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Speaker 1: I grabbed the gun.

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Speaker 2: He said, way, that's the guy that makes Big Small's beef.

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Speaker 3: I was gonna say, look out where he told the

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Speaker 3: story how style came up. He here like he owned

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Speaker 3: the place bad. He about to get aired out.

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Speaker 1: Say to say that that's different. It's different.

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Speaker 3: Now you asked me how did you first meet nas

8
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Speaker 3: Everyone wanted to work with them, but no one can

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Speaker 3: find it. My job was to find it, and I

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Speaker 3: ran into these guys and it didn't start off so healthy.

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Speaker 1: So take him through the story. Where were we?

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Speaker 2: And this is the corner where now I took the

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Speaker 2: picture of Illmatic. This is the same corner that he's

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Speaker 2: looking at in the picture where his face is a

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Speaker 2: little kid. And this is that corner we so you know,

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Speaker 2: me and man crack on this corner.

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Speaker 1: This was a legend that we corner.

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Speaker 2: People went to jail, fought shot to death, robberies, everything

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Speaker 2: happened right here. We're walking down so Stout parked like

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Speaker 2: right here, and he got out the car and it

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Speaker 2: was like a walk You can walk.

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Speaker 1: Through the grass. This gate wasn't here. Now, the game

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Speaker 1: wasn't there, ain't being but you can.

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Speaker 2: Walk through this grass or walk around since he cut

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Speaker 2: through the grass. That meant he was aggressive, you know

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Speaker 2: what I mean? That meant he might be coming the

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Speaker 2: row bus. We sitting on the bench and pull like

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Speaker 2: he's pulling up, like he fucking like he like here here,

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Speaker 2: he's a nice neighborhood.

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Speaker 1: To pull up? Hey, hey, do you know where I

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Speaker 1: see her?

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Speaker 4: And shit?

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Speaker 5: Shit?

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Speaker 1: How you rolling nobody else? Hood? You don't know nobody?

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Speaker 1: Who are you supposed to do? Call? Who do you call?

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Speaker 1: And now he pulls over.

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Speaker 2: Now my heart started being I'm like, for real, he's

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Speaker 2: pulling over. He must he must want this ship. And

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Speaker 2: now I'm like, yo, you know, I sat down. Poo booms,

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Speaker 2: the gun is down there. You know what I mean,

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Speaker 2: I'm like, y, all right, what is he gonna do?

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Speaker 2: He got out that car and cut through the grass.

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Speaker 1: I grabbed the gun.

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Speaker 2: I said, yo, everybody look out, and Wiz said no.

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Speaker 2: He said, wait, that's the guy that makes Biggie small speed.

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Speaker 2: He made one more chance.

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Speaker 1: He's looking for nuts. He made one more chance for Biggie.

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Speaker 2: And I said, what you You went over there and

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Speaker 2: talked to him in the middle, and you told me

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Speaker 2: to chill.

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Speaker 1: And if you wasn't dead, bro. You know what I mean.

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Speaker 1: There's been nuts. You know what I mean. Hi, my

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Speaker 1: name is Steve Stout. He said, Yo, I'm just looking

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Speaker 1: for NICs. I want to manage him. He said. I

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Speaker 1: don't want to see him with mad.

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Speaker 2: Skills and not making no money behind their skills.

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Speaker 1: He said, I'm here to change that. He said, I

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Speaker 1: want to talk to nine. I said, John, I was

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Speaker 1: gonna say, look out wizz now, I was gonna definitely Hi.

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Speaker 1: You appreciate we appreciate that ex friends I ever had

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Speaker 1: in my life. I love him so much. We've been

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Speaker 1: through mad ship. This is not his brother. I don't

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Speaker 1: know if you picked up on all that real talk.

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Speaker 1: What is his brother? Hey, I don't live out here

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Speaker 1: no more.

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Speaker 6: I'm no mo.

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Speaker 1: You're not. You love me forever, you know, but you

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Speaker 1: don't know some little nigga make you know. I was young.

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Speaker 1: I was pressing anybody. Right, it's Christmas, moms. It's just simple.

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Speaker 1: You don't know what it's the hood, you know what

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Speaker 1: I mean, it's the project. You can't predict the project.

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Speaker 3: Right.

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Speaker 1: This is where I'm from. I lived. I lived in

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Speaker 1: that building over there.

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Speaker 5: You know.

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Speaker 1: I grew up out here and everything but I'm going

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Speaker 1: now and I'm gone. That's what's.

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Speaker 4: There.

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Speaker 1: You aren't know my style outside, you know, you don't

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Speaker 1: where we are. You know, I'm not sick. Boy.

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Speaker 3: What's up, dude. I'm doing great, man. I'm out here

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Speaker 3: with your brother, with people from the Bridge, bro.

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Speaker 1: I appreciate that. So it's saying in sharp where they

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Speaker 1: used to tackle you at over there, they was tackling

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Speaker 1: Looney Money and Mayo. He was so hard over there

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Speaker 1: was crazy, man. They made you cry. Man. He told

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Speaker 1: the story.

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Speaker 3: And Stout came up in here like he owned the place.

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Speaker 3: Badd he about to get airried out.

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Speaker 1: I heard about that. He had a lot of heart.

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Speaker 3: That's a lot of questions about us early in the beginning,

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Speaker 3: and I really said that a lot of it stemmed

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Speaker 3: from how we met. Just you knew what I was,

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Speaker 3: you know, my determination, and that determination led to a

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Speaker 3: friendship that slashed twenty eight years. That's absolutely, man, Yeah, absolutely,

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Speaker 3: the brother always wanted.

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Speaker 1: Like the president. Yeah yeah, yeah, it really. It really

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Speaker 1: really talked to me and got me under, got me focused, man.

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Speaker 1: So I appreciate you, Steve. It's amazing that y'all went

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Speaker 1: out there. I can't believe. I can't believe Shannon Shopping's

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Speaker 1: right here.

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Speaker 3: You for that, you know what I'm saying, that saying

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Speaker 3: he's a real world Hey, brother, people they long, they

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Speaker 3: will holler when I got out the trunk that man.

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Speaker 1: So I'm good. They say you winning them super Bowls

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Speaker 1: and shit out here. I appreciate that. Man, you may

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Speaker 1: end up in the verse.

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Speaker 5: Now all my life, grinding all my life, sacrifice hustle

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Speaker 5: paed the price. Want a slice? Got the brother did

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Speaker 5: all my life. I've been grinding all my life, all

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Speaker 5: my life and drowning.

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Speaker 3: All my life.

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Speaker 5: Sacrifice hustle pa the price, one slice got the broad

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Speaker 5: all my life.

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Speaker 1: I've been grinding all my life. Bro man, man, we

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Speaker 1: got you in Brooklyn, Man, thank you, bron.

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Speaker 4: Look summer time shot on the boat. Me and the

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Speaker 4: guys like in our next moves for this is a

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Speaker 4: lot of.

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Speaker 1: Awards we had won. That's j.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, jay Z Sneaker did those are the Pharrells the

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Speaker 3: original ice creams?

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Speaker 1: He did those. It's mostly advertising awards and you got

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Speaker 1: the billboards. Yeah, maybe got look maybe we got some

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Speaker 1: hard man man. Yeah, we we We've done a good job. Right.

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Speaker 3: This is where it really took off for me, Shannon.

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Speaker 3: You know, I did the Men in Black soundtrack that

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Speaker 3: was great. That was like a Will Smith comeback album

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Speaker 3: because music changed on a Wu Tang Biggie Nas that

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Speaker 3: came in and sort of like happy rap was kind

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Speaker 3: of off to the size. And then because but what

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Speaker 3: was a movie star and we made Men in Black

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Speaker 3: and the song went crazy changed his music career, got

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Speaker 3: him back.

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Speaker 1: But the thing about this that was nuts is that

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Speaker 1: the album sold.

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Speaker 3: Ten million, but the glasses so more wow and we

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Speaker 3: never got paid from the glasses. And the small advertising

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Speaker 3: agency that did the product placement for the glasses. I

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Speaker 3: spent time with them and literally over the next three years,

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Speaker 3: I left the music business and got into advertising. That's

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Speaker 3: how I got into advertising because I'm like, if you could,

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Speaker 3: if the music could sell all these glasses, imagine what

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Speaker 3: I could do if I left the music business and

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Speaker 3: focused on the product. And that's why I made the

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Speaker 3: jay Z sneaker and the Pharrell sneaker and the g

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Speaker 3: Unit sneakers. I started trying to make products because I

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Speaker 3: thought that we could use the music and that's where

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Speaker 3: that's kind of where we are today. But I was

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Speaker 3: back on that, so you was doing the collab before

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Speaker 3: the collab was cool. It wasn't even a collab, it

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Speaker 3: was it was more. It was to me it was obvious, man, Like,

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Speaker 3: if you can culture and you could move people, why

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Speaker 3: wouldn't you sell higher margin items like you could sell

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Speaker 3: a CD for sixteen ninety nine, you could sell a sneaker.

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Speaker 1: For one hundred and ten dollars.

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Speaker 3: Right, you know what I'm saying. Right, Will Smith was

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Speaker 3: selling those glasses. He didn't get paid from the glasses either.

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Speaker 3: When Will Smith said I make these look good, those

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Speaker 3: glasses was gone. He's a very innovative businessman. Founder and

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Speaker 3: CEO a music industry there a multi talented marketing genius,

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Speaker 3: an industry leader and entrepreneur. Award winning record producer and

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Speaker 3: advertising executive, artist manager, New York Times bestselling author. You

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Speaker 3: were inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame. Achievement recognizes

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Speaker 3: ad Color Awards, Innovative of the Year, Name Executive the

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Speaker 3: Year by ad Age as one of the fastest going companies,

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Speaker 3: most creative people in business. A guru, game changer, icon, trailblazer, visionary,

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Speaker 3: known as the Commissioner. He have the Golden touch, stay

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Speaker 3: stopped I.

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Speaker 1: Love that entry. Did I leave out anyway because my

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Speaker 1: resources are not?

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Speaker 3: Man?

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Speaker 1: That is good? Now you're good. You're good man. I

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Speaker 1: felt like, yeah, it was thinking can he add a

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Speaker 1: little bit more than that? But no, I mean we

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Speaker 1: could add a little bit more season, but we don't

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Speaker 1: want to overseason.

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Speaker 3: Now it was a season perfect, Okay, I appreciate that.

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Speaker 3: I don't know how many people know this, but Kobe

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Speaker 3: lived with you for six weeks. How old was he

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Speaker 3: when he lived with you?

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Speaker 1: How old was he? He was going into his second year,

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Speaker 1: so he's about eighteen. Yeah. Yeah, And you said, is

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Speaker 1: it true that you sign Kobe to a recording contract? Yeah?

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Speaker 1: I signed Kobe to a recording contract. So to do what?

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Speaker 1: Math went? Just like this? Here, let me set up.

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Speaker 3: When Will Smith made Men in Black and Solo these records,

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Speaker 3: the music business had changed where it was like, you know,

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Speaker 3: it was again nas Wu Tan and and and and

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Speaker 3: Biggie and sort of mob deep. It was that kind

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Speaker 3: of you know, much darker sound. Yes, right, compared to

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Speaker 3: what he was doing, he was bright as bright can get.

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Speaker 3: You're talking about Will Will, I'm talking about Will about Will? Right? Yeah,

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Speaker 3: So I'm like, if this guy and he wrapped over

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Speaker 3: a sample and it became supers popping successful. I'm like,

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Speaker 3: if we can do that, just maybe, but hold on,

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Speaker 3: Shaq just did it. Shock sold millions of records. Man correct,

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Speaker 3: people like he really did it.

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Speaker 1: Is not a fake thing.

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Speaker 3: Shaq had a successful recording music career. And I'm like,

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Speaker 3: if Shaq can do it, will Smith did it?

202
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Speaker 1: Big Shot? Just did it?

203
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Speaker 3: This kid, Kobe, People will love this guy. I mean

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Speaker 3: he went to the Problem with Brandy. There was a

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Speaker 3: lot of energy around him, and he actually had a

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Speaker 3: rap group. When I signed him, he was in a group.

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Speaker 3: I mean, you know, Kobe, God blessed. Anyway, he went solo,

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Speaker 3: so yeah, yeah, he was in the group. Though he

209
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Speaker 3: was in the group, and he put in the work.

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Speaker 3: He came to my house. He lived at my house

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Speaker 3: for six weeks. I lived in New Jersey. A very

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Speaker 3: dear friend of mine, Charles Oakley, he came out, used

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Speaker 3: to come out to Jersey and hang out with him.

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Speaker 3: Worked out with him in a few times, and Kobe

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Speaker 3: was the you know, we in the morning get up.

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Speaker 3: I got him to go to this local gym. He

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Speaker 3: would shoot a thousand shots. Then he would he had

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Speaker 3: these tapes. It was Michael Jordan going left, Michael Jordan

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Speaker 3: going right. So it was just the tapes were split

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Speaker 3: of Jordan moving left, Jordan moving right, Jordan guarding people

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Speaker 3: going left, Jordan guarding people going right. And he'd watch

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Speaker 3: it for hours and then we would go to the

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Speaker 3: studio and record. That was his routine every single day.

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Speaker 3: I learned a lot of discipline. The discipline, Uh, from

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Speaker 3: a young man. I thought I was, you know, I

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Speaker 3: thought I was pretty disciplined and doing my thing, and

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Speaker 3: I seen another level of it with him, very very

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Speaker 3: special talent.

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Speaker 1: I could.

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Speaker 3: I could talk about him for hours because during that

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Speaker 3: period of time when I got to know him, he

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Speaker 3: wasn't really into having a lot of friends. A lot

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Speaker 3: of people never got a chance to get deep in

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Speaker 3: getting a chance to get close to him because he

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Speaker 3: was he was closed off like that. And for years, man,

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Speaker 3: I we would we would, we'd speak all the time.

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Speaker 3: I mean we became very very close friends. So obviously

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Speaker 3: it was unfortunate. I took him to Rucker Park. He

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Speaker 3: played in Ruccer Park, man, and Uh, he wanted to

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Speaker 3: play because all these guys go out to all these

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Speaker 3: NBA guys go to Rutger Park. It's like, you know,

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Speaker 3: you got to play in the record. It's like a

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Speaker 3: ride of passage. Yeah, And we go out there and

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Speaker 3: I gave him to my man. I didn't have a

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Speaker 3: team IRV God that grew up in my neighborhood. I

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Speaker 3: let him play for Earth's Murder Inc. Team at the time.

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Speaker 3: And he goes out there and all the guys are

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Speaker 3: there and he starts putting on the show, a show.

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Speaker 1: He loved it.

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Speaker 3: It starts to drizzle. I'm like, we got to close

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Speaker 3: this game down. I mean, I'm not letting him play,

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Speaker 3: but he's not gonna let the game. He's not gonna

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Speaker 3: want to be the one to call it. So he

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Speaker 3: starts telling the basketball team how to play on wet surfaces. Wow,

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Speaker 3: I'm like, we're not doing any of this because I

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Speaker 3: already know this man gets hurt. If it's on me,

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Speaker 3: it's on my watch. So we shut it down. But uh, yeah,

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Speaker 3: he put out I forgot. But he's got thirty points

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Speaker 3: in you know, twelve minutes or some crazy number and

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Speaker 3: shit like that. So could you tell because you said

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Speaker 3: he's so disciplined, he's watching Jordan go left, watching Jordan

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Speaker 3: go right, Jordan's Garden, left Jordan's Garden right, and he's

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Speaker 3: back in the studio recording. Did you did you know then,

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Speaker 3: with the level of discipline that an eineteen year old

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Speaker 3: kid had, that he was gonna be what he became.

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Speaker 3: Oakley told me. Charles told me Charles. Charles told me

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Speaker 3: immediately the similarities between him and Jordan as a with

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Speaker 3: work ethic. He knew it immediately. Like he came in

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Speaker 3: talking that I didn't know what the fuck he was

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Speaker 3: talking about. I'm like whatever he said that. But the

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Speaker 3: other thing he did was he asked me and I

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Speaker 3: had this guy who worked for me at the time.

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Speaker 3: He's actually now his name is Anton Marshawn. He's actually

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Speaker 3: recruits for the Cleveland Cavaliers. He worked for me in

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Speaker 3: the music business at the time. Kobe was gonna guard

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Speaker 3: out on Iverson that yet he was very much respectful

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Speaker 3: of Iverson's speed and all that, and he said, go

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Speaker 3: get He wanted to get young guards from New York

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Speaker 3: that could you know, do they things over and cross

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Speaker 3: over a lot. We got him, went to this indoor

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Speaker 3: Jim he lined ten of them up. They came in

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Speaker 3: from the three point line. He stood at the file

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Speaker 3: line and they would come in like an assembly line,

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Speaker 3: and he would guard them, try to strip them, take

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Speaker 3: them to the hole, and then run back to the

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Speaker 3: line before the next guy came.

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Speaker 1: He ran that.

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Speaker 3: He never got on offense. He ran at like a

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Speaker 3: like an assembly line. Wow, he was just garden. He

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00:14:59,440 --> 00:15:04,120
Speaker 3: was garden, six foot fast as shit. They get past them,

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Speaker 3: steal from them, block it, you know, rub the shit

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Speaker 3: against the backboard, come back guard The next time. He

293
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Speaker 3: was doing this over I couldn't believe that he was

294
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Speaker 3: doing this. No offense, no nothing. And it was like

295
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Speaker 3: this level of discipline and then a tough guy, tough

296
00:15:23,320 --> 00:15:28,040
Speaker 3: like it's a strong discipline, tough principal, driven man. We

297
00:15:28,240 --> 00:15:33,000
Speaker 3: are one night to this bar, and back then street

298
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Speaker 3: guys would buy all of the crystal.

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Speaker 1: Yeah right, but let me tell you something.

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Speaker 3: They're buying a crystal because what they want is assuming,

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Speaker 3: not because they are drinking all of it. If somebody

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00:15:45,480 --> 00:15:48,200
Speaker 3: comes in they want to and you ordered crystal, you

303
00:15:48,280 --> 00:15:50,080
Speaker 3: gotta check in good, you gotta check in.

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Speaker 1: So I ordered a crystal.

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00:15:54,120 --> 00:15:56,960
Speaker 3: He's not even drinking. Kobe's not drinking at all. Back then,

306
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Speaker 3: he was not drinking alcohol at that time. Guy says,

307
00:16:00,440 --> 00:16:03,520
Speaker 3: I have to check in this guy down at the

308
00:16:03,560 --> 00:16:06,080
Speaker 3: bar or whatever. I'm like, I don't feel like doing it.

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Speaker 3: He's like, man, fuck this good thing. So I got

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Speaker 3: the Chrystal. No, I didn't get the Christal. I didn't

311
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Speaker 3: want to do it. I'm like, I'm not fuck this.

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Speaker 3: I'm not doing this. We go out to a dinah

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Speaker 3: like two three in the morning, and the same guy

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Speaker 3: street guy won't say his name, is sitting there and

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Speaker 3: Cole is making jokes about his outfit and he's being

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Speaker 3: a little loud.

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Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, you gotta chill with that bro. Yeah,

318
00:16:37,120 --> 00:16:40,440
Speaker 1: he's not chilling with that bro. He's loud.

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Speaker 3: The guy send somebody over, yo, blah blah blah, want

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Speaker 3: to talk to you. I go outside. I'm like, yo,

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Speaker 3: the young kid, he got the gun out. He's like, yo,

322
00:16:53,160 --> 00:16:54,000
Speaker 3: he got the gun out.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: I'm like, yo, he's a young man. I'm trying to

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Speaker 3: tell him that's how nobody. He didn't even know who

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Speaker 3: he was, all right. So even though Kobe Bryant is

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Speaker 3: I'm like, he's my young man thing. He's cool whatever.

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Speaker 1: Whatever.

329
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Speaker 3: Kobe comes outside, seize the gun. I'm like, go go

330
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Speaker 3: back in he was I'm not going nowhere. He did

331
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Speaker 3: this on twenty third and ninth Avenue. He did that

332
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Speaker 3: what little boy at eighteen, The whole thing it died.

333
00:17:23,359 --> 00:17:25,320
Speaker 3: But he said he ain't going nowhere. I'm like, yo,

334
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Speaker 3: he's this thing. He don't know who you are.

335
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Speaker 1: I was already. It was already.

336
00:17:28,880 --> 00:17:32,240
Speaker 3: The guy felt embarrassed. It wasn't like, it wasn't crazy.

337
00:17:32,520 --> 00:17:34,639
Speaker 3: The guy felt embarrassed. He really wanted an apology for

338
00:17:34,680 --> 00:17:37,280
Speaker 3: the embarrassment. That was because it was loud, right, and

339
00:17:37,400 --> 00:17:39,520
Speaker 3: I was giving him that. It's cool, man, it's fine.

340
00:17:39,960 --> 00:17:41,639
Speaker 3: He didn't mean no distract. He didn't even know who

341
00:17:41,680 --> 00:17:45,480
Speaker 3: you are. Man, he's not even from here. Right when

342
00:17:45,520 --> 00:17:47,360
Speaker 3: he hit the thing out when he said, I ain't

343
00:17:47,400 --> 00:17:48,400
Speaker 3: going nowhere.

344
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Speaker 1: Two week?

345
00:17:50,720 --> 00:17:53,320
Speaker 3: What kind of person is this? I'm giving you the

346
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Speaker 3: out right. This is not your problem. I'll deal with

347
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Speaker 3: this problem. Right.

348
00:17:56,840 --> 00:18:01,200
Speaker 1: He don't want that. This is our problem? Wow? Man,

349
00:18:01,720 --> 00:18:06,560
Speaker 1: I never told that story. Man, So what I mean?

350
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Speaker 3: So you knowing that the kid is so disparate, know

351
00:18:09,800 --> 00:18:15,239
Speaker 3: that he's standing as they say, now, business, what did

352
00:18:15,280 --> 00:18:15,800
Speaker 3: he teach you?

353
00:18:18,119 --> 00:18:19,080
Speaker 1: You can run through walls?

354
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Speaker 3: Man?

355
00:18:20,200 --> 00:18:20,760
Speaker 1: You believe it.

356
00:18:20,880 --> 00:18:24,600
Speaker 3: You could do anything. There's nothing. You can't do that

357
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Speaker 3: if you believe in it. That's what he taught me.

358
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Speaker 1: He never did he speak about the basketball aspect.

359
00:18:31,480 --> 00:18:33,480
Speaker 3: I understand he was there to do music, but he

360
00:18:33,720 --> 00:18:36,119
Speaker 3: did he talk to you about what he wanted to

361
00:18:36,160 --> 00:18:39,320
Speaker 3: become in the hell? Yeah, man, he had no could

362
00:18:39,320 --> 00:18:42,280
Speaker 3: say he manifested all of it. But he really did

363
00:18:42,320 --> 00:18:47,240
Speaker 3: the work. He knew that if you did all the

364
00:18:47,359 --> 00:18:50,240
Speaker 3: work that ultimately it was gonna happen.

365
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Speaker 1: He didn't even think about it.

366
00:18:52,000 --> 00:18:54,320
Speaker 3: He all his whole thing was that everybody who was

367
00:18:54,359 --> 00:18:58,359
Speaker 3: a talent always tapped out and doing the work.

368
00:18:58,960 --> 00:19:01,800
Speaker 1: I asked him one time we're at a we were

369
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Speaker 1: at a restaurant and we're sitting there talking.

370
00:19:06,359 --> 00:19:09,120
Speaker 3: I just and I always wanted to ask this question, dude,

371
00:19:09,359 --> 00:19:11,480
Speaker 3: what do you think about athletes that come from out

372
00:19:11,480 --> 00:19:13,560
Speaker 3: to ask you this man, athletes that come from two

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00:19:13,600 --> 00:19:16,840
Speaker 3: parent households versus athletes that come from single parent households.

374
00:19:16,840 --> 00:19:19,480
Speaker 3: So you got these guys who come from single parent households,

375
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Speaker 3: they're in a football field.

376
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Speaker 1: And their anger and the shit that they I'm doing

377
00:19:23,800 --> 00:19:25,680
Speaker 1: this for my mother. I ain't got no father.

378
00:19:25,800 --> 00:19:28,720
Speaker 3: Whatever the circumstances are, they bring in all that energy

379
00:19:28,760 --> 00:19:31,840
Speaker 3: on the basketball court, on the football field, and they

380
00:19:31,960 --> 00:19:36,000
Speaker 3: play with that level of rage. Yeah, And he goes,

381
00:19:36,840 --> 00:19:38,119
Speaker 3: I said, how do you feel about them?

382
00:19:38,280 --> 00:19:40,520
Speaker 1: Versus? He goes, you know, those.

383
00:19:40,440 --> 00:19:45,560
Speaker 3: Guys are intimidating and they play with that rage and

384
00:19:45,680 --> 00:19:49,520
Speaker 3: it works until they run into the real thing. Michael

385
00:19:49,600 --> 00:19:54,760
Speaker 3: Jordan me, Magic Johnson. They run into that and we

386
00:19:54,920 --> 00:19:59,000
Speaker 3: got the same level of work, ethic and rage, but

387
00:19:59,119 --> 00:20:01,760
Speaker 3: we have we come from. I'm a solid foundation, and

388
00:20:01,880 --> 00:20:04,800
Speaker 3: that solid foundation that's the that's the thing that those

389
00:20:04,920 --> 00:20:06,280
Speaker 3: guys can't beat.

390
00:20:06,400 --> 00:20:07,159
Speaker 1: He said that to me.

391
00:20:07,240 --> 00:20:13,200
Speaker 3: I was like, all right, Wow, you also knew Lebron

392
00:20:13,800 --> 00:20:15,720
Speaker 3: at a very young age. I mean Lebron was what

393
00:20:15,840 --> 00:20:17,600
Speaker 3: like fifteen sixteen when you made I know, I met

394
00:20:17,680 --> 00:20:21,440
Speaker 3: Lebron when he was seventeen. I pitched Lebron the whole

395
00:20:21,480 --> 00:20:24,000
Speaker 3: story about Lebron and the ten million dollar check that

396
00:20:24,040 --> 00:20:24,600
Speaker 3: he turned out.

397
00:20:24,960 --> 00:20:27,080
Speaker 1: I was there. It was my idea to give him

398
00:20:27,119 --> 00:20:30,760
Speaker 1: the check. I was in the room to give him

399
00:20:30,760 --> 00:20:31,080
Speaker 1: the check.

400
00:20:31,160 --> 00:20:33,440
Speaker 3: A kid with a single mom. I couldn't believe living

401
00:20:33,480 --> 00:20:36,000
Speaker 3: in an apartment. Yeah, and you got a ten million

402
00:20:36,000 --> 00:20:39,240
Speaker 3: dollar checks and poor Fireman. So I tell Paul Fireman,

403
00:20:39,240 --> 00:20:42,159
Speaker 3: I'm like, we leave we're in New York for meetings.

404
00:20:42,480 --> 00:20:46,680
Speaker 3: We're flying up to Massachusetts to meet Lebron. He's flying

405
00:20:47,400 --> 00:20:51,399
Speaker 3: the plane from Akron. It's like a six o'clock five

406
00:20:51,520 --> 00:20:54,040
Speaker 3: thirty meeting. He had to finish school compute.

407
00:20:55,760 --> 00:20:56,080
Speaker 1: Boom.

408
00:20:56,160 --> 00:20:58,399
Speaker 3: I'm like, Paul, he goes Adidas is going to do

409
00:20:58,480 --> 00:21:00,639
Speaker 3: the deal Nike. He's gonna do deal. He wants to

410
00:21:00,680 --> 00:21:03,639
Speaker 3: go to Nike. His agent is already preapproved a deal

411
00:21:03,680 --> 00:21:04,800
Speaker 3: with Nike. I'm like, let me tell you how you

412
00:21:04,880 --> 00:21:08,160
Speaker 3: deal with this in the record business. When you want

413
00:21:08,200 --> 00:21:10,399
Speaker 3: to sign somebody, you give him the money right there

414
00:21:10,440 --> 00:21:12,560
Speaker 3: in the front, like you know what, whatever you think

415
00:21:12,600 --> 00:21:14,679
Speaker 3: the number is, We'll give you this signing.

416
00:21:14,480 --> 00:21:15,680
Speaker 1: Bonus right now tonight.

417
00:21:15,720 --> 00:21:17,800
Speaker 3: Even take the other meetings, because I figure, if you're

418
00:21:17,840 --> 00:21:21,359
Speaker 3: meeting me, you're really considering it. I'm gonna give you

419
00:21:21,400 --> 00:21:24,080
Speaker 3: a signing bonus to make on top of what you

420
00:21:24,119 --> 00:21:26,000
Speaker 3: think you should get, so that there's no reason for

421
00:21:26,080 --> 00:21:29,600
Speaker 3: you to take the other meetings. Ten million dollars is

422
00:21:29,640 --> 00:21:32,840
Speaker 3: a number. He calls his wife. This is when I

423
00:21:32,920 --> 00:21:35,440
Speaker 3: seen some early some ball and shit. He calls his wife.

424
00:21:35,840 --> 00:21:38,400
Speaker 3: When we land on the FBO, there's a ten million

425
00:21:38,440 --> 00:21:41,119
Speaker 3: dollar personal check waiting at the thing because we're going

426
00:21:41,200 --> 00:21:43,080
Speaker 3: to write to the office. I'm leaving the pitch to

427
00:21:43,200 --> 00:21:47,000
Speaker 3: Lebron and Maverick and his agent. At the time, I

428
00:21:47,040 --> 00:21:50,080
Speaker 3: can't remember this guy's name, Gordon. I'm sorry, Aaron Gordon,

429
00:21:52,720 --> 00:21:54,800
Speaker 3: doing the pitch, doing the whole thing. And we get

430
00:21:54,840 --> 00:21:58,320
Speaker 3: to the thing, to the final stage, and Paul's gonna

431
00:21:58,320 --> 00:22:02,680
Speaker 3: present him the check. Paul presents him the check. I

432
00:22:02,680 --> 00:22:04,000
Speaker 3: remember staring at his face.

433
00:22:05,760 --> 00:22:06,240
Speaker 1: This is huge.

434
00:22:06,280 --> 00:22:11,920
Speaker 3: We're gonna sign Lebron Jays. We leave the room, we

435
00:22:12,040 --> 00:22:17,359
Speaker 3: come back. When he beaves the check and says he's

436
00:22:17,359 --> 00:22:22,280
Speaker 3: gonna take the other meetings, I clapped. I knew the

437
00:22:22,359 --> 00:22:27,120
Speaker 3: world changed. A young black man eighteen years old walked

438
00:22:27,119 --> 00:22:29,520
Speaker 3: away from ten million dollars going back to the projects.

439
00:22:30,320 --> 00:22:34,040
Speaker 1: I clapped. I clapped, and it was my idea that

440
00:22:34,160 --> 00:22:34,680
Speaker 1: didn't work.

441
00:22:36,840 --> 00:22:40,800
Speaker 3: It meant so much, not that the reebok was wrong

442
00:22:40,920 --> 00:22:44,720
Speaker 3: or the check was wrong, but the freedom and confidence

443
00:22:44,760 --> 00:22:47,760
Speaker 3: and belief in yourself to do that. This is a

444
00:22:47,920 --> 00:22:51,879
Speaker 3: new generation of individuals, this is a new generation of

445
00:22:52,040 --> 00:22:54,480
Speaker 3: thought that's coming from African Americans.

446
00:22:54,520 --> 00:22:57,560
Speaker 1: That's all I thought about, and I was so proud

447
00:22:57,800 --> 00:22:59,080
Speaker 1: of us at that moment.

448
00:22:59,480 --> 00:23:02,280
Speaker 3: Wow, and you've pretty much been in his life because

449
00:23:02,359 --> 00:23:07,480
Speaker 3: you did the Beats by Drake commercial with him. Bron Man,

450
00:23:08,200 --> 00:23:12,400
Speaker 3: Lebron and I have like this man me Lebron, Maverick Rich.

451
00:23:13,080 --> 00:23:16,240
Speaker 3: I can tell you everything. I mean, Ramos, these are

452
00:23:16,320 --> 00:23:19,760
Speaker 3: my brothers, right, these are my brothers. Maverick worked at me,

453
00:23:20,280 --> 00:23:25,320
Speaker 3: you know, since he was six months before that, Maverick

454
00:23:25,440 --> 00:23:27,840
Speaker 3: was with me, you know, staying at my crib, working

455
00:23:27,880 --> 00:23:32,040
Speaker 3: out of my office, you know, me mentoring him, giving him,

456
00:23:32,359 --> 00:23:35,639
Speaker 3: you know, the tips, showing him the business whatever. Like

457
00:23:35,760 --> 00:23:36,600
Speaker 3: those are my brothers.

458
00:23:36,960 --> 00:23:37,359
Speaker 1: It's like that.

459
00:23:38,760 --> 00:23:41,359
Speaker 3: I've been in every iteration of that camp, from the

460
00:23:41,440 --> 00:23:45,520
Speaker 3: before the decision of this, every single thing. Love those guys,

461
00:23:45,680 --> 00:23:48,159
Speaker 3: love Lebron and and how you feel about him is

462
00:23:49,160 --> 00:23:50,720
Speaker 3: you know, I'll just tell you right now, forget the

463
00:23:50,880 --> 00:23:53,560
Speaker 3: arguing of the who's the best basketball player of all time?

464
00:23:53,840 --> 00:23:57,159
Speaker 3: There's not even a question he's the best athlete of

465
00:23:57,520 --> 00:24:00,280
Speaker 3: any sport of all time. But forget where he's the

466
00:24:00,320 --> 00:24:04,960
Speaker 3: best basketball player. That he's the best professional athlete in

467
00:24:05,119 --> 00:24:10,280
Speaker 3: any sport I've ever heard of, seeing of nobody's even close.

468
00:24:11,240 --> 00:24:14,679
Speaker 3: You did Alan Averson's first commercial. It wasn't his first commercial.

469
00:24:14,720 --> 00:24:22,200
Speaker 3: It was the only when he showed up to well, Chunk,

470
00:24:22,359 --> 00:24:25,119
Speaker 3: I love you Chunk, the bad did say practice, not

471
00:24:25,280 --> 00:24:26,560
Speaker 3: a game, but practice.

472
00:24:26,720 --> 00:24:28,840
Speaker 1: So the likelihood you're getting to show for a commercial

473
00:24:29,160 --> 00:24:31,760
Speaker 1: was gonna be tough. He showed up to the commercial.

474
00:24:32,840 --> 00:24:36,600
Speaker 3: And it was a very special thing that will you

475
00:24:36,680 --> 00:24:40,560
Speaker 3: know the commercial with him and Jadakiss man it played

476
00:24:40,600 --> 00:24:44,359
Speaker 3: on radio like a song, it became a song. It

477
00:24:44,480 --> 00:24:48,240
Speaker 3: was Alan Ivison bouncing a ball, creating a beat that

478
00:24:48,680 --> 00:24:53,400
Speaker 3: Jadakiss rapped to. And when I did that, Hype Williams,

479
00:24:53,880 --> 00:24:58,120
Speaker 3: who's a great music director. At the time, he shot

480
00:24:58,160 --> 00:25:00,679
Speaker 3: a lot of music videos. He dominated shooting music videos,

481
00:25:01,119 --> 00:25:03,720
Speaker 3: shot that no one thought he could shoot commercials at

482
00:25:03,760 --> 00:25:07,600
Speaker 3: the time. Why I haven't still have no idea why

483
00:25:07,960 --> 00:25:10,320
Speaker 3: that was even a thought. And we shot that commercial

484
00:25:10,400 --> 00:25:13,520
Speaker 3: and it was you know, part of the package of

485
00:25:13,720 --> 00:25:17,600
Speaker 3: talk about rebranding we had to rebox was skips losing

486
00:25:17,680 --> 00:25:19,960
Speaker 3: me very good. You know what skips and people don't

487
00:25:19,960 --> 00:25:22,120
Speaker 3: I don't wear those. There was a skips you don't

488
00:25:22,119 --> 00:25:24,440
Speaker 3: want to wear those, right, you skip build and find something,

489
00:25:24,680 --> 00:25:26,960
Speaker 3: you skip something to find something else. Those are rebox

490
00:25:27,680 --> 00:25:34,000
Speaker 3: We had to rebrand that. Part of it was this

491
00:25:34,480 --> 00:25:39,840
Speaker 3: art changing the letters to RBK, jay Z obviously and

492
00:25:40,240 --> 00:25:42,399
Speaker 3: fifty cent and all of that stuff, and then it

493
00:25:42,600 --> 00:25:45,560
Speaker 3: was Ai and Jadakiss, So we we did work around

494
00:25:45,640 --> 00:25:49,639
Speaker 3: Ai and Jada Kiss. We did another spot with Stevie

495
00:25:49,760 --> 00:25:53,840
Speaker 3: Francis and Scarface at the time, Uh, that wasn't as successful,

496
00:25:54,000 --> 00:25:56,480
Speaker 3: but we were doing this thing to fuse music and

497
00:25:56,520 --> 00:25:59,399
Speaker 3: sport together because my whole thing was like every rapper

498
00:25:59,440 --> 00:26:01,520
Speaker 3: wanted to be a basketball playing basketball player wanted to

499
00:26:01,520 --> 00:26:05,399
Speaker 3: be a rapper, and that's less true than it was

500
00:26:05,480 --> 00:26:08,960
Speaker 3: back then today. But because of that, I wanted to

501
00:26:09,119 --> 00:26:12,600
Speaker 3: create marketing and advertising around that fusion, and that was

502
00:26:12,640 --> 00:26:15,920
Speaker 3: the way we rebranded Rebound. How were you able to

503
00:26:15,960 --> 00:26:22,760
Speaker 3: convince jay Z to create a sneaker would rebok? It

504
00:26:22,880 --> 00:26:25,320
Speaker 3: wasn't really hard to convince him. Nike at the time

505
00:26:25,880 --> 00:26:27,920
Speaker 3: didn't believe in music as performed that.

506
00:26:28,040 --> 00:26:28,920
Speaker 1: Nike was very.

507
00:26:30,440 --> 00:26:35,520
Speaker 3: Disciplined to its manifesto about athletes and performance. They wouldn't

508
00:26:35,520 --> 00:26:38,200
Speaker 3: mess around with anybody else. So an artist, the most

509
00:26:38,240 --> 00:26:41,040
Speaker 3: you can get from Nike with some free sneakers. They

510
00:26:41,080 --> 00:26:44,840
Speaker 3: wouldn't do business with. There was no commercial opportunity and

511
00:26:45,560 --> 00:26:49,680
Speaker 3: jay Z knew like the great ones do that he

512
00:26:49,920 --> 00:26:52,960
Speaker 3: was moving the culture. Okay, So when he told everybody

513
00:26:53,000 --> 00:26:55,320
Speaker 3: we were in button up shirts, we're going to change clothes, that.

514
00:26:55,480 --> 00:26:56,320
Speaker 1: Was happening.

515
00:26:58,280 --> 00:27:00,719
Speaker 3: If he did a pair of sneak because with Reebok,

516
00:27:01,760 --> 00:27:07,080
Speaker 3: forget Rebox, whatever they were, if he puts his name

517
00:27:07,119 --> 00:27:09,560
Speaker 3: next to it, they're gonna buy his sneakers.

518
00:27:09,320 --> 00:27:16,760
Speaker 1: Right, And he didn't have any self doubt that forget Nike,

519
00:27:17,960 --> 00:27:18,880
Speaker 1: I could do this with them.

520
00:27:19,200 --> 00:27:21,080
Speaker 3: And by the way, while he was wearing his sneakers

521
00:27:21,119 --> 00:27:24,280
Speaker 3: and selling his sneakers, sometimes he'd wear Nike too, and

522
00:27:24,359 --> 00:27:28,040
Speaker 3: he's like, people ain't gonna believe me, for all I

523
00:27:28,080 --> 00:27:29,120
Speaker 3: did was wear my sneakers.

524
00:27:30,280 --> 00:27:32,080
Speaker 1: I got to show them that I choose to wear

525
00:27:32,160 --> 00:27:35,320
Speaker 1: my sneakers like I choose to wear those. It's an option.

526
00:27:35,920 --> 00:27:38,560
Speaker 3: But like this whole idea like only we're your sneakers.

527
00:27:39,160 --> 00:27:41,720
Speaker 3: He knew that would that looks fake because that wouldn't

528
00:27:41,720 --> 00:27:44,120
Speaker 3: be real. Right, what's real is I do like these?

529
00:27:44,520 --> 00:27:49,280
Speaker 3: I also do like those, but creating an option, right,

530
00:27:49,440 --> 00:27:53,480
Speaker 3: which that put Reebok into conversation, So it didn't really

531
00:27:53,520 --> 00:27:56,720
Speaker 3: take much convention. The convention was, you know, getting a

532
00:27:56,800 --> 00:28:00,600
Speaker 3: deal done, not if Reebok was right after he was

533
00:28:00,640 --> 00:28:04,959
Speaker 3: a partner. Jay Z's not the ambassador of anything except himself.

534
00:28:06,480 --> 00:28:09,760
Speaker 1: He was a partner. He was a fifty to fifty partner.

535
00:28:10,200 --> 00:28:12,800
Speaker 3: How do you That's the thing because a lot of

536
00:28:12,880 --> 00:28:16,200
Speaker 3: times these brands would throw a large summer money and

537
00:28:16,680 --> 00:28:18,680
Speaker 3: an athlete or an entertainer.

538
00:28:18,280 --> 00:28:18,840
Speaker 1: Will take that.

539
00:28:19,280 --> 00:28:23,080
Speaker 3: It's like, okay, fine, but how do you convince them like,

540
00:28:24,359 --> 00:28:29,040
Speaker 3: take less of this and become partnership or equity stake.

541
00:28:33,240 --> 00:28:35,159
Speaker 1: Jay Z understood that from the beginning because he was

542
00:28:35,200 --> 00:28:36,160
Speaker 1: an independent artist.

543
00:28:37,560 --> 00:28:39,680
Speaker 3: So when jay Z was selling music at the back

544
00:28:39,760 --> 00:28:45,320
Speaker 3: of a trunk, the back of a trunk, which Master

545
00:28:45,440 --> 00:28:49,560
Speaker 3: p did, which Birdman and Cash Money did, Luke Skywalker did.

546
00:28:49,600 --> 00:28:52,560
Speaker 3: There's some great entrepreneurs who sold like literally hand to

547
00:28:52,640 --> 00:28:57,400
Speaker 3: hand combat with distributing music. What they knew was whether

548
00:28:57,480 --> 00:28:59,280
Speaker 3: they got there because they tried to get a record

549
00:28:59,320 --> 00:29:01,320
Speaker 3: deal and then they got turned down to then they

550
00:29:01,400 --> 00:29:05,480
Speaker 3: had to just do that. They learned the margin was there.

551
00:29:06,400 --> 00:29:07,760
Speaker 3: They actually that was the first time you got a

552
00:29:07,840 --> 00:29:10,360
Speaker 3: chance to look under the hood and realize, wait a minute,

553
00:29:11,000 --> 00:29:13,720
Speaker 3: this thing that cost me, you know, a dollar to

554
00:29:14,000 --> 00:29:16,760
Speaker 3: make that I could sell for sixteen dollars.

555
00:29:17,080 --> 00:29:19,239
Speaker 1: All that money right there, that's mine. If I got

556
00:29:19,280 --> 00:29:20,400
Speaker 1: a record deal, I'd be getting a.

557
00:29:21,240 --> 00:29:25,720
Speaker 3: Small fraction of that. Once they learned. Once you learned that,

558
00:29:25,880 --> 00:29:28,960
Speaker 3: and once you see that, you can't unsee that. So

559
00:29:29,840 --> 00:29:33,600
Speaker 3: betting on yourself becomes the right thing to do, because

560
00:29:33,640 --> 00:29:36,600
Speaker 3: that's where the margin is. When I started United Masters,

561
00:29:38,480 --> 00:29:41,440
Speaker 3: the whole point of building this company, a music company,

562
00:29:42,120 --> 00:29:45,080
Speaker 3: was that I felt like artists should be independent. They

563
00:29:45,120 --> 00:29:48,360
Speaker 3: should keep a line's share of the money. They shouldn't

564
00:29:48,600 --> 00:29:52,840
Speaker 3: give away their name and likeness because they got money

565
00:29:52,840 --> 00:29:55,400
Speaker 3: when they was eighteen years old or their first record deal.

566
00:29:56,120 --> 00:29:58,520
Speaker 3: In order for that deal to be a good idea,

567
00:29:59,400 --> 00:30:02,240
Speaker 3: the record and he has to have a belief, more

568
00:30:02,280 --> 00:30:05,880
Speaker 3: belief in you than you have in yourself. Right, because

569
00:30:05,880 --> 00:30:07,840
Speaker 3: they're basically saying, I'm giving you a half a million

570
00:30:07,880 --> 00:30:10,400
Speaker 3: dollars and you're gonna give me your name and likeness

571
00:30:10,440 --> 00:30:12,520
Speaker 3: for the next ten years or whatever the term is.

572
00:30:14,880 --> 00:30:17,360
Speaker 3: You didn't even get a chance to find out what

573
00:30:17,480 --> 00:30:22,120
Speaker 3: it's worth on your own right being independent. There was

574
00:30:22,160 --> 00:30:24,080
Speaker 3: a period of time where it was hard to be

575
00:30:24,160 --> 00:30:26,960
Speaker 3: independent when those guys did it. Not everybody was built

576
00:30:27,000 --> 00:30:30,280
Speaker 3: for that. But today, while music is being distributed between

577
00:30:30,360 --> 00:30:33,240
Speaker 3: Apple and Spotify, and you have a platform like United

578
00:30:33,320 --> 00:30:35,640
Speaker 3: Masses that you can go through and put your music

579
00:30:35,720 --> 00:30:38,520
Speaker 3: out and get it distributed everywhere. Why would you not

580
00:30:38,760 --> 00:30:41,720
Speaker 3: do that versus going to get a record deal, getting

581
00:30:41,800 --> 00:30:44,800
Speaker 3: some money, but sacrificing giving away.

582
00:30:44,840 --> 00:30:47,200
Speaker 1: All the yip side for a short term check. It

583
00:30:47,320 --> 00:30:48,160
Speaker 1: just don't make no sense.

584
00:30:48,280 --> 00:30:51,720
Speaker 3: But Steve, is it a case of I've always wanted

585
00:30:51,760 --> 00:30:53,960
Speaker 3: a record deal, I've always wanted to work with a

586
00:30:54,440 --> 00:30:58,440
Speaker 3: record company. Yeah, it is that by the two change

587
00:30:58,480 --> 00:31:00,440
Speaker 3: had the same argument for years ago. He goes, you

588
00:31:00,480 --> 00:31:05,560
Speaker 3: don't understand. I'm like, that's the dream. Well, the fact

589
00:31:05,600 --> 00:31:07,520
Speaker 3: of the matter is part of the dream is to

590
00:31:07,560 --> 00:31:10,880
Speaker 3: get paid. That is not how you get paid. You're

591
00:31:10,920 --> 00:31:16,640
Speaker 3: not gonna get paid that way. Secondly, this is not

592
00:31:18,400 --> 00:31:21,200
Speaker 3: twenty years ago. You had to take CDs and get

593
00:31:21,280 --> 00:31:23,960
Speaker 3: them into all these points of distribution and print up

594
00:31:23,960 --> 00:31:27,000
Speaker 3: a bunch of CDs. So your course outlay was so hard,

595
00:31:27,480 --> 00:31:29,600
Speaker 3: was so expensive because you had to make the song

596
00:31:29,720 --> 00:31:32,600
Speaker 3: that make ten twenty thousand of these things. You were

597
00:31:32,720 --> 00:31:34,360
Speaker 3: out a lot of money before you found out if

598
00:31:34,400 --> 00:31:37,040
Speaker 3: it worked. You can find out if it worked for

599
00:31:37,280 --> 00:31:42,720
Speaker 3: fifty dollars right now, you know, for nothing, essentially nothing.

600
00:31:43,240 --> 00:31:46,400
Speaker 3: Of course, the recording has gone down. You can sign

601
00:31:46,440 --> 00:31:49,280
Speaker 3: them to a platform like IURS for sixty dollars, put

602
00:31:49,360 --> 00:31:51,680
Speaker 3: all the music out you want, and you find out

603
00:31:51,720 --> 00:31:54,280
Speaker 3: if you ever hit. At least do that to find

604
00:31:54,320 --> 00:31:56,320
Speaker 3: out if you want to make that decision, and then

605
00:31:56,360 --> 00:31:58,720
Speaker 3: you have leverage and you make that decision later. Man,

606
00:31:58,760 --> 00:32:01,640
Speaker 3: maybe I won't get a record deal, but you already

607
00:32:01,640 --> 00:32:04,520
Speaker 3: got a hit. So now they can't sit and tell you, well,

608
00:32:04,600 --> 00:32:05,320
Speaker 3: we're betting on you.

609
00:32:05,480 --> 00:32:07,040
Speaker 1: No no, no, no, no no. You know I got

610
00:32:07,120 --> 00:32:09,840
Speaker 1: to hit right already, bet on me, already, bet on me?

611
00:32:11,600 --> 00:32:12,440
Speaker 1: So come correct.

612
00:32:13,600 --> 00:32:15,960
Speaker 3: You see you mentioned that Jay Z when he partnered

613
00:32:16,000 --> 00:32:19,600
Speaker 3: with Rebok, and we see uh, Travis Scott not with Nike.

614
00:32:19,760 --> 00:32:22,680
Speaker 3: I think m had something with Nike. You see Jack

615
00:32:22,760 --> 00:32:26,440
Speaker 3: Harlowe's with New Balance. Uh fifty G Unit had something

616
00:32:26,520 --> 00:32:27,040
Speaker 3: with rebob.

617
00:32:27,160 --> 00:32:27,320
Speaker 1: Yeah.

618
00:32:28,720 --> 00:32:32,200
Speaker 3: Now you see the culture as you spoke about, and

619
00:32:32,280 --> 00:32:36,040
Speaker 3: you believe the influence that it had with brands. You

620
00:32:36,160 --> 00:32:39,640
Speaker 3: see a lot more of that. You I started that,

621
00:32:39,800 --> 00:32:42,000
Speaker 3: That's what I'm saying. You got no no, no, no started.

622
00:32:42,080 --> 00:32:44,880
Speaker 3: Then everybody knows that that's you, that's me.

623
00:32:46,320 --> 00:32:49,240
Speaker 1: That's called corporate America.

624
00:32:50,800 --> 00:32:53,120
Speaker 3: I'm gonna introduce you to this thing called hip hop okay,

625
00:32:53,840 --> 00:32:56,040
Speaker 3: and the music and the culture and everything that it

626
00:32:56,160 --> 00:33:00,760
Speaker 3: represents can help you. That's what I did, And everywhere

627
00:33:00,800 --> 00:33:03,960
Speaker 3: I go around the world, anyone who knows me knows

628
00:33:04,000 --> 00:33:06,720
Speaker 3: I did that. I feel great about that, right or not.

629
00:33:08,680 --> 00:33:14,120
Speaker 3: I still do believe that we should be way more

630
00:33:14,200 --> 00:33:18,840
Speaker 3: protective of who we give that to. Right, because you

631
00:33:18,920 --> 00:33:20,920
Speaker 3: don't want to give it to people. Again, that's not

632
00:33:21,000 --> 00:33:24,000
Speaker 3: your partner who's going to invest in it to further

633
00:33:24,160 --> 00:33:26,600
Speaker 3: it versus see what they could take from it, right,

634
00:33:27,040 --> 00:33:28,880
Speaker 3: just for short term game. You don't want to give

635
00:33:28,880 --> 00:33:32,000
Speaker 3: it away for that, I don't think it's worth it.

636
00:33:32,440 --> 00:33:34,920
Speaker 3: How do you determine whether or not to take a

637
00:33:35,040 --> 00:33:39,600
Speaker 3: salary a large salary or take a smaller salary with

638
00:33:40,160 --> 00:33:42,240
Speaker 3: equity and something? How do you how do you determine that?

639
00:33:42,440 --> 00:33:47,920
Speaker 3: How does Steve Stout determine that? So I'm in the

640
00:33:48,000 --> 00:33:50,600
Speaker 3: music business. Yes, I went through something. Yeah, okay, if

641
00:33:50,600 --> 00:33:52,160
Speaker 3: you don't mind me telling you the story, I would

642
00:33:52,200 --> 00:33:55,400
Speaker 3: love to hear it. I'm working at the record company.

643
00:33:56,320 --> 00:33:58,600
Speaker 3: I'm at Inniscope. I went from Sony, I went to

644
00:33:58,640 --> 00:34:01,440
Speaker 3: in the scope is two and a half million dollars

645
00:34:01,480 --> 00:34:06,200
Speaker 3: a year. I'm twenty seven years old. I'm doing well

646
00:34:07,040 --> 00:34:11,360
Speaker 3: by anybody's standards. Yeah, better than well, yeah right, making

647
00:34:11,400 --> 00:34:13,680
Speaker 3: money more money than football players back then, and so

648
00:34:13,960 --> 00:34:18,920
Speaker 3: ninety seven, Yeah, okay, for sure, this opportunity comes along

649
00:34:18,960 --> 00:34:22,560
Speaker 3: where I see, you know, men in black happens the

650
00:34:22,680 --> 00:34:23,920
Speaker 3: agency that put.

651
00:34:25,480 --> 00:34:28,600
Speaker 1: The glasses in product placement for Will Smith?

652
00:34:28,760 --> 00:34:32,560
Speaker 3: Ooh, sorry, the agency that did that. I wanted to

653
00:34:32,600 --> 00:34:34,680
Speaker 3: work with them because I've never met an agency before.

654
00:34:34,719 --> 00:34:37,960
Speaker 3: I'm like, damn you, Will Smith wore these glasses. The

655
00:34:38,160 --> 00:34:41,000
Speaker 3: glasses went crazy, and everybody thinks that was an accident.

656
00:34:41,040 --> 00:34:43,239
Speaker 3: I could do that shit every single day. I know

657
00:34:43,360 --> 00:34:45,759
Speaker 3: exactly who the people are that should be touching these

658
00:34:45,840 --> 00:34:49,400
Speaker 3: products in order to create, you know, an opportunity to

659
00:34:49,520 --> 00:34:53,720
Speaker 3: sell more of that product. Spent time at that agency.

660
00:34:54,400 --> 00:34:57,560
Speaker 3: The guy made me an offer. I'll give you twenty

661
00:34:57,600 --> 00:35:00,600
Speaker 3: five percent of the agency and I hundred and fifty

662
00:35:00,640 --> 00:35:05,239
Speaker 3: thousand dollars salary if you come here. So I'm gonna

663
00:35:05,320 --> 00:35:10,280
Speaker 3: leave the record business two and a half million dollars,

664
00:35:11,280 --> 00:35:14,160
Speaker 3: all of the perk that come along and come with it.

665
00:35:14,239 --> 00:35:17,200
Speaker 3: Who you are, the rooms you walk in, everything that

666
00:35:17,280 --> 00:35:19,839
Speaker 3: comes with that. To go work in an agency where

667
00:35:20,320 --> 00:35:22,480
Speaker 3: I don't know anybody, I really don't even know the business.

668
00:35:22,520 --> 00:35:25,320
Speaker 3: I just know that one aspect of the business. And

669
00:35:25,440 --> 00:35:27,360
Speaker 3: I'm like, if I don't make that bet on myself

670
00:35:27,480 --> 00:35:29,879
Speaker 3: now when I'm twenty eight years old, twenty nine years old,

671
00:35:30,200 --> 00:35:31,800
Speaker 3: when would I ever do it when I have a family,

672
00:35:31,840 --> 00:35:33,560
Speaker 3: when I have kids, I'll never make that bet.

673
00:35:34,600 --> 00:35:35,399
Speaker 1: I made that bet.

674
00:35:36,080 --> 00:35:38,399
Speaker 3: We sold that agency within two years for one hundred

675
00:35:38,400 --> 00:35:42,480
Speaker 3: and ninety million dollars. I was rich as fuck at

676
00:35:42,480 --> 00:35:47,799
Speaker 3: the thirty Yeah, I was thirty one years old. Wow,

677
00:35:47,960 --> 00:35:53,560
Speaker 3: doing it at an extremely high level. I'll tell everybody

678
00:35:53,640 --> 00:35:57,720
Speaker 3: that when I built this company, United Masses, the employees

679
00:35:57,760 --> 00:36:00,400
Speaker 3: get equity in the company. I want people to get equity.

680
00:36:00,520 --> 00:36:04,919
Speaker 3: I want people to make more money. But you can't

681
00:36:04,960 --> 00:36:09,400
Speaker 3: teach people sacrifice. That's unfortunate. Yeah, you just can't teach it.

682
00:36:10,000 --> 00:36:11,920
Speaker 1: Got to be willing to do so. You gotta be

683
00:36:12,000 --> 00:36:15,719
Speaker 1: willing to do that. I will offer that.

684
00:36:16,520 --> 00:36:18,839
Speaker 3: But if you're gonna sit there and think short term,

685
00:36:20,120 --> 00:36:23,680
Speaker 3: then you're really betting against yourself. You gotta be willing

686
00:36:23,719 --> 00:36:25,759
Speaker 3: to bet on yourself. You can't think that you're getting

687
00:36:25,800 --> 00:36:29,239
Speaker 3: away with something because somebody overpaid you. You got to

688
00:36:29,280 --> 00:36:31,800
Speaker 3: believe that you are worth more than that. Salary and

689
00:36:31,920 --> 00:36:34,600
Speaker 3: that you can prove that, and if you are worth

690
00:36:34,640 --> 00:36:40,239
Speaker 3: more than that salary, why wouldn't you have equity whether

691
00:36:40,480 --> 00:36:44,520
Speaker 3: I mean, I just think that it's over time, the

692
00:36:44,600 --> 00:36:48,879
Speaker 3: whole working class idea how you work has shifted from

693
00:36:48,920 --> 00:36:55,000
Speaker 3: the indented servant, the slave, the employee to ownership. You

694
00:36:55,120 --> 00:36:58,360
Speaker 3: gotta have ownership. I mean, this is your show and

695
00:36:58,400 --> 00:37:01,720
Speaker 3: I'm proud to do this with you because everybody publicly

696
00:37:01,760 --> 00:37:04,560
Speaker 3: seen what you did that you knew your worth. You

697
00:37:04,800 --> 00:37:08,080
Speaker 3: created value and you knew your worth and you got

698
00:37:08,120 --> 00:37:11,560
Speaker 3: what you deserved because you got what you earned. And

699
00:37:13,080 --> 00:37:15,920
Speaker 3: if you don't have an opportunity to have ownership, then

700
00:37:15,960 --> 00:37:19,680
Speaker 3: no matter how good you are, you never feel the impact.

701
00:37:19,280 --> 00:37:20,000
Speaker 1: Of your value.

702
00:37:21,040 --> 00:37:24,640
Speaker 3: Right, So like, you gotta do that, and you're gonna

703
00:37:24,640 --> 00:37:26,480
Speaker 3: take a short term l to do that, So what

704
00:37:27,080 --> 00:37:28,239
Speaker 3: right could you?

705
00:37:28,800 --> 00:37:30,160
Speaker 1: I don't want to be one of these people.

706
00:37:30,200 --> 00:37:32,520
Speaker 3: I never wanted to be one of these people who said, man,

707
00:37:32,600 --> 00:37:35,040
Speaker 3: I came up with this idea, I invented this, I

708
00:37:35,160 --> 00:37:37,680
Speaker 3: did all this shit, but you never got a chance

709
00:37:37,760 --> 00:37:41,160
Speaker 3: to benefit from it because you took the short term money.

710
00:37:43,520 --> 00:37:45,640
Speaker 3: That's not cool and you see it all the time,

711
00:37:45,680 --> 00:37:48,080
Speaker 3: but a lot of your peers. I'm sure you want

712
00:37:48,120 --> 00:37:50,680
Speaker 3: to tell them all the time. Man, I don't know

713
00:37:50,760 --> 00:37:52,359
Speaker 3: what you could do to help them. But a lot

714
00:37:52,400 --> 00:37:57,239
Speaker 3: of these guys up they are trapped by that mentality

715
00:37:57,680 --> 00:38:00,359
Speaker 3: of short term. They feel like they're stealing or something

716
00:38:00,360 --> 00:38:02,040
Speaker 3: like that, like every time they get a check, they're

717
00:38:02,040 --> 00:38:02,879
Speaker 3: getting away with something.

718
00:38:03,160 --> 00:38:04,279
Speaker 1: No, you'll give it.

719
00:38:04,320 --> 00:38:08,759
Speaker 3: Away too much, right, Well, it come down to how

720
00:38:08,800 --> 00:38:10,839
Speaker 3: do you see yourself? Do you see yourself as talent

721
00:38:10,960 --> 00:38:12,520
Speaker 3: or do you see yourself as a partner? Do you

722
00:38:12,560 --> 00:38:15,160
Speaker 3: see yourself as an owner? For so long we've been

723
00:38:15,400 --> 00:38:19,880
Speaker 3: we've been talent taught to believe that. Yeah, because you

724
00:38:19,960 --> 00:38:22,120
Speaker 3: come into football, they cut your check. You're not part

725
00:38:22,120 --> 00:38:23,520
Speaker 3: of it. You don't own part of the team. You

726
00:38:23,640 --> 00:38:28,359
Speaker 3: come into basketball. But in this media space, what we've

727
00:38:28,400 --> 00:38:31,480
Speaker 3: been able to do digitally okay, no.

728
00:38:32,160 --> 00:38:32,480
Speaker 1: Hell no.

729
00:38:32,800 --> 00:38:35,239
Speaker 3: But you know what even outside of the digital And

730
00:38:36,360 --> 00:38:39,640
Speaker 3: I ask you something, man, I watch your ex partner now,

731
00:38:39,719 --> 00:38:44,200
Speaker 3: your partner, your ex host Skip. I don't even understand

732
00:38:44,400 --> 00:38:48,960
Speaker 3: why all these other black athletes even go on the show. Now,

733
00:38:49,239 --> 00:38:50,759
Speaker 3: I don't even understand what they're doing.

734
00:38:51,280 --> 00:38:52,000
Speaker 1: And to me, it's so.

735
00:38:52,200 --> 00:38:59,080
Speaker 3: Clear that he needs block talent athletes, rappers, he's doing

736
00:38:59,280 --> 00:39:02,960
Speaker 3: everything to prop himself up, and I know he's getting

737
00:39:03,000 --> 00:39:05,560
Speaker 3: paid over there, and everybody else is getting pennies on

738
00:39:05,640 --> 00:39:05,959
Speaker 3: the dollar.

739
00:39:06,239 --> 00:39:08,799
Speaker 1: And I'm like, why would you do that? Why would

740
00:39:08,800 --> 00:39:09,759
Speaker 1: you go over there and do that?

741
00:39:11,400 --> 00:39:15,560
Speaker 3: Here? Clearly isn't the guy he needs you. Why don't

742
00:39:15,600 --> 00:39:17,600
Speaker 3: everybody need a show? And let's watch him do it

743
00:39:17,680 --> 00:39:21,960
Speaker 3: for a minute. That show would be dead immediately they

744
00:39:22,000 --> 00:39:23,759
Speaker 3: get all these guys over there, they're giving pennies on

745
00:39:23,800 --> 00:39:26,360
Speaker 3: the dollar and he and they prop them up. I'm like,

746
00:39:27,280 --> 00:39:27,920
Speaker 3: we gotta.

747
00:39:27,719 --> 00:39:30,120
Speaker 1: Stop doing that, man, we can't do that no more.

748
00:39:30,719 --> 00:39:33,759
Speaker 3: It's not it's not worth it, and there's nothing that

749
00:39:33,840 --> 00:39:37,640
Speaker 3: comes out of it long term except what they benefit from.

750
00:39:38,000 --> 00:39:40,120
Speaker 3: Well like where I am right now, get in on

751
00:39:40,200 --> 00:39:43,360
Speaker 3: the action with DraftKings Sportsbook and official sports betting partner

752
00:39:43,440 --> 00:39:46,640
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753
00:39:46,680 --> 00:39:49,320
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754
00:39:49,480 --> 00:39:52,719
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755
00:39:52,800 --> 00:39:55,880
Speaker 3: now and use code Shannon. New customers can get a

756
00:39:56,000 --> 00:39:58,879
Speaker 3: nowt bet up to one thousand dollars if your first

757
00:39:58,920 --> 00:40:02,600
Speaker 3: bet loses on your Draft Kings fourth book with Cold Shannon.

758
00:40:02,960 --> 00:40:04,960
Speaker 3: The crown is yours never fell.

759
00:40:04,800 --> 00:40:06,560
Speaker 4: A place in the crowd, so I stayed from the

760
00:40:06,600 --> 00:40:08,759
Speaker 4: crowd they left to me there, Well, look at their

761
00:40:08,800 --> 00:40:09,560
Speaker 4: faces right now.

762
00:40:09,920 --> 00:40:12,200
Speaker 1: It gave me the blue print. I've been trasing it that.

763
00:40:16,400 --> 00:40:19,200
Speaker 3: This is literally the greatest albums that came out in

764
00:40:19,520 --> 00:40:23,520
Speaker 3: nineteen eighty eight, like EPM D followed the Leader and

765
00:40:23,680 --> 00:40:26,719
Speaker 3: by any means necessary, couldn't play Run DMC.

766
00:40:26,880 --> 00:40:30,320
Speaker 1: Saw pop Out, Yeah, Easy Round, Easy Yetta Boys.

767
00:40:30,440 --> 00:40:33,680
Speaker 3: Yeah, this all came out, Ultramagnetics, the great events of

768
00:40:33,760 --> 00:40:36,840
Speaker 3: Slick Wrick, Big Daddy Kane, this all came out. This

769
00:40:37,040 --> 00:40:40,240
Speaker 3: is literally one year where a lot of these artists

770
00:40:40,280 --> 00:40:44,160
Speaker 3: won independent labels, so they had creative freedom and made

771
00:40:44,239 --> 00:40:46,359
Speaker 3: some of the best music that defined an era.

772
00:40:46,520 --> 00:40:48,920
Speaker 1: Public Enemy. It takes, It takes a nation of millions.

773
00:40:49,400 --> 00:40:50,440
Speaker 1: Nwa was this?

774
00:40:51,000 --> 00:40:53,239
Speaker 3: I even said to Dre Doctor Dram, like you made

775
00:40:53,280 --> 00:40:55,919
Speaker 3: straight out of Compton and you made the easy, Easy

776
00:40:56,000 --> 00:40:58,120
Speaker 3: does It album the same year, Man, you made two

777
00:40:58,480 --> 00:41:01,440
Speaker 3: crazy beautiful classics.

778
00:41:02,520 --> 00:41:05,360
Speaker 1: Well yeah, yeah, Salt and Pepper.

779
00:41:05,760 --> 00:41:07,480
Speaker 3: And that's that's where I grew up in. I grew

780
00:41:07,560 --> 00:41:10,960
Speaker 3: up in Queens. This is like in my neighborhood, man,

781
00:41:11,000 --> 00:41:13,200
Speaker 3: this is where I grew up. So I just look

782
00:41:13,239 --> 00:41:13,440
Speaker 3: at this.

783
00:41:13,640 --> 00:41:16,000
Speaker 1: This is reminds me of being.

784
00:41:15,920 --> 00:41:19,359
Speaker 3: Fifteen years old, just watching this, Like they literally lived

785
00:41:19,400 --> 00:41:20,680
Speaker 3: here while they were stars.

786
00:41:20,880 --> 00:41:21,080
Speaker 5: Wow.

787
00:41:21,560 --> 00:41:23,479
Speaker 3: So like you go to the mall and you would

788
00:41:23,480 --> 00:41:27,239
Speaker 3: see that and iloj like in the mall, Wow at

789
00:41:27,320 --> 00:41:30,840
Speaker 3: block parties, Ill kooja seene that do block parties in Queens.

790
00:41:30,920 --> 00:41:34,600
Speaker 3: Then what happened? Why can't stars now still do that?

791
00:41:35,239 --> 00:41:37,000
Speaker 3: You can't even go back to the same neighborhood. You

792
00:41:37,000 --> 00:41:39,759
Speaker 3: go up and you should be a representation. They said, Man,

793
00:41:40,239 --> 00:41:42,800
Speaker 3: this guy lived here in this very neighborhood.

794
00:41:42,320 --> 00:41:43,080
Speaker 1: And he got out.

795
00:41:43,560 --> 00:41:45,919
Speaker 3: We can look what happened and I've seen man, Yeah

796
00:41:46,040 --> 00:41:49,200
Speaker 3: he went back in his own neighborhood, you know, going

797
00:41:49,239 --> 00:41:52,719
Speaker 3: back to you. There's a bit of jealousy people. I

798
00:41:52,760 --> 00:41:55,200
Speaker 3: don't know, man, Back then, there was no choice. I mean,

799
00:41:55,560 --> 00:41:57,600
Speaker 3: the artists were getting big and they were getting famous,

800
00:41:57,680 --> 00:41:59,520
Speaker 3: but the art form hadn't gotten to the point where

801
00:41:59,520 --> 00:42:02,560
Speaker 3: they got really right right right, So people seen him

802
00:42:02,600 --> 00:42:05,640
Speaker 3: it was like, oh shit, that's whatever. But when the

803
00:42:05,719 --> 00:42:10,000
Speaker 3: money started to get in play, everything changed. Yeah, everything changed.

804
00:42:17,040 --> 00:42:18,719
Speaker 3: We're headed over to your burd We're headed over to

805
00:42:18,840 --> 00:42:21,719
Speaker 3: Queens where it all started for you is Queens.

806
00:42:21,440 --> 00:42:23,879
Speaker 1: The most overlooked hip hop borough who.

807
00:42:23,880 --> 00:42:27,839
Speaker 3: Were leaving Brooklyn, which gets a lot more hype because

808
00:42:27,880 --> 00:42:31,920
Speaker 3: of jay Z and Piggy and Queen's definitely gets overlooked.

809
00:42:32,360 --> 00:42:35,279
Speaker 1: Yeah you got LLL, you got run DMC, he'p going,

810
00:42:35,480 --> 00:42:37,360
Speaker 1: you got fifty, you got.

811
00:42:37,280 --> 00:42:41,960
Speaker 3: Nikki, Yeah, you got trip Coal Quests, Yeah, you got NNS,

812
00:42:43,280 --> 00:42:48,879
Speaker 3: you got mob Deep. They always forget about Queen Joe Rule, Yeah,

813
00:42:49,360 --> 00:42:53,440
Speaker 3: Russell Simmons, Yeah, IRV Gotti myself.

814
00:42:53,920 --> 00:42:56,360
Speaker 1: You know, it gets overlooked for some strange reasons. I

815
00:42:56,400 --> 00:42:56,879
Speaker 1: don't know why.

816
00:42:57,239 --> 00:42:59,759
Speaker 3: Where I grew up at within like a ten mile

817
00:42:59,840 --> 00:43:02,320
Speaker 3: rate where all these people are from. I used to

818
00:43:02,360 --> 00:43:05,840
Speaker 3: go to the mall and see LOJ battling like in

819
00:43:05,920 --> 00:43:08,120
Speaker 3: a mall, or go to a block party and see him,

820
00:43:08,600 --> 00:43:11,719
Speaker 3: you know, because those were the venues where guys would

821
00:43:11,760 --> 00:43:14,440
Speaker 3: get off. The art form are so small, it's like

822
00:43:14,840 --> 00:43:16,960
Speaker 3: the equivalent of guys playing with love helmets. This is

823
00:43:17,040 --> 00:43:19,560
Speaker 3: the beginning, So everybody's doing all kinds of They're just

824
00:43:19,600 --> 00:43:21,800
Speaker 3: trying to move from point here to point there. Plus

825
00:43:22,000 --> 00:43:26,000
Speaker 3: and he came to America and landed in Queens. That's

826
00:43:26,040 --> 00:43:28,239
Speaker 3: so funny. I can't even believe he did that on

827
00:43:28,360 --> 00:43:33,960
Speaker 3: Queens Boulevard. Zimunda can't right from Zoomunda. So why do

828
00:43:34,040 --> 00:43:37,000
Speaker 3: you think Queens doesn't get the credit or has the popularity,

829
00:43:37,280 --> 00:43:39,279
Speaker 3: Say like a Brooklyn when it comes to hip.

830
00:43:39,200 --> 00:43:43,080
Speaker 1: Hop, because of the houses, backyards, grass.

831
00:43:43,760 --> 00:43:47,040
Speaker 3: You know, soon Queens is associated with middle class, right,

832
00:43:47,640 --> 00:43:55,120
Speaker 3: you know where Brooklyn and the Bronx, it's more like as.

833
00:43:53,120 --> 00:43:55,040
Speaker 1: That New York by the New York buy.

834
00:43:55,600 --> 00:43:59,600
Speaker 3: Queens gets treated like you know and meanwhile it's not true,

835
00:44:00,120 --> 00:44:03,480
Speaker 3: but that's just the that's probably been the energy associated

836
00:44:03,520 --> 00:44:03,680
Speaker 3: with it.

837
00:44:04,960 --> 00:44:09,239
Speaker 1: But everybody knows Queens get the money. So I can

838
00:44:09,320 --> 00:44:09,640
Speaker 1: tell you that.

839
00:44:10,400 --> 00:44:13,240
Speaker 3: I mean k R S and Boogie Down productions, Molly

840
00:44:13,320 --> 00:44:16,080
Speaker 3: Mal the Bridge, the Bridge, I mean, because you all

841
00:44:16,120 --> 00:44:20,240
Speaker 3: the time. I want Molly Mal produced in Queensbridge. Yeah, okay,

842
00:44:20,320 --> 00:44:21,640
Speaker 3: Molly Mal is from Queensbridge.

843
00:44:21,719 --> 00:44:25,960
Speaker 1: Yeah. Obviously Karris One is from the Bronx.

844
00:44:27,160 --> 00:44:32,560
Speaker 3: But that beef between Queens and the Bronx, the Bronx

845
00:44:32,600 --> 00:44:35,719
Speaker 3: won that beef, they won't that.

846
00:44:36,440 --> 00:44:41,680
Speaker 1: I mean, KRS one was k I just said it, man,

847
00:44:42,280 --> 00:44:45,560
Speaker 1: I mean I know, but I just said, you don't

848
00:44:45,600 --> 00:44:46,279
Speaker 1: have to bring it up.

849
00:44:48,760 --> 00:45:00,880
Speaker 3: Beat out down, Oh ship, that's funny. As far as

850
00:45:00,920 --> 00:45:03,840
Speaker 3: you can go back, who were the first rappers to

851
00:45:03,960 --> 00:45:08,080
Speaker 3: have beef? Well, The All and Komo D because that

852
00:45:08,120 --> 00:45:09,520
Speaker 3: was the first. That's the first one I could. I

853
00:45:09,600 --> 00:45:12,520
Speaker 3: could think Lo kind of embraced the whole beef thing.

854
00:45:12,640 --> 00:45:16,120
Speaker 3: I'm trying to think who before l who had beef

855
00:45:16,400 --> 00:45:18,279
Speaker 3: that was blatant? There was like.

856
00:45:19,840 --> 00:45:23,040
Speaker 1: Kumo D was actually a battle raper.

857
00:45:23,080 --> 00:45:26,320
Speaker 3: It was a there was a mixtape early that was

858
00:45:26,440 --> 00:45:28,960
Speaker 3: not if you really know hip hop, that was like

859
00:45:29,080 --> 00:45:32,320
Speaker 3: Kumo D and Busy B and that was like a

860
00:45:32,520 --> 00:45:35,680
Speaker 3: very very famous tape that if you heard that tape,

861
00:45:35,680 --> 00:45:38,320
Speaker 3: you heard them battle, and that was like for me,

862
00:45:39,080 --> 00:45:41,279
Speaker 3: I must have been fourteen, that was like, oh shit,

863
00:45:41,760 --> 00:45:45,200
Speaker 3: that was the battle on them c's. So when lokoj

864
00:45:45,560 --> 00:45:50,000
Speaker 3: and Kumo D battle, it was like, oh shit, oh

865
00:45:50,120 --> 00:45:54,000
Speaker 3: you ready for that smoke. This guy, Kumo D was

866
00:45:54,000 --> 00:45:57,120
Speaker 3: a made man already from the underground scene. He he

867
00:45:57,239 --> 00:46:00,640
Speaker 3: got famous with Wild Wild West and yeah, yes, but

868
00:46:01,280 --> 00:46:04,839
Speaker 3: he was already like a made man before that. We're

869
00:46:04,880 --> 00:46:10,279
Speaker 3: getting busy. When they battled, I couldn't believe llll came

870
00:46:10,320 --> 00:46:15,480
Speaker 3: out on top because Kum was like that dude, and

871
00:46:15,600 --> 00:46:18,480
Speaker 3: then llll took him down and then l llll took

872
00:46:18,560 --> 00:46:20,680
Speaker 3: down I Love made a song called to the Break

873
00:46:20,680 --> 00:46:21,520
Speaker 3: of Dawn and took out.

874
00:46:22,320 --> 00:46:24,640
Speaker 1: He took out iced Tea and.

875
00:46:26,640 --> 00:46:29,440
Speaker 3: And hammer. He did all three and one was on.

876
00:46:29,760 --> 00:46:33,000
Speaker 3: He gave each of them a verse that was like

877
00:46:33,520 --> 00:46:35,920
Speaker 3: he was really into that. He's always into that right,

878
00:46:36,520 --> 00:46:39,239
Speaker 3: by the way, that's one of his issues. He only

879
00:46:39,520 --> 00:46:41,920
Speaker 3: that's the only mode he knows. Like when he rapped

880
00:46:41,920 --> 00:46:44,640
Speaker 3: a lot, it was like, I'm going girls mode.

881
00:46:45,440 --> 00:46:46,240
Speaker 1: Oh, I'm going.

882
00:46:48,120 --> 00:46:51,239
Speaker 3: This move, I'm dim we wrapped? Are we going after it?

883
00:46:52,600 --> 00:46:57,239
Speaker 3: We did a song with a this kid idolized him.

884
00:46:58,080 --> 00:47:01,680
Speaker 3: I'm figuring cannabis and yeah, I can't and and Al

885
00:47:01,800 --> 00:47:03,400
Speaker 3: just shit her on the kid for no reason. Man,

886
00:47:03,440 --> 00:47:07,200
Speaker 3: he's Elle's crazy. They cannot bull when he was when

887
00:47:07,239 --> 00:47:10,399
Speaker 3: Elle was rapping like all the way he still raps.

888
00:47:10,480 --> 00:47:13,200
Speaker 3: But when El was in that a younger guy rapping

889
00:47:13,320 --> 00:47:16,400
Speaker 3: like that. We put Foxy Brown on the record. He

890
00:47:16,480 --> 00:47:19,480
Speaker 3: puts on I shot your remix, man, and then he

891
00:47:19,600 --> 00:47:22,399
Speaker 3: puts it on the record. Female rappers too. I don't

892
00:47:22,400 --> 00:47:27,279
Speaker 3: give a fuck boo. This girl is seventeen, man, this

893
00:47:27,440 --> 00:47:28,800
Speaker 3: girl is seventeen.

894
00:47:29,320 --> 00:47:31,239
Speaker 1: On the record. Why are you saying you get take

895
00:47:31,280 --> 00:47:34,439
Speaker 1: out female rappers too. I don't give a fuck. He's

896
00:47:34,560 --> 00:47:35,399
Speaker 1: like a guy. Man.

897
00:47:35,520 --> 00:47:40,160
Speaker 3: It was like, it's either war are we talking about girls?

898
00:47:41,040 --> 00:47:43,319
Speaker 3: But it's in between? Shit is not my dude, Why

899
00:47:43,320 --> 00:47:45,400
Speaker 3: are you the best guy in interviewing music people right now?

900
00:47:45,480 --> 00:47:48,880
Speaker 3: That shit is run with that man, Yo, run there

901
00:47:49,000 --> 00:47:53,719
Speaker 3: is nobody. There is noboddy, nobody. I'm a sports guy,

902
00:47:54,040 --> 00:47:56,080
Speaker 3: but I wanted to branch out. I wanted to show

903
00:47:56,120 --> 00:47:58,799
Speaker 3: my versatility. But I was just more than a sports guy.

904
00:47:58,920 --> 00:48:02,839
Speaker 3: The fucking baby in the Cord interview, even the Dame

905
00:48:02,920 --> 00:48:04,759
Speaker 3: and Dash interview as fucked up as that.

906
00:48:04,840 --> 00:48:09,560
Speaker 1: What He's a gigantic almost almost not. He blew it.

907
00:48:09,640 --> 00:48:12,280
Speaker 3: He had jay Z, he had the most important artists

908
00:48:12,280 --> 00:48:15,400
Speaker 3: of his whole generation. So what happened with that relationship?

909
00:48:15,520 --> 00:48:19,520
Speaker 3: How did that relationship that was so good sour so fast?

910
00:48:23,719 --> 00:48:29,319
Speaker 3: Dame's antics were just it became like people over time

911
00:48:29,920 --> 00:48:32,920
Speaker 3: you mature. It's like you didn't have friends at sixteen,

912
00:48:33,360 --> 00:48:35,239
Speaker 3: but by the time you turn nineteen, they were still

913
00:48:35,280 --> 00:48:37,200
Speaker 3: doing the same shit he was sixteen. In your life,

914
00:48:38,080 --> 00:48:42,520
Speaker 3: I can't. I gotta, yeah, we gotta. You know, you

915
00:48:42,560 --> 00:48:44,640
Speaker 3: start spending less and less time with them because of it.

916
00:48:45,400 --> 00:48:46,320
Speaker 3: It's like one of those.

917
00:48:46,200 --> 00:48:48,160
Speaker 1: Things where Dame.

918
00:48:50,440 --> 00:48:53,600
Speaker 3: Dame wouldn't change the way he spoke to people, the

919
00:48:53,640 --> 00:48:59,520
Speaker 3: way he treated people. His he was angry about what

920
00:49:00,080 --> 00:49:02,879
Speaker 3: right you getting paper? He was angry because he had

921
00:49:05,440 --> 00:49:11,799
Speaker 3: a strong perspective about his business philosophy and if any

922
00:49:11,920 --> 00:49:15,800
Speaker 3: time a partner of theirs tried to like go around

923
00:49:15,920 --> 00:49:20,560
Speaker 3: him or meanwhile, people weren't going around him. The people

924
00:49:20,600 --> 00:49:23,759
Speaker 3: around him wanted to meet with other people. The people

925
00:49:23,840 --> 00:49:27,320
Speaker 3: wanted more, becoming less beholden to him, but he was

926
00:49:27,719 --> 00:49:31,319
Speaker 3: unaware of it. Then he would like, you know, while

927
00:49:31,360 --> 00:49:36,560
Speaker 3: he was building businesses, which partly he was, he would

928
00:49:36,600 --> 00:49:38,920
Speaker 3: go off all around the world with cameras and girls

929
00:49:38,960 --> 00:49:41,279
Speaker 3: and all kinds of crazy shit and then come back

930
00:49:41,320 --> 00:49:42,320
Speaker 3: flipping on everybody.

931
00:49:42,520 --> 00:49:46,880
Speaker 1: Is if you know they were wrong? Yeah, or like,

932
00:49:47,000 --> 00:49:48,600
Speaker 1: why'd you guys do all this shit without me?

933
00:49:48,760 --> 00:49:51,400
Speaker 3: Like, Bro, you didn't build a business that was so

934
00:49:51,680 --> 00:49:54,080
Speaker 3: operationally tight you could just go away and come back

935
00:49:54,160 --> 00:49:56,080
Speaker 3: and shit and be the same and all that shit.

936
00:49:56,160 --> 00:50:00,160
Speaker 3: It wasn't even like that. Jay grew up, you know,

937
00:50:00,360 --> 00:50:05,719
Speaker 3: Jay wanted more. I think Jay seen Dame's ceiling. I mean,

938
00:50:05,840 --> 00:50:08,440
Speaker 3: I think that's really what it was. I mean, uh,

939
00:50:09,640 --> 00:50:12,080
Speaker 3: Jay seen Dame ceiling. You can't follow the man from

940
00:50:12,120 --> 00:50:14,560
Speaker 3: wanting to get better. Yeah, he wanted to. He wanted more,

941
00:50:14,680 --> 00:50:21,200
Speaker 3: and everybody wanted more. Dame just had a very particular

942
00:50:21,239 --> 00:50:21,880
Speaker 3: way approaching it.

943
00:50:21,960 --> 00:50:25,960
Speaker 1: He wasn't. He's far from stupid, right, very very very smart,

944
00:50:27,200 --> 00:50:27,920
Speaker 1: very talented.

945
00:50:29,239 --> 00:50:32,680
Speaker 3: Hego through the roof, through the roof, so there was

946
00:50:32,800 --> 00:50:36,200
Speaker 3: no working with him, right that no one wanted to

947
00:50:36,239 --> 00:50:36,680
Speaker 3: work with him.

948
00:50:36,680 --> 00:50:37,239
Speaker 1: There was no work.

949
00:50:37,560 --> 00:50:40,719
Speaker 3: As much talented, as talent as he has, nobody want

950
00:50:40,760 --> 00:50:43,000
Speaker 3: to want to work with. Jimmy Ivean had this line,

951
00:50:43,040 --> 00:50:45,040
Speaker 3: when the ship gets bigger than the cat, you gotta

952
00:50:45,040 --> 00:50:45,759
Speaker 3: get rid of the cat.

953
00:50:46,000 --> 00:50:46,160
Speaker 4: Right.

954
00:50:52,480 --> 00:50:55,480
Speaker 1: How did the beef start between fifteen jar Up? I said,

955
00:50:55,480 --> 00:50:56,279
Speaker 1: good question.

956
00:50:56,760 --> 00:51:00,160
Speaker 3: Why I know you know the answer. I think think

957
00:51:00,280 --> 00:51:07,360
Speaker 3: fifty knew that Jah was not who he was portraying

958
00:51:07,400 --> 00:51:13,960
Speaker 3: as an image Jah, you know, Jehovah witness, Jeovah witness

959
00:51:14,320 --> 00:51:16,799
Speaker 3: for the rap. I'm not saying they're not supposed to rap,

960
00:51:16,880 --> 00:51:18,920
Speaker 3: but it was like Joe was coming up with his

961
00:51:19,000 --> 00:51:21,719
Speaker 3: gangster image and it was like, that's a stretch for you, right,

962
00:51:23,320 --> 00:51:25,359
Speaker 3: And I think fifty that was one thing.

963
00:51:25,640 --> 00:51:28,000
Speaker 1: And then they had some like very neighborhood beef. And

964
00:51:28,040 --> 00:51:31,960
Speaker 1: I remember when we signed fifty, there was something going on.

965
00:51:32,080 --> 00:51:36,280
Speaker 3: I think he snatched John's chain or somebody snatched somebody's

966
00:51:36,480 --> 00:51:37,680
Speaker 3: it was one of these things. And they had a

967
00:51:37,760 --> 00:51:42,160
Speaker 3: fight in Atlanta, fifty for them in Atlanta, and it

968
00:51:42,280 --> 00:51:44,560
Speaker 3: was just like I didn't even understand it. I'm like,

969
00:51:44,600 --> 00:51:46,880
Speaker 3: why do you keep having problems with this guy? It

970
00:51:46,960 --> 00:51:48,759
Speaker 3: was like always it was like he was looking for

971
00:51:48,800 --> 00:51:50,920
Speaker 3: problems with him. To be honest with you, but I

972
00:51:51,000 --> 00:51:56,280
Speaker 3: think it was driven by this idea that this image

973
00:51:56,280 --> 00:51:59,040
Speaker 3: he was portraying that he didn't think was was authentic

974
00:51:59,239 --> 00:52:01,160
Speaker 3: or whatever, and then he had a problem with him

975
00:52:01,160 --> 00:52:03,960
Speaker 3: and it led to, you know, big issues. And then

976
00:52:04,719 --> 00:52:06,920
Speaker 3: Jean and his guys ran up on fifty in a

977
00:52:06,960 --> 00:52:10,799
Speaker 3: studio one day, and you know, they touched them up.

978
00:52:13,800 --> 00:52:17,279
Speaker 1: So they never be cool. Nah, They're never gonna be cool.

979
00:52:17,760 --> 00:52:20,960
Speaker 3: And now it's kind of I'm happy that it's all

980
00:52:21,040 --> 00:52:23,640
Speaker 3: kind of over with because it's what I don't like

981
00:52:23,760 --> 00:52:28,840
Speaker 3: at this point is older statesmen like them still beefing

982
00:52:28,920 --> 00:52:31,279
Speaker 3: stuff because it makes the art form look bad. Right,

983
00:52:31,560 --> 00:52:34,000
Speaker 3: you know, these guys are made men now, you know,

984
00:52:34,200 --> 00:52:37,480
Speaker 3: like I love what Fat Joe's persona is today and

985
00:52:37,600 --> 00:52:42,200
Speaker 3: I love obviously with Jay represents and with NAS represents,

986
00:52:42,280 --> 00:52:44,440
Speaker 3: and you know, the art form, the leaders of the

987
00:52:44,560 --> 00:52:48,560
Speaker 3: art form, you know, doing well, you know, being positive,

988
00:52:48,640 --> 00:52:53,200
Speaker 3: representing sort of as not role models, but representing the

989
00:52:53,360 --> 00:52:57,919
Speaker 3: movement in the culture of hip hop. Well for guys

990
00:52:57,960 --> 00:53:01,360
Speaker 3: still to be beefing and still associating that and dragging

991
00:53:01,400 --> 00:53:03,680
Speaker 3: that back in and not on the older statesman level.

992
00:53:03,719 --> 00:53:06,000
Speaker 1: The younger guy should be doing that. That's cool. But

993
00:53:06,200 --> 00:53:08,359
Speaker 1: like the older guy man, you you in your forties, right,

994
00:53:08,440 --> 00:53:09,879
Speaker 1: I mean, why are you What are you talking about?

995
00:53:09,920 --> 00:53:11,880
Speaker 3: When you got kids at home, you got a wife,

996
00:53:11,960 --> 00:53:13,960
Speaker 3: you got we already know this is not what it is,

997
00:53:14,040 --> 00:53:15,000
Speaker 3: So why are you doing that?

998
00:53:15,640 --> 00:53:18,000
Speaker 1: I don't like that, But look, it's also none of

999
00:53:18,040 --> 00:53:18,560
Speaker 1: my business.

1000
00:53:20,000 --> 00:53:23,880
Speaker 3: But I do always feel like, like hip hop, the

1001
00:53:23,960 --> 00:53:27,720
Speaker 3: business of hip hop culture is something that I carry

1002
00:53:27,800 --> 00:53:30,160
Speaker 3: with me, so I do have an opinion on it.

1003
00:53:30,960 --> 00:53:33,560
Speaker 1: Where some people will say, Stephen, it's not your business.

1004
00:53:33,640 --> 00:53:34,279
Speaker 1: Keep doing your thing.

1005
00:53:35,200 --> 00:53:38,040
Speaker 3: Do you remember when Fitty crash the stage will hold

1006
00:53:38,480 --> 00:53:44,399
Speaker 3: Dady and t I Yeah, fifty is a wild boy,

1007
00:53:46,120 --> 00:53:46,719
Speaker 3: he's a man.

1008
00:53:46,760 --> 00:53:49,280
Speaker 1: He don't mind beefing with anybody. He doesn't mind beefing

1009
00:53:49,360 --> 00:53:53,239
Speaker 1: with anybody. He likes that thing. He he he loves it.

1010
00:53:53,480 --> 00:53:56,719
Speaker 3: In fact, I think he wants the attention from it.

1011
00:53:57,680 --> 00:54:00,560
Speaker 3: He understand what that brings. The last thing to do

1012
00:54:00,680 --> 00:54:04,880
Speaker 3: is to ignore him. Okay, if you ignore him, then

1013
00:54:04,920 --> 00:54:08,840
Speaker 3: it's over with, because he really is doing it for

1014
00:54:08,920 --> 00:54:10,320
Speaker 3: the attention, the attention of it.

1015
00:54:11,640 --> 00:54:12,640
Speaker 1: And by the way, that's fine.

1016
00:54:12,680 --> 00:54:15,239
Speaker 3: It's a great business tactic, you know, because it does

1017
00:54:15,480 --> 00:54:17,000
Speaker 3: bring a lot of attention. I just think there's a

1018
00:54:17,440 --> 00:54:19,640
Speaker 3: but like for him now. I mean, this guy is

1019
00:54:19,640 --> 00:54:21,920
Speaker 3: such a successful producer. I don't think he needs to

1020
00:54:22,000 --> 00:54:24,279
Speaker 3: do any of that. He's a businessman. I don't think

1021
00:54:24,320 --> 00:54:27,920
Speaker 3: he needs to he needs to do that. And he's talented. Man,

1022
00:54:28,440 --> 00:54:31,800
Speaker 3: the people like like Power and those shows, the BMF shows.

1023
00:54:31,960 --> 00:54:34,239
Speaker 3: I'm gonna tell you something right now, and this is

1024
00:54:34,239 --> 00:54:36,480
Speaker 3: what you hear it first. If that guy, well his

1025
00:54:36,640 --> 00:54:38,600
Speaker 3: real talent is comedy.

1026
00:54:40,560 --> 00:54:40,960
Speaker 1: Oh yeah.

1027
00:54:41,480 --> 00:54:44,880
Speaker 3: When he takes what he does in production and apply

1028
00:54:45,000 --> 00:54:49,720
Speaker 3: that to comedy, is over with. He's not talented. Wow,

1029
00:54:50,000 --> 00:54:50,799
Speaker 3: that's his thing.

1030
00:54:51,600 --> 00:54:53,320
Speaker 1: Comedy All times.

1031
00:54:53,400 --> 00:54:56,720
Speaker 4: I was bro member saying though five O FO these

1032
00:54:56,840 --> 00:55:00,000
Speaker 4: days whinning only then it I know fail so many times.

1033
00:55:01,840 --> 00:55:06,280
Speaker 3: So this is my high school man. There's a story

1034
00:55:06,320 --> 00:55:10,680
Speaker 3: here that I've never said on camera. I've told my

1035
00:55:10,800 --> 00:55:14,560
Speaker 3: daughter the story. I'm gonna tell it to you because

1036
00:55:14,560 --> 00:55:16,440
Speaker 3: it changed my life and I want people to understand it.

1037
00:55:16,640 --> 00:55:16,839
Speaker 1: Wow.

1038
00:55:17,960 --> 00:55:20,240
Speaker 3: When I first came, I was trying for the football

1039
00:55:20,239 --> 00:55:22,680
Speaker 3: team till I was in junior. We're doing two days

1040
00:55:24,160 --> 00:55:29,240
Speaker 3: and this ship is killing me. Like it's killing me, okay,

1041
00:55:29,719 --> 00:55:31,920
Speaker 3: like I'm getting beat the fuck down. But this is

1042
00:55:31,960 --> 00:55:35,960
Speaker 3: a moment that changed my life. Come off that field,

1043
00:55:36,480 --> 00:55:39,040
Speaker 3: I got my T shirt on. It's probably be day four.

1044
00:55:40,280 --> 00:55:41,440
Speaker 3: I can't do this ship no more.

1045
00:55:43,920 --> 00:55:44,520
Speaker 1: I walk out.

1046
00:55:45,840 --> 00:55:48,080
Speaker 3: I walk right up this movie walking right now. I'm

1047
00:55:48,080 --> 00:55:54,320
Speaker 3: gonna quit. I can't do this no more. I didn't

1048
00:55:54,320 --> 00:55:58,360
Speaker 3: think it meant anything to me. I want to play football.

1049
00:55:58,400 --> 00:56:01,560
Speaker 1: I can't do it. Asking me to do this shit

1050
00:56:01,719 --> 00:56:05,399
Speaker 1: isn't too much. That's what I thought. So I came out.

1051
00:56:05,760 --> 00:56:07,799
Speaker 1: I walked this way, and I stand up here at

1052
00:56:07,840 --> 00:56:08,439
Speaker 1: this bus stop.

1053
00:56:08,680 --> 00:56:13,440
Speaker 3: While I'm there, one of the coaches season coach comes by,

1054
00:56:14,800 --> 00:56:22,279
Speaker 3: looks at me and says, aren't you in the football.

1055
00:56:21,960 --> 00:56:26,200
Speaker 1: Team, man, but you're doing I looked at him, like, nah, man,

1056
00:56:26,280 --> 00:56:29,759
Speaker 1: I no, I didn't say quick you said, I said

1057
00:56:29,760 --> 00:56:31,279
Speaker 1: I'm not on the football team. I don't even talking.

1058
00:56:31,320 --> 00:56:31,480
Speaker 3: Man.

1059
00:56:32,120 --> 00:56:35,000
Speaker 1: Meanwhile, my name is on the back of the jersey,

1060
00:56:36,280 --> 00:56:38,719
Speaker 1: so he walks up. He knew I was He knew

1061
00:56:38,760 --> 00:56:46,239
Speaker 1: I was lying. What I did was I left, and

1062
00:56:46,320 --> 00:56:49,439
Speaker 1: I had to accept the fact that I quit.

1063
00:56:49,760 --> 00:56:56,840
Speaker 3: Right. I came back that year as a senior. I

1064
00:56:56,920 --> 00:57:01,000
Speaker 3: did everything I was supposed to do and made the

1065
00:57:01,080 --> 00:57:03,640
Speaker 3: team and the last half of the season I started

1066
00:57:03,680 --> 00:57:08,320
Speaker 3: at running back. The fact that I went back to

1067
00:57:08,400 --> 00:57:10,359
Speaker 3: finish that job that I started and they never let

1068
00:57:10,800 --> 00:57:14,720
Speaker 3: this football team, the Holy Cross, that's like the premier

1069
00:57:14,800 --> 00:57:19,840
Speaker 3: football within in our in this thing. And to come

1070
00:57:19,880 --> 00:57:21,439
Speaker 3: back as a senior and do that was the first

1071
00:57:21,480 --> 00:57:24,600
Speaker 3: time I did something I was successful. Well, I was like, man,

1072
00:57:24,640 --> 00:57:26,720
Speaker 3: I quit, but I couldn't live with that in my

1073
00:57:26,840 --> 00:57:28,680
Speaker 3: heart and I had to come back and do that.

1074
00:57:29,200 --> 00:57:30,320
Speaker 1: And that shit changed my life.

1075
00:57:30,360 --> 00:57:30,520
Speaker 3: Man.

1076
00:57:31,000 --> 00:57:32,520
Speaker 1: I told my daughter that story.

1077
00:57:32,280 --> 00:57:37,680
Speaker 3: Because everything that I did, from getting into the advertising

1078
00:57:37,760 --> 00:57:40,200
Speaker 3: business getting into the music business.

1079
00:57:40,360 --> 00:57:43,000
Speaker 1: There was no clear path. There was no path for

1080
00:57:43,040 --> 00:57:48,160
Speaker 1: none of it. It was very easy to just say yo, quit,

1081
00:57:51,760 --> 00:57:52,320
Speaker 1: but you didn't.

1082
00:57:52,400 --> 00:57:55,080
Speaker 3: I didn't quit. I didn't quit. And the one time

1083
00:57:55,160 --> 00:57:57,320
Speaker 3: I did quit, I went back and fixed it. So

1084
00:57:57,400 --> 00:57:59,760
Speaker 3: I could erase it, and it became the greatest lesson

1085
00:57:59,760 --> 00:58:01,160
Speaker 3: on my Had.

1086
00:58:01,000 --> 00:58:04,000
Speaker 1: You not gone back, would you be the stage stoles

1087
00:58:04,080 --> 00:58:07,520
Speaker 1: this that swear to God? No way, No. If I

1088
00:58:07,640 --> 00:58:10,840
Speaker 1: got away with quitting because do you quit? Was it's

1089
00:58:10,880 --> 00:58:12,720
Speaker 1: easy to do it once? You quit once? It's easy

1090
00:58:12,800 --> 00:58:20,760
Speaker 1: to do Is that one of your greatest lessons?

1091
00:58:20,880 --> 00:58:24,480
Speaker 3: Yeah, that is the greatest lesson. I've never seen anyone

1092
00:58:24,600 --> 00:58:28,480
Speaker 3: fail who'd even quit? Yeah?

1093
00:58:30,320 --> 00:58:35,120
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah yeah. Were you cool with jay Z and

1094
00:58:35,280 --> 00:58:38,600
Speaker 1: nads when they had their beef? Yeah? So how did

1095
00:58:38,840 --> 00:58:42,680
Speaker 1: how did you stay swhistle in the state? Neutral? Part

1096
00:58:42,720 --> 00:58:45,080
Speaker 1: of it was easy because I knew how much respect

1097
00:58:45,120 --> 00:58:45,919
Speaker 1: they had for one another.

1098
00:58:46,400 --> 00:58:47,840
Speaker 3: I don't know if you've ever been in a situation

1099
00:58:47,920 --> 00:58:50,720
Speaker 3: where two people had respect for one another, they just

1100
00:58:50,880 --> 00:58:52,920
Speaker 3: never shared it with each other, correct, And you're sitting

1101
00:58:52,960 --> 00:58:57,440
Speaker 3: in between them thinking if they only knew what each

1102
00:58:57,480 --> 00:58:59,840
Speaker 3: other felt, they would this would go away.

1103
00:59:00,600 --> 00:59:01,320
Speaker 1: That's what I felt.

1104
00:59:02,120 --> 00:59:04,040
Speaker 3: The part of it that was difficult was the outside

1105
00:59:04,080 --> 00:59:05,880
Speaker 3: pressure of people thinking, how could you be friends with

1106
00:59:05,920 --> 00:59:07,720
Speaker 3: both of them at the same time. You must be

1107
00:59:08,520 --> 00:59:13,280
Speaker 3: passing information or something like that. There was no information

1108
00:59:13,400 --> 00:59:15,680
Speaker 3: the past. They had known each other before they knew

1109
00:59:15,680 --> 00:59:20,640
Speaker 3: each other before me. Actually they knew each other before me,

1110
00:59:21,440 --> 00:59:24,160
Speaker 3: and the issues that they had had nothing to do

1111
00:59:24,280 --> 00:59:29,360
Speaker 3: with me. It was very unfortunate to my earlier point

1112
00:59:29,360 --> 00:59:32,200
Speaker 3: about being an elder statesman. When they had a beef,

1113
00:59:33,320 --> 00:59:43,040
Speaker 3: no guns, nobody got shot. Lyrical songs and you know what,

1114
00:59:44,000 --> 00:59:50,120
Speaker 3: they made up as men in front of everybody. That's

1115
00:59:50,160 --> 00:59:53,920
Speaker 3: what it's supposed to be. They had a conflict, it

1116
00:59:54,040 --> 00:59:58,360
Speaker 3: was handled through music and they made up publicly. No

1117
00:59:58,440 --> 01:00:01,560
Speaker 3: one got hurt, no one got no guns, none of that.

1118
01:00:02,600 --> 01:00:07,480
Speaker 3: That's that really did a lot as far as I'm concerned,

1119
01:00:07,520 --> 01:00:10,840
Speaker 3: because letting people understand that disputes can be handled right

1120
01:00:11,440 --> 01:00:14,880
Speaker 3: and yes, and that was dope.

1121
01:00:15,960 --> 01:00:17,440
Speaker 1: That was the dope part that came out of it.

1122
01:00:18,000 --> 01:00:20,800
Speaker 1: Jay and I are cousins. Oh yeah, I mean I

1123
01:00:20,800 --> 01:00:22,720
Speaker 1: don't talk about it because it's no reason to talk

1124
01:00:22,720 --> 01:00:23,040
Speaker 1: about it.

1125
01:00:23,840 --> 01:00:27,840
Speaker 3: I went to my grandfather's funeral and his grandparent is

1126
01:00:27,920 --> 01:00:31,000
Speaker 3: buried two lots down like they.

1127
01:00:31,080 --> 01:00:33,400
Speaker 1: It's like one of those type of things. Not knowing

1128
01:00:33,560 --> 01:00:36,160
Speaker 1: is that how y'all guys developed the friendship even though

1129
01:00:36,200 --> 01:00:36,680
Speaker 1: you didn't know.

1130
01:00:37,320 --> 01:00:41,960
Speaker 3: Now we develop a relationship friendship honestly over Madden, and

1131
01:00:42,560 --> 01:00:42,760
Speaker 3: you know.

1132
01:00:44,280 --> 01:00:46,080
Speaker 1: You know, literally over Madden and.

1133
01:00:47,720 --> 01:00:49,280
Speaker 3: There was something there was a business deal that we

1134
01:00:49,360 --> 01:00:52,640
Speaker 3: were working on. He was working on that he wanted

1135
01:00:53,400 --> 01:00:56,080
Speaker 3: that I decided I wanted to be a part of.

1136
01:00:56,720 --> 01:00:58,160
Speaker 3: It was an artist that we were going to sign,

1137
01:00:58,720 --> 01:01:00,640
Speaker 3: and it was a problem. And then when we went

1138
01:01:00,680 --> 01:01:02,280
Speaker 3: to sudden the problem, I was like, man, I don't

1139
01:01:02,280 --> 01:01:05,640
Speaker 3: even give a fuck about this little thing. I care

1140
01:01:05,680 --> 01:01:08,080
Speaker 3: about really big things. And it was the way I

1141
01:01:08,160 --> 01:01:11,200
Speaker 3: talked about my dreams and ambitions for big things. And

1142
01:01:11,320 --> 01:01:15,120
Speaker 3: he's like, I like this guy. And then we became friend.

1143
01:01:15,160 --> 01:01:25,520
Speaker 3: We became friends, became very close friends over time. How

1144
01:01:25,600 --> 01:01:28,040
Speaker 3: did you come to manage or be in the presence

1145
01:01:28,120 --> 01:01:32,680
Speaker 3: of nas after Illmatic? I was representing these producers called

1146
01:01:32,720 --> 01:01:37,000
Speaker 3: the track Masses. The Track Masses were are very talented

1147
01:01:37,120 --> 01:01:39,600
Speaker 3: producers who produced for.

1148
01:01:43,280 --> 01:01:43,640
Speaker 1: Biggie.

1149
01:01:44,600 --> 01:01:49,200
Speaker 3: They produced. Their big hit at the time was Candy Rain.

1150
01:01:51,720 --> 01:01:55,520
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, they produced that joint Mary J Blive, what

1151
01:01:55,720 --> 01:02:00,920
Speaker 3: have you. But they produced they produced under p Diddy, right,

1152
01:02:02,040 --> 01:02:04,960
Speaker 3: and he had this this group called the Hitman. So

1153
01:02:05,080 --> 01:02:08,000
Speaker 3: you never really got your own just out of it

1154
01:02:08,040 --> 01:02:10,040
Speaker 3: because you were part of a conglomerate. Your name was

1155
01:02:10,120 --> 01:02:14,560
Speaker 3: just like puff Daddy and the Hitman. So they wanted

1156
01:02:14,600 --> 01:02:16,560
Speaker 3: to get out of the shadows of that and really

1157
01:02:16,640 --> 01:02:19,320
Speaker 3: be the thing. And I, you know, was all for

1158
01:02:19,440 --> 01:02:23,280
Speaker 3: that type of thing to help get them set them

1159
01:02:23,400 --> 01:02:25,320
Speaker 3: up their own business. They didn't have to do all lot.

1160
01:02:25,840 --> 01:02:31,360
Speaker 3: So Nas makes Illmatic, Elmatic comes out. Elmatic is successful

1161
01:02:32,040 --> 01:02:34,760
Speaker 3: and the first thing the track Masses want to do.

1162
01:02:35,240 --> 01:02:38,320
Speaker 3: They produced Biggie. They were making big rap records. They

1163
01:02:38,360 --> 01:02:40,680
Speaker 3: wanted to produce Nas. Everybody wanted to produce Nas. The

1164
01:02:40,720 --> 01:02:45,160
Speaker 3: problem was, no one can find Nas. You know, Nas

1165
01:02:45,240 --> 01:02:50,040
Speaker 3: is an artist's artist. You couldn't find him through you know,

1166
01:02:50,280 --> 01:02:53,560
Speaker 3: a series of events. I got to Nas, spent time

1167
01:02:53,640 --> 01:02:57,160
Speaker 3: with him, he trusted me as his manager, and we

1168
01:02:57,240 --> 01:03:00,040
Speaker 3: went to make on Make It Was Written album, and

1169
01:03:00,200 --> 01:03:02,960
Speaker 3: It Was Written album was his biggest selling album of

1170
01:03:03,000 --> 01:03:05,560
Speaker 3: all time. And the first song that the track masters

1171
01:03:05,560 --> 01:03:08,000
Speaker 3: when I put them together they made was I Rule

1172
01:03:08,080 --> 01:03:08,360
Speaker 3: the World.

1173
01:03:09,520 --> 01:03:09,760
Speaker 1: Wow.

1174
01:03:10,360 --> 01:03:14,360
Speaker 3: Working with Nias is so one of the greatest accomplishments

1175
01:03:14,400 --> 01:03:17,600
Speaker 3: I've ever had in my career. Really, Oh yeah. Nas

1176
01:03:17,600 --> 01:03:20,080
Speaker 3: is one of the greatest writers of all time in

1177
01:03:20,200 --> 01:03:23,480
Speaker 3: any topic writer. And when you get a chance to

1178
01:03:23,560 --> 01:03:25,439
Speaker 3: work with that level of greatest, one of the best

1179
01:03:25,480 --> 01:03:28,760
Speaker 3: whoever did it that this just doesn't happen. You know,

1180
01:03:28,880 --> 01:03:31,760
Speaker 3: it's just a very It's a privilege to be able

1181
01:03:31,760 --> 01:03:34,120
Speaker 3: to say that you did though, And at the age

1182
01:03:34,160 --> 01:03:36,400
Speaker 3: of twenty six, twenty five, twenty six, when I was

1183
01:03:36,440 --> 01:03:40,160
Speaker 3: doing it, working with him. When we first started, all

1184
01:03:40,240 --> 01:03:42,680
Speaker 3: I knew was that I was working with this artist

1185
01:03:42,720 --> 01:03:44,640
Speaker 3: who was hot and had to, you know, make a

1186
01:03:44,720 --> 01:03:47,680
Speaker 3: big follow up album. When you look back at it

1187
01:03:47,840 --> 01:03:51,160
Speaker 3: eighteen years later, you realize you got a chance to

1188
01:03:51,200 --> 01:03:53,440
Speaker 3: work one of the greatest who ever did it? How

1189
01:03:53,520 --> 01:03:56,720
Speaker 3: did you get him to adopt a more radio friendly

1190
01:03:56,800 --> 01:03:59,960
Speaker 3: and more commercial friendly rap, considering that he had had

1191
01:04:00,040 --> 01:04:02,160
Speaker 3: a success in Illmatic doing his way.

1192
01:04:04,600 --> 01:04:05,920
Speaker 1: Who's helping you with these questions?

1193
01:04:06,080 --> 01:04:09,200
Speaker 3: I just answer, I'm just asking you, man, I'm just

1194
01:04:09,320 --> 01:04:11,720
Speaker 3: you know, we put a lot of time and research

1195
01:04:11,800 --> 01:04:13,600
Speaker 3: into this to make sure we get to know.

1196
01:04:15,600 --> 01:04:16,240
Speaker 1: It was a risk.

1197
01:04:16,600 --> 01:04:20,800
Speaker 3: He bet on me, He trusted me, He believed in me.

1198
01:04:21,200 --> 01:04:26,200
Speaker 3: I don't know how he knew to trust me, but

1199
01:04:27,360 --> 01:04:29,720
Speaker 3: I spoke to him a lot about the fact that

1200
01:04:29,840 --> 01:04:33,360
Speaker 3: we have to evolve. He understood that. He understood that

1201
01:04:34,080 --> 01:04:37,440
Speaker 3: with that man, so that man making bigger music appealing

1202
01:04:37,480 --> 01:04:40,680
Speaker 3: to more than because his first album, Eal Madic was

1203
01:04:40,760 --> 01:04:42,959
Speaker 3: just considered one of the greatest rap albums of all time.

1204
01:04:43,880 --> 01:04:46,440
Speaker 3: Hadn't sold that much, it wasn't popular, but those who

1205
01:04:46,520 --> 01:04:49,360
Speaker 3: knew it the purest of the art form, understood it

1206
01:04:49,400 --> 01:04:53,000
Speaker 3: and respected it and held it in high regard. But

1207
01:04:53,120 --> 01:04:57,040
Speaker 3: this was also that plus make money, right, and we

1208
01:04:57,200 --> 01:05:00,120
Speaker 3: had to make money, which meant we had to know,

1209
01:05:00,360 --> 01:05:05,040
Speaker 3: expand and grow, which is what you know. Me coming

1210
01:05:05,080 --> 01:05:08,640
Speaker 3: into the fold and helping him make it was written

1211
01:05:08,760 --> 01:05:09,640
Speaker 3: was about but how do.

1212
01:05:09,680 --> 01:05:10,960
Speaker 1: You get him to understand that?

1213
01:05:11,120 --> 01:05:13,800
Speaker 3: Because I read were in the beginning, he didn't really

1214
01:05:13,840 --> 01:05:14,880
Speaker 3: care about money and success.

1215
01:05:14,960 --> 01:05:16,200
Speaker 1: He wanted to write. He was a writer.

1216
01:05:16,520 --> 01:05:19,920
Speaker 3: He wanted he wanted to perfect this craft. But success

1217
01:05:20,200 --> 01:05:23,760
Speaker 3: and payment money wasn't what it was about. What he

1218
01:05:23,880 --> 01:05:27,960
Speaker 3: knew was the thing was working. There was a very

1219
01:05:28,120 --> 01:05:34,640
Speaker 3: clear line between the artists that was making successful music

1220
01:05:35,000 --> 01:05:38,560
Speaker 3: and looking successful as a result of it and the

1221
01:05:38,720 --> 01:05:43,400
Speaker 3: artists who were underground, local right couldn't it couldn't get

1222
01:05:43,440 --> 01:05:46,600
Speaker 3: out the local moniker, and he didn't want that to

1223
01:05:46,680 --> 01:05:49,680
Speaker 3: be him. So whether it was about caring about money

1224
01:05:49,800 --> 01:05:55,960
Speaker 3: or not, he definitely cared more about expanding his audience right, right,

1225
01:05:56,080 --> 01:05:58,240
Speaker 3: So he wasn't it wasn't driven by.

1226
01:05:58,240 --> 01:05:58,960
Speaker 1: Money like here we.

1227
01:06:00,800 --> 01:06:03,800
Speaker 3: But the other thing that was important Shannon was that

1228
01:06:04,080 --> 01:06:08,960
Speaker 3: during that time, making money or being successful was a

1229
01:06:09,080 --> 01:06:13,840
Speaker 3: part of what was successful. People wanted to see you

1230
01:06:13,960 --> 01:06:18,840
Speaker 3: know vasace and ah ah, that was part of it.

1231
01:06:19,480 --> 01:06:22,800
Speaker 3: So that was the lifestyle attached to it.

1232
01:06:23,400 --> 01:06:24,200
Speaker 1: To the music.

1233
01:06:25,840 --> 01:06:28,320
Speaker 3: He didn't care about money, but he did care about

1234
01:06:28,320 --> 01:06:29,040
Speaker 3: being successful.

1235
01:06:29,760 --> 01:06:30,000
Speaker 1: Yeah.

1236
01:06:30,280 --> 01:06:34,520
Speaker 3: So you know, my interpretation of that was let's make

1237
01:06:34,560 --> 01:06:37,880
Speaker 3: bigger music, Let's make bigger songs, and let's find the

1238
01:06:37,960 --> 01:06:41,000
Speaker 3: producers and the talent that can help us. And that

1239
01:06:41,280 --> 01:06:44,760
Speaker 3: was obviously working with the track masters, going to get

1240
01:06:44,880 --> 01:06:48,160
Speaker 3: you know, doctor Dre to produce on that album, which

1241
01:06:48,240 --> 01:06:52,120
Speaker 3: nobody had done before, making music videos and visuals, getting

1242
01:06:52,160 --> 01:06:54,760
Speaker 3: Lauren Hill to do sing I ruled the world.

1243
01:06:54,840 --> 01:06:57,640
Speaker 1: Lauryn Hill. Nobody could get Lauren Hill. Lauryn Hill is

1244
01:06:59,040 --> 01:06:59,480
Speaker 1: Lorn Hill.

1245
01:07:00,680 --> 01:07:00,840
Speaker 5: You know.

1246
01:07:01,080 --> 01:07:04,160
Speaker 1: So the combination of all of that was what led

1247
01:07:04,200 --> 01:07:07,560
Speaker 1: to you know, us doing something that important.

1248
01:07:07,920 --> 01:07:12,840
Speaker 3: Now you see transition, He's nas the businessman, the big

1249
01:07:13,440 --> 01:07:16,800
Speaker 3: private equity, all the stuff that we see I'm a

1250
01:07:16,880 --> 01:07:17,160
Speaker 3: part of.

1251
01:07:18,920 --> 01:07:21,640
Speaker 1: Was that you talking to him like, Okay, take to

1252
01:07:21,760 --> 01:07:23,280
Speaker 1: the next level to be what you want to be.

1253
01:07:23,680 --> 01:07:25,040
Speaker 1: No I'm gonna be honest with you.

1254
01:07:25,200 --> 01:07:29,320
Speaker 3: I introduced NAS to a very different of mine, Ben Horwitz,

1255
01:07:29,760 --> 01:07:34,400
Speaker 3: who invested in me in the United Masters, And I

1256
01:07:34,520 --> 01:07:37,600
Speaker 3: introduced NAS to him because Ben is a is a

1257
01:07:37,680 --> 01:07:39,120
Speaker 3: tremendous fan of.

1258
01:07:40,760 --> 01:07:41,320
Speaker 1: Rap music.

1259
01:07:41,760 --> 01:07:44,680
Speaker 3: And you know, there was this whole idea that people

1260
01:07:44,680 --> 01:07:47,280
Speaker 3: who can move the culture should be involved in technology.

1261
01:07:47,760 --> 01:07:50,880
Speaker 3: You know. Because of that, Nas, you know, we're was

1262
01:07:50,920 --> 01:07:55,360
Speaker 3: able to get going early in some very important venture investments,

1263
01:07:55,720 --> 01:07:59,360
Speaker 3: Coinbase being one of them, which was big a ring

1264
01:08:00,040 --> 01:08:02,920
Speaker 3: of the Amazon thing ring. And then you know that

1265
01:08:03,280 --> 01:08:06,800
Speaker 3: got him going and he built a VC firm around

1266
01:08:06,960 --> 01:08:11,200
Speaker 3: ne and he you know, his mass appeal and you know,

1267
01:08:11,440 --> 01:08:14,520
Speaker 3: Nasa is a great businessman. He's a Nasa is an

1268
01:08:14,680 --> 01:08:17,240
Speaker 3: all around talent man. He's a he's a very special

1269
01:08:17,280 --> 01:08:19,240
Speaker 3: person that that people love.

1270
01:08:19,120 --> 01:08:19,519
Speaker 1: In the door.

1271
01:08:20,280 --> 01:08:23,160
Speaker 3: This concludes the first half of my conversation. Part two

1272
01:08:23,280 --> 01:08:25,439
Speaker 3: is also posted and you can access it to whichever

1273
01:08:25,800 --> 01:08:28,960
Speaker 3: podcast platform you just listen to part one on. Just

1274
01:08:29,040 --> 01:08:31,840
Speaker 3: simply go back to Club Shay profile and I'll see

1275
01:08:31,880 --> 01:08:32,200
Speaker 3: you there.