Latest / The Breakfast Club / INTERVIEW: AZ Talks New Album, Growth, His 'Underrated' Legacy, NAS + More

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INTERVIEW: AZ Talks New Album, Growth, His 'Underrated' Legacy, NAS + More · The Breakfast Club

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Every day, pick up the Breakfast Club.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: You know I'm finished for y'all.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Done morning everybody. It's d J n V Jess hilarious,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: scholamin the guy we are the Breakfast Club. La La
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Rose is here as well. You got a special guest
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: in the building, the legend ladies and gentlemen.
• 0:19
  Speaker 3: Azy Welcome y'all, Thank y'all. How you feel again? Feeling great?
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: It's a good day for me.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Album out today, doing Died three third third thirty years
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: thirty after the first one.
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: That's crazy, I'm still here.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: How did you know now was the time to put
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: out Door Died three?
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: I didn't know now it was the time, but I
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: knew that when October was coming it was thirty years
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: and I felt like it was just time to do
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: it again because Door Died two came out, I guess
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: twenty two, and uh, I was working. I was working
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: on the album prior, right, and then I said, you
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: know what it's time. I was just gonna do lyrics
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: and do beat the same lyrics and beats over and
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: decided to through the whole. I did like three songs.
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: I'm is very fresh man, very I don't talk too
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: much alb is very finish, is very fresh, It's pristine,
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: Like I'm listening to it and it feels like it's
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: it's it's gleaming.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: Always been like that though. When we're rapping on very
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: stylist it feels sharp. Do you feel like, like Charlamage said,
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: do you feel like it's a resurgence of I don't
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: want to say old school artists, but artists that came
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: out in our era and the fact that they're coming
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: out and they're doing extremely well.
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: Oh I did you know?
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: I stay in my zone. I figured that the vibes
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: and changed the hip hop. So I'm like, is they
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: gonna embrace it or not?
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: Right?
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: That's how I feel. But it's a good thing that
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: hip hop is hip hop. And we got our call base,
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: our call fan base.
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: When you say they, who is they?
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: But just the fans, you know what I mean? The
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: fans from my ever well myever rather well however, you
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: know what I mean. That that's who we are feeling too.
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: But we got kids now that's grown, you know what
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: I mean. So it's like, are they gonna like this
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: type of hip hop? Because it's you know, the vibe changed.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: Everything, ain't everybody? I was born in nineteen hundred and
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: seventy eight. So for me, I need a dull contemporary
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: hip hop. First song on the album, it's called No
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: Need for Lactose. That's my life.
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: I can't telling my wife.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: That last night. It makes me break out and gives
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: me the run. I can't. I haven't done it in years.
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: That's well, same here.
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: But that's what I want to hear.
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: I want to hear that at my age, that's what
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: I can ride to. Yeah, well what about our kids?
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: Are they gonna appreciate this? Well, we're gonna make them.
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: That's that's the key. I'm gonna keep doing what I
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: do and those for my ever and they're gonna understand it.
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: History lesson.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: But do you listen to your kids when when you
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: you know your kids with you? Are they picking beats
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: with you?
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: Dad? I like this?
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: I don't like that, Dad, don't wear them them like?
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: Are you listening to them all? You just like nine?
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah? Listen?
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you're right. I was about to ask you were
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: you nervous with all that being that?
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: Were you nervous to put it out because you didn't
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: know how it would be received by younger generations like
• 3:04
  Speaker 4: the kids.
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: I was a little but then it's like, it is
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: what it is. It's like they'll catch you on later
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: in my mind, right, I'm gonna do what I have
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: to do. So yeah, it was just Tom and it
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: is what it is. Did you feel I'm not looking
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: for numbers, so I'm cool? Right?
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: Did you feel pressure to change the sound? I mean,
• 3:20
  Speaker 4: I know you didn't change the sound, but were you
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: leaning that way trying to.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: Change a little bit?
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: I try to just I stay in my lane, in
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: my zone. So nah, no pressure.
• 3:30
  Speaker 5: Or what ages considered the kids because we're thirty four,
• 3:32
  Speaker 5: Like are we trying to get I'm asy, I'm talking.
• 3:41
  Speaker 5: I mean, okay, so we got you. When you're thinking
• 3:44
  Speaker 5: about the kids, like what age are you thinking about?
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: We're thinking from like fifteen to like probably twenty five, right, Okay, yeah, yeah,
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: kids for sure being a whole different zone.
• 3:55
  Speaker 5: They are. But I do feel like there is a
• 3:56
  Speaker 5: shift in like people wanting like substance and like real
• 4:00
  Speaker 5: good like stuff. And I think that this album, like
• 4:03
  Speaker 5: because you're reflecting a lot across this album, right, and
• 4:06
  Speaker 5: they're learning the stories and things in real time. It
• 4:08
  Speaker 5: makes them go back and next questions, Right, to see
• 4:10
  Speaker 5: someone like you come on and you sound so amazing.
• 4:13
  Speaker 5: Everything sounds so fresh. It's like they gonna want to
• 4:15
  Speaker 5: sustain no way that you have. Like I think that
• 4:17
  Speaker 5: that's kind of what the conversation turns into.
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: Well, I hope that's that happens. That's the goal, right,
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: the history lesson, that's the goal.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, how was these version of Door Die evolved from
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: previous versions?
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: I mean definitely just thirty years later. So for me,
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: it was just being able to show and prove my growth, right,
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: So that was that was my task within it. So
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: ninety five was the was the early azy Door Die
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: and this Door Died three is grown man easy.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: But I feel like you could you could have the
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: me show me talk about the other day the al
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: Bundy eerr right, like meaning the back in the day highlights, right,
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: Like you can do it for amount now, right, you
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: can do it an album with now is now and
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: I think it'll be received very well. You still think
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: about those.
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: Things, Yeah, that's definitely a thought to be a thought, right. Yeah,
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: I'm in the middle of the road with that, so
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: I mean it's time going, we'll see because we just
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: need more people from however to push the envelope, and
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: I think that's happening.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: Because it's working. The albums are sounding great, they're selling,
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: artists are back on tour more than ever. It seemed
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: like artists getting more money from ever morning than ever.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: So it feels like this is the time where I
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: think people will respect it like they did back then
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: because we missed that music.
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: That's a fact.
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: That's a fact.
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: That's that's the goal right there. We're gonna see you
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: want to do it though? What the firm abum course? Yeah, yeah,
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: because like it's all right, right and at the end
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: of the day, it's gonna less to test the time,
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: you know, it's like all the facts. So yeah, I
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: would love to do it now and hopefully that happened.
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: That sound good to firm. We're waiting for Fox return
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: to come back to.
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: You. I would rather see you and NADS do something,
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: So saying that's going album before a firm.
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: Out, that would be nice because we started first, right, Yeah,
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: all that, let's do it all. If it happened, I'm
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: here though, you know what I mean, not that it's
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: it's a focus, but if it happened, yeah, I'm always
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: open for that.
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: Is it Yeah, I don't know that I thought.
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: I mean, we have conversa, but so much, you know
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: that man doing so much. So I mean the thought
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: has always there been there since the inception. So have
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: you done records recently?
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: And yes, got you got a product joint on the
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: new album?
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: Besides that, nothing, Nah, I don't if it happened, it happens.
• 6:45
  Speaker 5: Have you heard that how many songs that you have
• 6:48
  Speaker 5: to choose from between with you and Ias on it
• 6:50
  Speaker 5: before you chose? Surprise, like a plethora of songs that
• 6:53
  Speaker 5: you had to choose from the Charve recording?
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: Nah Me and him really just getting the studio, we'll
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: we'll narrow in on a beat and that's it.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: That's it.
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: One shot deal with me and him. It's automatic.
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: I like how you big him up? You big up
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: his business dealers on the new project and you know
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: you highlight that y'all both came from the bottom. Is
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: it a surprise to see him in the position that
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: he's in there?
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah, because I remember just having a conversation like we
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: just wanted to put one album out. Then from there
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: it's like, yo, I want to go platinum now at
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: least I'm going plat the one time is over. Then
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: after that, like we got you know about his mansion
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: is over and just kept going. And to see him
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: there's just inspiration. It's motivation for me. It's like we
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: talk about it, then do we see it and keep going?
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: And he just kept going. I didn't sit down, but
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: I gotta take a brief and he just kept going
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: and going. So yeah, it's a great thing.
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: You'll never be like yo, man put me on some
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: of them investments.
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we're here now, it's time. Time is now.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: What would you say your biggest mistake, if you had one,
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: would be in the industry as far as being.
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: An artist, well, being an artist, I guess, uh my
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: first album when he and my folded, I was gonna
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: go to death jam and I declined and it was
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: popping at that time. You know, I think everybody was
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: a DMX everybody and I was told, Yo, they're gonna
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: fold go over there, and then you know, I was
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: hopping around, hopping around. So yeah, one of my regress.
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: Do you think things would have been different if you signed?
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, they had they had hip hop in the choke hold.
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: The fact, yeah, ID.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: When people call you underrated, is that a compliment or
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: are they frustrating? Uh?
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: I think it's both. I think it's both because I
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: know what I do. But it's the business, you know
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: what I'm saying. The business is the business, and if
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: you're not in the right situation, you can't sprout like
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: it's supposed to. So I take it for now forever
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: I'm here, it's my title. Everybody got a title? Yeah,
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: I'm underrated, all right?
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: Do you think that came from the label situation and
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: you're not have in the right pushes.
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: Right by bouncing around? Yeah? I think I was on
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: like six rights different checks though, but yeah, yeah, I
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: take that too, right, So it's different mindsets. But yeah,
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: I've never been dropped, that's good, never been shelved, that's good.
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: H That's an interesting perspective because you're one of those
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: rappers that everybody's favorite rapper respects. But you said you
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: feel like being underrated became part of your legacy. That's
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: a fact.
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: I mean just thirty years later and I'm still underrated,
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: So it's part of the legacy. But I take it.
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: Everybody got a title?
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 9:33
  Speaker 4: On the intro album, you speak about getting over hurdles
• 9:36
  Speaker 4: that most people fell victim to what whordles, hurdles, fear,
• 9:42
  Speaker 4: just life, just.
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: Life in general. That you have friends that take the
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: wrong path in life and I'm still here. So that's
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: the hurdle.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: And I always wonder with as you being so cool
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: with with so many artists, right, like he is the
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: cool guy, right you see him everywhere, he gonna be,
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: he gonna speak to you, he's gonna Are there any
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: verses that were ever recorded with any artists that just
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: never came out? You never released it because you're so cool.
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: I see you in the studio with people.
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: I see you.
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: Why when I release it if I had had.
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: It, I'm asking you.
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: Sometimes you hear first like no I didn't get a
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: clear or that person passed away or whatever may be
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: or anything like that.
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: Nah, I really don't deal with too many in the
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: industry though I know everybody. Uh, those I deal with,
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: I dealt with and we did the song.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: And why is that?
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: Why?
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: Why why don't we hear as even more artists?
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: That's just I don't know. I mean, look at me,
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: I'm introvert, you know what I mean. I'm trying to
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: come out now in the mix.
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: But been my life and how do you and you
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: and not have a conversation because nas is an introvert.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: To like, it seems like.
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: That's my circumstances. Weird.
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you really like your character and belly like I'm
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: watching like any more, I'm about to slide.
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: Too much work And that's it. It's always been like
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: that though.
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 11:01
  Speaker 5: In the intro that I just mentioned you, you have
• 11:03
  Speaker 5: a line where you say, when your purpose is prophesized,
• 11:05
  Speaker 5: your worth gets to monopolize. And I know you're talking
• 11:08
  Speaker 5: to your younger self. Do you feel like you didn't
• 11:09
  Speaker 5: monopolize the best at that time even though you were
• 11:12
  Speaker 5: getting some success and it changed your life.
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: It did, but it could have been more. You got
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: You got good people and bad people in all industry.
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: In this industry, those I was dealing with it, I
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: guess they was feeling trying to figure out their position.
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: We all got positioned. So me being an artist and
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: had those around me delegating, I guess it wasn't delegating,
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: right my perception, you know what I mean, That's that's
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: my perception.
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: You know. To me, man, your music often like it
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: sounds very spiritually aware, like underneath for all the screen talk,
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: A lot of five percent lessons.
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: Right right?
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: How much did you how much did your worldview evolve
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: as you got older?
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: That's that's I think that's a natural course, right to progress,
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: you gotta evolve. I think everybody have to evolve, and
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: then when you don't, that's a demise right there. But
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: I mean, me still being here thirty years I think
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: I evolved, well, you know, from from that, from just
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: you know, the upbringing, from your parents and just just
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: the streets of self. You learn a lot.
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: Do you feel it in your pin Oh?
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a fact.
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: That's a fact.
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: That's definitely a fact.
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: Now, just I love hip hop, so world players everything.
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: That's that's a great segue. Do you think rappers from
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: the nineties had to be better writers because they couldn't
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: rely on on viral moments or the social media.
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: I think it was just the love of the hip
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: hop then. It wasn't even about I don't think everybody
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: was going for the platinum. We wasn't even thinking about
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: that back then. Just being the best at what you do,
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: you know what I mean. So I think that's where
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: the pin game came from, just being at the top
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: of your game.
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: But you and not guys like y'all. Y'all right, like filmmakers,
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying, y'all right, like y'all writing
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: scripts like I could take I could take so many
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: of y'all records and probably create TV shows and movies.
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: That's crazy. Yeah, that's a good I guess.
• 12:56
  Speaker 5: The whole happy skit and then going into steal Jackie
• 12:59
  Speaker 5: and made me feel like I was watching the nineties
• 13:00
  Speaker 5: early two thousands movies with the way it came on.
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: Right, Jackie old happy. Yeah, we all know a lot
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: of whole abbaye jackeys. That was just that was that's
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: the hood thing. You know. You got to stick up
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: kids in the ood. You got the drug dealers, and
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: then you had the whole happy jackiees. A lot of
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: people don't talk about the well they do the gold Diggers.
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: It's different format. So Mon's it's like gold digger. Yeah.
• 13:20
  Speaker 5: Will you be seeing girls have conversations today like that?
• 13:23
  Speaker 5: Don't take me to Applebee's or like whatever. Right, but
• 13:25
  Speaker 5: that has always been a thing. Why do you feel
• 13:28
  Speaker 5: like because I feel like back then it was like
• 13:29
  Speaker 5: you knew that there were there was Jackies in every neighborhood,
• 13:32
  Speaker 5: and it was like, that's just what they do. But
• 13:34
  Speaker 5: now they dragged the girls like a Kresha when she
• 13:36
  Speaker 5: says that, Like, why do you think it's less accepted
• 13:38
  Speaker 5: now than it was in your day?
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: No? I think I think it's the same operations, just
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: that we see it more and now everybody got a voice,
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: you know what I mean. But that's the game. That
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: was the nature of the game. I mean it still is.
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: But you got people that talk about it because they
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: wasn't they're not equipped or it wasn't equipped to play
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: that game. Game game.
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: But God, do liked the whole Happy Jack.
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: I love him, they love them, and you got it
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: to give. It's a give and take.
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: Do you think being compared to NAS early on helped
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: your career? I did it box you in a little bit.
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: I never even studied that we was comparing in what
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: manner like.
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: Just as far as artists lyricists.
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: You know, to me, my career from where where it
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: took a shift was just through the labels, right through
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: the conflicts of the labels. I didn't think that was
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: an issue me being compared. I kind of heard it,
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: but never really heard it. That wasn't loud noise, but
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: in my perception. I mean, he's nice, he's one of
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: the nicest or comparing me to him, that's a great
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: thing in my mind now that I think about it,
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: or the comparisons. But we did start out at the
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: same time.
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: So yeah, I've heard people say to me that it
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: will be like, you know, the industry didn't really know
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: what to do with easy, and I'm like, but that
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: don't make much sense because if there was other compared
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: since sophisticated street rap nabs would be the comparison, right,
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: like you know what to do with no, So I
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: wouldn't do it, you.
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: Know, Like I said, NAS had Sony forever right when
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: he when he when he signed, when I signed, and
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: I that was that was a year after that I
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: went to Verge and that was not even that was
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: probably a year two. And after that it was Moltown
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: and then it was so I was just jumping.
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: So it was like you went to all labels that
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: weren't considered hip on top of that.
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: Yes, yes, like I said, the check was that I got.
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: I kind of got caught up with that, but it
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: was it was you know, no, it was a money
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: played in. But I'm still here.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: So I'm not mad, but if it would have worked,
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: it would have paid off, right, because you look at
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: all those labels that you said they were trying to
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: get into the rap business, right, so they looked at, okay,
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: easy is my introduction to the rap business. We're gonna
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: give him this money. But they just didn't have the
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: team to make it happen.
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: Right exactly?
• 15:49
  Speaker 5: So were you having it then, like kind of work
• 15:51
  Speaker 5: as an independent artist still even though you were within
• 15:53
  Speaker 5: the labels system.
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: I was trying to figure it out then, knowing that
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: they didn't really at that time know what to do
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: with me. So I kept trying to figure it out
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: and figure it out until I got what that was for.
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: And God with Cotch and and then you really got
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: to work as an independent and then even now with streaming,
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: even you know, going hard as an independent. So I
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: guess all of that helped me to still be here right,
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: still do what I do, having more than ten albums out.
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: I'm not mad.
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: He survived a lot of eras Shiny Suit era ring
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: tone raps. How difficult is it has it been? Adapting
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: without losing yourself?
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: Sometimes you just gotta sit back and just watch it, right,
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: I had to watch the circus for a while. It'd
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: be a little frustrating, but I keep going. I just
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: kept going and kept going and kept going, and and
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: I just fought my lane. Like I could coach like
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: this for another ten twenty if I wanted to. CA's
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: just a coach. I know what's going, I know my
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: audience now, I know how to you know, you know,
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: please them as well. So yeah, I found my lane.
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: It's a beautiful storm type of thing.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: I was gonna ask, you know, last time you were here.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: I've seen it on the paper. One of our producers said,
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: you said something at the end of the interview that
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: we all miss and I guess it was that you
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: said that you were afraid of elevators. You take the
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: steps everywhere you go. Is that true? Is the the
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: truth to that?
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah, well I'm not afraid of elevators because we just
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: did the residency in Vegas. Of course, you're getting elevators
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: out there. I went somewhere else, I think yesterday. Definitely
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: had to get an elevator on the forty fifth floor.
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: But if I could walk, I'm a walk. Every time
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: I get in an elevator, I get stuck and I
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: get stuck. So I always asked people how many times
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: have y'all been stuck in elevator? I don't know how
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: many times.
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: I ain't never been stuck in elevator?
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: Crazy?
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: Is that ship? Never serious? I've never been stuck. I'm stuck.
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: Like to get stuck in elevator. I said that, you know,
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: I think with more no places? Right, got stuck I
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: guess like fourteen for like four hours, so it kind
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: of a little bit damn. Then I got stuck in
• 17:57
  Speaker 3: one of them gated communities for like two hours in
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: one of these buildings, the office building for like forty
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: five fifty five. I'm like, you know what, fuck it,
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: I could walk I'm gonna walk up. It kept me
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: in shape, So everything has the lessons to it, right,
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: because I'm in good shape at the age I am.
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: So now you walked up today, I walked up?
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, what do you think I want?
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: The last time too? I don't know what. I didn't
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: even know we had on the sixth floor, so you
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: know what I mean? But if I got to get us,
• 18:22
  Speaker 3: so it's not a fear. It's just like if I
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: can avoid it, cool, you know.
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: What I mean? You never stop to think, what is
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: God trying to show you in those moments?
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: Nah? What moment is that one of those happened? Something
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: to it?
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: Now I'm in I'm stuck in the elevator again.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: Like with the elevators packed with people. Are you by
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: yourself or because it's at elevator?
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: I get it?
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: No, all of it was just every time was with
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: one person person.
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: Are you scared about cast elevators? Like when you hear
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: the sound, I'm not scared of it.
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: I'm not scared of anything. But if I can, it's
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: I think it's more of an anxiety thing. Yeah, it's
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: my anxiety for that because I could, like I could
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: be around the craziest ship in the world. You know,
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: somebody come here with a gun stick. Everybody else like, man, listen,
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: every fuck up, get out. I don't care. But when
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: I'm like like mister t when you get on them airplanes.
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: Almost sounds unbelievable, Like when you tell me how many
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: times you've been stuck in eleva.
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: So if I can walk, I'm walking.
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: Do you think lyricism has lost cultural value in this era?
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: That's the.
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: I believe so. I believe so. I believe so because
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: right now they call us the microwave error, and the
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: music is faster, and and I think I was just
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: told that a lot of artists do one verse now
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: in the hook and that's the reckoning. I'm like wow,
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: because they already cut it down from three to two
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: verses now, so it's like wow. So yeah, I believe that,
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: But I think that needed. I need to come back
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: because hip hop taught us so much, you know what
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: I mean, it raised I know it raised me, so
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: I know it raised a lot of people. So many
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: different It is just I mean not even just average,
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: just departments, you know, I mean just with women with dressing,
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: with with you had the educated rappers, you know, the gangster.
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: It's just so many different departments. So, uh, lyricism need
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: to always That's that's the foundation.
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: I think it's a lot of lyricists and hip hop. Now.
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: I just think New Yorkers don't have a lot of
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: people to look too that are new to be like,
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: there's new lyricists from New York. So therefore I think
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: it's hard to see everybody else.
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it is a shortage. It's a shortage. It's a shortage.
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: We need some younger, younger casts. To start spinning, like,
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: but it's a lot out there. When I when you
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: when you're on that graand you hear a lot of spinners,
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: a lot, I'll be like, wow, some people that get busy.
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: So I guess, I guess, uh, I don't know. People
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: still signing the labels too, I guess the labels and
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: not looking for that someone I don't know, right, because
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: I'm independent. But independent is the way I guess. I
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: think more artists need to. I mean, with all the
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: platforms we got to promote yourself a lot of a
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: lot of other artists need to be independent, to be honest.
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: This times on master Field its independent. It's quiet money
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: masterpil But you know, I mean that was a good
• 21:09
  Speaker 3: look to join forces, right, and it's it's it's like
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: a business deal fifty fifty. So yeah, it's independent, be
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: independent now independent, I'm independent. Mass Pill was independent.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, whose idea was it to to do the deal with?
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: NOAs with a partner with should say?
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: Well, I mean, of course you see me doing what
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: I was doing, and and then he started what he
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: was doing and uh we was doing the Vegas residency.
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: He sent me a text He's like you see now never.
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: I was like, what that means? And uh, now never.
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: I guess that was one of the coldest cold wards.
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: Now never if you got on the elevation.
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: Like you got me. But now and then from there
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: we just talked and and it made sense because I mean,
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: he's he's in the light, he's doing what he's doing,
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: and and and we all need help. I'm say I've
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: been doing it so much by myself and and and
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: swinging at the back. All help is appreciated absolutely.
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: Do you remember y'all mindset when y'all when when when
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: you did ill madic and of course you did life
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: a bitch. Do you remember where both of y'alls.
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, nobody gave a fuck. Yeah, we didn't give
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: a fuck. It was a lot of weed, a lot
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: of liquor and just not giving a fuck and making
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: one album. Say we did it because that was like
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: equivalent to being a drug dealer back then, right, Like
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: we make an album and put it out with the man, right,
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: just thinking about that, so we didn't care. So now
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: to see our conversation now about just about business and life,
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: it's totally different.
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: Do you after you pin that verse? One of the
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: greatest verses in the hip hop history. Did you know
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: in that moment your life was changing?
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: I don't know. I didn't like it. I didn't like
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: that verse at all. I didn't like Do you understand
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: he was already critically acclaimed, right he was. I was
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: there just as support in the studio. So me being
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: able to get on that that song and people to
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: like it was weird to me because I didn't like
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: my voice. I don't like shit. So what that happened
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: was great.
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's one of the greatest hip hop records
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: ever and it's crazy.
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: And now, in hindsight, it sounds good, but when you're
• 23:12
  Speaker 3: doing it, you know what I mean.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: You might have said this before, but I can't remember.
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: How did you and I meet? Right, You from Brooklyn,
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: he from Queens. How did y'all get together and link
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: up during that time? Because it was everything was so
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: split back then, you from Queens, you on.
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: This, Yeah, back then, it definitely was. But I had
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: a homie that you know, he was in Queens, and
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: I guess it's always that yo, my man better than
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: your man type of thing. And we got on the phone.
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: It was a couple of artists on the phone at
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: the time, and he was rapping, rapping, but yeah, yeah, yeah, world,
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: which what you doing? Oh yeah, I'm a Brooklyn and
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: Queen World? And did we rap a like it down? We?
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: I think we talked for like periodically for like a
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: year and the phone like yo, what up? You're good?
• 23:48
  Speaker 4: Yeah?
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, And then he got a deal and that's when
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: he invited me to the studio. I guess halfway through
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: Illmatic and the last song.
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: Was Life, So bitch, how did that come about?
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: Just in the.
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: Studio sitting there and he's doing what he's doing. Once again,
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: I'm just being supportive, and I was rapping to myself.
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: He said, let me hear that. He heard it, like, yo, yo,
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: put that, let me do that on there, like get
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: the fuck out here, And then I did it, and
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: the people in the studios like, oh, that's it, that's it.
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: I'm like, okay, all right. I thought he was playing though,
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: but yeah, it had to be like twenty one or something.
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, wow, what about the hook the hook of about.
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: I had the hook? Yeah yeah, I had to wrap
• 24:26
  Speaker 3: in the hook.
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, it's crazy. I was twenty one at that, Like,
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: did you feel older mentally growing up back then?
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: You have to feel old. You're growing up in the hood.
• 24:36
  Speaker 3: You know that, right from the hood. You feel older.
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: You gotta be you gotta move older, you gotta think older.
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Do you think peace becomes more important than the
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: same as you as you get older?
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: Of course, Man, pieces everything Pieza stressed to kill you
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: fast than anything than a bullet. So peace, that's the
• 24:57
  Speaker 3: key to life. It keeps you up, vibrant, keeps you young,
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: keeps you keeps your spivot at. Piece is a great thing.
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: I love Piece. That's why I guess I move. I
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: moved the pieces. Do it? Think about it. I've been here,
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: do all the shit that been going on, I've been seeing.
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: I'm not ducking nothing. I've been there. But if I
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: don't have to involve myself and I can see it's
• 25:18
  Speaker 3: it's a good thing. And then I got my nature
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: is more or less to cease things like ah, man,
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: y'all take it ease. That's that's my nature, you know
• 25:26
  Speaker 3: what I mean. So that's Piece, I think, because piece
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: is the absence of all confusion, right, So yeah, it.
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: Feels like that. Do it feel like you're the type
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: of person that could have been in the mixing as
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: much as you wanted.
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: That's a fact.
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: You like, now I'm still over here, that's.
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: A fact, and and thank god I did appreciate it.
• 25:43
  Speaker 5: Yeah, your song So High feels like you're kind of
• 25:45
  Speaker 5: celebrating like this new level of piece and just like
• 25:48
  Speaker 5: kind of like I'm here and you finally feel like it.
• 25:51
  Speaker 5: So that's is that like a new arrival for you
• 25:53
  Speaker 5: of like not peace, but just feeling like I did
• 25:56
  Speaker 5: this and I can actually sit in the I.
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: Was trying to make im trying to make sugar Hill
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: over right or something that was equivalent. And yeah, I
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: felt just how of life that I'm like once again,
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: I'm still here. I know I'm shelling that a lot,
• 26:07
  Speaker 3: but it feels good to still be around knowing so
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: many people that passed and so many people that got
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: jammed up so high. It was like, yes, I'm hoigh
• 26:14
  Speaker 3: of life. So that's that's my my Sugarhill remake.
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: The one that made me feel good is we made it? Man?
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we made it. That
• 26:23
  Speaker 3: was made you feel good? Yeah, I was crying on
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: that record.
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: Made me feel good. I mean, you're still like you're
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: still expressed. Those are tears of joy to me.
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: Like, that's a fact, right, because you know when I
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: started with Doorde, it was like I'd rather be dead
• 26:40
  Speaker 3: if I can't live how I wanted to live. But
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: now that once you pass all these roadblocks, you like, shit,
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: now I want to live because who won't teach the
• 26:49
  Speaker 3: babies or who won't carry on you know the tradition.
• 26:51
  Speaker 3: So yeah, that was That's a fact. It was tears
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: the joy man.
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: You know another thing I love, I love, I love
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: watching the firm's performance on Showtime the Apollo back in
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: the day. Oh wow, yeah it was it was you
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: unt No, it was you Mega Nas and Fox.
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, that was good.
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: Do you remember that day?
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: That was good? I mean, I mean I remember when
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: I see it, but it was a good day. That
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: was the you know, the Pollo is a Harlem staple
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: and just being there just for the culture is but
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: that that was great. And I'm trying to think was
• 27:21
  Speaker 3: that we did that before the keenan Ivy Wayne. I
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: was gonna say, that's our first time really performing at
• 27:27
  Speaker 3: you know, on on on a broad huge platform.
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I was. I was home in South Carolina watching
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: that back.
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: He wasn't he wasn't in the game at that time.
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: Hell, no, that's good. Yeah, that's the nineties.
• 27:39
  Speaker 3: That had to be ninety eight. He was, it was
• 27:42
  Speaker 3: he was in the game. Yeah, ninety eight.
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: I was ninety.
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: Seven ninety seven. You're right, because that was that was
• 27:50
  Speaker 3: on that was on Na's album on it was, it was.
• 27:53
  Speaker 3: It was ninety seven on that Idea mixta. I was
• 27:56
  Speaker 3: still ninety seven ninety eight.
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think ninety six ninety seven. You no though
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: you was there, but we're going ninety seven.
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: Ninety seven.
• 28:06
  Speaker 5: It says ninety six.
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I thought it was ninety six.
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: No, the album came out ninety six. But you're looking
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: at you looking at I looked.
• 28:13
  Speaker 5: At when you guys performed it the Apollo it says
• 28:15
  Speaker 5: that you performed in ninety six.
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: You're good.
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: That wasn't I don't think that was at the firm
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: that it was written.
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it was written when I was in college.
• 28:24
  Speaker 3: I was four.
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: Wow. Wow wow. Was there any part of the music
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: business that that disillusioned you, and if so, which one
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: did it the most?
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: M hm. You said this salute, Oh well, what part of.
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: The music and they were you disillusioned by?
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: I was just alute damn, so I said this, I
• 28:43
  Speaker 3: think I was. I mean some shows I thought was
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: always live, I'm going to have live, and then a
• 28:49
  Speaker 3: lot of things be recorded and lips, you know, the
• 28:53
  Speaker 3: lips singing that that. I was like, wow, because I
• 28:56
  Speaker 3: really you know, watching just I'm going back so on
• 28:59
  Speaker 3: my age watching so old train all that, you think
• 29:01
  Speaker 3: it was just live, like the performer live or some
• 29:03
  Speaker 3: of the the shows the Grammys. I don't know about
• 29:07
  Speaker 3: Grammys for sure, but to see that they played the
• 29:10
  Speaker 3: record and then you are going rapping with like I
• 29:13
  Speaker 3: Do that from Do That Live? But yeah, that to
• 29:17
  Speaker 3: me a little bit.
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: Definitely pick up the album if you're out.
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: About about to blow, done, about to start shooting.
• 29:28
  Speaker 3: Take.
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: I got what you want to have down?
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: Oh Uniqueness all right, Well that is the single.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: Let's get into it now. Is Uniqueness is as it's
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: the breakfast club, good morning every day?
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: Up weak, click up the breakfast Club. You don't finish
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: for y'all. Done,