Latest / The Breakfast Club / Joey Badass Talks New Album, Jay-Z, Diddy, Emotional Intelligence, Processing Grief + More

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Joey Badass Talks New Album, Jay-Z, Diddy, Emotional Intelligence, Processing Grief + More · The Breakfast Club

0:00
Speaker 1: Wait that ass up in the morning Breakfast Club more
0:04
Speaker 1: than everybody's DJ Envy Angela Yee, Charlemagne the guy. We
0:09
Speaker 1: are to breakfast club. We got a special guests in
0:11
Speaker 1: the building. Yes indeedys, So you're sir welcome. How are you,
0:15
Speaker 1: my brother? Great? You look healthy? Good to be here.
0:19
Speaker 1: I am healthy? Absolutely. You know. I got a I'm
0:22
Speaker 1: in a group chatman with Rob Markman and Havain and
0:25
Speaker 1: b Dot and a couple of weeks ago and he
0:27
Speaker 1: was like, yo, y'all gotta listen to Joey Badass new album.
0:30
Speaker 1: I hadn't gotten a chance to listen to it. Man,
0:33
Speaker 1: I listen to it a couple of days ago. Phenomenal
0:35
Speaker 1: body or worth my brother like phenomenal like rap album
0:39
Speaker 1: of the year category. They should be mentioned in that
0:42
Speaker 1: kind of conversation. That means a lot coming from you,
0:44
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. I appreciate that. Definitely worked
0:47
Speaker 1: really hard on that. Um, I'm super satisfied with the project.
0:51
Speaker 1: I feel like all of the feedback has been really good.
0:54
Speaker 1: And those are my guys too, Sho, Hovan, Rob b
0:57
Speaker 1: Dot just some the other day, you know, I'm now
1:00
Speaker 1: I text him, I text him I was like, yo, well,
1:01
Speaker 1: I only tell me Joey bad As I was so good.
1:03
Speaker 1: It was like we did and listening and he told me,
1:08
Speaker 1: he said, you said that with rap Rado recently came
1:10
Speaker 1: out to shout out to Elliott as well. You know
1:12
Speaker 1: that was good. Those are my guys. Man was just
1:14
Speaker 1: keeping the conversation going. Heavily inspired by the mixtape game.
1:18
Speaker 1: It seems like, oh yeah, but with some of the
1:20
Speaker 1: first couple of samples, something in the way you make
1:22
Speaker 1: me feel like, yeah, so let's talk about that. Because
1:26
Speaker 1: as soon as I heard, I was like, oh, you
1:27
Speaker 1: could tell he was raised on mixtapes, So let's talk
1:29
Speaker 1: about that a little bit, right, Yeah. I mean, you know,
1:31
Speaker 1: it was like an older and every day pulled up
1:34
Speaker 1: on my man's statics shout statics, selected um and he
1:37
Speaker 1: played that joint and I ain't gonna lie. I laid
1:39
Speaker 1: that ship and I don't even care about it really.
1:42
Speaker 1: I was just like, you know, because that at that point,
1:45
Speaker 1: I was experimenting a lot, you know, with my sound,
1:48
Speaker 1: so when it came to, you know, the boom back
1:51
Speaker 1: or the traditional style, I would just kind of be
1:54
Speaker 1: bored with that. The sun I could do on my sleep,
1:56
Speaker 1: so I just kind of laid it and then think
1:58
Speaker 1: about it. But I was listening to with the next
2:00
Speaker 1: day and then the next day and the next day.
2:02
Speaker 1: I'm like, Yo, this shit is fired, you know what
2:03
Speaker 1: I'm saying. But definitely like with the whole mixtape, influence direction,
2:09
Speaker 1: you know, that's why I was raised on. That's what
2:10
Speaker 1: I grew up on. And this project, Um, you know,
2:14
Speaker 1: I'm more of a conceptual type of artists, but this one,
2:17
Speaker 1: I really just kind of wanted to speak towards my
2:19
Speaker 1: lifestyle and things that I was living on a day
2:22
Speaker 1: to day basis. You know what I'm saying, bring people
2:24
Speaker 1: to my world. I feel like it's been ten years
2:26
Speaker 1: since I've been in the game, and I feel like
2:28
Speaker 1: it was a perfect time for a reintroduction to Joey Badass.
2:31
Speaker 1: So that's kind of how structured this joints. So every
2:33
Speaker 1: time I see I feel like you you should have
2:35
Speaker 1: been You should have grew up in the in the
2:38
Speaker 1: hole of the naz Era. That's what Even when I
2:40
Speaker 1: see you acting, I'm like, you are from that error,
2:43
Speaker 1: Like your whole embodiment fits that error. That's why I
2:46
Speaker 1: told him this morning. I was like, yo, I said,
2:47
Speaker 1: it's very New York but still fresh. Yeah, that's how
2:50
Speaker 1: you moved to me. Very New York but still fresh
2:53
Speaker 1: with it. Yeah, man, you know I was when I
2:55
Speaker 1: came out at the time. Man, it was like nobody
2:58
Speaker 1: has seen what I was doing, you know. But for me,
3:01
Speaker 1: it was kind of like a natural reaction to what
3:05
Speaker 1: was going on, you know what I'm saying, Circle twenty ten,
3:07
Speaker 1: twenty eleven. You know a lot of stuff on the
3:09
Speaker 1: radio was like young money dominant. Then they started going
3:12
Speaker 1: West coast with it, you know what I'm saying. And
3:15
Speaker 1: I just felt the need that New York needed something
3:19
Speaker 1: that like represented it again, you know what I mean.
3:22
Speaker 1: And that's kind of just where I fell in and
3:25
Speaker 1: I feel like I felt that void kind of in
3:27
Speaker 1: a way. And yeah, now it's just kind of part
3:29
Speaker 1: of my DNA radio at that time, I know that. Well,
3:34
Speaker 1: you know, I was a kid. I hated everything. I
3:37
Speaker 1: hated literally everything. I didn't want to have talked to nobody,
3:40
Speaker 1: I ain't want to see nobody. I had no type
3:42
Speaker 1: of gauge or really what was going on into the
3:45
Speaker 1: magnitude of how it was going and when did that change?
3:48
Speaker 1: Because you know, when when you first came out, I
3:50
Speaker 1: guess you could consider the introvert, like you really didn't
3:53
Speaker 1: fuck with too many people. You were just kind of
3:56
Speaker 1: on your own, and and it's changed a lot since then. Yeah. Man,
4:00
Speaker 1: you know, when I first came out, I was very
4:02
Speaker 1: crew based, you know what I'm saying, Like I didn't
4:04
Speaker 1: want to go nowhere without my crew, you know what
4:07
Speaker 1: I'm saying, Like if I'm in the spot, my whole
4:09
Speaker 1: gang is in the spot, and if they can't get in,
4:11
Speaker 1: then I'm not going in, you know. And that really
4:13
Speaker 1: had kept me in my own bubble, so a lot
4:16
Speaker 1: of people couldn't like approach me. And I was being
4:19
Speaker 1: told things earlier in my career like yeah, I'm gonna
4:21
Speaker 1: approach the bone and stuff. I was like, what, Like,
4:23
Speaker 1: I feel like I'm the nicest guy, you know what
4:25
Speaker 1: I'm saying. I could have a conversation with anybody. You know.
4:28
Speaker 1: It's really just time and experience that went on and
4:31
Speaker 1: kind of realizing how many opportunities I was leaving behind
4:34
Speaker 1: because I was straight up not go to certain rooms
4:37
Speaker 1: and tables because I couldn't row five dep you know
4:41
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. And I had to smarten up as
4:43
Speaker 1: I got older and I realized, you know, you pack light.
4:46
Speaker 1: The lighter you pack, you know, the further you could fly,
4:49
Speaker 1: the further you could have sen what's the quote they say,
4:51
Speaker 1: if you want to go fast, go along. If you
4:53
Speaker 1: want to go far, go together. You know what I'm saying.
4:56
Speaker 1: So it's kind of like, now that's real because I
4:59
Speaker 1: remember when you came out, people loved your music, but
5:02
Speaker 1: they didn't know anything about Joey Badass. Besides, he's from
5:04
Speaker 1: Brooklyn and he runs with a lot of people. But
5:06
Speaker 1: like today, you came in and you're talking about cars.
5:08
Speaker 1: I'm like that, I never even know Joey was in
5:10
Speaker 1: the car. Yeah, and I know I do so much cars.
5:12
Speaker 1: I'm like that. But it's I'm glad to see you
5:13
Speaker 1: opening up people getting that understanding you a lot more.
5:17
Speaker 1: You know when it's when you're a new artist and
5:19
Speaker 1: you're coming into the game. And that's why I have
5:20
Speaker 1: a lot of like empathy and like patience for like
5:23
Speaker 1: these newer guys. It's like you're still introducing yourself, you
5:27
Speaker 1: know what I mean. People only can identify with the
5:30
Speaker 1: version of you where you caught the moment at So,
5:34
Speaker 1: say you got a song and it's about cheeseburgers. They
5:37
Speaker 1: like this. Nigga like cheese. They like Nigga, Why are
5:42
Speaker 1: you eating the glizzie you know on the street, Like
5:45
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. So it kind of just
5:47
Speaker 1: becomes a part of your identity and shit like that.
5:51
Speaker 1: And the more you grow and expand as an artist,
5:54
Speaker 1: you can introduce different size of yourself, you know what
5:57
Speaker 1: I mean. So for me being here ten years, it's
5:59
Speaker 1: like I've been able to implement you know, different size
6:02
Speaker 1: at the time goes on and I'm grateful for that.
6:04
Speaker 1: Why did it take so long? Why why ten years
6:07
Speaker 1: between projects? Oh No, I wasn't five years ago. Um,
6:16
Speaker 1: five years was my last album, All America, All American, right,
6:20
Speaker 1: But five years is a long time too, and this business.
6:22
Speaker 1: Why five years? Man? It wasn't no specific reason, Like,
6:26
Speaker 1: it wasn't like I finished my last time and be like, yeah,
6:28
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take five years or nah. It just it
6:31
Speaker 1: just happened that way, man. You know, I was experimenting,
6:34
Speaker 1: trying to find a new direction, trying to figure out
6:36
Speaker 1: which way I wanted to go. Um. In addition, I
6:39
Speaker 1: had my first kid, you know, my daughter, she's four
6:41
Speaker 1: years old now, um started doing a lot of TV
6:46
Speaker 1: and film stuff started taking off. So it was just
6:49
Speaker 1: really getting used to a new balance, and then the
6:51
Speaker 1: pandemic set me back. Like I had a project, but
6:54
Speaker 1: when the pandemic started, I got connected with myself in
6:58
Speaker 1: a different way, you know, and it became a whole
7:01
Speaker 1: different thing, you know. So it's just it's kind of
7:05
Speaker 1: the way it lined up. But I'll tell you this,
7:06
Speaker 1: like I ain't never planning on going away for that
7:09
Speaker 1: long again, you know. Well you're still on TV a
7:11
Speaker 1: lot though, so it didn't feel like for sure for sure,
7:15
Speaker 1: but like it felt a little weird because I would
7:18
Speaker 1: be going to interviews with like music people and they
7:20
Speaker 1: want to talk to me about acting, but you didn't
7:22
Speaker 1: win the Oscar. Yeah, you know what I mean. It's
7:24
Speaker 1: kind of big. Well yeah, the movie wanted the movie right, Yeah,
7:31
Speaker 1: you know, But does that make you feel away when
7:33
Speaker 1: you go to interviews and people don't know you as
7:35
Speaker 1: a rapper and they know you more as an act. No,
7:38
Speaker 1: you don't ever make me feel a way. But it
7:40
Speaker 1: just made me feel as I, Okay, it's been too long,
7:42
Speaker 1: these niggas about to forget that you rap? You know
7:44
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, these niggas about to just identify you
7:47
Speaker 1: as an actor, like you need to come with some
7:48
Speaker 1: shit now, you know That's That's kind of was more
7:51
Speaker 1: the pressure I was feeling. But I think it's ill
7:53
Speaker 1: when people, you know, notice me and they only know
7:57
Speaker 1: me for film and TV, because I actually like that
8:00
Speaker 1: opportunity to get to get to introduce myself to people,
8:04
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, Like they meet the person
8:05
Speaker 1: first and then they go check out my music. I
8:08
Speaker 1: feel like it always hit different that way because right
8:11
Speaker 1: there you could see, Okay, this nigga is not no
8:14
Speaker 1: one dimensional type of nigga, you know what I'm saying,
8:17
Speaker 1: And then you get into the music, like, oh, you
8:19
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, Being an act opens up a
8:21
Speaker 1: lot more doors, I'm sure though, Yeah, yeah, absolutely absolutely.
8:25
Speaker 1: You know, they made a lot of connections, you know
8:28
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, with a lot of great people. I mean,
8:29
Speaker 1: shout out to everybody in the Power universe, from Sa Chapin,
8:32
Speaker 1: Cortney camp Fifth, shout out to my man James Samuel's
8:36
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. Even these are just people
8:38
Speaker 1: who've been looking out for me in the film and
8:40
Speaker 1: TV world and kind of like helping meet guide and
8:43
Speaker 1: still myself into the right places because that shit is hard,
8:47
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? That shit is harder than music,
8:49
Speaker 1: Like to be the lead role in a movie requires
8:53
Speaker 1: ample amount of time, like you got no time for yourself.
8:56
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm talking about from breakfast club hours old
9:00
Speaker 1: all the way to uh late night with Rosenberg hours
9:05
Speaker 1: every day Monday do Friday for about seven months, you
9:08
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. With music, I mean, you know,
9:10
Speaker 1: the most strenuous part about being artist is like probably
9:14
Speaker 1: tour and even tours like okay, yeah, you probably gotta
9:17
Speaker 1: go to the next city, stay on the bus all day,
9:19
Speaker 1: but the work really is only for about an hour
9:22
Speaker 1: or two hours that night, you know what I'm saying.
9:24
Speaker 1: Everything else is kind of like just the ship that
9:27
Speaker 1: comes with it. But acting is a way tougher y'all.
9:31
Speaker 1: How did you get into acting? For people that don't know? Um, So,
9:35
Speaker 1: I was at theater student in high school. I went
9:37
Speaker 1: to Edward Armorrow. Um I had like audition for a
9:40
Speaker 1: bunch of different like drama theater programs because when I
9:45
Speaker 1: was coming up, when I when it was time for
9:47
Speaker 1: me to go to high school, like I always was
9:48
Speaker 1: into music, but at the time there was no program
9:51
Speaker 1: to go to, like work on my rap skills or
9:54
Speaker 1: the Rapper Show. My next like best thing to me
9:58
Speaker 1: was film, you know, I know, I always wanted to
9:59
Speaker 1: get into that, so I kind of just tried my
10:03
Speaker 1: little early start. I got accepted into Edward R. Murrow.
10:06
Speaker 1: They kicked me out after myself more year though for
10:08
Speaker 1: what My attendance was just poor. It was poor. I
10:12
Speaker 1: was like one out of three black kids. And the
10:14
Speaker 1: great thing about that is I was one out of
10:17
Speaker 1: three black kids. It was me and the homie Sadique
10:19
Speaker 1: who played ghost Face on Wu Tang Wow. So it
10:22
Speaker 1: was dope, you know what I'm saying. Yeah, you know
10:24
Speaker 1: what I mean, connecting back with him the whole full
10:26
Speaker 1: circle joint. Did you ever think you would lose your
10:29
Speaker 1: rap identity as Joey Badass playing Inspected Deck. Um? No,
10:33
Speaker 1: I didn't think I was gonna lose my rap identity.
10:35
Speaker 1: But that is a good question because I was always
10:38
Speaker 1: reluctant about playing roles that were too close to who
10:41
Speaker 1: I am in real life, especially a rapper. I'm like,
10:43
Speaker 1: I don't want to be a rapper because I am
10:45
Speaker 1: a rapper. But when I got off of that, you know,
10:47
Speaker 1: it's Wu tang like that's a big honor. And then
10:50
Speaker 1: Rizzi has been one of my mentors in this game
10:53
Speaker 1: for a long time, so I definitely wanted to come
10:56
Speaker 1: through for him, like I felt he's come through for
10:58
Speaker 1: me a lot of the times. But then I got
11:00
Speaker 1: power and then I got on Vivid or Full Team.
11:04
Speaker 1: The album two thousand, right, it's called two thousand. By
11:06
Speaker 1: my calculations, you were five and two thousands. So what
11:09
Speaker 1: do you what do you remember about that year? Man?
11:12
Speaker 1: I remember so vividly being in pre k. This is like,
11:18
Speaker 1: this had to be like right before I went to kindergarten,
11:22
Speaker 1: probably like May or some shit. I just remember seeing
11:25
Speaker 1: my teacher right on the chalkboard, like May first or something.
11:29
Speaker 1: Two thousand. I just remember that shit being a big thing.
11:32
Speaker 1: And I also remember being terrified because as a kid
11:34
Speaker 1: hearing about the watch, I'm like, mine's the world gone?
11:38
Speaker 1: And boom, you know, two thousand came and it was
11:41
Speaker 1: just like a whole It was a new millennium, you know,
11:44
Speaker 1: because most people two K and ship my ship, So
11:47
Speaker 1: because most people talking about they talked about those years
11:49
Speaker 1: and it was teenagers. Is they're formative years, Like I
11:51
Speaker 1: mean you were five, Yeah, yeah, I was five, but
11:54
Speaker 1: I was very aware. I was soaking up game. You
11:57
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. I was serving tell me about
12:01
Speaker 1: the jay Z connection because you referenced that a couple
12:03
Speaker 1: of times on the album will make you feel and
12:06
Speaker 1: I might be papreate and wo you say, peep game
12:08
Speaker 1: like Jay, That's that's why he didn't sign me. That's
12:10
Speaker 1: why I didn't. He didn't sign this. Get the Game
12:12
Speaker 1: at Bay, like the forty nine is like that line
12:15
Speaker 1: is inspired by you know, Jay is like definitely, Jay
12:21
Speaker 1: is like an idol of Yeah, you know what I'm saying.
12:24
Speaker 1: So I read his book The Coded, and that line
12:28
Speaker 1: was inspired by piecing the coda when he said he
12:31
Speaker 1: met with Russell Simmons for the first time and he
12:34
Speaker 1: details experience as him like remembering sitting at that table
12:37
Speaker 1: and looking at them and thinking to himself like damn,
12:40
Speaker 1: Like I don't want to be signing these niggas. I
12:42
Speaker 1: want to beat these niggas, you know what I'm saying.
12:44
Speaker 1: So that was kind of the inspiration behind that line.
12:47
Speaker 1: It's like, you know, shit didn't work out or whatever
12:50
Speaker 1: for whatever reason it didn't. Um, but shit, you remember
12:54
Speaker 1: the first conversation with Jay, you first sit down on him. Yeah? Yeah,
12:57
Speaker 1: I was seventeen years old. You know, he flew me
13:00
Speaker 1: over the tour. I was in Denvil. He flew me
13:03
Speaker 1: back out to New York to meet with him, and
13:06
Speaker 1: you know, I was a funny little nigga. So I
13:08
Speaker 1: walked in and I'm like, yes, like nigga whatever it is.
13:17
Speaker 1: He was sitting like behind his desk, kind of like
13:19
Speaker 1: how it looks Charlemagne is right there, but he was
13:22
Speaker 1: standing up like you know, doing the pacing back and
13:24
Speaker 1: forth and shit. And it was a dope experience, man,
13:27
Speaker 1: because at seventeen years so, I felt so limitless. Like
13:32
Speaker 1: it was probably like when I was fifteen or sixteen,
13:35
Speaker 1: like I visualized in my mind like I want to
13:37
Speaker 1: be signed at jay Z. So when I was going
13:39
Speaker 1: up in that rock Nation Building like a year or
13:41
Speaker 1: two later, I'm like, damn, I could do anything, you
13:45
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, Like I'm already I'm already intersecting
13:48
Speaker 1: with my idol. I'm already in alignment with my idol.
13:52
Speaker 1: Anything is possible, you know what I'm saying. That's how
13:54
Speaker 1: I looked at it no matter what happened, whether it
13:57
Speaker 1: worked out or didn't. You know, did he tell you
13:59
Speaker 1: why he didn't sign y'all? It's funny like I always
14:03
Speaker 1: see him now and I'll be wanting to have that conversation,
14:06
Speaker 1: but the time, I feel like the time never permits.
14:08
Speaker 1: Like where we at, you know what I'm saying, be
14:10
Speaker 1: stuff going on, but I'd be wanting to ask him that,
14:13
Speaker 1: Like you know what I'm saying, because I was so
14:15
Speaker 1: young at the time, and to me, there was no
14:18
Speaker 1: reason to not sign a jay Z. But you know
14:21
Speaker 1: there was other, um you know, factors involved and shit
14:26
Speaker 1: like that. So I'm not really sure what exactly happened,
14:29
Speaker 1: like if the communicate, if the communication channels was like
14:33
Speaker 1: sabotage or something like that. Like, I don't know what happened,
14:36
Speaker 1: you know, because based off the album, it seems like
14:38
Speaker 1: y'all used to be up there a lot, like skateboarding
14:41
Speaker 1: in front of the building. Well, yeah, they showed us
14:43
Speaker 1: a lot of love, you know what I'm saying. To
14:45
Speaker 1: this day, you know, he looks out for me, shows
14:48
Speaker 1: me a lot of love. So it's just always been, um,
14:52
Speaker 1: you know, what's more like three degrees of separation, you
14:55
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, like knowing mutual people and a
14:58
Speaker 1: lot then also Chan that's the rap. We had a
15:00
Speaker 1: chance to wrap up here and he said, you guys
15:02
Speaker 1: are really close. Yeah, how did y'all develop that relationship?
15:04
Speaker 1: How y'all get so close? Man? Since the beginning? You know,
15:08
Speaker 1: Like I think I was probably the first dude in
15:11
Speaker 1: the industry to like Collid with a Chance, you know
15:14
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, back in the day, and I remember
15:17
Speaker 1: seeing his video for Hey Miles, like his first single,
15:21
Speaker 1: and I remember seeing that ship right away, Like, Yo,
15:23
Speaker 1: this dude is a star, you know what I'm saying.
15:25
Speaker 1: And you to Chicago. We had connected one time and
15:28
Speaker 1: from there we was just cool, you know what I'm saying.
15:31
Speaker 1: He was always a good dude to be around, good energy,
15:35
Speaker 1: good spirit, and like, you know, just like mindedness. You know,
15:39
Speaker 1: shout out to my dog Chance. We got the hogs
15:40
Speaker 1: and the lows out right now. I think it's definitely
15:43
Speaker 1: one of the best songs that dropped this year, you know.
15:47
Speaker 1: And I like what you said about this being a
15:48
Speaker 1: reintroduction to Joy Badass, because you do tell so much
15:51
Speaker 1: about yourself. You talk about your cousin Richie rich writing
15:54
Speaker 1: your writing your first rap? Yeah, but what kind of
15:56
Speaker 1: battery did that? Putting your back? Man? I mean, he
15:59
Speaker 1: just like really gave me structure, you know what I'm saying,
16:03
Speaker 1: Like he taught me how to count balls and all that,
16:05
Speaker 1: because I'm like, what is the sixteen and he kind
16:07
Speaker 1: of broke it down for me. It's kind of like
16:09
Speaker 1: he's like, it's kind of like a line a line
16:10
Speaker 1: by line, you know what I'm saying. So having characters
16:14
Speaker 1: like that in my life at an early age definitely
16:16
Speaker 1: gave me like the extra confidence, you know what I'm
16:21
Speaker 1: saying to do it, because while other kids was like
16:23
Speaker 1: kind of struggling trying to figure out what they were doing,
16:25
Speaker 1: I actually had guidance, you know what I mean, some
16:28
Speaker 1: type of guidance like you know, look, that's how you
16:30
Speaker 1: write a rap. Boom boo. Let me write your first
16:32
Speaker 1: rap for you. Let me get you set up. And
16:34
Speaker 1: then you know, I had other older cousins who's a
16:36
Speaker 1: rapping shit like that For a long time. It was
16:38
Speaker 1: a running joke because when I was a kid, I
16:41
Speaker 1: used to always tell them, yo, yeah, y'all need to
16:42
Speaker 1: bring me to the studio. Boom and then my ship
16:45
Speaker 1: blew up and I was like, ah, yeah, niggas, do
16:49
Speaker 1: you remember writing your first rap um my first rap? Nah? Nah?
16:58
Speaker 1: Like I don't remember in my first rod, but it
17:02
Speaker 1: must have been in like first grade because that's when
17:04
Speaker 1: I was introduced the poetry and I identified it as
17:07
Speaker 1: like I was like, Oh, this is shit that biggie doing.
17:10
Speaker 1: That's like what my brain said, you know what I mean.
17:12
Speaker 1: And if from there I got into poetry, but I
17:14
Speaker 1: would always do like rap style poems. What did your
17:17
Speaker 1: family say back then when you when you started rapping
17:19
Speaker 1: because you got accepted to this this great school, but
17:22
Speaker 1: you wanted to rap. Well, the thing is I was
17:23
Speaker 1: already rapping before the school, you know what I'm saying.
17:26
Speaker 1: My family already knew that that's what I like to do.
17:29
Speaker 1: I ain't gonna out of My family always been supportive,
17:31
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like they was pretty much
17:33
Speaker 1: more like amazed by my conviction because you know I
17:38
Speaker 1: used to My mom used to kicking me out. We
17:40
Speaker 1: used to fall out, and then I would go by
17:42
Speaker 1: my grand mom's and I would set like a make
17:45
Speaker 1: I would set up a makeshift studio in the basement,
17:47
Speaker 1: so It's like, you know, it would be a running
17:49
Speaker 1: joke in my family, like, Oh, you don't go down
17:50
Speaker 1: there and mess with javon studio stuff, you know what
17:53
Speaker 1: I mean. I would have like the towels hanging from
17:55
Speaker 1: the ceiling, create like a whole little booth. But I
17:58
Speaker 1: remember the first time I spent that verse that my
18:01
Speaker 1: cousin wrote for me for my mom's I was like
18:05
Speaker 1: nine years old, and she went something like, my name
18:08
Speaker 1: is little Jay, and I got the nain you messed
18:10
Speaker 1: with me, and I blow off your mind. They hating cousins.
18:14
Speaker 1: I'll be on my ground and I always shine while
18:16
Speaker 1: you acting like your shelf clocks for I put a
18:19
Speaker 1: pipe bomb in your mailbox some shit like that, right,
18:22
Speaker 1: I'm not I don't even know what. Nah. She even
18:27
Speaker 1: stat for me me. She was like, do you know what
18:30
Speaker 1: a nine is? And I was like, I'm to me,
18:36
Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm nine, so it just sounds nine years
18:40
Speaker 1: old for me. I'm like, nah. She was like it's
18:42
Speaker 1: a gun. First of all. I was like word. And
18:46
Speaker 1: then she gave me the realist advice. She was like, yo, look,
18:49
Speaker 1: if you want to do this, you could do that,
18:51
Speaker 1: but you just gotta be true to yourself and from
18:55
Speaker 1: there I just kind of took that in rand with
18:57
Speaker 1: She didn't saying about the pipe bomb. Nah. I think
19:01
Speaker 1: she kind of figured out that it wasn't my words,
19:04
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, somebody who else was involved
19:06
Speaker 1: in that. Now I love written in the stars too.
19:08
Speaker 1: You mentioned your daughter earlier. You said your daughter was
19:10
Speaker 1: your wake up call that What did that wake up
19:12
Speaker 1: call look like? Do you? Yeah? You know when I
19:15
Speaker 1: had my daughter, it was like, oh shit, I only
19:18
Speaker 1: got one kid, you know what I mean? I was
19:20
Speaker 1: I felt so obligated in the earlier years in my
19:23
Speaker 1: career to take kid people and you know, look out
19:27
Speaker 1: for people and to the point where, you know, a
19:31
Speaker 1: lot of the times it burned me out, you know,
19:34
Speaker 1: um feeling that get feeling like guilt survivors guilt and
19:38
Speaker 1: things of that nature. But you know, when my baby
19:40
Speaker 1: girl came, I was like, oh, okay, this is really
19:44
Speaker 1: the only person I'm responsible for, you know what I'm saying.
19:47
Speaker 1: And now that she's his different, Like, if you can't
19:50
Speaker 1: respect that, then you know we can't even be cool
19:53
Speaker 1: no more. How's your life change? How do you move
19:55
Speaker 1: differently now that you have a girl? You have more conviction,
19:58
Speaker 1: do you invest more? Like? How do that change you
20:00
Speaker 1: as a father to man? Well? Yeah, you know, definitely
20:03
Speaker 1: more focused, definitely more intention and everything that I do,
20:07
Speaker 1: especially when it comes to you know, spending and living.
20:10
Speaker 1: I mean shit, I was I'm a very spontaneous type
20:13
Speaker 1: of due. So one thing that I realized quick was like,
20:17
Speaker 1: oh shit, I don't got the same free you somebody
20:19
Speaker 1: used to have, Like I would be able to go
20:21
Speaker 1: to Africa tomorrow now, you know what I'm saying, I
20:24
Speaker 1: gotta set it up, make sure hey, things good, she good,
20:27
Speaker 1: like weeks in advance. You know. I say it made
20:30
Speaker 1: me more patient, It made me more gentle, It made
20:33
Speaker 1: me more willing to learn and listen, you know what
20:37
Speaker 1: I'm saying. Like, especially with a baby girl, I feel
20:39
Speaker 1: like it's way more delicate. You know. How did you
20:42
Speaker 1: change your overall perspective of women? Um? Definitely, Like you know,
20:47
Speaker 1: from time to time I would have the thought like
20:51
Speaker 1: I wouldn't with my daughter to you know what I'm
20:54
Speaker 1: saying being in a situation like that, So it definitely
20:57
Speaker 1: kind of gives you a heightened state of awareness. I
21:00
Speaker 1: would say, you know, when it comes to that interaction
21:03
Speaker 1: but I mean, I've always been a super respectful man anyway,
21:07
Speaker 1: but like you know, with my baby girl in my life,
21:09
Speaker 1: it definitely kind of shapes my mind in a way, like,
21:12
Speaker 1: all right, let me try to be more like the
21:15
Speaker 1: version of the man that I would want my baby
21:18
Speaker 1: girl to grow up. Man, you know, be with deal
21:21
Speaker 1: with Do you ever look at it like I was
21:24
Speaker 1: this way as a man and now I gotta change
21:25
Speaker 1: because I don't want my daughter to like that as
21:27
Speaker 1: a man. Um Yes and no, because you know, life
21:34
Speaker 1: is about growth. You know, nobody's gonna come straight off
21:38
Speaker 1: with a tree like boom, perfect solid, the full man
21:43
Speaker 1: that they're supposed to be. Like, Nah, you gotta experience,
21:45
Speaker 1: and you know I want, I want. I don't want
21:47
Speaker 1: none of that to be hidden from my child, Like
21:50
Speaker 1: I don't want her to ever view life as a
21:53
Speaker 1: thing where you could skip steps and still get by.
21:56
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. It's like everything counts to
22:00
Speaker 1: whatever point in time. You you know what I mean,
22:02
Speaker 1: Everything is added up. You know we all got we
22:04
Speaker 1: all got all types of childhood traumas that we couldn't
22:07
Speaker 1: even run from if we tried to. You know what
22:09
Speaker 1: I'm saying, it was inevitable, there was no way to
22:11
Speaker 1: get off that path or whatever. And these are the
22:14
Speaker 1: things that affect us saying, you know what I'm saying,
22:17
Speaker 1: ultimately shape who we are, you know what I mean.
22:19
Speaker 1: But as long as you know, you got that growth mindset,
22:23
Speaker 1: or as long as whoever she's with got that growth mindset,
22:26
Speaker 1: then I got some patience, you know, I got some sympathy.
22:30
Speaker 1: You talked about that being your only child, like did
22:32
Speaker 1: that inspire the line on cruise control? And I'm know
22:35
Speaker 1: I'm paraphrasing again, but it's like you basically said you
22:37
Speaker 1: had to cut off friends you outgrew because you were
22:39
Speaker 1: just holding onto them because of the history, right that
22:41
Speaker 1: y'all had together. When did you realize that fully? Um? Yeah,
22:48
Speaker 1: I want to say definitely closer that time that I
22:51
Speaker 1: had had my child, you know, and starting to kind
22:55
Speaker 1: of put my life into perspective, looking at assets versus liabilities,
22:59
Speaker 1: like what was what was? Um? You know, my dad
23:04
Speaker 1: always give me this analogy, especially when it comes to money,
23:06
Speaker 1: is like it's like having a bag, right and you're
23:10
Speaker 1: filling it up with water, but it got a hole
23:12
Speaker 1: in it, and the hole is representative of your liabilities
23:15
Speaker 1: or your overhead. So I was really starting to look
23:17
Speaker 1: at it like that, like who's helping me close this hole?
23:20
Speaker 1: Who's helping me make this shit bigger? And that's where
23:23
Speaker 1: my discernment started to come in and to develop. And
23:25
Speaker 1: you know, that's how I was able to separate the
23:28
Speaker 1: real from the fake. Really, and now I'll just roll.
23:31
Speaker 1: I just the way I'm moving around is like way lighter,
23:34
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. Like, and that's part of
23:37
Speaker 1: it too. But then also you have the friends who
23:39
Speaker 1: even if you're doing for them, they feel like it's
23:41
Speaker 1: never enough. Yeah, man, like they're entitled. That's where the
23:44
Speaker 1: entitlement creeps in, you know what I'm saying. M Yeah,
23:47
Speaker 1: you gotta you gotta, you gotta be real careful with that.
23:50
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm on some I'm in a headspace now
23:54
Speaker 1: where as soon as I feel those negativities or those disconnections,
24:01
Speaker 1: that's it. I'm you know what I mean, Because I
24:03
Speaker 1: ain't about to sit here and drain myself out and
24:06
Speaker 1: try to, um, you know, make somebody happy who can't
24:10
Speaker 1: make theirself happy. You know, that's that's like a waste
24:13
Speaker 1: of your time. You know what I'm saying, and I'm
24:15
Speaker 1: done wasting my time, like I'm trying to elevate, trying
24:18
Speaker 1: to be the best of me and like that type
24:20
Speaker 1: of shit is just uh detours. What did they say,
24:23
Speaker 1: Joey's Joey Hollywood Now? Not because I ain't never moved
24:28
Speaker 1: out of New York, you know what I mean? Shit,
24:32
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, New Drules, but you know I'm
24:35
Speaker 1: still here now in the baddest. First of all, you
24:37
Speaker 1: and you and Diddy seemed like y'all have a strong relationship. Absolutely.
24:40
Speaker 1: How did he get so cool and so close? Man?
24:42
Speaker 1: I met Diddy? Uh when it was this twenty sixteen
24:46
Speaker 1: or twenty fifteen, twenty sixteen coming out to Rihanna met
24:50
Speaker 1: gala after party and want to know, he was walking out,
24:53
Speaker 1: I was walking in and he was just like, yo, King,
24:56
Speaker 1: I've been trying to connect with you for years, Like
24:58
Speaker 1: I was trying to sign are you back in the day,
25:00
Speaker 1: and I'm like, this is all news to me, you
25:02
Speaker 1: know what I mean, It's the first time. I mean,
25:03
Speaker 1: you know, I'm like wow, word boom. And in that
25:06
Speaker 1: same week I had rolled it out in Miami and
25:08
Speaker 1: then I ran into him again and if from there
25:11
Speaker 1: it was just like we would just roll dogs, you
25:13
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, Like he would be going soon, yo, Joe,
25:16
Speaker 1: I'm being in New York. Boom pull up, you know.
25:18
Speaker 1: And we just kind of developed that relationship like that.
25:20
Speaker 1: And it's like I'm too yeah, exactly shit because of me,
25:25
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. I got him on that project,
25:27
Speaker 1: I got him involved. I made a phone call and
25:29
Speaker 1: made it happen, you know what I'm saying. And this,
25:31
Speaker 1: I'm super grateful for that relationship because me, I'm a sponge.
25:35
Speaker 1: So it's like you bring me around to the right
25:36
Speaker 1: wounds and tables, like I ain't taking that ship for granted.
25:38
Speaker 1: I'm connected, I'm networking, I'm you know what I'm saying,
25:41
Speaker 1: I'm using the opportunity fruitfully, you know what I mean,
25:45
Speaker 1: as it should be. So that's how he's always he's
25:49
Speaker 1: the fact that he could identify that in me. I'm
25:51
Speaker 1: very appreciative for that, you know what I'm saying. And
25:53
Speaker 1: it's like as like his little bro, like I want
25:55
Speaker 1: to maximize on those things. I don't want to let
25:58
Speaker 1: him down. You know what I'm saying. I want to
26:00
Speaker 1: return plus interest. You know what I'm saying, Return on investment,
26:03
Speaker 1: and it ain't even that type of situation. There ain't
26:05
Speaker 1: no business involved. It's just really just love. But that's
26:08
Speaker 1: just my mindset, that's my character. You know. He did
26:10
Speaker 1: the intro and the outro. On the outro, he said
26:12
Speaker 1: something to the effect of, um, you know, we gotta
26:15
Speaker 1: we gotta bring that New York feeling back, Like you know,
26:17
Speaker 1: people are sometimes we lost ourselves a little bit by
26:21
Speaker 1: those conversations that y'all have. And do you think that
26:23
Speaker 1: you can actually bring New York back if you live
26:25
Speaker 1: in someplace like Miami, La. But you gotta be here, Yeah,
26:29
Speaker 1: I think you gotta be here for show because you
26:31
Speaker 1: gotta connect with the pulse of the city, you know
26:33
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. Like I was talking to my boy
26:35
Speaker 1: Fur the other day and we definitely plying on like
26:38
Speaker 1: just bringing some synergy back here, you know what I mean,
26:41
Speaker 1: having like different events. I feel like the city is
26:43
Speaker 1: kind of disconnected. It's dead right now. Like there's a
26:47
Speaker 1: lot of disconnection, you know what I'm saying, Like we
26:50
Speaker 1: all know each other, but ain't nobody linking up. Ain't
26:52
Speaker 1: nobody got no central spot, no safe spaces, ain't enough
26:56
Speaker 1: safe spaces, No more just random little events here like
26:59
Speaker 1: shut go here, shit, I don't know, you know, um
27:03
Speaker 1: what was the question? The question was do you all
27:05
Speaker 1: have those conversations about bringing the feeling back? Oh? Yeah,
27:08
Speaker 1: you know, yeah yeah, me and Puff we've spoken about
27:11
Speaker 1: that over the years, Like you know, I'll play him
27:12
Speaker 1: some songs. He's like, yeah, like this is the vib
27:15
Speaker 1: this ain't the vibe, or you should do this, you
27:17
Speaker 1: should go more here. You know, but that's usually the
27:21
Speaker 1: focus of the conversation. You know what I'm saying. We're
27:23
Speaker 1: always trying to stay in that essence. He still got it.
27:26
Speaker 1: En said he don't got no end no more. Fifty
27:29
Speaker 1: said did he ain't got no? That's a lot, that's
27:33
Speaker 1: a lot. Puff. I feel like he always gonna have it. Yeah,
27:36
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. Now, who do you respect
27:38
Speaker 1: lyrically now? Because you know, of course in the battles
27:40
Speaker 1: you talk about of course Kenny, yourself and Cold. So
27:43
Speaker 1: who do you respect lyrically now? Um, lirial clyar. Shit.
27:46
Speaker 1: You know, I feel like there's a lot of people
27:48
Speaker 1: doing anything right now, Like you got Grizelda, you got
27:51
Speaker 1: Freddie Gibbs, you got j I D you know, you
27:55
Speaker 1: got my homie Flapper zombies um been doing their ship
27:59
Speaker 1: and people I don't never mentioned flat Ba Zombie slew
28:01
Speaker 1: the flat Ba Zombie. Yeah. I mean, you know, I'm
28:03
Speaker 1: a real Booklyn, New York nigga, the East Coast nigga.
28:06
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna putting on from my city and ship.
28:08
Speaker 1: But you got Denzel Curry doing this thing too. You
28:12
Speaker 1: know that's just a few. I want to be loved.
28:15
Speaker 1: I love that hookies. I want to be loved and
28:18
Speaker 1: you know, not judged. Why why is that so hard
28:20
Speaker 1: for us to just love and not judge people? Man?
28:24
Speaker 1: Because societal norms, you know what I mean, like the society,
28:28
Speaker 1: the world that we're living in, the agreements that we have,
28:32
Speaker 1: the ego, you know what I'm saying. I mean social
28:34
Speaker 1: media in itself, it's just a judgment app. You know,
28:39
Speaker 1: you're scrolling down and you're just analyzing and judging and
28:41
Speaker 1: making observations inferences, and you know, you're just looking at
28:46
Speaker 1: everybody highlight reels and you think, you know you saw
28:50
Speaker 1: comparing it to yourself and to your life. Like you know,
28:53
Speaker 1: I feel like if we could just learn how to
28:56
Speaker 1: love and you know, detach ourselves from go like, you know,
29:00
Speaker 1: the world will be a better place obviously. You know,
29:03
Speaker 1: I never realized too, man, just listening to that, I
29:05
Speaker 1: never realized how much you sound like most death YO
29:07
Speaker 1: people be saying. I don't hear it. On this project especially,
29:10
Speaker 1: I was like, damn, it's like he really sound like
29:12
Speaker 1: most I don't hear it. I most is like, you know,
29:16
Speaker 1: one of my favorite rappers, like Whomi says, it's probably
29:19
Speaker 1: one of my favorite songs all time, So I would
29:22
Speaker 1: love to sound like that, but I don't hear it. Though,
29:25
Speaker 1: not hear it, I mean, and it's not you know,
29:27
Speaker 1: the rhyme start. It's not like you're imitating him, and
29:29
Speaker 1: it's just the voice like that sound like most YE
29:32
Speaker 1: people always say that. Now you can tell that you've
29:35
Speaker 1: really been doing the work on yourself mentally too, you
29:38
Speaker 1: know what I mean, Like you go to therapy, I do, Okay,
29:41
Speaker 1: you go to therapy. U. I started going to therapy
29:44
Speaker 1: back at twenty twenty. You know, as unfortunate as that
29:47
Speaker 1: pandemic was for a lot of people, you know what
29:49
Speaker 1: I'm saying, Like, I definitely don't want to be insensitive
29:52
Speaker 1: when I say this, but for me, I needed that shit,
29:55
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like I didn't know stillness
29:58
Speaker 1: in my adult life. Like I hit the ground running
30:01
Speaker 1: that seventeen years old. I was still a kid still
30:03
Speaker 1: in high school and had to like was forced on
30:07
Speaker 1: accelerated growth, you know what I mean, just pushed out there,
30:09
Speaker 1: just had to keep it going. And I didn't realize
30:13
Speaker 1: for about five six years, I didn't stop. I hadn't stopped.
30:16
Speaker 1: I hadn't gotten any type of still time. I hadn't
30:19
Speaker 1: like had real time to connect with my family even
30:23
Speaker 1: more appointedly myself, you know what I mean. So when
30:26
Speaker 1: I finally got that space in that time, it's like
30:31
Speaker 1: I just I just went real deep inside, you know
30:34
Speaker 1: what I mean, and I realized things that I needed.
30:36
Speaker 1: I was like, Okay, I need that, you know what
30:38
Speaker 1: I mean, Like I need to be held accountable for
30:43
Speaker 1: my shortcomings. I need those to be pointed out to
30:45
Speaker 1: me because I'm what you call a self improvement junkie,
30:48
Speaker 1: Like I'm committed and devoted to being a better version
30:51
Speaker 1: of myself every time I show up, you know what
30:54
Speaker 1: I'm saying, Like you could see the evolution in all
30:56
Speaker 1: the Breakfast Club interviews. I think this is our third one. Yeah,
30:59
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. So I pride myself on that.
31:02
Speaker 1: You know, so therapy was definitely an outlet that I
31:06
Speaker 1: saw too bring me closer to a higher self awareness
31:10
Speaker 1: and just state of being. What it induced you to it?
31:13
Speaker 1: How did you decide to do it? What that decision? Well,
31:16
Speaker 1: you know, I've always been open minded, and I started
31:19
Speaker 1: to resonate with the idea that black people tap therapy
31:24
Speaker 1: being so tabboo to us. You know what I'm saying, Like,
31:28
Speaker 1: what it was is I was introduced to the concept
31:30
Speaker 1: of emotional intelligence and that kind of blew my mind.
31:34
Speaker 1: That opened so many doors for me because I'm like, wow,
31:36
Speaker 1: like we really wasn't taught this how important it is
31:39
Speaker 1: to identify your own emotions in relation to the people
31:43
Speaker 1: around you. You know what I'm saying, Like, shit, we
31:45
Speaker 1: might just wake up in a bad move and you
31:47
Speaker 1: wearing that moved and now your household is feeling that
31:51
Speaker 1: move and you don't even realize you just passed that
31:54
Speaker 1: moved on to your son. Now your son is in
31:57
Speaker 1: school with that moved and he passed that on to
32:01
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, energies. Energy is so contagious
32:04
Speaker 1: and once I kind of like realized that it started
32:08
Speaker 1: to you know, open little pathways in my brain, like
32:12
Speaker 1: them even identifying with frustration as an emotion, you know
32:16
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, Like you tell a lot of black
32:17
Speaker 1: men if you if you tell a black man you're
32:19
Speaker 1: you're being emotional. That's like offensive. But people don't realize that. Yo,
32:24
Speaker 1: if you're angry, if we're having a conversation, you're just
32:26
Speaker 1: screaming because you're mad. You're in your emotion, you know
32:29
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. People get emotion emotionally hijacked every day,
32:32
Speaker 1: be every day like blinded by emotion, blinded by rage.
32:36
Speaker 1: So I just kind of started on that path for
32:39
Speaker 1: understanding myself more. Because I grew up I had like
32:42
Speaker 1: anger issues and stuff like that. It was hard to
32:44
Speaker 1: me to identify a lot of things that I was feeling.
32:47
Speaker 1: Did you figure out where that anger came from? Now?
32:50
Speaker 1: I think now that I think about it, looking in
32:52
Speaker 1: the hindsight, I think a lot of it came from
32:54
Speaker 1: when my parents split, you know what I'm saying, and
32:57
Speaker 1: me not knowing how to process that manifesting the something else,
33:02
Speaker 1: like me trying to find a reason for elsewhere. You
33:05
Speaker 1: know what I mean, I can't. I can't that same
33:07
Speaker 1: realization in therapy, Like I didn't realize how much my
33:10
Speaker 1: parents divorcing had impacted me and how angry I was
33:14
Speaker 1: at my pops for that word up world up. You
33:18
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. So, and that that should do
33:20
Speaker 1: something that you especially as a black man, you know
33:23
Speaker 1: what I mean, because now you got that separation from
33:25
Speaker 1: your father and it's like you need your father or
33:28
Speaker 1: as a black man, especially in this fucking world. That's
33:30
Speaker 1: why I love that Kendrick record. Uh is it ay
33:34
Speaker 1: the time? Man? Because I'm like, Yo, that's how every
33:36
Speaker 1: black man feels when it comes to their relationship with
33:40
Speaker 1: their dad, Like that's our first hero. That's who we
33:43
Speaker 1: really want validation from, and when we don't have that,
33:46
Speaker 1: it does make you feel like less of a man.
33:48
Speaker 1: And he might implement, you know, ideas of manhood and
33:52
Speaker 1: you that aren't really manhood. But it's like a gift
33:55
Speaker 1: in the curse because what he's saying on the song too,
33:57
Speaker 1: it's like his pops is on something like like fucky
34:00
Speaker 1: emotions nigga, like ye ain't nobody don't nobody cared nigga working?
34:04
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, like, yo, I was just
34:06
Speaker 1: my pops just went on a vacation for the first
34:08
Speaker 1: time in like thirty years. Wow, you know what I'm saying,
34:11
Speaker 1: Like I'm super proud of him, Like to him say that,
34:14
Speaker 1: like they say, you can't teach an old dog new tricks,
34:17
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. So, like I was, I
34:19
Speaker 1: was very excited to hear that, like he something awoken
34:24
Speaker 1: in him to like break past his comfort zone. You know,
34:27
Speaker 1: because especially with our parents and shit, like, they locked
34:30
Speaker 1: into a lot of their mindsets and a lot of
34:32
Speaker 1: their thinking and anything like. This new generation is way
34:34
Speaker 1: more open minded. It's a lot of new concepts being
34:37
Speaker 1: introduced and stuff like that that our parents were seeing.
34:40
Speaker 1: You Like what you know, did you ever had that
34:44
Speaker 1: conversation with your pop? Because you know, one of the
34:45
Speaker 1: best things that helped me was having a conversation with
34:47
Speaker 1: my pops and realizing that he was going to therapy
34:50
Speaker 1: two or three times a week back in the day
34:52
Speaker 1: he tried to kill himself. Back in the day, he
34:54
Speaker 1: was gonna tend to twelve different medications. It made me
34:56
Speaker 1: give him more great because I realized, damn, he was
34:59
Speaker 1: somebody before he was my parents, right, and you know,
35:01
Speaker 1: he was just doing the best he could, but what
35:03
Speaker 1: he had, Yeah, you know, I have to. I have
35:05
Speaker 1: great conversations from my dad all of the time, and
35:07
Speaker 1: it's like I have my own interpretations of it because
35:11
Speaker 1: I feel like my understanding and his understanding is definitely different,
35:16
Speaker 1: and it's like a generational difference. And I came to
35:20
Speaker 1: kind of growing accept that because I just for me,
35:25
Speaker 1: what fulfills me, what I appreciate. What I'm grateful for
35:29
Speaker 1: is that I could hear my old man's wisdom, you
35:32
Speaker 1: know what I mean. And it's like it's up to
35:33
Speaker 1: me to interpret that however I see fit. But just
35:38
Speaker 1: being able to hear that, Like, you know, I might
35:42
Speaker 1: feel a little bit more spiritually advanced than my dad,
35:45
Speaker 1: but I could never be more experienced than him, you
35:47
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. And Dad alone just make me
35:51
Speaker 1: so grateful for any time we connect, you know what
35:53
Speaker 1: I'm saying, because I feel like it's a meeting of
35:54
Speaker 1: the minds and you can learn from anybody, you know
35:56
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. Like I like to say, I'm a
35:58
Speaker 1: student in every room. You know, shit, i could be
36:00
Speaker 1: the teacher in the room and I'm still student, right
36:03
Speaker 1: do you really meditate every day? You say that on
36:05
Speaker 1: the album, So you meditate every day? Nah, it's hard
36:07
Speaker 1: to meditate every day, like you know, that's more of
36:09
Speaker 1: like a manifestation. I would like to meditate every day
36:13
Speaker 1: at a point, I was, you know, in the pandemic
36:15
Speaker 1: for show. But one thing I try to do is
36:17
Speaker 1: pray every day because I feel like it's a form
36:20
Speaker 1: of you know, meditation or just a form of being
36:23
Speaker 1: able to like program you're thinking in the right way.
36:27
Speaker 1: How were you during the pandemic with with everything going on?
36:29
Speaker 1: Because you were in New York during a pandemic. I
36:30
Speaker 1: was in Jersey years in Jersey. But how were you
36:33
Speaker 1: during that time? Man? I was just to myself, bro,
36:36
Speaker 1: Like I call it a time of internal retreat, you know,
36:39
Speaker 1: like I was. I was doing a lot of things.
36:40
Speaker 1: I was practicing celibacy. I was reading a lot of books,
36:44
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. In six months, I probably
36:46
Speaker 1: read like ten or fifteen books. I was like the
36:48
Speaker 1: most in one setting, you know, um, watching a lot
36:53
Speaker 1: of videos. I started cooking. I was making salads, you know,
36:59
Speaker 1: cooking to make it salads. Well, yeah, facts, I was
37:02
Speaker 1: making salads. But I learn how to make salmon all
37:04
Speaker 1: of that. You know, my ship was slapping too. What
37:07
Speaker 1: did you see about it? Because I always say, you know,
37:09
Speaker 1: the pandemic, like you said earlier, made all of us
37:11
Speaker 1: be still for the first time. A lot of us
37:13
Speaker 1: had to like really be still for the first time
37:14
Speaker 1: and deal with ourselves. Couldn't run from our traumas or nothing.
37:18
Speaker 1: What did you see that made you be like, oh no,
37:20
Speaker 1: I gotta go do some work on myself. I saw.
37:24
Speaker 1: I felt like I saw how much I was settling
37:28
Speaker 1: for the short end of the stick. Like you know,
37:30
Speaker 1: I spent a lot of the like the first half
37:33
Speaker 1: of my career really focused and obliged to taking care
37:38
Speaker 1: of other people, and in that I put a lot
37:41
Speaker 1: of people before myself. So when the pandemic, it kind
37:44
Speaker 1: of put things a perspective to me. It's like, damn,
37:47
Speaker 1: I got I did this one for that one, that
37:49
Speaker 1: one for this one. But what the fuck do I
37:51
Speaker 1: have to show for myself? What have I done for myself?
37:55
Speaker 1: And then that ship was a whole reset because then
37:58
Speaker 1: I came out the pandemic damn selfish, but in the
38:02
Speaker 1: best way possible, because I've never been that person, you know,
38:05
Speaker 1: like the shit is evident too, Like, I'm glad you
38:08
Speaker 1: noticed that. You said, Yo, you look healthy, Like this
38:10
Speaker 1: is what I look like when I'm focused on myself.
38:12
Speaker 1: This is what I look like when I take that
38:14
Speaker 1: time to you know, take care of myself, like to
38:17
Speaker 1: love myself. This is what it looked like, you know,
38:19
Speaker 1: like before that it was it wasn't too much love
38:23
Speaker 1: for self. Did the pandemic finally give you the opportunity
38:27
Speaker 1: to grieve? Steve's the right way. Um, it definitely gave
38:31
Speaker 1: me opportunities. But um, I would say my grieving has
38:37
Speaker 1: probably like finally, I don't I don't know this this
38:42
Speaker 1: this grieving, is it a complete process? Does it get
38:45
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's a complete process. But I
38:46
Speaker 1: was gonna say, when I listened to Survivor's Guilt, I
38:48
Speaker 1: feel like you have finally started processing Yes, you know
38:53
Speaker 1: his death. Yeah, and that's why I was getting that,
38:56
Speaker 1: Like this is the first year where I definitely feel
39:01
Speaker 1: somewhat like a little bit of peace, you know what
39:05
Speaker 1: I mean. It's ten years later, it's like I'm finally
39:08
Speaker 1: feeling that sense of peace. But just with Stesus, you know,
39:11
Speaker 1: I still I'm still majorly grieving my cousin junior there. Yeah,
39:18
Speaker 1: because it was just a whole different situation. You know,
39:21
Speaker 1: how did how did you how are you processing it? Like?
39:25
Speaker 1: You know, did it make you look at because I
39:27
Speaker 1: had a friend committed suicide in twenty twenty and when
39:30
Speaker 1: she did that, it made me look at suicide differently. Well, listen, man,
39:36
Speaker 1: it definitely brought me to a very dark place. And
39:39
Speaker 1: you know me, I'm very intuitive. So something inside me
39:42
Speaker 1: told me because I remember coming from the funeral for
39:46
Speaker 1: me and CJ was on the way back to the
39:48
Speaker 1: crib and I remember telling him like, yo, bro, we
39:52
Speaker 1: gotta be strong for everybody else, you know, because it's
39:58
Speaker 1: easy to fall right now, you know, it's easy to
40:01
Speaker 1: get pulled into that low energy. And I got pulled
40:05
Speaker 1: into that ship. Even after saying it, even after having
40:07
Speaker 1: that a witness and that understanding that I couldn't go there,
40:10
Speaker 1: I still got sucked into that, you know what I mean.
40:13
Speaker 1: It brought me at a very low, low place. I
40:16
Speaker 1: was depressed, like I felt so many ways. I'm like, damn,
40:19
Speaker 1: like seventeen years old, Like I know, so many people
40:23
Speaker 1: were so much older than me and they've never lost
40:25
Speaker 1: somebody this close to them, you know what I mean.
40:27
Speaker 1: It was just it was a lot of unsettling emotions
40:31
Speaker 1: and feelings and at the same time, dealing with fame
40:34
Speaker 1: for the first time, dealing with you know what I'm saying,
40:36
Speaker 1: Like the ills of that. It was bugged. That's a
40:39
Speaker 1: natural though. I'm sure your therapist told you that you
40:41
Speaker 1: gotta lights up to feel your feels like yeah, and
40:44
Speaker 1: that's what I realized too, Like for like I was,
40:49
Speaker 1: first of all, I'm grateful for the fact that I
40:51
Speaker 1: was able to put a lot of my trauma off
40:53
Speaker 1: because I was so busy, because I don't know what
40:55
Speaker 1: I would have did with that idle time, you know
40:58
Speaker 1: what I mean. Like I was hottied, pressed, like I
41:00
Speaker 1: felt suicidal all of that, you know what I mean.
41:03
Speaker 1: Like I was very convinced that I wasn't gonna live
41:06
Speaker 1: past twenty five, Like at seventeen eighteen, I was very
41:09
Speaker 1: convinced to that. I'm like, there's no way, Like I
41:12
Speaker 1: didn't see life after twenty five. Even when I turned
41:14
Speaker 1: twenty five. I was a mind fuck for me because
41:16
Speaker 1: I'm like, damn, like it really hit me home. I'm like,
41:19
Speaker 1: I did not realize life. I did not visualize life
41:21
Speaker 1: this far. Wow, And then right there I drew up
41:24
Speaker 1: a twenty year plan. Did you look at suicide differently
41:28
Speaker 1: because a lot of people, especially in New York, it's
41:30
Speaker 1: probably all over wheld, but especially in New York when
41:32
Speaker 1: growing up as a kid, when you think of suicide,
41:34
Speaker 1: the first thing that people think is your soul for
41:36
Speaker 1: your week. But then when you start having those emotions
41:39
Speaker 1: in that feeling, you realize far from that. First of all,
41:43
Speaker 1: like it's weird to say this, but like I think
41:46
Speaker 1: suicide is an incredibly brave thing. You have to have
41:53
Speaker 1: a lot of fucking like audacity to do that to yourself,
41:58
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. And then it's like who
42:00
Speaker 1: withstand that pain or whichever way? Like you know, like
42:04
Speaker 1: it's heavy, it's heavy, but it's like that shit, there's
42:09
Speaker 1: nothing soft about that, nothing at all. It ain't nothing
42:12
Speaker 1: soft about that, you know what I'm saying. Like I
42:14
Speaker 1: remember when I was at that point, I'm feeling low,
42:17
Speaker 1: and like as low as I was feeling and as
42:20
Speaker 1: convinced I was that like I didn't really want to live,
42:23
Speaker 1: I couldn't find that courage to actually do it, you
42:27
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. Like I just couldn't find that,
42:29
Speaker 1: Like it's it's a lot my home girl, Jazz rest
42:32
Speaker 1: in peace. She did it in twenty twenty, completed suicide.
42:35
Speaker 1: That's what they say to say shanty dass. But Jazz
42:37
Speaker 1: said she was so intentional and so calculated and so
42:41
Speaker 1: strategic that when she did it, in my mind, I
42:44
Speaker 1: processed it like she just knew it was her time
42:47
Speaker 1: to go, Like I, you know, I've never had that
42:50
Speaker 1: feeling like it's time for me to exit, you know.
42:52
Speaker 1: But even if you go look at her Twitter, she
42:53
Speaker 1: was saying things like I wonder what my next life
42:55
Speaker 1: is gonna be like and things like that. So something
42:57
Speaker 1: came over her when she knew today is my day.
43:00
Speaker 1: You know, Steve, it was the same way with Steve's
43:02
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, Like he definitely was vocal
43:06
Speaker 1: about it leading up to it happening, you know what
43:09
Speaker 1: I'm saying, and like when it was just it was weird. Man.
43:12
Speaker 1: It's so now that the deported buying that new portion
43:17
Speaker 1: nine eleven, did it really help your mental health? That? Yeah,
43:20
Speaker 1: a little bit, you know what I'm saying, Because sometimes
43:22
Speaker 1: you gotta show yourself like what you can like achieved
43:27
Speaker 1: like it with it being a superficial item and a
43:30
Speaker 1: material thing. To me, it was more represented like me
43:34
Speaker 1: having a goal, you know, and me proving myself once again,
43:38
Speaker 1: like anything that's possible, Like that was my dream car
43:41
Speaker 1: and I could have got it for a long time,
43:43
Speaker 1: but then one day I just decided, y'all gonna do it.
43:46
Speaker 1: And I remember ship like waking up the next morning
43:48
Speaker 1: and seeing it in my garage. I'm like, damn, like
43:50
Speaker 1: and yeah, it really did something for my state of being,
43:54
Speaker 1: my state of mind, you know what I'm saying, Like
43:56
Speaker 1: I had to prove to myself, like I know, all
43:58
Speaker 1: I gotta do is be connected to the soul, but
44:01
Speaker 1: now I need to poor. Now. What I love about you,
44:06
Speaker 1: Joey Man, is like when when when when you see
44:08
Speaker 1: a black man doing the work, it does reflecting his life,
44:11
Speaker 1: It reflecting the way he looks and reflecting his career professionally.
44:14
Speaker 1: This is probably your best body of work album way
44:17
Speaker 1: you see what you're doing in Hollywood. So that's why, man,
44:20
Speaker 1: when I see you, when I see that and I
44:21
Speaker 1: hear you telling these stories about going to therapy and everything,
44:24
Speaker 1: I'm like, that's gonna convince So many more black men
44:26
Speaker 1: to go go do the work. Absolutely. Man. It's like,
44:28
Speaker 1: you know, I always probably myself on being some type
44:31
Speaker 1: of role model because it's like with this position I got,
44:34
Speaker 1: with this stature, with this platform, It's like I got
44:36
Speaker 1: so many people listening, and I feel like the least
44:39
Speaker 1: I could do is implant seeds that will sprout, like,
44:43
Speaker 1: you know, more opportunity for these people, or just you know,
44:46
Speaker 1: wisdom that will transcend you into the right directions for
44:51
Speaker 1: these people and stuff like that, and also just making
44:53
Speaker 1: them not feel alone. Like I realized that, like my
44:56
Speaker 1: most relatable work is my most vulnerable work. And usually
44:59
Speaker 1: when I go to like a survivors guilt or show Me,
45:02
Speaker 1: people relate to that ship more. You know what I'm saying,
45:05
Speaker 1: Because Yeah, let's get into a joint off the album
45:07
Speaker 1: what you want to hear bro on, Let's head Where
45:10
Speaker 1: I Belong, Where I Belong. We appreciate you for Joey
45:13
Speaker 1: Badass Man, keep growing my brother, Joey Badass. It's the
45:17
Speaker 1: Breakfast Club. Good morning,