WEBVTT - Mad Skillz 0:00:01.960 --> 0:00:03.040 R and B Money. 0:00:03.200 --> 0:00:06.080 Honey, we are. 0:00:07.680 --> 0:00:15.600 Thanks take valotie. We are the authority on all R 0:00:15.680 --> 0:00:18.759 and B ladies and gentleman. 0:00:18.800 --> 0:00:21.840 My name is Tank Valentine and this, yeah, what is it. 0:00:21.880 --> 0:00:25.280 It's the R and B Money Podcast, the authority. Come 0:00:25.320 --> 0:00:30.960 on on all things R and B. Whatever it is, 0:00:32.520 --> 0:00:36.120 you gotta be good at it. Absolutely gotta have a 0:00:36.200 --> 0:00:44.120 level of skill mmmm to go along with your conversation. 0:00:45.680 --> 0:00:47.800 And then sometimes you from a place, you from the water, 0:00:48.400 --> 0:00:50.599 call that v A. I know a little bit about that. 0:00:51.320 --> 0:00:54.640 I was raised out there, So we got VA, we 0:00:54.720 --> 0:00:57.040 got skills. You put all that together and you get. 0:00:56.920 --> 0:01:05.280 Mad skills in the Yeah, come on, man, how y'all doing? 0:01:05.400 --> 0:01:11.040 Man? Man, bro Skills is such an underrated word. 0:01:12.880 --> 0:01:14.319 Yeah. 0:01:14.400 --> 0:01:19.520 And when I hear you and just and and watch 0:01:19.959 --> 0:01:23.560 just the things that you've skilled, if we can just 0:01:23.560 --> 0:01:28.080 say that, it's like, what the fuck is that? 0:01:28.880 --> 0:01:34.200 Yeah? Man, I come from a magical place, you know. 0:01:35.080 --> 0:01:40.680 A well studied place, and you know, I think I 0:01:40.720 --> 0:01:45.480 think you being here speaks to the idea of really 0:01:46.520 --> 0:01:51.440 dialing in to your craft, like really dialing in. 0:01:51.480 --> 0:01:54.080 Because how many rappers y'all have, maybe like a couple. 0:01:54.520 --> 0:01:58.960 Not many many? Problem on ot ot on. 0:02:00.720 --> 0:02:01.280 Not a lot. 0:02:01.640 --> 0:02:04.120 I think that's saying you. 0:02:02.920 --> 0:02:12.360 And ship yeah five rappers, I take it, I will 0:02:12.400 --> 0:02:12.880 take it. 0:02:12.960 --> 0:02:18.680 But you represent a generation of you represent skills that 0:02:18.800 --> 0:02:19.720 paid the bills. 0:02:20.520 --> 0:02:24.320 And it's just the writing, right, Like the writing and 0:02:24.639 --> 0:02:26.960 obviously because you know, we have our people just like, well, 0:02:27.000 --> 0:02:27.560 he's not R. 0:02:27.520 --> 0:02:31.400 And B and once again he's R and B. 0:02:31.840 --> 0:02:34.160 I'm R and B. This is R and B money, 0:02:34.840 --> 0:02:38.240 And we're going to have everybody that we believe should 0:02:38.240 --> 0:02:40.880 be on this show so that people can learn from them. 0:02:41.280 --> 0:02:44.840 With the fact that, oh, yeah he's a rapper too. Yeah, 0:02:45.520 --> 0:02:48.840 my bad, my bad, Like you can't do this with 0:02:49.000 --> 0:02:54.880 mad skills. You know, he got his break battling. What 0:02:54.919 --> 0:02:58.480 I'm saying that as a battle rapper, I will slide 0:02:58.520 --> 0:03:03.919 him a couple hundred dollars make yours real quick, taking 0:03:04.080 --> 0:03:07.880 mad R and B money versus oh my god. 0:03:07.720 --> 0:03:10.359 I'm just saying on my streets in the hood of Milwaukee, bat. 0:03:10.919 --> 0:03:16.200 I felt like turning a super high. 0:03:13.000 --> 0:03:18.600 I did go oh my god. 0:03:19.320 --> 0:03:23.760 But just the fact of just the writing, the level 0:03:23.880 --> 0:03:29.200 of writing should be studied. Yeah, seriously, what you've done 0:03:29.280 --> 0:03:32.240 as a writer and the things that you've written and 0:03:32.240 --> 0:03:35.440 the things that you've been a part of that people 0:03:35.440 --> 0:03:36.480 wouldn't even understand. 0:03:37.240 --> 0:03:39.760 YEA, that needs to be highlighted here. 0:03:40.160 --> 0:03:42.440 I appreciate type of platform, man, and that's why we're 0:03:42.440 --> 0:03:44.200 so happy that you showed up for us, man, because 0:03:44.240 --> 0:03:45.040 this is amazing. 0:03:45.080 --> 0:03:47.320 Listen to y'all, my guys. Man, there's no way I 0:03:47.360 --> 0:03:49.360 wasn't going to accept that invite. You know what I'm saying. 0:03:49.480 --> 0:03:51.400 I'm happy to be and let's let's get into it. 0:03:51.640 --> 0:03:56.320 So is is mad skills at birth? 0:03:57.560 --> 0:04:01.600 Or notice that journey start for you where you're like, 0:04:03.560 --> 0:04:06.320 this has to be this, this has to be mad skills. 0:04:07.680 --> 0:04:12.040 I say the first time I heard I remember hearing 0:04:13.320 --> 0:04:15.600 my mom played music around the house. Of course, so 0:04:15.840 --> 0:04:19.080 you know, cleanliness was next to golliess. So on the weekends, 0:04:19.120 --> 0:04:22.960 you know, I'm hearing Frankie Beveny and mays O Jays 0:04:23.240 --> 0:04:28.039 and James Brown, and you know, I saw her connection 0:04:28.720 --> 0:04:32.039 with music. So she and she had this little thing 0:04:32.400 --> 0:04:34.520 and it had a little RM morning and when she 0:04:34.600 --> 0:04:36.640 put that thing on top of those little black things 0:04:36.640 --> 0:04:39.280 they went around, they made noise. I was enamored with 0:04:39.680 --> 0:04:43.040 this machine that she had. So I remember hearing all 0:04:43.080 --> 0:04:45.719 these songs and she was always in a good mood 0:04:46.040 --> 0:04:48.440 when these songs were playing. It wasn't never no go 0:04:48.440 --> 0:04:50.640 go do this because boy, y'all playing too much, stop 0:04:50.640 --> 0:04:52.159 slaying on my door. It was never that when the 0:04:52.240 --> 0:04:55.840 music was playing and my aunts and uncles and people 0:04:55.839 --> 0:05:01.320 being around, and I remember them arguing over when the 0:05:01.320 --> 0:05:04.440 sugar Hill Game came out. So when Rappers the light 0:05:04.560 --> 0:05:07.799 came out, it was I don't know if that's really music. 0:05:08.360 --> 0:05:11.560 It's like, ah, but it's but it's it's jamming. So 0:05:11.640 --> 0:05:15.680 I remember it being a big conversation from the difference 0:05:15.720 --> 0:05:18.240 between the songs that I had been hearing to this 0:05:18.279 --> 0:05:21.039 one particular song, and I was like, what is the 0:05:21.120 --> 0:05:24.760 difference between the two? And then I saw it, Okay, 0:05:24.880 --> 0:05:29.000 they not singing, there is no don't you know that 0:05:29.400 --> 0:05:33.119 I'm not hearing that. I'm hearing niggas talking. And I'm like, okay, 0:05:33.160 --> 0:05:35.320 that's interesting, and I'm young, you know what I'm saying. 0:05:35.320 --> 0:05:37.919 I'm young. And then I remember how big of a 0:05:37.960 --> 0:05:40.719 deal it was in my house and then I saw 0:05:41.400 --> 0:05:44.320 I remember hearing hard Times by Run DMC on the 0:05:44.440 --> 0:05:53.800 radio with that hard crash and I was like, oh god, 0:05:54.040 --> 0:05:56.440 what is this? And then I saw them on TV. 0:05:57.040 --> 0:05:59.839 And when I saw Run DMC on TV, it totally 0:06:00.320 --> 0:06:03.960 my life, Like Run was the skinny, cocky nigga with 0:06:04.000 --> 0:06:07.600 the side burns and this is my motherfucking house like 0:06:08.000 --> 0:06:11.320 his whole aura. And I was like, damn that I 0:06:11.320 --> 0:06:14.960 could see myself in them. And that's when the music 0:06:15.080 --> 0:06:18.320 journey started to at least to the hip hop thing, 0:06:18.360 --> 0:06:20.560 you know what I'm saying. I was already music heavy 0:06:20.839 --> 0:06:23.760 in my house, but that hip hop thing spoke to 0:06:23.800 --> 0:06:28.200 me directly. No I can't. I can't sing a lick 0:06:28.640 --> 0:06:33.520 at Oh yeah, listen, listen, me and my engineer shout 0:06:33.560 --> 0:06:35.839 my engineer in Jay right here, Jay Wright's he a 0:06:35.839 --> 0:06:38.880 big fan of the podcast, Me and him, Me and 0:06:38.960 --> 0:06:44.680 him have we in a group together called Noticing Noticing. Yeah, 0:06:44.560 --> 0:06:49.520 when we sing, when we when we sing our references, 0:06:49.560 --> 0:06:53.000 we notice it, you know what I'm saying. Like, So, yeah, no, man, 0:06:53.120 --> 0:06:55.320 can I can? I can write my ass off, but 0:06:55.360 --> 0:06:58.039 I never could sing. So once auto tune came along, 0:06:58.120 --> 0:06:59.880 it was like, oh, I can still get this idea, 0:07:00.080 --> 0:07:01.960 yeah for sure, and send it out, you know what 0:07:01.960 --> 0:07:03.440 I mean. And that's how that's how it happened. 0:07:03.480 --> 0:07:05.640 This thing makes sense. 0:07:05.960 --> 0:07:10.240 Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was hip hop man affected me 0:07:10.320 --> 0:07:13.560 in a way that it just changed my life from 0:07:13.640 --> 0:07:15.400 day one, Like, I don't know where I would be 0:07:15.480 --> 0:07:15.840 without it. 0:07:15.880 --> 0:07:19.000 I don't know whereout music did You start writing immediately though, 0:07:19.120 --> 0:07:19.960 like right after. 0:07:19.760 --> 0:07:26.080 That, immediately immediately in school, writing all day, not failing test. 0:07:26.920 --> 0:07:29.600 I ain't listening to nobody. I'm trying to write these 0:07:29.640 --> 0:07:33.440 little songs. And once I could distinguish what a hook 0:07:33.720 --> 0:07:36.680 was from a verse, like, oh, the part that keeps 0:07:36.720 --> 0:07:39.720 coming back that somebody told you that. No, No, nobody 0:07:39.720 --> 0:07:43.960 told me. I'm in ship fifth grade. 0:07:44.000 --> 0:07:46.160 Self discovery though, self. 0:07:45.920 --> 0:07:48.480 Discovery, you know what I mean. So I'm knowing that 0:07:48.600 --> 0:07:52.200 it's like that, and that's the way it is. That's 0:07:52.200 --> 0:07:54.400 the part they keep saying. I keep coming back to that. 0:07:55.160 --> 0:07:58.320 So once I started writing songs, man like I want 0:07:58.320 --> 0:08:01.440 to say, my first song was about it, so fucking goofy. 0:08:01.760 --> 0:08:06.040 But you know girl in class, I like her, of course, 0:08:06.480 --> 0:08:07.840 you know, And that was the thing. We send the 0:08:07.880 --> 0:08:09.200 notes back and forth, you know. 0:08:09.160 --> 0:08:11.960 Check check yes, check out play from the start, I. 0:08:11.920 --> 0:08:14.080 Might have been a player from way way back, my 0:08:14.240 --> 0:08:18.080 dumb ass. I write the box with yes and no, 0:08:18.760 --> 0:08:21.920 and then maybe because I don't want to get let down. 0:08:21.920 --> 0:08:25.840 I don't hard no. So I wrote a song called 0:08:25.880 --> 0:08:29.040 maybe maybe not, and I could beat box the hook 0:08:29.120 --> 0:08:31.120 with the rap, so it was maybe or maybe not, 0:08:32.520 --> 0:08:35.880 Maybe maybe not. And I'm talking about I wrote girls girls, 0:08:35.960 --> 0:08:38.920 girls before, way before it was a thing. So it's 0:08:38.960 --> 0:08:41.680 three different girls and they all gonna tell me maybe 0:08:41.679 --> 0:08:43.520 maybe not. That was the hook of my song this 0:08:43.800 --> 0:08:48.440 fifth sixth grade. You know what I'm saying. Yeah, man, real. 0:08:48.280 --> 0:08:49.720 Talk, Well, she tell you. 0:08:52.440 --> 0:08:55.240 One told me yeah, okay, the other one told me no, 0:08:56.000 --> 0:08:59.000 and the one the other one told me maybe. I 0:08:59.040 --> 0:09:05.080 went with yeah, Right, that's it. Y'all lost time your life? 0:09:05.880 --> 0:09:08.360 What was what was like? 0:09:08.600 --> 0:09:12.400 Would you say a turning point into it into it 0:09:12.480 --> 0:09:15.760 becoming serious? Like at this point you're a kid, you 0:09:15.840 --> 0:09:19.600 love it. It's you know, I can speak to that 0:09:19.679 --> 0:09:22.160 being a kid hearing certain music and it's just the 0:09:22.280 --> 0:09:24.640 vibrations and whatever it is, it's doing something to you 0:09:24.840 --> 0:09:27.480 don't know what it's doing, you don't know why it's right. 0:09:28.120 --> 0:09:30.800 At what point did you discover the why and maybe 0:09:31.320 --> 0:09:32.360 where it could go from there? 0:09:33.000 --> 0:09:35.920 I say, I say, I might have been about fifteen, 0:09:35.960 --> 0:09:38.439 And of course I'm immersed in hip hop, so we're 0:09:38.480 --> 0:09:40.920 doing everything cool. We got the shell toes, we got 0:09:40.920 --> 0:09:44.040 the canos anything, ll got the hat. We getting the 0:09:44.080 --> 0:09:46.679 fucking hat. You know what I'm saying, the shoes whatever. 0:09:47.120 --> 0:09:50.640 And then I started I was, I was at this point. 0:09:50.640 --> 0:09:53.200 I'm an advanced songwriter. You know what I'm saying at 0:09:53.200 --> 0:09:55.080 this point as far as rap, so I'm for you 0:09:54.960 --> 0:09:57.400 to know you're in advance. Yeah, I know I'm better 0:09:57.440 --> 0:09:59.840 than my peers as far as when it comes. 0:09:59.679 --> 0:10:00.640 To you quarter or anything. 0:10:00.760 --> 0:10:03.240 No, just no nothing. I just know when you come. 0:10:03.200 --> 0:10:05.560 Up again, when y'all start rapping in the cipher. 0:10:05.679 --> 0:10:09.720 Because my thing was because I'm easy, I'm easily. I'm 0:10:09.720 --> 0:10:13.400 a battle rapper at heart. Because it was about competition, 0:10:13.520 --> 0:10:15.120 so you got you know, I'm in the you know, 0:10:15.200 --> 0:10:17.280 I'm watching my friends. They playing basketball, to play football. 0:10:17.280 --> 0:10:19.719 It's all competition. So this thing that I'm doing now, 0:10:19.760 --> 0:10:22.240 where we get around the lunch table and we battle, 0:10:22.520 --> 0:10:27.520 it's like competition. So my thing was when I rapped, 0:10:28.600 --> 0:10:30.520 this ship had to be over when I was done. 0:10:30.960 --> 0:10:33.360 I ain't want nobody to feel confident enough to go 0:10:33.400 --> 0:10:36.080 after me. When I say my last line, this ship 0:10:36.160 --> 0:10:38.400 is all right, dog man, we got We're going back 0:10:38.400 --> 0:10:41.520 to beautiful class that nobody. I don't if you even 0:10:41.640 --> 0:10:45.040 think that you can start rapping again after me. Were 0:10:45.040 --> 0:10:47.240 about to have a problem because I don't think you're 0:10:47.240 --> 0:10:49.960 not You're not better than me. My name is like, 0:10:50.000 --> 0:10:53.599 it's my name. So we going back and forth in 0:10:53.679 --> 0:10:55.760 these ciphers, and I'm starting to realize. I was like, damn, 0:10:55.800 --> 0:10:58.400 I'm really good at this ship. I mean, I'm doing 0:10:58.440 --> 0:11:01.480 the other stuff to a kind of ratching on the turntables, whatever, 0:11:01.559 --> 0:11:03.760 you know, I mean, break dancing, spinning on my head, 0:11:04.040 --> 0:11:06.720 writing in my book. But I'm getting a response from 0:11:06.800 --> 0:11:09.920 this rap thing. And people are saying, like, yo, he's good. 0:11:09.960 --> 0:11:12.199 You don't want to fuck him on that. So we 0:11:12.400 --> 0:11:15.600 battling and I'm you know, I'm really going at it. 0:11:16.080 --> 0:11:19.000 And then I left. I was in favor of North Carolina. 0:11:19.480 --> 0:11:24.480 I moved to Richmond, Virginia, and I moved to Richmond, 0:11:24.520 --> 0:11:28.719 Virginia late late eighties, close to the early nineties. And 0:11:29.320 --> 0:11:32.320 I'm coming from military town and I go to Richmond, 0:11:32.360 --> 0:11:34.200 Virginia and it's like it might as well have been 0:11:34.280 --> 0:11:34.680 New York. 0:11:34.720 --> 0:11:36.400 To me, are you a military band? 0:11:36.520 --> 0:11:36.840 No? 0:11:36.840 --> 0:11:38.480 No, but you're you're just not out there. 0:11:38.520 --> 0:11:40.680 I just happened to be out there. So I get 0:11:40.679 --> 0:11:42.360 there and I'm like, Okay, this is dope. They got 0:11:42.360 --> 0:11:44.920 a fucking city bus, they got a skyline. That shit 0:11:45.000 --> 0:11:47.520 feels like it's like a baby New York City baby DC. 0:11:47.720 --> 0:11:50.199 You're like, oh, DC's on your hour fifteen minutes. I'm like, oh, 0:11:50.280 --> 0:11:53.240 the cat like it's a big thing. So I made 0:11:53.280 --> 0:11:58.319 that my home. And that's when the dots started connected 0:11:59.000 --> 0:12:01.960 as far as like, oh, it's people that's really doing this, 0:12:02.840 --> 0:12:04.680 like this this music thing. And what I would do 0:12:04.760 --> 0:12:06.640 is I would just connect myself with people that was 0:12:06.679 --> 0:12:10.320 doing it, and it just started steamrolling from there. 0:12:11.320 --> 0:12:14.040 Was it people like with studios or people who had 0:12:14.120 --> 0:12:14.760 like it. 0:12:14.640 --> 0:12:17.360 Was people with studios. You know, we recording and were 0:12:17.400 --> 0:12:20.120 recording on a DATS and you know what I mean, 0:12:20.200 --> 0:12:21.480 four track recorders. 0:12:22.160 --> 0:12:25.079 So had Teddy Riley come down to Virginia yet he 0:12:25.240 --> 0:12:26.439 came down, right. 0:12:26.559 --> 0:12:33.560 Teddy came down. I want to say it was ninety two, right. 0:12:33.640 --> 0:12:38.040 So I just graduated high school and where I'm from 0:12:38.800 --> 0:12:43.600 the beach is an hour and fifteen minutes towards the water, right, 0:12:43.679 --> 0:12:46.920 So imagine I'm at high school and we at the 0:12:47.040 --> 0:12:50.200 lunch table and somebody's talking and they're saying, like, yo, 0:12:50.400 --> 0:12:53.640 I heard Michael Jackson is in Virginia. 0:12:56.080 --> 0:12:57.120 That doesn't even make sense. 0:12:57.160 --> 0:13:00.000 What do you mean? No, no, no, no, no, Michael Jackson. 0:13:00.040 --> 0:13:02.920 And they said they they said Michael Jackson was recording 0:13:03.160 --> 0:13:07.520 studios today in Virginia. I will drive all the way. 0:13:07.559 --> 0:13:11.719 What do you mean I walked, Yeah, I walked there. 0:13:11.760 --> 0:13:14.400 What are you talking about here? So they're like, yeah, nah, 0:13:14.440 --> 0:13:16.920 you know you know Teddy Riley Man, Teddy right New Jackson. 0:13:17.040 --> 0:13:18.880 I'm like, of course I know. Teddy Riley is like 0:13:19.160 --> 0:13:21.200 he made the fucking show when he was fifteen years old. 0:13:21.240 --> 0:13:23.679 We listen to that song is ten years old already, 0:13:23.760 --> 0:13:26.520 damn there. So I'm like, he got a studio here. 0:13:27.320 --> 0:13:29.400 So then maybe, like the way you said, this thing 0:13:29.440 --> 0:13:31.760 called Greek Greek Week or whatever, and we would all 0:13:31.800 --> 0:13:33.720 go down to the beach, everybody showing off their cars 0:13:33.720 --> 0:13:36.920 and ship and you would ride by, you could ride 0:13:36.920 --> 0:13:39.040 by future and you're like, oh, ship, the lamp, it's 0:13:39.080 --> 0:13:42.520 a lambo outside, It's a fucking it's a Ferrari outside. 0:13:42.960 --> 0:13:45.160 We never even seen these cars in real life. We've 0:13:45.160 --> 0:13:47.400 seen these cars of Magnum p I. We never seen 0:13:47.440 --> 0:13:52.520 these cars in real life, so outside, so you're you're 0:13:52.520 --> 0:13:58.680 sort like like this, I think this is real. So 0:13:58.760 --> 0:14:02.360 Teddy Riley came to Virginia in the early nineties and 0:14:02.480 --> 0:14:06.959 changed the landscape of what music could be in the state. 0:14:07.600 --> 0:14:09.800 You know what I'm saying. We didn't have no identity 0:14:10.240 --> 0:14:14.439 before that, like not that we were proud of, you 0:14:14.520 --> 0:14:20.760 know what I'm saying. So early nineties, you know, we're 0:14:20.760 --> 0:14:23.360 doing our thing and it's little studios here and there, 0:14:23.360 --> 0:14:27.960 four track recorders, people starting to make cassettes, and it's 0:14:28.000 --> 0:14:30.320 this big city wide talent show that everybody was in. 0:14:30.360 --> 0:14:33.440 All of the schools in the district had you know, 0:14:33.440 --> 0:14:37.200 we had we all conjoined for this talent show. See this, 0:14:37.200 --> 0:14:39.640 this guy, this talent show. He went to Huguenot, when 0:14:39.640 --> 0:14:41.840 to Hugo and High School. He behind the keyboards, he's 0:14:41.840 --> 0:14:48.480 playing a fucking savant like savant singing, singing Teddy Riley song, 0:14:48.560 --> 0:14:51.960 singing our Light groove me. And this is Michael Archer 0:14:52.640 --> 0:14:59.560 who turns into no Way Yes facts. We used to 0:14:59.600 --> 0:15:02.680 do the same with the talent shows together. Michael Archer 0:15:02.680 --> 0:15:04.800 and Precise was the name of the band. 0:15:05.600 --> 0:15:08.560 That's crazy and he's doing Teddy Riley covers. 0:15:08.640 --> 0:15:12.680 Yes, not even knowing that this man is set set 0:15:12.720 --> 0:15:15.360 up shop an hour that. 0:15:15.280 --> 0:15:18.600 Way because he's a full church kid, gospel. 0:15:18.640 --> 0:15:20.520 You know what I mean, like and not even supposed 0:15:20.560 --> 0:15:23.360 to be doing this. But when I tell you, like, 0:15:24.280 --> 0:15:31.160 amazing to see him that early, that young, and we're like, yo, man, 0:15:31.200 --> 0:15:38.720 he's amazing. Like and then three years later, you know 0:15:38.760 --> 0:15:41.600 what I mean, it drops and we're like, oh shit, 0:15:41.720 --> 0:15:45.960 he made it. He's fucking DiAngelo, you know what I'm saying. 0:15:46.600 --> 0:15:50.000 Brown Sugar out of nowhere, first first artist that I 0:15:50.040 --> 0:15:52.720 ever looked up, and I was like, Okay, he made 0:15:52.720 --> 0:15:57.520 It's it's possuzle to make it out of here, D'Angelo. 0:15:57.720 --> 0:16:00.560 Yeah, And what is your mission at this point now 0:16:00.600 --> 0:16:04.280 that you've seen the brown Sugar go insane? 0:16:04.800 --> 0:16:09.440 Because I'm watching it in real time? Backtrack? I had 0:16:09.480 --> 0:16:12.600 already connected with Q Tip from a trip called Quest, 0:16:13.040 --> 0:16:14.760 so he had kind of helped me out early. 0:16:16.000 --> 0:16:17.000 How was that I met? 0:16:17.080 --> 0:16:20.440 I met Q Tip at Jack the Rapper Jack, Rapper 0:16:20.520 --> 0:16:23.240 at a Jack, the Rapper Conn Jack, the Rapper b 0:16:23.440 --> 0:16:28.120 R E R all the conventions. See, y'all don't know. 0:16:28.160 --> 0:16:30.280 We used to. We didn't. We couldn't just upload our 0:16:31.040 --> 0:16:36.880 ship out right, dads, and go away for a weekend. 0:16:37.160 --> 0:16:40.640 So I met q Tip at Jack the Rapper Uh 0:16:41.880 --> 0:16:44.080 and he was downstairs in the in the in the 0:16:44.200 --> 0:16:48.160 Atlanta hotel with a box and cipher around him. He's 0:16:48.160 --> 0:16:50.840 playing a LAS beat and it's all these dudes rapping, 0:16:50.920 --> 0:16:55.040 and I'm like, that's fucking c Tip like ship, like 0:16:55.800 --> 0:16:58.640 one of my favorite rappers of all time. I'm a tribe. 0:16:58.720 --> 0:17:02.040 I just identified with that whole native tongue thing. I 0:17:02.080 --> 0:17:04.359 go downstairs. I can't get in. It's too it's too 0:17:04.400 --> 0:17:07.280 many niggas in the circle. I can't get through the circle. 0:17:08.160 --> 0:17:10.439 And it's like it's this big ass tree. It's almost 0:17:10.480 --> 0:17:12.159 like a tree in the lobby of a hotel. I 0:17:12.280 --> 0:17:16.000 crawl up the tree, go over top of the branch, 0:17:16.040 --> 0:17:19.200 and I'm over top of this nigga's ear. He looks like, 0:17:19.800 --> 0:17:25.160 way is this nigga in the tree? Somebody rapping but 0:17:25.240 --> 0:17:28.520 my cipher skills kicking. No, no, you not about to rap 0:17:28.600 --> 0:17:31.399 for Q Tip. I'm about the rap for q Tip. Boom. 0:17:31.440 --> 0:17:34.600 I start rapping and he looking like I'm rapping, dude, 0:17:34.640 --> 0:17:37.360 cut me off. Oh we got a problem now. Oh 0:17:37.400 --> 0:17:40.000 now it's a battle oh oh, y'all think I'm playing. 0:17:40.000 --> 0:17:43.760 I've been training for this. Bam cut him back off 0:17:44.359 --> 0:17:45.200 in his career. 0:17:45.240 --> 0:17:46.240 Are you still on the tree. 0:17:46.359 --> 0:17:52.040 I'm off the tree. I'm still in the tree. 0:17:52.520 --> 0:17:56.200 Balance. This is nice. 0:17:56.359 --> 0:17:59.960 I'm in the tree. I kill this other dude killing 0:18:00.160 --> 0:18:03.080 other dude. Security comes yo, yo, yo, y'all break this 0:18:03.640 --> 0:18:06.280 music off the you know, get off the tree. Come down, 0:18:06.359 --> 0:18:08.680 my man. And so people are walking up to him 0:18:08.680 --> 0:18:10.720 because this is the this is the summer of ninety three, 0:18:11.520 --> 0:18:16.040 so award tourist out right, and he's like he people 0:18:16.080 --> 0:18:18.040 walking up, Yo, I gotta tape, man, I manage an 0:18:18.080 --> 0:18:20.359 artist from something. And I see him signing and stuff. 0:18:20.359 --> 0:18:22.000 He's looking and stuff, and he keeps looking in my 0:18:22.119 --> 0:18:24.800 direction like like I just want to make sure he's 0:18:24.840 --> 0:18:26.960 still over there. And I see him put his hand 0:18:27.040 --> 0:18:30.199 up like hold tight, like hold tight. I'm like, was 0:18:30.200 --> 0:18:35.800 that for me? Ship he comes over. He's like yo, yo, son, Yo, 0:18:35.800 --> 0:18:36.360 what's your name? 0:18:36.440 --> 0:18:36.640 Son? 0:18:36.760 --> 0:18:40.520 I was like, maxkis you like yo? So you ill? Son? Yo? 0:18:40.560 --> 0:18:45.040 You so just like like yo, what you about to do? 0:18:45.200 --> 0:18:48.000 I was like nothing? And he was like you want 0:18:48.000 --> 0:18:49.840 to go to this radio station with me? And I 0:18:49.880 --> 0:18:51.840 was like hun, he's like, I gotta go to Georgia Tech. 0:18:52.400 --> 0:18:54.720 This is radio station. Like, yo, you're trying to roll. 0:18:54.800 --> 0:18:57.159 And I was like yeah, so's He's like, all right, 0:18:57.280 --> 0:18:59.320 fuck you come come upstairs with I gotta change. I'm 0:18:59.320 --> 0:19:01.200 gonna go upstairs quick. So I'm like, all right, cool. 0:19:01.200 --> 0:19:02.919 We go upstairs and the door open. This first time 0:19:02.920 --> 0:19:05.919 I've ever seen the sweet. I never knew hotels had 0:19:05.920 --> 0:19:09.040 a D I've never seen it. It's a hotel room, right, 0:19:09.080 --> 0:19:11.359 So I see the hotel, I see the sweep. He 0:19:11.440 --> 0:19:13.160 walks in. He's like, yo, I'm a change real quick. 0:19:13.240 --> 0:19:16.520 And he hits a button on the CD and I here, 0:19:20.520 --> 0:19:23.720 like the Midnight Marauders starts playing and he's like, yo, 0:19:23.760 --> 0:19:26.679 this is the album's son. And I'm like, I'm listening 0:19:26.720 --> 0:19:30.880 to drop calls this fucking album before it comes out. 0:19:31.000 --> 0:19:31.720 It's amazing. 0:19:32.000 --> 0:19:34.400 Right, this is summer. It don't come out to November. 0:19:34.440 --> 0:19:35.960 It came out the same day. It's thirty six Chames 0:19:36.000 --> 0:19:39.560 Wu Tang Clan. He comes back. I only heard like 0:19:39.600 --> 0:19:42.880 four tracks. I'm like, this album is about to be crazy. 0:19:43.359 --> 0:19:46.919 I go downstairs. We take a picture. I had the 0:19:46.920 --> 0:19:50.840 little Kodak disposable yellow and black picture. We take a 0:19:50.880 --> 0:19:53.560 picture and I get in a van. I get in 0:19:53.640 --> 0:19:55.840 a van in the middle seat, and he gets in 0:19:55.880 --> 0:19:59.400 the front and he goes. He turns around. He goes, Yo, Son, 0:20:00.080 --> 0:20:02.800 niggas so ill Son, and I look behind me and 0:20:02.840 --> 0:20:07.240 it's passed and Macio from Daylight so ship. And I'm like, 0:20:08.520 --> 0:20:13.400 you're in the native tongues. What the fuck do you mean? 0:20:13.560 --> 0:20:20.600 I'm really, my life is changed. I go, we rock out. 0:20:20.880 --> 0:20:23.920 I go, I go, we do the thing and he 0:20:24.119 --> 0:20:26.080 I give him my number. I go back home from 0:20:26.160 --> 0:20:29.840 Jack the Rapper. A week later, my mother. I walk 0:20:29.880 --> 0:20:32.520 in the house with my mom goes, Yo, you got 0:20:32.520 --> 0:20:34.560 a phone. You got a message on the phone. I 0:20:34.600 --> 0:20:36.200 was like from just like, I don't know somebody named 0:20:36.200 --> 0:20:39.199 Boo Rip. I don't hear what it is. I was like, 0:20:39.680 --> 0:20:42.360 what she said, somebody ain't rip, just hit the things. 0:20:42.359 --> 0:20:45.320 So I hit the button and I hear his voice, Yo, Son, 0:20:45.359 --> 0:20:47.879 you know saying the skill this tip. You're trying to 0:20:47.880 --> 0:20:50.800 get skills? Yo. Yo, I want to know, man, how 0:20:50.880 --> 0:20:53.600 far do you live from u v A. We got 0:20:53.640 --> 0:20:56.080 to show a uv A like, Yo, I want you 0:20:56.080 --> 0:20:59.480 to pull up son, And I'm like, my life could 0:20:59.560 --> 0:21:17.560 chake and it did it totally changed. I go to 0:21:17.640 --> 0:21:21.760 the show Dayla Soul Trap CaAl Quest. They let me rap. 0:21:22.320 --> 0:21:24.840 At the end of the show, I'm working at a 0:21:24.880 --> 0:21:28.959 parking deck in in Virginia. I've already had it, like 0:21:29.000 --> 0:21:31.840 I'm working in the parking deck. Like I go back home. 0:21:32.000 --> 0:21:34.320 Nobody believes me. I'm like, y'all, I was rapping on 0:21:34.720 --> 0:21:37.720 Q tip then yeah, whatever, like Nika whatever. They have 0:21:37.800 --> 0:21:39.240 another show in Hampton, Virginia. 0:21:39.600 --> 0:21:41.280 He calls you again, cost me again? 0:21:41.359 --> 0:21:43.639 Yo, how fuck you live from Hampton. I'm like it, 0:21:43.720 --> 0:21:48.840 don't I'm going. I go to Hampton, go on stage, 0:21:48.880 --> 0:21:51.040 spit the verse. This time, I take the camera because 0:21:51.080 --> 0:21:53.600 now I gotta take this this take these pictures back 0:21:53.640 --> 0:21:55.520 from fucking to the drug store and get them developed. 0:21:56.200 --> 0:21:56.439 I go. 0:21:56.880 --> 0:22:00.560 The show's over. I walk outside. It's me and my 0:22:00.600 --> 0:22:02.840 man walking into my car, and this dude grabs hit 0:22:02.880 --> 0:22:05.479 me on the shoulder. I turn around, I go, what's up. 0:22:05.520 --> 0:22:07.480 He's like, yo, when you just on stage with Q 0:22:07.600 --> 0:22:11.280 tipping them, I'm like yeah. He's like, so you got 0:22:11.280 --> 0:22:12.159 to introduce me to him? 0:22:12.200 --> 0:22:12.360 Dog. 0:22:12.680 --> 0:22:15.719 I got to meet them, and I'm like, I said, yo, 0:22:15.840 --> 0:22:17.800