Speaker 1: Wake that ass up in the morning. Breakfast Club Morning.
Speaker 1: Everybody is the j n V.
Speaker 2: Jess Hilarious, Chelamaane the guy. We are the Breakfast Club
Speaker 2: Laura La Rossa Field in for just today.
Speaker 1: We got a special guest in the building.
Speaker 3: Yes, indeed we have the brother Leon Thomas.
Speaker 1: Welcome, Bro. It's good, it's good. Hey y'all feeling how
Speaker 1: you feeling?
Speaker 4: Bless Black and Holly favorite Leon.
Speaker 5: You are by far the greatest new male R and
Speaker 5: B singer doing it today.
Speaker 1: Man, thank you so much.
Speaker 4: That shouldn't even be up with debate.
Speaker 1: Man, Man, I really appreciate that.
Speaker 4: Man, how do you receive it?
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, to be honest, I try to
Speaker 1: just take it one step at a time, you know,
Speaker 1: I try to stay humble with everything. But I'm glad
Speaker 1: to be a new voice in R and B. You know,
Speaker 1: it's a genre that I love. You know, I'm trying
Speaker 1: to bring back live musicianship, real songs. You know, writing
Speaker 1: with the team that I have has been in an
Speaker 1: amazing pleasure and you know, just bringing like that that
Speaker 1: organic feeling back to the live stage is like a
Speaker 1: big thing for me.
Speaker 3: You know, one of your biggest fans who's a produce.
Speaker 2: Sit up here. He put us on to you years ago.
Speaker 2: His name is Brandon, but he's actually this is the
Speaker 2: funniest thing. He's actually in Africa right.
Speaker 1: Now, really Vietnam.
Speaker 2: But he's a huge fan of y'alls. He goes to
Speaker 2: all your shows and all your concerts. Put us on
Speaker 2: to you early, but he would have he would have
Speaker 2: loved to see you here.
Speaker 1: For people that.
Speaker 3: Don't know Leon Thomas, you know you started on Broadway.
Speaker 2: Tell everybody how you got your start and your way
Speaker 2: into being this R and B star.
Speaker 1: Well, listen, I grew up in New York, started on Broadway.
Speaker 1: Out here. I did three Broadway plays from Lion King
Speaker 1: the Carolina changed the color purple. You assembled like, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I was resembled in Lion King. And then you know,
Speaker 1: I started booking movies and TV show.
Speaker 3: But how how was that? I just took my kids
Speaker 3: to see it. It was insane. I was that training
Speaker 3: because it's.
Speaker 1: A lot of shows, a lot of people.
Speaker 3: In his lives. So you can't mess up.
Speaker 1: No, no, you can't mess up. It's eight shows a week.
Speaker 1: I was ten years old when I did my first
Speaker 1: Broadway play. Shout out to my mom and my family
Speaker 1: for you know, supporting me through that whole journey. And
Speaker 1: and yeah, man, I went from being a regular kid
Speaker 1: to starring on Broadway and a matter of months.
Speaker 2: You know, Now, how was that because it's it's not
Speaker 2: the typical thing New York kids do, right, So you're singing,
Speaker 2: you're dancing, you're doing it. So how did you get
Speaker 2: it to that point of no, because you don't go
Speaker 2: I don't know anybody it went to Brow It's very
Speaker 2: different kids.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I had a couple of homies who
Speaker 1: ended up in different plays, but for the most part, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it was definitely like a bit of an anomaly for
Speaker 1: my neighborhood in Brooklyn. It was. It was kind of
Speaker 1: weird explaining it to my homies at school, like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I was just doing the show last night. They're like,
Speaker 1: what was going on?
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, we're not from New York, from the hoods
Speaker 5: of New York.
Speaker 1: Okay, But no, it was definitely a real pleasure, you know.
Speaker 1: But but but from there, I ended up doing a
Speaker 1: lot of TV and film. You know. I shot my
Speaker 1: first movie out here with Robin Williams and Terrence Howard
Speaker 1: called August Rush which was an amazing pleasure, and that
Speaker 1: kind of brought me into a lot of a lot
Speaker 1: of TV after that with Nickelodeon and Victoria Victorious. Yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: Ariana Grande and you know, that was a big journey.
Speaker 1: That was the number one show on the network at
Speaker 1: the time. We were beating out American Idol, and it
Speaker 1: was a way for the rest of the world to
Speaker 1: kind of really tap into who I am as a creative.
Speaker 1: But it it took years of really honing in on
Speaker 1: who I am as an artist to get to this point,
Speaker 1: producing and writing for a bunch of different artists, winning
Speaker 1: a Grammy, working with Sissa and Babyface, Drake, a bunch
Speaker 1: of different people. It's been a real actually produced for Drake.
Speaker 1: But but you know, shout out to him and yeah,
Speaker 1: allegedly man, but you know, from me, I don't think
Speaker 1: there's anything wrong with it either. But it was a
Speaker 1: blessing to I mean, it's interesting because I'm an artist
Speaker 1: and people see me as a singer, they kind of
Speaker 1: forget that I also produced a lot of big records.
Speaker 1: You know, my production game is pretty tight. So but yeah,
Speaker 1: all purpose.
Speaker 5: Lyrics like that of a rap But that's why when
Speaker 5: I see Freddie Gibbs on your records, but it makes
Speaker 5: so much it SEMs to.
Speaker 1: Be anybody from Victoria's absolutely man. You know, I chop
Speaker 1: it up with Ari Avan, Joe Gia is a really
Speaker 1: good friend of mine. You know, Matt Bennett, a lot
Speaker 1: of the casts. We all hang out and do lunch.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like my last two years of high
Speaker 1: school were with them, so that's like my graduating class. Essentially.
Speaker 1: We were all in school together, so you know, we filmed,
Speaker 1: but we also went to school, so those are It
Speaker 1: was my really good friends.
Speaker 5: To Victoria and her mom. I did a host of
Speaker 5: the New Year's Eve specially with them for real.
Speaker 1: Oh that's dope, that's dope.
Speaker 4: People. You ever wrote for Ariana?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Actually I worked with her on her first album.
Speaker 1: That was my first time going number one with an album.
Speaker 1: I did about like four songs on her first album,
Speaker 1: Yours truly Wow. So that was a real, real pleasure. Yeah.
Speaker 6: I was about to say like how did you know
Speaker 6: so young? And like just being like Okay, I can act,
Speaker 6: I can dance, I can sing, but I can also
Speaker 6: go produce over here, like how because a lot of
Speaker 6: people wait to diversify until they're like, you know, exposed.
Speaker 1: I mean, shout out to Jermaine Duprix. He used to
Speaker 1: have this YouTube series called Living of Life. It was
Speaker 1: a Jermaine Dupris and Brian Michael Cox, and they were
Speaker 1: always in the studio like filming their process, and you know,
Speaker 1: I saw them being rich black men, you know, also
Speaker 1: being able to be creative every day, and I wanted
Speaker 1: to kind of recreate that lifestyle for myself. Ryan Leslie
Speaker 1: as well, like seeing a lot of his YouTube videos
Speaker 1: inspired me to you know, open up logic and try
Speaker 1: to produce myself.
Speaker 2: You know, did you know you always wanted to be
Speaker 2: an R and B singer? Like it was that the
Speaker 2: goal as a kid growing up, always want to be
Speaker 2: an actor. Like and when did you pivot? When he
Speaker 2: was like, this is what I want to do.
Speaker 1: Listen. I feel like I did this role with Catherine Bigelow.
Speaker 1: She's an Oscar Award winning director, but I had to
Speaker 1: cut my dreads for it, and that was kind of
Speaker 1: like my last straw in acting. You know. I did
Speaker 1: this role for Detroit and I felt like, you know,
Speaker 1: I need to kind of tap back into who I
Speaker 1: am as an artist. And you know, grew my dreads back,
Speaker 1: really got into my internal self, meditating, really like tapping
Speaker 1: into who I am as a human being, and a
Speaker 1: lot of great music came out of that. You know,
Speaker 1: I always I wanted to be uh a singer, but
Speaker 1: I knew for a fact I needed to really present
Speaker 1: myself as who I truly was. It's so easy to
Speaker 1: play a character when you're always acting. You know, I
Speaker 1: needed to come to the world as my true self.
Speaker 5: Now you are timas the third Yeah, first to leon
Speaker 5: to have any background in music, not really.
Speaker 1: You know, but my grandfather. I didn't get a lot
Speaker 1: of time with my grandfather, but but my dad always
Speaker 1: told me that he was a real lover of music.
Speaker 1: And my dad sings, but he's an assistant principal now.
Speaker 1: But my grandfather, who actually recently just passed, God bless
Speaker 1: his soul, John Anthony, was an opera singer and was
Speaker 1: on Broadway and Hello Dolly, and used to be the
Speaker 1: music director for One Life to Live out Here in
Speaker 1: New York all of the soap operas back in the day.
Speaker 1: So you know, I was definitely surrounded by music just
Speaker 1: through through my mom and her side of the family
Speaker 1: was musician. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, so so so my
Speaker 1: mom John Anthony, she she had a club day being
Speaker 1: in New York, used to play it, used to be
Speaker 1: the house band for the World Trade Center, you know,
Speaker 1: played a lot of the big clubs out here, and
Speaker 1: I just grew up backstage with her and you know,
Speaker 1: just really hanging out, you know, learning, learning music. So
Speaker 1: what was so the Black Rock Coalition. There was clubs
Speaker 1: like CBGB's and a rare of different clubs where it
Speaker 1: was kind of awkward at a certain point in the
Speaker 1: nineteen eighties where you know, rock was created by us,
Speaker 1: but there was definitely elements of prejudice within that genre.
Speaker 1: And all of the black rock stars decided to come together,
Speaker 1: you know, the cats from Living Color, a bunch of
Speaker 1: them just all came together to really protect each other
Speaker 1: through through through moments of you know, turmoil, through through
Speaker 1: that season of the eighties and early nineties, and it's
Speaker 1: just good to have each other's back, especially in the
Speaker 1: genre where you're not always celebrated.
Speaker 7: When you were on.
Speaker 6: The like the sets when you like even with like
Speaker 6: Victoria's and stuff like that, was your mom and like
Speaker 6: your parents there often oh yeah, my mom on they
Speaker 6: talked a lot about that too, Like parents were close.
Speaker 1: Now they were there, they were there. You know, my
Speaker 1: mom was never like a mamager like over my over
Speaker 1: my shoulder kind of mom. But she was also very
Speaker 1: protective of my piece and met health and sure that
Speaker 1: just like in a good, good space while I'm while
Speaker 1: I'm trying to create something timeless and you know, shout
Speaker 1: out to her always, you know, crean safe spaces for
Speaker 1: me throughout that journey, you.
Speaker 4: Know, from getting slimmed.
Speaker 1: It was definitely nuts, definitely nuts, you know, seeing seeing
Speaker 1: how definitely it's definitely definitely insane.
Speaker 4: Don't say that. Definitely nuts.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know, I know, you know it's crazy. It's
Speaker 1: crazy because you know, I just saw the dock not
Speaker 1: too long ago. It's not the eye opening and and
Speaker 1: a lot of my castmates we we hopped on a
Speaker 1: zoom call. We all wanted to talk about it. I mean,
Speaker 1: luckily during during our seasons it was it was very
Speaker 1: wholesome and sip. But you know, shout out to anybody
Speaker 1: who dealt with anything bad. I mean, I you know,
Speaker 1: my heart definitely goes out to them.
Speaker 2: Did you have a childhood growing up like were you
Speaker 2: able to do things that normal kids did or was
Speaker 2: it always I'm on set, I'm working.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, you know, to be completely real with you,
Speaker 1: I had a great childhood. My mom made sure that,
Speaker 1: you know, I had a good group of friends. I
Speaker 1: went to public school up until my last two years
Speaker 1: of high school. You know, I feel like having that
Speaker 1: grounded energy was definitely important for even me as a
Speaker 1: songwriter and a producer now and an artist. You know,
Speaker 1: I feel like, you know, I come from a very
Speaker 1: human place. It's not like I try to detach from
Speaker 1: who I am organically. You know.
Speaker 5: The thing I love about your music too is number
Speaker 5: one I can tell you, Ben, you got a sense
Speaker 5: of freedom.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 5: So did that come with money or does that come
Speaker 5: with just how you came up? You know, with your
Speaker 5: mom doing music? So you always felt free as an artiste?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, you know, I think the greatest thing
Speaker 1: about being an artist is at it's a It's a
Speaker 1: great representation of being a free black man, you know, like,
Speaker 1: you know, being able to wear what I want, you know,
Speaker 1: say what I want on on record is really important
Speaker 1: to me. You know. I try to stay as grounded
Speaker 1: and as real to who I am as I can be.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think it's it's it's really easy to
Speaker 1: want to be an artist and play a character who
Speaker 1: you think people want you to be. But I'm doing
Speaker 1: my best to just like kind of just say what
Speaker 1: I want, do what I want.
Speaker 6: You know, when you come up with songs with like
Speaker 6: I like feelings on Silent with I Love Valle, but
Speaker 6: songs like that, like when I listen to it, each
Speaker 6: time I get something different from it. So the first
Speaker 6: time I listened to I was like, oh, this is
Speaker 6: like guys just being like we keep her feeling to herself.
Speaker 6: And then the second time I listened, I'm like, this
Speaker 6: is the trauma that they deal with because like he
Speaker 6: mentions PTSD and a bunch of other things, like how
Speaker 6: do you first of all, sitting back you wrote that, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 6: sitting back and writing with him, how do you be like, Okay,
Speaker 6: here's all the things that we want people to get
Speaker 6: when they hear this, or do you guys just write
Speaker 6: and whatever people get they get like where you dealing
Speaker 6: with something yourself then?
Speaker 1: Or you know, the way I wrote that record was
Speaker 1: really interesting. I was in I was in Italy actually,
Speaker 1: I was working with Ya and Todd Dollars on the
Speaker 1: Vultures one project, and we were at the Medici estate,
Speaker 1: which is really beautiful four seasons that they have out there,
Speaker 1: beautiful garden, and I'm listening to the instrumental from Conductor
Speaker 1: walking through the Garden and I just had some lyrics
Speaker 1: kind of you know, bubbling up in my head. Went
Speaker 1: back and we recorded it, but I think it was
Speaker 1: one of those moments that it was just kind of
Speaker 1: stream of consciousness. I didn't really think too hard on
Speaker 1: my sections. That was like my second take that you're
Speaker 1: hearing there. It wasn't like me like kind of really
Speaker 1: punching in a bunch of different ideas. It was just
Speaker 1: kind of flowing. And when Wilee heard it, that was
Speaker 1: probably the hardest verse to get because we did probably
Speaker 1: we did like five sessions to get that one verse.
Speaker 1: But Yo, he's so talented and seeing how he crafted
Speaker 1: his verse, I mean he would do like five bars
Speaker 1: at the time, and he really cared about the poetry
Speaker 1: of it all, you know, And it's why I really
Speaker 1: respect him as an artist.
Speaker 4: He's just a true lyricist.
Speaker 1: You signed the time, Yeah I am yeah, okay, yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: easy money and uh, it's in conjunction with Motown Records
Speaker 1: and just you know, between legacy and a new imprint.
Speaker 1: I think it's been really cool to to kind of
Speaker 1: break around in R and B right now. It's been
Speaker 1: a real special thing.
Speaker 5: Do I feel like mot Town Records is doing enough
Speaker 5: for you? I don't know why Leon Thomas is not
Speaker 5: in heavy rotation on every radio station off the planet.
Speaker 5: Whatever that button is that they need to push, it
Speaker 5: needs to be pushed.
Speaker 1: No, I appreciate it. Man. Well, I feel like opportunities
Speaker 1: like this are really helpful. I feel like radio stations
Speaker 1: are definitely looking at at platforms like this to say, okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: we feel comfortable, you know, trusting this new name and
Speaker 1: new face. You know, I've been doing this a long time,
Speaker 1: but I still look at this as a new artist
Speaker 1: journey because I really just started like taking the artist
Speaker 1: journey serious these these last five years. So I'm really
Speaker 1: thankful for the growth. I'm thankful for the wins. And
Speaker 1: there's you know, it's people working really hard at those
Speaker 1: labels with actually a lot of underfunding and collapsing of
Speaker 1: of uh you know, labels into one. It's it's it's
Speaker 1: just a lot of work and a lot of people
Speaker 1: are losing jobs, so people are afraid to push that button.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it could be the demise of their entire you know, careers.
Speaker 1: So I really respect the work that they're doing. I
Speaker 1: just know that this year is going to be really
Speaker 1: special for me man. I mean, I've been doing a
Speaker 1: lot of praying and manifesting for just new things, and
Speaker 1: you know, this was definitely on my bucket list. So
Speaker 1: I'm just appreciative to be here.
Speaker 5: Really, have any program directors the DJ's approached you and said, hey,
Speaker 5: if you slide me this under the table.
Speaker 1: Nah, Nah, definitely, Yeah, I got a new HOMIEI homie.
Speaker 2: We got to congratulate you on your GRAMM. Yeah, we
Speaker 2: tell everybody that we helped with that because we played
Speaker 2: Snooze every morning four times.
Speaker 1: Did you wrote Snooze produced on Snooze? Man? First of all,
Speaker 1: let's clear this up. Shout out to Scissors for writing that.
Speaker 1: We were producing in a separate room and she heard
Speaker 1: the instrumental and was like, yo, what is that? And
Speaker 1: you know there is something that I do where I
Speaker 1: like take my voice and I chop it up like
Speaker 1: a sample because clearance samples is really expensive and cuts
Speaker 1: into the publishing, so rather than it's like actually doing
Speaker 1: a sample, I'll just you know, sing a little something, right.
Speaker 1: So she really liked that and then took it into
Speaker 1: the other room and wrote an amazing song and being
Speaker 1: a part of the production on that with Babyface legendary
Speaker 1: baby Face was a true pleasure man. I mean it
Speaker 1: was a real journey to see that song go from
Speaker 1: like a crowd favorite to a Grammy Award winning R
Speaker 1: and V song. Man, that was that was definitely life
Speaker 1: changing for me.
Speaker 4: You got a deduction team, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the Rascal was me, Me and and Chris tians Man.
Speaker 1: We've been working together since we were like eighteen, so
Speaker 1: it's really cool to see the growth. I mean we
Speaker 1: started off, you know, a little shaky when it came
Speaker 1: to production, but it's nice to see us, you know,
Speaker 1: really develop into the producers we are now. We had
Speaker 1: great mentors.
Speaker 7: Man, You have such you have such big moments.
Speaker 6: Like I thought I was tripping, but you just said
Speaker 6: these last what like five years is when you feel
Speaker 6: like things.
Speaker 7: That are really moving for you as an artist.
Speaker 6: Yeah, Because I'm like, I know you outside of being
Speaker 6: an artist, but you have such big moments even before
Speaker 6: that and during that, but it's like, I don't know,
Speaker 6: like when do you feel like things started like to
Speaker 6: click finally where people were like, oh, shoot, Leon like
Speaker 6: we get it now.
Speaker 1: It's really interesting. I like to call it the Drake
Speaker 1: effect when I was working When I was working with Drake,
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, label executives who have known me
Speaker 1: for years were like, eh, I think you could be
Speaker 1: an artist, you know, And I was like, okay, So
Speaker 1: I kind of peeped that and I said, okay, well
Speaker 1: let's just start. Let's start kind of building this out.
Speaker 1: But I knew I wanted that that same formula that
Speaker 1: Drake had with a little Wayne and and you know,
Speaker 1: working with Todd dallas signe was a really smart move,
Speaker 1: not only because he's just an amazing artist, but because
Speaker 1: it was just nice to have a mentor who had
Speaker 1: done it already. So he's he's just like kind of like, yo,
Speaker 1: try this, make sure the look as this, or you know,
Speaker 1: even when it came to the music, like here's how
Speaker 1: you really format an album, and you know, I'm definitely
Speaker 1: doing a lot of studying, you know, shout out to
Speaker 1: Todd dallas On for sure. He definitely you know saw
Speaker 1: something in me that a lot of label executives were
Speaker 1: not sure about, and it's cool to see it developing.
Speaker 3: How did you?
Speaker 4: How did you me?
Speaker 1: I was actually working on his album as a producer
Speaker 1: on featuring Todd Dallas Sign. I was like one of
Speaker 1: I think nine producers on a song with Kanye and
Speaker 1: Thundercat and a bunch of other people.
Speaker 4: Nine producers on one record.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because it's like it was when it it was
Speaker 1: like point five, Like I was just there out of
Speaker 1: this or that vocal and like some bass or something.
Speaker 1: And then but but he had everybody play like their
Speaker 1: unreleased records and I played them some of my first
Speaker 1: album as like demos, and Todd was like, yo, you
Speaker 1: really You're really tight, you know as an artist, he
Speaker 1: was like man, And he was originally trying to record
Speaker 1: one of the songs that I had, but I was like, nah,
Speaker 1: I want you to feature on it. And uh. Over
Speaker 1: the years became really good friends. I was working with
Speaker 1: them a lot and just kind of developed into a
Speaker 1: into a whole situation with Sean Baron. Sean Barron is
Speaker 1: the guy who officially like put it all together with
Speaker 1: easy Money in Motown.
Speaker 6: Is it tough navigating because people are getting to know
Speaker 6: you now and there Airboy's fall in love with your
Speaker 6: music now, and like you have such a close association
Speaker 6: with Drake, you have to like pick and choose where
Speaker 6: you go musically and what you do musically with who
Speaker 6: you know.
Speaker 4: Honestly, can you work with Kendrick Lamar if you wanted to?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know that's what she's asking. I mean,
Speaker 1: the way, the way I really look at it is
Speaker 1: just like on a political level, I make R and B.
Speaker 1: You know, obviously I make hip hop too, but I'm
Speaker 1: really focused on my artist's journey. So I mean, Kendrick
Speaker 1: is such a huge artist. I don't really foresee us
Speaker 1: working together in the near future. And even with Drake,
Speaker 1: you know, I still want to take my steps to
Speaker 1: really build on my own two feet as an artist.
Speaker 1: So I'm doing what i have to do right now
Speaker 1: to really like grow my own business. Touring is a
Speaker 1: big thing for me. I'm really focused on that. I'm
Speaker 1: hitting the road all this year and working on more records.
Speaker 1: So I mean, shout out to everybody, but I'm definitely
Speaker 1: focused on me.
Speaker 5: I want to ask you a buggess question about the
Speaker 5: production before we get into both of these great albums.
Speaker 5: But you when you are part of the Rascals, Yeah,
Speaker 5: if you all produced, but then you write, how do
Speaker 5: y'all do you get another check for writing? Is that
Speaker 5: two different checks?
Speaker 1: Or you know, publishing is interesting because you want to
Speaker 1: leave room for the artist. But I would definitely ask
Speaker 1: for more percentages if we were really heavily involved in
Speaker 1: the writing as well. But it's it's it's just an
Speaker 1: interesting thing, you know. I try to we try to
Speaker 1: keep it pretty even on the most part when it
Speaker 1: comes to production, especially if everybody who's in the room
Speaker 1: from the beginning of the record.
Speaker 5: What if it's your pin, it's everybody's production with your
Speaker 5: pin or.
Speaker 1: I mean it's like fifty to fifty, so you know,
Speaker 1: you have the first fifty is the production side, and
Speaker 1: the way I look at it is melody and drums,
Speaker 1: you know, uh, And then the second fifty is, you know,
Speaker 1: just the writing side, and it's just based off of
Speaker 1: how much you ended up writing of the song. Because
Speaker 1: a lot of artists are very involved with their storyline
Speaker 1: and lyrics and hook ideas. So I have no problem
Speaker 1: splitting that twenty five there. And then if I got
Speaker 1: fifteen on the production or twenty five on the production.
Speaker 1: Now I got fifty percent of a record.
Speaker 2: Y'all talk about that while y'all doing its.
Speaker 1: Trust me, we've definitely been through some things, you know,
Speaker 1: after the fact that people get amnesia. But I think,
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's really easier when you figure that
Speaker 1: out the day it happens. You know. We used to
Speaker 1: have split sheets there at the studio, which I thought
Speaker 1: was a really good practice, but we kind of let
Speaker 1: go of that.
Speaker 6: So talking about your phone and just in your notes,
Speaker 6: be like I put this there, Like, how do you
Speaker 6: keep up?
Speaker 7: Because you just eat.
Speaker 1: It's just way easier and I think smarter to just
Speaker 1: split everything even you know, if you can.
Speaker 7: Doing that though, people want to keep it thinking.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I mean some artists with us, they are
Speaker 1: especially if you write and producing the song.
Speaker 3: You know, how is it with Kanye when you do
Speaker 3: splits and stuff like that?
Speaker 1: Oh lord, it's a little interesting, man, But you know,
Speaker 1: shout out to him. I feel like that experience was
Speaker 1: like more so just school for me on a production level.
Speaker 1: I've never seen anybody be so magical with their imagination.
Speaker 1: He would have these ideas and It was so cool
Speaker 1: to see teams of people make that a reality. And
Speaker 1: I think that's what I could take from that. I mean,
Speaker 1: publishing is important, but you know, it's the it's the
Speaker 1: true life experience from from seeing a free black man
Speaker 1: put stuff together was like, really tight.
Speaker 4: How old were you when you realize Vibes Don't Lie?
Speaker 5: One of my favorite records, When you first realized Vibes
Speaker 5: Don't Live?
Speaker 1: I think that was that was definitely early twenties. I
Speaker 1: think LA is filled with facades and people who are
Speaker 1: pretending to be something they aren't, people who moved from
Speaker 1: their hometown and create a whole new persona. So I
Speaker 1: think for me, just really studying folks, especially a lot
Speaker 1: of them. I mean, you deal without their you know,
Speaker 1: it's really important to study their actions and out their words.
Speaker 5: I love the fact that you are encouraging women women
Speaker 5: to keep their pussy healthy.
Speaker 4: Did you ever want to be a collegist?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 1: No, no, no, I wasn't on the list. I just listen, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I just listen. I just listen. Man.
Speaker 4: So they tell you, like, HEYY is not feeling the
Speaker 4: best of this.
Speaker 1: No, I mean, I just think balance is a conversation
Speaker 1: you know, I just listencause.
Speaker 5: You was very very specific. He said, uh, she only
Speaker 5: drink water.
Speaker 4: She keep that pussy healthy.
Speaker 6: Sat on Twitter, you'd be talking crazy like that, but
Speaker 6: you sing it so people can't be you had that
Speaker 6: conversation in real life, which your home, like you're not
Speaker 6: your home.
Speaker 1: Honestly, I'm just big on shock value. I think songs,
Speaker 1: especially R and B songs, have gotten a bit not boring.
Speaker 1: But I think we've we've kind of already hit the
Speaker 1: golden era of R and B. So I'm just finding
Speaker 1: new ways to make people's years, you know, perk up
Speaker 1: and their minds move. I think social media and podcasts
Speaker 1: are really interesting to me. You know, these phone mics
Speaker 1: bring out so many conversations, and I think as an
Speaker 1: R and B artist, I want to find ways to
Speaker 1: let that live on the record, and it doesn't always
Speaker 1: have to be like verbatim of what I'm going through
Speaker 1: in real life. I think it's important to create the drama.
Speaker 1: You know, I kind of see music as you know,
Speaker 1: script and the score. So sometimes the records are just
Speaker 1: like really good dramatizations of like what I'm seeing, don't
Speaker 1: you never think.
Speaker 7: Everybody, but but like, w how does that go for
Speaker 7: you now?
Speaker 1: I mean I don't think. I don't think it's now.
Speaker 6: Expecting you to be like, all right, here's the check,
Speaker 6: Like how do you because you got the songs?
Speaker 1: Like yeah, yeah, you know, I definitely got the songs.
Speaker 1: But I think it's just important to be honest with
Speaker 1: your partner, you know, communicate. But but I think it's
Speaker 1: it's a it's a pretty interesting conversation. I try to
Speaker 1: stay out of if I don't have to. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. No, I don't even know what that is.
Speaker 1: You put me all right now at a little.
Speaker 5: Bit, a little wax on it, a little pinky, put
Speaker 5: the pinky inside of hold on, jump you got something?
Speaker 4: Try to putting in his health. It should be you listen.
Speaker 1: You should do it on yourself. I don't know where you.
Speaker 4: Do.
Speaker 2: That is nothing that South Carolina the same road thing
Speaker 2: that they do.
Speaker 3: It doesn't.
Speaker 1: I do not try that.
Speaker 7: He that doesn't.
Speaker 6: Your mom never told you that you guys to make
Speaker 6: it go drink ginger ales.
Speaker 7: Were talking about ginger up everything, not ear wax. Don't
Speaker 7: listen to him.
Speaker 5: That's why you say, that's what's crazy.
Speaker 7: Locomol used to be like go get some ginger and
Speaker 7: lay down.
Speaker 1: Wow about We love ginger ale around here.
Speaker 5: One thing I don't respect is what you did on
Speaker 5: how fast though?
Speaker 1: What's up? What's up on?
Speaker 4: People? In Honda?
Speaker 1: No, No is one of the most reliable. I love
Speaker 1: a good Honda. My dad has a Honda. I love Hondas.
Speaker 1: Here's the deal. It was a quick bar, you know.
Speaker 1: I was just in the booth wildy. I don't really
Speaker 1: have a problem with it. I think it was just
Speaker 1: more so I was just flowing, you know. And and
Speaker 1: I'm I'm big on not doing too many edits, like
Speaker 1: like when I when I record a record, it's like,
Speaker 1: what's coming to my mind on the first or second
Speaker 1: take is what's it's going to be there, you know.
Speaker 1: And I like to stand on my my you know,
Speaker 1: first mind. And it was more so just talking about
Speaker 1: the competition being slower than I am because moving at
Speaker 1: such a fast paced uh you know. The metaphor was
Speaker 1: about that. It had nothing to do with Honda, but Honda,
Speaker 1: you know, compared to a Lamborghini, is pretty you know,
Speaker 1: pretty slow.
Speaker 5: No, civics are more reliable civics to stick with you,
Speaker 5: like her bees.
Speaker 4: Bro. Yeah, what was your first car.
Speaker 1: My first car was Bene.
Speaker 6: Okay, you've been getting money for We just talked about
Speaker 6: his career.
Speaker 1: Ultimately, like, no, no, no, that was my first one.
Speaker 5: Yeah, did your therapist really tell you that you're too detached.
Speaker 4: You don't commit?
Speaker 1: Nah, I think I think you know that bar for me.
Speaker 1: I have a co writer, Busy Krug, and he lives
Speaker 1: in Miami, great rapper. That was a bar that came
Speaker 1: from him. He's very deep into therapy. But I'm glad
Speaker 1: that we talked about it on record because I mean
Speaker 1: it's something that I definitely did try out over the pandemic,
Speaker 1: and it's something that I actually really respect you a
Speaker 1: lot for a champion, you know. But but but yeah,
Speaker 1: that was a that was a bar from Busy. But
Speaker 1: I thought it was important to add in there.
Speaker 7: You know, don't try to blame Busy now, Nah.
Speaker 1: I mean it's you know, that's my co writer, you know,
Speaker 1: shout out to him, you know what I'm saying. Like,
Speaker 1: we we write a lot of our songs together, and
Speaker 1: I really respect a lot of a lot of the
Speaker 1: perspectives he brings to a lot of my poignant records.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 6: Yeah, some great bars for Dancing with When I listen
Speaker 6: to Dancing with the Demons, do you.
Speaker 7: Ever get like Miguel references sometimes.
Speaker 1: Absolutely listening, I'm like, oh.
Speaker 7: My gosh, Like I wonder if like that, Like, are
Speaker 7: y'all do you know him?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's like my big bro. We actually did a
Speaker 1: movie together. He was in Detroit when I had to
Speaker 1: cut my hair for he was. He was an amazing,
Speaker 1: amazing mentor for me for some years. And you know
Speaker 1: that bridge between R and B and rock and roll,
Speaker 1: He's traveled across that bridge many a time. I definitely
Speaker 1: look up to him when it comes to that. And
Speaker 1: you know, for me, because I played multiple instruments, you know,
Speaker 1: I definitely try to just embody a lot of that energy.
Speaker 1: But but I think we both have the same influences
Speaker 1: as well.
Speaker 5: I agree with Lauren on that Miguel to me before
Speaker 5: you was the last great R and B male R
Speaker 5: and B singer. To me, I'm just talking about the
Speaker 5: new guy, right, Yeah, you know I'm talking about he
Speaker 5: was the last one, uh to me. And I felt
Speaker 5: the same way when I heard Dancing with the Demons.
Speaker 5: I feel like I feel like you're talking to yourself
Speaker 5: on that record.
Speaker 1: I am, I am, you know it was MI. I
Speaker 1: was microdosing on shrooms for a lot of like those
Speaker 1: batch of records, and it's it's it's like a very
Speaker 1: interesting thing because it connects your neuro pathways in a
Speaker 1: certain way and and you kind of start looking inward
Speaker 1: a lot more. And you know, that record was was
Speaker 1: was definitely like an internal conversation. Just on wax.
Speaker 5: You said you can't seem to save yourself or never
Speaker 5: learn to ask for help, going out all night searching
Speaker 5: for a feeling. Mm hm, So so what what what
Speaker 5: have you learned to ask for help?
Speaker 7: And so what I thought, because I took it as
Speaker 7: it wasn't talking about a woman at.
Speaker 1: Some point, well, I mean it's it's it's interesting for me,
Speaker 1: like that record. When I wrote it, I wrote it
Speaker 1: in two different days. The first day I was, you know,
Speaker 1: micro dosing on shrooms, so it's a bit of a haze.
Speaker 1: The next day I listened to it and I was like, man,
Speaker 1: this is really poignant stuff. I mean, it's just really
Speaker 1: talking about being up all night and searching for a feeling,
Speaker 1: and it's trying to fill voids. I feel like as uh,
Speaker 1: you know, when you're in your single journey, you can
Speaker 1: you can try to fill a void with a with
Speaker 1: a stranger, and that's not always very healthy. And it
Speaker 1: could be fun. It could be fun, for sure, But
Speaker 1: but but and then especially when you're when you're in
Speaker 1: the limelight. The second verse is more so talking about
Speaker 1: being in the limelight and trying to fill voice. Nobody
Speaker 1: really talks about the darkness that comes with the flashing lights.
Speaker 1: And yeah, that that that record was very deep and
Speaker 1: very personal for me. You know, I'm glad that people
Speaker 1: resonate with it.
Speaker 4: You said never learned to ask for help?
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I mean I think it's It's really interesting
Speaker 1: because one of the experiences I had with therapy was
Speaker 1: I was with a therapist and I'm talking about all
Speaker 1: this deep stuff in my life and you know, trying
Speaker 1: to unpack things, and at the end of it, he's like,
Speaker 1: have you ever been to a basketball game courtside? What's that?
Speaker 4: Like?
Speaker 1: He just started asking like all this stuff about like
Speaker 1: like being being famous essentially, And I don't know. It
Speaker 1: was just like an awkward moment for me, a place
Speaker 1: where I thought I could be safe in that one instance.
Speaker 1: Since then, I've found a really good therapist. But in
Speaker 1: that moment, it was that finely one of those things
Speaker 1: where it's like, damn, it's hard to ask for help
Speaker 1: because even when you ask for it, sometimes you don't
Speaker 1: get the right kind.
Speaker 5: I think when you're a black man, especially a black
Speaker 5: man in your position, it's hard to find culturally competent
Speaker 5: therapist because there's a lot of things that you're going
Speaker 5: to deal with that you're going to want somebody to understand.
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely, man. But you know,
Speaker 1: shout out to the great therapists out there, you know, definitely,
Speaker 1: it's definitely an amazing journey that that I'm trying to
Speaker 1: dig back into a lot more as as I continue
Speaker 1: to grow as a human being.
Speaker 2: Now you're talking about micro dosin on shrooms, But what
Speaker 2: does that put your mind? And do you always do
Speaker 2: that to produce and write?
Speaker 1: Nah? Nah, I mean, I think I think for this
Speaker 1: this album, it was an interesting opportunity to kind of unplug.
Speaker 1: I mean, I wasn't doing as many shows around that
Speaker 1: time too, so it was really helpful to to kind
Speaker 1: of just get into my own head and try to
Speaker 1: figure out who I am. You know, I definitely did
Speaker 1: a lot of manifest and a lot of just like
Speaker 1: writing who I wanted to be as a human being
Speaker 1: around that time, a lot of journaling, you know, and
Speaker 1: looking back at that season in my life, it was
Speaker 1: it was a journey for me to evolve into who
Speaker 1: I am right now. I wouldn't suggest people just go
Speaker 1: super crazy on shrooms or anything, but I think microdosing,
Speaker 1: you know, a small amount could be healthy if you're
Speaker 1: trying to just find yourself, you know, And at that time,
Speaker 1: I was trying to find myself, you know.
Speaker 4: Yeah, microdose.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I don't really do nothing for me do it
Speaker 5: just makes me it feels like everything is an HD.
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, But I mean if you got real things
Speaker 1: that you're trying to deal with internally, I think it
Speaker 1: can you know, put that in HD as well.
Speaker 4: In Washington.
Speaker 1: Yeah, now see that that I mean, you know, I
Speaker 1: feel like I need to go down and live some
Speaker 1: more life before I really hit that that that will
Speaker 1: Smith journey. You know, he always talks about eye and stuff, but.
Speaker 4: You only do it when it calls you.
Speaker 5: Yeah, exactly, Like for me, I was calling me for
Speaker 5: like six I say, about six years, seven years it
Speaker 5: was calling me.
Speaker 4: I did it for the first time last year.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, wow, wow, how was that for you?
Speaker 4: Incredible? I did a three day, three day journey man.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, my boy, his dad runs like a whole
Speaker 1: situation and I think Mexico or something, uh for like
Speaker 1: ayahuasca and stuff. So I don't know.
Speaker 7: Maybe one day you said you were trying to find yourself.
Speaker 7: Did you find yourself?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: But I mean I feel like that's a constant journey.
Speaker 1: That's like the whole part of finding yourself. You realize it.
Speaker 1: It never stops because we're always evolving, you know. But
Speaker 1: it's it's great that I was able to do it
Speaker 1: through music. That that that was like a version of
Speaker 1: musical therapy for me. And I'm glad that people are
Speaker 1: resonating with it, you know.
Speaker 5: And I love how you're normalizing dogs on but I'm
Speaker 5: not a dog anymore. There is a young, unhealed version
Speaker 5: of me that would have really appreciated that that record,
Speaker 5: because you make it sound so fun. It's almost like
Speaker 5: women are just gonna bring you in, like me domesticate you.
Speaker 7: Nah.
Speaker 1: I mean, I was really just documenting what I saw,
Speaker 1: but nah, nah nah, it's definitely it's definitely to me.
Speaker 1: You post, you know, post breakup where where I just
Speaker 1: had to I just had to figure it out. But
Speaker 1: I think that's all a part of living, you know.
Speaker 1: Do you get nervous though this was a post breakup album. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is a post breakup album. So this is me documenting,
Speaker 1: you know, finding myself. First off, like you know, you
Speaker 1: you're you're kind of broken after that, and then you
Speaker 1: got to you gotta put the pieces back together.
Speaker 4: Her fault.
Speaker 1: Yes, No, that's not her faults, our fault.
Speaker 4: It's her fault that you ended up being a dog.
Speaker 4: You went through your whole figure.
Speaker 6: Wait, so when you did Electric Dust, you said that
Speaker 6: you were happily single during that project too.
Speaker 7: Yeah, you saw the relationship after that.
Speaker 1: Here's a deal. When I was when I was making Mutt.
Speaker 1: When I was making Mutt, it was at the same
Speaker 1: time that I had released Electric Dust. Like I started
Speaker 1: Mutt at the exact same time that I was releasing
Speaker 1: the Electric Dust. So we were at our tail end
Speaker 1: when I was doing how Fast of our relationship and
Speaker 1: then everything after that was breakup. So the first record
Speaker 1: was like the only season where we were still together,
Speaker 1: and then like after that was me just kind of
Speaker 1: you know, coming through my brain trying to figure things out,
Speaker 1: nights in La wilding out, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: But I think it it all turned into great music,
Speaker 1: So you know, I'm glad I'm here to tell the story.
Speaker 4: Did a woman ever tell you that?
Speaker 1: For real?
Speaker 4: Like, take your time? Don't you rushing?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Well, I mean, you know, I don't know. I
Speaker 1: think that's a that's a that's an interesting bar because yeah,
Speaker 1: yeah it was. It was definitely a time, you know,
Speaker 1: take your time. That's low down baby.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I think I think everybody should go through their whole phases,
Speaker 5: men and women. You should go through that phase where
Speaker 5: you get to just be free and be who you
Speaker 5: are or who you want to lay down.
Speaker 3: We get it, that whole phase with brothers Man's.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's nasty that.
Speaker 6: You're super famous. Your face, everything about your super recognizable.
Speaker 6: So how do you like? I don't know if you
Speaker 6: out the whole phase yet or not, but yeah, yeah,
Speaker 6: how how did you because we hear about you?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah, No, I mean I think it's just important
Speaker 1: to really stay focused on being grounded and nice to
Speaker 1: people and communicate, you know, that was the biggest thing.
Speaker 1: But I'm definitely in the journey of you know, trying
Speaker 1: to find my person right now. I know that may
Speaker 1: sound corny to certain people, but I think, you know,
Speaker 1: for me, I've seen so many examples of a huge artists,
Speaker 1: very rich people who don't necessarily have love and a
Speaker 1: support system around them outside of their family, and I
Speaker 1: want to build that for myself in my thirties. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm thirty one right now, so I'm looking forward to
Speaker 1: like having that. You know, at the end of it all.
Speaker 4: You got about five more years.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, but I mean, you know, when trying to
Speaker 1: figure it out, Yeah, when I find the right person
Speaker 1: on that down.
Speaker 5: It's gonna be hard for you to find that right
Speaker 5: person because of who you are, you know what I'm saying, Like,
Speaker 5: I know my woman for twenty six years, they've been
Speaker 5: with this woman for.
Speaker 4: What thirty thirty is, you know what I mean.
Speaker 5: It's like it's gonna be hard for you just because
Speaker 5: you are Leon Thomas.
Speaker 4: You don't even know if girls like you for you
Speaker 4: for real?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I don't know. I'll figure it out. Yeah.
Speaker 5: I think it's very commendable too that on the song
Speaker 5: safe Place, you let the person you're deal with No
Speaker 5: this isn't a safe place.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I mean I think knowing that I wasn't
Speaker 1: necessarily ready to settle down. I think that conversation definitely
Speaker 1: came up a lot during I guess you were calling
Speaker 1: my whole face, you know, just understanding like, yo, I'm
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to settle down. This is a this
Speaker 1: is a fun place, you know. This is a time
Speaker 1: period where I'm just figuring me out. Work is crazy,
Speaker 1: it's ecnic, you know. And I think having that conversation
Speaker 1: was important to to, like you said, just avoid people
Speaker 1: not understanding what it was at the time, you.
Speaker 5: Feel, Lauren, Like if you when you're a woman and
Speaker 5: a guy comes you and the guy says, I'm a dog,
Speaker 5: I'm a mutter a god said, look baby, we can
Speaker 5: kick it.
Speaker 4: But just in the same place.
Speaker 7: I think it depends on the type of woman you are.
Speaker 3: You know, she's that person, she's the one.
Speaker 6: That tells don't listen to them, don't listen to them, No,
Speaker 6: you are lying. I think that you can appreciate honesty,
Speaker 6: but I also think that the honest it's unrealistic on
Speaker 6: both sides, because eventually, if you're spending enough time together
Speaker 6: regardless of what space is not you kind of get
Speaker 6: in the habit even if you're not attached.
Speaker 7: No, not of lying, but like of wanting to be
Speaker 7: with that person.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yea.
Speaker 6: Then emotions and feelings come that you both said in
Speaker 6: the beginning, weren't it doesn't work out, the safe space
Speaker 6: becomes it's exploding it like everybody's all over the place emotions.
Speaker 1: That's something I didn't really you know, identify in the song.
Speaker 2: But yeah, she's it's a person because you're honest in music.
Speaker 2: But it's difficult to be face to face with somebody
Speaker 2: and be like it's very it's very difficult.
Speaker 1: It's very difficult. But I try, you know, I really
Speaker 1: try my best to be as honest as I can,
Speaker 1: you know. But yeah, those are hard conversations, man. You know,
Speaker 1: I can't sit here and say I've always done it
Speaker 1: right or I'm perfect or anything. But I try. I
Speaker 1: try to be like real, you know. I try to
Speaker 1: explain myself. But even when you explain yourself, sometimes wires
Speaker 1: get crossed, you know. So I'm packing it and communicating,
Speaker 1: you know, it's an important thing.
Speaker 4: Later on, No woman won't hear that after she just
Speaker 4: lets you hit ro.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's yeah, it's not as a woman ever said
Speaker 6: that to you when you were trying to like create,
Speaker 6: Like all right, maybe this is like a thing.
Speaker 1: She's like, Yo, remember I.
Speaker 7: Don't want to do that.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Actually yeah yeah. In my in my early twenties,
Speaker 1: I was talking to this amazing artist and yeah, she
Speaker 1: was just like listen baby, the same safe place kind
Speaker 1: of thing. You know, anybody know now She's like, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: I don't think you can tear it up a little bit.
Speaker 1: Yeah no, no, no. It was all good for me at
Speaker 1: that point.
Speaker 3: A little bit.
Speaker 1: But yeah, yeah, you know, it was definitely you know,
Speaker 1: it was definitely a realization for me. I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: it can happen on that side too. I was like
Speaker 1: twenty maybe twenty one, you know. Yeah, yeah, so I
Speaker 1: was like real young, you know, green Like, oh okay, alright, cool.
Speaker 3: So you're all looking for a relationship now if the
Speaker 3: right person.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I'm definitely I'm definitely in that mode right now.
Speaker 6: Are you would you date other like artists, celebrities or
Speaker 6: do you like, how does that work?
Speaker 7: Are you doing?
Speaker 1: It's just tactic. I mean, you're kind of inviting the
Speaker 1: media into your life, like the one safe place you have.
Speaker 1: But I mean, who knows if I really catch a
Speaker 1: vibe with somebody who happens to be fan. I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't really care about that side of things, you know.
Speaker 1: I've been in the game a long time. I've met
Speaker 1: some beautiful women who are amazing artists. But it's just
Speaker 1: about the human being, you know, And it can be
Speaker 1: tough to to really build something if both of your
Speaker 1: schedules are super hectic. So I don't know.
Speaker 5: Even that's difficult though, because you could be dating a
Speaker 5: female artist who may be using you for your pen using.
Speaker 1: For you never know, You never know. But I mean, regardless,
Speaker 1: I feel like there's it doesn't matter. There's always an
Speaker 1: ebb and flow of like people using you for something.
Speaker 1: You know, it's it's a given take no matter how
Speaker 1: you really look at it. I think it's just important
Speaker 1: to at least be with somebody who genuinely cares and
Speaker 1: unpacking enough to get behind the facade. That is the
Speaker 1: first six month filter I like to call it, when
Speaker 1: people are acting all upright and righteous. You know, after
Speaker 1: those six months you can really usually unpack and find
Speaker 1: like a good idea of who that person is.
Speaker 4: So what does a safe place look like?
Speaker 1: For Leon Thomas, A safe place, you know, for me
Speaker 1: is being able to be honest with that person. And
Speaker 1: I'm goofy in real life, you know, so I want
Speaker 1: to have fun. You know, life can be kind of serious,
Speaker 1: So so I like my partner to be able to
Speaker 1: have a good time with me, you know, watch movies,
Speaker 1: go kick it, run around, you know, like like be
Speaker 1: a big kid with me.
Speaker 5: You also, you had an interesting line in the song
Speaker 5: where in a Safe Place where you say you put
Speaker 5: that on your trauma, and like.
Speaker 4: Trauma is something that we're all trying to heal.
Speaker 5: From, right Like you like a badge honor almost, like
Speaker 5: you put that on my mom, put that on my
Speaker 5: mom on the home.
Speaker 4: Why do you put that on the trauma? Like what
Speaker 4: does that mean?
Speaker 1: I mean, I think it all kind of plays into
Speaker 1: the reasoning for why it's not a safe place, you know.
Speaker 1: But but but it was a bit of a badge
Speaker 1: of honor in that record for sure, for sure, because
Speaker 1: I think we should we should be able to wear
Speaker 1: our traumas in a way of being survivors of epic
Speaker 1: things and being able to move move past that and
Speaker 1: evolve from that. You know, m.
Speaker 3: Well, let's you want to get into a joint.
Speaker 5: I don't want to ask him a question too about
Speaker 5: another record on far Affetched. Yeah, you said, because he
Speaker 5: was having a big conversation to speak about tricking, because
Speaker 5: you know, Skip Bail is a legendly Oh my god,
Speaker 5: over somebody one point five and you say paid for
Speaker 5: my mistakes and benzes and diamonds too, fifty fronted like
Speaker 5: you was my artist. Five g's just across the Atlantic.
Speaker 5: We sat in silence for almost two hours.
Speaker 7: Yeah, that's a horrible BACA.
Speaker 4: Quarter million dollars. Yeah, benzes and diamonds.
Speaker 1: Well, listen, when I wrote that record, it was not
Speaker 1: for me. That was not a joint that I was
Speaker 1: originally gonna use for me. It was for somebody really
Speaker 1: famous and really rich. But I just love the way
Speaker 1: it sounded, and I was like, well, you know what,
Speaker 1: I love to speak in a world where I can
Speaker 1: actually afford that, why not let's manifest that.
Speaker 5: Don't you feel as an R and B artist though,
Speaker 5: when you write records for other people, but then you
Speaker 5: sing to yourself, you're setting an expectation that's not real
Speaker 5: for you.
Speaker 4: Because if I'm here, it's.
Speaker 1: It's hard, you know, like like I mean, I look
Speaker 1: at artists like Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osmore really wasn't eating
Speaker 1: thats like, but it's like it's it's so funny because
Speaker 1: like in like in and well accidentally but but but
Speaker 1: the whole thing is is that in rock and roll
Speaker 1: and pop, they get to live in these fantasy worlds.
Speaker 1: But it's so interesting in R and B and hip hop,
Speaker 1: it's it's like, so it has to be so really
Speaker 1: based and it's like, nah, I think it's important for
Speaker 1: us to be able to imagine and dream and create
Speaker 1: worlds that don't exist sometimes because I think that won't
Speaker 1: stifle new artists from continuing to do the same thing,
Speaker 1: like dream up the biggest thing. You know. Drake even
Speaker 1: said in some of his bars back in the day
Speaker 1: he was talking about rolls voices and Bentley's and shit
Speaker 1: he just didn't have you know at the time. So
Speaker 1: it's essentially me doing the same thing. And I always
Speaker 1: speak you know, future future focused, you know, abundance mindset.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm trying to build a world where you know,
Speaker 1: I can definitely definitely afford that.
Speaker 4: So why not so you would trick, you would give
Speaker 4: a girl.
Speaker 1: You know what, That's not how I be spending my money,
Speaker 1: Charlot Mane, but just the fact that I could afford it.
Speaker 5: You know, let's go in Lucid Dreams, you talk about
Speaker 5: just significant other leaving things behind.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was a that was a fun record with
Speaker 1: Massego after a breakup.
Speaker 4: Why do you think that topic is taboo?
Speaker 1: I don't really consider it taboo necessarily, but I think
Speaker 1: it's just like it's just funny because for me, I
Speaker 1: was living with my ex for like a couple of years,
Speaker 1: so she just had like a closet filled with clothes
Speaker 1: at my crib and it had been like a year
Speaker 1: and a half since we were broken up, so we
Speaker 1: were we were in the in the studio talking about
Speaker 1: different things. Uh. The guitarist and producer on that song
Speaker 1: Freaky Rob his girl left a flat screen at the
Speaker 1: house that he had to use to watch Netflix, and
Speaker 1: he was like, man, when's she gonna take this flat screen?
Speaker 1: And uh, you know, Massego also had a similar situation
Speaker 1: like that at his crib with the couch. So we
Speaker 1: were all just kind of using all of our different
Speaker 1: experiences putting it into a song, and you know, just
Speaker 1: locking it in.
Speaker 4: It's different when it's closed.
Speaker 1: Yeah, did you clear you cleared out the yeah, definitely
Speaker 1: clears out the Yeah, yeah, clear out the closet.
Speaker 7: Did you move out of the apartment or you just
Speaker 7: cleared out the closing.
Speaker 1: Nah, I'm still at the crib, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: still at the crib. You know, there's definitely a certain
Speaker 1: interior design choices I'm gonna switch up.
Speaker 6: So but it's like real recent yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4: You think these labels know how to market R and
Speaker 4: B nowadays, especially Male RB.
Speaker 1: I think it's it's kind of it's kind of interesting
Speaker 1: because we used to have one O six in park.
Speaker 1: We used to have like a different perspective on R
Speaker 1: and B, and I feel like the fantasy could be
Speaker 1: alive in a different way. You know, a lot of
Speaker 1: the music is driven by culture recently, which I think
Speaker 1: is dope. But but but R and B is definitely
Speaker 1: a place of fantasy, you know, Jodasy in the desert
Speaker 1: and leather, like, you know, it's like it's like a
Speaker 1: very ethereal place sometimes when you really look at it.
Speaker 1: So I think it's really tough for labels to find
Speaker 1: that that balance and especially because most and b artists
Speaker 1: are like really inspired by by alternative music. So you know,
Speaker 1: you got you know, your babies of Scissor and of
Speaker 1: you know, Brand and Miguel even and it's it's kind
Speaker 1: of hard. It's not the same thing they used to
Speaker 1: have to market and a lot of those same.
Speaker 2: Executive as options, right because you think about it, before
Speaker 2: the label gave people what they wanted to hear, oh
Speaker 2: for sure, But now it's like you put out an
Speaker 2: album and it's almost like they wait to see what's
Speaker 2: on connects first, exactly what connects We're gonna go with Mutt,
Speaker 2: you know, dance with Demons connects.
Speaker 3: So I think you give people of an option and
Speaker 3: allow people to pick their.
Speaker 4: Own when they connect, they still don't know what the
Speaker 4: hell to do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, it's it's it's tough. It's tough, man,
Speaker 1: it's tough. I definitely don't envy their seat right now,
Speaker 1: trying to figure out how to navigate through nine different platforms, uh,
Speaker 1: social media, a TikTok that's about to go away in
Speaker 1: a couple of months, and like Frank McCort, you think, so, Frank,
Speaker 1: all right, bet, But regardless of ship's fucking nuts, like
Speaker 1: everybody trying to figure it out. Like it's really hard,
Speaker 1: it's really hard to deal with, you know.
Speaker 5: So yeah, and it I don't feel like it's a
Speaker 5: separation either, right because if I look at Leon Thomas,
Speaker 5: he looks like a rapper cunty, you know what I mean,
Speaker 5: Like like there there used to be a look to
Speaker 5: R and B sing.
Speaker 6: But your aesthetic is like fashion your shows, like the lighting.
Speaker 6: I don't know if you did that a purpose, but
Speaker 6: like the light shoes and stuff like that, it all
Speaker 6: gives like an art creative like it's the vibe.
Speaker 7: But like, yeah, I'm.
Speaker 1: Saying what I want. No, I mean, I'm doing what
Speaker 1: i want. Man, you know, I'm really just I'm really
Speaker 1: just rocking, you know. I mean I think for those
Speaker 1: of us out there in the R and B world
Speaker 1: who want to have, you know, the six pack and
Speaker 1: do the gy rating and the baby oil and shit,
Speaker 1: like you know, do you think? But no, But what
Speaker 1: I'm saying is is that like like like the whole
Speaker 1: vibe of it is is is a that's its own thing.
Speaker 1: I think what I'm creating creatively is my own world
Speaker 1: and it's it's it's rooting and rock and roll. It's
Speaker 1: rooting and doing what I want to do, you know,
Speaker 1: and and I'm I'm glad I have the creative control
Speaker 1: to go there. You know.
Speaker 5: That's the beauty of R and B artists though, because
Speaker 5: there's so many RNs B artists that are just ugly,
Speaker 5: but their music is so good that women love them.
Speaker 7: I mean like actually ugly, not.
Speaker 5: Just like cosmetically challenged cosmetically, but they get on stage
Speaker 5: and they do that the deflexing and the singing, and
Speaker 5: women they freaking mind.
Speaker 1: Right right, right, right, right right. What you're not calling
Speaker 1: I was about to say, I'm.
Speaker 3: Like beauty because there's so many ugly not at all.
Speaker 4: For sure, It's not my place to say, for real,
Speaker 4: la is the ugly?
Speaker 1: All right? Thank you, thank you, Lauren.
Speaker 3: Can we get into a song of that album?
Speaker 1: What you want to would be amazing this morning?
Speaker 4: What you want to hear? Right now?
Speaker 1: Let's play? Yes it is? It would be really cool?
Speaker 3: All right, Well, let's get into it right now. Yes
Speaker 3: it is. The album is out right now, make sure
Speaker 3: you pick it up. And we appreciate you for joining us.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for having me. Man, it's a
Speaker 1: big opportunity.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much.
Speaker 2: It's Leon Thomas the album What is out Now, and
Speaker 2: it's The Breakfast Club, Good Morning.
Speaker 1: Wake that ass up in the morning.
Speaker 4: Breakfast Club