Speaker 1: Media.
Speaker 2: What up, Y'all's that very special week of cognitive dissonance
Speaker 2: of Thanksgiving and morning at the same time of being
Speaker 2: fully aware of the absolute fallacy of the story of Thanksgiving,
Speaker 2: while at the same time being knee deep in some
Speaker 2: collar greens, mac and cheese.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: We do a dope like friends given thing where we
Speaker 2: fry up the turkey, I batter it up, you know
Speaker 2: what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: We shoot it up with.
Speaker 2: All kinds of good juices, you feel me, and we
Speaker 2: make stuffing like waffles.
Speaker 1: It's real out here.
Speaker 2: And since you know my mother in law, you know
Speaker 2: she from Acapoco, and you know ain't no such thing
Speaker 2: as Thanksgiving and Acapoco. And they figured out how to
Speaker 2: make a turkey like edible. They do an anti lot
Speaker 2: of style, So it's turkey come out to cover the
Speaker 2: anti bot of sauce niked It's incredible anyway. So it's
Speaker 2: this week of cognitive dissonance. Shout out the tongue the
Speaker 2: tribe man LA's native tribes. So I figured I ain't
Speaker 2: gonna work neither, So let's let's throw in this rewind selector.
Speaker 2: We're starting moving into next season which is dope. You know,
Speaker 2: we got to prove for next season, we're really gonna
Speaker 2: try to do it real big, especially with this selection
Speaker 2: coming up. And what I love is how many things
Speaker 2: we said what's gonna happen have happened, and one of
Speaker 2: which is pulling out the guide, the Indie Artist's Guide
Speaker 2: to Running a Campaign and seeing Oh, Des Santos, which
Speaker 2: you're not gonna convince me that that's not that voice
Speaker 2: kind of flame out.
Speaker 1: I feel like I tried to warn him.
Speaker 2: I wish he would have listened to my show because
Speaker 2: I tried to warn him out how this was gonna
Speaker 2: play out anyway.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna rewind and select.
Speaker 2: Top of the Indie Artists Guide to Running the Campaign,
Speaker 2: and I'll see y'all next week where we'll talk about uh,
Speaker 2: he wasn't outside Part three?
Speaker 1: All right?
Speaker 2: Uh, I hope you don't overindulge, and I hope may
Speaker 2: your uncles not fight each other the politics shall.
Speaker 1: All right? So, look, this is a.
Speaker 2: Incredibly busy and wild like news week that I'm living
Speaker 2: right now that you're obviously living right now. If right
Speaker 2: now is you hearing this as I'm recording it, you know,
Speaker 2: but you know since time is relative. My right now
Speaker 2: was your right now, but now it's not now, dude
Speaker 2: bars anyway, it's the week of fours.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, dude, don't be so on the nose,
Speaker 1: you freaking nerds. Oh my god, it's shut up anyway.
Speaker 2: I don't know what was wrong with me, but this
Speaker 2: week between the two Justins, the lit twenty one year
Speaker 2: old on freaking discord, no less breaking into heavily protected
Speaker 2: Pentagon secrets. You have said because you all dudes don't
Speaker 2: understand the Internet.
Speaker 3: So when you've got like an it dude putting stuff
Speaker 3: on discord, now I'm nervous that we're gonna see some
Speaker 3: sort of congressional hearing where somebody's gonna try to explain
Speaker 3: what the hell discord is.
Speaker 2: We really need to think about these requirements to be
Speaker 2: in Congress. Between that Sudan shooting, it's just a crazy, crazy,
Speaker 2: crazy week. But I, however, had two pretty dope hip
Speaker 2: hop things I got to be a part of. There's
Speaker 2: event called ryan Fest out in our festival pip Pop,
Speaker 2: but it's during the same week as Coachella, which is
Speaker 2: like pretty dope. One is to show how large freaking
Speaker 2: the market is for Music is in Los Angeles.
Speaker 1: But yeah, a lot of the ogs so like Souls.
Speaker 2: And Mischief, Dilated People's, the Homie Blue and Exile Project,
Speaker 2: Load master Ace, you know, dead Press, just real like
Speaker 2: some underground indie hip hop stuff. And then also we
Speaker 2: did a reunion we as in me and the crew.
Speaker 2: I came up with this crew called tonal Rats. If
Speaker 2: you're interested in my other lives, yeah, go check us out.
Speaker 2: Who's called tonal Rats. Anyway, we did a reunion show.
Speaker 2: We hadn't been on stage together in the last like
Speaker 2: maybe fifteen years. I'm the like the cruise multi generational.
Speaker 2: I'm the youngest of the collective. I'm like the third generation. Anyway,
Speaker 2: a lot of indie hip hop this weekend, which got
Speaker 2: me to thinking, you know, maybe this would be a
Speaker 2: cool time to bring that into politics, to be like,
Speaker 2: I think that there's as an independent artist, specifically an
Speaker 2: independent hip hop artist. I think there are a lot
Speaker 2: of things that politicians can learn from having to navigate
Speaker 2: the music industry as an indie artist. So I think today,
Speaker 2: as the twenty twenty four election cycle is starting, maybe
Speaker 2: let's do some lessons that indie artists can teach you politicians.
Speaker 2: You ready The Independent Artist's Guide to Running for office Politicians, y'all.
Speaker 2: All right, y'all, there's just so much to cover in
Speaker 2: the news, and like I mean, for my own mental health,
Speaker 2: sometimes I do got to like pull back. You've heard
Speaker 2: me say this before. And since I'm not really like
Speaker 2: a journalist, you know what I'm saying, Like, I'm more
Speaker 2: like this analysis. This is like the people helping you
Speaker 2: understand what the hell the journalist is saying. You know
Speaker 2: what I mean in using my antenta is to you know,
Speaker 2: kind of like train you to use your antennas you
Speaker 2: feel me and hopefully on board some of y'all into
Speaker 2: you know, maybe running for office here and there.
Speaker 1: You feel me.
Speaker 2: I feel like, man, if I could inspire some of
Speaker 2: y'all you know who got some good sense and maybe
Speaker 2: want to see, you know, can imagine a better future
Speaker 2: that if I could, you know, install some confidence in
Speaker 2: you that, like yo, you know, you might actually.
Speaker 1: Be able to pull this off.
Speaker 2: You feel medn't like man, we then we've done good work,
Speaker 2: you feel me, and.
Speaker 1: Of course sell a couple of ads. You understand what
Speaker 1: I'm saying.
Speaker 2: Let me let me be real with you, I'm saying,
Speaker 2: you boy got to eat anyway. Yeah, So independent artists
Speaker 2: guide to running for office. Why I feel pretty qualified
Speaker 2: to do this is because I've been an independent artists
Speaker 2: for a pretty long time. I've been on a major label.
Speaker 2: I've been released from a major label. I got a
Speaker 2: major label holding on to some masters. Like I feel
Speaker 2: like I've had all of the experiences. I've had great experiences,
Speaker 2: I've had bad experiences. But I have noticed that no
Speaker 2: matter what institution you're a part of, there are a
Speaker 2: few things that continue to rain true because at the
Speaker 2: end of the day, if the people don't mess with you,
Speaker 2: it ain't nothing no machine can do for you. People
Speaker 2: don't rock with you, it just don't matter. Oh and
Speaker 2: one more disclaimer. If we're talking about somebody who's just
Speaker 2: interested in power really don't and it's completely devoid of
Speaker 2: like any sort of like north star or some sort
Speaker 2: of thing that's guiding that a guiding principle, then none
Speaker 2: of this stuff matters. Then we're what I'm saying, don't matter.
Speaker 2: You just want to be a star. You just want
Speaker 2: to be a star, Just go ahead ignore everything I'm saying.
Speaker 2: So that's the caveat for these rules I'm about to
Speaker 2: lay for you. This is gonna be fun because God
Speaker 2: don't need to say because it's gonna be fun, all right.
Speaker 2: Rule number one write this down. Don't write this down,
Speaker 2: but you understand what I'm saying. Rule number one is
Speaker 2: you have to ask yourself this question. Does your own
Speaker 2: scene mess with you?
Speaker 1: Now?
Speaker 2: If you're an artist, you know probably you're gonna start
Speaker 2: off local at any open mics, whatever gigs you can get.
Speaker 2: You can build enough as much of a fan base
Speaker 2: as you can via like the Internet, whether it's you know, YouTube,
Speaker 2: social media. You can have a million, million, million followers right,
Speaker 2: a million streams, everybody loves it. But if you can't
Speaker 2: get one hundred people in the room, it's not sustainable.
Speaker 2: Does that make sense? If you're an artist now, obviously
Speaker 2: like influencers, of course there's exceptions to this, but like
Speaker 2: how you're measured. I think I said this before, is
Speaker 2: your hard ticket sales? If you can't sell one hundred
Speaker 2: tickets in a major city, if you're an artist, you
Speaker 2: kind of don't have a career.
Speaker 1: Does your city mess with you?
Speaker 2: Because before you can go national, if you're not popping
Speaker 2: in the hood, you not popping in your own neighborhood,
Speaker 2: you have no foundation. Of course, there are exceptions to
Speaker 2: this rule, which I'll get to after this, or ways
Speaker 2: to make it work in your favor either way, but
Speaker 2: specifically I cite to you as an example, the two
Speaker 2: Justins in Tennessee. They was able to jump into the
Speaker 2: national scene because they local scene really rocked with them
Speaker 2: and even when they went to that state legislature and
Speaker 2: the state legislature who, to be honest, I cannot believe
Speaker 2: how dumb that move. I'm just saying just from a
Speaker 2: strategic standpoint, you know what I'm saying, like that was
Speaker 2: just a dumb move, like y'all, y'all overplayed, y'all hands
Speaker 2: to try to, like, you know, expel these brothers. Because
Speaker 2: let me tell you why they wasn't paying attention to
Speaker 2: rule number one, which is do they city mess with them?
Speaker 2: Because you thinking just because you don't know who they are,
Speaker 2: just because they not I never heard of your music,
Speaker 2: that don't mean they not popping.
Speaker 1: Y'all. I don't know what these boys are, you know.
Speaker 2: How I know they popping, and they own hood messed
Speaker 2: with him because they was back in the day. They
Speaker 2: city sent them right back, like, I don't care if
Speaker 2: they're not. You are, dude, this is our champion. Do
Speaker 2: your city mess with you? And that's what happened to Justice.
Speaker 2: They city mess with them. They district's met with Memphis
Speaker 2: and Nashville mess with the two Justice all just because
Speaker 2: you think you the state legislata, well, you know the
Speaker 2: rest of the city, rest of the state, don't mess
Speaker 2: with it.
Speaker 1: Don't matter. I got a fan base. My fan base
Speaker 1: gonna keep me popping.
Speaker 2: I live in a city like Los Angeles where you
Speaker 2: can have an entire, humongous, great career without ever leaving
Speaker 2: Los Angeles. I can name a ton of artists like
Speaker 2: that who out here no matter where they go. I mean,
Speaker 2: they fill in rooms everywhere they go, and everybody know
Speaker 2: every lyric to every song.
Speaker 1: And it could work if you cool with just being here.
Speaker 4: Now here's the flip side of them.
Speaker 2: Now here go rule number two. Okay, just because your
Speaker 2: city mess with you, that don't mean the nation mess
Speaker 2: with you. This could work to your advantage if you
Speaker 2: down to just be like, no, I'm just gonna lock
Speaker 2: down this area and you know, set my set my
Speaker 2: crown in my throne in this region and we good.
Speaker 1: This is all I like, this is where I want
Speaker 1: to be. I'm comfortable here and I'm on top of
Speaker 1: the world.
Speaker 2: You think of like ah, I think Kawhi Leonard like
Speaker 2: I don't know why that food left Toronto? Like you
Speaker 2: the Ran Cat ain't no other NBA teams up there.
Speaker 2: If you was cool with he, he wasn't cool with it.
Speaker 1: He won't to stay.
Speaker 2: But again, just because your city mess with you, that
Speaker 2: don't mean the nation mess with you. Let me give
Speaker 2: you an example. I was on tour with some homies
Speaker 2: in twenty twelve. It was a big, one of the
Speaker 2: biggest tours I've ever been on. It's called then Unashamed Tour,
Speaker 2: and it was I mean, like, yeah, two tour buses
Speaker 2: you know Arenas.
Speaker 1: It was pretty crazy.
Speaker 2: I had never played Arenas and we would be on
Speaker 2: the bus and most of the brothers on the tour
Speaker 2: were from the South.
Speaker 1: You know where.
Speaker 2: It was, Dallas, Houston, Memphis, Cashville, Murphyville. I say Cashville
Speaker 2: because there's a black part of Nashville that y'all don't
Speaker 2: recognize it.
Speaker 1: Even even some one of the one of the brothers
Speaker 1: from Florida. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: Like, let's not forget that Florida is still the south, right,
Speaker 2: So me and two other artists were not from there.
Speaker 2: One brother was from New York or two brothers were
Speaker 2: from New York, and then it was me from Cali, right,
Speaker 2: And sometimes at night, you know what I'm saying, after
Speaker 2: the tour, after a good show, you know, when you
Speaker 2: get back on the bus, you know, you just kind
Speaker 2: of have you know, a little little you know, before
Speaker 2: everybody go to bed, like we might turn up a
Speaker 2: little bit, you know, you just plug in the ox
Speaker 2: and just start playing music from y'all's from y'all's area.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying, Like if you still got energy,
Speaker 2: you know, like we're not old mentoring no more. This
Speaker 2: was when we was you know, we was, we was
Speaker 2: young bucks you feel me and ten years ago. But
Speaker 2: uh you you just you start putting on music, you
Speaker 2: know what I'm saying, And it's like and it's a
Speaker 2: lot of times if you if you've heard my music,
Speaker 2: it's very positive, very spiritual, very uplifting, you know, very political,
Speaker 2: like it's a lot of all these things. My music
Speaker 2: is deep, but my taste is ratchet, yo saying, just
Speaker 2: like all the homies.
Speaker 1: Our taste is very ratchet. You feel me.
Speaker 2: Now. When I say ratchet, I'm talking like Calie, West
Speaker 2: Coast underground, grimy dirty you feel me? Or East Coast
Speaker 2: backpack rap.
Speaker 1: You feel me?
Speaker 2: Like I'm not into the or I wasn't at the time,
Speaker 2: really like I didn't appreciate nothing coming out unless you
Speaker 2: was outcast or ti you know what I'm saying. A scarface,
Speaker 2: but scarface sounded like Oakland of me, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean. So anyway, I wasn't into that these brothers
Speaker 2: were they. I mean it looked like a Chief Key video,
Speaker 2: Like they just pulled their shirts off and was just
Speaker 2: like flinging their head around everybody jumping hey, hey, hey,
Speaker 2: and me and the other and the two New Yorkers
Speaker 2: was looking at each other like, boy, what is how
Speaker 2: do I've never heard any of these songs? Be listening
Speaker 2: to hip hop my whole life, I've never heard any
Speaker 2: of these songs. These fools is singing along, bouncing around.
Speaker 2: Even one of the brothers from the Midwest, from US
Speaker 2: Saint Louis, he played he knew all the same music.
Speaker 1: I was like, what are these songs? And they were like, oh,
Speaker 1: this all we're crazy in the club.
Speaker 2: I was like, who look little trigger finger, like like
Speaker 2: who are these people?
Speaker 1: What are these songs?
Speaker 2: And since again they Texans, they had a way that
Speaker 2: they would freestyle, and since they was all from it,
Speaker 2: it was such a vibe.
Speaker 1: They would be like I'd have came down a OUTA
Speaker 1: came through.
Speaker 2: Ay, gotta d down, Hey, i otta drink bro sitting
Speaker 2: at the table, heya jay, Hey the mic hey. And
Speaker 2: I was like, you're as a West Coast MC. I'm like,
Speaker 2: y'all cheating. We didn't get to rap like that when
Speaker 2: we freestyl I mean you you had to have styles
Speaker 2: for miles kickback, dip back like God revivd fools, who
Speaker 2: stepped I wrapped the West flipper track, crack your back
Speaker 2: of tunnel, where like you had to like style it out.
Speaker 1: They could just Ida came down, Hey, Ia came through.
Speaker 5: Hey.
Speaker 2: I was like, oh my gosh, what is this. I
Speaker 2: didn't know who none of these artists were. They was
Speaker 2: kings where they were To me, I was like, these
Speaker 2: are the most obscure.
Speaker 1: Names.
Speaker 2: So just because you pop it at home, don't mean
Speaker 2: you're gonna pop across the nation. It take very special
Speaker 2: people to pop across the nation. There's a million gangster rappids.
Speaker 2: But like there's something that I would name out here
Speaker 2: that y'all would be like, I don't know it is.
Speaker 2: But if I say Drake Snoop and Pop, y'all would
Speaker 2: be like, yeah, is it?
Speaker 4: Was?
Speaker 2: It? The machine that's a part of it, right, that's
Speaker 2: absolutely a part of it. Don't get me wrong. But
Speaker 2: there was machines behind plenty of artists. Y'all don't know
Speaker 2: who they are, you know, above the lawyers. That's what
Speaker 2: I thought, had a great machine behind them. Now when
Speaker 2: you look at the South, it's like, you know, why
Speaker 2: did the screwed Why did DJ screw stuff work? Why
Speaker 2: did the screw tapes work? Why did it start a
Speaker 2: freaking movement? That whole lean and chopped and screwed movement
Speaker 2: like that was? Why did it make it out? I
Speaker 2: just don't get, you know what? Just because it some
Speaker 2: people just got it, some people ready for the national scene.
Speaker 2: Now when you look at like look at top dog
Speaker 2: in him like Kendrick. Now this might be again some
Speaker 2: like old man stuff, right, But when you look at Kendrick,
Speaker 2: I'll do the young fools too, Like the young Dolphs
Speaker 2: in them, you know, and Dirk's and all them.
Speaker 1: But like when you.
Speaker 2: Look at the tde roster, the black hippie thing, really,
Speaker 2: any one of them could have popped. Any one of
Speaker 2: them could have been Kendrick is if we're just talking talent,
Speaker 2: and if you ask among them, they all kind of
Speaker 2: feel like abs. The lyricists Abs so out They're like, no,
Speaker 2: he's He's the one barring off. Kendrick could write songs,
Speaker 2: his ear was unmatched. He was ready for the national scene.
Speaker 2: So why is he on the list as like the one,
Speaker 2: two three artist of a decade and not school boy Hugh?
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: It's not talent. It's just listen, just because you popping
Speaker 2: at home don't mean you gonna pop across the world.
Speaker 2: Who do I say this about? In politics? Ron DeSantis? Oh,
Speaker 2: he popping at home. He got a little bit of
Speaker 2: buzz across the nation. But just because you popping at
Speaker 2: home don't mean you gonna pop across the nation. I
Speaker 2: don't know if he got it, because in my mind,
Speaker 2: it's like one of the other rules you have to ask,
Speaker 2: which I think can may fit into number two, But
Speaker 2: I think this is number three. But you can call
Speaker 2: it whatever you want. Two point five is why me
Speaker 2: and not them? If you're an artist. Now, granted, people
Speaker 2: can download whateverever re meetings songs. They don't buyer earny
Speaker 2: albums they want. But the point is when you start
Speaker 2: putting on lists when it comes to like when they
Speaker 2: step into they whip, you know, step into they whip,
Speaker 2: when they whenever it is, they open the app and
Speaker 2: they find a press play, Why are you gonna press
Speaker 2: play for me and not them? When you see tickets
Speaker 2: fly up, when you see merch you know, sales go on,
Speaker 2: Why me not them? If you just a clone to
Speaker 2: somebody else, which is what the music industry does all
Speaker 2: the time, you're just trying to catch the crumbs of
Speaker 2: and maybe siphon off fans from an already established Oh
Speaker 2: if that don't sound like DeSantis and Trump, then I
Speaker 2: mean is that? And now what's happening? Like? Remember I
Speaker 2: told you how fifty did JA like you trying to
Speaker 2: siphon off? The difference between fifty and JA and Trump
Speaker 2: and DeSantis, like I said, is because fifty can rap.
Speaker 2: Fifty was an amazing artist. I don't know if DeSantis
Speaker 2: is proven yet. Oh, he could guard, he can govern locally,
Speaker 2: he could govern when it comes to the culture war stuff.
Speaker 2: You know, he got that like smiling your face, stab
Speaker 2: you in the back type energy that politicians do need,
Speaker 2: or you could say with a straight face some stuff
Speaker 2: that you know is fardulent.
Speaker 1: You kind of need that ability. But does that play
Speaker 1: in stadiums? Are you?
Speaker 2: I mean it's dope? Regional you popping in Florida? You
Speaker 2: got that Miami based down you know what I mean?
Speaker 2: You got that getting thirty y'all getting stirty real good
Speaker 2: down there. You know what I'm saying. That's for the
Speaker 2: young folk. They you know, you get thirty with the
Speaker 2: best of them. Won't get thirty everywhere. That's not what's
Speaker 2: happening everywhere. Now you're gonna take that regional sound out outside,
Speaker 2: may not pop. I experienced that myself, you know what
Speaker 2: I'm saying. Like I said, on this same tour with
Speaker 2: these uh, with these Southern brothers, you know, ill I
Speaker 2: was one of the openness. I went out there with
Speaker 2: my California you know, backpack rapper.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, lyrical miracle. They was looking
Speaker 1: at me like.
Speaker 2: Uh, what's he talking about?
Speaker 1: Bro By show too.
Speaker 2: I we went back and flipped that setup and was like, Okay,
Speaker 2: I need to give y'all some riding music, some with
Speaker 2: some more choruses. Boy, I was one of the greatest
Speaker 2: lessons I learned in my life, was like, listen, bro,
Speaker 2: just because it worked down here, you know, don't worry,
Speaker 2: don't mean it's gonna work everywhere else.
Speaker 1: You better learn how to learn from other people. And
Speaker 1: that's what I did.
Speaker 2: I learned how to learn from other people make music
Speaker 2: a little more palatable for the rest of the world,
Speaker 2: while at the same time repping your city because you
Speaker 2: can't lose your brand. You feel me, But you gotta like,
Speaker 2: just because you popping at home, don't mean you popping
Speaker 2: anywhere else. Now, how do you make that work for you?
Speaker 2: If you're not popping at home, there's plenty of people
Speaker 2: like that. I mean, if you're sometimes if you're not
Speaker 2: popping at home, that's probably because maybe you just forward thinking,
Speaker 2: maybe you just different, Maybe you just think about the
Speaker 2: world differently.
Speaker 1: Think about that.
Speaker 2: If you're like, you know, you're a left leaning politician
Speaker 2: in a red state, or you're a right leaning popelitician
Speaker 2: in a blue state, you probably not popping at home,
Speaker 2: but when you hit the road, you might find like.
Speaker 1: Dang, I got a gang of fans out here.
Speaker 2: I could use this for my advantage, and then you
Speaker 2: get the rest of the country riding for you. And
Speaker 2: then you could turn back at home and you come
Speaker 2: home a superstar. You could do that, and then the
Speaker 2: rest of the hood they come back and they like, dang,
Speaker 2: they start acting like they mess with you, or they
Speaker 2: come out the woodworks to being like, no, I've always
Speaker 2: liked y'all, always like you.
Speaker 1: You know who could do? You know who did that?
Speaker 1: Was Merse.
Speaker 2: This again, this is underground wrap stuff. Y'all go look
Speaker 2: up Mercy a legend that's funny from a group called
Speaker 2: Living Legends. Merce was just like he would just move.
Speaker 2: He's like, all right, I'll go on tour with Atmosphere
Speaker 2: and do the rhyme sayes thing.
Speaker 1: He did this.
Speaker 2: The Felt albums would slug from Atmosphere like he did
Speaker 2: the the projects.
Speaker 1: With Ninth Wonder.
Speaker 2: You know, like I'm naming all these people because if
Speaker 2: you know, you know, if not Google, So the Merse
Speaker 2: and Ninth Wonder records like they're I mean, these are
Speaker 2: like so he came back home triumphant, and.
Speaker 1: It was like all city merse, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: He's like, okay, well yeah, you know, sure, put on
Speaker 2: the paid dues and the rock the bell festivals. Like
Speaker 2: he's just he's a household name now. But sometimes it's
Speaker 2: like when the city don't get it, sometimes you got
Speaker 2: to hit the road. So there's a way to do
Speaker 2: that too. Like, if let's say your city don't mess
Speaker 2: with you, there's a way to go. Get go, get
Speaker 2: the fans somewhere else, bring them back home. Marthie Taylor
Speaker 2: Green doing that, they don't really don't really mess with
Speaker 2: her down there. She went and got them. She wouldn't
Speaker 2: got the national fans. Now she got the national fans.
Speaker 2: She came back home a star. You feel me, because
Speaker 2: why the hell else would she be at Trump's arraignment
Speaker 2: if you, I mean, if you really worry about your hood,
Speaker 2: you should be at your hood. Nah, we'll go get
Speaker 2: them national numbers. So to recap before we go to
Speaker 2: the next two steps, and take a break before we
Speaker 2: go to those next two steps. Number one, does your
Speaker 2: own scene mess with you? Do you have a loyal
Speaker 2: fan base at home that'll be able to carry you
Speaker 2: when everybody else starts tripping, because if you got a
Speaker 2: loyal scene at home, you'll always be all right. And
Speaker 2: the flip side of this might also be true where
Speaker 2: maybe you don't have a loyal scene at home, but
Speaker 2: you can go nationally, find yo, find your tribe, and
Speaker 2: bring them back home, and then that'll make your start
Speaker 2: at home so well. Number one, Ask yourself this question.
Speaker 2: Does your low see mess with you? Number two? Just
Speaker 2: because you popping at home don't mean you're gonna pop nationally. Okay,
Speaker 2: just because you you might be able, you might be
Speaker 2: the king of your little part of the pond, queen
Speaker 2: of your little region. But listen, just because it works
Speaker 2: here don't mean it's gonna work everywhere. Number three, Ask yourself,
Speaker 2: why me and not them? There needs to be something
Speaker 2: so unique, so special about what you offer, right, that
Speaker 2: distinguishes you from everybody else. You can't just be like
Speaker 2: the less dramatic version of somebody else, right, You can't
Speaker 2: just be a scrub clean version of something else. And
Speaker 2: you gotta there's gotta be a reason why you're the one,
Speaker 2: And sometimes it has to do with the machine, but
Speaker 2: that's only a part of it.
Speaker 1: Because the machine can only do so much.
Speaker 2: You gotta have that thing, whatever that thing is, you
Speaker 2: gotta have it now. Rules four and five, Questions four
Speaker 2: and five. You want to do it after this break?
Speaker 1: All right, we're back.
Speaker 2: Number four, which I personally feel is the most important, okay,
Speaker 2: for artists, for politicians, for anybody who's trying to do
Speaker 2: something publicly, but specifically as we're going into this election cycle,
Speaker 2: and I want y'all to know this as voters, to
Speaker 2: know and to understand the game that's being presented to you.
Speaker 2: Here's the truth. Number four. Perception is reality until it's not.
Speaker 2: Say it again for you. Perception is reality until it's not.
Speaker 2: All right, let me unpack it.
Speaker 1: Maclamore pop it tags? That guy?
Speaker 2: Now, I seen Maclamore's meteoric up you know rise, especially
Speaker 2: because he was just a part of the Pacific Northwest
Speaker 2: hip hop scene.
Speaker 1: He's a great guy.
Speaker 2: He's an incredible rapper, incredible, you know, And popping tags
Speaker 2: is a It's a pop song. It's a it is
Speaker 2: a brilliant pop song. You can call whatever you want,
Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying. I don't know how old
Speaker 2: y'all are, Like, there's a level of corny to it.
Speaker 2: But of course it's a pop song. It's supposed to be.
Speaker 2: But was he styling on that that he's styling on it?
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying, I'm not gonna hop in
Speaker 2: the car and blast it. You feel me that, But
Speaker 2: I don't hate the band. Like the Heist was a
Speaker 2: great record. The problem is it wasn't even his fault
Speaker 2: because it was the same year Good Kid Mad City,
Speaker 2: which is a perfect record, and for some reason, the
Speaker 2: Grammy Association decided to give the Grammy for Best Rap
Speaker 2: Album to the heighst rather than Good Kid, Mad City.
Speaker 2: And at that moment, hip hop culture, who was probably
Speaker 2: was gonna, like, you know, at least recognize game. At
Speaker 2: that moment, there was nothing Maclamore could do. His brand
Speaker 2: was burnt. There was no follow up he could do
Speaker 2: with that in the eyes of hip hop culture because
Speaker 2: he just became the symbol of what we felt.
Speaker 1: Was wrong with music industry.
Speaker 2: It is not his fault because the boy could rap,
Speaker 2: and like I said, he's a good guy to the
Speaker 2: point of where he knew it shouldn't have went to
Speaker 2: him and sent the text, and the text got screenshot.
Speaker 2: It sent out like man, you should have won this,
Speaker 2: this is really yours. He said to to Kendrick y'all,
Speaker 2: that's the right thing to do. Doesn't matter. Perception's reality.
Speaker 2: Now ten years later, eleven years later, it just there's
Speaker 2: nothing he could do. Man, Like, you're just perception's reality.
Speaker 2: We see you that way, Tory Lanez. I I'm not
Speaker 2: a Tory Lanez fan.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: I say this as someone that's just a consumer of music.
Speaker 1: I don't know the guy, right, this is just me.
Speaker 1: This is not my taste.
Speaker 2: A lot of people like him, you know, Please please
Speaker 2: hear me when I'm saying this, This isn't no distract
Speaker 2: or nothing. I'm not trying to throw it in shade.
Speaker 2: I'm just saying it's not my thing. Now as a
Speaker 2: commentator of culture, he's kind of in.
Speaker 1: He's in the corny box.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 2: A lot of people disagree, but he's kind of in
Speaker 2: the there's not really much you could do about it,
Speaker 2: like you're just you're kind of in that. Then the
Speaker 2: Megan situation kind of pushed it more into like, now
Speaker 2: this is just weird. There's so much like massage and
Speaker 2: war in there, Like it's just at perceptions reality. Man,
Speaker 2: I don't I don't know on the other hand, NBA
Speaker 2: young boy who again not my thing.
Speaker 1: It is what it is.
Speaker 2: The industry tried to like blacklist the boy he liked
Speaker 2: the second most streaming artist. Perception is reality. It's what
Speaker 2: we perceive him as, right y'all know ice Cube, I mean,
Speaker 2: of course he oh oh man now, but like you know,
Speaker 2: Nwa ice Cube. You know, Man went to like usc
Speaker 2: for cinematography, like he's a fully educated perceptions reality. Trump
Speaker 2: is the perfect example perceptions reality. We perceived him as
Speaker 2: this mogul, as this boss, despite mountains of evidence that
Speaker 2: this man been broke way longer than he been wealthy.
Speaker 2: And this whole time, this was a character that NBC created.
Speaker 2: This man ain't no damn mogul, that man in debt,
Speaker 2: This nigga is not the boss that everyone said, that
Speaker 2: these fools say is that he makes. But perception is reality,
Speaker 2: and this is what he continues to bank off. If
Speaker 2: you could perceive him as this particular person, if you
Speaker 2: could perceive him as this like martyr for the cause,
Speaker 2: which is what he's banking on for the fact that
Speaker 2: this man is facing plentiful of charges, is the perception
Speaker 2: that he'schooled, and that becomes reality, even though that's not
Speaker 2: that's clearly not the case. So this stuff can work
Speaker 2: for you or against you. But perception is reality until
Speaker 2: it's not. Now, as an artist, what happens is this.
Speaker 2: You go out, you do a couple of shows. You
Speaker 2: hire yourself for really good like you know, performance videographer
Speaker 2: or photographer who shoots the dopest dopest like live concert footage,
Speaker 2: you know, and does the little thirty second recaps of
Speaker 2: tour nights, shoots it at an angle that looks like, dang,
Speaker 2: them shows is popping dog, Like this food really got it?
Speaker 5: Man?
Speaker 2: It shows is dope. Man, it looks like it's you know,
Speaker 2: a whole ocean of people. You take a photo. Maybe
Speaker 2: you had one show that was like during a festival,
Speaker 2: and you take a good angle of that, so like
Speaker 2: now you got the one huge crowd photo and shot
Speaker 2: in there. But those weren't your actual shows, your actual shows.
Speaker 2: You know, they still looked amazing, but that room only
Speaker 2: held fifty people. So the perception was first all this
Speaker 2: fool out here killing it. Then the promoter pull up
Speaker 2: your hard ticket sale history or someone actually buys a ticket,
Speaker 2: they say, dang, I can't miss this show. When you
Speaker 2: come into the town, they come and it's like, oh,
Speaker 2: it ain't but eighty two people here. Man, this food
Speaker 2: had me believing he was these were stadiums he was rocking.
Speaker 1: Friend.
Speaker 2: First, Usually the fan is like, dang, I got lucky,
Speaker 2: I got to catch this dude at this small thing.
Speaker 2: Or sometimes you like dang, am I am I tripping?
Speaker 2: Like or maybe I'm tripping, like maybe I just went
Speaker 2: on the off night. But eventually you start realizing, like,
Speaker 2: you know what, actually that food just got really good
Speaker 2: photographer and now reality's reality. You really not popping like that.
Speaker 2: You know when you see footage from some somebody's like
Speaker 2: campaign rally and the crowd is behind him, you know
Speaker 2: when you're looking at the thing because you gotta think
Speaker 2: that's that's made for TV, right cause like what a
Speaker 2: horrible seat to have, Like why would you go to
Speaker 2: something where you're all the speakers are facing the opposite
Speaker 2: way and you only see this person's back because that's
Speaker 2: for perception. Nobody, Really, you don't sit like that. Have
Speaker 2: It've actually been to a campaign rally. There's really not
Speaker 2: that many people there. It's like a row maybe unless
Speaker 2: you wanted them, like, you know, exceptional national next person
Speaker 2: up type candidate. It's really not that many people there.
Speaker 2: They just make it look like it is. The point
Speaker 2: is to make it look like it's popping. You know
Speaker 2: when politicians like are waving when they walk in and
Speaker 2: they clap their hands and then they pointed somebody like,
Speaker 2: oh hey, what's up. Like they're waving at somebody that
Speaker 2: they knew that was there. They're just doing that. There's
Speaker 2: no one there. You're just supposed to do that because
Speaker 2: it's perception.
Speaker 1: It's not real.
Speaker 2: You heard of the phrase astroturfing. You should have because
Speaker 2: I've talked about it on this pot. But let me
Speaker 2: remind you again. Astroturfing is this is how you get
Speaker 2: if there is a million people at that show, how
Speaker 2: you get people there or that that rally, how you
Speaker 2: get people there's like a Craigslist ad or like a
Speaker 2: group on when you pay come and feel this this
Speaker 2: thing to make it look all grass roots, they give
Speaker 2: you signs.
Speaker 1: That's not real. That's not real power.
Speaker 2: Real power is what you and I have where you
Speaker 2: could text somebody right now, set it many times and
Speaker 2: been like, hey we're finna do a barbecue. You know,
Speaker 2: little backpack giveaway at the park this weekend and a
Speaker 2: hundred people show up, that's real power.
Speaker 1: Oh what in a thousand people?
Speaker 2: That's okay, because a thousand people's not real power, that's
Speaker 2: not really they're not really there for you. But the
Speaker 2: hundred people that are really there, they really there. Now
Speaker 2: use that for your advantage. If you're the artist and
Speaker 2: you can get eighty five people in.
Speaker 1: A room, that's dope.
Speaker 2: You can get eighty five people in a room, doc
Speaker 2: get their email addresses. See if you could get down
Speaker 2: yourself a little like text messaging service app where you
Speaker 2: can like start sending them discount coupons, like do coffee meetups,
Speaker 2: like like get involved.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: Sometimes you know, of course you should, you should have
Speaker 2: some sort of like safety precautions. I've been in a
Speaker 2: situation where i found myself a little too open and warm,
Speaker 2: and I've had to put some boundaries around some folks.
Speaker 2: But the point is, you don't bemoaned, you don't fake it.
Speaker 2: Perception is reality until it's not. And once that bubble
Speaker 2: is burst, hopefully you learn. Man, don't fake it till
Speaker 2: you make it, maam, because sometimes you don't get to
Speaker 2: make it.
Speaker 1: Just look at it.
Speaker 2: Truthfully where it is, where you are, and what you
Speaker 2: need to do. Because you can fake streams, you can
Speaker 2: fake photos, but you can't fake ticket sales, and you
Speaker 2: can't fake votes they make because they want you to
Speaker 2: think they can, but you can't fake votes. These people
Speaker 2: gonna vote for you or not. You need to give
Speaker 2: them a reason to all right. Number five two more.
Speaker 2: Number five is be very picky about who you around.
Speaker 5: Now.
Speaker 2: I feel like there's a rule for everybody, you know,
Speaker 2: But when it comes to artists sometimes, like you know,
Speaker 2: you're going on tour, you're doing features, popping up at parties,
Speaker 2: just all these different things, and some of those things
Speaker 2: can be transactional, like in the sense of, you know,
Speaker 2: you pay a artist, you know whatever, thousand dollars to
Speaker 2: hop on a song, or they pay you up you know.
Speaker 2: Sometimes like you know, when money get tight, you're like, yeah, man,
Speaker 2: let me do this feature.
Speaker 1: It's like twelve hundred dollars. You don't jump on this thing.
Speaker 2: But like, because sense perception is reality, if you do
Speaker 2: this song with this artist turns out that fool's a
Speaker 2: pedophile jo saying, or the album ends up being trash,
Speaker 2: you are now forever connected to that album and that artists,
Speaker 2: So you gotta be real picky as to who you
Speaker 2: willing to shake hands with. You know what I'm saying,
Speaker 2: because that stuff sometimes can come back and bite you.
Speaker 2: Every I don't know. I don't know no politician that
Speaker 2: ain't never been in that position. I mean, that's the
Speaker 2: entirety of the GOP. Like y'all stuck. You know what
Speaker 2: I'm saying, Like I don't, I don't know what y'all
Speaker 2: gonna do. You know what I'm saying, That man that
Speaker 2: turned you into a pretzel. As a side note, I'd
Speaker 2: say about that man if I was a GOP, you
Speaker 2: know how happy I would be about these Trump charges
Speaker 2: right now, because look, I would be the snitch.
Speaker 1: If I was a GOP, I'd be the snitch.
Speaker 2: I'd be the one feeding in papers because like that
Speaker 2: man got a death grip on your y'all can't do
Speaker 2: nothing you will do, You can do nothing, your party
Speaker 2: can't go any direction.
Speaker 1: That man don't want y'all to go.
Speaker 2: He got a death grip on thirty four percent of
Speaker 2: your constituents. So to me, I'm like, y'all got a
Speaker 2: gift because y'all can somehow finally shake loose of this man,
Speaker 2: and you don't have to do it. You should be
Speaker 2: sliding brag all kinds of documents you feel me to
Speaker 2: be like, and you can get on the camera and
Speaker 2: tell everybody like, no, listen, whoa we don't know. This
Speaker 2: is just a woke mob trying to destroy you. You
Speaker 2: could tell her you could play the game as much
Speaker 2: as you won't. You feel me, but like cause that
Speaker 2: man a career killer like Trump destroy your life. You
Speaker 2: don't like you, You feel me letting nothing y'all can do?
Speaker 1: You can't.
Speaker 2: You thought you could wait it out. You know what
Speaker 2: I'm saying, y'all can't wait it out.
Speaker 1: You feel me?
Speaker 2: So if I was, Look, if I was I was,
Speaker 2: I'd be like yeah, or just this is just this
Speaker 2: is a halt. It shouldn't happen anyway, brag how that
Speaker 2: at me? You have to work, man, Let me slidech
Speaker 2: you something right quick. That's what I would be doing anyway.
Speaker 2: You gotta be careful who you do, who you do
Speaker 2: these features with, who you do these songs with. You
Speaker 2: know what I'm saying, who you put your name next to,
Speaker 2: and then who you hire?
Speaker 1: You feel me?
Speaker 2: I think a lot of times like as an artist,
Speaker 2: you want to come off like you got more going
Speaker 2: on than you do. So then you hire you you know,
Speaker 2: you think it's growth, but like all growth and good growth,
Speaker 2: you know, it's a it's a horrible way to say it,
Speaker 2: but like you know, some growth is cancer.
Speaker 1: You feel me, that's a tumor. That's not growth.
Speaker 2: You know, you gotta really think about like every move
Speaker 2: you make and is it really going to be Is
Speaker 2: this a growth that's a good growth? You know, So
Speaker 2: don't hire people you don't need, don't get in a situation.
Speaker 2: Don't spend money you ain't got, foods bee sip, spending
Speaker 2: all kinds of stuff on on on ads and on
Speaker 2: on on. You know, campaigns when it's like fam, it's
Speaker 2: not even you ain't gonna you can't win this one,
Speaker 2: dog like this ain't gonna work, man, Like, put your
Speaker 2: dough into this campaign because like you have more better
Speaker 2: chance of winning this one than that one, you feel me, right,
Speaker 2: And then you and you build your brand.
Speaker 1: You understand what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: I remember, I mean I'm gonna go back to DeSantis,
Speaker 2: Like you know, I hate to go back to that dude,
Speaker 2: but I think really for real, for real, like a
Speaker 2: thing that he got to think about. Like and it
Speaker 2: sucks because it's a Republican talking point, but it's it's
Speaker 2: actually like it's a good point. What if what if
Speaker 2: he waited until twenty twenty eight? What if he did?
Speaker 2: I mean, then you ain't got this monkey on your shoulder.
Speaker 2: You feel me, you're not running against the guy that
Speaker 2: you're basically competing to be. You feel me like you
Speaker 2: don't have that l under your belt of losing to him.
Speaker 2: I mean, I mean it's a gamble because he I mean,
Speaker 2: maybe he could win, but I don't know. Just because
Speaker 2: you popping at home don't mean you pop nationally, you know,
Speaker 2: like or you're presenting yourself as like the Whole Foods
Speaker 2: version of the thing everybody love. Like I don't know
Speaker 2: how good that. I don't know how good that's gonna play.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying. What if you position yourself
Speaker 2: not as the Whole Foods version, but the next generation
Speaker 2: of I don't know, like you, And maybe he's not
Speaker 2: even gonna run, Like we don't even know yet. It
Speaker 2: just seems like he is, at least as of the
Speaker 2: week that I'm recording this. You know, you never know.
Speaker 2: But yeah, be careful who you keep around, who you
Speaker 2: shake your hands with. And then the last one is
Speaker 2: the one that my manager always says, your plant where
Speaker 2: you want to grow. You can't just go for where
Speaker 2: you think the crowds are, because that might not be
Speaker 2: your crowd. You invest in the scene that you believe in,
Speaker 2: and you build a career that you want to build.
Speaker 2: If not, you're gonna be sitting in that corner office
Speaker 2: overlooking this the DC skyline, miserable having to vote for
Speaker 2: stuff that.
Speaker 1: You don't even want to.
Speaker 2: You don't even leave in you being swayed by the crowd,
Speaker 2: you know, leading from behind. No, you gotta you gotta
Speaker 2: be the person you trying to be so you can
Speaker 2: do the things that you're trying to do.
Speaker 1: Now, granted, I'm assuming you.
Speaker 2: The type of politician that has some sort of moral standard,
Speaker 2: that has some sort of conviction. Now, if you just
Speaker 2: in it for the power, ignore everything I'm saying up
Speaker 2: say go get go, get your bag, Go get your power.
Speaker 2: Be as devoid of.
Speaker 1: Any of these things that you want to be.
Speaker 2: But if you really actually believe in the stuff you're
Speaker 2: trying to believe, and you really think you could you
Speaker 2: could make this country better? You got a plant where
Speaker 2: you want to grow, invest in things that you think
Speaker 2: will lead towards the things, and I understand the nature
Speaker 2: of the game.
Speaker 1: It's just like in music.
Speaker 2: The nature of the game forces you to carry yourself
Speaker 2: in a certain way that if you're going to reach
Speaker 2: a certain type of success, you have to play the
Speaker 2: game in a certain way.
Speaker 1: Or you could be like, forget that.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna play game the way I want to play it,
Speaker 2: and it's gonna work the way I want to work,
Speaker 2: and I'm gonna bend it to my will. Maybe shoot
Speaker 2: your shot. Hopefully it works. So in conclusion, the six
Speaker 2: things that any politician can learn from independent artists. Number one,
Speaker 2: ask yourself, does your own hood mess with you? Number two,
Speaker 2: just because you popping at home don't mean you popping national.
Speaker 2: Number three ask yourself, why me and not them? Perception
Speaker 2: is reality until it's not. Number five, the very picky
Speaker 2: who you connect with, keep that circle nice and tight.
Speaker 2: And number six, plant where you want to grow. If
Speaker 2: you hip to these rules, not only one, I think
Speaker 2: you might find yourself a very successful politician, but two,
Speaker 2: as an informed voter, you might be able to understand
Speaker 2: and choose wisely the people that you want to mess with.
Speaker 1: Happy election season, y'all.
Speaker 5: Hood politics.
Speaker 2: You know, I don't know why I ain't thought of
Speaker 2: this before, but you know you could use promo code
Speaker 2: hood for fifteen percent off on terrorform coolbrew dot com.
Speaker 2: Like I forgot I own that company, and this is
Speaker 2: my pod. Y'all, go ahead and punch it from a coldhood.
Speaker 2: If you in the cold Brew, get you some cold brew,
Speaker 2: Gonna get you some coffee. Yeah, Like, I can't believe,
Speaker 2: I ain't think it is still right now.
Speaker 1: Yo, y'all.
Speaker 2: This thing right here was recorded by Me Propaganda and
Speaker 2: East Lows, boil Heights, Los Angeles, California. This thing was mixed, edited, mastered,
Speaker 2: and scored by the one and the only Matt Awsowski.
Speaker 2: Y'all check out this fool's music. I mean it's incredible.
Speaker 2: Executive produced by Sophie Lichterman for cool Zone Media. Man,
Speaker 2: and thank you for everybody who continue to tap in
Speaker 2: with us. Make sure you leaving reviews and five star
Speaker 2: ratings and sharing it with the homies so we could
Speaker 2: get this thing pushed up in the algorithm. And listen.
Speaker 2: I just want to remind you these people is not
Speaker 2: smarter than you. If you want understand city living, you
Speaker 2: understand politics. We'll see you next week.