Speaker 1: It's so crazy because a lunch Mainstay films. And I
Speaker 1: was telling my partner the reason, like why the movies
Speaker 1: in Hollywood is so like in the space that it's
Speaker 1: in because they wasn't giving the youth or the people
Speaker 1: the ball. They wasn't giving them like the shot, like
Speaker 1: they want to do what they want to do or
Speaker 1: lean toward their people instead of like getting the culture
Speaker 1: or the youth involved fresh ideas.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like that people ain't never seen before, so they
Speaker 2: keep recycling the same ip, right, And it's.
Speaker 1: So crazy because like we just hit beer because I
Speaker 1: bought a script called Raven Valley, right, but it's just
Speaker 1: too it's like a duo, like a two brothers. But
Speaker 1: they they edited, they gonna they edited, they wrote it
Speaker 1: and they're gonna direct it. But you know, right now
Speaker 1: in the movie space, like that's what buy Buzzes says.
Speaker 1: So like I kind of really like got in early
Speaker 1: because I was just thinking that like six months before
Speaker 1: says came out and he bought the script. And it's
Speaker 1: so crazy because people had to double back because they
Speaker 1: had the script like two years and like people was
Speaker 1: passing on it. It's called Raven Valley Films. Is so crazy,
Speaker 1: Like once I really learned it, like how you can
Speaker 1: like come up with the idea, hire the writer and
Speaker 1: hire the director, attach the talent to the script and
Speaker 1: it could be halfway soul around the world before you
Speaker 1: even shut up first shoot and.
Speaker 2: Then when you realize how much how much it takes
Speaker 2: to do on you what am I waiting on?
Speaker 1: Right? And that's why my whole idea was to like
Speaker 1: not only produce the films and be in film space,
Speaker 1: but also the distribution. That's what Virgo the network, That's
Speaker 1: what that idea came in at, because like seventy five
Speaker 1: percent content won't be original, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: From TV shows to movies, dramas, podcasts, stuff, stuff like that.
Speaker 1: Content won't be original.
Speaker 2: That should make sense, especially for somebody like you because
Speaker 2: you're a storyteller.
Speaker 1: Yeah good, are we good?
Speaker 2: You checked?
Speaker 1: Right? Check Broadway?
Speaker 2: How you doing? My brother?
Speaker 1: It's cool than that? Man.
Speaker 2: The new album Don't Look Down? So was this your
Speaker 2: seventh seventh studio album? Yeah, yeah, seventh studio album. What's
Speaker 2: that title meaning to you? Don't look down?
Speaker 1: I mean you get well me personally. Don't look Down
Speaker 1: means like like I get to I get in these
Speaker 1: moments while I can't even believe I'm here, And it's
Speaker 1: kind of like a metaphor, like you get so hot
Speaker 1: in the ground. It's not as scary as just don't
Speaker 1: if you don't look down, but looking down make the
Speaker 1: situation worse, you know what I'm saying, So I kind
Speaker 1: of used it metaphorically speaking like like the heights that
Speaker 1: I'm at, it's a lot of pressure, like you know,
Speaker 1: like you don't want to fail, you don't want to
Speaker 1: make the wrong moves. Like it's such a blessing and
Speaker 1: it's so rare, like with the hand that I was
Speaker 1: dealt to come as far as I came. Pause, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, But just to be here in
Speaker 1: this space, it's like don't don't even like, don't look down,
Speaker 1: like just keep going, keep dreaming, don't let nobody, but
Speaker 1: don't nobody put no ceiling on you or what you
Speaker 1: can you can't do.
Speaker 2: I hear that in your music a lot. Man. That's
Speaker 2: why one of the things I wanted to talk to
Speaker 2: you about was just like fame and how fame might
Speaker 2: have might have changed things for you, right, Like like
Speaker 2: like we talk about money, Like what problem did money
Speaker 2: solve for you?
Speaker 1: Just like no limitations, like I got my own money
Speaker 1: cause I'm a I'm I don't I don't like to
Speaker 1: I don't like to take, like I don't like the negative,
Speaker 1: like no energy with like stuff or ideas that I have.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, I don't want to wait
Speaker 1: on nobody or nobody that I don't want to play
Speaker 1: by nobody else rules. You know what I'm saying. Like
Speaker 1: I like to go, Like once I got something in
Speaker 1: my head, I want to do it, like that's what
Speaker 1: I want to do. And I feel like a lot
Speaker 1: of businesses a lot of stuff in today's time, like
Speaker 1: people use other people money and it's smart and it's
Speaker 1: okay to do. But like if I got something I'm
Speaker 1: passionate about, like I can just get up and push it.
Speaker 1: I can. I'm in control of my you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, destiny, How I feel like I'm financially you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying stable, So all these ideas they
Speaker 1: can actually come to life, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: And I feel like and I'm able to think clear,
Speaker 1: like I don't have to have the pressure or you know,
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, where it's gonna come from or what
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do for this. I can just think clear
Speaker 1: and see and you know what I'm saying, and just
Speaker 1: think at a different different level.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying, Oh, we know you're getting
Speaker 2: too the money, and we see the soul that shows
Speaker 2: of the arenas you got you got God like Todd
Speaker 2: mosk with showing up your interviews, heah, what problems did
Speaker 2: money create?
Speaker 1: Uh? It creates. I mean I feel like you always
Speaker 1: have problems, you know what I'm saying. Your problems just
Speaker 1: the problems just you know what I'm saying, became just
Speaker 1: different like they came, but they fit that suit. Like
Speaker 1: certain problems I could say, Like people, a lot of
Speaker 1: people feel entitled, you know what I'm saying, a lot
Speaker 1: of people feel like you know what I'm saying, like, oh,
Speaker 1: you got all that money, like you should be able
Speaker 1: to you know what I'm saying, People feeling title to it.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. People people look at you
Speaker 1: when they see money, you know what I'm saying. So
Speaker 1: I feel like that's the number one problem with me
Speaker 1: with money. You know what I'm saying, It's just like
Speaker 1: that's all people's That's mostly what people see when they
Speaker 1: first see you. You know what I'm saying, They see
Speaker 1: money or you know what I'm saying, And it can
Speaker 1: ruin a lot of things, you know.
Speaker 2: What I'm saying, that have success made trusting people easier
Speaker 2: or harder?
Speaker 1: I mean, success success doesn't didn't really like change the
Speaker 1: way I trust people. I mean, seeing I've always you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, felt like people got to earn trust,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, no matter successful, you failing, poor, rich,
Speaker 1: trusts have to be earned, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So it didn't really like change their shift drastically. Like
Speaker 1: I saw a lot of things that I couldn't have imagined,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying when I got successful financially stable,
Speaker 1: But trust has to be earned. The where you're at,
Speaker 1: who you're talking about, where you go, Do.
Speaker 2: You feel successful? Do you still feel like you're surviving?
Speaker 1: I mean, hell yeah, Okay, I feel successful because I
Speaker 1: watched I watched me and my team put together a plan,
Speaker 1: study the plan, and execute it, and I feel successful
Speaker 1: And it got me ready for the world. Like I
Speaker 1: can look at anything and piece it together and deep
Speaker 1: like and break it down and put it back together.
Speaker 1: And now I feel like I can do whatever I
Speaker 1: put my mind to, Like it's actually possible to come
Speaker 1: up with a plan, come up with a blueprint, execute
Speaker 1: it and succeed.
Speaker 2: So, yeah, what's the biggest misconception you think people have
Speaker 2: about about you?
Speaker 1: The biggest misconception people have about me is that I'm
Speaker 1: the biggest misconception that people have about me. I feel
Speaker 1: like people don't really understand, like my personality. I feel
Speaker 1: like I don't give give them as much of reality
Speaker 1: as I would, as as I as I wish, as
Speaker 1: much as I could. I don't give them enough reality
Speaker 1: to the point where they take whatever they see out
Speaker 1: in the world and they make that image of me
Speaker 1: because I give them so so little that they got
Speaker 1: to use, They got to work with what they got,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. So the biggest misconception would
Speaker 1: be like my energy or my attitude towards like you know,
Speaker 1: I say life for people. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I feel like I'm like I'm the image that people
Speaker 1: got about me is totally different than you know. What
Speaker 1: I'm saying is.
Speaker 2: That by designs like you don't. You don't do a
Speaker 2: lot of interviews.
Speaker 1: Right, Nah, that's what I'm saying, Like, I I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't know, man, you know what I'm saying. I
Speaker 1: can't control with other people and what they put out
Speaker 1: in the world about me. I can't control that. I
Speaker 1: can only control what I put out in the world
Speaker 1: or what I do. And it's just not natural for
Speaker 1: me to push that on people or try to prove
Speaker 1: a point of who I am or you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, what I what I am, or how I
Speaker 1: just don't never feel the need to do that when
Speaker 1: I wake up in the morning. It's explaining that people
Speaker 1: prove to people who I am, Like, that's true. You
Speaker 1: want to take what you see online or you want
Speaker 1: to do that, Like, then that's your god given right.
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't know.
Speaker 2: I think that's dope though. That's like that's like old
Speaker 2: school star right, Like old school superstars, they had an
Speaker 2: era of mystery about them, you know what I mean,
Speaker 2: Like like you got their music and you had to
Speaker 2: hear what their life was like through their music. Every
Speaker 2: now and then you might get it and it'd be
Speaker 2: like rarely rarely. But I think that's dope, you know,
Speaker 2: move like Michael Jackson. And the one thing I like
Speaker 2: I like about you, man, it's like you're not out
Speaker 2: here doing no goofy shit, you know, like you ain't
Speaker 2: on the blogs and you know, all over social media
Speaker 2: doing dumbn shit like people know Broadway for being a
Speaker 2: dope artist telling out these shows and building a fan
Speaker 2: base through music, Like I think that's what you're supposed
Speaker 2: to do.
Speaker 1: And so yeah, I think it's so crazy that you
Speaker 1: say that, because like he was just talking about that earlier,
Speaker 1: Like I feel like I'm roadway once out of the year,
Speaker 1: and when it's time to drop an album, do a tour,
Speaker 1: then I'm back to you know what I'm saying, normal living,
Speaker 1: And they really don't really hit me until it's time
Speaker 1: to drop albums or do tours or do press runs
Speaker 1: or I actually like remember who I remember who I am?
Speaker 1: You feel what I'm saying, because like, throughout the year,
Speaker 1: I'm just like normal, especially like this chapter that I'm on,
Speaker 1: chapter that I'm on, you know what I'm saying, like
Speaker 1: building businesses and getting deeper into the business and just
Speaker 1: like building companies and networking and building relationships. That's what
Speaker 1: I'm doing like three hundred days out of the year,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying that the other sixty five
Speaker 1: is like straight rock and roll, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: But then it's back to the basics, and I feel
Speaker 1: like it's kind of like a good and a negative
Speaker 1: and a plus because negative, like I wish people didn't,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, take my image and run
Speaker 1: with it. But it's a plus because that mysterious, like
Speaker 1: people some people understand that they only got what the
Speaker 1: Internet gave them and then make them want to dig
Speaker 1: a little deeper. You know.
Speaker 2: You know too, man, You know I always wonder about you,
Speaker 2: Like how does somebody who seems like they carry so
Speaker 2: much pain, at least in their music right become one
Speaker 2: of the biggest artists in America without letting that pain
Speaker 2: destroy them?
Speaker 1: Right? I mean it's bro I feel like everybody in
Speaker 1: the world, like people always taking that safe pain. Like
Speaker 1: I'm still not even like that word, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, because it's not even just pain, like it's
Speaker 1: just testimony. It's just real life. Like if you get
Speaker 1: up in the morning and you late the word bad accident,
Speaker 1: fucking coffee spilled on you shit like whatever going on, right,
Speaker 1: and you come in the office and you talk about
Speaker 1: it like you not like crying or dwelling on it,
Speaker 1: or it wasn't painful, like it was just like something
Speaker 1: you went through and you found somebody express it to
Speaker 1: them and life went on. So like, I don't it
Speaker 1: can't destroy me because it's just it's I turned it
Speaker 1: just into a positive, right, And I feel like everybody
Speaker 1: in the world go through stuff, go through things, like
Speaker 1: everybody problems is you know what I'm saying, case by case,
Speaker 1: but it's all normal, Like it's not pain, it's not sad,
Speaker 1: it's it's normal. It's reality. Like the world is so
Speaker 1: stuck on the internet. Everybody's living these fake perfect lives.
Speaker 1: All these people living is fake fairy tale. You take
Speaker 1: sixty five pictures, but you only post three of them.
Speaker 1: You found the most perfect pictures. You see what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: You're gonna edit it and do all this and that,
Speaker 1: And I feel like that's not reality, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. So I'm just living in reality. I'm just speaking.
Speaker 1: And that's why I say, like I'm on your way
Speaker 1: once a year because the rest of the year, I'm
Speaker 1: in reality, you know what I'm saying. Of course, I'm
Speaker 1: on social media and I'm watching and I'm laughing and
Speaker 1: joking and I'm watching this and watching TV. I know
Speaker 1: what's going on in the world, But I'm in reality, bro,
Speaker 1: and I try to keep that balance, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, because the fake perfect and stuff like it's
Speaker 1: not real. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: Are you aware that you give people, especially young men
Speaker 2: from the hood, permission to feel like they're not afraid
Speaker 2: to express their emotions and talk about what they're going
Speaker 2: through because of your music.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And it's so crazy because I'm kind of like
Speaker 1: the sacrificial limb if you look at it, because men
Speaker 1: or young men, young black men, young men, black, green, orange, white,
Speaker 1: whatever color, like, it's not like if you talk about
Speaker 1: your problems or you get too vulnerable whatever, like, nobody
Speaker 1: want to hear it, you know what I'm saying. So
Speaker 1: I'm like the proof. I'm like the walking example that people,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, don't care about what you
Speaker 1: go through. They don't care about how you feel. They
Speaker 1: don't And I feel like the people who feel how
Speaker 1: I feel, they connect with it. Right, like the young
Speaker 1: black men they see like them, I'm not tripping like
Speaker 1: it's just not me. Every is You can see that
Speaker 1: rock and all these fans and all these following and
Speaker 1: all these people who feel how he feel, how I feel,
Speaker 1: how you feel, you know what I'm saying. So I
Speaker 1: feel like it's it's cool that I was able to
Speaker 1: take reality right and turn it into a positive. And
Speaker 1: it's just like walking example of why men can't. Can't complain,
Speaker 1: You can't, you can't do nothing. You just got to
Speaker 1: shut up and deal with it because you is a man, right,
Speaker 1: and if you don't, people will polling at you and say, like,
Speaker 1: look at all your flaws and shit, while they while
Speaker 1: they got ten thousand more flaws than you, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, but they just not talking about theirs
Speaker 1: are living in their truth, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: That's right, But that's why you're used to connect with
Speaker 2: people the way that it does, because because because you
Speaker 2: live your truth. Is it a burden to be like
Speaker 2: everybody's therapists and you like the ghetto psychiatrists? Does it
Speaker 2: feel like a burden sometime?
Speaker 1: And not really, because I don't really look at it
Speaker 1: like that, like I'm making a song. I'm not looking
Speaker 1: at it like I gotta make it sure for these people.
Speaker 1: I'm not looking at it like I gotta do this
Speaker 1: for these people, like I'm just going in there having
Speaker 1: my own little therapy session, and I'm just going there talking,
Speaker 1: having and just having my own thing going on. My hobby,
Speaker 1: my therapy, my what I like to do, right, And
Speaker 1: it turned into what it is like as a young
Speaker 1: black man in America when I couldn't talk to nobody,
Speaker 1: or when I nobody wanted to hear what I was saying.
Speaker 1: And I go around my home boys and they understand
Speaker 1: how I feel. I get into So going to the
Speaker 1: studio made me like that was my hobby. I had
Speaker 1: a lot of built up anger. I had a lot
Speaker 1: of built up like I didn't know how to express it.
Speaker 1: And other people my age or with the hand that
Speaker 1: I was dealt that was similar to minds, they spread it,
Speaker 1: expressed it in different ways. Some people violently expressed it right,
Speaker 1: some people expressed it traumatically and couldn't get through it.
Speaker 1: And I just kind of expressed it through music, right,
Speaker 1: And it turned into what it is today and how
Speaker 1: successful it done became you know what I'm saying, Like,
Speaker 1: I was just trying to find a way to express
Speaker 1: what I was feeling on what I be feeling right
Speaker 1: and as a as a as a as a as
Speaker 1: an adolescent, I didn't know how to write, and I
Speaker 1: had a lot of built up anger and I just
Speaker 1: would express it and dangerous or ways that stuff put
Speaker 1: myself in stuff I probably couldn't get out of. So
Speaker 1: finding music was my way of escaping or expressing or
Speaker 1: letting it out because I don't want to like you,
Speaker 1: Like I said, nobody want to hear a man. Nobody
Speaker 1: want to hear that right, because that's just the rules,
Speaker 1: that's just how the world worked. So I found the
Speaker 1: way to express it right, and other people around the
Speaker 1: world felt it. So now my music whenever they feel
Speaker 1: how they feel, they don't got to express it bindingly
Speaker 1: or traumatically if they just listen to the music and
Speaker 1: they understand, like, it's okay for you to not understand
Speaker 1: why you feel how you feel. A lot of the world,
Speaker 1: it's okay, you know what.
Speaker 2: I'm saying, It's okay to not be okay.
Speaker 1: It's normal. This reality is ninety nine percent people are
Speaker 1: acting they faking like they that they perfect. Right, that
Speaker 1: don't you're not happy, or you don't love life, or
Speaker 1: you're not excited about today, or you don't love your
Speaker 1: family or your friends. Right, It's just reality. Though.
Speaker 2: You know, millions of people, as you just said, you know,
Speaker 2: say your music saved their lives, right, Who saves Broadway music?
Speaker 1: Music? Music? Music got me out of because you got
Speaker 1: to think about it. Not only did music help me
Speaker 1: express what I was feeling when all I knew was violence, right,
Speaker 1: and I found a different way to express it. It
Speaker 1: saved my life then, Right when I couldn't get nothing right. Right,
Speaker 1: when I couldn't get right, couldn't hustle and kept messing
Speaker 1: up the money, kept doing this and I was out
Speaker 1: in the world by myself, music came and saved me again.
Speaker 1: And it helped pay my bills. When I had kids
Speaker 1: and I was trying to figre out what I'm about
Speaker 1: to do, music helped feed them. Or my mama was
Speaker 1: tired of working and she was tired. Music helped retire.
Speaker 1: You see what I'm saying. So nobody, I mean, I love,
Speaker 1: I love my support system, like my family and my team, right,
Speaker 1: but music is a part of that my support system,
Speaker 1: Like it saved my life. You know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: It changed my whole trajectory. On the path that I
Speaker 1: was at from seventeen to twenty seven, I probably would
Speaker 1: have just been coming home, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: Like it changed my whole trajectory on what I was on,
Speaker 1: where I was going in life, and not just me,
Speaker 1: ten million young black, angry young men in the world
Speaker 1: was headed the same way, right, and music changed my
Speaker 1: whole trajectory. So whenever I you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: that's what even if you look at any other businesses
Speaker 1: that I'm starting, like my edge on it is what
Speaker 1: I did in music. My influence that I built doing music, audience,
Speaker 1: see what I'm saying. So like that's what I'm just
Speaker 1: thankful that I was able to find a hobby. And
Speaker 1: guess what My hobby probably was music. Some people hobby
Speaker 1: was basketball, football, film making. Like a great friend of mine,
Speaker 1: Ryan Cooler, you know what I'm saying, Like that's how
Speaker 1: people expressed. And I speak with people like Ryan and
Speaker 1: the Tip Bro the music and we have conversations that
Speaker 1: go deeper than the surface. You know, I have a
Speaker 1: conversations with people that people probably can't when they see
Speaker 1: me on the street, they talk to me. They probably
Speaker 1: never even told their wife how they feel what I
Speaker 1: help them through, you know what I'm saying, because they
Speaker 1: don't feel like they can.
Speaker 2: I told you you the ghetto psychia therapist bro, just
Speaker 2: real life. Who you're the go to guy?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: For so many people? And now you said music, But
Speaker 2: who does the go to person go to? You can't.
Speaker 2: You can't carry all this weight by yourself, man.
Speaker 1: I mean that's that's just that. Come with the territory,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, Shit, Come with the territory,
Speaker 1: because if you really ask yourself, like, who can anybody
Speaker 1: go to? For real? It's not just me, Like I'm
Speaker 1: justm rod wave and everybody I fancy shit, But who
Speaker 1: can anybody go to? Like I really ask yourself that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because there's there's there's only one you. Like, you
Speaker 2: can talk to other people who might have had similar experiences,
Speaker 2: but nobody has lived your life.
Speaker 1: Everything is casaby case, like who can you go to? Right?
Speaker 1: Because even when you go to somebody, they are problems
Speaker 1: of their own I don' want to hear that. It's
Speaker 1: not even a sad thing. It's not even about problems.
Speaker 1: It could be a happy I don't know how to
Speaker 1: explain it, but it's not. People try to make it be.
Speaker 1: It's just reality.
Speaker 2: The internet be acting like you just this sad depressed person.
Speaker 1: All A lot of that should be like proper ganda,
Speaker 1: Like if you really pay attention to it, like a
Speaker 1: lot that be a lot of campaign and pushing and
Speaker 1: angles and you know what I'm saying, a lot of
Speaker 1: it just be narratives. You know what I'm saying, the
Speaker 1: real what's going on in the reality? Come to a concert?
Speaker 1: Was going on in real life? Go and look at
Speaker 1: albums in seven platinum, I'm go and look at it
Speaker 1: six plant, Like, go look at reality you get on
Speaker 1: the internet. That's what I'm saying, Like you never know
Speaker 1: what's really behind that, what's controlling that. But if you
Speaker 1: just look at reality and what rod got going on?
Speaker 2: Is there a difference between being sad and uh and
Speaker 2: being depressed? Hell yeah, okay, what's the different?
Speaker 1: Okay?
Speaker 2: Bro?
Speaker 1: You can you could be like sad as a feeling,
Speaker 1: So sad and depressed is feelings and sad. Sad and
Speaker 1: depressed might be like sad feel like damn, like shiit
Speaker 1: sad is like to the point of that hurts my
Speaker 1: feelings or I feel a way about it, but I'm moving.
Speaker 1: Is depressed is more like defeated, like you just beat down.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, Like do I look defeated? Nah?
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. I'm still going and I
Speaker 1: don't been through ship just like everybody else in the world.
Speaker 1: So depressed is like a word of like flat tied,
Speaker 1: can't go no more. I've been going. I've been going,
Speaker 1: and I've been going since I was fourteen. I've been
Speaker 1: I've been ready for the world. So I ain't depressed.
Speaker 1: I don't even like that word because I don't want
Speaker 1: to nothing get I don't even let nothing get to
Speaker 1: me for real, Like I don't even take nothing standing
Speaker 1: my way, Like I don't want to hear no nos
Speaker 1: what we can't do and how hard something is. I
Speaker 1: don't even like that's just always my attitude, like we
Speaker 1: can always get anything done, Like I don't. I don't
Speaker 1: even have a depressed attitude, right because even depressed even
Speaker 1: by me going in the studio and expressing my music
Speaker 1: and turn to turn what I'm going through to a
Speaker 1: positive that's not even a depressed action Like I'm I'm
Speaker 1: moving forward. I'm getting up, going to the studio and
Speaker 1: hobby and exercising my hobby and what I want to
Speaker 1: do in life. You know what I'm saying. So depressed
Speaker 1: is like depleted life black, can't go no more. It's sad.
Speaker 1: It's like that's how I feel. But sad happy can
Speaker 1: come ten minutes after side. The excitement can come ten
Speaker 1: minutes after sad, you know what I'm saying. Or sleepy
Speaker 1: it come five minutes before sad. So it's like I
Speaker 1: could be sad that it's raining and I wanted to
Speaker 1: drive and I just washed my car. I could be
Speaker 1: sad that fucking well. I could be happy. I could
Speaker 1: be sleepy. I could be funny. I can be depressed.
Speaker 1: Is like I can't do it no more. I don't
Speaker 1: want to wrap, I don't want to do nothing, can't
Speaker 1: take it no more, I don't want.
Speaker 2: To You know what I'm saying, You've never been there,
Speaker 2: I mean.
Speaker 1: Bro, I mean like in life, like I don't know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: i'd been there, right, but that's shit, not like every
Speaker 1: day the fact that I'm seeing with you, I had
Speaker 1: to get on a plane, get on the get it in.
Speaker 1: I had to cross the river and cross the lake
Speaker 1: to give so like that go to show you like
Speaker 1: that's not depressed. Like if that was the case, I
Speaker 1: would be up undertle rock, like don't even want to
Speaker 1: you know, push it no more. But this is my hobby.
Speaker 1: And if I were depressed, if depressed me depleted, can't
Speaker 1: take it am flat down to the ground. How the
Speaker 1: hell do we do six albums back to back to
Speaker 1: back to back to back to back.
Speaker 2: That's right?
Speaker 1: Where was he depleted? Where did he get wet? Where
Speaker 1: did where did it get confused? With that?
Speaker 2: You know? One of your fellow floor to boys, one
Speaker 2: man Little Duvall, he said, you're not depressed, you just
Speaker 2: need some money.
Speaker 1: That I said real as real, because you like, if
Speaker 1: you go back through what I'm saying, like what the
Speaker 1: press really mean, Like if you got money, maybe you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, like, maybe you'll have more motivation,
Speaker 1: Like it gives you like that anything is possible, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: Have you ever worried that, uh, that that healing might
Speaker 2: change the music like that people fell in love with
Speaker 2: a version of you? That that was I guess hurting.
Speaker 1: I do, but I used to think about that, right,
Speaker 1: But at some point it's like, these people been with
Speaker 1: me since I was nineteen twenty seven now, so these
Speaker 1: saying people right should be we together to together, should
Speaker 1: be healing. It shouldn't just be stuck. Now, that's the press.
Speaker 1: It's stuck. You can't get pad, you can't move through it. Right,
Speaker 1: So healing, right, is what we all should be working towards.
Speaker 1: Whether it's tonight, today, tomorrow, next week, next year, ten
Speaker 1: years from now, we all should be taking steps forward
Speaker 1: to healing whatever hurt us, because holding on to that
Speaker 1: shit is not that's not healthy. That's the press. That's
Speaker 1: when you're not trying to find ways to move forward
Speaker 1: in life. But the music, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: it's gonna grow, because we're all growing. If I was
Speaker 1: nineteen then when you first listened to me, I'm twenty
Speaker 1: seven now, right, how many years is that? It's like
Speaker 1: eight years?
Speaker 2: Did a lot in the years, bro?
Speaker 1: Thank god? Well?
Speaker 2: And you know when I listened to the new album Don't
Speaker 2: Look Down, I do hear I hear a lot of happiness,
Speaker 2: but also hear a lot of grief as well, right,
Speaker 2: I feel like I hear a lot of heartbreak. Like
Speaker 2: when you perform songs that come from some of your
Speaker 2: darkest moments, does it help you here or does it
Speaker 2: make you just relive those emotions?
Speaker 1: I mean, even recording the song, it's like a form
Speaker 1: of like vent and getting it out your system. Like
Speaker 1: I could have been the song that I made, could
Speaker 1: have been an hour of my life, and I took
Speaker 1: this whatever I was going through in that hour, and
Speaker 1: then two days later I might have didn't even feel
Speaker 1: that way, right, But it's a great song, like we
Speaker 1: got something great from it. So even recording it made
Speaker 1: me feel better about the situation. Right. Getting on stage,
Speaker 1: of course might be a year later from the time
Speaker 1: I recorded it to then, so maybe I've already felt better.
Speaker 1: Maybe I'm in a whole nother space about what happened
Speaker 1: to me or whatever I feel or whatever I was
Speaker 1: going through, whether it's small, big, whatever the case may be. Regardless, Bro,
Speaker 1: I'm a soldier. I'm moving forward. I'm going forward. Ain't
Speaker 1: nothing stopping me. I ain't No, I'm not letting up
Speaker 1: for nobody. Now, Does that mean I'm way rapping? That's
Speaker 1: a whole nother conversation, but just in life. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. I'm always working forward the healing, trying
Speaker 1: to grow, move forward, build businesses. But I feel like
Speaker 1: this chapter in my life and I found so much
Speaker 1: happiness with all the other things that I'm building, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, Like I feel excited, wake up
Speaker 1: and go to the office and sit with the team,
Speaker 1: and surround myself with people who think like minded people,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, People who want to grow,
Speaker 1: people who love creating and art.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying, Like, what's this chapter? What's
Speaker 2: this chapter of your life?
Speaker 1: Club?
Speaker 2: Don't look down, don't look down? What is this chapter mean?
Speaker 2: Because I hear you keep referencing this chapter and I
Speaker 2: know you know you got father going on the business side,
Speaker 2: going on, like what is it? What is it represented?
Speaker 1: Just going from like art artists to mogul you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, Just like I feel like at something
Speaker 1: like we all gotta grow, right, So by me just
Speaker 1: being on the stage and being the artist, being the
Speaker 1: talent or whatever, I feel like I wouldn't say I
Speaker 1: was in the words position, but maybe like I was
Speaker 1: like a pawn at the time. You know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: So like being but I'm still in the game, right,
Speaker 1: So this child is like going from artists to mogil
Speaker 1: because like, I learned so much and I have seen
Speaker 1: how things operate, and I seen how think go, I
Speaker 1: got my money right, how I got my mind right.
Speaker 1: So it's like this chapter was like going from artists
Speaker 1: to mogul because you know, like at some point you
Speaker 1: gotta like, you know, let the kids have it. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. I let the kids have it,
Speaker 1: like let me. You know what I'm saying, I'm always
Speaker 1: do this because it's my hobby, right, I can. I
Speaker 1: can make a hundred songs and nobody ever heard them
Speaker 1: or whatever, because it just gotta like to do it.
Speaker 2: What you mean, the kids, But you're twenty seven, like
Speaker 2: you a.
Speaker 1: Bab you know what I'm saying, I'm not something right now.
Speaker 1: Oh I don't want to be to that point where
Speaker 1: I'm not a fucking kid no more. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. It's like, bro, like I should be getting
Speaker 1: behind the youth and because they the future, at some
Speaker 1: point in my life, I should be up in the
Speaker 1: youth and teaching them what I learned or helping them
Speaker 1: so they don't have to bump their head and go
Speaker 1: through an eight year roller coaster. You know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: it should be an eight month roller coaster. That's how
Speaker 1: it should go, right, right, Like we should be teaching
Speaker 1: the youth or getting behind the youth. That's how that go.
Speaker 1: Even though now I'm twenty seven, Right, it's somebody who's seventeen, right,
Speaker 1: who probably might be better than me, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, Quicker than me, faster than me, whatever the
Speaker 1: case may be, and I should be I should make
Speaker 1: an effort into being a part of that. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: Absolutely well, what's something you think you've healed from that?
Speaker 2: Your fans probably don't even realize.
Speaker 1: I feel like a lot of a lot of things
Speaker 1: that I helped from, maybe like like childhood drama. Like
Speaker 1: I feel like when I was younger, I was so dramatic,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, Like I felt like the
Speaker 1: world owed me something. I felt like all mad at
Speaker 1: these people, these people what they did to mean, how
Speaker 1: can they do that? I mean? I feel like as
Speaker 1: time as time went on, I got to help so much,
Speaker 1: Like about like my childhood or my earlier younger days,
Speaker 1: like nobody was out to get you, bro like his life.
Speaker 1: Everybody got their own problems. Everybody got their own life.
Speaker 1: And maybe because the music, like it's timeless, so people
Speaker 1: go back and revisit and they think, like, that's still
Speaker 1: how I feel about certain situations. But I healed from
Speaker 1: so many things like family relationships and stuff like that
Speaker 1: because I was young, right, you know, you seventeen sixteen,
Speaker 1: and you just you don't get it, you don't understand it,
Speaker 1: and you think everything's personal. You take everything personal, right,
Speaker 1: and they you get older and you have your own kids,
Speaker 1: and you have your own life, and you become an
Speaker 1: adult and it's just like, oh, I see, and you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, And you give certain people breaks
Speaker 1: like damn, you look at it a whole other way,
Speaker 1: and and that help you heal right, growth, just growing
Speaker 1: and having your own kids and family and businesses, and
Speaker 1: and you stop taking shit so personal. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying.
Speaker 2: Hey, that's why I love talking to brothers like you,
Speaker 2: because when I was twenty seven, I didn't have that
Speaker 2: level of emotional intelligence. All I was still taking things first.
Speaker 2: That's twenty seven years old. And then the thing you're
Speaker 2: gonna realize is you get older, Like as you get older,
Speaker 2: everything is just about healing that inner child exactly, that
Speaker 2: that still exists with you. You that eight year old,
Speaker 2: that nine yearld that tenure, whatever trauma you was dealing
Speaker 2: with back then. I promise you gonna be in your
Speaker 2: thirties forties still trying to help that little boy.
Speaker 1: Oh God, but it's so crazy because but now I
Speaker 1: look at it and I remember myself like from a
Speaker 1: child to a grown man, right, and it's just like,
Speaker 1: what about the people who made us feel the way
Speaker 1: they was once children and they once they didn't have
Speaker 1: it figured out, and they once it was dramatic, and
Speaker 1: they once start the world wild around them. Maybe you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. And so now once you look
Speaker 1: back at it and you look at it from that angle,
Speaker 1: it's like, damn. Some of my parents is like kids
Speaker 1: who there was once kids and they just growed up
Speaker 1: and they didn't have a rule book up booker, and
Speaker 1: then their parents it was just revolving cycle. So when
Speaker 1: I once I turn around and I look at the
Speaker 1: world and from that angle, it is like, damn, Like
Speaker 1: maybe I was a little too hard or maybe I
Speaker 1: was a little dramatic or maybe I did.
Speaker 2: Did you ever have those conversations with your people, because
Speaker 2: that's one of the I tell you, that's the hard
Speaker 2: that's the hard thing knowing that your parents had a
Speaker 2: life before they was your parents and learning about that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, especially especially when they feel that like they feel
Speaker 1: some sort of type of like guilt, like damn, I
Speaker 1: wish all you know what I'm saying, And then like
Speaker 1: now you gotta like try to make them understand that
Speaker 1: you understanding now right because they might have remembered when
Speaker 1: you was dramatic about it and they and they think
Speaker 1: you still feel that way about it, and it's like
Speaker 1: how do you tell them like it's okay, I understand.
Speaker 2: That's what they look at me, mama, record is you
Speaker 2: feel me?
Speaker 1: It's crazy yea.
Speaker 2: So the conversations you can't have to them yet you
Speaker 2: just you put it into music.
Speaker 1: Yeah, whatever I think Wayne said that was like kind
Speaker 1: of hearts and to your face. So I do it
Speaker 1: little snails and face ship like that because like the
Speaker 1: music is like like vent like then you know what
Speaker 1: the music is. Like. How they express yourself is how
Speaker 1: I express myself. You know. But that's why I feel
Speaker 1: like this album is like so mature, because it used
Speaker 1: to be I don't want no more love. I feel
Speaker 1: it's poison. And then it turned into can I have
Speaker 1: a piece? Sir?
Speaker 2: I'll be fun, you know, and I'm alone.
Speaker 1: Tonight, but I'm okay, you feel me, I'm okay. Though
Speaker 1: it used to be how can I? How can I live?
Speaker 1: How can I?
Speaker 2: I don't want to be alone?
Speaker 1: And it turned into okay, if you getting lost tonight,
Speaker 1: you're fine your way? Well you do? You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. It's like you're older. It's like I'm like,
Speaker 1: you know, unless dramatic. It's like, I understand. I don't
Speaker 1: take shit so personal. I don't look at it to
Speaker 1: look at the world different.
Speaker 2: But she's still human, you know what I mean? So
Speaker 2: human long for connection right as you get older, like
Speaker 2: it's growth.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: Do you ever feel guilty for making it out when
Speaker 2: people you loved it?
Speaker 1: Yeah? No, I mean because like this sho didn't fall
Speaker 1: out of this guy you work for it, work so
Speaker 1: hard for this ship. Man. Nah. No, I feel I
Speaker 1: feel bad because I feel like I was so blessed
Speaker 1: to the point where like skated so many times, you know,
Speaker 1: and I got partners who didn't get second chances, who
Speaker 1: didn't get you know what I'm saying, older, older people
Speaker 1: to wrap their arms around him and teach him and
Speaker 1: guide them. But you know, I took the hand. I
Speaker 1: was there, and I played it, and I'm still playing it.
Speaker 1: You know, I feel sad for like a lot of
Speaker 1: my friends and peers who couldn't make it to him.
Speaker 1: But that's why I always like shout that out, like
Speaker 1: I made it where people couldn't, Like I'm a bottom
Speaker 1: bust surviv like I know niggas couldn't even make it
Speaker 1: past the first level. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: You reference, you reference flip a lot on this project
Speaker 2: quite a few times, Like what did he mean to you?
Speaker 1: Flip flip? That's uh, that's like Uncle d Ulter Ego man,
Speaker 1: so like the last little child in his life, he flipped.
Speaker 1: He was total opposite, Like he was always like hiding
Speaker 1: cameras and bore the same thing he had ever, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, never spent no money, never he
Speaker 1: was quiet, like the last last fucking chapter of his life.
Speaker 1: He kind of flipped like to the total opposite. But
Speaker 1: he talked. He taught me a lot though. Man, he
Speaker 1: meant a lot to me. He he helped mold this
Speaker 1: version of me today, like you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: And as a from that, you know, from as chapter changes,
Speaker 1: I'm different and I'm still growing, right, But I couldn't
Speaker 1: have got to this point without you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: that bridge that he built for us. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying.
Speaker 2: It was like he was like a mentor.
Speaker 1: Most definitely, most definitely.
Speaker 2: How important is mentorship?
Speaker 1: Mentorship is important because if a lot of things that
Speaker 1: not not having a mentor could like slow the process down,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. So actually having somebody in
Speaker 1: your ear or your corner that you actually believe trust
Speaker 1: and that you know you can trust, you know they
Speaker 1: got your best interest, that you know they know what
Speaker 1: they talking about. It have been there before, right because
Speaker 1: a lot of us got goals and ship that were
Speaker 1: going towards and it might take you longer, or it
Speaker 1: might you might go further and I might get there faster.
Speaker 1: But a mentor can kind of like help you with
Speaker 1: out pumping your head. Like we tell you, bro, I
Speaker 1: went down at alley, I got full flat tied. Don't
Speaker 1: go down there. I'm not gonna go down there. You
Speaker 1: see what I'm saying. Saved me time, saved me money.
Speaker 1: I went around, I got He didn't give me the
Speaker 1: gas money, right, he didn't boy the comf for me,
Speaker 1: but he helped me. He told me, Bro, you go
Speaker 1: down that alley, you're gonna get full flat times and
Speaker 1: it's gonna show you down about four five hours. If
Speaker 1: you go around right, you're gonna get further, and you're
Speaker 1: gonna with daylight before it getting dark, You're gonna get
Speaker 1: way further if you don't go down to the alley.
Speaker 1: So mentorship ship is important, and that's why I said
Speaker 1: I want to be when I get to a point
Speaker 1: in my life, I want to be a part of
Speaker 1: the youth and the culture and helping them because like
Speaker 1: for example, Bro, at the Kanye concert. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, My tour company built the soul Fly Stadium, right,
Speaker 1: and we had the highest grossing hip hop show a
Speaker 1: concert ever. You see what I'm saying. But the fact
Speaker 1: that I was able to learn that right, and it
Speaker 1: was people around me at the time before I became
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. The person I am today,
Speaker 1: or before I built soul flyop, I mean before I
Speaker 1: built Mainstay Torn, right, it was people who should have
Speaker 1: been mentoring me and helping me and helping me get
Speaker 1: on this level or rowing with me, right, But they
Speaker 1: were trying to run the game on me. You see
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, and that kind of just But we
Speaker 1: could have built We could have built this and did
Speaker 1: this together. We could have been doing this right. So
Speaker 1: where I'm at today with the Kanye concert and everything,
Speaker 1: imagine where we would have been, right if we would
Speaker 1: have started this process. Then when if the first step
Speaker 1: would have been mentorship and helping me and teaching me
Speaker 1: instead of trying to run the game on me. Right,
Speaker 1: So now once you run the game on me three times,
Speaker 1: now I learn it. Now you just wasted two years.
Speaker 1: You see what I'm saying. I got to go over
Speaker 1: here and now I'm at this point. Well, okay, I
Speaker 1: know how to build relationships, going to a leverage relationships,
Speaker 1: but the building can't. Nobody in America, God damn get
Speaker 1: coated back. You feel what I'm saying. At the soul
Speaker 1: Fly Stadium, soul if I Stadium. So it's like learning
Speaker 1: how to leverage relationship, learning how to do this by
Speaker 1: going through whatever I went through. You see what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: But that's why it's important, because now I could take
Speaker 1: what I know, I could pass it down, so now
Speaker 1: I can save you two years. I could save three
Speaker 1: years because I did it. I already did it. And
Speaker 1: I feel like it's my debt to the culture. It's
Speaker 1: my debt to society because what I'm I mean, I
Speaker 1: couldn't even see the world in it like right. I
Speaker 1: feel like that could make all the difference in the
Speaker 1: world because at some point I wasn't the most famous
Speaker 1: in my city, my state, my nothing. I was right
Speaker 1: there in the room and I was in last place. Right.
Speaker 1: Some of these, some of these right trophies was because
Speaker 1: of whoever could last the longest, right, whoever can make
Speaker 1: it to the last round. Right. And there's a lot
Speaker 1: of people who was better, quicker, faster, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, biggest support. But it's structure and ship like
Speaker 1: that mentor.
Speaker 2: When said it's a marathon, real I want. I want
Speaker 2: to stay on the Kanye thing for a second because
Speaker 2: somebody's view. I was talking to Enview this morning because
Speaker 2: I told him I was gonna be sitting with you,
Speaker 2: and he was like, yo, you know he he's one
Speaker 2: of the promoters for the Kanye Show. And I said, oh,
Speaker 2: Rod out here moving different. I'm like, because you are
Speaker 2: you selling out your own should promoting shows for other artists?
Speaker 1: Yeah, but that's what That's what gave me the That's
Speaker 1: what gave me not only the leverage, but that's what
Speaker 1: gave me the the knowledge, right because I had to
Speaker 1: I had to tear my touring business down right and
Speaker 1: rebuild it right. And then I learned about touring. I
Speaker 1: was in room, I was meeting people in leveraging relationships.
Speaker 1: So now I was learning right. So now I got
Speaker 1: the confidence and I know, I know what I'm doing.
Speaker 1: We do this. We can do this for anybody smaller
Speaker 1: up big here. Right, it's a simple equation, right, one
Speaker 1: plus one plus one, it's three. So it was a
Speaker 1: simple break down and that's what gave me the confidence
Speaker 1: to do it. So learning from road Waves touring business
Speaker 1: made me ready for the world. Now I feel like
Speaker 1: I can throw a tour for the biggest artists in
Speaker 1: the world, right, because just because I can't do it,
Speaker 1: I mean I can't get it done. You see what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. And that's where the whole Kanye thing came from.
Speaker 1: And I just felt like, I want to test this
Speaker 1: theory because you had these you had these moments in
Speaker 1: your head where like, I try to be so humble
Speaker 1: to the point where I like I might have to
Speaker 1: question myself. So if I started getting too arrogant, I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: I got this ship down pack. I'm like, but do
Speaker 1: I really like it's people around me really just don't
Speaker 1: want to tell me. Like, I got to test this theory.
Speaker 1: And that's what the whole Kanye thing was about. Like,
Speaker 1: I feel like I got this ship down to a
Speaker 1: science and it's but maybe it's only freaking for me
Speaker 1: because I'm the wrong way. But what if I try
Speaker 1: nothing to do with me nothing and I just test
Speaker 1: this theory? Right? And that's what the Kanye thing was about. Right.
Speaker 1: I leveraged my relationship and I booked the venue right,
Speaker 1: and then I then then I found the talent right,
Speaker 1: and we show structure to influences and the finances and
Speaker 1: it worked.
Speaker 2: Why Kanye, I mean, I mean that's not why Kanye,
Speaker 2: because it's Kanye. But you know that could be risky.
Speaker 1: Right, yeah, and it wasn't nothing because I didn't bro
Speaker 1: I'm such a Kanye fan and I'm such so out
Speaker 1: of tune. I didn't even understand right the details, but
Speaker 1: the out the the equation was find a building right
Speaker 1: and do the marketing right, and then find the artist
Speaker 1: that has a cult life fan base like people who
Speaker 1: like like love you like even if you make mistakes right,
Speaker 1: you know, they understand you're not perfectly understand where you
Speaker 1: add in life mentally right or whatever you're going through
Speaker 1: physically emotionally right. But that was the equation, right, find
Speaker 1: the building, put the team together, and now we need
Speaker 1: talent that has a colt life following, that has a
Speaker 1: fan base that just loves you. Thinking through right. And
Speaker 1: that's why Kanye, because it was like my equation was, okay,
Speaker 1: it's just working for rod Wave. But I got a
Speaker 1: different kind of fan and that was people always people
Speaker 1: to excuse on why it was different. Oh, he got
Speaker 1: different kind of fans, right, So I was like, I
Speaker 1: want to try this and I take myself out the equation,
Speaker 1: but put something similar but bigger, right, try to put
Speaker 1: you know, we came up with Ya and it's crazy
Speaker 1: because he was the first idea, Like it wasn't even
Speaker 1: like we thought about it and we came up with
Speaker 1: nothing Like. It was like he was the first person
Speaker 1: that I thought of, and that's what we did. And
Speaker 1: I appreciate him and I wish him the most luck.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. It was it was successful.
Speaker 1: It was the biggest selling hip hop concert in history.
Speaker 2: So he came to you, you came in, I went
Speaker 2: and got it right. See that's dope too, though, man,
Speaker 2: because it would take a black promoter to do that,
Speaker 2: because nobody else was going to give him a shot
Speaker 2: at a time.
Speaker 1: After Yeah, I feel like a lot of people just
Speaker 1: don't understand business, whether they fourteen or they forty or fifty,
Speaker 1: like because our mentors have to tell us and explain
Speaker 1: instead of trying to run the game. Like somebody got
Speaker 1: to be teaching us, what how does business work? You
Speaker 1: see what I'm saying. And maybe if people like you know,
Speaker 1: maybe people would understand. And that's why I wanted to
Speaker 1: kind of like for myself, like I felt like people
Speaker 1: wasn't really trying to help me. They was trying to
Speaker 1: run the game on me, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: And that's what this whole Mainstay thing is about even
Speaker 1: my sport agency. Like you know, I want to help
Speaker 1: the kid. I want to help the youth, and so
Speaker 1: we're going after the youth. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: My film company, I want to get the youth involved,
Speaker 1: the young writers and directors, and you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: cast the mainstay distribution and publishing. I want to sign
Speaker 1: the kids and actually help them build a fan base
Speaker 1: and build a touring a touring business. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. I want to actually take what I know.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying in my edge in the
Speaker 1: game and build build something. But help the youth, help
Speaker 1: mentor help no matter no matter what you know, because
Speaker 1: no matter how old you is, how young you is,
Speaker 1: knowledge is power. You know what I'm saying. You got
Speaker 1: all the money in the world, you can have whatever,
Speaker 1: but knowledge is power. Like if you got a hundred
Speaker 1: million and I got a hundred million worth of game.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, My hundred men worth a
Speaker 1: game might just hit that hundred mean about you, you
Speaker 1: see what I'm saying that, So your granddaddy could have
Speaker 1: gave you a hundred living right, but I got the game.
Speaker 1: In my head, he didn't give you the game. He
Speaker 1: just handed you down some money.
Speaker 2: And that game can flip that a hundred million, right,
Speaker 2: a couple of hundred million.
Speaker 1: Right, you see what I'm saying. So you got to
Speaker 1: come to me because I got the key, so I
Speaker 1: ain't get the money. I didn't get the I didn't
Speaker 1: get into the family of whatever the case may be.
Speaker 1: But you don't know nothing with the money. So you
Speaker 1: got to come here, right, And that's just how the
Speaker 1: world work, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: I think there's a lot I want to talk about
Speaker 2: with that because mays stay, right, that's one of my
Speaker 2: favorite songs on the album. Why is that a thing?
Speaker 2: Why is it meanstay? Because that's your entertainment company now
Speaker 2: as well? Why is that word.
Speaker 1: Man it's a mainstay? Because I felt like it's symbolized
Speaker 1: like it's so many like people that be just like
Speaker 1: coming up in the round game. I feel like it's
Speaker 1: so many people that was just in the way what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, I just wasn't really trying to help or
Speaker 1: just trying to like stick their fans and people. And
Speaker 1: I feel like Mainstay was like or like whatever, whatever
Speaker 1: we can do whatever you're comfortable with, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. And I feel like once you find a
Speaker 1: home like that, like you don't got to look nowhere else.
Speaker 1: And once you find a partner, no matter what you do,
Speaker 1: whether we're a sport agent, right, whether we distribute your music,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, whether we distribute your content,
Speaker 1: whether we help manage you, whatever the case may be,
Speaker 1: I want to make it so suitable for you that
Speaker 1: you feel so at home. And this your findal this
Speaker 1: your mainstreak is where you This, where you laying at right,
Speaker 1: this where you like. You know what I'm saying, You're
Speaker 1: so comfortable. So that's that's that was, and that's the
Speaker 1: whole right angle for the whole company. Like I want
Speaker 1: to help, I want to you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: because I still got so I don't gotta make you,
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, I don't got to make all
Speaker 1: the money. I don't got to teach you out of nothing,
Speaker 1: like you gonna know the deal from A to Z.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. You, I don't want nobody
Speaker 1: gonna be feeling no kind of way because I mean,
Speaker 1: you're gonna learn everything and guess what, you can leave
Speaker 1: it anytime.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying about the toy. There was
Speaker 2: a time where you was on tour and you had
Speaker 2: Ari Lennox over and up. I think Ari is phenomenal,
Speaker 2: She's dope, but your crowd wasn't feeling all right?
Speaker 1: Do you do?
Speaker 2: Would you change that? In hindsight? Would you have made
Speaker 2: a different decision?
Speaker 1: I mean not really, because I felt like Ari it
Speaker 1: was dope. You know what I'm saying, Like you can't
Speaker 1: you can't control. It's some things I just don't got
Speaker 1: control over. You know what I'm saying already, So dope,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. I thought she was just
Speaker 1: such a dope artist. I think she's such a dope artist.
Speaker 1: So I was happy that I got to work with her,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. But it's demographics, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. Like I just wanted to work with her,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. And I was excited about
Speaker 1: working with her, right, And maybe you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: maybe if you got if you gotta understand how demographics were,
Speaker 1: Like I got my demographic, you got your demographic, right,
Speaker 1: we got different crowds. You know what I'm saying. Like
Speaker 1: I wasn't thinking about that at the time, right, But
Speaker 1: maybe that was like a management call or something like,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, that she you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, But I was excited to work with. I'm
Speaker 1: glad I worked with. I want to work with again.
Speaker 1: Say I had a good experience, and I wish her
Speaker 1: experience would have been better, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: And yeah, whatever, I don't, I don't, I don't. I
Speaker 1: don't regret that though.
Speaker 2: Did that make you realize your your taste maybe different
Speaker 2: than your fans?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean everybody tastes different, man, everybody tastes different.
Speaker 1: Because you got to think about that a rod way.
Speaker 1: You show like it's older people, it's you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, mid aged people is kids, is you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. And like we talked about as a kid,
Speaker 1: you don't you look at the world different, right, So
Speaker 1: maybe like some of these kids, it is too it's
Speaker 1: it's too shuffle, like it's all kinds of demographics in here, right,
Speaker 1: So it's hard to kind of like target your demographic
Speaker 1: in a group full of six demographs. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, like six different types of people from no
Speaker 1: matter what color, different ages, different shape, different however, different attitudes,
Speaker 1: different backgrounds.
Speaker 2: So yeah, how as you know because because you mentioned Flip,
Speaker 2: but you're also missing you know your aunt on the album.
Speaker 2: You know, how have those losses changed the way you
Speaker 2: move through life today? I thought you said your aunt
Speaker 2: somebody on this album probably my fault Flip the same part.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so that last the last part of his life,
Speaker 1: like he flipped like another person.
Speaker 2: But the people they say grief comes in waves, right,
Speaker 2: have you found that to be true or does it
Speaker 2: show up?
Speaker 1: That's crazy? Like, but I feel like when I first
Speaker 1: when it first happened, when I first when he first passed,
Speaker 1: like I was so in shock. I was like I
Speaker 1: was in shot, Like I couldn't even like I can't
Speaker 1: wrap my head, Like it felt like a dream. Right,
Speaker 1: so they like a year later to me, like a
Speaker 1: year later, a couple of months later, like I find
Speaker 1: myself like damn, it is realized real life. They definitely
Speaker 1: come my waves.
Speaker 2: So man, as losing people change the way you change
Speaker 2: the way you approach your relationships with the people who
Speaker 2: are still here, Like do you love differently.
Speaker 1: Nothing, Yeah, bro, because like I want to like I
Speaker 1: want to have more fun, Like I want to be
Speaker 1: more positive, I want to be more into now you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, I don't want to be like
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, Tomorrow really not promised. I'm saying,
Speaker 1: could we get so comfortable, Like we get so comfortable
Speaker 1: in life? Right? We get so comfortable in our plans
Speaker 1: and not knowing any day any moment, like in the
Speaker 1: same way. So that really changed a lot though, like
Speaker 1: the way I look at like try to just make
Speaker 1: everything right.
Speaker 2: What I'm saying, Yeah, we act like we got one
Speaker 2: one more day, when really we got one less day.
Speaker 2: Does does your own grief give you a deeper understanding
Speaker 2: of what your your fans feel when they press play
Speaker 2: on your music? Because a lot of your a lot
Speaker 2: of your fans lean on your music through some of
Speaker 2: their hardest moments.
Speaker 1: Right right. And I feel like, you know, people relate
Speaker 1: to the people relate to this stuff different, Like it's
Speaker 1: all different, like like it's the same like's it's hitting
Speaker 1: the same nerve, but it's all a case by case
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: Do do you ever worry that fans only want like
Speaker 2: the broken version of the Broadway.
Speaker 1: Yeah I do, but like I used to worry about that, right,
Speaker 1: But it's like I want to be I want to
Speaker 1: be a part of the I want to be a
Speaker 1: part of the growth, Like I want to be a
Speaker 1: part of the healing process. So it's like I wouldn't
Speaker 1: be doing the justice like staying, you know, I should
Speaker 1: be walking by setting an example, right, I should be
Speaker 1: like trying to you know what I'm saying, help you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, heal or help you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, grow, you know what I'm saying. So even
Speaker 1: if they feel that way, it's like that that that
Speaker 1: that that shouldn't dictate like the the reality or the
Speaker 1: pure pureness of what I'm feeling or what I'm saying
Speaker 1: out my mouth, Like I can't like, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, aim it or because then they won't be real, right,
Speaker 1: and then they probably won't even hit the same you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. I can't fake a emotion. I
Speaker 1: can't faker I feeling, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: I'm glad that you say that because a lot of artists,
Speaker 2: you know, they wonder whether healing will will change the
Speaker 2: connection with their audience.
Speaker 1: Ye are other artists who just see, like see that
Speaker 1: it's working for some people, and they try to like
Speaker 1: do that. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: Have you ever gone to therapy or anything? Just great music,
Speaker 2: great meal. Man, No, I hate the new album and sometimes, man,
Speaker 2: it sounds like betrayal from people affected you more than
Speaker 2: like poverty ever did.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Oh god, yeah, don't got because it's like poverty was,
Speaker 1: like poverty was like I don't, I don't mean use
Speaker 1: that word. It's life, bro. This is how we like
Speaker 1: when we think it's normal. It's you don't look at
Speaker 1: it like poverty. It's normal real like it know you,
Speaker 1: it's normal, Like I didn't know that my mama, Like
Speaker 1: my mom worked our ass off. So like my whole family,
Speaker 1: that's all they did. They all hustled, like from my
Speaker 1: my now not to my grandma, to my mom and
Speaker 1: my dad, my cousin, my uncles, they all get up
Speaker 1: and hustle. So I never even looked at it that
Speaker 1: way until I got to I mat today and I'm like, damn,
Speaker 1: that's how you do that. That's the different way you're
Speaker 1: doing shit. You know what I'm saying. But betrayal was
Speaker 1: like betrail is deeper because poverty and I'm not speaking
Speaker 1: to myself, but this poverty is something like you're born into,
Speaker 1: Like you know, people try every day to change that.
Speaker 1: Betrayal is like a decision, like a like a you know,
Speaker 1: it's kind of like an action. It's like a damn,
Speaker 1: like all this over this, all that. Damn. It just
Speaker 1: hit different. You know, I never thought I'm like that,
Speaker 1: I can't blame nobody. You can't blame nobody for poverty,
Speaker 1: right because that's like like what about who they blame it?
Speaker 1: But betrayal, like you chose that, like you did that,
Speaker 1: like that was your move. You you chose that move,
Speaker 1: but it didn't choose poverty, you know, like you chose betrayal.
Speaker 1: Like it's so it hit different.
Speaker 2: You ever thought about that with so man, your people
Speaker 2: they waited to betray you when you got up, when
Speaker 2: y'all was poor, it probably was all good your father
Speaker 2: was in the hood. Yeah, your thought like why you
Speaker 2: wait till now to betray Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean some people gotta they gotta have a motor
Speaker 1: or they gotta have something to betrayal fold like but
Speaker 1: once you see that like they would betray you, portray you, right,
Speaker 1: and you realize that even in the beginning the relationship,
Speaker 1: like the friendship or the partnership or the relationship, it
Speaker 1: wasn't healthy because like you would have like you would
Speaker 1: have did this not now like you would have did
Speaker 1: it back then. Right, And maybe it was never healthy
Speaker 1: to be in a partner ship or friendship or et cetera.
Speaker 2: Right, that doesn't make you close yourself off to people, though.
Speaker 1: I mean not really bro Because as much as I
Speaker 1: complain about portrayal, like I can meet somebody in the
Speaker 1: hallway and ninety days from now here you be working
Speaker 1: for the company and they be gonna move to Georgia.
Speaker 1: It just be like that. So I let people hate,
Speaker 1: let people hanging themselves. Man, I try to like give
Speaker 1: people the benefit of the doubt.
Speaker 2: How does it feel for rod Wave to open himself
Speaker 2: up the actual love?
Speaker 1: Man?
Speaker 2: They're just really getting love from somebody or people in general.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel good. I love love, right, I love
Speaker 1: love like, I love being being, I love love. I
Speaker 1: feel feel good.
Speaker 2: But what is love thought to you about yourself?
Speaker 1: That that you gotta you gotta love yourself like but
Speaker 1: you even understand what love is. You have to love
Speaker 1: yourself because you might be looking at something as love,
Speaker 1: but you can't really recognize it because you never saw
Speaker 1: it before. So you got these things in your head
Speaker 1: that you think is love. But if you love yourself,
Speaker 1: then you will be able to recognize it. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm saying clear as day, That's what I learned about love,
Speaker 1: Like it's start within, you know, and you gotta love yourself, right,
Speaker 1: and whoever you're looking for, whoever trying to love you,
Speaker 1: they gotta love theirself. We gotta love you, gotta be mutual,
Speaker 1: and you gotta be with them, right.
Speaker 2: That has becoming the father changed the way you think
Speaker 2: about your own childhood?
Speaker 1: Yeah exactly, Yeah for sure. I Like I said, like
Speaker 1: when I was young, I was so dramatic, but when
Speaker 1: I have my own kids, like understood my parents and shit, right, yeah.
Speaker 2: What's something you making sure your children never got to
Speaker 2: heal from.
Speaker 1: Just like like going without like I can't, I can't.
Speaker 1: I can only brace them for the world like the
Speaker 1: world is the world and their life gonna be their life, right,
Speaker 1: But just I never want them to be able to
Speaker 1: like I have to lean on nobody or like I
Speaker 1: have to lose theyself for like money off finances and
Speaker 1: stuff like I want them to be able to live
Speaker 1: they free life and do what they what they admire
Speaker 1: to do and not what the world I want them
Speaker 1: to do because of finance. So I never want I
Speaker 1: never want them to go through that. But besides, like
Speaker 1: life though, like they got to just go through it.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying that two more questions. Do
Speaker 2: you ever ask God?
Speaker 1: Why me?
Speaker 2: Not just for the blessings before the responsibility that comes
Speaker 2: with who you are?
Speaker 1: Oh no, I mean alright, I understand, Like man, God
Speaker 1: got a close relationship. Since I was young, I always
Speaker 1: talked about this always. It's like this made me, This
Speaker 1: made like how far came in life, made my faith
Speaker 1: so strong. So I gotta I got a real understanding
Speaker 1: on why me? You know what I'm saying, And I
Speaker 1: I accept, I accept every responsibility that come with it.
Speaker 1: Know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: What does a peace look like for Rod wave.
Speaker 1: Piece look like Matt, Me and Georgia. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. I'm in my big king bed, Me and
Speaker 1: I ran the big castle. Cleaning lady just cleaned the
Speaker 1: house up real good ac on sixty five. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. We got a we got a nice
Speaker 1: little Apple TV show on. I mean, baby, just kick
Speaker 1: watch TV laughing. That's when I be at real peace, man,
Speaker 1: I'll be real happy. Then in the morning, I got
Speaker 1: a good motherfucking good day ahead of me, man, good
Speaker 1: meetings at the office, good productive conversations. Whenever I'm in
Speaker 1: that space, like whenever I'm like whenever I go home
Speaker 1: and I'm just in that world, like the space that
Speaker 1: I've been in lately. Bro, It's like it's so peaceful
Speaker 1: and happy, bro, Like just going home and watching TV,
Speaker 1: simple shit, waking up, going to the office and being
Speaker 1: productive with my time and building building my business. Like
Speaker 1: I'm just at peace with life, like I feel like
Speaker 1: i I'm here now, like like I'm happy, Like I
Speaker 1: don't feel like I'm running from nothing. I'm running for something,
Speaker 1: Like I feel at peace and just taking my time
Speaker 1: and building what I'm building, building my team, building my company,
Speaker 1: building my relationship. I just I feel so happy, bro,
Speaker 1: I ain't gonna I feel so peaceful life any space
Speaker 1: and life that I'm man, And that's what that's what
Speaker 1: this is what that's what it looked like for me though,
Speaker 1: it's at home freshot child, with the house that got
Speaker 1: cleaned up. You already be watching a good TV show.
Speaker 1: Good good day in the office, good day ahead of
Speaker 1: me tomorrow. That's that's when i'm man. Man, that's what
Speaker 1: I'm like, my most piece.
Speaker 2: Dam I'm happy for you, Rod. You represent us well. Man,
Speaker 2: don't look down, brother.
Speaker 1: Yes sir?
Speaker 2: How long was it an hour?
Speaker 1: What we got? An hour?
Speaker 2: Seven minutes out of wrong way. That's we got hold
Speaker 2: seven out of the wrong way. That's what's up. I
Speaker 2: appreciate you mane yes, sir, absolutely, Man, no number bro.
Speaker 1: So we want to I want to trumpet about you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, some show and you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying.
Speaker 2: I got a lot of ship in the in the can.
Speaker 2: I met that ship. What I told you to, Man,
Speaker 2: you're not a goofy like so you moved the right
Speaker 2: way like that. All of these young people can learn
Speaker 2: from how you out here moving. Sure you ain't horring
Speaker 2: yourself out on social media, you know, like you let
Speaker 2: it be about some music. That's that's that's that says
Speaker 2: a lot
Speaker 1: M