Latest / Story Scaling / Build Foundations That Your Kids Can Inherit with Mike Day
Transcript
- 0:00SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Storyscaling by Podcastvideos.com, where creators share the truth behind the content, the grind, and the growth.
- 0:10SPEAKER_00: Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, friends and family, I am Bang.
- 0:13SPEAKER_00: This is podcastvideos.com.
- 0:15SPEAKER_00: I want to thank you for uh tuning into Story Scaling.
- 0:18SPEAKER_00: You guys, this is a show that we built wanting to talk to creators, makers, influencers, whoever uh has a story.
- 0:25SPEAKER_00: And because of you all, we're able to continue to do these uh episodes.
- 0:29SPEAKER_00: We just hit a hundred followers on social media, you know, and then on Instagram.
- 0:33SPEAKER_00: And so that's that's major for us.
- 0:34SPEAKER_00: And so keep letting us know who you want to see.
- 0:36SPEAKER_00: If you haven't already, like and subscribe, and uh we will continue to keep these episodes going.
- 0:41SPEAKER_00: Today feels special.
- 0:43SPEAKER_00: Oh man.
- 0:43SPEAKER_00: You know, you know, all the same.
- 0:46SPEAKER_00: You know that.
- 0:47SPEAKER_00: And I say that from time to time, and I mean it every single time, man.
- 0:50SPEAKER_00: I am sitting across the table from an excellent brother of mine.
- 0:55SPEAKER_00: Who are you, sir?
- 0:56SPEAKER_01: Man, no, it's your favorite filmmaker, Mike Day.
- 0:58SPEAKER_01: Happy to be in the flesh, man.
- 0:59SPEAKER_01: Mike Day.
- 1:00SPEAKER_01: Man, thank you for having me, man.
- 1:01SPEAKER_00: Thank you for being here, bro.
- 1:03SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
- 1:04SPEAKER_00: When I think about creativity, it is a very broad umbrella.
- 1:09SPEAKER_00: There's a lot that falls under there.
- 1:11SPEAKER_00: 100%.
- 1:12SPEAKER_00: And you feel a lot of those buckets.
- 1:15SPEAKER_00: Oh man.
- 1:16SPEAKER_00: Director, writer, like you said, filmmaker, like you behind the camera, musician, educator.
- 1:22SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's so many things that you do, you know.
- 1:25SPEAKER_00: And so I'm excited to have you on this show.
- 1:28SPEAKER_00: Man, I'm excited just to catch up, man.
- 1:30SPEAKER_00: Man, it's weird having the mics in front of us now.
- 1:33SPEAKER_00: In this way, especially.
- 1:35SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah, a thousand percent.
- 1:36SPEAKER_00: Yeah, man.
- 1:37SPEAKER_00: Well, look, bro, I I'm gonna jump into this bio.
- 1:39SPEAKER_00: And so this is what the streets are saying about Mike Day.
- 1:42SPEAKER_00: This is what the streets are saying, okay?
- 1:43SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you ready?
- 1:44SPEAKER_00: All right, I'm ready.
- 1:45SPEAKER_00: Hit me.
- 1:46SPEAKER_00: It says today on story scaling, I get to sit down with not just an incredible creative, but a genuine friend.
- 1:51SPEAKER_00: Mike Day is a director, filmmaker, musician, and educator who is quietly but powerfully shaping the culture right here in Northwest Arkansas.
- 2:00SPEAKER_00: What I admire most about Mike's journey is his absolute refusal to be put in a box.
- 2:06SPEAKER_00: He has this rare ability to capture every side of human experience.
- 2:11SPEAKER_00: On one hand, he's the brilliant mind behind the hilarious web series Sexton, providing, uh, excuse me, proving that he knows exactly how to entertain and bring the laughs.
- 2:21SPEAKER_00: On the other hand, he's doing the deep vital work of preserving local history, like his documentary Cobert, All Students Can Learn, which honors Northwest Arkansas's first black school district superintendent.
- 2:32SPEAKER_00: Mike uses his camera and his platform as tools for connection, education, and activism.
- 2:38SPEAKER_00: He is building his world the right way by telling stories that actually matter, pouring into the next generation as a teacher and staying relentlessly true to his voice.
- 2:46SPEAKER_00: Ladies and gentlemen, Mike Day.
- 2:48SPEAKER_01: Sheesh.
- 2:49SPEAKER_01: That's what the streets are saying.
- 2:50SPEAKER_01: That's what the streets are saying, man.
- 2:52SPEAKER_00: Hey, man, I can't do nothing but confirm it.
- 2:55SPEAKER_00: And I tell people all the time, it's funny because this is an abbreviated bio.
- 2:58SPEAKER_00: I mean, I could have filled the page with stuff, but yeah, like this is just a snapshot of some of the stuff that you're doing, man.
- 3:04SPEAKER_00: Yeah, man.
- 3:05SPEAKER_01: Oh, sheesh.
- 3:06SPEAKER_01: Honestly, bro, man, you know how it is as an artist, man.
- 3:09SPEAKER_01: Just you never know who's watching, but because you enjoy it, um, you just do the work, right?
- 3:15SPEAKER_01: And so to hear that bio, to hear the um praises from this past weekend, um, my wife, man, she's been the one pouring into me the longest, and she said she was still in awe on what we're doing.
- 3:28SPEAKER_01: Um, man, I take it all and start, give all glory to God on that one.
- 3:31SPEAKER_00: Yeah, man.
- 3:32SPEAKER_00: What stands out to you?
- 3:33SPEAKER_00: Like you, filmmaker, educator, rapper.
- 3:37SPEAKER_00: I mean, the list goes on and on.
- 3:38SPEAKER_00: When you hear a bio like that, what's the first thing that pops out into your mind?
- 3:42SPEAKER_01: Man, um I've been doing this a long time.
- 3:45SPEAKER_01: Yeah, man.
- 3:46SPEAKER_01: Uh what?
- 3:46SPEAKER_01: Been doing this really since you know 2013 when I got here to the U of A, just hit the ground running.
- 3:52SPEAKER_01: You know, at one point I thought I was gonna be uh an a sports journalist.
- 3:57SPEAKER_01: At one point, uh I thought I was gonna be a historian.
- 4:00SPEAKER_01: And into a sense I feel like I still am with the work I put in.
- 4:04SPEAKER_01: Um and then, you know, but within that, I'm always like creating film and um whenever the pen is hot, making sure, you know, I'm writing the best 16s that I can.
- 4:14SPEAKER_01: Or so um to go from where we started to hear that bio, um, it just you know complements the work that's been put in.
- 4:21SPEAKER_01: Yeah, man.
- 4:21SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
- 4:23SPEAKER_00: We we go back, and then like you said, I mean, like when you got around the time you got here, I was arriving at the university, and something that you do really well is you're a grounded person, and the art that you make always comes from a grounded place.
- 4:38SPEAKER_00: 100%.
- 4:39SPEAKER_00: I think you do a really good job of connecting people to experiences, to themselves, to each other, and that's not easy to do.
- 4:46SPEAKER_00: Where does that where does that come from?
- 4:47SPEAKER_01: Wow, um, I I think that uh comes from the root of a two-parent home.
- 4:51SPEAKER_01: So um being able to understand that um I come from a two-parent home with one income.
- 4:58SPEAKER_01: And so it or it felt like one income, right?
- 5:01SPEAKER_01: Because we had, because it was four boys in the house and all we did was eat.
- 5:04SPEAKER_01: Eat and then we travel, travel ball, right?
- 5:07SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, um my parents made a a lot of sacrifices to to see what we would look like in the future.
- 5:14SPEAKER_01: And so um just I don't I don't know, man, to be able to push that forward, because my parents did it, you know.
- 5:21SPEAKER_01: My parent, my my pops would, you know, do a night shift and turn around and coach a whole football team with the hope of keeping five of us out of jail, you know, and so being able to see the stories that my friends go through, but understanding that I had sort of a blessing at home, one of four fathers in the neighborhood, right?
- 5:41SPEAKER_01: Like an everybody hates Chris type moment.
- 5:43SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 5:43SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 5:44SPEAKER_01: So um that's that's how I've been able to do that.
- 5:46SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 5:47SPEAKER_00: Take us back to the beginning.
- 5:49SPEAKER_00: Bro, we want to know young Mike, like where do you come from?
- 5:52SPEAKER_00: You know, because like you said, now you're a young man, and there's a lot of skills, characteristics, attributes, things that you have now that had to originate somewhere.
- 6:02SPEAKER_00: So like give me, give me upbringing as far as you want to take us back.
- 6:05SPEAKER_01: Man, I can take you back.
- 6:06SPEAKER_01: Uh, I always got a shout out to Delta.
- 6:08SPEAKER_01: So my parents were raised at Marvel, Arkansas, which is a small town between Brinkley and Helena.
- 6:13SPEAKER_01: Yep.
- 6:14SPEAKER_01: And that's where I was actually born, and I was there until probably about one or two.
- 6:18SPEAKER_01: Wow.
- 6:18SPEAKER_01: And then my parents um went to Jones Gray for my mom to finish her degree.
- 6:23SPEAKER_00: Okay, the last episode I just did was with King Pimpen, who's also a beach reform to Marvel.
- 6:27SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's like breath was up.
- 6:29SPEAKER_01: And we can get into that later because when I met him, like he changed my whole perspective on a lot of stuff.
- 6:34SPEAKER_01: So we can we can get into that.
- 6:35SPEAKER_01: But you know, um, from Marvel to Jones Boro, we in a studio.
- 6:39SPEAKER_01: I'm talking about as big as this room, bro.
- 6:42SPEAKER_01: We in a studio apartment.
- 6:43SPEAKER_01: And uh my dad always told me the story.
- 6:45SPEAKER_01: It was like one day my mom got a degree that wasn't really working out at Jones Borough, and my dad just took the initiative.
- 6:51SPEAKER_01: He said, Hey, you know, I'm going to Little Rock.
- 6:54SPEAKER_01: You know, there's just there's something that's set up for me, and I really want you to go.
- 6:58SPEAKER_01: That's the 10-second version of that.
- 7:01SPEAKER_01: And then my mom had a choice, and um, they decided to thug it out and they moved to Little Rock.
- 7:06SPEAKER_01: Um, how old were you at that time?
- 7:08SPEAKER_01: Man, I had to have been like three.
- 7:10SPEAKER_01: Three with my with my brother on the way, with one of my brothers on the way.
- 7:13SPEAKER_01: Are you oldest?
- 7:14SPEAKER_01: I'm the oldest.
- 7:15SPEAKER_01: Okay.
- 7:15SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 7:16SPEAKER_01: That's what's up, brother.
- 7:17SPEAKER_01: Yeah, man.
- 7:17SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 7:18SPEAKER_01: So, you know, we end up at a trailer park.
- 7:20SPEAKER_01: Uh shees, man.
- 7:22SPEAKER_01: I and that's when I started really started remembering life.
- 7:25SPEAKER_01: It's yeah, that's when I found out I was allergic to bananas.
- 7:28SPEAKER_01: I was allergic to fish.
- 7:30SPEAKER_01: Now you know what's going on.
- 7:31SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 7:32SPEAKER_01: And then you go from there, and then we go into this tiny two-bedroom apartment across the street from what would eventually be my high school, McClellan.
- 7:42SPEAKER_01: Then we we finally get, we'd be able to rent a couple houses, but you know, things are taken aback when, you know, my other two brothers, when my other two brothers arrived, so now that's four.
- 7:52SPEAKER_01: And so we end up moving to Sherwood for a little bit.
- 7:55SPEAKER_01: And then we my parents, I guess, finally got it right.
- 7:58SPEAKER_01: And we ended up back in Wakefield um after being in Wakefield for like a brief time.
- 8:03SPEAKER_01: And so from nine to probably about my moved out of college, we were in Wakefield and this two-story home, definitely big compared to you know, some of my friends, but we were great.
- 8:15SPEAKER_01: We were housebreaking.
- 8:16SPEAKER_01: And so, but that was because my parents were literally trying to give us the life that they didn't have because they came from the farm.
- 8:22SPEAKER_01: You know, and so uh 18, go to Henderson State first.
- 8:26SPEAKER_01: Yep, try to figure it out.
- 8:27SPEAKER_01: Man, what do I want to do?
- 8:28SPEAKER_01: I get in the newspaper.
- 8:30SPEAKER_01: Um, I I started rapping under the guidance of um Alan Craig, Denzel Anthony from like high school up until Henderson State.
- 8:39SPEAKER_01: Then I come up here, I don't know, I know my girlfriend.
- 8:42SPEAKER_01: Now my now wife.
- 8:44SPEAKER_00: What what made you go to Henderson and what made you transfer?
- 8:46SPEAKER_01: So that was always the plan.
- 8:48SPEAKER_01: So the plan was to go to Henderson State on the comfort level of like so many of my friends from McClellan.
- 8:55SPEAKER_01: So it'd be easy to make friends.
- 8:57SPEAKER_01: Once I got the confidence to leave my parents' nest, it was like, okay, it's time to go somewhere.
- 9:02SPEAKER_01: And the stars really aligned because my brother ended up getting a full ride um to play football here.
- 9:07SPEAKER_01: Oh, wow.
- 9:08SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 9:09SPEAKER_01: And so good, I could catch up with my little bro.
- 9:11SPEAKER_01: And then I'm really invested um in my girlfriend now, wife.
- 9:15SPEAKER_01: It's like, I, you know, I'm gonna take this chance and I'm gonna, you know, she's already up there, everything is aligned, and let me just go up there.
- 9:22SPEAKER_01: Because when you went to HSU, she came up here already.
- 9:25SPEAKER_01: So funny enough, she was actually in New York.
- 9:28SPEAKER_01: So we met at Rave, the Rave movie theater in Little Rock.
- 9:32SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 9:33SPEAKER_01: So that's where we met at.
- 9:35SPEAKER_01: Um, she went to Pace University in New York, but she would come back during the summer to work because she went to she graduated from Parkview.
- 9:42SPEAKER_01: And so she ended up graduating.
- 9:44SPEAKER_01: She already had a job ready to go.
- 9:47SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, I don't want to tell her age like that.
- 9:49SPEAKER_01: But she's a senior in college, I'm a freshman in college.
- 9:52SPEAKER_01: So there's the age difference.
- 9:54SPEAKER_01: And so she already kind of got her career aligned, or so I just come up here and make sure I'm on my P's and Q's.
- 10:00SPEAKER_01: And and when it's school time, it's school time.
- 10:02SPEAKER_01: And then if we can hang out on the weekends, if I ain't got to study, then we'll hang out.
- 10:06SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 10:07SPEAKER_01: But yeah, that's how that went.
- 10:08SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 10:09SPEAKER_01: And so now uh we have the U of A.
- 10:11SPEAKER_01: I get a job with the school to learn how to run the camera.
- 10:14SPEAKER_01: Yeah, become a journalist.
- 10:16SPEAKER_01: I take African African American studies because my dad always punched it in my head.
- 10:20SPEAKER_01: Like, you know, once you learn your history, you'll stop getting in trouble.
- 10:24SPEAKER_01: And bro, I got in trouble a lot in high school.
- 10:29SPEAKER_01: What Pop say?
- 10:30SPEAKER_01: Man, Pop said, if you know your history, you'll stay out of trouble.
- 10:34SPEAKER_01: What does that mean?
- 10:35SPEAKER_01: Bro, like when you know where you come from, you know where you're going.
- 10:41SPEAKER_01: Just as simple as that.
- 10:42SPEAKER_01: And my dad has always told me, like, you need to learn your black history.
- 10:45SPEAKER_01: And I always tell him, like, ain't teaching us, and he'd be like, nah, nah, and explicit, very, very cussing me out, like you don't know nothing yet.
- 10:56SPEAKER_01: Go to school, figure it out.
- 10:58SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, you know, when you go to school, you got a couple of lectors that you can choose from.
- 11:02SPEAKER_01: And when somebody hit me with that African American studies, bro, I think I took like four straight semesters of it, and then I started buying books again.
- 11:11SPEAKER_01: And like voluntarily, not homework assignments, like just reading up, um, just to stay, just to stay present with history and myself.
- 11:20SPEAKER_01: Yep.
- 11:20SPEAKER_01: And he, man, he, man, I cannot stress my pops enough.
- 11:24SPEAKER_01: If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be here.
- 11:26SPEAKER_00: So I have to pop a daddy.
- 11:27SPEAKER_01: So after Roosevelt Daddy, if it wasn't for him, I'm not here.
- 11:31SPEAKER_01: And so just learning about my history, being grounded in that, and then that allows me to then say, okay, I could go look for a job, or I could be doing something that I really wanted to do, which was film.
- 11:45SPEAKER_01: I want to do film.
- 11:46SPEAKER_01: I don't know that many rappers because I want to direct music videos.
- 11:50SPEAKER_01: I also noticed that with a lot of rappers here, you know, it's very explicit in terms of, you know, what we're exposing, the violence, what we're exposing.
- 11:59SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, it was at that moment I was like, all right, I'm gonna take the I'm gonna take what I know and I'm gonna just start making music.
- 12:06SPEAKER_01: Um, and I'm gonna I'm gonna let it all hang out.
- 12:09SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna let the flaws hang out.
- 12:10SPEAKER_01: So from the decent debut album of the eighth day to the terrible sophomore slump buy back the block to eventually when we get the daydreams, you know, I think um I'm not afraid to let my flaws show, to let people know, hey, this is what I got, what do I need to work on?
- 12:28SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I think that's the beauty of where I'm at today.
- 12:31SPEAKER_01: Why'd you call it a slump?
- 12:33SPEAKER_01: Man, because when I wrote that album, My Granny Passed, I was getting married, but it felt like something was dying inside, you know.
- 12:46SPEAKER_01: And so I think I literally felt my childhood dying.
- 12:49SPEAKER_01: Like, you know, we we all get afraid of man, once you put a ring on it, man, that's it, blah, blah, blah.
- 12:55SPEAKER_01: But again, going back to my dad, it's just like, you know, when when you decide to get married, especially to that person you want to get married to, understand that this is the best investment you'll make.
- 13:05SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 13:05SPEAKER_01: And so trying to balance that, trying to balance, okay, my grandma's not going to be here for the wedding.
- 13:10SPEAKER_01: Let me try to make this album and this documentary, because from what I know, it's never been done in Arkansas.
- 13:15SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 13:15SPEAKER_01: And while the execution on the film side was great, the music lacked, in my opinion, because I knew I could have done.
- 13:23SPEAKER_01: But I had a deadline.
- 13:24SPEAKER_01: I had things that I wanted to do.
- 13:26SPEAKER_01: So I was like, no matter what, this is when this getting put out.
- 13:28SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 13:29SPEAKER_01: And that's why I was a slump.
- 13:30SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 13:31SPEAKER_01: Because it wasn't my best work at all.
- 13:33SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 13:33SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 13:34SPEAKER_00: You start doing film seriously when, like, what's the spark that's, oh man, I want to tell stories in this way.
- 13:43SPEAKER_00: Like, talk to me about that.
- 13:45SPEAKER_01: Seriously?
- 13:46SPEAKER_01: Yeah, man.
- 13:47SPEAKER_01: Um, that's a great question, Bang.
- 13:50SPEAKER_01: Seriously, it had to have been in college.
- 13:52SPEAKER_01: Um, especially around the Mike Brown protest, when you start understanding how journalism works when, you know, I'm in charge of producing a news segment.
- 14:02SPEAKER_01: And and depending on, I guess, who's watching, you take the news how you take it, right?
- 14:07SPEAKER_01: Right.
- 14:07SPEAKER_01: So um, me and my teacher um disagreed heavily on the Mike Brown situation.
- 14:12SPEAKER_01: And then it was in that moment I was like, man, I can't, I can't in good conscience be working for Fox News or CNN, knowing what I know, especially now that my dad is told me, go check this history out.
- 14:26SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I got the history, and now I'm like, wait a minute, like I just learned this from Dr.
- 14:32SPEAKER_01: Dow on what the media does to black men, especially if they can't speak for themselves.
- 14:37SPEAKER_01: Why would I be a part of that?
- 14:38SPEAKER_01: And it was in that moment I was like, okay, I'll make my own production company.
- 14:41SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 14:42SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 14:42SPEAKER_00: Your dad said, son, go learn your history.
- 14:45SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 14:46SPEAKER_00: Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep.
- 14:48SPEAKER_00: Get out there and what did you learn?
- 14:50SPEAKER_01: Like Bro, I learned that like I think the number one thing I learned about black history as it relates to America is like we keep going no matter what.
- 15:01SPEAKER_01: Shrug it off.
- 15:03SPEAKER_01: Whatever you believe in.
- 15:04SPEAKER_01: And in my case, it's Jesus, you know, is God.
- 15:08SPEAKER_01: So you you tap into that, let let him guide you, and we keep it pushing.
- 15:13SPEAKER_01: Like the Marcus Garveys of the World, uh, Harriet Tubman's, the Booker T.
- 15:17SPEAKER_01: Washingtons, all of them.
- 15:19SPEAKER_01: We all have different opinions on how to get to that promised land.
- 15:22SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 15:23SPEAKER_01: But I I think we we are so resilient.
- 15:26SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, unfortunately, even in today's climate, you know, to me, hate is at an all-time high.
- 15:33SPEAKER_01: You know, with who's in the White House and who's following that that base.
- 15:37SPEAKER_01: And to me, I see a lot of black people, it's like, we've seen us before.
- 15:42SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 15:43SPEAKER_01: So, you know, when the other side is ready to actually get to work, instead of, you know, doing more than complaining when when it's time, black people would be ready to get to work.
- 15:52SPEAKER_01: It's that simple.
- 15:53SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 15:54SPEAKER_00: I didn't prep you on these questions, by the way.
- 15:56SPEAKER_00: Nah, you came in here ready.
- 15:57SPEAKER_00: Like these are some real heavy questions.
- 15:59SPEAKER_01: No, no, this is just again, bro.
- 16:02SPEAKER_01: Like, you know how it is as a as a rapper, as a storyteller, as a creator.
- 16:06SPEAKER_01: You you are watching your own journey.
- 16:08SPEAKER_01: Like, so you know, being I turned 33 next Monday.
- 16:12SPEAKER_01: Congratulations.
- 16:12SPEAKER_01: And so thank you.
- 16:13SPEAKER_01: To be able to, you know, we still got next Monday, but if I can get to 33 and live as long as Jesus is just like, man, like I'm doing something right.
- 16:22SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
- 16:22SPEAKER_01: Right?
- 16:22SPEAKER_01: Because I I know both of us have like friends who are either independent or unfortunately no longer with us, right?
- 16:29SPEAKER_01: And so to be able to be here, you know, on two feet, happily married, with three beautiful kids, with a business, you know, what I what I consider an album of the year, and I'm able to teach, man, like, bro, I'm so happy.
- 16:45SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm so happy.
- 16:46SPEAKER_00: What does success look like to 10-year-old Mike?
- 16:50SPEAKER_00: And then again to 15-year-old Mike.
- 16:52SPEAKER_00: Like, what did you think?
- 16:53SPEAKER_00: You know, because like you said, if you were to tell me, bruh, I'm married to the love of my life with three beautiful, healthy kids, I just dropped, we're gonna get into this, right?
- 17:04SPEAKER_00: We're gonna start with the cover.
- 17:06SPEAKER_00: We're gonna start with the cover.
- 17:08SPEAKER_00: But you know, I just dropped my third album, and and I'm teaching at a uh a charter school, like a state-of-the-art school.
- 17:15SPEAKER_00: It ain't really just the school, you know what I'm saying?
- 17:17SPEAKER_00: Like, and brother Liz goes on and on and on.
- 17:19SPEAKER_00: To a lot of people, even that level of success is unfathomable, right?
- 17:23SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
- 17:24SPEAKER_00: To to me or you at a point in our life, like 100%.
- 17:27SPEAKER_00: This was probably like, damn, bro, I can really do this.
- 17:29SPEAKER_01: See, here's here's the difference between like 10-year-old Mike and 33-year-old Mike.
- 17:33SPEAKER_01: Like, 10-year-old Mike wanna assume 33-year-old Mike is full of money, like is rich, and that is what's making them happy.
- 17:42SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 17:42SPEAKER_01: Um, just as a 10-year-old, it was just like, man, I just want to, I just want to be like Kobe.
- 17:48SPEAKER_01: Yeah, like you know, when I was 10, I wanted to, well, I wanted to be like AI.
- 17:52SPEAKER_01: I didn't grow to appreciate Kobe until I turned like 15.
- 17:56SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 17:56SPEAKER_01: And then understanding like all the stuff behind the scenes they did, that's that's when I started appreciating Kobe.
- 18:02SPEAKER_01: But like when I was 10, I wanted to be like AI.
- 18:06SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I wanted to be I wanted to be a lawyer.
- 18:08SPEAKER_01: Yeah, like that that is what success looked like.
- 18:11SPEAKER_01: This picket fence, this this house in the hood.
- 18:16SPEAKER_01: Like I told myself I would never leave either.
- 18:21SPEAKER_01: Bro, as I get 15, um, I think that's when my feelings for girls really were at an all-time high.
- 18:27SPEAKER_01: So, you know, always I think success always included having that one girl, either that one girl or a plethora.
- 18:34SPEAKER_01: Yes, that's real.
- 18:35SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, I'm not ashamed to say what I what I used to think, right?
- 18:39SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and so it was either one or the other.
- 18:41SPEAKER_01: Thank God that one.
- 18:44SPEAKER_01: What did Kanye say?
- 18:46SPEAKER_01: One good girl is worth a thousand women.
- 18:47SPEAKER_01: That's true.
- 18:48SPEAKER_01: That is so real.
- 18:49SPEAKER_01: So um that that's what success looked like at the ages of 10, 15, thinking you'd be in the NBA, thinking um rap was the partest thing on my mind.
- 18:57SPEAKER_01: Like I would, I would do it, but it was the part of this thing on my mind.
- 19:00SPEAKER_01: Film felt like an almost impossible mission.
- 19:03SPEAKER_01: Like we in the hood, we don't have art classes.
- 19:05SPEAKER_01: Right, right.
- 19:06SPEAKER_01: Like I don't, I don't know how to, I don't know how to pick up a camera.
- 19:08SPEAKER_01: Yeah, iPhones wasn't prevalent back then.
- 19:12SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, it was go to school, be a lawyer, you know, and and and make your money.
- 19:17SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 19:17SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 19:18SPEAKER_00: Right now, what feels more natural and life-giving is it working on a film?
- 19:24SPEAKER_00: If if you were approached right now, like, man, I want to do this speech or film on all the black superintendents ever that nobody ever talked about.
- 19:33SPEAKER_00: Like something like that that that ties this historical component and also filmmaking on the highest level possible.
- 19:40SPEAKER_00: Or if you know your favorite producer, I'm talking like Raphael Sadiq and and Mary Gordy, and like like some of the big composers come to you and they like, there's no budget.
- 19:54SPEAKER_00: You can get whoever you want to get to play the instruments, you can work with whatever songwriters you want to work with, we're finna make an album.
- 20:00SPEAKER_00: Like, which one of those things would be more exciting or life-giving to you?
- 20:05SPEAKER_00: It would be filmmaking easily.
- 20:07SPEAKER_01: So um I'll I always try myself as a filmmaker first, hence to name your favorite filmmaker.
- 20:12SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 20:13SPEAKER_01: Um, but the beautiful thing to me about filmmaking, I think filmmakers could, if they could really tap in, I think um, I think Ryan Kugler could be the best rapper ever.
- 20:24SPEAKER_01: Just the way he approaches his film from a directing standpoint, and he writes all of his stuff, right?
- 20:30SPEAKER_01: So I think an argument could be made that he could be the greatest rapper ever.
- 20:35SPEAKER_01: He got the background, he's from Oakland, California.
- 20:38SPEAKER_01: He knows the struggle.
- 20:39SPEAKER_01: Like he could he could share his hardships about writing these films, about writing, you know, the death of Chad with Bozeman, right?
- 20:46SPEAKER_01: Fruit Vale Station.
- 20:48SPEAKER_01: He has all that.
- 20:49SPEAKER_01: And so um, but I'm going on a loophole, I'm going on a rampage just to say, like, bro, I would rather, I would rather be known for that filmmaking aspect.
- 20:58SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 20:59SPEAKER_00: Talk to me about the line between filmmaking and music, because I feel like they are more connected than maybe we would think.
- 21:08SPEAKER_00: You are live in both worlds fully.
- 21:11SPEAKER_00: Like you are coming off of an album release, you know, you just put out a major production.
- 21:16SPEAKER_00: And so what's the the overlap, the synergy that you see when you're working on a film versus when you're working on an album?
- 21:24SPEAKER_00: It's the writing.
- 21:25SPEAKER_01: Uh, and it's just how do I want to approach it?
- 21:28SPEAKER_01: And so um I'll give you a great example, bro.
- 21:32SPEAKER_01: The Sextance.
- 21:34SPEAKER_01: I could make an album about postpartum depression.
- 21:38SPEAKER_01: What is the sextants?
- 21:39SPEAKER_01: Tell us.
- 21:39SPEAKER_01: So The Sextance is a uh is a web series created by Davis and to highlight the uh postpartum depression in women and parental depression in men.
- 21:50SPEAKER_01: And it's through drama and comedy.
- 21:53SPEAKER_01: So it would be very hard as a rapper to find.
- 22:00SPEAKER_01: Three or four different women to get uh a postpartum depression because not everybody is a rapper, not everybody sings, but I'm about to say 90% of the people you know watch TV, and so it's easier to go in that realm versus when it comes to daydreams, like I know everything I want to say, yeah, I know how I want to say it, and I know that sonically people will relate to that before they relate to a biography about Mike Day.
- 22:31SPEAKER_01: Yeah and so it's just about picking which ones that um that I think suits best.
- 22:37SPEAKER_01: And uh a lot of the times, whenever I'm ready to talk about myself, I'm ready to drop an album.
- 22:42SPEAKER_01: Whenever I want to talk about something I went through, that is when the idea of shows pop up.
- 22:50SPEAKER_00: Man, you do a good job of bringing this authentic intentionality to, you know, your music.
- 22:57SPEAKER_00: I think about the song that we're on called Peer Pressure.
- 23:00SPEAKER_00: Yeah, bro.
- 23:00SPEAKER_00: Everything is fine.
- 23:01SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
- 23:02SPEAKER_00: Like, and you you I mean, first verse, innocent kid, want to fit in, and then you just dive down this place that I feel like a lot of people would rather not go.
- 23:13SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 23:13SPEAKER_00: So I even think about my own art.
- 23:15SPEAKER_00: I know my most authentic resonating things are the things that I can't get on the surface.
- 23:22SPEAKER_00: Like on the surface, I can go, I'm fly.
- 23:24SPEAKER_00: On the surface, I can go look at the trip I can take.
- 23:26SPEAKER_00: On the surface, I can go like, you know, I'm better than you, but in the reality, it's like, mmm, I'm struggling with, you know what I mean?
- 23:34SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 23:35SPEAKER_00: Now how I'm perceived because my life is different than what it was for, you know what I mean?
- 23:38SPEAKER_00: Or like, oh, I'm wrestling with some insecurity.
- 23:40SPEAKER_00: Like, there's things that are difficult that a lot of artists just opt out of completely that I feel like you dive head first there.
- 23:48SPEAKER_01: Man, I think it's because like we we want people to buy our product.
- 23:53SPEAKER_01: So, you know, as long as it's not incriminating anyone, right?
- 23:59SPEAKER_01: Because you know, because we also, I mean, we're we're essentially good kids that were in a mass city.
- 24:05SPEAKER_01: Shout out to Kendrick Lamar, right?
- 24:06SPEAKER_01: And so while we weren't necessarily in the street, there's still a code that we know about, right?
- 24:12SPEAKER_01: So for me, it's um just allowing people, okay, I'm expecting you to spend$10 on an album.
- 24:19SPEAKER_01: I gotta, I gotta tell you.
- 24:21SPEAKER_01: Like, I have to.
- 24:22SPEAKER_01: Like, even um on Wakefield, where um, you know, I revealed like I was sexually assaulted by a girl that I really cared for.
- 24:30SPEAKER_01: Like, you know, you know, if I can go back home and be like, man, you just got some.
- 24:34SPEAKER_01: Like, don't worry about that.
- 24:35SPEAKER_01: Versus, I went to therapy, I'm unpacking all this, and she said, you, you know that that wasn't right, right?
- 24:42SPEAKER_01: You know, and unpacking that and having to deal with that, having to deal with like not because all this stuff happens before, like when I released stuff, that means I dealt with it like three or four years before it's out.
- 24:56SPEAKER_01: And so I'm making sure like I'm telling young men, here's what I went through.
- 25:02SPEAKER_01: If you're going through, if you're going through it too, it's okay.
- 25:06SPEAKER_01: You know, there are resources out here to help us numb the pain.
- 25:09SPEAKER_01: That's not alcohol, that's not, you know, marijuana.
- 25:12SPEAKER_01: Like you can legit go to therapy.
- 25:14SPEAKER_01: And that was the whole point of that was the whole point of creating weight field, which is to say that moment right there, you can go to therapy.
- 25:20SPEAKER_01: It's okay.
- 25:20SPEAKER_01: Wow.
- 25:21SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, and so man, it's just you have to put yourself out there, man.
- 25:26SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm telling you to buy a$20 uh DVD for a coburt or for the sexes.
- 25:33SPEAKER_01: You think I'm not gonna be real with you?
- 25:35SPEAKER_01: Like, come on.
- 25:36SPEAKER_01: I I don't think it's fair to the consumers.
- 25:39SPEAKER_00: Like you feel like you owe it to them to be your artist self.
- 25:42SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I have to.
- 25:43SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 25:43SPEAKER_01: I have to, you know, and honestly, that's how I feel when I listen to you, when I listen to like Jasper, when I listen to uh Penn, Avian, like so it's so many artists out here.
- 25:53SPEAKER_01: I think I think we we just need to give our consumers what we feel in and give the best effort in that moment, and then history can decide how we did later.
- 26:03SPEAKER_00: How do you keep from getting caught in the opinions of other people and saying, like, this might be what I feel, but this is what's happening?
- 26:13SPEAKER_00: Like the the this is getting the clicks.
- 26:15SPEAKER_00: I could make us a show about some drama real quick, just for the sake of it being drama.
- 26:22SPEAKER_00: And I know that this would do better than this thoughtful, introspective thing that I really want to say.
- 26:26SPEAKER_00: Like, how do you keep from getting caught in being more performative than it is, you know, doing something that's actually coming from a genuine player?
- 26:35SPEAKER_01: I've never had that question asked to me before, and I don't even know how to answer it because like it it in actuality, I deal, I have to deal with it.
- 26:43SPEAKER_01: Like there's there's a there's a script, there's a script that features like lust and features gun violence.
- 26:52SPEAKER_01: That is in the tuck, like, but in all y'all reality, I'll go back to it and I'll be like, does this help or hurt my cause for making sure that black people have a better tomorrow?
- 27:04SPEAKER_01: Like, that's as simple as it is.
- 27:06SPEAKER_01: Like, do I wanna add on to the stereotypes of the mammy or the coon?
- 27:13SPEAKER_01: Yeah, or or do I wanna do I really want to write something and live with the results, right?
- 27:19SPEAKER_01: And so, like, you know, every everything we do um probably won't get the cosign that we need to get a million dollars.
- 27:26SPEAKER_01: Right.
- 27:27SPEAKER_01: But, you know, is it's getting that cosign of being able to sleep at night.
- 27:30SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 27:30SPEAKER_01: Being able to go home and and my wife is proud of me because she knows that whatever I made came from a genuine place instead of what was this BS, you know, and that kind of ties back into one of my old projects and the win areas where I was fighting, like I was fighting, and I was so close to dropping like something that I knew I wasn't gonna like, but I knew it would have easily got a million likes.
- 27:54SPEAKER_01: And like at the last second I pulled it, I was like, nah, I can't do it.
- 27:58SPEAKER_01: And and it worked out for the better, bro.
- 28:00SPEAKER_01: Like, you know, just speaking candidly, like the sexness got picked up for a distribution opportunity.
- 28:06SPEAKER_01: So it's like that happened.
- 28:08SPEAKER_01: This that happened the same week I announced that the album was coming.
- 28:12SPEAKER_01: So it's just like, okay, if I if I do it the way that I said I was gonna do it, everything is gonna work out.
- 28:18SPEAKER_01: Yeah, if you if you go about it another route, you may get there quicker, but there may be so many things that you gotta you gotta I don't want to say sell your soul because it's so, you know, but you won't be able to sleep.
- 28:32SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 28:32SPEAKER_01: And and I'm okay with that.
- 28:34SPEAKER_01: I'm okay with taking a long rep.
- 28:35SPEAKER_00: This is the second show that I've done.
- 28:38SPEAKER_00: I mean, I mean consecutively.
- 28:40SPEAKER_00: Like the episode that went out this week, you know, our our guy King Pimp and says, I can't promise you that being true to yourself will make you a million dollars.
- 28:49SPEAKER_00: You can't, but I can promise you that you will be proud of yourself.
- 28:53SPEAKER_00: Yes.
- 28:53SPEAKER_00: If you stay true, if you if you you know don't take the compromise around and just do something for the sake of doing it.
- 28:59SPEAKER_00: And so for you, how did you know what that why was?
- 29:02SPEAKER_00: Like, even as I hear you speak, it feels like everything supports this why.
- 29:06SPEAKER_00: I want to have, I want to help black people see a better tomorrow.
- 29:09SPEAKER_00: I don't want to perpetuate stereotypes, I don't want to do something for the sake of just instant, you know, gratification.
- 29:15SPEAKER_00: Where did that why come from?
- 29:17SPEAKER_01: Um, the why started wanting to do um black people justice.
- 29:23SPEAKER_01: That's how it started.
- 29:25SPEAKER_01: Lately, it's been my three kids and my wife.
- 29:29SPEAKER_01: Um I want them to build off whatever I put up, right?
- 29:33SPEAKER_01: And so if I'm building off of something that is, you know, on the ground that's steady versus shaky, they will have something, excuse me, they will have something to build off on versus if I start on the ground shaky, by the time they get here, something's gonna fall.
- 29:49SPEAKER_01: And so too, yeah, to me is very important, man.
- 29:53SPEAKER_01: Like when you build your house, build it on solid foundation.
- 29:58SPEAKER_01: Because if you build it on some nonsense, like one thunderstorm, anything, wind damage, tornado, and then Arkansas, all three in the same week sometimes.
- 30:11SPEAKER_01: The same day, right?
- 30:12SPEAKER_01: And so that that's that's that's been my motivation lately, man.
- 30:16SPEAKER_01: Just the family, the wife, the kids, and and of course the tribe, the people who helped Day Vision.
- 30:22SPEAKER_01: You know, I'd be remiss if I didn't shout them out in the middle of this podcast simply because they helped me build something that um right now feels irreplaceable.
- 30:33SPEAKER_01: And so now that they've done that, I'm I'm able to say, okay, let me take two seconds to finish this album.
- 30:38SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 30:39SPEAKER_01: And let me help the people who helped me and get their platform started.
- 30:44SPEAKER_01: So that's what it is.
- 30:46SPEAKER_00: What is this, man?
- 30:46SPEAKER_00: Like what you you gave me something very special off camera.
- 30:51SPEAKER_00: And uh I make sure, zoom in on this, make sure y'all get good.
- 30:55SPEAKER_00: You know, man.
- 30:57SPEAKER_00: What is this?
- 30:58SPEAKER_00: What am I holding in my head?
- 30:59SPEAKER_01: You're holding a Mike Day classic.
- 31:01SPEAKER_01: Talk to me about it, man.
- 31:02SPEAKER_01: Um, Daydreams the album.
- 31:04SPEAKER_01: Uh, album number five.
- 31:08SPEAKER_01: Album number five.
- 31:09SPEAKER_01: Wow.
- 31:10SPEAKER_01: My most my my most complete work as a rapper.
- 31:14SPEAKER_01: Just just simple.
- 31:16SPEAKER_01: Um, everybody asked me about the cover art.
- 31:20SPEAKER_01: So, funny enough, the first cover art, it was dope, man.
- 31:23SPEAKER_01: It was really dope.
- 31:24SPEAKER_01: The first cover art was me uh kind of laying back on the floor, heads in the clouds, and like an Emmy, uh Emmy trophy just on the side and a camera right by it.
- 31:35SPEAKER_01: And so that that was me finally tapping into okay, I am a hip-hop artist and a filmmaker.
- 31:40SPEAKER_01: Yep.
- 31:41SPEAKER_01: Then um something happened to where I was watching some Mike Jordan, I was watching some Mike Jordan clips.
- 31:50SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 31:51SPEAKER_01: And then for whatever reason, like it led me to seeing Michael Jackson pop up on the timeline because his movie is coming out.
- 31:58SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 31:59SPEAKER_01: And then um Floyd Mayweather was doing an interview, and he was and he was saying something about Mike Tyson.
- 32:05SPEAKER_01: And then it kind of, it was like, I want to live up to that name.
- 32:10SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I want the album to reflect that.
- 32:12SPEAKER_01: And so I kind of scrapped everything.
- 32:14SPEAKER_01: Literally, I'm submitting my album to DistroKid, and at the last second, I'm saying, wait, I gotta start from I gotta start this album cover from scratch.
- 32:23SPEAKER_01: Wow.
- 32:23SPEAKER_01: Yeah, literally, and so and also I I know that an album cover will get everybody's attention.
- 32:32SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
- 32:33SPEAKER_01: Like if you can give somebody an undeniable album cover, they could never listen to your music in your life, and they will give you at least one spectrum to whether it was good or it was trash.
- 32:44SPEAKER_01: That's a fact, yeah.
- 32:45SPEAKER_01: So so I have to do that.
- 32:47SPEAKER_01: And then of course, um, Arkansas.
- 32:49SPEAKER_01: Um, I don't want to say it's a shot, but like it was that was a response to LeBron and Casinette's like critiques on Arkansas.
- 32:58SPEAKER_01: Um, there were a couple videos going around around the time I was making the album, actually, where Cassinat was like, he was asking somebody, bro, you from Arkansas?
- 33:07SPEAKER_01: How does that feel?
- 33:08SPEAKER_01: And it was in a negative light, right?
- 33:10SPEAKER_01: And then uh LeBron asked Austin Reeves from where he's from, and then he was like, nah, you're not from Arkansas.
- 33:16SPEAKER_01: And in the back of my head, like, bro, you don't know Joe Johnson, Scottie Pittman.
- 33:19SPEAKER_01: No, no, none of these like you, like, come on, man.
- 33:21SPEAKER_01: Like Darius Acup, about the yeah, like, what are we talking about here?
- 33:25SPEAKER_01: You know?
- 33:26SPEAKER_01: And so um, I had to rep the state.
- 33:29SPEAKER_01: Like, and that was non-negotiable.
- 33:31SPEAKER_01: And so um, to me, those are the Mount Rushmores and Mike's.
- 33:35SPEAKER_01: And then of course, I'm paying homage to the state.
- 33:38SPEAKER_01: I love this, bro.
- 33:40SPEAKER_01: Thanks, man.
- 33:40SPEAKER_00: So give me the project concept.
- 33:42SPEAKER_00: Like, what can we expect?
- 33:43SPEAKER_00: What can we give me?
- 33:45SPEAKER_01: Okay, so I would call this the album that wasn't supposed to be written.
- 33:50SPEAKER_01: You said this a classic, yeah.
- 33:52SPEAKER_01: A self-proclaimed Mike Day classic.
- 33:54SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I don't, and again, like I'm like, I have a lot of confidence with this about my film stuff.
- 34:01SPEAKER_01: Yeah, when it comes to hip-hop, it becomes something totally different.
- 34:05SPEAKER_01: And I'm I'm usually very careful with my words when the albums come out.
- 34:09SPEAKER_01: So we talked about this earlier.
- 34:11SPEAKER_01: The first album was a decent debut, the second one felt like a slump.
- 34:15SPEAKER_01: The third one um that involved peer pressure felt great.
- 34:18SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it felt great.
- 34:20SPEAKER_01: Um, it got me through COVID, you know.
- 34:23SPEAKER_01: Fourth album, which was supposed to be the final album, Wakefield, that basically tells everything.
- 34:28SPEAKER_01: And it's like, man, it was a good album, but like it didn't it didn't click the way I wanted it to.
- 34:34SPEAKER_01: Not necessarily with the crowd, but with myself.
- 34:37SPEAKER_01: Like, man, I'm replaying it, and it's like, man, it's not clicking.
- 34:40SPEAKER_01: And so, bro, around 2023, shortly after Wakefield dropped, I just started writing again.
- 34:46SPEAKER_01: But this time it came from a perspective of like, all right, your childhood's over with.
- 34:50SPEAKER_01: What are you grateful for?
- 34:52SPEAKER_01: You know, the first four albums, we we looking into the childhood, we're looking into therapy, we're looking into um, you know, so many protests happening in the world.
- 35:01SPEAKER_01: You got all that.
- 35:02SPEAKER_01: This album, now I'm just grateful.
- 35:06SPEAKER_01: Like, now I'm just grateful.
- 35:07SPEAKER_01: Like, especially when you got songs like The Function in the Field, like, yeah, the police might come kill us tomorrow, but you know what?
- 35:13SPEAKER_01: My daddy about to cook something on the grill.
- 35:15SPEAKER_01: He told me to invite my girl over.
- 35:18SPEAKER_01: And that's all I care about, right?
- 35:20SPEAKER_01: To to when we get to will you still dream?
- 35:23SPEAKER_01: Same concept.
- 35:24SPEAKER_01: All right, man.
- 35:25SPEAKER_01: You know, police might bust in, ice might come through the door, but you know what?
- 35:29SPEAKER_01: I'm still dreaming.
- 35:30SPEAKER_01: Because, you know, if we get another tomorrow, that's a chance to do it right.
- 35:34SPEAKER_01: And so being able to do that, um, really give credit to um my folks, get them on the album that was had them, yes, got them on the album.
- 35:43SPEAKER_00: I already heard the whole thing, yeah.
- 35:44SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but parents on the album?
- 35:46SPEAKER_01: Yeah, man.
- 35:47SPEAKER_01: At the end of uh so at the end of the intro, um my dad gives a stellar introduction that says, Um, this is your favorite father's filmmaker, and this is Daydreams the album.
- 35:58SPEAKER_01: And then my mom comes in later on and we kind of recreate uh what a Saturday used to look like, where it's time to get up, go to the store, bring me my change back, and get ready for the day.
- 36:10SPEAKER_01: And so being able to do that, man, and then just pay homage to them two and my wife at the end of the album.
- 36:16SPEAKER_01: Um, I'm not gonna say this is the final album by any means because I learned my lesson, but I will say, like, if you don't hear from me from six years, that just means I'm content with with my career as a rapper.
- 36:28SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I love that, man.
- 36:30SPEAKER_00: When it comes to putting yourself out there, also, who did this?
- 36:34SPEAKER_00: Did you do this?
- 36:36SPEAKER_00: I know you had the idea.
- 36:37SPEAKER_01: So I found a guy on Fiverr.
- 36:39SPEAKER_01: Okay, I can't think of his name at the moment, but man, if you need if you need album creations, if you need anything, um, really anything, go to Fiverr.
- 36:48SPEAKER_01: Yeah, like folks are there to help.
- 36:50SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I love it.
- 36:52SPEAKER_00: Um how to how's the best way I want to frame this?
- 36:57SPEAKER_00: When you start putting yourself out there, right?
- 37:00SPEAKER_00: Like you now you have I mean four different things that you represent.
- 37:05SPEAKER_00: You are an artist.
- 37:06SPEAKER_00: People can book you right now for a show if they want to.
- 37:09SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
- 37:10SPEAKER_00: They dream just drive book my boy for the show.
- 37:12SPEAKER_00: Yes, you know what I'm saying?
- 37:14SPEAKER_00: You are an educator.
- 37:16SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
- 37:17SPEAKER_00: You have students that you teach.
- 37:19SPEAKER_00: I mean, I did a presentation at your school a few weeks ago when they say Mike Day, like I'm talking 150 kids, they just start screaming like you, you was out there, like you just started laughing, like, you know what I'm saying?
- 37:35SPEAKER_00: I'm not kids don't do that.
- 37:36SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
- 37:37SPEAKER_00: And then you, you know, you're obviously a filmmaker, and that comes with a bunch of things.
- 37:42SPEAKER_00: You write your own stuff, you know, you direct.
- 37:44SPEAKER_00: And so when you think about putting yourself out there, you know, because you you active on social media, you got your mic day page, you got the day vision page, you post regularly.
- 37:54SPEAKER_00: I see you all the time in my timeline.
- 37:56SPEAKER_00: How do you go about putting yourself out there?
- 38:01SPEAKER_00: Is there somebody that does the content for you?
- 38:03SPEAKER_00: Do you know what I'm saying?
- 38:04SPEAKER_00: Okay, not yeah, you got another job.
- 38:06SPEAKER_00: Like basically that's man.
- 38:11SPEAKER_01: Ooh.
- 38:12SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
- 38:13SPEAKER_01: Sometimes I just do it and understand that mess ups are coming along.
- 38:18SPEAKER_01: Um, I don't I don't have a blueprint.
- 38:20SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 38:20SPEAKER_01: I don't.
- 38:21SPEAKER_01: Um, I got God, I got my wife, we got a family calendar, and I adjust as necessary.
- 38:29SPEAKER_01: So, like, you know, while I'm grateful that I'm that I'm able to continuously put content out, nothing, nothing happens until I have a conversation with my wife about, all right, here's what I want to do.
- 38:40SPEAKER_01: What is the family doing first?
- 38:42SPEAKER_01: And then let me adjust to that.
- 38:44SPEAKER_01: So, you know, even down to the album release.
- 38:48SPEAKER_01: And it's like, okay, I know on March 30th, my wife, my wife loves to celebrate me the whole month.
- 38:54SPEAKER_01: Let's get past my son's birthday that is also in March, and then for the next two, three weeks, just go all out.
- 39:02SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 39:03SPEAKER_01: Go to all interviews, do everything you need to do, and then give ourselves like another month with promo for the album, and then we can start scaling back a little bit.
- 39:14SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 39:15SPEAKER_01: Because if I'm not, if I don't have anything to say, there's no point in me being on socials.
- 39:19SPEAKER_01: Like, I don't, you know, the algorithm is a thing we should be posting every day if we want engagement.
- 39:26SPEAKER_01: But if we're being honest, the way I go about it is I'll I'll post what I want to post.
- 39:32SPEAKER_01: If I want you to see it, let me see what the post is doing.
- 39:35SPEAKER_01: And then, you know, add a little bit on Instagram, let it and then let it work out.
- 39:41SPEAKER_01: And I'm not talking$100, I'm talking like$20.
- 39:43SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 39:44SPEAKER_01: $20 that I would have spent on, you know, going somewhere with my friends.
- 39:48SPEAKER_01: It's like, all right, let me invest this in day vision real quick.
- 39:50SPEAKER_01: Let me get, let me see what happens.
- 39:52SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 39:53SPEAKER_00: And lo and behold.
- 39:55SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 39:56SPEAKER_00: When you think about social media right now, how important is it in general?
- 39:59SPEAKER_00: If if if I'm an up-and-coming filmmaker, I'm gonna get my content out there.
- 40:03SPEAKER_00: Like, how important is it for me to be active on social?
- 40:06SPEAKER_01: Bro, social media don't beat her face to face.
- 40:10SPEAKER_01: It doesn't.
- 40:11SPEAKER_01: Um and I think that was the problem, like with my first couple albums.
- 40:17SPEAKER_01: I thought, like, man, I'm gonna just be on social media.
- 40:20SPEAKER_01: I ain't gotta, I ain't gotta go talk to the people.
- 40:23SPEAKER_01: That's that's not true.
- 40:25SPEAKER_01: We we have to get back to like doing stuff at an inconvenience.
- 40:30SPEAKER_01: So I think we're in this, we're in this stage in life right now where a lot of people will say, man, I'm not going to my homeboys like stuff because I don't want to go.
- 40:39SPEAKER_01: Versus, you know, okay, if I go there for 20 minutes, like shake his hand, tell him I'm proud of him.
- 40:46SPEAKER_01: I like I'll tell my wife right now, man, like I gotta go somewhere.
- 40:50SPEAKER_01: Like, do I want to go?
- 40:52SPEAKER_01: Of course I want to go, but I'm also super tired.
- 40:54SPEAKER_01: I want to acknowledge that my homeboy is doing this thing that that a lot of people are afraid to do.
- 41:01SPEAKER_01: Like, you know, um, the day before the album release party, I had a friend wanting me to come check out his film, you know, and it was like a one-on-one thing.
- 41:11SPEAKER_01: I could have easily been like, bro, I got the show.
- 41:14SPEAKER_01: I I can't, like, I can't do it.
- 41:16SPEAKER_01: But like, how many times has this same man been here for me?
- 41:20SPEAKER_01: How many times has, how many times did I pray for a person to come look at my stuff before I release it to the world?
- 41:30SPEAKER_01: And when you get to thinking about that, bro, like you have to, you have to make time for the people who you want to attend the show.
- 41:38SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 41:38SPEAKER_01: So that that's what that's where I'm at with social media.
- 41:41SPEAKER_01: Like, of course, it's there.
- 41:42SPEAKER_01: Of course, I'm gonna put a little money behind it so that people see the post, but nothing beats, nothing beats in person.
- 41:50SPEAKER_01: Yeah, just like nothing beats a physical copy compared to digital.
- 41:54SPEAKER_00: Yeah, man.
- 41:54SPEAKER_00: When you gave me this, it just brought back so many memories.
- 41:57SPEAKER_00: Like, I remember my first CD, Usher Confessions.
- 42:00SPEAKER_00: Like, bro, mine was uh the first one that I bought was uh King King by TI.
- 42:05SPEAKER_00: Ooh, see, you'll never forget that.
- 42:08SPEAKER_00: Nah, that this is how another conversation because TI back on his uh, you know, king stuff, like yeah, man.
- 42:14SPEAKER_00: He top he top five in mine.
- 42:15SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
- 42:16SPEAKER_00: Give me top five.
- 42:17SPEAKER_01: Off the cuff, man.
- 42:18SPEAKER_01: Off the cuff, give me a top.
- 42:20SPEAKER_01: Uh Kendrick Cole.
- 42:22SPEAKER_01: If we're talking like mainstream, Kendrick Cole tip, yay, ho.
- 42:32SPEAKER_01: Those are my five.
- 42:33SPEAKER_01: Man, uh give me your I got enough.
- 42:39SPEAKER_00: That's a good question.
- 42:42SPEAKER_00: You want me to go rapper or artist?
- 42:44SPEAKER_00: Uh Yo Pit.
- 42:46SPEAKER_00: Alright, if I'm going, if I'm going top five artists, it'll go uh Bob Marley, Lauren Hill.
- 42:56SPEAKER_00: Okay, Andre 3000, okay, uh, Kendrick, okay, and Wayne.
- 43:03SPEAKER_00: Those would be my top five artists.
- 43:06SPEAKER_00: All of those make sense.
- 43:07SPEAKER_00: All for different, yeah.
- 43:08SPEAKER_00: All for different reasons.
- 43:10SPEAKER_00: All for different reasons, bro.
- 43:12SPEAKER_00: But like, you know, when I was growing up, my parents listened to a lot of Neo Soul, a lot of Bob Marley.
- 43:18SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 43:19SPEAKER_00: And that's what the first time I was like, oh, music is medicine.
- 43:22SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 43:22SPEAKER_00: Like you can be healed by listening to this stuff.
- 43:24SPEAKER_00: 100%.
- 43:25SPEAKER_00: And by the stuff you listen to, you can also have an extreme detriment on your trajectory.
- 43:29SPEAKER_00: That was the like, I'm talking six, seven, eight years old.
- 43:32SPEAKER_00: I was like, oh man, when you listen to Bob Marley, you feel good.
- 43:35SPEAKER_00: He sang something, you know what I'm saying?
- 43:37SPEAKER_00: And so Laura Hill, I fell in love with writing and you know, melodies and kind of similar.
- 43:43SPEAKER_00: She's a a student of that cloth, but just how she could write and put together these messages and really say something compelling, and it sounds so good you don't even realize that she's healing you.
- 43:53SPEAKER_01: Bro, like how you feel about Lauren is how I feel about Curtis Mayfield, particularly uh Superfly, the Superfly.
- 44:00SPEAKER_01: Soundtrack.
- 44:02SPEAKER_01: That's how I feel.
- 44:03SPEAKER_01: Like I can go back to that album and learn something new every day.
- 44:06SPEAKER_01: Yep.
- 44:06SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 44:07SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 44:07SPEAKER_00: That's another one.
- 44:09SPEAKER_00: Um hot take.
- 44:11SPEAKER_00: You said the top rap album ever.
- 44:13SPEAKER_00: Oh man.
- 44:14SPEAKER_00: We were texting about this.
- 44:15SPEAKER_00: We were texting about this, brother.
- 44:17SPEAKER_00: Well, so this is this is what I want to do.
- 44:20SPEAKER_00: I want your input on that.
- 44:22SPEAKER_00: And then I want you to tell us where we could follow you, support you, where can we get the album?
- 44:26SPEAKER_00: What do you have coming up?
- 44:27SPEAKER_00: And so okay.
- 44:28SPEAKER_00: But let's go there.
- 44:29SPEAKER_00: We were, you know, I s and I actually seen it.
- 44:31SPEAKER_00: I it was on the fire.
- 44:33SPEAKER_00: You know how in this take.
- 44:34SPEAKER_00: You like you put something out publicly, and I'm like, oh snap, you know, woo-hoo.
- 44:40SPEAKER_00: He was like, yeah, bro, and here's why.
- 44:42SPEAKER_00: So, like, so give me your give me your top wrapped album of all time.
- 44:45SPEAKER_00: Oh, I'm not mad at you.
- 44:47SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 44:48SPEAKER_00: I think the bro, we can get really deep into this, but I think the way that Kendrick has been able to lean into certain conversations that should not be widely accepted and and and cause them to be widely accepted is like that in and of itself should be studied.
- 45:06SPEAKER_00: Bro, it's it's okay.
- 45:07SPEAKER_01: So, first, first off, y'all, the greatest rap album of all time, and maybe like top 10 greatest albums ever is to pimp a butterfly.
- 45:17SPEAKER_01: The reason, the reason why this is my take is because it was for a couple of reasons.
- 45:24SPEAKER_01: And there was a couple reasons I didn't even put in our text message, but for one, it got leaked early and it still like sold like 325,000 copies.
- 45:33SPEAKER_01: Like that's one.
- 45:34SPEAKER_01: Two, um, rap was at a pivotal point where like we were very commercialized.
- 45:42SPEAKER_01: We were very commercialized, but we felt like, not to say we felt like nobody was saying nothing, right?
- 45:47SPEAKER_01: But like the people who were saying something weren't going platinum.
- 45:51SPEAKER_01: So this was even at a point where like J.
- 45:53SPEAKER_01: Cole, who I who I considered like, you know, conscious, he was still like going gold.
- 45:58SPEAKER_01: He wasn't hitting platinum just yet.
- 46:01SPEAKER_01: Um, there's a couple people, even heck, even Wale, who I think don't get the flowers he deserves.
- 46:07SPEAKER_01: Like, so you got these rappers, you got these rappers, but then you got Kendrick who's coming fresh off of Good Kid Mad City, conscious album, instant classic.
- 46:17SPEAKER_01: He could have easily done a good kid Mad City too.
- 46:19SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 46:20SPEAKER_01: Nobody would have been mad.
- 46:21SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 46:21SPEAKER_01: But instead, he he took, I think, the biggest gamble of all time and decided to make a conscious rap album at the height of his career, as opposed to getting older and saying, okay, let me tell you now, since I'm since I'm independent and stuff like that.
- 46:41SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he he pops that, right?
- 46:43SPEAKER_01: And so that happens.
- 46:45SPEAKER_01: What happens right after that?
- 46:47SPEAKER_01: You got the biggest artist in the world, Beyonce, drops Lemonade.
- 46:52SPEAKER_01: Her first conscious album.
- 46:54SPEAKER_01: No one's thinking of Beyonce to write like a conscious RB album about womanhood, about, you know, black unity at this time.
- 47:02SPEAKER_01: Not to say she couldn't do it, but like when you hear Beyonce, you think pop.
- 47:06SPEAKER_01: Right.
- 47:06SPEAKER_01: Right?
- 47:07SPEAKER_01: Jay Z comes out with 444, you know, Salon just seated at the table.
- 47:12SPEAKER_01: Now, granted, that may have something to do with the elevator, right?
- 47:15SPEAKER_01: But I don't think they get received as well if Kendrick don't drop to Pimper Butterfly, drops the greatest anthem for Black Lives Matter protests with all right, wins like seven Grammys, sweeps the BET awards, like all of these things happening.
- 47:32SPEAKER_01: Oh, and then, you know, I said this too, Jake released For Your Eyes Lonely, like two years later.
- 47:37SPEAKER_01: Like his peers followed him in a sense.
- 47:41SPEAKER_01: Right.
- 47:41SPEAKER_01: And they they were all successful because Kendrick went on and said, you know what, I'm dropping to Pimper Butterfly.
- 47:47SPEAKER_01: And and that's my take.
- 47:50SPEAKER_01: Stamp it.
- 47:51SPEAKER_01: Stamp it.
- 47:51SPEAKER_01: Gotta stamp it.
- 47:53SPEAKER_01: Stamp it.
- 47:53SPEAKER_01: I'll have a conversation with you, but like I hate having what's the greatest, who's the greatest of all time, simply because it's a headache.
- 48:00SPEAKER_00: And it's all subjective.
- 48:01SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I feel like too, something that I've adopted from my dad, shout out to my pops, but shout out to Papa Bang.
- 48:07SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know what I'm saying?
- 48:08SPEAKER_00: You gotta, you gotta, he says a lot in sports, but you have to you have to judge a player by the era he played in.
- 48:14SPEAKER_00: But I think I was looking at a take from you know Wheezy the other day, and Wayne was like, I literally view my music like art.
- 48:22SPEAKER_00: And so in the same way that you can have a piece from Picasso right here, and then a piece from another artist right here, and they aren't trying to outpaint each other.
- 48:31SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
- 48:32SPEAKER_00: The purpose of this artwork is for it to be observed and beholded and for you to think whatever you think.
- 48:38SPEAKER_00: Period.
- 48:38SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
- 48:40SPEAKER_00: I think I have definitely shifted my perspective a little bit to more of art being, um, that's the purpose of it, is the fact that it's art.
- 48:50SPEAKER_00: I can't say, oh, this is better than what you're doing because I don't have your experience.
- 48:56SPEAKER_00: I don't have, you know what I'm saying?
- 48:58SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't have yours.
- 48:59SPEAKER_00: Nothing.
- 49:00SPEAKER_00: Nothing.
- 49:00SPEAKER_00: And and and the picture that you've painted is what you've painted.
- 49:04SPEAKER_00: There's always gonna be some people that's like, man, Mike, they my number one.
- 49:08SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
- 49:09SPEAKER_00: Like you said, it's subjective.
- 49:10SPEAKER_00: And so I think sometimes we get in more trouble than we, you know, should when we try to pit one another against each other.
- 49:17SPEAKER_00: Now, my OG would say, nah, bro, rap is a contact sport.
- 49:20SPEAKER_00: I can always have me.
- 49:21SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
- 49:22SPEAKER_00: He'd be like, man, forget what you're talking about like this.
- 49:25SPEAKER_00: So I think I think there can be, you know, I think both can exist.
- 49:29SPEAKER_00: There's room for both to exist, but can I, so I I know we gotta go.
- 49:33SPEAKER_01: I gotta I've always I've always wanted to ask you this question.
- 49:36SPEAKER_01: And yeah, I guess since we on camera, we can do it.
- 49:38SPEAKER_01: Bro, I I it it's no secret how I think about you.
- 49:43SPEAKER_01: How do you avoid, I guess, the contact sport of hip hop?
- 49:48SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 49:49SPEAKER_01: So when, because you know, I I I think in in the most sense, in terms of hip-hop in Northwest Arkansas, we're all good.
- 49:55SPEAKER_01: There may be a couple people out there beefing, but for the most part, we all good.
- 49:58SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but you know, me and you, I think we have a solid like brotherhood foundation.
- 50:03SPEAKER_01: And I I know my reasons why, but how what is your reasons and how do you stay out of the, you know, let me send a subliminal to know that.
- 50:13SPEAKER_01: That's watching him.
- 50:15SPEAKER_00: Yeah, bro.
- 50:15SPEAKER_00: That's a really good question.
- 50:17SPEAKER_00: And I appreciate that question.
- 50:18SPEAKER_00: I don't like you, I don't think anybody's ever asked me that.
- 50:22SPEAKER_00: Man, I two things I'll give you the deeper, kind of more philosophical answer than the brass tacks of everything.
- 50:31SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
- 50:32SPEAKER_00: Man, I didn't start rapping for the sake of rapping.
- 50:37SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
- 50:38SPEAKER_00: Like rapping was the third iteration of writing for me.
- 50:42SPEAKER_00: So as early as I can remember, me actually writing stories.
- 50:45SPEAKER_00: Once upon a time, this, you know what I mean.
- 50:48SPEAKER_00: And then by the time I was in the third grade, my teacher was like, Oh, I want to publish your writings.
- 50:54SPEAKER_00: And so you got a book on the way.
- 50:56SPEAKER_00: This was third grade.
- 50:58SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
- 50:59SPEAKER_00: This was third grade, but but that was the first time that it made me realize, like, oh man, I'm good at this.
- 51:04SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 51:05SPEAKER_00: You know, and then from stories, it naturally bled into poetry.
- 51:08SPEAKER_00: And I really took a liking to poetry because I was like, man, you're able to convey these deep feelings and emotions and make it sound a certain way, but you also got confined.
- 51:17SPEAKER_00: You have to write in stanzas, and if it's a haiku, five syllables, seven, five, like that was so intriguing to me.
- 51:24SPEAKER_00: And I was able to communicate myself through poetry in a way that I couldn't do like this, especially then.
- 51:29SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, and so then it kind of bled into doing music and songwriting.
- 51:34SPEAKER_00: I recorded my first song at 12.
- 51:36SPEAKER_00: And so very quickly, I was like, man, I don't want to be an entertainer.
- 51:41SPEAKER_00: I seen what happened with the yeys of the world, I seen what happened with all of these different artists who get this fame, and now they don't have people that can sympathize with them or like, you know, there it ain't much empathy when you at the top.
- 51:52SPEAKER_00: And so I said, I would never do this.
- 51:55SPEAKER_00: And that's a long story about how, you know, I just have to surrender to the the gift and the calling and all of these different things.
- 52:01SPEAKER_00: And so, one reason why it's easy for me not to get caught up in all of the, you know, comparison and all of this is because I really don't think that this is my gift.
- 52:13SPEAKER_00: Like it was God giving.
- 52:15SPEAKER_00: I can't take credit for it.
- 52:16SPEAKER_00: I don't have no ownership.
- 52:17SPEAKER_00: So if God was like, yeah, bro, I'm not going to allow you to communicate effectively like you do this way, then I couldn't, you know what I'm saying?
- 52:26SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't be able to even make a song.
- 52:28SPEAKER_00: And so it's easy for me to not look at it like that when I don't center bang.
- 52:34SPEAKER_00: Right.
- 52:35SPEAKER_00: So now that's the that's the short answer.
- 52:38SPEAKER_00: I'm a human and I have ego and I have pride, just like everybody else.
- 52:42SPEAKER_00: So if I hear you saying something about me, the first thing that comes from is like, okay, you know what I'm saying?
- 52:47SPEAKER_00: And and I didn't have to hold myself accountable, you know.
- 52:50SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna give a shout out.
- 52:51SPEAKER_00: I ain't never told this story publicly, but I'm gonna shout out Avian Aliyah.
- 52:54SPEAKER_00: Her.
- 52:54SPEAKER_00: Yes.
- 52:54SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
- 52:55SPEAKER_00: Like you said, she drops on the 28th.
- 52:57SPEAKER_00: I can't wait to hit that.
- 52:58SPEAKER_00: Phenomenal artist, bro.
- 52:59SPEAKER_00: Like, one of the first times I watched her perform, it was so good.
- 53:04SPEAKER_00: And it's and it stuck in my mind.
- 53:06SPEAKER_00: And I ended up saying something along the lines of like, man, you trying to take over the city or something like that, or like uh, you know, something about it was it was something combative, competition.
- 53:20SPEAKER_00: And she was like, nah, we can all eat.
- 53:25SPEAKER_00: Everybody can do really well at what they do.
- 53:28SPEAKER_00: We don't, you don't have to compete with me.
- 53:29SPEAKER_00: I don't have to compete with you.
- 53:31SPEAKER_00: Like, this is enough for everybody.
- 53:33SPEAKER_00: And you hear people say that, but it was, I don't know.
- 53:36SPEAKER_00: And that in that moment, it just kind of flipped the switch in my mind.
- 53:38SPEAKER_00: And so, again, to answer your question, man, I try to view this as I'm a vessel.
- 53:47SPEAKER_00: Like you said, man, your purpose for doing what you do is you want to help black people have a little bit better tomorrow.
- 53:53SPEAKER_00: That's why you do what you do.
- 53:55SPEAKER_00: The purpose that I do what I do is to put love into this world, to reflect the light of Christ.
- 53:59SPEAKER_00: And that's really it.
- 54:01SPEAKER_00: And anything that comes in between that, whether that's my ego, my pride, whether that's some me letting somebody trick me into verbal combat, you know, then I stepped out.
- 54:11SPEAKER_00: And I be stepping out sometimes.
- 54:13SPEAKER_00: I I done written songs, bro.
- 54:15SPEAKER_00: You know, from that place of like, oh, wait, you you actually think you better than me?
- 54:19SPEAKER_00: Like you've recorded a thousand songs, you know what I'm saying?
- 54:22SPEAKER_00: You've released five albums, right?
- 54:25SPEAKER_00: But like now I'm putting energy into that instead of putting energy into the very thing that I want to actually see.
- 54:30SPEAKER_00: So I don't pay, I also don't pay attention to a lot.
- 54:34SPEAKER_00: Like I be tapped in, but I also be very tapped out.
- 54:37SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, I like you said, I try to either go.
- 54:41SPEAKER_00: If I can't go, I'm gonna try to send a message, some encouragement, call me on the phone, let's pray before your show.
- 54:46SPEAKER_00: Like, yeah, I try to be available, but I'm also, bro, I'm I'm off, I'm off the internet a lot.
- 54:52SPEAKER_00: Cause it's so it's a lot that go on.
- 54:53SPEAKER_00: So we start thinking that stuff be real, and it's like, man, let me go out here and shake Mike Day's head.
- 54:59SPEAKER_00: Let me actually go like look my guy in his eyes, and you know, so that's also how I don't get caught up, is bro, I genuinely don't be seeing a lot.
- 55:07SPEAKER_00: People be telling me, you know, such and such into a sudden.
- 55:10SPEAKER_00: I'm like, when?
- 55:12SPEAKER_00: Like when did they have time to you know what I'm saying?
- 55:15SPEAKER_00: So yeah, and then dang.
- 55:18SPEAKER_01: We both bro, like like I think this is the stuff that like I be wanting to like talk to like a fellow husband about.
- 55:28SPEAKER_01: Bro, talk to the like talk to these people.
- 55:30SPEAKER_01: This is turning into a Mike Day Bang interviewing bang in case you ain't noticed about that.
- 55:35SPEAKER_01: Let's go, we rock it.
- 55:36SPEAKER_01: Like talk to these people like about the importance of like doing the craft, but also like, you know, making sure that home is good, particularly like having a whole nother person that you're creating life with.
- 55:50SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 55:51SPEAKER_01: Like talk to the people because a lot of people think it can't be done.
- 55:54SPEAKER_01: And I tell people all the time, like, just prioritize house.
- 55:57SPEAKER_01: I promise you it will work.
- 55:58SPEAKER_01: And talk about that.
- 56:00SPEAKER_00: You know, it's uh there is a um a great thinker, he was a great philosopher named uh Napoleon Hill, and he talks about how men particularly suffer because we have no direction.
- 56:20SPEAKER_00: And so you don't know really what you want out of life.
- 56:23SPEAKER_00: You don't know what car you want to drive, you don't know where you want to work, you don't know what woman you want to date, you don't know what you want to be doing in 20 years, you just have no idea.
- 56:30SPEAKER_00: And so as a result, you kind of take the path of least resistance and just kind of float through life.
- 56:36SPEAKER_00: Well, the issue is if you don't have a destination and a roadmap, then you can't define where you end up.
- 56:43SPEAKER_00: Serious.
- 56:44SPEAKER_00: And so that's why we see a lot of people that's 30 years old, 40 years old, 50 years old, 70 years old, and they had a point in their life where it's like, oh man, you know what I'm saying?
- 56:55SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm still in the same spot that I was 20 years ago, or you know, and you're not satisfied.
- 57:01SPEAKER_00: Man, scientifically, do you know if you say, I'm going to go out and do a run, I'm going to go run, if you write it down, I'm going to go run a mile.
- 57:11SPEAKER_00: The satisfaction and the dopamine hit that you get from that is like 10 times versus what it would be if you just went out and ran a mile.
- 57:21SPEAKER_00: Really?
- 57:21SPEAKER_00: Literally, like scientifically, neurologically, all because you gave your brain a destination.
- 57:27SPEAKER_00: And so now you have something to strive for.
- 57:30SPEAKER_00: When you do it, you could check that off in your mind.
- 57:32SPEAKER_00: And all because you've set an intention as opposed to just doing something.
- 57:36SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
- 57:37SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 57:38SPEAKER_00: So that's how it is in life in general.
- 57:39SPEAKER_00: And so to answer your question, I think whether you got a wife, whether you got kids, whether you're in a relationship, whether you have another business.
- 57:45SPEAKER_00: Right now, creating might be your side hustle.
- 57:48SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
- 57:49SPEAKER_00: You might be in the studio, you know, they say you got a nine to five, but to get ahead is your five to nine.
- 57:54SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
- 57:55SPEAKER_00: And if you want to get super ahead, then that's your nine to, you know, whatever.
- 58:00SPEAKER_00: I got a buddy that works for this company.
- 58:02SPEAKER_00: He said, man, when I was coming up, I was married and we had a little girl.
- 58:08SPEAKER_00: And because I had a full-time job, because I had a wife, because I had a baby that we was raising, Thursdays was my night that I just didn't sleep.
- 58:16SPEAKER_00: Everything that I couldn't do during my workday, everything that I couldn't do, you know, because I'm, like you said, tending to my house first.
- 58:23SPEAKER_00: I said, I'm gonna I'm gonna stay up all night and do all of the extra work that I'm you know supposed to get done from Thursday from 10 p.m.
- 58:31SPEAKER_00: to 8 a.m.
- 58:32SPEAKER_00: till I gotta go back to my other job.
- 58:33SPEAKER_00: I'm just like gonna sleep.
- 58:34SPEAKER_00: He did that for, I don't know, years.
- 58:37SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't recommend not getting your sleep.
- 58:39SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's crazy.
- 58:40SPEAKER_00: But that's crazy.
- 58:41SPEAKER_00: But the point that I'm making is if you can map it out, that worked for him.
- 58:46SPEAKER_00: For you, it might just be okay, I'm gonna do 30 minutes extra.
- 58:49SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
- 58:51SPEAKER_00: Once I get the kids down, once I make sure me in the misses straight, once I'm just gonna do 30 minutes extra.
- 58:56SPEAKER_00: And this is what I'm actually learning for myself because it's so easy to get caught in those other things that you're doing.
- 59:01SPEAKER_00: The family's gonna always be priority.
- 59:03SPEAKER_00: Bro, always, right?
- 59:05SPEAKER_00: Yes.
- 59:05SPEAKER_00: But you also gotta make sure that you carving out.
- 59:07SPEAKER_00: It might not be an hour, it might not be 10 hours, it might literally be 15 minutes.
- 59:13SPEAKER_00: Bro, sometimes it is 15 minutes, sometimes it is 15 minutes, but you have to carve it out and you have to respect that 15.
- 59:20SPEAKER_00: Don't say, oh, you know, the kids stayed up, an hour passes what they were supposed to stay up, or oh, me and the missus ended up watching two shows instead of one, so I'm not gonna.
- 59:28SPEAKER_00: Nah, bro, you gotta respect that 15 minutes.
- 59:31SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
- 59:32SPEAKER_00: Because you just set the time apart.
- 59:33SPEAKER_00: So I think it's just a matter of prioritizing and being really intentional what it is that you want to do and what you're sending out to actually accomplish.
- 59:41SPEAKER_00: Big facts.
- 59:42SPEAKER_01: Big facts.
- 59:43SPEAKER_01: Last listen, last question, and then I'm gonna let you have your day, bro.
- 59:46SPEAKER_01: Yeah, all right.
- 59:47SPEAKER_01: Um you gotta come up with a collab album.
- 59:50SPEAKER_01: Yeah, think of five artists that you think you would do a collab album with, dead or alive.
- 1:00:00SPEAKER_00: That's a good question.
- 1:00:03SPEAKER_00: Maybe the first time this question has ever been asked, too.
- 1:00:06SPEAKER_00: I'm going.
- 1:00:07SPEAKER_01: And before actually, before you answer that, like I I I'm under the mindset that you are probably one of the only people that can go platinum with no features.
- 1:00:16SPEAKER_01: That's love, bro.
- 1:00:17SPEAKER_01: That's how I feel.
- 1:00:18SPEAKER_00: So you mean?
- 1:00:18SPEAKER_01: So I've I've always wanted to know, like, who would be the five artists you would do an album with?
- 1:00:24SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna I'ma say, I'm gonna try to give you four actual artists, and then one might be a slight cop out.
- 1:00:30SPEAKER_00: But I'll let you, I'll let you decide.
- 1:00:33SPEAKER_00: Man, the first thing I'm gonna say, I was listening to my brother Street Hems.
- 1:00:36SPEAKER_00: He was like, you know, we've seen the decline of mass choirs at a time when, you know, we're talking 10, 20 years ago, labels decided it wasn't fiscally responsible to pay all of these different people to come in and sing when they can just automate different stuff.
- 1:00:54SPEAKER_00: And, you know, and then you get the sound compressed, you don't get the choir sound.
- 1:00:57SPEAKER_00: And so one of the features would be a mass choir.
- 1:01:00SPEAKER_00: Like whether that's my family who, you know, has traveled this country, whether that's, you know what I'm saying, the Mississippi Mass Choir, whether that's this choir.
- 1:01:08SPEAKER_00: Like one of the collabs would be on every single song, I have a choir singing on a hook or a bridge or something.
- 1:01:16SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 1:01:17SPEAKER_00: Um, I don't know if you're familiar with Roddy Rich's song, War Baby.
- 1:01:21SPEAKER_00: Yes.
- 1:01:21SPEAKER_00: But it's crazy.
- 1:01:22SPEAKER_00: Like, you got this choir singing, you know what I'm saying?
- 1:01:24SPEAKER_00: And this is just nuts.
- 1:01:25SPEAKER_00: So that would be one.
- 1:01:26SPEAKER_00: Anderson Pack would be a feature.
- 1:01:28SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 1:01:29SPEAKER_00: He has a level of soul and a level of just intentionality that he taps into that I'm just like, this is crazy.
- 1:01:37SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
- 1:01:38SPEAKER_00: So uh another would be, man, I'm going, I'm going a producer.
- 1:01:47SPEAKER_00: Okay.
- 1:01:47SPEAKER_00: So I'm going either like alchemist or you know what I'm saying, like a yeah, like alchemist, but now I gotta hear that one.
- 1:01:57SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I would like to.
- 1:01:58SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 1:01:59SPEAKER_00: So I got a lot of really rap rap stuff.
- 1:02:01SPEAKER_00: Like now people know me more for you know my high energy or you know what I'm saying, my smooth melodic, but I got a lot of real just boom bap.
- 1:02:08SPEAKER_00: That's kind of how I came up in it.
- 1:02:09SPEAKER_00: Yeah, same.
- 1:02:10SPEAKER_00: And so that would be that would be another one.
- 1:02:13SPEAKER_00: Um let me get back to you on the mother too.
- 1:02:17SPEAKER_00: Okay, because I'm I'm really trying to be intentional with you know how I'm processing this.
- 1:02:22SPEAKER_00: I don't want to just say like a oh a cole, you know what I'm saying?
- 1:02:25SPEAKER_00: Like, oh a dot.
- 1:02:26SPEAKER_00: Um, but uh uh a mass choir, um Anderson Pack would be one.
- 1:02:33SPEAKER_00: Uh either like a like I said, uh alchemist, also like Krenata.
- 1:02:42SPEAKER_00: Okay, love your sound, you know what I'm saying?
- 1:02:44SPEAKER_00: So that's for more like lively upbeat type stuff.
- 1:02:48SPEAKER_00: Um and then I'm gonna go ahead and say this one.
- 1:02:52SPEAKER_00: The last one would be something like it would be like a learn heel, or somebody who we could write, you know, like nothing even matters with D'Angelo, you know, long live D'Angelo.
- 1:03:03SPEAKER_00: That's one of my favorite songs.
- 1:03:04SPEAKER_00: Sheesh.
- 1:03:05SPEAKER_00: That's one of my favorite songs.
- 1:03:06SPEAKER_00: I can see I can see all of that.
- 1:03:08SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
- 1:03:09SPEAKER_00: It's one of my all-time favorites.
- 1:03:10SPEAKER_00: And so to be able to pair with somebody that can write, but also, you know, understand melody and like that'll probably be my top five collabs.
- 1:03:20SPEAKER_00: Now, where can we follow you, support you, keep up with you, get this album?
- 1:03:24SPEAKER_00: What's next for you?
- 1:03:25SPEAKER_00: Kind of give us the whole thing.
- 1:03:26SPEAKER_01: Sheesh so in terms of where folks been following me, it's Michael WJ Day across the platforms that I do have.
- 1:03:32SPEAKER_01: So Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
- 1:03:34SPEAKER_01: Um, please also follow uh Day Vision Films on them same platforms.
- 1:03:39SPEAKER_01: Um, the album can be found in my bio in terms of uh physical copies.
- 1:03:45SPEAKER_01: If you can get a vinyl, um what do they say?
- 1:03:50SPEAKER_01: One one album equals 1500 streams.
- 1:03:53SPEAKER_01: So just keep that in mind.
- 1:03:55SPEAKER_01: And you and it's it's legacy.
- 1:03:57SPEAKER_01: So I do have some physicals on me for those in Northwest Arkansas.
- 1:04:02SPEAKER_01: If you just want to hit me up, um I'm I'm kind of in terms of these physicals right here, I'm on a name your price type of thing right now.
- 1:04:09SPEAKER_01: So let me know what you want to pay for, and then you'll get it in your hand.
- 1:04:13SPEAKER_01: And then what's next, bro?
- 1:04:15SPEAKER_01: That's a good question, bro.
- 1:04:16SPEAKER_01: Um, so I'm helping, I'm helping some of my friends who are within the damn day vision umbrella to get their first films off the ground.
- 1:04:24SPEAKER_01: That's great.
- 1:04:25SPEAKER_01: So um, I'm playing that producer role for the most part in 2026.
- 1:04:29SPEAKER_01: Um, I think, and then I'm still trying to like do the big goal.
- 1:04:35SPEAKER_01: The biggest goal that I have for myself is like that wake field featured film slash soundtrack.
- 1:04:42SPEAKER_01: And and what that entails is writing a feature film, getting it executed.
- 1:04:48SPEAKER_01: Um the main the main goal is to is to get it done, but the ultimate goal would be getting in theaters, and then um on the side to that, I really want to make an album featuring my favorite um Arkansas artist.
- 1:05:01SPEAKER_01: And just back to bat, let's it it ain't gotta be no competitive stuff, but like let's make a cohesive album to where like not only the state of Arkansas can't ignore, but like whole United States can't ignore it.
- 1:05:14SPEAKER_01: So I I've been working on that.
- 1:05:16SPEAKER_01: Bro, that's that's shout-out to Cole.
- 1:05:18SPEAKER_01: That's my offseason.
- 1:05:19SPEAKER_01: It's like that's the thing I've been working on.
- 1:05:22SPEAKER_01: And honestly, my part of it got done making the Wakefield album, but I've always wanted to make like an actual soundtrack featuring everybody that I've ever wanted to be on the album.
- 1:05:31SPEAKER_01: So though those are the biggest two things.
- 1:05:34SPEAKER_01: Oh, and of course, season three of The Sextance is on its way, especially now that we got a uh we got a deal on our hands.
- 1:05:41SPEAKER_01: So talk to me about that, bro.
- 1:05:43SPEAKER_01: Like, did you announce that?
- 1:05:45SPEAKER_01: I just did.
- 1:05:49SPEAKER_00: It was a story stone exclusive.
- 1:05:51SPEAKER_01: Yeah, bro.
- 1:05:52SPEAKER_01: How did that come about, bro?
- 1:05:54SPEAKER_01: You know when you're skeptical of some stuff that comes your way and you you ignore it.
- 1:05:59SPEAKER_01: So It was in the middle of season two last year, actually.
- 1:06:04SPEAKER_01: We were doing really good in terms of views and comments and engagement.
- 1:06:08SPEAKER_01: Somebody uh from New Kingdom Pictures, shout out to them.
- 1:06:12SPEAKER_01: They hit me up.
- 1:06:13SPEAKER_01: I ignored it because it was like, Mr.
- 1:06:15SPEAKER_01: Day, I really love the Sexons.
- 1:06:17SPEAKER_01: You know, we want to see about it getting distributed.
- 1:06:19SPEAKER_01: And I'm I'm from I'm from Southwest Little Rock, Arkansas.
- 1:06:23SPEAKER_01: If it's too good to be true, that means it ain't true.
- 1:06:25SPEAKER_01: That that you know what that means, right?
- 1:06:28SPEAKER_01: And so the thing that she did that a lot of scammers don't do that made me take the phone call, she followed up.
- 1:06:36SPEAKER_01: And she was like, hey, Mr.
- 1:06:37SPEAKER_01: Day, um, don't know if you got my previous message, but I really, really, really want to sit down with you and do XYZ.
- 1:06:44SPEAKER_01: And so I told her, I was like, okay, let's get a FaceTime call.
- 1:06:47SPEAKER_01: I wanted to see if this was real versus a regular phone call.
- 1:06:50SPEAKER_01: She not only got on the phone with me, she took my numbers, she started texting me, and she like went through every little detail, every question I had.
- 1:07:00SPEAKER_01: I even went to an entertainment lawyer to make sure this was legit.
- 1:07:03SPEAKER_01: And like when she was, when she said, she gave me the numbers, she told me the exact numbers, and then she told me at the very end, she was like, the IP is like the intellectual property is all yours.
- 1:07:15SPEAKER_01: We don't want anything.
- 1:07:16SPEAKER_01: We just want to help you distribute this for two years and get it on a larger scale.
- 1:07:22SPEAKER_01: She said that.
- 1:07:22SPEAKER_01: I was like, okay, bet.
- 1:07:24SPEAKER_01: And so that happened.
- 1:07:27SPEAKER_01: Got finalized like early, no, late February, early March.
- 1:07:33SPEAKER_01: And and now, and now I'm like, you know how you are as a creator, like you don't want to confuse people too much, but like I got this like literally sitting in the tuck while we promoting this album.
- 1:07:45SPEAKER_01: So come summer, if you see a bunch of sexton stuff, it's all the same.
- 1:07:51SPEAKER_01: It's all the same, bro.
- 1:07:52SPEAKER_00: So yeah, bro, that's how that happened.
- 1:07:54SPEAKER_00: Mike, we're proud of you, bro.
- 1:07:57SPEAKER_00: We appreciate you.
- 1:07:59SPEAKER_00: Bro, it's been an honor watching you your journey and your your progression, bro.
- 1:08:04SPEAKER_00: Thank you, thank you, bro.
- 1:08:05SPEAKER_00: I'm grateful for this.
- 1:08:06SPEAKER_00: Daydreams is out right now.
- 1:08:07SPEAKER_00: Come directly to consumer.
- 1:08:09SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes.
- 1:08:10SPEAKER_00: Pay what you want to pay.
- 1:08:11SPEAKER_01: Pay what you want to pay.
- 1:08:13SPEAKER_01: If if it's in my possession, pay what you want to pay.
- 1:08:15SPEAKER_01: If you local, you're gonna drop it off to them.
- 1:08:17SPEAKER_01: Yes, absolutely.
- 1:08:18SPEAKER_01: That's how we do it.
- 1:08:19SPEAKER_01: Come on, man.
- 1:08:19SPEAKER_01: That's it.
- 1:08:20SPEAKER_01: That's how we do it.
- 1:08:20SPEAKER_01: Oh, and I'm going to Little Rock soon, so people at home can get it too.
- 1:08:23SPEAKER_01: So Little Rock, we coming.
- 1:08:25SPEAKER_01: Yes, hit him in the head.
- 1:08:26SPEAKER_01: Listen, Wakefield, we coming.
- 1:08:28SPEAKER_01: Bro, and let me just say before we log off, bro.
- 1:08:30SPEAKER_01: Bang, thank you.
- 1:08:31SPEAKER_01: Thank you for the bro.
- 1:08:32SPEAKER_01: We met in 2016.
- 1:08:34SPEAKER_01: Mike.
- 1:08:35SPEAKER_01: So we we coming up on a decade of friendship.
- 1:08:38SPEAKER_01: And, you know, I I've seen, I can't speak for you, I've seen a lot of people like come and go, um, whether it be they wanted to move or, you know, they just didn't feel a love or whatever it is.
- 1:08:49SPEAKER_01: But bro, you have been invested in Northwest, Arkansas.
- 1:08:52SPEAKER_01: I feel like since you got here, bro.
- 1:08:54SPEAKER_01: And bro, for your energy, bro, the the move that you are making, story scaling, podcast videos, bang.
- 1:09:02SPEAKER_01: You know, the artists, like, I just gotta say, bro, as a as a peer, as a brother, I'm super proud, bro.
- 1:09:07SPEAKER_01: Thank you, man.
- 1:09:08SPEAKER_01: Bro, don't like whatever you need, like off camera, on camera, bro.
- 1:09:12SPEAKER_01: Just let me know, bro.
- 1:09:13SPEAKER_01: You are to me, you are goaded here.
- 1:09:15SPEAKER_00: So that's love, brother.
- 1:09:18SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much, man.
- 1:09:19SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, man.
- 1:09:19SPEAKER_01: Thank you for having me.
- 1:09:20SPEAKER_01: We'll do it again.