Speaker 1: Request Left show is a production of iHeart Radio. Actually
Speaker 1: I did have like, you know, the typical multi hyphen
Speaker 1: it achievement.
Speaker 2: Scroll for you.
Speaker 1: But we were kind of mid small talk conversation. Go ahead,
Speaker 1: finish what you were saying and then I will introduce
Speaker 1: you as if you need introduction, But go ahead.
Speaker 2: Well, first off, it's an honor to be here. Good sir,
Speaker 2: mister Love you know, mister Rock, how are you? Oh man?
Speaker 2: Never better man? Like I was saying before, I'm gonna
Speaker 2: let you do your lass introduction. But we were just
Speaker 2: talking about trying to keep the chee the energy functually
Speaker 2: in one room. So I was just, you know, explaining
Speaker 2: to you how I can't even sleep without a night
Speaker 2: light and all the doors close. Where does that come from? From?
Speaker 2: A fortune cookie? It said, the ones you love, even
Speaker 2: the ones that's not here with you, are always looking
Speaker 2: over you. Oh I believe that. I'm like even when
Speaker 2: I'm in the bathroom, like, oh dude, I'm okay.
Speaker 1: So I had a medium situation like I was gifted
Speaker 1: a medium for my fiftieth birthday and a shout out
Speaker 1: to Larlen Jackson.
Speaker 2: Which is like a type of like psychic ability.
Speaker 1: Well yeah, I mean initially I thought it was something
Speaker 1: closer to like what will be Goldberg was on and
Speaker 1: Ghosts and Ghosts. But yeah, Larlen Jackson is I knew
Speaker 1: nothing of that world and she has like the most
Speaker 1: popular Netflix show or whatever. I was gifted her for
Speaker 1: my birthday and the stuff she was communicating to me.
Speaker 1: As far as the ancestors that are walking with us
Speaker 1: right now, yes they're amongst us.
Speaker 2: That's exactly why that center scene is so epic. Yes right, yes,
Speaker 2: yes it is, so make that introduction all right, Here
Speaker 2: we go.
Speaker 1: Our guest has redefined the landscape of music and fashion,
Speaker 1: most notably perception of New York City in terms of
Speaker 1: culture hip hop of course, but just beyond that, I
Speaker 1: can attest that his critically acclaimed albums, notably.
Speaker 2: Long Live Ave Sep.
Speaker 1: And I will say that at Long Last A Sep,
Speaker 1: It's good to finally have this conversation with you, because
Speaker 1: for Tarik Black thought, at Long Last a Sap was
Speaker 1: always his backstage ritual.
Speaker 2: What oh dude, get the fuck up?
Speaker 1: I think even by osmosis, like I know everything by heart,
Speaker 1: Like what.
Speaker 2: Literally I mean you played drums on the Feudals when
Speaker 2: we did right Jimmy Fallon back in the day.
Speaker 1: But yeah, yeah, no, no, no, no, massive, massive man,
Speaker 1: massive maan. But I'll basically say that our guest today
Speaker 1: has really been.
Speaker 2: The paradigm shift of the culture of hip hop.
Speaker 1: I'll say that you'll probably believe the last Mohican of
Speaker 1: the mixtape rappers now that we're totally in the streaming era.
Speaker 2: Of course, you co shared.
Speaker 1: The met Galla, my second one. I was on it,
Speaker 1: the super fun Tailor in Black style. Not to mention
Speaker 1: pushing boundaries and your acting starting in Spike and Denzel's
Speaker 1: highest to Lewis, I love Roseburne to death, so I
Speaker 1: believe that she's going to have an oscar and her
Speaker 1: collection for if I had legs.
Speaker 2: I kick you. She deserves it.
Speaker 1: You're currently serving creative director right now for power Asse
Speaker 1: brands like Ray Band and Puma, and now you're right
Speaker 1: on the cusp of your next journey in music, curious title.
Speaker 1: Don't be dumb. I like this and I don't know.
Speaker 1: I'm just so excited to have you here a sev
Speaker 1: Rocky coming to the Quest Love Show.
Speaker 2: Thank you man, thank you for having me. Brother. How
Speaker 2: are you all right?
Speaker 1: So I want to know what's the first thing you
Speaker 1: did in the first half hour of your day to day.
Speaker 2: I usually wake up, brush my teeth, check my phone,
Speaker 2: show my kids. That's how I started my day, you know,
Speaker 2: not in any particular order, but it varies, like one day,
Speaker 2: depending if it's like if I go to sleep busy,
Speaker 2: wake up busy, sort of like this week and next week,
Speaker 2: I wake up and I just answer whatever emails and
Speaker 2: text messages I forgot to the previous night, and you know,
Speaker 2: I just go see my you know, get my common sake,
Speaker 2: converse with my lady, and go see my kids in
Speaker 2: their rooms.
Speaker 1: And you know, now that you're about to release this record,
Speaker 1: it's the cycle different now, like are you in promotion
Speaker 1: mode right now?
Speaker 2: Or yeah, I'm in promotion mode, man, And it's like
Speaker 2: now I just I wake up and get straight to it.
Speaker 2: I try to go for like a job, hit the
Speaker 2: gym and get my mind right, you know, hit the sauna,
Speaker 2: sweat out. Were you born in Harlem?
Speaker 1: Now I'm just finding out that you were also Pennsylvania residence.
Speaker 2: When did this happen? So? I was born and raised
Speaker 2: in Harlem and Bronx the Bronx New York and when
Speaker 2: I was around eight nine years old, I moved to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania,
Speaker 2: well actually Hershey rather for a Pennsylvanian, then in Dauphin County.
Speaker 2: Then I was living in harris back and forth from
Speaker 2: New York to Harrisburg, North Carolina, places like that. But
Speaker 2: I might have lived in PA for about like I
Speaker 2: would say a significant amount of time, maybe like six years,
Speaker 2: you know, five six. When I was a.
Speaker 1: Kid, going to Hershey Park was always like a treat,
Speaker 1: you know, like if you get a good report card,
Speaker 1: if something will take you to Hershey. I'm you know,
Speaker 1: I'm a Philadelphia and so always there. So were you
Speaker 1: a Hershey Park regular.
Speaker 2: Or regular that chocolate factory smelling all the cocoa and city,
Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying. It's just a crazy experience
Speaker 2: when you know, they measure the kids off of like
Speaker 2: different candies, right, So it's like if you really short,
Speaker 2: you like a Twizzler, and if you toiler in that,
Speaker 2: you're a reces. If you toiler in that, you're Hershey's
Speaker 2: Hershey's chalkol. Like I think it's the smallest is a
Speaker 2: kiss Hershey kiss man? You bringing back memories and you're
Speaker 2: making me hungry right now. I say, what.
Speaker 1: Are your fond memories of Harlem? Or did you have
Speaker 1: fond memories of Harlem?
Speaker 2: Lots of fun memories, man, I mean to this day.
Speaker 2: I was just in Harlem yesterday out of school and
Speaker 2: you know, just chilling with the kids for some fourth graders,
Speaker 2: teaching them how to rap. I love Harlem, man. Right
Speaker 2: after that, I want to go see my grandmother three
Speaker 2: blocks away from there. Chill well, health for the rest
Speaker 2: of the night. You know, Harlem is just in my DNA.
Speaker 2: What I picked up from Harlem. It made me a
Speaker 2: renaissance man, you know what I'm saying. Yeah, Harlem is
Speaker 2: the shit man. It's just so much culture to adopt
Speaker 2: from and adapt to, you.
Speaker 1: Know, you know, for all the boroughs I meant. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm pushing my twentieth year of kind of denying that
Speaker 1: I'm a New Yorker. I think one I asked to
Speaker 1: live here for twenty years at least ten.
Speaker 2: Well, you were born here, so you're native New York.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, I've you know, I'm pushing year eighteen.
Speaker 1: So you know, Philadelphia is a very jealous city, so
Speaker 1: I at least do twenty years before I do it.
Speaker 2: So this is how you measure a different like, you know,
Speaker 2: being able to like claim a different region. Right, Okay,
Speaker 2: you take your age, okay, and you say, with my age,
Speaker 2: you know, was I living you know, in this location
Speaker 2: for predominantly more than you know this location? And so
Speaker 2: say if you're like thirty years old, right, and if
Speaker 2: you've been living in Philly for fifteen years, in New
Speaker 2: York for fifteen years, I mean right, this it's a
Speaker 2: little toss up. But say if you're living in New
Speaker 2: York for sixteen years, Philly for fifteen I think you
Speaker 2: can claim New York.
Speaker 1: All right, give me, give me, give me four your dog.
Speaker 1: You you already know Philly is known for booing.
Speaker 2: I can't. I don't want to do it. You want
Speaker 2: no trouble man.
Speaker 1: So I used to scratch my head often. And you'll
Speaker 1: hear this about like sports cats, like basketball dudes, and
Speaker 1: even like some rappers I know where, you know, especially
Speaker 1: in the eighties and nineties, like they would go back
Speaker 1: to their old projects, or they would go back to
Speaker 1: their old neighborhood and whatever, and I'd be like, why
Speaker 1: would you ever want to return there? But then one
Speaker 1: day I started doing that where I'll just get in
Speaker 1: a car, I will drive down the Philly and just
Speaker 1: look at ghosts or like old neighborhoods or whatever. Now
Speaker 1: that Harlem is what I.
Speaker 2: Think it is. I mean, you know, it's very gentified.
Speaker 2: So totally yeah.
Speaker 1: I was going to say, like super gentrified. Not my
Speaker 1: block though, can you still go home?
Speaker 2: Or is it just not the same anymore? Oh man,
Speaker 2: nothing is the same. Everything changes, right, But I'll say this,
Speaker 2: I think the older I get significantly, I have this
Speaker 2: kind of innate passion to you know, kind of go
Speaker 2: back to with or started. So at the end of
Speaker 2: the day, let me give you a prime example, Like
Speaker 2: if you were like, how were you when you first
Speaker 2: got your first record deal and you guys like blew up,
Speaker 2: that was twenty two, all right, So if you were
Speaker 2: twenty two when you left the block talking about chilling
Speaker 2: with God, Like depending on the type of person you are,
Speaker 2: but like typically chilling on a block, friends, cousins, whatever
Speaker 2: it is doing you know, block activity, right, chilling, smoking, drinking, joking, rolling, dice,
Speaker 2: holing at you know, girls or whatever the case is. Right,
Speaker 2: when you actually find you know, success in what you
Speaker 2: like doing and it keeps you preoccupied. Subsequently, it is
Speaker 2: a period of your time or a moment where you
Speaker 2: kind of outgrow those activities. Rightfully, so, right but I
Speaker 2: haven't been a teenager for almost going on twenty years now.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying, I'll be forty in three years.
Speaker 2: You believe that shit, you know.
Speaker 1: So it's a good thing, yeah, because most of us
Speaker 1: never make it past that line.
Speaker 2: For sure. I know I look twenty six, but I'm
Speaker 2: honest with you. I thought you're still eighteen. But you know,
Speaker 2: I'll take it as a compliment. But you know, at
Speaker 2: the end of the day, I just let me give
Speaker 2: you an example. Like my grandmother refuses to move out
Speaker 2: of Harlem. She's a true from Barbados. First place she
Speaker 2: moved to was Harlem, back and forth from the Bronx
Speaker 2: to Harlem. She refuses to move out of her building.
Speaker 2: Everybody's like a community, and it's still like a community,
Speaker 2: you know, neighbors, neighborhood. So you want to upgrade her,
Speaker 2: but she still insists, She insists she you know, I
Speaker 2: love how humble she is. I just paid the rent
Speaker 2: for everybody in her building this month and shoutouts to build,
Speaker 2: and you know they were also graceful and thankful and
Speaker 2: just appreciative. But the point I'm making is I'm in
Speaker 2: position to go back there now to do something that
Speaker 2: is actually, you know, fundamentally positive in a sense, opposed
Speaker 2: to me just going back and doing the same old ship. Right.
Speaker 2: So I went to drop her off last summer, I
Speaker 2: was she was at my hotel and I went to
Speaker 2: drop off me and a couple of family members. And
Speaker 2: you know, not the brag. You know, I don't go
Speaker 2: when I go to hallm I take the train or
Speaker 2: I take like an anonymous that much. Yeah, yeah, you
Speaker 2: know what I mean, because I don't want to hurt nobody,
Speaker 2: Like why would I do that. I'm glad you said that.
Speaker 2: I still have my first car and it's raggedy. Is
Speaker 2: I have a sign man? You like Warren Buffett dog like? Okay,
Speaker 2: So I'm glad you do that. I get the significance
Speaker 2: of it. And that's the word of to day significance.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna use that a lot. But you know, I
Speaker 2: think every time I do that, we got to take
Speaker 2: a sip of tea or something like every significant got
Speaker 2: some coconut water? Is I can tell man, looking cloudy
Speaker 2: is good for you. So when I come through, I
Speaker 2: don't want to flex. Yeah, I don't want to do
Speaker 2: a lot. I gotta keep it pushing brose for you
Speaker 2: to blend in hell no, look at me. Well, I mean,
Speaker 2: but that's the thing. Would you roll in this mood
Speaker 2: to Harlem all the time? But I take the train.
Speaker 2: I put a pool shisty on. I take the train.
Speaker 2: Sometimes I'm by myself, sometimes I'm with security. I take
Speaker 2: the train and keep myself grounded. Gotcha, it's not even
Speaker 2: like trying to be cool and shit. I take yellow taxis,
Speaker 2: you know, because like Ubers, they do wear shit sometimes
Speaker 2: that they recognize you. They'll call you back there, do
Speaker 2: stalky shit, try to give you a car, be extra,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean, take a record in front
Speaker 2: of I mean, I take a yellow taxi. I'll walk there,
Speaker 2: I'll ride a city bike, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: Like I'm from here, I should be able to just
Speaker 2: go back there and relax, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: And when I go back, I'm not trying to make
Speaker 2: brothers feel like my success is they demise.
Speaker 1: So, as a New Yorker, do you have spots that
Speaker 1: are like where that feels, where it feels like home,
Speaker 1: where it feels like absolutely.
Speaker 2: I go see my brother Tawhia on the east Side
Speaker 2: shout out east Side ta Wi Johnson projects. I go
Speaker 2: to a K. You know, I ain't been the ak
Speaker 2: in a minute, though, But I go to Hump forty
Speaker 2: if and Lenox my grandmother block all the time. But
Speaker 2: if I'm just hanging out, hanging out, I go to Melws.
Speaker 2: If I ain't in Melos in Harlem, I'm downtown a small's.
Speaker 2: If not, I'm at Django, you know, at the Roxy
Speaker 2: watching the nice movie or you know, joint the shit
Speaker 2: is fly. You know, I've rent, yeah, and to avoid
Speaker 2: or something, let's you know, call some friends and we
Speaker 2: just you know, chill out over there. Like that's the
Speaker 2: kind of ship I'm into. I'm in the dive bars,
Speaker 2: I'm in the lounges. I'm in the pubs. I'm not
Speaker 2: in the clubs. The club coach is dead. Why the
Speaker 2: hell you want to be around a bunch of motherfuckers
Speaker 2: having a steering contest? What I'm flexing on you for
Speaker 2: about to pay ten x how much your fucking beverage
Speaker 2: licks of course and liquor store and go over there
Speaker 2: and they want to charge you a million dollars for
Speaker 2: a bottle of cos Amigos in nineteen forty two. Get
Speaker 2: the fuck out of here. I could do this in
Speaker 2: my living room. Call some friends over, avid gathering, no
Speaker 2: widdows around, play some cards, some crazy eights, call it
Speaker 2: a day. Y'all could smoke in peace, y'all could tell it.
Speaker 2: We could crack jokes on each other in piece. It
Speaker 2: ain't you know, But that's just where I'm at to
Speaker 2: everybody having fun out there, getting paid and laid, do
Speaker 2: your thing. I ain't judging flock or love you because
Speaker 2: at the end of the day sometimes it's like occasional.
Speaker 2: But I feel like when you're living in a club
Speaker 2: and you not a promoter, you're not a dancer or
Speaker 2: bartender or whatever the case is, it's like, you know,
Speaker 2: that's kind of you know, it's just and more really
Speaker 2: backwards for a nigga like me. Man, you know what
Speaker 2: I'm saying, Like, that's all.
Speaker 1: The obvious white elephant in the room. You were christened
Speaker 1: with a moniker with a name of God rock him.
Speaker 1: I just recently learned that your sister's name is Erica bets.
Speaker 1: When I first heard the origin of your name, I
Speaker 1: was like, shit, did you automatically feel destined or Christen
Speaker 1: that this was going to be?
Speaker 2: Like? When did you first learn who rock in? My
Speaker 2: law was? When I was like three or four?
Speaker 1: So you just asked like, why did you name me
Speaker 1: rock him?
Speaker 2: Or we're people telling you? Yeah, my pops in them
Speaker 2: was said. So I used to be obsessed with Michael
Speaker 2: Jackson's Moonwalker ever since I was like maybe like six
Speaker 2: months same. My mom would put me in a rocker
Speaker 2: and I'll just fall asleep to us and put it on. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I was watching it till I turned two. And I
Speaker 2: remember I had memories from being two and three years
Speaker 2: old to this day. Right, I remember when my aunt
Speaker 2: had a fight on a hundred sixteenth from Mornerside and
Speaker 2: when she got sliced all type of shit. Right, But
Speaker 2: I was maybe three or four years old and I
Speaker 2: was three and rock Kim I think Juice was out right,
Speaker 2: So what year did Juice come out? Got ninety two,
Speaker 2: ninety two? So I all right, look eighty eight, eighty nine,
Speaker 2: ninety one two, like three four years old. At least
Speaker 2: you know I ain't lying the ledge was on the
Speaker 2: TV right and Rock Kim had the bucket, had Cano
Speaker 2: join on. He was with Eric b in my PASTA
Speaker 2: was like, that's Rock Kim, that's who you naked after.
Speaker 2: You named after him. I just was like, damn, that
Speaker 2: motherfucker got swag yo, Like I thought that as a
Speaker 2: young guy, like I was just damn part my language.
Speaker 2: I'm just a little comfortable right now. Well you should be, yeah,
Speaker 2: thank you, thank you. I appreciate the hospitality.
Speaker 1: I'm big on time travel, astro traveling like that sort
Speaker 1: of thing. If you could live in any time period,
Speaker 1: where would you go.
Speaker 2: I would go to Maley Empire around eleven hundreds. Oh damn, okay, explain,
Speaker 2: I mean Massimosa. Right, Like at the end of the day,
Speaker 2: this is around the time that Africa, you know, they
Speaker 2: try to make it legend, but this is around the
Speaker 2: time where Africa was getting a lot of like European
Speaker 2: countries out of debt and stuff like that, right, And
Speaker 2: this is predates like a lot of like you know,
Speaker 2: the Western nas and you know the colonization, you know, slavery,
Speaker 2: you know the colonialization and shit, right, And that was
Speaker 2: when it was just like moors around they were actually
Speaker 2: like the king of like Spain was a black man
Speaker 2: and all of this other stuff. And you know, I
Speaker 2: would have loved to see how like life was before
Speaker 2: history was rewritten for all of us, before we were
Speaker 2: all brainwashed and stuff like that. And yeah, you know,
Speaker 2: I wonder what they had in the Vatican. Like for me,
Speaker 2: it's just like some things you can't like erace. You know,
Speaker 2: some things are just like inevitably there and obvious and
Speaker 2: just blatantly in your And I would have loved to
Speaker 2: like see like maybe even earlier than that. I would
Speaker 2: love to see how they fucking built pyramids, man, because
Speaker 2: I'm still curious, Sam, how about you?
Speaker 1: My level of time traveling has more or less to
Speaker 1: do with the acts I want to see. Probably the
Speaker 1: one period that really isn't truly documented, well that's legendary
Speaker 1: is kind of the Harlem Renaissance of man jazz.
Speaker 2: Yes, you get on my nerves. I wanted to say that. Sorry,
Speaker 2: See I got all philosophical, you got all cool, you know,
Speaker 2: cat daddy on me.
Speaker 1: You know, I just you know, some of the best
Speaker 1: music ever created really really wasn't documented all that much.
Speaker 2: It wasn't and Linkston Hughes the first rapper, of course
Speaker 2: he was.
Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely, So, I mean, yeah, I would say that
Speaker 1: that's I'm curious about that time period as like the creatives.
Speaker 2: Really, I just want.
Speaker 1: To see how Charlie Parker and probably John Coltrane operated.
Speaker 1: So that's why I would want to go probably to
Speaker 1: the forties.
Speaker 2: The thirties or forties.
Speaker 1: Well, I would say the forties is when when Bob
Speaker 1: really started to you know, get.
Speaker 2: It all the way. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So what would you say, is professionally speaking, at least,
Speaker 1: what is the single moment that changed your life?
Speaker 2: The single moment that changed my life is when I
Speaker 2: was introduced to a Savims. Tell me about it, man,
Speaker 2: rest in peace to the homie. Man. You know, A
Speaker 2: Savims was like responsible for all the peopot Wal moments
Speaker 2: in my career. I got a few moments that kind
Speaker 2: of changed my life. Man. You know, when I was five,
Speaker 2: a stranger, you know, in a very racist town, white
Speaker 2: men say me from drowning. Yeah, man, I didn't even
Speaker 2: know his name. I was in a very racist where.
Speaker 2: What I was in North Carolina, what I don't remember.
Speaker 2: It was like right outside of Charlotte. It was the sticks,
Speaker 2: you know, he saved me me and my family were
Speaker 2: supposed to walk out together to the pool. Being from
Speaker 2: New York, I never been in the pool, so I
Speaker 2: was eager, so I thought they was behind me. And
Speaker 2: I did some home alone with Cola, cok and shit,
Speaker 2: and I just walked out and they just let the
Speaker 2: door close and I went there, and I was practicing
Speaker 2: in my bathtub, so I thought I could fucking swim.
Speaker 2: You give what I'm saying. Come on, bro, Wow, Okay,
Speaker 2: it was significantly accurate. As a kid. You got to
Speaker 2: take a toast to that significant all right, But this
Speaker 2: is the lish you know, I left out and I'm
Speaker 2: sitting there, got my you know, legs in the water
Speaker 2: tee to tie the tee like, and it's this guy
Speaker 2: with his family, right. He had like two daughters and
Speaker 2: they were like significantly older than me. And basically he
Speaker 2: was like, hey, hey, buddy, you're not a swim sport.
Speaker 2: I was like, yeah, I know a swim He's like, yeah,
Speaker 2: for sure. So his son jumped in, and son is
Speaker 2: like a year or two older than me, jumped in.
Speaker 2: It was like eight feet went or like popped back up.
Speaker 2: So I decided to try it. When I went in,
Speaker 2: it wasn't until like maybe like five seconds. Panic just
Speaker 2: you know what it feel like. I felt like I
Speaker 2: was drowning, but it was just like panic setting and
Speaker 2: I was just like you know what I'm saying, I'm
Speaker 2: screaming under the water, so you know, lost a lot
Speaker 2: of breath. And I'm talking about like obviously in the tub,
Speaker 2: you don't open your eyes. My eyes are open underwater,
Speaker 2: you know, Black folks don't open their eyes, and no chlory,
Speaker 2: Like my eyes are open and I just see blue
Speaker 2: and I'm just like agreement. And I swear to god,
Speaker 2: this motherfucker popped out like thor. I don't know how.
Speaker 2: He wasn't swimming. He came like this, gave me his arm.
Speaker 2: His arm was haryeus. Fuck. I grabbed it, and that
Speaker 2: motherfucker's like we was at sea World or some shit
Speaker 2: like that, like just bought me up a bottle of water,
Speaker 2: put me on the sideline, left me there. I'm on
Speaker 2: the side crying to the point where I go back
Speaker 2: home my mother. Damn they wanted to whip me again.
Speaker 2: And my father's like, man, he already been throughing nothing.
Speaker 2: Little motherfucker almost dry and let him.
Speaker 1: Man, even when your life is on the line, like
Speaker 1: there still might be a whipping waiting for you.
Speaker 2: Like is that? Like, I'm glad you're alive. Now, go
Speaker 2: in your room. Oh, she was about to whip me
Speaker 2: right then. And there wet, soaking wet, So it's gonna
Speaker 2: be a bad one.
Speaker 1: Has this uh discouraged you from swimming or it's a
Speaker 1: fucking louly You have not done it since I learned
Speaker 1: how to swim at thirty So you waited.
Speaker 2: That long to jump back in the water. Hell, yes, damn,
Speaker 2: I'm traumatized. Man, How are you with it now? Oh?
Speaker 2: I'm a great swimming okay, and six feet you know
Speaker 2: what I'm saying. Don't give me nothing more deep. It's quiet,
Speaker 2: so you'll take it just a little bit as long
Speaker 2: as I could touch a toe, pop back up and
Speaker 2: I'll be all right, you know what I mean. Nah,
Speaker 2: I'm a good swimmer. I just learned, like you know, uh,
Speaker 2: density and stuff and going and you know, to see,
Speaker 2: you don't really have to know how to swim and float.
Speaker 2: You just use your body and salt and salt water
Speaker 2: and shit like that. It's really cool when you think
Speaker 2: about the physics of it. But you know, I'm a
Speaker 2: decent swimmer though, all jokes aside.
Speaker 1: All right, So I have questions, of course about your
Speaker 1: latest project. And yeah, I'm kind of raging with a
Speaker 1: little bit of jealousy because you were able to pull
Speaker 1: off a trick that I've not been able.
Speaker 2: To pull off. What's talk to me?
Speaker 1: How the hell did you manage to get with on
Speaker 1: a writer out the house? Yo, I've been phone friends
Speaker 1: with this person for years. She'll never come out the house.
Speaker 1: How did you get her out the house?
Speaker 2: God? God, God, man? God? Is everything is a lining
Speaker 2: right now? Like everybody from Tim Burton's Ethos, from Tim
Speaker 2: Burton himself, Danny Elfman with on a rioter, a couple
Speaker 2: more people that I can't say as yet because it's
Speaker 2: still a surprise, but like, okay, oh damn yeah, Like
Speaker 2: Tim Burton played a really big part in this whole project.
Speaker 2: And she was so down. She was so cool, yo,
Speaker 2: She's coolest shit. She had her own fucking merch, she
Speaker 2: had old fucking Beavis and butt Head and Pink Floyd shit. Like,
Speaker 2: she was so cool, man, And I can't wait, Like, hopefully,
Speaker 2: with the grace of God, I could share the silver
Speaker 2: screen with her one day, and I will be honored
Speaker 2: to do it. Like yo, she as cool as fuck.
Speaker 2: She gets so much cool points in my book.
Speaker 1: Man, you worked with another hero of mine, with just
Speaker 1: Danny Eufman, and you know Tim Burton of.
Speaker 2: Course, is also the hero.
Speaker 1: First of all, why did it take you so long
Speaker 1: to I know that you were talking about like sample
Speaker 1: clearances and all that stuff back a few years ago
Speaker 1: or whatever. Why did it take so long for this
Speaker 1: album to come to fruition?
Speaker 2: Dummies? Keep leaking my shit?
Speaker 1: You recorded the next thing you know, it's out just
Speaker 1: like that. So now you realize that you're at the
Speaker 1: level where you have to protect your shit.
Speaker 2: And man, I realize I'm at the level where I
Speaker 2: gotta change my number every three months, you know, And
Speaker 2: I make everybody around me change their numbers and emails
Speaker 2: for real frequently, because once one person is breached, it's
Speaker 2: like a virus. You wanna spread that shit, It's contagious.
Speaker 2: What they do is they trick you. They'll put like
Speaker 2: asat Rocky at all com and if you're not really
Speaker 2: clicking it, and they'll know they'll have intel. They'll be like,
Speaker 2: you know, they'll talk about a record I don't know
Speaker 2: how they know, and you're not smart, you'll click on
Speaker 2: that and you breach. Yeah, okay, just like that.
Speaker 1: So you're saying that what we're getting, well, when this
Speaker 1: comes out, the album would have been out already. So
Speaker 1: for you, though, you felt that because it got weak
Speaker 1: to the public or whatever, that it was still tainted even.
Speaker 2: A work of art like yourself from it. To be
Speaker 2: honest with you, and like, you know, I'm not indecisive
Speaker 2: as much as people would assume. I just evolve. So
Speaker 2: like what you made yesterday, you might be over it
Speaker 2: by next week or next month or next year. So
Speaker 2: sometimes when you sit on stuff too long and get
Speaker 2: leaked and all this shit happens, it'll be over you
Speaker 2: onto the next one. And sometimes, like your sound, it
Speaker 2: evolves and changes with you, so your taste preference changes
Speaker 2: and you might be over this kind of sound and
Speaker 2: you go onto this kind of sound, experiment with that.
Speaker 2: And I think with this album too, you know, it's
Speaker 2: not only just that it was getting leaked. Like I
Speaker 2: was waiting on Tim he was doing Beauty Juice Part
Speaker 2: two and Wednesday and all type of shit. So it
Speaker 2: was just a role about the right moment for me.
Speaker 1: You know, what's your favorite work of Tim Burton's, Like,
Speaker 1: why did you choose him to collaborate with on this record?
Speaker 2: I chose him because I'm heavily inspired by German expressionism.
Speaker 2: That's like his go to aesthetic. When you look at him,
Speaker 2: you could tell. The reason why I think German expressionism
Speaker 2: is amazing is because if you think about it, it's
Speaker 2: almost equivalent to how you think about sci fi. What
Speaker 2: I would say is, like, German expressionism is equivalent to
Speaker 2: sci fi. You don't have any ghetto saphi, you don't
Speaker 2: have any ghetto expressionism. Okay, that's what I could provide,
Speaker 2: and I put my take on it and develop something new,
Speaker 2: which is genre bendon and which is like forthcoming knew
Speaker 2: of its own It's new in its own light. You know.
Speaker 2: You take two components that are pre existing, mash them
Speaker 2: together as like infuse them and make a hybrid of
Speaker 2: something that's brand new. Hip hoppers mostly don't really you know,
Speaker 2: know about German expressionism, which allowed me to offer something
Speaker 2: new to them, to my crowd, to my people and shit,
Speaker 2: And you know, I think that he's the king of
Speaker 2: that shit and the film that I fell in love
Speaker 2: with first My first film that I fell in love
Speaker 2: with was a Nightmare before Christmas. My dad bought me
Speaker 2: that and I had that on mute, and I had
Speaker 2: Vincent his first college film. You know, I had it
Speaker 2: all on mute while I was recording the album, and
Speaker 2: all of the songs would kind of go to that,
Speaker 2: and you know, my boy who that was a visual
Speaker 2: you know, I use motion pictures as a move board.
Speaker 1: Yeah, congrats, man, because that, to me is what I
Speaker 1: would call it.
Speaker 2: Come up, Thank you man, a great come up.
Speaker 1: What's the thought process or the inspiration that you go
Speaker 1: through in order to determine this is the sound that
Speaker 1: I want to go with, this is the visuals I
Speaker 1: want to go with.
Speaker 2: And the art I want to go with. I've always
Speaker 2: been this way, man. I mean, eleven years ago I
Speaker 2: made a song named LSD. That same year, I made
Speaker 2: that song in twenty fourteen, released it in twenty fifteen.
Speaker 2: The same session is when I recorded the song Sundress
Speaker 2: that Everybody's in love with, so and I didn't release
Speaker 2: Sundress until twenty eighteen, and so it's always just been
Speaker 2: in me and I try to make what we considered
Speaker 2: timeless music so that you can't really put a time
Speaker 2: stamp on it or expiration date on it, because music
Speaker 2: needs to outlive the artists, you know. And that's why
Speaker 2: you got Jefferson Airplane, you got you know, Pink Floyd
Speaker 2: and Jimmy Hendrix, and you know, great people like Nat
Speaker 2: King Cole and like, you know, even going back to
Speaker 2: the early Renaissance days of people like Louis Armstrong, etcetera, etcetera.
Speaker 2: List goes on, Billie Holliday, all of these people are toomless.
Speaker 2: Frank Sinatra, they make thomless music. And the music that
Speaker 2: I wanted to affiliate my brand and my lineage and
Speaker 2: my like whole catalog desciography with was jenre Bendon from
Speaker 2: the start. And if there would be no asat Rocky
Speaker 2: if it wasn't for experimentational music or cloud rap or
Speaker 2: trail shit or you know, when we first came out,
Speaker 2: they never knew where we was from. Are they from Cali?
Speaker 2: Are they from the Midwest? Know where you from? You know?
Speaker 2: I'm like, okay, you know Memphis? Like where these motherfucker's
Speaker 2: from New York? Hall them in the Bronx with the
Speaker 2: fuck gold teeth braids. Now that's the standard that's regular.
Speaker 1: This particular project, Don't Be Dumb is inspired by the
Speaker 1: the personas that you and Timberton created. Can you talk
Speaker 1: about the origin of shirt Head, like the characters that
Speaker 1: you have.
Speaker 2: For Okay, so they all inspired by just aesthetics that
Speaker 2: I created in the past, like seven years, right since
Speaker 2: my last album. So the last album I did was
Speaker 2: called Testing and it had crash Dummies. That was the
Speaker 2: whole esthetic crashing out right, This is the answer to that.
Speaker 2: After the Crash Dummy was the Babushka Boy. After the
Speaker 2: Babushka Boy was the shirt Heads. The shirt Heads is
Speaker 2: significant to the moors. We could get into that later,
Speaker 2: you know. Shout out to brother Tyrek. I don't know
Speaker 2: if you guys seen hidden colors, but I get a
Speaker 2: lot of like my edgumication and my information, you know,
Speaker 2: from watching what he did, reading up on like different
Speaker 2: professors that he would you know, recommend, and talking to
Speaker 2: brothers like him, you know. So you know, it's a
Speaker 2: lot of like hidden black history and that goes across
Speaker 2: the whole globe that we don't really know about. So
Speaker 2: I try to embed that or include that into my
Speaker 2: esthetic without feeling like I'm preaching the motherfuckers. You know,
Speaker 2: it's just a little like if you know, you know
Speaker 2: kind of situation. And so after that was this Rocky Rugahan,
Speaker 2: the Pearl King persona where I wear like, you know,
Speaker 2: multiple genes and stuff, and that's me getting into ghetto expressionism.
Speaker 2: And after that is the guy that's sit in front
Speaker 2: of you today, which we call mister Mayors. You know,
Speaker 2: the dad, the entrepreneur, the multi faceted talented rapper, director, actor,
Speaker 2: handsome fella, fashionisto, etcetera, etcetera.
Speaker 1: You know, that's a mic drop movement for me. I
Speaker 1: don't got nothing else after that.
Speaker 2: So those are all the characters that Tim Burton depicted
Speaker 2: on the cover, all the personas and alter eagles of myself.
Speaker 1: Who is your creative north star? Who would you say
Speaker 1: your top three heroes are just in terms of like
Speaker 1: the creatives that you not even hip hop, just in
Speaker 1: life like but okay, I'll say.
Speaker 2: To go with hip hop. It's too many people for
Speaker 2: me to just That's why you got to pick a
Speaker 2: category or margin or something more just.
Speaker 3: Like a okay, in music, I mean in music, if
Speaker 3: you want to talk about dance and stuff like Bob Fosse,
Speaker 3: fred Astaire, Charlie Chaplin.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean he was film. But music genres psychedelics,
Speaker 2: mod psych, I can roll fucking of course, hip hop, rap,
Speaker 2: you know gangst the rap, the Golden Age, you guys,
Speaker 2: you know, soulful music. I just think it's just I'm
Speaker 2: a fucking sponge. I'm inspired by every fucking thing. If
Speaker 2: I get inspired by something, I know how to use
Speaker 2: that to my advantage without appropriating or biting or stealing.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: You filter it through your own creativity so that it
Speaker 1: comes absolutely.
Speaker 2: I like how you wrede it. That very eloquent of you.
Speaker 2: Hey man, that's that's what I'm here for. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Okay, let's let's go a year before your first album.
Speaker 1: Let's go to twenty ten. What was in your mind,
Speaker 1: in Rockhem's mind in twenty ten, what was your definition
Speaker 1: of making it? Like, I want to get into the game,
Speaker 1: and this is what I think making it.
Speaker 2: Is everything that happened to me is without no define,
Speaker 2: is making it all the blessings all of so.
Speaker 1: Even in twenty ten, you have the foresight to know, sure,
Speaker 1: this is the path that you're going to travel.
Speaker 2: For sure, two thousand and nine, I knew.
Speaker 1: You gotta understand that that's I think that's a beautiful thing.
Speaker 1: But I came up in the generation before in which
Speaker 1: like literally, like if you listen to Biggie's lyrics and
Speaker 1: Juicy really making it was just like having a dope
Speaker 1: video game system, place, a place to swim in your backyard.
Speaker 3: I mean that's making it and getting a good review
Speaker 3: in a.
Speaker 2: Magazine like five mics in a sauce.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, like for real, Like jay Z's the
Speaker 1: first rapper who even uttered words that most rappers lived
Speaker 1: at home with their mama, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: Like easy, he's talking about boys in the hood, you know, God, get.
Speaker 2: Drunk, gonna start a BII about my friends.
Speaker 1: Right and even snoop like six, my mama ain't home.
Speaker 1: But jay Z like owned property, And to me that
Speaker 1: was a big deal in ninety seven, like, oh, he's
Speaker 1: dreaming a property, So we weren't. I mean, statistically, I
Speaker 1: don't think black people are ever wherever taught to dream
Speaker 1: because we had the.
Speaker 2: Hustle, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: And jay Z was a hustler, yeah, but then he
Speaker 1: became a dreamer, you know, and back then I just thought, like, well,
Speaker 1: they're just lying. They don't have that stuff. But now
Speaker 1: call it, we call it manifested now. So but for you,
Speaker 1: this is the path that you're on right now is
Speaker 1: exactly what you wanted it to be back in twenty
Speaker 1: ten when you first started.
Speaker 2: I was referring to twenty eleven and twelve when I
Speaker 2: was when I was talking about twenty ten. God, yeah,
Speaker 2: like I was just like I knew it, you know.
Speaker 2: And to be honest, I'm not trying to sound like
Speaker 2: I'm a fake psychic on some miscleo shit, but I knew,
Speaker 2: like I can't settle for less. I can't settle for this.
Speaker 2: If I'm hopping the train right now, that's right now,
Speaker 2: because I know like it's going to happen. It has to.
Speaker 2: I used to just be like these motherfuckers, it's corny.
Speaker 2: I'm like, they need me in life. I knew they
Speaker 2: needed me. I knew I wasn't normal, you know, not
Speaker 2: to just come across so cocky. I'm full of myself.
Speaker 2: But the truth of the matter is I'm quite accurate.
Speaker 2: Like I think it's something it's cocky at all.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like, if anything, I think we need to be
Speaker 1: more in the space of owning it, right, because again
Speaker 1: we've been taught to be humble, but my small.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, for sure, you know. And I just was
Speaker 2: looking like, man, this shit needs me. You know, our
Speaker 2: culture has been exploited and you know so many times, right,
Speaker 2: and to the point where you can't even identify no
Speaker 2: more or really kind of you know, connected to any
Speaker 2: what we attribute or just contributions. It just don't even like,
Speaker 2: you know, correlate to the culture anymore. What is the culture?
Speaker 2: What does that even mean? Right? So it's just like
Speaker 2: it's to a place where I just want to just
Speaker 2: you know, show people how to just be the best them,
Speaker 2: be the best artist, you know what I mean, because
Speaker 2: we come from an era where you have to keep
Speaker 2: it real, you know what I mean. And mostly all
Speaker 2: the real niggas I know is dead in jail. True,
Speaker 2: it's no space, it's not a climent to be real,
Speaker 2: which if you really keep it to yourself, because the
Speaker 2: moment they sniff that out then for you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, man, it took me like five years reacclimate myself
Speaker 1: with the word failure.
Speaker 2: Like first I thought failure was.
Speaker 1: Like a bad thing, Like ah, I feel now I
Speaker 1: embraced failure as a lesson, learn not to do that again.
Speaker 1: What's the biggest rejection you've ever gotten and how did
Speaker 1: you overcome it?
Speaker 2: It started out with a girl. The first time you
Speaker 2: get rejected by that one girl, you like, damn, she
Speaker 2: kind of could crush your pride, right, Like the fuck
Speaker 2: is it me? You know what I'm saying. Then you'd
Speaker 2: be like, look at me and look at yourself, sweetheart,
Speaker 2: Like you got to tell yourself, like you're bugging, You're lost. Right.
Speaker 2: So that's how I take anytime, like I do something
Speaker 2: that I'm positive about, you know, confident about, and if
Speaker 2: it quote unquote fails, I take it as a lesson learned,
Speaker 2: just like what you just said. Man, Like, I definitely
Speaker 2: was in a place where if I did something that
Speaker 2: was considered a failure, it hit me hard because I'm
Speaker 2: so compassionate about everything that I do or everything that
Speaker 2: I'm involved in. You know, it's not just about putting
Speaker 2: numbers on the board and just saying how I did that.
Speaker 2: I did that for bragging rights. Nah. I love this shit,
Speaker 2: and you know I'm a renaissance man, so I care
Speaker 2: about it. You know, I care a lot. So if
Speaker 2: I fail to somebody else's standards, but to my own
Speaker 2: and visual standards. You know, sometimes failure and success could
Speaker 2: be subjective, you know, as long as you feel like
Speaker 2: you succeeded. But if it's something that you did feel at,
Speaker 2: if you're gonna keep pursuing it, just make sure you
Speaker 2: bigger and better next time, stronger and faster and smarter
Speaker 2: next time. How do you deal with creative blocks? Smoke weed? Okay?
Speaker 2: If not, like work with people that like are very creative.
Speaker 2: Like you know, I've ran into moments where I had
Speaker 2: a lot on my plate and I would have The
Speaker 2: Baby come through, Big Sean come through, and I'll just
Speaker 2: parish Texas. I had these guys come through, and I'd
Speaker 2: be like, hey, throw put a flow down, like some
Speaker 2: guys wouldn't even say words dribberish, and that could inspire
Speaker 2: you and push you to write your own shit, you
Speaker 2: know what I'm saying, Like, you know, I'm not really
Speaker 2: too keen to like ghostwriters, but the Baby is one
Speaker 2: of the first artists that I ever collaborated with on
Speaker 2: some bars, and the last artist too. You get what
Speaker 2: I'm saying, Like I don't. I guess I come from
Speaker 2: an era where that's just a that's just a no.
Speaker 2: But when you you block yourself from creating by having
Speaker 2: an ego and shit like that, that's when you your
Speaker 2: own worst enemy. And when I let my guard down
Speaker 2: and he was listening to me about how to produce,
Speaker 2: he produced his own first record. He was like, yo, bro,
Speaker 2: we really feed off of each other's energy. Shout outs
Speaker 2: to the baby man. He's one of the illis MC's
Speaker 2: and lyricists. I know, man, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: Like I think writers block. If you put a powerful
Speaker 2: component in the room with you, it'll help. It doesn't
Speaker 2: matter if you're a novelist, a journalist, a poet, or rapper,
Speaker 2: a lyricist. You put a cool motherfucker that you could
Speaker 2: bounce energy off of, like in the same room as you,
Speaker 2: you're gonna come up with something good. Man, Trust me, man,
Speaker 2: question what's up?
Speaker 1: What's the last lie that you told?
Speaker 2: I mean, I used to be lying like a motherfucker, man,
Speaker 2: I mean, in what kind of contexts you're talking? What's
Speaker 2: the best lie you've told? The best lie ever told?
Speaker 2: Let me think, I mean you say all type of
Speaker 2: lies to get some pussy. Back in the day, I mean,
Speaker 2: but like now, I try not to lie. Man. I
Speaker 2: might fabricate a little nowadays, but I try not to
Speaker 2: lie because it's like I don't lie to God. I
Speaker 2: don't lie to my mother, my woman. I ain't about
Speaker 2: the lot of these motherfuckers. Like when you tell the
Speaker 2: truth and own it, nobody could bust your burst your bubble,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean. They can't really blow your spot,
Speaker 2: pull your card. They can't because you already owning it.
Speaker 2: You owning that flaw, like you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: And like if it's a situation where you doing something
Speaker 2: that you couldn't bear to live with, don't do it.
Speaker 2: Or if that's really you living your truth, that's it.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying. If you were a killer,
Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying, I wouldn't recommend self snitching
Speaker 2: on yourself. But like you, if you know you a
Speaker 2: killer at heart, you just gotta like accept the fact
Speaker 2: that you might do life in prison, you know what
Speaker 2: I'm saying. I accept the fact. Like if you're a prostitute,
Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying, and you sell some pussy
Speaker 2: and shit like that, whatever, you just admit it to
Speaker 2: yourself that you're a hooker, Like that's just it, Like
Speaker 2: you're simple as that. You know what I'm saying. Shout there,
Speaker 2: all sex workers out there, sex POLTI all right.
Speaker 1: So when I first got my advance, the very first
Speaker 1: thing I did was I went out purchased twelve pairs
Speaker 1: of Pumas and every color spectrum.
Speaker 2: I was young and dumb, but yes, I went out
Speaker 2: in person.
Speaker 1: The way you're looking at me right now, it's the
Speaker 1: way my dad looked at me.
Speaker 2: Like, Yo, what the fuck? Where did you buy these
Speaker 2: sneakers from?
Speaker 1: Talk about your collaboration with Puma, like how did that
Speaker 1: come to be? Why did you look? We all know
Speaker 1: that you're the fashion god. So for you, I know
Speaker 1: that if you loan your credibility to any brand that
Speaker 1: it's official. Why did you choose Puma and talk about
Speaker 1: that collaboration?
Speaker 2: I chose Puma because Puma was family. My girl already
Speaker 2: did like crazy work with them, inspirational shit, like I
Speaker 2: don't know how many years ago, twelve, thirteen years ago.
Speaker 2: You know, my manager, Jay Brown, my brother Henry Jones,
Speaker 2: jay Z, my family at Rock Nation, they all helped
Speaker 2: like usher that deal for me. Here we all because
Speaker 2: It's just like I need to be able to get
Speaker 2: out my ideas my main first priority.
Speaker 1: Who's your top five best stressed best stressed?
Speaker 2: What I gotta get specific? Yeah, because it's a lot
Speaker 2: of best stress motherfuckers?
Speaker 1: Man, Who do you respect in terms of jess? Okay,
Speaker 1: it's one thing when you're doing promotions or whatever, do
Speaker 1: you dress like this? Just want to regular every day?
Speaker 1: Like if you weren't doing promos. Yeah, all right, you
Speaker 1: got to be my mentor mant I'm saying shit with
Speaker 1: Greg Lauren or whatever.
Speaker 2: But nah, I feel like, I mean, come on, that's
Speaker 2: Ralph learning nephew man.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I feel I gotta I gotta step my
Speaker 1: game up. But for you, who are the five people
Speaker 1: that you respect their fashion game?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I seen Big Kanye West most he made the list.
Speaker 2: Of course. Nice Man was rickied out. So I got
Speaker 2: my name Pretty Flaco from him. He gave it to me.
Speaker 2: You know that I did not. He gave me permission
Speaker 2: because a Dominican girlfriend gave it to me when I
Speaker 2: was before I was famous, and then when I got
Speaker 2: famous he named me. That's why my name is Lord
Speaker 2: Pretty Flaggle. Jody the second because he's the first. You know,
Speaker 2: that's big bro right there. Shout outs to the most
Speaker 2: death Man, it's my big brother, but basically him, it's
Speaker 2: it's more than five though, So can I just soon
Speaker 2: someone get offended they're not on your list. They might,
Speaker 2: but I'm sorry just again. Alright, So yay Pharrell, Grandpooba
Speaker 2: most Deaf Fabulous dip set.
Speaker 1: I'm glad Pooper made your list because people don't acknowledge that,
Speaker 1: you know, he's really I think the first rapper would swag.
Speaker 2: In terms of I fuck with cool Keith. Who else
Speaker 2: was a fly slick Rick? Slick Rick was a fly
Speaker 2: bro to me. I mean, came, mightn't have more money,
Speaker 2: but he wasn't fucking came to fly nigga. But who else?
Speaker 2: Even j Man? He had his like the T shirt
Speaker 2: on the head. Jay Z used to do that. Man,
Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying, the Yankee fitted tilted. Is
Speaker 2: there a fashion trend that you regret following? Yeah, as
Speaker 2: a Harlem night, did you have to go through your
Speaker 2: pink period? Yeah? Yeah, but I still I'm still on
Speaker 2: my pink shit. Okay, it's Harlem. I think uh a
Speaker 2: fashion trend, fashion trends that I tend to start, is
Speaker 2: what I regret sometimes. You know what I'm saying, But
Speaker 2: because you don't get to shine on your own shit. Nah,
Speaker 2: because some of that shit looks ridiculous fifteen years later.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: Okay, So is there a piece of clothing that you
Speaker 1: know you should get rid of but you can't let go?
Speaker 2: Remember that? How our sentimental are you with? Nah? Man?
Speaker 2: That shit is out the door? Remember that brand? Kate Easy? Yes,
Speaker 2: that shit was garbage, but you loved it. I used
Speaker 2: to wear that shit. Man. Have you ever gotten roasted
Speaker 2: for any of your outfits? For sure, some people don't
Speaker 2: be getting a vision, But I mean you can own
Speaker 2: it now. I mean you're I appreciate that. Man. Do
Speaker 2: I look big of roast me? They could cook me,
Speaker 2: they can deep fry meat, they can saltee whatever they want.
Speaker 2: I'm not nigga Like, it's nobody who could fuck with
Speaker 2: my fashion sense and my taste is impeccable. I'm just like,
Speaker 2: I impressed myself a lot.
Speaker 1: What is your proudest non work achievement, non music achievement.
Speaker 2: Like your family? Man, just being like a dude to
Speaker 2: like show guys like yo get you a nice girl,
Speaker 2: chill out sometimes because like look at look at Shannon's
Speaker 2: sharp look at you know, girls be you know, I
Speaker 2: don't want to throw people under the bus or nothing
Speaker 2: like that, but like they have to get you right now.
Speaker 2: You can have a little bit of money, you have
Speaker 2: a lot of bit of money. You gave a little
Speaker 2: bit of fame. Could be very famous, you could be
Speaker 2: it's anonymous or anonymous, but they out here to just
Speaker 2: you know, make a name for themselves. Dudes is worse
Speaker 2: than females these days. You gotta do. That's having sex
Speaker 2: with girls and then going on podcasts to talk about it.
Speaker 2: You know, it's just like everybody got the game fucked up.
Speaker 2: It's these youngsters. So I ain't outside like that. Like
Speaker 2: they scared me, you know what I'm saying, And I
Speaker 2: think I got out the game at the right time.
Speaker 1: You feel me for me, I'll say that one of
Speaker 1: my weak points was people pleasing. You know, when you
Speaker 1: start thinking of other people's feelings, managing their feelings before you.
Speaker 2: Even That's what got me to this place. People pleasing.
Speaker 2: Given the fuck having survivors remorse or survivors guilt and
Speaker 2: fuck that shit. Look, life is like this. We evolved,
Speaker 2: We're born to evolve. You gotta realized. That's why they
Speaker 2: show you the man evolution from primemate to caveman. Now,
Speaker 2: even though I don't think that any of my incestors
Speaker 2: with caveman. But that's another story. But basically, I feel
Speaker 2: like if I'm in a place where I'm evolving creatively
Speaker 2: or my integrity or my creative integrity, or just I'm
Speaker 2: maturing at a certain pace, if my peers who are
Speaker 2: really close to me aren't growing at that rapid pace
Speaker 2: at the same time, I mean, it's quiet. There's nothing
Speaker 2: I could do because I'm gonna have to really come
Speaker 2: down to your level to really see you out of
Speaker 2: eye at that point. And I'm not trying to step
Speaker 2: on nobody and make it say I'm a big man
Speaker 2: like that because of my success and you know, accolades Man.
Speaker 2: Snoop Dogg told me this in twenty thirteen on the interview.
Speaker 2: He told me, you're gonna have friends that's gonna stay
Speaker 2: here and you're gonna go there, And the only way
Speaker 2: for y'all to be friends, you gotta come back down here. Man.
Speaker 2: Fuck that shit.
Speaker 1: I ain't doing that no more, how easy is it
Speaker 1: to spring queen to let dead weight go?
Speaker 2: Oh? I do you saw about my closets? Oh? You
Speaker 2: mean literally? Oh yeah, Oh, I mean I spring cleaning
Speaker 2: the winner and fall all that. But but I mean
Speaker 2: I know what you mean.
Speaker 1: Like, you know, if I'm the smartest guy in my circle,
Speaker 1: then I'm like, I need a new circle.
Speaker 2: You know, I never really fucked with that theory and concept. Really,
Speaker 2: you know why I don't fuck with that? Why because
Speaker 2: every circle need a leader. The leader has to be
Speaker 2: smarter by default who you're gonna follow. That's kind of
Speaker 2: like you planning that my head, key, low key, that's
Speaker 2: not that's there's nothing wrong with that. Like Asam James
Speaker 2: was a month younger than me, right, he was my leader,
Speaker 2: he was my mentor, and were was the same fucking
Speaker 2: age right now. Robert Gallaoto, Happy birthday to you. That's
Speaker 2: my brother. Today's his birthday. Happy birthday, bropirthday. He is
Speaker 2: my creative director and mentor. To this day. I got
Speaker 2: mentors like my my lawyer, he's my big brother, my manager.
Speaker 2: Then I got personal people who mentor me. I'm never
Speaker 2: ever too old or too big or too cool to
Speaker 2: learn or follow somebody else's lead because you can't know everything, man,
Speaker 2: And that's the thing, not how much pressure it is
Speaker 2: being the leader. You know, I've been the leader of
Speaker 2: a crew for over fifteen years. You think I wanted
Speaker 2: that shit? I did my best for everybody to look
Speaker 2: at us equally. Are you reluctant leader? Are you comfortable
Speaker 2: with leading? If the shoe fit, I wear it. I
Speaker 2: don't never want to be labeled as such. I do
Speaker 2: what I do and if these motherfuckers follow suit, then
Speaker 2: that mean they look as good as I look. All right, man, man,
Speaker 2: and you gotta rock him.
Speaker 1: Thank you man for coming on The Quest Loft Show,
Speaker 1: and we will see you guys on the next go round.
Speaker 2: All right, Peace, blessed, don't be dumb.
Speaker 1: The Quest Love Show is hosted by me a Mere
Speaker 1: Quest Love Thompson. The executive producers are Sean g Brian
Speaker 1: Calhoun and Me. Produced by Britney Benjamin and Jake Paine.
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