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Speaker 2: All right, Eyl Queen Naja, thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2: Appreciate it.
Speaker 3: Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2: I appreciate it, Yeah, for sure. So my first question
Speaker 2: is how has this journey been for you. I know
Speaker 2: it's been a short period of time, but it's been
Speaker 2: a long period of time as well. So you now
Speaker 2: you're an a list, everybody knows you, everybody loves your music.
Speaker 2: Is it still moments where it's kind of surreal to you?
Speaker 2: Or are you, like fully caught up in a moment
Speaker 2: right now.
Speaker 4: Honestly, I never really get to basket the moment. I'm
Speaker 4: trying to learn how to, So I can't say it's
Speaker 4: really surreal because like just not right now, Like it's
Speaker 4: a blessing, but I'm trying to learn how to just
Speaker 4: I'm always like Russian, Russian, Russian everywhere, but I never
Speaker 4: really just get to like bask in a moment.
Speaker 3: But it's been a it's been a journey. I feel like.
Speaker 4: It's been a time where I was super down. I
Speaker 4: thought everybody forgot about me. But now I'm back here
Speaker 4: again and I just bounce back and I'm happy. So
Speaker 4: it's a blessing.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Yeah, So this weekend you're presenting at the Awards. Obviously
Speaker 6: Mary is performing. I know that you're a part of
Speaker 6: the tour.
Speaker 5: He talked about heart and influence and what it means
Speaker 5: to be a part of it. Mary, Yeah, marry' Jay.
Speaker 4: First of all, the first song that I ever sang
Speaker 4: that came out of my mouth was You're All I
Speaker 4: Need to get by with methad Man. I was three
Speaker 4: years old, and it's really full circle to just be
Speaker 4: in this same First of all, I'm going on tour her. Yeah,
Speaker 4: so I'm really really excited and I feel like if
Speaker 4: she can see something to me to share her stage,
Speaker 4: then I'm gonna be around here for a minute.
Speaker 7: They don't name Nia, so I was looking at of
Speaker 7: it basically translates to like the new Nigeria you understand
Speaker 7: me or the music of Niga. Do you find Nigerians
Speaker 7: or people out there in Africa tap in with your music?
Speaker 3: Okay? So my first name is Queen.
Speaker 4: My middle name is Naja, and it has nothing to
Speaker 4: do with Nigeria, and a lot of people get that
Speaker 4: mixed up. My name is Naja because my father's name
Speaker 4: was my father's from Yemen, his name was Mohammed Nijeb
Speaker 4: and my mom just instead of she put an a
Speaker 4: on the end, So Naija and Niji. So a lot
Speaker 4: of time, the way she spelled it was like the
Speaker 4: Nigerian and I didn't learn that until like on Twitter recently.
Speaker 3: But yeah, it has nothing.
Speaker 4: To do in Nigeria, but I think it does work
Speaker 4: for me because like when they see my name, they
Speaker 4: gravitate towards me, and I love Nigerian artists.
Speaker 3: I haven't been there, but if it works for me,
Speaker 3: it just worked with me.
Speaker 2: So I feel like it's on a job training when
Speaker 2: it comes to success, and especially the music business, and
Speaker 2: a lot of people make mistakes because there's no blueprint
Speaker 2: or there's no roadmap to follow. So learning the business
Speaker 2: side of it, how has that been for you? Have
Speaker 2: you had mentors that's like teaching you the dudes a adults?
Speaker 2: Is it just like experience? How have you learned the
Speaker 2: business side of music?
Speaker 8: Well?
Speaker 4: I was blessed to have a really really good support
Speaker 4: system around me, like a small, solid circle, and I'm
Speaker 4: learning from that circle. I didn't know a lot coming
Speaker 4: to I mean, I didn't know nothing coming to the industry, honestly.
Speaker 3: But I'm still learning as I go.
Speaker 4: It's a lot of things I've had learning experiences where
Speaker 4: you have to experience something bad first and then learn
Speaker 4: from it. So that's just like an everyday thing with me.
Speaker 4: So yeah, I'm still learning.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 6: So one of the things, especially in business and obviously
Speaker 6: in music, it is collaboration. What's the process like for
Speaker 6: you when you're looking for somebody to collaborate with? Obviously
Speaker 6: we know the dirt and I've been showing record is incredible.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 5: What's that process, like when you're trying to collab with somebody.
Speaker 4: So usually like I'll all right, Usually i'll build. I'll build, sorry,
Speaker 4: build beats from scratch. But if I don't. If I
Speaker 4: like a song, regardless if I building or not from scratch,
Speaker 4: I think of a concept to it, I'll go mumble
Speaker 4: and like some cadences, and then I'll create the words
Speaker 4: and I'll say, oh, this person would sound really good
Speaker 4: on this song, Like I can hear the voices on there.
Speaker 5: You're making the record yourself, you're producing it.
Speaker 3: You can say I'm part I'm partially producing.
Speaker 4: I don't press the buttons, but I tell them, use
Speaker 4: this instrument, make this beat, make this cadence. I just
Speaker 4: don't know how to do all the technical stuff, but
Speaker 4: I know what I want when it comes to music,
Speaker 4: and I have a really really good ear for it.
Speaker 4: So yeah, and then I just get the whoever I want.
Speaker 4: I DM them. I don't really have to label do
Speaker 4: stuff because I like for it to be genuine, you know.
Speaker 4: But if I don't get them, I'll just wait.
Speaker 3: I'll just wait.
Speaker 8: And if it don't have and it don't, what's the
Speaker 8: future of your brand?
Speaker 7: Like we see Rihanna become a billionaire for having her
Speaker 7: beauty brand. And I feel like, especially when you got
Speaker 7: like a solid consolidated community, you can really start pushing
Speaker 7: out products and that's when you really hit you out
Speaker 7: your jectory.
Speaker 8: So what's the future of expansion for you.
Speaker 4: I'm not gonna lie. I do want to put out
Speaker 4: some products because that it'd be more money in that
Speaker 4: than the music. Okay, I just want whatever product I
Speaker 4: put out to represent me and my brand.
Speaker 9: I know.
Speaker 3: I really love to be comfortable and I love to
Speaker 3: lounge around the house.
Speaker 4: So like one of the things I wanted to do
Speaker 4: was like on ess, like loungewear, and like I'm big
Speaker 4: on like hygiene, so like kitty.
Speaker 3: Kits, like for the girls.
Speaker 10: Yeah, kitty kits.
Speaker 3: Very important. But yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 4: Maybe I'll come up with something else later on, but
Speaker 4: I still like still trying to balance out this life, so.
Speaker 3: Hopefully that comes about, like later on.
Speaker 2: I feel ideas though, I feel like the greatest artist,
Speaker 2: whether it was DMX or eminem or even nas, like
Speaker 2: they always told their life and you felt their pain,
Speaker 2: you felt they was going through and it's a gift
Speaker 2: in the curse because your fans feel like you're your family,
Speaker 2: but you're also letting people know what you're personally going through. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so how do you balance that because I know that's
Speaker 2: like you know your story you how do you balance that?
Speaker 2: And is there have a point where you turn it
Speaker 2: off where it's like, this is my pain, this is
Speaker 2: my music, this is my joys, but this is private.
Speaker 2: I don't want to share, you know what.
Speaker 4: Story of my life because I definitely used to overshare
Speaker 4: a lot. Like overshare, it's I've groomed to be a
Speaker 4: little bit more conservative, but now I think I'm a
Speaker 4: little bit too conservative. So like I'm an extremist, I'm
Speaker 4: either here or here. I'm trying to find like a
Speaker 4: medium because at the end of the day, the reason
Speaker 4: why people love me and how I came about was
Speaker 4: from being transparent and showing my life. But like you said,
Speaker 4: people think they know you from just like they think
Speaker 4: they know you from a minute video, and it's just
Speaker 4: like you don't, you really don't, and they have their opinions,
Speaker 4: and sometimes it could it could just get so like
Speaker 4: overwhelming to where you know, I start to go into
Speaker 4: this little shell and I don't want to, but I
Speaker 4: can't do that because of the industry I'm in and
Speaker 4: I have to I mean, you gotta be out there
Speaker 4: and you got to be visible.
Speaker 3: So I just have to find a medium.
Speaker 4: Still, I think I'm gonna get back on my YouTube channel.
Speaker 5: Yeah, coming back.
Speaker 8: Yeah, y'all heard it.
Speaker 5: Head.
Speaker 6: So obviously the coaches Big as Night Sunday you're presenting,
Speaker 6: is it somebody excited.
Speaker 3: To see I'm just really excited. I'm just excited to
Speaker 3: be here. It's not like I'm excited to see everybody.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 7: So let me ask you last, how do you balance
Speaker 7: because you know, you got family, you got a career,
Speaker 7: you got tour, you got a relationship.
Speaker 8: Do you meditate, do you take walks? What's your mental health?
Speaker 5: Luck?
Speaker 2: What we're doing, I just pray.
Speaker 4: Honestly, I grew up in I grew up in church
Speaker 4: and stuff. So like, honestly, I just ray, I need
Speaker 4: to do.
Speaker 3: A little bit better that. But to be honest, I
Speaker 3: think I need to do a little I think I need.
Speaker 4: To find I still have to find something. I still
Speaker 4: have to find something like uh that puts me at peace.
Speaker 4: But I know one of the main things is like
Speaker 4: car rights studio sessions. That's where that's when I write
Speaker 4: my music and go to the student. That's my therapy.
Speaker 4: I do have a therapist. I talked to a therapist
Speaker 4: and it helps a lot. But I want to find
Speaker 4: a hobby, like, I want to find something to do
Speaker 4: outside of music that I just really really enjoy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I gotta find it.
Speaker 2: That's it. Well, thank you. The one last question that
Speaker 2: I have is we talked about R and B, and
Speaker 2: I feel like we're in a good space for R
Speaker 2: and B right now. Who is your biggest R and
Speaker 2: B inspiration?
Speaker 3: Biggest R and B? Oh, that's hard.
Speaker 2: Who was your favorite all top favorite? Whitney Hughton, Whinney.
Speaker 3: Houston, Mary J of course Mary J for Real Monica
Speaker 3: and a lot more. But I grew up listening to them.
Speaker 5: So yeah, I would we appreciate you coming. Make sure
Speaker 5: y'all go check out the tour Queen nazi Ya.
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, thank you here with Joey. Dad asked Joey,
Speaker 2: thank you for joining us, bro, I appreciate it, your sir, Yes, sir.
Speaker 11: So we had we had for b TV ninety y'all
Speaker 11: with the mice in your hands was like.
Speaker 2: Mike, so, Joey, you you're very interesting to me because
Speaker 2: you represent a nostalgic era that we grew up on nineties,
Speaker 2: but you also are new school and you got that
Speaker 2: and your multi talent, so you act rap. So it's
Speaker 2: like a gumball. Where do you get where you get
Speaker 2: your inspiration from?
Speaker 10: Like?
Speaker 2: Where do you get your inspiration from? And how do
Speaker 2: you stay freend with the times?
Speaker 12: Well?
Speaker 13: God, I feel like everything that I do is a
Speaker 13: spiritual experience, you know what I'm saying. Like if it
Speaker 13: wasn't for me feeling purposeful and the things that I do,
Speaker 13: I don't think I'll be able to do them properly,
Speaker 13: you know what I'm saying. So I would say that's
Speaker 13: definitely my that's my jump start, you know what I mean.
Speaker 13: It comes from spirit, It comes from the soul. That's
Speaker 13: why I find my inspiration. And apart from now, it's
Speaker 13: just expansion, you know what I'm saying. Wanted to build
Speaker 13: more for my legacy, for us, you know what I mean,
Speaker 13: for my people.
Speaker 6: Award winning actor, what I said, award winning, let's start there.
Speaker 6: Obviously you will stand out and the power series. So
Speaker 6: when did the love for acting come about?
Speaker 5: Somebody? Was that something you were formally trained in Or.
Speaker 11: I was always entacty, So.
Speaker 13: To get into my high school, I went to Edward
Speaker 13: all Murow in Brooklyn, Bosky. I went there Adam Yacht
Speaker 13: from the BC Boys, Little Mam majority badass, and uh,
Speaker 13: they had a theater program there. I'm trying to get
Speaker 13: into like Laguardie and stuff like that, but because of
Speaker 13: my attendance, I couldn't.
Speaker 11: I couldn't go.
Speaker 13: Yeah, They're like, nigga, you live in Brooklyn and your
Speaker 13: attendance is bad. In Brooklyn, it was like.
Speaker 5: Stay at roke here.
Speaker 13: So I ended up going to end with all Mother
Speaker 13: and I was in an apartment for about two years.
Speaker 13: It's kind of like a culture shock for me because
Speaker 13: my first signs going to school like white people and
Speaker 13: stuff like that.
Speaker 11: So it was kind of hard for me to keep
Speaker 11: up and I d' getting kicked out. But h you know,
Speaker 11: music was always my first love. I always have music
Speaker 11: like just here with me, and I figured I learned
Speaker 11: quickly that you know, trying to.
Speaker 13: Make it as an action in New York City, he's
Speaker 13: like trying to find a needle in a hat stack.
Speaker 13: So I doubled down on music as my main focus,
Speaker 13: and I figured that in the future, I'll be able
Speaker 13: to use it as leverage into the acting business.
Speaker 7: With this session with ideas, let me ad she mean,
Speaker 7: I know a lot of people utilize like law of
Speaker 7: attraction and shit like that, and I could tell you know,
Speaker 7: you deep into the esoterics, you understand symbolism, the power
Speaker 7: of it, so I know you tap into the different
Speaker 7: universal laws and intelligence.
Speaker 5: I like the you know, the law of.
Speaker 8: Confidence or the law of focus. Which one you tap in?
Speaker 8: You feel me when you want to go to that
Speaker 8: next level?
Speaker 5: Which one?
Speaker 8: Which one is a principle that you.
Speaker 11: Apply between the law focus and the law of confidence.
Speaker 5: Whatever law the universe you utilize.
Speaker 11: Well, I'm big on faith, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 11: I'm going be faith based.
Speaker 2: So like.
Speaker 11: I got, I got a way of thinking where you know,
Speaker 11: you can tell who's praying who's not, you know what
Speaker 11: I'm saying. Usually the people who are frustlating with life
Speaker 11: and h you know, blaming other things, they probably could
Speaker 11: pray some monk.
Speaker 13: So like me, like when I think they want to
Speaker 13: double down take things to be like I mean, I
Speaker 13: pray every day off top, but when I really want
Speaker 13: to double down take ing CBS level, I turn the socks,
Speaker 13: you know what I'm saying, And I turned into my
Speaker 13: faith and age Dad alone feels everything.
Speaker 11: Else feels my focus, It feels my confidict.
Speaker 8: Yeah, fuse, you.
Speaker 11: Know whatever it is that I need to make it
Speaker 11: to that next loving at that.
Speaker 8: Getting point, that's the law belief. Whatever you believe crystallizes
Speaker 8: and becomes real for sure.
Speaker 2: So acting or rapping, which one do you prefer? Like,
Speaker 2: what's what's the number one for you?
Speaker 13: I mean, listen, man, I tell people all the time
Speaker 13: like it's like it's like two women that you love,
Speaker 13: you know, Like I ain't about to explicitly say which
Speaker 13: when I prefer, but I tell you this, I couldn't
Speaker 13: survive without music. You know.
Speaker 11: That was my first love. That was you know, my
Speaker 11: first baby mom.
Speaker 13: Whatever anetic to her. But they both make me better
Speaker 13: for each other, you know what I'm saying. It's like
Speaker 13: then for a while, come back to music. It's like
Speaker 13: a new level of freedom because I'm like, oh, like I.
Speaker 11: Don't you know this music. I don't gotta rely on music,
Speaker 11: no more shame thing with acting. I go over there
Speaker 11: and it's like I ain't gotta rely on this either.
Speaker 11: So you know, they both leto keep each other man
Speaker 11: in his life. I wouldn't. I wouldn't have traded once
Speaker 11: for the art. I need them both.
Speaker 6: So tell them about the music. The latest project. I know,
Speaker 6: with some delays, what's the update on it? When we're
Speaker 6: gonna say, like what show.
Speaker 11: The new album?
Speaker 13: New album two thousand. It's coming next month in July.
Speaker 13: I actually have the date, but I don't. I'm not
Speaker 13: gonna share it yet because you know, I don't want
Speaker 13: to have to change the shit again. You know what
Speaker 13: I'm saying, Like, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna
Speaker 13: just announce the pre order and that's when Montherfuck's gonna know. Okay,
Speaker 13: the date is lot, it's official. You know what I'm saying, Like, Yeah,
Speaker 13: you know, I ran into some complications. It's been five years,
Speaker 13: it's my last album, so it's a lot of excitement
Speaker 13: and putting this music out. You know, I'm very eager,
Speaker 13: but you know, it's also my first major so that
Speaker 13: was really more of the complications that I'm having is
Speaker 13: understanding the chain of come in and the whole system, like,
Speaker 13: you know, having to have everybody on the same page
Speaker 13: and things like that.
Speaker 11: You know what I mean.
Speaker 13: Like, whereas when I was independent, I just pressed the
Speaker 13: button like I'm ready. If I say June seventeen, it's
Speaker 13: June seventeen, that's when I'm uploaded, you know what I mean.
Speaker 13: So there's a lot of things I was out of
Speaker 13: my control. But listen, when I'm on that stage, it's
Speaker 13: just Joey Badass. I ain't got no time to point
Speaker 13: the finger at nobody and everything, like, I just take accountability.
Speaker 13: It's coming soon, though I can't wait, you know, shout,
Speaker 13: I tell your body who's waiting and been patient, appreciate y'all.
Speaker 5: And you got out in front of it too. That's
Speaker 5: a power of social media.
Speaker 6: As soon as you know it was a delay, you
Speaker 6: hear everybody up on ig it's gonna be a delay,
Speaker 6: and that ain't.
Speaker 12: No exactly, you know.
Speaker 7: I feel like the game needs Joey Badass, mostly because
Speaker 7: I think, you know, I do high level conversations.
Speaker 8: I feel like your music high level.
Speaker 7: And plus it's in a lane where there's a lot
Speaker 7: of shit that's out there, but it ain't nothing to
Speaker 7: allow you to kind of you.
Speaker 8: Got a masculine energy feeling. I think you bring that
Speaker 8: to the game.
Speaker 7: And you know the music is is high energy, which
Speaker 7: if you're talking about something, what's you believe that you
Speaker 7: representing the game?
Speaker 8: Know as Joey Badass, I think.
Speaker 11: I represented call the higher consciousness. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 13: I represent open mindedness, I represent unity, and I represent
Speaker 13: you know, yeah, just broad a thinking man, higher level shit,
Speaker 13: you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 11: Like we we about expansion over here, you know what
Speaker 11: I mean.
Speaker 13: Like my whole experience as a musician, as an actor,
Speaker 13: I've seen them try to marginalize us as a people,
Speaker 13: as a culture, and you know, I'm here to double
Speaker 13: down on the fact that we oceans.
Speaker 11: We ain't swimming pools, you know what I mean.
Speaker 13: We've asked and unpredictable, you know what I'm saying, and
Speaker 13: there's no limitations to what we're doing.
Speaker 2: So my last question from a business standpoint, you being
Speaker 2: independent going to a major What made you do that?
Speaker 2: And how has it changed as far as the business
Speaker 2: dynamics is being an independent artist in on a major label.
Speaker 13: First of all, great question, you know, because my whole
Speaker 13: foundation is built on independence, you know what I mean.
Speaker 13: That's that's like my call of fame right there. So
Speaker 13: my decision on going with a major was me getting
Speaker 13: to a point in my career where I created enough
Speaker 13: leverage where I was able to find a partner and
Speaker 13: be able to ask for the things that I want
Speaker 13: and that I deserve, where you know, it didn't slight me.
Speaker 11: You know what I'm saying. I didn't.
Speaker 13: I didn't have I wasn't giving up the lion's share
Speaker 13: or anything like that, so you know, and also also
Speaker 13: as independence as creatives, this there's this bust, so much
Speaker 13: we could do until we reach a glass ceiling. It's
Speaker 13: like being a painter, you could sell all your your
Speaker 13: artworks right out of your your photo studio, but eventually
Speaker 13: it's just word of mouth. Whereas you go partner with
Speaker 13: a gallery or something like that, and it's like now
Speaker 13: your works is getting out there some more and shit
Speaker 13: like that. So that was that was kind of my
Speaker 13: my decision making. And also like having an escape plan,
Speaker 13: you know what I mean, Like I ain't I ain't
Speaker 13: majoring forever two albums in them out.
Speaker 5: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 8: Are you studying Web three?
Speaker 2: Any?
Speaker 8: You said what Web three? Where?
Speaker 11: No, I'm not. I'm not too big on the Web
Speaker 11: three NFT game. Like you know, I like to live
Speaker 11: real life, not even.
Speaker 7: Talking about just like utilizing the platform, because when I
Speaker 7: think about independent artists, that's gonna be the best platform.
Speaker 7: The blockchain, you understand me. It's gonna expand what you're
Speaker 7: gonna be able to do. It's basically will allow you
Speaker 7: to circumnavigate having a label because you're gonna be able
Speaker 7: to take those same things. They got an operation and
Speaker 7: automate it for shure you feel me so on the show.
Speaker 7: NFTs are just one phase of the blockchain, but the
Speaker 7: new iteration of the Internet go allowed the creators to
Speaker 7: be able to own it and take advantage of it.
Speaker 11: Right up. Well, I mean, you know, to be honest,
Speaker 11: I got to catch up a bit. You know what
Speaker 11: I'm saying.
Speaker 13: I got I gotta catch up a bit like pandemic.
Speaker 13: I'm out here living real life.
Speaker 11: You know what I mean.
Speaker 13: I got my baby dough at home. I haven't really
Speaker 13: been diving too much into it, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 13: But I'm with you on that and with you on that,
Speaker 13: but I appreciate that.
Speaker 6: My last thought is, all as you're talking, who's your
Speaker 6: biggest music influence not named Jay Z? Because when I'm here,
Speaker 6: I got a guy in mind. I'm like, I know that,
Speaker 6: I know that I'm here. I'm like, yo, I feel
Speaker 6: like there's a Rock Kim influence here.
Speaker 11: For show for show. I love Rock Kim, you know
Speaker 11: what I'm saying.
Speaker 13: For me, what I love about Rock Kim is more
Speaker 13: like the energy and the spirit and the embodiment of
Speaker 13: just you know what I'm saying, being high level and
Speaker 13: being like focusing on your dean, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 13: and not having a It's about intequity over success, you know,
Speaker 13: because that's what I value, you know what I mean?
Speaker 11: So yeah, for sure, but I was apart from Jake,
Speaker 11: I gotta get it to life.
Speaker 2: Nah, I can see the early ellmatic Ye see that,
Speaker 2: I can see.
Speaker 5: You know nothing.
Speaker 11: That's my big bunk for with you know. Yeah, Like
Speaker 11: I'm great for that out of relationship with him, you.
Speaker 10: Know what I mean?
Speaker 11: Like I literally call him the city.
Speaker 2: Appreciate it.
Speaker 5: Brothers, My dog days are coming over.
Speaker 2: Neil, Welcome back, Welcome back, brother. First of all, this
Speaker 2: is a reunion. Last time we saw you with invest
Speaker 2: Fest VIP nighted today for the stage down. So I
Speaker 2: want to I want to formally thank you for that, man,
Speaker 2: I was so for me.
Speaker 14: I had a great time brother. Indeed, indeed appreciate you
Speaker 14: having me no problem.
Speaker 11: Man.
Speaker 2: So you as like a legacy artist at this point,
Speaker 2: which is crazy because I grew up on your music.
Speaker 2: So now it's like you're a legacy artist. How do
Speaker 2: you how do you maintain your your relevancy? And almost
Speaker 2: what twenty is in the game fifteen?
Speaker 15: We almost at twenty. Yeah, we almost at the twenty mark,
Speaker 15: you know.
Speaker 8: Man.
Speaker 14: For me, it's it's always been about acknowledging the trend,
Speaker 14: but not following it, you know what I mean. Like,
Speaker 14: I think a lot of these young casts don't realize
Speaker 14: that trends are meant to come and go, and if
Speaker 14: you attach your artistry, if you attach yourself to that trend,
Speaker 14: once that trend leaves, you kind of leave with it,
Speaker 14: you know what I mean. So I've always tried to
Speaker 14: attach myself to things that aren't going anywhere, up to
Speaker 14: sound going anywhere. Sound of a guitar is never going anywhere.
Speaker 14: Love is a feeling, as an emotion, as a move,
Speaker 14: and that it ain't going nowhere. It might be the
Speaker 14: most popular thing right now, because you know, it is
Speaker 14: what it is, but it's never gonna go out of style.
Speaker 14: It's never there's never gonna be a time where it's
Speaker 14: like we don't need love. We always need love. We
Speaker 14: will forever need love, and we will forever need love songs.
Speaker 14: And as long as that's the case, Neil will forever
Speaker 14: be around.
Speaker 6: I think I'm glad you said that, because that's one
Speaker 6: of the many talents you started as a songwriter, became
Speaker 6: a worldwide success.
Speaker 5: As an artist.
Speaker 6: But at these times, now do you go back to
Speaker 6: the original talent, like I see it as an artist
Speaker 6: out there, they could be great.
Speaker 5: They need that Neo Penn is.
Speaker 15: That I I mean that.
Speaker 14: That may not, that may not be the mind state
Speaker 14: as to why I do it. But at the same time,
Speaker 14: I've I'll never not write, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 14: That's that's that's therapy for me, you know, if it's
Speaker 14: I've always been better putting it down on paper as
Speaker 14: opposed to even saying it out of my mouth. So,
Speaker 14: you know, whenever I get into that place where I'm
Speaker 14: Superman in my family, right, so whenever Superman needs saving,
Speaker 14: I get in my pad and I'm good again. You
Speaker 14: know what, I mean, that's that's that's always been my therapy.
Speaker 14: So the fact that I can do it as a
Speaker 14: career and make money doing it, that's just French benefit.
Speaker 14: I'm saying, because of it, you know what I mean,
Speaker 14: Like I'm stable because of it.
Speaker 7: Now, do you think we headed to a place where
Speaker 7: because R and B is one of those genres that
Speaker 7: it's forever needed. Number One, we're very love for society.
Speaker 7: We ain't got enough love in the culture. You understand me,
Speaker 7: And I think R and B is probably something that
Speaker 7: we need to listen to even more. And recently we
Speaker 7: sing Drake and Beyonce do like house music and a
Speaker 7: lot of people in dance music and a lot of
Speaker 7: people were saying, well, this was actually a good thing
Speaker 7: because it's a break from what we get. A lot
Speaker 7: of music is dark in these days. What is R
Speaker 7: and B or what is the future of music as
Speaker 7: a therapy for the culture?
Speaker 8: You understand me?
Speaker 7: And specifically, like, what's your intention you put in the
Speaker 7: music as far as what you want to spread?
Speaker 14: Well, I mean I've been I've been about love from
Speaker 14: the very beginning, or should I say the black, white
Speaker 14: and gray of love? Because you know you can't appreciate
Speaker 14: the highs of love if you can't acknowledge the lows
Speaker 14: of love, like they both exist for a reason.
Speaker 15: It's like Yin and yang, you know.
Speaker 14: So I'm trying to make sure that anybody going through
Speaker 14: a heartbreak or anybody going through anything like that, knows
Speaker 14: and understands that they're not alone. You don't nobody you
Speaker 14: going through it, but it ain't just you. I'm going
Speaker 14: through it too, you know what I'm saying. That's what
Speaker 14: the song says to them, and what the song also
Speaker 14: does is give them a soundtrack to what it is
Speaker 14: is happening. You know, I'm depressed, I feel bad right now.
Speaker 14: I need I need a song that's gonna pull me up.
Speaker 14: I got that for you or you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 14: I just feel like being in my feeling today is raining.
Speaker 14: I want to just be in this place. I got
Speaker 14: that for you too. That's what my music has always been,
Speaker 14: you know, put the song on and apply it to
Speaker 14: your life accordingly.
Speaker 15: That's what a neo record is.
Speaker 2: So when did you let me ask you this? As
Speaker 2: far as balancing business and music, right, a lot of
Speaker 2: people say they get turned off from creating because they
Speaker 2: have to deal with the business side. Did you ever
Speaker 2: have that experience and how has your experience been navigating
Speaker 2: being a creative and being a businessman at the same song.
Speaker 11: So this is a new way to segue into the
Speaker 11: new album.
Speaker 15: It's July fifteenth, self explanatory and now the album.
Speaker 14: I've been writing on this album since twenty eighteen, since
Speaker 14: before the pandemic, and a lot of the reason aside
Speaker 14: from the pandemic, a lot of reason why so long
Speaker 14: is because I fell into that place where it was like,
Speaker 14: all right, this is a good song, but is it
Speaker 14: rhythmic enough, is it popping up? Is it urban enough?
Speaker 14: And then I'm looking at like I'm looking at the format.
Speaker 14: It's like, all right, the sounds changed. I ain't getting
Speaker 14: no younger. Do I fit still? Is there even a
Speaker 14: place for me in this still fell into that place
Speaker 14: and it took a major, major toll on just my creativity.
Speaker 14: I couldn't write nothing like because I'm second guessing everything
Speaker 14: I'm doing. I had to finally get to that place
Speaker 14: where I realized it, Man, I've never been in the
Speaker 14: business for the business of selling records.
Speaker 15: That's not what I do. Record label sell records, I
Speaker 15: am not a record label. I'm an artist. I'm a writer.
Speaker 14: I'm a singer. My only obligation is to put my
Speaker 14: heart and soul into this music.
Speaker 15: That's it.
Speaker 14: Once I got back there, the songs just pour it
Speaker 14: out of me. So I got back to that. I
Speaker 14: got back to a good place. The business side of
Speaker 14: this will steal the joy of the side if you
Speaker 14: let it.
Speaker 15: Now at the same time, to do this and not
Speaker 15: know that it's a business, it's just stupid.
Speaker 2: That's just no one.
Speaker 14: Understands that there is millions upon millions upon hundreds of
Speaker 14: millions of dollars made with this, So you can't ignore
Speaker 14: the fact that it's a business. But what you don't
Speaker 14: do is take the business into the studio. You don't
Speaker 14: go in the studio and all right, today we're going
Speaker 14: to write a pop song, y'all. Because it'll never happen
Speaker 14: like that. You got to go in the studio and
Speaker 14: do what your artistic integrity lets you do and then
Speaker 14: let the people that do that figure out where it's
Speaker 14: supposed to fall. Okay, you did a pop record today,
Speaker 14: I know where to take this. You did the rhythmic
Speaker 14: records today, all right, I know where to take this
Speaker 14: in the creative process. It's just about creation, bro, It's
Speaker 14: just about art. Let it be about that, Let it
Speaker 14: be Let that be your joyous spot, and then let
Speaker 14: the people that do that do that.
Speaker 15: At least that's been my philosophy of it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so you said this, I mean it's only on
Speaker 5: twenty years, Like, yeah, we grew up on the music.
Speaker 11: Yeah, but it has changed.
Speaker 6: And so I wonder now, is there artists that you
Speaker 6: listen to that inspire you the music and say, like,
Speaker 6: I like this all right, I can hear what they're
Speaker 6: going with, Or when you're getting in that process of
Speaker 6: writing for the new album, did you go back in
Speaker 6: time to eighties or seventies sounds to be like I
Speaker 6: needed that to inspire me.
Speaker 15: I can honestly say a little bit of both, a
Speaker 15: little bit of both, because.
Speaker 14: Again, you can't you can't ignore what's happening right now,
Speaker 14: Like you can't call yourself a music person and ignore
Speaker 14: what's happening right now. But at the same time, you
Speaker 14: also can't try to transform yourself into what's happening right now,
Speaker 14: because it's happening right now, you know what I mean, Like,
Speaker 14: I'm forty two years old. There's some things that are
Speaker 14: being said in some of these records that it's just
Speaker 14: gonna sound stupid if I say I'm aware of that.
Speaker 15: I acknowledge that, And I ain't even mad at that.
Speaker 15: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 14: I'm I'm always gonna give you the metaphor that's gonna
Speaker 14: make you think a little bit to get to where
Speaker 14: that to get to where you got with that, you
Speaker 14: know what I'm saying. That's always gonna be my thing.
Speaker 14: But at the same time, I can't. I can't say
Speaker 14: that it's not young cats out here doing it like
Speaker 14: the boy Blue, he's making moves. I cannot acknowledge that,
Speaker 14: Lucky Day making moves. Give you on making moves.
Speaker 15: I can't. I can't ignore that, you know.
Speaker 14: So I listen to these cats and and and I
Speaker 14: kind of I'm almost kind of taking back to my beginnings,
Speaker 14: Like I know where you're at right now.
Speaker 15: I know the excitement you're feeling right.
Speaker 5: Now, Hotel. I'm thinking like that's one of the records.
Speaker 14: Shout out to that boy by the way, give I
Speaker 14: love his tone.
Speaker 15: You see, don't sound like.
Speaker 8: What's I kind of got a two part question.
Speaker 7: First part is do you recognize the metaphysical aspect of music,
Speaker 7: You understand me, Like you know we water beings. So
Speaker 7: music as a frequency and trage you like once you
Speaker 7: put a motion, emotion into something that gets stuck into
Speaker 7: a person as they listen to it. Like a person
Speaker 7: may listen to your words and your voice and your
Speaker 7: energy a thousand times. They may listen to our podcast
Speaker 7: or media once or twice.
Speaker 8: You understand me.
Speaker 7: Do you recognize that power metaphysically that music has as
Speaker 7: you're going into it with that intention? And then too,
Speaker 7: do you plan on in the future utilizing like NF
Speaker 7: teen's Web three blockchain to really monetize your music in
Speaker 7: a different way to go direct to consumer.
Speaker 14: Gee two parts. So yes, I'm definitely aware of that.
Speaker 14: I'm definitely aware of the music's power.
Speaker 7: You know.
Speaker 14: Uh, sound is frequency, frequency is vibration, and all of
Speaker 14: these things affect us, affect ourselves, affects us on the inside.
Speaker 14: It ain't just I listen to this song and I
Speaker 14: like it. It's I listen to this song and it
Speaker 14: does something. It affects me. I get goosebumps or whatever
Speaker 14: the case may be. It's because of vibration, frequency things.
Speaker 14: So I'm very aware of how powerful that is. I'm
Speaker 14: aware of how some cats have used it the wrong way.
Speaker 14: You know, you put a frequency in your record that
Speaker 14: makes people addicted to it, but it's not feeding them anything.
Speaker 14: It's just it's just making it's just creating craving Like
Speaker 14: that's that's almost backwards.
Speaker 15: I just crave, I just crave, I just crave. Well,
Speaker 15: what do you crave?
Speaker 14: I'm trying to get you to music that's going to
Speaker 14: get you to crave the right thing that's going to
Speaker 14: get you to crave that thing that's gonna make yourselves
Speaker 14: move the where they need to move, you know what
Speaker 14: I mean.
Speaker 15: That's that's what I'm always shooting for.
Speaker 14: And as far as NFTs and all of that stuff,
Speaker 14: I'm definitely in that world, not as heavy as I
Speaker 14: would like to be, And it's mainly just a standpoint
Speaker 14: of sitting still long enough to get the information, to
Speaker 14: get together the knowledge.
Speaker 15: But I see what that is. I see the potential
Speaker 15: in that.
Speaker 14: You know, right now, NFTs is something that you can't
Speaker 14: even touch, you know, it's it's it's intangible. But in
Speaker 14: a minute, you about to see houses as NFTs, You
Speaker 14: about to see whole records as NFTs like it's it's
Speaker 14: about to that's what's that's where we're about to go.
Speaker 15: I see it happening.
Speaker 2: So last question before we wrap, I will actually I
Speaker 2: want you to tell people about the new music, because yeah,
Speaker 2: like I said, I grew up on it, the old music,
Speaker 2: but I'm looking forward to the new music. So what
Speaker 2: can we be looking forward to on a new project?
Speaker 14: Gopy that so self explanatory is the name of the
Speaker 14: new album, and I called it that simply because the
Speaker 14: music speaks for itself. It doesn't really need much explanation.
Speaker 14: On top of the fact that I've been here almost
Speaker 14: twenty years, I feel like y'all should know me at
Speaker 14: this point.
Speaker 15: I shouldn't have to explain who I am, what I am,
Speaker 15: what I do. On this album.
Speaker 14: You will find acknowledgment of what's going on right now
Speaker 14: with my spin on it, and but you will also find,
Speaker 14: you know, that song for the diehard fan, that person
Speaker 14: that's been there since stay and the vibe and energy
Speaker 14: that they look for. I'm always trying to please all
Speaker 14: the people at the same time, and I know that
Speaker 14: that's virtually impossible, but damn it, I'm gonna keep doing
Speaker 14: what I do for who's listening and who cares?
Speaker 15: And and uh yeah, yeah that's what it is.
Speaker 2: Brother hedio record, Uh put you on the spot.
Speaker 5: I mean, so sick is up there, but uh sech
Speaker 5: and love problems such.
Speaker 11: And love good taste, good taste, Miss independent.
Speaker 15: Indeed, I appreciate that love rump and shot.
Speaker 8: Come on, man, it's certain songs that made me think
Speaker 8: I could sing.
Speaker 16: That's why you know it's a good record to do
Speaker 16: you see like you feel?
Speaker 2: Might sound good?
Speaker 5: Right man?
Speaker 15: Somebody got Neil for me?
Speaker 5: I'm throw one back at you. Best swing that neo
Speaker 5: rope ah.
Speaker 2: A little bit for there's a couple of you got one?
Speaker 5: How about this?
Speaker 6: I do we saw one of the guys before in
Speaker 6: that record last night last night, I wasn't there.
Speaker 2: Damn, let's refrain.
Speaker 15: You saw the winner. Talk saw the winner that replaced
Speaker 15: the versus the.
Speaker 5: The Marrio joints to this is replaceable, but it's not replaceable.
Speaker 2: But let me love you irreplaceable irreplaceable?
Speaker 5: Wow, which one is your favorite?
Speaker 15: Damn?
Speaker 14: I mean they both equated to really quality Christmases. I
Speaker 14: will say that really good Christmas is off of both
Speaker 14: of those records.
Speaker 15: Still it is Day, It is Day. Yeah, my kids
Speaker 15: love those songs.
Speaker 14: If I had to choose one over the other, probably
Speaker 14: probably irreplaceable, only because it was a learning experience for me,
Speaker 14: you know what I mean. Like I wrote the song
Speaker 14: with the intent to keep it and learned that certain lyrics,
Speaker 14: the the person delivering the message matters.
Speaker 15: Sometimes.
Speaker 14: For example, I can have another you in a minute,
Speaker 14: matter of fact, she'll be here in a minute. From
Speaker 14: a man, sounds a little mean, limosogynistic, but for a
Speaker 14: woman to say I can have another you in a minute,
Speaker 14: matter of fact, he'll be here in a minute, every
Speaker 14: woman in the world is gonna rally behind it, like
Speaker 14: that's my girl, you know what I mean. So that's
Speaker 14: that I learned that lesson through that record. Super Big
Speaker 14: Daddy is a boyfriend for that record. Michael Jackson, Prince,
Speaker 14: I can't, I can't. I can't even do it right, I.
Speaker 2: Tell you.
Speaker 14: So I learned how to sing mimicking Michael Jackson, I
Speaker 14: learned how to perform Mimiican Prince and I've had I've
Speaker 14: had moments with both of them before they passed. I
Speaker 14: got to actually write with For Michael Jackson, we didn't
Speaker 14: get to record the records, but like talking to this
Speaker 14: man regularly and him critiquing the records that I'm writing
Speaker 14: for him, like that was an experience. And then Prince
Speaker 14: my Libra Scale It's probably my worst performing album, and
Speaker 14: I was bummed out. I was messed up about it,
Speaker 14: and we got we got we got invited to Prince's
Speaker 14: Grammy party that year. I remember I was. I was
Speaker 14: psyched about that because huge Prince fans. So we go in,
Speaker 14: he's on stage, he's performing with he sees me. He
Speaker 14: puts his guitar down b lines for me and comes
Speaker 14: to me and says to me, Yo, Libra Scale was
Speaker 14: a good album and don't let anybody tell you different.
Speaker 14: Back up stage and finished what he was doing, and
Speaker 14: that that for me in that moment, because I was
Speaker 14: I was, I was beat up.
Speaker 2: I was.
Speaker 15: I was beat up. Prince liked the album to hell
Speaker 15: with anybody that didn't like it. Look tell what all, y'all, I.
Speaker 5: Gotta give you credit before we go.
Speaker 6: Your versus Battle probably the most slept on but absolutely
Speaker 6: Classicpreciate that class.
Speaker 15: The reason I was there last night with there's some
Speaker 15: some things is in the works.
Speaker 14: We're having some discussions, some discussions about some possibilities.
Speaker 15: Yeah, that's that's talking about it.
Speaker 5: We got to see you.
Speaker 15: You know why y'all are here. Okay, So if I
Speaker 15: was to do it again.
Speaker 2: Who who I want to see you against?
Speaker 15: That was because that's the main thing right now.
Speaker 2: Doing something that nobody would expect.
Speaker 5: No, you go first.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna say Jamie FOXX. I'm gonna say Jamie Fox.
Speaker 8: I like that.
Speaker 15: That's that's I'm actually not mad at that unexpected.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna start.
Speaker 5: You can't say, are you gonna say? No?
Speaker 2: I want to mix it up?
Speaker 8: I said, Jamie was so such a good answer, I
Speaker 8: wouldn't go top it.
Speaker 2: I think you would mix it up Maxwell.
Speaker 14: If you if we were talking jess A, R and
Speaker 14: B Battle, I think that I think that might be
Speaker 14: a move.
Speaker 15: I think it might be a moved.
Speaker 5: So you're going.
Speaker 15: But if I pull out any of the pop records,
Speaker 15: you can't do the records.
Speaker 2: That's why Jamie Fox would be good.
Speaker 5: But they got wrapped because he got twenty of the thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah he got twenty, Jamie twenty. Jamis he got features twenty.
Speaker 2: Now you got twenty including features? Yeah, yeah we have Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's that's what you know we're talking about.
Speaker 5: All right, He'll be radio zoom te weekend.
Speaker 6: The total Goodes night is upon us, our croppy head man,
Speaker 6: the legend himself made mentality.
Speaker 12: Thank you for having me. Man, come on man, y'all
Speaker 12: all legends right here. So to sit down right here,
Speaker 12: to be included in this, this conversation, in this couch,
Speaker 12: it means I did the work, truly.
Speaker 11: That's really so.
Speaker 2: I feel like you reinvent yourself. Can you use use
Speaker 2: things that's trending to reinvent yourself? So we gotta talk
Speaker 2: about this versus. When did you decide Okay, I'm a
Speaker 2: remke this flip it? And did you think it was
Speaker 2: going to go viral? Like people so many verses. I
Speaker 2: don't watch the verses. I watched his recut.
Speaker 12: Yeah that's a mussy listens and shout out to my
Speaker 12: brother's spice Adams Man like without him and when the
Speaker 12: honeys we connected and just did it organically. But to
Speaker 12: your point of reinvention, I want to talk about that
Speaker 12: for a second because we're in a room full of
Speaker 12: artists right and twenty years ago this same type of
Speaker 12: room existed and it was a whole new set of
Speaker 12: it's a whole different set of artists. They come and
Speaker 12: they go. I don't purposely jump on something that's trendy
Speaker 12: because I'm like, ah, it's gonna be viral or it's
Speaker 12: gonna I just live in today. I live in the now,
Speaker 12: and I create from a now space. And so if
Speaker 12: I always stay in that now space, I'm always in
Speaker 12: what the current water flow is as opposed to like
Speaker 12: creek water or like pond water. It's not dead, it's
Speaker 12: not stagnant. So you'll never see me talking about what
Speaker 12: I did last year or ten years ago. So I
Speaker 12: try to stay in that flow of that so that
Speaker 12: that helps me reinvent, like skin cells, like it just
Speaker 12: gradually does it naturally organically, as opposed to trying to
Speaker 12: do it. You're not gonna see me bleaching my skin
Speaker 12: to try to get it, trying to get fresh skin.
Speaker 2: It just does it on it. The Guard would be
Speaker 2: highly disappointed.
Speaker 12: About Come on, keys want to represent the light skin
Speaker 12: coalition with pride. You know, I don't need to get.
Speaker 5: No lighter We got together exactly. One of the things
Speaker 5: that I think people don't really give you credit for.
Speaker 6: Maybe they'll know is how you've turned the business of
Speaker 6: comedy into an actual business or braining content licensing.
Speaker 5: Owning it it. He talked about that a little bit.
Speaker 12: Yeah, for sure. I I've always heard not to spend
Speaker 12: your own money, right, And it made sense at first
Speaker 12: until I keep getting my tax bill at the end
Speaker 12: of the year, right, and so I'm like, hold on,
Speaker 12: I'm sending money to dudes who wasn't with me shooting
Speaker 12: in them, and I don't know what they're doing with that,
Speaker 12: and it's a lot of that that I'm sending out.
Speaker 12: So it's like, all right, Well, the way my business
Speaker 12: is set up, if I can expense it, if I
Speaker 12: could draw my expenses versus my earnings at the end
Speaker 12: of the year, why not investing my own lifestyle and
Speaker 12: things that I want to spend that money on before
Speaker 12: I have to send it over to those guys until
Speaker 12: I fully learned and maybe y'all can talk about this
Speaker 12: offline with me, until I learned how to pay three
Speaker 12: hundred dollars like Donald did in taxes and get the
Speaker 12: right loopholes legally, I'm gonna go ahead and do my
Speaker 12: legal version of that, which is I'm gonna invest the
Speaker 12: bread that I got into my own projects. So what
Speaker 12: I do is, for example, I create I shot my
Speaker 12: own stand up special HBO, Netflix. None of them was
Speaker 12: coming knocking on my door. Not to say that they
Speaker 12: won't eventually, but they didn't really know I was doing
Speaker 12: stand up, So I knew an offer wasn't just gonna
Speaker 12: fly into my doorsteps. So I shot myint and when
Speaker 12: licensed it with Kevin Hart at LOL, that's my brother,
Speaker 12: licensed it, got it back, and now we're shopping for
Speaker 12: a new deal for it. So I already made that
Speaker 12: money and I'm about to make money on it again.
Speaker 12: So that's pretty much my short term template of how
Speaker 12: I do things.
Speaker 7: Let me ask you, man, during the time of the verses,
Speaker 7: you also took some of that same energy and put
Speaker 7: it towards Kevin Samuels.
Speaker 8: The rest of peace.
Speaker 7: Kevin Samuels, he's no longer here. But when you got
Speaker 7: the news of his passion, you know, because he talked
Speaker 7: about high value man and you know how he spoke
Speaker 7: upon women. How did that affect you? You understand me
Speaker 7: and your platform, like, did you get any feedback on that?
Speaker 7: What was the actual thoughts about Kevin?
Speaker 12: So the main feedback because and I've had to I
Speaker 12: had to talk about this a couple of times, obviously,
Speaker 12: But the character that I do, doctor Devin Fonteined, is
Speaker 12: a mix of people. I used to do this character
Speaker 12: ain't fintained ten years ago about the flamboyant brother that
Speaker 12: we all know in the hood that ain't comfortable with
Speaker 12: it saying what it really is, right, So I always
Speaker 12: did this. That's why the voice is so like exaggerated
Speaker 12: in cartoony, that's Fontanine. So the more I got into
Speaker 12: imitating this therapist guy, because I always called him Devin,
Speaker 12: it was never straight Kevin Samuels. I started calling him
Speaker 12: Devin because I didn't really know enough about him. All
Speaker 12: I saw was the little clips that people will send me,
Speaker 12: and I was like, all right, let me just play
Speaker 12: a character that's similar to him that don't really want
Speaker 12: to be on the line even though he's trying to
Speaker 12: help these people. And I just exaggerated it. And the
Speaker 12: more I got into the voice, it became Fontaine. So
Speaker 12: that's why it wasn't a direct Yeah, it wasn't that personal.
Speaker 12: It wasn't a like when he passed, it wasn't a
Speaker 12: direct effect on me, like rest in peace to the brother,
Speaker 12: but I had I literally we never met. I don't
Speaker 12: know him like that personally, so you know, he he
Speaker 12: created a platform of online therapy that I thought was
Speaker 12: humorous for my character to partake in. So that's really
Speaker 12: the extent of it.
Speaker 2: When we talked about the business of comedy, we talked
Speaker 2: to Steve Harvey, he was like, you know, when he
Speaker 2: first started, he never understood business. It was just go
Speaker 2: and tell jokes, and then he understood the business later on.
Speaker 2: But we see a lot of comics now on Instagram,
Speaker 2: but I'm still not sure if they fully understand like
Speaker 2: that comedy it's like music business, right, Like comedy is
Speaker 2: a business. So when did you realize that comedy was
Speaker 2: actually a business? And you what would you say to
Speaker 2: up and coming comics that have a talent but they
Speaker 2: only really know how to make people laugh.
Speaker 12: I knew it was a business from day one. I
Speaker 12: went to college for business. I have a master's degree
Speaker 12: in business. So even back then, when I was a
Speaker 12: broke college student at an HBCU Fable State University shout Out,
Speaker 12: I knew that I was going into the show but
Speaker 12: the entertainment industry, I already had the talent so I
Speaker 12: didn't waste my college years taking up theater. And I
Speaker 12: was like, no, I know I could do that. When
Speaker 12: I get on the stage, I want to know what
Speaker 12: these dudes are talking about on these contracts, and on
Speaker 12: these deals I need to be able to talk to
Speaker 12: my lawyer and be able to communicate and speak the
Speaker 12: same language. So I don't know who understands business. I'm
Speaker 12: not in comedy. But when I look at guys like
Speaker 12: eighty five South, when I look at guys like Desi
Speaker 12: Banks and Hahai Davis, my instinct is that they do know,
Speaker 12: and that they really created a business model for themselves
Speaker 12: with the help of Steve Harvey, because Steve has been
Speaker 12: og to some of those younger guys to me as well,
Speaker 12: And yeah, it's really about creating a product and being
Speaker 12: able to market it and sell it. And if you
Speaker 12: don't understand as a comedians, as a rapper, as an
Speaker 12: art whatever, as an actor, that you were also this,
Speaker 12: you're gonna be waiting for the phone to ring and
Speaker 12: to be hired, as opposed to figuring out how to
Speaker 12: package yourself and put yourself on the market to sell
Speaker 12: and take all the money.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so we're here be Et Weekend.
Speaker 6: The awards it coming up on Sunday, talk about the
Speaker 6: importance of having a space where we can celebrate each other.
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Speaker 5: This weekend, I'm trying to say this to your first
Speaker 5: what does this mean to you? This year?
Speaker 12: I was saying this earlier Black excellence. We always run
Speaker 12: to the other side to give validation, and if we
Speaker 12: could just put uside all the competition and all the
Speaker 12: bickering and all all the nonsense that black people do,
Speaker 12: namely black men who don't sit down when we have
Speaker 12: an issue who have a difference in Me and his
Speaker 12: brother don't even have the same religious beliefs, right, but
Speaker 12: me and his brother break bread. We talk offline. We
Speaker 12: don't even talk about religion. I just see a brother
Speaker 12: that respect and we we just we just comment on
Speaker 12: each other's stuff. We we we we uplift yo. You good,
Speaker 12: you straight, Yo. Let's talk about songs. So when we
Speaker 12: see each other next, if we could just get that unity,
Speaker 12: that that excellency and understand that we are are more
Speaker 12: powerful together, you know what I mean? For me, that's
Speaker 12: what I look forward to seeing. I don't want to
Speaker 12: see another young rapper dead or another all that all
Speaker 12: that energy is something that we need to push past,
Speaker 12: and I pray that we do. But that's that's what
Speaker 12: I'm looking forward to this weekend. Is it's to see
Speaker 12: who shows up in the in the craziest outfit, you
Speaker 12: know what I mean, the sparkly shoes and just has fun,
Speaker 12: you know, being secure in them and who they are,
Speaker 12: and that doesn't rub off on, you know, in a
Speaker 12: negative way to somebody else.
Speaker 7: You know, stories is more powerful than knowledge, man, and
Speaker 7: I think comedians a lot of times get the opportunity
Speaker 7: to tell stories.
Speaker 8: In a way where you're teaching lessons. You understand me that.
Speaker 7: At the same time, medians have been heavily censored. Nowadays,
Speaker 7: they understand me. But I think that it's important to
Speaker 7: allow comedians to go into the dark spaces because that's
Speaker 7: where you bring people out, that's where you get to
Speaker 7: have real conversations and we get to push the curture forward.
Speaker 7: So what's your take on do you censor yourself in
Speaker 7: fear of the so called council culture where nobody actually
Speaker 7: gets counseled.
Speaker 8: And then what's the importance of comedians being able to narrate?
Speaker 8: And you know, and the king, the court jester was
Speaker 8: able to say anything he wanted to. You feel me.
Speaker 7: He can talk about the king, he can say he's
Speaker 7: a tyrant and everybody laughs. But that's necessary to decompress
Speaker 7: and you know, click that valve of pressure in society.
Speaker 8: So what's your take on that.
Speaker 12: I don't do anything out of fear. I don't respond
Speaker 12: to fear. I said what I said. At the same time,
Speaker 12: if you know me as a human being, I'm a
Speaker 12: very tactful, compassionate guy. I'm very empathetic to people. So
Speaker 12: I'm never trying to talk about anything on stage or
Speaker 12: in my in my humor, that's gonna make somebody feel
Speaker 12: like it's affecting who they are as a person or
Speaker 12: affecting their soul. But there are such things as truths.
Speaker 12: There's some there's some ugly truths out there that we
Speaker 12: got to talk about. And I feel like the faster
Speaker 12: we do that and get comfortable with that, the better
Speaker 12: we are. My guy, good to see you, The better
Speaker 12: we are with being able to push past it. And
Speaker 12: salute to Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle, those guys who
Speaker 12: make it their platform to speak truth. It may not
Speaker 12: be what everybody likes to hear, but it's what it's
Speaker 12: true to them.
Speaker 7: So you ain't worry about getting slapped on him. You're
Speaker 7: not worry about getting slapped on him.
Speaker 8: You know me. You know what I mean too.
Speaker 5: You know what I study.
Speaker 11: Say that I can't be touched.
Speaker 12: I touched back every man is you know, we're able
Speaker 12: to get to be touched, but is how you respond
Speaker 12: to the touch.
Speaker 2: My last question for you, like being a comedian and
Speaker 2: everybody knows you you're you're a very you know, outgoing person.
Speaker 2: As far as your personality, people come up to you,
Speaker 2: they tell you jokes. Do you ever get tired?
Speaker 5: Does that ever?
Speaker 9: Like?
Speaker 2: Yo, bro, I'm not right now is not the time.
Speaker 12: It's like yo, when people come to you'll ask your
Speaker 12: money and my portfolio. Yeah, it's psycho.
Speaker 5: You're like nigga.
Speaker 9: I just want you to walk like about crazy theories
Speaker 9: of the world right now, so you get questions, Yeah, time,
Speaker 9: and you gotta you gotta explain the plight of the
Speaker 9: black man on every tripatory everywhere you go.
Speaker 12: Brother, that's so key. So let me let me ask
Speaker 12: you this. They say that black men on the phone
Speaker 12: to getting diabetes. Do you think that beat? This is
Speaker 12: directly connected to what poorn we watch because them booties
Speaker 12: be sweet you like nigga.
Speaker 8: I just tell you to tell you to tap into yourself.
Speaker 8: I appreciate you all man, some good questions. Keep asking
Speaker 8: yourself that right?
Speaker 11: Yeah, I don't.
Speaker 12: Yeah, you know. I love that people show the love
Speaker 12: and they're aware of what I do. But it ain't
Speaker 12: always appropriate. You and walk up to Mike Tyson like, hey,
Speaker 12: you a boxer, punch me and my goddamn face right now?
Speaker 2: In fact, would you do that?
Speaker 15: Could you do that?
Speaker 8: So?
Speaker 12: Nah, man, I just be chilling.
Speaker 8: That's what's up. That's what's up.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 8: I appreciate you, man.
Speaker 12: I appreciate y'all. Man must respect to y'all. Like this
Speaker 12: is a it's a great, a great conversation I've been
Speaker 12: waiting to have with all of us.
Speaker 2: Definitely connect off, let's do it, please do all right?
Speaker 2: So we had this, Like I said, this is what
Speaker 2: I'm most excited about, my god symbol. So I'm a
Speaker 2: big fan of the music and the era that we
Speaker 2: came from is very nostalgic to us, sir, and a
Speaker 2: few people give me that feeling. I got a chance
Speaker 2: to meet Benning the Butcher and I told him that
Speaker 2: and simple and I don't even know if you know this,
Speaker 2: but like I mean your comments like fire, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: yeah yeah. So my man, that doula. I'm like, you know,
Speaker 2: simple he like I know him because you repost them
Speaker 2: all the time. So lyrical, giant fanking bro, thank you,
Speaker 2: thank you man.
Speaker 8: Man.
Speaker 6: This is like a breath of like fresh air. Like
Speaker 6: you said, that music that we grew up on. When
Speaker 6: we heard that sound, it was like automatic, like well
Speaker 6: what was that?
Speaker 10: What?
Speaker 17: No, that was the whole point, bro.
Speaker 18: It's like I just was sitting back like a few
Speaker 18: years ago, and I'm just like, I'm trying things. I'm experimenting.
Speaker 18: I'm doing melody music, writing pop songs and APG writing
Speaker 18: for Scooby Doo album, and I just had to sit
Speaker 18: down like man who and Maya as an artist, you
Speaker 18: know what I'm saying. And when I think about it,
Speaker 18: always go back to my uncle's, my mama, you know
Speaker 18: what I mean. They come from that era. So I'm
Speaker 18: really a reflection to them, you know what I mean.
Speaker 18: But I can't just be out here rapping on old beats,
Speaker 18: and it's like, how do we redefine that, you know
Speaker 18: what I mean? How do we make it current for today?
Speaker 18: So that's just literally been my goal is to basically
Speaker 18: bring back that nostalgic feeling just in today's form.
Speaker 7: So you know, I'm from the Bay, I'm from Oakland,
Speaker 7: and I know I always tell people I'm from Oakland.
Speaker 8: That's why I'm so well spoken. Exactly understand me exactly.
Speaker 8: It's a certain energy.
Speaker 17: It's any not on the area.
Speaker 8: You understand you're gonna do it a little different.
Speaker 7: And I feel like that's what I get in your
Speaker 7: music as well, because there's a lot of sucking shit
Speaker 7: that go off.
Speaker 8: Yeah, but your music is like anti sucker and you
Speaker 8: call it out.
Speaker 7: You feel me so, But at the same time you
Speaker 7: be at your edge where it's like I'm not afraid
Speaker 7: to stand right here.
Speaker 8: You feel me and I'm gonna do a fearless man.
Speaker 8: Where you get that from?
Speaker 18: Like I say, bro, my mama, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 18: Like my uncle's bro. Like I come from a family
Speaker 18: bro where it's like, I'm supposed to be in jail, right.
Speaker 18: I was born in jail. My mama had me in jail.
Speaker 18: My Auntie went to jail, My uncle Ronnie did ten
Speaker 18: years in jail. My uncle Speedy told on my uncle
Speaker 18: Ryan to get out of jail. My favorite cousin went
Speaker 18: to jail. So it's like, technically jail was supposed to
Speaker 18: be part of my story. But always seen where they
Speaker 18: would go wrong growing up, you know what I mean.
Speaker 18: And I'd be like, you know what, I ain't about
Speaker 18: to sell dope. I might dabble with a little weed
Speaker 18: here and there against some money, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 18: But I ain't fucking with cocaine.
Speaker 17: I ain't on that.
Speaker 8: You know what?
Speaker 18: I mean, I ain't Finna just be spinning because somebody
Speaker 18: punched my little nigga in the face.
Speaker 17: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 18: It's like you gotta really do something to me to
Speaker 18: make me want to physically harm you. You know what
Speaker 18: I'm saying. So I just always put that into music.
Speaker 18: You know, it's wrong, it's uncut. It's how I feel
Speaker 18: most people scared to say how they feel. It's just
Speaker 18: how you gonna help somebody get through life if you
Speaker 18: can't communicate what you going through.
Speaker 2: You know, I feel like it's a thin line between
Speaker 2: like the type of music got you making. So it's
Speaker 2: so nostalgic to me because it's like, Nah's my favorite
Speaker 2: rapper of all time, right, and Na's always he was
Speaker 2: always like a positive vibe, but he was never a
Speaker 2: positive rapper, Like you know what I'm saying. He's still
Speaker 2: a street dude, but he could always get a message
Speaker 2: of positivity where it's like some of the like more
Speaker 2: they put you in a box. It's a positive rapper,
Speaker 2: it's hard to ever get out that box.
Speaker 10: You.
Speaker 2: I kind of look at like that like like it
Speaker 2: was written, like you know what I'm saying. When I
Speaker 2: listened to your music and it's like Big Farmer do
Speaker 2: some more dope than Big Niche. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: It's messages.
Speaker 17: It's a fact though, but it's vibes.
Speaker 12: Like you know what I'm saying, it's vibe.
Speaker 2: You got the Cardier frames on. It's it's not ultra
Speaker 2: preachy do that on purpose.
Speaker 17: So I'm front like, Bro just said, we're from the Bay.
Speaker 5: Bro.
Speaker 17: You know what I'm saying. We from the Panthers.
Speaker 8: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 18: We were gonna have some information. But at the same time,
Speaker 18: this shit in us, it ain't on us. It's it's
Speaker 18: Is'm Bro. I grew up knocking women playing ball.
Speaker 8: You know.
Speaker 18: I was that nigga in school. I didn't get hot
Speaker 18: in music and became cool. I was always cool, you
Speaker 18: know what I'm saying before I was doing music, you
Speaker 18: know what I'm saying. So it's like that has to
Speaker 18: be shown in the music. And that's no offense to
Speaker 18: you know, the spiritual rappers or the conscious rappers, because
Speaker 18: we need them too. But at the same time, Bro,
Speaker 18: it's a lack of cool niggas you know what I
Speaker 18: mean in the industry, and we all just can't be
Speaker 18: on this gangster shit just shooting everybody. It's just like, bro,
Speaker 18: come on, we all ain't killing everybody. Bro, It's more
Speaker 18: good going on in the ghetto than bad. It's just
Speaker 18: the bad it's more publicized, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 18: I'm just here to speak on the good and call
Speaker 18: out the sucker shit like bro, sit.
Speaker 6: You know so so that that moment that La leak
Speaker 6: is freestyle, I feel like that's when the world was
Speaker 6: put on noted.
Speaker 17: For sure, that sure I was coming for sure?
Speaker 5: What was the more?
Speaker 6: How did that more feel to you? Like you've been
Speaker 6: working at this right and you've got this moment to
Speaker 6: Sean and if exploded? What was that moment that what
Speaker 6: it feels like to you at that time?
Speaker 18: About damn Tom, I've been out here both Bro, I
Speaker 18: didn't look at my big brother, small big.
Speaker 17: Brother right there.
Speaker 5: Hurricane yeah, bay area.
Speaker 8: So you know, be having a black cloud on it,
Speaker 8: you feel.
Speaker 7: I mean, yeah, there's a lot of talent in the Bay,
Speaker 7: but it don't really get shown to break out, what
Speaker 7: you think, because but now I'm saying, you know, individuals
Speaker 7: such as yourself, LaRusso, and I feel like the internet
Speaker 7: allows you to navigate that black cloud you feel when
Speaker 7: you was in then coming out of the game Number one,
Speaker 7: who did you look up to in the Bay Area
Speaker 7: and did you feel like being a Bay Area rapper
Speaker 7: you was gonna have that cloud and not be able to.
Speaker 17: Expand on For sure. That was the reason I moved out.
Speaker 18: Like I grew up on Short forty, Max dre Keithy,
Speaker 18: Sneak turf Talk, you know what I mean. Like I
Speaker 18: grew up listening to Bay music. But my mom, my
Speaker 18: mom bury business minded. So my mom was in the
Speaker 18: real estate early, so she had homes in Texas, Vegas,
Speaker 18: Atlantic City, and I would always move around as a kid.
Speaker 18: I know this Bay music wasn't being played in these places,
Speaker 18: and then when I would play it, people wouldn't get it,
Speaker 18: you know what I mean.
Speaker 17: The tempo might beat you fast or whatever it may be.
Speaker 18: So when I started doing music, I was like, damn,
Speaker 18: I want to be the person that keep that bait
Speaker 18: authenticity in my content but still make the sound of
Speaker 18: it universal enough to where the world could get it.
Speaker 18: And I feel like in the Bay the reason we
Speaker 18: got that black cloud is because we got a limited
Speaker 18: amount of black people in California, you feel me. So
Speaker 18: when you going to South, you got black restaurant owners,
Speaker 18: black hookah spot owners, black car washes, which gives black
Speaker 18: music more platforms.
Speaker 17: Right over here we got very minimum of that.
Speaker 18: So I feel like a lot of artists feel like
Speaker 18: it's a certain amount of seats and success or when
Speaker 18: somebody else win, it like they took your spot.
Speaker 17: When it's like, nah, we all could win.
Speaker 18: We just got to ask questions and communicate with each
Speaker 18: other to figure out a way to help each other
Speaker 18: get to the goal.
Speaker 8: Yeap, I rock with up.
Speaker 18: Your mom was in real estate? Are you invested in
Speaker 18: I'm getting into it. I'm getting into it. My mom
Speaker 18: been on me about it for years. I just been
Speaker 18: so psycho with this rap, just driven, just tunnel vision,
Speaker 18: you know what I mean. I ain't want to do
Speaker 18: nothing else. But now that you know, my finances is
Speaker 18: growing and I'm getting a lot better, my mom put
Speaker 18: me in position to do a lot of shit. I'm
Speaker 18: actually trying to get a duplex right now, you feel me.
Speaker 18: So that's definitely something I want to get into. And
Speaker 18: after my rap career, I want to be an architect,
Speaker 18: you know what I mean? So I want to design
Speaker 18: homes and buildings and kitchens and all kinds of things.
Speaker 5: What it's about, That's what it's about.
Speaker 6: So obviously the freestyle goes crazy, the goats that goes
Speaker 6: out going crazy to shout out to that, we all go, yeah,
Speaker 6: how have the business opportunities been a coming to you?
Speaker 6: Like how people approach you? What's your status of independent?
Speaker 6: Where what's going to come here?
Speaker 18: So I'm on a major, I'm signed to Atlantic, but
Speaker 18: I move like I'm independent, you know what I mean.
Speaker 18: We actually getting ready to start my label. I don't
Speaker 18: like calling it a label, but that's how most people
Speaker 18: can understand what it is. But we're getting ready to
Speaker 18: start our company and it's called Majority Rules, and the
Speaker 18: whole idea of it is to be a brochure for artists. Right,
Speaker 18: So when artists get this money when they first get signed,
Speaker 18: don't nobody tell you what to do with it, right,
Speaker 18: You just get the money and it's like, I ain't
Speaker 18: never had it. So I'm finna go get all the
Speaker 18: clothes I want it. I'm finna go knock the bitch
Speaker 18: I couldn't get two months ago. I'm finna go get
Speaker 18: the crib. I'm finna go eat where I couldn't eat right,
Speaker 18: and then you look back three months down the line
Speaker 18: and you broke, and then you're looking at the label
Speaker 18: like what y'all doing. Y'all supposed to be helping me
Speaker 18: get money when it's like in a actuality nigga, you
Speaker 18: was supposed to take that money and go get an
Speaker 18: independent publicist, you feel me, Go get a camera man,
Speaker 18: Go get a strategic go get a digital team. So
Speaker 18: we want to be the people that signed digital teams,
Speaker 18: sign creative people, signed producers and songwriters. So when artists
Speaker 18: get that money, they can come to us and we
Speaker 18: could break it down. Okay, bro, this is just a
Speaker 18: producer you could work with. It's somebody that can help
Speaker 18: you creatively, and they'll have an infrastructure up under them
Speaker 18: and they ain't gotta lose so much money in the
Speaker 18: process of doing that.
Speaker 2: Now, I think what you represent is very important because,
Speaker 2: like you said, it's like I can just regular people
Speaker 2: in the music business. Everybody's a drug addict, everybody's a killer,
Speaker 2: but it's like the majority of people aren't like that.
Speaker 2: And when I hear you speak, you sound sober, and
Speaker 2: that's something that is rare. That's rare.
Speaker 17: I'm saw stup on the tequila right now, by the way.
Speaker 2: But even when I say sober, I just don't mean
Speaker 2: from drugs. I mean yes, humility, just yeah. You just
Speaker 2: sound like you got common sense, like you know what
Speaker 2: I'm saying. And I appreciate that. I think a lot
Speaker 2: of times we talked to artists and it's like, damn, bro, like,
Speaker 2: just speak to me like a regular person.
Speaker 18: But it's like some of them don't know how you
Speaker 18: know what I mean, Like some of these kids where
Speaker 18: you gotta think you have a little TOUTO from Jacksonville, Florida, right,
Speaker 18: and he made a song in his closet with his
Speaker 18: homies about some issues they was having with some niggas
Speaker 18: from up the street, and some little suburban kid posted
Speaker 18: this on TikTok and it went viral and the world
Speaker 18: found out about it, and then labels started calling them.
Speaker 18: They flying him to La, they throwing him in these
Speaker 18: big studios, they putting them with the producers. He don't
Speaker 18: even know what to do. It's all new for him.
Speaker 18: He ain't never had to sit in front of a
Speaker 18: camera and talk to nobody. Like I said, I've been
Speaker 18: popular in my whole life, So I had to argue
Speaker 18: with my teachers, you know what I'm saying. I had
Speaker 18: to fight with my basketball coach. Like I'm used to
Speaker 18: talking to people. Some people in them environments, they're not
Speaker 18: used to talking or telling what's going on. So we
Speaker 18: can't blame them for that. We just have to educate
Speaker 18: them and help them navigate through that. But at the
Speaker 18: same time, niggas gotta want to help.
Speaker 8: Man, you didn't been on a lot of platforms, man,
Speaker 8: Jimmy Kimmel.
Speaker 7: People like, it's interesting because I feel like, kind of
Speaker 7: like myself right when somebody's seen me on the platform,
Speaker 7: it's like something that's not supposed to be there.
Speaker 8: It's an enigma. You feel me, and somehow you challenge
Speaker 8: that and navigate. Like I feel like we're in an
Speaker 8: era where it's a glitch and a matrix.
Speaker 7: You feel me, and it ain't even really a question
Speaker 7: more so about you know, maintaining that integrity that you got.
Speaker 8: You understand me just along that path, because I could
Speaker 8: just see the future.
Speaker 7: Are you growing and see the brand developing and people
Speaker 7: really rocking with that, and you're creating a whole new
Speaker 7: archetype that people can follow as a blueprint.
Speaker 8: You understand me.
Speaker 7: People love Nipsey because of what he represented. You feel me,
Speaker 7: and then you got that same representation.
Speaker 18: So half of the shit I'm speaking on and how
Speaker 18: I was able to find out about this information was
Speaker 18: from Nipsey. I met Nipsey in twenty twelve and eight
Speaker 18: three Sea Fence in Atlanta. And this is when the
Speaker 18: wee cookies that just came out right, and we was
Speaker 18: the only niggas with cookies in the bay. So we
Speaker 18: got something to the eighth right. We was in the
Speaker 18: club club compound smoking and I feel somebody tap me.
Speaker 18: He like, hey, bro, y'all got some of that for
Speaker 18: sale with y'all smoking, you feel me? I'm like, man,
Speaker 18: it's some new shit. I'm like, nigg I'm a fan
Speaker 18: of you. I ain't gonna sell you no weed, but
Speaker 18: we could smoke together.
Speaker 12: You feel me.
Speaker 18: He talked it up that night. He gave me his number.
Speaker 18: He said, man, whenever you in La, hit me. I
Speaker 18: lied to the nigger. I say, I live in La.
Speaker 18: I'll be there Monday.
Speaker 12: You feel me?
Speaker 8: He like, all right in me.
Speaker 17: I flew back to the bait, got my car and
Speaker 17: drove to La.
Speaker 12: You feel me?
Speaker 17: I ain't have a.
Speaker 18: Hotel room nothing. I just drove out there and I
Speaker 18: got to the Grapevine. I was like, bro, I'm in LA.
Speaker 18: I just got back where you at. Twenty minutes later
Speaker 18: he sent me an address. He said, I'm at the studio.
Speaker 8: Pull up.
Speaker 18: I went to the studio. You had a studio downtown.
Speaker 18: Went to the studio, uh, and we had a conversation.
Speaker 18: He gave me his book, The twenty two Immutable Laws
Speaker 18: of Brandon Right, and that book taught me how to
Speaker 18: stop looking at myself as an individual and how to
Speaker 18: grow my identity as a business.
Speaker 8: You know what I mean.
Speaker 18: So everything that I'm speaking on majority rules, The reason
Speaker 18: I stuck in that one lane and just rapping it
Speaker 18: comes from that book that Nip gave me.
Speaker 17: So rest in peace to.
Speaker 15: The goat man.
Speaker 5: That's a fact. So the album is on the way, sir.
Speaker 5: They always say you got your whole life to make
Speaker 5: your first album, that's sir, at three months to make
Speaker 5: it second?
Speaker 8: Sir?
Speaker 5: Do you feel any pressure for this debut?
Speaker 6: Right, because obviously we come up, we know Ellmatic and
Speaker 6: we know we know these debuts obviously get rich of
Speaker 6: not trying.
Speaker 5: What what's the emotional building up to this moment.
Speaker 18: Man, My thing bro is just really it ain't even
Speaker 18: about like trying to go platinum or like impressing everybody.
Speaker 18: It's just more so fine and where more of my
Speaker 18: fans are, you know what I mean? Knowing what they
Speaker 18: like to drink, knowing what they like to eat, knowing
Speaker 18: where they like to shop. That's really what I'm most
Speaker 18: excited about. So I don't really feel no pressure because
Speaker 18: I don't get into other people's expectations of what they
Speaker 18: feel I should be doing, you know what I mean.
Speaker 18: And I didn't done this for too long, and I'm
Speaker 18: damn good at it, you know what I mean. So
Speaker 18: I know anything I drop it ain't gonna be wet,
Speaker 18: you know what I mean.
Speaker 17: So I'm I'm I don't.
Speaker 18: I don't feel no pressure at all. I'm just really
Speaker 18: excited to get the music out more than anything.
Speaker 2: All Right, we got, we got, we gotta rap. But
Speaker 2: it's just one last thing I want to say. Not
Speaker 2: even a question, it's a request.
Speaker 12: Okay.
Speaker 2: I met all three of you now, and I'm glad
Speaker 2: that I met all three of you. You were actually
Speaker 2: how I thought you would be. I would like to
Speaker 2: see this collaboration Toby, Benny and Simba.
Speaker 17: Easy call Benny my brother. I just was with Bennie
Speaker 17: last night, gotta be.
Speaker 2: I never met Toby, but I'm a big fan of
Speaker 2: super Bowl through Humble, big fan of his big put
Speaker 2: it together. Appreciate you.
Speaker 17: We're gonna make sure we link back up too.
Speaker 5: Not for sure, I'm gonna keep going forward to move,
Speaker 5: but I like that.
Speaker 2: Listen, all right, We're here with the lovely beer. Thank
Speaker 2: you for joining us. Appreciate it, appreciated vibes. How you
Speaker 2: how you how you like the BT experience the weekend?
Speaker 2: This is your first time coming?
Speaker 19: Actually yeah, this is my first real This is actually
Speaker 19: my first real time coming. It's my first time being nominated.
Speaker 19: So it's a different it's a different vibe.
Speaker 6: What's that what's that feeling like when you heard the
Speaker 6: news that something that you created is now being recognized
Speaker 6: from people that look like us, a platform that's built
Speaker 6: by us.
Speaker 5: What's that feeling like?
Speaker 19: When you know you watched the BT Awards your whole
Speaker 19: life and I've always been an artist, It's like, when
Speaker 19: am I gonna get on the BET Awards? What am
Speaker 19: I gonna get on the BET Awards? And now it's
Speaker 19: just like it's just surreal. It's like it really happened.
Speaker 19: I'm like, it's crazy. God is great man for real.
Speaker 8: I'm imma ask you something a little different. I've been
Speaker 8: lately saying it's.
Speaker 7: Something called soft life, where it's like, because you got
Speaker 7: a very soft voice, but at the same time, in
Speaker 7: command's presence, you understand me. And the soft life is
Speaker 7: about like black and brown women not needing to be
Speaker 7: displayed like tough, but they can be softening, feminine energy
Speaker 7: and like show joy and laughter. You feel me what
Speaker 7: you feel about that.
Speaker 3: I love that you say that.
Speaker 19: Nobody ever says anything like that, and I'm glad because
Speaker 19: you know, I grew up in an era where it
Speaker 19: was like the nineties, early two thousands, it was very
Speaker 19: like Aliyah, and you know, it was just a different vibe.
Speaker 19: It was very like Flag Girls, and you know, just
Speaker 19: a different vibe. So I've always felt like, as an artist,
Speaker 19: I just want to be myself and whoever that translates
Speaker 19: with is who it translates with, and just not have
Speaker 19: to fit into a mold that people wanted me to
Speaker 19: fit into. When I first started making music.
Speaker 5: That's beautiful.
Speaker 8: I love it.
Speaker 5: Thank you.
Speaker 19: I appreciate that.
Speaker 2: So how was it like working with Coole? I was
Speaker 2: like working with j Cole.
Speaker 11: Oh, Cole is amazing.
Speaker 12: Man.
Speaker 19: Cole's actually like my favorite artist to this day, like
Speaker 19: just because of who he is as a person and
Speaker 19: like not only how talented he is and the way
Speaker 19: he pushes his pen, Like he make me every time
Speaker 19: I go in the booth. Now I'm like, I got
Speaker 19: to push my pen for real, like j Cole is
Speaker 19: watching me.
Speaker 5: I can't lett J Cole dew.
Speaker 2: That song is dope, The video is dope. The whole
Speaker 2: London vibe is dope. What inspired that?
Speaker 19: It's crazy because we love London and I think Jake
Speaker 19: Cole actually spent some time in London too, like extended
Speaker 19: period of time. So when we had a show out there,
Speaker 19: so we were just gearing up to go to London
Speaker 19: and I was like, all right, I'm getting in my
Speaker 19: London bag and I just like to have fun when
Speaker 19: I'm in the studio, and that's what that song was.
Speaker 19: I wasn't even expecting Jake Cole to get on it, like,
Speaker 19: to be honest, I just wanted to play it for him.
Speaker 7: What about Crypto, I've seen you do the collaboration with
Speaker 7: the crypto actually did like a little remix to it
Speaker 7: because I love that fact. Could I always say, you know,
Speaker 7: I say crypto in your person, not in your wallet.
Speaker 8: Right, That's how I teach it to women.
Speaker 7: So what do you feel about the industry of women
Speaker 7: actually understanding this new age financial technology and stuff.
Speaker 19: Well, I just feel like as a woman, the more
Speaker 19: things you can put your money into, the better, Like
Speaker 19: whether that be real estate, whether that be a makeup brand,
Speaker 19: whether that be a salon. Crypto, Like, for me, crypto
Speaker 19: was so scary at first because I'm like, I don't
Speaker 19: know much about stocks, but it's actually like a lot
Speaker 19: easier once you get your foot in and you just
Speaker 19: try it out more. People need to just like do
Speaker 19: a little bit of crypto and then take it a
Speaker 19: little bit and grow. You're really good with the crypto
Speaker 19: I know about you.
Speaker 3: You got some tips.
Speaker 19: Anything I should anything I should invest.
Speaker 3: In while I'm here?
Speaker 2: What are you invested in?
Speaker 19: Like random stuff? But like stocks that like people will
Speaker 19: tell me like, oh, you should invest in this. I
Speaker 19: might go get a couple of those, but really stuff
Speaker 19: that like I use in the long term, So like
Speaker 19: I have a lot of like long term stocks.
Speaker 5: And like just stuff like that about say, we're not
Speaker 5: investing in bout tago.
Speaker 19: Actually I haven't.
Speaker 8: I haven't.
Speaker 3: They got to like pay me for me to invest
Speaker 3: in them.
Speaker 6: For so obviously being a newer artist, what's it been
Speaker 6: like for you being accepted in this industry?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 5: Like, I feel like we came in with such a
Speaker 5: heat rock. It was like who is this girl? We
Speaker 5: love her? What's it been like for you just over
Speaker 5: this past year?
Speaker 19: Well, most people know I'm not a newer artist, like
Speaker 19: I've been out for like ten years. It's just I
Speaker 19: was like shelled. I had like a situation that wasn't
Speaker 19: right for me at the for a while, so nobody
Speaker 19: really knew my music like that. People just knew me,
Speaker 19: you know. So now I'm at the point where people
Speaker 19: are able to attach the face with the music and
Speaker 19: now they see like, oh, it's a real person.
Speaker 6: It's been a glass so ten years, yeah, they didn't
Speaker 6: know And now that what is that experience been?
Speaker 8: Like?
Speaker 13: Yo?
Speaker 19: Finally it feels like hard work pays off and it
Speaker 19: really just feels like you can never stop the motion,
Speaker 19: like it's always gonna be up and down motion.
Speaker 3: You just gotta find your motion.
Speaker 2: How is life for you these days? I know, like
Speaker 2: once you get up and running, everything comes at you
Speaker 2: and so many people hitting you up. It's hard to
Speaker 2: answer text messages like are you enjoying that? Because I
Speaker 2: already know you going through it because we go through it.
Speaker 3: Yo, is a question you just asked.
Speaker 19: That's a great question.
Speaker 2: Join out you feel guilty about Like that's the.
Speaker 19: Hardest part for me. It's like finding that balance of
Speaker 19: like I'm so busy and I love being busy, Like
Speaker 19: I would never not want to be as busy as
Speaker 19: I am now. But it's like finding sleep, find and eat,
Speaker 19: finding family, like those things are not being able to
Speaker 19: respond right away because it's like people think that I'm
Speaker 19: at the dispos on my.
Speaker 3: Phone and I do not have my phone nine times
Speaker 3: out of ten, so.
Speaker 19: You know, people take it's like everything gets people take
Speaker 19: it way more personal and they don't know what it's
Speaker 19: like on this life.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, on everything.
Speaker 8: Absolutely, pleasure get into you.
Speaker 2: Thank you for joining us, bro appreciate it. I said,
Speaker 2: thank you for joining I appreciate it.
Speaker 16: It's fun again, I ain't something like this, you know,
Speaker 16: in a minute. Even bringing the culture together the dude,
Speaker 16: you know, the pol taking the culture is different.
Speaker 2: So so we see you at a lot of different events.
Speaker 2: What's the what's the power of networking? A lot of
Speaker 2: times people artists, entertainers, entrepreneurs, they don't fully understand, Like
Speaker 2: even this room right here, right going around, you probably
Speaker 2: might not even want to do this, But what's the
Speaker 2: power of networking getting out there, making relationships, shaking hand
Speaker 2: things to that?
Speaker 16: Na shuld I think there's a simple beauty and collaboration,
Speaker 16: you know. However you can imagine that.
Speaker 8: Man.
Speaker 16: I feel like everybody's passion is like a puzzle piece,
Speaker 16: you know, so everybody gotta like somehow come together we
Speaker 16: make the picture, you know, and you never know who
Speaker 16: you might meet on any given day, you know. And
Speaker 16: I feel like, you know, obviously, bringing people together in
Speaker 16: one room, it's almost like a free for all, you know.
Speaker 16: So it's really about what you do with it. You know,
Speaker 16: you got to be a people person. You can't be
Speaker 16: you can't be shot, you can't be.
Speaker 15: Quiet.
Speaker 16: You know, speak up, you know, speak speak your truth,
Speaker 16: you know, speak your story, you know, and the rest
Speaker 16: is history.
Speaker 5: Yeah. Yeah, one of the things you spoke about is
Speaker 5: passions and so we've seen you with the music.
Speaker 6: Obviously that's one of your passions. But I think people
Speaker 6: have underrated you in the acting field. That's one of
Speaker 6: the things that you know, seeing you in power.
Speaker 5: What did you discover the power the passion for acting.
Speaker 16: I think growing up being exposed to so much at
Speaker 16: a young age, and that's just like traveling so many
Speaker 16: different places, being exposed to so many different cultures, like
Speaker 16: culture shocks, you know, which ultimately allows you to grow
Speaker 16: at a young age early, you know, and you're able
Speaker 16: to really like become a chameleon, you know, and so
Speaker 16: on top of who I am and my personality, you know,
Speaker 16: my mom always you know how they say, boy, you're
Speaker 16: a character. You know, like you say that every day
Speaker 16: for years. You know, eventually you become one, you know,
Speaker 16: but still you're you. And she was like, you know,
Speaker 16: they got to industry for that. But I would never
Speaker 16: really want to, you know, claim it up until obviously
Speaker 16: I was growing up and realize, oh, this is a
Speaker 16: space for me. Actually, I thought you had to just
Speaker 16: be like picked, you know, I ain't know you can
Speaker 16: actually like put yourself forward and you know, really do it.
Speaker 8: You know.
Speaker 15: Back then when she was telling me, So she's all
Speaker 15: about growing.
Speaker 8: You know what about legacy?
Speaker 7: Man? I feel like your family as a family of brothers,
Speaker 7: each one of you all have your own individual presence,
Speaker 7: but collectively y'all represent a legacy.
Speaker 8: You understand me.
Speaker 7: And I was just looking up some as far as like,
Speaker 7: you know, y'all do the dances and dancing it's one
Speaker 7: of the most spiritual rituals known to man. And y'all
Speaker 7: like bring energy and joy at the same time. And
Speaker 7: y'all representation. You understand me, y'all bring people together. What
Speaker 7: do you feel like just as a collective and as individual,
Speaker 7: what y'all represent for the culture as a family of
Speaker 7: like black men putting out that energy.
Speaker 15: You know, family is everything.
Speaker 16: Not to sound cliche, but you know, growing up you
Speaker 16: realize that importance, and you realize the unity and that
Speaker 16: and the power and that and where that could go.
Speaker 16: And then next thing, you know, friends become family, and
Speaker 16: then next thing you know, you know what I mean,
Speaker 16: it's that effect and nothing beats that. And I feel
Speaker 16: like whatever we want to do and apply that factor,
Speaker 16: it's a no brainer. You know, it's almost like an
Speaker 16: instant success, you know what I mean. It's almost founded
Speaker 16: off love, you know what I mean, unity, you know,
Speaker 16: but then spread with love and unity as well, you know,
Speaker 16: And I feel like that's the real you know, that's
Speaker 16: what brings us together.
Speaker 2: I feel like you're very talented with the music, acting
Speaker 2: through fashion. How do you know what to focus your
Speaker 2: energy on, because sometimes you can spread yourself too thin
Speaker 2: and be like all over the place. So how do
Speaker 2: you personally know? Like, this is what I'm doubling down
Speaker 2: on right now.
Speaker 16: You know, I'm big on timing, you know, And I
Speaker 16: feel like who I am as a person, who are
Speaker 16: who we are as people. We we go through different
Speaker 16: stages and where we want to get off what we
Speaker 16: feel like, you know, we want to put out, you know,
Speaker 16: into the world. And I feel like with me doing
Speaker 16: the act and me doing the music, sometimes it is
Speaker 16: hard to juggle. I like to say it balances itself.
Speaker 16: One doesn't really occupy the other. But then at the
Speaker 16: end of the day, I'm trying to bring it all
Speaker 16: together through my music. You're gonna hear the fashion in
Speaker 16: the music. You're gonna hear them the characters I'm playing
Speaker 16: in my music. I may can't go directly to that
Speaker 16: place but I can like perform it in a way
Speaker 16: where you know that character is, you know that person
Speaker 16: going through it. Right now, I'm over that, but I
Speaker 16: still want you to feel feel that. I felt like
Speaker 16: I need to make a song about it, you know.
Speaker 16: So it is you know, tough, you know, but then
Speaker 16: it balances itself out and that's rewarding. Everybody has their
Speaker 16: good days bad days, you know. I feel like that's
Speaker 16: the timing with almost like how I juggle, you know,
Speaker 16: the things I like to put my heart into.
Speaker 2: For sure.
Speaker 5: It's funny.
Speaker 6: Well, Kes, you brought up legacy, so I wonder sometimes
Speaker 6: you do you feel the pressure like obviously the siblings
Speaker 6: we know the family business, but do you feel pressure
Speaker 6: to continue the legacy.
Speaker 5: Or you more on that lane where you know what
Speaker 5: that is a legacy? I need to create my own
Speaker 5: step in this world? Is the pressure?
Speaker 16: There By default, I'm contributing to the legacy, you know,
Speaker 16: And I feel like that speaks volumes in itself. You know,
Speaker 16: I'm not running away from the legacy, so therefore it's
Speaker 16: only adding to it. And I feel like the extension
Speaker 16: of my brother and my sisters, even you know, they
Speaker 16: gonna go into a whole different industry that we ain't
Speaker 16: never seen.
Speaker 15: But it's not gonna be a separate legacy.
Speaker 16: That's gonna be an extension that's gonna just continue the
Speaker 16: legacy overall. So I think that's a beautiful thing about
Speaker 16: the family, Like you said, the unity and all and
Speaker 16: how we really pushing the culture and putting that first,
Speaker 16: you know what.
Speaker 7: About I'm saying what Snoop doing with his son and
Speaker 7: everything in a Web three space and the NFTs and everything.
Speaker 7: Do y'all have any projects y'all working on? You understand me?
Speaker 7: In that space to push things for it.
Speaker 16: We definitely been having all types of zooms, the log
Speaker 16: the knowledge behind it all, you know, especially with my Pops.
Speaker 15: You know, he really wants to know it, you know.
Speaker 16: So it's a constant learning experience, I think for him
Speaker 16: and all of us because he comes up with questions
Speaker 16: sometimes might stump us and we got to go back
Speaker 16: and you know, uh find two three different you know,
Speaker 16: variations of the answer, so he can really understand it.
Speaker 15: So it's just not one sided.
Speaker 16: And I respect him because he's made me like step
Speaker 16: my game up and then learned about the space too,
Speaker 16: because you know, it's very very very interesting. But until
Speaker 16: you can really grasp it, you know, that's when he
Speaker 16: really wants to then step foot in. We're definitely definitely
Speaker 16: he dodn'et cop the couple, you know, he cop the ab,
Speaker 16: he doesn't cop the punk, you know.
Speaker 15: So he's he's slow but sure in the space.
Speaker 8: And you know, we all are, like I.
Speaker 15: Said, about to become active.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, before.
Speaker 2: Before we rap, I just want to ask you, what's
Speaker 2: your plans going forward? What's on your five year ten
Speaker 2: year vision board.
Speaker 16: Well, you know, with the space of TV, film and music,
Speaker 16: I feel like that's the timeless industry that I want
Speaker 16: to just explore from a to Z.
Speaker 15: I haven't even activated anything.
Speaker 16: In my artistry shows, uh, touring, you know, so that's
Speaker 16: on the lighter end of things. But I want to
Speaker 16: travel more, you know, and really you know, step outside
Speaker 16: the box of you know, what I've done. I feel
Speaker 16: like the pandemic taught me a lot and there's a
Speaker 16: lot to be done, and it was a learning experience,
Speaker 16: you know, for me and a lot of people. But
Speaker 16: I think this next five is probably going to be
Speaker 16: the most exciting five years of my life, you know,
Speaker 16: especially you know, I'm thirty third level, you know, so
Speaker 16: it's almost like a real reset. So that road to
Speaker 16: thirty five is about to be a crazy one, Yo, it's.
Speaker 5: The coaches biggest night. Who you most excited to see?
Speaker 16: Man, I'm excited to see it because my pops has
Speaker 16: not let us come to rehearsals, and so I'm excited
Speaker 16: to see what.
Speaker 15: My pops, you know, cause he's in on some he's
Speaker 15: not in on some, so but we ain't in on none.
Speaker 7: So I mean that last question because your pops is interesting.
Speaker 7: He stays connected to what's going on. And I think
Speaker 7: I seen him one time it was somebody that was popping.
Speaker 7: It was like, well, I don't know about them, you understand, Mean,
Speaker 7: what's that process like of making sure, like do y'all
Speaker 7: bring people to him? His attention to make sure, Like, Yo,
Speaker 7: you got to stay interconnected so you don't lose grip
Speaker 7: of this.
Speaker 15: Absolutely. I like to say I bought him Drake before
Speaker 15: Drake dawayne Uh, he.
Speaker 8: Didn't get it.
Speaker 16: But beyond that, it's it's all about timing, you know,
Speaker 16: because sometimes he could be having a great day and
Speaker 16: you show him something and he like it, and it
Speaker 16: could be a bad day. You show him something great
Speaker 16: and he just not being the move for it. But
Speaker 16: it'd be something just as great as you need to hear.
Speaker 15: So I think we're just.
Speaker 16: Consistent on what we're passionate about, you know, putting in
Speaker 16: front of him. We know we ain't about to bring
Speaker 16: him no bs, or he knows we ain't about to
Speaker 16: bring him no bs, so he tries to take that
Speaker 16: into consideration first, like the saint, like listen to my mixtake.
Speaker 15: Listen to my mixtape. It ain't one of those.
Speaker 16: It's like, look, it's a reason I'm bringing this to you, pops.
Speaker 16: And I feel like he respects that. So we always
Speaker 16: on him, you know what I mean? He on us too,
Speaker 16: you know what I mean. He be putting us on
Speaker 16: like yo, you know this person, and we'd be like, wow,
Speaker 16: he beat us, he found him first.
Speaker 8: Yeah, yeah, now that's what's up.
Speaker 7: I work with my pops, like we'll do video content
Speaker 7: together and if people love it, and just that demonstration
Speaker 7: of like a son being able to work with they father,
Speaker 7: it's like legacy in the present, you understand me, not
Speaker 7: like let's remember what happened. But I think that's probably
Speaker 7: one of the most powerful demonstrations y'all have as a family.
Speaker 15: I appreciate that.
Speaker 16: We gonn promise to continue to keep that going most definitely,
Speaker 16: that's what it's about.
Speaker 2: Appreciate it. Thank you for the time we met a
Speaker 2: few times in passing, and one thing I'll say, your
Speaker 2: humility is definitely infectious. You just kind of get a
Speaker 2: vibe for a person. That's every time that I met you.
Speaker 2: You've just been super humble, super down the earl, super relatable,
Speaker 2: and that's something that you know we appreciate.
Speaker 15: So I appreciate y'all. I'm sure we don't have many
Speaker 15: more running.
Speaker 2: Too, so again, respect y'all. Taraji p Henson, thank you
Speaker 2: for joining us. I appreciate you for having me so
Speaker 2: icon it in the game, A true legend. How have
Speaker 2: you been able to navigate Hollywood and state relevant for
Speaker 2: almost for twenty years now, a little.
Speaker 11: Over twenty years.
Speaker 3: I haven't gotten rid of my real ones. I still
Speaker 3: have them.
Speaker 10: I have an incredible family that keeps me grounded, and
Speaker 10: I just understand what this is about, Like this artist
Speaker 10: bigger than me. It has like God gave this gift
Speaker 10: to me to share with the world and change and
Speaker 10: touch lives and that's what it's about. So for me,
Speaker 10: it's not really about the vanity. I mean, I like
Speaker 10: to be cute and stuff like that because I'm a
Speaker 10: girly girl. But at the end of the day, I
Speaker 10: understand my purpose and I know why I'm doing what
Speaker 10: I do.
Speaker 6: Let's talk about why we're all here BT Awards to
Speaker 6: celebrate us, to celebrate us, and they got the right
Speaker 6: person host, I think, so, yeah, So this is not
Speaker 6: your first time hosting in a debt, what can we
Speaker 6: expect from from the.
Speaker 5: Show this weekend?
Speaker 10: I think y'all gonna love this year's thing. So last
Speaker 10: year we focused on the queens, but you know, we
Speaker 10: ain't nothing with our y'all. So this this, yeah, because
Speaker 10: I know thise like a lot of times we like
Speaker 10: to make little jokes and stuff about the men, and
Speaker 10: I'm like, we can't do that. You know, they get
Speaker 10: beat up on enough in the world, right, So what
Speaker 10: we gonna do here is celebrate y'all. We celebrate you,
Speaker 10: lifting you up those that came before, those are here now,
Speaker 10: and just making aby sending you away with some hope
Speaker 10: cause this world.
Speaker 11: Looking for another country to move.
Speaker 8: I feel like that's perfect because I feel like that's
Speaker 8: the balance.
Speaker 7: Like I was talking with b about this earlier, so
Speaker 7: young black women put me on call soft life for
Speaker 7: women representing themselves softer instead of the images of women
Speaker 7: having to be hard and.
Speaker 8: Tough, and it's like, no, you deserve to just laugh
Speaker 8: and being your joy.
Speaker 7: And I feel like by lifting up men, they stand
Speaker 7: in that position so that women can be soft as
Speaker 7: they want to. You understand me what you feel about that,
Speaker 7: cause I feel like that goes into what you do
Speaker 7: with mental health.
Speaker 10: Well, you know, we are all carrying generational trauma that
Speaker 10: has been passed down to us that we don't we're
Speaker 10: not even aware of, and until we get the help
Speaker 10: and the healing that we need, we will be operating
Speaker 10: dysfunctionally until we pinpoint our past traumas and a lot
Speaker 10: of that stuff we don't even understand, cause it's just
Speaker 10: like I said, it's been handed down. Like I wondered
Speaker 10: one day, I'm really claustrophobic. I don't like being in
Speaker 10: tight spaces.
Speaker 5: This is before COVID.
Speaker 3: Now I really don't like I'm crazy, and I'm like,
Speaker 3: I get you out here, but I'm very clusophobic.
Speaker 10: And I remember I had to play a sledg runaway slave.
Speaker 10: You ain't a star unless you played one. But I
Speaker 10: remember they had to put me in this little compartment
Speaker 10: under a wagon, a horse wagon, and I just remember
Speaker 10: my body from Bulson. That's nothing that I that's not
Speaker 10: speaking on anything that I've experienced in my lifetime. That
Speaker 10: was clearly generational trauma from slavery. Cause what space have
Speaker 10: I been in to provoke that kind of feeling, you know?
Speaker 10: So my point is is that in things like the
Speaker 10: things that black people have, and this is what makes
Speaker 10: us so beautiful because you can oppress us. You can
Speaker 10: kill our sons, you can do take our children from us,
Speaker 10: take our husbands from us. Guess who We're gonna always
Speaker 10: tap into joy? We gonna find it. And that's that's
Speaker 10: who we are.
Speaker 3: And I love that about us.
Speaker 10: And it's unfortunate that we are oppressed, but that's the
Speaker 10: reason why we are because nobody can tap into this
Speaker 10: joy like we. It's in us. No matter what you
Speaker 10: try to do to us, we gonna make you feel better.
Speaker 10: That's a gift that we have, you know, And I
Speaker 10: think the enemy is mad.
Speaker 2: Let me ask you this. We have the VT awards,
Speaker 2: we can you're hosting. How is it How important is
Speaker 2: it for us to support DT Awards, Black Awards as
Speaker 2: opposed to BOYCOTTI and complaining about other awards and always
Speaker 2: saying that we're left out, we're not recognized, Like instead
Speaker 2: of focusing that energy, they're how important is it to
Speaker 2: focus our energy here?
Speaker 10: It's very important to focus our energy on us because
Speaker 10: we alway have but at the end of the day,
Speaker 10: we always need. Like that's why I did my deal
Speaker 10: with b Et. I'm sick of begging and can you
Speaker 10: please this story they need? When I brought my first story,
Speaker 10: Queenie the Godmother of Harlem, that nobody knows about but
Speaker 10: you know about Frank Gaston, you know I'm not Frank Lucas,
Speaker 10: and you know about Bumpy Johnson, but you don't know
Speaker 10: they came from her and she didn't even sell drugs.
Speaker 10: So when I took this story to be Et, I
Speaker 10: shopped it all over town. Nobody wanted it, and I'm like,
Speaker 10: that's because they don't really want our stories. You know,
Speaker 10: they really don't if the money's not they don't see numbers,
Speaker 10: they don't see how it can make them a profit.
Speaker 11: They don't care.
Speaker 10: And for me, I don't really care about the number
Speaker 10: or the money. I care about the story because some
Speaker 10: little black girls, some little brown boy needs to see themselves,
Speaker 10: you know, and needs to know this story. We need
Speaker 10: to know our history. They already taking it out of school.
Speaker 10: So that's why I signed with BT, because I'm sick
Speaker 10: and tired of begging and we don't need to beg
Speaker 10: Look at where we are, we have all about.
Speaker 11: Why are we still begging?
Speaker 10: And worried about what the Grammys and the Oscars and
Speaker 10: all of them do.
Speaker 3: They never wanted a thing.
Speaker 5: Anyway, except I mean, that's it. That's the freedom we're
Speaker 5: talking about.
Speaker 6: So at this point now, is that more of the
Speaker 6: focus writing stories that are authentic to us as opposed
Speaker 6: to acting in stories that you know, wy.
Speaker 10: You do what you gotta do to get where you
Speaker 10: need to be, and then you start making your own choice.
Speaker 10: You stop being a ball us and so that's you know.
Speaker 10: I'm at the position now where I create my own
Speaker 10: doors to open, I create my own scripts, I create.
Speaker 11: Jobs for other people.
Speaker 10: So I hope that's what everybody's paying attention.
Speaker 5: They're gonna watch you do it. I hope it becomes
Speaker 5: the inspiration.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I hope.
Speaker 2: So the last one was yours.
Speaker 7: It wasn't a question just wanting to give your flowers
Speaker 7: because I love what you're doing and everything you show
Speaker 7: your exercise, you show your mental health journey, you show
Speaker 7: your joy, you show the ups and downs of the pain.
Speaker 8: I think you showcased like a real person. Understand me.
Speaker 8: It's not one side, and I think that people need
Speaker 8: to see that. Understand me and so not.
Speaker 7: Like that's why I'm saying, it's not a strong black
Speaker 7: woman's a soft black woman.
Speaker 8: Understand me. And then that softness is your power. So
Speaker 8: I appreciate you, thank you.
Speaker 10: And I'm not afraid to be vulnerable because that's where
Speaker 10: the strength is.
Speaker 5: Being strong. I said, No, what I'm is when I'm really.
Speaker 10: Being strong because you're not afraid to identify.
Speaker 8: And that needs you to write me in a movie.
Speaker 5: I care.
Speaker 8: I ain't never been in a movie. You feel me,
Speaker 8: ain't never seen that la I got to too much shot.
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