WEBVTT - INTERVIEW: IDK Talks New Album 'BRAVADO INTiMO,' Getting Into Music, Virgil Abloh, DMX, Billie Eilish + More 0:00:00.440 --> 0:00:05.440 Wake that ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club Morning. 0:00:05.440 --> 0:00:09.480 Everybody is stevej Envy, Jess, Hilarious, Charlamage, the guy we 0:00:09.560 --> 0:00:12.520 are the Breakfast Club. We got Lola Rosa feeling in 0:00:12.600 --> 0:00:15.240 for Jess and also our nephew was gonna our nephew. 0:00:18.320 --> 0:00:19.040 With us today. 0:00:19.239 --> 0:00:24.320 Wow, shut up? You always gotta fight Dominicans? Why why 0:00:24.320 --> 0:00:30.080 do you always gotta fight with a Dominican? That's wow. Wow. 0:00:30.240 --> 0:00:32.199 We got a special guest in the building. We got 0:00:32.200 --> 0:00:34.920 I d K. Welcome brother. How you feeling man. 0:00:35.040 --> 0:00:36.840 I'm feeling good man. It's good to be here. 0:00:36.880 --> 0:00:39.680 The first time I came here, I came a little 0:00:39.760 --> 0:00:42.320 too late and I wasn't able to do the interview. 0:00:42.400 --> 0:00:44.160 So everything happens for a reason. 0:00:44.320 --> 0:00:46.319 Happy to have you, brother, that's right, hearing your name 0:00:46.360 --> 0:00:47.440 for a long, long, long time. 0:00:48.200 --> 0:00:49.920 How was the show with g easy? 0:00:49.960 --> 0:00:51.199 How's the tour going so far? 0:00:51.360 --> 0:00:55.240 So good Man been real cool And he actually brought 0:00:55.280 --> 0:00:57.920 me on my first run ever in my life, like 0:00:58.440 --> 0:01:00.360 in like twenty fifteen or something like that. 0:01:00.520 --> 0:01:02.160 So it's like full circle, you know. 0:01:03.360 --> 0:01:05.280 So for people that don't know who I DK is, 0:01:05.319 --> 0:01:07.560 where you from, this is the first time some people 0:01:08.000 --> 0:01:10.560 are hearing you give them a breakdown where you're from, 0:01:10.720 --> 0:01:11.920 what your name stands for. 0:01:11.880 --> 0:01:12.280 And all that. 0:01:12.400 --> 0:01:15.080 Oh, yeah, so it's I d K from the d 0:01:15.160 --> 0:01:18.479 m v PG county in Maryland. Specifically, you just said you. 0:01:18.400 --> 0:01:19.360 Were from Queens the other day. 0:01:19.360 --> 0:01:25.280 Now and Germany, y'a not going to do this. 0:01:25.319 --> 0:01:25.880 I'm an army. 0:01:26.240 --> 0:01:27.320 My family from Florida. 0:01:27.680 --> 0:01:30.479 I grew up in Maryland. I went to me high school. 0:01:30.520 --> 0:01:34.200 I'm from Severn, Maryland, so don't I went to move. 0:01:34.360 --> 0:01:36.640 I moved to New York for college. I've been here 0:01:36.680 --> 0:01:37.360 eleven years. 0:01:37.800 --> 0:01:39.680 That kind of sounded like me, like I was born 0:01:39.680 --> 0:01:41.840 in London, but I came to America when I was 0:01:41.840 --> 0:01:44.000 like two years old, so I grew up in the 0:01:44.080 --> 0:01:48.559 dmv PG county. I DK stands for ignorantly delivering knowledge. 0:01:48.600 --> 0:01:51.560 I've always liked that acronym because I totally understand what 0:01:51.600 --> 0:01:53.760 you mean when you say that, because I always say, 0:01:53.800 --> 0:01:55.720 you got to be the perfect balance of ratchetess and 0:01:55.800 --> 0:01:59.400 righteously delivering knowledge is like saying I got to put 0:01:59.400 --> 0:02:00.880 the medicine in the right. 0:02:00.800 --> 0:02:02.400 Right kind of like that. Yeah, it was. 0:02:03.040 --> 0:02:06.080 I was actually in prison when I came up with 0:02:06.120 --> 0:02:09.200 that acronym, and so I was in the state prison 0:02:09.680 --> 0:02:11.840 when I was younger, and I came up with the 0:02:11.880 --> 0:02:16.000 acronym ignorantly Delivering Knowledge because I wanted people to be like, 0:02:16.440 --> 0:02:18.160 what does I d K stand for? 0:02:18.760 --> 0:02:20.400 Like does that mean? I don't know? 0:02:20.760 --> 0:02:23.080 And I always feel like if I prompt somebody to 0:02:23.120 --> 0:02:26.239 ask a question and I answer it, you're more likely 0:02:26.280 --> 0:02:29.360 to remember it than me just telling you you feel me? 0:02:29.440 --> 0:02:30.280 Why did you get into rap? 0:02:30.280 --> 0:02:31.840 I'm sorry, I was going to say, you went to 0:02:32.000 --> 0:02:34.880 you mentioned prison? Yeah there, you went to prison the 0:02:34.919 --> 0:02:36.200 same year that you went to college. 0:02:36.480 --> 0:02:40.000 Yeah, yeah, yeah, one of the times I went, because 0:02:40.000 --> 0:02:41.600 it was yeah. 0:02:41.440 --> 0:02:43.480 Yeah, So let's talk about the first time. 0:02:43.480 --> 0:02:45.799 And then I want to know how the whole I'm 0:02:45.840 --> 0:02:47.320 going to college but then I end up in prison, 0:02:47.320 --> 0:02:47.960 Like what's that story? 0:02:47.960 --> 0:02:48.519 How does that try? 0:02:48.639 --> 0:02:48.839 Man? 0:02:48.880 --> 0:02:52.600 First of all, I come from like a West African background, 0:02:52.600 --> 0:02:55.480 so my mom, sincerely all, my dad from Ghana. I'm 0:02:55.520 --> 0:02:59.200 literally the first person in my family to get locked up. 0:02:59.680 --> 0:03:00.880 But that's not a good thing. 0:03:01.400 --> 0:03:04.560 Yeah, I mean, but also first person prison is not 0:03:04.560 --> 0:03:06.840 a good thing. Fair, But you know, I turned it around, 0:03:06.919 --> 0:03:11.280 so at the same time, that's true. But yeah, that 0:03:11.639 --> 0:03:13.440 kind of was like something like you know, when I 0:03:13.480 --> 0:03:17.360 was seventeen, I got jammed up, had some charges, you know, 0:03:17.720 --> 0:03:20.200 stuff to do with you know, you know, robberies and 0:03:20.280 --> 0:03:23.840 guns and things like that, and then pretty much I 0:03:23.840 --> 0:03:27.440 went to prison of jail. But the thing was I 0:03:27.480 --> 0:03:30.480 was on I got sentenced to fifteen years suspended the 0:03:30.560 --> 0:03:32.920 three and they allowed me to do it on home detention, 0:03:33.120 --> 0:03:36.120 but getting in trouble on violations and technical things. 0:03:36.240 --> 0:03:38.360 But you made me, Yeah that's how I When did 0:03:38.400 --> 0:03:39.000 you start rapping? 0:03:39.000 --> 0:03:39.760 What made you say? 0:03:39.760 --> 0:03:41.480 You know what, I want to lead the streets alone 0:03:41.640 --> 0:03:43.360 and focus on this rap career. 0:03:43.440 --> 0:03:45.080 I mean the first time I got locked up, I 0:03:45.120 --> 0:03:47.960 realized it wasn't for me, like right away, like I 0:03:48.040 --> 0:03:49.360 was like, no, no, I can't do this. 0:03:49.800 --> 0:03:52.240 So you know you went back through more times. 0:03:52.440 --> 0:03:55.400 Yeah, but it was like violation technical stuff. It was 0:03:55.440 --> 0:03:57.720 like I'm not judging coming no, no, no, no, no times 0:03:59.560 --> 0:04:04.640 judging technical though. It wasn't like I kept doing things. 0:04:04.640 --> 0:04:07.440 It was just violations and stuff like that. But basically 0:04:08.960 --> 0:04:11.640 the last time I was in before I went in, 0:04:11.720 --> 0:04:14.760 I was listening to like Kendrick Lamar and like Jay Cole, 0:04:14.880 --> 0:04:17.479 and you know where I'm from, people don't really listen 0:04:17.480 --> 0:04:18.920 to that. But I had a friend that went to 0:04:19.040 --> 0:04:21.720 like fam you and he would come back with like 0:04:21.880 --> 0:04:25.200 more I would say eclectic rap, and I was like, 0:04:25.200 --> 0:04:29.080 oh man, people rap like this, That's that's interesting. So 0:04:29.240 --> 0:04:33.159 I remember being in prison. I was a tutor, so 0:04:33.160 --> 0:04:36.039 I helped people get their GEDs, and also it was 0:04:36.080 --> 0:04:38.520 a barber, and I just remember I would just write 0:04:38.560 --> 0:04:41.719 music and everybody would listen, like see me like bobbing 0:04:41.800 --> 0:04:44.400 my head right, and they'd be like, yo, spit rap, 0:04:44.600 --> 0:04:47.080 like like I ain't know you rapped like and so 0:04:47.160 --> 0:04:48.760 one day I just did it, and I was like, man, 0:04:48.760 --> 0:04:51.040 if I could make people that's pissed off in prison 0:04:51.160 --> 0:04:53.520 like music, maybe maybe it'll work for me when I 0:04:53.560 --> 0:04:53.880 get out. 0:04:54.320 --> 0:04:56.480 What lifestyle changes did you make? 0:04:56.520 --> 0:04:58.200 Though, because you know, my dad used to always tell me, 0:04:58.200 --> 0:05:00.000 if you don't change your lifestyle, you gonna end up 0:05:00.000 --> 0:05:00.760 in jail, dead or. 0:05:00.720 --> 0:05:03.600 Broke, sitting on the tree. What lifestyle changes did you mean? 0:05:04.200 --> 0:05:06.360 I just started feeling like I needed to actually get 0:05:06.360 --> 0:05:08.600 a job, So when I first got out, I didn't 0:05:08.640 --> 0:05:11.240 care what it was. Actually my first job was McDonald's. 0:05:11.720 --> 0:05:13.719 I was proud to go to McDonald's and word up 0:05:13.920 --> 0:05:15.960 to be honest, like because I was like, man, I 0:05:16.000 --> 0:05:18.599 got a job, I got like, you know, some type 0:05:18.640 --> 0:05:21.240 of purpose, like let me try to just turn this around. 0:05:21.240 --> 0:05:23.320 So that was like probably the first big one. 0:05:23.520 --> 0:05:25.120 And then trying to go to school, like I was 0:05:25.160 --> 0:05:29.200 going to PG Community College, So getting back in school 0:05:29.320 --> 0:05:30.039 was another thing. 0:05:30.839 --> 0:05:32.880 But for the first time that you went to jail, 0:05:32.920 --> 0:05:36.520 what would you attribute like the why to Would you 0:05:36.600 --> 0:05:38.600 say it was like the internet? Would you say it 0:05:38.600 --> 0:05:39.480 was just your environment? 0:05:39.920 --> 0:05:41.880 So it was the want for love. 0:05:42.120 --> 0:05:45.640 Like my parents loved me, but I didn't know how 0:05:45.680 --> 0:05:48.560 to comprehend the way they gave me love. Right, So 0:05:49.800 --> 0:05:53.200 I never got great grades. I grew up middle class, 0:05:53.240 --> 0:05:54.840 but I was surrounded by the hood and I went 0:05:54.880 --> 0:05:58.479 to school in the hood, so I identified more with 0:05:58.520 --> 0:06:01.920 the people that also didn't get good grades, and that 0:06:01.920 --> 0:06:03.760 that comes with a lot of stuff because they coming 0:06:03.760 --> 0:06:06.200 from different backgrounds and they doing different things. So I 0:06:06.200 --> 0:06:09.080 felt like whenever I would do something bad, they would 0:06:09.080 --> 0:06:11.920 show me respect, and that was the love that I wanted. 0:06:13.000 --> 0:06:15.120 I'm glad you got had the explanation quick, because saying 0:06:15.120 --> 0:06:16.719 you want to go to jail for love is crazy. 0:06:16.960 --> 0:06:22.760 No, right, I'm glad. I'm glad that like you understand 0:06:23.000 --> 0:06:24.279 like this nuance. 0:06:23.920 --> 0:06:24.920 That you know what I mean? 0:06:25.120 --> 0:06:27.039 So I was going to ask, you know, when you 0:06:27.080 --> 0:06:30.400 started rapping, what did your family say at first? 0:06:30.480 --> 0:06:30.640 Right? 0:06:30.839 --> 0:06:33.359 Were they behind you the whole way? They was like here, you. 0:06:35.200 --> 0:06:37.719 Know what, No, it wasn't as bad as you would think. 0:06:38.880 --> 0:06:41.440 Yeah right, it was like how much worse could this be? 0:06:42.160 --> 0:06:44.320 They couldn't get no worse than what I already did. 0:06:44.640 --> 0:06:47.680 So my mom was just happy I was doing something positive, 0:06:47.839 --> 0:06:50.279 got you, you know. But she she passed away. She 0:06:50.440 --> 0:06:54.440 never she never got to listen. Well, she's got to 0:06:54.520 --> 0:06:56.400 listen to my music. She heard it once and she 0:06:56.480 --> 0:06:58.440 was like, but she would brag about it, but she 0:06:58.440 --> 0:07:01.120 would never listen to like to Like, my mom till 0:07:01.120 --> 0:07:04.240 she passed never heard me curse, Like I never said 0:07:04.240 --> 0:07:10.680 a curse word around her, But in my music. 0:07:08.880 --> 0:07:11.040 What does it sound sound like at the time, because 0:07:11.080 --> 0:07:14.240 you really dibble and dabble in all different genres, all 0:07:14.240 --> 0:07:14.840 different sounds. 0:07:14.880 --> 0:07:15.800 So what did she hear? 0:07:17.000 --> 0:07:19.200 A lot of cursing, a lot of bad words, like 0:07:19.280 --> 0:07:21.680 a lot of rap like I was just you know, 0:07:22.040 --> 0:07:22.920 just rap. 0:07:24.440 --> 0:07:25.280 Yeah for sure. 0:07:25.640 --> 0:07:28.160 Yeah, it depends on how you because like again, the 0:07:28.200 --> 0:07:30.800 whole ignorantly delivering all this thing. Depending on how you 0:07:30.840 --> 0:07:33.480 first hear me, You'll think I'm one thing and it 0:07:33.560 --> 0:07:34.280 might not be that. 0:07:34.600 --> 0:07:37.960 You know, and you're growing in real time, right, cause's 0:07:38.000 --> 0:07:39.880 like it's your fifth studio. 0:07:40.080 --> 0:07:42.600 Yeah, this would be my fifth one. Yeah, what's the what's. 0:07:42.400 --> 0:07:45.200 The evolution of id K Ben from that first project 0:07:45.280 --> 0:07:45.480 to know? 0:07:46.440 --> 0:07:50.280 It's like just this this idea of like finding like 0:07:50.360 --> 0:07:54.520 what I actually want to express sonically. So I feel 0:07:54.520 --> 0:07:58.360 like I've always been dibbling, dabbling, dibbling and dabbling in 0:07:58.440 --> 0:08:02.240 different types of music, but this now is more like 0:08:02.400 --> 0:08:04.360 I'm creating a sound, like a feeling. 0:08:04.440 --> 0:08:04.680 You know. 0:08:05.080 --> 0:08:10.640 It's like taking like a certain melodic like element and 0:08:10.680 --> 0:08:13.320 then trying to put like different drums around it, maybe 0:08:13.360 --> 0:08:17.240 to switch the genre up, but the feeling is constant, consistent. 0:08:17.600 --> 0:08:20.880 That's probably the biggest thing that I've grown into now. 0:08:22.960 --> 0:08:24.960 On is He Here? Is He Real? 0:08:25.040 --> 0:08:25.560 Album? 0:08:25.640 --> 0:08:27.280 Yeah, I'm looking at some of the features on it 0:08:27.320 --> 0:08:29.160 that people don't know. You had DMX on that album. 0:08:29.320 --> 0:08:31.560 Yeah, well that was Actually it's so funny because I 0:08:32.000 --> 0:08:36.040 have something with him that we're getting ready to put together. 0:08:36.120 --> 0:08:40.880 But on that album specifically, it was something that I 0:08:41.040 --> 0:08:43.920 sampled a prayer he did but I had to chase 0:08:44.000 --> 0:08:46.320 him down like at south By Southwest and pull up 0:08:46.360 --> 0:08:48.800 on him to get it clear, like yo, yo, I'm 0:08:48.760 --> 0:08:51.120 alrighty K. So I had to find him. 0:08:51.320 --> 0:08:52.240 How was that conversation? 0:08:54.400 --> 0:08:55.880 He know who I was at that time? 0:08:56.120 --> 0:08:57.720 Are you on the Prayer album that they got drop? 0:08:58.360 --> 0:09:01.440 No, I'm not on that? The feature for him after those, 0:09:01.480 --> 0:09:03.280 so he got to know who I was after that. 0:09:03.520 --> 0:09:05.959 I did a feature for him prior to him passing. 0:09:06.160 --> 0:09:07.360 Did you have a relationship at all? 0:09:08.160 --> 0:09:10.760 Like small, like just kind of through like you know, 0:09:10.800 --> 0:09:12.520 people that we knew and things like that. 0:09:12.679 --> 0:09:13.680 But yeah, it was. 0:09:13.679 --> 0:09:15.240 A conversation like when you ran up on him and 0:09:15.240 --> 0:09:16.720 it was like, hey, I'm trying to get this cleared. 0:09:16.840 --> 0:09:20.800 He was like it's done, literally just like that, like 0:09:20.960 --> 0:09:22.360 you go to the bullshit. He was like, all right, 0:09:22.360 --> 0:09:25.800 who I gotta go? Yeah, basically pretty much and he 0:09:25.880 --> 0:09:26.640 got it done. 0:09:26.880 --> 0:09:29.400 On the coolest What is I know that I knew? 0:09:29.400 --> 0:09:31.800 I was called bravado and in timo, what does timo me? 0:09:32.200 --> 0:09:36.760 It's like, uh, the Italian word for intimate, So bravado 0:09:36.880 --> 0:09:39.280 is like kind of like bragged oshs, you know, talking 0:09:39.280 --> 0:09:41.400 about stuff. But the intimo part is where it comes 0:09:41.400 --> 0:09:45.400 from like like a lot of like why I care, 0:09:45.640 --> 0:09:48.280 Like I like, you know, wearing certain things, and I like, 0:09:49.200 --> 0:09:51.520 you know, style things like that, And it comes from 0:09:51.800 --> 0:09:54.040 the like being made fun of when I was like 0:09:54.040 --> 0:09:57.080 in the sixth grade but not having certain things. And 0:09:57.120 --> 0:09:59.440 I just remember being like a kid going to school 0:09:59.480 --> 0:10:01.560 depressed because I know they're gonna make fun of me. 0:10:02.080 --> 0:10:05.040 So I remember ninth grade. That's before I started getting 0:10:05.080 --> 0:10:09.080 into trouble and you know, and getting money. I literally 0:10:10.559 --> 0:10:12.600 said to myself, I will never be made fun of 0:10:12.720 --> 0:10:15.920 for dressing that ever again, for the rest of my life. 0:10:16.520 --> 0:10:21.640 And that's that's explains the bravado side, because the bravado 0:10:21.679 --> 0:10:23.240 side is you just see it. You just see the 0:10:23.280 --> 0:10:25.560 floss and all that. But the intimo side is where 0:10:25.559 --> 0:10:26.280 it comes from. 0:10:26.640 --> 0:10:28.360 So and then you get money and realize you don't 0:10:28.360 --> 0:10:29.520 even care about clothes. 0:10:29.240 --> 0:10:32.880 Like that, right, that also starts to happen too, you 0:10:32.920 --> 0:10:35.000 know what I mean, Like it's like you like stuff, 0:10:35.000 --> 0:10:37.720 but like people put me in a fashion world because 0:10:37.720 --> 0:10:39.840 I do a lot of stuff in that world, but 0:10:39.960 --> 0:10:42.319 it's not by choice, Like I just know people they 0:10:42.440 --> 0:10:44.480 like what I do, and you know, and then they 0:10:44.600 --> 0:10:46.480 just asked me to do things, but I don't try 0:10:46.559 --> 0:10:49.360 to do that get you could just do it, yeah, exactly. 0:10:49.920 --> 0:10:53.040 Now another feature, you had Kanye West on the song 0:10:53.400 --> 0:10:54.280 Celena and TRAPPI. 0:10:54.720 --> 0:11:00.000 Well, no, that was another sample situation where pretty much 0:11:01.280 --> 0:11:03.760 we got that was a crazy one because it was 0:11:03.760 --> 0:11:07.080 a jay Z song initially, so it was everybody had 0:11:07.120 --> 0:11:07.640 to kind. 0:11:07.440 --> 0:11:09.880 Of that process, like because Kanye is kind of hard 0:11:09.880 --> 0:11:12.000 to it wasn't as fast as the DMX. 0:11:12.800 --> 0:11:16.320 Well maybe, yeah, it took a little while actually, but 0:11:16.679 --> 0:11:19.720 I'll be real, like, Yay has reached out to me 0:11:19.840 --> 0:11:22.400 and I've I've hung out with him multiple times, like, 0:11:22.880 --> 0:11:25.319 so you know, it's not that that one is a 0:11:25.360 --> 0:11:29.400 little different that I remember when I dropped is he real? 0:11:30.240 --> 0:11:32.199 I was with eighty eight Keys. 0:11:32.120 --> 0:11:35.040 And uh and and and and eighty eight comes up 0:11:35.080 --> 0:11:37.360 to me and passes me the phone from my unknown 0:11:37.480 --> 0:11:40.640 number and I answered and it's like Yo, it's Yay 0:11:40.880 --> 0:11:44.199 And I'm like oh, and he was just like I've 0:11:44.200 --> 0:11:46.760 been hearing about your album. It wasn't out at the time. 0:11:47.200 --> 0:11:49.320 He's like, man, at some point today, I'd love to 0:11:49.320 --> 0:11:51.000 connect with you. And next thing you know, I was 0:11:51.000 --> 0:11:54.200 in Calabasas, uh, just hanging out at the crib you know, 0:11:54.440 --> 0:11:58.480 so yeah, yay yay had had shown love and I've 0:11:58.520 --> 0:12:00.320 actually like linked up him a. 0:12:00.280 --> 0:12:03.240 Couple of times on a new project. What would you 0:12:03.240 --> 0:12:04.320 say is your favorite record? 0:12:06.679 --> 0:12:07.640 Miles Trumpet? 0:12:08.320 --> 0:12:10.760 I like that one a lot because I'm singing, you know, 0:12:10.840 --> 0:12:13.439 and I'm like kind of like that's a beat where 0:12:13.480 --> 0:12:15.320 I listened to it. I'm like, I hear Griselda on 0:12:15.320 --> 0:12:17.400 this beat, so instead of doing what they would do, 0:12:17.600 --> 0:12:18.280 let me just sing. 0:12:18.440 --> 0:12:21.600 It seems like a fan favorite too. I really like Check. 0:12:21.760 --> 0:12:23.080 I feel like Check. 0:12:23.160 --> 0:12:28.760 It's braggadocious, it's swaggy. Yeah, but on it well, first 0:12:28.800 --> 0:12:31.480 of all, actually the music video who came up with 0:12:31.520 --> 0:12:33.160 the concept for that? Like why is it just a 0:12:33.160 --> 0:12:35.559 girl shaking her ass the whole time? I'm really trying 0:12:35.559 --> 0:12:36.840 to like what are you giving? 0:12:37.240 --> 0:12:37.440 Well? 0:12:37.720 --> 0:12:40.680 The great part about that one is like ignorantly delivering. 0:12:40.720 --> 0:12:43.920 Now it's just a juxtaposition, like when I hear that 0:12:44.040 --> 0:12:46.680 beat in that song, I'm really rapping, so you don't 0:12:46.720 --> 0:12:50.640 really see that happening, but there has the I think 0:12:50.679 --> 0:12:54.000 the rhythm is what I wanted to articulate by having 0:12:54.000 --> 0:12:57.080 her do that. You know, because you listen to it, 0:12:57.120 --> 0:12:58.720 you don't think you could do that to that song, 0:12:59.120 --> 0:13:01.160 but then when you see it do it, you realize 0:13:01.200 --> 0:13:04.120 you can, you know. So that was what that was about. 0:13:04.160 --> 0:13:06.559 Were you a fan of out Davis all your parents. 0:13:06.240 --> 0:13:08.240 Were, Well? Yeah, I mean, like I have, you know, 0:13:08.280 --> 0:13:09.199 records from him. 0:13:09.240 --> 0:13:14.000 But I'll say this, I've heard a few different things, 0:13:14.400 --> 0:13:17.840 and everything that I've heard from him has made me 0:13:17.920 --> 0:13:20.880 feel a certain way. But I do need to dig 0:13:20.960 --> 0:13:23.240 more into what he's got going on, because I did 0:13:23.280 --> 0:13:25.880 see some stuff from like the documentary and stuff how 0:13:25.920 --> 0:13:28.320 he would switch his bands around and all these things that, 0:13:28.400 --> 0:13:31.360 you know, I thought that was inspiring. But yeah, I 0:13:31.400 --> 0:13:34.240 want to talk about the No Label Academy, Yeah, that 0:13:34.280 --> 0:13:37.439 you did at Harvard. Yeah, so Charlamagne loved this too 0:13:37.480 --> 0:13:39.520 because you did two lectures on mental health. 0:13:39.960 --> 0:13:40.480 Yeah. 0:13:40.559 --> 0:13:42.120 Why did you feel like that was so. 0:13:42.040 --> 0:13:43.079 Important to do? Well? 0:13:43.120 --> 0:13:47.640 So the class is ten day experience that people from 0:13:47.640 --> 0:13:51.880 all around the world. Students apply and then we pick 0:13:51.920 --> 0:13:54.200 about twenty to twenty five of them, and then I 0:13:54.240 --> 0:13:58.960 teach the class and it goes from branding, which I 0:13:59.040 --> 0:14:03.960 call story in vision, to financial literacy to team building 0:14:04.679 --> 0:14:06.680 and mental health is the last day. And we taught 0:14:06.720 --> 0:14:10.439 that at the Medical School at Harvard. I think mental 0:14:10.440 --> 0:14:14.320 health is really important because I always say this, like, 0:14:15.080 --> 0:14:20.000 as human beings, we've evolved socially a lot of so 0:14:20.080 --> 0:14:22.680 many different times since like you know, they say we're 0:14:22.680 --> 0:14:26.400 about three hundred thousand seventy five to three hundred thousand 0:14:26.440 --> 0:14:30.280 years old, like what we are biologically, we've evolved I 0:14:30.280 --> 0:14:33.960 think way too much socially to keep up with where 0:14:34.000 --> 0:14:37.640 we are biologically. So when you fame is something we created. 0:14:37.760 --> 0:14:40.000 That's not something we were built for or made for. 0:14:40.440 --> 0:14:43.640 So like a lot of times people deal with fame 0:14:44.400 --> 0:14:47.040 in a way that could be detrimental. And I think 0:14:47.120 --> 0:14:50.440 that people don't teach the aspect and the importance of 0:14:50.760 --> 0:14:55.560 mental health when they're actually pushing them to be famous, 0:14:56.040 --> 0:14:58.400 you know. So for me, this class was supposed to 0:14:58.480 --> 0:15:02.240 prepare you from a bi business perspective for what you 0:15:02.400 --> 0:15:04.920 or the artist you're working with could be dealing with 0:15:05.400 --> 0:15:07.080 once they get in the game. And I think a 0:15:07.080 --> 0:15:09.120 lot of the times labels will see like, oh, this 0:15:09.160 --> 0:15:11.520 person's hot, they come from this neighborhood and all that. 0:15:11.600 --> 0:15:13.520 Yeah that's cool and all that, but like and then 0:15:13.560 --> 0:15:17.920 they not ready for corporate the corporate like they're not 0:15:18.120 --> 0:15:22.480 understanding what that is. So now you're expecting somebody who's 0:15:22.640 --> 0:15:26.520 manager might be like just homeinge to know how to 0:15:26.560 --> 0:15:29.680 move within a corporate setting and be successful and then 0:15:29.800 --> 0:15:33.840 sustaining that sustain that success. I think that creates a 0:15:33.880 --> 0:15:35.640 lot of problems for a lot of different people. 0:15:35.760 --> 0:15:38.000 You know, how has your mental been you know, because 0:15:38.000 --> 0:15:39.560 you talked about kids making fun of you back in 0:15:39.600 --> 0:15:41.920 the day. Yeah, and now being on social media is 0:15:43.240 --> 0:15:46.520 times a thousand is as far as the amount of commons. 0:15:46.520 --> 0:15:48.760 Sometimes people just say negative stuff just to try to 0:15:48.760 --> 0:15:51.360 get a reaction. So how you deal with social media now? 0:15:51.560 --> 0:15:54.440 I mean, look, I lost my mom. She died from 0:15:54.640 --> 0:15:59.520 you know, HIV complications from that, and I didn't know 0:15:59.560 --> 0:16:02.840 that until after she passed, so I never had that 0:16:02.920 --> 0:16:05.560 closure of being able to talk to her about it. 0:16:05.640 --> 0:16:05.920 Right. 0:16:06.240 --> 0:16:08.760 So when you look at that kind of stuff, and 0:16:08.800 --> 0:16:11.240 then you look at like what I've been through with 0:16:11.360 --> 0:16:13.000 prison and all this stuff. 0:16:12.680 --> 0:16:16.400 Man, like I'm kind of primed for It's like it 0:16:16.440 --> 0:16:17.800 doesn't really get much worse. 0:16:17.920 --> 0:16:18.960 You've been through real shit. 0:16:19.200 --> 0:16:23.640 Yeah, So for me, it's like second nature almost dealing 0:16:23.680 --> 0:16:25.800 with some of the stuff that's nothing to me. When 0:16:25.800 --> 0:16:29.720 they like COVID, I'm like I was just I was 0:16:29.720 --> 0:16:32.400 actually on twenty three lock twenty three hour lockdown at 0:16:32.400 --> 0:16:35.680 one point, like this is nothing to me with a book, 0:16:36.080 --> 0:16:36.680 you know what I mean? 0:16:37.320 --> 0:16:39.240 So for me, like I love a. 0:16:39.240 --> 0:16:49.440 Good quarantine, yeah right, yeah, so to me, it don't 0:16:49.480 --> 0:16:50.400 really get much worse. 0:16:50.440 --> 0:16:53.560 So so you know, I just try to like figure 0:16:53.600 --> 0:16:56.160 out how to express that to people who haven't gone 0:16:56.160 --> 0:16:59.040 through those things. That's what my class is mainly for 0:16:59.160 --> 0:17:00.440 when it comes to that aspect. 0:17:00.680 --> 0:17:02.960 I like what you said too, because I never thought 0:17:02.960 --> 0:17:03.760 about it. But it's true. 0:17:03.760 --> 0:17:07.800 Fame is a social construct, and nowadays everybody thinks they're famous. 0:17:08.000 --> 0:17:10.960 Not on need that everybody kind of is because you 0:17:11.000 --> 0:17:12.800 got to think about it. If you have social media, 0:17:13.320 --> 0:17:16.240 when you post something, even if it's just the local before. 0:17:15.920 --> 0:17:17.560 You, they had to see you do it. 0:17:18.160 --> 0:17:19.720 Right now, you can just be like, yeah, I was, 0:17:19.760 --> 0:17:21.719 I went and ate this ice cream at so and so, 0:17:21.800 --> 0:17:24.680 and then people comment like, ah, why'd you get that flavor? 0:17:25.359 --> 0:17:27.320 Like that's what everybody. 0:17:26.800 --> 0:17:29.800 Has, some form of fame if you have social media, 0:17:29.880 --> 0:17:32.359 And then you think about high schools, like the popular 0:17:32.440 --> 0:17:34.200 kid in the high school would be popular when they 0:17:34.240 --> 0:17:37.199 walk in school, or maybe certain things happen after school. 0:17:37.320 --> 0:17:40.600 But now it's like, oh yeah, he got fifteen hundred 0:17:40.600 --> 0:17:43.480 followers and the school was like three thousand people, so 0:17:43.520 --> 0:17:45.720 that after school, you know what I mean. Like it's 0:17:45.800 --> 0:17:48.200 just like, so everyone's dealing with some form of fame 0:17:48.320 --> 0:17:50.760 right now, and I think that that's an issue. 0:17:50.560 --> 0:17:52.200 And I feel sorry for these kids because it makes 0:17:52.240 --> 0:17:55.480 them overthink everything. Example you gave is like you shouldn't 0:17:55.480 --> 0:17:57.360 be having a question. Nobody should be questioning you about 0:17:57.359 --> 0:18:00.399 the flavory ice cream you want, right, you don't want 0:18:00.400 --> 0:18:04.720 to get, but every single thing you do is question. 0:18:04.840 --> 0:18:06.960 So therefore you're questioning every single thing you do in 0:18:06.960 --> 0:18:09.399