Speaker 1: Although each is my guy, I have to say he's
Speaker 1: not great a few from sorry each. I smoked him
Speaker 1: too many times for him to claim he's good at
Speaker 1: fee from sorry, but that's my guy.
Speaker 2: Hello and welcome to Midnight Chats, a podcast of informal
Speaker 2: interviews with musicians we love, posted weekly at midnight to
Speaker 2: suit these very casual conversations. This week's episode is hosted
Speaker 2: by me Stuart Stubbs, the editor of Loud and Quiet magazine.
Speaker 2: On tonight's show is West London rapper AJ Tracy, who
Speaker 2: I met up with at the end of May of
Speaker 2: this year, twenty twenty two, and I really enjoyed myself
Speaker 2: talking to him. We spent about an hour chatting. It's
Speaker 2: pretty much all there in this conversation. Didn't feel the
Speaker 2: need to cut much of it out.
Speaker 3: I trimmed back a little.
Speaker 2: Bit where we went down a little bit of a
Speaker 2: football rabbit hole, but there's still a lot of football
Speaker 2: chat in this one. That's because Aj Tracy, whose real
Speaker 2: name is Shay, he is a massive fan of Tottenham Hotspurs.
Speaker 2: Talk a bit about that. We talk a bit about
Speaker 2: his mum, who is the person that named him Shay
Speaker 2: after Shaker Vara. She comes out of this episode very well.
Speaker 2: She sounds like an incredible woman. We talk about his
Speaker 2: most recent album, Flu Game, that came out in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty one, and one thing that we mention and explain
Speaker 2: maybe a little bit, but on listening back, maybe not.
Speaker 2: It's not fully clear is the reference of that name.
Speaker 2: The name of the album is Flu Game, and it's
Speaker 2: named after a particularly legendary basketball match between the Chicago
Speaker 2: Balls and Utah Jazz in nineteen ninety seven where Michael
Speaker 2: Jordan got food poisoning, but he still played and essentially
Speaker 2: won the game for the Chicago Balls. It's a legendary game.
Speaker 2: If you've watched the documentary The Last Dance, which we
Speaker 2: also talk about a little bit in this episode, you'll
Speaker 2: know exactly what I'm talking about. But if you don't,
Speaker 2: and it's a bit unclear because we kind of dive
Speaker 2: into that subject and don't fully explain it. That is
Speaker 2: why the album is called Flu Game. As I say,
Speaker 2: it came out last year. It is AJ Tracey's second album.
Speaker 2: He's a completely DIY artist, which is nuts when you
Speaker 2: go and look at some of his videos. I've linked
Speaker 2: to some of those below this episode. Including his most
Speaker 2: recent single Reasonable. What else do I need to clear up?
Speaker 2: Two other things? I think the artist that we talk about,
Speaker 2: Mura Kami, is a Japanese artist called Takashi muror Kami.
Speaker 2: I've linked to the exhibition that Shaye talks about that
Speaker 2: he went to in New York. He's a massive fan
Speaker 2: of Murakami's work, and he also mentions at other points
Speaker 2: in our conversation Vergil. That is Virgil Ablow, the fashion
Speaker 2: designer and founder of Off White who became the artistic
Speaker 2: director of Louis Vuitton's menswear collection, the first African American
Speaker 2: to do so, sadly passed away last year. That is
Speaker 2: the Vergil that Shaye refers to. He was a friend
Speaker 2: of his. So I just wanted to clear that up
Speaker 2: because we don't do it in the conversation. I think
Speaker 2: that is as much as I need to clear up.
Speaker 2: It's very hot here in London at the moment. I'm
Speaker 2: in a sealed room to try and get this recording
Speaker 2: sounding okay, So I'm going to stop. This is number
Speaker 2: one hundred and eighteen Midnight Chats with AJ Tracy. Thank
Speaker 2: you very much for listening. So how are you domming?
Speaker 2: How's your week been?
Speaker 1: Yeah, good man, chilling, wasn't enjoying the weather. And today
Speaker 1: I just had a gym installed at my house. I
Speaker 1: saved up my money and built a gym in my
Speaker 1: back garden. So I've been getting in the gym now. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: so that's that's my new venture. What of what what
Speaker 1: equipment you got in there? I'm gonna start sounding like
Speaker 1: I'm flexing. Ow, well, I'm not flexing at all. I
Speaker 1: genuinely saved up to get this. Like it's not off
Speaker 1: the cuff. But basically I made the gym because the
Speaker 1: reason why I to see for this because I wanted
Speaker 1: it to be like insulated with an air gone in
Speaker 1: there so that it's fully functional.
Speaker 2: So when you say it's in your garden, it's not like.
Speaker 3: It's like a separate building. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And it's quite big because my garden. Luckily, when
Speaker 1: I bought the house off the old people, they had
Speaker 1: purchased the people adjacent to like a third of their garden,
Speaker 1: so their garden is massive, and I was like great,
Speaker 1: it was in a rubbish state. It was horrible, but
Speaker 1: I like fixed the grass, got the green fingers out,
Speaker 1: the shears out. You know I'm saying, fix everything, but yeah,
Speaker 1: I got all the quimen and rowing machine, treadmill, bike,
Speaker 1: leg leg extensions, rope machine, bench press like everything. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, You've got it all all ready
Speaker 1: to get fit hopefully.
Speaker 2: Before that, were you like a member of a gym.
Speaker 1: I was a member of a gym before I moved
Speaker 1: into my new house. When I lived in Chelsea in
Speaker 1: a flat, I was a member of a gym. But yeah,
Speaker 1: obviously now it's like there's no gyms around sow.
Speaker 2: So when you like build a gym in your garden, Yeah,
Speaker 2: do you need someone to do that?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Of course, of course you don't just do that yourself. No, no, no,
Speaker 3: of course no, of course not.
Speaker 1: I contacted you know what I'm saying, the correct people
Speaker 1: and made him do it professionally. It did cost a lot,
Speaker 1: but also it's kind of an investment because if I
Speaker 1: do choose to sell my house, it's like, cool, it's
Speaker 1: got a gym, like up to date twenty twenty two
Speaker 1: brand new spanking gym, so like it adds value.
Speaker 3: To the house.
Speaker 2: And think how much you're going to save in that
Speaker 2: gym members.
Speaker 1: Of course, of course, and even just the motivation, you know,
Speaker 1: being able to wake up and go downstairs and work out,
Speaker 1: as opposed to I have to get in a car
Speaker 1: petrol drive day. I can just go in and no
Speaker 1: one can disturb me. So it's actually really good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're gonna put pool in next No?
Speaker 3: No, no pool, No pool.
Speaker 1: They actually when I was fixing the garden, the people
Speaker 1: who are like landscaping said we can put a pool
Speaker 1: with if you want, and I was like, I'll live
Speaker 1: in the UK. I'll get to use the pool like
Speaker 1: two weeks out of the year. It's not even worth it, honestly.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that needs to be inside as well.
Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely one hundred percent.
Speaker 2: Nice Nice says that that that been your main thing
Speaker 2: this week.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's that's That's it the gym right now. But
Speaker 1: I've also I'm going to start I do twitch like gaming,
Speaker 1: so I've been like setting up my man cave, preparing
Speaker 1: it for when I'm ready to stream, which is almost done.
Speaker 1: I'll say it's like eighty five percent done. Sure, just
Speaker 1: need to get the guy to come in the handyman
Speaker 1: to fix the sofa in there and put the TV
Speaker 1: up on the wall, and then I'm ready to go.
Speaker 1: And I'll be streaming again, so that's cool. I've just
Speaker 1: been trying to sort out everything aside from music, because
Speaker 1: the music's okay right now. I'm kind of ready to
Speaker 1: go with my music, so I'm just sorting out all
Speaker 1: the extracurricular things, all that extra stuff.
Speaker 3: Exactly.
Speaker 2: I know I knew that you were a big gamer.
Speaker 2: Then this is something that's totally out of my comfort zone. Okay, okay, right,
Speaker 2: but so so what games do you play? And once
Speaker 2: your what's your setup? Do you have like the chair
Speaker 2: and yeah.
Speaker 1: All of that stuff. All of that stuff to my
Speaker 1: missus is beane. She really like, you know it is.
Speaker 1: It's that I like to delegate time to game, like
Speaker 1: actual put time aside the game. So I'll be like, cool,
Speaker 1: We'll go on date night and that's that's our evening.
Speaker 1: Then the next day, for half the day, I'm gaming,
Speaker 1: Like that's that's me now.
Speaker 2: So you can say mainly at nighttime gaming.
Speaker 3: It's half half.
Speaker 1: It depends like if my missus isn't around nighttime, I'm
Speaker 1: gaming all night.
Speaker 3: I'm talking like until four ams, I'm gaming.
Speaker 1: But if she's around, then I don't like to like,
Speaker 1: you know, not spend time with her and wasted evening gaming,
Speaker 1: so it'll be fifty to fifty. I'll say sure, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: but daytime gaming is not really a go. But because
Speaker 1: you know, I have things to do. I have a job,
Speaker 1: so I can't always do it. But yeah, I love gaming.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 1: My setup is like a dark room. I've got a
Speaker 1: neon that says aj Tracy. I've got like my little
Speaker 1: bear bricks and like collectible figures on the wall. I've
Speaker 1: got some like Tottenham Memory Vidia, some England Memory Vidia
Speaker 1: and some other shirts I've got. My setup is just
Speaker 1: like a metal desk and then I have a curve
Speaker 1: the monitor on it, and then I have vertical monitor
Speaker 1: monitor as well for discord and like when I check
Speaker 1: my NFTs and my stocks and stuff. And then yeah, man,
Speaker 1: I got speaker set up, like obviously I'm a musician,
Speaker 1: have to have speakers. Yeah, headset the whole malarkey. And
Speaker 1: my PC actually is a beast. It's a super beast.
Speaker 1: Like it's crazy. It's worth like twenty K. I didn't
Speaker 1: buy it though, it was a gift from Call of Actually.
Speaker 2: This is serious. So you're going to say, like I've
Speaker 2: got two controllers, No, no, no, no, no, yeah, I'm
Speaker 2: serious on the gaming.
Speaker 1: I play like FIFA. Is that your main thing? One
Speaker 1: of my main things? Yeah, FIFA, Call of G four, Nite, Valorian,
Speaker 1: loads of different games. So I'm just I'm in there man, GTA.
Speaker 2: Actually I love GTA, Okay, I love GTA and you
Speaker 2: stream it on Switch on Twitter.
Speaker 1: I used to like a year ago, and I took
Speaker 1: a break, like during COVID. I was streaming like two
Speaker 1: three times a week, but because I moved houses and
Speaker 1: I had to reset up on my staff and my
Speaker 1: house had loads of building works to doing it, I couldn't.
Speaker 3: I couldn't stream. But now I'm nearly ready.
Speaker 2: So yeah, yeah and you and you're like your fans
Speaker 2: play against you, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1: I get all the fans in. I'll like go on
Speaker 1: my Instagram or whatever on Twitter and say, yo, if
Speaker 1: an he wants to jump in the lobby seven pm,
Speaker 1: like I'll be on that's my game attack and people
Speaker 1: just join and like we'll just be in there having fun.
Speaker 3: So yeah, that's so cool. That's sick. It's actually sick. Genuinely.
Speaker 1: I'll be in GTA and like you can have obviously
Speaker 1: like tens and tons of people in there and they
Speaker 1: will all come to my house, like I have a
Speaker 1: house in GTA, and you can like go in the
Speaker 1: cinema and everyone can watch the same thing on the screen.
Speaker 1: You can like gamble with your friends and stuff like
Speaker 1: it's fun. It's good fun.
Speaker 2: Is that how you know Deli Ali? Because he's a
Speaker 2: big right.
Speaker 1: That's That's not how I know him. But he is
Speaker 1: a big gamer as well. Yeah he might be better
Speaker 1: than me at FFA. I've seen that he's nice on FIFA.
Speaker 1: I've never played against him, but yeah, he he's a
Speaker 1: big game as well man, and so is I know
Speaker 1: James likes the game as well a lot of I'll
Speaker 1: be honest. I think I feel like it's just a
Speaker 1: mutual thing. All the footballers and and rappers are just
Speaker 1: gamers like dB, young ads and them. They're big gamers.
Speaker 1: Money is a massive gamer, young and big gamer. Avelino
Speaker 1: h although h is my guy. I have to say
Speaker 1: he's not great at fIF I'm sorry, Age, I smoked
Speaker 1: him too many times for him to claim he's good
Speaker 1: at FIEF.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry, but that's my guy.
Speaker 2: Who do you who do you play at faith?
Speaker 3: Then?
Speaker 2: Who do you do you? What's your team team sick?
Speaker 2: Do you just sick?
Speaker 1: I don't pick. I be honest, I don't pick. I
Speaker 1: play my team. So you know, when you pick your
Speaker 1: you make your own team. But currently, because I've got
Speaker 1: to the end of FIFA and like I've got all
Speaker 1: the best cards and stuff, I've got pel and all
Speaker 1: these people. So what I do instead is I've made
Speaker 1: a past and present Totenham team. So I got like
Speaker 1: bail and their modica, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So yeah, that's what I've done.
Speaker 2: Now, are there any guy? Okay, let's quickly. You mentioned
Speaker 2: you've got like in there, you've got some memorabilia.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, what have you got?
Speaker 2: Can you tell me?
Speaker 1: I've got an Enemy Award which is like a middle
Speaker 1: finger like this.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've got that, which I love and it's really cool.
Speaker 3: My mom loves that one. It's very rock starish.
Speaker 2: Did you get that this year?
Speaker 1: I've got twenty ninety, twenty twenty. I can't remember the
Speaker 1: years of all merged, but it was it was for Labrago.
Speaker 1: It was the best song Glabrago sign. So I got that.
Speaker 1: I've got surprisingly Actually I've never had a number one single,
Speaker 1: but I've got a number one chart whatever thing because
Speaker 1: I was on a song with all these massive artists
Speaker 1: who are way bigger than me, and it was just
Speaker 1: like a super no brainer, easy number one. But the
Speaker 1: thing is it was for Cherry. What song was during
Speaker 1: COVID is it was it times like these like a
Speaker 1: cover okay yeah yeah. It was like du a leap
Speaker 1: shormpool loads of like massive people and I was just
Speaker 1: little AJ Chase was on the track and they were
Speaker 1: all singing and I just wrapped like an eight bar.
Speaker 2: So you got that trophy that's like the two.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, middle yeah, exactly, I got that.
Speaker 1: And then I've got so many plaques that's not even
Speaker 1: a flex Like I haven't ordered them. I can't fit
Speaker 1: them in my house, so I just haven't ordered them genuinely.
Speaker 2: Yeah, put them in the gym.
Speaker 3: There's no not enough room. I'm not even joking. There's
Speaker 3: actually no room.
Speaker 1: There's like I think I need to order like thirty
Speaker 1: something blacks, which is just not gonna fit anywhere, and
Speaker 1: they're expensive as well.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I'm kind of black.
Speaker 1: I think one night, one night, but if you think
Speaker 1: where it's like one night he is for me. And
Speaker 1: then my manager's gonna won one, yeah, and then the
Speaker 1: producer wants one obviously, and then everyone else, like the
Speaker 1: mix and master and the engineer wants one. And then
Speaker 1: like you know, I'm saying, then my friends are gonna
Speaker 1: be like, yo, let me get one. So it's not
Speaker 1: really one night. It's like, let's call it five hundred
Speaker 1: per certification, and then you get the silvers.
Speaker 3: That's five hundred.
Speaker 1: Then you get the goals and if hopefully he goes platinum,
Speaker 1: Labrego's double platinum but out to be triples.
Speaker 3: It's just like, I'm not ordering all those blacks. I'm
Speaker 3: not doing it.
Speaker 1: I might just order like one of my favorite each
Speaker 1: and just not tell anyone and just like put them
Speaker 1: in my personal game is faced. That's yeah exactly. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I got those loads of random little bits. I got
Speaker 1: like a basketball from Virgil. Virgil sent me a basketball
Speaker 1: because of flu game before he passed the piece. I
Speaker 1: got a basketball from Tiffany, just random, really random stuff.
Speaker 1: Murror Karmy, loads of Urakami stuff.
Speaker 2: Yeah you're a Murakami, massive.
Speaker 3: Fan of Fammy.
Speaker 1: I'm really into Likejapanese art, so I got just loads
Speaker 1: and loads of artwork tons of artwork, like too much
Speaker 1: for the wall.
Speaker 3: So yeah, bro, that's basically it.
Speaker 2: What's the what's the Tottenham memory there?
Speaker 3: You got?
Speaker 1: I have a shirt from Kane say it's to aj.
Speaker 1: I'm saying thanks for your support. I'm saying, Okay, I
Speaker 1: got that, which is sick. I got not totten the
Speaker 1: memory there, but I've got a Reece James England shirt okay,
Speaker 1: which is fire and he got the whole team to
Speaker 1: sign it for me. So that's the sick one as well.
Speaker 1: I've actually got a Benz on my shirt, a current one.
Speaker 2: What how did you get that?
Speaker 1: Actually I can't I'm not allowed to say, but very
Speaker 1: very nice gift, great gift. I've got a Tottenham shirt
Speaker 1: which was signed by the whole team the year that
Speaker 1: we was in the Champions League final, so I got
Speaker 1: like belet and all them people in there, which is fire.
Speaker 3: I've also got I've got loads.
Speaker 1: Actually, I got a shirt I got the other day
Speaker 1: I went to the Hall of Fame induction with the
Speaker 1: Premier League and I've got Vieria's signature on the shirt
Speaker 1: with shearers, Ian Rights and companies on one shirt, which
Speaker 1: is quite cool.
Speaker 3: That's yes, that's a rare. Yeah, exactly that that's not
Speaker 3: on any other shirt.
Speaker 1: No, literally, that's just one of our kinds. So I
Speaker 1: got that. That's got my name on it as well,
Speaker 1: which is fire. And I actually, you know, I got
Speaker 1: for my birthday the other day. My mum and all
Speaker 1: my family everyone like chipped in together and got me.
Speaker 1: It was really hard to find. They got me a
Speaker 1: Lucas shirt, Lucas Morris shirt from when he scored the
Speaker 1: hat trick. It's not the one he wore, but it's
Speaker 1: that shirt, you know what I'm saying. And they got
Speaker 1: Lucas to sign it. So that's a great present. I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna lie.
Speaker 3: Firsts fan, like, that's amazing he got it.
Speaker 2: Oh, this sounds like the best, like man Cave.
Speaker 1: No, the man Cave is serious. I'm not gonna lee.
Speaker 1: I'm just missing. There's two shirts I really want. I
Speaker 1: need a Ac Milan KAKA shirt. Yeah, I need that.
Speaker 1: That's like, he's one of my favorite players.
Speaker 2: I used to have an Ac Milan shirt with his kid.
Speaker 2: That was like they're a classic. Yeah the opal yeah,
Speaker 2: hard hard. I got my name on it.
Speaker 1: That's the best one. Yeah, that's the best, the best
Speaker 1: one for sure.
Speaker 2: And I loved it because when I was like, we
Speaker 2: were just talking just before we started. But as an
Speaker 2: evidence fat yeah, yeah, you know it was. Actually when
Speaker 2: I was a kid, it was really hard to get
Speaker 2: an evert and shirt, was it? Yeah, really hard because
Speaker 2: I'm from Essex. Oh yeah, of course, so to get
Speaker 2: it down here, get down there, it was impossibly impossible.
Speaker 2: But I managed to get this eight milan shirt and
Speaker 2: I felt it was the coolest thing ever. But it
Speaker 2: didn't quite fit me. I was it wasn't quite right.
Speaker 2: It happened too big, it's too small as it was
Speaker 2: too big as all right, but too small as yeah.
Speaker 3: Peak, yeah it wasn't.
Speaker 2: It wasn't. It wasn't so good. But I loved that shirt.
Speaker 2: I used to love all of those, all of those shirts.
Speaker 2: I used to like collecting those shirts that you still.
Speaker 3: Do, Yeah, I still do. They were really classy.
Speaker 1: I feel like, like the new shirts are cool, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, But the old shirts are like
Speaker 1: unbeatable bros.
Speaker 3: So nice.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're so nice. The sharps or oil glass, all
Speaker 1: of them, like they're all hard. Obviously I would never
Speaker 1: put a Chelsea shirt in my house, but you know what,
Speaker 1: this came. Actually, if James gave me his shirt, I
Speaker 1: would put that my house because he's my friend. In general,
Speaker 1: I would have in general.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's I think that's a good You've got to
Speaker 2: draw the line somewhere.
Speaker 1: And you know what, Arsenal shirt, if it was a
Speaker 1: personal on reshirt from Henri, I'll put in my house.
Speaker 3: Apart from that, it's not happening. There's no other impossible.
Speaker 2: So with the gaming, is there any game like, are
Speaker 2: there any games you like to play? You might not
Speaker 2: want to answer this. Are there any of that are
Speaker 2: like that you don't tell people about? Actually that's not
Speaker 2: it's not cool.
Speaker 3: Do you know what? Yeah?
Speaker 1: The only one is League of Legends. I play League
Speaker 1: of Legends. I don't know if you know what that is?
Speaker 2: No, what is that?
Speaker 1: It's a massive game, but it's not that massive in
Speaker 1: the UK, but it's massive in general. It's like it's
Speaker 1: more of a Korean game. Koreans play and it's extremely complicated,
Speaker 1: Like it's not, but it is to play at a
Speaker 1: high level is very complicated. You could obviously just jump
Speaker 1: in and play, but yeah, I play that. It's basically
Speaker 1: a game where it's like a board and you have
Speaker 1: to basically just defend your base and you can't let
Speaker 1: them advance on your base, and if they destroy your base,
Speaker 1: you lose. But your character has loads of different moves,
Speaker 1: and it gets complicated because like the character you pick
Speaker 1: might counteract the character I pick, and I can't really
Speaker 1: beat you. But then I'll make my teammate pick someone
Speaker 1: who countteracts you. You'll make your teamate picks on the
Speaker 1: characters him, and it just becomes very complicated. So yeah,
Speaker 1: it's basically like that, and it's all the nerdy stuff.
Speaker 1: You kill dragons, you get bonuses and power ups and
Speaker 1: blah blah blah. So that's that's what I play a
Speaker 1: lot of the time, like every other day at least,
Speaker 1: and each game is like twenty to forty five minutes,
Speaker 1: so you've got to have patience. Many times I have
Speaker 1: rage quit and turned off my PC. Yes, a hundred times.
Speaker 3: What does it?
Speaker 2: And so when you're on Twitch, when you're streaming, and
Speaker 2: how many people are watching that.
Speaker 1: I don't remember how many views I used to get,
Speaker 1: but it was quite a lot, Actually it was a lot.
Speaker 1: I was surprised how many people were interested in watching
Speaker 1: me play games, because even when I wasn't playing games.
Speaker 1: Even if I'm just talking, there'll be a couple of
Speaker 1: thousand people and they're just chilling, which I really appreciate
Speaker 1: because I fall out my fan base is it's very
Speaker 1: rare nowadays to have like a solid base, like for
Speaker 1: your fan base, like a cult following, because me, I
Speaker 1: built it from like pirate radio and showcasing who I
Speaker 1: am and you know, getting into politics and talking about
Speaker 1: inequality and loads of different things. So I've got this
Speaker 1: pot of people who just really rock with me as
Speaker 1: a person, which I really appreciate because nowadays it's like
Speaker 1: with TikTok and stuff. I have nothing against TikTok. I
Speaker 1: think it's really platform and like I'm trying to learn
Speaker 1: how to use it. I'm a bit old for it,
Speaker 1: but I'm trying. But I feel like with TikTok everything's
Speaker 1: quite flash in the pan. Yeah, Like you know, people
Speaker 1: just want microwave meals, so to speak, like they want
Speaker 1: it ready right now, being consuming done with it, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, which is not kind of that's
Speaker 1: not how to operate.
Speaker 3: I'd rather give you.
Speaker 1: Something long lasting and put like a single wort for example,
Speaker 1: and work it for a while and have it everywhere
Speaker 1: and have you hear it wherever and you digest it,
Speaker 1: rather than take this and take this and take this in.
Speaker 1: Here's the next one. I'm not really on that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I didn't get into music to do that. So yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I would say with my fan base, I'm really grateful
Speaker 1: because when I go on Twitch, they're just there for
Speaker 1: the ride, man, They're just here to hear what i'd say,
Speaker 1: which is cool.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I really genuinely appreciate it.
Speaker 2: So is it true that you did you start wrapping
Speaker 2: at six?
Speaker 3: I did, just sick. I did. That's that's that's a fact.
Speaker 1: And the thing is six as well is like me
Speaker 1: rounding up because you're younger than that. I used to
Speaker 1: try and put rhymes together, but obviously you can't really
Speaker 1: formulate a rhyme scheme before six.
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying. You probably can, but it's
Speaker 3: not going to be whatever.
Speaker 1: So my dad used to just help me in rhymes
Speaker 1: from like four or five, but six is when I
Speaker 1: was actually writing you know, coherent boss and spitting them.
Speaker 2: So yeah, because your dad was a rapper, right, he
Speaker 2: was a rapper?
Speaker 3: Yeah, he was?
Speaker 2: Would that have been the first, the first time you
Speaker 2: heard like rap music or someone rapping, would that have
Speaker 2: been your dad?
Speaker 1: No, it was actually from my mom because my mom
Speaker 1: was a DJ. She was a jungle d Yeah, she
Speaker 1: was a jungle DJ. So she used to play like
Speaker 1: jungle house, like old school NWA, all of that stuff.
Speaker 1: She was really cool, so she introduced me to rap.
Speaker 1: I think the first couple of rap records I heard
Speaker 1: were like, I don't know which order, but ll cool
Speaker 1: J was one of them, for sure. There was no
Speaker 1: British rap. Oh, actually skinny Man, you know, yeah, it
Speaker 1: was actually skinny Man. It was LL cool J, skinny Man,
Speaker 1: Mob Deep, And then I used to listen to a
Speaker 1: lot of Michael Jackson and James Brown as well. Those
Speaker 1: are like the first couple of rotations because my mom
Speaker 1: had all the vinyls and I used to just put
Speaker 1: them on the deck and play them.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and she used to get pissed because.
Speaker 1: Obviously they're really expensive technic decks and I was just
Speaker 1: like scratching the shit out of records and that I'm
Speaker 1: sure her thriller record, I've you know, told.
Speaker 3: It absolutely worse. Yes, yeah, I.
Speaker 1: Feel say for the first one, at least she's on
Speaker 1: an NWA record, like the first edition, unopen, and I
Speaker 1: didn't touch it. I knew from the plastic I'm not
Speaker 1: meant to touch that, so I just left it. She's got
Speaker 1: it sealed.
Speaker 3: Yeah, she has too. She bought one to use. Yah,
Speaker 3: I wanted to keep.
Speaker 2: Yeah does she still DJ now?
Speaker 1: She for fun? I guess at home, but not like
Speaker 1: obviously not making up. But yeah, she loves it. She
Speaker 1: loves it and she's good. She's actually good. She could
Speaker 1: sketch mixed everything so sick.
Speaker 2: That is cool.
Speaker 1: But yeah, my dad wasn't the main influence, but yeah,
Speaker 1: he's the first person I guess I saw actually penning
Speaker 1: down bars and like the process behind writing lyrics. He
Speaker 1: would be the first person. Yeah, for sure. And my uncle.
Speaker 1: My uncle used to rap with him. They all had
Speaker 1: like a rap group.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I guess at what point did it get
Speaker 2: like start to get more serious for you? Like how
Speaker 2: old were you bothered?
Speaker 3: Like when I wanted to take music seriously?
Speaker 2: Yeah, kind of when you were like, yeah, what point
Speaker 2: did it kind of step up?
Speaker 1: There's two different points in my life. One is when
Speaker 1: I actually started taking music seriously and one is when
Speaker 1: I wanted to take it seriously. So when I wanted
Speaker 1: to take it seriously, it was like year ten, So
Speaker 1: I guess I'm like fifteen. Around fifteen, I think I
Speaker 1: wanted to take it seriously around then, but also not
Speaker 1: trying to give you a sub story, bro but obviously
Speaker 1: I grew up kind of broke, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: and like single parents and stuff. So I understood that
Speaker 1: for me to chase my dreams was a little bit
Speaker 1: selfish because I have a little brother, my mum obviously
Speaker 1: need money. I need to get a job really so
Speaker 1: it kind of like my morality taught me from like
Speaker 1: focusing on music, you know what I'm saying that. And
Speaker 1: on top of that, it was like I wanted to
Speaker 1: be a lawyer, and in my head, I'm like, I
Speaker 1: can definitely be a lawyer.
Speaker 3: I know I can't.
Speaker 1: I'm literal enough, I'm smart enough, I can I love arguing, like,
Speaker 1: surely I can do that. I was great at history
Speaker 1: and I'm saying history in English from my two favorites,
Speaker 1: So that was what I was going for. But then
Speaker 1: it's sad because my like I have ADHD really bad,
Speaker 1: and my just me messing around and being really fidgity,
Speaker 1: I would have said I was a bad kid, but
Speaker 1: I used to you know, throw pencils and just squat pain,
Speaker 1: just do like childish things. Yeah, I never hurt anyone,
Speaker 1: but doing that stuff kind of got me in a
Speaker 1: lot of trouble in school. And then I used to
Speaker 1: be late to school a lot. And you know, my
Speaker 1: mom used always say to me, look like because she
Speaker 1: used to get me up on time and send me
Speaker 1: out the door, so it's not her fault. I used
Speaker 1: to just you know, mess around on the way to school,
Speaker 1: be late, go tell skills whatever. So because of that,
Speaker 1: she was like, come on, like, you need to go
Speaker 1: on time because I'm going to get in trouble for this.
Speaker 3: Like it's not you who they're going to look at.
Speaker 1: I're going to say, it's your mum who's not you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, which is true, and it wasn't
Speaker 1: her fault. So I kind of tried my hardest, but yeah,
Speaker 1: I got internally excluded.
Speaker 3: You know what that is, right? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Cool, got internally excluded all of that stuff. And it
Speaker 1: was looking like I was going to get permanent excluded.
Speaker 1: But what I used to always do is which used
Speaker 1: to really annoy the teachers. I would like, mess around,
Speaker 1: get on report, get in more trouble, get more trouble.
Speaker 1: When it gets to like the final thing, I'll be
Speaker 1: an angel and they have to take me off report,
Speaker 1: and the only way to kick me out is to
Speaker 1: put me back on report. So I just keep writing
Speaker 1: and repeating basically. But yeah, because of all of that,
Speaker 1: I kind of put the music to the side. I
Speaker 1: wanted to go to the sixth form in Holland Park
Speaker 1: and they didn't let me in because obviously my grades
Speaker 1: weren't good enough, which is really sad, because they made
Speaker 1: me take the low you know in English you can take.
Speaker 3: The low example to high.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: In my original writings and my like Shakespeare and stuff,
Speaker 1: I got like a stars and a's, but they made
Speaker 1: me take the lower exam because of my behavior, which
Speaker 1: is really sad. But I took it. I got four marks. Obviously,
Speaker 1: everyone the whole school knew I was going to get
Speaker 1: full marks. I got four marks, and then I said
Speaker 1: to my teacher, like my mom said, like, why do
Speaker 1: you do this? Because if you knew he was going
Speaker 1: to get full marks, why not give him the higher paper. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because full marks on the lower papers a C. But
Speaker 1: you know, if even if I got lower marks on
Speaker 1: the higher paper, I would still get a SE so
Speaker 1: like you might as well give him a chance to
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. They were like, oh, school
Speaker 1: policy is behavior blah blah blah, which I personally think
Speaker 1: is a really bad way.
Speaker 3: To teach kids.
Speaker 1: They were just punishing, basically punishing me with my future. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's crazy a point just to make a point. And
Speaker 1: what's worse is if they had a nurse in the
Speaker 1: school who like was like cool, so he's obviously got
Speaker 1: ADIOSD like I'm gonna treat him as such, it would
Speaker 1: have been fine, you know what I'm saying, That's how
Speaker 1: it should be pastoral care and whatnot.
Speaker 3: But the school was not great at.
Speaker 2: That was this a time like did they know that
Speaker 2: was the case of that they knew?
Speaker 1: They knew that, they new, they knew one hundred percent,
Speaker 1: they honestly knew they knew. And like a lot of
Speaker 1: my teachers were saying to like we call it the
Speaker 1: leadership groups, so like the heads of years and whatever,
Speaker 1: the head teacher and stuff. They were saying a lot
Speaker 1: of my really nice teachers, my ri teacher my history
Speaker 1: teacher and my English teacher.
Speaker 3: I love them to bits.
Speaker 1: They were really nice to me, and they used to
Speaker 1: go and say to the higher ups, like, yo, he
Speaker 1: clearly need some help with like concentrating and he gets
Speaker 1: very easily distracted by his work. Is great if you
Speaker 1: look at his work. His work's great, but like he
Speaker 1: just gets distracted.
Speaker 3: And it was like, we don't care. So here's what
Speaker 3: Isn't it is? Or it is?
Speaker 1: But I think those teachers there can be happy that
Speaker 1: they paid. It played the part in me being successful
Speaker 1: because they kind of like motivated me that there's people
Speaker 1: that care even when everyone else doesn't. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, everyone else can you know what I'm saying. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: But that was That's the point when I wanted to
Speaker 1: take music seriously but didn't. And then when I did
Speaker 1: take it seriously is when I was in UNI doing
Speaker 1: criminology and I didn't get into the union I wanted
Speaker 1: to get into, didn't get into the college I wanted
Speaker 1: to get into, but I just kept going because I
Speaker 1: was like, I need to do something for my mom,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. I just kept trying and
Speaker 1: I got into London, met big up everyone who goes
Speaker 1: there and education is better and not having one, but
Speaker 1: it's not the greatest union at the end of the day.
Speaker 1: It's like, you know, a little bit dangerous. Everyone's like me, honestly,
Speaker 1: if I can speak freely, I was just going there
Speaker 1: to sell drugs. I'll be honest, bro, I'll go in
Speaker 1: there and everyone just be like, yo, who's got X
Speaker 1: y Z? So I just figured out why am I
Speaker 1: coming here to learn? If I can make my you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. So I used to come, not
Speaker 1: even go to my lecture, just link people and be
Speaker 1: like yo, who needs what and then cut not even
Speaker 1: go to my lecture, And I still passed my first year.
Speaker 1: I actually got my certificate for my first year because
Speaker 1: I did the work. I always do the work, because
Speaker 1: that's the thing about me. I'll always do the work.
Speaker 1: Maybe not on like your timing or how you want it,
Speaker 1: but I'll definitely do the work.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So yeah, Then in Union, I'm sitting at the back
Speaker 1: of a lecture one time and like, you know, the
Speaker 1: Eureka moment. I was just sitting there and I used
Speaker 1: to like just write bars and just listen to music
Speaker 1: at the back and then I just thought, broth all
Speaker 1: these rappers that are out right now and doing well,
Speaker 1: I'm better than all of them. Like, honestly, I'm better
Speaker 1: than every single one of them. Why why am I
Speaker 1: here doing this? It doesn't make sense. And I just
Speaker 1: sat down and I'm like, nah, bro forget all this.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go like chase this. I'm actually gonna chase this.
Speaker 1: And I left the lecture all my life for like
Speaker 1: a movie like, I left the lecture just blank zoned out,
Speaker 1: just ignored everyone, walked out, went home. I told my mom,
Speaker 1: I'm like, yo, I'm gonna chase music. I can't bother
Speaker 1: for this anymore. This unique thing is not me, Like,
Speaker 1: I'm doing it for you, Mom, I love you so much,
Speaker 1: but give me a little time period to try. And
Speaker 1: she said, look, I'm gonna give you a year. I'll
Speaker 1: pay for you for the whole year. I'll look after you.
Speaker 1: If it doesn't work out in a year, I need
Speaker 1: you to go back to union, which is fair enough.
Speaker 1: And if you past your first year, you can put
Speaker 1: on whole jump saying and go do the rest. So
Speaker 1: I did that and a couple months after that, everything
Speaker 1: just literally started taking off. Everything just fell into place.
Speaker 2: So in that first year, was there like something that
Speaker 2: you needed to like it got to the end of
Speaker 2: that first year, what had happened in that first year
Speaker 2: for your mom to be like, I consider this as
Speaker 2: a success.
Speaker 3: She you know what it was. I'll be honest with you.
Speaker 1: It was easier fast than it could have been because
Speaker 1: I started getting bookings and stuff towards the end of
Speaker 1: that year period, and I came and I just showed her.
Speaker 1: I said, look respectfully to my mom, she's amazing. She
Speaker 1: works really hard, but she wasn't getting paid enough for
Speaker 1: her work and her mom's wages. I was getting per booking,
Speaker 1: and I was sending her, look like, I can do this. Now,
Speaker 1: I can actually do this. I'm going to give you rent.
Speaker 1: I'll sort the rent. I'm saying, I'll buy the food whatever,
Speaker 1: and let me just go make this music. She was like, yeah, cool,
Speaker 1: So you did it. Do it, in it congrets, do it,
Speaker 1: and I sit and I started going. But the thing is,
Speaker 1: I've always been confident because of my mom. Yeah, because
Speaker 1: she always said to me from when I was young,
Speaker 1: she was like, listen, if you decide you want to
Speaker 1: be Muslim, you want to be Hindu. If you think
Speaker 1: you're gay, if whatever, I'm gonna love you the same way.
Speaker 1: I don't care, Like whatever you do is irrelevant to me.
Speaker 1: I'm still gonna love you. So that gave me like
Speaker 1: the core confidence to go do whatever I need to do,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. It felt nice that I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna be judged by the main person that I
Speaker 1: care about for whatever I do. So with that, I
Speaker 1: used to tell her everything, honestly, everything that I used
Speaker 1: to Obviously it's not great, but it's the life that
Speaker 1: I was living. I used to go outside of a
Speaker 1: knife sometimes for my own protection. And I remember telling
Speaker 1: her one time, I was like, Mom, I can't lie
Speaker 1: to you. Yeah, if you hear that I got stabbed,
Speaker 1: or saying it's not for no reason, like I had
Speaker 1: a knife for me for sure, Like it wasn't you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, don't think that people are bullying
Speaker 1: me or jump saying like I'm just the nicest kid,
Speaker 1: because I'm a good person. But like I'm not a victim.
Speaker 1: I don't want to be a victim. So she knew
Speaker 1: all about me. So but I made sure she knew
Speaker 1: that if someone comes to the door and accuses me
Speaker 1: of something that is not in my character. She knows
Speaker 1: that's not my son, you know what I'm saying. Cool,
Speaker 1: he caused the fight out a football game or whatever. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I believe you that's my son, or you know he
Speaker 1: done something disrespectful to women, that's not my son, Like,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. And they sure she knew
Speaker 1: exactly who I am. So yeah, man, that's when I
Speaker 1: started taking music seriously. I remember I went to my grandma.
Speaker 1: I went to her house. She lives between here and Trinidad,
Speaker 1: so she came back to England for a little bit
Speaker 1: and I went to her house and my dad was
Speaker 1: just adamant that I have to tell her that I
Speaker 1: left UNI. So I didn't think I'll be honest with you,
Speaker 1: I didn't think it was any of her business. I
Speaker 1: didn't really need to tell her, but it's cooled to
Speaker 1: update her anyway.
Speaker 3: So I told her.
Speaker 1: She obviously wasn't happy because you know, coming from a
Speaker 1: Caribbean background, you know, they just want you to finish UNI. Yeah,
Speaker 1: be a doctor, I'll be a dentist, be a lawyer
Speaker 1: or whatever. So I told her. She just wasn't having it,
Speaker 1: and then I said, okay, look and I showed her
Speaker 1: like my booking fee and I showed her that I
Speaker 1: got a book for like a grand and a half.
Speaker 1: She was like grand and a half for what? And
Speaker 1: I'm like for me to wrap, and she's like, for
Speaker 1: who's listening to you? Who wants to listen to you?
Speaker 1: For a grand and art?
Speaker 3: I was like, trust me, if people want to listen,
Speaker 3: it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: And then she she basically just said yeah, like she
Speaker 1: accepted it off she saw the money because it's very
Speaker 1: like I don't want to say it like that, but
Speaker 1: with my like you're you know, sometimes your you're ethnic
Speaker 1: side of your family. You got to proved to them
Speaker 1: you're capable of making money because you know we need
Speaker 1: it obviously. So if you're just doing this for fun,
Speaker 1: what's the point because you could be doing something you
Speaker 1: know of value. So yeah, she understood after I show
Speaker 1: her the money, and she was like, yeah, cool, go
Speaker 1: for it. She doesn't know the content of my lyrics,
Speaker 1: neither will I show her, but it is what it is.
Speaker 2: She has she ever listened to.
Speaker 3: My dad played the one song and I was pissed
Speaker 3: at him.
Speaker 1: I was so pissed. I told him why are you
Speaker 1: doing it? Because I told him specifically, don't show grandma
Speaker 1: my music. My grandma on my dad's side from Trinidad
Speaker 1: and my nan on my mom's side from Wales have
Speaker 1: never heard my music as in from me, because it's
Speaker 1: just not for them, you know, I'm saying, do.
Speaker 2: You think do you think they have listened to it
Speaker 2: on the sli and just not?
Speaker 1: You just think they have no idea they've heard it
Speaker 1: now because my nan saw me when I was on
Speaker 1: Top of the Pops like every time on Top of
Speaker 1: the Pops, which my nan loves Top of the Pop,
Speaker 1: so sure, bless her little Welsh woman, Like I'll tell
Speaker 1: I'll ring and say stick Top of the Pops on it,
Speaker 1: and she'll watch it and really enjoy it, which is fine.
Speaker 1: I don't mind that because that content as well, the
Speaker 1: songs I picked for Top of the Pops, not the
Speaker 1: songs that I don't want her to hear, so it's fine.
Speaker 1: Whereas like with my grandma, she's a bit more inquisitive,
Speaker 1: like she'll dig, but she'll dig, but she also respects boundary.
Speaker 1: So if I tell her like chill, she will chill
Speaker 1: because she's got that kind of respect. But my dad
Speaker 1: went and played her song like just out of nowhere,
Speaker 1: and I didn't like it.
Speaker 3: I'm not gonna lie. I told him, don't do that again.
Speaker 2: Do you know what track it was?
Speaker 1: I don't remember, but I didn't ask because I didn't
Speaker 1: even want to know. I don't want to know what
Speaker 1: you heard. Just forget it.
Speaker 2: But forget this ever happened exactly exactly that, like back
Speaker 2: when you were like you know, when you're going out
Speaker 2: of the house with a knife and stuff like that,
Speaker 2: and like you and your mum knows, Like how worried
Speaker 2: was she that?
Speaker 1: Extremely? Yeah, she hated it, of course, Like I don't know, man,
Speaker 1: you know what it is. I see my mom cry
Speaker 1: so many times that I eventually just got to the
Speaker 1: point where I was like, I was gonna do everything
Speaker 1: I can to remove us from this area because it's
Speaker 1: a catch twenty two. It's like, cool, I don't want
Speaker 1: to make you upset, but also I have to protect myself.
Speaker 1: If you're selling drugs, you could not just walk around
Speaker 1: with no weapons because someone's just gonna rob you. And
Speaker 1: if you rob me, then I have nothing and I
Speaker 1: can't pay the rent. So it's just like a catch
Speaker 1: twenty two. There's nothing you could do. I had no choice. Genuinely,
Speaker 1: it sounds you know when you explain to people like
Speaker 1: that the kids today, they're like, oh, they just roll
Speaker 1: around with weapons, and they're not usually rolling around a
Speaker 1: weapon to target someone. They're rolling around a weapon in
Speaker 1: case someone targets them. That's what it's actually about. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And people don't really understand that. And it's like they're like,
Speaker 1: why don't they get a normal job? I mean, like,
Speaker 1: have you tried applying for a job nowadays? This is impossible.
Speaker 1: You got kicked out of school, Now you're trying to apply
Speaker 1: for a job. Why would we take you in? This
Speaker 1: person over here's got an education. Yeah, you know, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. But that's not an excuse for everyone.
Speaker 1: It's not a blanket excuse. But you know, growing up
Speaker 1: being poverished, this is hard. And for me, I never
Speaker 1: did anything I didn't have to do, and all my friends,
Speaker 1: all my friends and family can attest to that as
Speaker 1: a fact. I never committed any crime or did anything
Speaker 1: I didn't have to do. I only did things I
Speaker 1: needed to do to eat and to pay rent. And
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm saying. I never did, like something
Speaker 1: to get a Gucci belt, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: Or something to buy a new sneakers or whatever.
Speaker 3: I never did that.
Speaker 1: I did stuff to pay for the rent and look
Speaker 1: off my mum, my little brother, and then the extras.
Speaker 1: Obviously I'll buy a chains or whatever. But like, I
Speaker 1: did it for a purpose. It wasn't just jugging. We
Speaker 1: call it jugging that I'm not jugging for the sake
Speaker 1: of Gucci and stuff. I would never do that, God forbid,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. That's ridiculous. And the reason
Speaker 1: why I'm really proud of myself is because I stopped
Speaker 1: at a time and I didn't ever get caught with
Speaker 1: any drugs on me or anything like that.
Speaker 3: So I'm able.
Speaker 1: I just came back from New York, like I'm able
Speaker 1: to go to America and it's all good, like everything,
Speaker 1: I got my visa, I'm good. But it could have
Speaker 1: been very different because a lot of the friends around
Speaker 1: me are not able to go to America, and I
Speaker 1: just thought about my future. I'm like, yo, I really
Speaker 1: want to go to America. I want to tour, I
Speaker 1: want to go to Australia. And I can't if I'm
Speaker 1: getting caught up in this stuff. So yeah, man, as
Speaker 1: soon as I didn't have to, I put all of
Speaker 1: that away, and yeah, move my mom out the hood
Speaker 1: straight away. Before I even had a house on my own,
Speaker 1: I was like, my mom's the first priority. Got out
Speaker 1: of the house. She would not leave, kicking and screaming.
Speaker 1: She did not want to leave Labrico by any means.
Speaker 1: She was staying. She's like, no, I'll disown all of
Speaker 1: you and I'll stay here on my own. And I
Speaker 1: was like, it's just mum, it's just not happening. It's
Speaker 1: just not happening.
Speaker 2: How did you convince her?
Speaker 1: She basically said, because she speaks a little bit of
Speaker 1: Spanish because my name is Chay off the Chago Our.
Speaker 1: She loves Cuba, We've been here loads of times. She
Speaker 1: learned Spanish off her own back. So she wanted to
Speaker 1: move to Spain. And I just said, you're not moving
Speaker 1: to Spain, mom, like me and my little brother. Like,
Speaker 1: my little brother's not little, he's three years younger than me.
Speaker 1: But you're not moving to Spain like we need you here.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. You're not moving to Spain.
Speaker 1: And then she was like, cool, can I can I
Speaker 1: just go there for a little bit of thing? I said, no,
Speaker 1: there's no Spain in this equation. There's no Spain. There's
Speaker 1: gonna be something.
Speaker 3: Can I go there for a little bit? She just
Speaker 3: thought to come back exactly. I'm like, Mom, they'll try it.
Speaker 1: But anyway, she she got over it, and she was like, okay, cool,
Speaker 1: if I can stay in West, like near Labor Grove,
Speaker 1: then that'll be fine.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So yeah, she compromised. Yes, she compromised. She's near West now,
Speaker 1: she's near Grove.
Speaker 3: That's fine.
Speaker 1: She's just not in the hood, which is just the
Speaker 1: key thing because obviously, growing up, everyone knewhere I live.
Speaker 1: We all went to each Trather's houses with local game
Speaker 1: members everything. Everyone knows whereveryone lives. So I just didn't
Speaker 1: want my mom to ever be a target because if
Speaker 1: I'm a target, I can deal with it. You know,
Speaker 1: if you kick the shit at me, brother, I'll live.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm saying hopefully anyway i'll hear when I'll
Speaker 1: be good. I'm up for a fight. I don't mind.
Speaker 1: But my mom, if you're target my mom, then I
Speaker 1: have to literally throw my career away. And go and
Speaker 1: do something I don't want to do, so I'd rather
Speaker 1: she's just out the way and I can chill, ye,
Speaker 1: which is how it is now.
Speaker 3: So she's good.
Speaker 2: Your mom sounds extremely cold. She's a legend, bro, She's
Speaker 2: a jungle d cha. Yes, she names you after shake
Speaker 2: of Art.
Speaker 3: Yes, with the purpose of not allowing me to be
Speaker 3: right wing. Right. Yeah. Yeah, if you've got your name,
Speaker 3: that's it. It's impossible.
Speaker 2: You cannot be at all.
Speaker 1: Impossible yet exactly. She she used to she used to row.
Speaker 1: She used to be rowing, and she she actually used
Speaker 1: to train with If I'm not mistaken, I don't want
Speaker 1: to miss her. But she used to train with TGB,
Speaker 1: or she was training for TGB something like that. She
Speaker 1: also earlier than that, wanting to be a pilot, So
Speaker 1: she was studying to be a pilot.
Speaker 3: She used to drive a big Triumph like. She's just
Speaker 3: a G to be honest.
Speaker 2: Shen Spanish, Yeah, she wants to.
Speaker 3: Spanish, exactly, has an nw A first edition. Yeah, just
Speaker 3: a G.
Speaker 1: But I like her because she's very accepting. Her Her
Speaker 1: job is she's a youth worker. She spent her whole
Speaker 1: life helping you know, black and impoverished kids in Brixton
Speaker 1: get jobs and turn the life around back. She wasn't
Speaker 1: paid that much for it. She just really wants to
Speaker 1: help you. That's just who she is. So great person,
Speaker 1: nice one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the I mean she must clearly be super proud
Speaker 2: of everything, super super proud. I think like one of
Speaker 2: the like one of the things that you know, people
Speaker 2: seem to every now and then think like, you must
Speaker 2: have signed a big record, right. That's the thing is
Speaker 2: They've been saying that for years. That's the constant around
Speaker 2: AJ Tracy. But but I mean you haven't. No, but
Speaker 2: like does that. I can see why people think that
Speaker 2: just because you've done and like the videos you make
Speaker 2: and the and the and the way you do things.
Speaker 2: But the fact that you've done it all yourself is like,
Speaker 2: is incredible?
Speaker 3: Is it?
Speaker 2: Has that always been important to you to keep it that?
Speaker 2: Because you must have had the offers and all of
Speaker 2: that stuff.
Speaker 1: It's definitely had loads of offers. Man, Like you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying it it fluctuates. Music is very fickle,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. You can like, I can't
Speaker 1: tell you how many times in my career I've been
Speaker 1: like going through a quiet period, like and most of
Speaker 1: the time it's funny because it's by a choice. I'm
Speaker 1: not like just falling off, like I've just chosen to
Speaker 1: not make music. It's not you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: It's it's usually a conscious decision. When storms he deletes
Speaker 1: his Instagram, no one's forced him to do that. He's
Speaker 1: just decided to do that. Ye know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: If theyve goes quiet for a little bit, he's decided
Speaker 1: to go quiet. It's what we do. But people fans
Speaker 1: for some reason think, oh, he hasn't dropped the song
Speaker 1: in ages, he must have fell off. But if you
Speaker 1: go look at my monthly listener says seven million, So
Speaker 1: like you know what I'm saying. But it's just people
Speaker 1: don't They don't look up stuff. And if you look
Speaker 1: to research, you can see I'm not signed to anyone
Speaker 1: that I remember. Someone tweeted saying something like AJ says
Speaker 1: he's independent, but it says Ada at the bottom of
Speaker 1: his thing. Yeah, Ada is distribution, bro, I've signed nothing.
Speaker 1: They're just distributed my music like distributed. It's taken.
Speaker 3: You have to have. That's distribution.
Speaker 1: You have or you can't get your music out because
Speaker 1: the DSPs don't deal with individuals. They deal with you know,
Speaker 1: corporations and people in groups and people who have like
Speaker 1: a roster for example. So I had to go through someone.
Speaker 1: And now if you look with my last album, it
Speaker 1: says Revenge Records that it's going through me. Now the
Speaker 1: distribution as well is going through me and my manager.
Speaker 1: So there's no anyone anywhere now. It's just ask which
Speaker 1: is cool. But I always say this, I'm not against
Speaker 1: a record deal at all. I'm not against it. It's
Speaker 1: just no one's come forward and offered me anything of significance.
Speaker 1: Like I've had the massive money offers, but you know,
Speaker 1: for example, they are like if they offer me x
Speaker 1: y zx millions, I'll signed for that, but now I
Speaker 1: owe you that money.
Speaker 3: It's like yeah, and also a debt.
Speaker 1: It's a debt, and it's like it's just an up
Speaker 1: forward lump sum because I would have made that money
Speaker 1: anyway eventually, maybe not as quick as right now, but
Speaker 1: I will get eventually and I'll make more and have
Speaker 1: to give away less.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So if you're using your head, then you can do
Speaker 1: some simple maths. There's no point really, man, It's more
Speaker 1: about the support. I'll be honest, like a record label
Speaker 1: saying to me if they said, look, Aj, we really
Speaker 1: want to sign you. We've wanted you for ages. This
Speaker 1: is the plan. We want to do this if you
Speaker 1: in America, this in Japan, this in Nigeria. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm saying, this is our plan, this is our step,
Speaker 1: this is our blueprint, and this is the team. This
Speaker 1: person specialized in this and they've done that. It's not
Speaker 1: that hard. If you came to me of a plant
Speaker 1: that I'll be swayed. I could be swayed, yeah, but
Speaker 1: no one's ever done that. So it's not that it's
Speaker 1: just money. It's just take this big lump summer money
Speaker 1: and I'm good.
Speaker 2: It's so rare, you know, like what I think like
Speaker 2: that source of you know, people talk about DII music
Speaker 2: and DI culture, and a lot of the time when
Speaker 2: they talk about it that they talk about kind of
Speaker 2: grunge bands and like and bands, you know, like that's
Speaker 2: that sort of punk thing, and that definitely happens. There
Speaker 2: are definitely bands out there who are one hundred per
Speaker 2: ye why but I feel like, especially in like British
Speaker 2: hip hop, it's like on another level, like it's truly
Speaker 2: like the way that boy Better Knows set up and
Speaker 2: delivered all of that, like like early on, like that
Speaker 2: was so and what you've done.
Speaker 1: That's that's that's like the blueprint. What Jamie did, in
Speaker 1: my opinion, is the blueprint, to be honest. It's like
Speaker 1: that inspired a lot of like me Zoo Big Zoo,
Speaker 1: like a lot of us inspired us to like go
Speaker 1: and be our own entity rather than like just going, hey,
Speaker 1: I'm talented, just let me sign here and you can
Speaker 1: do whatever the hell you want to force me to
Speaker 1: make music I don't want to make yeah, which has
Speaker 1: just never been an angle to be honest.
Speaker 2: When you were in this in the States recently, we
Speaker 2: plan shows.
Speaker 1: I know shows. I was just chilling. Actually I want
Speaker 1: to see Mirkami. Oh yeah, yeah, I had dinner with him.
Speaker 1: Actually did you fire?
Speaker 2: That was that's the exhibition at the Kosian.
Speaker 3: Yes, that's actually it.
Speaker 2: That so like I know, I know, think think that's
Speaker 2: the vers Impressed. That's like a virtual one but but
Speaker 2: virtual and real. It was a mix. So okay. So
Speaker 2: to anyone listening that doesn't know, like like explain to
Speaker 2: me this up because this is an artist's called exhibition
Speaker 2: it's on Madison Avenue, right, yep. There's two buildings yep,
Speaker 2: and what you go in What can You Lives.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it's their real life, but one one half
Speaker 1: of it is like virtual and on your phone you
Speaker 1: can you know, see works of art and it's like
Speaker 1: very interactive, immersive, and one side is physical.
Speaker 3: So they had two statues.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to go super nerdy art geek on you,
Speaker 1: but like sure, there's like a classic one called Lonesome
Speaker 1: Cowboy that he made. There's like a rendition of that,
Speaker 1: like a chrome one, and there's a female one. And
Speaker 1: there's Artifacts who make clone X, who are a group
Speaker 1: of guys who make NFTs and stuff. Their logo is
Speaker 1: like a lightning bolt. Nike acquired them, so that's now
Speaker 1: a logo of Nike as well. And Takashim re Kami
Speaker 1: actually made two custom Murcami lightning bolts, that big massive ones.
Speaker 1: One was for sale and I actually met the guy
Speaker 1: who bought it, and one is just for displaying in
Speaker 1: the in the gallery.
Speaker 3: Sorry, but yeah, it was. It was so sick, like
Speaker 3: I was really sick.
Speaker 1: I went there because so random how life works, bro,
Speaker 1: So basically, rest in peace Virgil.
Speaker 3: I told him.
Speaker 1: I told Virgil when he took me to a show
Speaker 1: in Paris one time. I was sitting like, Bro, I
Speaker 1: was sitting with all these people that like I really rate,
Speaker 1: like I really really rate.
Speaker 3: I was sitting like.
Speaker 1: One behind front row around like Ghana like FuG like
Speaker 1: asap mob, like loads of really sick people.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I was just there like, what the hell,
Speaker 3: how am I here?
Speaker 2: I'm not even signed?
Speaker 3: Yeah, literally, and.
Speaker 1: Virgils come up to me and he's just like, yo, bro,
Speaker 1: like I hope you're cool, You're comfortable with everything, good
Speaker 1: and really loving guy, like genuinely just wants to help people,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. And I was like, I
Speaker 1: was looking at the plethora of people that are there,
Speaker 1: like the variation of celebrity and how big they are,
Speaker 1: and I'm not just downplaying writing, but honestly, I was
Speaker 1: one of the least known people in there, and like
Speaker 1: He's come over to me and been like, Yo, you're good,
Speaker 1: You're cool, because that's how much he cares, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. He knows he's not good, but he's like, yo,
Speaker 1: you're good, and I'm like, yeah, cool. And then when
Speaker 1: I got up after the show. I was like saying,
Speaker 1: your congratulations. This show was fire. I loved the new collection,
Speaker 1: blah blah blah. And then I see Muraccarmi walk past
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh my day, he's Mirocarma. I'm
Speaker 1: a big fan. He's like Camro. He introduced me like
Speaker 1: Murcarmy doesn't speak great English. Yeah, but he was just
Speaker 1: like yeah, like basically would you do kind of thing?
Speaker 1: I explained what I do, and then he followed me
Speaker 1: on Instagram, which is fire. And obviously I was already
Speaker 1: a massive fan, but now I'm like ten times a
Speaker 1: fan and then my friend, so then this is crazy
Speaker 1: as well. When when I was like twenty one, twenty two,
Speaker 1: I'm twenty eight now. So a while ago, I was
Speaker 1: on a plane to like Maley or IP for. Actually
Speaker 1: I think it was IB for Look how the World Works.
Speaker 1: I was actually goes a ib for and I was
Speaker 1: on a plane with one of my best mates's ands
Speaker 1: was like to me, he's like, bro, this guy got
Speaker 1: on the plane and he's like look at this guy.
Speaker 1: He's like look at his mask, and he had like
Speaker 1: a custom LV mask. You know that way before COVID
Speaker 1: people were like he was like making masks that custom
Speaker 1: you know, like Mortal Combat masks. Yeah, yeah, exactly, out
Speaker 1: of like LV fabrics. And he pointed at me. He's like, Bro,
Speaker 1: this guy he's fired. Like the things he does. He
Speaker 1: makes that custom mask, costom training six six stuff. You
Speaker 1: should hit him up because he knows I love that
Speaker 1: kind of stuff. And I don't know if his male
Speaker 1: ego pride, embarrassment, I don't know, but I didn't want
Speaker 1: to say to him he's getting on the plane, yo, bro,
Speaker 1: like let's connect.
Speaker 3: I didn't want to be that guy.
Speaker 2: And I'm saying, yeah, yeah, that's understandable. Yeah, yes, I've
Speaker 2: got that kind of role.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, you know, yeah, I don't mind speaking to you,
Speaker 1: but I don't want to like ambush you on a plane.
Speaker 1: And Yo, you know what I'm saying. He was with
Speaker 1: his mates and stuff. So I just left it. But
Speaker 1: it's funny. I'm gonna wrap background to what I just
Speaker 1: said there with me not wanting to approach him.
Speaker 3: So I left it.
Speaker 1: But I DMed him like a week later and I
Speaker 1: was like, yo, bro, saw you on the plane and
Speaker 1: he's like yeah, yeah, I saw you, bro, And then
Speaker 1: I was like cool, let's connect. And he started like
Speaker 1: sending me trainers and stuff and get me and rolled
Speaker 1: the void does that is now one of the co
Speaker 1: founders of Artifact, who makes the NFT who connective roc
Speaker 1: on me. So he invited me out to New York.
Speaker 1: And it's crazy because he was living in growth obviously,
Speaker 1: so the whole it's a really crazy like connection. But anyway,
Speaker 1: he said to me at dinner the other day, because
Speaker 1: he took me there. We're sitting at the table when
Speaker 1: he was like, bro, do you remember on the plane,
Speaker 1: like when I saw you. I was like, oh, so
Speaker 1: he saw me on the plane. Yeah, and he's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: but I didn't want to ambush you on a plane.
Speaker 1: He said to me. What I basically was thinking. I
Speaker 1: was like, it's funny how the world works. Broa, we
Speaker 1: could have just right then and there just hands have
Speaker 1: been like, yo, you know what I'm saying. It's crazy,
Speaker 1: But yeah, it was sick, man, I was so sick.
Speaker 1: Like the room that I was in at dinner. It
Speaker 1: was Tagashi's favorite restaurant in New York and I can't
Speaker 1: remember what the name of it is, but it's underneath
Speaker 1: the Gogosian right it's a sushi place, right.
Speaker 3: It was fight. It was so nice, genuinely not gassing.
Speaker 3: It was so good.
Speaker 2: And you're a you're a big food fan, a massive foodie,
Speaker 2: bro massive because one of my favorite like what one
Speaker 2: of the things I love about your music and I
Speaker 2: love about all like British hipub especially is like the reference.
Speaker 3: It's like the little.
Speaker 2: Points and the little things that you and and like
Speaker 2: the little London like kind of thing that I know
Speaker 2: what that is. Yeah, and one of them is in
Speaker 2: Jackpot you shout out to Bob Bob Rakhas Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: and that is That's got to be the only song
Speaker 2: that that restaurant.
Speaker 1: I had so many people saying what is that? Like
Speaker 1: what is that? But I'm just like both you know.
Speaker 2: That restaurant is like I took my mum there for
Speaker 2: a nice she doesn't want to eat anywhere else now.
Speaker 1: It's so nice and I've never had quisine like that
Speaker 1: before all it was different, which was cool.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I like the interior is really nice.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's really like, how would you describe it to
Speaker 2: someone that's not been to that restaurant? This is a
Speaker 2: restaurant in so Ho, We should Yeah.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 1: I described it like I said to one of my friends,
Speaker 1: it looks like a very fancy train carriage.
Speaker 2: That's exactly what I say. It's like being in I
Speaker 2: always said it's like being on the orange.
Speaker 3: I imagine exactly exactly. That's it. That's right.
Speaker 2: And there's a did you press the champagne?
Speaker 3: I did pressed the champagne. But I had to press
Speaker 3: the champagne.
Speaker 2: But there's a button on every table, that champagne, and
Speaker 2: you pressed that.
Speaker 3: I was.
Speaker 1: I was amazed by that. You took me postly, who
Speaker 1: runs your okay, he took me. Yeah, he took me
Speaker 1: for dinner and like he said, yeah, press the button.
Speaker 3: Bro.
Speaker 1: Cool if it's on you because your treats.
Speaker 2: It's a really cool place. And then like you also
Speaker 2: like then you also shout out to like Novikov.
Speaker 3: I've said a lot of that's on the new record.
Speaker 2: That's on Anxious, Yes, Anxious.
Speaker 1: And then uh, little more love. I'm talking about strougging
Speaker 1: off the food references whatever.
Speaker 3: End.
Speaker 1: He was one of my food and football is by
Speaker 1: me the most Okay, they're your thing, they're my things, man.
Speaker 1: But this this sushi restaurant was amazing honestly. And I
Speaker 1: sat down on the table and I was I sat
Speaker 1: down with this guy. He goes by Zaptio. That's like
Speaker 1: he's online tag. So I sat down with this guy's
Speaker 1: zapp and he was like talking to me, talking to me.
Speaker 1: And then these two guys, I would say if I
Speaker 1: had to guess how they were, I'd say like mid forties.
Speaker 1: They were quite young for when you find out what
Speaker 1: they do, very young for what they do. So they
Speaker 1: were like, what do you do? And I said, bro,
Speaker 1: I'm just here for the ride.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Me talked to this guy and then I put it
Speaker 1: at zapp and then like what you do? Yeah, I've
Speaker 1: run off effective blah blah blah called the chopping U
Speaker 1: chopping up.
Speaker 3: And then I said what do you what do you
Speaker 3: guys do?
Speaker 1: So the one time I left us in that kind
Speaker 1: of like a suit, like an open shirt suit, like
Speaker 1: just got off work vibes, and he had two massive
Speaker 1: diamond rings on. And I know about jewelry, bro and
Speaker 1: these rings are worth a lot, massive rings. Yes, So
Speaker 1: I was like, would you do and he's like oh,
Speaker 1: And he showed me the rings and I looked at
Speaker 1: it and it was you're the Bucks logo.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So I was like, oh, you work with a box, like, yeah,
Speaker 3: I owned the.
Speaker 1: Bucksh okay, that's something else.
Speaker 3: And he's like mid forties. He looked like mid forties.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I could be listen if he's older than that,
Speaker 1: and I'm just being complimentary, great, yeah yeah, but he
Speaker 1: looks honestly, to me, he looked like early forties, genuinely
Speaker 1: mid early forties. So then the guy next to him,
Speaker 1: I was like, so what would you do? And he's
Speaker 1: like and the Bucks guy started laughing. He's like, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: he owns the nets and I noticed you wear the
Speaker 1: nets hat. I'm like, this is crazy. Then I realized that, like,
Speaker 1: who's in this room? Jeff Staple behind me, who owns
Speaker 1: a Staple, you know, pre cool so stable by me.
Speaker 1: You and Ambush was around somewhere, just loads of cool people,
Speaker 1: really really cool people. So I'm just in this mad
Speaker 1: room and I'm like just saying to everyone, but people
Speaker 1: coming up to me and saying, oh, Tracy that while
Speaker 1: go on, I'm like, this is mad.
Speaker 3: That you even know me. It's sick. It's sick that
Speaker 3: you even know who I am. Like sick was it?
Speaker 1: And they were saying yo, because in the NFT space,
Speaker 1: I feel like a lot of rappers are just kind
Speaker 1: of a company will pay them to use that n
Speaker 1: FT as their provar but they don't care or know
Speaker 1: anything about n FTS. And I'm really like immersed in
Speaker 1: the space.
Speaker 3: You're up on it? Yeah, I'm really up on it.
Speaker 1: So I feel like a lot of people just respect
Speaker 1: that I'm taking time to learn about it and get
Speaker 1: involved in it. So, yeah, it was. It was a
Speaker 1: really nice trip, man, really really nice trip. I took
Speaker 1: my girlfriend. She loved the exhibition. She got loads of
Speaker 1: little moroccaromy plushes and stuff plushes. Okay, yeah, it was cool, man,
Speaker 1: it was. It was fire. It was really fun. It
Speaker 1: was really fun.
Speaker 2: That's cool, man. And how do you find like when
Speaker 2: when you were out there when you like you've played
Speaker 2: shows there though, yeah, ye, when you when you because
Speaker 2: some of those references are so nice. Do they like,
Speaker 2: how does it translate in the States or do they
Speaker 2: just love like the easter eggs in there They're like
Speaker 2: trying to work out.
Speaker 1: I think they love the easts, honestly, I think that's
Speaker 1: what it is. And for me, it's like in America
Speaker 1: over the years of like gained more and more respect
Speaker 1: out there because I go there a lot. I don't
Speaker 1: just wrap from the UK and send it over to America.
Speaker 1: I'm actually there in New York. Like I'm there on
Speaker 1: the ground level with people outside, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So I think they respect that a lot. And when
Speaker 1: I went this time, when I went on tour, because
Speaker 1: I came off to a AMENI like a couple months ago.
Speaker 1: We was in New York for two nights and we
Speaker 1: killed it, Like AMENI is an amazing performer, and really
Speaker 1: grateful we had me on there because you could have
Speaker 1: took an American artist who's bigger than me in America,
Speaker 1: but he just you know what I'm saying through me
Speaker 1: the alub So I was out there and in New York,
Speaker 1: I was walking to like stores and bodega's and like
Speaker 1: shopkeepers are recognizing me, people stopping me in the street,
Speaker 1: and I was like, this is crazy that how do
Speaker 1: you not know who I am? Obviously don't get twisted.
Speaker 1: I know some people would know about for it to
Speaker 1: be frequent enough that I'm walking around and people stopping
Speaker 1: me is crazy, you know what I'm saying. Because New
Speaker 1: York's a big place. There's a lot of people there.
Speaker 1: But then when I went this time again, even more
Speaker 1: people were that stopping me. So I was just very
Speaker 1: very flatted out, to be honest, very grateful man. But
Speaker 1: I dropped a freestyle when I was out there, which
Speaker 1: is doing really work saying that freestyle. Yeah, it's on
Speaker 1: a Jersey club beat. Yeah, and obviously Jersey club out there,
Speaker 1: if you know, if you know about, you know about
Speaker 1: I'm saying, it's really cool, really fire the genre of music.
Speaker 3: I love it.
Speaker 1: It sounds a little bit similar to like footwork and yeah,
Speaker 1: man aspout that being people expected me to spill on
Speaker 1: the drow beat, so I think I just called them off.
Speaker 3: God.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I see a lot of people saying that, oh
Speaker 1: this is the AJ. We liked the old AJ Tracy.
Speaker 1: But the thing is that there's no old AJ Tracy,
Speaker 1: because what depending on where you found out about me, is.
Speaker 3: What you think the old AJ Tracy is.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, someone might I met me off the Butterflies
Speaker 1: and you think I'm a dancer artist. You might have
Speaker 1: met me at Labra Groth, which a lot of people did,
Speaker 1: I'm sure, and you think I'm a garage artist, or
Speaker 1: you met me when I was on radio sets with
Speaker 1: you know boy Better and Whatnot and Storms and Zoo
Speaker 1: and all the man, then maybe you know me as
Speaker 1: a grandmachist. Who knows if you knew me before that,
Speaker 1: if you did, which I doubt, or but if you did,
Speaker 1: then you know me as a rapper because I was
Speaker 1: rapping before that.
Speaker 3: So it's whatever. You know what I'm saying, that's whatever.
Speaker 1: So I don't really take any of them comments too
Speaker 1: seriously because I could ask like five different people from
Speaker 1: the comments, what SNA did you find out about me
Speaker 1: listening to it? And it'll be like grime, rap, trap,
Speaker 1: like droll, like you could be anything. So I'll already
Speaker 1: take it that serious. Bro, You've got to give fans.
Speaker 1: My producer Night has told me this and it stuck
Speaker 1: with me forever. He said before I made Pasta, he said, listen,
Speaker 1: don't give fans what they want. You have to give
Speaker 1: them what they need. And I've stuck with that forever
Speaker 1: because that's just such a fact. Before I've done Labragoth,
Speaker 1: people are like, we don't care about garage, right, do
Speaker 1: you want a garage song? And I was the highest
Speaker 1: selling garage song ever ever, which is just mad. But
Speaker 1: like you didn't want that before.
Speaker 2: You need to get you need told that plant.
Speaker 3: I'll get it eventually, I'll get if I do get it.
Speaker 1: I'm not already in tending them like my friends gon
Speaker 1: f man, I'm not buying telling them.
Speaker 3: It's just so long.
Speaker 1: But yeah, honestly, man, with the music thing, I love
Speaker 1: being very fluid and just the independency he comes into that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because I can just make wherever I want. Gratulations
Speaker 2: on Flu Game, Oh, thank you appreciate. I love that
Speaker 2: it's named after that, that there's that reference to that game,
Speaker 2: that Michael Jordan game. Did you know about that game already?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Of course before the did you want to?
Speaker 1: I knew before the Last Chimes, but I didn't know
Speaker 1: enough in depth about it before the Lost Times. But
Speaker 1: everyone knows that if you're sneak ahead as well. There's
Speaker 1: like Flu game sneakers and stuff like you know about
Speaker 1: the reference. You know what I'm saying. My dad was
Speaker 1: a massive Michael Jordan fan. He's just a black icon
Speaker 1: in it, so yeah, yeah, it's just default for us
Speaker 1: to know about him. But I didn't know like in
Speaker 1: depth until the documentary.
Speaker 2: Which documentary is incredibly.
Speaker 3: One of the best ever. Yeah, one of the best
Speaker 3: documentaries I've ever watched ever.
Speaker 2: And I thought he comes across like it's interesting. He
Speaker 2: comes across brilliant in it. But you know there's that
Speaker 2: bit where he gets gets a bit upset because the
Speaker 2: others are like saying that he was like would shower
Speaker 2: at people and stuff, and he gets to like a
Speaker 2: you see like this little kind of really human Yeah, exactly, exactly,
Speaker 2: It's really nice that fit.
Speaker 3: You know what I always say to people. I always
Speaker 3: say this to everyone.
Speaker 1: My girl is a massive Beyonce fan, like die hard,
Speaker 1: massive die hard fan. Yeah, so like she thinks she
Speaker 1: can do no wrong. You know what I'm saying. She
Speaker 1: just floats and just you know what I'm saying. So
Speaker 1: I just told her that I said. A lot of
Speaker 1: people think about me is they think that I'm very
Speaker 1: like hard headed and like I don't like taking criticism
Speaker 1: and stuff. But the thing is, actually it's not even
Speaker 1: about that. It is that for you to be at
Speaker 1: the top of your game, it requires a certain level
Speaker 1: of harshness, Like you have to be cold sometimes because
Speaker 1: you expended and giving out your energy and want to
Speaker 1: everyone just you're not gonna get anything.
Speaker 3: You're not gonna achieve anything.
Speaker 1: So with people like you know, Ronaldo, people say, oh,
Speaker 1: Ronaldo slap the fan, the fans phone out of his hand. Listen,
Speaker 1: I'm not condoning that at all. I definitely do not
Speaker 1: agree with that. Would I do that probably, I'm just
Speaker 1: being honest. That's just me being honest. You know, like Viera,
Speaker 1: I'm sure I would do that too. I'm not gonna lie.
Speaker 1: I said that last night like ten seconds and he's
Speaker 1: just ignoring the bro and it's obviously you're a human
Speaker 1: starting snaps and he I'm gonna kick him.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would kick him. I would have kicked himay
Speaker 3: before that. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's just me. But I'm just saying. You know,
Speaker 1: when people celebrity do these things and people are like, oh, like,
Speaker 1: you're a bad person because you snapped it, Like they
Speaker 1: don't snap ninety nine percent of their time, but because
Speaker 1: you hold him to this high standard when they do snap,
Speaker 1: it's the end of the world, you.
Speaker 3: Know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I don't know, man, I just think with Jordan, like
Speaker 1: a lot of people say, you know, he was horrible
Speaker 1: to all the other players.
Speaker 3: He used to shower everyone.
Speaker 1: And Okay, I hear you, But think about how he
Speaker 1: is on himself as well, Like he's the same way
Speaker 1: with himself, Like he will put himself through the gym
Speaker 1: every day for hours grueling training. I'm saying to make
Speaker 1: sure he's the best he could be. So I mean,
Speaker 1: as long as there's one rule for everyone, that's my rule.
Speaker 1: As long as you're doing the same for everyone, it's
Speaker 1: fine in my opinion personally. So yeah, man, but I
Speaker 1: love that documentary. I think he came across well. But
Speaker 1: he gave me an understanding as to like what it
Speaker 1: is to be a winner. Yeah, at the top level.
Speaker 2: Like that that there's that section where he talks about
Speaker 2: how he would kind of he doesn't really specially talk
Speaker 2: about it, but the others will talk about it. How
Speaker 2: he would kind of create a beef with someone to
Speaker 2: give him drive him, giving that extra thing to win,
Speaker 2: Like he's essentially tormented himself to win. That's how much he.
Speaker 3: Wants to win. He's like, that's a real thing, bro.
Speaker 2: It's kind of trolling himself.
Speaker 3: That's a real thing. That's a real thing.
Speaker 1: Thing about that, you know, even when you see I
Speaker 1: don't know if you've noticed it, but people who pay
Speaker 1: attention to football can really see that, Like you know,
Speaker 1: Holland and in bape they're kind of trying to force
Speaker 1: a rivalry. But like it makes sense because without Messi,
Speaker 1: there's no Ronaldo about Ronaldo's no message.
Speaker 3: Need someone to push you.
Speaker 1: And if they're competing saying, like you know, they take
Speaker 1: little not digs at each other, but they say little
Speaker 1: things to reference each other. You know, like someone might
Speaker 1: asking Bapey who's who's the best young player in the
Speaker 1: Champions League right now and he's just like, obviously me,
Speaker 1: there's no one close. But you know that Halland said
Speaker 1: yesterday that it's him. And you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: there's obviously a little but you need that because then
Speaker 1: when you play, you're like, not only am I doing
Speaker 1: it for me, I'm actually doing it to batter my
Speaker 1: rival as well, Like I've got a point to prove it.
Speaker 3: So you get extra glory with the extra torment.
Speaker 1: It's extra glory because then people gonna be like, on
Speaker 1: top of that, and you've done in Hallan, I'm saying.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so everyone needs a nemesis. Everyone needs a nemesis.
Speaker 2: Talking of like sports, documentaries. Yeah, you've seen have you
Speaker 2: seen the Tottenham one?
Speaker 3: Which one the the one that they make abou Arsenal
Speaker 3: and the Amazon thing?
Speaker 2: No, yeah, the one that came out during.
Speaker 3: Lockowes, Yes, with Marino and Delli. Have seen it.
Speaker 2: I've not seen that.
Speaker 3: You gotta watch. It's great entertainment. Was a neutral? You
Speaker 3: will love that? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, what are the big what the big takeaways from it?
Speaker 3: The big takeaways for me is that there's.
Speaker 2: There anything you learned in there that you were like,
Speaker 2: I wasn't expecting that and this is shown me. This
Speaker 2: is showed me something I didn't know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, kind of kind of not to be a football snobbyer,
Speaker 1: but like because I love Tattenham and they really get
Speaker 1: me involved with the club. I've been in like the
Speaker 1: tunnel a halftime, heard what they say to the ref.
Speaker 1: I've heard everything. So I wasn't super shocked, but it
Speaker 1: was funny to me that, like the way the manager
Speaker 1: speaks to the players shocked me a little bit. Like
Speaker 1: obviously it's Marinho. Marinho is a different kind of manager
Speaker 1: and I love him personally. Loads of people hate so like,
Speaker 1: don't kill me for that, but I love him. I
Speaker 1: think he's great. He's really passionate, and he cares about
Speaker 1: what he does. He clearly loves football, which matters to
Speaker 1: me because some managers don't know football. They're just there
Speaker 1: because they can manage. So when he was talking to
Speaker 1: like the team and he said, none of you played well,
Speaker 1: none of you were good enough. No, it's just no,
Speaker 1: I don't like it, Like if you don't play better,
Speaker 1: then you can just go, I don't care about you.
Speaker 1: Like for me, that's needed. I think that's needed personally.
Speaker 1: But everyone was like, that's so harsh. You can't say
Speaker 1: that to your players. But bro, it's like, you get
Speaker 1: paid so much money.
Speaker 3: That's the thing. You get paid so much money to
Speaker 3: do this job.
Speaker 1: Surely you can't just walk around your head down for
Speaker 1: ninety minutes like these people travel like you just said,
Speaker 1: you go all the way from from Essex to Liverpool, Like,
Speaker 1: surely we didn't make this journey for you to put
Speaker 1: your head down for ninety minutes. Like I traveled to
Speaker 1: Spain to watch tournament, the Champion League final, and I
Speaker 1: was so gassed. I've never been so gass in my
Speaker 1: life because I didn't mind losing. I swear to God,
Speaker 1: I didn't mind losing, but also not in that fashion
Speaker 1: like I wanted to lose that.
Speaker 3: You know. We tried really hard with yeah losing. Yeah, bro,
Speaker 3: I can't lie to you.
Speaker 1: That's the one thing that I always say, Like, as
Speaker 1: long as you're giving it you all, then it's all right, honestly,
Speaker 1: genuinely in everything you give it you all, then it's whatever.
Speaker 1: No one can you know, you can't have any regrets.
Speaker 1: Just start have any regrets. You left it all out
Speaker 1: there on the pitch or in the booth or on
Speaker 1: stage or whatever.
Speaker 3: You're good.
Speaker 1: No one could comment on your team, like, and people
Speaker 1: can see when you care and you're trying. Like when
Speaker 1: I come on stage and I'm I'm soaking with sweat
Speaker 1: and like I'm like i've been I've performed loads of times.
Speaker 3: Ill you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I got I get allergic, askma sometimes so like I'm
Speaker 1: dying on stage, I'm not fit, and I come off
Speaker 1: and I'm dead and I'm just quiet for forty five minutes,
Speaker 1: sitting in my little green room, quiet and people say
Speaker 1: that you know what I'm saying. Look, he's the steam
Speaker 1: coming off him. He gave it everything. Whereas some artists
Speaker 1: go out there and they're just here to collect the check.
Speaker 1: There's a backing track playing. They're not even spitting their balls.
Speaker 1: They're just like stabbing their lyrics.
Speaker 3: It's a shame, you know what I'm saying. It's just
Speaker 3: a shame.
Speaker 1: But yeah, man, that take away, my takeaway is definitely
Speaker 1: the way the manager spoke to the players.
Speaker 3: I've never seen anything like that. Never. Never.
Speaker 1: I thought he'd be a bit softer, you know, like
Speaker 1: man management is meant to be a key point in
Speaker 1: being a manager. You got to look after the players individually.
Speaker 1: Everyone's different and when I different needs of course, but
Speaker 1: he just blanket said, yeah, bam, all of you are
Speaker 1: whack man up, Like yeah, fair enough.
Speaker 3: It is what it is.
Speaker 2: Man, I could talk to you all day black. I
Speaker 2: understand that you know, time's getting on, it's the weekend.
Speaker 2: Is there anything like we is anything you want to
Speaker 2: get in that we've like that we've not touched on.
Speaker 1: Not really, man, I would say I would just like
Speaker 1: to say, like, obviously I hope people are considering things
Speaker 1: like Grenfell and it doesn't slip their mind that not
Speaker 1: to take it super political, but that the government just
Speaker 1: don't really care about issues like that. It happened, everyone
Speaker 1: knows what happened, and they've just let whoever did it
Speaker 1: get away with it. And it's a bit of a shame.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, doesn't really set a good
Speaker 1: example for the rest of London. It's like saying, you know,
Speaker 1: if poor people live in this block, black and Muslim people,
Speaker 1: we're just gonna let it happen. But I know if
Speaker 1: that was a rich, white, you know, expensive time block,
Speaker 1: they'd be well, they wouldn't even be cudding on the
Speaker 1: block for a start. Yeah, but yeah, just things that
Speaker 1: I just want to say. Yeah, I hope everyone's attention
Speaker 1: is on things like Saturday, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: nice little football game for charity for Grenfell and yeah, man,
Speaker 1: just just spreading positively and mental health is a good
Speaker 1: thing to be aware of. Yeah, check in on your friends.
Speaker 1: Just trying to cramb in some nice points here.
Speaker 3: This is good.
Speaker 1: Yeah man, that's that's about it. I'll be honest, that's it.
Speaker 1: And yeah, I spurs man.
Speaker 2: For previous episodes of Midnight Chat. Simply search your podcast
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Speaker 2: For more information on the music magazine that makes this series,
Speaker 2: visit Loud and Quiet dot com. Anyway, good night,