Speaker 1: Wake that ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club Morning.
Speaker 2: Everybody is stevej Envy, Jess, Hilarious, Charlamage, the guy we
Speaker 2: are the Breakfast Club. We got Lola Rosa feeling in
Speaker 2: for Jess and also our nephew was gonna our nephew.
Speaker 1: With us today.
Speaker 3: Wow, shut up? You always gotta fight Dominicans? Why why
Speaker 3: do you always gotta fight with a Dominican? That's wow. Wow.
Speaker 4: We got a special guest in the building. We got
Speaker 4: I d K. Welcome brother. How you feeling man.
Speaker 1: I'm feeling good man. It's good to be here.
Speaker 5: The first time I came here, I came a little
Speaker 5: too late and I wasn't able to do the interview.
Speaker 1: So everything happens for a reason.
Speaker 3: Happy to have you, brother, that's right, hearing your name
Speaker 3: for a long, long, long time.
Speaker 6: How was the show with g easy?
Speaker 3: How's the tour going so far?
Speaker 5: So good Man been real cool And he actually brought
Speaker 5: me on my first run ever in my life, like
Speaker 5: in like twenty fifteen or something like that.
Speaker 1: So it's like full circle, you know.
Speaker 2: So for people that don't know who I DK is,
Speaker 2: where you from, this is the first time some people
Speaker 2: are hearing you give them a breakdown where you're from,
Speaker 2: what your name stands for.
Speaker 4: And all that.
Speaker 5: Oh, yeah, so it's I d K from the d
Speaker 5: m v PG county in Maryland. Specifically, you just said you.
Speaker 4: Were from Queens the other day.
Speaker 7: Now and Germany, y'a not going to do this.
Speaker 3: I'm an army.
Speaker 6: My family from Florida.
Speaker 8: I grew up in Maryland. I went to me high school.
Speaker 8: I'm from Severn, Maryland, so don't I went to move.
Speaker 8: I moved to New York for college. I've been here
Speaker 8: eleven years.
Speaker 5: That kind of sounded like me, like I was born
Speaker 5: in London, but I came to America when I was
Speaker 5: like two years old, so I grew up in the
Speaker 5: dmv PG county. I DK stands for ignorantly delivering knowledge.
Speaker 7: I've always liked that acronym because I totally understand what
Speaker 7: you mean when you say that, because I always say,
Speaker 7: you got to be the perfect balance of ratchetess and
Speaker 7: righteously delivering knowledge is like saying I got to put
Speaker 7: the medicine in the right.
Speaker 1: Right kind of like that. Yeah, it was.
Speaker 5: I was actually in prison when I came up with
Speaker 5: that acronym, and so I was in the state prison
Speaker 5: when I was younger, and I came up with the
Speaker 5: acronym ignorantly Delivering Knowledge because I wanted people to be like,
Speaker 5: what does I d K stand for?
Speaker 1: Like does that mean? I don't know?
Speaker 5: And I always feel like if I prompt somebody to
Speaker 5: ask a question and I answer it, you're more likely
Speaker 5: to remember it than me just telling you you feel me?
Speaker 4: Why did you get into rap?
Speaker 9: I'm sorry, I was going to say, you went to
Speaker 9: you mentioned prison? Yeah there, you went to prison the
Speaker 9: same year that you went to college.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, yeah, one of the times I went, because
Speaker 5: it was yeah.
Speaker 6: Yeah, So let's talk about the first time.
Speaker 9: And then I want to know how the whole I'm
Speaker 9: going to college but then I end up in prison,
Speaker 9: Like what's that story?
Speaker 6: How does that try?
Speaker 1: Man?
Speaker 5: First of all, I come from like a West African background,
Speaker 5: so my mom, sincerely all, my dad from Ghana. I'm
Speaker 5: literally the first person in my family to get locked up.
Speaker 4: But that's not a good thing.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, but also first person prison is not
Speaker 5: a good thing. Fair, But you know, I turned it around,
Speaker 5: so at the same time, that's true. But yeah, that
Speaker 5: kind of was like something like you know, when I
Speaker 5: was seventeen, I got jammed up, had some charges, you know,
Speaker 5: stuff to do with you know, you know, robberies and
Speaker 5: guns and things like that, and then pretty much I
Speaker 5: went to prison of jail. But the thing was I
Speaker 5: was on I got sentenced to fifteen years suspended the
Speaker 5: three and they allowed me to do it on home detention,
Speaker 5: but getting in trouble on violations and technical things.
Speaker 1: But you made me, Yeah that's how I When did
Speaker 1: you start rapping?
Speaker 4: What made you say?
Speaker 2: You know what, I want to lead the streets alone
Speaker 2: and focus on this rap career.
Speaker 5: I mean the first time I got locked up, I
Speaker 5: realized it wasn't for me, like right away, like I
Speaker 5: was like, no, no, I can't do this.
Speaker 3: So you know you went back through more times.
Speaker 5: Yeah, but it was like violation technical stuff. It was
Speaker 5: like I'm not judging coming no, no, no, no, no times
Speaker 5: judging technical though. It wasn't like I kept doing things.
Speaker 5: It was just violations and stuff like that. But basically
Speaker 5: the last time I was in before I went in,
Speaker 5: I was listening to like Kendrick Lamar and like Jay Cole,
Speaker 5: and you know where I'm from, people don't really listen
Speaker 5: to that. But I had a friend that went to
Speaker 5: like fam you and he would come back with like
Speaker 5: more I would say eclectic rap, and I was like,
Speaker 5: oh man, people rap like this, That's that's interesting. So
Speaker 5: I remember being in prison. I was a tutor, so
Speaker 5: I helped people get their GEDs, and also it was
Speaker 5: a barber, and I just remember I would just write
Speaker 5: music and everybody would listen, like see me like bobbing
Speaker 5: my head right, and they'd be like, yo, spit rap,
Speaker 5: like like I ain't know you rapped like and so
Speaker 5: one day I just did it, and I was like, man,
Speaker 5: if I could make people that's pissed off in prison
Speaker 5: like music, maybe maybe it'll work for me when I
Speaker 5: get out.
Speaker 3: What lifestyle changes did you make?
Speaker 7: Though, because you know, my dad used to always tell me,
Speaker 7: if you don't change your lifestyle, you gonna end up
Speaker 7: in jail, dead or.
Speaker 3: Broke, sitting on the tree. What lifestyle changes did you mean?
Speaker 5: I just started feeling like I needed to actually get
Speaker 5: a job, So when I first got out, I didn't
Speaker 5: care what it was. Actually my first job was McDonald's.
Speaker 5: I was proud to go to McDonald's and word up
Speaker 5: to be honest, like because I was like, man, I
Speaker 5: got a job, I got like, you know, some type
Speaker 5: of purpose, like let me try to just turn this around.
Speaker 1: So that was like probably the first big one.
Speaker 5: And then trying to go to school, like I was
Speaker 5: going to PG Community College, So getting back in school
Speaker 5: was another thing.
Speaker 8: But for the first time that you went to jail,
Speaker 8: what would you attribute like the why to Would you
Speaker 8: say it was like the internet? Would you say it
Speaker 8: was just your environment?
Speaker 1: So it was the want for love.
Speaker 5: Like my parents loved me, but I didn't know how
Speaker 5: to comprehend the way they gave me love. Right, So
Speaker 5: I never got great grades. I grew up middle class,
Speaker 5: but I was surrounded by the hood and I went
Speaker 5: to school in the hood, so I identified more with
Speaker 5: the people that also didn't get good grades, and that
Speaker 5: that comes with a lot of stuff because they coming
Speaker 5: from different backgrounds and they doing different things. So I
Speaker 5: felt like whenever I would do something bad, they would
Speaker 5: show me respect, and that was the love that I wanted.
Speaker 7: I'm glad you got had the explanation quick, because saying
Speaker 7: you want to go to jail for love is crazy.
Speaker 5: No, right, I'm glad. I'm glad that like you understand
Speaker 5: like this nuance.
Speaker 1: That you know what I mean?
Speaker 2: So I was going to ask, you know, when you
Speaker 2: started rapping, what did your family say at first?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 4: Were they behind you the whole way? They was like here, you.
Speaker 1: Know what, No, it wasn't as bad as you would think.
Speaker 1: Yeah right, it was like how much worse could this be?
Speaker 1: They couldn't get no worse than what I already did.
Speaker 5: So my mom was just happy I was doing something positive,
Speaker 5: got you, you know. But she she passed away. She
Speaker 5: never she never got to listen. Well, she's got to
Speaker 5: listen to my music. She heard it once and she
Speaker 5: was like, but she would brag about it, but she
Speaker 5: would never listen to like to Like, my mom till
Speaker 5: she passed never heard me curse, Like I never said
Speaker 5: a curse word around her, But in my music.
Speaker 8: What does it sound sound like at the time, because
Speaker 8: you really dibble and dabble in all different genres, all
Speaker 8: different sounds.
Speaker 3: So what did she hear?
Speaker 5: A lot of cursing, a lot of bad words, like
Speaker 5: a lot of rap like I was just you know,
Speaker 5: just rap.
Speaker 1: Yeah for sure.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it depends on how you because like again, the
Speaker 5: whole ignorantly delivering all this thing. Depending on how you
Speaker 5: first hear me, You'll think I'm one thing and it
Speaker 5: might not be that.
Speaker 7: You know, and you're growing in real time, right, cause's
Speaker 7: like it's your fifth studio.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this would be my fifth one. Yeah, what's the what's.
Speaker 7: The evolution of id K Ben from that first project
Speaker 7: to know?
Speaker 5: It's like just this this idea of like finding like
Speaker 5: what I actually want to express sonically. So I feel
Speaker 5: like I've always been dibbling, dabbling, dibbling and dabbling in
Speaker 5: different types of music, but this now is more like
Speaker 5: I'm creating a sound, like a feeling.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 5: It's like taking like a certain melodic like element and
Speaker 5: then trying to put like different drums around it, maybe
Speaker 5: to switch the genre up, but the feeling is constant, consistent.
Speaker 5: That's probably the biggest thing that I've grown into now.
Speaker 4: On is He Here? Is He Real?
Speaker 1: Album?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm looking at some of the features on it
Speaker 2: that people don't know. You had DMX on that album.
Speaker 5: Yeah, well that was Actually it's so funny because I
Speaker 5: have something with him that we're getting ready to put together.
Speaker 5: But on that album specifically, it was something that I
Speaker 5: sampled a prayer he did but I had to chase
Speaker 5: him down like at south By Southwest and pull up
Speaker 5: on him to get it clear, like yo, yo, I'm
Speaker 5: alrighty K. So I had to find him.
Speaker 4: How was that conversation?
Speaker 1: He know who I was at that time?
Speaker 3: Are you on the Prayer album that they got drop?
Speaker 5: No, I'm not on that? The feature for him after those,
Speaker 5: so he got to know who I was after that.
Speaker 5: I did a feature for him prior to him passing.
Speaker 4: Did you have a relationship at all?
Speaker 5: Like small, like just kind of through like you know,
Speaker 5: people that we knew and things like that.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it was.
Speaker 9: A conversation like when you ran up on him and
Speaker 9: it was like, hey, I'm trying to get this cleared.
Speaker 1: He was like it's done, literally just like that, like
Speaker 1: you go to the bullshit. He was like, all right,
Speaker 1: who I gotta go? Yeah, basically pretty much and he
Speaker 1: got it done.
Speaker 7: On the coolest What is I know that I knew?
Speaker 7: I was called bravado and in timo, what does timo me?
Speaker 5: It's like, uh, the Italian word for intimate, So bravado
Speaker 5: is like kind of like bragged oshs, you know, talking
Speaker 5: about stuff. But the intimo part is where it comes
Speaker 5: from like like a lot of like why I care,
Speaker 5: Like I like, you know, wearing certain things, and I like,
Speaker 5: you know, style things like that, And it comes from
Speaker 5: the like being made fun of when I was like
Speaker 5: in the sixth grade but not having certain things. And
Speaker 5: I just remember being like a kid going to school
Speaker 5: depressed because I know they're gonna make fun of me.
Speaker 5: So I remember ninth grade. That's before I started getting
Speaker 5: into trouble and you know, and getting money. I literally
Speaker 5: said to myself, I will never be made fun of
Speaker 5: for dressing that ever again, for the rest of my life.
Speaker 5: And that's that's explains the bravado side, because the bravado
Speaker 5: side is you just see it. You just see the
Speaker 5: floss and all that. But the intimo side is where
Speaker 5: it comes from.
Speaker 3: So and then you get money and realize you don't
Speaker 3: even care about clothes.
Speaker 5: Like that, right, that also starts to happen too, you
Speaker 5: know what I mean, Like it's like you like stuff,
Speaker 5: but like people put me in a fashion world because
Speaker 5: I do a lot of stuff in that world, but
Speaker 5: it's not by choice, Like I just know people they
Speaker 5: like what I do, and you know, and then they
Speaker 5: just asked me to do things, but I don't try
Speaker 5: to do that get you could just do it, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 6: Now another feature, you had Kanye West on the song
Speaker 6: Celena and TRAPPI.
Speaker 5: Well, no, that was another sample situation where pretty much
Speaker 5: we got that was a crazy one because it was
Speaker 5: a jay Z song initially, so it was everybody had
Speaker 5: to kind.
Speaker 9: Of that process, like because Kanye is kind of hard
Speaker 9: to it wasn't as fast as the DMX.
Speaker 5: Well maybe, yeah, it took a little while actually, but
Speaker 5: I'll be real, like, Yay has reached out to me
Speaker 5: and I've I've hung out with him multiple times, like,
Speaker 5: so you know, it's not that that one is a
Speaker 5: little different that I remember when I dropped is he real?
Speaker 1: I was with eighty eight Keys.
Speaker 5: And uh and and and and eighty eight comes up
Speaker 5: to me and passes me the phone from my unknown
Speaker 5: number and I answered and it's like Yo, it's Yay
Speaker 5: And I'm like oh, and he was just like I've
Speaker 5: been hearing about your album. It wasn't out at the time.
Speaker 5: He's like, man, at some point today, I'd love to
Speaker 5: connect with you. And next thing you know, I was
Speaker 5: in Calabasas, uh, just hanging out at the crib you know,
Speaker 5: so yeah, yay yay had had shown love and I've
Speaker 5: actually like linked up him a.
Speaker 8: Couple of times on a new project. What would you
Speaker 8: say is your favorite record?
Speaker 1: Miles Trumpet?
Speaker 5: I like that one a lot because I'm singing, you know,
Speaker 5: and I'm like kind of like that's a beat where
Speaker 5: I listened to it. I'm like, I hear Griselda on
Speaker 5: this beat, so instead of doing what they would do,
Speaker 5: let me just sing.
Speaker 6: It seems like a fan favorite too. I really like Check.
Speaker 6: I feel like Check.
Speaker 8: It's braggadocious, it's swaggy. Yeah, but on it well, first
Speaker 8: of all, actually the music video who came up with
Speaker 8: the concept for that? Like why is it just a
Speaker 8: girl shaking her ass the whole time? I'm really trying
Speaker 8: to like what are you giving?
Speaker 1: Well?
Speaker 5: The great part about that one is like ignorantly delivering.
Speaker 5: Now it's just a juxtaposition, like when I hear that
Speaker 5: beat in that song, I'm really rapping, so you don't
Speaker 5: really see that happening, but there has the I think
Speaker 5: the rhythm is what I wanted to articulate by having
Speaker 5: her do that. You know, because you listen to it,
Speaker 5: you don't think you could do that to that song,
Speaker 5: but then when you see it do it, you realize
Speaker 5: you can, you know. So that was what that was about.
Speaker 3: Were you a fan of out Davis all your parents.
Speaker 1: Were, Well? Yeah, I mean, like I have, you know,
Speaker 1: records from him.
Speaker 5: But I'll say this, I've heard a few different things,
Speaker 5: and everything that I've heard from him has made me
Speaker 5: feel a certain way. But I do need to dig
Speaker 5: more into what he's got going on, because I did
Speaker 5: see some stuff from like the documentary and stuff how
Speaker 5: he would switch his bands around and all these things that,
Speaker 5: you know, I thought that was inspiring. But yeah, I
Speaker 5: want to talk about the No Label Academy, Yeah, that
Speaker 5: you did at Harvard. Yeah, so Charlamagne loved this too
Speaker 5: because you did two lectures on mental health.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Why did you feel like that was so.
Speaker 1: Important to do? Well?
Speaker 5: So the class is ten day experience that people from
Speaker 5: all around the world. Students apply and then we pick
Speaker 5: about twenty to twenty five of them, and then I
Speaker 5: teach the class and it goes from branding, which I
Speaker 5: call story in vision, to financial literacy to team building
Speaker 5: and mental health is the last day. And we taught
Speaker 5: that at the Medical School at Harvard. I think mental
Speaker 5: health is really important because I always say this, like,
Speaker 5: as human beings, we've evolved socially a lot of so
Speaker 5: many different times since like you know, they say we're
Speaker 5: about three hundred thousand seventy five to three hundred thousand
Speaker 5: years old, like what we are biologically, we've evolved I
Speaker 5: think way too much socially to keep up with where
Speaker 5: we are biologically. So when you fame is something we created.
Speaker 5: That's not something we were built for or made for.
Speaker 5: So like a lot of times people deal with fame
Speaker 5: in a way that could be detrimental. And I think
Speaker 5: that people don't teach the aspect and the importance of
Speaker 5: mental health when they're actually pushing them to be famous,
Speaker 5: you know. So for me, this class was supposed to
Speaker 5: prepare you from a bi business perspective for what you
Speaker 5: or the artist you're working with could be dealing with
Speaker 5: once they get in the game. And I think a
Speaker 5: lot of the times labels will see like, oh, this
Speaker 5: person's hot, they come from this neighborhood and all that.
Speaker 5: Yeah that's cool and all that, but like and then
Speaker 5: they not ready for corporate the corporate like they're not
Speaker 5: understanding what that is. So now you're expecting somebody who's
Speaker 5: manager might be like just homeinge to know how to
Speaker 5: move within a corporate setting and be successful and then
Speaker 5: sustaining that sustain that success. I think that creates a
Speaker 5: lot of problems for a lot of different people.
Speaker 2: You know, how has your mental been you know, because
Speaker 2: you talked about kids making fun of you back in
Speaker 2: the day. Yeah, and now being on social media is
Speaker 2: times a thousand is as far as the amount of commons.
Speaker 2: Sometimes people just say negative stuff just to try to
Speaker 2: get a reaction. So how you deal with social media now?
Speaker 5: I mean, look, I lost my mom. She died from
Speaker 5: you know, HIV complications from that, and I didn't know
Speaker 5: that until after she passed, so I never had that
Speaker 5: closure of being able to talk to her about it.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 5: So when you look at that kind of stuff, and
Speaker 5: then you look at like what I've been through with
Speaker 5: prison and all this stuff.
Speaker 1: Man, like I'm kind of primed for It's like it
Speaker 1: doesn't really get much worse.
Speaker 3: You've been through real shit.
Speaker 5: Yeah, So for me, it's like second nature almost dealing
Speaker 5: with some of the stuff that's nothing to me. When
Speaker 5: they like COVID, I'm like I was just I was
Speaker 5: actually on twenty three lock twenty three hour lockdown at
Speaker 5: one point, like this is nothing to me with a book,
Speaker 5: you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: So for me, like I love a.
Speaker 10: Good quarantine, yeah right, yeah, so to me, it don't
Speaker 10: really get much worse.
Speaker 5: So so you know, I just try to like figure
Speaker 5: out how to express that to people who haven't gone
Speaker 5: through those things. That's what my class is mainly for
Speaker 5: when it comes to that aspect.
Speaker 3: I like what you said too, because I never thought
Speaker 3: about it. But it's true.
Speaker 7: Fame is a social construct, and nowadays everybody thinks they're famous.
Speaker 5: Not on need that everybody kind of is because you
Speaker 5: got to think about it. If you have social media,
Speaker 5: when you post something, even if it's just the local before.
Speaker 1: You, they had to see you do it.
Speaker 5: Right now, you can just be like, yeah, I was,
Speaker 5: I went and ate this ice cream at so and so,
Speaker 5: and then people comment like, ah, why'd you get that flavor?
Speaker 1: Like that's what everybody.
Speaker 5: Has, some form of fame if you have social media,
Speaker 5: And then you think about high schools, like the popular
Speaker 5: kid in the high school would be popular when they
Speaker 5: walk in school, or maybe certain things happen after school.
Speaker 5: But now it's like, oh yeah, he got fifteen hundred
Speaker 5: followers and the school was like three thousand people, so
Speaker 5: that after school, you know what I mean. Like it's
Speaker 5: just like, so everyone's dealing with some form of fame
Speaker 5: right now, and I think that that's an issue.
Speaker 7: And I feel sorry for these kids because it makes
Speaker 7: them overthink everything. Example you gave is like you shouldn't
Speaker 7: be having a question. Nobody should be questioning you about
Speaker 7: the flavory ice cream you want, right, you don't want
Speaker 7: to get, but every single thing you do is question.
Speaker 7: So therefore you're questioning every single thing you do in
Speaker 7: your mind, every little mundane thing you do.
Speaker 3: You're overthinking it.
Speaker 1: That's what I mean.
Speaker 5: Like, biologically we haven't evolved, but socially we're constantly evolving,
Speaker 5: and we're dealing with AI and all these things starting
Speaker 5: to happen. It's just it's only going to get faster
Speaker 5: and faster.
Speaker 6: And that class at Harvard, that's the class that Virgil
Speaker 6: came to.
Speaker 5: Yes, Virgil before he passed, He's supposed to speak for
Speaker 5: thirty minutes.
Speaker 1: He spoke for an hour thirty minutes. Yeah, shut out.
Speaker 9: So you saw the that this happened, like a few
Speaker 9: months ago, almost a few months ago, when the Blue
Speaker 9: Star Alliance acquire Off Whitey. Yeah, yeah, and so people,
Speaker 9: I know you said you don't like being put in
Speaker 9: a fashion lane, but I just will love to get
Speaker 9: your opinion on that, because people were upset about that
Speaker 9: because they felt like it was going to devalue the
Speaker 9: brain and what Virgil that worked for.
Speaker 5: How you think about that, Well, you know, whenever, whenever
Speaker 5: art meets commerce, it's always going to get watered down.
Speaker 5: If I signed to a record label, there's songs that
Speaker 5: are better singles than the song that I might believe
Speaker 5: because of the range of entry points people could have
Speaker 5: to that song. You make that decision once you decide
Speaker 5: to do art, because we could do whatever art we
Speaker 5: want and be homeless if we okay with that, that's
Speaker 5: cool too. I say that to say with that particular
Speaker 5: situation one, I don't know the details to it. I
Speaker 5: don't know too much of it, but the idea that
Speaker 5: something could be watered down, it depends on the details
Speaker 5: of the deal and what they got going on and
Speaker 5: who controls what. I think that that came from Virgil's
Speaker 5: brain at the end of the day, and Virgil is
Speaker 5: not here, So there's always going to be some type
Speaker 5: of difference, right, But yeah, when art mes commerce, that's
Speaker 5: what happens. You know, it's a battles t when I
Speaker 5: always look at everything is don't look at it as
Speaker 5: an on and off switch, look at it as a percentage.
Speaker 9: Knowing him personally, do you think that Virgil will be
Speaker 9: happy with like just where off White is right now today?
Speaker 9: That's also been a conversation too. They've had like different
Speaker 9: leadership in and out and stuff like that.
Speaker 5: You know, there's people that are friends of mine who
Speaker 5: could answer that question far better than I could, because
Speaker 5: I don't have enough of it. I didn't have that
Speaker 5: relationship with him where I would know what happiness is
Speaker 5: actually to him when it comes to that brand.
Speaker 1: How did you meet that? He followed me.
Speaker 5: I did the cover GQ's uh British GQ and it
Speaker 5: was a Louis Vuitton exclusive, and so I debuted the
Speaker 5: NBA collab that they have and from there he followed me.
Speaker 5: And then I got a made back and brought it Virgil. No,
Speaker 5: I got one, just regular one, and then he was like,
Speaker 5: welcome to the club.
Speaker 1: And then that we started talking.
Speaker 3: From I got to slide out with it was a
Speaker 3: pleasure meeting.
Speaker 5: Of course your headlines and maccolate, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: You to you, to you too a lot of that.
Speaker 2: Man, Now has the industry changed since you first came
Speaker 2: out and did your first mixtape?
Speaker 4: How have you seen how things change? Because you know,
Speaker 4: usually when.
Speaker 2: Artist first do the mixtape is their core. They only
Speaker 2: care about their core. But now it's something different. Now
Speaker 2: you're looking for a radio record. Now you're looking for
Speaker 2: something that's gonna go on the charts. Now you look
Speaker 2: for those things. So how has things changed for you?
Speaker 5: I mean, look that when I first started, like streaming
Speaker 5: wasn't really a thing like that, Like it was still
Speaker 5: kind of iTunes and people reviewing the song or album
Speaker 5: or whatever. Things have changed a lot because people and
Speaker 5: the algorithm dictates a lot of what what a lot
Speaker 5: of the decisions you could potentially make. So now we're
Speaker 5: in a place where we could, like think a song
Speaker 5: sounds like a single, but that doesn't matter anymore. Like
Speaker 5: you know, I can't rely on like DJs to break
Speaker 5: the record the same way as before.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like this is.
Speaker 5: The record based off of the algorithm and streaming and
Speaker 5: the fans. So now we push it. You know, I
Speaker 5: think in a lot of it's good. In a lot
Speaker 5: of ways it's not good.
Speaker 4: That makes it difficult.
Speaker 2: But you know, the DJ now he follows an algorithm,
Speaker 2: He follows what people are listening to, what's streaming, instead
Speaker 2: of just you know, what somebody's feeling, which makes it difficult.
Speaker 2: And being from the DMV area, how difficult is it
Speaker 2: for that, especially being a rapper. You don't really see
Speaker 2: too many from the DMV rap that a huge, but
Speaker 2: there's a lot of talent in the DMV area.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's funny.
Speaker 5: I think I was just talking to Jaha and No
Speaker 5: Idea about this, like they were like, Yo, you know
Speaker 5: what's crazy?
Speaker 1: What's your situation?
Speaker 5: One you don't have If you look at rap, there's
Speaker 5: a lot of people who have some kind of co
Speaker 5: sign by somebody that they're aligned with, especially when you
Speaker 5: make the type of rap that I make. And then
Speaker 5: another thing is if not that at least they have
Speaker 5: like a really big city that they're coming from. That's
Speaker 5: huge in music. And right now we're growing obviously in
Speaker 5: the DMV, but it isn't like New York or Atlanta
Speaker 5: or La Right, So it's like they basically, it's like, yo,
Speaker 5: you kind of have to make your own way in
Speaker 5: a way that a lot of people don't. Not saying
Speaker 5: that people don't make their own way, I'm saying like,
Speaker 5: in a way that most people don't. And I thought
Speaker 5: about that and I was like, wow, actually there is
Speaker 5: you have a point. The good thing I'll say about
Speaker 5: where I'm from, though, is when it comes to originality,
Speaker 5: there is a lot to pull from.
Speaker 1: There's a huge culture.
Speaker 5: I come from, Go go That's why I started doing music,
Speaker 5: Go go bands and.
Speaker 1: Stuff like that.
Speaker 5: So you got a lot to pull from. And when
Speaker 5: it does work and when it does break, it's going
Speaker 5: to be beautiful. However, you know, you know, you got
Speaker 5: to roll up your sleeves. You know, you got to
Speaker 5: remain poised.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I feel like the DMV area doesn't get heard
Speaker 2: like it should, you know, And I honestly, if I
Speaker 2: didn't go to Hampton, I would have never understood the
Speaker 2: DMV area.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, you.
Speaker 2: See all this like wile that took a long time
Speaker 2: to break through, or even push it that took a
Speaker 2: long time to break through. It's like it comes so
Speaker 2: last with the respect and I think because it's such
Speaker 2: a small area but a big area.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Man, it's a melting pot of a lot of beautiful things,
Speaker 5: you know. And I think that like there is a
Speaker 5: certain level of i say, like segregation within the type
Speaker 5: of thing that you may do versus the type of
Speaker 5: thing this person might do. But I think when we
Speaker 5: find when we figure out how to kind of bring
Speaker 5: it all together, that is going to also I always
Speaker 5: I have this theory we when the Commanders start winning,
Speaker 5: we'll start to see our industry.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's so. I think. I think it's, you know,
Speaker 1: around the corner.
Speaker 9: Like that's la like la. Everything is so celebrity. They're
Speaker 9: the team, so they celebrity lifestyle.
Speaker 8: So the only reason why I don't think that's going
Speaker 8: to be a thing is just because the DMV just
Speaker 8: doesn't have the structure for it. Like we don't have
Speaker 8: home base for media. I had to go to New
Speaker 8: York to do media. We don't have a home base
Speaker 8: for artists, like we have recording studios, but industries you
Speaker 8: want to make get La Atlanta New York like to
Speaker 8: actually be a part of an industry algorithm.
Speaker 5: So I agree with you from that perspective. But the
Speaker 5: one thing I will say is that's the industry part
Speaker 5: of it, but artistically sound wise, right, that's the first
Speaker 5: thing that has to happen regardless, right, And I think
Speaker 5: that there are people that are willing to travel to
Speaker 5: kind of get those other things done.
Speaker 1: I think that, like, like just.
Speaker 5: Even recently, like they got like El Cousto with the
Speaker 5: song and then Earl Sweatshirt was on it and then
Speaker 5: it started blowing up and I remember I saw the
Speaker 5: Earl part of it and I was like, this sounds
Speaker 5: like he like rapping, like he's from the city.
Speaker 1: Like this really sounded like.
Speaker 5: I didn't know that the dude whose song he was
Speaker 5: on was from you get what I'm saying. So I
Speaker 5: think like that opens people's eyes to the sound. And
Speaker 5: I think that or ears and I think.
Speaker 6: It's a good thing.
Speaker 8: Like I think the lack of the industry is a
Speaker 8: good thing because it keeps us having a regional sound
Speaker 8: or a regional flavor and a lot of cities like
Speaker 8: that because they have those outlets.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah.
Speaker 5: And also look man rappers they saying right now, rapp
Speaker 5: is very regional like base, like they've got people in
Speaker 5: France that's the superstars now and they ain't looking at
Speaker 5: what's happening in New York to see who the superstar
Speaker 5: is now, you know, So I think building on that
Speaker 5: is probably one of the most important things now.
Speaker 2: Coming up in the d n V area, where those
Speaker 2: artists having open arms for you, like like a Wile
Speaker 2: or Push.
Speaker 1: Ready to push.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I got like two of Yle brought me out,
Speaker 5: Like the first year I started popping, he brought me
Speaker 5: out to do his Wile and Friends show. I remember
Speaker 5: that he's one of the first to embrace me Push.
Speaker 1: I had to push Push.
Speaker 5: I feel like follow me on a gram and we
Speaker 5: just kind of was chopping it up and asked him
Speaker 5: for a record and he's like, I got you and
Speaker 5: he sent it through. I got definitely got embraced. I
Speaker 5: think that the thing is that, like again, it's kind
Speaker 5: of segregated in the sounds, so certain people only listen
Speaker 5: to this sound and then certain people are more open
Speaker 5: to other sounds. I think as we start to progress
Speaker 5: that that'll change, hopefully, But that's that's what i'd say.
Speaker 8: Yeah, absolutely, you sit on this project. Once you turn forty,
Speaker 8: you retire, and you disappearing Like is that really the angle?
Speaker 1: I don't know. If I'll disappear.
Speaker 5: But I think that while I retire, people think I
Speaker 5: mean like stop rapping, and I don't know if I
Speaker 5: mean that. I mean right now, I'm constantly competing with
Speaker 5: myself to do better every time, like to the point where, like,
Speaker 5: you know, family may get neglected.
Speaker 1: I don't, you know. I talk to my family on.
Speaker 5: Like like like the holidays and stuff I don't like
Speaker 5: my Grandma wants to hear from me more and things
Speaker 5: like that.
Speaker 6: Oh my god, every day, Nah, not every day.
Speaker 5: Like I'm not even in the mental space with how
Speaker 5: I view success to be able to tap into that
Speaker 5: every day every day? Is what can I do to
Speaker 5: make sure that when I'm forty my family. I don't
Speaker 5: have kids or anything yet, and I'm not in a relationship.
Speaker 8: But in Billy, everybody thinks, y'all dating?
Speaker 1: What dating Billy? No people. I did see something one
Speaker 1: time about that, but I don't that was like a
Speaker 1: while back.
Speaker 5: Okay, nah, yeah, she's an amazing, amazing artist. But yeah,
Speaker 5: like when I get.
Speaker 6: Uh, you already talked about this, so you knew people thought.
Speaker 1: That I said that said people said it.
Speaker 9: Yeah, sure, But I guess it's because they were trying
Speaker 9: to piece together like photos and I guess the way,
Speaker 9: which was crazy.
Speaker 5: I'm like, it's not my house, girl in my house.
Speaker 5: I don't know what they talk about. Yeah, I think
Speaker 5: she posted stuff you know me and things like that,
Speaker 5: and I'm just one relationships to that's interesting too, like
Speaker 5: but no, I'm just trying to make sure that when
Speaker 5: I am forty and I decided to it's like everything
Speaker 5: is structured and laid out for me in a way
Speaker 5: where I can actually do that comfortably.
Speaker 4: So until then, you know, I mean Billy Alice's single though.
Speaker 6: Imouna say now I'm going down this rabo is she?
Speaker 8: I will say time waits for no man when it
Speaker 8: comes to like, yes, your career, but also your famiily
Speaker 8: so definitely caught your grandma.
Speaker 5: No for sure, No, I know I'm not saying I
Speaker 5: just set the picture in the west sapp like right
Speaker 5: before we go.
Speaker 6: Contacts. Yeah, like not talking to your Grand'm like, dang.
Speaker 5: I don't talk to my grandmother. I probably talked to
Speaker 5: her like a week ago, two weeks ago or something
Speaker 5: like that, Like I talked to her every so often.
Speaker 5: I have a big family too, so when I talk
Speaker 5: to my Grandma. Now everybody, I.
Speaker 1: Gotta last on, so it'd be like a three hour thing,
Speaker 1: you know what.
Speaker 8: I mean, Like I understand.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we appreciate you for joining us today. The new
Speaker 2: album Bravado is out right now.
Speaker 4: Thank you so much. And I know last time, I
Speaker 4: know you came late, but we were glad you.
Speaker 1: Came so much.
Speaker 4: We can talk to your brother.
Speaker 1: We came early this time around.
Speaker 6: How do you carry down this rabbit hole of the
Speaker 6: photos and all that?
Speaker 1: She said?
Speaker 4: You over Billy honis right now, it's just like a press.
Speaker 1: Outlet, is what's going on?
Speaker 6: What am I reading?
Speaker 9: Propty x? But if you just google you and herds,
Speaker 9: it's a few outlets. But really, yeah, you thought I
Speaker 9: made that. He's like nobody, No, but really offensively because
Speaker 9: of the age thing, because you has said, like yo,
Speaker 9: she was like seventeen.
Speaker 6: I was.
Speaker 1: It was like I have a lot to do with it,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 9: I mean, yeah, I mean because the way you responded
Speaker 9: was like her, but I mean the aging of course.
Speaker 9: But then it's like y'all just really homies in real life?
Speaker 6: Like is it really not?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 5: Like she you know, she she pressed me out about
Speaker 5: something the other day was being funny about you. I
Speaker 5: didn't do nothing. She thought something happened, but like a
Speaker 5: song leak or something like that, and she's like, who
Speaker 5: did that? But it was a funny press. It wasn't
Speaker 5: a real press. It ain't like not full crowd half.
Speaker 9: So you're gonna retire at forty, right, And this is
Speaker 9: nothing to do with BILLI olish. Okay, you're going to
Speaker 9: retire at forty. At forty, then you're going to start
Speaker 9: reconnecting more with your family for sure.
Speaker 6: Then you're going to have it. You want to you
Speaker 6: want to have a family as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would love to know how old are you now?
Speaker 1: Thirty thirty two?
Speaker 6: Thirty two?
Speaker 9: So are you like taking are you dating somebody? Are
Speaker 9: you in a relationship?
Speaker 1: Right? Not in a relationship?
Speaker 6: But what age is that coming?
Speaker 1: That's not an age, it's a feeling thing.
Speaker 9: It can happen, right, because you got to age for
Speaker 9: your retirement. You got to age for when you plan
Speaker 9: on like doing more. Did you drop in the photos?
Speaker 9: And what's that Tanana?
Speaker 1: Okay?
Speaker 6: So I'm just trying to see if there's like a
Speaker 6: timeline here.
Speaker 5: Definitely not a timeline on something like love and connecting
Speaker 5: with the right person. It could happen right now.
Speaker 4: Asking the same question now, okay, yeah, question.
Speaker 6: Right back at you, which was I actually coming stage?
Speaker 6: Oh it's my age. I'm actively, you know, trying to
Speaker 6: figure it out right now?
Speaker 2: Okay, So you don't have nobody, Like, just like you
Speaker 2: asked them, what age? Are you looking to find somebody
Speaker 2: to settle down?
Speaker 6: I ain't got no BILLI elish on my line.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 9: I mean, I got no name where it's nothing worth
Speaker 9: bringing up. I'm asking you because you know that's a name.
Speaker 1: You know, man, you can get me in trouble, man,
Speaker 1: I do.
Speaker 8: Before we wrap, I kind of want to talk about
Speaker 8: super Nova with the artist.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 6: The artist is so fire.
Speaker 8: I'm glad that you guys collapse because you guys both
Speaker 8: are like very talented.
Speaker 6: Talk to me about just shooting super nova.
Speaker 5: What's so so funny with her? A friend of mine
Speaker 5: was like, I was like, I want a girl on
Speaker 5: this song. I just feel like he was like, yeah,
Speaker 5: you should check this person out.
Speaker 1: And I checked her on and she was fire, buddy, Yeah,
Speaker 1: she's new.
Speaker 5: Yeah, And I was like, y'all hit her up. She's
Speaker 5: like excited. She sent me the verse like probably in
Speaker 5: three days. And then I was just like, Wow, she
Speaker 5: like really killed this. So for me, that was like
Speaker 5: a risky song because I don't really go all the way.
Speaker 5: I don't know if that's R and B.
Speaker 4: I guess it is R and B.
Speaker 8: And I was going to say, like, do you see
Speaker 8: yourself leaning more into that now?
Speaker 1: I like stuff like that.
Speaker 5: Man, I like stuff I could play with, like a
Speaker 5: woman that i'm with for something like that, And it's
Speaker 5: not it doesn't have to be negative because I think
Speaker 5: like I would always do this thing where I would
Speaker 5: start saying nice things and then be like but and
Speaker 5: I was like, nah, I'm not doing it.
Speaker 1: I'm going all the way. Like I'm going all the way. Like,
Speaker 1: So that was what that was about.
Speaker 6: Nice. I think you should lean into that.
Speaker 1: Okay, Yeah, I'll take your advice.
Speaker 4: Well, thank you brother for joining us this morning. Breakfast Club.
Speaker 1: Wake that answer up in the morning. The Breakfast Club