WEBVTT - #239 - Immortal Technique 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:02.759 All right, man, Blueleg Cat Podcast, we got a special 0:00:02.759 --> 0:00:09.200 guest in here, A legend, immortal technique is here. Thank you, sir, 0:00:09.240 --> 0:00:11.039 thank you for having me on the show. Of course, Man, 0:00:11.119 --> 0:00:13.000 I first discovered your music, I want to say I 0:00:13.039 --> 0:00:18.040 was probably like fourteen or fifteen. It might have been 0:00:18.120 --> 0:00:21.639 the first revolutionary but I remember then I got to 0:00:21.680 --> 0:00:25.159 see you live in Phoenix. It might have been a 0:00:25.200 --> 0:00:28.760 revolutionary Volume two tour. Who'd you have on tour with 0:00:28.880 --> 0:00:32.680 you around that time? Probably a poisoned pen maybe Chino 0:00:32.760 --> 0:00:36.120 Excel mm hmmm, a few other cats. Yes, I got 0:00:36.120 --> 0:00:38.040 to see you live, and I saw I've seen I mean, 0:00:38.040 --> 0:00:40.479 I've seen you live a bunch of times over the years. 0:00:41.159 --> 0:00:44.800 But yeah, man, you're an independent I would say, like 0:00:44.920 --> 0:00:48.520 a goat in the independent hip hop space. Man, there's 0:00:48.520 --> 0:00:50.000 not a lot of people who could be like Yeah, 0:00:50.320 --> 0:00:52.840 Headline Festivals is an independent rapper, and I remember seeing 0:00:52.880 --> 0:00:55.120 you Headline Rock the Bells Rock the Bells Pay Due 0:00:55.120 --> 0:00:57.240 is one of those. I mean, I hold the record 0:00:57.280 --> 0:01:00.480 for some festivals for Uta from our old agency at 0:01:00.600 --> 0:01:04.400 United Talent, we did four festivals, sorry, three festivals in 0:01:04.520 --> 0:01:07.200 three different European countries which were nowhere near each other 0:01:07.400 --> 0:01:09.720 within a twenty four hour period. What I used to 0:01:09.760 --> 0:01:13.360 do probably about two hundred, two hundred and fifty shows 0:01:13.400 --> 0:01:15.760 a year. Now, obviously it's a lot less because I 0:01:15.800 --> 0:01:20.280 have other responsibilities. But unlike other artists who you know, 0:01:20.280 --> 0:01:23.199 no disrespect to the DJs, course focused a lot on mixtapes, right, 0:01:23.280 --> 0:01:25.760 I focused a lot on touring rather than mixtapes. So 0:01:25.800 --> 0:01:28.839 I may only have like one or two free mixtapes, 0:01:28.880 --> 0:01:31.759 but at the same time, I have like seventeen world 0:01:31.800 --> 0:01:35.520 tours under my belt. Right countries that people are like, 0:01:35.560 --> 0:01:39.480 oh my god, You've been to Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, 0:01:39.600 --> 0:01:43.600 all these places, Romania, right you, Czech Republic, South America, 0:01:43.720 --> 0:01:48.160 all over the place, Morocco, Africa. Yeah, now you're worldwide, dude. 0:01:48.200 --> 0:01:49.880 I mean your music. I feel like your music was 0:01:50.120 --> 0:01:53.040 very like you know, I feel like I learned so 0:01:53.120 --> 0:01:55.480 much from your music as a kid because it was 0:01:55.560 --> 0:01:58.880 before I really had like readily like internet access, if 0:01:58.880 --> 0:02:01.440 that makes sense. So like some of the shit like 0:02:01.480 --> 0:02:03.840 about like our government or just the world, like I 0:02:03.880 --> 0:02:07.240 have first heard like you rapping about it. Do you 0:02:07.280 --> 0:02:09.200 hear that a lot? I mean, I think it was 0:02:09.320 --> 0:02:14.000 during a time in which people were living in a 0:02:14.080 --> 0:02:17.079 post nine to eleven world that was really fresh, and 0:02:17.720 --> 0:02:20.360 a lot of individuals were scared. They were looking for 0:02:20.440 --> 0:02:23.560 easy answers, looking for ways to blame people. And when 0:02:23.600 --> 0:02:27.240 I brought up things like, for example, that I made 0:02:27.240 --> 0:02:29.480 a post today because it's the twenty year anniversary of 0:02:29.520 --> 0:02:33.960 Senator Wellstone's death and a mysterious plane crash, and he 0:02:34.080 --> 0:02:36.480 was one of the only senators after nine to eleven 0:02:36.760 --> 0:02:39.120 that brought up the fact that bin Laden was a 0:02:39.160 --> 0:02:42.520 CIA asset. That was not something people wanted to discuss 0:02:42.520 --> 0:02:45.040 in two thousand and two, right, that his code name 0:02:45.120 --> 0:02:47.400 and this is not a conspiracy, No, it's not a conspiracy. 0:02:47.440 --> 0:02:50.480 It's true. His code name was Timothy Osmond and that 0:02:50.560 --> 0:02:55.239 he carried out several acts and atrocities in the name 0:02:55.240 --> 0:02:58.760 of the United States government for their purposes, but not 0:02:58.919 --> 0:03:02.280 just that. Also, so talking to people in Afghanistan when 0:03:02.280 --> 0:03:04.880 I went there, he was responsible and took part in 0:03:04.919 --> 0:03:07.720 what they call the Hazada genocide, which is something that 0:03:07.800 --> 0:03:10.080 is going on now with the Taliban, and that's a 0:03:10.160 --> 0:03:16.480 series of Asiatic Central Asian people from Afghanistan and they 0:03:16.520 --> 0:03:20.480 were targeted for genocide. So before bin Laden ever killed 0:03:20.520 --> 0:03:24.519 any Americans. He murdered children outside of a city called 0:03:24.600 --> 0:03:28.079 Mazardah Sharif, and like, I went to Afghanistan in two 0:03:28.080 --> 0:03:30.760 thousand and nine to build an orphanage in a school 0:03:31.040 --> 0:03:34.320 with the profits from an album that I had called 0:03:34.320 --> 0:03:36.800 The Third World with DJ Green Lantern. Sho shout out 0:03:36.840 --> 0:03:38.680 to my brother Green Lantern. I remember that yet and 0:03:38.880 --> 0:03:40.760 thank you for helping me with that Green Lance And 0:03:40.800 --> 0:03:44.480 he was somebody that believed in me and brought me 0:03:44.560 --> 0:03:46.440 up to the radio even when they were like, don't 0:03:46.440 --> 0:03:49.080 bring him the fuck up the Hot ninety seven. Now 0:03:49.080 --> 0:03:51.040 they're like, oh, he's a legend, but before they're like, 0:03:51.080 --> 0:03:53.160 don't bring him up here, he's crazy. I remember when 0:03:53.160 --> 0:03:55.360 you guys linked up because Green Lantern had kind of 0:03:55.360 --> 0:03:58.880 been like heavily associated with, like you know that mixtape 0:03:58.920 --> 0:04:03.080 era with Eminem and then like to you guys come together, 0:04:03.360 --> 0:04:05.960 it was kind of like dope because obviously, perception wise 0:04:06.000 --> 0:04:09.040 as a kid, you don't I didn't associate a Green 0:04:09.080 --> 0:04:12.040 Lantern and Immortal, even though it makes sense like musically 0:04:12.080 --> 0:04:14.320 and it was dope. But yeah, I think it, like 0:04:14.320 --> 0:04:16.680 like you said, like you pointed out so much stuff 0:04:17.440 --> 0:04:20.120 early because again, at that time, we didn't have access 0:04:20.120 --> 0:04:22.279 to YouTube and like jumping down a rabbit hole and 0:04:22.279 --> 0:04:24.360 it's like, wait a minute, what is he talking about? Like, 0:04:24.880 --> 0:04:28.279 you know, I think I think that you definitely, uh, 0:04:28.760 --> 0:04:31.760 you know, in terms of shedding the light to a 0:04:31.760 --> 0:04:33.760 whole generation of kids who were just hip hop heads, 0:04:33.839 --> 0:04:35.880 you definitely did open their eyes to a lot of 0:04:35.880 --> 0:04:38.560 wild shit, man, and a lot of truthful shit. Right. 0:04:38.920 --> 0:04:42.960 And also I think that even to this day, there's 0:04:43.040 --> 0:04:45.719 songs that I've written that people still ask me questions about, 0:04:45.960 --> 0:04:49.280 Like I'm not gonna lie keV. Even twenty years later, 0:04:49.320 --> 0:04:52.279 people ask me, is Dance with the Devil a true story? 0:04:52.520 --> 0:04:54.000 And I have to look these people right in the 0:04:54.040 --> 0:04:58.680 eye and say, sir, I am not responsible for raping 0:04:58.800 --> 0:05:02.279 or killing any women. That is absolutely crazy. It is 0:05:02.320 --> 0:05:05.200 a song. However, Yeah, I can take people if they 0:05:05.240 --> 0:05:09.360 really want to, the building where this incident happened in Harlem. 0:05:09.480 --> 0:05:12.400 And the truth is that that actually did happen, and 0:05:12.440 --> 0:05:16.440 those people that were allegedly responsible for that began dying. 0:05:16.760 --> 0:05:19.800 And that's why it became such a powerful story because 0:05:19.800 --> 0:05:22.200 everyone's like, oh, you're telling hood tales. What if these 0:05:22.200 --> 0:05:24.800 motherfuckers come back for you? And I said, let them 0:05:25.200 --> 0:05:27.640 what they're gonna do, Like you think that the neighborhood 0:05:27.680 --> 0:05:29.720 is gonna protect them after they find out what they 0:05:29.760 --> 0:05:32.080 really did, that they raped a woman. Do you realize 0:05:32.120 --> 0:05:34.480 that in rich communities you can get away with stuff 0:05:34.520 --> 0:05:37.159 like that, Oh their little kids coming in all hours 0:05:37.160 --> 0:05:39.599 of the night. No one says anything about billionaires. But 0:05:39.640 --> 0:05:41.760 if you live in the ghetto and someone says a 0:05:41.839 --> 0:05:45.200 rumor in the hood, oh, someone's touching kids in apartments, 0:05:46.520 --> 0:05:50.920 everybody from the neighboro the fuck is going on in 0:05:50.960 --> 0:05:53.080 your homes. So that's the kind of energy it was. 0:05:53.240 --> 0:05:57.120 And these people literally started dying, and one of them. 0:05:58.000 --> 0:06:00.480 We're not gonna mention names because these people don't deserve 0:06:00.560 --> 0:06:02.440 to be remembered in a good light, but this is 0:06:02.480 --> 0:06:05.520 a sad story. They couldn't find this man keV. And 0:06:05.720 --> 0:06:07.720 what I explained to people about the street is that 0:06:08.440 --> 0:06:10.520 there's no rules, just like there's no such thing as 0:06:10.560 --> 0:06:13.080 a safe gun. You have to respect everything. I'm a 0:06:13.080 --> 0:06:16.400 big Second Amendment guy, but you have to respect the weapon. 0:06:16.440 --> 0:06:18.800 There's no such thing as a safe gun. These people 0:06:18.880 --> 0:06:21.039 were out here thinking that they could get away with 0:06:21.120 --> 0:06:23.520 a crime and that they wouldn't be found, and they 0:06:23.600 --> 0:06:26.600 murdered this man's son to get him to come to 0:06:26.640 --> 0:06:30.039 the funeral so they could kill him. This is the 0:06:30.080 --> 0:06:32.480 type of shit that people were dealing with. That's one 0:06:32.480 --> 0:06:34.800 of your would you say that's your most popular song, 0:06:34.880 --> 0:06:37.800 It's like one of them, right, probably? Yeah. For people 0:06:37.839 --> 0:06:39.799 who have because there's gonna be people watching this YouTube 0:06:39.839 --> 0:06:43.080 video who subscribe, who maybe are not hip to your catalog, 0:06:44.000 --> 0:06:45.920 give us a break, Like for people who haven't heard 0:06:46.000 --> 0:06:48.919 Dance with the Devil. What is the premise of the record? Well, 0:06:49.040 --> 0:06:51.640 I mean, without giving the entire thing away, I would 0:06:51.720 --> 0:06:56.120 say that it's definitely a very realistic tale of what 0:06:56.320 --> 0:07:00.240 happens when people feel peer pressured to commit violent to 0:07:00.320 --> 0:07:02.880 join a gang, or when they feel like they have 0:07:02.960 --> 0:07:06.840 to overcompensate for not being as tough as everybody thinks 0:07:06.880 --> 0:07:09.960 they is, and they commit violence and do horrible things 0:07:09.960 --> 0:07:12.720 to people to try to prove something to somebody. I 0:07:12.840 --> 0:07:15.680 remind individuals that are really living in the street, we 0:07:15.760 --> 0:07:19.280 don't deal with gratuitous violence. We deal with people that 0:07:19.360 --> 0:07:22.080 have offended or hurt us, who have come into our 0:07:22.120 --> 0:07:25.720 neighborhood and caused problems. The premise of going into another 0:07:25.760 --> 0:07:31.240 neighborhood and just trying to hurt people doesn't make sense now. 0:07:31.360 --> 0:07:33.480 I mean, even if you ask the essays that run 0:07:33.520 --> 0:07:35.560 each block, they'll be like, why would I start a 0:07:35.560 --> 0:07:38.320 war for no reason? But in New York City it 0:07:38.440 --> 0:07:41.080 was structured differently. It wasn't so much gangs, it was 0:07:41.240 --> 0:07:44.239 cruise back in New York. So if you heard about 0:07:44.240 --> 0:07:48.000 a story like this, it became an urban legend immediately. 0:07:48.280 --> 0:07:51.840 And not just that keV. It was that the story 0:07:51.920 --> 0:07:54.120 was always a little bit different. Instead of it being 0:07:54.120 --> 0:07:57.200 the guy's mom, it would be the person's stepsister, it 0:07:57.200 --> 0:08:00.720 would be the aunt, it would be someone related. When 0:08:00.920 --> 0:08:05.760 you have tales about, you know, murder or killing people, 0:08:06.160 --> 0:08:09.360 it's a grandized some sometimes in hip hop, to the 0:08:09.400 --> 0:08:12.520 point that you never really see the impact of what 0:08:12.600 --> 0:08:14.840 that is. Like. Even if y'all kill someone that's not 0:08:14.920 --> 0:08:17.600 a kid, if y'all kill someone that's thirty years old, 0:08:17.680 --> 0:08:20.160 you think that's not somebody's son. Of course, you don't 0:08:20.160 --> 0:08:21.880 think you have a target on the back, but you 0:08:21.880 --> 0:08:25.160 don't think that somebody's coming back for you. That's the reality. 0:08:25.280 --> 0:08:27.960 And more often than not, when people come up to 0:08:28.000 --> 0:08:29.400 me and they say, oh, do you think the guys 0:08:29.400 --> 0:08:32.120 from Dance with the devil, were really cursed by the devil, 0:08:32.160 --> 0:08:35.040 And I'm like, no, they lived a horrible lifestyle where 0:08:35.080 --> 0:08:37.760 they thought they could get away with hurting people at random, 0:08:38.240 --> 0:08:41.760 and eventually it catches it not just to them, but 0:08:41.880 --> 0:08:45.000 to their children as well. M D. That's some real shit. 0:08:45.520 --> 0:08:49.600 You had so many records that were controversial. Did you 0:08:49.720 --> 0:08:53.640 ever like feel any pressure from like outside entities when 0:08:53.679 --> 0:08:56.520 you were tor in, because obviously you were. You were 0:08:56.600 --> 0:08:59.120 kind of like one of the few people I would 0:08:59.160 --> 0:09:02.400 say pre you cause I kind of attribute like YouTube 0:09:02.440 --> 0:09:06.480 to helping with a lot of people's education on certain 0:09:06.559 --> 0:09:09.680 situations because it's free and it's readily available, right, And 0:09:09.760 --> 0:09:12.439 I feel like when you first kind of came on 0:09:12.440 --> 0:09:15.280 the scene that wasn't necessarily the case. Did you get 0:09:15.280 --> 0:09:17.600 any blowback from like the government or did you ever 0:09:17.640 --> 0:09:20.120 have like a target on your back in terms of 0:09:20.160 --> 0:09:21.840 like just some of the things you were talking about, 0:09:22.200 --> 0:09:25.199 especially to the youth post nine to eleven, You know 0:09:25.240 --> 0:09:28.600 what I mean. I've had several instants where police have 0:09:28.640 --> 0:09:32.800 come to my house homeland security. I didn't become a 0:09:32.800 --> 0:09:35.280 citizen until I was seventeen, so they brought an ice 0:09:35.360 --> 0:09:38.480 officer with them, as if that was supposed to intimidate me. 0:09:38.920 --> 0:09:43.960 But an individual such as myself is lawyered up the wazoo. 0:09:44.320 --> 0:09:48.720 Yeah ago, Like listen, I can't fight the system by 0:09:49.120 --> 0:09:51.360 shooting back at them. That's what they want. Yeah, I mean, 0:09:51.640 --> 0:09:55.760 unless I'm ready to go full Chris Dorner rest in peace. 0:09:55.960 --> 0:10:00.400 But if I am sitting there trying to get my 0:10:00.480 --> 0:10:03.040 point across and I don't want to be censored or 0:10:03.080 --> 0:10:06.520 I don't want people to control that aspect of the music, 0:10:06.880 --> 0:10:10.520 then sure I have to take those precautionary measures ahead 0:10:10.520 --> 0:10:13.720 of time of whatever I do. I think being mature 0:10:13.840 --> 0:10:15.760 enough to look back as a kid and know, hey man, 0:10:15.800 --> 0:10:17.360 these are some of the mistakes I made. These are 0:10:17.400 --> 0:10:19.319 things I could have done better. There are things I 0:10:19.320 --> 0:10:22.079 would have done differently now, Like honestly, I'm doing it 0:10:22.160 --> 0:10:24.680 one hundred percent alone. Now I'm even more independent than 0:10:24.720 --> 0:10:28.000 I was before. Everything is now Rebel Army Records and 0:10:28.040 --> 0:10:31.400 just straight immortal technique. And then I built five oh 0:10:31.440 --> 0:10:34.880 one C three that we modeled after the Black Panther 0:10:34.920 --> 0:10:38.400 Breakfast Party program to be part and linked to that label. 0:10:38.480 --> 0:10:40.679 It's called Rebel Army Runs and you can find us. 0:10:40.880 --> 0:10:42.880 It's a charity, right, Yeah, five one just for people 0:10:42.920 --> 0:10:45.160 don't know. Yeah, it's a charity. You can find us 0:10:45.200 --> 0:10:48.840 on the internet at Rebel Army Runs and basically remember 0:10:48.880 --> 0:10:51.200 the projects you were talking about. We've been to just 0:10:51.280 --> 0:10:55.760 about every project in Manhattan and now we're expanding to 0:10:55.800 --> 0:10:58.840 Brooklyn where we give away a two week food pack 0:10:58.920 --> 0:11:03.440 to the seniors. Through that through their community centers and 0:11:03.520 --> 0:11:07.480 through that Nischa Housing programs directly. And I just want 0:11:07.520 --> 0:11:09.160 to point out to people that didn't know that in 0:11:09.200 --> 0:11:14.480 New York City right during the pandemic, they canceled fourteen 0:11:14.520 --> 0:11:18.440 food programs for people they couldn't afford to feed those people, 0:11:18.720 --> 0:11:21.880 and we actually became the functional food program for the 0:11:21.960 --> 0:11:25.800 Dykeman Houses, for the Grand Houses, which were serviced this 0:11:25.960 --> 0:11:28.520 morning by my team when I wasn't there. You can 0:11:28.559 --> 0:11:30.920 see the posts right now. Big shout out to my 0:11:30.960 --> 0:11:34.560 brother Thanos and the little short, little Dominican and shorty 0:11:34.640 --> 0:11:37.640 Gene that came and took my place, because I do 0:11:37.720 --> 0:11:40.559 it myself when I'm not doing a series of other things. 0:11:41.000 --> 0:11:43.400 So it's been a joy to be able to do that. 0:11:43.760 --> 0:11:48.240 And we've were proud to say that all donations are 0:11:48.280 --> 0:11:50.520 now tax deductible because of our five oh one C 0:11:50.640 --> 0:11:53.560 three status and we've passed the mark where we fed 0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:56.280 over ten thousand families. And when I say a two 0:11:56.320 --> 0:11:59.080 week food pack, I mean we give them like four 0:11:59.200 --> 0:12:02.960 two the three four cases of tuna. Then we have 0:12:03.080 --> 0:12:06.840 a two week oatmeal pack. We have canned milk, We 0:12:06.960 --> 0:12:10.199 have ravioli's, we give them like tomato paste, we give 0:12:10.280 --> 0:12:13.760 them pasta, and then we like to have soups in there, 0:12:14.000 --> 0:12:17.320 and then we give away inshore for the elders. And 0:12:17.360 --> 0:12:21.800 we have also pedialyte and pampers wow, and they have 0:12:22.120 --> 0:12:25.440 feminine products as well. So I always tell people revolution 0:12:25.600 --> 0:12:27.280 isn't sexy, you know what I mean. It's not just 0:12:27.760 --> 0:12:30.720 having a beret and running around the jungle with a gun. 0:12:30.880 --> 0:12:33.040 You gotta get your hands dirty and help people, and 0:12:33.080 --> 0:12:35.280 it's not always easy, you know. Well, I think too, 0:12:35.360 --> 0:12:38.520 Like that's I think that's important to point out because 0:12:38.559 --> 0:12:43.040 so many artists that I grew up listening to around 0:12:43.080 --> 0:12:47.559 that same era, who I guess will probably perceived as 0:12:47.640 --> 0:12:50.839 conscious rappers. And I don't know if I consider you 0:12:50.880 --> 0:12:54.280 a conscious rapper as much as like a reality art 0:12:54.320 --> 0:12:56.760 But you know, back in that day, there was like 0:12:56.800 --> 0:12:59.440 the conscious wrap thing, and a lot of those guys 0:12:59.800 --> 0:13:02.800 did and put their money where their mouth was. I 0:13:02.800 --> 0:13:04.439 guess you know what I mean in terms of, like 0:13:05.040 --> 0:13:08.079 he it's dope to see twenty years later, you're just 0:13:08.120 --> 0:13:11.120 fighting the good fight, man, fighting the fight for your people. 0:13:11.760 --> 0:13:13.960 I can't speak to other people, but what I can 0:13:14.040 --> 0:13:16.800 say is this. I could say that because my life 0:13:16.840 --> 0:13:21.160 was personally affected by these things, I wanted to contribute back, like, 0:13:21.200 --> 0:13:24.199 for example, for the people that don't know I went 0:13:24.240 --> 0:13:26.440 to I got locked up when I was a kid. 0:13:26.760 --> 0:13:30.480 I spent my twenty first birthday being incarcerated in the whole, 0:13:30.960 --> 0:13:32.880 and when I got out, I thought one of the 0:13:32.880 --> 0:13:36.120 things that I could do is teach at a school. 0:13:36.480 --> 0:13:38.680 And what we did is myself and a young lady 0:13:38.760 --> 0:13:43.000 named Carmen Perez. I met the great Harry Belafonte. Shout 0:13:43.080 --> 0:13:45.880 out Harry Belafonte, and he said, you know, you have 0:13:45.920 --> 0:13:48.280 such a way with words, would you consider being a 0:13:48.360 --> 0:13:53.160 teacher in one of these school programs? So Harry Belafonte 0:13:53.640 --> 0:13:56.360 gave me my first teaching job, and I taught at 0:13:56.360 --> 0:14:01.520 a school called Horizons. So it was interesting time. I 0:14:01.600 --> 0:14:03.760 was still kind of touring this album called The Martyr, 0:14:04.400 --> 0:14:08.160 which did great, like four million downloads. Everything wonderful we 0:14:08.200 --> 0:14:11.920 told the world. But after the tours were over, I 0:14:12.000 --> 0:14:17.800 had the the really kind of painful but joyful reality 0:14:17.800 --> 0:14:21.800 of bringing this workshop, which was called Confronting Trauma through 0:14:21.800 --> 0:14:24.840 Writing to the kids. And the stories that they wrote 0:14:25.200 --> 0:14:29.560 were not just uplifting, but they were also heartbreaking. Sometimes 0:14:29.600 --> 0:14:31.800 you feel like you need a shower afterwards because you 0:14:31.880 --> 0:14:35.360 realize how much suffering these kids have been through. And 0:14:35.400 --> 0:14:39.080 then again, to bring it back to your other point, 0:14:39.240 --> 0:14:43.640 those kids, those hood kids, they're the real underground, right 0:14:43.800 --> 0:14:46.480 Like you talk about the backpackers. Yeah, they had guns 0:14:46.480 --> 0:14:48.400 and knives in that backpack, and they had ship that 0:14:48.440 --> 0:14:52.920 they stole from the polo store. The underground, the underground 0:14:53.000 --> 0:14:56.880 kids are the people that make up the cruise of 0:14:57.000 --> 0:14:59.800 all of the major label rappers. So while y'all are 0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:02.600 praising them and acting like they're the hardest people in 0:15:02.640 --> 0:15:05.160 the world, the reason that they're in the position that 0:15:05.200 --> 0:15:09.640 they are is because they're backed by underground, independent people 0:15:09.680 --> 0:15:11.840 that are in these neighborhoods. Right now, you would think 0:15:11.840 --> 0:15:15.040 that applies to just one of them, No, it applies 0:15:15.080 --> 0:15:17.920 to all of them. And I feel like in my 0:15:18.000 --> 0:15:22.920 particular situation, any neighborhood or any city that I've come in, 0:15:23.400 --> 0:15:27.000 I've always approached them with such love and respect that 0:15:27.040 --> 0:15:30.400 I've gotten nothing but that in return. So whether I'm 0:15:30.440 --> 0:15:33.600 in Detroit, I got fam out there. Whether I'm in 0:15:33.680 --> 0:15:38.360 Miami and in la I'm home. Half my family moved 0:15:38.360 --> 0:15:41.040 out here when we came from South America in nineteen 0:15:41.080 --> 0:15:44.440 eighty four, and you know, they married into Mexican families 0:15:44.440 --> 0:15:48.600 from Oxnard and also from Inglewood. So we've had our 0:15:48.640 --> 0:15:51.480 family be here for years and now we get together. 0:15:51.520 --> 0:15:55.200 We have arguments about whose food is better, Peruvians or Mexicans, 0:15:55.520 --> 0:15:58.840 whose pyramids are nicer ours, But I think that it's 0:15:58.960 --> 0:16:02.240 nice to have that kind of camaraderie. And I will 0:16:02.240 --> 0:16:05.040 say this, keV, It's sad for me to see artists 0:16:05.040 --> 0:16:08.040 come out here and die or get hurt and rob 0:16:08.120 --> 0:16:13.000 because I've never felt unwelcome here. Brother, I've never felt that, 0:16:13.080 --> 0:16:14.800 and maybe it's just because of the way I move. 0:16:14.920 --> 0:16:17.720 And I don't call it checking in because I'm not 0:16:17.880 --> 0:16:20.880 paying people for protection. But I'll come and if some 0:16:20.920 --> 0:16:23.160 of the brothers or the essays ask me, hey man, 0:16:23.200 --> 0:16:26.960 we're doing a kids program, like, for example, sick Jacking 0:16:27.360 --> 0:16:32.280 and hood Santa and then my homie Sleeps. The artists incredible, dude. 0:16:32.320 --> 0:16:36.160 They they did this workshop for kids where they brought 0:16:36.200 --> 0:16:39.200 a bunch of different neighborhoods together from East Low, from 0:16:39.240 --> 0:16:42.520 other places to do art workshops. I was a pleasure 0:16:42.720 --> 0:16:45.920 to join that. And I don't charge people for parents, 0:16:45.920 --> 0:16:47.600 as I'm like, yo, man, let me just come there. 0:16:47.720 --> 0:16:50.320 Whatever I can do to offer and lend my voice 0:16:50.320 --> 0:16:52.280 to this is something that we need. You know, at 0:16:52.320 --> 0:16:54.880 some point somebody's got to be the adult in the room. Kevin, Hey, 0:16:54.920 --> 0:16:56.800 what have y'all? Bulet keV gott to stop the interview 0:16:56.840 --> 0:16:59.160 to tell you about our newest sponsor. Man. Shout out 0:16:59.200 --> 0:17:02.240 to the homies at home Hard Dean, Las Vegas. That's 0:17:02.400 --> 0:17:06.879 right then, number one dispensary in the whole state of Nevada, 0:17:07.400 --> 0:17:10.640 let alone in the whole fucking country. So many choices 0:17:10.640 --> 0:17:14.560 of premium cannabis, ladies and gentlemen. It is like, how 0:17:14.560 --> 0:17:17.080 can I put this? You walk into it. You go 0:17:17.160 --> 0:17:20.680 to Hardan in Las Vegas when you're on vacation, when 0:17:20.680 --> 0:17:23.840 you're out there tricking off whatever you're doing, stop off 0:17:23.880 --> 0:17:27.000 at Hardan, Tell them I sent you. Be like yo, 0:17:27.000 --> 0:17:29.399 bootleg keV sent me. They're gonna take care of you 0:17:29.440 --> 0:17:32.679 at Harden. When I say selection, I mean selection of 0:17:32.760 --> 0:17:38.119 the best premium cannabis in the world, the best dispensary. 0:17:38.119 --> 0:17:42.080 There's a reason why Harden is world famous. Follow them 0:17:42.119 --> 0:17:45.960 right now, Hardan Underscore Las Vegas. Go to their website 0:17:45.960 --> 0:17:51.880 Hardanlasvegas dot com. That's Ja R d N Underscore Las Vegas. 0:17:52.040 --> 0:17:55.040 When you're in Vegas, you have to pull up to Hardan, 0:17:55.359 --> 0:17:58.040 tell them I sent you, and get high off your 0:17:58.080 --> 0:18:00.399 fucking face. I don't even know what that means. How 0:18:00.400 --> 0:18:02.520 do you get high off of your face? Whatever? Melt 0:18:02.560 --> 0:18:04.680 your fucking face off with some of that good hard ding, 0:18:04.760 --> 0:18:07.040 y'all go follow them one more time. That's Hardy Underscore 0:18:07.119 --> 0:18:09.560 Las Vegas. Let's get back to the interview. Yeah, I 0:18:09.560 --> 0:18:13.159 think too, man, la Is it's a unique place because 0:18:13.200 --> 0:18:19.600 of how the unemployment stimulated people's pockets during COVID, probably 0:18:19.640 --> 0:18:23.480 more than anywhere else. And once that went away, I 0:18:23.480 --> 0:18:25.320 think people a lot of people who weren't used to 0:18:25.359 --> 0:18:27.720 living a certain lifestyle, right they got a taste of 0:18:27.720 --> 0:18:32.560 that lifestyle and and you know they're trying to keep that. 0:18:33.480 --> 0:18:34.919 I mean, once you get a taste of having that 0:18:34.960 --> 0:18:37.840 real money because there was people eating off PvP and 0:18:37.880 --> 0:18:41.800 the and the edd out here. So I also too, like, 0:18:41.880 --> 0:18:44.200 you know, I think a lot of the obviously, you know, 0:18:44.440 --> 0:18:47.840 there's people who are just wrong place, wrong time. I 0:18:47.840 --> 0:18:49.639 think another thing is is like kind of being your 0:18:49.680 --> 0:18:53.360 self aware of where you're at. Are you gonna walk 0:18:53.400 --> 0:18:55.879 around with one hundred thousand dollars around your neck when 0:18:55.960 --> 0:18:58.960 somebody's starving. I mean you got to kind of like understand, 0:18:58.960 --> 0:19:01.240 like the climate that's going on in LA right now. 0:19:01.280 --> 0:19:03.080 It's crazy because I used to feel like when i'd 0:19:03.080 --> 0:19:05.560 go to New York, I'd be like, you know, New 0:19:05.640 --> 0:19:07.880 York is the place where you get jacked. And I'm 0:19:07.880 --> 0:19:09.720 not saying it still isn't, of course it is, but 0:19:09.760 --> 0:19:12.560 I feel like LA feels like just a much more 0:19:12.640 --> 0:19:14.800 dangerous place now. Even just going to New York, we 0:19:14.800 --> 0:19:16.720 were just like, man, it's so nice. There's not that 0:19:16.760 --> 0:19:20.080 many homeless people. Like there's homeless people, obviously, we saw 0:19:20.119 --> 0:19:22.639 a bunch, but like certain areas of LA it's like 0:19:23.720 --> 0:19:26.920 it's it's like skid row all over them. There are 0:19:26.960 --> 0:19:28.800 skid row places in New York. I'm sure there are. 0:19:28.840 --> 0:19:30.680 I'll take you that next. Yeah, I'm sure. No, I'm sure, 0:19:30.680 --> 0:19:33.480 and and every city has that, right, But I was 0:19:33.640 --> 0:19:35.960 we were all over the city, like if you just 0:19:36.040 --> 0:19:39.040 drive around la which I'm sure you've seen, it doesn't matter. 0:19:39.080 --> 0:19:41.639 If you're in skid row, there's just thirty tenths on 0:19:41.680 --> 0:19:44.359 the side of the road. There's like, I mean, but 0:19:44.800 --> 0:19:47.199 you guys don't have a subway system that people live in. 0:19:47.440 --> 0:19:49.840 This is true, that's what we have to now, that's true. 0:19:49.840 --> 0:19:51.679 The subway system is a whole nother area. We have 0:19:51.760 --> 0:19:54.520 people that live underground. As a matter of fact, years ago, 0:19:54.560 --> 0:19:57.600 there was a movie made called The mole Men, and 0:19:57.680 --> 0:20:00.119 it was a documentary about people. And I would tell 0:20:00.119 --> 0:20:03.640 you myself one of the craziest experiences I've ever had 0:20:03.960 --> 0:20:06.199 is I was seventeen and I used to run with 0:20:06.280 --> 0:20:09.320 a bunch of wild Dominican motherfuckers me and talk about 0:20:09.320 --> 0:20:11.440 cutting slice and get the fuck out of the way 0:20:11.440 --> 0:20:14.880 when you're seeing all thirty of us. And one day 0:20:15.480 --> 0:20:20.480 we were writing graffiti at a place called the Freedom Tunnels, 0:20:20.480 --> 0:20:23.600 which is on seventy second Street. It's all gentrified now, 0:20:24.119 --> 0:20:26.680 but I walked down the Freedom Tunnel right and when 0:20:26.680 --> 0:20:30.040 we were leaving, we saw a dude just coming out 0:20:30.080 --> 0:20:33.119 looking like shit, like a regular homeless dude. Yea, all 0:20:33.160 --> 0:20:35.880 fucked up, yo. And he had a plastic bag with him, 0:20:36.000 --> 0:20:39.840 right keV. He goes to one of the the little fountains. 0:20:40.080 --> 0:20:42.720 He washes himself off. keV. He takes out a hand 0:20:42.760 --> 0:20:45.879 towel and uses it like a regular towel. He puts 0:20:45.920 --> 0:20:49.040 on a button up shirt, smacks on a name tag, 0:20:49.480 --> 0:20:52.159 puts a hat, and gets ready to go to work. 0:20:52.520 --> 0:20:54.240 And we approached him because I was like, ya, I 0:20:54.240 --> 0:20:56.600 want to ask this motherfucker something. So we approached him 0:20:56.600 --> 0:20:58.720 and he at first was like, all right, you're seeing 0:20:58.760 --> 0:21:01.600