WEBVTT - Poo Bear 0:00:01.960 --> 0:00:06.120 R and B Money, Honey, we are. 0:00:07.680 --> 0:00:10.320 Thanks take MELOCHI. 0:00:11.080 --> 0:00:16.800 We are the authority on all things R and B 0:00:18.239 --> 0:00:19.639 ladies and gentlemen. 0:00:19.960 --> 0:00:22.280 My name is tam Day Balenti. 0:00:22.760 --> 0:00:27.560 This is the R and B Money Podcast, the authority 0:00:28.080 --> 0:00:31.080 they know, they know on all things. 0:00:31.000 --> 0:00:34.960 All things, all thing. Yeah, R and B. Yeah, don't 0:00:34.960 --> 0:00:35.519 get caught up. 0:00:35.840 --> 0:00:39.960 Stop telling me you right here records, Yeah, yeah, stop 0:00:40.360 --> 0:00:40.960 being me. 0:00:41.600 --> 0:00:44.440 They're telling me you right hit records. 0:00:45.080 --> 0:00:47.360 Hello, they're right here. 0:00:47.520 --> 0:00:51.280 Records every day every day because every day is what 0:00:51.280 --> 0:00:53.000 what your birthday? 0:00:53.520 --> 0:00:56.920 I want to write it happy birthday himself. 0:00:56.920 --> 0:00:58.840 You ain't ever gonna have the song stolen from you 0:00:58.920 --> 0:01:01.600 at twelve on a million copies. 0:01:03.080 --> 0:01:05.240 That happy birthday. 0:01:05.520 --> 0:01:06.720 I'm sorry, I'm yelling. 0:01:07.280 --> 0:01:09.520 I love it. Thanks having me, man, Thanks for having me. 0:01:10.280 --> 0:01:13.000 You do this ship? Was that your year? That's not yeah, 0:01:13.880 --> 0:01:14.560 that's having me. 0:01:14.800 --> 0:01:23.720 Yeah, bro, bro, like you know, our pod is is 0:01:23.760 --> 0:01:29.240 a flower pod to give you the flowers. 0:01:29.280 --> 0:01:31.319 You so right. I don't know if we have enough 0:01:31.360 --> 0:01:32.319 flowers in here. 0:01:33.040 --> 0:01:35.440 Already said we didn't have enough room on we didn't 0:01:35.440 --> 0:01:39.240 have enough he said, what are those? 0:01:46.959 --> 0:01:47.119 Bro? 0:01:48.320 --> 0:01:54.560 It's so much information and so much great musical conversation 0:01:55.400 --> 0:01:57.880 that hopefully we can get to some of it. We 0:01:57.880 --> 0:01:59.160 ain't gonna be able to get to most of it 0:01:59.200 --> 0:02:01.240 because we would be here for a few days. 0:02:01.400 --> 0:02:04.280 Hopefully we do a part two. Maybe that could be 0:02:04.280 --> 0:02:06.440 the first part to what we should do is. 0:02:06.360 --> 0:02:07.240 We should do this. 0:02:07.800 --> 0:02:09.480 As hard as it was to get him to come 0:02:09.480 --> 0:02:12.120 on this podcast, he don't do this ship he like 0:02:12.400 --> 0:02:13.360 he already said. 0:02:15.600 --> 0:02:18.079 But this is special. I think what you guys are doing, 0:02:18.120 --> 0:02:21.800 it's such a magical environment. I think it's it's just 0:02:21.800 --> 0:02:24.960 think it's very important, it's very needed, and it's something 0:02:25.000 --> 0:02:27.679 that's been missing, you know, for a while. So I 0:02:27.880 --> 0:02:28.400 applaud you. 0:02:28.400 --> 0:02:32.000 Guys, Thank you, thank you. I think we I think 0:02:32.040 --> 0:02:34.240 we do this. And then I think the other piece 0:02:34.280 --> 0:02:36.880 of information is if you haven't even done it yet, 0:02:37.280 --> 0:02:41.200 is people need to really see you at work. 0:02:41.440 --> 0:02:42.360 Oh yeah, I love that. 0:02:42.480 --> 0:02:45.440 The idea behind like like. 0:02:45.600 --> 0:02:48.640 Like like what Jason Joshua Joshua does when people actually 0:02:48.720 --> 0:02:50.840 sit and get to watch him. 0:02:51.160 --> 0:02:55.600 In action action. Yeah, I would love that because that's yeah, 0:02:55.600 --> 0:02:58.280 that's the magic. That's the magic that's different, and that 0:02:58.400 --> 0:03:01.520 is exactly what you are. Brother. Oh thank you man, 0:03:02.320 --> 0:03:03.880 I'm saying that. Thank you. 0:03:03.919 --> 0:03:07.680 So let's get let's let's get into you know. 0:03:08.720 --> 0:03:13.399 R the way you were able to invess something, which 0:03:13.440 --> 0:03:17.640 it starts with Yes, listen, I want to go back 0:03:17.720 --> 0:03:21.000 to the beginning, because what you the story of you 0:03:21.320 --> 0:03:24.120 rapping a song at twelve? 0:03:24.400 --> 0:03:28.320 Yeah, having it, having the lyrics word for word, bar 0:03:28.440 --> 0:03:28.960 for bar. 0:03:29.280 --> 0:03:33.639 Yeah, they borrowed them. Did you ever get the Soldier. 0:03:35.000 --> 0:03:37.000 And go platinum with it? 0:03:37.240 --> 0:03:40.200 Yeah? Yeah, man, I was. I was twelve in a 0:03:40.280 --> 0:03:41.360 group and it. 0:03:41.400 --> 0:03:41.760 Was a group. 0:03:42.480 --> 0:03:46.280 It was hilarious, t w C together, we chill, it 0:03:46.400 --> 0:03:49.360 was absolutely. We had a song too with the hook 0:03:49.400 --> 0:03:54.080 with that hood. No, it was embarrassing. You know why 0:03:54.120 --> 0:03:58.800 we embraced it as kids because Red from ABC came 0:03:58.880 --> 0:04:00.800 up with it and I'm like, a b see, tw 0:04:01.120 --> 0:04:04.080 was like, okay, there's some letters. We got our own letters, 0:04:04.160 --> 0:04:06.000 not thinking I'm like letter, I'm like, this is corny 0:04:06.000 --> 0:04:08.560 as shite, But in the moment, it was the dude 0:04:08.560 --> 0:04:12.119 from ABC giving us a letter and cracking it was pop. Yeah, 0:04:12.120 --> 0:04:14.200 I'm like it was eight years old to twelve on 0:04:14.400 --> 0:04:18.000 solcial Train Performance. So I was inspired. But you know, 0:04:18.080 --> 0:04:20.400 at that time, Chris Cross came out dissing them with 0:04:21.480 --> 0:04:24.720 Jump Jump on everybody. That was a direct disc that 0:04:24.839 --> 0:04:28.400 was a battle wrap for kids. In what was that 0:04:28.560 --> 0:04:32.640 nineteen ninety three, ninety two, I was twelve years old. 0:04:33.040 --> 0:04:38.080 Read was thirteen, and Read was my manager. Strange enough, yeah, 0:04:38.200 --> 0:04:40.040 thirteen yearner. I had a thirteen year od manager and 0:04:40.080 --> 0:04:40.679 I was twelve. 0:04:40.920 --> 0:04:45.040 Okay, all right, it's called big business, yeah man, because 0:04:45.080 --> 0:04:48.320 I'm forty eight, yeah and your forty five. 0:04:48.400 --> 0:04:52.240 You forty five. So when I was young, your. 0:04:55.000 --> 0:04:56.839 Like, listen to me. I know, I've been through the ropes. 0:04:57.080 --> 0:05:01.040 I've been doing this shit half my life. Yeah, yeah, 0:05:01.160 --> 0:05:01.640 yeah man. 0:05:02.040 --> 0:05:02.240 Yeah. 0:05:02.240 --> 0:05:04.760 So and I actually, you know, I mean, I wrote 0:05:04.760 --> 0:05:08.000 a rap that was dissing Criss Cross and because he 0:05:08.080 --> 0:05:10.840 was that's my homies. So I'm like, yeah, just dissed them. 0:05:10.880 --> 0:05:12.200 And don't think you know what I'm saying because they 0:05:12.240 --> 0:05:14.920 don't really. They were like yeah songs, I ea shared 0:05:14.960 --> 0:05:17.520 the playground, like they weren't built for that. So I 0:05:17.560 --> 0:05:20.760 wrote a rap, you know, dissing them, and I wrapped 0:05:20.760 --> 0:05:23.080 it through Red and he was like, man, do it again. 0:05:23.320 --> 0:05:25.280 He kept throughout the day, kept saying me, like, have 0:05:25.440 --> 0:05:29.719 me recite this rhyme? Then Red disappears, ABC disappears for 0:05:29.760 --> 0:05:32.640 six months, like man, that was my manager. Now he's 0:05:32.720 --> 0:05:36.320 just not even answering my calls. And then I go 0:05:36.400 --> 0:05:39.640 to seventh grade and my friend Kevin is like, hey, man, 0:05:39.680 --> 0:05:42.360 remember that rap you recited to me. He's like, I 0:05:42.400 --> 0:05:45.640 think it's on this album that Michael Bivens put out 0:05:46.000 --> 0:05:48.920 on the Big ten compilation All for One, One for All. 0:05:48.960 --> 0:05:50.400 That was the first single off for It was like, 0:05:50.440 --> 0:05:52.200 oh for One and one for All. I don't know 0:05:52.240 --> 0:05:55.200 if you guys remember that. And he had the Boys, 0:05:55.240 --> 0:05:58.159 de Men, ABC, BBD, the East Coast fam So that 0:05:58.240 --> 0:06:00.640 was the whole compilation. I listened to it on a 0:06:00.680 --> 0:06:03.839 cassette player in Holmes home room in the seventh grade 0:06:04.240 --> 0:06:06.440 and I hear it come on boom boom, check us 0:06:06.440 --> 0:06:09.760 like a boot tick Tactoe, Chris cross him out the box, 0:06:09.800 --> 0:06:12.840 happy jumping, not just so. And I'm like, and I 0:06:12.920 --> 0:06:15.520 was so confused because I was so happy. Yeah, but 0:06:15.560 --> 0:06:19.440 I was sad because I'm like, wait, let me open 0:06:19.520 --> 0:06:21.480 up the credits. And then I looked at the credits 0:06:21.520 --> 0:06:24.880 and understood credits. I understood credits. Well, yeah, I understood 0:06:24.880 --> 0:06:26.880 what the credits were because you know, as I was 0:06:26.920 --> 0:06:29.640 making music, man, I sucked at it, but I was 0:06:29.839 --> 0:06:31.680 making it enough to know that the people in the 0:06:31.720 --> 0:06:33.880 credits were the ones that were behind the you know, 0:06:33.920 --> 0:06:37.240 the magic. So I went to read the credits, I'm 0:06:37.279 --> 0:06:41.240 looking for my name, and I'm like, well, where's Red's name? 0:06:41.640 --> 0:06:44.800 And then I didn't get credit. Read didn't credit. The 0:06:44.839 --> 0:06:46.760 manager of the group at the time, not gonna put 0:06:46.760 --> 0:06:48.960 nobody out there. But they got the credit, they got 0:06:49.000 --> 0:06:51.320 the publishing for it, and that was like the first 0:06:51.320 --> 0:06:54.520 time actually had something like a copyright storming from me. 0:06:54.600 --> 0:06:56.920 I just happened to be twelve years old. It was 0:06:56.960 --> 0:06:59.520 a young lesson. Yeah, I was in the seventh grade 0:07:00.080 --> 0:07:03.120 in the middle of College Park. Did you have any. 0:07:04.440 --> 0:07:07.839 Any ideas of like, I gotta get to somebody to 0:07:07.880 --> 0:07:08.839 tell them that's my song. 0:07:10.080 --> 0:07:13.600 I I didn't even think about that because I just 0:07:13.800 --> 0:07:16.320 was said I was twelve, man, I had no They 0:07:16.360 --> 0:07:19.560 were my connection to the industry. It was Red, you know, 0:07:19.720 --> 0:07:25.920 so outside of Red and in Row Row, those are 0:07:25.920 --> 0:07:28.160 the only two people I knew the industry. Yeah, so 0:07:28.320 --> 0:07:30.920 when they disappeared, I didn't have any I had no 0:07:31.040 --> 0:07:33.360 other way. So I didn't even think to like, like, 0:07:33.440 --> 0:07:35.920 how could I even try to fight to get credit. 0:07:36.440 --> 0:07:39.360 I was just happy and hurt at the same time. 0:07:39.400 --> 0:07:40.800 It was like the Yen and the Yang, and I 0:07:40.880 --> 0:07:44.320 was like excited but disappointed. You know, It's like, man, 0:07:44.680 --> 0:07:46.560 this is my like this is I can hear it, 0:07:47.040 --> 0:07:49.720 but it's not. It's nobody gonna know, So you know, 0:07:49.760 --> 0:07:52.280 I kept that. I kept that story secret awhile because 0:07:52.320 --> 0:07:55.440 I was more embarrassed by at a younger age than 0:07:55.480 --> 0:07:59.320 I was like using it to show people that, like, hey, man, 0:07:59.360 --> 0:08:01.040 you could get ripped off at a young age. There's 0:08:01.080 --> 0:08:03.920 no there's no age limit on get ripped off. So 0:08:04.520 --> 0:08:06.960 but I didn't. I didn't tell anybody for a while, man, 0:08:06.960 --> 0:08:09.240 And then I started thinking it was it was cool 0:08:09.280 --> 0:08:12.040 to just be a voice for people who get ripped 0:08:12.040 --> 0:08:13.640 off at a young age and be like, hey, you're 0:08:13.640 --> 0:08:15.240 not the only one. You know what I'm saying, and 0:08:15.280 --> 0:08:17.800 you learn from those things you learn had I learned 0:08:17.840 --> 0:08:21.240 at a young age, like publishing is something I didn't 0:08:21.280 --> 0:08:22.680 even know what it was, and I'm like, this is 0:08:22.720 --> 0:08:26.000 something serious. And then it took my cousin, Courtney Bear. 0:08:26.160 --> 0:08:27.880 I don't know if you guys know Big Big Bear 0:08:27.880 --> 0:08:30.800 who discovered one twelve and Jagged Edge at one talent show. 0:08:31.200 --> 0:08:33.440 My cousin how I got into the music business. My 0:08:33.520 --> 0:08:37.040 cousin Courtney Bear seals he's working. He works with Killing 0:08:37.120 --> 0:08:39.880 Mike right now. He discovered at one talent show Tri 0:08:40.000 --> 0:08:45.000 Cities High School one twelve and Jacket Edge. One twelve's 0:08:45.040 --> 0:08:47.360 name used to be called Forte. It was the name 0:08:47.400 --> 0:08:49.319 of him, and then Jagged Edge. I forget what the 0:08:49.400 --> 0:08:51.760 name was, but it wasn't jagged Ash. Then he went 0:08:51.840 --> 0:08:55.160 on and introduced one twelve to Puff Daddy, and Puffed 0:08:55.200 --> 0:08:58.120 Daddy gave him the name one twelve and Jagged Ash 0:08:58.160 --> 0:09:00.360 went on to Social Death for Jamaina prix Man. He 0:09:00.440 --> 0:09:03.200 went and managed one twelve, moved to New York. They 0:09:03.240 --> 0:09:05.520 came out the first album sold the million records. Cupid 0:09:05.679 --> 0:09:08.880 only you big success. Yeah, came back and was like 0:09:08.920 --> 0:09:11.439 poop be you know you can make money writing songs. 0:09:11.480 --> 0:09:14.360 I'm like wow. He was like, I'm gonna put you 0:09:14.440 --> 0:09:15.959 in with the guys, gonna see if you have a 0:09:16.040 --> 0:09:19.960 chemistry with any synergy with with Doran and see how 0:09:19.960 --> 0:09:22.120 it goes. Maybe he'll work with you. So he takes 0:09:22.160 --> 0:09:24.199 me over, drops me over. Durn Jones shout out to 0:09:24.280 --> 0:09:29.560 durran Q was there, you know, quinn Is Parker and 0:09:29.600 --> 0:09:32.880 we created the song Anywhere. Duran had already started it 0:09:32.920 --> 0:09:34.960 and already was working on it, and I just came 0:09:35.040 --> 0:09:36.880 and added to the record Anywhere and that was my 0:09:36.960 --> 0:09:37.679 first hit. 0:09:37.760 --> 0:09:38.920 Anywhere is your first hit? 0:09:39.040 --> 0:09:44.920 Yeah yeah, yeah man, yeah I was in high school. 0:09:45.120 --> 0:09:49.840 I was in the eleventh grade. Yeah yeah. And mind 0:09:49.880 --> 0:09:52.520 you when that came out, it didn't sound like anything like, 0:09:52.600 --> 0:09:56.320 it didn't sound like anything, so might be what it was. 0:09:56.559 --> 0:10:02.600 What sample is that it's interpolation original? That was Iran 0:10:02.720 --> 0:10:04.840 Duran didn't sample nothing. The only thing that you're talking 0:10:04.880 --> 0:10:08.680 about the replay was a wicked wicked, wicked. It's over now, 0:10:08.800 --> 0:10:12.520 it's ober now. That was Mob Deep. Wiga wiga wigga 0:10:12.640 --> 0:10:16.640 wiggle wiggle. That's the only got Anywhere was straight original. 0:10:16.720 --> 0:10:21.280 Yeah no, no, no, Barn Barron. But the one they 0:10:21.320 --> 0:10:25.360 did rip was the that Mob Deep. Remember that It's 0:10:25.400 --> 0:10:30.880 over now? Yeah? Yeah man, yeah yeah yeah, he too 0:10:30.960 --> 0:10:33.000 hot to stop. Yeah man, that's your question. 0:10:33.080 --> 0:10:36.360 Yeah, if I can backtrack for a second, Okay, did 0:10:36.400 --> 0:10:41.880 you hearing your rap, your lyrics on on that ABC song, 0:10:42.320 --> 0:10:46.679 did that give you an indicator that you could really 0:10:46.720 --> 0:10:49.600 do this ship or or did it take you just 0:10:50.120 --> 0:10:53.240 a little while longer after that before you even settled 0:10:53.280 --> 0:10:54.880 into the idea of being able to do that. 0:10:55.040 --> 0:10:58.680 Yeah, because I really that never really registered what happened 0:10:58.760 --> 0:11:01.520 then that it was like, Wow, I did something that 0:11:01.840 --> 0:11:05.000 came out that was good enough to come out and 0:11:05.000 --> 0:11:07.600 and generate a mile. Yeah I wasn't. I didn't put 0:11:07.600 --> 0:11:10.880 two and two together then, but it did do something 0:11:11.200 --> 0:11:13.440 to myself. Was staying this a little bit to where 0:11:13.440 --> 0:11:16.640 it was like, well, it must have been cool if 0:11:16.679 --> 0:11:18.640 they stole it. It must have been good enough for 0:11:18.679 --> 0:11:21.040 them to steal. So that did something. It gave me 0:11:21.120 --> 0:11:23.319 inspiration to be in a group. 0:11:23.480 --> 0:11:23.640 You know. 0:11:23.679 --> 0:11:25.800 I started a group called Young Harmony. I was My 0:11:25.880 --> 0:11:27.959 name was Harmony. My friend's name was Young because I 0:11:28.000 --> 0:11:30.080 used to harmonize. I couldn't sing really, but I had 0:11:30.080 --> 0:11:33.200 a great year and we went on. We signed our 0:11:33.200 --> 0:11:35.920 first deal like a few months after that happened. I 0:11:35.960 --> 0:11:37.720 was still twelve years old. I signed my first record 0:11:37.760 --> 0:11:41.240 deal with a label called Jungle Jes Records. And our 0:11:41.240 --> 0:11:44.400 friend tell you what our advance was. We got paid 0:11:44.400 --> 0:11:46.640 in advance. We got an advance though, let me tell 0:11:46.640 --> 0:11:50.360 you what it was. It was a Genie suit. I 0:11:50.400 --> 0:11:52.079 got a green one and then my homie got a 0:11:52.120 --> 0:11:55.040 yellow one. We looked like a sprit commercial. Yeah, it 0:11:55.120 --> 0:11:55.920 look like the Sprite. 0:11:55.679 --> 0:11:57.359 Coming because I've had actual jungle. 0:11:58.720 --> 0:11:59.920 Actual see I thought in the car. 0:12:00.679 --> 0:12:04.839 No, no, no, you're talking. 0:12:05.000 --> 0:12:08.719 You're talking about the jungle Jungle. I got you got okay? Yeah? Yeah, 0:12:09.840 --> 0:12:14.240 many yeah yeah yeah, the Jungle day Yeah, Jungle Juice 0:12:14.840 --> 0:12:18.400 yeah yeah, love. 0:12:18.280 --> 0:12:20.640 You man, don't Yeah. 0:12:22.880 --> 0:12:23.760 How old were you were? 0:12:23.800 --> 0:12:24.280 You? 0:12:24.640 --> 0:12:29.240 Were you? Okay? It was okay. I would say that's 0:12:29.280 --> 0:12:33.200 child abuse. But if you're in the abuse, you get 0:12:33.600 --> 0:12:37.160 a gee suit for an advance as your and our 0:12:37.200 --> 0:12:39.360 manager took the whatever money it was that we were 0:12:39.360 --> 0:12:41.320 supposed to, so it was some money. It probably was 0:12:41.320 --> 0:12:43.560 a little bit of money. But he brought us Jeanie 0:12:43.600 --> 0:12:48.360 suits and and kept the difference, kept the difference and 0:12:48.400 --> 0:12:50.199 then ended up and then he ran off. He ran 0:12:50.240 --> 0:12:52.199 off this beard and all this is said. Twelve I 0:12:52.280 --> 0:12:54.760 was twelve, yeah, man, And so we had a single 0:12:54.840 --> 0:12:56.560 out man because She's turning Me on. That was my 0:12:56.559 --> 0:12:58.640 first single, and we had an album released party, a 0:12:58.679 --> 0:13:03.000 single release party on there Forget That and through Jungle 0:13:03.040 --> 0:13:07.360 Juice Records, and so it was it was an independent label. Yeah. 0:13:07.360 --> 0:13:10.160 The guy, the owner's name was Michael Jackson, same as yeah, 0:13:10.200 --> 0:13:12.880 Michael Jackson, and he used to lock us in the 0:13:12.880 --> 0:13:15.240 studio and I never forget that, and I didn't realize 0:13:15.240 --> 0:13:17.400 that that was a fire hazard till I got older. 0:13:17.480 --> 0:13:19.520 I'm like, wait, boy, I thought you were just using 0:13:19.559 --> 0:13:20.679 the term us. 0:13:22.400 --> 0:13:24.760 He would work outside the door of the studio and 0:13:24.960 --> 0:13:28.800 lock us in from the outside so we couldn't get out. 0:13:28.960 --> 0:13:32.760 So it was me on the little last Yeah, I 0:13:32.800 --> 0:13:36.679 guess that will follow under the FILD spectrum. I had 0:13:36.679 --> 0:13:38.599 the little leases with the little the a AD. So 0:13:38.720 --> 0:13:41.120 I was engineering, I was making I had an SB 0:13:41.160 --> 0:13:44.280 twelve hundred and I was making beats, I was writing songs, 0:13:44.320 --> 0:13:47.280 I was doing choreography, I was doing everything, you know 0:13:47.320 --> 0:13:48.840 what I mean. And he would come back in the 0:13:48.880 --> 0:13:50.960 sun to be down let us out. And then I 0:13:51.080 --> 0:13:53.440 had the My mom always let me go. She was like, 0:13:53.520 --> 0:13:54.920 no matter what, you got to go to school. I 0:13:54.920 --> 0:13:56.439 don't care if you worked till four in the morning. 0:13:56.880 --> 0:13:58.280 She was like, you just got to go to school. 0:13:58.480 --> 0:14:02.120 So my mom always let me. She used to drop 0:14:02.240 --> 0:14:04.120 us off at the studio, me and my singing with 0:14:04.200 --> 0:14:06.880 my group, and she's just like, look, you just gotta 0:14:06.920 --> 0:14:09.120 go to school. I don't care. You can stay all night, 0:14:09.240 --> 0:14:11.600 but by five o'clock you need to be coming home, 0:14:12.240 --> 0:14:14.360 taking a shower and getting ready to go to school 0:14:14.400 --> 0:14:17.640 at seven thirty. And so wow, yeah, so she let 0:14:17.720 --> 0:14:19.800 me do that. I support my mom, you know, thank 0:14:19.840 --> 0:14:22.120 my mom for supporting me and dropping us off. She 0:14:22.200 --> 0:14:24.200 was like our uber back before uber, you know. 0:14:24.200 --> 0:14:24.560 What I mean. 0:14:24.720 --> 0:14:27.040 And she believed and she really was just a positive 0:14:27.160 --> 0:14:29.160 like she just always told me I could do anything 0:14:29.200 --> 0:14:31.920 and be anything I wanted to be. And I always 0:14:31.960 --> 0:14:33.920 told my mom. I was like, and my grandma, I 0:14:33.960 --> 0:14:36.880 was like, man, I'm gonna move us out of the hood, 0:14:36.920 --> 0:14:38.880 you know what I'm saying. And my grandma was so 0:14:39.600 --> 0:14:42.560 at that age like bless your heart, like you don't 0:14:42.640 --> 0:14:44.680 understand that black people don't move out of the hood, 0:14:44.720 --> 0:14:46.280 you know what I'm saying. But you could tell like 0:14:46.440 --> 0:14:50.200 energy never seen light and buts she used to see me. Man. 0:14:50.240 --> 0:14:52.160 So I grew up. My dad left when I was 0:14:52.680 --> 0:14:55.400 seven and a half eight. He left two weeks later. 0:14:55.400 --> 0:14:58.120 It was a tornado, like the only tornado in Connecticut history. 0:14:58.200 --> 0:15:00.200 And new Haven is like, you know, still one of 0:15:00.200 --> 0:15:03.240 the poor. So you're originally from originally from New Haven, Connecticut, 0:15:03.600 --> 0:15:06.280 one of the poorer cities in America, and the tornado 0:15:06.440 --> 0:15:09.040 came to up our apartment and then we were homeless. 0:15:09.040 --> 0:15:10.720 So me and my mom and my brother were homeless 0:15:10.800 --> 0:15:13.400 from I was homeless from like age eight until ten. 0:15:14.040 --> 0:15:16.560 So we slept everywhere, you know what I mean. We 0:15:16.600 --> 0:15:18.880 slept wherever we could sleep, and we ate when we 0:15:18.880 --> 0:15:22.240 could eat. And the church did an offering one day 0:15:22.360 --> 0:15:24.360 and they gave my mom like four thousand dollars. I'll 0:15:24.360 --> 0:15:27.040 never forget that. And then we moved to Atlanta and 0:15:27.200 --> 0:15:29.760 started over there, but we still, you know, were struggling 0:15:29.840 --> 0:15:33.440 there and we ended up living with my grandmother and 0:15:33.480 --> 0:15:36.240 it was like eight of us in a two bedroom apartment. 0:15:36.360 --> 0:15:40.120 So I slept on the floor till I I probably 0:15:40.120 --> 0:15:42.920 slept on the floor till I was about sixteen. I 0:15:42.960 --> 0:15:45.120 got I was when I started I started to flo 0:15:45.280 --> 0:15:48.360 You were sixteen, Yeah, man, I started making my first 0:15:49.000 --> 0:15:51.280 like after anywhere. I started getting a little ass cap 0:15:51.360 --> 0:15:55.240 checks and I need so what what ages? I was 0:15:55.440 --> 0:15:57.600 seventh sixteen, and then it came out when I was seven. 0:15:57.840 --> 0:15:59.560 I did it with dorm I was sixteen. Came out 0:15:59.560 --> 0:16:03.800 when I was seventeen going seventeen, and then it went 0:16:03.880 --> 0:16:06.080 in from like ninety seven to ninety eight. We can 0:16:06.120 --> 0:16:07.640 do it anywhere. It was out. And then I also 0:16:07.680 --> 0:16:09.840 worked with Pink when she was Burgundy. She was making 0:16:10.000 --> 0:16:11.760 R and B music, So I don't call her pink. 0:16:11.800 --> 0:16:16.200 She was black, she was Burgundy. Can't she was pink? Yeah, 0:16:16.240 --> 0:16:18.160 her next album she went pink. You know what I'm saying. 0:16:18.280 --> 0:16:21.280 I worked with I got the Burgundy Pink, but those 0:16:21.320 --> 0:16:24.280 were you know. I told my mom and my grandmother. 0:16:24.320 --> 0:16:26.720 Then I was like, I'm gonna move us out of here. 0:16:26.760 --> 0:16:28.840 And I never forget, like, get my first little ask 0:16:28.880 --> 0:16:31.040 cap check. I didn't have a bank account. I went 0:16:31.080 --> 0:16:33.240 to the check cashing place and they take four percent out. 0:16:33.760 --> 0:16:35.920 I never forget that. I was like, went in there 0:16:35.960 --> 0:16:37.720 with a check and came out with money, and I 0:16:37.800 --> 0:16:41.520 was like, wow, you care about before? Yep, it was 0:16:41.800 --> 0:16:44.400 about four thousand, seven hundred dollars. I bought a cell phone. 0:16:44.400 --> 0:16:47.520 I never forget that that first thing. My first purchase 0:16:47.560 --> 0:16:49.280 was a cell phone. And then I bought a bed. 0:16:49.680 --> 0:16:52.960 I was like, my first time. And then I started 0:16:53.000 --> 0:16:56.120 renting a room from my cousin because I didn't want 0:16:56.160 --> 0:16:58.400 to sleep on the floor in the two bedroom apartment 0:16:58.400 --> 0:16:59.960 with my It was like it was eight of us, 0:17:00.080 --> 0:17:02.760 so ended up renting the room from Bear, who discovered 0:17:02.800 --> 0:17:04.680 once twelve. And then I got my first I bought 0:17:04.720 --> 0:17:07.680 my first bag and I was like sixteen seventeen seventeen. 0:17:08.520 --> 0:17:13.119 So I had anybody in a position to move you forward, 0:17:13.359 --> 0:17:17.520 had anybody identified it as far as like I'm invest in. 0:17:17.520 --> 0:17:20.119 Him or not? Well you ever had changed up? It 0:17:20.160 --> 0:17:23.880 was like it was always like drug dealers, man, Thank 0:17:23.960 --> 0:17:24.720 god for the drug. 0:17:25.119 --> 0:17:27.320 Shout out to the dope boys. Listen, we all come 0:17:27.359 --> 0:17:27.639 from it. 0:17:27.840 --> 0:17:31.800 Yeah, yeah, because they was our first investors. Absolutely, you 0:17:31.840 --> 0:17:33.800 know what I'm saying. They was the first hedge fund 0:17:35.240 --> 0:17:38.320 dope the dope community with the first venture capitalist. Yes, 0:17:39.280 --> 0:17:42.320 but yeah they got for that. And then yeah, what 0:17:42.400 --> 0:17:44.520 happened was, I don't know, you guys know KP come on, 0:17:44.600 --> 0:17:47.800 pray this. He gave me my first record deal in 0:17:47.840 --> 0:17:50.399 a group I was in called Friction, and we signed 0:17:50.400 --> 0:17:54.000 on the Face Records in nineteen ninety seven, nineteen ninety six. Actually, 0:17:54.520 --> 0:17:57.960 so even with that, our then manager ran off with 0:17:58.040 --> 0:18:00.760 our advents. He took our advents. It's the second time. 0:18:00.640 --> 0:18:03.280 You're you're still not eighteen years old, still was still 0:18:03.280 --> 0:18:03.800 a high school. 0:18:03.840 --> 0:18:04.680 I'm still a high school. 0:18:04.720 --> 0:18:08.639 Yeah, you don't fully understand what comes along with the business. 0:18:08.800 --> 0:18:09.920 Nah, I didn't even know what. I didn't eve know 0:18:09.960 --> 0:18:10.679 what publishing was. 0:18:10.760 --> 0:18:10.879 You know. 0:18:11.000 --> 0:18:12.480 My cousin was like, you could make money. I'm like 0:18:12.560 --> 0:18:15.080 how he was like, you write songs and you get publishing, 0:18:15.160 --> 0:18:16.120 And I'm like, are. 0:18:16.000 --> 0:18:17.159 They showing you these contracts? 0:18:17.200 --> 0:18:19.720 Are they showing your mother these contracts? No? No, no no. 0:18:19.760 --> 0:18:23.440 So it was no contract, well my record contract. No. 0:18:23.680 --> 0:18:26.920 I was just and it's so crazy how how it works. Man. 0:18:27.000 --> 0:18:28.840 Like when I was signed as a as a twelve 0:18:28.920 --> 0:18:31.639 year old, the person who signed us, he signed us 0:18:31.720 --> 0:18:34.320 under a management deal and a production deal. You remember 0:18:34.320 --> 0:18:36.520 those days, right, But they tried to but I didn't know. 0:18:37.040 --> 0:18:39.560 In my production contract he was taking fifty percent of 0:18:39.560 --> 0:18:42.520 my publishing, and in my management contract he was taking 0:18:42.560 --> 0:18:45.720 the other fifty percent of my publishing. So I didn't 0:18:45.720 --> 0:18:47.640 have I didn't have one hundred percent. I didn't even own. 0:18:47.680 --> 0:18:49.360 I didn't even know what publishing was, and I didn't 0:18:49.400 --> 0:18:52.080 own it. But the way God works is like my 0:18:52.200 --> 0:18:55.520 contract ran out with both of those when I turned sixteen. 0:18:56.160 --> 0:19:00.119 So the second I actually had my first placement on 0:19:00.320 --> 0:19:02.080 my publishing and I didn't even know what it was. 0:19:02.160 --> 0:19:03.920 But he was trying to get us to re sign, 0:19:04.119 --> 0:19:06.440 and then this other this dope. It was like, nah, man, 0:19:06.640 --> 0:19:09.320 he got your publishing and don't resign. Then we ended 0:19:09.400 --> 0:19:12.919 up signing with my family with BMF Man. BMF was 0:19:12.960 --> 0:19:15.000 like the first you know they gave me, you know, say, 0:19:15.000 --> 0:19:18.040