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Speaker 2: I've never opened up in any of these shows about this.
Speaker 2: I don't want to be boxed as this role model
Speaker 2: just because people want to see me as a role model.
Speaker 2: I'm a human being well more than three decades of
Speaker 2: Hit Records awards to prove it. Please welcome Snicky, Nicki,
Speaker 2: Nikki Jam everybody else.
Speaker 1: What age did you get to where you were like, Oh, that's.
Speaker 2: Not normal, You're going really deep. My mom not being
Speaker 2: there made me not care about living. Now, I'm gonna
Speaker 2: tell you this though I forgive, but I never forget.
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Speaker 2: The number one health and wellness podcast.
Speaker 1: Jay Sheety jay Sheety Sheet. What would you say is
Speaker 1: your earliest childhood memory that has defined who you are today?
Speaker 2: Packing groceries at the supermarket and freestyle And while I
Speaker 2: was doing and that's the way I would discovered. I
Speaker 2: would always go there because I would make twenty dollars
Speaker 2: by quarters because they would give me always quarters every
Speaker 2: time I pack groceries, and I'll make twenty dollars with that.
Speaker 2: I will buy ham, cheese, milk, sigrea for my dad
Speaker 2: and stuff like that. And I will go every day.
Speaker 2: I will walk probably like thirty minutes to go there.
Speaker 2: And that's me, you know, always try trying to like
Speaker 2: take care of my family, but at the same time
Speaker 2: having fun while I do it, you know, rapping and
Speaker 2: doing music and making people laugh and making people having fun.
Speaker 2: That's Nikki, you know, That's that's that's the Nikki I
Speaker 2: always have in my mind, even when I was in
Speaker 2: those dark moments. That's what went through my head in
Speaker 2: those moments.
Speaker 1: That's amazing. So you're packing groceries, that's your job and
Speaker 1: you're freestyling to the customers groceries that you're packing.
Speaker 2: It wasn't really my job. I was. I was twelve
Speaker 2: years old. It was illegal for me to work there.
Speaker 2: But the guy, the manager from the supermarket, he will
Speaker 2: let me do it because he knew I was trying
Speaker 2: to make some money. So every now and then he'd
Speaker 2: be like, Okay, NIGGI, you gotta go because you know
Speaker 2: the supervisors are here or whatever. But I would, like,
Speaker 2: you know, I would I would pack groceries. I would
Speaker 2: freestyle like you know, the letters and tomatoes and like
Speaker 2: I would wrap rhyme the food that I was packing.
Speaker 2: I became like a little celebrity there, and people peop like, yo,
Speaker 2: this is this kid that he'd be rapping while he's
Speaker 2: packing groceries. And everybody wanted to see me over there
Speaker 2: in Puerto Rico at this supermarket and buy my own.
Speaker 2: This lady came to me once and I was I
Speaker 2: wasn't in a rapping mood. I was just, you know,
Speaker 2: packing groceries. It was a bad day or whatever. And
Speaker 2: she looks at me and she's like, so you're not
Speaker 2: gonna wrap for me? And I'm like yeah, So I
Speaker 2: was rapping and I started freestyling, and she was like
Speaker 2: she was shocked because I was so I was a kid.
Speaker 2: I was like eleven years old, and she was like,
Speaker 2: can you come with me? I'm like, no, I don't
Speaker 2: know you. And she was like, I'm like, why should I,
Speaker 2: you know, go with you? And she's like, my husband,
Speaker 2: he's a producer for this record label, and I want
Speaker 2: him to hear you. And I'm like, okay, in that case, yes,
Speaker 2: let's go. So I got in the car with her.
Speaker 2: She took me to her husband and I started rapping
Speaker 2: for him. And next day he was in my house
Speaker 2: with a big ass contract like this. I told my
Speaker 2: Dad's like, I don't even know what it says. I'm like,
Speaker 2: I don't care what it said. Just sign it. You
Speaker 2: know what I'm saying. I want to I want to
Speaker 2: get my first deal. And that's how I got my first,
Speaker 2: you know, working at that supermarket. The album was whack.
Speaker 2: It was horrible. I mean, how creative can you be
Speaker 2: when you're twelve years old. I had to write all
Speaker 2: the lyrics myself, and I was I wasn't really good
Speaker 2: writing in that moment. I was more a freestyler you know,
Speaker 2: but I did an album. It didn't sell anything. Can
Speaker 2: I curse here? Yeah, of course, okay, I didn't sell shit.
Speaker 2: So but the good thing about it, DJ's recognized me
Speaker 2: all over Puerto Rico. The famous mixtape era was coming.
Speaker 2: I started, you know, recording in these mixtapes, and I
Speaker 2: became one of the like, one of the biggest artists
Speaker 2: in the mixtape industry, you know, included Daddy Yankee. That obviously,
Speaker 2: Daddy Yankee was like the boss in that moment, and
Speaker 2: in the mixtape he was already in the boss in
Speaker 2: those days. I'm talking about nineteen ninety two, ninety three,
Speaker 2: ninety four, those those years, and uh yeah, I mean
Speaker 2: from the album. Nothing happened with the album, but I
Speaker 2: got to be a little I got to be a
Speaker 2: bigger singer and more famous in Puerto Rico because of
Speaker 2: these mixtapes.
Speaker 1: How did you not let like, at such a young age,
Speaker 1: I can imagine that feeling like you're getting a record deal,
Speaker 1: you have no idea what you're signing. But then, as
Speaker 1: you said, the album was whack. How do you deal
Speaker 1: with the fact that was there any negativity at that time?
Speaker 1: No one cared.
Speaker 2: I was just happy I had a deal. See the
Speaker 2: thing is, in those days, the urban music, the reggaeton music,
Speaker 2: was not even something that was happening. So just for
Speaker 2: me to have an album and show people that I
Speaker 2: had an album for me was big. I didn't care about,
Speaker 2: you know, having hits, because I didn't know about that.
Speaker 2: You know, I didn't even to be honest with you,
Speaker 2: I didn't even think my album was going to be
Speaker 2: a hit, you know, because I knew about the people
Speaker 2: that was doing big in those days. We had vco C,
Speaker 2: Blu Limc, all these rappers that were killing the game
Speaker 2: in the urban industry in Puerto Rico. So I know
Speaker 2: I was nothing like them. And to be honest with you,
Speaker 2: when I got to Puerto Rico, my Spanish wasn't really
Speaker 2: too good because I was born in the States, so
Speaker 2: when I got to Puerto Rico, I had to learn
Speaker 2: the language. So if you listen to that album, you
Speaker 2: know closely, you would realize my Spanish wasn't really that good.
Speaker 2: So imagine a guy, a kid, singing writing when he's
Speaker 2: twelve years old. Music his Spanish is not the best. Obviously,
Speaker 2: I didn't expect for it to be the best. I
Speaker 2: was just happy I had an album and I was signed.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I'm just trying
Speaker 1: to put myself back into that age and thinking how
Speaker 1: it I felt if I was you. But one of
Speaker 1: the things that I saw, I mean, the docu series
Speaker 1: that you had on Netflix was incredible, Like it weciated,
Speaker 1: super powerful, and I remember when I think it was
Speaker 1: like twenty eighteen when it came out, but there was
Speaker 1: something that was really powerful in that. There's this scene
Speaker 1: where you're you have this experience of when you run
Speaker 1: into watching your mom I's at a restaurant having sex
Speaker 1: in a car. Yeah, like that moment feels like a
Speaker 1: defining moment as well early life. Walk us through your
Speaker 1: headspace in that moment.
Speaker 2: Wow. Well, the reality of everything is that I lived
Speaker 2: in a street where girls would you know, would work
Speaker 2: as prostitutes in the corners, and I would see my mom,
Speaker 2: you know, and in those corners, and when she got
Speaker 2: into a car, I knew what was going on. So
Speaker 2: when you're a kid and you see stuff like that,
Speaker 2: obviously it affects you. But at the same time, you
Speaker 2: think it's normal because you don't know better. You know,
Speaker 2: you haven't seen a different world. You only see what's
Speaker 2: going on. The only thing that would probably made me
Speaker 2: think is not normal is watching TV and seeing families
Speaker 2: on TV and stuff like that. But I just thought
Speaker 2: it was my life. And to be honest with you,
Speaker 2: the whole street where I was living, kids were living
Speaker 2: like that, so it was kind of like normal, you know,
Speaker 2: like it was it was kind of like normal. The
Speaker 2: reality is, is not normal today. I suffer because of
Speaker 2: situations like that. You know, even if I have success
Speaker 2: in my life, even if I'm doing really good and
Speaker 2: stuff like that, sometimes I go back to those traumas.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying. I go back to those
Speaker 2: moments that affects my life. A lot of people think,
Speaker 2: cause I told my story, it's done, and that's a lie.
Speaker 2: That's not the way it works. You know, you still
Speaker 2: have it there, you still have it in your head.
Speaker 2: And even the situation with my mom and everything I
Speaker 2: went through living in the hood and all the stuff
Speaker 2: that I saw. You know, when people come from the wall,
Speaker 2: they have PTSD, right, they need to get medication because
Speaker 2: of that and stuff like that. The reality is when
Speaker 2: you live in the hood and you see all these
Speaker 2: stuff like stuff that I saw with my mom and
Speaker 2: situations that I saw in my house and stuff that
Speaker 2: I saw in the hood about friends of mine getting
Speaker 2: shot and other people that are not my friends getting
Speaker 2: shot and stuff like that. You get PTSD too, but
Speaker 2: people don't underst and that. So when you get a situation,
Speaker 2: when you go through, you know, back to the darkness.
Speaker 2: Even if you're successful, people judge you and they're like, oh,
Speaker 2: he's back again. You saw my story, you saw what
Speaker 2: I went through. Why would you Why would you judge
Speaker 2: me when I came out with my story? You said,
Speaker 2: you deserve everything you have. It's funny because I always
Speaker 2: did deserve anything I had because I worked for what
Speaker 2: I had. All those moments, especially like the moment that
Speaker 2: you just talked about. You know my mom, because my mom,
Speaker 2: your mom as a man, is everything for you for
Speaker 2: you know, she's the base of the house. She's the
Speaker 2: one that take care of you. You know, she makes
Speaker 2: you think that everything's gonna be okay. Not having that
Speaker 2: causes an effect in me in every situation, even with
Speaker 2: my kids. I don't know how to give the love
Speaker 2: that I have to give because I never had it.
Speaker 2: You know, a lot of people be saying sometimes yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm going to give my kids everything I didn't have.
Speaker 2: That's not the way it works. If you don't know
Speaker 2: how to do it, how can you do it? It
Speaker 2: affects me in every way. But the good thing I
Speaker 2: have a good sense of humor, and even in bad situations,
Speaker 2: I laugh and I make people laugh. I try to
Speaker 2: enjoy myself the best. But I hope that answer you, Yeah,
Speaker 2: it does. No.
Speaker 1: Thank you for being so open as well and vulnerable.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 1: I think it's amazing to see that because you're so
Speaker 1: right that when you're living your life it looks normal.
Speaker 1: What age did you get to where you were like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's not normal, Like when didn't kind of register where
Speaker 1: you were like, oh wait a minute, that's not what
Speaker 1: life looks like for everyone.
Speaker 2: Wow, you're going really deep. Okay, I can say this.
Speaker 2: My mom used to whip me because I used to
Speaker 2: pee in my bed, right, I don't know. She probably
Speaker 2: didn't understand it. It was not something that I wanted to do.
Speaker 2: It just it happens.
Speaker 1: I wish it's a normal thing kids do.
Speaker 2: I think when kids pee on their bed was like
Speaker 2: probably seven years old something like that. It's just a
Speaker 2: problem that they have. And automatically it happens. It's not
Speaker 2: like you wake up and it's not like you're like,
Speaker 2: I don't want to go to the bathroom. It's more
Speaker 2: like it's something that happens, wake up, and you just
Speaker 2: pete on your bed. So this this kid, this white kid,
Speaker 2: his name is Billy. I wish I could find him
Speaker 2: wherever he is. Billy Jeannetti his name. I've been trying
Speaker 2: to look for him on Google because he was my
Speaker 2: best friend when I was a kid, and I can't
Speaker 2: find him everywhere. Probably had his name was different and
Speaker 2: I knew him, asked Billy Jeannetti. He studied with me
Speaker 2: in school and everything. I stay at his house. I
Speaker 2: stay at his house. You know, he was his kid,
Speaker 2: you know, typical white kid that had everything, you know,
Speaker 2: atari Nintendo and all that stuff. And his mom had
Speaker 2: his room decorated with you know, a boy's room with
Speaker 2: you know, posters on the wall and stuff like that.
Speaker 2: And I see at his house and I peed on
Speaker 2: the couch where I slept. I woke up fighting because
Speaker 2: I thought I was getting I thought I was getting
Speaker 2: my ass whooped. And she comes to me and she
Speaker 2: sees me that I'm up because I turned on the light.
Speaker 2: Billy's Billy's mom and she's like, what happened, You're okay.
Speaker 2: I'm like, I'm sorry. I I peed on my bed.
Speaker 2: I peed on the bed, I peed on the couch.
Speaker 2: And she's like, oh, it's okay, don't don't worry about that.
Speaker 2: I'll take care of that. And you know, she she
Speaker 2: gave me clothes so I could take a shower, and
Speaker 2: she gave me food, and she took care of the situation.
Speaker 2: I was shocked, and I was like, oh, so this
Speaker 2: is how it should be. This is how it should be.
Speaker 2: It's not it's not uh, it's not getting whooped, you know,
Speaker 2: And this is how she probably treats Billy. And that's
Speaker 2: when I realized that what was going on in my
Speaker 2: house wasn't. That situation of me, uh peeing on the
Speaker 2: bed affected me so much that because I'm my mom
Speaker 2: doing drugs and not taking care of what was going
Speaker 2: on in the house, I would go to school with
Speaker 2: my clothes smelling like pee, and the teacher in front
Speaker 2: of the kids would spray me and spray because I'll
Speaker 2: smell bad to learn with the spray with the yeah, Deirdre, yeah,
Speaker 2: and she was spraying in front of everybody. Obviously the
Speaker 2: kids will laugh, and that affected me as well, obviously
Speaker 2: because it's embarrassing, you know, like in front of everybody.
Speaker 2: That's how important it is for the parents to do
Speaker 2: their job and take care of the kids, you know,
Speaker 2: because it's just you know, it's not it's not something
Speaker 2: that a kid should go through.
Speaker 1: You know, why do you want to reconnect with Billy?
Speaker 1: What would you what? What makes you want to reach out?
Speaker 2: Well, he was my best friend when I was a kid.
Speaker 2: I just want to know how he looks like. I
Speaker 2: want to know is he okay. I want to know
Speaker 2: if he's alive. I want to know if he remembers me.
Speaker 2: I want to know if he knows that I'm famous.
Speaker 2: He was my best friend when I was a kid,
Speaker 2: and we went through so much and I wish I
Speaker 2: could see him again. I mean, I don't know would
Speaker 2: you want to see you know what?
Speaker 1: It's so funny because I have a similar Probably how
Speaker 1: old were you when you were and Billy were friends?
Speaker 2: Probably like eight seven years.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So when I was at primary school elementary school
Speaker 1: in England, it was I had a friend that I
Speaker 1: recently connected with again. Because I was talking about him
Speaker 1: on the show and then he reached out. His name
Speaker 1: is Ian, and so me and Ian like, he was
Speaker 1: my best friend in primary school since we were like
Speaker 1: four or five years old, two too exactly. He lost
Speaker 1: touch after eleven, after eleven years old and we went
Speaker 1: to different secondary school. For you now I'm thirty six.
Speaker 1: Now thirty six, yeah, and so it's like, but I
Speaker 1: haven't seen him again. But we did message a bit,
Speaker 1: and it was I.
Speaker 2: Googled his name fifty other ways and I just can't
Speaker 2: find him his name. I know. I wish you could
Speaker 2: see this show. I mean, his name is Billy Jeannetti.
Speaker 2: I know him. Ask Billy Jeannetti. And if you see
Speaker 2: this show, please, you know, hit me up on Instagram
Speaker 2: and d m me and let me see if I
Speaker 2: could at least meet you again and talk to you again.
Speaker 2: I would love to. That's beautiful, man. Yeah.
Speaker 1: No, there's kind of friendships that are different. And yeah,
Speaker 1: that nostalgia being able to look back and see.
Speaker 2: Oh my god. And I'm very nostalgic, like I really
Speaker 2: I have. I'm fascinated with the past, and not only
Speaker 2: with my past, with the past, like I see movies
Speaker 2: from the past, and I go crazy. I don't know
Speaker 2: why I like them so much. Like I like to
Speaker 2: see how simple life was in the past. I think
Speaker 2: it's so complicated now with all thens and you know,
Speaker 2: yes we need it and stuff like that, but I
Speaker 2: used to like the way it was.
Speaker 1: You know, would you say your life's become more simple
Speaker 1: or more complicated?
Speaker 2: It depends in what terms. If you're going to say
Speaker 2: in terms of temptation, it's simpler. If you're gonna say
Speaker 2: in terms of a better lifestyle, no, even come back
Speaker 2: to what you grew up with. Yeah, I mean, I've
Speaker 2: my girls here right now, and she knows that. I
Speaker 2: don't even touch my phone anymore. I don't care about
Speaker 2: it anymore. I just feel that it's just toxic, you know,
Speaker 2: And even though we need it, I use it because
Speaker 2: we need it, but it doesn't make me happy anymore.
Speaker 2: I'm one of the first influencers of the Spanish reggaetone,
Speaker 2: not reggaetone, the first influencers there was back in twenty fourteen,
Speaker 2: you know, when Instagram started. I used to do videos everywhere,
Speaker 2: sit down here, sit down everywhere, show my lifestyle, show
Speaker 2: the way I would talk to people from the streets
Speaker 2: and make people laugh and make jokes and stuff like that.
Speaker 2: And it came to a moment where record labels wanted
Speaker 2: to obligate me to do it, and it just didn't
Speaker 2: feel organic. And when something's not organic, it just doesn't
Speaker 2: feel good. What you're doing right now, you're doing it
Speaker 2: because you like it, you enjoy it. But when they
Speaker 2: tell you you have to do it, it's different, you
Speaker 2: know different. You doing this because you like it. I
Speaker 2: can see you enjoying your job. That's nice as badass.
Speaker 2: But when they're like, we need you to do content
Speaker 2: because they like Nikki Jam being an influence, I'm like, nah,
Speaker 2: I'm not an influence. I'm a singer. I do music
Speaker 2: and I started influencing people by Instagram. But do not
Speaker 2: obligate me to do something because automatically, it's not anything
Speaker 2: that's obligated. It's not organic. And what's not organic doesn't
Speaker 2: look cool.
Speaker 1: You know, it doesn't work.
Speaker 2: It doesn't work.
Speaker 1: And I think we're living at a special time right
Speaker 1: now where you can own your own media and you can,
Speaker 1: like you said with this show, like we can make
Speaker 1: it as longer as sure as we like. We can
Speaker 1: sit down with whoever we want to find it interesting
Speaker 1: record labels.
Speaker 2: When I turn on a live or I do something,
Speaker 2: they see how my everything goes up numbers and then
Speaker 2: they're like, ooh, we need you to do this. I
Speaker 2: don't want to do nothing you need. I want to
Speaker 2: do something I need. I want to do something I like.
Speaker 2: I want to do something I enjoy. If you tell
Speaker 2: me you have to sing, I don't want to sing.
Speaker 2: If you tell me, can you please sing? I'll probably
Speaker 2: think about it. But there's nothing better than singing when
Speaker 2: you want to sing. You know, when you want to
Speaker 2: do something, you enjoy it more. And that's just the
Speaker 2: way I am. Even in a relationship. If my girl
Speaker 2: tells me, go get me a cup of water, I
Speaker 2: might have no If she tells me, baby, can I
Speaker 2: get a couple of water? I get one hundred and
Speaker 2: fifty cups of water and I rob her if you
Speaker 2: watch he drinking it. Because that's just the way I am.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying. That's just the way I am.
Speaker 2: I don't run by command. I've never been that type
Speaker 2: of guy, and that's why I have the success that
Speaker 2: I have because I always live life the way I
Speaker 2: want to live it.
Speaker 1: It's a beautiful way to live. But the world's kind
Speaker 1: of set up with all these rules and contracts and
Speaker 1: things you have to sign and everything. So how have
Speaker 1: you managed to hold onto that? How have you kept
Speaker 1: that when there are so many demands and Nikki, do
Speaker 1: this sneaky do God?
Speaker 2: Like, I don't do shit nobody tells me to do.
Speaker 2: I've never been that guy, and that probably could be
Speaker 2: a situation. Sometimes they call me and they say, we
Speaker 2: need you to do a video for this show. I'm like,
Speaker 2: I'm not doing it. I just I don't do stuff
Speaker 2: people tell me I have to do. I don't work
Speaker 2: like that. I don't like people telling me there's a
Speaker 2: structure of life, there's a blueprint of living. Hell No,
Speaker 2: I live the like the way I want to live it.
Speaker 2: I'm a good guy and I always work with everybody,
Speaker 2: and I listen to people because I'm open, you know,
Speaker 2: for ideas, and I'm open for everything. I'm not open
Speaker 2: for commands. It's just that that's just the way I am.
Speaker 2: If you tell me, Nikki, what do you think if
Speaker 2: we do this? You know? Yeah, yeah, why I want
Speaker 2: to know why? Well, because I think if you do
Speaker 2: this and we do it this way, we could do
Speaker 2: that and this could happen. I'm like, okay, okay, let's
Speaker 2: do it. Let's work. You know. I'd rather work that
Speaker 2: way than a command and telling me I have to.
Speaker 2: And just that's just the way I am. And that's
Speaker 2: that's the way I've been living for years.
Speaker 1: You know, That's what I was gonna say. It makes
Speaker 1: sense for you because you've had to be your own
Speaker 1: boss and make decisions and tough times and you've had
Speaker 1: to you.
Speaker 2: Know, and I've paid and I've paid my dudes because
Speaker 2: of that too. At the same time, I've been I've
Speaker 2: been situations where I almost got killed a lot of times,
Speaker 2: not once, probably like fifty sixty times. I've been in jail.
Speaker 2: I've been through so many things because I do whatever
Speaker 2: I want to do, you know what I'm saying. But
Speaker 2: at the same time, I've done so many good things
Speaker 2: because I do whatever I want to do. You know,
Speaker 2: I have so much success. And it's not even about success.
Speaker 2: It's about helping people too, because the mean of everything
Speaker 2: is my whole way of thinking about things is I
Speaker 2: want people. I want to inspiraate people. If I open
Speaker 2: a restaurant, if I do a song, if I give
Speaker 2: away aol, a scholarship, anything I do, even if I up,
Speaker 2: I want people to get inspiraated by it, because the
Speaker 2: reality is we all go where human beings are, not
Speaker 2: angels who we don't have wings and ship. We all up.
Speaker 2: So I want people to, you know, see things that's
Speaker 2: inspiration I and I like, you know, to be honest
Speaker 2: with you. I know people think, you know, they saw
Speaker 2: my story and they see it like, well, you know,
Speaker 2: he's already had his success, he had his bad moments.
Speaker 2: He woke up like the phoenix because they call me
Speaker 2: the phoenix and the in the urban music game, because
Speaker 2: I came from the ashes and I came back and
Speaker 2: I did a comeback and then I conquered the world
Speaker 2: and soever soever. But the reality of everything is I
Speaker 2: still go through shit. I still have my bad not
Speaker 2: bad days, bad months, well I could say a whole
Speaker 2: bad year, even if I have success, you know, because
Speaker 2: we have these skeletons in the closets that are trying
Speaker 2: to pull me back. You know, the past is killing
Speaker 2: me and a lot of people be like the past go,
Speaker 2: And that's not the way it works, you know, We
Speaker 2: have a lot of people, especially men, going to mental health,
Speaker 2: you know, mental problems, and they just don't talk about it.
Speaker 2: They scared of talking about it. It's not easy for
Speaker 2: a man to do it because a man always have
Speaker 2: to have shit together, you know. Like I'm a man,
Speaker 2: I never have a problem. I take care of everything.
Speaker 2: But that's not the way it works. You know. I
Speaker 2: go to anxiety sometimes, I get panic attacks, I get nervous,
Speaker 2: I get the shakes, I get a lot of shit.
Speaker 2: I start thinking about because I'm a human being, you know,
Speaker 2: when I went through a lot of shit, and I'm
Speaker 2: paying a lot of things that I went through and
Speaker 2: a lot of things that I did in the past.
Speaker 2: You know, even if I have success, even if I
Speaker 2: help somebody, even if tomorrow I'll give one hundred dollars
Speaker 2: to a homeless guy, or give away a scholarship through
Speaker 2: the Grammys, or or I don't know, give away a
Speaker 2: whole concert for free or whatever I do, I still
Speaker 2: I have a smile. But I go through, you know,
Speaker 2: my bad moments. So it's just you know, it's just life.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just like, yeah, what creates the It sounds
Speaker 1: like it almost feels like you have that to share today,
Speaker 1: like you've come here with this feeling of like, I
Speaker 1: want people to know that despite the success, despite the
Speaker 1: arc of my journey from like a lot of pain
Speaker 1: to finding my genius and flow and the greatness that
Speaker 1: you've achieved, that you want people to know that I
Speaker 1: still have human emotions. I still have issues. What would
Speaker 1: you say, are those things that come up now? What
Speaker 1: are the roots of those? What are those?
Speaker 2: No, I'm gonna be honest with you and I have
Speaker 2: I've never opened up in any of these shows about this.
Speaker 2: I've been going through alcohol problems. It's the last uh,
Speaker 2: this whole last year. It's because for some reason the
Speaker 2: past came back to me and people have seen this,
Speaker 2: you know, and it affects me in a way that
Speaker 2: even I I even said I was gonna retire, and
Speaker 2: that's a lie. I'm not retiring. I will never retire.
Speaker 2: I even posted a video. I edited a video and
Speaker 2: I posted it that I was retiring. It was an
Speaker 2: alcohol you know. I've been battling with this for a
Speaker 2: couple of years now. I could say one or two years.
Speaker 2: You know, I can't say I'm an alcoholic as if
Speaker 2: I say I'm an alcoholic. I'm lying. Alcoholic is a
Speaker 2: person that sees alcoholics are shivering and drinks every single day.
Speaker 2: But I go through my days where I go crazy
Speaker 2: five or six days and people seen this. And to
Speaker 2: be honest with you, I smoke weed today because I'm
Speaker 2: dealing with the anxiety of not drinking and I've been stopping,
Speaker 2: you know, drinking and all that because of the weed.
Speaker 2: The we'ed been helping me in a way. And people
Speaker 2: seeing me smoke and they're like, oh, he went back. Well,
Speaker 2: we was never a problem for me. It was perks
Speaker 2: and cocaine and other stuff. We was never a problem
Speaker 2: for me. So when people start seeing me smoking weed,
Speaker 2: they were like, oh, he went back again, and oh
Speaker 2: they saw me drinking alcohol, he went back again. Reality is,
Speaker 2: I've always been battling with my situation. You know, I've
Speaker 2: just had good years, seven, eight, nine years, and then
Speaker 2: I you know, I have my struggles again with other stuff.
Speaker 2: You know, you can say the alcohol the weed, I
Speaker 2: don't see as a drug. That's just the way I
Speaker 2: see it. I smoke. It makes me chill, I get hungry,
Speaker 2: sometimes I eat, I laugh, and it gets my mind
Speaker 2: off all the negativity and drinking and stuff like that,
Speaker 2: and I just felt judged by people, like, you know,
Speaker 2: like just because I stopped doing the other stuff and
Speaker 2: I've been clean for so many years, and then they
Speaker 2: see me smoking weed, you know, they see me drinking alcohol.
Speaker 2: They judge me, but they saw my past, and it's
Speaker 2: contradicting because it's like, Okay, so you see my past,
Speaker 2: you say you feel bad about my situation, you understand
Speaker 2: my situation, but then you see me fall in any situation,
Speaker 2: or you see me do anything to deal with my
Speaker 2: anxiety or my present moment, and you judge me, And yeah,
Speaker 2: I do feel the type of way. It pisses me off.
Speaker 2: I ain't gonna be lying, but I can't get mad
Speaker 2: at the same time because people don't understand. And you
Speaker 2: can't get mad if people don't understand your situation, you know.
Speaker 2: But at the same time, can you judge somebody if
Speaker 2: you don't know the situation? Who we do? You know?
Speaker 2: I judge my mom for so many years until I
Speaker 2: heard what happened to her in the past. And that's
Speaker 2: why today I respect my mom and I understand my mom.
Speaker 2: She had a crazy past, So you know, I wish
Speaker 2: I could share it, but I respect for her. I
Speaker 2: want to do it. I don't. I don't know if
Speaker 2: I have the green light. Like stuff that I did
Speaker 2: talk about my mom is because I had the green
Speaker 2: light from her to talk about But probably one day
Speaker 2: I come out and do another series, you know, and
Speaker 2: she gives me the green light to talk about whatever.
Speaker 2: But I don't think I'll do another series about my life.
Speaker 2: I think what I did was enough, and I don't
Speaker 2: want to in a way. I don't want to. I
Speaker 2: don't want to be in a box. A few people
Speaker 2: box me like this, like the how do you say
Speaker 2: this in English? Because I think in Spanish like a
Speaker 2: role model. I don't want to be a role model.
Speaker 2: I appreciate that people see me as a role model,
Speaker 2: but I'm a human being, and if I have to
Speaker 2: be a perfect human being to be a role model,
Speaker 2: I don't want to be a role model. I want
Speaker 2: to be a human I want to keep being a
Speaker 2: human being. I want to be able to fall and
Speaker 2: get back up again, and fall and give back up again,
Speaker 2: and fall and get back up again. I don't want
Speaker 2: to be boxed. That's this role model just because people
Speaker 2: want to see me as a role model, and after
Speaker 2: I did this series, people see me as this guy
Speaker 2: that can't up why I'm not an angel? When you
Speaker 2: go to church. A lot of people say, I don't
Speaker 2: like going to church because I see shit in church
Speaker 2: that I don't like, and I see people from church
Speaker 2: doing things they don't have to do. They're not angels.
Speaker 2: They're fighting their battles. You cannot expect them to be perfect.
Speaker 2: Even the pastor, he's gonna up. He's a human being. Now,
Speaker 2: we in the sky and we were God, and there's
Speaker 2: angels up. I understand, but none of these motherfuckers got wings.
Speaker 2: They human beings. People don't understand that. And it's easy
Speaker 2: to judge people. You know, it's easy to judge people.
Speaker 2: But if you had my money, and you had my power,
Speaker 2: and you had my past, and you had my career,
Speaker 2: how would you manage it? You know, you can't say
Speaker 2: you know how you're gonna do it because you never
Speaker 2: had it before.
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Speaker 1: It's powerful to hear that having context of your mum's
Speaker 1: past was so helpful in you making sense of who
Speaker 1: she was and why she was that way. I want
Speaker 1: to know for you, what was it that took you
Speaker 1: to drugs the first time, and what was it that
Speaker 1: took you back to alcohol this time? Like, what were
Speaker 1: the two motivations that took you there the first time?
Speaker 1: And now as well?
Speaker 2: Drugs was part of my family since I was a kid.
Speaker 2: My uncle died of age because he shot heroin using
Speaker 2: somebody else's needles. He died in my face. My dad
Speaker 2: did drugs, my mom did drugs in the house, my
Speaker 2: uncle did drugs, my other uncle did drugs. Everybody in
Speaker 2: the house will come to my house to do drugs,
Speaker 2: and I would see that a whole bunch of zombies
Speaker 2: in my house. So this started since that, and then
Speaker 2: when I'm eleven years old, I moved to Puerto Rico,
Speaker 2: and kids in Puerto Rico were doing drugs like nothing
Speaker 2: in the hood. I'm not saying everybody in Puerto Rico
Speaker 2: does drugs. Where I was raised, it was normal just
Speaker 2: to see kids doing drugs. And at eleven, I started
Speaker 2: smoking weed, and from weed a couple of years after,
Speaker 2: I went to coke. What made me do coke was
Speaker 2: a what's the first girl that I had? She left
Speaker 2: me for another man when I was fourteen or fifteen
Speaker 2: years old. She left me because I was a kid
Speaker 2: and I didn't have a job or nothing like that,
Speaker 2: and she left me for a man that had a
Speaker 2: job and had inspiration and had all that, you know,
Speaker 2: blah blah blah, and my mom abandoned me. So to
Speaker 2: have another girl abandoned me, it affected me in a
Speaker 2: way so big that I did. I started doing cocaine
Speaker 2: and from there I it went from cocaine to heroine, heroin,
Speaker 2: to ecstasy, ecstasy to any type of drug until I
Speaker 2: got hooked with the with the perks and you know, codeine,
Speaker 2: and I was doing perks, thirty perks a day for years.
Speaker 2: I cleaned myself for years, because you know, I got
Speaker 2: my shit together, and I said, I know it was
Speaker 2: destroying me, and it was destroying my body and destroying
Speaker 2: my mind, destroying my health. But when I had success
Speaker 2: and I did it all and I was all this money,
Speaker 2: and you know, it's lonely in the top. For some reason,
Speaker 2: that lifestyle took me back to the past, and I
Speaker 2: started going out. I didn't do anything, and I was bored,
Speaker 2: and somebody had a thing of champagne and I just
Speaker 2: took one and I started drinking one. And from there
Speaker 2: it went to give me another one, and there gave
Speaker 2: me for another one. And then I started traveling and
Speaker 2: I went to Europe, and then the base where I
Speaker 2: was staying was Amsterdam during the week, and I had
Speaker 2: a little bar in the front, and I started drinking
Speaker 2: and drinking and drinking, and I thought it was something
Speaker 2: that I could do, you know. And while I was
Speaker 2: touring during the week and then weekends I would perform.
Speaker 2: Went back to Miami. It wasn't the same. I was
Speaker 2: still in Answerdam even if I was in Miami. And
Speaker 2: that's how I got back to it.
Speaker 1: Where do you go for help? Like when you clean
Speaker 1: the first time, and now you're being so open about
Speaker 1: this challenge that you have right now, Like how have
Speaker 1: you been able to find the right help to support
Speaker 1: you through that?
Speaker 2: Myself? Myself and my people, my girl, you know, my
Speaker 2: girl would tell me Nikki, you drink and you sleep
Speaker 2: for a whole day and I be alone. That affected me.
Speaker 2: I'm like, oh shit, like really, like I leave you
Speaker 2: alone for like eight hours and shit and all the
Speaker 2: shit that I I would do that I wouldn't remember,
Speaker 2: you know, And I'm like, I don't want to be
Speaker 2: that guy. I don't want to be a guy that
Speaker 2: do things and don't remember. So that helped me a lot.
Speaker 2: People around me see people around me, you know, not
Speaker 2: liking me being this guy that's drinking. And you know,
Speaker 2: I've had fun. I ain't gonna lie this whole time.
Speaker 2: I don't want to make it a sad story. I
Speaker 2: don't want people to think that I've been like sad
Speaker 2: and crying and I've had a lot of fun, a
Speaker 2: lot of fun. But too much fun is not good,
Speaker 2: you know, Yeah, too much fun is not good. And
Speaker 2: if you forget shit and you don't remember, shit is bad.
Speaker 2: And that's why I started smoking, because I would get
Speaker 2: a lot. I'm very anxious. If you see me here,
Speaker 2: I can't stop moving. That's just the way I am.
Speaker 2: I've been like that since I was a kid. I've
Speaker 2: never told this story before, but when I was a kid,
Speaker 2: I lead paint with lead. They paint the house where
Speaker 2: I was living with lead, and I used to eat
Speaker 2: that when I was a kid, So that lad got
Speaker 2: into my blood, and that lad affected me in a
Speaker 2: way that it makes me very anxious. My sister had
Speaker 2: it too, and so you know, all the drugs that
Speaker 2: I did in the past and all that affected my
Speaker 2: nervous system. So I'm a very anxious person and I
Speaker 2: ain't gonna lie. The weed helps me a lot. It's
Speaker 2: been helping me a lot. Probably somebody hears who's like,
Speaker 2: you're stupid, You're leaving something for another thing or whatever.
Speaker 2: I mean. I do whatever I gotta do to like,
Speaker 2: for sure, to feel better. And I've rather smoked and
Speaker 2: drink and I'm not doing the perks I used to
Speaker 2: do in the past, or the cocaine, et cetera. And
Speaker 2: I don't even know why I'm telling you some of shit.
Speaker 1: I appreciate it, no, man, I think it's I mean,
Speaker 1: it's real. It's real, and oh I'm real. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: if anything, I'm It's impressive how aware you are of
Speaker 1: yourself having had so much trauma, stress, pain, Like you're
Speaker 1: so aware. Like that's what I'm noticing in you.
Speaker 2: I'm listening to you.
Speaker 1: I'm like, well, this person so aware. You're so open
Speaker 1: to people in your inner circle being able to share
Speaker 1: their feedback with you. Yeah, you said it's lonely at
Speaker 1: the top, but it seems like you've surrounded yourself with
Speaker 1: people that can be honest with you and are arnest
Speaker 1: with you.
Speaker 2: Yeah you could. You could have good people next to
Speaker 2: you and still feel lonely. It's weird. I don't know
Speaker 2: how to explain that. For some reason, you can have
Speaker 2: good people next to you. I have a good circle
Speaker 2: of people, have good friends. I have a good girl.
Speaker 2: I have beautiful kids. My kids are big now, you know,
Speaker 2: all in college and high school. And I'm not the
Speaker 2: typical guy that calls the family every day and checks
Speaker 2: on them. I'm the guy that when you call them
Speaker 2: there you know. My dad calls me and I'll be
Speaker 2: there in a second. Anything. He needs my mom as well,
Speaker 2: my kids as well. Even my friends sometimes I just
Speaker 2: don't want to be next to people. But it's not
Speaker 2: because I'm a jerk, because I love my friends and
Speaker 2: my friends been my family for a long time. Because
Speaker 2: you know, I've been on the road so long. I've
Speaker 2: been more on the road than in my house, you know,
Speaker 2: traveling the world. I've traveled the world. I've done so
Speaker 2: much around the world that to be in my house
Speaker 2: it's just something that doesn't happen. But uh, but yeah,
Speaker 2: sometimes you still feel lonely. It's just a the traumas. Man.
Speaker 2: The traumas take you, take you there. But I deal
Speaker 2: with it. I mean, I'm just opening it up to you.
Speaker 2: I'm not sure. It's not that I'm like I was.
Speaker 2: I've been laughing my whole way here. I have a
Speaker 2: good time. I make fun of myself. I joke around
Speaker 2: everywhere I go. I have a lot of fun. But
Speaker 2: you know, I'm a human being, and that's what I
Speaker 2: want people to understand. I have my days just like you.
Speaker 2: I have my depressions, just like you. I have my
Speaker 2: insecurities just like you. I have my all that shit
Speaker 2: that people think we don't have because we have money,
Speaker 2: we have cars, we have all that bullshit that the
Speaker 2: reality is just nothing, you know, the end of the day,
Speaker 2: it's just when you're alone in that bed. You know,
Speaker 2: you're dying in that bed. You don't have a Farrari
Speaker 2: next to you. You don't have a whole bunch of
Speaker 2: girls next to you, you don't have a whole bunch
Speaker 2: of friends. Next to you? Is your family? Who's there
Speaker 2: with you?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 2: So I'm real.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, walk me through. There's there's some things you
Speaker 1: said to me that I think, you know, people won't
Speaker 1: experience once. Let learn fifty sixty times you were saying,
Speaker 1: like nearly being killed, Like what is that? That must
Speaker 1: be a life altering experience. But when you've had it
Speaker 1: fifty sixty times, I mean, do you become immune to that?
Speaker 1: Does that just become normal?
Speaker 2: Not now, No, not now, because I lived that life
Speaker 2: a long time ago. But yeah, by that time and
Speaker 2: that time, yes, of course, yeah, I was. I don't care.
Speaker 1: Walk me through one of the events if that was
Speaker 1: the worst, like that was the closest.
Speaker 2: Oh my god. I mean, there's so many things I
Speaker 2: can't even talk about because the thin well I could,
Speaker 2: I could, I could almost talk about I was at
Speaker 2: this club and I just bought a gun. I bought
Speaker 2: a gun. And for some reason, this gun, if you,
Speaker 2: if you, if you, if you lower the safety, it
Speaker 2: shoots because because the gun was they put it fully
Speaker 2: automatic in the street, in the street way. So I
Speaker 2: bought this gun. I went into a club. The way
Speaker 2: I got into the club with the gun. It's funny
Speaker 2: that I put it in my chain and I sucked
Speaker 2: it in. Security guy touched it. I said, it was,
Speaker 2: you know, it was. It was if you had like
Speaker 2: a like a how do you call that, like a
Speaker 2: rosemary or something like that or something or anything in gold.
Speaker 2: They you can't, they can't touch it because it's prepared.
Speaker 2: It's it's a Puerto Rican thing. And so I got
Speaker 2: in my gun and I shot the gun inside there
Speaker 2: and then the no, someone just no, no, I didn't
Speaker 2: want to shoot it. I lowered the safety and it shot.
Speaker 2: So I'm in the club and the big guy from
Speaker 2: Puerto Rico, the one that it was, I'm not gonna
Speaker 2: say names, but the big guy, he was there and
Speaker 2: his right man was there too, and they tell him, yo,
Speaker 2: Nikki's shooting in the club. And the big guy, you know,
Speaker 2: the top guy, he knew me and he was like, oh,
Speaker 2: you know, Nikki, I'll deal with in a word, but
Speaker 2: that's my boy. But then I was hiding myself behind
Speaker 2: this guy because I knew I just shot some shot
Speaker 2: the roof of the club and I didn't want nobody
Speaker 2: to know it was me. And I had an argument
Speaker 2: with the guy and the guy said he was with
Speaker 2: the top guy, and I said, I don't carry you
Speaker 2: with the top guy. But he told the top guys,
Speaker 2: like Nikki said, he don't care about you. So his
Speaker 2: right hand man came to shoot me, and then I
Speaker 2: shoot my way out. I shot him too, and and
Speaker 2: they gave me that phone call saying, bro, wherever we
Speaker 2: get you, it's done. That's a scary moment because I
Speaker 2: know who this guy was, and he was one of
Speaker 2: the biggest guys, biggest guys in Puerto Rico. Long story short,
Speaker 2: the whole music industry helped me not get killed. And
Speaker 2: I had to pay my way to help the guy
Speaker 2: because the guy had and how do you call this,
Speaker 2: he was, uh, he had diabetes. So when you get
Speaker 2: if you get shot, having diabetes for some reason, it
Speaker 2: affects you way more. And I had to like pay
Speaker 2: a lot of money in that moment. We didn't make
Speaker 2: that much money in the industry and the music industry,
Speaker 2: and I got out of that. But that's just one
Speaker 2: of the stories of a whole bunch of stories. I
Speaker 2: could tell you.
Speaker 1: Wow, man, And like you said, it's there's real fear.
Speaker 2: There's no when the guy like that calls you and
Speaker 2: tells you was done is you know, it's one of
Speaker 2: the worst things you could hear in your life. You know,
Speaker 2: It's just I went through a lot of stuff, man,
Speaker 2: I went through a lot of stuff, and I was
Speaker 2: just a rebel. My mom not being there made me
Speaker 2: not care about living, you know, and just it's just
Speaker 2: the way it was.
Speaker 1: How long were you ever in prison for for the
Speaker 1: longest time, like three years? Three years in one stretch. Yeah,
Speaker 1: walk us through what three years in prison looks like,
Speaker 1: because I feel like, again most people are on the
Speaker 1: see in the movies, and you know it's glorified in
Speaker 1: the TV show.
Speaker 2: At the beginning, you get all classophobic and you feel like, uh,
Speaker 2: you feel like you're gonna die. I mean, come on,
Speaker 2: you used to living in the house, and from living
Speaker 2: in a house, you living in four walls like this,
Speaker 2: like this morning, this is huge, bro. No, I mean
Speaker 2: from your from York, from where you are to where
Speaker 2: I am, and probably a little bit over here. That's it.
Speaker 2: That's all you got in a toilet for the reality
Speaker 2: of everything. I've always been the soul of the party.
Speaker 2: So I made these people have fun. I sang for them.
Speaker 2: I made jokes all day because I'm a joker. I'll
Speaker 2: be doing jokes, and uh, people love me. You know,
Speaker 2: people love me, and uh, they were gonna give me
Speaker 2: six years. And from six years, I came out in three.
Speaker 2: So I try not to talk too much about that
Speaker 2: because it was crazy days. But but I could tell
Speaker 2: you that I thought, for one moment everything was going
Speaker 2: to be done when I got into that place, and
Speaker 2: as soon as I came out coming inside it it's
Speaker 2: not a problem when you come out and you fund
Speaker 2: everything that you left before you went inside of jail.
Speaker 2: Just like drugs, you know, you stop doing drugs and
Speaker 2: then you got to confront yourself with all the things
Speaker 2: that made you get into drugs. So I don't know,
Speaker 2: I I'm just happy, I'm not I'm outside.
Speaker 1: No, I'm fascinated because it's such a unique life experience
Speaker 1: that you know, I don't get to speak to someone
Speaker 1: who's had that experience and then have the other experience
Speaker 1: that you've had. So to me, I'm just curious because
Speaker 1: I feel like we have such a limited understanding of
Speaker 1: that life experience from the outside. Ind Like you have
Speaker 1: no clue what it looks like to have that experience.
Speaker 1: And I love what you said that it's actually harder
Speaker 1: when you come out and you've got to see where
Speaker 1: everything's kind of you got to catch up with life.
Speaker 2: Catch up with life, and you know, you know, and
Speaker 2: come back and it will come back. And it was worse.
Speaker 2: I came out and it was worse and worse and worse,
Speaker 2: and I didn't more drugs and more drugs, and it
Speaker 2: was it came to a moment I looked all messed
Speaker 2: up because Perks was a drugs that would not will
Speaker 2: make you eat. So I was a drug addict. I
Speaker 2: was a big drug addict. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: I was an overweight drug addict. I would rather be
Speaker 2: a skinny drug addict, it makes more sense. But I wasn't.
Speaker 2: I was eating all this shit and you know, and
Speaker 2: overweight and just you know, embarrassment, embarrassments, embarrassments, so it
Speaker 2: was like it was just horrible. But you know, moving
Speaker 2: to Columbia changed my life.
Speaker 1: Why why did that change your life?
Speaker 2: Well, the reality is sometimes you have to move, you know,
Speaker 2: you can't stay in one place. And they called me
Speaker 2: for a show in Columbia when I was in my
Speaker 2: worst moment, and I went over there and I performed reality.
Speaker 2: I acted like I was my own manager, and they
Speaker 2: changed my voice. They're like, yo, can we get Nikki
Speaker 2: jam for the A Teeth one moment? They put my manager, Yes,
Speaker 2: what do you need right now? Change my voice? And
Speaker 2: I had feel like I was my own manager. And
Speaker 2: I went to Columbia and I'm thinking over here, I'm
Speaker 2: the worst guy on the list of singers that are
Speaker 2: going to be in this concert. You know, all these
Speaker 2: kids were popping. They were like killing the game. I
Speaker 2: haven't been in Colombia for a long time. So I
Speaker 2: go over there and I'm over here thinking, damn, I
Speaker 2: was singing these old songs. You know, I've been out
Speaker 2: of the game for so long and not doing well,
Speaker 2: and you know, I don't know if I want to
Speaker 2: go on stage. You know, like I got even nervous
Speaker 2: and everything, and I'm seeing that all these kids are
Speaker 2: performing and they saving me for last. And I tell
Speaker 2: the promoter, like, bro, why are you leaving me for last?
Speaker 2: I mean, you got all these kids. They killing the
Speaker 2: game right now, they're doing everything perfect, Like why are you?
Speaker 2: He's like, we're saving you for last, Bro, because you're
Speaker 2: the one people want to see. You never did a
Speaker 2: show here when you was really popping, so people want
Speaker 2: to see you. So when I got on stage, it
Speaker 2: was standing ovation. I mean, people were like crazy. And
Speaker 2: it went from that to that same two weeks, I
Speaker 2: was doing like fifteen shows. I did cheap, but hey,
Speaker 2: I made some money and I paid the rent, went
Speaker 2: back to Puerto Rico, paid arin, bought myself a car,
Speaker 2: and I'm thinking, oh am I doing here in Puerto Rico.
Speaker 2: I have this country that loves me so much. I'm
Speaker 2: working and I feel good over there. So I started.
Speaker 2: It started for me like staying two weeks, three weeks
Speaker 2: to me saying, you know what, I'm moving here. I'm
Speaker 2: moving to this country. And I was going through a
Speaker 2: bad moment there. You know, I was going through a
Speaker 2: really bad moment in Puerto Rico, and I went through
Speaker 2: a lot of embarrassments and stuff like that. So people
Speaker 2: in Colombia was seeing me as an idol. Nikon like Nikki,
Speaker 2: You're an iconom, like Kon, what do you mean? I'm broke,
Speaker 2: nikonum overweight, broke. How you gonna call me an iconom?
Speaker 2: But people see when people give you that love and
Speaker 2: they say you the best, you believe it. So thanks
Speaker 2: for the people giving me that love and saying I'm
Speaker 2: the best. I did believe I was the best until
Speaker 2: I became the best and I conquered the world. I
Speaker 2: realized the country had more than sixty five million people,
Speaker 2: and it was the YouTube era, and I said, you
Speaker 2: know what, if I have one number one hit national
Speaker 2: hit in this country, I could probably have so many
Speaker 2: views that I can make other countries want to know
Speaker 2: why I have so many views. And it went from
Speaker 2: having one national hit to five nights hits and having
Speaker 2: fifteen million in one song, twenty million in another, one,
Speaker 2: thirty million in another one. People was like Yo, Nikky's popping.
Speaker 2: And from there it went to Chi left from there
Speaker 2: went to Ecuador. From there went to hear Europe by
Speaker 2: and then from there I did five number one global hits,
Speaker 2: did the World Cup, did movies in Hollywood, et cetera,
Speaker 2: et cetera. I did everything, and thanks to Columbia, you know,
Speaker 2: thanks for the love they gave me, Thanks for the
Speaker 2: support they gave me, Thanks for making me think that
Speaker 2: I was somebody bigger than I thought I was, you know.
Speaker 2: And that's just something that I appreciate so much. And
Speaker 2: that's why I love the country. Everywhere I go and
Speaker 2: every country I go, I talk about Colombia. I could
Speaker 2: be in Mexico and I talk about Columbia. I could
Speaker 2: be in Puerto Rico and I talk about Colombia and
Speaker 2: I say, Hey, if you guys see two Colombias walking
Speaker 2: around the streets, give them love. Why because they took
Speaker 2: one of yours and they gave them love. That's just
Speaker 2: the way I see it. That's the way I believe it.
Speaker 2: You know, if I see somebody from Columbia struggling in
Speaker 2: my country, if I mean I'm living in Puerto Rico,
Speaker 2: I'll get them in my house. I'll take care of them,
Speaker 2: because Columbia did it with me. They gave me love
Speaker 2: when I needed it. I own so much. That's why
Speaker 2: I always try to, you know, show love and do
Speaker 2: whatever I could do to help the country.
Speaker 1: You know, yeah, I really believe in this idea of
Speaker 1: having a power place or a purpose place in the world.
Speaker 1: There are certain places that you move to that it
Speaker 1: feels like the whole universe is conspiring for you to
Speaker 1: grow and become.
Speaker 2: Colombia is exactly, and Columbia is that you and I
Speaker 2: appreciate that so much. You know, even if I wish,
Speaker 2: I wish I would have went before.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, there's I mean, there's a reason why like
Speaker 1: places become iconic for something like you look at Silicon
Speaker 1: Valley in tech where you look at LA and entertainment,
Speaker 1: you look at New York and finance, you look at
Speaker 1: you know, even though I was with my friend and
Speaker 1: you know, we're in this we're in Oxford in England,
Speaker 1: and like literally every book that we grew up on,
Speaker 1: whether it was Alice in Wonderland or Lord of the Rings,
Speaker 1: was written in that area of Oxford. And so it's
Speaker 1: like you've got all these hubs in the world where writers, creatives, artists,
Speaker 1: entrepreneurs gravitate because there's an energetic pull in that place.
Speaker 1: And for you, you know, Columbia sounds like it was
Speaker 1: that power place that there was.
Speaker 2: It was and I'm really grateful. Yeah, I can see
Speaker 2: that for the country, and I would always give love
Speaker 2: and show love to the country. And so the day
Speaker 2: I die, and I don't mind dying in Columbia, you know,
Speaker 2: because I feel like I'm dying home.
Speaker 1: You know, what was it like having that conversation with
Speaker 1: your mom after you had context of whatever she went through?
Speaker 1: What did it feel like to like appro to that?
Speaker 1: Because the reason I ask it is, I feel like
Speaker 1: a lot of us judge our parents for not giving
Speaker 1: us enough, for not being there for maybe you know,
Speaker 1: creating our trauma, et cetera. How do you then have
Speaker 1: that conversation to be like, I don't judge you like?
Speaker 1: This is how I like, how do you even navigate
Speaker 1: a conversation?
Speaker 2: My mom is not an easy individual. My mom is
Speaker 2: very complicated. She's not she's not well. You gotta understand,
Speaker 2: my mom was a lady that when she was a
Speaker 2: drug addict most of her life. You know, it's not
Speaker 2: getting to talk to a typical mom that's gonna like
Speaker 2: talk to you and say, yes, son, how you doing.
Speaker 2: And it's you know, a person that literally was raised
Speaker 2: in the streets, you know, So having a conversation with
Speaker 2: my mom is not the easiest thing in the world,
Speaker 2: but I give her a message in a strong way
Speaker 2: because I have my mom character. I don't know if
Speaker 2: that's the right way of saying it. My sister has
Speaker 2: my dad's and my mom is a strong woman and
Speaker 2: she don't take shit from nobody, and I'm a strong mother.
Speaker 2: I don't take shit from nobody. That's just the way
Speaker 2: I am. I've always been like that since I was
Speaker 2: a kid. I was raised like that, and you know,
Speaker 2: my mom raised me like that. In the small time
Speaker 2: she was with me, she would tell me in school,
Speaker 2: she was like, if you go and you fight in
Speaker 2: school and the kid he was fighting with he beat
Speaker 2: up more than you, I'm gonna whoop you ass when
Speaker 2: you get home. Automatically, my mom gave me that I
Speaker 2: gotta whoop people's asses if I go back home, my
Speaker 2: mom's gonna whoop me. And I'm scared. I'm a most
Speaker 2: scared of my mom than the kid in school. So
Speaker 2: she made me a tough guy. You know, she made
Speaker 2: me a tough guy. The conversation was just me being
Speaker 2: strong to her and telling her, hey, you know what
Speaker 2: you did this, you went through that I understand you.
Speaker 2: I went through a lot of shit myself. I needed you.
Speaker 2: Well you here now and we're here and that's all
Speaker 2: that matters, you know. And I take care of her.
Speaker 2: I bought her a house, you know. I give her
Speaker 2: money monthly, anything she needs. You know, I'll take care
Speaker 2: of her. You know, it's hard because you know, to
Speaker 2: have a relationship. She lives in them can republish, she
Speaker 2: can't travel. You know, I've been fighting for her to
Speaker 2: have her you know, a pardon from the United States
Speaker 2: so she could come back. She can't have it right now.
Speaker 2: But uh, I'll leave everything in God's hands.
Speaker 1: You prayer.
Speaker 2: If I say, I pray a lot, I'm a lie. Man.
Speaker 2: I have so much. It's so funny, man, I have
Speaker 2: so much add that even if I pray, I can
Speaker 2: lose myself praying, sir, girls, friend, I don't know if
Speaker 2: I'm the only one that has that situation.
Speaker 1: I think we all have.
Speaker 2: But I talk to God. I don't pray because praying
Speaker 2: has a process. You know. Praying is just not like, uh, yeah, God,
Speaker 2: I need you to hook me up with this, and no,
Speaker 2: praying is more like, you know, like you have to
Speaker 2: first say, you know, thank thank thank you for everything
Speaker 2: I have asked for other people's uh, you know, blessings
Speaker 2: and health and all that, and then you talk about yourself.
Speaker 2: That's the right way of doing it. That's the way
Speaker 2: the Bible says you should do it. I don't go
Speaker 2: through all that process every time. I do it sometimes,
Speaker 2: but I talk to God here and there. You know,
Speaker 2: I talk to God and uh, I have conversations with God.
Speaker 2: I feel like God is my best friend. I know
Speaker 2: it's not the right way. I know I should pray more. Oh,
Speaker 2: I mean that sounds beautiful. Yeah, that sounds like the
Speaker 2: essence of prayer. Yeah, I mean I I me, being
Speaker 2: a guy that knows about the Bible and knows about
Speaker 2: the Word of God. I know there's a better way
Speaker 2: of having a connection with God and a better way
Speaker 2: of praying. They say that you wake up every morning
Speaker 2: and you get on your knees and you pray. It's
Speaker 2: the right way. I wake up noxious in the morning now,
Speaker 2: like I feel like I'm sick in the morning. I
Speaker 2: got to eat something first. So if I sit, if
Speaker 2: I get on my knees and I start praying, and
Speaker 2: I don't feel good, I don't feel like I'm giving
Speaker 2: the best. I don't know if I'm think all of us, Yeah,
Speaker 2: I don't know. I mean I feel like, I mean,
Speaker 2: can I at least eat a piece of bread or
Speaker 2: something so I can like really focus on praying the
Speaker 2: right way. I mean, look at my pastor look with
Speaker 2: everything I've been through when I'm still here. You know,
Speaker 2: I feel God has a purpose for me. He has
Speaker 2: a huge purpose for me. And I feel God loves
Speaker 2: me the way I am. I mean, I feel if
Speaker 2: I go to have in and I'll probably like joke
Speaker 2: around with God and you know, playing around with his
Speaker 2: beard and and you know, just just the way I
Speaker 2: see myself. He made me. He knows the way I am.
Speaker 2: He knows my essence. He made me. I have respect
Speaker 2: for God. I love God, and I know the time
Speaker 2: will come where I would have to like really dedicate
Speaker 2: myself to God because he has given me so much
Speaker 2: and I haven't given him what I have to, you know.
Speaker 2: So I know I old God a lot.
Speaker 1: You know, that's beautiful.
Speaker 2: I'll pay him back. I'll pay him back.
Speaker 1: You've had a lot of figures in your life that
Speaker 1: have been important at different times, and of course, as
Speaker 1: you mentioned, earlier, like Daddy Yankee was in that mixtape
Speaker 1: time and you know, growing you and then of course
Speaker 1: I believe the relationship didn't go is you know, relationships
Speaker 1: fizzle out and don't always work the same. Have you
Speaker 1: found a way to reconcile those relationships as well or
Speaker 1: are you kind of sometimes like if it didn't work out,
Speaker 1: part ways move on.
Speaker 2: Well. The only persons who I have had situations like
Speaker 2: that old person was that a Yankee, and me and
Speaker 2: him were better than ever. He texted me. I think
Speaker 2: it was yesterday or today. He's in church now, he's
Speaker 2: with God now one hundred percent, and I'm really happy
Speaker 2: for him and he knows what I've been going through
Speaker 2: and all that, and we've talked before, we had conversations,
Speaker 2: and you know, me and him are like better than
Speaker 2: ever now. So I can't say forgiveness because he didn't
Speaker 2: do anything to me. If we could say it was
Speaker 2: the other way around. He always tried to be the
Speaker 2: big brother, and I always try to be the wreck
Speaker 2: getting that a Yankee out of the situation. Any any
Speaker 2: person that I've had problem with that's done something to me,
Speaker 2: I forgive and I feel better because the forgiveness is
Speaker 2: not for them, It is for yourself, you know. And
Speaker 2: I feel better. You know, I've had problems even here today.
Speaker 2: I have a friend. He's right here with me, and
Speaker 2: we didn't talk to each other for I don't know,
Speaker 2: four years or something like that. Was mad. We had
Speaker 2: a bad situation, and now we're joking in the car
Speaker 2: like nothing happened. I think that's the way it should be.
Speaker 2: Life is too short, you know, and to hold crushes
Speaker 2: and be mad and shit and be mad with people.
Speaker 2: Just go back to people. And they gave me so
Speaker 2: much in a moment that it's it's crazy like not
Speaker 2: to be with them. They could help too, you know.
Speaker 2: You know, people up and sometimes do things that other
Speaker 2: people will never forgive. Now I'm gonna tell you this though,
Speaker 2: I forgive, but I'll never forget. And with that, I'll
Speaker 2: say everything.
Speaker 1: Last year when I went on my World tour, something
Speaker 1: that I was doing throughout the show was I was
Speaker 1: creating moments of growth, but that would discomfort for people
Speaker 1: from the audience. I would bring people up and I
Speaker 1: would guide them and coach them through an uncomfortable situation
Speaker 1: in their life. So at the end of the show, oh,
Speaker 1: there was this one moment that we did across the world.
Speaker 1: So we did have forty shows across the world, and
Speaker 1: I would ask people in the audience if there was
Speaker 1: someone in their life that they loved but that they
Speaker 1: haven't talked to in five, ten, fifteen years, and people
Speaker 1: had crazy stories. There were people who hadn't talked to
Speaker 1: their kids for ten years, brothers and sisters who hadn't
Speaker 1: talked for five years. You know, people who hadn't talked
Speaker 1: to their ex for seven years.
Speaker 2: Whatever.
Speaker 1: All these stories, and I'd invite someone on stage who
Speaker 1: felt comfortable, I'd cut them through it and they'd have
Speaker 1: to I'd ask them to call that person on stage
Speaker 1: in front of everyone, but not tell them that they
Speaker 1: were at an event, and share how they really felt.
Speaker 1: And it was amazing man to see, Like, out of
Speaker 1: the forty phone calls, twenty went to voicemail, but twenty
Speaker 1: went through to the person. And it wasn't about a
Speaker 1: happy ending, or it wasn't about like a perfect reconnection.
Speaker 1: It was about what you said. Life was too short
Speaker 1: to carry that weight of I loved this person and
Speaker 1: I haven't said it, or I used to really appreci
Speaker 1: shared this friend and I we lost touch. We fell
Speaker 1: out over nothing, or maybe we fell out over something.
Speaker 1: When you're reconnecting with people in your life, what's been
Speaker 1: the thing that's allowed you to have the courage to
Speaker 1: do that? Like you've done it with your mom, You've
Speaker 1: done it with daddy, Yankee, Like, where's that coming from?
Speaker 2: That's just Nikki. I only have one friend that I
Speaker 2: didn't talk to that I had problems with, is the
Speaker 2: one I just told you. I'm the stupid one that
Speaker 2: always forgive people. When I say stupid, it's because that's
Speaker 2: what people tell me, you know, not because I think
Speaker 2: I'm stupid. Because I forgive people and I reconnect with
Speaker 2: them again. I just I don't care. I just don't care.
Speaker 2: It don't affect me anymore. Because something affect me in
Speaker 2: the moment that I forget, it makes me forget. I
Speaker 2: don't know why. It's just the way I am. I
Speaker 2: don't stay with that shit here. Probably it makes me
Speaker 2: a better person, I feel No, Probably it makes me
Speaker 2: a person, a happier person. I feel that I'm a
Speaker 2: happier person because of that. I'm not saying I'm perfect.
Speaker 2: I'm not saying I don't go through ship. Yes, I
Speaker 2: have a whole bunch of situations of life, but I
Speaker 2: have better quality of life because I forgive. I have
Speaker 2: no problem with forgiveness. I have no problem with sitting
Speaker 2: in the car with somebody that me in the past.
Speaker 2: I have no problem with that. I don't feel like
Speaker 2: some people with the ego the month like, oh yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna get you. I don't have that situation. If
Speaker 2: I love you back again, I love you back again.
Speaker 2: You know. It's just the way I am, you know.
Speaker 2: And I don't want people to be like me. I
Speaker 2: just want people to do whatever you do to make
Speaker 2: you happy. You know, whatever whatever makes you happy, just
Speaker 2: do it. That's that's what I do. I ain't trying
Speaker 2: to live like the way people tell me to. I'm
Speaker 2: trying to live the way life, the way I'm happy.
Speaker 2: You know. That's just the way I am.
Speaker 1: Does not apply to you as well. Do you think
Speaker 1: you can forgive yourself easily as well?
Speaker 2: You know, I've never seen me in a situation where
Speaker 2: I do not forgive, where I need forgiveness for myself
Speaker 2: because I've done people things to people. I've been a
Speaker 2: good human being to people, you know, stuff I've done
Speaker 2: in the streets and stuff like that are to people
Speaker 2: that it's really bad people, you know. So I don't
Speaker 2: know if I need their forgiveness, you know, But I
Speaker 2: feel good about me as a human being. You know.
Speaker 2: I'm happy, and I'm proud of myself. I've helped my family,
Speaker 2: I've helped people in the streets. I've helped my friends.
Speaker 2: If I buy a motorcycle, we all have motorcycles. If
Speaker 2: I eat, we all eat. That's just the way I am.
Speaker 2: The guy in the corner. If he's there, he ain't eating,
Speaker 2: Come eat with me. You know what I'm saying. I
Speaker 2: like helping people. I enjoy the smiles on people's face
Speaker 2: when I help them. I'm proud of myself because I'm
Speaker 2: that human being. If I wasn't that human being, I
Speaker 2: would be I'm not a selfish mother. I will never
Speaker 2: be that guy. I see movies where people help other
Speaker 2: people that I cry tears like that. My girl's been
Speaker 2: with me in the same room and she see me
Speaker 2: crying like a girl in movies. Why Because I'm a
Speaker 2: good human being. When you're a good human being and
Speaker 2: you see people doing good, you cry. But if you
Speaker 2: see shit like that and you don't give up. I
Speaker 2: just think you're a piece of shit too. That's just
Speaker 2: the way I am, because you don't care. Why would
Speaker 2: you not care? Why would you Why wouldn't you see
Speaker 2: somebody helping somebody else? Don't see that? And why wouldn't
Speaker 2: that That not affect you? It affects me in a
Speaker 2: good way, and it's like shit, So I'm proud of
Speaker 2: myself as a human being. I'm proudly who I am.
Speaker 2: I'm proud that I like helping people. I'm proud that
Speaker 2: I'm a real person. I'm proud that I'm a person
Speaker 2: that if I go I'll say it. Oh you know,
Speaker 2: that's just the way I am. And I'm not perfect.
Speaker 2: I'll never be perfect, and I'll up tomorrow and I'll fall,
Speaker 2: but I'll wake up and I'll clean my shit, keep going.
Speaker 1: You know, why did you say you were going to retire?
Speaker 1: When you said today, You're like, I would never have
Speaker 1: done that. And then what has inspired insomnia? What part
Speaker 1: of your heart and mind is that drinking?
Speaker 2: Drinking makes you say stupid things, makes you get depressed,
Speaker 2: makes you see everything it's not really And that's what
Speaker 2: was going on in that situation, and it made me
Speaker 2: post a thing that I was retired and I'm not retiring,
Speaker 2: never have No, I will never retire. Music is my life.
Speaker 2: Music is everything for me. But that's what an alcohol
Speaker 2: do up your judgment, you know what I'm saying. And
Speaker 2: I've been through that a lot. For some reason, it
Speaker 2: made me not care in that moment. Once I stopped drinking,
Speaker 2: I'm like, hell no, I erased that video and everything,
Speaker 2: but naw, I'm not retiring. You was asking about.
Speaker 1: Them or the album? Yeah, what's that been inspired by?
Speaker 1: With this whole new journey you're on right now?
Speaker 2: Like you said, if you listen to the whole album
Speaker 2: and Tonia, all the songs has something to do with
Speaker 2: the nighttime and me drinking and me partying and me
Speaker 2: going crazy and me smoking and me my love life
Speaker 2: and stuff like that. So the album has that situation
Speaker 2: that I've been going through these last years. Music is
Speaker 2: my art of expression and I took my time to
Speaker 2: do this album and I think it's one of the
Speaker 2: best albums I ever done. Everything is just everything has
Speaker 2: the same color. The album cover is amazing. It's really
Speaker 2: what I've been through. It Like, if you see the picture,
Speaker 2: you would automatically say okay this I could understand him
Speaker 2: just seeing his face. The songs from the number one
Speaker 2: song to the fifteenth song, and not only that. Apart
Speaker 2: from that, this song Insomnia, that's the single that's coming
Speaker 2: out for me, is going to be a global hey,
Speaker 2: because I went hard on this song. It talks about
Speaker 2: the situation of my drinking and all that, but at
Speaker 2: the same time, it's a sad song, but it's a
Speaker 2: happy song. It's crazy, like if you listen to it,
Speaker 2: you will never imagine the way it started because it
Speaker 2: started as a slow R and B sad song. And
Speaker 2: I told my boy, the guy that wrote the song
Speaker 2: with me, Sneaker is a badass. By the thanks, I
Speaker 2: was telling him, Yo, the song is badass, but we
Speaker 2: need an upbeat. We need to make this ship up
Speaker 2: beeat man, we need a ship. This song is too
Speaker 2: good to be just one of the one of the
Speaker 2: songs in the album, you know, just one of the songs.
Speaker 2: And I was like, hell no, we need to make
Speaker 2: this ship a mother hit. And I said, let's do
Speaker 2: matt Inga. And I was in the bathroom of my girl.
Speaker 2: I started around, you know what I'm saying, like singing
Speaker 2: this song. I did it with my mouth, and I said,
Speaker 2: I call her. I called her producers, like, yo, let's
Speaker 2: try to do this, and we took it that route,
Speaker 2: and bro, I think we cooked the mega hit. So
Speaker 2: I think the album is just me expressing myself of
Speaker 2: what I've been through these last years. And uh, at
Speaker 2: the same time, it made good ass music. So I
Speaker 2: want people to enjoy it. I want people to have
Speaker 2: fun with this album. And uh, you know, sit down
Speaker 2: and analyze the lyrics because everything, every song has a
Speaker 2: little something that tells you about what I've been through
Speaker 2: and what I've been going through these last years.
Speaker 1: I know it's something amazing. When you start talking with
Speaker 1: the album, you went completely still.
Speaker 2: When I when you start.
Speaker 1: Talking about the music, your whole buddy and lay everything
Speaker 1: went completely still, completely still. If everyone rewinds, it just
Speaker 1: goes back to that change just you when you were
Speaker 1: locked in talking about the music and the album.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's my heart, man, it's my art, it's
Speaker 2: what makes it's my psychology, psycho it was psychology. It's
Speaker 2: my psychology, you know. I feel like it.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: It tells my story, it tells my situation. It makes
Speaker 2: me happy in a way where I could like express
Speaker 2: myself and we're always misunderstood as artists, and there's no
Speaker 2: better way to uh clear the misunderstandings out of your art,
Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what's something that people don't know about you that
Speaker 1: you wish they did?
Speaker 2: I don't know. I'm so open.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's that's why I asked. I was like, I'm
Speaker 1: so so much of it.
Speaker 2: I tell people the way I am. I don't care.
Speaker 2: I speak what I think. It's really hard.
Speaker 1: What's something people misunderstand about you that you'd like to clarify.
Speaker 2: It could be my situations in my relationships. A lot
Speaker 2: of people see me jumping around from relationship relationship, Well,
Speaker 2: not jumping around, but let's say I've had a lot
Speaker 2: of relationships that haven't worked, and for some reason, people
Speaker 2: think that I just I'm just unstable and not necessarily unstable.
Speaker 2: I just think that sometimes it doesn't work, and it's
Speaker 2: not easy being an artist and doing what I do
Speaker 2: and having stable relationships. And if you've seen my past
Speaker 2: and you see what I've been through, you can't expect
Speaker 2: me to have the typical picket white fence relationship. You know,
Speaker 2: It's just that's not the way it works. You know,
Speaker 2: I didn't have that in my house, so why should
Speaker 2: I have that now? And I'm always on the road,
Speaker 2: and it's just really hard. It's not like I'm a
Speaker 2: picky guy. I don't care and I just throw away
Speaker 2: girls like nothing, you know, But I don't care about that.
Speaker 2: I don't get At the end of the day, people
Speaker 2: will never understand you one hundred percent. And you can't
Speaker 2: try to make people understand you. You don't need to.
Speaker 2: You know, I mby old people and they're sixty years
Speaker 2: old and seventy years old. I don't give off. They
Speaker 2: don't care, wake up in the morning and take a pill, eat,
Speaker 2: want to sleep, and they don't stress about anything. But
Speaker 2: in your age and my age, we are like life.
Speaker 2: I gotta make money, you know what I'm saying. Like
Speaker 2: I want to be them. I want to not give
Speaker 2: a you know, I want to not care. I want
Speaker 2: to just enjoy life, Enjoy my friends, enjoy my family,
Speaker 2: enjoy my girl, enjoy my fans. Whoever are my fans,
Speaker 2: Because there's fans and there's people that are not your
Speaker 2: fans are just talking shit. Fans don't talk shit. Real
Speaker 2: fans are there with you. No matter what you go through,
Speaker 2: have you up, you're down, you're fat, you're skinny, dead
Speaker 2: or live. They're fans, So shout out to my real fans.
Speaker 2: I love you mother to death for sure for sure.
Speaker 1: How hard was the gastric bypass surgery you went through? Ah?
Speaker 1: Was it very physically challenging? Was it?
Speaker 2: It was stressful when I was in bed before the surgery,
Speaker 2: But after that, man, it was awesome. I enjoyed I
Speaker 2: do that, I'll do it again. I enjoyed it a lot,
Speaker 2: you know, and it helped me a lot. A lot
Speaker 2: of stuff was messing up my stomach, like food that
Speaker 2: I was eating. Now I don't have that situation. You know.
Speaker 2: I feel better, better health, play basketball like I'm twenty
Speaker 2: years old. I'm good. You know, I feel good. I
Speaker 2: enjoyed a lot to help me, a lot, a lot
Speaker 2: of food that I couldn't eat before I could eat now,
Speaker 2: you know, healthy food. Yeah. So yeah, I mean it
Speaker 2: was a hard process after because you know, you're just
Speaker 2: drinking liquids and shit. But once you can start eating
Speaker 2: the you know.
Speaker 1: How long do you have to be on liquids for?
Speaker 2: I think it's like two weeks?
Speaker 1: Oh wow, just liquids.
Speaker 2: Liquids in two weeks is not easy.
Speaker 1: That's not easy.
Speaker 2: I've eating popsicles. I was eating popsicles a whole time, like.
Speaker 1: Nikki. It's been such a joy getting to know you, man,
Speaker 1: and I appreciate the honesty, the vulnerability, and it's impressive
Speaker 1: to just see how aware you are of everything going
Speaker 1: on when you've been through so much. You've had some
Speaker 1: incredible life experience, and to be standing where you are,
Speaker 1: with being having the ability to look in the mirror
Speaker 1: and be able to see yourself and your challenges, it's
Speaker 1: it's really special, and.
Speaker 2: So I appreciate you. And at the end of the day,
Speaker 2: there's this therapy for me too, you know, So I
Speaker 2: appreciate you. Sometimes we need it, of course, I think
Speaker 2: probably most of the times we need it.
Speaker 1: So of course for.
Speaker 2: Me having you, you know, you know, make me talk.
Speaker 2: All of this makes me live a lot better and
Speaker 2: have a better day today. So I appreciate you so much.
Speaker 2: I hope that all the people enjoy the show and
Speaker 2: enjoy what we talk today and you know, learn from
Speaker 2: what they hear and see it as a constructive way
Speaker 2: and not a negative way, you know, because sometimes people
Speaker 2: they try to see things in a negative way. But like
Speaker 2: I said, I've learned this more. Stupid is the stupid
Speaker 2: that argues with the stupid. I don't argue with stupid
Speaker 2: people anymore. I just I ain't trying to be stupid anymore.
Speaker 2: Say like that, So I just sit back and enjoy
Speaker 2: life and keep gone. Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1: We end every interview with the fast five, which means
Speaker 1: you have to answer every question in one word to
Speaker 1: one sentence maximum. So you can have one word to
Speaker 1: one sentence for each question. So I'll ask you a
Speaker 1: fast five. It's a light lightning round. So I say,
Speaker 1: I can answer it one word or one sentence. You
Speaker 1: can give me one full sentence, but no more than that.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: The first question is what is the best advice you've
Speaker 1: ever heard or received?
Speaker 2: Live life?
Speaker 1: Second question, what is the worst advice you've ever heard
Speaker 1: or received?
Speaker 2: Don't live in Colombia.
Speaker 1: Did someone say that to you? That's funny? How many
Speaker 1: times did you hear that?
Speaker 2: A lot? Okay? And they said I was stupid? I was.
Speaker 2: I was like, literally like I was going to mess
Speaker 2: up my career and look what it gave me.
Speaker 1: Question number three, your funniest memory or the silliest memory
Speaker 1: of you can give more than one sentence.
Speaker 2: Oh, I have a funny story the way I threw you.
Speaker 2: So I'm at this club. I'm at this club right,
Speaker 2: this this happening, and it's a kind of long story though.
Speaker 1: Tell us.
Speaker 2: So I'm at this club right, I'm at a VIP party.
Speaker 2: There's some girls there and stuff like that. And this big,
Speaker 2: strong guy was ripped like this. He had so many muscles.
Speaker 2: He looked like a body bolt or something like that.
Speaker 2: He's like, yo, I want to go into the vi P.
Speaker 2: And I didn't really want him to come in because
Speaker 2: I know he was problems, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: So I'm like, yo, you I don't know. I don't
Speaker 2: work here. You talk to the to the to the bouncers,
Speaker 2: and he looks at me. He's like, I'm going to
Speaker 2: destroy you. Like what you said said, I'm going to
Speaker 2: destroy you like ship. I'm like what And I punched
Speaker 2: him boom and he goes, this is the best you have.
Speaker 2: I'm like yeah, I'm like it didn't hurt. So he
Speaker 2: punched me really hard. Boom And he punches me really
Speaker 2: hard and then he takes me against the wall. My
Speaker 2: neck like that, and he's and he's hitting me, and
Speaker 2: I'm calling my boys, and my boys are not looking
Speaker 2: at me. And I had a watch in that moment,
Speaker 2: and a big, big, heavy watch, and I take the
Speaker 2: watch and I hit him in the head with the
Speaker 2: watch and he doesn't let me. He still doesn't let
Speaker 2: go of me. He has blood coming out. And then
Speaker 2: the bouncers pick him up. The bouncers take him, and
Speaker 2: then when the bounce's taking I go like it's like,
Speaker 2: see you do mess for me. And then they let
Speaker 2: him go, like yo, take get him again, ghet him again.
Speaker 2: They pick him up, and then we get into this limo. Right,
Speaker 2: we get to the limo, and we imagine how oldest
Speaker 2: story is. I'm in a limbo. I'm telling my boys, like, yo, bro,
Speaker 2: you guys said help me. This got me up. He's
Speaker 2: and then out of nowhere, they throw a bottle at
Speaker 2: the limo and then the little Mexican dudes like this
Speaker 2: guy wants some problem, I say, and I'm like, yo, yo, yo, yo,
Speaker 2: you don't understand. This guy is not a human being.
Speaker 2: Do not stop. I hit him with everything, watches everything.
Speaker 2: It's not a human being. And he wanted to stop.
Speaker 2: He wanted to fight with the guy, but I knew
Speaker 2: the guy was The guy was a hulk, you know
Speaker 2: what I'm saying. So they take me to the hotel.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying. I'm all heard. I'm in
Speaker 2: the bed and then out of nowhere, I hear the
Speaker 2: dog going boom boom boom boom boom, and I hear
Speaker 2: that what this three like, I'm going to destroy you
Speaker 2: and I'm screaming and all that. Then it was my boys.
Speaker 2: They were making fun of me. They were making fun
Speaker 2: of man. But the story doesn't end there. Years go by,
Speaker 2: years go by, I'm talking about I don't know, probably
Speaker 2: like ten years, I don't know, twelve years. I'm at
Speaker 2: I'm at that Caadias where where I had this situation,
Speaker 2: and guess who I found next to me. This guy
Speaker 2: comes to me strong, not that not that strong at
Speaker 2: that time, and he's like, you know who I am?
Speaker 2: And I'm like, no, man, it's like, I'm that guy
Speaker 2: from that club you had a problem, Like oh yeah,
Speaker 2: you're the destroying guy. And he's like oh yeah. It's
Speaker 2: like I'm sorry. I just want to say I'm sorry.
Speaker 2: You know, the stereoards was messed up with me, and
Speaker 2: I got messed up, and I just want to say
Speaker 2: that if you never need security, you have me, and
Speaker 2: blah blah blah. And then he became a.
Speaker 1: Friend and now he's outside. It's your security now.
Speaker 2: Wish. I wish the story was that cool. But that
Speaker 2: was just one of the stories stories I could tell you.
Speaker 2: But that's a good story. So many stories. Man, that's
Speaker 2: a good pick.
Speaker 1: I like that. That's a great story.
Speaker 2: I loved it.
Speaker 1: Question numberfore, what chapter title would you give this phase
Speaker 1: of your life? If it was a chapter in your book,
Speaker 1: what would this chapter title be called?
Speaker 2: And nice?
Speaker 1: And question number five it's the question we asked to
Speaker 1: every guest who's ever been on the show. Final question.
Speaker 1: If you could create one rule or one law that
Speaker 1: everyone in the world had to follow, what would it be.
Speaker 2: Everybody give yourselves a hug. That will be my rule.
Speaker 2: I like that, everybody give yourselves a hug. That would
Speaker 2: just be my rule because I think the world needs
Speaker 2: a hug. This world's going crazy and every day is
Speaker 2: going more crazy, and this ship is making it more crazy.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, Steve Jobs, we need a hug. I love it.
Speaker 1: Nikki jam everyone in some years out now September sixth, Uh, Nikki,
Speaker 1: this is such a such a joy. I've laughed, I've
Speaker 1: been reflecting with you. I feel like I've been in
Speaker 1: your pain with you. I'm so grateful that you just
Speaker 1: open up. One of the realist people I've ever met, so.
Speaker 2: Raw, so I appreciate you, so vulnerable. I'm grateful. Man.
Speaker 1: I hope I get to spend more time with yourself.
Speaker 1: You will looking forward to.
Speaker 2: If you ever go to Miami, hit me up.
Speaker 1: I won't let you know.
Speaker 2: No. Yeah, I promise on one drink you can drink.
Speaker 1: Man, you can do what every job. Thank you so much,
Speaker 1: I thank you, thank you. If this is the year
Speaker 1: that you're trying to get creative, you're trying to build more,
Speaker 1: I need you to listen to this episode with Rick
Speaker 1: Rubin on how to break into your most creative self,
Speaker 1: how to use unconventional methods that lead to success, and
Speaker 1: the secret to genuinely loving what you do. If you're
Speaker 1: trying to find your passion and your lane, Rick Rubin's
Speaker 1: episode is the one for you.
Speaker 2: Just because I like it, that doesn't give it any value,
Speaker 2: like as an artist. If you like it, that's all
Speaker 2: of the value that's the success comes when you say
Speaker 2: I like this enough for other people to see it.