Latest / The Breakfast Club / Out Of Context: LL Cool J And Charlamagne Tha God
Transcript
- 0:05Speaker 1: Get it.
- 0:06Speaker 2: Let's get it. LL cool J, my brother good. I
- 0:15Speaker 2: want to set my intentions for this conversation before we
- 0:17Speaker 2: get started. I want people to watch this conversation, and
- 0:20Speaker 2: when it's over, I want them to say to themselves,
- 0:22Speaker 2: damn objectively, regardless how they may feel personally, who's their
- 0:25Speaker 2: personal favorites? Objectively, you can't have any top five greatest
- 0:29Speaker 2: of all time discussions without mentioning LLL cool J.
- 0:32Speaker 3: Yo, I take it. I take that all day.
- 0:35Speaker 2: Man.
- 0:35Speaker 3: Can I argue with that?
- 0:37Speaker 2: And one of the reasons I say that is because
- 0:39Speaker 2: you are by far hip hop's first major superstar. People
- 0:43Speaker 2: could say you are a prototype for what became the
- 0:45Speaker 2: formula for success in rap. You had the streets, you
- 0:47Speaker 2: had the women, and you had songs for both of them.
- 0:51Speaker 2: So with that said, why do you think L COOLJ
- 0:53Speaker 2: isn't in those conversations?
- 0:56Speaker 1: I would say, you know, first of all, I feel
- 0:58Speaker 1: like I First of all, let me just say I
- 1:01Speaker 1: feel appreciated, and I feel respected and I feel loved.
- 1:04Speaker 1: I think that you know, any in any art form,
- 1:07Speaker 1: in any genre, you know ultimately you know there are
- 1:11Speaker 1: different dynamics at work when people hear people like so
- 1:15Speaker 1: you know, the Internet ushered in a different came in
- 1:18Speaker 1: during a different era, so it documented things on a
- 1:21Speaker 1: different level. So some people who weren't there to necessarily
- 1:24Speaker 1: witness certain things might not be aware. But my job,
- 1:26Speaker 1: like is not to really harp on what people don't know,
- 1:30Speaker 1: is to show them what they should know and teach
- 1:32Speaker 1: them what they should know.
- 1:33Speaker 3: Right.
- 1:33Speaker 1: So it's like, that's the whole point of me making
- 1:36Speaker 1: new music, just to get out there, to let them
- 1:38Speaker 1: see what it's like to have me on the court,
- 1:40Speaker 1: so to speak. You know what I'm saying, to see
- 1:42Speaker 1: me out there balling. And the difference is, you know,
- 1:46Speaker 1: this isn't sports, this is art, and in art, you
- 1:49Speaker 1: know it's about the mind, the soul, the emotions. You
- 1:51Speaker 1: be connected to what you create. So you could do
- 1:54Speaker 1: that at a high level at any point. And I
- 1:56Speaker 1: think that's my that's my goal and my objective right now,
- 2:00Speaker 1: show people that you can take a hiatus from something,
- 2:02Speaker 1: do it, do something else, and then re emerge and
- 2:05Speaker 1: do it.
- 2:06Speaker 3: At a high level.
- 2:06Speaker 1: So you know, we'll get to it, they'll learn most most.
- 2:09Speaker 2: Critics will consider it risky though, because of your icon status,
- 2:13Speaker 2: to release a new album so long.
- 2:14Speaker 1: After your last one. What would you say, I'd say
- 2:17Speaker 1: that's the whole point. Like, that's the fun part of it.
- 2:20Speaker 3: Right.
- 2:20Speaker 1: It's like, listen, there is no great artists, great athlete,
- 2:25Speaker 1: or great any anybody that's great at anything if you
- 2:29Speaker 1: cannot be great if you're not willing to be vulnerable.
- 2:31Speaker 1: And this vulnerability comes from having the strength and the
- 2:34Speaker 1: courage to go after what it is that you want
- 2:36Speaker 1: and risk looking foolish in the process.
- 2:38Speaker 3: Lebron doesn't get the last shot.
- 2:40Speaker 1: Steph Curry doesn't take the last shot if he's worried
- 2:42Speaker 1: about his legacy. Right, Kobe don't take the last shot
- 2:45Speaker 1: if he's worried about his legacy. Lebron stops playing three
- 2:48Speaker 1: four years ago if he's worried about his legacy. But
- 2:51Speaker 1: because he wants to push the envelope. You're having a conversation.
- 2:54Speaker 1: Look at what this guy can do in year twenty,
- 2:56Speaker 1: Look what he can do in year five, Right, you
- 2:58Speaker 1: see what I'm saying. So to me, it's like, that's
- 3:01Speaker 1: the fun of it. Like I love that challenge. I
- 3:04Speaker 1: look like I am. That's what's that's what makes it
- 3:08Speaker 1: worth it.
- 3:09Speaker 3: You know what I mean?
- 3:09Speaker 2: So, what is legacy the ll cool, Yo, I got it.
- 3:13Speaker 3: You know what's funny, man? You know.
- 3:17Speaker 1: Nobody gets a chance to come back and say, yo,
- 3:19Speaker 1: correct my tombstone. You know what I mean?
- 3:22Speaker 3: Like yo, yo, yes, that that's not what I meant.
- 3:25Speaker 1: Naw. So it's like none of us really know what
- 3:27Speaker 1: our legacy is because why do we know that? Because
- 3:30Speaker 1: if you put a picture of a glass of water
- 3:32Speaker 1: on the internet, they're gonna argue over that, right, And
- 3:35Speaker 1: people rounded it. Oh, people used it to sustain life.
- 3:38Speaker 1: People wanted plans with it, nine people. So I don't
- 3:42Speaker 1: it doesn't matter. What matters is what you do in
- 3:45Speaker 1: the moment. You know what I'm saying.
- 3:46Speaker 3: What are you doing in the moment right now with
- 3:48Speaker 3: your life? You know what I'm saying.
- 3:49Speaker 1: So what I want to do is just maximize my potential.
- 3:52Speaker 1: Then you let you let the world decide all that.
- 3:55Speaker 1: There'll be generations after us that can have all them
- 3:57Speaker 1: debates and all them conversations.
- 4:00Speaker 2: To pop your shit a little bit though, put out
- 4:02Speaker 2: of doubt because you see the top five list and
- 4:04Speaker 2: there's people that came after you. They'll put on the
- 4:07Speaker 2: top five list and it's almost like you know, they're
- 4:10Speaker 2: discrediting you. In a in a sense, So you gotta
- 4:14Speaker 2: care about the recognition.
- 4:15Speaker 1: Well, I do care about the right. No, no, no, I
- 4:17Speaker 1: definitely care about the recognition. No, no, absolutely, I just like, like,
- 4:23Speaker 1: you know what you're saying. It's like sometimes you hear
- 4:25Speaker 1: Floyd say, Yo, everybody's entitled to their opinion. That's really
- 4:28Speaker 1: how I feel, like, I really don't care about that shit, man, Like,
- 4:31Speaker 1: if that's what you like, that's what you like, baby,
- 4:33Speaker 1: Like you know what I mean. Like my job is
- 4:37Speaker 1: to touch the people who love L and who fuck
- 4:40Speaker 1: with L, not to be worried about who messages with
- 4:44Speaker 1: this one or that one, Like you know what I'm saying, Like,
- 4:47Speaker 1: it doesn't, it doesn't affect my spirit on my vibe
- 4:51Speaker 1: because if it did, listen, man, to get the way
- 4:55Speaker 1: I've been in life and to get do the things
- 4:57Speaker 1: out do, you gotta have thick skin, bro, Like you know,
- 5:00Speaker 1: i'd i'd have been.
- 5:01Speaker 4: At a ball with my thumb in my mouth and
- 5:04Speaker 4: a blanky a long time ago if I was really
- 5:05Speaker 4: worried about these lists and people's opinions, because nothing is
- 5:10Speaker 4: ever gonna be perfect, you know what I mean.
- 5:11Speaker 1: So look, I think that history will shine kindly on me.
- 5:16Speaker 1: You know that at the end of the day, like
- 5:18Speaker 1: you gotta remember, like you're talking to look, death Jam
- 5:22Speaker 1: had there was Death Jam Productions. The label was Party
- 5:26Speaker 1: Times street Wise. They had a song by Tila Rock
- 5:28Speaker 1: called It's Yours.
- 5:30Speaker 3: I bought that. I bought that song, that.
- 5:32Speaker 1: Song, I took it, wrote, made a demo centered into
- 5:35Speaker 1: Rick Rubin, Me Russell and Rick. We ended up starting
- 5:39Speaker 1: Death Jam, right. They they it was their label.
- 5:42Speaker 3: I was the flagship.
- 5:43Speaker 1: Artist, right, so everything that came after me, you know
- 5:49Speaker 1: my first You know, you're talking to a guy whose
- 5:51Speaker 1: first single drop to eighty four and people, and I'm
- 5:55Speaker 1: still like relevant in the world globally.
- 5:59Speaker 3: I can't. I can't complain.
- 6:01Speaker 1: And if you think about everybody that came after Death Jam,
- 6:04Speaker 1: out of death Jam on death Jam, like I mean,
- 6:09Speaker 1: I basically ushered in the whole modern era of hip hop,
- 6:11Speaker 1: right and grew up watching Flash and the Treacherous and
- 6:15Speaker 1: the Crash Crew and the Feelers. Form was at those parts,
- 6:17Speaker 1: like at their shows and seeing them and listening to
- 6:21Speaker 1: the tapes and the blends and the mixes. So I've
- 6:23Speaker 1: been a fan from day one and then helped usher
- 6:26Speaker 1: in a new era as well, so I don't really
- 6:28Speaker 1: have any beef. You know, I feel real good about
- 6:32Speaker 1: my standing in this culture.
- 6:34Speaker 2: You know, I wanted to ask you about Death Jam too, because,
- 6:36Speaker 2: as you just mentioned, you were a staple at Death Jam,
- 6:40Speaker 2: and I would always thought they should have renegotiated your
- 6:43Speaker 2: contract to make.
- 6:44Speaker 3: You more of an owner.
- 6:46Speaker 1: But I catalog.
- 6:48Speaker 2: Oh okay, okay, I.
- 6:49Speaker 3: Own my catalog.
- 6:51Speaker 1: When you see Mama Sitt knock you out in the movie,
- 6:52Speaker 1: I licensed that, you know what I'm saying, like people,
- 6:55Speaker 1: you know.
- 6:56Speaker 3: People, people are under depression. Oh boy, like listen man.
- 7:02Speaker 2: Because that was the time back in the day artists
- 7:04Speaker 2: were getting gotten.
- 7:05Speaker 3: Nah, but see, not all artists. That speaks. That's not
- 7:08Speaker 3: a broad general thing.
- 7:10Speaker 1: That speaks to certain executives taking advantage of certain people.
- 7:13Speaker 1: One thing I can say about Russell and Leo. Look
- 7:17Speaker 1: and Russell, he didn't make a bad deal early. And
- 7:19Speaker 1: then Leo, he drives a hard bargain, but he'll give
- 7:22Speaker 1: it to you when you earn it and knows I
- 7:24Speaker 1: can't front on the guy. People can say what they
- 7:26Speaker 1: want about him, but at the end of the day,
- 7:28Speaker 1: I do own my catalog, and I do you know,
- 7:31Speaker 1: you know, have a huge interest, you know in what
- 7:34Speaker 1: I do. You know what I mean. Yeah, there's other
- 7:36Speaker 1: samples and different things, but I own all my stuff.
- 7:39Speaker 3: So it's like I can't complain with that.
- 7:42Speaker 2: The Kobe deal for you, Like, did they give you
- 7:44Speaker 2: that because like, Okay, this was our franchise artist. This
- 7:46Speaker 2: is the guy who put us on the map here
- 7:48Speaker 2: to take all your masters and everything else.
- 7:49Speaker 3: Well, it wasn't really that.
- 7:50Speaker 1: It was I was at a point where I was
- 7:53Speaker 1: my deal was up and we had you know, it
- 7:56Speaker 1: was like we got to find a way to make
- 7:58Speaker 1: it right, so and just our relationship and we just
- 8:01Speaker 1: made a good deal and that was part of it.
- 8:04Speaker 1: So you know, I'm I'm good, like you know what
- 8:09Speaker 1: I mean, Like I really am in a good place
- 8:11Speaker 1: in that way, you know what I'm saying. Not to
- 8:12Speaker 1: mention all the other things that I do as well,
- 8:15Speaker 1: so you know, I can't.
- 8:17Speaker 2: We're gonna get into that. Yeah, do you feel slightly
- 8:19Speaker 2: that it took so long for them to put you
- 8:22Speaker 2: in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?
- 8:24Speaker 1: Not really, because I understand that a major part of
- 8:28Speaker 1: my appeal, you know, especially in something especially on a
- 8:32Speaker 1: commercial level, was geared towards women. It was black women,
- 8:36Speaker 1: all women of all races, but it was a lot
- 8:37Speaker 1: of black women, a lot of difference. And because of that,
- 8:40Speaker 1: you know, you just got some dudes that you know,
- 8:42Speaker 1: you know that ain't you know, they want you to
- 8:45Speaker 1: you know, if you ain't burning the flag or you know,
- 8:47Speaker 1: being a revel in a different way, they want to
- 8:50Speaker 1: not necessarily give that. You know, everybody doesn't recognize the
- 8:56Speaker 1: artistry that comes with that. They think it's like there's
- 8:58Speaker 1: some kind of trick to that. But there you got
- 9:00Speaker 1: to really make them songs.
- 9:02Speaker 2: They don't see the value in it.
- 9:03Speaker 3: Yeah, you got to really write I Need Love.
- 9:05Speaker 1: You have to really write around the way girl, Like,
- 9:06Speaker 1: you really got to write these songs.
- 9:08Speaker 3: You got to write lounge. You got to write doing it.
- 9:10Speaker 1: You can't just you know, that doesn't just show up
- 9:13Speaker 1: because you took your shirt off, like you you know,
- 9:16Speaker 1: I take my shirt off. You know the song is
- 9:18Speaker 1: bullshit When I took my shirt off like that. It
- 9:20Speaker 1: doesn't work like that. Like, you actually have to write
- 9:22Speaker 1: the songs, so you know what I mean. Like, so
- 9:25Speaker 1: for some of them dudes in the Hall of Fact
- 9:27Speaker 1: at that time, especially when you hear in retrospect, because
- 9:30Speaker 1: that was an old regime. Remember that's not the new regime.
- 9:33Speaker 1: The new regime, they're rocket you know what I'm saying.
- 9:35Speaker 1: But that was another guy, and he had a whole
- 9:37Speaker 1: nother mindset, so you know what I mean.
- 9:39Speaker 2: That's interesting. So you're saying that they probably didn't respect
- 9:42Speaker 2: the art like they should have because of your sex
- 9:45Speaker 2: simple status. Yes, that's crazy because you hear that conversation
- 9:48Speaker 2: from women, you don't really hear that from a man's perspective.
- 9:50Speaker 1: Of course, it's real though, it's real. It's like you
- 9:53Speaker 1: know there, you know, like it's just part of the game,
- 9:57Speaker 1: right like at that time, Like in terms of those
- 9:59Speaker 1: song you know what I'm saying, Like they want, you know,
- 10:03Speaker 1: fight the power and only fight the power, you know
- 10:05Speaker 1: what I mean respectfully, you know what I'm saying, Like
- 10:07Speaker 1: they you know, just think about who got in and
- 10:10Speaker 1: why with sex cells. Yeah, but that's not necessarily you know,
- 10:16Speaker 1: let me let let's keep it.
- 10:17Speaker 3: Really, if if.
- 10:20Speaker 1: You got a dude that feels like he's living his
- 10:22Speaker 1: life making a pinky promise, the last thing, the last
- 10:25Speaker 1: thing he wants to do is put you know, the
- 10:27Speaker 1: young bull and the you know on the frame.
- 10:30Speaker 3: That's fantastic.
- 10:31Speaker 1: Hey honey, Hey, hey honey, look at this guy. Let's uh,
- 10:41Speaker 1: let's uh, let's keep him.
- 10:42Speaker 2: Out of the Yeah, yeah, let's start.
- 10:45Speaker 3: Uh yeah, let's not uh.
- 10:48Speaker 2: You know, man, does it feel well?
- 10:52Speaker 1: How?
- 10:52Speaker 3: I love that remix?
- 10:58Speaker 2: I'm grave. So you kept your shirt on mores when
- 11:01Speaker 2: they a lot okay, been a.
- 11:03Speaker 1: Lot easier, bro like like shirts on and you know
- 11:07Speaker 1: then you were not the women. It's like whatever, you know,
- 11:10Speaker 1: It's like, you know, like showed up to a cocktail
- 11:13Speaker 1: party with your tuxedo opened at a six pack with
- 11:15Speaker 1: your shirt. It probably won't go over well with some
- 11:20Speaker 1: parts of the crowd, but you embraced the door like
- 11:23Speaker 1: who's he?
- 11:27Speaker 2: It is crazy, but you embraced the door like I
- 11:29Speaker 2: always heard methhan Man say he shunned his sex symbol status.
- 11:33Speaker 3: Youmbracey, God damn right. Absolutely I loved it. Yeah why not?
- 11:40Speaker 3: I ain't no shame of mine.
- 11:42Speaker 1: Listen, listen, man, When I grew up, you know, I
- 11:47Speaker 1: grew up liking the girls, liking you know, you know.
- 11:50Speaker 3: I thought, you know, that was our goal as kids.
- 11:52Speaker 3: You know, we wasn't like in it to.
- 11:54Speaker 2: Not have them.
- 11:55Speaker 1: Yeah, I wasn't to not have no, like you know,
- 12:00Speaker 1: it wasn't like I was running around doing everything, but
- 12:02Speaker 1: I definitely was looking and it was interested, you know
- 12:05Speaker 1: what I mean.
- 12:05Speaker 3: So that's the way I.
- 12:07Speaker 2: Look at it, you know, I mean, you know, the
- 12:09Speaker 2: feel strange that this generation may know you more from
- 12:11Speaker 2: NCIS than your music.
- 12:13Speaker 1: Actually it's an amazing thing because it's like it just
- 12:18Speaker 1: it's proof that you could do anything, that you can
- 12:20Speaker 1: reinvent yourself on so many different levels. And you know, look,
- 12:24Speaker 1: I got two crowds, man, I got two crowds when
- 12:26Speaker 1: it comes to me, to my audience musically, It's the
- 12:30Speaker 1: don't call it a comeback crowd who absolutely knows what
- 12:33Speaker 1: I do, and it's the he raps crowd.
- 12:36Speaker 3: Right. I'm very aware of both of them.
- 12:38Speaker 1: I know when somebody's looking at me, they're like, oh,
- 12:39Speaker 1: he raps it, you know, Oh he hosted, I like
- 12:42Speaker 1: it shop with, I love it all. It's like, but
- 12:46Speaker 1: music is my first love, you know what I'm saying,
- 12:48Speaker 1: Music is my first love. But nah, that doesn't because
- 12:51Speaker 1: look at the end of the day, saying when you
- 12:53Speaker 1: hear artists like bitching and moaning and crying and complaining
- 12:57Speaker 1: about generations.
- 12:58Speaker 3: Not knowing them It's like, man, make a rack it,
- 13:01Speaker 3: you know, make some music.
- 13:02Speaker 1: Then you got a problem with people not knowing you
- 13:04Speaker 1: for something, then do something about it.
- 13:06Speaker 3: Make some music. Wanna sit over your crown, ain't gotta know.
- 13:09Speaker 1: And you know, art, the arts are kind of there
- 13:13Speaker 1: is a what have you done for me lately? Factor
- 13:17Speaker 1: that always plays into art as it moves through the
- 13:21Speaker 1: through through the continuum of time, you know what I'm saying.
- 13:24Speaker 1: So there's gonna be certain generations that are not as
- 13:27Speaker 1: aware if you're not current and if you don't put
- 13:29Speaker 1: out current shit. So my job is lokoj is to
- 13:32Speaker 1: put out a current album and give them a current
- 13:35Speaker 1: idea of what I think artistically, which will cause them
- 13:39Speaker 1: to look back at some of the things and go
- 13:41Speaker 1: dig into Go google my shit and get into my
- 13:44Speaker 1: older videos and get into my early stuff. They can
- 13:46Speaker 1: get that history. But you gotta do some new shit.
- 13:49Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, Like, no excuses, you can't
- 13:52Speaker 1: you know, you know, you know, like I said on
- 13:55Speaker 1: one of my songs, on Passion, I was like, no excuses.
- 13:58Speaker 1: You better better be easy, ruthless. You know, a bunch
- 14:02Speaker 1: of paper tigers are toothless. You know that Tony Montana
- 14:05Speaker 1: blueprint is useless. Some people ignore facts that Nigga in
- 14:08Speaker 1: the Nigga and Scarface fell.
- 14:11Speaker 3: On the map.
- 14:11Speaker 1: We just act like we don't see that, you know,
- 14:13Speaker 1: asking where the weed at eliminating mids when the speakers.
- 14:15Speaker 3: Get the feedback, you know what I mean?
- 14:17Speaker 1: Like it's just like you gotta you just gotta step
- 14:21Speaker 1: into the ship that you do.
- 14:23Speaker 3: Does that make sense?
- 14:23Speaker 2: Absolutely? You just answer one of my questions. And I
- 14:25Speaker 2: was gonna ask you about you know something Mefi Man
- 14:27Speaker 2: recently said after a performance at Summer Jam, and he
- 14:30Speaker 2: said the generation gap was too wide for him, and
- 14:32Speaker 2: I was gonna ask you, do you ever feel like
- 14:34Speaker 2: you need to make you feel the need to make
- 14:35Speaker 2: music to appeal to this generation.
- 14:38Speaker 1: No, because you have to. You have to make art
- 14:39Speaker 1: that's true to you. Okay, you know it's true to you.
- 14:42Speaker 1: I don't need like for those who understand the reference.
- 14:45Speaker 1: I don't need the Golden Girls to be acting like
- 14:47Speaker 1: Nicki Minaj.
- 14:48Speaker 2: You know, let's not do that.
- 14:53Speaker 1: Let's just not do that, you know, let's not go
- 14:55Speaker 1: there with so ill don't need that. I don't need
- 14:57Speaker 1: to get my little Uzi vert on and ship little
- 15:00Speaker 1: yachty on for them.
- 15:01Speaker 3: You know, I gotta be me and they'll they'll find it.
- 15:05Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying.
- 15:06Speaker 3: Listen, at the end of the day, if I'm sixteen
- 15:08Speaker 3: years old.
- 15:09Speaker 1: Or if I'm nineteen, or if I'm twenty, the only way,
- 15:12Speaker 1: the only way you gonna get my attention is by
- 15:15Speaker 1: the person playing some shit. And that shit is hot
- 15:17Speaker 1: to me. None of that other shit matters.
- 15:20Speaker 3: The only the fuck what you did. I don't care
- 15:21Speaker 3: how you did it.
- 15:22Speaker 1: I don't care what you started, what you didn't start
- 15:25Speaker 1: with you, how you Is that shit hot? If it's
- 15:28Speaker 1: hot to me, I'm good, I'm in. If it ain't,
- 15:31Speaker 1: I'm not fucking with it. It's that simple, And that's
- 15:35Speaker 1: that's that's life, you know what I'm saying. So a
- 15:39Speaker 1: lot of these are like like meth like, you know,
- 15:41Speaker 1: that's my man.
- 15:42Speaker 3: I love him. He's super nice. Is flow crazy?
- 15:45Speaker 1: My thing with him is is that I get what
- 15:48Speaker 1: he's saying. It was it was the station's job to
- 15:51Speaker 1: kind of think about that when they were curating it,
- 15:54Speaker 1: so that it's seamless to help him out. You know
- 15:57Speaker 1: what I'm saying. You gotta put the p you gotta
- 15:59Speaker 1: line the.
- 15:59Speaker 3: Pieces up right. You know what I'm saying.
- 16:01Speaker 1: You gotta line them pieces up right because that audience
- 16:03Speaker 1: could get into their music, but they have to It
- 16:05Speaker 1: has to be sandwiched the right way and presented the
- 16:08Speaker 1: right way to give the audience an opportunity to rack
- 16:10Speaker 1: with them, because this shit is dope. If look if
- 16:13Speaker 1: Mick Jagger can run around at eighty years old and
- 16:16Speaker 1: have four generations in his show, like even me with
- 16:18Speaker 1: my Force Tour, I'm running around. I got three four
- 16:21Speaker 1: generations in the crowd. But those kids were introduced to
- 16:24Speaker 1: the music by somebody. It was laid out for them
- 16:26Speaker 1: a certain way. We did the Grammy fiftieth anniversary. We
- 16:30Speaker 1: had Glow Riller and Little Baby on the same stage.
- 16:34Speaker 1: Republic Enemy, Run, DMC, and Flash. It's doable. It's all
- 16:38Speaker 1: about how you do it, you know what I mean.
- 16:40Speaker 1: It's about execution like anything else, you know what I'm saying.
- 16:43Speaker 2: Whatever a time you were disheartened by the state of.
- 16:46Speaker 1: Hip hop, well yeah, I would say I would say
- 16:52Speaker 1: there was a moment when I felt like right before
- 16:54Speaker 1: I started rock the bells and really started, you know,
- 16:57Speaker 1: like because people have to realize like this.
- 16:59Speaker 3: Whole time timeless resurgence that people are feeling.
- 17:02Speaker 1: You know, that's because I put it on my back
- 17:04Speaker 1: with Rock the Bells and Rock the Bell's Radio and
- 17:07Speaker 1: went out there and say, you know, I'm gonna throw festivals,
- 17:09Speaker 1: I'm gonna do things. I'm gonna lift these acts up,
- 17:11Speaker 1: and those who are open and allow themselves to receive
- 17:14Speaker 1: the blessing will be lifted up.
- 17:15Speaker 3: Right.
- 17:16Speaker 1: So I felt like our music was, our culture was
- 17:19Speaker 1: being commoditized, you know what I'm saying. I felt like,
- 17:22Speaker 1: you know, if Mick Jackie can be respected, and if
- 17:26Speaker 1: Bruce Springstein can be respected, then so can Rock Kim,
- 17:29Speaker 1: and so can Chuck d and so can you know,
- 17:32Speaker 1: countless others, Queen Las, you name them.
- 17:34Speaker 3: And so.
- 17:36Speaker 1: That was a moment. But I did something about it. See,
- 17:38Speaker 1: I'm a big believer in you know, don't talk about it,
- 17:43Speaker 1: be about it, mint and if you have an issue,
- 17:45Speaker 1: if you got something that's a problem to you, address
- 17:47Speaker 1: that shit.
- 17:48Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying.
- 17:49Speaker 1: Dudes, be you know, crying and bitching and morning then
- 17:52Speaker 1: go home and sleep, you know, get high, smokes wig,
- 17:56Speaker 1: cross the motor. Next day, get high again, cross the ball.
- 18:00Speaker 1: It's like, Nah, if you got a problem, do something
- 18:03Speaker 1: about it. So I did something about it, and I
- 18:05Speaker 1: think that it really works. It led to all of
- 18:08Speaker 1: the things you see from you know, you know, draying them,
- 18:11Speaker 1: all of them rocking and killing the super Bowl to
- 18:14Speaker 1: all these artists and this research is you see it,
- 18:17Speaker 1: you know, different artists doing all these things that all
- 18:19Speaker 1: emanated from that decision that I made with Rock the Bells.
- 18:23Speaker 1: So again you're welcome, you know what I'm saying. But
- 18:27Speaker 1: that was the vibe, you know what I mean, Do
- 18:29Speaker 1: something about it. If you have an issue, and that's
- 18:31Speaker 1: in life in general. If you find you passionate about
- 18:34Speaker 1: something or angry or frustrated about something, lean into that shit.
- 18:37Speaker 3: That's your calling.
- 18:38Speaker 2: Let's ex found on that because I had a question
- 18:40Speaker 2: about Rock the Bells. Man, when you look back at
- 18:42Speaker 2: the version of yourself who recorded the song rock to Bells,
- 18:45Speaker 2: and now you look at the man you are today
- 18:47Speaker 2: and the Rock the Bells brand you created that you
- 18:49Speaker 2: were just talking about the demand in that booth recording
- 18:51Speaker 2: the song Rock the Bells back in the eighties. Envision
- 18:53Speaker 2: this hell no, okay, he don't know, Well, what's the
- 18:58Speaker 2: connection between the two, Like, why did you chose to
- 19:00Speaker 2: use that song title for this brand above all all
- 19:03Speaker 2: other songs.
- 19:03Speaker 1: Well, a few, a few times, a few things. It
- 19:06Speaker 1: was a few things. First of all, you know they
- 19:08Speaker 1: do back then. He just wanted some new sneak and
- 19:10Speaker 1: some cars and you know, some jewelry I didn't want.
- 19:13Speaker 1: I was very simple, pretty easy to you know, maybe
- 19:16Speaker 1: a little red lobster.
- 19:17Speaker 2: Or something that was fine dining back in the day.
- 19:19Speaker 3: Though the finest, Yeah, it was the finest.
- 19:21Speaker 1: They might have been playing hockey with the steak in
- 19:23Speaker 1: the kitchen, but we felt great about the ship, you
- 19:26Speaker 1: know what I mean. But as far as uh, why
- 19:30Speaker 1: that name, It started off with those guys who originally
- 19:34Speaker 1: had the Rock the Bells festival. Originally they had they
- 19:36Speaker 1: took my song. You know, a lot of things come
- 19:39Speaker 1: for me, like Rock the Vote.
- 19:40Speaker 3: That was Rock the Bells. You know a lot of
- 19:41Speaker 3: things come from.
- 19:42Speaker 1: So so they those guys they had Rock the.
- 19:45Speaker 3: Bells and then so that was cool. I didn't say nothing.
- 19:48Speaker 3: I left alone.
- 19:48Speaker 1: And then then one day they caught me up and
- 19:51Speaker 1: they offered me, you know, let's just let's just call
- 19:53Speaker 1: it ten dollars for a show.
- 19:55Speaker 3: Let's just call it that.
- 19:56Speaker 2: I ape the perform in the show called Rock the Bells.
- 19:58Speaker 1: Yeah, and when they when that when that when when
- 20:00Speaker 1: my team told me that I was looking at the phone,
- 20:02Speaker 1: I said, I want my IP back. It just it
- 20:06Speaker 1: fucked me up. It was like it just it rubbed
- 20:08Speaker 1: me wrong, you know what I mean. So I just
- 20:10Speaker 1: went and took the I P back.
- 20:12Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying. I said, yeah, let me
- 20:13Speaker 3: get that, and then I said, you know what I mean?
- 20:16Speaker 2: Then I said, yo, let me you.
- 20:20Speaker 3: Know, motherfucking fucking out of here.
- 20:26Speaker 1: So, uh so I I took it back and then
- 20:31Speaker 1: we started rolling with it. So that's really the real
- 20:33Speaker 1: reason why it ended up being that. So it could
- 20:36Speaker 1: have been any song, but that my inspiration came from
- 20:38Speaker 1: that first first I felt like, yo.
- 20:41Speaker 3: Like listen, it's kind of like.
- 20:47Speaker 1: You know, like you know, people take kindness for weakness
- 20:49Speaker 1: and sometimes they take leniency for stupidity.
- 20:54Speaker 3: I'm being lenient with you. So you think I'm stupid?
- 20:56Speaker 2: Yeah you know what I mean that they're gonna call
- 20:59Speaker 2: you this.
- 20:59Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're really a sucker, Like you know,
- 21:03Speaker 1: I kind of thought you were, but now yeah, let
- 21:05Speaker 1: me call you in. So I was like, you know what,
- 21:07Speaker 1: I took it back. So anyway, I say that to say,
- 21:10Speaker 1: that's why it ended up being rocked the bells. But
- 21:13Speaker 1: my desire to lift up those other artists and to
- 21:15Speaker 1: see them respecting and elevated that came from me, you
- 21:18Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, and lifting that up, And obviously
- 21:21Speaker 1: the song was you know my shit, you know, So
- 21:23Speaker 1: that's what it was.
- 21:24Speaker 2: It's impossible to talk about you as just the hip
- 21:27Speaker 2: hop artists in regards the people who have helped the
- 21:29Speaker 2: culture move forward because of all the success you've had,
- 21:32Speaker 2: you know, in television and in film. So how important
- 21:36Speaker 2: was your appearance and Crush Groove to your career launching
- 21:39Speaker 2: to another level and taking hip hop to another level?
- 21:42Speaker 3: So Crush grew that the movie.
- 21:44Speaker 1: The film, it was about Russell's life and run Demse's life,
- 21:47Speaker 1: and it was hugely important.
- 21:49Speaker 3: First of all, the only reason there was two things.
- 21:51Speaker 1: First of all, I overslept for my I Can't Live
- 21:52Speaker 1: without my radio video because I was hanging out all
- 21:55Speaker 1: night doing so I had a show. I had a show,
- 21:57Speaker 1: so I didn't wake up in the morning, so Russell's
- 21:59Speaker 1: screaming and all that, so the.
- 22:00Speaker 3: Video didn't happen. Then after that. I wasn't even supposed
- 22:07Speaker 3: to be in that movie. In the in the movie
- 22:08Speaker 3: Crush Crew, I was an extra.
- 22:10Speaker 1: I went down there, my man and Cornell may he
- 22:12Speaker 1: rest in peace. You tell me yo, go down there
- 22:14Speaker 1: every day, go down to the set. I'm like, you
- 22:16Speaker 1: know what, Yeah, you're right, because I'm you know, I
- 22:18Speaker 1: had left home when I was sixteen. I you know,
- 22:21Speaker 1: my grandmother didn't understand me pursuing my music. I'm sleeping
- 22:24Speaker 1: on the train. I'm like, you know, I got my
- 22:26Speaker 1: green bags on the train.
- 22:27Speaker 3: I'm riding around trying to figure out what to do next.
- 22:30Speaker 1: Then I went and so I was going down to
- 22:34Speaker 1: the set every day because I you know, it was
- 22:35Speaker 1: either that or stay in the basement with a bunch
- 22:37Speaker 1: of roaches. I was like, fuck it, let me go
- 22:39Speaker 1: down there the set every day. So I was going
- 22:40Speaker 1: down there this set, and one thing left led to another.
- 22:45Speaker 1: I'm down there, you know what I'm saying, talking this
- 22:47Speaker 1: and that, and then finally they gave me a little part.
- 22:49Speaker 1: I was talking that shit and the rest is history.
- 22:52Speaker 1: It launched me because it, you know, it was like
- 22:54Speaker 1: having a national video on a national platform, so it
- 22:57Speaker 1: would be the equivalent of whatever you can think. Think
- 23:00Speaker 1: of now as a national platform for your first visual,
- 23:03Speaker 1: for people to see you first the first time, and
- 23:06Speaker 1: you know, it blew up from there. The album ended
- 23:08Speaker 1: up going platinum and you know, good things happened. Absolutely
- 23:12Speaker 1: it worked out for everybody.
- 23:13Speaker 2: When you think about movies and music, what's your favorite
- 23:16Speaker 2: movie project of your career?
- 23:18Speaker 3: My favorite movie hum probably Into Deep in Deep Blue Sea.
- 23:26Speaker 2: Loved In Too Deep Classic, I told you that before. Yeah,
- 23:29Speaker 2: God is very underrated black movie villain.
- 23:32Speaker 1: Oh yeah, he's like you know you talk about old
- 23:35Speaker 1: dog Bishop, Oh God? To put God in that oh
- 23:38Speaker 1: yeah he was, Yeah, it was it was real. Just
- 23:40Speaker 1: everybody should check that one out Into Deep Yeah, it
- 23:42Speaker 1: was crazy.
- 23:43Speaker 2: Now let's get into the album, Spirit of Cyrus.
- 23:48Speaker 4: Right.
- 23:48Speaker 2: The album's called Force, but the intro Spirit of Sirrus.
- 23:51Speaker 2: First of all, you know you addressed police brutality out
- 23:53Speaker 2: the Gate. Who is Cyrus and what inspired you to
- 23:57Speaker 2: address the injustice cops display the black people right out
- 23:59Speaker 2: the gate?
- 24:00Speaker 1: Okay, so the name of the album is the Force
- 24:03Speaker 1: is an acronym, right, frequency is a real creative energy
- 24:05Speaker 1: and Cyrus, you know, I mean people could go into
- 24:08Speaker 1: history with it. But we were talking really about you know,
- 24:11Speaker 1: the Warriors and Cyrus and this guy who was trying
- 24:15Speaker 1: to bring all of these people together and see good
- 24:17Speaker 1: things happen in his community, even though it was coming
- 24:19Speaker 1: from him being a gang leader, him being all of
- 24:21Speaker 1: these different things, and you know, he ended up going out.
- 24:26Speaker 3: Now, that was a metaphor for the guy that the.
- 24:28Speaker 1: Story was based on, because I was inspired to write
- 24:31Speaker 1: the song based on a guy named Christopher Dorner. He
- 24:34Speaker 1: was an LAPD cop who felt like he was being
- 24:36Speaker 1: a pressed And the reason why I got into the
- 24:37Speaker 1: song is because when I was doing NCIS it should
- 24:40Speaker 1: be people at high levels of law enforcement. I had
- 24:44Speaker 1: some friends at high levels because I did the show
- 24:46Speaker 1: for so many years. This dude called me up. He's like, yo,
- 24:48Speaker 1: el or Todd, Yo, what's up. Don't come outside. I'm like,
- 24:53Speaker 1: don't come outside.
- 24:54Speaker 3: The fuck that I do? Right, I ain't do nothing.
- 24:56Speaker 3: He's like, nah, you don't understand.
- 24:58Speaker 1: And he sent me a picture of Christopher Donna and
- 25:01Speaker 1: when I saw it, and he said, look, they're looking
- 25:03Speaker 1: to take this guy dead or alive, and it might
- 25:05Speaker 1: not be alive, so don't.
- 25:07Speaker 3: Come out because you could be mistaken for him.
- 25:09Speaker 1: When I saw the picture, I realized how real that was,
- 25:12Speaker 1: and so I went down the rabbit hole. And then
- 25:14Speaker 1: I ended up writing a song because I knew that
- 25:16Speaker 1: there were people that would relate to both sides of
- 25:18Speaker 1: that story.
- 25:19Speaker 3: And I said, you know what, I'm going to write
- 25:20Speaker 3: this song. And I was inspired.
- 25:22Speaker 1: Me and me and Tip, Me and Q Tip were
- 25:25Speaker 1: in the studio and he had all of these wild
- 25:27Speaker 1: synths and these this track that sounded crazy, and I
- 25:30Speaker 1: just ended up writing that song and the rest is history.
- 25:34Speaker 3: But it's a it's a it's true.
- 25:36Speaker 1: It's based on a true event, and it was inspired
- 25:40Speaker 1: by true events. And it was you know, a dude
- 25:42Speaker 1: who just who had had enough and he exploded and
- 25:46Speaker 1: you know, he was like addressing police brutality, blue on
- 25:50Speaker 1: blue brutality, like all of it.
- 25:53Speaker 3: And so I wrote the.
- 25:54Speaker 2: Song, do you have anybody doing any pushback?
- 25:57Speaker 1: Like no?
- 25:58Speaker 2: Hell love? That might affect what you got going on
- 25:59Speaker 2: in Holland would that might affect what you got going
- 26:01Speaker 2: on in television?
- 26:02Speaker 1: You can't, you know, say that about the police. Well,
- 26:04Speaker 1: I got to be true to the art on this one.
- 26:06Speaker 1: It's not like I was condoning or pushing it away.
- 26:10Speaker 1: I was just letting be in a channel to the art.
- 26:13Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. It doesn't invite, it doesn't
- 26:16Speaker 1: incite a person one way or the other.
- 26:18Speaker 3: It's art. It's like a painting.
- 26:20Speaker 1: It's up to you to look at it and see
- 26:22Speaker 1: or hear what you want to hear. You know, obviously,
- 26:25Speaker 1: I you know, I played law enforcement for years. But
- 26:27Speaker 1: I've also had bad experiences too as a kid growing up.
- 26:30Speaker 1: So it's both right, So I think the song addresses both.
- 26:34Speaker 1: And I think that you know, anybody that's honest and
- 26:37Speaker 1: objective could just listen to it.
- 26:39Speaker 3: It is what it is, like, It's a song.
- 26:40Speaker 2: How much responsibility to do artists have the address social issues?
- 26:44Speaker 3: I don't think.
- 26:44Speaker 1: I don't think that's an artist is an artist is not.
- 26:47Speaker 1: That's not a prerequisite. That's just like saying, you know,
- 26:53Speaker 1: when when you know, when Michael Angelo sculpted David, did
- 26:59Speaker 1: he have a response.
- 27:00Speaker 3: Ability to deal with men's health? You know what I mean?
- 27:02Speaker 1: Because they got to do neicked and do standing in
- 27:04Speaker 1: neked like he's on. Michael Angelo has no addressment, Like
- 27:07Speaker 1: you know, artists see what people fail to realize is
- 27:12Speaker 1: creating art that is popular doesn't necessarily mean that you
- 27:16Speaker 1: have evolved in other areas and are necessarily inspired or
- 27:20Speaker 1: educated by or in terms of other areas. You know
- 27:24Speaker 1: what I'm saying. So you gotta let an artist be
- 27:26Speaker 1: an artists. And if you're gonna have people out there
- 27:29Speaker 1: who are very socially conscious, who care about this stuff,
- 27:32Speaker 1: and they will appeal to certain people, but you can't
- 27:35Speaker 1: just say it's your responsibility.
- 27:37Speaker 3: That doesn't work because that's not just either. You know
- 27:40Speaker 3: what I'm saying. You gotta let people be who they are.
- 27:43Speaker 3: You know.
- 27:44Speaker 1: You know that's like you know, like saying, like you know,
- 27:47Speaker 1: you can't put red in your hair because.
- 27:49Speaker 3: You have people that are triggered by red.
- 27:51Speaker 1: You can't really live your life like that, you know
- 27:54Speaker 1: what I mean?
- 27:54Speaker 3: Son?
- 27:57Speaker 1: I think artists do should do what they really feel
- 28:00Speaker 1: for real, like but what they really feel like This
- 28:02Speaker 1: album is what I really feel like. I wasn't trying
- 28:04Speaker 1: to go commercial. I'm not trying to like this ship
- 28:07Speaker 1: is you know what I wanted what I felt inspired
- 28:09Speaker 1: to make, you know.
- 28:10Speaker 2: A Saturday Night Special to record with Ross and Fat Joe.
- 28:13Speaker 2: It sounds like you were dressing people's egos.
- 28:16Speaker 3: I want I want to know what's the.
- 28:17Speaker 2: Lesson to be learned in those verses, and did you
- 28:19Speaker 2: have particular people in mind when you were writing those raps?
- 28:23Speaker 1: Well if the songs, well, look, the the verses for
- 28:26Speaker 1: me were definitely archetypes. And you know, you do have
- 28:30Speaker 1: the dude who's uh, who's greedy and extra sensitive and
- 28:37Speaker 1: pretends not to be offended when he really is, and
- 28:40Speaker 1: you have to watch out for that when you're growing
- 28:41Speaker 1: up or when you're in a boardroom, or when you're
- 28:43Speaker 1: trying to you know, pass the ball when you you know,
- 28:47Speaker 1: in law school or whatever it is you pledging. It
- 28:50Speaker 1: don't matter like you're gonna have people like that. You're
- 28:52Speaker 1: gonna have the dad devil who has to be the
- 28:55Speaker 1: center of attention or they're uncomfortable. You have that person
- 28:58Speaker 1: and they have that Ndia spirit in them all. Whatever
- 29:01Speaker 1: it is that you got to watch out for, you're
- 29:02Speaker 1: gonna have that. You're gonna have different people. But the
- 29:06Speaker 1: song is really about integrity, not moral judgment, not saying
- 29:10Speaker 1: people got to be perfect and shit, but just integrity,
- 29:13Speaker 1: like saying what you mean and meaning what you say.
- 29:16Speaker 1: And you know people say standing on business, Well that's
- 29:19Speaker 1: what it's really about. You know what I'm saying and
- 29:21Speaker 1: being solid, and so that's what the song really addresses.
- 29:23Speaker 1: And then what Joe and Rick do is they give
- 29:25Speaker 1: you examples of different types of characters that say different
- 29:28Speaker 1: types of things. And so Joe will address it one way,
- 29:32Speaker 1: and Rick is showing you an example of that type
- 29:35Speaker 1: of a character.
- 29:36Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying.
- 29:37Speaker 1: I chose to give you the lessons that are to
- 29:41Speaker 1: be learned from those characters.
- 29:43Speaker 2: And that's kind of what the song is. I like
- 29:45Speaker 2: Black Hold a Lot, Thank you. I think you should
- 29:49Speaker 2: put that out on June teenth. But you know on
- 29:52Speaker 2: Black Hole you said the only crossover you respect is Kyrie. Yeah,
- 29:57Speaker 2: what would you say to people who said you crossed
- 29:59Speaker 2: over them?
- 30:01Speaker 1: I would say they're right, and I would say it happened,
- 30:08Speaker 1: but it was never intentional.
- 30:10Speaker 3: It was organic. It was organic. You know what I'm saying.
- 30:14Speaker 1: It's like kind of like and the reason like you
- 30:17Speaker 1: look at a Kyrie, or you look at a Jordan,
- 30:19Speaker 1: or you look at a Lebron. They did cross over,
- 30:22Speaker 1: but they crossed over doing what they love. They crossed
- 30:25Speaker 1: over doing what's true to them. They didn't pretend to
- 30:29Speaker 1: be somebody else. You know what I'm saying they didn't come,
- 30:32Speaker 1: and you know, Magic didn't come and painted like he
- 30:35Speaker 1: was Loarry Bird and shit to crossover, it's like he
- 30:37Speaker 1: was magic, you know what I mean. So that's my thing,
- 30:41Speaker 1: Like my thing is, you got to be true to
- 30:43Speaker 1: who you are man, you know what I'm saying. Whatever
- 30:45Speaker 1: that is, you got to stand on that. Be yourself,
- 30:48Speaker 1: you know, like that old Oscar Wild quote, be yourself.
- 30:51Speaker 1: Everybody else is already taken. That's real shit. So yeah,
- 30:55Speaker 1: that's that's what I meant, you know what I'm saying.
- 30:57Speaker 1: So yeah, I did cross over absolutely on thousand percent
- 31:00Speaker 1: way over like Silphead Ladies in Montana. I love that show,
- 31:04Speaker 1: but I was doing what I loved, you know what
- 31:06Speaker 1: I'm saying for sure.
- 31:08Speaker 2: And I also liked the song black Hole just because
- 31:10Speaker 2: it's so black. But I remember I saw you on
- 31:12Speaker 2: the shop and you were saying, you know, one of
- 31:14Speaker 2: the reasons you reached out to the Q tip because
- 31:15Speaker 2: you're working on the album with Dre. You reached out
- 31:17Speaker 2: the Q tip because you said you really wanted like
- 31:19Speaker 2: a black, black Black and the black black album. So
- 31:22Speaker 2: it made me wonder, like, what wasn't Dre giving you
- 31:25Speaker 2: in terms of Blackness.
- 31:26Speaker 1: Oh no, no, no, Dre gave me everything. What it
- 31:29Speaker 1: was was my songwriting wasn't up to Paul when I
- 31:33Speaker 1: was working with Dre.
- 31:34Speaker 3: Dre gave me some.
- 31:35Speaker 1: Dre gave me some tracks and some so we got
- 31:37Speaker 1: so we got like forty joints.
- 31:39Speaker 3: It's just my writing.
- 31:40Speaker 1: I didn't feel like my writing was meeting Dre where
- 31:43Speaker 1: it needed to be, and so before even though I
- 31:46Speaker 1: did call Tip and got with him, in between that time,
- 31:49Speaker 1: I was back in the gym working on my jump shot. Okay,
- 31:51Speaker 1: I was working on my pen game. I was looking
- 31:53Speaker 1: analyzing my writing. I had to learn how to rap again.
- 31:57Speaker 1: I had to learn how to rap again. Wow, you
- 31:58Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. I had to because remember the
- 32:02Speaker 1: game changes, it shifts, it evolves. So the dribble that
- 32:06Speaker 1: was fancy, the Tim Hardaway dribble that was fancy at
- 32:09Speaker 1: one time and he's amazing, it's different from the Kyrie
- 32:12Speaker 1: dribble that's fancy today. Things evolved, so the same with writing,
- 32:17Speaker 1: and when you when you're doing hip hop, you have
- 32:19Speaker 1: to respect the evolution of the game. So I had
- 32:22Speaker 1: to go back and relearn, making sure them couplets were right,
- 32:26Speaker 1: making sure that wordplay was right, making sure those narratives
- 32:29Speaker 1: were correct, making sure that I was expressing myself right.
- 32:32Speaker 3: And once I worked on that in a real serious.
- 32:34Speaker 1: Way, then I got with Tip and the rest is history,
- 32:38Speaker 1: and we made this amazing body of work that I
- 32:41Speaker 1: feel really good about.
- 32:43Speaker 2: So when you revisited to doctor.
- 32:44Speaker 1: Dre, one hundred percent trade my man's you know, he
- 32:46Speaker 1: FaceTime me the other day. Man, absolutely, one hundred percent.
- 32:50Speaker 1: I just I just wasn't ready. You know what I'm saying.
- 32:53Speaker 1: He he always that's my men. You know what I'm saying,
- 32:56Speaker 1: Like he always delivers. It's just I'm not gonna put
- 33:00Speaker 1: him in a position, you know what I'm saying where
- 33:02Speaker 1: I'm not all the way there and I'm not giving
- 33:05Speaker 1: him the best. I'm not taking full advantage of our
- 33:08Speaker 1: creative relationship, you know what I mean.
- 33:11Speaker 3: I value our creative relationship.
- 33:13Speaker 1: Too much for me to be writing some some some
- 33:15Speaker 1: lame shit, some ship that I think is lame and
- 33:17Speaker 1: it's not meeting you know what I mean.
- 33:18Speaker 2: How do you get to that level of self awareness,
- 33:20Speaker 2: the way you can look at your wraps and be like, yo,
- 33:22Speaker 2: this ship is wack.
- 33:24Speaker 3: Man.
- 33:25Speaker 2: I can't see too many people doing that.
- 33:27Speaker 1: Yeah, you got a lot of people walking out the
- 33:28Speaker 1: house and outfits when they need to be doing that ship.
- 33:31Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, Like, Yo, you gotta like, honey,
- 33:35Speaker 1: you see that ship right, Like like people like your
- 33:39Speaker 1: dude walking out he got the camel toe and shit
- 33:41Speaker 1: like you know, the fucking moose knuckle.
- 33:43Speaker 3: It's like, oh, loose some JESU bro saw yourself you left?
- 33:46Speaker 1: Yeah, before I left the house, I was like, yo, ma,
- 33:49Speaker 1: this is some moose knuckle shit. Let me you know
- 33:51Speaker 1: this is looking crazy. I'm bending over like my pants
- 33:54Speaker 1: are ripped.
- 33:54Speaker 2: And anybody that tells you are you just can hear
- 33:56Speaker 2: it yourself.
- 33:57Speaker 3: You gotta listen to it. You gotta be honest.
- 33:59Speaker 1: See, I make two types of projects, you know what
- 34:01Speaker 1: I'm saying. Like I said before, I make shit in
- 34:04Speaker 1: a vacuum where I'm just kind of experimenting for.
- 34:06Speaker 3: Me, and I make cultural albums. I was looking to
- 34:08Speaker 3: make a cultural album. I wasn't.
- 34:10Speaker 1: I didn't want to get with Dre and do my
- 34:11Speaker 1: experimental thing, because my experimental thing is never the records
- 34:17Speaker 1: that are appreciated by the culture. They're never the ones
- 34:19Speaker 1: that are asked, but they as an artist. They make
- 34:22Speaker 1: me feel good. So it's really a little weird thing
- 34:25Speaker 1: I do. And most of the time that's why after
- 34:27Speaker 1: I do a really really great album, I go do
- 34:28Speaker 1: some weird shit and that's how I work. That being said,
- 34:33Speaker 1: I wanted to make a cultural album this time, so
- 34:35Speaker 1: I had to be writing.
- 34:37Speaker 2: You got a song called thirty Decemblers. You know, most
- 34:39Speaker 2: people talk about how many summers they got. You said
- 34:42Speaker 2: you had thirty Decembers.
- 34:43Speaker 1: Yeah, because I was away a long time. I was
- 34:45Speaker 1: away from New York a long time, and I went
- 34:47Speaker 1: back during the pandemic. Right. I put the black mask on,
- 34:51Speaker 1: I got the hoodie on, I got the shades on,
- 34:53Speaker 1: I got tyms all black. I'm running around like probably
- 34:56Speaker 1: look like a stick up kid or something, right, Like,
- 34:58Speaker 1: they don't know what's going on. But I got to
- 35:00Speaker 1: go everywhere. I was all in the projects. I was
- 35:03Speaker 1: up in the pink houses. I was places they didn't
- 35:05Speaker 1: even know it was me. I'm running around in Coney Island,
- 35:08Speaker 1: you know.
- 35:08Speaker 3: And I filmed that.
- 35:09Speaker 1: I documented on the ground and I got inspired. So
- 35:12Speaker 1: I wrote thirty Decembers, you know, being on the subway
- 35:15Speaker 1: and everything I said in the song, like, you know
- 35:17Speaker 1: what I'm saying. The lady sitting next to me don't
- 35:20Speaker 1: want to move her stuff. She don't want to let
- 35:22Speaker 1: me sit down, afraid of how I get down. Ain't
- 35:24Speaker 1: dealing with that shit, now, you know what I mean?
- 35:26Speaker 1: Like all that stuff I said is really what I
- 35:28Speaker 1: went through, you know, and it was deep because the
- 35:31Speaker 1: one thing you forget about in life, you know what
- 35:32Speaker 1: I'm saying, When you like, even if you got a
- 35:35Speaker 1: good job, you forget about danger, you know what I'm saying.
- 35:38Speaker 1: You forget that danger exists. You forget that there's pissy elevators.
- 35:42Speaker 1: You forget that there's people sleeping on the floor dodging bullets.
- 35:45Speaker 1: You forget that there's people swallowing vics because they can't
- 35:48Speaker 1: go to a hospital or going to the emergency room
- 35:50Speaker 1: because they don't feel good. You forget about all that shit,
- 35:53Speaker 1: And that disconnection is part of the reason why artists
- 35:59Speaker 1: aren't able to really give the people what they want.
- 36:01Speaker 1: They start rapping about fucking grateful panna.
- 36:03Speaker 2: Right So so thirty symbol symbolizes the screets in New
- 36:08Speaker 2: York City and how.
- 36:09Speaker 1: Long it it been since I really was home for real,
- 36:11Speaker 1: not visiting the city, not visiting the city in the suv,
- 36:15Speaker 1: not visiting the city and saying, Yo, I'm from here.
- 36:18Speaker 3: No, that ain't what I'm talking about.
- 36:20Speaker 1: I'm talking about really, when's the last time you really
- 36:22Speaker 1: sat on the fucking council?
- 36:24Speaker 3: Was like this shit smell funny, you know what I mean?
- 36:26Speaker 3: Like this smelled funny in this motherfucker.
- 36:29Speaker 1: Or when you walk in the hallway and there's so
- 36:31Speaker 1: many people cooking in the projects, the fucking hallway smells
- 36:35Speaker 1: like God damn tie Italian Irish soul. Fucking your nose
- 36:40Speaker 1: is exploding with the fucking all these smells because it's
- 36:43Speaker 1: all this hooded that.
- 36:45Speaker 3: Type of shit.
- 36:46Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't think people are aware, especially I know
- 36:50Speaker 2: this generation not, and probably just a lot of people
- 36:52Speaker 2: in the industry. On you came up in a time
- 36:54Speaker 2: in NYC where rappers was running with real people. Let's
- 36:58Speaker 2: just leave it at that, real real the hustles, yeah,
- 37:01Speaker 2: the killings, everything.
- 37:01Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 37:02Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 37:03Speaker 2: What did you take from your time spent on blocks
- 37:05Speaker 2: and eat flash flat Bush with hustlers like George Chang?
- 37:08Speaker 1: Oh man, you know about George Wow stretch my man
- 37:11Speaker 1: stretched from Brooklyn.
- 37:12Speaker 3: May he rest in peace. It's so funny. Man.
- 37:18Speaker 1: I used to go out to Brooklyn with with Stretch
- 37:20Speaker 1: all the time. He had his Goal one ninety evens
- 37:22Speaker 1: and like even when I had Rock the Bells. I
- 37:24Speaker 1: remember I was playing Rock the Bells for a bit
- 37:26Speaker 1: of car time. Du was like, we pulled up on
- 37:28Speaker 1: this trew. He's like, yo, it's my man l He
- 37:30Speaker 1: wanted to know if you think he should make this
- 37:32Speaker 1: a record.
- 37:32Speaker 3: He played it for him.
- 37:34Speaker 1: He was like, yo, shit is hot.
- 37:36Speaker 3: So me and Stress were real cool.
- 37:37Speaker 1: I really hung a lot with with A Z and
- 37:41Speaker 1: Rich and I'll poll with those guys because of my
- 37:44Speaker 1: man Chuck. You know, I used to go uptown, so
- 37:46Speaker 1: I used to be on one three two all the time.
- 37:48Speaker 1: And so those are the guys like the paid in
- 37:50Speaker 1: Full movie, like like like the Paid in Full movie
- 37:53Speaker 1: guys were my real friends. And I was with him
- 37:56Speaker 1: every day. So when I did like walking with a
- 37:58Speaker 1: Panther and you know with the jewelry with the diamonds
- 38:01Speaker 1: and all that shit, like that's why I was with
- 38:04Speaker 1: every day. So it was like that definitely rubbed off
- 38:07Speaker 1: on me in terms of wardrobe, my mindset. I mean,
- 38:10Speaker 1: even songs like Saturday Night Special it still influences that
- 38:13Speaker 1: mindset because you learn how to move, you know what
- 38:16Speaker 1: I'm saying, Like, you learn that if you really, really
- 38:19Speaker 1: really want to survive in the world.
- 38:20Speaker 3: Don't try to be a tough guy.
- 38:22Speaker 1: Like that tough guy shit don't really fly because somebody's
- 38:25Speaker 1: gonna test that shit all day long. You're much better
- 38:27Speaker 1: off just having manners. I didn't say be soft. I
- 38:31Speaker 1: didn't say don't defend yourself. I didn't say don't do
- 38:33Speaker 1: what you got to do if there's a problem. I said,
- 38:36Speaker 1: don't try to be a tough guy, you know what
- 38:38Speaker 1: I'm saying. So that was the thing, like just understanding that.
- 38:42Speaker 1: And you know, those guys being you know, maybe two
- 38:45Speaker 1: three years older than me, four years older than were
- 38:47Speaker 1: just old.
- 38:47Speaker 3: Enough to kind of mentor me.
- 38:51Speaker 1: So it's like you know, coming out of queens, like
- 38:55Speaker 1: from age you know, late like sixteen seventeen, like seventeen
- 38:59Speaker 1: early maybe late sixteen, early seventeen, all the way to
- 39:02Speaker 1: like early you know, twenties or whatever. I was hanging
- 39:05Speaker 1: around for as long as they were around. I was
- 39:07Speaker 1: hanging with these guys and learning the ins and outs
- 39:10Speaker 1: of life. And it's not just all like crime and
- 39:12Speaker 1: criminal shit and all that negative shit that people always
- 39:15Speaker 1: think about, and also life lessons in it about manhood,
- 39:18Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, and about how to be
- 39:21Speaker 1: honorable when you're moving around, and how to treat.
- 39:23Speaker 3: People, how to respect people so that you if you see.
- 39:26Speaker 1: Them again, it's not a problem. You know what I'm saying,
- 39:28Speaker 1: because you got to see people again. Man, old woman,
- 39:31Speaker 1: you gonna see them again.
- 39:32Speaker 3: You know what I mean.
- 39:33Speaker 2: Absolutely.
- 39:33Speaker 1: You know the girl would be walking past you while
- 39:35Speaker 1: you get your ass whip or getting pistolhipped about. That's right,
- 39:38Speaker 1: you know, catch one of them, man, you know, so
- 39:40Speaker 1: you you know what I mean, so you learn.
- 39:42Speaker 3: You know what I mean.
- 39:43Speaker 2: You're answered a lot of questions before you asking, because
- 39:45Speaker 2: I was gonna ask you. Like you know, you see
- 39:46Speaker 2: a lot of people in hip hop get caught up
- 39:49Speaker 2: being too close to individuals in the street. And I
- 39:51Speaker 2: was watching the Supreme Team doc and you were.
- 39:53Speaker 1: In the crowd. Oh get that fat Cat Birthday part.
- 39:57Speaker 3: Supreaming them as moment listen, listen, just black justice men.
- 40:00Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. Bimmy's my men. I was
- 40:03Speaker 1: running with them because they were closer in age. And
- 40:05Speaker 1: then prem I knew you know, you know that that
- 40:07Speaker 1: crew like a lot of them.
- 40:09Speaker 3: I knew they were a little older, but I knew them.
- 40:11Speaker 2: So how'd you end up not getting caught up in
- 40:12Speaker 2: that like like say a IRV did not you know,
- 40:15Speaker 2: not throwing them under the bus.
- 40:16Speaker 1: But just nah, nah, I get it because you know why,
- 40:19Speaker 1: because I was around enough hustlers my whole life.
- 40:26Speaker 3: To to know that the shit ain't cute, you know
- 40:29Speaker 3: what I mean. See, let me tell you that, like.
- 40:34Speaker 1: Dudes that are insecure, that becomes like a like a
- 40:38Speaker 1: like a like a like a security blanket form, you
- 40:41Speaker 1: know what I mean. If you really understand life and
- 40:44Speaker 1: you're around enough people, you understand that you need to
- 40:47Speaker 1: just that's not you don't need to be seen in
- 40:49Speaker 1: that light. It's not necessary because I really was around it,
- 40:53Speaker 1: Like so I don't have to inject I don't have
- 40:55Speaker 1: to make that part of the loll cruise ain't narrative
- 40:58Speaker 1: because I really did. I was really there, like for real,
- 41:03Speaker 1: you know what I mean, the shower for real? Yeah,
- 41:07Speaker 1: very real. So it's like, you know, like dudes playing
- 41:10Speaker 1: with guns and dropping them on the floor for a
- 41:12Speaker 1: purpose just to see how you react.
- 41:14Speaker 3: You know, you know that kind of ship.
- 41:18Speaker 2: Yeah, you ever thought about telling those stories like in
- 41:21Speaker 2: a movie or I mean I would do a movie.
- 41:24Speaker 1: I thought about the people asked me that kind of stuff.
- 41:27Speaker 1: I would you know what I'm saying.
- 41:29Speaker 2: When I hear those stories, they sound unbelievable about the teams.
- 41:35Speaker 3: Like what yeah, yeah, nah, yeah, yeah, you know yo,
- 41:45Speaker 3: I'm listening back. You know, you know two schools of thought.
- 41:49Speaker 1: There's the guys that really, I want to be cut
- 41:51Speaker 1: from that cloth, you see me as that, And there's
- 41:53Speaker 1: the guys like, I'm gonna lay that over there because
- 41:55Speaker 1: you know, I really smelled them candles, you know what
- 41:58Speaker 1: I mean, like them candles was? I smelled them for real?
- 42:01Speaker 1: So I don't need to be you know what I mean.
- 42:03Speaker 3: I'm good.
- 42:04Speaker 2: I'm good.
- 42:05Speaker 3: Nothing to prove.
- 42:07Speaker 2: Another record off the album hewe and the chall Yeah again,
- 42:10Speaker 2: you're taking a revolutionary tone. So it made me think,
- 42:13Speaker 2: would you have rapped like that throughout your career if
- 42:16Speaker 2: it was more I guess profitable.
- 42:20Speaker 1: I didn't even take profits in the consideration. See, there's
- 42:24Speaker 1: a time to create art and as a time for
- 42:25Speaker 1: commercial consideration. If you painting them Ona Lisa, you don't
- 42:30Speaker 1: paint it, you know, thinking that you know, I don't
- 42:34Speaker 1: know something's gonna be trendy one day.
- 42:36Speaker 3: You just painted. I just I didn't. I don't take
- 42:39Speaker 3: that in consideration with this album. I wrote a record
- 42:43Speaker 3: from the heart that I think people of all.
- 42:48Speaker 1: Colors, ethnicities, cultures will be able to respect because it's
- 42:52Speaker 1: really coming from my experience of what I've seen or
- 42:55Speaker 1: what I've witnessed, or what I've envisioned it have it
- 43:00Speaker 1: came to me.
- 43:00Speaker 3: Whatever I was inspired to write, it's real.
- 43:03Speaker 1: So it's not trying. I'm not trying to be commercial.
- 43:09Speaker 1: I wanted to make something that could touch the world
- 43:14Speaker 1: in a way that is real from a hip hop standpoint.
- 43:18Speaker 1: So you know, I respected his stance. I respected, you know,
- 43:23Speaker 1: my aunt And this is an interesting thing and I
- 43:25Speaker 1: didn't know this when I did my DNA and at
- 43:28Speaker 1: Harvard and they did all this stuff and she's still
- 43:31Speaker 1: alive when we've talked. My aunt Joan, you know who
- 43:34Speaker 1: I got reconnected with later in life. She was the
- 43:36Speaker 1: first female black panther.
- 43:38Speaker 3: Really.
- 43:38Speaker 1: Yeah, my aunt Joan, Yeah, my aunt Joe from Oakland.
- 43:43Speaker 1: She's from Oakland, Joan Lewis. My uncle was John Henry Lewis.
- 43:47Speaker 1: He's a light heavyweight champion. He's in the Boxing Hall
- 43:49Speaker 1: of Fame. He's first African American light heavyweight champ. But
- 43:53Speaker 1: that whole side of my family has some very interesting
- 43:55Speaker 1: people in me. She plays a violin. She you know,
- 43:58Speaker 1: she's dope. And that that was, you know, something I
- 44:02Speaker 1: learned and discovered. I thought that was quite fascinating, the
- 44:05Speaker 1: huge thing. I thought a lot of the things he
- 44:07Speaker 1: was trying to do were worthy of respect. Absolutely, so
- 44:11Speaker 1: I wrote a song about it. I thought it was
- 44:13Speaker 1: it was worth listening to. I think that, you know,
- 44:16Speaker 1: as an artist, I would be cheating the world if
- 44:18Speaker 1: I didn't write stuff that.
- 44:21Speaker 3: Was came from my heart and soul. It's never to
- 44:24Speaker 3: exclude anybody. I don't.
- 44:25Speaker 1: I'm not even that. I'm not even built like that.
- 44:27Speaker 1: I like everybody like I like people. I'm weird, like
- 44:30Speaker 1: I don't have like all of them. You know, I
- 44:32Speaker 1: don't judge people. I'm not judgmental. I don't, but I
- 44:36Speaker 1: like so, I just wrote something that I thought people
- 44:39Speaker 1: would find fascinating.
- 44:40Speaker 2: But it clearly as a black man, that's always been
- 44:42Speaker 2: in you. You talk about your you know aunt, who
- 44:44Speaker 2: was the first black panther, So it's in your DNA.
- 44:46Speaker 2: So when you used to hear Chuck d Rapp back
- 44:48Speaker 2: in the day, did you have any of those that
- 44:50Speaker 2: you did but maybe never put out?
- 44:52Speaker 3: I did? I did? I did?
- 44:54Speaker 2: I did?
- 44:56Speaker 3: You know?
- 44:59Speaker 1: I think I think creative courage it takes time to
- 45:02Speaker 1: get to that place.
- 45:04Speaker 3: You know, when you have choices, and.
- 45:07Speaker 1: You know, quite frankly, you know, you know when you
- 45:11Speaker 1: raised to be polite and when you raised with a
- 45:14Speaker 1: certain type of manners, there's certain things you just don't
- 45:17Speaker 1: say because you don't want to ruffle feathers. And I
- 45:19Speaker 1: think that's a natural thing. Though that's not always about
- 45:22Speaker 1: That's about how you're brought up. That's about upbringing. That's
- 45:25Speaker 1: not really about like even commercial stuff. That's about upbringing.
- 45:29Speaker 1: Like you look at Pocket, it's his upbringing that fuel
- 45:33Speaker 1: that that creative music. It's your upbring So I wasn't
- 45:35Speaker 1: really brought up in that kind of household, you know
- 45:38Speaker 1: what I'm saying. I was brought up in a household
- 45:40Speaker 1: Caribbean and southern, you know what I'm saying. Grandfather from Barbados,
- 45:44Speaker 1: So it's a Caribbean influence in the house.
- 45:47Speaker 3: Working a thousand jobs, washing.
- 45:49Speaker 1: Your arms up to your elbows when you come in
- 45:51Speaker 1: all that, you know, fixing your own car and shit.
- 45:53Speaker 1: And then my grandmother from down south, so I was
- 45:56Speaker 1: raised with that Southern Caribbean vibe in my house.
- 45:58Speaker 3: So that just wasn't what we talked about. So I didn't.
- 46:02Speaker 3: I wasn't as a kid coming up, That's not what
- 46:05Speaker 3: I wrote about.
- 46:05Speaker 1: But as you evolving, as you grow as a human being,
- 46:08Speaker 1: and as you discover new things and new ship talk
- 46:11Speaker 1: about it.
- 46:11Speaker 2: Do you have a lot of unreleased music that you
- 46:13Speaker 2: recorded in like, you know, your early years, and so
- 46:16Speaker 2: why not? Why not put it up?
- 46:19Speaker 3: I don't.
- 46:19Speaker 1: I think I don't think there's anything wrong with that.
- 46:21Speaker 1: But you know they'll have plenty of time to do
- 46:23Speaker 1: all that, right, I don't.
- 46:24Speaker 3: It's not for me here.
- 46:25Speaker 1: You wait till you leave. Yeah, hell yeah. They hear
- 46:29Speaker 1: that old ship, all that old ship. Yeah, I got
- 46:33Speaker 1: the new old ship coming out. Wanna hear that old ship?
- 46:37Speaker 3: Man?
- 46:38Speaker 1: Trying to make some new ship. Let's get it popping, baby,
- 46:41Speaker 1: what's happening man? Wanna hear that old ship?
- 46:44Speaker 2: Man?
- 46:44Speaker 3: I don't even care about that ship.
- 46:46Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 46:46Speaker 3: Whatever.
- 46:47Speaker 1: These dudes, you know, like run around and you know
- 46:51Speaker 1: there's dudes right now. I think they're gonna get away
- 46:53Speaker 1: with the pro tools and all that. No, you're not mistake,
- 46:55Speaker 1: gonna wear your ass out, man. Yeah, we come to
- 46:59Speaker 1: get all that. I know you think you got it,
- 47:02Speaker 1: you think you slick. You know, a couple of dudes
- 47:04Speaker 1: put some sit up on its. I'm gonna tighten you
- 47:06Speaker 1: up too. I got something for your ass too. You know,
- 47:09Speaker 1: I know you think I forgot.
- 47:12Speaker 2: You know, I think about I was talking about you
- 47:14Speaker 2: in regard the Drake right because the way Drake doesn't
- 47:18Speaker 2: back down from a rap challenge reminds me of ll
- 47:21Speaker 2: couj because Drake makes the record for the ladies, but
- 47:24Speaker 2: he's also not afraid to mix it up as an MC.
- 47:27Speaker 2: And you had a lot of those back in the day.
- 47:29Speaker 2: You had Ice Tea, you had Hamm, a cool modd.
- 47:32Speaker 2: You know, you got it all of them onto the
- 47:33Speaker 2: break of dawn. But what happened when you and Iced
- 47:36Speaker 2: T finally bumped into each other at the Death Jam
- 47:38Speaker 2: party on Bleak and bro.
- 47:43Speaker 3: Man, Me and Ice Man, Me and Ice are cool man,
- 47:46Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying.
- 47:46Speaker 1: We bumped at each other, you know, talked a little
- 47:49Speaker 1: talk and went back and forth for the low of
- 47:51Speaker 1: this and that, but we cool like like I respect
- 47:54Speaker 1: Ice like I really do. Ice is a you know
- 47:58Speaker 1: what I'm saying. He's a smart dude. He's very clever,
- 48:01Speaker 1: very smart. Like, you know what I'm saying. Like, listen, man,
- 48:04Speaker 1: I had all kinds of runnings with all kinds of
- 48:07Speaker 1: dudes over the years. You know what I'm saying. The
- 48:10Speaker 1: bottom line is that it's always better to air on
- 48:15Speaker 1: the side of civility, man, instead of putting yourself into
- 48:18Speaker 1: some bullshit you don't want to get into.
- 48:19Speaker 3: So me and Ice we ironed that out. Man. It
- 48:21Speaker 3: wasn't no you know what I'm saying. Yeah, yeah, that's
- 48:24Speaker 3: funny though you brought that shit.
- 48:25Speaker 2: I know, because I just always wonder how cool it
- 48:27Speaker 2: heads prevailed. As you said, you you are a real
- 48:30Speaker 2: figure who ran with real figures. Yeah, Ice Tea's a
- 48:33Speaker 2: real figure who ran with real figures. But it never
- 48:34Speaker 2: got to that.
- 48:36Speaker 3: Level of yeah yeah, well I'll tell you why, because.
- 48:41Speaker 1: You know, I've always been a guy that look to
- 48:43Speaker 1: avoid problems because I know problems become real problems. And
- 48:48Speaker 1: I know how I am, you know what I mean, Like,
- 48:52Speaker 1: I don't look for problems, Bro, I don't you know
- 48:54Speaker 1: what I'm saying, Like, I'm just really not built like that.
- 48:57Speaker 1: I don't want the problems because I'm not fucked and
- 49:00Speaker 1: playing with you, you know what I mean, Like, I
- 49:02Speaker 1: don't so I don't want no problems.
- 49:04Speaker 3: You know what I say.
- 49:04Speaker 1: I'm saying I'd rather us be friends. You know what
- 49:07Speaker 1: I mean, because you have to look at me. You
- 49:09Speaker 1: gotta look at my career.
- 49:10Speaker 2: Bro.
- 49:10Speaker 1: If I put all my energy into a problem, do
- 49:12Speaker 1: you know how crazy it would be? This world would
- 49:15Speaker 1: be different if I was fucking on the other side
- 49:17Speaker 1: of the fence, the whole world. So it's like, I
- 49:20Speaker 1: don't even want to go there. You know what I'm saying.
- 49:23Speaker 1: I want to keep things positive energy, no problem, no
- 49:26Speaker 1: tough fake tough guy bullshit.
- 49:29Speaker 3: Respect dudes. Give them love, give them on a see them,
- 49:32Speaker 3: give them a.
- 49:33Speaker 1: Dap, respect them behind their backs, respect them too, not
- 49:37Speaker 1: just in their face.
- 49:38Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying. And just keep it dead,
- 49:41Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying. And it works for me.
- 49:42Speaker 1: That's why I have a lot of friends and a
- 49:44Speaker 1: lot of respect in the game. And there's very few people.
- 49:47Speaker 1: There's only a few people that you know aren't in
- 49:49Speaker 1: love with me, and I understand why. And you know,
- 49:51Speaker 1: these things happen, you know what I'm saying.
- 49:53Speaker 3: But I got good.
- 49:55Speaker 1: Relationships because of that, So I'd rather keep it dead
- 49:58Speaker 1: with it, you know what I'm saying.
- 50:00Speaker 2: You say the rappers of the day, you know about
- 50:01Speaker 2: the pitfalls of just beef and hip hop now now
- 50:04Speaker 2: that times have.
- 50:05Speaker 1: Changed, But I would say that, you know, I would
- 50:09Speaker 1: say that when it's really when it's really just about
- 50:11Speaker 1: the music and the bars, like, don't take it so personal,
- 50:14Speaker 1: be like, why the fuck are you so butt hurt
- 50:16Speaker 1: like that you want to like, you know, kill everything
- 50:19Speaker 1: moving because somebody assaulted you on the way. I do
- 50:21Speaker 1: get it, but you gotta control that, you know what
- 50:23Speaker 1: I'm saying. It's not like you can't really judge them
- 50:25Speaker 1: because I've been there, I know it. It could be upsetting.
- 50:27Speaker 1: You know. You see a girl you in you know
- 50:29Speaker 1: the record plays you wanna call your girl got you now?
- 50:33Speaker 3: You want to fight?
- 50:34Speaker 1: You know, or she might go you'd be like, yo,
- 50:38Speaker 1: this is you know, and she kind kind of gives
- 50:40Speaker 1: you the you know, you see that that little you
- 50:43Speaker 1: know that you see her mouth do this ship that
- 50:45Speaker 1: little shit You're like, now you gotta you know, like
- 50:49Speaker 1: you know, you made Drake that not like us. Shit,
- 50:52Speaker 1: that's torture for a buffer said little kids, saying that's
- 50:56Speaker 1: you know, that's just bananas. Absolutely, you'd be fine, bro,
- 50:59Speaker 1: you know what I mean, don't even trip. So my
- 51:01Speaker 1: thing is like, that's what I'm saying. So like with
- 51:03Speaker 1: the you just don't take it personal, you know what
- 51:06Speaker 1: I mean. You can't be overly sensitive, you know what
- 51:09Speaker 1: I'm saying. Is it true that you and.
- 51:11Speaker 2: Jay Z once battled in a parking lot in Manhattan
- 51:15Speaker 2: and you wrapped a verse from Funkadelic Relic and him
- 51:18Speaker 2: and his team laughed at you.
- 51:20Speaker 3: Okay, let's let's let's talk about it what it really is.
- 51:23Speaker 1: First of all, it wasn't a I didn't rap a
- 51:24Speaker 1: verse from Funkadelic Relic.
- 51:26Speaker 3: Okay, that's the first fucking thing that the story it's bullshit, Okay,
- 51:34Speaker 3: it's not true.
- 51:35Speaker 1: What did happen though, is you know, I see you know,
- 51:39Speaker 1: see guy you know Ei the club and then trying
- 51:41Speaker 1: to you know, flash money to get my attention, and
- 51:43Speaker 1: I'm looking okay, and then this man's sauce came up
- 51:45Speaker 1: to me and was rapping. So I had a couple
- 51:47Speaker 1: of rhymes. Remember I'm albums in there. You know these
- 51:50Speaker 1: are guys that ain't had that deal. So when I
- 51:52Speaker 1: have a deal, I had a suitcase and rhymes. Now
- 51:54Speaker 1: I'm albums in saw I said some rhymes. I said
- 51:57Speaker 1: a couple of rhymes. Then I said a little bit
- 52:00Speaker 1: of a song. Ain't no stopping this a little bit?
- 52:03Speaker 1: Then J came up wrapped, I was out of rhymes?
- 52:05Speaker 1: Me in no, in no scenario that was I like
- 52:09Speaker 1: fully loaded and ready to rhyme.
- 52:11Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying.
- 52:13Speaker 1: If I was, you know, I'm not exactly like you know,
- 52:16Speaker 1: the first rapper that you really want to get into
- 52:18Speaker 1: that ship? You know what I'm saying, Like I wasn't.
- 52:21Speaker 1: I wasn't like, so, yes, did I run out of rhymes?
- 52:24Speaker 1: Was I finished rapping?
- 52:25Speaker 3: A fucking ltely? Was it was? I?
- 52:28Speaker 2: Was it his?
- 52:28Speaker 1: Was it their peanut Gallery? Absolutely? But do you really
- 52:33Speaker 1: want to get into some some of that kind of
- 52:35Speaker 1: shit with LLLL like you really want that? You know
- 52:38Speaker 1: what I'm saying, Like, do do dudes really want the problems?
- 52:41Speaker 3: Or is it just a nice story to have?
- 52:43Speaker 1: It's like it's like you know, it's like like like
- 52:45Speaker 1: like Floyd taking off the gloves, stepping out the ring
- 52:47Speaker 1: and you shadow boxing in front of him, and I
- 52:50Speaker 1: caught you.
- 52:50Speaker 3: It's like, okay, okay, yeah you caught me.
- 52:55Speaker 1: Yo, y'all caught me.
- 52:56Speaker 2: Yeah, So you saw there was just one of those things.
- 52:58Speaker 2: You just weren't as prepared as you.
- 53:00Speaker 3: I wasn't prepared. I ran out of rhymes. They run
- 53:02Speaker 3: up this morn You know, he been rapping on the
- 53:04Speaker 3: corner for ten years.
- 53:05Speaker 1: He got fucking a thousand rhymes. I ain't got none.
- 53:09Speaker 1: I'm out of rhymes. He raps.
- 53:11Speaker 3: Okay, congrats, you got that one. You got that one.
- 53:14Speaker 1: But you know, if I was you, I just baked
- 53:16Speaker 1: that one and just leave it at that, you know
- 53:18Speaker 1: what I mean? Don't like drop nothing?
- 53:20Speaker 2: Is that Where the whole jay Z and llll COO
- 53:22Speaker 2: J got problems came from?
- 53:24Speaker 3: I don't know. I couldn't even tell you, bro.
- 53:27Speaker 2: There was another rumor that the song Lounging, Your song
- 53:30Speaker 2: Lounging was about Hole. I mean because at the time
- 53:35Speaker 2: he was known for the Lexus and you was looking
- 53:38Speaker 2: at me. He was known for the Lexus and he got.
- 53:42Speaker 3: Stocking fucking Lexus, I can't rap about a Lexus.
- 53:45Speaker 1: My nigga got stocking Lexus. Hey, I can't mention it Lexuss. Fuck,
- 53:50Speaker 1: let's go on. What are we doing here? Like how
- 53:53Speaker 1: personally are.
- 53:53Speaker 3: We gonna take this ship?
- 53:54Speaker 1: Bro?
- 53:55Speaker 3: Like?
- 53:55Speaker 2: But with any of those balls about.
- 53:56Speaker 1: Jay No, Like look, okay, So I'll tell you to
- 54:03Speaker 1: you like this, if a dude makes a song, right,
- 54:06Speaker 1: and I make a contrary a contrasting idea about a
- 54:11Speaker 1: similar like in other words, if you say, yo, yo baby,
- 54:16Speaker 1: I'm coming upstairs to see you, right, and then I'm like, yo,
- 54:19Speaker 1: if I if I said something like if that inspired me, right,
- 54:23Speaker 1: and I'm like, you know what, let him come upstairs,
- 54:27Speaker 1: I'm gonna going around the side or some shit like that.
- 54:29Speaker 3: That's not a disrespect bro.
- 54:32Speaker 1: Had you had a song, it had some cool ideas,
- 54:35Speaker 1: and it I just as an artist, was inspired and
- 54:39Speaker 1: made some contrasting you know, a contrasting statement about what
- 54:44Speaker 1: you were kind of saying in a contra like the
- 54:46Speaker 1: contrast of it. It wasn't like I don't even know you,
- 54:50Speaker 1: don't I don't know you from a hole in the wall,
- 54:53Speaker 1: like at all. I have not like what what could
- 54:56Speaker 1: I possibly want from him in nineties, Like, let's think
- 54:59Speaker 1: about Night ninety six.
- 55:00Speaker 3: What do I want with him?
- 55:01Speaker 2: Yeah, he's brand new?
- 55:03Speaker 3: What could I possibly want? And so all I did
- 55:06Speaker 3: was there were songs out.
- 55:07Speaker 1: I've made some contrasting statements based.
- 55:11Speaker 3: On his song and my song like that. There wasn't
- 55:14Speaker 3: no disrespect. But again that goes back to that sensitivity.
- 55:18Speaker 3: Be dudes, be sensitive.
- 55:19Speaker 1: Man. It's like, dude, like, don't assume the worst? Why
- 55:23Speaker 1: are you assuming the worst? Why not assume the best?
- 55:28Speaker 1: Why not say yo, yo, let's fuck with something like
- 55:32Speaker 1: why does it have to be I'm dissing you? Like
- 55:35Speaker 1: I wasn't dissing that, man. I hain't no reason to
- 55:37Speaker 1: dism like for what. Even to today, I don't want
- 55:40Speaker 1: to disshome for what. I don't want nothing from him,
- 55:42Speaker 1: I don't need nothing from him. I'm not looking for nothing.
- 55:44Speaker 3: But I don't have any problems.
- 55:46Speaker 2: Like you know, there is that infamous picure of you
- 55:50Speaker 2: at the awards. You're looking at him when you sizing
- 55:52Speaker 2: them up, like yo, I got the rhymes right now now.
- 55:56Speaker 1: Now, what it probably is is he was looking at
- 55:58Speaker 1: that like at me like that when they caught the shot.
- 56:01Speaker 1: You know, that's like that's like the teacher I got
- 56:04Speaker 1: you last. It's like a motherfucker look at you, and
- 56:06Speaker 1: then you look at him, and then the teacher get
- 56:08Speaker 1: out of my classroom. You know, it's like I just
- 56:10Speaker 1: got the I got caught.
- 56:11Speaker 3: You know.
- 56:12Speaker 2: You know Pick, I'm talking know exactly what you're talking about.
- 56:14Speaker 2: Do you remember what you were thinking about in that
- 56:15Speaker 2: moment exactly? Yeah, I was probably thinking small fucking get
- 56:19Speaker 2: on my nerves. He's looking at me all crazy, but
- 56:21Speaker 2: some shit like that, smart fucking get on my nerves. Man,
- 56:23Speaker 2: we get a smart fucking and then like a friendly competition,
- 56:25Speaker 2: because you know, I even think about it had to
- 56:27Speaker 2: be kind of difficult when he became president of the
- 56:29Speaker 2: Death Jam because now he's.
- 56:31Speaker 1: Wasn't difficult at all. We had a meeting, wasn't difficult.
- 56:34Speaker 1: Only thing difficult is or promote my ship. I don't
- 56:36Speaker 1: get like, you know, people funny with that, because like
- 56:40Speaker 1: you have people that all say, like, yo, hell, that's
- 56:42Speaker 1: crazy when they gave this guy a job. But first
- 56:44Speaker 1: of all, I don't like talking about people like this.
- 56:46Speaker 1: This is ridiculous, But I just do it because everybody's
- 56:48Speaker 1: going to be already around. We already viral any fucking
- 56:51Speaker 1: with so I'm as well finish. So listen, I'm gonna
- 56:55Speaker 1: use it of some Some people who are familiar with
- 56:58Speaker 1: this will understand it. When Michael Jackson was on Motown,
- 57:01Speaker 1: he never wanted to be the president, Bro, I didn't
- 57:04Speaker 1: never want to be no president in the death jam
- 57:06Speaker 1: or do.
- 57:07Speaker 3: No, I didn't want a job fucking mc fuck. I
- 57:10Speaker 3: ain't a couple of people, Yo Russell, give me a job.
- 57:12Speaker 1: That's not what I was in it for.
- 57:14Speaker 3: So No, I didn't and I didn't have begrudge him.
- 57:16Speaker 3: He had. People have different things that they want to accomplish.
- 57:19Speaker 3: I celebrate that.
- 57:21Speaker 1: I'm happy for him, like seriously, sincerely, Like I'm happy
- 57:25Speaker 1: for homie, Like I'm happy that he's doing what he's doing.
- 57:27Speaker 3: I'm happy that. Like, even when that happened, I.
- 57:30Speaker 1: Didn't have any issue because I had no reason to
- 57:32Speaker 1: think that it would be anything negative. And if anything,
- 57:34Speaker 1: you have somebody that understands what you do and what
- 57:37Speaker 1: you go through as an artist who's been through some things.
- 57:40Speaker 1: So nah, I didn't feel no kind of way. You know,
- 57:42Speaker 1: we met and stuff. I don't really know what that
- 57:44Speaker 1: dynamic is about. I really don't like I really don't
- 57:48Speaker 1: know what it's about.
- 57:49Speaker 2: When y'all meant to talk about, you know, the album
- 57:51Speaker 2: or whatever, did y'all have good conversations, y'all bring all
- 57:54Speaker 2: of this to the forefront.
- 57:55Speaker 1: Yea, it was not. We didn't we never you know,
- 57:57Speaker 1: sometimes you're right. Sometimes you got to give the elephant
- 58:00Speaker 1: rooms some peanuts.
- 58:01Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying. We didn't really address it. No,
- 58:03Speaker 3: we didn't. We didn't. We didn't really address it.
- 58:05Speaker 1: But I can tell you this, I sincerely I like
- 58:09Speaker 1: his music. I don't have no issues with them. You
- 58:11Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, Like it is what it is.
- 58:13Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, Like I'm not. I'm not
- 58:18Speaker 1: you know, you know I'm I'm I'm in LL mode.
- 58:21Speaker 3: Man. Think about LL cool J.
- 58:23Speaker 2: When I look at y'all and hip hop, I look
- 58:24Speaker 2: at you as Magic Johnson, I look at I look
- 58:26Speaker 2: at him as Michael Jordan. But you don't get no
- 58:29Speaker 2: Jordan without Magic.
- 58:31Speaker 3: I mean that's one way of looking at them.
- 58:32Speaker 2: Like Magic is literally the top five of all time easily.
- 58:36Speaker 1: You know maybe you know maybe, but you know, I
- 58:40Speaker 1: guess the move. The movie credits ain't roll yet, so
- 58:42Speaker 1: we got to see how that how it works out? Yeah?
- 58:45Speaker 3: You know what I mean?
- 58:45Speaker 2: Would you be open to a friendly a friendly spar
- 58:49Speaker 2: what kind of lyrical lyrical damn l lyrics?
- 58:56Speaker 1: Did I get excited? Like?
- 59:00Speaker 3: What was far you're talking about?
- 59:05Speaker 2: Cause you know you remember at the Hall of Fame.
- 59:07Speaker 2: I don't know what it was, the Hall of Fame
- 59:08Speaker 2: of the seventy Maybe was just when they did the
- 59:10Speaker 2: seventy five NBA inductions and Jordan saw Magic. You're like,
- 59:13Speaker 2: I crossed you up.
- 59:14Speaker 1: We can get at it right now, yo, listen man, Yeah,
- 59:22Speaker 1: I mean, you know, hey, I'm bad. You want to
- 59:26Speaker 1: know Broka, you know what I'm saying, Like, okay, okay,
- 59:29Speaker 1: you know I wouldn't you know, I would say, let's
- 59:31Speaker 1: just all stay focused.
- 59:32Speaker 3: You know they don't know. Let's just stay focused, baby,
- 59:35Speaker 3: don't get distracted.
- 59:37Speaker 1: You're getting it now. Just leave it alone, just win, Just.
- 59:39Speaker 3: Do your thing, you know what I'm saying.
- 59:41Speaker 2: Whatever whatever happened to the e love the brother that
- 59:44Speaker 2: carried your radio now ear was he's in I think
- 59:47Speaker 2: he's in Cali.
- 59:48Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. I'm not sure what he's doing.
- 59:51Speaker 1: We talk occasionally. I had him at the Rock and
- 59:52Speaker 1: Roll Hall of Fame. That was a good vibe, you
- 59:55Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. So you know, good ship.
- 59:57Speaker 3: He was a public enemy logo, right, absolutely, yeah, yeah.
- 1:00:01Speaker 1: He loved my hype man. That's the public enemy logo.
- 1:00:03Speaker 1: He had had the the bullseye on him and all
- 1:00:07Speaker 1: at the school. Yeah, that's funny, right, A lot of history.
- 1:00:10Speaker 2: Bro, correct me if I'm wrong on this too, because
- 1:00:13Speaker 2: you and DJ Scratch y'all made a classic record and
- 1:00:17Speaker 2: go and the Goat album.
- 1:00:18Speaker 3: We did most he did most of the gold. He
- 1:00:19Speaker 3: did most of a lot of it. Yeah, a lot,
- 1:00:21Speaker 3: not all of it, a lot of it.
- 1:00:22Speaker 2: Why haven't y'all connected more on production?
- 1:00:25Speaker 1: Just just time and and going through things like that
- 1:00:27Speaker 1: whole acronym. Like first of all, like I didn't even
- 1:00:30Speaker 1: know when I you know, when we came, when I
- 1:00:34Speaker 1: came with that, with that album, that it was going
- 1:00:37Speaker 1: to turn the Goat into everything it became then, Like
- 1:00:40Speaker 1: most people don't even know I came up with that ship.
- 1:00:43Speaker 1: That's crazy, Like most people do not even know. Yo,
- 1:00:45Speaker 1: this guy really came up with the Goat, that whole
- 1:00:47Speaker 1: concept of being the Goat and went every area of culture.
- 1:00:52Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, so like that's just you know, you're welcome again.
- 1:00:55Speaker 1: Fuck you know what I mean, y'all welcome, you know,
- 1:00:57Speaker 1: But it was and I got it from Ah, and
- 1:01:00Speaker 1: I leave saying he was the greatest of all times
- 1:01:01Speaker 1: in Earl of Manigat. You know what I'm saying, because
- 1:01:04Speaker 1: me and Bimmy used to about Earl of Manigat being
- 1:01:06Speaker 1: a goat and all that with gold, right, and then
- 1:01:08Speaker 1: I may goat g a t greatest of all times
- 1:01:10Speaker 1: of acronym, and it just kind of bled into society,
- 1:01:14Speaker 1: became this global thing.
- 1:01:15Speaker 2: And you often get left out of conversations for an
- 1:01:18Speaker 2: acronym that you created.
- 1:01:20Speaker 1: Right, But I'm in it if they use an acronym,
- 1:01:23Speaker 1: yeah right, like like so every time you see somebody
- 1:01:26Speaker 1: use that goat the emoji, or they called Tom Brady
- 1:01:29Speaker 1: the gold, or they called Jordan the gold, or they
- 1:01:31Speaker 1: call Floyd or Ali or whoever the goat, I'm right there,
- 1:01:36Speaker 1: which is crazy for me because I know I created it.
- 1:01:39Speaker 1: So it's like I'm looking at it like, oh shit, man,
- 1:01:42Speaker 1: there's another one. Oh Michael Phelps' is a goat. Oh okay,
- 1:01:46Speaker 1: well done, young man.
- 1:01:47Speaker 2: You know I got a few more questions I was reading,
- 1:01:50Speaker 2: WILLI Smith's book, and he talks about going broke after
- 1:01:53Speaker 2: having success in music early on. Did you ever have
- 1:01:56Speaker 2: any of those issues.
- 1:01:57Speaker 1: I've had moments in my life where you know, I
- 1:02:00Speaker 1: taxes or had to do things, but no, I've never
- 1:02:02Speaker 1: been in that position. I also, you know, I'm a
- 1:02:07Speaker 1: big believe I paid my tithes, you know what I'm saying. So,
- 1:02:10Speaker 1: you know, whatever I get, I get ten percent of God.
- 1:02:12Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying.
- 1:02:14Speaker 3: You know, I you know, I lived my life kind
- 1:02:16Speaker 3: of based on certain codes. I'm not.
- 1:02:20Speaker 1: You know, I've never been big on either overspending or oversaving.
- 1:02:26Speaker 1: I just kind of let my life flow.
- 1:02:28Speaker 3: That's why.
- 1:02:28Speaker 4: You know.
- 1:02:28Speaker 1: I can get whatever I want whenever I want it,
- 1:02:31Speaker 1: and I'm pretty good.
- 1:02:32Speaker 3: I'm good with that, actually, very good with that. Yeah,
- 1:02:36Speaker 3: you know, so I'm cool.
- 1:02:37Speaker 2: Who taught you the business? If anybody.
- 1:02:40Speaker 1: Trial and error or trialing ever? You know, man like
- 1:02:44Speaker 1: you learned like you just learned to like. I remember
- 1:02:46Speaker 1: one time I gave my mother eight thousand dollars to
- 1:02:51Speaker 1: hold for me, and then I got a check for
- 1:02:55Speaker 1: fifty grand or something like that.
- 1:02:57Speaker 3: It was a little I was a little kid. I
- 1:02:58Speaker 3: was maybe sixteen seventeen sixteen something like that.
- 1:03:02Speaker 2: And I remember Dan even wrapping that long. Oh yeah,
- 1:03:05Speaker 2: you wrap money for that long?
- 1:03:08Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, No, No, it's crazy because I've been a
- 1:03:11Speaker 1: fan since eight nine. I started writing at eleven or twelve.
- 1:03:14Speaker 1: I've been doing this my whole life, right for real.
- 1:03:17Speaker 1: So and I watched that fifty grand God and that
- 1:03:22Speaker 1: eight just stayed there.
- 1:03:24Speaker 3: I was like, Okay, let's see how this shit goes.
- 1:03:26Speaker 3: Like I learned that right there.
- 1:03:28Speaker 1: You just want to save money, save enough always, you know,
- 1:03:31Speaker 1: get to make sure you can.
- 1:03:32Speaker 3: You know, you know, you got you know what I mean, Stucky.
- 1:03:37Speaker 2: Who are the people in your life that just kept
- 1:03:39Speaker 2: you stables as a human because, like you said, you
- 1:03:41Speaker 2: started when you were sixteen years old, so you had
- 1:03:44Speaker 2: the industry, you had the streets, like, you had every
- 1:03:47Speaker 2: single pitfall that could have happened in front of you.
- 1:03:50Speaker 2: But your grew to still be the man that we
- 1:03:53Speaker 2: see in today.
- 1:03:54Speaker 1: And you know, my mother, you know, like my mother
- 1:03:56Speaker 1: would get me, like she give me a book with
- 1:03:58Speaker 1: a whole bunch of drug addicts and it with heroin addicts,
- 1:04:01Speaker 1: fingers all hands, all blown up sauce. She'd be like, Tod,
- 1:04:04Speaker 1: look at this and I'll be looking at it. She'd
- 1:04:07Speaker 1: be like, you know people that do that, they don't
- 1:04:09Speaker 1: have long careers. I'm like, oh, that messed my career. Interesting,
- 1:04:13Speaker 1: you know what I mean. And then my grandmother, you
- 1:04:14Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, because it was like initially, you know,
- 1:04:18Speaker 1: coming up, I was raised Catholic. I wasn't even raised
- 1:04:20Speaker 1: in like the traditional Black church as we know it.
- 1:04:23Speaker 1: I was raised Catholic and then ended up getting into
- 1:04:26Speaker 1: the more Bible based church faith based churches later, but
- 1:04:30Speaker 1: so so it was you know, all that that Catholicism, man,
- 1:04:33Speaker 1: that'll get you like that to have you like being
- 1:04:36Speaker 1: real cautious man, like everything's naughty and all that.
- 1:04:40Speaker 3: So it was like you just learned to like watch
- 1:04:43Speaker 3: your step, you know what I'm saying.
- 1:04:44Speaker 2: And you know, like.
- 1:04:49Speaker 1: I always like I tell you man, like like I
- 1:04:52Speaker 1: remember one time I was talking to my man, right
- 1:04:54Speaker 1: and we was talking about hustling. He was like, well,
- 1:04:56Speaker 1: why don'd you come hustle with me?
- 1:04:58Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying.
- 1:04:59Speaker 1: And this is before I went up town and everything,
- 1:05:01Speaker 1: And I was like, nah, I don't want to do it.
- 1:05:02Speaker 1: He's like why, I said, because I want to be
- 1:05:05Speaker 1: the best. So he said, so what's the problem. I said, well,
- 1:05:10Speaker 1: not to kill people. So that's the like. So in
- 1:05:18Speaker 1: other words, what I'm saying is when you think about things,
- 1:05:23Speaker 1: when you do things, you have to think about things.
- 1:05:25Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, Like, you have to really
- 1:05:27Speaker 1: do the knowledge on what it is you're analyzing and
- 1:05:29Speaker 1: what you consider it and whether or not you will
- 1:05:31Speaker 1: And I just say be perfect. I didn't say none
- 1:05:33Speaker 1: of that. I just said you have to consider what
- 1:05:36Speaker 1: you're doing and if you if it's worth it to
- 1:05:38Speaker 1: you based on what it is. So that's how so
- 1:05:43Speaker 1: I had a little fun, but like, to be honest
- 1:05:46Speaker 1: with you, with the drugs and all that, like, I
- 1:05:47Speaker 1: don't like my brain feeling like I ain't got no
- 1:05:49Speaker 1: breaks on it and shit, I don't like that feeling
- 1:05:52Speaker 1: like I don't like walking in the room. I don't
- 1:05:54Speaker 1: know what the fuck's going on. I'm all like, you know,
- 1:05:57Speaker 1: I don't like that feeling. That's why I don't be
- 1:05:59Speaker 1: drinking and smoking and getting high and all that.
- 1:06:01Speaker 3: I never did because of that.
- 1:06:03Speaker 1: I've tried everything, I've tried shit, but I'm never That's
- 1:06:05Speaker 1: why I don't like that feeling.
- 1:06:07Speaker 3: You know what, I'm saying, I like to have my
- 1:06:09Speaker 3: wits about me.
- 1:06:10Speaker 2: So that's been your key to aging gracefully in the industry,
- 1:06:12Speaker 2: because you know, a lot of the icons we grew
- 1:06:15Speaker 2: to knowing love they not landing with their planes with
- 1:06:19Speaker 2: the wheels out, you know what I mean, a lot
- 1:06:20Speaker 2: of them planes landing in the wheels not coming out.
- 1:06:23Speaker 3: Motherfucker. Yeah, the motherfucker's landing on flat time exactly. Roller
- 1:06:27Speaker 3: skate one, roller.
- 1:06:28Speaker 1: Skate on the seven forty seventh yo. Yeah, just not
- 1:06:32Speaker 1: getting high and all that. Man, Like, take care of yourself, beat.
- 1:06:35Speaker 1: I like to get in the gym, workout train, you
- 1:06:37Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. I like to read this shit,
- 1:06:40Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like, I don't be sitting
- 1:06:42Speaker 1: around high on motherfucking day.
- 1:06:44Speaker 3: Man, Like, what are we doing?
- 1:06:45Speaker 1: Man?
- 1:06:45Speaker 3: What's that about?
- 1:06:48Speaker 1: For me? I'm not Look, people could do what they
- 1:06:50Speaker 1: want and I got homies that do that and it's
- 1:06:52Speaker 1: all good.
- 1:06:52Speaker 3: I ain't got no problem with it.
- 1:06:53Speaker 2: You know, that's you, you know, But no, you know,
- 1:06:57Speaker 2: like I said, you know, we're seeing a lot of
- 1:06:58Speaker 2: people fall from grace, you know, for things that they
- 1:07:01Speaker 2: did decades ago. Do you think that you know, landing
- 1:07:03Speaker 2: with your wheels out has to be a decision and
- 1:07:06Speaker 2: a mindset that you got to be committed to from
- 1:07:08Speaker 2: day one.
- 1:07:10Speaker 3: Well, you got to put yourself in the best position
- 1:07:12Speaker 3: to do that right.
- 1:07:13Speaker 1: Sometimes you can get lucky, sometimes things just work out,
- 1:07:16Speaker 1: but you know it's better to be you know, prepared
- 1:07:18Speaker 1: to land is plan your landing and then if.
- 1:07:20Speaker 3: You got to switch it up, you switch it up.
- 1:07:22Speaker 4: You know.
- 1:07:22Speaker 1: It's like it's a saying, right, all plans are useless,
- 1:07:27Speaker 1: but planning is essential, you know what I'm saying. So
- 1:07:30Speaker 1: it's like, if you got a plan, it ain't gonna
- 1:07:34Speaker 1: go as planned. But if you got a plan, then
- 1:07:35Speaker 1: you got a place to pivot from, you know what
- 1:07:37Speaker 1: I mean. It's like having a map. If you got
- 1:07:40Speaker 1: a map, you know, and your plan is to go
- 1:07:43Speaker 1: that way, even if you got to switch, you got
- 1:07:45Speaker 1: a map.
- 1:07:47Speaker 3: So you can go that way.
- 1:07:48Speaker 2: Makes sense? That makes sense. You know. Last year was
- 1:07:52Speaker 2: the fiftieth anniversary of hip hop. This year is the
- 1:07:55Speaker 2: fortieth anniversary of Death Jam and.
- 1:07:59Speaker 3: Me right the first artist.
- 1:08:01Speaker 2: So you know, with all the controversies surrounding Russell Simmons,
- 1:08:06Speaker 2: does that impact how these things can be properly celebrated?
- 1:08:10Speaker 2: How these stories can be properly told.
- 1:08:13Speaker 1: I don't think so, because I don't think one thing
- 1:08:14Speaker 1: has nothing to do with the other one. You know,
- 1:08:17Speaker 1: if we found out that Galileo was doing some crazy shit,
- 1:08:24Speaker 1: should we do away with astronomy and telescopes and shit? Like,
- 1:08:29Speaker 1: if we found out that, I don't know.
- 1:08:31Speaker 2: You name it, you still got to tell the story.
- 1:08:33Speaker 1: I mean like it's just like like like it's really
- 1:08:38Speaker 1: kind of like people like. Look, first of all, I
- 1:08:41Speaker 1: don't like to judge people because I wasn't there.
- 1:08:43Speaker 3: That's the first thing. I also don't be little.
- 1:08:46Speaker 1: I don't try to never make light of anything that
- 1:08:48Speaker 1: anybody's been through in terms of victims that I'm not
- 1:08:50Speaker 1: with that either.
- 1:08:51Speaker 3: I don't play the games.
- 1:08:52Speaker 1: What I will say is, you're living in let's say, whoever,
- 1:08:57Speaker 1: you're living in an apartment building and you found out
- 1:09:01Speaker 1: that the builder of that apartment building had did some
- 1:09:03Speaker 1: really really bad things. Should you break your lease and
- 1:09:06Speaker 1: move out? Should we demolish that building and redo it?
- 1:09:13Speaker 1: Have somebody a perfect hand building.
- 1:09:15Speaker 3: I don't know.
- 1:09:16Speaker 1: I don't even know the answer, But what I say
- 1:09:20Speaker 1: to people is you got to look at these.
- 1:09:21Speaker 3: Things when you think about stuff. One thing is one thing,
- 1:09:24Speaker 3: this is another, you know what I mean.
- 1:09:28Speaker 2: And even if you remove the person out of the building,
- 1:09:30Speaker 2: you still have to tell the story of the person
- 1:09:32Speaker 2: building that building.
- 1:09:33Speaker 1: But you still tell the story of the building. So
- 1:09:35Speaker 1: it's like, yeah, let's take history, world history for example.
- 1:09:43Speaker 1: It's probably been a couple of people that have done
- 1:09:45Speaker 1: some good things and bad things. So do we eliminate
- 1:09:48Speaker 1: all of the good because of the bad? Do we
- 1:09:52Speaker 1: throw away the good because of the bad deed?
- 1:09:55Speaker 3: That's the question.
- 1:09:58Speaker 2: We live in a country that was built on bad deed, I'm.
- 1:10:00Speaker 1: Saying, so do we like like like, like are you
- 1:10:04Speaker 1: are you prepared to give up your passport because of
- 1:10:08Speaker 1: what was done to the indigenous people in this country?
- 1:10:12Speaker 1: Right like this, you gotta look, you gotta be real
- 1:10:15Speaker 1: and I'm not and it ain't none of it good.
- 1:10:16Speaker 1: Like I'm not saying don't make light of it by
- 1:10:19Speaker 1: no means, I'm not on that bullshit, But I'm just saying, like,
- 1:10:21Speaker 1: we gotta be realistic.
- 1:10:22Speaker 3: Man, the dude built you know, he put together this company.
- 1:10:26Speaker 2: He did so even if he's not celebrated, you still
- 1:10:29Speaker 2: got to tell.
- 1:10:30Speaker 1: You, yeah, you may not celebrate his actions in that
- 1:10:32Speaker 1: particular area. But you can't say that he didn't do
- 1:10:34Speaker 1: something right, right. I'm just saying like, it's no way
- 1:10:38Speaker 1: around that, because if not, we have to erase all
- 1:10:42Speaker 1: of world's history because to find a perfect person that
- 1:10:47Speaker 1: did good things and nothing bad? Does that even exist?
- 1:10:51Speaker 1: Does it exist in your household? What was grandma doing?
- 1:10:55Speaker 1: Was grandma freaking off? Was grandma freaking off?
- 1:11:00Speaker 3: Speak?
- 1:11:01Speaker 1: Should we never did grandma illegally take money and do
- 1:11:05Speaker 1: the nasty nasty and take some money back in the sixties,
- 1:11:09Speaker 1: and now she making Thanksgiving? And we are we fouled
- 1:11:12Speaker 1: for eating this stuff? And right now because Grandma shot
- 1:11:15Speaker 1: bucking the ass with the twenty two round the corner.
- 1:11:19Speaker 1: I don't know.
- 1:11:21Speaker 2: I'm sure those conversations that came up for you though,
- 1:11:23Speaker 2: right like people have asked like are you gonna have
- 1:11:25Speaker 2: him here?
- 1:11:26Speaker 1: No, Honestly, nobody is really asked, And I'm glad you
- 1:11:28Speaker 1: did ask because I just think that none of us
- 1:11:32Speaker 1: are perfect, right, and none of us should make light
- 1:11:37Speaker 1: of any victim and anything they go through.
- 1:11:39Speaker 3: Ever, we have to look at the world and things
- 1:11:43Speaker 3: on a case by case.
- 1:11:44Speaker 1: Basis, because if you're not gonna look at it on
- 1:11:46Speaker 1: a case ba case by case basis.
- 1:11:48Speaker 3: I don't know what we're gonna do because nobody gonna
- 1:11:51Speaker 3: do shit.
- 1:11:52Speaker 1: Because if everybody had a goddamn you know, a Wikipedia
- 1:11:56Speaker 1: on a TV screen above their head with all of
- 1:11:58Speaker 1: the foul shit they did, we'd be walking around this motherfucker. Man, Man, Man,
- 1:12:04Speaker 1: what what?
- 1:12:08Speaker 3: I wouldn't hurt a fly?
- 1:12:09Speaker 1: Yeah, I know you wouldn't, but you out there chopping
- 1:12:12Speaker 1: chickens heads off every five minutes. I wouldn't hurt a fly. Yeah.
- 1:12:16Speaker 3: I know you're telling the truth.
- 1:12:17Speaker 1: But I'll kill a chicken. I'll kill a chicken, you
- 1:12:19Speaker 1: know what I mean? Like everybody like people, you know people.
- 1:12:24Speaker 1: Nobody's perfect with that stuff. Man.
- 1:12:26Speaker 3: So that's the way I look at it. Man, you
- 1:12:29Speaker 3: know what I Man?
- 1:12:29Speaker 2: Did you feel away when President Biden got your name
- 1:12:32Speaker 2: wrong at the CBC conference? He called you l J
- 1:12:34Speaker 2: cool Jay? Then he referred to you as a boy
- 1:12:37Speaker 2: before correcting himself and saying, man, did you get nah?
- 1:12:42Speaker 3: I mean, you know what else supposed to do?
- 1:12:44Speaker 1: Man?
- 1:12:44Speaker 3: Like I'm a mine?
- 1:12:48Speaker 1: Man, God, drmit, you know like I was supposed to
- 1:12:51Speaker 1: do due eighty years olds live man, listen, I got
- 1:12:56Speaker 1: ship to do. Man, The last thing I got to work.
- 1:12:58Speaker 1: Let me let me tell you something. When you at
- 1:13:00Speaker 1: the point where the president messing up your name is
- 1:13:03Speaker 1: a national story, she was a bad motherfucker.
- 1:13:07Speaker 3: You're a bad motherfucker.
- 1:13:08Speaker 1: At that point, Yo, when the president messing up your
- 1:13:11Speaker 1: name is national news.
- 1:13:14Speaker 3: He did something right.
- 1:13:15Speaker 1: So I'm going I'm gonna just be like, I'm just gonna,
- 1:13:19Speaker 1: you know, wish them all the best, bro, I wish
- 1:13:20Speaker 1: them good health.
- 1:13:21Speaker 3: And that's it. Man.
- 1:13:22Speaker 2: I can't you ever been approached by doing the chapstick line.
- 1:13:25Speaker 1: Well, I met with them a long time ago, but
- 1:13:28Speaker 1: you know, you know, I think you know a lot
- 1:13:32Speaker 1: of Melani man.
- 1:13:33Speaker 3: I'm not sure. I'm not.
- 1:13:34Speaker 1: That's a lot of Melani man, A lot of Melanin
- 1:13:36Speaker 1: on them lips, man, that sits like hoof, you know,
- 1:13:40Speaker 1: a little Bonnie Man, get a low.
- 1:13:41Speaker 3: To ll and all that that shit.
- 1:13:43Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, Hell. That's why I want you back,
- 1:13:48Speaker 1: because I'm saying back then, you know, yeah, That's.
- 1:13:51Speaker 2: Why I want people to listen to the new album
- 1:13:52Speaker 2: because you know, even with all the success you've had,
- 1:13:56Speaker 2: there's still a lot of doors that have been closed
- 1:13:58Speaker 2: to you because of your black well.
- 1:14:00Speaker 1: I mean, listen, but there's a lot of doors that opened, right. See,
- 1:14:05Speaker 1: life is we know what we're dealing with in the
- 1:14:08Speaker 1: world in America.
- 1:14:09Speaker 3: But you can't. I can't allow myself to get kind
- 1:14:12Speaker 3: of caught up in that shit. You know what I'm saying.
- 1:14:18Speaker 3: We know what's true. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't.
- 1:14:22Speaker 2: But my thing is.
- 1:14:24Speaker 1: When the elevated doors close, take the steps, you know
- 1:14:27Speaker 1: what I'm saying.
- 1:14:28Speaker 3: Like, I'm not tripping off of that.
- 1:14:30Speaker 1: Like I'm not gonna walk around overly sensitive with a
- 1:14:32Speaker 1: chip on my shoulder about what I'm not getting. I'm
- 1:14:34Speaker 1: too busy thinking about what I am getting, and so
- 1:14:38Speaker 1: I'm gonna make the most of what I do get.
- 1:14:40Speaker 1: So if you you know, if you do not let's
- 1:14:43Speaker 1: just say, for instance, if somebody wanted to deny me
- 1:14:45Speaker 1: an orange because I'm a black man, Okay, but I
- 1:14:47Speaker 1: bet you I'm gonna give me nine thousand peaches up
- 1:14:49Speaker 1: this motherfucker.
- 1:14:51Speaker 3: You know what I mean. That's how you do it.
- 1:14:53Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, You go get it, like
- 1:14:55Speaker 1: you can't be caught up in that because that misery
- 1:14:58Speaker 1: and that and that that that woe was me mentality,
- 1:15:02Speaker 1: that victim mentality.
- 1:15:04Speaker 3: That's not successful. I'm about being successful. You know what
- 1:15:07Speaker 3: I'm saying, what.
- 1:15:09Speaker 2: Does success look like for you? In regard to the Force.
- 1:15:12Speaker 3: Album impacting the culture?
- 1:15:15Speaker 1: People getting a full load of the Force album, it
- 1:15:19Speaker 1: really impacted the culture in a major way with sales,
- 1:15:23Speaker 1: with airplay.
- 1:15:24Speaker 3: With streams, people really feeling it and.
- 1:15:26Speaker 1: Embracing it and loving it and saying, Wow, I didn't
- 1:15:29Speaker 1: know that an artist that came maybe two, three, four
- 1:15:33Speaker 1: generations before me, I didn't even know that I would
- 1:15:36Speaker 1: even be remotely interested in hearing his music, But Wow,
- 1:15:39Speaker 1: this shit really moved me. And then on the flip
- 1:15:40Speaker 1: side of that, it's the day one fan saying, damn,
- 1:15:43Speaker 1: I really thought that, Like because you know the guy
- 1:15:48Speaker 1: I went to high school where there's a bus driver
- 1:15:49Speaker 1: now and his stomach is to his knees, that L
- 1:15:52Speaker 1: wasn't gonna be able to do it. Nah, Now we
- 1:15:54Speaker 1: can't do it. You can't continue to be great and
- 1:15:57Speaker 1: perform at a high level.
- 1:15:59Speaker 3: But you just got to be on it like that.
- 1:16:01Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. What cloth are you cut from?
- 1:16:04Speaker 1: Are you cut from the surrender cloth or you cut
- 1:16:06Speaker 1: from the conquer cloth? You got to make those decisions,
- 1:16:09Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. So that's what I want,
- 1:16:12Speaker 1: you know what I mean, like touch the world with
- 1:16:14Speaker 1: that shit and let people know, like, Yo, this dude
- 1:16:18Speaker 1: is this guy's real, This shit is real.
- 1:16:20Speaker 3: This is a different thing.
- 1:16:21Speaker 1: This dude is different because he really executes the shit
- 1:16:25Speaker 1: he says like, you know, this ain't raising in the sunbeam.
- 1:16:28Speaker 1: I'm not just talking about the shit all day and
- 1:16:30Speaker 1: you know, and they're never doing it.
- 1:16:31Speaker 2: Would the music be enough to tell the ll cool
- 1:16:34Speaker 2: J story?
- 1:16:35Speaker 1: Oh no, No, I'm way too multifaceted for that. There's
- 1:16:39Speaker 1: too many dimensions to my character. But it definitely will
- 1:16:42Speaker 1: tell the artistic stories that I've been looking to put forth,
- 1:16:46Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, And it'll tell people where
- 1:16:49Speaker 1: I was at when I created that music and what
- 1:16:51Speaker 1: I felt was important, what I was inspired by, and
- 1:16:54Speaker 1: hopefully you can find inspiration in my inspiration. You know
- 1:16:59Speaker 1: what I'm saying. It's like, you know, you know, it's
- 1:17:04Speaker 1: like having sex. Man, you know what I'm saying. You
- 1:17:07Speaker 1: got to be in the moment. You got to be
- 1:17:08Speaker 1: self aware. You got to know when to be aggressive,
- 1:17:10Speaker 1: you gotta know when to be calm. You know what
- 1:17:12Speaker 1: I'm saying. You gotta know when to turn it up.
- 1:17:14Speaker 1: You gotta know when to turn it down. You gotta
- 1:17:16Speaker 1: know when to be nice. You know, you gotta know
- 1:17:19Speaker 1: when to not be not so nice.
- 1:17:21Speaker 3: That's life. You know what I'm saying. So that's what
- 1:17:24Speaker 3: it is. You know what I'm saying. That's how I'm
- 1:17:26Speaker 3: doing it. You know what I'm saying.
- 1:17:27Speaker 2: I love cool Jake.
- 1:17:28Speaker 3: Man.
- 1:17:28Speaker 2: I appreciate you, brother, love you for the time.
- 1:17:30Speaker 3: Man, mister, appreciate you.