WEBVTT - Rob Markman | ROC Solid w/ Memphis Bleek 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:02.080 What up, y'all? This is your main man, Memphis Bleak 0:00:02.200 --> 0:00:02.560 right here. 0:00:02.720 --> 0:00:05.840 Welcome to Rock Solid, a production of iHeart Radio and 0:00:05.880 --> 0:00:08.920 the Black Effect Network in partnership with my guys over 0:00:08.920 --> 0:00:21.520 at Drink Champs. 0:00:24.920 --> 0:00:26.880 Yeah yeah, you already know what it is, y'all. 0:00:26.920 --> 0:00:31.040 Yours truly am Greasy back with another exclusive episode of 0:00:31.120 --> 0:00:35.280 Rock Solid. This one right here, This that real journalism 0:00:35.360 --> 0:00:37.600 talk right here, that shit I was pretending to be. 0:00:37.920 --> 0:00:40.279 I'm about to study this guy right now. Why I'm 0:00:40.360 --> 0:00:43.199 interviewing him. I'm gonna steal something his shit and you're 0:00:43.200 --> 0:00:45.239 gonna see next episode and be like, yeah this raw 0:00:45.320 --> 0:00:48.080 Ma man Bleak, you know what I mean. I'm here. Nah, 0:00:48.159 --> 0:00:50.599 let's welcome my guy to the building. Raw Mark Man, 0:00:50.640 --> 0:00:53.560 one of the illests out here. Man with something, my guy. 0:00:53.880 --> 0:00:55.840 I'm good man. How you I can't complain? 0:00:55.960 --> 0:00:58.240 Man? Like yo, you one of the illness because not 0:00:58.400 --> 0:01:00.520 only do you do the journalism thing, but then you 0:01:00.560 --> 0:01:02.560 all saw a bar nigga down too. 0:01:02.560 --> 0:01:07.040 Like a little bit like a little bit like fucking 0:01:07.080 --> 0:01:09.759 no fucking around it up, You're a bar nigga up too, man. 0:01:09.959 --> 0:01:12.920 I respect what you've been doing everything, man, in both fields. 0:01:12.959 --> 0:01:14.920 You know what I mean, thank you, love you come love, 0:01:14.920 --> 0:01:17.120 your grind you come up. Everything you've been doing, my 0:01:17.200 --> 0:01:18.840 g thank you man. But let's do it. 0:01:18.920 --> 0:01:23.840 Let's do this before MTV, before Genius, before the interviews. 0:01:23.959 --> 0:01:26.480 Everything you've been doing before that hip hop you the 0:01:26.600 --> 0:01:27.520 raps you've been doing. 0:01:27.880 --> 0:01:30.840 What made you fall in love with hip hop? It 0:01:30.880 --> 0:01:32.920 wasn't a choice. It was like it was all around. 0:01:33.000 --> 0:01:34.840 Like I felt like I was boring into it, right, 0:01:34.880 --> 0:01:38.600 Like I I remember, like you know, I'm an eighties baby, 0:01:38.640 --> 0:01:41.960 so it's right coming outside, actually seeing graffiti on the train, 0:01:42.480 --> 0:01:46.520 actually like going to block parties and park jams and 0:01:46.560 --> 0:01:48.640 seeing you know, the big boom box on the street 0:01:48.680 --> 0:01:51.880 and hearing the music and remembering the adults saying, oh, 0:01:51.920 --> 0:01:54.920 that ain't real music. This ain't gonna last. But I'm 0:01:54.960 --> 0:01:58.240 six years old going to school, you know, first grade, 0:01:58.320 --> 0:02:02.080 Lotti Dottie is out talk about it and Daddy and 0:02:02.120 --> 0:02:03.960 wrapping that in the school yard, Like you had to 0:02:03.960 --> 0:02:05.600 come to school and be able to get through the 0:02:05.640 --> 0:02:07.280 whole verse, and your man had to be able to 0:02:07.320 --> 0:02:09.840 keep the beat box going right like like you know, 0:02:09.919 --> 0:02:12.000 slip rip was my first goat before I knew where 0:02:12.000 --> 0:02:14.160 the goat was mine too, you know what I'm saying, 0:02:14.280 --> 0:02:16.200 fact storytelling, yea. 0:02:16.680 --> 0:02:19.639 Watching the videos, it was just like you can life 0:02:20.480 --> 0:02:21.880 like art depict in life. 0:02:22.160 --> 0:02:24.680 Yeah, so when people say when you full love it 0:02:25.120 --> 0:02:27.720 as soon as I stepped outside, as soon as my 0:02:27.720 --> 0:02:29.600 my mom's let me go out the house, because it 0:02:29.639 --> 0:02:31.320 was all around us, you know what I'm saying, right, 0:02:31.680 --> 0:02:35.160 And I knew from an early age I wanted to 0:02:35.200 --> 0:02:37.280 be involved in hip hop. And then you know, I 0:02:37.720 --> 0:02:41.600 get old enough twelve, thirteen, fourteen, and I'm copping the 0:02:41.639 --> 0:02:43.440 source and I'm reading it and I'm like, oh, we 0:02:43.520 --> 0:02:45.760 actually get to document and tell these stories or come 0:02:45.760 --> 0:02:48.840 home and watch video music Box and get to see 0:02:48.840 --> 0:02:50.720 your favorite wrapping. 0:02:51.240 --> 0:02:53.840 Daniels man, the real first one in the middle of 0:02:53.880 --> 0:02:54.560 the trenches. 0:02:54.639 --> 0:02:57.880 Yeah, documenting it man, Fab five, Freddie, Rolph McDaniel's like 0:02:57.960 --> 0:02:59.840 real pioneers. Like when I look at me as a 0:03:00.160 --> 0:03:03.200 somebody who documents the culture, I look at them, the 0:03:03.200 --> 0:03:07.520 Fab five Freddy's, the Ralph McDaniels, and then probably Angie 0:03:07.800 --> 0:03:11.040 Martinez and Sweat. My biggest niggas don't know. 0:03:11.160 --> 0:03:14.799 Fab five Freddy is a real g I'd have been 0:03:14.840 --> 0:03:16.800 in some black block meetings. 0:03:16.400 --> 0:03:18.920 With niggas like yo, were meeting up, they strapping up 0:03:18.960 --> 0:03:19.960 and he is like. 0:03:22.200 --> 0:03:27.680 Doing he was tapped in. What's the like, did you 0:03:27.760 --> 0:03:29.919 always know you wanted to be a journalist. 0:03:30.200 --> 0:03:33.040 Like nah, I didn't think it was a I think 0:03:33.080 --> 0:03:35.000 it was option anything, want no money in it, Like 0:03:35.400 --> 0:03:38.839 I always enjoy writing, And I think that's that's where 0:03:38.840 --> 0:03:41.160 the rapping part came from me. I'm twelve, thirteen years old, 0:03:41.160 --> 0:03:43.960 Penny going outside kicking my moms lunch room, kicking my 0:03:44.000 --> 0:03:47.960 moms open mics at the New Yorakan Poe Cafe, in clubs, 0:03:47.960 --> 0:03:49.560 I was probably too young to get into in front 0:03:49.600 --> 0:03:53.360 of fat beasts battling people, and that was the ship 0:03:53.360 --> 0:03:55.800 and all of that, But it's not from being the writer. 0:03:55.880 --> 0:03:58.400 And I always love to read and I love to write, 0:03:59.520 --> 0:04:01.280 but I never felt like I was like, I'm not 0:04:01.280 --> 0:04:03.360 gonna get the time, like the New York Times not 0:04:03.360 --> 0:04:05.320 gonna want me, Like I'm not gonna fit in at 0:04:05.320 --> 0:04:07.400 the New York Times. And I didn't think you could 0:04:07.440 --> 0:04:10.800 actually make a career writing and documenting hip hop like 0:04:10.840 --> 0:04:12.560 for the Source. It just hadn't occurred to me that 0:04:12.560 --> 0:04:15.000 that was a way to actually make money. If he's 0:04:15.200 --> 0:04:18.440 jamming and it kind of just happened. Like step by step, 0:04:18.480 --> 0:04:23.240 I started as a freelancer, you know, a dollar word 0:04:23.279 --> 0:04:25.880 writing album reviews. My first album review I ever wrote 0:04:25.960 --> 0:04:26.200 was for. 0:04:26.200 --> 0:04:30.640 Jada Kiss his second album, That's Crazy Man sut Jada 0:04:31.160 --> 0:04:33.280 Jadalls in New York. Yeah. Man. 0:04:33.400 --> 0:04:37.039 So so when I saw the check from that, you know, 0:04:37.640 --> 0:04:39.719 it was bigger than the check that I was getting 0:04:39.720 --> 0:04:41.560 from from doing little shows or whatever. 0:04:42.000 --> 0:04:45.240 So it just like like, hold on, I'm over here 0:04:45.360 --> 0:04:46.400 down right now. 0:04:46.520 --> 0:04:50.839 Who what next album you need me to talk about? Right? So, so, 0:04:51.200 --> 0:04:53.760 a little by little, I built up my freelance reputation 0:04:53.880 --> 0:04:55.560 and it led to a to a full time gig 0:04:55.600 --> 0:04:58.040 at Double XL. That's what I was in the game too. 0:04:58.080 --> 0:04:59.520 I was gonna ask you who gave you your real 0:04:59.560 --> 0:05:02.560 first job opportunity to cover hip hop professionally. 0:05:03.240 --> 0:05:06.320 A brother by name of Tim Hotap, who I grew 0:05:06.360 --> 0:05:08.479 up with. We went in to high school together, and 0:05:09.760 --> 0:05:12.839 he started working for Complex when Complex was a magazine 0:05:12.839 --> 0:05:16.279 still and we went to school together, so he knew 0:05:16.279 --> 0:05:17.760 I could write, and he knew I just knew a 0:05:17.760 --> 0:05:20.120 ship turn about hip hop. So he was like, man, 0:05:20.160 --> 0:05:23.320 I need you to write this Jada Kiss album review? Yo, 0:05:23.400 --> 0:05:25.279 could you go up to Young because my biggest problem 0:05:25.360 --> 0:05:26.800 was like, how the fuck am I gonna get the 0:05:26.839 --> 0:05:29.080 Young That's a fact. He was like, nah, and the 0:05:29.120 --> 0:05:31.040 Scope gonna send you a car to call, gonna wait 0:05:31.080 --> 0:05:31.880 for you to take you back. 0:05:32.040 --> 0:05:35.560 I say easy, and y'all gonna pay me word, Let's 0:05:35.600 --> 0:05:37.480 do it. So we went up the D Block studio. 0:05:37.960 --> 0:05:39.599 It was the second out to Kiss of Death. So 0:05:40.240 --> 0:05:43.200 Kiss is there. I remember Kiss. I remember Jen was there. 0:05:43.240 --> 0:05:45.640 You remember Gen from one on sixth in part. 0:05:45.960 --> 0:05:46.839 Gin was nice. 0:05:46.960 --> 0:05:49.360 Jin was nice and it was nice niggas tried to 0:05:49.440 --> 0:05:51.240 front on Gin and he a free stylus. 0:05:51.360 --> 0:05:53.479 That's my guy. He was signed the Rough Riders at 0:05:53.480 --> 0:05:55.359 that time. So I remember going to the studio. Kiss 0:05:55.400 --> 0:05:57.800 was there. He plays the album and I'm hearing songs 0:05:57.800 --> 0:05:59.800 like why for the first time, like the first time 0:05:59.800 --> 0:06:01.880 I or why I'm getting chills. 0:06:02.040 --> 0:06:06.200 I'm like this this is a crazy record. 0:06:06.480 --> 0:06:08.880 So so yeah, did that, wrote up the album review, 0:06:08.960 --> 0:06:11.400 they published it in Complex and and and they sent 0:06:11.440 --> 0:06:14.920 me a check. After that, boy magazine called was like, Yo, 0:06:15.040 --> 0:06:16.960 can you do this ghost face review? And the source 0:06:17.000 --> 0:06:19.360 call was like yo, we heard you, was the Yo, 0:06:19.400 --> 0:06:21.279 can you write for us? So I was free. I 0:06:21.320 --> 0:06:23.839 was working in the mail room in the city crazy. 0:06:23.880 --> 0:06:27.280 I tell you a funnier story, working in a place 0:06:27.320 --> 0:06:31.039 called Delia's. It's a course center, a mail room. A 0:06:31.080 --> 0:06:34.160 lot of underground New York rap immortal technique used to 0:06:34.200 --> 0:06:37.640 work there. Poisoned pain used to work damn. Back in 0:06:37.680 --> 0:06:41.599 the day. A Mil used to be our supervisor. Yo, 0:06:42.080 --> 0:06:46.920 she was real life. Mill was the customer service supervisor. 0:06:46.920 --> 0:06:48.560 It was a spot in New York. Like everybody in 0:06:48.560 --> 0:06:50.920 New York work. She definitely let your niggas do whatever 0:06:50.960 --> 0:06:55.800 because a Mil was the she was always chill. So 0:06:55.800 --> 0:06:58.240 A Mill used to work there, and then all of 0:06:58.240 --> 0:07:00.520 a sudden that she wasn't working it no more. It 0:07:00.560 --> 0:07:02.599 was like that, why I'm no a mail We turned 0:07:02.600 --> 0:07:07.279 on MTV. She with y'all. Yo. For me, that was 0:07:07.320 --> 0:07:10.680 some of the biggest motivation, just because it's like, Yo, 0:07:10.800 --> 0:07:14.560 she was just here and now she's there, and it showed, oh, 0:07:14.640 --> 0:07:17.000 this this is possible, like we could get into this game. 0:07:17.080 --> 0:07:19.240 Like her voice was ill. 0:07:19.320 --> 0:07:21.680 But yo, you're bringing up a mail break back some 0:07:21.800 --> 0:07:24.280 stories because it was supposed to be a group. If 0:07:24.320 --> 0:07:28.840 you remember, you know why Major Coins never got signed 0:07:28.840 --> 0:07:31.920 and it just was a mill because they couldn't dance 0:07:31.960 --> 0:07:35.760 and rap at the scene. You gotta figure out out. 0:07:35.760 --> 0:07:40.040 You gotta get some choreography. They had in the studio like, yo, 0:07:40.080 --> 0:07:42.480 were about to do this show. Let's see how y'all 0:07:42.520 --> 0:07:44.760 gonna do it. So they playing the music like yo, 0:07:44.880 --> 0:07:48.080 y'all gotta dance and ad live behind a male verse 0:07:48.240 --> 0:07:49.160 or can I get up? 0:07:50.560 --> 0:07:53.040 It was over front. 0:07:53.400 --> 0:07:58.480 They had to get them there. The choreography. That is 0:07:58.480 --> 0:08:00.680 the story of major Coins. That's that's why I just 0:08:00.880 --> 0:08:02.960 was a mill because she got it together. 0:08:03.200 --> 0:08:05.520 But but you know, I tell that story on some 0:08:07.240 --> 0:08:09.680 man give her her props just being a dude from Brooklyn, 0:08:09.760 --> 0:08:12.800 like you know, like like I'm from flat But so 0:08:12.840 --> 0:08:13.880 we had special ed. 0:08:14.120 --> 0:08:15.840 But it's not like I knew special Ed. I was 0:08:15.880 --> 0:08:20.040 a kid and whatever. But dog with a solid gold ball, 0:08:21.040 --> 0:08:22.280 nobody knew what I'm saying. 0:08:24.520 --> 0:08:26.040 So that was that was the first one though that 0:08:26.080 --> 0:08:27.840 it was like really close, that it was right there 0:08:27.960 --> 0:08:30.160 and you know, just start kicking in the door a 0:08:30.160 --> 0:08:33.120 little bit and seeing that this thing is possible. Motivation. Yeah, man. 0:08:33.200 --> 0:08:37.520 Then MTV News one of the places, you know, fans 0:08:37.559 --> 0:08:39.600 get to hear all the stories all that shit. You 0:08:39.640 --> 0:08:41.720 know what I mean, what made that era of music 0:08:41.800 --> 0:08:43.200 journalism so special for you? 0:08:43.520 --> 0:08:47.080 For me, it was that's when I went from a 0:08:47.120 --> 0:08:50.520 writer because I was in the magazine you might just 0:08:50.520 --> 0:08:53.560 see my name, you see my boto line. And I 0:08:53.559 --> 0:08:55.640 got to MTV to write. So it's digital. So so 0:08:55.760 --> 0:08:58.680 now the frequency instead of me writing in the magazine 0:08:58.720 --> 0:09:01.520 that comes out once a month, when the MT behind me, 0:09:01.559 --> 0:09:04.520 they said, yo, we want you to write. You gotta 0:09:04.520 --> 0:09:09.760 write four articles a day. Oh I was writing. It 0:09:09.840 --> 0:09:11.079 was just I was like the end of I could 0:09:11.080 --> 0:09:12.640 write in and put it out right in and putting 0:09:12.640 --> 0:09:16.120 it out seven joints to day. I'm about two weeks there. 0:09:17.520 --> 0:09:20.000 And I mean, sway shout out. 0:09:20.400 --> 0:09:23.880 One of the coolest, coolest DJs ever in the world. 0:09:23.920 --> 0:09:26.800 Man just wanted one of the realist dudes. And he 0:09:26.920 --> 0:09:28.640 was like, yo, I like you. He was just like, yo, 0:09:28.720 --> 0:09:32.280 you you're gonna have a shot to be on camera 0:09:32.440 --> 0:09:34.120 like and and I think I think you could be 0:09:34.160 --> 0:09:39.200 like a personality in this game. Is that something you want? 0:09:39.320 --> 0:09:41.120 And I'm like, yeah, I tried. He was like, I 0:09:41.360 --> 0:09:44.679 just you know, stay closed, pay attention. Can't tell you 0:09:44.720 --> 0:09:46.520 when I can't tell you how, but you're gonna get 0:09:46.520 --> 0:09:49.319 a shot, and so the MTV the thing that made 0:09:49.360 --> 0:09:53.400 a specialist one. I'm working right beside the guy that 0:09:53.440 --> 0:09:55.920 I looked up to and this thing with Sway, and 0:09:55.960 --> 0:09:57.520 he's talking about he gonna give me a shot, And 0:09:57.760 --> 0:09:59.880 it changed my career. It took me from a right 0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:03.199 there to a personality to more of a known journalist. 0:10:03.280 --> 0:10:04.800 So it kind of just shed more light on me 0:10:04.840 --> 0:10:07.040 and I got to learn production and and and how 0:10:07.120 --> 0:10:09.760 cameras work and all of that. So on TV was 0:10:09.800 --> 0:10:10.400 a special time. 0:10:10.679 --> 0:10:14.000 Yo, Sway, the realists man, Sway Water, the beanie whatever 0:10:14.040 --> 0:10:16.080 he had he wore in the White House. 0:10:16.240 --> 0:10:20.960 Yeah, I never saw him with listen, man, we don't. 0:10:20.960 --> 0:10:22.840 We don't been on trips side of town. We done. 0:10:23.200 --> 0:10:28.360 I never seen Sway without the crown man at the 0:10:28.440 --> 0:10:30.880 White House. But that's what's dope about hip hop, right, 0:10:30.920 --> 0:10:32.599 It's like, Yo, we could and I remember that that 0:10:32.760 --> 0:10:34.439 I wanted to go. But again I'm I'm I'm a 0:10:34.440 --> 0:10:38.280 little homie. So not everybody everybody shout out ben Ney 0:10:38.320 --> 0:10:41.679 the Butcher body. Everybody can't. But but Sway still called 0:10:41.760 --> 0:10:43.400 me that. Yo. Listen man, we're going to the White 0:10:43.440 --> 0:10:47.520 House like the night before. Yo, if you got a 0:10:47.640 --> 0:10:50.520 question let me know, let me know, shoot me the 0:10:50.600 --> 0:10:53.120 question and I working. So he asked one of my 0:10:53.280 --> 0:10:55.559 questions to the president. So I felt like we was 0:10:55.600 --> 0:10:59.000 both there right, but he still made me a part 0:10:59.040 --> 0:11:01.800 of it without being a part of it. And what 0:11:01.880 --> 0:11:04.600 that showed me though, is like, Yo, we could show 0:11:04.679 --> 0:11:07.559 up anywhere as authentic selves being a hip hop That's right, 0:11:07.559 --> 0:11:08.880 you know what I'm saying. I know you see it 0:11:08.920 --> 0:11:12.760 with with like whole in these ballrooms, like walking as whole. 0:11:13.000 --> 0:11:15.520 That's one thing he preached, man, you walking as yourself. 0:11:15.600 --> 0:11:17.800 You don't change for the room. You changed the room. 0:11:18.320 --> 0:11:20.040 So that that's what Sway showed me. 0:11:20.280 --> 0:11:26.040 But you interviewed everybody man from J Kendrake, Nas Drake, everybody. 0:11:26.240 --> 0:11:28.680 Is it one interview to you that you just stands 0:11:28.720 --> 0:11:29.720 out above all? 0:11:30.120 --> 0:11:36.040 Oh? Man? Probably my Kendrick interview twenty fifteen Kendrick to 0:11:36.160 --> 0:11:39.839 Pimp a Butterfly interview. Because we were just talking. I 0:11:39.840 --> 0:11:42.920 didn't even know that interview was good. Like when we 0:11:42.960 --> 0:11:44.640 walked out, people was like how they go. I was like, 0:11:45.000 --> 0:11:47.440 because it was just two dudes talk, I couldn't even gauge. 0:11:47.679 --> 0:11:49.560 I know I enjoyed the conversation. I ain't know how 0:11:49.600 --> 0:11:52.520 it's going to resonate and that that that's the interview 0:11:52.559 --> 0:11:55.280 that people still come up to me and they have 0:11:55.480 --> 0:11:58.880 like an emotional connection to it because we I mean, 0:11:58.880 --> 0:12:01.040 we were talking about music and to Pimper Butterfly, but we 0:12:01.080 --> 0:12:05.199 was talking about real shit like leaving the hood survivors guilt, right, 0:12:05.280 --> 0:12:07.880 like being able to tour the world and back home 0:12:07.920 --> 0:12:09.720 your peoples are still going through the same thing, and 0:12:09.760 --> 0:12:13.240 you want to take everything you learn about the world 0:12:14.080 --> 0:12:15.760 and give it to your people back home, but are 0:12:15.760 --> 0:12:18.080 they ready for the message and stuff. So it was 0:12:18.080 --> 0:12:21.680 a real deep conversation, in real life conversation, and that's 0:12:21.720 --> 0:12:23.640 the one that even though these years later, people still 0:12:23.640 --> 0:12:25.360 come up to me and was like, nah, like that 0:12:25.520 --> 0:12:25.959 was the one. 0:12:26.360 --> 0:12:30.559 And now Kendrick or everybody man like between j Drake, Kendrake, 0:12:31.080 --> 0:12:34.240 all them niggas is dominating and they feel respectively great 0:12:34.280 --> 0:12:36.680 at what they do. Man, Like you know what I mean, 0:12:36.800 --> 0:12:39.800 Like that Drake and Kendrick shit does shift the hip 0:12:39.840 --> 0:12:40.439 hop for me. 0:12:40.920 --> 0:12:44.280 You know, it's like the Godfather's scene when he's like, yo, man, 0:12:44.280 --> 0:12:47.240 it's like you need this every ten years. It clears 0:12:47.240 --> 0:12:51.240 the bad blood, Like you know, I think it's dope 0:12:51.320 --> 0:12:55.480 that because hip hop is competitive, right, and it's always been. 0:12:56.240 --> 0:12:59.440 I think it's dope that we see Drake being able 0:12:59.480 --> 0:13:01.880 to bounce back, be able to drop an album like Iceman, 0:13:01.960 --> 0:13:05.319 and it's like, oh, he ain't done, Like what happened happened, but. 0:13:05.280 --> 0:13:08.680 It's still hits to be mad exactly. So so you know, 0:13:08.800 --> 0:13:11.000 get back to the let's get back to the schedule. 0:13:10.679 --> 0:13:12.760 Program, right And look, I know, I know it was 0:13:13.640 --> 0:13:16.160 a lot more personal for them and they and they 0:13:16.240 --> 0:13:18.320 going through it, but but but I'm happy to see 0:13:18.840 --> 0:13:21.480 that they still get to him carry hip hop on. 0:13:21.600 --> 0:13:24.040 Drake still get to be Drake, Kendrick still get to 0:13:24.040 --> 0:13:26.800 be Kendrick. We saw something that entertained us. Like I said, 0:13:26.800 --> 0:13:29.480 I don't know how entertaining a wife it was going 0:13:29.480 --> 0:13:30.760 through it, but it is. 0:13:30.760 --> 0:13:32.600 Man, We've been in the middle of a war like 0:13:32.640 --> 0:13:34.199 that with nas, you know what I'm saying. 0:13:34.200 --> 0:13:37.280 And now and now you know, he came out on 0:13:37.400 --> 0:13:40.319 Yankee Stadium with a Darren Strawberry justice what I'm saying. 0:13:40.440 --> 0:13:44.840 So I don't think that'll happened, and I don't see 0:13:44.840 --> 0:13:47.439 that happening, But did you ever think that would happen 0:13:47.480 --> 0:13:49.240 in the in the midst of it, in the heat 0:13:49.280 --> 0:13:51.920 of it, did you ever think Jane Knives wouldever reconcile? 0:13:52.040 --> 0:13:56.560 Honestly, no, yeah, no, it was just as disrespectful as that. 0:13:57.600 --> 0:14:00.320 I believe so like, and I would have never I 0:14:00.320 --> 0:14:04.200 would have never thought, Ja'll be ad libbit for Knaves 0:14:04.280 --> 0:14:06.360 and knadser be ad libit for Jay and they'll be 0:14:06.400 --> 0:14:10.360 rhyming over each other beat and Yankee Stadium crazy. That's 0:14:10.360 --> 0:14:12.920 that's not even something you could draw up and be like, yeah, 0:14:13.000 --> 0:14:16.120 this is gonna happen one day. I picture it like 0:14:16.520 --> 0:14:20.000 Yankee Stadium was just so surreal for me in general, 0:14:20.160 --> 0:14:26.280 just because remember thirty years ago, reasonable doubt drop. Thirty 0:14:26.400 --> 0:14:28.840 three years ago, we was in a basement of Clark 0:14:28.920 --> 0:14:31.800 Kent House, rest in peace. 0:14:31.160 --> 0:14:31.720 You know what I mean. 0:14:32.240 --> 0:14:34.600 And Jay ripped a piece of paper out of a 0:14:34.640 --> 0:14:36.680 notebook and gave it to me and said, as fast 0:14:36.720 --> 0:14:40.120 as you remember that papers, as fast as your life change, 0:14:40.360 --> 0:14:44.040 here we are as the results of life changing from 0:14:44.080 --> 0:14:46.720 that sheet of paper. It's like so standing there in 0:14:46.840 --> 0:14:50.800 Yankee Stadium, it hit me like last thirty years, everything 0:14:50.840 --> 0:14:53.920 we've been through, everything is just hit me like life flash, 0:14:54.040 --> 0:15:01.560 Like wow, that's important, man, because like hip hop is 0:15:01.600 --> 0:15:03.960 more than just all wins, right, Like like it is, 0:15:04.040 --> 0:15:06.920 it's the journey to me, Like I'm at the same 0:15:06.960 --> 0:15:09.520 way you. So you watching Yankee Stadium, but you remember 0:15:09.560 --> 0:15:12.720 Clark's Basement where it started. I'm watching this guy up 0:15:12.720 --> 0:15:15.920 there and watching y'all up there, and I'm a stretching 0:15:15.920 --> 0:15:16.240 by beat. 0:15:16.240 --> 0:15:18.960 Okay. I used to listen to we all did, like 0:15:19.480 --> 0:15:22.400 the Big L freestyle. I was listening live that night 0:15:22.400 --> 0:15:26.160 when it happened and going back to school the next day, Yoe, 0:15:26.880 --> 0:15:29.720 and and I'm like, I remember, I can't get with that, 0:15:30.280 --> 0:15:32.640 you know what I'm saying. I remember the original. 0:15:32.160 --> 0:15:35.600 With that in my life, shooting that video. 0:15:35.320 --> 0:15:39.600 On Marshie right, and so it's like, yo, from that 0:15:40.400 --> 0:15:42.840 to this. Even I asked Greul about this because even 0:15:44.040 --> 0:15:46.120 in one of the end of Louse, they was playing 0:15:46.120 --> 0:15:47.800 the Milk Won't Beat the beat that him a Big 0:15:47.960 --> 0:15:50.320 L rapped over, and I thought he was gonna come 0:15:50.320 --> 0:15:53.960 out and perform that. I said, Yankee Stadium, do these, 0:15:54.400 --> 0:15:56.280 but it was it was a dope nod to the jazz, 0:15:56.480 --> 0:15:58.800 is what I'm saying. So we could celebrate the wins, 0:15:58.840 --> 0:16:02.000 but you still got to celebrate where it started. You 0:16:02.080 --> 0:16:03.840 know what I'm saying all the time, you can never 0:16:03.880 --> 0:16:04.960 forget where it started. 0:16:05.080 --> 0:16:07.360 Never, man, because that's why I always feel like the 0:16:07.440 --> 0:16:11.080 journey make you enjoy the win even more like, because 0:16:11.320 --> 0:16:14.760 the journey it's worth it, man, at the end of 0:16:14.800 --> 0:16:18.000 the day's worth it all the nose, all the doors closed, 0:16:18.360 --> 0:16:21.520 all the U turns, all the We can't carry that 0:16:21.640 --> 0:16:24.960 album in this store all the when I'm riding on 0:16:25.040 --> 0:16:29.040 top of the Humma and myth Bleakers MTV. We can't 0:16:29.080 --> 0:16:33.080 show that do influencing kids. All of that matters to 0:16:33.320 --> 0:16:35.720 where we are today. Like I love it man, like 0:16:36.040 --> 0:16:38.280 it's just like you. Like it leads to my next question, 0:16:38.400 --> 0:16:40.840 like you spend years document and hip hop bro like 0:16:41.080 --> 0:16:45.080 making it Like what have artists taught you about the 0:16:45.160 --> 0:16:47.760 culture that fans rarely get to see? 0:16:48.480 --> 0:16:53.359 Hmm, that's a good question. That is more than just entertainment. 0:16:54.640 --> 0:16:56.560 And you know, look, I knew that because at the 0:16:56.560 --> 0:16:59.000 same time, though I document it and I'm known for 0:16:59.080 --> 0:17:01.840 documenting it, like I come from it. We come from 0:17:01.840 --> 0:17:05.159 the same. I'm from Flatbush, Brooklyn like me, and you know, 0:17:05.280 --> 0:17:09.639 VOP I grew up around the corner Germ around the 0:17:09.640 --> 0:17:12.960 corner too, grew up around the corner, like, so I'm 0:17:12.960 --> 0:17:16.359 from you know what I'm saying. I might have just 0:17:16.400 --> 0:17:18.360 went a different route than some of the people on 0:17:18.400 --> 0:17:22.080 my block, but but we're all doing it. So it's 0:17:22.080 --> 0:17:24.679 more than just entertainment. I think, especially now when this 0:17:24.840 --> 0:17:30.520 era of you know, social media, people feel like fans 0:17:30.520 --> 0:17:32.560 feel like they could say anything. A lot of people 0:17:32.600 --> 0:17:34.879 talk real crazy and feel like they could say anything. 0:17:34.880 --> 0:17:37.080 But these are people. Yes, these are entertainers, but these 0:17:37.080 --> 0:17:41.439 are people's real lives. And when I documented, you know, 0:17:41.800 --> 0:17:44.840 I strive to document the real Like where did this 0:17:44.880 --> 0:17:46.800 come from? What made you write that? What's the real 0:17:46.840 --> 0:17:50.040 story behind it? Yes, it's dope to us, but then 0:17:51.880 --> 0:17:54.920 nine nine, ten times, ten times came from pain. That's 0:17:54.960 --> 0:17:57.640 the fact. So let's not lose that fact. We ain't 0:17:57.800 --> 0:17:59.000 up here just singing and dance. 0:17:59.040 --> 0:18:01.160 So we got real story to tell, and we got 0:18:01.160 --> 0:18:03.000 to tell these stories the right way because you've seen 0:18:03.359 --> 0:18:05.199 I don't know, if you, Pete, all the work that 0:18:05.240 --> 0:18:09.640 we did at MTV. MTV took all their content offline, 0:18:10.480 --> 0:18:13.720 or all the articles that that I've written that Shah 0:18:13.760 --> 0:18:16.399 he ain't read, has written that that that all the 0:18:16.440 --> 0:18:19.680 interviews that Sway has done Jason Rodriguez like all, it 0:18:20.200 --> 0:18:21.680 don't exist online anymore. 0:18:21.840 --> 0:18:22.320 Way. 0:18:22.400 --> 0:18:26.080 Yeah, so that and look, I got interviews with with 0:18:26.240 --> 0:18:26.960 Nipsey Hustle. 0:18:27.359 --> 0:18:29.000 That's crazy, one hundred dollars mixed. 0:18:29.119 --> 0:18:31.280 Well guess what man, rest in Piece, Nips, Nip ain't 0:18:31.280 --> 0:18:32.600 here to tell the story no more. 0:18:32.840 --> 0:18:36.440 Yeah, that's crazy. I got interviews with Mac Miller, rest 0:18:36.520 --> 0:18:37.080 in Piece. 0:18:36.960 --> 0:18:39.400 And Piece mc miller. I got a song with mac 0:18:39.400 --> 0:18:41.560 Miller that we never got the job. I don't even 0:18:41.640 --> 0:18:43.919 have it. He told me about it. He told me 0:18:43.960 --> 0:18:47.280 about it. That was my dog for real, the god yeah. 0:18:47.480 --> 0:18:48.600 World, I'm so sick. 0:18:48.640 --> 0:18:52.520 I ain't get a copy. I'm gonna see if I'm 0:18:52.520 --> 0:18:54.000 I'm gonna reach out. I gonna se if I find 0:18:54.119 --> 0:18:54.840 if I could find it. 0:18:55.640 --> 0:18:57.840 But but you know, when you think about the ones 0:18:57.840 --> 0:19:01.520 who want here anymore, especially everybody, but the ones like 0:19:01.600 --> 0:19:03.159 nipp is not here to tell the story. But we 0:19:03.240 --> 0:19:06.400 documented the time in Nip's career, we documented the time 0:19:06.400 --> 0:19:09.840 in Macnella's career, and now it's offline. I get it. 0:19:09.960 --> 0:19:12.640