Speaker 1: I love Jim Carry, but then with yes men, I
Speaker 1: need honest ears. When in the studio turned down the
Speaker 1: movie roll to finish the album, I pray the outcome
Speaker 1: it's gun Clinton bigsbyat I'm tooken out of the hood,
Speaker 1: carrying water, chopping the wood.
Speaker 2: But you're gonna always have motion if the product is gun.
Speaker 2: Lord knows.
Speaker 1: It's crazy how I can just text holes and run
Speaker 1: plays on the weekend.
Speaker 2: It's more than just exos. When I dropped my.
Speaker 1: First album was nervous my chest pros play's.
Speaker 2: Gonna be executed like on death.
Speaker 1: Row bought a new CRIBA that is an s pro come.
Speaker 1: I credit sCOD Low as my self esteem, but I grow.
Speaker 1: It's a yellow beam. When I glow, I have mellow dreams.
Speaker 1: When I smoke to my fellow kids, keep the whole.
Speaker 1: I think, Yllo, heaned up, wokeme this moment, acting wow
Speaker 1: like a black of mind. We smoked the opponent. I
Speaker 1: prayed in hope for this moment. And if I'm posting.
Speaker 3: Out own, that's fine right there, Yeah, that's all right there.
Speaker 2: I appreciate that. I like that, Yes, I appreciate that.
Speaker 3: What's going on in one of the only core days
Speaker 3: here in the house with your Shirley stephen A. Smith Man.
Speaker 3: That's Saturday? Is that what that was?
Speaker 2: Yes, sir, Saturday mornings.
Speaker 3: Right, Saturday mornings. First of all, it's good to see you,
Speaker 3: my man. It's been a while. How you doing?
Speaker 1: Likewise, brother, I gotta say too, Man, you know I've
Speaker 1: been I would like to think I'm an early guest
Speaker 1: of the stephen A.
Speaker 2: Smith Show, our early friend. You had quite a lot
Speaker 2: of upgrades in this thing, my brother. It looks amazing.
Speaker 1: It was great to start off with. Don't get me wrong,
Speaker 1: it was. It was already amazing, but now I was like,
Speaker 1: oh shit, like, okay, I appreciate it.
Speaker 3: I appreciate it. I aim to please.
Speaker 2: I aim to please.
Speaker 3: Talk to me about you and where you feel you
Speaker 3: are right now in your career. Things seem to be
Speaker 3: going real well for you. Just twenty seven, you making
Speaker 3: things happen. How you feeling about things right now?
Speaker 2: Man? I feel great, bro, Like I'm really blessed, and
Speaker 2: I'm sure you can relate to this.
Speaker 1: Of like I've always had this mindset and still do
Speaker 1: about just like, all right, what's next? What's the next
Speaker 1: barrier to break? Through what's the next level. It's just
Speaker 1: even something amazing, shit just happening. I'm already thinking about
Speaker 1: like what's next, how do I take this to the
Speaker 1: next level? But like right now, I think I've been
Speaker 1: find that balance between just like staying consistent, working really hard,
Speaker 1: but just also like being present, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: and just like, Yo, I'm just really blessed.
Speaker 2: Like I set out and did a lot of things
Speaker 2: that I wrote down that I wanted to do.
Speaker 1: Still a lot more to do, but I say all
Speaker 1: this to say, just presently, just very happy. Like my
Speaker 1: manager was just telling me, He's like, yo, you know,
Speaker 1: you sold like twelve million, twelve million.
Speaker 3: I was getting ready through out the one of one
Speaker 3: of the awards, well won of Grammy, right mery My Bad,
Speaker 3: My Bad, My Bad, that nominated for Grammy, nominated for
Speaker 3: Grammy one of they sold about twelve million. I mean
Speaker 3: most people ain't doing that right now, How do you
Speaker 3: think you've pulled that off?
Speaker 2: You know what, bro? One, I give all glory to God, honestly.
Speaker 1: Two, I don't know, man, I'm blessed because like selling
Speaker 1: music and tour, I'm even more than like the twelve
Speaker 1: million records sold. I'm really proud of like being able
Speaker 1: to sell out a tour, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: Because like now it's streaming and streaming to like numbers equivalent,
Speaker 1: it gets a little tricky, like I don't really know.
Speaker 2: Like back in the day, it's like when.
Speaker 1: Niggas sold twelve million records because twelve million motherfuckers went
Speaker 1: to the store and bought the shit. Now it's like
Speaker 1: streaming equivalents is weird. But with a show, it's like
Speaker 1: a five step process. In order to go to a show,
Speaker 1: you gotta pay for the tickets. They gotta wait in line,
Speaker 1: they gotta if they got kids, they gotta find a babysitter.
Speaker 1: So when somebody actually shows up at your daughter come
Speaker 1: to a show to see perform, that's real love. And
Speaker 1: I've been blessed to be able to perform in all
Speaker 1: corners of the earth, and so I'm really proud of that.
Speaker 1: So I say that to say this being myself, and
Speaker 1: lately my model has just been pushing my pan.
Speaker 2: Bro, just pushing that pin, pushing the pin.
Speaker 3: Did you take and I say a break, I'm thinking, mentally,
Speaker 3: did you feel at any point in time over the
Speaker 3: last few years, just with the climate that we're living in,
Speaker 3: the kind of stuff going on in this world that
Speaker 3: you needed to take a step back with think about
Speaker 3: the kind of things that you wanted to do moving forward.
Speaker 3: Or has it always been about the grind for you.
Speaker 1: I don't think I've earned a luxury to take a break,
Speaker 1: but I got a break.
Speaker 2: We all did in twenty twenty.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that was my time to where I was
Speaker 1: just thinking about, like, what do I really want out
Speaker 1: of this entertainment thing?
Speaker 2: What is what is my goal?
Speaker 1: And just being more intentional about everything. It's being more
Speaker 1: intentional about like my brand, what's the message, what's my mantra,
Speaker 1: what's my ethos? You know what I'm saying. And so
Speaker 1: I kind of gathered that in twenty twenty. But in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty, I was twenty three years old.
Speaker 2: I'm twenty seven.
Speaker 1: Like I'm a whole different nigga, now, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, Like same persons, same value, same morals, but
Speaker 1: just like you know, I have a kid, like yo,
Speaker 1: it's all of these things transitioning. You know, even for
Speaker 1: the average American, for average person from age twenty three
Speaker 1: to twenty seven, there is a certain amount of growth.
Speaker 2: So my bad, I'm going on tangents.
Speaker 1: No, yeah, going thank you, think yeah, thank you something,
Speaker 1: all right, all right, take time, thank you.
Speaker 2: Thank you. But I.
Speaker 1: Got that break kind of in twenty twenty. So I
Speaker 1: don't think I haven't tooken any breaks, like it's time
Speaker 1: in between albums. But I won't even counted as breaks
Speaker 1: because let's say my last album I dropped it January
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two. I toured all of twenty twenty two
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty three, and then as soon as I
Speaker 1: get off tour, I'm in the studio twenty four to seven,
Speaker 1: and so that hasn't really been a break since I
Speaker 1: started it. But again, I feel like I haven't earned
Speaker 1: a luxury of the right for You talked.
Speaker 3: About having a list, at least a mental one, if
Speaker 3: not a literal one, where you just checked off the
Speaker 3: things that you've done, Yeah, looking ahead to what you've
Speaker 3: wanted to do. What have you done in your mind
Speaker 3: that you can reveal to the audience. What is it
Speaker 3: that you had on your Listen, you said, all right,
Speaker 3: I want to do this, check I've done it. What
Speaker 3: has that been?
Speaker 2: You know? What I had?
Speaker 1: Getting the studio with Doctor Dre on the vision board
Speaker 1: and I was able to do that, you know, early
Speaker 1: on shout out to my boy Anderson Pack.
Speaker 2: He actually introduced us.
Speaker 3: You know how I feel about Doctor Dre.
Speaker 2: Yeah, bro, Yeah he's real special.
Speaker 3: No, he's real special.
Speaker 2: Nah the goat. And it's funny too.
Speaker 1: I had like double ExLF freshmen on the early vision
Speaker 1: board of mine. I had Grammys on my vision board
Speaker 1: and I actually had like and I put Egott on
Speaker 1: my vision board and so like, it's funny that I've
Speaker 1: won the Emmy first because that's the e So it's
Speaker 1: like I'm assuming, I assuming, you know, Grammy's next been
Speaker 1: Oscar's Ben Tony, So you know, the Lord is want
Speaker 1: me to do it on his time and in that time.
Speaker 2: And so that was one of the things, you know,
Speaker 2: being on the Steven A. Smith Show.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, one of my twenty twenty
Speaker 1: four goals, you feel me and yeah, bro, just just
Speaker 1: one step at a time. But I feel like, you know,
Speaker 1: when you write things down, it becomes and.
Speaker 2: You're looking at it every day.
Speaker 1: It gives me personally, like that extra motivation to keep
Speaker 1: it going. But just a remind of like what I'm
Speaker 1: doing this for because you know, this entertainment shit is
Speaker 1: like it's treacherous, bro, How it's crazy.
Speaker 3: How treacherous is it now compared to what it was,
Speaker 3: say even four or five years.
Speaker 2: Ago for you man?
Speaker 1: You know what, it's completely different even now, Like I'm
Speaker 1: still fairly new to this shit, it's only been in
Speaker 1: it since twenty eighteen, but it's completely changed.
Speaker 2: Like even the rise. I feel like this is one
Speaker 2: of my points too.
Speaker 1: We are in a podcast epidemic right now, Like too
Speaker 1: many of them, yes, nigga, Like we don't need that
Speaker 1: many more podcasts, like straight up like of people that's
Speaker 1: missing formed. They're spreading misinformation, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: Like people like you've been doing this obviously, been doing
Speaker 1: this a super long time, Like you've earned the right
Speaker 1: to have your own platform and to speak on things
Speaker 1: that you speak on. Most of these motherfuckers it's starting platforms,
Speaker 1: not doing any research on the topics.
Speaker 3: They're stealing other people's content, stealing content.
Speaker 2: It's not original.
Speaker 1: They're not doing any research, they're not fact checking things
Speaker 1: before they're speaking, and they're actually getting platforms an audience
Speaker 1: that are But we're in a.
Speaker 2: Very like sheep, like a group think world in the system.
Speaker 1: And so you got kids who might not I have
Speaker 1: even heard anything about a certain subject, and they're getting
Speaker 1: the information from this podcast who may have millions of subscribers,
Speaker 1: and they're giving them the wrong information. They're not fact
Speaker 1: checked in like even like a lot of these music
Speaker 1: review podcasts. And it's like, Yo, it's this little like
Speaker 1: and it's not a race thing, but it's more so
Speaker 1: about a culture and a research thing. It's like, Yo,
Speaker 1: you got this white boy who don't know who can't
Speaker 1: tell you when.
Speaker 2: Ellmatic came out, but you want to make a.
Speaker 3: Hip hop podcast.
Speaker 2: But you know when Illmatic came out, you know what
Speaker 2: I'm saying. You don't know when Ready to Die came out.
Speaker 3: You don't know, and you ain't willing to admit an
Speaker 3: acknowledge what you don't know. You're trying to pretend like
Speaker 3: you do know.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, So you have you haven't
Speaker 1: earned the right to make a hip hop podcast. Not again,
Speaker 1: not a race thing, but you haven't done your research.
Speaker 1: You haven't done the education, you haven't done the programming.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, Like, I love this music
Speaker 1: shit Like I don't study the greats, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. And so yeah, people, Yeah, I feel like
Speaker 1: we're definitely in the podcast epidemic.
Speaker 3: You got a new single out, Noe, mad as Fuck.
Speaker 2: Yes, that's the title of it.
Speaker 3: Is that one of the things you mad about?
Speaker 2: Absolutely? That's what else?
Speaker 3: Let me see because I imagine you know, you're a
Speaker 3: deep thinker, and I imagine you're mad about more than
Speaker 3: one thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely. You know. I'm gonna quote a good brother,
Speaker 2: James Baldwin.
Speaker 1: He said, to be black, and I'm paraphrasing it, but
Speaker 1: to be black and politically not politically where, but to
Speaker 1: be black and socially aware, it's to be enraged all
Speaker 1: the time.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: And so I'm gonna take that quote as a genesis
Speaker 1: of mad as fuck. But mad as fuck isn't It's
Speaker 1: not that my song isn't that deep.
Speaker 2: But yeah, just a bunch of shit, just like.
Speaker 1: I mean, we encounter things every day that make us mad,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, Whether it's traffic, whether it's
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 2: A bunch of shit.
Speaker 1: You see some stupid shit people are saying online about
Speaker 1: it only even gonna be about you, about whoever. You know,
Speaker 1: the spread of misinformation, These bullshit podcasts that we're going about.
Speaker 2: Yeah, a bunch of shit, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: A bunch of people have asked me, They said, Steven there.
Speaker 2: How do you do it?
Speaker 3: How do you do what you do? Every day? You
Speaker 3: on television, you know, you're doing your YouTube show, you
Speaker 3: got your podcast, you got all of this going on.
Speaker 3: They coming at you all the times.
Speaker 2: People, How you deal with it?
Speaker 3: I said, first of all, not a nine percent of
Speaker 3: the time. I don't know what the hell they talking
Speaker 3: about because I don't read it. I don't pay any
Speaker 3: attention to it, because I know the objective is to
Speaker 3: distract me from what I'm trying to do. Absolutely every
Speaker 3: now and then I might listen to it, j just
Speaker 3: to continue to develop my alligated skin, to show myself.
Speaker 3: I can take it, you understand, and you march forward.
Speaker 3: Sometimes the haters inspire you more than you realize, and
Speaker 3: you can use it. You can utilize it that way.
Speaker 3: But sometimes, damn it, you just ain't in the mood
Speaker 3: to listen to that negativity because it can mess with
Speaker 3: your spirit, et cetera.
Speaker 2: Where do you.
Speaker 3: Find yourself doing in order to get through it, because
Speaker 3: I imagine, I don't give a damn who you are.
Speaker 3: If you successful, somebody got something to say. And obviously
Speaker 3: you're a successful, brother, so people got stuff to say.
Speaker 2: Appreciate you. It takes success to no success, brother, how
Speaker 2: about that? But what was I finna say? You know
Speaker 2: what it is too.
Speaker 1: I feel like our brains as as an artist, entertainer,
Speaker 1: anybody with a platform and just human being, our brains
Speaker 1: are more centered and engaging to negativity, unfortunately, especially when
Speaker 1: it's about us. So you may have ten thousand comments
Speaker 1: that's like yo, Steven, that you the man, go you
Speaker 1: done did this, but your brain is automatically gonna pay
Speaker 1: attention to the five hundred comments. It's like bulls snig sucks.
Speaker 1: But you know what I'm saying, And that's for every entertainer, artists, whatever.
Speaker 2: So I say all this to say I try to
Speaker 2: keep that in mind.
Speaker 1: Like, fortunately for me, it's been a lot more love
Speaker 1: than negativity, So I try to just focus on the
Speaker 1: love and then too, like you said, like I don't
Speaker 1: even pay attention to that shit. Like I have Instagram
Speaker 1: on my phone, I upload it, I get my news
Speaker 1: like it's like you read the news and shit.
Speaker 2: I read the news.
Speaker 1: If I got to upload a song or post whatever,
Speaker 1: do that and I delete the shit, and I try
Speaker 1: to only have it on my phone, like for that
Speaker 1: purpose to read the news, get updated on what's going
Speaker 1: on in the zeitgeist in the earth post. If I
Speaker 1: got to and then just delete it.
Speaker 3: You don't get as much hate nearly as some other
Speaker 3: artists will remain nameless. I'm not gonna throw no shade
Speaker 3: on them because they don't deserve it. But you get
Speaker 3: a lot more love than hate. Why do you think
Speaker 3: that is?
Speaker 2: Because that's what I pay attention to. This is from
Speaker 2: my synopsis, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I'm sure there is, like you know, like you said,
Speaker 1: haters out there, negativity, but I only try to pay
Speaker 1: attention to give energy to the love.
Speaker 2: You know. So I'm not gonna just say.
Speaker 1: It's just all love. Everybody just loved. Everybody fuck with me.
Speaker 1: I know it's obviously it's not gonna be that. That's
Speaker 1: impossible for any artists, But I just try to stay
Speaker 1: focused and give energy to the love versus like the negativity,
Speaker 1: because I've given too much energy and thought to the
Speaker 1: negativity and it make me like second guess myself, doubt myself, overthink,
Speaker 1: and like when I just delete Instagram, Twitter, social media
Speaker 1: and I just live my actual life just like Nigga.
Speaker 3: Like, are you a proponent of folks getting rid of
Speaker 3: their social media accounts not even having anything to do
Speaker 3: with it? You ain't got on social media account, you
Speaker 3: don't know what the hell is going on, you don't
Speaker 3: receive any of you, you don't pay attention to any of it.
Speaker 3: Are you a proponent at least in some cases of
Speaker 3: people just having absolutely positively nothing to do with social media?
Speaker 2: Man, my plan is to do that.
Speaker 1: I feel like I'm not quite there yet where I
Speaker 1: want to be, and it would be behoove of me,
Speaker 1: and I not behoove it would I'll be a fool
Speaker 1: to do that, not a fool, But it wouldn't be
Speaker 1: wise if I would do that right now.
Speaker 3: Because your audience is there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, my audience is there, and there's other ways to
Speaker 1: you know, direct to consumer ways, but yeah, my goal
Speaker 1: is to get to a place in my life and
Speaker 1: my career where I don't have to entertain that at all.
Speaker 3: Gotcha?
Speaker 1: You know, because it has positive you know, positives, but
Speaker 1: you know, I feel like the negatives is pretty large.
Speaker 3: You originated WHYBN group. I mean it was filled with rappers,
Speaker 3: record producer, social media personalities and promoters from different parts
Speaker 3: of the country if I remember correctly. I want to
Speaker 3: know how all of that came together and was that
Speaker 3: the key to the group's success, the fact that everybody
Speaker 3: came seemingly from a different genre.
Speaker 1: Well, you know, I was like probably the last member
Speaker 1: of Why Being. Honestly, it was started by Why being
Speaker 1: my Mayor and Why being Blizzion while being Almighty Jr.
Speaker 1: And they started off on the Xbox like they were
Speaker 1: all friends together on the Xbox and shit, and you know,
Speaker 1: they came up and came together, and I was just
Speaker 1: cool with Not Mayor. We had a mutual friend and
Speaker 1: whenever it was in the same city, we would link
Speaker 1: if you would. And so you know, I gotta be honest, like, Nah,
Speaker 1: Mayor just strew me that oop. He honestly just strew
Speaker 1: me the crazy oop and I called it and slam
Speaker 1: dunked it. So I'm like forever grateful, Like no matter
Speaker 1: what Nam Mayor got to say about me, I don't
Speaker 1: got nothing but the absolute highest things to say about
Speaker 1: him because he shined that.
Speaker 2: Light, you know when he didn't have to, and he
Speaker 2: owe me that.
Speaker 1: So I got nothing but love for him and that
Speaker 1: group and like what is and what is done for me?
Speaker 1: And like you know, and just not even more so
Speaker 1: what it's done for me, but like that time in
Speaker 1: my life, you know what I'm saying, the ushers being young,
Speaker 1: making music, traveling the world and stuff. So that was
Speaker 1: really like not mirroring them, that constructed and construed that
Speaker 1: whole thing.
Speaker 3: You talk about what was done for you? What do
Speaker 3: you believe you've done for the music industry? Hip hop?
Speaker 2: Hmm?
Speaker 1: I feel I don't know, this is gonna sound narcissistic,
Speaker 1: but you know I'm asking you, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: Only all you're doing is answering the question that's that day.
Speaker 2: But I feel like I feel.
Speaker 1: Like I bring a much needed balance to music because
Speaker 1: it's a lot of dark ship, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: And you know that's.
Speaker 1: Cool, like how you express yourself. You know, Edgar Allan
Speaker 1: Poe is dark, you know what I'm saying. Length and
Speaker 1: Hughes had some dark poems every now and then, right,
Speaker 1: So like it's a lot of darkness and music, and
Speaker 1: that's fine, you know, like because that's how you're expressing yourself,
Speaker 1: and you got to talk.
Speaker 2: About your environment. I mean, I got a song called
Speaker 2: matis Fuck, I got a song called broke as Fuck.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you gotta let that get out of you, you know,
Speaker 1: like like how mad as Fuck came about. I don't
Speaker 1: really complain too much, to be honest, I don't like.
Speaker 3: Well, just because you ain't complaining too much, don't mean
Speaker 3: you ain't feeling it in your soul.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. I would like to say, I'm a we
Speaker 2: just talked about this earlier. I'm a.
Speaker 1: If I complain, I like to be a solution based
Speaker 1: I'm a solution based complainer. Like I was at my
Speaker 1: homies crib and shit was playing a game, and I
Speaker 1: was just thinking of my head, like damn, this Nigga
Speaker 1: TV small ast shit, but I didn't want to see
Speaker 1: it there playing the game of shit like a thirty
Speaker 1: inch TV.
Speaker 3: Like Nigga TV, not Today's DA's got to be at
Speaker 3: least seventy.
Speaker 2: Five, That's what I'm saying. So I was just like
Speaker 2: I was thinking.
Speaker 1: About it, and I was just laughing, like yo to
Speaker 1: Steevie's smallst shit like my boy like what what you
Speaker 1: laughing like? He's like, what the TV's small? And I
Speaker 1: was like, I was like, nah, But I say that
Speaker 1: to say I end up and I'm not. I don't
Speaker 1: want to say like, oh, I did this for my homie,
Speaker 1: but I didn't want to bring up that TV until
Speaker 1: I got them a new one. I got him a
Speaker 1: new one as like a housewoman gift. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, because it's like, yo, I want to come.
Speaker 1: Let's let's be solution based. So wrapping back to your
Speaker 1: question of what I needed for a hip not needed.
Speaker 2: But what I think I've brought to hip hop is
Speaker 2: just like.
Speaker 1: Just positivity amongst so much dark, refreshing sound among so
Speaker 1: much dark shit, authenticity and and just realness.
Speaker 2: I just be myself.
Speaker 1: I can't be compromised. I'm gonna always say what's on
Speaker 1: my heart, whether right or wrong. I'm gonna always say
Speaker 1: what I feel, whether right or wrong. I'm not don
Speaker 1: know politically correct vibes. I'm not for no huge corporation.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm not here to like, oh you you
Speaker 1: know entertainment. You know you gotta be smart, right, don't
Speaker 1: be a fool. But I feel like we owe it
Speaker 1: to the general public and the fans to still like
Speaker 1: speak with our hearts, say what's on our mind, and
Speaker 1: not be too afraid to burn bridges that were robots,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. And so I feel like
Speaker 1: what I bring the music is like authenticity, me speaking
Speaker 1: my full truth and nothing but the truth, whether right
Speaker 1: or wrong.
Speaker 2: Right and a fresh sound and yeah, just some light.
Speaker 3: I could be wrong. I don't recall hearing you much.
Speaker 3: And I'm gonna bring this up and I'll only go
Speaker 3: as far as you want me to because this is
Speaker 3: your business. But congratulations, you've got a baby, thank Osaka.
Speaker 3: I mean, she fantastic tennis player, fantastic okay, But we
Speaker 3: know her story in terms of what she had to
Speaker 3: go through with fans and what she had to deal with.
Speaker 3: What was that like for you as the man in
Speaker 3: her life seeing her go through that and thinking to yourself,
Speaker 3: what could you do, if anything at all, in light
Speaker 3: of the fact that she's in the public eye and
Speaker 3: you had people that were just coming that up just
Speaker 3: because that's what people are gonna do. You got fans,
Speaker 3: and you got people that want you to lose and
Speaker 3: everybody was a root for her.
Speaker 1: What was that like for you, well, to be honest,
Speaker 1: when she was going through all of that stuff, like
Speaker 1: I'm on tour, while she's on tour, I'm on tour,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. So you know, it's not
Speaker 1: the best when you can't be there in person for somebody,
Speaker 1: you know. So it kind of sucked that she had to,
Speaker 1: you know, go through that by herself.
Speaker 2: And it's funny.
Speaker 1: My first time going to a tennis event regardless, was
Speaker 1: at the US Open.
Speaker 3: I was just like I saw you.
Speaker 1: I felt uncomfortable, you know what I'm saying. Like, I
Speaker 1: was just like, damn, like yo, this feels like a
Speaker 1: lot of classism, you know what I'm saying, a lot
Speaker 1: of racism. I would say more classism than racism. But
Speaker 1: I just felt like a black sheep, if you would.
Speaker 1: And so I can only imagine as a black tennis player,
Speaker 1: I'm just a bystander in the crowd, and I felt
Speaker 1: like hell out of place, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: Like I said, I'm myself in every venue, I'm ass.
Speaker 2: I'm like, let's go Nigga US Open. This all cut
Speaker 2: and niggas like what you know.
Speaker 1: So I say all that to say, yeah, man, it's
Speaker 1: hard man, because it's like when you're like and it's
Speaker 1: not like a team sport either. And I don't want
Speaker 1: to speak for her because I don't know what she
Speaker 1: truly felt, and I don't want to be eyeing her
Speaker 1: pr and I'm not her spokesperson, so I don't want
Speaker 1: to misrepresent her. But I can only imagine what it
Speaker 1: feels like when you're off there by yourself. You don't
Speaker 1: got teammates, you can't even damn.
Speaker 2: I think they can just now start talking to the coaches.
Speaker 2: So yeah, it's easy for them to fill alone out there.
Speaker 2: And that's a whole other layer when you add you're.
Speaker 1: A person of color, you know what I'm saying, Well,
Speaker 1: then you're a loud person of color when you speak,
Speaker 1: you know your ideality.
Speaker 3: And it broke my heart to watch her go through that.
Speaker 3: And this is the last thing I'll say about that,
Speaker 3: because you have a right to know, you have a
Speaker 3: right to know where I stood on that issue. On
Speaker 3: one hand, I felt incredibly sad for her for having
Speaker 3: to go through it, but I covered sports and it
Speaker 3: seemed very normal to me. What people were doing. In
Speaker 3: other words, she's great. We don't want her winning. She
Speaker 3: busting people as.
Speaker 2: Left and right tennis court.
Speaker 3: Anything that we could do to distract her and to
Speaker 3: stop her from continuing the bus how you know what
Speaker 3: for the first for the athlete that we're rooting for,
Speaker 3: that's what they were going to do. You're Washington Commanders
Speaker 3: fan in football, right, Well, you go to you have
Speaker 3: met Life Stadium, An't nobody root for them? You go
Speaker 3: to Dallas, Ain't nobody rooting for them? So I was
Speaker 3: saying to myself as a sports fan, as wrong as
Speaker 3: it may be, there's no way to escape that because
Speaker 3: nobody is going to stop. How do you continue to
Speaker 3: move forward knowing that the world that we're living in,
Speaker 3: you're gonna have people rooting for you, and then you're
Speaker 3: gonna have people rooting against you, and those who are
Speaker 3: rooting against you will do everything they can to derail
Speaker 3: your success. I'm like, what do you say to that?
Speaker 3: I'm asking you as a sports fan more so than
Speaker 3: anything else, of course, how do you deal with Well?
Speaker 1: I feel like with tennis is different because it's such
Speaker 1: the culture at a tennis MATCHSS like, nobody don't say nothing.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: It's very like you speak when I might be the
Speaker 1: wrong representative because I've only been a not too many,
Speaker 1: you know, save here.
Speaker 2: But I feel like sport yeah yeah, yeah exactly.
Speaker 1: But the culture is just like quietness. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. It's like quietness, you know. So it's very
Speaker 1: It's a club sport. It's a very elitist sport. It's
Speaker 1: how the vibes I get from it.
Speaker 3: So everybody don't feel invited. I say the same thing
Speaker 3: about golf. Yeah exactly, I don't necessarily feel invited.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so hecklers aren't as often in that sport as
Speaker 1: it is like basketball football, and whether you know heckler's
Speaker 1: right or wrong, like you said, it's a part of
Speaker 1: the game.
Speaker 2: But it's just much more of a standout in tennis.
Speaker 2: Sport is super rare.
Speaker 1: Versus basketball niggas like, hey, nigga, you suck every day,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. And so just going back
Speaker 1: to just athletes in general and how they should deal
Speaker 1: with that, I feel like everybody has their own process.
Speaker 2: I mean, you got headphones. I guess where you're playing,
Speaker 2: you can't put on headphones. But I don't know.
Speaker 1: It's like everybody I don't have. I'm not gonna I'm
Speaker 1: not an athlete, you know, So I don't want to
Speaker 1: give athletes advice on how they should deal with fans,
Speaker 1: hecklers and things of that nature.
Speaker 2: Like when I'm performing, it's all fans in there.
Speaker 3: That's where I was going. Is it all fans when
Speaker 3: you're performing?
Speaker 2: Yeah, because they had to pay for a ticket.
Speaker 1: Like when I'm doing a cord A headline show, Like
Speaker 1: that's what I'm speaking of.
Speaker 2: It's all they literally pay to see me. It's nobody
Speaker 2: else there but but me. So it's like literally like
Speaker 2: all love and admiration.
Speaker 1: Now, let's say when we do a festival like a Coachella,
Speaker 1: Like Coachella is like a hundred other artists, you know,
Speaker 1: it ain't gonna be I haven't got any like Booze. Fortunately,
Speaker 1: I haven't got you know. I feel like I put
Speaker 1: on a really damn thing.
Speaker 3: You would do if you did get Booze? How do
Speaker 3: you think that would affect you?
Speaker 2: Honestly?
Speaker 1: So, the equivalent of Booze to me performing is a
Speaker 1: is a dry crowd.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: They're just not in act giving it back to you.
Speaker 1: And in that case, brother, I put in both of
Speaker 1: my in ears and I just treat it like its
Speaker 1: TV performance. I just put on my in ears. I
Speaker 1: still give a great performance. I rock through it and
Speaker 1: I get my money.
Speaker 3: You address a lot of sociations. I'm thinking about Crossroads,
Speaker 3: your third albums coming out November fifteenth. I ain't forget that,
Speaker 3: worry about it. I'll be pumping that over and in
Speaker 3: the days we theys to come, make no mistake about that.
Speaker 3: But I want to ask you, because you you address
Speaker 3: a lot of social issues, yes, sir, in your music,
Speaker 3: how do you decide what issues you're going to address?
Speaker 1: Just about what's most important? What connects with me the most?
Speaker 1: On the day drop Saturday mornings, it was when the
Speaker 1: police killed this black woman. Okay, I can't think of
Speaker 1: the name off the top.
Speaker 2: Of my head, and I want to sit down to research.
Speaker 1: But I say all this to say I had to
Speaker 1: drop a single on the same day that that happened,
Speaker 1: and part of me was like, Yo, this is crazy,
Speaker 1: this is fucked up. Like yeah, we gotta protect ours,
Speaker 1: we gotta protect our black women, Like.
Speaker 2: This is like, oh, this is crazy. This is crazy,
Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: And part of me was like, I didn't want to
Speaker 1: post it because I didn't want to seem like I
Speaker 1: was pandering on the day I dropped a single. It
Speaker 1: just happened to occur the same day. But I'm like, nah,
Speaker 1: I know what my heart was at. This really affected me,
Speaker 1: This really fucked me up. I was raised by all
Speaker 1: black women. I got eight aunts. You know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: My mom Like, so I say all this to say
Speaker 1: just things that connect with me personally. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. Things that connect with me and move me
Speaker 1: personally is what I try.
Speaker 3: To speak on You fly under the radar, Yes, sir,
Speaker 3: in a lot of people's eyes, you're pretty much under
Speaker 3: the radar. Number one? Is that intentional? Number two? How
Speaker 3: do you pull it off considering the level of success
Speaker 3: you enjoy?
Speaker 2: You know what, It's definitely intentional.
Speaker 1: Because even this is my first interview for this entire like,
Speaker 1: I'll roll out. You know what I'm saying, And because
Speaker 1: we have a relationship we've been locked in for years.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying. I feel like it was
Speaker 2: important to do it on this shelf.
Speaker 1: You know now, I appreciate you for giving me the
Speaker 1: space to speak, but yeah, just being very intentional because
Speaker 1: I don't want to oversaturate myself and now I don't
Speaker 1: want to mince and waste words, you.
Speaker 2: Know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I feel like a lot of people just be talking
Speaker 1: just for the sake of talking, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: And like I was going back earlier of like it's
Speaker 1: too many podcasts, Like can it really be that many
Speaker 1: opinions about other things that's going on? Like, so I
Speaker 1: just try to offer a unique perspective on things, going
Speaker 1: back to the music question, whatever, I feel like I
Speaker 1: can offer a unique perspective on something that hasn't been
Speaker 1: said before. Some things that touch me personally and with
Speaker 1: me just like you know, laying low it's just for
Speaker 1: my peace of mind too, Like just for my personal
Speaker 1: peace of mind. I like to live like a fairly
Speaker 1: normal life, you know what I'm saying. High level of course,
Speaker 1: you know, but you all.
Speaker 3: With somebody who's one of the greatest players in the world.
Speaker 3: How you gonna how you're gonna live a low profile
Speaker 3: for you got somebody that loss yeah yeah, yeah you yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: Like ain't like she out there doing her thing and
Speaker 3: you you you you home, you know, working a nine
Speaker 3: to five. Yeah, yeah, yeah, how you pulling that off?
Speaker 2: Man?
Speaker 1: You know it's funny she moves she moves even lower
Speaker 1: than me, like in the sense of like low keyness,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: And so yeah, man, just I don't know, just being intentional.
Speaker 1: I feel like this being intentionalble about everything, even when
Speaker 1: I go out in public, Like my hair.
Speaker 2: Is the dead giveaway when I wear.
Speaker 1: My hair when I'm like out like this, I walk,
Speaker 1: I gotta take a hundred pictures and I'm fine with that.
Speaker 2: It's super cool. But like y'all just wear dude rag shades,
Speaker 2: you know, masks. So just being intentional.
Speaker 3: You know, I'm gonna throw something out to you. I
Speaker 3: want to get your opinion on this because you brought
Speaker 3: up the you know, like the invasion of the epidemic podcasts,
Speaker 3: epidemic and stuff like that. Absolutely, here's what I detest
Speaker 3: about it, Like this shit here has earned they ain't
Speaker 3: given I put in. I put in decades before I
Speaker 3: decided to do something like this. It's not the fact
Speaker 3: that people have podcasts. It's exactly what you pointed out.
Speaker 3: It's what they're doing with it. I'm seeing cats and
Speaker 3: and and again. You put in work, I put in work,
Speaker 3: and I'm looking at people with podcasts and it's like,
Speaker 3: all right, let me tell you what happened. And they're
Speaker 3: playing a clip for somebody else's work, somebody else's interview.
Speaker 3: They're putting it out there. They sitting at the same desk,
Speaker 3: ain't move, they ain't travel, they ain't research, they ain't
Speaker 3: doing any of this. Well, let me tell you what
Speaker 3: I feel about this. And for some reason, that's a
Speaker 3: podcast and as a result, they're getting paid off of that.
Speaker 3: And the way I view it is, you want to
Speaker 3: get paid for not working in fact, because we could
Speaker 3: tell the difference between those who's putting in the work
Speaker 3: and those who don't. That's what appalls me about the
Speaker 3: podcast business, because I'm in it, right. It's supposed to
Speaker 3: be a form of journalism, all right, a form of commentary,
Speaker 3: and to me, that's not the case in a lot
Speaker 3: of situations. As a musician, as an artist, how does
Speaker 3: it make you feel if you see somebody out there
Speaker 3: that they ain't putting in the work, But for some
Speaker 3: reason it's getting a little bit of shine, even when
Speaker 3: that work isn't there.
Speaker 1: Honestly, I'll be like, man, get your money, bro. I
Speaker 1: don't got an ounce of hater in me. Like, yo,
Speaker 1: get to it, bro, that don't got nothing to do
Speaker 1: with me. It is enough, fan, Like I said, it's
Speaker 1: enough everybody. It's enough for everybody.
Speaker 2: I am blessed. Bro. I've done three headline towards across
Speaker 2: the world, all.
Speaker 1: Of them sold out. You know what I'm saying. I
Speaker 1: do very well for myself. It's like, okay, like.
Speaker 2: I don't get it.
Speaker 1: Like even like when I have like friends and family
Speaker 1: that do music and they play it for me and
Speaker 1: I'm like, yo, I'm ana my pin.
Speaker 2: But I am one human being. Bro.
Speaker 1: It's artists out there that I think are garbage juice, bro,
Speaker 1: straight garbage juice, but they doing a thing. You can
Speaker 1: find the audience. We're in the age now. Just find
Speaker 1: your niche audience. Cater to them, and they're going to
Speaker 1: tell their like minded friends about it, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying.
Speaker 2: And so seven billion people in the world.
Speaker 1: So when I see an artist that's like garbage juice
Speaker 1: and they're like going crazy and blowing up, It's like, yo,
Speaker 1: get yours absolutely, because gold, don't get old, and like longevity,
Speaker 1: those that's supposed to be here always stay here.
Speaker 3: Got you. That's another point that's good. That's a good
Speaker 3: phrase to live by. Crossroads. Back to that, what can
Speaker 3: fans expect.
Speaker 2: My best work yet?
Speaker 1: Like my whole model, like I was telling you earlier,
Speaker 1: has just been pushing that pin, you know, Like production wise,
Speaker 1: I think this is my most tasteful beat selection out
Speaker 1: of all my previous projects.
Speaker 2: And I just been pushing that pin. Like it's some songs.
Speaker 1: While we wrote the verses eight times, and I might
Speaker 1: end up just going back to.
Speaker 2: The very first verse.
Speaker 1: But the fact is I he wanted to push my
Speaker 1: pendancy if I can take it.
Speaker 2: Further some verses.
Speaker 1: I out of the eight verses, I row, I take
Speaker 1: a piece of this, piece of that, piece of that,
Speaker 1: piece of that, and that becomes the verse.
Speaker 2: But because once music.
Speaker 1: Is out, it's out, bro echoes into eternity forever. Once
Speaker 1: it's in the zeigeist is there. It's no going back.
Speaker 1: And so I just sleep a lot better at night
Speaker 1: knowing that I put my all into it and I
Speaker 1: try my very best to push it to take it
Speaker 1: to the highest level.
Speaker 2: I can, Like creatively.
Speaker 1: And my model right now the last year has been
Speaker 1: if I had a time machine, I go in that
Speaker 1: time machine and play the music back for sixteen year
Speaker 1: old Karda. Is he impressed with the music, not with
Speaker 1: oh my god, I made it, I got and music.
Speaker 1: Grammy's out of there, so millions of records like nah,
Speaker 1: it's just like I just go back in the time
Speaker 1: machine playing the music he needs to be impressed of,
Speaker 1: like yo.
Speaker 2: I was able to get that good, like I was
Speaker 2: able to create something that's good like wow. And if I.
Speaker 1: Don't think it impresses sixteen year old Korda, then it's
Speaker 1: gonna stay in the vault.
Speaker 3: I've never met an artist that don't have an opinion
Speaker 3: about sports. Come on, so I'll let you get on
Speaker 3: out of here. Let's do what the hell is on
Speaker 3: your mind about the sports world. Let's get that out there.
Speaker 3: First of all, what's on your mind? Is it NFL?
Speaker 3: This is it NBA? What's on your mind most both
Speaker 3: of them?
Speaker 2: Man, I'm tapped into the NFL. I see the.
Speaker 1: Jets just got yellow GMS Aaron.
Speaker 3: I don't know what it's gonna do for them. With
Speaker 3: Baltimore Kansas City Buffalo just got.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a big pick up for them. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Now, commanders, I see the Panthers. You know, my dad's
Speaker 1: a big Panthers fan, so I grew up heavy on.
Speaker 3: Panally my condole sisters, your dad.
Speaker 2: Yeah, man, Yeah.
Speaker 1: Horrible French, horrible, Yo, the g we have the worst
Speaker 1: GM in sports.
Speaker 2: How the fuck excuse my French. But it's the only
Speaker 2: way to say it. How to fun I'm saying excuse my.
Speaker 1: French thirty minutes in an interview, right, But Yo, how
Speaker 1: the fuck do you trade away Christian McCaffrey for two seconds?
Speaker 3: How do you miss that badly? On Bryce Young compared
Speaker 3: to c J. Stroup. Now, I know Bryce Young coming
Speaker 3: out of Alabama was all world, but damn you see
Speaker 3: how small he is and and and you look at
Speaker 3: the offensive line it's supposed to protect it.
Speaker 2: I mean, I spent a million dollars. They spent hundreds
Speaker 2: of millions of dollars on the offensive line.
Speaker 3: And then they want to talk to me like I
Speaker 3: can say something different than what I'm saying. I'm like,
Speaker 3: I can't help you. I mean, it's just that damn bad.
Speaker 3: Now we'll say this about your commanders, Jaydon Daniels. Yeah,
Speaker 3: Jadon Daniels, true, I'm trying to lay low because I
Speaker 3: don't want to jinx M. I don't want them to
Speaker 3: get hurt like r G three got hurt.
Speaker 2: Don't bring.
Speaker 3: I don't know, don't don't do that. Don't do that,
Speaker 3: don't do that. Don't bring up my man Rob like that.
Speaker 2: Don't do it.
Speaker 3: I'm doing that. We're gonna We're gonna let that go.
Speaker 3: But I'll tell you this, r G three was big time,
Speaker 3: not nearly That brother was special, no doubt about it.
Speaker 2: For sure.
Speaker 1: Jaden Daniels, you believe in him, absolutely, one hundred percent.
Speaker 2: I rebuke all r G three energy.
Speaker 1: Jesus rebuke now, Jaden Daniels the one. You know what
Speaker 1: this reminds me of, like just that excitement. They didn't
Speaker 1: do what they were supposed to do. But I remember
Speaker 1: just being in sixth grade, we had like Jason Campbell,
Speaker 1: like Hugh Lee saying, Tanna Moss Clinton.
Speaker 2: Portis our ba handsworth.
Speaker 1: You know that for the season started, Shad.
Speaker 3: What a monster.
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, but that squad just had me so
Speaker 1: excited before the season started.
Speaker 2: Now they went eight and eight. God, ras Sean Taylor soul.
Speaker 1: But I say this to say, this commander's team, and
Speaker 1: it's looking real good for I think we got.
Speaker 2: Rid of Dan Schneider. We had to get heat that something. Yeah,
Speaker 2: we had to get he was.
Speaker 3: I don't even know he in the country. He won't
Speaker 3: come in and cut away.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he was cursing. Man, like we good.
Speaker 3: I know that. Listen, Josh Harris a billionaire. You paid
Speaker 3: over six billion dollars for the franchise, but part of
Speaker 3: that ownership group is serving Magic Johnson. How are you
Speaker 3: feeling about that?
Speaker 2: I love it, man, I love it. This is this
Speaker 2: is great. Now they need to buy the Wizards too.
Speaker 3: They don't own the Wizards, No, they don't. You do
Speaker 3: know this. They almost as bad as the Carolina Panthers.
Speaker 3: They might be, they might be worse. Yeah, well, but
Speaker 3: I mean the only thing you could say is that
Speaker 3: at least Carolina only puts us through seventeen weeks in misery.
Speaker 3: The Wizards put us through eighty two games.
Speaker 2: And this ship, yeah, man, it's the Wizards is.
Speaker 3: Bad all right? So who you got in the NBA
Speaker 3: this year?
Speaker 2: NBA? I like the Masks. I think that No, let me.
Speaker 3: Go ahead, go ahead. They just got the ass whip
Speaker 3: in the finals that you bringing up because they got
Speaker 3: Clay Thompson.
Speaker 1: Man, I think he got a bone to pick, man,
Speaker 1: he got a point to prove, and I feel like
Speaker 1: people been playing with him.
Speaker 3: I feel like, oh, he's big time. You know, he's
Speaker 3: big time Hall of Famer, one of the great shooters.
Speaker 3: But they think he lost the step. Golden State thinks
Speaker 3: he lost the step defensive.
Speaker 2: And now he's the third option versus the second OPA.
Speaker 3: If he's open, he's gonna make shots.
Speaker 2: He's gonna hit that he got and Kyrie handing it
Speaker 2: off to him.
Speaker 3: Here's my issue with Kyrie Irving spectacular, spectacular throughout the years.
Speaker 3: Put on a show in the playoffs, it was absolutely sensational.
Speaker 3: In the finals in Boston, he forgot how to play no.
Speaker 3: No in Boston.
Speaker 2: We ain't gonna do that. Look, I'm gonna tell you
Speaker 2: that's my brother in real. Okay, I'm a little bias.
Speaker 2: I'm a little biased. I'm a little bias. That's my
Speaker 2: that's my tribe for that's my main man.
Speaker 3: I got a lot of love despite what people think.
Speaker 3: We had our disagreements, but I respect the hell out
Speaker 3: of him and I got a lot of love for him.
Speaker 1: And going back to the point of like that courage
Speaker 1: and that willingness to speak his truth.
Speaker 2: He did. No political correctness.
Speaker 3: He did.
Speaker 1: And I feel like the entire world and you said
Speaker 1: this publicly owes him apology.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying, Like people owe with this
Speaker 2: man in apology because he stood.
Speaker 1: On his beliefs and his morals and we got to
Speaker 1: reward that as a community.
Speaker 3: And what you sit in here, I look right in
Speaker 3: the camera and I'll say this, Okay, I got on him,
Speaker 3: but I got on him because I got tired him
Speaker 3: missing them Damn games. He's too great for me not
Speaker 3: to watch you play. He's too great. But I was
Speaker 3: never of the mindset, yo, take the vaccine during the
Speaker 3: COVID pandemic because it's the vaccine. I was of the mindset, yo,
Speaker 3: Kat and Brooklyn because of you, James Harden and Brooklyn
Speaker 3: because of you do what you gotta do to make
Speaker 3: sure you win in the chip in Brooklyn. That was
Speaker 3: my position. But I do owe him an apology, so
Speaker 3: does everybody else in this regard what we've seen the
Speaker 3: politicians turn it into what we've seen revealed about COVID,
Speaker 3: the vaccine, and all the stuff that comes with that,
Speaker 3: the conspiracy theories, and beyond the inconsistencies, the statistical lies.
Speaker 3: Kyrie look a hell of a lot better now than
Speaker 3: he did years ago. People like me and others need
Speaker 3: to shut the hell up about that issue. We can't
Speaker 3: say anything against him at this point.
Speaker 2: That I appreciate it right there.
Speaker 3: My man. I'm proud of you, man, keep making it happen.
Speaker 3: Crossroads drops November fifteenth, All the best of you, man,
Speaker 3: always home here for you one brother.
Speaker 2: I appreciate you. Thank you. I'm gonna take this couch
Speaker 2: with me too, man.
Speaker 3: I need the couch. Man, I ain't got your money.
Speaker 3: I don't feel like buying another one.
Speaker 2: We ain't gonna talk. We ain't gonna do that, brother,
Speaker 2: But you know what, all right, We're good. We're good.
Speaker 3: We're gonna do that, all right, all right, y'all, sir,