WEBVTT - Run The Jewels 0:00:08.200 --> 0:00:15.400 Pushkin. Run the Jewel stormed into hip hop with a 0:00:15.560 --> 0:00:18.720 big sound in twenty fourteen, and over the last six 0:00:18.800 --> 0:00:22.640 years they've only turned the energy up. Killer Mike and 0:00:22.760 --> 0:00:25.319 LP weren't strangers to anyone following hip hop over the 0:00:25.360 --> 0:00:28.560 last couple of decades. Each made waves in their individual 0:00:28.600 --> 0:00:32.320 careers prior to forming the group, But there's something irresistible 0:00:32.320 --> 0:00:34.159 about these two guys from different ends of the hip 0:00:34.200 --> 0:00:38.000 hop spectrum coming together. Killer Mike's a brash, politically charged 0:00:38.080 --> 0:00:40.960 rapper from Atlanta with a tight connection to Outcast and 0:00:41.000 --> 0:00:43.919 the Dungeon family, and LPs, a white New York MC 0:00:44.080 --> 0:00:47.400 and producer known mostly from the underground. Together they have 0:00:47.400 --> 0:00:50.600 a combustible energy as they rap about revolution, weed or 0:00:50.760 --> 0:00:54.200 just boasting about themselves. They've also waded into the world 0:00:54.200 --> 0:00:56.800 of politics in very meaningful ways. Killer Mike was a 0:00:56.840 --> 0:00:59.640 surrogate for Bernie Sanders this last election, and a turn 0:00:59.720 --> 0:01:02.080 burn intro them at Coachella just a few years ago. 0:01:02.640 --> 0:01:04.560 What I'm trying to say is this is a group 0:01:04.640 --> 0:01:07.759 that's hard to put in a box. Run the Jewels 0:01:07.760 --> 0:01:10.520 fourth album comes out soon. They spent some time recording 0:01:10.560 --> 0:01:12.240 it at Shango Law and during a break For one 0:01:12.280 --> 0:01:18.160 of those sessions, they caught up with Rick Rubin. This 0:01:18.280 --> 0:01:21.119 is broken record liner notes for the Digital Age. I'm 0:01:21.200 --> 0:01:28.640 justin Richmond. Here's one of the jewels. In conversation with 0:01:28.720 --> 0:01:31.200 Rick Rubin. Killer Mike turns up a little bit late, 0:01:31.240 --> 0:01:33.760 so LP and Rick got to talk in first because 0:01:33.880 --> 0:01:38.240 LP was freshly stoned. The conversation starts in an unexpected place, 0:01:38.640 --> 0:01:42.480 what LP would do during the apocalypse. So, just a 0:01:42.560 --> 0:01:49.160 moment ago, you were theorizing on if there was an apocalypse? Yeah, yeah, 0:01:49.200 --> 0:01:51.320 I was. I always I always like worry about like 0:01:51.480 --> 0:01:55.040 my post apocalyptic career, you know, like what do I 0:01:55.080 --> 0:01:57.920 have to offer a post apocalyptic society. I don't know 0:01:58.000 --> 0:02:01.800 if it's much. It's certainly not like a brute straight like, uh, 0:02:02.000 --> 0:02:04.040 you know, maybe I could, you know, and I don't, 0:02:04.040 --> 0:02:06.280 you know, I'd probably be just some sort of like 0:02:06.360 --> 0:02:10.519 subjugated gesture, you know, like Princess Leia chained the jab 0:02:10.520 --> 0:02:13.800 by the hut, you know, like, uh, but maybe hopefully 0:02:13.840 --> 0:02:18.720 without a bikini on. And uh. And I'm always, yeah, 0:02:18.880 --> 0:02:20.880 just entertaining for food, you know what I mean, Like 0:02:20.919 --> 0:02:24.480 that's just entertaining for your life. And then I'm like, well, 0:02:24.520 --> 0:02:28.359 but then again. But I'm I'm not really a musician, 0:02:28.520 --> 0:02:32.920 you know, like I I make music, but like you know, 0:02:33.000 --> 0:02:35.640 I didn't follow through with the piano lessons. I didn't 0:02:35.680 --> 0:02:38.840 follow through with the trumpet lessons and the saxophone lessons, 0:02:39.360 --> 0:02:41.120 all of that shit. I tried it, you know. My 0:02:41.160 --> 0:02:43.760 father was a jazz piano player. He was he was, 0:02:43.880 --> 0:02:47.600 that was what he did. And I tried, but I 0:02:47.639 --> 0:02:49.480 was like, I remember standing in front of the mirror 0:02:49.520 --> 0:02:51.760 with a saxophone and trying to play along to like 0:02:51.880 --> 0:02:54.960 run DMC jams, and I was just like I looked 0:02:54.960 --> 0:02:57.720 at myself one day and I was just like, I 0:02:57.760 --> 0:02:59.480 can't do this. I have to put this down like 0:02:59.520 --> 0:03:02.760 I could, Like this is ridiculous. I look stupid and 0:03:02.800 --> 0:03:05.120 I just can't feel cool doing this, Like I need 0:03:05.160 --> 0:03:06.760 to learn how to make that. I need to learn 0:03:06.760 --> 0:03:09.320 how to make this music, like I can't, like I'm 0:03:09.320 --> 0:03:10.880 not going to make it with a saxophone. You know, 0:03:10.880 --> 0:03:15.800 are your first memories of music your dad playing, for sure? 0:03:16.880 --> 0:03:19.960 So would he play in the house all the time? Yeah? 0:03:20.000 --> 0:03:23.880 We had, you know, they lived in We lived in 0:03:23.919 --> 0:03:27.560 the West Village until I was until my parents split up, 0:03:27.720 --> 0:03:30.920 So I was there until about six and it was 0:03:30.960 --> 0:03:34.080 in the seventies and it was parties, and you know, 0:03:34.200 --> 0:03:37.840 like seventies parents didn't give a shit. They didn't give 0:03:37.880 --> 0:03:40.080 a fuck, and I kind of wish it was like 0:03:40.200 --> 0:03:43.720 that again. But like they would have crazy parties, you know, 0:03:44.080 --> 0:03:48.440 probably fucking doing cocaine and definitely drinking and smoking weed 0:03:48.480 --> 0:03:53.760 and crazy, you know, just rambunctious parties and people like 0:03:53.880 --> 0:03:56.520 Robert Crumb. We would show up to the to the 0:03:56.560 --> 0:03:58.240 parties and shit. And I was just a little kid, 0:03:58.240 --> 0:04:00.640 and my father had a piano and a little drum set, 0:04:01.240 --> 0:04:05.000 grand piano and a drum set and a huge record collection, 0:04:05.240 --> 0:04:06.840 and he would he would have me sit down and 0:04:06.880 --> 0:04:10.560 play drums with him. Wally Wally, he played piano for 0:04:10.600 --> 0:04:14.000 the guests. He's a he's a he's a born entertainer. 0:04:14.120 --> 0:04:18.200 You know. It was and and and and so it 0:04:18.279 --> 0:04:21.359 was that which was really interesting because I started to 0:04:21.400 --> 0:04:24.640 identify it as a phenomenon later where I was like, oh, 0:04:24.720 --> 0:04:29.240 I get it. Like from a very early age, I 0:04:29.360 --> 0:04:32.800 had music in my life as something that you participated, 0:04:33.040 --> 0:04:35.400 not just something that you witness, you know, because of 0:04:35.440 --> 0:04:37.479 my father and because there was a drum set, and 0:04:37.480 --> 0:04:39.760 because I would sit on his lap and play piano 0:04:39.800 --> 0:04:44.800 with him. It was something that you just did. You know. 0:04:44.880 --> 0:04:47.760 It wasn't like something like mysterious thing that just happened. 0:04:47.800 --> 0:04:50.960 It was something that that you that I felt comfortable 0:04:51.000 --> 0:04:53.560 with immediately, you know, because it was just like it 0:04:53.600 --> 0:04:57.000 didn't feel embarrassing or weird or like a stretch to 0:04:57.000 --> 0:04:59.240 try and make music. Eventually, when I started to try 0:04:59.240 --> 0:05:02.279 and make music, felt like a natural extension of what 0:05:02.279 --> 0:05:04.760 you're supposed to do when you have that in your life. 0:05:04.839 --> 0:05:07.479 So lucky to have that. It was and and and 0:05:07.480 --> 0:05:10.120 and and and. The other thing that I learned from him, 0:05:10.400 --> 0:05:13.040 which was really something that I'd take seriously and think 0:05:13.040 --> 0:05:18.120 about all the time, was that he you know, I 0:05:18.560 --> 0:05:23.680 grew up watching him play in restaurants and bars, you know, 0:05:23.839 --> 0:05:27.200 places where people didn't give a shit that he was playing, 0:05:27.560 --> 0:05:30.279 places where people were ordering their chicken in the middle 0:05:30.320 --> 0:05:32.920 of the you know, and he's sitting there playing, is 0:05:33.040 --> 0:05:36.120 really playing his hard out and singing and like and 0:05:36.200 --> 0:05:38.279 I would I would have to when I visited him, 0:05:38.360 --> 0:05:39.760 this is when I would see this, you know, I 0:05:39.760 --> 0:05:42.000 would go, you know, divorce parents, you'd go visit your 0:05:42.160 --> 0:05:45.080 your dad, and and I would have he'd have to 0:05:45.160 --> 0:05:46.880 go do these gigs, and so I'd sit at a 0:05:46.960 --> 0:05:51.400 restaurant drinking Shirley Temples and watching my dad basically just 0:05:51.480 --> 0:05:55.040 eat shit. There was something really uncomfortable and even sad 0:05:55.080 --> 0:05:57.479 about it, Like it's sad to me because I was, like, 0:05:57.600 --> 0:06:01.080 my dad's up there, these people are early paying attention, 0:06:01.320 --> 0:06:03.920 and I'm here to watch my dad play It sad 0:06:03.960 --> 0:06:06.159 for him at all? Do you think? Well, I mean 0:06:06.560 --> 0:06:09.280 that's kind of what what my point is. I feel 0:06:09.320 --> 0:06:11.880 like in the moment, it wasn't and in the moment 0:06:11.960 --> 0:06:14.240 he was. I mean it maybe a little frustrating on occasion, 0:06:14.279 --> 0:06:17.080 but in the moment he closed his eyes and he'd 0:06:17.080 --> 0:06:19.400 play piano. He'd like pull a melodica up and do 0:06:19.520 --> 0:06:22.279 like a solo and he'd be singing, and and I 0:06:22.360 --> 0:06:24.440 knew that he was happy in that in that moment. 0:06:24.440 --> 0:06:26.120 And I watched him do this over and over, and 0:06:26.160 --> 0:06:28.320 I it was always it always hurt my heart a 0:06:28.320 --> 0:06:30.440 little bit because I was, you know, it's my dad 0:06:30.480 --> 0:06:33.360 and he's singing, and I want everybody to pay attention 0:06:33.440 --> 0:06:37.120 or whatever. But he needed it, he needed to do it, 0:06:37.120 --> 0:06:39.600 and it made him happy. And doing that and being 0:06:39.640 --> 0:06:41.320 able to sit at the piano was something that it 0:06:41.360 --> 0:06:43.479 didn't matter that it wasn't a career. It didn't matter 0:06:43.520 --> 0:06:46.479 that it wasn't like, you know, it wasn't about accolades, 0:06:46.560 --> 0:06:48.520 or it wasn't really even it was. It was just 0:06:48.560 --> 0:06:51.400 that it was something he really needed. And I always 0:06:51.400 --> 0:06:53.400 held that with me because I was like, hey, man, 0:06:53.440 --> 0:06:56.880 if you can be happy just doing music, like it, really, 0:06:57.200 --> 0:06:59.280 it's a really good if you can find that. If 0:06:59.279 --> 0:07:03.359 you can really I'm being happy just doing music, then 0:07:03.600 --> 0:07:06.000 whatever happens happens with your career, you know what I mean, 0:07:06.040 --> 0:07:09.520 Like whatever may happen. Um, it would suck to to 0:07:09.640 --> 0:07:12.240 if your career didn't exist all of a sudden, the 0:07:12.320 --> 0:07:15.040 music didn't exist, you know. So and that ties back 0:07:15.040 --> 0:07:18.760 to the apocalypse thing because I'm like, well, after the apocalypse, 0:07:18.760 --> 0:07:21.320 you know, Michael probably be like a warlord. What I'm 0:07:21.320 --> 0:07:23.800 shooting for, yeah, or just to upload my brain into 0:07:23.800 --> 0:07:27.240 a computer. And I'm talking like society's crumbled, there's no 0:07:27.280 --> 0:07:31.880 more computer. It's just like man, right, so, and I'm 0:07:31.920 --> 0:07:33.560 just like, well, I always think about, like, well, what 0:07:33.600 --> 0:07:36.520 are my talents in a post apocalyptics landscape? You know 0:07:36.560 --> 0:07:40.160 what I mean? Right, Like it's like a court gesture 0:07:40.160 --> 0:07:42.520 type of thing, like like it's not gonna be muscle, 0:07:42.640 --> 0:07:45.440 you know what I mean, Like maybe it'll be brains, 0:07:45.560 --> 0:07:47.520 but probably not, you know what I mean, Like it's 0:07:47.560 --> 0:07:50.640 probably you know, that's probably a delusion on my behalf 0:07:50.720 --> 0:07:53.720 and and and so I'm like, damn, I better I 0:07:53.800 --> 0:07:58.400 better pick up the instruments again quick, because shit is progressing, 0:07:58.480 --> 0:08:00.400 you know, Like I need to get back on these 0:08:00.400 --> 0:08:03.440 piano lessons because you know, we might not be able 0:08:03.480 --> 0:08:06.720 to plug in the fucking drum machine. I guess that's 0:08:06.720 --> 0:08:10.600 what I'm saying. Rick, you the shit, bro? Yeah, what 0:08:10.680 --> 0:08:12.520 was it? What did records did your dad listen to? 0:08:14.160 --> 0:08:17.440 He was a big Fats Waller fan. That was his shit. 0:08:19.160 --> 0:08:21.240 He just it was. He was jazz head, but he 0:08:21.360 --> 0:08:23.600 listened a lot of shit. Man. I discovered all I 0:08:23.720 --> 0:08:27.320 discovered black music through my father. My father was a 0:08:27.440 --> 0:08:32.040 jazz man and all those records are all all that 0:08:32.160 --> 0:08:34.160 vinyl and everything. I just was. I would just he 0:08:34.200 --> 0:08:36.240 would let me go through them, listen, put them on 0:08:36.240 --> 0:08:38.760 the turntable, listen to it. I kind of had my 0:08:38.760 --> 0:08:41.160 my free reign over that, like, which is kind of 0:08:41.200 --> 0:08:44.720 amazing because record collectors would you Usually they'll just smack 0:08:44.760 --> 0:08:46.800 you away. But my dad was cool about it as 0:08:46.840 --> 0:08:49.800 long as I didn't fuck it up. And a lot 0:08:49.840 --> 0:08:51.959 of the first jams I ever sampled or anything when 0:08:51.960 --> 0:08:54.040 I finally got my hands on a sampler were from 0:08:54.080 --> 0:08:57.520 his record collection. Straight up. The first thing I ever 0:08:57.760 --> 0:09:03.640 sampled and looped up with. Uh remember mister Brown? Remember 0:09:04.360 --> 0:09:08.520 by Marley, mister Brown from from pre pre Whalers, Right, 0:09:09.559 --> 0:09:15.319 But um, yeah, that was that was beyond the digging 0:09:15.440 --> 0:09:19.800 for samples. Do you think that hearing jazz at the 0:09:19.840 --> 0:09:23.800 age that you heard it informed the way you approach 0:09:23.920 --> 0:09:28.520 music at all? I'm sure it did. I can only assume, 0:09:28.559 --> 0:09:30.839 so I don't. I couldn't pin it down. No, I 0:09:30.880 --> 0:09:34.440 couldn't tell you, like exactly what that was, except to 0:09:34.480 --> 0:09:39.880 say that I just had an inherited appreciation for pretty, 0:09:39.920 --> 0:09:43.080 really good music. I mean, like, I just feel lucky. 0:09:43.080 --> 0:09:45.560 I'm sure that's something something you know right now, there's 0:09:45.600 --> 0:09:49.320 some some child who's who's being exposed by, you know, 0:09:49.559 --> 0:09:51.960 to the worst music possible by their parents, you know, 0:09:52.040 --> 0:09:54.360 I feel like that's that's luck of the draw, you know. 0:09:55.400 --> 0:09:57.760 But I mean, you know, I eventually did a jazz album. 0:09:57.800 --> 0:09:59.400 I don't know if you know that I did a 0:09:59.480 --> 0:10:01.600 jazz albu them in like twenty fourteen. It was the 0:10:01.600 --> 0:10:04.760 first time and last time I'd ever done it, um, 0:10:05.160 --> 0:10:06.600 which is not to say I wouldn't do it again, 0:10:06.640 --> 0:10:09.040 but it was they stayed. These people stepped to me 0:10:09.080 --> 0:10:11.320 to do it. They were trying to mix things up 0:10:11.360 --> 0:10:14.440 and trying to and um, this guy Matthew Ship and um. 0:10:14.559 --> 0:10:16.680 And it was William Parker and Matthew Ship and a 0:10:16.679 --> 0:10:19.679 bunch of sort of free jazz you know, um um 0:10:21.080 --> 0:10:26.000 sort of titans. And I don't think it was even 0:10:26.160 --> 0:10:28.079 I did not have the skill set to produce a 0:10:28.160 --> 0:10:30.920 jazz album. But they were like, no, we just want 0:10:31.000 --> 0:10:34.600 your version. Yeah, And so that was and it was terrifying, 0:10:34.800 --> 0:10:36.679 and I was like, I don't know what I'm doing, 0:10:37.240 --> 0:10:40.120 but I was like, all right, do you like the 0:10:40.120 --> 0:10:42.800 way it came out? There's moments on it, man, my father, 0:10:43.000 --> 0:10:45.720 I got my father on it. Beautiful. Yeah, there's moments 0:10:45.760 --> 0:10:48.720 on it, for sure. And I think that there's a 0:10:48.800 --> 0:10:52.400 like a they got some like really really seriously good 0:10:52.440 --> 0:10:55.679 reviews from like high end like jazz critic type shit 0:10:55.800 --> 0:10:58.520 that I was like, and then there were people, I mean, 0:10:58.559 --> 0:11:00.000 it was very under I think it was kind of 0:11:00.040 --> 0:11:02.480 onto the radar, you know. But for my career, it's 0:11:02.520 --> 0:11:05.040 something that if people have been following me, they know 0:11:05.120 --> 0:11:07.880 that I did this, and yeah, there's moments that that 0:11:08.040 --> 0:11:10.440 are that are really cool. I didn't know exactly what 0:11:10.480 --> 0:11:12.839 to do, so I basically just went in and brought 0:11:12.960 --> 0:11:15.720 music and just told them to just basically improvise to 0:11:15.800 --> 0:11:19.439 my music that's truly a jazz spirit. Yeah, I mean 0:11:19.600 --> 0:11:22.360 they were. They were they're anarchists, you know, the the 0:11:23.120 --> 0:11:26.640 like truly anarchists, Like all those guys are as learned 0:11:26.800 --> 0:11:31.360 and as capable of like form and like they're they're 0:11:31.360 --> 0:11:34.800 as as the highest level musicians. But they rejected it 0:11:35.200 --> 0:11:37.280 years ago because they didn't think it was the It 0:11:37.360 --> 0:11:39.720 was the it was the true spirit of jazz. So 0:11:39.760 --> 0:11:42.079 they were like, no, we're gonna get in a room 0:11:42.160 --> 0:11:45.920 and we're gonna we're gonna sort of spontaneously together create something, 0:11:45.960 --> 0:11:48.400 and we're gonna move off each other. And that's the 0:11:48.440 --> 0:11:51.040 free jazz movement. And so I was like, what do 0:11:51.080 --> 0:11:53.240 you do with a bunch of people who are already 0:11:53.320 --> 0:11:56.600 just kind of like no rules? And the only thing 0:11:56.640 --> 0:11:58.760 I could think of was give them rules. So I 0:11:58.840 --> 0:12:02.319 was like, all right, well, here's some standards, like how 0:12:02.480 --> 0:12:04.160 what was it like? Like? What was it really cool? 0:12:04.200 --> 0:12:07.200 Get you oh man? Like, yeah, well I tricked him 0:12:07.240 --> 0:12:09.040 into it. That's dope. Did I tell you about I 0:12:09.080 --> 0:12:10.760 never told you about that. You I want you to 0:12:10.760 --> 0:12:12.719 tell the world you've told me about it. I liked 0:12:12.760 --> 0:12:14.840 the story. I tricked my father into being on the 0:12:14.880 --> 0:12:17.240 record basically because I was like, listen, Dad, I'm doing 0:12:17.240 --> 0:12:18.840 this record. I have no idea what I'm doing. Can 0:12:18.880 --> 0:12:22.920 you do me a favor? Can you record just off 0:12:22.960 --> 0:12:27.559 cassette or whatever? You doing some cool standards, some jazz 0:12:27.559 --> 0:12:29.960 stunting shit that you that you like, that you think 0:12:29.960 --> 0:12:35.319 would be cool. And and he did. And one of 0:12:35.360 --> 0:12:38.600 the songs that he picked was this really depressing fucking 0:12:38.640 --> 0:12:42.520 song that basically what it's called I think Yesterday when 0:12:42.520 --> 0:12:45.560 the moon was blue? Do you know that song? And 0:12:45.800 --> 0:12:49.920 it's it's hearing your strength essentially a strange father singing 0:12:49.920 --> 0:12:53.760 this song is probably one of the most like, you know, 0:12:53.880 --> 0:12:57.360 emotional things you can do. And he's he you know, 0:12:57.400 --> 0:12:59.920 it's just all about regret. Do you have the very 0:13:00.200 --> 0:13:04.319 of him singing it? By any chance? It's a really 0:13:04.320 --> 0:13:09.040 good I mean, the original, no good Dad's version my 0:13:09.120 --> 0:13:11.439 dad's version like the original before. So what I did 0:13:11.600 --> 0:13:14.080 was I had him do it and then I chopped 0:13:14.080 --> 0:13:16.440 it up and then I had them play and round 0:13:16.480 --> 0:13:19.200 it and I made it. I don't know, I don't know. 0:13:19.280 --> 0:13:21.640 I'd be curious to hear the song. Yeah, I'll play 0:13:21.679 --> 0:13:29.680 you the version that it ended up being. Uh. The 0:13:29.720 --> 0:13:31.120 other day, Rick was in and he was like, do 0:13:31.120 --> 0:13:33.920 you always uh get high when you work? And I 0:13:34.000 --> 0:13:41.400 was like no, no, no, no. I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, 0:13:41.440 --> 0:13:45.240 I'm not gonna lie, Rick. I want to tell you 0:13:45.280 --> 0:13:46.960 that the thing that would make you think I'm a 0:13:47.000 --> 0:13:52.599 good person, shit is dope. Real g ship man, that's beautiful. 0:13:53.760 --> 0:13:57.520 Dad's voice is great. Really he he brought the house 0:13:57.559 --> 0:13:59.840 down on my wedding, which is which is coming up 0:13:59.840 --> 0:14:02.760 on a year. But my dad fucking made everybody in 0:14:02.800 --> 0:14:06.000 the entire wedding cry once, about three hundred and fifty people. 0:14:07.360 --> 0:14:12.120 You remember, I Dad, I remember, But I remember the 0:14:12.160 --> 0:14:15.920 first conversation I had with your dad via going back 0:14:15.920 --> 0:14:17.640 and forth for email. He let me know how proud 0:14:17.720 --> 0:14:20.320 he was of you and of us and what it 0:14:20.400 --> 0:14:22.720 meant to him. And then the first time I met him, 0:14:22.760 --> 0:14:24.480 I knew he was funny, but I didn't realize how 0:14:24.560 --> 0:14:26.440 much of a ball breaker he was. I think we 0:14:26.480 --> 0:14:28.680 were in Boston or something. He was walking down the hall. 0:14:29.080 --> 0:14:31.680 I'm the only person in the dressing room. He's in front, 0:14:31.760 --> 0:14:35.080 other people around him. I don't know. He said, oh shit, 0:14:35.280 --> 0:14:42.600 nobody told me you were black. Almost died laughing and 0:14:42.680 --> 0:14:46.280 didn't he capped the rest of them. It was not true, 0:14:46.360 --> 0:14:48.240 but he was no. I know, I knew. I totally 0:14:48.280 --> 0:14:49.800 know it was not true. I mean, I'm just saying 0:14:49.840 --> 0:14:53.240 like he's laugh lying. Yeah, just like he doesn't give 0:14:53.280 --> 0:14:55.880 a shit like I love that. I love that. And 0:14:56.200 --> 0:14:59.640 he also calls me something by proxy, so shouts out 0:14:59.680 --> 0:15:01.120 to the t a year, he hits me on the 0:15:01.160 --> 0:15:03.200 internet for some reason. We did something cool and he 0:15:03.280 --> 0:15:05.400 lets me know he's proud of this boy. What was 0:15:05.440 --> 0:15:08.720 the music in your household growing up? Man? Well, I 0:15:08.760 --> 0:15:12.400 grew up. There's a level past divorced parents, and it's 0:15:12.400 --> 0:15:15.280 called my grandparents raised me. So we just visited each 0:15:15.320 --> 0:15:19.480 our parents on the weekends. You know. I had five sisters, 0:15:19.480 --> 0:15:21.840 three with my dad, two of my mom, the one 0:15:21.880 --> 0:15:23.680 with two of me and my mom. With my mom, 0:15:23.760 --> 0:15:27.560 we grew up with her parents' house, so her parents 0:15:27.560 --> 0:15:30.160 played blues and gospel, and that's what I grew up 0:15:30.200 --> 0:15:32.920 listening to. My grandmother wasn't a fan of the deaf 0:15:33.040 --> 0:15:35.200 cha on records, house bringing in and the loudness of 0:15:35.280 --> 0:15:38.560 them and around vunctiousness. So and we were raising a 0:15:38.600 --> 0:15:42.000 really Christian household, working class black, working class black people, 0:15:42.000 --> 0:15:44.920 pretty conservative, you know, and their values and stuff. So 0:15:45.320 --> 0:15:47.960 like at six o'clock on Fridays, you don't get to 0:15:48.000 --> 0:15:52.600 play bluesy music. Were on Saturdays, blues music stop. Which music, Yes, 0:15:52.720 --> 0:15:55.280 it was called blues music. So any secular music ended, 0:15:55.680 --> 0:15:57.760 so it was gospel, you know what I'm saying. After that, 0:15:57.800 --> 0:15:59.720 So I'd have to sneak and listen to rap. But 0:16:00.120 --> 0:16:03.000 I grew up like really loving Buddy Guy, really loving 0:16:03.080 --> 0:16:06.120 bb King, Muddy Waters, Hollen Wolf, because this is what 0:16:06.200 --> 0:16:08.200 I played, and you know it's played. My grandmother played 0:16:08.600 --> 0:16:10.480 like she was a huge BB King fan. You know, 0:16:10.560 --> 0:16:12.480 she was probably how my daughter looks at Chris Brown. 0:16:12.600 --> 0:16:15.440 She loved Bobe and my grandfather loved Buddy Guy. And 0:16:15.440 --> 0:16:18.480 that's how I got into like the Chicago style stuff. 0:16:18.480 --> 0:16:20.880 So and gospel, a lots of gospel, a lot to 0:16:21.040 --> 0:16:24.760 gospel because we went to these small Pentecostal churches and 0:16:24.960 --> 0:16:27.960 the music was great. So I loved that part of 0:16:27.960 --> 0:16:30.880 the church. Hated going to church the rest of it, yeah, 0:16:31.040 --> 0:16:32.960 you know what I mean, not that I hated churches 0:16:33.040 --> 0:16:36.400 as your kid, you know, you're, yeah, your friends are 0:16:36.400 --> 0:16:40.680 on bikes and yeah, man suited up. And then for 0:16:40.880 --> 0:16:42.760 the hostel churches to you know, women were were all 0:16:42.800 --> 0:16:44.920 white and stuff. So it was really and it's long, 0:16:45.040 --> 0:16:51.280 so four to six hours, you know in churs and 0:16:51.400 --> 0:16:53.440 forty six hours. No, no, I could be like four 0:16:53.480 --> 0:16:55.520 to six hours. Like you're you go to church at 0:16:55.560 --> 0:16:57.920 ten in the morning, you might not come home to 0:16:58.000 --> 0:17:00.880 say two four o'clock, you know what I'm saying. But 0:17:01.280 --> 0:17:07.000 in that there's so much music throughout the church. It yeah, 0:17:07.200 --> 0:17:09.760 let you end up loving the experience once I get there, 0:17:09.760 --> 0:17:12.080 even though I was resistant, there were just all these 0:17:12.119 --> 0:17:15.199 incredible musicians. And when you're holding in sepeneal Costele, these 0:17:15.320 --> 0:17:18.119 their families that preach and that kind of go around 0:17:18.119 --> 0:17:20.960 doing revivals. That's what they do. So all these talent 0:17:21.080 --> 0:17:23.720 musicians would just kind of come through. So gospel music 0:17:23.760 --> 0:17:29.159 Charlie Caesar, James Cleveland, of course, Mahellia jacksonar is incredible 0:17:29.520 --> 0:17:34.159 steal Yeah, like stell Aretha. We could listen to by 0:17:34.240 --> 0:17:39.200 technicality because she was gospel and al Green was big. 0:17:39.320 --> 0:17:43.040 And my mom was sixteen when she had me. Mom married, 0:17:43.080 --> 0:17:44.639 I have two dads to have a non bio on 0:17:44.680 --> 0:17:47.919 a bio dad. So my mom married my dad, my 0:17:48.040 --> 0:17:50.280 non bio dad. I think he had about nineteen years 0:17:50.320 --> 0:17:52.720 old maybe, so I was about three, maybe going on four. 0:17:53.280 --> 0:17:56.119 And when she left, you know, she left to take me, 0:17:56.160 --> 0:17:58.879 and my grandmother was like, naw, y'all go off and 0:17:58.920 --> 0:18:00.639 be married and learn how to be married and you know, 0:18:00.760 --> 0:18:03.119 make more children. And so I stayed with my grandmother. 0:18:03.200 --> 0:18:06.359 My mom left me a huge record collection. Curtis Mayfield, Wow, 0:18:07.040 --> 0:18:09.040 Harold Melvin and the Blue Nose and see them just 0:18:09.080 --> 0:18:12.199 like a lot of stack stuff. So when my grandmother 0:18:12.240 --> 0:18:14.119 would shut the music down the house, meaning you know, 0:18:14.200 --> 0:18:15.840 no you could play music you had, you couldn't play 0:18:15.840 --> 0:18:18.880 the radio in the main room. I couldn't bump running down, 0:18:19.000 --> 0:18:22.480 you know. So I had to go to my room 0:18:22.560 --> 0:18:24.320 and my mom left me like what they would call 0:18:24.359 --> 0:18:27.280 components as you put the wax on, and I listened 0:18:27.320 --> 0:18:29.880 to like all the soul and all the funk, and 0:18:29.920 --> 0:18:32.920 then my dad my non boy dad she married was 0:18:32.920 --> 0:18:37.119 a huge Parliament fan P funk and he um. He 0:18:37.280 --> 0:18:39.320 just man. He was one of the best human beings 0:18:39.359 --> 0:18:41.600 in where I tell people all the time, like man, 0:18:42.359 --> 0:18:45.520 his capacity to love a kid biologically it's not his kid, 0:18:45.840 --> 0:18:49.160 but I fucked up his toy car collection. I scratched 0:18:49.160 --> 0:18:51.680 records trying to be a DJ, and he was just 0:18:52.200 --> 0:18:55.280 he was like his his basically his kind of like you. 0:18:55.840 --> 0:18:58.320 He was always just on some chill shit like you know, 0:18:58.640 --> 0:19:01.760 I can, I can. I can remember playing Two Live 0:19:01.840 --> 0:19:05.440 Crew back to back to back, and finally he came 0:19:05.480 --> 0:19:07.840 in like it took to take. He just took the take. 0:19:07.880 --> 0:19:11.720 He said, I'm only taking this because you keep rewinding 0:19:11.800 --> 0:19:15.080 the same part. And he just walked out. And Two 0:19:15.119 --> 0:19:17.760 Love Crew had that base you know, that was that 0:19:17.840 --> 0:19:20.879 was They were like Coventiti. He encouraged my music, and 0:19:20.920 --> 0:19:23.840 I didn't realize into a couple of years ago. I 0:19:23.920 --> 0:19:26.800 probably got my aesthetic from rock and roll from my 0:19:26.800 --> 0:19:30.080 biological dad who you know, you know, who was just like, 0:19:30.160 --> 0:19:32.600 introduced me to rock, let me encourage me to listen 0:19:32.640 --> 0:19:36.080 to Metallica. Was not surprised that I love Zapplin, Zeppelin 0:19:36.119 --> 0:19:39.399 and Sabbath and stuff. The Eagles was Big Pink Floyd. 0:19:39.480 --> 0:19:42.520 He introduced me to um. He liked bun Job. I 0:19:42.560 --> 0:19:44.159 never did so much, not that I didn't like him, 0:19:44.200 --> 0:19:46.400 I just he was really into him. It was Dad Rocket. 0:19:46.480 --> 0:19:49.359 I had a different rock entry as my older sister 0:19:49.440 --> 0:19:52.240 was most Yeah she's she's a she's a straight teen 0:19:52.320 --> 0:19:56.560 in the seventies, so but that. But for me it 0:19:56.600 --> 0:20:00.359 was like young It was like the clash. I mean, 0:20:00.720 --> 0:20:04.480 it was like Devo, you know, ultimately the police, yeah, 0:20:04.520 --> 0:20:06.679 you know, And that was my buyer. Dad. He was 0:20:07.000 --> 0:20:09.280 like he really let me be free. And I realized 0:20:09.359 --> 0:20:13.760 later Lane for he talks in rhyme, so I probably 0:20:13.800 --> 0:20:16.800 picked up my ability to put words together easily from him. 0:20:17.200 --> 0:20:19.240 Like if you asked him, like you know, they called 0:20:19.280 --> 0:20:21.480 him Big Mike. Of course he's the oldest. I'm I'm 0:20:21.600 --> 0:20:24.200 nup and my family and my daughter's Mikey. But it'll 0:20:24.240 --> 0:20:25.600 be like, you know, big one, how are you doing? Man, 0:20:25.600 --> 0:20:28.080 I'm pretty fast for a squall, you know, we got 0:20:28.119 --> 0:20:30.320 something well, and it'll just be like, you know, I 0:20:30.840 --> 0:20:33.120 got somewhere to be, I'm gonna get there for three 0:20:33.359 --> 0:20:36.439 just and it just effortlessly pours out of him, and 0:20:36.480 --> 0:20:39.120 I realized that I get older just hanging with my dad, 0:20:39.160 --> 0:20:41.199 I probably just kind of picked up a knack for 0:20:41.359 --> 0:20:44.040 it so cool. So you know, my parents, this was 0:20:44.240 --> 0:20:46.440 pre hip hop. No, yeah, yeah, yeah, you gotta think 0:20:46.440 --> 0:20:48.600 about it. I'm like, you know, it's just seventy eight, 0:20:48.680 --> 0:20:50.560