WEBVTT - #518 - Brother Ali 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:01.720 Peace and love. This is brother a Lei checking out 0:00:01.760 --> 0:00:03.800 the Bootleg cav Podcast, one of my favorites. 0:00:03.840 --> 0:00:05.960 Stay right here, all right, y'all Before we get into 0:00:05.960 --> 0:00:08.799 the episode, we gotta do this. We just dropped these 0:00:08.840 --> 0:00:11.399 T shirts to celebrate five hundred episodes with the boot 0:00:11.440 --> 0:00:15.080 le cap Podcast. Yes, this is out Little daytona five 0:00:15.160 --> 0:00:18.959 hundred vintage flip. All five hundred episodes are on the back. Yes, 0:00:19.360 --> 0:00:22.520 you can do the gray, or you could just go black. 0:00:23.000 --> 0:00:25.640 The black is fire too. 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Man. 0:00:59.520 --> 0:01:00.840 Thank you for doing yes, sir for. 0:01:00.760 --> 0:01:01.360 People who don't know. 0:01:01.400 --> 0:01:06.039 I mean I interviewed you one time backstage after your tour. 0:01:06.240 --> 0:01:09.760 You and Evidence were on tour YEP in Boise, Idaho 0:01:09.800 --> 0:01:12.040 in two thousand and nine or ten? 0:01:12.240 --> 0:01:12.600 What year? 0:01:12.600 --> 0:01:13.160 What of that been? 0:01:13.240 --> 0:01:15.039 That was two thousand and nine and Evidence was just 0:01:15.080 --> 0:01:18.760 coming over to Rhyme Sayers And that was an amazing run. 0:01:18.880 --> 0:01:22.400 Every show sold out, fifty shows in sixty days, all 0:01:22.480 --> 0:01:24.320 of them sold out. Yeah, that was a good time, 0:01:24.480 --> 0:01:25.520 had crazy times. 0:01:25.560 --> 0:01:29.320 Man. It's it's wild too, because I feel like, what, 0:01:29.840 --> 0:01:33.520 oh you want to put you want to down? Yeah? 0:01:34.360 --> 0:01:36.000 Down, got it? 0:01:36.040 --> 0:01:36.560 Got it? Got it? 0:01:36.560 --> 0:01:36.840 Okay. 0:01:37.920 --> 0:01:41.800 How do you feel, man, because obviously, you know, you've 0:01:41.959 --> 0:01:47.120 had an amazing career as an independent artist somebody who 0:01:47.840 --> 0:01:51.600 you know, I guess would be considered quote unquote underground. 0:01:51.600 --> 0:01:54.480 When I was growing up, we had underground hip hop. Yeah, 0:01:54.760 --> 0:01:58.400 the game has changed a lot, and for you kind 0:01:58.400 --> 0:02:01.200 of being like an OG at this point, somebody who's 0:02:01.280 --> 0:02:02.880 kind of had a bunch of different errors of your 0:02:02.920 --> 0:02:06.920 own career, How do you feel, just like with today's 0:02:07.280 --> 0:02:10.040 climate in terms of like being an independent artist and 0:02:11.360 --> 0:02:14.640 making the kind of music that is not low hanging fruit, 0:02:14.639 --> 0:02:15.160 if you will. 0:02:15.440 --> 0:02:18.880 Yeah, it's really challenging, you know, but it's always been challenging. 0:02:18.960 --> 0:02:21.280 Like that's part of the fun of it, and that's 0:02:21.280 --> 0:02:23.600 part of the freedom of it. It's like, man, I'm 0:02:23.600 --> 0:02:27.360 going to make music about my secrets and you're not 0:02:27.400 --> 0:02:29.320 supposed to really do that. You know, I'm going to 0:02:29.360 --> 0:02:33.400 make secret music about things that aren't what everybody wants 0:02:33.440 --> 0:02:36.240 to necessarily hear right now, but there's something inside me 0:02:36.320 --> 0:02:38.480 that makes it. This is very true what I'm going 0:02:38.560 --> 0:02:41.480 to say, and to make the music that we want 0:02:41.520 --> 0:02:44.560 to make. And you know, if you're able to, then 0:02:44.840 --> 0:02:47.440 the struggle is to find the people that want to 0:02:47.480 --> 0:02:50.640 hear that secret and want to celebrate whatever that is. 0:02:51.360 --> 0:02:53.400 So and I mean, then that's true for everybody across 0:02:53.440 --> 0:02:56.120 the board. It's no different than like, you know, kids 0:02:56.160 --> 0:02:57.960 in New York that are caught up in like neighborhood 0:02:58.040 --> 0:03:00.640 beef and it's like, no, this is how we really live, 0:03:01.120 --> 0:03:03.400 and like, yeah, we're rough around the edges and we're violent, 0:03:03.480 --> 0:03:05.280 that's how we you know what I mean. And some 0:03:05.320 --> 0:03:07.440 of us are on drugs and whatever. But there's a 0:03:07.440 --> 0:03:11.200 certain like true lived human experience that they're putting in 0:03:11.240 --> 0:03:14.480 their music. And when it first happens, people are like, uh, 0:03:14.720 --> 0:03:17.760 I don't what is this? Their community right away is 0:03:17.760 --> 0:03:21.119 going to be like, yes, somebody's speaking for me. It's 0:03:21.120 --> 0:03:22.959 not easy living like this, you know what I mean? 0:03:23.360 --> 0:03:27.440 Everybody has something like that. And then once that actually 0:03:27.440 --> 0:03:30.840 starts to catch on the artists, once they get that space, 0:03:30.919 --> 0:03:34.160 they start to say more and we get a window 0:03:34.160 --> 0:03:36.080 into their world and we start getting contacts and then 0:03:36.120 --> 0:03:38.720 it makes sense. But you have to fight, and that's 0:03:38.760 --> 0:03:43.160 part of the beautiful struggle of it all. So you know, 0:03:43.200 --> 0:03:44.920 there was a period when we first came out where 0:03:45.080 --> 0:03:46.920 it's like when you said there was the underground thing. 0:03:47.440 --> 0:03:50.640 So when Papen Big died, it was like, okay, these 0:03:50.640 --> 0:03:53.400 are the first time the most respectable MC's, the most 0:03:53.400 --> 0:03:57.080 respected mcs in the culture were also crossover mainstream. It 0:03:57.120 --> 0:03:59.960 wasn't never like that before, Like we all love Tone 0:04:00.240 --> 0:04:03.040 and Young MC. They were never the top tier MC school, 0:04:03.920 --> 0:04:08.520 Yeah exactly. So you know, the other people had to fight. 0:04:08.600 --> 0:04:10.120 So then it was a weird thing that happened where 0:04:10.240 --> 0:04:13.520 all the great MC's were like, oh, we can be mainstream. 0:04:14.240 --> 0:04:16.640 And so for people where this was always a counterculture thing, 0:04:16.680 --> 0:04:18.880 it's just like, wait, what part is this? What part 0:04:18.920 --> 0:04:20.839 are we just so we're just like jumping in bed 0:04:20.880 --> 0:04:24.400 with the oppressors now because we because you can get 0:04:24.480 --> 0:04:27.200 rich doing it. That's strange to a lot of us. 0:04:27.600 --> 0:04:30.720 And so there was like a whole movement of most 0:04:30.760 --> 0:04:32.120 Death and the Roots. 0:04:31.760 --> 0:04:34.640 And the whole rockets hair, the roots hair. Yeah, yeah, 0:04:34.800 --> 0:04:36.880 definitely Common early Common. 0:04:36.560 --> 0:04:39.800 Shit, absolutely and you know Common's music is still that 0:04:39.880 --> 0:04:43.160 way dilated, you know, yeah, yeah, definitely dilated. People's was 0:04:43.200 --> 0:04:45.680 a huge part of that, and M F. Doom and 0:04:45.720 --> 0:04:48.120 Little Brother and like there's this like this whole thing, 0:04:48.880 --> 0:04:51.880 and we in a lot of ways were saying, like, Okay, 0:04:51.960 --> 0:04:55.000 the music industry has never been for us, so we're 0:04:55.000 --> 0:04:56.880 gonna go do our own thing. So you know what 0:04:56.920 --> 0:04:59.719 we did at Rhyme Shares and in Minneapolis and the 0:04:59.720 --> 0:05:02.520 mid we was to start going to all kinds of 0:05:02.520 --> 0:05:05.600 places where they never had hip hop before and like 0:05:05.800 --> 0:05:08.520 you know, going in and performing and you know, word 0:05:08.520 --> 0:05:11.400 of mouth and all that stuff. And then just every era, 0:05:11.520 --> 0:05:14.279 we've had to figure out what's the space that we 0:05:14.320 --> 0:05:20.039 can authentically engage. So you know, it was Napster and 0:05:20.080 --> 0:05:22.560 all that, and then it was MySpace and all that, 0:05:22.640 --> 0:05:24.080 and then it was the blogs and all that, and 0:05:24.680 --> 0:05:28.799 now with social media and so it's always a tremendous challenge, 0:05:28.839 --> 0:05:31.359 but that's part of the freedom of it all for sure. 0:05:31.480 --> 0:05:34.760 Yeah, I think too, like we're kind of in this 0:05:34.800 --> 0:05:39.520 weird space, which is positive where I think somehow this 0:05:39.640 --> 0:05:45.400 Kendrick Lamar beef has like brought like attention to lyricism 0:05:45.480 --> 0:05:47.360 again in a way that it might have been missing 0:05:47.400 --> 0:05:49.680 for however you feel about the beef, But I feel 0:05:49.680 --> 0:05:52.760 like people were paying attention to like bars again, which 0:05:52.760 --> 0:05:55.440 I feel like had been kind of missing for a while. 0:05:56.520 --> 0:05:58.000 And then you got to go, like Dochi who wins 0:05:58.000 --> 0:06:00.360 best rap album? Her album was incredible. I feel like 0:06:00.400 --> 0:06:02.440 there might be a page being turned where people want 0:06:02.480 --> 0:06:05.520 more substance in their music and maybe more you know, 0:06:06.200 --> 0:06:07.640 I feel like there might be an appetite for that 0:06:07.680 --> 0:06:09.200 because we've had I mean, we're going on damn near 0:06:09.240 --> 0:06:12.279 ten years of it being very like you know, like 0:06:12.320 --> 0:06:15.839 you said, we had Biggie, we had even Nas, you know, 0:06:16.040 --> 0:06:18.640 like you know, obviously Kendrick Cole all those guys are 0:06:18.720 --> 0:06:22.520 very high, high frequency artists. But I feel like, you know, 0:06:22.600 --> 0:06:24.400 in terms of what the kids are looking for, Like, 0:06:24.440 --> 0:06:27.600 my son is eleven, and he's like in the like 0:06:28.040 --> 0:06:31.039 rap music that I wouldn't think eleven year oldl be into. Yeah, 0:06:31.080 --> 0:06:32.520 which is a good thing, you know, because that's what 0:06:32.520 --> 0:06:34.320 I was into when I was eleven, you know. So 0:06:34.400 --> 0:06:35.840 I think I think I think there's a there's a 0:06:35.880 --> 0:06:38.800 culture shift happening. I hope so especially with just the 0:06:38.839 --> 0:06:41.640 younger because obviously guys like me and you know my age, 0:06:41.680 --> 0:06:43.320 we're gonna listen, We're gonna listen to. But it's like, 0:06:43.360 --> 0:06:46.640 what are the thirteen fourteen year olds listening to, you know, yeah, 0:06:46.680 --> 0:06:48.440 and what are they kind of inputting? Is it like 0:06:48.520 --> 0:06:51.440 op killing music or is it you know, Kendrick, you know, 0:06:51.640 --> 0:06:54.120 like and it's jope to see like Kendrick getting like 0:06:54.360 --> 0:06:56.479 I guess that because you know, now you've got people 0:06:56.480 --> 0:06:58.520 diving into Pimpa Butterfly, yeah, you know. 0:06:58.880 --> 0:07:00.400 Yeah, So we just put it on my It was 0:07:00.480 --> 0:07:03.880 number nine on the Hip Hop iTunes chart, and everything 0:07:03.880 --> 0:07:07.120 else in the top ten was Glorilla. It was like 0:07:07.680 --> 0:07:11.480 one through eight was Kendrick was like different Kendrick albums, 0:07:11.600 --> 0:07:13.280 and it's like, oh, okay, those are people that saw 0:07:13.320 --> 0:07:15.000 him on the super Bowl. And I think it was 0:07:15.000 --> 0:07:16.760 like a lot of like middle white America that was 0:07:16.800 --> 0:07:19.240 like Kendrick Lamar gentleman seems to have something to say. 0:07:19.240 --> 0:07:21.000 He might be as good as Eminem. Yeah, you know 0:07:21.040 --> 0:07:21.440 what I mean. 0:07:21.640 --> 0:07:23.760 And then Glorilla and then like me in the middle 0:07:23.800 --> 0:07:25.760 of it, me just chilling at number nine. 0:07:26.600 --> 0:07:27.080 It's weird. 0:07:27.120 --> 0:07:27.280 Men. 0:07:27.600 --> 0:07:30.520 So the Muslims call this realm the Dunya. It was 0:07:30.560 --> 0:07:32.520 like we were somewhere before we were here, and that 0:07:32.680 --> 0:07:35.880 was all true and beautiful. That's not where we are now. 0:07:36.280 --> 0:07:38.320 And then after this we have the life of the grave, 0:07:38.360 --> 0:07:41.160 We've got the judgment, we got the afterlife. But this 0:07:41.360 --> 0:07:43.720 place is a mixture of good and bad. It's a 0:07:43.760 --> 0:07:47.200 mixture of true and false. It's a mixture of things 0:07:47.280 --> 0:07:50.320 change and they say the same and everything is that way, 0:07:50.480 --> 0:07:53.440 you know what I mean. So, yeah, I love Kendrick obviously, 0:07:53.520 --> 0:07:55.360 Like you know what I mean. I met Kendrick when 0:07:55.360 --> 0:07:57.440 he was coming up and he was like yo, like 0:07:57.480 --> 0:08:02.760 we were you know, And I love Kendrick. It's also 0:08:02.880 --> 0:08:08.160 true that, you know, historically, white America has always accepted 0:08:08.160 --> 0:08:11.080 certain things, like all the culture comes from black for people, 0:08:12.000 --> 0:08:14.600 and all the cultural genius, all the culture export everything. 0:08:15.160 --> 0:08:17.440 But it's like there are some things that are not accepted. 0:08:17.880 --> 0:08:20.080 There are some things that are accepted. There are some 0:08:20.120 --> 0:08:21.880 things that are celebrated, and then there are some things 0:08:21.920 --> 0:08:27.280 that are mega celebrated. A critique what's not accepted is 0:08:27.320 --> 0:08:31.440 a critique of the power structure. So you know, what 0:08:31.840 --> 0:08:36.400 is accepted is just cultural genius that seems to not 0:08:36.440 --> 0:08:37.000 be harming it. 0:08:37.120 --> 0:08:39.240 Yeah, that's not like stirring the pot of too much. 0:08:39.240 --> 0:08:39.400 You know. 0:08:39.559 --> 0:08:45.040 What's always celebrated is black people fighting each other, especially 0:08:45.400 --> 0:08:49.240 great black people destroying each other. So that's not Kendrick's fault, 0:08:49.480 --> 0:08:51.439 you know what I mean. And that's and people who 0:08:51.440 --> 0:08:53.720 aren't black. Is like, there are certain conversations. It's like 0:08:53.720 --> 0:08:55.760 I don't have an opinion about that, you know what 0:08:55.800 --> 0:08:56.439 I mean, It's not my. 0:08:56.440 --> 0:08:56.960 Place to have it. 0:08:57.200 --> 0:09:00.000 But what I do know is what the white mainstream 0:09:00.160 --> 0:09:04.240 power structure does, which is they love to celebrate powerful 0:09:04.240 --> 0:09:06.320 black men destroying each other. You know what I mean, 0:09:06.480 --> 0:09:08.720 Because I mean Kendrick's last album, there's so much to 0:09:08.760 --> 0:09:09.280 break down. 0:09:09.320 --> 0:09:13.480 Oh yeah, I mean, it's it's a real like think 0:09:13.559 --> 0:09:16.839 piece on like self reflection, mental help, like so much, 0:09:16.920 --> 0:09:19.160 and it went over everybody's head and it wasn't celebrated 0:09:19.160 --> 0:09:19.720 in the same way. 0:09:19.880 --> 0:09:21.760 Now it's celebrated on a certain level. I mean, he 0:09:21.800 --> 0:09:25.440 did get a Politzer Prize in terms of culture, like 0:09:25.640 --> 0:09:29.319 hours and hours of people breaking down on YouTube every 0:09:29.600 --> 0:09:33.240 possible triple entendra of a Kendrick. And then for black women, 0:09:33.800 --> 0:09:36.520 it's everybody's right decision to do whatever they want with 0:09:36.559 --> 0:09:39.440 their image and their body and everything. But black women 0:09:39.480 --> 0:09:41.640 don't really get celebrated unless they're like. 0:09:41.640 --> 0:09:44.480 Rhap City is not going to be celebrated like sexy 0:09:44.520 --> 0:09:48.280 red too much close right, too black, too black, too strong, 0:09:48.640 --> 0:09:51.199 too much close, little, too dignified. 0:09:51.440 --> 0:09:53.600 You gotta be if you're a black woman. For the 0:09:53.679 --> 0:09:56.800 mainstream to accept you, we have to have sexual access 0:09:56.800 --> 0:09:59.040 to you because we used to own you, you know 0:09:59.040 --> 0:10:01.000 what I'm saying. So even be been married to Jay 0:10:01.080 --> 0:10:04.839 Z for twenty years, you still got to be in 0:10:04.880 --> 0:10:06.760 your underwear otherwise you're not going to bank it. 0:10:06.920 --> 0:10:08.439 That's why I was good to see Rhapsody win a 0:10:08.480 --> 0:10:11.439 Grammy this year. Man, Look, I felt like I want 0:10:11.480 --> 0:10:14.000 a Grammy. First Killer Mike won it. Oh when Killer 0:10:14.040 --> 0:10:14.760 Mike won it, I. 0:10:14.760 --> 0:10:18.200 Was like, yeah, man, you know, killing Mike at LP 0:10:18.480 --> 0:10:20.400 is like for somebody like me. So that's our era. 0:10:20.520 --> 0:10:21.520 Those guys that came up. 0:10:21.520 --> 0:10:23.559 When we came up and they just did what they've 0:10:23.600 --> 0:10:24.439 always done. 0:10:24.720 --> 0:10:26.800 There was zero according this, there was zero. 0:10:27.040 --> 0:10:29.400 Is like, man, it's also just good to know, like 0:10:30.000 --> 0:10:31.800 for like aging hip hop, Its like it's good to 0:10:31.800 --> 0:10:33.719 know I'm not a hater a hundred percent, Like I'm 0:10:33.760 --> 0:10:37.160 happy when somebody succeeds being true. Yeah. When Killer Mike won, 0:10:37.280 --> 0:10:39.160 I was it was to me because I mean he 0:10:39.240 --> 0:10:40.959 had the album of the Year. I'm like, yes, he 0:10:42.240 --> 0:10:44.560 I'm just glad they got it right. He wanted he 0:10:44.640 --> 0:10:46.800 wanted it, he said it. When he came in, it 0:10:46.880 --> 0:10:48.960 was like Babe Ruth or whoever pointing into the thing 0:10:49.240 --> 0:10:51.600 or Muhammad Ali and what round I'm gonn knock him 0:10:51.600 --> 0:10:53.120 out in he came out, he said. 0:10:52.960 --> 0:10:55.840 I want the album off the year, my mama, dad, 0:10:56.160 --> 0:10:57.959 And it's just like, yeah, man, get that album of 0:10:58.040 --> 0:11:02.240 the year man. Yeah, beautiful so rahapsity man, Like she's amazing. 0:11:02.320 --> 0:11:07.400 Man, She's incredible. Yeah, it's been fun you're bringing up 0:11:07.400 --> 0:11:09.280 the Super Bowl thing and just some of the it 0:11:09.360 --> 0:11:15.200 has been funny to watch like the far Rights, like 0:11:16.440 --> 0:11:20.040 inner conflict on how they feel about Kendrick's halftime show, 0:11:20.559 --> 0:11:21.839 because I've seen them be like. 0:11:23.000 --> 0:11:27.240 Well it was patriotic, you know, it wasn't woke. And 0:11:27.280 --> 0:11:29.199 then the other part we're like, yo, there wasn't any 0:11:29.200 --> 0:11:31.160 white people. It was just so funny. 0:11:31.240 --> 0:11:33.160 If you look at the twitter, like back and forth, 0:11:34.080 --> 0:11:36.240 it's so funny, like they don't know what to think 0:11:36.240 --> 0:11:38.160 of the halftime show, And to me, that's what's so 0:11:38.320 --> 0:11:42.600 brilliant about Like however that halftime show played out, was 0:11:42.679 --> 0:11:47.439 like no one's too sure on like some people think 0:11:47.440 --> 0:11:48.560 they got to figure it out, right. 0:11:49.679 --> 0:11:53.000 Yeah, I was just happy to see Kendrick be a 0:11:53.080 --> 0:11:55.760 free black man that expressed what he wanted to express. 0:11:55.920 --> 0:11:58.040 Like Samuel Jackson was like, all of you, you can have 0:11:58.280 --> 0:12:00.240 a story in the halftime show. It's like, yes, it was. 0:12:00.280 --> 0:12:00.920 It was amazing. 0:12:01.000 --> 0:12:04.640 Yeah. And then also that it was real art, yes, 0:12:04.920 --> 0:12:07.959 like art, that was art, Like you know what I mean, 0:12:08.000 --> 0:12:10.640 there's no denying the fact that you know, I've got 0:12:10.679 --> 0:12:12.920 my own opinion. We all have opinions, but I'm saying, like, man, 0:12:13.559 --> 0:12:15.520 that was him saying what he wanted to say, making 0:12:15.520 --> 0:12:17.280 the statement he wanted to make. He made it in 0:12:17.320 --> 0:12:20.240 a grand way that was fitting for that stage. But 0:12:20.320 --> 0:12:23.920 it was it was art art man, Like, yeah, so 0:12:24.360 --> 0:12:26.440 those are those are all amazing things. And that's why 0:12:26.480 --> 0:12:29.079 I say, like the Dunya is always good and bad. 0:12:29.559 --> 0:12:31.520 The more things change, the more they stay the same. 0:12:32.240 --> 0:12:38.200 You know, So talk to me. Uh you left Rhyme 0:12:38.200 --> 0:12:39.480 Sayers a few years ago? Was it? 0:12:39.679 --> 0:12:42.760 I went independent four years ago? Yeah? 0:12:43.000 --> 0:12:43.080 What? 0:12:43.280 --> 0:12:46.520 Obviously? You you know brother Ali and Rhyme Sais, you 0:12:46.559 --> 0:12:48.040 guys are very synonymous. Yeah. 0:12:48.120 --> 0:12:50.080 I was a company man. They talking about drinking the 0:12:50.120 --> 0:12:51.920 kool aid. I was the kool aid. I was busting 0:12:51.960 --> 0:12:54.080 through the wall like with the kool aid out. Oh yeah, 0:12:54.120 --> 0:12:55.400 because I love those people. 0:12:55.160 --> 0:12:57.000 I mean love. Yeah. Rhyme Saiers is obviously, you know, 0:12:57.000 --> 0:12:59.880 one of the craziest success stories. And when it comes 0:12:59.880 --> 0:13:02.000 to just an independent hip hop label, like fuck man, 0:13:02.040 --> 0:13:06.079 the atmosphere yourself, I mean, the festivals were crazy. What 0:13:06.280 --> 0:13:08.880 for you was was the main? You know, why did 0:13:08.880 --> 0:13:10.800 you break away and decide to do your own things? Man? 0:13:11.000 --> 0:13:14.600 It's just you know, you grow and you start to 0:13:14.800 --> 0:13:17.360 have your own ways that you the more you learn, 0:13:17.600 --> 0:13:19.760 the more you have certain things that you want to 0:13:19.800 --> 0:13:21.840 do and ways that you want to do things, and 0:13:21.880 --> 0:13:24.319 more so just like how you want to feel. And 0:13:24.960 --> 0:13:27.720 you know, I realized that the things that I wanted 0:13:27.720 --> 0:13:32.720 to do, like I've grown as a person and like 0:13:32.720 --> 0:13:34.960 what I offer the world, So like, not only do 0:13:35.080 --> 0:13:37.640 I do these like sold out tours across the country, 0:13:37.880 --> 0:13:41.080 I also delivered the Nobel Peace Prize form like keynote 0:13:41.080 --> 0:13:43.880 address at the Nobel Peace Prize. Wow, I've like lectured 0:13:44.040 --> 0:13:47.080 at Harvard and Princeton, you know what I mean. I 0:13:47.120 --> 0:13:50.439 also am a like a like I have leader in 0:13:50.480 --> 0:13:52.960 a Muslim community. I also want to write and do 0:13:53.040 --> 0:13:55.559 podcasts and all these kind of things. And then also 0:13:55.800 --> 0:13:57.680 I want, like I said, I want things to feel 0:13:57.720 --> 0:14:00.440 a certain way, and I just realized, like the things 0:14:00.440 --> 0:14:02.400 that I want to do, for them to build those, 0:14:02.520 --> 0:14:04.720 it wouldn't even be responsible for them to build those 0:14:04.720 --> 0:14:08.200 into that label because it would just be me. Like 0:14:08.240 --> 0:14:11.120 the things that I was requiring was that. And then 0:14:11.320 --> 0:14:15.200 also there was also some you know, when you're building something, 0:14:15.240 --> 0:14:18.240 as you go, you have certain ideas about what this 0:14:18.480 --> 0:14:21.600 is and things like that, and so you know, I 0:14:21.680 --> 0:14:25.360 discovered over time they're like, oh, I don't own this 0:14:25.480 --> 0:14:29.440 label and I don't have really a vote in it. 0:14:29.440 --> 0:14:31.720 It's not mine. I always kind of felt like it 0:14:31.760 --> 0:14:32.400 was mine. 0:14:32.200 --> 0:14:33.680 Even though you kind of felt that way because you 0:14:33.720 --> 0:14:35.760 were there, you know, because we all love each other 0:14:35.840 --> 0:14:38.280 and we're all family. But when it really comes to 0:14:38.400 --> 0:14:41.080 the decisions that are made, when it really comes to 0:14:41.120 --> 0:14:42.960 the moves that are made, when it really comes to 0:14:43.480 --> 0:14:45.640 you know, even things like hey, I don't think this 0:14:45.720 --> 0:14:49.120 particular situation is working. This particular situation is not working 0:14:49.120 --> 0:14:51.360 for me. There were years where it did not work 0:14:51.400 --> 0:14:53.960 for me and I was in a bad space, and 0:14:54.200 --> 0:14:56.640 what I would have needed to do would be to 0:14:56.760 --> 0:15:01.320 ask them to basically develop new departments just for me. 0:15:00.960 --> 0:15:04.040 And to do. And it's like that's at a certain point, 0:15:04.160 --> 0:15:07.040 like I went from saying like, hey, we're all family, 0:15:07.080 --> 0:15:09.320 let's work this out to like I'm just upset and 0:15:09.360 --> 0:15:11.600 there's nothing I can do about it, So like why. 0:15:13.480 --> 0:15:15.760 Build up that resentment? 0:15:16.560 --> 0:15:18.760 Yeah, so it's like, you know what, let me take 0:15:18.800 --> 0:15:21.440 the ultimate lesson from all of you that have invested 0:15:21.440 --> 0:15:24.040 so much in me and gained a lot from me too. Sure, 0:15:25.080 --> 0:15:28.320 everything I did was was very successful and nothing ever 0:15:28.480 --> 0:15:30.880 lost money. Everything I did was successful there, so it's 0:15:30.920 --> 0:15:34.080 like this was a great run together. The main thing 0:15:34.080 --> 0:15:36.560 that I can learn from you is that what you 0:15:36.600 --> 0:15:38.520 did is when you wanted things to be a certain way, 0:15:38.560 --> 0:15:41.920 you built something that was yours. So it hurt to 0:15:41.960 --> 0:15:44.760 do that, you know, because there's no scandal, there's no beef. 0:15:45.080 --> 0:15:49.800 Still love everybody, you know. But to step away, Now, 0:15:49.840 --> 0:15:52.480 what was beautiful is that right away when I did that, 0:15:52.560 --> 0:15:56.240 I started my podcast. Slug came out to one of 0:15:56.240 --> 0:15:58.200 the shows so we could do a podcast together on 0:15:58.240 --> 0:16:02.920 stage immediately, like my first time back out after stepping away. 0:16:03.160 --> 0:16:05.040 And then me and Aunt just made this album together 0:16:05.080 --> 0:16:08.080 and he came on tour with me in between Atmosphere tours, 0:16:08.080 --> 0:16:10.920 like instead of going home for five weeks, he came 0:16:10.960 --> 0:16:14.360 on tour with me. So it's like, man, the music 0:16:14.480 --> 0:16:17.560 is true, the love is true, the business is the 0:16:17.600 --> 0:16:19.960 corniest part of it. And so the business wasn't working. 0:16:19.960 --> 0:16:21.920 So now I'm doing something that does work, Like now 0:16:21.960 --> 0:16:25.520 I'm healthy, I'm well, you know what I'm saying. So 0:16:26.280 --> 0:16:28.800 I was terrified to do that, and I mourned it 0:16:28.880 --> 0:16:31.560 like I mourned it like a death because that's where 0:16:31.600 --> 0:16:35.120 I became me. I'm part They're part of me becoming me, 0:16:35.160 --> 0:16:37.880 and I'm part of them becoming them. And so to 0:16:37.920 --> 0:16:41.960 step away business wise, the main concern is like can 0:16:42.040 --> 0:16:46.000 we keep the friendships intact and obviously that's happened for 0:16:46.040 --> 0:16:48.520 the most part. Yeah, there's a couple of people that, 0:16:50.160 --> 0:16:52.880 you know, there's a few situations that are like, you know, 0:16:52.960 --> 0:16:55.200 we haven't really got back on the same page yet. 0:16:55.440 --> 0:16:56.880 But those things take time, for sure. 0:16:57.080 --> 0:16:59.560 Yeah. Yeah, So with anything you're handling, there's you know, 0:17:00.600 --> 0:17:01.720 you gotta let stuff settle. 0:17:01.840 --> 0:17:04.680 But those people are good people, so you know. Yeah, seen, 0:17:04.720 --> 0:17:07.280 Bay and me are really dear friends. And he opened 0:17:07.320 --> 0:17:09.480 your album. Yeah, and he came to me and said, 0:17:09.720 --> 0:17:12.479 we're thinking about doing the Black Star vinyl on rhyme sayers. 0:17:13.400 --> 0:17:15.000 I know that you used to be there and you're 0:17:15.000 --> 0:17:16.719 not anymore. Is there anything you want to tell me? 0:17:17.040 --> 0:17:21.080 I said. Those people are honest people, but don't assume anything. 0:17:21.119 --> 0:17:22.919 That's the only thing. If you want to know something, 0:17:23.080 --> 0:17:26.520 ask it. If you assume something, asked directly. But they 0:17:26.560 --> 0:17:28.560 will never cheat you. They will never lie to you. 0:17:29.040 --> 0:17:32.600 They managed Doom's affairs, which weren't or it wasn't easy. 0:17:32.640 --> 0:17:35.879 Are they still doing that? Yes, Yes, Doom was happy 0:17:35.920 --> 0:17:38.160 with them. His wife is, as far as I understand, 0:17:38.240 --> 0:17:38.720 is happy with you. 0:17:38.840 --> 0:17:41.840 I think they're they're like his licensing and everything. They're manager. 0:17:41.960 --> 0:17:45.800 Yes, yeah, they're not there's there's no there's nothing. People 0:17:45.920 --> 0:17:48.359 want there to be a scandal, you know what I'm saying, 0:17:48.400 --> 0:17:50.639 And it's like, sorry, I can't do that. Sometimes you 0:17:50.680 --> 0:17:51.040 just grow. 0:17:51.160 --> 0:17:53.080 I mean like when you think of Rhyme Saiers, I 0:17:53.119 --> 0:17:55.640 mean obviously they give Atmosphere, but then I think you're 0:17:55.720 --> 0:17:58.160 the flag bearer of the company for. 0:17:58.480 --> 0:18:01.200 And in the more traditional space, is I'm the more known. 0:18:01.440 --> 0:18:04.400 Right, especially with the label, Like I think of Rhymes Sties, 0:18:04.440 --> 0:18:05.840 I think of you, you know for sure? 0:18:06.000 --> 0:18:08.879 Yeah? And I mean you know, so Atmosphere built their 0:18:08.880 --> 0:18:11.600 own world completely separate, which is what's so amazing. No, 0:18:11.720 --> 0:18:14.800 well like separate from like within hip hop. So like 0:18:14.880 --> 0:18:17.960 Tech nine and Rhymes Staries did an atmosphere. Both were 0:18:17.960 --> 0:18:21.000 like nobody except us, very build my own, very on 0:18:21.040 --> 0:18:21.400 their own. 0:18:21.600 --> 0:18:25.680 That's that's a good Obviously different sonically, but very similar 0:18:25.720 --> 0:18:27.840 in terms of their approach to the industry and hip hop. 0:18:27.920 --> 0:18:29.840 Yes, and they built their own worlds. I'm not opening 0:18:29.880 --> 0:18:32.600 for people. No, the people can open for me. I 0:18:32.600 --> 0:18:34.679 don't open for people. I do my own show. It's 0:18:34.680 --> 0:18:36.880 Atmosphere show. It's a Tech nine show. And I learned 0:18:36.920 --> 0:18:39.359 a lot from that. But that's what they built but 0:18:39.440 --> 0:18:43.840 when I came along, I mean the you know, Public 0:18:43.920 --> 0:18:46.920 Enemy and Rock Kim took me on tour, ghost Face 0:18:46.960 --> 0:18:48.680 took me on tour, jiz It took me on tour. 0:18:49.040 --> 0:18:51.240 Brand Nubian took me on tour. Big Daddy Kane took 0:18:51.280 --> 0:18:55.120 me on tour. I was working with you know, Joe 0:18:55.119 --> 0:18:57.359 Budden and like so, I was in a I was 0:18:57.400 --> 0:19:00.240 out of our early roster. I was the one was 0:19:00.280 --> 0:19:01.600 known in hip hop spaces. 0:19:01.640 --> 0:19:03.840 Yeah you were working Yeah, yeah, you were, like you 0:19:03.880 --> 0:19:07.159 said you were in that. I just remember one of 0:19:07.200 --> 0:19:10.400 my favorite records ever was the record that you Freeway 0:19:10.440 --> 0:19:14.040 and Jake One did The Truth, which was so crazy. 0:19:14.080 --> 0:19:15.080 I hadn't I don't know if you ever saw I 0:19:15.080 --> 0:19:17.840 had Nipsey Hustle freestyle over that beating Oh yes, yes. 0:19:18.440 --> 0:19:21.520 Yeah, yeah, Rest in peace, nip I was just with 0:19:21.560 --> 0:19:24.280 some people yesterday for you. 0:19:24.320 --> 0:19:27.240 Man, I want to I want to talk to you 0:19:27.280 --> 0:19:32.119 about obviously being Muslim in the music industry. You know, 0:19:32.520 --> 0:19:34.760 I feel like we're in a really really strange place 0:19:35.040 --> 0:19:41.399 society wise, where you can't really be too honest about 0:19:41.520 --> 0:19:44.680 what's happening in the world. Uh. And you know, I've 0:19:44.760 --> 0:19:46.959 used my platform to be as honest as possible, you know, 0:19:47.040 --> 0:19:47.680 in terms. 0:19:47.480 --> 0:19:49.200 Of what do you mean, because I'm a I'm gonna 0:19:49.200 --> 0:19:50.760 take your lead on what we're saying. What I'm saying, 0:19:52.080 --> 0:19:53.600 you know, because I'll say, I'll say a lot, but 0:19:53.600 --> 0:19:54.440 I want to be respectful. 0:19:54.520 --> 0:19:56.879 Well, I'm talking about in terms of what's happening in 0:19:56.960 --> 0:20:00.119 Gaza in the West Bank, and uh, you know, you 0:20:00.280 --> 0:20:04.160 have a situation where you can't, necessarily, like I said, 0:20:04.200 --> 0:20:08.120 be too honest about certain what It's almost like you're 0:20:08.119 --> 0:20:09.840 seeing with your own eyes what's happening. But if you 0:20:09.840 --> 0:20:12.760 call it what it is, you know, you you there's 0:20:12.840 --> 0:20:14.720 labels that can put on your lack anti Semitic, you 0:20:14.800 --> 0:20:14.919 know what. 0:20:14.960 --> 0:20:17.800 I mean, My man, there's go ahead, go ahead, man, 0:20:17.840 --> 0:20:18.480 go ahead. Brothers. 0:20:18.600 --> 0:20:20.399 Well, I feel like it's like it's interesting to me 0:20:20.440 --> 0:20:21.960 that like we live in a space where two things 0:20:21.960 --> 0:20:25.160 can't beat you at the same time. It's like, even 0:20:25.160 --> 0:20:30.119 if you're a Zionist, whatever, cool, but you can't not 0:20:30.359 --> 0:20:33.080 be honest about what's happening at the same Like it's 0:20:33.080 --> 0:20:35.679 almost like those two things are exclusive to each other. 0:20:35.760 --> 0:20:37.959 However you feel about Zionism or whatever the case is. 0:20:38.720 --> 0:20:40.919 But like, I have friends in my life who are Jewish, 0:20:41.040 --> 0:20:44.200 who are Zionists, but also are very honest about there 0:20:44.200 --> 0:20:47.240 being a genocide and ethnic cleansing and what's happening in 0:20:47.280 --> 0:20:52.400 the West Bank is super fucked. But in the music industry, 0:20:53.080 --> 0:20:57.080 you know, I haven't seen anyone necessarily on the super 0:20:57.080 --> 0:21:02.760 commercial side outside of Maclamore Lannie. You know, there's not 0:21:03.000 --> 0:21:08.520 really a lot of big artist kind of speaking out 0:21:08.560 --> 0:21:11.280 like I feel like that'd be none, that'd be none. Yeah. 0:21:11.600 --> 0:21:13.399 So one of the things that's you know, somebody I 0:21:13.440 --> 0:21:15.359 was just with Gabriel Tiodro shout out to him. I 0:21:15.359 --> 0:21:17.920 think he was quoting somebody, but he said, so part 0:21:17.920 --> 0:21:19.399 of what we're talking about with this Kendrick thing is 0:21:19.400 --> 0:21:23.600 he can call Drake a colonizer and that's celebrated, right, 0:21:23.800 --> 0:21:26.080 But where's the part where Benjamin Nett and Yahoo is 0:21:26.080 --> 0:21:28.560 a war criminal. Where's the part where because the hip 0:21:28.600 --> 0:21:31.320 hop we come from is it's like there was public 0:21:31.640 --> 0:21:34.399 in peace, the resident I'm President pulling out my ray gun, 0:21:35.160 --> 0:21:40.240 you know, like there was very direct like they're the enemy. 0:21:40.720 --> 0:21:43.199 Like what we come from is they're banging on the system. 0:21:43.240 --> 0:21:46.280 They're banging on white supremacy, they're banging on colonialism, they're 0:21:46.280 --> 0:21:48.960 banging on. Yeah, man, and what you say is completely true. 0:21:49.520 --> 0:21:52.320 And so yeah, last year I made an album with 0:21:52.400 --> 0:21:55.920 a Jewish anti Zionist producer named Unjusts. He's done on 0:21:56.000 --> 0:22:00.000 hieroglyphics and he's amazing and he's also an animator. Illus 0:22:00.640 --> 0:22:03.439 we made a beautiful album called Love and Service. The 0:22:03.520 --> 0:22:05.240 whole thing is really beautiful. 0:22:07.200 --> 0:22:07.439 You know. 0:22:07.520 --> 0:22:09.280 When we got to the end of the project was 0:22:09.359 --> 0:22:13.320 right when the big Day in October happened, and we said, man, 0:22:13.720 --> 0:22:16.200 we knew that we had this in common. We knew 0:22:16.200 --> 0:22:18.560 it was a Muslim and a Jewish guy, and I mean, 0:22:18.600 --> 0:22:20.600 he's a Jewish guy, got the beard, went to birthright, 0:22:20.680 --> 0:22:24.080 mirrored a Jewish woman, he's a Jewish man, he's anti Zionist. 0:22:24.200 --> 0:22:27.399 He's also very you know, and we knew that we 0:22:27.440 --> 0:22:29.040 had this in common, but it was like not real. 0:22:29.080 --> 0:22:30.680 It was just kind of a detail. We don't think 0:22:30.680 --> 0:22:31.440 we're making music. 0:22:31.640 --> 0:22:33.200 Yeah, Like it was like, yeah, we're making music. Is 0:22:33.240 --> 0:22:36.040 we're making music. And this also is like a cool tidbit. Hey, 0:22:36.200 --> 0:22:38.919 so Muslim, you're Jewish. When that happened, that makes it 0:22:38.960 --> 0:22:41.200 way a whole other. It's like, oh, this just took 0:22:41.240 --> 0:22:45.560 a different turn. So we made a song called the Collapse, you. 0:22:45.520 --> 0:22:50.639 Know, and he animated it and he animated some stuff 0:22:50.680 --> 0:22:54.080 he went in. And I respect people that critique their 0:22:54.080 --> 0:22:56.480 own community, especially if you come from the people that 0:22:56.560 --> 0:22:58.639 are in power with the money and the guns. So 0:22:58.680 --> 0:23:00.600 people see the way that I talk about whiteness, and 0:23:00.600 --> 0:23:03.080 they're like, well, you're the whitest guy ever, you know 0:23:03.119 --> 0:23:05.560 what I mean. That's what Chappelle always says. Brother is 0:23:05.600 --> 0:23:08.120 the whitest of all the whites. He's a white man 0:23:08.160 --> 0:23:11.040 and he's out bino. God can't get much whiter than that. 0:23:11.040 --> 0:23:15.160 But somehow the blackest mother for God, Pale Mooney, he said. 0:23:15.240 --> 0:23:18.879 But that's funny. But it's like, man, I respect that. 0:23:19.320 --> 0:23:23.280 I respect minister Farakhon, Minister Farakhan. Most of what he's 0:23:23.320 --> 0:23:26.080 talking about and critiques is telling black people how to 0:23:26.400 --> 0:23:27.560 regain greatness. 0:23:27.720 --> 0:23:29.280 Yeah. I just had a conversation with you know who 0:23:29.320 --> 0:23:31.840 nineteen Keys is. Of course, So me and nineteen Keys 0:23:31.920 --> 0:23:34.280 had a three hour interview a couple of weeks ago, 0:23:34.280 --> 0:23:37.160 and I mean it's he's like, yo, save yourself. 0:23:37.680 --> 0:23:38.160 That's the thing. 0:23:38.200 --> 0:23:40.399 It's like, yo, like you know, if there's anything that 0:23:40.560 --> 0:23:44.160 like this last political psychle however you feel about who 0:23:44.200 --> 0:23:48.200 won and whatever. It's like, Yo, the Nigerian president came 0:23:48.240 --> 0:23:51.199 out and said something that nineteen Keys pointed out, and 0:23:51.200 --> 0:23:54.399 he was like they were talking about cutting cutting aid 0:23:55.080 --> 0:23:57.840 from the US to there, and the Nigerian president was like, 0:23:57.840 --> 0:24:00.720 why are we worried about this, Like we're Nigeria, Like yeah, 0:24:00.840 --> 0:24:05.439 we got us, Like let's not depend on the US. 0:24:05.560 --> 0:24:08.760 And I think metaphorically that's you know what nineteen Keys 0:24:08.800 --> 0:24:10.639 has been saying for a while, like, Yo, we gotta, 0:24:10.760 --> 0:24:12.760 we gotta we had our own infrastructure. 0:24:12.880 --> 0:24:15.920 I mean, that's Elijah Muhamma's message, that's Marcus Garvey's message. 0:24:16.000 --> 0:24:18.160 That's you know. And those aren't those aren't the figures 0:24:18.200 --> 0:24:20.600 that get celebrated, but those are folks that are those 0:24:20.760 --> 0:24:25.080 So those great leaders are deeply critical of within the community, 0:24:25.160 --> 0:24:26.680 like we got it to get it together, you know 0:24:26.720 --> 0:24:29.399 what I mean. But for a Jewish person or for 0:24:29.480 --> 0:24:32.240 a white person to say like, okay, we have an 0:24:32.240 --> 0:24:36.159 added thing because as a as a as a group, 0:24:37.320 --> 0:24:39.520 we have the power and the guns and the money 0:24:39.600 --> 0:24:42.159 and the force and the might. So you have to 0:24:42.200 --> 0:24:46.120 be particularly but there but a voice from within celebrate 0:24:46.280 --> 0:24:49.480 like talking about taking self to account like we could 0:24:49.480 --> 0:24:51.320 do better than this. We have to be better than this. 0:24:51.640 --> 0:24:54.919 You know, uh, those you will not be appreciated for that. 0:24:54.960 --> 0:24:57.520 So we put this album out, and I'm telling you 0:24:57.600 --> 0:25:01.240 it got buried you when you saw me. You know, 0:25:01.240 --> 0:25:03.040 I've always done one hundred and fifty plus shows a 0:25:03.119 --> 0:25:06.119 year LA and for a calendar year, I had not 0:25:06.280 --> 0:25:10.040 one show, wow, not one paid gig for a year. 0:25:10.760 --> 0:25:13.560 My booking agent, who's a Jewish lady, couldn't get me 0:25:13.600 --> 0:25:15.880 a single paid show for a full year. Even during 0:25:15.880 --> 0:25:20.080 the pandemic. I performed in parking lots with people in 0:25:20.119 --> 0:25:23.080 their cars, and Dave Chappelle had us do this thing outdoors. 0:25:23.640 --> 0:25:25.879 Like man, I've never had a year with no shows 0:25:25.960 --> 0:25:29.480 in twenty two years of touring. We put this album 0:25:29.520 --> 0:25:31.760 out and we hired a very expensive and so for 0:25:31.800 --> 0:25:34.840 people hearing this story, I don't name names. It was 0:25:34.880 --> 0:25:39.200 supposed to be distributed by a big distributor. After the 0:25:39.240 --> 0:25:41.200 big day in October happened. I mean, we had everything 0:25:41.200 --> 0:25:44.240 but a signed contract. We had budgets. I spent a 0:25:44.280 --> 0:25:47.440 lot of money promoting the record, manufacturing the record. They 0:25:47.520 --> 0:25:49.879 just slowly ghosted us and walked away and then posted 0:25:49.920 --> 0:25:55.040 a bunch of Zionist stuff. The biggest promoters in my 0:25:55.080 --> 0:25:57.760 biggest markets that I've known for years, I know them. 0:25:58.119 --> 0:25:59.840 I know they love me. They bring their kids to 0:25:59.840 --> 0:26:02.159 talk to me. Wouldn't book me for anything. 0:26:02.800 --> 0:26:02.919 Uh. 0:26:03.240 --> 0:26:06.040 There, we hired a big press agent. I know the 0:26:06.160 --> 0:26:09.600 names of all the people at the big uh outlets. 0:26:09.840 --> 0:26:12.280 The biggest magazine is the biggest, all of that stuff. 0:26:12.560 --> 0:26:14.800 I know their names. They've written about me everything that 0:26:14.840 --> 0:26:17.480 I've done for years. We didn't go from the biggest 0:26:17.480 --> 0:26:20.920 outlets like Rolling Stone to smaller ones. We went from 0:26:21.040 --> 0:26:25.200 Rolling Stone to nothing. Not a single blog except for one. 0:26:26.000 --> 0:26:26.800 Uh. 0:26:26.920 --> 0:26:30.560 There was one place in Palestine actually that covered us. 0:26:30.880 --> 0:26:34.159 Chuck D played US. Amy Goodman on Democracy Now played us. 0:26:34.840 --> 0:26:37.360 That's it. But I'm saying so we went from from 0:26:37.920 --> 0:26:41.360 I'm a very reliable entity in the music Well, well, 0:26:41.359 --> 0:26:44.040 for sure, I'm not big and famous. You're not gonna 0:26:44.080 --> 0:26:46.879 make millions, but you will always make thousands of dollars. 0:26:46.920 --> 0:26:49.760 You're gonna, you're gonna, You're always gonna sell your tickets. 0:26:50.280 --> 0:26:53.520 And I'm never a messy My fans aren't messy. I'm 0:26:53.520 --> 0:26:56.240 somebody that promoters are just like, Hey, it's brother Harley Day. 0:26:56.359 --> 0:27:00.480 Of course it's happy for everybody. Nothing, no press on nothing. 0:27:00.640 --> 0:27:03.760 And then also shadow band on social media from making 0:27:03.800 --> 0:27:06.960 a project with an anti Zionist Jewish homie where called 0:27:07.000 --> 0:27:09.480 Love and Service, which is about United War, where one 0:27:09.520 --> 0:27:13.680 of the songs is a critique of a Jewish American 0:27:14.040 --> 0:27:16.280 and what Chappelle calls the whitest of all the whites 0:27:16.720 --> 0:27:21.400 with a critique about our own power structure. So yeah, man, 0:27:21.440 --> 0:27:23.560 it's real, and you know, shout out to the people 0:27:23.560 --> 0:27:25.320 that have said it. I mean, Maclamore is in a 0:27:25.400 --> 0:27:28.639 unique position where he already got his money, his millions 0:27:28.680 --> 0:27:30.679 and his grands. Oh yeah, he's chilling, He's yeah. But 0:27:30.720 --> 0:27:34.760 what Maclamore wants is to be respected, and he's going 0:27:34.800 --> 0:27:38.240 about it the right way. Maclamore also, I've known him. 0:27:38.400 --> 0:27:40.440 I knew him long before he was famous. He also 0:27:40.560 --> 0:27:44.199 was a super underground cat for years. You know, like 0:27:44.520 --> 0:27:47.120 the one critique that I have of my brother, who 0:27:47.240 --> 0:27:49.240 I love, who is a very nice person, a very 0:27:49.280 --> 0:27:51.960 talented person. He's a husband and a dad. He's got 0:27:51.960 --> 0:27:55.200 a lot to say. He's a Maclamore learned a lot 0:27:55.720 --> 0:28:01.000 from the Rhyme series movement and from us, and when 0:28:01.040 --> 0:28:04.440 he made his assent. He was very careful to cover 0:28:04.600 --> 0:28:06.480 up the people that he learned a lot of what 0:28:06.520 --> 0:28:09.600 he learned, so he would he was and I know 0:28:09.800 --> 0:28:14.560 his his manager was my booking agent. I was very 0:28:14.680 --> 0:28:17.320 like close on the inside of what was happening there. 0:28:17.680 --> 0:28:21.080 And they were very careful to not shed light on 0:28:21.160 --> 0:28:23.040 the people that they learned a lot of what they 0:28:23.080 --> 0:28:26.320 did from. So you know, if you listen to his music, 0:28:26.359 --> 0:28:29.280 he'll credit Wu Tang and all this other stuff, but 0:28:29.359 --> 0:28:32.160 he sounds more like Sainte Francis and me in Atmosphere 0:28:32.200 --> 0:28:34.200 and you know what I mean. And also there's a 0:28:34.280 --> 0:28:36.560 lot of very very direct connections. They brought him to 0:28:36.640 --> 0:28:39.840 Rhyme Saies to try to sign him. They manufactured the 0:28:40.400 --> 0:28:43.120 deal that they had to distribute that album, which is 0:28:43.160 --> 0:28:45.160 called The Heist, which is interesting. 0:28:45.880 --> 0:28:48.640 They had he had the it was essentially like a 0:28:48.680 --> 0:28:51.040 label services thing with Warner. 0:28:50.920 --> 0:28:54.240 Which was found which was developed by Rhyme Sayers. That 0:28:54.360 --> 0:28:57.479 was the Rhyme Sayers deal that they took. You know, 0:28:58.520 --> 0:29:02.520 it was a directly from the blueprint. And so the 0:29:02.560 --> 0:29:04.800 only critique that I've ever had of him, and it's 0:29:04.800 --> 0:29:07.080 not a hateful one, but it is a true one, 0:29:07.320 --> 0:29:10.120 is that when he made that assent, there was an 0:29:10.120 --> 0:29:13.880 opportunity to tell the truth about he got credit for 0:29:13.920 --> 0:29:15.720 a lot of things that were developed by people who 0:29:15.760 --> 0:29:18.320 never got a chance to be famous, right and so, 0:29:18.640 --> 0:29:20.560 and you know, and that's a historical thing in the 0:29:20.640 --> 0:29:21.520 music business. 0:29:22.160 --> 0:29:24.280 Yeah, I think with Mac man, I mean obviously, you know, 0:29:24.520 --> 0:29:27.520 I'm cool with Mac. I think he's first of all. 0:29:27.520 --> 0:29:33.280 That whole thing happened really fast, the heists, I mean 0:29:33.480 --> 0:29:35.480 one hip Hop Album of the Year. You know, a 0:29:35.480 --> 0:29:36.920 lot of people think Kendrick should have won it, but 0:29:37.520 --> 0:29:39.240 I think I don't know, man, I just I know 0:29:39.320 --> 0:29:41.080 him to be a very good guy, you know. And 0:29:41.320 --> 0:29:45.080 and I'm not sure, you know, I'm not too hip 0:29:45.120 --> 0:29:48.960 to or educated on. Like I haven't watched every interview 0:29:49.000 --> 0:29:50.360 that he's done, so I don't know who he gives 0:29:50.400 --> 0:29:52.440 love to and who doesn't give love to. But I 0:29:52.440 --> 0:29:54.479 do know like he was like a like you said, 0:29:54.520 --> 0:29:57.640 like he was very much like a blog era, like 0:29:58.360 --> 0:30:01.600 kind of like, you know, outside of the mainstream of 0:30:01.640 --> 0:30:04.240 hip hop for a long time, meeting up in the Northwest, 0:30:03.680 --> 0:30:06.800 and then he caught a wave, you know, Like. 0:30:06.720 --> 0:30:10.040 Well, yes, and like I said in the Dunya, two 0:30:10.120 --> 0:30:12.560 things are true two things can be true. Two things 0:30:12.560 --> 0:30:14.720 can be true, and so we're dealing with a very good, 0:30:14.840 --> 0:30:17.960 very talented, very hard work and deserving person who also 0:30:18.120 --> 0:30:22.120 was very calculated about employing things that it didn't happen fast. 0:30:22.360 --> 0:30:23.840 It happened very slow. 0:30:23.840 --> 0:30:26.360 Right, I mean in terms of just the like it 0:30:26.440 --> 0:30:28.240 felt like if you were not if you didn't know 0:30:28.280 --> 0:30:32.760 who Maclamore was before twenty twelve, and then all of 0:30:32.760 --> 0:30:33.600 a sudden. 0:30:33.360 --> 0:30:35.080 It seems like it was out of nowhere. 0:30:34.920 --> 0:30:37.280 Right, That's what I mean, like from like a generic music. 0:30:37.320 --> 0:30:39.960 But then there's also there's been many years where this 0:30:40.960 --> 0:30:43.680 you know, it could have there. I know this situation 0:30:43.840 --> 0:30:45.760 very well, know him very well. I've had a converse, 0:30:45.800 --> 0:30:49.840 I've had conversations with him about this. I will just 0:30:49.880 --> 0:30:54.560 say the only unfortunate thing is that he benefited a 0:30:54.600 --> 0:30:57.760 lot from underground. And that's usually the case where there's 0:30:57.760 --> 0:31:01.120 an underground movement. So we all know Nirvana, but in 0:31:01.160 --> 0:31:04.200 the Pacific Northwest, it's like, no, we were all grinding 0:31:04.280 --> 0:31:05.800 like this and then they made it, you know what 0:31:05.840 --> 0:31:09.400 I mean. So sometimes you'll have a situation where people 0:31:10.040 --> 0:31:13.640 really want you to know, they want to also allow 0:31:13.720 --> 0:31:16.480 their success to be helpful to the people who's grind 0:31:16.720 --> 0:31:19.880 helped them. So like when Eminem got his first Grammy, 0:31:20.240 --> 0:31:22.640 Eminem stood up there and he knew that white America 0:31:22.680 --> 0:31:26.080 had never heard intricate rhyming like this before, because before him, 0:31:26.320 --> 0:31:27.920 you could only be on a radio if it was 0:31:28.040 --> 0:31:30.840 funky colpe Medina again not justice to tone look, but 0:31:30.920 --> 0:31:32.480 like you had to be simple to be on the radio. 0:31:32.640 --> 0:31:35.000 White people did not want to hear intricate rapping. When 0:31:35.000 --> 0:31:40.040 Eminem came along. He knows white America doesn't know broader America, 0:31:40.120 --> 0:31:43.640 mainstream America doesn't know who I'm on the shoulders of. 0:31:43.880 --> 0:31:46.160 So he took out a list and he said, coogi 0:31:46.280 --> 0:31:49.000 rap And he read this whole list of artists that 0:31:49.080 --> 0:31:53.719 he knew weren't known because he benefited from them, and 0:31:53.760 --> 0:31:56.200 then he also wanted his success to benefit them. So 0:31:56.320 --> 0:31:59.440 every day he's got a T shirt on with these 0:31:59.560 --> 0:32:03.040 artists that people don't yeah and so to Yeah. So 0:32:03.200 --> 0:32:06.240 just the one critique about our dear brother, and I'm 0:32:06.280 --> 0:32:09.840 saying I'm not I'm not just being polite when I 0:32:09.840 --> 0:32:12.640 say the other side really hard work and beautiful guy, 0:32:12.720 --> 0:32:14.600 done a lot of great things. And this Gadza thing 0:32:15.240 --> 0:32:18.440 is like, man, it's beautiful, you know. But there's another 0:32:18.520 --> 0:32:20.800 chance when they say you're the only rapper saying anything 0:32:21.600 --> 0:32:24.320 he knows, also, that's not true, Like you know what 0:32:24.360 --> 0:32:26.960 I mean. So if somebody says to me, brother, Ali, 0:32:27.120 --> 0:32:28.720 you did this and this and this and this and this, 0:32:28.960 --> 0:32:30.560 I'm going to say, yes, I learned a lot of 0:32:30.600 --> 0:32:33.400 from from my mortal technique. I also I'm going to 0:32:33.440 --> 0:32:35.280 shout out all the people that came before me that 0:32:35.320 --> 0:32:35.920 aren't known. 0:32:36.240 --> 0:32:38.280 I say that too all the time you bring it 0:32:38.320 --> 0:32:43.680 up a mortal technique, I'm like, yeo, Like there's obviously 0:32:43.760 --> 0:32:46.360 you touched on what's going on in your music. But 0:32:46.680 --> 0:32:50.960 you know, when I was sixteen, like a mortal technique 0:32:51.040 --> 0:32:55.520 was like you would learn like yeah about shit, you 0:32:55.560 --> 0:32:56.920 never even heard of it. I just don't know who 0:32:56.960 --> 0:32:59.560 the young generation's version of a mortal tech is anymore. 0:32:59.640 --> 0:33:01.200 I don't think that. I don't know if it exists. 0:33:01.200 --> 0:33:03.520 Well, I don't think they're rapping. I think I think 0:33:03.560 --> 0:33:03.960 it is. 0:33:03.880 --> 0:33:07.440 Like or nineteen Keys or a podcast or something. But yes, 0:33:07.520 --> 0:33:09.360 like when I was growing up, like dude, you were 0:33:09.400 --> 0:33:10.080 learning about. 0:33:09.920 --> 0:33:12.760 All kinds of CIA. Did you see him once? 0:33:12.840 --> 0:33:15.480 Way he just freached out like he sent me his 0:33:15.560 --> 0:33:18.400 albums albums dope amazing. No, but yeah, but I'm sure 0:33:18.400 --> 0:33:20.440 it's like it's like we had immortal tech and and 0:33:20.520 --> 0:33:22.920 certain artists where you would be like you would learn shit, 0:33:23.360 --> 0:33:25.560 yes and make you questions. 0:33:25.640 --> 0:33:29.120 You could actually develop a political lens by listening to 0:33:29.160 --> 0:33:30.400 your favorite artists. 0:33:30.120 --> 0:33:33.360 Yes, or at least have nuance or have like perspective 0:33:33.360 --> 0:33:35.600 and at least open up your viewpoint a little bit, 0:33:35.640 --> 0:33:35.840 you know. 0:33:35.880 --> 0:33:39.000 And now that's not Now that's not the case. Yeah, 0:33:39.240 --> 0:33:41.440 And you know, and I've been thinking about this and 0:33:41.480 --> 0:33:43.640 talking about it a lot. And that's why I also think, 0:33:43.680 --> 0:33:46.400 like whatever people's nuanced opinions of the Kendrick thing are, 0:33:47.080 --> 0:33:50.200 Kendrick re established that hip hop is that voice. And 0:33:50.240 --> 0:33:51.920 in a lot of ways you mentioned Islam, and then 0:33:51.960 --> 0:33:54.080 in a lot of ways Islam has been that voice. 0:33:54.480 --> 0:33:56.920 You know, you think about the first time that this 0:33:57.000 --> 0:34:01.960 person got elected. You know, they they brought I'm getting 0:34:02.040 --> 0:34:04.320 chills thinking about this, but they brought Dave Chappelle and 0:34:04.400 --> 0:34:08.640 tribe called Quest on Saturday Night Live. And they're all Muslim, 0:34:08.719 --> 0:34:11.359 Like everybody on the stage is Muslim. And those are 0:34:11.360 --> 0:34:15.160 the people that those are the people that are gonna 0:34:15.160 --> 0:34:20.680 get the worst of whatever. This is comforting America basically, right, 0:34:20.800 --> 0:34:23.120 And it just happened too, And it just happened to just 0:34:23.200 --> 0:34:26.120 did was it right after the election? 0:34:26.600 --> 0:34:30.560 Yeah? So they just and again it's like it's something 0:34:30.560 --> 0:34:31.759 about Dave's voice. 0:34:31.840 --> 0:34:34.920 During those monologues. It just it just feels like and 0:34:34.920 --> 0:34:37.720 and you know, and that's the that's the big lie 0:34:37.920 --> 0:34:41.360 of American life that just constantly gets repeated, is like 0:34:41.719 --> 0:34:44.279 we we cannot live without black people, but we hate 0:34:44.320 --> 0:34:46.799 being compared to them. And it's like, well, we can't 0:34:46.800 --> 0:34:50.160 deny you physically and talent wise, so what we're gonna 0:34:50.160 --> 0:34:52.360 do is create these narratives that you're not as human 0:34:52.440 --> 0:34:54.680 and you're not nuanced, and you're not dynamic, and you're 0:34:54.719 --> 0:34:58.319 not sensitive, and you're not you know, you're you're you're 0:34:58.440 --> 0:35:01.640 just a very talented, mega souper hero brute. You're not 0:35:01.719 --> 0:35:05.279 really fully human. But what happens over and over and 0:35:05.320 --> 0:35:08.200 over again is whenever we're in a jam, we go 0:35:08.320 --> 0:35:12.120 back to black voices to help us make sense of 0:35:12.160 --> 0:35:14.080 this mess that we made. That's that you're going to 0:35:14.120 --> 0:35:18.000 catch the worst brunt of again, and it's always there. 0:35:18.239 --> 0:35:21.560 You know, you're dealing with their mother and father of humanity. 0:35:21.560 --> 0:35:24.960 You're dealing with the original people. So it's like every 0:35:25.000 --> 0:35:27.919 great thing is from them, you know what I mean. 0:35:28.000 --> 0:35:30.760 And there's nothing self deprecating about that. It's like saying 0:35:30.760 --> 0:35:33.560 my grandparents are amazing, my mom is amazing, you know 0:35:33.600 --> 0:35:33.920 what I mean. 0:35:33.960 --> 0:35:35.320 It's like we are all. 0:35:35.080 --> 0:35:38.719 In one way or another, the inheritors and the recipients 0:35:38.719 --> 0:35:40.399 of that. And that's what I mean when I say 0:35:40.440 --> 0:35:43.879 that to be connected culturally is to have no problem given, 0:35:44.360 --> 0:35:46.160 to take pride in giving it up to who did 0:35:46.200 --> 0:35:49.640 I learn from? Who came along when there were no 0:35:49.719 --> 0:35:53.359 Grammys for this stuff, and who put in the who 0:35:53.400 --> 0:35:56.120 destroyed their voices and maybe their families and maybe they're 0:35:56.200 --> 0:36:00.560 whatever to build this thing so that someone like Maclamore 0:36:00.600 --> 0:36:03.120 could learn all of that, And then to be asked 0:36:03.280 --> 0:36:06.719 and to not and to deny even you know what 0:36:06.760 --> 0:36:09.840 I mean, to deny that that there's any influence. 0:36:09.920 --> 0:36:11.960 I don't listen to them. I heard scapegoat and I 0:36:12.000 --> 0:36:14.040 never heard I never listened to anything. I didn't see that. 0:36:14.280 --> 0:36:16.879 So yeah, or when people are when or when people 0:36:16.920 --> 0:36:20.000 would ask, to always push it away and downplay it. 0:36:20.440 --> 0:36:22.799 That was a very conscious decision that was made by 0:36:22.800 --> 0:36:24.880 a person who's otherwise very beautiful. 0:36:24.960 --> 0:36:26.759 You know, yeah, I mean I feel like, you know, 0:36:27.280 --> 0:36:30.240 there's if you've heard, like you said, the Sage Francis 0:36:30.280 --> 0:36:31.680 of the world, what you guys have been doing over 0:36:31.719 --> 0:36:32.520 I mean, obviously. 0:36:32.200 --> 0:36:33.800 There's something you hear Sage Francis. 0:36:33.960 --> 0:36:36.480 There's definitely there has to be some sort of influence there. 0:36:36.520 --> 0:36:38.960 It's absolutely. I mean, he's so. On his first album 0:36:39.000 --> 0:36:42.760 before he got famous, there's a song called Contradiction Maclamore. 0:36:42.840 --> 0:36:46.120 This is this Maclamore song called Contradiction. He's saying, I 0:36:46.160 --> 0:36:48.120 say I'm about this, but I really do this. He's like, 0:36:48.160 --> 0:36:50.600 I say I'm sober, but sometimes I smoke weed. I 0:36:50.640 --> 0:36:54.120 say I'm this, but sometimes I'm not. He ends the 0:36:54.440 --> 0:36:58.359 He ends the song by saying, I bought fifty cent 0:36:58.760 --> 0:36:59.799 and burned Brother Ali. 0:37:00.040 --> 0:37:01.040 What does that say about me? 0:37:01.760 --> 0:37:05.040 So, by his own admission, he's saying what I am 0:37:05.120 --> 0:37:08.560 about is Brother Ali, but I didn't. But I did 0:37:08.600 --> 0:37:11.640 not buy Brother Ali's album. I bought the fifty cent album, 0:37:11.640 --> 0:37:13.959 which is the antithesis of what my music is about. 0:37:14.600 --> 0:37:16.680 This is the contradiction I'm He also shouted a soap 0:37:16.760 --> 0:37:19.040 rock out when he's got a song about being white 0:37:19.080 --> 0:37:21.440 and white thing and he's like a soop rock is 0:37:21.480 --> 0:37:25.919 the great, you know. So these are choices that are made, 0:37:26.080 --> 0:37:29.200 and it's like, if we're going to be truthful, that's 0:37:29.200 --> 0:37:30.920 that's all it is, you know what I mean. So, 0:37:31.840 --> 0:37:34.239 and this is the only reason I'm saying this because 0:37:34.239 --> 0:37:37.200 I never spoke about against him ever, even when he 0:37:37.280 --> 0:37:39.680 was coming out. When he was successful, it made me 0:37:39.719 --> 0:37:42.640 happy that he was successful, and it you know, it 0:37:42.680 --> 0:37:44.920 makes me more happy that LP is successful because I 0:37:45.000 --> 0:37:47.680 P was in those trenches, deaf jucks baby, LP was 0:37:47.680 --> 0:37:51.160 in those trenches for years. But I'm saying for somebody 0:37:51.200 --> 0:37:55.040 to learn from those trenches and also learn how to 0:37:55.239 --> 0:37:59.759 carry oneself in a way that's respectable. It's not just 0:37:59.840 --> 0:38:02.160 the so there's musical styles like if you listen to 0:38:02.200 --> 0:38:05.879 the way the atmosphere songs are constructed and Ryan Lewis now, 0:38:05.960 --> 0:38:08.360 I know that Ryan Lewis had an hour long conversation 0:38:08.440 --> 0:38:12.480 with Joe Mabbitt, our mix engineer, about how are you 0:38:12.520 --> 0:38:15.640 mixing these brother Ali records so that we focus on 0:38:15.680 --> 0:38:19.279 this type of very intimate personal thing. I know all 0:38:19.320 --> 0:38:21.880 of those stories. I know that the album was manufactured 0:38:21.880 --> 0:38:24.000 in Minnesota, where the rhyme says, albums are I know 0:38:24.040 --> 0:38:29.359 all those details, but there's something about also benefiting from 0:38:29.360 --> 0:38:32.359 someone who came alone, and like, what does it look 0:38:32.440 --> 0:38:35.720 like for a European American person, white person, caucazoid whatever 0:38:37.880 --> 0:38:39.839 to be on stage with rock Kim and Rock Kim 0:38:39.880 --> 0:38:42.120 hands him the mic and it's like, this is the guy, 0:38:42.200 --> 0:38:43.680 you know what I'm saying. But then you look at 0:38:43.680 --> 0:38:46.080 Marlon Kraft. So Marlon Kraft just had that moment with 0:38:46.640 --> 0:38:50.239 uh with Harland's amazing with method Man. I'm getting tales 0:38:50.239 --> 0:38:52.520 thinking about this because Method Man just did a song 0:38:52.560 --> 0:38:54.680 with Marlon Kraft, did not charge him a penny, No 0:38:54.800 --> 0:38:57.080 Marlin Martin, and then he got he's a friend of 0:38:57.080 --> 0:38:58.080 the show, and then he got it. 0:38:58.200 --> 0:39:00.680 And then he did the video with Marlin and would 0:39:00.680 --> 0:39:03.520 not take money. Then he came to Marlon Craft is 0:39:03.600 --> 0:39:06.279 curating a weekly or like a night in New York 0:39:06.320 --> 0:39:08.799 with a band. Methan Man comes out to the thing 0:39:08.840 --> 0:39:11.279 and says, I want everybody to know I love this dude. 0:39:11.280 --> 0:39:14.240 I rock with this dude. But if you ask Marlon Craft, 0:39:15.320 --> 0:39:16.560 where are you learning this from? 0:39:16.680 --> 0:39:17.319 You know what I mean? 0:39:17.600 --> 0:39:20.120 Marlon Craft came out on tour with me in Evidence 0:39:20.280 --> 0:39:21.759 with me and Evidence to it again. We made an 0:39:21.760 --> 0:39:25.080 album together, will always give it up. Marlon Craft is 0:39:25.120 --> 0:39:27.640 a little different guy. He comes from the culture in 0:39:29.440 --> 0:39:32.480 a way that I think. Or if you talk to Evidence, 0:39:32.520 --> 0:39:34.960 you know and you say Evidence will say I could 0:39:35.040 --> 0:39:37.400 only be in the room a lot of times. Because 0:39:37.520 --> 0:39:40.120 he's from Venice. A lot of people think FS Puerto Rican. 0:39:40.120 --> 0:39:41.560 A lot of people are like that. There's no way 0:39:41.600 --> 0:39:46.040 that soul for man. Michael Peret White, he's Italian, but 0:39:46.120 --> 0:39:50.920 he says, Roka taught me RockA Irish sirens taught me 0:39:51.000 --> 0:39:54.319 how to be in these rooms. RockA took me to 0:39:54.320 --> 0:39:55.960 somebody's house and just got home from prison. This is 0:39:55.960 --> 0:39:59.759 evidence telling a story. And I ask him what you do? 0:40:01.160 --> 0:40:02.920 Rock opulls me in the other room and says, here, we 0:40:02.920 --> 0:40:04.480 don't say what you do, We say what they get 0:40:04.520 --> 0:40:04.839 you for. 0:40:05.520 --> 0:40:07.920 You know what I mean. This is like to be 0:40:08.040 --> 0:40:11.400 taught and to be to be instructed, whether it's direct 0:40:11.480 --> 0:40:14.040 or whether it's just from watching it. What you do 0:40:14.080 --> 0:40:17.799 in culture is you you benefit from people who don't 0:40:17.800 --> 0:40:20.480 get the recognition, and then you allow your recognition to 0:40:20.520 --> 0:40:22.480 also benefit them that didn't happen. 0:40:23.160 --> 0:40:25.920 That's all I'm saying, Okay, have you guys ever talked yes, 0:40:26.280 --> 0:40:30.239 like in the last like recently, not recently recently, but 0:40:30.280 --> 0:40:34.480 we talked about this, so so you guys have this conversation. Okay, yeah, 0:40:34.560 --> 0:40:37.359 And I'm saying and it's interesting because so many people 0:40:37.360 --> 0:40:39.239 in the music industry asked me about it. Why does 0:40:39.280 --> 0:40:41.040 he sound like you? Why is this so much like you? 0:40:41.080 --> 0:40:42.799 Why does this sound so much like atmosphere? 0:40:43.040 --> 0:40:45.279 Why does this? And why don't you ask him? 0:40:45.320 --> 0:40:49.640 But they don't, But Tyler Quality asked him on the podcast, 0:40:50.280 --> 0:40:52.719 and I can let people watch it. 0:40:52.719 --> 0:40:53.600 It was unfortunate. 0:40:54.480 --> 0:40:57.799 Michael Moore said, I think that my success has really 0:40:57.840 --> 0:41:00.440 had an impact on and it's not his success, happy 0:41:00.440 --> 0:41:04.680 for his success. It's the it's there there there. There's 0:41:04.719 --> 0:41:09.960 a history of lies of omission where you know, a 0:41:10.000 --> 0:41:12.719 lot of people for a long time didn't know that 0:41:12.960 --> 0:41:15.040 you ain't nothing but a hound dog isn't an Elvis 0:41:15.120 --> 0:41:17.279 Presley song. It's a big Mama Thornton song. Right. A 0:41:17.320 --> 0:41:19.560 lot of people don't know that. And so you say, 0:41:19.760 --> 0:41:21.560 even if you go back and say, okay, we're gonna 0:41:21.560 --> 0:41:25.680 pay her royalties, she taught you how that, how to 0:41:26.200 --> 0:41:28.840 present that, how to phrase it, how to you know, 0:41:31.200 --> 0:41:36.239 you know, you hear, you hear It's it's a historical thing. 0:41:36.440 --> 0:41:39.720 It's a historical thing that happens that when somebody gets 0:41:40.000 --> 0:41:44.160 recognized for something, you have the choice to either shed 0:41:44.200 --> 0:41:45.759 the light on the people that you learned from, whether 0:41:45.800 --> 0:41:48.200 he likes us the best or not. I know I'm 0:41:48.200 --> 0:41:50.359 one of his favorites or I was at some point, 0:41:51.120 --> 0:41:53.880 but he learned a lot from that group of people, 0:41:54.040 --> 0:41:56.160 and he's not the only one. And it's interesting because 0:41:56.239 --> 0:42:00.200 other people that also had that that booking agent that 0:42:00.600 --> 0:42:02.719 I was like one of his first artists. A lot 0:42:02.800 --> 0:42:04.880 of the things that Maclamore did he wanted me to do. 0:42:05.640 --> 0:42:07.560 So I had said the F word about gay people 0:42:07.600 --> 0:42:10.880 on my first album, and then I realized how that 0:42:11.000 --> 0:42:11.920 was a cruel thing to do. 0:42:12.120 --> 0:42:15.239 Yeah, I mean times change. That word obviously has not 0:42:15.360 --> 0:42:16.000 aged the best. 0:42:16.040 --> 0:42:17.799 But I was wrong when I said it, the fact 0:42:17.840 --> 0:42:20.319 that everybody else said it, I was wrong. So I 0:42:20.360 --> 0:42:23.600 made a song where I said something correcting that. And 0:42:23.840 --> 0:42:26.160 Zach Quillin, who is Maclamore's manager, comes to me and says, 0:42:26.200 --> 0:42:28.680 you just made the first ever pro gay hip hop song. 0:42:29.160 --> 0:42:31.480 You need to be the first rapper on Ellen. We 0:42:31.520 --> 0:42:35.799 need to make a campaign out of this, and I said, nah, 0:42:35.800 --> 0:42:38.879 that's corny to me because it's not my issue. I'm 0:42:38.920 --> 0:42:41.120 just correcting a bad thing that I did, Like I 0:42:41.120 --> 0:42:42.680 did a cruel thing. I don't want to be a 0:42:42.680 --> 0:42:45.600 cruel person. I need to take myself to account. And 0:42:45.640 --> 0:42:48.600 he said, man, you're missing a big opportunity. So he 0:42:48.640 --> 0:42:50.919 took that and applied it to Maclamore. But you got 0:42:50.920 --> 0:42:52.640 to make the song that's going to be the thing, 0:42:52.640 --> 0:42:54.359 and you're going to be the first. So now here 0:42:54.360 --> 0:42:56.480 he is on stage, this is the first pro gay 0:42:56.560 --> 0:42:59.200 hip hop song. He's from a city where there are 0:42:59.280 --> 0:43:02.920 gay there's a there's a women of color that are 0:43:03.160 --> 0:43:07.520 LGBT called the Satisfaction Dreamampton did a video for them. 0:43:07.719 --> 0:43:10.760 They're down with Ish from Diggable Planets in Shabbad's Palace. 0:43:11.040 --> 0:43:15.000 It's well known. But also this is a story taking. 0:43:15.280 --> 0:43:17.200 This is something that I thought was corny for me 0:43:17.280 --> 0:43:19.479 to do. It's like, okay, we'll just take an apply 0:43:19.560 --> 0:43:21.799 it there. So when you're on that stage, it's like, 0:43:21.840 --> 0:43:23.839 you know, I'm not the first to do this. There 0:43:23.840 --> 0:43:26.480 are others that have done it, you know what I mean. 0:43:27.200 --> 0:43:29.520 I mean merce made a video where he kissed a 0:43:29.560 --> 0:43:31.720 dude in the video. I remember that it's called animal 0:43:31.760 --> 0:43:34.560 style because Merce is really with the ish at all times. 0:43:34.719 --> 0:43:38.279 Sure Merce is, you know, he's from Miss City for sure. 0:43:38.320 --> 0:43:40.359 And he's like, hey, if you're gonna if you don't 0:43:40.400 --> 0:43:41.960 like them, don't like me either. What's up? 0:43:42.280 --> 0:43:42.799 You know what I mean? 0:43:42.960 --> 0:43:44.880 Mrse is a straight man, married, got a bunch of kids, 0:43:45.080 --> 0:43:47.320 married a beautiful Brazilian lady, got a bunch of babies. 0:43:47.880 --> 0:43:49.560 But he's like, hey, man, you want to fight gay people, 0:43:49.600 --> 0:43:51.640 here's me kissing a dude on a thing. I wouldn't 0:43:51.640 --> 0:43:55.080 have done it exactly that way. But Merce is one 0:43:55.160 --> 0:43:57.239 thousand with whatever he's doing, for sure, you know what 0:43:57.280 --> 0:43:59.840 I mean. That's one of my dearest friends. So it's like, man, 0:44:00.719 --> 0:44:03.680 you know all this right, So it's like, you know, 0:44:03.800 --> 0:44:06.040 along with being a beautiful person, along with all the 0:44:06.080 --> 0:44:08.480 good he's done. He also paid Grandmaster kas And and 0:44:08.640 --> 0:44:13.480 uh And and Grandmaster Cas Melly mel and Kolmo d 0:44:14.200 --> 0:44:15.759 a bunch of money to be in it. 0:44:15.840 --> 0:44:16.799 He made a video. 0:44:16.680 --> 0:44:20.080 Called uh uh It's about motor scooters. 0:44:20.400 --> 0:44:22.880 Oh yeah, that song's hard too. Fuck I forget the 0:44:22.960 --> 0:44:25.240 name he made the song. He wanted an old school 0:44:25.520 --> 0:44:27.200 in it. Yeah, he reached out to Big Daddy Kane. 0:44:27.200 --> 0:44:29.520 Big Daddy Can is a mentor of mine. He said, Cain, 0:44:29.520 --> 0:44:31.320 who should I get in this? He said, if you 0:44:31.400 --> 0:44:33.320 really want to get legends, who you got to get? 0:44:33.680 --> 0:44:36.040 And he put them on Macklamore put him in the video. 0:44:36.200 --> 0:44:36.839 He paid them. 0:44:36.880 --> 0:44:40.600 He's done a lot of good things. That's one area 0:44:40.640 --> 0:44:43.640 where he didn't And so I wasn't planning on talking 0:44:43.640 --> 0:44:46.720 about this today. But he's done so many good things. 0:44:46.719 --> 0:44:49.560 He is a good person. I think he and he's 0:44:49.600 --> 0:44:51.880 good with me and what he's he told quality that 0:44:52.160 --> 0:44:54.640 was confusing to him is like, Ali is so loving 0:44:54.680 --> 0:44:57.240 to me, but then he then he also has feelings 0:44:57.239 --> 0:44:59.080 about whatever. And I'm like, yes, I'm loving to you 0:44:59.160 --> 0:45:03.040 because I love you. You're very lovable, like undeniable you. Right, 0:45:03.560 --> 0:45:05.920 if you're in a room with this person, it's just like, man, oh, 0:45:05.960 --> 0:45:08.600 come on, man, look you know what I mean? Sure, yeah, 0:45:08.640 --> 0:45:11.560 but that's not that is a but when there's an 0:45:11.560 --> 0:45:15.799 injustice we have to tell the truth about that's an injustice. 0:45:16.520 --> 0:45:18.920 That's an injustice that in the time that it could 0:45:19.080 --> 0:45:22.880 something could have happened, it didn't. So he's got the 0:45:22.920 --> 0:45:25.319 Grammy he's got money. What he wants now is to 0:45:25.360 --> 0:45:30.560 be respected, and so Gaza is one of those things 0:45:30.600 --> 0:45:36.600 where he is really genuinely speaking about stuff, even though 0:45:36.880 --> 0:45:38.879 he's not as connected to it, you know what I mean, 0:45:39.080 --> 0:45:42.239 But he is speaking. There are people that there are 0:45:42.280 --> 0:45:44.640 sponsorships that he probably could have gotten that will walk 0:45:44.680 --> 0:45:46.840 away from him. He's making real sacrifice. 0:45:46.880 --> 0:45:48.960 He's definitely made some sacrifices because I know it's like 0:45:49.120 --> 0:45:52.480 doing a lot of the protests and stuff and performing 0:45:52.520 --> 0:45:55.000 at him like I mean, it's kind of crazy to 0:45:55.040 --> 0:45:58.280 think that, like people are losing verses and the idea 0:45:58.400 --> 0:46:02.080 of like people being kicked out of school for protesting, 0:46:02.160 --> 0:46:05.200 and I mean, it's like the opposite of freedom. 0:46:05.360 --> 0:46:07.560 I've had a file with the Department of Homeland Security 0:46:07.600 --> 0:46:09.920 since Uncle Sam goddamn came out. They took money from 0:46:09.960 --> 0:46:13.160 me when I was on tour. They seized my tour money. 0:46:14.120 --> 0:46:16.040 They came to my house and banged on my door 0:46:16.080 --> 0:46:17.920 on my birthday and scared my daughters and tried to 0:46:17.920 --> 0:46:21.200 cut the FBI tried to come into my house. I've 0:46:21.200 --> 0:46:25.400 had you know, I've been strip searched, I've been harassed, 0:46:25.400 --> 0:46:27.839 I've been pulled off airplanes, I've been I've been going 0:46:27.880 --> 0:46:28.600 through all of this. 0:46:28.640 --> 0:46:30.719 For a very long time, you know what I mean. 0:46:32.040 --> 0:46:34.560 But to see somebody like that step in in the 0:46:34.600 --> 0:46:36.160 way that he can this thing is this is a 0:46:36.200 --> 0:46:38.080 conversation about him now, which is which is not what 0:46:38.200 --> 0:46:42.640 I attended. But we're in a very interesting place in 0:46:42.680 --> 0:46:46.080 the world, and so when people make the decision to 0:46:46.200 --> 0:46:49.759 try to say something, it's admirable by all counts, no 0:46:49.800 --> 0:46:50.400 doubt about it. 0:46:50.760 --> 0:46:52.359 Yeah, I think it's you know, I think we're just gonna, 0:46:52.400 --> 0:46:53.920 like you said, we're in a weird place in the world, man, 0:46:53.920 --> 0:46:56.440 where it's like sometimes I'll read stuff out loud and 0:46:56.440 --> 0:47:00.640 I'll be like, this is a thing like you can 0:47:00.960 --> 0:47:04.480 you like, if we're supposed to be in America where like, 0:47:04.560 --> 0:47:08.440 you know, you're supposed to have freedom to protest, and 0:47:08.640 --> 0:47:11.000 you know, the First Amendment is supposed to be the 0:47:11.360 --> 0:47:15.040 one thing we hold above all. But if there's just 0:47:15.280 --> 0:47:19.160 one thing right that mark up out of here. 0:47:19.200 --> 0:47:22.520 For Mark Lamont Hill wrote a book called Everything Except Palestine. 0:47:23.040 --> 0:47:27.000 Yeah, and it's so crasho out to him, by the way, amazing, 0:47:27.200 --> 0:47:30.759 But it's just it's just interesting because you know, I 0:47:30.800 --> 0:47:33.000 think about uh, I can't think of the guy's name, 0:47:33.040 --> 0:47:36.920 the journalist. I've watched him for years. He ended up 0:47:37.000 --> 0:47:40.399 leaving at MSNBC when all this happened because he's fuck 0:47:40.520 --> 0:47:44.760 what's his name. You might know he's he's Middle Eastern. 0:47:44.840 --> 0:47:48.880 He had a show on MSNBC, and when all this 0:47:48.920 --> 0:47:51.439 shit happened, he left, he had to leave. It's almost 0:47:51.480 --> 0:47:54.720 like it's just crazy. It's like I said, right, yeah, 0:47:54.760 --> 0:47:57.120 that's him. But we're living in like the upside down world. 0:47:57.120 --> 0:47:59.040 But it's not necessarily the upside down world. I feel 0:47:59.040 --> 0:48:00.520 like it's always kind of been the world. It's just 0:48:00.600 --> 0:48:04.640 now it's a little bit more. Now it's with TikTok 0:48:04.880 --> 0:48:09.760 and social media, you can't hide from what's happening. 0:48:10.080 --> 0:48:11.319 Yeah, and even they. 0:48:11.239 --> 0:48:13.000 Try to get TikTok up out of here, you know. 0:48:13.000 --> 0:48:15.480 What I'm saying. It was while at the same time 0:48:15.560 --> 0:48:18.560 saying we're gonna, we're gonna clamp down less on Facebook, 0:48:18.960 --> 0:48:21.359 which is like, we know who's on Facebook, right, but 0:48:21.400 --> 0:48:23.560 we're gonna, But but TikTok has to be and we 0:48:23.600 --> 0:48:26.640 know who's on TikTok. And that's the thing because if 0:48:26.640 --> 0:48:28.560 the it's like is it free speech or is it 0:48:28.719 --> 0:48:29.240 just a speech? 0:48:29.280 --> 0:48:32.320 I like exactly. And that's the one thing where it's like, okay, 0:48:32.400 --> 0:48:35.239 like you know, we're getting to this point where both 0:48:35.280 --> 0:48:37.919 sides are trying to act like their free speech absolutists, 0:48:37.920 --> 0:48:40.120 but they're both very full of shit in terms of 0:48:40.160 --> 0:48:43.919 like what they're what they cherry pick, you know. Yeah, 0:48:44.360 --> 0:48:47.959 And that is the one thing about X is there's 0:48:48.000 --> 0:48:51.239 some crazy shit on X. But on X at the 0:48:51.360 --> 0:48:55.080 very least, like it seems as if unless you like 0:48:55.239 --> 0:48:57.360 talk about Elon Musk in a negative way, he'll block you. 0:48:57.800 --> 0:48:59.879 But I see a lot like Sean kings still thought 0:49:00.160 --> 0:49:02.520 on X, you know, like they got Sean King the 0:49:02.600 --> 0:49:05.279 fuck up out of here. Sean King had the like 0:49:05.320 --> 0:49:08.600 on Instagram. I feel like on IG at least Sean 0:49:08.680 --> 0:49:13.560 King was showing everybody what was happening in Gaza and 0:49:13.600 --> 0:49:18.000 then with like a Thanos finger snap, he was just 0:49:18.160 --> 0:49:21.920 gone from the Internet. And I'm like, what this is crazy? Yeah, 0:49:22.160 --> 0:49:24.239 you know, but he was still at least on X. 0:49:24.280 --> 0:49:26.239 But like, but TikTok, I'm not big on TikTok, but 0:49:26.280 --> 0:49:29.880 I know that was It was interesting that the conversation 0:49:30.000 --> 0:49:35.160 went from all of these people were against banning TikTok. 0:49:36.320 --> 0:49:37.440 And then a few years. 0:49:37.239 --> 0:49:39.160 Passed, the probably two years past or whatever, and then 0:49:39.200 --> 0:49:43.560 all of a sudden, it's conveniently everybody's in unison that 0:49:43.640 --> 0:49:46.239 TikTok should be banned. Yeah, And it was like, well, 0:49:46.239 --> 0:49:49.680 what changed October seventh happened, which obviously, you know, how 0:49:49.719 --> 0:49:52.000 do you feel about what happened on October seventh? It 0:49:52.080 --> 0:49:53.880 was you know, a lot of people died. It was 0:49:54.040 --> 0:49:56.760 very sad. It was a situation that nobody would condone. 0:49:57.160 --> 0:49:59.480 But when you look at the full context and nuance 0:49:59.520 --> 0:50:04.279 of the last you know, one hundred years, however many years, right, 0:50:05.080 --> 0:50:07.920 it's it's it's it's a full picture thing. And the 0:50:08.080 --> 0:50:12.720 propaganda and a lot of the misleading of what actually 0:50:12.800 --> 0:50:15.120 happened that day and whether or not it was purposely 0:50:15.160 --> 0:50:18.000 allowed to happen. Man, And there was an incredible amount 0:50:18.040 --> 0:50:21.080 of lives told, a lot of lies, and a lot 0:50:21.080 --> 0:50:25.480 of a lot of it would seem that it was 0:50:26.320 --> 0:50:29.520 allowed to happen because I mean, listen, not to get 0:50:29.560 --> 0:50:33.480 too deep into the weeds of conspiracy theorists, but you know, 0:50:34.360 --> 0:50:36.960 you needed a really big excuse to have to go 0:50:37.040 --> 0:50:40.680 in and take Gaza, right, because that's always been that 0:50:40.760 --> 0:50:42.839 There've never it's never been a secret that that's that's 0:50:42.880 --> 0:50:45.279 what they want, you know, especially with the West Bank. 0:50:46.239 --> 0:50:48.120 And so now you have the biggest excuse you you 0:50:48.160 --> 0:50:48.879 can you can do. 0:50:48.800 --> 0:50:49.399 Whatever you want. 0:50:49.440 --> 0:50:52.319 And for the most part, people are gonna you know, 0:50:52.560 --> 0:50:54.839 but the thing is and then social media comes in, 0:50:54.880 --> 0:50:58.160 so for the most part, people aren't the younger generations 0:50:58.160 --> 0:51:00.400 like now this is some this is crazy, and so 0:51:00.400 --> 0:51:02.279 that's my thing. It's like, at the end of the day, 0:51:02.480 --> 0:51:04.160 how do you feel about Israel is a country? How 0:51:04.160 --> 0:51:06.560 do you feel about what happened on October seven? If 0:51:06.600 --> 0:51:09.080 you could be honest about what's happening in guys in 0:51:09.080 --> 0:51:13.360 the West Bank? Yeah, and you know, you want to 0:51:13.400 --> 0:51:14.759 be on the right side of history or not. I mean, 0:51:14.760 --> 0:51:17.439 why do we respect Muhammad Ali so much? It's like, yeah, 0:51:17.480 --> 0:51:19.720 he was the greatest boxer of all time, no doubt, 0:51:20.160 --> 0:51:22.360 and he was very handsome and charismatic and smart and 0:51:22.360 --> 0:51:23.160 all that kind of stuff. 0:51:23.160 --> 0:51:26.080 But he stood on something. We respect Muhammad Ali because 0:51:26.120 --> 0:51:27.959 at the height and he did this more than once, 0:51:28.000 --> 0:51:29.640 by the way, but at the height of that man's 0:51:29.800 --> 0:51:34.160 success career, physical prowess, they said, yeah, fine, you can 0:51:34.200 --> 0:51:37.120 be you can be with with Elijah Muhammada all you want, 0:51:37.680 --> 0:51:39.960 but we're gonna induct you into the army and put 0:51:39.960 --> 0:51:43.200 a uniform on you, and we're basically going to we're 0:51:43.239 --> 0:51:45.120 basically gonna stop. You don't have to. They weren't even 0:51:45.120 --> 0:51:47.160 gonna make them go fight because we could propagandize that 0:51:47.239 --> 0:51:49.880 we're gonna put a uniform on you and let everybody 0:51:49.880 --> 0:51:52.080 know who's boss. And he said, no, you're very not actually, 0:51:52.760 --> 0:51:57.319 And you know, so he gave up his success at 0:51:57.320 --> 0:52:00.480 the at the height of his physical prowess for years, 0:52:00.520 --> 0:52:03.560 for several years, he went broke doing it, similar to 0:52:03.600 --> 0:52:06.919 Colin Kaepernick, similar to Dave Chappelle when he walked away 0:52:06.960 --> 0:52:09.960 from all that money. Yeah, similar to what you know, 0:52:10.920 --> 0:52:15.239 and you know, that's a there's just there's just no 0:52:15.360 --> 0:52:17.400 way around that. But that's why we love and admire 0:52:17.480 --> 0:52:19.600 and respect that man so much. And the way that 0:52:19.640 --> 0:52:22.280 people felt about him at that time was not different 0:52:22.320 --> 0:52:25.040 than somebody speaking out against Gaza. Right now, there's somebody 0:52:25.040 --> 0:52:28.719 speaking against Vietnam at that time in that place, and 0:52:29.080 --> 0:52:31.120 people hated him for it. 0:52:31.239 --> 0:52:34.680 And now and now we look back time, yeah exactly, 0:52:34.760 --> 0:52:37.040 Time tilles the truth, right, So it's like, I don't 0:52:37.080 --> 0:52:38.919 know what's going to happen. But it's like interesting because, 0:52:38.920 --> 0:52:41.520 like you know, I was like very much a part 0:52:41.520 --> 0:52:45.840 of the political spectrum where I couldn't bring myself to 0:52:45.920 --> 0:52:48.560 vote for Kamala Harris because of her involvement. It's tough, man, 0:52:48.719 --> 0:52:50.799 And I was I looked at Joe Stein and I 0:52:50.840 --> 0:52:53.480 was like, I feel good about the vote. I mean, 0:52:53.520 --> 0:52:55.359 I know she's not gonna win, but I feel good 0:52:55.400 --> 0:52:58.480 about the vote. And in my head, I'm like, well, 0:52:59.200 --> 0:53:03.799 nobody can do worse than what the last few couple 0:53:03.800 --> 0:53:05.279 of years have been. And how do you feel now? 0:53:06.040 --> 0:53:08.719 And now, I mean, look, this is I hate when 0:53:08.719 --> 0:53:09.919 people say that, now, how do you feel? 0:53:10.320 --> 0:53:10.440 What? 0:53:10.440 --> 0:53:13.239 I mean, the ceasefire obviously happened, and I'm like, okay, 0:53:13.239 --> 0:53:16.839 at least something cool. But now with this go, oh 0:53:16.880 --> 0:53:24.759 my god, it's like I think this could be We 0:53:24.840 --> 0:53:28.960 all were worried about the Russia Ukrainian War and the 0:53:29.000 --> 0:53:32.840 war with Israel and Hamas kind of sparking World War three. 0:53:33.400 --> 0:53:36.120 I think there's a serious chance that US trying to 0:53:36.160 --> 0:53:39.600 bully our way into Gaza. I don't know if the 0:53:39.640 --> 0:53:41.120 rest of the world's going to stand for that. And 0:53:41.160 --> 0:53:43.440 by the rest of the world, I mean, you know, 0:53:43.520 --> 0:53:45.680 I don't know if China is standing for us taking 0:53:45.719 --> 0:53:48.239 over Gaza. I don't know, if you know, like it's 0:53:48.280 --> 0:53:51.200 pretty crazy when you say it out loud and like 0:53:51.440 --> 0:53:53.400 it's kind of become it's just wild, man. 0:53:53.640 --> 0:53:56.359 I mean it's also I mean it's it's it's on 0:53:56.440 --> 0:53:59.000 TikTok now to the difference is TikTok. But I mean 0:53:59.480 --> 0:54:02.160 it's not different from what that. I mean, the entire 0:54:02.239 --> 0:54:06.319 continent of Australia didn't have a single white person on it. 0:54:06.840 --> 0:54:11.640 There was like a multitude of thriving peoples on that island, 0:54:11.880 --> 0:54:16.160 Turtle Island, what we called America now was an entire 0:54:16.760 --> 0:54:20.439 civilization of all these different beautiful tribes and all these 0:54:20.440 --> 0:54:23.680 people that didn't have a single Africans were here before 0:54:23.840 --> 0:54:29.000 Europeans came here. I mean, and you know, this is 0:54:29.040 --> 0:54:31.799 the same thing that's happened. We're living in what used 0:54:31.840 --> 0:54:35.279 to be Gaza to the Native Americans, you know what 0:54:35.360 --> 0:54:37.399 I mean, Like when we go to these like it's 0:54:37.400 --> 0:54:39.720 still striking when we go to like these beautiful sites, 0:54:39.880 --> 0:54:42.560 you go to the Grand Canyon and like I'm crying 0:54:42.600 --> 0:54:45.239 because it's beautiful, but I'm also crying because I know 0:54:45.360 --> 0:54:47.040 what this meant to a group of people who had 0:54:47.040 --> 0:54:50.360 a spiritual bond with this place, and how many of 0:54:50.400 --> 0:54:52.520 their women had to be raped and their children to 0:54:52.560 --> 0:54:55.480 be killed, and their leaders to be killed and hung 0:54:55.600 --> 0:54:57.960 up in public in front of everybody. And I know 0:54:58.080 --> 0:55:01.320 what had to happen for that to for this to 0:55:01.480 --> 0:55:02.880 just now it's a national park. 0:55:03.120 --> 0:55:06.399 Yeah, I feel like And so it's it's it's it's 0:55:06.440 --> 0:55:11.160 interesting because back then when there was settlements and settlers 0:55:11.200 --> 0:55:15.600 and people being you know, cleansed off their land and 0:55:15.719 --> 0:55:18.280 all of the murder, and there was no social media. 0:55:18.360 --> 0:55:22.120 This was this was a new frontier. Now we see 0:55:22.160 --> 0:55:24.200 it all. So it's like now it's like it's it's 0:55:24.200 --> 0:55:25.960 it's almost like a like that's the thing with the 0:55:26.000 --> 0:55:29.800 Goaza situation. It's like, yo, like I just don't understand, 0:55:29.840 --> 0:55:33.160 like I've I've unfollowed people because however you feel about 0:55:33.880 --> 0:55:37.359 Israel and it's right to exist, that's one thing. 0:55:37.680 --> 0:55:38.399 But that's try. 0:55:39.000 --> 0:55:47.080 Lack empathy, yeah, or or at the very least try 0:55:47.080 --> 0:55:49.440 to tell yourself what you're seeing isn't what you're seeing 0:55:50.280 --> 0:55:51.879 to me, it's just crazy. 0:55:52.400 --> 0:55:54.520 Also not new brother, So I mean you know, no, 0:55:54.560 --> 0:55:56.359 you're right, you think about like, well, what was book 0:55:56.400 --> 0:55:59.920 or two. Washington booker T. Washington wrote The Slave there 0:56:00.440 --> 0:56:05.360 because you know, he he he was the child of 0:56:06.080 --> 0:56:09.440 a white slave owner who raped a black, black enslaved person, 0:56:10.120 --> 0:56:12.840 and then he was sent away to a new family 0:56:12.920 --> 0:56:15.880 to be split up from his family. The woman took 0:56:16.640 --> 0:56:18.879 a certain amount of sympathy on him and loved him, 0:56:19.160 --> 0:56:21.360 the white woman, and she taught him to read, and 0:56:21.400 --> 0:56:24.560 the husband tortured her for that. Crazy and yeah, and 0:56:24.600 --> 0:56:27.239 then she actually became as evil as any slave owned 0:56:27.239 --> 0:56:29.960 because she was tortured for teaching him to read and 0:56:29.960 --> 0:56:32.080 for thinking he was a human being, and for loving 0:56:32.120 --> 0:56:35.000 him and treating him like a child. The husband tortured 0:56:35.000 --> 0:56:37.880 her and to the point that she became cruel. But 0:56:38.000 --> 0:56:40.040 because he Washington, but now he knows how to read, 0:56:40.080 --> 0:56:42.440 he knows how to write, and he's actually brilliant, and 0:56:42.520 --> 0:56:46.000 he escapes and he gets north and he realizes, oh, 0:56:46.040 --> 0:56:48.759 the white people here don't know what slavery actually is. 0:56:49.440 --> 0:56:53.080 If they knew what slavery was, everybody, everybody would be 0:56:53.080 --> 0:56:56.040 against it. So he wrote a slave narrative and they said, 0:56:56.520 --> 0:56:59.080 there's no way, there's no way, well, there's no way 0:56:59.080 --> 0:57:02.080 that this that this black man, even though he's light skin. 0:57:02.160 --> 0:57:04.759 There's no way he actually wrote this because they can't 0:57:04.760 --> 0:57:08.440 write like this. That became the conversation. Did he plagiarize it? 0:57:08.719 --> 0:57:11.880 Did somebody white write it for him? That became the conversation. 0:57:12.640 --> 0:57:16.600 So it's like in the Dunya there's good mix with bad. 0:57:17.480 --> 0:57:20.440 In ourselves there's good mix with bad. That's the human condition. 0:57:20.560 --> 0:57:22.720 And also in Nidunia, the more things change, the more 0:57:22.760 --> 0:57:24.720 they stay the same. So I mean that was the 0:57:24.760 --> 0:57:29.280 TikTok of its time. We're powerless pamphlets, more to mouths, 0:57:29.280 --> 0:57:33.880 paper going around and making speeches and you know what 0:57:34.040 --> 0:57:34.760 is I think. 0:57:34.720 --> 0:57:38.600 Now the visual aspect of it is just it's like undeniable. 0:57:38.760 --> 0:57:41.480 You know, there were postcards during that time. So it's 0:57:41.520 --> 0:57:43.280 funny when I talk to people about racing and they're like, 0:57:43.280 --> 0:57:45.040 I know what happened to black people? No, you don't. 0:57:45.560 --> 0:57:47.200 I've been studying this since I was eight years old, 0:57:47.200 --> 0:57:49.640 and I'm still learning something new every day about people 0:57:49.680 --> 0:57:53.640 whose skins were used to make furniture, Like you learn 0:57:53.720 --> 0:57:56.600 something new every day. It's an ocean without a shore 0:57:57.600 --> 0:57:59.960 during that time. People excuse me if this is true 0:58:00.320 --> 0:58:04.040 for people Melah and no Wu, but uh, you know, 0:58:04.080 --> 0:58:06.640 they would hang people. They would hang black men and 0:58:06.640 --> 0:58:09.200 castrate them, and they would cut off their ears and 0:58:09.240 --> 0:58:11.479 they would you know, save them as trinkets and things 0:58:11.520 --> 0:58:15.960 like that, and they made postcards and they sent the 0:58:16.040 --> 0:58:18.880 postcards to their family members, you know what I mean. 0:58:19.800 --> 0:58:21.400 And this is not a this is not a made 0:58:21.440 --> 0:58:23.280 up thing like you can go to certain museums and 0:58:23.320 --> 0:58:26.040 places like that and see these postcards. These postcards were 0:58:26.080 --> 0:58:30.800 sent all over America. There were physical pictures. People have 0:58:30.960 --> 0:58:34.520 denied this type of brutality the whole time that this 0:58:34.680 --> 0:58:36.840 part of the world has been this part of the world, right, 0:58:36.880 --> 0:58:39.840 we've been denying this. It's it's in our it's who 0:58:39.880 --> 0:58:43.200 we are now. It's not how it's not This isn't 0:58:43.280 --> 0:58:45.000 how it is. This is what it is. Right. 0:58:46.240 --> 0:58:50.520 What was your inspiration to, I guess discover Islam and 0:58:50.760 --> 0:58:54.440 be so I guess a separate question would be just 0:58:54.440 --> 0:58:56.200 I just kind of be so engaged in trying to 0:58:56.320 --> 0:58:58.440 educate yourself on this this stuff. 0:58:58.640 --> 0:59:01.040 So it started because of hip hop man. One of 0:59:01.040 --> 0:59:04.080 my first memories was, like that really sticks with me 0:59:04.200 --> 0:59:08.720 is seeing Minister Fara Khan on Donahue. Okay, the first 0:59:08.760 --> 0:59:11.280 time he was on there, twice. It's masterful, and everybody 0:59:11.280 --> 0:59:13.360 should go on YouTube and look watch both of those. 0:59:13.760 --> 0:59:17.800 It's one of the most even just as an oratorical display, 0:59:18.040 --> 0:59:20.040 it's one of the most amazing things ever. But as 0:59:20.040 --> 0:59:23.640 a little kid, I was always really deeply troubled, like, man, 0:59:23.760 --> 0:59:26.560 America is lying about black people. I didn't know the 0:59:26.600 --> 0:59:29.400 whole history. I didn't know why. But I'm like and 0:59:29.440 --> 0:59:33.120 so seeing Farra Kahn on TV with Phil Donahue and like, 0:59:33.240 --> 0:59:36.560 I look more like Donahue than I do, and man, 0:59:37.240 --> 0:59:39.320 I'm just like, this is incredible. So that was my 0:59:39.360 --> 0:59:41.480 first time I've been then hearing it in hip hop 0:59:41.480 --> 0:59:43.440 and things like that. And then when I was thirteen 0:59:43.480 --> 0:59:45.400 years old, I went and saw keras One give a 0:59:45.480 --> 0:59:48.080 lecture and he brought me on stage. I asked a question. 0:59:48.120 --> 0:59:50.760 He brought me on stage, and he told me I 0:59:50.800 --> 0:59:52.480 should read the autobiography of Malcolm X. 0:59:53.080 --> 0:59:56.120 And I read that book when I was like twelve, yeah, thirteen. 0:59:55.880 --> 0:59:58.360 Same, and then the movie came out. But like we 0:59:58.400 --> 1:00:01.200 grew up in hip hop us, Malcolm X is like 1:00:01.280 --> 1:00:02.880 the Jesus Christ of hip hop yo. 1:00:02.920 --> 1:00:04.560 But then you start to like, you're like, yo, Malcolm 1:00:04.640 --> 1:00:06.440 X is like a player the Detroit red Air of 1:00:06.480 --> 1:00:06.880 his life. 1:00:06.920 --> 1:00:09.280 He was like, yeah, a gangster period, Yeah, for sure. 1:00:09.480 --> 1:00:11.200 So the whole time I'm reading this book, I'm like, 1:00:11.520 --> 1:00:13.400 this is the most like yeah, so he's such a 1:00:13.400 --> 1:00:16.240 great book. He's dope. Oh he was a street guy, 1:00:16.320 --> 1:00:20.640 he was whatever. And he's also like an urban guy 1:00:20.760 --> 1:00:22.720 and a city guy at the same time, and like 1:00:23.160 --> 1:00:27.240 he's everything. And so I'm like, I'm not allowed to 1:00:27.240 --> 1:00:30.680 be in this movement, but I'm just gonna imitate them. 1:00:31.000 --> 1:00:33.439 I believe in what they believe in gonna I'm gonna 1:00:33.480 --> 1:00:34.800 do what they do, even though I'm not allowed to 1:00:34.840 --> 1:00:38.320 join it. So then Malcolm goes to Mecca and he's like, oh, 1:00:38.360 --> 1:00:40.960 there are people here that in America would be called white, 1:00:41.520 --> 1:00:43.760 but they're not white. He's like, white is a mentality. 1:00:43.880 --> 1:00:46.400 Just like for years they would say to black people, 1:00:46.680 --> 1:00:49.560 we are the so called negro, just because everybody says 1:00:49.600 --> 1:00:52.960 that's what we are. We existed before anybody else, So like, 1:00:53.560 --> 1:00:56.240 what is this title now Nigro? The same is true 1:00:56.280 --> 1:00:59.240 for European people. It's only been a couple hundred years 1:00:59.240 --> 1:01:01.640 that there was an idea of somebody called white, and 1:01:01.680 --> 1:01:05.840 that was a very specific branding thing that was done 1:01:06.240 --> 1:01:08.800 to try to unite all of the European peasants to 1:01:09.280 --> 1:01:13.920 stop fighting the landowners and the oppressors in Europe and 1:01:14.000 --> 1:01:16.560 to be on the same team. That like, we're going 1:01:16.640 --> 1:01:18.200 to be on the same team. We're all going to 1:01:18.240 --> 1:01:20.880 be white. And trust me, you're part of it. You're 1:01:21.160 --> 1:01:22.720 at least you're not going to be at the bottom 1:01:22.720 --> 1:01:26.320 of the social order and all. And you know, so 1:01:26.360 --> 1:01:29.000 we're on hundreds of years of that lie. So the 1:01:29.040 --> 1:01:31.600 first thing was that Islam addressed that lie. Malcolm said, 1:01:32.080 --> 1:01:35.640 these people, they're not white in how they are, and 1:01:35.680 --> 1:01:39.280 he said if white Americans would learn Islam, study Islam, 1:01:39.560 --> 1:01:43.280 it would help them become human again. And I was like, Okay, 1:01:43.800 --> 1:01:45.760 that's all I've been waiting for. Then I had to 1:01:45.800 --> 1:01:47.880 like learn and figure it out and find a community 1:01:47.880 --> 1:01:49.880 and blah blah blah blah blah. So it's been a 1:01:49.960 --> 1:01:52.040 journey like that ever since. And now my family, like 1:01:52.040 --> 1:01:54.240 we've lived in is Dambul, Turkey for the last four years. 1:01:54.240 --> 1:01:58.439 My wife's also a convert. And the more I learned, 1:01:58.440 --> 1:02:00.880 the more I love it. So you're in Turk, I lived. 1:02:00.920 --> 1:02:02.560 I've been living in is Stumble four years. I do 1:02:02.640 --> 1:02:03.680 not live in this country? 1:02:03.920 --> 1:02:04.880 How is it out there? 1:02:05.120 --> 1:02:07.160 Dope and difficult? 1:02:07.200 --> 1:02:08.560 When you fight home. 1:02:10.200 --> 1:02:12.000 Or rather when you which one is home? Which home? 1:02:12.200 --> 1:02:14.240 Okay? When you when you okay? When you're flying out 1:02:14.240 --> 1:02:19.360 of Turkey? How many guys have the the head rap 1:02:19.400 --> 1:02:25.000 because they had their I know so many, it's insane. Yeah, 1:02:25.120 --> 1:02:26.880 they go out there, they get I guess like they 1:02:27.040 --> 1:02:29.800 the I mean, obviously it's like the world leader for 1:02:30.440 --> 1:02:32.720 scalp surgery or whatever. But my boy went out there, 1:02:32.760 --> 1:02:34.760 He's like, Yo, they got the hotel on lock it's 1:02:34.760 --> 1:02:37.760 like five star service. They take you to it from. Yeah, 1:02:37.800 --> 1:02:39.200 but I heard Turkey is beautiful. 1:02:39.640 --> 1:02:41.600 Well, yeah, if you're in it's like any other place. 1:02:41.640 --> 1:02:44.040 Like if you go to the tourist location, there's only 1:02:44.080 --> 1:02:44.640 tourists there. 1:02:44.760 --> 1:02:47.000 I'm friend with a lot of Armenians. Man, they got that. 1:02:47.120 --> 1:02:50.320 You know that? Uh, the Turkey vers Armenia thing is 1:02:50.520 --> 1:02:51.520 in La. It's a big. 1:02:51.760 --> 1:02:55.360 It is a big specifically in LA for sure, for sure. Yeah, 1:02:55.400 --> 1:02:58.760 And so people ask me about that. And my critique 1:02:58.760 --> 1:03:02.480 has always been of groups that I'm in places where 1:03:02.520 --> 1:03:05.600 I have influences and where I pay my taxes. I'm 1:03:05.640 --> 1:03:07.680 not a Turk. I'm not a citizen of Turkey. I 1:03:07.720 --> 1:03:13.400 don't vote for I don't have any power in Turkey. 1:03:13.920 --> 1:03:16.240 My audience is not a Turkish audience. I don't have 1:03:16.320 --> 1:03:20.280 influence in Turkey, and I don't pay my taxes in Turkey. 1:03:20.760 --> 1:03:24.880 My influence, my taxes, and my voting are here, and 1:03:24.960 --> 1:03:28.120 so I am critical of groups that I'm in for 1:03:28.160 --> 1:03:29.480 sure and people that listen to me. 1:03:29.600 --> 1:03:32.439 So you know what inspired you to go out there? 1:03:32.960 --> 1:03:35.720 So my wife actually studied in Turkey for a summer. 1:03:36.920 --> 1:03:39.360 There's like these like intensives when you become a Muslim. 1:03:39.400 --> 1:03:41.680 You can go and spend a whole summer and they 1:03:41.720 --> 1:03:44.680 just bombard you with learning. It's more than you can 1:03:44.680 --> 1:03:47.080 possibly take in. But you get a lay of the land. 1:03:47.400 --> 1:03:49.840 And she came back and she was like, Yo, Okay, 1:03:50.000 --> 1:03:52.600 this is the specific type of practice that we're going 1:03:52.680 --> 1:03:55.240 to start doing going forward, and someday we're going to 1:03:55.240 --> 1:03:57.440 live in is Stumbul. She's like, you need to live 1:03:57.440 --> 1:03:59.720 in is Stumbul. And so she told me that like 1:03:59.720 --> 1:04:02.120 ten years ago, and I was like, okay, Like her 1:04:02.240 --> 1:04:05.880 instincts are undefeated. I know if she's if she's serious 1:04:05.920 --> 1:04:08.640 about something, it's there's truth there. So I'm like, okay, 1:04:08.680 --> 1:04:11.960 all right, so I started visiting, and then during the pandemic, 1:04:12.000 --> 1:04:13.959 it's like, yeah, now might as well be the time. 1:04:14.120 --> 1:04:16.920 That's dope, man, Yeah was it. I always feel like 1:04:18.200 --> 1:04:20.520 That's why I always tell tell people like I always 1:04:20.520 --> 1:04:22.520 will talk to like people who I've only lived in 1:04:22.560 --> 1:04:24.120 one city or one area in their life. I'm like, 1:04:24.160 --> 1:04:27.120 sometimes you just gotta Obviously, being in radio, I've lived 1:04:27.120 --> 1:04:29.800 all over the country, and I feel like just traveling 1:04:29.840 --> 1:04:32.240 in general, obviously being a touring artist, you get to 1:04:32.640 --> 1:04:35.040 have a lot of nuance in perspective you've been all 1:04:35.040 --> 1:04:37.240 over the world, you know. But a lot of people 1:04:37.480 --> 1:04:41.040 lack that because they just know where they're at, and 1:04:41.240 --> 1:04:43.480 it's so hard. It's easy to tell somebody to travel 1:04:43.480 --> 1:04:45.439 if they're fucking that they've got a full time job, 1:04:45.560 --> 1:04:47.640 you know, and they only have two weeks a year 1:04:47.680 --> 1:04:50.640 of vacation. You know. But just think it's so important man, 1:04:50.680 --> 1:04:52.439 to get nuanced in perspective of the world. 1:04:52.520 --> 1:04:55.600 Well, especially if you're in the dominant group, and people 1:04:55.640 --> 1:04:57.800 in the dominant group don't realize they're in the dominant group. 1:04:57.840 --> 1:04:59.240 Like that's ultimately, you know. 1:04:59.440 --> 1:05:01.880 Unless you grow up in hip hop and you're the 1:05:01.880 --> 1:05:03.440 only person that looks like you're in a room and 1:05:03.440 --> 1:05:05.600 you're like, oh, this is actually the reality. I'm trying 1:05:05.600 --> 1:05:08.200 to see what's up with this? Sure, but for most people, 1:05:08.360 --> 1:05:12.200 if you're an American, even if you don't have money, 1:05:12.320 --> 1:05:15.120 even if you're like the world media is telling your 1:05:15.200 --> 1:05:18.200 story and projecting your culture and you don't realize that 1:05:18.280 --> 1:05:21.960 unless you're not from that, and so yeah, it's like 1:05:22.000 --> 1:05:25.080 it's very difficult to get like, we don't know ourselves 1:05:25.160 --> 1:05:28.080 until we know what the alternate version of us is. 1:05:28.520 --> 1:05:31.160 Like you have a doctorate degree in the English language, 1:05:32.040 --> 1:05:34.800 until you learn another language that's very different from English, 1:05:35.040 --> 1:05:37.720 you don't really know your language because you only know 1:05:37.720 --> 1:05:40.120 it as an insider. Yeah, it's like if you go 1:05:40.200 --> 1:05:42.600 visit a culture and like they only know each other, 1:05:43.000 --> 1:05:45.080 You're like, oh, you guys do this differently and they're 1:05:45.120 --> 1:05:45.800 like no, what do you mean? 1:05:45.880 --> 1:05:48.200 Like this is what's different? Yeah, no, is what everybody does. 1:05:48.280 --> 1:05:51.720 Yes, So for Americans it's like yeah, man, and it's 1:05:51.760 --> 1:05:54.880 one it's fine, go to Europe, that's cool, But like, man, 1:05:55.520 --> 1:05:58.960 see what's up with Ethiopia, See what's up with the Gambia, 1:05:59.120 --> 1:06:04.560 See what's up with Lebanon, See what's up with you know, 1:06:05.360 --> 1:06:06.120 Vietnam and. 1:06:06.040 --> 1:06:07.400 Go away Asia is crazy. 1:06:07.680 --> 1:06:10.280 Go away from where the tourists are for sure. Don't 1:06:10.320 --> 1:06:11.840 don't be in a tourist area. Go in a place 1:06:11.880 --> 1:06:13.840 of like, well, we don't speak the language. Yes, that's 1:06:13.880 --> 1:06:15.320 the point. That's where you want to be. We don't 1:06:15.320 --> 1:06:18.440 know anybody here, that's the point. And watch how beautiful 1:06:18.480 --> 1:06:21.880 people are to you wherever you go, like man, people 1:06:21.880 --> 1:06:24.160 will help you, they will feed you, they'll smile at you, 1:06:24.240 --> 1:06:27.360 they will welcome you, they will wherever you go. And 1:06:27.360 --> 1:06:30.240 you just start really realizing, like there is a common 1:06:30.320 --> 1:06:33.280 human thing. That's what you get to when you start 1:06:33.320 --> 1:06:34.880 with you. But you got to know different types of 1:06:34.960 --> 1:06:38.920 humans to learn what's my culture, what's our thing? And 1:06:38.960 --> 1:06:41.960 then what part is the human thing? Because so much 1:06:41.960 --> 1:06:45.960 of what we talk about is just the American thing, Yes. 1:06:45.880 --> 1:06:48.920 The American perspective. You brought d One out on the 1:06:49.000 --> 1:06:50.680 road with you. D One is one of my favorite 1:06:50.680 --> 1:06:53.560 guys man such as sweet Dude. He's been grinding for 1:06:53.680 --> 1:06:59.120 years too, yes, but he's like an outlier in today's 1:06:59.240 --> 1:07:03.800 landscape where he's he's got, you know, such a pure 1:07:03.800 --> 1:07:06.720 heart and a message that I feel like rubs the 1:07:06.800 --> 1:07:10.440 establishment the wrong way sometimes, but talk about like your guys' 1:07:10.560 --> 1:07:11.440 friendship and you. 1:07:11.400 --> 1:07:14.800 Know, yeah, so I've known d for over ten years because. 1:07:14.560 --> 1:07:17.560 He's a hard I mean, yeah, he's obviously dropped album mers, 1:07:17.800 --> 1:07:18.040 but you. 1:07:18.040 --> 1:07:22.200 Know he's a he's a Christian Christian Christians. Yeah, and 1:07:22.320 --> 1:07:25.240 matter of fact, you know, we were bonding over that. 1:07:25.360 --> 1:07:28.280 I have his child's book, his children's books over Okay, 1:07:28.320 --> 1:07:30.760 that children's book was the number one selling item on 1:07:30.800 --> 1:07:33.160 my tour. He came out and opened for me and 1:07:33.240 --> 1:07:36.120 made the most of that. You know, I loved it. 1:07:36.640 --> 1:07:39.080 He had a forty five minute set. He did seven songs. 1:07:39.200 --> 1:07:42.600 It was mostly him talking about his message, his book, 1:07:43.080 --> 1:07:46.440 the whole thing, and man, he won over every single person. 1:07:46.560 --> 1:07:47.160 It's amazing. 1:07:47.280 --> 1:07:51.120 And he is who he says he is, yes, and 1:07:52.480 --> 1:07:54.800 what I have to be we were talking is like, 1:07:54.840 --> 1:07:57.760 you know, we both have stood so hard. When I 1:07:57.800 --> 1:08:00.840 first came in as an MC, I was not as 1:08:00.880 --> 1:08:03.560 true to Islam as he has been to Christianity. I 1:08:03.640 --> 1:08:06.040 used to curse like crazy, I used to talk crazy. Well, 1:08:06.040 --> 1:08:08.240 he's had his own evolution as well, you know, to 1:08:08.320 --> 1:08:12.240 a degree. Yeah, but I respect him in my room. 1:08:13.040 --> 1:08:17.160 And when he said those things, it's like, I didn't 1:08:17.160 --> 1:08:19.400 plan here coming to talk about anybody. He went to 1:08:19.439 --> 1:08:22.000 Sway one time, not planning to talk about anybody, but 1:08:22.280 --> 1:08:25.360 Sway was like, he was talking about glorifying violence, and 1:08:25.400 --> 1:08:28.240 Sway was like, what do you mean? And he's so 1:08:28.439 --> 1:08:31.720 d had just given out shoes. He does all kind 1:08:31.760 --> 1:08:33.519 of giveaways in New Orleans. He had just given out 1:08:33.560 --> 1:08:36.559 shoes that said reform on the bottom. They were Meek 1:08:36.600 --> 1:08:40.040 Mills prison reform shoes. He's like, I just promoted this 1:08:40.080 --> 1:08:41.800 because I was so happy that Meek Mills talking my 1:08:41.880 --> 1:08:44.360 prison reform. But he just made a song with Rick 1:08:44.479 --> 1:08:46.559 Ross and Jim Jones where they're talking about killing people. 1:08:47.560 --> 1:08:50.360 So he's like, are what are we doing? Are we 1:08:50.400 --> 1:08:52.760 trying to reform prison but also encourage people to do 1:08:52.800 --> 1:08:56.559 things to go to prison. So he said, Meek Mills, 1:08:56.600 --> 1:08:58.400 you could do better. Brother. I love you too much 1:08:58.479 --> 1:09:01.200 not to be honest with you. He said, Rick Ross, 1:09:01.200 --> 1:09:04.120 you could do better. Jim Jones, you could do They 1:09:04.160 --> 1:09:06.479 threatened his life. Two of the three of those people 1:09:06.479 --> 1:09:08.000 threatened his life. And it's not a joke. 1:09:08.760 --> 1:09:09.760 Like if. 1:09:11.080 --> 1:09:14.519 A head person that's deeply entrenched in the street in 1:09:14.640 --> 1:09:19.639 Harlem come They went back to sway a few days 1:09:19.720 --> 1:09:22.920 later and said, I might not touch you, but I 1:09:22.960 --> 1:09:26.000 can't stop you know, my little one of my nephews, 1:09:26.160 --> 1:09:28.240 of one of the young guys on the block from 1:09:28.280 --> 1:09:30.000 putting in work for you just because they know you're 1:09:30.000 --> 1:09:32.559 trying to get cloud off me. That's a green light 1:09:32.600 --> 1:09:35.439 on your head at that point. Now he has me 1:09:35.600 --> 1:09:37.280 made peace with two of the. 1:09:37.240 --> 1:09:37.599 Three of them. 1:09:37.680 --> 1:09:39.400 Rick Ross is the only one that he hasn't. But 1:09:39.479 --> 1:09:42.200 I just saw he had pictures with Meek Mill, he 1:09:42.320 --> 1:09:46.000 got with Jim Jones. They threatened him and it wasn't 1:09:46.040 --> 1:09:50.439 a joke. And you know, these are the people that 1:09:50.479 --> 1:09:53.519 it's like when you look back, you say, like that 1:09:53.720 --> 1:09:56.479 is a person that really you talking about standing on business. 1:09:57.000 --> 1:09:59.960 Everybody wants to have nice things. Everybody wants to secces. 1:10:00.720 --> 1:10:04.000 That's not special. If you achieve it, it is special 1:10:04.080 --> 1:10:06.880 and we're happy for you. But that's what everybody. It's 1:10:06.920 --> 1:10:10.439 a special person though that says, I will, I will 1:10:11.120 --> 1:10:14.040 relinquish some of my success for what's right, if that's 1:10:14.080 --> 1:10:16.280 what it means. Some people pay the ultimate price, and 1:10:16.320 --> 1:10:18.479 we talk about Malcolm and Martin. Neither one of them 1:10:18.520 --> 1:10:22.280 saw their fortieth birthday. They paid the ultimate price, you know, 1:10:22.479 --> 1:10:24.719 And then you talk about Muhammad Ali didn't pay that price, 1:10:24.720 --> 1:10:26.920 but he paid a price. You talk about, you know, 1:10:27.040 --> 1:10:28.920 I didn't pay the ultimate, but I paid a price. 1:10:29.439 --> 1:10:32.439 You talk about our guy Mackelmore's paying a price, and 1:10:32.720 --> 1:10:34.760 you know, and d one is that dude. And it's like, 1:10:36.760 --> 1:10:40.320 ultimately we're going to die, like we're all going to 1:10:40.360 --> 1:10:43.040 be there's a place in the earth where we will 1:10:43.080 --> 1:10:45.920 be buried or burned and scattered or one hundred percent. 1:10:46.360 --> 1:10:48.000 And it's like, what kind of person do you want 1:10:48.040 --> 1:10:49.559 to be when you die? What do you want to 1:10:49.600 --> 1:10:54.160 be the story of you? And nobody ever regretted giving 1:10:54.240 --> 1:10:57.680 up status, fame, all that for what's right, because when 1:10:57.720 --> 1:11:00.679 you die, your status is gone. Nobody knows you. There's 1:11:00.680 --> 1:11:02.759 no you to know, you know what I mean. Nobody 1:11:02.760 --> 1:11:05.479 recognizes you, nobody celebrates you. You don't have things that 1:11:05.520 --> 1:11:07.760 other people. Your grave could be bigger than somebody else, 1:11:07.800 --> 1:11:11.240 it doesn't matter. But if it's like that person in 1:11:11.320 --> 1:11:16.519 that hole stood for something, they served others, They told 1:11:16.520 --> 1:11:18.320 the truth when it was dangerous to do it because 1:11:18.360 --> 1:11:20.200 they cared about the people that were being armed. 1:11:20.840 --> 1:11:23.760 Like that's different, Yeah, that's different for sure. And like 1:11:23.800 --> 1:11:26.680 you said, we think back to the Muhammad Ali thing 1:11:27.400 --> 1:11:31.120 like history, you know, like at that time, people didn't 1:11:31.160 --> 1:11:31.920 like what was going on. 1:11:32.160 --> 1:11:35.000 Yeah, and all those people that were just sitting there, like, 1:11:35.040 --> 1:11:38.080 how dare you change your name? How dare you become 1:11:38.080 --> 1:11:40.800 a Muslim? How dare you walk away from these white 1:11:40.840 --> 1:11:43.720 men that invested this money in your how dare you 1:11:43.800 --> 1:11:47.040 say that you won't go in the military. Who are 1:11:47.080 --> 1:11:49.800 you to do any of that? And he's saying, I'm 1:11:49.840 --> 1:11:52.439 a man, That's who I am, and God made me, 1:11:52.479 --> 1:11:55.720 You didn't make me. We're here together, and I just 1:11:55.840 --> 1:11:58.320 I have just as much right as anybody else to 1:11:58.479 --> 1:12:01.120 say what I think is true, and whatever I have, 1:12:01.240 --> 1:12:03.040 I'll lose it all. But he did that before they 1:12:03.040 --> 1:12:05.120 gave him a gold medal in nineteen sixty when he 1:12:05.160 --> 1:12:08.280 was eighteen in Rome. He wore his gold medal back 1:12:08.280 --> 1:12:11.080 in Louisville, Kentucky, and him and his mom and his 1:12:11.120 --> 1:12:14.280 family and everybody went to the segregated restaurants. But then 1:12:14.320 --> 1:12:16.280 his mom tried to go back without him and they said, 1:12:16.320 --> 1:12:19.080 we don't serve colored people here. So Muhammad Ali is like, 1:12:19.120 --> 1:12:21.639 if this just means that I'm free, but my people aren't. 1:12:21.640 --> 1:12:22.160 I don't want it. 1:12:22.160 --> 1:12:25.679 He threw his gold medal in the Ohio River, crazy eighteen. 1:12:25.760 --> 1:12:27.080 He didn't know he was going to be the most 1:12:27.080 --> 1:12:28.960 famous man on earth. He didn't know he'd be the 1:12:29.000 --> 1:12:31.880 greatest champion ever. He did that because he believed in it. 1:12:32.360 --> 1:12:34.640 And I had I'm friends with his daughter and I 1:12:34.680 --> 1:12:37.200 was like, did he really throw that? She said, I 1:12:37.240 --> 1:12:39.200 don't know, brother Ali, if he really threw that metal. 1:12:39.439 --> 1:12:42.120 But nobody ever found or where's it at? Yeah, they 1:12:42.200 --> 1:12:45.679 went through every single thing that man owned. There's there's 1:12:45.720 --> 1:12:47.599 like a state sales where you can buy his dishes. 1:12:48.200 --> 1:12:50.840 Nobody found the gold medal. I think that gold medals 1:12:50.880 --> 1:12:53.920 in the Ohio River. Let's get to this album, Man 1:12:54.200 --> 1:12:58.439 Satisfied Soul. You and aunt Aunt delivered on a production, 1:13:00.040 --> 1:13:02.439 credible body work. How how long were you guys working 1:13:02.439 --> 1:13:02.640 on this? 1:13:02.720 --> 1:13:05.200 Like? What what's give me the timeline short? It's the 1:13:05.320 --> 1:13:08.400 easiest record we ever made. So it wasn't like over 1:13:08.479 --> 1:13:10.400 some like like like how long would you say was 1:13:10.400 --> 1:13:11.879 the overall recording process? 1:13:12.040 --> 1:13:13.960 So I've made a couple of trips to Minneapolis. When 1:13:13.960 --> 1:13:15.760 I would go back to America, I would go just 1:13:15.760 --> 1:13:18.759 to see Ant And we made a couple of songs. 1:13:19.960 --> 1:13:21.400 But then I said, all right, I'm gonna come back 1:13:21.400 --> 1:13:23.600 here for a month and we'll start working on it. 1:13:23.720 --> 1:13:25.519 We made almost the whole record in that month. 1:13:25.720 --> 1:13:26.559 Wow yeah. 1:13:26.640 --> 1:13:29.120 And then some of the things I had to rewrite 1:13:29.400 --> 1:13:31.680 and then he went in with musicians and things like that, 1:13:31.760 --> 1:13:34.680 and so you know, but the bulk of like this 1:13:34.720 --> 1:13:36.639 is the beat, this is the rhyme, this is the song. 1:13:37.040 --> 1:13:39.680 The bulk of it was in a month. Wow yeah. 1:13:39.720 --> 1:13:42.639 But it's like a lot of a lot of living, 1:13:42.760 --> 1:13:44.479 a lot of hurting, and a lot of healing. Like 1:13:44.520 --> 1:13:46.520 I was in a place where when I left Minneapolis, 1:13:46.560 --> 1:13:48.600 I was at a low point in my life. I 1:13:48.600 --> 1:13:52.439 felt really bad about a lot of stuff, and I 1:13:52.640 --> 1:13:55.040 just had several years of like healing and growing. 1:13:55.160 --> 1:13:57.280 And I'm sure when you're in that position, there's it 1:13:57.439 --> 1:13:59.000 just the pen just is fluid. 1:13:59.280 --> 1:14:01.080 Yeah, because it's like we got all this stuff to say, 1:14:01.120 --> 1:14:03.400 I already know how to make it all round. Like 1:14:03.439 --> 1:14:06.120 I've made so much music. We've made so much music together. 1:14:06.840 --> 1:14:07.639 That's the other part. 1:14:07.720 --> 1:14:09.880 So like, yeah, it's not like you were working with 1:14:09.920 --> 1:14:12.280 someone you you had no chemistry with or yeah, yeah, 1:14:12.280 --> 1:14:13.719 you guys know each other's creative process. 1:14:14.040 --> 1:14:15.600 It takes thirty years to be able to make an 1:14:15.600 --> 1:14:17.360 album in a month, and some people make an album 1:14:17.400 --> 1:14:17.880 in a week, you. 1:14:17.880 --> 1:14:20.200 Know what I mean. Sure, but usually they're not very good. 1:14:20.720 --> 1:14:21.960 The albums that get made a week. 1:14:22.640 --> 1:14:25.600 Yeah, but no, but no, I mean it's it's it's 1:14:25.360 --> 1:14:29.599 for me, man. I feel like, uh, you know, it's 1:14:29.640 --> 1:14:32.639 just good when brother Ali's putting out music and hitting 1:14:32.680 --> 1:14:34.880 the man, I appreciate that a lot because I know 1:14:34.920 --> 1:14:38.559 you're always on the road. I'm actually gonna you're doing. 1:14:38.880 --> 1:14:43.240 I just saw you're doing a festival in Phoenix from from. 1:14:43.080 --> 1:14:47.640 Yeah, I'm doing with Whiz the Yele. Yeah, Damni and 1:14:47.640 --> 1:14:51.040 Marley Dilated will be there, and I'm about to do 1:14:51.080 --> 1:14:53.040 a tour with DJ Abilities DJing for me. 1:14:53.240 --> 1:14:53.679 Oh wow. 1:14:53.680 --> 1:14:56.800 So like DMC champion. So anybody that so Idea is 1:14:56.840 --> 1:15:00.439 one of these people that like great, amazing, tremendous. See 1:15:00.479 --> 1:15:02.599 one of the most beautiful people we ever knew. He 1:15:02.640 --> 1:15:05.120 died young, and he never got his flowers except for 1:15:05.160 --> 1:15:08.320 in our world. Her people got his face tattooed on him, 1:15:08.320 --> 1:15:10.400 but like he never got Those are the kind of 1:15:10.400 --> 1:15:12.240 people that if you win a Grammy and your your 1:15:12.280 --> 1:15:16.880 and your you're you learned from them. You say his name, 1:15:18.000 --> 1:15:21.000 you say idea. Sometimes you say even if he wasn't 1:15:21.000 --> 1:15:23.519 your favorite, even if he wasn't your friend. Those are 1:15:23.560 --> 1:15:25.280 the kind of things that I would respect, you know. 1:15:26.479 --> 1:15:28.960 But so this was a group of these two amazing 1:15:28.960 --> 1:15:32.000 white dudes. A super nerdy white dude rapper that like 1:15:32.040 --> 1:15:36.559 won the Blaze Battle on HBO and beat Puffies guys 1:15:36.560 --> 1:15:39.000 and all this kind of stuff, and KRS one had 1:15:39.000 --> 1:15:41.559 to give him, gave him a trophy. And then his 1:15:41.720 --> 1:15:44.720 DJ is a movie star looking white dude like he 1:15:44.720 --> 1:15:46.479 looks like Keanu Reeves is something buff and he's a 1:15:46.560 --> 1:15:50.240 yoga teacher and stuff. Amazing turntable list. So these dudes 1:15:50.280 --> 1:15:53.720 were like child prodigies, idea passed away abilities is going 1:15:53.800 --> 1:15:55.600 to be my DJ on the next upcoming tour. So 1:15:55.640 --> 1:15:58.080 it's like having that level of DJ. I don't even 1:15:58.080 --> 1:16:00.000 know what to do. I don't even know where to start. 1:16:00.040 --> 1:16:01.800 You gotta give him, you got to give him a little, like, 1:16:01.800 --> 1:16:03.920 you know, a little five minutes to go crazy, like 1:16:03.920 --> 1:16:06.240 a Babboo, a Batboo type interlude. 1:16:06.600 --> 1:16:09.080 Yeah, I'm thinking that, you know what, that's the that's 1:16:09.120 --> 1:16:11.240 the one to follow. Baboo would dilate. 1:16:11.400 --> 1:16:13.720 Dilated would like take a break and let Baboo just 1:16:13.760 --> 1:16:15.960 go crazy. Yeah, man, fucking sick. 1:16:16.080 --> 1:16:20.040 Yeah, or you know. Also nowadays we have a Z 1:16:20.160 --> 1:16:20.840 Trip in ll. 1:16:21.080 --> 1:16:23.720 Oh. Yeah, it's so dope to see Z Trip doing 1:16:23.760 --> 1:16:26.800 it with ll because he's from my hometown. So it's like, oh, 1:16:26.840 --> 1:16:29.000 you guys are from the same town. Yeah, we're from Arizona. 1:16:29.040 --> 1:16:30.760 Yeah, I didn't know. I knew you're both for Arizona, Yeah, 1:16:30.760 --> 1:16:33.640 but I didn't. It's like, yeah, and Mellow Music the 1:16:34.040 --> 1:16:36.559 we're partnering with Mellow Music on this album. Mellow Musics 1:16:36.560 --> 1:16:37.280 in Arizona too. 1:16:37.320 --> 1:16:40.000 Yeah, shot to U, Z Trips go man. Z Trip 1:16:40.040 --> 1:16:40.840 is a beautiful guy. 1:16:42.120 --> 1:16:42.360 Yeah. 1:16:42.400 --> 1:16:46.040 So with this project, man, what for you like give 1:16:46.080 --> 1:16:49.880 me kind of like your because you have it's it's 1:16:49.920 --> 1:16:52.640 easy to say, like, uh, the latest shit is your 1:16:52.640 --> 1:16:56.639 favorite shit, but this stacks up amongst some of your 1:16:56.640 --> 1:16:59.840 best work. Would you say us is like commercially you're 1:17:00.000 --> 1:17:01.040 big album. 1:17:01.479 --> 1:17:06.000 It's hard so from so basically I did my demo 1:17:06.040 --> 1:17:09.679 tape in two thousand. I did my first like album 1:17:09.720 --> 1:17:12.679 album in two thousand and three that was like underground 1:17:12.680 --> 1:17:16.719 classic before there was before there was distribution or anything. 1:17:16.760 --> 1:17:20.040 Like that was like one of the It's underground platinum, 1:17:20.160 --> 1:17:24.040 you know what I mean. Shadows of the Sun, right, 1:17:24.040 --> 1:17:24.800 Shadows of the Sun. 1:17:24.880 --> 1:17:25.120 Yeah. 1:17:25.280 --> 1:17:28.639 So then the next one that I did was Undisputed Truth, 1:17:29.360 --> 1:17:32.400 and that one was the beginning of that Warner Brothers deal. 1:17:32.920 --> 1:17:34.479 So that was the first one to come out on 1:17:34.520 --> 1:17:37.639 that thing. And so when that, yeah, when that came out, 1:17:37.640 --> 1:17:38.240 I was on. 1:17:38.320 --> 1:17:41.160 The main stage at Coachella. That did Conan O'Brien. 1:17:40.760 --> 1:17:43.080 And all that kind Like there was a time when 1:17:43.120 --> 1:17:46.320 the music industry was like, this is what I'm saying. 1:17:46.360 --> 1:17:48.479 Also that there was times where the music industry when 1:17:48.520 --> 1:17:52.000 they were looking for a new white guy that wasn't eminem. 1:17:52.120 --> 1:17:55.400 That was like they were looking for a positive eminem, right. 1:17:55.479 --> 1:17:57.800 They wanted Slug to be that. Slug chose not to 1:17:57.840 --> 1:18:00.439 be that. From atmosphere, I was in the room when 1:18:00.600 --> 1:18:03.120 MTV was trying to do that. Rick Rubin tried to 1:18:03.160 --> 1:18:06.080 recruit him. They all tried to sign him, and Slug said, 1:18:06.080 --> 1:18:07.559 I never want to blow up because I never want 1:18:07.600 --> 1:18:10.040 to fall off. He said, I if I let you 1:18:11.160 --> 1:18:12.880 make me a star, then you get to decide when 1:18:12.880 --> 1:18:15.680 I'm done being a star. If I stay building my 1:18:15.720 --> 1:18:17.360 own world. I do it as long as I want, 1:18:17.360 --> 1:18:20.160 and he's still doing it. Yo. That's you know what 1:18:20.520 --> 1:18:21.120 that that. 1:18:21.160 --> 1:18:25.599 Is very that's one of my I just met Slug 1:18:25.640 --> 1:18:26.280 for the first time. 1:18:26.640 --> 1:18:30.000 Really, yeah, man, I figured you had been thoughing Slug 1:18:30.040 --> 1:18:32.040 now I'm a big fan, but I met him. 1:18:33.040 --> 1:18:35.040 I had evidence walk me into their trailer. They had 1:18:35.040 --> 1:18:38.280 a show out here last year with the headlined it 1:18:38.320 --> 1:18:41.439 was Damn Dilated Living Legends Rhyme Fest. Yeah at the 1:18:41.960 --> 1:18:46.000 LA Yeah, Rhymefest, the Homie Rymefest. Yeah, he's the homie 1:18:46.280 --> 1:18:49.439 throws it. He's doing it again this year too. But 1:18:50.120 --> 1:18:53.280 Scooby and two mechs Yes, yeah man. But it was 1:18:53.520 --> 1:18:58.040 It's funny because I was like, yo, man, I was like, 1:18:58.800 --> 1:19:02.439 I remember, like they're playing on alternative radio, yes, which 1:19:02.479 --> 1:19:06.280 was so crazy because like I remember, yeah, like you know, 1:19:06.439 --> 1:19:08.000 in Phoenix we had the Edge and I remember they'd 1:19:08.000 --> 1:19:08.880 be playing Atmosphere. 1:19:08.920 --> 1:19:10.880 But I'm like, this is this is some hip hop 1:19:10.880 --> 1:19:11.400 shit for this. 1:19:12.520 --> 1:19:14.439 And it was just dope to me because I feel like, 1:19:14.439 --> 1:19:20.240 like when we think about the you mentioned Tech nine earlier, 1:19:20.720 --> 1:19:25.519 I feel like Tech nine and Strange Music they got 1:19:25.560 --> 1:19:28.720 so much like and rightfully so they got a lot 1:19:28.720 --> 1:19:32.800 of credit for kind of being like independent pioneers. I 1:19:32.800 --> 1:19:35.240 remember Double XL went out and did a tour of 1:19:35.280 --> 1:19:37.479 their headquarters and it like broke a lot of people's 1:19:37.520 --> 1:19:38.519 brains because they're. 1:19:38.280 --> 1:19:40.400 Like, this is how does this exist? How do we 1:19:40.439 --> 1:19:41.120 not know about this? 1:19:41.240 --> 1:19:44.080 Yeah, and that's when Little Wayne shout o out tech 1:19:44.120 --> 1:19:45.000 when he was in jail. 1:19:46.000 --> 1:19:46.639 I feel like. 1:19:47.720 --> 1:19:50.840 We don't look at in the hip hop world in 1:19:50.880 --> 1:19:55.439 the hip hop bubble, atmosphere and rhyme sayers don't get 1:19:55.479 --> 1:19:57.800 the same they accolades. 1:19:57.280 --> 1:19:59.960 And the respect and part of the reason for that. 1:20:00.080 --> 1:20:02.599 So first of all, yeah, so Tech nine Atmosphere came 1:20:02.680 --> 1:20:06.760 up around the same time. So Tech nine learned a 1:20:06.760 --> 1:20:09.760 lot of the things that they do from insane clown 1:20:09.800 --> 1:20:12.080 posse yes for sure, and they went on to it 1:20:12.160 --> 1:20:13.719 with the I mean they're. 1:20:13.640 --> 1:20:16.320 Kind of like some godfathers of this independent raption for real, 1:20:16.560 --> 1:20:19.160 to talk about the way they monetize their merch fan 1:20:19.200 --> 1:20:19.800 base and all that. 1:20:19.880 --> 1:20:22.519 Yeah, yeah, so they went So he learned from them, 1:20:22.720 --> 1:20:24.519 and he told the truth about it, you know what 1:20:24.560 --> 1:20:30.439 I mean. But his ability to rhyme just far surpasses them. 1:20:30.439 --> 1:20:33.040 No dis to them, They're just not top tier lyricists, 1:20:33.439 --> 1:20:36.559 where Tech nine is a technician, like there's a reason 1:20:36.640 --> 1:20:39.519 he's an alien level rapper. I mean, he really truly is, 1:20:40.000 --> 1:20:42.920 and he built it independently. Live show is incredible. Live 1:20:42.920 --> 1:20:46.200 show is incredible, the everything that they did, like, no 1:20:46.240 --> 1:20:48.439 one is more dedicated to their craft than Tech nine. 1:20:48.680 --> 1:20:51.760 So the difference though, between Atmosphere and Tech nine is 1:20:51.800 --> 1:20:54.760 that Tech nine decided, no, y'all are going to y'all 1:20:54.760 --> 1:20:57.639 are going to recognize he cared, he said, and so 1:20:57.720 --> 1:21:00.040 he went out and fought for that. Atmosphere is like, 1:21:00.080 --> 1:21:02.240 I don't care who recognizes me. No, you're right about that. 1:21:02.640 --> 1:21:04.120 We don't care how we don't care who you think. 1:21:04.160 --> 1:21:06.840 That's it because tech really gave a fuck. And I 1:21:06.840 --> 1:21:10.880 remember there was like that point in time where Tech 1:21:11.000 --> 1:21:17.320 nine was on the Carter four yep, and you would 1:21:17.360 --> 1:21:19.320 see like, oh, he's doing a record. I mean, and 1:21:19.400 --> 1:21:21.960 Tech was always doing records with like forty and Cube 1:21:22.000 --> 1:21:25.160 and like certain like, but it was like. 1:21:25.200 --> 1:21:26.640 I think he has a I feel like he has 1:21:26.640 --> 1:21:27.320 a record with Pop. 1:21:28.880 --> 1:21:31.000 He might. I know they were on the same soundtrack 1:21:31.040 --> 1:21:33.400 back in the day, Okay, but I remember he had 1:21:33.400 --> 1:21:33.920 a an. 1:21:33.800 --> 1:21:35.960 Now Roger Troutman. He's got like early. 1:21:36.200 --> 1:21:38.080 Well, he had an album called All Sixes and Sevens 1:21:38.400 --> 1:21:41.280 that dropped in twenty twelve, but that was the album 1:21:41.320 --> 1:21:44.320 that came out that there was the Wayne hype. Wayne 1:21:44.360 --> 1:21:47.040 shouted him out while Wayne was incarcerated, and then all 1:21:47.080 --> 1:21:49.040 these like you would just like like he was fighting. 1:21:49.040 --> 1:21:50.760 He was like, no, young motherfuckers are gonna give me. 1:21:50.760 --> 1:21:52.559 You might just do and then you know shit. However, 1:21:52.640 --> 1:21:55.160 many platinum and gold records later, like shout out, shout 1:21:55.200 --> 1:21:57.080 out to tech Man. But I think I think we 1:21:57.120 --> 1:22:00.640 got to give Atmosphere and Slug and and and and 1:22:00.680 --> 1:22:03.360 what y'all boys are doing in Minneapolis, like real, like. 1:22:03.840 --> 1:22:07.000 I believe the Atmosphere is one of the greatest and 1:22:07.160 --> 1:22:10.080 the most the greatest, most unsung group in hip hop. 1:22:10.600 --> 1:22:12.720 No one's made more music than them, no one has 1:22:12.720 --> 1:22:16.320 toured more than them, and what they to and including 1:22:16.439 --> 1:22:18.320 you know this conversation where I'm like people that come 1:22:18.400 --> 1:22:21.760 later and benefit that don't give credit. Slug couldn't care less. 1:22:21.760 --> 1:22:23.519 He's like, I don't care nobody exactly. He's like, oh 1:22:23.560 --> 1:22:25.320 two O one O two oh two. Yeah. 1:22:25.560 --> 1:22:26.080 Yeah. 1:22:26.160 --> 1:22:28.759 So they came out for the first time in ninety seven, 1:22:29.680 --> 1:22:31.599 but that was the first official release, but they've been 1:22:31.640 --> 1:22:32.400 doing stuff before. 1:22:32.400 --> 1:22:35.240 That's gotta be double triple platinum, you would think, I 1:22:35.240 --> 1:22:37.839 don't know. That just feels like one of those albums 1:22:37.840 --> 1:22:40.439 that like we'll live on, Like they could do it 1:22:40.520 --> 1:22:43.080 every every five years. They could do an anniversary vinyl 1:22:43.160 --> 1:22:46.120 every it'll sell out every year. It's twenty fifth anniversary, 1:22:46.120 --> 1:22:49.320 it's a twenty anniversary, it's the twenty six exactly, yeah, 1:22:49.360 --> 1:22:52.680 twenty third. Yeah, so yeah, God loves Ugly Seven's travels. 1:22:52.760 --> 1:22:55.280 They just did an anniversary for You can't imagine how 1:22:55.320 --> 1:22:57.479 much fun we're having, which is my personal favorite one. 1:22:57.760 --> 1:22:59.599 But in that period, like I think I'm the biggest 1:22:59.600 --> 1:23:02.600 Atmosphere fan or Earth Out Fight anybody about it. And 1:23:02.680 --> 1:23:05.240 let's not forget about Slug and Merse two well three 1:23:05.240 --> 1:23:08.120 classic albums. I'd like the first two, but yes, I 1:23:08.160 --> 1:23:09.559 mean Felt Shit was amazing. 1:23:09.640 --> 1:23:13.040 Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean, you know, and what 1:23:13.080 --> 1:23:16.800 they inspired. So their way of doing things inspired a 1:23:16.840 --> 1:23:19.840 whole movement from whether they know it directly or not. 1:23:19.920 --> 1:23:21.360 And I've talked to a bunch of these people, but 1:23:22.439 --> 1:23:25.080 kind of what happened started happening independently in the blog era, 1:23:25.960 --> 1:23:28.120 you know, even to a certain degree, like Whiz Khalifa, 1:23:28.439 --> 1:23:31.639 and you know, there was a lot of inspiration from 1:23:31.680 --> 1:23:34.519 I mean, Dame Dash was mentoring people at that time. 1:23:34.640 --> 1:23:36.320 There was a lot of things going on at that time. 1:23:36.360 --> 1:23:39.519 But those guys booking agent was this person I'm talking 1:23:39.520 --> 1:23:42.479 about named Zach Quillen who I was his first. I was, 1:23:42.640 --> 1:23:46.519 I was his first very serious like sine as his 1:23:46.720 --> 1:23:49.960 as a booking agent, and he really fought for me, 1:23:50.000 --> 1:23:52.240 and he also really fought for this approach to music. 1:23:52.680 --> 1:23:56.320 And so who's don't make me go pop? The trunk 1:23:56.640 --> 1:23:59.920 on a yellow Wolf? Yellow Wolf was was was his sign. 1:24:00.479 --> 1:24:03.040 A lot of those people that came out around that, 1:24:03.200 --> 1:24:06.320 like that era of like twenty two thousand and nine, 1:24:06.360 --> 1:24:07.200 twenty ten. 1:24:07.120 --> 1:24:10.000 Yeah, that blog era, that real. That was like the 1:24:10.479 --> 1:24:11.760 meat and potatoes the blog era. 1:24:11.960 --> 1:24:14.120 Yeah, their touring career was in a lot of ways 1:24:14.160 --> 1:24:17.160 inspired indirectly from Atmosphere. 1:24:17.560 --> 1:24:19.759 Yeah, someone like Yellow's done a good job of building 1:24:19.760 --> 1:24:21.800 his own world that he could just exist in forever 1:24:21.840 --> 1:24:23.160 if he wants, you know, he. 1:24:23.439 --> 1:24:25.480 Tour forever, he could drop albums forever. 1:24:25.320 --> 1:24:29.040 And you know, obviously on a different, different thing than 1:24:29.040 --> 1:24:31.120 obviously what we're talking about with Atmosphere, because I feel 1:24:31.160 --> 1:24:34.320 like Rhyme Sayers is a company. I wish they would 1:24:34.360 --> 1:24:37.320 have kept the festival going. J Cole did it one year, right, 1:24:37.960 --> 1:24:39.680 Cold did it. Kendrick did it. 1:24:40.040 --> 1:24:41.679 And one of the things is that they were really 1:24:41.720 --> 1:24:43.720 good at calling it early on people, so a lot 1:24:43.720 --> 1:24:45.439 of people did it right before they blew up. 1:24:45.560 --> 1:24:48.080 Yeah, the year before they blew up. Yeah, my boy 1:24:48.080 --> 1:24:51.479 Peter Parker was out. I was just texting in Peter Parker, 1:24:51.560 --> 1:24:52.400 great guy. Yeah. 1:24:52.520 --> 1:24:52.760 Yeah. 1:24:52.920 --> 1:24:56.000 Also that's my I always give him his flowers because 1:24:56.080 --> 1:24:58.560 I I he was the first radio person outy I 1:24:58.600 --> 1:25:02.280 saw on YouTube, like in like full B ninety. 1:25:02.040 --> 1:25:03.240 Six was it B ninety six? 1:25:03.760 --> 1:25:03.920 Uh? 1:25:03.960 --> 1:25:06.200 And Go ninety five? No, No, Go ninety I'm talking 1:25:06.200 --> 1:25:09.000 about back in the day. Go ninety five was more recent. Yeah, 1:25:09.040 --> 1:25:11.880 but he had like the full YouTube the whole video 1:25:11.960 --> 1:25:14.920 camera set up in their studio. So I'd be like, yeah, oh, 1:25:14.960 --> 1:25:17.599 they're doing fucking YouTube videos with their. 1:25:17.439 --> 1:25:20.320 Streams and she was having freestyles all that stuff. Yeah. 1:25:20.360 --> 1:25:23.160 He was just stuck in Minnesota withple what to do. Yeah, 1:25:23.200 --> 1:25:25.320 and then they did a dope thing with Go. It 1:25:25.360 --> 1:25:28.200 didn't work out long term, but they had a new 1:25:28.200 --> 1:25:29.960 approach to radio where they were just like, we're just 1:25:30.000 --> 1:25:31.559 gonna play this shit we want to play and it 1:25:31.680 --> 1:25:34.400 was cool and uh, you know, shout out to Yeah. 1:25:34.400 --> 1:25:36.599 Minneapolis has always kind of been like that cool city 1:25:36.640 --> 1:25:39.360 that like flies under the radar, but it's like it's 1:25:39.360 --> 1:25:40.360 a great music town. 1:25:41.040 --> 1:25:43.840 Great I mean, fucking Prince. What are we talking about, Prince? 1:25:43.920 --> 1:25:47.280 I mean Mint Condition. Yeah, and Jimmy jam and Terry Lewis. 1:25:47.880 --> 1:25:49.519 Like Jimmy, jim and Terry Lewis, I'm of the greatest 1:25:49.520 --> 1:25:52.840 producers of Lizzo has roots in Minneapolis. Lizzo made her 1:25:53.040 --> 1:25:55.760 her thing happen in Minneapolis. Like I was there for 1:25:55.840 --> 1:25:58.880 all of that. Yeah, I saw all of that. Yeah, 1:25:59.040 --> 1:26:03.439 Lizzo is she's from Texas, but where Minneapolis where she cracked. 1:26:03.479 --> 1:26:06.800 Minneapolis where she learned how to do what she did, 1:26:07.240 --> 1:26:09.600 Not that she owes it to anybody in particular. 1:26:09.880 --> 1:26:11.080 Her thing is a lot more. 1:26:11.920 --> 1:26:12.120 You know. 1:26:12.360 --> 1:26:15.160 It's interesting though, that her whole like I'm big and 1:26:15.200 --> 1:26:19.479 I love myself anyway. You know, the song that did 1:26:19.479 --> 1:26:22.120 it for me was called Forrest Whitaker, which is basically 1:26:22.120 --> 1:26:24.680 like I'm albino and I love myself anyway. It's a 1:26:24.800 --> 1:26:26.960 very similar kind of thing, but it's not. 1:26:27.040 --> 1:26:29.479 She wasn't up in our mix like learned studying everything 1:26:29.600 --> 1:26:31.240 and that, but she was in she was a. 1:26:31.160 --> 1:26:34.000 Part of that world. Yeah, sure, yeah, she was part 1:26:34.000 --> 1:26:36.840 of that world. And she did a project with one 1:26:36.920 --> 1:26:40.320 of the other labels. It's called Doom Tree and there's 1:26:40.320 --> 1:26:42.640 a guy on that producer on that label, kind of. 1:26:42.680 --> 1:26:46.680 Like the aunt of their from out there too. Yeah. 1:26:46.760 --> 1:26:49.919 And Minneapolis is like fucking just the backpack paradise. 1:26:51.840 --> 1:26:54.240 It really is, and I mean for everybody, and also 1:26:54.280 --> 1:26:59.080 every touring band or comedian knows that, Like when we 1:26:59.080 --> 1:27:00.599 get to Minneapolis, we're have a good night. 1:27:00.760 --> 1:27:04.360 That's everybody's I always feel like it's Minneapolis and Denver. 1:27:04.520 --> 1:27:07.320 Oh yeah, Denver is Denver is rich now though, so 1:27:07.520 --> 1:27:09.120 there's Denver got big time on everybody. 1:27:09.160 --> 1:27:12.840 Denver's like a great just you have to go to Denver, 1:27:12.880 --> 1:27:15.120 You have to go to Minneapolis so many venues, and 1:27:15.160 --> 1:27:16.960 I feel like fans show up in those cities for 1:27:17.000 --> 1:27:18.160 some reason. They just show up. 1:27:18.160 --> 1:27:21.599 There's a culture of like okay, man there, Yeah, they're 1:27:21.640 --> 1:27:23.840 making music like we gotta all go be part of it, 1:27:24.280 --> 1:27:26.320 and like they know how to be an audience. They 1:27:26.320 --> 1:27:29.920 also expect a good show, have you done Red Rocks, Yeah, 1:27:29.960 --> 1:27:30.559 many times. 1:27:30.720 --> 1:27:34.240 How amazing is Red Rocks? I've never been. I'm gonna 1:27:34.280 --> 1:27:37.559 try to go soon. I think Wiz is doing something 1:27:37.560 --> 1:27:38.799 at Red Rocks on four. 1:27:38.920 --> 1:27:41.080 You know, and profits from Minneapolis. 1:27:41.280 --> 1:27:43.840 Prof shout, it's a prop man prophets, you know. 1:27:43.880 --> 1:27:44.320 It's funny. 1:27:44.360 --> 1:27:45.880 There's two or three times he was supposed to come 1:27:45.880 --> 1:27:49.040 on the pod and then ended up getting rescheduled or 1:27:49.080 --> 1:27:53.600 I just didn't end up working out. But Profits another prolific. 1:27:53.479 --> 1:27:57.479 Very talented person, very hard working guy. He's another one 1:27:57.479 --> 1:28:00.280 that like everyone that knows him loves him. I don't 1:28:00.280 --> 1:28:02.639 know him like that, but there's definitely a mutual respect 1:28:02.920 --> 1:28:04.559 every time I see him as like, I know what 1:28:04.600 --> 1:28:06.400 it means to work as hard as you're working and 1:28:06.439 --> 1:28:11.040 to be as dedicated and man extremely And he's another 1:28:11.040 --> 1:28:13.360 one that he had a period where he was connected 1:28:13.400 --> 1:28:14.120 to rhymes all. 1:28:14.040 --> 1:28:20.880 Time, great white rapper city ever in Minneapolis. Well I 1:28:20.960 --> 1:28:26.080 never thought about that before. It's true though, Yo, So 1:28:26.680 --> 1:28:28.519 you said, so you already planning the next tour, then 1:28:28.560 --> 1:28:30.559 if you already got abilities locked in. 1:28:30.560 --> 1:28:32.960 And yeah, so the tour that tour is announced, that'll 1:28:33.000 --> 1:28:35.640 be April and May, and then I just announced I'm 1:28:35.640 --> 1:28:38.000 going to do a week in the UK and we 1:28:38.040 --> 1:28:41.120 have other European stuff coming and Australia will be coming 1:28:41.160 --> 1:28:43.080 soon announcing soon. 1:28:43.320 --> 1:28:46.519 That's dope, man, Are you? Are you? Like? For you 1:28:47.040 --> 1:28:49.519 is the when you put an album out like this 1:28:49.600 --> 1:28:52.880 and you get so much off your chest? Right? Are 1:28:52.920 --> 1:28:54.599 you the type of person that needs some more living 1:28:54.920 --> 1:28:57.320 to be inspired for the next thing? It's great I 1:28:57.400 --> 1:28:59.280 used to be or do you still have like some 1:28:59.320 --> 1:29:02.280 more like obviously it's what about four years since the 1:29:02.320 --> 1:29:02.840 last album. 1:29:03.080 --> 1:29:04.640 Well, so we did the Love and Service album that 1:29:04.680 --> 1:29:06.200 nobody knew about that was just a year ago. 1:29:06.240 --> 1:29:07.000 Okay, that was a year ago. 1:29:07.160 --> 1:29:11.400 Yeah, so but yeah, my last like major release was 1:29:12.400 --> 1:29:15.440 twenty nineteen Crazy. 1:29:14.479 --> 1:29:17.559 And is that your last album with yep? 1:29:17.720 --> 1:29:21.280 Yeah, yeah, And so I've done some projects in between them, 1:29:21.320 --> 1:29:24.559 but like, yeah, this is the first like main release. 1:29:24.880 --> 1:29:27.320 But yeah, I don't think it's going to be as 1:29:27.720 --> 1:29:30.479 long now because of the fact that I have my 1:29:30.520 --> 1:29:33.160 own outlet, like now, I control my own so like 1:29:33.200 --> 1:29:34.240 I can literally. 1:29:33.960 --> 1:29:35.439 Yeah, like if you get inspired and want to drop 1:29:35.479 --> 1:29:37.240 an EP in six months, so you could just like 1:29:37.240 --> 1:29:37.960 we're gonna do it. 1:29:38.280 --> 1:29:41.200 And then also I know that I will see every 1:29:41.240 --> 1:29:44.000 sale come in and it will all go directly to 1:29:44.040 --> 1:29:45.800 me and my partner. So bk One, who is the 1:29:45.880 --> 1:29:48.320 DJ you saw with us back then. H He DJ'ed 1:29:48.360 --> 1:29:50.720 for me and Evidence back then. So he was my 1:29:50.760 --> 1:29:54.360 first DJ and he comes from radio. He is the 1:29:54.400 --> 1:29:56.920 one that introduced me to rhyme. Sayers like the closest 1:29:56.920 --> 1:29:58.880 thing I got to a Day one and he was 1:29:58.920 --> 1:30:00.400 with me in a rhyme series Days. He made a 1:30:00.400 --> 1:30:04.479 really dope record called Radio Da Kinaball with Brazilian samples 1:30:04.520 --> 1:30:10.960 and Man Doom and Black Thought and Scarfacer on it. 1:30:10.960 --> 1:30:13.439 It's a dope album. So he did that and then 1:30:13.479 --> 1:30:16.120 he left the road and he started an anti racist 1:30:16.200 --> 1:30:19.000 radio station, Low Watt radio station in Minneapolis. This guy 1:30:19.080 --> 1:30:21.439 is dope. So when I stepped away from rhyme stares 1:30:21.439 --> 1:30:22.920 and moved to Turkey, I just let him know. I 1:30:22.960 --> 1:30:24.920 was like, I'm going to start my own podcast. I'm 1:30:24.920 --> 1:30:27.200 gonna start my own operations. I want to write, I 1:30:27.200 --> 1:30:28.599 want to teach, I want to do so and so. 1:30:29.080 --> 1:30:31.800 And he's like, yeah, I'll do that with you. Like 1:30:31.840 --> 1:30:33.599 what you mean, like along with your He's like, no, 1:30:33.640 --> 1:30:36.519 I'm leaving the radio station anyway. I'm going to dedicate 1:30:36.560 --> 1:30:39.600 my life to this again. Oh yeah, man, So you 1:30:39.640 --> 1:30:43.799 guys are together. So now it's different when you release 1:30:43.920 --> 1:30:46.000 music and you put it out and you go on 1:30:46.040 --> 1:30:48.800 Spotify for artists and you watch the streams, and then 1:30:48.800 --> 1:30:50.600 you go on destroy Kid on your phone and you 1:30:50.640 --> 1:30:54.000 watch the money, and then you go on Shopify and 1:30:54.040 --> 1:30:56.760 you watch the merch and then you go on your 1:30:56.800 --> 1:30:58.559 website and you watch the thing, and then you go 1:30:58.600 --> 1:31:01.960 to your bank account and it all it's all there. Yeah, 1:31:02.000 --> 1:31:04.880 and then you split it with one person who is 1:31:04.960 --> 1:31:07.240 dedicating his life to this work the same as you are. 1:31:08.080 --> 1:31:11.559 It's just clean, it's nice. It's you know. And shoutut 1:31:11.600 --> 1:31:15.439 to Alchemist because when I told Alchemists I was thinking 1:31:15.439 --> 1:31:18.320 about doing that, he was like, call me and he 1:31:18.360 --> 1:31:20.519 sat on the phone with me for an hour. Just 1:31:20.880 --> 1:31:22.599 try to do that. Don't don't, don't don't do this. 1:31:22.680 --> 1:31:26.360 Yeah, look quietest, cap Al's been running it up with alc. 1:31:26.760 --> 1:31:29.759 Whether it's the I mean on the Vinyl front ols 1:31:29.920 --> 1:31:32.439 killing it man. You know, obviously I don't know if 1:31:32.479 --> 1:31:34.000 you hear I mean the new two chains Larry june 1:31:34.000 --> 1:31:35.680 aut Me put out. It's incredible. I think it might 1:31:35.720 --> 1:31:37.479 have came out the same day. Your album dropped a 1:31:37.479 --> 1:31:40.000 week before. H Yeah, yeah, I came out the same 1:31:40.080 --> 1:31:42.240 day as Westside Gun. Yeah. Shout out to Al though. 1:31:42.360 --> 1:31:46.000 Al is uh Man just the just the best. 1:31:45.800 --> 1:31:51.120 And he has an album coming with yam Bay. I've 1:31:51.120 --> 1:31:53.320 not heard it. I've never heard anything. Yeah, I've heard 1:31:53.320 --> 1:31:55.080 it though, is it crazy? Yeah? 1:31:55.080 --> 1:31:55.400 Man? 1:31:55.720 --> 1:31:57.400 Yeah, Seen was sending me the songs as they were 1:31:57.400 --> 1:31:59.479 making them. Oh man, and so yeah, I mean they 1:31:59.479 --> 1:32:01.400 did a black Blackstar album. You know. 1:32:01.479 --> 1:32:02.920 I know a lot of people didn't get to hear 1:32:02.960 --> 1:32:05.839 it because it wasn't on DSPs. But the Lives Blackstar. 1:32:05.920 --> 1:32:09.760 I'm a solid man, but I love man. If I 1:32:09.760 --> 1:32:12.759 could get Yasine Bay what the Alchemist for a whole album, 1:32:12.840 --> 1:32:14.360 I will pay any amount of money. 1:32:14.200 --> 1:32:16.800 For that when you're about to and yeah yeah, and 1:32:17.120 --> 1:32:19.560 I mean yah, Seen is really against DSPs. 1:32:19.640 --> 1:32:21.800 He's like that is I get it, though, I get it, 1:32:21.960 --> 1:32:23.800 And I think, you know, you want to give a 1:32:23.840 --> 1:32:26.280 shout out to Larussell. L Russell's doing a good job 1:32:26.280 --> 1:32:28.760 of kind of rethinking, like I guess, kind of the 1:32:28.840 --> 1:32:31.360 business model approach to like music. It's like, hey, like 1:32:32.640 --> 1:32:35.719 you know you can buy it or wait a while 1:32:35.760 --> 1:32:37.920 and then it'll end up on DSPs. You know. 1:32:39.160 --> 1:32:42.680 Yeah, rock Marcy did that. Yeah, is another person that 1:32:42.720 --> 1:32:44.559 does not. I mean, for as much as we love 1:32:44.640 --> 1:32:46.519 him he is, he doesn't get the credit. He's the 1:32:46.560 --> 1:32:50.200 goat in a certain sure, sure, you know he's not struggling, 1:32:50.200 --> 1:32:52.760 he's doing very well. But man, rock Marcy is another 1:32:52.760 --> 1:32:55.960 one of those guys that like, man, let's tell the truth. 1:32:56.200 --> 1:32:59.800 Let's tell the truth about I love Griselda, but it's 1:32:59.840 --> 1:33:03.479 like when Griselda gets your shine, you have to you 1:33:03.640 --> 1:33:05.679 have to tell you have to talk about rock Marcy. 1:33:05.760 --> 1:33:08.920 Don't try to hide that, ye don't hide that. That's 1:33:08.920 --> 1:33:12.640 what colonialism is, That's what slavery is about. That's what 1:33:13.280 --> 1:33:15.680 the culture is. Where you love the people you come 1:33:15.680 --> 1:33:20.280 from and learn from their grind helps you, Your shine 1:33:20.320 --> 1:33:20.800 helps them. 1:33:21.240 --> 1:33:23.439 Don't talk to Conway a lot about I know Conway's 1:33:23.439 --> 1:33:25.280 giving it up to Uh. 1:33:25.400 --> 1:33:27.640 Maybe they have and then forgive me if I don't mean, 1:33:27.640 --> 1:33:28.160 I'm not trying to. 1:33:28.160 --> 1:33:30.600 But no, but rock Marcy's kind of the goat of 1:33:30.600 --> 1:33:33.160 that world in terms of especially in terms of just 1:33:33.280 --> 1:33:37.760 kind of just cultivating like fans and turning that into monetization, merch, 1:33:37.760 --> 1:33:41.479 et cetera. Like obviously Griselda has built their own world, 1:33:41.680 --> 1:33:41.840 you know. 1:33:41.880 --> 1:33:44.640 And then you see that like man Ca died and 1:33:44.880 --> 1:33:48.520 kr was another one of those voices. That's like anybody 1:33:48.560 --> 1:33:51.479 getting shine in that world, especially if you came after 1:33:51.520 --> 1:33:54.519 the ten years of work that that Rock Marcy and 1:33:54.600 --> 1:33:58.559 Cod did, like man Car worked a regular job, right 1:33:58.720 --> 1:34:02.240 so that he could make that type of music. It's like, dude, that, 1:34:02.360 --> 1:34:05.559 like you can't take that away from each other. Like, Okay, Elvis, 1:34:05.760 --> 1:34:08.040 you're great, you shake your butt. You're white and you 1:34:08.040 --> 1:34:10.559 can still shake your butt. Great, right, great, none wrong 1:34:10.600 --> 1:34:13.240 with that. That doesn't make you a bad guy. But 1:34:13.280 --> 1:34:15.680 Big Mama Thornton had to be black in America in 1:34:15.720 --> 1:34:18.760 the nineteen twenties and that's why. And like she's sang 1:34:18.880 --> 1:34:22.559 like that. So just when somebody is saying, hey, you 1:34:22.560 --> 1:34:24.400 ain't in, but a hound dog is dope, be like yeah, 1:34:24.400 --> 1:34:27.320 shot out to Big Mama Thornton, Like that's it. What's 1:34:27.360 --> 1:34:29.320 wrong with that? What the hell is wrong with that? 1:34:29.640 --> 1:34:32.639 And then the whole time that Rock Marcy is like man, 1:34:32.680 --> 1:34:35.360 people are writing him off and counting him out, and 1:34:35.640 --> 1:34:37.120 I mean he says it all the time, and he's 1:34:37.120 --> 1:34:39.320 got the right to talk like that. Because like, yeah, 1:34:39.360 --> 1:34:41.439 when people are putting shakers and cow bells in their 1:34:41.439 --> 1:34:44.559 beats trying to be the Neptunes, He's like, Yo, I'm 1:34:44.600 --> 1:34:47.360 looping this and I'm rapping over it. Yeah, and it's 1:34:47.640 --> 1:34:52.400 no drums fifteen bpm slower than what everybody's doing. And 1:34:52.439 --> 1:34:54.320 they're like, yo, you, but you could have a record deal, 1:34:54.600 --> 1:34:56.599 not if I got to make music like I don't. 1:34:56.400 --> 1:34:56.960 Want to make that. 1:34:57.120 --> 1:34:59.360 Yeah, I don't want to I don't want to make 1:34:59.400 --> 1:35:02.639 the Neptunes, but I want to do this. And then 1:35:02.720 --> 1:35:04.479 kay is doing that, and he's got to work a 1:35:04.600 --> 1:35:07.960 job and so that he can be that free. Kle's like, look, 1:35:08.120 --> 1:35:09.720 you're not gonna tell me. I'm not doing this for 1:35:09.840 --> 1:35:12.240 my fans. I'm doing this because it's the music in 1:35:12.280 --> 1:35:15.160 my heart. If KAYI has to work a job and 1:35:15.240 --> 1:35:19.160 do all of that, then when we benefit from that, 1:35:19.200 --> 1:35:21.600 we just got to say we got to make that 1:35:21.680 --> 1:35:24.639 a part of it. Every time I'm rhyman is Ka. 1:35:26.600 --> 1:35:28.400 You know, I love Action Bronson. It's like when he 1:35:28.439 --> 1:35:31.040 got angry when people kept telling him ghost face. Yeah 1:35:31.160 --> 1:35:31.599 I remember. 1:35:31.640 --> 1:35:36.680 I think he probably regrets again beautiful because he was 1:35:36.720 --> 1:35:38.679 it on ESPN or say it was all somewhere random. 1:35:38.680 --> 1:35:42.040 But I feel like he probably he got tired of 1:35:42.080 --> 1:35:44.880 hearing it. But it's like, Okay, your voices are the 1:35:44.880 --> 1:35:47.360 same register. He's not faking his voice when you hear 1:35:47.400 --> 1:35:48.599 him talk, He's amazing. 1:35:48.600 --> 1:35:49.960 For yourself. 1:35:50.000 --> 1:35:52.960 I'm eating schnail pigeons with sew and so like I'm saying, like, 1:35:53.000 --> 1:35:56.160 he's amazing. And he's a nice person, hard working person, 1:35:56.520 --> 1:35:59.840 talented person. He's not a punk. He's a beautiful dude. Nothing. 1:36:00.439 --> 1:36:02.679 But it's like, Okay, yes, you have the same register. 1:36:03.360 --> 1:36:06.920 Ghost Face came up for all these years showing you 1:36:07.000 --> 1:36:10.360 how to use a voice that sounds like that. So 1:36:10.800 --> 1:36:13.639 and if you're gonna sound that much like him, then yeah, 1:36:13.680 --> 1:36:16.080 you're gonna hear his name a lot. And you can't 1:36:16.400 --> 1:36:18.880 be mad about that. Like that you got you gotta 1:36:18.880 --> 1:36:21.519 discipline the ego to win, you know what I'm saying. 1:36:21.600 --> 1:36:23.120 When I came out, people told me I sound like 1:36:23.160 --> 1:36:26.679 Pharaoh Munch. And then one day I'm sitting there rapping 1:36:27.479 --> 1:36:29.280 on the wake up show and I'm going in and 1:36:29.320 --> 1:36:30.720 da da da da da. I opened my eyes and 1:36:30.760 --> 1:36:33.200 there's Pharaoh Monch And I said, oh, man, I said 1:36:33.240 --> 1:36:34.800 on the white people, man people have been telling me 1:36:34.840 --> 1:36:36.880 I sound like you. I love you. I said, do 1:36:36.960 --> 1:36:39.080 I sound like you? He said, Man, somebody showed me 1:36:39.080 --> 1:36:43.120 your picture and said, this guy sounds like you. And 1:36:43.120 --> 1:36:45.080 I was like, all right, now, I don't know about 1:36:45.080 --> 1:36:47.280 all that, but he's but then he's like, then I 1:36:47.320 --> 1:36:49.880 heard you. And we're friends now. And to this day, 1:36:49.920 --> 1:36:52.840 if anybody ever asked me, I'm not I don't have 1:36:52.920 --> 1:36:56.400 I'm not more famous than him either. But it's like, man, 1:36:56.479 --> 1:36:58.760 any white person that doesn't know Pharaoh Monch, it's like 1:36:58.800 --> 1:37:01.439 you don't get to say, man, you're so soulful in 1:37:01.479 --> 1:37:03.320 the sing song y Da Da Da da da, Well 1:37:03.320 --> 1:37:07.240 that's cause of Pharaoh, Munch and Chuck d and y'all 1:37:07.240 --> 1:37:11.639 seen and Kwali and common and you know what I mean. 1:37:12.120 --> 1:37:14.680 If there's ever anybody that celebrates me, and I know 1:37:14.760 --> 1:37:18.640 that you're also celebrating my lineage, I'm proud to be 1:37:18.680 --> 1:37:21.200 from a lineage. I hope I'm worthy of that lineage. 1:37:21.280 --> 1:37:22.720 I hope I'm worthy of you know what I mean. 1:37:23.520 --> 1:37:26.519 Those people seem to approve of me, for sure, you 1:37:26.520 --> 1:37:28.559 know what I mean. And if they didn't, I would 1:37:28.600 --> 1:37:32.840 be I would be not just seeking approval for the 1:37:32.880 --> 1:37:38.720 approvals sake, But it's like if these are people's real life, Like, 1:37:38.920 --> 1:37:41.200 if you're really an artist, you know the blood, sweat 1:37:41.200 --> 1:37:43.920 and tears you're pouring to figuring out how to make 1:37:44.000 --> 1:37:46.920 it sound like this, And so if somebody else has 1:37:46.960 --> 1:37:49.439 done that work, it's like, man, I will never be 1:37:49.520 --> 1:37:52.519 out here gallivat and taking shine that from stuff I 1:37:52.600 --> 1:37:56.080 learned from you. And if you are an artist, you 1:37:56.160 --> 1:37:58.880 know what you added. So Eminem is like, yeah, play 1:38:00.200 --> 1:38:02.280 play Tretch from Naughty by Nature, not the hits, play 1:38:02.280 --> 1:38:05.920 Wickedest Man, Alive by Trench, and play anything from a 1:38:05.960 --> 1:38:08.720 g rap and Red Man. You're gonna hear what I 1:38:08.760 --> 1:38:11.400 learned from them. You're also gonna hear what Eminem brought 1:38:11.439 --> 1:38:14.719 because he also brought something, so he's comfortable and confident. 1:38:15.160 --> 1:38:17.519 He's like, yes, red Man on my T shirt, Go 1:38:17.560 --> 1:38:19.240 listen to Red Man, go listen a month. 1:38:19.280 --> 1:38:20.800 Well, I think even on like eminem show where he 1:38:20.840 --> 1:38:24.840 listed uh uh he had that line was it until 1:38:24.840 --> 1:38:29.160 I Collapse where he mentioned like the best of like 1:38:29.240 --> 1:38:31.320 the greatest of all time list and then and then 1:38:31.360 --> 1:38:33.599 he said and he mentioned all these rappers and then 1:38:33.600 --> 1:38:35.880 put himself at the end, and then me, I think 1:38:35.880 --> 1:38:37.479 it was like corrupt red Man. 1:38:38.320 --> 1:38:38.920 But but he. 1:38:38.880 --> 1:38:40.559 Always I think Eminem has always did a good job 1:38:40.560 --> 1:38:42.360 of paying homage. And if you know anything about Eminem, 1:38:42.400 --> 1:38:44.519 like literally his entire come up is like that of 1:38:44.520 --> 1:38:47.160 like a backpack rapper for real, like fucking. 1:38:47.080 --> 1:38:48.920 He comes from the culture and this there's he was 1:38:48.920 --> 1:38:51.479 on Soundbomban too, you know, like there's a difference with 1:38:51.800 --> 1:38:54.320 any man great with people. Yeah, any man that jump 1:38:54.360 --> 1:38:57.160 in front of a mini band, he's on the. 1:38:57.439 --> 1:38:59.599 It's funny because he was on the cover of Soundbomban too, 1:38:59.600 --> 1:39:01.679 like there was like an illustrated picture of him. Yes, 1:39:01.720 --> 1:39:04.280 that's right, yeah, right, Oh my god, one of the 1:39:04.280 --> 1:39:06.320 best mixtapes ever. Shout out to fucking Jay rock and 1:39:06.479 --> 1:39:09.960 uh bat boo absolutely man, that was shout to be 1:39:10.080 --> 1:39:13.519 junkies down by the Lyricist Lounge, good time. All right, 1:39:13.560 --> 1:39:16.879 So you got the albums out? Uh, you're doing a podcast? 1:39:16.880 --> 1:39:18.320 How often you dropping on the on. 1:39:18.240 --> 1:39:20.960 The podcast every week except for when we don't Okay, 1:39:21.200 --> 1:39:25.400 that's a good answer. Almost every week? Okay, cool? And 1:39:25.800 --> 1:39:27.639 you know all of it's at brother Aley dot com. 1:39:27.680 --> 1:39:29.960 Hitting and hitting the road in a couple of months, uh, 1:39:30.040 --> 1:39:33.320 doing some festivals and obviously the tour with abilities, so 1:39:33.400 --> 1:39:33.920 that'll be dope. 1:39:33.920 --> 1:39:34.040 Man. 1:39:34.040 --> 1:39:36.880 I appreciate you pulling up the album is incredible, Thank you. 1:39:37.320 --> 1:39:39.040 It is and I love the title. 1:39:39.080 --> 1:39:43.120 It felt like it and I'm really proud of you. 1:39:44.080 --> 1:39:44.759 Thank you. 1:39:44.920 --> 1:39:45.880 I appreciate that, man. 1:39:46.040 --> 1:39:49.320 Yeah, the way that you the way that you engage artists, 1:39:49.320 --> 1:39:51.519 the way you talk to them. 1:39:51.560 --> 1:39:51.720 You know. 1:39:51.760 --> 1:39:53.880 Of course there's viral moments with you said he got 1:39:53.920 --> 1:39:56.680 a million dollars scholarship or something to play like. That 1:39:56.800 --> 1:40:01.200 was great, But I was just like you you there's 1:40:01.200 --> 1:40:03.680 something that seems so simple. It seems like why you fit. 1:40:04.080 --> 1:40:08.559 There's just something about people that come from, you know, 1:40:08.600 --> 1:40:12.400 the dominant culture and care about the humanity of the 1:40:12.479 --> 1:40:15.160 artists that they're talking to and the artistry. You know 1:40:15.200 --> 1:40:16.800 what I mean. And that's obvious. It's always been I 1:40:16.880 --> 1:40:18.599 knew that. Yeah. For me, I'm just a fan dude, 1:40:18.640 --> 1:40:18.800 you know. 1:40:18.880 --> 1:40:21.680 So it's like I'm a fan first and and you know, 1:40:22.120 --> 1:40:25.200 like you said, something that you said about Atmosphere resonated 1:40:25.240 --> 1:40:30.559 with me. I could chase virality more because I could 1:40:30.600 --> 1:40:32.720 live in the trenches of like. 1:40:32.880 --> 1:40:37.040 You're not messing, yes, but I'm good, and you don't 1:40:37.160 --> 1:40:41.920 encourage the the the what you're focusing on with these 1:40:41.920 --> 1:40:44.880 mostly black artists that you talk to, is their life, 1:40:44.880 --> 1:40:48.680 their humanity, their genius. You're not a person who is 1:40:48.720 --> 1:40:52.439 looking for them to be to be a lesser version 1:40:52.479 --> 1:40:55.960 of themselves because it'll benefit your platform, not naming names, 1:40:55.960 --> 1:40:57.000 but there are people that that. 1:40:57.080 --> 1:40:59.160 Yeah, I just I just you know, I'm also like 1:41:00.200 --> 1:41:02.120 that's the other thing. There's just certain certain stuff I 1:41:02.120 --> 1:41:04.400 can't do because just of how I live, where I'm who. 1:41:04.320 --> 1:41:06.439 I'm with, and it's natural and it's natural to It's 1:41:06.520 --> 1:41:07.040 very natural. 1:41:07.160 --> 1:41:10.080 So I appreciate that. Love Man, Thank You album is incredible. 1:41:10.280 --> 1:41:11.959 Vinyls available yep. 1:41:11.840 --> 1:41:13.640 And start shipping in like a week or something. We 1:41:13.760 --> 1:41:16.599 just just came in from Czech Republic. Brent Rollins did 1:41:16.600 --> 1:41:19.719 the design. Legendary Guy did the Boys in the Hood logo. 1:41:20.120 --> 1:41:23.880 B Plus from out Here shot the photos. So like Man, 1:41:23.920 --> 1:41:27.640 the art is like a real, like tactile experience, Like 1:41:27.680 --> 1:41:29.840 that feels a certain way, and I really dope. 1:41:29.840 --> 1:41:31.439 I love the man, So go go support and I 1:41:31.479 --> 1:41:33.760 appreciate you pulling up man father Ali. There it is