Speaker 1: Alright, hey, welcome to the bouleg Cavs show Man. Hope
Speaker 1: everyone is enjoying their evening, etc. Whatever time of day
Speaker 1: you're listening to this shit. All right, hey, listen, we
Speaker 1: got a dope episode with dragon Man Rough Riders own
Speaker 1: the legendary drag On. If you grew up like me
Speaker 1: listening to DMX, listening to just Rough Riders, those compilations album,
Speaker 1: you know all about drag Man. Drag was like, he
Speaker 1: was like the proof that Eminem's proof. You know how
Speaker 1: proof is? What the fuck am I trying to say?
Speaker 1: He was the proof to DMX is Eminem, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean? Shout out to drag Man, all right, listen,
Speaker 1: had a dope conversation with him. Unfortunately, the audio got
Speaker 1: a little fucked up. So if you noticed the audio
Speaker 1: sounds a little weird, shit happens on our end. It's
Speaker 1: all right. It's still still a good listen, so check
Speaker 1: it out. Dragon talking about all kinds of shit, DMX
Speaker 1: passing away obviously dope Rough Rider stories. Shout out to
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Speaker 1: let's get into this interview with Dragon right now. Yo,
Speaker 1: boutle CaMV Podcast Special guests. Man, the Dragon is here.
Speaker 1: Thank yous going on? Bro welcome man, Yeah, yes you
Speaker 1: are yo. So you just put your first album out
Speaker 1: in how many years? My last album was Held Him Back?
Speaker 1: So I think that drive in three or Old four,
Speaker 1: So that was my last album. So that's almost twenty years. Yeah,
Speaker 1: twenty years, because I mean it's close to twenty Why why,
Speaker 1: like what happened? What has been going on with you? Like,
Speaker 1: why has it taken that long to put a project out? Man? Well?
Speaker 1: And oh six, no, oh seven? Eight, I had to
Speaker 1: get my releasement for more for roth Riders. So I
Speaker 1: finally got my releasement, but it took me years to
Speaker 1: fight them to really get out of my contract with that.
Speaker 1: And then and then by the time I got out
Speaker 1: of my contract and eight, I had my daughter, me
Speaker 1: going back and forth with lawyers and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: Trying to get out of my contract. Made me go broke. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I went, I went broke. I was twisted. My baby
Speaker 1: mom was taking care of me for the first two
Speaker 1: three years and I mean get oh, I mean and
Speaker 1: uh then that for that uh I mean, uh, it
Speaker 1: took me a while just to really start generating some
Speaker 1: money again, world what I'm saying. So that was like
Speaker 1: a real setback. Cause now I don't use all my
Speaker 1: money to get out of my contract. But it wasn't
Speaker 1: like I had other deals on the table right my
Speaker 1: daughter now, which is on the table now. So I
Speaker 1: me do with me just dealing with that and you know,
Speaker 1: but by the same time in O six, I started
Speaker 1: my company hood environment that I'm putting out on my
Speaker 1: music on now. It just took ten years for everybody
Speaker 1: to catch on, cause people didn't catch on to it
Speaker 1: til like two thousand fifteen, two thousand six m and
Speaker 1: then people started catching on to what I'm doing and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. But you know, it's just been the
Speaker 1: grind world in cause I was doing the real and
Speaker 1: then everything out of the pocket. Yeah, I think it's dope,
Speaker 1: like for you to be so transparent with that because
Speaker 1: I feel like a lot of people they might see
Speaker 1: rappers and think, well, you know, this guy was on
Speaker 1: Rough Riders, he had a deal, he had two major
Speaker 1: o uh major uh label releases and and uh you
Speaker 1: know sometimes like a lot of times, rather like you're
Speaker 1: like like it's it's it's hard to get really really
Speaker 1: rich off a rap, you know what I'm saying, Like
Speaker 1: you might get in advance, but you're obviously gonna spend that,
Speaker 1: and then once that's spend, it's like, you know, So,
Speaker 1: So I think that's dope because a lot of people
Speaker 1: got to understand both sides of the coin. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, Like the end of the day, everyone's
Speaker 1: bills need to get paid. That's right. Everyone bills got
Speaker 1: to get paid. Everybody is parents now say so, you know,
Speaker 1: and everybody got responsibilities at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. So you know, it was
Speaker 1: a real grind for me world because I already had
Speaker 1: too much bread and then I was trying my best
Speaker 1: not to go back to the street and stuff like that,
Speaker 1: and then eventually I eventually had to go back to
Speaker 1: hustling on the street, you know what I'm saying. So
Speaker 1: you know, I was using that money to bring myself
Speaker 1: back into the forefront. It took a couple of years.
Speaker 1: It's because my career was pretty much over and five
Speaker 1: I would say, oh five or six, she was done.
Speaker 1: So you had to go back to get to putting
Speaker 1: your feet in the streets and you getting money that way. Damn, Yo,
Speaker 1: It's crazy because I always think of your story as
Speaker 1: like kind of like a what if. Like damn, like
Speaker 1: Rough Riders the hottest shit moving in music period, right,
Speaker 1: Like I went to the Hard Knock Life tour and
Speaker 1: I left before jay Z got on, Like I literally
Speaker 1: was there to see DMX. That was it. I was there.
Speaker 1: I think Jay did one song and me and my
Speaker 1: cousins left. I was thirteen maybe, but we're there for DMX.
Speaker 1: That was it, you know what I mean? But like
Speaker 1: you were like the perceived air apparent to the throne
Speaker 1: of rough riders. It was like you were on starking,
Speaker 1: Hell is hot, You're on flesh, my flesh. You were
Speaker 1: on the you know the rough riders call those rough
Speaker 1: Rider compilations were crazy like and it really felt like
Speaker 1: they were positioning you to be like, Okay, we got
Speaker 1: exes the flagship, but we but obviously we got to
Speaker 1: have some some young young guns as well. What what
Speaker 1: do you think went wrong in regards to your career
Speaker 1: and maybe just the whole entire rough rider situation because
Speaker 1: it definitely there could have been worse situations for you
Speaker 1: to be a part of it at that time, because
Speaker 1: at that time that was the that brand was scorching. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean you know, like what like what means that
Speaker 1: I had like a manager that was like fully behind me,
Speaker 1: you said, like I always shared with d MX. DMX
Speaker 1: was like a real protector for me. So I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, like his management. I had that management,
Speaker 1: his movie agents. I had those movie agents, like I
Speaker 1: never really had your own people. I'm going drag, right,
Speaker 1: just drag, you know what I'm saying. I never had
Speaker 1: a movie agent that was like, okay, I'm going hard
Speaker 1: for just drag our auditions for those parts because X
Speaker 1: put a good word in from me, like yo, I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna shoot this X one unless you use drag
Speaker 1: on as my brother. He looked like me, that's my homie.
Speaker 1: It makes sense. The BIBB is there, let's go. And
Speaker 1: that's how I got that right the next one. But yeah,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. But you know that's how
Speaker 1: I got that movie. Yeah, and then it led to
Speaker 1: another movie and stuff like that, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: But the reason why that stops because I want something
Speaker 1: happened with him as far as Hollywood it's out. Yeah
Speaker 1: they yes, right, It wasn't like somebody else that could
Speaker 1: be like okay, dragons. Also, those agents, those managers, obviously
Speaker 1: DMX is gonna be their priority because at the time
Speaker 1: he's probably bringing in so much money, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean? What he what he sold thirty over probably
Speaker 1: over thirty million vers just in by himself. I don't know,
Speaker 1: it's crazy. I mean then, look, you did have a
Speaker 1: lot of people who we see come out of cruise
Speaker 1: that are you know, are big like that don't get
Speaker 1: the chance to put out two albums. We see a
Speaker 1: lot of like people who are get signed. Like think
Speaker 1: about all the artists on Rough Riders have never even
Speaker 1: dropped an album. There was a lot like when I
Speaker 1: came to Roughriders, it was Casino big stand. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: gotta go back. I'll go back to like the Rough
Speaker 1: Riders like compilations and I see some of the artists.
Speaker 1: Was somebody named Parlay? Was this Parlay? Uh? There was
Speaker 1: a was there someone named I know remember young Bird
Speaker 1: when he was a kid? Was was uh? I remember
Speaker 1: when we first met Young Bird and extrap Young Bird
Speaker 1: on that was we met him on what these bitches
Speaker 1: want from that video set? Came through like a little kid,
Speaker 1: But I ain't go from he always like Young Bird
Speaker 1: was always like a boss, very talented kid man a
Speaker 1: little kid when he came through right, but his entourage
Speaker 1: he had like six different big who is this year?
Speaker 1: Like he always moved like a boss even before he
Speaker 1: was that. But that's one thing that I can vouch
Speaker 1: for that dude. He always was a boss as a
Speaker 1: little kid. Still is man doing his thing. Hit shout
Speaker 1: out to hit maker man. He always like when I
Speaker 1: met him, he was like, I don't know eleven, but
Speaker 1: Boston it. He walked up on DMX with six big
Speaker 1: security guard like, what's up? That's crazy? Got cool. At
Speaker 1: the peak of the rough Rider ship, right you're on
Speaker 1: tour your I mean, ship has gotta be great. But
Speaker 1: like what like, like what point in time did you,
Speaker 1: like do you remember vividly being like, oh, ship, we're
Speaker 1: like the hottest motherfuckers in the world because legit like
Speaker 1: rough Riders for like that run man, there was nothing.
Speaker 1: It was like all this puff daddy shit was happening
Speaker 1: and then boom, DMX came in, ripped all that ship
Speaker 1: away and was like, nah, man, no more of that
Speaker 1: shiny suit ship. This's a whole new energy. Like what
Speaker 1: we did, we just made it fear for regular dudes
Speaker 1: on the street, like just regular dudes that just happened
Speaker 1: to be nice. We made it a big platform for
Speaker 1: them to be successful too. You don't necessarily gotta be
Speaker 1: fining around in the video and stuff like that. No,
Speaker 1: disrespect to the boy. I'm a big fan of that,
Speaker 1: of course, but no, but it was like you had
Speaker 1: that big budgets to those kind of videos to where
Speaker 1: we made it to where you can actually wear regular jeans,
Speaker 1: and they told the homies to come out. Yeah, obviously
Speaker 1: with X passing, man, I mean, share your thoughts, like,
Speaker 1: I like, where were you at? Like, you know, obviously
Speaker 1: you and X had a very close brother brotherhood, and
Speaker 1: you know, I mean that poster has been there since
Speaker 1: before he passed. X. More of my all time favorites,
Speaker 1: you know. And I was ship that shit had me
Speaker 1: fucked up man driving through New York City having Hot
Speaker 1: ninety seven on and they're playing his ship and I'm like,
Speaker 1: damn man, Like, but but where were you when you
Speaker 1: found out about it? Man? I was in His family
Speaker 1: actually called me, you don't like it's actually blood family
Speaker 1: really called me, and it was like drag, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. You know, we're about to take him
Speaker 1: off of the life support and stuff like that. So
Speaker 1: I kind of knew he passed away before a lot
Speaker 1: of people knew, you know, you know, like before the
Speaker 1: media knew, you know what I mean. So I was
Speaker 1: already hurt him down. You know what I'm saying, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's rough man, cause it it felt like we saw
Speaker 1: that verses with Snoop, It felt like he was in
Speaker 1: such a good place. I love to see him. I
Speaker 1: love to see him with a belly because I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: he's eating good, you know what I mean? Like good
Speaker 1: and like the greatest part about that too, was that
Speaker 1: dmx is was always a Snoop Doggie Dog fan. Like
Speaker 1: when I was watching him versus and stuff like that,
Speaker 1: that's all I was thinking about him because I know
Speaker 1: the type of fan he is for Snoop. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, Like he really respected like like Snoop Dog.
Speaker 1: He respect that dog. Right there, I ain't gonna fun.
Speaker 1: That's one person that he always was a fan of.
Speaker 1: So that's why we watched some of the verses, like
Speaker 1: some of the records that he put on. Did you
Speaker 1: see x get up like, oh hold on, this was
Speaker 1: my really was fun? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, that was real
Speaker 1: And that was actually like, oh snap, this is my
Speaker 1: joint right, I remember? That was your relationship with x
Speaker 1: uh Did you have one prior to the Rough Righters
Speaker 1: thing or did you like how how did you come
Speaker 1: into the fold. Were you like, like with him before
Speaker 1: the rough Riders or like explain your guys' history. Uh, well,
Speaker 1: D you know what I mean? You know, D the
Speaker 1: general is the one that put me on the map,
Speaker 1: the one that believed in me first before everybody. And
Speaker 1: he brung me up to the studio and and it
Speaker 1: was like to battle DM Max. But I didn't even
Speaker 1: know it was a battle because I never was battling
Speaker 1: at that time, you know what I'm saying. I found
Speaker 1: out very fast though, you know what I mean. As
Speaker 1: soon as I got in there, boom, he was right there.
Speaker 1: They didn't quite waste any time too. I was like,
Speaker 1: I got there, what's up? What are you doing? Yo?
Speaker 1: Drag yo yo? Turn that beat on my quick boom
Speaker 1: and it was straight like that. And then he just
Speaker 1: started rapping, which was and then I'm listening to his
Speaker 1: floor and the style of delivering. I'm listening to all that.
Speaker 1: I'm like, Okay, this dude was incredible right here. But
Speaker 1: at that time I was so hungry, you find trying
Speaker 1: to say, so I still kept going back at him,
Speaker 1: back at him, back at the back, And next thing
Speaker 1: you know, a whole hour went bound. We were just
Speaker 1: back and forth, trading bars, and even though I lost
Speaker 1: that battle like the whole time. Yeah, I said, we
Speaker 1: probably battle four hour. I lost four hour, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, But he respected it, like you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, you know, like to the max. Like
Speaker 1: he he just just like, you know what, I think,
Speaker 1: we're gonna keep this dude right here. I like this
Speaker 1: dude you gonna trying to say. And it was just
Speaker 1: something that he always said that was just in my
Speaker 1: eyes that reminded, uh uh that I always just minded
Speaker 1: me right right right right, Yeah, yeah, I think like
Speaker 1: you guys were it was It's almost like you guys
Speaker 1: were so synonymous with each other, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: It was like, yo, you see DMX, you see Drag
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah. I say, like like the
Speaker 1: whole Batman and Robin thing that was set up us
Speaker 1: our joint was actually genuine What year was that because
Speaker 1: obviously this was prior to his first album, So when
Speaker 1: like when was this? That was nineteen ninety seven, ninety seven,
Speaker 1: album came out in ninety eight, album came out in
Speaker 1: ninety eight. After that, you know what I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: like right after we battled, It's like me and him
Speaker 1: got super cool. So Or had bought a house in
Speaker 1: North Carolina and sent us out there. So he worked
Speaker 1: on his first album and I worked on my first album.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying the opposite eight two oh yeah,
Speaker 1: at the same time with him in the house in
Speaker 1: North Carolina. While he was working on this shit in
Speaker 1: their room, I probably was in another room in my
Speaker 1: room was is working on my ship? Do you you know?
Speaker 1: There's so many profound songs on his first album. I
Speaker 1: think that Uh Damien is one that always sticks out
Speaker 1: to me as one of my favorites. That's one of
Speaker 1: the songs that he wrote in North Carolina with us
Speaker 1: in the house, and that's one of that's great. You
Speaker 1: said that in the world. I was like, he was
Speaker 1: actually just discussing that that's one of the fastest songs
Speaker 1: he wrote. He actually timed himself. He said, you know what,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna see how fast I could write. You know,
Speaker 1: I just wrote a song before that fast kind of fast,
Speaker 1: but didn't have the hook. He said, you know what,
Speaker 1: I think I could write even faster than that. And
Speaker 1: I mean because I think he had just knocked out
Speaker 1: a song with like two and a half hour's whole
Speaker 1: song boom, right, so he try to top that, and
Speaker 1: he topped it with Damien. He wrote Damien in an
Speaker 1: hour and a half Wow, hook and everything that that
Speaker 1: whole him playing two different people. Yeah, nah, that's X
Speaker 1: doing that. And he wrote both of those parts and everything.
Speaker 1: So you're you were in there while he's writing this,
Speaker 1: and uh no, But I'm curious because, like obviously him
Speaker 1: rapping from the perspective of the you know, the devil
Speaker 1: or whatever you wanna called Damien. You know, yod what's up?
Speaker 1: You are smooth? So like was like did he have
Speaker 1: the like like talk about the concept, Like how did
Speaker 1: he come up with that concept? Because if you guys
Speaker 1: were there, I mean, that's crazy. That's that's one of
Speaker 1: the crazier records on his first album. That like always
Speaker 1: just sticks out to me. Yeah, yeah, like that right there.
Speaker 1: That was something he was actually dealing with in life
Speaker 1: and reality, you know what I mean? That right there?
Speaker 1: So that was real FN, Like that was I'm telling you,
Speaker 1: that's the fastest record if because it always fell to
Speaker 1: me as a kid, not knowing any better. I always
Speaker 1: thought to myself, Damn DMX sold the soul to the
Speaker 1: Devil and then Belly came out, and then the opening
Speaker 1: scene there's the Little Boy and he's quote shit from
Speaker 1: Damien and I was like, oh my god, he did
Speaker 1: sell this. This shit is crazy. Now. Mind you, I'm
Speaker 1: a grown adult now and I'm no better her. But
Speaker 1: like I really thought, I was like this motherfucker DMXI.
Speaker 1: He's really like you know what I'm saying. Like, so
Speaker 1: that was something he was like really battling with, just
Speaker 1: kind of like the battle with just just just what
Speaker 1: life generally like. He had a hard life. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, you know, just falls him
Speaker 1: growing up as a kid and stuff like that. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. He's really from the streets, so
Speaker 1: you know it's times he had to hold in the
Speaker 1: street and being a homeless and I've been homeless. There's
Speaker 1: a lot of artists that actually came into this game
Speaker 1: being homeless of course and having nothing to go to,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. So that was some of
Speaker 1: the demons, you know what I'm saying that that you
Speaker 1: might be fighting. It might be something like like I'm
Speaker 1: hungry right now, and it's a lady and and that
Speaker 1: person looked real nice and I'm hungry right now, and
Speaker 1: I'm contemplating even though you're a good person, you might
Speaker 1: you might but you like I'm starving, Yeah, but you
Speaker 1: might have to make a hard decision. These are decisions
Speaker 1: that he had to deal with. So he was just
Speaker 1: he was just able to capture it, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, you know and put it in his music.
Speaker 1: You know, I saw I watched the U the Rough
Speaker 1: Riders uh bt thing. Uh I figured what what what
Speaker 1: they call? I watched not not not the memorial the
Speaker 1: documentary the docu series they did. Was it last year? Yeah? Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I didn't realize that. Uh. It's crazy because Swiss
Speaker 1: coming up as a young guy in the camp, you know,
Speaker 1: with some favoritism because of the family situation. But there
Speaker 1: was like a some of the other producers kind of
Speaker 1: felt some type of way about Swiss's like a sentence
Speaker 1: in in you know, obviously Swiss is an all time
Speaker 1: great producer, Like how was how how was it being
Speaker 1: around Swiss early on before he was like a thing,
Speaker 1: because he became a thing real quick. His sound became
Speaker 1: very distinct, very fast and automatically. I think everyone just
Speaker 1: had was beats beats, But early on like you know,
Speaker 1: he was a kid, he was started off as a
Speaker 1: DJ obviously, but like, did you kind of always see
Speaker 1: that in Swiss? Like I was like at the time,
Speaker 1: I was just so busy working on my album. I was.
Speaker 1: I was just working on Opposite at age two. Well,
Speaker 1: I was trying my best to get beats from anybody,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, trying to get some ship.
Speaker 1: The DMX didn't take. You probably got all the hot ship. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was, I was. I was. I was actually trying
Speaker 1: to get beats from uh Swiss, p K Grease right an,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. You know, like a lot
Speaker 1: of my stuff, I always work with a lot of
Speaker 1: up and coming producers. But that's what I just always
Speaker 1: was just focused on. I was just focused on that fire.
Speaker 1: The rough Rider compilations were very, very historic, and you
Speaker 1: had some of your I think some of your dopest
Speaker 1: moments on those. Uh what was it like like when
Speaker 1: you guys are making those compilations where they're record Like,
Speaker 1: would you guys like purposely go in and be like, Yo,
Speaker 1: we're working on Ride or Die Volume one, that's what
Speaker 1: we're working on. Or was it like, hey, look who's
Speaker 1: got extra records and everything I put together? Like how
Speaker 1: how did those songs come to be? You know what
Speaker 1: I mean? Like we are lay like we alay some
Speaker 1: records and stuff like that, and some records to make
Speaker 1: it there and some records to make it there, you'll say.
Speaker 1: So that's what it really was, Like a lot of
Speaker 1: people do it. The song with Me and juven Now
Speaker 1: was gonna be on my album it made it to
Speaker 1: and it might it might have should have been on
Speaker 1: that on your album because that would have been a single. Yeah,
Speaker 1: a lot of people say that, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: But they wanted that look for that. So it was
Speaker 1: just like certain songs just where you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, like wherever they wanted it to go, you
Speaker 1: know what I man me, My job is just writing
Speaker 1: and just trying to lay as more songs as possible.
Speaker 1: What was it like having the Locks be brought into
Speaker 1: the fold? Because at the time I was se the
Speaker 1: Locks were some of the hottest artists in New York.
Speaker 1: There was the huge Bad Boys split and you know,
Speaker 1: we are the Streets is a bible for a lot
Speaker 1: of people out here, you know what I'm saying. But
Speaker 1: what was that like, because like, Yo, think about the
Speaker 1: competition within just the crew. It's you, it's X, it's Eve,
Speaker 1: it's the Locks. I mean ship young one was fire.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, Like, like, what what was
Speaker 1: that like? Having the Locks come into the fold. I've
Speaker 1: always seen them in the fold, Like I've never really
Speaker 1: seen them out the fold. No matter where they was at,
Speaker 1: it was always you know, they always was like Locks
Speaker 1: are there before me? Oh they were there already. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I felt like, yeah, it was like some
Speaker 1: younger ship. Really it was like some wild ship. Never
Speaker 1: was really not there, you know what I mean. You know,
Speaker 1: I mean like me, since the first day I got
Speaker 1: over there, they always was there. X was there, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. You know, give me some some
Speaker 1: some some of your fondest memories of being on tour. Well,
Speaker 1: first of all, we could talk about the h There
Speaker 1: was a rough Rider's Cash Money tour, which was pretty dope.
Speaker 1: But the the tour that I remember that we talked
Speaker 1: about was that Hard that Hard Knock Life Tour, which
Speaker 1: is like a moment in hip hop method Man and
Speaker 1: Red Man flying through the air. I knock like to it.
Speaker 1: With the tour that prepared me for the Dcast Money Tour.
Speaker 1: You know, I mean that actually prepared me, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, because I actually had to come out
Speaker 1: twice and perform, you know what I mean. You know,
Speaker 1: on the Hard Knock Life tour, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: So it gave me a taste of being an artists.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. You don't performing in front
Speaker 1: of hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. So, you know, it kind of it
Speaker 1: kind of molded me, you know what I mean. Of course, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: what because I did that tour. The dynamic of Hove
Speaker 1: in d m X at the time was so interesting
Speaker 1: to me because obviously they were both at the top
Speaker 1: of their game. There was all these rumblings about there
Speaker 1: being that murdering group with him and jaw Rule and
Speaker 1: and Hove and and uh. I think anybody who you
Speaker 1: would have probably asked at the time probably would have
Speaker 1: said the DMX should probably close that tore out, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. At the time, obviously jay Z's
Speaker 1: the greatest of all time, but at that time DMX
Speaker 1: was scorching, like scorching was there, like like how was
Speaker 1: their relationship because we watched the Hard Knock Life documentary
Speaker 1: like I mean, you know, like for a DMX and
Speaker 1: and whole, Like I wasn't there for that, so I
Speaker 1: don't really know what that was. I know it was
Speaker 1: always mutual respect No, for sure, it was always respectful,
Speaker 1: but like there had to be some sort of friendly
Speaker 1: competition you would think between like I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: but but that's just New York, Like, yeah, always who's
Speaker 1: the King of New York? Talk? Yeah, that's that's that's
Speaker 1: that's what that's about. That's that that's the New York
Speaker 1: thing that you know what I mean, you know, we'll
Speaker 1: always in competition with each other. You know, that's just
Speaker 1: New York. So yeah, I feel like New York is
Speaker 1: probably the most competitive city and hip hop everybody, especially
Speaker 1: back then, because everybody was who's the King of New York?
Speaker 1: I think he's gone, So who's the king of New York?
Speaker 1: It was like is it Dove? Is it ghost Face Killer?
Speaker 1: Is a DMX? Is it is it Fat Joe? Is?
Speaker 1: That's crazy? So obviously you know what X passing the
Speaker 1: way he did. Man, you know, he's had a troubled,
Speaker 1: uh history when it comes to I mean also a
Speaker 1: very open history when it comes to his his you know,
Speaker 1: use of certain substances and stuff like that. Was that
Speaker 1: something that was like was that something that everyone around
Speaker 1: him kind of knew was going on? Or was it
Speaker 1: something that became worse over time? Like yeah, with the drugs,
Speaker 1: any drugs around me. Ever, not one time I put
Speaker 1: that on my daughter. He knew nothing to do that
Speaker 1: around me. So I don't really know too much about
Speaker 1: the drugs, like like like far as the drug and
Speaker 1: I put this on my daughter, my grandmam, Mom's everything,
Speaker 1: like he never ever did. But did you guys know
Speaker 1: that that was a thing or was it like if
Speaker 1: you didn't see it, so you didn't really know? Or
Speaker 1: I never really I mean, you know, he was such
Speaker 1: a dope artist and I was just so focused on
Speaker 1: that part of his life, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, especially with him not trying around me, having
Speaker 1: that respect for me. I just always looked at him
Speaker 1: as the great artist that he is. That's it. I
Speaker 1: never looked at him and no other way but that,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. At what what what year
Speaker 1: did you end up kind of starting to split away
Speaker 1: from rough Riders and being around X so much, because yeah,
Speaker 1: I think you said Helen Back came out in two
Speaker 1: oh three, so at that point in time, I'm trying
Speaker 1: to think, O three oh four, that's probably around the
Speaker 1: time the Grand Champ is that Grand Champ type era? Yeah,
Speaker 1: like three when we were shooting Crazy in the grade,
Speaker 1: he was working on his third album, so he was
Speaker 1: working on uh and then there was X. Yeah because
Speaker 1: that's that was his third album. Yeah, hey, because you
Speaker 1: said you were after with these Bitches one video, so
Speaker 1: that was on that album. Did did your relationship with
Speaker 1: rough Rider souring effect your like your relationship with X?
Speaker 1: H Nah, me and X was always brothers, always going
Speaker 1: to remain brothers, you know what I'm saying. So you know,
Speaker 1: we always was genuine us, Like when we came across
Speaker 1: each other, they were straight brothership. It wasn't none of that.
Speaker 1: Let me like, like the relationship that me and X had,
Speaker 1: it wasn't just it wasn't just based on music, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean? You know, it was it was
Speaker 1: like some real genuine shit. That's yeah, when's the last
Speaker 1: time you spoke with him? That's my script that X
Speaker 1: probably mean, I don't know, maybe like seven eight months
Speaker 1: ago time. I mean like like it was months before
Speaker 1: he passed. I mean because he was working on his album, right,
Speaker 1: and I was working on Yeah, And I just did
Speaker 1: a big transition movie from the East to the West.
Speaker 1: So it was kind of hard for me when I
Speaker 1: first got to the West because I didn't really know
Speaker 1: how the West really moved like that. It's my first yeah,
Speaker 1: so you so focused on his joint, I was just
Speaker 1: focused on my Yo. Have to stop the Bootleg cav
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Speaker 1: dot com. And we are super proud that they're presenting
Speaker 1: this podcast. Let's get back to it. Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: that there's obviously an unfair expectation when we see someone
Speaker 1: like X pass away and how he passed away, where
Speaker 1: you know, there's so many would have could have should
Speaker 1: have that people try to bring up like, hey, well
Speaker 1: you know, you know, maybe people closer to him could
Speaker 1: have spoke up or or intervened or you know, had
Speaker 1: an intervention or whatever the case is. But you know,
Speaker 1: I think that I think that there was probably a
Speaker 1: lot of that that we didn't see because I know,
Speaker 1: I don't you know, obviously Swiss is you know, somebody
Speaker 1: who was very close to X. But did you feel
Speaker 1: like maybe looking back, that there were people around him
Speaker 1: that could have maybe done more way back then. At
Speaker 1: the time, X is the hottest rapper in the world.
Speaker 1: There's boatloads of money coming in, so I'm sure that like, yeah,
Speaker 1: some stuff was ignored because it's like whatever makes them happy,
Speaker 1: We're just gonna do because the money's coming. Was there
Speaker 1: something that you think, like like you like like thinking back,
Speaker 1: was there more that you think other people could have
Speaker 1: did not not necessarily saying yourself, of course, I just
Speaker 1: always looked at X as an artist. I never looked
Speaker 1: at him how everyone else views or or or how
Speaker 1: someone else viewed that situation. I just looked at him
Speaker 1: as one of the greatest rappers I've ever heard in
Speaker 1: my life. I mean, he's obviously your brother, your friend, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I think it's a It's just it's just tragic, man.
Speaker 1: Anytime someone passes from that, like it's like fuck man
Speaker 1: like that, everyone starts to think, like, well, what could
Speaker 1: have Like my mom's Like my mom's was a crackhead,
Speaker 1: My pops was a crackhead. My uncle did drugs and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. I had, I had so many you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, don't like and I mean you know,
Speaker 1: when you from the hood and stuff like that, and
Speaker 1: you grew up around that, Like that's just all you know,
Speaker 1: you pretty much numb to it, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So you know, when it came down to the relationship
Speaker 1: with me and DMMX, I just looked at him as
Speaker 1: one of the greatest artists I ever seen in my life.
Speaker 1: That's it, I I j I. I didn't really nomally
Speaker 1: fond chance to life. I mean you know, I didn't.
Speaker 1: I didn't really get into uh not me don't like
Speaker 1: me and him always had a respect for each other
Speaker 1: where I mean we didn't. I mean, don't we have respect.
Speaker 1: We didn't dig deep and you know, I mean no,
Speaker 1: like X was a older brother to me, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. You know, he wasn't like like somebody
Speaker 1: I could be like ek So what they say, like
Speaker 1: you find like I was his little brother, right right, right,
Speaker 1: right right. I just looked up to him, like how
Speaker 1: you would look up to your big brother. You might
Speaker 1: not be knowing that he's out there robbing liquor stores
Speaker 1: or whatever you find out own, you know, is your right? Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's firsh shit, Mmmm, that's fair man. You talk about
Speaker 1: the Cash Money Tour, which was a adupt moment in
Speaker 1: hip hop to have both of those crews on the
Speaker 1: road at the same time, obviously, Uh, I missed those
Speaker 1: kind of toys. I feel like we don't get those
Speaker 1: kind of toys and hip hop anymore, Like that kind
Speaker 1: of energy where there was that bigger artist all together
Speaker 1: at the same time on the same bill. I feel
Speaker 1: like there's too much ego and hip hop now or
Speaker 1: that kind of shit don't even fly no more. It's
Speaker 1: just way too much egoye. You know, the word platforms
Speaker 1: used way too much. Oh you know, I don't know
Speaker 1: if I already want that on my platform. Yeah, there's
Speaker 1: some bullshit. Everyone's so worried that. Yeah, Like think about it,
Speaker 1: rough Riders in cash Money, two different genres, like not,
Speaker 1: two different pieces of the country, two different, totally different
Speaker 1: sonically movements coming together on the road is fucking crazy.
Speaker 1: That wouldn't even happen these days, Like it fucking you know,
Speaker 1: imagine if like Kendrick Lamar went on tour with fucking
Speaker 1: NB a young boy. Yeah, people be like what that
Speaker 1: don't even make sense? Give me some like what what what?
Speaker 1: What's like your some of your favorite stories about that tour, Like,
Speaker 1: give me a story from that tour that you kind
Speaker 1: of look back on. That was pretty crazy. Just me
Speaker 1: being able to actually come out every night and rob
Speaker 1: the crowd. That's the biggest story for me, just me
Speaker 1: actually going out there and representing trag. You know what
Speaker 1: I mean. You know, that's the biggest story for me.
Speaker 1: That's that's what I'm going always your mumbo, you know
Speaker 1: what I man? You know, did you and Juvenile perform
Speaker 1: together the record off the the last show in New York?
Speaker 1: That's it? The ho tel We didn't perform in that
Speaker 1: one time, but you guys did it do it once?
Speaker 1: We did it once? And I think for New York?
Speaker 1: Did you do that song together in the studio, because
Speaker 1: nowadays we think so it wasn't together. I met him
Speaker 1: for the first time. I guess has been out number one. Wow, Hey,
Speaker 1: we got that song together. We got them that's it.
Speaker 1: That shit is crazy on tour. Wow, that ship, that's
Speaker 1: that's wold. You just put a new album out, which
Speaker 1: is by the way you're spinning. Man, it feels like
Speaker 1: you said, it feels like you had like you you
Speaker 1: almost like you had a broke fucking point to prove.
Speaker 1: It's been almost twenty years since the last one. It's
Speaker 1: like you can't come with no bullshit. I mean this,
Speaker 1: I mean, like this album right here. It started from
Speaker 1: bof Part one and I had dropped that a couple
Speaker 1: of years ago, and it did real good on the streets.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. You know, the videos, like
Speaker 1: some of the videos on there. I got two three
Speaker 1: million views on my fan page, so it did real good.
Speaker 1: Shout out to DJ get it right. Let me, he's
Speaker 1: the one that actually started that because I didn't even
Speaker 1: want to drop no mixed right my brother, but he
Speaker 1: was like, nah, is doing good? Drag Ufonchin said like
Speaker 1: you might could do it, And I mean I had
Speaker 1: just dropped the Chok Them freestyle that did like three
Speaker 1: four million on the streets, so h I mean you know,
Speaker 1: so after that, it made me link up with them
Speaker 1: and do part two. So we did Part two and
Speaker 1: then we did Part three together. So Part four was
Speaker 1: kind of catering to those fan base that loved that
Speaker 1: uh saga, but I really wanted them to know that
Speaker 1: I know how to do music too, so I put
Speaker 1: a lot of different music and I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: after the fourth or fifth song, if you notice the
Speaker 1: album goal like another direction, which is me into a
Speaker 1: biby type zone. You know what I'm saying, because you
Speaker 1: know part one, two and three, I really was just like,
Speaker 1: I'm back, I'm spitting part to talk about anybody. But
Speaker 1: part four I didn't really care about that. I really
Speaker 1: just wanted people to enjoy the project. Who's because there's
Speaker 1: so many incredible MC's that are thriving right now in
Speaker 1: hip hop. Who are some of the artists that you're
Speaker 1: fans of that are currently kind of like on the
Speaker 1: newer side of things. I like, I like Rowdy Rich
Speaker 1: Roddy of course, of course, man, mm hmmm. I like
Speaker 1: money Bag Yell, money Bag Yell's fire. Uh. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm a big fan of Kendrick, big fan of j Cole.
Speaker 1: You funk with any of the Griselda guys at all? Yeah, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that Griselda ship is like that's the energy, like I
Speaker 1: feel like he's been missing, man, that's the energy that
Speaker 1: New York was once. Of course, I have much respect
Speaker 1: for for Grazil Direcords, like all the artists is over there,
Speaker 1: Bennie and like, yeah, and I'm a huge fan of them.
Speaker 1: I mean, because they are just just keeping the hip
Speaker 1: hop they their leaders and they know that they're not following.
Speaker 1: They actually said, Uh, so you were in Exit Wound's
Speaker 1: Cradle to the Grave. What are the movies? Were those
Speaker 1: the two? Uh, I'm a Grave. I shot another movie
Speaker 1: with me and Love and Doctor Dre shout out to
Speaker 1: those guys are legends Cradle two. I mean Exit Woons
Speaker 1: had Steven Segall Cradle to the Grave at jet Lye
Speaker 1: at the time. I mean, obviously those are two of
Speaker 1: the greatest like, uh, martial artists of all time when
Speaker 1: it comes to just on movies, especially jetly Man. And
Speaker 1: that was like early on in jet ly Is, like
Speaker 1: you know, there was I feel like Jackie Channel was
Speaker 1: like the first guy in the nineties that like like
Speaker 1: was a superstar in China and crossed over and it
Speaker 1: worked in America. And then there was jet Lye. What
Speaker 1: was it like being on set with jet Lee? Like,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, Like, cool, dude, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. You know, he's real short, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, And he barely spoke English, but he
Speaker 1: tried his best to speak to me in English, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. So I kind of respected that,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean because he know, his English
Speaker 1: was real bad. I know, it might have looked like
Speaker 1: he can talk you yeah, like a translator speech. Yeah.
Speaker 1: It's the whole time on every single part to get
Speaker 1: it right. Did you like, you know, acting wise, I
Speaker 1: feel like Ex's potential as an actor wasn't even sniffed. Like.
Speaker 1: I feel like it could have been so much bigger,
Speaker 1: Like for some reason, I mean, I don't know, we
Speaker 1: just stopped getting DMX movies. You know, we had a
Speaker 1: there was so many fire ass DMX movies. I don't
Speaker 1: know if it was whatever was going on in his
Speaker 1: personal life and he ended up stopped acting as much.
Speaker 1: But what did you like? Did he did he try
Speaker 1: to like kind of give you a lot of pointers
Speaker 1: on the acting ship early on, because he was a
Speaker 1: solid actor, unlike Nasa Nas was a terrible actor in
Speaker 1: that movie. I'm just going to shout out to Nas.
Speaker 1: But Ex ex X is the reason why I'm in movies,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. Of course, Ex is the
Speaker 1: reason for Dragon. So anything you've seen that I did,
Speaker 1: it's probably because he did it first and allowed me
Speaker 1: to do it after. You know, what was it like
Speaker 1: t describe Stephen Sigall as a very uh interesting fellow.
Speaker 1: What was what was being on a movie set with
Speaker 1: Stephen Sigga? Like it was real interesting cause he took
Speaker 1: a liking to me, you know what I'm saying. For real,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. You know, out of everybody
Speaker 1: on this set, he didn't really rock with too many
Speaker 1: people like Steven sicgall An. They type of person that
Speaker 1: if he rock with you, he rock with you. If
Speaker 1: he don't, he don't it like like you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. So you know he with him actually taking
Speaker 1: a liking to me, like weird cause I grew up
Speaker 1: on him, you know what I'm saying. You know, I
Speaker 1: was a huge fan and all that. I was actually
Speaker 1: able to tell him some of my favorite movies that
Speaker 1: he did. Wow, Like you know what I'm saying, And
Speaker 1: he was telling me what was going on at that time.
Speaker 1: So I'm just sitting there listening. So you know it
Speaker 1: was dope, you know, I mean doing like Steven Seaga
Speaker 1: was actually a cool dude, super cool dude, super cool
Speaker 1: dude with me dance serious, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So yeah, you know what I mean. He used to
Speaker 1: be in the studio with Casey and Jojo. So, I
Speaker 1: mean he's into the music. That's so rare. I can
Speaker 1: you imagine walking into a session and it's and it's
Speaker 1: Casey and Jojo and Steven Sogal like all the time.
Speaker 1: Were you ever in the studio with them? At the
Speaker 1: same time, I was about to say, that'd have been
Speaker 1: that's gotta be crazy. Yeah, he'snna tell me stories and
Speaker 1: all that stuff. He just said this listen, like, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. But he's into the music the whole.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean, You know he's aware. Yeah, damn,
Speaker 1: that's that's wild man. The other thing I think that
Speaker 1: is dope is like, you know, for people who are
Speaker 1: watching this who might have the same situation, like you
Speaker 1: have a speech impediment and you have never let that
Speaker 1: be an excuse for you to do what you want
Speaker 1: to do right, and you're also you know, some people
Speaker 1: are shamed by that or they do their best to
Speaker 1: hide it. But I think that it's important for there's
Speaker 1: somebody who could be watching this right now who's going
Speaker 1: through the same situation and might want to be a
Speaker 1: rapper or might wanna think you might wanna do TV
Speaker 1: or whatever. It might not think that they can you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying? And that's why, you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: you don't like when I first let it out, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean? You don't on a swed show.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean? You know that I have
Speaker 1: a stuttering problem. I actually went up there, not trying
Speaker 1: to hide it and stuff like that. Right now, I've
Speaker 1: been studying a little bit on this. Yeah, they pretty
Speaker 1: much gonna see it. But I've been working on it,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. So I'm not as bad.
Speaker 1: But if my studing is real bad, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, So I just stop hiding it because I
Speaker 1: wanted people to know, all right, And I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: this is my imperfection, perfection, you know I'm not perfect.
Speaker 1: I want them you know. I mean, you know, because
Speaker 1: I know it's a lot of people that's that's probably
Speaker 1: capable of doing so many things that they be nervous
Speaker 1: on how somebody's gonna look at it. Yeah, that'd be
Speaker 1: the whole thing of when you stutter and you catch
Speaker 1: a real bad studying and then you're wondering if they're
Speaker 1: looking at you like you're crazy? Right right, right? Right? Yeah.
Speaker 1: So with me being in a position that I am.
Speaker 1: This is this is what let them know that Nope,
Speaker 1: you have a studying problem. But you're not retarded. You say,
Speaker 1: you're not slow. I'm very intelligent. You know. Oh you've
Speaker 1: also got had an extremely successful you know, career using
Speaker 1: your voice and and and I think that that's got
Speaker 1: to be inspirational because that would be the single most
Speaker 1: insecure thing that anybody could probably do. And that's decided
Speaker 1: to be an artist, a musician, you know, saying a
Speaker 1: rapper stuff like that. I really stopped doing interviews because
Speaker 1: of my student And then I said, nah, you know what,
Speaker 1: that's not a way where I can really show them
Speaker 1: that it can actually be done with a studying problem.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know I was born with this. I
Speaker 1: got on both sides of my family. You know, my
Speaker 1: father's stutter on my father's that's my father, Yeah, my mom.
Speaker 1: So my grandfather stuff badly he said, which he just
Speaker 1: me which he just passed away. But uh, he had
Speaker 1: a real bastarding problem to the front where you came
Speaker 1: to quotem on the phone purpose you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So you know I actually got it on both sides
Speaker 1: of my family, you know what I mean? So I
Speaker 1: just be wanting people to understand and know that it
Speaker 1: could still be done. Even even with it. I could
Speaker 1: bear them speeding, but I flat listen. I'm gonna tell
Speaker 1: you this, man. I pressed play on your new project,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, I haven't heard a Dragon project. And
Speaker 1: since I was I was in high school, maybe even
Speaker 1: junior high, and was riding around to yesterday and I
Speaker 1: was like, yo, it might like I know, not even
Speaker 1: gassing you man, like this might be the lyrically the
Speaker 1: most tip top I've heard you. You was really getting
Speaker 1: getting off, bro, because you know, sometimes you press play,
Speaker 1: like all right, let me hear this ship. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm afraid. I'm almost like, I'm afraid this just gonna
Speaker 1: sound dated or something. It's gonna be. I had play
Speaker 1: on that, bitch. I said this intro is grazy. The
Speaker 1: next and I'm like, damn, and you had some lines
Speaker 1: in now. I was like, yo, god man, Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: I think, dude. I think, like I just had this
Speaker 1: conversation with Jay Mills not too long ago, and I
Speaker 1: think that there is a rare opportunity for artists such
Speaker 1: as yourself who are lyrically inclined to really just you know,
Speaker 1: thrive because I think the pandemic has made people listen
Speaker 1: to music differently. When I like, most of the country
Speaker 1: isn't standing on couches this the last year in the
Speaker 1: nightclub popping bottles. They're in their cars or they're at
Speaker 1: home listening in their headphones. So the substance and the lyrics.
Speaker 1: That's why if you see the Grammy nominations from twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: it was all real rap shit. It was Royster five nine,
Speaker 1: it was Freddy Gibbs. It was all all lyrical, ill
Speaker 1: rap shit. And I think that, you know, another thing too,
Speaker 1: is like don't hold on to music anymore, you know.
Speaker 1: I think if anything, if anything that Griselda and Westside
Speaker 1: Gun and Conway and Benny the Butcher have taught us
Speaker 1: over the last you know, four years, is run that
Speaker 1: indie catalog up man, run it up for sure. The
Speaker 1: music me I got dropped. I mean, you know, like
Speaker 1: I started my own record label, Code Environment, and we
Speaker 1: put out music every week, go every two weeks. And
Speaker 1: that's not just songs, you know what I'm saying. But
Speaker 1: we don't really rely on DJs, so we put the
Speaker 1: song out with the video every day. So smart. So
Speaker 1: when you first hear the record, you're looking at it.
Speaker 1: That's fire. Yeah, that's smart. Man. Were you able to
Speaker 1: make it to Ex's memorial service? How was it? Because
Speaker 1: I mean I thought it looked so amazing on TV. Uh.
Speaker 1: I mean, I know Kanye helped design like the stages.
Speaker 1: It just looked great. Man, it really you know, it
Speaker 1: was obviously a very sad day, but like, how how
Speaker 1: was it for you to go to that? It was
Speaker 1: a lot for me to go to that, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. You know, I was in denial for
Speaker 1: a long time, so I like, like me, I had
Speaker 1: a hard time accepting it, Like you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm going to make my homie the rest.
Speaker 1: Like I had a hard time accepting it. So I
Speaker 1: actually booked my flight the day of, like I was
Speaker 1: really contemplating it, you know what I'm saying. But I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, overall, I'm just glad I went for DMX. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it also, you know, just has to bring
Speaker 1: up so much old feelings and then obviously every i
Speaker 1: mean everyone through probably through your hip hop career, was there,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, were you able to reconcile or
Speaker 1: see anybody there? That you hadn't talked to for a while,
Speaker 1: or I was just there for DMX. That was it,
Speaker 1: in and out. I was there for DMX. DMX passed away,
Speaker 1: So I was acting in such of that manner, you know,
Speaker 1: I swet I saw, you know, obviously Swiss's speech I
Speaker 1: thought was really I thought, I mean what he said
Speaker 1: could be applied to anybody in your life, right, like
Speaker 1: as far as just like being there for people, well
Speaker 1: not just when they're gone, like being there when they're here.
Speaker 1: What did you think of just the services? Like like
Speaker 1: Swiss's speech, I thought was anybody should watch that if
Speaker 1: they haven't seen it. You know, he kept it a thousand.
Speaker 1: But what were your thoughts on what he had to say?
Speaker 1: And my thoughts was on my speech. But you you're
Speaker 1: to worry about your own ship speech. My speech was
Speaker 1: really focused on what he had done for me. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying and what he is to me,
Speaker 1: and I'm hurting that he passed away. How hard of
Speaker 1: that is is that to write, like to put that
Speaker 1: together into words. See, my speech just came from the heart.
Speaker 1: I didn't write it. So you just went up there
Speaker 1: and just just told your truth. Man, just spoke exactly
Speaker 1: what it was. You know what I mean. So I mean,
Speaker 1: I mean, like like what it like with my speech
Speaker 1: being straight from the heart world genuine It made me,
Speaker 1: uh shed a tear, you know what I'm saying because
Speaker 1: I know where. Let mean, you know where it came from, right,
Speaker 1: a real place. I just I just wash, you know,
Speaker 1: happy that everybody showed DMX love, you know, the love
Speaker 1: that he deserved. You know what I'm saying. You know
Speaker 1: that was my thing. My thing was just shown up
Speaker 1: for the homie. That's Have you been privy to hear
Speaker 1: his new album at all? Anything from his new album?
Speaker 1: I heard two records from it, dope? You know what
Speaker 1: I mean. You know what I mean. You know like
Speaker 1: DMX never really put out too much songs that wasn't great.
Speaker 1: He was just great period. This is true. I wish
Speaker 1: we would have got more. Man. Yeah, I always think back,
Speaker 1: like what if DMX just never let up on this
Speaker 1: rap shit? A lot of people's careers would have been
Speaker 1: because man, I feel like he let up and that's
Speaker 1: when you had the job rule slide in and have
Speaker 1: his like you know, the R and B wave. And
Speaker 1: it was really only because that X kind of just
Speaker 1: let up on this ship, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: and with it the acting and you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: it was like it kind of left the hold. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's crazy. Would there ever be a or would you
Speaker 1: ever consider being a part of a Rough Rider reunion?
Speaker 1: I mean obviously without X that's gonna be hard to accomplish.
Speaker 1: But focused on my record label called Hood Environment, which
Speaker 1: we just dropped the album March fifth, and we're doing
Speaker 1: successful with that company. That's a company I started since six.
Speaker 1: It's two thousands, it's twenty twenty one. So this has
Speaker 1: been a long grind. I got my release Smith from
Speaker 1: Rough Riders in seven I was not men, you know,
Speaker 1: and I started my record label from then. So it's
Speaker 1: been so focused on that. I mean, you said that
Speaker 1: that lawsuit kind of broke you, right, so I can
Speaker 1: only imagine that getting on the other side of that,
Speaker 1: like the animosity you might have towards Rough Riders in general,
Speaker 1: like who told you that? No, I'm saying that you
Speaker 1: said that after you got released that going through and
Speaker 1: high and lawyers and stuff, you ended up like kind
Speaker 1: of broke, end up. I ended up being broke. I
Speaker 1: ended up being uh he had to go back to
Speaker 1: the streets. But I had to go back to the
Speaker 1: streets and restarted my career. So you ended up homeless
Speaker 1: after Rough Riders, Yeah, I was. I was actually homeless
Speaker 1: while I was still on rough Riers. You were homeless,
Speaker 1: So so explain to me being homeless, Like, wouldn't you
Speaker 1: say homeless? What does that mean? So you actually were
Speaker 1: definitively homeless while still being on rough Riders? Right, So
Speaker 1: I started my company and just kept building for the
Speaker 1: past ten years. So did d n Y know you
Speaker 1: were homeless or was that something where it was like
Speaker 1: it was just that the relationship was so sour. I
Speaker 1: don't know, Like, you know, like once I left Rough Riders,
Speaker 1: I focused on hood environment. Right. Damn for people watching
Speaker 1: this man, that that's that's a low that it's hard
Speaker 1: to come out of being homeless, right, especially being Dragon
Speaker 1: from rough Riders, hitting homelessness, having to get back to
Speaker 1: the streets to get your money up. The perseverance that
Speaker 1: that takes, the dedication, the like mental fortitude that that takes.
Speaker 1: Then I let that shit break. You gotta be crazy, man, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. You know, at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, I don't really like rely too much
Speaker 1: on the people that's down here on this earth with
Speaker 1: me say, I rely on God. God got me, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. So you know I'm here on
Speaker 1: the strength of God. I am living proof that God
Speaker 1: will help you if you ask them, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. If you pray, if you prayed up, if
Speaker 1: you keep yourself within the bubble of prayer, then God
Speaker 1: will be there for you, and and and even for
Speaker 1: the people that don't pray, but just believe in God.
Speaker 1: God got them too, you know what I'm saying. So
Speaker 1: my thing was just mean, Like once I did that,
Speaker 1: I just focus on my company, and then the streets
Speaker 1: started catching on to it. So I just focused on that.
Speaker 1: How long was that period of time that you were
Speaker 1: actually homeless, like before you got to play? Like how long?
Speaker 1: Like how long was that? A year and a half?
Speaker 1: Two years? Like wow, damn man, we look you came
Speaker 1: a long way, bro, And uh as listen, you're a
Speaker 1: part of history. You are a part of history, man.
Speaker 1: And how did you think that the documentary came out
Speaker 1: on BT the was it was? It? Was it? The five?
Speaker 1: Was it five episodes? Something like that? Oh, you didn't
Speaker 1: watch it. I didn't watch it. I thought I thought
Speaker 1: it was dope. I mean again, I'm I'm a fucking
Speaker 1: When I was a kid, I used to tag up
Speaker 1: DMX and rough Rider logo on all my folders and
Speaker 1: that was all the posters I had in my room.
Speaker 1: And so it was just like, yeah, this ship is great,
Speaker 1: but yeah, it's it's also kind of got to be
Speaker 1: crazy too, because like you're kind of like a part
Speaker 1: of a fraternity that will forever exist on this planet
Speaker 1: that has nothing to do with hip hop. Like the
Speaker 1: Motorcycle Club ship is so big, big just the culture
Speaker 1: of that are that has nothing to do with the
Speaker 1: music or the record label. It's just so big. It's like,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, Look, your album is out,
Speaker 1: are you? I hope you keep putting out. You're gonna
Speaker 1: keep putting out more albums. Yes, we're working on I'm
Speaker 1: already working on another project that's so dope right now,
Speaker 1: it's out of here, you know what I mean. So,
Speaker 1: you know, we don't have a name. Somebody just used
Speaker 1: the damn name, but they didn't know which name was.
Speaker 1: It was the name that just been used, right, So
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, but they didn't know that that
Speaker 1: was the name of right right, right right, So you
Speaker 1: gotta switch the name of them, switch the name of now,
Speaker 1: switching the name. But it's so good though, you know,
Speaker 1: the music is great. It sounds super big, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. You know, it's it's it and it's
Speaker 1: and it's actually better than bof four, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, because it got just a little bit more
Speaker 1: of a music type of vibe on this joint that
Speaker 1: I just know everybody gonna love. Hey, what I didn't
Speaker 1: ask you about? I always was curious about Eve Man
Speaker 1: and Eve was I think when we when we always
Speaker 1: talk about the greatest female hip hop rappers of all time.
Speaker 1: For some reason, I feel like people kind of just
Speaker 1: don't bring her up. And I think that's just because
Speaker 1: she hasn't been acted for a while. But like, uh,
Speaker 1: what was your relationship like with Eve? So just like
Speaker 1: any brother or sister relationship, highs and lows, and it
Speaker 1: was always love that said sisters, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: You know you can actually go to my Instagram piece. Actually,
Speaker 1: I think like my last post or the post before that,
Speaker 1: you see when we sell each other, it's genuine, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean? You know it's Brother's Sistance. That's it.
Speaker 1: That's a beautiful thing. Man, we'll look drag on the legend.
Speaker 1: Go get the album, go stream it, and man, welcome
Speaker 1: to Cali too. Yes, yes, it's glad to have you
Speaker 1: on the West Coast. I love the weed. Man boomed up.
Speaker 1: See ready,