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EYL 317: Common · Earn Your Leisure

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  Speaker 1: An illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child
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  Speaker 9: See you there all right, guys, Welcome back ey L.
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  Speaker 9: We got a special edition Legends only. This is a Legends,
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  Speaker 9: yes for sure. Whenever we get a chance to talk
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  Speaker 9: to you know, the hip hop Legends is always fun
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  Speaker 9: for us because before anything, we was fans of music.
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  Speaker 6: We still are fans of music and just culture.
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  Speaker 9: So you know, people that have help shape it, it's
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  Speaker 9: always great for us to have conversations with them. So
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  Speaker 9: we have Rashi better known as Common formerly known as Common.
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  Speaker 5: Also known as It's dope that we grew up in
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  Speaker 5: the era and we got to watch our artists mature
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  Speaker 5: and still have relevancy.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah.
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  Speaker 5: So you know, in the early days of hip hop,
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  Speaker 5: there wasn't an act right like, it felt like this
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  Speaker 5: couldn't grow. There was a young man's sporty somebody saying
• 2:43
  Speaker 5: that the other day's a young man sport. I'm like,
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  Speaker 5: that's true. But these guys that were young have now
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  Speaker 5: grown and we've grown with them. So I think this
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  Speaker 5: is just this is a dope conversation that we're gonna have. Yeah, no,
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  Speaker 5: for sure, man, thank y'all too for having me up here. Man,
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  Speaker 5: respect in love with y'all doing. Thank you for sure,
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  Speaker 5: And I want to say, yeah, I definitely creating. When
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  Speaker 5: I first started like making music, didn't think I could
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  Speaker 5: grow into my thirties forties. I'm fifty two now and
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  Speaker 5: be creating music like where it still feel fresh, where
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  Speaker 5: I'm still like weird, not being with Pete Rock and
• 3:22
  Speaker 5: I on this album, but just gaining new audience. We
• 3:26
  Speaker 5: didn't have those examples at the beginning because hip I
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  Speaker 5: was so young. But when we think about it being
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  Speaker 5: a it is a young man's sport, young woman's sport,
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  Speaker 5: but it also is like because it's music. It has
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  Speaker 5: the time listeners to it.
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  Speaker 10: Like music doesn't really when you think about music, it
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  Speaker 10: don't really deno the age or.
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  Speaker 4: Or even the color.
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  Speaker 10: Man like cause some of the some of the songs
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  Speaker 10: I've enjoyed most, man, it's all walks of life, just
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  Speaker 10: loving it. It could be Michael Jackson's Off the Wall,
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  Speaker 10: or it could be Kendricks Lamar not like us, you know,
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  Speaker 10: And I see different like age, different people from different
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  Speaker 10: age groups still enjoying all that music. So I feel
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  Speaker 10: like music when it's made in its purest way and
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  Speaker 10: it really has a soul to it and it's special,
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  Speaker 10: it doesn't have that limit on it. It can grow
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  Speaker 10: and be timeless. And for me as an artist, I've
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  Speaker 10: been just trying to strive and to grow.
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  Speaker 9: Well, how have you been a So you're one of
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  Speaker 9: the few artists that have been able to maintain relevancy
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  Speaker 9: for a long period of time and hip hop right.
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  Speaker 9: Unfortunately a lot of artists don't have that longevity. And
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  Speaker 9: you've done it with different verticals, acting and stuff like that.
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  Speaker 9: So what's your key to be able to maintain relevance
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  Speaker 9: and to reinvent yourself decade after decade.
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  Speaker 10: I mean, I would like to think I had a formula,
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  Speaker 10: but I really didn't have a formula.
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  Speaker 4: I think it was just a faith.
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  Speaker 10: It's about the love for the art forms. It was
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  Speaker 10: about staying humble and being like, man, I can learn,
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  Speaker 10: I gotta learn.
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  Speaker 4: I gotta seek to get better.
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  Speaker 10: So even when I had those victories, like an album
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  Speaker 10: like B I didn't just sit back and be like, Okay,
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  Speaker 10: I made it.
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  Speaker 4: You know, It's like, how can I get better?
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  Speaker 10: And as you mentioned, like the vertical of acting was
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  Speaker 10: very important to me, and you know, the relevancy that
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  Speaker 10: people see some of that is just because of acting
• 5:34
  Speaker 10: or because of the activism, because it's not like every
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  Speaker 10: album I put out since ninety two, when I first
• 5:43
  Speaker 10: put out my first album. It's not like everyone is
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  Speaker 10: connected with people. And I fortunately understand the ups and
• 5:51
  Speaker 10: downs of that too and can still stay with my
• 5:54
  Speaker 10: eyes on the prize as far as striving to grow
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  Speaker 10: as an artist, but getting into acting, getting doing different
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  Speaker 10: things like songs, being in the films, like the song
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  Speaker 10: with John Legend and now that you know we got
• 6:06
  Speaker 10: on an Oscar stage. That is something I was dreamed
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  Speaker 10: of doing as an actor but didn't know I would
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  Speaker 10: do it as a musician sea for some of the
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  Speaker 10: song glory. So that that being said, I think the
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  Speaker 10: the key that I can say most is just man
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  Speaker 10: just being in tune with the most high and following
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  Speaker 10: you know, your consciousness, your gut feeling of who you are.
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  Speaker 10: Times you move like like musically, at times I do
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  Speaker 10: different shit, man, Like I'll be like going out there
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  Speaker 10: venturing off, and I don't be like, Okay, just because
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  Speaker 10: people want to hear me do this boom back hip hop,
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  Speaker 10: I'm just gonna do it. No if I'm if I'm
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  Speaker 10: in this space I wanted to do some eclectic, eccentric stuff,
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  Speaker 10: I'm gonna do it and it might you know, it
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  Speaker 10: might not win then, but it could win later. And
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  Speaker 10: I think that's just about really. I mean, it sounds
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  Speaker 10: so trite, but staying true to who you are and
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  Speaker 10: having a face and being humble, it's the only things
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  Speaker 10: I can look at that has kept me in this
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  Speaker 10: music business.
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  Speaker 5: This business you came in in ninety two. I mean,
• 7:09
  Speaker 5: this is what do you like to call it? The
• 7:11
  Speaker 5: Golden Age, the golden era of hip hop? The breakthrough
• 7:15
  Speaker 5: song is I used.
• 7:16
  Speaker 4: To love her?
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean they made movies around this Mary Brown
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  Speaker 5: Sugar at the movie it's based off the premise of
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  Speaker 5: I used to love her.
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  Speaker 4: Yes, I wonder now as you're creating.
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  Speaker 5: Because I want to talk about the selection of from
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  Speaker 5: no Id to Yay, the Pete Rock will get into that.
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  Speaker 5: What's your thoughts now about him? Like do you still
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  Speaker 5: love her in the same way that you said in
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  Speaker 5: ninety two?
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  Speaker 10: Man, I really like kind of refell in love with
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  Speaker 10: hip hop within the past like a few years, Like
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  Speaker 10: I always loved it, but now I feel like it's
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  Speaker 10: an energy out there in the zeitgeist where man people
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  Speaker 10: are appreciating and open to and wanting like hip hop
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  Speaker 10: that has lyrical content like bars, bars, like soulful music
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  Speaker 10: that could be it could be a young fresh artist
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  Speaker 10: giving you something soul for with new sounds, but it's
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  Speaker 10: soulful and authentic, and I just feel like I love
• 8:14
  Speaker 10: it because I'm realizing seeing that celebration for the fiftieth
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  Speaker 10: year did something for me. It made me see how
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  Speaker 10: much people will always love this music and you think
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  Speaker 10: that the audience Like for me, I thought that the
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  Speaker 10: audience was gone for a certain sound of the music,
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  Speaker 10: but they still there and now we know, like, man,
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  Speaker 10: you can have music, you can have you know, everybody
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  Speaker 10: from Future two nots still putting our music and you
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  Speaker 10: can enjoy it and different.
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  Speaker 4: Man, I've been we've been touring right now.
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  Speaker 10: It's sometimes us look in the crowd and it's like
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  Speaker 10: people twenty three years old.
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  Speaker 4: I'm like, damn, I'm really their father.
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  Speaker 10: But they enjoying the music and they like know the
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  Speaker 10: words to the new album, and I'm like, man, it
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  Speaker 10: just it just shows me that it can be no
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  Speaker 10: boundaries when you when you just put out that that umph,
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  Speaker 10: that stuff that got it too, you know, like man,
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  Speaker 10: and that don't happen all the time. It's just it's
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  Speaker 10: just things aligned at the right time, and you you know.
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  Speaker 10: And I'm saying that to say my passion and love
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  Speaker 10: for hip hop is strong. And I was able to
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  Speaker 10: connect with Pete Rock, who is the right person for
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  Speaker 10: me to create that music with, and it still feel
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  Speaker 10: fresh and new, but has the spirit of what we
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  Speaker 10: always loved. But you could have asked me five years ago,
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  Speaker 10: I might not have been wanting that boom bap sound.
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  Speaker 4: So I do have that love, and I don't think
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  Speaker 4: that love.
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  Speaker 10: Will ever go anywhere, you know, like any relationships, sometimes
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  Speaker 10: you need something else a little bit. You want to try,
• 9:57
  Speaker 10: you know, you know, like you try you know.
• 10:00
  Speaker 5: I allegedly allegedly, or you just figure out how to
• 10:05
  Speaker 5: work things out, communicate with each other better.
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  Speaker 10: Let me be clear, you got to you gotta grow
• 10:16
  Speaker 10: and expand it like y'all y'all interests, you and your
• 10:20
  Speaker 10: partner's interest y'all say, growing and evolving and you know,
• 10:24
  Speaker 10: trying new things and remain a line.
• 10:29
  Speaker 4: Trying to guy me right, so he still loves it.
• 10:34
  Speaker 9: I love it so like talking about Pete Rock right,
• 10:38
  Speaker 9: legendary producer that comes out around the same time as
• 10:41
  Speaker 9: you come out. And you guys have a unique perspective
• 10:44
  Speaker 9: because both of you.
• 10:47
  Speaker 6: Have been on major labels. Now you're doing it the
• 10:50
  Speaker 6: independent way.
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  Speaker 9: You've seen it transition from physical CDs to streaming. So
• 10:57
  Speaker 9: from a business aspect, how what's it like now in
• 11:01
  Speaker 9: twenty twenty four as opposed to nineteen ninety four?
• 11:04
  Speaker 6: What have you learned?
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  Speaker 9: What are some challenges now as far as on the
• 11:07
  Speaker 9: independent side as opposed to just major.
• 11:09
  Speaker 10: Label Well, business wise, man, I feel like the music
• 11:16
  Speaker 10: industry was just making a lot more money when we
• 11:19
  Speaker 10: initially were coming out, maybe not right at the beginning
• 11:23
  Speaker 10: when Pete Rock Pete Rock came out ninety ninety one,
• 11:27
  Speaker 10: I came out ninety two, samey.
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: At the same time.
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  Speaker 10: Around that ninety four ninety five, budgets started going up.
• 11:34
  Speaker 10: Like my first videos was like twenty thousand and thirty
• 11:39
  Speaker 10: thousand dollars. You know, one of my was only able
• 11:42
  Speaker 10: to spend five thousand dollars on the video. But then
• 11:45
  Speaker 10: I can remember spending two hundred thousand dollars on the video,
• 11:49
  Speaker 10: four hundred thousand. But it was denoting that because the
• 11:53
  Speaker 10: record sales were coming in and record labels were just
• 11:57
  Speaker 10: making money, and once obviously streaming came and that that
• 12:03
  Speaker 10: partnership partnership didn't work out like you know, because obviously
• 12:07
  Speaker 10: I heard Apple approached a lot of the labels like
• 12:10
  Speaker 10: let's do this together. But the labels were like, nah,
• 12:14
  Speaker 10: we're good, this is our thing. And Apple came and
• 12:17
  Speaker 10: manifested that business. And then it made the labels have
• 12:20
  Speaker 10: to pivot and move and shift and find so I
• 12:23
  Speaker 10: find it now we the.
• 12:28
  Speaker 4: Pot is not as big.
• 12:29
  Speaker 10: That's why you know, you do to me have to
• 12:31
  Speaker 10: go out and establish other things revolving around that. I
• 12:36
  Speaker 10: look at it like, and I started figuring this out
• 12:39
  Speaker 10: early on, was like, Man, I'm investing in my career
• 12:44
  Speaker 10: because that's investing in my business, you know. So I
• 12:47
  Speaker 10: was I was like, Okay, if I'm I'm gonna spend
• 12:51
  Speaker 10: these money on rehearsals because rehearsals actually will get me
• 12:56
  Speaker 10: with a great performance, I will be able to perform
• 12:59
  Speaker 10: for the rest of my life if I like impact
• 13:02
  Speaker 10: with these shows, doing great performances or out investing in
• 13:07
  Speaker 10: my own self like this, I'm a higher the chef,
• 13:10
  Speaker 10: the chef so that I can take care of myself
• 13:13
  Speaker 10: so when I am in an older age, I can
• 13:17
  Speaker 10: be doing all the things I need to do, whether
• 13:19
  Speaker 10: it's stunt's in a movie or jumping around on stage.
• 13:23
  Speaker 10: Those those investments, I think for me the business change
• 13:27
  Speaker 10: where we used to depend on the labels to make
• 13:30
  Speaker 10: those investments, and now as our own entrepreneurs and visionaries,
• 13:36
  Speaker 10: we're like, oh, we gotta But.
• 13:37
  Speaker 9: That's interesting because Lebron is notorious that he puts a
• 13:41
  Speaker 9: million dollars a year into his body, from his trainer
• 13:45
  Speaker 9: to his chef. I saw somebody running back, Yeah, crazy
• 13:52
  Speaker 9: vegan alkaline type diet, But I never really looked at
• 13:56
  Speaker 9: it from your that perspective as far as like a
• 13:59
  Speaker 9: performer artist, but I guess it's the same thing, like
• 14:02
  Speaker 9: you gotta.
• 14:02
  Speaker 6: Be able to breathe correctly.
• 14:03
  Speaker 9: You gotta be able to So that's interesting that you
• 14:06
  Speaker 9: that you look because like athletes. I heard it from
• 14:08
  Speaker 9: the athletic standpoint, but I never heard about it like
• 14:10
  Speaker 9: an artist looking at it like I'm gonna pay for
• 14:12
  Speaker 9: a chef, I'm gonna pay for this coach. I'm gonna
• 14:14
  Speaker 9: do this so I can have more longevity.
• 14:17
  Speaker 10: Oh man, it's like, yo, that like I understand, you know,
• 14:23
  Speaker 10: it seemed like it's no brainer for an athlete to
• 14:25
  Speaker 10: be like, let me invest in my physical well being
• 14:28
  Speaker 10: because they use their bodies all the all the way.
• 14:32
  Speaker 10: But so do artists really like And that's the thing
• 14:35
  Speaker 10: that we we don't think about sometimes because we came
• 14:40
  Speaker 10: up now, I'm gonna drink this up, drinking this and
• 14:43
  Speaker 10: kick it. And I still could go on stage and rock.
• 14:45
  Speaker 10: But at a certain point it started looking sloppy and
• 14:49
  Speaker 10: and you don't have as much like just like focus,
• 14:53
  Speaker 10: and you don't have like the energy and and I
• 14:56
  Speaker 10: think what I've learned, and I learned it early on.
• 14:59
  Speaker 10: It was thank God for some of the eclectic, you know,
• 15:05
  Speaker 10: eccentric people or just you know people I met when
• 15:08
  Speaker 10: I moved to New York, because I was already on
• 15:11
  Speaker 10: my path, but they were showing me like yo, eating
• 15:14
  Speaker 10: this stuff, taking some of this alkaline, getting some of
• 15:17
  Speaker 10: these green drinks.
• 15:19
  Speaker 4: Well that we were just doing it just to be healthier.
• 15:23
  Speaker 10: But little did I know it would affect my well
• 15:26
  Speaker 10: being in my business too, Meaning like I think clear,
• 15:31
  Speaker 10: I got as much energy you could put me up.
• 15:34
  Speaker 10: I was just racing against some twenty two years. I
• 15:37
  Speaker 10: mean I lost three of them. But I was like,
• 15:40
  Speaker 10: you know, like my point is is like to be
• 15:44
  Speaker 10: able to do function and move around and do all
• 15:46
  Speaker 10: those things at a high level, you got to invest
• 15:49
  Speaker 10: in your body, yourself and well being. It also affects
• 15:54
  Speaker 10: your emotional well being. So I kind of got that
• 15:58
  Speaker 10: through just the process of me picking up information, being
• 16:02
  Speaker 10: around people who were in tune with that, and just
• 16:06
  Speaker 10: seeing it from myself. And yeah, man, I think it's
• 16:09
  Speaker 10: I feel like when I think about the music industry,
• 16:13
  Speaker 10: I really wish we would have had more health and
• 16:17
  Speaker 10: wellness like attention given because a lot of people have
• 16:22
  Speaker 10: went and passed on just because of those things and
• 16:26
  Speaker 10: not having helped.
• 16:27
  Speaker 6: It's the opposite. It's promoting drugs, alcohol, staying out later.
• 16:31
  Speaker 5: Yeah, but you don't even come to that because this
• 16:34
  Speaker 5: is an important part of your life. My mom was
• 16:36
  Speaker 5: a teacher, yes, right, so the education pieces there. And
• 16:39
  Speaker 5: like I said, I read in the book the summer
• 16:41
  Speaker 5: vacations that were instrumental and developing. But moving to New
• 16:44
  Speaker 5: York the role that that played because at the time,
• 16:47
  Speaker 5: and people they kind of can't understand it now because
• 16:50
  Speaker 5: they look at Chicago and they think, oh, wait, that's
• 16:53
  Speaker 5: where where Little Dirk's from. But that's what Chief Keys
• 16:55
  Speaker 5: from and oh you're not. Ya's from there, But like
• 16:57
  Speaker 5: when you're coming up, it's really like it's you and
• 17:01
  Speaker 5: maybe twist twist, and then crucial conflict is like a
• 17:05
  Speaker 5: couple of years after that, but it's not.
• 17:07
  Speaker 4: This isn't like a well respected place for hip hop music.
• 17:10
  Speaker 5: So coming to New York the role that that had,
• 17:12
  Speaker 5: because I remember the line and nobody argues you about it,
• 17:17
  Speaker 5: like I'm the shot Town's nas and I'm like, maybe right,
• 17:23
  Speaker 5: talking about the role that coming to New York and
• 17:25
  Speaker 5: the influence obviously getting around Native tongue a little bit
• 17:29
  Speaker 5: with that had on you.
• 17:30
  Speaker 10: Yeah, well it was first of all, man, I'm like
• 17:35
  Speaker 10: super grateful that I was just born and raised in
• 17:37
  Speaker 10: Chicago because it's just it gave me something that I
• 17:41
  Speaker 10: carry with me that I think that's the authenticity and
• 17:44
  Speaker 10: and a love and just you know, a down to
• 17:48
  Speaker 10: earthness that I love. But New York is is a
• 17:52
  Speaker 10: mecca for bringing all these different people together, like bringing
• 17:56
  Speaker 10: all different cultures. I think when you're from New York,
• 18:00
  Speaker 10: you live, you don't even see it from how great
• 18:03
  Speaker 10: of a city it is, because it's not many cities
• 18:06
  Speaker 10: that can go that you can go to in the
• 18:08
  Speaker 10: world and have this mixture of cultures and it really
• 18:12
  Speaker 10: blends naturally overall, you know.
• 18:14
  Speaker 6: What I'm saying.
• 18:16
  Speaker 10: So my foundation, it was hard being in Chicago and
• 18:21
  Speaker 10: trying to get even signed or get heard.
• 18:25
  Speaker 4: And once that.
• 18:25
  Speaker 10: Happened, it was me and Twist and shout out to
• 18:27
  Speaker 10: Twist and then, like you said, crucial conflict, those guys
• 18:31
  Speaker 10: got out there. But I still wasn't like playing it
• 18:35
  Speaker 10: in the industry. I can remember going into my third
• 18:39
  Speaker 10: album like, man, how am I going to make a
• 18:42
  Speaker 10: career this Because I wasn't making a lot of money.
• 18:46
  Speaker 10: I was as Andre's three thousands said live in check
• 18:50
  Speaker 10: to check, you know, if you don't move your feet in.
• 18:54
  Speaker 4: That.
• 18:54
  Speaker 10: So I was in that space and I just people
• 18:59
  Speaker 10: that I was like when I would come to New York,
• 19:01
  Speaker 10: I was like connecting with people and with certain things
• 19:05
  Speaker 10: would happen, Like when Daylight and Daylight reached out to me.
• 19:08
  Speaker 10: Dayla Soul reached out to me and said be on
• 19:10
  Speaker 10: this album. That was a game changer for me. Be
• 19:13
  Speaker 10: on this song that the first time I went to London.
• 19:15
  Speaker 10: The business the business on the States is high album
• 19:19
  Speaker 10: and funny story, they wanted Bizz on that song, but
• 19:23
  Speaker 10: he didn't show up or whatever. So they eventually called
• 19:27
  Speaker 10: me and I was super geek and all my friends.
• 19:30
  Speaker 10: It just was a big moment for me anyway, like
• 19:32
  Speaker 10: being accepted and being out here on the New York scene.
• 19:35
  Speaker 10: I started running into different people and I was like,
• 19:38
  Speaker 10: it's almost like being in the industry and going to
• 19:41
  Speaker 10: the to the center of that industry. I'm in the
• 19:44
  Speaker 10: music industry. But me decided to move to New York,
• 19:47
  Speaker 10: was like, Okay, now I might run into Premo, so
• 19:52
  Speaker 10: that's how I can work with Primo or when somebody
• 19:55
  Speaker 10: need me on this track, I'm around like I'm here,
• 19:57
  Speaker 10: you know, and you just never know the connections. But
• 20:01
  Speaker 10: it's being in that in that hub of where the
• 20:04
  Speaker 10: music was coming from most of the music in the
• 20:07
  Speaker 10: music industry. So moving to New York gave me that,
• 20:11
  Speaker 10: and it also did open me up to different open
• 20:15
  Speaker 10: my mind up, two different aspects of life. But I
• 20:18
  Speaker 10: was building that in Chicago, and Chicago gave me a
• 20:21
  Speaker 10: great foundation.
• 20:22
  Speaker 4: I wouldn't change the course of it at all.
• 20:24
  Speaker 5: Which is the record that you start to say, all right,
• 20:27
  Speaker 5: this has turned around for me.
• 20:29
  Speaker 4: Is it the light or is there one before that?
• 20:31
  Speaker 5: That's all right, here's a commercial success that everybody in
• 20:34
  Speaker 5: the quote unquote industry is looking for me to have.
• 20:37
  Speaker 10: Well, okay, the first step I would say was Resurrection album,
• 20:43
  Speaker 10: which because had I used to lover on it. And
• 20:46
  Speaker 10: the reason why I say that is because when I
• 20:47
  Speaker 10: released my first album, it wasn't any response.
• 20:51
  Speaker 4: Really, it was like okay, yeah whatever, And then when
• 20:54
  Speaker 4: I released I used to lover.
• 20:57
  Speaker 10: I remember Biggie doing one of those promos for me,
• 21:01
  Speaker 10: being like, yo, this I wash. This kid was from Brooklyn.
• 21:05
  Speaker 10: I remember seeing Nas and he was like keep doing
• 21:07
  Speaker 10: your thing, and so I started like realizing that some
• 21:11
  Speaker 10: of the people who didn't probably pay attention to my
• 21:14
  Speaker 10: music before it was starting to and it was those
• 21:17
  Speaker 10: greats and I was like, oh, the game change. The
• 21:21
  Speaker 10: album was like water for Chocolate because of the song
• 21:24
  Speaker 10: The Light and the reason I seen the difference. And
• 21:28
  Speaker 10: that was before I was like a well known hip
• 21:31
  Speaker 10: hop artist right like on a hip hop scene but
• 21:36
  Speaker 10: mostly underground.
• 21:37
  Speaker 4: Wasn't like I was getting radio play.
• 21:41
  Speaker 10: The Light was the first song I was like starting
• 21:44
  Speaker 10: to I got radio play and I was doing the
• 21:47
  Speaker 10: summer jams, and it was the first time I saw
• 21:50
  Speaker 10: people outside of hip hop culture singing one of my
• 21:53
  Speaker 10: songs or like even knowing who I am or caring
• 21:56
  Speaker 10: about who I am. Like I remember doing a performance
• 21:59
  Speaker 10: in seeing like young black girls singing the Light, and
• 22:03
  Speaker 10: I was like, wow, they never was singing any other
• 22:07
  Speaker 10: other music. So I saw the difference. I saw like
• 22:10
  Speaker 10: me doing top forty shows at that time and like,
• 22:14
  Speaker 10: and to this day, that's one of the songs that
• 22:16
  Speaker 10: when I performed, people know it the most, you know.
• 22:20
  Speaker 10: So that was the game change. And then I think
• 22:24
  Speaker 10: b was the one that elevated it even higher.
• 22:27
  Speaker 6: Well, b that's when that's when you connect with Yay,
• 22:29
  Speaker 6: you on a musical level, right.
• 22:30
  Speaker 9: Yeah, when you meet him, you knew him before.
• 22:34
  Speaker 10: That, Yeah, I knew Yay and I would say like
• 22:38
  Speaker 10: ninety six, ninety five somewhere around now back then, Yeah, yeah.
• 22:42
  Speaker 4: He was. He was just out of college. He might
• 22:46
  Speaker 4: have been in college.
• 22:48
  Speaker 10: But no Id, who's my producer for those first three albums,
• 22:53
  Speaker 10: him in Twilight Tone, but no Id was one of
• 22:55
  Speaker 10: the main producers and one of my best friends. His mother,
• 23:00
  Speaker 10: Kanye's mother, doctor Dondr West God bless Us Soul.
• 23:03
  Speaker 4: They were they talked together.
• 23:06
  Speaker 10: They were are both educators and and she brought Kanye
• 23:09
  Speaker 10: over to meet no Ida and yeah, he was making
• 23:13
  Speaker 10: beats and he was always making beats, and his beats
• 23:17
  Speaker 10: was dope. But it was like no Idea was a
• 23:19
  Speaker 10: master at that point. So I was always like, yeah, yeah,
• 23:22
  Speaker 10: this is good, but no Idea got this and then
• 23:25
  Speaker 10: Yay were like he would he would come to my
• 23:27
  Speaker 10: basement sometimes and like battle he wanted, you know, because
• 23:31
  Speaker 10: I was one of the Chicago dudes out at that
• 23:33
  Speaker 10: sounds like nice and so he like, yo, he was
• 23:36
  Speaker 10: battling me and he could rhyme good. So it was
• 23:38
  Speaker 10: like it was just that we was cultivating ourselves and
• 23:42
  Speaker 10: I never took any I never got any beats from
• 23:44
  Speaker 10: him at that time. For me, I was like I
• 23:48
  Speaker 10: needed them drums to snap, and he was getting there.
• 23:52
  Speaker 10: But then, you know, eventually we reconnected because he had
• 23:55
  Speaker 10: moved out to New York and was living out here
• 23:59
  Speaker 10: and I started seeing him and he was like, yo,
• 24:03
  Speaker 10: let's He's like, I got to get you on my album.
• 24:06
  Speaker 10: I got everybody. He was like yeah, I said, of course,
• 24:08
  Speaker 10: I'm with it, and we just I got on his
• 24:11
  Speaker 10: song get Them High, and we were at the time
• 24:14
  Speaker 10: we had already started. We kind of like started connecting
• 24:18
  Speaker 10: on beats. Because it's funny, one of the first beats
• 24:21
  Speaker 10: I got from ya, he was already excited to make
• 24:24
  Speaker 10: some beats for me, but he was in the studio
• 24:26
  Speaker 10: session for somebody else making a beat and he told
• 24:30
  Speaker 10: me to come by and I came in and I
• 24:34
  Speaker 10: was like, what's that? What's that? He was like, oh, man,
• 24:36
  Speaker 10: that's this beat I just made. He was like, man,
• 24:39
  Speaker 10: take this beat and leave, Like like, basically, what to
• 24:43
  Speaker 10: do with this?
• 24:45
  Speaker 4: If you wanted take this?
• 24:47
  Speaker 10: And then I guess for that artist, he did something
• 24:49
  Speaker 10: else for them, but I came in and got that
• 24:51
  Speaker 10: beat and that turned out to Beat the Food.
• 24:56
  Speaker 6: So you better ask questions.
• 24:59
  Speaker 5: I'm just re even the sound of the Food on
• 25:01
  Speaker 5: some of my favorite tracks on there, the sound was incredible,
• 25:06
  Speaker 5: Like this a double question, right, So at this time
• 25:09
  Speaker 5: you're almost your twelve years into the career, but this
• 25:13
  Speaker 5: album critically came from you know, all other outlets, but
• 25:17
  Speaker 5: it's five mics. It's like at the end of when
• 25:20
  Speaker 5: five mikes was meaning something, but you got the five
• 25:21
  Speaker 5: mics and I'm sure at that time that that had
• 25:25
  Speaker 5: to mean something.
• 25:26
  Speaker 4: But I also want to.
• 25:26
  Speaker 5: Talk about the visuals for the project too, because not
• 25:29
  Speaker 5: only did the sound match it, but like the videos
• 25:32
  Speaker 5: that were coming from it were incredible, right, So the
• 25:34
  Speaker 5: corner right, you had Taraji stand right like it was
• 25:38
  Speaker 5: like everything was coming together at that time. What was
• 25:41
  Speaker 5: that moment, Like obviously getting that acclaim for the five mics,
• 25:44
  Speaker 5: but then like, yo, we have to match the sound
• 25:46
  Speaker 5: with the visual.
• 25:46
  Speaker 4: Man, five mike's meant a whole lot.
• 25:50
  Speaker 10: Like what I was telling I was telling somebody who
• 25:53
  Speaker 10: used to work at the Source, Man, we literally would
• 25:56
  Speaker 10: be making our albums like man, I want to get
• 25:58
  Speaker 10: five mics. That's something when you like creating an album
• 26:02
  Speaker 10: to get a rating. It was nothing else that like
• 26:06
  Speaker 10: no other like publications or things where we're thinking like
• 26:09
  Speaker 10: I got to get four stars five Stars and Rolling
• 26:12
  Speaker 10: Stone or this and that. It was like I want
• 26:14
  Speaker 10: five mics and a source or once double excel, I
• 26:18
  Speaker 10: want the double. So getting that recognition was like, man,
• 26:23
  Speaker 10: it meant a whole lot to me because it's just
• 26:25
  Speaker 10: as a coming from the culture of hip hop, that
• 26:28
  Speaker 10: was like that was like a gold medal.
• 26:31
  Speaker 4: That was like an NBA championship for us. They can't
• 26:33
  Speaker 4: all classic the.
• 26:35
  Speaker 10: Classic, and your goal is to make a classic man,
• 26:38
  Speaker 10: no matter what. Like even for me at that time,
• 26:42
  Speaker 10: obviously beyond record sales, I wanted a classic album. So
• 26:46
  Speaker 10: getting that recognition and it was something, man, I'll be
• 26:49
  Speaker 10: telling the story when I speak at colleges and stuff.
• 26:52
  Speaker 10: It was it was something for me growing wise as
• 26:56
  Speaker 10: a human being with that album because I was watching
• 27:00
  Speaker 10: Ya at that time while we were making b we
• 27:04
  Speaker 10: were both creating. You know, he was pretty much done
• 27:06
  Speaker 10: with college dropout. But I watched his faith in himself
• 27:10
  Speaker 10: and his confidence and was like he would be like yo,
• 27:13
  Speaker 10: listen to it was college dropout. We'd be doing listening
• 27:16
  Speaker 10: session and he'd be like, listen, this is amazing, this
• 27:20
  Speaker 10: is incredible, like presenting his music with confidence and you know.
• 27:24
  Speaker 4: Just the way I was raised, I wasn't taught to
• 27:26
  Speaker 4: do that.
• 27:27
  Speaker 10: And I felt like doing the album B was the
• 27:30
  Speaker 10: first time I kind of declared my music to be
• 27:33
  Speaker 10: great and classic and really believed it, and it got
• 27:37
  Speaker 10: classic ratings. I mean it was the music itself, but
• 27:40
  Speaker 10: the fact that I was able to say it and
• 27:43
  Speaker 10: believe in it and do it, you know, with like
• 27:46
  Speaker 10: the confidence of Muhammad Ali not trying to make some
• 27:49
  Speaker 10: arrogant and being like I'm better than you, was just like, Yo,
• 27:52
  Speaker 10: check this out. This is dope. This is incredible. So
• 27:55
  Speaker 10: that was a stepping stone for me. So that meant
• 27:59
  Speaker 10: something five mic and all that just kind of it
• 28:02
  Speaker 10: kind of solidified. Yo, man, you gotta believe in yourself.
• 28:04
  Speaker 10: You gotta speak And then you know what was the
• 28:09
  Speaker 10: second part of the course, because I forget the videos.
• 28:11
  Speaker 4: The video the videos was.
• 28:16
  Speaker 10: I gotta say I always used to want to be
• 28:19
  Speaker 10: dope visually, but wanting to and being able to execute
• 28:23
  Speaker 10: his two different things.
• 28:25
  Speaker 4: I think having Kanye.
• 28:29
  Speaker 10: Really helped from the standpoint of he was gonna make
• 28:31
  Speaker 10: sure I had the budget I needed, make sure we
• 28:34
  Speaker 10: got to the right director because we was I was
• 28:37
  Speaker 10: on good music. It was no like he wasn't accepting
• 28:41
  Speaker 10: nothing less than high level visuals and which pushed me.
• 28:46
  Speaker 10: And as soon as we made the corner, soon as
• 28:49
  Speaker 10: he made that like he heard that rap, he said, Man,
• 28:52
  Speaker 10: we gotta do this video on Chicago. Man, it's black
• 28:56
  Speaker 10: and white. It's gonna be cold outside when we just
• 29:00
  Speaker 10: in Chicago in the hood about and man, he directed
• 29:04
  Speaker 10: that video and we was in Chicago was one of
• 29:07
  Speaker 10: the coldest days I ever felt in Chicago. Looked like
• 29:10
  Speaker 10: I was sick already, but I was so half the
• 29:15
  Speaker 10: energy of what we was doing.
• 29:16
  Speaker 4: I just was able to get through it.
• 29:17
  Speaker 10: But it was those visions that that I got to say,
• 29:21
  Speaker 10: yay as a as a and if it wasn't him director,
• 29:24
  Speaker 10: he would try to make sure we had the right director.
• 29:27
  Speaker 10: And then by the time we got to that video
• 29:29
  Speaker 10: testify with Taraji and Wood Harris and Steve Harris, all
• 29:33
  Speaker 10: these great actors, it was like I knew that I
• 29:36
  Speaker 10: was studying acting, that I could do a story and
• 29:40
  Speaker 10: make it a film like we wanted that to be
• 29:42
  Speaker 10: a short film and Anthony Manler directed that.
• 29:46
  Speaker 9: So how did you actually transition from being a rapper
• 29:50
  Speaker 9: into an actor?
• 29:50
  Speaker 6: Like who actually gave you a first start? And how
• 29:54
  Speaker 6: does that well?
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: That?
• 29:57
  Speaker 10: I felt that at one point, as we talked about earlier,
• 30:01
  Speaker 10: sometimes you know, when you create music, sometimes you got
• 30:04
  Speaker 10: that I can't wait to do the next song, and
• 30:07
  Speaker 10: then sometimes you're like, Okay, I ain't in the spirit
• 30:10
  Speaker 10: to create this music right now. When I found myself
• 30:16
  Speaker 10: in those places, I said, it got to be something
• 30:18
  Speaker 10: else artistically out there for me, Like I just I
• 30:21
  Speaker 10: just knew I had to find another expression. This was
• 30:24
  Speaker 10: like late nineties. I was always in the films, going
• 30:29
  Speaker 10: to plays. I loved it, but I never knew I
• 30:32
  Speaker 10: could do it because when I first did it, when
• 30:33
  Speaker 10: I was a kid, my mother saw my play and
• 30:37
  Speaker 10: she kept talking how good my homie was.
• 30:42
  Speaker 4: You know your mother.
• 30:42
  Speaker 10: You think your mother will say good jobs, but she
• 30:45
  Speaker 10: was like, yo, Derek was incredible and that I was like, okay, well.
• 30:49
  Speaker 4: I said, yea, I saw you up there too. I
• 30:52
  Speaker 4: was like, okay, well, So.
• 30:56
  Speaker 10: I ended up not even thinking about and plus like
• 30:59
  Speaker 10: at the time, it wasn't like I ain't gonna put
• 31:01
  Speaker 10: it all on that, but a lot of it was
• 31:03
  Speaker 10: like I'm into this hip hop thing, and so I
• 31:06
  Speaker 10: wasn't thinking about pursuing it for myself. But somewhere in
• 31:10
  Speaker 10: that late nineties period, I was like, man, I want
• 31:13
  Speaker 10: to try acting. I really want to because I always
• 31:16
  Speaker 10: loved it and love watching movies and love theater. And
• 31:21
  Speaker 10: I went to acting class and the first acting class
• 31:24
  Speaker 10: I went to, I was like, man, this is incredible,
• 31:27
  Speaker 10: Like I feel that.
• 31:29
  Speaker 4: Love like that. I felt.
• 31:30
  Speaker 10: It's not the same exact as music, but it's got
• 31:33
  Speaker 10: just as much love for the art form. And when
• 31:37
  Speaker 10: I started it, so I was like, man, I got
• 31:41
  Speaker 10: to just keep going to class. So I was going
• 31:42
  Speaker 10: to class. I would be on tour every time I
• 31:45
  Speaker 10: would come back. I was just going to classes and
• 31:47
  Speaker 10: going to classes. Then the classes started going to Okay,
• 31:50
  Speaker 10: go do auditions. I was going to auditions getting turned down,
• 31:53
  Speaker 10: turned down, and ironically enough, when I was we were
• 31:57
  Speaker 10: editing the video for Testify and I had did an
• 32:02
  Speaker 10: audition for this movie called Smoking Aces, and that was
• 32:06
  Speaker 10: my first movie, and like it was the first time
• 32:10
  Speaker 10: I got a call back, and I remember going into
• 32:13
  Speaker 10: the editing room.
• 32:14
  Speaker 4: I just come from. I just come from, like the audition.
• 32:18
  Speaker 10: I still had on my suit because I was playing
• 32:20
  Speaker 10: this character that you know, it was like a bodyguard,
• 32:22
  Speaker 10: but he was sharp. So I went into that editing
• 32:26
  Speaker 10: room still geeked, like yo, and I got a call back,
• 32:29
  Speaker 10: and then it happened where I got a second call back,
• 32:32
  Speaker 10: and that's when I had to Actually I got the
• 32:36
  Speaker 10: second call back which was like, you got the job,
• 32:40
  Speaker 10: and I had to literally.
• 32:42
  Speaker 4: I was literally I was crying when I got that job.
• 32:46
  Speaker 10: I called my mother, like, yo, I got the I
• 32:48
  Speaker 10: got a movie, and it was but I had to
• 32:52
  Speaker 10: hang up that phone with all that joy and then
• 32:54
  Speaker 10: going to the hotel room next door and tell Kanye
• 32:58
  Speaker 10: I couldn't go on this tour I booked. I was
• 33:02
  Speaker 10: they had, they had promoted me in everything it was
• 33:06
  Speaker 10: with him Keisha Cole. It's probably around two thousand and
• 33:10
  Speaker 10: five or six. I don't remember the name of it.
• 33:13
  Speaker 10: It had to be two thousand and five because that's
• 33:14
  Speaker 10: when we started graduations. Maybe it's Glowing the Dark.
• 33:18
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it might.
• 33:19
  Speaker 10: I think it was before Glowing the Dark, but it
• 33:21
  Speaker 10: was anyway, it was. It was a real crazy dynamic
• 33:25
  Speaker 10: because Yay definitely was like, man, it's all good, bro.
• 33:28
  Speaker 10: Like he kind of was supporting me going into my dream.
• 33:32
  Speaker 10: And though it was some business aspects that had to
• 33:35
  Speaker 10: be maneuvered that my manager at the time, Derek made happen,
• 33:39
  Speaker 10: it was a that was my step into acting, and
• 33:43
  Speaker 10: it was good to get that love and support from
• 33:47
  Speaker 10: like somebody who I was like, man, we in this
• 33:49
  Speaker 10: partnership doing music and things, but he was like, man,
• 33:52
  Speaker 10: go pursue that.
• 33:53
  Speaker 4: That's your dream, go do it.
• 33:55
  Speaker 5: Yeah, So that I mean that I remember that with
• 33:58
  Speaker 5: the announcement when you got smoking aces, because that leads
• 34:00
  Speaker 5: to just right, yeah, which is now you're not just
• 34:04
  Speaker 5: like a role, like you're the lead.
• 34:07
  Speaker 4: That's the lead.
• 34:08
  Speaker 5: You and the queen, right and obviously Cuba had done
• 34:12
  Speaker 5: it at the time Will had done it. I was
• 34:15
  Speaker 5: to queen Latifa had done it pac obviously and now
• 34:18
  Speaker 5: the other guy that is having a lead role in
• 34:21
  Speaker 5: a movie you cried the first time. What was that
• 34:24
  Speaker 5: reception like when you got the call to say like, nah,
• 34:27
  Speaker 5: you're not You're going to be the lead actor in
• 34:28
  Speaker 5: this movie now.
• 34:29
  Speaker 4: Man, I was.
• 34:31
  Speaker 10: That's one of them calls where you as soon as
• 34:33
  Speaker 10: you get the call, you start going into like training mode,
• 34:37
  Speaker 10: meaning I was.
• 34:40
  Speaker 4: I was.
• 34:40
  Speaker 10: I was super excited because Queen Latifa is a very
• 34:44
  Speaker 10: talented actress and she just people love her and people
• 34:49
  Speaker 10: show up for her movies. And for me, it was Wow,
• 34:53
  Speaker 10: I'm about to be a leading man in a film,
• 34:56
  Speaker 10: and I hadn't had that opportunity. I played all these supports,
• 35:00
  Speaker 10: the roles, so I felt the pressure.
• 35:03
  Speaker 4: To be honest.
• 35:04
  Speaker 10: My first days of filming, I wasn't doing good, and
• 35:12
  Speaker 10: they had talks behind the cameras about like, are we
• 35:15
  Speaker 10: gonna keep this dude on for this? And I remember
• 35:19
  Speaker 10: it was the scene that Queen or Tief and our
• 35:22
  Speaker 10: characters had sitting in this jazz club, and it just
• 35:24
  Speaker 10: was something about the scene that felt good to me.
• 35:27
  Speaker 4: It was natural.
• 35:28
  Speaker 10: Ween, you have a lot of dialogue, and from that moment,
• 35:33
  Speaker 10: the director was like and the producers like, that's all
• 35:36
  Speaker 10: we need, just do that. What I didn't know at
• 35:38
  Speaker 10: that time was like in a romantic comedy, people are
• 35:44
  Speaker 10: mostly themselves in a romantic comedy, right, like they bringing
• 35:48
  Speaker 10: more the essence of just them. It's not like you
• 35:52
  Speaker 10: disappear in a character in a romantic comedy.
• 35:55
  Speaker 4: Most of the time. Like you know, when you see Heath.
• 35:59
  Speaker 10: Legend as the Joker, God bless his soul, he it's
• 36:04
  Speaker 10: the Joker. But when you see like Matthew mcconnie in
• 36:08
  Speaker 10: in a in a you know, a romantic comedy, or
• 36:13
  Speaker 10: you know, even like what Queen Latifa did before, it's
• 36:16
  Speaker 10: like it's some of the elements of herself when she's
• 36:18
  Speaker 10: doing set it Off. That's a different thing. You understand
• 36:21
  Speaker 10: what I'm saying, y'all understand, like it's a it's you
• 36:23
  Speaker 10: gotta go deeper in those dramatic roles or those characters
• 36:28
  Speaker 10: where you're creating a whole character romantic comedy. They they
• 36:31
  Speaker 10: want you to bring more to essen to blight. I
• 36:34
  Speaker 10: didn't know that, and I was trying to do something
• 36:36
  Speaker 10: else in the first days, and then eventually I just
• 36:39
  Speaker 10: had to let go and be like, okay, cool, because
• 36:42
  Speaker 10: one of my favorite things about acting is be becoming
• 36:46
  Speaker 10: somebody else in different ways, you know, like like and
• 36:50
  Speaker 10: I love when I'm watching a movie when somebody's watching
• 36:53
  Speaker 10: the movie that I'm in, it knows me and they say, man,
• 36:56
  Speaker 10: I ain't even see Rashid in that, I ain't even
• 36:58
  Speaker 10: see you in that.
• 36:59
  Speaker 4: I saw this I saw the sir.
• 37:01
  Speaker 10: Ivy or or Cassie and from you know, from John
• 37:04
  Speaker 10: Wick two, I see Robert Simms. That's a compliment, Well
• 37:08
  Speaker 10: how do you because from you know, yeah you can
• 37:11
  Speaker 10: play yeah who because that's part of the role.
• 37:14
  Speaker 4: That was that was part of the role. That was
• 37:15
  Speaker 4: part of the role.
• 37:16
  Speaker 10: And I made sure that my stunt double didn't getting
• 37:20
  Speaker 10: you know, I was like, you know, there was no
• 37:24
  Speaker 10: way I was gonna go back home to Chicago and
• 37:27
  Speaker 10: they see a stunt double in the movie where I'm
• 37:30
  Speaker 10: playing a basketball because it.
• 37:32
  Speaker 6: Wasn't double for basketball.
• 37:34
  Speaker 9: So but from an actor standpoint, like I've heard actors
• 37:38
  Speaker 9: say they struggled with getting out of character, like when
• 37:42
  Speaker 9: you go that far into character, have you ever been
• 37:45
  Speaker 9: in that vibe with I thought, who was it?
• 37:47
  Speaker 6: Somebody said it took like.
• 37:48
  Speaker 9: Six months for them to actually get out of the
• 37:51
  Speaker 9: character and it actually caused a lot of problems in
• 37:54
  Speaker 9: their life.
• 37:55
  Speaker 6: Might have yeah, I think said that.
• 38:00
  Speaker 10: I definitely have had times where you know, it took
• 38:05
  Speaker 10: me time to get out of the character, mostly while
• 38:08
  Speaker 10: I'm filming, meaning like I come home with some of
• 38:13
  Speaker 10: that energy and I've time. It's times where I've been
• 38:17
  Speaker 10: like I've had heavy days of filming where like the
• 38:21
  Speaker 10: scenes is heavy, and on the ride home, I just
• 38:24
  Speaker 10: broke down because like I've had a I played on
• 38:27
  Speaker 10: a show called Helen Wheels where my character was getting hung.
• 38:31
  Speaker 10: It was like taking place in the reconstruction era where
• 38:34
  Speaker 10: it's like the building of the Continental Railroad and man,
• 38:40
  Speaker 10: my character was getting hung and man, I couldnot like
• 38:45
  Speaker 10: man that feeling and just thinking about all of our
• 38:50
  Speaker 10: ancestors that it went through that And when I got
• 38:54
  Speaker 10: in that van on the way home, I was just like,
• 38:58
  Speaker 10: couldn't hold it, man. And you know it comes out
• 39:01
  Speaker 10: in different ways too, like where you like you and
• 39:05
  Speaker 10: you playing that killer and you shooting somebody all day.
• 39:10
  Speaker 10: Like I remember just coming home one day of being
• 39:13
  Speaker 10: like I gotta go watch a dumb movie, just a
• 39:16
  Speaker 10: movie that don't got no Well, I ain't got to
• 39:19
  Speaker 10: think about nothing because I just was feeling heavy, you
• 39:22
  Speaker 10: holding that gun, shooting somebody. Them guns is real powerful,
• 39:26
  Speaker 10: like they it's just they just don't have gunpowder in
• 39:29
  Speaker 10: the bullet, but you still getting the same charge.
• 39:31
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  Speaker 1: An illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: in Massachusetts. An MS thirteen gang member from El Salvador
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: accused of murdering a Texas. Man of Venezuelan charged with
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: filming and selling child pornography in Michigan. These are just
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: some of the heinous migrant criminals caught because of President
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: Donald J.
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: Trump's leadership. I'm Christy Nohm, the.
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: United States Secretary of Homeland Security. Under President Trump, attempted
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: illegal border crossings are at the lowest levels ever recorded,
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: and over one hundred thousand illegal aliens have been arrested.
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: If you were here illegally, your next you will be
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: fine nearly one thousand dollars a day.
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: Imprisoned and deported, you will never return.
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: But if you register using our CBP home app and
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: leave now, you could be allowed to return legally.
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: Do what's right. Leave now.
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: Under President Trump America's laws, border and families will.
• 42:21
  Speaker 3: Be protected sponsored by the United States Department at Homeland Security.
• 42:24
  Speaker 10: You know, it makes you have compassion towards people who
• 42:27
  Speaker 10: dealing with that type of stuff all the time.
• 42:30
  Speaker 4: Who like this is because it speaks to a couple
• 42:33
  Speaker 4: of pieces.
• 42:33
  Speaker 5: Obviously the mental health side of it, right, because yeah,
• 42:36
  Speaker 5: you're crying and that's just you.
• 42:39
  Speaker 4: But number one, who do you call? Who did you
• 42:41
  Speaker 4: call it during those times?
• 42:43
  Speaker 5: And was there somebody in the dustry that was a confidant?
• 42:48
  Speaker 4: Right?
• 42:48
  Speaker 5: Like like I said, those the cubes of the world
• 42:50
  Speaker 5: that they're from hip hop, but they're in the in Hollywood. Like,
• 42:54
  Speaker 5: are those people that you were able to call and
• 42:56
  Speaker 5: reach out to during these times for advice?
• 42:58
  Speaker 6: Well, I mean I still had an issue with you the.
• 43:02
  Speaker 4: Specifically were gonna get to that. We're gonna get to that.
• 43:07
  Speaker 10: By then we have resulted. By the time I was acting,
• 43:10
  Speaker 10: we had resolved that. But a lot of times it
• 43:15
  Speaker 10: would be cast members. Like even on the film American
• 43:18
  Speaker 10: gangst I didn't have no real like like I wasn't
• 43:22
  Speaker 10: like going through it or whatever. But jen Zel was
• 43:26
  Speaker 10: like guiding and helping and giving me gems, like and
• 43:30
  Speaker 10: giving us gems.
• 43:32
  Speaker 4: And I really respected that.
• 43:34
  Speaker 10: The fact you know, this is Denzels is crazy. It's
• 43:44
  Speaker 10: like I worked so hard to get that role because
• 43:46
  Speaker 10: I tried out for the role that Isses had and
• 43:49
  Speaker 10: they liked me, but they was like no.
• 43:51
  Speaker 4: Then I tried out for another role and they like,
• 43:53
  Speaker 4: you're too young.
• 43:54
  Speaker 10: And I went and made another just tape, another audition tape,
• 43:58
  Speaker 10: and in the casting director was like, man, you dope
• 44:02
  Speaker 10: and and you passionate, We're just gonna cast you as
• 44:05
  Speaker 10: this to y'all's father. And I was like, okay, I'll
• 44:07
  Speaker 10: take it. I'm eight years older than them, but I
• 44:10
  Speaker 10: could do it as an actor. It's funny because you know,
• 44:14
  Speaker 10: for a long time, see I would see me and
• 44:15
  Speaker 10: be like Pops, like, oh man, this is gone too far.
• 44:19
  Speaker 10: But you know, I was grateful that Denzel was sharing
• 44:24
  Speaker 10: information with us. That's what you want, like from somebody
• 44:28
  Speaker 10: who's that gifted and you know, just a legend a
• 44:34
  Speaker 10: guru in it to give you you know, that wisdom.
• 44:37
  Speaker 10: And Ruby D was on that set too. I was
• 44:40
  Speaker 10: just watching her and just being like, God bless us.
• 44:44
  Speaker 10: So she was a master. I was like, I'm this
• 44:47
  Speaker 10: is you know. I took that bro I got that role,
• 44:51
  Speaker 10: and I literally only had about four lines in the movie.
• 44:54
  Speaker 10: But I knew I would be throughout the movie like
• 44:56
  Speaker 10: learning and I was gonna be on set with Denzel
• 44:59
  Speaker 10: Washington and Ruby D. And it was like some of
• 45:02
  Speaker 10: the great lessons I have as far as those times
• 45:05
  Speaker 10: when I was going through stuff, only mostly the actors
• 45:08
  Speaker 10: around me that I would you know, talk through with
• 45:11
  Speaker 10: stuff or therapist, you know. But ultimately acting was great
• 45:16
  Speaker 10: for therapy, you know, like it's a therapy in itself
• 45:19
  Speaker 10: because you you are releasing some of that energy if
• 45:22
  Speaker 10: you're going through those scenes, whether you're crying at home
• 45:26
  Speaker 10: or crying on the set, you're getting it out or
• 45:28
  Speaker 10: that anger you getting it out. That was one of
• 45:30
  Speaker 10: the things that I always would tell people, like, man,
• 45:34
  Speaker 10: this has been a good thing for me because when
• 45:36
  Speaker 10: I'm dealing with all this stress, I get to release
• 45:39
  Speaker 10: it through these characters through this artistic expression. So yeah,
• 45:43
  Speaker 10: and most death I'll say most Death is somebody who
• 45:46
  Speaker 10: acting wise that I was able to talk to a
• 45:48
  Speaker 10: little bit about acting because he's a he a brilliant actor.
• 45:53
  Speaker 4: He is like he is super dope.
• 45:56
  Speaker 6: Well speak speaking of most Death from the music side.
• 45:59
  Speaker 9: You know, you guys, most people will look at as
• 46:03
  Speaker 9: conscious rap, right il quality most of yourself? How has
• 46:09
  Speaker 9: that been? Because sometimes people don't want labels or titles
• 46:14
  Speaker 9: because they feel like it boxes them in and it's
• 46:17
  Speaker 9: limits them from doing like just being a person, like
• 46:20
  Speaker 9: they might want to do something that's not necessarily conscious. Right, So,
• 46:23
  Speaker 9: how has that title as far as being a conscious
• 46:27
  Speaker 9: rap or how have How has that blended with you?
• 46:30
  Speaker 4: Well, it's been.
• 46:32
  Speaker 10: You know, I went through a journey with being called
• 46:36
  Speaker 10: a conscious artist because at first, when they first said it,
• 46:39
  Speaker 10: I was like, man, why they calling me that life?
• 46:42
  Speaker 10: You know, like, you know, like because it did put
• 46:45
  Speaker 10: me in a box. And I'm like, man, I like women,
• 46:49
  Speaker 10: and I like drinking and automatically if you you know,
• 46:53
  Speaker 10: if you put in a conscious box, they expect you
• 46:55
  Speaker 10: to just be like only talking about a side of
• 46:59
  Speaker 10: the court or you know, or the Panthers and and
• 47:02
  Speaker 10: Malcolm Xell, You're always gonna be serious. In fact, like
• 47:06
  Speaker 10: being on tour, I would meet girls and that's all
• 47:09
  Speaker 10: they wanted to be.
• 47:10
  Speaker 4: Like, look, I like having fun. Man, let's kick it.
• 47:14
  Speaker 4: Let's st.
• 47:18
  Speaker 10: Ain't gotta stay heavy though, so I and and I
• 47:24
  Speaker 10: think too, to our own fault, we fell into that
• 47:28
  Speaker 10: box and it and it separated us from other artists
• 47:33
  Speaker 10: like the jay Z's or the dmxes, and you know,
• 47:36
  Speaker 10: we weren't like working with those artists. And I felt
• 47:43
  Speaker 10: like at a certain point, Yay Kanye was one of
• 47:47
  Speaker 10: the bridges for that because he did put freeway in
• 47:51
  Speaker 10: most step on the song, you know, or he was
• 47:55
  Speaker 10: like rapping some things that was like artistic and his
• 47:59
  Speaker 10: music is very artill. And he was throwing up the
• 48:01
  Speaker 10: rock sign, throwing up the you know and having this
• 48:03
  Speaker 10: rock and Feller chain.
• 48:05
  Speaker 6: You know, he blended those two.
• 48:06
  Speaker 10: Blended those two worlds, and it was like a reminder
• 48:11
  Speaker 10: that man were not separate.
• 48:12
  Speaker 4: It's still all our culture. It's all us.
• 48:15
  Speaker 10: And like I have been around jay Z and kicked
• 48:18
  Speaker 10: it with him and blah blah blah.
• 48:20
  Speaker 4: So why just because they lave me as conscious do
• 48:23
  Speaker 4: I need to.
• 48:23
  Speaker 5: Feel like when he said I was gonna how validating
• 48:26
  Speaker 5: or is it a gifting the person He says.
• 48:28
  Speaker 6: I want to rap like common said, are you are.
• 48:30
  Speaker 5: You saying to yourself? Damn, this dude just said he
• 48:33
  Speaker 5: wants to rap like me. Or you're like, he's still
• 48:37
  Speaker 5: putting me in the box a little bit like, how
• 48:39
  Speaker 5: did you.
• 48:39
  Speaker 4: Respond to that? That's thinking the same thing.
• 48:41
  Speaker 10: I love that he said that because I mean at
• 48:46
  Speaker 10: that point for me to even be in his thoughts
• 48:50
  Speaker 10: of while he's writing a song, I mean that he
• 48:54
  Speaker 10: recognizes me as an artist, that is valuable. And for
• 48:57
  Speaker 10: him to say Jay is brilliant as Jay Z is
• 49:00
  Speaker 10: as a business man, he's also an artist. So for
• 49:04
  Speaker 10: him to say, man, truthfully, I want to rhyme like
• 49:06
  Speaker 10: common sense, he expressing one thing about him and dope
• 49:11
  Speaker 10: enough He's like, he expressed what I be the feeling like, man,
• 49:15
  Speaker 10: why don't we do it more of this? Like we
• 49:17
  Speaker 10: could feel more than one thing about certain situations. He saying, Look,
• 49:22
  Speaker 10: I want to rhyme like this dude and have some conscience,
• 49:24
  Speaker 10: but I want to get paid to money.
• 49:27
  Speaker 4: I'm doing fire I did fire man, I'm selling records.
• 49:30
  Speaker 4: I'm not listen.
• 49:33
  Speaker 10: That's cool, But these dudes and the truth is we
• 49:35
  Speaker 10: weren't selling like that, so that was you know, his
• 49:39
  Speaker 10: path and his choice. I felt good that he that
• 49:42
  Speaker 10: he mentioned me because like at that time, I remember
• 49:45
  Speaker 10: my cousin calling me like, damn, Jay Hope mentioned you, bro,
• 49:49
  Speaker 10: you made it?
• 49:50
  Speaker 6: You Did you get that from people like that?
• 49:53
  Speaker 9: You might not, like you said, like when you saw big, Like,
• 49:55
  Speaker 9: did you get that from people that you?
• 49:57
  Speaker 6: Was like, yo, I really appreciate it.
• 49:59
  Speaker 9: They might not have things publicly, but it's like they
• 50:01
  Speaker 9: talk to you and they like you kind of know
• 50:04
  Speaker 9: like that they do want to tap into that, but
• 50:08
  Speaker 9: for whatever reason they're not.
• 50:10
  Speaker 10: Yeah, I mean yeah, I mean when you get that
• 50:14
  Speaker 10: from from the artists that you really appreciate, even something
• 50:17
  Speaker 10: that you like, Damn, you appreciate my music?
• 50:19
  Speaker 4: You like my music?
• 50:20
  Speaker 10: Damn, that's crazy, Like you you know, you feel good
• 50:24
  Speaker 10: about it because man, like you want to be respected
• 50:28
  Speaker 10: by people you love and your peers and people you
• 50:32
  Speaker 10: fans of so and and you also understand like, man,
• 50:37
  Speaker 10: they have this other path and desire and vision and
• 50:42
  Speaker 10: qualities that may get them to a higher level commercial wise.
• 50:46
  Speaker 10: But you know, once you for me, once you start
• 50:50
  Speaker 10: embracing like this is who I am that's when things
• 50:53
  Speaker 10: started to thrive for me.
• 50:55
  Speaker 4: Was like I wasn't trying to.
• 50:56
  Speaker 10: Be like Biggie or Nahs or Daylight even you know,
• 51:01
  Speaker 10: all them inspired me like Daylight Tribe Day, but I
• 51:05
  Speaker 10: once I found my voice. At first it was like like, Okay,
• 51:09
  Speaker 10: I got all pieces of these, but then I started
• 51:11
  Speaker 10: to be like, Okay, I got influences by these inspiration,
• 51:14
  Speaker 10: but I got my voice now. So yeah, these artists
• 51:19
  Speaker 10: are these artists that can make dope hip hop but
• 51:22
  Speaker 10: still reach high levels of radio play, and I just
• 51:26
  Speaker 10: accepted that for that and being like, Yo, I'm an
• 51:29
  Speaker 10: artist that's gonna do these creative things. I'm gonna go
• 51:33
  Speaker 10: out there and do live performances and rock. The people
• 51:36
  Speaker 10: may have a song that get on the radio, may not,
• 51:39
  Speaker 10: but I guarantee you that I'm gonna make some music
• 51:42
  Speaker 10: that you're gonna listen to twenty thirty years and now
• 51:46
  Speaker 10: and hopefully hundreds of years now.
• 51:48
  Speaker 5: That's the fact I think the transparency, even when he
• 51:50
  Speaker 5: says it, it's like I dubbed down my audience a double.
• 51:53
  Speaker 5: My daughter'll all criticized for it, but y'all, y'all holla.
• 51:56
  Speaker 5: So it's like, what do I do the fact that
• 51:58
  Speaker 5: you're making music that it's sending in a test of time.
• 52:01
  Speaker 5: Like I said, B is incredible. That was five mics.
• 52:05
  Speaker 5: Love is my favorite track sometimes I just put that
• 52:08
  Speaker 5: on just because the way you're talking about love and
• 52:10
  Speaker 5: how it manifests in different ways. But fine forever, I
• 52:14
  Speaker 5: think it is equally almost it's right there. It's on
• 52:17
  Speaker 5: the Cuss south Side on there, the people's on there.
• 52:23
  Speaker 5: Yay's is the producer for pretty much the most both albums, right,
• 52:29
  Speaker 5: And so that's like the traditional model of hip hop
• 52:32
  Speaker 5: where you have one producer produced the whole project. And
• 52:35
  Speaker 5: obviously throughout your career you've changed that. You no I
• 52:38
  Speaker 5: d started at first, then you had Ya, and now
• 52:40
  Speaker 5: you're back to Pete Rock doing predominantly the entire album.
• 52:44
  Speaker 5: Talk about that process of going back to the traditional
• 52:47
  Speaker 5: ways where you had your one producer and we're going
• 52:49
  Speaker 5: to make the click this together as opposed to the
• 52:52
  Speaker 5: allmatic way, which is a classic classic. But I'm getting
• 52:55
  Speaker 5: the best five producers that I can find to make
• 52:58
  Speaker 5: this manifesto.
• 52:59
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Uh.
• 53:01
  Speaker 10: I'm one of the first to acknowledge that Jay Diller
• 53:03
  Speaker 10: on be and Finding fact did like he did that
• 53:07
  Speaker 10: love his song and he's one of the greatest producers
• 53:11
  Speaker 10: and ever live and also inspired Yay and many others
• 53:16
  Speaker 10: like Pete Roy. Making an album with one producer or
• 53:24
  Speaker 10: two at the most, for me has been my my
• 53:27
  Speaker 10: way of operating because like, I like creating sounds with
• 53:31
  Speaker 10: the album, the albums that I've loved throughout my years.
• 53:35
  Speaker 10: When I you know, when they say what album would
• 53:37
  Speaker 10: you take on an island? Like Off the Wall by
• 53:41
  Speaker 10: Michael Jackson is one of my favorite albums, you know,
• 53:44
  Speaker 10: Lawrence Hill's mis Education, myb Deep, the Infamous, you know,
• 53:49
  Speaker 10: like these are some albums that will be with me forever.
• 53:55
  Speaker 10: That being said to try Midnight Marauders, like these albums,
• 54:00
  Speaker 10: like were they created a sound like Purple Tape?
• 54:04
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, Purple That's something that's definitely five mics.
• 54:10
  Speaker 5: Yes, Tribe is the first group to have three five
• 54:12
  Speaker 5: mic albums and like Marida's low End Theory in their
• 54:16
  Speaker 5: first time yep, wow, yeah, I never knew that they
• 54:20
  Speaker 5: got three.
• 54:21
  Speaker 10: They well they for me, they well deserved. It's like
• 54:25
  Speaker 10: earth Winding Fire is one of my favorite groups. E
• 54:29
  Speaker 10: and Tribe is the earth winning fire hip hop to me.
• 54:31
  Speaker 10: Fact Yes, Sir Resting Piece to Fight and Maurice's wife
• 54:37
  Speaker 10: for Earth Winning Fire. So I'll say, man like I
• 54:42
  Speaker 10: like locking in with a producer because it gives me that.
• 54:46
  Speaker 4: Man.
• 54:47
  Speaker 10: We start bonding and creating and talking and going through stuff,
• 54:51
  Speaker 10: and we started developing a rapport, a collaboration, a sound communication.
• 54:57
  Speaker 10: Like it's just like me, ain't got it, ain't gonna
• 55:00
  Speaker 10: always be perfect, but it's about getting Like real creativity
• 55:04
  Speaker 10: is about getting to know each other and then getting
• 55:07
  Speaker 10: into a certain vision and being able to create that
• 55:10
  Speaker 10: vision and like iron sharpens iron, y'all get better. And
• 55:14
  Speaker 10: that's what Yay did. That's no idea did it from
• 55:17
  Speaker 10: the beginning. That's what Questlove as an executive producer, and
• 55:22
  Speaker 10: Jay Dillar did for my arm like water for chocolate.
• 55:26
  Speaker 10: And that's what Pete Brocket's done where we just get it.
• 55:31
  Speaker 10: With this new album, Auditory in Value one, we wouldn't
• 55:34
  Speaker 10: we wouldn't have created something to me with the level
• 55:38
  Speaker 10: of quality if I wasn't going out to his crib
• 55:42
  Speaker 10: and like him playing records and being, oh, you like that,
• 55:45
  Speaker 10: and then along with that just watching his dog and
• 55:49
  Speaker 10: go around the house. And then we're talking about life
• 55:52
  Speaker 10: and talking about therapy and talking about like man when
• 55:56
  Speaker 10: he first started doing this stuff and like took me
• 55:59
  Speaker 10: all that shape up into creating the best work. You know,
• 56:04
  Speaker 10: and you ain't doing it for that. You ain't You
• 56:06
  Speaker 10: ain't like faking the conversations. But I'm just saying that
• 56:09
  Speaker 10: type of bond. It's like any teams when we watched sports,
• 56:13
  Speaker 10: some of them teams were just able to reach that
• 56:15
  Speaker 10: level because they was able to connect to as people.
• 56:18
  Speaker 10: That's why Phil Jackson had them handing out books to
• 56:22
  Speaker 10: them and doing like having them sit down and put
• 56:25
  Speaker 10: the thing in the fire and all like those are
• 56:28
  Speaker 10: the things that you can't let Those are priceless things
• 56:30
  Speaker 10: about connection that come out in any project that you
• 56:34
  Speaker 10: were doing together.
• 56:36
  Speaker 9: So, like, let's talk about Chicago because music, I think
• 56:40
  Speaker 9: music hip hop has served as like a tour guide
• 56:44
  Speaker 9: of a city when you like, before I got to LA,
• 56:48
  Speaker 9: I had an idea of what LA was like from
• 56:50
  Speaker 9: listening to Snooping Dog Found, and then when I got there,
• 56:56
  Speaker 9: a lot of the stuff that I thought was going
• 56:58
  Speaker 9: to be La wasn't La, and it was kind of
• 56:59
  Speaker 9: a different perspective. But it's the same thing with Louisiana.
• 57:03
  Speaker 9: Cash money, like you saw. I saw the visuals of
• 57:06
  Speaker 9: New Orleans and the hot video, and that's what I
• 57:11
  Speaker 9: thought New Orleans was, right, So it's like Chicago. I
• 57:15
  Speaker 9: always loved going to Chicago because I feel like that
• 57:17
  Speaker 9: downtown is like one of the most beautiful downtowns, right
• 57:19
  Speaker 9: on the water. It's the vibe, the food, everybody's like,
• 57:24
  Speaker 9: it's just good energy. But of course there's issues, but
• 57:27
  Speaker 9: I feel like a lot of it. When once drill
• 57:32
  Speaker 9: became very popular, the image of Chicago changed, right, And
• 57:41
  Speaker 9: so what's your thought process as far as how Chicago's viewed,
• 57:44
  Speaker 9: Because most of the time when you say Chicago, people
• 57:46
  Speaker 9: were like, it's dangerous, stay away while you going there.
• 57:50
  Speaker 9: It's just a very negative connotation from at least black
• 57:52
  Speaker 9: people when they think about Chicago. And then drill music
• 57:56
  Speaker 9: has definitely played a part in that for sure, and
• 58:00
  Speaker 9: so like and drill has went over the world, London,
• 58:03
  Speaker 9: New York, everybody's doing drill now. So what's your thoughts
• 58:07
  Speaker 9: on Chicago's reputation as far as violence linked with drill music.
• 58:13
  Speaker 10: Well, I think drill music wouldn't have been able to
• 58:17
  Speaker 10: come about if Chicago didn't have that type of angst
• 58:21
  Speaker 10: and type of like if parts of Chicago didn't have
• 58:25
  Speaker 10: the violence that we have. That was the expression of
• 58:30
  Speaker 10: with Dirk with Reese or Chief keef Man. They was
• 58:37
  Speaker 10: them dudes is from a really tough neighborhood in one
• 58:41
  Speaker 10: of the toughest neighborhoods in the world, and they were
• 58:44
  Speaker 10: talking what they've been exposed to and what they know.
• 58:49
  Speaker 4: And it's really powerful.
• 58:52
  Speaker 10: How like we as black people, and I say black
• 58:57
  Speaker 10: and brown people really, but how we all right take
• 59:02
  Speaker 10: some of the heaviest things, the most difficult situations and
• 59:07
  Speaker 10: make something golden out of it. Because Drill is a
• 59:10
  Speaker 10: they created a sound and it's like influenced the world
• 59:14
  Speaker 10: and it's dope. But as you said that, it's other
• 59:21
  Speaker 10: sides to Chicago that I feel like.
• 59:25
  Speaker 4: People don't know.
• 59:26
  Speaker 10: And I mean, if you think about it, sometimes people
• 59:29
  Speaker 10: got a tendency to come from the glass half empty
• 59:34
  Speaker 10: mentality anyway, like, oh you hear that story. So it's
• 59:38
  Speaker 10: just like you generalize that's what it is, that's all
• 59:41
  Speaker 10: it is. And I can understand why you would think, like, man,
• 59:44
  Speaker 10: if that's what it is, I ain't going to visit
• 59:46
  Speaker 10: that place. But once you touch down or just even
• 59:49
  Speaker 10: open your mind.
• 59:50
  Speaker 4: Because there's other artists that expressed what Chicago.
• 59:53
  Speaker 10: Is too from early on Loop Chance Chance No Name,
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 10: like they talk about it, but like just did different
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 10: artists they talk about a chance to show the whole
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 10: nother side of Chicago.
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 4: That what you say, yeah, yeah, but why do you why.
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 9: Is Chicago Because there's a lot of cities that poverty
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 9: is is pretty much in every city unfortunately, Right, what
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 9: makes Chicago so different as far as the the violence,
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 9: Like why is the violence so heavy in Chicago as
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 9: opposed to New York or like you know what I mean,
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 9: Like it just seems like Chicago is just really intense
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 9: in that in that violent aspect.
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 4: Well, I think.
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 10: Like gang culture and I know gangs is just everywhere,
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 10: but for us, like gang culture was part of our
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 10: parents growing up, Like the gangs was existing in the
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 10: in the sixties, right, so that warrior spirit has been
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 10: like in our DNA. And I'm not saying that it's
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 10: gangsters everywhere, but that being said, it was organized for
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 10: a while and then it's you know, certain people got
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 10: incarcerated and and and it was not a lot of
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 10: leaders there to like guide those who were dealing with
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 10: the gang.
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 6: Culture, and they displaced people when they.
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 10: To throw the buildings down, displaced people. But it essentially
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 10: you know that warrior gang thing is is ingrained in us,
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 10: and that's part of like one of the elements that
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 10: I would say it's different from most because where you
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 10: got where it's poverty, where it's lack of jobs, where's
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 10: lack of like education and kind of overall lack of hope,
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 10: you gonna get that. Like you can go to Brooklyn,
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 10: you can go in certain places in Harlem or Atlanta
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 10: or like where you can go to these neighborhoods in Oakland.
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 4: And you feel that what you feel in Chicago.
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 10: But I think it's intensified just by the gang culture
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 10: that's been there for a long time. And man, I
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 10: always be thinking, like one of my whole life missions
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 10: has been to be a part of the peace in Chicago,
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 10: like to really figure out, like man, because I don't
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 10: have all the answers, but I do know creating jobs, education,
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 10: like education from a level not just only in school,
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 10: but providing people with ways to get to their dreams
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 10: and stuff is important. And just like hope, man, Like
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 10: hope is a broad thing. But it's like I grew
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 10: up like my neighborhood. Ain't ain't far from where dirkdam
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 10: grew up my neighborhood, or where ge Herbo and Bibbie
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 10: grew up. I grew up around some of the same stuff.
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 10: But it was the hope that my mother instilled that
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 10: I saw for myself that made me say, Okay, I
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 10: don't want to go too.
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 4: Far over there.
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 10: I might be around this, I might be, you know,
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 10: banging with these guys over here for a second, but man,
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 10: I ain't really trying to shoot nobody. That ain't that's
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 10: too much for me, like, and that ain't what I'm on.
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 10: So my point is, and that was because I felt
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 10: like I was I had some value and I think,
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 10: you know, I like to think about the solutions to
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 10: help our city and in cities across the country.
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 4: To be honest, that's crazy.
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 5: As you're saying that, I'm listening to the line that
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 5: you said used the game right in the shop.
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 4: We're even rooting for a garbage tine.
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 5: But so like the picture that you've painted, I mean,
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 5: it's been pretty consistent, Like you've you've painted a narrative
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 5: that's different from the one that's being portrayed. Whether it
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 5: was on your world or whether it was on the.
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 4: South side of the Shah.
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 5: It's a different perspective, but it's a mature perspective as
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 5: you're growing. You talked about the music, we talked about
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 5: the acting. Obviously you're an author as well. Who starts
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 5: or are you doing this on your own to say
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 5: I need to diversify artistically through music and through the acting,
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 5: But now the author is something different. Are the other
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 5: things that you're getting more adept to or being made
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 5: aware of inside of the world As you're your finances
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 5: are starting to increase, you're making more money, Like is
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 5: there somebody gotten you through this or are you just
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 5: walking in the rooms and you seeing new opportunities.
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 10: Now it's like one thing I learned if I was
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 10: gonna make it in this business and and and pardon me,
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 10: I should have said this earlier. Another thing that definitely
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 10: helped me to continue in this business is constructing a
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 10: great team.
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 4: And that for me, I was like, oh man, okay.
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 10: My manager at the time was one of my best friends,
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 10: still great, Like Derek Dudley, he was He's a smart
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 10: dude and he just knows business and knows how to
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 10: handle cares about this, But when it came for us
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 10: to really get into the acting world, I had to
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 10: get an agent that is in that world, living in
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 10: that world.
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 10: So then when it came to doing voiceovers, I had
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 10: to get a voiceover agent who was in that world.
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 10: When it came to doing investments, you got to go
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 10: get the person that is going to do that. Oh
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 10: when it comes to marketing and development, well, if you
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 10: don't go hire a firm, do you have somebody that
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 10: will focused on those things, even if it's from a
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 10: consulting perspective. And it was me understanding that first of all,
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 10: I don't know everything. I might have some ideas, but
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 10: it's other people with great ideas around me, and along
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 10: with ideas, who are the people that can execut those ideas?
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 10: And it was about building that team structure. And it
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 10: continues to grow too, like because new things come up,
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 10: Like I got into producing films and producing plays, and
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 10: I had to get a structure for that because if
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 10: you don't have somebody working over there, and that branch
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 10: of work is not going to get maximized.
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 4: You know, it's not going to reach the levels that
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 4: you want.
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 10: Even from philanthropic like my social activist. I have a
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 10: team that works like so it's not just like Okay,
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 10: I'm just gonna do everything that comes through or Okay,
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 10: we got these things going and that's it. That focus
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 10: has to be there every day like any other business.
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 10: But this is a business is not for monetaries, for
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 10: the people, so it got to be there and that
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 10: got to be somebody heading that. So that is what
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 10: to me has allowed me to continue in the business
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 10: too and figure other ways. But also it's not coming
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 10: off from me, you know.
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 9: From a hip hop hip hop question, we talked about
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 9: like you being categorized as a conscious rapper, but you
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 9: also obviously have Looking at your battle with Ice you,
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 9: I'm wondering what's your perspective on seeing what now would
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 9: be considered a conscious rapper and Kendrick Lamar have a
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 9: battle with the most popular rapper and win and now
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 9: he's actually ascended to like the number one position. It's
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 9: an interesting dynamic right where his music is in the
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 9: vein of positivity, revolutionary, but he's still dangerous, dangerous, right,
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 9: So like do you got do you have like some
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 9: like pride in seeing.
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 6: That put the flag down? Shout out to Drake No
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 6: disrespect to Drake, but I'm just saying.
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 10: Yeah, well listen, let me okay, let me answer those things. So,
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 10: first of all, Kendrick is a masterful artist, like one
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 10: of the greats. Before the Battle, he like he won
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 10: a polar surprise for raps. You know what I'm saying.
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 10: That's how great of a writer he is. And each
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 10: one of his albums have been different, unique, dope like
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 10: you know, and that's what it is to do. One
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 10: of the greatest in any generation. Drake is one of
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 10: the most talented songwriter artists to do them to do music,
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 10: man like, one of the most successful to be able
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 10: to make songs like at that level and be making
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 10: hits over and over. That says something because even pop
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 10: artists that they had some big hits, they don't last decades.
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 10: So Drake is a super talented dude. The Battle, I
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 10: gotta say, I was like, man, Initially, I was like, Wow,
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 10: this is real. These dudes was going at it because
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 10: Drake was delivering. And then Kendrick came and then Kendrick
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 10: kept giving them flows and he just like did what
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 10: he had to do, and just man, he came out
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 10: the victor. He was a victor, like this point blame
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 10: he won and it's is it like if you're asking
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 10: it's a victory for me, I think it's just a
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 10: victory for hip hop that that battle went down the
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 10: way it did and had people paying attention to lyrics
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 10: and hip hop, like different generations was paying attention to that.
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 10: Like I had some of my youngins hitting me up like, yo,
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 10: you hit a new one. And then people my age
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 10: hit me up like, yo, you hit what you know?
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 10: You hear what Drake just dropped? You know what Kendrick said.
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 10: I think it does. I love that Kendrick is within
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 10: a battle, is able to give you like lessons and spiritual.
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 4: Damn, not just but the truth. That truth is.
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 10: It's like this dude dropping like knowledge and still battling.
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 10: It's like ridiculous. But that being said, it's funny you said,
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 10: like some he's a revolutionary and still dangerous, because when
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 10: we think about it, our revolutionaries were dangerous, like like
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 10: Fred Hampton Chicago, he was dangerous, like but dangerous for
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 10: the right thing. Shoot, Malcolm Max dangerous aside, I should
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 10: call dangerous in a wait that they are dangerous for
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 10: their people. And at the end of the day. Kendrick
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 10: is dangerous for his people, so I got nothing, but you.
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 4: Gotta protect them. Love for protect our people.
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 5: How much did it make people go back and revisit
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 5: old battles, because right once they say that battle, it's like, oh,
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 5: that's the greatest battle of all time, and we're living
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 5: in that moment and people are like, well, nah, there
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 5: was this either thing that happened. It was like, nah,
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 5: there was like I see the bitch of you. So
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 5: now it goes back, people get to revisit it. How
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 5: much of it was brought back like a little bit
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 5: of nostalgia for you. Yeah, we were in that moment.
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 5: We've grown past it, but like I remember that fire
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 5: that I.
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 10: I mean, it was more like people was bringing up
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 10: the battle I have with Cube and the battle I
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 10: had with Drake.
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that's the fact they brought that up. They would
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 4: bring that up.
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 10: But I was like, listen, first of all, we both
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 10: those battles got squashed this now, so I appreciate that
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 10: y'all loved it. We had the battle. I was worn
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 10: at that time, but you know, I'm just watching the
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 10: battle now, so don't drag me in. And somebody was like, yo,
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 10: I was like, no, don't drag me in. I'm good man,
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 10: let me let me watch this and just enjoy because
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 10: they both going in and I think it was I
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 10: would have to say, man, it probably was the greatest
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 10: battle we've seen. But and even if you feel something
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 10: else was back in the time, it's still one of
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 10: the greatest, Like you know, it's it's like it because
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 10: that back and forth we you didn't have that much
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 10: back and fourth flight right direct and have all the
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 10: artwork to go with it, and it was levels today
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 10: back we thought out.
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 9: Videos shots they were doing ten minutes later he dropped.
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 4: The joints stepping on each other's tracks.
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 6: That was definitely crazy.
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 4: And now we got the Super Bowl.
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 9: I mean, will anticipate on some hip hop like not
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 9: who's the best artist, but like who do you think
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 9: of the most Like who's some of the most dangerous rappers?
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 9: That because I heard Nas when he was saying like
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 9: he used to fear Big L, so like Big L
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 9: never really reached the level of success that people. You know,
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 9: he's not on nobody's like top five, but like as
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 9: far as the rappers, rapper.
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 6: He's highly respected.
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 9: So like, who's some of the people on your list
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 9: that like you just like you know that these dudes
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 9: is just different with the.
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 10: Pin Andre three thousand, Nas Kendrick of my old the
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 10: older guys I grew up with, like Big Daddy Cane
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 10: and carrous One rock him. Let me see who else
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 10: those I mean, those are some of the ones. Sahai,
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 10: the Prince, the Press, he he gets he one of
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 10: them guys. When you hear him dropping bars, You're like, Wow,
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 10: this dude can say some stuff. But as far as
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 10: the ones I just said, Kendrick and Andre three thousand
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 10: and two are like ones. When I hear I'll be like,
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 10: oh nas Nas for me is like that shot.
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 5: Who's we always do a Mount Rushmore of a city
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 5: shot towns Mount Rushmore.
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 10: Okay, if I'm gonna take myself now, you gotta be myself.
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 10: I'm putting you on it now. This is the other
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 10: slock put it in. Okay, so it's four people, it's
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 10: me Kanye. I'm gonna put Twister and probably Dirt Dirt.
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 9: I was gonna say, Dirk, Damn, they're gonna be like
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 9: what Sosa shout out.
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 6: To Sosa, Dirk's I think it has been more consistent,
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 6: has been.
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 5: Like revolutionized that at sixteen, like Sosa that sound comes
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 5: in after him.
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 6: He did, but then Dirk took that. He ran it.
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 6: He ran it. Yeah, he's carried it for almost ten
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 6: years now.
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 4: He been consistently. Now he's the guy we're not going to.
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 4: We're not going to. That's good, that's a good yeah.
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 4: I mean I know chances like we're about we about
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 4: to get a text message after this too.
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 5: But anyway, I gave my food and Liquor is another classic.
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 6: So what can people expect from this project with you
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 6: and Pete Rock? Is it? Is it nostalgic to the nineties?
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 6: Is it new?
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 9: Like what's the what can they expect to hear when
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 9: they when they when.
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 4: They get this.
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 10: I think I think it has both those things you
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 10: just mentioned, because it has the spirit of what we
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 10: love in the nineties, like just the spirit of the music.
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 10: But the sound is new, Like don't sound like okay,
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 10: all these drums is oh, like Pete could have made
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 10: the beats back in ninety In the nineties, it's got
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 10: the textures in the in the sound and equality and
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 10: approach that is present day. It don't sound like something
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 10: he's done or anything like I've done, and I'm rapping
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 10: about what a grown man would rap about right.
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 6: Now, Well that's thank you to thank you.
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 9: That's a good thing because that's one thing I liked
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 9: about NAS's journey is that he's like, life is Good
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 9: is one of my favorite albums. Like he's talking about
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 9: his divorce. It's things that you It's like saying jay
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 9: Z for for four. What I don't like is when
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 9: some of our hip hop artists they're still rapping about you.
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 6: Know what I'm saying.
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 9: It's like it's like it's like, yo, your grandfather's being
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 9: wealthy and longer than you've been. Just like that's what
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 9: I don't That's what I don't like to see is
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 9: like age appropriate rap.
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 5: I think is man, if we listen to you when
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 5: we were teenagers and now we're grown, you're grown too.
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 9: Because you got to you gotta you're grown too because
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 9: you have an audience that is listening for that reason.
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 9: Like if you forty or you fifty, you don't want
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 9: to listen to what a twenty year old is.
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 6: Like there's the twenty year olds make me for twenty.
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 10: Year old exactly exactly, and if some of those songs
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 10: end up like hitting it for twenty year old's song
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 10: end up hitting other age groups. That's great or you know,
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 10: but I don't. I don't believe. I don't believe. And
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 10: even when I made I used to love her. I
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 10: was talking about like just man, being authentic to who
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 10: you are and where you are, not chasing what everybody
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 10: else is doing. I think when you see older artists
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 10: trying to sound young or just getting all the young
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 10: artists so they could be cool, it just don't feel
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 10: it's good. You feel out so and I love that
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 10: it that man, we can't talk about like you said
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 10: nas on life is good, we talk about divorce or
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 10: you know, shoot, I mean you've heard artists talk about
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 10: therapy or like these are things that man, as we grow,
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 10: we talk about these things, and I think one thing
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 10: we forget.
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 4: You said it a little bit Jo.
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 10: It's like, man, we growing up, like the audience growing up,
• 1:17:23
  Speaker 10: so we don't want to hear you talk about something
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 10: we used to do when we was twenty year years old.
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 4: Either. We rather hear you talk about something grown and
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 4: just say it in the fresh way.
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 5: My kids are graduating from high school, like, y know,
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 5: these things are happening Bro, he's happening.
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 4: Bro, I'm buying a house right now. Man.
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 10: Man and people that's dope, Like Andre three thousand, like
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 10: he be making stuff sound good.
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 4: It could be. I remember he did a rap about
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 4: being in the line and whole Food that was fire am.
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 4: It's like brunch on Sundays.
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 5: We actually go to brunch on Sundays, Thanks NASA exactly.
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 4: That's it.
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 10: So I love that approach and that's what this album.
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 10: This album is. When I when I I had quest
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 10: love from the from the Root sequence, the album the
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 10: Pete Rock and Our album, and when he heard it,
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 10: he was like At first, he was like, man, it's
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 10: one of your best albums.
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 4: Man, it's in your time.
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 10: I was like really, and he's like yeah, and he said,
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 10: this is what the album should be from somebody that's
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 10: adult in hip hop.
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 4: This is what it's just say, adult contemporary.
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 10: Yeah, yeah, tradition. Somebody's asking me how I should it be?
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 10: Category rise, Like, what do you think is a good category?
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 10: I'm like, hip hop? This adult contemporary hip hop, traditional
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 10: hip hop.
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 5: But yeah, when you was twenty, you rapped like you
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 5: was twenty.
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 4: Yeah your fifth rap like that? Bro? Yeah, shout out
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 4: to you. Thank you.
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 6: Yeah, well I appreciate it.
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 4: I appreciate you, my guy, thank you.
• 1:18:49
  Speaker 5: I'm glad I got to tell you in person how
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 5: much I love being That meant a lot.
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 4: Twenty years next year, Yeah, can we get one show
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 4: just the album?
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I was going to ask you are you going?
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 6: Are you going on tour?
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 4: Yeah, definitely, gonna have to do a be like twenty year.
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 5: I'm just telling you that I might be at multiple
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 5: shows and if you need me to do a few verses,
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 5: you ready, you know, like verbatim?
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 4: You ready? Okay straight?
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 6: Are you gonna hit the road for the new album?
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 4: Oh?
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 10: Yeah, We we're on tour right now. Actually be the
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 10: auditory in Volume one tour we're doing we now we
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 10: ending it off in New York. Got some shows at
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 10: the Blue Note that sold out, but now we're doing
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 10: Webster Hall. It's just dope. So man, I'm excited that
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 10: the tour has been amazing. I can't wait. I can't wait.
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 6: Thank you.
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 9: Like Troy said, man, somebody that we listened to for
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 9: a long time and never compromised the art.
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 6: That's that's important.
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 9: So I think that that's that's something that you know
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 9: the legacy is gonna live forever and definitely classic timeless music.
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 9: So thanks for all of the inspiration.
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 4: Thanks y'all. Thanks, it's been great to be here. It's
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 4: beautiful man.
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 9: Thank you all right, guys, thank you for Rocke next week,
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 9: who is an.
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 1: Illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child in Massachusetts.
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 1: An MS thirteen gang member from Al Salvador accused of
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 1: murdering a Texas man of Venezuelan charged with filming and
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 1: selling child pornography in Michigan. These are just some of
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 1: the heinous migrant criminals caught because of President Donald J.
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 2: Trump's leadership.
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 1: I'm Christy nom the United States Secretary of Homeland Security.
• 1:20:27
  Speaker 1: Under President Trump, attempted illegal border crossings are at the
• 1:20:30
  Speaker 1: lowest levels ever recorded, and over one hundred thousand illegal aliens.
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 2: Have been arrested.
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 1: If you are here illegally, your next you will be
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 1: fined nearly one thousand dollars a day, imprisoned, and deported.
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 2: You will never return.
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 1: But if you register using our CBP home app and
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 1: leave now, you could be allowed to return legally.
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 2: Do what's right. Leave now.
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 1: Under President Trump America's laws, border and families will
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 3: Be Protected, sponsored the United States Department of Homeland Security,