Speaker 1: Welcome to All the Smoke, a production of The Black
Speaker 1: Effect and our Heart Radio and partnership with Showtime m
Speaker 1: Welcome back All the Smoke two coming to you live
Speaker 1: from l A. We got one of the young ones
Speaker 1: that's leading this new wave of music, very talented. Another
Speaker 1: one album just dropped. Welcome to the show. Appreciate you.
Speaker 1: They're feeling good to see as well. Appreciate you for
Speaker 1: having me. So we say when you get introduced now
Speaker 1: that sometimes they put that Grammy nominated behind that. How
Speaker 1: does that make you feel some fly? Ship man? It
Speaker 1: feels good honestly, Like you know, but I can't wait
Speaker 1: till it's say, Grammy winning. You know, you can't tell
Speaker 1: your trophy rooms with nominations right, Like I'm grateful for
Speaker 1: it for sure, but it's time to get that gold trophies. Man,
Speaker 1: y'all know you're someone who really understands your platform and
Speaker 1: tell me how beneficial social media is. But you trying
Speaker 1: to get your messing not only out there in music,
Speaker 1: but in life and when you're into your goals, ship man,
Speaker 1: this social media shouldn't changed my life, bro. You know,
Speaker 1: like it's a motherfucker because like it's like a terrible
Speaker 1: thing if you let it over consume you, and if
Speaker 1: you let it take up too much of your time,
Speaker 1: and especially like humans are like most humans are cheap unfortunately,
Speaker 1: and we're in this era of just massive group think
Speaker 1: and humans have always been cheap like throughout history, but
Speaker 1: now that we have social media, it gets like amplified.
Speaker 1: You get what I'm saying. So like people who are
Speaker 1: like free thinkers and are more like open minded to
Speaker 1: certain ship are outcasted in a way like it's some
Speaker 1: weird that ship. It's like, you can have an opinion
Speaker 1: on something right and this is like your opinion, but
Speaker 1: you'll see But just the average human being, they'll see
Speaker 1: they'll go on Twitter and see a bunch of people
Speaker 1: who have an opinion different from there. So they're like, oh,
Speaker 1: I must be wrong since everybody else does this way,
Speaker 1: and they fall into that. So it's a weird thing.
Speaker 1: But if you just recognize it for what it is
Speaker 1: and and not think too deep into it, like and
Speaker 1: utilize that ship, that can change your life in the
Speaker 1: dopest way. It's like it's like you're breaking the law
Speaker 1: if you go against the grain these days, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, weird bro, just to be different, Like
Speaker 1: everybody want to wear this. If I want to wear
Speaker 1: that as you weird, You're okay, we we gotta we
Speaker 1: gotta block you. We can't. That's just stupid and it
Speaker 1: and it my bad in the ruck, and it puts
Speaker 1: people with influence and everybody motherfucking walking on eggshells now
Speaker 1: because like they're so afraid of like cancel culture. And
Speaker 1: I think as a creative that's like one of the
Speaker 1: worst things you can do is just not speak your
Speaker 1: mind freely because you're afraid of how it might affect
Speaker 1: your relationships. It might burn bridges or even worse, you know,
Speaker 1: your pockets and and things of that nature. So it
Speaker 1: got anybody in creatives and anybody went somewhat influenced just
Speaker 1: trying to be politically correct all the time. Like that
Speaker 1: ship is like the worst ship for real. Just dropped
Speaker 1: your second studio album. Congratulations, your Bird's eye View. What
Speaker 1: do you want people to take away from this latest
Speaker 1: project to yours? This is growth of a lot of
Speaker 1: growth on this album from the first though. Thank you.
Speaker 1: I appreciate NA, thank you so much. Real it means
Speaker 1: the world to me. Man I put a lot of like,
Speaker 1: I put a lot of myself into this album a
Speaker 1: lot of time. That's why it was like two years
Speaker 1: and some change in between them. You know the concept,
Speaker 1: it's a multiperspective album. I'm speaking on things that I've seen,
Speaker 1: things that I've gone through, things that I've witnessed, things
Speaker 1: I've seen others going through, and I'm bringing you inside
Speaker 1: this world, you know, from a bird's eye view, and
Speaker 1: paying this picture from a bird's eye view, and then
Speaker 1: you know the d double meaning behind it is just
Speaker 1: to see things from out side yourself, see things from
Speaker 1: broader a water lens, because like it's like human beings,
Speaker 1: we tend to think like the whole world revolves around us,
Speaker 1: you know, myself included sometimes and sometimes we gotta just
Speaker 1: take a step back to see things from somebody else's
Speaker 1: perspective or just from outside of ourselves. You know, talk
Speaker 1: about your upbringing born in North Carolina, but you moved
Speaker 1: to Maryland. What was life like and win Win music
Speaker 1: coming part of your life. It's dope because like down
Speaker 1: south and like Maryland, which is technically like the South
Speaker 1: because it's you know, below the Mason Dixon line, but
Speaker 1: it's it's really like East Coast more up north versus
Speaker 1: like a North Carolina South Carolina. So I think that's
Speaker 1: what kind of makes like my perspective unique in a
Speaker 1: way because I still got that like Southern drawl, like
Speaker 1: that young Southern nigga energy. And then like in Maryland,
Speaker 1: like d n V, we like we tend to think
Speaker 1: like we like the coolest ningers on earth. Like if
Speaker 1: you know DNV, like they are, don't like you can't
Speaker 1: be champed, you know, I'm saying, like you can't be
Speaker 1: lame because like like that you're gonna get like cut up.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, Like we're gonna go on you.
Speaker 1: And so um Obama, you know that's like yeah, you're
Speaker 1: a batman or whatever, and so um. I think the
Speaker 1: like the fashion culture, the quote unquote like this cool
Speaker 1: nigger culture, um, and just being yourself really comes from Maryland.
Speaker 1: But still like me visiting you know, the Carolina's over
Speaker 1: the summers gave me like that real Southern drawl and
Speaker 1: bringing those two worlds together, I think musically and just
Speaker 1: perspective life wise, just gives me like just a multiple
Speaker 1: way looking at things, if that makes sense. If a
Speaker 1: teen years old, you decided to give give your rap
Speaker 1: carel try. But it was just a hobby at first.
Speaker 1: What made you fall in love with to the point
Speaker 1: where that was there, that's all he was gonna do.
Speaker 1: So I've been rapping since I was like a young,
Speaker 1: like super young nigga, and I would always just freestyle
Speaker 1: for niggas, like it'll be somebody in my neighborhood, you know,
Speaker 1: saying get a little bit of money whatever, like like yo,
Speaker 1: wrap for him, little bro, like give me like five dollars,
Speaker 1: ten dollars here from there. And I knew I had
Speaker 1: talent because I was like, man, this do this paying
Speaker 1: me a little five ten dollars just to spit for
Speaker 1: him every day, and that ship used to add up
Speaker 1: for realm And I always just used to just freestyle
Speaker 1: and rap. But I dropped my first mixtape when I
Speaker 1: was fifteen years old, and my two loves basketball and wrapped.
Speaker 1: It's like every other young navy in the world, right,
Speaker 1: no different. I noticed I was a lot more just
Speaker 1: naturally gifted at making music and wrapping that I was
Speaker 1: at hooping, Like hoops, I was like subpar at best,
Speaker 1: you know, I was good enough to make the basketball
Speaker 1: team good enough to um score a couple of points
Speaker 1: here and there for the basketball team. But it wasn't
Speaker 1: nothing special. You know, we come a dome ya, real
Speaker 1: life hooper is in a real way at the highest level,
Speaker 1: and so um that within itself. When I dropped, when
Speaker 1: you drop your first mixtape, ain't going back. In my eyes,
Speaker 1: I was like, Okay, this is what I want to
Speaker 1: apply all my energy and focus into because as a
Speaker 1: kid I had I used to want to do both.
Speaker 1: I used to want to, you know, drop thirty points
Speaker 1: a game and the NBA. I used to like imagine
Speaker 1: like my own stats as a kid, and I was
Speaker 1: gonna be a platinum artist at the same time while
Speaker 1: still in the NBA doubling up. But I just had
Speaker 1: the hyper focus, all my energy and the music because
Speaker 1: I felt like that was just my calling. That's what
Speaker 1: I enjoyed doing the most. You studied artists on YouTube, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you listen to the music your dad played. That was
Speaker 1: a big influence on the way your your style is
Speaker 1: and the way you want to wrap for sure, because
Speaker 1: just I remember my I had teenage parents. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. My parents a teenagers when they had me.
Speaker 1: So I was I just remember listening to whatever was hot,
Speaker 1: whatever was the cool young nigger ship that was on
Speaker 1: and UM which was like this is like early two thousands,
Speaker 1: which was like Hove, UM the Max at the time,
Speaker 1: you know, um Nas The's People. That was just just
Speaker 1: super popping at the time. And then I remember the
Speaker 1: first album album that came out really changed my perspective.
Speaker 1: I think I might have been like five or six
Speaker 1: years old when it came out, The College Dropout. That
Speaker 1: was like the first like complete like body of work.
Speaker 1: I remember like, oh wow, Like I just like how
Speaker 1: this ship sounded, should just make me feel good. So
Speaker 1: when um pause UM. But when I was like ten,
Speaker 1: you know that whatever, But yeah, that was crazy, but
Speaker 1: you're like ten eleven years old, That's when I started
Speaker 1: just like looking up like lyrics and taking it to
Speaker 1: a whole another level with my free time and just
Speaker 1: going on YouTube and just going on a YouTube binge
Speaker 1: of like Big L Nas, going through like the Big
Speaker 1: l jay Z freestyle, UM, just all of these things,
Speaker 1: just falling in love with the whole catalog. And I
Speaker 1: think that's what made me like just take my love
Speaker 1: for the craft, my love for music, and just my
Speaker 1: own paying game to a whole another level. With your
Speaker 1: appreciation for or what the younger generation will called old
Speaker 1: screw music and obviously being current and creating the wave
Speaker 1: in this, you kind of feel like you can be
Speaker 1: someone who can bridge the gap between generations because there's
Speaker 1: always that generation once you get to a point where
Speaker 1: all that needs to get some bullshit or they're old
Speaker 1: and they don't understand. So you kind of feel like
Speaker 1: you could bring be your bridge to that. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: I've heard that before. I never really thought about it
Speaker 1: like that. To be honest, I just try to like
Speaker 1: I don't like go in the studio like Okay, I
Speaker 1: gotta make something for ages eighteen through thirty eight, you know,
Speaker 1: I just I just try to be myself and just
Speaker 1: create like freely without having any like expectations or any
Speaker 1: like arterior motives. I think if you do that when
Speaker 1: you go in the studio, like you ask anybody when
Speaker 1: they make like a hit or like AUM, they don't
Speaker 1: go in there like Okay, I'm gonna make a hit today.
Speaker 1: All just happen. It just happened. So as an artist,
Speaker 1: I just try to create freely and whatever comes about that.
Speaker 1: But um, a lot of people who have definitely like
Speaker 1: this put that that that label on me is like
Speaker 1: the person that can bridge between like you've coached and
Speaker 1: the older generation. But um, I just try to be myself.
Speaker 1: You know, I don't really like put too much thought
Speaker 1: into that. You know, I want to I want to
Speaker 1: ask me this question because I know there's so many
Speaker 1: people that want to wrap, and there's so many that's
Speaker 1: in school. You prioritize education. It was serious to you,
Speaker 1: but at the same time music was blowing. It's starting
Speaker 1: to pop for you. For sure. What I'm saying for
Speaker 1: the people that for the youngsters that's in school, that
Speaker 1: that that's trying to wrap, how do you balance both? Man?
Speaker 1: I honestly, for me personally, I'm just, um, I'm an
Speaker 1: unequivocal dreamer. I was just like, you know what, what's
Speaker 1: the definition of unequivocal? I don't I don't want to
Speaker 1: give you the wrong definition, but basically I might have
Speaker 1: honestly used it in the wrong term, but unequivocal because
Speaker 1: the reason why I say that because when people come
Speaker 1: in the show, y'all know, and they say words I
Speaker 1: don't understand. I asked for the definition because I don't
Speaker 1: know what it mean unequivalent? Let me let me google it.
Speaker 1: Why don't we do that? Because it sounded good when
Speaker 1: you said it. I wanted to unequivectly dreamed too. So
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, Oh, in a way that
Speaker 1: leaves no doubt. So I used it perfectly, Okay, I
Speaker 1: just had to make sure I wasn't, you know, so
Speaker 1: when so I'm an unequivocal dreamer as in like no doubt.
Speaker 1: You know why I use that perfectly? Well, I'm impressed,
Speaker 1: but I just I just had to make sure. But
Speaker 1: I say that to say, um, just like it's funny
Speaker 1: because I'm reaching that point now right to where I'm here,
Speaker 1: but it's still a lot more than I want to
Speaker 1: do and that I'm gonna do. And I was just
Speaker 1: talking about this in my homie like back in the
Speaker 1: day when I don't have nothing, when I was broke,
Speaker 1: and I had like three hundred dollars to my name,
Speaker 1: And let's say if it's like a south By Southwest
Speaker 1: in like Texas, for sure, you know I would spend
Speaker 1: like two hundred and fifty dollars on that round trip
Speaker 1: flight if I got three hundred dollars to my name.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna spend two hundred to get me to Texas
Speaker 1: and the hunted on food and crash on somebody couch,
Speaker 1: just by me just having the utmost faith and belief
Speaker 1: in myself because I'm like, man, I got shipped to lose,
Speaker 1: let's go. You don't do that without confidence. You gotta
Speaker 1: have for sure. But now that I've been able to
Speaker 1: like accumulate like a certain amount of money and like success,
Speaker 1: it's like a balance because I can't like just go
Speaker 1: in and just blow all my money on one thing
Speaker 1: because I'm playing with a few more chips than I
Speaker 1: was before, but still not operating from a place of fears.
Speaker 1: For like, man, I can't make a certain radical move
Speaker 1: because I don't want to lose what I have. But
Speaker 1: sometimes it takes that like a rational thinking and just
Speaker 1: going with your gut and your feeling to take you
Speaker 1: to the next level, if that makes sense. And Um,
Speaker 1: I say that to say, that's why I dropped out
Speaker 1: of college because and I'm not like encouraging anybody to
Speaker 1: drop out because that was just my path. You know,
Speaker 1: I was chosen for this. This is just something that
Speaker 1: was just ordained. Um, I believe, and so um I
Speaker 1: was just unhappy when I was in school. I was
Speaker 1: just going to college because like my dad got his
Speaker 1: g D from prison. You know, my mom um had
Speaker 1: to finish HIAU. She had me when she was super young.
Speaker 1: She had to finish high school, you know, doing night
Speaker 1: classes and things of that nature for sure. So this
Speaker 1: is like a bigger than me sort of thing. My
Speaker 1: grandma had to drop out of school in the third grade.
Speaker 1: So I'm like a first generation, like college student. And
Speaker 1: I always had like decent grades in school, so um,
Speaker 1: I was just like why not. But when I was there,
Speaker 1: I just wasn't happy because I'm always thinking about this
Speaker 1: music shop every time I'm doing class. I'm like this
Speaker 1: music ship. So I was um. When I was in college.
Speaker 1: I honestly won't even go into classes like like that.
Speaker 1: I'm just in the studio, like I saved some money,
Speaker 1: got like a little set up had in my dormal.
Speaker 1: I know, my roommate was hating, could not stand in
Speaker 1: my ass for real. And I was just spending all
Speaker 1: my time and energy into music while I was in school.
Speaker 1: So I was like, funk it. But I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: just be stacking up this debt for no reason. I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna just say, fun, this ship moved to l
Speaker 1: A and um, you just gotta know what your path is, honestly,
Speaker 1: Like you can't be like it can't be like I thought,
Speaker 1: like I want to try music, and then you just
Speaker 1: give up everything you're working for the goal with music.
Speaker 1: At this point, I already had dropped like three mixtapes
Speaker 1: like this is just my identity, like I make music.
Speaker 1: This is what I got a vision board at this
Speaker 1: point of like, you know, goals and dreams that I
Speaker 1: wanted to accomplish in music. You just gotta know what
Speaker 1: you want out of life. That's like the advice I
Speaker 1: give to anybody younger and no rush on it. But
Speaker 1: then again figure it out. Because there's so many people
Speaker 1: in this era, like and my generation that's sort of
Speaker 1: just going with the flow. I don't really know what
Speaker 1: they want to do, which is all right, but man,
Speaker 1: don't let father time catch up with you and by
Speaker 1: it before you know it. It's like, man, like what
Speaker 1: the fun was I doing? Makes the mistake? I think
Speaker 1: we have more time? You know what I mean? You
Speaker 1: never know? You mentioned vision board and goals and dreams
Speaker 1: when you start accomplishing those how does that make you feel? Crazy?
Speaker 1: Like I got a picture of my vision board in
Speaker 1: my house now, and just looking at I would put
Speaker 1: like certain people that I wanted to meet on my
Speaker 1: vision board, put like you know double X self Freshman
Speaker 1: and you know, Grammys and all of these things on
Speaker 1: my vision board, and like even doing like music festivals
Speaker 1: and visiting like different places. And I'm like, well, I've
Speaker 1: been to every single place that I listed on this
Speaker 1: vision board and and got paid to go there, you know,
Speaker 1: like that's the word. I wanted to do it, but
Speaker 1: then I got paid to do it. You know, That's
Speaker 1: why this this music ship man, like I take it
Speaker 1: seriously because this thing that took me in all the
Speaker 1: homies I grew up with all across the world, we
Speaker 1: get paid to travel the world and performed music that
Speaker 1: the concept behind that is still crazy to me, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. You know, we got to travel
Speaker 1: the world to play basketball, got crazy and crazy crazy
Speaker 1: the world. So how does it feel to go to
Speaker 1: say to say that now now you traveling the world
Speaker 1: getting paid for your music, to not knowing if you're
Speaker 1: gonna play basketball musical? What to being in ditty house?
Speaker 1: Some play and your music and the whole house. You
Speaker 1: got a house full of well known rappers, rappers you respect,
Speaker 1: they're all going crazy when you're playing your music. I
Speaker 1: saw it over social media. Yeah for that feeling, like
Speaker 1: because that's your peers. Yeah for sure, Like for me
Speaker 1: to get pops from Kobe like that mean the most
Speaker 1: cause is my peers you got for all of the
Speaker 1: top dogs in the game. Yah, you're playing your music
Speaker 1: as a youngster and the whole house going crazy. What's
Speaker 1: that feeling? Like? Man? That was everything that was. That
Speaker 1: was a couple of years back too, So I really
Speaker 1: that was like right before I dropped my first album,
Speaker 1: So that really put a battery in my back and
Speaker 1: confidence in me to to release the music, you know,
Speaker 1: because it's it's one thing for fans to love you,
Speaker 1: but to truly be an elite artist and whatever filled
Speaker 1: you in, you got to have the respect from your peers.
Speaker 1: That's why when I just dropped from Birds out of You,
Speaker 1: I've been getting all different artists you know, support and
Speaker 1: texting me like yo, bro, like this is like a
Speaker 1: whole level up. So the first album, like I can
Speaker 1: hear the difference, like your pain games getting better. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're for production is getting better. And this is from
Speaker 1: like from extremely high level artists. And I don't want
Speaker 1: to name drop, you know what I'm saying, but like people,
Speaker 1: that's one of the ones, you know, so in a
Speaker 1: several of them. So that's what that means, almost just
Speaker 1: as much as me as the fans loving it, if
Speaker 1: not even more, you know, because that's the difference between
Speaker 1: a artists that's in the game and like an elite
Speaker 1: level how you appears view you. You know, you said
Speaker 1: you grew up um with younger parents listening to people
Speaker 1: we came up on. So I'm gon list of name
Speaker 1: of h musicians. Tell me something you like about them
Speaker 1: or an album that sticks out for you. Let's start
Speaker 1: with jay z jay z Um. That was probably what
Speaker 1: I heard the most growing up, you know, just because
Speaker 1: like obviously he's like one of the greatest, is not
Speaker 1: the greatest rappers of all time, like no argument, but
Speaker 1: at the time he was, he was also the biggest,
Speaker 1: you know, so this is what I'm hearing um that
Speaker 1: volume two Blueprint. Matter of fact, even before College dropped out,
Speaker 1: Blueprint was like that first album I heard as a kid,
Speaker 1: and I was just like, wow, this just feels again,
Speaker 1: it just feels right, you know what I'm saying that
Speaker 1: I just I don't know why I like this ship,
Speaker 1: but nigger, I like this ship, and um that's what
Speaker 1: made me want to wrap like that. Probably that album
Speaker 1: in particular, really those two albums made me want to wrap.
Speaker 1: And yeah, Blueprint is probably that one for me that
Speaker 1: just like every time I even hear the album now
Speaker 1: i'm driving, it automatically takes me back to like what
Speaker 1: I was doing, me being a kid in the car
Speaker 1: where I was at that time. You know, I was
Speaker 1: four when that came out. But when I hear I'm
Speaker 1: not supposed to have distinct memories when I was four
Speaker 1: years old. Only music can do that. So when I
Speaker 1: hear that album, I can tell you, like, man, I
Speaker 1: remember I had this outfit on that day and I
Speaker 1: was at the mall. You know, blah blah this and
Speaker 1: that and um so that that's like huge for men
Speaker 1: nas um nas like influence wise is like one of
Speaker 1: my biggest influence um that somebody I like went back
Speaker 1: into and studied. You know. Um I love All Maatic.
Speaker 1: Everybody loves Allmatic. One of the greatest albums of all
Speaker 1: time any genre. Same with Blueprint. But um, I like
Speaker 1: it was written, but I talk a matter fact, I
Speaker 1: was just telling this, I told not this. I was like,
Speaker 1: ill Matic is great, it going out sanding, but I
Speaker 1: think it was written is better than Almatic. I think
Speaker 1: his pain game, his concepts, and I'm probably uh in
Speaker 1: a small minority that that that thinks that. But that
Speaker 1: album when I was making, um the Lost Boy, I
Speaker 1: was listening, I was listening to it was written every day,
Speaker 1: just because the standard of of just the penmanship was
Speaker 1: just so high level to me at that time, Like
Speaker 1: for real pop. Sure, if I died a nite, one
Speaker 1: of my one of the most well written songs. They say,
Speaker 1: pussy and paper and poetry, powering pistols, plotting the murdering
Speaker 1: motherfucker's so they get you one of the one you know,
Speaker 1: like and that's the understatement by the way. Um yeah,
Speaker 1: Pocket is just like it's nothing I can say about
Speaker 1: Park that can't be said that hasn't already been said,
Speaker 1: you know, But I'm just that him just being a
Speaker 1: true like author and documentary of the times, because I
Speaker 1: think that's what it's important as an artist to be,
Speaker 1: just like a time capsule, to showcase what's going on
Speaker 1: in the world. And and you associate albums with years
Speaker 1: of your life, like you probably remember like, Okay, this
Speaker 1: is the year I had my season of my my career,
Speaker 1: house dropping the most points every year. Um, that album
Speaker 1: came out the same year. You get what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So that's how important music is, you know. Um, And
Speaker 1: so I said, obviously I wasn't even alive when when
Speaker 1: Pop died, but um, that his impact. It still felt,
Speaker 1: you know, big Biggie just flow Master, you know, um,
Speaker 1: ready to die, ready to die, just one of those
Speaker 1: like Pop, Biggie nas hole. These are like when I
Speaker 1: was in my infant stages of writing music, like ten
Speaker 1: years old. These are the people that like stylistically, I'm
Speaker 1: like okay, yeah, okay for sure, And yeah, Biggie's one
Speaker 1: of the ones. Man. That's why even when I did
Speaker 1: The Leakers, I had to do that that that kicking
Speaker 1: the door. Appreciate that. Thank you than I found out
Speaker 1: about you because I have twin thirteen year old boys,
Speaker 1: because like I said, I'm pushing up on forty two,
Speaker 1: so I kind of stick in my little bubb on
Speaker 1: them like no that you gotta hear him. And then
Speaker 1: when I think one of my homeboys here seen me
Speaker 1: your your leakers, I was like oh and then there
Speaker 1: like next thing I know, he's coming on the show.
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, ship, that's crazy, that's I found
Speaker 1: out about. And yeah, it's crazy how that work out
Speaker 1: A little Wayne Wheezy just takeover like that oh eight
Speaker 1: car to three era and then no ceilings. And Wayne
Speaker 1: is one of those ones to where he's been doing
Speaker 1: this ship and he was twelve years old, like and
Speaker 1: he's only just kept getting bigger, like that's crazy. And
Speaker 1: still today like he's still just like knocking it off.
Speaker 1: I'm like, you gotta love what now he killed that.
Speaker 1: I appreciate that. Thank you. I mean the world to me.
Speaker 1: But um, yeah, Wayne is just one of those like
Speaker 1: crazy like crazy, Yeah, he's one of the greatest artists
Speaker 1: of all time. Just like a matter of fact. I
Speaker 1: funny enough, man, I met you just a couple of
Speaker 1: days ago. I met him a couple of times before,
Speaker 1: but it was just on some tapping up moving ship.
Speaker 1: But I actually got to meet him and have like
Speaker 1: a a light conversation with him. To date, my album dropped.
Speaker 1: So the night that my album dropped shout out Dave Chappelle.
Speaker 1: We put up on y compound and Dave Chappelle. Actually, um,
Speaker 1: he introduced me TOA and we got to have just
Speaker 1: you know, small conversation. I got to play him some music.
Speaker 1: He played me some unreleased music, and it was just
Speaker 1: like I got to tell him, like, yo, nigga, like
Speaker 1: you probably like I know you hit this ship from everybody, nigga,
Speaker 1: but now I ain't even gonna lead as motherfucker. And
Speaker 1: just because how I used to be like when I'm
Speaker 1: around like people I idolized when I first met him,
Speaker 1: I try to just be not too cool for school,
Speaker 1: but try not to be like super fans out because
Speaker 1: you know, um, you don't want to see you. Still
Speaker 1: we are still peers. These are my idols at the
Speaker 1: end of the day. But I never wanted to be,
Speaker 1: you know, like I saut. I'm from Maryland. So the
Speaker 1: way we look at it, like man, you're on Dick
Speaker 1: too much, you know what I'm saying, Like where I
Speaker 1: come from, it's like now I don't ever be on
Speaker 1: Dick or don't be too cool, so I'm meeting like
Speaker 1: people that I idolized. I never asked for no pick
Speaker 1: you know, I never pulled a phone out, you know,
Speaker 1: dap them up. It's love. We have a dope convo.
Speaker 1: It's always like mutual respect. But I was just like,
Speaker 1: man like, when I start meeting like certain idols, I
Speaker 1: just got to tell them what they mean because like
Speaker 1: you just never and honestly, Kobe, when when Kobe passed,
Speaker 1: you know, because I got to meet Kobe a couple
Speaker 1: of times, and it sucked that I never got to
Speaker 1: tell him, like really what he meant to me. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, Like how big I used to
Speaker 1: play two k and just try to score eighty points
Speaker 1: in five minute quarters with this nigger, Like when I'm boring,
Speaker 1: that's that's literally what I would do, just like just
Speaker 1: play with Kobe, trying to score eighty points in five
Speaker 1: minute quarters with him. And um, I said that to say,
Speaker 1: I got to tell you, like yo, like you are
Speaker 1: my biggest influence. And I say that, I said, whenever
Speaker 1: I'm in an interview or whenever I'm talking, I was like,
Speaker 1: I tell nig it's like, yo, Kanye West is like
Speaker 1: my biggest influence. He was like, yeah, you better say
Speaker 1: that ship. Yeah you better tell them that ship. But
Speaker 1: I say that to say when I meet these just
Speaker 1: got to get people their flowers to re released three
Speaker 1: Miss tapes as a as a teenager Anxiety. I'm so anxious,
Speaker 1: Steen and I'm so anonymous in explain those projects and
Speaker 1: each one you got better? And what was the difference
Speaker 1: between these three When Anxiety came out, I was teen
Speaker 1: years old. Um, it's funny. I got my first studio equipment,
Speaker 1: um on some Jakie ship low key so um. One
Speaker 1: of my cousins um stumbled into some items you get
Speaker 1: what I'm saying that that wasn't his or whatever, and
Speaker 1: he broke me off on something, you know. And I
Speaker 1: was able to uh translate these equitable items into cash,
Speaker 1: and I was able to invest that into a little
Speaker 1: home set up, you know. And that's how I recorded
Speaker 1: those first three mixtapes. And you get the last and
Speaker 1: and so shout my motherfucker cousin, you know who you were.
Speaker 1: I got a break matter fact when I see I
Speaker 1: gotta break you off. So I gotta break you off
Speaker 1: something straight up. And and and that roommate that was
Speaker 1: getting annoyed by the music, holla, holla, I don't know,
Speaker 1: don't started in cluing next people I got breaking like
Speaker 1: I look for nothing. Look where I'm at now? You
Speaker 1: was getting known about the music. Look where you at that? Sure?
Speaker 1: I remember just um making these It was just fun, man,
Speaker 1: But I was a kid, a teenager at this time.
Speaker 1: I'm treating these things because I remember, like Good Kid
Speaker 1: mass City probably came out the year or two years
Speaker 1: after that, and that probably drinking itself got a huge
Speaker 1: influence on me, especially at this time. That's when I'm
Speaker 1: taking music all the way serious, you know, And um,
Speaker 1: I see this, and um, I'm treating my album. I'm
Speaker 1: trying to compete with Good Kid Mass City. At sixteen
Speaker 1: years old, I'm like, nah, bro, we gotta have our interludes,
Speaker 1: gotta be right. I'm spending all this meticulous time into
Speaker 1: uh production and the sequence and up this mixtape like
Speaker 1: it's gonna be the one that changed my life. Like
Speaker 1: it's gonna get like a million people gonna hear it.
Speaker 1: You know, I dropped it and do like two thousand
Speaker 1: downloads or whatever. But I'm treating it as if it's
Speaker 1: like my debut album. And say, and what, I'm so anxious.
Speaker 1: I made that in college that that was a good time,
Speaker 1: um man, I was just having fun, you know, how
Speaker 1: well matter if I'm sure y'all college didn't yeah, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, you know you're straight for shore. I'm sure
Speaker 1: your college experience was a lot different than mine, but
Speaker 1: still at the same time, it's still fun. Oh yeah, no,
Speaker 1: it's still fun for sure. And so that just brings
Speaker 1: me back to college times. And that one, like my
Speaker 1: first mix tape probably did like a thousand downloads on
Speaker 1: this app called spin reller s really you know, spener
Speaker 1: for sure, um, and I'm so anxious that like two
Speaker 1: thousand downloads. So I'm like, oh man, I'm coming up.
Speaker 1: I'm getting bigger this and that. And then I remember
Speaker 1: I'm so anonymous. They're like thou hunted downloads. I'm like,
Speaker 1: oh my, like what what am I doing wrong? But
Speaker 1: like how am I declining? You know? And but it
Speaker 1: gave me the confidence with them. I felt low when
Speaker 1: I'm so anom this drop because I'm like, man, like
Speaker 1: I do something wrong and is this music ship for me?
Speaker 1: And you know, like what's going on? But then I'm like, nah, bro,
Speaker 1: like I'm him. And you got to have that confidence
Speaker 1: within yourself to just to even want to do something
Speaker 1: like be an up and coming artist. Bro, being the
Speaker 1: artists ain't cool when you got a thousand followers, being
Speaker 1: the all this ain't cool when you drop a mixtape
Speaker 1: and then do five hundred downloads and two hundred them
Speaker 1: is your friends and family, you know, like people just
Speaker 1: see that. You gotta really have the utmost confidence in
Speaker 1: yourself and and belief and just straight up almost craziness
Speaker 1: and faith, you know, to even do something like getting
Speaker 1: into music, because it's like being a a starving artists
Speaker 1: or you want to be a rapper, but you ain't
Speaker 1: lit yet, you're not professional at it yet. That's probably
Speaker 1: like the most look down upon profession and in society
Speaker 1: for sure, for sure. And yeah, just confidence, man, you
Speaker 1: know it's funny, man, I don't know why the world
Speaker 1: don't like to see like confident black males are confident
Speaker 1: black people. It's just something I noticed. They're like, nah, bro,
Speaker 1: stay humble like m for sure. Like it's something about
Speaker 1: you know, obviously, you gotta have humility, you know where
Speaker 1: you come from, and keep that in mind. And don't
Speaker 1: you know, get too much, you know, dip on your
Speaker 1: chip and don't start feeling yourself. It's very important it's
Speaker 1: a balance. But even when you have like a little
Speaker 1: bit of confidence within yourself, like the world as a
Speaker 1: as a black person, they don't like to see that.
Speaker 1: They won't nabro stay humble, stay low and again you
Speaker 1: do gotta stay humble for sure, to a certain extent.
Speaker 1: But it's something about that that don't feel right to me,
Speaker 1: if that makes sense. You know what I'm saying. Whenever
Speaker 1: anybody in any feel like an athlete, that's like like
Speaker 1: when Floyd was, you know, boast full. I mean, this
Speaker 1: nig is undefeated. Why shouldn't he be that way? A
Speaker 1: certain NBA plans when they're real boats for they're like,
Speaker 1: now you gotta stay humble. And certain artists when they
Speaker 1: boast for they're like, na, I stay humble, like bro
Speaker 1: we was four is to being humble. Not to go
Speaker 1: that far, but it's it's just the truth, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. Another have a many years with segregation,
Speaker 1: we had to be humble. You know, why shouldn't we
Speaker 1: have confidence within ourselves? Na for real? So it takes
Speaker 1: that I say all that to say it takes confidence
Speaker 1: and belief in yourself to even get from what I
Speaker 1: find to to get where you want to go, being
Speaker 1: that you're human and you had went through the stage
Speaker 1: where you was down on yourself, right, did you use
Speaker 1: Was it good to have social media to continue to
Speaker 1: promote yourself? We're during that time, Yeah, for sure. I
Speaker 1: used to text people and be like, yo, nigga, retweet
Speaker 1: my ship. Like I used to do that, like for
Speaker 1: the early ones. Then the third one or the second one.
Speaker 1: I was just like, nah, bro, people gonna support it.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to just organically gain supporters and follows what
Speaker 1: I found out. Like before, I just be like, yo,
Speaker 1: text order. You used to try to cheat code it,
Speaker 1: like text whoever it was in my phone contact, I
Speaker 1: don't give a funk If it was a pre Jon
Speaker 1: the bad is joined in the school. Whoever, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: text you be like, y'all retweet this. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. I text to the popping girls. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. Who I went to school, We're like, yo,
Speaker 1: you're trying to do a video like with my song
Speaker 1: in the background whatever whatever. And you know, because I
Speaker 1: was just a cool nigger, like they were funk with it,
Speaker 1: and so I would just try to utilize my classmates
Speaker 1: you know, because if it's like the like the bad
Speaker 1: the local bad joint, she's gonna have like a couple
Speaker 1: of thousand follows everybody watching her and what she's doing.
Speaker 1: It might be she might even have like some cousins
Speaker 1: that follow her that's like out of state that you know,
Speaker 1: she can tell that see my music and learn about
Speaker 1: it from there. So I just looked at it like
Speaker 1: I ain't even nothing off the table. Man. It's really
Speaker 1: like it's not even weird. It's crazy. How like when
Speaker 1: you're like in alignment with everything, how just things just
Speaker 1: start connecting. Explain to us, how about you ays had
Speaker 1: a nice little run before you kind of went different
Speaker 1: directions and for sure for sure, so um, now mirror
Speaker 1: I saw the joint like the y being thing like
Speaker 1: later they was already like doing that thing. So now
Speaker 1: mirroring Jay. Um. They met each other through Xbox, and UM.
Speaker 1: I was never big on a game like that, to
Speaker 1: be honest. I just played I played two K Madden.
Speaker 1: They could just the regular ship and um, but they
Speaker 1: were like they had like a clan on on Xbox
Speaker 1: for real. That's all. Oh that's fire and that's what
Speaker 1: the world is. That's what the future honestly for sure,
Speaker 1: and there was ahead of their time with that shout
Speaker 1: out to them, and um, it's funny not me was
Speaker 1: actually um my brother Simba, who locked up right now.
Speaker 1: He rocked with Simba's music heavy, and me and Simba
Speaker 1: would do music together. So now Mirror just reached out
Speaker 1: like yo, like I rocked with you, and we were
Speaker 1: just linking up whenever he was like in Maryland, just
Speaker 1: link up with him, you know what I'm saying, make
Speaker 1: sure he was good and all that, and whenever he
Speaker 1: was in the same city, were just automatically link up.
Speaker 1: Then he was like, bro, like you gotta do this.
Speaker 1: Why being thing? And I was just like I kind
Speaker 1: of just I got my own thing going. But then,
Speaker 1: um it just made sense you know at the time, honestly,
Speaker 1: and um but I was just around them, like just
Speaker 1: just as the homie. You know. I never would like
Speaker 1: pitch myself as an artist that will be like, no,
Speaker 1: I'm trying to get on, but you know I make
Speaker 1: music too, like niggas ain't even know I wrapped, you know,
Speaker 1: And um that's always gonna be a part of my legacy,
Speaker 1: you know. I look back at those times. I mean
Speaker 1: I had a lot of fun with them niggas, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. I still talked to them here,
Speaker 1: still talk to j like all the time. I mean,
Speaker 1: it was just at my UM released party. Matter of fact,
Speaker 1: you're the only one ain't being with nobody? Yeah for
Speaker 1: sure everybody. Yeah, yeah, I'm sure. I'll just keep it
Speaker 1: off the net. But now I've got no problem with nobody.
Speaker 1: But yeah, everybody got their own thing. Man, Like that
Speaker 1: ship is. It's funny though at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: it's entertaining. Man, for sure, it's entertaining as fun though,
Speaker 1: honestly it is for sure just dropping your second project.
Speaker 1: When you go back to May two eighteen, you dropped
Speaker 1: your first single, Introduction to the world. How you look
Speaker 1: back on that first single, Man, it was just fun
Speaker 1: because the realm of the unknown, you know, and it
Speaker 1: did like a million views in a day. I was
Speaker 1: just like, damn, it's like you're seeing yourself quote unquote
Speaker 1: like blow up in real time. And those were like
Speaker 1: not the most fun, but just like your first time
Speaker 1: doing everything, Like y'all remember your first time you know,
Speaker 1: being in l A are going to you know, London
Speaker 1: on all these places I'm sure y'all been to a
Speaker 1: thousand times over. Um, I see you always on some
Speaker 1: fly stack. You you man gotta live it up for sure.
Speaker 1: And I say that to say, um, it was just fun, man, honestly,
Speaker 1: like just looking back at that, because I was still
Speaker 1: in college at that time, I got a million views
Speaker 1: in the day, I'm out of here, I was. I
Speaker 1: was already dropped out. I was already not going. But
Speaker 1: that's when I all the way made my mind. I'm like,
Speaker 1: y'all for sure not doing that, Like I got a million,
Speaker 1: that's all I always said. It's like, as soon as
Speaker 1: I get a million views, that's all I need is
Speaker 1: a million views and I'm out. And when I got
Speaker 1: it in the day, I was likerurki and it came
Speaker 1: in the day for sure that the label process Atlantic Records. Yeah,
Speaker 1: shout out to Atlantic on our partners as well. Oh
Speaker 1: that's dupe. How did that come about on that partnership? Um,
Speaker 1: let me see Atlantic, you know, um, go back, go back. So,
Speaker 1: uh you know not Mary and Ja was already signed
Speaker 1: to Atlantic, So it just made the most sense. And honestly,
Speaker 1: Atlantic is probably like the number one label for rap
Speaker 1: for like hip hop and honestly it starts to prove that,
Speaker 1: you know. But um, Julie Greenwall, Mike cous of Dallas
Speaker 1: shout out all of them. YEA, yeah, for sure. Day
Speaker 1: they was just when because I met with every you know,
Speaker 1: every label wanted to sign me. But um, they were
Speaker 1: just one of the most enthusiastic, the most um like
Speaker 1: personal just like yo, like we we like whatever it takes,
Speaker 1: like we gotta do it, you know. And um, I
Speaker 1: just look at enthusiasm at the time and they were
Speaker 1: like probably like one of the most enthusiastic, and it
Speaker 1: just made the most sense, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So shout out to them for sure. The debut album,
Speaker 1: how long was the process? You the head all right?
Speaker 1: When it's an album, Like when this album stuff like
Speaker 1: I like the right because I go off the top
Speaker 1: with like some records sometimes like for a hook, I'll
Speaker 1: kind of like have mercy, I just like freestyle that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it just depends on what the vibe is, honestly. But
Speaker 1: when I write my my thoughts are a little more organized,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm a little more like on topic versus
Speaker 1: like when I'm off top, I just say whatever it
Speaker 1: is that come to my mind, which is a dolt thing,
Speaker 1: you know, But it just depends on the type of
Speaker 1: vibe this song is. But nine times out of tend,
Speaker 1: I just like to write down my thoughts and my
Speaker 1: ideas because it's just more like organized you know. You
Speaker 1: and Wayne I was in the studio together, y'all made that,
Speaker 1: and I sent that over to him. You ain't ever
Speaker 1: seeing him, Yeah, Yeah, it's funny. We ended up connecting
Speaker 1: because he had his UM his Young Money podcast actually,
Speaker 1: and he was like, yo, like whatever you need young
Speaker 1: and like, send that John to me. You get it
Speaker 1: back the same day. And I waited like ten Yeah,
Speaker 1: I waited for sure. That's wheezy. I waited like ten
Speaker 1: months before I send him the song because it's just
Speaker 1: dawned on me. I'm like, hey, bro, this nicka Wayne
Speaker 1: told me to send him, so I still ain't send him.
Speaker 1: I was bullshit. So I just went through a bunk.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to find him the perfect song, but I'm like,
Speaker 1: I might already got it. So I went through UM
Speaker 1: Records and UM it was sinister the drint I had
Speaker 1: with Hip. We just had that joint in tucks. I'm like,
Speaker 1: I think Wayne I was in the studio with my
Speaker 1: boy in like, you think Wayne to sound good on this,
Speaker 1: my boy, and he was like, yeah, duck, I think
Speaker 1: this need to sell the dupe on it. I just
Speaker 1: sent it to him and he sent it back in
Speaker 1: twelve hours shout out before the Dave and ended thank you,
Speaker 1: no thank you. Now It's funny, man, when I'm editing,
Speaker 1: when I'm looking at the video edit and I see
Speaker 1: Wayne rapping, I'm like, that's Wayne. That's one of those moments,
Speaker 1: like because you know how it is when you in it,
Speaker 1: you it's like you gotta have a tunnel vision of
Speaker 1: like all right, we knocked this out, Let's keep it moving,
Speaker 1: let's keep it pushing, keep it going, try to get
Speaker 1: to a higher level, no pun intended, keep working and
Speaker 1: things of that nature. But it's certain moments what I've
Speaker 1: been learning more, especially like the last couple of months,
Speaker 1: you just gotta who side he's taking a moment and
Speaker 1: just have a moment of just like gratefulness. Uh, not
Speaker 1: that I've ever been like ungrateful, but just taking that
Speaker 1: gratitude to a whole another level. And that was one
Speaker 1: of the moments I'm like, wow, bro, I got a
Speaker 1: song keeping In the video, he's singing your part worth words. Yeah,
Speaker 1: when you go back and look at that like crazy,
Speaker 1: I don't know, if you watched the video, you'll notice,
Speaker 1: like I'm watching, I get this ballot like I couldn't
Speaker 1: hide it on camera. You know that's Wayne wrapping my
Speaker 1: my lyrics that I wrote down, you know. And you
Speaker 1: know he did the video a lot of times. You know,
Speaker 1: you know Wayne at doing a video. No so he
Speaker 1: won't show up on you. I heard a bunch of
Speaker 1: he's like, oh ye, I waited to show up like
Speaker 1: him be showing up on niggas, you know. So it
Speaker 1: was just a lot of respect and love for him
Speaker 1: to even just bless me, you know, being a part
Speaker 1: of it. You know, that's this man founded Drake bro
Speaker 1: Nicki Minaj, Like what in the world for real? Um,
Speaker 1: from your vision board to actually making it happen Freshman
Speaker 1: XXL two thousand nineteen. Yeah, amongst Roddy Rich and making
Speaker 1: the stallion the name a few what was that experience?
Speaker 1: Like that was dope. Every artist coming up you want
Speaker 1: to be on the cover a double X self, every artist.
Speaker 1: I definitely had it on my bill on my UM
Speaker 1: Double x Self freshman list. I even said twenty nineteen,
Speaker 1: I was gonna do it. I'm a nineteen double x
Speaker 1: self freshman all day and um and I got my
Speaker 1: classes mean by the way we got I got a
Speaker 1: mean class, Megan no Stalion like, it's some real stars
Speaker 1: on it all the way. So, um, that was definitely
Speaker 1: a bucket list thing I always wanted to do. You
Speaker 1: hit the role last year and got a chance to
Speaker 1: visit a bunch of h B c U's uh something
Speaker 1: me and Jack want to do. What was that like
Speaker 1: and what was the thought process behind that? Yeah? So
Speaker 1: my main thing was I wanted to just um, I
Speaker 1: wanted to just play my music for the people to
Speaker 1: figure it, like, to just get like real opinions on it.
Speaker 1: Because everybody who I played by music for, they're my peers.
Speaker 1: They're like superstar artists, you know what I'm saying, So
Speaker 1: they have elevated ear if that makes sense. I like
Speaker 1: playing my music for virgin ears, people who aren't in entertainment,
Speaker 1: who aint in the music because they just like either
Speaker 1: I like this song or I don't like it. I'm
Speaker 1: playing it for like other artists they like I like
Speaker 1: this song. I feel as though you can add more.
Speaker 1: You know, they're more technical with it versus like you're
Speaker 1: just playing it for fans and people that just they're
Speaker 1: just to hear it. They're just like I like this
Speaker 1: song or I don't like this song. You know, it's
Speaker 1: more single like that. And I just wanted to play
Speaker 1: for all people and give these, uh the students, like
Speaker 1: an experience they ain't gonna forget, Like, yeah, I remember
Speaker 1: when Corda pulled up to our college talking child would
Speaker 1: chop it up with them for a little bit. Get
Speaker 1: whatever game, whatever knowledge I got, because I'm just the
Speaker 1: same age as all these you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: So i don't got all the answers, and I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna ever pretend like I got all the answers. But
Speaker 1: whatever knowledge I got, if I can just be a light,
Speaker 1: be a little bit of motivation, then I walk away happy.
Speaker 1: And even more than that, I got to, you know,
Speaker 1: just sit down and play them to music from from
Speaker 1: top to bottle, from starting to finish, and just to
Speaker 1: get like real life reactions and how they felt about
Speaker 1: the music. And I put a battery in my back
Speaker 1: to I know like okay, okay, this is gonna be
Speaker 1: one of the ones. Okay, this is one of them. Okay,
Speaker 1: like it is ready. You know, social justice I was
Speaker 1: telling we was talking about this recently. Um. I remember
Speaker 1: my first time actually seeing you and meeting you was
Speaker 1: when I was going through the stuff with George for
Speaker 1: all my brother Minnesota and Minnesota. And for me, it
Speaker 1: meant a lot to see to see you and heard
Speaker 1: in the crowd just like everybody else, no security there
Speaker 1: for the cause, and you know it was personal for
Speaker 1: me because it was somebody was my real friend, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. But to see you there and
Speaker 1: see y'all there, I think it meant the world, uh
Speaker 1: for me to have your support. Man. But how important
Speaker 1: for you is it to you? For people to stand
Speaker 1: up and to speak their mind on social justice issues?
Speaker 1: Are issues that you know that pertained the black lives matters.
Speaker 1: It goes back to what we were saying earlier, like
Speaker 1: you just got to speak on what you believe in,
Speaker 1: you know. And I used to always go to like
Speaker 1: different protests and when I was like in high school
Speaker 1: and in college, I remember going up Michael Brown protests
Speaker 1: in d C. I remember, you know, philandocul Still and
Speaker 1: like a thousand other names unfortunately, you know. So the
Speaker 1: only difference now is that I just have a platform,
Speaker 1: so I'm just always going to speak upon what it's real,
Speaker 1: you know, and what I feel, what I connect to
Speaker 1: and just seeing black people get killed by the police.
Speaker 1: Still this is like a hundred year, four hundred year concept.
Speaker 1: You know. The fact that we're still talking about it
Speaker 1: is it's ridiculous, for lack of a better word, and um,
Speaker 1: it's it's fucking crazy, dog and um, you know, obviously condolences,
Speaker 1: you know, I know that hit home for all of us,
Speaker 1: but it's different when you actually know the person. You know.
Speaker 1: And I say that to say, yeah, just just doing
Speaker 1: it because it's the right thing to do, and I
Speaker 1: know it's a lot of entertained is I was doing
Speaker 1: it because it's like the cool thing. It's like what's
Speaker 1: popular opinion now, But you know what, the way I
Speaker 1: look at it is, I don't even give a funk
Speaker 1: if you're doing it for pure and pure reasons, because
Speaker 1: as long as you you know what your platform, whether
Speaker 1: it's pure, it's coming from a pure place, So you're
Speaker 1: doing it from your personal game or not, it's still
Speaker 1: shedding light on something that needs to be shed light
Speaker 1: on so like it, you know, because I used to
Speaker 1: get mad about it, Like, man, these niggas is like,
Speaker 1: you know, I was quote I hate this term. I
Speaker 1: was quote unquote wote won cool back then he was
Speaker 1: woke a little bit in twelve you was a conspiracy theory,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, Like it was not you
Speaker 1: wasn't getting no coach being woke in twelve whether year
Speaker 1: was now you can woke yourself into some puss, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, like for real, like and and
Speaker 1: not that people hopefully nobody do it for that right,
Speaker 1: but it's just the truth. But but um, I just
Speaker 1: always like to speak upon things that I just connected with.
Speaker 1: Like I was young reading about w E. B. Du Boys,
Speaker 1: reading about Marcus Garvey, reading about Huey Newton. I was
Speaker 1: a little nigger ten years all reading these things. I
Speaker 1: used to read Harry Potter all the times, and my
Speaker 1: stepdad was like, yo, if you can read Harry Potter,
Speaker 1: you can read you know, books on Thurgo Marshall, w E. B.
Speaker 1: Du Boys, Um, Malcolm Max, Marcus Garvey's I'm ten years
Speaker 1: old getting all his knowledge. So I'm like the little
Speaker 1: nigger in school with the with the dashiki on. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, like, and back then it wasn't
Speaker 1: cool to have an understanding. You know. It's just James
Speaker 1: borrowin quote to be even, and I might be misquoting it,
Speaker 1: but to paraphrase it, it's like to be like significantly
Speaker 1: aware is to be just a little bit socially conscious.
Speaker 1: And to be black in America is to be enraged
Speaker 1: all the time. And if you're smart and you know
Speaker 1: what's going on, you mad but sure like but um
Speaker 1: it's it's am like I said that, I'm just glad
Speaker 1: more light is being shad on it, even if it's
Speaker 1: coming from an impure place from people like it, at
Speaker 1: least as the conversation. You know, we're coming down. We
Speaker 1: actually had more time. But when we're coming down to
Speaker 1: the end, we got quick hitters here. So the first
Speaker 1: thing to come to mind letters. Now I'm gonna put
Speaker 1: you on the spot right here. Okay, use all the
Speaker 1: smoke in a quick freestyle. Okay, let me see. Uh
Speaker 1: make a couple of millions from the bars I wrote,
Speaker 1: And if nigga got a problem, we want all the smoke,
Speaker 1: you know, quick. Top five lyricists of all time, in
Speaker 1: your mind, your opinion. I'm gonna give top five artists
Speaker 1: because I value artist, street and good music over just okay. Um,
Speaker 1: let me see my top five artists of all time.
Speaker 1: Gotta go ya, Kanye West, Um, gotta go hold. This
Speaker 1: is just my personally. You gotta go. I'm on top five.
Speaker 1: Gotta go Kayane West, Um, gotta go hold. Give me
Speaker 1: Kendrick m h nas nasty. Give me Drake Nice Nice
Speaker 1: to five. I like he's stuck on the island. Three
Speaker 1: shows or movies you have I'll repeat, Am I by myself?
Speaker 1: Now you can? You can have a guest if you like. Okay,
Speaker 1: if I'm by myself, I don't watching. I get that
Speaker 1: hub on I'm working with you. I'd give me one channel.
Speaker 1: I'll breaking down for nothing with you. Probably Friday. Um
Speaker 1: uh trade in places. I love that movie, and yeah
Speaker 1: and and uh Dave Chappelle Show, The Chappelle Show all day,
Speaker 1: talking about that's one of the best shows of all time.
Speaker 1: Or Boom Dave Chappelle Show, Bone Docks and Friday, those
Speaker 1: three right there in the hub. If I got a
Speaker 1: fourth one, don't forget about the hub. Five dinner guests
Speaker 1: that are alive. Okay, Michael Jackson, Tupac. Um, let me see,
Speaker 1: Michael Jackson, Tupac. That's a mean too. Um, just depends
Speaker 1: on who paying right, Uh, let me see. Um you
Speaker 1: gotta now you're good right, all right, that's a good too,
Speaker 1: right there? Um hm hmm Ooh Kobe, Yeah, I gotta
Speaker 1: have Kobe up there. Um, gotta put Hove up there.
Speaker 1: You know the five hundred thousands. Then it with jay Z.
Speaker 1: Somebody needs to make like an actual parody to get
Speaker 1: a hole like you know, man, why doon't you take
Speaker 1: the fine on it? Yo? Like question about that? Right? Um? Damn,
Speaker 1: Michael Jackson. We gotta bring some joints at the table.
Speaker 1: I just can't have all niggas at the table. You know,
Speaker 1: they gotta have some feminine energy and mm hmm ah
Speaker 1: I guess Oprah, like, yo, what what what's all niggas here?
Speaker 1: You know? What's that? If you can have one guest
Speaker 1: on All the Smoke, who would it be? But before
Speaker 1: you answer the question, you have to help us get
Speaker 1: your answer on here on the show. Oh that's good okay,
Speaker 1: um huh, I would love to see um m hmm
Speaker 1: all the smoke? Do you know a lot of people. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I know. I'm trying to get somebody that because I'm
Speaker 1: a man of my word, you know what, So I
Speaker 1: want to have I want to get somebody that like
Speaker 1: I can for sure call yes, um, I would say
Speaker 1: Dave Chappelle, but he don't really do. I don't want
Speaker 1: to promise over promise on the the lever, but you
Speaker 1: can try that because you know hen he smoked too.
Speaker 1: So once you put the press on, let me know
Speaker 1: then I'll texting right after you. We put the full
Speaker 1: corp press here for sure? Huh all the smoke? Who
Speaker 1: I want to see on here? I just noticed you
Speaker 1: ain't light now one for you? Oh damn that. I'm
Speaker 1: on my fast for me when when I finished my fast,
Speaker 1: I need the vowel, I need a seventh Take that
Speaker 1: with me. Now take that with me, my outbouting. I
Speaker 1: got you, I got you. Next time I'm up here,
Speaker 1: I'm deaf. I'm coming with one. I'm coming. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: like it. I like it. I'm still locked in, like
Speaker 1: I'm finishing up. I'm low key working on a whole
Speaker 1: another body of work right now, like as we speak.
Speaker 1: So when I got this joint, it's not go time
Speaker 1: like for real, when it's time to kick and let
Speaker 1: us know all day and we appreciate you coming. Man.
Speaker 1: We came not let you leave. All the smoke. Come on, y'all,
Speaker 1: swag it out however you feel when you feel you
Speaker 1: did what I'm saying some hot qualities, you know. So yeah,
Speaker 1: we're gonna work around. We ain't. Y'all got the label on. Yeah, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I gotta y'all some gear to some high level. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I need that need that, we need all the smoke
Speaker 1: that store birds our view, Go get it man, Corday.
Speaker 1: We appreciate you. You come back man, all the smoke.
Speaker 1: Check out the album from a bird's eye view and
Speaker 1: can cancelus Showtime Basketball, YouTube, and the hard platform Black
Speaker 1: Effects see you all next week. This is All a Smoke,
Speaker 1: a production of The Black Effect and Our Heart Radio
Speaker 1: in partnership with Showtime