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Speaker 1: Earners.

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Speaker 1: pushing your vision forward. This episode is brought to you

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Speaker 1: by P and C Bank, a lot of people think

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Speaker 1: podcasts about work are boring, and sure they definitely can be,

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Speaker 1: P and C Bank National Association Member FDIC.

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Speaker 2: All right, guys, welcome back, Eyl.

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Speaker 3: Yes see, are in the studio back off of invest

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Speaker 3: fst with one of the highlights of invest Fest. If

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Speaker 3: you didn't catch his interview with big Facts, then you

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Speaker 3: definitely missed a great one. Hopefully they might put that out.

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Speaker 3: I don't know, but Lookray, I mean, you know, we

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Speaker 3: look at the music industry, somebody that's changed the game

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Speaker 3: as far as the content is important. We'll talk about

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Speaker 3: the categoration of the content. But in a time where

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Speaker 3: you know, people have complained about a lot of negative

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Speaker 3: influences and music and how it influences people, especially young people.

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Speaker 3: I think that it's positive to have a balance. So

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Speaker 3: he's been able to do it and also an entrepreneur

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Speaker 3: running the record label twenty We just talked about twenty

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Speaker 3: seven awards from Grammys.

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Speaker 1: To people say to everything and just been.

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Speaker 2: You know, a very interesting story. So thank you for

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Speaker 2: joining us. Yeah. Absolutely, I'm excited to be here.

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Speaker 1: Boy, appreciate We saw each other in passing. I was like, oh, brother,

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Speaker 1: I appreciate.

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Speaker 2: You so much. Man. I had a blast.

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Speaker 4: It was a phenomenal time, man, phenomenal.

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Speaker 3: So for the people that may have heard about you

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Speaker 3: but not totally familiar with your story, yep. So all

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Speaker 3: right you I want to make sure I say this correctly. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: you are a hip hop artist first and foremost, but

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Speaker 3: just content usually leaned towards Christian raph Yeah.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, there's so many ways to spend that. This is

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Speaker 4: what I always try to tell people. I am authentically Christian,

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Speaker 4: but I am authentically hip hop. I'm kind of like

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Speaker 4: if outcasts in the.

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Speaker 2: Books of Moses came together, you know what I'm saying.

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Speaker 4: So it's kind of like sometimes it's a category for

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Speaker 4: people but that's the essence of hip hop for a

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Speaker 4: lot of folks. It's always been this outlier that people

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Speaker 4: didn't quite understand. And then it was like, okay, hip

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Speaker 4: hop is now mainstream. But then it was like Southern rappers,

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Speaker 4: what is that? And then it's like now you got

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Speaker 4: outcasts and it's mainstream. Now the South is like on

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Speaker 4: the forefront of it. And I look at it the

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Speaker 4: same way. You know what I'm saying. It's like Wu

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Speaker 4: Tangle spitting five percent gyms, and it's like, Okay, that's

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Speaker 4: the perspective they're coming from. This is the perspective I'm

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Speaker 4: coming from. But at the end of the day, it's

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Speaker 4: hip hop, you know what I mean.

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Speaker 3: So, yeah, that's a good point. Yeah, honestly, I never

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Speaker 3: really thought about it like that. Yeah, I never heard

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Speaker 3: like rock Kim be classified as a five percent.

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Speaker 2: Rapper exactly exactly.

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Speaker 1: It's hip hop music. It just has faith based that's right.

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Speaker 3: But that's any anything that you do is going to

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Speaker 3: influence your life that you're living exactly, Like you know

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Speaker 3: what I'm saying, Like, that's just that's just common sense.

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Speaker 3: Like you rap about the things that you do on

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Speaker 3: a daily basis, So all right, So how did how

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Speaker 3: did this come about for you? As far as you're

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Speaker 3: from Houston originally, then you moved to the West coast,

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Speaker 3: so I'm assuming you grew up in the church.

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Speaker 2: I didn't. That's crazy, that's the part.

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Speaker 4: So my mom, my mom grew up in church and

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Speaker 4: she had a really negative experience.

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Speaker 2: So it's like very believe the church. The church.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, so she had this real kind of rigorous like

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Speaker 4: she couldn't wear pants, makeup, and she this is in Houston,

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Speaker 4: Third War Houston, so it was really tough for her.

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Speaker 4: And at the same time, she's also the Black Panthers

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Speaker 4: is feeding her free breakfast and teaching her these lessons.

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Speaker 4: So she getting both of these worlds and she like,

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Speaker 4: wait a minute. So she like, I don't want my

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Speaker 4: kid to have religion forced on them. So she raised

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Speaker 4: me to be a free thinker. So as a kid,

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Speaker 4: I'm reading Eldris Cleaver, I'm reading autobiograpy Malcolm X, I'm

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Speaker 4: reading WB the Boy. She's like, nah, we're not doing

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Speaker 4: this religious stuff. You know, she's a hippie.

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Speaker 2: You know, she got her little weed room and all

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Speaker 2: of that.

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Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying.

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Speaker 4: So that was kind of the world, and she let

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Speaker 4: me explore, and so I just.

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Speaker 2: Hip hop raised me, you know what I'm saying.

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Speaker 4: So that's just you know, And it wasn't until I

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Speaker 4: was a young adult going to a college Bible study

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Speaker 4: that you know, I had a four Rodgers University of

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Speaker 4: North Texas.

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Speaker 2: Girl invioted me to a Bible study.

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Speaker 4: I went never heard any of this stuff before, and

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Speaker 4: that's when the transition started to happen. And I always rapped,

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Speaker 4: but now I had a different lens, so I didn't

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Speaker 4: know gospel music nothing. The first gospel album I ever

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Speaker 4: listened to, as far as I'm concerned, was The Miseducation

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Speaker 4: Lauryn Hill. So that's what I thought you do when

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Speaker 4: you meet God.

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Speaker 2: I thought you rapped like that, So that's what I

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Speaker 2: started trying to do.

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Speaker 1: So this is late nineties, right, because I feel like

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Speaker 1: we're from the same generation thousand, So you didn't obviously

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Speaker 1: you didn't grow up listening to gospel music, but the

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Speaker 1: hip hop era of that time, so miseducational law. That's interesting.

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Speaker 1: I've never thought of it in that sense. Who else

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Speaker 1: at this time is influencing you? Because I know you're

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Speaker 1: big on Jay for a a few reasons outcasts, but

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Speaker 1: who like what was it about the lyrics that said,

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Speaker 1: you know what?

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Speaker 2: I love what they're doing.

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Speaker 1: Because at this time people are talking about the negative

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Speaker 1: impact that hip hot has had. Kangs to music has

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Speaker 1: just been introduced in the early nineties. Now we're getting

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Speaker 1: the bling error going. How do you say, all right,

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Speaker 1: I like this, I'm listening to it. It's influencing me.

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Speaker 1: Let me different.

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Speaker 2: Script two.

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Speaker 4: I was probably my He was like my dad, you

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Speaker 4: know what I'm saying. So he was so transparent and vulnerable.

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Speaker 4: That vulnerability I wanted to communicate in my music, you

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Speaker 4: know what I'm saying, like just the pain. He had

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Speaker 4: a song called popa song where he talked about his

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Speaker 4: relationship with his dad. My dad ran out on the family,

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Speaker 4: you know, he was doing his dirt, had his run

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Speaker 4: ins with the law. He was, you know, running with

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Speaker 4: the crips and Compton and I never saw him after

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Speaker 4: I was four years old.

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Speaker 2: He was gone. Nah.

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Speaker 4: I just saw him again for the first time in

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Speaker 4: twenty twenty and we sat down and had a discussion

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Speaker 4: for the first time. I filmed it and everything so

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Speaker 4: out in Cali. So hip hop was like my dad

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Speaker 4: I was these were the men who were raising me.

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Speaker 4: I'm listening to these stories, and I was like, I

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Speaker 4: want to impact people the way pak Is impacted me.

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Speaker 4: After I met God and had my spiritual transformation, it

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Speaker 4: was like, I'm still like this to this day. But

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Speaker 4: it was like Righteous and Ratchet. So it's like I

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Speaker 4: still listened to the Hood the Ratchet stuff, but I

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Speaker 4: was trying to like, yo, I need to listen to Common. Now,

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Speaker 4: I need to listen to to Live, I need to

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Speaker 4: listen to Most. I need to listen to some village,

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Speaker 4: Like I need some positive, like different type of focus

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Speaker 4: in my music. And so that's kind of you know,

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Speaker 4: how I develop some of my craftsman shit. But even

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Speaker 4: just talking about things that matter to me without feeling

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Speaker 4: like I'm just trying to punch people in the face

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Speaker 4: with it, but just like it's just who I am.

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Speaker 1: It's crazy that you reference those albums, but at the

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Speaker 1: same time I'm listening to those albums. So like Common

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Speaker 1: puts out b but you being obviously Houston having some roots.

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Speaker 1: I wonder how much Scarface played it because at this

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Speaker 1: time the Fix is coming out. In that whole album

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Speaker 1: classic album, he's talking about faith. He's talking about God.

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Speaker 2: Man.

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Speaker 4: My drummer to this day said Scarface is his gospel music.

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Speaker 4: He from Houston as well, So Houston. So the funny

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Speaker 4: thing is Houston the rap scene. When you from something

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Speaker 4: and you around something, it doesn't have the same kind

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Speaker 4: of influence on you as people would think. So it

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Speaker 4: was like the rap scene was everywhere, but hip hop

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Speaker 4: to me was so global.

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Speaker 2: I wanted to know what was happening with.

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Speaker 4: The West coast, the East coast, you know. I wanted

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Speaker 4: to know all about that. Because Houston, I could walk

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Speaker 4: out the house and that's right there. Well, Houston taught

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Speaker 4: me more than anything, and to this day, Caamelionaire are

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Speaker 4: still one of my dudes. What it taught me more

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Speaker 4: than anything is the hustle is the entrepreneurship because everybody

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Speaker 4: was selling their music out the trump. That's why I

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Speaker 4: have an independent label to this day is because that's

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Speaker 4: what I saw. You know, I went to school in Texas.

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Speaker 4: My partners was from Houston, and you just saw how

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Speaker 4: it worked. You saw entrepreneurship. So even with my first CD,

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Speaker 4: I went to the major label, they said it too,

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Speaker 4: it's too Christian. Take it to the gospel label. I

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Speaker 4: went to the gospel label. They said it's too edgy.

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Speaker 4: Take it to the mainstream label. So I said, oh,

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Speaker 4: neither one of them want me. Let me create my

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Speaker 4: own lane because that's what Houston had to do. So

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Speaker 4: it was like, all right, we're coming out the trunk

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Speaker 4: with it, you know what I mean. And it's a

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Speaker 4: crazy story. How it popped off from me was I

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Speaker 4: made the CD. I'm on my campus. I got a

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Speaker 4: group of folks who rocking with me. I take it

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Speaker 4: to the store trying to sell a box of CDs

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Speaker 4: on consignment. They say we'll take one. I give them one,

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Speaker 4: and then I said, they say, yeah, if somebody buys it,

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Speaker 4: then we'll, you know, maybe we'll buy some more. If

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Speaker 4: they give them one, I send four people up there.

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Speaker 4: They go buy that one. They say it will take five.

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Speaker 2: I give them five.

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Speaker 4: Within two hours, all five are gone. They don't realize

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Speaker 4: I got.

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Speaker 2: Four hundred people. You're sending people.

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Speaker 4: I got four hundred people ready to come.

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Speaker 2: Where's the four hundred people from from my cop from

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Speaker 2: my campus. People?

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Speaker 4: Yeah, from my campus who rocking with me and supporting me.

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Speaker 4: Because I was putting in the work on the yard,

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Speaker 4: on the campus, you know what I'm saying, and just school.

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Speaker 4: I'm at North Texas University of North Texas. I tried

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Speaker 4: to walk on the basketball team, but it was too much,

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Speaker 4: it was too much of a grind. You know what, Scott,

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Speaker 4: I got full scholarship and performing arts, performing arts.

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Speaker 3: So yeah, okay, So as far as the independent side

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Speaker 3: of it, right, what what what's the steps that you

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Speaker 3: took to actually have a label? Because it's one thing

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Speaker 3: to press up CDs and sell them, right that that's

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Speaker 3: a hustle. Yeah, but if you have a label, that's

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Speaker 3: a business, right, So how do you just start a label?

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Speaker 4: So obviously you need to see capital to really begin

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Speaker 4: to do the work. My partner Ben, you know, he

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Speaker 4: had another friend of ours, a friend of his, who

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Speaker 4: was like, I got like five grand from my pops

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Speaker 4: that we can invest into this. So with that five thousand,

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Speaker 4: it was like, that's the lawyer drawing up getting a trademark, LLC,

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Speaker 4: all of those particular things, the logo, all of.

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Speaker 2: That, building it out. What we already had was a

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Speaker 2: market base.

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Speaker 4: So we already had a fan base, We had a

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Speaker 4: market We had good music because no one had ever

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Speaker 4: heard anything like this before. Because I was blending the

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Speaker 4: traditional sounds of hip hop with my faith, and it

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Speaker 4: was like, what is this?

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Speaker 2: You know what I mean?

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Speaker 4: So we knew we had something. We had a focused

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Speaker 4: group with the campus, you know what I'm saying. So

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Speaker 4: the test market. The issue now was creating a business.

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Speaker 4: And so after the business was created, you know, we

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Speaker 4: still didn't really understand. No one went to business school,

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Speaker 4: so we still didn't understand how it works. So I'm

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Speaker 4: reading books, you know, the information is free. I'm reading

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Speaker 4: Russell Simmons books. I'm reading everybody's books trying to understand

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Speaker 4: what this looks like. And from there it was like, oh,

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Speaker 4: we got to put the UPC. We first we were

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Speaker 4: selling CDs without the UPC code. It's just like on

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Speaker 4: the back of the CD. Just you know the bar

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Speaker 4: code people, kids, exactly. You just learning that and you

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Speaker 4: just learned pieces of the game. I highly recommend, like

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Speaker 4: if you got to do it yourself, you'll learn the

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Speaker 4: whole game. A lot of times artists would give their

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Speaker 4: artistry to someone else and say you figure it out,

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Speaker 4: but you don't learn the game that way. So for us,

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Speaker 4: it was doing it everything. I mean literally, I'm mailing

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Speaker 4: every CD. I'm mailing CDs to Australia and paying the

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Speaker 4: fees on it and learning like, oh, I got to figured

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Speaker 4: out a different way to do this, and so you know,

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Speaker 4: it was just a step by step process. It was

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Speaker 4: a slow burn, but it was you know, slow grind,

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Speaker 4: but a show grin. And that was that was two

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Speaker 4: thousand and three, two thousand and four.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that was that's before iTunes.

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Speaker 3: Yes, what's the transit from the physical CDs to actually iTunes?

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Speaker 2: Espah?

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Speaker 4: So that was the dope part is we were young,

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Speaker 4: so our audience is young, you know, because generally your

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Speaker 4: audience is like five to ten years younger than you, right,

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Speaker 4: So our audience is young. So transitioning to digital wasn't

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Speaker 4: a hard thing because we had a young audience. Older

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Speaker 4: audiences tend to struggle with like change. So for us,

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Speaker 4: it was like what social media is today back then

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Speaker 4: was YouTube. So we just was on YouTube. We're making

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Speaker 4: content content. Here go a ePK, here go the story

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Speaker 4: of how this song was made, and our audience is

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Speaker 4: eating it up, and then we're saying go to iTunes

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Speaker 4: and go get this, you know what I mean. And

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Speaker 4: that's how mainstream started to pay attention because we didn't

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Speaker 4: categorize ourselves in the christ category.

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Speaker 2: We put ourselves in a hip hop category.

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Speaker 4: So our fan base was it was a ground swell

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Speaker 4: and then it just jumped up and all of a sudden,

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Speaker 4: people are like, yo, who what is the La Crede?

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Speaker 4: Why is Lucreze beating Nicki Minaj? I had the barbs

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Speaker 4: coming at me crazy, like would you be on the

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Speaker 4: charts on the iTunes charts?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I heard your name before I ever knew who

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Speaker 1: you were. Yeah, because I just kept saying I was,

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Speaker 1: I was. I mean, I go to church. So I

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Speaker 1: was going to church every Sunday and I kept hearing it.

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Speaker 1: I got a few questions though, because it's interesting you

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Speaker 1: said mainstream, and I'm thinking to myself, people that go

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Speaker 1: to church, Uh, the population is getting older and older.

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Speaker 1: I don't see as many young people going, so that's interesting.

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Speaker 1: So who's the how are you being received by church? Going?

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Speaker 2: The traditional gospel art.

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Speaker 1: That Fred hammons, the Hezekai Walkers who they're looking at, like,

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Speaker 1: that's the music we listened to when we go to church.

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Speaker 1: Whereas your approach is like you might that's what I'm

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Speaker 1: gonna listen to this almost feels like this is secular

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Speaker 1: music exactly what it was. How was that reception early on?

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Speaker 1: But see it was like n w A.

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Speaker 4: It was like it's like the more you say we

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Speaker 4: are wrong, the more the young folks wanted, you know,

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Speaker 4: so we was getting.

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Speaker 2: They hated us.

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Speaker 4: They was like, this is the devil rap in God.

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Speaker 4: Don't go together and look at they clothes and the

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Speaker 4: tattoos and you know, but the older pastors and churches,

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Speaker 4: you know what I'm saying. So even one dude went

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Speaker 4: on and made a series about us and how we

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Speaker 4: was people should not be listening to our music and

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Speaker 4: steamrolling it. And but that was fuel because it just

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Speaker 4: made younger folks say, oh, I gotta.

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Speaker 2: Check this out. What is this? You know what I'm

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Speaker 2: saying exactly what happened?

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Speaker 4: And that's what that's what what what what ended up

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Speaker 4: happening for us, But we faced a lot of backlash. Oftentimes,

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Speaker 4: what would happen It would be like a youth pastor

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Speaker 4: or somebody like that who was like, yo, my kids

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Speaker 4: rock with it. We're gonna bring you out to do something.

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Speaker 4: Or it would be like some hood outreach, you know,

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Speaker 4: whereas was connected to a church. It would just be

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Speaker 4: like somebody who is like just trying to impact the neighborhood,

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Speaker 4: and they would bring us out and then that's how

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Speaker 4: it was spreading. But also there was a sports camp

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Speaker 4: in branch And Missouri and Missouri called Kids Across America.

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Speaker 4: And this camp was for like inner city youth and

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Speaker 4: they was kids off the block. But they come into

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Speaker 4: this camp to get this new experience, and our music

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Speaker 4: is pumping through the speakers. So these kids are like, yo,

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Speaker 4: what is this. This is crazy and they're loving it.

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Speaker 4: So of course they're leaders, and you know, guidance counselors

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Speaker 4: are like, I gotta get this music back to them

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Speaker 4: because it's connecting with them. And it just was like

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Speaker 4: a tumbleweed effect. Man, it just kept building.

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Speaker 1: So that that's exactly how I got introduced my pastor.

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Speaker 1: He came from music, say the music background. He's a

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Speaker 1: little bit younger, he comes from he's from Queens. So

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Speaker 1: he sent the hip hop and I was like, that's

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Speaker 1: the first time I heard that when I was in church.

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Speaker 1: The other part of that question is a lot of

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Speaker 1: times in hip hop, you know, people are rapping about

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Speaker 1: the environments that they're in. Yeh, as you being faith based,

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Speaker 1: I wonder what the environment around you was like, because

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Speaker 1: like I grew up and like as an adult, I

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Speaker 1: was going to church, but none of my friends were

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Speaker 1: going yeah, and it was like, yeah, I can't do

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Speaker 1: nothing on Sunday. Sunday I go to church. So how

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Speaker 1: much did that was that pressure or was it like

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Speaker 1: do people start conforming around you to say, look, he's

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Speaker 1: doing something, we should probably join him, or were people

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Speaker 1: kind of like reluctant to be a part of this.

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Speaker 2: So this was the crazy part the.

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Speaker 4: Because the black community oftentimes, you know, the white community

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Speaker 4: has been around the monopoly board more times than we have, right,

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Speaker 4: So because we don't get as many chances around the

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Speaker 4: monopoly board, we're not as apt to change.

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Speaker 2: We're a little tighter on things.

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Speaker 4: We're like, wait a minute, I don't know because I'm

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Speaker 4: first generation money, I can't be giving it away or

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Speaker 4: you know, things along those lines. So the white Christian

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Speaker 4: community was like the first to really give me a chance,

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Speaker 4: to let me rock.

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Speaker 2: You know.

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Speaker 4: The black community was like, I don't know, this don't

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Speaker 4: feel right. White Christian community was like, dude, yes, do

385
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Speaker 4: something different, bro, Like yeah, get a rapper. They had

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Speaker 4: already done the Christian rock thing, so they bringing me

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Speaker 4: out to these rock festivals and they got it's I mean,

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Speaker 4: it's sixty thousand people out there, you know what I'm saying,

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Speaker 4: Billy Graham speaking in all this type of stuff. So

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Speaker 4: I'm like, I'm out there and I'm like, the first

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Speaker 4: encounter they've ever had was something like this, and they're

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Speaker 4: just they've been around them, and I'll be brought a

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Speaker 4: few more times. They got the extra money to invest

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Speaker 4: in it, They'll take a risk a chance.

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Speaker 2: So they was giving me a chance to rock.

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Speaker 4: And I did the same thing that Jay did with

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Speaker 4: Lincoln Park or the same thing that run DMC did

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Speaker 4: with Aerosmith, and I started blending in some of the

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Speaker 4: sounds with my song and I would make a remix

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Speaker 4: just for that event.

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Speaker 2: And then it was like Gangbusters. So now I.

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Speaker 4: Had this community rocking with me, tough and little by

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Speaker 4: little black community was like, oh okay.

404
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Speaker 2: Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah.

405
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Speaker 2: We okay, if it works, then we'll take it, you

406
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Speaker 2: know what I mean.

407
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Speaker 4: And it's understandable because you know, we're a little more

408
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Speaker 4: like wait a minute, reserved with what we got.

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Speaker 3: So Okay, As far as like being an independent artist,

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Speaker 3: We've seen a lot of independent artists like Russ, even

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Speaker 3: the Russell shots him where they've been able to make money,

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Speaker 3: especially like Russ, Like, you've been able to make a

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Speaker 3: lot of money, But I've never heard a Russ.

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Speaker 2: Song played like on a radio or something like that

415
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Speaker 2: in life.

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Speaker 3: Right, But he's he's been able to cultivate a cult following.

417
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Speaker 3: Do shows, so merch whatever? Right, So a lot of

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Speaker 3: people don't. They don't understand that. They're like, how can

419
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Speaker 3: you how can you be a successful artist? If I

420
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Speaker 3: don't I've never seen this person.

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Speaker 2: Right. So you as an independent artist.

422
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Speaker 3: Right that has had a lot of success, what's your

423
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Speaker 3: blueprint as far is you know, maintaining your your following. Yeah,

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00:20:03,800 --> 00:20:07,400
Speaker 3: you know, making revenue while facing the challenges of not

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Speaker 3: being like a quote unquote mainstream artist.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, I think you know, they say niches get riches,

427
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Speaker 4: So you know, are you taking care of your niche?

428
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Speaker 2: You're taking care of your your space.

429
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Speaker 4: I never believed that I was in any other business

430
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Speaker 4: other than the people business. You're always in the people business.

431
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Speaker 4: If you take care of people, they'll take care of you.

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Speaker 4: So if you just look at this as a transactional situation.

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Speaker 4: If you don't look at it as how can I

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Speaker 4: benefit the person on the other side, the consumer from

435
00:20:36,920 --> 00:20:39,280
Speaker 4: this B two C. How do I take care of them?

436
00:20:39,400 --> 00:20:41,000
Speaker 4: Because then they gonna take care of me. So, man,

437
00:20:41,040 --> 00:20:43,320
Speaker 4: we super serve our fans, you know what I'm saying,

438
00:20:43,359 --> 00:20:46,720
Speaker 4: Like every T shirt, we just look something small, throw

439
00:20:46,760 --> 00:20:48,119
Speaker 4: some jolly ranchers in the package.

440
00:20:48,119 --> 00:20:49,720
Speaker 2: When you send it to them, they're like, Yo, they

441
00:20:49,760 --> 00:20:50,639
Speaker 2: sent me some candy.

442
00:20:50,720 --> 00:20:54,320
Speaker 4: It's just it's small, but it's like they feel considered,

443
00:20:54,720 --> 00:20:58,720
Speaker 4: you know, doing Q and A's. I was meeting greets

444
00:20:58,760 --> 00:21:02,399
Speaker 4: with everybody when I first got started, you know, just

445
00:21:02,440 --> 00:21:06,679
Speaker 4: to like super serve the people that was coming to

446
00:21:06,680 --> 00:21:10,520
Speaker 4: support me. And you got to realize, if your experience

447
00:21:10,560 --> 00:21:13,000
Speaker 4: is something, there's other people who are having a similar experience.

448
00:21:13,280 --> 00:21:15,960
Speaker 4: So there's all you're not alone, So how do you

449
00:21:16,160 --> 00:21:18,440
Speaker 4: connect with the people who are dealing with or wrestling with,

450
00:21:19,000 --> 00:21:22,160
Speaker 4: or experiencing the stuff you're experiencing. And that was how,

451
00:21:23,320 --> 00:21:26,120
Speaker 4: you know, we did it, And that was the craziest,

452
00:21:26,160 --> 00:21:28,400
Speaker 4: like just like what you're saying, Like with Russ and everything,

453
00:21:29,160 --> 00:21:31,520
Speaker 4: I had the number one album in the country beat

454
00:21:31,600 --> 00:21:35,080
Speaker 4: Maroon five, and everyone's.

455
00:21:34,640 --> 00:21:36,040
Speaker 2: Like, how who is this?

456
00:21:36,400 --> 00:21:38,240
Speaker 4: Who's this person? I don't know a single song. I

457
00:21:38,240 --> 00:21:41,280
Speaker 4: didn't have no record on the radio. So everyone's scratching

458
00:21:41,280 --> 00:21:43,879
Speaker 4: their head like why. It's because, man, I'm super serving

459
00:21:43,920 --> 00:21:45,920
Speaker 4: my niche, you know what I'm saying.

460
00:21:45,960 --> 00:21:48,800
Speaker 2: I'm like, I'm at everywhere they are. I'm there. I'm

461
00:21:48,840 --> 00:21:50,080
Speaker 2: doing the shows.

462
00:21:49,720 --> 00:21:53,160
Speaker 4: I'm doing the meet and greets, I'm connecting with them,

463
00:21:53,280 --> 00:21:56,919
Speaker 4: I'm sending out the packages, I'm having conversations. And I

464
00:21:56,960 --> 00:21:58,920
Speaker 4: think a lot of times artists don't want to put

465
00:21:58,920 --> 00:22:02,359
Speaker 4: in that work and do that hand to hand transaction

466
00:22:03,200 --> 00:22:06,080
Speaker 4: to understand the market. That's another thing I come from.

467
00:22:06,280 --> 00:22:09,600
Speaker 4: So when I first got out of school, I couldn't

468
00:22:09,600 --> 00:22:13,200
Speaker 4: find a job. So I went to the cable guy.

469
00:22:13,200 --> 00:22:14,560
Speaker 2: I was a cable guy. You know, I'm an.

470
00:22:14,560 --> 00:22:18,480
Speaker 4: Addicts fighting off rats, you know what I'm saying, installing

471
00:22:18,560 --> 00:22:21,359
Speaker 4: cable and I hated it so much that one day

472
00:22:21,400 --> 00:22:23,560
Speaker 4: the vice president came to like give us this little

473
00:22:23,640 --> 00:22:26,119
Speaker 4: motivational speech like, hey, you know, the vice president of

474
00:22:26,119 --> 00:22:30,359
Speaker 4: the cable company, you guys are are superstars. And I

475
00:22:30,400 --> 00:22:33,199
Speaker 4: went up to her and I was like, Yo, you

476
00:22:33,200 --> 00:22:35,280
Speaker 4: know I got a background in marketing.

477
00:22:35,520 --> 00:22:36,480
Speaker 2: You know I went to school.

478
00:22:36,720 --> 00:22:39,280
Speaker 4: Is it anyway, you know, because my day's off for

479
00:22:39,440 --> 00:22:42,439
Speaker 4: Thursdays and Tuesdays and Thursdays, Is it anyway I can

480
00:22:42,480 --> 00:22:45,399
Speaker 4: come and intern for free, you know, whatever y'all need

481
00:22:45,440 --> 00:22:45,840
Speaker 4: me to do.

482
00:22:46,560 --> 00:22:48,879
Speaker 2: And she was like, oh okay.

483
00:22:49,080 --> 00:22:52,439
Speaker 4: So I went up into that building and I just

484
00:22:52,560 --> 00:22:55,679
Speaker 4: was soaking up game, just soaking up game, soaking up

485
00:22:55,680 --> 00:22:57,320
Speaker 4: to the point where they was like, oh you, we

486
00:22:57,359 --> 00:22:58,080
Speaker 4: got to hire you.

487
00:22:58,080 --> 00:22:59,240
Speaker 2: You're not a capable buy no more.

488
00:22:59,280 --> 00:23:01,440
Speaker 4: So now I'm working in the marketing department at the

489
00:23:01,480 --> 00:23:04,400
Speaker 4: cable company, you know, and soaking up more games, soaking

490
00:23:04,480 --> 00:23:06,760
Speaker 4: up more games, so everything I'm soaking up focused groups,

491
00:23:07,000 --> 00:23:10,119
Speaker 4: test markets, how to talk to people, you know, running

492
00:23:10,119 --> 00:23:12,239
Speaker 4: a board, meeting. This is all game I'm soaking up.

493
00:23:12,280 --> 00:23:14,959
Speaker 4: So by the time I start my own company, I

494
00:23:15,000 --> 00:23:17,720
Speaker 4: have a prototype from a very successful cable company on

495
00:23:17,880 --> 00:23:21,520
Speaker 4: certain little things. And I think it's just access to

496
00:23:21,560 --> 00:23:25,040
Speaker 4: that information helps you to understand how to connect to

497
00:23:25,680 --> 00:23:26,280
Speaker 4: a marketplace.

498
00:23:26,280 --> 00:23:28,200
Speaker 2: I would reach some of those things that you learned.

499
00:23:30,040 --> 00:23:33,080
Speaker 4: So one of the things which we do now is,

500
00:23:34,160 --> 00:23:36,760
Speaker 4: you know, do you have proof of concept?

501
00:23:37,359 --> 00:23:37,560
Speaker 2: Right?

502
00:23:37,680 --> 00:23:39,600
Speaker 4: So a lot of times, especially artists will say, yo,

503
00:23:39,640 --> 00:23:41,320
Speaker 4: my music, do listen to music.

504
00:23:41,400 --> 00:23:42,200
Speaker 2: How do you know it is? Though?

505
00:23:42,400 --> 00:23:45,000
Speaker 4: You got proof of concept, like you made it your product,

506
00:23:45,040 --> 00:23:47,280
Speaker 4: whatever you created, you do, you have proof of concept

507
00:23:47,320 --> 00:23:50,560
Speaker 4: that is that people want this, that it works. So

508
00:23:51,880 --> 00:23:54,359
Speaker 4: you know, proof of concept is we tested it and

509
00:23:54,560 --> 00:23:55,520
Speaker 4: we got a good result.

510
00:23:55,640 --> 00:23:58,399
Speaker 2: So what what they tasked me with.

511
00:23:58,480 --> 00:24:02,000
Speaker 4: They couldn't figure out why Hispanic people weren't watching this

512
00:24:02,000 --> 00:24:04,760
Speaker 4: this network. And it was like, and they're not buying

513
00:24:04,760 --> 00:24:07,359
Speaker 4: our package for you know, the Latin community is not

514
00:24:07,359 --> 00:24:11,119
Speaker 4: buying it. So I'm in Texas and I said, and

515
00:24:11,160 --> 00:24:12,760
Speaker 4: so I said, well, let me do a focus group,

516
00:24:12,920 --> 00:24:14,439
Speaker 4: you know, because I've seen him do focus groups for

517
00:24:14,480 --> 00:24:15,639
Speaker 4: other things. So I just said, you know, let me

518
00:24:15,680 --> 00:24:17,960
Speaker 4: get it, you know, get a bunch of the Latin

519
00:24:18,000 --> 00:24:18,639
Speaker 4: community out here.

520
00:24:18,720 --> 00:24:19,800
Speaker 2: Let me ask them some questions.

521
00:24:19,800 --> 00:24:21,760
Speaker 4: And they and I'm like, why don't y'all watch this?

522
00:24:21,840 --> 00:24:26,520
Speaker 4: And they was like, it's Cuban, it's Puerto Rican, it's

523
00:24:26,680 --> 00:24:30,520
Speaker 4: we're Mexican. And he was like, oh, y'all speaking to

524
00:24:30,520 --> 00:24:32,160
Speaker 4: the wrong people, you.

525
00:24:32,160 --> 00:24:35,879
Speaker 1: Know what I'm saying.

526
00:24:36,640 --> 00:24:39,040
Speaker 4: So it was like, all right, no proof of concept,

527
00:24:39,160 --> 00:24:40,480
Speaker 4: that's why this package ain't working.

528
00:24:40,640 --> 00:24:41,199
Speaker 2: Redo it.

529
00:24:41,240 --> 00:24:44,960
Speaker 4: They redid it and made more networking for the Mexican

530
00:24:45,119 --> 00:24:48,960
Speaker 4: American community took off like Gangbusters. So same concept for

531
00:24:49,080 --> 00:24:51,960
Speaker 4: me now is I'll take my artist, Limo Blaze. He's

532
00:24:51,960 --> 00:24:57,600
Speaker 4: an afrobeat artist, a producer. Made this remix of a

533
00:24:57,720 --> 00:25:00,480
Speaker 4: of a very popular song. It went I roll on

534
00:25:00,520 --> 00:25:04,280
Speaker 4: his ig. I said, they like this remix of this song.

535
00:25:04,840 --> 00:25:07,520
Speaker 4: That's the sound. That's proof of concept that this sound

536
00:25:07,600 --> 00:25:11,360
Speaker 4: base works. You need to rap over this. He wraps

537
00:25:11,400 --> 00:25:15,240
Speaker 4: over it jumps up to top forty afrobeat charts. You

538
00:25:15,320 --> 00:25:16,600
Speaker 4: know what I'm saying. And it was just like we

539
00:25:16,680 --> 00:25:19,760
Speaker 4: already saw it worked. The market already said it worked,

540
00:25:19,800 --> 00:25:22,480
Speaker 4: so so do that. And that's one of the things

541
00:25:22,480 --> 00:25:22,800
Speaker 4: I learned.

542
00:25:22,800 --> 00:25:25,399
Speaker 2: Work the focus group. Yeah for music, Yeah, we do

543
00:25:25,440 --> 00:25:29,320
Speaker 2: focus groups all the time. Yeah, so this is reaching people. Yeah,

544
00:25:29,640 --> 00:25:32,879
Speaker 2: So we'll do a test market. We'll have like fans.

545
00:25:33,440 --> 00:25:35,199
Speaker 4: See that's another way to super serve them as well,

546
00:25:35,240 --> 00:25:36,880
Speaker 4: because now they're getting exclusive.

547
00:25:36,520 --> 00:25:37,800
Speaker 1: Let them here first exactly.

548
00:25:38,040 --> 00:25:39,280
Speaker 2: So we'll get a group of fans.

549
00:25:39,760 --> 00:25:42,720
Speaker 4: We'll say HEO, here's six songs, rank them, you know

550
00:25:42,760 --> 00:25:44,720
Speaker 4: what I mean, and they'll be like, this one is this,

551
00:25:44,720 --> 00:25:46,439
Speaker 4: this one's that, this was this, And you got two

552
00:25:46,520 --> 00:25:49,080
Speaker 4: thousand fans and they like these are my top fives

553
00:25:49,119 --> 00:25:50,560
Speaker 4: and this is why and this is why. So now

554
00:25:50,560 --> 00:25:52,320
Speaker 4: you got feedback, you got proof of concept. Yeah, you

555
00:25:52,320 --> 00:25:55,200
Speaker 4: and an office thought this was the joint that ain't it.

556
00:25:56,000 --> 00:25:57,320
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say that for a sec right because it

557
00:25:57,320 --> 00:25:58,679
Speaker 1: sounds like you're big on analytics.

558
00:25:58,680 --> 00:25:59,240
Speaker 2: Oh for sure.

559
00:26:00,119 --> 00:26:02,359
Speaker 1: Just hear it the way you're talking. So what happens

560
00:26:02,359 --> 00:26:05,640
Speaker 1: when you do the focus group right? Because sometimes it works,

561
00:26:05,680 --> 00:26:08,240
Speaker 1: but sometimes you'll hear and like you said, this ain't working.

562
00:26:08,440 --> 00:26:10,520
Speaker 1: What are the lessons that you learned from that? When

563
00:26:10,560 --> 00:26:13,359
Speaker 1: it's like, all right, yeah, this one didn't chart. What

564
00:26:13,400 --> 00:26:14,159
Speaker 1: are we learning from this?

565
00:26:14,400 --> 00:26:17,040
Speaker 2: Yeah? So one of the things you gotta learn.

566
00:26:17,160 --> 00:26:18,720
Speaker 4: One of the things I've learned is that the market

567
00:26:18,760 --> 00:26:21,800
Speaker 4: is always changing and what and even like the audiences

568
00:26:21,840 --> 00:26:24,040
Speaker 4: are always changing, so you can't always bank on it.

569
00:26:24,119 --> 00:26:28,159
Speaker 4: A case in point was, you know, I had a

570
00:26:28,200 --> 00:26:32,399
Speaker 4: record with Metro booming called hammer Time, and at that

571
00:26:32,440 --> 00:26:35,320
Speaker 4: point in time, everything on rap Caviar that was doing

572
00:26:35,359 --> 00:26:37,320
Speaker 4: well had Metros tag at the beginning.

573
00:26:37,640 --> 00:26:38,320
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying.

574
00:26:38,320 --> 00:26:41,679
Speaker 4: So it's like the top ten songs got if your

575
00:26:41,760 --> 00:26:44,400
Speaker 4: Metro don't trust you or something like, you know, you're

576
00:26:44,400 --> 00:26:46,600
Speaker 4: a Metro on a check. So it's like, all right,

577
00:26:46,600 --> 00:26:49,359
Speaker 4: we're gonna, We're gonna, We're gonna run this song because

578
00:26:49,400 --> 00:26:52,119
Speaker 4: everything with Metro in it is taken off.

579
00:26:52,920 --> 00:26:54,679
Speaker 2: We make the record put it on.

580
00:26:55,200 --> 00:27:01,439
Speaker 4: Rap Caviar didn't work because what's starting to happen was

581
00:27:02,760 --> 00:27:05,720
Speaker 4: ear fatigue. It wasn't the same thing. It didn't didn't

582
00:27:05,720 --> 00:27:07,800
Speaker 4: work in the same way. It didn't move the needle

583
00:27:07,880 --> 00:27:10,639
Speaker 4: like it did. The audience had kind of already moved on,

584
00:27:11,119 --> 00:27:13,160
Speaker 4: but we didn't realize that, you know what I'm saying.

585
00:27:13,200 --> 00:27:15,560
Speaker 4: So it's like you got to understand, like where are people?

586
00:27:15,600 --> 00:27:17,520
Speaker 4: And that's why I keep younger people around me who

587
00:27:17,520 --> 00:27:19,800
Speaker 4: are who are tapped in and a tune to what's

588
00:27:19,840 --> 00:27:23,000
Speaker 4: going on, because you are looking at things from your

589
00:27:23,080 --> 00:27:26,200
Speaker 4: vantish point and where you are in life. But meanwhile,

590
00:27:26,280 --> 00:27:28,560
Speaker 4: the cultures move in a completely different way. So it's

591
00:27:28,600 --> 00:27:32,359
Speaker 4: always just like, you know, who has their ear to

592
00:27:32,400 --> 00:27:35,600
Speaker 4: what's going on and where is culture going? And how

593
00:27:35,640 --> 00:27:38,960
Speaker 4: can I be tapped into the culture and if And

594
00:27:39,280 --> 00:27:40,920
Speaker 4: that's that's sociology, that's.

595
00:27:40,760 --> 00:27:42,080
Speaker 2: Just understanding where people are.

596
00:27:42,119 --> 00:27:44,840
Speaker 4: You know, all the all good marketers are sociologists and

597
00:27:44,920 --> 00:27:46,080
Speaker 4: understand where the culture is.

598
00:27:46,200 --> 00:27:48,879
Speaker 1: So you you got the metro booming feature. Yeah, but

599
00:27:49,280 --> 00:27:52,840
Speaker 1: I wonder, as you're doing Reach Records and you're obviously

600
00:27:52,840 --> 00:27:58,159
Speaker 1: creating music, who's the first person from your background of

601
00:27:58,200 --> 00:28:02,520
Speaker 1: influencing music that is acceptive to it, that's accepted, accepting

602
00:28:02,600 --> 00:28:04,560
Speaker 1: to it and saying like this is a guy we

603
00:28:04,600 --> 00:28:06,439
Speaker 1: need to rock on. Who's the first feature that's like

604
00:28:07,040 --> 00:28:08,359
Speaker 1: this is now about my life about to.

605
00:28:08,400 --> 00:28:10,320
Speaker 2: Change for me? Yeah.

606
00:28:10,400 --> 00:28:16,400
Speaker 4: The person that that that tapped in early Don Cannon, Uh,

607
00:28:16,480 --> 00:28:18,960
Speaker 4: Don Cannon DJ. You know, the gangster Grills mixtapes and

608
00:28:19,000 --> 00:28:21,160
Speaker 4: all that type of stuff was popping. So I would

609
00:28:21,160 --> 00:28:24,760
Speaker 4: say this kind of too, it's my God Street Symphony.

610
00:28:24,840 --> 00:28:27,720
Speaker 4: So Street and I went to school together. Street went

611
00:28:27,760 --> 00:28:30,720
Speaker 4: to work for a Luda disturbing the piece. He's, you know,

612
00:28:30,800 --> 00:28:33,280
Speaker 4: doing all this type of work. Street starts, you know,

613
00:28:33,359 --> 00:28:35,840
Speaker 4: he's like, man, God is showing up my life. I

614
00:28:35,920 --> 00:28:38,000
Speaker 4: want to transition and do some do some different things.

615
00:28:38,000 --> 00:28:40,880
Speaker 4: Craig Let's work together. He already was plugged with Don Cannon.

616
00:28:41,160 --> 00:28:42,760
Speaker 4: He links me with Don Cannon.

617
00:28:42,880 --> 00:28:44,320
Speaker 2: And we get the idea, like, yo, we need to

618
00:28:44,320 --> 00:28:46,280
Speaker 2: do a mixtape. You know what I'm saying. What we're

619
00:28:46,280 --> 00:28:46,720
Speaker 2: gonna call it?

620
00:28:46,800 --> 00:28:49,719
Speaker 4: Church Close while we call it church clothes because everyone

621
00:28:49,720 --> 00:28:51,280
Speaker 4: expects us to wear a suit and tie, but we

622
00:28:51,400 --> 00:28:54,640
Speaker 4: out here in jeans and tattoos and fitteds, and we

623
00:28:54,720 --> 00:28:56,920
Speaker 4: these are our church clothes, you know what I'm saying.

624
00:28:57,040 --> 00:29:00,240
Speaker 4: So no one was putting it was a first time

625
00:29:00,240 --> 00:29:04,480
Speaker 4: anybody put like a Christian rap mixtape on like that Pith.

626
00:29:04,320 --> 00:29:07,160
Speaker 2: And all them type of sites. Right, So Don Cannon

627
00:29:07,240 --> 00:29:08,040
Speaker 2: is like, I'm with it.

628
00:29:08,480 --> 00:29:10,840
Speaker 4: We we you know, I get beats from ninth Wonder

629
00:29:11,720 --> 00:29:15,440
Speaker 4: I get you know, I had met Kendrick a couple

630
00:29:15,480 --> 00:29:17,800
Speaker 4: of years prior me and Kendrick built a dope relationship.

631
00:29:17,880 --> 00:29:22,000
Speaker 4: Kendrick does a little intro on my video for the song,

632
00:29:22,720 --> 00:29:28,400
Speaker 4: and it crashes the mixtape website. You know what I'm saying.

633
00:29:28,680 --> 00:29:31,720
Speaker 4: It was they the downloads were so crazy. One was

634
00:29:31,760 --> 00:29:35,280
Speaker 4: our fans. Two was the intrigue, cause it's like, is

635
00:29:35,320 --> 00:29:37,200
Speaker 4: this gonna be dope? What is this gonna be? So

636
00:29:37,200 --> 00:29:39,280
Speaker 4: it's like people just intrigued wanting to listen.

637
00:29:39,080 --> 00:29:40,160
Speaker 2: To it, and.

638
00:29:41,600 --> 00:29:45,920
Speaker 4: You know that for us was like confirmation. It was like, Yo,

639
00:29:46,040 --> 00:29:48,560
Speaker 4: Don Cannon did the mixtape you get you hear him

640
00:29:48,560 --> 00:29:50,440
Speaker 4: in the background. It's the mixtape era too, So it's

641
00:29:50,440 --> 00:29:52,600
Speaker 4: like you hear him in the background and people like,

642
00:29:52,720 --> 00:29:54,600
Speaker 4: what is this ninth Wonder beats?

643
00:29:54,680 --> 00:29:56,960
Speaker 2: And it's like, Yo, this is crazy. We never heard

644
00:29:57,000 --> 00:29:58,000
Speaker 2: nothing like this before.

645
00:29:58,720 --> 00:30:01,040
Speaker 4: And I think that's when people really like tapped in.

646
00:30:01,080 --> 00:30:03,719
Speaker 4: And then the second thing I would say was the

647
00:30:03,760 --> 00:30:05,440
Speaker 4: catalyzer that pushed.

648
00:30:05,120 --> 00:30:06,160
Speaker 2: Me over again.

649
00:30:07,080 --> 00:30:08,800
Speaker 4: I'm doing the work on the front end, so you

650
00:30:09,200 --> 00:30:12,960
Speaker 4: a lot of artists don't have what Malcolm glad Wells

651
00:30:13,000 --> 00:30:15,240
Speaker 4: says they ten thousand hours. You know what I'm saying,

652
00:30:15,240 --> 00:30:17,400
Speaker 4: ten thousand hours is gonna make you an expert or something.

653
00:30:18,240 --> 00:30:20,320
Speaker 4: I had my ten thousand hours in so by the

654
00:30:20,320 --> 00:30:23,200
Speaker 4: time I got to this moment, this watershed moment, I

655
00:30:23,280 --> 00:30:23,959
Speaker 4: was ready for it.

656
00:30:24,000 --> 00:30:25,320
Speaker 2: And that watershed moment.

657
00:30:25,120 --> 00:30:28,120
Speaker 4: Was my My publicist at the time, Tasha Stout, got

658
00:30:28,120 --> 00:30:31,320
Speaker 4: me on the BT cipher for the Hip Hop Awards.

659
00:30:32,200 --> 00:30:34,200
Speaker 4: They didn't know what category to put me in, so

660
00:30:34,240 --> 00:30:36,120
Speaker 4: they put me in a foreigners category. So I'm in

661
00:30:36,120 --> 00:30:41,440
Speaker 4: there with French dudes estelle, you know, from London. But

662
00:30:41,520 --> 00:30:45,000
Speaker 4: I'm ready. You know, I've been groomed for this moment.

663
00:30:45,040 --> 00:30:47,760
Speaker 4: That's my watershed moment, and they never heard nothing like it.

664
00:30:48,240 --> 00:30:51,040
Speaker 4: I'm getting hit up Royster five and all these rappers

665
00:30:51,120 --> 00:30:54,600
Speaker 4: like what is this? And that was when it was

666
00:30:54,640 --> 00:30:55,120
Speaker 4: like we.

667
00:30:55,200 --> 00:30:56,760
Speaker 1: Own you know what I mean.

668
00:30:57,480 --> 00:30:58,680
Speaker 2: So as far as.

669
00:31:00,120 --> 00:31:03,680
Speaker 3: Like you mentioned rap crack caviar, Yeah, how important is

670
00:31:03,760 --> 00:31:05,560
Speaker 3: that for a artist's career? They kind of get on

671
00:31:05,600 --> 00:31:08,640
Speaker 3: those type of playlists and how do you even get

672
00:31:08,680 --> 00:31:08,960
Speaker 3: on that?

673
00:31:09,160 --> 00:31:14,040
Speaker 4: Yeah, playlisting is that's another thing, is like there's errors.

674
00:31:14,080 --> 00:31:16,040
Speaker 4: I'm not gonna say it's not important, but what I

675
00:31:16,080 --> 00:31:18,120
Speaker 4: will say is it's not as important as it once was.

676
00:31:18,400 --> 00:31:21,760
Speaker 4: So it's like radio radio was once it like if

677
00:31:21,760 --> 00:31:23,880
Speaker 4: it's not radio, it's nothing. It's not moving the needle.

678
00:31:24,400 --> 00:31:28,720
Speaker 4: After radio, it was playlisting. Playlisting was it. If it

679
00:31:28,720 --> 00:31:32,400
Speaker 4: wasn't playlisted, then it wasn't moving the needle. Now it's

680
00:31:32,440 --> 00:31:35,760
Speaker 4: social media, it's TikTok, it's reels, you know what I mean?

681
00:31:35,800 --> 00:31:36,960
Speaker 2: If that's moving the needle.

682
00:31:37,200 --> 00:31:41,640
Speaker 4: And so if you are not connected, like I wouldn't

683
00:31:41,640 --> 00:31:43,600
Speaker 4: even sign a artist who doesn't have a social media

684
00:31:43,760 --> 00:31:46,360
Speaker 4: following a platform, you know, because if they're not engaged

685
00:31:46,360 --> 00:31:49,640
Speaker 4: on social media, what they're telling me is they're not willing.

686
00:31:49,360 --> 00:31:49,920
Speaker 2: To do the work.

687
00:31:50,480 --> 00:31:52,280
Speaker 4: So it's like, nah, you want somebody to do to

688
00:31:52,320 --> 00:31:53,440
Speaker 4: work for you, I'm not.

689
00:31:53,400 --> 00:31:54,760
Speaker 2: Gonna do the work for you. You're gonna have to

690
00:31:54,800 --> 00:31:55,320
Speaker 2: work yourself.

691
00:31:55,360 --> 00:31:57,800
Speaker 4: So now I would say social media, and you got

692
00:31:57,960 --> 00:32:00,320
Speaker 4: the beautiful thing. And where we are now is intry.

693
00:32:00,440 --> 00:32:04,800
Speaker 4: Is the floodgates are wide open. There's everyone has equal

694
00:32:04,800 --> 00:32:09,600
Speaker 4: opportunity access make your music. Your test market is social media.

695
00:32:09,640 --> 00:32:11,400
Speaker 4: They gonna let you know if it's dope. The only

696
00:32:11,520 --> 00:32:17,000
Speaker 4: downside is that do you have the ten thousand hours

697
00:32:17,040 --> 00:32:19,160
Speaker 4: to recreate what you did? And a lot of artists

698
00:32:19,200 --> 00:32:20,920
Speaker 4: don't have that, you know what I'm saying. It's like

699
00:32:21,080 --> 00:32:23,840
Speaker 4: Fifth just said it on a recent interview that he

700
00:32:23,920 --> 00:32:26,400
Speaker 4: was gonna sign Designer, but Designer only had that one song,

701
00:32:26,440 --> 00:32:28,320
Speaker 4: and he was like, you you don't have another one.

702
00:32:28,360 --> 00:32:30,440
Speaker 2: I don't have any confidence you can even make another one.

703
00:32:31,280 --> 00:32:33,200
Speaker 4: And so I tend to look for artists who have

704
00:32:33,920 --> 00:32:37,000
Speaker 4: they made it once, they made it twice. There's a consistency,

705
00:32:37,000 --> 00:32:39,200
Speaker 4: there's a pattern of consistency. So if if one of

706
00:32:39,240 --> 00:32:40,880
Speaker 4: them pops off, I know they can do it again.

707
00:32:41,080 --> 00:32:43,640
Speaker 4: They didn't put in the manpower in the hours.

708
00:32:44,720 --> 00:32:48,320
Speaker 1: The artists that you're looking for, are they all faith based?

709
00:32:48,320 --> 00:32:50,600
Speaker 1: Faith based? Absolutely, so they have to be faith based.

710
00:32:51,080 --> 00:32:53,800
Speaker 1: The other part is that. It's a challenge, right, Social

711
00:32:53,800 --> 00:32:56,000
Speaker 1: media is a challenge because, like you said, it's ever

712
00:32:56,280 --> 00:32:59,840
Speaker 1: evolving algorithm change. How do you keep it authentic? What

713
00:33:00,040 --> 00:33:02,840
Speaker 1: out making it corny? Right? When people hear church, they're like,

714
00:33:03,600 --> 00:33:06,000
Speaker 1: I ain't come here for this. How do y'all manage

715
00:33:06,040 --> 00:33:08,120
Speaker 1: to make it something that people wanted to into?

716
00:33:08,400 --> 00:33:10,440
Speaker 2: It's category? It's categories.

717
00:33:10,800 --> 00:33:17,840
Speaker 4: So you know, I would say, you know, you got

718
00:33:17,880 --> 00:33:20,400
Speaker 4: different iterations and different types of artists. So I got

719
00:33:20,400 --> 00:33:24,520
Speaker 4: some artists who lean into it heavy, like this song

720
00:33:24,680 --> 00:33:27,200
Speaker 4: is like a worship rap record, you know what I'm saying,

721
00:33:27,200 --> 00:33:29,080
Speaker 4: And they lean into it, and there's an audience for

722
00:33:29,160 --> 00:33:31,840
Speaker 4: that and that, and and we want them.

723
00:33:31,680 --> 00:33:32,600
Speaker 2: To do exactly that.

724
00:33:33,160 --> 00:33:36,280
Speaker 4: I got other artists who they have more of a

725
00:33:36,320 --> 00:33:38,600
Speaker 4: mainstream presence, you know what I'm saying, and they are

726
00:33:38,600 --> 00:33:41,920
Speaker 4: more creative, you know, they they blended up and if

727
00:33:41,960 --> 00:33:46,280
Speaker 4: you listen, you might not know that's a Christian record.

728
00:33:46,320 --> 00:33:50,640
Speaker 4: So like my buddy that we signed years ago, Andy Minno,

729
00:33:51,800 --> 00:33:54,040
Speaker 4: the song that we had that took off his number

730
00:33:54,040 --> 00:33:59,120
Speaker 4: one record was one of the most streamed and it

731
00:33:59,200 --> 00:34:01,440
Speaker 4: was viral on social media. Was coming in hot, coming

732
00:34:01,480 --> 00:34:04,920
Speaker 4: in hot, you know what I mean. Everybody, here's a song, right,

733
00:34:05,160 --> 00:34:07,400
Speaker 4: But Andy's the type of artist It's like, you're not

734
00:34:07,560 --> 00:34:12,080
Speaker 4: gonna know he's this faith based artist just on first.

735
00:34:12,160 --> 00:34:13,200
Speaker 2: You gotta like get.

736
00:34:13,040 --> 00:34:16,040
Speaker 4: Into his ecosystem to really kind of know where he's

737
00:34:16,040 --> 00:34:19,520
Speaker 4: at with it. Right, So it's still it is clean,

738
00:34:20,360 --> 00:34:25,320
Speaker 4: it's not negative, and it may not have a message

739
00:34:25,360 --> 00:34:27,920
Speaker 4: right away, but it's something that still resonates with the

740
00:34:28,000 --> 00:34:30,279
Speaker 4: with the broader culture. Then I got artists in the

741
00:34:30,280 --> 00:34:33,319
Speaker 4: middle where they can go over here or they can

742
00:34:33,360 --> 00:34:35,560
Speaker 4: go over here. Like my artist one k Few he's

743
00:34:36,560 --> 00:34:39,600
Speaker 4: he got he's from Atlanta. He got records with Zetoven,

744
00:34:39,760 --> 00:34:42,440
Speaker 4: with Hancho, but then he also got records with like

745
00:34:42,440 --> 00:34:45,280
Speaker 4: a gospel artist, and so he can go in both spaces.

746
00:34:45,360 --> 00:34:48,640
Speaker 4: And so you just I let them be the authentic

747
00:34:48,640 --> 00:34:50,080
Speaker 4: seales because otherwise it will come off.

748
00:34:50,000 --> 00:34:53,719
Speaker 1: Corny to the artist. It's like a Hanscho for example. Yeah,

749
00:34:55,480 --> 00:34:57,520
Speaker 1: when y'all do the record, is it like YO with

750
00:34:58,160 --> 00:35:01,080
Speaker 1: you know it's his faith based or like yo be yourself?

751
00:35:01,280 --> 00:35:02,520
Speaker 1: And what the censor?

752
00:35:02,640 --> 00:35:02,960
Speaker 2: How do you?

753
00:35:03,160 --> 00:35:04,040
Speaker 1: How do you approach that?

754
00:35:04,120 --> 00:35:07,239
Speaker 4: So the crazy part is I think people kind of

755
00:35:07,320 --> 00:35:07,879
Speaker 4: cater to.

756
00:35:09,520 --> 00:35:10,520
Speaker 2: Where they think you are.

757
00:35:10,800 --> 00:35:13,200
Speaker 4: Sometimes they overdo it, you know what I mean, Like

758
00:35:13,239 --> 00:35:16,480
Speaker 4: they in they mind, they got to come in there

759
00:35:16,600 --> 00:35:18,799
Speaker 4: saying like hallelujah.

760
00:35:19,000 --> 00:35:20,680
Speaker 2: You know what I mean. It's like yo, yeah, yo,

761
00:35:20,840 --> 00:35:21,279
Speaker 2: chill chill.

762
00:35:24,280 --> 00:35:26,920
Speaker 4: It's like chill, chill, chill chaill Yo, yo, yo, fall back,

763
00:35:27,040 --> 00:35:31,319
Speaker 4: you're going too crazy, just like you know, like chill.

764
00:35:31,400 --> 00:35:33,640
Speaker 4: A lot of times we'll have a conversation and we'll

765
00:35:33,719 --> 00:35:38,560
Speaker 4: just talk about it, talk it through. But it's rarely

766
00:35:38,600 --> 00:35:41,320
Speaker 4: an issue. It's mostly we try to create the songs

767
00:35:41,360 --> 00:35:46,000
Speaker 4: that's neutral territory. So it's like, yo, let's talk about

768
00:35:46,920 --> 00:35:48,000
Speaker 4: you got kids, I got kids.

769
00:35:48,040 --> 00:35:48,920
Speaker 2: Le's talk about being a.

770
00:35:48,880 --> 00:35:50,799
Speaker 4: Father, being a present father, how we didn't have that.

771
00:35:50,880 --> 00:35:52,600
Speaker 4: Let's let's do a song about that. Like, let's not

772
00:35:52,640 --> 00:35:56,120
Speaker 4: put you in a lane that's weird for you and

773
00:35:56,160 --> 00:35:57,880
Speaker 4: it's gonna make it awkward. And I learned that the

774
00:35:57,920 --> 00:35:59,680
Speaker 4: hard way because I did a record with Big krit

775
00:36:00,040 --> 00:36:04,960
Speaker 4: years ago called may Day Fire Record. But in the record,

776
00:36:05,000 --> 00:36:07,279
Speaker 4: you know, he's talking about his struggle with faith and

777
00:36:08,360 --> 00:36:11,239
Speaker 4: wrestling with God and so on and so forth, and

778
00:36:11,280 --> 00:36:15,799
Speaker 4: it kind of put him. He's talking to this audience

779
00:36:15,880 --> 00:36:21,799
Speaker 4: that is not expecting to hear this coming from him, right,

780
00:36:21,880 --> 00:36:26,239
Speaker 4: So they this hyper religious people got Adam and was

781
00:36:26,320 --> 00:36:28,600
Speaker 4: mad at him and like, don't talk about this and

782
00:36:28,600 --> 00:36:30,360
Speaker 4: why would you do this? And you know, kind of

783
00:36:30,560 --> 00:36:32,279
Speaker 4: was off putting to him. So it's like, I'm not

784
00:36:32,320 --> 00:36:34,000
Speaker 4: trying to put you in an awkward space either. I

785
00:36:34,040 --> 00:36:36,560
Speaker 4: want you to talk about what you feel comfortable talking about.

786
00:36:37,000 --> 00:36:38,440
Speaker 4: And then you got artists like Ti dollar Sign. I

787
00:36:38,480 --> 00:36:40,120
Speaker 4: did a record with Ty, and Ty was like, bruh,

788
00:36:40,160 --> 00:36:42,200
Speaker 4: I love gospel music. I was raised on it. I

789
00:36:42,200 --> 00:36:43,799
Speaker 4: want to do this song. I gotta I'm gonna write

790
00:36:43,800 --> 00:36:44,920
Speaker 4: a verse for it. I said, we just wanted you

791
00:36:45,000 --> 00:36:48,319
Speaker 4: a Hooknah, I got a verse and for him, he wanted.

792
00:36:48,000 --> 00:36:50,879
Speaker 2: To do that. So it was like, all right, bet So.

793
00:36:50,840 --> 00:36:53,719
Speaker 3: What about like booking shows and touring, because I think

794
00:36:53,760 --> 00:36:55,680
Speaker 3: that's the major part as far as you do that

795
00:36:55,760 --> 00:36:57,960
Speaker 3: independent or you work with like a lot of nation, how's.

796
00:36:57,800 --> 00:36:59,920
Speaker 2: That work done? Both?

797
00:37:01,880 --> 00:37:07,400
Speaker 4: I prefer independent just because when you have a niche audience,

798
00:37:07,480 --> 00:37:09,799
Speaker 4: nobody knows them like you do, and if you can

799
00:37:09,880 --> 00:37:12,560
Speaker 4: understand your audience and your market, you can serve them better.

800
00:37:13,120 --> 00:37:16,160
Speaker 4: So I've done both, but I like it better doing

801
00:37:16,160 --> 00:37:20,480
Speaker 4: it myself. That's another thing, is like I'm big on touring,

802
00:37:20,560 --> 00:37:25,279
Speaker 4: because that's what I was fortunate to see, like some

803
00:37:25,320 --> 00:37:30,400
Speaker 4: of these big crossover rock groups, you know, like you know,

804
00:37:32,239 --> 00:37:33,759
Speaker 4: a lot of people don't realize a lot of these

805
00:37:33,760 --> 00:37:36,719
Speaker 4: big rock groups like Evanescence of Paramore, they started off

806
00:37:36,719 --> 00:37:39,279
Speaker 4: on the Christian side, you know what I mean. Create, Yeah,

807
00:37:39,280 --> 00:37:41,800
Speaker 4: they started on Christian side, and so I was fortunate

808
00:37:41,800 --> 00:37:43,520
Speaker 4: to see how they move and how they do it

809
00:37:43,520 --> 00:37:46,359
Speaker 4: because I was over there with them. So it was like, oh,

810
00:37:46,400 --> 00:37:49,080
Speaker 4: you got a tour, and a lot of our artists

811
00:37:49,120 --> 00:37:50,600
Speaker 4: don't understand touring.

812
00:37:51,000 --> 00:37:51,480
Speaker 2: So for.

813
00:37:52,920 --> 00:37:56,480
Speaker 4: Mainstream hip hop, well we take that soft money. We

814
00:37:56,560 --> 00:37:58,640
Speaker 4: go to the club, right, Yeah, they gonna give you

815
00:37:58,680 --> 00:38:01,040
Speaker 4: forty bands, but they not really coming for you. They

816
00:38:01,120 --> 00:38:03,120
Speaker 4: trying to go to the club because it's lit and

817
00:38:03,360 --> 00:38:07,040
Speaker 4: you happen to be there. So it's like great, as

818
00:38:07,040 --> 00:38:08,920
Speaker 4: long as your song is popping, you can get a

819
00:38:08,920 --> 00:38:11,879
Speaker 4: club date. But you're not building a fan base. Our

820
00:38:11,920 --> 00:38:14,000
Speaker 4: club is the church. So if you're doing these church

821
00:38:14,040 --> 00:38:17,919
Speaker 4: events all the time, you not building an audience. Right,

822
00:38:18,440 --> 00:38:21,560
Speaker 4: They they come into church anyway, you know what I'm saying.

823
00:38:22,239 --> 00:38:25,920
Speaker 4: They coming to the club anyway. So you not building

824
00:38:25,920 --> 00:38:30,000
Speaker 4: an audience, You just capitalizing off of what is already

825
00:38:30,040 --> 00:38:33,080
Speaker 4: there that built in audience, and it looks good until

826
00:38:33,120 --> 00:38:34,799
Speaker 4: you don't have a hit and nobody wants to book

827
00:38:34,840 --> 00:38:37,839
Speaker 4: you for that event. So what we learned was to

828
00:38:37,840 --> 00:38:41,680
Speaker 4: build our own audience and our own touring. So we

829
00:38:41,760 --> 00:38:45,520
Speaker 4: started doing our own tours. And you know, Tech nine

830
00:38:45,520 --> 00:38:47,480
Speaker 4: another good friend. You know, I sat with Tech nine

831
00:38:47,520 --> 00:38:49,520
Speaker 4: and saw how he built his empire, been to his studio,

832
00:38:49,680 --> 00:38:51,759
Speaker 4: bend in his warehouse and saw what they did and

833
00:38:51,800 --> 00:38:54,839
Speaker 4: how they did touring, and just kind of soaked up

834
00:38:54,880 --> 00:38:58,760
Speaker 4: some game and made sure my artists were touring artists.

835
00:38:58,760 --> 00:39:01,880
Speaker 4: You gotta be a hard ticket artists. That's how you're

836
00:39:01,880 --> 00:39:04,400
Speaker 4: gonna have longevity. I've been doing this twenty years because

837
00:39:04,520 --> 00:39:05,640
Speaker 4: I build a fan base.

838
00:39:05,880 --> 00:39:08,319
Speaker 2: A lot of people don't build.

839
00:39:08,080 --> 00:39:13,759
Speaker 4: Hard ticket artists hard ticket fans. So because of that,

840
00:39:15,040 --> 00:39:16,120
Speaker 4: you know, they don't know how to do it. And

841
00:39:16,160 --> 00:39:17,560
Speaker 4: that's what happens to hip hop a lot. So I've

842
00:39:17,560 --> 00:39:19,799
Speaker 4: had big, major, major artists come to me say, Yo,

843
00:39:19,840 --> 00:39:20,400
Speaker 4: how you do tour?

844
00:39:20,520 --> 00:39:21,239
Speaker 2: What do we need to do?

845
00:39:21,400 --> 00:39:23,080
Speaker 4: Like, can we We'll get you on the radio if

846
00:39:23,080 --> 00:39:25,080
Speaker 4: you can get us touring, teach us the game, let's

847
00:39:25,080 --> 00:39:28,439
Speaker 4: trade secrets, and you know it's just something that rock

848
00:39:28,480 --> 00:39:30,719
Speaker 4: band's been doing. That's why they toured forever.

849
00:39:30,920 --> 00:39:32,120
Speaker 2: So what is the secret to that?

850
00:39:32,400 --> 00:39:35,520
Speaker 4: The secret is you you can't be afraid. You can't

851
00:39:35,520 --> 00:39:37,800
Speaker 4: be afraid to start small.

852
00:39:38,880 --> 00:39:40,799
Speaker 2: And that's what we be afraid of. We don't want

853
00:39:40,800 --> 00:39:41,399
Speaker 2: to look lame.

854
00:39:42,239 --> 00:39:45,480
Speaker 4: We're like, nah bro, one hundred people, Nah Bro, I

855
00:39:45,520 --> 00:39:46,279
Speaker 4: ain't going out there.

856
00:39:46,960 --> 00:39:49,279
Speaker 2: I ain't doing that, Travis Scott. That's what he did.

857
00:39:49,400 --> 00:39:53,480
Speaker 3: You know, what is it financially beneficial to Because when

858
00:39:53,480 --> 00:39:55,120
Speaker 3: you're go on tour, you're gonna have to bring a DJ.

859
00:39:55,280 --> 00:39:56,759
Speaker 3: At the very least you have to bring a DJ.

860
00:39:56,800 --> 00:39:59,359
Speaker 3: You gonna have to bring it's at least five people

861
00:39:59,360 --> 00:40:00,239
Speaker 3: that probably kind of to.

862
00:40:00,160 --> 00:40:00,799
Speaker 2: Come with you, right.

863
00:40:00,960 --> 00:40:03,360
Speaker 3: Yeah, So if you're doing shows for a hundred for

864
00:40:03,360 --> 00:40:06,359
Speaker 3: one hundred people, let's say you charge your twenty forty. Yeah,

865
00:40:06,480 --> 00:40:08,279
Speaker 3: from the artists standpoint, they look at it probably like

866
00:40:08,280 --> 00:40:09,160
Speaker 3: I'm losing money.

867
00:40:09,440 --> 00:40:14,200
Speaker 2: What's the point of doing it? Yes, it's two things.

868
00:40:14,360 --> 00:40:18,839
Speaker 4: One is you're telling the story, so it's branding, right,

869
00:40:18,880 --> 00:40:22,200
Speaker 4: So part of that is your story building. You're telling

870
00:40:22,200 --> 00:40:23,840
Speaker 4: the story, so sometimes you're gonna have to do that.

871
00:40:23,880 --> 00:40:26,000
Speaker 4: You're gonna have to tell a story that makes people

872
00:40:26,000 --> 00:40:28,799
Speaker 4: want to come and pay for the next one, so

873
00:40:28,840 --> 00:40:31,799
Speaker 4: you you know, it's the cost benefit analysis. It's like

874
00:40:32,880 --> 00:40:34,720
Speaker 4: this is gonna cost me this, but what's the benefit,

875
00:40:34,760 --> 00:40:37,280
Speaker 4: And it's the benefit gonna outweigh the initial cost.

876
00:40:38,800 --> 00:40:40,400
Speaker 2: And then two, if.

877
00:40:40,280 --> 00:40:42,759
Speaker 4: You can do enough shows, you can break even or

878
00:40:42,840 --> 00:40:44,719
Speaker 4: make a little bit of money, right, if you do

879
00:40:44,840 --> 00:40:47,080
Speaker 4: enough of them. Yeah, if you do two shows, five shows,

880
00:40:47,120 --> 00:40:49,560
Speaker 4: you probably you're gonna lose money. But if you can,

881
00:40:49,880 --> 00:40:51,560
Speaker 4: let's say you do twenty, it's like, oh, you might

882
00:40:51,600 --> 00:40:54,080
Speaker 4: break even doing one hundred people. But if you do

883
00:40:54,120 --> 00:40:58,040
Speaker 4: one hundred and you know you put on a good show.

884
00:40:58,040 --> 00:40:59,440
Speaker 4: You got to invest in your show. A lot of

885
00:40:59,480 --> 00:41:01,480
Speaker 4: rappers get up there with the DJ walking back and

886
00:41:01,520 --> 00:41:04,279
Speaker 4: forth on the stage like investing your show. Make it

887
00:41:04,560 --> 00:41:07,399
Speaker 4: something people want to see. And then you just keep

888
00:41:07,400 --> 00:41:10,240
Speaker 4: building it and building it and building. It's like flipping houses.

889
00:41:10,360 --> 00:41:12,120
Speaker 4: It's like you got to buy a cheap house first,

890
00:41:12,680 --> 00:41:15,120
Speaker 4: put a little bread into it. After you put some

891
00:41:15,160 --> 00:41:18,040
Speaker 4: bread into it, then you flip it. Then you sell

892
00:41:18,080 --> 00:41:21,080
Speaker 4: it for more. Then you take that bread, you reinvest

893
00:41:21,120 --> 00:41:22,960
Speaker 4: in another one a little bit more, a little bit more,

894
00:41:22,960 --> 00:41:25,200
Speaker 4: a little bit more, a little bit more. And it's

895
00:41:25,200 --> 00:41:28,120
Speaker 4: the same concept with touring.

896
00:41:28,480 --> 00:41:29,000
Speaker 2: You know what I mean?

897
00:41:29,680 --> 00:41:33,440
Speaker 1: As you're doing this from an entrepreneurial journey, you're learning

898
00:41:33,480 --> 00:41:36,160
Speaker 1: and growing, but I want it from the spiritual side, right,

899
00:41:36,480 --> 00:41:39,200
Speaker 1: Like that also is an evolving process for sure. How

900
00:41:39,239 --> 00:41:41,880
Speaker 1: do y'all And as a leader and the founder of

901
00:41:41,880 --> 00:41:44,359
Speaker 1: a company and having artists under you, how do y'all

902
00:41:44,400 --> 00:41:46,600
Speaker 1: tap into that? Are y'all doing retreats or is it

903
00:41:46,640 --> 00:41:49,560
Speaker 1: like because I watched my brother go through seminary school, wow,

904
00:41:49,640 --> 00:41:54,640
Speaker 1: and I was like, bro, he's a passer. Now study theology.

905
00:41:55,000 --> 00:41:56,880
Speaker 1: What is that like for you as a leader of

906
00:41:56,920 --> 00:41:57,480
Speaker 1: your company?

907
00:41:58,360 --> 00:41:59,480
Speaker 2: I think.

908
00:42:01,000 --> 00:42:05,359
Speaker 4: You know, I take it back to we was talking

909
00:42:05,360 --> 00:42:10,080
Speaker 4: about fifty earlier. The reason why we bought into fifth

910
00:42:11,280 --> 00:42:15,640
Speaker 4: is because of the authenticity you really got shot. It

911
00:42:15,800 --> 00:42:19,040
Speaker 4: was really in the streets. What you rap about, you

912
00:42:19,080 --> 00:42:26,160
Speaker 4: really live. I think that is a paramount importance for

913
00:42:27,160 --> 00:42:29,080
Speaker 4: what I'm doing and what I'm building.

914
00:42:30,080 --> 00:42:32,319
Speaker 2: Is this your real life? Right?

915
00:42:32,360 --> 00:42:34,400
Speaker 4: And how do we make sure this is your real life?

916
00:42:34,440 --> 00:42:34,520
Speaker 1: Like?

917
00:42:34,560 --> 00:42:37,040
Speaker 4: How are we investing in the youth so that you

918
00:42:37,120 --> 00:42:39,359
Speaker 4: are spiritually grounded so when you do get up there

919
00:42:39,400 --> 00:42:42,040
Speaker 4: and you talking it, this is not just talk. This

920
00:42:42,120 --> 00:42:46,040
Speaker 4: is your life. So you know, part of that includes

921
00:42:46,120 --> 00:42:46,719
Speaker 4: mentor shit.

922
00:42:46,880 --> 00:42:48,600
Speaker 2: You know, I'm big on that. I'm big on.

923
00:42:48,719 --> 00:42:50,720
Speaker 4: Just like yo, I'll get into trenches with my artists

924
00:42:50,760 --> 00:42:53,360
Speaker 4: and like, let's wrestle through things. Here's some books. I

925
00:42:53,360 --> 00:42:56,120
Speaker 4: give them book recommendations. You know, we read through books together,

926
00:42:56,160 --> 00:42:59,520
Speaker 4: we do studies together, We've done retreats, you know, all

927
00:42:59,560 --> 00:43:03,480
Speaker 4: of those sticular things. And I've just been very privileged

928
00:43:03,520 --> 00:43:07,960
Speaker 4: man living in Atlanta and seeing the inner workings of

929
00:43:08,320 --> 00:43:12,760
Speaker 4: organizations I see then. You know, me and Andrew Cathy,

930
00:43:12,800 --> 00:43:15,120
Speaker 4: who the son of Dan Cathy, who owns Chick fil A.

931
00:43:15,200 --> 00:43:18,040
Speaker 4: You know, we've sat numerous times. I get to see

932
00:43:18,040 --> 00:43:20,120
Speaker 4: the inner workings of Chick fil A. You know, my

933
00:43:20,160 --> 00:43:22,319
Speaker 4: homegirl is at Delta. I get to see the inner

934
00:43:22,320 --> 00:43:26,120
Speaker 4: workings of Delta. And one of the books that I

935
00:43:26,200 --> 00:43:28,399
Speaker 4: highly recommend that that has helped us and I tell

936
00:43:28,440 --> 00:43:30,360
Speaker 4: other people is for d X.

937
00:43:30,560 --> 00:43:31,239
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying.

938
00:43:31,280 --> 00:43:34,120
Speaker 4: And for d X is a book that teaches you

939
00:43:34,200 --> 00:43:38,680
Speaker 4: how to structure your business, how to create you know,

940
00:43:39,719 --> 00:43:44,400
Speaker 4: an infrastructure, and teaches you, like sometimes you're so busy

941
00:43:44,400 --> 00:43:46,720
Speaker 4: working in the business, you don't work on the business.

942
00:43:47,320 --> 00:43:49,360
Speaker 4: And so if I'm constantly working in it, I'm not

943
00:43:49,400 --> 00:43:51,200
Speaker 4: working on it. You know, what does my staff need?

944
00:43:51,760 --> 00:43:54,600
Speaker 4: You know, what does my artists need? What's the needs

945
00:43:54,640 --> 00:43:57,520
Speaker 4: right now? Because if I'm constantly just cracking a whip

946
00:43:57,880 --> 00:44:00,240
Speaker 4: and I'm not taking the inventory or what they need,

947
00:44:00,360 --> 00:44:03,640
Speaker 4: you know, we'll do reviews and we'll do stop start continues.

948
00:44:03,719 --> 00:44:05,239
Speaker 4: I say, well, what do you need to stop doing.

949
00:44:05,760 --> 00:44:07,239
Speaker 4: Here's what you need to start doing, here's you need

950
00:44:07,320 --> 00:44:09,120
Speaker 4: to continue doing. This is what you're doing well. And

951
00:44:09,200 --> 00:44:12,640
Speaker 4: so always constant evaluation is always constantly working on ourselves.

952
00:44:13,080 --> 00:44:16,520
Speaker 4: Like you said, the spiritual retreats, the prayer times, the groups,

953
00:44:17,320 --> 00:44:19,799
Speaker 4: we do devotionals, you know, I see Chick fil A,

954
00:44:19,840 --> 00:44:22,000
Speaker 4: they do the devotionals. They do all kinds of stuff

955
00:44:22,040 --> 00:44:23,680
Speaker 4: like that. So we're just incorporating them things.

956
00:44:24,320 --> 00:44:27,680
Speaker 3: So like the Russell and a couple of other artists,

957
00:44:27,719 --> 00:44:29,440
Speaker 3: and we interviewed somebody had a platform where a lot

958
00:44:29,440 --> 00:44:33,560
Speaker 3: of artists now independent there they're like having.

959
00:44:33,280 --> 00:44:35,240
Speaker 2: A pay what you want strategy.

960
00:44:35,440 --> 00:44:41,239
Speaker 4: Yeah that, Nah, we don't do that. I'm not I

961
00:44:41,360 --> 00:44:46,480
Speaker 4: understand it. I do think I do think I get that.

962
00:44:48,719 --> 00:44:51,120
Speaker 4: I think at the stage that like the Russell's at,

963
00:44:51,239 --> 00:44:55,480
Speaker 4: he's in a disruptive stage, which that's dope and our

964
00:44:55,600 --> 00:44:57,839
Speaker 4: salute him for that. You know, I want to work

965
00:44:57,840 --> 00:44:59,800
Speaker 4: with him. You know, we we've talked about doing some stuff.

966
00:45:00,440 --> 00:45:02,640
Speaker 4: I'm not in a disruptor stage in the state of

967
00:45:02,680 --> 00:45:05,120
Speaker 4: my career. So at this stage of my career, you know,

968
00:45:05,200 --> 00:45:08,719
Speaker 4: I got you know, an office full of employees and

969
00:45:08,840 --> 00:45:12,200
Speaker 4: multiple artists, Like I have to think about maximization. You know,

970
00:45:12,360 --> 00:45:16,680
Speaker 4: I'm not like the lean startup. You know, I'm not

971
00:45:16,760 --> 00:45:18,960
Speaker 4: at that stage. If you're in the lean startup stage,

972
00:45:19,040 --> 00:45:22,839
Speaker 4: obviously do some disruptive things, you know what I mean,

973
00:45:22,920 --> 00:45:25,879
Speaker 4: because you lean and you can move lean. I got

974
00:45:25,880 --> 00:45:30,799
Speaker 4: four to one kse. We can't play no games. So

975
00:45:31,040 --> 00:45:33,680
Speaker 4: for us, it's like we think we have to think

976
00:45:33,680 --> 00:45:35,759
Speaker 4: a little bit bigger. Now, maybe there's one artist that

977
00:45:35,800 --> 00:45:38,320
Speaker 4: we can do that experiment on, but as a whole,

978
00:45:39,320 --> 00:45:41,640
Speaker 4: we can't be that disruptive. We have to move in

979
00:45:41,719 --> 00:45:45,080
Speaker 4: the flow of business in some senses, you know what

980
00:45:45,120 --> 00:45:48,640
Speaker 4: I'm saying, Like, where is the business culture going?

981
00:45:49,200 --> 00:45:50,280
Speaker 2: And you go with the flow.

982
00:45:50,360 --> 00:45:53,000
Speaker 4: If you're a disruptor, you're going against the flow of

983
00:45:53,040 --> 00:45:56,799
Speaker 4: where business is to create something different. And I've been

984
00:45:56,840 --> 00:46:00,439
Speaker 4: there and it's effective. But this is what I tell people,

985
00:46:00,440 --> 00:46:05,000
Speaker 4: it's like when you start off your business to your company,

986
00:46:05,000 --> 00:46:08,719
Speaker 4: you playing golf, right, And when you're playing golf, everybody

987
00:46:08,800 --> 00:46:11,880
Speaker 4: uses the same tool. Everybody gets to hit the ball,

988
00:46:12,520 --> 00:46:16,279
Speaker 4: everybody puts it in the hole. It's all hands on deck.

989
00:46:16,520 --> 00:46:18,200
Speaker 4: You can be a disruptor playing golf.

990
00:46:18,239 --> 00:46:18,720
Speaker 2: It's fine.

991
00:46:19,239 --> 00:46:22,440
Speaker 4: You get a little bigger as basketball, right, everybody touches

992
00:46:22,480 --> 00:46:25,960
Speaker 4: the ball, everybody shoots, Some shoot more than others, some

993
00:46:26,000 --> 00:46:26,840
Speaker 4: pass more than others.

994
00:46:28,239 --> 00:46:29,400
Speaker 2: But we got different roles.

995
00:46:29,480 --> 00:46:33,640
Speaker 4: But when you get big enough, which is like you know,

996
00:46:34,880 --> 00:46:36,440
Speaker 4: it gets very intense.

997
00:46:36,480 --> 00:46:37,880
Speaker 2: You got multiple employees.

998
00:46:38,520 --> 00:46:44,120
Speaker 4: You playing football, and when you're playing football, everybody can't

999
00:46:44,160 --> 00:46:47,280
Speaker 4: be the kicker. Everybody can't be the quarterback. Yeah, your homeboys,

1000
00:46:47,320 --> 00:46:49,919
Speaker 4: that's your man. You grew up with him.

1001
00:46:50,160 --> 00:46:52,960
Speaker 2: Y'all's playing golf. It was all good. He can't catch.

1002
00:46:53,760 --> 00:46:56,799
Speaker 4: You gotta have a specialized person who knows how to

1003
00:46:56,840 --> 00:47:01,440
Speaker 4: do that role. And that's when you know it can

1004
00:47:01,480 --> 00:47:04,400
Speaker 4: get sticky and tricky. But you have to kind of

1005
00:47:04,440 --> 00:47:06,160
Speaker 4: put that hat on and go in the flow of

1006
00:47:06,719 --> 00:47:09,000
Speaker 4: business and say, man, if we're gonna do this right,

1007
00:47:09,680 --> 00:47:12,200
Speaker 4: we need the right person for this particular thing. Like Yo,

1008
00:47:12,440 --> 00:47:16,840
Speaker 4: Shorty was dope grinding underground but we need somebody who's

1009
00:47:16,920 --> 00:47:21,640
Speaker 4: skilled in marketing because the budget is higher, what's on

1010
00:47:21,680 --> 00:47:23,200
Speaker 4: the line is more crucial.

1011
00:47:24,560 --> 00:47:26,560
Speaker 1: So let's talk about that. The business culture of hip

1012
00:47:26,600 --> 00:47:29,400
Speaker 1: hop really Yeah, when you started early two thousands, you

1013
00:47:29,400 --> 00:47:32,359
Speaker 1: said there was balance. Yeah, right, What people talk about

1014
00:47:32,400 --> 00:47:34,960
Speaker 1: now is that the absence or the lack of balance.

1015
00:47:35,040 --> 00:47:35,200
Speaker 2: Right.

1016
00:47:35,239 --> 00:47:39,160
Speaker 1: So for every I don't know, little Dirt, who is

1017
00:47:39,200 --> 00:47:39,839
Speaker 1: the next person?

1018
00:47:39,920 --> 00:47:40,040
Speaker 2: Right?

1019
00:47:40,080 --> 00:47:42,440
Speaker 1: There is no comment right now, right right? There is

1020
00:47:42,640 --> 00:47:45,080
Speaker 1: for every Ice Spice, who is the Lauryn Hill?

1021
00:47:45,200 --> 00:47:46,200
Speaker 2: Yeah?

1022
00:47:46,600 --> 00:47:49,080
Speaker 1: How difficult is it to now crack through in a

1023
00:47:49,120 --> 00:47:50,200
Speaker 1: space where there's no balance.

1024
00:47:51,600 --> 00:47:53,360
Speaker 2: It's a good thing and a bad thing to me.

1025
00:47:53,840 --> 00:47:55,319
Speaker 4: I think it's a good thing in a sense that

1026
00:47:55,880 --> 00:47:58,440
Speaker 4: it doesn't exist as much as it did, so people

1027
00:47:58,480 --> 00:48:00,320
Speaker 4: are thirsty for it. So when they get a taste

1028
00:48:00,320 --> 00:48:02,719
Speaker 4: of it, they're like, what is this? This is amazing?

1029
00:48:03,480 --> 00:48:07,120
Speaker 4: So there's room for it. But at the same time,

1030
00:48:09,480 --> 00:48:13,680
Speaker 4: I think as a culture, you know, hip hop as

1031
00:48:13,719 --> 00:48:21,040
Speaker 4: a culture is getting like so frivolous and careless that

1032
00:48:23,600 --> 00:48:28,000
Speaker 4: it could put itself in a very bad situation. So

1033
00:48:28,280 --> 00:48:31,200
Speaker 4: similar to rock and roll, Right, rock and roll just

1034
00:48:31,200 --> 00:48:37,760
Speaker 4: got so crazy, like so off the hinges. It became nonexistent.

1035
00:48:38,120 --> 00:48:42,640
Speaker 4: It's like you used, you drugged yourself to death. You

1036
00:48:42,920 --> 00:48:46,440
Speaker 4: prostituted yourself out to death, and now no one is interested.

1037
00:48:46,760 --> 00:48:47,399
Speaker 2: Right, It's like.

1038
00:48:47,320 --> 00:48:50,120
Speaker 4: There's nothing, there's no texture to it.

1039
00:48:50,120 --> 00:48:50,680
Speaker 2: It's gone.

1040
00:48:51,520 --> 00:48:54,160
Speaker 4: And I feel like hip hop is runs the risk

1041
00:48:54,200 --> 00:48:56,359
Speaker 4: of following the same pattern as rock and roll. Like

1042
00:48:57,120 --> 00:48:59,239
Speaker 4: once upon a time, rock and roll was everything.

1043
00:49:00,160 --> 00:49:03,279
Speaker 2: Now it's like who's that? What's rock and roll?

1044
00:49:03,880 --> 00:49:05,600
Speaker 4: So hip hop runs the risk of being like yo,

1045
00:49:05,680 --> 00:49:09,840
Speaker 4: you prostituting yourself to death, You drugging yourself to death.

1046
00:49:10,560 --> 00:49:11,920
Speaker 2: Eventually there's gonna be no.

1047
00:49:11,800 --> 00:49:15,040
Speaker 4: Substance to hold on to to like even it's just

1048
00:49:15,080 --> 00:49:19,240
Speaker 4: gonna be a bunch of chaos and you turn into

1049
00:49:21,440 --> 00:49:25,440
Speaker 4: what my man Tehran calls like y'all remember the little

1050
00:49:25,440 --> 00:49:27,880
Speaker 4: hands that you that were sticky, and you see, you

1051
00:49:27,920 --> 00:49:29,719
Speaker 4: know what I'm saying, You just pick up stuff with it.

1052
00:49:30,360 --> 00:49:32,239
Speaker 4: You turn into that to where it's like you just

1053
00:49:32,320 --> 00:49:35,160
Speaker 4: like the blob, knowing you don't have no distinction anymore.

1054
00:49:35,200 --> 00:49:38,760
Speaker 4: It's like you part of country, you part of pop,

1055
00:49:39,280 --> 00:49:41,600
Speaker 4: you part of every You not your own thing anymore.

1056
00:49:41,840 --> 00:49:44,919
Speaker 4: Like what is hip hop culture in twenty twenty four?

1057
00:49:44,920 --> 00:49:46,200
Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying like, once upon a time

1058
00:49:46,200 --> 00:49:46,920
Speaker 4: it was distinct.

1059
00:49:47,040 --> 00:49:52,520
Speaker 2: Now it's like it's what do you think about artists that.

1060
00:49:54,400 --> 00:49:58,279
Speaker 3: You know a lot of artists when they become more spiritual,

1061
00:49:59,120 --> 00:50:02,560
Speaker 3: it's backlash. Even talking about Little Dirk right now, he's

1062
00:50:02,600 --> 00:50:04,880
Speaker 3: in an interesting space right now. Everybody knows how he

1063
00:50:04,920 --> 00:50:07,200
Speaker 3: started as a drill rapper, yeah, and he's taking a

1064
00:50:07,280 --> 00:50:09,799
Speaker 3: very spiritual turn in his life, not necessarily his music,

1065
00:50:09,800 --> 00:50:12,960
Speaker 3: but in his life life. And I'm watching him and

1066
00:50:12,960 --> 00:50:15,760
Speaker 3: he's trying to walk both sides. He's trying to say

1067
00:50:15,880 --> 00:50:17,759
Speaker 3: I'm a different person, but I'm still gonna make the

1068
00:50:17,800 --> 00:50:19,560
Speaker 3: same music, which is kind of difficult.

1069
00:50:19,920 --> 00:50:22,040
Speaker 2: And now people are criticizing.

1070
00:50:21,520 --> 00:50:24,160
Speaker 3: Him like, well, how you're going to be a devout

1071
00:50:24,239 --> 00:50:28,919
Speaker 3: Muslim and you're talking about killing people right, And it's

1072
00:50:29,600 --> 00:50:33,000
Speaker 3: a weird space, and like some rappers like me, they

1073
00:50:33,160 --> 00:50:35,440
Speaker 3: just left like he's like as opposed to try to

1074
00:50:35,440 --> 00:50:39,759
Speaker 3: walk that line. It's like, I'm out right, So what's

1075
00:50:39,800 --> 00:50:41,680
Speaker 3: your thoughts on that? Because it's like it's one thing

1076
00:50:41,719 --> 00:50:44,640
Speaker 3: if you start how you started, yea, there's another thing

1077
00:50:44,680 --> 00:50:47,840
Speaker 3: if you start very secular and then you make a

1078
00:50:47,880 --> 00:50:51,040
Speaker 3: one to eighty turn and now peoples like disappointed they say,

1079
00:50:51,080 --> 00:50:54,760
Speaker 3: and it's not real. They overly judging you for everything

1080
00:50:54,840 --> 00:50:59,160
Speaker 3: now because the expectations are so that's a very difficult

1081
00:50:59,160 --> 00:50:59,759
Speaker 3: space to be in.

1082
00:51:00,080 --> 00:51:00,880
Speaker 2: Totally agree.

1083
00:51:01,680 --> 00:51:05,080
Speaker 4: I'm a big fan of taking people with you, right, Like,

1084
00:51:05,200 --> 00:51:08,080
Speaker 4: don't do a hard left on folks. Take them on

1085
00:51:08,120 --> 00:51:11,080
Speaker 4: a journey with you, because if you bust out hard left,

1086
00:51:11,120 --> 00:51:12,120
Speaker 4: it's like a bait and switch.

1087
00:51:12,360 --> 00:51:16,400
Speaker 2: It's like, I'm different now. And I tell this to

1088
00:51:16,440 --> 00:51:18,799
Speaker 2: a lot of my younger Christian artists. It's a young

1089
00:51:18,840 --> 00:51:19,879
Speaker 2: lady out here. I was just.

1090
00:51:22,160 --> 00:51:25,400
Speaker 4: Talking with her, her producer last night. She's like a

1091
00:51:25,440 --> 00:51:28,399
Speaker 4: New York drill artist, right, she meets God, she wants

1092
00:51:28,440 --> 00:51:31,480
Speaker 4: to change. I started listening to her songs and it's

1093
00:51:31,520 --> 00:51:34,480
Speaker 4: like I'm killing the devil with my Bible, you know

1094
00:51:34,520 --> 00:51:36,960
Speaker 4: what I mean. And I'm like, slow down, because all

1095
00:51:37,000 --> 00:51:40,200
Speaker 4: you're really doing is trading in your old ops for

1096
00:51:40,280 --> 00:51:44,040
Speaker 4: the devil. And it's weird to somebody, like what is

1097
00:51:44,040 --> 00:51:44,799
Speaker 4: happening right now?

1098
00:51:44,920 --> 00:51:45,719
Speaker 2: This is strange.

1099
00:51:46,440 --> 00:51:48,640
Speaker 4: So I was like, yo, take your people with you.

1100
00:51:49,480 --> 00:51:53,040
Speaker 4: Talk about the story of when you left the club

1101
00:51:53,080 --> 00:51:55,600
Speaker 4: and you was feeling empty and you was like I

1102
00:51:55,640 --> 00:51:58,520
Speaker 4: need something different, Like take us on that journey. So

1103
00:51:58,560 --> 00:52:02,359
Speaker 4: we can understand this process that's happening, and we can

1104
00:52:02,880 --> 00:52:06,359
Speaker 4: walk with you down that pathway and say that's what's up.

1105
00:52:06,719 --> 00:52:10,440
Speaker 4: Like the song Dirk and Cold, it is like that's

1106
00:52:10,480 --> 00:52:14,200
Speaker 4: that's a piece, that's like, that's we on the journey exactly.

1107
00:52:14,320 --> 00:52:18,359
Speaker 1: We had that conversation, great song. Will they go with him?

1108
00:52:19,480 --> 00:52:21,279
Speaker 2: That's what I'm saying. That was like the conversation will

1109
00:52:21,320 --> 00:52:21,960
Speaker 2: they go with them?

1110
00:52:22,000 --> 00:52:24,520
Speaker 4: That's what I'm saying. You can't just you can't do it,

1111
00:52:24,600 --> 00:52:25,759
Speaker 4: just abruptly, you can't.

1112
00:52:25,840 --> 00:52:27,520
Speaker 1: So let's talk about somebody who did do it though,

1113
00:52:28,440 --> 00:52:32,959
Speaker 1: another guy from Chicago. All right, yeah, Jesus walks, Yeah,

1114
00:52:33,040 --> 00:52:38,480
Speaker 1: Jesus is king. Yeah, everything in between. And after I

1115
00:52:38,520 --> 00:52:41,960
Speaker 1: went to that show by myself, thank you.

1116
00:52:42,000 --> 00:52:45,040
Speaker 2: No. I just think that was abruptly, know.

1117
00:52:44,960 --> 00:52:48,080
Speaker 1: What I'm saying. So you're taking taking them with you, but.

1118
00:52:48,120 --> 00:52:50,319
Speaker 2: He's saying he's disappointed you didn't go with him.

1119
00:52:50,360 --> 00:52:53,160
Speaker 1: That's what you want to know what really happened. I

1120
00:52:53,200 --> 00:52:55,719
Speaker 1: bought four tickets. I was like, yo, we were at

1121
00:52:55,760 --> 00:52:58,440
Speaker 1: a complex con Yeah, and it was kind of like

1122
00:52:59,080 --> 00:53:01,160
Speaker 1: there was a I know that was gonna happen, and

1123
00:53:01,239 --> 00:53:03,200
Speaker 1: like the concert was going to happen and I was like,

1124
00:53:03,239 --> 00:53:04,600
Speaker 1: I'm gonna called the uber. I gotta I have to

1125
00:53:04,640 --> 00:53:06,480
Speaker 1: see this, Like I don't really want to see this.

1126
00:53:06,960 --> 00:53:09,680
Speaker 1: And the uber came and I was like in it

1127
00:53:09,960 --> 00:53:12,640
Speaker 1: and I looked at them and they're like, I'm not coming.

1128
00:53:13,000 --> 00:53:14,680
Speaker 1: I'm like, I closed the door. I went by myself.

1129
00:53:14,960 --> 00:53:19,160
Speaker 1: And I almost appreciated that I went by myself because did.

1130
00:53:19,120 --> 00:53:22,200
Speaker 2: You see the show that Jesus King. Nah, I didn't

1131
00:53:22,200 --> 00:53:22,719
Speaker 2: see that one.

1132
00:53:23,239 --> 00:53:26,800
Speaker 1: It was emotional like because it infused hip hop. It

1133
00:53:27,200 --> 00:53:29,120
Speaker 1: was like the soul, the soul, but it was like

1134
00:53:29,680 --> 00:53:32,279
Speaker 1: sold out, like has like all that together. And I

1135
00:53:32,320 --> 00:53:34,799
Speaker 1: was like, this is what it should feel like when

1136
00:53:34,840 --> 00:53:38,200
Speaker 1: you come. And then obviously we didn't see anything follow up.

1137
00:53:38,680 --> 00:53:42,080
Speaker 1: I'm talking about that that taking them with you, but

1138
00:53:42,920 --> 00:53:44,360
Speaker 1: you what happens after.

1139
00:53:44,520 --> 00:53:47,200
Speaker 3: But I'll say this about this because Kanye probably I'm

1140
00:53:47,200 --> 00:53:48,840
Speaker 3: broby the biggest Kanye fan in the world.

1141
00:53:49,040 --> 00:53:51,520
Speaker 1: Well, you didn't come to that Kanye fan, the biggest

1142
00:53:51,560 --> 00:53:52,120
Speaker 1: Kanye fan.

1143
00:53:52,719 --> 00:53:56,960
Speaker 3: Look, okay, so hey, I think Kanye was always on

1144
00:53:57,120 --> 00:53:57,919
Speaker 3: that type of time.

1145
00:53:58,560 --> 00:54:03,319
Speaker 2: He did Jesus Walk record, But so.

1146
00:54:03,239 --> 00:54:06,360
Speaker 3: I don't think that that's not really people wasn't really shocked.

1147
00:54:07,760 --> 00:54:09,200
Speaker 2: Okay, this is my thing.

1148
00:54:09,680 --> 00:54:13,520
Speaker 1: Tim only because that comes right after Life After Problem. No.

1149
00:54:13,400 --> 00:54:15,759
Speaker 3: No, but I'm saying it's not a completely shocked You're

1150
00:54:15,800 --> 00:54:19,120
Speaker 3: not shocked at Kanye. Like Kanye is not against the rapper. No, no, no,

1151
00:54:19,160 --> 00:54:20,799
Speaker 3: not a trail rapper like you know what I'm saying.

1152
00:54:20,800 --> 00:54:23,840
Speaker 3: He always was talking about something. Yeah, so it's not

1153
00:54:23,880 --> 00:54:25,160
Speaker 3: a complete part of it.

1154
00:54:25,360 --> 00:54:25,560
Speaker 1: Yeah.

1155
00:54:26,040 --> 00:54:28,799
Speaker 3: My thing with the Kanye thing is that I feel

1156
00:54:28,880 --> 00:54:33,160
Speaker 3: like the like when he was throwing the Sunday Services,

1157
00:54:33,600 --> 00:54:35,840
Speaker 3: like that was dope, you know what I mean? Yeah,

1158
00:54:35,880 --> 00:54:38,799
Speaker 3: And I listened to the album just because I'm a

1159
00:54:38,840 --> 00:54:39,760
Speaker 3: Kanye fan.

1160
00:54:41,160 --> 00:54:42,640
Speaker 2: And the album.

1161
00:54:43,800 --> 00:54:44,239
Speaker 1: You listen to.

1162
00:54:45,000 --> 00:54:48,920
Speaker 2: Of course, the album did not meet expectations. Did you.

1163
00:54:49,120 --> 00:54:51,120
Speaker 2: I'm just being honest with you. Did you like that coloring?

1164
00:54:51,360 --> 00:54:54,399
Speaker 3: Did not like Chance the Rapper Coloring Book? You could say,

1165
00:54:54,400 --> 00:54:57,560
Speaker 3: that's like a Christian rap album. To me, in my opinion,

1166
00:54:57,560 --> 00:54:59,799
Speaker 3: that's a dope classic. I think that's a classic album.

1167
00:55:00,360 --> 00:55:04,680
Speaker 1: There's good records on it. Jesus King, Jesus Jesus King

1168
00:55:05,360 --> 00:55:06,600
Speaker 1: of production one of my favorites.

1169
00:55:06,640 --> 00:55:08,800
Speaker 2: I love the production. I didn't feel like Kanye was

1170
00:55:08,840 --> 00:55:10,000
Speaker 2: at his best. He's not.

1171
00:55:10,520 --> 00:55:13,439
Speaker 1: Yeah, but that's because are we going to go with him.

1172
00:55:13,520 --> 00:55:15,920
Speaker 2: I just it was tough, was authentic?

1173
00:55:16,080 --> 00:55:17,839
Speaker 1: Was that's the problem. That's what I'm saying. I don't

1174
00:55:17,840 --> 00:55:20,560
Speaker 1: think that's what I'm saying. So like Jesus Walks felt

1175
00:55:20,680 --> 00:55:23,759
Speaker 1: super authentic. It was like this is different life at

1176
00:55:23,800 --> 00:55:25,919
Speaker 1: the problem. I'm like, this is yay.

1177
00:55:26,320 --> 00:55:26,880
Speaker 2: Yeah.

1178
00:55:26,920 --> 00:55:29,040
Speaker 1: And then Sunday Service started happening. He had taken us

1179
00:55:29,040 --> 00:55:31,320
Speaker 1: a battle and it was like, oh, Sunday Service, He's okay,

1180
00:55:31,360 --> 00:55:33,480
Speaker 1: I get it. And then Jesus King is like, oh,

1181
00:55:33,960 --> 00:55:36,600
Speaker 1: this is what he's on now. But it really wasn't

1182
00:55:36,640 --> 00:55:38,560
Speaker 1: what he was in the moment he was on.

1183
00:55:38,480 --> 00:55:42,680
Speaker 4: That right, That's what I I think that's for anybody

1184
00:55:42,800 --> 00:55:48,480
Speaker 4: who first learned something, it's like they want to just

1185
00:55:49,239 --> 00:55:52,000
Speaker 4: they busting everybody over the head with whether they just

1186
00:55:52,760 --> 00:55:55,040
Speaker 4: you know what I'm saying, It's like, it's like you

1187
00:55:55,120 --> 00:55:57,799
Speaker 4: gotta take time to let that sit in and let

1188
00:55:57,840 --> 00:56:02,399
Speaker 4: it soak and let it process how to manifesting your

1189
00:56:02,520 --> 00:56:04,640
Speaker 4: day to day life, you know what I'm saying. Like

1190
00:56:04,920 --> 00:56:07,560
Speaker 4: when I first had my spiritual transition, I was coming

1191
00:56:07,560 --> 00:56:11,400
Speaker 4: home with my mom like yo, Ma, Ma, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.

1192
00:56:11,560 --> 00:56:13,680
Speaker 4: She was like, Yo, do you talk about anything else?

1193
00:56:14,440 --> 00:56:15,200
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying.

1194
00:56:15,480 --> 00:56:19,040
Speaker 4: And then my pastor at the time was like, stop

1195
00:56:19,280 --> 00:56:22,480
Speaker 4: talking to her about that and live it. I said,

1196
00:56:22,480 --> 00:56:25,920
Speaker 4: what you mean? He said, cut the grass, wash the dishes,

1197
00:56:26,640 --> 00:56:31,200
Speaker 4: like just live out the new joy you have and

1198
00:56:31,239 --> 00:56:33,960
Speaker 4: love for her. And I was like, oh, so then

1199
00:56:34,000 --> 00:56:37,040
Speaker 4: I just started serving her, loving her, being a good son.

1200
00:56:37,080 --> 00:56:39,439
Speaker 2: She's like, Yo, what happened to you? Y know what's

1201
00:56:39,480 --> 00:56:40,120
Speaker 2: going on with you?

1202
00:56:40,520 --> 00:56:43,680
Speaker 4: And it was that transition that she got to see

1203
00:56:43,760 --> 00:56:47,279
Speaker 4: versus me just and I feel like that's what I

1204
00:56:47,320 --> 00:56:52,880
Speaker 4: heard on Jesus King. It was just like, like, you know,

1205
00:56:53,320 --> 00:56:56,439
Speaker 4: this dogmatic, which we love Kanye for being dogmatic, right,

1206
00:56:56,719 --> 00:56:58,600
Speaker 4: but it was like, this, don't feel like you don't

1207
00:56:58,640 --> 00:57:02,160
Speaker 4: really you ain't steeped in this yet. It's like you

1208
00:57:02,400 --> 00:57:05,080
Speaker 4: just learning it and throwing it at us. And I

1209
00:57:05,080 --> 00:57:07,760
Speaker 4: would prefer to hear you talk about how your life

1210
00:57:07,800 --> 00:57:11,200
Speaker 4: looks in that time period, you know what I'm saying.

1211
00:57:11,239 --> 00:57:14,120
Speaker 4: Like Eminem, a lot of people don't know is a Christian,

1212
00:57:14,360 --> 00:57:16,080
Speaker 4: you know what I'm saying. But when he did the

1213
00:57:16,080 --> 00:57:20,120
Speaker 4: God the Joint on Callage album, you heard it, but

1214
00:57:20,160 --> 00:57:23,320
Speaker 4: he his content just kind of shifts a little bit.

1215
00:57:23,480 --> 00:57:25,600
Speaker 4: You know, he doesn't talk about the same, like I'm

1216
00:57:25,640 --> 00:57:29,200
Speaker 4: not killing people and stabbing eyeballs and drinking my mom's

1217
00:57:29,400 --> 00:57:30,480
Speaker 4: urine and all kinds.

1218
00:57:30,320 --> 00:57:32,040
Speaker 2: Of crazy stuff. You know what I'm saying.

1219
00:57:32,480 --> 00:57:35,320
Speaker 4: You could just hear like you maturing, you know what

1220
00:57:35,360 --> 00:57:37,440
Speaker 4: I'm saying. So I'm a fan of that.

1221
00:57:38,160 --> 00:57:40,520
Speaker 1: What are your thoughts about Hove when you talk about

1222
00:57:40,560 --> 00:57:43,080
Speaker 1: growth and journeys? Four four four is a grown man's

1223
00:57:43,120 --> 00:57:44,840
Speaker 1: album bro written testimony as well.

1224
00:57:44,880 --> 00:57:47,760
Speaker 2: No, yeah, yes, you know what I'm saying, Like.

1225
00:57:49,560 --> 00:57:53,439
Speaker 4: We need that as that's the other thing about hip hop,

1226
00:57:53,480 --> 00:57:56,120
Speaker 4: hip hop, don't be letting us grow up, you know

1227
00:57:56,160 --> 00:57:56,640
Speaker 4: what I'm saying.

1228
00:57:56,640 --> 00:57:59,200
Speaker 2: It's like it just like for everyone's to keep us

1229
00:57:59,240 --> 00:58:00,120
Speaker 2: as kids.

1230
00:58:00,880 --> 00:58:05,040
Speaker 4: And and I'm like, I think we need a new

1231
00:58:05,160 --> 00:58:06,479
Speaker 4: category or something we need.

1232
00:58:06,520 --> 00:58:09,440
Speaker 2: Like I think Nas has done a great job. He

1233
00:58:09,520 --> 00:58:11,920
Speaker 2: has a phenomenal job. I think Jay has done a

1234
00:58:11,920 --> 00:58:14,440
Speaker 2: great job. Yeah killing Mike, Yeah you know.

1235
00:58:15,680 --> 00:58:19,800
Speaker 3: Yeah, So I think even like a little Wayne, like

1236
00:58:19,840 --> 00:58:22,200
Speaker 3: you know you I don't know if the content of

1237
00:58:22,240 --> 00:58:24,400
Speaker 3: his music has changed, but you see he's changed, Like

1238
00:58:24,400 --> 00:58:25,880
Speaker 3: he's doing sports shows.

1239
00:58:25,560 --> 00:58:28,440
Speaker 2: Now and he's with his kids. It's like he's still.

1240
00:58:28,320 --> 00:58:32,840
Speaker 3: Little Wayne, but he's not the same little Wayne. In

1241
00:58:32,960 --> 00:58:35,320
Speaker 3: two thousand and two than he is twenty.

1242
00:58:35,480 --> 00:58:36,600
Speaker 1: The double cups have been put down.

1243
00:58:36,640 --> 00:58:39,640
Speaker 4: I think, yeah, hopefully, hopefully that's what I'm saying. We'll

1244
00:58:39,760 --> 00:58:41,880
Speaker 4: drink ourselves to death out here if we don't, which

1245
00:58:41,880 --> 00:58:42,240
Speaker 4: is true.

1246
00:58:42,360 --> 00:58:44,880
Speaker 1: Yeah, but it was just when you were saying that,

1247
00:58:44,920 --> 00:58:48,200
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about what may have killed rock and roll right,

1248
00:58:48,240 --> 00:58:50,240
Speaker 1: and like if you think you're from that era, So

1249
00:58:50,360 --> 00:58:52,960
Speaker 1: like when Kirk Cobain takes his life, yeah, that's a

1250
00:58:53,000 --> 00:58:56,120
Speaker 1: pivotal moment. Yeah, they lost us. This was the group,

1251
00:58:56,240 --> 00:58:58,720
Speaker 1: this was the star. But the hip hop we're losing

1252
00:58:58,760 --> 00:59:02,360
Speaker 1: those stars, like daily, every day we're losing them. The

1253
00:59:02,400 --> 00:59:05,560
Speaker 1: difference in rock and roll is that you're right, they age,

1254
00:59:05,680 --> 00:59:08,160
Speaker 1: and as they age, they're appreciated, they get the tour.

1255
00:59:08,480 --> 00:59:09,920
Speaker 1: We're starting to see that now in hip hop a

1256
00:59:09,960 --> 00:59:12,320
Speaker 1: little bit with like I know what e El's doing.

1257
00:59:12,360 --> 00:59:14,240
Speaker 1: I know he just put out music, but he's rocked

1258
00:59:14,240 --> 00:59:17,640
Speaker 1: the bells and it. But where's that next generation of

1259
00:59:17,640 --> 00:59:18,640
Speaker 1: people who are gonna.

1260
00:59:18,400 --> 00:59:20,000
Speaker 2: Be able to do it, to do that it's doing

1261
00:59:20,000 --> 00:59:20,360
Speaker 2: it now?

1262
00:59:20,640 --> 00:59:22,320
Speaker 1: No, No, the next generation.

1263
00:59:21,960 --> 00:59:23,920
Speaker 3: That's doing it now. Ja Cole gonna be here for

1264
00:59:23,920 --> 00:59:25,880
Speaker 3: a long time. Drake's gonna be here for long.

1265
00:59:25,920 --> 00:59:27,240
Speaker 1: So those guys are thirty nine to forty.

1266
00:59:27,240 --> 00:59:30,000
Speaker 3: You what I'm saying, that's the next generation after after

1267
00:59:30,520 --> 00:59:31,320
Speaker 3: j Cole Kendrick.

1268
00:59:31,320 --> 00:59:32,320
Speaker 1: You know, yeah, it's gonna be.

1269
00:59:32,520 --> 00:59:34,360
Speaker 2: That's the hard part is that's the little dirt conse

1270
00:59:34,360 --> 00:59:34,880
Speaker 2: of the world.

1271
00:59:35,480 --> 00:59:37,640
Speaker 4: And that's the hard part is I don't I don't

1272
00:59:37,680 --> 00:59:42,120
Speaker 4: know when it pertains to them because labels keep signing

1273
00:59:42,120 --> 00:59:45,760
Speaker 4: these jokers right off the block and the gun is

1274
00:59:45,800 --> 00:59:48,560
Speaker 4: still hot, you know what I'm saying. So they it's

1275
00:59:48,640 --> 00:59:52,800
Speaker 4: like there's no development, there's no isolation, there's no time

1276
00:59:52,840 --> 00:59:55,160
Speaker 4: to get away from the chaos.

1277
00:59:55,240 --> 00:59:57,160
Speaker 2: It's like your song is it hit?

1278
00:59:57,280 --> 00:59:59,480
Speaker 4: Like Bobby Murder. It's like, Yo, you hot, and now

1279
00:59:59,480 --> 01:00:01,080
Speaker 4: you're in prison. You know what I'm saying.

1280
01:00:01,280 --> 01:00:03,320
Speaker 2: Chef g you hot, Now you locked up? You know

1281
01:00:03,320 --> 01:00:03,640
Speaker 2: what I mean.

1282
01:00:03,680 --> 01:00:05,720
Speaker 4: It's just bang bang bang bang bang pop smoke you hot?

1283
01:00:05,760 --> 01:00:06,640
Speaker 2: Now now you're gone.

1284
01:00:07,400 --> 01:00:10,120
Speaker 4: And it's like, man, we just we need to insulate

1285
01:00:10,160 --> 01:00:12,240
Speaker 4: them a little bit, give him some game, like it's

1286
01:00:12,280 --> 01:00:15,480
Speaker 4: something different gotta happen, because they don't even get a

1287
01:00:15,840 --> 01:00:18,600
Speaker 4: chance to. They Frontal Low ain't even closed, you know

1288
01:00:18,640 --> 01:00:20,360
Speaker 4: what I'm saying. They not even getting a chance to

1289
01:00:20,440 --> 01:00:22,160
Speaker 4: mature and to grow in the process.

1290
01:00:22,360 --> 01:00:24,400
Speaker 3: Well, speaking about that, because you know a lot of

1291
01:00:24,400 --> 01:00:27,560
Speaker 3: that has to do with the home structure. Sure, and

1292
01:00:28,120 --> 01:00:30,360
Speaker 3: you said earlier in the show, like you didn't see

1293
01:00:30,360 --> 01:00:31,320
Speaker 3: it there for thirty years.

1294
01:00:31,480 --> 01:00:36,400
Speaker 2: Yeah, so how is that? What was that?

1295
01:00:36,520 --> 01:00:41,840
Speaker 3: Like, you know, reconnecting with him after a thirty year turnframe.

1296
01:00:42,000 --> 01:00:45,560
Speaker 4: I was fortunate to have been through therapy. So Jay

1297
01:00:45,600 --> 01:00:50,200
Speaker 4: actually got me Jay jay Z jay Z you know Jay,

1298
01:00:50,480 --> 01:00:52,480
Speaker 4: I met him once. He didn't get me to go

1299
01:00:53,280 --> 01:00:53,960
Speaker 4: by him tell.

1300
01:00:53,840 --> 01:00:57,320
Speaker 2: Them, oh, you listened to the listeners and whys Yeah,

1301
01:00:57,560 --> 01:00:58,240
Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying.

1302
01:00:58,760 --> 01:01:01,640
Speaker 4: But David Banner also so told me to go to

1303
01:01:01,680 --> 01:01:06,880
Speaker 4: therapy and so so therapy put me in a place

1304
01:01:06,920 --> 01:01:09,120
Speaker 4: where I was able to meet my dad and say,

1305
01:01:09,840 --> 01:01:13,320
Speaker 4: it's not about what you did, It's about what happened

1306
01:01:13,360 --> 01:01:13,640
Speaker 4: to you.

1307
01:01:14,160 --> 01:01:14,960
Speaker 2: What happened to him?

1308
01:01:15,040 --> 01:01:18,400
Speaker 4: Yes, what happened to you to make you this way?

1309
01:01:18,920 --> 01:01:22,680
Speaker 4: Cause this ain't just you just being a terrible human being.

1310
01:01:23,640 --> 01:01:26,040
Speaker 2: Something made you like this. Did you find him or

1311
01:01:26,080 --> 01:01:26,560
Speaker 2: he found you?

1312
01:01:26,800 --> 01:01:30,520
Speaker 4: I found him. I found him and me and my

1313
01:01:30,560 --> 01:01:31,840
Speaker 4: sister went to go meet him.

1314
01:01:32,400 --> 01:01:32,960
Speaker 2: My sisters.

1315
01:01:33,360 --> 01:01:35,680
Speaker 4: You know, I sit there and I ask him, I say, yo,

1316
01:01:36,160 --> 01:01:39,200
Speaker 4: how you feeling what's going on? And you know, he

1317
01:01:39,240 --> 01:01:41,320
Speaker 4: telling me some crazy stories. And then my sister's like,

1318
01:01:41,360 --> 01:01:43,320
Speaker 4: are you proud of him? Are you proud of your son?

1319
01:01:43,480 --> 01:01:45,920
Speaker 4: Like he's done all these things, like do you feel

1320
01:01:45,960 --> 01:01:47,680
Speaker 4: sorry that you wasn't in part.

1321
01:01:47,440 --> 01:01:51,240
Speaker 2: Of his life? Even following your journey? He hears about it,

1322
01:01:51,320 --> 01:01:51,880
Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying.

1323
01:01:51,920 --> 01:01:56,120
Speaker 4: So he taps in and when she asks him, are

1324
01:01:56,160 --> 01:01:59,520
Speaker 4: you sorry about it? He says, I never say sorry.

1325
01:01:59,520 --> 01:02:01,200
Speaker 4: That's a sorry word in the dictionary.

1326
01:02:02,080 --> 01:02:03,120
Speaker 2: My sister's pissed.

1327
01:02:04,120 --> 01:02:06,560
Speaker 4: I'm like, something made him this way, you know what

1328
01:02:06,600 --> 01:02:08,240
Speaker 4: I'm saying. So I just pry a little more. He

1329
01:02:08,280 --> 01:02:10,720
Speaker 4: starts telling me stories about his pops and you know,

1330
01:02:10,760 --> 01:02:12,560
Speaker 4: his pops passed aways, like when my pops went to

1331
01:02:12,640 --> 01:02:13,640
Speaker 4: Vietnam he came back.

1332
01:02:13,920 --> 01:02:15,880
Speaker 2: I didn't ask him how you feeling emotionally?

1333
01:02:16,000 --> 01:02:18,440
Speaker 4: And I got out the way and I was like, okay,

1334
01:02:18,440 --> 01:02:20,600
Speaker 4: this is what's shaping you as a human and why

1335
01:02:20,640 --> 01:02:23,120
Speaker 4: you engaging us in this way? And he was like,

1336
01:02:23,520 --> 01:02:25,320
Speaker 4: you know, God got y'all. I knew God was gonna

1337
01:02:25,320 --> 01:02:28,000
Speaker 4: take care of y'all. And it's like got you. I

1338
01:02:28,680 --> 01:02:30,800
Speaker 4: could be mad at you for this, but something made

1339
01:02:30,840 --> 01:02:32,400
Speaker 4: you this way, and I don't. You don't have the

1340
01:02:32,440 --> 01:02:35,760
Speaker 4: mental categories of the mental health to even process this information,

1341
01:02:35,880 --> 01:02:41,800
Speaker 4: right I do. So for me, it's like, oh, I

1342
01:02:41,800 --> 01:02:45,080
Speaker 4: don't need you to be my mentor in this season

1343
01:02:45,080 --> 01:02:47,040
Speaker 4: of my life. I just need to put my eyes on,

1344
01:02:47,080 --> 01:02:50,520
Speaker 4: you know, a little bit more about myself and maybe

1345
01:02:50,560 --> 01:02:53,840
Speaker 4: we can connect from time to time. But it's not

1346
01:02:53,880 --> 01:02:57,000
Speaker 4: gonna be healthy until you get some growth and maturity

1347
01:02:57,120 --> 01:02:58,360
Speaker 4: for you to be a part of all.

1348
01:02:58,400 --> 01:03:02,000
Speaker 3: So it wasn't like a Kumbaya no no, no. He's

1349
01:03:02,000 --> 01:03:04,360
Speaker 3: still firm on why he left.

1350
01:03:04,440 --> 01:03:06,720
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's like, yeah, man, y'all was gonna be straight,

1351
01:03:07,080 --> 01:03:08,400
Speaker 2: you know what I mean? Yeah?

1352
01:03:08,880 --> 01:03:10,440
Speaker 1: God got you? Yeah, God got you.

1353
01:03:10,960 --> 01:03:12,800
Speaker 2: Have you stayed in touch? Yeah, we stay in touch.

1354
01:03:12,880 --> 01:03:13,040
Speaker 1: You know.

1355
01:03:13,200 --> 01:03:15,880
Speaker 4: I'll hit him from time to time. You know, he's

1356
01:03:15,920 --> 01:03:17,840
Speaker 4: a very intelligent dude, reads a lot of books. But

1357
01:03:17,880 --> 01:03:19,360
Speaker 4: at the same time, it's like he hasn't done the

1358
01:03:19,400 --> 01:03:20,160
Speaker 4: work on himself.

1359
01:03:20,240 --> 01:03:23,400
Speaker 2: But how how did that affect you growing up? It's terrible.

1360
01:03:23,720 --> 01:03:24,360
Speaker 2: It was horrible.

1361
01:03:24,400 --> 01:03:26,480
Speaker 4: I didn't even realize how bad it messed me up,

1362
01:03:26,480 --> 01:03:27,280
Speaker 4: you know what I'm saying.

1363
01:03:27,080 --> 01:03:27,320
Speaker 1: Like.

1364
01:03:29,920 --> 01:03:35,000
Speaker 4: It it made me insecure, It made me, you know,

1365
01:03:35,600 --> 01:03:39,120
Speaker 4: always run to the affections of a different woman to

1366
01:03:39,160 --> 01:03:41,080
Speaker 4: try to feel something, you know what I mean. And

1367
01:03:41,120 --> 01:03:45,640
Speaker 4: then worst of all, I'm looking for a male figure

1368
01:03:45,800 --> 01:03:49,000
Speaker 4: to be like that leader for me. And the only

1369
01:03:49,080 --> 01:03:51,280
Speaker 4: men who were invested in me were my uncles who

1370
01:03:51,320 --> 01:03:53,120
Speaker 4: were gang members, you know what I mean. So it's

1371
01:03:53,200 --> 01:03:57,640
Speaker 4: like I'm just out here, like I'm not a.

1372
01:03:57,600 --> 01:03:59,640
Speaker 2: Man unless I join the gang. And you never wanted

1373
01:03:59,640 --> 01:04:07,360
Speaker 2: to join, so yes I did, but probably I wonder

1374
01:04:07,440 --> 01:04:07,840
Speaker 2: what y'all.

1375
01:04:07,840 --> 01:04:09,800
Speaker 4: I don't know y'all personal stories, but probably similar to

1376
01:04:09,880 --> 01:04:15,520
Speaker 4: y'all y'all probably are growing up around things, but you know, internally,

1377
01:04:15,600 --> 01:04:17,160
Speaker 4: like I'm a little different, that's not you.

1378
01:04:17,440 --> 01:04:20,520
Speaker 2: Yeah, I call myself a hangbanger, you know, not a

1379
01:04:20,560 --> 01:04:22,880
Speaker 2: gang banger. Like I'm hanging around the bangers. But I'm

1380
01:04:22,920 --> 01:04:27,280
Speaker 2: like all from hood and understand the streets, man, you

1381
01:04:27,280 --> 01:04:27,680
Speaker 2: know what I mean.

1382
01:04:27,720 --> 01:04:30,560
Speaker 4: I'm like, I'm like the same really, so when they

1383
01:04:30,600 --> 01:04:34,280
Speaker 4: start recruiting, that's when it got real for me. When

1384
01:04:34,320 --> 01:04:37,560
Speaker 4: when when I'm standing on the street corner and some

1385
01:04:37,640 --> 01:04:40,800
Speaker 4: of the ogs are like, hey, the rivals.

1386
01:04:40,520 --> 01:04:43,800
Speaker 2: Keep coming through here shooting up. This is y'all's gun.

1387
01:04:44,400 --> 01:04:46,960
Speaker 2: Y'all share it. Some pop off y'all start shooting back.

1388
01:04:47,000 --> 01:04:50,000
Speaker 4: Now, what we didn't know was we're thirteen, Like this

1389
01:04:50,080 --> 01:04:54,960
Speaker 4: is them trying to, you know, let the people who

1390
01:04:55,080 --> 01:04:57,480
Speaker 4: not gonna do prison time do the shooting. You know

1391
01:04:57,520 --> 01:04:59,760
Speaker 4: what I'm saying, Like this is a little manipulative, but

1392
01:05:00,760 --> 01:05:03,840
Speaker 4: we feeling like, oh, they like this is you know,

1393
01:05:04,080 --> 01:05:05,840
Speaker 4: like right of passage.

1394
01:05:06,800 --> 01:05:11,200
Speaker 2: And that moment for me was like, y'all don't see

1395
01:05:11,200 --> 01:05:13,640
Speaker 2: what's happening. Like I could see it. I could peep it.

1396
01:05:14,320 --> 01:05:16,720
Speaker 4: And I was like, I ain't even mad at these

1397
01:05:16,760 --> 01:05:19,320
Speaker 4: other dudes that much to take their life. And that's

1398
01:05:19,320 --> 01:05:21,240
Speaker 4: when I was like, I just know I got a future.

1399
01:05:21,280 --> 01:05:22,960
Speaker 4: I feel like I got more of a future than this.

1400
01:05:23,480 --> 01:05:28,120
Speaker 4: So honestly, for the second half of my life, I

1401
01:05:28,240 --> 01:05:31,600
Speaker 4: felt embarrassed and less of a man because I didn't

1402
01:05:31,600 --> 01:05:32,400
Speaker 4: do the prison time.

1403
01:05:33,000 --> 01:05:35,200
Speaker 2: I didn't, you know, join the.

1404
01:05:35,240 --> 01:05:39,000
Speaker 4: Set and I go back to the Hood and they're like,

1405
01:05:39,040 --> 01:05:40,640
Speaker 4: what's up, og, And I'm like.

1406
01:05:42,640 --> 01:05:44,800
Speaker 2: Talking to me and they're like, yeah, you put the

1407
01:05:44,800 --> 01:05:46,800
Speaker 2: Hood on the map, bro, you did it.

1408
01:05:46,880 --> 01:05:49,480
Speaker 4: Dah da dah And I'm like that's crazy because I

1409
01:05:49,520 --> 01:05:52,080
Speaker 4: thought I had to do it that way and I

1410
01:05:52,120 --> 01:05:57,240
Speaker 4: did it a different way. And man, it's just a

1411
01:05:57,440 --> 01:05:58,920
Speaker 4: you know, that's some of the trauma that we deal

1412
01:05:58,920 --> 01:05:59,800
Speaker 4: with as black men.

1413
01:06:00,160 --> 01:06:03,760
Speaker 1: But yeah, in that story, as a young man, the

1414
01:06:03,800 --> 01:06:06,920
Speaker 1: story you meet your dad, I hear faith being tested,

1415
01:06:07,320 --> 01:06:10,160
Speaker 1: for sure, over and over again. Sure, talk about the

1416
01:06:10,240 --> 01:06:12,640
Speaker 1: response to that, because a lot of times we don't

1417
01:06:12,680 --> 01:06:15,080
Speaker 1: know how to handle it when we're being tested. We're

1418
01:06:15,080 --> 01:06:17,600
Speaker 1: not even aware of it till after. Yeah, for sure,

1419
01:06:17,720 --> 01:06:18,200
Speaker 1: talk about that.

1420
01:06:18,560 --> 01:06:19,200
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think.

1421
01:06:20,960 --> 01:06:24,680
Speaker 4: The beauty of my relationship with God and my faith,

1422
01:06:24,760 --> 01:06:27,640
Speaker 4: man is that I know to whom much is given,

1423
01:06:28,120 --> 01:06:32,000
Speaker 4: much is required, and to whom much is forgiven, much

1424
01:06:32,080 --> 01:06:38,480
Speaker 4: is required. So I know the dirt that I have done,

1425
01:06:38,760 --> 01:06:41,520
Speaker 4: I know the chaos that I've caused, and I know

1426
01:06:41,560 --> 01:06:43,919
Speaker 4: I've been forgiven. So for me to meet my dad,

1427
01:06:43,960 --> 01:06:47,360
Speaker 4: it was like, Man, I don't been forgiven.

1428
01:06:46,920 --> 01:06:48,480
Speaker 2: For so much, you know what I'm saying.

1429
01:06:48,600 --> 01:06:52,320
Speaker 4: And and God, if God can forgive me, how can

1430
01:06:52,320 --> 01:06:58,040
Speaker 4: I not forgive this man. Forgiveness doesn't necessarily mean we connected,

1431
01:06:58,640 --> 01:06:59,240
Speaker 4: you know what I'm saying.

1432
01:06:59,240 --> 01:07:00,120
Speaker 2: What it means is I'm not.

1433
01:07:00,160 --> 01:07:03,200
Speaker 4: Harboring ill will towards you. I don't want nothing negative

1434
01:07:03,240 --> 01:07:06,280
Speaker 4: for you. I'm not holding no bitterness. It doesn't mean we're.

1435
01:07:06,120 --> 01:07:07,600
Speaker 2: About to hang out in kumba Ya.

1436
01:07:07,920 --> 01:07:11,640
Speaker 4: It just means, you know what, I could be mad

1437
01:07:11,840 --> 01:07:14,439
Speaker 4: and carry this bitterness pill, but I want to get better,

1438
01:07:14,520 --> 01:07:14,960
Speaker 4: not bitter.

1439
01:07:15,240 --> 01:07:15,919
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying.

1440
01:07:16,160 --> 01:07:18,960
Speaker 4: I want to not that's not gonna help me. So

1441
01:07:19,080 --> 01:07:22,640
Speaker 4: let me love you from afar, you know what I'm saying,

1442
01:07:22,800 --> 01:07:27,480
Speaker 4: and forgive you and move on with my life. And that's,

1443
01:07:27,880 --> 01:07:29,120
Speaker 4: you know, just a part of the journey.

1444
01:07:29,200 --> 01:07:30,720
Speaker 1: It's anohing man, trying to get to heaven.

1445
01:07:30,880 --> 01:07:35,680
Speaker 4: You feel me like, yeah, man, facts, it's like, yeah, he.

1446
01:07:34,720 --> 01:07:36,439
Speaker 2: He doing what he can or what he got.

1447
01:07:36,760 --> 01:07:39,120
Speaker 4: And you know what I'm saying, hopefully you know what

1448
01:07:39,160 --> 01:07:41,880
Speaker 4: I'm saying that that that helps him to see like, yo,

1449
01:07:41,960 --> 01:07:44,080
Speaker 4: my son didn't even come at me crazy like he

1450
01:07:44,120 --> 01:07:46,560
Speaker 4: didn't he came at me carrying. I'm not trying to

1451
01:07:46,600 --> 01:07:48,680
Speaker 4: be an enabler either, though. I'm not trying to be like,

1452
01:07:49,560 --> 01:07:51,400
Speaker 4: hey man, well you know, let's just get to get

1453
01:07:51,440 --> 01:07:53,720
Speaker 4: like cause I got cousins who've been in and out

1454
01:07:53,720 --> 01:07:55,600
Speaker 4: of the prison system and on and off drugs, and

1455
01:07:55,640 --> 01:07:57,480
Speaker 4: it's like I'd have been through that where I'm like,

1456
01:07:58,280 --> 01:08:00,280
Speaker 4: I'm not putting on more money in books, bro, because

1457
01:08:00,280 --> 01:08:02,040
Speaker 4: now I'm enabling you. You know what I'm saying. You're

1458
01:08:02,080 --> 01:08:03,919
Speaker 4: not trying to get better, you know what I'm saying.

1459
01:08:03,960 --> 01:08:06,480
Speaker 4: But if you're trying to do right, get better, I'm

1460
01:08:06,520 --> 01:08:06,840
Speaker 4: with it.

1461
01:08:07,720 --> 01:08:10,520
Speaker 2: So what's next? What's next? As far as the label?

1462
01:08:10,840 --> 01:08:13,920
Speaker 3: Yeah, any big initiatives that you're working on, like what's

1463
01:08:14,000 --> 01:08:15,240
Speaker 3: what's what's the plans? Man?

1464
01:08:15,400 --> 01:08:18,919
Speaker 2: Just for me? You know, it's legacy.

1465
01:08:18,960 --> 01:08:23,439
Speaker 4: You know, legacy is more than inheritance, what you leave

1466
01:08:23,439 --> 01:08:26,040
Speaker 4: two people. Legacy is what you leave in people. So

1467
01:08:26,080 --> 01:08:27,840
Speaker 4: it's like, man, just trying to leave legacy and folks,

1468
01:08:27,880 --> 01:08:31,519
Speaker 4: but also inheritance. I love creating opportunities for other people. Man,

1469
01:08:31,560 --> 01:08:34,200
Speaker 4: I want to be my ceiling, be someone else's floor.

1470
01:08:34,800 --> 01:08:37,800
Speaker 4: So obviously the label, you know, signing. We got a

1471
01:08:37,800 --> 01:08:39,880
Speaker 4: few new artists we signed. I'm putting out new music.

1472
01:08:39,960 --> 01:08:42,559
Speaker 4: Of course, for me, I still put out music. I

1473
01:08:42,560 --> 01:08:47,240
Speaker 4: still enjoy it. Funny that the next single that I'm

1474
01:08:47,320 --> 01:08:51,800
Speaker 4: dropping is a song that was written the hook and

1475
01:08:51,840 --> 01:08:54,560
Speaker 4: the production was for Kanye because they thought he was

1476
01:08:54,600 --> 01:08:58,880
Speaker 4: on that page, but he switched. So there's like, we

1477
01:08:58,920 --> 01:09:01,240
Speaker 4: ain't got you know, you want these records? I was

1478
01:09:01,240 --> 01:09:05,120
Speaker 4: like absolutely, So the records are crazy.

1479
01:09:05,320 --> 01:09:07,360
Speaker 2: The next one you know is on the way.

1480
01:09:08,960 --> 01:09:10,880
Speaker 4: And then man, just you know, the reason why I

1481
01:09:10,920 --> 01:09:13,000
Speaker 4: was excited to connect with you was because.

1482
01:09:14,840 --> 01:09:20,200
Speaker 2: I'm big into investing. I'm big into you know, diversifying stocks.

1483
01:09:21,520 --> 01:09:23,160
Speaker 2: You know VC.

1484
01:09:23,400 --> 01:09:26,879
Speaker 4: I'm part of Collab Capital, which is a fund in Atlanta.

1485
01:09:26,920 --> 01:09:30,599
Speaker 4: You know, we raised fifty mail for black entrepreneurs in

1486
01:09:30,600 --> 01:09:36,360
Speaker 4: the city, black founders, and for me. I want artists

1487
01:09:36,400 --> 01:09:38,200
Speaker 4: to know, you're like an athlete, you only have a

1488
01:09:38,200 --> 01:09:42,360
Speaker 4: certain window of earning opportunity. So you've got to diversify

1489
01:09:42,439 --> 01:09:47,680
Speaker 4: when you're at the peak of your earning, you know capacity.

1490
01:09:47,800 --> 01:09:49,720
Speaker 4: And so there was one point in time I'm still

1491
01:09:49,720 --> 01:09:53,519
Speaker 4: doing great as an artist, but there was one point

1492
01:09:53,520 --> 01:09:55,040
Speaker 4: in time I had a number one album in the country.

1493
01:09:55,120 --> 01:09:56,960
Speaker 4: If I was if I would have just lived like

1494
01:09:57,000 --> 01:10:01,519
Speaker 4: that for the remainder of my career, I wouldn't, you know.

1495
01:10:01,680 --> 01:10:05,320
Speaker 4: So I just learning how to invest. Educating folks. That's

1496
01:10:05,360 --> 01:10:07,960
Speaker 4: a big piece of what I'm what I'm about now.

1497
01:10:08,000 --> 01:10:11,360
Speaker 4: So I'm always even you know, Flex, I'm always telling him, like,

1498
01:10:12,840 --> 01:10:14,439
Speaker 4: you don't work for me, I'm your client.

1499
01:10:14,960 --> 01:10:16,400
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying. I want all my artists,

1500
01:10:16,400 --> 01:10:18,519
Speaker 2: I want all my employees to see me as a client.

1501
01:10:18,520 --> 01:10:19,360
Speaker 2: You're an entrepreneur.

1502
01:10:19,400 --> 01:10:24,040
Speaker 4: This is your your thing. I'm your client. You're building something,

1503
01:10:24,280 --> 01:10:27,080
Speaker 4: you know, use what I have to build whatever it

1504
01:10:27,120 --> 01:10:28,800
Speaker 4: is that that you feel like you need to do.

1505
01:10:29,000 --> 01:10:32,040
Speaker 4: And so yeah, more of those types of things. Man,

1506
01:10:33,160 --> 01:10:34,880
Speaker 4: that's really what my where my headspace is.

1507
01:10:36,680 --> 01:10:38,840
Speaker 3: Well, how can the people stay in touch as far

1508
01:10:38,880 --> 01:10:42,160
Speaker 3: as you know, website, Instagram, make sure.

1509
01:10:42,040 --> 01:10:42,880
Speaker 2: You tap in with me.

1510
01:10:42,960 --> 01:10:44,800
Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying, at LA Craze, l E

1511
01:10:44,880 --> 01:10:48,639
Speaker 4: c r AE, social media, follow me, I'll take you somewhere.

1512
01:10:48,720 --> 01:10:49,280
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying.

1513
01:10:49,280 --> 01:10:52,920
Speaker 4: Catch me probably at every investments in the future.

1514
01:10:54,560 --> 01:10:57,599
Speaker 1: Too, you know what I'm saying.

1515
01:10:58,240 --> 01:10:59,720
Speaker 2: Yeah, man, so just stay tacked in.

1516
01:11:00,080 --> 01:11:03,639
Speaker 3: Have you done anything with like you talked about like church,

1517
01:11:03,720 --> 01:11:06,439
Speaker 3: Have you done anything like as the collapse, like any

1518
01:11:06,520 --> 01:11:07,599
Speaker 3: like the mega churches?

1519
01:11:10,280 --> 01:11:13,479
Speaker 4: Not not necessarily, you know what I'm saying. Like I've

1520
01:11:13,520 --> 01:11:18,320
Speaker 4: done like interactions and certain things like that where we'll

1521
01:11:18,360 --> 01:11:22,600
Speaker 4: partner on on a few things. I partner would experience

1522
01:11:23,520 --> 01:11:28,759
Speaker 4: to do some financial literacy programs and you know, obviously

1523
01:11:28,800 --> 01:11:31,040
Speaker 4: we we targeted some churches for that.

1524
01:11:32,120 --> 01:11:34,720
Speaker 2: My pastor, he was.

1525
01:11:34,680 --> 01:11:37,600
Speaker 4: Actually a financial advisor, so he's on Instagram as a

1526
01:11:37,600 --> 01:11:41,439
Speaker 4: stewardship coach, and you know, we we got some talks

1527
01:11:41,560 --> 01:11:43,560
Speaker 4: about doing some stuff cause he's pretty big church in

1528
01:11:43,560 --> 01:11:46,519
Speaker 4: Atlanta as well, and that's why I knew about that

1529
01:11:46,520 --> 01:11:52,320
Speaker 4: series seven and a whole. But but yeah, man, just

1530
01:11:52,479 --> 01:11:54,280
Speaker 4: you know, I just want people to be educated, especially

1531
01:11:54,320 --> 01:11:56,480
Speaker 4: our people. And if and if if a if a

1532
01:11:56,520 --> 01:11:59,360
Speaker 4: portion of our people are in the churches, how do

1533
01:11:59,400 --> 01:12:02,120
Speaker 4: we disciminate that information to them?

1534
01:12:02,680 --> 01:12:05,479
Speaker 1: You are the probably the I mean easily the most

1535
01:12:05,479 --> 01:12:09,880
Speaker 1: well known faith based hip hop artists. Who do you

1536
01:12:09,920 --> 01:12:13,160
Speaker 1: see out there right now? That's like, I like what

1537
01:12:13,200 --> 01:12:15,439
Speaker 1: they're doing that signed to you and not signed to

1538
01:12:15,479 --> 01:12:17,240
Speaker 1: you like the're the next one coming up.

1539
01:12:17,920 --> 01:12:21,280
Speaker 4: I mean, I think everybody has different iterations and different

1540
01:12:21,280 --> 01:12:24,400
Speaker 4: like aspects of what I do or what I see

1541
01:12:24,479 --> 01:12:27,360
Speaker 4: that I love, you know what I'm saying. So I think,

1542
01:12:27,560 --> 01:12:29,000
Speaker 4: you know, like I said, I got one k few

1543
01:12:29,760 --> 01:12:31,759
Speaker 4: the streets love them, you know what I mean. He's

1544
01:12:31,800 --> 01:12:34,000
Speaker 4: able to connect with the streets and the culture and

1545
01:12:34,040 --> 01:12:36,680
Speaker 4: the church in a way that I felt like I

1546
01:12:36,720 --> 01:12:39,960
Speaker 4: was able to do, you know, my guy hovies. The

1547
01:12:40,040 --> 01:12:43,800
Speaker 4: artistic capabilities and blending that all that together is incredible.

1548
01:12:44,760 --> 01:12:47,439
Speaker 2: But the person that I see like is like, oh,

1549
01:12:47,640 --> 01:12:48,639
Speaker 2: this dude gets it.

1550
01:12:48,680 --> 01:12:51,160
Speaker 4: Is my guy KB and you know he was signed

1551
01:12:51,160 --> 01:12:55,120
Speaker 4: to me, but you know he gets it so much.

1552
01:12:55,160 --> 01:12:56,880
Speaker 4: He's like, nah, I'm gonna do my own thing now.

1553
01:12:57,080 --> 01:12:58,960
Speaker 4: You know, started his own clothing.

1554
01:13:00,160 --> 01:13:02,040
Speaker 2: Supply company.

1555
01:13:02,120 --> 01:13:06,240
Speaker 4: So he like does fulfillment for other artists, you know,

1556
01:13:06,240 --> 01:13:09,880
Speaker 4: because he learned that game and he just he gets it,

1557
01:13:09,960 --> 01:13:11,280
Speaker 4: and I'm like, you get it.

1558
01:13:11,600 --> 01:13:14,479
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean yeah, thank you for joining us.

1559
01:13:14,479 --> 01:13:16,960
Speaker 4: Brother, absolutely man man, I appreciate you.

1560
01:13:17,000 --> 01:13:19,200
Speaker 2: Thank You's rock onners. We see you next week. Peace.

1561
01:13:20,160 --> 01:13:23,800
Speaker 5: An illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child

1562
01:13:23,880 --> 01:13:27,680
Speaker 5: in Massachusetts. An MS thirteen gang member from Al Salvador

1563
01:13:27,920 --> 01:13:32,040
Speaker 5: accused of murdering a Texas. Man of Venezuelan charged with

1564
01:13:32,120 --> 01:13:36,040
Speaker 5: filming and selling child pornography in Michigan. These are just

1565
01:13:36,120 --> 01:13:39,879
Speaker 5: some of the heinous migrant criminals caught because of President

1566
01:13:39,920 --> 01:13:43,519
Speaker 5: Donald J. Trump's leadership. I'm Christy Noman, the United States

1567
01:13:43,520 --> 01:13:48,320
Speaker 5: Secretary of Homeland Security. Under President Trump, attempted illegal border

1568
01:13:48,360 --> 01:13:51,880
Speaker 5: crossings are at the lowest levels ever recorded, and over

1569
01:13:51,960 --> 01:13:55,160
Speaker 5: one hundred thousand illegal aliens have been arrested. If you

1570
01:13:55,240 --> 01:13:59,080
Speaker 5: are here illegally, your next you will be fine. Nearly

1571
01:13:59,160 --> 01:14:02,880
Speaker 5: one thousand dollars dollars a day. Imprisoned and deported, you

1572
01:14:02,960 --> 01:14:06,519
Speaker 5: will never return. But if you register using our CBP

1573
01:14:06,680 --> 01:14:09,400
Speaker 5: home app and leave now, you could be allowed to

1574
01:14:09,439 --> 01:14:14,280
Speaker 5: return legally. Do what's right. Leave now. Under President Trump

1575
01:14:14,439 --> 01:14:18,040
Speaker 5: America's laws, border and families will be protected.

1576
01:14:18,120 --> 01:14:20,280
Speaker 2: Sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security,