WEBVTT - EYL 317: Common 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:03.600 An illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child 0:00:03.680 --> 0:00:07.480 in Massachusetts. An MS thirteen gang member from Al Salvador 0:00:07.720 --> 0:00:11.840 accused of murdering a Texas man of Venezuelan charged with 0:00:11.920 --> 0:00:15.840 filming and selling child pornography in Michigan. These are just 0:00:15.920 --> 0:00:19.680 some of the heinous migrant criminals caught because of President 0:00:19.720 --> 0:00:20.159 Donald J. 0:00:20.239 --> 0:00:21.200 Trump's leadership. 0:00:21.480 --> 0:00:25.079 I'm Christy nom the United States Secretary of Homeland Security. 0:00:25.440 --> 0:00:29.200 Under President Trump, attempted illegal border crossings are at the 0:00:29.240 --> 0:00:33.080 lowest levels ever recorded, and over one hundred thousand illegal 0:00:33.120 --> 0:00:36.920 aliens have been arrested. If you are here illegally, your 0:00:37.040 --> 0:00:41.160 next you will be fined nearly one thousand dollars a day, imprisoned, 0:00:41.479 --> 0:00:42.160 and deported. 0:00:42.600 --> 0:00:43.800 You will never return. 0:00:44.120 --> 0:00:47.120 But if you register using our CBP home app and 0:00:47.240 --> 0:00:50.120 leave now, you could be allowed to return legally. 0:00:50.479 --> 0:00:52.720 Do what's right. Leave now. 0:00:53.040 --> 0:00:57.840 Under President Trump, America's laws, border and families will be protected. 0:00:57.920 --> 0:01:00.560 Sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security Earners. 0:01:00.600 --> 0:01:01.160 What's going on? 0:01:01.320 --> 0:01:05.920 Listen, eylu is relaunching, revamping, retooling. That's why we're creating 0:01:06.000 --> 0:01:08.720 a new educational experience that's more expensive. 0:01:08.920 --> 0:01:09.120 Shot. 0:01:09.280 --> 0:01:12.360 Tell what we got ys twenty twenty three. We got 0:01:12.360 --> 0:01:14.520 a lot in still a lot playing for you guys. 0:01:14.600 --> 0:01:18.160 So you know that ey LU already includes monthly financial 0:01:18.160 --> 0:01:21.320 planning calls with Me, book club calls with Troy, real 0:01:21.440 --> 0:01:24.240 estate calls with MG the Mortgage Guy, access to the 0:01:24.280 --> 0:01:27.080 Home Buying Blueprint Volume one and Volume two. 0:01:27.360 --> 0:01:27.880 Part of the. 0:01:27.920 --> 0:01:31.760 Revamp will include twenty seven local chapters from across the 0:01:31.920 --> 0:01:35.959 United States, live interactive teaching hands on not just pre 0:01:36.000 --> 0:01:40.840 recorded videos, plus fifteen brand new curriculums. 0:01:40.840 --> 0:01:42.479 The biggest just got bigger. 0:01:42.959 --> 0:01:46.360 Head over to e y L University dot com. That's 0:01:46.480 --> 0:01:51.200 EYL you n I V E R s I t 0:01:51.600 --> 0:01:53.320 Y dot com. 0:01:53.600 --> 0:01:57.240 See you there all right, guys, Welcome back ey L. 0:01:57.320 --> 0:02:00.880 We got a special edition Legends only. This is a Legends, 0:02:01.240 --> 0:02:04.920 yes for sure. Whenever we get a chance to talk 0:02:04.960 --> 0:02:08.080 to you know, the hip hop Legends is always fun 0:02:08.080 --> 0:02:10.720 for us because before anything, we was fans of music. 0:02:10.800 --> 0:02:13.240 We still are fans of music and just culture. 0:02:13.320 --> 0:02:16.520 So you know, people that have help shape it, it's 0:02:16.520 --> 0:02:18.959 always great for us to have conversations with them. So 0:02:19.440 --> 0:02:23.920 we have Rashi better known as Common formerly known as Common. 0:02:25.840 --> 0:02:29.960 Also known as It's dope that we grew up in 0:02:29.960 --> 0:02:32.480 the era and we got to watch our artists mature 0:02:32.960 --> 0:02:34.240 and still have relevancy. 0:02:34.480 --> 0:02:34.720 Yeah. 0:02:35.200 --> 0:02:37.440 So you know, in the early days of hip hop, 0:02:37.720 --> 0:02:40.480 there wasn't an act right like, it felt like this 0:02:40.919 --> 0:02:43.720 couldn't grow. There was a young man's sporty somebody saying 0:02:43.720 --> 0:02:45.200 that the other day's a young man sport. I'm like, 0:02:45.880 --> 0:02:49.200 that's true. But these guys that were young have now 0:02:49.280 --> 0:02:51.000 grown and we've grown with them. So I think this 0:02:51.120 --> 0:02:53.280 is just this is a dope conversation that we're gonna have. Yeah, no, 0:02:53.440 --> 0:02:55.919 for sure, man, thank y'all too for having me up here. Man, 0:02:56.960 --> 0:02:59.760 respect in love with y'all doing. Thank you for sure, 0:03:00.040 --> 0:03:04.119 And I want to say, yeah, I definitely creating. When 0:03:04.160 --> 0:03:07.760 I first started like making music, didn't think I could 0:03:07.800 --> 0:03:13.720 grow into my thirties forties. I'm fifty two now and 0:03:13.760 --> 0:03:18.240 be creating music like where it still feel fresh, where 0:03:18.600 --> 0:03:22.079 I'm still like weird, not being with Pete Rock and 0:03:22.160 --> 0:03:26.560 I on this album, but just gaining new audience. We 0:03:26.600 --> 0:03:30.400 didn't have those examples at the beginning because hip I 0:03:30.600 --> 0:03:34.280 was so young. But when we think about it being 0:03:34.320 --> 0:03:37.560 a it is a young man's sport, young woman's sport, 0:03:37.680 --> 0:03:40.800 but it also is like because it's music. It has 0:03:40.840 --> 0:03:42.080 the time listeners to it. 0:03:42.160 --> 0:03:47.240 Like music doesn't really when you think about music, it 0:03:47.280 --> 0:03:49.720 don't really deno the age or. 0:03:51.160 --> 0:03:52.000 Or even the color. 0:03:52.040 --> 0:03:54.240 Man like cause some of the some of the songs 0:03:54.280 --> 0:03:58.520 I've enjoyed most, man, it's all walks of life, just 0:03:59.520 --> 0:04:01.960 loving it. It could be Michael Jackson's Off the Wall, 0:04:02.480 --> 0:04:05.240 or it could be Kendricks Lamar not like us, you know, 0:04:05.360 --> 0:04:11.040 And I see different like age, different people from different 0:04:11.320 --> 0:04:15.360 age groups still enjoying all that music. So I feel 0:04:15.360 --> 0:04:19.240 like music when it's made in its purest way and 0:04:19.279 --> 0:04:21.600 it really has a soul to it and it's special, 0:04:22.320 --> 0:04:25.120 it doesn't have that limit on it. It can grow 0:04:25.200 --> 0:04:28.360 and be timeless. And for me as an artist, I've 0:04:28.360 --> 0:04:29.800 been just trying to strive and to grow. 0:04:30.160 --> 0:04:32.520 Well, how have you been a So you're one of 0:04:32.520 --> 0:04:35.400 the few artists that have been able to maintain relevancy 0:04:35.880 --> 0:04:37.640 for a long period of time and hip hop right. 0:04:38.080 --> 0:04:41.440 Unfortunately a lot of artists don't have that longevity. And 0:04:41.480 --> 0:04:43.520 you've done it with different verticals, acting and stuff like that. 0:04:43.600 --> 0:04:47.560 So what's your key to be able to maintain relevance 0:04:47.600 --> 0:04:49.719 and to reinvent yourself decade after decade. 0:04:50.440 --> 0:04:55.120 I mean, I would like to think I had a formula, 0:04:55.200 --> 0:04:57.120 but I really didn't have a formula. 0:04:57.200 --> 0:04:59.640 I think it was just a faith. 0:05:00.200 --> 0:05:05.240 It's about the love for the art forms. It was 0:05:05.279 --> 0:05:09.679 about staying humble and being like, man, I can learn, 0:05:09.839 --> 0:05:10.560 I gotta learn. 0:05:10.600 --> 0:05:11.839 I gotta seek to get better. 0:05:11.920 --> 0:05:16.160 So even when I had those victories, like an album 0:05:16.200 --> 0:05:18.640 like B I didn't just sit back and be like, Okay, 0:05:18.640 --> 0:05:19.200 I made it. 0:05:19.520 --> 0:05:21.880 You know, It's like, how can I get better? 0:05:22.160 --> 0:05:26.240 And as you mentioned, like the vertical of acting was 0:05:26.400 --> 0:05:30.720 very important to me, and you know, the relevancy that 0:05:31.800 --> 0:05:34.680 people see some of that is just because of acting 0:05:34.800 --> 0:05:39.520 or because of the activism, because it's not like every 0:05:39.560 --> 0:05:43.479 album I put out since ninety two, when I first 0:05:43.520 --> 0:05:46.039 put out my first album. It's not like everyone is 0:05:46.040 --> 0:05:51.280 connected with people. And I fortunately understand the ups and 0:05:51.320 --> 0:05:54.520 downs of that too and can still stay with my 0:05:54.600 --> 0:05:57.360 eyes on the prize as far as striving to grow 0:05:57.400 --> 0:06:00.680 as an artist, but getting into acting, getting doing different 0:06:00.680 --> 0:06:03.680 things like songs, being in the films, like the song 0:06:03.720 --> 0:06:06.680 with John Legend and now that you know we got 0:06:06.720 --> 0:06:09.640 on an Oscar stage. That is something I was dreamed 0:06:09.640 --> 0:06:11.520 of doing as an actor but didn't know I would 0:06:11.560 --> 0:06:14.560 do it as a musician sea for some of the 0:06:14.640 --> 0:06:19.160 song glory. So that that being said, I think the 0:06:19.160 --> 0:06:21.880 the key that I can say most is just man 0:06:22.040 --> 0:06:25.640 just being in tune with the most high and following 0:06:26.640 --> 0:06:30.920 you know, your consciousness, your gut feeling of who you are. 0:06:31.400 --> 0:06:35.000 Times you move like like musically, at times I do 0:06:35.080 --> 0:06:37.839 different shit, man, Like I'll be like going out there 0:06:37.960 --> 0:06:40.760 venturing off, and I don't be like, Okay, just because 0:06:40.800 --> 0:06:42.800 people want to hear me do this boom back hip hop, 0:06:42.839 --> 0:06:45.440 I'm just gonna do it. No if I'm if I'm 0:06:45.440 --> 0:06:48.640 in this space I wanted to do some eclectic, eccentric stuff, 0:06:48.680 --> 0:06:50.719 I'm gonna do it and it might you know, it 0:06:50.800 --> 0:06:53.159 might not win then, but it could win later. And 0:06:53.200 --> 0:06:56.719 I think that's just about really. I mean, it sounds 0:06:56.760 --> 0:06:59.360 so trite, but staying true to who you are and 0:06:59.400 --> 0:07:03.000 having a face and being humble, it's the only things 0:07:03.040 --> 0:07:05.240 I can look at that has kept me in this 0:07:05.960 --> 0:07:06.679 music business. 0:07:07.279 --> 0:07:09.760 This business you came in in ninety two. I mean, 0:07:09.800 --> 0:07:11.920 this is what do you like to call it? The 0:07:11.960 --> 0:07:15.239 Golden Age, the golden era of hip hop? The breakthrough 0:07:15.280 --> 0:07:16.280 song is I used. 0:07:16.120 --> 0:07:16.640 To love her? 0:07:16.800 --> 0:07:19.520 Yeah, I mean they made movies around this Mary Brown 0:07:19.560 --> 0:07:21.640 Sugar at the movie it's based off the premise of 0:07:21.720 --> 0:07:22.440 I used to love her. 0:07:22.560 --> 0:07:25.080 Yes, I wonder now as you're creating. 0:07:24.760 --> 0:07:27.000 Because I want to talk about the selection of from 0:07:27.120 --> 0:07:30.040 no Id to Yay, the Pete Rock will get into that. 0:07:31.200 --> 0:07:33.600 What's your thoughts now about him? Like do you still 0:07:33.760 --> 0:07:35.440 love her in the same way that you said in 0:07:35.520 --> 0:07:35.960 ninety two? 0:07:36.600 --> 0:07:41.320 Man, I really like kind of refell in love with 0:07:41.400 --> 0:07:45.720 hip hop within the past like a few years, Like 0:07:45.840 --> 0:07:50.360 I always loved it, but now I feel like it's 0:07:50.400 --> 0:07:54.520 an energy out there in the zeitgeist where man people 0:07:54.600 --> 0:07:59.440 are appreciating and open to and wanting like hip hop 0:07:59.480 --> 0:08:05.440 that has lyrical content like bars, bars, like soulful music 0:08:05.560 --> 0:08:07.880 that could be it could be a young fresh artist 0:08:07.920 --> 0:08:10.920 giving you something soul for with new sounds, but it's 0:08:11.000 --> 0:08:14.920 soulful and authentic, and I just feel like I love 0:08:14.960 --> 0:08:20.040 it because I'm realizing seeing that celebration for the fiftieth 0:08:20.120 --> 0:08:23.120 year did something for me. It made me see how 0:08:23.200 --> 0:08:27.920 much people will always love this music and you think 0:08:27.960 --> 0:08:29.960 that the audience Like for me, I thought that the 0:08:30.000 --> 0:08:33.160 audience was gone for a certain sound of the music, 0:08:33.240 --> 0:08:37.559 but they still there and now we know, like, man, 0:08:37.720 --> 0:08:42.360 you can have music, you can have you know, everybody 0:08:42.440 --> 0:08:47.880 from Future two nots still putting our music and you 0:08:47.920 --> 0:08:49.160 can enjoy it and different. 0:08:49.559 --> 0:08:51.760 Man, I've been we've been touring right now. 0:08:51.840 --> 0:08:54.960 It's sometimes us look in the crowd and it's like 0:08:55.000 --> 0:08:56.360 people twenty three years old. 0:08:56.400 --> 0:08:59.320 I'm like, damn, I'm really their father. 0:09:02.640 --> 0:09:06.840 But they enjoying the music and they like know the 0:09:06.920 --> 0:09:10.480 words to the new album, and I'm like, man, it 0:09:10.640 --> 0:09:13.719 just it just shows me that it can be no 0:09:13.760 --> 0:09:17.440 boundaries when you when you just put out that that umph, 0:09:17.520 --> 0:09:20.520 that stuff that got it too, you know, like man, 0:09:20.559 --> 0:09:22.760 and that don't happen all the time. It's just it's 0:09:22.800 --> 0:09:25.320 just things aligned at the right time, and you you know. 0:09:25.600 --> 0:09:29.080 And I'm saying that to say my passion and love 0:09:29.160 --> 0:09:32.840 for hip hop is strong. And I was able to 0:09:32.840 --> 0:09:35.480 connect with Pete Rock, who is the right person for 0:09:35.600 --> 0:09:38.600 me to create that music with, and it still feel 0:09:38.679 --> 0:09:41.080 fresh and new, but has the spirit of what we 0:09:41.200 --> 0:09:44.440 always loved. But you could have asked me five years ago, 0:09:44.880 --> 0:09:46.960 I might not have been wanting that boom bap sound. 0:09:47.720 --> 0:09:50.800 So I do have that love, and I don't think 0:09:50.800 --> 0:09:51.400 that love. 0:09:51.240 --> 0:09:54.880 Will ever go anywhere, you know, like any relationships, sometimes 0:09:55.360 --> 0:09:57.199 you need something else a little bit. You want to try, 0:09:57.280 --> 0:10:02.400 you know, you know, like you try you know. 0:10:00.040 --> 0:10:05.480 I allegedly allegedly, or you just figure out how to 0:10:05.520 --> 0:10:08.480 work things out, communicate with each other better. 0:10:11.880 --> 0:10:16.160 Let me be clear, you got to you gotta grow 0:10:16.200 --> 0:10:20.240 and expand it like y'all y'all interests, you and your 0:10:20.320 --> 0:10:24.640 partner's interest y'all say, growing and evolving and you know, 0:10:24.679 --> 0:10:28.719 trying new things and remain a line. 0:10:29.160 --> 0:10:34.400 Trying to guy me right, so he still loves it. 0:10:34.520 --> 0:10:37.760 I love it so like talking about Pete Rock right, 0:10:38.960 --> 0:10:41.280 legendary producer that comes out around the same time as 0:10:41.320 --> 0:10:44.479 you come out. And you guys have a unique perspective 0:10:44.559 --> 0:10:46.880 because both of you. 0:10:47.360 --> 0:10:50.079 Have been on major labels. Now you're doing it the 0:10:50.160 --> 0:10:50.920 independent way. 0:10:51.360 --> 0:10:56.920 You've seen it transition from physical CDs to streaming. So 0:10:57.000 --> 0:11:01.320 from a business aspect, how what's it like now in 0:11:01.360 --> 0:11:04.600 twenty twenty four as opposed to nineteen ninety four? 0:11:04.640 --> 0:11:05.319 What have you learned? 0:11:05.360 --> 0:11:07.760 What are some challenges now as far as on the 0:11:07.760 --> 0:11:09.760 independent side as opposed to just major. 0:11:09.559 --> 0:11:15.560 Label Well, business wise, man, I feel like the music 0:11:16.120 --> 0:11:19.160 industry was just making a lot more money when we 0:11:19.240 --> 0:11:23.800 initially were coming out, maybe not right at the beginning 0:11:23.800 --> 0:11:27.520 when Pete Rock Pete Rock came out ninety ninety one, 0:11:27.920 --> 0:11:29.439 I came out ninety two, samey. 0:11:29.440 --> 0:11:30.120 At the same time. 0:11:31.360 --> 0:11:34.839 Around that ninety four ninety five, budgets started going up. 0:11:34.960 --> 0:11:38.959 Like my first videos was like twenty thousand and thirty 0:11:39.040 --> 0:11:42.120 thousand dollars. You know, one of my was only able 0:11:42.160 --> 0:11:44.840 to spend five thousand dollars on the video. But then 0:11:45.280 --> 0:11:49.000 I can remember spending two hundred thousand dollars on the video, 0:11:49.679 --> 0:11:53.320 four hundred thousand. But it was denoting that because the 0:11:53.440 --> 0:11:57.640 record sales were coming in and record labels were just 0:11:57.760 --> 0:12:03.400 making money, and once obviously streaming came and that that 0:12:03.480 --> 0:12:07.680 partnership partnership didn't work out like you know, because obviously 0:12:07.840 --> 0:12:10.800 I heard Apple approached a lot of the labels like 0:12:10.880 --> 0:12:14.079 let's do this together. But the labels were like, nah, 0:12:14.160 --> 0:12:17.520 we're good, this is our thing. And Apple came and 0:12:17.559 --> 0:12:20.520 manifested that business. And then it made the labels have 0:12:20.600 --> 0:12:23.080 to pivot and move and shift and find so I 0:12:23.200 --> 0:12:26.960 find it now we the. 0:12:28.080 --> 0:12:29.240 Pot is not as big. 0:12:29.600 --> 0:12:31.720 That's why you know, you do to me have to 0:12:31.760 --> 0:12:36.760 go out and establish other things revolving around that. I 0:12:36.800 --> 0:12:39.560 look at it like, and I started figuring this out 0:12:39.640 --> 0:12:44.000 early on, was like, Man, I'm investing in my career 0:12:44.080 --> 0:12:47.679 because that's investing in my business, you know. So I 0:12:47.800 --> 0:12:51.080 was I was like, Okay, if I'm I'm gonna spend 0:12:51.400 --> 0:12:56.000 these money on rehearsals because rehearsals actually will get me 0:12:56.240 --> 0:12:59.480 with a great performance, I will be able to perform 0:12:59.840 --> 0:13:02.920 for the rest of my life if I like impact 0:13:02.960 --> 0:13:07.760 with these shows, doing great performances or out investing in 0:13:07.800 --> 0:13:10.800 my own self like this, I'm a higher the chef, 0:13:10.920 --> 0:13:13.600 the chef so that I can take care of myself 0:13:13.640 --> 0:13:17.120 so when I am in an older age, I can 0:13:17.400 --> 0:13:19.520 be doing all the things I need to do, whether 0:13:19.559 --> 0:13:23.040 it's stunt's in a movie or jumping around on stage. 0:13:23.360 --> 0:13:27.360 Those those investments, I think for me the business change 0:13:27.400 --> 0:13:30.600 where we used to depend on the labels to make 0:13:30.640 --> 0:13:35.720 those investments, and now as our own entrepreneurs and visionaries, 0:13:36.040 --> 0:13:37.600 we're like, oh, we gotta But. 0:13:37.600 --> 0:13:41.160 That's interesting because Lebron is notorious that he puts a 0:13:41.160 --> 0:13:44.920 million dollars a year into his body, from his trainer 0:13:45.080 --> 0:13:52.079 to his chef. I saw somebody running back, Yeah, crazy 0:13:52.679 --> 0:13:55.960 vegan alkaline type diet, But I never really looked at 0:13:56.000 --> 0:13:58.920 it from your that perspective as far as like a 0:13:59.040 --> 0:14:02.320 performer artist, but I guess it's the same thing, like 0:14:02.360 --> 0:14:02.920 you gotta. 0:14:02.679 --> 0:14:03.760 Be able to breathe correctly. 0:14:03.800 --> 0:14:06.640 You gotta be able to So that's interesting that you 0:14:06.760 --> 0:14:08.520 that you look because like athletes. I heard it from 0:14:08.520 --> 0:14:10.439 the athletic standpoint, but I never heard about it like 0:14:10.480 --> 0:14:12.560 an artist looking at it like I'm gonna pay for 0:14:12.600 --> 0:14:14.560 a chef, I'm gonna pay for this coach. I'm gonna 0:14:14.559 --> 0:14:17.520 do this so I can have more longevity. 0:14:17.800 --> 0:14:23.080 Oh man, it's like, yo, that like I understand, you know, 0:14:23.200 --> 0:14:25.480 it seemed like it's no brainer for an athlete to 0:14:25.560 --> 0:14:28.760 be like, let me invest in my physical well being 0:14:28.880 --> 0:14:32.360 because they use their bodies all the all the way. 0:14:32.680 --> 0:14:35.800 But so do artists really like And that's the thing 0:14:35.840 --> 0:14:40.480 that we we don't think about sometimes because we came 0:14:40.560 --> 0:14:43.440 up now, I'm gonna drink this up, drinking this and 0:14:43.520 --> 0:14:45.440 kick it. And I still could go on stage and rock. 0:14:45.920 --> 0:14:49.880 But at a certain point it started looking sloppy and 0:14:49.880 --> 0:14:53.520 and you don't have as much like just like focus, 0:14:53.640 --> 0:14:56.800 and you don't have like the energy and and I 0:14:56.840 --> 0:14:59.640 think what I've learned, and I learned it early on. 0:14:59.720 --> 0:15:04.560 It was thank God for some of the eclectic, you know, 0:15:05.040 --> 0:15:08.880 eccentric people or just you know people I met when 0:15:08.880 --> 0:15:11.000 I moved to New York, because I was already on 0:15:11.080 --> 0:15:14.520 my path, but they were showing me like yo, eating 0:15:14.560 --> 0:15:17.560 this stuff, taking some of this alkaline, getting some of 0:15:17.600 --> 0:15:18.600 these green drinks. 0:15:19.000 --> 0:15:22.760 Well that we were just doing it just to be healthier. 0:15:23.160 --> 0:15:26.360 But little did I know it would affect my well 0:15:26.400 --> 0:15:30.400 being in my business too, Meaning like I think clear, 0:15:31.320 --> 0:15:33.800 I got as much energy you could put me up. 0:15:34.040 --> 0:15:37.080 I was just racing against some twenty two years. I 0:15:37.120 --> 0:15:40.320 mean I lost three of them. But I was like, 0:15:40.480 --> 0:15:43.960 you know, like my point is is like to be 0:15:44.000 --> 0:15:46.800 able to do function and move around and do all 0:15:46.800 --> 0:15:49.640 those things at a high level, you got to invest 0:15:49.680 --> 0:15:53.760 in your body, yourself and well being. It also affects 0:15:54.200 --> 0:15:58.480 your emotional well being. So I kind of got that 0:15:58.560 --> 0:16:02.280 through just the process of me picking up information, being 0:16:02.320 --> 0:16:05.640 around people who were in tune with that, and just 0:16:06.080 --> 0:16:09.360 seeing it from myself. And yeah, man, I think it's 0:16:09.880 --> 0:16:12.600 I feel like when I think about the music industry, 0:16:13.200 --> 0:16:17.080 I really wish we would have had more health and 0:16:17.200 --> 0:16:22.480 wellness like attention given because a lot of people have 0:16:22.680 --> 0:16:26.440 went and passed on just because of those things and 0:16:26.520 --> 0:16:27.280 not having helped. 0:16:27.320 --> 0:16:31.000 It's the opposite. It's promoting drugs, alcohol, staying out later. 0:16:31.480 --> 0:16:34.040 Yeah, but you don't even come to that because this 0:16:34.080 --> 0:16:36.280 is an important part of your life. My mom was 0:16:36.320 --> 0:16:38.840 a teacher, yes, right, so the education pieces there. And 0:16:39.320 --> 0:16:41.280 like I said, I read in the book the summer 0:16:41.320 --> 0:16:44.800 vacations that were instrumental and developing. But moving to New 0:16:44.880 --> 0:16:47.280 York the role that that played because at the time, 0:16:47.400 --> 0:16:50.440 and people they kind of can't understand it now because 0:16:50.440 --> 0:16:53.080 they look at Chicago and they think, oh, wait, that's 0:16:53.120 --> 0:16:55.560 where where Little Dirk's from. But that's what Chief Keys 0:16:55.560 --> 0:16:57.880 from and oh you're not. Ya's from there, But like 0:16:57.960 --> 0:17:01.640 when you're coming up, it's really like it's you and 0:17:01.840 --> 0:17:05.560 maybe twist twist, and then crucial conflict is like a 0:17:05.600 --> 0:17:07.159 couple of years after that, but it's not. 0:17:07.520 --> 0:17:10.000 This isn't like a well respected place for hip hop music. 0:17:10.320 --> 0:17:12.840 So coming to New York the role that that had, 0:17:12.960 --> 0:17:16.760 because I remember the line and nobody argues you about it, 0:17:17.160 --> 0:17:23.439 like I'm the shot Town's nas and I'm like, maybe right, 0:17:23.520 --> 0:17:25.960 talking about the role that coming to New York and 0:17:25.960 --> 0:17:29.160 the influence obviously getting around Native tongue a little bit 0:17:29.560 --> 0:17:30.680 with that had on you. 0:17:30.800 --> 0:17:34.720 Yeah, well it was first of all, man, I'm like 0:17:35.119 --> 0:17:37.399 super grateful that I was just born and raised in 0:17:37.440 --> 0:17:41.440 Chicago because it's just it gave me something that I 0:17:41.480 --> 0:17:44.240 carry with me that I think that's the authenticity and 0:17:44.440 --> 0:17:48.040 and a love and just you know, a down to 0:17:48.119 --> 0:17:52.920 earthness that I love. But New York is is a 0:17:52.960 --> 0:17:56.719 mecca for bringing all these different people together, like bringing 0:17:56.840 --> 0:18:00.280 all different cultures. I think when you're from New York, 0:18:00.400 --> 0:18:03.280 you live, you don't even see it from how great 0:18:03.320 --> 0:18:06.200 of a city it is, because it's not many cities 0:18:06.760 --> 0:18:08.919 that can go that you can go to in the 0:18:08.960 --> 0:18:12.480 world and have this mixture of cultures and it really 0:18:12.520 --> 0:18:14.639 blends naturally overall, you know. 0:18:14.640 --> 0:18:15.240 What I'm saying. 0:18:16.800 --> 0:18:21.879 So my foundation, it was hard being in Chicago and 0:18:21.920 --> 0:18:24.560 trying to get even signed or get heard. 0:18:25.160 --> 0:18:25.800 And once that. 0:18:25.760 --> 0:18:27.679 Happened, it was me and Twist and shout out to 0:18:27.680 --> 0:18:31.439 Twist and then, like you said, crucial conflict, those guys 0:18:31.440 --> 0:18:35.800 got out there. But I still wasn't like playing it 0:18:35.800 --> 0:18:39.600 in the industry. I can remember going into my third 0:18:39.640 --> 0:18:42.600 album like, man, how am I going to make a 0:18:42.680 --> 0:18:46.159 career this Because I wasn't making a lot of money. 0:18:46.600 --> 0:18:50.280 I was as Andre's three thousands said live in check 0:18:50.320 --> 0:18:52.600 to check, you know, if you don't move your feet in. 0:18:54.320 --> 0:18:54.399 That. 0:18:54.840 --> 0:18:59.240 So I was in that space and I just people 0:18:59.240 --> 0:19:01.359 that I was like when I would come to New York, 0:19:01.480 --> 0:19:05.120 I was like connecting with people and with certain things 0:19:05.119 --> 0:19:08.520 would happen, Like when Daylight and Daylight reached out to me. 0:19:08.680 --> 0:19:10.560 Dayla Soul reached out to me and said be on 0:19:10.600 --> 0:19:13.040 this album. That was a game changer for me. Be 0:19:13.119 --> 0:19:15.840 on this song that the first time I went to London. 0:19:15.920 --> 0:19:18.840 The business the business on the States is high album 0:19:19.840 --> 0:19:22.760 and funny story, they wanted Bizz on that song, but 0:19:23.840 --> 0:19:27.280 he didn't show up or whatever. So they eventually called 0:19:27.320 --> 0:19:29.920 me and I was super geek and all my friends. 0:19:30.000 --> 0:19:32.520 It just was a big moment for me anyway, like 0:19:32.640 --> 0:19:35.000 being accepted and being out here on the New York scene. 0:19:35.040 --> 0:19:37.600 I started running into different people and I was like, 0:19:38.000 --> 0:19:41.520 it's almost like being in the industry and going to 0:19:41.560 --> 0:19:44.480 the to the center of that industry. I'm in the 0:19:44.560 --> 0:19:47.480 music industry. But me decided to move to New York, 0:19:47.600 --> 0:19:51.959 was like, Okay, now I might run into Premo, so 0:19:52.000 --> 0:19:55.120 that's how I can work with Primo or when somebody 0:19:55.200 --> 0:19:57.520 need me on this track, I'm around like I'm here, 0:19:57.920 --> 0:20:01.240 you know, and you just never know the connections. But 0:20:01.280 --> 0:20:04.720 it's being in that in that hub of where the 0:20:04.840 --> 0:20:07.280 music was coming from most of the music in the 0:20:07.359 --> 0:20:10.880 music industry. So moving to New York gave me that, 0:20:11.280 --> 0:20:15.160 and it also did open me up to different open 0:20:15.240 --> 0:20:18.919 my mind up, two different aspects of life. But I 0:20:18.960 --> 0:20:21.359 was building that in Chicago, and Chicago gave me a 0:20:21.400 --> 0:20:22.200 great foundation. 0:20:22.520 --> 0:20:24.600 I wouldn't change the course of it at all. 0:20:24.920 --> 0:20:27.720 Which is the record that you start to say, all right, 0:20:27.800 --> 0:20:28.879 this has turned around for me. 0:20:29.040 --> 0:20:31.640 Is it the light or is there one before that? 0:20:31.640 --> 0:20:34.080 That's all right, here's a commercial success that everybody in 0:20:34.119 --> 0:20:36.200 the quote unquote industry is looking for me to have. 0:20:37.600 --> 0:20:43.280 Well, okay, the first step I would say was Resurrection album, 0:20:43.280 --> 0:20:45.960 which because had I used to lover on it. And 0:20:46.280 --> 0:20:47.840 the reason why I say that is because when I 0:20:47.880 --> 0:20:51.440 released my first album, it wasn't any response. 0:20:51.040 --> 0:20:54.600 Really, it was like okay, yeah whatever, And then when 0:20:54.680 --> 0:20:56.480 I released I used to lover. 0:20:57.440 --> 0:21:01.359 I remember Biggie doing one of those promos for me, 0:21:01.440 --> 0:21:04.480 being like, yo, this I wash. This kid was from Brooklyn. 0:21:05.000 --> 0:21:07.240 I remember seeing Nas and he was like keep doing 0:21:07.280 --> 0:21:11.840 your thing, and so I started like realizing that some 0:21:11.880 --> 0:21:14.840 of the people who didn't probably pay attention to my 0:21:14.920 --> 0:21:17.200 music before it was starting to and it was those 0:21:17.240 --> 0:21:21.119 greats and I was like, oh, the game change. The 0:21:21.400 --> 0:21:24.760 album was like water for Chocolate because of the song 0:21:24.840 --> 0:21:28.080 The Light and the reason I seen the difference. And 0:21:28.119 --> 0:21:31.640 that was before I was like a well known hip 0:21:31.680 --> 0:21:35.359 hop artist right like on a hip hop scene but 0:21:36.480 --> 0:21:37.480 mostly underground. 0:21:37.600 --> 0:21:39.640 Wasn't like I was getting radio play. 0:21:41.680 --> 0:21:44.920