WEBVTT - 9th Wonder | ROC Solid w/ Memphis Bleek 0:00:00.130 --> 0:00:02.490 What up, y'all? This your main man Memphis Bleak right here. 0:00:02.730 --> 0:00:05.960 Welcome to Rock Solid, a production of iHeartRadio and the 0:00:06.000 --> 0:00:07.120 Black Effect Network. 0:00:09.100 --> 0:00:11.539 Getting a Jay-Z call was last on the list. I 0:00:11.580 --> 0:00:13.320 was like, I thought I never, it was a Wednesday. 0:00:13.580 --> 0:00:15.640 He said, you think you come up here Saturday? I said, yeah, yeah, 0:00:15.660 --> 0:00:16.590 I can come up here Saturday. 0:00:16.610 --> 0:00:17.190 That's right. 0:00:17.230 --> 0:00:18.750 And I got off the phone with him. In like two, 0:00:18.790 --> 0:00:22.470 three days, I made like 30 beats. And I was like, man, 0:00:22.489 --> 0:00:24.349 I'm not missing this opportunity for nothing. 0:00:24.489 --> 0:00:25.570 The whole room was quiet. 0:00:26.200 --> 0:00:27.640 And Goo was like, yo, he just said your name 0:00:27.700 --> 0:00:30.520 on the track, bro. Goo said, where you live? I said, 0:00:30.560 --> 0:00:31.860 North Carolina. He's like, no, no, no. 0:00:31.980 --> 0:00:33.820 What do you live in? He said, I live in 0:00:33.880 --> 0:00:36.920 an apartment. He said, start looking for your house. Dave 0:00:36.979 --> 0:00:39.800 Free called me and was like, yo, man, I need 0:00:39.860 --> 0:00:41.519 a sample clearances for two beats. 0:00:41.920 --> 0:00:43.479 So I'm thinking, oh, I got two on there. 0:00:44.479 --> 0:00:44.919 OK. 0:00:45.150 --> 0:00:46.949 He called me back again. He said, nah, I need 0:00:46.979 --> 0:00:48.510 a sample clearances for one more beat. 0:00:49.400 --> 0:00:51.949 I was like, I got three on that? 0:00:51.979 --> 0:00:57.170 He was like, nah, nah, nigga. It's one. 0:00:59.430 --> 0:01:02.570 Song, three beats. 0:01:03.930 --> 0:01:04.970 Wow. 0:01:05.230 --> 0:01:08.160 And I said. 0:01:10.120 --> 0:01:11.760 Yeah, y'all, you already know what it is. 0:01:11.819 --> 0:01:16.220 Yours truly, Miff Bleak, back with another exclusive episode of 0:01:16.280 --> 0:01:18.700 Rock Solid Podcast, new season. 0:01:19.100 --> 0:01:20.680 We starting off with a bang. 0:01:20.959 --> 0:01:23.300 This is a great one. I'm sitting here with one 0:01:23.340 --> 0:01:26.260 of the greats. This is my brother. You know, I 0:01:26.280 --> 0:01:29.260 met him through one of my other brothers, young guru, 0:01:29.319 --> 0:01:31.680 and then we all became family. And then when I'm 0:01:31.720 --> 0:01:34.760 thinking of some next level out of this world, this 0:01:34.840 --> 0:01:37.000 is my group chat right here to let me know 0:01:37.060 --> 0:01:39.600 y'all can't fuck with me and y'all can't fuck with them. 0:01:40.020 --> 0:01:43.280 So without further ado, I got my brother right here, 0:01:43.360 --> 0:01:46.660 one of the best producers in the game, 9th Wonder. 0:01:46.940 --> 0:01:49.500 You know what it is, man. How you been, man? 0:01:49.520 --> 0:01:50.480 Man, I'm good, man. What's up with you? 0:01:50.700 --> 0:01:53.660 Same grind, different time, man. You know, able to put 0:01:53.700 --> 0:01:54.240 it together. 0:01:54.280 --> 0:01:56.940 Now I'm able to sit with my bros and really 0:01:56.980 --> 0:02:00.190 find out what really make the guy, that make the 0:02:00.250 --> 0:02:03.470 machine tick. You know, I know the fans want to know. 0:02:03.770 --> 0:02:06.390 I want to know. So, let's start from the beginning. 0:02:06.730 --> 0:02:09.750 Take us back to the Winston-Salem days. What was life 0:02:09.930 --> 0:02:12.889 like growing up back then, man? You know, when you 0:02:13.010 --> 0:02:14.430 first fell in love with hip-hop. 0:02:15.600 --> 0:02:18.080 It's crazy because I first fell in love with hip-hop, man. 0:02:18.139 --> 0:02:21.900 My mom and dad was... My mom is still alive. 0:02:21.940 --> 0:02:23.490 My dad is passed on. 0:02:23.530 --> 0:02:24.169 God bless. 0:02:24.210 --> 0:02:29.670 They were into gospel and southern gospel, whatever. And so 0:02:29.790 --> 0:02:32.810 a lot of secular music wasn't played in my house. 0:02:33.560 --> 0:02:37.420 But my dad's younger brother... um he sold dope in 0:02:37.440 --> 0:02:38.060 the city. 0:02:42.280 --> 0:02:46.940 Shout out bro holding it down he sold he sold 0:02:46.980 --> 0:02:50.530 heroin man and um but that was my favorite aunt 0:02:50.540 --> 0:02:52.150 and uncle and at the time i didn't know i 0:02:52.160 --> 0:02:54.830 didn't know all i know man is my cousins and 0:02:54.870 --> 0:02:55.829 them they would get. 0:02:57.130 --> 0:03:02.010 Like for christmas like mopeds and sprees and honda scooters 0:03:02.070 --> 0:03:04.500 and all this stuff for Christmas, I'm like, man, where 0:03:04.520 --> 0:03:06.250 they get some of that? 0:03:06.410 --> 0:03:08.340 Like, what they doing over there? 0:03:08.370 --> 0:03:09.690 You know what I mean? 0:03:09.710 --> 0:03:12.230 And so my cousins, they're a little bit older than me, 0:03:12.810 --> 0:03:14.030 they were playing like hip hop. 0:03:14.230 --> 0:03:16.090 And I ain't never heard it. You know what I mean? 0:03:16.150 --> 0:03:17.210 Not a lot of it anyway. 0:03:17.470 --> 0:03:19.510 Outside of like Rapper's Delight, but they was playing like 0:03:20.190 --> 0:03:25.950 Pac Jam and Egyptian Lover and Planet Rock. And they 0:03:25.970 --> 0:03:28.169 was playing all of that. And I was like, man, 0:03:28.190 --> 0:03:30.250 but then I got to see like the styles too, 0:03:30.530 --> 0:03:35.120 like what they were wearing. Because at that time, you know, 0:03:35.600 --> 0:03:37.350 all of the movement that was going on from the 0:03:37.370 --> 0:03:40.089 game was up and down I-95. And so with that 0:03:40.190 --> 0:03:43.730 also came clothes. So all of the clothes Cass was 0:03:43.770 --> 0:03:46.170 wearing in New York, man, like, I don't think people 0:03:46.190 --> 0:03:48.860 understand how at that time New York had a big 0:03:48.920 --> 0:03:52.320 influence on North Carolina. And so a lot of styles 0:03:52.340 --> 0:03:54.600 Cass was wearing came down here, man. Cass was one 0:03:54.640 --> 0:03:58.120 of my cousins that was wearing it. So everything they did, man, 0:03:58.140 --> 0:04:00.220 was close to the street and was close to hip hop, man. 0:04:00.240 --> 0:04:02.410 And I was the little cousin that was around, but couldn't. 0:04:02.910 --> 0:04:04.770 My older cousins were like, man, go home, man. 0:04:04.990 --> 0:04:08.310 Go home. Can't be out here. Go home. That's right. 0:04:08.810 --> 0:04:11.050 But that's why I fell in love with the music, man. 0:04:11.230 --> 0:04:12.150 I fell in love with hip hop. 0:04:12.190 --> 0:04:12.600 That's dope, man. 0:04:12.610 --> 0:04:16.460 Even before the producing, what artists you would say shaped 0:04:17.000 --> 0:04:19.420 your love for falling into the production? 0:04:19.560 --> 0:04:20.320 Oh, man. 0:04:20.700 --> 0:04:24.640 I'm going to say P-Rock is probably number one. That 0:04:24.700 --> 0:04:27.380 I heard, you know, that I thought that I was like, man, 0:04:27.580 --> 0:04:30.040 at that time I said, man, I think that's what 0:04:30.060 --> 0:04:31.260 I want to do. I don't know how I'm going 0:04:31.279 --> 0:04:34.260 to do it. I think that dude that's not really talking, 0:04:34.760 --> 0:04:36.770 like I want to do what he does. He's a 0:04:36.850 --> 0:04:39.630 DJ producer, you know. He's one of the first. But 0:04:39.650 --> 0:04:41.589 then you got people before you like Jimmy Jam and 0:04:41.610 --> 0:04:43.870 Terry Lewis and, you know, the big dogs. 0:04:43.890 --> 0:04:44.469 You know what I'm saying? 0:04:44.490 --> 0:04:47.770 Legends. All legends, man. P-Rock a legend. You know what 0:04:47.810 --> 0:04:48.940 I mean? All them legends. 0:04:48.950 --> 0:04:49.710 Moneyball too. 0:04:49.940 --> 0:04:50.100 Yeah. 0:04:50.130 --> 0:04:52.540 Moneyball. Like. Premier, all of them. 0:04:52.560 --> 0:04:54.730 Premier, yeah, Premier. There's just so many to name at 0:04:54.760 --> 0:04:55.349 that time. 0:04:55.440 --> 0:04:56.460 It's too many, man. 0:04:56.490 --> 0:04:57.190 It's too many to name, yeah. 0:04:57.290 --> 0:04:57.960 That's a fact. 0:04:58.020 --> 0:05:02.270 So how did the little brother, all that come together 0:05:02.290 --> 0:05:03.630 with Fonte, Big Pooh? 0:05:03.650 --> 0:05:05.790 Shout out to Pham, too, man. You know what I mean? 0:05:06.029 --> 0:05:07.990 How did that come together? What was that like? 0:05:08.010 --> 0:05:10.349 We went to school together. Went to school at North 0:05:10.370 --> 0:05:14.110 Carolina Central University. And I met Fonte first and met 0:05:14.150 --> 0:05:16.510 Pooh after that. And at first, we weren't going to 0:05:16.550 --> 0:05:19.790 be a group. It was going to be us doing music. 0:05:20.700 --> 0:05:23.020 And then it's turned into us being a group, man. 0:05:23.430 --> 0:05:27.849 And that's one of the ways that led me to 0:05:28.790 --> 0:05:30.970 a guy that I ended up becoming best friends with, 0:05:31.470 --> 0:05:34.130 hearing my music online. And that's Young Guru, because he 0:05:34.180 --> 0:05:35.060 heard the Little Brother album. 0:05:35.160 --> 0:05:37.960 That's what's up. Guru put me on. That's a fact. 0:05:38.000 --> 0:05:40.260 Guru was blasting. You come in the studio like, what's up? 0:05:40.260 --> 0:05:43.280 He's like, nah. These them guys, Bleak, I'm telling you. 0:05:43.300 --> 0:05:45.550 They next. They next. I'm like, all right. 0:05:46.120 --> 0:05:47.800 Like, that's what I was going to say. Like, the 0:05:47.860 --> 0:05:50.960 listening became an underground classic. That's one of those records 0:05:51.000 --> 0:05:53.520 that's been played. I've been hearing it. The whole album, 0:05:53.540 --> 0:05:55.700 you know what I mean, became a classic. At what 0:05:55.760 --> 0:06:00.549 point did you realize your sound was creating the wave 0:06:00.610 --> 0:06:03.930 in North Carolina? Like, you was reaching people further beyond 0:06:03.970 --> 0:06:05.349 than just the local market. 0:06:05.589 --> 0:06:08.730 This is like the time when we came along. This 0:06:08.790 --> 0:06:11.990 is like the beginnings of... people putting their music on 0:06:12.010 --> 0:06:14.790 the internet and people clicking on it worldwide and you 0:06:14.830 --> 0:06:19.270 not knowing who clicking on what. Now, you know, if 0:06:19.330 --> 0:06:22.770 somebody on Instagram or whatever, you can, like, track these people. 0:06:23.210 --> 0:06:25.500 It's like a profile and a follower. 0:06:25.810 --> 0:06:28.599 At that time, it was just weird screen names, you know? 0:06:29.000 --> 0:06:31.380 You know, chat rooms. That's a fact. 0:06:31.800 --> 0:06:35.320 And so, we had no idea where you live. You 0:06:35.360 --> 0:06:37.300 can live here. You can live in San Diego. You 0:06:37.320 --> 0:06:39.040 can be in Japan. We didn't know. 0:06:39.350 --> 0:06:39.640 And so. 0:06:40.460 --> 0:06:44.940 That's how my music started to spread. These beats concerns 0:06:44.980 --> 0:06:48.460 started to really spread. And never in a million years 0:06:48.520 --> 0:06:52.170 I thought that me making beats and us making music 0:06:52.200 --> 0:06:55.630 and whatever it was, was being played in bass. 0:06:55.410 --> 0:06:59.669 Line, dog. You know what I mean? Yes. Everything being 0:06:59.690 --> 0:07:00.650 played in bass line. 0:07:00.690 --> 0:07:06.250 Guru was the driving force for it. Even before Kanye 0:07:06.430 --> 0:07:11.150 even really came around with his music. That was the wave. 0:07:11.170 --> 0:07:15.010 He was playing all that. Mos Def, Tyleb, Kanye, y'all. 0:07:15.310 --> 0:07:16.370 Like, Farrowmouch. 0:07:16.750 --> 0:07:19.830 Everybody being played at this. And y'all was in that wave. 0:07:19.850 --> 0:07:21.090 And it's like, who these guys? 0:07:22.310 --> 0:07:24.390 Trust me, Blizz. They the ones, man. 0:07:24.900 --> 0:07:28.300 Like, you developed a signature sound. You know what I'm saying? 0:07:28.340 --> 0:07:31.720 With the soul, samples, the drums, and all that. How 0:07:31.760 --> 0:07:35.180 was you able to separate yourself from the other producers 0:07:35.220 --> 0:07:36.340 who say they do the same? 0:07:36.420 --> 0:07:37.680 You know what, man? It's just. 0:07:39.060 --> 0:07:39.720 You know what, man? 0:07:39.800 --> 0:07:42.680 I noticed, you know, with Justin Kanye, you know, they 0:07:42.720 --> 0:07:45.000 would speed records up and sample them that way. 0:07:45.500 --> 0:07:46.600 I wouldn't do that that much. 0:07:48.260 --> 0:07:51.810 I leaned more towards the way that RZA chopped soul, 0:07:51.870 --> 0:07:53.850 you know, when he did it. And when Pete and 0:07:53.890 --> 0:07:56.770 Kareem did it, I got it my side from that. 0:07:57.430 --> 0:07:59.170 And shout out to High Tech, too, because at the time, 0:07:59.670 --> 0:08:02.240 High Tech was making amazing records that they didn't think 0:08:02.260 --> 0:08:04.040 they was going to make the radio, end up making 0:08:04.060 --> 0:08:04.500 the radio. 0:08:04.520 --> 0:08:04.900 Yeah. 0:08:06.390 --> 0:08:08.370 You know, just listening to all of that. Of course, 0:08:08.390 --> 0:08:10.850 you got Madlib, you got Dilla. Of course, you have 0:08:10.930 --> 0:08:14.430 so many at that time. You know, I just had 0:08:14.470 --> 0:08:18.910 to find my space in it, whatever that was. And 0:08:18.970 --> 0:08:21.990 I still, this day, people say it's the ninth one 0:08:22.030 --> 0:08:24.890 to sound, and I'm like, I don't know what that is. 0:08:24.910 --> 0:08:26.920 But, you know, I still try to, you know, find it. 0:08:26.930 --> 0:08:27.950 But I tell you. 0:08:28.710 --> 0:08:32.500 No one has your sound, and vice versa. 0:08:32.520 --> 0:08:37.679 You has no one else's sound. And that's very... unique and. 0:08:37.600 --> 0:08:39.900 At the same time hard to do in this business 0:08:40.200 --> 0:08:43.240 because you know everything is a copycat copy and paste 0:08:43.640 --> 0:08:46.390 or you know everybody want to follow the the trend 0:08:46.570 --> 0:08:51.209 you know it's a very trendy music industry right now 0:08:51.290 --> 0:08:53.329 it's not where like back in the day i felt 0:08:53.370 --> 0:08:56.100 like everybody from their own region their own neighborhood was 0:08:56.130 --> 0:08:59.140 trying to make their own identity right now we just 0:08:59.200 --> 0:09:03.920 live in one big identifying industry where everybody look, talk, 0:09:03.940 --> 0:09:05.780 walk the same. You don't even know where half of 0:09:05.800 --> 0:09:08.040 them from. I be saying these cities and be like, nah, 0:09:08.080 --> 0:09:10.339 he from over here. Be like, well, he sound like 0:09:10.380 --> 0:09:12.780 he from over here. You know what I'm saying? So 0:09:13.140 --> 0:09:15.720 that's one thing I give you major credit for. Cause 0:09:15.760 --> 0:09:19.670 being from down here and being influenced from up North, 0:09:19.990 --> 0:09:23.130 you don't sound like nobody up North. Not near one 0:09:23.150 --> 0:09:25.730 of your beats. And with that being said, led to 0:09:25.790 --> 0:09:30.080 my days of when I first met you. blackout yeah 0:09:30.120 --> 0:09:33.579 man sitting there chopping up threats yeah man let's talk 0:09:33.600 --> 0:09:36.700 about that session because boy oh boy that was a 0:09:36.820 --> 0:09:40.690 movie how did that even happen. 0:09:40.350 --> 0:09:43.110 I was scared as hell you know and at the 0:09:43.150 --> 0:09:45.090 time at the time man i was selling beats for 0:09:45.130 --> 0:09:48.890 like 300 a piece wow and um if somebody wanted 0:09:48.910 --> 0:09:51.429 to be for me i think right before i got 0:09:51.480 --> 0:09:54.650 with jay i did, I know, I did a record 0:09:54.670 --> 0:09:57.050 with Master Ace called Good Old Love. 0:09:57.830 --> 0:10:00.599 And he gave me, you know, he gave me $ 2, 000 0:10:00.480 --> 0:10:03.640 for it. Oh, wow. I'm like, okay. Yeah, yeah. 0:10:03.860 --> 0:10:07.400 And then, I'm going to say sometime in September, man, 0:10:07.920 --> 0:10:10.780 this guy named T. Smith that was shooting footage for 0:10:12.179 --> 0:10:15.040 Fade to Black. He was shooting all the footage for that. 0:10:15.559 --> 0:10:17.960 And he, I kicked with him the year, I mean, 0:10:18.020 --> 0:10:22.329 earlier that year. But, We talked in September. He's like, yo, man, 0:10:22.350 --> 0:10:22.970 this T Smith. 0:10:22.990 --> 0:10:25.850 I'm like, what's up? He said, man, I'm sitting beside 0:10:25.870 --> 0:10:28.130 somebody that know you looking for beats. 0:10:28.190 --> 0:10:28.750 I said, oh. 0:10:29.250 --> 0:10:32.980 He said, you know young Goo from Rockefeller? I said, what? 0:10:33.620 --> 0:10:38.600 I was confused. I was living in North Carolina. He said, 0:10:38.960 --> 0:10:40.839 I'm going to put him on the phone. He put 0:10:40.860 --> 0:10:43.100 Goo on the phone. Goo was like, yeah, man, I'm 0:10:43.140 --> 0:10:46.210 a fan, man, little brother, man. I know all your beats, blah, blah, blah. 0:10:46.790 --> 0:10:47.450 He said, so look. 0:10:48.770 --> 0:10:52.150 Jay-Z doing an album now. And I saw the advertisement 0:10:53.170 --> 0:10:56.770 earlier that summer. It said 12 tracks, 12 producers. And 0:10:56.790 --> 0:10:58.670 he was supposed to be working with all the producers 0:10:58.750 --> 0:11:01.069 he worked with before. 0:11:00.490 --> 0:11:03.090 Because it was supposed to be his last album. 0:11:03.470 --> 0:11:06.360 And I remember seeing the advertisement. And he was like, yeah, man, 0:11:06.380 --> 0:11:11.819 come up here, man. Play some beats for Jay. I said, boy, 0:11:11.840 --> 0:11:14.679 this crazy right here. You got to understand, man, like, 0:11:15.690 --> 0:11:19.689 It's like you said, although little brother wasn't necessarily conscious, 0:11:19.730 --> 0:11:22.370 conscious like that, because we ain't never talk about the 0:11:22.390 --> 0:11:24.589 things you think conscious rappers talk about. 0:11:24.850 --> 0:11:25.750 They never did that. 0:11:26.510 --> 0:11:28.179 But we were put in that box, just the way 0:11:28.200 --> 0:11:33.900 we sounded. I never, like getting a Jay-Z call was 0:11:34.040 --> 0:11:36.199 last on the list. I was like, I thought I never. 0:11:36.679 --> 0:11:39.110 And so he's like, man, it was a Wednesday. He said, 0:11:39.130 --> 0:11:42.189 you think you come up here Saturday? I said, yeah, yeah, 0:11:42.210 --> 0:11:43.010 I'm coming this Saturday. 0:11:43.030 --> 0:11:43.729 That's right. 0:11:43.910 --> 0:11:45.460 And I got, and I, and I got off the 0:11:45.500 --> 0:11:47.780 phone with him and I made like, in like two, 0:11:47.800 --> 0:11:51.480 three days, I made like 30 beats. And I was like, man, 0:11:51.520 --> 0:11:54.220 I'm not missing this opportunity for nothing. And so I, 0:11:54.580 --> 0:11:58.020 I got to New York that Saturday and Jay was 0:11:58.090 --> 0:12:01.609 in there, man. And I remember cause B was laying 0:12:01.670 --> 0:12:03.110 on the, and this is the time that B was 0:12:03.150 --> 0:12:03.950 together in the world. 0:12:03.990 --> 0:12:07.290 Didn't know. Remember that? It was on the low. It 0:12:07.309 --> 0:12:07.750 was on the low. 0:12:07.790 --> 0:12:08.050 Yep. 0:12:08.590 --> 0:12:11.630 And, um, He came, he said, man, you know, he said, man, 0:12:11.670 --> 0:12:12.010 what's up? 0:12:12.250 --> 0:12:13.970 And I had called Questlove before I went up there 0:12:13.990 --> 0:12:18.270 because at the time Jay had just did the unplug 0:12:18.309 --> 0:12:20.850 with the roots. So I called him and told him. 0:12:20.890 --> 0:12:23.550 So I guess Jay, he said, yeah, man, I talked 0:12:23.570 --> 0:12:25.410 to Amir today, man. Amir told me you was coming 0:12:25.480 --> 0:12:27.920 up here, man. And he said, man, I asked Goo, 0:12:27.940 --> 0:12:29.300 I said, I'm supposed to be meeting some dude named 0:12:29.340 --> 0:12:32.000 Night Wonder today. And so I came in, he's like, 0:12:32.020 --> 0:12:34.220 let me what you got. And I played him, I 0:12:34.240 --> 0:12:38.559 played 29 beats for him. And he was, you know, 0:12:39.280 --> 0:12:41.990 I had another CD ready to put in the console 0:12:42.040 --> 0:12:45.170 and baseline. And I took the CD out. He's like, 0:12:45.210 --> 0:12:49.230 hold on, wait, wait, wait. Go back to three, six, nine, 11, 10, 11. 0:12:49.230 --> 0:12:53.730 He started naming all the tracks that he remembered. 0:12:53.770 --> 0:12:55.370 Cause people understand this dude's memory. 0:12:55.470 --> 0:12:56.150 Oh my God. 0:12:56.290 --> 0:13:00.390 So he was like, man, So we went through them again. 0:13:00.410 --> 0:13:02.350 So we got off the, you know, we got off 0:13:02.370 --> 0:13:06.400 the last track. He was like, hey man, what's your story, man? 0:13:06.440 --> 0:13:10.160 Because this doesn't make no sense. I was like, I was. 0:13:10.080 --> 0:13:12.820 Like, man, I don't even want to tell you where 0:13:12.840 --> 0:13:14.780 I'm from because you're going to trip. He said, wait, 0:13:14.820 --> 0:13:18.110 he's like, man, I'm from Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He's like, Oh, no, 0:13:18.170 --> 0:13:20.110 I remember that. We went down, me and Beans. We 0:13:20.150 --> 0:13:21.570 almost got in a fight down. 0:13:21.290 --> 0:13:25.150 There in the club. That shit still on YouTube to 0:13:25.170 --> 0:13:26.309 this day, bro. 0:13:26.550 --> 0:13:30.980 I'm from there, man. He was like, he said, man, 0:13:31.000 --> 0:13:31.620 that's crazy, man. 0:13:31.630 --> 0:13:33.839 He said, you got a lot of beats, man. He said, 0:13:35.020 --> 0:13:37.679 what you doing on Monday? I said, what I need 0:13:37.700 --> 0:13:39.559 to be doing on Monday. He said, you need to 0:13:39.580 --> 0:13:40.420 be back up in here. 0:13:41.120 --> 0:13:45.380 Okay. So, mind y'all, I'm broke. I ain't got no money. 0:13:46.090 --> 0:13:47.750 I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to stay 0:13:47.770 --> 0:13:49.430 in New York two more nights. 0:13:49.490 --> 0:13:50.030 Figured it out. 0:13:50.350 --> 0:13:53.679 So we stayed, and I came back that Monday, and 0:13:54.580 --> 0:13:56.800 it was crazy in the studio that Monday, man. People 0:13:56.820 --> 0:13:59.040 don't understand how magical Baseline was. 0:14:02.890 --> 0:14:06.390 Yo, I'm letting you tell your story, because I remember 0:14:06.429 --> 0:14:09.790 walking in my first time hearing it. is when Cedric 0:14:09.809 --> 0:14:12.590 the Entertainer was in the booth. Like, the verse was 0:14:12.610 --> 0:14:15.069 done already. I heard the beat one day, and then 0:14:15.130 --> 0:14:18.080 I come back, done, and sat in the booth like, hey, 0:14:18.809 --> 0:14:21.790 this threads, and I'm like, yo, nah. 0:14:21.890 --> 0:14:24.670 And he told me, he was like, he came in, 0:14:24.740 --> 0:14:26.060 and we played some more beats. He said, so I 0:14:26.100 --> 0:14:28.760 got this sample, man, you think you'll use it? And I, 0:14:28.800 --> 0:14:30.440 you know, I chopped it up. He said, I'm about 0:14:30.480 --> 0:14:33.860 to leave, but I'm coming back. And I stayed there. 0:14:33.880 --> 0:14:39.220 I had an IBM ThinkPad laptop. And, uh, Justice in there. 0:14:39.260 --> 0:14:40.860 Justice was like, what you getting ready to do with that? 0:14:40.880 --> 0:14:41.960 I said, I'm going to make a B. 0:14:42.020 --> 0:14:42.720 He was like, what? 0:14:42.840 --> 0:14:46.140 I thought I'd make a B. And he came back 0:14:46.200 --> 0:14:47.110 and I played it for him. 0:14:47.120 --> 0:14:47.800 He was like, aw. 0:14:47.820 --> 0:14:48.360 That's it. 0:14:48.440 --> 0:14:49.880 And he went in the booth. 0:14:49.940 --> 0:14:54.290 And at the time, Jay was so ahead of everybody. 0:14:55.530 --> 0:14:58.330 At the time, he had on some shoes like some 0:14:58.410 --> 0:15:00.070 Air Force Ones, but had a star at the end 0:15:00.130 --> 0:15:03.690 of the check. I said, what's those? He said, they babes, 0:15:03.710 --> 0:15:04.550 but they ain't our check. 0:15:04.860 --> 0:15:06.760 I said, all right. 0:15:07.460 --> 0:15:10.660 And so, you know, we, um, he got in the 0:15:10.680 --> 0:15:15.920 booth and he said the nines, he said my name and, uh, said, 0:15:15.970 --> 0:15:19.390 did the first verse and he left. And Goo was like, 0:15:21.090 --> 0:15:23.450 the whole room was quiet. And Goo was like, yo, 0:15:23.490 --> 0:15:25.910 he just said your name on the track, bro. Goo said, 0:15:25.930 --> 0:15:26.470 where you live? 0:15:26.810 --> 0:15:28.810 I said, I know, come on. He's like, no, no, no. What, 0:15:28.990 --> 0:15:30.430 where do you live in? He said, I live in, 0:15:30.490 --> 0:15:32.690 I said, in an apartment. He said, start looking for 0:15:32.710 --> 0:15:33.090 your house. 0:15:33.310 --> 0:15:33.990 Word up. 0:15:34.050 --> 0:15:35.880 Because he said my name. He said, man, he said 0:15:35.890 --> 0:15:36.740 your name on the song. 0:15:36.760 --> 0:15:38.840 Everybody going to want to be. 0:15:38.920 --> 0:15:41.320 He said, you'll say your name on the song. And 0:15:41.900 --> 0:15:43.300 he said my name. He left. 0:15:44.090 --> 0:15:46.870 And I remember you was there that day. But you 0:15:46.910 --> 0:15:49.270 was playing niggas in Madden. 0:15:49.870 --> 0:15:53.560 Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We was outside. Yo, when 0:15:53.620 --> 0:15:55.700 Jay used to be in the room and cooking up, 0:15:55.740 --> 0:15:57.760 we was outside. Because I think Beans and them was 0:15:57.780 --> 0:16:00.380 working on the State Property album at that time. And 0:16:00.420 --> 0:16:03.150 I was playing Madden. We had Mad Call of Duty. 0:16:03.250 --> 0:16:04.110 Sauce Money. 0:16:04.210 --> 0:16:04.390 Yeah. 0:16:05.430 --> 0:16:08.510 Yo, I don't think y'all understand that. It was a 0:16:08.630 --> 0:16:11.190 lot of people. Rest in peace, Clark Kent. He was 0:16:11.210 --> 0:16:11.840 there that day. 0:16:11.960 --> 0:16:13.680 Rest in peace, Clark, man. 0:16:13.740 --> 0:16:16.660 Sad Entertainment was there that day. Everybody was there. And 0:16:16.680 --> 0:16:19.220 so when Jay, we did the first couple of verses. 0:16:20.260 --> 0:16:22.640 And so Jay was like, he used to leave out 0:16:22.680 --> 0:16:24.740 the A-room, look, and yell out, like, all right, I'm 0:16:24.860 --> 0:16:28.990 finna run the album. Everybody from the pool room come in. 0:16:29.270 --> 0:16:32.090 And now it's like 20 of us in this room 0:16:33.330 --> 0:16:37.090 playing the album. And Jay looking at me like, so 0:16:37.110 --> 0:16:38.650 I'm going to let you hear what else I'm working on. 0:16:38.830 --> 0:16:39.470 I'm like, all right. 0:16:40.590 --> 0:16:43.170 And the first record he plays is What More Can 0:16:43.240 --> 0:16:43.580 I Say? 0:16:44.500 --> 0:16:48.240 And it's loud. Like, it's loud. 0:16:48.900 --> 0:16:49.900 Are you not entertained? 0:16:49.920 --> 0:16:53.160 So I'm looking around at everybody. Like, what the hell 0:16:53.220 --> 0:16:57.690 is going on? So he played that. He played that. 0:16:58.130 --> 0:17:01.590 He played December 4th. Then he said, yo, this is 0:17:01.650 --> 0:17:05.149 a little single. And so he played Change Clothes. Hey, listen, 0:17:05.490 --> 0:17:08.890 when he played Allure, I said, bruh, what. 0:17:08.770 --> 0:17:09.580 Is going on? 0:17:09.930 --> 0:17:11.560 It's one of my favorite J-rock hits. 0:17:11.580 --> 0:17:14.480 I said, boy, I ain't going to make it, though. 0:17:14.520 --> 0:17:17.380 I'm not going to make it, because it's crazy. 0:17:17.400 --> 0:17:20.640 So he ended up doing the third verse the next 0:17:20.660 --> 0:17:23.780 day after that. And he was like, he said, Nightman, 0:17:23.840 --> 0:17:26.560 I sold the garden out in four hours. He said, 0:17:26.580 --> 0:17:27.700 you ready to be a part of history? 0:17:28.460 --> 0:17:29.459 I said, yeah, I'm worried. I'm like, yeah. 0:17:30.450 --> 0:17:32.379 Your history, man. I'm still with it. 0:17:32.960 --> 0:17:37.850 And that was kind of, you know, but what more 0:17:37.890 --> 0:17:41.050 can I say? People don't understand about Jay. And you 0:17:41.070 --> 0:17:45.899 know this more than anybody. He writes in real time. 0:17:45.920 --> 0:17:50.310 So it's like everything he says either happened today, yesterday, 0:17:50.369 --> 0:17:51.380 maybe last week. 0:17:51.650 --> 0:17:52.790 Or he predicting it that. 0:17:52.810 --> 0:17:53.750 Or he predicting it to happen. 0:17:53.790 --> 0:17:57.030 Because I never forget when he did You're Only a Customer. 0:17:57.090 --> 0:17:59.850 He like, it's the eventual triple platinum nigga with the 0:17:59.890 --> 0:18:00.830 solid go-fate like. 0:18:01.540 --> 0:18:02.020 What? 0:18:02.260 --> 0:18:02.820 Eventual. 0:18:02.920 --> 0:18:05.440 That's what I'm saying. No one starting the verse like that. 0:18:05.500 --> 0:18:06.320 Like that. 0:18:06.400 --> 0:18:09.330 So he was like, yo, and what more can I say? 0:18:09.369 --> 0:18:12.650 He back to the music that made Black Roof is translucent. 0:18:12.690 --> 0:18:13.930 Nigga's got a problem, Houston. 0:18:13.970 --> 0:18:14.480 What up, B? 0:18:15.050 --> 0:18:19.409 So after I heard what more can I say? I said, man, 0:18:19.420 --> 0:18:21.420 I'm going to the store. I just had to take 0:18:21.480 --> 0:18:24.199 a walk. I went downstairs, and I went outside, and 0:18:24.220 --> 0:18:25.900 the Maybach was sitting outside. 0:18:25.920 --> 0:18:26.800 This is 2003, yo. 0:18:26.960 --> 0:18:30.700 Like, Rick Ross and I saw all the Maybach music 0:18:30.720 --> 0:18:32.640 like 2009, 8, 9, 10. 0:18:32.640 --> 0:18:33.570 This is 2003. 0:18:33.570 --> 0:18:37.210 Think about the private jets. Everybody just riding them now. 0:18:37.270 --> 0:18:40.310 Now, now. And so I walk outside, and the Maybach's 0:18:40.350 --> 0:18:41.090 sitting outside. 0:18:41.109 --> 0:18:43.750 I said, boy, I wonder if the roof really translucent. 0:18:45.180 --> 0:18:47.159 And I went to the, and looked over, you can. 0:18:47.119 --> 0:18:48.140 See straight down. 0:18:48.160 --> 0:18:48.980 Straight in. 0:18:49.040 --> 0:18:51.550 This dude don't be lying about nothing. 0:18:51.740 --> 0:18:52.450 No cap. 0:18:52.570 --> 0:18:53.330 No, it was incredible. 0:18:53.510 --> 0:18:54.890 No, man, that's ill. 0:18:54.950 --> 0:18:58.750 Cause then you go from there to producing records. You know, 0:18:58.790 --> 0:19:01.730 you went from underground producing to big dogs. Now you're 0:19:01.770 --> 0:19:05.240 working with Destiny's Child or Girl, Mary J. Blige, Good 0:19:05.300 --> 0:19:10.020 Woman Down, other major artists. How did that transition? What 0:19:10.060 --> 0:19:12.480 was that like going from the underground to now you're 0:19:12.500 --> 0:19:13.740 dealing with all A-list? 0:19:14.020 --> 0:19:17.380 Well, well, B was in the studio that night when 0:19:17.440 --> 0:19:20.820 I played him the beats. And she came back that Monday. 0:19:21.720 --> 0:19:28.030 And Jay called me. Alvin came out November 14, 2003. 0:19:28.030 --> 0:19:30.630 Jay called me in May of 2004 and. 0:19:30.590 --> 0:19:34.450 Was like, I said, hello. It was a private call. 0:19:34.470 --> 0:19:34.990 I said, hello. 0:19:35.090 --> 0:19:35.669 All the time. 0:19:36.210 --> 0:19:38.810 Negative number saved in my phone should still come up private. 0:19:39.010 --> 0:19:40.229 I don't know how you do that. 0:19:40.280 --> 0:19:40.670 Yeah, yeah. 0:19:40.690 --> 0:19:46.240 Same thing. Same thing for me. And I'm like, yo, like. Hello? 0:19:46.270 --> 0:19:47.629 He's like, yo, what's up? It's Jay. 0:19:47.850 --> 0:19:48.560 I said, Jay who? 0:19:49.410 --> 0:19:49.790 He said, Jay-Z. 0:19:50.590 --> 0:19:52.169 I said, man, stop playing on my phone. And he 0:19:52.190 --> 0:19:54.600 started laughing. And I was like, nah, this him for real. 0:19:54.630 --> 0:19:57.100 And we on the phone. I said, man, what's up, man? 0:19:57.119 --> 0:19:58.320 He said, man, what's up, man? 0:19:58.340 --> 0:20:00.540 How you been? I said, I've been good. 0:20:01.140 --> 0:20:05.230 He said, so listen, that Beat CD you played for me. 0:20:05.350 --> 0:20:07.090 I can't find it. I know I took it home. 0:20:07.550 --> 0:20:10.490 Can you send it to Destiny's Child? Somebody going to 0:20:10.510 --> 0:20:12.470 call you with an address. 0:20:12.550 --> 0:20:13.050 I hang up. 0:20:14.490 --> 0:20:19.060 Ten minutes later, One World, the Beyonce old company, One World, 0:20:19.640 --> 0:20:22.979 call me. Yo, this is Teresa LaBarber from One World. 0:20:23.960 --> 0:20:24.500 Is this nice? 0:20:24.720 --> 0:20:27.199 Like, hey, you know, want to get the CD out 0:20:27.220 --> 0:20:29.350 to the girls, blah, blah, blah. She called back two 0:20:29.390 --> 0:20:34.970 days later. Hey, want to get you to L.A.? and 0:20:35.010 --> 0:20:38.690 so going from underground to that because i mean even 0:20:38.730 --> 0:20:42.290 when i did threat after that the next album i 0:20:42.330 --> 0:20:45.270 worked on was a dude from la named murce i 0:20:45.290 --> 0:20:49.290 did an album called murce 316 and uh everybody from 0:20:49.330 --> 0:20:51.110 that side of fence thought that i wasn't gonna work 0:20:51.130 --> 0:20:54.020 with cats like that and i was like nah i'm 0:20:54.060 --> 0:20:55.490 like you know i'm gonna get it on both sides 0:20:55.520 --> 0:21:00.060 now that's right and so i did that but Thinking 0:21:00.140 --> 0:21:05.470 about everybody I did records for, and I believe, and 0:21:05.530 --> 0:21:09.830 I might be wrong, you're the only rapper on the 0:21:09.869 --> 0:21:13.709 mainstream that I did two records for for that album. 0:21:13.850 --> 0:21:16.450 Everybody I got one off. I did. You were the 0:21:16.490 --> 0:21:17.560 only one that gave me two. 0:21:17.740 --> 0:21:20.200 You know what I'm saying? You know what I'm saying? 0:21:20.300 --> 0:21:24.200 You know what I mean? I show love, dog. Duke 0:21:24.240 --> 0:21:24.820 called me. 0:21:25.080 --> 0:21:26.800 It was like, yo, will you ask him in L.A.? 0:21:27.240 --> 0:21:31.060 He said, yo, So Jay just told Bleak he need 0:21:31.080 --> 0:21:33.899 to get beats from you, and Goose said. 0:21:33.920 --> 0:21:35.220 You might end up doing half this album. 0:21:35.300 --> 0:21:39.000 I said, what? I said, 50. I said, 50. Like, 50. 0:21:39.000 --> 0:21:42.280 Yo, and that's crazy, because the song we did, All Right, bro, 0:21:42.780 --> 0:21:45.460 people done remixed it, done did all it. Yo, that 0:21:45.520 --> 0:21:47.479 record done goes crazy. 0:21:47.619 --> 0:21:50.440 It was on Hot. That's one of the. 0:21:50.340 --> 0:21:53.350 Records I feel I should have shot a video for. Like, 0:21:53.720 --> 0:21:54.960 I dropped the ball on that. 0:21:55.030 --> 0:21:57.850 Kanye called me about that one time. Kanye called me 0:21:57.869 --> 0:21:59.609 when we did All Right. Kanye called me. 0:21:59.810 --> 0:22:02.150 He was like, boy. We said, man, I heard this. 0:22:02.170 --> 0:22:05.010 You did this record for Bleaker Horror? I'm like, yeah. Boy, 0:22:05.050 --> 0:22:08.520 you talking about, boy, so many castles. Man, I hate 0:22:08.540 --> 0:22:09.629 to beat you. 0:22:11.740 --> 0:22:13.100 I love it. 0:22:13.140 --> 0:22:16.619 That's when you know you got that heat. That leads 0:22:16.660 --> 0:22:19.220 to my next question. How the hell did you link 0:22:19.320 --> 0:22:22.359 up with K-Dot, with Kendrick for the record Duckworth? 0:22:22.380 --> 0:22:23.340 Because, man. 0:22:24.220 --> 0:22:26.520 That's one of the best songs, rather. 0:22:26.900 --> 0:22:29.560 Man, you know, at the time now, it's like 2010, 0:22:29.560 --> 0:22:33.770 and I am seven years in the game now. And 0:22:33.830 --> 0:22:37.369 I'm not noticing now all of the younger rappers is 0:22:37.430 --> 0:22:41.730 watching me now. Watching us as a little brother, even 0:22:41.950 --> 0:22:44.639 when I was in the group, out of it, they 0:22:44.680 --> 0:22:45.399 were watching us. 0:22:46.119 --> 0:22:46.350 And I. 0:22:47.900 --> 0:22:51.140 Now here comes this kid named Drake, this dude named 0:22:51.340 --> 0:22:55.860 Meek Mill, this kid named Nipsey Hussle, this kid named 0:22:55.900 --> 0:22:57.840 Mac Miller, Big Crit. 0:22:58.020 --> 0:23:01.280 I can name so many. Cole, J. Cole. J. 0:23:01.320 --> 0:23:04.399 Cole, that's downtown, Fayetteville native, baby. 0:23:04.500 --> 0:23:07.820 And this crew from L.A. called Black Hippie. 0:23:08.100 --> 0:23:13.020 And Black Hippie was Schoolboy Q, Abso, J-Rock, and Kendrick Lamar. 0:23:13.580 --> 0:23:17.100 And I met Kendrick in L.A., And we talked for 0:23:17.119 --> 0:23:18.400 a minute. It was 2010. 0:23:18.400 --> 0:23:18.980 And we talked. 0:23:20.060 --> 0:23:21.580 And he's like, man, you know, I think he's a 0:23:21.619 --> 0:23:23.800 beast for you, man. But, you know, I got to 0:23:23.840 --> 0:23:26.629 meet him with Dre in a couple weeks. I said, bro, 0:23:26.640 --> 0:23:31.400 I got to hair up. And so that was 2010. 0:23:31.400 --> 0:23:35.350 And then years later, man, we got back together again. 0:23:35.850 --> 0:23:39.050 And the first is three beats in Duckworth. The first 0:23:39.090 --> 0:23:43.230 beat was for the game. The second beat was for 0:23:43.390 --> 0:23:45.290 the second and third beats was for Commons. 0:23:46.369 --> 0:23:48.310 None of them, one of them rappers took the beats. 0:23:48.630 --> 0:23:49.190 None of them. 0:23:49.230 --> 0:23:49.370 Wow. 0:23:49.830 --> 0:23:52.149 And, I mean, they said, you know, people say all 0:23:52.170 --> 0:23:53.190 the time, things happen. 0:23:53.530 --> 0:23:55.070 You know, that's how it would be. Word up. 0:23:55.470 --> 0:23:58.880 And I remember the day I played the beats for Kendrick. 0:23:59.260 --> 0:24:00.659 I was in L.A. 0:24:01.880 --> 0:24:05.899 I was at Snoop's studio at 12. Dre's studio at 0:24:05.900 --> 0:24:09.600 6 the same day. And Kendrick at 10. And I 0:24:09.619 --> 0:24:11.419 remember talking to some cats that day. Like, man, you're 0:24:11.440 --> 0:24:13.889 moving around the city, man. How you moving around the 0:24:13.930 --> 0:24:16.139 city this way? Because I'm in these, you know, And 0:24:16.160 --> 0:24:17.979 so I played the beats with Kendrick, man. And they 0:24:18.000 --> 0:24:21.530 were all on a beat file. And he said, just 0:24:21.550 --> 0:24:23.610 give me all 26 of them beats. And I gave 0:24:23.630 --> 0:24:25.630 them to him. And then next thing you know, he 0:24:25.670 --> 0:24:26.210 picked the three. 0:24:26.780 --> 0:24:27.040 Wow. 0:24:27.810 --> 0:24:30.530 And it became not only a dope song, but one 0:24:30.590 --> 0:24:32.090 of his most legendary songs. 0:24:32.270 --> 0:24:32.790 Exactly. 0:24:32.830 --> 0:24:34.689 I was about to say, what was your reaction when 0:24:34.710 --> 0:24:35.929 you heard the finished product? 0:24:35.970 --> 0:24:38.600 Because you sent 26 beats. You're not knowing. All right, 0:24:38.640 --> 0:24:41.920 you picked three. But you made three, one song. 0:24:42.020 --> 0:24:44.240 You know how it goes. So they called me. Shots 0:24:44.320 --> 0:24:48.180 of Dave Free. Dave Free called me and was like, yo, man, 0:24:48.300 --> 0:24:50.260 I needed sample clearances for two beats. 0:24:50.660 --> 0:24:52.280 So I'm thinking, oh, I got two on there. 0:24:53.200 --> 0:24:53.680 OK. 0:24:54.140 --> 0:24:54.480 And so. 0:24:55.300 --> 0:24:57.080 He calls me back again. He said, nah, I need 0:24:57.100 --> 0:24:58.780 to sample clearances for one more beat. 0:24:59.350 --> 0:25:00.710 I was like, I got three on that? 0:25:00.750 --> 0:25:04.909 He was like, nah, nah, nigga. It's one song, three beats. 0:25:05.190 --> 0:25:05.650 Wow. 0:25:05.790 --> 0:25:09.230 And I said, what? And the first time I heard 0:25:09.250 --> 0:25:17.439 that done was a song on Gangsta's Daily Operation. They 0:25:17.460 --> 0:25:19.780 did it one time. And then Prem did it again 0:25:19.859 --> 0:25:21.879 on Hard to Earn, a song called Speak Your Clout, 0:25:22.140 --> 0:25:25.619 where it changed three times. And then Merz did it 0:25:25.660 --> 0:25:28.510 with Walk Like a Man. And then Here He Comes 0:25:28.590 --> 0:25:31.070 with it changing three times. And the story was crazy. 0:25:31.270 --> 0:25:31.889 Crazy. 0:25:32.130 --> 0:25:34.330 And it was the last song on the album. And 0:25:34.410 --> 0:25:37.730 it was, yo, man, it kind of restarted my career 0:25:37.800 --> 0:25:41.959 again because now it's a whole new age of kid 0:25:41.980 --> 0:25:44.800 that's not following me. They might not know anything prior 0:25:44.820 --> 0:25:48.580 to 2007, but everything after 2000, they were like, man, 0:25:48.640 --> 0:25:51.630 first time I heard you was Duckworth. That just kind 0:25:51.670 --> 0:25:52.830 of restarted my career again. 0:25:53.060 --> 0:25:55.580 That's a blessing, man. That's all you need, man. Music 0:25:55.619 --> 0:25:56.560 is forever, bro. 0:25:56.580 --> 0:25:59.480 I try to tell the kids it's forever. So you 0:25:59.520 --> 0:26:02.660 helped develop a whole generation, you know what I mean, 0:26:02.700 --> 0:26:05.880 of producers through the Soul Council, you know what I mean, 0:26:05.900 --> 0:26:08.700 through the label Jamula Records, you know what I mean? 0:26:09.100 --> 0:26:12.780 Shout out my girl Rhapsody. Shout out my dog Ruben Vincent, 0:26:12.840 --> 0:26:15.010 you know what I mean? Students of the game. How 0:26:15.070 --> 0:26:19.149 important has artist development and creating opportunities for others became 0:26:19.190 --> 0:26:19.490 for you? 0:26:19.710 --> 0:26:22.550 You know, it's just watching.... 0:26:23.750 --> 0:26:27.890 Just being around Jay that first time taught me so 0:26:27.930 --> 0:26:29.629 much in that short period of time. 0:26:29.950 --> 0:26:32.150 You know what I mean? Because I'm not only looking 0:26:32.190 --> 0:26:32.609 at him. 0:26:33.130 --> 0:26:36.350 I'm looking at everybody around him and how he affected 0:26:36.650 --> 0:26:37.750 everybody's life. 0:26:38.010 --> 0:26:38.750 You know what I mean? 0:26:39.470 --> 0:26:42.800 And I kind of hang like, should I be that 0:26:42.859 --> 0:26:46.340 kind of way as well? Should I have my own family? 0:26:47.400 --> 0:26:50.000 Because all big homies got big homies. 0:26:50.700 --> 0:26:51.040 That's right. 0:26:51.060 --> 0:26:52.179 You know what I mean? All of them. 0:26:52.900 --> 0:26:57.210 And I don't think people understand how big Jay-Z's family 0:26:57.290 --> 0:27:01.090 tree is, but it is. He has created a whole crew. Like, 0:27:01.130 --> 0:27:05.330 he has his crew, but then you, but you knock 0:27:05.390 --> 0:27:08.450 out your own crew. It's like a family tree. It's crazy. 0:27:08.670 --> 0:27:13.500 And my extension of that was Jamla. And I just thought, 0:27:13.520 --> 0:27:16.580 I was like, man, like, I need to create my 0:27:16.680 --> 0:27:18.460 own universe like he has his own universe. 0:27:18.500 --> 0:27:19.150 Because Emery.... 0:27:22.540 --> 0:27:28.389 OG Juan, you, everybody's been, like, he has not changed 0:27:28.430 --> 0:27:31.450 his personnel in 30 plus years. 0:27:31.869 --> 0:27:32.209 Nah. 0:27:32.290 --> 0:27:34.609 You know what I mean? There's no... No new friends. 0:27:34.630 --> 0:27:35.050 No new friends. 0:27:35.869 --> 0:27:39.050 And I was like, man, that is amazing to do that. 0:27:39.150 --> 0:27:40.990 And I was like, man, I need to come up 0:27:41.010 --> 0:27:41.490 with something. 0:27:41.670 --> 0:27:42.450 It's hard to do. 0:27:42.450 --> 0:27:42.850 It's hard. 0:27:43.109 --> 0:27:43.760 It's hard to do. 0:27:43.790 --> 0:27:46.210 Because people, not only do you not change up, other 0:27:46.250 --> 0:27:47.800 people change. You know what I'm saying? 0:27:47.820 --> 0:27:49.800 A lot of people jump out the whip when the 0:27:49.840 --> 0:27:52.340 car's still moving. They think you ran out of gas. 0:27:52.780 --> 0:27:53.100 Yeah. 0:27:53.460 --> 0:27:54.000 They don't know. 0:27:54.020 --> 0:27:55.580 The car just getting back started. 0:27:55.600 --> 0:27:56.520 Everybody. Everybody. 0:27:56.859 --> 0:28:03.159 So that's hard to do. I commend Jay, Ty, Emery, Wong, Lenny. 0:28:03.510 --> 0:28:06.650 I look at some of these guys, even Chaka Pilgrim. 0:28:06.770 --> 0:28:09.869 I look at them and be like, yo, we came 0:28:09.930 --> 0:28:13.170 from the office when it was roaches and rats running around. 0:28:13.210 --> 0:28:17.619 Look at this shit now. We didn't imagine this. Half 0:28:17.680 --> 0:28:18.760 of them did, not me. 0:28:18.840 --> 0:28:19.359 I was young. 0:28:19.480 --> 0:28:22.980 I was just happy to be on the train. Yo, 0:28:23.040 --> 0:28:24.899 let's go back to producing a little bit because I 0:28:24.940 --> 0:28:28.230 wanted to ask you. Sampling is a very important staple 0:28:28.690 --> 0:28:30.950 in production and hip-hop's foundation. 0:28:31.250 --> 0:28:32.850 But with technology today. 0:28:33.210 --> 0:28:36.760 AI, and all the way the records is being produced, 0:28:36.800 --> 0:28:40.260 they invented Fruity Loops for the kids to produce easier. 0:28:40.280 --> 0:28:42.820 Because if that was out when I tried, I probably 0:28:42.840 --> 0:28:43.720 would be nice right now. 0:28:43.740 --> 0:28:46.820 That's the first thing I use. That's the first thing 0:28:46.840 --> 0:28:46.950 I use. 0:28:46.960 --> 0:28:50.230 Bro, I had Just Blaze and Guru come to my house, 0:28:50.310 --> 0:28:54.150 build me a studio set up, MPC the rack, bought 0:28:54.230 --> 0:28:58.730 all the sounds, everything. I couldn't get past the, you 0:28:58.770 --> 0:29:01.570 know how the MPC got the click to put the 0:29:01.610 --> 0:29:02.450 beat on time? 0:29:02.470 --> 0:29:03.670 I could never do it. 0:29:03.890 --> 0:29:06.690 So I'm like, how do a producer, you have to 0:29:06.750 --> 0:29:09.650 be crazy. Like, it's like in White Man Can't Jump 0:29:09.670 --> 0:29:13.800 where he say, you don't hear Jimmy. I guess I didn't. 0:29:14.960 --> 0:29:18.400 Because that shit will not go on the timer for me, 0:29:18.460 --> 0:29:21.000 no matter how fast or slow I made it. 0:29:21.020 --> 0:29:23.040 So I just gave all the equipment back to Gu. 0:29:24.340 --> 0:29:25.460 Gu, you take the shit. 0:29:25.800 --> 0:29:26.739 I don't need it. 0:29:30.220 --> 0:29:34.710 So with that being said, do you think we losing 0:29:34.730 --> 0:29:37.410 the art form in hip hop of the digging for records, 0:29:37.450 --> 0:29:39.950 discovering new sounds, the digging through the crates? 0:29:39.960 --> 0:29:41.540 With the technology that's out today? 0:29:41.580 --> 0:29:42.200 I don't think so. 0:29:43.040 --> 0:29:48.570 Because, you know, every generation rebels the generation before it. 0:29:48.570 --> 0:29:49.090 That's right. 0:29:49.130 --> 0:29:51.130 And now you got a lot of kids now that 0:29:51.150 --> 0:29:52.830 believes in like analog again. 0:29:52.850 --> 0:29:54.670 So they're really like, I don't. 0:29:54.510 --> 0:29:57.990 Want to do some 14-year-olds out here, man, that's like 0:29:58.370 --> 0:30:01.150 I don't really want to do what the 25-year-olds are doing. 0:30:01.650 --> 0:30:03.680 They want to be like, I want a real record. 0:30:03.720 --> 0:30:05.240 I want to hold it in my hand. 0:30:05.280 --> 0:30:06.900 You know what I mean? 0:30:07.280 --> 0:30:08.940 I want to hold a CD in my hand. I 0:30:08.980 --> 0:30:12.540 want to hold a tangible object. I can play some music. 0:30:13.400 --> 0:30:16.260 And they're getting back to that, I think. And we 0:30:16.280 --> 0:30:17.700 just got to be patient with them and let them 0:30:17.770 --> 0:30:21.190 find and discover for their own. But AI can come 0:30:21.230 --> 0:30:23.570 and go. Whatever's going to change so many times. But 0:30:23.630 --> 0:30:27.430 you cannot beat a human being. You can't beat what's 0:30:27.490 --> 0:30:31.030 in a human's mind. You can only copy what's in 0:30:31.070 --> 0:30:34.560 a human's mind once the human lets it go. Your 0:30:34.650 --> 0:30:37.240 pre-thought ideas, AI cannot come up with. 0:30:37.760 --> 0:30:38.420 That's a fact. 0:30:38.460 --> 0:30:39.120 That's what it is. 0:30:39.140 --> 0:30:39.820 That's a fact. 0:30:39.880 --> 0:30:45.200 Now, you spent years teaching hip-hop history, music production at universities. 0:30:45.640 --> 0:30:48.240 Why is that important for you to bring hip-hop into 0:30:48.260 --> 0:30:52.110 the academic spaces? What you think the next generation needs 0:30:52.170 --> 0:30:53.930 to understand about the culture? 0:30:54.030 --> 0:30:55.970 I mean, it's just up to us to tell the 0:30:56.030 --> 0:30:58.930 right story. Nobody's going to tell the story better than us. 0:30:59.510 --> 0:31:01.990 Only issue is, is that, you know, the way the 0:31:02.030 --> 0:31:04.590 university thing is set up, you have to have certain 0:31:04.750 --> 0:31:07.660 qualifications to teach on a certain level. 0:31:07.780 --> 0:31:08.390 I didn't have it. 0:31:08.400 --> 0:31:11.360 I taught without a degree for years, but, and it 0:31:11.380 --> 0:31:15.820 just got my degree, but it's just, but it's the 0:31:15.860 --> 0:31:17.470 situation is up to us to teach it. 0:31:17.880 --> 0:31:21.550 Nobody can teach. this thing that we started. You know 0:31:21.570 --> 0:31:22.950 what I mean? Nobody can teach it. 0:31:23.530 --> 0:31:27.210 No book will be able to tell you anything about 0:31:27.260 --> 0:31:29.420 this thing that we started because hip-hop came from the street. 0:31:29.480 --> 0:31:30.420 It came from the community. 0:31:30.620 --> 0:31:31.120 That's right. 0:31:31.360 --> 0:31:35.080 And it's only the practitioners that can tell the story. 0:31:35.480 --> 0:31:37.400 And I thought, well, let me get ahead of the 0:31:37.440 --> 0:31:40.180 gun because I don't want nobody... We'll get mad when 0:31:40.200 --> 0:31:42.560 the story is told the wrong way, but we don't 0:31:42.580 --> 0:31:44.120 want to go tell the story ourselves. 0:31:44.440 --> 0:31:45.730 So I want to tell the story. 0:31:46.110 --> 0:31:46.810 That's a fact. 0:31:46.990 --> 0:31:48.810 So you got to worry about you know, getting the 0:31:48.830 --> 0:31:51.170 story wrong. Cause I'm here, I'm in the, what we 0:31:51.210 --> 0:31:54.840 call the canon. I'm in the canon to, academic canon 0:31:54.860 --> 0:31:56.220 to go ahead and to get the story right. 0:31:56.620 --> 0:31:58.760 That's what's up, man. Congrats on that. I remember when 0:31:58.800 --> 0:32:02.840 you first, you and Guru running universities, man. You see 0:32:02.860 --> 0:32:04.440 how far we came with this shit, man? 0:32:04.740 --> 0:32:06.440 You know what I mean? Like, look at this. 0:32:06.480 --> 0:32:12.350 These guys, professors, literally. Like, and you always championed lyricism. 0:32:12.380 --> 0:32:14.890 You know what I mean? That relationship between the MC 0:32:15.230 --> 0:32:16.050 and the producer, right? 0:32:16.370 --> 0:32:19.700 Has streaming and the pressure to make viral records changed 0:32:19.740 --> 0:32:21.240 that creative relationship, you think? 0:32:21.260 --> 0:32:23.300 Yeah, I think so. I mean, some. 0:32:23.500 --> 0:32:26.780 I mean, now it's just like a... We also dealing 0:32:26.800 --> 0:32:29.160 with a generation that wants things fast. They want to 0:32:29.180 --> 0:32:31.160 do it fast. It's like they don't want to know 0:32:31.500 --> 0:32:35.080 the process. And here's the thing, though. I don't care 0:32:35.100 --> 0:32:38.940 if we're talking about selling dope or making records. they 0:32:38.960 --> 0:32:39.320 want it. 0:32:39.320 --> 0:32:42.000 Fast that's right they think that you. 0:32:41.900 --> 0:32:45.890 Know i'm getting you know nah no you got to 0:32:45.910 --> 0:32:48.010 spend at least a year standing on the corner being 0:32:48.030 --> 0:32:50.770 a lookout first right you got to be the lookout 0:32:50.830 --> 0:32:53.260 kid before you even get to its stages to this 0:32:53.300 --> 0:32:56.360 and the same thing with rapping and mcn no matter 0:32:56.380 --> 0:32:58.780 what you're talking about i've never i've never really been 0:32:58.820 --> 0:33:00.440 a person they're like oh you got to be talking 0:33:00.460 --> 0:33:02.790 about this thing or that thing something about it nah 0:33:02.830 --> 0:33:05.890 because I grew up on Tribe, but I also grew 0:33:05.930 --> 0:33:06.850 up on NWA, too. 0:33:07.050 --> 0:33:07.470 That's right. 0:33:07.490 --> 0:33:09.510 So I need all the stories. But you just got 0:33:09.530 --> 0:33:13.650 to be good at telling the story, though. If it's street, 0:33:13.810 --> 0:33:15.750 it's street. I don't really care about it being street. 0:33:15.790 --> 0:33:17.300 But you got to be able to talk about the 0:33:17.340 --> 0:33:18.400 street like nobody. 0:33:18.130 --> 0:33:19.480 Else talks about the street. That's right. 0:33:19.960 --> 0:33:21.880 That's the thing. But I've always felt that way. 0:33:22.200 --> 0:33:23.400 No, I agree with you, man. 0:33:23.440 --> 0:33:25.620 Like we used to say coming up, when the lies 0:33:25.660 --> 0:33:27.760 run out, the rhymes run out. So long as you're 0:33:27.780 --> 0:33:32.020 telling the truth and it's authentic to you, Somebody somewhere 0:33:32.080 --> 0:33:34.160 going to relate and going to rock with it, man. 0:33:34.200 --> 0:33:36.459 I believe it. Whether it's one or 1,000, they're going 0:33:36.480 --> 0:33:37.260 to get the message. 0:33:38.040 --> 0:33:40.739 That's what it is. I've always thought that. What you 0:33:40.760 --> 0:33:45.190 say in celebration, bulging on my jeans on a 10-speed weeding. 0:33:45.210 --> 0:33:47.570 10-speed weeding, you know what I mean? 0:33:47.610 --> 0:33:49.030 You can visually see that. 0:33:49.050 --> 0:33:49.390 That's right. 0:33:49.410 --> 0:33:51.750 You know what I mean? I'm being held, team rocks, 0:33:51.770 --> 0:33:52.630 water and ice water. 0:33:52.750 --> 0:33:56.530 They just didn't see me fixing that damn 10-speed chain, 0:33:56.570 --> 0:33:58.700 hand on greasy, that shit come off. 0:33:59.320 --> 0:34:00.100 You got to see it. 0:34:01.050 --> 0:34:03.890 I've been in hell. Team Rock sweater and ice water. 0:34:03.950 --> 0:34:05.570 Word up. That's crazy. 0:34:05.610 --> 0:34:07.820 You see that? Like, you can see it. That's what 0:34:07.930 --> 0:34:08.759 I'm talking about, though. 0:34:09.260 --> 0:34:16.700 Yo, between producing, DJing, educating, running businesses, what does this 0:34:16.780 --> 0:34:19.200 chapter of your career look like, you think? 0:34:21.020 --> 0:34:26.230 Oh, man. I don't want to be known, and you'll 0:34:26.250 --> 0:34:27.810 get what I say when I say it. It's a different. 0:34:28.340 --> 0:34:31.239 It's different when the cast younger than you call a 0:34:31.300 --> 0:34:36.800 nigga unk. But it's also different when they call you OG. 0:34:36.820 --> 0:34:38.940 If you get called OG, it's different from being called. 0:34:38.980 --> 0:34:43.950 You calling unk, nigga, that goes further. That means your 0:34:43.989 --> 0:34:46.589 dress messed up, all this messed up. 0:34:46.810 --> 0:34:48.090 You just old. You just old. 0:34:48.130 --> 0:34:49.790 Yeah, they just like, yo, you in the way. 0:34:49.830 --> 0:34:51.710 It almost means you in the way. You in the way. 0:34:51.750 --> 0:34:54.069 Like, word up. You in the way. 0:34:54.710 --> 0:34:56.750 You're called OG, man. Yo, what up, OG? 0:34:56.810 --> 0:35:00.549 Like, when I get that, That means, nah, I'm here 0:35:00.590 --> 0:35:02.910 because if I need some wisdom, I know who to 0:35:02.950 --> 0:35:05.320 come to because you've lived a life and you still 0:35:05.360 --> 0:35:05.970 are relevant. 0:35:06.550 --> 0:35:08.020 But like, you in the way. 0:35:08.040 --> 0:35:09.000 Yeah, you in the way. 0:35:09.180 --> 0:35:10.680 You got to go sit down. 0:35:10.820 --> 0:35:13.739 And so now I'm looking around, man. And, you know, 0:35:14.420 --> 0:35:18.420 I got cast in hip hop. They called me OG. 0:35:18.860 --> 0:35:21.580 I got cast that I've taught in universities. They called 0:35:21.620 --> 0:35:25.660 me OG. And my other life, probably the last eight years, 0:35:25.700 --> 0:35:27.000 has been Nike basketball. 0:35:27.260 --> 0:35:27.640 Mm-hmm. 0:35:28.580 --> 0:35:31.640 I got a lot of like NBA stars right now 0:35:32.050 --> 0:35:35.710 that I mentored and Nike grassroots. 0:35:35.830 --> 0:35:37.910 That I love. 0:35:37.989 --> 0:35:39.210 I didn't know you had that plug. 0:35:39.230 --> 0:35:41.130 We're going to talk off camera. 0:35:41.550 --> 0:35:44.530 You know what I mean? Yes, sir. Nike EYBL, man. 0:35:45.489 --> 0:35:48.400 I started Nike EYBL seven, eight years ago. Shout out 0:35:48.420 --> 0:35:53.440 to my man, Carlton DuBose. And I've watched, I met 0:35:53.460 --> 0:35:58.500 Tyrese Maxim when he was 16. And, and, But Tyrese, 0:35:59.280 --> 0:36:06.400 the Boozer Twins, Cooper Flagg, Kay Cunningham, Rob Dillingham, Jalen Green, 0:36:07.340 --> 0:36:11.370 John Kaminga. Like a majority of the NBA, I've had 0:36:11.830 --> 0:36:15.090 in front of me either making beats, learning how to 0:36:15.130 --> 0:36:19.669 make beats, talking, having conversation. I've been teaching the Duke 0:36:19.690 --> 0:36:23.609 the last 16 years. I've taught about 30-something draft picks. 0:36:23.640 --> 0:36:29.620 It's been in my class. Zion Williamson. Like, basketball has been. 0:36:29.480 --> 0:36:31.259 More my life. I don't think he paid attention, though. 0:36:31.860 --> 0:36:32.980 Zion ain't paying attention. 0:36:33.000 --> 0:36:33.399 Yeah, he did. 0:36:33.760 --> 0:36:35.020 You got to pay attention to my class. 0:36:35.219 --> 0:36:35.640 He did. 0:36:35.840 --> 0:36:36.560 No, I promise he did. 0:36:36.600 --> 0:36:38.259 You was talking about girls in your class. He must 0:36:38.300 --> 0:36:39.300 have skipped that chapter. 0:36:39.320 --> 0:36:40.680 I wouldn't have that chapter. 0:36:41.739 --> 0:36:42.360 That's why. 0:36:43.040 --> 0:36:44.240 He skipped that chapter. 0:36:44.280 --> 0:36:45.500 That's a whole other class. 0:36:45.560 --> 0:36:46.200 He a baller, though. 0:36:46.219 --> 0:36:46.700 But nah, man. 0:36:46.719 --> 0:36:50.160 You know how many people called me and was like, man, 0:36:50.239 --> 0:36:54.300 he ain't hollering at Zion about that. We ain't talking 0:36:54.320 --> 0:36:57.040 about that in class, dog. We ain't talking about that. 0:36:57.060 --> 0:36:58.700 We should have brought that up, man. We got to 0:36:58.719 --> 0:36:59.739 make that a subject. 0:36:59.840 --> 0:37:00.899 I got to blame. 0:37:00.980 --> 0:37:02.080 This is your fault. 0:37:02.100 --> 0:37:03.380 I'm like, no, it's not. 0:37:03.440 --> 0:37:07.560 We ain't talking about that. 0:37:07.600 --> 0:37:08.969 But no, man. 0:37:09.010 --> 0:37:09.790 That's my boy. 0:37:09.830 --> 0:37:13.129 He went too far. Sometimes it's too far. He went 0:37:13.190 --> 0:37:17.070 too much. It's too much and it is too, too much. 0:37:17.150 --> 0:37:17.489 He's young. 0:37:17.510 --> 0:37:20.790 He's learned. I hope he did. 0:37:20.830 --> 0:37:21.310 He's learned. 0:37:21.469 --> 0:37:25.020 Because that was bad. That's a bad look. 0:37:25.040 --> 0:37:27.680 Nah, he learned, man. That's my dude. But, you know, 0:37:28.020 --> 0:37:28.960 wonderful student, man. 0:37:28.980 --> 0:37:29.340 Him. 0:37:29.400 --> 0:37:31.880 Yeah, great ball player, wonderful guy. I would never take that. 0:37:31.920 --> 0:37:33.850 It's just tasting women is just like. 0:37:34.870 --> 0:37:40.190 I'm getting all dying, man. Shouts to R.J. 0:37:40.230 --> 0:37:40.510 Barron. 0:37:40.530 --> 0:37:42.690 Shouts to Derek Lively. Shouts to every Duke player in 0:37:42.710 --> 0:37:43.049 the league. 0:37:43.110 --> 0:37:44.230 I love you all, bro. 0:37:44.590 --> 0:37:47.520 I'm getting... You. 0:37:47.340 --> 0:37:50.200 Put the name up. I wasn't thinking about it. When 0:37:50.219 --> 0:37:53.000 you said his name, it's like, wait a minute. He 0:37:53.060 --> 0:37:54.240 was a great student. 0:37:54.260 --> 0:37:55.740 He was a great student. 0:37:55.840 --> 0:37:57.279 What was you talking about in class? 0:38:00.060 --> 0:38:01.840 It's going to get clipped. It's going to get clipped. 0:38:01.900 --> 0:38:03.920 It's already going to get clipped, dog. It's going to 0:38:03.980 --> 0:38:07.140 get clipped. I already know. Memphis Bleak United want to 0:38:07.180 --> 0:38:09.569 talk about Zion Williams' choice of women. 0:38:09.830 --> 0:38:10.910 He did that, though. 0:38:10.969 --> 0:38:12.090 It ain't our fault. 0:38:12.790 --> 0:38:15.290 It's going to get clipped. We the OGs. He should 0:38:15.330 --> 0:38:16.650 have watched our resume. 0:38:16.690 --> 0:38:17.070 Damn. 0:38:17.330 --> 0:38:18.859 We got to start printing out our resumes. 0:38:18.880 --> 0:38:20.020 Shout out to Zion, man. 0:38:20.460 --> 0:38:21.600 Keep balling, man. 0:38:21.620 --> 0:38:23.879 Stop getting hurt. It's probably because of them. 0:38:24.500 --> 0:38:24.980 Stop. 0:38:25.239 --> 0:38:27.259 I can't stop, man. We got to get off this. 0:38:27.340 --> 0:38:30.640 We got to stop. Yo, let's get this over with. 0:38:30.680 --> 0:38:32.989 Let's do it. 0:38:34.030 --> 0:38:35.870 In my class, we're talking about history of hip-hop, dog. 0:38:35.890 --> 0:38:38.350 That's what we're talking about in class, man. Bleak wanted 0:38:38.370 --> 0:38:40.310 me to talk to him about something else. 0:38:40.370 --> 0:38:43.970 Yeah, I need a class to get these young boys straight. 0:38:44.200 --> 0:38:46.520 No, no, no, seriously. 0:38:47.560 --> 0:38:54.279 That's really across the board with younger men. That's a 0:38:54.320 --> 0:38:57.340 conversation we truly need to have across the board. I 0:38:57.360 --> 0:38:59.520 don't care who you are. We just need to have 0:38:59.560 --> 0:39:05.299 a conversation about men being men and all of that stuff. 0:39:05.560 --> 0:39:07.899 And just the relationship you have with women, man, just, 0:39:08.060 --> 0:39:10.720 you know, it's crazy out here for women right now. 0:39:10.760 --> 0:39:11.680 No, it's bad, man. 0:39:11.780 --> 0:39:12.620 It's crazy for women. 0:39:12.860 --> 0:39:13.580 It's bad. 0:39:13.680 --> 0:39:15.620 And a lot of brothers ain't doing a good job. 0:39:15.660 --> 0:39:17.900 That's right. They ain't doing what they're supposed to. 0:39:17.910 --> 0:39:18.170 That's right. 0:39:18.860 --> 0:39:20.710 We got to take care of our own. I agree 0:39:20.730 --> 0:39:23.290 with that part. That's 100%. We got to support and 0:39:23.330 --> 0:39:24.489 take care of our own, man. 0:39:24.670 --> 0:39:25.210 And protect. 0:39:25.290 --> 0:39:27.870 And protect, man. That's a fact. You got to be 0:39:27.890 --> 0:39:29.290 there for your community, man. 0:39:29.900 --> 0:39:34.020 So with Jamula Records and the Soul Council have been 0:39:34.080 --> 0:39:37.980 important platforms for developing talent. What's your vision for the 0:39:38.040 --> 0:39:39.200 brands today, man? 0:39:39.239 --> 0:39:39.819 You know what I mean? 0:39:39.840 --> 0:39:42.660 Like what's, What's your approach to the next movement on 0:39:42.680 --> 0:39:44.500 the involvement of arts development? 0:39:44.520 --> 0:39:46.400 Trying to stay ahead of the curve, man. You know, 0:39:46.440 --> 0:39:48.399 it's still going to be a process. Still trying to 0:39:48.420 --> 0:39:50.439 teach them it's a process. But now trying to find 0:39:50.520 --> 0:39:53.910 new and inventive ways to go to direct the consumer. 0:39:54.410 --> 0:39:57.350 Like casting a wide net and getting a lot of 0:39:57.390 --> 0:39:58.850 people like we used to do back in the day. 0:39:58.890 --> 0:40:01.430 It's not even a possibility like it used to be. 0:40:02.070 --> 0:40:04.290 The market is too spread out. You can have your 0:40:04.430 --> 0:40:06.680 own niche market and just stay over here and make 0:40:06.719 --> 0:40:10.370 a lot of money. And so that's where I'm trying 0:40:10.390 --> 0:40:13.190 to get my artists to think like, think it's not 0:40:13.230 --> 0:40:15.310 about the music that you make. It's where your music 0:40:15.330 --> 0:40:18.990 can live when you make it. And start thinking that way. 0:40:19.010 --> 0:40:21.740 Start thinking, well, my music can be here or here 0:40:21.840 --> 0:40:22.960 or here, or instead. 0:40:22.719 --> 0:40:24.840 Of I'm going to be on the Grammys. 0:40:24.880 --> 0:40:26.100 I'm going to be the biggest. 0:40:26.800 --> 0:40:29.819 Like that's, that's a whole net wide net. We got 0:40:29.840 --> 0:40:30.320 to cast. 0:40:30.660 --> 0:40:30.879 Yeah. 0:40:31.140 --> 0:40:34.419 Let's focus on who likes your music first and let's 0:40:34.500 --> 0:40:38.260 build that, whatever that is. And I think one of the, the, 0:40:38.390 --> 0:40:42.900 the crews has done that. great is Griselda. Griselda figured 0:40:42.920 --> 0:40:43.759 that out. 0:40:43.760 --> 0:40:43.820 100%. 0:40:43.820 --> 0:40:48.830 And I think that most labels, incubator labels, small independent labels, 0:40:48.870 --> 0:40:51.170 need to just be focused on the people that likes 0:40:51.210 --> 0:40:51.650 your music. 0:40:51.950 --> 0:40:53.799 That's right. They cater to their core. 0:40:53.930 --> 0:40:54.230 That's it. 0:40:54.300 --> 0:40:54.799 And tour. 0:40:55.260 --> 0:40:59.920 sell their merch, sell their records at the shows, everything. 0:41:00.280 --> 0:41:03.160 I love what they're doing. Their movement is definitely something 0:41:03.180 --> 0:41:05.920 that needs to be studied. These new generation definitely need 0:41:05.940 --> 0:41:08.340 to pay attention. And some of these labels need to 0:41:08.360 --> 0:41:11.950 pay attention because I always say, you can't reinvent the wheel. 0:41:12.370 --> 0:41:16.330 And we got away from the touching people. The internet 0:41:16.370 --> 0:41:19.049 got away from that. You took a picture with my 0:41:19.230 --> 0:41:23.600 aunt 20 years ago. Certain people run up on me. 0:41:23.680 --> 0:41:26.160 I be out sometimes. They'll be like, Bleak, you got 0:41:26.200 --> 0:41:27.900 a picture with my mom back in the day. And 0:41:27.960 --> 0:41:29.560 it's like, damn, if it don't make me feel old, 0:41:29.580 --> 0:41:32.900 but we really was there. We was in that record store. 0:41:32.940 --> 0:41:35.560 We was in that sneaker shop. We pulled up to 0:41:35.580 --> 0:41:37.700 the club and had a meet and greet. There's no 0:41:37.739 --> 0:41:39.920 more meet and greets. And now they're charging them for 0:41:39.960 --> 0:41:42.450 meet and greets. You know what I'm saying? Now you 0:41:42.469 --> 0:41:45.270 got to pay to take a picture? It's like, damn. 0:41:45.310 --> 0:41:47.009 Get it? 0:41:47.230 --> 0:41:50.210 I'm not knocking you. But we still got to get 0:41:50.270 --> 0:41:53.390 back to touching who our people are. 0:41:53.430 --> 0:41:54.230 The community part. 0:41:54.250 --> 0:41:57.160 Yeah, because we don't, on the internet, people say, yo, 0:41:57.190 --> 0:41:59.170 I have a following, but they don't even know who 0:41:59.190 --> 0:42:01.549 these people are, what they look like, never went and 0:42:01.570 --> 0:42:02.170 did nothing. 0:42:01.950 --> 0:42:02.509 To support them. 0:42:02.690 --> 0:42:04.650 You go to a show and there's 50 people in 0:42:04.670 --> 0:42:06.830 the audience and you're like, dang, I thought I had 0:42:06.870 --> 0:42:08.410 a bigger following than that. 0:42:08.450 --> 0:42:10.730 Because you never support. So they're not going to come 0:42:10.770 --> 0:42:13.190 out and support you all they know you for is YouTube. 0:42:13.230 --> 0:42:15.259 We there for your YouTube show, we not there for 0:42:15.280 --> 0:42:19.430 the physical show. You do a concert on YouTube, we're 0:42:19.450 --> 0:42:23.110 going to pull up. You put that fly up, I 0:42:23.170 --> 0:42:24.190 might not be there. 0:42:24.210 --> 0:42:24.969 I might not be there. 0:42:25.050 --> 0:42:25.830 Straight up. 0:42:25.890 --> 0:42:26.690 That's the thing. 0:42:26.790 --> 0:42:28.850 Especially post-COVID. I might not be there. 0:42:28.890 --> 0:42:31.350 Yes. That's the fan base now, man. You know? 0:42:31.690 --> 0:42:32.030 Crazy. 0:42:32.330 --> 0:42:34.490 All right. So are there any. 0:42:34.390 --> 0:42:38.930 New projects, collaborations, or artists you're particularly excited about right now? 0:42:38.950 --> 0:42:39.490 Man, yeah. 0:42:40.860 --> 0:42:43.180 You know, of course, I'm always excited about the artists 0:42:43.239 --> 0:42:43.820 on my label. 0:42:43.880 --> 0:42:46.030 That's right. Rap City, Ruben Vincent. 0:42:46.140 --> 0:42:48.610 No, no, correction. Rap City is now, she has her 0:42:48.730 --> 0:42:49.450 own label now. 0:42:49.710 --> 0:42:51.149 Oh, she went indie on them? 0:42:51.170 --> 0:42:51.370 Yep. 0:42:51.550 --> 0:42:52.989 And her label's called We Each Other. 0:42:53.310 --> 0:42:53.770 I need a deal, girl. 0:42:53.790 --> 0:42:54.730 She got an album out now. 0:42:54.770 --> 0:42:56.799 Y'all know that. She got an album out right now. 0:42:56.890 --> 0:43:01.800 It's doing, it's going crazy. She always the fam, though, man. 0:43:01.900 --> 0:43:02.920 It's like with us. 0:43:03.080 --> 0:43:06.640 I got my own thing, but no matter what I do, 0:43:06.780 --> 0:43:10.050 I'm Rockefeller, Roc Nation. I don't care if I tell 0:43:10.090 --> 0:43:12.650 people tomorrow, I'm Chicken Noodle Soup Records. They're like, no, 0:43:12.690 --> 0:43:15.430 you're not. You're Roc Nation, nigga. I don't care what 0:43:15.469 --> 0:43:15.910 you say. 0:43:16.050 --> 0:43:18.469 Yeah, it's probably going to be my album. It may 0:43:18.510 --> 0:43:20.629 be nominated for Rap Album of the Year. 0:43:20.950 --> 0:43:21.950 Oh, God bless. 0:43:21.969 --> 0:43:26.300 It's one of those type of runs. But Ruben, Ruben, 0:43:26.820 --> 0:43:27.360 of course. 0:43:27.380 --> 0:43:32.370 He's working. He's a worker. I respect him because he grind, he. 0:43:32.310 --> 0:43:35.440 Don't give up, and anything y'all ask of him to do, 0:43:35.520 --> 0:43:37.520 from you, the guru, even if I. 0:43:37.440 --> 0:43:39.839 Give his little ass some advice, he be like, all right, Bleak, 0:43:39.880 --> 0:43:40.279 I'm on it. 0:43:40.320 --> 0:43:42.980 And he will implement it in something he doing. I 0:43:43.020 --> 0:43:43.980 love that about him. 0:43:44.120 --> 0:43:46.859 So you got Ruben, my man from Washington Heights, New York, 0:43:46.880 --> 0:43:47.960 my man, the Mussolini. 0:43:48.400 --> 0:43:51.950 Okay, fuck with Moose, I ain't know that. Okay. 0:43:52.250 --> 0:43:52.630 We just did. 0:43:52.690 --> 0:43:55.560 We just dropped a record. So Moose is one of mine. 0:43:56.480 --> 0:43:59.840 I signed this group from Australia by the name of Yonder. 0:44:00.060 --> 0:44:02.160 They dope. Okay. I mean, from New Zealand. I'm sorry. 0:44:02.560 --> 0:44:04.609 Same thing. It's right there. I confuse them. 0:44:04.770 --> 0:44:06.650 It's different, but they different. 0:44:06.670 --> 0:44:07.320 But I hear you. 0:44:07.450 --> 0:44:07.770 Yeah. 0:44:07.810 --> 0:44:08.150 Yeah, yeah. 0:44:08.310 --> 0:44:10.029 Shout out Auckland. You know what I mean? 0:44:10.050 --> 0:44:11.290 Yeah, that's exactly where they're from. 0:44:11.370 --> 0:44:12.029 Auckland, New Zealand. 0:44:12.630 --> 0:44:13.650 And you been an augmenter before? 0:44:13.670 --> 0:44:15.950 Of course. Shout out my man Dan K out there, man. 0:44:15.969 --> 0:44:16.710 I got the homie out there. 0:44:16.730 --> 0:44:18.690 Who am I talking to about? I know he been 0:44:19.010 --> 0:44:20.210 an augmenter before. 0:44:20.310 --> 0:44:23.320 But nah, shout out to my boys from New Zealand, Yonder. 0:44:23.900 --> 0:44:29.380 My R & B artist, Sweater. Sweater's dope. And of course, 0:44:29.600 --> 0:44:34.060 and Heather Victoria, who's been here, a star war in 0:44:34.080 --> 0:44:38.380 this label. And yeah, Swank and Draft. That's right. 0:44:38.400 --> 0:44:40.540 That's right. I got the joint with them, man. 0:44:40.560 --> 0:44:41.660 When we dropping it. 0:44:41.700 --> 0:44:44.860 It's coming. Swank and Draft. 0:44:45.010 --> 0:44:48.690 And I signed this kid from Cleveland, Ohio by the name. 0:44:48.590 --> 0:44:49.470 Of Eli the Don. 0:44:49.830 --> 0:44:50.690 That's what's up. 0:44:50.710 --> 0:44:54.370 It's super dope. But yeah, man, that's the label. As 0:44:54.410 --> 0:44:59.160 far as outside of that, man, I just love my team, 0:44:59.680 --> 0:45:03.040 everything about my team. There's other artists that I love, 0:45:03.239 --> 0:45:08.480 R & B, hip-hop. You know, so many. So many 0:45:08.540 --> 0:45:09.140 is really dope. 0:45:09.160 --> 0:45:10.460 Too many artists today, man. 0:45:10.500 --> 0:45:11.080 Yeah, man. 0:45:11.120 --> 0:45:14.340 God bless the family, man. I wish everybody that success 0:45:14.360 --> 0:45:17.640 from the label, man. Let's let them. Let's win. It's 0:45:17.700 --> 0:45:21.190 enough fans for everybody. They say we're using bots. Bottom 0:45:21.270 --> 0:45:25.030 up for everybody then, nigga. Let's go. Let me chill. 0:45:26.390 --> 0:45:30.029 Share your bots, man. Get stingy with the bots. Stop playing, man. 0:45:30.270 --> 0:45:32.490 If I had the bot plug, I'd be passing out. 0:45:33.100 --> 0:45:33.799 Bottom up. 0:45:34.040 --> 0:45:35.800 Be bottomless bots. 0:45:36.640 --> 0:45:40.430 But I'm doing that, and then we're trying to finish now. 0:45:41.850 --> 0:45:44.610 Me and Black Thought got an album coming. Ooh! 0:45:44.690 --> 0:45:44.970 Yeah. 0:45:45.650 --> 0:45:47.370 Tell Black Thor I want to battle. They say he 0:45:47.390 --> 0:45:50.230 the nicest nigga ever. They say to be the nicest, 0:45:50.250 --> 0:45:52.970 you got to go at the nicest. Yo, nah. 0:45:53.390 --> 0:45:54.090 Yo, listen. 0:45:54.350 --> 0:45:58.600 Black Thor has a rap. Jimmy Kimmel has a ride 0:45:58.620 --> 0:46:02.279 at Disney World that Black Thor does the introduction for. 0:46:02.320 --> 0:46:03.560 I've seen it. I've seen it, yeah. 0:46:04.080 --> 0:46:05.420 No one can fuck with him. 0:46:05.700 --> 0:46:06.440 Yeah, he's crazy. 0:46:07.380 --> 0:46:10.110 He's too ill. I'm sitting there with my daughter and 0:46:10.140 --> 0:46:12.270 I'm like, wait a minute. This thing is about the rap, 0:46:12.290 --> 0:46:15.910 something about the introduction of the ride. And then I'm listening, 0:46:16.010 --> 0:46:19.790 and he murdered it. Like, I'm about to do all that. Like, yo. 0:46:20.160 --> 0:46:23.040 Nah, fire, man. Word up, man. 0:46:23.400 --> 0:46:26.800 So when people talk about the greatest producers in hip-hop history, 0:46:27.380 --> 0:46:30.060 where do you feel 9th Wonder belong in that conversation? 0:46:30.090 --> 0:46:32.960 You know what, man? There was a... Billboard did a. 0:46:34.340 --> 0:46:38.100 top 25 producers in the last 50 years for the 0:46:38.300 --> 0:46:41.340 50th anniversary of hip hop. And I made the top 25. 0:46:41.340 --> 0:46:45.750 So I'm happy about that. I didn't think I would, 0:46:45.910 --> 0:46:47.669 but I made, I didn't even know he was making 0:46:47.690 --> 0:46:50.109 the list. And they sent me the list. 0:46:50.170 --> 0:46:53.410 I was like, what? And, you know, I'm just grateful 0:46:53.430 --> 0:46:54.190 to be here, dog. 0:46:54.430 --> 0:46:55.290 It's a blessing, man. 0:46:57.650 --> 0:47:00.250 There's certain generations and certain people that say, oh, you 0:47:00.270 --> 0:47:01.049 the GOAT, you the GOAT. 0:47:01.070 --> 0:47:01.689 You know what I mean? 0:47:01.830 --> 0:47:05.610 I think the term greatest of all time in music 0:47:06.570 --> 0:47:07.690 can be. 0:47:08.989 --> 0:47:10.630 A sign to so many different people. 0:47:10.650 --> 0:47:13.890 You know what I mean? Like when it comes to music. 0:47:14.390 --> 0:47:16.730 When people ask me, man, who's your top five rappers? 0:47:17.070 --> 0:47:19.049 There's at least 30 rappers you can put in the 0:47:19.090 --> 0:47:19.690 top five. 0:47:19.850 --> 0:47:20.550 That's a fact. 0:47:20.570 --> 0:47:22.670 That you can make an argument for. And I think 0:47:22.710 --> 0:47:26.100 it's the same thing with production as well. It's about thirsty. 0:47:26.120 --> 0:47:29.160 It's too many. It's too many. Because every generation has 0:47:29.219 --> 0:47:29.790 a top five. 0:47:29.810 --> 0:47:31.489 Every generation has a top five. 0:47:31.969 --> 0:47:35.129 Every generation, every genre has a top five. Remember, there's 0:47:35.150 --> 0:47:40.580 so many different systems of rap. It's not just hardcore rap. 0:47:40.600 --> 0:47:41.520 It's underground. 0:47:41.840 --> 0:47:44.560 You know what I mean? It's thoughtful. It's all of 0:47:44.600 --> 0:47:45.420 that different style. 0:47:45.460 --> 0:47:48.010 So it's like, You can't be who the top five 0:47:48.070 --> 0:47:49.489 across the board. 0:47:49.790 --> 0:47:51.210 We know that, top five. 0:47:52.050 --> 0:47:55.350 But I think Dr. Dre is the greatest hip-hop producer 0:47:55.390 --> 0:47:55.870 of all time. 0:47:56.770 --> 0:47:58.569 Out of everybody? 0:47:58.950 --> 0:47:59.430 Yeah. 0:47:59.719 --> 0:48:03.000 And the reason why, you know, from sound to changing 0:48:03.040 --> 0:48:06.620 of sound, and if you look at, and I'm a 0:48:06.640 --> 0:48:08.200 big person about resume, too. 0:48:08.940 --> 0:48:11.379 Like, it's not. 0:48:12.260 --> 0:48:15.650 And I learned this from Rodney Jerkins and Timbaland. It's 0:48:15.790 --> 0:48:18.070 not the beats that you make, it's the artists. 0:48:17.830 --> 0:48:19.690 That you make. 0:48:19.910 --> 0:48:23.770 And the albums that you produce or are responsible for. 0:48:23.790 --> 0:48:30.070 And he's responsible for Straight Outta Compton, The Chronic, Doggystyle, 0:48:31.810 --> 0:48:33.370 Get Rich or Die Tryin'.. 0:48:33.590 --> 0:48:36.630 The Slim Shady LP. 0:48:37.250 --> 0:48:40.980 You take them five. Ice Cube, NWA in the beginning. 0:48:41.000 --> 0:48:46.580 That's what I'm saying. And the game documentary. He's executive 0:48:46.600 --> 0:48:50.420 produced all of those. And if you look at it 0:48:50.440 --> 0:48:55.690 from an artist standpoint, it's NWA, Snoop, M50, Game, Kendrick. 0:48:56.610 --> 0:48:57.049 Nah, bro. 0:48:57.469 --> 0:48:59.730 Yeah, no, I agree with you. I just wanted to 0:48:59.770 --> 0:49:00.660 hear your explanation. 0:49:00.680 --> 0:49:03.680 Because me, to have to be a producer, to feel like, 0:49:03.780 --> 0:49:07.080 even as a rapper, to recreate yourself through each generation 0:49:07.239 --> 0:49:12.280 is tough. As a producer, to lose it all, bounce 0:49:12.300 --> 0:49:13.770 back and not lose it all once. 0:49:13.810 --> 0:49:15.109 He lost it all twice. 0:49:15.180 --> 0:49:18.859 Cause it's straight out of Compton sounding Dre then there's 0:49:18.960 --> 0:49:22.419 Chronic sounding Dre then there's still Dre sounding Dre shout 0:49:22.460 --> 0:49:24.640 out to Scott Storch cause he was all there and 0:49:24.680 --> 0:49:28.569 Daz and everybody that was involved but it's Dre DJ 0:49:28.610 --> 0:49:30.050 Quick Battle Cat. 0:49:29.910 --> 0:49:34.310 They still take him as the The co-founder to find 0:49:34.370 --> 0:49:35.690 everybody to put them together. 0:49:35.710 --> 0:49:36.830 Quincy Jones. 0:49:36.930 --> 0:49:39.150 Yeah, I give that to Drake. 0:49:39.350 --> 0:49:42.030 As far as who has the best ear for samples, 0:49:42.730 --> 0:49:47.130 to me, that I've seen do remarkable things with samples, 0:49:47.170 --> 0:49:49.489 taking two, three, four, five records and making one beat, 0:49:49.570 --> 0:49:55.340 and that's P-Rock. P-Rock is... He taught me how to listen, 0:49:55.450 --> 0:49:57.440 and he taught me how to hear, I would say. 0:49:57.900 --> 0:50:01.280 But as far as the part of it, that's DJ Premier. 0:50:02.020 --> 0:50:05.969 That's Premier. That's, you know, he's Mr. Sound in New York. 0:50:06.930 --> 0:50:09.680 DJ Premier got a chapter in my life just because 0:50:09.719 --> 0:50:10.469 of M.O.P. 0:50:10.950 --> 0:50:12.100 What he did with them. 0:50:11.940 --> 0:50:16.859 Guys is just like, bro, that's a chapter in my 0:50:16.900 --> 0:50:20.320 life that I can play and know exactly where I 0:50:20.360 --> 0:50:22.020 was at and what I was thinking. 0:50:22.100 --> 0:50:23.660 Like, he owned that. 0:50:23.660 --> 0:50:29.700 13 to about 16. Them three years at M.O.P. Downtown 0:50:29.739 --> 0:50:30.219 Swinger era. 0:50:30.260 --> 0:50:32.390 Downtown Swinger. Oh my Jesus Christ. 0:50:32.430 --> 0:50:33.120 Brownsville. 0:50:33.719 --> 0:50:34.239 Wow. 0:50:34.260 --> 0:50:36.129 Yeah, Brownsville is a crazy. 0:50:36.230 --> 0:50:39.689 And I know he did wonderful work with Gangsta and 0:50:39.810 --> 0:50:43.370 Group Home. What he did for me. He gave Group 0:50:43.410 --> 0:50:46.350 Home some of the illest beats ever. 0:50:48.810 --> 0:50:51.110 Jay told me that story one time. Jay said, I 0:50:51.110 --> 0:50:53.710 came to the studio and heard, man, who that beat for? 0:50:54.850 --> 0:50:55.990 He's like, man, that's from Groupon. 0:50:56.270 --> 0:50:58.570 I'm like, what? Exactly. Yeah, man. 0:50:58.630 --> 0:51:01.130 Yo, you go through their albums. They got some. It's 0:51:01.150 --> 0:51:02.680 fucking undeniable. 0:51:02.700 --> 0:51:04.779 That first Groupon album is crazy. 0:51:05.200 --> 0:51:08.239 What's one lesson you learned about the music business that 0:51:08.280 --> 0:51:10.280 you wish you understood when you first started? 0:51:10.540 --> 0:51:17.819 I don't know, man. I think I am where I 0:51:17.960 --> 0:51:22.370 am because of the mistakes that I made. You know, 0:51:23.090 --> 0:51:25.529 the game has been good to me. You know what 0:51:25.610 --> 0:51:28.210 I mean? You know, Blee, the game ain't good to everybody. 0:51:28.230 --> 0:51:28.810 No, it's not. 0:51:29.310 --> 0:51:33.489 And, you know, some of us refuse to adjust sometimes. 0:51:34.090 --> 0:51:35.950 But the fact that you and I are still sitting 0:51:36.020 --> 0:51:42.660 here and you started years before me, that's. 0:51:41.560 --> 0:51:42.680 A blessing, man. 0:51:42.700 --> 0:51:44.680 So I think the mistakes that we made, too, the 0:51:44.860 --> 0:51:46.660 things that we didn't know, we ain't supposed to know 0:51:46.719 --> 0:51:50.330 everything at the beginning. But the things that we continue 0:51:50.370 --> 0:51:54.560 to learn over time, that's why we're now both sitting Adjust. 0:51:54.280 --> 0:51:56.419 And adapt, man. I tell them all day, you've got 0:51:56.440 --> 0:51:57.540 to be able to adapt. 0:51:57.960 --> 0:52:00.680 And another one of my quotes I run with, the 0:52:00.719 --> 0:52:03.050 day I can't inspire is when I'm a retirement. 0:52:03.070 --> 0:52:03.450 That's right. 0:52:03.830 --> 0:52:07.129 I feel like I still have inspiration to give. I've 0:52:07.170 --> 0:52:08.590 still got a story to tell. 0:52:08.610 --> 0:52:12.410 For sure. It's just like you, man. You said it best. 0:52:12.430 --> 0:52:15.390 The mistakes you make is why we're still sitting here, man. 0:52:15.450 --> 0:52:17.509 If we had a perfect role, we'd probably be out 0:52:17.530 --> 0:52:17.820 of here. 0:52:17.930 --> 0:52:19.180 Out of here, man. 0:52:19.280 --> 0:52:22.160 Out of here. So when it's all said and done, 0:52:22.989 --> 0:52:24.790 And you know what I mean? You did what you did. 0:52:24.810 --> 0:52:28.680 Your contribution to hip hop. What's the one thing you 0:52:28.739 --> 0:52:30.319 want to be remembered for? 0:52:31.600 --> 0:52:33.820 Somebody who loved the culture, man. 0:52:34.520 --> 0:52:36.839 I don't think people understand how much I love the 0:52:36.980 --> 0:52:41.890 music that's been made over the past 50 years. I 0:52:41.930 --> 0:52:45.030 love the music more than anything else. I'm a fan first. 0:52:45.050 --> 0:52:48.569 I've always been a fan first. And I believe me 0:52:48.610 --> 0:52:50.770 being a fan first. Fan first is one of the 0:52:50.790 --> 0:52:53.009 things that keeps me here. Because it never gets old 0:52:53.050 --> 0:52:55.339 to me. It's probably the main reason why I lived 0:52:56.030 --> 0:52:57.900 in North Carolina and never lived anywhere else. Because I 0:52:57.960 --> 0:53:01.219 never wanted it to just get old to me. You 0:53:01.280 --> 0:53:03.140 know what I mean? Living in New York, you see, oh, 0:53:03.160 --> 0:53:06.660 they go grand poobah all the time. I never wanted that. 0:53:06.739 --> 0:53:07.400 You know what I mean? 0:53:07.760 --> 0:53:10.080 I always wanted the people that I had on my wall, 0:53:10.120 --> 0:53:13.060 seen in magazines, always, when I see them, I always 0:53:13.100 --> 0:53:16.399 want to still feel excited. And, you know, That's why 0:53:16.420 --> 0:53:20.029 I always live here. And so being a fan, I 0:53:20.050 --> 0:53:22.049 want somebody to say, yo, let me tell you, 9th 0:53:22.250 --> 0:53:25.410 loved music before anything else. 0:53:25.950 --> 0:53:30.880 Yes, what's up, man? Continue much success, man. Blessings forever. 0:53:31.219 --> 0:53:34.939 My brother, 9th Wonder, one of the greatest producers that 0:53:35.140 --> 0:53:37.860 ever do it. The greatest that ever come out of 0:53:37.900 --> 0:53:41.180 North Carolina. Let's be clear. Y'all want to do verses, Swiss, 0:53:41.219 --> 0:53:43.480 holla at me. whoever think they want it. 0:53:43.800 --> 0:53:44.600 You know what it is. 0:53:44.719 --> 0:53:48.480 It's Rock Solid, and we co-sign by 9th Wonder, if 0:53:48.540 --> 0:53:57.070 you want to smoke. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit 0:53:57.230 --> 0:54:00.870 iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your 0:54:00.910 --> 0:54:03.489 favorite shows at. And you can follow me on any 0:54:03.550 --> 0:54:06.410 social media platform under the name Memphis Bleak. 0:54:06.610 --> 0:54:08.730 You see anybody frauding, flag them.