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