Latest / The Breakfast Club / INTERVIEW: Ja Rule Opens Up On The Passing Of Irv Gotti, Talks Murder Inc Legacy, Fatherhood, Whiskey + More

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INTERVIEW: Ja Rule Opens Up On The Passing Of Irv Gotti, Talks Murder Inc Legacy, Fatherhood, Whiskey + More · The Breakfast Club

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Wake that ass up in the morning.
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: The Breakfast Club Morning. Everybody is DJ en Vy, Jess Hilarious,
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Charlamagne the guy. We are the Breakfast Club low on
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: the roster, feeling and for Jess, we got a special guest.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: In the building, the legendary job Roll.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: Ladies and gentlemen.
• 0:15
  Speaker 3: What our family, family, welcome back.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: You're feeling first and foremost, brother.
• 0:20
  Speaker 3: Good man, I'm good. Good. You know, you know and
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: been in and out, but you know, for the most part,
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: I'm good. I'm good.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: What's aging better?
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: Man?
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: You your music? Are that whiskey that you've got now?
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: That whiskey were the promote.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: We're talking about it the other day. We were saying,
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: you know, from from the artists from from our era
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: and even a couple of years before, the young music
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: still connects.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: To people aging well.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: Ages won't care. Where are you at?
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: Young? Restaurant, elevators, medium, you know.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: Clubs, festivals, it aged well. Was that the intention when
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: you made those records or just happened?
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: Definitely not, you know, just in there being creative and
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: you know, trying to do something a little different. You know,
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: everybody was kind of tackling this or that, you know,
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: we was in an era you know, did He was
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: dead doing, bad Boy he was doing and then you know,
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: you had Rockefeller and you had rough Riders, So it
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: was like it was it was a space that needed
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: to be filled, and I think that was the space
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: I feel. You know, Jadam had the ultimate floss and
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: fly and flashy shit going on, and exit in was
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: the streets, and you know, did He you know, and
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: and bad Boy was bad Boy and what they were
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: doing with their movement. So you know, I kind of
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: just feel the void of those female records that was
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: kind of missing in the industry at the moment.
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: I want to if you don't mind, I want I
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: want to go back a little bit. I've known you
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: for a long time, known of you for a long time,
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: but I don't think a lot of people know the
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: true story of Joe Rule and how you got signed
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: and your deal and everything. With the recent passing the Earth,
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: I just wanted you to talk about that.
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: A little bit.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: We need to crack some whiskey for that.
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: Story. So talk about the first time you met IRV
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: and how that was and why you didn't sign the
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: tv T at the time.
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: Well I did, actually shinned to, So I'll tell the
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: story a little bit. So my man Chris Black, big
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: shot to my brother Black. You know, we was we
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: was hustling on two fifth and Hollis, you know, doing
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: what young hungry black men do and dug some drugs,
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: you know. And he used to go to the studio
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: with with with IRV and Mike Dronimo. He used come
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: back to the block was mixtapes, like it was a
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: mixtape at the time. It was just like a little
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: taste that they was making basically, you know what I'm saying.
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: So you know, I'm like, yo, what's up? Like I
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: want to go rhyme with with IRV and and and
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: and Mike Dranma at the time he was DJ. So yeah,
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: I want to go go wrap with them too, you know,
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: because we had like a little group kind of thing
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: we was kind of doing, but not really. I was
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: kind of like more or less the wrap out of
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: the crew, me me and my my other homeboy. And
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: so when I when I said that, the Black He's like, yo,
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: I'll bring you up there. So he brought me up
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: there and that's when I met her and her was like, yeah, yeah,
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: he think he think he nice He's like, all right,
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: go ahead, put it, get in the booth, let me
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: see what you see what you do. And for me,
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: that was a okay, this is my naked or break
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: it moment, Like this is my moment moment Like this
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: dude right here is the the guy that's helping motherfuckers
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: get record deals in the neighborhood. So I didn't leave
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: a booth. I wouldn't leave the booth. I just rhyme
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: after rhyme after rhyme and kept going. And I at
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: the time, you know, I had an arsenal rhyme. So
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: I was like, yeah, this this this nigga got it.
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: So that's how relationship started.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: And he brought you to tv T was the label
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: at the time, right.
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: Forught us to tv T. You know, I was young,
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: I was like seventeen eighteen. I really didn't I really
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: didn't care how it was gonna play out. At the moment.
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: I was just like, let's get this record deal. Let's
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: do what we're doing, and you know, you know, try
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: to try to make this movement reality. You know, before that,
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: it was just like you know, SIT was doing in school,
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: beating on the tables and nunch rooms. You know, I
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: be in the hood with the homies. You know, rapping
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: wasn't really like a real It wasn't a dream yet,
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: is what I'm is what I'm saying, you know, until
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: that moment, you know what I mean, Then it really
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: became real to me, like, yeah, we could get a
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: record deal. We could you know, we could put out
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: some records. Maybe we could go go and that was
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: the that was the goal that back then as the
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: go go. So yeah, so we signed the tv T.
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: He had Mike Ronald there first and then we signed
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: with them. Interesting story about TVT. I tell you our
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: real interesting story about tv because TVT could have been
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: the biggest label or one of the biggest labels, because
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: Erv brought Steve got Leave Jay, he brought him x
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: uh Dre brought him the chronic what I swear, he
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: had all these projects and he didn't he didn't he
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: didn't know. I guess he didn't know how to capitalize
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: on what was happening with the movement of hip hop
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: at the moment and how it was shifting and changing
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: or whatever. And he just kept saying no to everything
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: that came asway and.
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: How did so how did it go from there because
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: you know, when MYONMO came out, Ships Real was was
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: the record. It wasn't a huge successful recommend it was
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: it was it was.
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: It was enough.
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: It was enough, especially for queens. What made y'all say
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: this is not the place and we need to leave?
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: And did you think it was just that he.
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: Didn't sign that Jacob, we just might not be the spot.
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: He may not know what he's doing over here, you
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: know what I'm saying now, But big shot that Steve
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: got leave. You know, he was you know, it's crazy
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: when you making a lot of money doing something, it's
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: kind of hard if it ain't broke, don't fix it
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: type type, you know. Deal. So he was making a
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: lot of money with TV tunes, which was like doing
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: like little you know, like like uh uh, what do
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: you what do you call them? Like jingles like jabox,
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: like ship you know from from from what he's doing
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: on the show, Like he was making a lot of
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: those twis for like different you know, shows and commercials
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: and stuff. He was making a lot of money doing
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: that ship. So when the hip hop shit came his way,
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: he really didn't know how to just jump on it
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: and move and he was you know, carrying his feet
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: and he probably could have had it all if he'd
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: have moved on. So he got the death gym so
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: got so that, you know, it all just happened so crazy,
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: so fast, you know, like we realized tv T wasn't
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: the situation. And I was on hiatus for a long
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: time after that, for like three years because uh my
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: man Black was part of the group. He went to jail,
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: so he did five years in prison, and so they
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: black child and just another noan Chris Black Okay Christmas.
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: So that kind of you know, threw everything off with
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: the group, and so we was I was basically in
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: hiatus for three years. I didn't you know, no where
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: I was gonna end up. It was. It was just
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: in limbo. Thank you, thank you Lord. That good that
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: that that good cheer so much love, appreciate good. Yes,
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: that's you know, cheke you out.
• 7:37
  Speaker 4: And you're a whiskey drinker.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: I'm not a whiskey drinker.
• 7:40
  Speaker 4: I thought you tried.
• 7:41
  Speaker 5: I did when when I saw Fong getting the Uncle ners,
• 7:44
  Speaker 5: I tried it then, Beyonce, of course that is.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: Very very smooth, very serious. I'm not I'm not this.
• 7:53
  Speaker 5: I'm not even gonna say any everybody else's whiskey saying
• 7:56
  Speaker 5: I've never drink whiskey and not made that face like.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: This is very smooth.
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: We'll get into that in a minute, you know, because
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: we wanted to really create this for the whiskeys, you
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: know that for that reaction of the first time, you know,
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: not the first time, but a person who's maybe not
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: a whiskey drinker. Per set you wanted you wanted to
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: you know, you.
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: Said brings you to death Jam, and so many artists
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: are death Jam. Did you feel like that wasn't jungle.
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: Did you feel like it was going to be a fight.
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: Did you feel like they were going to use you
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: the proper way, because at first I felt like they didn't.
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: You know what, when I got to death Jam, it
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: was a dream come true. Death Jam was like motown
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: for any rapper, if you you know, especially if you
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: from Queens you know, Russell Simmons, you know, but they
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: weren't you know, running gym C wasn't on Death Jam, Busy.
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: You always felt like they were, you know what I mean,
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: because because of the affiliation. But you know, ll you know,
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: you go list on. But if you wasn't on Death Jam.
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: He was managed by Rush Management, so it was like
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: being on Death Jam was everything. And so having that
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: deal and having the you know, see what what people
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: don't understand is I had, you know, Leo's back. Leo
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: had my back from day one, from you know, from
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: from when when it all started. He he wanted to
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: sign me first, but I couldn't get out of my
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: deal with TVT. So in the meantime, God, he was like,
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: I got somebody else that you're like, he brought a Max.
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: So you know, they didn't understand X at first, you know,
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: so that was that tug of war going on, but
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: then they finally you know, made the move if you
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: convinced him to make the move, and X became what
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: he became. And then I, you know, rest in peace
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: to X as well. And then I came after right
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: after that. But I always had, you know, I always
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: knew that Leo wanted me as an artist on Death Jamming.
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: So what that was, that was great. And I don't
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: want the earth too, because that's how he kind of
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: sought out to find me in that way, jam Master
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: Jay rest in peace, and so you know, legendarily, you know,
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: there's this meeting going on in Death Jam and me
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: and HERV used to we used to do this shit.
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: We used to go jack the box. So every time
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: we see meth and Red's video coming, I mean meth
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: and Mary's you're all I need video, come on, we
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: order our video right after it, you know, hope we
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: get the trickle down effect. So, you know, depth Jam,
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: They're having this big meeting up there, and the legend
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: of the story is they're, you know, gloating over there
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: methan Mary beautiful, you know, amazing work. And then this
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: little grainy black and white video comes on and it's
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: you know, me at seventeen eighteen, just rhyming with the
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: big voice and Jay jam Master J stood up in
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: the meeting. He said that little nigga right there is
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: gonna be a star. Wow. And Leo said, we'll find
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: them for me. And that's how that kind of just started,
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: you know, and you know, the rest kind of just
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: just in spiraled into what it was.
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: How did that feel when you first came DMX came
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: before you commercialized.
• 11:08
  Speaker 4: Wasn't it like y'all were like a year apart?
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: Right like he came, Well, Jo actually came first.
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: I was no I didn't come first. Excess music and
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: records and everything came first. But you know, like I said,
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: my situation with death Jam was already it was already
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: making game.
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: And then everybody compared you to him, right, and everything
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: that you did was he's trying to be like DMX.
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: How did that affect you during that time?
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: You know, of course it's going to affect affect you.
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: You know, and I'm young too, you know, you know,
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: I got a chip on my shoulder, and I'm like, nah,
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: I'm not trying to be like no, but I'm me,
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: you know, And and you know, me and the dog,
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: we we definitely you know, had our bouts, so a
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: little stupid shit like that. But so what I did,
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: and and I took an extreme gamble. You know, my
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: first album was very successful. Then you gotta beacha. Yeah,
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: you know, I sold you know, close to two million
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: records on my debut album, and then those things started happening.
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: He's trying to be like at He's trying to be
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: like you know, so I said, you know what, I
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: got something, I'm gonna switch it all up. Went out
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: to La, got me a big ass fucking mansion, out
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: and out in Hollywood Hills. First time I ever had
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: anything like this in my life. And it was like
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: the most ghetto fucking mansion you ever want to see
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: in your life. We had like renaiscent of furniture and
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: it was crazy, you're saying. We had a room that
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: we called the dorm and just ten niggas slept in there,
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying. So it was a wild,
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: a wild time. But I wanted the music to reflect
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: new times in my life, you know, things that I
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: was doing now, things I was seeing now, experiencing now,
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: you know. And so I went completely left, grew my
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: hair out so they can't say, look like Axa Park.
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: Them niggas never had braids. I grew my hair out,
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: got braids, you know, was wearing it wild. Jimmy Hendrix,
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: you know Dan, Dan just looking just just being me,
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: you know, and and and the music started to reflect
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: those moments.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: So it was all your idea to change the image
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: in the music.
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it was. I mean, you know, God, he just
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: kind of flowed with whatever I wanted to do, but
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: he always, you know, would circle back to you gotta
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: keep it, you know what I'm saying. Don't go too far,
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: this way bru, you know, saying you gotta have your
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: street element. You gotta keep it. You know, you got
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: to keep it street. And so you know, because I'm
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: an artist, a creator first at heart, so you know,
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: I wanted to do wild, crazy shit. You know what
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: I'm saying, everybody, nigga. You know it was kind of
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: like back a little bit.
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: It was kind of like reverse Jodasy. And what I
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: mean by that.
• 13:50
  Speaker 5: Remember they always tell a story about how they dressed
• 13:52
  Speaker 5: Jodasy like hip hop, but they did the R and
• 13:54
  Speaker 5: B record, but you.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: You still had the streech it in you, but you
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: were still doing R and B records, but you were
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: still rapped in a hard on the R and B record.
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: You know, It's crazy. I listened to like records like
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: Always on Time, like the Dirty Versions and Ship and
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: I'm like, funny, story was just in in Africa. I
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: was over the building my new school, and so they're
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: playing like the dirty versions of these records the kids
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: out there, and I'm like, God, like yo, they telling
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: them they got to change the hooks singing ain't saying
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: what he's saying, you know what I'm saying. So, yeah,
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: I used to you know, I used to say what
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: I wanted and do what I wanted on the verses,
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: but then the hooks were so pretty that it kind
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: of just cleaned it all up.
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: Did they give you a push back because of that?
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: Because God is soling, God will wrap all the time,
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: like everything in Street with Gotty. But then you went
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: left a little bit and started catering to women and
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: making those type of songs. Was there any pushback at all?
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: Not from God? Because gott He, you know, God, he's
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: all about what's hot. God, he was like, the music
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: sounded right, it's hot. It's the one time we you know,
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: I think I think got He got a little bit nervous,
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: was put it on me. Everybody knew it was a
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: big record, but everybody was like, this is like different,
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: like this is like but I didn't feel it was.
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: I felt like I was already stepping in that arena.
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: I was already doing you know, the records that had
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: had that feel, and maybe I was taking a little
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: step further or whatever, But I felt like I was
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: already in that lane. So it didn't matter. But you know,
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: long Bawl, you know, we put it out and it
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: became the record. It was, but you know, me and
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: Gotdy were very fearless in that. We we understood that
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: this was a this was gonna be a make or
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: break situation. You know, a lot of artists go through
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: what they called a sophomore jinx, and here I am
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: taking the biggest game where you could take with a
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: sophomore album.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: It was like a new debut though in a lot
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: of ways that's how I felt.
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: I felt like, this is like new job rule, This
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: is like something I ain't feel before. This is completely
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: it's me, but it's it's it's like me, and it
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: would have would have with a different you know look
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: to it, you know, feel to it. And and you
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: know they didn't They didn't really like that. Def jam
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: didn't love it. They didn't love the album. They didn't
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: love you know where I was going visually with it.
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: They didn't love it. Really after doing two million records,
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: they broke. Don't fix it, like four or five, I know,
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: but you can't call that you know beforehand, right, And
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: like it's like like I said, you know, it was
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: going through a time where a lot of artists going
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: through sophomore janks. You put out that sophomore album and
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: didn't do. You know, it's as good as the first album.
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: So I was taking a big risk and doing it.
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: They wanted me to go change the album. God he
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: came and it's like your rule, this is what they say.
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: And I told them go fuck theyself, you know, but
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: it's ultimately your decision, you know what you want to do.
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: And I'm like, I'm not changing ship. I'm like, I'm
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: this is you know. We just we're just gonna have to,
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: you know, fight, fight for what we believe in. And
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: we did and and and it was it turned out
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: to be a great decision on that side.
• 17:01
  Speaker 6: I was going to ask you in those moments like
• 17:04
  Speaker 6: we're conversations with you God, it because I've never met
• 17:06
  Speaker 6: him before. But his energy seems so short all the time.
• 17:10
  Speaker 6: But that's a lot of pressure when you you know
• 17:11
  Speaker 6: what I mean, Like y'all are in it, like this
• 17:14
  Speaker 6: is the big moment and you got to say, go
• 17:16
  Speaker 6: fuck yourself. But at the same time, it's like, but
• 17:18
  Speaker 6: you know.
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: God, he had a different way of speaking and handling
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: you know, things I've heard. I'm more a little more diplomatic,
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: you know. But but but it's cool. You know, sometimes
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: in life you need both sides. You need Malcolm and
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: you need Mane, you know what I'm saying. So you
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: need somebody to be like, we're gonna we're gonna talk
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: to Martin right now. We don't want to talk to
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: Malcolm at the moment, you know. So it works.
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: You know, you think there's a lot of herbs.
• 17:43
  Speaker 5: I call it passion, but I think a lot of
• 17:44
  Speaker 5: the rah rah came from the frustration of being a
• 17:47
  Speaker 5: visionary and knowing you're right, and knowing that these motherfuckers
• 17:51
  Speaker 5: do not see the vision. But you can see it
• 17:53
  Speaker 5: so clear. I can see what Jah is so clear.
• 17:55
  Speaker 5: I can see what X is so clear. I can
• 17:57
  Speaker 5: see what Obe is so clear. How don't y'all see it?
• 18:00
  Speaker 5: That would be frustrating, too, especially when you see how
• 18:03
  Speaker 5: everything played.
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: Out, Very very frustrated. But that's that's the struggle, you
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: know that, that's the pushing pull between creatives and and
• 18:11
  Speaker 3: and you know the suits suits. It's always going to
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: be the fight, you know. But now that I'm on
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: both sides of it, I get it. I fight myself
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: because I want to just be creative. But then I'm like,
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: of course much Sometimes you think that before.
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: He passed it. I know you guys had a lot
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: of conversations. Do you does he think he got the
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: credit he deserved because when he passed, you heard every
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: last little thing, every record, every record that he's produced,
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: all the behind the scenes stuff from the making the
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: belly to everything.
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: It's so crazy. It's as much as you know Irvs,
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: you know, loud and outspoken, he wasn't about those things
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: like he he he would know, you know, he I
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: produced this, and I produced it. You know, he he
• 18:59
  Speaker 3: did a lot of outside records outside of Murriay Aint
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: that he never really you know, goten interviews and spoke
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: about or anything. You know, he just kind of just
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: talked about what he did with me X and Jay,
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: you know, because because you know, we were his favorites.
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: But you know, he did do a lot, you know,
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: with a lot of other artists and and you know,
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: big records and records that you know should be definitely
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: you know, contributed to his legacy.
• 19:23
  Speaker 5: You know, I'm sitting here with you and I'm thinking
• 19:24
  Speaker 5: to myself, how do you even talk to job about her?
• 19:27
  Speaker 5: Because you and EARV clearly loved each other out loud,
• 19:30
  Speaker 5: and people asked questions like, how did his passing make
• 19:33
  Speaker 5: you feel it's like, I don't even know if those
• 19:34
  Speaker 5: are appropriate questions.
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah, like I said, I go in and now, like
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: you know, I be I'm very understanding of what life
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: and death is. You know, we were all born to
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: die at some point that that that's gonna happen, you know.
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: You know one of the earth things you always used
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: to say is you know that that is our destiny.
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: But then mirror of that we live, you know, JR.
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: Rest in peace to JR. As well. You know John
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: Lauren and he always used to say live the dash,
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: you know, because that's what your teams do nineteen whatever
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: or whatever to you know whatever. So he alway used
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: to say, live the dash. That's just what it is,
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: you know. So I know that my brother lived, He
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: lived to dash, you know what I'm saying. He lived
• 20:25
  Speaker 3: his life, and so I can be happy in knowing that.
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: But I'm still hurt, you know, by the way it all,
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: you know just kind of happened so fast.
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: Do you regret it at all? You regret not talking
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: to your brother and being hard on your brother. Like
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: I was listening to Chris Irv's brother doing the conversation
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: and he was like it was the lifestyle. And I
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: tried to talk to him, but he was like just
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: irved it. Listen, do you wish you would have been
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: more like, Yo, bro, you gotta do this. You gotta
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: go to the doctor.
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: Bro, you gotta do that about earth. Yeah you can't.
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: You're not telling her that, you now know, whatever got
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: his money, he wants something. He's gonna be that got
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: the record that he ain't gonna stop. And he's the
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: same way with how he wanted to live his life.
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: You're like, well, I think the last time he was
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: here he you know, oh no, no, I'm sorry it
• 21:09
  Speaker 3: was it was maybe drinking and he talking about He's like,
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: you know, was like, are you taking cares? He's like
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: not all the time, but that's what I used to
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: you know. Like one of my last put my last
• 21:21
  Speaker 3: text to him was Yo, how you doing? You're taking
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: care of yourself? How your health? You know what I mean?
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: How you feeling? You know what I mean? I mean
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: spoken you know a couple of weeks or whatever. Yeah, yeah,
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: so you know you know that that's that's her, you know,
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: and I'm happy to know that that he lived his
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: life the way he did Frank Sinatra. I did it
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: my way, So I'm happy and knowing that, you know,
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: but I am a little disappointed because I feel he
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: could still be it.
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: What does that mean when you say it happened so fast?
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: Like I you know, so of course I'm behind the
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: scenes internally, I'm dealing with this in private. You know,
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: it's it's not a public knowledge. And so, you know,
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: I felt he was getting better and then it was one,
• 22:13
  Speaker 3: you know, you know, something happened. I think he had
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: like a mini stroggle. He went back to see the doctor,
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: and then it just kind of his health just started
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: to kind of the deterior range, and it just kind
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: of happened fast, you know, and I'm like, god, damn.
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: But again, it puts things in perspective for his life
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: and perspective absolute health, and perspective his money and perspective,
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: like you know, we all out hit chasing it, you know,
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: the money to this, to that, But you know, it
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: ain't it ain't. It ain't. And I know it's sounds
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: like appliche ship or whatever, but it money ain't nothing.
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: If your health ain't good, if you can't enjoy it,
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: you know what, what what's the money? You know, your
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: family get enjoyed. You know, that's that's whine you you
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: you die, you know, I guess you know you get
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: along knowing that you know what I'm saying, but you
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: can't you can't enjoy it, you know, if you're not
• 23:12
  Speaker 3: if you're not in good health.
• 23:13
  Speaker 6: So if you don't mind me asking, if it's too personal,
• 23:16
  Speaker 6: you can say you don't want to answer. Have you
• 23:18
  Speaker 6: had those moments now after everything where like you wake
• 23:21
  Speaker 6: up and you know, maybe it's like a dream happens
• 23:24
  Speaker 6: and you're like, okay, like I hear you, or like
• 23:26
  Speaker 6: I feel you, or like you know, something like that
• 23:27
  Speaker 6: where it's like a comforting feeling.
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: Nah, you know, I'm not gonna sit here and I'm
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: saying you're having like out about the experiences and ship,
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: you know. I just like I said, I'm seen a
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: lot of death in my life and so boys dealt
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: with it very well. This is the first one that
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: that somebody has died. That's very that's disclose to me.
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: You know that we've built so much, we've done so
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: much together, and so it's a little different. But yeah,
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: it's it's it's yeah, it's tough, but yeah, I can't
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: say that I've you know, experienced those type of joyce.
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: I would have loved to see the gang back together
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: just and maybe they were just you know, the whole
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: murder Ink family back and because you guys grinded from
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: the bottom, like you believers out of people that weren't
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: you know what I mean, whether it was yourself, R
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: and B. I mean, IRV did a chanty and Lloyd,
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: you know what I mean? And I would just wish
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: the gang would have got was there was there any
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: chance of that?
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: I think that ship said, I think that ship sailed,
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: but not. You know what's so crazy? You ain't gotta
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: used to always talk about this and I you know,
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: it's the old it's the old Motown story. Smokey Robinson,
• 24:52
  Speaker 3: Berry Gordon, you know Berry Gordy wasn't gonna come to
• 24:56
  Speaker 3: the twenty five year anniversary because he felt like Mike
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: and Diana and they traded, they left them and you
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: know when when the things was, I guess he felt
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: the highest and you know they just went with the
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: money and you know, left the situation or whatever. And
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: you know, Smokey sat him down. They say it's not
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: about who leaves, about who comes back. And I felt
• 25:23
  Speaker 3: that and I'd always say that to her. I said,
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: things happen, people grow, you grow apart. I said, it's
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: not about who leaves. Said at the end of the day,
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: it's about who comes back. I said, because that shows
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: the respect and the love was always there. And I
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: think that's important, you know.
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: I think the problem is, though people wait to come
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: back at the funeral. Yeah, so you say the ship
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: is sailed.
• 25:51
  Speaker 5: Then we're seeing you know, Shan speak on it and
• 25:53
  Speaker 5: you know, seeing her post about it, so clearly they
• 25:55
  Speaker 5: were still loved there.
• 25:57
  Speaker 3: It's always been there, you know, it's always been there.
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: You know, I've tried to clean it up many times,
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: but I got to a point where I was, you know, like,
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: just let it be. It is what it is. But
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: as long as everybody's called you, I.
• 26:11
  Speaker 6: Think publicly we knew that you were kind of like
• 26:13
  Speaker 6: in the middle trying to figure everything out. And then
• 26:16
  Speaker 6: when everything happened, and like she posted, and you know,
• 26:18
  Speaker 6: she talked to Martinez about, you know, how she was feeling.
• 26:21
  Speaker 6: I know that you guys probably had conversations after and like,
• 26:23
  Speaker 6: you know what, because now it's different because he's not
• 26:26
  Speaker 6: here anymore. What was that like for you because you're
• 26:27
  Speaker 6: kind of still in the middle, but he's not here anymore,
• 26:29
  Speaker 6: and like, you know what is I mean, we you know, it's.
• 26:32
  Speaker 3: Crazy because we had conversations prior, right, you know, about
• 26:36
  Speaker 3: you know, them patching things up, and I've had conversations
• 26:40
  Speaker 3: got about them passing it up, and it's always been
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: on the table with just never happen because.
• 26:46
  Speaker 4: She says she through the olive branch.
• 26:48
  Speaker 3: Prior to yes, and you know, there's been moments when
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: it's just been stuck in his ways and just.
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: He's a cancer like me.
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: So so it's been hard to catched that up. But
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: I know you know that that he did love her,
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: you know that I did know that I do know,
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: and so that's why I always tried to patch it
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: up because I know both sides of the story. I
• 27:14
  Speaker 3: know both of them, and I know you know that
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: they that they shared something and and you know that
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: that's whatever, but it's it's it's just one of those things.
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: But I feel that now that you know in passing,
• 27:29
  Speaker 3: I feel like everybody will come back and we can
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: do some things together as a as a game for
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: the group. Whatever, Lord and the rest of the food
• 27:39
  Speaker 3: that they've always been on board.
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: So how what Irvin felt seeing over at the funeral?
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: You know, I spoke about that at the funeral and
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: I I spoke to that and I told hop, I said, Hue,
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: I know that for a fact, So I let him
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: know that for me. That's all right.
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: Well, now let's move on's.
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: Talk about the school in Ghana.
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: Man I was talking about his daughter getting married. Which
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: way you want to go?
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: Is scary? I told you, whiskey scared.
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: Man.
• 28:13
  Speaker 5: I'm gonna tell you why it's scared, because it's really
• 28:15
  Speaker 5: really good and it's very smooth.
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: You feel a little soft and the first sip.
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: Is warn we have got uh what do you call it? Uh? End?
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: Very very Now your daughter is getting married? Yes, Now,
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: did the the young man come to you and ask you?
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: And how was that conversation?
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: Y know he did. He's he's a really great dude, man,
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: my dude tapping man. He's a good Guy's Jamaican, you know,
• 28:45
  Speaker 3: you know, so they have that respect.
• 28:47
  Speaker 7: You know, he laughed for you said go ahead because
• 28:54
  Speaker 7: they have a culture, you know, in a way you
• 28:58
  Speaker 7: know that that US African Americans don't.
• 29:02
  Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying, so it's you know, it's
• 29:04
  Speaker 3: very respectful. You know, he did it the traditional way.
• 29:08
  Speaker 3: It was cool, you know what I mean. And of course,
• 29:11
  Speaker 3: you know, please take it.
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: Do you pay for the wedding?
• 29:15
  Speaker 3: Of course? Okay, I said, that's the part of the tradition.
• 29:18
  Speaker 3: It needs to change, girl, because your.
• 29:23
  Speaker 4: Son is graduating from college in the same that same month.
• 29:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, it's my youngest son, Jordan. He's graduating from.
• 29:30
  Speaker 4: And you're gonna need a nice gift, and then you
• 29:31
  Speaker 4: gotta pay for the wedding.
• 29:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so they tap him up pocket.
• 29:35
  Speaker 5: Yeah, that's the beauty of life though, right, Like when
• 29:38
  Speaker 5: you think about John twenty years ago, did you realize,
• 29:41
  Speaker 5: like I'm gonna be a father, you know, like this
• 29:44
  Speaker 5: is the difference.
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: Well, yeah, I was the father twenty years Like, did
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: you see my grand father and kids will graduate?
• 29:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah? You know when I was locked up, right, this
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: old head, oh geez to always say only thing worse
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: than getting old is not not getting old. He used
• 30:03
  Speaker 3: to say that to me all the time. And now
• 30:06
  Speaker 3: that I'm getting old, I finally appreciate that statement, you
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: know what I mean, because I used to it was
• 30:11
  Speaker 3: a dumb young knucklehead I think I wasn't gonna live
• 30:14
  Speaker 3: to be twenty five and all this other goofy shit.
• 30:16
  Speaker 3: But you know, long bowl, here I am, you know,
• 30:20
  Speaker 3: forty nine, looking at my kids, you know, you know,
• 30:24
  Speaker 3: graduating from college and you know, and getting married. So
• 30:28
  Speaker 3: it's it's it's a blessing when you.
• 30:30
  Speaker 5: See how many people who have not you know, survived
• 30:33
  Speaker 5: in hipp does it give you more of an appreciation
• 30:36
  Speaker 5: of life?
• 30:37
  Speaker 3: Of course? You know it's a dirty game. Man. It
• 30:42
  Speaker 3: feels like only hip hop goes through that, you know,
• 30:45
  Speaker 3: seeing so many young brothers die a young age, it's
• 30:49
  Speaker 3: kind of crazy, you know, knowing that that's how I
• 30:52
  Speaker 3: thought when I was young, and it I you know,
• 30:54
  Speaker 3: so it's kind of it's kind of weird to just
• 30:57
  Speaker 3: kind of seeing it all old and that's how these
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: young brothers you know, also think. And it's like, you know,
• 31:03
  Speaker 3: we got to break that that that's like.
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: So, how do you tell folks it gets greater later?
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: Are you just show them?
• 31:10
  Speaker 3: I think they're starting to see it, okay, you know
• 31:11
  Speaker 3: what I mean. You know, they have great examples out there,
• 31:14
  Speaker 3: you know, you whole and big and married kids doing
• 31:19
  Speaker 3: well in life. You know, there's other great examples like
• 31:22
  Speaker 3: l and his wife and Mathing his wife, and Me
• 31:25
  Speaker 3: and my wife, and you know, you mentioned a lot.
• 31:28
  Speaker 3: So so you see the growth in hip hop. You know,
• 31:31
  Speaker 3: he's starting to see a lot of of artists that
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: you may not even know was married for a very
• 31:36
  Speaker 3: very long time. You Cube and his wife, you know.
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: So there's a lot of us out there that just
• 31:40
  Speaker 3: kind of really embodied with love and hip fathers about
• 31:46
  Speaker 3: I feel.
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: Like after COVID too, I feel like the hip hop
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: and his wife, you know what I'm saying. I feel
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: like the world had a different respect for nineties and
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: two thousand music.
• 31:55
  Speaker 3: Do you feel that as well?
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: Like it was a shift with when.
• 31:58
  Speaker 3: To bumped in my my royalty? Why do you think
• 32:01
  Speaker 3: that is?
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: Because I mean I seen the time where tours were scattered,
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: but now I see like a much more love and
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: respect for that era of artists.
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: You know, it's hard to put your finger on it,
• 32:12
  Speaker 3: because I feel like every era had great artists. I
• 32:17
  Speaker 3: just feel like our era was the biggest in sales,
• 32:20
  Speaker 3: and so you know that that takes on a different
• 32:24
  Speaker 3: animal when when when you know, when people get to
• 32:28
  Speaker 3: you know, buy your CD and put your post on
• 32:30
  Speaker 3: their wall, and you know, it's a different connection. And
• 32:34
  Speaker 3: I think we kind of just our era, you know,
• 32:37
  Speaker 3: we you know, we we we we benefited the most
• 32:43
  Speaker 3: from that in hip hop. You know these you know
• 32:46
  Speaker 3: new artists. Yeah, they got the streaming and era and
• 32:48
  Speaker 3: there you know, making a lot of money and be
• 32:51
  Speaker 3: independent and go do shows and all the other stuff.
• 32:53
  Speaker 3: But I think the longevity aspect of it and how
• 32:56
  Speaker 3: people kind of fell in love with us as artists,
• 32:59
  Speaker 3: I think that aspect of it. It's kind of like, uh,
• 33:02
  Speaker 3: it's kind of coming on, you know. But but but
• 33:04
  Speaker 3: if you catch them and you got them, you know,
• 33:06
  Speaker 3: because now you have them as followers on your on
• 33:09
  Speaker 3: your gramm, and that people just don't really follow you,
• 33:13
  Speaker 3: they follow kind of like you know what I'm saying.
• 33:16
  Speaker 5: So that that that's the have a plus and we
• 33:19
  Speaker 5: need age appropriate tours like you know, when you forty
• 33:22
  Speaker 5: five plus, you want to go somewhere and still vibe
• 33:25
  Speaker 5: to what you came up on in a safe environment.
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: Like who says that we don't still want to go
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: out the concerts and stuff.
• 33:30
  Speaker 3: We're party a tour this summer going and see us
• 33:33
  Speaker 3: man were putting it down the right way. This summer.
• 33:35
  Speaker 4: But I've seen you.
• 33:36
  Speaker 6: I've seen you in concert and it's a lot of
• 33:38
  Speaker 6: young people there, like a lot like yeah, it's not
• 33:41
  Speaker 6: you would go there and be like, what is happening?
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: That's the old school and it feels crazy for us.
• 33:47
  Speaker 6: Because if I'm thinking about that, I'm like, if I
• 33:49
  Speaker 6: saw you at the Joys, I'd be like, why is Charlotte.
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: Mane here at a job?
• 33:53
  Speaker 6: Because we For us, it's like we go because it's
• 33:55
  Speaker 6: nostalgic and it's fun and it's like whatever, but it's.
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: Your enjoying younger what you're organ.
• 34:04
  Speaker 3: I get it.
• 34:05
  Speaker 6: I feel like it's like y'all are ours now? Like
• 34:07
  Speaker 6: back up ahead, nothing, that's my daughter so young, so young.
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: That music. She feels like that's her music, Like she
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: loves that music. But she doesn't look at age. She's
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: just like, that's my song.
• 34:20
  Speaker 4: It feels good, Like that's how it feels.
• 34:22
  Speaker 6: You put on y'all songs and it's like a good
• 34:23
  Speaker 6: summertime day, like you know, if you feel it, it's different.
• 34:27
  Speaker 6: But for sure, when I went I forget, I think
• 34:29
  Speaker 6: I was in La when I seen you, it was
• 34:31
  Speaker 6: very it was younger than me.
• 34:32
  Speaker 3: I was like oh wow, I got a good you know,
• 34:37
  Speaker 3: generational push because you know, that's what their mothers were
• 34:42
  Speaker 3: listening to and stuff like that. I asked them sometimes
• 34:44
  Speaker 3: you know, they be twenty five and I'm like, what
• 34:47
  Speaker 3: you know about I liked them, and they like my
• 34:50
  Speaker 3: mom was just all my big sister. I was like, okay,
• 34:52
  Speaker 3: I got I.
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: Do you want better? My daughter and ran into so
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: many times yah. I had no idea that j'all sing
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: no songs.
• 34:57
  Speaker 3: I was.
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: So come on and she'd be singing. I'll be like,
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: you know who that is?
• 35:03
  Speaker 3: Right?
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: She's like no, I'm like, you know, I forget it.
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: But she had no idea. She said hello and she
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: you know whatever, she's seen you at the ball and
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: she had no idea you saying no song. She was
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: like really, I'm like yeah, but she's twenty three years old.
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: Had no clue.
• 35:15
  Speaker 6: But I think now with like the bridging of the
• 35:17
  Speaker 6: gay with like social media, it's like you kind of
• 35:19
  Speaker 6: because a lot of times too, like I know my niece,
• 35:21
  Speaker 6: she will play certain songs and I'd be like, how
• 35:23
  Speaker 6: did you even know that song? It's TikTok And she'll
• 35:25
  Speaker 6: literally say, oh, it's TikTok and she might not know
• 35:27
  Speaker 6: who you are, but she can sing the song word
• 35:29
  Speaker 6: for word.
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: Your rule created the whole genre of music.
• 35:32
  Speaker 3: I feel the same way. I don't know some of
• 35:34
  Speaker 3: the new kids, so I know the.
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: Song, So y'all, rule was Drake before Drake.
• 35:40
  Speaker 4: You're yelling at singing.
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry.
• 35:46
  Speaker 4: From because I'm getting high, but don't be yelling at me.
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: The whole singing rapping high. Yeah, that was that was Joah.
• 36:02
  Speaker 3: Literally, I definitely on that space for a minute. You know,
• 36:07
  Speaker 3: I'm not the first start ast to sing it rap, obviously,
• 36:10
  Speaker 3: but you know, I like to think that I was,
• 36:14
  Speaker 3: or like to say or own the fact that I
• 36:17
  Speaker 3: was the first art to really create duets hip hop duets,
• 36:20
  Speaker 3: like you know, you you don't know if I'm real
• 36:23
  Speaker 3: as my record or j Loo's record, or you don't
• 36:25
  Speaker 3: know if mesmerizes my record or Shanty record, because the
• 36:28
  Speaker 3: way I wrote them is I'm so infused in the record,
• 36:31
  Speaker 3: I'm on the hook with them. She got a verse,
• 36:33
  Speaker 3: I got a verse. You know, it sounds like you
• 36:36
  Speaker 3: know what what Tammy and and and Marvel would do
• 36:39
  Speaker 3: back in the day as an R and B record,
• 36:41
  Speaker 3: you know, so that that dynamic really didn't exist in
• 36:44
  Speaker 3: hip hop until I started doing it because I had
• 36:47
  Speaker 3: the deliberty, the liberty of writing those records, and so
• 36:51
  Speaker 3: at the time I didn't know what I was doing.
• 36:53
  Speaker 3: I just kind of wanted to be on the record
• 36:55
  Speaker 3: and be on it as much as possible. I'm like, shit,
• 36:57
  Speaker 3: I'm writing the record for Jennifer Lopez. I need to
• 36:59
  Speaker 3: be on the record, like really on the record, you know.
• 37:02
  Speaker 3: So I'm on the hook, I'm on the verses, but
• 37:05
  Speaker 3: I'm in the first verse, you know, and she comes
• 37:07
  Speaker 3: in and I got my own second burst and she
• 37:08
  Speaker 3: comes back on the you know. I wrote it that
• 37:10
  Speaker 3: way so it can be a back and forth kind
• 37:12
  Speaker 3: of thing. And I think I started that.
• 37:16
  Speaker 6: I saw you said you wish the internet was around
• 37:19
  Speaker 6: during the time of like you and fifties, back and forth.
• 37:21
  Speaker 6: But listening to you tell that story, I'm like, don't
• 37:23
  Speaker 6: you like, aren't you happy that it wasn't because getting
• 37:27
  Speaker 6: enjoyed that without social media, without feel like you had
• 37:29
  Speaker 6: to post it and tag it and talk about it,
• 37:32
  Speaker 6: because you.
• 37:32
  Speaker 3: Know, sometimes you got to show certain elements of certain things.
• 37:35
  Speaker 3: Social media was good for that. Social media's good to
• 37:37
  Speaker 3: show certain things. That's all I just said, got you
• 37:43
  Speaker 3: to it.
• 37:45
  Speaker 5: What similarities did you see in this situation between Kendrick
• 37:50
  Speaker 5: and Drake and you and fifty And I'm just talking
• 37:53
  Speaker 5: about as far as how you know, the public turned
• 37:56
  Speaker 5: on consumers.
• 37:58
  Speaker 3: You know, man, you know fans are fickle. You know
• 38:04
  Speaker 3: I knew that. You know, That's what made me kind
• 38:06
  Speaker 3: of transition how I look at, you know, how I
• 38:11
  Speaker 3: make my money. You know, it was kind of like, Okay,
• 38:14
  Speaker 3: I can't put all my eggs in this basket. I
• 38:16
  Speaker 3: kind of kind of diversified in a lot of different
• 38:17
  Speaker 3: ways because if these niggas flip on me for whatever reason,
• 38:21
  Speaker 3: I ain't like the way I fucking wore my hat
• 38:24
  Speaker 3: saying another day or whatever. And you know it's that,
• 38:27
  Speaker 3: you know, music is. It's a crazy thing, you know,
• 38:33
  Speaker 3: but I do I do see certain things that are
• 38:38
  Speaker 3: similar and just the way, you know, public perception, you know,
• 38:41
  Speaker 3: how people can kind of, you know, turn that back
• 38:45
  Speaker 3: on you because you're winning so much. I think I
• 38:48
  Speaker 3: think that's what you know, people really, I think that's
• 38:52
  Speaker 3: the issue people really have with You're just fucking too hot,
• 38:54
  Speaker 3: you know, saying the boy don't lose, and people wanted
• 38:57
  Speaker 3: to see them get a little bit of dat in
• 38:59
  Speaker 3: his armor. That's all what that man is. Fine, Like,
• 39:04
  Speaker 3: you know, the crazy thing is and the crazy thing
• 39:07
  Speaker 3: peop don't understand my beavn. I'm looking at the same
• 39:09
  Speaker 3: thing with Drake. I'm like, he's rich. He's chilling me.
• 39:12
  Speaker 3: I'm like, I'm rich.
• 39:13
  Speaker 4: You feel like that now though, but in the moment
• 39:14
  Speaker 4: you probably was pissed off like yo, I was.
• 39:17
  Speaker 3: But but the end of the day, the crazy thing is,
• 39:21
  Speaker 3: things can look so much bigger and deeper in our
• 39:27
  Speaker 3: small bubble. But I go places and I feel that it.
• 39:33
  Speaker 3: You know, for a minute, I had the energy was there,
• 39:35
  Speaker 3: don't get me wrong, and you know, we was fighting
• 39:37
  Speaker 3: up buckers and you know, it was what it was.
• 39:39
  Speaker 3: But after a time, it's not that and the energy's gone,
• 39:43
  Speaker 3: and people was like, yo, ruh, I love his music.
• 39:46
  Speaker 3: I'm going to his shows. So it wasn't it was
• 39:49
  Speaker 3: never that, you know, where it was like, okay, I'm
• 39:52
  Speaker 3: suffering in my financial state. So yes, I had to
• 39:57
  Speaker 3: suck up some things that I was feeling from from
• 40:00
  Speaker 3: a fans point of view. But at the end of
• 40:02
  Speaker 3: the day, I can hang my hat on what I
• 40:05
  Speaker 3: came to do. I accomplished. My family's good, I'm good,
• 40:10
  Speaker 3: my money's right. Fuck it, I got some haters. If
• 40:13
  Speaker 3: you don't have haters, then you ain't doing something right,
• 40:15
  Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying. And you and you move
• 40:17
  Speaker 3: on with it. So I always looked at it like,
• 40:19
  Speaker 3: you know, people, you know, the fans and the people
• 40:22
  Speaker 3: around it. It's like, oh, Drake, Drake can be fine.
• 40:26
  Speaker 3: I'm still here twenty five years later doing what I do,
• 40:29
  Speaker 3: getting six figures a show. It's like, it's like, I don't.
• 40:33
  Speaker 3: I don't want people to to ever think that, you know,
• 40:37
  Speaker 3: a rap beef is that that important to the grand
• 40:41
  Speaker 3: scheme of things? Like, you know, people are not you know,
• 40:45
  Speaker 3: Drake's investors and people that do business business what I mean,
• 40:48
  Speaker 3: because it's doing that's not happening, you know. So it's
• 40:51
  Speaker 3: a there's a lot of aspects to it that people
• 40:53
  Speaker 3: don't understand.
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: You ever stop to think to yourself. You know, all
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: those years ago.
• 40:57
  Speaker 5: You put out the clap back record, right, and you
• 41:00
  Speaker 5: put it out. Everybody was like, what is John doing?
• 41:02
  Speaker 5: But now twenty five years later, not only is the
• 41:04
  Speaker 5: record dope, everybody uses the terms clip back.
• 41:10
  Speaker 8: Mine.
• 41:12
  Speaker 3: I'm like, it's still hurt going back. But yeah, you know,
• 41:21
  Speaker 3: I laugh at stuff like that. You know, I even
• 41:24
  Speaker 3: laughed at moments of certain records that came out that
• 41:30
  Speaker 3: didn't really translate as well as they should have, I
• 41:33
  Speaker 3: felt at the time. But I played them now that
• 41:37
  Speaker 3: shows and people singing worth for worse. I'm like, I
• 41:40
  Speaker 3: was listening, you know what I'm sa saying. I was
• 41:42
  Speaker 3: paying attention to these records, you know, like like like wonderful.
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: Oh, wonderful fight.
• 41:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, but it was. It was my first number one
• 41:52
  Speaker 3: record in the UK, you do know what I'm saying. So, yeah,
• 41:56
  Speaker 3: it was. It was. It was dope, but it was
• 41:57
  Speaker 3: popping over there, you know what I'm saying. It wasn't
• 42:00
  Speaker 3: you know, it wasn't kicking it with the way it
• 42:02
  Speaker 3: should have. I felt over here, you know. But you
• 42:04
  Speaker 3: know it's so certain things like that I feel now.
• 42:06
  Speaker 3: And then clapback is another one. You know, when I
• 42:09
  Speaker 3: do it, it's like, oh, now everybody knows the words
• 42:11
  Speaker 3: the clapback. Okay, I get it, I got it. It's cool.
• 42:14
  Speaker 3: But but you know, you know, music is subjectives. Man.
• 42:24
  Speaker 3: People like artists, they don't like artists. You don't gotta
• 42:26
  Speaker 3: like job rule that's cool, you know what I'm saying.
• 42:28
  Speaker 3: People that vibe with me, fu, we came, fuck with me.
• 42:30
  Speaker 3: That's what it is. People who don't, it's cool. I
• 42:33
  Speaker 3: don't know you anyway, It really doesn't bother.
• 42:36
  Speaker 5: It's also it's also interesting to me that you are
• 42:40
  Speaker 5: fifty have not outgrown each other. And what I mean
• 42:42
  Speaker 5: by that is if you're talking to fifty, job gonna
• 42:45
  Speaker 5: come up. If you're talking to job, fifty gonna come up.
• 42:48
  Speaker 3: I mean, I don't. I don't bring him up to
• 42:51
  Speaker 3: say at all. We do, yeah, the media media, but
• 42:56
  Speaker 3: you know, but because I think that's because he's you know, roll,
• 43:00
  Speaker 3: and he.
• 43:00
  Speaker 4: Keeps it going, and you've been doing jazz and throwing
• 43:03
  Speaker 4: them back, but.
• 43:04
  Speaker 3: You be you know, I'll I'll go to the circus
• 43:08
  Speaker 3: once in a while, you know what I mean. But
• 43:10
  Speaker 3: I really like to stay clear of that ship.
• 43:13
  Speaker 4: Yeah, because when the residency stuff happened, I was like, oh,
• 43:17
  Speaker 4: you know, I.
• 43:18
  Speaker 3: Like to have fun. Sometimes I poke jazz at him too,
• 43:20
  Speaker 3: But that's all it really is. It's like it's and
• 43:23
  Speaker 3: and to me, it's like it's silly. You know, we're
• 43:25
  Speaker 3: both successful black men. I think the focus should be
• 43:29
  Speaker 3: on you know, continuing to make sure that we pay
• 43:33
  Speaker 3: it forward, push forward, make sure the coach keeps going forward.
• 43:36
  Speaker 3: I think that's more important. You know. I see some
• 43:38
  Speaker 3: of the things that he gets involved in, this fuse
• 43:41
  Speaker 3: on something like crow rob my nigga. You know what
• 43:43
  Speaker 3: I'm saying. You know, that's what I be thinking to myself,
• 43:46
  Speaker 3: you know. And so when I see the things that
• 43:48
  Speaker 3: he does, and you know, he did the Earth, I'm like,
• 43:53
  Speaker 3: how do you feel about that? So of course nobody
• 43:56
  Speaker 3: likes all his goofy ship, but it's goofy ship, you
• 43:58
  Speaker 3: know what I'm saying. So I'm like, I'm not I'm
• 44:01
  Speaker 3: you know, Prime said it best. You know. I spoke
• 44:04
  Speaker 3: to Premium other day. He's you know, PREMI has always
• 44:06
  Speaker 3: got the right words and ship in the right word
• 44:09
  Speaker 3: things to say. Because I was hot, you know what
• 44:11
  Speaker 3: I'm saying. I was. I was I was ready to
• 44:14
  Speaker 3: go nuclear and ship. But you know, I say, you know,
• 44:17
  Speaker 3: so I spoke to Anyway and Prince said, yo, he
• 44:19
  Speaker 3: said that. He said, you know, he said, here's you
• 44:22
  Speaker 3: gotta understand about who we are and what we are said,
• 44:26
  Speaker 3: we are masters of self defense. And I said, I
• 44:32
  Speaker 3: love that. I said because I'm not. I'm I'm I
• 44:35
  Speaker 3: don't want to start trouble and make trouble with people.
• 44:38
  Speaker 3: I'm you know, but if we got to get into
• 44:41
  Speaker 3: it and make it, oh, I'll fucking ended. I'll put
• 44:44
  Speaker 3: it to it. I'll take it to the next you know.
• 44:46
  Speaker 3: So that's why I'm like, you know what, that is
• 44:49
  Speaker 3: the best description of what I am and who I
• 44:54
  Speaker 3: am as a man that I could ever think about,
• 44:57
  Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying, Because that that's who we
• 45:00
  Speaker 3: are as men here to protect our family, check our homes,
• 45:04
  Speaker 3: defend our honor, our names, our reputation. That's weird. I'm
• 45:08
  Speaker 3: not here to be a bully and bother people. I'm not.
• 45:11
  Speaker 3: That's not That's not what I'm. I'm I'm here to
• 45:15
  Speaker 3: do you know what I'm saying. But I am a master.
• 45:20
  Speaker 5: But in a way, you do have to understand why
• 45:23
  Speaker 5: fulfilled the way he feels when you think about.
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: Everything that y'all been through. I really don't really fighting
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: the shooting, the stabbing, shooting.
• 45:33
  Speaker 3: We ain't got nothing to do with that. People like
• 45:38
  Speaker 3: I got to do with us. You know what I'm saying.
• 45:41
  Speaker 3: I know the reality of it all. You know what
• 45:43
  Speaker 3: I'm saying and that shiit ain't gonna do with us.
• 45:46
  Speaker 3: But I guess it's good for you know, people to
• 45:52
  Speaker 3: play that when they want to play that, and they
• 45:53
  Speaker 3: play victim when they want to play victor. You know.
• 45:55
  Speaker 3: So you know, like I said, I leave it all alone.
• 45:59
  Speaker 3: I live a really really cool life. I'm in a
• 46:03
  Speaker 3: good space. So I'm like, you know, if you sometimes
• 46:07
  Speaker 3: you just got to remove yourself from the circuit. And
• 46:09
  Speaker 3: that's what I've chosen to do it. So that's why
• 46:12
  Speaker 3: I've been being quiet, cool, enjoying my time. You know.
• 46:17
  Speaker 3: It's funny because you know, like you know, I'll get
• 46:21
  Speaker 3: d m s and shipped from you know, other enemies.
• 46:25
  Speaker 3: You know what they say, a friend of uh, a
• 46:30
  Speaker 3: friend of enemy and my friend. I got a lot
• 46:33
  Speaker 3: of I got a lot of those.
• 46:35
  Speaker 6: You know what I'm saying, my enemy my friend responding
• 46:38
  Speaker 6: because you probably don't got down with that, right, Like no, no, no,
• 46:40
  Speaker 6: But it'd be like people y'all know very well.
• 46:42
  Speaker 3: I mean, it would be like.
• 46:46
  Speaker 7: Y'a.
• 46:47
  Speaker 5: You know, it's so crazy because we say that all
• 46:49
  Speaker 5: the time. When Jahr was going through a situation, y'all
• 46:51
  Speaker 5: got jumped. That's why I don't really like to compare
• 46:53
  Speaker 5: to drink.
• 46:54
  Speaker 3: This is true.
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: Everything that you got jumped. So all of those relationships
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: you never made him into.
• 47:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah, me and Game is cool, you know it was bud. Yeah,
• 47:06
  Speaker 3: me and me and Axis across cool. But the rest
• 47:11
  Speaker 3: yeah nah, they're all on that side. Okay, So I
• 47:15
  Speaker 3: don't pump.
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: With them niggas like that, even all these years later, you.
• 47:18
  Speaker 3: Just you know, it's it's like, you know, Charla Mane,
• 47:23
  Speaker 3: It's like it's like anything else, like the Cold War.
• 47:25
  Speaker 3: Man like, we we can exist without having to coexist.
• 47:30
  Speaker 3: That's cool.
• 47:30
  Speaker 2: Now, I gotta ask you know, what was your mind framing?
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: What were your thoughts when they said that they were
• 47:36
  Speaker 2: bringing the fire Festival back. I'm glad.
• 47:39
  Speaker 3: I'm glad you brought that up.
• 47:41
  Speaker 2: Mister.
• 47:42
  Speaker 3: What was I'm glad you brought that up?
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: Remember when was when I was here around.
• 47:49
  Speaker 3: That time and and my good brother Andy was like, joh,
• 47:54
  Speaker 3: how how could you have a partner the ship?
• 48:06
  Speaker 4: Whatday is Wesday?
• 48:09
  Speaker 2: Wednesday?
• 48:15
  Speaker 4: Now he's just showing me, shouting, shouting me. That's a cocking.
• 48:20
  Speaker 4: That's how you clock that clock?
• 48:24
  Speaker 8: That Okay, you think that don't understanding?
• 48:34
  Speaker 4: Maybe we gotta cheer some neutral because that's just South school.
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: Working for that word.
• 48:42
  Speaker 8: Let me let him Jos listen.
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: I just want to jo so many times holding that.
• 48:57
  Speaker 8: Because it's possible, right, maybe just be doing fun ship
• 49:07
  Speaker 8: behind your back.
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you cognizant of that. Now who you attach your
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: brand to?
• 49:12
  Speaker 3: I'm sure, yeah, for sure, And you know what's crazy
• 49:17
  Speaker 3: and you can probably test it this like yes again,
• 49:23
  Speaker 3: the beauty of oh, you know, you don't want to
• 49:25
  Speaker 3: go through nothing like you know, those type of situations.
• 49:28
  Speaker 3: But the beauty of it is now when I vet
• 49:30
  Speaker 3: a situation, people don't get mad at all. Like when
• 49:34
  Speaker 3: I'm when I'm like, ain't about like no, no, no,
• 49:38
  Speaker 3: I don't know. Let me just check a little bit more,
• 49:40
  Speaker 3: see what this is about. They do not like it's
• 49:43
  Speaker 3: no sweat that like I get it, Joah, I get it,
• 49:46
  Speaker 3: I get it, you know what I'm saying. So that,
• 49:48
  Speaker 3: I guess is a plus for things where people are
• 49:50
  Speaker 3: very you know, forgiving when it comes to how hard
• 49:56
  Speaker 3: I'm vetting the next situation you have to you have.
• 49:59
  Speaker 6: To with Amber Opel speaking of bedding, I was watching
• 50:04
  Speaker 6: an interview where you talked about and we had tried
• 50:06
  Speaker 6: this before.
• 50:06
  Speaker 4: We were talking about the tasting and stuff. And I honestly,
• 50:11
  Speaker 4: amber is the whiskey that that you.
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: I'm not even really good.
• 50:17
  Speaker 3: Man.
• 50:18
  Speaker 5: This is the first whisky I've ever tasted. I'm like, yo,
• 50:20
  Speaker 5: this ship is actually really good.
• 50:28
  Speaker 3: You could do it.
• 50:29
  Speaker 4: I feel like that in the morning. You could do
• 50:30
  Speaker 4: this in like a good coffee.
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: It tastes like an old fashioned already.
• 50:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I c yeah.
• 50:38
  Speaker 4: What do you smell?
• 50:38
  Speaker 3: Smells to tow up online because I poured a fucking
• 50:42
  Speaker 3: ship over ice and called it meat. Motherfucker's mad at me.
• 50:50
  Speaker 4: But you did a good job with this. What do
• 50:52
  Speaker 4: you smell when you smell it?
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: It's like sweet and smoky at the same time.
• 50:56
  Speaker 3: That's smoky taste that you that you that you taste
• 50:58
  Speaker 3: that smoke finished. That is a Chinese tea, Chinese black
• 51:03
  Speaker 3: tea that we use called Lapsung soup chunk. You see,
• 51:05
  Speaker 3: you see my black brother back there. I'm I'm gotta
• 51:08
  Speaker 3: give him all the props because he's the whiskey enthusiast
• 51:11
  Speaker 3: out of the crew. And so this blend he was sweating,
• 51:15
  Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying. You see the ball to
• 51:17
  Speaker 3: So he's back there sweat and getting putting this blend
• 51:18
  Speaker 3: together the right way, and he and he did the
• 51:20
  Speaker 3: damn thing with it. And and you know, I was
• 51:23
  Speaker 3: the guy that was tasting it. That was you that
• 51:26
  Speaker 3: I'm not really a whiskey drinker, but tasting it was
• 51:29
  Speaker 3: like I could drink. So I was important to the
• 51:33
  Speaker 3: to the you know, to the to the tasting. When
• 51:35
  Speaker 3: I thought I wasn't, you know, I was sitting there like, now,
• 51:37
  Speaker 3: I don't know what I'm tasting. I don't know if this,
• 51:39
  Speaker 3: you know whatever, and they're like, just taste it. Take
• 51:41
  Speaker 3: I'm drinking a B C D. I'm like, they all
• 51:43
  Speaker 3: kind of taste to say, just tell me which one
• 51:45
  Speaker 3: you like, you know what I'm saying. And and so
• 51:48
  Speaker 3: that that that's important, and we we wanted to really
• 51:51
  Speaker 3: nail that for the whiskey curious, you know what I mean,
• 51:53
  Speaker 3: people who are maybe first time whiskey drinkers are not
• 51:55
  Speaker 3: really you know, whiskey enthusiasts.
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: Why whiskey for you?
• 52:00
  Speaker 3: Well, it's started as a business mention, I'm not gonna lie,
• 52:02
  Speaker 3: you know. During COVID. You know, I'm with a really
• 52:06
  Speaker 3: really great investment group and we were doing a lot
• 52:07
  Speaker 3: of crazy investments. So we got into like Web three
• 52:10
  Speaker 3: stuff and stuff. You know, it was doing that stuff.
• 52:12
  Speaker 3: It was like it was fun investing during its like
• 52:14
  Speaker 3: gaming investing. Damn there and COVID. So one of the
• 52:18
  Speaker 3: things that came across our desk was a whiskey Dave.
• 52:24
  Speaker 3: And a DOW is a decentralized organized atonomous autonomous organization
• 52:29
  Speaker 3: to centralized autonomous organization is what a DOW is. So
• 52:32
  Speaker 3: so it's basically like a group of people get together
• 52:35
  Speaker 3: and we're all on the board and we all get
• 52:37
  Speaker 3: the vote and make decisions and how to you know,
• 52:39
  Speaker 3: company rolls blah blah blah. So you know, we did this,
• 52:43
  Speaker 3: and what it was is we bought a whole fucking
• 52:47
  Speaker 3: warehouse full of whiskey out in Niowa and we were
• 52:51
  Speaker 3: gonna wait till the whiskey age to hit a seven
• 52:54
  Speaker 3: year mark when it became like a premium bourbon, and
• 52:56
  Speaker 3: just flip it. So that was the plan. But as
• 53:00
  Speaker 3: we got hit our seven year mark, some of the
• 53:01
  Speaker 3: guys in our group started busting open the bottle the
• 53:04
  Speaker 3: barrels and making personal bottles for home and ship, and so,
• 53:07
  Speaker 3: you know, me and Herb decided, let's let's let's start
• 53:10
  Speaker 3: something really, really dope, and so we did that. So
• 53:12
  Speaker 3: but what happened was he he found a distillery out
• 53:15
  Speaker 3: in Baltimore. So this is where this batch is actually made.
• 53:19
  Speaker 3: Because they told us don't use those barrels because that
• 53:23
  Speaker 3: premium bourbon and if we infuse it with the honey
• 53:26
  Speaker 3: is gonna dilute the aging. And so we decided, well
• 53:31
  Speaker 3: we didn't actually decide they they recommended that we by
• 53:35
  Speaker 3: their three year old two year old barrels and and
• 53:38
  Speaker 3: and make and make our you know, blend. And so
• 53:41
  Speaker 3: that's what we did and and amazing partnership thus far.
• 53:45
  Speaker 3: You know, the blend is amazing, as Charlamagne, you know,
• 53:48
  Speaker 3: has has said several times.
• 53:50
  Speaker 2: How difficult does it get into these stores? You know,
• 53:54
  Speaker 2: that's been the hardest part.
• 53:56
  Speaker 3: It's been. It's been a little bit challenging. But you know,
• 54:00
  Speaker 3: we we were we were able to get into a
• 54:04
  Speaker 3: really dope diversity program before they stopped the.
• 54:09
  Speaker 4: Distributors.
• 54:10
  Speaker 3: So we're we're with we're with Park Streets and they
• 54:15
  Speaker 3: distribute us through California and Florida. But you know, we're
• 54:19
  Speaker 3: looking to do a major distribution. So we'll probably signed
• 54:22
  Speaker 3: with R and d C really really soon. They have
• 54:24
  Speaker 3: a national footprint, so we'll deal basically with them. But
• 54:28
  Speaker 3: you know, we we we're doing great. We we do
• 54:31
  Speaker 3: our diversity program that we were able to get into
• 54:36
  Speaker 3: and you know, people don't like to talk about it,
• 54:38
  Speaker 3: but I think it's important that you do talk about
• 54:40
  Speaker 3: these these programs because they do help us as as
• 54:44
  Speaker 3: as as a as a as a as a black
• 54:47
  Speaker 3: culture of black people. And then I think, you know,
• 54:49
  Speaker 3: we should look into it or whatever. They're gone now
• 54:52
  Speaker 3: so it doesn't matter. But while they were here, people
• 54:54
  Speaker 3: weren't talking about it enough. And and and and these
• 54:57
  Speaker 3: are some of the great programs that were out there,
• 54:59
  Speaker 3: and so we got into it. And we were able
• 55:02
  Speaker 3: to get into one hundred and two doors at total
• 55:05
  Speaker 3: wanes and in ten cities, like you know, right off
• 55:08
  Speaker 3: the back. That's a new company, so that was a plus.
• 55:11
  Speaker 3: And then of course we have distribution online as well.
• 55:15
  Speaker 3: You can get us at a sealed box, dot com
• 55:18
  Speaker 3: and a reserve bar as well.
• 55:20
  Speaker 2: So do you change the do you try to change
• 55:22
  Speaker 2: the landscape? And the reason I asked, right, you coming
• 55:25
  Speaker 2: out of as an artist, right, you remember the drink
• 55:28
  Speaker 2: at the time was Hennessy, then it changed the vodka. Yeah,
• 55:32
  Speaker 2: and it chased the tequila. Do you try to change
• 55:34
  Speaker 2: the landscape of the clubs or you say, now we're
• 55:36
  Speaker 2: not taking the club.
• 55:37
  Speaker 3: No, no, yeah, we definitely club We're in eleven, We
• 55:39
  Speaker 3: were in Dre's. You know, we definitely new places.
• 55:42
  Speaker 6: Where people kind of swords would understand that. That makes sense, okay,
• 55:45
  Speaker 6: marketing ones, that makes sense absolutely.
• 55:47
  Speaker 3: And you know, you know, I want to do something
• 55:49
  Speaker 3: really really cool. You know, I'm looking into it how
• 55:52
  Speaker 3: we can make it happen. But you know how they
• 55:53
  Speaker 3: have bottle service and they bring the bottle service. I
• 55:56
  Speaker 3: want to do a little something different. When you order
• 55:58
  Speaker 3: a bottle amber and Ople, you'll get your own you know,
• 56:01
  Speaker 3: uh mixologists and they'll come with a you know, a
• 56:05
  Speaker 3: menu or drinks that you can actually make and they'll
• 56:08
  Speaker 3: make you right there at the moment. Yeah, you know,
• 56:11
  Speaker 3: it's a little little different twists on when we're doing
• 56:14
  Speaker 3: bottle service, but it's still bottle service. Instead of just
• 56:16
  Speaker 3: making a silly car and all of you know, somebody,
• 56:18
  Speaker 3: you can actually sit there and learn about the making drinks.
• 56:22
  Speaker 6: A lot of times when celebrities do alcohol brands, it's
• 56:24
  Speaker 6: like everything's already done in the brand comes you're like, hey,
• 56:26
  Speaker 6: put your face on the sitt next to it.
• 56:28
  Speaker 4: I know that that this was the complete opposite for you.
• 56:31
  Speaker 6: What have you learned business wise that like you thought
• 56:34
  Speaker 6: you already knew, but being in Spirits, you were like, oh, okay, you.
• 56:38
  Speaker 3: Know it's crazy. I knew that. You know this was
• 56:42
  Speaker 3: gonna happen. What's happening to us right now? You know,
• 56:45
  Speaker 3: because it happened to us when we was in the
• 56:46
  Speaker 3: clothing business when I had IRV and Jeffrey me and
• 56:48
  Speaker 3: Earth had that company. And the more doors we got into,
• 56:52
  Speaker 3: the more closed we had to actually make. So we
• 56:54
  Speaker 3: didn't have the white label deal, and so it was
• 56:56
  Speaker 3: all coming out of our pocket. And so what you
• 56:59
  Speaker 3: start to realize is the hotter you get, the more
• 57:02
  Speaker 3: product you have to actually make. Now in the clothing
• 57:05
  Speaker 3: industry is a little bit tougher because you're dealing with seasons,
• 57:09
  Speaker 3: and so if you don't sell it in that season,
• 57:12
  Speaker 3: last year's thing or last season's thing, and now you're
• 57:14
  Speaker 3: out into the bargain stores and you're losing you know,
• 57:17
  Speaker 3: profit on your on your on your retail sales. But
• 57:21
  Speaker 3: what's good about you know, alcohol is is alcohol. So
• 57:23
  Speaker 3: they consider on the shelves for a while, but you
• 57:25
  Speaker 3: still want it to move. You don't want it to
• 57:26
  Speaker 3: be sitting too long and they feel it's not moving,
• 57:29
  Speaker 3: you know. So it's a little catch twenty two on
• 57:31
  Speaker 3: how you got to kind of, you know, get people
• 57:33
  Speaker 3: to sample the product, you know, before they go into
• 57:38
  Speaker 3: a store and buy a seventy dollars bottle of ambernova
• 57:40
  Speaker 3: with sixty nine ninety nine as a you know, retail price.
• 57:43
  Speaker 3: But you know, how do you do that? Well, one
• 57:46
  Speaker 3: of the ways we're trying to, you know, do that
• 57:48
  Speaker 3: is going to the dope you know restaurants and the
• 57:52
  Speaker 3: dope night spaces, and so people could say, all right,
• 57:56
  Speaker 3: let meet a cocktail of that, or if there's a
• 57:58
  Speaker 3: bat at the table, they could taste it off. There
• 58:00
  Speaker 3: the restaurant that can get a cocktail you know, that's
• 58:02
  Speaker 3: a lot cheaper than seventy dollars, and they could taste
• 58:04
  Speaker 3: it and say, I like that, I will buy that,
• 58:05
  Speaker 3: you know. So it's one of those things you just
• 58:07
  Speaker 3: gotta kind of keep keep keep keep keep grinding it
• 58:10
  Speaker 3: and sauce from it out.
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: Why the name and Opal my.
• 58:14
  Speaker 3: Brother came up with the name. But I love I
• 58:17
  Speaker 3: love where he went with it. You know, my my
• 58:20
  Speaker 3: my thing about names, and I saw. I told him
• 58:22
  Speaker 3: he's like the rulers, you know, I come up with
• 58:24
  Speaker 3: the name, I said, I said, hurt, and tell you
• 58:25
  Speaker 3: something about name. My name is the names and name
• 58:28
  Speaker 3: product has to be right. So he came up with
• 58:32
  Speaker 3: a beautiful name, and the product is right. And so
• 58:36
  Speaker 3: this is amber and ople. The Ambers obviously is the
• 58:40
  Speaker 3: hue of you know what we're looking at and the
• 58:44
  Speaker 3: color of the you know, but the opal is it's
• 58:48
  Speaker 3: a it's a precious stone and it's the only precious
• 58:51
  Speaker 3: stone that comes in multiple colors brown, white, you know, black,
• 58:55
  Speaker 3: you know, tan, and so that we wanted that to
• 58:58
  Speaker 3: be encompassing a message inclusive. You know, we are black
• 59:04
  Speaker 3: owned brand. We're not a black brand. I want everybody
• 59:08
  Speaker 3: to enjoy. So you know that that that's kind of where.
• 59:13
  Speaker 5: The name that's crazy, as you say, the name is
• 59:16
  Speaker 5: just a name, because it's not just it's not you
• 59:18
  Speaker 5: can have a great name, but you can also have
• 59:21
  Speaker 5: a terrible name.
• 59:21
  Speaker 3: But if your product is great, you.
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: Can ever it becomes to Twitter, you know, or you
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: can have a name like murder. Ain't you gotta change?
• 59:32
  Speaker 3: But the name worked because the product was great too,
• 59:35
  Speaker 3: and so we had to change it for you know,
• 59:37
  Speaker 3: other reasons. You know, still call us down, but people
• 59:41
  Speaker 3: are never gonna stop calling name. But but I say
• 59:43
  Speaker 3: that because I've come up with so many names of things,
• 59:46
  Speaker 3: and that's what I've learned along the way. Like, you know,
• 59:49
  Speaker 3: we can come up with an amazing name, but if
• 59:51
  Speaker 3: the product is not dope, nobody remember the name, you
• 59:54
  Speaker 3: know what I mean. Or you can have the worst
• 59:56
  Speaker 3: name in the world the product is amazing. 'ober you
• 59:59
  Speaker 3: know what I'm saying. You know whatever, these crazy names
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 3: that people come up with, you know, yes, you down.
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: I guess this is my last question. I guess we
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: got to go to Ghana.
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 2: To the school and Ghana, so we'll talk about the
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 2: school and Ghana that that you built.
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah. So I just got back from Ghana yesterday last night.
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 3: I built a sixth classroom block and uh Naasu Ghana.
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 3: Amazing feeling, you know, uh, probably the most important thing
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 3: that I've done, wow, in my career. That's you know.
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 3: I say that because this is something that's on a
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 3: little way beyond me. You know, all the thousands of
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 3: kids that get to go to this school and learn
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 3: English and learn math and you know, science and history
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 3: and all those great things. It's really really you know special,
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 3: And what people have to understand is, you know, we're
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 3: not in opera, you know what I'm saying where you know,
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 3: I land in opera in Ghana, that's the capital, but
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 3: not We drive two and a half hours outside of
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 3: opera too, in Washington where it's like really really really small,
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 3: you know, villages of people and and and they don't
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 3: have much of anything. They don't have, you know, really
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 3: a lot of fresh water, you know, they don't have,
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 3: you know, so we had to build the bathrooms there
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 3: so they can you know, have sanitary places. You know,
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 3: they're still teaching the girls how to you know, you know,
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 3: be sanitary with themselves, washing the things of that nature
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 3: and and you know, with their menstrual cycles and stuff
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 3: like that. You know. We we was at a tribe
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 3: out there just now where they still believe that the
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 3: blood from the women's menstrual cycle is evil and so
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 3: the women have to go into an outhouse for seven
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 3: days and why they're doing that. So so it's it's
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 3: also a learning experience that you know, we're offering out
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 3: there too. I did this through pencils and promise, you know,
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 3: Andy and school the Bronze, Uh, you know foundation really
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 3: they do really really great work man. So I've been
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 3: working with them for the last few years. And you know,
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 3: I you know, broke brown on the school last year
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 3: and this year, you know, we're here opening the school,
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 3: cutting the ribon and the kids.
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: Amazing, congratulations, amazing.
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 5: It was just about you know, when you spoke about
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 5: changing the name, you know for the FEDS, and you
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 5: know you talked about pasting earlier and how you felt
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 5: like it.
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: It happened so fast.
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 5: Does it ever make you feel like, damn, we survived
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 5: so much that you didn't think it would end.
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: The way it ended.
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you never really think about the ending m hm
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 3: plays out. I don't think anybody really has that scripted in.
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 3: It's just it's just it's just one of those things
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 3: that I'm I'm blessed to know that I'm here, and
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 3: I want to keep it alive as long as I'm here.
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 3: It's just it's just tough, man. It's a tough one,
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 3: really tough one.
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 2: We appreciate you for joining us absolutely out and about
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 2: pick up the new whiskey and but open isn't total.
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we we know we're going in the other spaces to.
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: Really good I love that, man, it's really good.
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 6: No, but that was how we when we first tried
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 6: the last time. You were not up here for any
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 6: but we just ran into you.
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 4: I was like, this is whiskey. It's no way.
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 3: She definitely gave it the stamp of approval.
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, drunk, so she said you are drunk.
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: Not I'm sorry. She does a lot of taste.
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 6: What she does well, Actually, I used to work in
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 6: the spirit's industry, so you know period.
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 4: That's how I knew to tell you to smell it.
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 4: But that big nose over there, I'm about to come
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 4: across this table.
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 2: Alright, ladies and gentlemen, is job. Good morning? Wake that
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 2: ass up in the morning.
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: The Breakfast Club