WEBVTT - Questlove Supreme: Fat Joe 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:02.920 Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:06.720 --> 0:00:11.240 Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to another episode of Quest Love Supreme. 0:00:11.440 --> 0:00:16.160 I'm your host Quest Love with Me is Laya Quarantined 0:00:16.239 --> 0:00:16.919 from the West Coast. 0:00:16.920 --> 0:00:20.040 Hello, Hello, Hey everybody, I missed you. 0:00:19.480 --> 0:00:24.040 And Steve from the top of his building in. 0:00:24.079 --> 0:00:30.640 Manhattan, he TREADI Central. Where are you at pay Bill 0:00:30.960 --> 0:00:35.160 Westchester or neighbor? Okay, so I can visit? 0:00:35.720 --> 0:00:38.400 Yeah, come on over hanging out with Break and Crack. 0:00:38.600 --> 0:00:39.280 It's the whole thing. 0:00:40.240 --> 0:00:43.680 Light here. Don't improve it that aunt, Tegelo where you're 0:00:43.680 --> 0:00:47.159 broadcasting from now? Bro from the crib, Raleigh, North Carolina. 0:00:47.760 --> 0:00:51.879 Okay, keeping it real, ladies and gentlemen, This this episode 0:00:51.920 --> 0:00:54.400 has been long, long overdue. 0:00:56.880 --> 0:00:57.120 You know. 0:00:57.720 --> 0:01:01.200 It's it's it's a rarity that anyone in hip hop 0:01:01.240 --> 0:01:08.720 culture can have sustainability and change with the times and 0:01:08.800 --> 0:01:14.880 still stay themselves facts in this culture without hitting a landmine. 0:01:15.080 --> 0:01:21.080 And our guest today, uh is I mean I call 0:01:21.160 --> 0:01:23.000 him Teflon and Joe I mean. 0:01:23.000 --> 0:01:25.680 Yo yo, Me and my buddies have was saying if 0:01:26.080 --> 0:01:29.080 if a nuclear bomb went off, the last two rappers 0:01:29.080 --> 0:01:33.679 standing would be Fat Joe and bust A rhymes straight up, 0:01:34.560 --> 0:01:37.480 straight up, y'all brothers, don survive everything. 0:01:37.040 --> 0:01:38.440 Man, Ladies and gentlemen. 0:01:38.520 --> 0:01:42.800 Yeah, let's let's welcome uh the one and only, uh, 0:01:43.160 --> 0:01:50.080 the the the God Fat Joe exactly, exactly, Don Carteragina 0:01:50.240 --> 0:01:52.680 two quest love Supreme you much. 0:01:52.880 --> 0:01:55.040 How you making out? How you making out in this 0:01:55.080 --> 0:01:57.480 current environment, sir. 0:01:57.880 --> 0:01:59.840 I'm just you know, I'm happy to be home, man. 0:02:01.160 --> 0:02:03.040 I'm happy to be home, man. 0:02:03.080 --> 0:02:03.600 I've been. 0:02:05.640 --> 0:02:08.200 I go on the road for twenty five years, man, 0:02:08.280 --> 0:02:10.040 and the fact that I'm able to be with the 0:02:10.120 --> 0:02:11.760 family and spend. 0:02:12.120 --> 0:02:15.160 Time at home with my daughter, my wife and everybody. Man, 0:02:15.400 --> 0:02:17.680 I'm actually enjoying it. To be honest with you. 0:02:18.760 --> 0:02:21.960 Where is home currently? You're a Jersey resident right now? Correct? 0:02:22.400 --> 0:02:24.360 No, no, no, no, I live in Miami. I known 0:02:24.400 --> 0:02:26.359 Miami for like seventeen years. 0:02:26.800 --> 0:02:32.160 I've always known you as I'm sorry, I've always known 0:02:32.200 --> 0:02:36.040 you as a Jersey resident. I didn't know that you 0:02:36.120 --> 0:02:36.760 moved to Miami. 0:02:37.240 --> 0:02:37.959 Yeah, yeah, yeah. 0:02:37.960 --> 0:02:40.399 I lived in the Bronx my whole life, and then 0:02:40.440 --> 0:02:43.560 I moved to Jersey. My wife forced me to move 0:02:43.600 --> 0:02:45.600 to Jersey because I ain't want to leave the Bronx 0:02:46.160 --> 0:02:46.440 and she. 0:02:46.560 --> 0:02:48.720 Was like, if you don't move, I'm leaving you. 0:02:48.840 --> 0:02:50.680 So I had to go to Jersey, which was the 0:02:50.720 --> 0:02:53.200 smartest thing I ever did in my life. So when 0:02:53.200 --> 0:02:55.840 I went to Jersey, I finally heard birds chirping and 0:02:56.000 --> 0:03:00.200 little kids playing in the street. And then eventually, one 0:03:00.240 --> 0:03:03.000 time I got so frustrated with like the New York 0:03:03.080 --> 0:03:06.160 hip hop scene that I moved down to Miami. And 0:03:06.200 --> 0:03:08.680 that's when, you know, that's around the time I met 0:03:08.760 --> 0:03:12.080 DJ Khaled, before he was you know, when he was 0:03:12.160 --> 0:03:16.600 just underground DJ and Coolan Dre and just the love 0:03:16.680 --> 0:03:19.000 down here, the camaraderie and the love was just so 0:03:19.120 --> 0:03:22.960 much different from what was going on in New York. 0:03:23.720 --> 0:03:27.320 So I had came down here for a fresh start. 0:03:27.520 --> 0:03:29.280 Had been done here ever. 0:03:29.120 --> 0:03:32.760 Since around what time was that when you when you 0:03:32.800 --> 0:03:33.800 went to Miami. 0:03:34.120 --> 0:03:35.800 Man, that's like seventeen years ago. 0:03:35.840 --> 0:03:39.200 You know, I always said, you know, one day, you know, 0:03:39.240 --> 0:03:42.800 when I started, I started out digging into crates and 0:03:42.840 --> 0:03:46.280 if you go to them early videos, if you would 0:03:46.320 --> 0:03:50.600 go engine engine number nine on that you as I'm 0:03:50.640 --> 0:03:53.320 one of the guys jumping in the background. I was 0:03:53.360 --> 0:03:57.680 in everybody's video. Yes, I was in everybody's video. Everybody 0:03:57.840 --> 0:04:01.200 was my video we worked with each other. We didn't 0:04:01.200 --> 0:04:05.440 look at each other as competition. It was all love 0:04:05.600 --> 0:04:09.120 when I came up. And then once money came into play, 0:04:10.440 --> 0:04:13.480 everybody started having their own click and everybody thought they 0:04:13.560 --> 0:04:15.840 was bigger than the other one. And that's how New 0:04:15.920 --> 0:04:18.400 York got separated. And then one day I was in 0:04:18.480 --> 0:04:20.800 my home in New Jersey and I was fed up 0:04:20.800 --> 0:04:23.720 with it already. I was listening to the radio and 0:04:24.680 --> 0:04:28.800 I heard Cameron say, He'll smack the coofie off of 0:04:28.920 --> 0:04:32.839 NASA's head. And that's when I told my wife, pack 0:04:32.920 --> 0:04:34.960 up the vans, we out, we out of here. 0:04:35.040 --> 0:04:38.599 We can't be over here like this. I don't know 0:04:38.640 --> 0:04:40.480 what's going on with New York hip hop. 0:04:40.800 --> 0:04:44.200 And we came down here and we started, uh the 0:04:44.279 --> 0:04:48.520 Miami movement, like with the DJ Kelly, with the Pitt Bull, 0:04:48.680 --> 0:04:51.680 the Rick Ross, the Cooler Dre. You know, we set 0:04:51.720 --> 0:04:54.760 it off down the here and made that camaraderie. And 0:04:54.760 --> 0:04:58.560 then when Lil Wayne, when Katrina happened, he came down 0:04:58.600 --> 0:05:00.919 to Miami, him at bird Man. We embraced them, and 0:05:00.920 --> 0:05:03.200 that's when you get all those records. We was doing 0:05:03.240 --> 0:05:05.760 like taking over Brown paper Bag. 0:05:07.560 --> 0:05:09.680 Yeah, so in in the Bronx. 0:05:09.800 --> 0:05:14.919 In the Bronx, how would you describe your childhood for 0:05:15.000 --> 0:05:17.880 those that don't know your history in the Bronx. 0:05:18.640 --> 0:05:24.359 Well, you from Philly, right, But there's there's different parts 0:05:24.400 --> 0:05:30.119 of Philly. There's North Philly, South Philly, Alleghany, Germantown, this, 0:05:30.120 --> 0:05:32.440 this that. So why I'm trying to make reference to 0:05:32.480 --> 0:05:35.920 that is, Oh he's from North Carolina, this Faidville, this Greensboro, 0:05:36.040 --> 0:05:41.160 this Charlotte's this abs. I'm from the Bronx in the 0:05:41.200 --> 0:05:46.040 part where hip hop was created. Right, So what I'm 0:05:46.040 --> 0:05:48.920 trying to tell you is there's many parts of the Bronx. 0:05:49.480 --> 0:05:52.599 So me as a little kid, I was watching Mellie 0:05:52.600 --> 0:05:58.200 mel and Grandmaster flash Plant pickup games of basketball against 0:05:58.480 --> 0:06:01.920 little White you see little Rod mec Uh. You know 0:06:02.560 --> 0:06:06.760 I grew up in like literally so if you look 0:06:06.800 --> 0:06:10.400 at so privileged. So Ruby d who's the first Latin 0:06:10.440 --> 0:06:13.760 in MC. He used to have a softball team. These 0:06:13.800 --> 0:06:16.719 guys never lost. I used to watch some play softball. 0:06:17.000 --> 0:06:21.719 I used to go to every jam. My my my brother, Uh, 0:06:22.120 --> 0:06:23.960 my brother was the way I fell in love with 0:06:24.000 --> 0:06:25.839 hip hop. My brother used to go to all the 0:06:25.920 --> 0:06:28.600 jams and bring me back the cassette tapes from all 0:06:28.600 --> 0:06:32.160 the Zulu Nation anniversaries or Cool Hurt or whatever, and 0:06:32.240 --> 0:06:34.560 I used to listen to it so much I thought 0:06:34.600 --> 0:06:36.920 I was actually in there, like give me, like back 0:06:37.000 --> 0:06:37.440 up from. 0:06:37.279 --> 0:06:38.960 The ropes, back up from the ropes. 0:06:39.160 --> 0:06:45.400 Then they playing Mary Married, Why you get on that 0:06:45.680 --> 0:06:46.280 funk is on? 0:06:46.800 --> 0:06:46.920 Right? 0:06:48.920 --> 0:06:52.280 And then they come back with I don't know if 0:06:52.320 --> 0:06:55.000 you've been told, but Santa Claus is. 0:06:54.880 --> 0:06:56.800 A black man. A black man. 0:06:57.240 --> 0:06:59.840 I'm like, I'm like, I'm in my room listening to 0:06:59.880 --> 0:07:03.400 the these cassette tapes like oh my, fuck me, y'all, 0:07:03.640 --> 0:07:07.039 and just because I was too small to go and 0:07:07.040 --> 0:07:09.600 then when they did it outside, I would go to outside. 0:07:09.640 --> 0:07:13.760 So I was privileged to be born in the soil, 0:07:14.040 --> 0:07:17.240 like you know, just no other way to explain it 0:07:17.280 --> 0:07:20.239 to you, Like I was blessed as a hip hop fan, 0:07:21.080 --> 0:07:23.400 as a hip hop fan, not just as the rapper 0:07:23.480 --> 0:07:24.000 or whatever. 0:07:24.680 --> 0:07:25.000 Wow. 0:07:25.680 --> 0:07:30.000 So as far as like it it calling you, I mean, 0:07:30.080 --> 0:07:32.760 were you rapping early as a kid or you just 0:07:32.840 --> 0:07:35.680 like I'm a fan. But at what point is I 0:07:35.720 --> 0:07:38.320 wanted to be At what point is it like, Okay, 0:07:38.440 --> 0:07:40.120 I want to get involved in the culture. 0:07:40.640 --> 0:07:43.920 It's different. It was I was in. I was the culture. 0:07:44.080 --> 0:07:46.160 When I'm trying to tell you I break dance, I 0:07:46.200 --> 0:07:48.560 wrote graffiti Terror Squad is a graffiti crew? 0:07:49.040 --> 0:07:51.760 Okay, started out off graffiti Terror Squad? 0:07:52.320 --> 0:07:56.920 So were you tagging up as all over the bronx 0:07:57.000 --> 0:07:58.120 on the walls on the train. 0:07:58.200 --> 0:08:00.840 When I got older, I would bring out my house. 0:08:00.880 --> 0:08:03.120 I'm talking too much in front of my daughter right now, 0:08:03.160 --> 0:08:06.600 but I would break out my house when my parents 0:08:06.640 --> 0:08:11.360 would sleep, go hit the trains, think and dangerous shit 0:08:11.560 --> 0:08:14.160 like cops chasing us under the. 0:08:14.200 --> 0:08:18.200 Third round, like crazy shit. Come back to my house. 0:08:18.320 --> 0:08:20.720 My sister would open the door like five in the morning, 0:08:20.840 --> 0:08:23.200 like damn man, like you might. And then you know, 0:08:23.240 --> 0:08:25.240 when I wake up, you know it's time for school. 0:08:25.240 --> 0:08:28.880 But writing graffiti, but rapping. I wanted to be like 0:08:28.920 --> 0:08:31.320 my brother. My brother was you know, he used to rap, 0:08:31.720 --> 0:08:34.280 and I wanted to be like my brother, and so 0:08:34.360 --> 0:08:37.880 I started to rap. So I was writing maybe nine 0:08:38.000 --> 0:08:40.120 ten years old, eight nine ten years old and my 0:08:40.160 --> 0:08:43.600 mother's table, where everybody was like what type of what 0:08:43.640 --> 0:08:46.000 am I doing? And I'm like, you know, I want 0:08:46.000 --> 0:08:51.839 to rap? Nine ten years old? Oh my name My 0:08:53.000 --> 0:08:53.800 first name. 0:08:53.640 --> 0:09:01.959 Was little Pop, Little Pop and uh and Uh. 0:09:02.360 --> 0:09:06.040 We were saying ship like Joey rock Well and all that. 0:09:06.120 --> 0:09:09.640 And I had a little little fake rhymes like snigkings 0:09:09.640 --> 0:09:12.400 and cheap you know something you could. 0:09:12.160 --> 0:09:14.280 Fill every rock you could like like I was just 0:09:15.400 --> 0:09:19.200 you know, learning the game. But you know, uh yeah 0:09:20.400 --> 0:09:21.040 it was real. 0:09:22.120 --> 0:09:26.679 So as far as like in in the area that 0:09:26.720 --> 0:09:30.160 you grew up, were there any other notable hip hop 0:09:30.240 --> 0:09:32.559 luminarias that we would know of today, Like were. 0:09:32.360 --> 0:09:34.520 You ever. 0:09:36.040 --> 0:09:37.920 As an eleven year old or like. 0:09:38.160 --> 0:09:43.360 Yeah, yes, yes, So what happened was so as I 0:09:43.400 --> 0:09:46.800 told you, was a hip hop whippy whip wip starsky, 0:09:46.880 --> 0:09:47.920 all of them living my block. 0:09:48.360 --> 0:09:51.199 Uh. But when the guy who. 0:09:51.040 --> 0:09:54.680 Inspired me to rap was Lord Forness, So I was 0:09:54.679 --> 0:09:59.319 already in the streets hustling doing all types of ship, 0:09:59.559 --> 0:10:02.120 you know, be in you know, a product of my 0:10:02.280 --> 0:10:06.199 environment in the worst way. And Finesse he used to 0:10:06.240 --> 0:10:08.200 sell us papers. So back in the days, they would 0:10:08.200 --> 0:10:11.199 bring the newspaper. So Fanesse would buy the newspaper at 0:10:11.200 --> 0:10:13.720 the store for a quarter when he was selling in 0:10:13.720 --> 0:10:17.120 the building for a dollar. He was an entrepreneur, so 0:10:17.240 --> 0:10:20.880 he would walk up and down the project building going paper, 0:10:22.640 --> 0:10:24.600 and then my moms would give me a dollar, I 0:10:24.720 --> 0:10:27.440 go see Finesse he made not his real shit, and 0:10:27.480 --> 0:10:30.679 then he would make seventy five sets and then give 0:10:30.720 --> 0:10:31.040 it back. 0:10:31.040 --> 0:10:31.959 But Finesse would. 0:10:31.760 --> 0:10:34.880 Always tell me like, Yo, Joey, I'm gonna be a rapper. 0:10:35.000 --> 0:10:37.440 I'm gonna get on and I'd be like, yeah, right, 0:10:37.440 --> 0:10:39.080 I locked the door. I'm like, man, he's so full 0:10:39.120 --> 0:10:44.880 of shit. And one day, one day, I'm just listening 0:10:44.880 --> 0:10:49.720 to the radio Red Alert. He's just playing the funky Technician. 0:10:50.200 --> 0:10:53.439 He's playing all the Foinisian I'm like, no way Foraness 0:10:53.559 --> 0:10:57.880 made it, And that gave me sometimes you got to 0:10:57.880 --> 0:10:59.920 see it. So that gave me the proof that we 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:03.080 can actually make it out of the hood and actually 0:11:03.120 --> 0:11:09.480 become professional artists. And that's when I started, you know, uh, 0:11:10.360 --> 0:11:13.560 really believing we could do something. And then also Diamond 0:11:13.880 --> 0:11:16.440 Diamond Dan used to write graffiti with me, and he 0:11:16.440 --> 0:11:18.360 would tell me all the time, Yo, Joe. 0:11:18.160 --> 0:11:20.400 You're gonna go to jail, You're gonna get killed. 0:11:20.840 --> 0:11:24.199 You out here doing crazy shit, y'all, Like, bro, why 0:11:24.200 --> 0:11:26.240 don't you put all the shit you do in the 0:11:26.280 --> 0:11:30.359 streets into your music. And actually, even though I had money. 0:11:30.080 --> 0:11:32.120 At the time, actually crazy money. 0:11:32.600 --> 0:11:34.800 He took me to the studio and pay for the 0:11:34.880 --> 0:11:38.880 session Diamond to like, you know, get me off the streets. 0:11:39.040 --> 0:11:40.800 And so we went in there and. 0:11:40.720 --> 0:11:44.440 We and we made the demos and then uh and 0:11:44.440 --> 0:11:46.600 one of them was flow Joe, my first single. 0:11:47.480 --> 0:11:50.319 So I went, am I talking too long? 0:11:51.200 --> 0:11:52.640 I don't know this now? 0:11:52.920 --> 0:11:56.199 No, you weren't perfect, this is perfect, okay. 0:11:56.320 --> 0:11:59.800 So we went We made like three demos in that 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:00.720 first session. 0:12:00.760 --> 0:12:04.200 One of them was flow Joe. Right, So I had 0:12:04.240 --> 0:12:05.640 when I wanted to earn. 0:12:05.520 --> 0:12:07.760 Even though I grew up with show visit ag, I 0:12:07.760 --> 0:12:10.440 grew up with Diamond, they were already on, they were 0:12:10.440 --> 0:12:10.960 already on. 0:12:11.440 --> 0:12:13.480 I wanted to earn my spot. 0:12:13.640 --> 0:12:17.200 So I went to Amateur Knight at the Apollo and 0:12:17.240 --> 0:12:21.680 I performed that Amateur Knight, and I wanted four weeks 0:12:21.679 --> 0:12:21.959 in a. 0:12:22.000 --> 0:12:26.400 Row, were to tell you truth? I got a question. 0:12:26.640 --> 0:12:28.319 Yeah, yeah, that's how I got on. 0:12:28.440 --> 0:12:33.000 I got a question because we rarely have actual Apollo 0:12:33.840 --> 0:12:36.120 Amateur Knight contestants on the show. 0:12:36.320 --> 0:12:38.800 People who survived the apollogw is the truth? 0:12:38.960 --> 0:12:41.440 What is the true way to rig the system so 0:12:41.480 --> 0:12:44.120 that you win Amateur Knight the Apollo? 0:12:45.080 --> 0:12:47.280 Is it? The people you bring with you or like. 0:12:48.080 --> 0:12:50.839 I can't tell you Rick, I asked some people in there, 0:12:50.880 --> 0:12:53.960 but it's the power was like the stadium compared to 0:12:54.000 --> 0:12:56.840 the people. I might have brun twenty people came to 0:12:56.880 --> 0:12:59.840 see Fat Joe, but it's two thousand and three thousand. 0:13:00.800 --> 0:13:03.680 But I'm gonna tell you something. And this is where, 0:13:04.120 --> 0:13:06.559 this is where no one can ask me if desert God, 0:13:07.160 --> 0:13:11.760 you understand what I'm saying. Because as I went back recently, 0:13:11.880 --> 0:13:14.680 maybe maybe a year ago, I really thought about that Apollo, 0:13:14.960 --> 0:13:17.240 Like I said, all right, you winning Apollo, what do 0:13:17.320 --> 0:13:17.560 you do? 0:13:17.960 --> 0:13:19.480 So I went in there. It was one hundred and 0:13:19.520 --> 0:13:21.200 fifty groups. 0:13:20.840 --> 0:13:23.960 And I remember looking at everybody saying, they don't have 0:13:24.000 --> 0:13:24.560 a chance. 0:13:25.240 --> 0:13:28.040 I don't know what they're doing here. I'm gonna take 0:13:28.080 --> 0:13:29.880 this shit. Now. 0:13:30.559 --> 0:13:33.559 What's crazy is if you want to talk about the 0:13:33.640 --> 0:13:37.559 elephant in the room, I was the only Latino in Black. 0:13:37.280 --> 0:13:43.920 Colem with a hundred groups talk about that. 0:13:45.040 --> 0:13:48.599 No, and then so when I think about it, I 0:13:48.679 --> 0:13:51.400 it went down. I just went out there. I had 0:13:51.400 --> 0:13:55.240 two girl, three girls from my projects, Michelle and Barbara 0:13:55.600 --> 0:13:59.160 and DC, and they came out with me and they 0:13:59.640 --> 0:14:01.920 were saying to behind me doing some fly shit, and 0:14:01.960 --> 0:14:05.800 I was walking through rapid but oh, the people just 0:14:05.840 --> 0:14:08.319 went crazy. They couldn't hear a bar or nothing. They 0:14:08.400 --> 0:14:12.360 just they fucking went crazy. And every time I came out, 0:14:13.000 --> 0:14:16.760 they just went crazy. And it wasn't because of my lyrics. 0:14:17.200 --> 0:14:20.600 It wasn't because they just went crazy. I don't and 0:14:20.640 --> 0:14:23.480 I say, that was God in the room. He said, 0:14:23.520 --> 0:14:24.560 this is how you gonna do it. 0:14:24.640 --> 0:14:28.320 So I won. Four weeks, I met Red Alert. Red 0:14:28.320 --> 0:14:32.000 Alert was the biggest DJ in the planet Earth. 0:14:32.480 --> 0:14:35.400 It was only two DJs at the time that were 0:14:35.440 --> 0:14:42.000 considered mainstream. It's Red Alert and mister Magic. Mister Magic Yup, 0:14:42.120 --> 0:14:45.960 Mister Magic Recipe. So Red Alert said, Yo, do you. 0:14:45.960 --> 0:14:47.840 Have a demo? Can you give me a demo? So 0:14:47.880 --> 0:14:50.800 I gave him flow joke. About a month later, I 0:14:50.840 --> 0:14:51.440 had the flu. 0:14:51.520 --> 0:14:54.200 I was in the projects laying down and the shit 0:14:54.320 --> 0:14:57.560 came on and I jumped to the ceiling. How I 0:14:57.680 --> 0:15:00.600 jumped from the flu? I put the peak on the 0:15:00.640 --> 0:15:03.960 window in the projects and told everybody, yo, right, Alard 0:15:04.040 --> 0:15:07.160 playing my ship. He's playing everybody going crazy in front 0:15:07.200 --> 0:15:07.800 of the building. 0:15:08.360 --> 0:15:09.440 And then he. 0:15:09.520 --> 0:15:13.240 Kept playing that for like close to like eight months 0:15:13.640 --> 0:15:17.280 every week. And then Chris Lighty rest in Peace came 0:15:17.440 --> 0:15:20.720 to the hood where I hustled, my block where I 0:15:20.800 --> 0:15:22.320 hustle and told. 0:15:22.080 --> 0:15:24.160 Me, yo, you fat Joe. I was like yeah. I 0:15:24.200 --> 0:15:24.640 was like yeah. 0:15:24.680 --> 0:15:26.800 I was like he said you know why am I said, yeah, 0:15:26.840 --> 0:15:29.560 you baby, Chris, And he was like, yo, I want 0:15:29.600 --> 0:15:31.880 to sign you on a record deal, like I think 0:15:31.920 --> 0:15:34.400 you could be a superstar. And I signed in the 0:15:34.400 --> 0:15:37.040 middle of the street and the rest. 0:15:36.520 --> 0:15:39.120 You signed instantly to Relativity. 0:15:40.480 --> 0:15:42.840 Yeah. I don't have no lawyer. Now I was, I 0:15:42.920 --> 0:15:45.920 was a drug dealer. What do you want me to do? 0:15:46.360 --> 0:15:46.880 No, no, no. 0:15:46.960 --> 0:15:49.360 I was just like, Wow, I ain't got no That 0:15:49.440 --> 0:15:54.160 was Peed So wait that and truck answers my second question. 0:15:54.840 --> 0:16:00.680 So that's definitely you saying you talking about on Domin 0:16:00.760 --> 0:16:01.640 D's Uh. 0:16:02.800 --> 0:16:06.400 I am in every ad lib on that album. That's 0:16:06.560 --> 0:16:10.440 my claim to me, my fucking claim to. 0:16:12.600 --> 0:16:14.000 Fuck you talking about. 0:16:14.040 --> 0:16:15.680 Ship right that. 0:16:17.920 --> 0:16:18.680 That ship? 0:16:19.280 --> 0:16:22.880 I mean, Oh that's you. You're you're the guy all over. 0:16:24.560 --> 0:16:29.720 Yeah, I am the ad list every song. I dare 0:16:29.760 --> 0:16:33.360 you to acts Diamond, I am. That's my claim to fame. 0:16:33.800 --> 0:16:37.240 I was there for that whole album, the whole process. 0:16:37.600 --> 0:16:40.600 Slight confession, Like there was a point in my life 0:16:40.640 --> 0:16:43.960 where you know, there was enough base on my voice 0:16:43.960 --> 0:16:48.400 to be to be cursing and really intimidating people, So 0:16:48.880 --> 0:16:55.720 shut up, like you really? Yeah, I swear to God 0:16:56.000 --> 0:17:01.000 like every time post ninety three, and I'm saying fuck 0:17:01.120 --> 0:17:09.119 you talking about I'm literally just echoing fuck you talking 0:17:09.119 --> 0:17:13.399 about yo chill that is that is my favorite cursing 0:17:13.480 --> 0:17:16.520 on record ever ever. But you were Were you not 0:17:17.640 --> 0:17:21.800 involved on the Jazzy J record at all, the compilation that. 0:17:21.760 --> 0:17:22.720 He died z J? 0:17:24.240 --> 0:17:26.640 No, no, no, I was. I was from Diamond d 0:17:26.800 --> 0:17:29.280 on but I knew Jazzy J. I did my whole 0:17:29.280 --> 0:17:32.760 first album in Jazzy J studio, But I'm not that 0:17:32.880 --> 0:17:34.439 I think the compilation. 0:17:34.119 --> 0:17:34.800 Was before me. 0:17:35.840 --> 0:17:40.960 So when when did the official like the the uniting 0:17:41.160 --> 0:17:43.440 of digging in the Crates first? 0:17:43.920 --> 0:17:45.399 Like? Was it then? 0:17:46.160 --> 0:17:48.240 I think I always digging in the crates. I'm from 0:17:48.280 --> 0:17:51.880 the project, so I was digging in the crates. There's 0:17:51.880 --> 0:17:52.880 no way to explain. 0:17:52.560 --> 0:17:52.800 It to you. 0:17:52.840 --> 0:17:55.359 Like I grew up with Showbes, grew up with Diamond d, 0:17:55.560 --> 0:17:56.480 grew up with Finess. 0:17:56.840 --> 0:17:58.920 Hey, I'm rapping, I'm digging in the crates. 0:17:59.080 --> 0:18:02.240 I was, you know, getting a lot of money in 0:18:02.280 --> 0:18:06.000 the streets and I was at first the fat Spanish 0:18:06.000 --> 0:18:09.960 guy that stands on stage behind Lord Finance and Diamond 0:18:10.080 --> 0:18:13.359 D and you're looking like, who the fuck is the 0:18:13.440 --> 0:18:17.280 d boy standing behind these motherfuckers. Iiced out with the 0:18:17.320 --> 0:18:21.159 convertible bends outside like motherfucker's is like, that must be 0:18:21.240 --> 0:18:24.920 the big boy from the block. And so people knew 0:18:24.960 --> 0:18:27.560 me from that. But I was always digging in the crates. 0:18:27.600 --> 0:18:30.919 I don't think there was an initial annoying team, you know. 0:18:31.680 --> 0:18:33.720 I do remember we was at the Fever in. 0:18:33.680 --> 0:18:37.399 The Bronx when I got acts, could we make oh 0:18:37.600 --> 0:18:39.439 C digging in the crates? 0:18:39.440 --> 0:18:40.240 And OC was. 0:18:40.240 --> 0:18:43.240 From Brooklyn, and I was like, hell, yeah, man, he 0:18:43.320 --> 0:18:44.640 had he had to join. 0:18:44.760 --> 0:18:47.920 You lack the miner us invitamins. I ain't in the suns. 0:18:47.640 --> 0:18:49.159 Times out there like he was. 0:18:49.440 --> 0:18:52.720 I was like, Yo, your time's up. I was like, uh, 0:18:53.040 --> 0:18:55.880 we better make that boy digging in the crates. And 0:18:55.480 --> 0:18:57.119 and so I remember. 0:18:56.720 --> 0:19:00.720 That, And it was Big L around this timeeriod or. 0:19:02.320 --> 0:19:05.200 Big I was there already, so so Finesse had met 0:19:05.200 --> 0:19:08.320 Big L doing the Big L used to battle everybody 0:19:08.359 --> 0:19:11.000 on one hundred and twenty fifth, all across the street 0:19:11.000 --> 0:19:14.159 from Apollo every day after school big Al was just 0:19:14.280 --> 0:19:14.960 killing dudes. 0:19:15.320 --> 0:19:17.800 Finess met him, put him on a remix. Yes you 0:19:17.880 --> 0:19:18.560 may remix. 0:19:18.720 --> 0:19:21.040 I was at the show the first time Big L 0:19:21.200 --> 0:19:26.000 ever rap at a show and he destroyed that motherfucker 0:19:26.320 --> 0:19:28.840 and I was like, oh shit. They was like YO signing, 0:19:28.960 --> 0:19:33.000 you know Big L. I was like, big motherfucker ol 0:19:33.160 --> 0:19:33.920 D I T C. 0:19:34.600 --> 0:19:34.879 He was. 0:19:35.200 --> 0:19:37.600 He was incredible. It was like it was like a 0:19:37.680 --> 0:19:40.639 Finesse on steroids. It was like, first of all, to me, 0:19:40.720 --> 0:19:46.199 Finesse is the best punchline lyricists at the time. And 0:19:46.240 --> 0:19:50.840 then he found like he found the Bravo of the 0:19:50.880 --> 0:19:52.639 superman like Big L. 0:19:52.720 --> 0:19:54.160 So it was it was a no brainer. 0:19:54.480 --> 0:19:54.720 Right. 0:19:55.560 --> 0:19:59.239 So as far as the environment is now and what 0:19:59.320 --> 0:20:02.439 you're used to like when you're doing concerts, I know 0:20:03.480 --> 0:20:08.160 that it was like night and day with the twenty 0:20:08.240 --> 0:20:11.439 five year laps in between. But what were your early 0:20:11.800 --> 0:20:16.199 your early shows like promoting on the road and like 0:20:16.359 --> 0:20:19.120 back in ninety two, like from ninety two to light ninety. 0:20:18.840 --> 0:20:21.840 Five, Like what was that like back then? 0:20:21.880 --> 0:20:23.920 In the very way you ever heard of Steve Lobel, 0:20:25.320 --> 0:20:29.600 You know, Steve Lobel s we working. Steve Lobel was 0:20:29.640 --> 0:20:32.960 our product manager at Relativity. He had Fat Joe and 0:20:33.080 --> 0:20:36.280 Big Punk and the rest of the terrorist squad in 0:20:36.320 --> 0:20:40.119 the van driving through the whole America because at the time. 0:20:40.440 --> 0:20:41.440 I was scared to fly. 0:20:42.000 --> 0:20:46.600 So we drove everywhere to Shaw, We drove to Chicago, 0:20:46.720 --> 0:20:48.879 cal Breedy Greens. 0:20:49.320 --> 0:20:51.200 With Pink House DJ Pink House. 0:20:51.600 --> 0:20:56.360 We drove all around this country eating McDonald's and we 0:20:56.440 --> 0:20:59.480 was eating McDonald's. And even when Flo Joe was like 0:21:00.040 --> 0:21:02.160 klow Joe was number one in the country, it wasn't 0:21:02.200 --> 0:21:05.480 number one. And I was still getting like four hundred 0:21:05.480 --> 0:21:08.280 dollars a five hundred dollars a show. It wasn't no 0:21:08.320 --> 0:21:11.600 real money at the time. So it was like a struggle, 0:21:12.280 --> 0:21:14.119 you know, to get to the next level. But I 0:21:14.160 --> 0:21:18.040 had left like a fairy tale, and this is no bullshit. 0:21:19.080 --> 0:21:21.680 I had left the drug game alone when I signed 0:21:22.000 --> 0:21:25.480 to start rapping, and I refused to go back, even 0:21:25.560 --> 0:21:29.600 though my friends were still making literally millions of dollars. 0:21:29.920 --> 0:21:32.240 They was in bent leads, they was in all that shit. 0:21:32.359 --> 0:21:35.560 I wouldn't go back. If somebody got robbed in the crew, 0:21:35.680 --> 0:21:38.600 I wouldn't go back. If anything, I would not go 0:21:38.640 --> 0:21:40.280 in there because I knew this was my way out. 0:21:40.440 --> 0:21:42.359 Is the way I had to go, so I took 0:21:42.359 --> 0:21:44.840 a real pay cut, so I would do stuff like 0:21:45.119 --> 0:21:51.160 not only you know, do my shows, but then for 0:21:51.600 --> 0:21:55.920 promote parties, so I would poor Krs Karres probably came 0:21:55.960 --> 0:21:58.720 and performed for me twenty times for free in the Bronx. 0:21:59.080 --> 0:22:01.359 So everybody, I mean, like, yo, I gave Biggie his 0:22:01.400 --> 0:22:03.919 first show this b I G. I gave him his 0:22:03.920 --> 0:22:06.240 first show ever. Yeah, I gave him a g and 0:22:06.320 --> 0:22:08.160 a bottle of my Way and he came and I'm 0:22:08.160 --> 0:22:09.400 talking about partying. 0:22:09.440 --> 0:22:10.720 Bullshit just came out. 0:22:10.800 --> 0:22:12.760 Okay, So it's like the. 0:22:12.840 --> 0:22:14.159 First show b I G. 0:22:14.400 --> 0:22:17.800 Fat Joe and I was just promoting the parties, making 0:22:17.840 --> 0:22:20.480 a couple of grand on the side, then doing my show. 0:22:20.560 --> 0:22:22.640 You know, it was real. It was a real struggle. 0:22:32.800 --> 0:22:32.960 Yo. 0:22:33.280 --> 0:22:37.040 I remember an episode of your TV raps where you 0:22:37.119 --> 0:22:40.879 had like your own clothing joint or like you like 0:22:40.960 --> 0:22:43.679 one of the first dudes to have your your venture. 0:22:45.440 --> 0:22:50.240 And I think, I Ji j. 0:22:51.080 --> 0:22:53.640 J five sixty, I think you know everything. 0:22:54.280 --> 0:22:56.160 I remember this, he had the jacket. 0:22:56.840 --> 0:22:58.080 So what happened. 0:22:58.560 --> 0:23:01.120 What happened was and I'm gonna take you some real 0:23:01.160 --> 0:23:05.840 shit I never said before, but uh, it. 0:23:05.760 --> 0:23:07.240 Was probably the first or the second. 0:23:07.240 --> 0:23:10.399 I don't know if Wu Tang had their their brand first, 0:23:10.440 --> 0:23:11.359 it was one. 0:23:11.240 --> 0:23:13.680 Of the but I remember we was making these. 0:23:14.680 --> 0:23:18.960 So we were making these coats and these snorkels, the 0:23:19.080 --> 0:23:23.280 leather jackets almost like the averxes, and and I remember 0:23:23.320 --> 0:23:29.800 going to a party and Puffy and jay Z walking 0:23:29.840 --> 0:23:32.440 into the bathroom. I was in the bathroom where FJ 0:23:32.640 --> 0:23:38.280 five sixty snorkels on, and I was like, oh shit. 0:23:38.359 --> 0:23:40.800 They was like, yeah, we're rocking your ship. And I'm 0:23:40.840 --> 0:23:44.800 like allright, cool, yok. But the business partners that I had, 0:23:45.520 --> 0:23:47.840 they were really really cheap. They didn't want to really 0:23:47.920 --> 0:23:52.640 mass produced, they didn't really really want to market and promote, 0:23:52.680 --> 0:23:54.639 and we lost our shot. We could have made hundreds 0:23:54.680 --> 0:23:57.680 of millions of dollars with that land, with that line. 0:23:57.680 --> 0:23:58.800 It was ahead of his time. 0:23:59.480 --> 0:24:01.760 Yeahed to visit that, like y'all. 0:24:02.080 --> 0:24:04.000 I remember you and Freddie were like live at that 0:24:04.080 --> 0:24:06.240 story and like, yo, I'm gonna go over there and 0:24:06.320 --> 0:24:08.040 see that joint like I always wanted to see it. 0:24:08.080 --> 0:24:09.320 Never knew what happened to it. 0:24:10.680 --> 0:24:13.240 Hey, Joe, I was just gonna ask I just I 0:24:13.320 --> 0:24:15.280 was just kind of curious since you were talking about 0:24:15.359 --> 0:24:17.080 you signed your deal in the middle of the street. 0:24:17.119 --> 0:24:18.960 You were new to the story. You didn't know anything 0:24:19.440 --> 0:24:21.800 some of those hard lessons that you had to learn 0:24:22.480 --> 0:24:24.639 on your way. Because now you are you are the 0:24:24.720 --> 0:24:26.800 business man. You know this business in and out. But 0:24:26.840 --> 0:24:29.199 before we were like a couple of them hard lessons 0:24:29.200 --> 0:24:30.000 that you had to learn. 0:24:30.240 --> 0:24:32.439 Well, I really, I really ain't gonna lie to you. 0:24:32.520 --> 0:24:34.639 I did not get jerked by Chris Lady in the 0:24:34.680 --> 0:24:38.040 middle of the street. I was lucky, good, No, No, 0:24:38.160 --> 0:24:40.240 I was lucky. He did not jerk me. He was 0:24:40.359 --> 0:24:44.439 fared with me. Uh forever Relativity was good to be. 0:24:47.160 --> 0:24:50.320 But I did get jerked from my publisher. So I 0:24:50.320 --> 0:24:53.960 had signed a deal with h This guy's name is 0:24:54.080 --> 0:25:01.560 Jellybean Ben. 0:25:00.119 --> 0:25:03.800 Yeah. Yeah, So he was signing. He was doing music 0:25:03.840 --> 0:25:05.159 for madnad Or. 0:25:05.359 --> 0:25:07.760 So he hit with the he hit me, he hit 0:25:07.800 --> 0:25:11.600 me with the YO. We both led Tino this this bullshit. 0:25:12.200 --> 0:25:14.320 And then I met him in nineteen ninety two. I 0:25:14.400 --> 0:25:18.080 signed this publishing. He gave me fifty thousand dollars when 0:25:18.119 --> 0:25:22.920 I signed. He's been robbing me for that publishing ever since. 0:25:23.680 --> 0:25:28.040 And I still ain't seen him in like twenty five years. 0:25:28.720 --> 0:25:30.919 And uh, you know, and so we've been trying to 0:25:30.960 --> 0:25:34.159 get some type of royalty accounting or whatever. I didn't 0:25:34.160 --> 0:25:37.840 have my publishing back till around lean back, but anything 0:25:37.920 --> 0:25:40.040 before there was not anything I did. 0:25:40.480 --> 0:25:42.680 The man robbed me for my publishing real talk. 0:25:43.119 --> 0:25:49.520 Oh shit, damn Benita, Yeah yeah. 0:25:48.800 --> 0:25:52.639 Donald, good boy, Donald, my good old latt though, my 0:25:52.640 --> 0:25:53.920 good old Latito brother. 0:25:57.200 --> 0:25:57.920 Can you talk to like? 0:25:59.000 --> 0:26:01.120 Can you talk to where like Latino music and hip 0:26:01.119 --> 0:26:03.159 hop were meeting at that time? I mean behind you 0:26:03.200 --> 0:26:07.159 a giant picture of Fector leve O. We can't the 0:26:07.240 --> 0:26:07.680 king of. 0:26:10.000 --> 0:26:11.560 What's your name? Who asked that question? 0:26:13.000 --> 0:26:14.000 I'm Bill Sherman. 0:26:14.280 --> 0:26:15.800 Yo, Bill, let me tell you something, Bill. 0:26:16.720 --> 0:26:21.320 Hip hop is please black and Latino music from day one. 0:26:22.320 --> 0:26:26.760 So if you go to the very inception of hip 0:26:26.760 --> 0:26:31.000 hop music, the very first black party jam, you will 0:26:31.080 --> 0:26:34.360 see the Latinos in there and the blacks and they 0:26:34.520 --> 0:26:37.840 break dancing and they white and graft. Latinos just break 0:26:37.920 --> 0:26:40.800 dancing and white and graffiti. So the black guys is 0:26:40.840 --> 0:26:45.400 mostly DJ and them seeing and that's. 0:26:45.200 --> 0:26:46.800 The real focus point on it. 0:26:47.160 --> 0:26:48.720 But if you go to day one and you look 0:26:48.760 --> 0:26:51.720 into archives of hip hop, it's always been black and 0:26:51.800 --> 0:26:52.919 Latino music. 0:26:54.280 --> 0:26:54.800 Was it like that? 0:26:55.800 --> 0:26:58.439 I'm sorry, Bill, but for you like in the house, 0:26:58.640 --> 0:27:00.760 like was it like was for me? 0:27:00.840 --> 0:27:01.919 Personally? I grew up. 0:27:02.720 --> 0:27:07.680 I grew up black, so like I'm a black Latino 0:27:07.800 --> 0:27:08.360 Now it's real. 0:27:08.840 --> 0:27:09.600 Now you gotta break that. 0:27:09.680 --> 0:27:10.080 That's real. 0:27:11.480 --> 0:27:13.800 Everybody in the world don't understand what that means. 0:27:14.960 --> 0:27:19.160 I grew up black, so like, uh where I. 0:27:19.320 --> 0:27:23.359 Where I grew up was ninety nine point nine black 0:27:24.240 --> 0:27:28.520 and Fat Joe had the hairs like the Beatles with 0:27:28.680 --> 0:27:33.280 green eyes and thought he was black because there wasn't 0:27:33.320 --> 0:27:34.720 no Latina. 0:27:34.800 --> 0:27:37.840 So all my girlfriends growing up was black, me black. 0:27:38.119 --> 0:27:40.000 If you look at the class pictures as me and 0:27:40.080 --> 0:27:43.480 thirty black people, like who they did? I think they 0:27:43.520 --> 0:27:48.240 said the killing of Malcolm X. Who killed Malcolm X? 0:27:48.320 --> 0:27:50.200 They showed his class pitcher at one point he was 0:27:50.240 --> 0:27:51.840 the only black guy who was nothing. 0:27:51.600 --> 0:27:53.679 But white people with the whole pitcher when. 0:27:53.520 --> 0:27:57.120 He was growing up, right, And that was fat Joe 0:27:57.359 --> 0:27:58.760 And that was that Joe. 0:27:59.520 --> 0:28:02.160 So you said, like the Beatles, you mean mop head 0:28:02.359 --> 0:28:03.680 or hippie Arabic. 0:28:03.840 --> 0:28:06.880 Yeah, like this, look I put up a picture maybe 0:28:06.920 --> 0:28:09.960 like two weeks ago. I found one with my hair 0:28:10.119 --> 0:28:17.080 like the Beatles, bro like the fucking Beatles like my mushroom. Okay, yeah, 0:28:16.560 --> 0:28:20.720 And so what happened was nobody told me, yo, you're 0:28:20.720 --> 0:28:21.280 not black. 0:28:22.600 --> 0:28:24.200 I don't know how to explain it to y'all. 0:28:24.720 --> 0:28:29.760 So even though my my father's Cuban and my mother's Porton. 0:28:30.600 --> 0:28:33.919 You know, my mother speaks English fluently everything, you know, 0:28:34.040 --> 0:28:35.960 she grew up on all the Gladys Night, all of 0:28:36.080 --> 0:28:37.920 weka Franklins, you know, my house. 0:28:37.960 --> 0:28:41.640 Every day we didn't place house, we played I Will survive. 0:28:42.680 --> 0:28:47.840 Oh oh, now, wuck out the door, like that's the 0:28:47.880 --> 0:28:51.560 ship we was playing. And and it wasn't until I 0:28:51.560 --> 0:28:55.160 went to high school and there was no social media. 0:28:55.600 --> 0:28:58.360 It wasn't even a rap video at that time. So 0:28:58.560 --> 0:28:59.400 when when when? 0:28:59.400 --> 0:29:02.360 When I went to high school, I met a friend 0:29:02.720 --> 0:29:06.600 of mine. His name was Charlie. He lived on the 0:29:06.640 --> 0:29:09.600 other side of the Brothers and when he took me 0:29:10.400 --> 0:29:14.120 to his hood, I never knew there was so much 0:29:14.200 --> 0:29:18.440 Puerto Ricans in the Bronx and it's like fifteen minutes away. 0:29:18.920 --> 0:29:20.920 So just like me, I met the one black guy. 0:29:21.200 --> 0:29:23.840 Yeah, then I met the one black guy who thought 0:29:24.200 --> 0:29:25.640 was Puerto Rican. 0:29:25.840 --> 0:29:28.560 In that neighborhood. 0:29:29.240 --> 0:29:34.320 Motherfucker blackness. Shit, he thought he was Puerto Rican. 0:29:34.320 --> 0:29:38.280 Right, So when I went there and I started going 0:29:38.280 --> 0:29:40.440 to Charlie's house, that's when his mother was like, yo. 0:29:40.320 --> 0:29:43.360 You're not black. And she starts sclaming Pack the ball 0:29:44.360 --> 0:29:45.720 gorm Ball. 0:29:47.600 --> 0:29:51.400 Group on Nis, all the South Side, you know, all 0:29:51.400 --> 0:29:54.680 the legends, and I'm like, oh shit. So that's when 0:29:54.680 --> 0:29:59.840 I got put onto Spanish music and more so Spanish pride, 0:30:00.000 --> 0:30:03.280 started finding myself and my culture. Every window I looked 0:30:03.280 --> 0:30:07.840 at Puerto Rican flags. I'm talking about fourteen flights. Every 0:30:07.840 --> 0:30:10.560 window had Puerto Rican flags and they was bumping that 0:30:10.760 --> 0:30:12.040 south Side ship out the window. 0:30:12.080 --> 0:30:12.600 They was like this. 0:30:12.920 --> 0:30:15.440 So that's when I started to learn about heck, the 0:30:16.080 --> 0:30:19.800 south southe music and that Latino heritage. And then from 0:30:19.800 --> 0:30:21.480 there I just wanted to learn more and more and 0:30:21.560 --> 0:30:25.480 more more and uh and that's where we. 0:30:25.360 --> 0:30:26.480 Are, yo. 0:30:26.840 --> 0:30:29.000 Not to fast forward, but just I gotta tell you, 0:30:29.040 --> 0:30:30.440 based off of that, that's why it was so good 0:30:30.440 --> 0:30:32.440 to see that episode of She's Got to Have It 0:30:32.480 --> 0:30:35.000 when y'all went back to Puerto Rico and really just 0:30:35.080 --> 0:30:38.200 broke down the connection of like the African diaspora to 0:30:38.440 --> 0:30:41.520 Puerto Rico and how we are all black and how 0:30:41.520 --> 0:30:44.240 they you know, it was just it was perfection. That 0:30:44.280 --> 0:30:45.160 must have felt real good. 0:30:51.680 --> 0:30:54.120 I was, all right, now, all. 0:30:58.360 --> 0:31:03.320 We got to skip you who you channeling with your voice? 0:31:03.360 --> 0:31:05.640 With Benning went like, that was my favorite character from 0:31:05.680 --> 0:31:06.040 that show. 0:31:06.480 --> 0:31:09.720 All right, thank god, but listen let me tell you. 0:31:09.800 --> 0:31:13.240 Uh Now, I meet a lot of people I met 0:31:13.040 --> 0:31:15.600 at bars with a bunch of actors that say, yo, man, 0:31:15.600 --> 0:31:18.040 you killed that Ship was like, you know. 0:31:18.000 --> 0:31:19.240 I went hard. 0:31:19.520 --> 0:31:23.640 I know y'all went hard, though, so hard, like it 0:31:23.680 --> 0:31:27.560 was just that character. I'm gonna tell you the truth, y'all. 0:31:28.800 --> 0:31:32.840 That was like the fourteenth member of Wu Tang. So 0:31:33.800 --> 0:31:38.120 what they said, they said, this guy's this guy got money, 0:31:38.520 --> 0:31:41.040 got his own strip club, but he's stuck in the past. 0:31:41.040 --> 0:31:45.600 He's still wear tims and baggy pants and hoodies and 0:31:45.800 --> 0:31:49.760 sniffs a little coat and and and then I was like, oh, Ship, 0:31:49.960 --> 0:31:52.800 that's like the long lost member of Wu Tang, and 0:31:53.160 --> 0:31:55.520 that's who I modeled when he went after I came 0:31:55.600 --> 0:31:58.440 up with that whole character like if you know he 0:31:58.560 --> 0:31:59.080 was a member of. 0:31:59.040 --> 0:32:01.920 Wu Tang, so look shovels winning within. I know who 0:32:01.920 --> 0:32:06.680 the fuck you know? And that's how I feel wh 0:32:06.840 --> 0:32:08.360 a lot of times when I get around the. 0:32:08.320 --> 0:32:11.000 Wu tang because they all got money, but they be 0:32:11.040 --> 0:32:14.440 like you, it's still nine three not four, yo. 0:32:15.480 --> 0:32:17.320 Straight up, Pelly Pelly Jack is yo. 0:32:18.600 --> 0:32:23.680 Kelly Pelly TEMs. I'm like, yo, Like these niggas ain't 0:32:23.720 --> 0:32:26.640 get the memo. Like it's like, you know what that's 0:32:27.440 --> 0:32:29.280 that's a winning winner's based off of. 0:32:30.840 --> 0:32:32.720 Do you find do you find it? 0:32:32.760 --> 0:32:39.080 Often, especially coming from where you came from and your 0:32:39.120 --> 0:32:42.880 need to evolve as a person and as an artist, 0:32:43.040 --> 0:32:47.640 like outgrowing your teen life and your early adult life 0:32:47.720 --> 0:32:50.560 into where you are now. Was it was it hard 0:32:50.600 --> 0:32:57.080 making that transition? Like was it hard? 0:32:57.760 --> 0:32:58.040 Huh? 0:32:58.120 --> 0:32:58.360 No? 0:32:58.360 --> 0:33:01.920 No, No, I still got still got your pink t 0:33:02.160 --> 0:33:04.360 I still got tim No, I got. 0:33:04.320 --> 0:33:08.920 T was early, he was he was early. 0:33:11.320 --> 0:33:17.680 And first of all, the first transition was I had 0:33:17.720 --> 0:33:19.520 to go, I'm writing a book of my life. Now 0:33:19.560 --> 0:33:21.480 when when it comes out, y'all read it and y'all 0:33:21.480 --> 0:33:26.000 get a bigger understanding. Right, But first of all, when 0:33:26.000 --> 0:33:28.440 I came in the game, I think the biggest transition 0:33:28.600 --> 0:33:32.480 I had to do was, uh, leave the streets behind. 0:33:32.640 --> 0:33:35.680 So when I came in the game, a lot of 0:33:35.680 --> 0:33:39.240 people were scared of me, hearing my reputation in the 0:33:39.280 --> 0:33:41.680 streets to They almost thought like I was going to 0:33:41.720 --> 0:33:44.760 be the New York Sugar Night, like extort my way 0:33:44.840 --> 0:33:47.600 or whatever. So I had to win people's trust and 0:33:47.720 --> 0:33:51.720 never feel like I'm some bully or I'm That was 0:33:51.760 --> 0:33:52.840 the first. 0:33:52.560 --> 0:33:56.160 Transition I had to make. So I actually was sitting 0:33:56.200 --> 0:33:59.400 back looking at everybody else active fool when I knew 0:33:59.440 --> 0:34:01.920 I could score everybody. 0:34:01.720 --> 0:34:03.760 But you know, try to be a nice guy so 0:34:03.840 --> 0:34:07.040 these people won't think I'm an animal, right, And then 0:34:07.280 --> 0:34:11.200 we still had that conception of keep. 0:34:11.040 --> 0:34:12.959 It real, keep it real, keep it real. 0:34:13.320 --> 0:34:15.520 So fad y'all always had to keep it real, keep 0:34:15.560 --> 0:34:17.680 it real, even though I had records like What's Love 0:34:18.080 --> 0:34:20.080 When you saw me, I was walking in with thirty 0:34:20.120 --> 0:34:25.239 street dudes, entourage, ice drilling, you know, so you was like, yo, 0:34:25.760 --> 0:34:29.120 we had that. I think that was the biggest transition 0:34:29.239 --> 0:34:33.840 I had to make, and I made it maybe in 0:34:33.920 --> 0:34:37.880 the last five years of my life, where I said, 0:34:37.880 --> 0:34:40.000 you know, fuck, keep it real. Keep it real is 0:34:40.280 --> 0:34:43.560 making sure my people are fed, my family's good, and 0:34:43.640 --> 0:34:47.040 let me try to elevate and grow and be this 0:34:47.120 --> 0:34:51.040 guy you see now, where damn, this guy's a nice guy, 0:34:51.280 --> 0:34:53.439 like we just never knew and at the time too, 0:34:53.600 --> 0:34:56.400 like I don't want like me and Me and Biggie 0:34:56.520 --> 0:34:59.319 was really tight. Me and Notorious vi Igy Biggie was 0:34:59.360 --> 0:35:04.480 really tight. I don't have just would be. 0:35:03.600 --> 0:35:05.400 Because at the time it wasn't cool. 0:35:05.880 --> 0:35:08.359 You felt like you was a sucker that asked somebody, yo, 0:35:08.480 --> 0:35:12.120 let's take a picture, right, So I missed out on 0:35:12.239 --> 0:35:16.120 all that, right. So, and at that time, even if 0:35:16.160 --> 0:35:19.919 you liked the each other, everybody was ice grilling each other, right, 0:35:20.520 --> 0:35:23.640 So I had to learn how to smile. I had 0:35:23.680 --> 0:35:25.960 to learn yeah, yeah, yeah, I had to learn how 0:35:25.960 --> 0:35:29.319 to smile and be like all right, yo, let it down, 0:35:29.400 --> 0:35:32.880 like grow, we're getting old the chill. And that was 0:35:32.920 --> 0:35:36.359 the biggest transition I had to make from keeping it real. 0:35:36.440 --> 0:35:37.359 And I lost a lot. 0:35:37.280 --> 0:35:40.600 Of money keeping it real because people really didn't want 0:35:40.640 --> 0:35:42.400 when I didn't understand this people he't want to be 0:35:42.400 --> 0:35:45.560 affiliated with gangsters. 0:35:44.719 --> 0:35:45.400 Like you know what I mean. 0:35:45.480 --> 0:35:48.280 And Joe let alone. We heard rumors he's a gangster. 0:35:48.320 --> 0:35:52.919 He's coming with thirty gangsters. And you know, we can't 0:35:52.920 --> 0:35:55.360 invite Joe. We really want Joe to come to the Ampons, 0:35:55.600 --> 0:35:58.280 but we know that guy's coming with dirty street guys 0:35:58.560 --> 0:35:59.839 and somebody might get wrong. 0:36:00.080 --> 0:36:03.480 Did the bathroom and the all white party? So don't invite. 0:36:03.239 --> 0:36:04.200 Joe a. 0:36:07.600 --> 0:36:07.759 Man. 0:36:07.840 --> 0:36:10.440 One question I always wanted to ask you, ahad were 0:36:10.480 --> 0:36:11.719 you about to ask about who shot you? 0:36:12.320 --> 0:36:14.320 Oh? 0:36:14.520 --> 0:36:18.239 Well we get there before you, man. So one question 0:36:18.239 --> 0:36:20.240 I always want to ask you, just as an MC Joe. 0:36:20.280 --> 0:36:24.719 So your trajectory, your progression from represent the jealous ones 0:36:25.080 --> 0:36:27.120 envy was like phenomenal. 0:36:27.760 --> 0:36:29.040 What did you do. 0:36:29.000 --> 0:36:32.120 In terms of stepping your tell you what happens that 0:36:32.200 --> 0:36:33.840 from that first album the second album. 0:36:33.840 --> 0:36:36.040 I'm gonna tell you what happens? Right? 0:36:36.400 --> 0:36:41.600 So I came uh, I came out at a time 0:36:42.480 --> 0:36:49.520 where Flow Joe went number one in the country. But 0:36:49.600 --> 0:36:53.080 if you really listen to Flow Joe, I'm going bust 0:36:53.080 --> 0:36:53.960 ship check it. 0:36:54.280 --> 0:36:58.120 Watch shout record, niggas, watch your back record. Shooting is 0:36:58.160 --> 0:36:59.000 getting hectic. 0:36:59.560 --> 0:37:03.080 I can't vibes like count Basie a sick right, So 0:37:03.560 --> 0:37:09.080 it's like it's like it was abcb E d FG. 0:37:09.440 --> 0:37:13.840 It really wasn't lyrical, it wasn't nothing. And so you 0:37:13.960 --> 0:37:16.920 loved the song. You love the fact that I was 0:37:17.360 --> 0:37:20.760 certified by the Digging in the Cratescrew. You love my history. 0:37:20.880 --> 0:37:22.960 When you when you, when you called up your cousins 0:37:22.960 --> 0:37:25.000 in New York. It was like, no, no, no, them 0:37:25.040 --> 0:37:27.479 boys is laying it down like they did the truth. 0:37:27.719 --> 0:37:31.719 So you was intrigued. You was intrigued. It's similar to 0:37:31.800 --> 0:37:33.480 like young Jez with BMF. 0:37:33.800 --> 0:37:36.279 When he came out, we was like, oh, he's part 0:37:36.320 --> 0:37:38.319 of it, so it was all that, But I really 0:37:38.440 --> 0:37:42.040 wasn't dope. So there's a guy who came out. His 0:37:42.120 --> 0:37:51.879 name was Nas And now remember sitting in the car. 0:37:51.960 --> 0:37:53.040 Show Biz came to get me. 0:37:53.080 --> 0:37:55.440 You have the beamer. He was like, yo, Joe, getting 0:37:55.440 --> 0:37:57.520 the car, come down. So I got in the car 0:37:57.719 --> 0:37:59.799 and when he pressed played and. 0:37:59.719 --> 0:38:02.759 That it was like sneak ouzy on Allan in my 0:38:02.880 --> 0:38:06.000 armiac and Lye in there and Common in the bay 0:38:06.239 --> 0:38:09.080 half man, half amazing. But when I'm I was like, 0:38:09.400 --> 0:38:12.400 it was the most incredible ship I ever heard in 0:38:12.440 --> 0:38:12.839 my life. 0:38:13.239 --> 0:38:16.160 But at the same time, it was almost like a 0:38:16.280 --> 0:38:20.600 morgue or a cemetery for MC's Like Fat Joe. 0:38:21.040 --> 0:38:25.200 It was like, if you do not step your ship up, 0:38:26.480 --> 0:38:27.439 it is over. 0:38:27.680 --> 0:38:29.640 It's low joke, wanted done. 0:38:30.480 --> 0:38:32.759 So I don't think MCS do that anymore, y'all. 0:38:36.280 --> 0:38:38.600 They don't. So he he pushed the game. 0:38:38.680 --> 0:38:41.319 He elevated the game to a point of where you 0:38:41.400 --> 0:38:44.560 couldn't get away with busst checking. So I had to 0:38:44.640 --> 0:38:46.920 study him. I studied them. I might have listened to 0:38:46.960 --> 0:38:50.320 that tape if I say twenty million times is not 0:38:50.480 --> 0:38:54.160 it's not enough, and that reasonable doubt came out and 0:38:54.200 --> 0:38:56.960 all that. So everybody was like, so when reasonable doubt 0:38:57.200 --> 0:39:00.400 came out, I can relate to that more because he 0:39:00.520 --> 0:39:03.719 was talking that drug dealer life and where I came from, 0:39:03.800 --> 0:39:07.040 and I said, oh, Ship, we could do that, like 0:39:07.200 --> 0:39:09.480 we could talk that joke. So then when I came 0:39:09.640 --> 0:39:15.560 hustling is the key to success, the key the sextety 0:39:15.800 --> 0:39:19.040 getting wet, the game sequel play, and then what's for 0:39:19.200 --> 0:39:25.279 the cass to cerebri blod Yeah, so they I was like, oh, Ship, 0:39:25.360 --> 0:39:28.000 I could be mean, like I could. I could really 0:39:28.040 --> 0:39:28.719 save my life. 0:39:35.760 --> 0:39:41.840 H So let me ask, all right, since you mentioned him, 0:39:42.120 --> 0:39:46.359 because I feel like one of your most underrated bangers. 0:39:46.800 --> 0:39:49.879 The incredible was No, it was John Blaze, Oh yeah, 0:39:49.960 --> 0:39:53.080 John Blaize, Yeah yeah, yeah, I. 0:39:53.040 --> 0:39:55.759 Mean when Cosmic Cosmic keV played that in Philly Man. 0:39:57.480 --> 0:39:59.759 He he rarely is one of those I'll play something 0:39:59.800 --> 0:40:01.759 three times in a row like the way that fum 0:40:02.160 --> 0:40:04.920 Flex does, like I gotta play it over. But the 0:40:05.120 --> 0:40:08.960 day that John Blaze came out with you and NAS 0:40:09.560 --> 0:40:12.360 was like that that was that was a moment. 0:40:12.640 --> 0:40:14.720 So I mean, how did you feel at that moment? 0:40:14.760 --> 0:40:19.680 When when that when that was actually even before I 0:40:19.719 --> 0:40:23.880 asked that, let me let me go back, because I 0:40:23.880 --> 0:40:26.960 feel like your your moment of really stepping it up 0:40:27.000 --> 0:40:30.200 for me was who shot you? 0:40:30.719 --> 0:40:32.080 I'm sorry? I shot you? 0:40:32.400 --> 0:40:34.560 I shot you? I shot you? 0:40:35.239 --> 0:40:38.240 Did that? How did that even come to be? Because 0:40:38.320 --> 0:40:40.440 for me, like the way you ended that, lind. 0:40:40.680 --> 0:40:43.360 Think you're talking to you, we cried, he gods and 0:40:43.440 --> 0:40:48.719 so like that, I felt like that was your Domino 0:40:50.320 --> 0:40:54.200 Slam moment. Domino, So what what? 0:40:54.440 --> 0:40:56.919 How did how did that story? How did that come 0:40:57.000 --> 0:40:57.440 to be? 0:41:00.360 --> 0:41:03.080 First of all, l who j is my idol And 0:41:04.239 --> 0:41:07.960 I've never back down. I've never backed down for competition. 0:41:08.120 --> 0:41:10.839 I've never backed down to this day. And you could 0:41:10.880 --> 0:41:12.680 be the greatest rap on the earth and I'm gonna 0:41:12.680 --> 0:41:14.560 go to the toe with them, never been scared of 0:41:14.560 --> 0:41:19.160 it actually elevates me. Like you ever see like Golden 0:41:19.200 --> 0:41:20.919 State when they were the best team in the world, 0:41:20.960 --> 0:41:23.240 They'll play the whackers team and then they'll play whack 0:41:23.360 --> 0:41:23.719 like them. 0:41:24.320 --> 0:41:25.520 But when they when there's. 0:41:25.320 --> 0:41:30.839 A big game, it brings me up. If I get 0:41:30.840 --> 0:41:33.880 on song with jay Z or now's whoever I'm going like, 0:41:33.960 --> 0:41:37.360 I'm going on on another level. I couldn't wait for 0:41:37.400 --> 0:41:40.319 this moment. So I'm working on my second album. The 0:41:40.400 --> 0:41:44.920 track masters come in the studio we had in New 0:41:45.040 --> 0:41:48.080 York Battery Studio something and they come in and they 0:41:48.120 --> 0:41:49.680 were like, yo, Joe. 0:41:52.040 --> 0:41:54.240 They was like, but you work on said my album. 0:41:54.280 --> 0:41:57.120 I played them a couple of joints off my albums, 0:41:57.200 --> 0:42:00.480 like Yo, we need to ask love. That's when I 0:42:00.520 --> 0:42:03.200 came in with that who the fuck you think you 0:42:03.360 --> 0:42:06.360 talking to? I paid dues, I splayed Cruise. 0:42:06.360 --> 0:42:09.840 Look at Joey Krat motherfuckers. He like the dudes running 0:42:09.920 --> 0:42:11.600 this rocket for New York. 0:42:11.680 --> 0:42:19.600 Come on Tingos starting Revvo bring years for Nah. 0:42:19.760 --> 0:42:20.800 That was my moment. 0:42:21.239 --> 0:42:21.840 Was it all that? 0:42:22.040 --> 0:42:23.560 Like? Were you all next level? 0:42:23.680 --> 0:42:25.480 Were you all doing it at the same time or 0:42:25.560 --> 0:42:27.880 was it just piecemeal? Like was Foxy? 0:42:27.920 --> 0:42:32.880 There was John John Blaize, No, no, no, John Blaze. 0:42:32.920 --> 0:42:37.000 I did with everybody, but but that No, he just 0:42:37.040 --> 0:42:39.759 gave me the beat and I just went for mine. 0:42:40.560 --> 0:42:45.120 You know, because that's that's the risky thing about doing 0:42:45.160 --> 0:42:50.400 posse cuts, because I know oftentimes and I watched this 0:42:50.440 --> 0:42:55.000 a lot with Tariq whenever people ask him, you know, 0:42:55.080 --> 0:42:59.840 to do stuff or whatever. Recently, uh Tarik's on a 0:43:00.040 --> 0:43:05.160 point with Eminem, and I mean on Eminem's records, like 0:43:05.160 --> 0:43:07.960 a posse cut and Threeque was kind of salty because 0:43:08.520 --> 0:43:14.960 he had. 0:43:11.840 --> 0:43:12.640 His joint first. 0:43:12.719 --> 0:43:14.600 It was like, man, I don't want to be the 0:43:14.600 --> 0:43:18.120 first guy to submit the verse because then they'll you know, 0:43:18.200 --> 0:43:19.640 no one wants to be the first guy. So I 0:43:19.640 --> 0:43:23.120 always wanted to know how are posse cuts organized? Like 0:43:23.120 --> 0:43:24.480 do you hear everyone else's ship? 0:43:24.680 --> 0:43:30.080 Or I don't do that. I'm not going I'm not 0:43:30.120 --> 0:43:35.239 gonna lie to you quest man, fat Joe's so underrated? 0:43:35.920 --> 0:43:37.839 Is I don't know how to explain it to you. Man, 0:43:38.760 --> 0:43:42.640 I don't listen to nobody's ship. I don't listen to 0:43:42.719 --> 0:43:44.799 nobody's ship. I go in there and I tell them 0:43:44.840 --> 0:43:47.719 play the music, and when they play the music, I 0:43:47.800 --> 0:43:50.719 write the ship right and they face with my own 0:43:50.800 --> 0:43:54.000 flow and I go in there, Yo, what's the hook? Ooh, 0:43:54.120 --> 0:43:56.160 I need to beat. I need to hook the hook? 0:43:56.280 --> 0:43:56.879 Is this ice? 0:43:56.960 --> 0:44:00.400 And no one where we're going with it and I'm 0:44:00.400 --> 0:44:03.480 gonna just go crazy. I never changed my verse. 0:44:04.080 --> 0:44:04.760 I never. 0:44:06.320 --> 0:44:08.880 Like, I don't know, you know, I'm just not on 0:44:08.960 --> 0:44:11.799 it like that. I just you know me, I fight 0:44:11.880 --> 0:44:15.680 for my life every time. So every time I write, 0:44:15.800 --> 0:44:18.000 I write like this the last song I might ever 0:44:18.080 --> 0:44:19.920 do in my life, Like I might die to day. 0:44:20.600 --> 0:44:23.680 And that's just my strategy. That's always been my strategy. 0:44:23.719 --> 0:44:27.680 So that means I give it two thousand every time 0:44:27.719 --> 0:44:30.279 I rap. So I'm never worried like that. 0:44:30.320 --> 0:44:32.880 But you gotta treat every verse. 0:44:34.520 --> 0:44:36.160 I was saying, you gotta treat every verse like it's 0:44:36.160 --> 0:44:38.360 the first time somebody might be hearing you. You know 0:44:38.360 --> 0:44:40.320 what I'm saying that. That's kind of been my lesson. 0:44:40.360 --> 0:44:42.799 This is moving along every time. 0:44:46.120 --> 0:44:49.280 And you also got to know that anytime a young 0:44:49.520 --> 0:44:52.520 artist asks you to get on it, you know, they 0:44:52.520 --> 0:44:54.880 want to give you a can of what pass. So 0:44:55.000 --> 0:44:59.760 you really gotta pay attention and spit that ship because 0:44:59.760 --> 0:44:59.960 you know. 0:45:00.000 --> 0:45:00.719 So that's how it is. 0:45:00.760 --> 0:45:03.719 It's just like boxing, motherfucker, take a box in the 0:45:03.760 --> 0:45:07.520 great motherfucker. Mike Tyson was killing niggas in twelve seconds, 0:45:07.680 --> 0:45:10.279 but when he was already thirty some years old looking 0:45:10.280 --> 0:45:13.719 for that check. They was using him to beat him 0:45:13.800 --> 0:45:17.000 up and look like there's somebody ill, you know, And 0:45:17.040 --> 0:45:19.120 that's pretty much what a young dude to do. If 0:45:19.160 --> 0:45:21.960 a hot young dude says, crack, let's get on the record. 0:45:21.960 --> 0:45:25.080 Like I did two songs with the Griselda Boys, I 0:45:25.120 --> 0:45:25.800 went crazy. 0:45:26.680 --> 0:45:28.239 I'm not gonna let them rip me down. 0:45:28.280 --> 0:45:31.160 I'm just not like I'm a you know, I'm a 0:45:31.280 --> 0:45:34.520 go for mine crazy. I mean, the only person I 0:45:34.640 --> 0:45:36.520 let my guard down with. And she don't like me 0:45:36.560 --> 0:45:39.520 to say this is remedy me. She's the only person 0:45:39.640 --> 0:45:43.320 on her I don't feel competition with. She's the only 0:45:43.440 --> 0:45:46.000 person I don't care if she beats me, you know, 0:45:46.080 --> 0:45:47.440 I rap rap and let her. 0:45:47.480 --> 0:45:49.520 I want her to always shine no matter what. 0:45:50.239 --> 0:45:52.040 You know that I about to say, why Remy, Why 0:45:52.080 --> 0:45:53.680 is it? What is it about Remy? Because you didn't 0:45:53.719 --> 0:45:57.120 rhyme with other brothers, other sisters book Now. 0:45:58.840 --> 0:46:01.440 She's my sister for like, you know what I mean, 0:46:01.520 --> 0:46:04.200 So I want her to I want her to sound 0:46:04.239 --> 0:46:07.400 great anyway. I'm not talking about I'm taking it easy 0:46:07.440 --> 0:46:10.000 on Remy. I'm not saying I'm spitting my best ship. 0:46:10.760 --> 0:46:13.160 But I don't get mad if Remy beats me on 0:46:13.280 --> 0:46:17.239 the She's We did that remix with jay Z. She 0:46:17.360 --> 0:46:23.960 went eight ship bro Like god, Now I was happy, Jojo. 0:46:24.160 --> 0:46:26.520 Can you just tell us the first time you heard Remy? Like, 0:46:26.560 --> 0:46:29.320 what was it? When did she stop you in your tracks? 0:46:29.640 --> 0:46:35.120 Unreal? Uh? Pun said, uh, y'all want you to meet. 0:46:35.040 --> 0:46:39.040 Somebody, and and he brought her to the studio. 0:46:39.320 --> 0:46:40.600 She came in. I never. 0:46:42.600 --> 0:46:48.360 She was so skinny. She had the leather vest and 0:46:48.560 --> 0:46:51.239 uh and we played the beat and she rapped for 0:46:51.320 --> 0:46:54.680 like ten minutes straight the air bubbos in your sneakers 0:46:54.760 --> 0:46:59.239 in trouble. I'm Rye's my brother. And I was so amazed, 0:46:59.480 --> 0:47:02.360 but I was jealous and I was mad because I 0:47:02.440 --> 0:47:07.280 was like, damn, Pun discovered that she gonna be Pun artist, 0:47:07.719 --> 0:47:09.480 like I wish she was my artist. 0:47:10.400 --> 0:47:11.000 I was mad. 0:47:11.840 --> 0:47:14.040 I still quiet Punk and see that I was mad. 0:47:14.400 --> 0:47:16.520 She tells me the story. She says, Yo, bro, you 0:47:16.640 --> 0:47:18.360 ice grilled me for like ten minutes. 0:47:18.880 --> 0:47:19.799 I was really mad. 0:47:19.840 --> 0:47:22.640 I was in there like, yo, shit, I wish i'd 0:47:22.680 --> 0:47:25.319 discovered that. Why she ain't come up to me. And 0:47:25.360 --> 0:47:29.360 then when we walked out the studio, Pun hugs me 0:47:29.440 --> 0:47:30.919 and says, I know you ain't know where she's gonna 0:47:30.920 --> 0:47:36.040 be your artist. Don't worry, she's your artist. 0:47:33.920 --> 0:47:37.200 How did you get pun? 0:47:40.680 --> 0:47:44.000 I went to a bodega writ in my projects that 0:47:44.080 --> 0:47:46.799 I always used to go to, and uh, they was 0:47:46.880 --> 0:47:48.560 just out there. It was him and like three other 0:47:48.600 --> 0:47:52.680 guys freestyling. So I came out with a diet pepsi. 0:47:52.760 --> 0:47:55.759 I had my diet pepsi and I looked at him 0:47:56.080 --> 0:47:59.160 and I and I was like, yo, what is this 0:47:59.320 --> 0:48:03.880 fatteris bandished? Dude gonna spit about? Like I just I was, 0:48:05.200 --> 0:48:11.000 what the fuck is this nigga gonna talk about? And 0:48:11.000 --> 0:48:14.279 and so I walked up and he said, chill, y'all, chill, chill, chill. 0:48:14.360 --> 0:48:18.120 He was obviously the leader. And so he starts rapping 0:48:19.239 --> 0:48:27.160 and he's like that that stop, Like allright, like you 0:48:27.200 --> 0:48:31.080 stopped the car said pull the moon out the sky 0:48:32.280 --> 0:48:34.400 and blow the sun away. 0:48:35.320 --> 0:48:37.680 Me and my niggas playing hard call liver, till up 0:48:37.719 --> 0:48:39.680 the little brick and God throw up my frog throw. 0:48:39.800 --> 0:48:40.680 But I gotta do it. 0:48:40.719 --> 0:48:41.480 So I was. 0:48:41.440 --> 0:48:51.120 Like I could not take it. I ran to the 0:48:51.160 --> 0:48:55.160 passenger side. I had a white less LS four hundred 0:48:55.200 --> 0:48:55.920 and I opened. 0:48:55.719 --> 0:49:04.120 The door and said please get inside. Please we locked 0:49:04.160 --> 0:49:07.120 the door and and that that was. 0:49:07.080 --> 0:49:10.799 Just it was just, it was just beautiful because I'm 0:49:11.080 --> 0:49:14.640 the youngest brother. I'm the youngest kid in my family, 0:49:15.200 --> 0:49:22.319 but I never had a little brother, and Pond never 0:49:22.480 --> 0:49:26.440 had a big brother. I realized Puma's like, Yo, you're 0:49:26.440 --> 0:49:28.760 gonna be my big brother. You're gonna be my big brother. 0:49:29.640 --> 0:49:36.000 I'm gonna be brother, and you know, you gotta have 0:49:36.120 --> 0:49:36.480 my back. 0:49:36.520 --> 0:49:38.160 And I said, I got your back. And they started 0:49:38.160 --> 0:49:42.160 telling me about his life were real personal deep shit. 0:49:42.680 --> 0:49:45.080 You know, Plumer's homeless growing up. You know, nobody gave 0:49:45.120 --> 0:49:47.879 a fuck about him. And told me all that just 0:49:47.880 --> 0:49:51.680 just ripped it up. And me coming from the streets 0:49:51.760 --> 0:49:54.400 before I even wrapped the rap ship is even faker. 0:49:55.160 --> 0:49:59.640 But coming from the streets, uh where I see men 0:49:59.719 --> 0:50:02.720 that you know, killers and murderers and all types of people. 0:50:03.120 --> 0:50:06.520 I had never met a person who could just open 0:50:06.640 --> 0:50:09.680 up himself and his pain. First time I met him 0:50:09.680 --> 0:50:12.239 and there and I was just like, now I love 0:50:12.320 --> 0:50:12.800 this dude. 0:50:12.800 --> 0:50:12.960 Man. 0:50:12.960 --> 0:50:16.759 I fucked with him on another level and and and 0:50:16.840 --> 0:50:17.719 that's how I met Bun. 0:50:18.640 --> 0:50:18.960 Wow. 0:50:19.640 --> 0:50:19.960 You know. 0:50:21.440 --> 0:50:27.399 Bill h unpaid Bill here and I are a part 0:50:27.440 --> 0:50:35.719 of the team. Ah that uh worked on Hamilton, and 0:50:35.800 --> 0:50:41.600 I know that. You know, anytime Lynn Manuel does an 0:50:41.640 --> 0:50:47.120 interview about who is lyrical inspiration was to put Hamilton together, 0:50:48.640 --> 0:50:54.920 he won't hesitate to say, like how important Big Pun's 0:50:55.000 --> 0:50:59.160 lyrical style was just on his life and just you know, 0:50:59.640 --> 0:51:02.960 culture rely and all those things like oh for sure, 0:51:03.920 --> 0:51:07.799 you know, I almost wonder, like what Hamilton would just 0:51:07.800 --> 0:51:09.879 be a regular Broadway show if it was. 0:51:10.239 --> 0:51:12.640 To this day, to this day. 0:51:12.719 --> 0:51:14.920 Dead in the middle of Little Italy but Little is 0:51:14.920 --> 0:51:18.880 one of his favorite Yeah, yeah, because internal rhyme was 0:51:18.920 --> 0:51:21.319 always is always his thing and everything, and so that 0:51:21.440 --> 0:51:23.239 always we used to listen to that a lot. 0:51:23.280 --> 0:51:26.040 That record was on auto auto spin at our house. 0:51:26.600 --> 0:51:29.160 That that was that was his hero, like he will 0:51:29.400 --> 0:51:30.560 he I mean, you know Big. 0:51:30.440 --> 0:51:33.400 Pun Little did we know that we ridle to Middleman 0:51:33.440 --> 0:51:34.400 who didn't do Italy? 0:51:35.000 --> 0:51:36.280 Yeah? 0:51:36.600 --> 0:51:40.920 Yeah, man, you know, uh, you know, Dead in the 0:51:40.920 --> 0:51:44.000 middle of Little literally almost wasn't Dead in the middle 0:51:44.000 --> 0:51:48.279 of a Little literally, so like Pun was so advanced 0:51:48.480 --> 0:51:51.640 that it was a joke to him, Dead in the 0:51:51.640 --> 0:51:54.839 middle of Little Italy was actually a joke, he would say, 0:51:54.880 --> 0:51:56.800 like he would have he put it on the album 0:51:56.840 --> 0:51:58.600 to pack in the back in the back of the ACA. 0:52:00.080 --> 0:52:06.200 Ask you about what, because to me, that is my favorite. 0:52:06.560 --> 0:52:09.560 That is one of my favorite skits on a hip 0:52:09.560 --> 0:52:13.440 hop record, only because I know I know that he 0:52:13.560 --> 0:52:16.960 was reenacting the Scarface scene where he lets the one 0:52:16.960 --> 0:52:19.719 guy go and the one guy's like, thanks, fun, I 0:52:19.719 --> 0:52:23.239 appreciate it, and he runs off like, but literally, what 0:52:23.840 --> 0:52:26.239 was what was the deal with packing the back in 0:52:26.280 --> 0:52:26.959 the back of the act? 0:52:29.000 --> 0:52:32.879 For one, now that we're floating in this era, we 0:52:32.880 --> 0:52:34.120 were unconscious. 0:52:34.239 --> 0:52:38.560 We was like, we was numb. We were crazy, man, 0:52:38.760 --> 0:52:41.040 we was just fucking crazy. I don't know how to 0:52:41.080 --> 0:52:41.640 explain it. 0:52:41.600 --> 0:52:44.799 To you and stuff that you you think about regular people. 0:52:44.840 --> 0:52:49.520 I thought, you know, when I grew up, Uh, I 0:52:49.560 --> 0:52:54.799 grew up seeing death. Uh maybe I had forty guys 0:52:54.880 --> 0:52:57.440 I grew up with. Thirty eight of them got killed 0:52:58.000 --> 0:53:01.319 real shit before they toWin years old twenty one. So 0:53:02.480 --> 0:53:05.520 and when I meet regular people who didn't have friends 0:53:05.600 --> 0:53:10.080 dying at sixteen, So I'm like, then I start saying, like, damn, 0:53:10.400 --> 0:53:12.799 some of the ship we done say the music like 0:53:13.239 --> 0:53:16.080 motherfucker's like with a normal life, It's like, yo, what 0:53:16.120 --> 0:53:19.000 the fuck is wrong with them? Because he's saying packing 0:53:19.000 --> 0:53:20.399 the back in the back of the act. He saw 0:53:20.400 --> 0:53:22.759 about Machine guy packing the back in the back of 0:53:22.760 --> 0:53:25.080 the act, pack of the back, and uh so. 0:53:25.120 --> 0:53:26.759 That was the joke. And then in the middle of 0:53:26.800 --> 0:53:29.200 it literally was the other joke. Then in the middle 0:53:29.200 --> 0:53:30.440 of it literally. 0:53:30.360 --> 0:53:33.000 So when we did the song together, I said, Yo, 0:53:33.080 --> 0:53:36.240 you gotta put that debdit. I swear to God on everything, 0:53:36.680 --> 0:53:38.279 you got to put that dead in the middle. He 0:53:38.360 --> 0:53:40.200 was like, Yo, that ship whack nigga, that ship is 0:53:40.239 --> 0:53:43.359 a joke. That shit, I said, Pun, that ship will 0:53:43.440 --> 0:53:45.920 blow their minds off. He was like, no, I'm telling you, 0:53:46.239 --> 0:53:49.640 that shit regular that ship, but that's a joke. And 0:53:49.680 --> 0:53:53.359 they and I gassed him to put in that motherfucker 0:53:53.520 --> 0:53:57.680 and man, you know it was He was, uh, you 0:53:57.719 --> 0:54:04.120 know this guys born. This guy's born. Jay Z was born, 0:54:05.239 --> 0:54:10.640 Nas was born, Eminem was born, Big Pun was born. Uh, 0:54:12.840 --> 0:54:14.799 I'm trying to think of others. I guess rock Kim 0:54:14.960 --> 0:54:18.200 was born. There is no other job description for these 0:54:18.239 --> 0:54:22.040 people that they were born to do that, Like, there's 0:54:22.080 --> 0:54:25.239 just no that is the DNA their birth was on 0:54:25.280 --> 0:54:29.200 that pum wore fall asleep, wake up and be like, 0:54:29.200 --> 0:54:31.120 give me the book twin, give me the book. That's 0:54:31.120 --> 0:54:34.360 crazy because I got paper and pen right here, he said. 0:54:34.760 --> 0:54:37.359 He goes, give me the book, Give me the book, Twin. 0:54:37.440 --> 0:54:39.640 Give me the book, Twin, and I give him the book. 0:54:39.680 --> 0:54:42.920 He write a whole sword down. He thought about it 0:54:42.960 --> 0:54:47.399 in his dreams and write the whole song down. It's crazy, man, 0:54:47.440 --> 0:54:50.200 it was. The guy was a genius. It's just nowhere 0:54:50.239 --> 0:54:50.640 around it. 0:54:51.239 --> 0:54:53.520 And his breath control was kind of like crazy. I 0:54:53.520 --> 0:54:55.560 don't understand how he did all that and then still 0:54:56.440 --> 0:54:57.240 the breath control. 0:55:00.440 --> 0:55:03.040 You know, he would do it on stage. You know. 0:55:03.160 --> 0:55:07.040 Pun was different, like you know, you know how you 0:55:07.080 --> 0:55:10.800 see boxes. It's crazy. I keep referring back to boxing, 0:55:10.840 --> 0:55:12.480 but you know how you see boxes. 0:55:12.520 --> 0:55:15.279 It's so nice that nobody wants to fight them, so 0:55:15.400 --> 0:55:17.919 they can't really get a real fighters. You know, you'll 0:55:17.960 --> 0:55:21.640 get knocked out. Pun would invite every rapper to the 0:55:21.680 --> 0:55:23.440 studio to do a song with him, and no one 0:55:23.480 --> 0:55:24.239 would show up. 0:55:26.320 --> 0:55:26.560 Wow. 0:55:27.080 --> 0:55:29.680 So we would drive around, me and Pun and he 0:55:29.719 --> 0:55:33.200 would see like a cipher up and becoming rappers battling 0:55:33.239 --> 0:55:36.880 each other, and he would get out the car double 0:55:36.960 --> 0:55:42.200 Platinum rich and battle the whole cipher like wow. You 0:55:42.239 --> 0:55:44.600 know nobody want to smoke with pun. I don't know 0:55:44.640 --> 0:55:46.960 how to explain it to you. In no way, shape 0:55:47.040 --> 0:55:49.839 or form. Did anybody wants smoke with this guy? They 0:55:49.840 --> 0:55:52.880 could say whatever, forget them, whatever you want, but nobody. 0:55:52.920 --> 0:55:56.000 When he was alive, people were going, don't. 0:55:55.800 --> 0:55:57.920 Let him off, don't let him on. 0:56:00.840 --> 0:56:03.839 For mass of Flex used to have these ciphers and 0:56:03.960 --> 0:56:05.799 every week you would bring rappers up there. 0:56:06.280 --> 0:56:08.520 So one week it's Nori up. 0:56:08.440 --> 0:56:15.480 There, Cameron, Uh Nori, Cameron, I think DMX is somebody 0:56:15.480 --> 0:56:19.879 else right, and Puny hears it and starts racing down 0:56:19.920 --> 0:56:23.680 from the Bronx to Hot ninety seven. So pun is 0:56:23.760 --> 0:56:28.319 calling this the hotline punk caused Flex picks up. He's like, yo, yo, yo, yo, 0:56:28.320 --> 0:56:29.759 you got let me up there. You gotta let me 0:56:29.880 --> 0:56:33.720 up there. You gotta let me up there. So Flex said, 0:56:34.000 --> 0:56:36.280 here's a true story. Flex said he looked at everybody 0:56:36.400 --> 0:56:39.399 up there and was like, yo, Pun is on his way. 0:56:39.920 --> 0:56:44.000 He said, They was like no, like no, like don't 0:56:44.040 --> 0:56:48.640 let don't let him on this motherfucker please, So that 0:56:49.239 --> 0:56:51.799 pun Of rids Hot ninety seven. He's calling Flex a 0:56:51.840 --> 0:56:54.680 million times. Flex, don't pick up the phone. They free 0:56:54.760 --> 0:56:58.480 styling up there. So Punk calls me, yo, twin this 0:56:58.640 --> 0:57:02.000 nigga Flex, moe me up there, this, this that. So 0:57:02.080 --> 0:57:05.440 then later on I got with uh with with with 0:57:05.440 --> 0:57:07.400 with with Flex and I asked him the truth. 0:57:07.840 --> 0:57:09.200 I was like, Yo, Flex, why are you didn't let 0:57:09.239 --> 0:57:12.240 one up there? He said, Yo. They were scared to death. 0:57:12.800 --> 0:57:14.920 They didn't want to let pun up there on that cipher. 0:57:14.920 --> 0:57:16.320 They want him up there and. 0:57:16.320 --> 0:57:18.840 Were talking about big guys. Came on d M X 0:57:19.000 --> 0:57:22.600 Snorri after prime. They was like, he, no, don't let 0:57:22.600 --> 0:57:23.440 that boy up if. 0:57:23.680 --> 0:57:29.480 You're gonna come up in it. But it is. 0:57:30.080 --> 0:57:35.160 I gotta go love y'all man A part two. Whatever 0:57:35.240 --> 0:57:40.040 you want, man, I'm here yo two coming. 0:57:52.200 --> 0:57:54.840 What's Love Supreme is a production of iHeart Radio. 0:58:00.680 --> 0:58:03.680 H For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, this is the 0:58:03.720 --> 0:58:07.200 iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to 0:58:07.200 --> 0:58:08.160 your favorite chills