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: Lives in Florida, but her whole adult majority of her
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: adult life was in the Caribbean. So coming where there's
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: power on one side of the island and power on
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: the other side of the island, half today and coming
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: to Atlanta, getting flown to Atlanta, flew out and pulling
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: up to a venue and seeing your son's name sold
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: out concert, seeing your son's name in and seeing hundreds
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: of people singing law to his songs. So when she
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: got backstage, I still get emotional to telling. So she's like,
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: I can't believe like you came from me. It just
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: blew her mind. That was so I don't think it
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: was real for her. So she saw that. Yeah, I
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: think Prior is like, all my son's getting money, he's
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: writing for Usher, And she's gonna see this because now
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: she follows me on TikTok, which stresses me out.
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: But you monitor the content knowing that she she's going
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: to see it possible.
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: Not no more. My mama knows I'm crazy. I was
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: like a problem child growing up.
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: I like that.
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, she knows I'm crazy. But and it looks like
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: and I squish it in enough time, you caush it. Yeah,
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: that's when it comes what it's supposed to.
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: And then you're gonna put the sauces and on.
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: I should make some more.
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: The only thing that I'm sad about, Elijah is that
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: your time is so tight.
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: What time is it now?
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: I'm watching it. We got like probably fifteen more minutes. Now,
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: we got time, not to capture the whole rest. I
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: still want to talk about the deluxe album, Elijah, Yeah,
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: I still want to. I guess since we're so clite,
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: like tight on time, we can jump to it. But
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: I just I want to know. How did it make
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: you feel to hear your mom say that to you?
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: Though? That was when it was real for me. I
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: think that I understood why she said that, because this
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: is beyond her wildest dream, like your son are like
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: overcoming the odds and making music for the world, and
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: you at one point not even knowing if you'd be
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: able to see the world. Just insane for her, But
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: that motivated, that put a deeper firing, like now, none
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: of that shit like that. I thought, mint stuff, don't
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: need nothing, and I got her arranged over after that.
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: She didn't want it, she wanted it. She made me
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: get it for her, and then she said it was
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: a gas girler. She's like, take it back, are you serious? Yes?
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: Now she got a Tesla.
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: That's cute. You does your siblings? Do you get like
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: love from your siblings or do you ever get I
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: don't know if you ever even would ever admit to this,
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: but I know what it's like. To have siblings, but
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: is it all love or is there jealousy or is
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: there no me and my sisters are really oh you're
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: the only boy.
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: No, my little brother. He's like way younger than us.
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: But so I think I used to worry about him
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: just because he was so far like down in age
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: from us that I felt like he was trying to
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: find him. Since struggling with that and also feeling like
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: we he found space where he belonged in our crew,
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: just because how big is the age? Can you like
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: at least ten years?
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: Oh, that's a big age forever he will be your
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: baby brother exactly. It's like he could be forty and
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: you'd be like, that's the baby brother.
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: But we've connected on a level that I never could
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: have understood. He's so far, like more mature than I was,
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: And I'm just I'm so proud of like the man
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: he's becoming, and our friendship there is really becoming a
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: friendship and not a brotherhood. But I used to make
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: a mental note of my head, I gotta work on that.
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: I gotta work on nurturing my relationship with him and
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: overcoming that age guy. Ye, And so now we're really
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: close to me and my sisters like watch the same shows.
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: Growing up. We literally were like in separal like triplets.
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, So when I see siblings don't get along, that's
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: another thing I don't understand because my mother and her
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: siblings weren't always on the best terms. So she was
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: very adamant on y'all are all each other half.
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: I feel like that's a Caribbean type mentality. But I
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: do see what you're saying, because my mom and her
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: siblings are the same way, don't really mess with each other.
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: She grew into us like the year all you guys
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: have you better not fighting public. Don't let nobody come
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: between y'all. You put a lot of soul.
• 34:58
  Speaker 3: You gotta do it.
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: You feel me.
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: Excited, And I love that you made sure to make
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: that come around with your brother too, because I also
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: understand like that little age separation where you're not close
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: for a little bit and then boom they turned into
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: adults and all of a sudden, you have relatabilities.
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah exactly, but he was my fan first. It took
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: my sisters a while if they appreciated it. I didn't
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: know to, but I did used to feel away because
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: I'm just like Damn. I'm like supporting them and putting them,
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: helping putting them through college. And there was a point
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: where I was like, damn with y'all even know, because
• 35:31
  Speaker 2: the industry was whooping my ass and I'm just like, damn,
• 35:33
  Speaker 2: but y'all even know, like y'all brother is actually like
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: in the studio with Beyonce or with Usher and stuff
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: like that. Because they we were talking, nobody would mention it.
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: And I guess that was mainly ego.
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: You go on whose side though it can't you can't
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: say it was respectfully. I don't think you could say
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: it's ego on your side because everybody who has a
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: siblings will be like, yo, are you gonna acknowledge it?
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, you know what I mean. And it was
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: like and a lot of times when they would tell
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: me it was I was going through a lot alone. Yeah,
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: And I think I was expecting, because of the relationship
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: we had as kids, them to be but I think
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: they just were going through their own They were in college,
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: you know what I mean, and they were trying to
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: figure it out. But once that they can, no one
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: in their mind is bigger than It's like me than
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: Michael Jackson so once we talked about it, I just
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: think that they were going through their own stuff.
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: Did they Did you ever get a chance to express
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: that kind of window to.
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: Them or they I was feeling it. I never expressed it,
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: but which I appreciate because now I know how they
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: view me as authentic because they just celebrate me in
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: that way and they're super supportive because again I was
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: going through things with death, cham going through things with
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: my publishing company, going through things with artists still in
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: my publishing stealing my money, but then also like showing
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: up for my family Jesus financially. So sometimes I'm just
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: in the movie set it off when Jada Pinkett gives
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: them money to and she said, you know what how
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: to do with that money? And I'm just kind of
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: I don't even know that. I'm just getting it from
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: all sides. This is not just money I can want.
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: I bought you this Christmas gift for When I sent
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: this money over, like, I really was like fighting over
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: here on this side, but now there's just gratitude and
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: love and it's just authentic. So I just think they
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: was figuring out, they were coming into their womanhood, and
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: it was never a lack there. You probably just didn't
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: have room or space to communicate it.
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: Do you now have mentors in the industry?
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I definitely Like Keisha is like a huge mentor.
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: I love her.
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: We talked all the time. She just announced her tour,
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: so you should we love. Yeah, she's somebody who checks
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: on me, like a guardian angel. That's like my sister.
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: But Twain right there checks on me. She's like, how's
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: your heart through relationships? And she's had to come and
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: get me, like in the middle of a fist fight.
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: She's fist fight.
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm from Florida.
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: You should ever be in a fist fight from Florida.
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: It gets that way. Okay, we pull up, pull.
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: Up a seat, let's eat. He did it? What is
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: the song? Do we have to any more saut stepping
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: or anything?
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: It should be? It should be good.
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: Eat here? What did you do with this work? He
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: was doing something?
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: Here we go, I'll let you taste it.
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: No, we're gonna do it together. It's gonna be good.
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: This is just a version.
• 38:15
  Speaker 2: Just do it.
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: You're gonna tell everybody how you forgot to I.
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: Did forget Okay, So I ended up making a Jamaican
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: version on accident. This is not the Haitian version because
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: I was so into the story I forgot to put
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: the boo yard in that.
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: But that would have been so it would have been
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: just so you guys know it. But Jennifer said it
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: would have been a paste because we just made like
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: you made a soup.
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it would have been a little thicker and the
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: flavor would have been in there. But this is not
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: bad because Jamaica's killing chairs.
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: Okay, here we go. I don't know this, mom, does
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: it taste Haitian? No, want to try your version? But
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: this is good though, it's perfect.
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: All. Oh wow, there's a really good I'm proud of me.
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: I'm proud of you too. You should have made all
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: of them so you'd have a snack on the way
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: to the plane.
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: Oh that's all good, is perfect?
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: Absolutely one more. I'm Jamaican.
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: There, that's what Jamaican cowing up.
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: Oh this one could be fried Mar. I'm taking all
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: the good ones, okay, Elijah, Yeah, let's get to this
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: deluxe album. Tell us all about it.
• 39:24
  Speaker 2: The Deluxe for me is my first time really getting
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: to be the artist I've always wanted to be. There's
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: so much experimentation happening with electronic elements, live musicianships, and.
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: I just didn't want you to spend the block.
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, live musicianship that's happening on there, and it's I
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: get to be the artist. And I got a song
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: with Kim Barrell, who I've studied. You couldn't tell me,
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: like in a million years, I had to be in
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: the same room as Kim Borell. And I'm in a
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: great space. I'm independent with the team that I've always
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: dreamed of. I feel like I call them my avengers
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: and collected them and they've collected me throughout the way.
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: Like Jen who's on my management team. We've been rocking
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: sister the rock Nation days. It was my product manager
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: at rock Nation. Peter shout out to Gin, a fellow Dominica.
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: I love that you keep everyone in your camp around forever.
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that's a good sign of integrity to really.
• 40:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah my opinion, Yeah, I would think so. And then
• 40:21
  Speaker 2: my my manager, he was the president of Deaf Jam
• 40:24
  Speaker 2: when I was there. He was the person who's really
• 40:26
  Speaker 2: him and no idea, Peter thea and yeah, that's the way.
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: And r I p to my also my co manager
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: hoodie that just passed.
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I heard about that.
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he managed myself Tone stiff An and he. I
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: wish he would have been able to see what the deluxe.
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: He was one of the people that put everything in
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: place with the label that I'm at now. I would
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: say the partner.
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: You dedicated a song to him though, Yeah, Well.
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: Something happens when I hear does something happened when I
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: hear your name, And that's with me made in Tone
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: who he was really fighting every day, fight for us
• 40:56
  Speaker 2: on just he would show it to my Good Day
• 40:59
  Speaker 2: New York performance and I'm just like, did you just
• 41:01
  Speaker 2: flying from Australia He's yeah, I'm like leaving to go
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: to Jersey per Tone right after this and just he
• 41:06
  Speaker 2: really gave his heart and his soul to this project.
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: And I think he'd be proud. I think he'd be
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: very proud.
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and he could obviously feel all the love.
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah. We're Dene Malloy, who's been my reference and to
• 41:17
  Speaker 2: be and my study. He's who signed me A, B
• 41:19
  Speaker 2: and I and he's not my A. And R Shy Riddick,
• 41:23
  Speaker 2: who was an intern that songbook when I had moved
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: to Atlanta and he was interning there. He's on my
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: team as well. So yeah, this Deluxe means more than
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: just music and more than just songs. I think people
• 41:33
  Speaker 2: are getting the Elijah that I felt a little too
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: restricted to be allowed to become at the major side
• 41:40
  Speaker 2: of the major label system.
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: So your deal right now, is it like one hundred
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: percent freedom freedom, one hundred percent yes, And it's not
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: independent though it is independent.
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: It's with my label and Monarch is the partner, so
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: they provide. Yeah, they're a distribution company, so they just
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: make sure that we get on Spotify, Apple Music. Actually,
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: what I really like about them is they provide other
• 42:03
  Speaker 2: services to like we get a product manager internally and
• 42:06
  Speaker 2: stuff like that. They just keep everything. They help facilitate
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: certain services that I would have liked at a major
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: label situation without selling myself.
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I like that too. And then earlier back, not
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: trying to circle back, but you had mentioned like stealing,
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: like someone stole stole music from you. Can you talk
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: me through how that happened?
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: So what happens is those.
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: Plans are good. Trust me. I don't want to eat
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: it because I have to ask questions and I'm watching
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: the clock. So you make this.
• 42:32
  Speaker 2: Plane somehow along the way. It's crazy. When I signed
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: a deaf jam, the whole question, the only bad thing
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: that I kept hearing over and over was like, is
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: he a songwriter or is he an artist? I'm like, what,
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: Like Prince was a singer songwriter, Lauren's singer songwriter. But
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: that was a real thing that they were trying to
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: find out. I'm like, they're one and the same.
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but why can't you be both?
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: Though?
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but now you're great at it.
• 42:53
  Speaker 2: But now everybody wants to be a songwriter. And you
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: have these artists who don't write, and but they want
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: publishing on a song because they realize, like when touring
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: is done, when everything is done, and they want to
• 43:04
  Speaker 2: still live these extravagant lifestyle. Publishing is what you have
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: in the days where your bones don't work the way today,
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: certain you can pass down to your kids. It's like equity,
• 43:12
  Speaker 2: it's like real estate.
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: I heard a lot of the major artists not dropping names,
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: but like people like a Beyonce. I don't want nobody
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: coming from me for that. But I heard that they
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: automatically if you write songs for them, they automatically get
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: a part of the deal is that they have to
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: get a writer's credit on it.
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: I've heard that, mean I've not heard that. I've experienced it,
• 43:32
  Speaker 2: not from Beyonce in particular, but there has been certain
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: artists that are my heroes and for me, I don't
• 43:38
  Speaker 2: mind if it's not. But sometimes it gets a little
• 43:41
  Speaker 2: to the point where it's just like being greedy if
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: you didn't write a single word on the song. At
• 43:45
  Speaker 2: least with Beyonce. But I've experienced what I've told us.
• 43:48
  Speaker 2: She's she is. There is musicianship going into it, so
• 43:52
  Speaker 2: she's going to rearrange and change the songs, and she's
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: going to contribute to it her harmonies and everything. But
• 43:57
  Speaker 2: there are certain artists that literally do nothing want forty
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: percent of the song. And you're looking like, no ten
• 44:05
  Speaker 2: is not a problem. Yeah, that's not a problem at all. Actually,
• 44:08
  Speaker 2: on No Love a lot, I gave Rianna ten just
• 44:10
  Speaker 2: because she brought them and she asked, so to me
• 44:14
  Speaker 2: that there's a respect there, you know what I mean,
• 44:17
  Speaker 2: They're you're not You're not No Love allowed.
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: That was unapologetic, but she asked, but did she contribute?
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: I felt, I felt this is for me. I felt
• 44:26
  Speaker 2: like the way she brought the song to life and
• 44:28
  Speaker 2: her isms, and there were certain things that were it
• 44:29
  Speaker 2: wasn't like Verbatim to make demo record. Yeah, I wrote
• 44:33
  Speaker 2: the song myself in a scured though and she cut it,
• 44:37
  Speaker 2: but there were ways she brought it to life. So
• 44:39
  Speaker 2: I feel like and that wasn't greedy, that's not at all.
• 44:43
  Speaker 2: So one hundred percent of zero is still zero. But
• 44:46
  Speaker 2: there are artists who do nothing and they're like, yeah,
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: I need forty percent of that, And for me, I'm
• 44:50
  Speaker 2: just like, it ain't going And I allowed, I used
• 44:53
  Speaker 2: to allow it, and it hurt me to the point
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: where I'm just like I'm ready to just fall on
• 44:57
  Speaker 2: the sword because I just I make I'm setting a
• 44:59
  Speaker 2: bad example for the.
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: Next president presidents.
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, to allow this to be done to newer songwriters,
• 45:07
  Speaker 2: like it happened to me because somebody literally told me when
• 45:09
  Speaker 2: I said, why do you feel like you deserve forty percent?
• 45:11
  Speaker 2: I got to earn your stripes. I'm like, I'm not
• 45:12
  Speaker 2: a fucking tiger. I don't want stripes. I want Louis Baton,
• 45:15
  Speaker 2: I like that Gucci. Yeah, I don't want those stripes.
• 45:20
  Speaker 2: I need to doing the first every month.
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, But yeah, did that takes a lot of courage
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: for you to actually stand for up for yourself and
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: be like.
• 45:28
  Speaker 2: For sure, because they'll take the song off the album.
• 45:30
  Speaker 2: I had a huge artist it ended up coming up.
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: But the manager there was like, you have ten seconds
• 45:34
  Speaker 2: because they was about to put the project out there,
• 45:36
  Speaker 2: like give us posting guest or no. Within response to
• 45:39
  Speaker 2: this email, we're taking off the album. And I said
• 45:41
  Speaker 2: it's not fair, and they took it off the album.
• 45:43
  Speaker 2: It ended up being on the deluxe.
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so if you guys want to hear you hear
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: it on the DELX. Yeah, obviously tell us which song
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: it is.
• 45:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but I just didn't think it was I didn't
• 45:53
  Speaker 2: think it was fair. Yeah, I didn't think.
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: I'm glad you did it so now we can enjoy
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: on the deluxe exactly.
• 45:57
  Speaker 2: And they saw me at a party, the manager who
• 45:59
  Speaker 2: was a huge manager. So I'm at a party. It
• 46:01
  Speaker 2: was like Ush's birthday party in LA and he was like, man,
• 46:05
  Speaker 2: Adam Levine asked me why I took that song. It
• 46:07
  Speaker 2: was his favorite that song album, so we're gonna re
• 46:10
  Speaker 2: release it as a deluxe and literally I was the
• 46:12
  Speaker 2: only song they added the deluxe. I was really at first,
• 46:16
  Speaker 2: I was like damn. I like the producers were looking
• 46:18
  Speaker 2: at me like, damn, Eliji, you might have missed up
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: for us. I'm like, bro, at what point do we
• 46:23
  Speaker 2: stand for something? You know what I mean? They're gonna
• 46:25
  Speaker 2: And I felt like because I allowed it with two
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: instances prior is why.
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: It just felt like everybody was like, oh a lot
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: of talking about it.
• 46:33
  Speaker 2: That's how I felt.
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you under honestly, it wasn't just how you felt,
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: it was reality. Yeah, it became reality.
• 46:38
  Speaker 2: Because I'm like, why is everybody just thinking like Elijah's
• 46:41
  Speaker 2: is gonna give twenty thirty percent. In the beginning part
• 46:43
  Speaker 2: of my crew, I was so young. I was having
• 46:45
  Speaker 2: fun with it. I was like, yeah, you can have
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: you can have this, And I'm like, why are y'all
• 46:49
  Speaker 2: only coming after me? Even I would see emails and
• 46:51
  Speaker 2: they're like, Okay, we need to find thirty percent for
• 46:53
  Speaker 2: this person and everybody nobody's budget, but they're just expecting
• 46:56
  Speaker 2: me to move. So I'm like, okay, I gotta really
• 46:58
  Speaker 2: like just double down ten y. Let you all know
• 47:01
  Speaker 2: it ain't a game no more.
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but that takes a lot of courage. There's no
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: way you weren't like semi second guessing yourself, especially after
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: they pulled it. Yeah, but then the producers were coming
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: to you.
• 47:10
  Speaker 2: All I had to do was one time and Nigga
• 47:12
  Speaker 2: stopped expecting it. I like you feel me to you?
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, which collaboration on the album do you like the best?
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: Not trying to make you choose between your twins and
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: Streeter or anybody else.
• 47:26
  Speaker 2: You know. I hate with people as like this, but
• 47:29
  Speaker 2: they're so different. The one with Me and Seven, I
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: just realized, even just like last night, I'm like, dang,
• 47:37
  Speaker 2: me and seven are both from Florida, you know what
• 47:39
  Speaker 2: I mean. We both have had a similar experience with
• 47:41
  Speaker 2: the major label system. We're also experiencing success outside of
• 47:45
  Speaker 2: it now as independent artists. And I'm like, that's kind
• 47:47
  Speaker 2: of dope. Like two artists from Florida like ninety Babies
• 47:51
  Speaker 2: doing the nineties inspired record with Eric Husson who produced it.
• 47:54
  Speaker 2: I'm like, that's kind of dope. And then also the
• 47:57
  Speaker 2: one how You're Going to I'm like, that's freaking salt
• 47:59
  Speaker 2: and pepper like salt, you know what I mean. That's legendary.
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: That's awesome. Shout out to her. We had Streeter on
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: and her story was really beautiful too. She was a
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: very beautiful story. Yeah, and that was like a Chris Brown.
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: Shout outs to Chris Brown and her dad first look
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: the one that actually like initially put her on.
• 48:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I had seen seven in passing. We've just
• 48:19
  Speaker 2: never collaborated, collaborate, So this song is a beautiful represent.
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: I love the song. Thank You's beautiful? All right? You
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: know what? You can? Go ahead. I'm so sad to
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: see you go.
• 48:30
  Speaker 2: I want to do this. Can we have y'all done
• 48:31
  Speaker 2: a part two? Can we do a part two?
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: I would love to do it a part two? Do
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: you come to La a lot? You live here?
• 48:38
  Speaker 2: Oh?
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: Okay, you know where the studio's at. We gonna see
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: a little.
• 48:43
  Speaker 2: Real. Yeah.
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: You went from non cooking to all excited about cooking.
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: It's hilarious.
• 48:49
  Speaker 2: We gonna do part two.
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: Okay, part two. You heard it here first, but I
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: want you to sing us out. Okay, I have to
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: because when I heard you sing earlier, did you enjoy it?
• 48:59
  Speaker 2: All?
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: Right?
• 49:00
  Speaker 2: What song am I so we're talking about? Okay, dang sing? Okay,
• 49:10
  Speaker 2: I gotta do a gospel song because I'm going ahead.
• 49:12
  Speaker 4: I'm feel I've had some good days.
• 49:17
  Speaker 2: I've had some.
• 49:18
  Speaker 4: He he's the class. I've had some weary days, some
• 49:28
  Speaker 4: lonely nights.
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: But we're a look around and.
• 49:35
  Speaker 4: I think things over all of my good days, all
• 49:41
  Speaker 4: the wait, mind.
• 49:44
  Speaker 2: My bad days, and die. I won't complaint.
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: That was beautiful. Thank you, my goodness, the boy, Thank
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: you guys. You heard it here first.
• 49:59
  Speaker 2: Hey.
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: For more eating while broke from iHeartRadio and The Black Effect,
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: to your favorite shows,