Speaker 1: Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio One.
Speaker 2: I'm QLs listeners and viewers. I see you, Actually I don't.
Speaker 2: But anyway, we are back with Part two of Quest
Speaker 2: Love Supremes episode with DJ Drama. Now don't forget. This
Speaker 2: was filmed on location in Atlanta, Georgia, and we recorded
Speaker 2: this episode in TI Studio, which is really a dope spot.
Speaker 2: So make sure you've watched or listened to part one.
Speaker 2: That's where Drama, you know, my Homide from CAU talks
Speaker 2: about his Philly upbringing, his respect for Questlove and the
Speaker 2: roots and making critical inroads with TI and GZ and
Speaker 2: Fini at driving Atlanta. All right, y'all, let's get ready.
Speaker 2: Here we go with part two.
Speaker 1: As a mixtape. DJ, you're locking it down.
Speaker 3: But as far as now, when you're DJing in clubs,
Speaker 3: if I'm hiring you to DJ a party in two
Speaker 3: thousand and six, two thousand and seven, how long, like
Speaker 3: how long is your set? And are you doing just
Speaker 3: exclusive stuff that is exclusive to you or are you
Speaker 3: still just like doing regularly DJ stuff?
Speaker 4: And so really what wound up happening was around that time,
Speaker 4: I actually wasn't doing a lot of gigs because I
Speaker 4: then became DJ Drama and I went literally from getting
Speaker 4: paid three hundred dollars from doing parties in Atlanta to
Speaker 4: them not being able to afford me. And then I
Speaker 4: was also tips DJ, so I was on the road,
Speaker 4: so I didn't really I wasn't doing a lot of
Speaker 4: my own gigs. I would I would here and there,
Speaker 4: I would I would get hired, but I would probably
Speaker 4: do like a two hour set and I would you know,
Speaker 4: but this is all a time when like so I
Speaker 4: guess Serrato was already out right, so I would do
Speaker 4: like big gigs like I remember when Vibe had like
Speaker 4: the Vibe something down here and outcasts perform like they
Speaker 4: will book me for that, or like BT would book me,
Speaker 4: and you know, I was just I was playing like
Speaker 4: I would mix it up. I mean, I would do
Speaker 4: what was hot, but I would also, you know, kind
Speaker 4: of play some gangster grol ship.
Speaker 3: So are you a business in terms of like now
Speaker 3: you have a manager and an.
Speaker 1: Agent and a staff. Yeah.
Speaker 4: The office space like definitely, we had a Walker Street
Speaker 4: was our was our was our office. Niece Denise, Denise
Speaker 4: worked for us. We had I had Jason Brown was
Speaker 4: was handling all the distribution. Orlando McGee was my first manager,
Speaker 4: and yeah, because then I got, you know, the opportunity
Speaker 4: to get an album there. I mean I literally met
Speaker 4: with every late Boot at one point as far as
Speaker 4: like their interest in signing me as a DJ to
Speaker 4: do a Gangster Girls album, you know, and based upon
Speaker 4: my loyalty and I hadn't known the building, I signed
Speaker 4: to Ground Hustle Atlantic. But but yeah, I definitely had
Speaker 4: staff and a manager and you know, the whole nine.
Speaker 4: So with dedication, Like how did that come to? I
Speaker 4: was on the I was on the bus with Tip.
Speaker 4: We were on the Urban Legend tour. He was on
Speaker 4: the phone with Wayne. I heard him talking to Wayne
Speaker 4: and I was like, Yo, let me holler at him.
Speaker 4: So I remember being on my bunk and I just
Speaker 4: got on the phone with him and I was like,
Speaker 4: what's up.
Speaker 1: I was like, you know, and at that.
Speaker 4: Time, Wayne was was doing his squad up mid Squy,
Speaker 4: so I was using a lot of those songs on
Speaker 4: Gangster Grills, so I knew he was kind of in
Speaker 4: his mixtape bag. And I was like, yo, you know,
Speaker 4: we got to get one, and he was like yeah,
Speaker 4: you know, I mean he was already familiar with me.
Speaker 4: And I remember coming off tour for a time and
Speaker 4: I went to stank On and met with Wayne and
Speaker 4: Tez and we just kind of like went over. I
Speaker 4: brought on a bunch of instrumentals, just options and things
Speaker 4: to wrap on and things of that nature, and I
Speaker 4: literally just came up with the name Dedication, just like
Speaker 4: let's call it Dedication and he was like all right, cool.
Speaker 4: And Rob Petroso, who used to do all my artwork,
Speaker 4: came up with the cover, which was you know, legendary.
Speaker 4: And you know, because by that point, Gangster Grills was
Speaker 4: a brand, Like you know, when I was moving them
Speaker 4: throughout the southeast or up north or what have you,
Speaker 4: people were already like okay, if it's a Gangster Grills,
Speaker 4: like we need it, we want it. And the Wayne tape,
Speaker 4: you know, I remember when he sent me to music
Speaker 4: and listening and I was like, Yo, this shit is different.
Speaker 4: This is not the wobbledy wobbley dropping like his hot kid,
Speaker 4: like he's on some shit, like some real bars on here.
Speaker 4: And you know, when I did the tape and I
Speaker 4: kind of I had known like, yeah, this this is
Speaker 4: this is a moment. You know what I'm saying, and
Speaker 4: then it really turned into a moment and so it
Speaker 4: was like it was like back to back from me
Speaker 4: because I just did Trap or Die and then Dedication
Speaker 4: happened and it was like Wayne was on fire from
Speaker 4: you know Carter to dedication to you know, coming into
Speaker 4: his own and so here I am again, this kid
Speaker 4: from Philly went to school in Atlanta, who's now the
Speaker 4: king of the mixtapes with Tip GZ and Wayne or
Speaker 4: like who were the hottest guys not only in the
Speaker 4: South but now in the hip hop And it was
Speaker 4: like I'm in the mix, like I'm the platform for
Speaker 4: you know, what's what's getting these niggas hot?
Speaker 1: In your mind?
Speaker 3: And this is before you know the fans and Rico stuff,
Speaker 3: but like in your mind, what.
Speaker 1: Was the end game? Are you? Like a great question?
Speaker 3: Let me start, like when do you You're like, hey,
Speaker 3: I need to be puffy or I need to start
Speaker 3: my label or I need like because in your mind you're.
Speaker 1: Like, whoa, I'm just in college.
Speaker 3: You know, in fact seven years ago now, like I
Speaker 3: determined what the future.
Speaker 4: You know what it really was when when I first
Speaker 4: got hot or got popular or became that guy. The
Speaker 4: only thing that I told myself, is yo, okay, you
Speaker 4: got here like from ninety two to zero five, like
Speaker 4: there was a lot of legwork to get here.
Speaker 1: You gotta stay.
Speaker 4: Here drama Like I didn't know how or what it
Speaker 4: was gonna be, but I just told myself like, yo,
Speaker 4: like you gotta stay relevant, like somehow, some way, And
Speaker 4: it happened in a lot of forms. I mean, my
Speaker 4: brother over here, like when at the time when Gangster
Speaker 4: Grills was known for trap music and southern hip hop
Speaker 4: to an extent, you know, at the same time, like
Speaker 4: they they're per it was at Apache Cafe or yin
Speaker 4: Yank Cafe. It was Apache and they Little Brother had
Speaker 4: a show and the bus was outside of the venue
Speaker 4: and I came on a bus and we sat down
Speaker 4: and I told them like, yo, I'm a huge fan.
Speaker 1: I have been for some time.
Speaker 4: And then you know, they told me the same in return,
Speaker 4: and they were like, what do you think about doing
Speaker 4: a Gangster Grills And I was like, what.
Speaker 1: What are we waiting on?
Speaker 4: But around the same time, I was getting pushback from
Speaker 4: various people like wait, you're gonna do a tape with
Speaker 4: who Little Brother and Pharrell like that's not Gangster Grills. Like,
Speaker 4: how does that make sense? And you know, I've always
Speaker 4: looked at myself like John Singleton and Martin Scorsese like
Speaker 4: I make I can make boys in the hood, but
Speaker 4: then I can go and make poetic justice, and I
Speaker 4: can make higher learning, and I can make baby boys.
Speaker 4: So that was how I approached it, so that the
Speaker 4: the fact that people were like pushing against this is
Speaker 4: not a platform for Little Brother was like so like
Speaker 4: not only like what are y'all saying my ship's and
Speaker 4: I say on the table, Yeah, it wasn't gonna sound
Speaker 4: good on.
Speaker 5: This, yeah, Like, and that was our mentality going into
Speaker 5: it too, because hence the name separate but equals.
Speaker 1: It's so iconic in so many ways, like how.
Speaker 3: Are you talking Wayne into because you know, to be
Speaker 3: it was kind of perplexing.
Speaker 5: That he chose that beat. Really he chose that. You
Speaker 5: didn't even know I was going to ask you first.
Speaker 5: He chose that beat, all right, Wayne chose And that
Speaker 5: just shows Wayne rhymed over loving it. Well no, no, no,
Speaker 5: I'm sorry. Well yeah, like he.
Speaker 3: Round of a Star and I'm like, god, damn, like
Speaker 3: he's killing our ship more than our ship.
Speaker 1: I was so anti Wayne back then.
Speaker 6: I ain't none of it.
Speaker 1: It's crazy you missed dedication I was.
Speaker 6: I was on the radio is very anti these things,
Speaker 6: and that's what I was known for.
Speaker 1: So but I heard that little brother, but a little brother,
Speaker 1: so you wasn't a gangster girl? Oh yeah, she's one
Speaker 1: of the ones like when are you gonna do another automatic?
Speaker 7: But so what like because that's exactly exactly like but
Speaker 7: I'm saying, like, like the for my mind, I was like,
Speaker 7: did you I was like, man, maybe helped Wayne to gunpoint,
Speaker 7: like you better run over this Philly track like he.
Speaker 1: Was just from a big giant is a head hip hop?
Speaker 1: Yeah you know?
Speaker 4: And and then and then for me it was my
Speaker 4: like again also coming from making automatic relaxations or coming
Speaker 4: from wanting to do this because if y'all like when
Speaker 4: Little Brother approached me and when Pharrell approached me, it
Speaker 4: was so exciting for me because it was one it
Speaker 4: was an opportunity to branch out, and then too, it
Speaker 4: was an opportunity to like feel like I was giving
Speaker 4: back to my roots, no pun intended, but like like
Speaker 4: what like I can make a little brother gangster girls
Speaker 4: or for real gangster grills like oh man, once I
Speaker 4: open this door. That just opens the floodgates for you know,
Speaker 4: for it to go in so many directions and.
Speaker 5: For us doing that when we did Separate equal like
Speaker 5: because my whole thing was, like I hated mixed. Well,
Speaker 5: I love listening to mixtapes, but I didn't want to
Speaker 5: make a mixtape, you know what I'm saying. Like my
Speaker 5: thing was, if I'm going to take time to write
Speaker 5: these original rhymes, I'm not putting them ships over somebody
Speaker 5: else tracks, you know what I'm saying, Like I can
Speaker 5: take them new rhymes, I can put over a new beat.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, That's a new jam.
Speaker 5: I'm loved it. I love that our tape was like that. Yeah,
Speaker 5: we only rhymed of like maybe one instrumental. The rest
Speaker 5: of that shit was all original joints.
Speaker 4: Can we discuss the no drama version though, Like you know,
Speaker 4: I've had a saw well yeah, but yeah, so.
Speaker 5: What we did we did We did the tape and
Speaker 5: that was in like we did some that was like
Speaker 5: oh it was six yeah, so maybe like what like
Speaker 5: two years later, like we did uh we called drama
Speaker 5: free version because at the time when we were out,
Speaker 5: it was a drama free version because we had the mixtape.
Speaker 1: But like all your drops on this stuff.
Speaker 5: But then if if if I'm not if I remember
Speaker 5: this correctly, I think who we were putting it out,
Speaker 5: we were putting the project out with they just didn't
Speaker 5: want Yeah, I mean it was straight up you know
Speaker 5: what I mean, because retail wouldn't they wouldn't put it
Speaker 5: in like you couldn't get in certain stories like it
Speaker 5: was a mixtape exactly. So we were just like, all right,
Speaker 5: well here's the records. They was original records and they
Speaker 5: was our fucking records, So you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: I mean, I get it.
Speaker 4: I mean the fact that it was called Drama Free
Speaker 4: was definitely kind of made me sad.
Speaker 5: But it wasn't no like that wasn't a shot and
Speaker 5: it was just like it was just like free.
Speaker 6: It's kind of catchy. It's catchy as a motherfucker's shape.
Speaker 1: I got it.
Speaker 4: I mean, they're not the you know, they're not the
Speaker 4: first person to do a version of the tape without me.
Speaker 4: I mean, Crenshaw exists on on streaming platforms.
Speaker 1: Without me on that one hurts too, like you know,
Speaker 1: like that was I was part of it.
Speaker 3: I was part of Crenshaw, aren't you the spice and
Speaker 3: the bells and the whistles.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like like that that was the thing about that
Speaker 1: was one.
Speaker 4: I mean hence why because when I did the table
Speaker 4: with Geez, like, the music didn't exist without me on it,
Speaker 4: So all the DJs had to play the versions with
Speaker 4: me on it, and he didn't give it out without
Speaker 4: me on it. So you would go to the club
Speaker 4: and hear gangster grills all over because the music didn't
Speaker 4: exist without me on it.
Speaker 6: Sounds like a do over. It sounds like, I.
Speaker 5: Don't know, it's like almost hearing a Dela jooring without
Speaker 5: the siren and the Dila dilla beats beats. Yeah, like
Speaker 5: he thought he was sucking shit up, like nobody will
Speaker 5: rhyme over this shit to be that made it better?
Speaker 4: I mean yeah, I mean you know, I like, to me,
Speaker 4: it would hurt like I've never listened to the separate
Speaker 4: but equal drama free version, like I don't even it
Speaker 4: would hurt my soul to to me this, I think.
Speaker 5: The separated egal drummer fee version. So and it's crazy.
Speaker 5: I thought it just me and you have never talked
Speaker 5: about none of this shit. So man, when we did that.
Speaker 5: We did that record, and I always just want to
Speaker 5: thank you man, because I sent you those records. Like
Speaker 5: when I manage at the time, Dough, me and Poot
Speaker 5: finished everything and I just put the records in a sequence.
Speaker 5: I put all the songs in the sequence, skits like everything,
Speaker 5: and I was like, I think this worked. But whatever,
Speaker 5: I'm sure Drama do his thing. He'll change it up whatever.
Speaker 5: I trust him. And so when they sent it back,
Speaker 5: we were on tour and Doe was like, yo, Drama
Speaker 5: just sent the joint and I was like, all right, cool,
Speaker 5: and I opened it up because this is you know,
Speaker 5: MP three's, so you will open it and see the
Speaker 5: track listing first before you loaded the shit up, and
Speaker 5: you kept the track listening the exact same way I
Speaker 5: did it. And I was like, holy shit, you know
Speaker 5: what I mean, Like that was just a.
Speaker 4: Big ohst to it when I listened to it and
Speaker 4: I heard it and then I heard it in the
Speaker 4: way that the skits were and everything, like I'm not like,
Speaker 4: you know, I know, part of my job is, you know,
Speaker 4: there's people that want me to put it in an
Speaker 4: order or or however to do my thing, but I'm
Speaker 4: not going to mess with something that's already dope, you
Speaker 4: know what I'm saying. So for me, it was already
Speaker 4: like okay, here's my bells and my whistles. But if
Speaker 4: this ship flows the way it flows, like watch watch
Speaker 4: change perfection, that's always I appreciated that, man, bro, Like
Speaker 4: I mean you like the Little Brother and the Pharaal
Speaker 4: tape like came out at a time, and it came
Speaker 4: out literally like back to back, and those tapes are
Speaker 4: so important to me because again, like you know, from
Speaker 4: where I come from, from the cloth that I come from,
Speaker 4: and for what I was being known for at the time,
Speaker 4: and not that I was fighting against it, but it
Speaker 4: was like yo, like I want to show the world
Speaker 4: like I am hip hop like to it's full, like
Speaker 4: I am from the cloth, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: And to be able to do those two projects were like.
Speaker 5: We had a point to prove because you had We
Speaker 5: both had a point because for you, you know, you
Speaker 5: said it was proven like we were from that cloth.
Speaker 5: For us at that time, you know, we were coming
Speaker 5: off the Minstrel show and it was just like ah,
Speaker 5: them niggas, they just some backpack hate niggas. It was
Speaker 5: like no, we fucking wrapped, you know what I mean.
Speaker 5: And it was just like, look, it don't matter if
Speaker 5: it's trapshit whatever, like.
Speaker 1: And just beat the South.
Speaker 4: I mean, so it was like even that in that
Speaker 4: sense of what people were looking at was Southern hip hop.
Speaker 4: And then you know us doing that tape and separate
Speaker 4: but equal like as a title and y'all being from
Speaker 4: the South, like it all it all just made it
Speaker 4: was It was great.
Speaker 1: It was a great moment.
Speaker 5: Now it really was, man, And that was just I'm
Speaker 5: so thankful that you know our pass like crossing the
Speaker 5: way he did that shit was amazing, amazing. I know
Speaker 5: that you rehashed the story over and over and over
Speaker 5: and over again, so I'm trying not to beat an
Speaker 5: already dead horse that you moved past. I mean, the
Speaker 5: question is basically like in two thousand and seven, I'm
Speaker 5: trying to figure out how an industry that utilizes you
Speaker 5: to break open their artists like and again, I'm a
Speaker 5: stornch East Coast head.
Speaker 3: You know, Tarik himself listen to nothing but your mixtapes.
Speaker 3: So this is how I'm learning about Wayne, Like, this
Speaker 3: is how I'm getting my education on what I need
Speaker 3: to learn about the rest of America except my niece.
Speaker 3: And I'm trying to like, and I understand that there
Speaker 3: was a period between two thousand and three in two
Speaker 3: thousand and eight, especially like with record labels not knowing
Speaker 3: like if they're going to survive now that streaming culture.
Speaker 1: Like you know, we already had the sign napster.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, like around two thousand and three whatever like
Speaker 3: that just starts, But I'm trying to figure out how like,
Speaker 3: like you were definitely utilized and used to break open people,
Speaker 3: like so just in general and not like from one
Speaker 3: to ten, How shocked were you when you came home
Speaker 3: and like, wait, what the fuck is this? Like did
Speaker 3: you did you have an inkling of a clue?
Speaker 1: Like none? Or even even when the ship was selling
Speaker 1: like hotcakes? Twelve, even when she was selling like hotcakes?
Speaker 3: Was there any person that was sort of like, have
Speaker 3: you ever received pushback from anyone that like you rhymed
Speaker 3: an instrumental over and like Jame's like, hey, why'd you
Speaker 3: use fronting?
Speaker 1: Or why never?
Speaker 5: It wasn't on the artists like that was a badge
Speaker 5: of honor to have someone to like wrap over you.
Speaker 1: It wasn't that.
Speaker 4: So, I mean we there's a there's a there's a
Speaker 4: lot to unpack here. And again, I know I've told
Speaker 4: the story. One part about it is, first off, it
Speaker 4: shows the disconnect within the labels. Right, So as much
Speaker 4: as the marketing departments loved me, or the mix show departments,
Speaker 4: or you know, the promotion department, how much I meant
Speaker 4: to them, the legal department of a label didn't understand.
Speaker 4: They haven't clue, they don't get it. Like what wait
Speaker 4: what like that that's not cleared? Like we're not you know,
Speaker 4: we hold on. So they're you know, I was friends
Speaker 4: with the promotions in the marketing side, but yeah, the
Speaker 4: legal department didn't. It didn't make sense to them, why
Speaker 4: are we giving this free music out? And then this
Speaker 4: is also a time where outside of my mixtapes, there
Speaker 4: were hundreds of other mixtapes that weren't sanctioned that people were,
Speaker 4: you know however, getting MP three's hacking for whatever way
Speaker 4: they were getting them. Music was coming out that people
Speaker 4: didn't give permission for. And then on top of that,
Speaker 4: around this time, these mixtapes Minds and others started to
Speaker 4: show up in best Buys and then targets and in
Speaker 4: walmarts with barcodes on it and so in that, you know,
Speaker 4: and that made it confusing. And I just spoke about
Speaker 4: this on math Hafa because they brought up, you know,
Speaker 4: after I got raided. One of the people they asked
Speaker 4: about what do you think about what happened to drama
Speaker 4: was Wayne? And Wayne said, drama needs to Drama needs
Speaker 4: to play the game fair or smarter like Clue or
Speaker 4: Kalid or something of that.
Speaker 1: But is it the same? I mean, the reason why
Speaker 1: I never.
Speaker 4: Took offence to it is because you know, when these
Speaker 4: when these because there's all there was a street code
Speaker 4: that went along with mixtapes for promotional use. Only right,
Speaker 4: everybody knew that we were making money, and you know,
Speaker 4: that's how I was supporting myself. But when they started,
Speaker 4: when the mixtape started to show up in the stores
Speaker 4: with bar codes, as an artist, I could understand how
Speaker 4: one could fill the type of way promotion because they're like, wait,
Speaker 4: hold on, why is this? Why is my ship in
Speaker 4: Target with a bar code? And I'm not seeing a
Speaker 4: dollar from it?
Speaker 6: So they're okay, not seeing a dollar if you just
Speaker 6: selling it the way you're selling it.
Speaker 1: Like from to an extent.
Speaker 4: I mean again, now look looking back on it, if
Speaker 4: at the wise age of forty four that I am
Speaker 4: now in my twenties, the type of money that I
Speaker 4: was making, and I would you know, I would have
Speaker 4: easily thrown someone at twenty five or fifty if I'm
Speaker 4: making X amount of dollars, like just as a quick
Speaker 4: thank you, it would have It would have been a
Speaker 4: nice gesture.
Speaker 1: Like.
Speaker 4: But you know, on the on the other end, these
Speaker 4: guys are going and doing shows for one hundred and
Speaker 4: fifty two hundred thousand dollars off of what we've built together.
Speaker 4: So you know, I don't count anyone's pockets, nor did
Speaker 4: I feel like anyone should.
Speaker 1: Count to be fair and just.
Speaker 5: I mean again, we just talk about it now, but
Speaker 5: you know I never felt you know, me and I
Speaker 5: could speak you know, from my brother Pool as well.
Speaker 1: For us, it was never that like we did our
Speaker 1: show up with a barcode. No, it didn't. I was
Speaker 1: gonna show up on a bar code.
Speaker 5: I remember like watching it on the news and seeing
Speaker 5: like when they was taking like shut out and they
Speaker 5: separate videos there, bro I was like, what the fuck.
Speaker 1: News outside?
Speaker 5: I remember that, Yeah, y'all's was there, Bruh. That shit
Speaker 5: was nuts so. But yeah, but for us, like you said,
Speaker 5: it was just a code of honor. It was just understood.
Speaker 5: It's like, okay, we do to take you know, drum,
Speaker 5: he gonna move it on our end, We'll do whatever
Speaker 5: on our end.
Speaker 1: We'll do, press it, shows whatever.
Speaker 5: Like it was just you know what I mean, it
Speaker 5: was a mutually beneficial thing, and.
Speaker 4: It was like that for most people. But yeah, I
Speaker 4: think all those things came into play. I think the
Speaker 4: fact that you know, two thousand and seven was a
Speaker 4: very pivotal year for the music business where you know,
Speaker 4: it was a transition, and you know, the the bottom
Speaker 4: line wasn't wasn't adding up for them, And there's there's
Speaker 4: many theories or conspiracy theories or you know, let's take
Speaker 4: the big guy out to shut this down. However, you know,
Speaker 4: hence I don't you know, I do know that for
Speaker 4: a fact that people were told, artists were told like yo,
Speaker 4: if when when DRAMs situation comes up, don't speak on it,
Speaker 4: like leave that alone, you know what I'm saying, or
Speaker 4: you know, nobody he necessarily people used to ask me
Speaker 4: in interviews like did you feel the type of way
Speaker 4: when nobody spoke up for you? And I was like, honestly,
Speaker 4: not really like you know, like there were a couple
Speaker 4: of people behind the scenes I talked to, you know,
Speaker 4: just that that that reached out or what have you.
Speaker 5: And then yeah, well us when you got when when
Speaker 5: it happened for us specifically, So yeah, that was like
Speaker 5: oh six o seven we did the and Justice for All?
Speaker 4: What's it seven? We did just January. It was January
Speaker 4: seven when my shit happened.
Speaker 5: Okay, it was January seventh, so I think maybe it's
Speaker 5: the next year, maybe it was or later that year. Anyway,
Speaker 5: we did Mike Boogie tape uh and Justice for All?
Speaker 5: I mean yeah, and I hear uh. I was telling me,
Speaker 5: I said, y'all did that before the raid or after
Speaker 5: the ring? That was after the raid? Got you that
Speaker 5: was after the raid, because I was telling me, I
Speaker 5: was like, yo, bro, like, we gotta get drums speaking
Speaker 5: on this, because the first record on that tape was
Speaker 5: Can't Stop as a record called Can't Stop as well.
Speaker 1: We was talking about that ship and it was just.
Speaker 5: Like I said, nah, bru, like we gotta get drum
Speaker 5: talking because they not they're not gonna We're not letting
Speaker 5: them shut this ship down.
Speaker 1: Like fuck y'all.
Speaker 4: I meir I felt the type away, like I felt
Speaker 4: a lot of guilt at the time because I'm like, damn,
Speaker 4: like this is a culture like I grew up loving,
Speaker 4: you know what I'm saying, like, and I can't let
Speaker 4: this shit die on my shoulders, like like damn, you
Speaker 4: felt like you killed the mixtape game for a moment,
Speaker 4: for a moment, literally, yeah, Like I felt like, damn,
Speaker 4: the downfall of the fucking mixtape game is going to
Speaker 4: happen when I become the top of the food chain.
Speaker 4: And like, you know, I spent a lot of time,
Speaker 4: like you know, I still went and put tapes out
Speaker 4: right after that, and.
Speaker 3: How long was it until you look both ways where
Speaker 3: you cross the street, and like, oh, I put a
Speaker 3: tape by like a month too after like I did
Speaker 3: like Gangster Grills sixteen and was just talking crazy on there,
Speaker 3: like you know, and I remember the first big the
Speaker 3: first big mixtape that I probably did was Dedication three,
Speaker 3: and then I remember, you know, that was after you know,
Speaker 3: Wayne had went and said like fuck mixtape DJs or
Speaker 3: fuck DJs or something, and then he called in my
Speaker 3: radio show and we cleared that up.
Speaker 4: And then you know we went on to do Dedication three,
Speaker 4: but yeah, I mean again, I was like, you know,
Speaker 4: I had a point to prove, like yo, I'm not first,
Speaker 4: you know. And then Atlantic Records called literally the next day, like,
Speaker 4: oh my god, how fast can we get your album done?
Speaker 1: Like we can't pay for.
Speaker 4: This type of publicity because the record Riggs Riggs actually
Speaker 4: did all the skits on my first album. So Riggs
Speaker 4: did the I mean it was it was literally Julie
Speaker 4: and Craig and I think Kevin was still there at
Speaker 4: the time, and and Kuys and then they all called like, yo,
Speaker 4: we can't play for this type publicity.
Speaker 1: How soon can you turn your album in?
Speaker 4: So you know, my first single actually was titled Feds
Speaker 4: Taking Pictures.
Speaker 1: Taking Pictures. Yeah, so you know Beneath the Diamonds. Oh,
Speaker 1: I love that ship.
Speaker 6: For some reason, when that happened to you, I feel
Speaker 6: like a lot of people who knew you, we felt
Speaker 6: like it couldn't have happened to some better person who
Speaker 6: had resources prepared for In a way, I don't know
Speaker 6: how to explain it to you, but we felt like
Speaker 6: we knew you were going to be okay because you
Speaker 6: were smart as fuck, right and because what is that
Speaker 6: Another reason as to why it felt like it kind
Speaker 6: of came and went and away.
Speaker 4: Resource well for me, I mean you know again, I
Speaker 4: mean it literally made me more famous than I ever was.
Speaker 1: I mean, next thing, I know.
Speaker 6: So you never had a crying moment, you was like,
Speaker 6: the only.
Speaker 4: Crime moment I had is the next day I got
Speaker 4: out and I wasn't familiar with what the RICO was.
Speaker 4: And then I called Tip and Tip was like, bro,
Speaker 4: they hit you with the RICO, Like, check your bank account.
Speaker 4: My bank account said zero point zero zero after having
Speaker 4: six figures in it, So I definitely shed a tear.
Speaker 3: But after that, like where is no they kept? So
Speaker 3: I had we had two accounts for a museum's sake,
Speaker 3: like where is that stuff?
Speaker 4: Well, they gave back what did they gave back the equipment,
Speaker 4: They gave back one of our accounts. They gave back
Speaker 4: the account that ironically was like the label budget account.
Speaker 4: But the drama like the d or the DJ drama
Speaker 4: account that I had with where most of the money was.
Speaker 4: They kept that because they they said they couldn't differentiate
Speaker 4: what was what was what? So we're keeping all.
Speaker 1: Of this, But how long did it take to replace
Speaker 1: I started making money. I mean, you know, I got
Speaker 1: it back and got I got back up, you know,
Speaker 1: to take me too long?
Speaker 3: Obviously it was a performative actually, like what was the
Speaker 3: end results?
Speaker 1: Like yeah, I mean story the I double A.
Speaker 4: You know, and around that Timmy and Cannon had kind
Speaker 4: of had a falling out and you know we went
Speaker 4: our separate ways for a moment.
Speaker 1: But the R I Double A made us do.
Speaker 4: This like P s A where it was like hey, kids,
Speaker 4: like don't sell music. Yeah, like they chilling, Yeah, like
Speaker 4: it never came. They never put it out, but they
Speaker 4: made it. We shot it at Tree Sounds and they literally,
Speaker 4: like you know, gave us a screw like if you
Speaker 4: make music, do you have a copy of it?
Speaker 1: I wish I did. Yo, Man, you gotta put it
Speaker 1: on your Instagram. I know it exists, it has to be.
Speaker 4: And this this was literally the first time me and
Speaker 4: Cannon had seen each other in a while, and we
Speaker 4: had to do it.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 4: Part of the agreement was us doing that P S
Speaker 4: A that they never put out. But it's like, you know,
Speaker 4: like for me, Likeah said, like when I was doing interviews,
Speaker 4: I remember saying like, yo, this is not the end
Speaker 4: of my story, like this is one chapter, like you know,
Speaker 4: for me, it was like, yeah, this is just you know, everybody,
Speaker 4: anybody who's anybody gets hit with some type of adversity
Speaker 4: and this is just my my first, you know, my
Speaker 4: first real challenge. And you know, I'm a I'm a
Speaker 4: I'm gonna be here like I've been here and at
Speaker 4: the time, I had, you know, been here to up
Speaker 4: to that extent, not knowing what life had in in
Speaker 4: uh in mind for me up to this point. But
Speaker 4: it was like, yeah, like this is just one chapter
Speaker 4: in my story. This is not the last chapter. Like
Speaker 4: watch what I do?
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 5: I always wanted to ask you about the ARTI storytelling three.
Speaker 5: I was just about to bring that up. All man,
Speaker 5: how did how did that?
Speaker 1: Three? Or four? Four? Oh? Four?
Speaker 5: I'm sorry? Yeah, there's a three. Yeah, there is a three.
Speaker 5: That's why it's four.
Speaker 4: Big boy has to tell you where the three exists,
Speaker 4: because he told me, because that's why we artist storytelling four.
Speaker 1: But I was supposed to do it Idle Wild Gangster Grills.
Speaker 4: Oh wow, okay, really yeah, I was supposed to do
Speaker 4: a tape around that time were they were gonna go.
Speaker 4: We were gonna do a tape pre Idle Wild going
Speaker 4: into the project me uh stacks Big and their manager
Speaker 4: Blue got on the phone and they came to me like, Yo,
Speaker 4: we want to do a Gangster Grills and I was like,
Speaker 4: hell motherfucker yeah. And then a few months later they
Speaker 4: called and was like, listen, bro, we're just buckled down
Speaker 4: with the movie and the soundtrack and we you know,
Speaker 4: we apologize, but we don't have time to do the tape.
Speaker 4: And they were like, but how about we offer you
Speaker 4: a song for your album? And I was like hell yeah,
Speaker 4: Like of course. So I started the process of literally
Speaker 4: sending three thousand beats from every big known name producer
Speaker 4: out at the time, you know, because this is the
Speaker 4: time when I was doing the first Gang Squirrel album.
Speaker 4: Gangster Grills was the biggest thing going, So everybody was
Speaker 4: pretty much giving me beats and I would send them
Speaker 4: to three thousand and he would be like nah, nah nah.
Speaker 4: He would pretty much turn everything down. One of the
Speaker 4: last tapes I made before the raid was Jim Jones
Speaker 4: seven Day Theory tape from We Set the Trends No
Speaker 4: well no, no, I mean yeah that Jim Jones. Yeah, with
Speaker 4: the tape Our first tape was called the Seven Day Theory,
Speaker 4: which was a fire tape.
Speaker 1: Max b is all over there.
Speaker 4: Recipe stack was on their you know that was when
Speaker 4: that was when he created a bird Gang. And there
Speaker 4: was a beat on that tape, and I asked Cannon, like,
Speaker 4: make me a beat similar to that beat. So Cannon
Speaker 4: made the beat and then we had gotten the raid
Speaker 4: had happened, and Lake was actually managing.
Speaker 1: Marcia at the time.
Speaker 4: Oh okay, So I sent the beat to Marcia, and
Speaker 4: I told Marcia I was like, yo, like, look like, man,
Speaker 4: they just locked us up like people saying this is
Speaker 4: the end for me, Like I need something like nothing's
Speaker 4: gonna stop us, like I'm gonna be here, like you
Speaker 4: can't stop us. And she literally like took what I
Speaker 4: said and turned it into the hook. And I sent
Speaker 4: the record to three thousand, and he said, I'm gonna
Speaker 4: call you tomorrow. Twenty four hours later, he sends me
Speaker 4: back his verse of art the storytelling part four, and
Speaker 4: I just was like, I couldn't believe it that I
Speaker 4: had an Andre three thousand verse like and on top
Speaker 4: of a Don Cannon beat like. So then I went
Speaker 4: to stank on the and I played it for Big.
Speaker 4: I think at the time, I was like, I was
Speaker 4: still trying to figure out what record Big had wanted
Speaker 4: to be on. I played him a couple records, and
Speaker 4: then when I played him then he was like, oh,
Speaker 4: what are we talking about? Like I'm doing this, so
Speaker 4: he did his verse and then Big was like, Yo,
Speaker 4: we should call it an artist storytelling part four. And
Speaker 4: then hence, you know, I literally have a fucking outcast
Speaker 4: record on my album. And then, you know, I wish
Speaker 4: I would have knew then. I wish I would have
Speaker 4: knew now when I knew then, because three thousand offered
Speaker 4: to do the video and he was just like, yo,
Speaker 4: I just need one hundred thousand from the label and
Speaker 4: me not me, not as knowledgeable as I was, then
Speaker 4: I kind of let the opportunity like pass, And looking
Speaker 4: back on it, I would have told the label give
Speaker 4: me fucking one hundred grand to give this man for
Speaker 4: this record, Like we probably could have got a Grammy
Speaker 4: nomination out of that, you know what I'm saying if
Speaker 4: it would have literally happened. But I mean, it's still
Speaker 4: an amazing record. You know how many dj can say
Speaker 4: they have an outcast record like It's one of my
Speaker 4: proudest moments in my career. Still, yeah, I still wound
Speaker 4: up getting Grammy.
Speaker 5: Well, how did you approach making the transition from DJ
Speaker 5: to executive?
Speaker 1: Naturally?
Speaker 4: Honestly, I mean it was just like, you know, again,
Speaker 4: relevancy has always been very key for me in my career,
Speaker 4: and like staying on a cusp, and I think a
Speaker 4: lot of that comes from being a mixtape DJ, and
Speaker 4: like just like my addiction to new shit, like my
Speaker 4: fascination of like what's next, you know what I'm saying
Speaker 4: and not kind of letting myself get boxed into one thing.
Speaker 4: You know, Like there was a tweet somebody to put
Speaker 4: out was like yo, DJ Drama literally went from the
Speaker 4: roots in Bahamadia to Tip Cheezy and Wayne to Little
Speaker 4: Uzi and Jack Harlowe like give this man this, Yeah,
Speaker 4: and that's exactly what it is. So, you know, just
Speaker 4: around I had when I was making my albums, I
Speaker 4: had left Atlantic and went to E one, and you know,
Speaker 4: I was still using a lot of the staff over
Speaker 4: at Atlantic, just kind of independently to work my records
Speaker 4: and things of that nature. And I started to make
Speaker 4: like records that were having success, like oh, my like
Speaker 4: my moment. And so when I was doing that, one
Speaker 4: of the people, you know, I used to have Sam
Speaker 4: Crespo work my records and Chris, my brother Sam. And
Speaker 4: Sam was like, yeah, I should you should like think
Speaker 4: about being an R, Like you know, I should bring
Speaker 4: that idea to Julian Craig, like, you know, you're putting
Speaker 4: together some real good records, like maybe it could be
Speaker 4: opportunity for you to come in a building and be
Speaker 4: an an R. And I was like, I'm down. So
Speaker 4: he mentioned it to Julian Craig and you know clearly,
Speaker 4: you know, they were like, drum, that's our guy, Like
Speaker 4: we love drum. So I flew to New York. I
Speaker 4: had a meeting with Craig Julian Kaiser, and they were like,
Speaker 4: you know, are you interested in you know, coming over
Speaker 4: here as an R.
Speaker 1: And I was like yeah. And and then.
Speaker 4: I was like, oh, yeah, by the way, I'm building
Speaker 4: the studio in Atlanta that you know, you guys might
Speaker 4: want to partner with me on. And at the time,
Speaker 4: Kawan Pray third KP was was vice president of Atlantic.
Speaker 4: He was working out of another studio. They sent him
Speaker 4: over to my spot mean Streets to check it out
Speaker 4: to see you know what he thought, and he was like,
Speaker 4: oh yeah.
Speaker 1: This is dope like this this this could be a
Speaker 1: thing for us.
Speaker 4: So part of my deal when I came over as
Speaker 4: an an R was also for Atlantic to be partners
Speaker 4: with me on Mean Streets. So I literally, you know,
Speaker 4: took their money and built the rest of Mean Streets up,
Speaker 4: you know, from what I had already built from it.
Speaker 4: And when I got there, I really was kind of
Speaker 4: trying to find my way. They had put me with,
Speaker 4: like artists that were already on the label to try
Speaker 4: to work with, and it just wasn't it wasn't meshing
Speaker 4: Like it wasn't you know.
Speaker 1: I would go to an R.
Speaker 4: Meetings and things, and you know, they they would give
Speaker 4: me an artists to try to work with, and it
Speaker 4: just kind of it wasn't.
Speaker 1: They were trying to put you with at the time.
Speaker 1: Did anybody you can name?
Speaker 4: So Spenzo Boussi cap G was KP's guy, and he
Speaker 4: was there, he was around, but you know he was
Speaker 4: those were those were some of their the artists that
Speaker 4: you know, early on they kind of wanted me to
Speaker 4: quote unquote, I guess an R be a part of
Speaker 4: and then also Thug was you know, I happened to
Speaker 4: be the closest thing to Thug in those days that
Speaker 4: they felt like could be of an assistance to help
Speaker 4: with Thug and you know, getting music or you know.
Speaker 6: Young not slim.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. So it's a few of them young, yeah,
Speaker 1: young thug, not some thug again. Shout out to something.
Speaker 4: He's got a gangster girls too though, But so yeah,
Speaker 4: Thug was working a lot of mean streets. So you know,
Speaker 4: I was kind of in the mix with Thug and
Speaker 4: Atlantic and you know, just trying to make that whole
Speaker 4: thing kind of work out, and it went out went.
Speaker 4: But we also you know, myself, Lake and Cannon. You know,
Speaker 4: when Cannon was vice president of Deaf Jam around the
Speaker 4: time I got my gig, and then we had missed
Speaker 4: out on a couple opportunities of artists. I took Migos
Speaker 4: to New York for the first time and presented them
Speaker 4: to Alan Grumblack and he offered them pennies, and you know,
Speaker 4: they they went and did the right thing and went
Speaker 4: to QC. Shout out to Coach and p you know
Speaker 4: those are my guys. You know, we kind of started
Speaker 4: our labels around the same time, but me, Cannon and
Speaker 4: Lake were like, yo, we can't miss nothing else.
Speaker 1: Like, we're not missing nothing else.
Speaker 4: I was gonna say, besides Migos who so Tory Lane,
Speaker 4: I wanted to sign Tory Ot Genesis, t Fly.
Speaker 1: I actually wanted to sign t Fly.
Speaker 4: So those are a few that you know, we were
Speaker 4: in the midst of us and you know when we
Speaker 4: were trying to figure out the label thing or signing
Speaker 4: artists up around the time. Cannon came back one day
Speaker 4: and just was like, Yo, I heard this kid, little
Speaker 4: Uzi vert and I was like, let's do it.
Speaker 5: Get him signed unseen unseen that is crazy if you
Speaker 5: believe your man, let's go.
Speaker 1: Never heard nothing, didn't know nothing. Where's he at? What
Speaker 1: are we doing? Like?
Speaker 4: And it was this is around what year? This was
Speaker 4: two thousand fourteen. Oh, in twenty fourteen. Wait, that's when, yeah,
Speaker 4: we signed Uzzi twenty.
Speaker 5: I was about to say, I know that we had
Speaker 5: Uzzi on the Roots pick like way before now y'all had.
Speaker 1: No you did him.
Speaker 5: That was like when he was opening that he did
Speaker 5: it was roots picnic, okay, moneylaw, it was money long.
Speaker 1: It was before actual to our life.
Speaker 4: It was money longer days when he did Roots Picnic
Speaker 4: because I did it in twenty seventeen.
Speaker 1: Because when I brought Little Baby, yeah, y'all had that
Speaker 1: stage that they were looking like, who is this guy?
Speaker 4: Like I remember that I brought Baby to Roots pic Nick,
Speaker 4: and I think that was right before the Drake record,
Speaker 4: like or maybe the Drake record it just came out.
Speaker 4: But literally I remember the crowd like not understanding, like
Speaker 4: I just brought y'all little Baby like here. But so yeah,
Speaker 4: so we signed. So we signed Scheme. Scheme actually was
Speaker 4: our first artist that we signed. Shout the scheme. He's
Speaker 4: he's kind of mad at me because I haven't brought
Speaker 4: his name up when I talk about the label. So
Speaker 4: we signed Scheme. We signed Uzi, and we were signing.
Speaker 4: We were trying to sign this group called the Wedding Crashers,
Speaker 4: which Quentin Miller was part of. So we named a
Speaker 4: Generation Now. Generation Now is actually a mixtape title that
Speaker 4: I had used early on before the Little Brother and
Speaker 4: the for Real tapes. I had gotten drops from Kanye West.
Speaker 4: He was opening enough for Taile Lib quality wound up
Speaker 4: getting drops from Kanye. I also got some drops from
Speaker 4: Joe Budden and it wasn't. It was like, damn, this
Speaker 4: is not gangster grills. It doesn't feel gangster grills. So
Speaker 4: I need another title for another brand. So I came
Speaker 4: up with Generation Now. Years later, we wound up double
Speaker 4: backing when we were looking for a title for the
Speaker 4: label and I was like, what about Generation Now.
Speaker 1: So the guys was like, yeah, that's fire.
Speaker 4: So we Atlantic was on the verge of firing me,
Speaker 4: like I was two years into my deal and they
Speaker 4: were looking at it like, look, we just paid DJ
Speaker 4: Drama all this money he brought us. We done, We
Speaker 4: put all this money into this studio, Like what are
Speaker 4: we doing? What's going on? Like where's our where's our return.
Speaker 4: Craig Kleman came to Atlanta. We sat in the radio
Speaker 4: room of the The of Mean Streets and he said, look, Drama,
Speaker 4: I believe in you. You know, I don't want to
Speaker 4: let you go. Like let's just do a one year deal.
Speaker 4: We're gonna I will stay partners on the studio and
Speaker 4: we'll just you just you guys, just focus on Uzzy.
Speaker 4: Like we'll just just you guys, just focus on little Uzzy.
Speaker 4: And I was like cool, like I'm with that, like okay, cool,
Speaker 4: And next thing you know, you know, Love is Rage
Speaker 4: comes out. Mean Streets becomes the go to studio in
Speaker 4: Atlanta and the tables turned within six months in one
Speaker 4: eight and you know it was like I told.
Speaker 6: You not going.
Speaker 5: My ancestors are watching you and guiding. How did Jack
Speaker 5: get on y'all's radar? Because for me, Jack, he was
Speaker 5: the record and I don't think this was before Generation Now.
Speaker 1: My record was.
Speaker 5: Sundown, Like that was the one that I heard. I
Speaker 5: was like, he was on your generation now, that was
Speaker 5: generation Oh then okay. He had put out a record
Speaker 5: called Dark Knight. That was the one that really forced
Speaker 5: our hand. But we had heard of him before them.
Speaker 5: A friend of mine brought them to me late twenty
Speaker 5: seventeen and put.
Speaker 1: Him on my radar.
Speaker 4: And then you know Ky Engineering, who is based in Atlanta,
Speaker 4: who had engineered for Wayne Tiger. He mixed Dreams of Nightmares.
Speaker 4: He mixed that whole, mixed the whole first album. He
Speaker 4: was Waka Floka's engineer. He's two chaines engineer. He mixed
Speaker 4: my records. He did my quality street music album. He's
Speaker 4: from His name is Kay because he's from Kentucky. So
Speaker 4: around the same time he was telling right, okay, he
Speaker 4: was telling Lake like, yo, I want to bring you
Speaker 4: something when it's ready. So Jack wound up on my radar.
Speaker 4: I went and followed him. He had like seven thousand followers.
Speaker 4: He saw that I followed him, He followed me right back.
Speaker 4: He then went on to tell me later on that
Speaker 4: he told a friend of his like, damn, DJ Drama
Speaker 4: just signed to me. I think I'm think I'm gonna
Speaker 4: sign the drama. So we so he wounds up. He
Speaker 4: winds up coming being in Atlanta and coming to mean
Speaker 4: Streets and you know, that was our first time meeting,
Speaker 4: and we like, you know, we sat down, we chopped
Speaker 4: it up.
Speaker 1: We were talking. He was like, you know, what are
Speaker 1: you what are you into?
Speaker 4: And I'm like, I'm in the movie, Like I'm a
Speaker 4: movie buff, like I just love movies. And he was like,
Speaker 4: tell me a movie that you think that I would
Speaker 4: be shocked that you would know. And I told him
Speaker 4: it was this movie called E two My Time Bien,
Speaker 4: Oh yeah yeah, and he was like wait what. He
Speaker 4: was like, DJ dramat has watched YouTube.
Speaker 1: The ritz like so I think that really blew his mind.
Speaker 4: And then you know, we we had a meeting you know,
Speaker 4: with Jack and you know, our staff, and he was
Speaker 4: on you know, we we the opportunity was about signing
Speaker 4: him was there, and and then we weren't one hundred.
Speaker 4: We were like seventy five percent. And then he put
Speaker 4: out Dark Night and we was like, okay, we gotta
Speaker 4: do it, like we gotta we gotta sign this kid
Speaker 4: before we miss out.
Speaker 1: So we went on to sign Jack.
Speaker 4: And you know, again this is you know, when I
Speaker 4: signed Jack, he looked like Napoleon Dynamite, So you know,
Speaker 4: he's come along. The heart the sex symbol heart throb
Speaker 4: that he is of today was you know, he's come
Speaker 4: a long way. But I saw it in him like,
Speaker 4: you know, the same way I saw it in UZI
Speaker 4: early on, Like you know, I saw like, these are
Speaker 4: two guys that, for me, like, regardless of of us
Speaker 4: being evolved, they would have made their way into hip
Speaker 4: hop same way, regardless of however I would have been,
Speaker 4: I was gonna, yeah, I was gonna. I was gonna
Speaker 4: get here somehow, some way. But again we allowed them
Speaker 4: to stand on our shoulders to you know, go a
Speaker 4: little faster, you know, me walking him in the sway
Speaker 4: and you know him being able to you know, just
Speaker 4: move around, especially somebody like Jack, who you know is
Speaker 4: a white rapper from Kentucky to be able to say
Speaker 4: he signed to Generation Now and DJ Drama who created
Speaker 4: Gangster Grills and the label that you know, you know,
Speaker 4: little Uzi Vert was a part of. I mean, I
Speaker 4: think that out a lot of you know, yeah to
Speaker 4: the table, you know.
Speaker 5: All right, before we we gotta wrap up the episode.
Speaker 6: This is damn we have to You don't even know
Speaker 6: how long we've been sitting here.
Speaker 1: We just started. We got we gotta go home.
Speaker 6: I mean, you gotta bite us back and we'll come
Speaker 6: to your spot.
Speaker 4: But okay, but before we wrap like I don't I
Speaker 4: don't know if like I don't know if you're aware
Speaker 4: of this because I say it all the time, but
Speaker 4: being sitting at this table, like I have to say,
Speaker 4: even though I say it all the time, like like
Speaker 4: you gotta understand, I mere like if it wasn't for y'all,
Speaker 4: like I don't, I don't know that. I don't know
Speaker 4: if I would be here like watching like running in.
Speaker 1: And we think it is the ongoing joke of the show.
Speaker 4: Watch me squirm like, bro, listen, Like I used to
Speaker 4: run into a mirror playing video games on South Street
Speaker 4: and he would like let he would like put his
Speaker 4: headphones on me and let me hear fucking Tariq rapping
Speaker 4: like g rap or like you know, like I used
Speaker 4: to go to the Truck. I was at the Trocadero
Speaker 4: at their signing celebration party like like for me, like
Speaker 4: I remember when Distortion the Static first came on Rap
Speaker 4: City like yes, so like you got to understand for me, bro,
Speaker 4: like the roots are the reason why I knew that
Speaker 4: you could really do this ship, Like, oh, this ship
Speaker 4: can really happen. Like I just watched this group in Philly.
Speaker 1: Watch her face.
Speaker 6: I'm just making him take it because it's hard, it's painful,
Speaker 6: go ahead, keep going on.
Speaker 4: Like I watched this group that I loved make this
Speaker 4: album called Organics while I'm in high school and that's
Speaker 4: all I'm listening to. And then like get a record deal,
Speaker 4: like get signed to Geff and like these guys that
Speaker 4: were freestyling on my little mixtapes that probably only one
Speaker 4: hundred copies exist didn't go on to become the fucking roots,
Speaker 4: Like oh my god, this you can like this rap
Speaker 4: shit is real like everything before that for me was
Speaker 4: just seeing it on like watching the Box and seeing
Speaker 4: Kine and KRS and Public Enemy and NWA is just
Speaker 4: like me watching it on television like I knew y'all, like.
Speaker 1: Like I was there.
Speaker 4: So that for me was literally the reason like and
Speaker 4: I say it all the time like you are the
Speaker 4: reason why I knew this shit could really happen, bro, Like,
Speaker 4: and I have to give you your flowers by sitting
Speaker 4: here next.
Speaker 1: To you, thank you for a documentary.
Speaker 6: A documentary.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be great. No, I appreciate every word.
Speaker 3: Yes, years ago, I would have definitely ended the episode
Speaker 3: because I hate compliments. No, but I really appreciate.
Speaker 6: That this conversation was long overdue.
Speaker 1: No, No, for real, I don't over on every song
Speaker 1: even for me.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I'm very proud like again, like you know
Speaker 3: the fact that you validated us as well, because it
Speaker 3: meant a lot to me that like, wow, someone believes
Speaker 3: in us enough to put us on a mixtape, Like
Speaker 3: to me, that was important.
Speaker 4: Black Thought Gangster Girls is definitely on my bucket list
Speaker 4: because it's full circle for me, like it has that's
Speaker 4: one and I have Wow.
Speaker 1: That'd be amazing. It has to happen.
Speaker 3: I was going to say that eventually one day you're
Speaker 3: going to have to make a gangster Grizelda.
Speaker 1: You gotta make that happens. Fire.
Speaker 3: This intro will make that happen. No, great, Wait, I
Speaker 3: have one last question. I've been watching how things have
Speaker 3: been developing in the in the last few weeks speaking
Speaker 3: of Gris, and initially what started out as something that
Speaker 3: could have gone ugly is actually turned into kind of
Speaker 3: like a cool moment. Yeah, yeah, where initially you know,
Speaker 3: there are complaints that you're not supporting Da.
Speaker 1: Da da da.
Speaker 3: And you know, maybe once every five years out here
Speaker 3: another generation coming that will tell whoever the gatekeeper is like,
Speaker 3: let somebody else in and let somebody But as a
Speaker 3: DJ and I usually go through this kind of quasi
Speaker 3: depression period, maybe in November and December or Okay, So
Speaker 3: twenty twenty three is coming up, so instantly I'm like,
Speaker 3: all right, so someone born in two thousand and two
Speaker 3: is now legally going to be louder than the night club, right,
Speaker 3: and that means when they're like fourteen years old and
Speaker 3: you know, twenty sixteen or whatever, I mean, like I'm
Speaker 3: always doing the math of reference points. To me, I
Speaker 3: don't know, Like for you, is there ever time where
Speaker 3: you're just like, I don't know, it might be too
Speaker 3: old for this ship. I don't want to just reduce
Speaker 3: it to as too old for this ship, but like.
Speaker 1: Too old for this shit.
Speaker 5: I mean right now, keep up like I legit was
Speaker 5: on Wikipedia, like taking a crash course in drill because
Speaker 5: I just like, all right, I gotta educate myself, Like
Speaker 5: I hold a whole bunch of gigs coming up for
Speaker 5: a bunch of kids, and I don't want to be
Speaker 5: that person. But it's like I feel like if you
Speaker 5: have to be paint by numbers, like okay, what are
Speaker 5: the kids?
Speaker 1: Whatever? But for you, like, is there ever a point
Speaker 1: where you just get exhausted? It's just like.
Speaker 3: Dog just throw Roy's album morning, I'm calling it a day,
Speaker 3: like I'm gonna I'm gonna take a nap whatever. So
Speaker 3: there's never a point where you saw an act like Okay,
Speaker 3: this is what the future is or like no, So
Speaker 3: for you, like the more dangerous is the more you
Speaker 3: People my age.
Speaker 1: Are talent in every generation.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And I think that again, like I said, like
Speaker 4: I'm from a mixtape culture where it's like new shit,
Speaker 4: new shit, new shit. So it's like my fascination is
Speaker 4: is with like like what's next. Like my label is
Speaker 4: called Generation Now, you know. So for me, it's like
Speaker 4: the fact that I've been able to navigate through fucking
Speaker 4: being in a Bahamad Dia video to Jack Harlowe, you know,
Speaker 4: or to Tyler Creator call me if you get lost,
Speaker 4: and winning a Grammy, Like my career has literally been
Speaker 4: an example of being able to surf through the errors.
Speaker 1: So, like, you know, I it's a young like I
Speaker 1: love where hip hop is today.
Speaker 4: Last night I went to the Wu Tang in Nas
Speaker 4: concert and I was like a kid in a candy store,
Speaker 4: you know.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's that's my era.
Speaker 4: Like that's when you know when you're I think when
Speaker 4: your team, those are your pivotable moments, you know what
Speaker 4: I'm saying. So yeah, for me, I'm like, as a
Speaker 4: forty four year old man, I'm I'm I'm in heaven,
Speaker 4: you know. But at the same time, I'm also a
Speaker 4: DJ who more likely plays for audiences in their twenties
Speaker 4: than I do for audiences in their forties, So it
Speaker 4: keeps me current and again, I just I just I
Speaker 4: just love the culture so much, so I love every
Speaker 4: diaspora of it, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So I don't.
Speaker 4: You know, this shit keeps me twenty one forever, like
Speaker 4: even now, having this resurgence of gangster grills, whether it's
Speaker 4: with Simba or whether it's Icewear Veso or Seti Hendrix
Speaker 4: or you know, it's like being able to still be
Speaker 4: in this space. And you know, I got to give
Speaker 4: Tyler his flowers for you know, in a sense kind
Speaker 4: of you know, bringing this resurgence of gangster grills back
Speaker 4: for what he did.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So no, I don't, I don't.
Speaker 4: I don't get in that space like I'm you know again,
Speaker 4: I'm to be a DJ and to to have the
Speaker 4: accolades that I have. It's like my goal was to
Speaker 4: get my name on a flyer. So the success that
Speaker 4: I've had, I don't. I don't take none of it
Speaker 4: for granted. And as much as I've accomplished, the way
Speaker 4: my brain works is always like damn, what the fuck
Speaker 4: am I gonna do next?
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: So I think that's what keeps me in this space
Speaker 4: of still being excited about you know, tomorrow or not,
Speaker 4: you know, again being one of the whiz in Logic tour.
Speaker 4: When I'm out there, I'm asking you know, all my
Speaker 4: two thousands of babies make some noise, and it's they
Speaker 4: make a lot of fucking noise. Like still a lot
Speaker 4: of nineties babies in there too, and the eighties babies
Speaker 4: are a little more quiet, don't your parents. I don't
Speaker 4: even ask about the seventies. I leave that alone. But
Speaker 4: you know, even when I walk out on stage, you know,
Speaker 4: having these kids like say my name and chant my
Speaker 4: name and be familiar with me because of Tyler or
Speaker 4: because of the Dreamville mixtape like such a blessing, you
Speaker 4: know what I'm saying that you know, I'm still here.
Speaker 1: And you're still finding a new audience, and I'm.
Speaker 4: Still finding a new audience, and and I'm and I'm
Speaker 4: excited about it, you know, as much as I'm excited
Speaker 4: about being able to go to the fucking nas and
Speaker 4: Wu Tang show and you know, seeing that sell.
Speaker 3: Out and shout out to you guy who thought I
Speaker 3: was a stalker in the hotel lobby this morning, you
Speaker 3: got you got.
Speaker 1: What man, I was like, it's me quest that you,
Speaker 1: oh man, I'm sorry.
Speaker 4: I thought you was like he thought, but you got
Speaker 4: to understand too, like even I hate I don't want
Speaker 4: to do this make you squirm again, but like bro, like, Bro,
Speaker 4: I saw you in the fucking like I used to.
Speaker 4: I was there past the popcorn. You're on television every.
Speaker 1: Night, like you have you have a fucking you have
Speaker 1: a fucking oscar.
Speaker 4: Bro, like you have an oscar? Like like, well, those
Speaker 4: things to me are like, Yo, there's the sky is
Speaker 4: not the limit. There's no limit.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna tell you this. This this is I'm not
Speaker 3: even blowing smoke. Today was a teachable lesson because every
Speaker 3: time you say something, I'm like, wait a minute, how
Speaker 3: are you just yes and jumping into some ship without
Speaker 3: light seeing.
Speaker 1: Who's going to be there first? Yeah, I'm like, and
Speaker 1: I need to be more so this is a little talk.
Speaker 1: You're a little more bougie than I am.
Speaker 5: I'm very much. I'm guarded. I'm protected. I'm guarded. I
Speaker 5: want to know that. I want the formula work. I
Speaker 5: wanted to break down the sciences.
Speaker 4: So if you run into somebody in the street right
Speaker 4: now and they're like, yo, I'm inspiring artists over the street,
Speaker 4: street can I get your number?
Speaker 1: Five people?
Speaker 5: Five people, blow slum Village, Jill Scott, Blow Slum Village,
Speaker 5: Jill Scott little brother. I'm five and oh, but I'm
Speaker 5: probably five and forty two.
Speaker 1: Thousand, oh those five I came to you.
Speaker 5: I yeah, I was in the position where I was
Speaker 5: like I felt in my heart like, oh this is
Speaker 5: oh Cody Testna that was my five.
Speaker 1: Oh.
Speaker 4: I remember he was on automatic relaxation. Yes, definitely was
Speaker 4: definitely more definitely all right.
Speaker 3: Give all right, we gotta wrap up, but please give
Speaker 3: another automatic relaxation.
Speaker 1: A whole bunch of people.
Speaker 4: You know, it's a few y'all, Like, can I just
Speaker 4: give you copies of the old ones? Like there's like
Speaker 4: it's not I mean, we we when it when it
Speaker 4: was what it was like now that there's a lot.
Speaker 1: Of that out now there's playlist, but it ain't nothing.
Speaker 1: But I've been coming from you.
Speaker 5: I think now at this point of your style, I
Speaker 5: don't think it would be that for you now, like
Speaker 5: if you did now, it's gonna be probably yeah, you
Speaker 5: know it's gonna be And I'll.
Speaker 6: Be listening now now you don't have to go, well
Speaker 6: where they went, they're.
Speaker 5: Gonna check for DJ Drama regardless. So if you win
Speaker 5: in that lane, that would be it would be something
Speaker 5: new to that audience.
Speaker 8: No, I'm respecting when you said relaxations and gangster Grizzelden.
Speaker 8: There you go, all right on behalf of Quest Left,
Speaker 8: Supreme Fante and Sugar, Steve and Steve.
Speaker 1: They say anything he was.
Speaker 4: Learning except about the skateboarder in Philly.
Speaker 1: You know he's he's Steve's here.
Speaker 3: Trust me anyway, No, thank you for doing this, man, man,
Speaker 3: I really appreciate.
Speaker 2: That school in the nation.
Speaker 3: Thank you to the staff everyone, fam you, thank you,
Speaker 3: and I thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 3: Uh and I am going to break that misspac Man
Speaker 3: record over time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, shout the exit shot.
Speaker 4: One day if somebody comes, just give him a number. Bro,
Speaker 4: you never know he's not You don't have to answer.
Speaker 1: Like the.
Speaker 4: Text me all the time, Like if I don't want
Speaker 4: to answer, I don't have to. You know, random people
Speaker 4: have Just when I was on tour, this guy just
Speaker 4: called me out of nowhere. I was like, Hey, this
Speaker 4: is a drama. I like, yeah, where'd you get my number?
Speaker 4: He's like, my manager gave it to me and he
Speaker 4: was like, yo, I'm a new artist, and I said, listen, bro,
Speaker 4: I'm a jewel you real quick. Like when I was
Speaker 4: coming up, I couldn't just call Jay z or Funk
Speaker 4: Master Flex like I'm like, and most people aren't gonna
Speaker 4: be as nice as me. But I'm telling you, before
Speaker 4: you try to get on my radar, look to your
Speaker 4: left and look to your right and try to create
Speaker 4: a movement with the people around you, and then before
Speaker 4: you know it, you'll be on my radar. Like, don't
Speaker 4: just call the the big wigs and think you can
Speaker 4: get on like. It's not that easy. I Connecticut, Yeah,
Speaker 4: I couldn't. I couldn't call jay z or Flex and say, hey,
Speaker 4: I'm DJ Drama like I'm dope like and I was,
Speaker 4: but I didn't have the right meaning to them.
Speaker 1: I didn't have the right to do that yet, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. So there's a teachable that's the
Speaker 1: jewel right there. All right, We'll see you in the
Speaker 1: next go round. Thank you very much, nim You quest
Speaker 1: Some Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio.
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Speaker 3: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.