Speaker 1: All right, So look, this is a.
Speaker 2: Incredibly busy and wild like news week that I'm living
Speaker 2: right now that you're obviously living right now. If right
Speaker 2: now is you hearing this as I'm recording it, you know,
Speaker 2: but you know, since time is relative, my right now
Speaker 2: was your right now, but now it's not now, dude,
Speaker 2: bars anyway, it's the week of four to twenty.
Speaker 1: Hey, oh my gosh, dude, don't be so on the nose,
Speaker 1: you freaking nerds. Oh my god, it's shut up. Anyway.
Speaker 2: I don't know what's wrong with me, but this week
Speaker 2: between the two justins, the lit twenty one year old
Speaker 2: on freaking discord, no less breaking into heavily protected Pentagon secrets.
Speaker 2: You have said, because you all dudes don't understand the internet.
Speaker 1: So when you've got like.
Speaker 2: An it dude putting stuff on Discord, now, I'm nervous
Speaker 2: that we're going to see some sort of congressional hearing
Speaker 2: where somebody's gonna try to explain what the hell discord is.
Speaker 2: We really need to think about these requirements to be
Speaker 2: in Congress. Between that Sudan shooting, it's just a crazy, crazy,
Speaker 2: crazy week. But I, however, had two pretty dope hip
Speaker 2: hop things I got to be a part of. There's
Speaker 2: event called ryan Fest out in La festival hip hop,
Speaker 2: but it's during the same week as Coachella, which is
Speaker 2: like pretty dope. One is to show how large freaking
Speaker 2: the market is for music is in Los Angeles.
Speaker 1: But yeah, a lot of the ogs so like Souls.
Speaker 2: And Mischief, Dilated People's, the Homie Blue and Exile Project,
Speaker 2: Load Master Ace, you know, dead Press, just real like
Speaker 2: some underground indie hip hop stuff. And then also we
Speaker 2: did a reunion we as in me and the crew.
Speaker 2: I came up with this crew called Tunno Rats. If
Speaker 2: you're interested in my other lives, yeah, go check us out.
Speaker 2: Who's called Tono Rats. Anyway, we did a reunion show.
Speaker 2: We hadn't been on stage together in the last like
Speaker 2: maybe fifteen years. I'm the like the Cruise multi generational.
Speaker 2: I'm the youngest of the collective. I'm like the third generation. Anyway,
Speaker 2: a lot of indie hip hop this weekend, which got
Speaker 2: me to thinking, you know, maybe this would be a
Speaker 2: cool time to bring.
Speaker 1: That into the politics, to be like.
Speaker 2: I think that there's as an independent artist, specifically an
Speaker 2: independent hip hop artist, I think there are a lot
Speaker 2: of things that politicians can learn from having to navigate
Speaker 2: the music industry as an indie artist. So I think today,
Speaker 2: as the twenty twenty four election cycle is starting, maybe
Speaker 2: let's do some lessons that indie artists can teach you politicians.
Speaker 2: You ready The Independent Artist's Guide to Running for Office Politicians, y'all?
Speaker 2: All right, y'all, there's just so much to cover in
Speaker 2: the news, and like I mean, for my own mental health,
Speaker 2: sometimes I do got to like pull back.
Speaker 1: You've heard me say this before.
Speaker 2: And since I'm not really like a journalist, you know
Speaker 2: what I'm saying, Like, I'm more like this is analysis,
Speaker 2: This is like the people helping you understand what the
Speaker 2: hell the journalist is saying, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: And using my antenna is to you know, kind of
Speaker 2: like train you to use your antennas you feel me
Speaker 2: and hopefully onboard some of y'all into you know, maybe
Speaker 2: running for office here and there you feel me. I
Speaker 2: feel like, man, if I could inspire some of y'all
Speaker 2: you know, who got some good sense and maybe want
Speaker 2: to see, you know, can imagine a better future that
Speaker 2: if I could, you know, install some confidence in you
Speaker 2: that like yo, you know, you might actually be able
Speaker 2: to pull this off. You feel me, then, like, man,
Speaker 2: then we've done good work. You feel me, and of
Speaker 2: course sell a couple of ads. You understand I'm saying,
Speaker 2: let me be real with you. I'm saying, you boy
Speaker 2: got to eat anyway.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So, Independent Artist's Guide to running for office. Why I
Speaker 2: feel pretty qualified to do this is because I've been
Speaker 2: an independent artist for a pretty long time. I've been
Speaker 2: on a major label. I've been released from a major label.
Speaker 2: I got a major label holding on to some masters.
Speaker 2: Like I feel like I've had all of the experiences.
Speaker 2: I've had great experiences, I've had bad experiences. But I
Speaker 2: have noticed that no matter what institution you're a part of,
Speaker 2: there are a few things that continue to rain true
Speaker 2: because at the end of the day, if the people
Speaker 2: don't mess with you, it ain't nothing no machine can
Speaker 2: do for you. People don't rock with you, it just
Speaker 2: don't matter. Oh and one more disclaimer. If we're talking
Speaker 2: about somebody that's just interested in power and really don't
Speaker 2: and it's completely devoid of like any sort of like
Speaker 2: north Star or some sort of thing that's guiding that
Speaker 2: a guiding principle, then none of this stuff matters, then
Speaker 2: what we're what I'm saying don't matter. You just want
Speaker 2: to be a star. You just want to be a star.
Speaker 2: Just go ahead, ignore everything I'm saying. So that's the
Speaker 2: caveat for these rules I'm about to lay out for you.
Speaker 2: This is gonna be fun because god, I don't need
Speaker 2: to say because it's gonna be fun, all right. Rule
Speaker 2: number one write this down. Don't write this down, but
Speaker 2: you understand what I'm saying. Rule number one is you
Speaker 2: have to ask yourself this question. Does your own scene
Speaker 2: mess with you? Now? If you're a artists, you know,
Speaker 2: probably you're going to start off local at any open mics,
Speaker 2: whatever gigs you can get. You can build enough as
Speaker 2: much of a fan base as you can via like
Speaker 2: the Internet, whether it's you know, YouTube, social media. You
Speaker 2: have a million, million, million followers, right, a million streams,
Speaker 2: everybody loves it.
Speaker 1: But if you can't get one hundred people.
Speaker 2: In the room, it's not sustainable. Does that make sense
Speaker 2: if you're an artist? Now, obviously like influencers, of course
Speaker 2: there's there's exceptions to this, but like how you're measured,
Speaker 2: I think I said this before, is your hard ticket
Speaker 2: sales if you can't sell one hundred tickets in a
Speaker 2: major city. If you're an artist, you kind of don't
Speaker 2: have a career. Does your city mess with you? Because
Speaker 2: before you can go national, if you if you're not
Speaker 2: popping in the hood, you not popping in your own neighborhood,
Speaker 2: you have no foundation. Of course, there are exceptions to
Speaker 2: this rule, which I'll get to after this, or ways
Speaker 2: to make it work in your favor either way, but
Speaker 2: specifically I cite to you as an example, the two
Speaker 2: Justins in Tennessee. They was able to jump into the
Speaker 2: national scene because they local scene really rocked with them
Speaker 2: and even when they went to that state legislature and
Speaker 2: the state legislature who, to be honest, I cannot believe
Speaker 2: how dumb that move. I'm just saying just from a
Speaker 2: strategic standpoint, you know what I'm saying, like that was
Speaker 2: just a dumb move, like y'all, y'all overplayed y'all hands
Speaker 2: to try to, like, you know, expel these brothers because
Speaker 2: let me tell you why they wasn't paying attention to
Speaker 2: rule number one, which is do they city mess with them?
Speaker 2: Because you thinking just because you don't know who they are,
Speaker 2: just because they I never heard of your music.
Speaker 1: That don't mean they not popping, y'all.
Speaker 2: I don't know what these boys are, you know how,
Speaker 2: I know they popping and they own hood messed with
Speaker 2: him because they was back in the day. They city
Speaker 2: sent them right back, like, I don't care if they're not.
Speaker 2: You are, dude, this is our champion. Do your city
Speaker 2: mess with you? And that's what happened to Justice. They
Speaker 2: city mess with them. They district's metal. Memphis and Nashville
Speaker 2: mess with the two Justice all just because you think
Speaker 2: you the state legislation. Will you know the rest of
Speaker 2: the city, rest of the state, don't mess with it.
Speaker 1: Don't matter. I got a fan base. My fan base
Speaker 1: gonna keep me popping.
Speaker 2: I live in a city like Los Angeles where you
Speaker 2: can have an entire, humongous, great career without ever leaving
Speaker 2: Los Angeles. I can name a ton of artists like
Speaker 2: that who out here no matter where they go. I mean,
Speaker 2: they fill in rooms everywhere they go, and everybody know
Speaker 2: every lyrics to every song.
Speaker 1: And it could work if you cool with just being here.
Speaker 2: Now here's the flip side of them.
Speaker 1: Now here go rule number two.
Speaker 2: Okay, just because your city mess with you that don't
Speaker 2: mean the nation mess with you. This could work to
Speaker 2: your advantage if you down to just be like, no,
Speaker 2: I'm just gonna lock down this area and you know,
Speaker 2: set my set my crown in my throne in this
Speaker 2: region and we good. This is all I like, this
Speaker 2: is where I want to be. I'm comfortable here and
Speaker 2: I'm on top of the world. You think of like
Speaker 2: a uh, I think Kawhi Leonard like, I don't know
Speaker 2: why that food left Toronto.
Speaker 1: Like you, the Ran Cat ain't no other NBA teams
Speaker 1: up there. If you was cool with it, he wasn't
Speaker 1: cool with it. He want to stay.
Speaker 2: But again, just because you're city mess with you, that
Speaker 2: don't mean the nation mess with you. Let me give
Speaker 2: you an example. I was on tour with some homies
Speaker 2: in twenty twelve. It was a big, one of the
Speaker 2: biggest tours I've ever been on. It's called the Unashamed Tour,
Speaker 2: and it was I mean like, yeah, two tour buses,
Speaker 2: you know, Arenas.
Speaker 1: It was pretty crazy.
Speaker 2: I had never played Arenas and we would be on
Speaker 2: the bus and most of the brothers on the tour
Speaker 2: were from the South, you know, whether it was Dallas, Houston, Memphis, Cashville, Murphyville.
Speaker 2: I say Cashville because there's a black part of Nashville
Speaker 2: that y'all don't recognize, even some one of the brothers
Speaker 2: from Florida, you know what I'm saying, Like, let's not
Speaker 2: forget that Florida is still the South, right, So me
Speaker 2: and two other artists were not from there. One brother
Speaker 2: was from New York or two brothers were from New York,
Speaker 2: and then it was me from Cali, right.
Speaker 1: And sometimes at night, you know what.
Speaker 2: I'm saying, after the tour, after a good show, you know,
Speaker 2: when you get back on the bus, you know, you
Speaker 2: just kind of have you know, a little little you know,
Speaker 2: before everybody go to bed, like we might turn up
Speaker 2: a little bit, you know, you just plug in the
Speaker 2: ox and just start playing music from y'all's from y'all's area.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying, Like if you still got energy,
Speaker 2: you know, like we're not old mentoring no more. This
Speaker 2: was when we was you know, we was, we was
Speaker 2: young bucks you feel me and ten years ago, but uh,
Speaker 2: you you just you start putting on music, you know
Speaker 2: what I'm saying, And it's like and it's a lot
Speaker 2: of times if you if you've heard my music. It's
Speaker 2: very positive, very spiritual, very uplifting, you know, very political,
Speaker 2: like it's a lot of all these things. My music
Speaker 2: is deep, but my taste is ratchet, yo saying, just
Speaker 2: like all the homies, our taste is very ratchet. You
Speaker 2: feel me now When I say ratchet, I'm talking like Calie,
Speaker 2: West Coast underground, grimy dirty you feel me or East
Speaker 2: Coast backpack rap. You feel me like I'm not into
Speaker 2: the U or I wasn't at the time, really like
Speaker 2: I didn't appreciate nothing coming out unless you was outcasts
Speaker 2: or t I. You know what I'm saying. A scarface,
Speaker 2: but scarface sounded like Oakland of me.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean.
Speaker 2: So anyway, I was into that these this word they
Speaker 2: I mean, it looked like a Chief Key video, Like
Speaker 2: they just pulled their shirts off and was just like
Speaker 2: flinging their head around everybody.
Speaker 1: Jumping hey hey hey, and me and the other.
Speaker 2: And the two New Yorkers was looking at each other like, boy,
Speaker 2: what is how do I've never heard any of these songs?
Speaker 2: Been listening to hip hop my whole life. I've never
Speaker 2: heard any of these songs. These fools is singing along,
Speaker 2: bouncing around. Even one of the brothers from the Midwest,
Speaker 2: from Saint Louis, he played he knew all the same music.
Speaker 2: I was like, what are these songs? And they were like,
Speaker 2: oh this song, We're crazy in the club. I was
Speaker 2: like who look little trigger Finger, like like who are
Speaker 2: these people? What are these songs? And since again they Texans,
Speaker 2: they had a way that they would freestyle, and since
Speaker 2: they was all from it, it was such a vibe.
Speaker 1: They would be like I'd have.
Speaker 3: Came dawn, I Ida came through, ay Itta drink Hey, Ita,
Speaker 3: drink bro sitting at the table, heya da hey the
Speaker 3: mic hey and I was like, you're as a that's
Speaker 3: coach MC.
Speaker 1: I'm like, y'all cheating.
Speaker 2: We didn't get to rap like that when we freestyl
Speaker 2: I mean, you had to have styles for miles kickback,
Speaker 2: dip back like God Revivals, who stepped, I wrapped the West,
Speaker 2: flipper track, crack your back of tunnel like you had
Speaker 2: to like style it out.
Speaker 1: They could just Ida came down. I came through.
Speaker 2: Y'all was like, oh my gosh, what is this. I
Speaker 2: didn't know who none of these artists were. They was
Speaker 2: kings where they were to me, I was like, these
Speaker 2: are the most obscure.
Speaker 1: Names.
Speaker 2: So just because you pop it at home, don't mean
Speaker 2: you gonna pop across the nation. It takes very special
Speaker 2: people to pop across the nation. There's a million gangster rappers.
Speaker 2: But like, there's something that I would name out here
Speaker 2: that y'all would be like, I don't know it is.
Speaker 2: But if I say Drake, Snoop and Pock, y'all would
Speaker 2: be like, yeah, is it was? It? The machine that's
Speaker 2: a part of it, right, that's absolutely a part of it.
Speaker 2: Don't get me wrong, But there was machines behind plenty
Speaker 2: of artists, y'all don't know who they are, you know,
Speaker 2: above the lawyers. That's what I thought, had a great
Speaker 2: machine behind him. Now when you look at the South,
Speaker 2: it's like, you know, why did the screwed? Why did
Speaker 2: DJ screw stuff work? Why did the screw tapes work?
Speaker 2: Why did it start a freaking movement? That whole lean
Speaker 2: and chopped and screwed movement?
Speaker 1: Like that was? Why did it make it out?
Speaker 2: I just don't get, you know what, Just because it
Speaker 2: some people just got it. Some people ready for the
Speaker 2: national scene. Now when you look at like look at
Speaker 2: top dog in them like Kendrick. Now this might be
Speaker 2: again some like oh man stuff, right, But when you
Speaker 2: look at Kendrick, I'll do the young fools to like
Speaker 2: the young Dolphs in them, you know, and Dirk's and
Speaker 2: all them.
Speaker 1: But like when you.
Speaker 2: Look at the tde roster, the black hippie thing, really,
Speaker 2: any one of them could have popped. Any one of
Speaker 2: them could have been Kendrick is if we're just talking talent,
Speaker 2: and if you ask among them, they all kind of
Speaker 2: feel like abs. The lyricists abs so out they're like, no,
Speaker 2: he's He's the one barring off. Kendrick could write songs,
Speaker 2: his ear was unmatched. He was ready for the national scene.
Speaker 2: So why is he on the list as like the one,
Speaker 2: two three artists of a decade and not school boy Hugh?
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: It's not talent, it's just listen, just because you popping
Speaker 2: at home don't mean you gonna pop across the world.
Speaker 2: Who do I say this about in politics? Ron DeSantis? Oh,
Speaker 2: he popping at home. He got a little bit of
Speaker 2: buzz across the nation. But just because you popping at
Speaker 2: home don't mean you gonna pop across the nation. I
Speaker 2: don't know if he got it, because in my mind
Speaker 2: it's like one of the other rules you have to ask,
Speaker 2: which I think can may fit into number two, But
Speaker 2: I think this is number three.
Speaker 1: But you can call it whatever you want. Two point
Speaker 1: five is why me and not them? If you're an artist.
Speaker 2: Now, granted, people can download whateverever re meanings song as
Speaker 2: they don't buyer earny albums they want. But the point
Speaker 2: is when you start putting on lists, when it comes
Speaker 2: to like when they step into they whip, you know,
Speaker 2: step into they whip, when they whenever it is, they
Speaker 2: open the app and they fina press play? Why are
Speaker 2: you gonna press play for me and not them? When
Speaker 2: you see tickets fly up, when you see merch you know,
Speaker 2: sales go on, why me not them? If you just
Speaker 2: a clone to somebody else, which is what the music
Speaker 2: industry does all the time, you're just trying to catch
Speaker 2: the crumbs of and maybe siphon off fans from an
Speaker 2: already established brand. Oh if that don't sound like DeSantis
Speaker 2: and Trump, then I mean, is that?
Speaker 1: And now what's happening?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 2: Remember I told you how fifty did ja like you
Speaker 2: trying to siphon off The difference between fifty and Ja
Speaker 2: and Trump and DeSantis, like I said, is because fifty
Speaker 2: can rap. Fifty was an amazing artist. I don't know
Speaker 2: if DeSantis is proven yet. Oh he could guard, he
Speaker 2: can govern locally, he could govern when it comes to
Speaker 2: the culture war stuff. You know, he got that like
Speaker 2: smiling your face, stab you in the back type energy
Speaker 2: that politicians do need, or you could say with a
Speaker 2: straight face some stuff that you know is ferdulent. You
Speaker 2: kind of need that ability. But does that play in stadiums?
Speaker 1: Are you?
Speaker 2: I mean, it's dope. Regional you popping in Florida. You
Speaker 2: got that Miami based down you know what I mean?
Speaker 2: You got that getting stirty y'all getting stirty real.
Speaker 1: Good down there.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying. That's for the young folk
Speaker 2: they do. You know, you get stirty with the best
Speaker 2: of them. Won't get thirty everywhere. That's not what's happening everywhere. Now,
Speaker 2: you're gonna take that regional sound out outside. It may
Speaker 2: not pop. I experienced that myself, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: Like I said, on this same tour with these uh
Speaker 2: with these Southern brothers, you know, I was one of
Speaker 2: the openness. I went out there with my California you know,
Speaker 2: backpack rapper.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, lyrical miracle. They was looking
Speaker 1: at me like.
Speaker 2: Uh, what's he talking about?
Speaker 1: Bro By show too.
Speaker 2: I we went back and flipped that setup and was like, Okay,
Speaker 2: I need to give y'all some riding music, some with
Speaker 2: some more choruses. Boy, I was one of the greatest
Speaker 2: lessons I learned in my life. Was like, listen, bro
Speaker 2: just because it worked down here, you know, don't worry,
Speaker 2: don't mean it's gonna work everywhere else.
Speaker 1: You better learn how to learn from other people. And
Speaker 1: that's what I did.
Speaker 2: I learned how to learn from other people make music
Speaker 2: a little more palatable for the rest of the world,
Speaker 2: while at the same time repping your city because you
Speaker 2: can't lose your brand. You feel me. But you gotta like,
Speaker 2: just because you popping at home, don't mean you popping
Speaker 2: anywhere else. Now, how do you make that work for you?
Speaker 2: If you're not popping at home, there's plenty of people
Speaker 2: like that. I mean, if you're Sometimes if you're not
Speaker 2: popping at home, that's probably because maybe you just forward thinking,
Speaker 2: maybe you just different, Maybe you just think about the
Speaker 2: world differently.
Speaker 1: Think about that.
Speaker 2: If you're like, you know, you're a left leaning politician
Speaker 2: in a red state or you're a right leaning popeltitician
Speaker 2: in a blue state, you probably not popping at home.
Speaker 2: But when you hit the road, you might find like, dang,
Speaker 2: I got a gang of fans out here. I can
Speaker 2: use this for my advantage. And then you get the
Speaker 2: rest of the country riding for you. And then you
Speaker 2: could turn back at home and you come home a superstar.
Speaker 2: You can do that, and then the rest of the
Speaker 2: hood they come back and they're like dang, they start
Speaker 2: acting like they mess with you, or they come out
Speaker 2: the woodworks to being like, no, I've always liked y'all,
Speaker 2: always like you.
Speaker 1: Know who could do?
Speaker 2: You know who did that was Merse This again, this
Speaker 2: is underground wrap stuff, y'all go look up. Mercy had
Speaker 2: legend that's funny from a group called Living Legends. Merce
Speaker 2: would just like he would just move. He's like, all right,
Speaker 2: I'll go on tour with Atmosphere and do the rhyme
Speaker 2: Sayers thing. He did this the Felt albums would slug
Speaker 2: from Atmosphere like he did the the projects with Ninth
Speaker 2: Wonder You know, like I'm naming all these people because
Speaker 2: if you know, you know, if not google, So the
Speaker 2: Merse and Ninth Wonder records, like they're I mean, these
Speaker 2: are like so he came back home triumphant, and it
Speaker 2: was like all city merse, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: He's like, Okay, well yeah, you know, sure put on
Speaker 2: the paid dues and the rock the Bell festivals. Like
Speaker 2: he's just he's a household name now. But sometimes it's
Speaker 2: like when the city don't get it, sometimes you got
Speaker 2: to hit the road.
Speaker 1: So there's a way to do that too.
Speaker 2: Like if let's say your city don't mess with you,
Speaker 2: there's a way to go. Get go, get the fans
Speaker 2: somewhere else, bring them back home. Marthie Taylor Green doing that,
Speaker 2: they don't really don't really mess with her down there.
Speaker 2: She went and got them. She wouldn't got the national fans.
Speaker 2: Now she got the national fans. She came back home
Speaker 2: a star. You feel me, because why the hell else
Speaker 2: would she be at Trump's arraignment if you, I mean,
Speaker 2: if you really worry about your hood, you should be
Speaker 2: at your hood.
Speaker 1: Nah, go get them national numbers.
Speaker 2: So to recap before we go to the next two steps,
Speaker 2: and take a break before we go to those next
Speaker 2: two steps. Number one, does your own scene mess with you?
Speaker 2: Do you have a loyal fan base at home that'll
Speaker 2: be able to carry you when everybody else starts tripping?
Speaker 2: Because if you got a loyal scene at home, you'll
Speaker 2: always be all right. And the flip side of this
Speaker 2: might also be true where maybe you don't have a
Speaker 2: loyal scene at home, but you can go nationally, find yo,
Speaker 2: find your tribe, and bring them back home, and then
Speaker 2: that'll make your start at home. So number one, ask
Speaker 2: yourself this question, does your local scene mess with you?
Speaker 2: Number two, just because you popping at home, don't mean
Speaker 2: you're gonna pop nationally. Okay, just because you might be able,
Speaker 2: you might be the king of your little part of
Speaker 2: the pond, queen of your little region. But listen, just
Speaker 2: because it works here don't mean it's gonna work everywhere.
Speaker 2: Number three, ask yourself, why me and not them? There
Speaker 2: needs to be something so unique, so special about what
Speaker 2: you offer, right that distinguishes you from everybody else. You
Speaker 2: can't just be like the less dramatic version of somebody else, right.
Speaker 2: You can't just be a scrub clean version of something else,
Speaker 2: and there's gotta be a reason why you're the one.
Speaker 2: And sometimes it has to do with the machine, but
Speaker 2: that's only a part of it, because the machine can
Speaker 2: only do so much. You gotta have that thing, whatever
Speaker 2: that thing is, you gotta have it now. Rules four
Speaker 2: and five, Questions four and five, ever you want to
Speaker 2: do it?
Speaker 1: After this break? All right, we're back.
Speaker 2: Number four, which I personally feel is the most important
Speaker 2: okay for artists, for politicians, for anybody who's trying to
Speaker 2: do something publicly, but specifically as we're going into this, uh,
Speaker 2: this election cycle, and I want y'all to know this
Speaker 2: as voters, to know and to understand the game that's
Speaker 2: being presented to you. Here's the truth, Number four. Perception
Speaker 2: is reality until it's not. Say it again for you,
Speaker 2: Perception is reality until it's not. All right, let me
Speaker 2: unpack it. Maclamore pop and Tags that guy. Now, I've
Speaker 2: seen Maclamore's meteoric up, you know rise, especially because he
Speaker 2: was just a part of the Pacific Northwest hip hop scene.
Speaker 1: He's a great guy.
Speaker 2: He's an incredible rapper, incredible, you know, And popping tags
Speaker 2: is a it's a pop song, it's a it is
Speaker 2: a brilliant pops song.
Speaker 1: You can call.
Speaker 2: Whatever you want. You know what I'm saying, I don't
Speaker 2: know how old y'all are. Like, there's a level of
Speaker 2: corny to it, but of course it's a pop song.
Speaker 2: It's supposed to be. But was he styling on that
Speaker 2: that he's styling on it? You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna hop in the car and blast it.
Speaker 2: You feel me? But I don't hate the band. Like
Speaker 2: The Heist was a great record. The problem is it
Speaker 2: wasn't even his fault because it was the same year
Speaker 2: as Good Kid, Mad City, which is a perfect record,
Speaker 2: and for some reason, the Grammy Association decided to give
Speaker 2: the Grammy for Best Rap Album to The Heist rather
Speaker 2: than Good Kid, Mad City. And at that moment, hip
Speaker 2: hop culture, who was probably was gonna, like, you know,
Speaker 2: at least recognize game. At that moment, there was nothing
Speaker 2: Maclamore could do. His brand was burnt. There was no
Speaker 2: follow up he could do that in the eyes of
Speaker 2: hip hop culture because he just became the symbol of
Speaker 2: what we felt was wrong with music industry. It is
Speaker 2: not his fault because the boy could rap, and like
Speaker 2: I said, he's a good guy to the point of
Speaker 2: where he knew it shouldn't have went to him and
Speaker 2: sent the text like in the text got screenshot it
Speaker 2: sent out like, man, you should have won this. This
Speaker 2: is really yours. He sent it to Kendrick y'all, that's
Speaker 2: the right thing to do. Doesn't matter. Perception's reality now
Speaker 2: ten years later, eleven years later, it just there's nothing
Speaker 2: he could do. Man, Like, you're just perception's reality. We
Speaker 2: see you that way, Tory Lanez. I I'm not a.
Speaker 1: Tory Lanez fan. Now.
Speaker 2: I say this as someone that's just a consumer of music.
Speaker 2: I don't know the guy, right, this is just me.
Speaker 2: This is not my taste. A lot of people like him,
Speaker 2: you know. Please please hear me when I'm saying this,
Speaker 2: This isn't no disk tract or nothing.
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to throw them shade. I'm just saying
Speaker 1: it's not my thing.
Speaker 2: Now, as a commentator of culture, he's kind of in.
Speaker 1: He's in the corny box.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: A lot of people disagree.
Speaker 2: He's kind of in the there's not really much you
Speaker 2: could do about it, Like, you're just you're kind of
Speaker 2: in that. Then the Meghan situation kind of pushed it
Speaker 2: more into like, now, this is just weird. There's so
Speaker 2: much like massage and war in there, Like it's just
Speaker 2: at perception's reality. Man, I don't I don't know.
Speaker 1: On the other hand, NBA young boy who again not
Speaker 1: my thing. It is what it is.
Speaker 2: The industry tried to like blacklist the boy he liked
Speaker 2: the second most streaming artist. Perception is reality. It's what
Speaker 2: we perceive him as, right, y'all know ice Cube? I mean,
Speaker 2: of course he oh oh man now, but like you know,
Speaker 2: Nwa ice Cube, you know what man went to like
Speaker 2: USC for cinematography, Like he's a fully educated perceptions reality.
Speaker 2: Trump is the perfect example perceptions reality. We perceived him
Speaker 2: as this mogul, as this boss, despite mountains of evidence
Speaker 2: that this man been broke way longer than he been wealthy,
Speaker 2: and this whole time, this was a character that NBC created.
Speaker 2: This man ain't no damn mogul, that man in debt,
Speaker 2: This nigga is not the boss that everyone said, that
Speaker 2: these fools say is that he makes. But perception is reality,
Speaker 2: and this is what he continues to bank off. If
Speaker 2: you could perceive him as this particular person, if you
Speaker 2: could perceive him as this like martyr for the call,
Speaker 2: which is what he's banking on. For the fact that
Speaker 2: this man is facing plentiful of charges, is the perception
Speaker 2: that he's school and that becomes reality even though that's not.
Speaker 1: That's clearly not the key.
Speaker 2: So this stuff can work for you or against you,
Speaker 2: but perception is reality until it's not. Now, as an artist,
Speaker 2: what happens is this. You go out, you do a
Speaker 2: couple of shows. You hire yourself a really good like
Speaker 2: you know, performance videographer or photographer who shoots the dopest
Speaker 2: dopest like live concert footage, you know, and does the
Speaker 2: little thirty second recaps of tour nights, shoots it at
Speaker 2: an angle that looks like, dang them shows is popping dog,
Speaker 2: like this food really got it man? It shows is dope. Man,
Speaker 2: it looks like it's you know, a whole ocean of people.
Speaker 2: You take a photo. Maybe you have one show that
Speaker 2: was like during a festival, and you take a good
Speaker 2: angle of that, so like now you got the one
Speaker 2: huge crowd photo and shot in there. But those weren't
Speaker 2: your actual shows, your actual shows. You know, they still
Speaker 2: looked amazing, but that room only held fifty people. So
Speaker 2: the perception was first all this fool out here killing it.
Speaker 2: Then a promoter pull up your hard ticket sale history,
Speaker 2: or someone actually buys a ticket, they say, dang, I
Speaker 2: can't miss this show. When you come into the town
Speaker 2: they come and it's like, oh it ain't but eighty
Speaker 2: two people here. Man, this food had me believing these
Speaker 2: were stadiums.
Speaker 1: He was rocking. First.
Speaker 2: Usually the fan is like, dang, I got lucky, I
Speaker 2: got to catch this dude at this small thing, or
Speaker 2: sometimes you like dang, am I am I tripping? Like
Speaker 2: or maybe I'm tripping, like maybe I just went on
Speaker 2: the off night. But eventually you start realizing, like, you
Speaker 2: know what, actually that food just got really good photographer,
Speaker 2: and now reality's reality. You really not popping like that.
Speaker 2: You know when you see footage from somebody's like campaign
Speaker 2: rally and the crowd is behind them, you know when
Speaker 2: you look at the thing, because you got to think
Speaker 2: that's that's made for TV, right, because like what a
Speaker 2: horrible seat to have, Like why would you go to
Speaker 2: something where you're all the speakers are facing the opposite
Speaker 2: way and you only see this person's back, Because that's
Speaker 2: for perception. Nobody really, you don't sit like that. Have
Speaker 2: you've actually been to a campaign rally. There's really not
Speaker 2: that many people there. It's like a row maybe unless
Speaker 2: you wanted them, like you know, exceptional national, next person
Speaker 2: up type candidate. It's really not that many people there.
Speaker 2: They just make it look like it is. The point
Speaker 2: is to make it look like it's popping. You know
Speaker 2: when politicians like are waving when they walk in and
Speaker 2: they clap their hands and then they point at somebody like,
Speaker 2: oh hey, what's up. Like they're waving at somebody that
Speaker 2: they knew that was there. They're just doing that. There's
Speaker 2: no one there. You're just supposed to do that because
Speaker 2: it's perception.
Speaker 1: It's not real.
Speaker 2: You heard of the phrase astroturfing. You should have because
Speaker 2: I've talked about it on this pot. But let me
Speaker 2: remind you again. Astroturfing is this is how you get
Speaker 2: if there is a million people at that show, How
Speaker 2: you get people there or that rally, how you get
Speaker 2: people there is like a Craigslist ad or like a
Speaker 2: group on when you pay come and feel this this
Speaker 2: thing to make it look all grassroots, They give you signs.
Speaker 1: That's not real. That's not real power.
Speaker 2: Real power is what you and I have where you
Speaker 2: could text somebody right now, set it many times and
Speaker 2: been like, hey, we're finna do a barbecue, you know,
Speaker 2: a little backpack giveaway at the park this weekend. And
Speaker 2: a hundred people show up. That's real power. Oh what
Speaker 2: in a thousand people? That's okay, because a thousand people's
Speaker 2: not real power, that's not really they're not really there
Speaker 2: for you. But the hundred people that are really there,
Speaker 2: they really there. Now use that for your advantage. If
Speaker 2: you're the artist and you can get eighty five people.
Speaker 1: In a room, that's dope.
Speaker 2: You can get eighty five people in a room, doc
Speaker 2: get their email addresses. See if you could get down
Speaker 2: yourself a little like text messaging service app where you
Speaker 2: can like start sending them discount coupons, like do coffee meetups,
Speaker 2: like like get involved now. Sometimes you know, of course
Speaker 2: you should, you should have some sort of like safety precautions.
Speaker 2: I've been in a situation where i found myself a
Speaker 2: little too open and warm, warm, and I've had to
Speaker 2: put some boundaries around some folks. But the point is,
Speaker 2: you don't bemoan it, you don't fake it. Perception is
Speaker 2: reality until it's not. And once that bubble is burst.
Speaker 2: Hopefully you learn. Man, don't fake it till you make
Speaker 2: it fam because sometimes you don't get to make it.
Speaker 2: Just look at it truthfully, where it is, where you are,
Speaker 2: and what you need to do. Because you can fake streams,
Speaker 2: you can fake photos, but you can't fake ticket sales.
Speaker 1: And you can't fake votes.
Speaker 2: They make because they want you to think they can,
Speaker 2: but you can't fake votes. These people gonna vote for
Speaker 2: you or not. You need to give them a reason
Speaker 2: to all right. Number five two more. Number five is
Speaker 2: be very picky about who you around.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: I feel like there's a rule for everybody, you know,
Speaker 2: But when it comes to artists sometimes, like you know,
Speaker 2: you're going on tour, you're doing features, popping up at parties,
Speaker 2: just all these different things. And some of those things
Speaker 2: can be transactional, like in the sense of you know,
Speaker 2: you pay a artist, you know whatever, thousand dollars to
Speaker 2: hop on a song, or they pay you up you know.
Speaker 2: Sometimes like you know, when money get tight, you're like, yeah, man,
Speaker 2: let me do this features like twelve hundred dollars.
Speaker 1: You don't jump on this thing.
Speaker 2: But like, because sense perception is reality, if you do
Speaker 2: this song with this artist turns out that fool's a pedophile,
Speaker 2: Yo'm saying, or the album ends up being trash. You
Speaker 2: are now forever connected to that album and that artists.
Speaker 2: So you gotta be real picky as to who you
Speaker 2: willing to shake hands with, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 2: because that stuff sometimes can come back and bite you.
Speaker 2: Every I don't know. I don't know no politician that
Speaker 2: ain't never been in that position. I mean, that's the
Speaker 2: entirety of the GOP. Like y'all stuck you' said, like
Speaker 2: I don't I don't know what y'all gonna do. You
Speaker 2: know what I'm saying. That man that turned you into
Speaker 2: a pretzel. As a side note, I'd say about that
Speaker 2: man if I was a GOP, you know how happy
Speaker 2: I would be about these Trump charges right now, because look,
Speaker 2: I would be the snitch. If I was a GOP,
Speaker 2: I'd be the snitch. I'd be the one feeding in
Speaker 2: papers because like that man got a death grip on
Speaker 2: your y'all can't do nothing you will do. You can
Speaker 2: do nothing, your party can't go any direction.
Speaker 1: That man don't want y'all to go.
Speaker 2: He got a death grip on thirty four percent of
Speaker 2: your constituents. So to me, I'm like, y'all got a
Speaker 2: gift because y'all I can somehow finally shake loose at
Speaker 2: this man.
Speaker 1: And you don't have to do it.
Speaker 2: You should be sliding brag all kinds of documents you
Speaker 2: feel me to be like, and you can get on
Speaker 2: the camera and tell everybody like, no, listen, whoa we
Speaker 2: don't know. This is just a woke mob trying to
Speaker 2: destroy you. You could tell that you could play the
Speaker 2: game as much as you won't. You feel me, but like,
Speaker 2: because that man, a career killer like Trump, destroy your life.
Speaker 2: You don't like you, You feel me letting nothing y'all
Speaker 2: can do? You can You thought you could wait it out.
Speaker 2: You 'm saying, y'all can't wait it out. You feel me?
Speaker 1: So if I was, Look, if I was I was,
Speaker 1: I'd be like yo or just.
Speaker 2: This is just this is a hoax. It shouldn't happen anyway,
Speaker 2: brag holler at me. You have to work, man, Let
Speaker 2: me slide you something right quick. That's what I would
Speaker 2: be doing anyway. You gotta be careful who you do,
Speaker 2: who you do these features with, who you do these
Speaker 2: songs with. You know what I'm saying, who you put
Speaker 2: your name next to, and then who you hire? You
Speaker 2: feel me, I think a lot of times, like as
Speaker 2: an artist, you want to come off like you got
Speaker 2: more going on than you do, so then you hire you.
Speaker 2: You know, you think it's growth, but like all growth
Speaker 2: and good growth, you know, it's a it's a horrible
Speaker 2: way to say it, but like you know, some growth
Speaker 2: is cancer.
Speaker 1: You feel me, that's a tumor. That's not growth.
Speaker 2: You know, you got to really think about like every
Speaker 2: move you make and is it really going to be
Speaker 2: Is this a growth? That's a good growth? You know,
Speaker 2: So don't hire people you don't need. Don't get in
Speaker 2: a situation you don't spend money you ain't got. Food's
Speaker 2: be spending all kind of stuff on on on ads
Speaker 2: and on on on. You know, campaigns when it's like fam,
Speaker 2: it's not even you ain't gonna you can't win this one,
Speaker 2: dog like this ain't gonna work, man, Like, put your
Speaker 2: dough into this campaign because like you have more better
Speaker 2: chance of winning this one than that one. You feel me, right,
Speaker 2: And then you and you build your brand. You understand
Speaker 2: what I'm saying. I remember, I mean I'm gonna go
Speaker 2: back to the santis, Like, you know, I hate to
Speaker 2: go back to that dude, but I think really for real,
Speaker 2: for real, like a thing that he got to think about,
Speaker 2: Like and it sucks because it's a Republican talking point,
Speaker 2: but it's it's actually like it's a good point. What
Speaker 2: if what if he waited until twenty twenty eight? What
Speaker 2: if he did? I mean, then you ain't got this
Speaker 2: monkey on your shoulder. You feel me, You're not running
Speaker 2: against the guy that you're basically competing to be. You
Speaker 2: feel me like you don't have that l under your
Speaker 2: belt of losing to him. I mean, I mean it's
Speaker 2: a gamble because he I mean, maybe he could win,
Speaker 2: but I don't know. Just because you popping at home
Speaker 2: don't mean you poping nationally, you know, like or you're
Speaker 2: presenting yourself as like the Whole Foods version of the
Speaker 2: thing everybody love, Like I don't know how good that.
Speaker 2: I don't know how good that's gonna play. You know
Speaker 2: what I'm saying. What if you position yourself not as
Speaker 2: the Whole Foods version but the next generation of I
Speaker 2: don't know, like you, and maybe he's not even gonna run,
Speaker 2: Like we don't even know yet it just seems like
Speaker 2: he is, at least as of the week that I'm
Speaker 2: recording this. You know, you never know, but yeah, be
Speaker 2: careful who you keep around, who you shake your hands with.
Speaker 2: And then the last one is the one that my
Speaker 2: manager always says, your plant where you want to grow.
Speaker 2: You can't just go for where you think the crowds are,
Speaker 2: because that might not be your crowd. You invest in
Speaker 2: the scene that you believe in, and you build a
Speaker 2: career that you want to build. If not, you're going
Speaker 2: to be sitting in that corner office overlooking this the
Speaker 2: DC skyline, miserable, having to vote for stuff that you
Speaker 2: don't even want to, you don't even believe in. You're
Speaker 2: being swayed by the crowd, you know, leading from behind. No,
Speaker 2: you gotta you gotta be the person you trying to
Speaker 2: be so you can do the things that you're trying
Speaker 2: to do.
Speaker 1: Now. Granted, I'm assuming you.
Speaker 2: The type of politician that has some sort of moral standard,
Speaker 2: that has some sort of conviction. Now, if you just
Speaker 2: in it for the power, ignore everything I'm saying, y up,
Speaker 2: set go get go, get your back, go get your power.
Speaker 2: Be as devoid of any of these things that you
Speaker 2: want to be. But if you really actually believe in
Speaker 2: the stuff you're trying to believe, and you really think
Speaker 2: you could make this country better, you got a plant
Speaker 2: where you want to grow, invest in things that you
Speaker 2: think will lead towards the things, And I understand the
Speaker 2: nature of the game is just like in music. The
Speaker 2: nature of the game forces you to carry yourself in
Speaker 2: a certain way that if you're going to reach a
Speaker 2: certain type of success, you have to play the game
Speaker 2: in a certain way. Or you could be like, forget that,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna play this game the way I want to
Speaker 2: play it, and it's gonna work the way I want
Speaker 2: to work, and I'm gonna bend it to my will.
Speaker 2: Maybe shoot your shot. Hopefully it works. So in conclusion,
Speaker 2: the six things that any politician can learn from independent artists.
Speaker 2: Number one, ask yourself, does your own hood mess with you?
Speaker 2: Number two, just because you popping at home, don't mean
Speaker 2: you poping national. Number three ask yourself, why me and
Speaker 2: not them?
Speaker 1: Perception is reality until it's not.
Speaker 2: Number five, the very picky who you connect with, keep
Speaker 2: that circle nice and tight.
Speaker 1: And number six, plant where you want to grow.
Speaker 2: If you hip to these rules, not only one, I
Speaker 2: think you might find yourself a very successful politician, but two,
Speaker 2: as an informed voter, you might be able to understand
Speaker 2: and choose wisely the people that you want to mess with.
Speaker 1: Happy election season, y'all.
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Speaker 2: you some cold brew, gonna get you some coffee. Yeah, Like,
Speaker 2: I can't believe I ain't think of this till right now.
Speaker 3: Yo Yo.
Speaker 2: This thing right here was recorded by Me Propaganda and
Speaker 2: East Lows, boil Heights, Los Angeles, California. This thing was mixed, edited, mastered,
Speaker 2: and scored by the one and the only Matt Awsowski.
Speaker 2: Y'all check out this fool's music. I mean it's incredible.
Speaker 2: Executive produced by Sophie Lichterman for Cool Zone Media. Man,
Speaker 2: and thank you for everybody who continue to tap in
Speaker 2: with us. Make sure you leaving reviews and five star
Speaker 2: ratings and sharing it with the homies so we could
Speaker 2: get this thing pushed up in the algorithm and listen.
Speaker 2: I just want to remind you these people is not
Speaker 2: smarter than you. If you understand city living, you understand politics,
Speaker 2: We'll see you next week.